Monday was a great get-together with the homeschool group. We had our Foreign Lands Club and this month was Yemen. The girls worked on their presentation on "clothing" in the morning, complete with display board and practicing their parts. I made a maple rice pudding to bring to the Yemen potluck. They did very well, speaking clearly and taking questions. W still doesn't feel ready to do a presentation, but he says next month he might. I love that each child there presents in their own way, at their own level. The food was wonderful, as usual. We had things like tabouli, pita chips, hummus, lentil/spinach soup, couscous, babaganoush, honey pie, and decaf chocolate coffee. My rice pudding was a hit - I felt I had to redeem myself after the bland noodle casserole from last month's Russia day. Afterwards the kids made a "jambia" (a decorative curved, sheathed blade worn as a status symbol by Yemenite men) out of construction paper, tinfoil, and stick-on beads. Then they all played together outside. K was loving the whole thing, finally being able to let loose and be a kid. She ran around playing tag and was happy that there were a couple of other kids her age. One mom commented on how awesome it was to see teens playing ball with 5-6 y/os and how the kids just play with each other without gender or age biases. W got a little rough with an older boy, who wasn't into rough play, so I spoke to W about that and I vowed to keep a closer eye on him. But that was my only concern of the day. I love my group and I'm so thankful to find these like-minded folks.

In the afternoon, J had 2 hrs of dance tech, a 45 minute kickline class, and an hour-long lyrical class. I know she had to be tired after the long day. She fell asleep around 9pm and woke up this morning at 9am. Gotta love 12 hrs of sleep!

It was a rainy day so I used it as an excuse to say home and clean a bit. W found a spelling workbook that must have fallen behind the couch at least a month ago and wanted to do some pages with me. He wrote out some words like "bed", "rug", "dog", "wagon", and "boy". He's reading and writing pretty well now, but still doubts himself and will just refuse if it looks harder than it is. I'm not worried - it'll come. At 4 we picked up B and went to dance again. All the kids had musical theater at 4:45, then K had TACHS prep class at 5:30 (at a nearby high school), W had boys hip-hop at 6:15, and both girls had advanced hip-hop at 7:15. K says the prep class is going well - she even got 2 girls' phone numbers who live near us. We spoke about how easy it is to make friends even when you're not in school. And I mentioned that she now has a choice whether or not to see them, as opposed to being forced to at school every day. She said this way was definitely better. :)