The weekend was relaxing. On Saturday I worked, J had dance, K went over a friend's house, and B and W ran errands. Sunday the kids had CCD and W had basketball. Monday J went on a homeschool group trip to the DNA Learning Center in Nassau. The kids did DNA Extraction from harmless bacteria, spent an hour in the computer lab, and delved into The Mystery of Anastasia using forensic techniques to identify the remains of the Russian royal family, and the missing princess Anastasia Romanov. Then they got to have a full tour of the Biomedical Facilities. J and I checked out this website before we went: http://www.dnai.org/. It's great! We loved the section in Applications called "Recovering the Romanovs". It was just fascinating.

J asked if we could please remember to do what's on our schedule every day - and maybe now we can add more things to it. So, we discussed what she liked and didn't like, how she wanted to go about it, and looked at a bunch of websites and other homeschoolers' schedules online. She still enjoys Charlotte Mason and was particularly intrigued by a schedule from a website called Mater Amabilis. It's a Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum. So we wrote down things we liked from that and coupled it with what she liked from before and came up with a brand new daily schedule that she's very happy with. She says 2 hours every morning is perfect. I ran it by W and he said he liked it too. So I created a new schedule for him based on hers. Once again, they are excited to get on it. This is how it goes when the kids direct their own education. I bet if I demanded they have a schedule and chose what I wanted to do with them all day, they would fight me to no end.

This morning they started out painting with watercolors. W's been begging me to buy him modeling clay ("NOT Play-Doh!!"), instead, I suggested making our own. I found a recipe using cornstarch, water, and salt. It came out pretty good and they played with it for over an hour, took a 20 minute break to dance around the living room to Christmas music, and went right back to the clay. After lunch we'll try a bit of the new schedule and see how it goes. I love homeschooling!

And here are the totally-me results of this personality quiz. Innately I am a structured, logical, high-energy, realistic leader. And the longer we homeschool, the more I notice the kids have these traits in them as well. Cool.

You Are An ESTJ

The Guardian

You're a natural leader and quick, logical decision maker.
Goals are important in your life, and you take many steps to acheive them.
You enjoy interacting with others, mostly through work related activities.
Your high energy level means you are great at getting things done!

In love, you tend to bring stability to relationships.
You feel comfortable being in charge, and you enjoy being a provider.

At work, you take charge. You thrive in structured environments and don't mind enforcing the rules.
You would make a great teacher, judge, or police detective.

How you see yourself: Realistic, stable, and pragmatic