Mia Update

So, we are "home schooling." The only reason I put it in quotations is because we haven't really started quite yet. My books are rolling in. I now have a couple of English books, a science book and a history book. I'm still trying to decide on a math curriculum, but hopefully we'll have that figured out pretty soon too. I'm starting to try to get a grasp on what our days are going to look like when we start doing some work. I sent in my letter on intent to the district a while back, but have not yet gotten our official letter from them saying that they received it and approve and all that. So far we are enjoying our nice, leisurely mornings and our long early fall days.

Mia is taking piano, ballet and a science class. Her piano teacher is this great Russian woman named Anna who comes to our house during Lennon's nap and it's working out really well. The lesson is a half hour and she expects Mia to practice for 15 minutes every day. Mia is enjoying learning and doing really well. Anna says Mia will be playing some simple version of a classical tune by her summer recital. It's really fun hearing her practice and sing along with the words in her book.

Ballet is through a school called The Northeast Youth Ballet, the same school where Naomi has been taking classes through for a few years now. The usually do a really great Nutcracker, but this year don't have the funds for it. I was partly sad and partly relieved. We have loved going to see Naomi in this version because it is great and much cheaper than the Boston Ballet version. However, for Mia to be in it, it would have meant several night per week rehearsals for a tiny little part on top of a fee of something like $150 just for her to be in it. They are planning to do Cinderella in the spring instead this year. Mia is enjoying ballet, but really missing gymnastics too.

The science class is through the YMCA and I'm not sure how it's going to be yet. They've only met once and it seemed like it was mostly kids that were a lot younger than her, and all boys. I was peeking in at her class periodically between that and Lennon's swimming class and it looked like a pretty rowdy bunch. Mia seemed pretty quiet, but was laughing a lot at the rowdy boys. They did some experiments on mixing water with different kinds of liquids. Also in the science arena, on Tuesdays I am going to be taking Lennon and Bianca to gymnastics class and Claire is going to do something science-y with Mia and Mateus while we're gone.

I just remembered that I also just signed Mia up for a 5 week long cooking class through the church where I go to Mom to Mom. It sounds awesome. Each week they cook a dish from a different country and on the last week they put all the dishes together to serve to a class that meets at the church. The best part is it's only $15 for the whole thing.

It's amazing how busy our weeks are already. We're all having fun being together all the time. Shelby built us a nice new fire pit with some big stones from around the yard. It's much cooler than the metal hunk of junk we've been using. I actually built a couple fires in it too and did a pretty good job. The fall is fast approaching and we're all excited about all the fun activities to come.