Staying Busy

There was a neighborhood get together for the ladies tonight and several people mentioned that they don't see the girls out as much anymore.  I think it's because we've been so busy with other things that we haven't been home.  This week is the Atlanta Science Festival.  On Monday we left the house before 10am and came home a bit after 7pm.  We attended two of the events and they were not worth the drive.  At one place we went to a place that builds robots for competitions.  It's sort of like a lab for area high school robotics teams.  The kids were still in school so there was just an adviser there.  Both Bohdin and Nyla were able to briefly control the robot.  Nyla wants to do a lego league team next fall.  I told her I would look into it. 

Once we moved here I noticed that Bohdin's vision isn't great.  He can't see the time on the microwave from the couch.  If I can see something that he can't then it's a problem.  I tested him several times over the weeks and his vision was always poor.  On Monday he went to the eye doctor and he got a prescription for glasses.   He doesn't like the way he looks in glasses so he is pretty bummed.  We'll pick them up next week.  He would have preferred contacts but the optometrist said his prescription is not that strong and he wouldn't need to wear them that often if he didn't want to. 

On Tuesday I took Bohdin to the math club at a local homeschool coop.  I didn't realize they had one for younger kids also.  Nyla was invited to join the K-2 group.  She was hesitant to go at first but I pushed her gently in the door.  She had the best time.  She enjoys a classroom environment with lots of kids.  It's only once per month but they have a weekly thing on Thursdays.  I will probably enroll her in that in the fall.  It's something she would really enjoy.  Bohdin had fun in his class but found the math too easy.   There are only two more sessions before summer break and we'll probably take advantage of them.

Yesterday I hosted a playgroup at my house for the girls playgroup.  There were only two families that showed up but they have two girls each and it was more than enough.  Nyla had time to bond with two of the girls she hadn't spent much time with previously.  They spent over an hour and an half playing inside before we walked over to the tadpoles.  Cora and a four year were way way ahead of the rest of the group.  I had only intended to go as far as the lake but we had to go further to find Cora.  She and the other little girl had gone far ahead to the swing and big rock.  The other mom was pretty worried and I would have been in Cora hadn't been at the swing.  She's familiar with the path and got a little carried away with the other girl.  The kids enjoyed the swing and the walk.  Cora didn't want to walk home which is usual for her.  She gets lazy on the return trip and wants to be carried.  It took me a long time to cajole her all the way home.  Bohdin and an 8 year old girl had gone far ahead and reached the house way before us.  Nyla and a 6 year old were bringing up the rear because they were having such a good time together.  The kids had a picnic outside and devoured plates of fruit and carrot sticks.  It was after 5 before they left. 

Today was Bohdin's turn for a group and the first meeting of the math club was very successful.  Three families arrived with a total of four children participating.  One boy watched and one little girl played with Nyla and Cora.  I was worried when one of the kids arrived because he looked young.  I was hoping everybody would be very familiar with factors since they would be playing a game with them.  The mom explained that he had been in fourth grade.  I thought he was just really short for his age but it turns out he was just radically accelerated.  I think he is almost 8.  As I was explaining the game I noticed that this kid,E-, was smart and I rearranged the groups so he and Bohdin would be together.  It was the right choice because they were more evenly matched.  This kid is somewhere between a little smarter to a lot smarter than Bohdin and he is exactly who I've been searching for.  I was super excited to meet him.  His mom and I are going to plan to get the boys together soon.  Bohdin should be a decent match for him as well.  They both enjoy academic pursuits.   

It was really difficult to run the learning exercise.  Even in the best of conditions I'm not good at that sort of thing but this was made complicated by the very wide range of abilities.  Bohdin and E- were able to finish much faster.  They knew factors better than the other kids.  I had a ton of material prepared so when they were done I was able to give them additional tasks.  The other kids took their stuff home.  The other two moms were very helpful in instructing their children so that was helpful.  We all went to the playground afterward and we talked about it a bit.  They were interested in coming back again.  We'll do it again in three weeks.  One of the moms joked that they'll need to prep their kids with the learning material before we meet and I actually thought that was a good idea.  So I need to get to work on picking the next topic.  I thought we might do prime factorization but that would be way above the majority of the kids. There might be something geometry based that would tie in with oval Easter eggs or we might just work on problem solving strategies.  I bought a book that goes over it very well. 

Cora cut her hair yesterday.  She cut her bangs and a huge chunk from the right side.  At first I thought it was Nyla but I was finally able to pin it on Cora.  I didn't think Cora could cut well enough since she's left handed so I was having Cora demonstrate that she wasn't able but her demonstration proved that it was definitely her.  First I had her cut paper which she did quite effectively.  Then I had her show me what it would look like if she used the scissors to cut her hair.  She held them up to her head in the exact spot that was missing hair.  I cut some of the length off but I can't even it out without giving her a pixie cut.  It's going to take years to grow back out. 

One of Nyla's Christmas presents was late so Amazon gave us a $20 gift certificate.  She finally spent it by buying Frozen.  The kids have watched it at least 4 times.  Cora hadn't seen it in the theater but she was familiar with it because she watched the songs on Youtube over and over again.  When the Let It Go scene came on during her first viewing she got mad and said she wanted to watch the movie not that song.  It did feel a little weird seeing it in the movie after seeing it separate so many times.