Winding Down

Winter is almost over. Yahoo! I am not a fan of cold weather. Thankfully this has been for the most part a fairly mild winter. We have had several days over the past two weeks where the temperatures were in the 50's. Tomorrow Nadia and Ian will have their last basketball games for the year. In Nadia's case, it will be her very last game. She has been on Upward basketball teams for seven years, and she has aged out of the program. Oliver's last game will be on the 14th. For three years we've had three basketball games each Saturday. Next year I think we will just have one game a week as Ian said he does want to play again. Yesterday was the last ice skating class. The ice skating classes are having a party next Thursday. After that party, we won't be ice skating again until December. As you can see below, I took a few videos last night. I intended to use our video camera, but the battery was dead. The quality isn't as good with my phone, but it's better than nothing! Because Nadia wants to be in Meadowbrook's spring musical next year, I don't think the kids will be taking ice skating lessons next year. I'm thankful all three of them know how to skate. Nadia definitely has more of a knack for skating than her brothers do, but all three of them can ice skate. I'm hoping this summer to take them roller skating a few times in the hopes that the Oliver will also learn how to roller skate.

Although we've periodically had some very pleasant days lately, it was rather chilly last Friday. I took the kids to Gettysburg for a homeschool day. We were inside rotating through nine learning stations in the morning, and in the afternoon we drove around the battlefield to complete a digital scavenger hunt. We were given a list of ways to earn points by taking pictures of specific items or making videos that contained specific things. We earned enough points that each child received a blue ribbon. The program was very well done. The children were divided into eight groups, and the other kids in our group were from Annapolis, Maryland.

Looking at our textbooks, we can also see that our school year will be winding down before we know it. Not counting field trip days, I think we only have 31 days left of school. I've already been putting time into planning for the next school year. The past two school years we have had a plethora of options for field trips that related to what we were studying in history (Colonial period to the present over two years). Next year we are studying different countries and cultures. Nadia isn't much of a fan of battlefields, although she did enjoy the homeschool day last week. She's probably glad we won't be going to any during the next school year. Some cultural field trips that I've planned next year include a Native American Powwow, Polish festival, a couple of other trips related to Native Americans, Celt Fest, La Festa Italiana, Christkindl Market, Christmas around the world, Sakura Matsuri (in DC), Greek Fest, Chinese Lantern Festival (Philadelphia), Poland through the ages, and Around the World Embassy tour (DC). 

Recently I finalized with my Aunt when we would be going to Long Island, which meant I was then able to make reservations for our lodging during our family vacation. Over the past 20 years most of our vacations have involved staying at a resort for a week through my time share, but that won't be the case in 2020 or 2021. Although my 20 year time share ended a few months ago, we still have a membership with Interval. I spent a lot of time researching lodging options via Interval, Hotels.com, Priceline, and Airbnb. I didn't use Airbnb yet this year, but I used the other three websites to make reservations for a 9 day/8 night trip the end of August to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City, that includes stops in NH, VT, MA, and NY and for an 8 day/ 7 night trip in early October to Ohio and Kentucky which includes stops in PA and WV. Together the two trips include two Six Flags amusement parks, 19 national parks, 7 industrial tours, 9 science museums, 2 cathedrals, and other sites that are harder to neatly categorize such as Parliament Hill, National Museum of the US Air Force, Creation Museum, Ark, Underground Freedom Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Shaker Village, Kentucky Derby Museum, Kentucky Horse Park, Rideau Canal, Byward Market, La Citadelle, Chinatown, Montmorency Falls, Terrasse Dufferin, and the Plains of Abraham.

When I saw Oliver was doing spelling on his hippo, I had to take a picture.