Our Extracurriculars for the Year!

Unlike previous years I decided to really go bare bones with being out the house. With 5 children and the price of gas these days I just really wanted to limit the amount of time I spend driving around town. So we are down to 2 outing days per week. I try and double up on those days with grocery hauls and library runs as well. This year I have Kinetic Kid and Pony Princess in a Jr. FLL Team. If you are not familiar with FLL or First Lego League that basically means my kids are on a Lego
competition team. Our team is 100% homeschool kids so our meetup days are all age friendly cause the coach knows we are with all our kids all day. So my oldest is a Team Helper and my youngest two get to play with duplos on the floor while the other two work with their teams getting ready for there first competition project. So far its been a great experience. They really love it. And who knew my little Pony Princess would love Lego as much as her big brother Kinetic Kid. They have been learning about incline planes, gears, levers, pulleys and whatnot without me having to create a Physics lesson.

We also attend a homeschool craft hour at our local public library. Our children's librarian is totally homeschool friendly and she arranges a creative and fun craft hour every week for us. She takes on some really messy projects to. I mean thank God for people like her cause one the main reasons why we always failed to fit arts and crafts into our day is cause its just way to much to clean up after.

I know other families do way more activities than us. And most will have an individual activity for each child. But that is something that would have us burning the the candle at booth ends. I also prefer activities in which all or more than one of the children can participate in. Last year we all did Tae Kwon Do as a family. It went great. It was a perfect opportunity for my hubby to get a chance to participate in our homeschooling. With all his hard work he doesn't always have the energy to come home and do any help with the bookwork but something like being able to participate in the childrens extracurriculars is a true blessing.

This year Mecca the Great and Kinetic Kid also get to participate in a science club and a book club at our local public library as well once a month. The science club has brought in various experts in their fields. They have had a member  of the Atlanta Audubon  Society come out and do a presentation on birds. Last week they had a member of Georgia's Mineral Society bring various samples and did a presentation on Gold in Georgia. We actually have a few gold mines up in Dahlonega, GA. Hopefully  we will get the opportunity to pan up there someday.The book club has been selecting books from the Newberry Award list. They have done some very awesome stories so far. They have read Bridge to Terabithia, The One and Only Ivan, and One Crazy Summer. I have really been taking full advantage of what my tax dollars have to offer.