A new venture...

We are joining Spiral Scouts, thanks to a homeschooling friend and her husband who have gone through the whole leadership process to start a Circle! This seems like it will be a better fit for us than other, more traditional Scouting. What we're planning is this... each family/participant in our Circle will choose their own projects from the handbooks (which I have seen and which are fantastic resources). We'll meet up once a month to share our accomplishments, discuss badges, what we'll be doing next, etc., with occasional group activities and/or field trips together too. I will have one Firefly (Cassia) and one Spiral Scout (Cyrus). The kids and I are very excited about this! While we're not really Pagan, we're not anything else either, and I think that's the closest fit. M thinks it is a great program too, and we are very much looking forward to participating in this. I like the respect for the planet and others that this scouting program promotes.

The friend who is organizing all this is talking about using her Spiral Scout handbooks as a basis for curriculum... once I get mine, and really read through them, I may do the same. The kids will cover biology, history, and more through hands-on projects that they choose - I'd just add in math and writing/reading. To see a sample of what it takes to get a badge, check out the requirements for a Gardening Badge. Like I said though, we'll have to see after I get the handbooks, although, as anyone who has ever read this blog knows, I don't mind shifting my plans around!

Anyhow, today we had our monthly Eating Around the World Lunch. This month we chose Italy. I took panzenella and Torta della Nonna, both yummy, yummy, yummy! We had lasagne, biscotti, cheeses, olives, and more. I have made panzenetta before, but never the torta until today. We also voted on next month's country - Cyrus and I chose Greece, Cassia chose China. We'll find out via email what the results were (keep your fingers crossed for Greece!)
Other than that, Wednesdays are our active unschooling day. Besides lunch (which included some spoken Italian, Italian flags, and lots of play), the kids have dissected salmon (online, virtual). Cyrus viewed a lot of human anatomy, and Cassia is playing on Word World. Unfortunately, Cyrus's piano teacher (and her family) all have the flu, so no piano lesson today.

And a follow-up on Cassia's reading: she has been working hard on this. Between The Reading Lesson, reading leveled books aloud with an adult, and Word World, she is really putting things together. She is still reluctant to learn, but understands that once she knows how, we'll all stop pestering her so much! The one exception to Wednesday unschooling is The Reading Lesson, just a few pages. Also speaking of Cassia... I realized yesterday that she is not challenged by the math she is doing right now. Thankfully, I have the entire Math Mammoth Blue Series, so I can just bump her up a level.

Off to the store to buy delicious dinner things, then we'll watch Arthur and the Minimoys #2 together.