We only have one more week of our scheduled co-op classes for the year. Today was fun; we made toothpaste. I admit that I am rather intrigued with the idea. During my research I found that a lot of people still do this, and it was pretty simple and inexpensive.

The children had fun making it, but did not seem to impressed with the results. I think it is too different from the store brand sweetened toothpaste they are accustomed to. I do admit that I was looking for spearmint or peppermint oil to flavor, but could only find cinnamon. One poor boy claimed that his mouth was so hot that his gum's were bleeding. I promise they were not, it was not that hot.

It has been an interesting session. My first as head teacher, and while I have enjoyed it I have also learned a lot myself. We have studied backyard science: animals, plants, and rocks for the most part. Matthew took my class and Under the Sea, which he really enjoyed. Austin is taking Maps and Science Sleuths. To be perfectly honest though, PE is probably the favorite class.

I am really looking forward to next session. I have signed up to teach a class on team building skills. Lots of fun activities and challenges are planned. It should be interesting.

As for our curriculum at home, can I say Yay! I am putting this in here because I am afraid of the winter blues, and I may need to come back and read this. We seem to be running smoothly. I gave the boys a "review test" on Rome this week and we said farewell. I think part of the issue there is that we started Rome last year so it seems like we have been there a looong time. Part of our farewell was to watch two movies; Ben Hur and Cleopatra - you know the old ones with Charlton Heston and Elizabeth Taylor. We finished Ben Hur last night and will watch Cleopatra later in the week. Then it is on to the Middle Ages, the boys are looking forward to that.

We are doing well in our study of anatomy. I admit we did fall a little behind there, but we seem to be back on track though I have reviewed upcoming lessons and tweaked them somewhat.

Austin just finished a section on Geometry and did well, better than me perhaps. I did do not like geometry. What difference does it make what kind of angle it is (obtuse or acute) or what kind of line segment? Yuck! Matthew whizzed thru his section on multiplication and has applied the brakes somewhat in division.

I just had fun a few moments ago. I finally agreed to let Austin have a facebook account. He was always playing games on mine so we decided yes on a trial basis. He cannot accept friends without my permission and his profile is blocked. I was at work and logged in for a minute (shh!) and got a post message, "hi mom". We proceeded to have a short conversation in which I realized that he is getting big. There was only one misspelling (I had more typos) and then he ended with "bye mommy". So big and yet still my baby.

Speaking of my baby, I could not believe what he did. There is a little girl in our co-op that he has a little "crush" on. He saw her today and said, "Hi Cleopatra, am I Marc Antony?". There is a story there yes, but the point is I just cracked up. Yes, I had my first crush in 5th grade but was always too incredibly shy to even talk to the person. Austin is our clown, he loves to make people laugh. I love the fact that he talks to me about stuff, and pray that he will continue to.