Not that I am counting. Not that I am looking forward to summer or anything. We sort of dropped off the face of the blogging earth for a while, but we were not gone or dormant, we just weren’t writing about all the cool things we were doing.
We studied the National Parks of the US. Learning about natural resources, conservation, the animals of these wild and wonderful lands, which ones are near to us and which ones are thousands of miles away.
We have been to China and studied Chinese origami, made dumplings, learned about Chinese culture and what school life is like for Chinese kids.
The older kids have been deeply involved in March madness and following the road to the championship. Learning to fill in the bracket and see the progression of the teams. Go Louisville!
We studied the Amazon Rain Forest too. I learned so much on this topic! The Sharks made newspaper explorer hats and headed off down the Nature Trail to read a book in the story hut (or whatever you call that structure 1/2 way down the trail). Another day, the Sharks, Camber and I borrowed rhythm sticks from the fabulous Mr. Hamilton and spent an hour out in that hut on the Nature Trail creating all kinds of music of our own. Times like those, I wish I had a better video recorder. It was really a blast.
We had a restful and restorative spring break. Or at least I did! and now we are in that final push to the end of the year. Session 4 of clubs start on Monday the 15th!! I can’t believe it, can you? Wow. I hope your kids have turned in their registration. We have tons of exciting new clubs, climbing club, bowling is back, Express Yourself, the Breakfast Club, swimming is back too, creative writing, and a sculpture club! And in the Explorers Club, we will be going to Senegal (and skyping with Janna McIntyre, our staff member who is on an exchange student exploration of her own right now) and Hawaii too. If only we could do a field trip there……
This week, we have studied the Heart and Lungs. I will tell you our impetus for this topic was finding a kindergartener and a 1st grader playing “the smoking game” on the playground one day. I mean, we all know people who smoke. And a lot of us have done it at one time or another. So there has been no blame or finger-pointing at all. And our discussions have stressed that smoking is an adult choice to make. We decided to not avoid the subject, but to face it and talk about heart and lung health and what smoking does to them. Our focus being on heart and lung anatomy and function, diet, exercise, etc….we have some swimmers in the Magellans who have incredible lung capacity! It has been an interesting week. Lots of pulse taking.
DON’T FORGET—or if you don’t know about it yet—Experience Dickson Night is Thursday, April 25. and if you are a Bright IDEAS family, you are warmly invited to join us for a Potluck Luau on April 25 4:30-5:30 in the cafeteria. Invites are being handed out now. Bring a dish to share if you are able, don your favorite Hawaiian shirt, and come do the limbo with us. Seriously, you don’t want to miss it. Don’t worry if you can’t bring anything. Just come. Sit down with our little BI family and commune.
That’s all for now. Thunderstorms are rolling by and it is time to retire. Say goodnight, Gracie. (Goodnight, Gracie.)
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