Not much school (but lots of learning) this week

Our schedule was so full of good things today that I had to cancel our official school day.  We still had a great day of learning in my favorite classroom: life.  The kids had a science class at 9:00 a.m., and I picked them up a little early so we could be at the library for a program at 10:00.  The library  was showing TED talks (leaders in the fields of Technology, Education, and Design give their best talk in less than 20 minutes each) and then having group discussions about them.  I went last week with no kids to do a reconnaissance mission to see if it would be something I could bring them to this week. It was so interesting and stimulating last time, but the audience was all older adults, so I asked the facilitator if it was ok if I brought my kids to the next one.  Today's talks were even better than last time's, and Noah even participated a little in the discussion.  What a great education!

We picked out some books at the library and headed for Bloomington for an appointment for Noah.  The kids read their new books all the way there and didn't make a peep!

Noah had some blood drawn to see if he would qualify for an allergy study.  There was a long, complicated, roller-coastery issue at the appointment that I won't go into detail about here, but it caused me to pray right out loud in the exam room, and God resolved it in a way that was better than we expected!  On the way home, Noah asked me what the biggest thing was that I learned today.  I mentioned a fact from one of the TED talks.  He said the biggest thing he learned was that God can take something bad and turn it around for good.  I don't think we would have gotten that from the classroom.

Tomorrow is a half-day at school, because in the afternoon we are doing our annual pie-crust-making for the Mennonite Relief Sale.  Our church makes pies on the Thursday before the sale every year, but we miss it because of CBS.  The kids and I and one other lady make all the crusts the day before, so they're ready to be filled the next day.  We make 90 crusts.  We've been doing it for several years, so my kids can whip out a pretty good pie crust by now! 

We never have school on Thursdays because of CBS, and we probably won't get much in on Friday, because we'll be getting ready for Sarah's birthday party.  This is one reason we do school all year, even in the summer.  I'd rather do a couple hours a day all year round than 8 hours a day with the whole summer off.  I want my kids to know that learning happens all the time everywhere, not just when you're sitting at a desk with a textbook.