Sharks and Valentine's Day

Well, Maya and I just sat at the table

and addressed, folded and labeled

about 35 Valentine's Day cards.

(That'll teach her to tell me that she's bored, huh?)

We are attending a Valentine's Day party

with CHS this Friday, February 12th

and are getting all ready for the event.

Guess what kinds of Valentine's the kids picked?

HARRY POTTER!

Okay...I asked them, "Please can we buy them?"

I just wasn't up to making 35 individual Valentine's.

My time and energy only go so far...

but they are very cool cards,

and maybe next year, I'll be more crafty.

Scott is going to enter into an art contest 

that is being held by the North Carolina Museum of Science.

They are about to open a new exhibit called,

"Megalodon".

To celebrate it, they've asked children to send in artwork

depicting any kind of shark in its natural habitat.

There are four age groups 

and the kids are allowed to enter three different drawings.

Scott's been doodling,

looking at some mighty scary shark pictures on the internet,

and reading library books about them for inspiration.

Once he has his finished artwork,

I'll post them here on our blog.

If he wins in his age group, he'll receive a prize,

(although what the prize is, we don't know for sure.)

Just for entering he gets a free ticket to see the new exhibit,

so we'll be going to the museum to check it out when it opens.

We are leaving the night of Friday, February 19th

to go back for a visit to Colorado. 

It will be the first time in 13 months since the kids and I have gone back.

Steven is attending a class for work,

and the four of us are flying out there together.

It's the first plane ride for both Maya and Scott!

We have 8 more days before departure and lots to accomplish before we leave.

The kids are studying the animal kingdom in science,

so we spent a good part of yesterday afternoon at the library

preparing for the research papers they are going to complete

before we take off.

Scott thought about doing his on sharks,
(it's a recurring theme in the Wing household...)

or possibly the Komodo Dragon,

but in the end,

the infamous boa constrictor won out,
especially when he read that the anaconda
can get to be as long as two school buses.

(Yuck.) :)

Maya was thinking about researching wolves,

and then she thought about the Tasmanian Devil.
(Mean little bugger that one is.)

Her final choice was the piranha.

She talked me into doing a paper as well.

(I figured it wasn't such a bad idea...

they can learn by example, right?)

After the aggressive animals they chose,

I decided to do mine on the humble,

(and docile) platypus. :)

I am starting two Writing Workshops I offered to teach

for the kids in CHS the week we return from our trip.

My first thought was to do a single one for 8 kids,

but after I posted this class on our mail list for the group,

I got 57 responses about parents wanting their children to attend.

I was really excited that there was so much interest.

I decided to teach a total of three workshops all together.

Each of the workshops is five weeks long

for an hour and a half a week. 

I am doing two of them simultaneously

and will have two groups of about 10 kids 

writing and having fun with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays

from March 2nd, until April 1st.
The last workshop starts on April 8th
and ends on May 6th.

I bought my materials today,

and have been having a very good time building my curriculum.

I'm excited to start!

Writing...man. I LOVE to write. :)