Hello again. It's been another "heck of a week" kind of week. We never seemed to sit still, Thursday being the busiest by far. And oh what fun we had! The trip to Lebanon was beautiful, as they always are. I love being up there, but it can make me a bit homesick when I return here. We got some wonderful apples and a heck of a deal on squash. Mary and Nathan had dental appointments and we need to return next month to have a couple of cavities filled in Mary. :( Nathan checked out fine. Joseph climbed in the chair when they were both done, leaned back, and opened his mouth wide. He wouldn't get out until the hygienist took a peek inside and told him he had "such nice teeth." Then he smiled and climbed down.

The homeschool co-op on Fri was less wonderful. The kids insisted after we left that they'd had a good time, but they didn't seem to when we were there. They appeared to enjoy the Merrimack library, where we stopped on the way home, much more and talked the librarian's ear off about how GG's cat is named Pancakes and sometimes pees on GG's bed. (!)

Just for curiosity's sake I did a quick reading level assessment with Lil'Nathan on Saturday morning. He comes in between 5.0 and 5.5--that's pretty cool. :) That's the level of the Harry Potter books. I wonder if he'd enjoy them since he seems lately to be all about mysteries and magic (thanks to the Box Car Children and the Magic Treehouse Merlin adventures.)

I also found out about another co-op happening this Tues. It's about 30 mi away, near the MA border, but listen to this: they are going to be making butter, carding and dying wool, and learning to finger knit. When I told the kids about it, Lil'Nathan said, "whoa! That sounds cool!" That's what I think. So, we'll go to that and then I'll decide which co-op will be "our" co-op. This one is run by the southern NH unschooling group. We are kind of relaxed classicals, but I've still got a huge soft spot for unschooling and know I would probably appall a true classical-ist. (Make any sense?) I think it'll be a good match for us. I'm very excited.

And then on Wed night will be Lil'Nathan's first chess club meeting. Nathan will have scouts (knot tying and flag folding) . I think I'll send Mary with him b/c he couldn't very well teach if he's chasing down Joseph. 'Course, for that matter, Joseph and a room full of tiny game pieces may not be the best match either.