I can't believe it's November!

Really, where has this year gone? I'm not sure exactly, but it sure has flown by!

This month we are focusing on a lot of trips to Congaree National Park. They have a ton of children's programs and they are all free! Rock on! I love free stuff! So, we will be getting out into the fresh air a lot this month and learning about animal adaptations, doing a tree trek, and a ton of things I can't seem to dig out of my brain right at the moment!

On Halloween (CG was Darth Vadar this year) we went to a fall festival with games and trunk or treating. Oh, and a hay ride too! It was really fun. CG is already to go back next year - he says he wants to be Anikan Skywalker. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't they the same person? Yeah, I thought so!

After trunk or treating, CG and GM went to the Scout O Ween. They had a good time and their group won 2nd place for something. I didn't really get all the details - but good on them!

My inner reading dork is out in full force. I have so many books checked out from the library I don't see any possible way for me to finish them! I get there though and I just can't seem to stop myself from grabbing books! I wonder if there is a 12 step group for compulsive library book borrowing???

We had my youngest niece AP here for about five days while her parents went on a cruise. She is six months old and oh my! I forgot how much work a baby is! CG and I had a wonderful time with her though and I caught up on my sleep after she left!

Our scout pack is going camping this weekend. Well, just Saturday night. We camped with the scouts in April and it was a lot of fun. This is a new pack, so hopefully it will be just as great or maybe even better! It is supposed to get cold at night, so the weather is going to be much different from the spring but a good time should be had by all.

A note about camping. I always think of myself as a trailer camper. But whenever we get out there in the tent I always have a good time. Maybe it's because we have cots, a coffee pot, a heater, fans, a camp kitchen, and a really big tent! We definitely don't 'rough it' except for the fact that we're in a tent. We most definitely need to do more camping though. Maybe next year....

We have finally, blessedly, found our niche in the world of homeschooling! That was a long, hard, expensive road but now I feel much better and CG is happy. Don't get me wrong, he still gives me crap about doing school work - but he's still happier. So, here is what we are using: Math - Horizons; Language Arts, Science, and History/Geography - Lifepacs, Reading is still on level with Book Adventure Quizzes, PE is gymnastics and CORE Classes, and he also takes a handwriting class at CORE twice a week. This has really helped his cursive a lot! For art there are a lot of projects that we have to do for Cub Scouts this year and I am using those. I know I need to find a "real" art program. We'll see what crosses our path. The best part is I'm so much more relaxed now that we've found what works for us. I love it!

And that, my dears, is the update for now.....