School Daze

Well I am well known for my winter school blues.  I love the summer...the slower pace of life.  I love the fall and the change of seasons and flavors and schedule.  I love the spring and the warm weather and flowers and fresh air, I love Christmas.....BUT I do not really like winter.  It is cold. It is dark. It is boring.  So often the freshness of school has worn off and the dailyness of it is in full effect.  So this is the time of year that I am often in search of a school bus .....really any bus and ready to load the kids on and then jump in a convertable with Randy and go somewhere....anywhere warm.  But alas finances don't allow so I am here.....dreaming of warmer days.

Enough whining!

Co-op is still a highlight.  At least we get to leave the house!
The elementary class I'm teaching is now studying Greek Mythology and we learned this week about how the Trojan War is (aka. Fairy Tale War) said to have begun. When Zeus threw down a Golden Apple with a card saying "For the Most Beautiful" a fight ensued between the goddesses.  Which after a long chain of events led to the Trojan War.  So after reading the story we made paper mache' apples complete with tags.  They really enjoyed it.

As a cute side note one of the boys in THE GIRLS class said, "the apple must be for Sophie."  she turned every shade of red.  It was so cute! he, he, he :)

The Kids all LOVE co-op day.  I think by Thursday we are all so ready to get out and see other people.  Especially in the winter when we are so home bound.

PRESCHOOL LUNCH BUNCH!

Usually on Thursday's I come home and pretty much veg out.  This Thursday I was supposed to go on a Girls Night Out with the ladies from my Sunday School class. I was so excited however I found out earlier in the week that Randy's boss needed him to attend a work event.  I also knew our Odyssey team needed to get in some extra work hours.  So I reluctantly decided not to go.  I hated missing it.  I know they had a blast. 

So instead of vegging or hanging out with my girlfriends....I stayed home with the kiddos. We ordered pizza and 2 guys from the Odyssey team came over to work on their script.

This is the problem they selected to solve (they had 6 to choose from):

The problem is to create and present an original performance that includes a tour guide that represents a character from classical literature.  The tour guide will take a group of tourist to three places: two that already exist and one that is an original place created by the team.  At one of the places, the tour guide will give an inaccurate explanation of something, and a tourist will provide the correct explanation.  The performance will include an inanimate item that becomes animated, and an item that is worthless but is watched over by a guard that gives the reason the item is being guarded. 

I AM AMAZED by these kids creativity.  The kids do EVERYTHING themselves.  Write, create costumes, make props, make backdrops, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.....we (the coaches) can teach skills ie) sewing, hammering, sawing....but we can not do anything to contribute to the solution of the problem.   

The girl is already asking when she can be in Odyssey.  They have so much fun....but they also WORK so hard!

Their presentation time allowed is 8 minutes including setup time.  They are judged on creativity, quality of performance, how they portray the tour guide and the creativity of the inaccurate explanation.  The tourist are judged on their effectiveness and the creativity of the correct explanation they give.  The places they pick are judged on how they are depicted, the visual effectiveness of them additionally the team created place is judged on the creativity of the concept.  The inanimate object is judged on how it is depicted, the creativity of its design, and the effectiveness of how it comes to life in the performance.  The guard is judged on if we have one and the creativity of the explanation as to why they are guarding a worthless item.  Their worthless item is also judged for creativity.  Whew!

They have to keep all this in mind....while writing a script.  They also can have points taken off for having unsportsmanlike conduct, not have a correct membership sign, having outside assistance (from non-team member's helping or coaches helping) Spending too much money (they have $125 to spend to solve and present the problem), for the performance being too long and for not following the criteria set out in the problem.

FINALLY they are also awarded points on their STYLE

The style points are for: the creative use of a trash item in the solution, the creativity of the guard's costume, the overall effect of their style elements, and 2 team choices.  In other words the team can pick 2 things from their performance....music/acting/another costume, their sign, their backdrop etc. that they want to be judged on for Style.

So they worked for 3 hours last night....WRITING!  After a long day at school and all their extra curricular activities....and guess what....I think they loved every minute of it.

I can't wait to blog about what they've come up with....but I must wait.....their ideas are just too good to share.  Regional competition is the first weekend in March. 

We are running out of TIME!

So after a very long day for me, my kids, the Odyssey kids.....and Randy....he FINALLY gets home and decides we need to liven up the party and starts pumping the music!

The boys were thrilled to see him.

They eagerly helped him come up with the Odyssey play list :)

I sure do love me some Randy!

So even when the winter gets cold, dark, and boring....Randy is always good for keeping things FUN!