Snow- a lesson in needs and wants (Week 4)

This week started out like any other week. Monday was gorgeous and mild, so we were out in the woods behind our house exploring.






On Tuesday, Charles took Leif to the aquarium, just the two of them. We went last week, with our whole family, and there were a lot of areas that Leif was interested in exploring, but Owen was not, so they went back to explore. There was a rumor of some snow fall that might hit south of the city, and a few snow flakes were beginning to fall when they headed out. We didn't think much of it. Even Owen and I went out to the library, with some steady snow beginning to fall. Around noon when Owen and I left the library, the snow was a little heavier. I texted Charles that he should head home, and I went to pick up some groceries, just in case we were going to get more snow. By the time I was driving home, Sandy Plains road at a stand-still for at least a mile that I could see in the opposite direction than I was traveling, and my anti-lock brakes were needed to stop at a traffic light. When Charles and Leif left the aquarium around 1pm, downtown Atlanta was already almost at a

2:15pm on Tuesday

Doing FaceTime with Leif.

standstill. Everyone decided to leave at once, and the icy roads north of the city were causing accidents that were backing up every road leaving the city to the north. Here's a road map that I took on my phone while trying to direct Charles out of the city. When you zoomed in, many of the minor roads were red as well. By nightfall, they had traveled about 10 miles, and we found friends who offered to take them in for the night. It took several hours to travel the "8 minute" drive to their apartment. In the end, they had to park their car and walk the final hill to their apartment. Ironically, Leif's social studies lesson this week was about the difference in wants and needs, and this crisis was a really good opportunity to figure out the difference between the two. Since I wasn't there, I decided to interview the expert. He not only describes his experience, he also has some good advice for future storms, and eliminates clothing from the needs list...just watch:

Best moment of our lives on Wednesday: Leif & Charles were finally home!

Lego salt & water molecules.

The kids got some great snow education, which included sledding, snowmen & snow angels. Charles and Leif studied how salt helps to melt snow, and keep if from freezing. They used Legos, of course, to show the molecules. The kids pretty happily continued our home schooling, even when the schools had snow days. I'm finding that home school organizes our day and makes our time together richer. We started a new phonics program this week using the Scaredy Cat Phonics system. You can see our vowel sheets that we started working on. AND, one of our math lessons was about odds and evens this week, and since there is an odd number of vowels, Leif wanted to start a Y page, so that U can have a partner. We'll have to give Y some more attention next week.

Snowball fight!

Snow beard.

Our Vowel Posters- still working on Y

Letter D for cursive this week!