Today was the Watertown Children's Fair. We had planned to take the kids, but then last night I started having some sciatica pain. Haven't had that since I was pregnant! It was pretty bad but subsided by morning, so we could proceed with our plans. The boys were very excited about going. Ben doesn't remember last year, but Matthew does and talked about his favorite things to do. Thankfully, it was pretty much the same :)
I did solve a mystery when we checked in at the front. A few months ago, I received a letter inviting me to do some preschool screening with Matthew. Since we're homeschooling, I want as little to do with the public school system as possible. I know that in Wisconsin I do not have to have him tested but the letters are worded to sound like it's the law. What IS the law is that the school system must provide screening, not that every child gets screened. Anyway, as I signed in the kids, I saw the words "Preschool screening form" at the top. I immediately stopped and informed the woman that since I am homeschooling, my children will not be involved in this. She claimed it was really just a registration form, and as an aside added that it WAS used for screening. I stopped arguing, but convieniently "forgot" to add the year of birth to the children's birthdates. Score one for me.
We had a great time purusing all of the booths. Every single one of them had a craft and it would have been impossible to do everything, so we directed the boys towards areas with activities, like the giant slide, puzzles, and other things that you can't take home. They did plant pansies, make a tooth, and make bouncy balls...things that are really cool and useful :) The FFA had a petting zoo back in their area of the high school (did I mention this was at the high school?) and the kids loved it. The boys got to hold baby chicks, pet a variety of farm animals, and feed dandelions to a horse. I was watching the kids while they were petting the cow and Matthew ran up to me and said, "The cow licked me!" Then a rather disgruntled Ben (who had his hand under the cow's mouth for a long time) said, "The cow would not lick me!!" He promptly returned to the cow and waited until he got licked :) Anna wasn't too sure about any of the animals, but Rob did have her try to pet the cow and a baby chick. Anna had WAY more fun when I let her loose near the inflatible slide. I thought she was having fun watching kids go down the slide until she took off toward the rear. Turns out, she was trying to figure out how to get ON the slide!! It's a stretch for Ben to climb up the thing, let alone Anna. Silly baby!
We spent about two hours there and then came home. I picked up loads of good info on some area events, Ben got a bike helmet and pads, and we all had a good time. Rob went to the play this afternoon with his former college roommate. Scott had offered to babysit instead, but I knew with this sciatica pain there was no way I could sit in a folding chair for two hours. The kids and I went to Aldi's instead and then played "Mommy would you get me" for awhile after we got back home. It's every mom's favorite game, where she gets three times as many requests for things as she has children. I finally told them I was cleaning off the table and would ignore all requests until I was good and ready to acknowledge them. And then I took my time cleaning off the table :)
2 comments:
We play "Mommy would you get me" here, too, except it we call it, "Mom, I want". We are working on rephrasing things so as to sound less demanding when we play. ;-)
I know we have children's fairs around here but I don't ever manage to hear about them until way after the fact. :-( I know the kids would have a blast.
I remember the fair--that was fun! They had the petting zoo back then as well.
Unfortunately, here in Ohio, we do have to notify the school district we're homeschooling and what we'rd doing in our homeschooling and then they have to take a standardized test each year. The homeschooling moms around here have assured me it's no big deal, and that you'd have to be an idiot not pass those standardized tests. I remember it being some ridiculously low score you had to have to pass. So if they don't pass--there really is something wrong with your method of homeschooling!
At any rate, you don't notify them unless your child turns 6 that school year. Angela just missed the deadline for the age this year, so we didn't have to notify them. We will have to this year though.
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