A Tuesday Snapshot

 

It is snowing outside right now.

It seems a bit early for the first snow, but that's only because the weather has been so nice lately.  We've had a bright, warm fall up until now.  In truth, we were probably overdue for some cold weather.

Today we are working on some unusual schoolwork.  My big kids have a chance to participate in a program put on by a local bank, where they will learn about global economics and work together to "run" faux trading between 16 countries for the day.  They'll be doing that in November, and we have a whole semester's worth of curriculum to go over in the next couple weeks. Normal school is on hold so we can finish as much as we can before our training days next week.

I never thought I'd be explaining the definition of a tariff and how a trade war works to my elementary school students, but I'm actually amazed at how much they are retaining!  I also credit a lot of their understanding of some of these complex eceonomis concepts to the Tuttle Twin books.  One of the videos we watched mentioned protectionism, and Wyatt said, "Oh yeah, it's just like in The Tuttle Twins And The Food Truck Fiasco."  I'm amazed at how much my kids enjoy those books, and clearly the concepts are sinking in.  

We made it through four global economics lessons today, and right now Gwen and Wyatt are playing a trading relationships and transportation game, involving a worksheet, a globe, and a pair of dice.

It started snowing around lunch time, and we have about an inch outside right now.  My little kids emerged from their rooms (where I had relegated them for the morning so the big kids could focus), and they immediately dug the snow clothes out of the closet, and they've been traipsing in and out of the house every few minutes for the last half hour.  I'm definitely going to have to mop the floor now because of all the melted snow, but they were so excited, I couldn't say no.

In about an hour I'm going to have to start getting the big kids ready for soccer practice, and we'll probably have to find some extra layers since it's a cool day.  Christmas music may be played in the car on the way down.  I may even treat myself to a coffee since I'm going to have to stay warm on the sidelines during practice.

Between soccer practice and trying to catch up on our global trade lessons, I didn't have a lot of time to be creative today, so this is what you get - a little snapshot of our Tuesday.