Olympic Lessons

I tried to blog last night, but I could not tear myself away from the women's snowboard cross event on the Olympics. Talk about intense! Eesh! I was so sad for Lindsay Jocobellis, but annoyed at those announcers, saying she threw away the gold. Puh-leeze! She did great.

Yesterday the boys and I went to see the movie Eight Below. I have to say, it was very good. I bawled like a baby during parts of it and that's saying a lot because I am sooo not a pet person. It was inspiring and heart wrenching. I enjoyed it and so did the boys, who now want their own dog sled team. My saving grace on that one is that in North Carolina you don't need snow dog teams to travel.

We managed to put in almost a full day of school, but I let a formal science lesson slide. The setting in the movie, Eight Below is Antarctica and there is a scene with the Northern Lights. After the movie the boys wanted to know about the lights and so we discussed what they were, and how and why they happened. We also discussed the climate of Antarctica, how the dogs were able to survive, what to do in case of frostbite and the importance of keeping your word. Formal science didn't happen, impromptu science happened and it was great.

Last night, John and Jeremy were watching the Olympics and I was packing up some DVD's. The event was the women's downhill ski and the first woman to ski totally wiped out. The boys were concerned for her but that little gal got right back up and finished her race. Jeremy said, "Mommy, that's just like what you always say. You fall down, but you get right back up and go to the end. She didn't win, but that's alright because she finished." I told him that he was absolutely right.

Yes, they do listen.

Look to the finish!