Divide and Conquer

Today was a great example of one of my favorite things our homeschooling circle does -- the Divide and Conquer. We generally do things in multi-age groups, but sometimes dividing the group by age makes sense.

This morning, the "big kids" (ages 11 and up) all went to a friend's house to solve a mystery designed by one of the other moms in the group. The kids do these a couple of times a year, and they really look forward to it. The mysteries are always amazingly well researched and planned, and the kids love to get together to try to figure it out. This time, they had a murder mystery to solve set in Texas in 1841. Things they'd learned from their tour of the French Legation museum a couple of months ago were referenced. They had lots of information, clues, and even a code to decipher -- but they worked together and managed to crack the case.

Meanwhile, the middle group (7-10 year olds) went to another friends house to swim.

And my charges?

This motley crew of five year olds.

We had a fun morning of sprinkler playing, lego building, and cinnamon roll making. Sometimes it's fun to just do five year old stuff without all those bossy older siblings around.


I thank my lucky stars every day that we live in a place with such an awesome community of homeschooling mamas and kids!