The temperatures have climbed a little since I last wrote.  It’s amazing how -10°C can seem so warm after a few days of -20°C!  We did not go skiing last week due to the temperatures, but everything else in our routine is happening again.  I think it is getting a little easier to get up in the mornings too.

Group of Four has met twice, first for a morning of snow fort building and tobogganing and then last Friday for the first lesson in our Stock Market unit.  We began with a game of Stock Ticker, actually two games running at the same time in the hope that each stock market would act differently.  It was a great way to start as the children really didn’t know much at all about the topic at the beginning.  After a brief introduction we played the game, which they really enjoyed, getting more involved the more they played.  It was interesting to watch the different approaches,  I was banker for one game and all four players were very cautious investers,  they didn’t buy when stock prices were low, in fear that they  would just go lower.    The winner by a large margin was one of the mothers who only  bought low and sold any time those stocks rose even a little.

After the game was finished we were able to explain many more terms as we now  had some “experience” to refer to.  We hope to be able to   play  a game using actual companies on an actual Stock Exchange, but we haven’t found one totally suitable for our purposes yet.

Last Sunday we attended the award ceremony for the gingerbread houses.  A12’s group won, with L 14’s group coming second.  When the gingerbread houses were picked up   yesterday they were found to be very fragile as well as  dusty and dried out;  I don’t thing there will be any eating of the wreckage this year.

L14 is putting in a lot of practice  at present as she is taking her Grade 8 violin exam on Friday.  She has been working towards this for months and will be very relieved when it is over.