This afternoon the kids were out playing in the backyard with friends. I decided it was time to tackle the 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes I picked last week, knowing that a good chunk of it had spoiled already.
I had intentions to get to it all week and never had the time.
My energy and time and efforts have been put into school the past several weeks.
We are in our third week, and I'm feeling good about it now.
The first couple days of the first week I was feeling overwhelmed.
Everything was taking longer than I had thought.
I was second guessing myself.
We hadn't found a rhythm.
We've done school unofficially for months, but officially?
That word/feeling just kinda freaked me right out, surprisingly.
But not now.
We're finding a groove, and it's nice.
So...here's a photo entry of our first couple weeks of school. It's hard to catch the real spirit of it here, but here is a glimpse nonetheless.
I should have taken more photos, but this was our table set for our back-to-school dinner.
Balloons and dinner and "Christmas juice" as the kids call it, along with a gift for each of them to open for the school room.
A peek into our schoolroom:
Saying the pledge of allegiance each morning:
Drawing our own self-portraits in our first week after studying Monet's self portrait:
(it totally looks like he's an alien which makes me laugh)
Mia's alphabet train (writing each of the capitals in the train cars...now she's putting the lowercase letters on, too):
Putting fall themed decals on the windows in the schoolroom:
Last week we read different stories that centered around what I'll call "Apple-ing," so we painted our own apple orchards (potato prints for the circles of the trees, handpainting the stems):
And adding apples to their trees (I love these gooey fingerprints):
Beading:
Not pictured: (which I'm sure will get posted at some point later):
Nature Journals and our trip up the canyon sketching leaves
Daily reading with the boys (them reading to me) and working on sight words
Giant grasshopper catching
A mean game of Sorry!
Maptime -- we're learning the continents
Storytime and Poems
Trips to the bookstore for treats and reading
Play dates!
Dancing like crazy to fun songs (a mix from my sister -- this was my favorite song which we listened to again and again -- the kids' favorites were Disney songs and a song about Snuggle Puppy)
Playing Memory
Artist Study (we're studying works by Claude Monet)
Song Prompts for "You Are My Sunshine"
The boys' daily journaling and Math time
Studying the body (we learned about cells and the nucleus being the center, skin, etc.)
Composer study (We're learning about Bach! And the classical music that's typically on during journaling time is all selections from Bach)
And a couple favorite fall stories we've read:
And can't wait to read this for the umpteenth time: Oxcart Man
I love this time with my kids. Someday I hope they may understand just how deeply I love them and how much these days spent together mean to me.
What are your favorite cds for children at your home?
(Oh, and I read this tonight and laughed outloud.)
(Oh, and I read this tonight and laughed outloud.)
Posts
