early september

[after this we're going to time warp to Taiwan!]

I was quite nervous about the pool at first, but it turned out to be a great way to get the girls outside, and over the course of the summer, they went from no heads under water to swimming freely across the pool.  swim time was usually during nap time, but towards the end of the summer, the addition of a life jacket and a good deal of little man reasoning development (like not walking straight down the stairs into water over his head =p) gave him more swim opportunities too. 

 

when I came to get him after nap

 

someone was spying on the pool activity

 

one of the stranger things to show up in the pool

 



first try on green beans ;)  she did eat them though

 

checking out our CC timeline cards

 

 

 

 

 

 

our neighborhood turkey family meandering through our front yard

school!! we started at home a week before CC

math games

typing

place value cards - such a simple but useful tool

seasoning the dry erase markers

with his box of school-time stuff

recess



warming up for gymnastics

we joined a homeschool group called Classical Conversations, which gave the girls a regular class on Monday mornings.  they learned new memory work each week in geography, history, math, English, Latin and timeline (from a song of 168? events from creation to 2001), and did a science experiment and an art or music project. 





first day of CC!

 

 

a nice crayfish dissection to start the year ;-)

first day treat

 

making paint from berries

 

the scooter road

 

 

first group class

lots of firsts!  I think I had an idea that homeschooling would give us more time and flexibility.  flexibility yes, but time - not so much ;-)  I had thought we could be done shortly after lunch, but in reality, we rarely started before 9:30 or ended before 3 or 4.  that usually included violin, at least 2 hours for lunch and recess, and any lessons, so I guess it's not bad.  and the best part is that we did it together, so everyone could witness/be interrupted by things like baby sister climbing up and stranding herself in the bed or little man singing the timeline song.  we started with bible over breakfast, and tried to cover violin, math and language arts (writing or spelling for buddy, writing or grammar for c) daily, and Chinese and CC review a few times a week. the first semester they each did an online typing course, and the second semester there were online activities for each of their Parent Partnership classes (violin, gymnastics and swimming, paid for by state funding).

 

more on school later, so we can jump back up to the present!