Giving Thanks

We are so thankful here - it's finally autumn weather!! The leaves have started to turn color and fall. Here is one off the tree in our front yard:


Although the tree still looks like this (below) - we are getting there! Bits and pieces of yellow and brown throughout the tree. Slowly but surely...


We had a grand time gathering up leaves the other day. I'm sure they will be put to good use in some autumn-y craft we come up with. :)

And here is our weekend project - our Thanksgiving Advent calendar. I love Facebook - this idea was linked to on a page I "like". Here is the link for the directions if you are interested, and to give credit where credit is due! I made some changes - used a foam tri-fold board I got awhile back, and some tiny kraft envelopes I had bouncing around. I had some scrapbooking paper and stickers from the Target $1 section, so this was a really cheap project!

We are going to start tomorrow, and fill each pocket with things we are thankful for each day. Then on Thanksgiving, we will read them all. Genius! :)

Halloween! & Maps

We have been doing all sorts of autumn/Halloween activities and crafts here. We went to the pumpkin patch with Bug's school. Here she is on her search for the best pumpkin:


And Lulu came separately with Daddy & Grandma to join in the fun. (Mainly because Ms. Lulu is having a rough time with being away from Mama lately...) She had a great time in the pumpkin patch.


School-wise we are in a bit of a belated fall break. Grandma D is in town and we've had Halloween activities and the field trip, etc. going on. We will start up again later this week. We have been working on maps. I got a great book at Lakeshore Learning for K-2, intro to maps and directions and how to read maps, etc. It's been great fun. Here is Bug thinking hard about where something is on her map. :)



I have also started teaching subtraction. The worksheets for this aren't sparking Bug's interest, so we started out using ABCya.com. They have a balloon-popping game for subtraction. She loved it, and cruised up to Level 3. I don't know what I would do without the Internet!!! Thank you Al Gore. :)

Homeschooling update: Still seriously considering doing it full-time next year. I've been feeling that way for a couple months now, so we'll see what the future holds for us education-wise. :) I am feeling very blessed these days to have the opportunity to teach my daughters. There are days I fall into bed exhausted beyond belief, but I love every moment of it. Okay, well maybe almost every moment of it. :) It's about 95% happiness and roses and 5% battle of the wills. Pretty much like parenting!

We hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween trick-or-treating with your little ones! We had a blast. Lulu was getting the hang of it by the end. She started saying "ick-or-eat" and "thank you byebye" and even a few "a. ee. awoeeen"s thrown in as well. Say that last one out loud and you'll get it. :)

Happy November!

Week 2 - Afternoon School

This curriculum is awesome!! I am still in love with it. :) We are being a bit more structured this week. Here is how it goes for every day except Wednesday, our "off" day: Circle Time, Language, Social Studies/Science (we do each 2x/week), Music, Math, and Arts/Crafts.

This week so far we have done some leaf painting (pics below), which has led us to the realization that we need a field trip! There are a whopping 2 or 3 types of leaves in our yard and neighborhood. We are going to plan a day that we drive up the mountain to where there is more variety. We'll do bark rubbings, gather some leaves, and enjoy the change in scenery.





We also did some addition work this week - we went through 1-10 and Bug told me all the ways you can add up to each number. She did great! :) We used a couple piles of Cheerios to aid in the tabulations as the numbers got higher.


We have also introduced the delightful Math Gnomes - Plus, Minus, Times, and Divide. :)

Plus filling in a blank calendar with special days and moon phases, drawing pictures of the moon, and we started playing around with the recorder.

The curriculum is fairly simple and leaves room for a lot of extras. If I were to do it full-time, this would be a great base on which to supplement. I've added in some extras for today. We are going to start learning about maps in Social Studies, and we are changing up our craft and doing something Halloween-y.

I still need to tackle finger knitting and then teach the Bug. Looking forward to that! :)

(Afternoon) School is in Session!

We officially started our 1st Grade Oak Meadow curriculum this week. Yesterday was our first day, and we spent the time learning the opening and closing verse, and talking about the seasons. This curriculum is Waldorf inspired, which I love. It's like the big sister to Little Acorn Learning. It's an actual curriculum, based on state standards and all that good stuff. But it's all earthy and rhythm-y and I'm in love. :) We are going to ease into it and start rhythms that work for us, and take our time and enjoy it.

Waldorf is big into teaching about seasons and phases of the moon... in reading the intro to this curriculum, I learned more about why. During the early years, defining time by seasons and holidays and such is much easier to grasp than learning how to tell time on a clock. (Disclaimer: I am by no means a Waldorf expert, and all my comments are based on my interpretation. :) ) I love that, and I love-love-love the daily rhythms. That's what I loved most about Little Acorn Learning, and it's part of Oak Meadow as well. And it's a HOME-school curriculum, so there are notes about which story to read at night before bed, and then talk about the next day. It's created to be used throughout the day, throughout your life. Not just during "school time". Perfect.

Can you tell I love it? :) We are going to do the 1st grade level this year in the afternoons.

Another part of Waldorf is the seasonal table. We started dressing our table for Autumn. Bug did this on her own, and it's lovely. :) As we go on more nature walks and to the pumpkin patch, and all that good "fall-y" stuff, we will add more season-appropriate items.

Here is the table, and some more decorations we put up.



Happy Fall! :)

Freebies!

Every week there are free downloads at Currclick.com. This week's looks really cute - fall-themed number matching.

Check it out here. :)

You can sign up for the email newsletter, and they send you info about the free downloads.

Budding Musician?

Lulu likes to rock out. :) Her new favorite place to play - right next to the music basket.

Getting in our groove...

We're back!! The school year is in full swing, and I think we are finally in our routine. Bug is in a great class with a wonderful teacher. It's a small class, with 12 kids, so she gets lots of teaching tailored to her needs. It's an ideal situation all around. :) She is very happy and dove right in from Day 1 with no problems.

Now that the year is underway and I see what all they are doing in class (I've been helping once a week), something in my brain has kicked into gear. Over the past couple of days, I've started thinking about how wonderful our homeschool experience was last year, and feeling kind of wistful about it. I don't know if this topic will ever be 100% settled for me either way, but for now I'm just observing and thinking and comparing. Her school experience is wonderful. The basics are there and they are good. Excellent, even. The kids are learning 2 letters a week, they have Spanish 2x/week; and PE, Art, Library, and Music once a week. They were tested for reading/math aptitude and are taught according to their levels. It's all excellent stuff. I love seeing the work Bug does. Her teacher is very artsy, so there are some neat projects. She can recite her colors in Spanish and randomly tells me interesting bits of information she has learned in school. Those are all the positives. I really have nothing negative to say about it. My only complaint would be that there hasn't been any planting of seeds, no ant farm or fish in the room, nothing "above and beyond" like that. That all may come, and it is just Kindergarten, so it really is just about the basics at this point. But... I miss homeschooling. I know that we could be doing so much more at home. I am in the beginning stages of my comparison, and just typing as I think (have I mentioned that I am an extrovert!?! :) ), so it's all very nebulous. I just have a tiny seed of "hmmm" going on in my head and I'm listening to it. I'm sure I will be revisiting this throughout the year, and making sure that the path we are on is the right one for us.

Moving on from that -- we are supplementing at home with lots of neat activities. We have been playing a LOT of "Sequence for Kids", printing out tons of coloring pages and worksheets, reading many many books, and on our drive to and from school, there is a lot of "Name everything that starts with F" or "I'm going to make up a story for you" going on. And, of course, CRAFTS. It's hot here, so we don't get to play outside very much. So to fill the time and keep us from going stir-crazy (or catatonic from too much TV), we draw. And paint. And cut and paste. And decorate with stickers. I just filled up the craft cabinet with a bunch of fall activities from Michael's today. I also have a flower pressing kit that we put together, and can't wait to use. Check out the new activity we tried - reminds me of those t-shirt decorating places at the mall when I was younger. Spin art!






We are still using Little Acorn Learning, as well - September was full of stories about squirrels, different types of families, leaves, and we made a nature notebook. Here is a picture - Bug picked out all the pictures on the cover. She has drawn a bird (we found one dead in our yard and it impacted her), a grasshopper we found in our driveway, and many other "nature" things that she has seen outside, or at least things that belong outside. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, it's HOT. It's finally becoming tolerable, so we will be able to actually go out and experience the outdoors, and she'll have more to draw.


Also, please say a warm welcome to our new friend, George. He is going to help us learn where all the organs and bones go in the human body. Mommy included. Because, as you can tell from the way he's currently set up, I have NO idea where the liver, spleen, etc. go. This will be a learning unit for the whole family! (Maybe Grandma Barb should come visit and pass on her medical knowledge!! :) )


He's doing a little sassy kick with his leg bone. :) I think George is going to provide us with hours of entertainment.

That's plenty for now. But I'm back in the school swing, summer break is officially over, so I'll be updating the blog more. :)

Happy Fall!