Last Week

This week we....

played with friends

helped Daddy fix a flat tire

ran errands

did some math games

had morning basket time

did some word searches

Marie-Therese read to me each day for at least 15 minutes if not longer

made lemon cookies

had Poetry Tea Time

played outside A LOT

weather journaled

went to the library

read, talked & watched a video about the water cycle

talked about & looked up pictures of land art

went to the beach to talk about the different clouds we saw, the water cycle & collect sea shells 

made land art

played on the playground

spent the day with Daddy planning out the garden: what we will plant, drawing up a "map" of the garden, buying all the supplies, filling the pots, planting the seeds

Tomorrow I will post (and Periscope) about the books we read in Morning Basket Time

March 1st

It was a busy day, and at the same time it was peaceful and flowed nicely.

We all were awake early---for us anyway! So we began with our new morning basket routine and then headed to the library for Marie-Therese to hang up her painting for our homeschool group's art show. If you are in our area stop by and see the wonderful talent that our group has!

We then ran a few errands, came back home for lunch and scrapped afternoon plans for an extremely cranky toddler!! Instead Marie-Therese and I headed outside for Poetry Tea Time....all poems about nature or leaping today! 

Then we worked on our March 1st prompt for the Mud Puddles Nature Lab. We get a lot of great nature ideas from the blog Mud Puddle to Meteors 

There has been a bit of practicing spelling and some creative time making bracelets with pom-poms and pipe cleaners and a bit more drawing time before bed!

Leap Day

We began the day with our new morning basket routine. I will share more of that in the coming days once we have a week or so under our belt. But it is basically me reading out-loud from a basket of books I've put together. While I read both girls colored on the floor. That lasted for about a half hour or so and it was a good way to transition from wake up, breakfast, getting dressed etc to school time.

I then turned on the story of the Three Little Pigs from Draw Me a Story through Amazon Prime. I want them both to get more exposure to the stories that have been around for a long time!

We then did our daily weather report and after seeing that it was 55 degrees out we headed outside first for a walk around the neighborhood then another hour playing in the backyard. There was running, leaping, playing with the soccer ball and then the gathering of things that Marie-Therese found and decided she wanted to put in a "texture journal." 

After a morning of reading & outside time we all were hungry for an early lunch. Afterwards we talked more about Leap Day and then made origami frogs to "leap" across the floor. 

All in all as a first day of a more pulled together school time we were spontaneous, included more creative time, outside time, reading time & learning time. All things that I have been feeling the need to have more of. 

November 2-6

We had a full week!

There was writing stories

coloring pages & talking about our beloved dead for All Souls Day

Poetry tea time where we ate cake we baked and read poems about the autumn fairies

practicing sounding out words and trying to read them

math consisted of graphing last months weather and Halloween candy: sorting, making patterns with, trading and counting

Drawing class with the homeschool co-op

socialization at ballet, drawing class, two playground dates with homeschool friends & chatting with our neighbor

outside time observing leaves, raking & finding all kinds of nature goodies: pieces of bark from the trees, a whole bunch of moss growing on the front steps & different insects

and that is all on top of our usual creating, reading, chores & living that we do!

I have declared today a day off since we all are battling colds (oh there was a building of a town with legos for a few days and then an epic battle between two forces to see who could take it over)

Catch up post

The other night she spent some time designing and creating her own business cards: Marie-Therese's art class to be held here at our house. With her as the teacher!

This was taken a few Saturday mornings ago. Daddy works Saturday mornings so a lot of weeks we use the morning time to catch up on any school work that we didn't finish over the course of the week.

We've been learning about the states, one state every week & a half or so. The state bird, flower & capital. We are putting together a book that includes a coloring page for each flower & bird. We've also been looking up videos of each bird. Here she and Veronica are watching & pretending to be Ruffed Grouses from Pennsylvania. 

She finished her math workbook last week so we began working with Khan Academy on-line. She'd rather have the workbook so I'm researching those....she really enjoys her math time. And doing math with a superhero cape is even better!

Making up her own Halloween math problems on the white board!

Learning to read is still slow going and sometimes painful. We are going slow, practicing letters & sounding out words. Patience with herself is needed! She gets easily frustrated that it isn't coming easy. I keep assuring her that as long as we keep practicing she WILL get it.

Each Monday is ballet class with Miss. Rachel. This is another highlight of her week!

The other day we went outside for a science experiment that she came up with on her own: put water on a sunny spot of the driveway and a shady spot on the driveway and see which one evaporates quicker. She did the same experiment with the pink paper.

We began going to the new playground near the airport. Homeschool friends; slides & watching the planes land & take off right in front of us make for a very fun morning each week!!!

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

I couldn't remember the password to up load pictures hence no posting the end of last week!

We were busy. On Wednesday, the first day of Fall we headed off to Goddard Park for the morning. We climbed trees, hiked, looked at the water, ran in the big fields & took some time to observe flowers & trees and sit and sketch in our journals for a little bit. We decided that Wednesday's would be dedicated to nature!

We watched as much of the Pope's first visit to the United States as we could. This led to many questions (why does he wear those hats; why does he carry a stick; how come he's so important?). It made my heart happy to hear her ask "is Pope Francis on TV right now & can I watch him?"

She was thrilled that he went to Pennsylvania as that's the state we are learning about right now. We began a new notebook....I am printing out each states Flower & Bird with some facts on it and she is coloring them as close as she can to the real thing. At the end of the 50 (or so) weeks we'll have a state notebook! 

We finished up our dinosaur eggs by painting them; she spent countless hours clipping pictures from magazines making collages of restaurants, weddings, menu's, flowers. Except she's not gluing them down "just in case I need them for something else." So we have piles of little clippings all over the place!

A big passion of her's right now is baking. She loves to play restaurant or bakery with Veronica coming up with new recipes & dishes. On Friday this led to making oatmeal muffins and then spending the afternoon writing up her own recipes of new meals she invented. I have high hopes that this project will turn into her wanting to take over the cooking duties ;-)

And of course little sister is with us every step of the way! Whether it be getting outside exploring, sitting at the table coloring/doing school work, dancing, or playing at our feet while we do things (or elbows trying to "help" cook) she is on this journey with us!

All of this doesn't include the "usual" things we do each day: always math, read a-louds, prayers/talking about our faith, some type of writing and of course the daily chores she helps out with. We have full days of learning & life. Some days are fuller with activities & outside fun. Other days are slower paced with lots of free time for imagination, outside time & play. 

We are finding a very good balance as we move along. Things have already changed a bit from what I had envisioned but for the better. We have dedicated days of the week: nature, baking, handwork, art but I have stopped giving them a dedicated day (i.e. Tuesday was supposed to be baking....baking seems to be happening on Friday's, etc).

Monday & Tuesday

Monday was. Crisp and cool. Mugs of tea. Books. Lots of books. Stuffy noses. Writing thank you notes. Math. Grocery shopping. Baths before naps. Late afternoon ballet class. Dinner being made now so it's ready later. Looking through new books and planning some weather activities for us to do soon. Her list of things she wants to learn about and do keeps growing!

Tuesday is:

*beginning the day dressing up as a person from Hawaii and dancing the hula

**math....learning how to count by 5

**art time...we both made collages in our journals

**starting a new band called "Marie & the Sister". Designing costumes. Writing songs. Complete with musical notes & all. Then performing the songs.

**Lots of outside time. Observing. Sketching. Collecting. Digging. Finding. We are taking an online workshop called "Everyday Nature". A detailed post about that when we have finished in about two weeks
**Began learning about Pennsylvania with Daddy

Sixth Day

Today began our week's focus on constellations

We began the morning with some math work & some writing....practicing writing and recognizing upper & lower case B's

Then we moved onto looking at some books of constellations; looking on-line at pictures of constellations; we talked about how the groups of stars look like pictures when we "connect the dots"

Marie-Therese then sat and made her own constellation that she called "Flag Star". She decided to make her stars blue after we listened to a song that told us the different colors that stars can be (all determined by their temperature)

By this time it was mid-morning and the heat was unbearable "it's making my brain too hot to think Momma" so we cleaned up & retreated upstairs for a bit where she played with Lego's until lunch time

Then her cousin stopped by for a visit....they invented & built a machine that moves things; they sorted buttons & then decided to make "glow in the dark cupcakes" with them. They weren't able to finish the "cupcakes" before it was time for J to go home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching a few shows & reading together. After supper it was cool enough to run around for an hour or so outside (naked pretty much so no pictures!); she played tag, did some acrobatic moves, watered the garden and ran through the sprinkler. 

After baths & clean up we read more of our nightly read a-loud "Mr. Poppers Penguins"....we will finish it tomorrow night!

Fourth Day

Today was a good reminder for us: homeschooling is a lifestyle, and that can look as different as any other part of life from day to day.

This morning I could tell that Marie-Therese's mood was a little off. She insisted on sitting down to do her school work. She did about a half hour of math & writing. Then she wanted to try the Bob Books again but had trouble and got frustrated again. I told her that I thought today would be a good day to just play. She burst into tears saying that that's not school! She needed to sit and do school work!

I explained that learning isn't just about sitting at the table and writing or reading or doing math. It's about exploring and being curious and living life. That Mommy & Daddy learn all the time and we don't always sit at the table.

We took a trip to Target where she picked out some new school supplies. She had a certain amount of money so spent quite a bit of time in the aisle adding. When we left I told her that was "school"!

So was this afternoon: hours of free play with my old carousel horse toys. Organizing & sorting them. Making up stories about them. Taking time to come sit on her bed with me while I read a book to her. Cleaning up & treating the breakable toys carefully.

After a picnic supper on the deck I found her & Veronica busily writing in their notebooks. They were putting together nature journals. Marie-Therese walked around the yard collecting fallen leaves, flower petals, pieces of grass, etc. and taped them into her notebook. Telling me that she had left space to go back in a few days so she can sketch how they've changed.

Learning isn't all about sitting on the table doing rote work. It's living and breathing and experiencing too. Keeping imagination and creativity forefront. As a lifestyle. That's what I hope to continue to cultivate in both girls.

Third Day

**Began the day with some math & insect drawing

**ballet class

**Book About Me work

**bake banana bread---did most of the counting & measuring

**Sliced it & served banana bread to Nana & Grumpy

**read two Bob Books----went lots better today!

**before bed looked at the big United States map with Daddy. Found Rhode Island's flag & the location of the state. Compared how tiny we are to all the other states!