Thursday August 30, 2012

I'm feeling so good about this year. So hopeful and ready.
I'm allowing our days to unfold with ease, but with a bit of direction from me. they need that or the day just sort of gets lost.   Annie worked on Math, writing and some phonics today. It went swimmingly. She got stuff done, and we stopped before it got to be too much she finished her worked happy and feeling good about herself. Which is so very important. Jaden spent the morning, drawing, and recording his yo yo collection and posting the pictures on his wall.  He weeded, and attempted to download the timez attack game, with no luck. Then a call for coffee turned into him pedalling his bike one neighborhood over to help Dada weed.
This is the good stuff. The part of life most kids dont get, because they are in school.
Juniper is sleeping
Annie and Eliza are having a girl time at Noras house. Before she starts school Monday.
Mama is now writing, thinking about what she should get done first.
Im feeling full and happy and thankful oh so thankful for this life, this path we are currently on.

We took a trip to the park earlier after breakfast which was a bit too late and we arrived home tired, cranky hungry and hot.  It took a lot of patience to keep myself calm, get Juni settled and bellies full.

Trying hard to make a walk, outside time part of our days as the summer winds down we always seem to come off of a bunch of time spent indoors due to the hot sun.

We have soccer and baseball schedules coming in and Eliza and showing signs of needing a bit of dance/gymnastics in her life :) Annie maybe back to the Theater?

Monday August 27, 2012 1st day

First unofficial day of back to school here in the area...and for us that meant a good day to begin our homeschooling routine and move on just a bit from the lazy summer days...

This morning Noni left, headed south back home to Florida.  The kids had two very late nights and so I kept my expectations low today. But still working a bit of rhythm in. It was tough. It's almost 4 now and Im allowing 30 min of screen time.  Im not sure how it'll work into our days right now. But Im hoping to ease it up a bit and allow a bit more room for work. play and creating.

Im adding eliza into the mix of table work, and she's excited about that. I'm hoping to be well on our way by mid September, having found our routine and rhythm by then.

She freaked out when I told her the sign said Preschool, and ran running saying she didnt want to go to preschool. I had to gently explain she wasn't going anywhere, she was starting preschool at home.

Then she was very excited!

Annie is a little bummed, and was hoping to go to real school this year. A few more social activities i think might be needed for her.

and this boy is is 3rd grade!! yikes. 

2011

a new page turned, a new calendar needed. And back around the sun we go!

Look for us here more often as I make a commitment to blog our days, that are speeding by us so fast I forget what day is what. 2011 is going to be a year of commitments I suppose. The first is too blog. To create a space that is cozy and warm, that serves as a reminder to all the wonderful things that go on in our days, as a place to keep memories. A place where I can learn a bit more about me and maybe even inspire others.

Looking forward to 2011~a year of hope and many blessings to us all!

ponds, acorns and trees.....

So our pond study was well a bit of a bust....I neglected to factor in that it's FALL and that it's getting COLD and that well there probably would be much going on in the pond to actually study....we did catch a few tiny 1-2 inch long fish that Jaden suspected were baby Bass, I though they might be Sunny's, we also saw a cool spider that was running all about over the water and there were also water striders too, so not a total bust but we will have to wait for spring for a much more active pond life study. There are three ponds where we were so on our way our we stopped at this one below to check it out.....



Other than some bigger fish this one too was very quiet..however this very large cut down tree became quite fun.


Annie just wandered herself about using sticks to swish in the water..

there was some hand holding...

and some posing for the camera.,,,,

and GIANT acorns to be found. Which make us all laugh because just the other day we went up and down our streets searching for acorns and came back with very few and very tiny ones...then we come here and it's like acorn heaven!! We collected as many as we could hold.

"Mom, we discover something new everyday!!!"...he picked one of these and came running back to me, after a careful look he realized it was a baby pine cone.

Eliza had been hanging in the car when Jaden decided he she really needed to get out to explore with us, so he went and got her...which led to some cute pictures...
like this one of the three of them all sitting in the tree, this was pretty funny because Eliza was loving it and Jaden and Annie were so scared they were all going to fall off, they were holding each other so tightly!

So it was not exactly what we had planned but we had fun nonetheless and it took me forever to get them to leave, what with trees to climb and a rope swing and acorns and ponds and acres and acres of grass to roam...

when the weather doesn't cooperate....

It's raining, cold and a bit dreary out...October is here! I was hoping to head over to the estate Jay works at today to begin our Pond Study. But the weather is not quite cooperating, so instead we will curl up in our house read some books, and quite possibly teach ourselves the art of paper chain folding and make some fun fall creations, our house is in need of some creative fall love!

Inspiration found over at Maya made.

and so it begins..

With our 2 week trip behind us, it's time to find our fall rhythm, which means creating a learning environment at home with Jaden and Annie, and of course Eliza. Wish us luck!

I hope to be here often with pictures, stories, and a daily compilation of our days.

planning...

Our summer has been busy, but very relaxed at the same time, and it's been wonderful the kids have had so much time to just play and explore and have fun, but with the summer just starting to wind down I wanted us to start finding ourselves more of a steady rhythm to our days. One that includes our school work, and play and our errands and activities outside the home. So tomorrow we will begin slowly working it in. Finding the rhythm that works for us. With Eliza still taking a nice morning nap {knocks on wood} I think that will be a good place to start for sit down work. Mostly for Jaden but I am sure Annie will join us for at least part of the time.


So with that our homeschooling journey is officially beginning and we couldn't be more excited!