Student of One, No Longer

Usually I set N up with blocks, his cars, or a video while E and I plug away at math or language arts for the day, but fairly often he's been asking for some work of his own. He's been able to recognize more and more letters lately so I thought I'd start there. He did so good and as you can see very proud. For those of you that don't know about this great free website check it out, I get a fair amount of supplemental worksheets and ideas from them! There was something kind of magical about having everyone around the table this morning.

Carkeek Park Hike

Mid morning we met up with Eileen and the kids for a leisurely walk through Carkeek. We didn't make it to the beach, but had a nice lunch in the orchard and many stops along the way.

A Little Love Nest

We have an escapee, she's figured out how to hop the enclosure and spend the majority of her day out pecking grass instead of marching around in the muddy coop. I let Ivy back in occasionally if she seems to want to return, but for the most part she seems to enjoy her independence and frankly, if she's smart enough to get herself out she deserves a little alone time. It hadn't really been a problem until I noticed she hadn't layed her usual daily seafoamy green egg in a few days. Then one morning after Ella slogged through our muddy backyard to feed the gals I noticed Ivy feverishly pacing the fence, then she got her whits about her, hopped onto the perch, flapped to the top of the fence, awkwardly fluttered to the ground and made a beeline to a patch of dirt that stays pretty dry up against the house. I was so curious, and suspecting to find a few eggs in her new little secret spot among the trowels, rakes and pitchforks leaning up against the house providing her a decent amount of protection. E and I peeked from my bedroom window that is situated exactly above her special little spot (with a bird's eye view) and sure enough she had made a little love nest in the dirt with 2 beautiful seafoamy blue-green eggs.

Plural Nouns

E choose steamy piles of dog poop to illustrate what a noun and plural nouns are...(sigh). At least she can't be sent to the principals office for inappropriateness here at home school.

Happy Valentines Day

E made a few cards this year for her friends at school; so sweet, right?

SNUG totem

Walk Like an Egyptian

E and Kaela have been working tirelessly over the last few months with Jen creating and practicing for this evening's Egyptian Feast! The girls learned how to write actual hieroglyphics, they discovered many Ancient Egyptian customs and part of their presentation was a choreographed dance (view at bottom of post) . They did so great! Among many other delicious treats for our feast they served us hand pressed hummus, antelope, and alligator! After our meal they included their dad's in a mummification presentation. Yet another tick on the side of homeschooling, E would never have had such an in depth look at Ancient Egypt in a traditional 1st grade classroom.

Back at It

E started her new semester's worth of classes this week. We'll be continuing on with Math and Language Arts here at home, and our co-op classes with Kaela (World Geography, Art Appreciation, Ocean Studies and World History) and adding Engineering, Reader's Theatre, Creative Writing & Art, Movement & Games, and a new Spanish co-op at our resource center. It's a load, but exciting!

In addition to our new classes, our school is now offering an indoor play space that rivals anything I've ever seen. It's cooperative play, build-your-own playground. N and I have been in there each day this week and each time I go in there it's different; big kids helping the smaller ones, kids using their imaginations in impressive ways. It's amazing.

Never Too Young to Learn How to Change a Tire

We awoke to find a tire flat on our van, of course right as we're on our way to our new semester's classes...we'll N was fascinated. He didn't leave his dad's side for one moment until that spare was on.

It's Not Always Easy To Figure Out How I Got Here...

...but this article hits it pretty squarely on the head, and no I didn't breastfeed my children until they were 4.