Learnin'

"Sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a chance to learn the appropriate greeting. Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to say is yes." Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day.

Welp, we're schooling!
The so-called  "summer" went by way too fast.

^^(Paleontologist, Dancer, and Racecar Driver... pretty similar to last year!)^^

GUYS.
I have a fourth grader.
A smart, curious, talkative, creative, kind, beautiful fourth grader.

 

I know nine is still pretty young, but I feel like this is going to be a pivotal year for her. And I'm fully confident she will handle it with grace.

She is thrilled with her teacher and really excited about SEARCH.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news: I have a teacher certification that says I'm capable of teaching these two first graders at "home"!

 

 

 

Shark week totally counts as Science, right??

 

 I gotta say... Week one went much more smoothly than anticipated!

 

 

 

I know there will be tough days. I mean, I just started new migraine meds and the number one side effect is irritability... this could get interesting.

But so far? We kinda love it.

We have an enormous utility room, which we had planned to turn into an enormous utility room slash closet, for yours truly. Instead, it became our classroom. The peg board -ugly but handy- and shelves were already there. (And who needs an enormous closet anyway? I love a good game of 'Where the heck is that shirt?!').

 

 

 

 

(That's an giant floor pillow on the left -donated by a friend- and they LOVE it.)

 It's not done by any means, but I wanted to be able to shut the door at the end of the day and walk away; as well as minimize distractions. It's working out great for now.

 

 

We start every day with 20 minutes of yoga- they felt silly at first, but already they have come to crave it. It's a nice way to start our day, it's positive and the sensory input gets them ready for the day.

 

 

 

 Then downstairs for the Pledge of Allegiance and then Bible.

I chose a Bible verse to work on for the month of August.

This is day THREE of school:

 

 

 

 

As for Anna Gray, the start of school happened to coincide with her new interest in independence. She is getting curiouser and curiouser (and if you don't know what that's from, we can't be friends anymore.) She happily scoots around from blocks to shapes to Elmo until naptime.

Of course, her dirty bottom reminds me that I haven't figured out when to mop the floors, or shower while the sun is out, or a slew of other things. But hey... I taught my kids!!  

 

 It was a busy week, back to school, back to dance, appointments, new schedules... we're worn out. But I think we did alright :)

 

I've got lots of home educators to thank for the support, resources, confidence, and inspiration! XO