Field Trip to the Pond

Some of the kids had a lot of feelings this morning. After several melt downs, I decided that rather than try to push through our grouchiness we better get out of the house, so we walked down to the pond for a field trip. It's warm and gray out today and the bugs are very loud this time of year. We picked a bunch of little sour apple things and threw them into the pond. Everybody relaxed a lot. We found a beautiful thistle and a giant, stunning spider in the middle of her web.

Art is Happening

We've already got some pretty great art happening this year:

June, 5

A herd of elephants and a lion. A friggin' masterpiece by Ben, 3

Davey, 8

A comic from Davey.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away... well, you know the rest.
"Did ya see the game last night?" "YES. TOTAL BUMMER."
Meanwhile: "Our robot spy works!"

Homemade Hummus

We made hummus today! It turned out gross, but that's just because I hate hummus. Everyone else liked it. So we had hummus and pita sandwiches, something we started eating after Karen brought The Sandwich Swap home from the library.

The Billy Goats Gruff

Today was super busy. We met up with a bunch of other homeschool families at the park in Cameron and the kids had a blast playing, then a friend came over to play all evening and the kids had a Nerf battle. But we started the day with a little theatre. Here are the kids performing The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

The First Day of School

The kids were so excited for the first day of school that they were up early and chomping at the bit. Everything went well until the art/science portion of the schedule, which I had nothing planned for. So we opened our new bucket of shapes and made a geometry garden. They loved it! No one wore their new clothes today and they all need haircuts, so I didn't feel inspired to take "First Day of Grade X" photos, but I love this one:

Back to School Night

Tomorrow is the first day in Hamilton schools and we're following suit at home, so tonight we had a little Back to School Night. The kids and I talked a few weeks ago about what they missed about public school and I was surprised by their answers. They wanted more structure, they wanted to sit at desks and have specific times for specific subjects. So I've planned this year pretty differently. We've got a dedicated schoolroom, a specific schedule, desks, and even a school lunch calendar.

We also had presents for Back to School Night: fancy new lunchboxes, a cookbook (Weelicious Lunches), school supplies, some fun stuff for preschool/kindergarten, and a new outfit for each kid.