That Homeschool Chick: Fresh Days and Shiny Noses

Dear Friends,

Here we are on the first day of school.

See our shiny noses?

That's kinda a loose concept for us, the first day of school.

We are learning all the time.

And it doesn't always get written on the schedule.

I am very enthusiastic about this year. I have lists of things I can't wait to teach these children of mine. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be learning things too.

Mostly how to be more patient.

The crew was ready. We had two extras.

Brothers make good extras.

Remember last year? When I was homeschooling six kids and a baby? For two weeks?

It's burned into my memory.

Five was enough for today.

Everyone was excited.

 Well, almost every one.

He put on a brave face though.

Speaking of faces, I was thinking about this time last year.

The messes.

The Preschool fun.

The handful he was.

The handful he still is.

Yep, Pre-K is gonna be all kinds of fun!

This will be Felicity's first official school year.

We did quite a bit last year but in a pretty unstructured format.

How does that work?

Well, it was a lot like living LIFE.

And talking about it.

Throw in the books we read.

And the talk about them.

Then we went interesting and everyday places.

And talked about what we saw.

And just enough arts and crafts projects to keep my little artist happy.

Her outlook is as fresh as the pages of her new composition notebook.

She also had a fresh loose tooth.

(I hope you'll forgive the fact that this post is a little out of order. I posted about the tooth drama here.)

Again, I flash back to last year.

I am shocked at how much she has grown.

I shouldn't be.

I see the signs every day.

Please, just let me have this one as a baby for a minute.

Soon enough he will be nine.

Then fourteen.

But give me just a second, Please?

***

The school day went like this:

Up and dressed.

Salute to our country and the freedom to choose how we school our children.

Cereal.

Bike ride.

The twins rode along, yapping and drooling all the way.

Chore-chart next.

I'm such a mean mom!

Then it was time to put on our thinking caps.

Hmmmm... who is this guy?

Where is the sweet, soft baby boy I birthed?

Handwriting.

Bare-toes make this easier.

Felicity loved the manipulatives in math time.

I left her at it while I went and did some laundry.

Strange, the laundry needs done even on school days!

56 folded loads later I checked on the shape-shifter.

I told her I liked her flower.

She frowned and said it was a factory.

Oops!

See the wheel picking the boxes up out of the bin?

See how the wheel drops the boxes on the conveyor belt?

I have no idea how she knew about conveyor belts.

Or that they are in factories.

Surprise, surprise, she was happiest about art.

We made moose puppets.

The puppet show they put on was very cute.

 At first.

Then it got interesting.

 Downhill to violent.

Soon verging on disgusting.

Thanks to our very informative library book about moose behavior.

Note to self: Skip over sections involving males fighting over females and males marking their territory.

It was M day.

Hence the moose.

Hence the macaroni.

As for the mess, alas, that happens no matter what day it is.

We had a little time outside.

Picking up the yard counts as recess, right?

P.E.?

Finding Cicada shells made a good science lesson.

I used to collect these, crush them up and call the resulting mess, "witches powder"

I'm sure my mom appreciated finding mangled pincers and severed claws in my little sister's hair.

I was only trying to make her disappear.

I didn't include this reminiscence in the science lesson.

***

The day went pretty well.

I was happy with our year's beginning.

It was bright and shiny.

Just like our noses.

But we can't always keep it all snapped up.

Just in case you thought we really had it all together.

Love,

A Little Smeary Sometimes In NE