First Day of School

Beautiful cool weather meant school on the porch this morning. Started with learning about insects, then Aine writing insect facts in the science notebook. On to word problems in math, fables in language and learning about the globe in Social Studies. On days when Jacques is home and not in preschool, we'll keep it light.

Darrell gave Aine a pop quiz on globe facts, where the equator, southern and northern hemispheres are, land masses, poles, etc. She passed with flying colors!

After lunch, to celebrate our school kick-off and extend our exploration of insects and other animals, we went for a hike at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center. Grammy joined us for some fresh air.

Before our expedition, we washed and cleaned an old set of fingerpaint cups to use as specimen containers. Worked beautifully! Among our finds were feathers, nuts, tiny bones, scat from something that ate someone else (bones in it), muscadines that were tasty, spiderwebs, cicada shells and miscellaneous holes in the ground. Great day to be out!

Now we've got to label, categorize and study our finds. Fantastic!

Enjoy your day and look around while you're out walking. You never know what you might find!

Ready, Set, Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so ready to get back into a routine with the kids!

Most of you know of our ups and downs this summer, traveling to Chicago and Boston for Darrell's job interviews. Still no news, so I am assuming, for now, that we're staying. It's the only way for me to stay sane.

Last year, our schooling spread out around the house and we had some trouble focusing. This year, we have converted the back porch into a schoolroom, complete with shelves and our refurbished easel, rug and rocking chair.

We must have sorted a thousand crayons, pencils, pens and markers. Pencils were sharpened, crayons were whittled down to a usable pile, with extras going to the local shelter and broken ones peeled for an upcoming project. Pens and markers were tested. Dried out markers were dipped in water to reactivate them. It really works!

Daddy Darrell donated a pile of binders from his old classes. We recycled the notes inside of each binder and relabled them with our courses. More pics coming soon as our learning space takes shape!

Best wishes with whatever back-to-school or beginning of Fall projects you are starting!