My Little Leprechaun!

Well, G. completed his "Little Leprechaun" class! I was so proud of him! It was an 8-week course for 4 & 5 year old kids to get a taste of Irish dancing, and since big sister has been doing it, G. decided he wanted to try for himself. I would say he liked it, but he didn't love it. The Flying Irish studio is fantastic, a wonderful place for kids to dance. For the last class, there was a "mini-recital" that Ron & I attended, complete with video camera, digital camera, and, of course, tears in our eyes.

Stretching at the beginning of class...


Irish springs - G.'s favorite part!


Green alligators, and long-necked geese....I think this is the chimpanzee part!


A proud boy with his certificate - his first one!


It wouldn't be G. without a silly face and dance to end the recital!


He won't admit but I think he had fun and was glad he did it. And I couldn't be prouder!

Sketch time!

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and leave the boring workbook at the kitchen table and take our sketch pads outside. C. made some lovely drawings and labeled them in her sketchpad, so this took the place of writing.

It was fun to walk around the yard and sit in different places to sketch. It's funny that I think of our yard as being small now. When we bought this house, we moved from an apartment in Boston where we had no yard at all, and a half-acre seemed so huge so us. Now I feel so closed in! I'd love to have acres of rolling hills and stone walls and complete privacy....

Anyway, after some sketching and writing it was time to put C. to work and earn her keep! Who says a six year old can't mow the lawn?


Of course, Ron is terribly embarressed by my push-reel mower and is horrified everytime I am pushing it around the lawn. He claims it doesn't do a good enough job, and he may be right, but the truth is that it is SO much better for the grass and the environment. Lawn mowers account for between 5 - 10% of summertime air pollution, they rip the grass instead of mowing it, AND it is better for your lawn to have the grass clippings left on the grass.

C. agrees.

Springtime in Nature

We had a lovely field trip at the Capen Hill Nature Sanctuary in Charlton, MA. It was organized by a mom in a group we don't belong to, so it was nice of her to open it up to everyone who wanted to go. It is a small nature sanctuary, staffed by wonderful, kind, informative folks who really made us feel welcome. We learned about all sorts of pondlife, little creatures I never would have known were there - even a little bug that looked like a stick, I think it was a damselfly.

C. and G. listened intently as the field guides explained what we would see and do on the trails.


C. did great with her binoculars. She pointed out to everyone some frogs, polliwogs and a newt!


What did we find in the pond? C. was disappointed there were only a few bugs and no salamanders or frogs. Oh well.


G. being G. of course finds a place to relax.


It is so nice to finally be outdoors after such a long winter. Why does the summer have to be so short? One of these days I'm moving somewhere warmer. Someday...

Math!

We started a new math curriculum last winter called Right Start. I chose it because I liked the fact that there a lot of manipulatives and I liked the philosophy, which you can read about here.

It has worked very well for us, but there are definitely concepts that seem very difficult for C. I don't know why this is, but when we run into trouble I try to find a new way to approach it. For example, she could not figure out the difference between nickes and dimes and how much they are worth, and the concept of adding them together was complete gibberish to her. So I decided to make it a little fun for her and I gathered together empty food boxes and made a little store for her!C. was very excited about it, she loved having the shopping bag and making her selections at the "store."
Adding up her purchases on the abacus.
Counting out the correct amount with dimes, nickels, and pennies!
Her turn to be the cashier! Of course, she prettied it up with some plants and candles.


Success! I think this really helped her to understand how to add the different coins. I love having the freedom to leave things when they don't work and come back to it a different way on a different day.

Can you help us?

We are in the midst of a postcard-collecting project. We are trying to get a postcard from someone in each state in the U.S. and Canada and Mexico. We subscribe to a Yahoo group dedicated to postcard exchange, but it is slow going. Sometimes people never get back to you when they say they want to exchange. So if you would like to exchange a postcard with us, leave a comment and I promise to get back to you! (At the bottom are some of the tissue-paper butterflies we made with Grammy the other day.)

Time for Family

One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is the amazing freedom it gives us. I love the lack of time restrictions and our lives not being held captive by a school calendar. So when my mom called and told me she wanted to come up for a "school day" visit the kids were very excited! We thought of some things we wanted to do with her and had a wonderful time. C. was excited to show her all of the projects we have been working on for our ancient Egypt theme, and G. wanted to show her all of his Planet Hero toys. But first up was reading to Grammy.








We did some lovely watercolor painting in the classroom. We were all very creative and Grammy painted a beautiful picture of the view of the woods from the classroom.

We also made tissue-paper butterflies to hang up in the classroom.

The best part of Grammy's visit is always her wonderful support and love she gives to us all. I am so lucky to have so much support from my family as we start our homeschooling life. This year has had some ups and a few downs, but I have never had to justify our decision to homeschool to anybody. Or maybe I just refuse to:)

I always pictured myself living across the street from my mom, having dinner together, just dropping by to say hello and have a cup of tea. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened and we find ourselves a few hours away from each other. Maybe someday we'll be able to be closer, but for now it is just nice to get together when we can. Not every homeschooling mom is lucky enough to get the support I have. My mom is the most non-judgmental, supportive, loving mother anyone could ask for. Mom - you rock!