I am THRILLED BEYOND THRILLED that my favorite little bagel shop from the town we resided in our first few month's down in SC, has opened a second location; right next to my grocery store, just a mile (or two, if you count driving through my neighborhood) by my house! That is bike riding distance! The other location, after we purchased our home, was now a 45 minute drive---ME HAPPY! You don't think my favorite burnt oranges have anything to do with this, do you?:D
This is our little classroom. It works for us! Last weekend Ms. Organization spent about three days (off and on) reorganizing her mess. I honestly hadn't done much since we moved in last year, and it was beginning to affect our schooling---just knowing what materials I have to work with. Our creative juices have been resparked! We've revamped our curriculum a bit. After spending about 2.5 years with it, I've decided Saxon Math is not for us. I don't regret using it, and I think it's given the girls a solid beginning (and the little teddy bear manipulatives are so darn cute:), but I felt it skipped around a lot, from topic to topic. My goal is for them to have a VERY strong and solid math experience. So, after doing a bit of research, we decided to switch to a program called Math U See...I feel this will give my girls a very strong and solid experience; it's VERY sequential; and the goal is not to move onto the next lesson until the girls have mastered each one...mastery means, they can teach it back! There's a video "teacher" involved, which we LOVE...this actually gives me a bit of a "break" and seems to help them. So far, after one week with this, we are pleased. The program should take them through Algebra two---and then I feel they will be very well prepared for advanced math coursework.
While I was at band rehearsal last week, the girls made a batch of cookies, all by themselves, as a team! (I'm not sure if I should be more impressed with the cookies or the teamwork:) Granted, although I'm a "from scratch" kind of girl, this was a peanutbutter cookie mix, and gives my 6 and 8 year olds the ability to start working more independanty in the kitchen.
Ok, I confess, I'm the mean mama who doesn't let her little girls play dress-up with my clothes; so, they've had to adapt:D
J's garden is well-established! We are looking forward to peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (and already a boatload of herbs), maybe cucumbers? (can't remember). Looking forward to planting garlic and onions at some point!
We are studying the early Americas. We did some brief overview of the various Native American tribes in the various regions of the country, and some of the different ways they lived. Little Angel chose to depict her idea of living in the Pacific north west, where there was sure to be lots of fishing. Fairy Girl (can't find artwork) created a piece describing those in the plain's state, who were very dependant on the buffalo (ok, yes, I know, North American Water Bison, since technically buffalo do not live here...I know that because we spent some time in the plain's states on our way to Glacier National Park in Montana...ok, I actually really learned that when I went to school at the University of Denver to become a Certified Tour Manager! (little-known fact;)
Not pictured, this past weekend, we almost attended our regular Wine Walk (ahem I mean art walk:)...we've done this before with the kiddos--it's in the Old Towne section of our town...I personally get nervous with the girls walking around all the sculptures, etc. Saturday we headed to the river front for Earth Day river clean up and festivities. We went after the start time and Ms. Angel was so afraid there would be no garbage left for her to pick up. Her daddy convinced her not to worry, as he would throw garbage on the ground for her (and I assured him he was sure to get caught and slapped with a $500 fine:D)
And Sunday, our favorite little icecream shop, which hosts Monday Movies in the Park (starting up again soon!), celebrated its one year birthday in business, offering free cake (yes, of course we bought icecream to go with it:)
And finally, my little ones aren't so little anymore...here is Ms. Angel reading us a bedtime story---a chapter from "Little House on The Prairie."
Sweet Dreams
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