Although we had sent in the letters of withdrawal and ordered the curriculum, spent our summer learning about Colonial Life and visiting a Colonial Village, today REALLY felt like the first day of homeschooling.
We wanted the girls to experience a longer summer. We wanted, as a family, to experience the freedom over our time...so we are not actually starting until Sunday (yes, Sunday, so that Jason can be part of our first day!!).
We woke up at 9am this morning! The girls cuddled in my bed with me, like they used to do when they were little before they started school, and we talked about our day, when A realized that the non-homeschool kids were all in school already for the day. We all thought that was really fun and we relished our freedom to cuddle and talk and plan our day, dream out loud about our year, talk about our goals (Jason has been talking with the girls about setting goals).
We decided to really make it a great day by celebrating our freedom...starting with breakfast...now, before you judge me, I normally make my kids eat non-sugar cereal, oatmeal, waffles, french toast or scrambled eggs for breakfast...but today was a celebration...so we started our day with.....ICE CREAM SUNDAES!!!!
A is very creative, I could totally see her growing up to be like Elsie Flannigan (she LOVES Elsie's blog!). It's really in Allie's blood. My grandmother was a seamstress and has made many beautiful things. My mother takes after her; my Uncle has taken countless drawing classes and more recently, pottery classes. I like to think I have a creative flair, as well. One of our goals in A's education is to encourage that creativity and allow her plenty of opportunities to explore it. The last few weeks, she has spent HOURS playing with terra cotta oven bake clay that she got for her last birthday. She has been scouring etsy and watching youtube how-to videos and making little cakes and charms.
Yesterday, I went to the art supply store and bought some fimo clay.
We spent our morning creating with fimo clay.
After that, we straightened up, the girls cleaned out their drawers. I have been converting our old VHS tapes to DVD which has been a wonderful, priceless experience, so the girls and I gathered around and watched Jason's grandmother do a reading at our wedding and my two grandmothers dancing to the Beach Boys at our wedding.
Then P decided to do some cartooning:
After that, I told the girls to get dressed because I had a surprise for them.
It drove them crazy trying to figure out what the surprise was...until the surprise pulled up in front of our house....
with Rita's Water Ice because the surprise is a most excellent
BFF!!!
After that, we reveled in the fact that the school kids were still in school, as we rode bikes:
The girls decided that we needed "homeschool colors" and they chose pink and green. A made us each homeschool charm necklaces :)
Just because we are homeschooled doesn't mean that we can't go to the playground to see our friends when they get out of school:
Now we are going to make some Indonesian Pilaf together, do a little reading...and then it's ...
Jacuzzi time for Mommy :)
