Homeschooling: Abby’s First Day

Today was Abby’s first day of First Grade.

Abby and Tigger, first day of school

She brought along a friend (that’s a cool part of homeschooling).

Abby’s school day started off with an Adventure Walk. Basically, we went on a walk while I made up a story that we acted out. Eventually I will have a repertoire of songs and actions I can do on an adventure walk, but for today I made it up as I went along. In the story the fictional characters got up and dressed, explored the woods, saw birds and trees, ran down hills and walked backwards up others, all of which we did together. It might seem like an odd thing to do, but we worked up a sweat (it was about 85 degrees out) and got a great workout. Abby loved it:)

Abby then began her “classwork”; we recalled the story I had told her yesterday, we spoke a verse (Abby knows a little of it) and we drew pictures from the story. My picture even had some hidden letters which we found! Abby then went off to play:

cat dojo house

She created a “Cat Dojo House”?!?

After lunch we had Quiet Time, which is a time of inner reflection or focus. Abby worked on her “cat dojo  house” as I looked through materials for Ari’s afternoon Math lesson, cleaned up a bit and made sure I was calm and centered for what would follow.

While Ari did math, Abby played with some math manipulatives. When she was done, she decided to do math “like Ari” and made herself some addition problems to complete. Once done, we all read a story about finger crocheting. Abby did a bit herself, and then begged me to do more. I held off and right at bedtime she decided to work on it herself using the nightlight we have for her. I don’t think she did many but she had completed a few more when she last told me where she was. For those of you who haven’t spent a few hours with Abby, you won’t know that she talks incessantly and loves to narrate what she is doing. I usually tune her out, which she says is fine with her!

Day one for Abby is finally done, Ari has started week two and our rhythm actually seems to be working out! I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Great Cookie Debacle Part 3

I am not going to keep you in suspense.

The order form wasn’t in Abby’s room either.

Is there an evil Girl Scout Fairy who visited my house? I’m trying not to worry, but I know this means I have to walk Ari back to a few house and try to figure out some orders. Ugh… Chuck will tell you I hate admitting it when I make a mistake. Please don’t ask for stories though.

The upside?

Abby’s room went from this:

To this:

Great Cookie Debacle Part 4

We finally gave in. Ari and I walked around to all of our neighbors who bought from us and asked what they had ordered. Everybody was very nice about it and the consensus is that we will find it any day now. We are still waiting on one order – our neighbor had a friend house-sitting and he ordered two boxes. I think it is was Samoa and a Thin Mint, but I’m not 100% sure.

That does leave another problem though. I spent the last week looking for the darn order form so the other house chores didn’t really get done. Ari and Abby’s room is clean, but basically he rest of the house is a wreck (don’t believe me? Ask my Dad – he visited Thursday). So today I began to fix it. I worked on the guest bedroom, having Ari go through the stuff in there and we recycled and threw away a lot, and we have a bag of giveaways too. I have worked a bit on the rest of the house, but it is overwhelmingly disorganized and I am not so great at getting it back in order.

And it brings another problem to light. My “desk” is the dining room table. You can probably guess the problem with this now that you know I am not well organized. On good days, I occupy the far end of the table on one side, with my laptop and a pile of papers that I need to use or go through to file. On a bad day… it takes me 15 or more minutes to clear off enough room for four people to eat dinner at the table.

My “desk” today

A few weeks back I decided I needed a bookcase so I could clear off my bedside table (I had 50-60+ books on it). I scored a really nice bookcase on Freecycle and took care of that problem and now it is evident I need a desk too. It will be a place I can make various piles (my organization method of choice) and they will be left alone, rather than have to be consolidated into one pile every night for dinner. Hopefully someone can send me “desk vibes” and I can score something awesome one Freecycle in the coming weeks!

My dream desk – I can close it to hide the mess!

And yes, the “final” part of this debacle will be when I find the order form!

Born Free!

After my induction and intervention-laden birth with my first daughter, I knew I wanted something different and more natural for my next birth. When I became pregnant three years later, I looked into my choices. What I hated most from my first experience was the way I felt focused more on other people in the room than myself. One of my options was unassisted childbirth (UC). Women who choose UC typically have their partner present and possibly a midwife and/or doula. I decided I liked the idea of having no one but my husband around so I could focus on my labor. I feel birth is a natural process, and if something should go wrong we hadn’t already prepared for in our natural birthing classes, we would have a midwife and doula on call just in case. Finally, I wanted my birth to be a special experience my husband and I shared together. Continue reading “Born Free!”

Recycling SuperHero

How do you encourage kids to be eco-friendly? Teach them young! Our two year old daughter Abby just pulled a piece of used aluminum foil off of the counter and tried to put it in the recycling bin in the garage. She knew right where it belonged, but just needed help reaching it.

I told her she was a Recycling SuperHero, and she ran off to the other room to “tell” her Dad and get a high-five!

Recycle-Hero