My next project using the LYB Love Letters line - making plaques is one of my new favorite things to do - I love this line and had to combine the two.

This is my second layout with products from Little Yellow Bicycle's Love Letters line. I am hooked on date stamps and other "date" materials so this is the perfect line for me. These pics of Esme are from a summer afternoon together in the yard. To see this complete line please click here.

I was sooo lucky to receive a huge box of Yellow Bicycle products from the Love Letters line! This line has EVERYTHING - patterned papers, shaped and flocked papers, mini albums, rubons, epoxy stickers, tons of journaling and date blocks, fabric stickers, borders, transparencies, brads, ribbons, and more. I love this line! Below is my first creation with these new products - a mini book of Mother Theresa quotes.

Having creative friends makes me HAPPY!!

Thank You, Thank You, Sam-I-Am!!

Esme is so excited - she just read her first "big girl" book!! She's been progressing well with Bob Books for a while, but tonight I sat on the couch with her and gave her only a bit of coaching through Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. We are soooooo proud that our little girl is reading! What a great homeschooling moment!!

My very favorite Halloween pic from this year.

These awesome signs were posted by a family in our neighborhood for Halloween!

Why is Christianity now associated with Republicans? This is so unfair. I am a Christian, and because of my beliefs, I'm also a Democrat. Which party thinks that if we have enough to spare, we should give it up to help others? Which party fights for social programs to make sure that every American has basic needs met? Which party champions education and health care? These are all issues of the Democratic party. Doesn't it seem that Christians should support these issues? I am tired of Republicans trying to co-opt Christianity and I for one am not going to put up with it anymore. I am a Christian and a Liberal and proud of it!

My new favorite quote from this election season:

"There will be an election, followed by rioting, the complete unraveling of society, and, I assume, a zombie problem. And everyone will agree it’s an improvement." -Scott Adams

I just got accepted to take part in this:

Job Description Position Qualifications: Interested participants should have good written and oral communication skills; be willing to work with digital audio equipment; be comfortable working with different ages and ethnicities; be open to group discussion and seminar participation; be willing to share personal experiences throughout the oral history process; have a desire to educate local teachers in classrooms; be interested in local history. Oral historians will be trained on several methodologies of collecting oral histories; will go out into the field and interview residents; will meet monthly to discuss and review relevant texts; will learn from each other’s field experience; and will become the tools for local educators who are interested in bringing oral history techniques into their classrooms.

Commitments

• Attend a panel discussion on Oral History November 8, 2008 from 2 – 4pm
• Attend monthly meetings for an 8-month period
  
• Learn oral history techniques and theory
• Interview residents at various locations
• Use digital voice recorders
• Transcribe full interviews using word processing software
• Read relevant excerpts and full texts
• Collect three interviews and transcribe
• Be a resource for local educators to use oral history techniques in their classrooms

Sooooo excited to be part of this! I think this will be a great resource for homeschooling, and a very interesting project!

Pumpkin Time and Jumping in the Hay

Every year we take Esme to the same spot to choose a pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern. Today she learned that pumpkins are actually a fruit and that the average pumpkin weighs twelve pounds. Last year was the first time she was big enough to jump in the hay pile, and today she had it all to herself. I think that was her favorite part!

Our First Ever Halloween Party

Esme's Halloween party was a big success! She had 5 guests. They made Halloween fairies out of fabric samples, cardstock, vellum wings, sequins, and buttons. They made their own pizzas, played a couple rounds of pass-the-pumpkin, and of course had plenty of time to just play together! We loved having everyone over - it was a great time!

Homeschooling this month.....

We finished up our homeschooling State Park series with a very cool trip. We visited a center that has dioramas of habitats all the way from the ocean up through the forest, following a local river. The interpreter walked the kids through each diorama and showed them little hidden secrets along the way.

Esme is playing soccer again - she is on a different team this season and the games are just starting now. I am worried that it is going to be COLD by the time we finish! She is loving ballet and has attended bring-a-friend-to-dance classes with both Kaitlyn and Sarah. I am pretty impressed how quickly she has learned to remember the different ballet positions.

She is also continuing with Daisy Girl Scouts, and we have starting preparing for our mitten drive. We wanted to offer something back to the library since they let us meet there for free, and the children's librarian suggested that we work together to do this. Last week we made posters and this week we'll make the actual tree.

Esme is continuing in the Math curriculum we chose and progressing nicely. She is also doing very well with her Bob books - I can see that we'll have to purchase the next set soon. However, she is resistant to trying to read anything but those books, so that is something we will be working on in the coming weeks.

This is our new kitty Cosmo! He is such a sweetie! He wasn't big on having his photo taken! He has certainly livened up our house with all his playing, but he also loves to cuddle and spends lots of his time purring loudly.

When we couldn't find Pekoe we hung up signs all over the neighborhood, and someone from a cat rescue shelter called us to say she might have our cat. By then we had found Pekoe, but we got to talking and she said she had a kitten waiting to be adopted, and that she wouldn't even charge us the normal fee if we wanted to come get him. We talked it over (Ethan had to be convinced) and picked him up the next day. Of course after he explored the house a bit he sat down on Ethan's lap and put his little head down on Ethan's hand and fell asleep, so now he is pretty much Ethan's kitty.

One reason I am looking forward to the Christmas season: stores open longer. I am having trouble being confined to the normal schedules - if I want a craft item at 8 am or 1 am - I want to get it then!!

I looovve Columbus Day weekend! Every year half the citizens of a neighboring town hold yard sales. We're still paying for our new water tank and don't have much money to spare, but we were able to get many good deals for not very much money. I got a sewing machine, leg warmers for Esme, Polly Pockets, dancewear, a microscope, and a couple building sets great for fine motor development!

Yesterday was a horrible day. Our family's cat disappeared around 10:30 Sunday night, not to be found til about 2:30 Monday afternoon. Pekoe is a member of our family and we were all distraught, thinking we would never see her again. She's an indoor cat and very gentle, so I don't think living outside would be easy for her, and I am not quite sure she would have the skills to find her way home again.

My brother Charles was doing some work on our house and we were both going in and out. Charles is very considerate about shutting doors because he knows we have a cat, but he didn't notice and I forgot that the windows were open on our sun porch. When she disappeared in an unfurnished apartment, we assumed she had jumped out one of them. Esme and I searched for a long time last night. Ethan searched when he got home from work. I woke up early and searched again, and hung up flyers all over our neighborhood. Charles, Ethan, and I all searched the empty apartment for her mulitiple times. There literally nothing in the apartment, so it should be difficult for a kitty to hide.

A long time ago I remember a discussion on the NSBR board at 2 Peas where someone said, after you have kids, your pets are no longer members of your family. I can say for us, this is not true. I spent many hours crying and walking and calling her name - if she was not a member of our family that wouldn't have happened.

Yesterday afternoon Ethan went over there to do some cleaning, and out walked Pekoe!! She was disgustingly dirty and had obviously been trapped somewhere for a long time. I suspect she had climbed into the back of a dryer that's not in use right now, and couldn't get out. We were all so happy to see her we didn't care. We hugged and kissed her anyway! We are sooo happy she is back!!

Dinosaurs

We decided to check out the dinosaur tracks in town in preparation for sending our Summer/Fall box to Nebraska. I was so proud because Esme said, "Shouldn't we read about dinosaurs before we go?" She found a book about dinosaurs from her library and we read all about their life cycles, how they ate, what they ate, etc. Then we grabbed some crayons and paper and headed down to the tracks. They were amazing! We found three very distinct types, and read that they were created approximately 190 million years ago. This was a fun side lesson for all of us!

My mom wanted me to help her with some decorations for her office. She wrote these poems, I decorated for her.

A Ride on the Bus

As part of our Nebraska Exchange, I decided to take Esme on a bus ride around town to see what our city looks like from a different view. We made a long list of all the things we saw as we rode through downtown, over near the mall, and back near our neighborhood. Esme loved riding on the bus and was sad when I told her it was almost time to get off. Ding Ding helped her ring the bell.

What's going on around here....

Yesterday we attended the Not Back to School picnic with tons of other homeschoolers. It was so fun! Esme took off and played with other little girls and made a couple new friends. I got to talk to a lot of other moms, including my friend Laura, and got to hold her new baby too!

Esme has been to three out of five state park visits in our series. I ran a program about trees at the second park including the life cycles of trees, trees that are in trouble, and how to identify trees. We also did leaf prints and solar prints. Last Monday she got to learn about hawk migration and observe the birds.

She started ballet two weeks ago and is enjoying it. She's learned plies, split leaps, etc. It is a nice small class of only four girls. She is also playing soccer again this season. We're back to regular Girl Scout meetings now and we visited the fire station as a troop yesterday. The girls got to see all the different trucks, but the highlight was that they let them get in the rescue boat.

I am trying to figure out what this says about me: A scrapper posted on my blog that she is moving to the area and I emailed her back telling her about how much I love the local coffee shop that makes their chocolate milk with real chocolate instead of syrup.

Two of my favorite Haikus from second grade last year:

I am tired of Math
I do not like it one bit
I lay on my desk

I saw a tiger
It was about to attack
So I ran away

more animals

Anyone going to CKC in Hartford this year? I'll be working at the Dollar Scrapbooking booth on Friday - come by and visit me! I'll be shopping on Saturday.

Happy to be a Team

Ethan and I are so happy that we have different strengths and can bring both of them to homeschooling. I am great at planning events, finding activities for Esme to take part in, doing research, attending trainings, and making plans for our weekly lessons. Ethan is great at sitting down with Esme and actually doing the lessons, and is very patient in working with her. As I type this they are working on ordering numbers in our new Math book. I am so glad to have a husband who wants to take such an active role in his daughter's education, and who allows me to play to my strengths while playing to his own.

When I was a child, I was obsessed with the musical "Annie," and tonight I got to take Esme to see it. It was her first play and this production was paced very s l o w l y but I think she still enjoyed it. Now that she's seen the play we're going to watch the movie together on DVD.

Being Esme's mother has been wearing me out lately! She is involved in many activities, some of which I have to coordinate and run, like Girl Scouts and some homeschooling events. Speaking of homeschooling, that takes quite a bit of effort too. We love it though, and are definitely glad we made the decision to go forward with it.

I recently discovered Hulu.com and have had fun watching Arrested Development with Ethan, and a show that seems so old now, Chicago Hope. When Chicago Hope and ER debuted the same year, I was a die-hard Hope fan. No ER for me. Now that I've watched 9 seasons of ER and I'm revisiting Hope, I am wondering what the heck my problem was. Not that I'm not enjoying Chicago Hope, ER is just so much faster paced and exciting. Plus come on, George Clooney! And Noah Wylie too!

An Amazing Day

This past Wednesday we had our first trip in our Homeschoolers State Park Series. We were so lucky to have Ranger Betsy as our interpreter. We arrived at the park and she showed the girls her fairy houses, and invited them to build their own. Then we went over to a picnic table and learned about tree cookies. The children counted 14 rings in a small cookie, and 96 rings in a large one. Then they decorated the small cookies and made them into necklaces. Next Ranger Betsy taught them about how owls eat, and we dissected owl pellets, and classified the bones we found inside. I loved how Rangeer Betsy trusted the children to understand take in such meaningful information. We took a break for lunch and the kids had a great time playing on the beach. After lunch we made our own fossils with plaster of Paris, and then went for a hike. We learned so much on the hike - we learned about caterpillar tents, wintergreen, beavers, squirrels, etc. This was one of the best field trips we have been on since we started homeschooling!

Sharing a Favorite Book

Esme and I have been on the hunt for items to send to Nebraska. One thing we're doing to prepare to send and receive a box, is ready a story about a woman who moved from New England out into the prairie. I loved this book when I was a child and Esme seems to be enjoying it now. I am reading her one chapter a day, and every days she asks to hear the next one.

It's not exactly "breaking the CK barrier," but I was very excited to have a little something in the In Your Words column in Creating Keepsakes this month. I wrote about my substitute teaching experience from October to January this past school year. Now I just have to make sure everyone at school sees it so I get all the good gigs!!

Nature Journal

We've started a nature journal with Esme. For now she's dictating what she wants to say and copying it into her journal to record her thoughts, but we're hoping that as her writing and spelling improve she'll be able to do more on her own.

I can take one class for free every semester at an Ivy League college. I am super bummed that yet again this semester, I cannot find a class to take. Classes are geared toward people who live on campus which is understandable, but I am bummed that there is nothing that I could remotely apply to my life offered in the evening that isn't filled immediately. It seems like such a waste not to take advantage of this opportunity, but at this moment the only thing I could take would be Riding I. Not sure this is the perfect time in my life to start horseback riding with no prior experience. I so want to go back to school, and there are many things I would like to take including environmental science, sociology, education, religion, etc. It's sad that I can't make this work!

The Nebraska Exchange

Project Learning Tree's Activity #20 is to be paired with students in a different region of the country, and send each other a box of things that tell about your local environment. A couple weeks ago I signed up to be paired for the exchange, thinking we would probably be paired with a class somewhere. I was delighted to get a call last week from another homeschooling family who'd received our name and was interested in swapping boxes. The family includes three elementary aged girls and one older schooled brother. They live right in the middle of Nebraska. The mom and I talked for a while and decided to send biographies around Labor Day, a Summer/Fall box at the beginning of November and a Winter/Spring box in mid-May. We are so excited about this project! Esme and I are having a great time choosing items to include in the box. Anyone who has ideas please email me! We'll update the project here on our blog. Since Esme is in the beginning stages of learning to write, I decided to do her biography as an interview. Here are some of her answers:

How old are you?
Five. And a half.

Where do you live?
At home - in a house.

Who is in your family?
My mommy, daddy, and me.

Do you have an extended family?
Nonna, Grandma, Auntie Lisa, Dylan.

Do you have any close friends?
Sarah.

What do you like to play?
I like to play princess dolls and legos.

Do you have a favorite game?
I Spy Bingo.

Where are some of your favorite places?
Friendly's, Nonna's house, Mount Tom

Do you play any sports?
Soccer and swimming.

Do you do any other activities?
Daisy Girl Scouts. Lego League.

Do you have a favorite movie?
Yes. Ariel and Enchanted.

Do you go to church?
Yes. And Sunday School.

What makes you laugh really hard?
Talking funny.

Do you have a favorite dinner?
Spaghetti and [turkey] meatballs.

Do you have a favorite color?
Yes. Orange!

What is your favorite time of day?
Reading time.

What is your favorite season?
Fall. Do you know why? Because I can jump in piles of leaves.

What are some of your favorite books?
Fancy Nancy, Seymour Makes New Friends, I Spy, Super Completely and Totally the Messiest, Paddington

What do you like to do with your family?
Go out. I like to eat at restaurants. I like to go to the Family Restaurant.

Do you like to take trips? Where have you been?
Yes. I have been camping.

What do you want to do when you grow up?
I want to buy clothes for grownups. I want to be a hairdresser.

Do you want to have children? How many?
Yes. I want to have two. One girl. One boy.

Do you have any pets?
I have Pekoe.

What is Pekoe?
A kitty.

What do you like about homeschooling?
I like doing my new math. [first curriculum]

What is something you're good at?
Swimming.

What is something you're not good at?
I'm not good at writing twos.

Is there anything else we should know about you?
I play Barbies every day.

This layout is soooo old! I'm not even sure which summer these photos were taken. I remember it being a super fun day, and that I was so excited to scrap it right away. Then when I got home I printed the pics, got the layout about half done, and put it in a drawer. Over time I have slowly added additional elements, making it a strange mix of my old and more developed styles. It's finally done! (Except I still have to go back and look for that date!)

Next time you see Esme....

Ask her a basic difference between a deciduous and coniferous tree. I did my first full Project Learning Tree lesson with her this weekend. We searched for pine cones and found several different ones on the ground at camp. We compared and contrasted them and used them to identify two local types of trees. We started her nature journal - she both copied words into it and illustrated.

A Full Summer

Esme is staying busy this summer. In June she finished up soccer and Daisies, complete with her first Girl Scout camping trip. She has done two weeks of swimming lessons, a Junior Rangers program, Vacation Bible School, and continued with Lego League. She has ten stamps in her park passport and will be getting a couple more this weekend.

In addition to bringing Esme all over the place and being involved in all of her activities, I was also fortunate enough to get to attend a Project Learning Tree workshop. This is a wonderful environmental education program. I left certified to present the K through 8 curriculum. I learned so much in six short hours. I left overwhelmed by all the things I want to learn!! This weekend I will start teaching Esme how to classify and identify different types of trees.

Who says summer is for relaxing?!?

I can't wait to go camping!! We have only been on one trip this year but we have a couple more trips planned. Esme and I are pretty much obsessed with Mexican food so we made a new breakfast burrito recipe to eat a camp. We make it for her sans egg. We start with marinated chicken the night before, and use the leftovers. You need:

1 medium flour tortilla per person
1 egg per person
the leftover chicken
shredded cheese of your choice
rice (we like to use boil in a bag while we're camping)
taco sauce or salsa (optional)

Wrap the tortillas in foil and heat til they're warm. Heat up the chicken in the skillet, and boil the rice. Scramble the eggs, and they layer all ingredients in the tortilla, folding up the sides and wrapping the whole thing together. Serve with fruit. This is a hearty breakfast without too much cleanup.

The Project Learning Tree workshop was amazing!! I am so thankful that I got to go! If you haven't heard of this program, check it out here. I highly recommend that anyone who works with children and is interested in nature and the environment try to find a class.

One of the things I learned was how to teach children to classify trees. In the beginning, the names of the trees aren't even important. It's important that they observe what makes each tree unique and different from the others. I never realized how many important features of leaves there are! I learned to identify 2 new kinds of trees myself.

Another thing I learned about was observing changes in a natural setting. The instructor talked about finding a "sitspot" - a place you return to over and over and observe the changes from season to season, year to year, and make your own special place in the world.

My mom requested an altered monogram for her birthday - I made another version but I wasn't happy with it so I decided to give it another go.

Did this page as part of tonight's cyber crop with Lisa - it's a scraplift of a Vicki Boutin layout you can see here. I love doing layouts with blocks like this.

Our First Math Curriculum!!

I am super excited!! This past year we've followed the Massachusetts Frameworks for what we studied in Math, and it went well. I feel Esme was getting the hang of number sense and starting to understand how it all fits together. However, I decided that as she goes forward I would really like something structured for her. I am sure that if I buckled down I could develop my own program for her, but there are already so many out there, already developed, that are just wonderful. I've had the opportunity to look at different curricula through other homeschoolers, but ultimately decided on the one that I am most comfortable with, because it is the one I use at school. The Houghton Mifflin First Grade Math books are on the way to our house now!! I can't wait to get started!

I am WICKED excited. I just found out about some ultra cool educator workshops through Project Wild and Project Learning Tree. Theoretically I am going to learn so I can teach Esme and perhaps a group of homeschoolers or my Girl Scouts, but I am just excited that **I** get to go learn new stuff!!

I am suffering from a bit of apathy when it comes to my MMM entry. I really want to enter but I'm having trouble finding the motivation when my scrap area is such a mess. I want totally rearrange my entire house.

DCR's Park Passport Program

We are so glad we discovered this program! It has inspired our whole family to be excited about visiting our state parks!! We got a park pass for the first time this year, and have already visited several this year. It also works very well with our love of camping and letterboxing. You can get a passport by visiting any state park or by signing up here. Then every time you visit a different state park you unlock the box and stamp the image into your passport. We love the designs chosen for the stamps. We also go to learn about the No Child Left Inside program which is also super cool.

We rarely have the opportunity to go to the movies, and we were so glad we went to see "The Fall" this past Sunday. We hadn't heard much about it until we read what was playing at Amherst Cinema, but we watched the trailer and decided to give it a try. This was one of the most visually beautiful movies I have ever seen. The scenery and the costumes were unbelievable! I don't know why she isn't pictured on the poster, but the true lead in this movie was a little girl around 5 years old. Ethan and I were so impressed with her acting abilities. The movie has two stories intertwined, one about the little girl and a stunt man who meet in a hospital, and the other story he tells the little girl, filmed as she imagines it. We would highly recommend this movie!

I was worried that Esme wasn't going to have enough summer activities this year, but so far she's still got lego league, she'll do eight days of swimming lessons, and now she's going to do Junior Rangers. I think we're okay after all.

I am so excited to be out of school and have a chance to actually do Esme's lessons for a while! This year we divided our homeschooling activities almost perfectly in half - I did the research and lesson plans and Ethan taught Esme the lessons. We are about to start a new unit so I have some research to do, and then I'm looking forward to getting started on lessons next week! I am so lucky to have this summer off!

Today was my last day of school. I left school and went to pick Esme up at the library. When I got out of the car it was just starting to rain. I went into the chapel and said a prayer for all the students I've taught this year, and asked God to specially protect and guide 2 or 3 that were struggling. Then I walked out into the rain, and into the middle of a field so that it could pour down on me and wash away all the stress and tension of the last year, and leave me ready to start my summer. While I was in the rain I felt overwhelmed and grateful for my wonderful family that I was about to go inside to see, and so thankful for the opportunity to have this summer with Esme. When I went inside Ethan's whole desk was covered with Polly Pocket paraphernalia.

Gym and Swim

Esme finished up gym and swim this week. A local YMCA offers a class for homeschoolers during the day, and this was Esme's first experience playing typical gym games in a group and swimming with an instructor in a pool. Most of the kids were older so Esme didn't get a huge amount of individual attention, but she really liked the swimming teacher and he made sure to spend some time working with her each week. This summer she'll take swimming lessons with a group of kids her age and at her experience level - we're hoping maybe she'll have the same instructor.

One of our new favorite things to do is letterboxing. We find clues at www.letterboxing.org and have successfully found two. I took my class letterboxing and planted two along the way.

I recently finished reading The Screwtape Letters for the first time. I loved this book! It's written by a demon who is training his nephew to pull people away from God ("the Enemy") and how they use the trappings of this life to try to separate us from Him. Each chapter contains at least one lesson, and this book really made me think about my relationship with God and how to be closer to Him in ways that I hadn't before. C. S. Lewis has opened my eyes in other books as well, and if you were touched by the messages in the Chronicles of Narnia, you would probably enjoy this book as well.

I can't believe how much I fit into my day yesterday!

• taught 21 second graders for a full day
• shopped around for a lawn mower
• mowed a quarter of my lawn before the new mower stopped working
  
• payed my electric bill
• went to the post office
• returned a call for a job interview
• endeavored to get mower fixed, but shop was closed
• made meatballs from scratch for dinner

Then I relaxed and watched the second half of "The Empire Strikes Back" with Ethan and Esme, talked to Lisa for a bit, and went to bed!

Soccer Star

On the way to her first soccer practice Esme was worried that she wouldn't be a good soccer player. I told her that confidence comes from within and that if she didn't believe she would be a good soccer player, then no one would. I told her when she stepped onto the field in her mind she should say, "I'm a soccer star!" Every water break she ran over and shouted gleefully, "Mommy, I'm a soccer star!" She is learning how to play the game and is actually pretty good at it!

Before we even heard when the games or practices would be she said she wanted to be number five. I told her not to get her heart set on it, that the coach would probably assign her a number and that would be that. But when the uniforms came, the players got to choose their numbers when they arrived to practice. Five was still available so she got her wish!

Last time I had a long term assigment at school I hardly kept up with anything. I did manage to keep all my homeschooling activities going, but I don't think I scrapped at all for those 3 months. This time, I had a plan to make sure I keep scrapping.

My best friend, Lisa, lives about 75 miles away. With the price of gas getting higher and higher, I don't get to see her as much as I would like. We crop together once a month, but neither of us were satisfied with the amount we accomplished. Lisa and I are both big telephone people, so decided to crop together over the phone once a week. Yes, there are some periods of dead air and once a week I'd have a crik in my neck, but it was working out okay.

Other scrappers started gently picking on us about it. We realized we were losing the best part of scrapping together which was help on each other's layouts. Finally someone told us about Skype, which enables you to use your computer like a telephone. We purchased webcams and this week we had our first virtual crop. It was fabulous!! I love being about to show my page when I'm stuck and she loved being able to eat Samoas in front of me. (cruel cruel girl)

We challenge each other once a week - we've done things like, do a completely monochromatic layout, or use a combination of glitter and dye (although when she said dye I thought she meant die, so I she used dye and I used a die cut), do a completely black and white page, etc. It's lots of fun!

changing for a while

Esme's schedule is going to be changing for a few weeks. She's just about finished her weather unit. For the next few weeks Ethan and I will both be working during the day, so we won't be doing formal lesson plans. Esme will have independent work to do on her days with her Nonna and some guided work to do on Fridays with Grandma. Right now she is also involved in sessions of soccer, gym and swim, and lego league on top of her other activities, so we think all of this will keep her pretty busy.

Today I decided to try out a drawing lesson with Esme. We talked about how objects closer to us appear larger and objects further away appear smaller. We talked about how all objects can be broken down into simpler shapes and drew some dandelions, breaking them down into lines and circles. We had fun drawing out in our yard together!

Our Drawings from Today

Esme insisted that the buds in my picture wouldn't grow without any sun, so she added the sun in her picture to make sure hers would.

Mom's Little Athlete

Esme is staring soccer and gym and swim this week!! I'm so glad she'll have the opportunity to play a team sport - we're on the hunt for cleats and shin guards now. She is especially interested in gymnastics - I'm sure she'll be tumbling all over the place soon.

I'm on vacation - Esme isn't!

Although she doesn't have a book of the week, Esme is working hard. She's doing her phonics lessons, learning math tables, and playing the the envelope games I've set up for her.

I went through the MA Standards, which is what we've been using as a guide this year, and am happy to say that we have hit almost all of them! I thought I'd be overwhelmed by what we have left but I was pleasantly surprised to learn the only thing we haven't touched on is measuring. We got a balance and weights this week and she'll be using them next week!

I am a second grade teacher again. I love my new class. They are so easy. I think this year may have spoiled me to ever do long-term assignments again. My class from October to January wasn't always easy, but the kids were so full of spirit and fun that it was a pleasure to work with them. Some of my students now are still feeling and little wary about me. One told me today that she likes me a lot, but she still likes her old teacher better. When I ran into one outside he asked me if I was going to be his teacher today. I have to tell him YES over and over - YES I am your teacher for the rest of the time you are in second grade!

It's hard to adjust to working every day again. I miss seeing Ethan. I miss being with Esme more. I know it's the right thing to do for our family, but it's still difficult to get up and go to work every day. Lucky for me, in just a couple weeks, I'll be on vacation again!

Week of April 6th

Esme has been learning a lot about plants the last couple weeks. She has her own houseplant now and is learning to check it once a day. She and Ethan have also been working in the yard a lot - getting rid of all those leaves that fell after the snow started. She and I have been reseeding our lawn and hoping that it will get a bit greener as the weather warms up.

Right now she's learning about how weather is measured, and her words of the week are go and see.

Our Little Daisy

I love being a Girl Scout leader. Girl Scouts was such a positive experience for me growing up, and I'm so glad I can share this with Esme. Our troop finally started meeting in January and we've done some great activities. We've fit in a lot of activities so far - we had a guest come in and teach us folk dancing, we've made Valentines for police officers and fire fighters, we've gone a Spring event with a bunch of other troops, we've planned and held a party for dolls, etc. Today we had someone from the Department of Public Works come in and talk to the girls about recycling, and we have two more events coming up this month. Before summer comes we might even go CAMPING!

Remember this book?

This was always a favorite of mine, and now it is a favorite of Esme's. Studying weather gives us the perfect reason to make it book of the week! Even though the snow is gone and the temperatures are getting higher, we're enjoying Peter's adventures.

We're continuing our phonics lessons and words of the week are out and was.

We're thinking about having an open house later this Spring, so that we can invite our friends and family to come and see what Esme's learned, and look at all her projects.

I have been blog-tagged by Rita!! Seven random things about me:
1. I love buying Barbie clothes for my daughter so I can play with them.
2. My favorite online game is puzzlepirates.
3. I have a lot of shelving in my scrapbook area and still have stuff all over my table.
4. I planned a very successful Girl Scout meeting last night and I'm proud of myself.
5. I am lonely for my laptop while waiting for its new power cord.
6. I am bummed I am missing a homeschooling field trip today because I have to work.
7. If I don't leave for school now, I'm going to be late!

First Day of Spring at the Sugar Shack

Esme and I went on a tour of a local sugar shack today to celebrate the first day of Spring. We learned how maple syrup is made, from the tree to the bottle. We got a try a sample and oh my goodness was it sweet and delicious! Have a pancake was Esme's favorite part! My favorite part was meeting and talking to other homeschooling moms. It's amazing how each family's process is so completely different.

We've been spending a lot of time at the library lately. We've been meeting up with other homeschoolers to share books, do crafts, and last time we had a singing circle. We're hoping to get involved with more families as time goes on and do more cooperative events.

changing it up

I've been reading so much about how other people homeschool and it's been incredibly interesting. Because of my job, it's so easy for me to fall into teaching Esme in the most traditional ways. But she's not in school and I want to make her education as flexible as possible and open to many different kinds of learning as possible. So we're switching some things up a bit.

The most successful homeschoolers I've read about let their children take the lead. We'll still do our daily lesson plans, but we're trying to move in a direction that is more child-led. I'm developing several learning centers and she'll have more opportunities to work in them, and choose what she works on. We're going to continue to focus on themes of her choice and let her have choices within the themes too.

Another change is we're going to be moving into some pretty intense phonics. For a while we've felt that Esme is right on the cusp of reading on her own. But in our lessons we've focused on a lot of literary elements and a few sights words, with only a little bit of phonics thrown in. Another homeschooler recommended a phonics curriculum to us and we're starting to use it this week. It's called The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. All three of us are excited about Esme really reading on her own. We'll continue the literary elements parts because we love them so much, and of course they help her comprehension as well.

The last change is that all of a sudden Esme is BUSY! She is officially a Girl Scout and is attending regular meetings, we've started meeting weekly with other homeschoolers, she has Sunday School, and in a few short weeks she'll be starting soccer. We've joined a local homeschooling group that has all kinds of activities, and we're starting to take part in those too.

We are a busy, happy, learning family! It's hard to express what an incredible experience this has been for us, even in this short time!

P.S. Book of the week is ABC Weather.