Just 2 Days....

Esme has read many Halloween books, done some cool crafts and fine motor skill activities, and even our annual outings have become field trips! We're taking the end of the week off to eat our Halloween candy prepare for our new Ocean unit, which we'll begin next week.

I visit my gargoyle friend once a year in October.

I am currently a second grade teacher! From a couple weeks ago til the end of January I have my very own class in my first ever long-term sub assignment. I am so lucky that it is at one of nicest schools in the district I work in! I am so lucky to work with super supportive teachers and an awesome para too! I never thought I would want to do a long-term gig, but this one is definitely a great fit.

I am currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and not getting much scrapbooking done! I am toying with the idea of entering HOF this year, but I'm not sure I could ever actually get all those assignments done while working every day, so I might just save my good ones for MMM this summer.

this week in homeschooling

This week's book of the week is A Very Brave Witch. We're using it to compare and contrast, and to learn about fiction versus non-fiction. Esme is also starting her very first addition lessons! Words of the week are you and love.

the start of Halloween lessons

Ethan and Esme started studying Halloween this week. They are reading a book about the history and traditions behind the holiday, and the words of the week are in and out.

Eric Carle Museum

To celebrate finishing our bug unit, we visited the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art today. In the last six weeks we'd used The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so we thought this would be a fitting tribute. We saw the process he uses for his illustrations, saw some work by Leo Lionni, heard Rosemary Wells speak, visited the library, and made our own magical creatures in the art studio.

This was a wonderful first unit for all of us. Using the bug lessons by The Mailbox made planning the lessons easy, and we were lucky to have so many books we love on the subject. We're taking two weeks to study Halloween, and after that we'll move on to studying the ocean - Esme let us know that is what she is interested in next.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us in our homeschooling adventure so far!

Esme can count to 30!

We've surpassed our first kindergarten goal. Before we started homeschooling Esme could count to 10 or 12. The kindergarten goal is to count to 20. Since we decided to do most of our counting practice at calendar time, we decided to go for 30. I am so proud of her!

I finished The Red Badge of Courage. I am not surprised I was not motivated to read this book in high school. I found it very unsatisfying. Henry Fleming had difficulty holding my interest even as an adult. I can say begrudgingly that I was somewhat enlightened on how it felt to be a soldier in the Civil War, but overall I can't say I liked the book very much.

I also just finished reading a new book (against my current policy of reading classics), The Wreck of the Medusa. The story of a nineteenth century shipwreck wouldn't normally catch my interest, but this book told the very interesting story of the wreck, the after-effects on the survivors, the life of an artist who did a famous painting of the life raft, and French politics of the time. It grabbed my attention right away and kept it through the entire book! My description does not do it justice. It was a compelling story and I finished feeling a little more educated about art and French History. If you enjoy history at all I highly recommend this book!

Amazed by Butterflies

We ended our study of butterflies last week with a trip to the butterfly conservatory. What an amazing place! We saw many different kinds of butterflies, and got to reinforce all the interesting things we learned last week. Esme and I were delighted that one landed on Ethan and started to walk around on his head, until it walked into his eye. Shouldn't have taken those glasses off! Ethan has recovered but I think he may have been a little traumatized and I'm not sure we'll get him near any kind of bug conservatory anytime again soon.

This week we are studying Spiders. Our book of the week is The Very Busy Spider and our words of the week are to and said.

Week 4

Our book of the week this week is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We are doing two review words - she and not. Esme is progressing very nicely. She knows eight sight words and spots them in almost every book we read. She knows all her letters and their sounds and is in the early stages of learning to sound out words. We are working on her fine motor control so that writing will be easier for her. We are in our fourth week of our bug unit, and we're concentrating on butterflies. We're hoping to visit the butterfly conservatory near here at the end of the week. Since we've been using so many Eric Carle books, we're also hoping to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art at the end of this unit.

Esme learned the story of creation in Sunday School this week. Her teacher was impressed how fast she picked it up. The class has 7 pictures representing each day of creation, and Esme learned their order almost immediately. She will get her first medal for learning this story.

We are also hoping that our Daisy Troop will start up soon! Esme is really looking forward to being a Girl Scout and I am really looking forward to being her leader!

Have you ever visited Scraptalk? It is my favorite scrapbooking site, and I am lucky enough to be be on the DT. The message board is the friendliest one I've ever been a part of, and they have a great gallery too. If you haven't ever been, check it out.

This was a tough week for me emotionally and it culminated with an unpleasant incident Saturday night. I am so glad this is a new week and full of new possibilities. The one thing I was really excited about from last week was that my crazy altered flamingos were picked up for publication! They will be in the Paper Trends February/March issue.

this week in homeschooling

Words of the week are a and he, and our book of the week is The Very Lonely Caterpillar. Esme is also learning what authors and illustrators do, and is perfecting counting to 30.

My entry for Last Scrapper Standing! I printed my photo on a transparency, used a transparency for the journaling box, used a Hambly screen print, a 7 Gypsies transparency, a Heidi Swapp silhouette flower, covered a photo corner with mica, used clear buttons, and acryilic letters.

Did this page this summer - I love those polka dotted Primas!

Ethan and I have been reading a lot lately. He wanted to read Finn, so to get ready we both ready The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I hadn't read Huck Finn since college or maybe even high school, so it was such a pleasure! I had forgotten how compelling Huck and Jim's story was. I loved this book! On the other hand, I hated Finn. I knew that Pap was not likely to be a very pleasant or sympathetic kind of guy, but I found the whole book unnecessarily gruesome and violent and disgusting, and found myself unmoved, unchanged, and very disappointed in the end.

After finishing both of those books I decided I would like to go back to Mark Twain and read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which I had never read before. I loved this book also. It's a lot different than Huck Finn, but you know reading it that Mark Twain really remembered what it was like to be a young boy. It's full of adventures and was a delightful read.

Since I've had better luck lately with classics than new books, I've just started The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. I was supposed to read this in high school - one of the Four Classic American Novels - but I'm ashamed to say, I never actually did. Sorry Mr. Sullivan!

A Week of Ants and Exciting Realizations

We are doing a five-week bug unit and this week's theme was ants. Aunt Lisa did a special ant activity with Esme and the girls that explores the roles of different ants in the colony, and the next morning made Esme ant-shaped pancakes! This photos is of Esme observing some ants in our yard. We found some under a brick, at Dylan's advice.

This week Esme realized that she is really learning to read! We were reading a bedtime story and all of a sudden she said, "Look, Mommy, look!" She pointed to one of the words and said, "the! It's the!" Her biggest concern about learning to read is that we will still read stories to her, even when she knows how on her own. We reassured her that we will!

So excited that my next pub will be out next month!!

We are reading several Eric Carle books because we are studying bugs! This week's book of the week is The Very Clumsy Click Beetle. Words of the week are it and one. We will also be studying ants, reading poetry, and making our first simple graph. Esme also had her first Godly Play Sunday School lesson this week.

It seems like so long since I have just sat down at my scrapping table and worked on some photos of Esme!! I had so much fun doing this page!

R.I.P. Crickets

Sadly our brand new crickets passed away this evening. I am sooo sad! Esme was so enthralled and immediately loved them! I don't know if my jar just wasn't adequate or what exactly happened, but they both died. Esme is taking it well. Here is the documentation we did this afternoon, while they were still alive.