Would you believe??? Yeah...we're still not in sync but it's all still good.

I really thought I would have had it down by now, but Life has not yet allowed for that. Evenso, it's all been running fairly nicely if not according to my ideal, which is still be ironed out. I had some curriculum that I thought was perfect before we started, but now I have decided to put it off for now. I will be working on some more fine-tuning later tonight. 

For now, let's just get to the what-we-did-today sort of thing:

The better part of this morning we weeded and slightly overhauled the fairy garden. I removed a small rose plant I had put in some years back as it had grown too big for the small space and made weeding around it bloody (small thorns but way sharp). I moved a daffodil plant...fingers crossed it doesn't now croak. 

Twirly-Whirly helped relocate some of our garden friends (the little statuary that, no doubt, like Weeping Angels,move when you're not looking (there are fey in the garden after all). They are not so dangerous as the WAs of course. 

Twirly-Whirly posing in front of the refreshed garden. She begged me to take a couple of pics herself so here they are:

 Then I took this one as I entered the house:

Well....they do some of it when we're not looking, but I can say the Twirly and I needed otter pops when we were through!


Now here is the funny part...when I went to download the pics from my camera to the computer look what I found!:

I don't know when she took these, but it was after I set my camera on my desk....lol....girl loose with camera....brought a smile to my day to say the least!

That's all for now!

The Lessons *I* Learned This Week! (or how 2nd grade didn't get off on the foot I expected to use!)

At least that's what I finally came up with for the title! I certainly have felt stumbly bumbly all/almost all week. Not what I had hoped for, to be sure! It began well enough when The Boy-o (he's just gotten too big for Boo-man anymore...he is 9, after all) went back to school, and the Twirly-whirly (she still is and probably always will be) had some time for cleaning and prepping the School~House,attending our last Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh (perhaps..lol), followed by returning to ViP soccer that Saturday and the new session of violin classes, and then Classical Conversations the Monday after that (she moved up to 2nd grade Sunday School over Labor Day Weekend..an unofficial start, I spose).

However, drama was already creeping onto the scene when the car behaved very awkwardly all the to and from CC...it ended up in the shop for 2 days..and while it shouldn't have thrown the spanner in (it didn't really mess up my planned schedule, even with taking a taxi to her new Wed ballet class and having to catch a lift back with fellow classmates), it still rather did. You know, you feel like you stepped out onto the figurative dance floor with a full card but on the wrong foot and now you can't seem to stay in step even when there's really no solid reason.

So, here's what I learned...1- Don't get a new dog the summer before school when you really need that time to plan not wipe up pee (yup, cus that happened, and then sadly the dog became aggressive and we had to then give him up!)....and 2-Don't plan to start all your wonderful lessons the very first week of school...build up and that way when the usual hurdles pop up that same week (they always do, don't they?), you won't be forced to reprint blank planner pages and rewrite all said plans the next week or so, like I am doing today! Finally, 3- if you do have to do something drastic like that, just do it...make yourself a cuppa and relax...and remember that's one of the best things about homeschooling: flexibility.

and now back to the aforementioned...who knows? Maybe the next blog will be about what we *have* done! Maybe a pic or two as well! LOL!

Lovely Irony, or how blowing off paperwork got it done....

Ahhhhh....whenever you feel stressed and time-crunched over some project etc I highly recommend going to the park....as I struggled to make our summer plans into something cohesive after my original more orderly plans were tossed sideways with some unexpected (tho great) additions, I decided to say Oh Whatever and took the kids to the SBHN Group at Large Wed parkday....not only did they have fun, but I not only relaxed but got my problems solved too!

So now even though it still isn't in the framework I had originally conceived, all I wanted to cover is still getting attended to...more on that later....

Seasons of Life.....change and more change

{Sigh....I came to this blogsite to post a speedy entry before I get really behind on things to discover the music player is no longer able to play! Urgh...half the essence of the blog is the music! I am going to have to figure out how to load an iPod playlist I suppose since PLaylist.com no longer supports itself properly. Just another unexpected change! This won't make any difference to the physical memory book, which is completely behind, but it was one of the whimsy bits that made the blog feel like a Flower Fairy Garden, and now for the moment, it's gone..sorry those who enjoyed it.}

I got a little behind on this blog, but it worked out for the better....I have ended up making changes to our summer plans so I am glad I didn't post it all only to retract. But first, I must acknowledge the End of First Grade. 

The Twirly-Whirly has received her very first report card....so very cool and necessary to benefit from places that give kids freebies and what-not by showing their report card! Homeschoolers deserve the same treats! She has grown so much! I know I say that a lot, but it's sooo true! She has begun the 6 year change....I am glad it's only a phase...I am already tiring of the "teenager" mouth! But as she approaches her 7th birthday, she begins to cross that Rainbow Bridge from Early Childhood into True Childhood which will run till she's 14. It's a whole new world! Thankfully one still filled with imagination...she is presently playing My Little Ponies visits her Treehouse people...no growing up too soon around here! 

Isn't it funny how we can say how big they seem at each age and yet one day we look back and declare how little they were?! (more blog later...must work on paperwork now...Happy Litha!)

Circling...waiting for landing....

June 1

I can hardly believe that yet again here we are on the verge of summer and all that it means: Twirly-Whirly is wrapping First Grade while her RT brother (that's Resident Teenager btw) is on the cusp of graduation from high school! I know that before I can fully realize it *she* will be the one graduating! 

I am so glad we can only really take it one day at a time...with apologies to the Doctor should he stumble across this entry, I am happy with that. My brain is full enough without adding differing/parallel etc time streams to the mix.

This past week saw us halfway through letter W..we did the Alphabet Path/Flower Fairy story and we were due to do Beatrix Potter W (Tale of Pig Robinson) but she found some story/dictation paper and was off writing her own lesson today, a crossover story of Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan. 

She has been practicing her violin all week as we anticipate her very first concert tomorrow night. She has a second one on July 4th. She has also been rehearsing for two choir shows as well...one on the 10th of this month and the other on July 1. 

At least we'll have a break from ballet this summer tho that is 'replaced' by swim lessons almost every weekday of July! Speaking of ballet tho, we were yet again treated to another superb performance by the South Bay Ballet (via Friendship Circle as well as the SBB Outreach Program). This year it was Cinderella and TW opted to make it a Girls Night Out so we invited her HearthKeepers friend and her mom to join us. Her friend also dances ballet so it was really fun for the girls. Her friend even saw one of *her* former dance classmates in the show!

 After the show there were chances for the children to take pictures with the dancers. This one is my fave:

It took her a while to work up the nerve to approach both Cinderella and The Prince, but doesn't she look like she ought to be their daughter? I am not the only one who liked it as a professional photographer there asked if he could take one of the three of them too. Who knows? Maybe she'll be in a newspaper article? I am fairly certain that one day it will be her turn to pose with aspiring little girls! ;)

That's it for this entry. I will be glad to get the last 2 weeks of June free(ish) to work up the beginnings of 2nd grade, which will be knocking at my door soon enough!

 

Detoured...

PLayed taxi to RT (resident teenager), got an adjustment, retrieved fave pair of boots (now fixed) from mall, had lunch at mall, headed to Wilderness park to meet friends, messed around for an hour when they finally showed up, came home solo to meet Boo-man's bus so Twirly could play longer with friends, now uploading videos and then will upload pics....busy day...who knows...maybe we'll get to our lessons Monday! ;)

Performance Artist and Beginner Swimmer

After ballet class sometimes we visit the local little art museum. The latest gallery showings feature modern sculpture. The gal at the desk asked how old she was and I replied "Six and a half." The lady then said, "It's all sculptures this time and she probably won't understand them." I laughed and said, "She often creates sculptures herself that *I* don't understand!" I mean, really, it's modern art...very abstract...I am certain there are mady adults who don't get it...lol.

Anyway, we were cruising through the larger room and as we got the back there was a piece of what I can only describe as video sculpture. It was a series of doors on film. The funny part was that as you passed by your shadow fell across the movie images. Now if it weren't for the fact that an adult's shadow (even mine) was too tall for the doors I would have thought it was intentional rather than just because the arrangement allowed for plugging in the equipment. But then the Twirly-whirly came by and stood in front of the door and her shadow *did* fit. The first door was one of two in a hallway. I told her she looked like Alice in the hallway and she started walking toward the door (away from the projector) and appeared to shrink by comparison to the door to where she could stand and knock on it and as it was a movie this door (almost as if on cue) opened to a drk room and she was able to make her shadow appear to enter the room and disappear inside!

More fun was the 3rd door....I remembered to film it by that point (I sometimes forget that my phone can take pics and vids). 

Today was also her first ever swim lesson. She has hopes of surfing one day. She is very random in response even to things she wants to do though. When we told her we signed her up around a month or so ago, she screamed "I don't want to get in the water!!!" I was a bit concerned how it would all go today. She was afraid and sat on the pool steps and cried alot but still did everything the instructor asked her to do so i think once the newness of it wears off she'll do fine...at least I hope so....we just signed her up for the whole of July for more lessons (not to mention keeping cool!)