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Today Daddy took the kids out to the playground leaving me with an hour or so to myself. I managed to clear stuff off of our craft/science table. Then as I was unpacking one of the boxes, I came across the roll of butcher paper our friends gave us. As I considered where to store it, I realized I could put it UNDER and ACROSS the craft table for an...
We have lots and lots of empty boxes out on the porch. Today it was time to break down lots of them and we found this seven-inch lizard in one of the boxes. We think it is a ‘common five-lined skink’ — probably the adult version of the smaller, blue-tailed lizards we see all over (the Internet indicates that the blue tails fade as they mature.)
The kids have really enjoyed their summer activities. Just a five minute drive from the house is a really nice gym. LD has been taking gymnastics classes and always glows afterward. “That was SO hard, but SO great,” he tells us! A dance teacher also offers classes at the gym. DD participated in a little dance camp this week. They made all of their props — frog feet, a duck...
Life indoors still isn’t quite as tranquil as it is outdoors. Still, I have various parts of the house that are really coming together. One of the first areas we tried to get organized was the homeschool room. This is our new book nook. I came across LD reading a long chapter book to DD last evening and just had to take a picture! I thought about picking up the...
“This is the best day of my life!” That’s what LD had to say about the nature journaling we started a couple of days ago. He was SO excited about drawing all the things we had discovered in the woods that he kept begging for more and more time. WHAT?!!! Our son said that?! It’s wonderful to find somethings that is so appealing to him (especially if it involves writing/drawing)....
We are thoroughly enjoying our new environment. It is completely different than the Outback, but has so much to offer in its own beautiful way. These next few postings will show how much we’ve enjoyed exploring! We are so, so happy in our new home. We just wish Daddy weren’t having to work such long hours. 🙁 LD found this cute orange salamander. We see lots and lots of blue-tailed...
I am being challenged to learn about our surroundings just as much as the kids. Every time I turn around, there’s something else to look up and learn about. Some of these pictures are reminders to myself to “go look it up!!” Up until this summer, the kids hadn’t ever seen moss. Now they point it out everywhere and notice how different it can be. DD examined a bird’s nest...
This is what life is really like at the moment!! Can anyone else relate?! I shared a few pictures of the activities we did this week, but my work in large part is making this our home. Unpacking, sorting and setting up a new space is wonderful (and tiring!). But it is so fantastic to be on the downhill slope. Sometimes it felt like we would never get to this...
A few days ago we got all of our stuff from Australia. There are boxes everywhere and then there’s all the stuff that’s out of the boxes, but hasn’t yet found a home! Meanwhile, we’re trying to get the kids into a bit of a routine. We’re trying to ease back into our homeschool activities. They’ve also spent hours playing with their toys and re-discovering all their belongings. I finally...
LD is working in the Handwriting Without Tears cursive workbook. DD is using sandpaper letters. She also wanted a workbook to practice her writing. This workbook was from Grams.
This week reviewed the seven continents (and sang the continent song). We used a different map than the one pictured here and moved magnetic continents to the correct place on the map. DD asks again and again, “Do we live in America now?” Even little ED has asked, “Is this home? Daddy home? LD home? Boomer (the dog) home?” and through the entire family. Change is hard, I think. ...
A very small creek runs behind the house. The kids have spent hours hunting for frogs, salamanders and water bugs. We continue to find new things in the woods near our house. We went on a short hike the other evening and came across yellow, red and purple mushrooms too. These are the only new photos to add to our growing mushroom/fungi photo collection, though! Last year, we studied the...
We made it to our new state last Wednesday and settled on our new home on Monday. Yay!!! It’s been extremely busy unpacking and sorting through the belongings we had in storage for twelve years. We also had to get new driver’s licenses and things like that. But in the mean time we are really amazed by our beautiful new surroundings. What contrast to the Outback; it is so humid...
We’ve pretty much resorted to ‘natural learning’ these past two months as we travel from state to state making our way to our new home. But in the meantime, I have been planning and preparing for the new school year to come. We use a smattering of curriculum resources which I distribute into workboxes and centers. While we do most workboxes, most days we don’t have a set orders to...
