Another Educational Family Trip

As part of our family vacation we visited Plymouth. We stopped and took a look at Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrim Memorial, and saw the Mayflower II. We thought this would be a great way to kick off the social studies unit we're planning to do this Fall. Esme will officially go back-to-homeschool this Thursday. She'll be studying reading, writing, math, science, social studies, art, music, sports, and of course many other things. She'll also be continuing with lots of great group activities like Daisies, soccer, and more! Please wish us luck as she enters First Grade!!

A Summer of Learning

Esme has had quite an exciting summer. Her dad and I are both working, so she's been having lots of adventures. She spent several days with Grandma, traveling and visiting. She has been to work with her dad a couple days and it sounds like she is ready to take over the library. We took her to New York City last weekend on a mini-vacation and highlights for her including visiting Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and seeing the Statue of Liberty from a distance. Probably what Esme has found most exciting though is her three weeks at Girl Scout camp. At camp she's had the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities including swimming, playing group games, making fairy houses, learning all kinds of arts and crafts, and so much more. She's also accomplished some goals like learning the pledge of allegiance and has even taken an active role in the flag ceremony three times. She has made lots of new friends and is having a blast! It has been a very positive experience for her.

This coming school year is the first time I will have to report our homeschooling activities to our city. I am feeling semi-confident, probably only semi because this is my first time. I spent a long time working on my letter of intent, and researching exactly what I need to include, etc. Ethan and I are really looking forward to getting back to our regular routines!

One Busy Kid

Esme has been very busy the last few weeks! Last weekend she had her first ballet recital. I was so impressed how well she and all the girls in her class did. Their song was "Every Girl Can Be a Princess" and they were dressed like Cinderella.

This past Monday was her Girl Scout fashion show and court of awards. This was a wonderful evening. I was super proud of all of the girls, especially Esme. She got up and led the entire crowd in singing "Make New Friends" and in saying the Girl Scout promise, in addition to dressing up as Tinkerbell in the fashion show.

She has a busy summer coming up as well. She'll be attending three weeks of Girl Scout camp (I'll be working there) and one week of vacation Bible school. She'll spend one week at our house with Grandma, and probably a significant amount of time with Nonna and Auntie Lisa too. We hae all kinds of plans for this Fall, and we're looking forward to getting back to our regular homeschooling schedule again.

First T-Ball Game

Whirlwind of Educational Activities Last Week

Tuesday morning Esme and went to her first marionette show. The puppeteers performed Cinderella and were lit up so that the audience could see the show and how they make the marionettes move.

Friday, the most exciting day, we took our first family trip to the Boston Museum of Science. We decided this would be the perfect way to end our Human Body unit and segue into our dinosaur unit. Even though we've really been studying dinosaurs all year, it will be official for the next few weeks. The museum was WONDERFUL!! Our family universally agreed that it was a fabulous trip. Esme particularly enjoyed the senses room and of course the dinosaur section. She also liked the classification room and the anatomy room. She was disappointed that we didn't get to see every singe exhibit, but we have assured her that we will go again very soon!

Saturday Esme and I attended an all-day Earth Day celebration with Girl Scouts. Esme made her own applesauce over a campfire, cleaned up a campsite, made her own paper, went on a hike, explored wetland muck for life, made lip balm, sang Native American folk songs, beat a drum, and had a yoga session with a professional instructor.

Although Sunday wasn't an official homeschooling day, we did get a chance to spend some time at the beach and explore some things we don't see around our town every day. We waded in salt water and searched for hermit crabs with Esme's cousin, Dylan. Esme and Ethan made a great sand castle, and later we climbed on some very cool weather-beaten rocks.

Today Esme had her regular Girl Scout meeting and had her first TBall practice. It has been a whirlwind, but wonderful!

It's Been a While....Updates

This year is flying by. We have sooo much going on and lots to share. After trying out a couple different things this year, we've decided that structured lesson plans are what work best for our family, and we have gone back to the more traditional schedule we used last year. We're glad we tried more of an unschooling approach, but now we know this is what works for us.

We are happy to share that Esme had her very first spelling word list and test this past week, and she got 100% correct on her test! Whooo hoooo go Esme. She is moving right along in Math and Reading too. Most of Esme's interest revolve around science, and we are considering an Earth Science unit when we finish up our Human Body unit. We are hoping that we'll be able to take a trip to the science museum soon. I am excited about the new art curriculum I discovered, called Discovering Great Artists. We've just started and Esme has learned quite a bit about Picasso. I am hoping to use this in conjunction with our Picturing America materials as well.

Esme has been staying very busy. In Girl Scouts she's been learning about how to care for pets including going on a field trip to Petco. This month we're concentrating on dance - last week the girls learned line dancing from Aunt Cathy, and next week they'll be doing folk dancing with our friend Ben. They also have a snowshoeing event coming up, unless we have a big thaw between now and early March. Esme is still loving ballet class and we are very happy with her new dance school. We'll be starting a new series for homeschoolers around fractured fairy tales starting on Tuesday. We are looking forward to seeing some other kids we haven't seen since Fall.

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.

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.

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 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!

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!

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.