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.

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!

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.

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.

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!