What we've been up to.....

We have been having so much fun! This school year is turning out to be better than I could have ever expected. Everything is just falling into place for me. Not only am I accomplishing what I had planned, but so much more than I could have ever expected. I feel so privileged to be able to offer to my daughter the most outstanding education a child of her age could ask for. And, to top it off, we get to do it all with the most wonderful group of moms and kids in the world!!

Last weekend was the opening of the home school art exhibit at our local museum. BabyGirl was so proud of her work being on display. We were also able to view works from many of our friends. It was so nice to share this event with our family! Here are some pics of BabyGirl with her art, and then some of her very favorite works in the museum.

We've recently joined a small co-op where we are able to experience all kinds of extra-curricular subjects. The parents are taking turns teaching each session. This session we are taking speech, psychology and computer programming. It's working out beautifully, and the children are very eager to be involved!! I couldn't have asked for a better situation. Boundaries do not exist, and we are able to explore anything and everything!!!

For history/geo we've just wrapped up our unit on Mesopotamia. BabyGirl really loved it, and was sad that we finished. She quickly got over it when she found out we are learning about ancient Egypt next! We are both looking forward to this one! We'll have a wonderful art project to go along with it!!! More to come on that later....

For science we've been working with classifying animals into groups, and learning the characteristics of the animals within the groups. BabyGirl is making mini-books on each group and loving it!! On everything she makes she writes that it was written and illustrated by her. She loves compiling all of it into her science journal. Here is a pic of BabyGirl and her own species of frog that she invented in our art room.

I'm very pleased with our new math. It has so many ideas on how to enhance each new introduction with games and manipulative's. She totally looks forward to doing math every school day, and that is a sure sign of success!!

BabyGirl is completely taken by Harry Potter. She is now on the 2nd book, and loving it!!! She is always playing Harry Potter, and now has decided one of her options for Halloween will be Hermione Granger. :)

A few days ago some of our besties had a tie-dye party!! We have done it a few times before, and were thrilled with the opportunity to do it again with a fun group! There's nothing quite like fresh air, art and friends!! Here are some pics of the creation process...

BabyGirl has been asking me to buy one of the "Bake with me" kits at Whole Foods FOREVER! I always say no since they are so pricey and we can just make our own like usual. But, last week they went on sale--so we got one!! She was so excited to just take over the kitchen!! She was able to do most steps on her own, and the finished product was some cute little duckies all in a row.... yes, these kits are expensive....but, the look on her face alone was worth it!!

Our pumpkin is turning orange!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!! Will post pics of that next time.....

Growing!!

This week we have been continuing our love of learning! Every day just minutes after we finish breakfast BabyGirl is begging to start school. We are enjoying every minute of it! Here are just a few highlights from this week....

For science we have been studying plants. We are building on what we already know from the past 2 years, and what we've learned by observing our own garden. Obviously, we talked about the different plant parts. We did an experiment on how plants get water by adding red food coloring to a glass jar of water, then adding a celery stalk.

We also covered seeds and seed coverings. We harvested some of our own sunflower seeds and green beans for this experiment. BabyGirl opened each seed covering and observed the seed inside. We compared our findings.

Today we discussed what elements plants need in order to survive. Then, we planted some beans in a clear glass jar so we could observe them sprouting and growing. We did this when we covered plants in pre-k, but BabyGirl loved it and it's wonderful to see how different her reactions and observations will be at this age. For history/geography we are still covering Mesopotamia. So far, we've learned about the origins of civilization, the importance of agriculture on civilization, the location of Mesopotamia (along with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), what the schools and cities were like, and the introduction of writing. We are having lots of fun with this unit. Along with the usual map coloring, etc. we constructed our own clay tablet that BabyGirl did some cuneiform writing on.
We also discussed the different forms of art work from that time and made our own mosaic. This week we will be finishing up our last intermediate origami class. We have really enjoyed all aspects of origami, and will be posting our works from this class in a later blog. We were able to submit 3 pieces of art work to Gilcrease Museum for their home school art exhibition! The exhibit should be opening on August 18th. We may even be able to enjoy an opening ceremony. More to come on that later. BabyGirl is going to be able to participate in the story time yoga classes for the next 2 weeks, and she is so excited!! Tonight we have open house at dance class, and will be starting dance as well as gymnastics again in September.

This week we were able to enjoy a home school pool party at one of our favorite places!! We had so much fun, and always enjoy a visit with like-minded free individuals! It rocked! Last but not least, here are a couple pictures of our produce. I can't believe how much everything is growing!! The squash went un-picked for a couple of days, and grew into clubs! The last picture is of our "pumpkin patch". We were told the plants we were given were pumpkins, and we have our first fruit. But, it sort-of looks like a watermelon to me....I've never grown either one, so this is a completely new experience for us. I guess it will be a fun surprise whatever it is!!

Until next time....