Friday we went to knitting group in the afternoon where Jen had a great and simple project ready to entice the kids into actually trying something (except, technically, it was crochet). So M learned to do a chain and began working on a flower.

Saturday M started her dance class. I have no pictures of that because parents sit outside and the windows are nearly impossible to see through for human eyes, let alone camera ones. I thought about sticking my camera though the one open window, but was afraid I’d get yelled at. LOL Anyway, from what I saw, she did really well and I was pleased. They will have a performance at the next street fair and she wants to do it. She’s done dance classes before, but never participated in the peformances due party to money and partly to maturity. So I am excited for her this time!

Sunday we made prayer sticks at church. Ellen really did a fantastic job of this, even providing sinew to tie all the pieces together. While we were out hunting for natural objects to put in/on our sticks, we found some animal footprints. We had thought maybe racoon, but back home we referenced it with a poster Margie has of animal footprints and they did not so much resemble raccoon after all. We are unsure what it was now.

We did a lot of learning this weekend, but naturally I can’t really remember all the little things we did. Just know that it was awesome.

Today:
~Walked to the library for a “Wild Ones” animal show. Elliott, having woken up at 5:30 this morning passed out in the stroller and woke *just* as the show was starting and freaked the heck out. I think that auditorium just scares him for some reason. Probably the 70’s decor. So I took him out and set him up on one of the computers in the Children’s Room and spent the rest of the time checking on him and Margie in their respective locations. She did get the chance to go onstage and hold a tarantula, though! I took some photos, but mostly they came out blurry.

~Back at home we had lunch and then M had a gut issue during which we looked at some books today (we got a book about a kid who is gluten-free! this is exciting b/c Margie and I will be elimintating gluten from our diets – again – very soon).
~We all sat down and did some spelling. Elliott spelled a bunch of words (pics to come) and M reviewed the words we had done the past two weeks.

~On M’s clipboard today was a place value worksheet (we used the blocks for this), words to copy, and some printouts about Chinese animals.

~Kids spent the afternoon playing with toys and technology.
~Stories at bedtime.

~Kids played WiiFit this morning – this means Margie actually does the playing and E either cheers her on or runs in circles with her while she runs.

~We sat down for some school work – M did a place value worksheet and some of them were clues and she did it all exactly perfectly. I am so proud! She also wrote her spelling words out. Her writing is (finally) coming more easily. Keep on keeping on.

~In the afternoon, we went to the library for a mosaic class I’d signed M up for (not realizing at the time that it was supposed to be art class day, but that was cancelled anyway so it all evened out). M read part of a treehouse book before the class began.

~After that, we headed to Elliott’s first day of soccer class (indoor soccer, naturally). He did really well at listening and kicking the ball. Could not understand for the life of him why you cannot touch the ball with your hands (can’t really argue that), but he did very well over all. I am less than thrilled with his teachers, but what can I expect – they are just kids with a job to put them through college.

~Back at home it was nearly time for dinner and I let the kids watch Word Factory while I cooked.

~Baths, sundown ritual, stories at bedtime.

~Kids played very nicely together this morning while I woke up/worked. They succeeded in pulling out the toys from my closet they should not be getting into (we trade toys every few months to keep things neat and “new”) but at least they got along well.
~Snacks.
~We got into work. M was playing with a new spelling game on my iPhone. She was stuck on the word “eye” which is actually quite hard to sound out, but I insisted she try. She farted around a LOT and threw in various letters like X or Z because she was being a punk, but she finally got herself into a better place and guessed at “eie” which is not bad at all in my opinion. I told her I was very proud of her for getting back into a good place of concentration and making a good guess.
~We reviewed China in SOTW. We re-read the chapter, and looked at a world map to visualize it. Later we’ll get to the projects we didn’t do back before we took a SOTW break.
~We read The Warlords Messengers (I had two other Warlord books from the library but I think I must have returned them).
~I gave M a list of five spelling words I pulled out of my butt starting with “eye” (heh). She claims to already know them all. Cool. Will make spelling easier this week.
~We read The Warlords Bead’s before we left to run an errand. Guess I did not return it after all.
~In the afternoon E played on PBSKids.org for awhile while M played Hannah Montana on the Wii at the neighbor’s house. Much more of this and I will fear for my daughter’s musical tastes.
~After a snack, the kids and I did some SOTW-inspired art. We painted pictograms and then made bowls out of clay which we will later paint in the Ming style (which, as far as I know really isn’t the period of China we are studying right now so I don’t really get that, but whatever – it’s fun).
~Dinnertime.
~When dad was home, he and the kids watered the backyard and harvested strawberry (just the one). Then the kids ran around under M’s direction having a blast. I love days like this where they play so well together.
~Stories at bedtime.

~Kids played computer & Wii.
~Clipboards – E found some letters on his wordsearch, M wrote out her spelling words and more.
~I found some cool videos at the Colonial Williamsburg site which Margie declared boring so they must have lots of good education in them. Elliott and I enjoyed the Drums and Fifes.
~Errand day! Bank, vacuuming out the car and then off to Trader Joes where the hunger, humidity and INSANE kids made me feel extra tired. And then Elliott lost his balloon. He was so sad, it made my heart cry. And Margie cried I think because she felt responsible for it. Luckily we were right outside and were able to easily get another one. And luckily Trader Joe’s balloons are biodegradable so Mother Earth can rest a bit easier (assuming no birds try to eat the baloon or anything).

~Kids played on the Wii or something before I woke up.
~Played with toys until snack time.
~Short clipboard time. E looked up letters on a word find – he found all the vowels for me except for “Y” which M helped him with b/c it was a really odd font. M practiced writing her spelling words again and we spent some time chanting them.
~Got read for a walk to the library. I set the Pandora Radio on my phone (thanks, Claire, for encouraging me to finally get around to looking at this) to Souza-type music (I do love marching bands) and oddly, that means also the theme to Indiana Jones. Which is cool. And weird.
~Puppet show at the library and E was really frankly terrified so he and I left and just kept checking on Margie until it was over. We checked out about 400 books (which was dumb b/c this stroller has a really small basket), turned in their sheets for prizes and then sat in the park for a picnic. I read them Unicorns, Unicorns. It was lovely.
~Back home for naps (M didn’t nap) and I read them The Summer Snowman and then read myself The Deathly Hallows (but not all of it).
~After naps, I worked with M on place value up to 100’s. She picked it up very quickly, did one worksheet and asked for more. LOL
~She got out paints and created a picture of a grassy scene, tree, with cotton balls in the sky for clouds.
~E listened to ALL of this Blue’s Clues CD we found at the library. He was in bliss.
~Kids played Candyland together while I read more Deathly Hallows (that end bit, you know – can’t be put down).
~We all played WiiMusic.
~After dinner, we all walked down the street to look at the car show. On the way home, we tossed pennies in the fountain.

~Back at home the kids played with cars.
~Margie read to Elliott (almost one chapter of The Celery Stalks at Midnight).
~Stories at bedtime.

I’m starting a new method today, easing us into what I hope will become a good routine by Fall when school “begins” again. I have some friends who use clipboards for their kid’s daily stuff. Mom loads the clipboard and it’s kid’s responsibility to finish the work. I have a rough plan in mind which will focus both on paperwork like this and hands-on activities, but I’ll wait until we get into it and get it tweaked to write it here. In the mean time my goals for this summer are:
~Get M used to writing and work on form
~Begin some spelling words
~Get used to the daily paperwork

Today we have:
~M played Wii (Endless Ocean), E played Playhouse Disney
~WiiFit (all of us)
~Clipboards (Independence Day stuff) with spelling/writing, coloring, a booklet from Enchanted Learning. She wrote all her words and did so pretty darn well. And more importantly, pretty cooperatively. I am working on a positive-reinforcement system in my head I’ll implement if (when) her negativity finds its voice.
~Looked at my photos from DC – compared them to the pictures in the EL booklet.
~Lunch and headed out for park day. Where M stepped on a bee. It wasn’t so bad, I don’t think, because she was able to walk to the car and around the store we stoppd at on the way home. We’re going to the fair on Thursday so I’m really actually glad it looks like she will be able to walk.
~Back at home the kids played together while I vegged out.
~They played really well all afternoon – on the horse, watering plants, creating plant-watering mechanics, etc. It was great.
~After dinner we had meltdowns (Elliott) and stories (Margie) before bed.

I forgot to add last week that I got this Cute Math app for my phone and both the kids really like it. It functions as more-fun-than-flashcards for Margie and building skills for Elliott. The kids like it so well (and it’s SO perfect for keeping them quiet when running inmportant and boring grownup errands) that I think I am going to look more into other apps like this one.

In looking for a link I had the other day but lost because I didn’t bookmark it because I am s-m-r-t smart, I did find this blog, which I want to look into more.

Oh here’s the link I wanted. It’s not working right now, but hopefully later? It looked like it might be full of good apps (and maybe more?) for littles.

This week is going by in a blur.  I am focusing less on the kids and more on me as teacher at this point.  Thinking through where we will go next.  So here is a quick recap.

Monday we stayed mostly here at home, trying to get things in order after a busy weekend, and one which ended in sand. By the time I finished cleaning (all except the laundry which STILL has not been put away and has actually grown into a bigger pile of clean items) it was 5:30 already so I gave up on making dinner and we walked down the street to the new LaBella’s place which, I guess, is not so new anymore since it opened two years ago. But it was our first time. So there. While we waited, we did math with the sweetener packets. E worked on patterning and did great. M and I made some charts – it was the first time we had really worked on that and she seemed to enjoy it.

Tuesday we went to the unschool park day and stayed until it was time to leave for E’s doctor appointment. The kids played inside the rec center (air hockey, coloring), on the playground, freeze tag, etc. But the highlight of the day by far were the two baby hawks we saw in the tree next to their nest. And all the moms admonished me for not having my camera. In my defense, I don’t have a lens quite that big, any way. Probably, I should just being Sarah with me from now on.

Today we went to the library for a MoPA workshop which was less “workshop” and more “kid craft”. But it was an excellent one. The kids all used digital cameras to take photos of themselves which were then printed out. They glued it to a sheet of paper and then cut magazines up and made collages out of it. Our friends were there and Isabella made hers entirely out of feet, including her self-portrait of her foot. Loved that. I didn’t see Rafael’s. Margie used cheetah parts (eyes, nose) on top of her photo to create a really neat sort of image. I was impressed. As was the lady from MoPA (I think that’s who she was) who called it “intuitive”.

The kids also turned in their reading sheets – M entirely finished hers and earned herself a book (she picked Junie B Jones) and then they hung their cutouts on the wall. M was only the 6th kid to put hers in the 24 hour section.

We grabbed a few books on the way out. M originally shunned the art books until I pointed out she could use the knowledge to impress Claire.

The Summer Solstice (called Litha) is the day we say goodbye to the sun as the days begin to become shorter again. This is the beginning of our second year celebrating the Sabbats with our friends, and we met again at the beach to watch the sun set into the ocean. We splashed, made sand art, ate a feast, listened to a story, watched the sunset, made s’mores, and enjoyed our friendships as they grew deeper along with our understanding of the Earth.