Although I’ve always known we’d be on the path to homeschooling, this year we really got down to business and made a commitment to this way of life and we’re so glad we did! Our kids Luca (age 8), Rose (age 5) and Remi (age 3) explore life and learn every day through reading, imagination, play, and time spent together and with our community. We are documenting our experience here. Enjoy!
We celebrate May Day every year and part of that ritual of Spring and gladness is our secret adventuring around town delivering May Baskets! My dad always made a May Basket for my mom and later on all of us kids every year. Later we kids joined in on the fun and left May Baskets secretly for our grandparents and friends. I love carrying on this tradition with my kids – creating the baskets, filling them with flowers, loading up the car or bike and heading out to our deliveries.
I especially love watching the kids run up to their friend’s houses – on a secret and lovely mission
We led the Library Friends group with a May Pole dance – although the end product was mostly a wonderful jumble of twisted ribbon, it was the act of being outside together celebrating an ancient rite of Spring that felt so good.
Our theme this month was bugs! We explored the life cycle of a butterfly and created lots of paper butterflies which we used to create some lovely displays.
Luca’s journal entry on Metamorphosis
Rose’s Journal
Remi’s butterfly mask creation!
And lastly, bug month wouldn’t be complete without a butterfly war! That’s what is happening here… later became very exciting!
Rose’s dance recital!
This is us trying to get a family photo…
As good as it gets!
The usual look of our living space
Rose creating her own iPhone
With a little help from mama… those apps are tiny! There is more visual detail on the front of an iPhone than you realize!
Rose coloring Easter eggs and May Day cards for her friends
Coloring on a board that we used to experiment with our wood router
Doing a bit of math in the Brain Quest workbook
Creating a map of our back yard for a future zip line!
Working on a medieval spear
Using Bingo Bugs and our Alphabet Poster
Luca’s latest Lego Mindstorm creation
Creating a world in Minecraft
Playing a new game from Grandmama – Engineering Ants
Learning Settler’s of Catan for the first time – he is a huge fan!
Sleeping Queens card games is still a favorite
Adventuring in the car
Peterborough park
Watching the baby ducks
Exploring an old railroad track – we found a snake too!
Enjoying the Silver Bean Cafe
Phases of the moon
Our deck in the spring time sun is our favorite place
Taking care of the seedlings
Creating a poster for the Library Friends farmer’s market!
“Salad” bags filled with grass and flowers for the market
Getting the register ready for sales
At the market… it was super fun, even though these guys look a little unsure.
Out at the courts!
Rose in her summer soccer gear
Luca got onto the rep soccer team this year and is loving it!
I spent a few months going to an art class – learning to paint more realistically which was a pretty drastic difference from my usual work.
“One Morning in Maine” as bedtime reading
Zonked
