And just like that we are back into a full homeschool schedule. We are getting used to a new homeschool schedule and I think that once we get the hang of it, it will be really good. Right now this is what our week looks like:
Monday- Austin Savvy, 8:00; OlaNani Coop, 9:30-12
Tuesday- Austin Savvy, 8:00; Lydia Piano, 9:00; Austin Piano, 9:30, Lydia Mentor Coop, 9:30-2:30
Wednesday - Austin Savvy, 8:00; Lydia Sewing, 10:30; Austin Speech 11:45; Visit Cal and Sue 1:30-4:30
Thursday - Austin Savvy, 8:00; Lydia Art, 12:30
Friday - Clean Room, Flex Day, Field Trip.
Whew! It's packed. I tend to do better with LESS on our schedule, but I think that this is going to be a good balance for us this year and I'm looking forward to it.
Here are some of the fun things that we've been up to already this month:
-Caleb got to go to the Draper Aquarium with Leo and the Wardells. He loved it.
-We took our homeschool to the park after coop on Monday and did all of our homeschool in the sunshine and it was wonderful. I also may have fallen asleep while Lydia was reading out loud to me. The boys were playing and Lucy was looking at Marco Polos on my lap, so everyone was safe but man, I was SO tired and couldn't stay awake while sitting there in the warm end-of-summer air.
-Bike ride and picnic to the garden area behind the Thanksgiving tower. (Our favorite place to ride our bikes.)
-We went to Rock Cliff State Park to see the Salmon run. We enjoyed exploring the visitors center, learning about the animals in the area, and seeing the salmon in the river. There was a GIANT tree, like the "grandmother of the forest" kind of tree, and it was a highlight of the entire trip. The kids climbed all over it and it was magical. Austin especially liked learning about the beavers and balancing on the rocks in the river. Caleb especially liked jumping on the rocks and climbing in the tree. I loved watercolor painting with all the kids in the group out on the open grassy area, then finishing my watercolor journal page while sitting on the bridge right over the salmon run. It was good for my heart.
The picture above of Lucy was taken in the "little tree" next to the giant tree. There is no way I could get the whole tree into the same frame without my kids being tiny dots.
Austin's doing really well. He is taking a Savvy Reading class four times a week, Piano on Tuesday, a speech class on Wednesday, and typing at least a couple of times a week. I'm proud of him for how hard he is working and how much he is growing.
What do you do with a 3 and 5 year old while you're also trying to educate a 7 and 10 year old? Well, sometimes Lucy and Caleb just play. Sometimes I play with them while Lydia and Austin are working. Thankfully they love to draw on paper and they also LOVE to play with kinetic sand. These pictures below were of them taking a sink-bath and playing with paints on metal pans. They loved it so much and stayed there for almost an hour while I cleaned the kitchen around them. The sun was streaming in through the window and they were having such a nice time together, it was just a really beautiful life moment.
We went to the Bountiful Founders Day Festival and it was outstanding. I didn't really know what to expect, but next year we are definitely going back and we are going to make sure we have even more time than we did today. The entire park was filled with volunteers acting as if they were people who had an impact on American history. They did small presentations and interacted with the kids as though they were that person. It was incredible and so fun. One of the things that I loved so much about it was that not only would they tell their story, but they would always end the presentation by saying "And this is why this should matter to you..." and say something about how the kids can be brave, have faith, look for the truth, etc... It was very gospel-focused and inspirational in a way that was accessible to the kids that were listening (and me, too!) Joan of Arc was my very favorite person to listen to. One of the most impactful things that she shared was this definition of repentance:
"Repentance is becoming humble so God can work through you."
I love that so much. This whole day was a huge win and I'm glad that Jenna invited us to come with her!
For his STEM/Tech class this week Austin explored building structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. He was able to create tall towers and small structures. He even made moving parts to his tower. Caleb also loved using toothpicks and skewers to build lots of small creations. This creative exploration into the way things connect together strengthened their problem-solving skills and their spatial awareness.
-I love that we get to use our homeschool time to visit with Cal and Sue. This time is precious and I love that my kids get to spend so much time with their grandparents. It can be tricky to take a whole afternoon each week to go and visit, but it comes down to the fact that this is why we homeschool.
We went on a hike through Horse Shoe Trail and it was a lovely morning. The leaves were just barely starting to turn and it was gorgeous and only a tiny bit brisk. Hannah brought a couple of fall books, including poetry, to read in the trees and it was what my homeschool-fall-hike-dreams are made of.
Hannah is a professional photographer and she brought her camera to take some pictures of her girls in front of the leaves. She snapped a few pictures of us, too, and man - what a treasure! We aren't dressed for family photos, and that makes me love this all the more. This is a BEAUIFUL picture capturing a part of our life (me hiking with my kids) that is so meaningful to us. Sometimes I can hardly believe that this is what my life is. I love this life together so much.
