“Insta”-replay: picture of the week

September is off to a good start. Girls went to visit their great grandmother, without me so no pictures. And we finished up our first week of school.

In order to stay on schedule, we doubled up on subjects and tried to stay focused.  I also attempted to stay focused on my own school, not sure if I succeeded or not.

Long story short, I took only one photo last week:

Merry completing an experiment. 

Hopefully next week I’ll pull my camera out more!

“Insta”-replay: goodbye summer

August is over, September begins.  Where I’m from this marks the end of summer and being of fall.  Despite the calendar insisting the first Day of Autumn isn’t until September 22.  Which to be honest has always kinda bothered me, but c’est la vie.

We already jumped back into school so summer break has ended.  How did we finish of the season?

Planning for next year: 10th grade

Highschool is tough yo plan for.  On the one hand you want your child to enjoy learning and find classes that interest them.  On the other hand you see your child’s potential and want to push them to continue to learn.

Hopefully Charry will have a balanced year of  working hard on things she enjoys learning

Planning for next year: 7th grade curriculum choices

Usually I start with my older daughter, since each year is a new grade I’ve never planned for before.  But this year I started with my younger.

About half of her subjects will be following in her sister’s footsteps, the other half will be new curriculum I’ve never tried before.

“Insta”-replay: heat wave continues

The summer continues to be a hot one.  Funny thing is, we have still been busy, I just haven’t been taking pictures.  So here is what we’ve been up to:

We went up to Washington to visit family.  They live right on the Idaho border so we spent a day visiting that state as well.  And exploring cute shops.  As a bonus it was an artists day so roads were closed off and artists stalls were set up.

The main reason for our visit was to go camping.  It was our first camping trip of the summer and the only pictures I took were of a deer outside the bathroom to show my kids.

Because of the heat we have been spending time inside.  This week that meant legos! 

And Aunt Katie had leftover crafts from a party so she let the girls stencil plates.  It was a lot of fun and allowed directed creativity which is a different sort of crafting than they usually get.

The month is half done, I’m nervously waiting for my summer grades.  Coming up is the start of the school year! Summer has gone fast but I expect the summer weather to continue for a while more.

Planning for next year: morning time

So over the years I’ve found various ways to work with both girls together.  We had calendar time, knuffle bunny adventures, we did combined science class, then history class.  I enjoyed every one of those! This year we are trying yet another together time; story time.

My plan is to read a picture book a day, focusing on the literature.  We’ll look at different art styles, different story telling devices, and different audiences books are written for.  My hope is to encourage my girls to look at all books not just novels and to enjoy literature even if it is written for a slightly younger audience (which not all picture books are.)

So here are the five I plan to start with (and why.)

Growing Strong Inside: because it was my favorite.  I received this book as a birthday present when I was three, and I still have it.  Some stories stay with us forever, this was one of those.

Grumpy Cat: Grumpy cat is a meme parents will laugh at, we bought it for my husband.  It’s funny to parents for different reasons than why it appeals to kids. But it is written with simplicity and humor for kids. 

Monster at the End of this Book: I learned a new term this week, “meta fiction”, that’s when an author talks to the reader making them a part of the story.  This is one of the classic examples.

Ubi Ferra Sunt: “Where the Wild Things Are” in Latin. Some stories are translated into lots of languages and read around the world.  So what makes a story easy to connect with and why do some inspire across languages.  The author’s story verses the author’s words.  Also I love Latin and this one is simple enough that we know all the vocabulary.

Dinotopia: I’ll be honest this story bores me.  But I love the pictures and the idea.  And it is a good example of a picture book that wasn’t written for young children but rather for kids their age.

So those are the first five with talking points.  I’m excited to see how this new start to school goes, and if it lasts the entire year!

“Insta”-replay; Stayton is where it’s at in July

So earlier I shared the small town fun at the beginning of July, apparently Stayton likes to have small town fun at the end of July too.  Who knew?

They have a town wide Summerfest with lots to do and here are our highlights:

A car show, we looked at grownup sized cars too, but they weren’t as fun.

Lots of photo opts.  Charry was less than thrilled, at least I didn’t make her take a picture with Santa, who was there.

We took every free chance to win a prize and ended up with a myriad of cheap plastic toys.

We went on a scavenger hunt through the various local shops and discovered some treasures not on the list. Turns out Stayton has a lot of second hand stores, and I mean a lot!

And we saw Aunt Katie who was volunteering with a organization that feeds hungry children.

We then came home exhausted and sunburned.  But it was a fun morning.  It is still to hot to spend much time out doors but a big event was just what we needed to get out and stretch our legs.  And we found out a little more about this place we live.