Squirrels

Fall has this squirrelly energy. Always busy, getting into new routines, putting the garden to bed, doing schoolwork, getting outside while we still can, picking apples and making applesauce, picking acorns for fall crafts, planning for and attending homeschool coop, playing soccer, and on. I love this season and its busyness, but it's also tiring me out!

We finished our fourth week of school today. We spent some of this week working on Snow White and Rose Red, and Oldest had a really good time with it. Having gotten a feeling for where she is this autumn, I find myself thinking that really we're still in Grade One. I think her early reading and her strong academic preferences really threw me last year, so I started doing Grade One work with her. It was a bit of a struggle, we didn't get very much done, and we both ended the year frustrated with it all. So we took a long summer break and here we are, having a much better time with it. The question is of course what to do. We will not be going back and doing introduction to capital letters, or the Qualities of numbers. Instead, I have decided we will do review blocks of everything we did last year, and build on it. We will consume new material in small bite - sized pieces. We will fill in the gaps, and really get to the bottom of the material. I will keep ruminating on what best meets her needs, and stress the creative exploration of Fairy Tales. We will work hard and have fun.

We will take next week off and clean the house, and then we will get down to the serious business of making sure some of our craft projects find completion. Then we will go to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, and return refresthed for a month of Math Main Lesson.