Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Happy Back to School

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!

It's our FOURTH year of homeschooling, and I'm still in a little bit of shock. All three sprouts are officially school age this year, which is both amazing and frightening. On one hand, I get to spend everyday with these fascinating little people who I love. On the other hand, I am also almost entirely responsible for making sure they grow up into decent human beings. Talk about pressure!

Our back to school photo may or may not have required bribery.

Yesterday was officially our first day back to school. We are starting a week ahead of our local school district because we are planning a family vacation in October, and you can do that when you homeschool. The sprouts were actually pretty excited about starting school again, and I tried to capitalize on that excitement by taking a back-to-school photo. Unfortunately, the photo backfired spectacularly, and we ended up needing bribery (aka donuts) to get everyone looking at the camera with a not-angry face.

When all else fails, add treats.

Our walk to Tim Horton's and subsequent sugary breakfasting was just what we needed to get the day back on track. On the way home, we were lucky enough to run into some friends. The unexpected playdate involved some boisterous trampoline jumping, and by the time we walked home, everyone was bright pink and pouring sweat. I had the sprouts jump into the bath and rinse off. Then we were finally ready for school Nana stopped by to pick up her puppy who we had been watching over the weekend.

Lure them in with games and make them stay for the learning.

By this time it was about 11:30am, and I had not even cracked a book. I made the executive decision to ease into working at the table by starting our school day off with a game of Rory's Story Cubes. The game went over well, which allowed us to proceed with a read aloud, draft a list of questions about oceans, and work through some Bedtime Math. We took a break for lunch, after which, it was time for the solar eclipse.

Turn around, bright eyes.

Our area had about 77% coverage at peak, so we went ahead and prepared pinhole viewers out of cereal boxes. We watched a video about what was actually happening and revisited modeling we did in an astronomy unit study last year. About a half hour before peak, we went outside to check out the eclipse, and it was incredibly cool to watch. I was really impressed with our pinhole viewers, but of course, I also had to play around with taking some photos.

Fun fact: this did not destroy my phone.

First sprout hung in there for nearly an hour watching the eclipse with me. Second sprout and Third sprout were interested for about 10 minutes and wanted to go play on our swing set. I decided to prioritize my own enjoyment rather than worry about whether they were getting the full educational value out of this celestial alignment. It all worked out!

I took this photo right around peak coverage for us.

Our first day back to school was busy, bumpy, and overall pretty brilliant. I have a feeling that the rest of the year will be more of the same, and I couldn't be more excited!

Until Next Time,

Happy Learning


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