Moments from the past week

Here are a few pictures from this past week. Lessons are still going wonderfully and I think we have found our groove..yay! I am pleased to say that Blake is LOVING his local geography block. He always likes to know what is coming next so when I told him we were going to talk about how the land in our area was formed, he asked me if that meant we were done with local geography (i.e. map making). When I said no, he said "oh good!". Maps are one of his favorite things to draw so this block is suiting him well. Last week, he took the time to draw up a detailed map of our house and property. He spent a lot of time working on it and it came out great. Then later that evening I turned it into a treasure map! The next morning, he had to use his maps to find the clues that led to where the treasure was hidden. Jacob helped to hide the clues and he did a good job. Blake was very excited to find the treasure and even more excited when I told him it was his to keep (it was a half dollar and a penny from 1944...before they changed the back to what it is now).

We have also been following "kindergarten days" this year. Each day, there is a specific activity planned in the afternoon geared for Parker. Tuesday is our modelling day and we made these cute beeswax acorns to go on our seasonal shelf/mantle. MaKenna's is the yellow one <3

Our kindergarten story for last week was Brother Acorn from A Donsy of Gnomes. My boys love any story involving gnomes so this was a big hit all week. I had plans to retell the story using table puppets, but they had a different idea in mind. On the second day, they wanted to act the story out and so that is what we did! All three boys got to play the role of Brother Acorn while the rest of us were squirrels. Brother Acorn would come to us and ask for nuts so he can plant them as that is his job. It was fun to do and I loved seeing how much the boys got into their roles!

After we tell/act out our kindergarten story, then we all "seperate" a bit and go into main lesson time. Thankfully, Parker and MaKenna still play really well together and he has been great about creating games that keep her occupied long enough for me to devote some undivided attention to Jacob and Blake. I love that we have these moments together. This year especially, I think about how much bonding my boys would miss out on being in school all day long! I am so grateful to be able to homeschool them!

Thursdays are our painting days. We have our annual Fall Equinox potluck coming up and as we are hosting this year, I thought it would be nice to add a few decorations to the house in addition to what we usually put out. The boys used red and yellow watercolor paint and painted as I told a color story. I love how all three are so unique! Peter and I will turn these paintings into star lanterns to help light up the evening. I will be sure to post a picture of those when they are done.

Parker's painting

Jacob's painting

Blake's painting

We are really looking forward to the start of the autumn season. It happens to be my favorite time of year! Today I spent the morning in the kitchen baking fresh bread and simmering chicken stock for soup and it felt so nice. We pulled out some woolies to wear as the temps barely reached 60 the past two days and the mornings were chilly. Hot tea has once again entered into our daily rhythm. And we have much more to look forward to!