Yea for sweet packages from great friends in the mail!!

This book is the coolest book ever!  50 Things to Do Before You Turn 11 3/4!

A few more from our Sunday friends' visit.

New pet snails!

 This porch makes me swoon.  I would never go inside!!

 And check out this little Lego nook.  I might leave the porch to read a book in this windowseat??

@Mamaschool

Around here we do Mamaschool any day we are at home, even in the summer.  Usually that means a bit of "morningtime," (poetry, Bible, writing) and some fun art or learning activities.  Quinn was with us during our summer days, which changes our dynamic a bit.  

 Balloon rockets.  We'd done this before and they asked for it again.  This time they were fairly independent with it.

 This week Mamaschool has moved to the kindergarten edition!  It's just Beck and I this week, so things were a little different than they'd been all summer.  Usually our rhythm looks something like this:

Nature walk/outside time
Morningtime at the table
Freeplay or play with mama
Art or a learning activity (marble run, playdough, modeling beeswax, clay, etc.)
Chores (feed dog, get the mail, gather the trash, sweep the front path, bring trashcans up from curb, etc.)
Lunch
Read aloud time
Rest (quiet play in room) with audiobooks

Sometimes the order we do these in shifts around a little bit, depending on what else needs to happen that particular day.  We usually have one day that we have errands or some running around to do.

My main goals for Beck during his first kindergarten year at Mamaschool are to learn more about God's word, hear some good literature (poetry, books I read and audiobooks), explore artistically (which builds problem-solving skills, concentration, direction-following, fine motor skills, pre-literacy skills and so many other areas), learn about nature and get some body movement/gross motor outside, practice being independent/self-sufficient and a contributing part of our family through housework, and to play, play, play....which is the root of all learning!  I want that little guy's curiosity to stay strong and for his questions to never slow!  Well, maybe some days I want them to slow a little bit...  ;)  But most of all I want him to soak up the beauty of this great world as a 5 year old and learn about the world around him as he's ready.

Here are some scenes from this week:

 Doing "scrape paintings" with old giftcards and paint.

 Scenes from Morningtime.  Coffee for me, milk for him.  Snacks for all!  And lots of good fingerplays, poetry, Bible, and songs!

 Practical life...learning how to use his knife safely to open a box!

 Investigating his two snails with a magnifying glass.  When we go to the library tomorrow, we'll look for some snail books, since his mind is on snails these days!!

 His favorite chore these days is getting the mail.  Especially when it has something for him in it!!

Washing produce.

 We have a basket in our laundry room that holds "done" library books and audiobooks.  He spotted some he needed to revisit one last time today, so he sat in there on the floor and flipped through them.  Then asked me to re-read his favorite.  :)

 Trying to catch a lizard (see it up to the top right of cactus?) behind Mama's cactus is livin' on the edge!

Treasures from a nature walk.  Tiny grass flowers, a feather, and the exoskeleton and wings of a dragonfly.  My boy has learned to be a keen observer of the world around him as he walks through nature and often spots treasures I walk right over!

Bedtime with Quinn.

This one is capable of some serious shenanigans when bedtime rolls around....And that room of hers...it is a giant rat's nest at all times.  We have her clean it up....an hour later it looks just as wild.  A couple times a month when she's at school I go in and declutter, because she saves E.VERY.THING.  I usually move a bit of furniture around at this same time so she doesn't notice that I trashed some of her "treasures."  ;)  Sneaky mama move.  That girl keeps us on our toes, but she sure does keep our life interesting!!

We have a 2nd Grader!!

Today was her big day!  This girl started 2nd grade!

She was up and rearing to go this morning!  We had made a pencil vase filled with flowers for her teacher that Quinn was excited to give her.  

 Here she is with her school things!  Her backpack is still hanging in there for the 4th year and also her lunchbox and waterbottle are the same, so the only things that have changed are larger shoes (which are a big deal if you know our girl) and a bigger girl!  

 Here she is with her traditional "back to school" picture I like to take by the school sign every year....and the past years, for comparison.  

The grades participated in the 1st grade Rose Ceremony.  Quinn had a loose front tooth that has been hanging on by a thread all weekend.  She reallllllly wanted to lose it at school so she could show everyone and so her teacher would sew her a special pouch for it.  You can see her wiggling it here!!

 The hallway/mudroom area.  No artwork on the walls yet--it looks so bare!  The kids' boots (on the right side) already got put into use with a rainy first day of school!   Of course the grades still had outside time in the rain, with rain gear.

After school Daddy took this picture....of our girl and a HOLE where her tooth was that morning!  She lost it about halfway through the day.  

 Getting her special tooth pouch from Mrs. Crosslin, her teacher.  At her school the grades teachers move along with their classes, so Quinn will be in the same classroom with the same teacher, which was perfect for our girl who doesn't handle change very well.  She was confident and ready for school today, and after the Rose Ceremony, she headed off with her class without even a look back in our direction, which was a good sign for her!

 Heading home in the rain.

 Daddy took the day off to take Quinn to school, which is a special tradition he has started last year and that we all love!  Quinn was so excited this morning (she didn't know until we were headed to school that he was coming along!!) and Beck and I enjoyed extra Daddy-time during the school day!  He even cooked dinner!!

 After school--Sonic!!  Perfect treat for the first day back!

Celebrating Aunt Meg's bday

 After Meg blew out her candles, all the kiddos wanted a turn.

 These two are both almost bday girls, so they needed to practice.  ;)

Tie dying

Quinn loves tie dyed stuff, especially brightly colored ones.  So a project she wanted to try this summer was making some tie dyed stuff.  We gave it a go last week with some bottled RIT dye that you squirt on the items.  We tried a glue resist shirt that Beck had done at Art Camp, but we died ours with the squirt bottles (his group used spray bottles) and I think we saturated them too much, so you couldn't read the words we wrote on them.  We also tried a spiral pattern using rubberbands on another shirt, and it turned out great!  She had two white skirts, so we tiedyed one of those, and then we did some white canvas bags.  

It was not super fun, actually....tie dye isn't a great kid project because you have to be so careful not to get it anywhere.  It was a gazillion degrees out, so we had to work in the little spot of shady grass, then be really careful not to get dye on the patio (and still did a little, oops).  Quinn was also having some difficulty focusing this particular day and kept knocking stuff over and stepping in the dye, etc.  So it wasn't a magical experience....I might wait a few years before I do it with her again.  But now I am not afraid to tie dye stuff on my own, so I can keep that girl stocked up!!  

Cubby Day!

Friday was Quinn's school Cubby Day, which is the day they see their classroom, bring all of their items to school (rain boots, raingear, bug spray and extra clothes) and move it into their cubby.  

Quinn has the same teacher (the teachers move up with the grades) and the same classroom this year, so she just had to scope out her new desk arrangement and the cubbies were moved to a different spot, so she checked that out, as well!  Now she's ready for a strong start tomorrow!