Fall 2008

These are some of the highlights and everyday moments that have made up our lives over the past month or so. We went on a camping trip with our homeschool group to Cunningham falls in Maryland. We've also enjoyed going to Cox farm, Great Falls & lots of parks and playgrounds. There has also been lots of playing with Lego, Barbie, painting & creating.

Food for thought

"When we adults think of children there is a simple truth that we ignore: childhood is not preparation for life; childhood is life. A child isn't getting ready to live; a child is living. No child will miss the zest and joy of living unless these are denied by adults who have convinced themselves that childhood is a period of preparation.How much heartache we would save ourselves if we would recognizechildren as partners with adults in the process of living, rather thanalways viewing them as apprentices. How much we could teach eachother; we have the experience and they have the freshness. How full both our lives could be." John A. Taylor

Fall field trips

This is the perfect time of year to get out and about with friends and explore the community. We had lots of fun at Meadowlark Gardens where we fed turtles and ran around with giant deer. One of the reasons we homeschool is to discover our talents and we discovered one of George's. He beat us all at bowling. Whether he was using the ramp, or the between the legs technique he seemed to always hit lots of pins. Could there be a future there? One of our favorite fall destinations is Cox Farm. We had a blast going through the corn maze, sliding on giant slides, looking at the baby pigs and running around with the goats!

"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty."
~Albert Einstein

New Beginnings

This past week Millie had her first ballet class and her first day of preschool. She did great! She was excited for both and barely had time to say goodbye she was so busy having fun. George started the big kids yoga class this week. One hour and fifteen minutes of real yoga and he loved it! We also had a great field trip apple picking with our friends. We had the whole place to ourselves and the highlight was definitely rolling down the grass covered hill.

We finished listening to "The Indian in the Cupboard" and have been excitedly counting to one hundred. In a bit of government studies, we volunteered with the Virginia Democrats for the morning. We're talking about letters and sounds and patterns. George and I started reading "The Number Devil." The concepts in it are a bit advanced, but the story keeps the intrest up as we wade through all the numbers.

Just so you don't think this homeschooling thing is all fun and games, we also went to park day and played with our friends in the rain. OK, so it is all fun and games. Just don't tell anyone.

Not Back to School

The big yellow bus rolled up and we didn't get on it. I guess we're officially homeschoolers now. Not 'planning to homeschool,' or 'probably going to homeschool,' but really doing it. Other than how I answer questions about school for George, however, not much has changed. We're still leading full, fun, sparkly lives together and learning all the time from everything we do. Some of the places we learned this week were the Lake Anne Coffee house, on play dates with our friends, in the creek behind our house, at the Air and Space Museum and at park day.

Summer Highlights

Wow, I've really slacked on the blog. To catch up, here is a random array of photo's to re-cap our summer. A kind of "what I did on my summer vacation." I already can't remember it all, though I do know it went by fast!