Back to School

We started back to {home} school yesterday. We had a great start. We usually spent the first day getting back into routine and going over the "schedule". However, because we are completely CM now, the kids jumped right in. We started with our early morning walk, about an hour long. We found the source of our early morning alarm: a family of blue jays! They are so beautiful to watch, albeit loud. Ty has Internet on his phone so we were able to do a bit of research on them and the "noises" they make. When we first moved in, I thought a family with a small child must have an early riser that likes to swing. That is the call of a blue jay.

INTERESTING FACTS
*The Blue Jay's coloration is not derived by pigments, but is the result of light refraction due to the internal structure of the feathers; if a Blue Jay feather is crushed, the blue disappears as the structure is destroyed.
*They will sometimes prey on eggs and nestlings of other birds’ nests.
*Captive jays have been observed using tools and strips of newspaper to rake in food pellets from outside their cages.
*A group of jays has many collective nouns, including a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.

After our walk the kids and I made breakfast and started our morning chores. We finished up our lessons around 2:30, then we made yummy peanut butter balls. We finished the afternoon with readalouds while we enjoyed our snack. Overall, we had a delightful day and all work was completed with happy hearts. I could not ask for more.

Today, we started with our morning walk that included daddy and the dogs. We didn't linger long for we started out late, but still had a good 45 minute walk and exploration. We started off strong with morning work and bible study. We are using Mystery of History vol 1, for our bible curriculum. After each lesson is an activity. For today's activity the kids were to make Adam, Eve or animals out of clay. I thought they would spend about a half hour on this. Nada. They became inspired to create clay animations with the video camera and spent 3 hours on it. The finished project was amazing. I will post it later, if I can figure it out. lol. We did get to math and grammar. This is what I love about homeschooling. They were able to work together as a team and be creative, without interruptions of a harried schedule. They still completed their core work, yet were able to enjoy what interested them. Even my techno geek husband was impressed with the finished project. I love homeschooling. It is days like yesterday and today that make all the "other stuff" worth it. I guess I won't be flagging down the yellow bus after all...

Here is a video, this is not the one that took them hours with a tree and stuff, unfortunatley Ty deleted it by accident. You can get the idea though. I will post one they made with Breanna's dolls later. So funny!