A Trip to Hanson's

We visited Hanson's Garden Village today in celebration of Grandma Patti's birthday.  We had such a good time enjoying their fall activities last year, that we decided we needed a repeat.  We picked out pumpkins and some fall plants, paid a visit to the cows (Simon's favorite), and the big kids and Grandma had a blast finding ALL of the stops in the corn maze.  They also had a scarecrow competition going on and it was really fun to see the many creative entries.  It was a beautiful sunny day (we've had such a warm fall!) and it was really fun to spend this time together with Grandma on her birthday!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Patti!

 Due to covid, Eric's side of the family has not been able to gather all together since October of 2020!  It has been hard to be apart, but now with all the adults vaccinated, we were excited to gather for Patti's 65th Birthday!  She wanted a low-key affair, so we gathered for a boat ride, pizza, and cake at Tom and Sara's house.  Eric made her a poppyseed cake from scratch, which is her absolute favorite.  It was so nice to be back together again and we look forward to more time together this fall!

Homeschool - September

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we were planning to send our kids back to in-person school at Pelican Elementary.  However, when the school board decided to disregard the recommendations of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics in regards to face masks, we felt that we had no choice but to keep our kids home for another year.  The rise of the Delta variant meant that Covid cases were becoming more prevalent among kids and since our family did well with homeschooling the previous year, we decided that it was not worth the risk.  Most children recover well from Covid, but with the onset of Delta, there are more hospitalizations and we still don't know the long term effects of having the virus.  If one of my kids ended up with heart or lung trouble down the road because I didn't do all I could to protect them, I would have a really hard time being okay with that.

The kids were mostly okay with the idea of staying home again.  This year, we would not have the benefit of the neighbor kids being home with us, as they were all going back to in-person school.  I think we were all a little sad to see them head down to the bus stop without us on the first day.  I questioned many times if I was doing the right thing.  But I knew deep down that this was the right choice for us, and that our kids would be fine and would thrive like they had in the past.  And they have!  We connected up with the Vadis family, whose girls are also staying home this year.  Tatiana and Elsa have been an absolute Godsend.  We gather with them at least once a week and despite the age difference, they all get along absolutely beautifully.  

I also instituted the use of sensory bins this year, giving the kid whom I'm not working with at the moment, something concrete to do.  These have been especially helpful for Olivia, who prefers to do her work in small bits, and for Simon, who feels like he has work to do too!

We made all about me posters on  the first day of school.

We had stuffed animal day.

We made a lapbook for the book, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."  We talked about community helpers, where our food comes from, compound words, and weather.

Livi spends a lot of her afternoons playing pretend.  This time she made her own fancy restaurant, complete with a menu.

It has been an absolutely beautiful September and we spend a lot of time outside.  We take walks together and play on our swingset quite a bit.  Olivia loves the sandbox.  Simon loves the swings.  

We have been making weekly trips to the library for a while now and it is a definite highlight.  Simon absolutely loves seeing Franklin the Turtle and Axel the Axolotl, and can't wait to find his favorite "Cat Party" book.  (He thinks the kitties on the cover look like the Koo Koo Kanga Roo video for the song, "Cat Party").  They have craft projects and story time kits and of course, so many wonderful books to check it.  We love our library!

Sometimes homeschool is about teaching life skills, so when the kids begged me to let them wash and vacuum the car, I didn't put up a fight.  

We decided to follow along with the school's Homecoming week spirit days.  The first day was animal day, so the kids picked their favorite animal to research and write a report.  Olivia really got into with and dressed the part too!

The next day was Farmer and Flannel Day, so we went to Grandma's greenhouse and picked vegetables.  When we got home, Olivia played farm with her play horses and made a field of kinetic sands with beads as plants.  Later, we made zucchini bread with zucchini we picked that morning.

I didn't take a group picture, but the following day was comfy cozy day, so we wore our pajamas and robes.

We talked a lot about why leaves change color in the fall.  We did a leaf chromatography experiment with different colored leaves we found in our yard.  We saw the different pigments come through on our paper towel strips.  

Though it took a lot of courage to decide to homeschool again, I feel like this is the right choice for our family right now.  Our kids are thriving and are learning so much, and I am once again, grateful for the extra time with them.