Today marks the beginning of our second week of school!

Some of you may know that I was homeschooled up until high school. That means from 1995 - 2004 (Are you all doing the math to figure out how young I am? Yeah...thought so...) I was in homeschooler land.

The mid-late 90s and early 2000s was a time when homeschooling really started to take off and mainstream a bit. I've watched it grow up and change as a student, and now I'm revisiting homeschooler land as my kids are getting old enough to make us 2nd generation homeschoolers.

Here's some of the big things that have changed since I was a homeschooled kid.

Catalogs are in Color!

Back in the day, the few Catholic curriculum catalogs that existed were printed on newsprint. That meant black and white, and only black and white. 

Eventually, they added red. It was an exciting year.

Now those guys are practically magazines with glossy pages and full fledged articles!

Kids Can Be Around During School Hours and It's Not/Less Weird!

We used to stay inside or backyard only during school hours to avoid the "concerned neighbor" intervening in our home presence during the day.

Now, there are so many homeschooler specific days/events/programs all over the place. It's like people *want* us around!

Though part of me hopes the time honored hobby of watching the school kids come home is still a thing.

Way Better Support - Both Near and Far

I remember homeschooling being a bit of a pioneer adventure. If no one near you did the same style of homeschooling you were just fresh out of luck for method specific support. Now you can probably find a facebook group with hundreds of other homeschooling parents for your 4 category long (Catholic-Classical-Charlotte Mason Inspired-Great Books) specific homeschooling style. 

There are also such things as Facebook groups for Homeschooling with Netflix and Homeschooling with Youtube, that I tell you would have revolutionized my world of ordering past series from PBS. Or, perhaps worse, waiting for them to come to the local video store.
Took. So. Long.

Becoming Teacher

There are some things about being a former homeschooled kid that changed how I'm a homeschool mom.

For starters I have strong opinions about curriculum because I saw a lot of it from the eyes of the student having to use it. I know what I like and what works for me.

Abeka has pretty books, but gets a little weird in the science and history books in the later grades. A bit less than Catholic-friendly I would say...

Unschooling = stressed out Kirby

I love Great Books as a guide for being well-read, not so much as a stand alone curriculum.

I'm a lot less likely than the typical new homeschool mom to worry about things like doing school for more of the day, or socialization.

The dreaded socialization question.

Basically.

I cannot stress enough how much socialization was always going to depend on the kid and family - not the method of schooling.

It is plenty possible to lack social skills while having been in traditional school your entire life. I contend that one has to choose to participate in a society enough to be "socialized", regardless if the child is in public school, private school, or homeschooled. Choose something to participate in and you WILL be socialized. Promise.

Any other homeschooled kids turned homeschool parents out there? Does this sound familiar to you? What did I miss?

The Week in Which I Start ALL THE THINGS!

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes!

It feels so good to be home!

This week was our first semi-normal week post-ballet intensive for me, and of course I decide to start ALL THE THINGS! Because that's what I do. 

1

This was our first week of homeschool for my Pre-Ker!

John is super excited to be doing school with momma now. However, I've made the realization he was a little more advanced than I thought, so strict following of the lesson plans does not make sense right now. 

We're doing what they have for a week in a day or so until we hit the point where things are new for him. 

I'm just going to consider this week review and be fine with it.

2

In other homeschool news, our first field trip of the year is next week! We're going to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Think natural history museum, planetarium, and aquarium all rolled into one. It's amazing and free via the library's Discover and Go program. If you're in California, check and see if your library is participating. Best deal in town!

3

I also love school starting because we live in a college town so the beginning of the school year means brand new students and families are moving into the area!

Our official kick off event for the parish young adult group is next Friday, but we're already meeting new people at other events and masses. So exciting!

4

Return of the students also means the return of social dancing!

We have another swing dance coming up in November, and I just heard this week that the parish will be hosting an English Country Dance in October! Live music and everything.

I know we're not going to dress up to this level, but wouldn't it be so much fun?!

Dancing is contagious. :)

5

The Young Adults decided to form a team to compete in the official Harry Potter Trivia night down at a local bar.

Our team name is "Neville gonna give you up, Neville gonna let you down".

Yeah, we're that awesome. ;)

6

Other exciting start this week: The Zelie Group!

A group of Catholic mom bloggers have gotten together to form the Zelie Group and start a new weekly Thursday link up: JEI (Just Enough Info).

We are drawing inspiration  from St. Zelie Martin as a model for living deep faith while working and raising little saints. The Zelie Group will be a place to share this journey of motherhood, and lift each other up, even from a distance.

Keep an eye out for a Zelie Group facebook page and a Wordpress site in the works!

7

Go check out my fellow blogger members of The Zelie Group!

Jessica – Pinot Noir and Prayers | Instagram | Facebook
Alicia – Sweeping Up Joy | Pinterest | Facebook
Amy – Prayer, Wine, Chocolate | Instagram | Facebook

Kerry - Fishbowl Fortune | Instagram | Facebook

Introducing The Zelie Group and JEI (Just Enough Info)!

The past few weeks a couple other Catholic mommy bloggers and I have been working on getting a new internet community going to support each other in this vocation. We are drawing inspiration  from St. Zelie Martin as a model for living deep faith while working and raising little saints. 

The Zelie Group will be a place to share this journey of motherhood, and lift each other up even from a distance.

In an effort to get to know each other, the bloggers of The Zelie Group are starting a new weekly link up: JEI (Just Enough Info). We have found that the internet can be a place where we struggle to be seen as whole persons, and we want to change that in this little corner of the internet.

Each week we'll be asking different sets of questions. If you're a blogger, link up your post! Readers can answer in the comments.

This week is all about books in honor of back to school time!

1. What are you reading right now?

Nerd alert time! So... I'm reading 3 books right now. According to my husband that's doing good for me.

I feel like I'm going to be reading After Virtue for a while. It's dense, but oh so good! 

Part of my never ending effort to keep up with my super smart husband and priest friends.

I'm going to be leading an Endow group starting next month on The Dignity and Vocation of Women. With the announcement of the formation of a Vatican commission to study the question of women deacons, I figured I should probably read up on the question before spending my Friday evenings talking about women in the Church.

Just so I don't get too heavy in Church/Philosophy reading, I threw a fun history book in there! I'm not very far in yet, but it seems entertaining and an easy read so far.

2. Which of your kids books do you wish would magically disappear?

Goodnight Gorilla. Hands Down.

Why would I want to MAKE UP the words to a bedtime book?! Is that not, like, the author's main job?

Little kids don't just like stuff a little bit, they want the thing they like over and over IN THE SAME WAY EVERY TIME.

I also hated these books as a babysitter. I'm not telepathic, and thus did not magically know the Giraffe was named Fred and he has a whole backstory one has to tell.

Do not inflict this book on your poor, unsuspecting, babysitter!

End rant.

3. What was your favourite book when you were little?

I suppose the answer to this largely depends on what age of little we're talking about. 

In terms of actual kids books I adored The Olden Days. 

It's all about how people lived in 1800s New England. You get to see things like how a grain mill worked, blacksmith shop, and how to make cheese.

It is apparently so vintage you can buy it on Etsy. I suppose I was a hipster child.

*********

Your turn! Answer the questions in the comments or link up your post!

Make sure you read the rules of the link up and follow each of the hosts in some way.

Jessica – Pinot Noir and Prayers | Instagram | Facebook
Alicia – Sweeping Up Joy | Pinterest | Facebook
Kirby (me!)  – Under Thy Roof | Instagram | Facebook
Amy – Prayer, Wine, Chocolate | Instagram | Facebook

Kerry - Fishbowl Fortune | Instagram | Facebook

If you're linking up, feel free to use this image.

Questions for next week:

1. What is your best school memory from your childhood?

2. Do you have any back-to-school family traditions?

3. Markers or colored pencils?

I'll Just Make a Bigger Tent Over Here...

In case you haven't heard, the Catholic blog world has got a bad case of whiplash over the firing of Mark Shea and Simcha Fisher from the National Catholic Register.

Guys..... what cha doin'? Because Eye of the Tiber was looking a lot less like satire on this one.

One of the things I love about being Catholic is it's a BIG tent. There's tons of variation in here before you even get to the fringe. ( I totally admit there is a crazy fringe. We all have our struggles...)
I take offense at kicking people out of the tent's conversation box because they did not stay in arbitrary boundaries.

Catholics are not required to have allegiance to any particular political party. We don't always need to be pretty and inspirational in a motivational poster kind of way. Catholics are people, and sometimes people are messy.

If we can't handle having writers who might be salty, different, and willing to call you on your comfortable pedestals, then I question how the Register can say they are ministering "to the peripheries".

Simcha, in particular, did a great job of reaching me personally. How to think about self care as a service to others, when I seriously need a pep talk about taking little kids to mass, and the best piece of doing discernment with NFP I've ever read.  When I read her stuff I saw someone relatable - a real person. Someone who wasn't afraid to call us to harsh realities.

Yes, both of them can continue writing on other platforms, but it's not insignificant that one of our biggest Catholic newspapers is cleaning house like this. That tells me someone like me would probably not be afforded a place in the national Catholic conversation.

Ouch.

I'm not interested in the ever-building Catholic tribalism. My goal is to bring as many people into this big Catholic tent as possible, not to create more battle lines or find more reasons to draw our circles smaller. So I'm going to be over here patching the tent, and whoever wants to join in, even the Register, would be welcome.

Georgia Peach Engagement Party

Our friends recently got engaged and are planning a wedding for next summer in Atlanta, Georgia! We threw them a surprise engagement party with a Georgia Peach theme.

Decorations

The difficulty here is there is a very fine line between Peach and shade of pink, so sometimes I just had to go with close enough.

Peach Banner

Matt found these blank gold pennant banners at the Dollar Tree. 

I cut out a cardboard stencil to make peach bases of generally the same size. I liked using the textured scrapbook paper for these to add more depth to it. 

I finally bought an x-acto knife and it sped up this process tremendously.

I freestyle cut the leaves with my BFF x-acto knife. 

The Food

Obviously, Peaches are heavily represented among the food items, but also classic Southern dishes.

Baked Brie with Peach Chutney 

Peach Salsa
Blue Chips

Shrimp Etouffee with Rice

Corn Bread

Peach White Wine Sangria

Peach Iced Tea

Champagne/Sparkling Cider for the toast

Peach Layer Cake 

Couple Gift

We wanted to give the happy couple a souvenir from their surprise party.

I designed an image on Picmonkey, and Matt had it printed 11x11in at the copy shop. 

I attached it to a wooden craft frame we got at Joann's that I had spray painted white. The image is backed with foam board to give it a little more structure. 

We had all the guests at the party sign another foam board that attached to the back of the frame, post-signing, with hot glue. 

Voila, customized gift!

Happy Engagement Y'all!

And here's My Sunday Best!

Dress: Ross (and my rehearsal dinner dress!)
Sweater: Target
Shoes: Payless

Betty Bunhead Week - Ballet Intensive and a Surprise Party!

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes!

It's the last day of Summer Ballet Intensive! Here's how the week went.

1

Day 1 was hard and a little overwhelming with trying to learn the teacher's style, barre routine, and expectations. But I was still feeling pretty good about things until we got to Pilates class. 

Oh Pilates class....

2

Day 2 I had to work through a lot of morning soreness, but I really did quite well. No ankle brace or painkillers needed all day!

But everyone kept talking about Wednesday as something to be concerned about, and.....

3

....Wednesday turned out to be the Day of Reckoning for dealing with the sheer physicality of dancing this hard.

I started getting some sharp pain in my ankle that is still recovering from an injury two weeks ago. Sharp pain is bad, and we're never supposed to work through pain like that.

I went home a little early after that and spent the evening resting and icing off and on.

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Thursday we were back in business!

Mostly.

I have to remember not to overcompensate with the left foot just becuase the right is injured. No good having two hurt feet!

5

Thursday had a nice break for a surprise Engagement Party!

They are both from Georgia, and getting married in Atlanta, so it was a Georgia Peach theme!

I had a ton of fun with the DIY, and Matt planned all the peachy food.

More on that later!

6

Today is our last day of the intensive, and this afternoon is the Choreography class performance.

I'm really looking forward to showing the kiddos what Mommy has been doing all week. Some of these dancers I've been working with for months, but they have never seen my kids in person. 

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Which just means I get to annoy them with showing the adorable photos Matt sends me!

But, come on, look at sweaty curly haired cuteness!!!

I really did miss the kids a lot. I love dancing, but I yearned for that afternoon hangout time with the little ones. They're really fun and awesome tiny humans!

Ballet Intensive Day 2: Not So Bad...But What Happens Wednesday?!

I did so good today!

Not like everything was easy (not by a long shot), but the only pain I had was the expected muscle aches. I did not need the ankle brace (or painkillers) at all!

Dancing without the brace is such sweet freedom!

Because I'm hyper extended in, like, everywhere, I have to work harder than everyone else for really important basic things. Like alignment, getting over my toes, and pulling up.

I had exactly one turn where the instructor said "Nice turn, but..." and I just stopped listening for a second to dwell on the fact that someone said "nice turn" to me. :)

I got through Pilates class, and the dreaded 100s, by essentially imagining this:

When you normally eat dinner at 5pm, having something like Pilates at 5pm is just extra mean. 

So hungry! And at that point I want normal, hot food. Not this health bar business. 

But there's this thing everyone keeps doing....

Student: "Do we need pointe shoes for this class?"

Teacher: "No, flats. Save the pointes for Wednesday."

What happens on Wednesday?

Teacher: "If you think you're sore now, just wait until Wednesday."

What happens on Wednesday?!

Teacher: "Enjoy your break because you'll REALLY want it on Wednesday."

WHAT HAPPENS ON WEDNESDAY?!?!

I'm both gots-to-know curious and terrified to find out what happens today. 

If I don't come back, assume it was death by pointe shoe. Or something equally beautiful and painful.

Ballet Intensive Day 1 - In Which Pilates Tries to Kill Me

First day of the week-long Ballet intensive was yesterday! Here's how they day went.

I'm on "schedule as usual" up until about 11am everyday, so I'm still trying to get my morning chores done (laundry, unload dishwasher, etc.)

Since yesterday was the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, we also squeezed morning mass in there! A little bit of a circus when it's just me with the preschooler and toddler. But we made it!

I set John up with a puzzle, and let Therese get her much desired nap, when we got back from mass. Double load of laundry to fold and lunch to pack!

I'm a little over-excited about getting to pack lunch. I normally just eat leftovers/whatever I create out of leftovers. Now I have a real opportunity to try out all the cute Pinterest lunch ideas!

Mason Jar Salad - Vinaigrette, Carrot, Barley, Greens, Feta

Smoothie - Banana, Orange Juice, Raspberries, Tumeric, Ginger, Chia Seeds

With short breaks (lunch is 30 minutes, and other breaks between classes only 15 minutes) I ended up only eating the salad, smoothie, and apple.

Found a use for my detested toe socks! It stops the jars from clinking around in my bag.

The hardest part of the intensive is the first 2 hours. This is the initial class.

A typical class, even as a professional, is 1.5 hours so this is quite long. I've never worked with this instructor before, and I'm trying to learn his style and choreography while working longer and harder than normal.

This intensive is open to both beginners and more advanced students, and there was a parting of groups into Intro and Advanced. Even coming off an injury - I somehow ranked in the more advanced group. I really think I'm somewhere between those, but that wasn't an option. I'll just have to get that much better even faster!

My ankle made it, but it was a little touch and go sometimes.

I got to the end of barre and the pain really hit me. This is how far I could go without pain before too. I put the brace on and took ibuprofen (per doctors orders) and kept going.

But I've never tried to dance with the brace on, so there was a little learning curve to figure out how to articulate through my foot and releve with the added resistance.
If I pull this week off - I'm going to have amazing, developed muscles in my feet!

After morning class, we get our 30 minute lunch break. I make a point to try and take breaks AWAY from the studio space. A few minutes in the sun and fresh air does wonders.

For me the really fun part of the day are the afternoon classes.

We have an hour long speciality class. Yesterday we focused on some basic turns and "across the floor" steps: ballet waltz, balance, tombe, and pas de chat.

Pas de Chat

This is the stuff that will REALLY help later. Tons of combinations use these steps, and they just have to be muscle memory in your body to really *dance* them.

But after this class my ankle had swollen up significantly more than the other. Ice time!

10 minutes of icing, it was back to being about the same size as the other. That left me less than 5 minutes to get warmed up for Choreography class!

I love working on choreography!
We BLEW through the hour. A good rehearsal pace is 1 hour for every 1 minute of choreography. We did 2.5 minutes of choreography in the hour. We might have a lot of pieces to perform on Friday if we keep moving at this rate!

I was feeling really good after that class, and actually had a minute to text my husband back!

Then we got to Pilates. I'm not a newbie to Pilates, and I was ready to have this be the less difficult part of the day.
10 minutes in I got the worst cramp of my life in my right leg. Imagine a charley-horse, but in your upper leg and involving every muscle in your thigh and through your knee. Now make it last over 10 minutes at a time. Eventually the left leg started misbehaving too. 45 minutes of cramping later, and the painful attempt to roll it out, I was so ready to go home and recup.

Foam Roller - hurts so good!

Today my legs are sore, but they feel like workable sore. I'll have to be extra careful warming up and stretching. Much of our morning class is done on demi-pointe, and that can be a cramp inducer by itself.

We were told that on Friday, we can invite family and friends to come observe this class and see our pieces. Having a goal beyond just "getting better at Ballet" is very helpful for me.

Onto Day 2!

Off to Ballet Intensive I Go!

Awesome news everyone - I've been cleared to dance the Ballet Intensive!

Sort of anyway.

I still have to bring the brace and wear it if my ankle starts hurting at all or if I'm doing anything risky, like new-to-me jumps, that is likely to put a lot of strain on my ankle.

I'm prepared to spend most of the evenings icing my ankle, heating pad on my back, and squishing in all of my baby snuggles!

Seriously, not being with the kids so much of the day might just be the hardest part of this plan.

Child Care Plan

I decided I wanted to do this intensive before I really had a set plan for important aspects, namely child care.

Thankfully I lucked out, this is one of Matt's more flexible weeks at work. He's smooshing all the meetings into the morning hours, and staying with the kiddos from about 11:15am on. Luckily, a substantial part of that will be normal nap time. 

(This would be a good week to sleep well, youngin's!)

Ballet Workshop Schedule

Here's what I am anticipating the schedule to be:

11:30 Ballet Class (Barre and Center)

Break for Lunch

2:00 Speciality Class (This could be focusing on jumps, turns, pointe work, etc.)

4:00 Repertoire (Learning variations from established ballets.)

5:00 Pilates 

We'll be done about 6:00pm every day.

Food

I'll need to pack a lunch and a few snacks every day. I'll be experimenting a little bit to figure out what works best for me.

On the try out agenda:

Mason jar smoothies

Granola Bars

Nuts/Dried Fruit

Hummus and Veggies

Mason Jar Salads

Cheeses

Sandwiches

Since I normally have a lunch of leftovers/creative reusing of leftovers, this is a big break from my normal.

I have some things I know are my "rescue foods". Things like oranges or a square of chocolate, that can really help quickly if I'm fading, getting nauseous, or crampy.

Matt will be handling the cooking of the dinners this week. He's a great cook, but I'm still trying to get as much of the food prep or slow cooker stuff done in the morning.

And here's My Sunday Best!

I got exactly one photo out of my 4 year old photographer, so y'all get a peek at my jerry rigged curtains (aka. shower curtain hung up with thumb tacks.).

Dress: Kohl's
Infinity Veil: Veils by Lily

The kids did so good at mass today! 

Therese waited ALL OF MASS for the Sign of Peace. It's her favorite part. Sometimes she jumps the gun and starts trying to shake hands with the people behind us during the Eucharistic prayers, but she held it in today.

Bloglove - Blogs (and Bloggers) that Inspire Me

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes

I've been meaning to do a few technical blog stuff for a while. I'm approaching 150 posts and decided it was high time that I got around to making pages (and I DID! Way to go goals!) one of which was to be about blogs and bloggers that inspire me.

Well I happened to come up with a list of 7 so I decided to make it into a 7 Quick Takes first and spread some blog love around!

FYI, these are in no particular order.

1

Catholic All Year

While not very active as of late (for good reasons!) this was the blog that convinced me people like me might be out there. And on the internet!

Thanks for being you Kendra.

2

A Gentle Mother

A recent blog find for me and where I go if I want to feel inspired to better SAHM-it, revel in the beauty of how someone else does preschool homeschool, or just gaze at a gorgeous insta-feed. 

3

A Blog for my Mom

Host of the latest link up to show what we wear to church (My Sunday Best), I love Rosie's blog for feeling like chatting with the cool neighbor down the road. 

I dig how she views parenting and I like to live vicariously on her growing homestead. I dream of having a garden and chickens!

4

Fountains of Home

My favorite Canadian!

I learned about Christy's blog from the podcast she does with Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas - Fountains of Carrots. See what they did there?

She has convinced me that, while winters are hard, Canadian summers are gorgeous and well worth the winter. Maybe. I love that she writes about things like her love of cigars and G.K. Chesterton. Like a lot of G.K. Chesterton - you have 39 posts on Chesterton, Christy!

You're awesome.

5

Whole Parenting Family

My crunchy living Midwest inspiration! When I learned that moving to the Twin Cities for my husband's work was a possibility (more on that later!) I messaged Nell pretty much instantly with ALL THE QUESTIONS! Thanks for calming my nerves and convincing me that I don't have to lose everything I love about living in the Bay Area by moving to the midwest. 

I love her take on going to mass even though it can be a struggle with littles, talking nicely to your husband about parenting when you have littles, and pretty much everything in her super cute Etsy shop.

Oh yeah, she lives in an awesome turn-of-the-century house and #wholeparentinghouse is amazing.

6

Mothering Spirit

No one can make me cry more than Laura. I followed along during the heart-wrenching loss of her twin daughters, and her last post on miscarriage had me in tears.

She writes so beautifully, and powerfully, about hard and real trials of mothering.

She has a beautiful series of prayers for pregnancy and prayers for parenting that get at the heart of what I need to say when I can't find the words.

7

A Knotted Life

Bonnie has been blogging for a long time, and has so many great posts!

Catholic stuff they might not teach you in RCIA, her Sheenazing Blogging Awards (which is a great way to find awesome blogs you've never heard of... yet), and her son's (alleged) miracle through the intercession of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Her Pinterest Board, Bloggity Blog Blog, is where I go for blog inspiration and when I'm trying to learn all the behind the scenes technical blog stuff I never knew was a thing until starting my own blog. So much respect for all of y'all with pretty and functional blogs!

Who are your favorite inspirational bloggers? Note: these aren't all of mine, they're just the first 7 that came to mind. Don't be upset if you're not on here...yet!

Our Homeschool Plan 2016-2017

Linking up with Giving Up on Perfect for Works for Me Wednesday.

It's that time of year again everybody!! School time!

I'm pumped!

I always get pumped.

Deciding on, and starting, the plans for the new school year is probably the one annual decision making process that truly involves all family members for input and ideas. 

Here's what our little family landed on this year!

John (4 years old) is our only child doing anything formal, but 2 year old Therese will be tagging along and participating as she can/desires.

The Books!

It's our first year of formal lesson plans! 4 years is my transition year of sorts between super laid back preschool exploring opportunities and having true "school time" with mom.

We're using Catholic Heritage Curricula (CHC)'s Lesson Plans for Preschool & Kindergarten, I Can Find Letter Sounds, and I Can Find Numbers and Shapes.

John had a lot of fun doing 26 Letters to Heaven last year, and I'm keeping the book in our morning basket for the booklists, activity ideas, and saint coloring pages.

Morning Basket

This is a new addition this year!

Martianne at Training Happy Hearts wrote a post that finally convinced me this might be a homeschooling fad that works for me.

Here's what ours looks like!

Plastic Target bin on the table near the couch. I realized nearly all of my homeschooling is spent within 5 ft of this spot, so it's probably a good idea to put our homeschooling stuff there.

Here's what's in it!

• Golden Children's Bible
• 26 Letters to Heaven 
• Our CHC books
• Little Lambs lessons (I'm just going to put the whole envelope in there when it arrives each month)
• Items from past Little Lambs lessons that I like and continue to use (right now that's the Stations of the Cross for Families and The Holy Rosary booklet with illustrations for each of the mysteries.)
• Our current read aloud chapter book/big book (We just finished the first Harry Potter and Dinotopia. I have not decided on our next one yet.)
• A tote bag in the event school needs to be portable that morning!

Ballet

One big chance this year is John is starting Ballet lessons!

He'll have a 45 minute class once a week at the same studio where I take class.

I view Ballet as the grammar of movement. Just like I plan to have all of my kids learn Latin as a foundation builder for later studies, I plan to have them all take early Ballet to lay solid movement foundations.

And just like I don't expect them to become Latin professors or have full conversations in Latin, I don't expect them to become professional dancers. I do expect them to take in the lessons of reward for hard work and discipline, and the importance of getting the basics down.

Field Trips!

One of the perks of homeschooling is being around during the day to explore places when they're not crazy crowded. I'm aiming for a once a month bigger field trip to encourage us to do the work that it is to pack little kids into a car and drive somewhere out of the ordinary.

Here's our working list.

August	Cal Academy
September	Fire Station
October	Fleet Week SF & Hoe's Down Festival
November	Oakland Museum of California
December	Texas exploring
January	Habitot Children's Museum
February	Marine Mammal Center
March	SF Cable Car Museum
April	Tilden Little Farm
May	Zoo Trip!

As much as possible I selected places that were either free, cheap, or on the library Discover and Go program that lets you get passes to different museums. 

Now that Therese is starting to drop the morning nap (blessed child holding onto that so long!) it'll be easier to do a morning trip and be back for big naptime.

We'll be starting in the coming weeks. Pretty much when our books get here. Because that's how we roll.