Whew, we made it!

It was a beautiful morning, but we missed most of it. At 8:00 a.m., everyone was still asleep.


I'd anticipated that it'd be tough going, and I'd already planned a late start and light schedule.

Our literature read aloud is Wind in the Willows. I'm loving this book. While I don't care about a rat, a mole, a toad, the author's writing style is wonderful, unique, and I see the animals as little old men. Thanks to Teaching the Classics, I did some very minor research into author Kenneth Grahame's life. This has put an interesting spin on the book that makes all of us appreciate his writing a little more.

The kids reviewed their memorization notebooks and did math, also just review. And we reviewed the Latin flash cards from last year. They did some independent reading while I fixed lunch. There was more review, going through their timeline notebooks remembering what they'd learned in history last year, and then we went over the last history chapter we'd read last year.

Trevor has decided to check out the homeschool chess club and was anxious to brush up on his chess skills. He played Fritz and Chesster on the computer.


Holly and I started reading The Bronze Bow. I didn't think she'd appreciate it on her own, and for some reason, she was expecting something like The Other Side of the Mountain (which she disliked very much, thank you). One chapter into The Bronze Bow and we are hooked.

Both kids had assigned "free time" (specific time set aside for them to do something of their own choosing). We finished up with a fun way to closely estimate the age and height of trees. It was right in the middle of the afternoon, a little too hot to enjoy, but we'll do it again soon. I can be quite sure we'll never run out of trees, lol. They measured three, determining the ages to be 4, 27, and 40something. (I know at some point a dairy owned all the property that is now our street, and I hope to find out more info.)


As we settle in, we've managed to get our town runs down to once every two days. It's also an adjustment to go NOwhere for the entire day. I've gone a few days with NO makeup at all (never would normally happen), and I've worn clothes that I'd NEVER normally wear (like shorts). Living out here is freeing for me, I think.

We went to town today with our ultimate goal Dairy Queen ice cream to celebrate our first day of school. I had my camera and totally forgot to pull it out. I was too excited that the kids working at DQ made me a Mr. Misty Float. They've not been on the menu for years, and Mr. Misty's are now called something else. In our usual predictable and set way that I find so comforting, we all had the same thing that we each chose last week; the exception was the Holly chose a different flavor of Blizzard.

After dinner, the kids and I walked down the street. Trevor, being ever observant, found a run-over-and-dried-out frog/toad on the road, and also run-over-and-dried-out preying mantis.


We don't have a great view of the sunset at our house, but it's typically an amazing combination of purple and orange.


So a decent first day, and we can make it through this week (at least!) for sure!