Happy Not-Back-To-School Day!

 The kids in town went back-to-school today so that means we're celebrating Not-Back-To-School Day with some ice cram! The trampoline park was originally on the agenda, but with day two of dance team auditions tonight we put that one on hold for another day so as to not risk one of them twisting an ankle or breaking a leg or something like that happening. 

 Watching how ice cream is made totally counts as science, right?! 

A fresh batch of chocolate hazelnut goes into the tubs.

And just like that the summer has come to an end! Regardless of how your family learns, be it at home or at school, we wish you a most wonderful of Not-Back-to-School and Back-to-School weeks! May this year be full of many incredible adventures, teachable moments and memories to last a lifetime! xo 

Rose Ceremony Day

And so begins another year of morning lessons! Since we are always done with morning lessons by Memorial Day weekend we (generally) make it a point to start lessons again sometime in August. With the girls having two straight weeks of musical theater camp earlier this month we put off starting lessons again until today. And so, after everyone was dressed and ready for the day we gathered in the living room, put this beautiful song/video on and began our rose ceremony. Each girl crossed into the new lesson year and was, as is our tradition, given a rose and a love note. It is a beautiful and gentle way to start the new lesson year, and with it our autumn rhythm, too.

This year was the first year that the girls were not surprised by their new lesson supplies. Unlike years past where I would buy their supplies without them knowing this year they came with me and chose their own things. New scissors (since they aren't four years old anymore, which I'm pretty sure was the last time we bought kid scissors), new planners and journals, and new main lesson books (which they decorated the covers of today). While I have always enjoyed surprising them on Rose Ceremony Day with their supplies for the year, there was something fun about watching them choose what they wanted too. A new tradition for these older girls of ours, I suppose you could say.

So, regardless of how your family learns, be it at home or at school, we wish you all the most wonderful of Not-Back-to-School and Back to School weeks! May this year be full of many wonderful experiences, adventures and teachable moments to last a lifetime! xo

Celebrating The End Of Summer

On Friday, we gathered together with our friends to end the summer on a fun and colorful note! With school starting again this coming week it felt like the perfect way to mark the unofficial end of summer. It was a lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon and even lovelier that our gathering was able to continue into dinner and dessert later on!

Today brought with it a sweet ending to the summer with the Back to School Bash at New City Micorcreamery (or in our case the Not Back to School Bash)! Ice cream, balloon animals, face painting and a family photo booth picture made for quite a fabulous time!

And just like that the summer has come to an end! Regardless of how your family learns, be it at home or at school (or maybe even a little of both), we wish you all the most wonderful of Not-Back-to-School and Back to School weeks! May this year be full of many wonderful experiences, many teachable moments and many incredible memories to last a lifetime! xo

Rose Ceremony Day

Rose Ceremony day for us signals the start of our autumn rhythm. Roses are given (from sister to sister) along with love notes from mama and papa. Last year was the first year we experienced this very sweet tradition, and while it's traditionally done to welcome students entering first grade in a Waldorf school we decided to make it our own and have it be what shifts us into our autumn rhythm. Much like this post says "back to school" doesn't apply to us, but we do so love this time of year, and it really is lovely to have something that signals a change in the rhythm of our days, too. The girls have been looking forward to this day for weeks now, and I think it's safe to say it was all that they had hoped it would be! 

You know you're a Waldorf kid when your morning lesson supplies consist of a new pencil roll (for your lovely colored pencils), chalk, a chalk board, and (for Grace) a fountain pen! 

She was so excited to try out her lovely new fountain pen that she dove right in to a little cursive writing!

And in honor of Not Back to School Day a little ice cream was in order! The microcreamy was very quiet while we were there!

Regardless of how your family learns, be it at home or at school (or even a little of both), we wish you all the most wonderful of Not Back to School and Back to School weeks! May this year be full of many wonderful adventures, experiences and incredible memories to last a lifetime! xo

Morning, Noon And Night

Today we began our week with a lovely new tradition- a Waldorf inspired Rose Ceremony. I had read about this ceremony on various blogs that I frequent and couldn't shake the feeling that this was a tradition that we needed to add to our world too. With this notion on my mind and heart it worked its way into my soul even more when I saw this video of one school's Rose Ceremony. Maybe it was the song, or the sweet grade one students walking over to their grade eight buddy to receive their rose, whatever it was it just about did me in (and if I was that emotional over it I can only imagine what the mamas and papas of the kids were like).  So, roses were located, a sweet message to each girl was written and we welcomed a new year (and a new tradition) together today. 

After our sweet start to the day, the afternoon found us at Hopkinton State Park with other area homeschoolers for the Not Back to School gathering. It was a stellar afternoon spent with some kindred spirits and their sweet children. Kerry over at City Kids Homeschooling is one of my most favorite mama bloggers. To have the chance to finally meet in person was such a blessing! We have long known that we were kindred spirits and to spend and afternoon visiting only offered further confirmation of that fact. Through Kerry (and this gathering in general) today I am honored to have had the chance to meet Tracy from OFFKLTR. How she and I had not met in person before is beyond me but I am so very glad to have met her and her sweet girls today. Another kindred spirit indeed! Here's to the beginnings of a new circle of friends! Let our gatherings be frequent and plentiful! 

This evening brought the first day of the new dance year and with it Emma's first lost tooth! We had been waiting for this tooth to fall out for some time now, but especially for the last week where it was beyond loose. Leave it to Em to lose her first tooth at dance while practicing kicks! So tonight, the tooth fairy will be visiting her for the very first time. No doubt she will wake covered in glitter tomorrow morning and feeling just a smidgen older than she felt when she went to sleep tonight. What an amazing start to the week. I don't think this day could have been any more wonderful if it wanted to be! xo 

(Not) Back to School

This morning at the lake. 

Just another beautiful school day for us!

The arrival of this week brought with it the start of a new school year for the school kids in town. We haven't shifted into our new rhythm just yet as we are taking this week to "just be" after our very busy week in Florida last week (we hope you've enjoyed all of our stories and pictures so far. There's still much more to come). Instead, we are using this week to bask in the glory of our world -and our usual haunts- no longer being crowded. We're preparing and planning for all the fun we'll have in the days, weeks and months that lie ahead. We're replenishing things like glitter and googily eyes and stickers, and sharing our hopes and dreams for all that we'll learn together. But mostly we're just rolling as we usually do, seeing where each day takes us and the teachable moments that we'll encounter along the way.

This morning, while the girls were still sleeping and the house was it's most peaceful, I came across this blogpost that a friend of mine had shared on Facebook. It resonated deeply with me, and so many of Rachel's words could have been my own. And gosh, isn't every day fairy day (or gnome day) in everyone's homes?!

For a wee bit of humor during this not-back-to-school week I share with you this post. I've been giggling about it ever since (and I also love how much my mom loved this one too)!

And finally, it's always exciting when we come across homeschoolers in the things we love most. Case in point the character of Hazel in Dolphin Tale ("I'm homeschooled that's why I'm such a chatterbox!") and Martin and Sylvia from Sparkle Stories. We were thrilled that one of the current free back to school stories (scroll down to "Butterfly Gifts") is about Martin and Sylvia making gifts for their teachers- their mama and papa! Listening to the description of what homeschooling looks like in their family is like listening to what homeschooling looks like in ours, and for this reason the girls were even more enchanted with these sweet stories and characters than they already were. It really is such a treat for them to hear that others live like we do, especially at this time of year when it's all about back to school.

I've got some ideas bouncing around in my head about how we can celebrate the beginning of our new school year next week (here's to hoping that the items I ordered arrive on time). Regardless of whether they arrive on time or not we'll continue as we always have- living, learning, laughing and loving together each and every day. xo

Be sure to scroll down to see our post from this morning about another part of our Disney adventure last week. 

Flying High

A visit to the dentist for the girls this morning equaled two new planes (from the treasure area at the dental office). There is just something so magical about these little planes. And goodness, can they fly! xo

Be sure to scroll down to see our adventure at Clearwater Marine Aquarium if you haven't already!

On Not-Back-To-School Day

Happy Not-Back-To-School Day, friends! May this next year of living, loving and learning together be your best yet! And we hope that this Crappy Pictures post is the cherry on top of your Not-Back-To-School Day sundae today. Enjoy!

Seven Years And Counting

Two years ago on "back to school eve" I wrote about how we came to be a homeschooling family. Had we been a traditionally schooling family that night two years ago would have been Grace's last night before heading off to Kindergarten in the morning. With that in mind, and with the notion that if we were a traditionally schooling family this very night would be Emma's last night before heading off to Kindergarten in the morning, I decided that it was the perfect time to share a little bit about where we are on this journey.

Over these last seven years we've learned so very much. We've learned what works for us and what doesn't. We've learned who we can count on and who we can't. We've learned that this road is not without its challenges, but that those challenges help to make us an even stronger more connected family. Most importantly we've learned that there is no other path we'd rather be walking down. 

 We started living this lifestyle the moment Grace was born. Before we had any idea what it was we were doing, and before we knew that there were others that lived this way too. In all these years not too much has changed (though we clearly know what we are doing, and we now know other like minded families living this way too). We are still big believers in the use of daily (and monthly and seasonal) rhythms. We are still big believers in being deeply rooted in nature and the arts and in giving kids plenty of time to be kids and play and get messy. We are still big believers that they will do things when they are ready and not a moment sooner. And, most importantly, we are still big believers in the connectedness (and contentedness) that this lifestyle has blessed us with. 

About the only thing that has changed is that each day the girls and I sit down and do a little something. Oftentimes it comes out of one of our Oak Meadow books, other times it's something that we came up with on our own (a game, a project, an experiment). This became part of our daily rhythm because Grace was looking for a little something more. She came to us one evening last autumn and asked for help learning to read and learning "the big numbers" (meaning anything greater than ten). It was then that we added that little change into our day. It felt right because it was what she advocated for for herself rather than her having to do it because it was "time". 

There are many people that have asked us about the future over the years. "How long will you do this for?" "What about college?" things like that. And all that we can say is that we will do this for as long as it feels right to all of us. When it comes to college we don't look that far down the road. Right now, as high as college tuition is, we couldn't afford a minute there let alone four years. Who knows what college will be like by the time the girls are ready to go. Will it even exists as we know it today? Will it even be necessary? And more importantly will it even be what they want? We won't know 'till we get there, friends, and until then I'm going to sit back and enjoy the ride. For those who take comfort  in (and feel better with) statistics to back things up check out this handy little graphic that I have pinned to one of my boards on Pintrest.  

And so in the morning when the kids in town are heading off for their first day of the new school year we'll be getting up and having our usual mellow morning. Chances are one of us will remark that the school buses are back on the road, but other than that nothing will be any different for us. We'll simply go about our day as we always do, full of wonder and joy at another day spent living, learning, laughing and loving together.