Dear Future Emma….

I came across this when I was boxing up her Main Lesson books. It was too good not to share! xo

 

Gift of Knowledge

In which I clean out my side of our closet and create a box for each girl containing all their main lesson books from Kindergarten through this year. Hopefully we can fit a few more in Emma's box after her senior year next year! 

It's incredible to see it all together and realize that these bins contain their entire educational journey amd to consider that  each book was created by them with what they had learned each day of morning lessons each and every year. It was fun to look back and see the growth from little ones to now and to remember all the adventures and fun we had learning together! xo 

Scenes From Grace’s Psychology Block

 

One of Grace's final blocks of her senior year was a psychology block. It was a fun one to put together and we both really enjoyed it! It was fun to remember when I took psychology my senior year in high school and to think back on that class, as well as all the psychology classes I took in college. 

One night Grace comes to me and shares that she had just learned that in some AP Psych classes the students make rice babies (similar to the flour sack babies or the even older school egg babies) to learn what it's like to be responsible for a child but also to put all they had learned about the likes of Kholberg, Piaget, and Erikson (among others) into "practice: So we decided to add that into her block as well. 

Honestly, the five pound bag of rice was brilliant and actually felt alot like a real baby, especially if you held it on your hip like you would a little one. Grace used a pair of no longer needed dance tights to create her body, went to Savers and purchased the jammies you see in these pictures and I dug out the baby hat that she came home in from the hospital when she was born and she chose to name her Juliet Carolina (Carolina for the brand of rice she is)! 

Juliet went to dance every time Grace went to dance, and sometimes we took turns haning out with her. It was a really fun addition to her block and I am so glad she discovered this and wanted to incorporate it into what we were doing! xo 

Here We Go!

The new lesson year has begun!

I am not quite sure how it happend that it's Grace's senior year and Emma's junior year already but here we are. It truly feels like they were just entering the grades yesterday and yet here we are in their final high school years. I am grateful that we returned to life as a homeschool family last year, and honestly, I wish we did not give up those two years they were at Parker but I do think it served a purpose too. 

They have chosen some fabulous classes for this year and I am as excited to experience them as they are! I have no doubt it's going to be another fun year and, quite possibly, their best year yet! 

Wishing everyone, regardless on the type of schooling you do, whether it be homeschooling, unschooling or traditional schooling, the most fabulous of lesson years! xo 

In Celebration!

 

After a delicious lasagna dinner (made by David) we celebrated Grace, as well as Dave's parents 50th anniversary, with two of the most delicious cakes ever!

Boston Cream Pie Cake in celebration of Dave's parents' fiftieth, 

and Lemon Raspberry in celebration of Grace!

Two of our most favorite cakes from Flour. The perfect way to celebrate these special occasions and a sweet ending to the first time we were all together again after fifteen months apart! xo

Some Thoughts

The girls and I are starting to find our new rhythm. Much of what we have done all these years is staying the same, the only difference being that I now have work to do while they do their lessons. I realized a few things this evening as I was making dinner: 

1). The strong foundation we spent all those years laying has brought us to this moment.
2). They were more than ready for this. 
3). That I am so completely grateful they have grown up as Waldorf children. 
4). That even if I had not returned to work chances are really good that I would be pretty bored right now since they don't need me to guide them through their days like I did when they were younger. 
5). That I am so very grateful I still get to be home and witness to all the amazing things this year is holding for them. 

Being a mama is my absolute joy in life and my true calling. It is the greatest job I have ever had. It is what I know without a doubt that I am best at. It's not to say that I haven't made mistakes or had doubts, goodness knows I have, but it's the one thing in my soul that I know I was meant to do. I definitely had some weepy days leading up to returning to paid work (and as recent as this past Monday as a matter of fact) but something Monday night (and Tuesday morning) clicked. I think it's that we found our rhythm and that it was familiar and what we all were looking for and needing. And as soon as that happened I started to realize that for as much as things may have changed, in the end, they really have stayed the same. xo 

Grace's Astronomy Block

Though we weren't able to do all the things we wanted to with this block (due to the pandemic) we all still had a blast experiencing it! I learned so much right along with Grace and we are both looking forward to doing this block again next year when Emma does it. Here's to hoping we won't be dealing with a pandemic then too, so we can include things like the planetarium and books from the library (among other things)! xo

Early Explorers Block

 For Grace's early explorers block I found these wonderful trading cards on Teachers Pay Teachers that I knew she'd love! I remembered that when I was a kid how boring it had been to learn about these guys (all of whom seemed so very similar to me) and I knew that I wanted to bring this topic to her in a much more engaging way. 

First up was Columbus (our least favorite explorer). 

 She had the worst time coming up with one word to describe him so we decided to go rouge and use two. I mean we are homeschoolers after all! Going rogue is kinda in our blood! 

 

 Since the library is closed due to the pandemic we didn't have many books to pull from. Instead we used the info we had in the Oak Meadow grade six materials (Waldorf kids typical due the early explorers in grade seven) as well as from videos we found on YouTube. 

Today, she completed her final trading card- Leif Erikson. I think he an Amerigo Vespucci were her favorites. 

The trading cards really were so much fun! And there are many more that she could have completed but we wanted to make sure that we had time to do the much looked forward astronomy block that will take us right to the end of the lesson year in a few weeks! xo