homeschool days

Second grade is coming along just fine.  Just about 2/3 of the way through, which, even though we were close to the wood stove the other night, makes me daydream of warm summer days coming.  I must say, I myself am learning (re-learning?) a lot.  It's good, the re-learning.

While there are mornings that we falter a bit to find our groove (usually the mornings I give in to that call to take things super slow and easy, which sounds so appealing but often leads to frustrations and a bit of eye-rolling when it is time to get down to work...), mostly, things are going quite smoothly.

We continue to begin the morning with a bit of math (lately multiplication, measuring, fractions) and language (a mix of spelling, cursive, grammar, creative writing, and read-aloud), and then follow those with social studies (current events, history, and our continent studies- currently Europe), science (most often nature studies and biology), and a bit of piano practice before heading to art class together for the afternoon.  Some mornings there are either horseback riding or piano lessons (the ukuleles have fallen to the side for the time being, though they still get picked up on occasion).  One morning a week we help out at a local nonprofit's food distribution market, and that has been such a wonderful and worthwhile addition to our week.  Sometimes it is just Claire and I and sometimes papa makes it, too~ I think it inspires all three of us to look for more ways we can serve our community.  It's good.

In between the actual sit-down-at-the-table-and-work parts of the morning we fit in some breaks and art and, as the weather warms, garden and outdoor chores and tasks.  I've been sifting and spreading the compost and doing a bit of prep work in the garden beds.  On Monday we readied some beds and planted spinach and peas, seeded some calendula and larkspur and poppies.  A bit early, yes, but we'll see.  Sometimes it is just too hard to resist the call to get in the soil that certain warm late-winter  days seem to put out.  I am weak when it comes to that.  I will nearly always give in and risk putting some seeds in.  The hardy ones, at least.  What can I say?  We are eating over-wintered greens out of the garden beds and spying daffodils and dandelions and violets peeking up, so there's that.  She was happy to join in, tucking peas below the warmish soil and neatening up her fairy garden to give the blooming pansies and daffodils a bit of breathing room.

Soon the phlox and primroses and tulips will bloom.  And then the hawthorne, the lilac.  Irises.  Our wisteria is covered in hundreds of buds and I watch it anxiously- hoping so much to see the long purple flowers covering the bush and the arbor it has grown up and over but knowing that if the last couple years are any indication of how things will go then the buds will bite it in a hard frost and then fall to the ground, crispy and brown.  Fingers crossed.  How pretty it could be.