Kindergarten Graduation

It's so hard to break out of that K12 mentality I grew up with.  I've come to the realization (after C told me in her own little words) that I am holding her back.  She basically told me she was bored with what we were doing, and asked when we were going to do harder stuff.  Wow.  I was trying to follow CM's method of not starting "serious" studying until she reached 6, but in doing so, I am making her wait, just like government school would.

I looked over the kindergarten requirements, and sure enough she has mastered everything.  So, I'm graduating her today.  I will officially have a first grader.  I am a little sad, and yet joyous in that God is teaching her so much, because it surely isn't my doing.  I seriously look at what I've been doing with her in our very relaxed way, and wonder how she's picked up everything.  God and my daughter continue to amaze me.  It is beyond me.  This is between God and her, and it's so wonderful.

We took her out to dinner at her favorite sushi place in celebration, and presented her with her own diploma.  She was very excited, and we were very proud.

Butterflies and Symmetry

Our homeschool group took a field trip to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  The girls loved it!  We will definitely be going back.  These are the books we read over the previous week.  We also covered symmetry because it fit in so nicely with the butterflies. 

Visiting Grandparents

Apple Picking!

Mason Neck State Park

Mailing first pen pal letter and playing at park.

Classifying Animals

C was playing with her blocks one afternoon. (8/26/10) She ran downstairs and excitedly asked me to come see what she made.  So I did, and this is what I found.  She had classified all her toy animals.  It really reminded me how much kids learn on their own, because we've never done this before.  I've never sat her down and said, "Classify this, or group these, etc."  It was just so wonderful to see another example of her demonstrating what she already knows and understands. 

Detective C's First Mystery: Surprise Sunflowers

A handful of sunflowers have popped up in my grandparents' backyard.  I was discussing with C how Grandma said she hadn't planted them.  I asked C if she could figure out how they got there.  It was so neat to see C's logic and thinking skills in action.  After she figured it out, she wanted me to record her answer to the Surprise Sunflower Mystery.  =)

Backyard Nature Study

We found a different type of mushroom growing in the backyard's mulched area.  They were a tad dried up by the time we found them.  C wanted to see if watering them would help, so we did that.  It also rained later in the day, so we'll check in a few days to see if they revived at all or if any new ones sprouted up.  It was neat, because this was her first self prompted science experiment.  I love that these nature studies are encouraging that type of thinking.  We also happened upon some tiny spiders.  C was amazed that within a few square feet of us at one point, were about half a dozen spider webs that we could see.  We also noticed quite a few dragonflies flitting around as well.

Green Gilled Mushroom

These popped up in our front yard after a lot of rain from the previous week or so.  I took the girls out in the heat to do a quick nature study.  We talked about the parts of the mushroom and the environment's conditions that were favorable for it's growth.  We identified it as a Green Gill Mushroom, which apparently is extremely poisonous, but we discussed why we should never eat wild mushrooms.  I had C sketch this as her very first entry in her nature journal.  I'll have to scan it in later.