The time has flown since I last sat down to write. Two weeks ago, our life was chaotic and out of balance. We have since slowed down and found our rhythm again. Last week was finally back to “normal.” Everyone awoke, ate, played and headed to the school room each day. We had our morning meetings and everyone got to work.
A few things helped. Taking the time to review what has changed is so helpful when trying to uncover chaos. In my last post, I took the time to look at what we were missing. I realized we had lost our rhythm and not been going outside as much. Last week we focused on these areas as well as finding some fun research.
Parks is taking a class called Animal Discoveries at Latta Plantation Nature Center. His first class was on reptiles, and the second was on amphibians. We are using this class to guide some of the children’s research, and to give Parks an opportunity to be the teacher (being the youngest, he doesn’t get the opportunity to teach as much as to be taught to). For the past few weeks, the kids were supposed to be researching a reptile or amphibian of their choice. Of course, nothing happened with the research other than hitting the library two weeks ago when I was hitting my head against a wall. 🙂 Last week, however, the kids got to work. They all researched and learned and shared.
On Thursday, the kids went to Latta and took a look at the reptiles and amphibians.
We ended the week by celebrating the winter solstice with a hike and some hot chocolate. It was a cold hike but so worth the ending. We watched the sunset over the lake with its beautiful shades of yellow, orange, pink and purple. We are looking forward to the longer days to follow!
Using his binoculars, Parks is on a mission to find some birds.
Waiting for the sun to set.
It’s beautiful!
Sunset on the night of the Winter Solstice.
Simple Days Make for an Exciting Adventure 