Seeds, Sports, and other Excitement!

May has finally arrived and some milder weather along with it!  We have been spending most of our days out at playgrounds and having outdoor adventures.  To be truthful, the two little ones we have in foster care with us right now have been very difficult for us to manage and daily life has had to change to accommodate them for now.  But we have tried to make the best of it and make adjustments where we can.  One of the many beauties of home schooling is that we are able to go with the ebb and flow of life in a natural way rather than being on a set calendar.  

In April we got some seeds ready and planted them in little discs.  We planted sunflowers, pumpkins, zucchini, morning glories, and poppies (Angels Choir Mix and Ladybird Mix).

Poppy wrote some notes in my garden journal.

We put some seeds in a baggie with paper towel and water to watch which ones started to sprout first.  We hung them in the window.  The sunflowers sprouted first and then the green beans.  Then the paper towel was full of mould since I put too much water in them so we didn't get much further!

Rowan read a book about seeds to the other kids!

Poppy likes to have her 'desk' set up a certain way.  She actually sits quite often and writes letters, numbers, notes for people, cuts and tapes things, and so on.

Rowan started hockey late April.  It hasn't been as much fun as I think he was hoping for and some of the kids are much more experienced and a little rough.

We met up with some friends in April at Confederation Park and happened upon a few magical little spots.

 Poppy finished her ORFF Music class with a little show and party.  It has been a lovely class and so perfect for her.  She doesn't get super excited to go but once she is there she enjoys it.  It includes movement and some early music reading, along with very familiar and old songs and rhymes.

We celebrated Poppy's 4th! birthday in April as well!

We had a week or two of little parties and celebrations just for her.  She got a little Gnome Garden to put together.  The grass she planted by seed grew so fast!

And Rowan completed All About Spelling Level 1 - took just about a year to complete!  We go through fits and starts of different subjects so there were definitely lots of breaks. I attended a wonderful conference at the Waldorf School here this Spring that refreshed my enthusiasm for the Waldorf approach.  So I have moved away from sitting down every day doing traditional math, spelling, and other curriculum (not just because of the needs of the other children in our house!)  We will have a new plan for the Fall or possibly sooner.

 Poppy's first real Transformer drawing, along with her brother's name, printed at the bottom.

We have been busy with lots of other things - will update more soon!