Daddy Daughter Dance

More text to come.

Sorry, I never got to add more text. Here are some pictures.

Here are the girls all dressed up. I sewed some ribbon onto their Easter dresses.

Here I am dancing with Glitter. We both love spinning around in twirly skirts.

Here's Wander and his girls.


Wander and Sparkle at the end of the line, closest to the camera.

Wander and Glitter dance.

Sparkle and Wander dance.

Homeschool Group Art Club

We had our last meeting of our homeschool group art club yesterday. I finally felt that I had a handle on what supplies to bring:
- music on the iPod (if I don't have music already, don't bother hunting for stuff at the library, just get it from iTunes)
- prints for the artist (full page home printouts are okay if nothing else is available)
- coloring pages for the artist (I found a new way of creating coloring pages from any picture)
- journaling / notebooking pages
- children's story-book featuring the artist for the preschoolers
- children's biography of the artist

We had a good turnout for this last meeting. The kids had fun and the moms helped out. We got off to a shaky start when I was unable to pawn-off the introductory activities to another mom, but things got better when the kids started their small-group work. The kids stayed on task and I was amazed that the oldest group of kids was still working hard when all the younger kids had run off. I got to sit at Sparkle's table and discuss a picture with them. Guiding a small group is my favorite part. I can't handle corralling the preschoolers with their non-existent attention spans, but it's fun to help the school-age kids notice things and make connections. I'm still working on my pet peeves: getting each kid to say at least one thing about the picture, getting the kids to write their names on their papers, and getting the kids to put away their stuff at the end instead of leaving a jumbled mess on the table.

It was really *hot* after lunch during the nature club but that's another topic.

[INSERT PICTURES]

I'm not sure what next year will hold for the art club. At first I thought it would stay the same, and just change up the artists. However, some of the moms were talking of expanding the day with more activities. We'll see. This year was my first experience co-leading an activity for the group. I suck at leading group activities. I am far more of a follower than a leader. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it or explain why not. Ask me to lead something and I usually fall apart. Fortunately I had a wonderful lady co-lead the art club with me.

Ack that most of this post is just random sentences. The text is formatted to look like a series of paragraphs, but they don't hang together. Oh well. I don't care and I don't want to take the time to make sense. This post is mostly just a placeholder to remind me to post the few pictures I took yesterday.

school's out

I decided to end the school year about a month ago because I was feeling worn out with schooling. However, April seemed dreadfully early to end the school year, and I plan to school lightly during the summer, so I didn't tell the kids. I just lightened up our schedule and skipped school on lots of days. Then May rolled around, and I felt brave enough to tell Wander that my "school year" was done. I still didn't tell the kids and the change in our daily routine has been so gradual that they don't see a clear distinction. They just get a lot more play time.

Back in September, Glitter had an official "first day of school" at her preschool, and I officially started Sparkle on the same day for simplicity. Next week Glitter will have an official "last day of school" at her preschool. I'll probably tell Sparkle that it's also her official last day of First Grade, even though in my mind, we've been done with the school year for a while. The beginning and end of the school year is totally arbitrary anyway, because we start and stop textbooks whenever Sparkle is ready for them and whenever she gets done, regardless of the time of year.

Since Glitter will be homeschooled for pre-K in the fall, we probably won't even have an official start date in the fall. Thank goodness the homeschooling laws in my state allow me this flexibility.

force-field

"They must think it's a force field or something."
- Sparkle, referring to birds repeatedly flying into the living room windows while we try to do school.

Making mistakes to learn

When we're doing school, I tell Sparkle that you have to make mistakes to learn. If you don't make any mistakes, that means that the material is too easy for you and you aren't learning anything.

However, I don't really believe that idea myself. I don't think that mistakes are *required* in learning. I think that with careful guidance it is possible to learn many things without making mistakes. For example, it is possible to learn how to ride a bicycle without ever falling over. But if you allow mistakes, teaching is easier and learning is faster. Thus, I support making mistakes when learning.