2nd Grade and Kindergarten

 These munchkins are ready for their first day of school. Hannah will be in 2nd grade and Chloe in kindergarten. Once again, I question homeschooling and sincerely ache for what some things they will be missing in public school. But I know they are gaining something immeasurable in the meantime.

They specifically requested to study India for their first week. I don't many pictures because we mostly read books and did written work, but they have begun new scrapbooks for the year and filled them with pictures, maps, sheets about similes and metaphors, etc. 

 

We did try spice painting, which didn't yield any pretty results, but it was fun to experiment with- and smell, of course.  India brought about several excellent conversations such as the well photographed social inequality in Dubai- the wealth and poverty in such obvious proximity, and the grandness of the Taj Mahal. We talked about good, bad, right, and wrong, and how the lines are quite blurred when it comes to who has money and who doesn't. 

For Colin, I'm simply trying to get his pencil hold, basic alphabet, and ahem, behavior ready for preschool!

 Something new I've added this year is a a designated quiet time. Dax and I made tons of activity folders and I collected lots of ideas on Pinterest. So far, they love it and even request it. Each kid picks a room in the house and they stay there!! For a long time! And angels sing.

 For their second week of school, we hit the road to Tennessee. Our theme of the week was insects, and my parents' wooded property offered plenty of examples to study. Our own garden has tons of different grasshoppers right now, so we also studied those closely. We did thumbprint bug-in-a jar art, invent-your-own insect, and butterfly paintings. I might just save up the artwork for the 1st 6 weeks and just post those all together. We read plenty of books on insects and completed diagrams of their parts. I was pleased when the kids found a cicada skeleton on our garage and shouted about the exoskeleton. : )
In the meantime, they got lots of family time. Melody and Chloe are above sharing a moment on the wonderful deck.

 Colin spent a lot of time with my mom's little erector set.

 These three were ecstatic to spend time with their cousins.

 The adults put together a pretty fun scavenger hunt for the kids on the 4th of July.

Baby frogs were abundant so everyone got the bonus. 

We had a wonderful 4th with plenty of activities and family memories. 

Chloe and Hannah got a chance at some Steinways...

 On the 5th, another something special happened. My dad was honored with having his name engraved in Amro Music's Music Educator Walk of Fame. If you grew up in our household, you knew the name Amro. It was a constant topic, and my dad even worked there for a stint. He's been a band director for 30 plus years and recently retired. In that time he built up band program after band program and his bands won numerous awards. He also developed the Time for Band method books that so many programs in Tennessee and Arkansas use for their middle school programs. He wrote countless pieces for his bands that also continue to be performed. He taught all three of his daughters in his bands, and of course, instilled in me a love of music that makes me a large part of who I am. I absolutely plan on passing that down. Colin asked, "What about Grandma?"  And he's right. If there was a walk of fame for incredibly inspiring teachers for hundreds of kids (including so many troubled children) she would have a thousand stars. What amazing parents!! 

 Here's Daddy with a few of his long time supporters. Several of these band directors have known me since I was born. It was moving to see them still standing beside him.

 Goofing around at lunch.  I'm convinced kids will remember all our fun faces even more fondly than they remember the picture perfect smiles.

 On our way home, Chloe was extremely pleased to get her own hotel suite with her own tv screen.

In other news, I was very thankful to be part of a beautiful production of Titanic the Musical with Lyric Stage. The music was so wonderful and the cast was so moving that I teared up several times myself. Several family members came, including my parents, who were in town. It's always a gift to share a performance with them. All those practice hours as a kid come around to something tangible eventually right?

 Hannah has been drawing nonstop. She's drawn several pictures of her "dream room," which apparently includes shelves full of candy and witches with invitations to go hexing. ????

 Both girls participated in a morning opera camp and Hannah completed a 4 day piano camp. Chloe is anxious to be included next year. They'll do one more arts/acting camp in August. It's not hard to see where our priorities lie! In any case, I'm really proud of Chloe's accomplishments in music. It's sometimes hard to follow in a big sister's footsteps, but she's paving her own way!

Our school topic for next week has yet to be decided. I spent a lot of time planning several weeks of lessons ahead of time so I can have a little more flexibility, and it looks like we'll need it with our busy schedules.

 Since I'm not on Facebook currently, I'll be posting a little more often on daily happenings and any 'interesting' quotes from the kids. :  )