After many, many days of rain and clouds, today has been simply beautiful. The sky is a brilliant blue and without the steady rain, I can open all of the windows and let the house air out a bit. I had gotten really behind with the laundry, not having a dryer and relying on the clothesline. So, today I did about 6 loads in total and it feels good to have the gigantic dirty clothes pile out of the closet and fresh sheets and blankets on all of the beds.
I haven’t updated in a few days, so here are a few pictures that I’ve taken recently.
On Friday, there was a “Scales and Tales” presentation through the local Naples Library. We met many friends down there and everyone enjoyed the menagerie of creatures.
Our host with a rather feisty Monitor Lizard.
Petting a Water Snake.
Nice necklace, Nico!
Luna’s not quite sure what to think about a snake around her neck.
Then after the program, Nico and Kaya had 2 of their friends over for a slumber party. It was a Giggle-Fest for sure. They’re all such good friends.
Sunday was a nice day, despite a drizzly start. After church, Jay’s Mom and Step-dad came over for a while. We managed to get the girls in bed early and Jay and I got to spend a bit of time togehter for our Anniversary.
Today, it was wonderful to wake to a warm, dry breeze. As the morning went on, the skies cleared completely and we were able to soak in some sun. Because we are technically on our Summer homeschool schedule, the morning’s sit-down work was light. Nico wrote an essay about a book she just finished, The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple. Kaya wrote a character study on Sarah from the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy. Then they did some quick math review and I shooed everyone out to enjoy the beautiful day.
For Art, the girls did some watercolors and experimented with wax resist using white crayons.
Luna is finally started to get the hang of using water colors. I have found that she gets better results if I have her repeat after me: Dip, dip (in the water), scrub, scrub (in the paint pan), paint paint.
This is Kaya’s kitty inspired work. Nico was not as thrilled with her end result, but as I told her, art is as much about the process as it is about the product.
Here’s a few pictures I took around the house today.
Last picture, I’ll keep small so as not to creep out my Mom. This is a smaller version of the Nursery Web Spider I found stuck to my sliding door a few weeks back. This one is holding her egg sack, which is a common trait of this kind of spider. Even at half the size of the one I found previously, she’s still darn big.
On the topic of homeschooling, I am getting more and more excited to plan for our upcoming adventures in learning. As many might know, we do not follow any set curriculum. I have always just kept myself a few steps ahead of the girls so that I can adjust what we’re doing to where they are at with their abilities. Recently, though, I have learned about a few different curriculums like Sonlight, which are very heavy on the literature. As I looked through their catalog, I became inspired to swing towards a more “literature-rich” slant. We have always been really into reading and books, but I have started being more deliberate in the choices of the books we focus on. I have already seen Kaya and Nico become inspired by reading and listening to some great, classic literature. I will come back tomorrow with some links that I have really enjoyed lately regarding children’s books.