Homeschool - Day 1

No, don't worry, I'm not going to give a day to day account of our homeschooling experiences, but today was special - our first day!  Ruby has been so excited to start homeschool.  For the last 2 weeks of school holidays, every night has had the same question "Can we start tomorrow ?"  And finally last night the answer she wanted to hear "YES!"

Two excited little girls...they couldn't believe their luck when I told them we were going to the playground AND for a walk so early in the morning.  Ruby had been wanting to START school since 6:30 am! 

I sort of had a plan of how I wanted our day to go - that pretty much went out the window right from the start, but it really didn't matter, because we had a great day.

Ruby rode her scooter, and we stopped to notice how the bark was coming off the trees.  We looked for some Autumn leaves, but I guess we are in the wrong part of the world for that - everything is green and lush, we don't really notice the change in seasons much here, except by temperature - hot and hotter !  We have noticed that it has become a bit more windy lately though.

Marlise enjoys looking at the world from her perch on my back.

Along the way, Ruby noticed this tree that was shaped like a Christmas tree.  She got really excited, and we stopped for ages while she decorated it with sticks and bark and stuff.  Then we had competitions to see who could throw a stick and get it to land closest to the top of the tree - not quite as easy as it sounds ! 

Marlise got bored with decorating after a few minutes and went horse riding instead.

Later, at home, we read some stories, and told some stories.  We learnt a verse about a slug from a library book.  Ruby has learnt it by heart and loves it which is great ! 

When Marilse went to sleep I asked Ruby to tidy the lounge room which she did! - All part of our happy homeschool  I told her !  (OK, so I might have bribed her just a little with the promise of painting afterwards).  She vaccuumed the floor - she loves to vaccuum and has done it before, but today, she learned how to wind the power cord back onto the vaccuum cleaner when she was done.  Such a simple task that I take for granted and have always done for her.  But today I took the time to show HER how to do it, and she did it with such pride, I was really proud of my girl.

So then we got out some paint.  I had visions of a blissful, peaceful painting experience - producing a colourful, wonderful piece of art.    Where did I get that thought from? 

Instead, this happened, red and white became pink, the canvas turned pink, the table turned pink, and Ruby turned pink.  Not quite what I had in mind, but she had so much fun doing it, she was almost massaging the paint into the canvas, she LOVED the feel of it so squishy and slimy - a wonderful sensory experience.  And now it's hanging in her room.  She had a nice long shower, (thankfully no water restrictions here) and cleaned herself up. "What's next for homeschool mum?"...it just doesn't end with my Ruby !

So we survived Day 1...how many more years to go? I can do this !!