We have had a busy fall with school! We have bumped things up a level for third grade. It feels like we need to make sure we get in more traditional academics than we did in second grade. So we are taking fewer days off from "work." When Eliana is in preschool four afternoons a week, William and I have a nice chunk of quiet time to focus on third grade academics. We are able to take most mornings slow, do art projects, read stories, or have outings. Recent morning outings include the gymnastics studio, swimming lessons at the YMCA, co-op, taking photos at my school, and Bruce the Bug Guy! I arranged for Bruce to come to town. My kids really enjoyed his bug camp last summer and were excited to see his bugs again and share them with their friends. His show culminated with eating bugs! Why will my kids eat bugs without hesitation, but turn their noses up at my cooking?
Rosie!
William's photo from pajama day at school
We are getting ready for the holidays. It will be nice to have a couple days off for Thanksgiving this week. Then soon it will be Advent. A friend of mine was looking for book suggestions for an Advent calendar of sorts. As a fellow book lover, I decided to borrow her idea and raided my kids' book shelves looking for all the Christmas themed books I could find there. I easily came up with 25 books, but I did purchase one more. One of my favorite children's Christmas songs was in book format at the Target Dollar spot. I couldn't resist. Here is the array of books we came up with. We will read one each day starting on December 1st. The last one will be read Christmas morning.
25 books for Advent
When the stack is gone, it will be Christmas!
(Many of the books I have were used in my kindergarten room. The red tape was how I could easily pick out my own personal books when I rotated my book shelves each month.)