September

Despite a summer that was more wet and cold than hot and sunny, we are having a glorious fall here in Michigan.  Lots of sunny days with perfect temperatures has made for great days with the kids.  Here my girls are below, enjoying a sunny day car ride.

For homeschooling our time spent on structured learning includes reading, writing and math which takes about one to two hours on the days that Violet takes good naps.  The other 96% of the time, it takes all day as we work between Violet's fussy periods.  I usually work with the older girls with Violet in the front pack carrier as I sway back and forth while stuffing a pacifier in her mouth.  Fortunately the older girls don't seem to mind and we have accomplished what we need to so far.

At the top of each week's lesson plans I have a reminder posted: Read Stories!  Play!  Have Fun!  This has definitely helped me to keep things in perspective when Violet has other plans for our structured learning time.  One of the reasons we decided to try alternative schooling as opposed to the all day kindergarten offered where we live is to ensure that Lucy has age appropriate free play throughout her day.  I am beginning to think that Violet may not be the road block I initially thought, as the time I spend taking care of her ensures that I don't get too carried away with busy work for the girls and they are free to play as they wish for most of the day.  I had to capture the below center picture the other day as I was cracking up.  Emma was playing with a Barbie quietly on the bed next to me as we were resting during our daily afternoon Quiet Time.  All of a sudden I heard a snap.  When I looked at Emma her back was to me, but I saw her freeze then dart her eyes from side to side.  It was then I noticed that the leg had snapped off of her Barbie.  I said nothing, curious to see how Emma was going to react.  After a long pause, she resumed playing - this time with two toys - the one-legged Barbie and one long Barbie leg.  As she danced both of them around, one in each hand while singing a little song I couldn't help but start laughing at how she seemed pleased that her Barbie now had a dancing partner!

We have been practicing what I call "immersion science" as the girls help us raise twenty meat birds and six new laying hens.  Lucy absolutely loved playing with them when they were baby chicks and would have to be dragged out of the pen when the sweat started dripping off of her from the heat lamp.  As if my life wasn't crazy enough caring for our current laying hens, our cat, 60,000 bees, some frogs, butterfly chrysalises and my three kids we just had to add twenty six baby chicks.  At the beginning of this past month I got a text from Will that the baby chicks were ready to be picked up at the Post Office.  Picture me standing in a horribly long line as the girls and I listened to the peeping of chicks coming from behind the post office counter.  When it was finally our turn, I was asked for ID to prove that I was who I said I was to pick up the chicks.  Flustered, I explained that my ID was in the car and who else would come to the post office in the highly suburban town we lived in, requesting a box of baby chicks!?  Without waiting for a reply, I took the chirping box off of the counter and walked out with my three girls and twenty-six chicks.  At this point we were running very late for an appointment so I called our favorite sandwich place and asked if they could deliver the food to our car when I pulled into their parking lot.  Imagine the look on the guy's face when he handed my sandwiches and fries through the window and heard peeping coming out of the giant cardboard box sitting in the front passenger seat.  Yes, we practice a fine balance between fast food and slow food!

The chicks have grown fast and are almost full grown and ready to be processed.  I have tried to distance myself emotionally from them to help make the final part of their life easier.  Our garage is getting stinkier by the day and the birds have definitely lost their cute baby chick look.  My heart strings aren't completely hardened however, as they are still making sweet baby chick chirps.  We also had to let the frogs go this past month, which was emotional for the girls.  As the days continued to become more and more like fall it was becoming harder and harder to find food for the frogs.  Here are the girls below letting the frogs go in our garden.  The bottom left hand picture is of Lucy holding a baby chick.

For the frog release, we made sure that Charlie was locked in the garage.  Charlie has taken to sleeping on a blanket on top of the chicken pen and I can only imagine what his dreams are about.  He also loves paying close attention to whatever daily catch is in Lucy's bug box.  On more than one occasion, Charlie has eaten the butterfly, frog or other unsuspecting bug when the girls forgot to put the lid on the bug box.  Charlie now has to be locked in the garage when we take walks as well.  In the top two left hand pictures below, Charlie is taking a walk with us.  Usually he will turn around three houses down, after lots of upset meowing at us.  On this one hot and incredibly humid afternoon he decided to be brave and follow us.  The further we got from home, the louder his irritated meowing became.  Will became embarrassed when people walking dogs were yanked by the leash as their dogs noticed Charlie.  Finally, we reached a bridge over a quickly moving creek and Charlie refused to go another step.  He was panting from the effort and the heat and none too pleased with us.  As we stood on the bridge admiring the view below, two teenage girls pulled up on their bikes and stopped by where Charlie was.  The next thing we know, we heard them oohing and ahhhing and even saying, "Oh, the poor kitty!  He looks so thirsty!"  Before we could say a thing, one of the girls started giving Charlie a drink from her water bottle.  Will and I exchanged glances and one of us muttered, "Should we tell them he is ours?"  "Naw, at least he is getting a free drink."  When the girls decided to take him home with them we finally had to step in.  "Um, that's our cat.  Sorry."  If looks could kill we would have dropped dead.  Both girls looked at us in horror and said, "You took your cat for a WALK???  He looks like he is exhausted and dying of thirst in this heat!"  After some nervous shuffling and mumbling from us, we started the walk back home.  Soon, we noticed that Charlie wasn't following us.  After repeated pleading and begging, Will ended up having to chase him down in a thicket full of brambles and carry a clawing and scratching Charlie all the way home.  What a miserable walk that was and none of us were happy.  Will ended up having to throw out his shorts as they were covered in so many brambles he couldn't get them all off.  It's a good thing Charlie is so cute.

To complete our immersion science this past month, we harvested plenty of things to eat from our yard.  Our apple and pear harvest was very small this year, however our dill, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, beets and raspberries did great.  In the bottom left hand picture I made a bowl of applesauce with all of our apples as they were too small and tart to eat.

 The girls started dance class again this fall, and were excited to share their tap class with their cousin.  I was overcome with emotion when my babies were being fit for tap shoes.  I teared up watching their tiny baby feet be measured while at the same time wondering how these beautiful babies of mine were old enough to be proudly strutting around in tap shoes!  They love their tap class but miss their ballet class from last year so it looks like starting in October they will be taking a ballet class directly after their tap class.  They are very excited, and I am excited that their ballet shoes still fit from last year as the dance expenses are really adding up!

They are also in a yoga class with their cousin, which has been a lot of fun so far.  We share a picnic lunch at the park before class and while our girls are in class, my cousin and I get to hang out and talk about our babies.

The girls are also in a weekly science class at the library and have enjoyed meeting at the library park with friends before the library events.

As part of our social studies classes we are enjoying everything there is to love about fall.  Jumping in giant leaf piles, doing fun crafts with acorns and felt balls, bringing out all our fall clothes...

 …and even enjoying a Fall Festival with friends at a local park.

We have gone on a cemetery tour by our house with Aunt Jane and have enjoyed two separate trips to the apple orchard with family.

My brother Joe came to town this past month with his girlfriend who we met for the first time.  By the time they went back to Florida, we felt like she had been a part of our family forever and we miss them both already.  Here they are below.  It was Joe's first time meeting Violet and his girlfriend won me over immediately with her love of my brother, chickens and bees.

It had been over a year since all of my siblings were together last, and we had a lot of fun.

We have started a new tradition this past month of a weekly Family Movie Night where we have a picnic dinner of fun, usually unhealthy foods while watching a family friendly movie.  So far we have enjoyed Pete's Dragon, Mary Poppins and Cinderella.  It is challenging to find movies that the girls are not afraid of.  So far both girls loved Mary Poppins, but Emma was afraid of Pete's Dragon and Cinderella.  In the meantime, both girls have been playing the soundtracks to these movies repeatedly with some of our favorite songs being "Razzle Dazzle Day" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite."

It has occurred to me this past month that homeschooling is really just an extension of the daily activities we already do.  I feel so grateful that I get to spend this year with all three of my girls and am looking forward to what the next month has to offer in both structured and immersion learning!