The First Day of School

People keep asking, "When are you going to start school? When do the doors of Aloha Academy officially open?" I keep saying, "Oh, sometime after labor day. Sometime after K2's minor surgery. When that is done, we'll get started." It is a question that fellow homeschoolers ask because they are interested or they want to make sure they aren't the only ones who haven't or are wondering if they are the only ones that have. LOL Non-homeschoolers are curious, or want to make sure that my children aren't being worked too hard or too little. They may want of figure out when they should worry about my poor child and his "socialization". So tonight I sat down and began think about the first day: what should I do? My mind began to wander, as it often does, and I started to relive today. Then I realized: By golly! TODAY was our first day! It's done; WE HAVE BEGUN! Yep, this morning we woke up and began with a rousing light saber fight. Kalani worked on his letters with Reader Rabbit. We ate breakfast; we got dressed and made some chocolate chip cookies for our homeschool group that would be coming over later. While we did that, we discussed the meaning of dozen, worked on fractions...1/2, 1/3 and 1/4th and how they related to 1 cup. We successfully made three sheets and burned two. The idea for making these cookies came from the story we read the night before: The Doorbell Rang. A really fun story about sharing and division. Next we were off to the library where the boys picked out some books and we sat down and read one right there. Turnip Soup, a delightful story about a little boy who has to deal with an escaped Komodo dragon in his root cellar. We look forward to searching out a real one to go see. We also picked up a prize that I had won in a drawing. An envelope full of free admissions to local attractions and several free ice cream cones. After that we went home (frigtening, no socialization so far-- the boys did not seem to be withering away though) and had lunch. After lunch it was time for Kalani to rest. Keona had quiet time watching a Magic Schoolbus episode. After Kalani was asleep, Keona and I took the opportunity to work on a little math. The program we chose is Math U See. The first few lessons are mostly preschool review, so it was a breeze for Keona. Truthfully, I wasn't sure he recognized the numbers in their written form. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, in fact, he does. Next I vacuumed and the boys played as we awaited the opportunity to SOCIALIZE. Yes, our friends came over and the children played and played and played. Unfettered. Inside, outside, all through the house....and we served them cookies and shared our story. At 4:30 they all went home and thus ended our day. ... well, okay we read a couple more stories before bed. Now I can breathe easy and quit worrying about "the first day". How cool is that? Tomorrow, we are off to Selden Arcade to look at some art. An experiment on many levels!

Last Beach Day? No WAY!!!!

We recently spent a relaxing day at the beach with friends and got some pictures of the boys enjoying what was quite possibly the last beach day....the way things go. Camille and I got some great pictures of the boys enjoying the water and she took the rare picture of me with the boys. I'm such a shutterbug myself, I rarely appear on the other side...which is okay by me. The real miracle of the photo of the boys with me is that everyone was looking up AND SMILING at the same time. Perfect! Cudos to Camille!

However, the boys need not fear that this is their last romp on the Virginia Beach shoreline. I had a thought the other day and realized what a fabulous resource the beach affords for any homeschool. Now, of course, besides nature study-- and there will be plenty of that at Aloha Academy--I thought it would provide a valuable resource for spicing up some of our more mundane lessons for letter and number recognition. What an excellent and natural chalkboard! So our first day will be to include a day at the beach for alphabet and number recognition. What a perfect way to "earn" our homeschool name!

Back at one of our favorite haunts....

We spent a delightful day at the Botanical Garden today. First we went to the butterfly garden and saw all kinds of butterflies. I was able to get some good shots of Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, and Zebra Swallowtails. I saw some others, but could not catch them. We also saw some Monarch caterpillars. Very cool. The other butterflies came in the form of four small boys flitting around the gardens playing Star Wars and climbing trees. They were just as delightful.

Over the Ocean Blue...

We went to Hampton the other day to meet friends for a Hampton Harbor Tour on the Miss Hampton II . We saw and osprey nest and spent time at the Jacques Cousteau Society. The boys had some great time together with their friend Spencer.

It was great fun with a few special surprises. On the way out to the Civil War Island of Fort Wool, we were accompanied by a small group of dolphins and treated to seeing a submarine under way.

More of Summer's Bounty

I finally get to finish the post I started before Blogger in some kind of fit locked me out of my account. It took days to straighten it out. Anyway, I'm back and here are the rest of our garden pictures so far. We've enjoyed several meals of veggies from our garden. I especially like the color of these cosmic purple carrots; they are really beautiful-- but so far, the taste is not as sweet as orange. Tastewise, they get mixed reviews as evidenced on this discussion board on I-Village. The history seems all over the place, too. I'm going to try them again because I do like the color and I did not grow them under the best conditions-- oh, okay I planted them and ignored them until way too late. It was carrot chaos; nevertheless, I did get some! Next time, I'll do better! ; ) Despite my lack of gardening technique, we also got beets and broccoli.