These are a few assorted photos of our last few days of not really beginning, beginning homeschooling.

Rigel drew this picture of the world, the solar system and the galaxy completely on his own and unprompted after looking at the globe when reading Ping.

We set up the All About Reading tiles on his white board, being sure to leave space for future artistic creations.

Rigel drew this picture of Chinese mountains and caves after watching the first episode of Wild China (thank you netflix!)

Terraced rice patties in China.

On Tuesday we got together with dear friends and tie dyed shirts. The kids were thrilled with theirs and wore them for 2 days straight. Here River wears her while Rigel plays soccer in the rec league.

Rigel is the boy that appears to have no shorts...why they give size 14-16 rec T shirts for the 6-8 year old league I don't know.  I was so very proud of him though.  Twice he reached over and put his hand on the shoulder of another team mate when the player missed a play or fell.  My boy, who is sensitive but usually only about himself, was reaching out to check on another player.  This was huge and yes I was teary watching it.  I wanted to yell "that's my boy" because so very often in his young life that has not been his way of interacting with the world.  I don't know if it is maturity or the fact that not being in traditional school means that he has more emotional reserves to draw on when he does enter new social situations but I was incredibly proud!

Thurday (yes, still in the tie dye shirts) we went apple picking with a friend after River's preschool orientation.

My colorful apple picker.

They had peaches!  I've never picked peaches before!

I love these kids!

We raise our hands for field trips!

A contemplative donut-eating session.

Why stop at donuts when there are apples?

Today Rigel and River went to their first day of Honeybee Homeschool coop.  We had to hustle to find coats and long pants as fall dawned today in earnest (Darik's camping trip included frost in the hair of several students last night!).  Rigel was a bit uncertain and River was thrilled, just like so often is the case. Both had a lovely day there and the other families and children are also pleasant.  I think this small group, once a week coop experience will be a lovely opportunity for them to learn yoga (the teacher is a yoga instructor), do art, play music, explore nature, and interact with other children.  They were very pleased at pick up today.

Rigel works on filling in a life-size skeleton within his traced body form.

The kids enjoy an outing in the woods.

River finds (and guards) a red mushroom.

On the way home we stopped by a local ice cream farm and Rigel declared that our school should be called Mount Everest (thank you Wild China video for introducing us to the Himalayas).  I think our official start day academically will be next Tuesday and we'll see if the name sticks.  It seems pretty appropriate to me though, the journey is long and steep but you travel with a team and if you persevere you can reach a lofty and worthwhile goal.

And that brings us to now.  Rigel is supposed to be sleeping but he is singing "Any Dream will Do" after seeing the Donny Osmond version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on TV.  River is fast asleep after a busy day with no nap.  Darik is off to an inter-house kickball competition after spending 3 days camping in the White Mountains with students and I'm using the time to catch up on some writing and plan next week's classes.  One day at a time this journey into homeschooling has been great.