Exquisite Bits of Nature

"The average dairy farmer gets up at dawn because he has to go to work in the cow yard.  I get up at dawn, too. But it is because I want to find some leaf, hung with dew; or a spider web which the dew has made into the most delicate ropes of pearls...I take my camera with me, get down on my knees in the wet grass, and photograph these exquisite bits of nature. Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help.  They will get their daily quart of milk, all right.  Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as important."

          --W.A. Bentley

October in Retrospective: Travel, School, Soccer, Sewing and November Plans

The last month has absolutely flown past!  I have not kept a journal at all, but we've been doing school and living life. Last week we took a 'fall break'--it was a week sandwiched between trips out of town!

But now the traveling is done, soccer is done, the Halloween sewing is done, so we're settling back into normal life.

Our initial second-grade schedule has definitely morphed as the fall has progressed. I've changed our initial plans, of course! In fact, I am not using my checklist at all!  Some of the AO books have been interesting to us and some have not.  My primary goal is to foster a love of learning and my secondary goal is to keep this whole process enjoyable for everyone.  To that end, the books we're enjoying at the moment:

*Old Mother West Wind (our morning read-aloud)
*Little House on the Prairie (this is our bedtime read-aloud now)
*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I'd never read this book or seen the movie--we're just starting in on it as a family read-aloud)
*various picture books from the library
*Story of the World on CD
*Jim Weiss' reading of Midsummer Night's Dream

Our days right now basically involve the sweet little routine of short formal morning lessons: a little bit of handwriting, some low-pressure math, and reading aloud/phonics (right now we're reading Little Bear), followed by piano practice.  Everything else mostly springs organically from what we're into: reading books, gardening, projects the children want to pursue, some memory work, music......

This month I would like to--
*write a letter or two to a couple of veterans for Veterans' Day
*try to find a few good books to look at on Thanksgiving, the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, Native Americans
*possibly finish up our Delta science kit.....
....academically, I think that's it.  I am going to do my Christmas shopping and keep renovating the bathroom!

I'm trying to take an Internet break, too!