Old Dresses

Rifling through boxes the other day to find some long-forgotten baby items for a needy mom, i rediscovered a few of the dresses my Grandma Mona made for me when i was little, and my mom happened to stash away. 

Some of them fit!

(note Ember's haughty model stance)

And Willow's more casual approach.

Ryvre wouldn't try any of them on, but he could be convinced to pose a little.

"Posing" is a term to be taken quite literally with these hams.

Tristan's 8th Birthday

We had another fun-filled day with the O'Melays yesterday, as we celebrated the birthday of their oldest.

There was of course cake (created by Tabitha)

And swimming

Best Buddies

And a defeated Dalek

Fun with Friends

We spent some time this week with our best friends.

We played

 

A lot!

 

And explored 

 

  

And learned

 

Willow, of course, documented the whole thing.  I may have to just trade her the better camera--her pictures are lovely and artistic.  It's pretty amazing to see the world through her eyes, in the most literal way possible.  How lucky for her, to grow up at a time when the technology is available to capture images in the moment and at only negligible costs.  What i would have given for a digital camera at her age!  I hope i soon have the nerve to trust her with a piece of equipment better suited for a more serious pursuit of this hobby, because i do think she's ready for it.  But am i?  Here are some images that she captured herself with a very basic, cheap, old camera:

First Day of Unschool

Today seemed like a good day to begin the 2010-2011 school year, so we did!  It's just one of many reasons homeschooling is so very wonderful. 

The bulk of our school supplies are bought, but I am having difficulties with log-keeping options.  In the past, i have simply purchased a cheap teachers' planner from the dollar bins at Target, but i haven't seen any yet this year!  I have considered a $9 equivalent, but i am very cheap, and that seems a bit much for a notebook with blank squares.  So for now, i am just keeping notes and logging the hours in a regular spiral notebook (cost: $0.15), and blogging about the more interesting aspects here.  At least that's the plan.

So what does the first day of school mean around here?  Quite honestly, it only means that this was the day that Mama bothered to start writing things down again.  The kids never stop learning; they never stop exploring and figuring things out and surprising me.  Our summer was full of stacks of read books, piles of finished sewing, balanced play checkbooks, and workbooks found and secretly filled in.

Ryvre actually took a pretty relaxed approach to the day; he read a book, and that was about all, despite all suggestions to write a book report about it.  Alas, perhaps tomorrow.

Willow filled in a few reading comprehension workbook pages; she's really coming along in her reading, but she still does most of it secretly.  She also began sewing an intricately patterned piece of felt, along the grooves of the pattern. 

Ember started sewing today too; as far as i know, it is her first attempt, and it was not bad!  She also practiced writing, asking me to spell words for her.

It was a rather slow-paced day with each kid logging about three hours of full-on 'school time' but we're getting an early start, so no harm in taking it slow.