Home school begins.

 Rainbow School 2020

Our adventures in homeschooling begin! 

Brant (age 5) - Kindergarten

Sephora (age 2) - Preschool

Off to a great start so far.  If the majority of the year can go as well as the last few weeks have gone in our little school, well, then I'll be beyond pleased.  We have had so much fun!  

Sephora is taking to her Montessori inspired activities like a champ and also likes to spend a lot of time in our school library - "reading" book after book, usually to the dog or cat or one of our class mascots: Bow (short for Rainbow), the parrot and Ellie Prism, the Elephant.  

A note about Bow.  He was an unexpected hit this week in our first official week using the classroom.  Because of the wildfires and evacuation, the 1st couple weeks of school were done mobile and in living rooms. (Thank you Dad and Robyn for helping our first week of "mobile school" go smoothly and comfortably while our whole family took over your house for 5 days! We are so grateful.)  As I was preparing our classroom, I found this finger puppet parrot in some of my old things, and on a whim I thought it would make a fun addition to our calendar/daily routine and circle time.

...Well, turns out, the kids ADORE this little parrot.  It was even Sephy's favorite part of school this week she said.  

Our Spanish word this week was "gracias", and Brant can now spell "DOG" in sign language. He also started his first spelling list this week with: Have, Did, All, Went, The

Brant has been a spelling machine lately; spelling words out rather than saying them. "M-O-M space I space L-O-V-E space Y-O-U"

His focus and drive to learn and to work hard astound me.  He has also been a huge help in showing his sister how to participate and behave at school.  Brant loves his afternoon worksheets, and he works on them diligently while Sephy takes her nap after lunch.  It has been a successful routine for much of the summer and has only gotten better with the daily consistency of "school". 

This week we made apple cards and talked a lot about Fall as we welcomed the equinox.  We also did a science experiment mixing oil/water/soap/vinegar.

Brant finished off the week following along with a great video about how to draw a jaguar.   

Meet Jack the Jaguar...and sweet, silly Sephy too. 

THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR FAMILY FOR YOUR SUPPORT, HELP, and ENCOURAGEMENT.  

I can't tell you what a difference it has made to have such a steadfast show of support from everyone as we set out on this new adventure.  You have given me the confidence, tools, advice and love I've needed to make this a positive learning, exploring, adventuring place for these two precious people.  It means the world to this mama.  Brant and I were just talking last night about how lucky we are to have a family so full of love.

Our first day officially in the classroom!

Always a treat to get a visit with Piper!

Mobile school and Grandpa and Rahbob's was a hit!

 Learning Duck Duck Goose!

 

This is Nana-Nana, Sephy's space creature she plans to find when she's an astronaut.

 

We love science!

Making friends with worms and trees.

The kids love to work on projects while I read chapter books and poetry.

Happy Fall from the Rainbow School Bugs!