Monday was Labor Day so we took a family hike to Twin Falls in SC. We hiked, pic-nicked, gardened at home, and played outside all day long! Family time is my favorite!
Tuesday we also went hiking with friends to Riley Moore Falls. We found many treasures, swam, and built castles of stone and sand. Ellie conquered a fear of hers to swimming out to a far boulder in the water. All spring and summer she has wanted to go to it but once she started her swim, she would turn around. This time she did it! My friend Laurel saw her out there with friends then I swam out to her to bring her back across the river current. The current is not strong, but too strong for a 3 year old in a puddle jumper to swim unassisted of course.
After our Tuesday hike, we returned home to have some more fun! We did a full obstacle course in the backyard. I had gotten up early before the sun to run then set this up before we left early for our hike. The obstacle course went like this:
1. Run through the tall green pool noodle maze
2. Jump in a pool of foamy shaving cream
3. Dip a strainer dish into a 5 gallon bucket of water and scoop out a ball and run it to the next task
4. Hop over the bricks
5. Climb the ladder to the tower and slide down the slide into the water filled pool
6. Jump over the hoola-hoops
7. Walk the plank or balance boards
8. Under or over the jump rope
9. Into the Jell-o and pudding
This was a BLAST!! After the first round was completed, she went back through it over and over, remembering the process! Then she decided her favorite parts of it all were the slide, hoops, boards, and shaving cream, so she did that over and over! It was awesome. Beyond worth the setup. And she was able to clean up in the pool before going inside later.
We also did another Chihuly art project on Tuesday. Macchia Bowls. We are going to do this one again using another method another day, but for this week, we used coffee filters, liquid water colors, pipettes, and starch spray. This was fun and a great process art project. So messy, we were very colorful afterwords but watercolors are super easy to wash up.
Then, we played on our swing set and just counted as we swung. The game was to see how high we could count by getting as many swings in as possible! She loves her swing set.
When we were ready to cool off for a while, we came inside and did tactile phonetic letter practice using her light table and a zippie full of paint. She chose pink. I didn't force much here because I want it to be fun to learn these essential things and I have found so much success in going slow and taking time and doing these things when she expresses interest. So we did "D", "E", "B" and she made the number "8" as well. Then she just wanted to make pictures of trees and camping sites and I let her have at it. Creativity is important too.
We went back outside as the sun was lower and cooler down to the lake and made a beautiful art piece on one of our trees by the water with modeling clay and Ellie's treasures found on the hike that day. This was soothing, wonderfully creative art. So beautiful and interesting to watch her process.
We read a lot of books on Tuesday as well.
On Wednesday we traveled for a field trip to GA to see my sister and nieces and nephews for a hike! Ellie set herself a new record of 7 miles total hiked. She did all of this almost completely barefooted. We read books by the creek, swam in the creek and waterfall, found a snake, swung on a tree swing, and colored pictures and made sandcastles on the beach. We discovered and learned about new botany and seeds also!
Thursday we finally got to start back to our beloved Kindermusik classes! We Love Kindermusik of Greenville at Village Arts. Ah! I can never say enough wonderful things about these classes and how they have blessed and enriched our lives so so so much on so many levels and in so many ways. Do yourself a favor - check them out. Newborn - 7 years old I do believe. These courses are also the starting path for Ellie's future piano lessons one day. So we super love this place and the owner, Rosalind Cross. Then, we came home for lunch and a brief rest before going to our dance studio, Sterling Studio of Performing Arts, to do Art Class. I actually now teach two classes every other Thursday at the studio for Art. It's basically a lot of the stuff I do with Ellie being offered to other children. Big messes, creativity, and a chance to explore their own abilities, these classes are so great. Ellie is in the "baby" class. After I taught her class, her daddy picked her up for a pizza and ice cream date until I finished with the big kid class. She loves dates with her daddy! For our first class, all the kids decorated aprons they would wear to the following classes which will be full of process art, science experiment art, wind chimes, and more!
Friday was Forest School! But before that, we made our own play dough with cinnamon spiced herbal tea. This was AWESOME! I never understood making your own play dough when regular play dough is so easily accessible...but she thrived with this creation and really really loved working her hands in the dough, smelling the spices, building a forest, a cake, and a Christmas tree. It was a different play dough experience and honestly it was easy enough that we will do it again. And obviously its non-toxic and healthier...good thing because she decided to taste test and said, "Mmm, that's yummy!" and then she proceeded to give some to Blondie, the dog, who agreed. Ha! Actually...really really happy we did this because it was the most fruitful thing we did for school this week. This play lead Ellie to talk about creation and discuss how God is our creator and how He created all things and provided all things that man uses to invent and create on earth. Nothing we have was made by our hands but provided to us by God directly. Trees for example, give us lumber, which we can use to build a playground. Man did not create wood. God did. It was really wonderful to have this conversation and I remember having it with my dad at nearly the same age in our kitchen. Of all we did this week, this was the most wonderful. God really blesses the works of a faithful servant. This is what homeschooling is all about for our household.
For Forest School, we studied "Mini-Beasts." We found so many cool creatures, read many books, did a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" felt board, crafts, poems, art study, hiked, played, and cuddled in the forest. I love Forest School best because it is the best time to bond with my girl and just take our time, no rush, to explore, get dirty, and read books. We dug in the dirt, got wet in the creek, and held lots of creatures this week!
Here are all the books we read together this week:
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