worker bee

here is a photo of amalie, my little worker bee. we have already ascertained that our oak meadow curriculum isn't quite enough straight-up "work" for her, so i dug into the collection of workbooks we have from over the years to give her something to do when she's done with her assignments & waiting for me to give instruction for what comes next. today we are being kind of relaxed about school, and she chose to do a workbook on letter writing. she will most likely complete this entire workbook by lunchtime. it makes her happy.

earlier while all 4 kids were at the table working, 2-year old aven with her papers and crayons said to alia, "alia are you learning? yeah, we are learning. just so you know, we WILL learn this stuff!"

paul's first day of being the kid's teacher went well. he was pretty stressed about it, and told me he didn't think it went very well. but when i asked the kids how it went, they all had only wonderful things to say. "daddy's a great teacher!", they all agreed. :)

over the last few days, we have had so much going on, my head is spinning. being new to the homeschooling, i didn't realize how much goes on in terms of orientation/back-to-school type activities for homeschool groups. i'm pretty sure the veteran families aren't starting school until next week. here we are trying to have school & attend these activities, juggle a really crazy evening soccer practice schedule, as well as the work schedules. next year we'll be in the know.

wednesday night we attended an open house/orientation for the waldorf homeschool cooperative, where alek & alia are taking a spanish enrichment class, and amalie will be going for 2 1/2 hours every wednesday and friday. it was a very nice atmosphere, and there were so many nice families there, i'm excited for us to be a part of that group. then yesterday morning we attended the back-to-school kickoff for the skagit family learning center (the public school system's homeschoolers school) downtown at the lincoln theater. they had "the reptile man" do his presentation, which is always awesome. did you know that an alligator never stops growing? and they can live to be up to 100 years old?

one thing i must confess about attending these events, is that while they are wonderful, and the families incredible, it's hard to be the new kid at school, even home school. a lot of these families are new just like us, i'm sure. but i can't tell which ones. i can, however, tell which families are already familiar with the way all this works, and who recognize each other and have strong friendships. a big part of why we are homeschooling is to connect with families just like these, to make new friends with people like us. but right now, in this very beginning stage, i feel kind of lost. it helps me empathize with my children, who are slightly (or not so slightly) apprehensive about attending classes at the learning center and at the waldorf co-op.

i'm the new kid, too. and i'm pretty darn glad we at least have each other.