First Week of School

Our first week of school was a smashing success!

I feel a lot more prepared this year, knowing what to expect

and also have planned better out of sheer anxiety about having TWO "pupils."

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Our curriculum is separated into character traits (i.e. courage, responsibility, love & generosity, etc.), and the character trait you choose is incorporated heavily into the educational material. I love this idea, because instead of me telling her to "be kind," she sees how kindness works and looks and feels INSTANTLY in the world she lives in and begins to incorporate it into everything that she does.

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Our first unit is on inquisitiveness...not really a part of Brenin's character which is lacking (hehe), but I did want to supply her with better tools to be inquisitive (i.e. research materials and formats including library, internet, encyclopedias, dictionaries, research papers and the like).

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On Thursday the girls had dentists appointments in Madison, so we packed our bags and made a day of it. We picked up some lunch and had a picnic at the park and also completed our "group work" lesson there. Afterwards the girls did some book work. Here's Brenin turning sentences into questions (with a question mark at the end...the perfect symbol for an "inquisitive" unit!) and Luca in deep concentration about the color yellow.

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It's fun having an "older" and a "younger" this year. Brenin delights in teaching her sister the things she learned "when she was little," and it gives mommy a little break too! Here's Brenin reading Curious George (boy is he inquisitive!) to her cutie pie schoolmate. :-)

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It was a big day for Luca, as it was her FIRST EVER trip to the dentist! She was excited to go and got through x-rays just fine.

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...but got a little nervous in watching her sister's teeth get cleaned...

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...but decided to give it a try anyway! (You can see she's hating it too!)

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Luca's first dentist!

Her visit started out with a tickle and was downhill from there!

This was our first visit to a CHILDRENS dentist,

and it was FABULOUS!!!!

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Report: Very healthy teeth, no cavities,

front tooth was chipped in ET as we suspected.

Toothpaste Flavor Choice: BUBBLE GUM!

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Report: Still NO cavities!!!! Will need braces (no surprises there),

will be losing some teeth before her next visit

as new ones are popping up behind them.

Toothpaste Flavor Choice: GRAPE!

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After the dentist, we headed to the zoo. Brenin's math book has a zoo theme for the first quarter, so I made up a math scavenger hunt book for them where they had to add, subtract, measure, count, compare, etc. (And of course we had to stop for ice cream at the concession as a reward for the completed book!) :-)

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I'm encouraged by our first week and so grateful for the

opportunity to educate these amazing girls.

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