First Day of School

Oh, joy! No, really, despite Arielle's face. She was feeling a little grumpy this morning, but we had a fine day! God has answered our prayers.

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We started with reading and talking about Psalm 1 and then we read the first chapter of a biography about Amy Carmichael because the first country we are studying for geography will be India. Then Liana began to read aloud from her library book. Amazing! I lifted up my eyes to heaven and said a silent prayer of thanksgiving. I confess, my good intentions did not pan out this summer and Liana read few books and none aloud. I did not really know what I would find with her this morning. She read so well and so smoothly I was stunned. I've noticed with her over the years that sometimes new learning needs to stew and brew for awhile before it sinks in and then she knows it well.

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Liana was in good spirits all morning. She actually squealed with excitement when during a lesson she was supposed to combine several unrelated words and create a meaningful sentence. This is a game she made up for herself and often does it with spelling words or random words she gives me to try. She was delighted to see this as an actual assignment. I praised her effort and attitude and enthusiasm in all her work today.

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During our break we took a nature walk and saw a huge cicada protestly loudly as we approached it. We miss our birds. The squirrels won't allow us to keep a bird feeder. They ruin every one. We walked past the garden and realized we need to bring in the end of the harvest of beets, carrots, beans and tomatoes. Work to do this afternoon! But for now, we focus on school. I didn't try to cram in washing laundry and dishes during our time together either.

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Arielle was not so grumpy after all. She said she enjoyed her reading assignment, and when we reviewed some pre-Civil War history from last year, she remembered more about it than I did. As we read our chapter for today, she supplemented with information she gleaned from the numerous historical fiction books she read over the past few months. We finished up and it was only 2:30. Free time! The girls ran off to play. They will have chores this evening after dinner, but for now they are having fun. And no homework!