first day of school...

and a little impromptu art appreciation! :-)

Here are my kiddos on the front steps on the first day of school...
Do you like how they match? Clara had decided the night before what she was going to wear for the first day (which I'm not sure I get since we homeschool). Alex's decision was made when this shirt fell off the hanger while he was looking for a shirt to wear... it was either wear it or hang it back up.

Things went rather well today. We didn't start back with everything but enough. It takes a while the get the kinks worked out of our schedule, so adding a few things at a time works out well. My biggest "kink" right now is Clara. She just doesn't have as much to do as Alex does. Which should be fine... but it isn't. She insists on sitting at the table with us as Alex works asking over and over what she should do next. I've got a couple workbooks coming for her so that should help. I just don't quite know what to do with her. We have computer games and other stuff... but she really wants to be at the table with us doing work. Oh well... it's just the first day!

Something that worked out well today was recess. Our neighbors a couple houses down are doing the virtual charter school this year so we've decided to get the kids together for recess as often as we can. Today the kids just played out in the alley, riding bikes and such. I'm excited to work this into our regular routine.

This afternoon I took the kids to their last art class of the session (and sadly, the next session doesn't fit into our schedule). Imagine our surprise to see these in the gallery...

yes... they are postcards.... but there was more than that.... the actual paintings were there! Todd Parr's paintings are just so fun and colorful! Maybe we'll check out some books from the library and try our hand at painting some canvases. We might even try some of the book writing activities on his site (especially since Alex still claims to want to write children's books someday).

Okay... I'm sleepy!

'nite!