First day of school

I am always sooooooooo sad when summer gets over (or, when summer does NOT get over, but we start school anyway, grrrrrr, in kind of the beginning of August). BUT the kids' school is so awesome that I was much less sad this year than usual. Mattie (8th grade) and Pierce (5th grade) are in Miss Gael's class (together) again, along with most of their class from last year. It's a grade 4-8 class, which seems absolutely crazy, but their methods and curriculum are amazing and it really works. Zoe (2nd grade) is in Miss Jennifer's class again - last year it was a grade 1-2 class and this year it's a grade 2-3 class, with most of the same kids again also. They were all either happy or relatively happy to go.


This year Pierce's friend Dallin joined the class. This has not been without its problems - Dallin is very bright but doesn't love to do homework, and there is a LOT of homework. His mom is seeing improvements (I hope) but it's not easy. (writing this a couple of months later)


They always start the year with something really cool. They are studying rivers this year and Gael created the river "Sporadica" (it only flows when it rains or when the hose is turned on). The kids have since used Sporadica to study erosion, water eddies, and some other interesting things.


Frankly, Sporadica doesn't look like much, but I didn't stay to see the water actually flow.


No breaks at this school - homework on the first day. The kids were okay with that too (I'm sure they expected it).






"Mommy, now take a picture of me with these cool rocks!" I think these are Pierce's rocks from a Webelos meeting with our cubmaster, who has a really amazing rock collection and shared rocks with the boys.




We're ready for another great year!