Back to School, back to school...

So last week after all the fun and games it was time to buckle down and get serious here. For real.  Wednesday was our official first day of school for the year.  This year we are taking a cue from my amazingly smart sister and doing morning time every day.  It's been every morning right after breakfast, usually around 7 or 7:30 (we're early risers) and it's a really nice way to start our day.  Basically we're just doing our Ambleside reading list, looking at some amazing art work and discussing it and doing a nature study about trees. Nothing fancy really. Wednesday morning Joanna convinced me that we HAD to make perfume out of our roses.  Well I'm still not sure if it is going to turn out how she imagines but we're trying anyway :P

We went and picked a whole basket of petals and then shredded them into jars of oil.  Mashed them in and then heated the oil and petals in a pan of water.

They then have to sit on the window sill for a whole day.

After 24 hours we strained the oil through a washcloth and then repeated the process with fresh petals.  I think we're going to have to do a couple more processes to get a good strong scent.

I decided to make our living room into our school room this year.  No more school books and things all over the dining room table!

I EVEN moved our wildlife posters out of there!

Our neighbors had been cleaning out their garage and asked if we wanted this little desk.  I said "sure thing!" and painted the ugly, pea-green chair an adorable purple for Joanna :)

She LOVES doing school.  I think I may run out of things for her before the school year is through!  of course she has to decorate her workspace with pressed flowers :)

Katy even likes to do school too :)

She sits and colors and says, "I school mommy? I school?"

She was pretty worn out wednesday from all the fun we had in the beginning of the week though.

Chase is in 2nd grade this year!  It's so crazy!  He's doing really well so far.  He likes morning time a lot.  I wasn't sure how he would likes the books we're reading this year... not many pictures, but he does well!

his part of the "classroom":

I was even able to take good first-day-of-school pictures Wednesday afternoon:

This one is my favorite:

My adorable Joanna:

This is my favorite of hers:

Doesn't she look so proud:  :)

Here's Joanna and Katy working together on coloring Friday:

So that's it.  Not super exciting but I'm excited to be getting back in our routine and happy that it's going well so far.  Our co-op starts in a couple weeks as does gymnastics and hockey so hopefully it won't mess with our schedule TOO much.