Plans for the Fall and Review on our Summer

We have certainly had an interesting and busy summer, but we are all ready to get back to a more school based routine.  We have played tons of educational games, watched some great educational shows and movies, played in the sun and water, collected rocks, observed insects and other wildlife, and relaxed with lots of books.  This past week we transitioned into a more structured type of schedule.  The kids have certain chores they have to do each day, and if they do not get all their schoolwork and chores done, they get no tech time or games with us in the evenings.  They have been doing a fantastic job of helping around the house and working on school diligently.  I have to keep sticking to my list and schedule now, so that we all are able to keep the house in order, and get as much fun and school in as possible.

We have done some cool things over the past month.  We put a mostly to scale glow in the dark solar system up on our school room ceiling.  Pluto is in the kitchen.  We are planning to add some constellations over the next couple of weeks.  We have gone to the library several times, and played chess.  We have been learning more about space, and visiting the planetarium at Mystic Seaport.  We have had several playdates, and listened to great audiobooks.  We learned about Pasteur, Jenner, Jane Goodall, and Annie Oakley.  We have taken some great classes locally, and I have been teaching some preschool classes, which I will talk more about in another post.  We have studied fractions, adding and subtracting money, done crafting, building, nature studies, gone fishing, gone to the zoo, reviewed money, learned to climb trees, jump rope, and swing better on a playground swing.  We have gone to the CT Science Center, learned about bees, harvested honey, learned about Machu Picchu, studied plurals and contractions, visited the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and the Florence Griswold Museum.

We are planning to take a trip this autumn to the Eric Carle Museum, and the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.  We will visit the New Britain Museum of American Art, and make frequent trips to Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and the Mystic Seaport.  We are going to delve into some great read aloud books, starting on some classics, now that the kids are ready.  We are going to do weekly hikes, and bring our science notebooks to write and draw what we observe.  We are going to focus on writing this fall.  So if anyone has good ideas on teaching writing, I would love to hear them!  It is my least favorite subject to teach.  We will continue our cooking and baking lessons, games, geography, and start units on dinosaurs, insects, and Greece and Rome.  Looking forward to a great fall, with trips to the orchard, to pick pumpkins and apples and to do lots of canning and baking!  Can't wait for that nip in the air, and the crunch of leaves, it will be an inspiring season.

Here is our past month in pictures.