A Week, Briefly (6/8/20)

The star of the show this week was Super Star.

She graduated!

There was no ceremony.  No speeches.  No Pomp and Circumstance.

Just friends at a park.

Some food.

And a photographer.

Otherwise it was a quiet week for us.

Less gray.

And so hot early in the week!

The kids built their own splash pad.
 

And we adjusted our school day so that mornings are for outdoor play and afternoons are for indoor activities.

We're still working out the kinks, and I long to just do it in the mornings, but I also can't stand to spend the most pleasant hours of the day on arithmetic and spelling.

I read aloud and lead a discussion during lunch, (we've finished the Rose Wilder book; now we're really focusing on G. W. Carver) and then we move to the living room where I have a bin full of library books about Missouri--geography, weather, animals, plants, people, just a ton of stuff.  The kids pick what they're interested in that day and either bring books to me to read aloud or study them on their own.  Then they draw/write about what they learn.

When that's done, they move back to the dining room table to do whatever independent school they have remaining.

Brother is very focused on river otters.

Beowulf draws a frog from our Frog and Toad identification guide every day.

Mister Man pores over our Missouri Mammals book and has drawn the skulls of at least 3 different kinds of shrews.

Ladybug draws a new bird every day.

Baymax has eclectic tastes--he's drawn everything from boats sailing on the Missouri River to fearsome Native American chiefs.

Lola will only draw mice . . . most of them wearing fanciful clothes.  And she will only narrate, "Mice live in Missouri."

:)

She's 5.

It's fine.

Little Princess has found a state history book that she's reading and writing a narration from each day.

Nature Angel is drawing birds and wildflowers so far.

I think it's fun to watch them find what's important to them.

Ladybug completed book 4 of 5 of Grade 2 Arithmetic.  She struggled mightily with transferring her practice with carrying and borrowing into word problems with carrying and borrowing, so I'm having her rest from her workbooks and do 3 or so practice sheets a week.  She'll pick up with book 5 either later this summer or at the start of our new school year.

Lola and Baymax are done with this first of two K math books.  They've dived into the Rod and Staff Grade 1 arithmetic book with gusto.  When the addition in Rod and Staff gets to be too much for them, we'll switch back to Part Two of this set.

 A cold front hit us in the middle of the week.

And we found a park that was open!

We had our first breakfast at the park of the season.

Had it been March and 60 degrees out, the kid would have thrown off their coats and delighted in the fresh air.

But because 60 degrees followed 90+ degrees, they were "freezing!"

Effort #1 at finding a place to eat breakfast was too exposed and windy.

Effort #2 was more sheltered, but the kids just shivered, and after a half-hearted effort at playing asked to go home.

Between Efforts 1 and 2, though, we found an Eastern Kingbird who was deeply committed to building a nest right at the entrance to the slide.  (The parks have been so empty!)  With the park open, we knew this nest would never last, and we knew it would be kinder to move the nest before it was completed and give the little bird a chance to relocate than it would be to leave it.  We moved the nest to a safe location nearby--hoping she'd perhaps find it--but our hearts broke to watch the confusion with which our would-be mama discovered her loss.  She came and left, came again to start over, came again to find that the wind had blown away the new start, and she circled the playground, crying for ever so long.  We all wish we could have just let her be.

The sun came out in the afternoon, and we took advantage of the still-unseasonably-cool-but-warmer-than-the-morning weather to take a walk at the lake.

Our first stop was the exercise station:

Super Star came with us, and she was so, so, so fun!

This is a Push-up bar, but Brother did Pull-ups instead.  We howled with laughter at this misunderstanding!

Then we walked half a mile to a little water access point to have a picnic and wade a bit.  (The swim beach is closed for the entire season.)

The kids like to run ahead and wait for those of us who are slower.

Brother likes to "drive" everywhere.  Certain sticks are steering wheels, and he will contentedly "drive" for miles if allowed.

We had a picnic:

And headed to the water.

Shoes off . . .

. . . pants rolled up . . .

. . . tentative . . .

. . . feeling the call of the open water . . .

. . . and in!

Found a treasure

Drying off in the sun.  It was so cold with the wind off the lake, and we didn't take towels!  (Silly Mommy!)

Then we walked the half mile back to the van:

Occasionally stopping to rest:

And we ended our outing with a chin-up contest!

Ladybug and Brother are awesome at chin-ups!

But it was Lola's face and concentration that won our hearts.

Hike #16 of 52--LVL
33.51 + 1 = 34.51 miles

Tired and sunburned, we had a quiet evening and following day.

Except for the fact that a dear friend cleaned out her daughter's closet (the daughter moved out a month or two ago) and a significant portion of her garage and brought the contents to our house.

Halloween in June!!

Suddenly it was Friday--graduation day!

The only picture I have is this one of Rose Red playing with some of the littles.

And this one is of all the teen friends at a different graduation event a week or so before.  I swiped it from one of the kids' Facebook page.
 

With the exception of a few recent additions (and a few missing faces), these young adults have been friends since before any of them can remember.  All of them are now graduated except my Belle (she's the baby of the group), and one has a Bachelor's degree, and one has a Master's now!

I didn't take any pix because I thought my kids were, and because there were photographers.

But my kids weren't.

And the photographers are editing photos, so we probably won't see them for a while.

We met at a park.  BYOPicnic.  We offered water bottles, individually packed snacks, and cupcakes.  There were masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer available to all.  (Which seems so silly because the teens themselves just hang out as family anyway!)  We spread out in a large shady, grassy area to visit and take pictures and give the teens their diplomas. 

It was simple.

But it was something.

And hopefully I'll have pictures to show off soon.

Today is Saturday.  It has been a lazy day for us.  I think we are recovering from the party--low-key or not, it was still a party, and we're all really tired.