It's Time to Play Outside Again

 We hid from the heat all summer.

My kids forgot how to play outside.

I've tried sending them out.  It's mildly effective, but mostly, they check in to see how soon they can come back inside.

So, it's time for a refresher course, led by Mom.

We attempted to have a couple of normal school days at the start of the week, but they were yucky.

They just felt all wrong (part of it was due to Brother's uptick in violent outbursts).

While we listened to a Haydn symphony, these two got into the preschool play bin.

When Brother works, I am so charmed by his focus.

I love this colander-and-pipe-cleaner sculpture.

We watched a few more Crash Course Anatomy and Physiology videos.

And then I decided to lead by example.

We don't need any strollers when we walk anymore.

This tree turns bright red just a few leaves at a time.  In person, the contrast between the scarlet and green was breathtaking.

Leaf lips!

Beowulf wanted me to take a picture of this osage orange.  I'm not sure why; there are gajillions of them everywhere.

We took our snack to a nature park.

We stayed until everyone was muddy, tired, and ready for lunch.

We didn't get outside much on our dance day, but that day included so much exercise as it was!

On Friday, I did school with the older girls, but the rest of us hightailed it to a playground where the kids climbed, skated, played basketball, and generally spent the morning in joy.

(I worked on family finances.)

In the afternoon, the boys built robots.

The kids only did math 1 or 2 days.

I always read, though, and we finished Island of the Blue Dolphins.  The kids were both relieved and worried when Karana was found and taken to the mission.  They were glad she'd have company, but they were worried because no one else spoke her language and because Spanish missions weren't known for their compassionate understanding of Native Americans.

We also finished the biography of Clara Barton.  The kids picked up on a ton of similarities between Clara and Florence Nightingale.  I love seeing them make connections and being excited about doing so.

We did a lot less subject matter reading this month than last.  We did read a couple dozen Brazilian folktales and three biographies of great South Americans.  We listened to half a dozen stories about early American colonizers, and that's about it.

Though the kids really loved the anatomy books I got from the library.  They've been spouting facts all month, so I think they got more education than it looks like from my report.

All of the kids got lots of language arts workbook pages done in September.

The high schoolers and I read most of Much Ado About Nothing this past week.  We're so excited to finish it and watch our favorite Branaugh-Thompson version of the play.

Nature Angel has been using up her scrap yarn in a flurry of adorable projects.

This is the only photo she's taken so far:

I think she needed a break from her dollhouse designing to let ideas percolate in her brain unconsciously.  

She's also working diligently on her academic subjects.

As is Little Princess.

Little Princess baked Inside Out Chocolate Chip cookies for us. :)

All of the kids in the church youth program got to have Nerf wars on activity night.

Brother's having an uptick in violence.  It's scary, and some of the kids hid in the safe room a few times.  At one point, I had to crawl out of my bedroom window in order to get back to the rest of the kids and try to help calm Brother down (I'd been putting Sugar Bear down for a nap when he trapped us in the room.).

I'm 51 years old.

Thank goodness we have big, old-fashioned windows!

We got to visit with Little Mister Frog and Nugget this week, too.  We met up at a park, and we all had so much fun together with their mom and grandma.  They're doing very well at a beautiful and loving Montessori school.

We're loving General Conference weekend.  It's almost over, but I'm looking forward to listening to the talks again once they're available to play.