Penelope's First Week of Kindergarten

On her first day of kindergarten, just outside the door of her worm class, looking a little nervous.

Having worm races.

At a favorite playground after worm class.

Violet riding a trike all by herself at the playground!

Bathing dolls in a real tub.

Making sure to cover the baby's head.

Cuddling the clean baby.

Taking great care.

Making rice crispie treats.

Painting her watercolor paper with just water first so she could do wet on wet watercolors.

Playground time after sign language class.

At Sturbridge Village.

Pretty funny.

Sheep, always popular with my girls.

Spinning.

Playing with an old fashion doll.

Playing house.

All dressed up.

Playing with old toys.

Trying a bed just like Laura's parents slept on in the Little House books.

This pump was very popular with all the kids.

Violet Baa

Penelope Baa

Wish she didn't have her fingers in the face part.

Making a wall sconce.

She was very proud, and she did every bit of work herself.

Having a pickle from the store.

In the fabulous playroom.

This was Pen's first week of kindergarten. We waited until we came back from the Cape to begin. It was way too busy for me, I'll try to keep things a little less crazy in general, but somehow everything seemed to happen at once this week.

We had a very rushed morning on Monday because we had signed up for a worm class with other homeschoolers and it began kind of early in the morning. I am glad we don't have to rush like this every morning, it's not our style, but anyhow we made it to class on time. Penelope loved her class, she learned a lot about worms, got to handle them and even do worm races. Violet loved the playroom while Pen took her class. Then we went to a playground for lunch and to play. Then later, while Vi napped, Pen and I did some school work at home.

Tuesday we did work at home in the morning, then went to Colt Park for a nature walk and some yoga. Then after nap and quiet time we met friends at the playground.

Wednesday we met friends at the playground in the morning, we talked about washing hands, when, how, and why we do it. We talked about how different people and animals wash, and then I let the girls use a real baby tub to wash an old doll of mine. I showed them how to carefully bath a newborn (or a naked born, as Vi calls it) and both girls were too cute as they took it very seriously and supported his head and handled him so gently. They played with him the rest of the week and it was the dearest thing. Penelope told Vi all about how when she was born Penelope held her with a pillow under her, and she put a pillow on Vi's lap and let her hold the doll, showing her how to support his head. She kept telling Vi all these stories about the first time Vi held her hand and all these little things she remembered from when Vi was born. I didn't realize she actually had memories of all that. Penelope also did watercolor painting.

Thursday Pen had sign language class, it was held at a playground and someone actually brought their dog to class, which Pen couldn't believe. She learned the alphabet and how to sign her name.

Friday we met other homeschoolers at Old Sturbridge Village and had a wonderful day. We stayed all day long and Pen made friends with another little girl who is in her sign language class.

Penelope is also back to swim classes. And at some point we were supposed to make bread as part of our curriculum, but we don't do gluten anymore, so we made peanut butter and chocolate rice crispie treats instead. Next week we will try to keep things a little less busy, but we had a really fun first week of school.