Our {super early} new school year

Well, since March (yes, March), Emelye has been insisting on starting 1st grade on July 1. I tried to emphasize that there was no rush and even threw in something about the Y's pool still being open in July. Nothing seemed to dissuade her. So, in an effort to help fuel her love of learning, we began school on July 1 this year.

Here are some pics from our first day. (E wanted to wear a "special dress" since it was a special day.)




Addie working on her "sun & stars" drawing.




Emelye's drawing morphed into a birthday card for Mimi. :)




Tonight we had our first nature walk. We'll be taking this once a week as part of our science this year. Our first quarter covers mammals. And our first mammal -- the gray squirrel.

From my college days I remember how these vicious little rodents would seemingly pelt walnuts at passersby in Walnut Grove. So, that's where I thought we should go to get some good squirrel watchin' done. Well, maybe we went out at the wrong time of day. We did see a few, but they were always far away.

And it didn't help matters that the 3yo boy would try to chase them whenever we pointed out a new sighting.

We still found a few and some other cool 'naturey' things too.


Squirrel nest




Addie's pine cone


And, not to be outdone, Emelye promptly spilled out her pine cone stash too.


Partial walnut with teeth marks (about 11 o'clock)




Emelye had her camera too. (She's quite the photographer.)


We found a few locust shells. Emelye would have no part in picking these off the trees!


My one shot of an actual squirrel.