Ballet, Art, and Other Activities!

Besides our daily school life and monthly co-op get togethers we are also enjoying a few other classes and activities.

On Mondays, there are around a dozen young girls who come together to learn ballet from an experienced high school ballerina.  I'm been so impressed with what she has taught the girls already!

Ameliya taught Mike and I how to do a plie and showed us all the proper "positions" for her hands and feet.  Since Natalee already takes piano lessons we were not going to put her in ballet, however she really wanted to do it and we thought it would be great for her body stretching and strengthening.  She's enjoying it as much as Ameliya!

These two....I suspect they keep Miss Olivia on her toes!

We had a make-up class this Sunday because of a scheduling conflict and my girls and the Snider girls were the only ones who could make it.  They got lots of one on one practice...and I got cute pictures!

Thank you, Miss Olivia, for this experience for our girls!  They are so excited for each practice and they dance around the house all week long.

The children have also had the opportunity to take an art journaling class on Monday afternoons.  Miss Charlotte is leading it and giving the children a lot of great instruction on using different methods and mediums.  It's such a relief to this art challenged mama!

The first week they did nature drawings - a large nature picture in the middle and then small boxes around the outside.  I love that they had instructions but creative freedom...

Natalee:

Xavier:

These week they water color painted two identical (ish) fall leaves and then wove them together!  It was a bit more of a challenge but they turned out really cool!

This class is a blessing and something we all look forward to. It's also nice that each class is it's own little project, so if we had to miss for something we aren't missing a huge piece of a large project - we can just pick up the next week.  

Zayden sat and "free painted" during painting week for quite awhile.  The first class he drew for awhile and then played the iPad when he was done "arting."  I've strictly limited his screen time throughout the rest of the week so that I can feel zero guilt about giving it to him during art.  This allows me to focus on helping the other 3 succeed at their projects.  I had originally planned on Mia just "doodling" during art but she's determined to do what everyone else does.  This is sweet and exhausting.  However, the number of times she has replicated the nature drawing/boxes art these last couple of weeks has shown me that she is soaking in everything that she can and enjoying it, so I'll let her keep doing her best and help her along the way as best I can.  Thank you, Miss Charlotte, for this creative outlet!

The local public school teachers have also come together and volunteered to organize Story Hour on Mondays at the local county library.  Our public school children go to school Tuesday through Friday (teachers are also off on Mondays) so Mondays are a great opportunity for something fun like Story Hour.  On one Monday a month, the teachers have professional development meetings so none of them can do Story Hour and they asked us homeschool parent teachers if we'd take a turn leading on those weeks.  What a great collaboration of all of us coming together for the children and community!  

Yesterday kicked off the first Story Hour and the kids had a blast.  I liked that it was literacy focused AND that it wasn't early in the morning! LOL.  Starting at 11 was perfect.  We got a good 2 1/2 hours of school in before going to Story Hour so it didn't feel like it stole our whole morning.

There was a wonderful turn out for the first Story Hour.  I would guess 40-50 kids easily! 

The children were welcomed with a choice of 2 craft activities when they arrived.  This allowed everyone to come in at their own pace and not feel like they were interrupting anything. 
My older 3 made 'scaredy cats' while Zayden sat and did multiple leaf rubbings at the rubbing station - who knew that would pique his interest so well!?

They had around 20-30 minutes for their craft and then their attention was collected again.  They then got the choice to go to 1 of 3 book read aloud stations - I thought this was a fantastic idea.  Classically at Story Hour it's one or two books read aloud to the entire group, but giving the children a choice of what to hear really made them delighted to sit and listen to the books that were chosen.

We, of course, ended by checking out stacks of books, as is the Beeler way!  Thanks Team First Grade for organizing the first Story Hour.  We're looking forward to the next one!