First Day Of "Not Back To School"

We have slowly been getting back into school. At the end of July I looked at the calendar and realized that with some traveling going on, we needed to start school early. We technically started the first week of August, but we have only done a couple of days a week. We are now halfway through week 3 of our curriculum, and today Audra and Claire had their first day of their new Options program, Cloverleaf.

Camille started pre-school last Wednesday.

Please notice the photo bomber:

This year is our first not using Sonlight. Instead we are using Konos- a very little known curriculum that nobody I know uses. Leave it to me to fall in love with a curriculum that nobody else uses (that isn't really true- thousands of people use it, just nobody that I know personally). So far, I am really enjoying it for several reasons:

1. It is still reading based, which is important because snuggling on the couch and reading great literature for 1-2 hours a day is essential.

2. The studies are unit based- something I have always wanted to do. Sonlight goes chronologically through history, which is also nice, but I am excited to do units instead. Our first unit: Birds. We have had a lot of fun learning about birds- doing everything from putting different types of bird food out on our deck to see what birds are attracted to different foods, studying migration patterns, dancing like cranes, and even molding different types of bird feet out of clay:

Here's Camille holding a bird she made- she was very proud:

3. Unlike Sonlight, Konos is not an exact blueprint that tells me exactly what to do. I need to spend a few hours every month putting everything together, but surprisingly- I like it. Apparently I enjoy using that Master's Degree in Curriculum Design that has lain dormant for the past 9 years. Who knew? I made a fun bird matching game- something I tweaked from an idea that Konos gave me. 

4. This curriculum allows us to go down a lot of rabbit holes- finding things we are interested in, and exploring it more thoroughly. It's fun when they get super excited listening to talking parrots and spending an hour looking up youtube videos to pique their curiosity.

Anyway, so far so good. I'm excited for this school year- we have a lot of great things planned. It is incredibly hard to believe that summer is over, but nevertheless here we are. Hopefully this year will be as great as the last couple of years!