Kindergarten Celebration: Gabrielle is Moving on up to the First Grade

 This is Gabrielle's Celebration moving from Kindergarten to the First Grade.  She is in a class with 3 year old up through 5 years old. It is a Montessori style classroom. She did exceptionally well.  She is one smart little girl.  We are very very proud of her.

 Lessons are done very hands on at the pace of the child's ability to learn and grasp the concept being presented.  Gabrielle here is showing how she does her lessons.

Here with her little sister she demonstrates another aspect of Montessori, older children helping younger students through their lessons. Rosie although only 2 fit right in and joined the learning process.

Sisters working together work together sorting coins.

Waving with a big smile and grin.  We will be doing Montessori also in the First grade. After the students showed their parents how they did their lessons and read them the books they had made, we watched a cd picture slide show of the year.  Can't wait for a copy of that cd. :D They grow up soooo fast, too fast actually.

Picking Berries

This was a day we went berry (dewberry and blackberry) picking in our yard. They grow wild. Little Rosie above was our official taste tester and unofficial task master of work-holding her stick pointing as if to say, "Get back to work picking those berries for me, there are some right over there. " Not sure how many of the ones she picked made it to the bowl. She had evidence all over her on how hard she worked. But she sure did enjoy the fruits of her labor.

Here older siblings Joshua and Gabrielle show her how it is done or are they just following orders? :D Joshua looks very intent at the berries he picked in his hands as if contemplating whether to add them to the bowl or eat them. MMMMMM...they sure look good and so they were.

Checking what is in the bowl. And what a bounty we had. A total of 5 cups. And there could have been more but we avoided the last patch as the kids were pretty done with picking and I was worried that I had seen a black widow's web in among the berries. And with 3 lil ones to keep track of it made me a bit nervous so we passed those ones by and left them for the wild life in our yard to enjoy.

Not only were berries found that day but Joshua, I think was more excited by the snake skin he found. From head to tail. Put it in a plastic bag for safe keeping. Oh the wonders of nature. And we have a lot to enjoy and explore that is for sure.

Some WildThings In MyYard

These are the dewberries from our yard. We also have blackberries which to me look exactly the same except for the plant it grows on looks different. This is wild and seems to take over our yard. It is really prickly. But everyone is really excited to eat these first fresh fruits from our yard.




Here is a blueberry bush my husband planted a few years ago. Last year there were just a few blueberries but this year it seems to be loaded. MMMMM....maybe some blueberry pancakes are in the future.



This is a wild rose bush in our yard next to the woods behind the shop. I think it is called a Rambling rose, well that would be my guess. It is such a beautiful little rose. It does better than the ones I have planted. Wish I knew the secret of these wild ones so that my planted ones would look so good and healthy, loaded with blooms. Such a sweet sight.