What a whirlwind!
I have been elated, exhausted, exasperated and am feeling so secure in the knowledge that this was the right decision for my family.

We've finished our first 2 week main lesson block on form drawing. Fiona is awesome at this! She is very much a perfectionist, so this main lesson did display that tending in its entirety. There were tears, jumping for joy as well as acting like a noodle or dead fish flopping on the floor. As I write this I am laughing about it all.

We also had our first day at our homeschooling co-op. The families are really awesome, and all the classes are geared with a Waldorf grace even if many of the families don't use a Waldorf as their curriculum. She loved being with her new friends, having that fun in a group, I really think this will be so worthwhile this year! She can't wait to go back next week, I think they will be doing a small play in addition to cooking and preparing their own snack and continuing with some fall science projects, very fun!

The co-op also is great for Anya as there are activities for her to attend and participate in and it gives me a chance to spend all my attention on Anya when I'm not instructing a class.

We have also started learning to play the recorder. I say we since I am new to it as well, though I do read music so it hasn't been too difficult. Fiona has done much better following rhythm and her ability to play the first piece has improved. Anya has enjoyed singing along with us and 'playing' her own recorder.

The handwork lesson has been awesome and my favorite. It is late in the day during Anya's nap and gives us some nice close time. Fiona has sewn a recorder case, and because she now knows how to sew, during her free time she has many times chosen to sew up some projects with some scrap fabric of mine. Fiona also decided she wanted to make a doll quilt and spent some of her allowance money she had saved on fabric for it. We'll be starting on the quilt tomorrow. We also started knitting a new project. First Fiona made her own knitting needles and finished them with beeswax. Now she has almost finished knitting a gnome doll, very exciting. Fiona knew how to knit last year and her skill has improved greatly.

Next week we start our language arts main lesson block and it will last 4 weeks. I am so excited and a bit daunted by this. During this main lesson block I will introduce the alphabet (upper and lower case) with a story . Then Fiona will create a picture involving the story as well as the letters. Fiona will also be copying short phrases into her book using those letters. The daunting part of this is the amount of memorization I need to do. I will be telling an ongoing story about a prince on adventure as well as many faity tales. I will also be using puppets/dolls to illustrate these stories. Lots of work, but well worth it.

Anya has been good and bad these last 2 weeks. On the days after a good nights sleep, she has been awesome, albeit a toddler (sometimes the toilet is just too tempting). On the days when shrieking and crying are prevalent, I have been at the end of my rope a bit, but, I just adjust the rhythm of the day for Anya and we have done some of the lessons after Daddy gets home.

These next few weeks will be busy with field trips, dance lessons, soccer, girlscouts, co-op and Gaelic lessons in addition to regular school work, but our days have been filled with lots of laughter to temper the fits. Our nights have been calm and we all sit down to dinner each night. So I think there is a balance here, one which I hope to continue...