Hello 2nd Grade!

We're continuing our world/homeschooling journey this year and the great thing about it is definitely the flexibility. While we were in North Carolina we kept up with some things, but it was close to impossible to keep a regular schedule up. Once we got back to Bahrain we buckled down and are back into our routine. Of course, I had to snap some pictures to commemorate (and to compare at the end of the year and see how much she's changed)!

For anyone interested, we're doing Build Your Library this year. Its a secular literature based curriculum and so far we are loving it! We're doing The Ancient World which has started out with the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt and so far both Stella and I are really happy with it! We're actually going to try and fit in a quick trip to Egypt soon so Stella can see the pyramids in person instead of just reading about them in a book! We're super excited! We're also doing Singapore Math and Handwriting without Tears because she wants to learn to write in cursive! 

In addition to her home curricula we signed her up for a couple of extra classes with other kids and teachers. She had her first Athletics class yesterday (basically Athletics is British Track...lol)

She started French class on Saturday...

Christopher introduced her to Calvin and Hobbs...

Her Noni put together a book box for her (she and I subscribe to these awesome monthly boxes called Once Upon a Bookclub- if you're a reader, sign up!) so she's reading for pleasure a lot now which warms my bookworm heart like you wouldn't believe!


One of the art projects...I like this because its learning a style and a specific artist... not just painting or coloring.



She has lots of help on the daily with her studies... (I missed the shot of Lumee chewing on her pencil while she was attempting to write...lol)

And we've done a little bit of learning about the environment and how we can make better choices to protect our resources and not be so wasteful. Christopher and I had been talking about reducing our footprint and figuring out ways to lessen our waste and we took the leap and made the decision to get un-paper towels, cloth napkins, reusable silicone ziplock bags, fabric produce bags for the grocery store, and bees wrap paper instead of plastic wrap/foil. 

Also working on responsibility and independence, I get the fruits and veggies in the bags and then send Stella off the have them weighed. She does a great job and I think its building a good amount of confidence in her (not that she needs a lot of help in that area...haha!)

Our first trip to the grocery store with our reusable produce bags was a success! The ladies at Lulu's loved them and asked where I got them!

Soon the rest of the homeschool group will be meeting regularly and we'll have science club and book club and anything else we might come up with or find this year! I'm also working on figuring out a place to do horseback riding lessons so this kid can continue learning all about riding and horses! I think its her "thing" for right now for sure... all she talks about is horses (which is a nice reprieve from the constant cat talk...)!

Stella's list of things she wants to learn this year:

• Dinosaurs
• Horseback riding
• Multiplication tables
• Science
• Math
• French
• How the Eiffel Tower was built
• Travel

I'm excited that we're continuing this journey. It isn't always easy and things very rarely go as planned, but I am loving it and am learning a lot myself. Not to mention, having the freedom to go and do and see and not worry about a schedule is amazing.