This is school?

I had a random idea to set up a little tea party for the kids.  Alison had asked for pumpkin bread and thank you Trader Joe's for making that super easy for me.  When the bread was done, I made some hot cocoa and got out our china.  Then I turned on some "fall" music, lit a fall smelling candle and grabbed a book.  I called the kids in for our special snack time and they LOVED it.

I read ,while they dined.

Alison said, "I wish we were English and could do this everyday."  I told her that we could do it every day (just not with pumpkin bread), but reminded her that she doesn't like tea.  She said, "You're right.  I like our "Shearish" way better."

{It cracked me up how Maya could not be left out and laid their quietly next to us }

At the end of the day, the kids all said this was their favorite part of the day.  I said, "I'm so thankful to hear that school was your favorite part!" and Alison said, "THAT WAS SCHOOL?!?"

Goal accomplished.

Did you hear literature?  yes.

Did you hear classical music? yes.

Did you engage in a conversation about what you were hearing?  yes.

Then you just learned something and that my friends, is what we call "school".

I don't have a concrete goal for us this year yet...our fall is so busy that I might wait until the new year, but I do have a goal that they would enjoy learning this year; to break the idea that school fits in a box and is boring.  Even for myself, this is the first year that I haven't filled out a year long spreadsheet of what lessons need to be done when.  I've been doing this long enough that I know about what pace we need to take.  I left all those boxes blank and told the kids that it didn't matter how long it took to finish to books or how many chapters we got done, it matters that they learn it.  What point is it to fill out the pages but not actually know it?

We did have another tea party and continued on our reading.  This week, I'm going to have Alison bake some cookies (i.e. cooking class) for our tea party :)