Homeschooling With New And Old Friends

Over the last several months, I have reached out and grasped at any and all opportunities to meet and connect with like minded homeschoolers in the area. I have Facebook to thank for the connections I have made. As it turns out, there is a huge homeschooling community in the area and I've actually been able to pick and choose from groups to find ones that meet our needs and lifestyles the best. Esperanza has made a small handful of friends, and I've found some like minded mamas to chat with and share ideas. The most consistent group that we meet with is ACE (Autodidect Community Enthusiasts). It is a secular group of unschoolers/homeschoolers, who meet in a building at a park in Camas once a week to visit and play. We really enjoy this group and the fact that they meet just down the road from us is a huge bonus.

Crafts at ACE

Birthday party for Madi and Izzie (6 year old twin girls we met at ACE and made friends with). Their mom, Amanda, is a super amazing homeschooling mama! She has such unique and fun teaching ideas and her girls are so bright and sweet! There were 2 sets of triplets and 1 set of twins at this party we went to.

Needle felting at Katherine's house with her kids. We met them at ACE as well. She has 3 kids, is a home-birthing midwife, needle felts, eats healthy, lives simply, homeschools her kids and lives in Camas close to us! 

Though it may be a shocker to hear, I don't always take pictures. Many of our new homeschooling friends I don't have pictures of (yet). Through Facebook I met two other women who are mutual friends and homeschool with similarities. My kids have connected with their kids and we usually meet at one of our houses where we chat and get to know each other while the kids play. Two of the kids Esperanza has made friends with are Naomi (age 4) and Ryan (age 5).

At the same time that we met and made friends with all these new homeschooling families, some friends from back in my school days have come back into my life are contributing to our continued enjoyment of life and experiences. I have begun caring for a little girl, Opal, one day (sometimes twice) a week for a few hours each day. I knew her mom when we were younger and I offered to help her with childcare when word got out that she was in need. We all have so much fun together crafting, visiting and catching up. Opal is a few months younger than Esperanza and they just have a great time playing together when she is over. I also re-connected with another friend from school who moved back to Camas from the east coast recently. Her kids are much older than mine, but we all still get together often to visit and craft. She even plans to pull her kids from public school next year and begin homeschooling.

Esperanza with Opal and her brother Hayden with newly made play-doh

 Esperanza and Ezra crafting with Shyla

 My friend Jessica recently made the decision to homeschool her son Nicholas too. She and I already enjoy the common link between our girls in the same dance class and look forward to sharing ideas and challenges around homeschooling our kids too. This is her daughter Ella with Esperanza one day at dance.

We love our new and old friends! Our hope is to continue to build on our relationships with all of these people as we move forward into our journey of homeschooling and living!

Esperanza's First Dance Performance

Esperanza made her debut in her first big on-stage professional dance performance recently. The dance studio she attends held a winter dance performance at The Washburn Performing Arts Center (at Washougal High School) so dancers could show off the moves they've learned so far this year. While she and her dance class mates had a dress rehearsal earlier in the week to practice their steps, most of them were all over the place that day, and so adorable! On the day of the performance though, they did really good, still with a few cute mishaps and looks of confusion at times from some of the 3-5 year old girls, as to be expected. Esperanza felt so grown up with her blue eyeshadow, blush, red lipstick and hairspray I used to keep the bun in place. We patiently waited for her class' turn to perform, while watching all the other dance performances. It really was quite the event! I had no idea the studio had so many dance classes, age groups and dance styles. It was entertaining for sure. Finally, when it was Esperanza's turn, she didn't hesitate or have any noticeable signs of nervousness about getting up on stage and showing off in the spot light. They danced to a cute song called Tiptoe Elf. After the performance, we met some friends and family in the lobby area to take pictures and visit for a few minutes. Grandpa George brought Esperanza a beautiful single red rose and Eva brought her a bouquet of brightly colored daisies. Grandpa George & Grandma Janet, Grandma Angelina, Eva, Rafa, Kiko and Araceli all came to her performance! We were so glad she had an audience full of loving family there that day to cheer her on and show their support. Thank you!!

dress rehearsal day!

I had to create a YouTube account and upload the video there in order for it to upload here. Worth it though!! I'll cherish this video forever. Esperanza is 3rd in from the left.

Holiday Crafts, Traditions and Other Festive Fun Events

 We started our Christmas countdown with our sock calendar again this year. Last year was the first time I did this, and it was a hit so it is now a tradition. Each sock has two little surprises in them and each morning after breakfast the kids get to take one sock down. I filled socks with a variety of little things like little tree ornaments, quarters, snacks and my favorite: geodes! Esperanza thought the geode was so neat, she decided not to break it open yet. Ezra's is in a thousand little pieces, crystals all over the place. As the days went on, the socks came down and Christmas cards came in, I decided to hang each card on the string where the socks were. It's such a lovely and festive display.

 We made a colorful construction paper chair which we hung across the kitchen ceiling

Ezra was fascinated with the snow globes!

We spent countless hours and days needle felting and decorating these ornaments. The wool was originally gifted to me, then we hand dyed it with kool-aid. Using cookie cutters, we were able to shape the wool as we needle felted it to create festive and beautiful shapes. Some of them we left simple, while others we added beading and splarkly bling-bling. Many of them were given away as Christmas gifts, some we decorated our tree with and others will adorn our windows and home year around. These are special!

Popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree

Opal's mom Kara came over and crafted with us one afternoon. She showed us how to make these cute little wool gnomes.

 Pine cone bird feeders with Opal one afternoon

 Christmas lights at the Portland International Raceway. Cousin Rafa joined us.

Tea bag wreath (we started this craft with Jonna, but had to finish it a few days later at home)

The house in Camas had their light/music show again this year. We went at least a dozen different times. 

Sugar Cookies!! 

Esperanza's Christmas wish list

The Rest of December

December is always filled with so much holiday crafts, gatherings, events, parties, who-ha's and what-nots that the ordinary day to day routines seem to zoom by. Here's a brief glimpse of various moments captured by my camera of the normalcy that still was, even though it was December.

Fresh juice

UNO. She's good!

Puzzles

A little 'school' work

 Making brownies! As with every moment, cooking and baking are packed full of learning opportunities. For these brownies, we talked a lot about fractions as we divided and cut them up into sections after they baked. 

 Ezra loves my canning claw. He likes to pick up toys and items with it. Great educational tool during the canning off season.

 Esperanza loves Lucy more than anything!

 Bath time

 Lucy getting some love from Esperanza

 This kid spent a lot of time on the stool one afternoon

 Me and my boy

 Counting pennies. Priceless

 Painting

 Math game

Esperanza and Lucy, again

 Puzzle with Grandma Angelina

Legos with Grandma Angelina

Grandma rubbing Esperanza's feet!

Making breakfast

 Another math game

 Post bath smiles

 Looks like trouble to me

 Ezra played teacher one day

We went to cousin Roman's 5th birthday party, superhero themed. The kids had fun, as did he adults.

I am almost done with my hooded cowl. Now that the holidays are over, maybe I can get it done.