Diary of our "first" official structured learning day.

Cereal for breakfast *(desire to choose better)

We started off our Monday with a new opening blessing but I want to find a better fit

Movement - exercise (running, bike, race, tag) for in and out breath. Balance beam -
SONGS:
Come Follow Me from Enki
Kookabir Song
Grand old Duke of York
 (I'd love to see this become a real circle connected time but right now it's more free)

Weekend Journal - 20 minutes (I saw Dax was feeling left out and I asked him if he'd like to have his own journal - he perked up and so joined in with his own journal drawing pictures from the weekend.

Focused Learning - Language Arts/Hum BLOCK: day 1 is with open intake of stories - Coyote stories from Enki Kindy (Dax yelled and became angry at the repetitive rain rain coyote chant but later in the day repeated it and the story in his own words, hmmm ask Beth about this, is it integration or no?) and Grade 2 story (Ryder asked for another/more stories but I said that was all for today "lesson").
Snack Apple and almond butter
Made Jump rope - 1 long 15' and 2 single for boys (enough extra for me to have one too) We began with learning basics using the snake rhymes 10 minutes, hopping and skipping

Lunch - Spaghetti
Quiet time Ryder held his pokemon cards, Dax played on his own (I bought the doll house as he enjoyed this at Aikido he combines house with castle and many things. Seems grounded and but I need to understand more about the expansive and contractive concepts and how to recognize them in the boys.)

Ryder practiced his numbers and after a full page they were clear and near perfect. He saw the change and was proud of his accomplishment.

Snack. Protein shake (milk, eggs, blueberries)

Aikido class in the afternoon with Japanese song and poem

Ryder reads aloud from his various books he's chosen from the library - mostly comic (sonic and green lantern - I would love to release these back to the library)

We continued with Herb Fairies story 6 on chamomile. The boys are enjoying these and I'd like to give more time to this - a unit study in itself? Not certain.

We are reading the Festival of the Stones by Reg Down for bed time story. Boys settled in quickly and calmly and fell asleep a little after 7:30.

By the end of the day Dax seemed more connected but we did have a major outburst and retelling as if he was in the moment again - with the Aikido instrutor George Sensei. Dax is very very sensitive to anyone who bosses or speaks in a mean manner to him - he goes into a very defensive protest but I see just under the surface emotional pain. I'd love to understand this in terms of NVC - will work on that one. Ryder is jolly as usual and integrating head, heart and hands nicely.

Teacher Health: Feeling anxiety about Kelly and Amsterdam. It would be an amazing opportunity but I feel concern about the homeschooling laws there. It's confusing as to why any country would not support home schooling. If I ever thought my children could get more patience, consistent love and support and unconditional encouragement in who they are as individuals and understand where they are developmentally as an individual person and foster what was in their best interest I would not hesitate to support them in that. It would also be a great loss of what we have created here in our community.

I hate to remove our dairy (especially because it's the highest quality one can buy) but I believe it could be a real allergy for Dax. Ryder doesn't seem to have an issue with it but he doesn't drink as much as Dax. In 2 weeks I will remove dairy as I've just removed spinach, kale and other oxylates he was having daily (high oxylate issues along with salycilyte - see feingold and  - ok I want to see if that helps)

Consult call with Beth Sutton tomorrow. A lot to go over. I know she will shed some light in the right direction.