tangible childhood: a week in pictures

SO IT TURNS OUT that i took photos everyday of our first week of 'school'. we also spent some time outdoors each day which was wonderful despite the august heat.

a quick review (for posterity and reflection sake) which i'm unlikely to repeat often, if ever:

MONDAY MORNING found us on the back trails in the woods behind our beloved library, playing hide and seek in the trees.

eventually we wandered over to the open gate and walked up the stairs, entering the library a different way than ever before (i feel an apropos life metaphor coming on). as we walked through the glass doors we found storytime was just getting underway in a different location than the usual big room near the front doors of the library. the girls' perplexed expressions were quite entertaining when they discovered this familiar scene going on in this unfamiliar location (they hadn't realized what building we were in).

TUESDAY MORNING we ventured out again, this time to a park a bit further away where a local homeschooling group i found online meets weekly to play and hang out. this particular park is very expansive and has multiple trails, fields and playgrounds (it's also home to families of deer and other creatures). the first playground we went to; one we've visited multiple times, was designed for younger kids and toddlers. upon arrival, i realized fairly quickly that this was not where the group was meeting, so after about an hour of play we got back on the road and headed to the site of another, much more 'big kid' playground. it's set back away from the road amidst the trees and is basically a tower with various climbing walls and steep, long slides.

i meandered bashfully over to the lone picnic table where a handful of mothers were chatting away. i recognized a few of them from the groups' facebook page and briefly introduced myself. many of their children were playing in the woods behind us.

i kept an eye on Dinah, who was on the playground shod in slippery flip-flops. at one point i noticed she was climbing one of the walls (rather high) and quite close to the top. i went over to help, mostly concerned about the shoes, but she assured me she had this as she reached the top. another teaching moment for me. if you don't know Dinah well it won't seem like much, but for those of us who've watched her hesitate and seriously struggle with various fears over the years, it was pretty huge.

LATER, in the afternoon, i nudged the girls outside into the heat again to gather 'a collection' of things from the backyard.

they spread out flowers to press and played a while with the remains.

Maisie made a 'fairy house'.

WEDNESDAY we were home-bodies.

Dinah obliged her sister with a recitation of 'The Bear Feels Sick" which she knows by heart, though she can't actually read it (...a technicality).

they played on starfall together...

"head, shoulders, knees and toes"

and spent a good amount of the afternoon doing this:

THURSDAY some friends came over in the morning and stayed through lunch.
(this happened sometime in the afternoon):

FRIDAY we made a trip to the zoo. and i sighed a great sigh of satisfaction when we pulled into a very-much-less-crowded-now-that-school's-in-session parking lot.