first day of school

Sartorial Saturday–Back-to-School Style

Today I’m taking a look at a very different style of outfit for me…a 1960s-inspired sweater and pleated skirt set with a pickleball theme!

When I saw this Smak Parlour outfit on Unique Vintage’s website last spring, I fell in love with it even though it’s not my usual style. The color palette (which I’m guessing was intentionally or unintentionally inspired by Wicked), is really pretty, and I loved the pickleball details…while we don’t play pickleball in school, we do play tennis fairly frequently, so the racquet sport style really appealed to me.

Look how cute the bouncing pickleball embroidery around the hem is!

I kept my accessories simple, with a stack of Homes bracelets and a RockLove Jewelry necklace…no need for a brooch thanks to the paddle embroidery on the sweater!

The real reason I fell in love with this outfit, though, was because there was a coordinating (but not matching) outfit featuring a button down dress and shorts that Chickadee fell in love with, making it the perfect ensemble for both of us for the first day of school!

This is a fun and unexpected addition to my wardrobe, and I’m already planning on how I can wear the pieces independent of each other!

2025-26 School Year–Week One

The first week of the 2025-26 school year is in the books!

We had a fun and relaxed first day:

But we also got started on our work for the year. Chickadee started her religion course, Lutheranism 101. Algebra was (thankfully) all review. She also reviewed 3-level outlines in writing. We got started in physical science by reviewing the scientific method. In history, we read about Queen Victoria, The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations and the Crystal Palace, and the Sepoy Mutiny. She started her first literature study of the year, and it’s something that’s new to even me…The Wind in the Willows. Since I couldn’t find a cookbook that went with any of our literature for the year, we decided to make recipes from the American Girl Sweet and Savory Treats Cookbook, starting with a recipe inspired by my original American Girl doll, Kirsten…Jam Twists, made with lingonberry jam from Ikea…perfect for a Swedish immigrant!

And because I really wanted to have a fun, first week field trip, we took the train downtown yesterday and went on a cool Busch Stadium 360 Tour…details to follow!

Next week we’ll fully be in our routine, but it was nice to have some fun activities this week!

First Day of School 2025

Today we kicked off the 2025-26 school year, with Chickadee in the eighth grade!!

Every year before the first day, I get my American Girl dolls, who have pride of place on on a bookshelf in our schoolroom, dressed in their school outfits:

And organize the schoolroom as best as I can:

The first order of business was also my favorite back-to-school tradition…Schultüte. It was weird only making one this year!!!

We didn’t start every subject today, but we did accomplish some traditional schoolwork.

And of course Chickadee built a Lego set…she finished the Lego botanical four seasons collection we started on the last day of last school year with the Lucky Bamboo:

I made a special treat for dessert, too. Chickadee and I are having a little book club this year, and we’re reading through the Harry Potter series. She’s reading our original, American books, but I’m reading the British versions that I received as a gift years ago. Right off the bat, I noticed that they mentioned a dessert of “Knickerbocker Glory” in mine, but not in Chickadee’s, which only had mention of chocolate ice cream. So we looked it up, and discovered that the layered dish of vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce and chopped strawberries, and whipped cream is easy to make, and we did!

This is going to be a very different school year for me, with only one student at home, but I’m looking forward to every new moment!

Schultüte 2025

Here’s a look at this year’s version of my favorite first day of school tradition, the Schultüte!

I was really happy with the items I put together…I found a lot of fun pens and pencils, and I also added a few Pokémon things, which was a nice follow-up to our Pokémon Summer!

I think Chickadee was happy with it, too!

This continues to be one of my favorite things to do every school year!

2024-25 School Year–Week One

We have completed the first week of the 2024-25 school year!

Our first day of school was mostly fun, but we did get into some work…Ladybug was very excited to get started on her advanced physics course, and Chickadee was just excited about everything!

Ladybug began the intro to logic course she’s taking this year instead of standard math. In advanced physics, she reviewed vectors and the dot method. She started reading 1491 for social studies. She also read Act I of The Merchant of Venice (and read the entirety of The Great Gatsby!). In religion, a walk through all of church history, which she and Chickadee are doing together, she read about James the Brother of Jesus and Ignatius of Antioch.

Chickadee reviewed the identity formulas for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and the rules for arithmetic involving signs in pre-algebra. Her first literature selection of the year is Tom Sawyer, and she read the first chapter. In history, she read about the Holy Roman Empire at the time of Charles V. She reviewed one and two-level outlines in writing. She began an intro to general science, and got to do her first experiment, which demonstrated how molecules move at different temperatures.

This year, we’re going to be reading The Wizard of Oz out loud together, and making recipes from The Wizard of Oz: The Official Cookbook. We started with a fairly simple recipe from Auntie Em’s Recipe Box for “Dinner on the Farm Rolls.”

We also took advantage of one of the fall-like days we had this week to play tennis. It has been a few years (I think) since we played tennis, and let me tell you, I’m really feeling it!

Next week it’s going to be hot again, so I don’t anticipate any fun outdoor adventures, but we are going to get fully into the routine of school!

Triton Tuesday

Today is Turkey’s first day at the college to which he transferred! I got to go with him on Friday for orientation, and I had a fun time walking around the campus, meeting some of the faculty, and especially getting to see the mascot!

I can’t to see what the next two years have in store for him!