The Rhythm of Our Days

Tea Time….today we cleaned up from breakfast, took a walk outside in the refreshing fall air, gathered colored leaves for nature study, came home and baked cookies (I’ve been toying around with a whole grain Oatmeal Chocolate Chip recipe), brewed a pot of tea, and sat around the table to listen to poems from The Harp and the Laurel Wreath. Phat Baby played quietly at my feet with toy trains and we all had a mid-week “sigh” from our hectic schedule.
(screeeeattch!!!) you know…that sound a record makes when the needle has rubbed all the way across fast?

Tea Time ain’t like that around here! And today certainly didn’t go like that.

Today: we woke up on time (7), but Dad decided to change outfits last minute and go in 20 minutes early. While he raced around looking for things (thus heightening the perception that I’m more than a little behind on laundry…I’m not but it seems that way when one is rushing around), I got breakfast on. Two kids took a look at what we were having and refused to eat. One other gladly ate the others’ portion. Phat Baby threw clumps of oatmeal across the room. The coffee got cold.

The kids went from there to a movie. They watched Father of the Bride while I did my internet routine and then guiltily realized I was spending more time reading about homeschooling and homekeeping than actually getting off my lazy butt to DO it. So, remembering the public schoolers had delivered the gooey and bad-for-us cookie dough I’d ordered from their fundraiser, I got up and scooped some onto a tray to bake. I turned on the kettle and set out mugs and tea bags. And I called the criters to pause their movie long enough to come and sit

They love tea time. We first heard about it from my friend Julie, who incorporates it into her Bravewriter Lifestyle. We had to nix the candles (too tempting for my pyro children), we don’t use table cloth, and I don’t set out decorations. But we do have yummy tea (each child picks their own variety at the store), good cookies (most often store bought), and poems.

Admittedly, Tea Time went easier last year when Phat Baby took a morning nap. He’s not the kind to sit and “quietly play at my feet”. No…Eggball is more his style! But I was undaunted. Today we’d give it a shot.

Our poem was At the Aquarium by Max Eastman

Serene the silver fishes glide,
Stern-lipped, and pale, and wonder-eyed!
As through the aged deeps of ocean,
They glide with wan and wavy motion.
They have no pathway where they go,
They flow like water to and fro,
They watch with never-winking eyes,
They watch with staring, cold surprise,
The level people in the air,
The people peering, peering there:
Who wander also to and fro,
And know not why or where they go,
Yet have a wonder in their eyes,
Sometimes a pale and cold surprise.

(copied from Old Poetry)

This poem lent itself to a really nice, fluid and slow, read-aloud voice. The words were kind of savory; it was fun to say them. The first time through we were interuppted three times while Phat Baby: 1) threw his cookie into W’s tea, 2) pulled the top of his sipper off, leaking warm tea everywhere, and 3) crawled over the table into the crayon box.

I read it a second time. This time W got up twice to: 1) clean a spoon so he could pick out cookie chunks (hand’t gotten around to those breakfast dishes yet!) and 2) go stare at the cookie sheet so he could “claim” which cookie would be his next.

Take Three. I shouted this time. I tend to get frustrated when I can’t actually FINISH something and this poem was not unrealistically long. Read it a fourth time to feel like I could try to make up for having had shouted.

From there I decided to have them do a picture narration. They typically really like this idea. It’s simple: draw a picture that shows what you just heard. And the older two could easily copy the words off to one side of their pictures. With a day of housekeeping ahead of me (grandparents coming tomorrow! Yay!!) I knew this would be the only written work I’d have them do, so I was pretty insistant.

It wasn’t pretty. Two of them loved doing the drawing; a third complained. Then they didn’t want to share the book to copy the poem. W finished quickly and wanted to turn on the TV.. And Phat Baby? Well let’s say he had a hey-day. Or better yet…I’ll show ya.

Just before I read the poem….

Starting the picture narration.

Phat Baby, rediscovering the taste of Crayola.

W, hard at work.

Ha! Got into Mommy’s Purse!

W’s picture narration.

Sunshine’s narration. The person at the top is saying “woo hoo!” in the comic bubble and she asked how many legs an octopus has.

Firstborn, who was the least interested in a picture narration, spent more time on the copy work portion, and sought to insist that “wan” is not really a word. And, if it really was one, and if it means “pale”, then the poet was being repetitive and redundant.

By the end, we had very little spilled tea but a good amount of cold and undrinkable, crumb-filled, tea-like fluid left. The cookies were devoured. A friend called mid-stream and got an earful of “real school at our house”. Scattered crayons clean up easily (just rake off the table into the bin). They scampered off to go work on their fort outside and I got to work on the stuffed shells for lunch. Pulse and rhythm.

This afternoon she made these, drawing out the bodies, coloring on undies, then cutting out colored outfits for them and glueing them on.

BTW….is “glueing” a tripthong or did I spell it wrong?

Julie’s Bravewriter Lifestyle post was worth a read and then a re-read and then maybe a re-re-read today.

This morning every single one of us woke up crabby and irritable. Maybe it was the rain (though that seemed cozy)…maybe it was that we weren’t headed to our own church (though the kids LOVE going to Sunday school at St. Paul’s). Whatever it was, we were all grumpy.

Sunday school was about Cain and Abel. I sat in with Phat Baby’s class and helped him make his little sheep craft (gluing cotton balls next to Abel and corn seeds next to Cain). He tried to eat both. His favorite part is the singing; today they did the “Jungle Song”, which involves much clapping, pounding, and animal noises.

Firstborn and Sunshine both received devotional books. Their classes met in a large group for a skit on Cain and Abel. I”m most impressed with the continuity between all the classes and age levels.

We went into church but by the time Dad (with a sore back from yesterday’s wood chopping) left with Phat Baby (who was grumpy and wanted his bed), Sunshine left to go to the bathroom and returned during the choir song (who sit in the back to sing and she walked RIGHT THROUGH THEM), and W then got up as soon as she got back, also WALKING RIGHT THROUGH THE SINGING CHOIR (who were singing a very nice song btw)…I was done.

We left during a hymn.

Lunch was a truly fabulous hen I’d roasted on a bed of onions and stuffed with lemon and garlic. I oiled the skin and used coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper. With it we had sweet pototoes and brocoli, both sauted separately in coconut oil.

Right after lunch dad took the older three out for a nature walk. They made observations of what they saw and focused on what their senses experienced: “What do I smell?”, “What do I hear”, etc. Firstborn gathered fall leaves for my nature class tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon Firstborn made brownies, Sunshine and W played pretend “Whistle Stop Cafe”, and Phat Baby made a mess. I worked on my class prep for tomorrow all afternoon. Nearing sunset, dad and Firstborn went out to toss a baseball back and forth and Sunshine and W cleaned out my van.

Just about bedtime and I went through the backpacks for tomorrow’s classes and….

found Firstborn’s undone Marine Biology homework. We are kind of new to this whole “homework” idea!

So he and dad spent the next two hours looking up seashells online, making a collection from old ones I’d had from Florida and finding their latin names. I was listening in while cleaning the kitchen and packing lunches, but I picked up long subtraction problems, latin  words and their meanings, supply and demand economics, web skills, and definitions (like what a Mangrove is).

The car is packed, breakfast is set out, clothes are laid out and backpacks are organized. That’s quite enough work on our “day of rest”.

Firstborn and Sunshine: working on spelling with dad, who has begun to make review time part of a one-on-one “spelling walk”. They get time alone with him, don’t have to do a written spelling test, and everyone is happy. That was yesterday; today Firstborn chopped and split wood while Sunshine cleaned the kitchen and bathroom (without being asked, whooo hoo!) and kept up with Phat Baby. Right now dad is reading a Sherlock Holmes mystery to them and later the plan is to watch a movie. The rain has finally stopped though so we might end up back outside yet….

W: still working on blends and 3 letter words. He’s making great progress on subtraction problems and working hard to form letters that aren’t so shaky looking. Poor guy…that’s coming hard for him. Today he stacked kindling and helped clear brush.

Phat Baby: likes to play with W’s train set. He’s been trying to drink out of cups that don’t have sipper tops on them. Still not really talking though he is trying so hard to say “shoes”. Sounds like “Schzzzz”. It’s a means to an end….this boy is all about getting to outside and he knows shoes are how he gets there! Thursday he dribbled a soccer ball all the way across the field. Maybe his fascination with “Egg ball” is an indication of his future….

“It happened This month”….

Today has been the most perfect early fall day….breezy, white light, cool. My Maple tree is turning red and my poplar, yellow, and the green grass below each is sprinkled with the proof. I’ve got loads of whites and lights on the clothesline, and I”m happy I changed sheets on Friday and have them drinking in sunshine and fresh air. It’s the kind of dry day that gets laundry done in minutes, not hours, and I have the stuff still out there for the pure luxury of it all. Our windows have been open for weeks but today needed more than mere open windows….it needed open doors and lunch outside on the picnic table, reading on the porch swing, and if I had time… .a nap out on a blanket in the grass.

A crisp glass of chilled, appley white wine would be the ideal accompianment to what is going to be a spectacular sunset. We won’t have that in this “dry” county tonight, but we will have a pot of chili for supper and hot chocolate for tomorrow’s brisk morning.

Firstborn: he struggled this morning like my old cat used to when the weather changed. In a fit of hyper restlessness and lack of direction, he’d tear across the hard wood floors in persuit of some ghostly dustball or the like. So my boy was all over the place after his breakfast, desperate for something to do that absorbed some of that energy. He made a tomahawk from some old PVC pipe and a butter knife (so THAT’s where they all go!), rewired the VCR so his sibs could watch The Lion King, read a Discovery Kids magazine. Eventually he calmed down. A little. I made them spend a lot of time outside in this glorious day….too nice to be in! He went to the P.O twice for me to ship ebay stuff and helped make lunch. After we ate under the Maple tree at the picnic table, I worked through some different multiplication and division problems with him. He knows the concepts well but could use more work on the actual written stuff. The kids all watched the next Math U See lesson. Firstborn spent quite a lot of time cleaning out the shed. They went to tutoring time at the Plateau Home School across the street; he worked on division problems, spelling, and read Gary Paulsen’s The Hatchet, to his teacher for a bit. Soccer was boisterous fun surrounded by incredible beauty; they were finally separated into teams. He and his friend spent some time playing in the creek nearby while they waited for the younger kids to finish.

Sunshine: she watched The Lion King and played racketball outside. Ms. Rebecca, the administrator over at the Plateau Home School was there early so Sunshine went over to check out a book, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. We have that one but it must be more fun to read when it’s someone else’s copy! She played dress up with W, wrote a story about Molly (the AG character her enrichment class centers around), and watched the math video. We sat on the swing and she read Benjamin Bunny aloud to me. I focused a bit more on making my finger track ahead of where she was reading to help her go faster; it worked! And we worked on expression with punctuation. Ms. Rebecca came over for a bit and said that when she evaluated the kids (using the system I used to have to pay 60+ bucks for but she did for free!), that they blew away grade level, especially in reading. Spelling is where she’d guess they need the most work, which we agreed with. Both older two are very phonetic in their spelling. What I was most happy with was that a year ago, Sunshine was barely reading 3 letter words and First born was on a 2nd grade level. Waiting for “that magic switch” in their heads to come on is WORTH IT, if you can handle letting them learn at their own pace! Firstborn is closer to a sixth grade level now (but high school in comprehension) and Sunshine is at 3rd grade, which is right where she’s at. It’s nice to see that trusting having a literature-rich household was the right thing to do, while we (not-so) patiently waited for them to “get it”. Anyway….the rest of Sunshine’s day: Tutoring went well; she worked nearly the entire time on spelling. She’s not so impressed to be on her brother’s soccer team but it makes it easier if they practice at the same time. One thing is for sure: she certainly is cute in her long shirt and shorts, ponytail floppin’ around!

W: woke up ravenous! After a whole grain waffle with cream cheese and apple jelly with milk, he had a snack of yogurt. From there he had Peanut Butter toast and more milk, then a plum, all before 11 am! Must be growing…..still no small miracle with him! I”m thankful every day for his health and growth. “Digression” seems to be the habit of the day. To the topic at hand! After his food-fest he played outside, danced with the dog, played with the baby. He built a train village, watched The Lion King, and looked at books. After lunch we worked on phonics, subraction (EarlyBird K from Singapore), and more on common nouns/proper nouns from First Language Lessons. he did some handwriting and we went over the new poem he’s memorizing, “Whole Duty of Children”.  He watched the math video. At the Home School he worked on various phonics and counting games and did an art project that matched shapes. He got extra time in for soccer practice because they switched him to a different team midway.

All in all it was a great day. We had bowls of chili and cheese late; dad came home and after showers and hugs, everyone is tucked in. There was a good episode of House to watch, a bit of ice cream, and cold air wafting in from the windows. Nightie night.

Still tired from yesterday.

“Yesterday” started Sunday. Sunday pm I finished sewing the fabric pouches for my Nature Notebook class at Monday Fun (our co-op). I completed the lesson plan, made my little cave girl costume for my Cultures Through Time (a look at what cultures throughout the past found to be beautiful), and loaded everything necessary into a laundry basket. I made 5 lunches and got the clothes laid out for the next morning.

It’s not my nature to set so much stuff out ahead of time. But it’s even more not my nature to enjoy hectic mornings that require getting a lot done before leaving early. Lo and behold I chose the lesser of two evils ;-).

Monday morning came; porridge for breakfast. Dressed, got everyone loaded up, and started the hour and half drive into Maryville. Passed a still-living-but-writhing porcupine….how can one stop to help a porcupine that’s been hit? Poor thing. I’m getting so that I really enjoy this ride though. It sounds long but it’s smooth and gives me time to think. We listened to a sermon tape and a radio show and it’s a pretty straight shot.

My Nature Notebook class went very, very well! Middle schoolers are a tough crowd and give LITTLE response! But judging that I a: had to actually MAKE them stop so they could leave, b: they offered to do homework during the week, and c: nearly all of them thanked me as they left, tells me that it was a sucess.

During our first hour there, Firstborn is taking Latin, Sunshine is taking an American Girls history class that is focusing on Molly and the World War 2 era, W is taking Hands-On Math, and Phat Baby is in the nursery.

We broke for lunch after that. What is it about PB & J type packed lunches that completely don’t satisfy and always leave me feeling hungry, no matter how much I ate?

I’m so glad I ended up with a “down hour” in between lunch and my next class. I’d planned to be cleaning up from a fund-raiser that has yet to materialize, so the time gives me a chance to make sure everyone got to their classes (Firstborn to Marine Biology, Sunshine to Art, and W to Super Bible Heroes), and nurse Phat Baby who is usually going down for a nap at that hour. I’ll have time to take him into nursery calmly, which makes for an easier drop off, and get into costume for my Culture class. I met two new moms in that interval too; one was a new homeschooler, very excited to be at her first day of classes with her first “learner”.

The following hour has Sunshine in Reader’s Theater/Drama, W in Hands-On History, Phat Baby in said nursery, and Firstborn in my own class due to my paperwork and organization SNAFU. Sign ups and moving all happened at the same time so it’s little wonder I got a few things mixed up!

My Culture class went okay. Not as great as the Nature Notebook class. This is a series of lessons that is going to benefit from the semester’s run, from some real-time tweaking and adjusting. I didn’t plan enough material and ran out of things to say; having another adult in there as a “helper” was a huge distraction, though she was kind and only meant well. The kids really got into it, much more responsive than the other class was, again offering to do their own created homework. I thought I found myself talking too much, “preaching” too much, and wanted to back off and let the material speak for itself more. That will come with better planning I think. This week we covered the hunter/gatherers, tent people that came before and after the flood, early cities, and into Egypt. I read the story of Ruth and contrasted the growing appreciation for outward displays of beauty with her inner character and loyalty. Next week we’ll head into Greece, Rome, and New Testament times.

Home for the drive again, with an approaching storm and cold front. It’s going to be a whole 10 degrees cooler today than it was yesterday. As soon as we got home the kids washed up and unloaded the car, then headed across the street for tutoring. I sat down to Oprah and a cheeseburger, ready to attack anyone or anything that got between me and food. I was totally drained of any energy!

Oprah highlighted her road trip over the summer with Gayle. Good, mindless fodder.

I made carrot soup and the kids came home. They’d worked primarily on math skills; Firstborn needs a lot more work on division. They really enjoyed their time over there and came home running and laughing in pouring rain.

Dh had planned an evening of school but no one had the steam for it by then. The kids gave him a “massage-a-thon”, had bowls of soup, and headed to bed. Dh and I watched The Pianist with a big bowl of popcorn and crashed.

This morning is bright and cool. I’ve done my yoga, made waffles with cream cheese and jam, seen dh out the door, and made the hobbits an after-breakfast snack. Yawn. It’s time for a second cup and some laundry duty. A calm day of quiet after a great, hectic first day back.

Sunshine is working on times tables.  Like mother, like daughter….rote memorization gets us no where and counting on fingers only goes so high and is typically one off. Poor girl. Life will go on; it just doesn’t feel like when you’re staring up from the bottom of that cliff.

Firstborn is building a fort and clearing the section of our yard that borders the winding road behind the house. Now comes the challenge to get him to put our tools BACK when he’s finished. He never seems to get that part…..

We missed scouts, AHG, and soccer yesterday due to a virus Phat Baby and I had. No happy campers here but hopefully it hasn’t spread to anyone else.

I want to curl up and read in my jammmies all day to them today. Instead, we must venture to town for food or we’ll have none, and really, if some things don’t get cleaned around here we will all go nuts. I’m putting hot chocolate on our menu this week in response to our chilly mornings.

Cold toes call for slippers. Time to get them out.

Today First Born and Sunshine made up poems about our fall days. I liked them so well I turned them into a project ;-).

They sketched scenes of fall and then I helped them paint them in a light, washy, watercolor. After they were dry, they rewrote their poems (with corrected spelling LOL) over the top of the picture. I wish I could post the pictures; they turned out so well! But here’s their poems:

The Fall Tree, by: Sunshine

Oh in the summer and spring
there is a tree with leaves of green
but now it’s cold and momma sold
the pine from that tree
and the leaves scatter around the yard.
But not one leaf on that tree.
They are red, yellow, and brown and
a quarter of green.
I think of this as I eat green beans!
It is wet and it is cold.
The tree lies asleep
never more in the summer length.

Fall by: First Born

Fall. Red and Yellow falling leaves
a soft, cooling breeze
There’s a mother out in her yard
raking leaves that have
fallen from the trees.