The Rhythm of Our Days

Firstborn: learned to make chili and fajitas. Did the “cooking”, bachelor style for he and Dad while I was in Alabama. A few more dishes and quite a bit more training in how to clean up after cooking and he’ll be ready to take over a meal a day! Ambleside history is going well; hope to add in science here in a day or two. He’s reading Henry  Huggins. We need to purchase his math and get going on that but we should accomplish that by month’s end.

Sunshine: started cursive. A bit late…I’d forgotten and she finally asked! The bonus is that she’s excited and is cooking right along. Has worked on bead crafts she got for christmas and did some horse grooming at a friend’s yesterday. She’s hit a little plateau with reading; wanting to just do Dr. Suess stuff because it’s easy. Not up for a challenge. She wrote a “preschool workbook” yesterday with skills on 6 pages. I took her mispelled words and made a list from them. Need to get her going on math too. We’ve gone over all the countries on the continents lately; she’s very interested in China.
W: we finished Mr. Popper’s Penguins yesterday. I am trying to work with him on picture narrations; he is pretty resistant right now. Not sure if it’s that he has a hard time summarizing to something compact like a picture or if he just doesn’t want to draw. He still begs for workbook work so he’s doing a bunch of that.  He’s fascinated with maps so tomorrow I hope to help him draw one of our yard and label it.

RK, formerly known as Phat Baby: discovered liquids this week. As in: decongestant (child proof top? mere nuisance!) makes pretty purple puddles, peppermint extract makes the house smell good, shampoo and conditioner are slippery. We’ve had one major mess a day…oh! I’m forgetting the beef stock all over the kitchen floor (must get a lock for the fridge), and he’s gone easy on us this week.

We spent much of December clarifying what worked and what didn’t in our homeschooling life and what to do about it.

What works:

• relaxed pace that is dictated by our lives, not external forces
• tons of creativity
• tutoring twice a week across the street
• board games
• farm chores, cooking skills, real life stuff
• eclectic compilation of materials
• real books versus text books

What’s not:

• too much time on their hands, especially the older ones
• mom doesn’t want to spend time planning education when she could instead be spending it with the kids actually educating
• no Orthodox materials already compiled and the desire to use it more for our spiritual education
• math needs more structure; they understand concepts well but not algorithms
• more structure period.

What we’ve decided to do about it:

• start Firstborn on Ambleside Online. Already planned. Already on the computer. Embraces Charlotte Mason method and uses real books.
• purchase new Singapore Math, Explode the Code, and Handwriting Without Tears in appropriate levels.
• Heavily restock the art supplies. Heavily!
• Begin compiling our own Orthodox Curriculum book list.
• Mom gets up earlier to get more houswork done to better clear morning hours for children.