The Rhythm of Our Days

Yesterday at The Lilting House Melissa blogged about different tides and I was relieved and encouraged because the same thing is happening around here. It always comforts my mind a little to hear that tides of activity ebb and flow elsewhere too.

Firstborn: he’s been sick off and on over the past week or so, which has effected his creativity, thinking/skating time, and interest. He did read Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and wrote a report, earning computer hours to play a game based on a Agatha Christie mystery, part of a birthday gift from a friend.

Tutoring has been off for the past two weeks and now it’s the public schools’ spring break so there have been kids around to play with. Lots of impromptu baseball games in barefeet going on.

Sunshine: She wrote a newspaper! It’s four giant pages long and she took clippings from magazines and wrote stories about them each. Today she had a crick in her neck and couldn’t move her head; she had an Anne of Green Gables marathon. I saw her practicing her cursive…Anne (with an “e”)!

W: we must get to work on some writing with him! Of all the kids. He is having a great time  imagining,  riding his bike, exploring…he  loves the cats, who are both about to have kittens, and the dog, who  prefers to stay close to the kids.

RK: HE DOES NOT HAVE DOWN’S!!! We got the call today that his blood work was “normal”. I had planned to ask if they did a “two out of three” to make sure it wasn’t Mosaic but at the last minute, didn’t. He is having a speech growth spurt, enjoying breaking things, is weaning, loves to make sound effects with his trains and cars, has learned to  play  pretend…I think I’m learning he’s  maybe a bit of a late bloomer and just takes very downs-ish  photos now and then.

Spring time means projects around here and less book work. We are pulling up carpet from the stairs, which will have the faced painted and stenciled with some “upward” quote. We’re scrubbing the picket fence, beginning the garden, cleaning the yard. We’re breaking in new doorways and building two rooms out of one with a new closet inbetween. The boys have discovered baseball, throwing and catching between the two of them until the neighbor children notice and suddenly materialize out of nowhere. The days feel unseasonably warm at times and all around us life is taking notice.

Sunshine got her first salon haircut:

and has had a two day fever; didn’t feel much like smiling today for a picture.

RK has discovered tools and what fun everyone in this family has using them!

Sometimes they love the boxes best!

W: I started with him today. He built with the MUS blocks, we went over site words. We took baby for a nature walk to get him to stop crying (it was one of those mornings….). W colored a map of Canada while I read several chapters of Paddle To the Sea to the kids, the book we’ve started many times but have yet to finish and want to so badly. They love it! He watched a few MUS lessons and headed outside to play Swiss Family Robinson.

Firstborn: read from The Once and Future King, Our Island Story, and This Country of Ours. Tootled around on the internet looking for more stuff on the gold rush. He’s getting very good at “surfing”, reminding me that computer skills are caught very, very quickly and it’s okay to put this off until late, even in our day and time of computerized-everything. He copied a poem in cursive, filled in a map of Canada during the Paddle reading….this was most impressive. The instructions were to just color it in; he went the next lap and took out the Atlas and labeled the whole thing. We went over the provinces of Canada for geography. He did another Latin lesson. Then we worked on math. He wants to do it all mentally, which he’s very good at, but we are working on “showing your work” for test ability. He needs more work on borrowing. He’s very good at pre-algebra “solve for x” kind of stuff. He headed outside to be Fritz in their game of Swiss Family Robinson, coming inside only for a piece of chocolate cake.

Sunshine: started the morning working on the piano. She is only doing it by ear but has learned to pick out some pretty melodies and chords. I’d love to be able to provide her with lessons now that we are about to be debt free!!! She wrote a song about a cell phone and made her own American Girl catalog. She did a map while I read Paddle, watched the MUS lessons with W. She is Bertie in Swiss Family Robinson and she served the boys their cake!

They all have tutoring this afternoon; emphasis on math.

Baking cookies.

Dancing with Strauss: