Monday October 22, 2007

It seems like I should put the year at the top... it has been so long since I have added anything here. I think I have been (blush) looking at a few too many other blogs lately, and consequently falling into a definite lack of focus. I am going to try to focus on recording some notes here regularly again so I can see which way we are going, and also to have something to look over when February hits!

Today was a great day. It was clear and not rainy, which has been a change this week. We had breakfast, quite late as we are all in the sort of winter sleep in mentality already, and then drifted onto the couch to continue reading Theseus and the Minotaur from Tanglewood Tales. (Aaron had brought out the book and asked me to read it). We had read a Bible story already at the table. We were so cozy on the couch, and Caleb was happy, so I continued after that to read out of Child's History of the World about Ceaser. That went well, and we prayed the Lord's Prayer together.

At this point we all seemed to jump up and be ready for some chores, and some of us (me included) to get dressed.

From there we headed into math.
Hannah- test 15
Ariel- test 11
(aaargh... that means they both have a new lesson the same day- I try to avoid this!)
Caleb- subtraction facts and borrowing. Got it like a flash! (I am creating my own Math-U-See pages with the help of my old Foundations TM as he was using his sister and brother's old workbook and it ended a few lessons earlier than I needed before I could transfer him into Gamma... )

Ariel and Hannah each practiced their instruments (none for Caleb as his lesson is today and it would tire his tiny little arms out too much!)

We were having a friend over for lunch for his birthday so at this point I slipped out to grab a few things and started to cook like mad. Hannah iced the cake and very artistically set the table. Ariel played with Aaron, and Caleb had a time and a half trying to get his card just right! (There are just too many ways to say 'er' in english... as in Berthday, burthday.....)

After lunch we all cleaned up and headed out to a nearby park for a walk. We flew kites (sort of), threw the disc around lots, the little boys played at the park a bunch, and Hannah drew a great tree. The rest of us didn't get to our nature journals, but hey, it was a great day out.

When we got home I made Aaron some hot lemon and honey as he has a head cold, and decided we would do dictation. We generally don't do things after an outing, but it worked really well. I zipped through a section of Beren and Luthien with both Ar and Hannah, and Caleb did some copywork from HP.

After this it was onto designing my post for hosting the apple fair, dinner, violin for Caleb, and a great night of reading.

Did we do everything? No. Should we have? No, I honestly can't say I am very sold on the idea it all has to be done each day. Maybe that is why I waver so. It all looks good on other blogs etc. but today sure was beautiful here.
Note to self: enjoy the process of your own family rhythms and joys, see what works there. We have many years together, so see the steps, and live fully!

Thoughts: We are going to go through with the Henle slowly. When we get to a grammar concept (like tomorrow and transitive verbs) that is 'foreign' we will stop and figure it out with the grammar resources on hand (Learning Grammar through Writing, Harvey's, and worksheets from Easy Grammar). While taking the grammar break we can do flashcards and chanting as Hannah loves this (and make more cards for vocab. down the road as she loves this even more!)

The HP unit with Hannah still is full swing in her books. I thought we had fizzled out (after only a few days, not unit study type I am), but she is determined. She is doing beautiful calligraphy in both her Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology books, researching for both of these, and even wrote out the lab for Potions. She LOVES the creative flair, and because this is her passion it is working great (vs. when I have a great idea about drawing something which often goes flat)

Do another craft this week out of the book that we did the turtles out of (great craft two weeks ago... watercolor painting, which is right up my alley).

Get some good nonfiction books for Caleb to read too!

Think of a science focus as I see the kids would enjoy this right now.