A better week (Dec. 10-15)...

Okaaaaay, I had this whole entry typed out, and something went wrong, and it didn’t post, so I’ll try again!

My children are not sick anymore! We took it fairly easy when they got sick, spent a lot of time watching “Curious George” and “Little Bear”, drank lots of hot tea, and just tried to keep things mellow.

Sunday: We did some schoolwork - math, a little in Easy Word Families, and a few pages in Maps, Graphs, Globes. We also read “The Nutcracker” again, along with a few other holiday books from the library.

Monday: C.O. worked on math and phonics, while C.J. drew “letters” on her Magna-Doodle. Then we headed off to gymnastics, which went really well! C.O. was very excited because he did a couple of back-flips on the rings, and C.J. worked on the high beam again. When we got home, they spent the rest of the evening drawing pictures at the kitchen table - we go through an amazing number of crayons in this house! I’m always glad to find them on sale. We also baked cookies for a 4-H party.

Tuesday: Great day! We went to a 4-H party, and it was just so much fun! There were all kinds of activity tables, holiday display tables, presents, food, etc. C.O. played LEGOs with other boys of all ages (up to I think about 13), building & racing all kinds of fantastic creations, made a beeswax candle, and a clove orange (what fantastic smells!). C.J. made a paper snowflake (with lots of my help), a beeswax candle, and a clove orange too. She stayed fairly close to me at the party, though she did enjoy playing with a couple of other little girls, and a baby. We also had a cotton ball “snowball” fight - at first the kids played against each other, but then we had adults versus children, and I think the children won! There were two rounds of present exchanges, first the little kids, then the older ones. C.J. got one of those neat wiggly wooden snakes, which she has been carrying around ever since, and C.O. got a flashlight with 3 different bug-printed lenses, which he loves! He also got to enjoy some wrestling with one of the other boys! I had a good time too - I got to talk to some other moms, and I didn’t feel quite as awkward and out-of-place as I usually do at gatherings. We’re now officially going to join 4-H, since the kids had so much fun!

Wednesday: A much quieter day. We worked on pen-pal Christmas cards, math, phonics, and studied our book on insects, discussing all the parts of the body, and different groups of insects. C.O. now has 4 pen-pals, and C.J. has 3, ranging from Tennessee to Canada! One of them (Canadian) apparently primarily speaks French, so now the children want to learn French. I took 3 years of it in high school, but really don’t remember all that much of it now!

Yesterday: Back to the dentist, for another filling for C.O. He was so good! He stayed very still, and only cried when they gave him the Novocain shots. I’m working really hard on positive reinforcement with him, so we stopped at a toy store on the way home, where he got a small die-cast metal bi-plane. Then, we stopped at my mom’s house to pick up C.J. and ended up staying for a couple of hours to work on a gingerbread house. Then we came home, the kids helped me make soup, and C.O. read one of his phonics books out loud to me. They spent some time playing with C.O.’s math manipulatives, and we finished off the evening with family movie night - we watched “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”. Naturally, C.O. is now a hobbit!

Today: We hope to finish Christmas shopping and get all the pen-pal cards out in the mail! We may also see Santa Claus. C.O. wants to do some math, so we’ll definitely work on that, and we want to finish reading our holiday library books so we can return them.

I’ve been preparing for next year’s home schooling. I have decided after much research and thought, that we will be following the basic ideas and guidelines of the Well-Trained Mind. I may be a bit geeky, but I am really excited about this, as I can see it working well for our family. I am now looking at all the many. Many options of books to supplement the history and science aspects of the program. I plan to blend it with a Charlotte Mason approach, using “living” books and nature walks/journals.