A Mother’s Journal

As promised, I will follow up yesterday’s lesson-planning post with how our day actually progressed.  Here’s Monday.  (I’m not sure I can do this all week!)

Below is what was actually written in the planner to be done and I’ve marked through what’s been accomplished so far, at 8 p.m.  I’ve put notes by what will be done before we go to bed.  As usual, we have had many occasions, as I call them.

Joseph
Monday:
Call out spelling words for sister’s test
Go over grammar lesson with sister, p. 26
Work on book
Japanese
Typing
Karate practice
Language Arts worksheet
Math concepts test and then we’ll go from there for the rest of the week

Princess of the Universe
Monday:
Spelling test/grammar lesson – see Joseph
Read aloud – Caddie Woodlawn (this will be done at bedtime)
Read newspaper article about reaching out
FIAR social studies The Raft
Saxon 19

Here’s how the day unfolded.

I awoke at 7 a.m. and put on water for hot tea.  I did some of my morning chores and took a shower and by 9 a.m. I was at my work desk and had called the children to get up.  Yes, they are spoiled, I know, but they don’t always sleep so late.

The day was windy, which Princess of the Universe noticed immediately upon waking up.  She always looks out at the kittens when she gets up.  She remembered her kite, because of wind blowing.  She dressed herself and took her kite down in preparation for play this afternoon. 

 On my break we took out a Q&A science book and read a very simple explanation of how kites fly.  This was an elementary 2-minute science lesson that will be a foundation for more talk later about airplane flight.

The next thing you know we all hear loud bumping and jumping on the front porch.  Oreo the cat has killed a squirrel.  Princess of the Universe and I watch for awhile and make a video of this wild-cat-like behavior.  Fluffy took the squirrel away from Oreo and then dared anyone to take the squirrel away from her.  Fluffy ate the squirrel.  Sorry if that’s TMI.  If you listen during the video, you will hear Fluffy growling when one of the kittens comes near her.  (You can stop my blog music – if it’s playing, at the very bottom of the page.)

The squirrel, up close, did look like a rodent. 

After that adventure we took out our Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia and Princess of the Universe read about various types of squirrels and that it’s the gray squirrel we have here.  We talked about classification of animals including those with spines and different kinds of mammals, including rodents.  It was the perfect opportunity, considering our study of animal classification with The Raft this week!

Joseph was steadily working on a long math test, having already done his typing, and things seemed to be going as planned, but as usual Princess of the Universe checked PBS at 12:30 to see what was on Reading Rainbow.  She ran to get Big Joe!  Reading Rainbow was all about Japan today with the story of The Paper Crane (Reading Rainbow Book).  Even Big Joe stops his math test to watch.

Talk about occasions, right?  You’ve probably noticed that Joe did not do his Rosetta Stone Japanese today, but I think the fact that he and Miss Priss watched Reading Rainbow together and talked about Japan is pretty special.  I’m okay with trading out the two lessons — for today.

After Reading Rainbow, Big Joe goes back to his math.  Miss Priss gets on line at the Wisconsin gov website to do a state worksheet.  She also prints a map of Wisconsin for her state notebook while there.   We learned while reading that the Madison State Capitol is the only capitol building built on an isthmus.  So there we go with another rabbit trail.  What is an isthmus?  That must be discussed further on Tuesday when we read from National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Fifty States about Wisconsin.

Whew.  It’s been a long day already, but I’ve not even had my lunch break yet!

For lunch today, instead of walking, I have to go into town and pay a couple of bills.  Miss Priss goes with me and we stop by a bakery and get two large chocolate chip cookies.  When we arrive home Big Joe is finishing up cleaning the kitchen, which he gets paid to do each week.  Miss Priss has him call out spelling words to her while they enjoy their cookies with milk.  I go back to my work desk.

Later in the day, Miss Priss looked out my office window and noticed a fish in the goldfish pond eating something that looked like another fish.  We went out to investigate during my second break of the day.  It appeared to be a partially eaten slug (??) but not another fish.  Brrrr.  It’s cold outside so we head back in.  But do goldfish eat slugs?  Another rabbit trail that must be followed up this week.

I finish up my work at 6:15 p.m. and begin supper.  It’s good.  Salmon patties, wilted spinach with garlic and olive oil, tabouleh, and bran muffins with dark chocolate chips for dessert.

You’d think the school talk would be over by now, but with Papa Bear home, the talk begins again.  Not all of the children like spinach.  I have two who love it.  Papa Bear and I both love it.  It leads to a round-table discussion about whether or not a person can survive on meats alone.  I remembered a book I have that talks about Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Arctic explorer who spent 9 years on a meat-only diet during an 11-1/2-year time period spent in the Arctic.  This is certainly another rabbit trail, as I remember Real life stories and Literary Selections.  It’s a two-book set which contains some fascinating old stories and there’s one in there about life with the Eskimos.  I think it would be a great story to read as follow-up for Very Last First Time which we rowed not long ago. In addition, there are probably stories that go along with The Raft that we need to read.  I put it on my nearby shelf to remind myself to read from it soon.

Somehow, during the course of the evening, Miss Priss helped me cook supper and Papa Bear played an intense game of monopoly with our three youngest children. 

No, Miss Priss did not get her formal math lesson today, but she got plenty of real life math today.  Also, since Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are heavy math days for us, I don’t worry that she’ll be behind by the end of the week.  Usually I would have her just do a review worksheet, but that did not happen today in light of it being such a heavy science/nature day.

So there you have it.  I have worked eight hours and the children have been learning — all day long.  Big Joe has about four hours left before he goes to bed yet, and many nights he works on his book before he goes to bed.  He may have more crossed off of his list when I get up in the morning.

Have a wonderful evening!

Lynn

PS — By bedtime we had read two more chapters in Caddie Woodlawn.  Then we stepped out into the cold night air to look at the stars.  We found the big dipper.  We were looking for planets that would be close to the moon, but we never could find the moon.  Of course, we did not venture very far out into the cold dark night either, but I think we waited until too late in the evening.