Wednesday Morning

How does a homeschooling working mom feel after 10 hours of sleep?  Better. 

Yes, I went to bed at 9:30 last night and slept until 7:30 this morning.  I feel so much better.  Sometimes we ladies run hard at life, getting ourselves all tired out.  Last night I had to slip into bed early and give my mind and body the rest it needed.  It makes everything clearer the next day!

You wanted to see real life, right?  I was going to post about yesterday’s lessons last night, but I was just too tired.  But here we go!  Again, below is everything that was actually put into the planners for Tuesday’s work.

Joseph
Tuesday:
Work on book
Japanese
Typing
Karate practice
Math we’re in the midst of going over his math test
Read about Wisconsin over tea (we did this over supper)
Spelling 34

Princess of the Universe
Tuesday:
Spelling (Did a blog entry instead)
Read about Wisconsin over tea (we did this over supper)
Read aloud – Caddie Woodlawn – 3 chapters
Saxon 20 (we also did lesson 19 from yesterday)
FIAR Language Arts The Raft – we’ll be using words to do a creative writing project (we got the words written out for this but are not done yet; however, we made a nature project and will finish up our story tomorrow)

So, let me share the occasions that presented themselves on Tuesday.  There’s nary a day goes as planned around here.  But I think that’s true everywhere and with everything.  That’s life, after all!

Yesterday brought an unplanned dental visit my way since a filling decided to break in half, hence I spent half the day out, running a few errands while I had the opportunity.  My cell phone rang while I was grocery shopping and Princess of the Universe informed me that she had been writing on her blog.  I was thrilled!

She had written about the birdfeeders our neighbor showed her how to make.  The only problem was she did not have pictures.  So I picked up a bag of birdseed and we made more birdfeeders when I got home so she could take pictures and finish up her blog post.  I think blogging will stand in for a spelling lesson today.  She also got a grammar lesson from this.  You can read about how to make the birdfeeders at Macaroni Chronicles.

You know I went right by a Goodwill and found more books, right?  I am very excited about the textbook editions of The Scarlet Letter and Hamlet.  They have notes and explanations about the text.  I’ve been wondering what to start Joseph on as far as literature to finish things up before he graduates in May.  I know he won’t jump for joy, but I think Hamlet is in order.  We still have not done Shakespeare.  Oh, we’ve read some about Shakespeare himself, but have not read one of his plays yet.  I happen to have two books in our home library about his place of birth, so I can start to put together a Shakespeare unit study.  And that reminds me, I have a book put up also about the countryside of England.  That would be a nice one to go along with it – Shakespeare mentioned so many plants and flowers in his writing.

I found a pretty, long sleeping shirt for myself, in an oriental theme.  And can you believe I found a dollhouse cupboard for a dollar that Princess of the Universe and I can stain and decorate?  The little frame…  Well, I just love frames and pictures. 

The box full of beautiful stationery actually came from Tuesday Morning and I paid only $1.25 for it.  I always buy our Christmas cards from Tuesday Morning.  Anyway, the stationery was on clearance and then Tuesday Morning was offereing coupons yesterday to get two clearance items at 50% off the clearance price.  Princess of the Universe and I were thinking this will make a great dollhouse closet.  Look at the doors!  We just need to put shelves in it.

Okay.

When you glance at how little got marked off the lists, it might appear that we got nothing done, which is why I take a moment every day and write into the planner what actually GOT done.  I check off things from the list and never pretend that we did things that we really did not. 

Joseph and I updated his high school reading list last night.  In the last three years, he has read nearly 50 books, all at least 300 pages, many more in the 500+ range.  Some even 800 pages.  He spent a lot of time reading yesterday, and I will never complain about that.  Until you have a child who struggles — really struggles, to read and spell, maybe you just can’t imagine the joy of letting a child do nothing but read all day.    We also went over his math test and he worked on his book.  This morning is clear for lots of one-on-one math.  I am confident that he’ll be where he needs to be by May. 

Papa Bear played another game of Monopoly with the three youngest last night.

I must stop here and make the most of today.  We have a lot to do today.  The house is cozy and warm.  I have a kettle of hot water on the stove for tea.  The children are ready for their lessons today.  I’m looking forward to a very cold winter walk today.

Lynn