And together we learn

A day in the life

We get up this morning. I'm not telling what time I actually hauled my very pregnant self out of the bed, nor divulging just how much Playhouse Disney my kids might have watched before I did. That's getting just a little too personal.

We had breakfast of cornflakes with fresh strawberries sliced on top. Can you believe my kids have never had cornflakes before? Steve found some amazing deal on cereal for $.30/box. We stocked up, and now have around 30 boxes of cold cereal. Guess they'll get quite familiar with the taste of cornflakes before too long!

We do chores and I start some laundry. Hazel colors some pictures from the Felicity books, and announces that since two of the girls in the picture are from another country (England), they need different colored skin. Gold skin.

Scripture time goes well. We have a discussion about when Christ will come again, and why it's important to have our hearts continually prepared. Hazel asks if there are any 'clues' about when his coming will be, so we talk about some of the signs of his coming. We talked about the gospel being preached all over the world, but Chloe mentions, "not China or that place where Christ used to live." How do they know this stuff?

After discussing rudimentary Chinese politics, Hazel has the bright idea to stage a coup of the Chinese government man and his family. When I discourage this idea, the girls launch a half hour discussion of all the different ways a cook for the chinese government could insert lots of cayenne pepper and salt and lemons into jelly beans and cake, thus shocking their palates into allowing the gospel in. Chloe, in her list of horrible ingredients, included "10 cups of salt, 6 cups of pepper, and just 2 butters, because you know, their veins? We don't want to hurt their veins too much, huh Mom." Nice to know that the sabotage doesn't include any artery clogging!

Chloe read a couple of Bob books to me (my that kid is doing amazing with her reading! She's far more fluent than her older sister. In fact, her learning to read has been how I pictured the whole process--very organic and natural), and Hazel narrated a composition on the piano about elves and witches and birds. It was very dramatic. Chloe skipped off to do some math pages while I did reading with Hazel.

She called me to task for letting my eyes stray off her face while she was reading. Getting through two Bob books takes us a loooong time, and if my eyes are anywhere but on her she comes unglued. If there is another child in the room she melts. Distractions are not permitted, period. Good heavens!!!

Hazel does some math, then I look at the clock and realize we're late to pick up Steve from the airport. We pile in the car and listen to some music. They correctly identify violins, flutes, piano, trumpet, and cello. I tell them the story of Narcissus, prompted by Hazel's lovely behavior during school. Chloe actually knew the story far better than I, and filled in many details for me, including a description of the narcissus flower. Thank you, Jim Weiss! I told them the story of the Mormon pioneers and the seagulls and crickets, and they loved it.

While in the car, I realized that despite my innumerable deficiencies as a homeschooling mother, they are learning. Happy thought!!

Steve is home for 4 whole days!!!! We're so excited, so we go straight from the airport to the bowling alley. The cuteness of watching Calvin lift up his ball to bowl almost shreds my heart! Chloe bowls with flair--she has a special 'duck waddle bowl', and the super running start approach. Hazel gamely tries to bowl like a grown-up. So fun!

We veg all afternoon. Outside play, some computer time, and a quick nap. My mom and sister dropped by and were told by Hazel that "my mommy and daddy are in bed together, sleeping together so don't go in!" Unfortunately, not that kind of 'nap'. This was the real deal with drool and a sprawled out Calvin in between us. The other kind will just have to wait!

And now we're going for game night with my siblings. Such a fun, typical, crazy, day in the life kind of day!

Labels: homeschool, Kids

posted by Becca at 4:22 PM