in pursuit of wild things

More snow. On my way to record our week I noticed that it was snowing. I am ready for winter to flutter away and welcome spring. These last two weeks of February seem to be lasting forever (okay…maybe a little exaggeration but only slight). Yesterday was the first time I went anywhere in over a week and that was for church services. I tried to take Littlest to pre-school yesterday morning but the battery in the van died…the bitter cold and my lack of understanding for most things mechanical completely depleted the battery.

Thanks to all of this wintery weather, Littlest has completed nearly two weeks of Kindergarten material. Yesterday, he had to do some cutting and pasting, listen to a Bible story and answer question, do some matching and find differences in pictures. He debated with me on how to properly hold a pencil and scissors. I had to ask him seventeen times (yes, I counted) if he actually knew what a rainbow looked like. He finally admitted that he did not really know since he had only seen cartoon rainbows. So we looked up pictures of rainbows on the internet. Every book I read to him had to be read twice or he would not cooperate. So, I read them all twice. (We will not read any Dr. Seuss books until he is out of this phase…they are like verbal land mines for me!) He also thought that Noah should have built two boats so he would not have to “float around with all those spiders in the same boat.” To finish up he did a few tangram puzzles and decided they were too easy (and they are) for him. He informed me that he “gradumated tangrams” and he was done with them forever. He then cleaned up all of his school things and put them properly into his basket and went off to play.

I didn’t spend quite an hour with Littlest but I was mentally done for. The older three were just staring at me looking rather horrified. Middle Boy asked “will everyday be like that?” I let them know this was actually a good and productive day. I’m not sure they believed me. Maybe it was because I told them they needed to work in complete silence for a few minutes while I just laid on the floor.

The crew enjoyed a wonderful weekend playing outside and sledding in the snow. They found a pigeon frozen to the back porch. He (or she) couldn’t move because their little foot was frozen to the railing. The bird was still alive so my husband managed to free it. He then put the bird in a bucket with some seed and brought it into my kitchen to warm up a bit. I told him that whatever mess that bird made he

was responsible for cleaning. After the bird had warmed up a little my husband held it a gave it water from a medicine dropper. Then with some gentle coaxing the pigeon drank from the dropper. My husband amazes me in moments like this. The bird lived and later we saw it sitting with its mate near the feeder. My husband saved a little life that day. Every night, before going to sleep I thank Jesus for the privilege of being married to such a wonderful man. I’m so incredibly blessed.

This week the crew and I discussed their curriculum for the following academic year. We talked about what they enjoyed and wanted to learn as well as what they really disliked. I was completely surprised they wanted to change their

Bible curriculum. We all like the curriculum from Christian Light but none of us want to continue with it. They also do not want to finish out the Apologia series we are reading now. They were fine with finishing the book since we are about half-way through but wanted something else. When I asked for clarification Oldest said, “a curriculum that actually lets us read the Bible”. I could hardly believe the words he said and that the middle two actually agreed with him. The past month or so I’ve been having the same thoughts. I told them I’d have to think a few thoughts on how to go about it together.

They are delighted (well…as delighted as one can get with grammar and mathematics) with the rest of their curriculum. Middle Boy would like a few more crafts and hands on projects. Oldest wanted creative writing and Latin. Sparkles just wants to learn to sew. Otherwise they are completely satisfied with their books. We are all very happy with this past school year’s progress. I already have our Latin curriculum (Visual Latin) picked out for next year as well as Oldest’s creative writing curriculum (Cover Story). This is the first time since beginning homeschooling that choosing our curriculum for the following year hasn’t been so difficult.

The academic week went by quickly. We studied Marie Curie in science. Oldest made Lego creations of his Ancient Roman studies on the death of Julius Caesar and the take over of the Triumvirate of the Roman Republic. He even added the detail of the soldier bringing the head and hand of Cicero to Antony. Sparkles and Middle Boy have finally managed to deliver pretty good oral narrations for history. It may be time for them to move onto written narrations and possibly some outlining exercises. Middle Boy finally found a book he likes to read! He loves the Nature Readers from Christian Liberty. He also made a painting today after school because “some girl at church” asked him to make one for her. I may need to meet this girl.

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

habitat learning

a nice ride

Oscar Meyer Weiner

Shakespeare and tea

read aloud is sometimes the same as nap time