Tuesday:

Today I am going to mention the life skills that happen every day in our family but don’t often get recorded.  These life skills are as much a part of our children’s education as the math, science and writing that we work towards.  Another word for these life skills is “chores”!!  We train our children in these chores not so they can leave home and be independent but so they can serve the family, which will train them to serve others.  The off spin of this is that one-day they will be able to look after themselves but that is not our goal.

The chores the kids are working with are feeding the dog, setting the table, emptying/stacking the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen, making cups of tea, dusting, sorting the laundry, picking up toys, cleaning the bathroom, watering plants, spot cleaning the veranda, sweeping the floor, making beds and mowing lawns.  There are many other household tasks that the children participate in but these are daily tasks that get shared around.  The children’s chores get rotated and some are better at doing certain jobs than others but that is where the training comes into it.   As the children get proficient at doing these chores they start to see things that they can do in other settings such as at church or when we visit our friends.

Today Nomi and Daniel helped our guest plant a cutting for me in the garden.

Joshua started his math lessons up again – a review on long multiplication.  Daniel spent time with Lentil Science with the main skill being putting digits 1-10 in order and an introduction to counting backwards.

Jessica completed several notebook pages today.  One from the cubes she made for Easter.  Her notebook page includes the instructions, which mentions the colours and symbols around the Resurrection and promises of God, and the net (pattern) for the cubes.  In her Interest Notebook she has filed all her notes that were made as she organised Daniel’s birthday party.  There is a copy of the invitation, notes on what worked and didn’t work, a copy of her blog that summarised the project.  All these pieces of writing are displayed along with photos as notebook pages.

Joshua started typing his manuscript – as it needs to be edited and improved before he goes much further.

Nomi worked on her handwriting and spelling with cleverly making a sentence that included 4 out of the 5 spelling words!

As I read the Scriptures (the Fall – Genesis 3-4) Jess, Nomi and Daniel all coloured a picture taken from A is for Adam while Josh doodled various bits from the story.  Their colouring in took them into the table time later in the day too.  Nomi and Daniel both gave me an oral narration.  I am trying to vary the oral narrations from just being “What did you hear?” or “Tell me that story in your own words.”  I asked Nomi to tell me what did God do in this story.  This lead very nicely to discussing that God does the same with us when we sin – he seeks us out, he promises the Saviour, he provides covering (forgiveness).  Josh and Jess added to their list of first mentions (the promise of the saviour through the seed of Adam) but we also spent time discussing the fruit of sin and the response of God.  Josh and Jess’ writing activity was to put our discussion into a flow chart.  Joshua’s is plain and to the point – Jessica’s is fancy with drawings, creative lettering and lots of colour!