Tuesday 30th May 2006
Today was a fairly usual day I thought we were going fairly well until at lunch time I took stock and we hadnt really done that much at all. How did that happen? At lunchtime we were all sitting in the lounge room, kids with hot chocolate the temperature dropped to under 30degreesC, so we were all cold!! Our stereo had broken and Jess had just fixed it that morning so we were sitting there listening to some worship music. It was very nice, a little quiet and a little conversation.
Until I realised we had done nothing!
Of course it didnt really mean nothing it just meant we hadnt achieved the things I thought we would have. I reminded myself that our assessment rubric was not productivity in itself but rather peace and harmony in the family. We had done well in that department!
We started our day with cooking damper. We discussed the uses and history of damper, we mixed up a regular recipe, and I left the kids to their own to make their damper unique. This was morning tea. It was fun, not a lot of mess in the kitchen so overall it was a great start to the day.
Josh and Nomi both did their math. Jess worked on various notebook pages on the computer. Daniel had computer time and spent more time on his pirate ship.
We did our Bible study together. We looked at the story of Noah and the flood. I started off by reading a Sunday school story of Noah, and then gave Nomi and Daniel a colouring sheet to work on while I read from the Narrated Bible the selection with the focus being on Jess and Josh. Joshua and Jess worked on comparing the end of the world in Noahs time with the promise of the end as recorded in the New Testament. They also used the internet to research the Hebrew meaning of righteous, since Noah was found to be righteous. We discussed this in terms of our life and our response to God. This side of our lesson went well but I do have to question what Nomi and Daniel got from theirs. Over lunch I read a book, which was quoting Charlotte Mason, and I couldnt shake the feeling that Nomi and Daniels lesson was twaddle and that I wasnt expecting much from them I wasnt relating to them as able minded people! Ouch! I need to continue to think through how we work our Bible studies.
After lunch I decided to push on. Nomi and Jessica had their science read aloud. Nomi recorded her lesson with a narration. Jessica copy-wrote a quote from Louis Pasteurs letters to his son as well as some research on industries in France today. She used the Internet to find her information and cut and paste images to her notebook page. She also worked a lot with word art.
Daniel had a quick session with FIARs Mr Gumpy. He hasnt clicked with the idea of reading the book more than once and I am sure that has to do with our inconsistency and therefore the book stretching out for so long. We discussed being helpful in light of the animals all saying, Not me! when asked to help. Previously Daniel had drawn 4 of the animals we made these into a mini book with his narration on being helpful on the cover. We also discussed friction briefly we will do another lesson on that later in the week.
But the best, most exciting part of the day was hearing a Defence Force jet fly over. At first the kids didnt know what it was Daniel was sure another storm was coming our way but the skies were perfectly blue. We then saw this huge plane turn and head our way. We couldnt get all the kids out of the house quick enough to see it but the boys and I did it flew right over the paddocks in front of our house! It was low and fast. Of course the boys were very excited, and we had lots of talk over the speed of sound.
