Another productive day!  I must admit I am a little surprised.  I have rarely, in all my 10+ years of homeschooling had a really really good day like yesterday, followed by another really good day.  I often wonder why this is and all I can come to terms with is that

• It is hard to be fully productive in all aspects of my life – training the children, academic studies, housework, being a friend etc so while I have a really successful academic day one day the next day I tend to focus on another area which then appears as if the academics don’t happen so much.  False sense of assessment but that is what goes on in my head
• Alternatively, I relax my self-discipline because everything seemed to flow so well yesterday.  A false sense of security! Which makes me relax the next day – I don’t keep things happening but instead rather subtly I relax a little and things slide from there.

So my goals are to work out what makes a productive day happen and be diligent and maintain my self-control to continue with that for more than one day!

Our first task today was to tidy our school desk and take photos.  The photos are now used as the standard that I expect the desks to look like every day.  5.00pm and bedtime; these are our cut off times to check the desks and ensure they are tidy – the photos will serve as a self-check for the children.

Nomi and Daniel were set up with independent activities while I continued reading “The Blood Covenant” with Josh and Jess.  Our time together finished with a discussion on Melchizidek.  Training your children to be thinkers as they read the Word certainly keep you on your toes.  It is a delight to be discussing these types of things with the children – learning together as followers of Christ.

Nomi and Daniel’s independent studies included finishing their notebook page from yesterday’s character lesson (whoops just remembered we didn’t do our character lesson today!! Oh well tomorrow is a new day!)   They did do their typing and math.  Daniel did his Language Arts lessons (these are a bit hotchpotch until I receive the speech therapists report giving me some guidelines to follow with him)  Today we worked on naming words, making sentences and drilling phonic sounds.  He is so keen to read we also went over a few pages in his reader (modeling and guiding rather than him reading up front).

Nomi worked on a notebook page on Helen Keller.  She read this book before we left for Victoria a month or so ago.  One of my goals for her this year is to read for learning so Josh helped her find a website on Helen Keller and she has been able to compare the information she read there with the information she read from the book.  I was very encouraged with her ability to see the differences and comment on them. 

Josh also helped Daniel make a notebook page on Apollo 13.  Last night we watched a documentary on this space episode.  Daniel dictated words, Joshua edited them as he typed them up for Daniel.

Josh has had a very productive morning with working a large block on his science – including an experiment.  He also edited a lot of the writing pieces I reviewed last night, plus Latin and Math.  So with helping his younger siblings with internet research he has had a full morning.

Jess has had a different morning with starting out well with her Bible, piano and Math.  She then set to do finish the quilting on her quilt (Keepers project).  This didn’t go according to plan.  We ended up having a good heart to heart talk on her achievements, her goals.  I encouraged her that we aren’t aiming for perfection with the projects that we do but rather investing in our skill with practice, practice and practice. 

Nomi and Daniel then had a quick lesson on the different types of mountains (FIAR) and used a photocopy illustration from our reference book to make another notebook page.

Lunch time! 

1.30 came around very quickly with kids arriving on our doorstep for a co-op lesson.  Two other homeschool families are joining us in some public speaking lessons throughout the year.  I have chosen to use Jeanie Fulbright’s Speak Up course.  It covers all the techniques and styles of speeches that I wanted my kids exposed to.  I am very excited about this new subject for my kids.  We will be doing lessons on average every 3 weeks throughout the year, finishing with a presentation night (them presenting their speeches) end of November.

Today’s Speak Up lesson was full of laughter, lots of fun and yet I know the children were all challenged with the idea of improving their speaking abilities.  They all responded so well.  We look forward to the next lesson in a couple of weeks time.

By 4.30 the house was back to normal with all visitors gone and house put back into the right shape!  A cuppa was needed.  The boys have hit the computers for a bit of R&R and the girls are working on their quilts.

Tonight we will continue our read aloud, “Daddy Long Legs” by Jean Webster.

Other than the fact that I forgot our Character lesson for the day the other thing that I wasn’t real happy with was Daniel’s activity during our Speak Up lesson.  I need to give him a schedule so he isn’t at a loose end for 2+ hours.  He will need to have a regular routine of Reading time, Play time, Computer time, and then he could watch a video after that.  (Today he started with the video and then couldn’t focus on anything to do afterwards).