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Every day has different opportunities, every week looks slightly different. Today is Melbourne Cup day and though we don’t follow the horse races normally we do fall in step with the rest of the nation and watch the Melbourne Cup race. There is no sense to us doing this – it is just an Aussie thing to do. I contemplated doing a one day unit study on topics that the Melbourne Cup raises but decided, in light of us having the last two weeks pretty light on, we would stick to our original lesson plans. We will stop short though and watch the build up over an extended lunch time.
We gathered together for a short time of prayer for our family devotions – we were particularly concerned about our dog, Domino, who was not her normal self this morning. The kids thought it odd that we would pray about our dog, so it was a good time to assure them that God cares for all our concerns – even when we are concerned about our pet.
Our morning routine happened as it should – a little more time conscious than we were yesterday – everyone having breakfast, quiet time, and exercise. This morning I took my walk with Daniel since my mp3 was flat. I usually use this time as my listening/thinking time so I discourage the kids from coming with me (they talk, talk, talk!!) But it was nice going with Daniel today. He held my hand and we walked along talking about all sorts of things as well as times of silence together.
We started lessons today with Daniel’s phonics. This was a priority since we didn’t get to formal lessons yesterday. We are working with Reading Made Easy. Though he is blending well (in his head) he often says the wrong word (dyspraxia). So today I got him to sound out each word rather than just reading it in his head. He was much more successful. I think I need to just slow him down a little to help break some of the tendencies that happen with dyspraxia. It was an encouraging lesson today.
We then had his math lesson.
Meanwhile Nomi was working on her Math and Notebooking (France/French Revolution). For her independent work Nomi is reading/writing from Learning Through History.
Josh and Jess have their regular lessons to do today though they will stop early. Joshua kept reading for 2.5 hours as he got caught up in his book, Rob Roy, he also worked on his math and Latin. I had a good talk to Jess about her notebooking her learning in a significant way – recording her thinking and making connections, not just summarizing a lesson. She is going to start a history notebook as she has started a chronological history study. This had slipped by me, as she should have started that in the middle of the year!!
12.00 – Horse racing! There is not much to say – horses run around the track, a caller gets excited, people get excited, one horse wins!! Jessica in particular likes to watch the hour or so before the race (I couldn’t bear to have the TV on all morning with race track news, fanfare and gossip! Well a horse we didn’t even hear considered won, and it was a photo finish which is always exciting.
While the kids watched the build up, I did some reading online, and some research for a parenting meeting I have here tonight.
After the race it was a mad rush to get ready for a lapbooking workshop I had with three other homeschool mums. I use Dinah Zikes books in all my lapbooking and folding paper is so much quicker than cutting out templates. Two of the mums have never done lapbooking so it was an opportunity to show them how easy a fold is and for them to build a sample lapbook, full of all the blank minbooks.
The older two opted to stay home. Jess was feeling overwhelmed with things that she had set for herself to accomplish so she stayed home in order to catch up, reprioritize and de-stress! Josh stayed home simply for some time to himself. He also intended to mow the lawn.
I arrived at my friends place early. Her little 5yo showed Daniel how to draw on Paint. So there is another computer activity that Daniel will be able to do. Once the other families arrived the kids had a ball with water, sand, lollipops, waterballoons and a jumping castle. At one stage we offered afternoon tea to them and they were just not interested!
It rained during the afternoon- the kids get so excited at first rains. Rain at this time of the year really changes the atmosphere – it was lovely. Though when I got home it had been quite windy so we have a little maintenance to do in our yard.
Meanwhile, inside, us mums were busy folding and being inspired with the many options for lapbooking. We actually stayed for an extra hour as we got talking about other important things (as mums do!!)
I rushed home – feeling very tired – to find that my older two had got the house in order, they hadn’t started dinner, not knowing what was for dinner (that will teach me to have my menu easily accessible for all!). The laundry was in and folded (before the storm happened) so we had 1.5 hours before ladies would be arriving for the Mums Support Meeting I call Connect. We had a quick dinner of Ravioli (bought stuff) and salad, with fruit for dessert. The kids ate down in the family room so I could keep working on my thoughts.
7.30 arrived, I was still sweeping and damp mopping the floor when my friends arrived. (I like to slide over my floor with two damp rags under my feet – this keeps my floor clean inbetween times when I get to mop). We sat down with our cuppa and talked about big picture stuff – Starting as we wish to Continue – which will be the topic of my Live Life with your Kids Newsletter this week.
