Another good start to my day – Quiet time/devotions, exercise, emails, shower etc….

We covered honour again in our family devotions – We discussed giving honour to those who most people overlook and how we can overlook needs in our own family (which is not showing honour).  To see and meet needs is a way of showing honour.  Those needs may be physical, spiritual, emotional, or academic.

Nomi and Daniel then had Bible study.  We covered the geography of the Old Testament which included bodies of water and countries.  We will use a method that Sonja from Simply Charlotte Mason teaches to memorise these map details.  Each day I will get the kids to try and fill in each map (water bodies / countries) to the best of their ability/memory.  We will fill in any thing that they don’t remember.  Each day my hope is that they will remember more than the day before.  Daniel will do his orally as his memory/verbal/writing skills don’t all work on the same level.

Nomi and Daniel both worked on their Math.  Daniel got 100% so was particularly pleased with himself.

One thing I spoke to the kids about today was how they spend their time when I get called away.  I was called away to two phone calls today – both important enough to take during lesson time.  When we studied Punctuality, we learnt to ‘ be at the right place at the right time’ which means when mum gets called away, the kids need to find something to do so that they are right there ready to go when she gets back.  Then when we studied Patience we learnt ‘to make the most of my spare time’ – so when Mum gets held up somewhere and the kids find themselves with nothing to do technically it is ‘spare’ time.  But if they are to balance punctuality with patience, they need to find something to do and yet stay within call and readiness for when mum comes back.  So today I talked to them, because they were making good choices – they were both reading a book – but they could have made better choices – they could have been working on some independent work or reading a ‘school’ book as opposed to the recreational/fun books they were choosing.  A matter of good, better, best.

At this point in our day the piano teacher arrived for Jess and Nomi’s lessons.  Jess went first today.

Meanwhile Nomi, Daniel and I started to work on our timelines.  We haven’t been very diligent with timelines so this was like starting afresh.  Each child has a binder with timeline pages in; we just have to fill it up with interesting people, places and events.  So to kick start, we brainstormed all the people and events we have been talking about lately.  We then went through a timeline graphics CD-rom that I have and the kids picked out anything that they knew something about.  We found about 50 icons.  They were really encouraged – they knew more than they thought they did.  Now, they couldn’t give a history lesson on all 50 people, but they knew a little about each.  We formatted them, printed them all out and then the kids began filling up their timelines.  (Nomi had her piano lesson in the midst of all this and came back for more before she had lunch.)

Nomi cutting the icons getting ready to stick into her timeline

Daniel glueing in icons into his timeline

Yes, I'm doing a timeline too

After lunch I took Josh and Daniel into town.  Today was the first time I took Josh out on his “L’s” (learning to drive).  Before now that has been done by Peter.  Josh went to the library and Daniel and I dropped off a meal to a friend who has broken her knee.  Picked up Josh and dropped him off at an internet café so he could download some lectures.  Meanwhile Daniel and I did the grocery shopping and went to the hardware to buy him some wood for a project he has in mind.  Picked up Josh who then drove home.

Tuesday is our extra chore day. Some chores the kids do on Tuesdays they get paid for, some chores they do they don’t.  Jess ironed and then helped me in the Office.  It is wonderful to have a secretary at hand!!  Nomi spent time setting up our fridge that had been out of action for 10 days, then she ironed.  Daniel spent time setting up his woodwork bench (since it is over in the shed, it often gets dumped on if it isn’t in use and since he is planning a project it was a good time to clear it off and start afresh).

5.00pm came around really quickly.  Nomi is on cook’s helper duty this week so she helped prepare/cook dinner: lentil and pumpkin curry.  The others did their various chores finishing up things around the house.

During dinner we had a little misunderstanding and it was a good teaching opportunity – we need to be aware of each others weaknesses and insecurities and be sensitive to them as we interact with each other.  It is a way of honouring each other – making the other person feel valued by the way we speak to them (even in humour).

After dinner – or while everyone was finishing eating I picked up our read aloud.  It is taking a bit of time to get through this one – we’ve lost our momentum of reading during dessert.  We aim to get back on track with this.  After the read aloud we started to play silly games.  Not sure why – guess it is what families do at times.   That is how our meal time ended – lots of laughter, lots of silliness. (and be warned any family members reading this blog – they plan to play these games with you on our holidays!)

Dishes done, house is tidy, and everyone is having a little reading time before bed.  A good day.