We had another off day today, as I had a prenatal appointment right in the middle of it. We ended up just having time to get ready and go; the older kids stayed with Gma H while I took R along with me. My appointments are in the city; I stayed in after to do some shopping and ended up at Value Village getting Hallowe'en costumes. D wants to be Harpo Marx; I thought I was doing well with what I found (a kind of a top-hat but not as tall, a curly blond wig, and a clown horn), but apparently everything isn't quite right to D. I should have told him beforehand that the costume doesn't have to be perfect, and that I likely wouldn't be able to find anything exactly like what Harpo wears.
After I picked up the kids, we went outside for a while. S played with a math wrap I found at Value Village; M and I played Go Fish; the kids rode their bikes around. My appointment and the subsequent shopping were, apparently, just too much for me, and the house was a mess after our hasty departure in the morning and then return with groceries in tow followed by another trip outside. The kids watched tv while I cleaned up, slowly, and then we had dinner late. I'm looking forward to staying home tomorrow.
Wed, Oct 7
We finished reading the bio of Christopher Columbus today; I'm finding it useful to have an atlas handy while we read from Famous Men of Modern Times. We also did some reading & discussing of Everything I want to Do is Illegal. We had a snack; the kids played a bit; I did some piano practice; D worked in a "How to Write Persuasively" workbook (the title intrigued him but the work was boring quickly); S did some math (word problems, shockingly) and M practised writing & played Go Fish with me.
We did more reading after lunch, and then got all bundled up to go outside just as it started raining. :P It lightened up quickly, though, and we went out and did yard work for a while, until the rain started again in earnest. The kids were supposed to clean up before they could play video games etc. while I made dinner, but R kept on undoing everything they did.
We ended up being done dinner fairly early, and settled in for a nice evening of reading. Except that M was either overtired or cranky or something, and R was definitely overtired, and so there was a lot of bouncing around and noisy distractions. I don't mind her bouncing around while I read, if she does it at the far end of the livingroom, where we have a trampoline set up for it. But she insists on bouncing on the couch right next to the reader or listeners. Arg. Or she plays with R, makes him laugh, and then goes completely overboard trying to make him laugh more and just makes him upset. Arg again.
We did more reading after lunch, and then got all bundled up to go outside just as it started raining. :P It lightened up quickly, though, and we went out and did yard work for a while, until the rain started again in earnest. The kids were supposed to clean up before they could play video games etc. while I made dinner, but R kept on undoing everything they did.
We ended up being done dinner fairly early, and settled in for a nice evening of reading. Except that M was either overtired or cranky or something, and R was definitely overtired, and so there was a lot of bouncing around and noisy distractions. I don't mind her bouncing around while I read, if she does it at the far end of the livingroom, where we have a trampoline set up for it. But she insists on bouncing on the couch right next to the reader or listeners. Arg. Or she plays with R, makes him laugh, and then goes completely overboard trying to make him laugh more and just makes him upset. Arg again.
Tuesday, Oct 6
We had lego this morning; it was just nice enough towards the end that we spent some time at the playground. It seems that the group has decided to research hovercraft. D had a better time this week and seems more enthusiastic about it.
Our afternoon was rather lazy; R fell asleep on the ride home, so instead of getting him out of the van and having him all cranky while I tried to make lunch, I left him in to nap and did some yard work. So the rest of the afternoon was kind of thrown off; it was mostly spent making food, putting away groceries, reading, and playing. I managed a little more Spinoza; I really wanted to figure out what he was saying, but I almost always fall asleep when I read now. Ugh.
D has been working through a "Daily Math" book; I was surprised, as he has expressed very little interest in actually doing math work for quite a while. He was at loose ends one day last week and getting on everyone's nerves instead of finding something to do, so I pulled out this book and told him to choose a day and do it. He's about 6 weeks in now, and we've talked about a lot of math concepts that we hadn't touched on before, and I've made note of a few things to go over with him and maybe find a different way of explaining.
Our afternoon was rather lazy; R fell asleep on the ride home, so instead of getting him out of the van and having him all cranky while I tried to make lunch, I left him in to nap and did some yard work. So the rest of the afternoon was kind of thrown off; it was mostly spent making food, putting away groceries, reading, and playing. I managed a little more Spinoza; I really wanted to figure out what he was saying, but I almost always fall asleep when I read now. Ugh.
D has been working through a "Daily Math" book; I was surprised, as he has expressed very little interest in actually doing math work for quite a while. He was at loose ends one day last week and getting on everyone's nerves instead of finding something to do, so I pulled out this book and told him to choose a day and do it. He's about 6 weeks in now, and we've talked about a lot of math concepts that we hadn't touched on before, and I've made note of a few things to go over with him and maybe find a different way of explaining.
Monday, Oct 5
This morning, D did some research on how horses are used for transportation for his lego league. They've narrowed the mode of transportations to choose from down to two: horses and hovercrafts. There are eight kids in the group, and they are split evenly into the two groups, but they'll have to choose just one.
Lego league was in the afternoon; M stayed with Gma H, since she has been sick with a sore throat and bad cough. R fell asleep on the way to lego, so S played DS while I went back to read more of the Spinoza for the Great Book reading. We spent the rest of the meeting either out at the playground or inside the arena with the other younger siblings. Two of the boys played chess; S asked if I would play with him, but we had to put it off since it was time to go.
S and I played after dinner. I'm not great at chess; there were a few occasions where it was discovered that one of us was in check after our turn ended, and we had to go back and re-do our turns. Oops. And the game took a long time. (I did have three other kids distracting me, though.) I was proud of S; he generally doesn't like win/lose games and doesn't take it well once he starts losing, but he stuck with it to the end and wasn't upset when he lost.
Lego league was in the afternoon; M stayed with Gma H, since she has been sick with a sore throat and bad cough. R fell asleep on the way to lego, so S played DS while I went back to read more of the Spinoza for the Great Book reading. We spent the rest of the meeting either out at the playground or inside the arena with the other younger siblings. Two of the boys played chess; S asked if I would play with him, but we had to put it off since it was time to go.
S and I played after dinner. I'm not great at chess; there were a few occasions where it was discovered that one of us was in check after our turn ended, and we had to go back and re-do our turns. Oops. And the game took a long time. (I did have three other kids distracting me, though.) I was proud of S; he generally doesn't like win/lose games and doesn't take it well once he starts losing, but he stuck with it to the end and wasn't upset when he lost.
Friday, Oct 2
We didn't have to be out anywhere today, which was nice. I've discovered that S loves hangman. I always thought of him as a mathy kid, but lately, he says all he likes is adding. I also thought that language/reading was a weak area for him because he doesn't enjoy reading (other than comic books), but he's really strong with spelling. We had a fun time with hangman; S started using the dictionary near the end to check his spelling, and then quickly discovered that he could use it to find super tricky words. He had a long one -- two long words, actually -- and from the way it was filling out, I was worried it was some obscure medical term. It turned out it was from the cover: "Encyclopedic Dictionary."
We spent part of the afternoon outside cleaning up the garden; the kids also rode bikes and watched the construction going on behind us. The rest was spent cleaning up inside to get ready for Gma S to come and watch the kids while N and I went to a movie. (The Invention of Lying. It didn't live up to the hype.)
We spent part of the afternoon outside cleaning up the garden; the kids also rode bikes and watched the construction going on behind us. The rest was spent cleaning up inside to get ready for Gma S to come and watch the kids while N and I went to a movie. (The Invention of Lying. It didn't live up to the hype.)
Thursday, Oct 1
It was a rainy, cozy day today. We started well, though M had a hard time quieting down for the reading. D had lots of questions. M and S had some kind of pretend game going on and they took off to the toy area to play once our opener was over, so I read D the first bio from Famous Men of Modern Times -- Lorenzo de Medici. It was really interesting (though I discovered that this book was considering "modern times" to be anything after the Middle Ages, so it started at the beginning of the renaissance). We discussed guilds and unions, the printing press, republics and city-states, and some geography related to the Medici family's commerce.
School time ended earlier than usual because D had a book club at noon. My mom came to watch the three younger kids while I took him; I had planned to do a quick stop for groceries and spend the rest of the time with Samson Agonistes, but as usual, I took longer at the grocery store than expected and only read for about 15 mins. I'm enjoying it, though, and I think I'll manage to finish it on time this week. D and I had some good chatting time in the car on the way home; he talked about their discussion of Tom Sawyer, and I told him that I had done some reading for my book club. I explained how the group works, what the Great Books are, and told him a bit about this week's reading. He seemed interested enough, but I think it went on a bit too long and turned into a lecture instead of a discussion.
I managed a bit more reading at home during quiet time after lunch and tidying up; R's napping schedule is all weird right now, and he ended up just falling asleep and then waking up when I put him down. Which was fine, since he woke up happy instead of cranky, and it meant an early bedtime for him tonight.
D helped me make dinner (it was a pasta dish he loves and wants to learn how to make) and we had some more nice chatting time. We managed to eat and finish cleaning up by 7, which left lots of time for reading before bed. D and I started Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, a book about small-scale farming in the US, where laws and regulations are written for factory-style farms. N taught the kids how to stand on their heads while I was reading.
School time ended earlier than usual because D had a book club at noon. My mom came to watch the three younger kids while I took him; I had planned to do a quick stop for groceries and spend the rest of the time with Samson Agonistes, but as usual, I took longer at the grocery store than expected and only read for about 15 mins. I'm enjoying it, though, and I think I'll manage to finish it on time this week. D and I had some good chatting time in the car on the way home; he talked about their discussion of Tom Sawyer, and I told him that I had done some reading for my book club. I explained how the group works, what the Great Books are, and told him a bit about this week's reading. He seemed interested enough, but I think it went on a bit too long and turned into a lecture instead of a discussion.
I managed a bit more reading at home during quiet time after lunch and tidying up; R's napping schedule is all weird right now, and he ended up just falling asleep and then waking up when I put him down. Which was fine, since he woke up happy instead of cranky, and it meant an early bedtime for him tonight.
D helped me make dinner (it was a pasta dish he loves and wants to learn how to make) and we had some more nice chatting time. We managed to eat and finish cleaning up by 7, which left lots of time for reading before bed. D and I started Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, a book about small-scale farming in the US, where laws and regulations are written for factory-style farms. N taught the kids how to stand on their heads while I was reading.
Wednesday, Sept 30
I was doing so well with keeping up. Sigh.
It has been rainy and grey here for a few days; we went out to lego on Monday and that's been about it, other than the library. Lots of reading and playing. I sat down with D for a "six month inventory." He told me what he was interested in learning and doing and anything he was worried about, etc. He's not crazy about lego (it isn't what he was expecting, and I think he feels like his ideas are never used, when in a group with that many kids, that probably happens a lot) but he does want piano and swimming lessons, and he wants dh to teach him French. He's also interested in doing cub badges and some Adult Skills classes (from the TJEd Home Companion). He wants to start with Grocery Shopping. That should be interesting.
Our family work times (mostly in the morning, before school) are mostly going more smoothly. S has done an about face with his attitude to chores; it used to be like pulling teeth, but now, he's almost always the first one to head off when I give out assignments and the first one done. I think it has helped that I have a wider variety of tasks to give out now; he was pretty sick of unloading the dishwasher.
This week, my Great Books group is reading Samson Agonistes, and I'm enjoying it. It is still tricky getting time in the afternoon for that sort of thing; I thought for sure it would work out well today, since we ate lunch at noon and dinner wasn't until 6:00. But R was cranky and didn't nap well (again), and I read some of Tom Sawyer to keep up with the books for D's book club, and I thought dinner would be easy, but I ended up doing a lot of kitchen stuff (baking pumpkins and raisin cake since I had baked beans in the oven, and cooking carrots to go with dinner). I also did birthday gift pics for great grandparents and did some recipe searching and did some printing. I don't know how I managed to use up the whole afternoon, though. Arg.
It has been rainy and grey here for a few days; we went out to lego on Monday and that's been about it, other than the library. Lots of reading and playing. I sat down with D for a "six month inventory." He told me what he was interested in learning and doing and anything he was worried about, etc. He's not crazy about lego (it isn't what he was expecting, and I think he feels like his ideas are never used, when in a group with that many kids, that probably happens a lot) but he does want piano and swimming lessons, and he wants dh to teach him French. He's also interested in doing cub badges and some Adult Skills classes (from the TJEd Home Companion). He wants to start with Grocery Shopping. That should be interesting.
Our family work times (mostly in the morning, before school) are mostly going more smoothly. S has done an about face with his attitude to chores; it used to be like pulling teeth, but now, he's almost always the first one to head off when I give out assignments and the first one done. I think it has helped that I have a wider variety of tasks to give out now; he was pretty sick of unloading the dishwasher.
This week, my Great Books group is reading Samson Agonistes, and I'm enjoying it. It is still tricky getting time in the afternoon for that sort of thing; I thought for sure it would work out well today, since we ate lunch at noon and dinner wasn't until 6:00. But R was cranky and didn't nap well (again), and I read some of Tom Sawyer to keep up with the books for D's book club, and I thought dinner would be easy, but I ended up doing a lot of kitchen stuff (baking pumpkins and raisin cake since I had baked beans in the oven, and cooking carrots to go with dinner). I also did birthday gift pics for great grandparents and did some recipe searching and did some printing. I don't know how I managed to use up the whole afternoon, though. Arg.
Thursday, Sept 24
Around the time we were ready to start school this morning, my dad showed up at the door to say he would be taking down a tree at the neighbour's place behind us. The kids watched the big snaffler truck take down the tree and the branches get fed into a chipper. They then went and took down a tree about half a block down the road in front of our house. It was an exciting morning (though they did spend a lot of time playing with lego stuff while watching).
After some reading and piano, we had an early lunch; D had a book club meeting at noon. It was kind of a pre-meeting; they were teaching/reviewing the story chart they use to analyze the books, using Peter Rabbit as the story. He seemed to enjoy it. It's at the same community center as lego, and the other kids were happy to be back at the playground again. This book club is monthly; weekly, at 1:00, there is a free skate for homeschoolers (and I suppose anyone else who wanted to show up). We watched the zamboni clean the ice, and then my kids excitedly bounced around and got in the way of the people trying to put on skates etc. while we waited for D to be done, and then we watched the kids skate for a bit. I would like to bring the boys for skating, at least when D has book club, but I'm not sure how that will work with the younger two.
When we arrived back home, R was sound asleep, so I opened up the doors to the van and worked in the front flower beds while he napped. I pulled out a bunch of dead stuff and realized that there were seed heads that looked ready to harvest, so I put them into some ziploc baggies I had in my gardening bag. I'll have to take them out and figure out how best to keep them.
The other kids went inside and pigged out on cookies and watched Popeye cartoons. Our afternoons are never quite what I want them to be; the rest of our day doesn't seem rigidly structured to me, but the freedom of "OK, now do whatever" seems to encourage them to want to eat only treats and play video games and watch tv/dvds. I'm fine with that for now; I'm more concerned about working on our morning, school, and evening routines. Once those are more firmly established, I'll try and figure out afternoons. I like how afternoons are outlined in Leadership Education; a time for kids to play and older kids to work on projects or studying, and for mom to study or work on projects; occasional field trips and library trips and such things go in the afternoon, too.
The boys played outside with a friend and then came in to all play lego together while I made dinner. I had a kid-free errand night; one of the things I had on my list was the thrift store, as I had birthday money for R from grandparents. They were going to buy clothes for him, but didn't know what we needed. I picked up lots of cute tops and some nice pants and pjs, and then spent a long time looking through the books. At this thrift store, they have so many books, often they are two deep on the shelves. I never look past the first layer when I'm there with the kids, but I couldn't resist when I had the evening there on my own. I discovered that most of those shelves are actually three deep in books. I didn't find too much, but I did pick up a couple of cute board books for R, a Dr. Seuss and an Edward Lear, a "complete works of Shakespeare" book (sadly, with no footnotes or much of an introduction to speak of and no index at all, but it is at least all there), an encyclopaedic dictionary and an etymological dictionary. D has been into dictionaries lately.
I came home from my errands to a clean and tidy house and kids just about ready for bed; they were just at the point of starting bedtime reading. Ah. It was very nice.
After some reading and piano, we had an early lunch; D had a book club meeting at noon. It was kind of a pre-meeting; they were teaching/reviewing the story chart they use to analyze the books, using Peter Rabbit as the story. He seemed to enjoy it. It's at the same community center as lego, and the other kids were happy to be back at the playground again. This book club is monthly; weekly, at 1:00, there is a free skate for homeschoolers (and I suppose anyone else who wanted to show up). We watched the zamboni clean the ice, and then my kids excitedly bounced around and got in the way of the people trying to put on skates etc. while we waited for D to be done, and then we watched the kids skate for a bit. I would like to bring the boys for skating, at least when D has book club, but I'm not sure how that will work with the younger two.
When we arrived back home, R was sound asleep, so I opened up the doors to the van and worked in the front flower beds while he napped. I pulled out a bunch of dead stuff and realized that there were seed heads that looked ready to harvest, so I put them into some ziploc baggies I had in my gardening bag. I'll have to take them out and figure out how best to keep them.
The other kids went inside and pigged out on cookies and watched Popeye cartoons. Our afternoons are never quite what I want them to be; the rest of our day doesn't seem rigidly structured to me, but the freedom of "OK, now do whatever" seems to encourage them to want to eat only treats and play video games and watch tv/dvds. I'm fine with that for now; I'm more concerned about working on our morning, school, and evening routines. Once those are more firmly established, I'll try and figure out afternoons. I like how afternoons are outlined in Leadership Education; a time for kids to play and older kids to work on projects or studying, and for mom to study or work on projects; occasional field trips and library trips and such things go in the afternoon, too.
The boys played outside with a friend and then came in to all play lego together while I made dinner. I had a kid-free errand night; one of the things I had on my list was the thrift store, as I had birthday money for R from grandparents. They were going to buy clothes for him, but didn't know what we needed. I picked up lots of cute tops and some nice pants and pjs, and then spent a long time looking through the books. At this thrift store, they have so many books, often they are two deep on the shelves. I never look past the first layer when I'm there with the kids, but I couldn't resist when I had the evening there on my own. I discovered that most of those shelves are actually three deep in books. I didn't find too much, but I did pick up a couple of cute board books for R, a Dr. Seuss and an Edward Lear, a "complete works of Shakespeare" book (sadly, with no footnotes or much of an introduction to speak of and no index at all, but it is at least all there), an encyclopaedic dictionary and an etymological dictionary. D has been into dictionaries lately.
I came home from my errands to a clean and tidy house and kids just about ready for bed; they were just at the point of starting bedtime reading. Ah. It was very nice.
Wednesday, Sept 23
First stay-at-home day of the week. It was grey and rainy. The kids were ready for school in time and then started playing with lego while I finished up to be ready for school. Since they were playing so nicely and R was still cranky with his cough, I just let them be. I cuddled R and did some reading and practiced the piano. We did a bit of reading together, eventually, and D and I played Pirates vs. Ninjas.
Things stayed mellow after lunch; the kids helped tidy up and they did some drawing and reading and then video games when they were allowed. M did a lot of cutting up magazines and organizing the pictures she cut out. Neighbour came over when his school was over, and they all got into the lego again; the boys ended up over at his house, so it was a quiet dinner prep time.
We read from Farmer Boy before bed, about cutting ice in the winter to save for the summer. I ended up drawing a diagram to explain what they were doing, and then S was more interested in how to draw a cube than in the story.
Things stayed mellow after lunch; the kids helped tidy up and they did some drawing and reading and then video games when they were allowed. M did a lot of cutting up magazines and organizing the pictures she cut out. Neighbour came over when his school was over, and they all got into the lego again; the boys ended up over at his house, so it was a quiet dinner prep time.
We read from Farmer Boy before bed, about cutting ice in the winter to save for the summer. I ended up drawing a diagram to explain what they were doing, and then S was more interested in how to draw a cube than in the story.
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