Is it the end of September already?  Where did the time go?  It seems like we just started school and now we're headed into October.  The past week has really been a bust.  All four of my kiddos ended up sick.  You name it, they felt it - headache, fever, chills, aches, stomach upset, etc.  I even felt a little yucky.  So. . .we scrapped school for a week so everyone could rest and recuperate.

I know, I know.  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that when your kids are sick, they can still do a little schoolwork, right?  Well, I've tried that before.  And sometimes it does work.  But this past week I decided to let it go - especially with all four of them sick.  I mean, how well does a person really focus on what they're to learn if they are not feeling well?  I know I don't, and I didn't think my kids would this week either.  They just felt yucky most of the time. 

And you know, it really turned out quite well.  We're only set back by one week and can make that up little by little if we want.  Also, since it didn't hit me quite as hard as it did the kids, I got a little organizing done on our days off.  The map is finally hung up.  All the school "extras" like pencils, pens, markers, glue, etc. are all sorted and in a plastic bin in the dining room - our main school area.  I even got a little canning and freezing done!  So all in all, it turned out okay.

Oh, and a little side benefit was that the kids got kind of bored.  They were quite ready to get back into the routine of school today.  For that, I am thankful.  As a result, we got a lot done today!  Lesson learned - sometimes it's okay to take that time to rest and recover.

We had a great week this week!  It was Missoula Children's Theatre week and the kids all had fun participating in the play.  This year's play was Red Riding Hood.  It started with auditions on Monday.  I love watching how they audition all the kids at one time.  This year there were 70 children auditioning, and the two directors have all the parts placed at the end of about 2 hours.  It's pretty amazing to watch.  I was a little nervous since last year one of our children didn't get a part, but two of the others did.  This year all four of our children got a part - yeah!!

Sweets got the part of Mother Hood and Grandma Hood.  Boyzer was Brother Hood.  Blue was part of the Wolfgang and Funny Guy was a Racoon.  They're the ones that get to dress up and look cute on stage.  My two oldest had a bit more work in store for them as they had to memorize some lines.  All this they do in one week.  Auditions on Monday and performances on Friday and Saturday.  It's a wonderful way to get your kids up and in front of people, as well as working with a large number of other kids, in a short amount of time.  It's a hectic week, but well worth it.

Come Monday though, we're back at our regular school week - thankfully.  We have little catching up to do after this past week.  :-)

It's Sunday afternoon again.  Soup is simmering on the stove, fresh bread is in the oven, and everyone else is occupied - at least for the moment.  So I thought I'd sit for awhile and write out a few thoughts. 

Lately I've been perusing seed catalogs.  It's a favorite pasttime of mine, starting in January and going through part of February.  I love looking at all the pictures, reading descriptions of the abundant variety of vegetables and flowers each company has to offer.  Some of them make my mouth water they sound so good.  But alas, my garden has only so much area and I cannot possibly order everything I would like.  There simply is not room enough for all of it in our little garden.  So pick and choose I must, deciding what would be the best "fit" for our garden and our family.  I need to take into account flavor, size of the plant, what environment it's best suited for, and of course, cost.  Even if you're not a gardener, that should sound familiar.

Soon, homeschoolers everywhere will be bombarded with all kinds of catalogs that offer each company's most tantalizing and tempting curriculum.  Some are more specialized, offering only science or literature selections for example.  Others center in on a particular homeschool philosophy, such as a Charlotte Mason, classical, or traditional textbook style.  Still others offer almost anything you could ever dream of buying to educate your children.  So, how to choose?

Just as with the seed catalogs, I think I need to take into account all kinds of things to make that decision.  What are the needs of my children?   What are their learning styles, and what do they like?  Are they weak in certain areas and so need to concentrate more on that the next year?  What is the cost?  Do I have enough time and resources available to make that curriculum work?  Let's face it, some programs take a lot more one on one parental time than others.  Does that mean it's any less effective?  No.  But it is something that should be considered when choosing curriculum for your homeschool.

Right now I am getting ready to order seeds for my garden.  I've considered all the things we want and need, and now look forward to receiving them later this month.  So, before all those curriculum catalogs come, I think I need to sit down and answer my own questions about curriculum for our homeschool. 

Quite honestly, I need to look at more options for this coming year.  My oldest is entering the high school stage and I approach that with more than a little fear and trembling!  We need a good foreign language for her, but I'm not sure what language she's interested in.  My youngest needs a little bit more structure and challenge in his day in order for him to move forward.  And, our buying power is changed from what it was a few years ago.  I love the literature approach to history, science, and geography.  It can, however, be a bit on the expensive side in regards to cost as well as time.

I know I'll be reading, reading, and reading some more to see what has worked for other families that have a flavor similar to ours.  There is so much knowledge out there to glean from experienced homeschoolers.  If you're reading this, and I don't if anyone will, tell me about your curriculum choices - what you chose and why, what didn't work, and what you absolutely cannot live without.  I'd love to read about it.  Because, after these seeds are ordered, my focus then turns toward curriculum for next year. 

Ever have a day when things didn't go quite as you planned, but they still turned out pretty good?  I find I have those quite often, and I'm slowly learning to view them as divine interruptions instead of a kink in my day that I hadn't planned.  God has a way of teaching us what's really important in life.

So, while we didn't get any writing done today - like I had planned on my schedule - we did do other things.  We did math, spelling, devotions, and vocabulary, laughed and talked with one another, worked on science fair projects that aren't due for quite awhile, and started on a paper model of a Czech castle.  Some of those things were planned.  Some were not. 

For today, I chose to sit back and enjoy the day as it went.  My house is not picked up as I would like it.  The laundry didn't get done, and there were quite a few dishes left on the counter when my husband got home.  But it was okay.  Instead, I helped my oldest figure out some of her algebra problems.  (She usually doesn't ask for help, so it was fun to work with her.)  Boyzer made lunch for everyone and got to work on his science fair project.  We have a lot of time before it's due, but he was excited about working on it, so I went with it.  Later, we all enjoyed our current read aloud book.  After school, I helped Boyzer start on a model of Zamku Castolovice.  While we did that, Funny Guy and Blue decided to build their own castles out of Legos, construction paper, and cardboard.  Needless to say we had a lot of paper pieces and Legos strewn around the house.  We had great fun just enjoying our time together and building our relationships.

Here are a couple pictures of our castles:

Boyzer's model castle

Funny Guy's castle - with a little help from Blue

Blue's Lego castle

So that was our day.  It was a good day!

Recently we've been trying to focus on writing skills.  My oldest absolutely loves creative writing.  She can put out a poem or part of a story in a matter of minutes it seems sometimes.  But . . .when it comes to report writing, or just writing her own narration of what she's learned - well, suffice it to say we need to work on that.  Part of it is motivation, I know.  Part of it though is that we have just never focused on it as much before.  So, it's been a little struggle this year.  But it's getting better.  Right now she's working on writing up a narrative on what she read in history today.  I haven't seen it yet so I'll post later about how it went.

On the other hand, her creative writing has blossomed the past couple years.  It seems not too far back when it was a struggle to convince her to write anything.  So, I backed off and we did a lot of free writing, copywork, and dictation.  Since then she always has an idea she wants to put down on paper.  I love it!  You can just see the wheels spinning in her mind when she's telling you about her idea.  And she's excited about it.  Here is a short excerpt from one of her stories. 

     “Rowan, look out!” Rowan whirled around, just in time to get a ball in the face. She fell to the ground in surprise.

     "Ella, you could have said ‘duck’,” Rowan told her friend, pushing her tangled, brown and black hair from her face. She stood, checking to see if she had any bruises from the uneven brick pavement.

      Ella, the girl who had shouted for Rowan to ‘look out’ stared at her toes. “Sorry Rowan,” she mumbled. Rowan watched her friend’s hair fall around the girl’s face.

      “It’s all right,” Rowan said, walking over and put her arm around Ella’s shoulders. She looked at the others, all children from the village. “Let’s play,” she said, picking up the ball and preparing to throw.

     “Rowan,” called a voice from a third-floor window of Laurel Manor. The large house had no known master, but its mistress controlled the mountain, Umaynia.

     “Yes?” Rowan answered, setting the ball on the ground. Her cheeks felt hot, and a strand of hair hanging in her vision shone with her sweat. She could see her shadow on the ground, wavering in the torchlight.

     “Come inside please,” replied the voice. Rowan looked up and saw the smiling face of Lady Laurel framed by fair hair.

      “Yes Miss,” answered the girl. And, with a quick farewell to Ella and the others, she hurried through the door.

      Three years, she thought, three years! I’ve been able to see for three years! Rowan had been blinded as an infant, but her sight had returned three years before. On my tenth birthday! She thought of the glorious morning when she had opened her eyes, and seen the ceiling above her head. She had run through the halls to Laurel’s room and thrown herself into her foster mother’s arms.

     As she thought of this, she caught sight of herself in a mirror. She didn’t think of herself as pretty, but she knew she was one of a kind. She looked at her hair, glowing light brown at the top, and fading into black as it passed her shoulders.

     She took several moments to look at her eyes. Black, no one else in the village had black eyes. Laurel said that Rowan’s eyes were black because of her blindness, reflecting what they could see. Rowan didn’t know what to think.

What do you think?  I think she did a wonderful job!