When I woke the children up I told them that there was donuts for breakfast (not healthy, I know, but their daddy bought them), and once everyone has made their bed and is downstairs, we will eat them. But the condition was that everyone was to be down here quickly.  A great motivation to get children moving quickly on a Monday morning!

We started our Monday morning with donuts and a documentary movie about Ancient China.  We are studying Ancient History, and I just happen to have a series of movies that accommodate this study.  This is what happens when one has been homeschooling for as long as I have – you find yourself with a wealth of great resources to draw from. 

We watch our educational movies in the den, turn off all the lights, close the door, and this time, eat donuts and drink milk.  It was an interesting movie and a great way to slide into a new school week on Monday morning. 

From history class in the den, we moved to the family room for economics. Joshua built us a fire for it was cool in the house.  Outside, as is today also, it was cloudy, cool, and damp.  What a great day to have a little fire – the warmth as well as the crackling sound of the fireplace and the aroma it gives off. 

For economics we are using the books by Richard J. Maybury.  This too, I have accumulated over the years and read these to my two oldest children (and that have graduated for close to a decade now) while they were homeschooling. The book we are reading right now is called, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?  To which, the children wanted to know….”Yes, whatever DID happen to the penny candy?” Interpretation if you need it here – “Hey mom, we should have candy for this class!”  Although I have never made it a practice to give candy for schoolwork (although my mom does this!) I decided for the novelty of it all, that every day when we read a chapter I’d give them a few small pieces of candy to start the class.  Who knows, maybe by doing this I am building a subconscious love for the class of economics J .

We read a page in our character book about truthfulness; we read a section about prayer in our book by John Rice; and before all of this we read a passage in the Bible (Isaiah).  I gave Rachel and Joshua their spelling tests; Joshua read to me a chapter and half from the book, Pilgrim’s Progress (a watered down version published by ABeka); Rachel worked on her English assignments that I’d given her last week for this week.

 I read a Bible story from our set of The Bible Story, by Arthur S. Maxwell, to the two smaller children.  And yes, I have two Bible classes here.  We have group Bible class with all four children, and somewhere in the day, I fit in a reading from The Bible Story to the two younger ones.  This is another accumulation of books that I have from the very beginning.  When Becky (my oldest, 28) was born we bought these books.  I have made it a commitment to myself to read each of the ten books to all of my children, and I write a little note at the top of each chapter (in pencil) the date, and to who I read it.  There are beautiful color pictures in this series, and I learn as much as the children do, although I’ve read these books through many times. In fact, my mother read this same series of books to me when I was a young girl.

There was a project I had put on my list to get done – a big one.  It involved emptying an entire cabinet of gardening and pet stuff, and moving the cabinet to the back closet to our cellar.  While eating our lunch, Rachel started getting a strong desire for a milk shake from Steak and Shake – she’s had this thought in her head for over a week, and it seemed to be getting stronger.  She asked me what she could do to get me to go out for this single purpose – to get a milk shake for her.  Although I make it a practice to rarely drive anywhere on Monday, I can be bribed – and I began to think of what I could get from this J.  I told her about my cabinet project (a big one), to which she quickly agreed to.  Amazingly, the project that I thought was so big; Rachel and Joshua accomplished it in less than 15 minutes.  As I promised, I threw my gym shoes on, and we all piled in the truck, off to get a milk shake.  Rachel got a got an orange cream shake; Joshua got a chocolate shake, and Ruthie got a strawberry one – she earned hers by finding a book that has been missing in action (her reading book) for two weeks. Amazingly, too, she found this book in less than 5 minutes when I told her that a milk shake would be due her if she could find it!!!  Jacob declined the offer of a shake when he realized there was a trade involved.

In the afternoon, and especially on Monday, I love to take some special reading time with Ruthie.  This is where the two of us snuggle on the couch and I read to her.  This is not “reading class,” where she reads to me (I use McGuffey for that).  I spend this time more for me than for her, I think.  It’s time that I take to enjoy my little girl.  Today, we read chapter after chapter, snuggled underneath a blanket in front of the crackling fireplace, and finished the book, Black Beauty (Great Illustrated Classics.) As we are both lovers of horses, we thoroughly enjoyed this book, although it was really sad.

We started the day with a movie and donuts, and I ended our school day with a lovely reading with my youngest daughter.  I love my Monday’s.