Our Busy Little World
Jun. 20, 2007 - Our Summer School
It's so nice getting back into old routines again, and creating some new ones as well. I finally started making bread again (and cinnamon bread, which of course brought excited squeals from a bunch of little girls). Isabelle's enjoying having copywork again - actually we've gone back to tracing fonts for awhile, as I've noticed writing gets a bit sloppier when one doesn't practice for a time. She loves it! We're also getting into good habits with new chores to go along with a new house, and it's just a relief not to have a bunch of unpacking looming over my head. We've also started doing a bit more school, which we all love. I have no desire to stop school for the summer at these ages, since a primary purpose of our little school times is to provide my little ones with routine, and regular snuggle/reading times. But we are doing something different which we're all loving. I was inspired in part by coming home from church Sunday pondering how I could help the girls learn our liturgy so they could participate more in service. The other part was inspired by Kendra's great post last week. We've started beginning our school time with circle time. We're using the circle time to work on habits which need improvement, and for the most important things: Bible, prayer, etc. Here's what we do: The habit we're working on is not interrupting others (everyone seems to talk at once around here!) So I hold a little ball in circle time, and no one but mommy may speak unless the ball is passed to them. The girls love this little game, and it's great because they have started to be the ones to pass the ball to their sisters when they want to talk. So we sit together in a litte circle, and the first thing we do is pray - I've been starting by reading a prayer from Valley Of Vision, then praying myself. Then I pass the ball in turn to the girls, who like to pray for "whatever's in their heart" (for Hannah, it's usually praying for someone's birthday cake to come soon!) Then I read the Bible - until I come up with a more organized plan we're reading a section of Psalm 119 each day. Then we read our day's Bible Story in the big DK story bible, which we are loving thus far. Next we practice our children's catechism, again by rolling the little ball to the girl who gets to answer the current question. After this, we pray together one of the prayers from our church's liturgy, then finish up by singing one of our weekly church songs. We're currently in the church season of Trinity, which lasts until advent, so it's the perfect time to practice this liturgy, as they'll be learning it for awhile at church too. When we're done, I still get out the preschool toys, other books, etc, and have our normal little school time. But circle time has been such a hit that the girls always beg to have even more circle time when we're finished!
Comments
Jun. 22, 2007 - We have circle time too.
Posted by RienzoFamily
I started it way back when and it seems to be a nice way to start the day.
BFS,
Alice
Jun. 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Tiany
We have very similar summer plans, I always do circle time with our 4 little ones too and it has been something I will not do without. The boys love it and have there little spots on our rug , all I have to do is say "Circle time" and they all come running LOL
Thanks for sharing your summer plans!
