Apr. 23, 2008 - Our today Tuesday 22nd April 2008

I am using the discipline of having a house guest and Reading Journal Workshops to help me change my morning routine (read previous post here).  So far we are going well, even the kids have been finished their morning chores before 8.00am.  The affects of me not being in the office are felt by all!  The other thing I have tried to do is put my sneakers on when I first get up – this encourages me to get going on my housework and go for a walk. 

Our Reading Journal Workshop went really well today though we only read about ¼ of the next chapter.  We had so much to discuss – initially because the younger kids were struggling to understand but as we started to discuss things it benefited all.  The dads from both our families work in the cattle industry, and many of the things written in this book, set after WWII, still exist or happen like that out on the local cattle stations so it held an extra dimension of interest.

At the end of our reading the other mother and me just said “WOW”  The content, the education that we had covered while just reading a book and discussing it was fantastic.  We covered the feudal system and how the cattle stations worked this way, we discussed wages being kept on a tab, spending on the account and how this involved trust especially since the station hands would have been illiterate in a lot of the cases.  This last issue in particular covered a lot of character issues. 

Daniel had a playdate later in the morning, the other kids spent the morning at the library and I had a couple of hours to myself in town before we all joined Daniel and visited with my friend over lunch.

Our afternoon was spent in quiet pursuits – Josh and Jess working on some lessons, Nomi creating an Egyptian Slave costume and Daniel listening to Narnia audio.  I love those types of afternoons.