What a wonderful day my 11yodd and I had today! My boys went to work with dh today; since they are both wanting to work with him when they graduate, this is an "early release" program, of sorts; at least that is what we called it when I was in high school YEARS ago.
Anyway, I had the day laid out for us. We would do a modified day of book work because it is the day to "bless our home". (Any Flybabies out there know that what that means is that we clean our house today. Our "home blessing" consists of vacuuming, dusting, cleaning mirrors and front glass door, sweeping and mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors, and cleaning the rest of the bathrooms, as well.) Normally this task is accomplished by the boys, Tiffany, and I all taking a project and getting it done in much less time because many hands make light work. Well, since the boys went with Mike today, that meant Tiffany and I must pick up the slack and get all the home blessing done by ourselves.
So, I'd planned that after the guys got off this morning, we would get dressed, eat breakfast, and then we would read two of the books we are reading for her school time (Pollyanna and Quest at Diamond Peak), an audio from Homeschool Radio Shows, spelling, and a math game. The rest of her school for the day, would be Life Skills of home blessing and making dinner.
Well, we got off to a good start with getting dressed and eating breakfast. We got a little behind then and started reading Pollyanna a little later than I wanted to. We started reading with chapter 7. We were enjoying the story so much that neither of us wanted to stop. We ended up finishing the book; yes, all the way through chapter 32. We really enjoyed ourselves. Those four hours flew by!
I had never read Pollyanna before. Imagine my delight when I discovered that there is a sequel! And yes, I have already put in a request for the book to be put on the hold shelf for us at our local library. I also found that our library system also has the movie. I hope it is good; we'll see, as I have that one requested too.
During our cleaning, we found ourselves playing around with the Glad Game ourselves. This book was a delight! If you have never read it, do, it is a treasure! I'm so glad for homeschooling! I'm enjoying so many books with my children that I never read before. It amazes me that we didn't read some of these when I was in school. But when I really think about it, it doesn't surprise me because these books have some really good character lessons in them. Books like Heidi, A Little Princess, Little Britches, and so many more.
I just finished reading The Chosen with my son. Well not exactly with him but we were both reading it. It was a really good book too. I was glad to discover that it too has a sequel. I love books that I don't have to leave the characters that I have come to love with the end of the book. I also like that these books were written so long ago, so that I don't have to wait for the sequel to be written and published. (hehehe)
We read an article in Girlhood Home Companion yesterday about Precious Memories. In the article, the author was saying that many of her precious memories were of working hard with the family. Tiffany and I talked about it after reading the article and I have decided that what made the "hard work" a precious memory was because it was done with others.
This made me think about work we do. I mentioned to Tiffany that I figured she would probably end up with fond memories of us cooking together because we do that together. But I doubt she will have precious memories of emptying the dishwasher, which happens to be her task and she frequently forgets to do, nor does she enjoy it. Not that she loves cooking with me but she likes it a whole lot more than emptying that dishwasher.
So, today when I knew that we would have to take on the jobs that the boys usually do, as well as what we usually do, I did not just give her more chores. Instead, we worked together and did a good job of cleaning up the living room and preparing dinner. Of course, we do have a bit left to accomplish before our guys come home, but we are taking a well-deserved break right now.
Well, we better get finished, still have a few floors to mop and a few dishes to clean . . . oh, and some bathrooms to clean. At least I can be glad that dinner will be easy, since we did all the prep work.
Blessings,
Michele ºÜº
PS. The pictures have nothing to do with the words on the page. We took them at the aquarium last month and I just love anemone. I think they are beautiful. Anyway, Ann V. inspired me to add pictures even when it isn't directly related to what I am talking about just because they are pretty. (I remember seeing a photo of a bird of paradise on her blog and she was not talking about it. I also remember how much I enjoyed the picture and others, even though they were not depicting something being written about at the moment. They were simply a part of God's beautiful creation and she was sharing it.) So, I hope someone enjoys these.
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
We are starting school, so it's time to look forward to the holidays!
My boys went to work with dh today; since they are both wanting to work with him when they graduate, this is an "early release" program, of sorts; at least that is what we called it when I was in high school YEARS ago.
We ended up finishing the book; yes, all the way through chapter 32. We really enjoyed ourselves. Those four hours flew by!
I love books that I don't have to leave the characters that I have come to love with the end of the book. I also like that these books were written so long ago, so that I don't have to wait for the sequel to be written and published. (hehehe)
