We started school back this week and many changes have been made. Zeb is now 6 so while he sat in our school days in the past, he is now an active participant. I realized that the last few years our school days have been tailored to Kathryn and Graham and Madelynn was just along for the ride. I want she and Zeb to get my time and the beautiful stories that Kathryn and Graham had when they were younger. We still have our “morning time” all together which encompasses: Bible, prayer, scripture recitation, a read aloud, poetry, hymn singing (all these happen daily) and then a rotation of Shakespeare, artist study, composer study, folk song, and Solfa. It’s our favorite time of the day where many beautiful conversations happen and with Zeb, lots of laughter. After this time, Zeb and Madelynn have some time to play while I work on math with Kathryn and Graham. Then Kathryn and Graham are sent off to read assigned books that they will narrate, either written or orally. During that time, I dive in with Madelynn and Zeb for math and read beautiful stories about history and nature and geography. It was so special having this time with them today. We meet back up for a walk before lunch and a reading all together during lunch. Each child has a day where they get time alone with me for 30 minutes after lunch, Monday through Thursday. We wrap up our day with a Spanish lesson and they get several hours of “free time” while I focus on dinner and my to-do list. I’m sure we will tweak the schedule as we go but we are all excited for this new routine.
Today was full because laundry needed to be done and bread and yogurt needed to be made. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be less busy with those large tasks done for the week! I also refilled my homemade taco seasoning today (I love the art it makes in the process), I pickled carrots, cooked two rabbits, made a seminole pumpkin soup and finished yogurt.
Some fun things that happened: About an hour into our school day, Zeb looked at me with weary eyes and said “When is my play time again?” Then I asked him to narrate what I read and he told me about the previous reading. He was so confident and it was quite funny! Madelynn acted out what I read in 50 famous stories for Adam when he got home and Graham told Adam all about the Science in It Couldn’t Just Happen. It was a successful first day back (it wasn’t perfect and there were frustrations along the way). I am looking forward to the conversations I will have with Kathryn and Graham about their independent readings and the time I get to spend with Madelynn and Zeb, curled up with beautiful stories that I love!
They finished up the evening playing Star Wars Monopoly. Tuesday we continued with the new schedule, making adjustments as the day progressed.
Wednesday and Friday are our busy days when we are out of the house more. Wednesday morning I have a precept Bible study and the kids spend time with both of their grandmothers for piano lessons, crafts and sewing. We are back together for lunch and a few school items and then ballet for the girls and chess club for the boys is Wednesday afternoons for an hour. We come back home to finish up any school before heading to church for our small group meetings.
This past Wednesday we had a community service project instead of ballet/chess club. We have an environmental center in town that has 100 native trees, all labeled. In honor of Florida Arbor Day this coming Friday, they were relabeling the numbers on the trees and they asked for help. It is one of our favorite places for nature study so our co-op volunteered to help. It was a beautiful day and the kids worked so hard with their hammer and nails.
Friday is co-op and this month we are studying local hibernating animals and how they differ from hibernating animals in colder climates. It was a blustery cold January morning with wind gusts 20-30 mph but the kids were troopers.
Growing Milligan Hill 