Caroling

The church we have been attending only has one service on Sundays, so this week we were able to go to a carol sing/choir concert at St Mary's Anglican in Rotterdam on Sunday night.

  It was standing room only when we arrived (slightly late, I will admit). The churchwarden found us a few chairs and we crammed ourselves into the back; the children happily sitting on the floor where they could wiggle undetected. 

One of the first songs they sang:

Achingly beautiful. I'm not going to say that the choir was as good as the King's College Choir, but it was amazing to be sitting there, to  join the voices singing about Jesus' advent here, to think about the goodness of God, to be part of the music.

I looked over at Kevin, afraid he was just surviving this for my sake (too many female voices, don't you know), but even he was thoroughly enjoying himself. 

 

Do not ask me about the unicorn; I do not know why. 

Days

We are a couple of weeks into this school year. I hadn't meant to keep track; I thought it would be inconsistent of me, since my philosophy is 'education is a life.' However, school start times, subjects, and finished accomplishments are so important to Kevin that I find myself noticing the days.
It's okay; they've been good days.

We practice reading, which is, at this juncture, practicing letter sounds. We try to put them together, but K just can't, yet. It will come.
Piano lessons are not going very well. Part of the problem is K's age, I suspect. The other part is K's mom. She hasn't figured out how to mix having authority and being exciting as she teaches. K is going to have to learn how to sit and work at it for at least 10 minutes, and how will she learn if I don't teach that? I've been focused on keeping her attention and enjoying the process, but am going to have to insist on obedience. K does like the music, and being able to play, but doesn't like the work it takes to get there.
We started our sketch books last week. I'm so pumped about those! I have to admit, this is more about me than the girls. Though, I think Charlotte Mason would approve of the drawing, because she's all about appreciating beauty, and drawing helps draw the attention to the beautiful.
I've been worrying myself about nature study, since I didn't have anything planned other than lots of time outside. However, I had a nice talk with Nelleke, who pointed out that K is only 4, after all, and perhaps, being outside is enough. She suggested starting with what I know myself (the plant and bird names, etc). Later on, I can add to that. It makes sense. And it's easy, which is what I need right now.
Why? Because Nanny is coming home today.