Friday, December 2, 2016

When in Rome...

As soon as we had arrived and had taken a recovery nap, we headed out to find a grocery store and...
 
 Look more closely:
  
I told the children that "because we are in Holland, we may have chocolate sprinkles on our bread Every Day, because that is What Dutch People Do."

"Here we go!"

Here we are at the airport, passports in hand, just about to go through security where Kevin will be randomly selected for a full body scan.
 
We were very happy to discover a nice quiet play area underneath the stairs in the waiting area: 

 

All the children were excited about this trip, but Esther was just over the top. As the plane gathered speed on the runway, she looked back at me with a huge smile. "Here we go, Mommy," she said; "here we go!"

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Countdown

Only 15 more days? How did that happen?
We keep checking in with each other about whether or not it is time to panic yet.
I have our carry-on bag packed; except for a few goodies like snacks, phones, and - oh, yes! Kevin's passport. It's a long, complicated story, but the short version is that his passport has been with the passport people for two months now. We discussed it at lunch and decided to panic tomorrow. That will give us 10 business
 And there's the doorbell!
 Well, no need to panic tomorrow!

Also, I must remember to pack Orwell.
  

Holland

I looked at him bemusedly. "Being married to you is an exciting adventure."
He looked... worried.
 I laughed. "You know, when we are watching those international shows on TV; I just think: 'Oh, look. They went to Lithuania. How nice.' But you?  You think: 'Oh, look. They went to Lithuania. I wonder what it would take to get us to Lithuania.' And then you set your mind to work on that until you have it figured out."

It's not Lithuania, though; it's Holland.
We're leaving in 25 days.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Our school routine, May 2016

I thought I'd put this down here, so I can look back and see how far I've come....
Or maybe to solidify the habit I'm trying to make this!

At the table, when we're done eating breakfast: Leading little ones to God, or accompanying Scripture passage.
We practice singing one Psalm.
We do a memory verse (lately, we put a whole bunch together, in the Lord's Prayer).
We pray.
Then we do breakfast cleanup for 15 minutes.

 After breakfast: Explode the Code writing and reading; one page (less if it's frustrating to K, more if she's whizzing along and secretly does an extra page while I'm finishing the dishes!)
Mep math

Then we have chore time for 15 minutes, which I am including because it is an important habit that makes life easier.

After that, we head on over to the couch for some reading practice in actual books. I am very excited about this; K is reading books she hasn't learned all the phonics rules for! I had been very leery of memorization in learning to read because of a family history of dyslexia, but I haven't found that this has kept her from continuing to learn and understand the letter sounds and combinations in Explode the Code.

Outdoor time (or downstairs playtime, depending on the weather) comes next, and I have a chance to attack my to-do list, my honey-do list, make phone calls, and pay bills.
If all goes well, I get outside for a while with the children. But if that doesn't work out for me, they generally play well together outside for an hour or two until lunch.

After lunch, while at the table, we practice our French phrase of the week, read a selection from "The Story of the World," (I just read the good bits, not all the long explanations, because my goal for year 1 is that my children discover that history is awesome) and sing our folk song. We've actually run out of folk songs, having learned "Oh Canada," "Land of the Silver Birch," and "Something to Sing About." I'm going to have to hit up YouTube for some ideas! Who knew I knew so little!

That concludes our regular routine.
We're still finding a place for piano practice and lessons. We've almost dropped our Monday morning drawing time, so I'll have to figure that out. We are not faithful about our music and artist study, though the few times we have done it, I have been impressed by how much the girls remember when we pull out the picture the next week.

Sometimes, we read Winnie the Pooh at bedtime; we are about a 1/3 of the way through the complete collection.
We also read books at random times during the day, usually when someone is hurt, or needs a snuggle, or both.

I still have a stack of AO recommendations to get through, but they stay on the shelf. I think that a bedtime reading routine would be the best for those, but sometimes I just want to talk to Kevin!


Monday, November 16, 2015

Reading and Writing and Erasing

We just bought Explode the Code for K. She has been reading 3-letter words for almost a year, but we haven't had the 'aha' moment when it all gets easy. I attribute this to our too-early start.
At any rate, with a sudden surge in busy-ness, and now that she will be  6 (tomorrow) , I decided to buy ETC. She really likes it, so far.
Except... today she erased and rewrote the letter 'a' for about 10 minutes before I realized what she was doing. "It doesn't look right." she explained.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Picture Post!

Daddy on a rare day off
Rather than buying all the books on the Ambleside Online book list we're using for direction, we've been getting them from the library. We use the (simply fabulous) NB library app to order books at home, and pick them up at the library in one nice tidy stack. This keeps us safe from books with good pictures but bad plots (a serious hazard you face when your kids help choose books)! Clifford, anyone? 

E, adding glitter to her drawing. 

K's leaf to copy was green, but she painted her drawing red.
This week we combined nature study with art. Even baby O joined us, colouring away on his paper w enthusiasm.

Nanny

My leaf
You may be noticing that I love to post pictures from Drawing Monday. It's partly because I love it so much, and partly because math and reading are not nearly so photogenic!  Imagine it with me:
"Here is a photo of K showing which hand is her right hand." "And over here, we have K counting beans. Notice the pinto variety..."
And reading, well, we do our reading after naptime, on the bed. K is usually upside-down or backwards or underneath a pillow.  "And here is a picture of my unmade bed; notice K under the pillow on the left..."

The girls have been sewing a little bit, too. I find it is a very good way to keep them from exploring the sewing box while I do my mending! If I add handicrafts to our curriculum, we'll probably start with something like this.