week #9 (1st week of 3rd block)

(J reading a chapter book -- one of the Magic Treehouse books, which was a birthday gift -- to Zoo Boy.)

We were all excited to get back to our Language Arts work this week! We worked with the letters "T" and "P", with the Enki Fairy Tales "The Golden Amulet" and "Soonimaya" respectively. After the week (of chaos) off, and in part due to our almost upside-down rhythms this week, we didn't get much accomplished other than the story work. We did no practice work, no painting, no crafts, and no baking. We did a very short, loose formal circle drawing movement activities from our last adventure circle and our co-op community circle, which got the big thumbs-down from Zoo Boy, although J happily participated regardless. Mostly we tried to just walk whenever the weather allowed it.

Monday's homeschool classes are winding down -- this was the next to the last week. The cold has driven the picnickers indoors, so we lost our space to do Community Circle. This was going to be the last week for Community Circle anyway, as it's just not working out how we'd envisioned it when we decided to do it. It was worth a try, though, and I enjoyed working with the couple of families who chose to participate -- I know those few kids are disappointed to see it discontinued, as they all asked me about it. J and I did folk dancing, and he played soccer while I taught the preschool class where Zoo Boy and the other kids made some really cute felt bears. We spent Tuesday afternoon at my parents -- well, the kids did, I spent some of it in the dentist's chair (just a routine cleaning, everything is actually great!). On Wednesday, an internet friend, L, came to visit with her adorable son C and her sister S (who took this photo of us all). We had a nice lunch, and the boys had a good time showing C around the farm, and Butterscotch had a good time giving pony rides (poor Annie felt very left out, however!).

(The kids used a partially completed puzzle to play an intricate pretend saga involving a fire, a candelabra, a Playmobil pirate, and a couple of Pokemon figures. Don't ask me any more about it, as I totally have no idea what it was all about, all I know is that it looked really cool and the kids seemed to know what they were doing.)

Thursday we got some much-needed shopping done (finally bought some pants to fit the ever-growing J!). Friday we hosted some good friends, and it was a relief after our crazy week to just hang out and play (and eat!) all afternoon. We had our usual Friday evening fireside Nature Story, followed by a Saturday theatrical production of that story, "Autumn's Warm Blanket".

(Zoo Boy puts on a simple puppet show -- both kids have been doing that this week, using a chair as a puppet theater, and drum mallets as characters, usually kings, queens, princes, etc. In this particular puppet show, the mallets are a boy and a girl that like to throw a ball.)

I used the "down time" from not having extra "school work" to put the final touches on our next Adventure Circle, this time a Canoe Trip theme. I'll post details as we get going with it (starting tomorrow). I've also been working on some adjustments in our school year's schedule. I've more or less decided to tag an extra week onto this block, taking us through the 2nd week of December, and then go on Holiday Break until the middle of January. It's less than I planned on doing when we started the school year, but I've never gone wrong by taking things slower and doing less, and my heart is guiding me in doing what I think is right for my kids, for me, and ultimately for our family. It does mean that I'll need to do a final block in June, which I was toying with taking off entirely. But with a break after Zoo Boy's birthday in March, it'll break things up enough to not feel like we're doing too much during the 2nd half of our year.

(J experimenting with transposing music, figuring out how to write the notes from songs he knows, then playing them back again. He's becoming fairly proficient in reading music.)

J had his chorus rehearsal tonight. The Map Man took him, and told me that the duet that he was supposed to be doing with another boy in the chorus has sort of fallen through. So he went and signed up for a solo instead. He's chosen "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", which surprised me, as I don't think it's a song he knows in it's entirety already, and not one I've ever heard him singing. So he's got a bit of work to do. The Map Man will get him some copies of the sheet music tomorrow, and I guess we'll just leave it with him and his keyboard to figure out. (Of course, I'm available to help him if he needs it -- I am going to try to find him a recording to listen to, as he'll learn it faster that way. I'm thinking Bruce Springsteen's version might not be the right way to go....) There are only 2 more regular rehearsals, plus a dress rehearsal, before the shows.

Storytime stories this week were In November, by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner; The Deer in the Wood, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Renee Graef; and Every Autumn Comes the Bear, by Jim Arnosky. We also started a new chapter book, The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden.