Week 17 - Mantras?

 Read Alouds - 
Owl Moon, Rapunzel, Curious George at the Zoo, Richard Scary's Please and Thank You, Where the Wild Things Are, Pinkalicious, Uncover Dog, Uncover Horse
CC finished  - HP1 and 2, reading A Girl Named Disaster
Reading to both - Land of the Silver Apples


Monday was a holiday.  I worked on my Simplifying plan.  I took two loads of stuff to Goodwill and the construction debris to the dump.  The kids played with Keva and did origami. 

I read an article in the running magazine about the power of mantras to help you keep going on long runs.  It started me thinking that I need a homeschool mantra. Something to repeat like Dory's line, "Just keep swimming,"  but more directly related to my homeschooling goals. 

Tuesday .....
LB was slow getting up for school and CC slept late.  I want to work towards getting everyone up, dressed and fed by 8.  I have some work to do.   Hubby also expressed interest in helping with the homeschooling.  We'll have to talk.
CC feeling healthy again.  I spent an hour with her after my morning meetings.  We did math, agreed on a set of poems to memorize, set her up with a science/mythology project to research the names of the terrestrial moons, dismissed MP Classical Studies and setup a history study plan using The Definitive Visual History of the World.  She has almost finished making all the origami projects in her book .  This afternoon she is walking with g-ma to the post office. It is sunny and 50 today so they need to enjoy it.

If you're wondering how I could dismiss something the first day we evaluated it, it was easy.  I went over the schedule with her, then asked her some  of the honor's questions from several weeks in the study.  She not only gave terrific answers, but she also used references to other works in her answers.  The girl quoted Thomas Paine when I asked her how the stories of Cain and Able and Romulus and Remus relate to the founding of America.  Thomas Paine.  I think maybe what we have been doing by letting her research and follow her own interests along with lots of discussion is working for us, and we'll stick with it.

LB came home from school singing a song about the planets set to the the tune of This Old Man.

Wednesday -Trying to conform to a plan.....  Got the girls up early.  Daddy read Owl Moon to LB.  She came down to my office to cut out phonogram cards from Phonics Road while I was on a call.  Then she did some painting.  We did the first lesson of PR! It went well. She also practiced her six poems she is supposed to know.  I cuddled on the carpet with her to read her a couple of stories too.  After lunch, she dumped some Calico Critters in the floor to play with while I worked.

CC stayed up late reading last night and helped her sister after a bad dream so she was tired today.  After breakfast she retreated to Daddy's office to read.  At 10am, we did two chapters of math sitting on the carpet then she hurried away to read some more.  We chatted about school choices for next year since its the Choice time in our district.  We're thinking of switching her to a different hs enrichment choice next year then maybe enrolling her in a classical choice school for 6th grade.  She wants more of something. We both agreed that their current school is still perfect for LB.

Thursday - CC went to school
LB spent most of the day in my office with me.  We did phonics Road (it is still terrific).  She taught me an art lesson and played teacher using Alki's Manners book. 

Friday - I had a walk through of a presentation my team is doing so everyone in the house got to listen to me practicing.    LB put herself down for a nap, and CC invented a game.   CC started a research project on the Civil War and spent time doing her assigned reading in the visual history encyclopedia.  She did three lessons in math.  LB did her phonics.   Hubby did a read-aloud.

Ongoing activity for the week includes Dragon Training. 

Somewhere during this week I decided that the kids should each have a watch.  I don't like that my life is going that way, but it will be easier to manage our juggled time if we are all synchronized.

I still don't have a mantra.