Weekly Wrap-Up

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In my life this week…  spring has arrived!  It’s warm.  The snow is melting.  Everywhere there’s water, rushing, melting, ice-jamming, and never stopping.  What a blessed change! 

In our homeschool this week…  children kept disappearing.  One minute they’d be working hard, and the next they would be gone.  Where?  Outside, of course!  Spring’s call is so strong.  Then, a few minutes later Mr. 15 would be back inside, with new pictures on his camera.  The Little Misses, on the other hand, would conveniently forget that work awaited them inside and stay near the puddles and the dogs until I’d call them.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… We had a quiet week, until Friday.  Then I spent the day at my husband’s work and the children had the day to themselves.  It was a difficult decision to go away for a day, but for various reasons it was the only one.  Of course the children thrived.  

So we needed to finish our schoolwork Saturday morning, but things took much longer than expected.  Part of the reason was that siren call of spring.  When I looked at Miss 10’s reading list, I discovered another reason:  she read 12 books last week, 4 of them yesterday when I was away!

After all of the work was finished, we were planning to visit a maple sugar bush and enjoy the sweetness of the syrup, the smoke of the fires, and the crisp outdoors.  Hopefully that will work out next week.

My favorite thing this week was…  how everyone pitched in today when time got tight and Mr. 15 and I were still sweating over his week’s schoolwork.  He was finishing various writing projects, and I was marking his geometry test—proofs and all that, fun to do but torture to mark.  I still had so much work to do with him, but household tasks were calling.  Then, like storybook elves, the girls tackled the undone jobs:  making supper, washing dishes, bringing all the old pumpkins from our fireplace to the compost pile, putting away school books, and so much more.   

  
What’s working/not working for us…  Snatches of nature study work for us.  This evening, while taking the faded, left-over pumpkins and squashes out to the compost pile, the Little Misses watched an orange moon bulge over the horizon.  An hour later, the moon was a bright sphere shining high in the sky.  “How long does it take the moon to go around?”  Miss 10 wondered.  “It seems to go awfully fast!”  Tomorrow we’ll see when it comes up, and soon we’ll be able to answer that question.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have… Friday I attended a lecture about the great scientist Michael Faraday.  I marveled at how much my weary brain had forgotten about physics, and how little I knew about anything else. 

How can we moms keep on learning if we keep on forgetting? 

I suppose we, too, have to use Charlotte Mason’s idea of paying attention and combine it with the time-honored methods of reviewing and digesting.  It’s a daunting but appealing thought.  If possible, then, I’ll review and digest that lecture and post about it on Monday.  And, yes, we should have taken the older children along.

The other thing I realized, now that I’m well enough to go out with my husband again, is that evenings like this are a real blessing.  This lecture, for example, was put on by a tiny Christian college that focuses on teaching eight strenuous months of The History of Ideas and also presents lectures, concerts, and conferences.  Perhaps Christian colleges in your area sponsor such events as well.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…  When I finally dared to leave the comfy Homeschool Blogger nest for my very own site, my friend Heather wrote:   “…having your own domain is sweet!”   She’s right.  Welcome to my new home, and feel free to join or subscribe.