Have you ever noticed that in the best children’s books most of the action happens outside school? That’s one of the advantages of homeschooling, and we experienced it again this month.
Miss 12 spent hours caring for an injured wild turkey that she found on one of her walks. It did die, but she had given it warmth and food and a good few last hours.
One cold day a few weeks later she saw this beautiful pigeon huddled in our window, tempted it with chicken food, and managed to pick it up. She took it inside to warm it up. It stayed overnight, and filled our home with miracles. There is very little to match the feeling of a wild bird drifting off to sleep while sitting calmly on your palm. And when, incredibly, it reached down to stroke Miss 12’s finger with its beak, we were beside ourselves with awe.
Official Learning
We also, of course, did official schoolwork, from math (MathScore, ALEKS, Life of Fred Calculus) to finishing our read aloud about Michael Faraday and learning advanced physics. Letters, paragraphs, and essays have been written. Miss 17 has been working hard on her AP English online course. Although she has decided not to take the AP exams—here in Ontario it is difficult for homeschoolers to write them—she is learning a huge amount about writing and reading.
Miss 17 has officially applied to university. Now the hardest work is done and we just have to be patient on the phone several times to get all the bugs straightened out. Being on hold for 45 minutes is a wonderfully guilt-free time to read, so I’m not complaining much.
Exercise Project
We have a treadmill as well as my husband’s weights and exercise mats and a punching bag, so there is no excuse for not exercising. Even so we have not done very well this month, except for Miss 12 who has decided to run a 6 minute mile. Every few days, she sets the treadmill a wee bit faster and runs, runs, runs. She met that first goal! Now, inspired by a running friend of ours, she plots her times. She may not quite reach her updated goal, to beat the world record for 11 year-olds running a mile (she was unable to find data for 12 year olds) but she can certainly run fast now, and she’s learning a lot from this project.
What’s more, she is inspiring the rest of us, and we’re all more conscious of being active. It’s so true that we all influence each other, and I love it when the influence is so positive. Exercise enhances creativity, mood, and self-confidence as well as increasing strength, endurance, and flexibility, so it is a blessing all around.
Games, Reading, and Reviews
We also played a lot of games: euchre, cribbage, Rummikub, memory, Yahtzee, and even dominoes, and we finished a 1000 piece puzzle of the Periodic Table.
I’m reading (all links are to my reviews on this blog or on GoodReads)… Deuteronomy. Currently I’m also reading two other books: More than just The Talk, and How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.
In the past month I’ve finished Science and Religion, Spurgeon’s Sorrows: Realistic Hope for Those Who Suffer from Depression, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Fringe Hours, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Take My Hand Again, Seduced by Logic, The Two Mrs. Abbotts, and Against the Flow.
I’ve posted an Introduction to the New Genevan Psalter (with free sheet music). This post has almost a hundred Facebook likes! I’m so thankful for that, because it is a beautiful songbook that could benefit all English-speaking Christians. I urge you to check out that review and resource list. There are also new reviews of Too Many to Jail, Better than Before, and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Jessica of Life as Mom liked my discussion of the spiritual aspects of the Tidying Up book.
Read earlier and still waiting to be reviewed—which is how I absorb what I read—are Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam, A Mathematician’s Lament, What the Most Successful People Do before Breakfast, You Shall be Free Indeed, God’s Undertaker, Einstein’s Heroes, and The Ten Best-Ever Depression Management Techniques.
Reading aloud…We are reading Psalms at mealtimes and have just begun Every Living Thing by James Herriot for our lunchtime read aloud.
When my husband is home for meals, we are reading James.
Thoughts about God’s Goodness
In many ways this has been a difficult month, but God has been close to us even when we felt overwhelmed. He showed me that Birds Still do Sing…and after I wrote that piece, my friends reminded me of it when I needed the encouragement. I hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me.
My goal for this year was to connect with God and with others and, in amazingly roundabout ways, God is making sure that happens. Such growth is not very comfortable, but it is worthwhile and in the future we will undoubtedly be thankful for it. I do not dare pray for each of you that God will work deeply in your lives, because it can be so very painful. But I pray that you may pray that for yourselves.
As you think back over March, how was your month? I hope you will remember moments of joy and will be able to see how God cared for you every day.
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This post is linked to Finishing Strong.
Sounds like things are going well. We like board games like that too. 🙂