It’s been a typical Saturday around here today.  The kids were super excited about the snowstorm that passed through last night, leaving a generous blanket of white stuff to play in this morning with the neighbour kids.  I spent the day in my pyjamas, baking bread and cinnamon rolls, making more pancake mix to replenish the store I always keep on hand, making yogurt, doing laundry, prepping stuff for school next week (and, dare I say it…next year!).  And of course I enjoyed my weekly indulgence of a creamy cup of coffee!  

Some highlights of our week…

~ I ~

What my kids find to do on their free time always amazes me.  This week Boo spent a lot of her free time working on a project of her own initiation – a book about how to draw birds.  I marvel at how she can recall the birds’ markings and habitats in her mind’s eye.  Pretty cute for a second grader I thought.  Here are a few sample pages.  I think there were about 12 species altogether.  

~ II ~

I spent a lot of time today arranging and printing some math sheets for Belle.  So far for her kindergarten year I have not been following any sort of set math curriculum.  She fills in her calendar everyday to help with writing her numbers up to 30.  Then we’ll sometimes talk about that day’s number and figure out whether it’s even or odd or play a little game of “Guess How Many Went Hiding”…that sort of thing.  Anyway, a few days ago I remembered I had downloaded a bunch of free stuff quite awhile ago from Arithmetic Village (which is not free anymore, unfortunately). In hindsight, I love that I had the foresight to take the time to download and file it away when I did!  I’m kind of obsessed with downloading freebies to have on hand, just in case.  In fact, this week I downloaded a US geography curriculum (that was offered for free through Homeschool Giveaways) that I will likely never use (not because it’s not excellent, but just because Canadians don’t usually learn such detailed information on the 50 States).  Nevertheless, I had to file it away with all my other geography files.  It may come in handy someday!  Anyway, back to Arithmetic Village…we already have the treasure chest with sacks of jewels in place.  If you have no idea what I am talking about and you have little ones just starting out on their math journey, you really should check it out.  I printed out the little booklet that covers place value and introduces the main characters that live in Arithmetic Village (Polly Plus, Linus Minus, Tina Times, and King David Divide) and the accompanying worksheets.  I also printed the Polly Plus and Linus Minus stories that teach addition and subtraction.  The rhyming stories are cute and colourful.  Belle is going to love it.  I think it will be the perfect introduction for her to doing math a bit more formally.  I can’t wait to start it with her on Monday.  

~ III ~

Phys. Ed. has been a little neglected in our homeschool since Christmas.  Last fall the girls did swimming lessons once a week, but we opted not to continue that through the winter.  We are hoping to make it downhill skiing with the homeschoolers that go every Friday afternoon, but so far that just hasn’t materialized with our schedules.  Yesterday we planned to join some other homeschool families at the rink for an hour of skating.  Of course the one week we decide to go, it’s cancelled because of a hockey tournament.  We thought the parking lot seemed a little too full.  We were resolved to skate though, and skate we did…at an outdoor rink downtown.  It was beautiful!  The snow was falling softly, and we didn’t get too cold, surprisingly.  Our boots were a bit wet after sitting in the aforementioned falling snow though, which made my run through the grocery store that was next on the list a little uncomfortable!  

~ IV ~

Thursday evening was our monthly homeschool mom’s meeting.  I was so glad I got to go to January’s meeting this year.  It’s always a fun and games night, and I had to miss it last year.  We shared a lot of laughs as we played charades and competed for chocolate in homeschool-themed Jeopardy.  

~ V ~

We started a new bedtime read aloud this week – The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.  I wasn’t sure how it would be received.  We usually try to keep bedtime stories in the faster moving, easier reading categories; and the English in this version of Robin Hood requires a lot of concentration on mommy’s part to read it aloud.  It seems to have captivated us though.  The situational humour and comical banter have had us laughing aloud.  I have a feeling it will take us awhile to get through it, but so far (three chapters in), everyone is loving it.  The past two weeks in our history studies we have been covering Richard Coeur de Lion and his horrible brother John as well as the Magna Carta.  Robin Hood has come up a bit in those readings and discussions too, and I get such a kick out of the girls asking me over and over again if he was a real person.  They seem a lot more concerned with the existence of Robin Hood than they ever have about Santa Clause!

~ VI ~

My little boy is getting so big.  He is loving sharing a room with his biggest sister (a switch we made after Christmas).  I must admit I enjoy him having a roommate to entertain him first thing in the morning too to buy me a few extra minutes to finish my morning quiet time.  I just noticed today he seems to have put holes in most of his soothers.  He must be biting on them.  I guess it’s time to ween him off of that comfort.  We could be in for a sad week around here!  
 PJ wonders if Little Mister is destined to be a chef because he scrambles to get his stool out and stand with me whenever I go to do ANYTHING in the kitchen.  He just loves to watch me cook.  He also likes to do stuff with his hands.  Today I went downstairs to the toy room and found that he had assembled this entire shapes puzzle all by himself.  I couldn’t believe it.   He is also getting to the age where he can actually play with toys and amuse himself for a few minutes.  I have been waiting for this, and it is wonderful!  He and Belle are also enjoying playing together finally.  That has been a long time in coming, but it has made our school mornings run so much more smoothly!

Well, there you have a little bit of this and that from the week.  I cannot believe we are getting close to being half way through this school year.  Even if some days seem to drag by, the weeks sure do fly!  

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