SEPT 1, 2009

WOW. 2 mornings in a row I have woke before 7 Am, all on my own. Well, I did have help from the sun shining in the windows, the sound of the Broccoli and Strawberry trucks barreling down Stowell, and the sound of 3 boys doing morning chores. Gavin takes his shower at night now, so he’ll have more time for morning computer; which ends at 8AM and starts after their morning work, but no sooner than 6:30.
So, yes, they may actually get 1.5 hours on the computer in the morning if they are awake by about 6 AM to get their morning work done. Gavin got 2 new games for his birthday. Spore and Grand Age of Rome.
Today was a ‘get your own breakfast’ day. Gavin made a tuna sandwich. Connor and Ki had leftover Birthday cake. Connor also had yogurt. Ki just had cake and toast. I’ll suggest almonds and a glass of milk during Bible Reading.
9:15- Reading time is over. We meet at the kitchen table. I read Eph 6:10-20. We discuss a few things about it. Out of the 6 items mentioned in the full armor of God, only 1 is a weapon. The Sword of the Spirit. It is a defensive weapon, not an offensive weapon. No where does it tell us to fight. (though it does saw we wrestle against spiritual forces, not against man) It tells us to Stand against the evil one. To STAND. To Withstand. To Quench the Fiery Darts. To Pray and Pray and Watch and pray.

We prayed then read some Story of the world. We read chapter 8- about the Chinese Dynasties of the Middle Ages. The boys sat on the kitchen floor in a spot of warm sunlight, eating nuts, while they listened. We got out the world map to see how the rivers in China split the North & South.

Then head off to different lessons. G&C set off to take a progress assessment on their online math course while I read to K the rest of the Shark Chapter in his Zoology book. I had a little project. Measuring shark teeth (in a photo) and estimating the length of the sharks. I had him draw two teeth; one for a 50 foot shark and for a 35 foot shark. They got their timers from their pencil boxes. Let’s hope they put them back when school is finished. Again, he sat on the floor in the sun while he listened. Then he wrote a few notes and drew a few pictures in his notebook. He does better taking notes that are pictures of what he learned then writing out what he learned. So I have him draw pictures and copy any simple graphs and label things.

The boys were told they could take a break and start their last round of school in 15 minutes. G&C decided to play on FB. Ki decided to get a jump start on his math so he’d be done with school early.

Normally, I don’t set times for them to start and keep them on track. Just – no computer if they don’t get stay on track. But I got tired of them not doing much school until Friday, then rushing through and not getting much done. So I decided for a couple weeks I’d keep them on track and we’d do a few fun things each week after school (which should be done around noon or 1). So we’ll go to the park and play a few hours, or ride roller blades on the bike path, or go to the beach for a couple hours. Then I’ll do a couple weeks of letting them be in charge of their time and if they don’t get things accomplished, we won’t do all those fun things. After a couple weeks of that, we have a talk about how they like it better. When they get done early and we go to the beach or when they get t lollygag most the day not doing much of anything. (actually, Ki is always on daily schedule for school. He likes that.

Ki made a decision for Language Arts. He decided he wants to learn German.
And everyone was done with today’s school by about 12:30.

Things I have to do this week:
Find the Miquon Purple book or order a new one.

Figure out what to do for German. Maybe Petra can help us. Figure out what I need to order.
Go over C’s and G’s sciences to see what exactly they are doing so I can talk thing over with them, maybe think of fun activities to do, etc.

Plan some math for Ki . He was struggling with division. He found a way to help his brain figure some things out and also decided to do some multiplication worksheets. Either the first 10 minutes of Math time or just complete focus on Multiplication this week and back to division next week. He said he’d let me know his decision tomorrow.