The days and weeks just keep rolling by around here and whatever else may be true things are never, ever boring!
We got our first snow this week, just in time for Thanksgiving and the children have spent so much time outside shoveling it (the boys), rolling in it (Mouse) and laying the foundation of an igloo (everyone under Buggle’s supervision). I’ve mentioned several times that this snow will probably melt in the next week but I don’t think the message has sunk in!
We had a light week of school this week. Bull was off entirely, and the bigs just had a few assignments to bring all their subjects even with my planner again! I’m really happy with my decision to take the dates out of my lesson plan book this year. Not having dates to stress me into thinking we are behind has enabled me to relax and just teach steadily along. I did go through a few subjects this week and adjust them assignments as the children are finding them easier than I thought they would and I would really like to be finished with school by early May of 2015.
We are slipping away from year round formal schooling to more of a traditional fall/winter school year now that we are “Up North”. With so many winter days when it is too cold to spend much time outside and such beautiful summers when we don’t want to do anything but be outside, concentrating on getting the schoolroom side of things finished when we want to be indoors anyway seems to be a better schedule for us right now. Of course I’ve got some plans up my sleeve for continuing learning over the summer but it will be more of an unschooling/exploratory kind of thing and probably be science and naturalism based as well as including plenty of art and handwork.
My slow-cooker has been getting a real workout as Bull and Mouse have dance lessons on Monday and Friday evenings and S and I are taking a class at church on Tuesday evenings. Thursdays the three bigs have a Gym class and Swim lessons at the YMCA and today all three bigs are starting ice skating lessons at the rink in the park near our house. The police department offers free lessons and free skate rentals on Saturdays From November to January and I will happily take advantage of anything that helps them learn an athletic skill and burn off some energy! Also I expect the parental amusement factor to be high!
Tomorrow we begin the season of Advent after so many (34 this year!) weeks of Ordinary Time. Today I’ll be pulling out the Advent stuff and then next week we’ll be starting to make gifts for one another (a bit of a logistical nightmare when everyone needs some assistance from me and no one wants the others to see their surprise!) as well as decorations for our tree.
S and I are also beginning our plans for Christmas Feast 2014. I’m kind of missing the South and Tidewater Virginia in particular so we’re thinking about ham and oysters but everything is still tentative at the moment. In a couple of weeks I’ll start Christmas baking (started a list yesterday). For now I’m trying out recipes as I’m trying to do everything dairy free this year and some of my standbys need to be tweaked.
As you can see it’s all good, but the action never stops!