Snow starts our December

We started our first day of December with snow.  It’s still here today albeit the drizzle of freezing rain is doing it’s best to clear it away.

We went for a walk to the store for hot chocolate.  It started Merry enough, but with three boys and a dog there were a few tears shed and a vicious snowball fight in the middle of the  doorway  of our market.

A realization came about this previous two weeks.  I’m not sure if I shared yet, but I know firmly believe there can be too many worksheets.  Gasp…I mean didn’t you know this about me already.  But, I guess somewhere in my wee little mama mind I really hoped this would be the year my sweet children would wake up with a love of workbooks and worksheets and order.  But, alas  I need to step back.  Curriculum in this house has to have an open ended componaent.

Take Math U See for example.  This works well for us and the boys balk at all other curriculums.  We can work for Mastery with this program.  We do not need to do all six pages of student work.  It doesn’t take an hour to explain the lessons.  It works!

And, I am overwhelmed. We have to do lessons together or I’m going to explode.

So, two steps forward and two steps back.

More Charlotte Mason.

Less Worry.

More together.

More reading.  We have been really lax with reading here.  I miss our snuggly reading and discussions.  Our reading times together have always been so good for our minds and hearts.  They fuel learning in unexpected ways.  So, somehow they have to come back.

We returned almost all of the library books we had and picked up a fresh new stack.  One liberated of lessons or instructions.  Just different topics and new authors…and some old beloved ones too.

May I have your attention…this is a weekly update

Yes, I knew I would slack on this. But, I did put some effort into it. School has been keeping us busy or maybe it’s just life.

Life Sans Gluten

I’ve been focusing my spare energy on learning to cook and shop in a different fashion. I’m enjoying the energy and the weightloss! My boys seem to be responding as well. I just need to work on stocking our freezer with frozen GF pizzas. They love pizza. I’m really hoping I can start freezing some easy things. I didn’t realize how much I don’t like cooking anymore. I just get so busy and it always seems to take so long.

I’m trying to remember why it was so hard last time we tried this. I think it was because the boys were in public school and they thought eating school lunch was such a treat. And, the donuts my dh would hide in the garage.

But, as my dh was getting a snack for The Warrior he informed me I needed to get some rice crackers or something. Luckily I had bought some crackers for Thanksgiving. I had bought crackers, babaganoush, and beer to take with me. I hate missing cracker and dip time. I hate missing beer/wine time, too. I can’t have wine. It always makes me sick. So, beer it is. I chose the hazelnut crackers. They weren’t bad. Actually, they are like the little asian crackers you can buy. So, the texture threw me off a bit. But, they worked well.

For the Love of Mac

My sweet friend the iBook is getting ready for convalesence. My right shift key is broken and that is the one I use the most. Logically I can see why it broke, but still. The screen blacks out if it is placed in the wrong position. I don’t think it would be wise to put more money in it. But, I don’t know if I can afford another Mac at the moment. The horror. We have a PC in the house, but only because someone gave it to the boys to play with. I can’t imagine spending money on it.

New Classes

The boys are all signed up for their new quarter classes. The Prophet has added a Sports class into his schedule. We are amazed! I thought he was allergic to exercise. He is, also, doing a Lego Robotics class where they learn how to build and program little robot vehicles. He still has Chess and Martial Arts. In fact, he just got his uniform and he looks so handsome. The Peacemaker has added Pottery and Chess. They have a real artist, kiln, and wheels! It’s really exciting. He still has Science and Martial Arts. I’m happy we live close because we are there every day of the week this quarter. The families who are there every day and live farther away bring food and school work. As cool as it is that they can all be together for school, I’m too much of a homebody. I couldn’t spend my whole week there. I would go nuts. I need some PJ time ya know.

Singapore Math

My oldest is finally ready to get moving up in Math. I don’t have the money for a new level of Math U See right now. Although, it’s not expensive at all. I’ve used all the levels for both children so far. I don’t think you can beat that. We are going to give Singapore a try this quarter for him. I’m hoping it doesn’t mess up all the work we have gone through. I feel bad how many Math programs he has been through at this point. But, he isn’t using the Math U See DVD at this point anyhow. So, I thought it probably wouldn’t matter until we get him up to Grade level.  The point is I can check out Singapore for free from our school library and since he doesn’t seem to need the DVD’s right now then it should be fine.