A Week, Briefly (1/11/21)

 We are cleared of covid, so normal activities resumed--therapy, work, and more babies.

It made it harder to keep up our outdoor adventures.

Before they came back, we still hiked 3.8 miles on Monday at Watkins Mill and another 2 miles on Tuesday at Longview Lake, so we added 5.8 miles to our total for the year.

10.5 + 5.8 = 16.3 miles this year

We took our time, stopping to observe and play as much as we wanted to along the way.

Monday

There were hundreds of Canada Geese on the ice.  They are a typical sight here, but en masse like this, they were breathtaking. 

Under this overlook, the river was frozen solid.  The kids went down and skated for half an hour or more.  Sir Walter Scott and I, along with Little Mister Frog, stayed off the ice.

We were specifically on the hunt for Bald Eagles that migrate across our area this time of year.  It took the whole walk but as we reached the dam at the bottom of the lake, we spotted 2 eagles, flying so high it was hard to see their white heads.  But we did see them!

Tuesday

We took the magnifying glass and some yarn on this walk.  When we reached a likely spot, we defined a space with the yarn, then spent time exploring the site as closely as possible.  We didn't explore that well.  We'll try this one again another day.  But the kids were pleased to find green grass and clover beneath the leaf cover.

A lot of snow melted on Monday!

Wednesday

This is the day everyone came back to our house!

We did a lot of school, including a pretty cool moon craft, but the only outside time was an hour and a half or so in the late afternoon.

Little Mister Frog quite enjoyed this craft, because it involved stamping paint onto paper over and over again.  Pounding things is a real joy for him. :)

They're very cool in real life.

And here are the books we've either read or are going to read in the week ahead.  After this, we're going to let the moon and outer space fade out of our main focus and work on the character trait courage.

The Munchkin enjoyed our lesson about curly dock and bitter dock.  He wanted to make pictures like the school kids were!

The absolute super most fun was having The Munchkin's baby sister, Sugar Bear, spend the day with us.

We really hope she comes back to see us again!

Thursday

Even though Sugar Bear didn't come back, we had a house full!!!  Our beloved BCBS came for a final visit before she leaves for a new job; our regular RBT came over; and our new BCBS came for an initial visit.

Whew!  We had lessons about Thailand, constellations, and a review of general memory items from one of our Memoria Press recitation schedules.  It was busy, fun, and exhausting.  We've picked up our Around the World with Picture Books study again, and we've been reading about Thailand.  When lunch didn't cook on time, I let the kids start watching The King and I.

The kids played outside in the late afternoon while I tidied up and cobbled a dinner together.

 

Then we finished The King and I at bedtime.

 

We also finished reading Steppin' and Family--such a sweet book about family love, reaching for dreams, and working hard.

We had some other finishers this week, too!

This is a very gentle language arts program.  Ladybug worked through it at double pace in order to be introduced to 3rd grade language arts concepts in preparation for a more rigorous 3rd grade program to follow.  For Ladybug, repetition is key.

Ladybug also finished this cursive practice book.  She has truly lovely cursive handwriting.

And Brother finished his first unit workbook (out of 5) in this reading program.  It's long, hard work for him, and this is a real accomplishment!  He's happily begun unit 2; having a new workbook is really energizing for him.

In addition to all of that finishing, we started reading A Child's First Book of American History . . . this is because we finished reading Our Star Spangled Story last week.

Friday

I'd planned to go on a big hike, but the snow storm that came through (we only caught the edge of it) had a daunting feel to it.  It felt like night all day long--even the chickens refused to come out of the coop until Sir Walter Scott opened all of the doors and windows and shooed them out into the yard.

Instead, we caught up on chores and made our service project cards for police officers.  

 Here are a few of the cards:

Then we read a book about snowflakes and ran outside to catch them on black paper and study them under a magnifying glass.

Little Princess got the camera and took this fascinating picture of snow on our van:

She tried to show me how she did it, but I didn't understand. :)

Beowulf continues to improve his coping and focusing skills.  It is so exciting to see him succeed!

And I never, ever get tired of watching siblings help one another.

  

We began a darling read aloud book set in Thailand called Tua and the Elephant.  I also began reading The Aeneid so that Belle has something more at her level for listening and so that the younger kids have something to help them calm down after the intensity of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.  Lots of conversations about slavery, equality, justice, and skin color have been inspired by this powerful read aloud.  

 

The kids were scrubbing some mud off the mudroom floor, and one of them said, "This is like being a slave."

 

Another child answered, "But if we were slaves, then [Baymax] wouldn't be scrubbing with us.  He'd be telling us what to do."

 

I walked through the room dropping a simple thought, "Aren't we glad that it doesn't matter what color skin we have?  We can all help one another!"

 

How I wish I had a more just world to offer my children! 

 

This weekend, Beowulf is going to be baptized.

And then Pixie is leaving to move back to Idaho.  This will be a more permanent move than just going off to school.  She has a full-time job for her off-semester that will allow her to work part-time when she's on-track.  She'll come home for Christmas each year, but I think that's about it.  She's the first one to really, truly move out, and I'm feeling the bitter-sweetness of it deep in my heart.

Parenting is truly not for the faint of heart.