Well, we’re nearing the end of our first week of our new school year (we’re going calendar years, not public school years as we do school on super hot days in the summer.  For three reasons.  1. It’s HOT outside. 2. Why would I want to let them forget everything by taking two months off?  And 3. by doing school year ’round, we can take more time off throughout the year.

All in all, this was a good week… though we had our *ahem* moments (more on that later).

So, Monday morning, bright and early, I got up and made the kids some pancakes (good mommy that I am).  We  started with our Awana stuff.  Actually, that’s not quite true.  One child would start with Awana (since they don’t need my help to practice their verses or do their activities) and the other did CIMT Math with Mom… then we switched.  After that, we moved on to our FUFI study.  (a side note: a friend in Canada was trying to buy the book from Cadron Creek – to the tune of $75 to ship the book, that’s more than the book costs!!! SO, to make things easier, I am going to link to the book at Amazon.com instead.  This is  an affiliate link, I just want to be up front on that, but it really IS because the shipping from Cadron Creek is FAR too high for Canadians.)

Hmmm… how should I wrap this up to be the most helpful to others?

I didn’t take any pictures on Monday, and really I only took a few this week in total, but I will show you some of the work they did.  

We have chosen to listen to the Harper Audio Unabridged version of LWW chapter by chapter, while the Littles follow along in their books (they each have a set of the novels.  I figure this is  a good way let them see the words being pronounced properly without having the frustration of having to sound them out themselves properly.  Not that they can’t sound out, they are both good readers… but I want this to be enjoyable).  Afterwards we use our Gage Junior Dictionary to look up words.  We alternated between the Littles looking the words up and reading the definitions.  If there was any question about the meaning of the word we paused and chatted a bit.

I wanted to do narrations of the chapter, but somehow it just never got done.  I must be a fast reader, because both my Littles observed that the guy reading the book on my iphone reads “really” slow.  LOL!  Mental note, no speed reading bedtime stories anymore.

On Tuesday we did some more research into the reasons behind the Pevensie children being shipped out of London.  We watched a bunch of videos from a war museum in England and many described this thing called the “doodlebug”.  Now, I’d head that term before, and understood they were referring to a bomb of sorts, but now I know what they are talking about!  Greyson explained (narrated?) what he learned about the doodlebug or buzzbombs to Daddy when he got home.

I had the kids write “Letters Home” from an imaginary home where they’d be sent during the war.  It was hard for my Chilibean, she really struggles with imagination stuff.  She’s far to scientific and analytical.  When I asked her to PRETEND she was a child evacuee and to write Mommy and tell me about what her new home was like, she insisted, “I don’t know… I didn’t go away!” – I think the idea of all those children being taken from their parents kind of scared her, even more than the idea of the bombs falling on the homes.  It makes me wonder what was the more traumatizing event for children in London during the war, bombs or separation.

Of course in order to find age-appropriate material for the Littles to watch, Mom did a pretty durn in depth study of the subject.  I don’t think I could have sent my children away without me.  I’d probably have gone early WITH them.  But I guess many a mom didn’t have any choice in the matter.  :(

Now we’re to our “not so good” day.  Wednesday.  I tried to be a blessing to someone in our church and drive her to an appointment for her daughter an hour and a half away.  So, the night before I got all the schoolwork (rather easy stuff, it was our reading day – Chapter 2 – and so most of it would be done orally) and in the morning we did our reading, made a nice lunch to bring with us, and got out on time (impressive in itself!)

That’s where peace and planning met their match in the form of an 11 year old boy who needed some serious training up.  MELTDOWN  doesn’t even begin to cover it.  I was so ashamed.  I will be honest here, and the reason why is so that when this happens to you one day in a public place and you feel like you must be the least qualified homeschool mom on the planet, you will know you are not alone.

Myy 11 year old son HID under the desk in the waiting room of the children’s hospital.  Sobbing.  Whining.  Loudly.

Why?  Well, MOM had the AUDACITY of asking him to look up a work in the DICTIONARY.  I know!  Cruel and unusual punishment to be sure!!!  It just escalated from there… or I should say spiralled.  I was so tied up.  At home he’d have been removed from the room and put in his bed and told to stay there till he could act like a civilized human being.  Instead, I had to sit there and watch him pitch his fit, throwing his paper and pencil across the desk, whine in a LOUD voice how it’s “NOT FAIR” that HE has to do school while in a waiting room.  I told him he should be THANKFUL that he had the health as to not be the one going into the doctor’s office.  He just moaned and climbed under the desk and yelled at me, “How can I do my work when you won’t help me?” (um, wha?!?!) then I informed him very … well… appearingly calmly, “When you are calm, you may apologize and then I will help you with whatever you need help with.”  Ya, no.  He just screamed more at me.  I’ve never felt so powerless.  There was no way this child was going to get me CAS knockin’ on my door, or worse, so I just had to take it like a chump.  I hate our society where discipline is viewed as abuse and we’re all supposed to bow down and kiss our children’s feet while they kick us in the teeth.

Daddy dealt with him when he got home.  Let it suffice it to say that the schoolwork got done and the child apologized.

Anyhow, Miss Chae did very well, working hard at both her math and her Awana studies while we were in the hospital, and actively participating (along with her little friend who was there to see the specialist) in the dictionary time.  Later in the evening, she got some help from our resident math tutor to finish up her sheet.

Thursday ended up being a bit of a pajama day around here.  Not sure why, but everyone was tired and a little raw-edged.  So we took it slow, did our Awana, some math, and spent some time cleaning up around the house.  Oh, we’re planning a “tea” for tomorrow’s supper.  We did some recipe and idea searching today.  On top of all that, college applications are due Very Soon, so some of my focus is in helping my older daughter get the information she needs in order to apply without any glitches.  She wants to go into to coolest career path I think I’ve ever heard of:  Adventure Recreation and Parks Technician.  Park Wardens, Park Superintendent, Recreational Instructor, Wilderness Outfitter, etc..  Though I knew there were people doing the job, obviously, it never occurred to me that they had college courses for such things. !!!  She’s gonna have a blast! (if she gets in, that is.)

SO, back to school…

Friday is our “catch-up” and activities school day.  Since we didn’t really have anything to catch up on, we focused instead on catching up on the house.  Things got out of hand this week, the outlets in the laundry room stopped working, so we are falling HORRIBLY behind on the laundry (no pictures of that, I’m too ashamed) and kids are starting to complain.  It is also the reason why the picture below finds my youngest in the same pjs as yesterday… she has no pants to put on, so she’s been snuggly-wuggly in her pjs for the past 48 hours.  Thanks Nana!

The kids spent some time observing their triops, doing some woodburning, and playing together nicely.  In the afternoon, after some clothes were cleaned, we headed over to the library where I scored the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre copies for the Narnia series!!!  These will be reward listens at the end of each book.  I own two of them already, so I’m really happy to have located a source for them for FREE!

So, this RIDICULOUSLY long post you just read (IF you just read all of it) is a total of  1496 words.  I commend you!  I think I’ll have to be less chatty next week.  See you then!

Blessings!