Simple Woman's Daybooks (October 19, 2009)

Outside my window...

Cold and sunny!

I am thinking...

About my schedule and about having some quiet time to work out some snags.

I am thankful for....

my husband, who is constantly trying to be a better husband and father (I think he's great!).

I am wearing....

khaki jeans and my favorite yellow oxford shirt, a great pair of earrings, and my favorite pink/white socks.

I am going....

nowhere this week if I can help it. ;)

I am reading...

Earl Stanley Gardner books (Perry Mason). Love 'em!

From the learning rooms...

I've just finished working on 6 weeks of school plans and am pretty happy about what we're learning and what we've accomplished so far this year. We're almost finished with Thomas' unit study and are progressing nicely with Abby's history and her Five in a Row. No one is having trouble with math or English and Thomas' spelling is improving and his reading is great. Emily thinks she'll be able to finish her senior year by Christmas or a bit after and we're starting to think about what we'd like to do for her graduation celebration.

From the kitchen....

there's a caramel apple cake in the kitchen that's calling my name and I have to stop listening. I have a new recipe for apple bread that I'd like to have Carrie make for next weekend.  And I'm thinking about letting Rachel make apple strudel for next Sunday's dessert.  Mmmm.....apples!

I am hearing....

nothing much. It's a quiet morning.

Around the house...

I'm planning to wash curtains this week and dust blinds and vacuum cobwebs and baseboards.  There's a little mouse in the house, who I ***hope*** will be sent to a better place this week, no thanks to the kitty, who is falling down on his job! I also want to get out the wool coats, as cold weather seems to be here.

One of my favorite things....

candles burning.

A picture I'm sharing....

Scottish shortbread cookies made by Abby last week.

Wee Gillis

Abby and I have been rowing Wee Gillis.  She finished up last week by making Scottish shortbread cookies, a family favorite.

We enjoyed reading The Keeping Quilt and discussing the importance of family in our life.
We read Katy and the Big Snow to emphasize sticking with a job until it's finished.
And we read Festivals of the World: Scotland and loved seeing all the pictures of people playing bagpipes and wearing kilts.

Sometime this week, we're going to make fog in a jar to go with Wee Gillis and our current chapter in A Door in the Wall.

You won't see me for a few days because.....

I'm going to Catalyst with David, Joshua, Katie, Rachel, Emily and Anna!!

See you next week!

Quinceañera

The girl.

The cake.

The shoes.

Need I say more?

It's party time!

Happy 15th Birthday Anna!

FIAR Burnout

Since 2000, I've been teaching Five in a Row. Anna and I went through the books twice, Carrie and I went through most of them twice, Thomas and I read each of them once or twice, and now I'm going through the manuals with Abby. I truly love FIAR and I think it teaches many, many good lessons in language, art, science, and social studies. Since we love to read aloud, it has been a perfect curriculum for our family.

But this year, I've felt rather burned out with the FIAR lessons. Along the way, I've done many, many hands-on projects with the kids, made lapbooks, cooked almost every recipe in the book, and read stacks of supplementary books. For some reason, this year I'm just bored. Now, Abby loves it and begs to have FIAR every day. But I've found myself dreading the reading and avoiding projects. Since I love FIAR and think the lessons are important, I don't want to give it up, as has been suggested to me. Abby is my last FIAR student and I don't want her to miss any of it.

What to do? How do I solve this?

I spent a good bit of time talking through my feelings with my husband and 2 oldest daughters. I spent some time praying about it. I worried over it and thought about it a great deal and wrangled with the problem, trying to figure out exactly what the matter was with me and how to fix it.

Finally, I looked at my goals for Abby, which I felt God had given me this summer for the upcoming school year: Plenty of snuggle time. Better behavior, mainly being still, attentive, and focused. Learning without books. More Bible knowledge, prayer, character training.

I thought about how FIAR helps me meet these goals: it provides snuggle time, especially if I do it in a conversational style. It helps Abby with attentiveness and listening to the read aloud helps her stay focused. It's learning without textbooks, which is huge for me. And it can be used to teach character.

To solve my problem, I decided it would help me if I found some things about each book I would like to learn. For example, for All Those Secrets of the World, I would like to learn more about American culture during WWII and I would like to learn more about the Chesapeake area. We're working on this book right now and I've been doing my own research in these areas. We've been listening to the Andrews Sisters, which is fun for me.

Character lessons are always helpful for my children, so I have figured out a couple of character traits to work on for each book and found picture books to illustrate that trait. This project enables me meet one of my goals for Abby.

And finally, I've given myself permission to leave off lots of projects and lapbooks. We are in a busy season of life and I simply can't be all things to all people. There's plenty to learn from the manuals without added projects, but we still like to use supplementary books and will continue to check those out from the library. In fact, I've found a new library with lots of good books to go with each FIAR book.

I'm happy to say that I'm lovin' FIAR once again!

Read Aloud Week!

This week we are reading, reading, reading!

And this week, I'm reading.....

During Arts Week, Thomas made bannocks to go with his The Door in the Wall unit study. He and Abby had a picnic in the yard with the bannocks, bacon, and cheese.