Here we go again!

Gone are my plans of no/very limited school until the move. Lucy finished up the bulk of her exams Tuesday and then both kids did the "dad portion" of exams after dinner last night. He looked over their portolio with exams and samples of their work, they read to him, recited their pieces and we sang our favorite folk song and hymn. Even Norah recited a poem this time. (Ooey Gooey - a classic!)

I'm giving Lucy the rest of the week off but will probably start her last term of Year 4 next week sometime. And Jonah started Year 2 on yesterday. I forgot how much I like year 2 but I'm excited to go through it again.

I'm realizing how nice it is have curriculumn consistentcy now that my second kid is doing a year I'm really familiar with. It makes it so easy to just jump in and go. I had all the books set aside and the schedule printed for the move but even so, I wasn't prepared to start but I realized I didn't really need to be. Last year was also a repeat year for me but as it was Jonah's first year, there was still a learning curve for him when it came to 1) doing school consistently and not just when he wanted and 2)  narration. But now we both know what to expect and the transition these past two days has been seemless. He even liked Little Duke right off the bat!

Year 2 still doesn't take very long and since Lucy's free, we have been taking advantage of some of the many freebies and doing lots of art. It's not that I just want to fill up all their free time but its been rainy and mudy so outdoor time is limited and when I saw this quote in my current read, Undaunted Courage, I couldn't help but replace the words captain/soldier for Mom/kids. It's amazing how many months in the winter wilderness with soldiers isn't that different from social isolation at home with kids. They probably didn't have toilet paper either.

"..because they were good officers who knew for certainty than an idle soldier is a bored soldier heading for trouble"


We've Doodled with Mo.

Sorry for the blurry Jonah...i have more but be's blurry in them too.

Norah's Pigeon climbing a ladder to reach some cookies. 

Her elephant

Jonah's Elephant and (flying) piggie. 

Jude has roseola this week. It was a particular bad case but I'm very thankful for video chat appointments with our family doctor to reassure me that I was doing the right stuff but just needed to wait it out a bit longer. His skin was pretty hot so he took lots of baths and enjoying playing with water even when a full bath was too much. 

Did this always result in a giant mess. Yes. Would it probably have been less messy to just let him take another bath. Yes. But when he's at the sink, I can supervise math. Homeschool life is all about trade offs.

Lucy setting up some independent art.

I made a double batch of soft pretzels. They were delicious but I've got to learn even a double batch doesn't last very long in this house.

 More art - chalk pastels. Otherwise known as the messiest art supply I allow in the house (as opposed to glitter, which I do not). You'd think paint would be messier but somehow the chalk pastel just spreads and turns up later on walls in other rooms. But they love it so it stays. And it does produce pretty results.

Ir probably wouldn't be quite as messy if Jude didn't participate. 

Not shown was puzzles, read-alouds, a bit of mud-pie fun and some backyard basketball, a new batch of playdough, more handicrafts, some band-aids to cover up the wounds from handicrafts (needle felting is not for the fain of heart), an an impromtu St. Patty's day celebratinon. With Jude's roseola hitting a peak on Tuesday, I dropped the ball  but Lucy's picked it up and baked us some delicious Irish Soda bread (and a lot of Irish Soda bread is decidedly NOT delicious) and an aquitance of ours held a streaming irish folk song and folk tale concert that my kids' loved that inspired me to pull out Trial and Triump and read the St. Patrick's day chapter which I had help back for that day. 

 My goodness, has it only been a week?

In all seriousness, we're pretty blessed in that probably 80% of our regular routine is intact. And I hope that doesn't come across as a snarky "welcome to my world, you non-homeschoolers" way. I won't be inserting any memes here. I feel for you families where that is not the case. Yor're not homeschooling after careful delibration and thought and planning and making decisions on what curriculumn will work best for your family. You've been thrown in the deep end. With no warning or choice. And your kids haven't had any warning or choice in it either. 

When a mom (or dad) brings home a kid from school, even under totally normal planned circumstances, the standard advice from most of the moms in my homeschooling circle is to de-school a bit. Breathe, set up a routine, and life life - read, get outside in nature, bake. Don't try to immediately jump in full steam ahead. I know some of you, depending on the school work being sent home and the age of your kids, don't have the option, but if it is an option, I'd take it. And if it isn't, just rest assured that what you're doing is really hard. So be proud of yourself and like I always say JUST KEEP SWIMMING. 

* really, I say it A LOT. It's not as profound as something like "do the next right thing" or other phrases I've seen passed around but it works for me!