August 18, 2011

Well, we had a pretty good first week.  Did I mention that we are schooling 4 days a week during our K year? I guess technically we could count tomorrow as a school day also, since we will be doing P.E. and childrens' choir, Ben will practice his violin and we will go to the library and pick out books to read and likely read some of them when we get home. I will probably have the boys read aloud to me and I'm sure I will read more of Plum Creek to them. (I read a couple of chapters to them while they were eating lunch today. I'm just as into as they are:).

Anyway, during so much of our day, they are learning something at this age. And we divide up the work we do during the week over 4 days instead of 5. So it is the same amount of work. We just do more over the 4 days than we otherwise would have. It will be nice to have Fridays to do catch up or whatever we need to get done that day, although we will be going to co-op for at least 3 Fridays in each month.

I mentioned in my last post that N is no longer taking violin. He was having a really hard time making himself practice. I knew I would have enough to do to keep him going on regular school work that is not optional. So we decided to stop his violin lessons. He was very sad about it for a (very) short amount of time, even crying at one point ("I'll forget everything I've learned" - I felt so bad for him that I almost cried with him) but I knew in the long run it was the right thing for him right now. It is more important for me to have a good relationship with him and not have to fight with him over practicing every day. Now that we have started school, I am even more convinced it was the right thing to do.

B is still taking lessons and he is doing really well and moving right along. It is harder to find time to fit in practice now that we are schooling. I'm sure we will hit our groove though. It just takes time for them to get use to having less play time. Today we fit practice in just before quiet time, which was just after lunch.

Once we move our piano here from my sister's house, Nick is thinking he would like to take piano lessons. I think it would be really good for him to have his own thing so they are not always competing on everything.  He loves soccer and is happy to be back. Ben enjoys it too and both boys normally work really hard while they are playing. They really go for the ball and try their best. It is so good for them. I know there would have been good things about gymnastics too but I am glad they decided to go back to soccer.

I have been having a regular quiet time every morning for a few weeks now. I really look forward to it and I have been doing it long enough that it is now becoming a habit. I purposely leave my laptop in my bedroom in the morning and it does not come out until lunch time, unless I have to look something up. But I don't get on to read news or check email or read blogs until at least lunch time these days. It was a very positive change for me. I get a lot more done and, after spending time with God, my day always goes better and I am a better mommy and person.

That being said, I now have only about 15 more minutes before quiet time is over and we have to get ready to go to town for swimming and soccer. So I am going to do a bit of catching up my reading right now. See ya!