Learning By The Way

That’s why this blog hasn’t been updated in a coon’s age. Every tiny scrap of household habit must be pulled kicking and struggling out a vast, beautiful universe of possibility and nailed into place firmly with at least 34 8-D stainless steel common nails. And yet it still struggles to escape and fly free in the beautiful world of possibility.

I tell you this so that you will understand. I don’t know why some of you are looking at me more confused than ever. Ah, well. Suffice it to say that getting up in the morning, making 4 children with similar tendencies to mine finish their morning checklist, helping the one who hasn’t shown tendencies yet get dressed (staying out of the way of Routine Boy), and making sure that they have actually finished their assignments (not somehow skipping complete sections, or getting distracted while looking for their math book), and taking care of my own teaching responsibilities (Every day I have to ask, “Moriah, who is it I have Bible Time with today?” sigh) is really all the routine I have in me.

So blog posts are not regular. Even though I would much rather write than, say, clean my desk, (hmm…interesting…right now, within 6″ of my keyboard, there is a piece of bark, a rusty nail square head nail from the 1800’s, a dried up tea bag, a nickel, a letter that Moriah wrote as part of an assignment on August 28th, 2007, lots of dust, and a postcard to Raquel from TNS Research) still, I don’t often seem to pluck blogging from that glorious, shimmering world of possibility.

But today I have! And I will tell you about the children and snippets of what they are learning.

Moriah has learned to knit. She is also a big help around the house. She has read Little Women twice in the last month, and devours more books than I can keep track of. She finished the 8 books required for the summer reading program at Barnes and Noble in 3 days.

Samuel has a highly developed sense of justice, and surprised me the other day by leading in to a discussion of confiscating real estate for back taxes with “I was reading the Bill of Rights the other day, and it said…”

Toby has finished his Borensen Algebra program with flying colors, and I am getting ready to order his new Math books. I think I have decided on Mathematics: A Human Endeavor for M-W-F, and back to Singapore Math for Tu-Th. I want to make sure he is keeping up with basic math skills! He loves to build things with Legos and Bionicles.

Elsie loves to read as well, and greatly enjoys singing. She and Toby have been known to make up goofy little songs and sing them loudly. I see a garage band in our future…She will dance with Margary Rose and is really “in tune” to musical mood. We are going to line up some piano lessons for her in the fall.

Peter is blossoming into a young man. He still doesn’t read much on his own initiative, but sounds out words well. He has started his own math book, and does very well. He is a deep thinker, and amazes me sometimes with his well thought out reasonings.

Margary is a joy. She speaks not in words (other than mommy and doggy), but has finally learned to sign please and thank you. Oh, and she did finally learn to say no, too. She LOVES animals. She also adores cars, and likes to sit on our front porch steps, waving at all the cars that go by. She often gets a wave back after getting the drivers attention by bellowing in her amazingly loud toddler voice.

So that’s your update, folks! Seeing that it is now almost noon, I think I shall choose fixing lunch from the options for what to do next…