The first day of the week I got some much-needed alone time--2 hours--in the woods. All the children stayed at the house with Nathan, and he fixed chicken fajitas for a late lunch and had them ready when I got back. It was a great day.
The second day of the week I worked on flash cards with Jaden and Trusten, addition and subtraction and then counting, respectively. I looked a shapes book with Liv.
The third day of the week a friend came over and spent several hours, which threw things off, but it was a great day. It was very beautiful and nice outside, so we wandered around outside, and then Nathan spent a lot of time with the kids, letting them play on the Sycamore limb that serves as a natural jumper/swing for the kids. Jaden discovered that himself a few weeks ago. The following picture was not from that day, but rather from a day back in November. Nathan took a lot of video, and I took video from that other day, too. They LOVE this thing:
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| God's built-in swing/jumper |
The fourth of the week we read in Mystery of History about Samuel the prophet and about 1800s industry in A Street Thru Time. For video time I played John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."
Fifth day of the week Jaden and I finished our working through Ecclesiastes together and discussing it. He played Poptropica on the computer for the first time in quite some time, and he watched a video on black and white holes (he had inquired the previous night more about black holes) from the History Channel's Universe dvd set.
The sixth day of the week was just a busy day of cleaning, but we read some as we do every day.
The Sabbath was a bit strange for this week. We went on a bit of a trip. I took my bible along and read from it aloud while Nathan drove. He got permission to hunt on a property in Kansas and wanted to just go look around on it and to take us. So we went, and we were blessed to see nearly a dozen deer driving around and on that property. (No hunting that day, just sight-seeing.) We took trail mix to snack on, and we got out and walked around. The downside to this is that it was a cold and gloomy day. The drive was longer than I like to endure on a Sabbath, but the day overall was a good one with family.
A look at the periodicals we read during the week:
Status update on the kids:
Jaden has been sketching a lot of invention ideas, playing word games on his iPod, been reading some books {recently finished one on Abraham Lincoln}, has made it nearly halfway through his Grade 4 grammar (and that's working every other day, which he alternates with Language Lessons), is only halfway through his Grade 3 math (which as I've said before, is fine, as he's like me in that he's not a big math person, so he'll work as slowly as necessary to get good at the basics, and that's all is expected of him), breezing through spelling lessons, exploring outside and busting ice in the mornings and taking care of the chickens, writing letters, sometimes writing in his journal….
I LOVE the scientist in him, as I do his love of reading, because those are two of the things that are so dear to me, too. He's always making interesting observations, and he even explains some things to us. For example, not too long ago he told us about the process of the chickens growing their feathers back and how the quill fills up with liquid, and then afterward things harden, and there is left an outer layer that falls off. Well, I'd have never known that. He also brought one of the chickens to me so that I could feel the rocks in its gizzard, as you can feel them through its chest!
Trusten is finished with the three Pre-Code books. He did so well. He hardly got anything wrong, and he breezed through most of it with no help. He's nearly finished with the first of four Developing Early Learning books. He's doing all right with the Learn to Read bible. He enjoys all the rhyming stuff, so I incorporate as much rhyming things into our reading as I can. He likes to sing and make up rhymes. I hear him singing little songs he's made up, as well as songs he's learned. He likes to use my old iPhone that I let him and Liv use to record songs and rhymes. We're still deciding together what instrument to get him signed up for lessons on. He said the other day he wants to play the drums, and with as much energy as he's got and how he jumps around all the time and with the very complex tics he's recently developed, I think that might be a very good idea. If he ends up with good singing and/or songwriting abilities, I'm just afraid he might not be able to sing and play drums. It's so rare. But he might could go on to play multiple instruments and possess all sorts of musical ability. Also he's historically my pickiest eater, though he's always loved carrots. Recently, though, he's been making more healthful choices a lot more frequently, and he voices his understanding of how certain components in certain foods will help his health in various ways (like spinach's calcium to make his bones strong, for example).
Olivia is a mother-in-training already. It's funny, first of all, that she's at that time where she's obsessed with gender differences. She is always pointing out how Daddy and the boys are boys and that she, Elizabeth, and I are girls, and that when she grows up she's going to be a woman like I am and a mother when she gets a baby in her belly and then she'll have milk. She keeps talking about having long hair like I do, too, but that child recently took some of JW's art scissors to her hair. I wonder whether she'll EVER have long hair! She pulled her hair out by the handfuls when she was a year and a half of age, so much that I decided to clip it all down. I've let it be this time. I don't think she'll try to get scissors to clip it again. She's seen herself in the mirror and understands the consequences. She loves helping me with the baby and with doing other things. She loves when I let her help me wash the dishes. She also likes to sing.
Elizabeth is finally trying to pull up. She's so behind all the others. She's about to turn a year old. She's doing well, though. She even signed "milk" recently. She's the sweetest little soul I know, and I just hope she stays that way. I love having her around. She smiles all the time and loves everyone. She waves hi and says five or six words. That's about it for now.
All is well.
Until next time...
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