Update

Boy, we sure are busy around here. Last week, my oldest two participated in a theatre camp with our home school group. They had so much fun and enjoyed learning about plays. It was fun to watch them in their presentation on Friday night. It did make for a busy week! This mama was exhausted by the end of the week!

Despite all the fun, I'm glad for a "normal" week around here. Our 3rd week of school is already halfway over. We're playing a little catch up from last week since we didn't get everything done. We're studying cultures and countries this year and the curriculum suggested we make a cake and decorate it like a map or globe. We gave it a go and I was gonna let the kids do all the decorating, but apparently I didn't let it cool long enough before removing it from the pan. It split into. I was afraid it would fall all apart if I let them decorate it so I put a light layer of blue icing on first and then let them help me smooth it out. Then I used an icing pen (that I had leftover from some decorating last year) and tried to outline the continents. I didn't have enough of the icing pen to fill in the continents, but they were happy and that's all that matters. They enjoyed looking at it, but really all they wanted to do was eat it anyway! Of course, as their teacher, I made sure they could tell me the name of each continent and ocean before they could eat it :)

Week One - Review

We have completed week one of our homeschool lessons! The children were so ready to get busy. They always are at the beginning. I tried to take it slow to get them back into a routine, but they just wanted to do more. So of course we did! I had a lot of anticipation going into this year of schooling. I knew having two little ones underfoot was going to be quite the challenge. My youngest took her morning nap last year while we were working. I knew that this year would be quite different. I tried to plan things for my 3 year old to do: cutting, coloring, puzzles, sorting, lacing beads, playdough, etc. What I didn't think about was my 19 month old wanting to do everything big sis did. She ate the playdough and macaroni noodles for sorting (not enough to get worked up about, but...) These weren't cooked by the way! Needless to say, I've got to do a little more figuring and planning. I think the key is organization and patience!

Laundry

Don't you just love to fold a fresh load of laundry? I do! I know everyone doesn't find it as pleasant as I do, but I have my reasons. I've lived in two different countries and had to hang laundry. Having a dryer is a big blessing for me. In Africa, we hung our clothes on the roof and if you left them out for too long they were so stiff you'd have to wash them again! I've learned to appreciate the nice soft loads that come out of the dryer. Folding all those little clothes reminds me of the precious family God has given me. I don't always think of this while folding clothes, but I should. Now if I can only be reminded of being thankful as I'm washing dishes. Not my favorite job.