Friday, August 26, 2011

Short and Sweet - Week in Review


Do you ever notice that time goes faster on some days than others, whether you are having a ball . . . or not? This week was full of really fast days, almost as if the second hand was ticking at double speed.  It was a good week though.

Monday we had our first session of Classical Conversations for the school year. The kids have not looked forward to this in any way since last year, but since Mom knows better, we planned to do it again regardless. My daughter is in my class and my son has a new tutor this time. After our four hours together, the kids had changed their tunes and thankfully are very excited about the rest of the year. We covered history, science, math, Bible, Latin, geography, English grammar, drawing, public speaking -- and socialization -- so we came home and played for the rest of the afternoon.

On Tuesday Charlie woke up like this.
He was so offended that I dared suggest we do a reading lesson when I had no homemade chocolate cupcakes in the house. We did some of our schoolwork early and headed to the doctor for the annual well-child visit for both kids. We did not touch ANYTHING while at the doctor's office and ate an extra gummy vitamin, just in case. Afterward, we met Daddy for cheese pizza at Costco and then headed to a friend's house to play a while. Leftover schoolwork was finished before dinner. After dinner I moved my workspace to a more centrally located spot in the house. It's the best thing I did all week.

On Wednesday morning, while his sister and daddy were still asleep, Charlie helped me make those chocolate cupcakes.

We had two successes for Wednesday. Number One: We figured out if I write all of Miriam's reading lesson words on a dry erase board, we have a much better, more focused lesson. And Number Two: We had friends over and the little girls didn't fight.  In fact, we didn't see them for four hours, save the five minutes they came downstairs to gobble up freshly iced cupcakes and yummy sugar-sprinkled cookies.  I will not mention the part about how my daughter snuck a glass of milk upstairs on purpose and then accidentally spilled it on the carpet. 

Thursday brought us the new behavior chart, which we found free here at Heart of Wisdom. It is wonderful. All I have to say is "go move your clip to yellow" and boy, do they ever shape up.
For my own heart training, I posted this abiding mom chart on the fridge to gently remind myself how to be . . . as opposed to how to mother, how to act, how to do.
(find one to print for yourself here)
And Friday we started our next big project, "Operation Awesome Playroom." The kids are so excited that we are turning our guest room into a playroom that they have camped there for the last two nights. They are hoping I will make the transformation while they sleep, but they are mistaken this time. We "did school" all morning and had a wonderful time learning about Maine. Did you know that Maine produces more toothpicks than any other state? One hundred million a day to be exact.  Miriam really gets a thrill out of showing little brother the things she has learned. 

Tonight we went to a picnic at a lovely park with our Classical Conversations group. All of the other children were dressed in play clothes, but mine showed up all dolled up (their choice). Somehow they had it in their heads this was a formal occasion.   I took the opportunity to snap a couple of cute photos, of course.




I feel like I blinked and this wonderful week is gone.   But there is grace and hope in tomorrow and I will savor it!


I'm linking up with the Weird, Unsocialied Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up!

6 comments:

  1. Chocolate cupcakes should be a requirment in all schools! Looks like you had a great week over-all.

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  2. Looks like you had a great week. I love the behavior chart.

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  3. Sounds like you did have a good week! Thanks for the links to the printables! The photo of your son waking up is precious!

    Amy @ Missional Mama

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  4. Love the behavior chart! I bookmarked it, but already have a new color CARD system ready to go. If the cards don't work then I have a back-up now! LOL

    I don't blame Charlie! What's not to like with chocolate cupcakes? ;)

    I DID know that Maine produces a lot of toothpicks! (We live in Maine! LOL)

    Stopping by from Kris's Weekly Wrap-up!

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  5. Sounds like an awesome week! Ours went by quickly, as well, but was memorable for other reasons. At least we had our son's birthday in there and had reason to celebrate. :-) We lived through an earthquake, an emergency evacuation from our vacation due to the hurricane and the hurricane itself coupled with tornado warnings. Crazy! :-)

    But, it did go by quickly! lol. But, praise, God, we are all fine, our home did not sustain any damage, there were no tornados in the immediate vicinity and we will be heading back on vacation tomorrow. God is good!

    Many blessings,
    Lisa
    http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com

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  6. I really like that chart too! Think I will make one, also LOVE the MOM chart. I would love to do Classical Conversations, glad to hear you all like it so well. Stopped by from the Hop! :)

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