Can we say, "Not ready for the holidays????" Argh! My life and my computer have conspired against me to not be able to post for quite a few days longer than I'd anticipated. So sorry, friends.
Mother Winter has settled in for her annual visit whilst I have been away, and shook out her silver-grey shawl all over us today. Slate skies, trees shivering in their undress - and yet unashamed, glittery snow flurries all around. It was a good day to settle in with a cup of tea and a good book (which, alas, I did not get to do. But I have been reading a lot lately, so it's okay...).
I *had* plans to post a few Halloween photos over Thanksgiving weekend. Ha! Lightroom (or more precisely, my dying computer in general) decided it wasn't going to play nicely, and I've only JUST NOW been able to get to them and edit them. I mean, it's only been five weeks, right? And seriously, WHERE has the time gone?!?! Five weeks, and it's already December!!!
But if we talk, even on a semi-regular basis, you'll know that my computer has been on its last legs for some time. It keeps wheezing through the days, with increasing slowness and frustration on my part... So yeah, Lightroom was its most recent victim. I've finally been able to reconnect, but I don't know how long it'll last, so we'll see.
But I have so much to tell! It's been crazy-busy around here lately, and interesting, to say the least.
But first, please check out my other page, The Flour Girls, particularly the "Holiday Specials"... We are doing some exciting things for the holidays!
I'll be back on track with my Monday Reading series tomorrow, I promise. And I have some very interesting reading to share, so be sure to stop by!
In other news, KayKay has battled - and come out mostly victorious, although, poor kid, she's still seriously itchy - against scarlet fever, business is crazy - mostly crazy good, we still have (what feels like) 32 pounds of turkey in the freezer (two meals a day for over a week, and we're still not tired of it... Well, the kids have started complaining, but they'll live.), the Ladybug has mentioned marrying one of my mother's goats (OH, BOY. Now there's a turn in conversation I wasn't expecting. Let's hope the idea doesn't take hold.), and speaking of goats, the selfsame goat that my daughter wants to marry has fathered seven, that's right, SEVEN kids, all of which were born this past week. Again, if I haven't mentioned it before, the whole child-goat marriage thing is rather disturbing. I'd rather not satyrs for grandchildren. So yeah... We'll be working on that.
The Ladybug confused Hanukkah with her harmonica earlier this evening. We were talking about our menorah and the Hanukkah lights, and next thing we know, she's running upstairs to get her harmonica. Apparently, she thought we wanted a concert.
She also confused Advent with something equally as amusing, however, my addled mommy-brain has already filed it away under "Forgotten." If I remember, I'll post it here.
Homeschooling has slowed to a near-crawl due to the scarlet fever thing with KayKay. Poor kid. It was an exceptionally mild case, but it's been well on two weeks now and she's still easily tired and kind of dragging at times. So we've been doing a lot of reading... A LOT of reading... With a little math sprinkled in for good measure. I'm okay with that, and she seems happy, but at some point we'll need to pick back up history, geography, language arts and science. I think we'll start easing back into it tomorrow, but we probably won't go super-heavy into anything until after New Year's. At least, that's the thought...
I am excited about some new materials we'll be trying, though, and also about the fact that she finally, FINALLY admitted that she really, truly does love homeschooling. She even went so far as to say she didn't know if she'd choose to go back to "regular" school. That's a big deal for me, because most of the issues we've had with homeschooling thus far have been the fact that she has really missed her friends at "regular" school.
However, one of the major reasons we ended up pulling her out of school was precisely because of those friends. Seven-year-old CHILDREN should not be having conversations with each other about sex, I'm sorry. I don't consider myself a prude, but at that, I must draw the line. I haven't really gone into our reasoning behind choosing to homeschool on here, but for me, and I can say pretty certainly for the Daddy, too, the increasingly negative impact that her school friends were having on KayKay was a big motivator. We watched our daughter go from sweet and (mostly) compliant to defiant, mouthy, and belligerent. And over-informed by UNINFORMED sources. Ugh. Besides being constantly inundated by requests for everything from certain types of clothes and toys to a CELL PHONE. Puh-leeze. The child lost her mind for a time...
But she's slowly gaining it back, methinks. There have been plenty of living room reenactments of "The Clash of the Titans" between her and I in recent months (which begs the question, then... Am I the dragon monster???), but it has gotten much better, and she has consistently progressed in her work. Her writing, logic, and mathematic abilities are impressive (at least to me!), and I am amazed at watching her how she is constantly learning. It's a beautiful thing to watch, and I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to shepherd my sweet girls in their education.
The Ladybug, having not known school, and whose idea of "school" lives somewhere in her imagination, is much easier to please - although I am noticing trends with her, and how she learns. She is best with imaginative play (as many children her age are), and also with hands-on activities. She doesn't even like to color much, but in short bursts, so I have to change it up a lot. Stick-to-it-iveness is not one of her strong points, and something we'll be working on. I am constantly encouraging both girls, but particularly the Ladybug, to "do your best in everything." Being the baby (and riding on that, OFTEN), she frequently tries to skate through things by doing only enough to get by. Granted, she's only 4, but still... Striving for excellence should start early.
Anyhoo, I didn't intend for this post to turn into a homeschool post, but it kind of did. Oh, well. It's late, and we have school tomorrow. And baking. And blogging. Amongst other things. Going to bed now.
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