A Focused Thursday

Greetings!!

Last night Kendall and I spent time together for her parent special making friendship bracelets!  She did lots of braiding.  She made me a beautiful multi-strand wrap bracelet and I made her a rainbow friendship bracelet - a la summer camp!  It was an easy and quiet night as Ian rested from his gum surgery.

The braided one is from Kendall =)

I was channeling my years of overnight camp!

Today started early for me...well it always starts early but today Ari awoke at 4:50 am.  This does not bode well for me as the time change approaches.  There will definitely need to be some tweaking to the sleep schedule for sure.  So we played, had snacks and watched Mister Rogers until the sun came up!!  We did not walk this morning as Ian really needed to sleep in due to his mouth surgery yesterday and I wanted to be here in the event that he needed something.  I'll plan to walk later today with the children.  

I'm getting into a place with homeschooling that I feel very comfortable with our daily routine but at the same time it feels like the days are slipping out of my fingers.  I feel like perhaps we're not doing as much as we could/should/supposed to?  My instincts are telling me that I AM doing enough but my head keeps nagging me that we haven't gotten to this, that and the other thing yet.  It's a trap that I've read/heard about from many homeschoolers - the self-doubt trap.  I KNOW my children are learning and learning a lot!  But the doubt sneaks in - especially during weeks when we have lots of out of the house activities.  I feel like the outside activities are so fun that how could they possibly replace "sitting at our desk school work".  What I'm realizing though is that it doesn't replace other kinds of work - more traditional work, but that it simply adds to it.

So, onward we move!!  Today's journaling prompt is to design your own jack-o-lantern based on what kind of mood you are in.  I gave the children free range of any products and let them have at it.

She was feeling happy and sleepy

At any given time THIS is what our table really looks like!

Spelling copywork must get so boring sometimes.  Especially on a double unit week like this one where they've been writing the same words for days.  Today we're combining a fun and easy Fall themed craft with our spelling words!  We made paper strip pumpkins complete with our spelling words and parts of speech.  It kept the kids very entertained and happy all the while they are learning.

We continued reading and writing about Darwin and read from the Evolution Revolution book.  Math time was spent using the Learning Palettes and Learning Wrap Up.

Best kid snack - banana, peanut butter, Nutella and honey - with a tiny sprinkle of chocolate lucky charms for some crunch!

Today is a yoga day so we went off to that and then instead of another event which we usually partake in on Thursdays we came home so that the children could finish up their math and DEAR time and then we continued our reading and discussions on Charles Darwin and his work.

Wake up from nap the SECOND I left to bring the kids to yoga!  I hate to wake him if I don't have to so he got a little bit of Daddy time before Ian went back to rest.

DEAR time

The children had friends over this afternoon to play - which is always a wonderful way to end the day.  I had one of Kendall's homeschool friends and her mom and one of Ty's neighborhood friends and his mom.  Everyone hung out - girls and boys played together and then had their own time and the moms and I had a really nice time visiting and chatting!

We're all looking very forward to the Halloween festivities tomorrow!!