Let's Try This Again...

Guess what? I am terrible at blogging. T.e.r.r.i.b.l.e.

The thing that stopped me from blogging regularly this last time was that by the time I get around to blogging about our fantastic day, it is already after midnight. So when I hit "publish", it publishes it as, say, October 18th instead of October 17th, and I haven't figured out a way to control the published date in the way I want. I'm pretty sure it is simply not possible. And so I feel like my blog is all wrong, like if I can't get it all written down and published before midnight, that it is "wrong", or that I am always a day behind. So in typical fashion for myself, I just don't do it....because I can't get it to be "right".

I know. Pathetic, right?

Anyways, it has become apparent to me I need to be blogging daily, or near-daily, for various reasons. So...once again I dust off my blogger app and attempt to do this right, at least until I feel like I fail and then I give up on it until I can muster up the courage to try again.

So, today the boys and I spent the morning doing work at the table.

Elijah was working on a math review and reviewing his multiples of 2-9.

He worked on his grammar lap-book and read a excerpt from the history of Britain and summarized it in writing. We find the history narrations tough because they are often written in a boring manner, with little to no relevant context. And they are presented in various orders as opposed to chronological order, which really makes it hard to place it. Anyways, Elijah chews through it pretty good. He is getting very good at writing summaries, narration and dictation.

Toviel is working on measurements in math. I love how I can present a problem to Toviel and he can sit there and think about a way (or two) that he could solve the problem without any interference from me.

We also read a poem today about a sandpiper and a little girl and talked about it together and wrote a summary of it. He also reviewed a different poem he is memorizing.

I read some of "The Witches" by Roald Dahl to them in the afternoon. We are reading it for their book club. We just started reading it a few days ago and are almost finished it. They are really enjoying it, as long as we read it during the day. Elijah has requested we not read it at night, since it is about witches.

We also read a biography of Jackie Robinson that Toviel picked out and wanted me to read from our Value Tales set.

In the afternoon we went to a friend's house in our neighborhood. The boys were happy to see M again and they had a good time, as did I with J. I love watching J interact with her kids. She reminds me how important it is not to get exasperated or lose patience with your kids, how love is portrayed through gentle direction and gentle words. Some people might say she is too soft, too permissive, but I see nothing but calmness and love...a very nice person to be around. It is especially helpful for me because I am such an emotional hot-head. I learn best from people who don't know that they are teaching me.

Here Toviel is playing with our fraction pieces in a creative way. He hates to be alone when I am teaching Elijah 1:1, so he always finds something quiet to amuse himself with beside us.