1.
After living in this home for eight years, my husband and I switched sides of the dual-sink bathroom. I don't know when we'll be accustomed to this!
2.
Scenes from school . . .
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| Joseph coloring his "I Love Mary" book |
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| Reading lesson |
3.
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| Mary made Margaret a certificate of accomplishment for reading. |
4.
Current Lauer Family Reading:
- Mama reading aloud in the mornings for family holy reading: part of a chapter of "Under Angel Wings: The Autobiography of Sister Maria Antonia."
- Mama reading aloud during school for History: two chapters of "Big John's Secret"
- Mama reading aloud in the evenings to Margaret: one chapter of "Little House in the Big Woods"
- Mama reading aloud some days, but not all, to everyone for fun: one or two chapters of "Redwall"
- Mama reading aloud at nap time and bedtime to Joseph: at least one picture book each
- John reading nightly for literature: one chapter of "King Arthur"
- John reading nightly for fun: at least one chapter of "The Mad Scientists' Club" (four-book volume)
- Mary reading nightly for fun: at least one chapter of "Pippi Longstocking" (three-book volume)
- Mama reading nightly for pleasure: as many chapters as possible of "Emily of New Moon" before I fall asleep and the book falls out of my hand and thumps to the floor.
A lot of things I "don't have time for." Reading isn't one of them. There are priorities and there are priorities, right?
5.
Thomas the Troublemaker!
Baby Thomas is so mobile now and yearning to walk that we've reached the stage where I feel it is basically impossible to teach while he is on the loose. He races around the room dumping books off shelves, tearing them, eating non-food items, tumbling over bins of craft supplies, standing up at table edges and sweeping his hands along to toss any papers to the ground, turning trash cans topsy turvy, and turning the printer on and off again endlessly.
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| 'Look, I can break Mama's printer!' |
We are at the stage when I need to assign a 'minder' to this little fella at all times. This means I have to invent anew how to do school because I like to work with one child with the other child does independent work, then switch back and forth. Now I have to assign John or Mary to play with Thomas while I teach the other child, and then at some point have them each do their independent work.
It seems like "the way school works" only lasts a few weeks around here before I need to adjust it.
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| Thomas using the grocery cart as a walker while Mary tends to him |
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| Thomas (8 months): You know you're from a large family when . . . |
6.
Miscellaneous Moments . . .
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| Do you think Joseph loves swim class? |
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| Nighttime root beer floats after the Annunciation Mass at Pike's |
Modern American Artwork, or the result of a nine-year-old boy having a good idea because he 'wanted to see what would happen'? You decide.
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| Modern American Artwork? |
7.
During music lessons, I took the children not in lessons at that moment on walks through the neighborhood and along a nature trail in the delightful, crisp spring weather. I'd load up some children, walk for 25 minutes, return to exchange children, go walking again . . .
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| Vultures |
We saw about five vultures swirling and ten more on the ground eating something they found to be delicious.
For more 7 Quick Takes Fridays, check out This Ain't the Lyceum.
I read Emily of New Moon last year and I'm currently almost finished with the 2nd book, Emily Climbs (which I've enjoyed more than the first one)! I really wished I had read classics when I was younger instead of the "fluff" that I did (Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, etc). So, of course, now I'm trying to read through them (I just read Little Women a couple of years ago and To Kill a Mockingbird last year).
ReplyDeleteThat fork could fetch millions at auction. :)
ReplyDeleteThe photo - and caption a made me laugh out loud...