Some days it is hard to reconcile the idea that Ken has a TON of work to do RIGHT NOW but we will not see the results of the work (aka wages) for nearly a month. We are such a culture of instant gratification, something I am trying hard to change about myself. I think it is important that we recognise the value of patience, of waiting and of things coming later. The kids are always wanting NOW NOW NOW and when I find myself falling into the same pattern I definitely feel a little foolish. Babies take around 9 months, birthdays are a year apart… we wait for many big things, but the smaller ones we expect RIGHT NOW. There are often hidden benefits to waiting on things large or small. Take a loaf of banana bread (with or without chocolate chips!), you put it in the oven for those 60 or so minutes, set that timer and wait. Well the reward to taking that time (besides the yummy bread itself) is that over that hour or so of time your home slowly fills with the smell of yummy baked goods, our home warms itself a little more with the heat of the oven and of course there is the excitement of knowing only an hour from now we are going to enjoy one of our favourite recipes. That saying “patience is a virtue” can be so annoying, but in all honesty… it IS right. So I think that one of my goals needs to be to nurture these virtues so that I can, through my own actions, teach them to my own children. After all who do they copy more than their parents??
We managed a variety of school stuff today. I started the boys off with some workbook work. Zander is almost done the comprehension portion of his Math workbook. That means he can start on the mini book that Gavin has been working on semi independently. Zander has asked if we could do another easier review book so I am going to go through my workbooks and find something he can do on the side. I am hoping he will gain more confidence once we get his glasses later this week.
They like doing workbooks on the floor best (Gavin left)
We’ve continued our observations of Frogger… today he, and I quote: “Frog is sitting down at the bottom having a break.” Not exactly the most exciting of frogs but he does the trick. We did some more colouring for our lapbook, I am hoping tomorrow to do some talking about the technical bits of a frog and its life. I found two books in the house about or with frogs in the story and hopefully our library card issues will be resolved shortly. If Ken can make it to the library in person that is!
We put the finishing touches on the Chinese New Year books. We put a strip of paper on the back to hold their circular fans onto the back. They put a picture they drew from their adventure at the festival on the last page today as well. Zander drew the wheel they spun to win prizes, Gavin a rabbit with its carrot by the road and Emanuel another bunny picture. We had a lot of fun working on these books and they turned out quite nicely. My goal for NEXT year is to look more into specific traditions and why they are done. I am sure I will have to contact our friends who are from China and get their take on celebrations and what is important (consider yourselves forewarned!).
Gavin and his Chinese New Year pieces
Our frog story for the day was just a story and not educational per say. Tuesday by David Wiesner. The boys really enjoyed the pictures.
Story of the day
The boys did a Valentine’s themed craft today – Valentine bookmarks out of foam heart shapes. You can find the instructions on the (big surprise??) UK site here.
My version of the bookmark up on our holiday wall
Though there are not pictures (yet), the boxes from the twins’ sofa beds are now clubhouses… of course in the rudimentary stages as of yet, but if I can get them to TOTALLY understand that if we take crayons downstairs they remain down only long enough to create our clubhouses we may just get some decorations put on these rather boring boxes.
Last night I got in one more page of scrapbooking… I made the decision to break up Echo’s Halloween pages into two – the two sepia prints of her costume and then the two I took in colour – one of the 5 kids in costume and one a close up of her bonnet.
Pea in her pod
The addition of scrapbooking to my evening routine has helped with that tiny feeling of “not getting enough done” I have been experiencing lately. Tonight I am hoping to get a tutu I SHOULD have done ages ago (a gift for our god-daughter Anna) and then get started on the one I am doing for mom’s friend tomorrow. We have a craft session to go to at Michaels tomorrow (I called to confirm and they SAID that there is one) so I can pick up some more rhinestones with my 40% off coupon. I notice that when I am between stitching projects I get a little antsy… Ken has yet to have a break in work to get focused on the design of my stepsister’s (got a deadline on that one!) so I have been trying to be patient (see above) and wait for him to have the time for us to finish our brainstorming. I am actually thinking I need to either drag out one of the Afghans I am stitching on (bulky) or pull out one of the kits I have somehow collected over the years and get started on that. I do have a lovely linen piece to do but I am not sure I have the linen fabric laying around. I am rather scared to get into the craft cupboard to check!
The next big holiday is Easter so I have some work to do. I am not sure what we will be doing exactly… a lapbook each, a joint poster, a book or maybe just a folder of fun things. How religious should we go with how much Sunday School covers that? I know we need to do some crafts and that it wouldn’t be hard to find some lapbook style pieces to put together but I want to make sure we don’t just follow some sort of pattern. The frog lapbook has morphed into a lapbook AND a poster. Our Chinese New Year book was a great hit with the boys though it was VERY simple. I have to admit we are not going deeply into topics yet, I am still using each topic to bring along their simple math and English skills. Next year each of our seasons and holidays will be re-covered and I think that for our grade 2 year we are going to do much MORE theory.
So once I figure it all out I will definitely share links!!! Don’t forget to look back at yesterday’s entry and give me your opinion on Emanuel’s photos!
Thoughtful finger chewing!