Dinner is done

I love crockpot meals. Morning, after all, is when I have the energy to cook, not at five o'clock, or even four. Let's get dinner made before lunch. Even better, let's make dinner before we even get out of our pajamas.

I have a very jolly helper.

And yes, I realize that some days it looks like we never get out of our pajamas. Even on a week day. And yes, I'll admit, it doesn't just look that way, it probably is that way. Life looks pretty good from comfy pajamas, plus it cuts down on laundry. When we go places, though, we get dressed, and most days we go places even if just to the library. Today we needed art supplies, and time to drool over rows of pretty spring textiles. We have a number of projects planned.

We also stopped by the bakery to order our paczkis for next Tuesday, and, yes, the library for some new books. Calvin's piano teacher (not Jon) described music learning as happening in waves, an ebbing and flowing tide, but I think this is not restricted to music learning alone. I think it describes all learning, and maybe even life. Months ago Calvin first started to read, and his reading has been improving slowly but steadily since then, until about two weeks ago when I noticed in the car that he was reading signs like a crazy man. Then I noticed it in the stores, and then at home. It's as though he has broken through another barrier. I'll often find him now, curled up in a corner with a book that we used to read to him, and hear him whispering the words to himself. This is not something we've worked on together, it's something that happened when I wasn't really looking. Then he asked me today to check out a Franklin (the turtle) reader from the library. It was a level two reader and I was worried about frustration, so I asked him to have a look at it with me first. He promptly sat down and read the whole thing to me. We brought home three Franklin readers, all in level two.

I love this. I love his love for reading. I cannot describe how much I love this.

I love this, too, the part of our table now relegated to craft center, making it possible for him to pick up paints and get to work any time he feels like it. He has two new long term painting projects underway and I can't wait to see where he's going with them.

And he read to me while I made biscuits to go with our crockpot dinner.

Yes, I did just say while I made biscuits to go with our crockpot dinner, the dinner that we finished making while still in our pajamas so that we wouldn't have to do any cooking later. Some days there's just enough energy left for things like homemade biscuits.

Boys love cats love sunshine

Tuesday in Africa

A full day at home, a hint of the snuffles keeping us inside. Games, blocks, coloring, books, even a video later in the day. Calvin started by creating a pattern, singing about it all the while.

As a homeschooler, a new one, I live in constant fear that I am missing something. I have yet to hit my stride, to get comfortable with the process. There are days when things just work out, and when I think about it those are the days when I follow Calvin's lead, his interests. This week we are talking about Africa and that's because after the African folk tale play we attended last week he wanted to know more, so we are exploring, and each new door opened leads to another gallery, another riddle, and another door. We started with Africa but quickly were forced to delve into understanding continents, because Africa, after all, cannot be compared to the United States or to China, the other two areas in which we've already spent some time. Continent, Country, State, City. He now understands their relationships to each other, and he knows where he lives, he knows where Uncle Curtis lives, and he knows where Aunt Kate lives, in another country on another continent.

We've enjoyed playing Mammoth Hunt with this new knowledge, and playing that game has effectively quizzed his previous understanding of cardinal directions as well, and of counting and adding, as we roll dice and he is responsible for making his own way around the board. He loves games. Probably most kids do, and the right game is a great way to be challenged, to learn. Learning about continents led to us the atlas, the globe, the game, and ultimately back to Africa, because his original interest was not yet sated. So we started mapping the continent and talking about the pictures in the atlas of the desert, the savanna, the rainforest. We researched them, we marked them on maps, we drew them.

And did you know that elephants are so adaptable that they can survive in all of these biomes? Well let's draw elephants then, by all means, but then he was nervous about attempting something so detailed as an elephant, so we looked that up, too. And then we drew them. It's just a combination of circles and lines, really. What a discovery! So we drew them in deserts, we drew them in rainforests, we drew them on the grassy plains. I stand in awe of his elephant drawing capabilities, actually.

And when we tired of drawing elephants, and after we'd gotten our Oz fix over lunch, he decided that I looked like an elephant, because I was all dressed in grey. And he wanted to be an elephant, too, and he had a gray outfit, and while he changed into it I whipped up a quick pair of elephant ears—the healthy kind.

I knew I'd eventually be thankful for those tubs stacked upon tubs filled with extra fabrics. Meet the elephant at the piano.

He trumpets loudly.

Then more books, another game (mancala), and we watch BBC's Planet Earth, the section on world grasslands. We got to see elephants, and some other beautiful creatures.

Today was amazing. I feel great about today. At the end of a day like this I don't feel the lingering doubts. The lesson for me is obvious: I need to be more trusting of Calvin's desire to learn, he needs very little redirection, just help getting where it is that he wants to go. Eventually, with the right kind of help, he won't need me even for that.

Traveling

Today was all about traveling the world. We ate breakfast in the kitchen, we practiced piano in the sitting room, then we spent the rest of the day traveling through distant lands. Mostly Africa. We did laundry in Zimbabwe, visiting Victoria Falls, then we toured Namibia to watch the elephants (via Eyewitness video).

We flew through all the continents of the known world, compliments of our newest game, The Amazing Mammoth Hunt.

When we tired of the known world we excaped to the fairy lands of Oz. Calvin added a new review to his journal, and we started the next book in the series.

And when we came back to earth we camped by a river in a Lego village, back in Africa on another safari. I hope some day I can say that of my real life—back in Africa on another safari.

Sunday is really the end of the week

Because I have a hard time seeing any day as lazy as our Sunday being the jumping off point for anything.

It's still the weekend (see, not a new week) so we're still soaking up daddy time around here. Piano lessons for both of us learners. Calvin has graduated to the next book so he's on a roll right now. He learned a piece by Haydn today so it was an all Haydn all afternoon kind of day (it's sad, really, that the sound of our day doesn't come across in the photos we share).

There was a lot of Lego time, and a lot of game time, too (mancala, Qwirkle, and the Mammoth Hunt, altered a bit for Calvin's skill level).

We started looking through our books on Africa and did some related coloring.

We had a fire, we had hot chocolote, we read books, we ate comfort soup for dinner. What we didn't do was get dressed. And now that we're rested and relaxed, we're ready to start a new week. Tomorrow.