Weekly Wrap-Up

We have settled into a comfortable rhythm thus far. I am quite sure that, in 11 years of homeschooling, we've never followed such a predictable schedule as we are this year. It wasn't really intentional, but we are all enjoying our days, knowing "what's next."

Ten weeks into the year, I can say with absolute assurance that taking a year away from our regular Sonlight studies was the right thing to do. We are all loving going through the Chronicles of Narnia, and I know this is a year they will cherish. I think, in my heart of hearts, that perhaps my main goal of this year was to instill in them the kind of love for the Narnia books that I've carried with me my whole life.

Here's what's been happening this week:

Monday: Co-op classes and Moms' Night Out. I enjoyed and very much needed a night out with just moms. In both my literature circle class and my creative writing class, I'm having the kids work together in groups for a project.In literature circle, the groups had to write a poem with a specific character and mood (drawn from a basket) and then get to choose everything else (rhythm and/or rhyme scheme, setting, theme, etc.). In creative writing, they are working in groups on advertising a certain project with a certain advertising technique. I look forward to seeing what they come up with at our next class.

Real life snapshot: notice Duncan's Sharpie tattoos
and the pencil he has sharpened down to a nub.

Tuesday:
All the regular things (math, spelling, grammar, essay writing, handwriting). We began reading Prince Caspian. The kids kept saying, "That wasn't in the movie!" Yep.
In the afternoon we had a consultation with an ENT for Duncan. We've always known that he is tongue-tied, as his brother and father are. (Both of my boys are in the "we don't clip tongues" generation. Nowadays, pediatricians are again clipping anchored tongues.) But by the time Jesse was Duncan's age, his tongue seemed to have loosened and he was able to pronounce his "R" and "L" sounds fine. A speech therapist evaluated Duncan several weeks ago and said that she'd rarely seen a tongue as anchored as his. We decided to go ahead and see an ENT and made an appointment to get his tongue clipped next Tuesday! I expect he'll have a year of speech therapy coming up as he learns to retrain his tongue.

Wednesday-Friday:
All the regular things. We are halfway through Prince Caspian now, so we're right about on schedule. My plan is to finish Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Thanksgiving, just in time for the movie to come out. We'll take December then to break from Narnia reading and indulge in a good Christmas book. I'm not sure yet what that will be.

We also had American Heritage Girls and Cub Scouts this week, which takes up most of our Thursday. Duncan is on a Cub Scout camporee this weekend, and Laurel worked for four hours last night doing childcare during a funeral.


This was a quiet week, with the leaves changing and the temperature truly getting cooler. The leaves are really falling, and Duncan says, "Poor Daddy. Look at all the raking he'll have to do." He seems to have forgotten his job as Daddy's raking partner.

The kids are getting a good dose of life lessons this week in addition to bookwork. Our church lost a sweet man this week to cancer. He was only diagnosed a couple of weeks ago, and his death at age 51 has everyone reeling. Laurel's servant heart was a blessing to so many people last night as she and another girl took care of a dozen kids so their parents could attend the funeral.

One of our cats has also gone MIA this week. This is the kitty that the kids spoil rotten, wrapping him in blankets and calling him "baby." As the days go by, we lose a little hope that he will come home, but they seem to be dealing with his loss well. We've always taken the attitude that animals come and go, especially indoor/outdoor cats, fish, hermit crabs, gerbils, etc. They've had lots of such pets through the years, and they seem to be pretty accepting of the cycle of life.

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