Weekly Report #3

Last week, I decided to switch us from a five day Monday to Friday schedule to a four day, Tuesday to Saturday schedule.

But wait, the more mathematical among you may cry: that's still five days! Well, yeah, but it's really 41/2. The idea is to get all we can done from Tuesday to Friday and do whatever is "left" on Saturday. Why? The Dad has Sunday and Monday off and I was tired of not being able to do anything with him as a family on those Mondays he actually decided not to work over-time and stay home with us. As well, it's a terrific incentive for the kids. "You better come and get this done or we'll have lots of work to do on Saturday" was the cry this week.

But, as the poet Burns has said, "Oft plans gang awry" and indeed they already have. My fault. I just plumb forgot we hadn't done some stuff and so didn't plan on doing it today. And the neighbourhood kids cam over and another friend my daughter hasn't seen in weeks....and so after only an hour of instruction this morning they're outside playing. Charlotte Mason would be proud.

I had thought we'd done well this week, too--until I started making up next week's schedule.

We were supposed to finish Lively Latin Lesson 2 this week--nope.

I was supposed to finish Lesson 4 in Canadian History. Um. gulp, nope. We did start it this morning, however!

Math for the Boy is still stalled on Long Division. Actually, I'm don't really care we're behind schedule because of this. It just needs to be done, that's all.

We did finish all the topics in our Science chapter this week: I took about 10-15 minutes 4x this week (including this morning) to work on each of the five senses. The "ear" diagram I made was too complicated, though, so we didn't finish that. And although my daughter told me she "loved" the experiments we did--none of them worked. Not one got across the point it was supposed to! For example, this morning, the experiment for "touch" was to 1) rub one finger between the thumb and index finger of the other hand. Then, (2) one was to place a pencil or pen underneath the rubbed finger and do it again. You were supposed to "think" the underside of your finger was numb. It didn't quite work. But as I tried to explain how (your brain is missing the signals, but YOU know what you're doing so it "doesn't work.") my son asked something like, "My brain is sending me messages, but...where do the messages go? I am not my brain...how do I think?" or some such thing.

Ooooh, was this philosopher Momma proud. "Well, son," I began, "that's a question that's been asked down through the Ages. Some people have called it mind, and..." Just as I was about to launch into Descartes and the whole pilot in the machine idea, my eight year old daughter interrupted me and said, "Mom, please, let's get on with it." Well, I couldn't blame her, she had a playdate arranged to begin when "school was done."

The biggest outstanding things are all my son's subjects. Chiefly his writing, (editing and re-write), Bible Study and Grammar.

The grind feels absolutely relentless. (And it's only the end of week 8!)