Week 12: Hanging in There...

Every year up until now we have taken off from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year we are not doing that, largely because it is our goal to finish the curriculum before Memorial day, so we returned from vacation on Saturday last week, only to roll right into school the following week. For some reason I had a very hard time pulling it off! We are obviously ready for a break, but we are not taking one, and everyone is feeling a bit like the donkey who just can't be convinced to move forward.

Even so, Matty managed to get all of the upper grammar and dialectic reading for TOG done this week. On Monday he attended the D group's discussion and was able to fully participate in and enjoy it. It feels just a bit early, but if  he is ready, it would be silly for me to hold him back. Next week I am going to only have him reading the dialectic selections, since we seem to have made a decision.

We are thoroughly enjoying the read-aloud book, In the Days of Queen Victoria, and whenever I stop both kids beg me to keep reading. We will be sorry when that book ends, but thankfully we have a bit more to look forward to as this week we actually begin our discussion of the Victorian Era and read a bit more about her. We plan to watch Young Victoria together.

We are also discussing George Muller this week and I am really looking forward to digging into this book with the dialectic kids on Monday. When I asked Matty what he thought of the book (George Muller: Guardian of Bristol's Orphans), he said, "Oh it's good--really, really good."

Molly and Matty both enjoyed my reading of the LG selection Susanna of the Alamo, which was a very vivid account of the siege of the Alamo from the perspective of one of the few survivors. Molly was visibly sad through the whole story, but enjoyed it nonetheless. She is not one to shy away from the truth or things that are hard just because she doesn't like them. She meets them head-on.

So this week it was mostly TOG reading and discussion, math exercises for both kids, and continued Phonics Road instruction for Molly. I'll admit that I accomplished no grammar or writing with Matty this week. It's okay. I didn't do any of that during the month of December before, right?

This week it is my goal to get at least my on-line Christmas shopping started and the tree decorated. I normally have most of my shopping done this time of year and I have done none. I usually have the tree up and music playing constantly by now, but this year I have not played even one Christmas song! Tomorrow that will change.