Sunday, December 30, 2007

Second Sunday After Christmas

It was raining and cold and misty when we drove up the mountain to church today, which made the candles and greenery and poinsettias in the church extra wonderfully warm and festive. I love Christmas! The mist had turned to pea soup fog (but not green, of course) by the time we drove back, and I was very glad Ed was driving. The bare black trees looming suddenly out of the fog along the road were beautiful in an other-worldly sort of way, but if I'd been driving I'd have been too worried about huge semi-trucks suddenly looming over us to enjoy anything.

We start back to school tomorrow, and I did not get around to doing the organizing of school papers I had planned. I did the planning part, though, deciding what to do for science for the rest of the year (and probably next year -- I think those kits will work for both kids), and what to use with Travis to improve his writing skills. I also have some new ideas for Latin. I'm going to stick with Story of the World, only increasing to two chapters a week, so we will finish Year four by the end of the summer and be ready to start again with ancient history with Katie by next fall. I made good progress on a list of historical fiction that we will try to fit in (I'm still trying to convince Travis that history is fun!). I think next year we will try Tapestry of Grace for history, literature, geography, and at least sample their writing program, which looks to be a little more "schoolish" than Classical Writing or Writing Tales (we've been using CW, and I'm planning to start WT as soon as the budget allows). Travis is already talking about his next vacation -- do you think that science experiments twice a week will be enough to make him love school?

3 comments:

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

It sounds so lovely and mysterious, your drive in the fog! Wow, we were planning to start with math again on Wednesday after a week off--but we now have a funeral to attend that day, so I am thinking it will be the following Monday.

That dough toss is bodaceous! I can make pizza dough, but Bruce has to toss it. :)

Amy said...

Wow, you are so much better prepared than I am...and I've had three weeks off. I am sad to say I still have not gotten to putting away papers from this Fall and making their new Winter Notebooks.

I saw your slideshow in your sidebar. Those pictures are wonderful!! They have changed so much, yet some of the looks T & K had as baby babies are the very same you see in pictures today.

Good Luck getting back to school.

Amy

melissa said...

Yes, you sound very organized. It encourages me. (smile) Actually I have most of my planning done, too. I have a bit more to do tonight as I bring in the new year surrounded by schedules and text books like any good homeschool mom. LOL! And I LOVE the slideshow! Too cute!