Category: Groftzoo Updates

It has been a gray, cloudy week around here. We have even had a few sprinkles here and there. Not quite enough to make for full fledged rainy days, but enough to make it too muddy to play outside much and to make the kids go a little stir crazy.

But that got relieved a bit yesterday with the delivery of James’ new Game Cube game, Super Smash Brothers, which sucked the kids in for hours.
Since they all had their school work done, I just let it happen so I could get some laundry done.

This week also brought the anniversary of the infamous Roe Vs. Wade. We took the kids to a LifeTeen prayer service in rememberance of those who have been killed or injured by the legalization of abortion. It was a touching and holy service, with much singing and our new Bishop spoke. He is a wonderful, moving speaker who has been involved directly in the prolife movement for years. The kids did pretty well for the most part, except for Tessa declaring that she had to go potty at a very quiet moment. It was great to run into Jay’s brother Andy, who is on the youth team at our parish.

We have been working on night-weaning Tessa. So the last couple weeks have been ones of sleep deprivation much like the newborn stage. But we stuck with it and were reward with three good nights in a row! She is starting to understand that it is just not worth waking up if there is no yummy warm milk to wake up for. So hopefully in the next week we will all get mostly back to our normal sleep routines.

We have been mostly using Dr. Jay Gordon’s ideas in Changing the Sleep Pattern in the Family Bed for ideas on how to handle things.

School got a rough start this week as the kids seemed to have wordlessly banded together and initiated a work slow down. After scraping our way through Tuesday, with each of them getting only about one assignment done (if even that) each day, we sat down with them and laid it on the line. No school work, no activities –
That INCLUDES gymnastics.
That got their attention, and I had my eager-to-work students back on Wednesday.
On another note, they have all been reading fiends when not doing school, so that at least is a good thing. Ben surprised me by reading the word “sympathetically” with only a minor mispronunciation. He is turning into quite the reader around here!

Paisley with be taking the Catholic High School Exam this Saturday. We are still not sure if she will go or not, but we want to keep all doors open for that possibility. We are also looking into enrollment based homeschools like Seton, (don’t cringe, Annie!) Mother of Divine Grace, and Kolbe.

After struggling through the first three days of homeschooling this week, I had just about had it. Trying to drag them through their assignment lists, kicking and screaming, was just not working. So on Thursday we took a little different spin on things.

I put on a video (from Mentura) about Coral Reefs. (We have been watching a lot of “Finding Nemo”, So I figured it wasn’t too much of a stretch!) Then I read the kids part of a book about whales, focusing on their baleens. After that was done and they had a better grasp about what a baleen was, we read the story How the Whale Got His Throat from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. Then I had Ben tell the story back to me (Narration, Charlotte Mason style) and Posy was supposed to write the story in her own words… but that hasn’t yet been finished. Oh well, that gives her something to start the new week with.

It was a very refreshing break from our book work and I think I need to go back to doing this more often. It felt a lot less like work and a little more like Learning.

Less than one week of vacation, and it is ticking away fast. So far I have cleaned up the school room to a reasonable level, and organized some of my materials. It’s amazing how messed up things can get from daily use. I think I am going to have to revise our schedule a little bit. Working from 2-4 in the afternoon may be handy for running errands and such, but it was running into an awful lot of afternoon activities. Constant adjustment. I think that may be our homeschool motto.

I am feeling pretty glad that we went with the MODG lesson plans this year though. Now I know right where I can pick up and go on from. Having that to fall back on will make getting started again so much easier. I do need to sit down and review for myself where we are, but that should only take about an hour one night after the kids are in bed. (Wait, are they EVER in bed?)

Wow. Never in all of our years have we experienced a Christmas like this one. Our times with Family were seamless, fun and relaxing. The gifts were plentiful and amazing. I am almost embarrassed sometimes at the degree of our blessing. Some people have so little, and we are blessed with so much.

The Holy Family had so little, not even a place to lay their heads.

Thank you Lord, for all of our blessings. May we be generous with all of them.
God Bless you all!

Usually it takes until January, but this year it came for me early. The dreaded Mid-year Burnout. The Doldrums. The “Ugh, Why am I Doing This Again?” Blues.

Even our poor Jesse Tree sputtered and was nearly forgotten after only a few short days of Advent. And now with sick kids… I think Christmas vacation has officially begun in earnest. We will be spending our time reading a few novels. (Currently working on The Chronicles of Narnia) and some coloring, and math will be covered in our baking. Lots of fraction practice as we double or halve our recipes! There will be lots of time for hugs and for cuddling while watching an educational DVD or two. And for religion, we will try to resurrect our Jesse tree and work on Salvation history. You can find an awesome run-down of what a Jesse Tree is all about at The Domestic Church. Hopefully we can come back in January, ready to work hard.