Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Home on the Range

We actually had a pretty productive day today. I think I managed to get everything done that I had wanted to - and several things I didn't.

I want to say that we started the day with schoolwork, but we didn't get started until noon. LOL, it felt like first thing though! We actually all slept a little late today and Cameron, Greyson, and I woke around 8:30 and then lay in my bed watching Clifford before finally getting up to find Cassia still asleep! She didn't get up until after 9:30. The kids watched tv for a bit while I did my morning stuff (computer, shower, etc). They were watching the "Poached Egg" episode of Bindi the Jungle Girl and when I emerged from the shower I found them all clamoring for a "three-egg omelet made with four eggs." (If you've seen the episode, you'd get it. If you didn't, don't worry about it because it wasn't really that funny.) So I made cheese omelets for brunch (too late to really call it breakfast) and it really felt kind of unit study-ey, lol. The kids learned about different animal eggs, how predators poach eggs from the nest, and so we ate omelets. Sure, why not.

THEN we got started with school. I had told them before my shower that there were to be no complaints about school today, and there weren't. Cameron did a phonics lesson reading three syllable words and did really, really well. Next Cassia wanted to do her Explode the Code book but while she was looking for a pencil Greyson suddenly threw up. He had been kind of "off" all morning so I had a big oh-that-explains-it moment. The kids were really sweet about it - so genuinely concerned. Cassia said, "What can I get you to help, Mommy?" How cool is that to hear when you're helping an almost two-year old vomit without choking?? So then school took a little break while I cleaned everything and everyone up. Grey seemed to feel much better after that, though he was much more mellow than usual.

Cassia did 3 or 4 pages in her ETC primer and I was shocked to notice that she is almost done with the last one! I guess it fits though because she just finished consonant sounds in OPGTR and is moving on to the reading section. Next was Grammar where we reviewed the four sentence types. Math was dividing by 10s. Somewhere in there, Greyson finally decided that a nap really would make him feel better so I tucked him in. We finished schoolwork with some stories from Greek Myths for Young Children. We read a story about somebody and the dolphins which was pretty boring and the kids were ready to call it quits there but I talked them into reading Orpheus and Eurydice because I love a good love story. ;) They were both actually a bit horrified by that one, lol. I was about to call it quits there but they were noticing the picture on the front cover of Icarus and when I told them the premise of that story, they wanted to read it too. Again, the tragedy of it was a bit much for them. I don't know if Greek Myths really are for young children... but I made sure to drive home the moral of Icarus: obey your parents!!

Next on my agenda was transplanting some seedlings from our cute little homemade flat (made from recycled fence wood) to our little 7' x 10' garden plot in the front yard.
As I said in a previous entry, I flaked a bit on getting the seeds started so, so far, only the corn and the beans were ready for transplant. I learned a valuable lesson on following directions though - there is a very good reason for transplanting corn seedlings when they are only an inch tall. If you wait until they are three or four inches tall, the main root is about three times that length and has interwoven itself among your other seedings! Not to mention the fact that you are supposed to plant it with the root as vertical as possible. Yeah, ok. Let me just dig down a foot to plant this seedling. LOL, anyway, I'm sure those little plants could use all the P&PTs you can muster. I actually felt quite cruel digging them out of their happy little nursery full of black moist soil to put them into the cruel, harsh, clay-ridden mess that is our land. My corn didn't grow at all last year when I planted the kernels directly in the bed. Hopefully these little seedlings have had a better start on life and will give us the gift of food in return.

The kids and I finished up our day with a game of Monopoly. Cameron kicked my butt. Somehow, he managed to get all four railroads right off the bat. Actually, he got three right off the bat and then got the fourth one around the same time as I got my first monopoly which pretty much made my measly rent pointless. *sigh* Not that I'm bitter. It's a great math practice though because he loves being the "bankery". Cassia almost made it through the whole game but lost interest right about the point she was almost out of cash. Greyson sat and played with backgammon pieces (we had to steal the dice from that game) most of the time which was a welcome relief to his usual quest to steal all the money and rearrange all the pieces.

Speaking of Greyson, he woke up from his nap feeling much better. He was even running around with the big kids a bit so that was a good thing. He did get sick one more time right before dinner (I think the smell of it did him in) but I recognized the signs and got him into the bathroom on time. He tried to hop right back into his dinner chair afterward, but I convinced him to hang out on the couch for a while instead. He finally crawled into bed all by himself about half an hour early and instantly went to sleep. I hope he can sleep peacefully through the night... but I have a feeling that I am the one dreaming there. What I really hope is that the rest of us don't get this. I'm already feeling a bit queasy but it's probably just from cleaning up so much partially digested food. Well, if we do get it, I hope it's soon because we've got a busy weekend coming up again.

*Oh and I've added some Chickenque pictures to the previous entry. Check them out!*

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