Comparatively Quiet Week--well, not really

What with trips to the States and holidays (American or otherwise) I decided to do a lot of not much this week. I was too wiped to contemplate doing any major school projects and somehow, even though I planned to do almost nothing, we were still dead busy. C'est la vie. Unfortunately our usual morning routine has disintegrated completely because I'm too tired to get up--let alone corral the kids to the icon corner and through Bible story time. Plus we've been getting up at all different times, which complicates things. I think I might transfer the routine to a pre-bedtime one.

On the plus side, Theo has now been permanently put in charge of changing the calendar every morning which works fairly well since Georgie is disinterested in it anyway. If there is something special I make sure that I take part in a presentation, but for the most part it's now Theo's responsibility. In future we'll have a chore chart as well. :)

I had hoped to bring the kids to a Remembrance Day ceremony, but unfortunately it fell on a Sunday this year so we had to skip it. Instead we did a story on Sunday night called In Flanders Fields. It only has the first few lines of the John McCrae poem, but also some beautiful illustrations for a story about a soldier in the trenches who walks out into No-man's Land on Christmas Day to free a robin caught in some barbed wire. Theo was fascinated but I had to do a lot of explaining--what a bayonet was, why he tied a white handkerchief to it, what the barbed wire was for, what a gas attack was, what a sniper was, why so many of the Christmas letters had to be sent back unopened, why there were crosses and poppies and what the dates under John McCrae's name meant. Being pregnant and emotional I hardly made it to the end of the story without choking up--both the Allies and the Germans start singing Silent Night and the solider forgets his gun in No-man's Land. In spite of a lot of explaining on my part, Theo seemed to have a very clear understanding of what was going on anyway and knew it wasn't an entirely made-up story.

Our Monday-- technically the stat--ended up being a normal Monday however. In fact we managed a lot more work than I expected or planned that morning. He did Math, Language Arts (common and proper nouns), Geography (how to use a map), Writing (write about your favourite thing to do), and the first two pages of his Draw Then Write book (draw a caterpillar, write about it). He is already a budding writer. And I think he would have done much more that morning if we hadn't needed to go out to our usual tea visit. He read his grade 2 Phonics book in the trailer on the way there, and a book called Mr. Putter and Tabby Spill the Beans. Later that day we had a birthday to go to and Theo made the birthday card. At the party he settled himself into a corner to read books off the birthday girl's shelf. However, he also did plenty of running around and playing.

Tuesday I was seriously wiped from the long weekend and we had a guy fixing our garage door so it was an indoor day during which Theo worked on Phonics and Math mostly, but neither of us were particularly motivated. There was some telly and an awful lot of book reading. Mommy and Daddy went to bed at 7:30 that night.

Somehow Wednesday was just as uneventful. Theo did only Math though he did about 9 lessons all on his own and finally started to figure out the clock which had been giving him a little trouble. He is nearly halfway through that new book already. After I "dismissed" him he sat down and read more than ten books by himself "because I like to read LOTS and LOTS of books all by myself!" Georgie curled up next to him to listen for a good long while (once he consented to switch from books about snakes to Sandra Boynton). This part is magic.

I am thrilled with his obsessive reading and SO happy to see him reading to his little sister, but I will say this: we are going to have to carefully vet his reading material from now on because we picked up a book by Maurice Sendak called Pierre: A cautionary tale-- about a boy who didn't care about anything and got eaten by a lion. Typical Sendak whimsicality, but Theo thought it was so hilarious that he took the darn book and memorised it in a day and then we had regular recitals--sometimes at inappropriate moments. Plus we didn't appreciate Theo declaring that he didn't care all the time and then bursting out laughing because it was SO funny...Oy!

Thursday Theo wanted to do more of his Canada Map Book. So we learned about directions on a map, what the northern and southern hemispheres are, and what the equator is. We had a little chat about Advent and what it meant, but unfortunately the chaos of the last few weeks has meant that I did not get organized about plans for Advent early enough. However, I AM working on a design for a 40-day (that is, Eastern Orthodox) Advent Calendar which will incorporate not only counting down the days till Christmas but also have room for a sweetie-per-day (peppermint, not chocolate). If I get organized soon enough we can make it next week-- only a little late.

As ever we are so busy that the routine is constantly being interrupted. This week it's a choir party that we are hosting on Saturday as a pre-Christmas rehearsal and treat for the choir. The rule our family has is that we are inclusive as possible about our gatherings and that we plan on feeding everyone even if we ask for people to bring things as well. Since this year's party has to fall in the fast, I have a lot of Lenten cooking to plan and prepare, especially as we would like it to be a bit Christmas-themed. As such the kids will be helping me prepare for this on Friday by spending the morning baking St. Nicholas Day cookies for the weekend festivities.

Next week promises to be just as ridiculous again with another trip to the States for American Thanksgiving, a middle of the week playdate, and a Vesperal Liturgy for the Feast of the Entrance. I have been feeling a little guilty about how few actual projects or experiments I do with Theo--largely leaving him to work through workbooks on his own with a little help and guidance from me. But in all honesty, I'm not sure how we'd manage anything more elaborate on top of what we're already doing because there's something new happening to disrupt the schedule every week. I only hope that poor Georgie develops an interest in book learning before I have to start teaching her too.