Monday, September 2nd

Even though it was Labor Day and a school holiday for most, I decided we would go ahead and mostly have a regular school day as we have two outings planned for the week; and also to give Jim a little downtime to relax.  We began our Science (Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy) and History (Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times) and Spelling, while also having a casual SQUILT lesson during lunch.  In the afternoon, Jim and I were able to go see a movie and get back home in time to grill out and have a bit of family time before bed.  A good day!

Both of the girls are great big sisters to Waverly, pay her plenty of attention and so forth.  But today, Scarlett was especially interested to hold, play with, change and otherwise tend to the baby.  She will make a terrific babysitter one day! 

For our first history lesson, the kids learned about what History IS, and how historians can learn about people who lived a long, long time ago.  We read from our text, had a related storybook, and then the kids were given a project.  They were each to play the role of a historian within our own family tree and were assigned a family member to interview.  Lincoln's subject was Jim - of course I had to help him read the question and I wrote down his answers.  I love that he wants to be involved!

Victoria's subject was Grammie.

And Scarlett had Nana :-)

Scarlett's finished project.

Victoria's finished project.

Scarlett finished up before Victoria and snagged Waverly for some baby-talking time.

I love how Waverly is smiling up to Scarlett, who was saying, "Mirror, mirror on the wall - who's the smartest baby of all??" and Waverly would coo and gurgle in response :-)

Next, Lincoln worked on a name-trace worksheet.

And the girls worked on their spelling list for the week.

Lincoln chose not to do Science with us, so it was just the girls and I sitting on the sofa while I read three pages out of the textbook.  This is stretching them a bit - these are three loooong pages, so I am trying to make sure we take frequent breaks from reading where they can ask me any questions, or comment, and mostly narrate back to me in their own words what is being discussed.  However, we made it through and all agreed the material was super interesting, before the girls headed to the table to work in their Junior Astronomer Notebooks.

They also have a little blank paper booklet where they can write down one thing from the lesson that they found interesting - Scarlett chose to write "Stonehenge helped people know what season it was" and Victoria wrote "Birds use the stars [to migrate]."

While the girls were working in their Science journals, Lincoln and Waverly were downstairs with Grammie watching a Curious George.  I was so proud of Gram, as she actually took this picture AND sent it to me! :-)

At this point, it was 12:30 and time for lunch!  We took a break and while the kiddos ate, we had a very casual SQUILT lesson.  I discussed who Pachelbel wrote Canon in D for, briefly reviewed some of our music terminology and explained how many people have copied this very popular piece of music ("Pachelbel Flattery").  Then we listened to the full song again before I played a few other songs as instances of Pachelbel Flattery - one of the more famous one being The Beatles' "Let It Be."  

After lunch I had the kids bring up the blocks from the Family Room and work on making mini-Stonehenges.  Victoria's finished product~  I love how she didn't add the horizontal elements, but did add the inner cluster.

Lincoln joined in the building, but not of Stonehenge :-) 

Scarlett's finished product~

By the end of the night, the kids were all worn out from their school work and lots of playing while Jim and I were at the movies.  Waverly tried to stay up late, but she just couldn't withstand the trickery of Daddy rocking her to sleep in his office chair as he played on the computer ;-)