Jack woke up with a bad-sounding cough, which he's had for a few nights now, and I may have been too hasty to ask if he wanted to stay home (he did, of course). He skipped on Friday, too, so we could party on Epiphany, and Gail missed on Tuesday (inclement weather). I'm beginning to really love hooky days.
There are all too many days when the mere thought of homeschooling exhausts me. For the past couple of weeks, however, the days when they've all been home have been so enjoyable... the kids have been delightful, and I've felt so at peace, all of it by the grace of God. I've been yearning for more of these days when we're all at home. While I hope that having them home every single day is a part of God's plan for our future, right now I'm trying to revel in their occasional days off.
We had all sorts of fun this morning. We played "pretend" for the longest time, Jack an orphaned baby kinkajou, whom I adopted; Abigail, an especially high-maintenance newborn ballerina, named Delaney (what else?); and Iris a number of players, including a kitten, a baby and a ballerina.
I love when pretend play includes a nap.
Jack and Gail made doughnuts and "golf balls" out of Play-Doh, which we made use of for numbers practice, while Iris peered through some picture books and sweetly named the mostly upside-down pictures.
making oinking noises
The big kids did some coloring/activity pages and flash cards at their own request (which, again, gives me hope about homeschooling, their excitement and taking an initiative to learn- especially when I may fail). Abigail is so close to getting all of her letters, which she's been wanting to go over about ten times a day. Her confusion now lies with 'V' and 'Y'-- one can see why. And increasingly less often, 'C', which she sometimes mistakes for a 'K'- again, understandable. We told her when she nails them all consistently, we'll reward her with a special surprise (not that I'm the least bit worried about her progress in this- she just thrives on the encouragement and has been showing such a great interest in learning letters as of late). I've already ordered the music of
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for her so we don't have to listen to #14 from
Ever After on repeat. We do now. It's the best "dancing song" we've got to offer. We also danced, in costume, I in my dress (which I discovered was actually my grandmother, Honey's), as Abigail said I can't dance if I'm not wearing it.
taking turns with some 3-D glasses that were lying around...
I'm thankful for these moments today. For these dears.
