Week 4

Week 4 of AmblesideOnline is going great. W, especially, is still really enthusiastic about it. His favorite thing to do is cursive writing. I don't really see much need for it, except to know how to sign your name, but he mastering it like a pro. I figure he sees it the same way J saw calligraphy a few years ago. It's fun and just looks cool. J's days are pretty busy, so she's fallen behind a little on the weekly schedules - and she's sleeping over a friend's house tonight, so tomorrow morning's academics are out. I think she's doing wonderfully. She enjoys the readings and has even decided to read some on her own. In the early years of AO the kids are read to and by the age of like 10 or so, they should start doing some of the scheduled readings on their own. Since we just started AO, she preferred that we read together. But it hasn't taken long for her to start taking over. She even takes notes (I swear, I had nothing to do with it!), and loves narrating back to me. Eventually she'll do written narrations instead - again, AO suggests around age 10, and she's slowly getting closer to that as well.

We had our homeschool group's geography club today. The focus was on Hawaii and the kids presentations were fabulous. Every family brought in a native dish - that's my favorite part. J spoke about Hawaiian jewelry and W opted out of this one. He's getting a bit self-conscious about his reading speed and he had a tickle-cough all day. That was enough for him to not want to do his report on Hawaiian instruments. So afterwards, W and I checked out about 10 library books and J spent the day at her friend's house. As for me, work is still good. Big changes have been made this week and most of my normal duties have been outsourced. So what I did for about 15% of the time for the last 2 1/2 years has been changed now to 100%. I feel rusty with it somewhat, but I'm always up for a challenge. My boss says I should make the same if not more money with this change, so I'm ok with it so far.

Here's a not-surprising news article.