Things are very Christmassy around here. The kids are obsessed with every Christmas show they can find on tv. It's too cold to be outside for too long, but we're still keeping busy.

Today, J did some reading while W read more Dick and Jane to me. He also tried a Syd Hoff book about a caveman. Then J did one of the exercises in the new Daily Sparks book we bought. As promised, it took about 10 minutes and she had fun with it. She had to think of as many words as she could that contained the letters w, h, and e. While she did that, W did a few pages in Writing Words. After that, J's copywork was a Christmas poem by Christina Rosetti and W did some more word practice from 2 different workbooks. J went on to math and did some GCF and LCM stuff. W was done with the table work at that point, but spent the next 15 minutes playing with coins and making pictures out of them. After lunch they blasted the music and danced around the living room (to everything from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Crank Dat Soulja Boy). Later on, J and I read aloud some Aesops Fables.

They both still enjoy the structure and having a set plan to follow for the mornings - well, at least for that hour or so. J wants to do so much - like Shakespeare and Spanish and sign language and science experiments and art projects and nature walks and weekly trips and history lapbooks and and and... But she's not an early morning person. Table work (reading, writing, math) usually starts around 10 or 11 and by the time it's afternoon, she doesn't want to sit anymore. So, it's time to change it up. J is going to write down all those things she wants to do and every morning she can choose things from the list. They are both starting to really love reading, so they'll start with that for 10 minutes or so, then one or 2 things from the list. Every Sunday, I'll check on all the supplies to make sure we are prepared for whatever they should pick throughout the week. This new plan covers a lot more of their interests and is definitely a lot more fun.