Thursday, February 23, 2006

Some Days It's All About Being Part of a Family

Thursdays always seem hectic around here. I have to drive dh in because I need the car to take String Bean and Lego Maniac to dance in the afternoon. This means I have less time in the morning to work on my WriteGuide clients, my prepping for school, my morning chores, etc.

Today, I also had to do a library run ... a fabric store run to get Butterick patterns ($1.00 each) of doll clothes so I can teach String Bean to sew ... ink cartridge at Staples because my printer ink from a "refurbished cartridge" was only printing pink (Brikhead's SAT admitance ticket is a really nice shade of deep pink) ... stop at Chick-Fil-A to pick up a long promised 3 piece Chick-n-minis (which you can ONLY get during breakfast hours) for Brikhead ... stop by the craft store to get much needed supplies ... and to cap it off, the never-ending grocery run to Wal-mart!

I decided it was a great day for the littles to learn a bit about life in a family; to learn patience and understanding as we went from errand to errand; to learn that in a family we help each other out, doing little things for each other even if it means driving all over town.....

The kids picked out books in the Library -- something we rarely do as it is SO MUCH EASIER to request the books online and run by and pick up. Lego Maniac picked out his requisite "knight" books, String Bean got one called Belinda Ballerina and an AG book about Kaya (that she wants me to read to Sarah her Christmas doll and her -- "a chapter a day Mommy") and Bam-Bam picked out his favorite -- The Racecar Alphabet.

At the various shops, we practiced (in addition to patience, perseverance and just plain "don't get grumpiness") math problems and unit costs. They also saw just how many apples we need to buy to satisfy snack time (especially since Brikhead came home to homeschool this past January!) and how much treats for String Bean's birthday celebration this weekend we'll need to feed our gang.

We also fit in (this morning) reading about Servulus of Rome -- a cripple who learned to praise God in spite of his handicaps -- and did a small mapwork quiz based on places we've talked about over the past weeks each time we read Saint stories (Belgium, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and of course, Italy).

Another chapter of Starlight Barking (the sequel to 101 Dalmatians) and we had a full school day -- real living and learning in the heart of the home (to paraphrase Elizabeth Foss).

1 comment:

Leonie said...

Oh, I haven't read Starlight Barking - I must try to pick up a copy - maybe at the library?

I love library trips - as you said, it is easier to order books online but it is so much more passionate :-) to browse books, handle them, touch them, sniff them ,flick through them and pick up anything that my be interesting. I am glad your young ones enjoyed their library visit!