What Should We Do Today

Our home-education adventure is a very eclectic mix of classical, work-booky, Charlotte Mason-ish, Waldorfian, unschooling events. We tend to go with the flow and work in the rhythm from the kids for each day. If someone has a rabbit trail he/she wants to traverse, we all join in. If we're particularly hyperactive, that may be a good day for workbooks or outdoor field trip. With home-education, the school day and what we learn in it is up to us.

Today, BamBam was feeling a bit under-the-weather -- could, of course, be caused by the fact that yesterday it was in the 60s and today in the low 40s! He complained of a headache and was congested from the moment he got up.

So ... being the hs mom that I am, I quickly changed our schedule for the day and after taking Kotch and carpool to school, we came straight home and began a read-aloud. I figured we'd read for a bit and once BamBam fell asleep, we'd turn to other activities.

Boy was I wrong!

We start The Tale of Despereaux -- a book I'd put aside a few years ago as silly and not worth reading. But, on the advice of dear online friend Maureen, I figured it could be a good read-aloud in our slower Advent time. WOWWWWWW! was Maureen's analysis right.

We started this book this morning and just finished it ... yep, with stopping to pickup carpool and dh ... with a break for dinner and other incidentals (like clean-up), we read this whole 250+page book today.

And it really is a great story ... lots of blood and guts and grossness to keep the young boys interested ... a bit of a love story for the girls and a great moral that weaves its way through DiCamillo (author of Because of Winn-Dixie and other novels that are equally well-written). The characters are wonderfully drawn by DiCamillo's pen while the story is makes you want to keep reading for "what next ..."

The movie based on this book comes out on Friday. Looks like we'll be heading to the movies over our Christmas Break!