Wrapping up and getting started

With the first of many holiday weekends drawing to a close Calvin is conked out early in bed while Jon and I sit here on the couch relaxing amidst a hazard of decorations that are half up and half still in boxes or strewn around the floor. We had a whirlwind of a weekend that started with the traditional events of Thursday and Friday, and continued right into the weekend with a crazy football game, another great family dinner, more shopping, more decorating, and a local model train show.

The game was great fun. It was the last game, and thus the last tailgate, of the season, so we had a great time with good friends we won't see as often until next fall. And, after many seasons of questionable football, it was fun to finally win the big one, and even more fun to be at the game with family when we did so. I'm still hoarse today from all the yelling.

Calvin's love for trains is still going strong. We haven't been to a show in several months, but the train spread out all over the floor in our front room was evidence enough. At the show this weekend he enjoyed the HO displays, but he was also seriously intrigued by the Lego train display. We spent a lot of time there, and some more time on our own when we got home.

Tomorrow we get started on gift making and preparing the house for Sinterklaas Avond, which we'll celebrate a day early next Sunday. Plus there's swimming, there's the homeschool group gathering, there's a Christmas party at the old school house...it promises to be a great week. Busy, but great.

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving is about a lot of things for a lot of people. For us it's about family, and good food. Thankfully both of our families live right here in town so we get to share the holiday with both of them. We had a wonderful time with good company and good food, and today we slept in and lounged in our pajamas before starting to spread Christmas throughout the house, then enjoyed more family time with shopping and laughter and more good food.

The rest of the weekend promises to be equally as busy and joyous with football, tree chopping, and a train show. I hope everyone else having a great holiday as well.

 

Let the baking begin

We started the pie yesterday with a number of local organic pie pumpkins, baking, pureeing, and draining them overnight. The smell of Thanksgiving all through the house...two days early.

So why, then, did I spend all of today thinking that tomorrow was Thanksgiving Eve?

Thanksgiving Eve. The biggest pizza night of the year. Even bigger than the Super Bowl. We had lasagna.

We started our day the usual way—with some reading, some exercise, then heading to swimming...only to find that the swim bag did not contain a swim suit. It happens to the best of us. Reschedule swimming, pick up the last couple of things at the store, lunch, and let the baking begin.

Calvin was a big help this year. He cracked eggs, he measured all the solids, he added all the liquids, he handled the mixer and ran the grinder. We baked the pumpkin pie, froze the leftover puree, made the cranberry relish, then drew mammoths, rhinos, caves.

Jon was home early—early enough to take Calvin to the swimming class make-up while I made lasagna for dinner and did the mountain of dishes we'd already created. And the house still smells like Thanksgiving.

The mammoths, rhinos, and caves were probably my favorite part.

Sonatina

The boy is going through a piano phase right now. We can be doing anything and he'll just drop it to go and practice for a few minutes. At other times he'll practice for a half hour or more in one sitting, then go back to it not even fifteen minutes later. He's practicing a piece for the recital in December along with a number of other skill pieces, and he seems to really enjoy them. Thankfully we do, too.

Revisiting method—workboxes

Back in August I mentioned that we were going to give a modified workbox method a try, and we've been doing just that rather happily since then. We dont' use the boxes as a guide for our days, though, we use our days as a guide for the boxes.

We have a stack of six craft-box drawers that started out in our play room but have since migrated to our kitchen, and we keep them filled with things that are on the top of Calvin's interest list at the moment. We ended up labeling the boxes with seven different basic subjects for organizing purposes. Right now there's mammoths and kingdom classification (BFSU) in the science drawer, map mystery worksheets in the geography drawer, subtraction from Math-U-See in the math drawer, some Dover coloring books and his piano books in the art and music drawer, and his journal is in the language drawer.

We have no rules about how or when things get done, or about what can or can't go in the boxes, we use them instead as suggestions in moments of mid-day ennui ("what do we do now?" "I don't know, why don't we take a look in the boxes?"), and we tend to visit at least one box every day, some days all six. They give Calvin a place to keep projects that are in the works, and they are great for keeping our minds focused, so that we don't forget projects that are in the works or questions that we haven't been able to fully answer just yet. And as I find interesting books, print-outs, etc., I put them in the appropriate drawer for the boy to find on a rainy day.

As a means of organization the boxes have been great, and using them this way they fit right into my dreams and aspirations for an unschooling environment.