{p,f,h,r} What the camera had on it

I was uploading photos yesterday and set aside a random three that made me happy. it’s funny, but I really forgot today was Thursday:

M wasn’t as into his Bloko sets as his Lego or Mags, because they seemed only to work in the animals already in the kit. And once he’d made a model, they were so cute, he’d put them on the display shelves and couldn’t bear to take them apart.

Then one afternoon during K’s nap (my nap too) he took the plunge and combined the sea creature left overs with the lizard and dinosaur left overs, for his 6 legged creature of awesomeness.

K and the boys have been enjoying (occasionally fighting over) the game fish fillets.  The voice over is Czech, but there are English subtitles (neither M nor K read well enough to follow without assistance, hence the fighting).  Since she couldn’t play without help, certainly not during homeschool in the mornings, she made her own version out of her math kit’s magnets.  M said it was fun to play.  She’s been making games after her tutorials during M’s tutorials ever since.  It’s a nice break from play dough.  (Isn’t her hair pretty when it’s down, in the two minutes before it tangles itself into knots?)

We’ve been scrambling to get used to Ben’s high school at home schedule, or rather the band, lessons, lab, when-do-we-see-my-busy-homeschooled-friends-who-have-their-own-schedules – schedule.  He’s playing flute in the High School Band, they have one evening rehearsal a week, and 2 more foot ball games.  I actually think we are falling into a sustainable rhythm with his schoolwork.  He has continued to get up an hour earlier than everybody else to get his geometry done, often his biology too.  He’s often able to read for fun before supper, or take a jog or ride his unicycle.  He’s asking about working papers and how to find a job besides mowing for friends and family too.

I’m so glad he’s got time and inclination to read.  I’m deeply thankful that reading kicked in for him and he’s beyond grade level at it after those years of intensive phonics, speech therapy, not enough praying and too much fretting (I was fretting.  He was just being a kid.)  My husband’s Aunt Rachel, the bi-lingual gifted educator, told me that once reading kicked in he’d soar, and she was right.

And I get to say I taught him how to read.