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| Mesopotamian dinner |
If I am honest, when it comes to change it takes me a while
to find the comforting space of
mental calm.
Messy
Change.
Ruin my routine
Change.
What’s going to
happen next?
Change!
As I head back to work Popasquash will be taking over the
kids, the home school, the house, and I am trying not to let it become a case
of prying them from my cold, dead, hands!
I am going to let
Change
happen gracefully, beginning with a ceremonial handing over of the torch.
And that took the form of a Mesopotamian
dinner.
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| Sailor's date pickers in Sumeria |
We have come to the end of our first round of learning about
the Ancients and celebrated with a Mesopotamian dinner with friends whose menu included; lemon-mint-coriander chicken, flatbreads, couscous (not
factual I’m afraid but a hit with the kids), salad, dates, baklava and
cheesecake (‘cause let’s face it without the Ancient civilizations we never
would have made it all the way to the American classic!). A delicious meal, and so good to spend time with
friends, especially at this time of year in the North
Country when it becomes harder and harder to identify people as
the warm layers get piled on!
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| Ice forming on the Lake |
The cheesecake was Dodger’s creation and he has been baking
away with his stand mixer, whirring out a Yule log, pizza dough, and other
treats. Dodger spent some of his
Christmas money on a spring-form pan!
Sailor, on the other hand has been debating buying a wand with his
money, one of the light-up jobbies that they sell at Barnes & Noble. However, my husband is staunchly opposed to
anymore toys that combine plastic and the need for batteries, so one of their
home school tasks last week was designing a wand to make. Sailor’s will be made of ash wood with a
Black Kitty hair at the core ;)
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| The Yule log |
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| Apple pie |
The new routine (dreaded Change)
includes my continuing to write assignments on the chalkboard the night before
and the next day my husband helps the kids with them. So far, so good. And now that Grandma is settled out in CA for
the winter working she has begun Skyping lessons with the boys. Brilliant, and such a great addition to their
learning. It’s really something to look
forward to seeing Grandma in person and having science lessons via webcam. As a child of the 80’s I’m still awed by the
technology. In keeping with the
Classical approach Grandma has been working on “classification” with the kids,
Dodger is learning about the kingdoms starting with fungi, protista, and
monera. Sailor is working on worms.
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| Skyping with Grandma |
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| Worms! |
On advice from Grandma (and partly due to the current
popularity) the boys are reading The Hobbit for their next Classical book.
Today they hit the movie theater to see the
first Hobbit movie in 3D.
Other
additional home school assignments, apart from the daily spelling, reading,
math and grammar, have been watching a documentary on MLK Jr., sewing their own
ski goggle cases, and helping Dad fix up the van for winter.
Really it has been a smooth transition so far and I don’t gamble, but
I’m going to make a few guesses about what will be different about home school
with Dad vs. home school with Mom just based on our personalities…
My husband is patient.
He’s a details man. I come up with ideas and move on them right away. He’s a
gather-all-the-information first, get it right, logical man. I learn as I go and tend to make mistakes. He can debunk arguments with a genuine smile
on his face. I get emotional. He won’t yell, he won’t
rush, he talks a lot. I talk a lot too ;) My husband will
spend four hours teaching the kids how to play dominoes Panama-style or tie
knots or spend days teaching them the techniques for splitting wood. Once the
kids master the splitting wood thing they will be given their own axe…and
they’ll love it and think it’s the best thing ever. I worry about germs, walking on ice, not having car seats installed correctly and axes, I blame my job as a nurse for my worries! He loves the kids in their entirety. Me too. If he puts the kids to bed it can take two
hours...they just talk. I run on a tighter schedule. My husband is
going to do an amazing job learning, teaching, and being with the kids. A job he's been doing all along, but now he's getting the time he's been missing with our three little souls.
What he won’t do? Remember
to make the bed. I know, not a major flaw to most. I’ll just a deep breath
and accept that things are Changing.
Happy New Year!
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| Christmas tree keeping us cheerful as it drops it's needles on the deck (rather than the living room)! Yes, I'm aware that it's wonky...3 hours and five opinions later I decided we'll never go to a "Cut Your Own" Christmas Tree farm again! Especially since we ended up with the wonkiest tree on the farm...I think by hour number 3 we were just desperate! |
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| Oh yeah, we lost water and the well guys came through deep snow to save us! Fascinating! Yet, expensive :( |
