One of the joys of home educating is the freedom it gives the children to express an interest in a topic and explore it either in depth or at a leisurely pace.
Obviously, English as a Second Language has been the primary course of study for Me, L, and Ed. Ed has taken an interest in repeating phrases to practice her English speaking skills. Today's phrase (spoken slowly and deliberately with heavy accent, repeated dozens of times):
"She.. is.. peeking.. her.. nose."
Followed by lines from a Little House on the Prairie episode:
"Dat man loves me... And I am talking to de cat!"
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
St. Nick
While E is trying to get some decent photos of the fireplace hearth adorned with nine shoes filled with carrots, I thought I'd jot a quick note with our Sinterklaas Day greetings.
Our day was full of preparations for the Christmas tree, including the normal things like moving furniture and cleaning up the inch of dust from the window sills in the newly vacant spot.
It also included the unexpected ~ cleaning up dog puke from the living room carpet first thing in the morning and, due to the horrified feeling that we couldn't possibly get it clean enough, shampooing a large section of the 'did we miss a speck of it' carpet. The bonus surprise ~ dog poop in the shower! At least Pups was discreet.
Add in the "I brought this upon myself" chore of cooking an entire meal for 40 people. Cooking in advance, really... we're feeding the college students at church tomorrow. Two huge vats of soup and 12 loaves of homemade bread later, I ponder the strong possibility of bad weather = low turnout.
To fully picture all of this, you need to imagine the hum of nine children in the background. The hum occasionally flames into an uproar as drama develops - yet another bicker-fest, or pesky brother incident. Even in the "quiet" moments, the hum is punctuated by L's high activity, high volume voice or I and B's rough and tumble tackle play.
But finally, the tree is up! It's not your normal, run of the mill tree. Rather, it was cut by the men of the family - Berny, I, and B - from our friend's new farm. It won't be necessary to run the humidifier for the next couple of days, due to the 2+ inches of snow clinging to the tree's branches when it entered. Within a few minutes, we had rainfall under the tree. I'm sure the tree skirt (fancy name for the old tablecloth I hastily plopped on the floor) and carpet will eventually dry.
Berny is filling shoes with goodies now, so I think I'll go join him and scout out some odd count chocolates to eat.
Happy SinterKlaas Day!
Our day was full of preparations for the Christmas tree, including the normal things like moving furniture and cleaning up the inch of dust from the window sills in the newly vacant spot.
It also included the unexpected ~ cleaning up dog puke from the living room carpet first thing in the morning and, due to the horrified feeling that we couldn't possibly get it clean enough, shampooing a large section of the 'did we miss a speck of it' carpet. The bonus surprise ~ dog poop in the shower! At least Pups was discreet.
Add in the "I brought this upon myself" chore of cooking an entire meal for 40 people. Cooking in advance, really... we're feeding the college students at church tomorrow. Two huge vats of soup and 12 loaves of homemade bread later, I ponder the strong possibility of bad weather = low turnout.
To fully picture all of this, you need to imagine the hum of nine children in the background. The hum occasionally flames into an uproar as drama develops - yet another bicker-fest, or pesky brother incident. Even in the "quiet" moments, the hum is punctuated by L's high activity, high volume voice or I and B's rough and tumble tackle play.
But finally, the tree is up! It's not your normal, run of the mill tree. Rather, it was cut by the men of the family - Berny, I, and B - from our friend's new farm. It won't be necessary to run the humidifier for the next couple of days, due to the 2+ inches of snow clinging to the tree's branches when it entered. Within a few minutes, we had rainfall under the tree. I'm sure the tree skirt (fancy name for the old tablecloth I hastily plopped on the floor) and carpet will eventually dry.
Berny is filling shoes with goodies now, so I think I'll go join him and scout out some odd count chocolates to eat.
Happy SinterKlaas Day!
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