Tink Speaks Out on Democracy

I didn't have any students today so I spent the day cleaning and and doing laundry. Ironing always takes up a good portion of the day, The afternoon is fast sliding into evening. I have about half an hour here where I can sit down and write, after that I will have to go pick up Peter from the bus and then it's dinner and family time. Tink is finishing up her History then she too is done for the day.

I'm a dreamer. I spend half my time dreaming and planning for the future or for the next season. This makes me restless. I have a habit of being restless come springtime. It could be that here in Oregon the spring is not much different than the winter. Things blossom and the leaves come in but the rain continues; this is the same rain that began last October. It wont quit until July either. This is what living in the Pacific Northwest is all about. You grow moss on your back and webs between your toes and when the sun finally does come out you blink in the brightness and hide your eyes like a mole coming up from his tunnels beneath the ground.

Well, its long enough now. I'm ready for sunshine and roses. Today I helped Peter plant sunflower seeds and put them on the windowsill to sprout. When I was going out side for potting soil I found myself stooping to pull weeds from under my arbor. The ground is mucky and soggy and weed pulling is not in the cards right now. But I'm dying to get things straightened out in the yards.

This past weekend we went as a family to Ikea. They have these huge umbrellas that cover a deck. Our deck is quite large but we measured and if we buy two of them we can shade the entire thing. Hubby is going to drill holes in the wood floor to slide the umbrellas in but first we have to remove a few slats and make a concrete hole for each one. I just want to get on with it. Im so tired of the rain.

I do have to tell you something funny. Tink did not want to go to Ikea with us because she gets so deathly car sick when we go places. She begged me to stay home with her. I really didn't feel like going either but I explained to her that Daddy doesn't get to spend time with us during the week so he wants to do things together as a family on the weekends.

Well she begged and begged. I was only half paying attention to her when I heard her say, "But mom, we have liberty and we need to practice our rights!" This little girl of mine is growing up! I couldn't believe it when she said that! Liberty. Rights. What does she know about this stuff? I keep forgetting that Tink is changing and is no longer a little girl but a budding little women. Oh the work that needs done with that little girl! Thankfully I can see huge changes in her for the good lately.

I can go days and weeks without watching TV, but for some reason lately, I blame it on restlessness, I have been tuning into the Learning Channel in the evenings. I'm always looking for shows with Jon and Kate. I absolutely love that show. Last night I watched four of them back to back. I think its the way Kate juggles it all that draws me to the show. I love to see how ordered her home is and how she takes things in stride. When I'm too tired to do my own things I just watch Kate go to work.

A lot of the homeschoolers are posting their children's day and weekly assignments. I just noticed that here beside me is Tinks index card with her lessons on it for today. How convenient. Are you interested in what Tink does for a work load? I will give you her assignment that is written on the card and an explanation I have added for my readers in italics.

Letters and Sounds pgs 117-120 (work on blends, rhyming, use of g or edg, root words and word meanings

Math Lesson 82; write whether the shapes are solids or planes, find equivalent fractions, find products, round to the nearest hundred, do work on < or >, find the difference, do story problems

History; Read Daniel Boone sections "Daniel Boones Family" and "The French and Indian War", answer the questions on page 114 and 115

Read aloud to me from Golden Threads

Do Reading Skill Sheet from Scholastic pg 63 find main idea, word meanings and inferences

Do Patterns from Scholastic pg 331 fill in missing blanks in pansy patterns

Do Scholastic worksheet on Ordered Pairs pg 332 using coordinates to identify points on a graph

Language Arts pgs 126,127 working on subject and predicate

Practice Violin

At days end Tink had it all done but the Ordered Pairs. This is typical of the work she does each day. I would love to give her more but she takes all day to do just this!

Okay, I'm done talking. Now you can talk.