Week in Review: October 13-17

I could tell you this week was so much better than last week...but I'll go ahead and be truthful. Honestly, the temptation is there to gloss over it, but seriously, this week was worse than last. At least I can pinpoint the reasons why and I have a plan in place for next week.

First, let me share why things fell apart once again, because I'm one to spend a lot of time analyzing the why of everything. The week why was easy: Daddy wasn't around. We are incredibly blessed that my husband's schedule allows us a lot of time together as a family and that he is an incredibly involved daddy! This week he attended a conference for our denomination (The Christian and Missionary Alliance) which was just a short distance away. That meant he was here, but only early in the morning and late at night. This seemed to totally throw them off emotionally. We did get to celebrate with him on Tuesday as he was recognized for 15 years in the ministry and that was fun. (The quality is horrid {translate via iPad} because I forgot my camera at home!!!!)

Since this was during a business meeting the girls did quite a bit of schoolwork during the meeting which was great, but that didn't involve any of our Heart of Dakota history stuff because that definitely wouldn't have worked! They quietly did history, math, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and probably a few things I'm forgetting. Then Daddy took us to a nice restaurant and things fell apart! I won't go into details, but I'll just say it wasn't pretty and I was never so glad to be leaving an eatery.

So, after that, here are just a few pictures of what happened the rest of the week...it isn't very exciting, but we made it through! Read through to the end to read my game plan for next week...

Grace: Preschool

A blog about how I do reading is going to be in the works soon because I get asked about it a lot. My girls are all three reading well above grade-level and I am blessed that we are not faced with many of the reading challenges I know so many struggle through. Grace is blowing me away with her reading. She is becoming more and more expressive and has even started changing voices for characters at times! She asked me on this particular morning if she could read to her polar bear instead of me which I thought it was just fine.

Just about the only other thing we did was her Rod and Staff E book. She did tons of pages in this. I usually restrict her to 3 a day, but since everything else was crazy if she asked to do more I said, "Sure!" The look on her face each time was priceless and I'm wondering if I should restrict her at all?

We did a little math, but not much to speak of and she'll be moving out of those books really soon.

Beth and Rose: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 7 and Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 25

I know this is totally not Heart of Dakota or Charlotte Mason-y, but we did almost all the history on one day this week. Don't tell on me! Because of our crazy week I was okay with stalling some on other subjects, but really didn't want to get behind in history. We mostly read and did oral narration this week. I'll admit we skipped out on Bible, poetry, and all of the history activities. Those are really some of my favorite parts, but I feel okay about it because I'm not behind. 

We did get through the weekly vocabulary and I'm very pleased with both girls' effort on this. I'm still helping Beth quite a bit with looking things up and I did the same for Rose this week since they were doing it simultaneously with only one dictionary.

This is a really fun picture of how school looks sometimes...underneath a table! Our L-shaped school desks often get sat underneath instead of at because the girls just want a change. If no one else is in the room Rose will quietly slip under the table without my even noticing sometimes.

The End of the Week...

The end of the week was quite sweet. On Fridays I teach piano lessons to three sisters very close in age to my own girls. They have become close friends over the last few years and my girls look forward to Fridays and their time together. They get along so well and we are so blessed to have them in our lives! For movie night the girls watched one of my childhood favorites, Muppet Babies, on YouTube and enjoyed a pizza.

Next Week's Plan...

So, my plan for next week...prayer. Now before you tune out because it is what you always hear, just give me a minute. I have always, always, struggled to maintain a consistent time with God alone. While I'm striving to do better this year, I'm still not doing great, and although I should fall to my knees when my plans fall apart, I didn't do that once this past week. I didn't respond well at all and had a hard time regaining my own composure. When this is true, how in the world can I expect my girls to regain theirs? When my own temper flairs, my words to them to control their emotions mean nothing.

I've decided to take the advice I've given my girls. They have each committed their hearts and lives to Christ meaning the Holy Spirit is there to help them when it gets hard to live in a Christ-like way. I have encouraged them repeatedly to seek the Holy Spirit's help to them stay calm, respond appropriately, and think of others first. Good advice right? I think perhaps if I had followed this advice myself we would have had a better week.

So next week will be a new week. In the midst of world-wide turmoil and fear abounding, we will have peace. We will have joy. We will have love. When learning happens in the process, that will just be the icing on the cake.