Back in the Groove

This morning's lessons went really well.  Amazingly, we accomplished breakfast and our morning chores before starting lessons right on time at 10:00 a.m.  This is how the morning went:

Wake up
Breakfast
Morning Chores (including getting dressed and brushing teeth)
Assigned Reading (our Newberry Honor book this month is Justin Morgan Had a Horse)
Daily Grammar
Life of Fred Math
Technology (using iPads as slates)
Main Lesson: Mesopotamia/ Gilgamesh (today was an intake day)
Spelling City

We had lunch with Papa, then quiet time.  The boys did a couple more chores and then watched an episode of Cyberchase.  They played outside for awhile and just finished playing video games on the iPads.  They each have the opportunity to earn 30 minutes of game time based on their chores the day before.  So far this really works for us; chores get done, video games are allowed (a big thing for them at ages 12 and nearly 11), and the video game time is limited (still a big thing for me).

Monday is my kitchen day: I have chicken stock simmering on the stove, a crock pot full of pinto beans that will be tonight's dinner (and also will be part of two more lunch/dinner meals), a small loaf of artisan bread cooling (the last of the dough I made last Monday), I mixed up a double batch of artisan dough and now have a larger loaf doing a second rise.  Looking at the granola jar there isn't enough for the week, so I will get started on a batch of that as soon as I finish baking the bigger loaf of bread for sandwiches.

Staying home on Monday has always been important to us in terms of regrouping after the weekend and getting a good start to the week, and I can't say that I am disappointed that the park day switch to Monday didn't work out for the group.  I would have made it work so that we could see our friends, but being home on Monday is so much better for us.  A good Monday sets the tone for a good week.

T-Guy has baseball practice this evening, and I think J-Baby and I will work on paper crafting his robot character, Little Johnny.  J-Baby loves crafts and is often bored when T-Guy is gone, and he really enjoys having some alone time crafting with me.  We bought some silver metallic paper that he has been wanting to use.

Later this evening they will have a science lesson with Papa.  When we are in a focused lesson cycle we try to hit the main four subject areas (Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies/History, and Science) each weekday and then have weekly lessons in Technology, Spanish, Health, Physical Education (along with daily activity), Music, and Art.

Tomorrow I will list some of our resources for our Mesopotamia/Gilgamesh block.