Thursday?!?!

This week has alternately flown by and dragged.  I don't know which one is better, but whatever the case, that's how this week has gone.

I am forever grateful to my sweet friend, Aimee, for picking up the boys from the middle school (plus one that carpools with us) today and tomorrow.  Jonah, Noah and I have not been able to get our work done by two-twenty everyday, which is the time we have to stop and leave to head to the car line.  She very graciously offered to pick up these two days in a row for us.  I am so thankful! 

So, guess what?! 

We were able to finish right before three!  You have no idea what a huge accomplishment this feels like. 

I think I had this romantic idea of what home-schooling would look like: later, lazy mornings, lots of breaks, lots of laughing, lots of them learning independently, lots of free time for me, you get my drift.  

That dream abruptly ended this week (last week?), when I realized that it's not AT ALL like that.  We have worked our tails off all week, and I am never far from them.  The bad side is that my house is a semi-wreck.  The good side is that we are definitely getting some good, quality time in. 

I'm noticing things about them that I don't know if I've ever noticed before.  Like the fact that Noah is hilarious.  But when the older boys are around, you would never know it.  He is definitely shining like the star he is during our school time.  And Jonah is an amazing reader.  He is beautifully fluent when he reads Bible verses in the morning.  I pray that through this decision to have school at home, they grow into the confident personalities I see coming out. 

So, I'm not saying that it's been a bad week, but it has definitely been a different week.  Some days will go really well, other days might not go at all (our Monday).  And some days we might finish early, but some days we might not finish until right before bedtime.  (Because I'm allowing them time outside to be children.)

I'll take what I can get when I can get it.  I'll take today's little moment of happiness and hold it close in the rougher days ahead. 

Until then, I thought I would share some pics for my non-Facebook peeps, AHEM, Big Daddy. 

 In science we're talking about environments and ecosystems.  Part of what we did today talked about food chains and food pyramids, and they had to make their own food chain out of some cards they had to cut out.  They're so proud of their work that they're planning on hanging them on their bedroom door.

 In the "beyond the lesson" segment of today's science, we were challenged to get an anole (do you know what that is?) and make a vivarium for it.  (I feel so smart just saying those words!)  Todd is currently at Pet Smart checking into it all as I write this. 

 I think this was Wednesday.  I don't know...all the days are running together.  But poor Noah was freezing, and it wasn't even all that cold in here!  For once.  ;-)  In this picture, we were doing literature.

That's what we've been doing.  Tomorrow might be a different kind of day for us...I'll have to wait and see, and I'll post about what we ended up doing.  Oh, and an anole is a lizard.  Yikes.  Yup.  We're seriously considering it.

Love to all!

And I just noticed our food chains are backwards.  Dang it.  Oh well, they got the point.  HA!