Sometimes my cleaning is productive.

I came across some little paper books from when my kids first learned to read and some sight word sheets.  Thanny has tinkered with letters and sounds so I figured I'd toss 'em his way and see what was what. 

Fifteen minutes later he read his first book.

He was so proud.

I was proud.

His siblings were proud.

His father was proud (he called him on the phone and read it, cause he was away making a deck.)

I had to take a few shots of the proud.

Besides...it maybe years before he picks up a second book. 

He's kinda like me that way.

'Preciate your sympathies.  :)

If You Were

(an old but dear-to-me picture; the boys were cheering up a sulking sister with dandelions)

We had our first official poetry reading for "tea-time Thursday" today.  I got the idea from Bravewriter, I just love her stuff.   The way we're supposed to do it is with our best china (don't have any, whoops we're ruined!), tea (lemonade or milk for us), and cookies (no problem here).  Then, in a nutshell,  you snack while reading / sharing poetry. 

Cherith shared a poem from my new favorite book, The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett:

"If You Were"

If you were busy being kind,
Before you knew it, you would find
You'd soon forget to think 'twas true
That someone was unkind to you.

If you were busy being glad,
And cheering people who are sad,
Although your heart might ache a bit,
You'd soon forget to notice it.

If you were busy being good,
And doing just the best you could,
You'd not have time to blame some man
Who's doing just the best he can.

If you were busy being right,
You'd find yourself too busy quite
To criticize your neighbor long
Because he's busy being wrong.

It was the highlight of our tea-time that isn't really tea time.  The kids decided they wanted to memorize it.   I'm thinking about trying to live it.  ;)

*milk cheers*

Copywork and Observational Drawing

Two of my favorite homeschool activities: copywork and observational drawing. I think they're pretty self-explanatory.  Copywork is simply copying good writing taking special note of spelling, puncuation, and handwriting.  Observational drawing is observing for detail and drawing what you observe.  I think they teach much more than art and cheating copying.  =)

They help me to slow down and notice things I might not in an otherwise busy day.  They encourage (I hope) one (my kids!) to focus and study the creations around them as well as the way our language comes together to form its own kind of beauty.

This is mine from last night.  I encourage the kids to spend at least 10-15 minutes on their drawing.  I did mine at midnight.  Can you tell where I started falling asleep and stopped paying attention to detail?  The kids asked me today, "Oh, you just let Rachel scribble on that part?" 

Uh...no.

: /