October Times

Katherine has been getting into her new regime with schooling. We have decided to have a basket full of school related items with workbooks and expect one page to get done each day. I don't think we are asking a lot, but oh BOY, we have been so relaxed about things that, even being warned of our start day, she fell apart at the prospect of doing it! We may be relaxed, but it isn't as if she never does anything, we have just simply never asked for anything particular from her. She draws and makes up stories, makes her own food, paints, crafts and other projects, LOVES being read to, astronomy, field trips to the zoo and other places, and so on and so forth, but to call it work is almost offensive to her. Ha ha! I find it downright hilarious that she does so much stuff all the time, yet she doesn't want it to be called 'work', or to have anything expected of her. This is where her orange streak plays through her blue (you color people know what I am talking about here). What a kid!

After a couple of weeks of no t.v. for her and getting into a routine, she is seeing that it really isn't that much different, just a bit more structured and visibly so. We have things printed off of Paidea Classics for copywork, Usborne workbooks, pens, pencils, stickers for encouragement, and a few other things in the basket. We got this put together primarily because my darling has an obvious orange streak and we wouldn't otherwise be able to find any of these things if they weren't given a home. She does quite well with the copywork and I think her success is related to my reading aloud to her whatever her little heart desires as she plugs away at her task. She gets what she wants and so do I! She is an auditory learner and is quite visual spacial, so it comes in handy that I rather like to read and I can empathize with her since we are incredibly alike. Her interests are as varied and lovely as the stars. She enjoys such a vast scope of wonderful things that it is sometimes hard to imagine her trying to narrow any of this down to fit a career. I suppose she will have to become a homeschool mom just to stay in touch with all of her loves ;o)

We have begun sewing! It is one of the things that I am hoping to help her grown, since it has proved to be her one true love in crafts. One of the things that I adore about being a homeschool mom is learning all of these nuances about my daughter and how her heart grows just a little bit more as she grows into herself and finds her way through this world in such an unabashed manner. Anyway, we have some projects on deck and we are looking forward to getting ontop of them. We are beginning to stash things up as material and patterns have been on sale recently. One of the first things to make is a reusable shopping bag out of a pink floral print cotton she chose. Another is a coat for her that also has a matching jumper. I have a pattern to make some warm fuzzy jammies for Jay. We will see how we do on some of these projects, though I am sure t would help if I would be in full health so as to have the energy, so we shall see.

I am also knitting as much as I can, hoping to finish some things. I am currently working on a pair of felted slip-on slippers for Jay and I hope they turn out, they are my first pair. I have been making hand warmers and I need to make some everyday use ones for myself. I made a pair for each Jay and Katherine and they wear them quite regularly, so I am happy. Jay wasn't quite sure what use they would be, but he soon found out how nice they are to wear and hardly goes out in the crisp of fall without them. These were my first pattern that I put together myself and developed with what I knew about what I was doing and they turned out great! Yay!

Well, I think that is all for now, I had better scoot!