7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 10)

1
Michelangelo has started reading Redwall! As Michelangelo was a later reader, who had long periods of plateauing, and who has only consistently read from about three months ago at age 9.5, it is still a pleasure when I see him reading.
As I walked through our house late last night and found all five older children reading in their beds I reflected what a ‘reading family’ we are. Our children are surrounded by books, thousands of books, our education approach is heavily literature based, our conversations are often literature related, the joy of the written word is contagious.
Whilst on the subject of reading, I must admit that for the first time in eleven years I do not have a beginner reader. Jelly Bean is learning her sounds that is true, but as she is only 4, it feels different. After having Michelangelo taking so long to love reading, and having two beginners for the last two years I am loving this hiatus. Don’t misunderstand me, I love teaching my children to read, it is one of my special joys, but I am enjoying this season too.

2
Remember my Creating Peace From Chaos post? Well for anyone who is wondering how it is going, for the sake of honesty I have to admit to some hiccups.
After a couple of weeks the novelty wore off and…. ‘teachers’ went on strike and ‘students’ staged ‘sit outs’. We struggled along with said ‘students’ picking and choosing when and who, but… For the sake of harmony I ‘recruited’ some older ‘teachers’ as well and we are now able to think again. The best mornings are when the littles have half an hour before lessons with mum sharing picture books. They need ‘mum time’ too. It helps that they now have all time accounted for up until 12pm. Thought you’d enjoy a picture of a ‘Commando’ exercise, mind you ‘The Commando’ is getting the workout here.

3
Jessica’s Garden of the Good Shepherd post inspired me that much that I inquired of Liturgy Training Publications and found postage was very reasonable($8!) so I placed an order. Imagine our surprise when it arrived only 5 days later!

4
When the cattle were shipped off a few weeks back one lone cow and calf were left. They simply couldn’t get that cow yarded. Today the cow and calf got out, the children and I went to bring them back in. As they bought the cow up Einstein and I were in position to herd her in the gate, would you believe that crazy cow charged both of us! Finally when she was in, via another gate, Koala was herding her out of the back garden when she charged Koala. That is one crazy cow.
Well a very sad fact hit me during all this, it hit precisely when I was doing a 200metre sprint up the hill to be in position. I am seriously out of condition.

5
We managed to do our first Catechesis of the Good Shepherd presentation in a long time. We used Moira Farrell’s Home Catechesis Manuals. The children were very eager. Jennifer has some lovely, inspirational posts on presentations at home. I’ve been seriously fantasizing about undergoing some training.

6
I have finally finished knitting Jem’s nappy cover!:) I promise pictures and details in the next day or so. I’m so excited.

7
Gae’s post ‘Over the Fence’ has me thinking. From time to time blog writers ponder the pros and cons of online friendships, and they are worthy considerations; however Gae writes as someone who is truly isolated from any ‘in real life’ friends, with no support network, interstate from family support, even her and I have only met twice. She share what the blogging world can really mean for our isolated sisters. Very thought provoking.

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