7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 168)

1
We’ve enjoyed a relaxing holiday, staying mostly at home, taking it easy.  Our pool has been reclaimed, the children have been spending hours swimming each day.  They’re refreshed, I’m refreshed, looking forward to a promising term of learning come Tuesday.

2
Einstein flew down to the Big Smoke on Wednesday, he was very, very excited.  His first time on a plane and a whole week and a half with his older siblings.  They have lots of plans and exciting events organised.  So very happy to imagine our three older ones together, enjoying each others company.

3
We have been fans of Singapore Maths for over ten years now, but we’re seriously considering switching to another maths program for a couple of reasons and the one I’m drawn to the most thus far is MEP.   My friend Jeanne has long been a fan, she is very convincing.

4
I’m also planning on fostering a love of maths with living books including printing some google books, thanks to Willa and Ruth’s recommendations I’ve downloaded First Year in Number and First Lessons in Numbers.  As well as a couple of girls who need to be introduced to the beauty of maths, I have a couple of boys whose mathematical thinking far outstrips their ability to read and write, hoping these books will help with all needs.


5
Cindy is currently sharing a series of posts on Morning Time and I find so much wisdom and experience that resonates with me.

…we just kept plodding along all of these years until one day I realized, because the children started telling me, that  Morning Time was where most of the learning took place during their childhoods. 

In all my years of homeschooling, I only quit having  Morning Time once. …To this day, in spite of the many very bad academic years of school, the only real regret I have is the year without  Morning Time.


I realised this week whilst reading Cindy’s Morning Time posts why they resonated so much with me, that’s what we used to do!  Back in the early years, when we had four, five, six children we enjoyed Morning Time daily, though we didn’t have a name for what we did, we just gathered for prayers and a liturgy time, followed by catechism, then Saints reading, poetry and our daily read aloud.  Our Morning Time was lost when we moved out here onto our property, we had baby number seven, I suffered through a burnout year, followed by recovery years and I’ve been missing and mourning these years since.  I do regret losing our Morning Time, it’s time to reclaim what was lost!:):)

6
In a ‘spirit’ of minimising my sidebars I removed my diigo shared list.  I really enjoy reading the shared items on other blogs and would like to add mine back on, but I can’t recall how to do it.  Anyone know?

7
Planning on enjoying the summer season, we haven’t signed up for swimming lessons, though I did toy with the idea of tennis or Little Athletics, but thinking probably not.  Envisaging instead lazy afternoons at home, enjoying our own pool.  Sounds good:)

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