Quiet Rhythm

Doug's school was out last Friday for Teacher Development Day and out Monday for Martin Luther King Day and out today (Tuesday) for a snow day. So, all three kids have been home together for the past five days. It has been really nice. Surprisingly, we have passed our days in a quiet, relaxing rhythm. All three kids have been getting along so well with each other and enjoying each other's company...and they have been unusually calm and peaceful. It has been so nice. I'm just not used to my three all being so mellow and quiet. Doug and Rayna were inspired to dance together yesterday, but even that didn't develop into the free-for-all knock-about-throw-down-event that their dancing together so often degenerates into.

I think part of what has helped is that the four of us (poor Grant still has to go to work) have been sleeping in every morning. The kids awaken before I do, but they play quietly in their own rooms until they hear me up and about. Then, they have still been going to bed at their normal bedtime...so, everyone has been getting a lot more sleep than usual. Another difference, is that since the roads have been icy and treacherous, I haven't driven anywhere since last Thursday (except for to and from work last Saturday). Even church was cancelled Sunday morning and evening. We haven't been "on the go" at all. It has been so nice. The kids have just been so much more relaxed and CALM than I am used to them being. Hmmmm......

Homeschooling has continued...though at a much slower pace than usual. Darcy is of the opinion that if her brother is off from school, she surely should be, too! Still, we have done some school each day and math every day. (Having learned in the past that other subjects can be caught up quickly if we fall behind, but MATH is the bane of Darcy's existance and cannot be caught up easily if we get behind in it.) Darcy has been getting 100% on her math pages for the last week...totally unheard of. Though she has a high aptitude for math, she has such a mental bias against it that she doesn't put the effort into it that she should. (At the end of her third grade year we decided to change curriculum from Switched On Schoolhouse to Sonlight. I knew that Saxon third grade math was more advanced than Switched on Schoolhouse's third grade math had been so I was seriously contemplating starting her in third grade Saxon math rather than fourth. I gave her the placement test that Saxon recommends and to my shock, she tested out as being ready for SIXTH grade level. I ordered fourth grade for her that year and she struggled through it. When it is a TEST, she flies through with ease, but, when it is her daily assignments, she struggles along...fuming all the way about how much she hates math...and generally doing rather poorly.)) This week, though, she hasn't been making the careless mistakes and she has begun taking pride in her daily math work. It is a nice change!

I have been doing more school work with Doug these past five days than I normally do...since the public school he normally attends hasn't been in session. We have been focusing on his math facts and he has mastered all the double facts 0-9 just since Friday. That is astonishing from him. He just is REMEMBERING and focusing so much more clearly recently than I have ever seen him able to do before. The difference between now and a year and a half ago is profound. He really has made a LOT of progress.