Dark is the Stain...

School

I appreciate the extended school break to evaluate the past term, the flow of our days, and to re-prioritize material.

This second term, for the first time ever, I'm using a strategy I've heard other moms do called "Looping." I want to cover so many great things, but it's overwhelming and impossible to try and cover everything to the extent we may want! But I can help touch on things I feel are important and rich for us in this season if we loop.

The idea of "Looping" is simply taking turns with the non-essential subjects each day, rather than trying to follow a strict, Monday-we-do-this, Tuesday-we-do-that schedule. Instead, simply take turns doing one activity each day, regardless of the day of the week. Sounds novel doesn't it? In this way, if we miss a day we just pick up next subject in turn, rather than feel like we have to catch up somehow.

Individually the kids will "loop" things like typing lessons, Reading Eggs, Sketch-up activities, and World Kids for our current events studies.

Together, we will loop through activities like, picturebook storytime, poetry, music/art appreciation, and missionary stories.

• Picture book story time is something that has been kind of lost in our day-to-day with the kids getting older. I want my youngest, who is only in first grade, to also reap the benefits and have memories of good picture books being read to him. Keeping it on my "to do" helps it not get forgotten so easily.
• Poetry is something we have always enjoyed together. Now that everyone is reading, all of the kids like choosing poems or nursery rhymes to share as a group activity.
• Music/Art Appreciation in our home is not as complicated as it sounds. We have collected some beautiful children's art books over the years that have thought-provoking observation questions. As for music, it's important to me to expose the kids to orchestral classical music (and all types of genres), and to hear short biographies of composers.
• Missionary Stories are also a rich source of life lessons, cultural information, and developing a heart for the lost and an appreciation for people who have risked much for God's calling.

With this "looping" strategy, we can touch all of these areas every week, or at least every two weeks.

In the Life

This past week Cyclone Ava made landfall on the eastern side of Madagascar from the Indian Ocean. We experienced a lot of rain in the city, and high winds at times. And of course, some power outages.

For us, who live in the city, on the high plateau more in the center of the island, cyclones on the coast bring gray gloomy days. Reminiscent of endless rainy days in BC.... how did we survive that? It's amazing what you can get used to.. both ways, right? The kids were asking me all weekend, "When is this rain going to end?"

When we woke up on Sunday morning, and the rain was still coming down in buckets, none of us felt like venturing out to church. When the kids asked if we would go, we said, "Of course! If we let rain stop us in BC, we would never go."   :)

On My Side Table

These two books aren't technically on my side table anymore, as I finished each of them in a day. I couldn't put Wonder down last Saturday, it was that good, and we will definitely see the movie that just came out in November. And I really liked the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, so I thought I'd try out another book by the same author. This was historical fiction about how the Mona Lisa came to be painted by Leonardo da Vinci. It was also very interesting and a fun little middle-grade novel I read on Sunday afternoon.