Older Kindergarten Week #5 Monday

Well, we are back in the saddle! A weekend ago we went to Leavenworth Washington to enjoy the fall leaves turning. It was really wonderful. We hiked on the Iron Goat trail on the way over. We walked along the Wenatchee River and watched the salmon spawning. This year Oma took us on a horse and carriage ride. With the excitement and the noise of sharing a hotel room, no one gets much sleep, so we took last week off from homeschooling.

Meanwhile, this week we are still increasing on our Michaelmas circle. Baby is almost 2.5 years old and really wants to be down for our morning walk, and since he is slower, Brother and I are going to march in place to keep our heart rate up when we are waiting for Baby. I'm trying to continue to find ways to strengthen Brothers core.

For Story we are reading the Enki Folk tale "The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin." Brother likes it because it has a pumpkin and is a little scary in honor of halloween.

This weekend when walking under the Oak Trees we found many, many acorns. The West Wind has been ripping through our yard for about the last week. So, we are also reading Enki story "The Gift Of The Might Oak" for our nature study. Brother was a little afraid of the West Wind, but over all he enjoyed the story.

Craft today was baking, so we made muffins. Today's challenge is that Baby skipped his nap, so we laid down together for 20 minutes and then we came downstairs and Baby played alone in the rec room for the rest of the hour or so. Brother stayed up in his room. This unfortunately means I missed my meditation.

Another big change is that we put a bed for Baby in the kid's bedroom. Until now we have all essentially all been sleeping in the adults bedroom. Sure, we put Brother in his own bed at night, but he moves back in with us around 2pm when he wakes up the first time. We need more sleep! So, I am trying to teach the kids to sleep in the kid's room. We have a double bed on the lower bunk, so I am hoping that eventually Brother and Baby will just snuggle together instead of coming in with us. Meanwhile, I am sleeping in the kid's room for now so that Daddy can get a full night's uninterrupted sleep. He is working almost all the time and needs quality sleep to maintain focus. Wish us luck!