Weekly Wrap-Up 2/28-3/5

We have had another wonderful, relaxing week since we've switched over to the Charlotte Mason method.  Mostly, I'm not so stressed about lesson planning!  And one blog post a week is much more manageable.  I know that once Little Buddy is older and actually in elementary school, I'll have to do more lesson planning, but until then I'm going to enjoy my newfound freedom.


We have added some more things into our weekly routine.  One of these is our "Tea Time."  Tea time is at 3 o'clock, and for us consists of us getting out some glass(!) tea cups and drinking our preferred drink of choice.  Little Buddy usually drinks apple juice while mommy either has tea or coffee.  Button is usually asleep, but if awake he gets his own cup as well, but only water for the messy one!  Tea time also usually corresponds with my husband's mid-afternoon break, so he'll often join us for about ten minutes.  I also always have some yummy treat (usually cookies), and we read poetry.  We've been reading Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.  This has been a very special time for us this week.

As great as reading the poetry has been for us, we have still been having a difficult time finding a good time to do our Bible reading and devotions.  I think that beginning next week, we'll start reading our Bible during tea times and reading our poetry during bath times.  As odd as this timing may seem, it is actually very in line with Charlotte Mason's philosophy (see vol 1 pg 225).  We've been trying to read through the whole book, but I think I'll soon choose a few favorites to read over and over.

Little Buddy also started to teach himself to tell time this week.  Our big clock in the kitchen has Roman Numerals on it, but he just discovered that the analog clock in Button's room has numbers!  This has quite excited him, and he now runs in there occasionally to go see what numbers the hands are pointing at.  He can now tell what "o'clock" it is.  He hasn't yet learned skip counting by five's so we are still a ways away from being able to tell time completely, but it's fun to see his excitement.  We also have "Time" book with a clock in the back with moveable hands that he likes to play with now.  He likes to watch the clock and let me know when it is 3 so that we can have tea time (although I think all he really wants is the cookies!).


We are still enjoying reading our Beatrix Potter tales right before quiet time every day.  We love the special cuddle time, and it sets the mood for having quiet time or nap time right afterward.  He seems much more willing to go spend some time by himself since he's had some uninterrupted mommy time first.


Other fun things we did this week...


We tried really hard to get out of the house every day.  Our weather here has been crazy though.  The wind itself has brought sun, hail, sleet, and rain sometimes all in the course of ten minutes!  It seems as though by the time we get ourselves ready to go outside, the weather has changed and we don't want to risk it.  Despite this, we did make it to our "secret" park a couple of times this week.


There is this park not too far from our house that has an amazing open space, and no one seems to know about it.  I'm not even sure it comes up on google maps.  We discovered it by accident not long after we moved into our house. It has a large field, a creek running through it, a small pond and a few short trails.  There is even an ancient tractor that has a tree growing through it at the end of one of these trails.  We made it here both on Wednesday and on Saturday.

The creek

The field

Looking at the buds

The tractor with the tree growing through it.

The boys at the pond

 Also on Saturday, Little Buddy got to have special daddy time and they both went to the Dino Day at the Burke Museum.  Both boys have been really into dinosaurs every since we got Button some dinosaur puppets for Christmas.  Little Buddy's favorite is the Triceratops.  He got to see a real life Triceratops fossil, and even find a fossil for himself.  It was a very fun trip.

Chiseling the rock.  He got to take home the rock with a fossilized wood in it!

Finally, we are going to make more of an effort to make Sunday our day of rest.  We usually find ourselves so busy on the weekends that we don't get a chance to recharge.  Since Little Buddy doesn't usually nap during the week, we've decided to have him nap on Sundays just so we know he's fully caught up on sleep.  Plus, it gives mommy and daddy a chance to have some much needed quiet time as well.  Not to mention, it's biblical!  Such a nice way to end our week and begin our next!