Storms, Insomnia and Back to School!

Back to School
***********
This week was our first week back after Christmas. I started gently on Monday as it was Jack's birthday.{g} They just did Maths and reading. Day 2, they did Bible, Art Appreciation, Read Aloud, History and reading. Wednesday was our weekly Big Day of Sports. Thursday we did all of the above subjects but added in some science reading for Jack and language arts too. They also watched a schools tv show about Geography. Today we'll continue with that load. It takes them about 4 + hours to complete. They concentrate really well.

We start with time together on the sofa. We read from the Bible and discuss that. Then pray together. We are just starting 1 Samuel.

We are reading though some books about the Tudor period, trying to come to grips with all the political machinations and intrigue. I'm looking forward to taking them on some cool field trips this spring.

The Read Aloud is a book I pre-read last year and it's terrific. Stars of Fortune by Cynthia Harnett. Here's a pretty good review.
http://www.amandacraig.com/pages/childrens/reviews/stars_of_fortune.htm
The best thing about this exciting adventure is that it's all set in my area. The manor house is a short drive away and lots of local towns and villages are mentioned. I know the kids are going to enjoy the local aspect of the story. As this is about Princess Elizabeth as heroine, we'll also read A Traveller In Time by Alsion Uttley as it's about Mary Queen of Scots as the heroine. Just in the interests of Protestant/Catholic balance! {vbg}

We are using Sister Wendy's 1,000 Great Masterpieces and The Usborne Book of Art. The kids are choosing a painting a day to look at and discuss. So far we've studied The Ambassadors and a Monet. Jack has chosen Hockney's A Bigger Splash for today. In the past, we've studied art according to period, to link in with our history studies, but this time I thought I'd just leave it to them to choose.

They are both 'behind' their age-groups with Maths. We are using Singapore Maths. We've used about 5-6 Maths schemes before we settled on this one. Both are making good progress finally, but Jack much quicker than Grace. He should be back up to norm soon.

Science. We don't use a formal programme at the moment, but I just found this site, downloaded some experiments to do and Jack is excited about doing their awards programme, possibly roping in some friends:
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/YPP/index.html

Grace is starting to write to a pen-pal in NY state. She wrote a short email yesterday but it took over an hour. She enjoyed it though!

They are both working on spelling and paragraph construction for English right now.

For personal reading, Jack is reading How to Survive, by Brian Hildreth and Grace is reading The Secret of the Fourth Candle by Patricia St John, one of our favourite authors!

It's a good week so far!

Insomnia
*******
I've had this badly on and off since the children started sleeping through the night which is one of life's little bitter ironies. Who'd have thought, during the years I spent being woken by little ones, that I would spend years NOT being able to sleep due to no outside cause. Ugh. These days I figure that 4 hours asleep IS a 'whole night' and I can just function the next day. I need 5 though if I have to do any driving the next day. I don't 'feel' that I'd be bad at driving with only 4 hours but don't want to take the risk.

I've been pretty stressed and anxious lately which is driving the sleeplessness. Concerns about Grace, dealing with HER stress is stressful in itself, and the inevitable and never-ending money worries are the main causes. But I've also been having stiff, painful joints lately, which I'm putting down to my advancing years.{g} The joints seem to take it in turns. Right now it's my right hip and right index finger. My mouse finger!!! I'm assuming it's just the onset of osteo-arthritis as both my parents developed it about my age.

Storms
******
Another cause of my insomnia! {g} Boy, have we had some bad ones lately! This past week, it has felt as though the whole house is going to be blown away.

I was just dropping off to sleep the other night when I head a persistent dripping. I searched the house and couldn't find a cause, so woke Jamie to investigate the loft. Yup, water dripping into the loft insulation from a hole in the roof. We are now regularly changing buckets up there. It's coming from an area where the chimney stack is sitting in the roof. It must be that the storm tore away part of the flashing/roof tiles around the chimney stack. We can't do anything until the insurance assessor comes out to say it was definitely the 90 mph winds that did it or 'some other cause'. Well, you know insurance companies. Their goal is to NOT pay. No doubt they will just put it down to normal wear and tear and we will be left with a huge bill. {sigh}

I was a bit paranoid yesterday and sent Jack out to put bricks on the tops of all our garden stuff like the compost bin and recycling bins etc. I thought this best after I saw our neighbours' bins go rolling down the street.

Tessie, the cat, is NOT impressed with these winds and rain. She goes out the cat-flap in one side of the house, comes barrelling in miowing loudly that it's my fault and I should change the weather and then insists on going out the front door to see if it's any better out that side of the house.

She's always annoyed that it isn't. (She's not very bright, our cat!)