Update

All three boys are asleep, a rarity these days.  This bronchial virus has laid them all pretty low.  It is amazing how much they are still coughing.  This is the first day Diego has been able to talk above a whisper since last Thursday.  Friday?  I can't remember.

I am so unused to posting more than once every week or that I don't even know where to start.  It feels like a big job, piecing a post together.  My mind is so full with "just life" -- daily activities, schooling, survival, making sure we are fed and clean, etc. -- that I don't have much time to think about much else.

I've been wondering about things a lot recently, feeling like I had "so much more time" in the past to commit to reading or outside interests.  But now?  I just can't.  There are too many demands on me.  It is hard.

And we are adding another baby to this mix.  Ha!  As if I feel sparse on personal time now . . . and then I'll be starting this whole process over again this spring?  Wow.

I am currently 22 weeks.  I feel the baby moving every day, with all kinds of kicks and rolls and head-butts.  It is an active little thing.  It seems like I didn't feel as strong or specific movements at this point in past pregnancies, but I don't know that for sure.  I am more experienced, so I know what I'm feeling . . . but it just seems different.  I need to compare notes with friends.

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Our little homeschool is coming along nicely.  I am slowly implementing more of a routine, which helps me to feel like we are staying on track.  I finally made a Morning Board, using MamaJenn's work of art as my inspiration.  I am pleased with the end-result (and I'll have to post a picture at some point, though Jamie has already mangled some of its components, the little rascal).

We keep track of the calendar, our days in school, the weather, shapes, and recite our monthly poem each morning before breakfast.  I am working towards building an understanding for the days, weeks, months.  I was getting tired of their lack of knowledge in this dept. as well as their inability to tell time, so I am organizing it into our day.  There is no point in spinning my wheels any longer, or just assuming they'll "catch on".  It is time to teach it.  Measuring time by Mr. Bean episode lengths has been helpful, but I've had enough.

I am generally following the Ambleside Online (AO) schedule for Year 1.  I chose not to include some of the books; but for the most part, I am following their weekly schedule.  Some of the selections are too hard to source through the library, I didn't like them, and/or I didn't want to buy them; nor do we have an ipad or Kindle to read them as e-books.

I am also more interested in following a classical approach to studying history, with the four-year rotation of studying Ancient History, Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation, and Modern Times.  AO Year 1 starts with the history of the UK, which is interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind.  That being said, we are listening to An Island Story by H.E. Marshall via LibriVox and haven't started in on any other history other than biographies, though I am starting to think about incorporating it this spring.

Ideally, I would like to get all our schoolwork done in the mornings while we are all fresh, but reading aloud has been relegated to Jamie's afternoon nap.  Reading aloud with him in the room (unless I am specifically reading to him) is all but impossible.  He is very demanding and will insist on turning the pages or try to grab at the book to close and put it away.  Or he hollers and insists that I pay attention to whatever he is doing.

We are also working on beginning reading with the chalkboard: identifying letters, letter sounds, sounding words out.  I am taking it slow and steady.

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This post was interrupted well over an hour ago and I'd better post it now or it will reside permanently in my Drafts folder.

Adieu.