Mr. Perfect Robinson

Well, we gave up on Swiss Family Robinson about 1/3 of the way through. When we all started hoping that the hero would get attacked by a wild animal, it seemed better to take the higher path and just quit reading it. If I had to suffer through one more amazing stroke of luck or McGyver-type invention that Mr. Robinson was praying would work, though never so bold as to believe it would, and then have it work better than he ever imagined, and in fact turn out to be a perfect coconut picking device as well as building crane or whatever, I think I would have thrown the book in the fire. And it's a library book, and I *really* don't want to have to pay for it, of all the annoying books. 

I just couldn't take any more displays of Mr. Robinson's encyclopedic knowledge of tropical flora and fauna and all their uses, or hear one more amazing stroke of luck. The ship was stocked with provisions for a whole colony for a year! What luck! The island is packed with useful and delicious plants and animals and fresh water! There is a little boat stored away inside the hull of the ship that is undamaged! What luck! When the sons aren't working like slaves because they *so* want to be cooperative and helpful, they are engaged in games of strength, endurance, and skill to help them become better hunters and builders! Isn't that special. And every time they come upon an animal they kill it or imprison it. Lovely. By the time we quit the only thing keeping us reading was the chance to snicker about their ass and their pinnace, which we heard quite a lot about.

Back to Basics

We started out the summer gearing up our academic homeschooling as we have for the past couple of years, since most of our regularly schedule activities don't go through the summer and we have more time to do that kind of stuff. Then I got this moonlighting job and began working more than usual, and we are on our fourth round of evening swimming lessons, and now we've gotten sucked into the Olympics. 

It is nice to break with the normal routine (such as it was), but after a couple months of little routine, I'm ready to get back some of the basics we've let go this summer. First, I need to get back on top of a housecleaning routine. My and D's laundry folding routine has fallen apart since we've all been watching the Olympics together and there are now little bodies where the folded clothes usually go. Swimming lessons have put a kibosh on making good dinners and we've been living on quesadillas and sandwiches. Since we aren't having people over here every week or two, things like sweeping and decluttering and cleaning the bathroom are really slipping. The kids and I spent much of Sunday cleaning house, and I was reminded again how cooperative my kids are about helping clean up. I'm sure it feels good to be productive and be contributing something useful to the household, and it can be pretty fun to all work together.  

Tonight we took the night off from watching the Olympics and actually spent a couple of hours doing a little schoolwork and having a nice long read-aloud time. Before that A and I were looking over our schoolwork checklist and found that it is out of date, even though we just made it at the beginning of the summer. Funny how things are constantly changing. We seem to be much more into reading and literature than history and science at the moment. 

We're reading _Swiss Family Robinson_ and a compilation of "rascal" tales, and the vocabulary and language are really satisfying. We've been reading more modern fiction in the past year or so, and have read some wonderful stories, but we are all really enjoying the slow pace and richness of our current read-alouds.  A started doing an online book group that is a bit of a stretch for her, but so far she is keeping up. The books they'll cover this year include some great literature, old (Jane Austin, Charles Dickens) and new (Chaim Potok, Theodore Taylor). One routine we've mostly maintained and that we all really love is a bedtime poem. It is the perfect way to end a day. 

D.I.Y.

We have this stroller that still works perfectly well but that we don't need anymore since our kids are past the stroller stage. And, I've been wanting a bike trailer for grocery shopping. You can see where this is going. The maiden voyage:

Heaven knows, I'm not picky about how things look, but I think we'll have to work on this one a bit before I take it out on the open road. Don't worry mom, we're not going to pull kids in this!

A Miracle Occurred...

We actually managed to do a craft today. Glue guns and all.