Hillside Hollow

Outside my window...we are having beautiful weather this week.  Not too cold, not too hot.  It's not terribly humid, just perfy. It's weather like this that causes Yankees to move to Florida and thus become Damn Yankees.

A day in the life...well, today was supposed to be my super busy day of the week.  First, tutoring, then school with the kids, hosting a book club, taking Joe to a photo shoot, and then theatre.  It was going to be a mad rush to get it all done.  Then Joe woke up sick.  He had a slight fever last night and a sore throat yesterday.  I dosed him up with Silver Shield and put him to bed hoping he'd wake up all better.  Instead he woke up feeling miserable and nauseated and lethargic and still had a fever. So...I cancelled tutoring, cancelled book club, put on Willy Wonka for Joe.  The girls eventually woke up and joined Joe watching Willy Wonka.  I did some chores and tried to re-organize my day.  By the time Willy Wonka was over Joe was feeling better but by then book club had already been rearranged and everyone notified of the new location so I just found a ride for Hannah.  Then, we did some school and I did some more chores and now I'm chillaxing before the big photo shoot.  Well, it's not actually a big photo shoot, it's a little photo shoot.  Joe will be in an ad but I'm not even sure what the ad is for. The photographer's aunt works at the theatre and that's how he ended up recruiting Joe and another boy. 

In our homeschool...we are continuing along as best as we can despite CONSTANT interruptions (see above for example).  As of right now I don't think we'll be done with our school year until mid-June which stinks but I'm determined to finish all that we've started.  In addition to our regular school we are also doing standardized testing this week and next.  Nothing super official--I ordered the CAT 5 for each of them and am administering it myself and then will mail it in.  We are doing one or two sections a day and so far it's mostly going well.  I am taking all the tests too so I can grade the kids' work as they do it and see what exactly they are getting wrong.  When the CAT 5 people send the results back to me they don't tell me specifically what problems they missed and I like to know that.  So far I am pleased with how well each of the  kids are doing and nothing has surprised me yet.  I guess I have a pretty good grasp of what they know and don't know.  I'm most curious about Joe because he is so hard to teach yet is so smart.  He has taken four parts--Vocabulary, Spelling, Word Analysis (100% on all three of those) and Math Computation.  He didn't do as well on the math but I knew he wouldn't because he's only about halfway through 3rd grade math so he hasn't ever seen some of the concepts before.  I'm still trying to make the final decisions for next year.  I'm thinking of revisiting My Father's World and doing Rome to the Reformation with Grace and Joe and maybe Hannah too.  I'd like to meld it with Sonlight books because we've enjoyed almost every book we've read this year. 

What I'm reading....I read about half of the first House of Hope series by Neta Jackson and just could.not.finish.it.  It was so predictable, the character whiny, and too superficial for my tastes right now.  Sometimes I can stand to read fluff like that and sometimes I just can't.  Instead I read Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold.  It's a novel inspired by the life and marriage of Charles Dickens.  I really loved it and it made me want to read some more of Dickens' novels.  I read a few in college and before having kids but haven't in a long time.  Maybe that will be my summer reading project.  Now I am reading The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sendker.  I am about halfway through and it's a little weird and unrealistic but I like it and it's keeping my interest.  Next up is The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey.  Looks good, we'll see. 

In other reading news...Grace is reading like crazy.  Her motivation??  I told her that she didn't read enough to read Hunger Games yet and that she could only read it after she had read 10 other books.  I'm having fun recommending books to her and she's having fun reading.  Hannah is also reading a lot.  I let her read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and she's loving it.  I loved that series too.  Joe is reading Sonic comic books.  :0)

Times up....I'll be back later or tomorrow with some pictures!