learning together

November 10, 2017

Bored dog. Hard at work 8th grader. Unfinished couch (need to make matching green back cushions) and lots of reminders that life is in constant motion in this room.

Extraordinary in my ordinary.

We are approaching the end of our school semester – why and how did it go by so fast?! There is a long list of things I wanted to do with the kids, but those haven’t quite happened – yet. However, we’ve squeezed a lot of goodness out of the last couple months.

I currently have an 8th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader, 3rd grader, and 1st grader. Whew – I’m very much a human pinball all day long bouncing between the five of them, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. He was studying and she wanted his attention. When a hammock for 1 became a hammock for 2 he made her day. To be seen, heard, and welcomed by her biggest brother – well, not much tops that in her book. AND the opposite of 2 homeschoolers doing latin in a hammock – a 4th grader deciding to ditch the couch because pretending to sit at a desk sounds fun.

(SnapShop students: notice how my walls look like a different color in the pictures below. The first was taken later in the day with a higher ISO…which warmed the picture quite a bit. For more on shooting with a high ISO, read the lesson “ISO 1000 & Above“)
This semester we were able to introduce the girls to Filling the Void. I’ve had the honor of documenting milestones for Filling the Void for nearly 13 now and always leave so inspired and encouraged by what happens every Friday on a little corner in downtown Tulsa.
We’ve been learning Chinese characters using Chineasy. The kids are learning far faster than I am, but I’m trying. The illustrations make it easy to associate the character with the meaning. Now I just need it to come with audio so I can learn to pronounce the characters!

The first half of the semester was full of football games, which means lots of time with MY friends on the sidelines too!
I’d like to make a photobook this year of our school pictures. We get a yearbook with our homeschool community, but I’d like to remember what these days in our home looked like. I’m trying to capture more of our routines and include shots of their school work and books. In a decade, I’m pretty sure I’ll smile to look back and remember what we learned together. I’ll smile as I see the extraordinary in what feels ordinary now.