Home School Life

This week I’m finally feeling how different it is to not be consumed with teaching a class this year. All through my teaching years the hardest time of day for me was after 9 pm. After a long day of work and then coming home and doing the dinner/bath/bed routine I was always exhausted. But after my children were in bed I needed to rally my forces and prepare the next day’s lesson. This was always agonizingly difficult for me, and quite often I put the task off until the morning, telling myself I would get up at 4 to prepare.

So far this year I have still been busy in the evenings after bedtime. I’ve had my lessons with The Girl to prepare, household projects to finish, and laundry to fold. But this week, we’ve settled into enough of a routine that things are taking care of themselves and I can hardly believe it, but after bedtime this week I have sat myself on the couch and knit until I can no longer keep my eyes open. These evenings of knitting with podcasts coming through the earbuds have felt positively indulgent, but still productive. Just perfect. It looks like I’ll finally finish a Christmas present promised last year this weekend and hopefully also complete the socks. I’m not loving the socks so much and I really want to finish them so I can start a different pair.

I’ve also been spending some time camera shopping. I dug out my old 35mm SLR and though I love it, I’m hoping to sell it and get some cash to contribute to my new camera fund. The camera on loan from my mom isn’t great and it’s not inspiring me to take pictures. I caught a glimpse of a fabulous shot from another soccer mom’s dSLR and it really has me thinking about going that route. I don’t want to regret buying a big, bulky camera that I end up hating lugging around, but I figure I always have the camera on my phone for quick, impromptu shots. m I’d love to hear what other bloggers use. There are some beautiful photos out there! Readers, comment with your camera suggestions!

The Girl and I are still in India. It’s quite easy to hang out here for awhile, though I know there are other blocks awaiting. The distractions continue. Today she’s a bit under the weather, so we’re taking a little bit easy. I’m really pleased with how her math work is going — I think that will be our next block — but I’m wanting to do much more reading with her. We’re working with All About Spelling and finding it a bit tedious. I’m wondering if it was the right decision to start with level one. The Girl feels a bit insulted that it’s so easy. Anyway, harder lessons will come, I suppose.