Home "school" update

Aragorn is whistling while he does dishes, Lily is smiling as she cleans her bird's cage and listens to "Emma Jean Lazarus Falls Out of the Tree" for the 34th time, Alienor is happily cutting out paper dolls, Arthur and Puck are sound asleep next to each other in my bed, it is a peaceful moment.

We saw a beautiful production of "The Nutcracker" ballet this morning and are still a bit in the dream state it left us in. This week brought a big, bad ol'winter storm, showering us with a foot of snow, blowing winds and below freezing temperatures. It was great!

We finished up our study of Medieval times with Joan of Arc. What an amazing figure in history and in women's history. We learned much about the power of one individual with faith in their mission, about what life was like in the late middle ages in France and, sadly, about the corruption of politics, even way back when.

Alienor has been studying the lives of Catholic saints. She sincerely wants to be a better little person and is very devout in her intentions. It's reality that hits her all too often with sibling or other conflicts that put her over the edge. She is the best baby minder ever, and will find things for Puck to do for hours on end.

Arthur has been weaving and finger-knitting his little heart out. His huge accomplishment this week was obtaining his own library card. He had to sign his whole name on the line to do so, and though I have never taught him a single letter, he did it anyway, very nicely, in fact. He is so proud of his card. If you stop over, he will take it out and show you.

Puck is talking and talking and talking. He is very funny, into everything and does just what a two-and-a-half-year-old should do; be cute and make trouble. He loved the five minutes of the ballet he saw before falling asleep yesterday. He sat entranced and silent, like all of the 5000 or so children, including homeschoolers with toddlers and babies, through the entire show. The only difference in my case was that he was entirely out.

We have made candles for our advent wreath, put up advent calendars, and kept our intentions to find kind deeds to do for others in this season. Today we will celebrate Lily's 13th birthday and Thierry's 40th. Time to make pancakes and sausages!