I’m letting K pick out her next shirt – the one that will hopefully make it to Daddy’s Birthday dinner without bits of Daddy’s Birthday Cake batter on it or glaze.
March and April are a bit full around here. For the next 6 weeks we have Eagle’s Wings Co-op, AND M’s Jr. F.L.L. Which meets at our house. Which means that after teaching at Eagles Wings we have to clean the house for the Saturday Lego fest.
Co-op went really smoothly yesterday, even with 3 families added at the last week, thanks to the data base from a former student, I can add people at the last min and still make accurate charts. For that matter, I can look at class sizes, re-arrange classroom assignments the morning of co-op and still print out accurate charts. Telling everyone which charts are the accurate ones is what announcement time is for ;-) K had her first co-op class ever too.
My class went so smoothly! I have 6 students from 6th grade through 9th grade. They were nodding politely to me as I mentioned the communications skills I hope they will gain through the Socratic Circles (the author indicates that you need more than 6 weeks, but that’s all I’ve got.) I handed them copies of the Charge of the LIght Brigade to annotate. I read them the biography of Florence Nightingale from Celebrating women in mathematics and science. They were following along in a gratifying way.
It got so much easier to plan this class when I remembered that the point is to practice discussion – not to cover the life of Florence Nightingale exhaustively with thrilling bits of the Crimean war thrown in for good measure. So, week 1, introduction. Week 2, “Charge of the Light Brigade,” Week 3 “Santa Philomeana,” Week 4 the chart Miss Nightingale made to show mortality that was an early pie chart, and I’ll figure out the last two weeks really soon, perhaps excerpts from “Notes on Nursing” and Florence’s journal entry describing her call from God to nursing.
When we were driving home, a bit frazzled because I had read the clock wrong and thought we were late for M’s emergency dental appointment (cracked molar) B remarked that the sandwiches were so disorganzied, it would take Florence Nightingale herself to bring order to our lunch (without getting mayonaisse all over the car).
K picked a lettuce edged long sleeved striped tee, with a flower embroidered on the front. The table is mostly set and the floor is swept. The guys can come back from steaming Grandma’s wallpaper off any time now, I will not be ashamed.