Tidbits

Although I wasn't present on the blog much over the summer, we actually have tried to keep up with some school related work. Or - maybe school related is too strong a word. We have been busy. That's probably more accurate.

My husband, who was gone the first half of the year, is now back every other week thankfully. The down side is, it will probably continue that way for the rest of the year, unless he gets longer orders to go elsewhere. I know that it's hard to understand a schedule like that if you aren't married to a man who is #1 In the military or #2 Travels for work. A LOT. 

We began school in August, slowly, as we tend to drift out of school sometime in May of every year and drift back in around the beginning/middle of August. At a time when everyone else is vacationing, we had already had our vacation (back in February) so we stayed busy at home base. I was very blessed this summer to acquire some new (to me) materials from the local Montessori school here, and also to buy a few things we needed. One of the biggest blessings were the complete bead cabinet beads, minus the cabinet. The color is off from the traditional colors that are sold. Apparently, these are old and I am not completely sure what company they came from. They would not work in a traditional Montessori classroom, and most homeschool parents buying them might not even like the color change. I knew it would only be a short adjustment for my bunch, and for a fraction of the price, they have more than made up for the change.

My tidbit today is just a sensorial blurb, showcasing Buddy Boy. He has a renewed interest in the Brown Stair and Brown Tower, now that he has the bead cubes to compare with them. One day, while I was working with another child or two, I turned around and he was working steadfastly to bring the brown stair and brown tower in and set it up. Then he brought in our bead cubes, and set them up. Then he went and got the individual bead bars, and put it all together. I love when something occurs to them without my help or prompting. When his brain is connecting without me needing to assist. So, without further ado and so much chit-chat on my end, here we have some not-so-great-in-quality pictures, because I had to shoot them quickly, to show what was in fact almost 40 minutes of working through what he was thinking about, moving the stair and tower around and bringing everything to where he wanted it. 

This was actually the last picture I took, after he made the vertical connection of the pink stair (except, ours is brown) and the bead cubes.

He worked fr a long time to make sure this was just how he liked it. It doesn't look like it should take very long, but in truth he had to concentrate and move very carefully to balance connected bead bars that tend to roll around. The one beads were especially difficult, and his determination was endless. 

Bug always tends to get in on the action, quite happy to try and get credit for something she didn't do. Or maybe she's just a camera hog. :) She was actually working on another project that we were preparing for, which I will share later - after we've completed it :) 

Few pictures this time, but just a quick insight in to what's going on and how we sometimes work in spurts, sometimes not as perfectly smooth as I'd like it to be, but right now, it's what works. :) 

Happy Homeschooling!