Update

Well, everyone is still in an art phase, which for the past week has been drawing comic strips. Many books on cartooning and animation have been borrowed from the library and read, mostly by Micah. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to share examples of their work. Micah has developed at least two comic strips with different characters. One is called Squiggles; it features a scraggly cat whose owner is an overdoting grandma. The other is a boy and his dog( reminds me a little of Calvin and Hobbs). Jacob's strip is called "Dan". He can also draw Charlie Brown exactly like the comic strip. This has boosted his confidence, as he is usually in big brother's shadows. He now knows he has talent and can come up with good ideas too.

The boys have read several articles out of a kids History magazine about polar exploration( that I conveniently placed in the bathroom.

Jacob seems to have left his war stage for now, which I am glad of. We felt he was beginning to be a little off balance with too much violent topics.

They are all still reading independantly a lot and not just comics. We are still on Amy Carmichael, but Micah, James and I are reading another missionary book as well.

Hannah is initiating reading more and more on her own and has gone through several lower level readers, including finishing a large reader book that we had previously been working on. She and I have baked a few things lately and I have her read the instructions and ingredients and find the right utensils. Of course , we doubled the recipee, so we worked on adding, multiplying and dividing fractions. When the dozen cookies came out, I inroduced her to multiplication by showing her the four rows of three and vice versa. she quickly ( and excitedly) found other math problems, like 6 two times.
Jacob, Nathan , Hannah and I have also played some dominoes, and I make them add up all their own points.
We started a point system for chores, which has all of them adding and subtracting as well.
Nathan and Jacob has used the usborn pallette and cards for math this past week.
A lot of time lately has been spent clearing our clutter from the house and our rooms,and extra clothes. Everyone has their personal posessions down to one bag and one suitcase for clothes. It has been freeing for everyone. Each person independantly began getting rid of their stuff( got tired finally of having to clean it all the time!) I was surprised a little but very pleased to see their ability to let go of things asnd their generosity towards others with it.
All in all, I feel they are learning a lot, even if it isn't all academics per se. We are also enjoying Dad being home on leave for a couple of weeks.

Changes

Things have been slowing down a bit, as the family has been spending time with Rachel ( now in the States) before she gets married. James had a 4-day, and we all just enjoyed time together.

A whole lot of art ( oil painting) has been going on since we watched videos of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross last weekend. A ton of painting and cartooning books were acquired and read from the library. Hannah hasn’t painted yet, but has drawn endless pictures of horses.

There has been plenty of sporadic keyboard abd guitar playing from Micah. His dad and I are surprised at how good he is getting. He composes his own music too.

The kids finished and mailed off letters to their cousins last week. Probably the most actual writing Hannah has ever done. They have also all written and posted on the bedroom doors, Hanukkah wish lists, which I am totally ignoring.

Micah, Jacob, and Hannah made more clothes for their teddy bears.
I have been watching knitting videos with Hannah online and we have been trying our hand at it.

She is reading more and more on her own, (about 6 small books) a little bit harder level. She even offered to read some aloud to her younger sister. She and Rachel finished the Narnia book they had been reading before Rachel left.

We are still reading Amy Carmichael and enjoying it

Hannah asked me to show her on the globe where Rachel was going so we had a long discussion in geography, she located and named several countries and states. I showed her continents, countries, and oceans. This also led to a discussion about our independence from Great Britain. She was really interested for a longer than usual time.

It seems Jacob’s interest in the Revolutionary war has waned. It is resparking in the Civil War and French Revolution. They are currently watching Master and Commander; about English and Napoleon’s warships and battles.

We started a point motivational system for chores and such (more as an object lesson, but they don’t know that yet). It is helping the younger ones with math; addition and subtraction and estimating.

I bought a really nice abacus, and they all fought over it for a while. Hannah did much better seeing addition and subtraction, some really big numbers too. Jacob was amazed that he could do multiplication and division on it too. I would give them problems and they would demonstrate it on the abacus. Even Nathan was getting it. Great tool!

We did a lot of yard work as a family and really enjoyed it and the outdoors. Plenty of critter and plant discussion the whole time.

I have been noticing that after a huge wave of learning, they process and absorb for a while- like we all naturally do, I suppose-and have wanted to watch more videos than I would have liked. I guess another trip to the library is forthcoming. Or perhaps we have all just been focused on Rachel leaving the nest.
She gave Micah her guitar(her baby) and Jacob her ipod, and special gifts for everyone. She had been spending lots of time with them; sleepovers and makeovers with Hannah, archery with the boys. And I dare say we had very late nights of mayhem and giggling a time or too.

Mostly, we all really learned ( or was reminded) how very special, wonderful and loved Rachel is.