Happy Second Day of School!

Okay, so it is accurate to say that I am overhauling the schedule. What kind of horrible person doesn’t plan to serve a snack to such a young crowd? When, at the stroke of 10:00 AM, they all began clamoring for something to eat, I recognized my error. When I thought {yesterday} about the need to read the story of Polycarp’s martyrdom today, the prophet in me predicted that this was not the sort of thing for the ears of little girls so young. So all of this coalesced into a revamp plan, one which was mostly painless. Here is take two of my Average Day Chart:

Average Day Chart 2009-2010

It wasn’t really 45 minutes, but I was being lazy about fixing the rows. The two events before the new outside playtime have been taking a bit longer than anticipated. When the Ambleside readings are appropriate for the girls, I’ll be pulling them in and serving snack indoors. But they responded well to an opportunity to stretch their legs, E. could narrate undisturbed, and I felt like they paid better attention after a break than yesterday when I tried to stretch them too much.

I made sure I wrote down why I was changing the chart on the old chart, which I’ll save for future reference.

Moving on.

Good news: all the children are sick.

Other good news: I have some bad pictures to share with you today.

First up, the timeline on the wall:

I was having trouble fitting it into a photo because it stretches down a length of wall that is in an awkward position when it comes to photos. The area is too wide to be an official hallway, but it is too narrow to be used for much of anything other than a passage to other places. We have lined it with bookcases on one side and a bench on the other, which works well, especially for little people with a desire to read twenty-five books in one sitting. Above the bench, but below some frames, I stretched the timeline.

Yesterday, King Harold I of England made his way to the timeline, first of a long line of kings we’ll be enjoying this year. Here he is, out of focus:

Incidentally, the timeline is twelve feet long. The century markers were printed on cardstock. Since we are primarily studying the years 1000-1600 AD, each century is allowed two feet.

I have blank walls mostly everywhere due to a combination of lack of funding and also commitment issues. The other day I was sighing over the art collection we’re studying this term, wishing we could have something that beautiful on our walls, when it dawned on me that we could! So I took the copies that I usually hide in the back of my binder and bought some cheap frames that hold standard paper {8.5 x 11 inches}. Perfect! Now I can change them every term, a constant rotation of beautiful things to look at:

Finally, I will leave you with a photo I call The Problem Globe. But first, a little background. I have always wanted a real globe. I adore globes and maps, especially if they are shades of brown which make them look antique or at least respectable. My father gave me a globe and I cannot for the life of me figure out where to put it. I hope to eventually get two chairs, and then a table to go with said two chairs. Perhaps the table would be big enough to hold an old globe? I don’t know, but I can’t bear to get rid of it because first of all I love it and second of all I really am using it for school. Just yesterday I showed the children where England was, for instance.

I feel myself justifying this.

Anyhow, right now the globe is on a chair in the corner of my dining area. Perhaps we will study geography during dinner?

Should I feel guilty about this?