the sleppys

It starts in the middle of May, when the heat index rises above 100, when the Royal Poincianas bloom in reds and yellows, when the “wet” season in South Florida begins… The dawn of flag season.

Our flag is on continuous display in our foyer, between the Ten Commandments and the Ten Home Rules posters. We have it mounted on a pole, which is stuck in a pipe, which is embedded in a bucket of concrete. At sunrise on Armed Forces Day, we take it outside to wave, and we carry it inside at sunset. No more than two weeks later, we carry out the same procedure for Memorial Day. Two weeks after that, we fly it on Flag Day, June 14. Again, on Independence Day, we let it fly in the free American breeze.

We do display it outside for other days such as Patriot Day and Presidents Day, but I do love the quick succession of display days in the early summertime. Four times in six weeks make it memorable.

At the beginning of the year, I started a new home schooling routine: Before we start the week of schooling, I plan lessons, incorporating all the core subject books (handwriting, journal, mathematics) and add a sprinkle of formal learning of science and social studies from E.D. Hirsch’s What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. The chart is working better than the previous, which had only the subjects that we were doing that day but no defined lesson.

My mom gave the boys Brain Quest Workbooks. Kyle hasn’t started on his Kindergarten book yet. He is still four, and I’m waiting for his birthday to begin requiring his participation in home schooling. Although, he has been practicing his handwriting on a laminated board with a dry-erase marker. Ty is halfway through the Grade One book, completing six to eight pages a day. He flies right through it. Sometimes, he needs my help, especially if we’re introducing a new concept, i.e. parts of speech. But when he understands it, he’s flying. On those easy Brain Quest days, I can plan tougher, more involved lessons in piano or geography.

Everyday, we work in our composition books. Lately, I’ve given Ty a topic for his journal entry because he was getting bored of writing what happened the day before or his plans for the weekend. This week, we are having a Valentine’s unit study, so his topics are on love and friendship. We read the history of Valentine’s Day together, and eight of those words were for handwriting (cupid, birds, Lupercalia, saints). Handwriting is copying the same word three times, making it look better than the previous time. He does this for days of the week, months, parts of plants, continents, planets… whatever we are studying or have studied. Last week, he copied nursery rhymes.

This weekend, we did a little bit of preparation for school. For Herbology, we planted cucumbers, watermelon, squash, bush beans, and other summer produce – “summer” actually means autumn down here. We’ll plant, from seed, spinach and lettuce later in the fall.

Ty found a greenthumb:

Today is the first day of the public school year. We woke up to the squealing brakes and roaring engines of school buses. Dad got out of bed early (we went to sleep early, which helps) and began an Herbology class with Ty. This is what the Greenleaf School is all about. They were observing the cucumber that sprouted yesterday morning. Ty was still in his pajamas during class.

Dad is out purchasing kitchen herbs to be transplanted. The boys are reading a book together: It sounds that Ty is reveiwing colors and shapes with Kyle. Taylor and I are about to cut circles of screen for the transplant herbs’ pots.

I always liked the first day of school. We don’t have pictures of brand new lunch boxes, backpacks, nor school clothes because we don’t have those things. What for? So here’s a picture of the boys on the computer, putting a house together for The Read Family.

And this is to explain why there are so few pictures of Kyle: