October 5, AO year 1, week 4

On Friday night, at the dinner table, Fina started reciting lines 3 and 4 from one of the poems we have read recently "The Cow." Within 5 minutes, she had learned a whole stanza and a bit more.

Over the last year, we have listened to the Little House books on audiobook.  She has quite enjoyed them. And she knows what a slough is. I do not!  (We love Cherry Jones' reading all nine books. We heard them on youtube, but I can't seem to find them to provide a link. I know they can be purchased. Just last week we started listening to Winnie-the-Pooh on audiobook. We discovered audiobooks a few years ago. They make tooth brushing time much easier for mom (because Fina just lays there with her mouth open).

Today turned into a helping others kind of day, not of our planning. The blessing of homeschooling.  Fina was up from 2-4am for some reason. She was uncomfortable, she had to change her pjs, this morning she said that she was awake because her head was spinning (though she didn't say that during the night). At about 8:30, I got a note from our friend across the street asking if we'd walk Fina's little friend K to school, because K's little baby sister C had a stomach thing. Well, Fina slept til 9am, so K had to just wait. Fina got dressed quickly and we walked K to school. We swung by the library to hang a poster for our "outdoor playgroup" that is starting tomorrow. Then we came home, Fina got back into her pj and had her breakfast. We were just about to start our schooling at 10:30, when we got a note from our friendly librarian whose young son was also sick and needed to be picked up from school.

Well, Fina had to get dressed again, and away we walked back to the library. We filled in for the library all day. Fina helped out a lot, stamping the library address in some new books, collecting books for me every time someone left books in the drop box, putting books I had checked in onto the shelving cart.  I had packed some colouring and some Lego for her to do, as well as her school work.

We were able to finish reading the last half of the story of St Augustine of Canterbury. She narrated it well enough (I didn't split the second half at all, I just read it straight through).

We came home for lunch and had a quick chat on Facetime with my dad who told her the story of St Augustine. He reinforced what we had learned and Fina was quite surprised that nonno knew the whole thing.

We went back to the library. She learned her cursive letter x. She was able to work independently while I dealt with patrons at the circulation desk. She also reviewed all her letters on her own (I had written them in upper case print on a scrap piece of paper, and she transcribed each one into cursive.)

She also was able to complete two pages of MUS, 13A and 13B on her own. Yay for independent work.

She played with her Lego, she coloured, and she spent a lot of time finding books to sign out as well as flipping through books. 

It was a real bonus to be able to help people out, while still getting some school work done. A definite bonus for homeschooling.

While at the library (which is attached to the local school) we saw her friend K who came in with her class, and then also her friend M who also came in with her class.  So that was quite nice. And K's mom came to pick Fina up from the library once K was home from school so that the girls could play at the park for a while. It is so nice that the village is raising Fina. It is so nice to have other moms who rely on me and on whom I can rely. Fina got an hour and a half outdoors, which would not have been possible if she was with me inside the library until 5pm.

All in all, it was a great day.  A little light, and not the most exciting for her, being in a building for hours and hours, but it was great!