These Quiet School Days

 Bryan is out of town. We are waking up each day and doing what we know we must: school work. Sometimes when he leaves we play, proclaim the day a Make and Do Day. Make and Do Days are perfectly valid, but not quite so soon after Christmas break. Now we are quietly doing our duty. A little work here and a little work there yields big results over time.

A board game break after math? Absolutely. Skippity is Arden's new game. I like it more than he does. It's fun! Kind of like Checkers, but you fill the entire colorful board and jump pieces, trying to complete sets with pieces of each color. Then we get back to work. Time for my second cup of coffee and our history read aloud George Washington's World. I always claim the sunny corner of the couch. When we finish Sam looks aghast that I would ask him to write a paper. Two in one week?! He's shocked. We told him that's what we expect. I guess it is the enforcement of it that actually comes as a surprise.

Poor Ally. The rigors of high school require her to miss all the fun. But I can't feel too sorry for a girl who comes down for lunch each day genuinely excited about all she is learning.

Then this afternoon in their free time the three little kids made these animal tree (Styrofoam cup) forts. They're rather clever, but I would have appreciated them more if a fight over the animals didn't immediately follow the completion of the fort. Yup, I am counting down the hours until Bryan is home again.