Pruning

Almost the end of a month again! I have been planning one month at a time, so at the end of the month, I look to see what things we didn't get to yet and figure out a way to get them done in the last week. Other options include bumping them to the next month if I think they are deserving of more time. Sometimes I think, why did I want to do that anyway? And then I just cross them out. The other thing that happens a lot is that the kids will just Learn the Thing, all on their own, or in their own way. What we have left to do this month is finish talking about the People Could Fly, deliver Girl Scout cookies and do one of the multi-media art projects from the Art With Mrs. Filmore blog. I crossed out dictation. 

Laurel is plowing through her math book. This is supposed to be a year where she has to submit standardized test scores (although everything is canceled or waived...again...sigh). We are going to do it anyway, just to keep her portfolio in order, and also because you can take the Stanford Achievement Test remotely now. We did a practice test a few weeks ago and she did pretty well, so I scheduled her for the full battery in May. In the past she has expressed anxiety over testing, although her teachers never told me there was a problem and her scores were always good.

Max took another science class on zoom. They put various objects in water to see what would float and sink. First, they had to make predictions. Max's guesses were wild. He really has no concept of particles or density. But I appreciate the teacher leading them through the scientific process. 

We had poetry tea time in the afternoon. Marko baked a chocolate rye cake from the Poilane cookbook. It was delicious. M made him measure everything out on the scale. We read a bunch of nursery rhymes from a book my mom recently passed on to us, that was given to me by my Great Grandmother Benzenhoefer in 1980.  Marlene came over and brought a poem about choosing a pet that she found on the internet. 

And I went on a run today! I did 3.1 miles exactly, purely by accident. I went for a run/walk/hike type of excursion last weekend but I had shoes that were ill-suited for the task. Last week, I found a pair of running shoes for sale on REI and they finally arrived so I could try them out. I haven't really been able to run in about 6 years, since I was pregnant with Max, due to some pelvic floor issues. I found a really great doctor and it is life-changing!