hard won wisdom

One day I am going to need to say something to one of my children. It will be something really important. They will be on the brink of making one of those very poor decisions in life that only bring disaster and take many unnecessary years to correct. There will come a time when I am really going to need to use my words and have them have their intended affect. Those words are going to have to not lack any potency. They cannot be allowed to be heaped upon a huge dusty pile of other words that the children were forced to listen to over the years. Going forward I will be very sparing with words lest they begin to loose their power. Given the choice between calling to someone from across the room and getting up out of my chair I will choose the later, even if I am tired. If I do have to give commands, I will give non verbal commands. If I do have to give verbal commands I will try to pare them down to one or two word directives before uttering them. If there is to be no parental verbal haze in the heads of these children it is my responsibility to shepherd through this world and into the next, I will have to hold my tongue about ninety percent of the time.

Ramping up

So far we have been consistent with the math and reading lessons trying to get ready for the new school year. Today I took my son's violin to the music shop and had them tune it. After dinner we did our first violin practice of the summer. He starts taking lessons again in September. Sophie and I sat down together and played Ode to Joy, Yankee Doodle, and Rockin Robin on the guitars.
I have been reading instructions on Logo because Sophie wants to learn more about computers.

07 28 08

Got Sophie to do a math lesson then a geography lesson. Got Helen to do a reading practice lesson and now she is doing some learning activities out of a pre-K book. I handed Rick a copy of Durand's Life of Greece and he has started reading that. Now we just need to do a Bible reading a little later before bed.

The New School Year

Ok here is the plan. School begins again in earnest in September. Sophie needs prep-work on math, Richard needs prep-work on writing, and Helen needs prep-work on reading. I have five weeks to work with them consistently and help them ramp up for the rigors of the new year.

July 4th weekend

We spent the 4th in Woodstock, Va with the in-laws. We had a nice time. We also got to see our good friends the Buedes. And we went to the movies to see the movie "Wall E" which was terrific. Also got to see fireworks!
Some more photos:

Thomas' baptism

Thomas was baptised on June 29. My sister Clare was the God mother.

more pics