Tuesday, November 3, 2009

November

A new month is suddenly here, and now that we spent October catching up on our learning after the round of flu viruses we are really on top of things. Amirah finished her learning in a record two hours for twelve subjects, and Eli did his usual 35 minutes or so. Efficient! I did ease up on a couple of subjects, figuring it didn't really matter at all if we finished them in December or January; we'll still get to our "end goals" by June. It's actually kind of funny to think in those terms, because it really feels more like a continuous path. Wherever we are, we just keep going! There is satisfaction in completing a book or a level, but those all come at asynchronous times. Even the grade levels are funny - 5th grade in that subject, 1st in that, 3rd in that, 4th in another. Amirah is where she is, and there's no need to push her somewhere else. It's really very relaxing knowing that we're headed on our path of learning in her own time. On the other hand, keeping annual and quarterly goals in mind does help me see if we need to "catch up" a little or if we can take a week off to do other projects. I really do like those days when we can finish it all up in the morning, have an after-lunch outing, then home to make dinner. It's a nice rhythm.

Since we did finish before lunch today, we headed out to the library and to the park next door. Amirah had been practicing gliding on her two-wheeler on the back deck and this week managed a couple of rounds of pedaling, so we took all the bikes with us. There's a great path that goes around the whole park with gentle upward and downward slopes. Amirah pedaled away as soon as we got there and no one was happier than she. Eli and Raizel trailed along at a zippy speed behind her on their trikes and they all had a great time. They alternated biking with swings and slides (except Amirah who never left the bike!). It's so nice to have a good stretch of sunny weather, and I want to be sure to take advantage of it. We all had such a great time I think we'll go back tomorrow!

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