~yarnalong: School started this week (yes, I know, it's super early! Our school district has year round school and my oldest two are in public school, so the three at home stick to the same schedule to keep us all in the same rhythm!). There's a lot of go, go, go in our days now, but we are also finding small breaks of quiet.
I've started (and we are only three days into it, so ask me in a few weeks if it works, ok?) two new things this year (along with a small handful of others, but these are my most favorite 2!) : 1) We are choosing a "just for fun/just because" Read Aloud to include in our Morning Time and 2) Immediately after the lunch mess is cleaned, I set a timer for 10 minutes and we all sit in the living room and read. During those 10 minutes, you may read whatever book you fancy (I'm even allowing my nemesis Dog Man.....) but you do have to sit with your book for 10 minutes (shhh, don't tell, but the 9 year old gets his book before I set the timer and probably spends a good 15-20 minutes reading, by his own choice! YAY!!!!). For now, I'm allowing the 4 year old to either choose to look at the book himself, or to have me read to him (with those hopes that one day I have 10 minutes to read my book!). I also hope to eventually stretch the time to 15-20 minutes, but baby steps, baby steps! So far, every day Sheldon requests that I read to him from A Big Treasury of Little Animals (and always The Little Kitten), and he cuddles on my lap and we read the story. To be honest, the older he gets, the more adventurous he gets, and the more I know that he will want to do big boy things and not be with mommy all the time, so I am secretly loving this time, and how he is giving me his undivided attention. Such a sweet, one-on-one time with him.
For our Read Aloud, we just started reading Frindle. It is highly recommended by Sarah Mckenzie over at Read Aloud Revival, and so far I agree! It is perfect for this age (7 and 9), and they are both enjoying the story. They laugh at Nick and his silly antics, they have insightful thoughts to the story line and it's been a great time to just talk about books, school, and things in general. I'm almost tempted to read ahead because the story is just that good!
I started a new design last night, in a brand new color from The Fiber Seed. This one has required just a bit of math to get the pattern stitches working just right, but I really do love it so far. And this new color is super fun! It's a worsted weight design, so it'll be a good one skein fall project.
What are you reading and knitting this week? I can't wait to see!
~Jessica