to do everything I want in school time.  I think this is why I tend to not try hard enough to have school time -- even when I make the effort to have it, I always feel like we run out of time too soon.  Today, we sang and read scriptures.  We are starting the Old Testament to go along with our ancient history study for this year.  So we are reading about the creation.  I'm trying to keep up with primary lessons also in our devotional time, and the class lesson for both boys this past Sunday was Happiness Comes from Choosing the Right.  So I found the latest Friend magazine and they have a nice index system, and there was a story referenced for "choose the right," which we read and discussed.  I read a chapter from "Our Island Story" for our Canadian history reading for the week (and did a bit of figuring to decide how many chapters/week to read from each of our history books).  I then wanted the kids to do French.  D had no interest whatsoever.  He said he didn't want to learn any more French than he already knows -- bonjour.  I told him how Dad has his job now because he could speak French, and might be getting a job near the Grandparentses because he learned French starting when he was 3.  Then I told him that I was going to listen to the story, and went to the computer and did my thing.  We are using PowerGlide, it includes stories on cds, so I started listening to the first one.  It didn't take too long for both boys to drag chairs over to the computer and listen along.  I practised saying the French words that were used in the story (my pronounciation is fairly bad, I mean it is an accurate representation of the French I heard growing up, but it was, hmmmm, rural French, I guess).  We did just the first "lesson," and I'm thinking we might do the same one two days in a row, to help it sink in (especially since I'm not "requiring" them to sit and listen to it).

Then we basically did "free time."  D read a Dr. Seuss book to S, they snacked, they took turns doing Study Dog and Starfall on the computer.  I need to start restricting this to the last 1/2 hour before lunch, or else it is all they want to do, esp. D.  He even said to me today, all he wanted to do was to sit around in front of a screen and either watch tv or play comp games all day long.  Arg.  He is so my son.  :P  I worked on organizing my binder and studies.  I am taking part in a 3000 page in 8 weeks challenge through a TJEd forum; it will start Jan 8.  So I made up a page for that, put in my OT chart in my binder too, and started a page for notes for studying history this year.  I pulled out some of my history resources to figure out what periods exactly I want to cover this year.  I started reading the intro to "Ancient History from Primary Sources," and that's about as far as I got with my studies for the morning.  M was fussy and wanting action of some kind.  So I sat down at the piano to practise and pulled up a little bin for her to stand on, so she could bang at the high end of the keys. 

Now I just have to figure out what we're eating for lunch.  I have borscht in the fridge that I have been eating -- I could eat it for lunch every day -- but the kids are sick of all of the leftovers we have.  Should have started a loaf of bread this am.  Maybe I'll raid dh's pizza pocket supply for them.  :)

I want to put up a big timeline on the wall with a roll of paper, but dh is worried that it will look -- to quote him -- "lame."  I think the kids don't get too excited about a lot of the things I study because I am reading my books and taking my own notes, etc.  But when we have things up on the wall, they can share in it.