Our Homeschool Journal: Holiday Busyness and a Visit to our State Capitol Building

My, don’t these days in December fly by?  Most of the formal schoolwork falls by the wayside and our days fill with practicing for pageants and recitals, handmade goodness, and enjoying the wonder of the Christmas season.

In our homeschool this week…

1. Our house is filled with Christmas songs, some of it being played by my daughter on piano.  She has been working on a difficult song for her Christmas recital.  It takes roughly 2 1/2 minutes to play, so I’m practicing holding my breath that long.  I usually can’t breathe when she’s performing.
2. As I said in my post about remembering the reason for the season, we are reading Jotham’s Journey as a devotional when we light our advent candles.  I switched to reading it in the morning today even though the ambiance of the candles is diminished.  Each reading tends to leave you on the edge of your seat and it was a little too much for my sensitive kids at bedtime.
3. Another way we’re remembering Christ at Christmas time is with a Jesse Tree (details here).
4. Our hands are busy–here my daughter is making a Christmas tree for her dollhouse…
5. …and here she’s making gifts for people she loves.
6. One way we enjoy counting down the days is with crafts, and here it’s a simple wooden tree decorated with paint.  I joined the fun!

Places we went and people we saw…

Both kids had Christmas parties for their Scout troops.  Other than that we had our church pageant rehearsal, piano practice, a homeschool playtime at our town’s recreation center, and a big field trip to the Maine State House!  We were invited by a friend who was being sworn in as a state senator.  It was a great experience after all we’d learned in our government and elections study.  The building was beautiful and the formality was fascinating.

A funny story for you:  after the official swearing-in there were other speeches and business to attend to, so we slipped out and wandered the building.  The governor and his entourage of half a dozen people were moving back and forth between the House and Senate.  We were coming down a set of stairs and my husband says, “Oh, here comes the governor!”

Here is where our personalities diverge.  My reaction is to immediately try and hustle the kids out of the way and blend into the wall.  My husband’s reaction is the opposite:

“Governor, do you mind if I take a picture?”

I hear this and can’t believe he said it.  My face flushes crimson–did I mention the governor is moving back and forth between chambers?  That everyone is waiting for him to appear to swear in the president of the senate?  Did I mention there is a whole crew in full suits with him and they weren’t just sauntering by shaking hands?

The governor flashes a big smile, stops in his tracks and says, “Sure!  Bring the kids in here!”  I have one second to tuck in my son’s dangling shirt tail and still try to pretend I don’t exist while my husband snaps a great photo of my kids and the governor, all smiling ear to ear.  We relived that moment all day.  Thank goodness my husband isn’t just like me!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!