Slow Tide Rising

This year, I didn't try my usual thing of jumping into high tide when the Emperor went back to work.

For one thing, I was getting ready to go out to the Profession. For another, my sister was planning to stay with us after the Profession (which got nixed at the last minute when everyone got sick, but I didn't know that then!). And then again, after being down for two weeks with the rib, I just wasn't ready.

The best thing that came out of the kids being sick all at the same time, was that they were all happy to stare at various educational videos (in actual fact, that means the level of educational value was varied) while I cleaned and organized the home school room and planned the year.

Shocking, I know! I hardly know myself whether it's more shocking that I had not yet cleaned out the room or that, two weeks after the Emperor went back, I was still hazy on what we were doing for the year.

I did know that we were continuing the mega US History project. I knew that we were continuing Math U See and Life of Fred for Math. The Emperor had come up with directed reading lists for the kids over the Summer. I knew we'd do some Science... In fact we had even done a "cloud organizer" for each kid, so we knew what we wanted to work on for each of them for the year, but that's not the same as an actual plan (which I will discuss in the next post).

At any rate, the kids got better, the house got cleaner, the plan came together and we've started moving back into a more regular schedule. The picture at the top is a science experiment we did this week. Yes, it's the old "white carnation in colored water" trick.

If you look closely, you will see that the two carnations on the left are bi colored. We split the stems and put the ends in different colors. The second from the right is actually bi-colored as well. It was originally put in purple coloring, but it only absorbed blue from the water (and at a reduced rate). We then put it into the magenta cup where it has been turning red, blue, and purple. Very pretty!