#5 - Home, Home on the Range

Home with a mild (so far!) flu bug this morning. I'm sore and tired, but functional. Headache, fevers, you know the drill.

Still, I've been having fun listening to my Woodyettes this morning.

Part of the magic of homeschool, even a relatively regimented one like Mrs. Woody has put together, is that you can be very flexible about your school day. Days like this, where other issues need to be addressed, lend themselves to "unschooling." Or, in this case, "child-directed schooling."

During last summer's Olympic games, the girls learned about Greece through a website devoted to a little girl named Amarandi. Amarandi became their new heroine of play, and dolls have been named after her.

This morning, Woodyette Number One decided she wanted to peruse our globe. I bought it before term started last summer, and it's been gathering dust up our bookcase ever since. So, I got it down, had the girls help me dust it off, and showed them a few key places. They've been playing with it ever since.

Mrs. Woody and I both love listening to this kind of play. We're both drudging away on our computers while the girls are in another room saying things like, "Hey! That's where Canada is!" They know where Santa lives and where the penquins live. We showed them where Mommy and Daddy served their missions lo these many years ago. They know where they live, older siblings, and good friends.

Their teacher was experiencing that warm glow that comes from young minds soaking stuff up like the little sponges they are. The school administrator was impressed, as he always is when he stays home sick, at just how much the kids are learning.

Now the girls are perched on either side of their teacher being read to. The house is tranquil, and even Daddy is feeling nominally better. Not good, but better.

Home is a wonderful place.

UPDATE: It's now Friday morning. Roaring fevers overnight, up by 5:30 AM, fire up the work laptop and launch a process on my day off. What a hero. So, I feel worse. Much worse. But I'd still rather be home than anywhere else. That alone makes me feel as good as my body will allow today.