Budokon and Our Morning

Okay, so we have each gained so much weight since returning to the southwest. The food (and drinks) are way to good to pass up. It has been 7.5 months and it's time to get a grip on the situation. Enter Budokon. This is one of those workout programs you get in the fitness aisle in Target. It seemed like a good deal because it incorporated what I was interested in, and it came with multiple disks for the same price of some that had only one. Basically it combines yoga, martial arts and meditation. All really great for you, and seemingly not too difficult. Yeah, right!! It is soooo hard to do. We started learning the poses on Monday morning; after which I spent most of the morning in bed recovering. It turns out that GM and I both still had a touch of the flu our family had been passing around for the past two weeks. So at least Im not a complete wimp! Tuesday was a rest day, so I did a lot of housework. Thanks to my ipod I was able to get a lot of crap done that I normally would avoid or put-off until some other day. This set me up for a GREAT Wednesday. The Budokon went well, at least I wasnt in bed afterwards. So there I was, awake, already had worked out and had a cup of coffee, so what else was there to do? Remember the house was clean, and the laundry was all done. Wow I guess that means I need to do some homeschooling. I went into the office and pulled out our stuff and got organized to have a nice morning lesson. The kids did their yoga and went right into lessons without any complaints. I REALLY believe the yoga helps to set them in the right train of mind to focus on their lessons and accomplish a lot. I actually think it does the same for me.

Morning lesson:

meditation: the kids lay on their backs and practice rhythmic breathing, after which I read them a poem to think about. Today I read Robert Frost's "Dust of Snow"

animal calendar: I found this great "advent" type of calendar which you basically lift the flap and read about how the animal under it (under the snow) survives for the winter. They love it and it fits into our desire to keep the seasons involved in our rhythm.

music: We started out by playing different rhythms on our wood blocks, and then moved to our lap harps. The boys worked on their counting and playing whole, half and quarter notes. They did well and began to learn Hot Cross Buns on their harps. GM loved this so much, he later asked to pull it out and practice on his own.

journal writing: The boys each wrote and drew in their journals.

storytime: I read them "Snow Moon".

math block: Each of the boys worked with their different math pages. GD practiced writing his numbers and counting objects. He then played with his Busy Bugs game. GM did a puzzle in his Math Paths book, did a page from his Saxon (I will share my thoughts on this later) and a few practice problems in his math lesson book (a blank book where I pre-write some practice problems to exercise areas that need it). We are practicing carrying over with GM, he gets it, but tries to do it too fast, so it leads to errors that are basically based in organization.

reading: Each of the boys read a book of their choice for practice. GM GD

With the exception of the things that we do on our own or that arent a part of our "lessons" yet are educational, this was our lesson for the day. GD played an episode on his Headsprout (an online phonics game that he really enjoys, so I let him roll with it).

ME played along side us for the most part, and trashed the house whenever she managed to occupy herself. Its a fair trade really. I have to work to clean up whatever she decided to "explore" while we were doing lessons, but at least she is happily occupied and I am able to help the boys through our lesson time.

Wednesday is dinner at the Great Grandma's house, so after resting and having a quiet afternoon, we were off to Grandma's by 4pm. There are many Aunts and Uncles and Cousins there and my Mother-in-Law is there as well.

I felt so accomplished, worked out, did lessons, had a clean house, AND visited family as the good daughter-in-law. Hey, for me that is an accomplished day!!