Overlapping

Lots going on over here... Trying to finish up the school year, pack up our house to move, and then we were hit with a nasty virus. Abrielle still isn't herself. We think she might be teething on top of everything else she's been fighting. Been thinking a lot about how things in my life have been overlapping. I think a lot of homeschool moms have wisely become overlappers by necessity and convenience, but it's just finally really dawning on me how that fleshes out. For example, that "Patrick Henry" speech the kids have had to memorize not only helped their understanding of history, but also gave them some great experience with acting



but we worked a long time on vocabulary words from it, etc. Our readers for the kids' English class this year have all had to do with what we're learning in history. The kids have also been sending my dad weekly letters for the last few years which has overlapped their penmanship with learning to think of others.

Another way we've been "overlapping" is with cookin'. Adam (and somewhat with the others too) has become our Morning Chef. We all put together a pancake mix to store in an ice cream pail, and we also have muffin mix and "instant" oatmeal that he can also quickly put together for us. Once evert two weeks or so, we've been making some homemade granola to grab on extra busy mornings. We've been enjoying his efforts, Adam has been getting some "home ec" experience, extra math, and he's even benefitted from some occupational therapy that he doesn't realize. The act of flipping, stirring, measuring, and putting batter into tins or a griddle is really tough for him - he's not especially coordinated with that CP on his left side coupled with the fact that his body has grown so fast. That seems to have affected his coordination as well. The "exercise" however, is painless when he doesn't know he's doing it, and he's LOVED the attention and compliments on his good cooking. He's needed the extra emotional boost, and I've enjoyed the extra hands in the kitchen.

I'll have to post some of the recipes we've been using. They've sure been a blessing! We've been eating healthier and getting all kinds of "overlapped" benefits from it.

Eek, gotta run... Abrielle is fussin' at me!