Leaf jumping

We jumped right back into the swing of things this morning. The kids did their independent work and then we studied some Arabic together. Phoebe was even excited about her reading lesson because Daddy had told her that knowing how to read will help her to be an independent computer user (and she really wants to get better at Minecraft). 

This morning while I was texting my friend a song our family would like to sing at nursing home visit (our homeschool group(s) go every year), Phoebe said, "Why did you type 'Little Baby in a...in a mmmaaaannnngerrrr?'"

And, indeed, I had typed "Little Baby in a Manger."

She also read the word "slow" on our walk, so she's turning into a regular little reader! That's exciting to see!

After our afternoon walk, we spent some time tidying up some of the leaves in the yard (there are plenty). We like to keep them around because there are so many beneficial insects that overwinter in the leaves—fireflies and butterflies and all sorts of things. Plus, it's good for the soil! 

Look at all these friends we've found:

We've moved some leaves to mulch over our garden area and put some in our compost bin(s) and I'm sure we'll be moving around some more before the season is through. At least the ginormous oak tree seems to finally have dropped all its leaves so we won't have too many more leaves to contend with! 

The kids, of course, wanted to jump in the pile. 

Benjamin, who had been working with me to put up some Christmas lights, was very gracious with his younger siblings and waited on the side while they played, realizing that he is getting a little too big to jump into the leaf pile and wrestle with them (he didn't want to hurt them—which is fair because just yesterday Alexander bailed/jumped out of Benjamin's loft bed (because Benjamin was threatening to hit him with a pillow or something) and Alexander sprained his ankle...so we were talking about the time Benjamin hurt Alexander's leg on the trampoline years ago...which perhaps isn't entirely fair, but did serve to make Benjamin think about his strength versus his siblings' strength). 

I think/hope he got a few good jumps in (if not, there's always tomorrow)!

Trying to get a picture of both Phoebe and Alexander looking was like playing whack-a-mole.

Here they are finally agreeing to pose for me (after Zoë joined them—she had been inside rummaging through a box of coats to find one that fit).

It's good to be home, to see the kids, and start getting things to look a bit more like Christmas!