One of the things we don’t do enough of is getting the girls outside. Charlotte Mason recommended that children’s lessons be kept short and confined to the mornings, so they could spend the entire afternoon outdoors. I can’t remember who said it, but apparently she actually recommended a good 4-5 hours outdoor activities daily! I’m going to be paying particular attention to that section of the reading when I get to it in her homeschooling books, I tell you.

Of course CM lived in a time when kids didn’t have to be escorted everywhere they went until they were into their teens. The audience she wrote for also had household staff to do the cooking and cleaning, so mothers could get out with the kids and go on long, rambling nature walks. If someone wants to send me a household staff, I really wouldn’t turn it away. What? If you could afford to do that, you’d have one of your own? That’s what I thought. I guess we’re all in the same boat….. So, we do our best to get our exercise and our fresh (??) air anyway we can.

I’ve been looking into getting Dojogirl inline skates for a couple years now, ever since she had a sleepover with a neighbour whose kids all had them and she got to try inlining skating with them. She claims she was pretty good at it which is a bit of a surprise, Mama & Daddy not being good skaters at all.

Not being a skater doesn’t make it any easier for me to shop for her. I don’t know much about the pricing, the hardware or features - even how to size them. And I’d kinda like it to be a surprise when I buy them, so I don’t exactly want to bring her with me to try them on. I found a site today that sells K2 inline skates, and they have an interesting adjustable skate for girls that I figured would be a good “first try” for us.

It’s called the K2 Girls Missy Adjustable Inline Skate. The model they show on the web page is in purple, which as it happens is Dojogirl’s favourite! It adjusts to five different sizes, which means I wouldn’t need to worry about fitting. Because the skates grow with her as she grows, they’d pay themselves off really fast. Not that they’re terribly expensive, to begin with. These cost a fair bit less than the adult models to begin with, and right now they’re more than $25 off the usual price.

The whole line of K2 skates is really snazzy looking. I almost wanted to get some for myself - despite the klutz factor. Something about them just says speed. We’ve been trudging through the snow for so long, I want to feel the wind in my hair. I want to fly! (OK, with me it would be more like a flying leap off the bike path & into the bushes…. But Dojogirl has potential - I hope.)

So, maybe I won’t be getting any skates for myself but we’ll definitely be looking into adding inline skating in our homeschool plans for spring. I wonder what Charlotte Mason would think of that?

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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We’ve put our clocks forward and we’re beginning to do our spring cleaning, now. Our tomato seeds are waiting patiently to be planted, and I have this nagging worry that we’re probably already too late to really get a good growing season out of them unless fall sets in late this year….

My “check it out” bookmarks folder is absolutely overflowing with sites I need to take a proper look at. I have four or five half-written posts that I just can’t seem to get finished to my own satisfaction. I owe a dozen people an email, if only just to say hi & check in on how they’re doing.

I haven’t had time to sit down with a good book in ages. Last night I was so exhausted when I went to sleep, that I nearly fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. That’s pretty significant if you know that normally, I’m an insomniac.

Somebody keeps doing searches for “foot binding” and related terms, and landing on my blog. I didn’t realize this was such a popular topic! I mean, I must get about five hits a day to the post I wrote back before Christmas about our visit to the Redpath Museum. Just because of the foot binding photos. I think, anyway. I don’t know; maybe somebody is using that search term to “remember” this blog, instead of bookmarking it or subscribing to the feed. Or maybe somebody from the Redpath keeps visiting that post so it will be popular, and clicking on the link to the museum to drive up their hits….. OK, sometimes my reasoning runs a little towards conspiracy theories. It just seems odd, that’s all.

Despite my fatigue I’ve been up early every morning for several days. I suspect that being on daylight savings time has something to do with it. Plus the sky seems very bright the last while because of all the snow that has been dumped on us lately! My mother’s flowers are starting to come up. It will probably be another six weeks till we see the beginnings of flowers here. The last dying gasps of winter seem to drag on forever in Montreal, these days. Was it like this when we were kids? I don’t remember it being quite as long before things started to green up. Or the summers being nearly as sticky and hot, either. I suppose I could check with Environment Canada, but somehow that always seems to spoil things. I like my memories the way they are. Even if they’re a little fuzzy round the edges!

On another note, the Bug is getting much more verbal. This, of course, means he’s beginning to mouth off instead of just letting out a meaningless yell. And he does yell often. When he comes in the house. When he’s told to sit at the table. When it’s time for bed. Because we turned the “wrong way” on the street. As I’ve mentioned, he has low tolerance for frustration, and transitions can be a tough thing for him.

I don’t know if I’m amused with his new flippancy, or upset by it. I don’t think it’s sufficiently sunk in yet. In a way, any words are good words with him. Autism just tosses all the normal rules out the window, sometimes.

I guess it’s time I stopped rambling, and got back to the business of the day. There’s washing to do, and supper to be made, and kids to get off to Ju-Jutsu class. I guess I’ll make another cup of tea. Maybe the work of the day will go more quickly if I think about that big frosty glass of lemonade I’ll be having, this time in a month or two….

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!