It’s Monday, and it’s time for a glimpse of what a normal morning looks like for us. In the living room a boy is pursuing his goal of becoming a chess Grandmaster and World Champion. He’s immersing himself in a chess app, watching videos about positional chess concepts and the Sicilian opening. It takes a lot of repetition and practice for him to figure out how to apply these concepts in his games, but he’s definitely improving. At least, when he can summon the patience to properly think through his moves. His little sister just climbed up and cuddled with him and he just put his arm around her without complaint and kept on with his studies.

In her room, his twin sister is studying French. As our resident Francophile, who fell in love with the Eiffel Tower at the age of three and has set her heart on moving to Paris ever since, she recently decided she wanted to learn French. A little searching and experimentation led us to a language app that she likes, and the past few days she’s spent a lot of time immersed in French, absorbing basic vocabulary and grammar like a sponge. She’s begun writing down some of the words she knows so she can practice outside the app, and she asked me to learn French so we can converse together.

Two other boys have been building spaceships out of DUPLO bricks and are engaged in an epic Star Wars inspired battle. They’re running around like maniacs, except for when they pause to modify their ships or build new ones. Their imaginations are vibrant and amazing to watch, as is that of their youngest brother who’s playing with some action figures in a quieter game of imagination.

None of these activities will last them all day. Eventually they’ll each move on to other tasks and interests. At some point there will be playing outside, probably some video games and art, reading and LEGO building. I won’t force them to do any of those things, but I will let them explore. It’s shaping up to be a pretty good start to the week.