Catching Up...

Friday, Monday, and Tuesday did happen and so did some learning. But I am not going to pretend that they were the high points of academic penetration. Things were just happening in life. In fact, Monday our Little Ray of Sunshine celebrated her 7th birthday (I need to blog that over at Soul of the Home). Tuesday was a pretty good day and today was mediocre.

Firstborn told me he wants to do a history project pertaining to the Crusades, "something more than just making a little book like when I was younger." Hmmmmm...history project...on the Crusades...for a nine year old. Suddenly I thought of a great idea! Firstborn had mentioned last week that there was a catapult in his book about catapults designed by King Richard for use in the Crusades. I suggested that this would be a great history project for him and that his dad would be a perfect partner for the work. So, Saturday found The Prof and the children at Home Depot purchasing PVC piping, various small connecting pieces of PVC and PVC primer/solvent. In the meantime, Firstborn has been doing some coloring in a Medieval Life coloring book and continuing some historical fiction reading.

Meanwhile, both Firstborn and Sunshine have moved ahead in their Math books. Firstborn needs a lot more drilling about when to apply the various rules to solving fraction problems. Rule of Four? Find the GCF? Just add the numerator? It is a lot to sort out. Sunshine is doing great math in her head, especially with subtraction. I am pleased, but still making sure she is continuing to drill those basics.

Firstborn's Latin is really getting meaty now. It is so critical for us to review and drill daily; I even intend to play the CD on Saturday. Those second noun declensions of the neuter...well, maybe it is Almamater who really needs to review!

Rosebud has nearly mastered her knowledge of the geometric solids. We are now using all of the solids we own: cylinder, cube, sphere, square based pyramid, triangular based pyramid, cone, square base prism, triangular prism, ellipsoid and ovoid. She loves playing the command game and the label game (tries to sound out some of the short words in the label game). Loves practicing writing using stencils and copying her siblings names using tracing paper. She is working on learning a short poem/prayer: There is nothing to fear for Jesus is near; His love is the light that makes all things come right.

To all three children: We discontinued Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm as it was just too advanced (though I was enjoying my first reading of it and may continue to the end) and have instead started in on the Melissa Wiley series. We are beginning with Little House in the Highlands.

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I posted about our recent dinners over at Soul of the Home. For today:

Lunch: Wendy's and bananas
Dinner: Final leftovers of the Monte Cristo sandwiches and the Enmoladas

(Wednesday & Thursday)

I guess this is an accountability post; also known as a post about real life mingling with home school. It ain't pretty from a scholarly standpoint, but it is honest:

Wednesday :

Wednesday is traditionally our "Domestic Arts" day, because we usually have company on Wednesday. We also usually squeeze in a little bit of table work (ie, academic work). None today. We started late and then had to cut out early to take the Prof to his Wed workplace as his car was in the shop. When we returned, there was just time for a little more cleaning, a quick snack before our minds were turned to another committment.

We did enjoy the afternoon guests for our weekly Rosary and play group. Off to bed late, way too late.

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Lunch: Cheeseburgers. Golden french fries. Okay, it was Wendy's.
Dinner: Frozen Pizza, green salad and cherry pie. Not a real banner day nutritionally.

Thursday:

So Thursday is the day we usually work hard to make up for Wednesday's fun. It helps because usually the Prof has some time available to help out with Little Queen. Again, though, today proved to be rather irregular schedule wise. I taught a rescheduled music lesson and chatted away with the mom for awhile afterwards. The Prof was largely out of the picture this morning having had an early rehearsal with a saxophonist (thankfully at another location. I love the saxophone, used to play it as a matter of fact, but, please not before 10am).

Well, after everyone had left, there was an incoming phone call that lasted quite awhile (had to happen, though, as there is some planning that must be tended to). Wouldn't you know, then it was past lunchtime? First I helped Firstborn with a Latin for Children maze (I guess that counts as school!), read a book to Rosebud-who had waited so patiently-and finally put together a lunch for us all. I think the eldest two did fit in a few math pages somewhere in there, but I'll have to confirm that tomorrow.

After lunch it was quiet time (blessings!). I scurried to get some of my own work done during QT, because it was such a beautiful day, I knew I wanted to take everyone on a walk in the late afternoon. Oh, it was just what the doctor had ordered. The temps were in the sixties and the shy sun was finally beaming, we basked in it all. In fact, the children stayed out until dark.


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Lunch: leftover Cream of Tomato Soup, leftover Italian Style Mac-n-Cheese, PB&J sandwiches, carrot sticks and that wonderful farm fresh Raw Whole Milk.
Dinner: Blueberry Pancakes and Hashed Browns (which was on the menu for tomorrow night, so I have some shuffling to do now!)

Tuesday 23 January

Firstborn:

• Checked his math work from yesterday and corrected errors. Completed 1+ additional pages.
• Reviewed Latin and asked to take the test. Possible errors in the teacher manual here? I need to sit down with it tonight.
• Lots of music theory review

Sunshine:

• Drafted a thank you card; will copy it tomorrow (this counts for handwriting & spelling)
• "Built" with her MUS blocks for quite awhile.
• Worked on her poem and recited the first verse for me from memory
• Music theory review

Rosebud:

• Dug out the long forsaken geometric solids. We reviewed: cube, sphere, square-based pyramid, triangular-based pyramid, cone, and cylinder. They came back to her remarkably well. We placed them in the mystery bag and identified them by feel. Then we created a new game in which one of us would feel the shape in the mystery bag and describe it ("has a square on one end and a point at the other") until the other person could name the shape. Rosebud LOVED this activity and we did it over & over. Tomorrow we will add the remaining solids, if she is up for more.
• Also dug out the long forsaken "Parts of a Flower" cards. She recalled these with just a little prompting and happily labelled them (corolla, pistil, stamen, calyx, flower).
• We played the Label Game again. I see her actually starting to try to sound out words a bit. We used yesterdays cards and added a couple of new ones. I know she is going to love the command game later this week!

All Together:

• Since the Prof was around for awhile to take Little Queen into his care, we got out the microscope. Steering away from the ready made slides, the children opted to examine a piece of newspaper and some chalk dust. All enjoyed seeing these...especially the newspaper. Firstborn thought it neat that the ink isn't actually consistent though the letter looks solid to the naked eye.
• I read from Hillyer's "Child's History of the World" to Firstborn and Sunshine. We were reading about the Crusades. Firstborn was very excited to tell us that one of the three kings we read about (King Richard) had designed a catapult for use in the Crusade battles and the design is included in his new book, The Art of the Catapult. Great connection!
  

This evening we read two more chapters from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

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Lunch: Leftover Cream of Tomato Soup and toast (quick lunch=no time for Missal readings)
Dinner: Italian Style Mac-n-Cheese (Rachel Ray's Comfort Food) & Salad; Ice cream for dessert

Monday22 January

Friday did happen and it was a good day of schooling, I just can't remember the details anymore. So we'll just pick up and start fresh with today. Because of other committments, Monday is always sort of a short day in the study. A sort of bumpy way to start the week, really, but there is nothing that can be done about it for now.

Firstborn:

• Watched the DVD presentation of his new math lesson. Then I gave him fifteen minutes to complete all that he could. He was intrigued by this and completed three entire pages. Hurray! However, I haven't checked the work. Still, I was pleased to see him focus so on his math work. Inspired by Sunshine, Firstborn then spent some time at the MUS website doing much needed basic function drill. He knows the basics, but doesn't seem to be second nature yet.
• Latin. Lots of Latin review today, independent and with me. The conjugations and declensions (we're on the second declension now) are starting to get sorted out in his brain and the memory work is really improving. He also completed the lesson worksheet. We will spend the rest of the week reviewing, doing the activity book pages and I HAVE to get that CD playing every day. Hmmm....what would be a good routine time for that?
• Still plugging away on those Christmas thank you cards. One more drafted and written today.

Sunshine:

• Spent a lot of time looking for things this morning. Ugh! Over the weekend I cleared all of the toys and even some of the clothes (the ones that were on the floor) out of the girls' room. Still Sunshine couldn't find everything she needed this morning. Putting things away when she is finished with them is a life skill that I am really going to have to help her with (maybe if I did a better job modelling it?!)
• Handwriting. Sunshine did such nice work in her handwriting book today. It was a small amount, but really careful. I was pleased with her thoughtfulness in this work and gave her a lot of encouragement.
• Math. I am still not ready to let her move on to the next chapter in MUS until she really has those -9s down. These seem to be the hardest to learn (for Firstborn, too) and I want her to have them solid before we move on. So, she spent a lot of time at the MUS online drill doing these today and did improve.
• Chose a poem for the week, but totally independently. Need to work with her tomorrow.
• She needs to polish off some more thank you cards tomorrow during school.

Rosebud

• Completed the 100s board again. Her counting is improving each time and she notices her errors independently and is even able to correct them.
• Ohhh, how she wants to read, but just isn't quite "there" yet. Today I started her on the Label Game. I write on individual sheets of paper simple names of objects in the room (lamp, desk, rug, etc) and sound it out for her and then she labels it. After we do up to ten, I ask her to bring each label back to me by name (Bring me the label that says "lamp" please). She loved this and started to see the sounds as I read them to her. Later in the week or next week, I would like to add the Command Game.
• Dictated a thank you card to me today. Signed it (in improving cursive !) and illustrated it (the drawing is really maturing, too!)

Firstborn and Sunshine worked on their music theory today. Big test is coming up!

Over the weekend we finished "Schoolhouse in the Woods" and began "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." The former was beloved by the children, the latter is obviously much more of a challenge but they keep asking for more. It gives me a chance to model narration; I stop after every paragraph to narrate or field questions. This is also a new book for me and I am really enjoying it.

We have failed at the family rosary for several consecutive days now, but the daily scripture reading from the missal has been consistent. The readings give them a chance to try to narrate and me a chance to model. They seem to enjoy this activity--more than I thought they would, certainly. I like Helen's idea of working with one or two catechism questions each week at tea time, so I am hashing over how to incorporate that into our day as well.

Notes for tomorrow: 1. Family Rosary. 2. Latin CD 3. Label Game for Clara 4. Thank you cards 5. Order new items w/Christmas money (esp. for Little Queen & Rosebud) 5. More time away from the texts

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Lunch: Leftover Salmon & Spinach Noodle Casserole (from Big Book of Casseroles)--BIG HIT! & some carrot sticks and apple slices

Dinner: Cream of Tomato Soup (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) and a crusty loaf of bread

18 January

Another late start day. Next week we've really got to get back to our morning routine. Gratefully, I woke up feeling better this morning than I have felt in a long time; taking the antibiotic (and the ibuprofen) was definetely the right decision. The ice is melting and the temps are rising. The Professor whipped up a dozen Brown Sugar Oatmeal muffins, sliced some apples, poured some milk and we called it breakfast.

School was really humming today as we had Little Queen with us. Whew! Makes it so much more, umm... interesting.

Firstborn:

• Latin lesson 7 presents new challenges. We reviewed the grammar material and he did part of the worksheet
• Oral narration of Chapter 1 of The Lost Baron
• Addressed several Christmas thank you cards
• Tallied scores from Rosebud and my Yahtzee game
• Worked on music theory

Sunshine:

• Read and orally narrated Reading 3 from Just Like Mary
• Completed perfectly MUS 21E, so she needn't do 21F
• Reviewed with me subtraction with 9s using flashcards (we'll continue this before starting a new lesson)
• Completed the hundreds board
• Read through an old reader, just for fun
• Practiced her memorized poem; the selection is extremely short, but we are concentrating more on her presentation than the actual poem (posture, nervous habits, eye contact, etc). Nonetheless, we did discuss the meaning of the poem for a couple of minutes today.

Rosebud:

• Wrote more words with moveable alphabet
• Worked with red & blue rods (doing quite well with this!)
• Beat me at Yahtzee. This time she wrote her own scores for the first time
• Worked on a tangram puzzle

Little Queen:

• Ring stacker
• Matreshkas
• Shape sorter
• "Observed" everyone else's work
• Shook the dice for me in Yahtzee

During lunch I read the Mass readings of the day and we discussed them. Firstborn read Chapter 2 of the The Lost Baron during QT and will orally narrate it tomorrow.

In the afternoon, Firstborn & Rosebud very enthusiastically helped chop vegetables and herbs for the White Bean Soup. (We harvested rosemary and parsley from the garden; the parsley looks like it may have suffered more than a bit from the freezing weather.) Then all three older children folded a ton of laundry (still catching up from the holidays) while I read aloud almost the remainder of Schoolhouse in the Woods.

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Lunch: Nachos and salad
Dinner: White Bean Soup w/ Pasta & Rosemary Oil (except I forgot the pasta...oops!) and Turkey & bacon wraps with Raspberry Chipotle sauce. Christmas candies for dessert. The soup was met with mixed reviews; the wraps were a hit!

Wednesday 17 January

Despite the weather and my still under-the weather health, we had a great day of R&D. This afternoon I finally went to dr.--one I had never seen, but who is supposed to be very tuned in to alternative medicine. Even though I haven't been feeling well since before Christmas, he encouraged me to wait it out another day or two. Yeesh! Anyway, I left with a prescription for an antibiotic in case I decide to resort to it. Meanwhile, back in the schoolroom...

Firstborn:

• Made corrections on his math test and was very pleased to have only gotten a few wrong (Hmmm...I was surprised he got a few wrong)
• Wrote another Christmas thank-you card
• Began Lesson 7 Latin
• Listened to and discussed one lesson from Catholic Stories from Science
• Selected poem and began memorization
• Read Chapter 1 of The Lost Baron, will orally narrate tomorrow

Sunshine:

• Read and narrated second lesson from Just Like Mary
• Copywork from Just Like Mary
• Listened to and discussed a lesson from Catholic Stories from Science
• Worked on poetry memorization
• Completed MUS 21D

Rosebud:

• Completed the hundreds board
• "Wrote" more words with moveable alphabet
• Played with matreshkas
• Wrote alphabet using stencil
• Dictated and illustrated a Christmas thank you card
• Matched butterfly name labels to butterfly models

During lunch I read the Mass readings of the day to everyone and we discussed them.

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Lunch: children had frozen waffles and scrambled eggs (which Sunshine made); The Prof had a walnut and vinegar omlette (?!)
Dinner: Pizza and salad (I had two antibiotics, two ibuprofen, one hot shower and early to bed)

Tuesday 16 January: Snow day!

Another day of city shutdown. The sleet was on and off throughout the day
and the temps stayed in the twenties. We lingered during the morning and
finally sat down for some R&D. As soon as we'd started, the first snow flakes
floated past the window and the neighbors were all in our front yard.
Goodbye, Productive Day!

The children stayed out for a couple of hours. I took advantage of the time
to do some research for a trip we are planning this summer. When they came
in we had a hot lunch and off they went to Quiet Time (much needed as they
were sooo hyper today with the weather). I had a terrible headache so lay
down for a nap. Ended up sleeping way too long, the last part of it Little Queen
joined me.

When I got up we had to start the dinner preparations right away. After
dinner I read Chapter four of Schoolhouse in the Woods and the children went
to bed. I stayed up talking to Susan on the phone while the Professor watched
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Before bed, I alerted the children to the fact that tomorrow we are doing school
work regardless of the weather and of the fact that the city will be shut down
for another day. They were just too hyper today and need to have some directed
activity tomorrow.

In all fairness, Firstborn did most of his math test today, Sunshine worked on her
poem and both worked on their music theory. Rosebud had her music lesson and
learned a new song!

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Lunch: Finished the leftover Cauliflower soup and leftover Split Pea soup, nachos,
& carrots
Dinner: We tried a new and wonderful dish-Simple Butternut Squash Tart--it was
rich, sweet, hot and comforting. The Prof whipped up some cranberry sauce to go
with it, I sliced some pears, and we had a bowl of popcorn as an hors d'ouevre (late
dinner, remember). I had put some cinnamon and sugar with an egg wash on the
scraps of puff pastry (left from the Tart) and baked them up for a petite, easy dessert.

Monday, 15 January

Things are very unusual today. Last night my mom called at 11:30 to report that Dad had just been taken by ambulance to the hospital. As of this morning, things have stabalized and they are running a myriad of tests. At the same time, our temperatures were dropping and the rain was moving in. This morning we had sleet and the temps are in the upper twenties, which means we are all staying in for today and probably tomorrow. The good news is that means the Professor can spend some quality time with Little Queen while I give the young scholars more of my devoted attention in the study.

We started very late today, just because of the interrupted night (Mom called back around 1am again) and, well, because dark, cold, home-bound days inspire a certain lethargy. But then we had some great R& D.

Firstborn:

• Completed corrections on MUS lesson 13 and did the Lesson 12 test as a review/prep for Lesson 13 test. He was pleasantly agreeable to this painstaking work. Ready for Test 13!
• Checked his Latin test from last week and aced it!
• Worked on music theory
• Tomorrow: Start new Latin lesson, MUS Test 13, Music theory review, select poem, history narrations, science

Sunshine:

• Did copywork from "Learning to Love God"
• Orally narrated a short reading from "Just Like Mary"
• Selected a winter poem for memorization
• Completed a math page and corrections on the previous page
• Worked on music theory

Rosebud:

• Wrote her first words using the moveable alphabet!!!
• Completed the hundreds board for the first time
• Played with matreshkas
• Attempted the addition tray, but she really wasn't ready for it yet
• Laid out sandpaper numbers and represented values with markers

After school and lunch, we prayed a rosary for Papa. The children enjoyed their afternoon quiet time: the girls silently colored in their saint coloring/story books and did some scissors and paper crafts while Firstborn re-read an old favorite, "Mr. Popper's Penguins" in his room. I read Chapt 3 of Schoolhouse in the Woods after snack. (We finished the first book of the series, "The Happy Little Family" over the weekend.)

Note to self: Tomorrow read & discuss Mass readings.

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Lunch: Leftover pork/applesauce and leftover brisket, carrots, salad
Snack: Hot apple cider and broiled cinnamon-n-sugar buttered toast
Dinner: Cauliflower Soup (made with our garden harvested purple cauliflower) & a crusty loaf; ice cream with Pannetone cake for dessert

Friday January 12

Today we had a short R&D because Grandmama & Papa made a late departure from our home and because I am still pretty under the weather. We also, as promised, focused a lot more on the domestic arts that had been woefully neglected these past couple of weeks. Tomorrow there will be plenty more domesticity!

For R&D:

Firstborn:

• Completed Latin for Children Lesson 6 test (I need to check it over the weekend)
• Has completed lesson 21 work in MUS, but says he isn't ready for the test yet
  We will review the lesson on Monday to see what parts cause him uncertainty still.
• Memorized a short poem and recited it in the evening

Rosebud:

• Completed a math page
• Recited her first poem for the family: Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson. I let her choose this one, but next week I hope to direct her choice a bit more. She was terribly scared and upset about reciting it for us; it can only get easier from here.

In the evening we all watched This is America, Charlie Brown: Music and Heroes. It was a bit edgey and politically correct, shows graphic scenes of Vietnam War which surprised me, but still educational and enjoyable.

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Lunch: PB&J, etc
Dinner: Daddy took the children to Culver's; Mommy did an errand and picked up some salmon for dinner

Thursday Jan 11, 2007

Firstborn:

• Reviewed DVD lesson presentations 5-8 from MUS (Math, Epsilon)
• Reviewed Lesson 6 of Latin for Children; quiz tomorrow, new lesson next week
• Listened to and discussed two stories from Catholic Stories from Science
• Completed two pages of handwriting
• Played Scrabble about 20 minutes with me

Sunshine:

• Completed page in MUS (Alpha), did several rounds of drill at website
• Completed handwriting page
• Reviewed poem recitation for the week and read poems to Rosebud

Rosebud

• Played with matreshkas
• Listened to several poems read by Almamater and Sunshine, had Rosebud do a tiny bit of narration of these. She did great. Yesterday she dictated this precious little poem to me:

Pretty Poem

Roses are bloomed
Pretties are found
Roses are pretty
Blooms I love.

Lovings are sweet
Pretty roses of sweets
Dreams of fun
As of loves.

The end.
By Rosebud
January 2007

• All three watched the Wright Brothers' Story from our new This is America, Charlie Brown DVD.

Today I was very exhausted from a long night with an inexplicably restlesss Little Queen and because of my own achiness and illness. Grandmama was able to watch Little Queen during most of our short school session, Deo Gratias. The rest of the day, the three elder children spent outdoors playing Indians splendidly together, including building a fort and a tent. Firstborn played several games of Rummy with his grandparents. Tonight I read aloud Chapt 3 of Happy Little Family...all three are enjoying this book.

I have privately been reading a new Laura Ingalls Wilder book on wisdom and virtue and wish to share some of snippets with the children and quote some of these on the family blog. Tomorrow Grandmama & Papa depart and we must devote our selves to some domestic arts!

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Lunch: Split Pea Soup...children were so engaged in their playing, they completely declined the meal; though there were some little snacks and an early dinner:
Dinner: Leftover brisket and chicken from last night's carryout