Thursday 22 Feb 07

The good news is that there has been a LOT more schooling going on than this blog would indicate. We have had a steady week of work with a nice balance between independent work and together projects.

Firstborn:

• has been working on his baseball album. He is adding short biographies and drawings of some of the great players
• finishes off 2-3 pages of math each day, mostly well done. Mostly he forgets to reduce those fractions! He took the test today and we'll correct it tomorrow. We'll be taking a break soon from the indoor schoolroom and enjoying the outdoor schoolroom. In March, backyard landscaping and gardening will take the place of our regular school day. Tomorrow I would like Firstborn to take some measurements of the backyard so we can put it on graph paper and start planning.
• italic cursive is going well; he is almost done with the current workbook
• the catapult is complete! I have to blog about this over at Soul of the Home
• we are finally approaching the Late Middle Ages, pressing on through the Hillyer text with bonus info from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and some supplemental texts. Firstborn is reading If All the Swords of England which tells the tale of Thomas Becket. Today we caught up on filling in the big wall timeline as it was several centuries behind.
• will prepare a narration for us on Science & Technology in the Middle Ages.
• Completed a copywork page from Learning to Love God...I'll have to take a look at it tomorrow

Sunshine

• seems to be enjoying our history studies and trying hard to keep up...
• plugging away on math and handwriting pages each day
• still doing the self imposed daily copywork from Learning to Love God. Her handwriting is improving by leaps and bounds; finally getting better control over smaller size writing.
• really enjoys reading from her children's bible. She does this during school time and free time.
• reading, art, and dance are her current loves

Rosebud

• does the hundreds board daily and can now put it back on her own! Also, adds with the red & blue rods fluently; I think she is ready for the next step
• showed me this week that she knows her geometric solids perfectly
• wants to read, but just isn't quite ready yet; I need to look in the Montessori Read & Write book for inspiration on some more activities we might do. Meanwhile, we keep practicing the sandpaper letters and writing with the moveable alphabet
• in addition to these "pre-writing" activities, she likes to trace my writing of family names onto tracing paper; I am thinking of some little craft projects we might do with that interest
• looooves being the chef's apprentice; sets the table beautifully, though still usually forgets a thing or two
• plans to recite this little poem to the family tomorrow night:

There is nothing to fear
for Jesus is near;
His love is the light
that makes all things come right.

ALL of the children are enjoying Beowulf. I was so surprised today when I stopped reading at a real cliffhanger moment (Grendel's mother had just arrived to avenge the death of her son) and all three children pleaded with me to go on. Even 4 year old Rosebud-who I didn't even know was paying any attention, much less understanding, any of the tale. Nonetheless, we stopped. We have only one remaining chapter in Little House in the Highlands which will, no doubt, be read tomorrow. I am thinking of something more spiritual to read after that...saint story or the like, for our "lenten reading." Also, after Beowulf, we will read a few of the Canterbury Tales (retold for children in modern English). Firstborn was wondering about the Tales of Marco Polo (we read about him yesterday in history). Goodness, I know nothing about those; maybe the girls & I better stop at the library tomorrow during baseball practice to see if they carry anything pertinent.

Everyone had a music lesson or practiced their music assignments today. Very nice to hear that going on. All three are preparing for spring recitals; it will be Rosebud's debut at the beginner's recital and Sunshine's debut at the big program.

We need to start serious planning for the landscaping project. I do intend to keep a couple of subjects going during March, but hope to primarily get everyone working hard outside. Tomorrow I am going to get out our collection of gardening books, especially want to look the children's landscape books for some ideas. This year we want to try to grow the sunflower house. More on that later.

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Lunch: PB&J on Tortillas
Dinner: Black bean soup & bread,
except Alma can't eat them beans, so it for her it was Barley Soup w/ Carmelized Onions

Neighbor Courtney joined us. Fun!