A Week, Briefly (4/5/20)
We're knee-deep in the "finishing" stage of school.
Though we've been in it all along because we've worked intensely on one or two subjects at a time instead of doing a little bit of each one each day.
The Symposium team and I read The Oresteia this week. It was quite challenging for us, and we used some notes/discussion pages we found online to help us make sense of it. I assigned them to retell the third and final play in the series as a story from whatever point of view they liked. Their papers are due on Monday, so I haven't seen them yet, but based on the questions they've asked me, I'm in for a real treat when they're done.
On Friday we started Plutarch's Lives.
Whooooo! This one is going to be a challenge! We've only read about Theseus so far, but this is densely packed storytelling, and the book will see us into June--or beyond, if the quarantine is lifted. I've crunched some numbers, and it will be our last Ancient Literature and Culture read aloud together. They'll get a full high school history credit for the reading, discussion, and writing completed.
We managed to never get a picture, but Belle finished Apologia's Exploring Creation with Health and Nutrition. She aced it. :)
She's doubling/trebling her efforts to get through Saxon's Algebra 2 right now.
That's a lot of math.
The Academy kids and I read half of Aesop's Fables, and felt the energy declining, so we put it away to finish next year. We were practicing narrations with them, and the kids really do a good job narrating--even Baymax and Lola. We're still reading Children Just Like Me, memorizing the notes of the treble clef, and working our way through Myself and Others Book Two, but we've added in poetry memorization and Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany.
My little Kinders are reading and memorizing and listening and writing their numbers every day. Sometimes they jump at the chance to do school. Sometimes they tell me it's hard. :) I spend many moments each week reminding the older kids that it is hard for these little ones and not to belittle their beginning efforts.
We're spending every afternoon outside until I simply have to feed the kids and put them to bed. :) As a result, Nature Angel has poison ivy, and Baymax has some sort of horrible allergic reaction to something all over his face and neck.
We think it has something to do with our creek.
I'm quite grateful for the slow-cooker meals I prepped and froze ahead of time, so that I can be outside, too.
Nature Angel works diligently at watering and caring for our garden. Temperatures are up in the 80s one day and down at freezing the next, so there's a lot of covering and uncovering of plantlets going on.
Nature Angel and I had a mother-daughter date at a local nursery. We wandered every single aisle of that lovely, lovely store and found many treasures that we wish we could afford. The flower that that most touched Nature Angel's heart is a yellow Begonia, so we purchased one, and then we found potted Begonias on clearance at Walmart a few days later. Now we have 3!
Sir Walter Scott and I had our first ABA parent-training session via teleconference. It was . . . boring. We do have an ABC data sheet to work on in the week ahead, and that might be quite interesting.
We'll see.
We participated at various levels (some all day, some part of the day, some not at all--depending on age and ability) in the Worldwide Fast in response to COVID-19.
In the evening Grandma and Grandpa brought pizza and visited with us; we needed some of Grandpa's leach line experience and advice.
There are moments that steal my breath every day . . . filling me with wonder at the blessing it is to be part of this family. I wish every time that I could stop and write it down and remember the moment forever, but I cannot, and the moments blur like an Impressionist painting.
All I can do is thank my Father in Heaven for the goodness and mercy of now.
And laugh when Beowulf says things like, "Yes indeed, Woman!" when Pixie asks him a question.
Though we've been in it all along because we've worked intensely on one or two subjects at a time instead of doing a little bit of each one each day.
 |
| Ladybug learned a lot from this phonics/spelling resource, and now she's reviewing her skills with Book 3 1/2. |
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| Ladybug's cursive is really quite lovely, and now she's working on another book by another publisher to keep her skills up. |
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| Beowulf and I only worked on the reading pages in this book because he's doing Memoria Press handwriting and Rod and Staff arithmetic. This kid grew in his reading skills by leaps and bounds. He's super excited to start reading regular storybooks next week. |
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| This curriculum is definitely geared toward a younger audience than these two, and I'll probably use the books next year with my Academy crew (adding the activities I skipped for these two), but the stories are engaging, and my middle schoolers got to "meet" a lot of interesting people this year and were introduced to several events in American History that they were previously unaware of. It is a beautiful survey course for young ones. |
The Symposium team and I read The Oresteia this week. It was quite challenging for us, and we used some notes/discussion pages we found online to help us make sense of it. I assigned them to retell the third and final play in the series as a story from whatever point of view they liked. Their papers are due on Monday, so I haven't seen them yet, but based on the questions they've asked me, I'm in for a real treat when they're done.
On Friday we started Plutarch's Lives.
Whooooo! This one is going to be a challenge! We've only read about Theseus so far, but this is densely packed storytelling, and the book will see us into June--or beyond, if the quarantine is lifted. I've crunched some numbers, and it will be our last Ancient Literature and Culture read aloud together. They'll get a full high school history credit for the reading, discussion, and writing completed.
We managed to never get a picture, but Belle finished Apologia's Exploring Creation with Health and Nutrition. She aced it. :)
She's doubling/trebling her efforts to get through Saxon's Algebra 2 right now.
That's a lot of math.
The Academy kids and I read half of Aesop's Fables, and felt the energy declining, so we put it away to finish next year. We were practicing narrations with them, and the kids really do a good job narrating--even Baymax and Lola. We're still reading Children Just Like Me, memorizing the notes of the treble clef, and working our way through Myself and Others Book Two, but we've added in poetry memorization and Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany.
My little Kinders are reading and memorizing and listening and writing their numbers every day. Sometimes they jump at the chance to do school. Sometimes they tell me it's hard. :) I spend many moments each week reminding the older kids that it is hard for these little ones and not to belittle their beginning efforts.
 |
| Lola and Baymax cut the olives when we had burritos for dinner this week. |
We're spending every afternoon outside until I simply have to feed the kids and put them to bed. :) As a result, Nature Angel has poison ivy, and Baymax has some sort of horrible allergic reaction to something all over his face and neck.
We think it has something to do with our creek.
I'm quite grateful for the slow-cooker meals I prepped and froze ahead of time, so that I can be outside, too.
Nature Angel works diligently at watering and caring for our garden. Temperatures are up in the 80s one day and down at freezing the next, so there's a lot of covering and uncovering of plantlets going on.
 |
| Nature Angel helped transplant Lola's Zinnia seedlings into the front garden bed. |
Nature Angel and I had a mother-daughter date at a local nursery. We wandered every single aisle of that lovely, lovely store and found many treasures that we wish we could afford. The flower that that most touched Nature Angel's heart is a yellow Begonia, so we purchased one, and then we found potted Begonias on clearance at Walmart a few days later. Now we have 3!
 |
| Game playing is not always joyful as my crew work on positive social skills and negotiating, but one day it was so fun that I couldn't stop watching. |
Sir Walter Scott and I had our first ABA parent-training session via teleconference. It was . . . boring. We do have an ABC data sheet to work on in the week ahead, and that might be quite interesting.
We'll see.
We participated at various levels (some all day, some part of the day, some not at all--depending on age and ability) in the Worldwide Fast in response to COVID-19.
In the evening Grandma and Grandpa brought pizza and visited with us; we needed some of Grandpa's leach line experience and advice.
 |
| They stayed over there . . . |
 |
| And we stayed over here. |
There are moments that steal my breath every day . . . filling me with wonder at the blessing it is to be part of this family. I wish every time that I could stop and write it down and remember the moment forever, but I cannot, and the moments blur like an Impressionist painting.
All I can do is thank my Father in Heaven for the goodness and mercy of now.
And laugh when Beowulf says things like, "Yes indeed, Woman!" when Pixie asks him a question.
Love being able to read about your progress! XO
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean. So many moments I wish I could freeze in time and too quickly they pass by. We are in the finishing up stages of several things too. We have had ups and downs with our weather here and I am glad that my baby vegetable plants did not make it into the ground, I think I would have lost them in the storm. I hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteI so glad you are finding wonder and growth in these days. We had Grandma over to our back yard recently for dinner. She stayed on her mat and we stayed on our blanket. It worked out well. Strange times. We are in finishing mode too. Although, I am trying to keep the pace a bit slower for Dean so that he isn't done too soon. He had a job all lined up for this summer, but I am unsure what is going to happen to it with this crisis. I worry about his days being to empty.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
We loved Apologia Botany! "Perspiration is when people sweat, precipitation is when clouds sweat, and transpiration is when trees sweat."
ReplyDeleteFinishing season always gave me such a sense of accomplishment! Although, I remember feeling like we should still be "busy" with school until the official end of year. I really should have let that go. But sometimes we used it as a chance to go back and "finish up" some of the curriculum we had to set aside in order to work on reviews for other vendors.