MONDAY: For some reason, Monday was an excellent school day. The kids both know enough Latin vocabulary now that we can cobble together both fun phrases ("Do you remember when Gracie was an infans feles?") and insert Latin words into our regular speech ("I SAID stop kicking open that porta!"), which seems to have made them more invested in learning new words. This week we also learned several Christmas words (the Latin textbook
that we're currently using is NOT secular, but considering Latin's long tradition in the church, and how that played a huge part in keeping Latin alive and relevant through the medieval period, I'll allow it), so I found some Christmas hymns sung in Latin for us to listen to as we worked, and the children enjoyed this greatly.There was no protest, either, over math--Syd finds rounding easy, so she didn't throw a fit, and Will actually enjoyed creating line graphs, so she didn't throw a fit, either!--or music. Syd is still happily working through a set of free piano lessons online (I don't know, yet, what I'll do when she finishes those--find more? Enroll her in formal lessons?), and Will was much happier to learn her song when I sat her down and had her record every note of her song on a series of recorder fingering diagrams--it's like written music for a kid who can't yet read music!
The kids have been interested in survival skills since their first nature class earlier this year, and their homework for that class is to create a survival kit for the car, so we'll be working on that in the next couple of weeks. Yet another thing that I love about homeschooling is the ability to integrate the kids' homework for their extracurricular activities into their school days.
TUESDAY: Although we STILL do not have a chicken carcass to work with, both kids are working on their Science Fair project right this moment, while we listen to various versions of "Dry Bones" on Spotify. I will not worry about that chicken carcass right now. Other continuing projects for today include more work on the World Thinking Day badges (Syd finished her comparative analysis and her art project last week, but Will still needs to do her research project, and they both need to start their service project) and on the scrapbook for our California vacation.
Math is working a little differently this week--both kids wanted to attend two math classes this week, instead of one, so that plus Math Mammoth equals a whole week of math! I'm not ashamed to admit that it was a big time-saver to not have to plan out a hands-on math lesson this week, although in theory I do prefer that we have a hands-on math day at home, where I can offer enrichment on a relevant concept and evaluate their mastery of that concept. If they continue to choose to attend both classes, I may have to rethink our weekly math schedule. First Language Lessons
, however, keeps tooling along just fine--it's still a little too easy for Will, but what we're doing now is at least good spelling practice for her. I have found that even though the kids are on the same chapter each week, I still need to work with them separately, so I can move faster through the material with Will and slower with Syd. So much for time-saving grammar studies!WEDNESDAY: I'm not in love with having two extracurricular activities scheduled on the same day; next session, I'll try again, and perhaps one day I'll have a time that I actually like for horseback riding lessons.
Just recently, we've starting watching Global Wrap together every week, and if we keep enjoying it, I'll also add it to the Wednesday schedule, just so we don't forget about it.
THURSDAY: Syd and I will have some time to work on her T-shirt dress while Will explores more on Scratch; I don't think she's actually worked herself up to creating a program, although she keeps expressing interest in it, so I'll keep giving her a set time to play around with it. And I think we're all going to enjoy this week's Drawing With Children
lesson, so this should be a fun day!If we don't have a boiled down, bleached out chicken skeleton to start re-articulating by this day, I don't know what we're going to do. So much for my relaxed Science Fair prep schedule!
FRIDAY: More Science Fair prep, more California scrapbooking, more World Thinking Day badge activities, and another math class! In addition, we're *finally* starting the next chapter of The Story of the World
, which means coloring pages, Jim Weiss' narration, and quiz questions.SATURDAY/SUNDAY: We've got a celebration for the Year of the Horse at the library and a radio building workshop at our local hands-on science museum, a Goodwill store-wide sale that Syd and I might be visiting to seek out green sequined formal wear, and hopefully just the very last touches to put on a Science Fair project.
Because what could be a better family bonding activity than re-articulating a chicken skeleton together?
2 comments:
Now that the kiddo is starting to feel better, we might actually do some school work with her. Maybe.
For the chicken carcass, try looking for a local farm, or can you contact someone through 4-H that might raise chickens for food?
I am so glad that she's feeling better! My girls totally owe her some major letter action--they were THRILLED to get her package, by the way!--but for some reason this is the season of long-winded projects that we've got to get through first.
I have tried every remotely normal source for a complete chicken carcass, sigh. I think that this is just the exact wrong time of year for it. Everybody slaughtered their unwanted chickens back in the fall when they were nice and fat, so that they wouldn't have to feed them through the winter. Fortunately, there's an epic international grocery in Indy that we love exploring, so even if we don't find a chicken there tonight, surely we'll find *something* that the girls can re-articulate the skeleton from. Or maybe I will just have them do the grocery store chickens for now--still informative, even if it's not the whole skeleton.
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