Journal 6/1

• Good day. Woke up early and made it to 8 o'clock mass. Set such a good mood for the day.
• Josh started his first online class on Beowulf. He really enjoyed it.
• Will got up and, I think, did some math.
• Hannah stayed in her room until about 11:00. Her summer has officially started today. She did have to go get the Solara inspected and then went to work. She's got a heavy work schedule this week. She works nearly every day.
• Becky and Sean did a little more work in their new history binders. They copied over the 10 plagues. We got into a interesting discussion about what exactly the 10 plagues were. The Haggadahs and the movie Prince of Egypt has the 3rd plague as wild beasts but in the Catholic Bible history I'm reading to the kids and in the Catholic bible, the 3rd plague is flies. I looked it up in Rick's Torah and it said 'swarms of insects' but then mysteriously there is a note at the bottom of the page that says 'wild beasts.' To me there is a big difference between wild beasts and flies. Makes you wonder about all the vagaries of translating one language into another.
• We finished the story of Osiris and Isis in Ancient Tales of Eygpt.
• Before all this I had mentioned to Becky that is was the feast of St. Justin Martyr. This made her think of the story of Androcles and the Lion which she proceeded to tell me in a long and very detailed retelling which Sean found agonizingly slow.
• Becky is really interested in Bible geography. She kept looking at maps and asking about sites mentioned in the Bible and whether they still existed. Makes me think about that wonderful geography program I saw, a Child's Geography of the Bible (or something like that). It looks so interesting and well done. And it has a lot of hands on stuff in it. I'm tempted to get it. I'd really enjoy doing it myself!
• Sean did a little math facts practice on the math shark.
• Did some Latin homework with Josh and Will before I took Sean to his piano lessons.
• Becky came with me and we took a walk and got ice cream at a little ice cream store.
• Sean had a good piano lesson. He can't wait to learn flash. He is already dreaming up a movie to go with his new piece. He also said he wanted to do a silent movie depicting one of the Devotional Stories we read this year from CHC. Becky and Sean certainly loved those stories!
• Came home and listened to some of the Beowulf lecture. Very cool. The teacher, Dr. Russell seemed great. Very calm and clear and pleasant. No wonder Josh liked it.
• Did more Latin homework with Will and Josh
• The weather was beautiful today; spent a lot of time outside on the screen porch; the kids were out in the yard a lot.
• I listened to my bird song cd off and on in the car as we drove. I'm such a nerd that I want to know the difference between the call of the American Robin and the Scarlet Tanager!!
• Got Greek carry out. Got a gyro. Hadn't had one in ages and I was craving one suddenly. It was delicious.
• Took Will and Sean to music theory. Read a lot of Karen Edmisten's book on the rosary. Took a walk to walk off the gyro!
• Came home and Becky was just dozing off on the couch watching Phineas and Ferb episodes for the 5oth time. She can't get enough of those cartoons!
• Said prayers. Read Becky Little House on the Prairie. Last night she surprised me by asking me to read it to her. I had asked her a couple days ago if she was interested but she said no, most emphatically. I had tried reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm to her but the language seemed to difficult and it wasn't holding her interest. Anyway, tonight she was so cute, she got an old piece of cloth that Hannah many years ago had tried to make into a skirt (practicing on our neglected sewing machine) and she got a needle and asked me to thread it for her. Then she sat there practicing her stitching while I read to her.
• Sean continues his interest in animation. He was working on creating three dimenisonal objects that rolled on Sketch Star. He likes Sketch Star more than Pivot currently because he can save it on his mini clip account.
• Rick read The Hobbit to Sean.