Routine and Pegs

I've been morphing into a new routine lately which I am liking pretty much. I'd like to refine it a bit in the fall. For now though it is good it is general as each week or even day is different. Here are some new pegs:

• Wake up between 6:30 and 7:00. Put on a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, quick cup of tea, quick check of e-mail, dress
• I've been trying to go to Mass at 8:00 a.m. M, W and F. This has been absolutely lovely. Right now my teens have wanted to come with me once a week, usually on Fridays. When fall comes around I think I'll require everyone to come with me at least once a week. I can leave them at home usually because Rick doesn't usually leave for work until about 9.
• On T, TH and S, in theory, I am going to Curves and working out for 30 minutes. So far though I haven't made it on a Saturday.
• Come home and take a quick shower. If the kids get up while I'm gone they can get on the computer, but they have to shower beforehand. After my quick shower, I gather everything for a quick breakfast. We've been eating breakfast on the screen porch. I've been trying for simple and healthy breakfasts, bagels and cream cheese, cold cereal and juice, instant oatmeal and fruit, cheese, rolls or crackers and fruit, toast waffles and fruit, English muffins and Ovaltine. Okay they aren't all healthy but they are simple!
• For now any studies we do are not pegged to anything. I just find a block of time at some point during the day and plug in read alouds and Greek. RAs have been: Bible History everyday with narration questions after each story. American history read aloud on M, Science RA on Tuesday, Ancient History RA and notebook on W, American history again on TH and poetry on Friday.
• Also floating and not pegged, some organizational, deep cleaning task.
• Another floater, some kind of outdoors or physical activity.
• Another floater, some time spent looking through school books and planning or reading to educate myself.
• I've been better at planning balanced dinners too. We've been eating well the last couple of weeks because I've been trying harder.
• Another floater, having the kids have an independent reading time.

All these floaters are rather unsatisfactory but because it is summer we don't have a set schedule so I have to be flexible about all this stuff. And if it doesn't happen, no big whoop! LOL!

We've been doing our regular literature read alouds to Becky and Sean. I finished Little House on the Prairie and we just stared On the Banks of Plum Creek. Rick finished The Hobbit for Sean and is now reading the Moomintroll books, I think Comet in Moominland is the first book they are reading.

I should title this Routines and Pegs Part I. Next time I'll think about how to refine this for the fall.

Year of the Priest Rolling Unit Study

I'm just compiling resources here so that over this year of the Priest we can focus on praying for and learning about the Catholic Priesthood and the men who serve the Bride of Christ as her priests.

Priests are really an exotic concept in the modern world. Imagine giving up sex for God? I think most people nowadays find this unfathomable. It really is as strange and aesthetic as Buddhists monks or something, only since we've grown up with the idea we can't grasp it in all its strangeness. In this day and era, a good priest is a hero, living heroically every day. A parish priest especially does not even have the comfort of a monastery that will reinforce his commitment to a religious life by its daily rhythm and the isolation of its community. A parish priest must run a multimillion dollar enterprise in the world. He must deal with all the irritants of unhappy, unlikable, meddling parishioners (as well as the supportive and likeable ones). He has to deal with people getting up and walking out of Mass if he happens to mention that abortion is evil. He has to deal with people who complain that he doesn't talk about the evils of abortion enough. He has to small talk after Masses and at parish events. He has to be up for the 6:15 a.m. Mass as well as the Midnight Mass for Christmas and Easter. He has to hear confessions! He is on call for spiritual or health emergencies. People need Anointing of the Sick at all hours of the day. He has to bury the dead of the parish and comfort the survivors in their grief. He has to deal with people wondering if he is gay or a pedofile. He has to bear the brunt of the hatred of those who see the Catholic church as some evil archaic institution that refuses to modernize.

I am so grateful to these heroic priests. Without them there is no Eucharist. Without them there is no actual, historical link to Jesus and his apostles.

So I think we'll do a rolling unit study on priests and the priesthood. A rolling unit study is one that unfolds at its own pace over the course of time.

To begin with I found this neat article on Movie Priests. http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/06/17/movie-priests/ In that blog post there is another link to the top ten movie priests. I think we should try to watch as many of these as we can over the course of the year. Recently I have watched Monsieur Vincent which is an excellent French movie about St. Vincent de Paul. I also recently watched The Keys to the Kingdom. Gregory Peck does a great priest! He is also excellent in The Scarlet and the Black.

One movie that I think is missing from either list is Alec Guiness playing Father Brown. I'll have to look that up.

Other priests on the screen: right now I am watching a wonderful lecture series from The Teaching Co entitled Natural Law by Father Koterski. He's a priest! Up there in his collar, teaching this profound subject with such a pleasing humility and eloquence.

Also, there is that concert given entitled The Priests of the three Irish priests who are friends and wonderful singers. That is a very enjoyable concert. I have seen it a couple of times now.

There was, a few years back, a TLC (The Learning Channel, at least I think that's who did it) production that followed 4 young men as they tried to discern whether they were called to the priesthood. I can't remember what it was called, but it was excellent. My oldest two teens watched it but maybe it is time to see it again.

St John Vianney is now proclaimed the patron saint of all priests. My father liked this particular saint very much but I have yet to learn much about him. I think a children's biography of him will be in order here. I note here that poor St. John never could learn his Latin and they thought he was too dumb to become a priest but he struggled and eventually did. I am noting this because I've been having an on line discussion about the value of classical education and how some Catholic homeschooling educators seem to confuse a Classical education with being a good Catholic. And I am not comfortable conflating those two things! Not all Catholics are cut out for rigorous Latin and Greek but all Catholics hope for heaven.

I'm wondering about books on or by priests. One of my favorite books ever is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Last year I read Priestblock which was the true story of a priest held in a concentration camp during WWII.

One book that I read ages ago by Richard Bausch was called Real Presence and it reminded me very much of The Power and the Glory only it was set in rural Virginia!!!

Well, this is just the beginning of my brainstorming on the subject of resources and priests. I'll jot down more as I think of it!

Catch Up Journal 6/17/09

Gosh, we've been so busy and I've been spending on line time at facebook or having interesting conversations on yahoolists or reading interesting blogs. So I haven't devoted much time to this blog, or, that is, even less time than I have been spending. It is dwindling, dwindling!

Stuff I've been doing instead:

• I've started a regime where I go to 8:00 a.m. Mass on M, W, F
• I've been going to workout at Curves on T, TH, S usually at 8:00 as well
• I've just finished reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I'm going to post my review of it on goodreads. That's another place I've been going on the internet! It was a 600+ page Victorian novel so it took a lot of time to read!
• We've now wrapped the outside elements of our homeschool school year. Josh and Will both had their last math lesson of the year yesterday, Wed. So no more Latin or Math until August.
• Will did not get the accommodation approval for taking the SAT until after the final SAT testing soooo, he's waiting until Oct to take it. That means that we'll probably do some intensive prep in Sept. They only granted one of our two requests. We'd requested that he be able to fill in the answers in the test booklet itself instead of the bubble answer sheet. This is due to his tracking/convergence issues. They granted that accommodation but they didn't grant time and a half. I didn't even think he needed the time and a half because he concentrates better in shorter chunks of time. If he knows he's got extra time he'll take it but it will not help him concentrate. However, both the math tutor and vision therapist thought it was best to ask for it. I think he'll do fine with just answering in the test booklet. It is the act of having to switch focus from the test book to the bubble sheet that causes trouble. Those bubbles really slow him down. It is fatiguing to have make sure he's on the right bubble! His eyes just won't shift quickly.
• I went to the IHM Conference (for a bit) and saw Joseph Pearce speak and got him to sign my copy of his C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church book. I also bought Small is Still Beautiful and his book on Shakespeare. Have to put them on my 'to read' list on goodreads! I also saw Dale Ahlquist speak and got him to sign my copy of Commonsense 101.
• Right now we are trying to do the CAT for the end of the year testing. Sean is doing well as is Josh. But Becky, dear Becky, is just not reading well enough for it. She starts with the VT on 7/1. That means all five of my kids will have been in VT to get them reading. Sigh! Though I do thank God that I live in a time when VT is so available. In the past they would have just struggled so much in academics because of it. Thank you Lord that we can homeschool and go to a VT. My life is so blessed! Thank you, thank you, Lord!
• Last night, the Catholic Life Community at St. Mark had its Passing Mass for the Youth Apostles. Will became a full member and Josh made his formal commitment. I am so grateful once again that St. Mark has this for young men. It is such an excellent program. And the really uncanny thing is that there are Youth Apostles up in Boston! Will wants so much to go to Berklee for college and I am really worried about the casual (im)morality and worldview that college must be rife with! But he can still be connected with the Youth Apostles up there. Apparently Bishop O'Malley is really encouraging the group! So again I thank the Lord! Of course I don't know if Will will actually get into Berklee, so we'll see about that. But I felt like the Holy Spirit is really looking out for us because the YA are not a big group and the fact that they are located here in the Arlington Diocese and now being promoted by the Archbishop of Boston is a very good sign I think.
• We are going to start our regime of summer camps. Hannah and Will are headed out to workcamp in Elmira NY on Sunday. Also next week Becky is going to a little homeschool art camp at a nearby church. Sean and Josh are going to a computer camp the week after that. Then we are off to the beach for a week. After that Sean and Becky have a 3 week music camp. Then the third week in July I, Will, Josh, Sean and Becky are all going to Boston for a week. Will is attending Berklee's guitar session camp while the rest of us will sightsee in Boston and environs. Rick is staying home to work but Hannah will be flying out to San Diego with Phil's parents to see Phil graduation boot camp. Rick is thinking of driving to TX with Hannah and all her stuff for college and then flying back. She has to be there the following Thursday. Our plans for getting her to Dallas are not set though. Sometimes Rick is driving and sometimes I'm flying out with her. Though I am dreading getting on a plane and leaving Becky. I feel she needs me too much!!! I'm afraid the plane will crash and she'll be motherless! Of course I worry about the other kids too, but I think they'll get on well without me. But Becky really needs me!!!! I am such a silly mother!
• Josh has been taking the online class via Homeschool Connections on Beowulf which we have been greatly enjoying. Hannah is going to take the college writing one but is missing the first class due to workcamp.
• Becky is in her little Narnia book club. It started out such a big group but now it is down to only 3 families.
• Another thing is Rick got all 60 of the Avatar shows on Apple TV and he and Will, Josh, Sean and Becky are on a quest to watch all 60. It is driving me nuts! The show has some interesting elements to it, but it also has really stupid elements and I must say that privately I think the stupid outweighs the interesting! (Well, I don't know how private I'm being but no one is going read all this anyway!!!)

Journal 6/9/09

• Got up and worked out at Curves.
• Studied a bit for the Latin quiz and then Will, Josh and I went off to class
• Botched the quiz! Had our final class with pizza party
• Sean read 3 more chapters in his book on St John Fisher.
• Hannah and her friend K. went to mass at 9 and her friend came over for breakfast
• H got B and S to write Phil for their writing practice today
• B played with Klutz books and crafty stuff while S did another animation on the computer
• H watch the 1st lecture on the Iliad
• Brought lunch home for B and S.
• Forced them to do a little math. Neither was into it at all. Is practicing ones math facts for 3 minutes really that excruciating????
• H went to work
• J's friend came over and they've all been playing on the computer. Not sure what.
• I started reading The Woman in White last night, read a lot while Will was at voice lessons.
• Oh. . .W went to voice lessons
• B just came into the room and started doing sit ups with her legs up on the couch. I asked her why and she said she was trying to get stronger so she could bend this little metal thing she found. LOL!
• J and friend are playing runescape. W, J and B are now playing Supersmash bro.
• I am going to finish cleaning the dining room rug.
• Oops. I forgot S had swim lessons. We went hoping the approaching thunderstorm would blow over, but it didn't they were closing the pool just as we got there. Came home through the rain and forked lightning. I think I'll finish the rug after the storm passes.
• Read some more Little House on the Prairie to Becky
• Nice parenting moment or rather, nice moment being a parent. Went out to the garage to get something out of the freezer and Will was sitting in the garage with the rain pouring outside playing Where You There? on the harmonica.
• B is watching Phineas and Ferb.
• Never did finish the rug. Josh's friend got picked up by his dad. I realized how late it was and made scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and biscuits for dinner.
• Read some more of Tales of Ancient Egypt to B and S. J and W are working on math homework. Also read some more Bible History.
• B and S and I watched the first half of Yankee Doodle Dandy with Jimmy Cagney. We had tivo'd it a couple days ago. Love that movie. John Lithgow introduced. I really like John Lithgow!
• H went to a swing dance party somewhere in McLean.
• Read more Little House to B. Rick is almost done reading The Hobbit to S.

Will and Josh's High School Ancient Humanities Studies

This is the lesson plan for our Ancient Humanities studies. I've been revising it for a while but I'm pretty pleased with it now.

Week 1
Introduction


Week 2
Ch. 1 - 4 HAW
Epic of Gilgamesh
HCM Intro to Epic


Week 3
Ch. 5 - 8 HAW
Book of Job
HCM Theogony


Week 4
Ch. 9-12 HAW
Iliad Books 1-5
HCM pp.85-114


Week 5
Ch. 13-16 HAW
Iliad Bks. 6-10
HCM pp. 114-125


Week 6
Ch. 17-20 HAW
Iliad Bks. 11-15
HCM catch up


Week 7
Ch. 21-24 HAW
Iliad Bks. 16-20
HCM pp. 126-145


Week 8
Ch. 25-28 HAW
Iliad Bks. 21-24
HCM pp. 147-169


Week 9
Ch. 29-32 HAW
Odyssey Books 1-4
HCM pp. 169-179


Week 10
Ch. 33-36 HAW
Odyssey Bks. 5-8
HCM pp. 179-191

Week 11
Ch. 37-40 HAW
Odyssey Bks. 9-12
HCM pp. 191-200

Week 12
Ch. 41-44 HAW
Odyssey Bks. 13-18
HCM pp. 200-211

Week 13
Ch. 45-48 HAW
Odyssey Bks. 19-24
SW pp. 1-20

Week 14
Ch. 49-52 HAW
Herodotus
SW pp. 21-40

Week 15
Ch. 53-56 HAW
Thucydides
SW pp. 41-71

Christmas Break

Week 16
Ch. 57-59 HAW
Xenophon
HCM pp. 275-304

Week 17
Ch. 60-63 HAW
The Eumenides
HCM pp. 305-334

Week 18
Ch. 64-67 HAW
Oedipus Rex
HCM pp. 365-389

Week 19
Ch. 68-71 HAW
The Clouds
SW pp. 72-93

Week 20
Ch. 72-75 HAW
The Republic
SW pp. 94-120

Week 21
Ch. 76-78 HAW
The Republic
SW pp. 121-139

Week 22
---------------
The Republic
SW Read up to p. 164 by end of year

Week 23
Livy

Week 24
Cicero
HCM pp. 213-228

Week 25
Ch. 79-81 HAW
Tacitus
HCM pp. 228-240

Week 26
Ch. 82-85 HAW
Aeneid Bks. 1-4
HCM pp. 240-252

Week 27
Aeneid Bks. 5-6
HCM pp. 252-263

Week 28
Aeneid Bks. 7-9
HCM pp. 263-272

Week 29
Aeneid Bks. 10-12

Week 30
Final meeting

Key to abbreviations
The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer (HAW)
Heroes of the City of Man by Peter Leithart (HCM)
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner (SW)

Main Study Guides:
Greek Classics by Fran Rutherford
Ancient Rome by Fran Rutherford

Epic of Gilgamesh:
On line study guide
From utexas.edu

Book of Job
On line article
New Advent Cath.
Encyclopedia

Homework: you’ll need to read a certain chunk of history and literature six evenings a week, unless you want to double up one or two nights to keep yourself free on the weekends. The formula for figuring out how many pages you need to read each night in a particular book is simple: just take the total number of pages of a particular assignment, for ex. Iliad Bks. 1 – 5 is 93 pages. Divide that by 6 and you get roughly 15.5 pages a night. You can do that with each of your reading assignments at the beginning of each week. You could also calculate things the same way with History of the Ancient World and Heroes of the City of Man. OR you could read HCM first (because that will give you context and insight into the Iliad) on Monday and then read HAW Tues. – Fri. However you decide to do it, I want to know and I want you to mark what you are reading each day in your weekly planner. If you do not focus on the reading on a nearly daily basis, it will soon become overwhelming and you will fall behind. SO IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU HAVE A SET TIME AND A SET AMOUNT OF READING TO DO 5-6 DAYS A WEEK.

As you read, you’ll need a notebook with you and your study guide. Except for the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Job, all these readings are listed in the Fran Rutherford guides. You need to read the study questions (and vocabulary) for each reading before you begin, and then as you read, answer the questions in your notebook. These don’t need to be elaborate answers but they do need to be complete and accurate. You will be graded on this notebook.

After the long list of questions that walks you through the narrative, there are other questions entitled “Questions for Further Thought.” Pick one of these questions and write a short essay to answer it. These should be posted to our blog. I will require you to correct any spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, as well as point out any instances where I think you might be mistaken, unclear or weak in analysis. You will be graded on these short essays.

For the history portion of this course, I will orally quiz you periodically on the contents of HAW whenever that book has a timeline. These timelines list events that have just been presented in the text and you should be able to tell a little bit about each event.

We’ll also meet once a week throughout the year to discuss The Heroes of the City of Man and Sophie’s World. You will also have to write a paper but we won’t think about that until after Easter!

So your grade for this two credit Humanities course depends on 4 factors:
1) A complete, accurate and up to date study question notebook (20%)
2) Well written short essays answering the Questions for Further Thought (20%)
3) Orally demonstrating knowledge and understanding of The History of the Ancient World, The Heroes of the City of Man and Sophie’s World (20%)4) A final paper (20%)

Book Meme

I got this meme from Alicia's blog. Thanks Alicia! I haven't done one of these in forever either!

1. What author do you own the most books by? I"m not sure. It might be Jane Austen (I have at least two editions of each of her novels or C.S. Lewis or G. K. Chesterton or it might be (and now that I think of it, probably is!) Georgette Heyer!

2. What book do you own the most copies of? Does this include my kids' Bibles? I think I have 3 and then the three oldest each have their own, plus we have several children's versions.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? I didn't even notice!

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Fitzwilliam Darcy! Not really so secretly!

5. What book have you read the most times in your life? Pride and Prejudice as an adult, but the Little House books as a child. I also read Mrs. Mike many, many times as well as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird many times.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old? Probably the Little House books.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? I haven't read any bad books this year!

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? The Great Gatsby

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? To Kill a Mockingbird. That book is life-changing!

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? I'd like a Georgette Heyer novel to be made into a decent movie. I think Faro's Daughter would be my choice. I'd like Clive Owen to play Max Ravenscar and I could play Deb Grantham so I could hear him say "I love you! I tell you, I love you!" Whew! Wouldn't that be fun!

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? I am ashamed to admit it, but I usually don't finish reading books that I find too difficult. The question would be better put, What is the most difficult book you've attempted recently? I think it might be Climbing Parnassus. I just couldn't get through it.

12. What is your favorite book? Usually I answer Pride and Prejudice for this. I guess I'll do so again!

13. What is your favorite play? I'm going to limit this question by answering from the plays I've read this year, which would include Merchant of Venice, Raisin in the Sun and The Crucible. I'll have to go with the Crucible which I found terribly disturbing and moving.

14. Poem? The Lake Isle at Innisfree by W.B. Yeats (I edited this; I mistakenly put T.S. Eliot at first!).

15. Essay? Probably something by Chesterton. Perhaps the one with the comment about poets being strangely silent on the subject of cheese. Did that come from an essay?

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Dan Brown. But I also agree with whoever it was who said Gregory MaGuire. Both dreadful!

17. What is your desert island book? Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

18. And . . . what are you reading right now? Right now I'm reading The Heroes of the City of Man by Peter Leithart, Heroes by Charles Kingsley as my own reading. I've kind of slowed down my reading pace lately so I've been working on these two for a while now. To the kids I'm reading Tales of the Ancient Egyptians by Roger L. Green, Bible History by Shuster, Little House on the Prairie by Wilder.

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.