Journal 12/1/10

Woke up early. Rick left at 6:00 a.m. to get to airport.

Really windy and rainy out. Dozens of stinkbugs driven in by weather. Yuck. Spent morning catching and flushing.

Everyone slept in except S. He spent time scanning, photoshopping Garfield comics into his deviantart page.

Made gingerbread and read two chapters of Little Apostles on Crutches.

B and S played upstairs.

J read Church history and took Ch. 4 chapter test.

Read The Erlkonig by Goethe to the S and B and then we listened to Shubert's and Loewe's interpretations of the poem. B asked to hear it again. They had fun huddling under a blanket during all this pretending to be frightened.

Watched next lecture in Discovering Music on Opera. Very long lecture. First time B watched with us. She was bored silly.

Took B to VT.

J played on computer then did a little math, then went outside. The temp has dropped from 60's to 42 degrees.

W practiced lots of music then went off to his music lesson.

J did some drawing. He and his friend at CLC are trying to challenge each other to draw more. Joe came over to play with S. They were making music in the basement and then sitting out on the screen porch writing a parody of a Pokemon show.

B played a lot on Webkinz. She designed several T-shirts. She was doing this on Thanksgiving as well with her cousin.

I made latkes and we said the Baruchas and lit the candles. After dinner the kids all played dreidel.

Took J to CLC

W came home from his music lesson and then later left to p/u J for me. While W was here though B and I got really into singing Chanukah oh Chanukah while W accompanied us on guitar.

Joe didn't go home until almost 9 o'clock!

Read next ch. of The Story of Rome about Lucretia to S and B. The put euphemistically described her as being 'insulted.'

Didn't want to read David Copperfield without R here. And R has been reading Westmark to B and S at night. So in lieu of other read alouds I read a story from Tales from a Korean Grandmother. I was falling asleep as I read.

J was stilling working on math when I went to bed.

B listened to a new story cd from the library (not sure which one) I think S was reading Dilbert comics.

Journal 11/30/10

Forgot to mention S doing Sudokus at bedtime 11/29.

Tuesday - S and B went to Art class, J and I went to Latin. Magistra read Horatius at the Bridge. I've heard about that poem for ages but never actually heard it before.

Took J to Biology class. Can't remember what B and S did just then.. . .

W woke very late. He spent the day practicing music for hours and hours.

After J came home from Biology @ 2:30 he basically was on the computer playing games and reading web comics for most of the rest of the day.

S, B and I went to Target to various and sundry things. Then we hit the library. S brought along the Suduko book and instead of looking at books, worked on those. He's done 8 so far, he pointed out to me.

After the library we hit the grocery store to pick up necessary supplies for S's 4H cooking project. We also picked up dinner since I realized I wasn't going to be able to cook the dinner I had planned and get to 4H on time.

I don't know what B did at home while S and I were at 4H. S was only so-so into it. We were making a marinated veggie salad. Everybody brought veggies and oil and vinegar. Another lady in our group who is just wonderful at this kind of stuff. Had the kids mixing different amounts of oil and vinegar to test what the best ratio was for making a vinegrette. She had them close their eyes and then smell olive oil and canola oil to see if they could tell the difference. The kids all agreed olive oils smells good! They then compared different types of vinegar: malt, red wine, balsamic, apple cider, white vinegar. Some of kids really hated the vinegars. It took so long to clean up the mess we'd made that we didn't get home until after 9.

Rick read aloud to B and S (Westmark by Lloyd Alexander). J did read some more of Augustine's Confessions. Almost done!

W was a sweetie and hand washed a huge sink load of dishes (our dishwasher has been broken for a week).

B was still in gift making mode. She made something for S. R was up late doing work and said B was still awake at 1 a.m!!!!

Journal 11/29/10

People slept in quite a bit. Recovering from Thanksgiving holidays!

S got up and went to watch Fred Newman videos on youtube. Perfecting his trumpet sounds!

B got up and immediately opened up two Advent calendars. The Latin words for today is Nox - night.

I started new read aloud Little Apostle on Crutches - only got a couple pages in.

J got up took a shower and did laundry and ate breakfast.

For morning reading time - Becky read the whole Mini page from the Wash Post. This was amazing as she just started independently reading last week! She even did the word search, an activity she's avoided up until now! J helped a bit with the word search.

S - read next chapter in Li Lun.

S - read next chapter in St. Patrick's Summer Catechism about Abraham and Isaac

B played on funbrain for a little bit.

J read Church history but he was reading it in bed and fell asleep!

S drew a little then practiced beatboxing and mouth sounds on the microphone downstairs.

I read B some of the ideas from the Unjournaling book. She liked the sentence that was the same forwards and backwards and copied that over on her own initiative and then showed it to S.

W came upstairs and practiced on the piano for quite some time.

I put on Christian Heritage Art Curriculum dvd to look at lesson on Medieval Illuminations. I had wanted to do that for a few weeks, ever since we saw that movie on the Book of Kells. But I suddenly remember to do it this morning. S came in and watched a bit. Then asked me to go to the modern art lesson. It was on Cezanne and seeing geometric shapes in landscapes.

B has been obsessing on the Toys R Us flyers from the Sunday newspaper. S and B spent a long time during lunch poring over them. They were playing their gurgle twins game. They pretend they are twins and speak to each other in their 'gurgle twin' voices. They were pretending that dollar symbols were really cents symbols and that they only had a 50 cent budget. Then they were comparing prices of toys this way and doing all kinds of addition and multiplication problems in their heads while playing. If you were going to look up 'unschooling math' in some guidebook somewhere, you'd have seen their picture there!!!!!

B and I started looking through the book How Math Works. I got this book off the shelf where it has been for a few years! We looked at various projects most of which we didn't really understand or we recognized from watching Zoom and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, (we concluded these shows are very educational!) B got inspired to make a paper doll chain from the project on symmetry.

B and S went to play on their bikes.

J still working on Church History. I believe he's been very half-hearted about this all day!

W had call with Collegeplus @ 2:45.

I've been trying to do Latin homework but having a terrible time concentrating. What is wrong with me. It is not sticking at all!

B and S listened to songs on computer.

J and I studied Latin. J worked diligently on that. We can't remember if we are having a test! Ahg!

W, S, B and I decide to go to the Holiday stroll our little town has. We've never been before. J elects to stay home. They close off the little street that parallels the main street. All the shops are open late. They had a mini petting zoo which S and b liked: mostly mother and child, like mamma llama, baby llama, mamma cow, baby calf, mamma goat with two of the most darling baby goats ever. A donkey and two sheep, some rabbits and a hen with two baby chicks.

They also had a stage with a bunch of kids up on it singing pseudo 'holiday' songs. People had little grills fired up and you could go toast marshmellows over them. Lots of free coffee and popcorn. We went into the toy store (our very favorite toystore which we frequent anyway) and S bought a little gift for his friend and B bought a little gift for J. W disappeared long before this to go eat dinner. Santa came down the street on a fire engine. We didn't really complete the stroll, there may have been more to see but we got hungry and decided to look for a place to eat a real dinner. We cut through an alley and discovered a Cornish Pasty shop, brand new! I thought they were delicious but B didn't like hers. I got a cheese, potato and onion one.

B got really into wrapping her present for J and then making presents. She mad something for H (more paper dolls) and then something else for W (though I don't think I know what that was).

Came home and read some more David Copperfield out loud to everyone. J and I did more Latin. R read more Westmark to B and S.

Daily Journal 11/11

Got up with headache. Nursed headache til it went away.

Still a good morning:

Read about St. Martin of Tours to B and S.

B and S did cursive

B did two addition problems and an expanded notation.

S did page in Ch. 26 review of imp. present, future to be translation.

B did lesson 22 in GWL - D.O. in Latin nauta or nautam.

S and B also looked at videos of foxes and their sounds on youtube (we've got foxes out back) and also some pampaloosa youtube videos.

J got himself up and finished up his math homework. Took a couple hours.

W practiced lots of piano and guitar.

W read Gilbert! magazine.

B read the text of a long game on One More Level called the The Red Button. It's a silly game where you keep clicking the red button while text pops up telling you not to click it. It gets sillier and sillier. B read A LOT of it with some help from me.

Took W to metro to go to piano lesson and J to Algebra tutor.

S did his math while I was gone!!!! I'm amazed!

B and S also got really into reading the Guiness Book of World records.

Sent them outside to play on this beautiful fall day.

S and W left after early dinner to go see Steve Reich in concert.

B played computers games on PBS kids.

J did his Biology homework.

Read B more Jo's Boys.

Daily Journal 11/10

Got up too early. Whiled away morning doing a little bits of business type stuff and a lot of unnecessary stuff! Very tired!

S remixed theme song of comic his friend came up with.

B played with her dolls and stuff animals. There was a wedding and for some reason B was the one dressing up in a white veil with bouquet of flowers.

Both watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb.

W got up early and went to Mass. He also at some point in the morning came up with a plan for what he is going to do every day between now and audition day.

J took his church history test and read Confessions.

Lunch

On most Wednesdays, another teen comes over to study history and lit with Josh and me. She hadn't gotten much done though over the past week so we just reviewed the study questions in Ch 3 of The History of the Church. We also went through Einnarsson's Classical Language Art section of phrases other than prepositional, that is participial and infinitive phrases. We also planned what to do for the next few classes. The kids are going to write a short research paper based on suggestion in study guide.

B and S played outside a lot. Beautiful fall day.

Talked to H on phone. She got all her packages. It is her birthday today!

W went to music tutor.

B went to VT I ran to library to get out books to possibly entice S into reading more. Got two audios for B.

Brought back S's friend Joe. They've been riding bikes. I take friend home after dinner when taking J to CLC.

J is working on math.

B is having fun playing computer games.

After dinner took Joe home and J too his CLC.

W saw a mouse in his room!

Read next ch. of Story of the Romans about road building to S and B

R is reading Lloyd Alexander book to S.

Read more Jo's Boys to B.

J came home and did more math.

Daily Journal 11/9/10

Got up, got breakfast

Went to Latin with Josh

B and S went to art class - learned about drawing cubes!

Lunch at chick fil a.

Took J to Biology lab where he dissected a cow's eyeball!

B did two problems on adding with lists of double digit numbers.

S did long division with answer with mixed numbers

B and S went play at friends house. B and her friend ran around a lot outside and played with dolls. S and his friend sat outside on picnic table and made up and drew cartoons.

J read from new quote book.

W?????

J read more Church history

R came home for dinner early to pick up car from shop.

W finished listening to The Man Who Was Thursday on audio.

Had sloppy Joes for dinner.

Watched Jeopardy after dinner and then next unit in Discovering Music on Salons, Poetry and the Power of Song. Neat stuff.

Read the story of Tarquin and the Eagle to B and S.

J worked more on history.

W and R went to get car

B likes playing with etch a sketch on R's ipad.

Read more Jo's Boys to B.

Daily Journal 11/8/10

Woke really early because of time change, did laundry, ran dishwasher, fed pets, surfed net, made coffee, worked on NaNoWriMo novel.

S woke at 7, played on computer (what tho????)

B woke, B and R had breakfast together (R had bagel and oj, B just some hot cocoa I made her.)

Cajoled S into taking shower.

R got W up to take car to shop.

B asked me to read Jo's Boys to her. Read a ch.

J woke up still had cold and his eyes are all red and goopy.

Took shower while B and S were working on cursive handwriting from their books.

J????

W came back and practiced guitar

Read Bible History about Joel and Micah to B and S

S read next ch. in St. Patrick's Catechism

Cajoled J into taking shower.

J did his laundry then read some Church history

Did some math with B Saxon 5/4 lesson 16

S did p. in Latin workbook reviewing preposition vocabulary and present, imp. and future tenses of esse.

S did mixed practice in Lesson 25 in 7/6. Slow going, she was getting hungry.

B and I did Lesson 22 in GSWL on direct objects. She got it!

W made himself a ham & cheese sub, J ate leftover pizza (his favorite!), S had tuna w/crackers, B had fried baloney. I ate leftover chicken and mashed potatoes. Mealtime is like herding cats!

B has been playing with paper airplanes since All Saints Party, making different ones and seeing which flew the best. She and S had a contest and declared winners.

B has been busy making nice little homes for a particular baby doll and just generally playing doll and making her clothes out of old dolls clothes or hand me downs or rags.

S found a cool website that has a complicated drum machine that he's been exploring.

J and I did more Latin homework. Still have one more paragraph to translate but this has been fun!

Cleaners are here. I love my cleaners!

B got herself ready for American Heritage Girls 2 hours early!

B found a pretty card for H and wrote Happy Birthday to her in it in cursive.

S was fooling around on the guitar

B and S started playing around on the computer. We all kind of run and hide when the cleaners get here

J is really into tvtropes website which he's been reading a lot lately.

W worked on his Life Purpose workbook for CollegePlus. He kind of finds it bogus so he's been dragging his feet on it.

W watched Talking Heads live in Rome video.

W had call with counselor from CollegePlus @ 2:45

Made chicken Parmesan, ran off to American Heritage Girls with B. J took out of oven for me.

AHG was so much fun, nature study, learning the oath and creed, singing, playing games.

J worked on math and read more church history

W read this new book of quotes granddad's friend gave him this weekend.

S chatted with his friend Jack.

W and S watched the Simpsons.

during dinner S and W gave us history of different videogames and different creators like Tim Schaeffer and Dave Grossman. This segued into S giving the other kids acting lessons he learned from his acting camp this summer.

J dismissed himself from the melee and went back to work on either math or history.

I read about the Horatii and Curiatii from The Story of the Romans to B and S

Read Jo's Boys to B.

J stayed up to 11:45 doing Biology.