Weekly Report 2/15/10-2/1910

Monday - President's Day

• Made kids name at least 5 presidents they could think of right off the top of their heads. B said George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Obama and George Bush. S said GW, AL, Obama, both Bushes and Teddy Roosevelt. J said GW, AL, James Madison, Polk, Taft.
• Told kids I was going to start reading them a new book for Lent instead of Bible History. Gave them a choice of The Key to the Golden City or The Little Apostle on Crutches. They decided on the first and then wanted to start today even though it isn't Lent yet. So we are putting our Bible History on the backburner for a while.
• B and S both did very well at their WWE copy work/dictation
• Learned about Greek vowel diphthongs. Listened to silly song at the CAP site that helps you remember them. (to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man). Did you know diphthong comes from the Greek meaning two voices????
• Did lesson in Saxon on angles with S.
• J successfully avoided doing anything academic most of the morning. But I finally forced him to sit down and work on that Han Dynasty questionnaire.
• W ran to the store and got trashbags for me. Then he's been working on his music/writing all day downstairs.
• B set up a restaurant in her room. Very cute.
• Took S to his piano lesson. He was mad at the teacher because she wouldn't help him read the music but made him do it all.

Tuesday

• J had a bad headache all night and didn't fall asleep until 4:30 a.m. So I didn't make him go to Latin class
• W and I crammed studied Latin because we'd completely neglected it to for two weeks.
• I got a B on my quiz. So did W!
  
• B did her phonics and cursive, and drew pictures but she didn't get to her math or VT homework
• S did some reading in his Faith and Freedom reader but I don't think he did math, spelling or cursive. The young dd of the teacher was there at the Latin class (she's usually at an art class somewhere) and so they were very busy chatting and playing with her.
• Took J to Algebra tutor
• Took J to dr's appt. His surgery is next Wed. It is starting to hit home!
• W took B to gymnastics; S went to his friend's house to play

Ash Wednesday

• Read from Before America about Sparta and Athens and their differences. Learned about the difference between 'totalitarianism' and 'democracy' B and S thought this very interesting stuff!
• Read next chapter of The King of the Golden City
• J worked on Algebra in a.m.
• Made S do the work he didn't do yesterday during Latin class - finished L. 32 in Saxon, did spelling page in speller, finished reading story in Faith and Freedom reader, which he didn't read closely so I made him go back and reread it!
• B worked on an addition fact sheet and did a workbook page in her phonics book.
• Both of them spent most of morning planning and videotaping a movie
• J and I finished Book XVII of the Odyssey
• Dictated passage from St. Francis de Sales Intro to Devout Life (about what devotion really is ) to J
• J was supposed to look through How to Write the Novel Way and think about how he wants to approach it.
• Took B and S to VT
• Forgot to do any Latin with S!
• Took S and B to Mass
• Made crown of thorns for B's lenten sacrifice (out of dough and toothpicks)
• R read more Mysterious Benedict Society to B and S
• I read a few pages in Five Little Peppers but it had gotten very late and I could barely keep my eyes open!
• J and W went to CLC early to help prepare for 8th retreat (the CLC'ers help lead). Then they went to 7:30 Mass
• J's surgery is looming before us.
  
• As usual I don't really know what W did today. He did lots of music and he says he's doing his writeguide. I know he's stepping up his Bible reading for Lent.

Thursday

• B and S both did their WWE
• B did about 10 addition facts problems and then I showed how to borrow 'across zeros' in the problem: 508 - 99. First you try your next door neighbor but they don't have the one you need so you have to go to the next house, etc. She got it and was able to articulate it back to me.
• S and I watched Ch. 19 in Latin for Children. He immediately got the bo, bis, bit, bimus, bitis, bunt. He started asking questions about perfect tenses. I was chatting about how there are Latin camps and he said he wanted to go to one. He also reiterated his desire to learn Italian. Maybe Rosetta Stone Italian?????
• S and W did music theory lesson
• B played dress up a lot this a.m. She was being different characters in a videogame S was writing in his head!
• J did next Algebra lesson and his on line logic lesson.
• B read some of the next story in her reader to me. She didn't quite finish it all. Her eyes got tired.
• S has been reading Bone; he's determined to read all 9 volumes of it. He also started reading a saint biography of St. Hubert.
• S had the part of his VT re-evaluation today.
• Took W to get his driver's license today at courthouse. Saw my father's portrait! He was head judge there in the 70's.
• Read next ch. of Frontier Bishop to B and S while we waited for dinner to cook.
• Read scripture readings for next Sunday's Mass aloud to B and S.

Friday

• W went to his music comp. class
• Had Socratic discussion/art co-op. I have no idea what J discussed in his group. B, S and the other kids made Native American 'blankets'. It was a neat little project. B cut out rectangles of brown paper bag. Each child crumpled and then straighten the paper 30 times which makes it much softer and leather looking. Then we stenciled SW Indian designs onto the 'blankets' and colored them.
  
• One of the moms stayed with her kids while W and I went to give blood for J's surgery. So B and S apparently put on lots of puppet shows for them while I was gone!
• I took J to his science class before going to the Blood donor place.
• W had an educational experience there as he had never given blood before.
  
• Got back home so late and tired. The kids talked me into taking them to IHOP for dinner.
• Alas the traffic was bad and the service slow and we missed going to the Stations of the Cross at our parish. But B had me light a candle and we went around and read each of the stations that we have hanging up in our basement and then we said a Hail Mary together. This was her idea!

Projected:

J has lots of stuff to do this week. He's got to do 2 lessons of Alg, read lots of the Odyssey (I really want to finish it before his surgery!) and study Latin. This is good. He should be kept busy so he doesn't have time to get nervous. Next week we'll only do as much formal schooling as I can muster on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is the surgery and I have a feeling life will be chaotic for a week or two after that! So I'll consider anything we get done a blessing. I'm already convinced that we are going to do some formal studies through most of the summer.