Weekly Report 9/26/10-9/10/1/10

Because I can't walk and chew gum at the same time, we took off from academics on Monday and ran errands instead! Actually Josh and Will did their usual stuff, but Sean and Becky got the day off. I had promised my college-aged daughter a care package two weeks ago and had never gotten to the post office to mail it. Why is it that things other people seem to do effortlessly takes me soooo long??? We also went to Target to buy Halloween decorations. It turns out we are hosting our neighborhood Halloween party. Becky has big plans for decorating our front yard and I wanted to buy the stuff before it sold out. We also did more unsuccessful shopping for art supplies for Sean and Becky's art class. Strike number 2. I really should order this stuff on line, though the teacher said that was too expensive and assured me I'd be able to find the supplies at Michael's or Target. Lies! All lies!

We did buy a fun kit of paper bag Halloween puppets that Becky promptly made:


Monday was also a big day because Becky attended her first American Heritage Girls meeting.



They learned songs to sing when they visit nursing homes. Becky enjoyed herself immensely (as she would say!).



Tuesday - was chaotic! Josh and I did got to our Latin class, but Becky stayed home claiming she had an earache and Sean, who is not especially enamoured with the art class, stayed home too. Becky really did seem sick and I was all set to deal with a nasty ear infection, but she was greatly recovered by the next day and by the next evening seemed completely recovered. I am thinking she might have allergies and the rainy weather was doing funny things to her???? Does that make sense? My kids do tend to get these short lived (Thank God!) illnesses. Josh went to his Biology field trip, a river study. It stopped raining and the weather was beautiful for a few hours just in time for it!

I blogged about what I did Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening we had our first 4H meeting. Tuesday was a long day!

Wednesday - I actually did some lessons with Becky and Sean; the usual suspects: math, Latin and cursive. Will announced that he had finished reading (actually he's been listening on audio) the Penteteuch, so that completes his own self-styled study of the first 5 books of the Bible. He also finished reading The Phantom Tollbooth to Becky. I have the best 18 yo son in the world!

Becky wrote a story! She dictated it to me. Here it is. Wednesday is also our day for Vision Therapy in the afternoon and CLC (Catholic Teen group) in the evening for Josh. Also, I went and checked out our homeschool support groups new meeting place at a nearby church. Looks good! I finished reading Little Women to Becky and started on Little Men. We are having such fun with these books! Sean finally finished The Treasure Seekers and is now starting on A Series of Unfortunate Events. Josh has started reading the Dune series which I've never read but Rick loved back in high school. I wonder if it has anything objectionable in it. Rick never remembers that kind of stuff! Rick also started reading King's Solomon's Mine out loud to Sean.

Thursday - I had forgotten to have angel food cake for dessert on 9/29 in honor of Michaelmas or the Feast of the Archangels. So instead we had it for breakfast on 9/30.

Thursday we also read about St. Jerome from one of my favorite books. I've been reading this aloud to kids every year on his feast day for a while now. It's become a tradition.



Here's a final photo of Sean working on his Latin and Becky showing off an angel puppet she made while I was reading to her.


Today is Friday. If the weather clears enough, we'll have tennis this afternoon. Josh has his second Biology class this a.m. Hopefully I'll get some lessons in with Becky and Sean too.

Finally, Will has been practicing Eric Satie's Gnosseinne No. 1. (This video isn't Will playing it, I just found it on youtube) but this delicate, evocative melody has been floating around the house all week and seems to go well with the rainy weather and the dark clouds.