I went to the library and got a pile of books about WWI. Not much of anything in our library’s collection, but I was able to find a bunch in the other libraries in our network. The favorite so far is Fly, Cher Ami, Fly, a picture book about a carrier pigeon who helped rescue a battalion of American soldiers. Especially interesting after we’d recently read Pigeon Post, in which a homing pigeon saves the lives of the Swallows and Amazons by summoning help when there is a brush fire. There’s a picture book scrapbook about the war the girls have been enthralled with and the boys really liked a book about the Harlem Hellfighters.
Monday April 11
Sophie did part of a page of math and her copywork. Bella did math and copywork and she and I worked on the Mystery Class data, identified 5 of the cities.
I did math with the boys. Anthony read me a Bob book and copied a sentence. Ben did a little reading practice, looking at words I drew on the whiteboard.
Sophie read me a psalm.
Afternoon stories: We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, St Ignatius, First Christians, Catechism, Story of the World, Lord of the Rings.
Ben made some lovely figures out of clay and was very pleased with himself.
Bedtime stories: Oliver Pig and The Wind in the Willows.
Tuesday April 12
Sophie did math and copywork. Bella did math and copywork. I did math with the boys and Anthony read me a Bob book and copied a sentence on the whiteboard. I made up some simple sentences for Ben and he sounded out some words with help. Then Ben decided to wander around the house with a whiteboard copying out words from various book covers. He grabbed a folding chair and went from spot to spot. He must have copied from at least six books plus Amazon from the map on the wall. He was really excited both by the reading and the writing.
Bella played school with the kids and got Anthony to read another Bob book.
The girls and I did some drawing. First I sketched the dying tulips and Sophie drew a picture of Mary. Then I pulled out the art postcards and we each grabbed a card and tried to draw what was on it. Bella and Sophie each did a couple of cards before they gave up. I read them a few Robert Frost poems while they drew.
Sophie read me a psalm.
Afternoon stories: We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, First Christians, Catechism, St Ignatius of Loyola, Lord of the Rings.
Bedtime story: St Francis of Assisi by Tomie de Paola.
Wednesday April 13
Bella and Sophie did math and copywork. I did math with the boys. Anthony was especially excited to learn that the spots on opposite faces of a die add up to 7. Anthony read me a Bob book and copied a sentence on the whiteboard.
The weather was gorgeous so the kids spent most of the day outside. But first Bella decided to wash all her blankets and sheets, which inspired all the other kids to have theirs washed too. I did various housework.
Afternoon stories: We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, First Christians, Catechism, St Ignatius of Loyola, Story of the World (rise of Mussolini) Lord of the Rings.
Sophie read me a psalm as I was cooking dinner.
Bedtime story: Wind in the Willows.
Thursday April 14
Bella did math and helped Sophie with her math. For copywork Bella finished writing a postcard she started some time ago. Sophie did her copywork. Bella read to me from The Lord of the Rings.
Did math with Ben and Anthony. Anthony read me a Bob book and copied a sentence.
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, First Christians, Catechism, St Ignatius of Loyola, Lord of the Rings.
Bedtime story: A Bear at War. St Francis the Poor Man of Assisi
Friday April 15
Grocery day. Today I finally reaped the reward for taking five kids to the grocery store every week. First, they helped me to weigh and print labels for the bags of produce. Then they split up into two teams: Sophie and Ben on one and Bella, Anthony, and Lucy on the other. While I finished browsing through the produce, they went and fetched most of the rest of the things on my shopping list. They know the store layout, they know the brands I buy, they even know how to look at the price to see which of two items is cheaper. I had to pick meat and I had to grab a few other things, but they did the bulk of it. And we were done with the shopping in just under an hour. A year ago it took me two hours. Then when we got home they helped me carry things in and put them away and made their own lunches. Except Lucy needed me to make hers and Anthony needed me to cut some sausage for him. Going to the grocery store really is becoming a practical life lesson. Bella does math to figure out prices for things, Sophie and Anthony read labels. Even Lucy knows how to find things.
Afternoon stories: We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea (two chapters as we finally reached port in Holland and we really needed to read about meeting Daddy.) St Ignatius of Loyola. The First Christians. The Lord of the Rings.
Bedtime story: St Francis the Poor Man of Assisi
Yay! I remember running out of errands before I ran out of vegetables to pick. It’s a glorious transition. Congratulations!
The best explanation I’ve ever seen for the start of WWI is one of the “Horrible Histories” that Amy Welborn wrote about for a while. The whole mess actually started to make sense in terms of the crazy web of alliances among the European countries in 1914. I think I had to pay $3 for the series on Amazon at some point, but it was worth it just for that one video. There is also a “You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Trenches in World War One” book… but it’s not in my library system, so I don’t know whether you can get it.
I’ve been meaning to check out the Horrible Histories but have never got around to it. I actually felt like Story of the World did a decent job of unravelling the lead up to the war. I understand it better after reading that than I ever did before. Though Darwin Catholic’s Great War novel has also helped in that regard.
Also, if you let me know ahead of time, I’ll try to make it to the homeschool support meeting next month. Loretta asked me this month, but I didn’t have enough warning to get the info to Dom. Lucy’s getting to bed without me pretty well these days so I think ducking out is now within the realm of possibility.