Saturday May 27
Our usual summer farmer’s Market and beach day. We saw horseshoe crabs mating and the kids picked up a bunch of seashell treasures.
Sunday May 28
The kids and I took a nice nature walk around the block and heard a hawk screech and looked up to see a pair of hawks swooping together in what looked very much like mating.
Monday May 29 Memorial Day
Dom had the day off and so we took a holiday from school too. I was hoping the kids would join me in sketching some of our recent seashore finds, but they got very involved in creating puppet shows and then moved on to performing a play and those who had expressed an interest in sketching were carried away by the lure of the stage.
We took a walk before lunch, informal nature walk inasmuch as we talked a bit about various plants that we came across.
Afternoon stories: More All of a Kind Family, Greek Heroes, Story of the World, Terra Cotta Warriors, St Philip of the Joyous Heart, daily Gospel and reading from Acts.
Discussion about Yom Kippur, the Temple, and the Passion.
Interesting conversation about the first emperor of China who sought the water of life. We compared that to Jesus saying he is the water of life and offering water to the Samaritan woman. The chapter in SotW about the terra cotta warriors reminded Bella that we have a picture book about them. So we had to get that and read it.
Bedtime story: The Boy Who Ate Books, The Fierce Bad Rabbit.
Tuesday May 30
Bella had an orthodontist appointment in the morning and I had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. The kids all did math and some of them did copywork. No afternoon stories.
Wednesday May 31
Everyone did math and copywork
Bella did Latin
Sophie read me 50 Famous Stories
Story time: More All of a Kind Family, Cyclopes, Story of the World (Confucius) St Philip of the Joyous Heart
Bella and Sophie rode their bikes down to the library on their own for the very first time. They were so thrilled. Bella returned some books for me, paid part of the fine on her card, checked out some books for herself and Sophie.
Bedtime story: Olivia and a book about a girl who makes a quilt with her grandmother.
The kids stayed up a bit late to be able to greet my sister when she arrived. Much, much joy.
Thursday June 1
Math, copywork.
Lots of housecleaning. Everyone pitched in.
Stories: More All of a Kind Family, Cyclopes, Greek Heroes, St Philip of the Joyous Heart.
Bedtime story: Olivia again.
Friday June 2
Everyone did math and copywork. I took Ben to the dentist for more fillings. Then I brought him home, settled him with a movie, and went back out to the grocery store.
Afternoon stories: More All of a Kind Family, Cyclopes, Greek Heroes, Terra Cotta Warriors, Secrets of the Universe.
Bedtime story: We Found a Hat.
I can see we’ve definitely hit the summer slump where I’m letting most things slide except math and copywork and a few daily readings. Dictation has fallen away again and so have languages.
I think it might be time for another round of planning and strategizing. But May has been chock full of appointments both for myself and the kids. At my physical I discovered that I’m anemic and my thyroid is off again, which explains why I’ve been dragging.
My sister is here for a visit. Ben is making his first communion on Sunday. We’re going to take a week ’s vacation to Maine week after next, then my mom will come for her visit. It’s definitely feeling more like summer and I’m annoyed that May slid by without us getting to walk the Freedom Trail as planned or to go on many other outings I’d thought I’d like to do in the spring. Now summer is really here and I’m starting to feel the wind down.
I’m hoping that with medical tweaks I’ll soon be feeling in better form and will be able to get more things done. Except that of course I gave my little toe a good whack on the step stool yesterday and it’s looking swollen and purple. So a lot of walking might not be in my immediate future. But we do need to plan a beach day.
