Monday May 14
Anthony: math, copywork, read from Saint of the Day about St Matthias.
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code
Sophie: math
Bella: math, Latin copywork, composition (about Owls Came to Stay)
Took Auntie Tree to the airport shuttle and then listened to Magician’s Nephew on the way back.
Afternoon stories: Alfred the Great, St John Masias, Book of Marvels, Story of the World (Battle of Hastings), Story of the Chosen People (Isaac and Rebecca).
Tuesday May 15
Anthony: math, copywork, read from Saint of the Day about St Isidore the Farmer.
Ben: math, copywork
Sophie: math, copywork, composition, French, Geography
Bella: math, Latin copywork, composition (poetry)
Read alouds: Augustus Caesar’s World, Alfred the Great, North with the Spring
Wednesday May 16
Anthony: math, copywork
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code
Sophie: math, copywork
Bella: math, Latin, copywork, poetry writing
Dom has been helping Bella with math now that he’s working from home. It’s going so much better. She’s calmer and getting so much more done in a day. If only he could help Sophie too….
We went to the grocery store.
Read Alouds: Story of the World, Alfred the Great, St John Masias
Bedtime story: Holy Twins, story of Sts Benedict and Scholastica.
Thursday May 17
Anthony: math, copywork
Ben: math, copywork
Sophie: math, copywork
Bella: math, Latin, copywork
We had a visitor on our patio this morning, a little baby bunny, all the kids were enchanted. He kept dashing under the grill when startled by the sparrows and then coming back out to nibble on the maple leaves the kids had left strewn all over the patio after they’d cut down some of the maple saplings growing on the fence line. (Ben and Bella were whittling the wood with their pocket knives, Sophie and Anthony were making a pretend forest with the branches.)
Afternoon stories: Alfred the Great, St Magnus, Augustus Caesar’s World
Bedtime story: House of Many Ways
Friday May 18
Isabella’s 12th birthday
Began the day with birthday, presents. Of course. Bella got a pile of books, fairly evenly divided between historical novels and books about nature an science, several memoirs by naturalists, Peterson’s Guide to Birds, a book about the Periodic Table of the Elements. She also got a fountain pen. (And a few more gifts are still in transit.) By the end of the day she’d finished one of her new books, No Safe Harbor, the Dear Canada book about the Halifax explosion in WWI, and almost finished another, The Samurai’s Tale.
Then Grandma B took her out for a birthday lunch and shopping trip. She came back from this outing with a typically Bella mix of presents: Star Wars and girly. A Star Wars Resistance Fighter Helmet and a C3P0 figure, and a necklace and bracelet, a jewelry box, and a purse.
History and science, geeky and girly. All she needs is some art supplies and you’ve got Bella in a nutshell.
While Bella and Grandma were out, I got Sophie, Ben, and Anthony to do some math and copywork.
Then Sophie helped me bake a birthday cake, doing all the measuring herself.
In lieu of our usual afternoon stories I read the kids a three-part series of articles detailing the fantastic story of a Pan Am jet that was en route to Aukland, NZ when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The plane was requisitioned by the US military and the crew ordered to return it to the States asap the long way, that is flying across the Atlantic Ocean. The story was well told, almost cinematic, it had us on the edge of our seats, even Grandma B, who only drifted off once or twice. From New Zealand to Australia to Indonesia to Sri Lanka to India to Africa to Brazil. They land in the Congo and the Nile, (and take off again from the same) they’re shot at by a Japanese submarine, entertained by the RAF and the Dutch air force. It’s an amazing story and, as Bella said, should be a movie. I counted it as history and geography. After I was done I plotted their stops on our world map for my own edification. The boys and Lucy were obviously captivated for they all made seaplanes out of the linking cubes, each picking up on a different detail. Lucy made sure hers had four engines on the wings. Anthony gave his pontoons to land on the water. Ben gave his an observation turret on the top.
We went out to dinner at Sombreros and then came home for cake.
Our bedtime story was the second half of The Holy Twins about Saints Benedict and Scholastica, which led to some interesting conversation about twins and pregnancy and genetics.
Sophie’s been reading the Usborne book of Tales from Shakespeare. And The Neverending Story. Bella’s been diving into The Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate. She finished The Scarlett Pimpernel and Captains Courageous and The Seven Queens of England and An Owl Came to Stay. Sophie’s also reading Genesis, a book about St Francis Solano, and The Rose Round. Anthony’s mostly reading The Chronicles of Narnia; but I also see him reading a wide variety of picture books and Star Wars manuals, the book about Rube Goldburg’s inventions, How Things Work, etc. He’s voracious and like all the kids his bed is full of books. Ben doesn’t read independently but that doesn’t stop him from stockpiling picture books in his bed. Especially graphic novels like Asterix and Zita.
