Monday May 25
I put out the books last night, but then I slept in late and the girls hadn’t started on their own. They were instead embroiled in a game they didn’t want to leave off playing. School didn’t start till after ten. But both did a little copywork and some math. Bella read me a page of Sun Slower, Sun Faster. She’s on chapter 7 now. Sophie didn’t read to me at all.
Dom was home for the holiday and I got to talking to him and then to my sister on the phone and afternoon reading just didn’t happen today.
But the kids made pirate flags and Sophie wrote out some pirate songs and Bella wrote some pirate songs too and I think a list of the ship’s personnel. So more handwriting and spelling practice there.
Also, yesterday Bella was reading from her Bible, hopping about reading a bunch of different passages. She also pulled out her notebook and wrote some simple one sentence reflections based on what she was reading. Her own form of lectio divina.
Tuesday May 26
Over breakfast I read to the girls about St Philip Neri.
Sophie whisked through her copywork and did her math. She didn’t read to me.
Bella read to me from the book of Judith, did a line of copywork, and worked through a few MEP math pages with me writing down the answers. I printed the pages too small for her to be able to write in the blanks. Starting in Year 2 with a lot of easy stuff that’s mostly review, hoping to move fairly quickly so as to get to Year 3.
I cleaned the girls’ room, which was no mean feat. You couldn’t see their floor before I began. I didn’t just pick things up, I tried to help them come up with places to put things so they can keep things tidy. I really hope it works.
Afternoon stories: we read Cain and Abel and Noah and discussed them at length, Swallows and Amazons, Treasure Island, and Across the Rolling River. I wanted to get to history, but we didn’t manage. Everyone was tired and wanted to play.
Sophie and Bella have been spending a lot of time on their bikes. Ben is eager to get training wheels and a helmet for his new bike so he can join them. The rest of their time is spent in playing pirates. A long dispute has been waged. Bella, Anthony, and Ben abandoned the pirate game Sophie was organizing and formed a pirate club. Though they invited Sophie to join she wanted nothing to do with it and fussed and fumed that Bella had abandoned her pirate game. Finally, after a lot of tense negotiation, I finally got them to work through the quarrel and Sophie eventually decided to join the pirate club after all. Now they’re furnishing he club house, burying treasure and making maps, and doing who knows what other pirate things.
Wednesday May 27
Sophie did a page of math and a page of copywork and read me half of St Jerome and the Lion.
Ben did two pages in his letters workbook. He’s up to V.
Bella did a page of Miquon Math and wrote one word in her copywork. She did not read to me.
We spent quite a bit of time looking at the anatomy pictures in the Visual Dictionary and I told them about bones and muscles and lungs and the heart and blood and the brain and nerves.
We went shopping and then to the library.
Afternoon stories were all library books but for one chapter of Swallows and Amazons.
Thursday May 28
Bella did a page of Miquon without too much griping. She finished yesterday’s copywork an then ran out to ride her bike. Sophie had a hard time getting started with the math and staying focused. She did a bit of copywork, but found she was repeating what she’d done yesterday and gave up.
We went to the grocery store.
Afternoon stories: we finished Swallows and Amazons and everyone is very eager to start Swallowdale tomorrow. Very eager. We read half a chapter of Across the Rolling River (I really hate chapters that are 30 pages long. Having to find a break in the middle of a chapter is too annoying. We read about steam engines and cotton gins and interchangeable parts in Story of the World. We read another Boston Tea Party book, that wanted to be a repetitive story, like The House the Jack Built, but wasn’t done very well. The rhymes were awful.
Bella stalled out on Sun Slower, Sun Faster because of narrative tension, I think. Books get tense and she bails without someone there to hold her hand. She’s now picked up Madeleine Takes Command. Maybe I’ll give her a few weeks and then suggest Sun lower Sun Faster as a read aloud, which was my original plan for it anyway.
Friday May 29
This morning things clicked. I went to say good morning to Bella and she was sitting in bed reading Madeleine Takes Command. We chatted a bit and then I brought her her math book to do while she was still in bed and she whizzed through the page. Then she got up and read more Madeleine over breakfast and consented to pick a sentence to copy for copywork. She coped it quickly and neatly and with minimal fuss. I did have to remind her to put in the punctuation. She read me several pages of Madeleine, I helped her with the French names and a few vocabulary words. She stumbles over big words, but otherwise reads with inflection and obvious understanding. She has a nice sense of the drama of the language.
Sophie did math, got a little frustrated about something and needed a break but finished. Then copied a sentence in the MP book. Then read me all of The Weight of a Mass.
Afternoon stories: I read Sophie a picture book from the library. I read all the kids the first eagerly awaited chapter of Swallowdale. Then they were distracted and wanted to go play. Summer days are like that.
