Learning Notes Week of August 31

Monday August 31

Bella and Sophie were both up very late last night and as expected slept in this morning. At bedtime they both read a short biography of Phyllis Wheatley, first Bella read the whole book and then Sophie did. Then Bella picked up a much longer book: Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons : the story of Phillis Wheatley. She read more than a hundred pages before going to sleep and read another hundred or so today before deciding the book had got a little boring and going off to do something else.

Bella did do some copywork and half a page of math. Sophie did copywork, math, cursive.

Ben did some math. Anthony did some letter tracing, some geoboard copying. And he read me the first 5 Bob books!

Oh and Bella’s caterpillars hatched. She’d found a stem with some just laid eggs on it last week and we put them in a jar. This morning the jar was crawling with teeny tiny little lines. Caterpillars. We found them some leaves and they set to work eating. We’re very eager to find out what kind they are.

Sophie read me Otis and the Tornado.

Afternoon stories: Three chapters of Peter Duck, some very intense stuff. Then the chapter on Esther in the Bible stories book. Then the chapter on the Mexican Revolution in The Story of the World. Not very good narrations, but everyone was tired.

Bedtime stories: David Macauley’s Castle, The Ugly Duckling. Mother Goose for Lucy. She’s quite firmly into the Mother Goose stage now that I remember from all my other two year olds. I love Mother Goose, so this is one of my favorite bits. The poetry being memorized, the joy of language. And the other kids chiming in too.

Tuesday September 1

The girls were tired still today and a bit under the weather. Nevertheless, Sophie did math and copywork. She’s quite proud of herself for having memorized the Twelve Tribes of Israel. She’s been copying them out and to encourage the memorization process I copied them out myself and hung them on the dining room wall and started trying to memorize them myself. Sophie and Anthony were up for the challenge and joined me. Stealthy memory work strikes again. Sophie has been reading Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air. It’s a great book full of historical details and detailed schematic drawings.

Bella did her copywork— making a shopping list from the King Arthur catalog— and a bit of math, but was easily sidetracked and not so easily brought back on task. She did spend some time looking through the moths and butterflies book to see if she could find anything to help identify her caterpillars. I think we’re going to have to wait till they’re bigger. She’s given up on the Phyllis Wheatley book, she says the end got boring. She started re-reading Swallows and Amazons. Also spotted reading David Macauley’s Castle.

Ben and I filled in the calendar for today and then thought of words that begin with J. Anthony joined us for the words.

Afternoon stories: Two chapters of Peter Duck, we’re getting near the end and it’s hard to stop. The story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. We looked at some Biblical maps to figure out where things were happening. Chapter in Story of the World about the abolition of the slave trade and looking at some maps there too.

Bedtime stories: David Macauley’s Castle. Linnea in Monet’s Garden. Mother Goose.

Wednesday September 2

Sophie did math and copywork. The whole first stanza of Psalm 23. Bella did copywork, struggled with math but eventually got it done.

We had a friend drop by for a visit and so I didn’t do table time with the boys. Instead Ben helped vacuum and they all helped tidy. Practical life skills.

Afternoon stories: Two chapters of Peter Duck. Three Pooh stories.

After dinner Bella spotted a bat swooping around in the backyard. So we all lingered at the back door and spotted several, at least three, bats all swooping around silhouetted against the sky. Now Sophie wants to learn more about bats. I guess that’s our next study. I wonder what kind of bats we have locally.

Bedtime stories: Calvin and Hobbes.

Thursday September 3

Sophie had done all her work before I even got up this morning. Math and copywork, at least. Bella did a page of math.

Then we went to the grocery store. At the store Anthony did a letter scavenger hunt, which I forgot to encourage about halfway through. But he did about half the alphabet, and he had fun.

Ben was not interested in joining Anthony on the scavenger hunt. Still totally disinterested in text and reading.

Sophie made pirate maps and wrote out the lyrics to her pirate songs. The songs prompted me to try to teach her a spelling lesson on the difference between sale and sail. Her handwriting was quite good, though. Copywork is definitely paying off.

Afternoon stories: finished Peter Duck. Read the first chapter of The Saturdays. Then read the infancy narrative in the Bible story book. Then read a chapter of My Family and Other Animals. And that led to watching videos of Greek dancing.

Ben made mac n cheese for dinner, with me directing him and helping to do things like pour the water out of the pot. He was very proud of himself.

Bedtime stories. It Could Always Be Worse, a couple of chapters from Pioneer Sampler on building a frame house.

Friday September 4

Sophie did math and copywork and cursive. Bella did math, I’m not sure about copywork, I forgot to check.

We had a park day and took a picnic lunch.

Afternoon stories: The Saturdays, which Anthony and Ben are finding rather boring. The first half of chapter 1 of The Hobbit, which neither boy stuck out until we got to the funny bits with the dwarfs.

Bedtime story: Calvin and Hobbes. Also girls looking at the atlas with Daddy.

Did I mention already that Anthony has also memorized the Twelve Tribes of Israel? He loves memorizing. And it’s so cute.