Monday December 14 Both girls did math and copywork. I had to take Ben to the dentist. He’s got several cavities including a tooth that will have to be extracted. So our family dentist referred us to a pediatric dentist who will do all of that. This...
My First Prayers for Christmas by Maite Roche I got this book for Lucy for Christmas. We already have the Maite Roche My First Pictures of Christmas board book and frankly don’t need more board books, but Maite Roche’s books are so sweet...
Saturday December 5 We went to the first profession of vows for two sisters of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth. Even though we don’t see them very often, our family has a connection with the order. Dom worked with Mother Olga before Cardinal Sean...
The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik Dom was very into this series when it first came out. I did try to read the first book, at his prompting, but the timing was bad and I couldn’t get into it. Not because of any fault of the book itself, so much as...
Sunday November 29 Sunday night ended with a trip to the emergency room with Ben, who fell off the rocking chair and cut open a gash along his right eyebrow. We turned off the stove and left the curry sitting in the pot while we bundled five kids...
Catching up on my learning notes posts…. Monday November 23 Read about St Clement and Blessed Miguel Pro. Bella gave Anthony a reading lesson, looking at a board book and helping him sound out words. Then she read to him from a Beatrix Potter...
I hope I’ve pretty well established that I love Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles, my favorite historical fiction. But I confess that every time I’ve read them there’s been one element that I have not loved and that is the very strong role played...
Many years ago, before we even had a child named Lucia, we decided it would be fun to celebrate the Bettinelli family’s Sicilian heritage by celebrating one of Sicily’s favorite saints, Santa Lucia. I borrowed an easy sweet bread recipe...
Reading The Lord of the Rings out loud to the children is a very different experience from reading the books to myself. We are taking them at a very, very much slower pace than anything I’d do on my own. Not only are we bound by the fact that it’s...
Way back in 2011 I wrote up a list of all our Christmas books along with little reviews of each. When a friend was looking for some recommendations this weekend, I dug out the old post and realized how many more books I could add to the list that...
