Monday January 11
I took Ben to the dentist for a filling. Sophie did math and copywork and cursive. Bella did copywork and Khan academy math.
Afternoon stories: Coot Club, Then There Were Five, Lord of the Rings.
Tuesday January 12
Sophie finished yesterday’s math page and began on one for today and then got stuck on the first problem. It took a while. She did copywork and cursive. She read several books to Lucy and the boys.
Bella did two pages of geometry in the Miquon book. She did some copywork.
Afternoon stories: Coot Club, Story of the World chapter about the Suez Canal, Faith and Life about Joseph and his dreams, Lord of the Rings. We tried to do narrations of history and faith and life. Ben and Sophie need to learn to pay attention more. Bella is good at narrating the flow of ideas. She often forgets names.
Bedtime stories: library books.
Wednesday January 13
Sophie did math, copywork and cursive. And then played a spelling game on the iPad.
Bella did math and copywork, despite having a headache.
I did math with the boys and Anthony played a spelling game and Ben traced the letter I.
Anthony and Sophie and I looked at My Pathway to Heaven.
The three middle kids went out to play in the snow. Bella and Lucy did not.
Afternoon stories: Coot Club, Then There Were Five, Lord of the Rings. Girls Who Looked Under Rocks. Little Brother, Little Sister by Barbara Cooney.
Thursday January 14
Eco-Science Club: tracking: animal tracks and gait and signs. Plus African wildlife slideshow.
We were late getting out the door after a terrible hard night for Ben and Lucy and me. But we managed to arrive just as they were getting started.
There were slides of animal tracks and there were little plates that the kids could make rubbings from to compile little books for themselves. And the kids practiced different animal gaits: walking, waddling, bounding, hopping.
Then our conservancy guide had just come beck from Kenya and showed us lots and lots and lots of slides.
We got home after 1 and had a late lunch. Then a very short story time, just Coot Club and Lord of the Rings as I was planning to make meatballs and Brussles sprouts, a complicated dinner that would take a while to make.
Sophie decided she wanted iPad time and so did a page of math, a line of copywork, and a couple lines of cursive. Her cursive is much neater than her printing. And so she earned iPad time. Ben saw her with the iPad and did a token bit of math— the remainder of yesterday’s page— and copying the letter J. Then he got iPad time. Then Bella got in on it and did a page of math and two lines of the Tolkien poem she’s copying and she got an iPad turn. Then Anthony decided I was being unfair to require him to do math and threw a fit. And finally decided to do his math at the very last moment as we were sitting down to dinner. No go.
Bedtime story: Zita the Spacegirl. Zita has supplanted Calvin and Hobbes, I do think.
Friday January 15
Bella and Sophie did math and copywork before we went to the grocery store. Amazing. Sophie is now doing a line of print and a line of cursive in two different Memoria Press books, but is almost done with the print one.
Afternoon stories: Coot Club, Lord of the Rings, Mystery of the Periodic Table, a selection of picture books from the library including Amanda Pig and one on John Henry. Then Sophie and Bella played on the iPads. Bella discovered a new math game. Anthony did a bit of copying Ts and a few math problems to earn an iPad turn. Ben didn’t want to mess with his school books.
Then a new book came in the mail, Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle and I read Bella the intro and she recognized some of the scientific names and seemed fairly interested. I thought it might make a nice follow up to the Mystery of the Periodic Table, even if likely over her head. She likes listening to it and is learning something about science. Next year we’ll start doing history of science in earnest and this is a good foundation for that. Maybe she can do it as more independent reading/narration instead of read alouds and take it off my plate, though I’ll miss learning along with her if we do it that way.
Bedtime story: Gingerbread Man for Lucy. Sophie wanted a book about a year on a construction site, I’m not sure about the title.
