Monday October 3
Bella worked on factors, boring, but she stuck to it. Anthony did some addition and subtraction. Ben is starting to work on multiplication. Sophie is doing metric measures and volumes.
Sophie and Bella both did copywork. Sophie is copying All Things Bright and Beautiful in cursive. Bella is copying a psalm, I forget which one.
Sophie read me from her geography book. And we looked up the Columbia River on the map.
Anthony read me Frog and Toad and copied a sentence.
Ben copied some words from his tanks and armored vehicles of WW2 book.
Bella led everyone on a nature walk, showing us the fungi she’d found. I picked a bunch and brought them home to draw. Anthony and I spent some time looking closely at the structures of dandelions. He really loves that close look.
Afternoon stories:
Missee Lee, Rosetta Stone, St John Paul II, Life of Our Lord for Children, Story of the World (Egyptian gods), Van Gogh’s Starry Night art history for Children (chapter about lion man stone age carving), Anne of Green Gables. Great book discussions. Some good narrations. Ben is starting to put his oar in occasionally.
Tuesday October 4
I had a doctor’s appointment all morning. I left the kids with checklists for school work that Dom tried to supervise. It seems everyone did math, Anthony read to Bella and did copywork, and Sophie did copywork. I had to supervise Bella’s copywork, hear Sophie read geography when I got home. I was impressed. They also all sketched a seashell. I was pleased I’d included that on their checklists. I should do a quick sketch like that more often.
Afternoon stories: Missee Lee, Rosetta Stone, Story of the World, Life of Our Lord for Children, John Paul II, Anne of Green Gables. Some discussion and narration.
At dinner: read Billy Collins poems and Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Bedtime story: Greek Myths.
Wednesday October 5
My plan was to go to the museum today, but we (I) woke up too late and I wasn’t feeling great. Still, the kids were reluctant to change gears. They woke up not expecting to have to do math and wanting a trip. So I decided to try something new. Even though they’ve been resistant to nature journaling, yesterday’s assignment to draw a shell was surprisingly successful. So I grabbed a pile of sketchbooks and some colored pencils and a handful of shells and coral and pinecones and sat down with my own sketchbook and asked them to try to draw something. We spent a good hour sketching. They grabbed some toys and sketched them. Even Lucy joined in and drew a very credible princess with a face and arms and even the correct colors from the little figurine she was copying.
After we’d done drawing it wasn’t so hard to get out the math books and tackle that. Bella and the boys each did a page in Miquon and I let Sophie do a math app on the iPad. Then Sophie naturally did her copywork. I did some letter practice with Ben. Bella did her copywork and then they all scattered outside for some fun in the sun. Bella pulled Lucy in the wagon while Sophie and Ben made an impromptu parade with the two parts of the broken wheelbarrow. Anthony and I picked seeds and looked at plants. Then Sophie read me her geography lesson. Then Anthony read me a Bob book and copied a sentence. And that took us to lunch.
Afternoon stories: Missee Lee, Pagoo, John Paul II, Story of the World, Anne of Green Gables.
Bedtime story: Greek Myths.
Thursday October 6
Field trip to Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Bella and Ben got up early and did math and helped pack everything we needed for the trip. Without them we’d never have got out the door.
I’ll write about this in a separate post.
Friday October 7
Bella did Miquon math and copywork. Ben did Miquon math. Sophie did some math in the MEP book and then more math on Khan Academy.
Took Anthony to the doctor for an injured knee. And that took most of the afternoon. The sweet thing was Bella pulling him in the wagon so he could be outside with the kids and join in their games.
Afternoon stories: Read Missee Lee and final chapter of Anne of Green Gables.
Bedtime story: finished Greek Myths.
What fabulous sketches! Such a good way to cultivate the habit of observing closely. Have you read Betty Edwards’ Drawing with the right side of the brain? Not that your children need it at all but her exercises are fascinating and fun.
I’ve never read it, but I keep thinking I should check it out. I think I’d like more structure for our drawing time.