Monday November 28
Ben did letters, Miquon, copywork.
Anthony did Miquon, read to me from his saint book (St George), copywork.
Sophie did Miquon, a bit of MEP, copywork.
Bella did some Miquon, copied a prayer into her journal, chose a passage for dictation, reviewed a Latin lesson.
Afternoon stories: Great Northern, St Anthony of Padua, Hippos in the Night.
Tuesday November 29
Ben did letters, copywork, Miquon math, and sketched.
Anthony sketched, did a page in Miquon, read me the story of St Alexandra, copy work.
Sophie did a page of Miquon, copywork, practiced her French lesson, read geography. We found the Straits of Magellan on the map and Cape Horn.
Bella did Latin, prepared her dictation, did some math in her Miquon book. I don’t think she ever got around to copywork.
Afternoon stories: Great Northern, Hippos in the Night, Life of Our Lord, Story of the World.
We finally finished Great Northern, the last of the Swallows and Amazons series. I’m rather sad that journey has come to an end and that there are no more books to read. Sure, we can re-read them and we most certainly will. But it’s not the same as reading them for the very first time.
The kids watched an episode of the British castles documentary. And the boys watched an episode of Monkey Thieves.
Today I spotted Bella reading: The Eagle of the Ninth, St Patrick’s Summer, The Essential Tolkien, The Journal of Augustus Pelletier (Dear America series), the Bible, Compline, a book about Revolutionary War spies. And probably more I didn’t note.
Bedtime story: To Go Singing Through the World: The Childhood Pablo Neruda by Deborah Kogan Ray. This was a gorgeous picture book. I was sure it would be visually beautiful like all of Ray’s work, but I was surprised at how lovely the prose was, weaving in Neruda’s own words, both his poetry and his prose, seamlessly into the narrative. The book sings without being sing-song-y. It’s lyrical without feeling like it’s trying to be poetic. And yet it’s not so lyric that it loses the story like some books I’ve seen that get too carried away in versification. The story is solid, a story of a boy coming of age and finding his voice. At different times in the story the big kids found something in his story that spoke to them. Ben asked, why didn’t he speak to the woman in the market? And we talked about Ben’s own reluctance to talk to strangers. Anthony exclaimed, He stutters like I do! And Sophie said that his delight in books reminded her of Bella. After I’d finished it the poetry was singing in our ears and we were hungry for more so I found a volume of Neruda’s verse on my shelf and read them some selections.
Wednesday November 30
Grocery store day, but I got everyone to do some math before we left. Ben also did a page in his letters workbook, but no copywork. Anthony did math. Bella did some math and copied a prayer into her prayer journal. Sophie did a page of math and some lines of copywork.
We’re still listening to Lord of the Rings in the car. Our heroes made it to Weathertop.
Afternoon stories: Carry on, Mr Bowditch, Life of Our Lord, St Anthony, Story of the World, Hippos in the Night. Watched a video of Turkana people dancing to go with Hippos chapter.
Bedtime stories: Dinosaur Mountain and Apple Picking Time, both by Deborah Kogan Ray.
Bella is reading the Royal Diary about Elizabeth I.
Thursday December 1
Anthony read me a saint story, did copywork, then math. Ben did letters, copywork, and math. Sophie did math and copywork. She got really excited about geometry and did three pages. Bella did math, copywork, dictation.
We went for a walk because it was a mild sunny day. The kids picked up pine canes and spruce needles and we identified privet and burning bush. I found a cicada shell, but the wind blew it away before the kids saw it.
Afternoon stories: Carry on Mr Bowditch, Life of Our Lord, St Anthony, Story of the World.
Bedtime story: book about WW2.
Friday December 2
Field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. We began with ancient art: Mesopotamia and Egypt and Greece. Then after lunch we visited Make Way for Ducklings, an exhibit of the art of Robert McCloskey. Then William Merritt Chase, an American painter who mostly did portraits. We all brought sketchbooks and made some sketches.
