Learning Notes Week of October 2

Monday October 2

Anthony: math.

Ben: math, explode the code, drawing

Sophie: math, copywork, French translation (very excited she read three sentences with no help from me), Geography. Also Bella read to her from a book about birds and Sophie narrated it to me. She also narrated several of the books she’s been reading independently: Bible, saint book, novel. She sketched a crabapple and a juniper branch and a bottle.

Bella: math, copywork, drawing. She’s experimenting with ink drawing, joining me in my own experimentation with #inktober.

We all took a nature walk around the block.

Books: Bantry Bay, (and we found the towns in the atlas and figured out how far the children walked), Minn, Augustus Caesar’s World, today’s lectionary readings.

Bedtime: Julia’s House of Lost Creatures.

Tuesday October 3

Ben did three pages in Miquon. Explode the Code. Read half a Bob book. Did copywork.

Anthony did four pages in Miquon. Read Child’s History. Did copywork.

Sophie did two pages in Miquon, copywork, studied dictation words, practiced her French prayer, Read Child’s Geography.

Bella did Latin (Minimus), copywork, Miquon, Khan Academy, prepared dictation, read Romance of Reality Russia, read Book of Discovery. Narrated history.

Bella made lunch for all the kids and served it on the patio.

The kids put on a play they were making up.

Afternoon reading: Bantry Bay, Golden Fleece, Augustus Caesar’s World, St Elizabeth, North with the Spring.

We watched a video about making thread out of nettle fiber.

Also part 1 of The Mechanical Universe on You Tube.

And some physics girl videos on You Tube.

Bedtime Story: Kitchen Knight, How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You, Snuggle Puppy.

Wednesday October 4

Anthony did Miquon, read Child’s History, did copywork.

Ben did Miquon, Explode the Code.

Sophie did Miquon, copywork, dictation, Geography.
Bella did copywork, Khan Academy, read and narrated Exploding Suns, watched a Physics Girl video. Washed the windows because she got very frustrated in math.

Sophie asked about this morning’s canticle in Morning Prayer. What does it mean when it says “The Lord makes poor and makes rich, he humbles, he also exalts”? So we had a great conversation about all sorts of aspects of poverty and reversals. First, literally God made his people rich when they left Egypt. They took with them the spoils of gold and jewelry from their neighbors. He makes David the shepherd king of Israel. But I asked her about Christians and whether we necessarily receive wealth from God. We talked about St Francis and other saints who embrace poverty. What is their treasure? And we talked about God humbling himself, becoming poor and limited as a man. I love these kinds of big, meaty conversations. I love how yet again one was sparked just by praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

We all took a short walk and found some treasures.

Afternoon stories: Bantry Bay, Golden Fleece, St Elizabeth, Book of Angels, North with the Spring, Augustus Caesar’s World.

Thursday October 5

Grocery store. Everyone did math and copywork.

Afternoon stories: Bantry Bay, Golden Fleece, St Elizabeth, Book of Angels, Augustus Caesar’s World.

Friday October 6

Field Trip Museum of Fine Arts

We got there right at opening and headed straight for the Roman art. It was lovely and quiet in those galleries, we had them to ourselves for a while and thereafter there were only one or two other people. Ben was thrilled to recognize Hercules, who we have just been reading about in the Golden Fleece. And Anthony spotted Augustus Caesar. We looked at Roman sculpture, frescos, and mosaic, and discussed them. We also looked at some Greek pottery and sculpture before wandering through Egyptian and Chinese exhibits, these with a bit less attention and study.

After lunch we went through an exhibit of 18th century Japanese woodblock prints. It was set up as a showdown: Kuniyoshi vs Kunisada. I think the kids would choose Kuniyoshi’s dynamic action scenes of tattooed warriors and supernatural monsters though they also did enjoy Kunisada’s Kabuki theater actors and beautiful women. They really loved the stories and wanted more, more, more. Sophie and Bella remarked how the Japanese hero tales aren’t very different at all from the tales we’ve been reading in The Golden Fleece, the Iliad and the Odyssey. We spent far more time in this exhibit than I’d expected as they children wanted me to read the descriptions of almost all the works so they could know the stories. I had one woman come up to me and praise me for being such a good mother. Sharing art with my kids is one of my passions and days like this are so very rich in experience.

At the end of the day we visited the gift shop and as usual they children each picked out a few postcards to buy. I let them curate their own little galleries, hanging their pictures above their beds and on their bedroom doors. They develop such an affinity for certain artists and certain works. I think time spent cultivating a love of beauty is time well spent. At bedtime all five children said, “thank you, God, for going to the museum today.”