Search
Search
Learning Notes Week of October 9

Learning Notes Week of October 9

Studious Sophie

Monday October 9

Anthony did math, copywork, read to me from Child’s History.

Ben did math, Explode the Code, read a Bob book, did copywork.

Sophie did math, copywork, read her French prayer, read from 50 Famous Stories.

Bella did Khan Academy math, copywork.

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

Bedtime story: The Kitchen Knight.

Anthony reading Narnia and eating lunch.

Tuesday October 10

Anthony did math, copywork, read to me from Child’s History.

Ben did math, Explode the Code, read a Bob book, did copywork.

Sophie did math, copywork, translated French, prepared her dictation passage, read from Child’s Geography.

Bella did Khan Academy math, copywork, prepared dictation, Latin translate in Hobbitus Ille, read Lepanto out loud to me.

Afternoon stories: Bantry Bay, St Elizabeth, Book of Angels, Minn of the Mississippi, Golden Fleece.

Bedtime story: The Kitchen Knight.

Kids are enjoying The Natural World Close Up, a book of photos at extreme magnification.

Girls at work.
Dinner on the patio with the new lights.

Wednesday October 11

Ben did math and Explode the Code and copywork.

Anthony did math and copywork.

Sophie did math, copywork, practiced her French prayer, dictation, and read to me from 50 Famous Stories.

Bella did math and copywork. Read and narrated science (Exoplanets) and read a lit book and narrated it.

Short lessons this morning as we did the grocery shopping. But at least we did get in lessons. For a while now I’ve not been able to do both lessons and shopping in a day. Good to be getting back into the swing.

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

The last is one they sort of groan when I pick it up— except Bella— but often get caught up in the narrative. Today it was about a guy who bands eagles. The excitement of climbing into the nests and the strange things he finds in the nests and the size of the nests, all the kids were very, very involved by the end of the section. Augustus Caesar’s World is really very engaging and everyone seems to love it.

Book of Angels is leading to good conversations about all sorts of things especially about God’s plan for marriage. And why it’s important in all areas to follow God’s will and how when we do our own thing bad things result. 

We laughed when I got to SotW because I’d just been talking about bards and how important they were in Irish culture— this was relative to Bantry Bay and Paddy the Piper and oral history and also the role of oral history in the Bible. And then SotW was all about the role of bards in ancient Britain. I didn’t know it was coming, but part of it was almost word for word what I’d just said.

This morning Sophie and I had a great conversation about the possibilities of life on other planets. She’s got a very philosophical mind. The other kids joined in a bit, but Sophie was the driving force. I told her about Lewis’s Space Trilogy and a bit about other science fiction stories like The Sparrow and Eifelheim which deal with the question of evangelizing aliens. And various ideas about the universe. Are we the only intelligent corporeal beings? Is that a waste of space or did God have a plan for all the vast grandeur? What would it mean if there were other beings? Would they have souls? Could they sin? Would they need baptism? Would they know God? I think Bella’s exoplanet book is playing into this and also a Physics Girl video they watched about whether or not we should explore Mars.

Bedtime story: The Maggie B.

Bella is reading a book about St Francis de Sales, Exoplanets.

Sophie is reading a book about Florence Nightingale’s Nuns, a royal diary, and her Bible.

Anthony read The Magician’s Nephew in two days. He just picked it up and started reading. We’ve been listening to Narnia in the car again. Just finished The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian and are getting into Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s exciting that he’s figured out he can read them on his own.

Ben is making great progress with the Bob books and is feeling much more confident about reading— he can read whole sentences! Still a bit frustrated that he can’t yet read independently, but I can see that he’s much much closer now than he was a few months ago.

Reading girls.

Thursday October 12

Ben did math and Explode the Code, read a Bob book, and copywork.

Anthony did math and copywork, and read to me from Child’s History.

Sophie did math, copywork, translated some French with me, and read to me from Geography.

Bella did math and copywork. Read me a poem and discussed it. Did some Latin vocabulary work, making lists in her notebook color coded with different colored inks.

I gave Anthony and Lucy the books to go with the good shepherd materials and they spent a good hour reading the story, acting it out, and drawing sheep and shepherds. The other kids wanted books too and Ben and Sophie illustrated theirs as well.

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

Bedtime story: The Story about Ping.

Anthony is distracted by something outside.
Anthony reads the Good Shepherd parable to Lucy and she repeats it after him.
Anthony with his Good Shepherd book.
Anthony’s Good Shepherd with sheepfold and sheep, also hired hand and wolf.
Ben with his Good Shepherd illustrations.
Sophie’s good shepherd.

Friday October 13

Ben did math and Explode the Code, read a Bob book, and copywork.

Anthony did math and copywork, and read to me from Child’s History.

Sophie did math, copywork, recited Je Vous Salut Marie from memory, and read to me from Child’s Geography.

Bella did math and copywork. I’m not sure what else. We’ve had a hard time focusing this week, lost track of the checklist. We need to get back on track.

I was washing my sheets this morning and all the children decided they needed new sheets and so they all made their beds and we found new sheets. Sophie and Ben helped Anthony. I helped Bella. The only bed that didn’t get changed was Lucy’s. (I won’t horrify you by telling you how infrequently I change the sheets on the kids’ beds. Just assume it’s terrible.) So count that as a small practical life lesson.

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

Bedtime stories: Some poems from Now We Are Six, The Most Magnificent Thing.

Bella making dolls’ dishes.
Ben plays with clay

We have discovered that a rabbit lives in the neighborhood and likes to hang out in our yard. We saw his scat in the snow this past winter and were puzzled because it looked like rabbit scat, but we’d never seen a rabbit. But we’ve seen him hopping across the yard a few times now. I was quite surprised when I went to put the compost in the bin and looked up to see the rabbit hiding in the bed just a few feet from me. I startled him and he hopped a few feet away and stopped and sat in the grass for about ten minutes before moving on to hide in the bushes. Since then we’ve seen him hiding in the same spot of the overgrown garden bed. He’s made a little hollow for himself under the oregano.

Our neighborhood bunny hiding in the oregano.

On Sunday I took Anthony for a little pilgrimage. The relics of his patron saint, Anthony of Padua, had been traveling around the archdiocese. On Sunday they were at a parish that was about half an hour away and so he bravely gave up the Patriots game to go on a little adventure. He brought his medal and statue and touched them to the reliquary– “so now they are third class relics!” Afterward we stopped for ice cream on our way home. A nice treat and a lovely afternoon with my Anthony.

Anthony with the St Anthony of Padua reliquary.
Anthony brought his St Anthony statue to visit St Anthony’s relics.
Anthony with ice cream.
Share:FacebookX
Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Archives

Categories