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Learning Notes Week of April 9

Learning Notes Week of April 9

Anthony multiplying.
Anthony laughing.
Making Pentecost flames.

Monday April 9

Ben and Anthony both did some math before I was awake. But that’s all the work that got done. We spent the time after breakfast tidying up and had friends spend most of the day visiting.

Bella did write a paragraph of a story.

Afternoon stories: Finished The White Stag. St Margaret Mary Alacoque, King Alfred the Great.

Bedtime: Castle in the Air

Friends.

Tuesday April 10

Anthony: math, copywork, Child’s History

Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code

Sophie: math, copywork, dictation, French

Bella: Latin, math, copywork, composition (writing and illustrating a story)

Afternoon stories: St Magnus: The Last Viking, St Margaret Mary, Augustus Caesar’s World, North with the Spring, King Alfred the Great

Bedtime story: Castle in the Air.

Sisters studying.
Discarded wings.

Wednesday April 11

I read the kids today’s lectionary readings.

Anthony: math, copywork, story of St Stanislaus

Ben: math, copywork, read a Bob book.

Sophie: math, copywork, dictation (Bella helped her)

Bella: Latin, math, copywork, dictation, read Acts 3 to me. (Did the readings of prayers and Gospel for their pretend Mass)

Kids played Mass with the Mass kit.

Afternoon stories: St Magnus: The Last Viking, St Margaret Mary, Story of the World, King Alfred the Great.

Kids played with new Lego sets that we received a while back from an anonymous benefactor. (Thank you very very much, dear friend. They were very well received.)

Bedtime story: Castle in the Air.

Bella reading Acts
Playing Mass.
Playing Mass.
Chain Reaction Lego kit.
New Lego.
New lego.

Friday April 13

Bella went to work with Dom today. He was at the Massachusetts State House for a pro-life student lobby day and thought she might like to hang out with him and the high school students. She came back more excited about the wildlife that she’d seen on the Common than about the State House: robins building nests and pulling worms, and one robin whose song echoed off a memorial wall and sounded like a flute in an orchestra, a squirrel asleep on a tree branch, a starling.

I slept in late, I had a headache. But I got the others to do some work.

Anthony: math, copywork.

Ben: math.

Sophie: math, copywork.

No afternoon stories. The weather was nice and they all went to play outside. I went out for a while with them and we looked at signs of spring: the daffodil blooming, hosta shoots coming up, maple flowers.

Bedtime story: A Poem That Heals Fish

Bella on the Common
daffodil.
First dandelion.
Crocuses.
Smelling maple blossoms.
Smelling maple blossoms.

Saturday April 14

We had an art adventure afternoon at the McMullen Art Museum at Boston College. They have awesome free art days on the second Saturdays when they’ve got an exhibit up. The current exhibit is Chinese so today’s adventure was kite making. (Sadly, we didn’t get to see the exhibit, but I guess that means we’ll have to go back.)

We made three different kites. The first was a traditional diamond shape. We made them out of rice paper and painted them with traditional brushes and ink in ink stones. They were fun to make and we loved the technique, but they didn’t fly well at all. The paper wasn’t very strong. So for fun process this got good marks, but not for flyability of the finished product. My biggest problem with this project was that the folding instructions could have been clearer. IT would have been nice to have a quick run through of the whole process first and then to go through it more slowly, so we knew where we were headed. It would have been nice to have written instructions as well as verbal. It seemed like maybe the computer presentation wasn’t working? Also, it would have been nice if the assistants had practiced making each kite so they could have been more help when we got stuck. Anthony just wanted written instructions so much and kept getting upset at the starts and stops. Sophie was frustrated by the process too and then when it came time to decorate the kite she froze. She didn’t have an idea and there wasn’t a clear instruction, just do what you want. She didn’t decorate it at all until we’d made the other two kites then I helped her do a quick design with markers, but by that time the inks and brushes had been put away so she didn’t get to play with them.

The second kite was a koi fish wind sock type kite. It was small and cute and much easier to make and flew pretty well.

The third kite, a bird, was the simplest and flew the best. But the process wasn’t as much fun and it didn’t look impressive. So I’m glad we did all three. It certainly has made me want to acquire some Chinese ink and brush sets so we can play more with the medium.

Waiting Lucy: when do we make the kites?
Lucy paints a kite.
Ben makes a kite.
Sophie with koi kite.
Kite making.
Sophie with bird kite.
Ben with kite.
Anthony with koi kite.
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