Monday August 20
Anthony: math, copywork, Child’s History
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code, Bob book
Sophie: math, copywork, dictation
Bella: math, copywork, composition, Latin
Stories: Magna Charta, Salt, St Magnus, North with the Spring, lectionary readings.
Bedtime: Winged Watchman
Ben wanted to sit on the couch to do his school work, and he was alternating between doing the work and minding the baby doll, Thomas. He was feeding and changing Thomas and cuddling him. It was very sweet.
Tuesday August 21
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code, Bob book
Anthony: math, copywork, Child’s History
Sophie: math, copywork, French, Geography, composition, worked with Lucy on reading skills.
Bella: math, composition (nature journal about bees), read and narrated From Sea to Shining Sea. Read selected scenes from Cymbeline.
Stories: Magna Charta, Salt, St Magnus, Story of the Chosen People, lectionary readings.
Bedtime story: Winged Watchman.
Wednesday August 22
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code, Bob book
Anthony: math, copywork, Child’s History
Sophie: math, copywork, French, Geography, read and narrated first chapter of This Country of Ours.
Bella: math, copywork, Latin (Winnie Ille Pu), narrated more From Sea to Shining Sea, narrated Falcons of France, about WWI fighter pilots.
Stories: Magna Charta, St Magnus, Day on Skates, Secrets of the Universe, lectionary readings.
Bedtime story Little Bear’s Kiss.
Thursday August 23
Ben: math, copywork, Explode the Code, Bob book
Anthony: math, copywork, Child’s History
Sophie: math, copywork, French, Geography.
Bella: math, copywork, Latin (Winnie Ille Pu), composition, narrated from Journey into Summer.
The kids spent the remainder of the morning playing a game that was essentially a long series of history narrations. First, they were crusaders taking Jerusalem (the playhouse) from Saladin (Anthony). Then they had Mass with the pope at the Holy Sepulcher. (Anthony was the pope.) Then they went on a pilgrimage to Rome.
Next, they were Normans invading England. Bella as Duke William, Anthony as the Saxons. He also got to be King Harold and got killed with a spear in his eye.
Then they were Ferdinand and Isabella fighting the moors and capturing Grenada. Lucy was the moors.
Then they played out the story of the Magna Charta. Bella was King John whose rebellious barons forced him to sign the Magna Charta. Nine copies so it couldn’t be destroyed. Anthony was St Thomas Becket and the crew of them went across the street to be the noble lords sailing across the English Channel from Normandy to rid him of the troublesome priest. (Anthony was Thomas Beckett and Bella was King Henry II.) There were some common threads through all these scenarios. Lucy was Sir Robin who is always late. And Anthony was all the enemies, but also was Sir Thomas who got left behind to guard the castle (that way he could be both good and bad guys). At some point Bella declared that they were the knights of the golden cup.
Then they debated about whether to be Vikings next, or maybe they were going to defeat the Huns.
Obviously they were not sticking to a strict chronology, mostly trying to work their way through all of the cool medieval battles Bella could think of. Later it devolved into a general melee with Sophie attacking everyone with a sword. Not in character, just wanting to skirmish. But a great time was had by all.
Afternoon stories: Magna Charta, St Magnus, Day on Skates, Story of the Chosen People, Story of the World, lectionary readings.
Bedtime story: The Sun Egg.
Friday August 24
My notes for Friday have gone astray, but I see the photographic evidence of having constructed a wave pool to go with our Wednesday reading of Secrets of the Universe.
Saturday August 25
The boys had a cub scout fishing derby early in the morning. Both were thrilled to catch fish. And Ben even caught the biggest fish caught by a scout (the scout master actually caught a bigger one, but he didn’t count.)
