Our Weekly Amble for February 9-13, 2015

Week 5 down.  One more week then break … Woo-hoo!

As much as I am loving the work we’re doing with AmblesideOnline Year 4, I think we will all enjoy a week to reset.  Each of these first few weeks I’ve been gushing about how much I love what we’re working on.  It really has been wonderful.  M-girl said just today that school is fun now … hard work yet fun.  While “fun” isn’t really on my list of goals, I was relieved to hear that she is enjoying this pattern.

This week, I read Jeanne’s post about Plutarch. Did you read it? You *should*! In the post, she quoted Charlotte Mason who referred to Family School.  I *love* that.  I want to say we Family School, now.  I probably will.  Just so you know.

This week, Brandy posted about preventing burnout by “mixing it up.” Today, Friday, we did school backwards.  We started with Latin, which is generally done after lunch, and ended with Circle Time. I don’t like to do that very often, but once in awhile it makes for a fun day.

This week, in Family School, we did five days of Circle Time. Yes, five days. I’m so pleased! We read through Chapter 3 in Robinson Crusoe.  He has just fallen asleep in a tree.  We read from Mark and Joshua from the KJV and reviewed our memorized passage Philippians 2:1-18.  We sang my favorite, ‘Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence’ and reviewed ‘O Sacred Head Now Wounded,’ ‘Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem,’ ‘Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken,’ ‘Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,’ and ‘Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise.’  We reviewed the last 8 of the Ten Commandments and why we need the commandments in our catechism.  We considered more about what “I am” means in Charlotte Mason’s motto.

Big crowd for Circle Time.

Checking off Circle Time activities.

For weather, we read about the history of the institution of weather services and the development of understanding of meteorological understanding in the 1800s. The children weren’t as engaged with this section of the Handbook of Nature Study. We charted the weather each day.  We continued reciting ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and listened to Tennyson himself recite it.  We also read ‘The Oak’ and ‘In Memorium VII.’ We reviewed more capitalization rules in grammar.

On Thursday, we had our “extras” day.  We looked at Fra Angelico’s ‘Transfiguration.’  We listened to Anonymous 4’s version of the hymn ‘O ignee spiritus.’ We again listened to Barbara Allen by Pete Seeger, still not a favorite.  The highlight of Thursday was our Art with Friends day.  N-boy had his organ lesson yesterday, he and R-girl recited ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ for his teacher. Love that.

For Latin, we watched Lesson 12, made flashcards, and worked through the main workpage for that lesson.  The children continued to practice penmanship by copying Westmister Shorter Catechism questions and answers.  They all did math 4 days.  M-girl is working on graphing, she is past the really challenging multiplication section, the main teaching section of MEP Y3 and is now doing the fun parts of math.  I think she’s relieved.  N-boy is working on multi-digit numbers and number lines.  R-girl began multiplication! I love that they start with x2, x5, and x10 and mix fractions and division in with it.  She isn’t learning multiplication in isolation. Wonderful.

History was reading about King Charles and his oppression of the colonies.  N-boy’s weekly written narration was about that reading.  It really caught his imagination of someone hiding the charter in a tree.  They all did geography blobbing each day and read some of Minn from the Mississippi which they are enjoying greatly. We began to read about the Two Margarets in Trial and Triumph. M-girl already knew the story.  N-boy was personally offended on their behalf.

We’ve been reading Poor Richard at the dinner table with Daddy. We’re all enjoying the information about Franklin’s life, the wisdom he expressed, and the beautiful writing of the book. I love that Daddy models excellent narrations of the book, too.

In science, they are still enjoying The Story Book of Science; they read about the age of trees and animals.  M-girl’s narration was inspired by the tree chapter.  I read aloud Longs’ Geography’s Lesson XII about Hills, Mountains, and Valleys. I also read aloud the assigned selection of Madam How and Lady Why about changes to the glen and similar geological changes in different places.

Age of Fable continues to be a challenge for all of us.  We read about Epimethius and Prometheus (but not Prometheus’ punishment? I suppose that would be soon.) and we read about Pandora.  The mythology continues to be a struggle, but we shall persevere.  The children are enjoying having free reading as part of their morning.

We didn’t get outside this week, it’s so cold. We did pilates four days Piano lessons were also canceled, although practices continued apace.  Pilates continues to be a integral part of our day.  In fact when I decided not to do it yesterday, there were many complaints.

Happy, Pretty Girls