Our Weekly Amble for August 1-5, 2016

This was an unusual week.

R-girl was scheduled to spend her “Nifty Nine” time with Grammy and Grampa starting Saturday and coming home on Wednesday. In the past, we would not have done formal, academic lessons. But because we scheduled the “Old Enough Others Outing” for M-girl and N-boy starting today through Wednesday, so R-girl can catch up on the work *they* did.

We also had sweet friends join us on Tuesday. My friend is considering trying out homeschool this year for her oldest, who will be in first grade, so she came to see what we do and talk about homeschool in general and what the journey can look like. She brought her six year old and her two year old. I had forgotten what it was like to have a toddler in our school room. I was so glad to have her there for the day, if only to remind me to be compassionate toward those of you who are wrestling with toddlers. I promise, you too will forget someday.

So, M-girl, N-boy, and I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We accomplished a lot. We did some lessons on Thursday and Friday with R-girl, too.

For the week, we did an abbreviated Whatchamacallit time. Mostly just reviewing memory work but not working on new lessons or readings. We did a little more of it with our friends on Tuesday since they were there to observe. I got the Wedgits out for our friends on Tuesday and my big kids enjoyed playing with them during Whatchamacallit on Tuesday:

We’re almost done with the final pre-selected poem of Level Two of Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization (first two levels are free through the end of August at Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op!), so we’ve begun selecting poems – M-girl chose some Emily Dickinson, N-boy chose Excelsior! by Longfellow, R-girl picked Rice Pudding by Milne, and I’m going to try to learn Shakespeare’s Sonnet 143:

While our friends were here, we colored our Queen Anne’s Lace for the year:

We are working on the Latin review chapter of the prepositions. They did copywork daily, working throug the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In math, they’re progressing. M-girl still with fractions, N-boy is working on 3 and 4 digit numbers. R-girl worked on time for the two days she was home.

We worked quite a lot in our Memoria Press Geography. The children are working their way across North Africa – the parts that touch the Mediterranean. Next we’ll be moving toward Europe.

We’re reading about the early 1800s in history, so Queen Victoria as a child, Darwin, Audubon, Dickens, John Quincy Adams’ presidency, and Lewis and Clark reaching the Pacific. Maccu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, and Rio de Janeiro (right before the Olympics – the timing couldn’t have been more perfect) were our readings from Halliburton’s Book of Marvels. I love the photography in that book:

They read about the invention of batteries and electromagnets, The Pacing Mustang, and about how we learn things and oughtn’t look down on those who haven’t had the same opportunities we have. They read about Newton and gravity and the Principia.

The children were excited to read about Hercules. I was excited to read about Hercules from a hard copy of Age of Fable I found when I did my cleanout:

Our free-reads have been hits. M-girl is very much enjoying Green’s King Arthur. I think it’s interesting that we’re reading Pyle’s as a family, but she chose Green’s on her own. Tom Sawyer continues to be a great choice for N-boy. I don’t think R-girl read much of Farmer Boy this week, but next week will be a different story.

R-girl had so much fun with Grammy. Sleeping in a tent, stand-up paddleboarding, swimming with her cousins, tea parties, and stories.

M-girl and N-boy dug Stratego and Risk out of the basement and played those games this week. That’s been a big hit! We enjoyed the pool several days including a trip with my parents on Thursday.

Last night, First Friday, we found new books. The children couldn’t wait to start on their books, so they were reading after we ordered dinner:

I’ve noticed that by planning day-by-day our readings are often uneven and we sometimes have too much one day and not enough another. When it’s too much on Monday, and not enough on Thursday, it’s not as much of an issue, but when it’s the other way around, there are struggles. We tire as the week goes on. I decided to work on my planning strategy and made a list this week. That worked out well, so I digitized my list for the last three weeks of this term and started next term. Essentially, I’m sorting through the number of readings and natural breaking points for some of the books so I can divide them more easily. I scoped about it yesterday, and you can see it here.