I think I will start a tradition of saving Fridays for an assessment of the past week. Today was pretty much like all the other days in our week. Usually we have Homeschool Stations of the Cross but this month it hasn’t happened because of illnesses and weather. Once again that was true of this week.
I will mostly be focusing on the middle boys, ages just 11 and just 14, with these summaries because the younger ones are essentially kindergarten and my high schooler works mostly independently. Officially I have 2 highschoolers but the older one is having a completely interested-directed year — he filled his basic high school requirements last year and I thought it would make better sense to let him have this year for himself as an interim year.
Math
- Sean is up to p 18 of Key to Algebra book 7.
- Kieron is on lesson 33 of Saxon 65.
Latin
- Both continue to do Latina Christiana Quia drills. So we are working mostly on the vocabulary aspect of the Latin.
- Both did some work with Minimus this week. So far this has been a winner in our house with respect to interest level. It’s not a core resource for us but it makes a good supplement.
Other
- Sean reads the dictionary for fun.
- Both played with the Mind Munchers book this week.
Free Reading:
- Kieron is rereading the Narnia series and Grimm’s Fairy Tales
- Sean read 3 books last week and I haven’t seen him reading much this week.
History/Religion
- Kieron — finished Irish Legends for Children, read Patrick in Celtic Heritage Saints. I read to him from Bible History and the first 2 stories in Lives of the Romans.
- Sean — read Story of the Church a couple of times this week.
Early Academics
- Read countless books to Paddy.
- Aidan did three reading lessons of various kinds and we practiced counting.
- We made it outside almost every day.
- We are working on consistent morning and evening routines.
High School
- Literature: Clare is immersed in a Dickens unit; lots of reading and narrating.
- Writing: Blogs and a script for a movie.
- Math: continue daily Jacob’s Algebra.
- Latin: Henle
- History: Founders of Christendom
- Science: Apologia Biology and lots of nature study, but we are in the process of making some changes in the book part of it.
- LIfe Skills: She finished the skirt and vest and they look great.
- Music: The list would go on and on. She has taken up classical guitar now (self-taught) and the progress is impressive.
The Transition Years:
- Liam is still doing fine in college. He’s a sophomore. We are planning to visit him in the next few days. He just sent me an email in Latin, but fortunately for me he included a translation.
- Brendan is reading Master and Commander and writing.
Note:
I can’t think of a good title right now but I want to have a section on this for Milestone of the Week, only milestone isn’t quite the right word. But anyway, a section to mark something memorable. Spotlight? Anyway, I think Brendan provided the moment just about an hour ago when he showed me a remarkable sketch he had drawn. Last time he showed me a picture of his was when he was back in the stick figure stage. He is my very strongly Right Brained learner. Anyway, this picture was of a character in the new book he’s working on. It looked a bit like one of the Redwall covers. He has been an amateur naturalist for a long time and it showed in this drawing.
Other nice moments were the interest in Minimus from the boys, Sean’s steady plugging away at Algebra, Kieron’s gallant response to having to now walk 2 miles a day, Clare’s sewing and the movie making plans. Also Paddy moving up another step in his listening literacy. I guess I could go on and on. I see that the things I get the happiest about are the things they do that are admirable but of their own volition, even if we originally requested it like with the post office walks and the algebra.
Paddy and Kieron on the “mini Mt Everest” where the snow has slid off the metal roof of our house!
