Thinking about this article which my husband brought up last week —the DHM at the Common Room and Cindy at Dominion Family have also discussed it. I wonder what we are doing so differently nowadays from previous times? The article targets “permissiveness” but I don’t completely think so. Or rather, I think that permissiveness when it is really pernicious comes with a kind of indifference and that’s the harmful part — what Charlotte Mason calls “laissez aller” — basically, throwing all the cards up in the wind.
Friday we went to homeschool Stations of the Cross and when we got home two cords of firewood had been dumped in our driveway and the older kids who had stayed at home were already stacking it and had gotten about halfway through. We joined them, even Paddy and Aidan, and got the second half done in time for dinner. Oh, we were tired.
Saturday we went down to town to go to Confession. First time in quite a while…. it is a 120 mile round trip and since it’s only for an hour each Saturday morning it’s often difficult to get down there in the right time frame. You can make appointments of course but my shy teenagers are concerned about anonymity.
Saturday also, Clare’s interview about her cantoring was in the diocesan newspaper and Fr Geo made rather a big deal about it : ) — asked her if she would write an article because he said he heard lots of good feedback about her writing style.
Sunday, the kids were out sledding.
Today was a routine Monday Cleaning day.
Sean:
- Math pages 11-12
- Faith and Life chapter 15, then copywork
- Literature: Legends of Chivalry
Kieron
- Math Quia on computer
- Faith and Life chapter 17, which we discussed, then copywork.
- Faerie Queen –
Both
- Latin quiz on vocabulary — chapters 6-10 of LCI. It was oral and I alternated between the two of them, and between Latin and English. Both did quite well.
- Housecleaning
- They are both reading the Henry Winterfeld Detectives in Togas. These are really good — wish there were more.
- Kieron is rereading the Prydain Chronicles — he must have them memorized by now.
I have to figure out what Sean is going to do after he finishes book 8. I told him he could have a week or two off of math at that point since he will have basically met his middle school math goals, and then we will start in on high school math. I am not sure where Clare is in Jacob’s Algebra, which would be the next stage ordinarily for Sean. Maybe we can go to Geometry but I am not sure if SEan is quite ready for proofs and theorems. Another alternative would be to do a sort of rapid review of K-8 arithmetic to make sure he doesn’t have any gaps, though Key to Algebra does deal with fractions and decimals and all kinds of arithmetic concepts and he has not had any trouble. Any suggestions would be gratefully considered.
Aidan heard us talking about baseball signups and so that is the main conversational loop for him nowadays. “Are we going to play T-ball? Today?” We are talking about whether to sign up Paddy. He is only four and a bit of a young four. Probably would be better to wait but he is so eager and Aidan loves the thought of the two of them both playing and wearing “A” hats.
