Day 25

Sean's Kolbe materials came today. I'm looking forward to going through them. This is the first year with Kolbe when we didn't have at least three kids enrolled, which for this ADD mom makes for a lot of confusion. One eighth grader is considerably simpler than, say, a senior, a sophomore, a freshman, a sixth grader, a third grader and a special-needs kindergartener, like we had one year (the Ker wasn't enrolled, but he had a massive paper trail of his own because of all his therapies and medical interventions).

This was a rather brief day. We did most of the usual basics but in less depth. I let Sean cut the algebra exercises a bit short (more graphing and negative numbers, which is review for him anyway). For Kieron's math, we worked a bit with multiplication of larger numbers, then he did a review sheet on place value up to trillions.

For Latin, they both did the declension match-ups and then I introduced the indirect object to Kieron (who got it quickly) and gave him a sort of model for what order to translate these more complex sentences in -- he did exercise 19. Sean is on predicate nominatives still.

Sean did Greek and Vocabulary; Kieron did Greek and Handwriting. The Italics program is doing nice things for his handwriting; I'm happy about it so far.

Sean started King Solomon's Ring (Konrad Lorenz) and read a bit more of Mere Christianity. There are study questions in the MODG syllabus which I ought to look up so I can discuss these books a bit with him; I have read them but not recently.

I gave Kieron a retelling of Don Quixote but I don't know if he got around to reading it or not. ANyway, he read a library book about squids.

Aidan and Paddy didn't do anything academic, though I did read to Paddy yesterday for over an hour, and managed to introduce the first Catholic Treasure Box magazine in honor of St Therese's feast day today.

The major assignment was to write a long-delayed thank you letter to Grandma and Grandpa for the trip to Ireland this summer. The easiest were the little ones and the older ones. With the little ones I just said, "We're saying thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for the trip to Ireland. Did you like Ireland? What did you like? Anything else? Now write your name (or at least the first letter). Draw a picture." So easy!

Aidan dictated:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa -- I liked Ireland. There was a phone in the bathroom at the hotel. I took a quick shower. I liked Killarney. The kitties were aggressive.

Paddy dictated:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa -- In Ireland we had a big time for a little while. I like the candy, and playing with Declan (his cousin).

Since I sent the letters off without taking a picture (sigh!) I have to write it down before I forget!

With the middle boys, especially Sean, it was like pulling teeth. Oh well.

Then we went on our local errand day -- market, library and post office. Now Sean and Brendan are playing Madden Football, Clare is making lunch, and Paddy and Kieron are trying out a BIonicle game.

We got several nice legend-type books from the library:

1. In Search of a Homeland by Penelope Lively
2. Children of Odin by Padraic Colum
3. MacMillan Book of Gods and Heroes

Clare got Mr Smith Goes to Washington to watch again this afternoon, since it's our "screen" afternoon. (The teenagers and Kevin finished watching The War last night).

And I got a book called If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. HT Ragamuffin Rosie. ... who also has some really pretty printable plans on her page, for world geography unit study.