Day 90

This is Day 90! I've managed to blog our learning logs for half the entire school year. I am proud of this. I am going to continue to blog about homeschooling but I've decided to move the operations mostly over to my other blog In a Spacious Place, at least for now. It's not an easy decision -- I've been going back and forth about the pros and cons -- but the deciding factor is that I think I need to streamline operations a bit. Maintaining several blogs is nice in several ways but the truth is, it takes time I don't really have. So I am going to blog the homeschooling things over there for the foreseeable future. I'm not deleting this blog because I may want it again in future, but I'm going to let it stay inactive for at least a few months. Many Blessings, and I hope this change works out for the best! (I am having second thoughts already, but I made the decision after lots of thought so I think I can live with it)

Today Sean gets the day off because it is his birthday, but he forgot, and went ahead and did most of his work before I remembered (I was talking to Clare on the phone -- she is returning home today from her college and March for Life tour).

Kieron doesn't get the day off but because I was talking to Clare, he hasn't really started yet.

Update:

Kieron did:

• Discovery of New Worlds (read about King Arthur)
• Also read a section from What your 4th Grader Needs to Know -- about Germanic People on the Move, and Dark or Middle?
• Geometry (circles)
• A Math Drill
• We discussed Respect for Life from the Grade 6 Faith and Life. This works better, we both agreed, than reading the text which is a bit dry in our opinion.

Day 89

Kieron

• Math (about vertical angles and perpendicular and parallel)
• Discovery of New Worlds (about the "Dark Ages" and I had him read about Barbarians in the Kingfisher History of the World and study the map)
• Latin review from Latina Christiana
  

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Book of Discovery
• The Family that Overtook Christ
  
• He got the day off math today.

They both did their weekly chores.

Aidan

• Doug and Melissa Letter Box
• HWT letterforms

Talked with Brendan about prolife things.

Day 88

Yesterday we didn't have academics; instead, the boys took care of Patrick while Kevin and I and Aidan escorted Clare by train to the midway point of her trip to visit the college where her brother is going. She is going to attend classes and then go to the March for Life in San Francisco with the college group. Liam is going too.

So Aidan had a memorable day. As for today:

Kieron

• Math (finding out angles and constructing them with a protractor)
• Discovery of New Worlds (I read to him about Alaric and the Visigoths and we discussed it.
• Usborne Ancient Worlds (he read about the post-Constantine Roman Empire and we found out who the nameless young Emporer was who was more worried about his chicken named Rome than the fate of the city which he had abandoned).

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Book of Discovery
• Plutarch
• Now he is doing the Algebra Summary and Review. Sigh -- and struggling. I am having him do it on his own which is apparently going to be too much of a challenge. My weakness is to over-help to the point of enabling, and I have to watch this, apparently. We may have to stay right here at the midpoint while he consolidates, which ruins all my beautiful plans for this year -- hitting the midterm right at the midpoint of the year was going to be a first!)

Paddy and Aidan have a cold and so do I, which makes me really really wish I didn't have to take them to Aidan's speech therapy and then to homeschool group.

About once a month I get discouraged with how badly everything is going... I really wish I could plan it to come in installments so I could cope with one trouble spot at a time instead of it hitting me like a ton of bricks. The closest I can come is to write down ALL the issues as they fall on me from a great height and then process through them slowly for the next month finding solutions or ways to cope. But then, that doesn't completely help because part of it is perspective. Oh well -- it's the best thing I have found so far so I'm off to write lists and then get the little ones ready to go.

I am hoping to get a chance to write a Week in Review to help me get a bit more back in tune with how the homeschooling is going.

Day 86

Yes, definitely I need to get around to planning. I remember this happening last January, too.

Sean continues to coast through his skeletal routine of Greek, Vocabulary, a couple of readings and then Algebra, where he spends the bulk of his mental effort. It only takes a couple of hours and because his mother hasn't arranged literature readings for him he isn't really reading much in his "off" times except for Redwall books and the like.

Kieron is basically just doing math and reading.

Sigh... and I am bored by their schoolbooks. That's why I need to focus some energy on planning. It really takes an effort of will sometimes.

I am thinking about doing something like this with him.

The little ones have been circulating happily through their educational toys -- letter box, pattern blocks, bead patterns, -- and it's all very well as background but it is not helping them progress.

Fortunately, my self-education efforts recently have inspired Clare and she is on a scholarly reading tear. She is reading Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm.

Day 85

Sean:

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Algebra
• Plutarch's Lives
• Book of Discovery
• Weekly Jobs
  

Kieron

• Math Test
• Freddy the Pig series
• plus, he did a lot of work shovelling the porch and helping me take down the Christmas tree.
  
• Weekly Jobs
  

Aidan

• Letter Box
• HWT Letterforms
• writing X's and Y's and numbers -- he is absolutely fascinated with Algebra.
  

Paddy

• Horizons Math book

What I need to do is

• get going on planning their reading and follow-up work
  
• plan a Latin review.
  

Day 84 -- formal and informal

Oops -- I forgot to update.

Sean did the basic minimum today -- Greek, Vocabulary, Algebra and some readings.

(When I said something about the minimum he said indignantly, "Minimum???" He did have to spend over an hour on the Algebra).

We also had an impromptu literary discussion -- the teens and I. Sean can be very sharp. He did a compare and contrast of the movie and book versions of Scarlet Pimpernel. I recommend a book along with a movie version as a good way to develop high school literary analysis in an effective and informal way. But then we are movie people here -- I personally am not, but almost everyone else is.

The rest of the morning I spent baking cookies for the homeschool party this afternoon, and catching up on economics readings.

Then we went to the party and now I am baking a cake for Kieron's #12.

The kids are watching Music Man.

Clare and I talked about St Anselm all the way home. You know you are a geeky classical Catholic family when a mom and teenager both admit they spend time awake at night thinking about his proof of the existence of God "that-than-which-no-greater-can-be-thought" and wishing, wishing we could make that movement of the mind which would allow us to completely grasp the argument.

Clare is starting a bookshelf to write about her readings. She was inspired by this.... isn't Literary Retreat a beautiful phrase?

The little ones spelled words from a Doug and Melissa word box -- it is funny to hear your five year old say, "Mom, can we do some more of that spelling that teaches you how to read words?"

I was trying to think of a haiku encomium for my 19 year old this morning since every single morning I wake up and come down to find a full wood box and that is very wonderful, especially as he actually volunteered to take over the job for good.

Day 83

Today Sean did basics..... Greek, Vocabulary, Algebra.

Kieron did the next section of math on subtracting decimals.

So, not exactly a stellar day. They did well on the things they did do.

If these minimum basics get done, I usually feel like at least we're not slipping behind.

Oh, and they also did their twice-weekly housekeeping chores.

Kieron gets the day off tomorrow since it is his birthday, and we have our belated homeschool holiday party tomorrow too.

I am trying to get things organized since this is probably part of the sluggishness I feel -- that everything got put aside for the vacation and hasn't been picked up yet.

Day 82

We did not have any formal academics yesterday because we had to take Clare down to the orthodontist at 8 and it was afternoon before we got back.

I have to say I think the reason I could do so much during the holidays while still taking it easy boils down to: No Trips into Town.

It's not just the sheer time it takes and the energy. In addition, my vestibular system stays out of whack for the rest of the day. So since I knew Clare values watching movies with me occasionally, I spent the afternoon watching The Scarlet Pimpernel with the kids, feeling horribly queasy not because of the movie, which was OK especially Ian McKellan as Chauvelin, but because of the trip. Then I played card games with the younger ones, and made dinner, and read to Paddy and that was about it.

Today, though, Sean did his usual basics -- finished Screwtape Letters and read Earth Science as well as Algebra, Greek, and Vocabulary.

Kieron did math (adding decimals -- I had him practice 5's and 2's ahead of time to help with motor memory in his reversals, and it did seem to help -- he executed the rest without an error). He finished book 2 of Hey Andrew and read his religion book and the next Shakespeare story in Lamb's.

Paddy and Aidan were having relationship difficulties today, mostly Aidan's fault. I kept them apart for a while and then brought out several of their Christmas toys (I am keeping them in the closet and rotating them for variety) and that seemed to ease things. The older kids gravely commented on the psychology of their conflict. I think Sean's opinion was quite just -- that Aidan remembers Paddy's "barbarian" days and still operates from fear and resentment from those times, while Paddy has gone beyond that developmentally and has forgotten the whole thing and so is very hurt and crushed when Aidan scolds him for no reason, which sadly he does.

Ah, siblings!

What I reaaally want to do is work on my story. I can feel it pulling me now. But there is THIS:


I am not sure if you can see it -- it is my household management sheet. I'm trying to make them up weekly, but this is only an approximation. I am trying to figure out what is helpful and what is redundant or unnecessary.

Day 81

Today we started up again. Oh, it has been a while! Our usual custom is to start off sloowly... it makes the transition so much easier. As it turned out, Sean and Clare started up, but I had given Kieron the day off because yesterday was a busy and full day for him (drive through piles of snow for an hour, go to a long though beautiful mass down in town, drop Liam off at Amtrak, then go to Grandma's house and play games there with me).

So Sean did the normal things -- Greek, Vocabulary, a few readings (it looked like Screwtape Letters and Earth Science and one more), and then Algebra. We didn't do Latin.

I took a few of the kids with me on the local library--post office-- market run. It was fun driving through our snowy little town. Now that the vacationers are gone and the rush has died down and the snow is still blanketing everything, there is a feeling of camaderie. We have been here for 11 years this month but because of everything that happened with Aidan and because of our homeschooling (so not being involved in the school-community which is the main one around here for our generation) it has taken us a long time to feel like part of the picture. I still don't feel that way all the time (one of my resolutions/hopes/wishes this year is to find a bit more of a place in the civic environment) but today I felt like an oldtimer -- we saw our neighbor at the post office and a guy from our church at the library and then at the market the clerk talked to us like we were old acquaintances, which is in fact the case, but I noticed it particularly today!

Is this ever wandering far from normal "scholae" et "studia"? My story is going well -- the one I was working on while LIam was home in order to have our story society meetings -- and so the rest of the day I spent writing. Or thinking about what I was going to write. I remember this is why I had to give it up before -- I can get obsessive. But I was glad to get a lot written today because then I will have something to send to Liam next week. We miss him -- the counter seems empty without his laptop, which returned with him to campus; and the fireplace chair seems empty without him sitting there usually being harassed by Aidan.


I did enjoy this vacation. I read six encyclicals -- Spe Salvi, Fides et Ratio, Libertas, Humani Generis, Providentissimus Deus, and Pascendi Dominici Gregis. Sure, only one of them was long -- Fides et Ratio is a 60 page printout, the rest are about 20 pages. But I also read through Genesis, and read the first 100 or so paragraphs from the Catechism. I wrote 25,000 words of my story. And I still had time to do some baking, talk to friends on the phone, talk to the children and to Kevin, watch North and South and a bunch of Shyamalan movies with Clare and the other older ones, play family games (some of them quite extended), shovel lots of snow off the deck, keep the fire going, keep up on the laundry, read loads of Tintins to Paddy, etc.

This makes me wonder what it is that takes up so much of the day in "Ordinary Time". I am still wondering. I do not have an answer for that. The only thing I can think is that our various medical appointments in town are temporal Bermuda Triangles. Homeschooling doesn't really take THAT much time in a day, but I suppose it does wipe me out because during the regular year I generally spend the rest of the day recovering from the morning.

Day 78

Sean:

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Algebra 1st quarter test, first half (89 % so far)
• Screwtape Letters
• The Life that Changed the World
• Stories from Virgil

Kieron hasn't done anything yet but I will have him do math and handwriting later.

That's about it!

Day 77

Second to last day before we stop for the holidays!

Today Kieron had a pretty easy time with math; Sean did the second part of the summary of chapter 7, and seemed to have a bit easier time of it. Tomorrow he's supposed to do the test for Kolbe's first quarter, and then we are done.

He read Screwtape Letters; Church's Aeneid; and The Life That Changed the World. He did Greek and Vocabulary.

I am not sure if Kieron did any formal schoolwork besides the math.

We had to rush to get to Aidan's speech therapy. It was set for 1:30 at the local school, but there was an ice storm outside and it is supposed to turn into real snow later on. So I called the school and she asked if we could come early since she had free time.

It was a good meeting. The SLP has been worried because this is only the second therapy session all this school year. She went away for over a month and they didn't have a replacement, and then we went away for a couple of weeks. There were also some specialist appointments in town which couldn't be rescheduled, and the SLP only comes up here for one day a week. But anyway, she had printed out a spreadsheet to check off work on goals (a kindred spirit! she likes forms!) and she was also impressed by his level of work this time as compared with last time. He was restless last time in September and she was rushing his answers so she didn't get a good sense of what he was like. This time was more representative.

He has had a genuine developmental advance though. He was able to categorize things by what you do with them (things you eat, things you wear, things you play with) -- he even "discovered" the categories himself when she showed him four things like: orange juice, banana, toast, icecream.

Now the four younger boys are outside and Clare is playing the violin.

Day 76

Quick academic day today.

Sean didn't have math since he finished the chapter last week. So he did Latin, Greek, and vocabulary. He read Screwtape Letters and Church's Stories from Virgil. He narrated from both of them. Then he did his weeklies and I had him copy out another Scripture section from King of Kings.

Kieron did math (he's been distractable recently and struggling with this chapter on decimals which is pretty easy stuff -- he thinks it's because he's been staying up too late watching films and I suspect he is right). I think that is about all he did; right now we're getting ready to go to the library.

It's supposed to snow 18 inches tomorrow so we are going to get new snow shovels too.

We have had several family discussions on the various movies we have been watching so I think that counts for narration and lit analysis too.

Learning Log

Strewing works. I got those weather books from the library and pretty soon Kieron came up with one of them and wanted to try one of the experiments. So this evening he did it (it involved making steam come out of an empty soda bottle to show how clouds formed). He had trouble at first, and Clare ended up helping him.

Paddy asked a bunch more questions tonight as we read through Bible Stories to Read Aloud.

The older kids watched The Village (Sean hadn't seen it). Earlier, Mary Poppins was on regular TV and Aidan just LOVED it; thought it was hilarious. Aidan played with playdough this afternoon; we also made a puzzle together; and he found his brace and was SO proud he kept bringing it up all evening.

Brendan has been discussing plans for the future with me and has in general been more open and communicative (and restless too). I wish I was better at this mothering thing but I don't think parents have to be perfect to raise OK kids.

Sean weightlifted with his dad. It is interesting that he actually seeks Kevin out every other day to get him to spot him. In other words, he has internal motivation for this, for whatever reason.

Just a few things I wanted to note. I am trying to pay a bit of attention to the natural things going on around here. Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention that Clare and Sean have been on a Scarlet Pimpernel trail -- we have three of the books around the house and they have been reading those, along with Clare playing the Scarlet Pimpernel musical tunes from YouTube again and again. She continues to read the Aubrey/Maturin books too and comment on them as she goes.

Winter has such a nice pace. I don't know anything nicer than being snowed in, with a fire going, lots of books around, limited travel (only simple local errands where you meet the familiar local people), and projects in various stages of completion all over the place. By spring we're ready to be a bit more active, but winter, when Aidan's not sick, is definitely a delight (so far he has stayed healthy, Deo Gratias).

Day 71

Sean

• Algebra chapter 7
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Discovery of New World
• Stories from Virgil
• Screwtape Letters

Kieron

• Math -- decimal place value
• Writing curves -- focus on fluency
• Read Christmas Supplement in Faith and Life
• Greek
• drew a dragon from the Ralph Masiello book... with Paddy watching admiringly.

I find that Kieron has read all of the Jesse Tree, plus most of Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the Glorious Impossible and the book on How Artists View Nature. So I went and dug out some more Advent-related books and put them in a basket to pull from during the next week or so. I will try to list them some other time.

Aidan and Paddy

• Handwriting without Tears Letterforms
• Numbers games (counting, adding, subtracting puzzle cards)
• Drawing lines (from Kumon tracing workbooks)
• I read Aidan some Bible stories
• Paddy -- several books

Aidan's OT came and they did cranio sacral therapy and worked some more with the letterforms. Aidan has severe problems making diagonals and particularly, joining them. He can't make the lines go the right way even with a model in front of him, even if he gets to actually place the lines on the model. So we are working mostly on A's and N'.

The older boys went outside and sledded for a long time.

Then I took Brendan and Kieron to the library and the store. Brendan and Kieron bought a couple of things at the market, and at the library I got some books about weather and continental shifts, written for children, for Kieron's science focus this month.

Now they are upstairs playing a ball game.

I made some cards using these Advent Reflections for the Jesse Tree. I am trying to figure out a way to put them up but haven't managed yet. I have already made all the ornaments but Kieron wants to wait until we get the Christmas tree, to hang up the symbols. So for now I thought we could just have a sort of Montessori nomenclature-type activity where we match and use them as topics for discussion.

Clare got some Christmas music from the library to put together a CD for the swing dance over at the parish hall after Christmas. So we are listening to this now in the background.

Day 69

I thought I would try to list this day chronologically rather than by child. I haven't done that for a while.

We have been getting up later than usual for some reason -- in my case I've been staying up later and the kids have been fighting colds, I guess. I also notice that if we don't have to go out of town in the afternoon, it's more tempting to let the day take its natural course. Which ought to be fine, of course! So today I got downstairs to start the day at about 8:30. Aidan was already awake so we made breakfast together and I set out some of his "work" -- pink cards and number cards, and he got out his handwriting book as well.

Kieron and Paddy got up and started to play.

I asked Kieron to move their beds which are upstairs so that I could get to the Advent and Christmas stuff. I had Kieron and Aidan clean up the toys that had fallen behind their beds and then I did some sweeping. Meanwhile Kieron rediscovered the Christmas books which he immediately sat down to with delight.

Since they were all so wrapped up in the day and I really needed to get clean I zipped off to take a quick bath. Meanwhile Sean got up and started working on his Greek and Vocabulary.

I told the guys to do their weeklies. Then I brought the wreath downstairs (I know, it's already the 6th, but we are slow!). This caused the day to go rather wrong because Aidan wanted to play with it and Clare told him not to. I was trying to start Sean on Algebra and Aidan got very upset and to put it mildly, had a meltdown. I am not sure if moving the furniture plus the wreath etc were just too many changes for him. The aftershocks of his ill mood lasted for some time and made it difficult to focus on Algebra. We did various things to try to change the situation but it wasn't until Clare put on the Clancy Brothers that Aidan was able to get a grip on himself again.

Meanwhile, I had given Kieron a checklist of things to do (easy things because of the feast day and because he finished his math chapter yesterday). He started right in reading Nicholas the Wonder Worker and read it for a long time.

After math, I had Sean do a free writing exercise. He was not too thrilled with this. I told him to free associate on paper for a few minutes and gave him the explanation that it helped to pin down ideas that he could develop later for a paper. He reluctantly did it but obviously felt his space was being a bit invaded, which indeed is a reaction that he probably came by through his family lines. He didn't mind us reading it; in fact, that was his favorite part of the whole thing. He just didn't like dumping his brain out on paper. When you're not doing it for your own personal reasons it feels like a psychotherapy session, which is what Clare compared it to.

At that point I set Kieron to writing curves and lines, while I got ready to go exchange Paddy's boots which were too small (before the rain we are getting turns to snow). Then I took Aidan, Kieron and Clare to the store. Meanwhile Brendan of his own volition was getting the deck snow-ready, and cleaning up the front yard and putting tarps on the stacked firewood.

When we got back I gave the boys verbal quizzes on Latin and Geography. They know the Latin pretty well, but we are having some trouble with geography. This hasn't really ever happened before; the older set all knew their geography since Brendan was so into it. I am not talking complicated; they still get countries and continents mixed up at present. But they know their oceans at least.

Then I left the boys to play with their Bionicles while I came upstairs to write this. Clare is trying to figure out what to sing for Christmas at the church (she was asked to do a solo). She is just a bit stressed. The boys followed me and are now wrestling/quarreling on the bed. Brendan is cleaning the bathroom.

Later on I will explain the Jesse Tree to Kieron. We haven't done one before. He loved the MacCaughrean book though and was following me around narrating it yesterday. So hopefully he will like the symbols and the explanations.

This is Thursday so I am going to try out my planning flowchart.

Our laptop came yesterday and Kevin has been spending the day rerouting our local area network. So along with the beds out of place and all the other different things, I suppose I can see why everyone is a bit on the edgy side today. Not that we're all snarling at each other; but we seem to be a bit more extroverted and volatile than we usually are. We introverts seem to need our equilibrium ;-).

Evita was good yesterday, I hear, and tonight Sean has his football awards ceremony, which he is dreading (because he was injured the whole season and didn't really play, therefore he will be humiliated to get an award and all that). He is hoping for a blizzard so we have to stay home.

Day 68

Oh, I am enjoying this quiet week at home. It makes such a difference in the pace of our homeschooling. This was a day of conversation in front of the fire, of laughing and a rhythm of tasks fitting in between discursions. Yesterday was much the same, with the quiet joy of Paddy's birthday thrown in (our tradition is to have quiet birthdays with only family and sometimes a friend family around).

We discussed:

• Whether religion causes more trouble to the world than non-religion? (Kevin raised that one and we kept it up after he went back to the office). We all agree on this so we don't get to hear the "other side" except by Kevin quoting someone or one of us playing "devil's advocate". So it is all permutations of the one side, but is still lively and interesting.
• Then we discussed some other similar question, but have forgotten what it was since I neglected to write it down.

Sean:

• He had no math today, so he did his Greek and Vocabulary, then read Screwtape Letters and Church's Stories from the Aeneid. Then I gave him Luke chapter 1 to read, and had him copy out part of the section on the Incarnation from the Penny Catechism.

• I did Latin with him and Kieron together -- review, declension quiz. This took quite a while and the whole family got into it with discussion of the vocative ("Et tu, Brute?" and "Ave Maria") and pronunciation, etc.

Kieron

• He did his math test, so he gets tomorrow off. I had him read the first page of the chapter on Incarnation in the Baltimore Catechism, then I asked him the questions. Then he started reading MacCaughrean's Jesse Tree, and continued for quite a long time. I had him draw curves and up to down lines.

The Little Ones:

• Mostly playing with Paddy's presents from yesterday -- Katana swords, and Candyland, and a table basketball game.

Then Brendan came out with a box of things he was getting rid off and presented them to the little ones -- we call them "Hobbit presents" after Bilbo's birthday party. This is an Advent and Lent tradition -- decluttering and gettting rid of things, passing them on to someone who can use them. We have talked about it many times through the years (because it's an issue of my own -- detaching from my "treasures" that are just clutter). Obviously Clare and Brendan have internalized it because they do it now independently.

This reminded me to tell the middle ones to try to do the same during Advent. Then this brought up all kinds of family reminiscences, including how I used to pay the older kids to throw away or give away their things. Doesn't that sound crass? but at the time I explained it as a sort of rummage sale or recycling project and tried to show them that things mobilized outwards were more valuable than things piled up around one and cluttering up the mind and heart. Brendan used to cling very ferociously to his mementos when he was young and paying him helped him make concrete the value of negation.

So I will mention it to the middlies later and perhaps help Kieron work through his store of "treasures" and junk. It is nice symbolism for clearing a space for Jesus in the heart and home, too.

So -- a nice informal day. This afternoon Sean will lift weights with his Dad and then Kevin and Clare are going to the production of "Evita" in town -- Clare is really looking forward to it.

Day 67

I spent the morning working with Sean, plus getting into a discussion with the teens about the role of literature in education; meanwhile, Kieron played with the little ones. So I'll write out what Sean DID and then what Kieron still is to do.

Sean

--Prayer-- didn't get to it -- I need to collect some kind of a prayer book or something to have handy.

1. Greek
   
2. Vocabulary
3. Math -- he did the summary and review of Jacob's Chapter 6. That means that tomorrow he gets the day off. Pretty soon I am going to get all the algebra Test Masters up till now and have him do some review and then a couple of tests to send to Kolbe since his first quarter is pretty much over.
   
4. Latin -- exercise 34 (first half) plus some vocabulary drill and warm-up declension exercises. He seems to be doing much better after those 3 weeks of review.
   
5. Memory -- order of planets in Solar System (I gave him the list to work on)
   
6. Chores -- tidy room, normal mealtime jobs.
   
7. Reading -- he wanted to read Screwtape Letters. I also gave him a book to read about Jesus's Life (I forget the title of the book; oh well, I'll type it tomorrow). He did a notes narration from it. I asked him some catechism questions about Jesus's life and he did very well.
   
8. Narration or Notes -- on Roman World at time of Incarnation. Also we discussed the simple clergyman at the preface of Screwtape who wonders that the advice in the book seems almost "diabolical" (LOL).
   
9. Free Reading
   
10. Outside or Exercise -- he is going to practice with his Dad later.
    

Kieron has to do:

• Math -- review chapter, then practice writing numbers
• WRiting -- practice writing curves
• Reading -- The First Christmas, and Faith and Life Christmas Supplement
• Latin
• Greek
• Memory: Order of Planets
• Science: Look up Planets in the Encyclopedia
• Free Reading: Book of Dragons ( he already narrated from it yesterday so we have narration covered unless he wants to talk some more)
• Optional art project -- drawing dragons, or dying coffee filters (if we get to it)

The little ones have mostly just been playing. Aidan played pretend birthday games (today is Paddy's birthday and Aidan is very excited about it).

Aidan has some GI issue going on -- he doesn't seem sick but he has been a bit restless. The OT did craniosacral work with him yesterday; also, with Kieron. (She recommended focusing on writing curves and up to down lines to retrain his motor memory so that is what we are going to do).

ETA:

Kieron did the math, Greek, and handwriting, but we did not get to the reading. He did help me wrap Paddy's presents, and has finished Book of Dragons.

Day 66

Today was a hectic but productive day. I think it helps that we don't have any afternoon appointments in town this week. We have several evening events and several appointments closer to the house, but those don't take such a big piece out of the day.

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Algebra -- chapter 6 lesson 6
• Screwtape Letters -- he read chapter 8 and we discussed the big picture a bit.
• Earth Science -- read about Saturn, he did a structured narration where he found the main point of each paragraph.
• Book of Discovery -- he read chapter X about Ptolemy but no narration.
• Geography -- continents, and countries of North America.
• Latin -- exercises 31-33
• He is reading Blood Sport and the Unknown Shore for free reading.
• Weekly jobs
  

Kieron

• Catechism quiz particularly facts surrounding Incarnation. We will continue doing this throughout Advent.
• Activity Card -- 65 -- about dictionary meanings.
• Latin -- verbal and card matching drill
• Geography -- continents, and countries of North America.
• Research/Science -- looked up weather in encyclopedia, but instead found Octopuses and Squids and read/narrated.
• Wrote a couple of sentences about squids.
• Math -- dividing mixed fractions. I tried the 3 part lesson I mentioned in my earlier post and it worked pretty well. He still struggled with the writing. I will have to cut down even more on that.
• Weekly jobs.
  

Aidan and Paddy

They both went to town on their activity cards.

• HWT letterforms (Aidan)
• matching words and pictures (pink cards)
• word-building (Paddy)
• simple addition with ladybug cards (Paddy) -- Kieron got involved in this too and we even got to simple multiplication.
• matching Christmas cards (I brought a bunch of old Christmas cards downstairs planning to make some kind of Advent Box, but Aidan got a jumpstart on the idea by transferring his favorite matching activity to the duplicate cards -- hooray for natural learning!)
• writing letters and using ruler (Aidan)

Our day will continue to be lively this afternoon, with an occupational therapist visit scheduled, and a trip to the local store and library, and Paddy's birthday preparations. I wrote a list of things I want to get to this afternoon, since we actually HAVE an afternoon today (can you tell how much nicer things are on the days we don't have to drive over 100 miles???)

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Here is the checklist I gave Sean, which he seemed to appreciate following (he always likes to have it specified what he is going to do; I'm going to make it into a form later but for right now I'll simply type it out:

--Prayer--

1. Greek
2. Vocabulary
3. Math
4. Latin
5. Memory
6. Chores
7. Reading
8. Narration or Notes
9. Free Reading
10. Outside or Exercise (he alternates weight lifting with bike riding/jumproping/passing the football with his Dad)
    

Days 64 and 65

I realize I did not log yesterday. It was a very basic day but we did get those basics done.

Today we did more basics but that was all. Both needed a lot of help with math -- Kieron's writing execution difficulties are making it difficult for him to stay on task. Conceptually, he is fine. He has the most severe problems of any of them, I think. I checked his pencil grip and it is not that bad. So I'm not exactly sure what is going on except that he has one of those visual-spatial difficulties that prevent thought from reaching motor function efficiently.

Yesterday we had a horrendous trip to the oral surgeon -- the surgery itself went fine, but it took over 2 hours of waiting time, plus the 2 hours of travel time. Not something I want to repeat.

This afternoon I am bringing the younger set to homeschool Stations.

Anyway, even the little bit we got through is helpful.

We didn't have OT or Speech this week so I didn't color those in but I did a phone consult with both of them.

Day 63

Another minimal day: but I'm rather proud we did anything at all. Clare had an orthodontist appointment at 8:15, which meant we had to be out of the house by just after 7 am and did not get home till close to noon.

I told the boys that we really had better do a bit of math at least, so they both did math; Sean did Greek and Vocabulary and the Latin cards; and Kieron did handwriting and another daily activity card (#63).

Sean has been having an easier time with the math (maybe because of the break?) He has been doing a weight-lifting routine with his dad.

I read Inkheart during the Thanksgiving break, and yesterday and today read a book called Super Reading Secrets. It was one of those dime sales at the library, and I found it at the back of one of our bookshelves when I was helping Clare look for Post Captain (she is on a Patrick O'Brian reading tear). It is actually more substantial than it looks on the surface. I am already quite a fast reader, too fast in some ways. But this had some of the same study and reading techniques that you find in How to Read a Book, only expressed in more "popular" basic language. While I was reading it I rediscovered how I managed to get adequate grades in several classes which I barely studied for. I have a very quick memory (my dad has the same trait), to the point where I can memorize my credit card number in about 2 minutes and retain it permanently along with expiration date and code on the back (yep, just checked). I only have to dial in a phone number 2 or 3 times, and it's part of my longterm memory. And I am a fast reader. I can get the gist of a book in only a few minutes. See, that is not the same thing as really learning something, but it certainly serves its purpose at times.

Not writing this to boast in the least; but I am thinking that this is something I learned accidentally, partly out of necessity (being lazy and disorganized in my younger days) and it could probably be learned intentionally for better motives. So this is what the book led me to ponder -- I wish it weren't so ...gaudily colored and ....based on a gimmick -- I would have Sean read it for the study skills information, but I don't want him to get the notion it is necessary or desirable to read a page in 3 seconds.