Day 105, and Week 25

I am a bit bored with just listing what we did on a given day, especially since it's just duplicating what I type out in a Word document. It seems to me that it would be better to save this space for actual notes, though.

If you look at the gif you can see what we got to this week and what we didn't get to. Or you can look at it in doc form.

What we didn't get to on Friday, we usually carry over to Monday which is a light day if everything else is up to date.

Week 24 in Review

This is how Week 24 went for Kieron. You can click on the jpg to make it larger if you want, or view it in doc form (Microsoft 2007)

We're still working on getting up to full speed -- the ones that don't have checkmarks are things we didn't get to this week.

There are some posts detailing Week 24 over at Schola et Studium. With Paddy I pretty much kept up a light version of Ambleside Year 1. It has been working very well for us so far. With Aidan, the big thing this week was that I wrote out the first 30 words from Spell to Read and Write. He loves arranging these and trying to read them and has done it several times a day during the week. We also worked a bit on math with both the little ones.

This weekend, I want to focus on what narration is about particularly for older children, so I printed out these documents:

• Ambleside Narration Discussion
• Some THoughts on Narration
• The PNEU Method in Sunday Schools
• Some Notes on Narration
• Concerning Repeated Narration
• Thoughts on Narration (by Helen Wix)
• "We Narrate and Then We Know"
• A Liberal Education in Secondary Schools

End of Week 11

Summary for Year 7--

• Even though I felt like our days were light, we did cover most everything except Greek (see gif on left for details).
• We are pretty much right on track for exams next week.

Summary for Year 1, for the whole trimester.

Math

• Paddy can do addition up to the 5's and is starting subtraction. He sometimes uses his fingers, sometimes does the operation in his head.
  
• Aidan is learning to name numbers over 20 and can match 2-digit numbers with only a few transposition mistakes.

Reading

• Paddy can read on a simple first year level.
• Aidan can spell several words from memory and read them.

Handwriting

• Aidan can write words from memory (simple 3-letter words). He still has trouble forming some letters.
• Paddy is just learning to form curves. He can write a "C" but has trouble with "S".

Other

• Both have improved in coloring. Aidan did a double-color design with attention to detail. Paddy has learned to stay mostly within the lines though he still leaves white spaces inside the outline.
• Both have improved in listening comprehension. Paddy listens to chapter books on and off, and Aidan likes repeating phrases from things he hears. Both recite bits of poetry.
• Paddy has learned about bees and hurricanes from the Magic School Bus. He is an active listener who asks lots of "why" questions while he is listening to stories.
• Aidan has gained in competence with various life skills. He likes to help in the kitchen, take pictures, bring in firewood, and help clean the vacuum filter.
  

Day 42 & Week's Wrap Up

Yesterday we really didn't do much academic stuff at all.

I had Kieron read this story that Liam recommended to me.

• Martian Odyssey
• We had a homeschool Halloween party in the afternoon.

I used a new form this week, so here is an incomplete summary of what we actually got done for Year 7:


You notice that record-keeping is a huge challenge for me. I never find something that works perfectly, and I have a tendency to get bored using the same method week after week.

I am going to try this one again next week, though, because I like being able to see at a glance the areas we did OK at and the weak areas as well..

Here is a blank form in doc.

Week 9 in Review

Summary of what Kieron did this week (gifs on left).

We did pretty well on History and on Shakespeare.

Didn't get to Latin or Greek very seriously.

Next week I'd like to spend a bit more time on Art and Music.

Summary for Week

I'm reconstructing since I missed logging Thursday for some reason. Wednesday was a Not-Day because we had to go into town for Aidan's regular labs, and then run errands and shop while we were there.

Anyway, the details of yesterday seem to be lost in the mists of time already, so I will just have to say that we did do some studying.... though I don't remember precisely what. But that was Day 33.

In general, this academic week was quite spotty and minimal. We haven't really gotten back our momentum since coming back from our travels around the turn of the month. After doing this logging thing for several years I am aware that we always have a slump in October. Reassuring -- I guess! Basically, my attention span lasts for just about six weeks and then I'm thoroughly bored with the whole thing and ready to throw it all in and change to a new method. If I just live with that and put in a bit of variety I can usually get back on track before too long. That is why I like an Ambleside-type focus with a LOT of subjects and books, so I can pull in some of the neglected ones to help with my boredom problem.

So that wraps up Week 8. I'm still averaging BARELY more than 4 days a week.

Week in Review #4

Because I have a little time this morning and am not sure if I will later, I think I will type my Week in Review a bit early.

Friday Day 11

Math -- dividing decimals
Logic unit -- MEP
Introductory Logic -- Supported Statements, ex 3
Latin -- Accusative Plural
Greek -- new vocabulary words
Read Aloud/Discussion -- Retelling of Don Quixote from CK5

Independent Reading

Aristotle -- underline main points
Dancing Horses of Acoma
He Went with Vasco de Gama

Notes:

Start noting WHAT we discuss
He liked the MEP Logic
He disliked underlining main points
(for little ones) -- make visual aids for me to work with their lesson plans

Little Ones:

Stories for Paddy included The Greedy Man in the Moon, Frog and Toad (he read little bits of it himself), Tintin
Reading lesson with Aidan -- he also constructed words with letter box, and spelled orally to me.
He also browsed through MCP Math A and we did a bit of counting and adding.

MOnday Day 12

YEar 7

Math -- logic puzzles
Review of Logic, Greek and Latin (focus on Latin)
Read Bible History, discussed
Handwriting (short copywork)
Discussed Aristotle
Geography quiz online (North America)

Year 1

Short lesson with Aidan
OT came
Paddy -- reading Lon Po Po, Mouse Stories, Paddiwak and Cozy

My background work:

I printed out some California Standards to see if I could use them for goal lists.

Tuesday Day 13

(Power was out for most of the day -- a scheduled outage)

Listening -- Book of Virtues, poetry from CK 5 (Jabberwocky, The Eagles)

Logic -- read and discussed first part of section 4
Greek
Math -- dividing and multiplying by magnitudes (10, 100, etc)
Logic/Math -- Venn Diagrams

Independent:
Started reading Boy Scientists
Read He Went with Vasco de Gama
Smoke Jumpers and Fire Fighters

Notes:
(Get audio tapes from library for our upcoming trip)
Request Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from library

Other

Paddy is on a roll with crafts and he made "Pokeballs" out of paper, and I drew and cut out mythical figures from a Tallarico book for him to play with. His new thing is getting art project ideas from books we read.

I watched Wives and Daughters with Clare
Liam called and we talked about virtue and revelation
Geometry homework with Sean.

Wednesday -- Day 14

Listening
Tolstoy, HOw much Land does a Man Need? (Book of Virtues)
The Judgement of St Cecilia (drama, from Catholic National Reader #6)
Part of a poem (Terence, this is stupid stuff...) we didn't finish because Aidan had a meltdown.

MEP Math -- finished Logic section -- Kieron did not like the Venn diagrams so much as the tables.
Logic review, and ex 4 about relationships between statements
Greek -- new vocabulary.

Independent

He read The Princess and Curdie, and I gave him Puck of Pook's Hill
Division with decimals problems
Seward's Folly (about the Alaskan territory purchase)

Little Ones

Paddy did the Reading Rescue test -- he is just barely in Level 1 (made 3 mistakes but could read the selection pretty fluently).
I made a written list with Aidan -- he dictated and I guided his hand on the words. This seemed to be a good experience for him so we might try it again.

Today (Thursday, Day 16) I plan to continue much as we have done before. We're settling into a general routine -- listening to read alouds, then tutoring (I work with Kieron on Math, Greek, Latin, Logic etc) then independent study (usually reading with a couple of writing activities -- I'm trying to think of more actual writing things he can do on his own that aren't just worksheets).

The little ones' schedule isn't quite off the ground yet. I usually get in a phonics or writing or reading lesson, and Paddy is listening to a lot of different stories and often, as I mentioned, trying to devise his own related project.

Things that have been shortchanged are my afternoon project time and nature/outdoors time. As usual! What I shall probably have to do is start by doing these INSTEAD of either tutoring time or independent study time, until the habit is formed at least.

Next week I am going to go back to logging daily. I am not sure why, but I struggle with saving up the logs until the end of the week, even when I actually take notes day by day. It's more effective for me just to zip them off by the day.

We are up to Week 4 -- Day 16 -- already! And basically, more or less up to "full speed" with my YEar 7 student. Year 1 children can be considerably more informal in approach, but we are still doing enough so that I feel like I'm not neglecting their academics.

Week in Review #3

I am going to write the week in review on Friday mornings, so that means that Friday will be logged as part of the following week. Last Friday we didn't have school because that was the day we went into town to buy our used van, and it took up the better part of the day.

This "week" will be short, only 3 days, because of the fact that Monday was a holiday and Friday will be logged for next week.


Year 7

Monday

• Labor Day -- no school

Tuesday Day 8 -- light day

• Math Drill Online (thatquiz.org)
• Quia Latina Christiana
• Weekly Chores
• Finished reading He Went with Magellan

Wednesday -- Day 9

Read and discussed:

• Coyote in the Land of the Dead
• Finished chapter 1 of Creed in Slow Motion
• Discussed Gospel a bit

Latin -- nominative plurals
Greek -- first 8 vocabulary words
Logic -- self-supporting statements -- reading and exercise
Math -- review of division and divisibility -- made chart

Read Independently:

• about Mayans (from CK 5)

Notes to Myself:

• Start reading Francis Xavier
• Find a read-aloud.
• Poetry
• Art study -- saints?
• Use Magnificat to find themes and readings for the day.

Thursday -- Day 10

Read and discussed:

• Julius Caesar (from Core Knowledge 5)

Math -- long division
Greek -- prepositions "in" and "on"

Read/Did Independently:

• Thatquiz (Algebra)
• Copywork "I am the Alpha and Omega..." (RV) -- discussed this
• Chapters 1-2 He Went with Vasco de Gama
• Chapter 1 -- Francis Xavier and the Seven Seas
• Drawing

Notes to Myself:

• Starting CIMT for Math
• Vary reading with "output" type work in independent study time

General Summary for YEar 7

• Kieron continues to spend 1-2 hours a day making cartoons -- a long-abiding interest of his now. He is definitely getting more sophisticated in humor and turn of phrase, and his spelling and construction is better too. So I am sort of counting that as writing.
• We still aren't really working at full cylinder but next week will probably start -- no holidays, nothing much going on.

Kieron's copywork. Can you tell which is mine, ie the model? LOL. We have dysgraphia on both sides of the family. This is a nice baseline.

Year 1

• Aidan did a couple of super -short reading and math lessons.
• Paddy and I invented a reading game. One thing was that I put action words on little pieces of paper and then we followed them by reading them, and had a sword battle.
• He also wrote his blog and had me write down the scores of a Pokemon battle.
• Both of them worked a little in their handwriting books.
• Both played Starfall a couple of times.
• I read Paddy lots of books. We usually have 2-3 story sessions a day, and usually I try to work his phonics lesson into the reading, though in stealth mode.
  

Notes

• Aidan is DEFINITELY getting better at sounding out words, IF he will only sit still. He seems to think we are playing Fugitive Guy when it is time for a reading lesson. If he were Paddy's age I'd drop it like a rock and maybe I still should, but he's nine, even if functioning as a five year old, and I feel I should be doing things with him. But "should" is one of those loaded words that seem to lead to frustration.
• Paddy is actually reading at a pre-primer level.

Aidan "working" on Daddy's old computer.

Week 2 in Review

I revised my Week in Review form. (see gif on left). I almost think it would work better as a planner.... maybe, if I have a space in some area, I can write down a plan instead of a happening?

Main Events

Liam went back to college; we drove him there on Sunday.

Household Incidents:

Olympics over; labs on Monday for Aidan, and a GI app't (checked out fine).

Needs Work:

Homeschooling doesn't take enough hours in the day. How to extend without getting into busywork?

Projects/Independent:

Kieron -- computer comics; Aidan -- pretending wooden beads are "blood draw tubes".

Discussions:

Presidential campaign; swearing ;-).

Milestones/Progress:

Sean getting more efficient with homework; Aidan improving at sounding out words (very slowly!)

Focus/Atmosphere:

Summer ending, trying to get into a fall routine.

Liturgical/Spiritual:

St Augustine's feast day; discussed Creed.

Nature/Outdoors:

Kieron and Clare went on hike; Aidan to Post Office with parents.

Habits Worked On:

control of screen time!

Core Knowledge and Skills:

Direct objects in Latin; pronunciation in Greek; decimals in math.
Phonics for little ones: still on CVCs.

Life Skills and Work:

Cutting (Aidan) -- shaping cookies.

Future Focus:

Study Teach a Child to Read
Plan writing for Year 7 child, start having little ones practice handwriting.


Whew, that was difficult! Retrieval is not my strong point!

Week in Review 1

Kieron, Year 7:

• Latin is Fun pages 6-16, with a bit of p 18 on agreement of adjectives.
• Basic Greek pages 14-17
• Math Review using Core Knowledge 5 -- Properties of Addition and Multiplication, review of place value up to billions, and rounding.
• We Went with Magellan chapters 1-4

Patrick and Aidan, modified Year 1, each did a couple of lessons of phonics, and painted, and played with playdough, the feltboard, the pattern beads, and the cuisenaire rods.

Learning Highlights:

• Starting! and finding out that Paddy can already read quite a bit.

Low Point:

• Most of these involved meltdowns by Aidan over various transitions.

Needs Work:

• Paddy and Aidan's sibling relationship (look for solutions); computer time.

Projects:

• I moved most of the school stuff upstairs in order to center our work up here more.

Discussions:

• I talked about American Government and the Summa with Liam -- interesting!

Milestones/Progress:

• Aidan, who used to be very scatter-brained, now puts things away neatly -- shoes in shoe rack, cell phone on recharging cord. Both the little ones do MUCH better about putting something back after they've played with it.

Focus, Theme:

• Starting off the new year.

Independent Interests:

• Kieron has been very involved in making sprite comics. Aidan has learned to use the cell phone camera and movie-maker.

Spiritual:

• The Assumption

Nature/Outdoors:

• Nature Walk yesterday, daily walks to the Post Office.

Life Skill or Work:

• Changing jobs -- the little ones have taken over Sean's chore rotation.

Literary:

• I read Grandpa's Gift and Oats and Wild Apples to Paddy, and Kieron listened in.

A Photo Memory:

Weekly Preparation & Review Checklists.

Another old checklist -- I made this when I had five in the homeschool (primary to highschool level) plus a medically fragile preschooler, plus I had a high risk pregnancy. Everything had to be written out or it would slip right out of my mind. So this is more structured than what I generally do now, but it was useful back then.

Here it is in doc -- Weekly Preparation checklist.

Here is a Week in Review form in doc. A similar one is below, in gif. The gif doesn't look very good, so that's why I'm putting the doc version on file.

Last year I tried to do the weekly reports that many homeschoolers were doing, but was never very successful. So this year I am going to try it more like the Daybook or general Week in Review format (HT: Steph), so I don't get short-circuited by my own perfectionism. I will probably tweak the form as the year develops, but this list is a starter.

Week 35

Next week will be the last week of our 2007-8 year. We won't literally be on Day 180 but it will be Week 36 and that will be close enough -- the last five days can be just review, packing up materials for next year, miscellaneous learning activities, that kind of thing.

It has certainly been a journey. I think that next year I will plan only 140 days of academics and save the rest of the days for something more like "life learning". The way Kolbe Academy sets up the school year, there are 28 days per term (7 weeks x 4 days), plus 8 days review and exams. That adds up to 112 "regular days" and 32 review/exam days in the year. The "extra" days in the 180 -- 36 more -- are reserved for labwork, art, music, extracurricular activities and that kind of thing. Seems to me that it would be good to plan this way since that provides for a nice change of pace. I think I will try it next year. That means picking some materials to emphasize and some to skim through more quickly in the curriculum so we actually have that kind of time.

These last few weeks have been super-relaxed but since we worked pretty hard all year and got most of our goals met (for a change!) I'm not worrying too much.

This blog will probably become more active since there are some things I want to get worked out as far as planning for next year. I have never pre-planned very successfully -- usually I just have an overview and a stack of books and sort of improvise as we go. It doesn't work badly but it would be nice to have a bit more depth to my planning, just so I have more time to think things through. We shall see. It may be that the "make it up as you go" is the best way for me.

Week in Review 33

Picking Liam up at Thomas Aquinas College. Here we are behind his dorm and getting his stuff packed in the Durango (off screen on right).

• Day 160
• Day 161
• Day 162 (nothing recorded but we did do a bit)
• Day 163

Aidan ready to bring Liam home!


Sean and Liam in their normal pastime of fighting with each other. Boys!

All the spring-type weather, plus travelling and sibling/son back in the house, make it difficult to take academics very seriously. I resolve to make a push in these last three weeks. Then I have to plan a few occasional academics/strewing type things for down time during the summer, and make plans for next school year.

Week in Review 32

Clare made these cupcakes (and took the picture, wow, she did a good job with both). Aren't you jealous! She also made peanut butter cookies, and applesauce oatmeal muffins, and shortcake.

Day 155
Day 156
Day 157
Day 158
Day 159

Here are some pictures Aidan wanted me to draw, out of his Dorling Kindersley Alphabet picture book. Can you see an alphabet theme?

Incidentally, I did not blog about it in the links above, but I have been trying to do informal games with Aidan. "What does ....? start with?" "What rhymes with (cat)?" He is actually doing pretty well with it. We gave blending a rest because he was SO not getting it but maybe if we just work on these word-building type things informally it will help. He seems to enjoy it -- at least, if it doesn't get too serious or go on for longer than about 3 minutes.

I have to write out a description of what Aidan is doing for classes -- for his IEP next week. Wish me luck.

Week in Review 31

Another light week:

• Day 150 -151
• Day 152
• Day 153
• Day 154

Planning for Next Year
Sowing Planning Seeds

Week in Review 29

Here continues my new recordkeeping method of linking to my random narratives of our learning day over at Every Waking Hour:

• Day 141 and 142
• Day 143
• Day 144
• Day 145

I know this is rather unlike the way I was recording for the first two-thirds of the school year, but form ought to reflect content and intention. And I find that different structure brings out different elements of the story.

The photo above is from my daughter's camera. The one below didn't turn out as well; it is a picture I took to commemorate my son's windchimes -- we finally got them out on the porch and now it really feels like spring out there.

Week in Review -- 27 and 28

I have been blogging our days over at Every Waking Hour (which I usually seem to do during the spring months when we become less-academic and more outdoorsy and relaxed) so I think that I will try to link to those blogs over here as a sort of weekly summary.

I have gotten so out of touch with my normal record-keeping that I am not precisely sure what week or day we are on, but am reasonably confident that we just finished Week 28, Day 140. I counted one day extra as "Life Learning" since we went to Thomas Aquinas College to visit Liam and we did have a very nice natural learning day though nothing formal.

So here goes.

second half of Week 27

• Day 132
• Day 133
• Day 134
• Day 135

Week 28

• Day 136
• Day 137
• Day 138
• Day 139
• Day 140

Week 26 in Review

I won't call this a weekly report because my Weekly Report attempts have been hedged with difficulties. I can't even keep them on one site, so they are spread all over my various blogs. I think I've decided that this is the best place for them, though.

We are just finishing week 26. Glancing at my year at a glance overview, I see that this puts us just one week behind schedule, which is probably the best we've ever done in 15 years of homeschooling, if you are just looking at keeping on schedule. This puts us on track to be finished by early June. Of course, learning is never "finished", one hopes.

I am homeschooling 5 kids -- a senior in high school, 2 middle schoolers, a "first grader" with special needs, and a bright young Kindergartener with a short attention span. The senior does her own courses and keeps track of it herself. The little ones only work on academics for a few minutes a day, and I have to revise plans almost daily. So most of my planning is concerned with my 2 middle schoolers.

We are mostly on track. You can see the end of term Progress Charts here. Logic/Thinking Skills was replaced with Grammar. I have started a writing intensive for the Year 9 son, and am planning for my Year 6 son.

Sean, Year 9

He finished his 120 lessons of Vocabulary using an old series called Stanford Vocab which I found at a thrift store many years ago. I can't seem to even find it online but I like it because it's simple and uncluttered and includes etymology.

To replace the gap in his schedule left by vocabulary I am going to have him work on Bruce MacIntyre's Drawing Textbook. We have had this simple booklet for years and usually use it for a few weeks every spring -- it is suitable for 4th grade up to adult (my husband uses it to improve his "programmer art" -- his representations for what he wants his artist to design -- he is a computer game designer and programmer).

He is just a bit behind on Jacob's Algebra compared to the schedule which had him finishing in May. This is because we started slowing down and spending two days on the lessons which were harder for him. He is still on a good track though and has been pulling A's ever since January.

He is just finishing Hey Andrew Teach me Some Greek Book 3. This is actually probably about a 4th or 5th grade level resource -- very easy and slow-progressing but I like it for that reason because (1) the kids can use it independently (2) it builds up a foundation slowly so that if they want they can approach Greek more rigorously in high school years and (3) they seem to find it quite fun compared to the "hard" subjects Latin and Math and Writing.

He has dropped Latin. Next year he is going to the local high school and is enrolled for Spanish ; he didn't see much purpose in continuing with Latin and wanted to get a head start on Spanish. We discussed it over several weeks and finally I agreed. I don't have any Spanish program at home besides one of those traveller's workbooks that teach you things like "Which way to the pub/passport office/bank?" so I've been drawing on various online resources including the Quia site.

I have been working with him on writing so here is the Outlining Syllabus(doc) for Thirty Lessons in Outlining that I wrote about before. Here is the syllabus for the first 3 weeks of writing(doc). Basically I am trying to get him to the point where he can write a five-paragraph paper using 3 or more sources, and write out a logical argument (what they call persuasion nowadays but I will approach it more like the chreia/maxim in the progymnasmata). We will work on this over the summer if necessary.

What else? Science and history and literature and religion are pursued in the form of a reading checklist. He is on schedule there.

As for extra-curricular, he is doing a football prep intensive. His father helps him lift weights 4 days a week and he works out with his dad or uncle 3 times a week on the playing field, doing drills and dashes etc. He has gained 15 pounds since he started doing this about 3-4 months ago. He wants to play QB and always has, so this is why he is enrolling in the high school.

I ran out of time so I will focus on the Year 6 son and the littlies in future weekly reports or maybe later on this afternoon if I get the chance (this is our first at-home day since the weekend-- there has been lots going on outside the house so this week has been lighter and next week we are ON SPRING BREAK.

Week in Review – Week 17

Almost halfway through the school year! Ah, that is nice. January is often a hard row to hoe as far as homeschooling goes.

I think I will try this one chronologically like Ragamuffin Rosie did with hers. I liked the way it let her dwell on the big(ger) picture and that is what I really want out of the weekly reports anyway, since I already have a sort of accountability system built in with my daily logs.

This week was relatively quiet as weeks go. That is, we didn't have an enormous number of outside commitments. Still, it was hard for me to get mobilized towards the kids' intellectual pursuits. I am thriving right now, but they are stagnating. Past time to turn things around.

Monday: The occupational therapist didn't arrive so it was a quiet at home day. I cleaned quite a bit and wrote about economics.

Tuesday: Aidan's speech therapist couldn't come up to this area so we are scheduled to see her today. Another quiet day, almost sluggish on the academic front though I made progress in home upkeep.

Wednesday: Aidan had a GI clinic in the afternoon, but we managed to get the minimums done in the morning. His liver enzymes are up and that has been a cause of mild concern, but the operative word was "mild" on their part, which was reassuring. Aidan spoke up very well at the meeting though he still has the habit of saying "yes" to everything they ask. "Do you eat yogurt?" "YES" even though the sight of it makes him gag.

Thursday: no academics since we were travelling on the train. We left at 8 am and didn't get home till 6 pm.

Friday: everyone has colds. We have speech therapy and homeschool stations this afternoon. I am all thrown off by this. One is tolerable, two appointments in a row is too much for me. And I am not feeling good.

Now for the list of things that aren't going very well:

• The stagnation mentioned above. Today it got just a bit better since I actually interacted with Kieron about history. But in general, I have been helping them with math and that's about it for intellectual interaction for the day.
  
• Related to the first – I'm "next-paging" too much and not planning.
  
• Too much screen time. Way too much. I really hate that. That ought to be top on the priority list next week – cutting it down, even if I have to spend the day playing referee with cranky kids.
  
• Have to help Brendan get moving on his vocational decisions.
  
• I haven't been eating well, or exercising, or even getting outside for a bit of fresh air (it is very icy and cold outside). Same with the kids, generally speaking.
  
• Various character issues cropping up and the most bothersome ones are my own – mostly due to dislike of being interrupted/called away from things I want to do (or even things I SHOULD do but aren't of first importance right at that moment).
  

On the bright side:

• The house looks so much nicer. I didn't spend ALL that much time but it made a big difference in the superficial appearance.
  
• I have been learning a lot. I wish I could just study all day.
  
• Clare and Liam get to hang out together this weekend and do good cultural things -- this is valuable life experience.
  
• Aidan stays healthy.
  

Actually, there are a lot more bright things than negative but all I have to do with the bright things is acknowledge them and feel grateful (relatively easy) while the bad things are things I have to conquer, suppress, redirect, cope with (HARDER).

I hope/intend/plan that by next week:

• I'll have some history/literature/science/religion plans in place for the children.
  
• I'll be doing better with the food and exercise situation in this house (not just me but the children).
  
• I will be devoting more time and energy towards their actual instruction (reading to them, talking to them etc).
  

So there you go.

Week in Review

I put the summary for the Week in Review over at Every Waking Hour.