Mama's Muse

tuesday 11.10.09

Morning Basket ~ daily prayers, final day of Holy souls novena, St. Gertrude prayer for Holy Souls, good morning song (SP's favorite besides Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above), "November" in CD of an Edwardian Lady, RA - Apples Ripe and Rosy from CHC's 1st Communion prep lesson plans, always a good one :)

Violet: worked w/SP during basket time; Math - A+ Notes Literal equations cont from yesterday's lesson; Lingua Mater - L35/day2 narrative of figurative writing; Reading - The Silver Sword, National Velvet; Knitting - she's already working on Xmas gifts (I should take note ;)

Matthias: worked on a baseball diagram during reading time; Math - A+ Notes Literal equations cont from yesterday's lesson; Grammar; Lingua Mater L5/day2 Verbs; History - reading War Inventons by Charles Gibson (Baldwin project); Other reading - Enemy Brothers; Piano practice 45 minutes;

Seamus: flew a paper airplane towards me during reading time that had "I love u" written on it :) Math - Division lesson 46 Saxon 5/4 review for him, he got it right away and did the practice set quickly with colored bead bars when necessary; building train tracks w/SP; Cello practice - 25 minutes

Sean-Paul: Leaf number cards, arranged in correct order, cut out pictures from Ranger Rick for his ABC book w/ sissy, ate his toast while Seamus RA to him from Seton reader :) Building train tracks w/Seamus;

Lunchtime - RA 2ch's WW, Marine Bio for Violet, worked on her sponges (porifera), watched some sponge videos and look at tons of sponge photos, very cool!

RA's w/SP - The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (we watched Miss Potter the night before :)

Dinner - Potstickers, Jasmine Rice, and Edamame with salt and olive oil, yum!! (Better than take-out)

1 Ch each of Children of Noisy Village and Dr. Doolittle to Sean-Paul and Semaus at bedtime.

Thursday 11.05.09

Morning Basket ~ Prayers, novena, singing, started Themosticles, read Creation story in SP's newly gifted from Matthias Beginner's Bible, Poems - The Lady of Shallot for Violet to begin for her Ivy Basket - ala Ann w/an "e", read beginning of Horatius, Seamus recited "Where Go the Boats" and immediately SP wanted me to help him say "Rain" which he is determined to learn :)

Violet: Lots of reading, I didn't catch it all, but she finished Anne of Windy Poplars! Math - A+ Notes 6-8; Zoology: Marsh Rabbit

Matthias: Math - A+ Notes 6-8; Zoology - Long-tailed Weasel;

Seamus: Clocks, Mixed numbers/fractions worksheets, Zoology - Viperfish;

Sean-Paul: Zoology - Rattlesnake;

Lunch - RA 1 ch of Winged Watchman. I did an animal charade (the Kinkajou) for the kids while they ate, these are fun and can be done with anything :)

Afternoon- Violet worked on some confirmation ?'s, Matthias began inputing baseball stats into an Excel program, Seamus working on some knitting and embroidery (a Xmas present, shh) Sean-Paul played.

Later, SP and I read his new (and very first real chapter book) The Children of Noisy Village. We sipped cocoa w/marshmallows and enjoyed about 3 ch's together, sweet boy :)

Lots of lego creations/movie making (hysterical!) The boys also got in some of their circuit workout time in the garage (remember the RAIN?)

Cello practice for Seamus 1/2 hour, Matthias got in an hour of piano before dinner.

Seamus picked The Story of Doctor Doolittle for his next bedtime RA, I did my best British accent for him.

Beef Stew w/Leeks and Popovers for dinner.

Power went out for about two hours after dinner, very exciting storm in the middle of the night as well! Hello November!

wednesday 11.04.09

Morning Basket ~ Singing, St. Charles Borromeo: collect, morning prayers, St. Gertrude prayer for the Holy souls, Holy Souls Novena - day 2, St. Pharaildis (More Once Upon a Time Saints), The Garden Tools (A Child's Book of Stories from Many Lands)

Violet:
Math- A+ Notes 6-7 translating words into variable equations;
Reading - Anne of Windy Poplars, Catholic Girls Guide.
Geography - Located, identified and drew all the Archipelagos of the world land/water forms w/Matthias
Copywork - Quote from Anne of WP;
Grammar - helped Matthias out with his "debate" lesson (she was the affirmative rebutal ;)

Matthias:
Math - A+ Notes 6-8 translating word problems into equations and solving for variable;
Geography - Puzzle map of Europe - named all countries correctly, land/water sandpaper forms w/Violet blindfolded
Copywork - 4th stanza of Casey at Bat, recited all;
Grammar - debate lesson w/Violet from ILL;
Reading - Enemy Bros.

Seamus:
Math - Time worksheet to the minute, Mixed Numbers & Improper fractions worksheet;
Cello lesson;
Copywork - from Home Geog L2;
Listened to Billy and Blaze w/ SP;
narrated last ch of WWatchman at lunch;
PS2 w/SP.

Sean-Paul:
Brown Bear m&m sorting and graph w/me;
Newt coloring page (fact file);
Finger Stamping falling leaves picture w/Violet;
"In the Child's World" lesson on Autumn birds w/me. 

Lunch - RA 2 ch's of The Winged Watchman, kitchen clean-up.

Afternoon - Matthias working on new Baseball stats science project, Lego movie creation work.

Violet and I discussed the end of the Sunflower in Catholic Girls Guide, moving on to Ivy.

Boys doing a workout circuit with the punching bag, stairmaster and calisthenics, hysterical!!! (Gee, I should be doing this too!)

RA w/ SP - Blaze Shows the Way (CW Anderson).

Ballet tonight, Lettuce Wraps and Basmati Rice, pumpkin pie :)

Monday/Tuesday 11.02.09 - 11.03.09

Monday ~ Feast of All Souls; Mass at 11:30 with everyone. We accomplished a little Morning basket reading ~ The Winged Watchman, some poetry selections, listened to Mozart's Requiem.

Everyone did some Math and grammar, then we headed out.

After lunch we realized that our day was free as the piano teacher's daughter was ill (poor sweetie). So we read more Winged Watchman (great book)!

Violet polished her Marine bio project 

Boys played intermittently outside and inside, LOTS of lego action going on, there's a new challenge to enter, pieces to create, pictures to take, descriptions to be written ~ all very secretively ;-)

Dinner - Provencal Vegetable Soup (Barefoot Contessa in Paris), Homemade Buttery Rolls.

Tuesday ~ Morning Basket: Feast of St. Martin de Porres; read from both Saints for Young Readers and The Children's Book of Saints; talked about being "missionaries of love and mercy" like St. Therese and began our Holy Souls from Purgatory to Heaven poster/Church Militant poster! Finger Play "The Mill" for SP, prayers for the Holy Souls (St. Gertrude prayer) Holy souls novena Day 1.

Violet: Math - A+ Notes 6-7 translating words to equations;

Matthias: Math - finished 6-7; History - Baseball timeline;

Seamus: Math - finished L45, clocks and finished his 9's skip counting; History -we  finished Columbus (D'Aluaire)/discussion; cello practice;

Sean-Paul: a few activities on his "Leaf" shelves, mostly messed around today :( Watched St. Nicholas w/his cocoa; listened to our lunchtime RA, then outside after lunch.

Lunch - RA 2ch's of Winged Watchman.

Afternoon - chores, reading, knitting, music time for SP, piano practice for Matthias.

Ballet night for Violet.

Dinner - Chicken Stroganoff (Saving Dinner)

friday 10.30.09

Morning Basket ~ Art Ap - Fresco of the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant by Andrea di Bonauito at the Museo di Santa Maria; then we had a discussion about the Communion of Saints and how we fit into the Universal Church as pilgrims of our faith still living on earth and why it's important to be praying for people on all levels of the Communion of Saints. 

I read aloud several October poems and notes Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (the fruits and berries she spied in October), "To Autumn" by Keats, "Give to me the Life I Love" by RLStevenson, "That autumn eve was stilled" by R. Browning; then we moved on to Athena and Arachne from D'Aulaires Greek Myths

Free Choice Day, also share some work from the week, and tidy up day: 

Violet: Shared her Horse NB work, some geography work on cities of Italy, and a titch of her Marine bio project, she'll complete and present it on Monday! Worked on Marine Bio project, reading Anne of Windy Poplars.

Matthias: Shared some Latin responses from memory, and his Math accomplishments in his algebra book. Worked on a History of Mariners Baseball team/created timeline; Reading-Enemy Bros.

Seamus: Shared his Columbus drawing, his Leaf rubbings book and his Fractions-to-decimals math page. Math, paper airplanes from Dangerous Book for Boys, listened to ch of Trumet of the Swan.

Sean-Paul: listened to Athena story and then went down for breakfast (he's such a late riser compared to all the others). He brought me a stack of books including: The Book of Virtues and I read "The Sword of Damocles", Christina Rossetti's Sing-Song Nursery Rhymes and I read "Hope is like a harbell trembling in its birth", If You Were My Bunny by Kate McMullan (a reading/singing boardbook he loves).

Lunch- RA 1 1/2 ch's Winged Watchman.

Ballet rehearsal and watch night for Violet and I :)

Our little village has commercial candy hand-out this afternoon, so my older boys decided to go down, Matthias with a friend and Seamus w/daddy. Tomorrow we'll have our own All Hallow's Eve carnival, should be a fun weekend, All Saint's Party at our parish as well.

Happy Weekend all!!

thursday 10.29.09

Light morning basket today ~ read from a sample of Nature Friend Magazine, very nice, ordered subscription promptly!  H/T: MaryEllen and Jen ;-)

Violet:
Math - Multi-step equations w/variables in A+;
Zoology - she opted to work on her Marine Bio project;
Reading - Anne of Windy Poplars; Rested all afternoon (pooped)!

Matthias:
Math - Multi-step/cont. from yesterday;
Zoology - Baraccuda research & oral report
Reading - Enemy Bros., Baseball Encyclopedia (brushing up for tonights World Series game 2 ;-)

Seamus:
Math - skip counting review 5's & 6's marked squares, Inv 4 in Saxon 5/4 fractions & decimals reading tenths, hundredths, thousandths :);
Zoology - chose the Baltimore Oriole and the Bullocks Oriole to research and compare and then gave a lovely oral report;

Sean-Paul: mostly messed around, sigh...why are some weeks better than others??? He managed to do a little presentation on the River Otter for Zoology, cute.

Lunch - leftover Ribollita and bread; then started our new Historical fiction RA - The Winged Watchman while Violet organized her embroidery tin and the boys built lego creations.

Kitchen clean-up, chores and music practices including SP on the Glockenspiel, he sets himself up for practice every day now, very cute!! He's pulling out all his Musikgarten cd's and listening regularly to them as well, he's a music boy just like the others :)))

Sean-Paul and I made a Pumpkin pie together :) Then had to dash to the store for one ingredient mid-pie, yikes!! Also grabbed books at the library.

Greek Salad w/Naam and Hummus for dinner, kids had grilled burgers and crinkle fries.

World Series game 2....

wednesday 10.28.09

Morning Basket ~ Sts. Simon and Jude; Saints for Young Readers; prayers; finished Snow Treasure!!!

Violet:
Lingua Mater - picture study, synonyms with me;
Religion - Catholic World Culture about Cardinal Mendszenty/discussion with me
Reading- Anne of the Windy Poplars and an American Girl History novel (India?? need to check)

Matthias:
Math- worked on Multi-step in A+ Notes 6-6, did great on his own, he's got this down.
Saints Stories - St. Maximillian Kolbe - discussion/narration w/me;
Reading - Enemy Bros.

Seamus:
1st thing - Skip counting review 6's, 2,3,4's and a hop-scotch 3,4,5's, listened to RA and then off to his Cello lesson w/daddy (back for lunch).

Sean-Paul:
slow morning for him, listened briefly to RA, then wanted to watch a Caillou w/cocoa; Coloring/Pumpkin stuff

Lunch - Sticky Buns for St. Jude (he gets us out of sticky situations). Prayers and petitions to St. Jude.

Afternoon - Matthias and SP played legos.  Piano lesson and we babysat both the piano teacher's kids, whooppee! It was entertaining to say the least...

Seamus and I did a Home Geography lesson about directions, using a compass, etc. We mentally mapped out how to get from the park to our house walking and from his bedroom to the schoolroom. Then I typed out some copy work for him to reinforce the lesson.

Lots of Marine Biology research/note taking by Violet, she's preparing her project for Friday.

I wrote down quite a bit more for this day, but somehow typepad ate it or didn't save when I hit save??? It was a good day and people were busy busy...

Ballet night.

Dinner - Ribollita with Homemade Artisan Bread.

tuesday 10.27.09

Morning basket ~ morning prayers and singing; helped Seamus choose a RLS poem to begin memorizing (Where Go the Boats); read aloud 3 ch's of Snow Treasure.

Listening in the Learning Room: More Vivaldi and Nature Sounds :)

Violet:
Math - A+ notes, cont yesterday's work;
Botany- Sunflower sketch/parts/description;
Lingua Mater- Synomyms work;
Written narration/book review for Miss Happiness and Miss Flower;
After lunch- Marine Bio - project research!!

Matthias:
Math - A+ notes, cont yesterday's work;
Botany- Leaf shape cards/definitions;
Grammar - ILL #202 "The Gleaners" picture study w/me,
Copied another stanza of Casey at Bat;
Reading - finished Motor Boys;

Seamus:
Cut & pasted many jack-o-happy pumpkins (he's making a mobile);
Math - skip counting 12's;
Grammar - homonyms cards matching game;
After lunch - Religion FYC w/me beginning the Ten Commandments/copywork & catechism/Moses;
Reading - independently read in his Seton reader;
Cello practice 25 mins

Sean-Paul:
P Sound Bin (beginning Pink Reading Series) w/me (includes sandpaper 'p' and HWT wood letter 'p');
Colored St. George from our new and very handy Saints CDs from Catholic Artworks Co.
Tried the Pumpkin quilt block puzzle, but he got frustrated as the pieces kept moving around on him :(
Cut and pasted shapes for a jack-o-happy

History RA time - Snow Treasure 2 ch's

Lunch - little boys outside for some ball play, lunch clean-up, laundry switch

Dinner prep, ballet tonight. 

monday 10.26.09

A little bit of a late start but not a bad monday morning  :)

Morning Basket ~ Talked about the beautiful Feast of Christ the King (Traditional) and yesterday's sermon by our beloved priest.  Read about the Evening Primrose from HBNS and accompanying poem, wished we had some in the yard. Singing,  St. Everistus (1st c. trad calendar) 

Violet:
New week of activities for SP "Pumpkin Theme" very fun! She's really enjoying putting these together, and such a big help to moi!!
Math - A+ Notes 6-5 2-step equations w/variables;
Lingua Mater - Week 34 picture study/synonyms day 1;
Reading - Downright Dencey (I think) and others;
History - Landmark about rise of Moussolini/Hitler
Marine Bio - spent a long time researching her topic for project week!!

Matthias:
Math - A+ Notes 6-5 2-step equations w/variables;
Grammar - Casey at the Bat/began memorizing (and recited from the book at Poetry time) copied first stanza into his poetry book;
History - SOTW4 The Marshall Plan;
Reading - Working on Motor Boys, almost finished

Seamus:
Math - squares/square roots drill, skip counting 11's, Mental math from L 43;
Green Reading sounds aw/au;
RA w/SP and I "It's Pumpkin Time" and Lifecycle of the Pumpkin 3-part cards;
made a pumpkin mask;
History - RA Christopher Columbus (d'Aulaire) and sketched an incredible picture from the cover design of Columbus, then dictated a narration of the first portion to me.

Sean-Paul:
Pumpkin Seeds game with me,
Letter stamping  activity;
made a bakeable eraser from Matthias' kit;
paper cutting - triangles,
RA w/ Seamus and I "Its Pumpkin Time" and Lifecylce of the pumpkin 3-part cards; 

Lunch - Left over Beef Bourguinon (yum) RA - 3 chs of Snow Treasure.

Afternoon - Seamus Cello, Matthias Organ, Violet babysit and Marine Bio research on her new project (shes really excited about it, might be a year long project in the beginning stages!!!)

Stir Fry for dinner/bean and cheese burritos for the kids.

thursday 10.22.09

Religion work for everyone while I snuck in a quick waffle and cleaned up the kitchen, SP finished Nim's Island w/cocoa. Nature Sounds background music.

Morning Basket ~ David Nevue while I RA 2 ch's of Snow Treasure, we're at a really good part and want to read it every chance we get!! A few RLS poems "Escape at Bedtime" and "The Cow" (Violet has fond memories of this one as it was one of the very first poems she memorized as a Kindergartner ala Laura Berquist's K syllabus :)

Violet:
Math - A+ Notes lesson 6-4 Solving 1-step equations/check work
Zoology - worked on her History of the horse and shared her findings on "The Shire"
Reading - A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos

Matthias:
Religion - read about Guardian Angels and shared
Math - A+ Notes lesson 6-4 Solving 1-step equations/check work
Zoology - chose a King Cobra to research and present 
Reading - Handbook of Nature Study - weather and climate pages

Seamus:
St. Francis w/ colored pencils
Math - skip counting 9's; L-41 Subn across zero (three-digit)
Zoology  - Trumpeter Swan research and presentation :)

Sean-Paul:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Little Saints activity page w/me.
Dog's Colorful Day visual discrimination cards/felt dog activity also w/me;
then again w/me - Math work with golden beads 1's and 10's and number cards (he's really not quite ready for this yet);
Zoology - Hairy woodpecker cut out a picture and added it to his W page then shared his information with us all (very professionally I might add) ;-)
Outside to rollerblade before lunch;

ALL ~ Art Appreciation time: viewed and compared four different Autumn scenes, each child chose a different one to re-create with oil pastels (pics coming soon). Listened to Vivaldi's Autumn again!

Lunch: delicious leftovers and 2 ch's of Snow Treasure!

Afternoon - outside time for all three boys, kitchen clean-up and email check.

Violet worked on her Mangroves page, then trying to finish up her Confirmation ?'s for tomorrow's class.

More reading and outside time, knitting stuff, dinner prep...

Matthias decided to make Panna Cotta (from Barefoot Contessa at Home).

Cello practice for Seamus about 25 minutes. He's got three really nice pieces he's working on right now - Tarantella, Elfin Dance and Dance Rustique. Piano after for Matthias.

Ballet for Violet and rehersals tonight. Quick library stop for pick-ups! (Need to do another pick-up post soon :)

Minestrone for dinner and homemade bread (not sure which one yet, but a bread machine selection tonight)!

Looking forward to the weekend :)

wednesday 10.21.09

Morning Basket ~ Morning prayers at the breakfast table while we awaited our Apple Puff Pancake to cool (it was a little bit like the Three bears and the hot porridge) It was very tasty after it cooled.

Music Appreciation focus this morning - listened to Vivaldi's Autumn, then Tchaicovsky's October Song, it was decided that we liked the Vivaldi better. I also played some other random Vivaldi's and our favorite was this one - Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera :)

Violet:
Math- A+ Notes: found the area of some complex shapes and wrote the correct expressions using variables and exponents  
finished her ballad, very nicely done "The Ballad of the Haunted Wood" inspired by the woods scene in Anne of Green Gables :)Saints- St. Faustina in Stories of the Saints Vol II
Marine Bio- worked on her seagrass reading and research and then read about Mangroves and produced her sketches from the text, sadly we won't be seeing any of these beauties up close any time soon, unless some one has any tickets to Florida, say anywhere near Theresa???

Matthias:
Math- A+ Notes: found the area of some complex shapes and wrote the correct expressions using variables and exponents;
New morning piano lesson;
Grammar- comparing poems by Helen Jackson Hunt and Beecher (ILL #198);
Reading- Enemy Bros.; 
The Greeks and the Solar System in his Dangerous Book for Boys - read; 
Latin responses w/Seamus;

Seamus:
built marble structures during Music time
Math - skip counting 8's;
cello lesson; blue reading objects and words and moveable alphabet (Violet helped hime with this while I got lunch going);
Reading - Seton; Billy B copywork "f" and Trumpet of the Swan copywork;
Latin responses w/Matthias

Sean-Paul:
painted a dixie cup getting ready to make a "tiger cup" in the same fashion as his "doggie cup" (need to post pics)
marble towers w/Seamus during Music time
watched Peter and the Wolf w/ a snack
finger plays w/mommy The Bees and the Ants (cute)
outside time

Lunch- leftover Soup from last night, so yummy!!

RA - 3 ch's of Snow Treasure, this one is getting good :)

Afternoon work entailed Marine Bio, copywork and reading by most. SP went to Costco w/daddy -THANK YOU!!!!!

Finished my knitting project, will try to get some pics up on Threads or Main blog soon. Think I'll make one for Violet now :)

Lettuce Wraps for dinner, one of our favorites and SO easy!!!

Tuesday 10.20.09

Morning Basket ~ St. John Cantius (traditional)-collect and Epistle reading from James; read from Treasury of Catholic Saints-St. George and the Dragon; decade of the rosary and singing; G is for St. Gabriel (The Angel's Alphabet by Hilda von Stockum)

Violet:
worked on more activities for Dog's Colorful Day for SP;
Math-cont. 6-3 exponents and simplifying equations/dist. prop;
helped SP get started on a craft activity for Dog's Colorful Day (so cute) and then left for her Ortho appt w/daddy (we're hoping they bring back lunch from the Market for all of us :)

Matthias:
morning reading Honus and Me (got paperback version for his bday);
Math- cont. 6-3 exponents and simplifying equations/dist. prop;
Grammar - ILL #197 subject/predicate review & copywork from Harp & Laurel Wreath "Flint's Island" underlined & circled subject/pred;
Science experiment-making a battery from Dangerous Book for Boys (he needs to do more of this)

Seamus:
watercolored from Fenestre Fidei-St. Francis of Assisi;
Math - skip counting 7's, Investigation 3 (Saxon 5/4) w/me squares and square roots;
Listened to Shell Book w/SP then PS2 w/ SP before lunch for a bit

Sean-Paul:
Violet started him on an activity;
played a card/coloring game w/me; then we read What Lives in a Shell, a Read and Find Out science book;
PS2 with Seamus before lunch for a bit

Lunch-YES!! Humbow (sp?) and gyros from the market, YUM!! Thank you daddy :)

Afternoon - Little boys outside, rollerblading, basketball, scooters and bikes. Then they came back in and played Parchesi (sort of).

Matthias 1/2 hour of piano, then played Divinty w/Seamus, now they are building something on Lego Factory (I think it's a church with a Traditional Latin altar :) I wonder if they'll include a communion rail, have to go check progress....

Violet worked on Marine Bio - searched some sites for Light & Color info, still trying to complete week 6 so we can try our hand at project week!!

Ballet tonight, Monkey Bread rising on the counter, getting ready to peel and roast a bunch of veggies for a yummy Roasted Vegetable Soup (ala Ina). Better get some Artisan bread going too!!

Whew, is it only Tuesday???

Monday 10.19.09

Morning Basket ~ St. Isaac Jogues, St. John deBreuf and Companions (our parishes namesake Saints) Saints for Young Readers; Singing; Poetry-more RLS "Looking Glass River" (delightful), "Autumn" by Emily Dickinson, "Fog" by Carl Sandburg, "Vagabond Song" by Bliss Carman, "The Mist and All" by Dixie Wilson (all in FPON)

Violet:
Helped Sean-Paul with his new shelves, played a game with him;
Math-Math-A+Notes 6-3 Exponents/Applications;
Lingua Mater-four more stanza's of her ballad;
History-started Escape from Warsaw (aka The Silver Sword by Ian Serralier);
Marine Bio- reading, notes & discussed possible projects

Matthias:
Helped Seamus with our new daily wall calendar;
Math-A+Notes 6-3 Exponents/Applications;
Grammar- ILL#196 read and discussed/outlining;
History-started Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery

Seamus:
Stained glass coloring;
Math- number lines and mixed numbers, skip counting 6's;
Cello practie 2o min;
Reading- read aloud to Violet from Owl at Home

Sean-Paul: played a Dog's Colorful Day game w/sissy (Violet's new weekly theme for him);
D sound bin with me, Dogs Colorful Day colored dot glueing activity w/ me;
helped me unload d/w and started laundry load;

Lunch-RA 2 ch's of Snow Treasure

Afternoon - Matthias organ lesson, Violet babysat and we reviewed her Sunflower basket and decided where we wanted to venture with her Literature basket, Seamus Cello lesson.

Didn't get to any hands on Marine Bio today...

I finished Betsy's Wedding last night, planning to start The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge next (Violet's stack for me :)

Started a new knitting project over the weekend, something for myself...just trying it out...

Dinner- something with all the yummy root veggies in our organic bin this week....

Friday 10.16.09

Morning basket ~ St. Hedwig (traditional) collect; prayers and singing.

Violet:
Finishing up her confirmation homework, went over several questions with her at breakfast;
Tidyed up her school things from the week and cleaned out her cubby/filed in her notebooks;
Off to class w/daddy;

Matthias:
Started with piano 20 min;
Played Toy Story 2 Monopoly w/SP and Scrabble w/Seamus simultaneously (it was QUITE entertaining for me!)
Math-managed a few more problems on yesterday's sheet;

Seamus:
First up today with me,I read aloud 2 ch's of Trumpet of the Swan with him;
He knitted while I checked email, then we served everyone hot cocoa and tea and toast;
Played Scrabble w?Matthias;
Cleaned off his very messy and cluttered work table (I'm afraid he takes after me in the cluttered surfaces arena, sigh...)

Sean-Paul:
Played Monopoly w/Matthias;
Stories w/me while he finished his breakfast-Dog's Colorful Day;
Colored a raccoon picture;

RA - Magic School Bus Plays Ball to all three boys.

Latin Daily Mass and lunch of bagels and apples in the car on the way to pick up ballet slippers for V-Nutcracker!!

Cello lesson for Seamus, then home.

Afteroon play time and clean-up.

Chinese takeout for dinner - it's been a l-o-n-g week....Happy weekend friends!

Thursday 10.15.09

Morning Basket ~ St. Teresa of Avila-collect, morning prayers-spiritual communion, singing;
"The Wise Ant" and "Walter and His Dog" from The Children's Kindergarten Hour;
more RLS poetry-"Foreign Lands" and "Windy Nights" again for SP :)
Children's Golden Bible "The Coming of the Holy Spirit" and talked about Violet preparing to receive her Confirmation this year.

Violet:
Helped SP during morning basket;
Math-A+ Notes simplifying equations with variables/combining like terms using dist. property;
Zoology- wolf research reading and presentation;
Lingua Mater- wrote 5 stanza's of her "ballad";
Collected many library books from her room that have to be returned today, sadly the library is cutting us back to 50 books per card instead of 100, sob!!! Reading- Finished Blue Willow; started another...

Matthias:
Created some "how to draw" booklets during morning basket;
Math-A+ Notes simplifying equations with variables/combining like terms using dist. property;
Zoology- Komodo dragon research reading and presentation;
Grammar- ILL#187 Diary of a cat for a week, very entertaining!!

Seamus:
knitted during morning basket;
Zoology- Eyelash Viper (started learning how to do a research for an animal w/Me) looked at Enchanted Learning and found nothing specific so I googled and found a great link at WhoZoo :) He did a very nice presentation telling some of his facts he discovered!
Cello practice 1/2 hour

Sean-Paul:
worked on some coloring for his forest animals activities w/Violet;
He unfotunately had to be removed from the schoolroom on several occasions this morning due to disruption :( Some days are really hard for him, grrr....
Zoology- spiders, looked at MANY, showed everyone pictures of MANY!! His presentation included lots of information about what spiders like to eat, hysterical!! Cutie :)

Lunch-poached eggs on toast and bananas; made granola bars while the eggs poached; lunch and kitchen clean-up; little boys outside-skinned knee on SP/icepak/bandaid/lots of kisses and hugs and sympathy fom Seamus & I/Popsicles w/a Max & Ruby show (all better:)

Afternoon ~ Matthias and I made shortbread dough together and talked about some of the books he's been reading this week :) He decided to use our assorted leaf-shaped cutters and spent the next hour or so creating his cookies! YUM! 

Helped Seamus with his knitting and knit a few rows for him to speed it along :) He read aloud from his Seton reader the story of Jesus blessing the little children.

SP came up and asked if anyone wanted to say the rosary with him (HELLO!!!) and so of course I did, drop everything and kneel down with him, OOOh such a sweet boy!!

Then little boys discovered some Michael's wood craft kits I had stashed and went to work putting them together, it was a glu-ey time had by both of them ;-) 

RA - ch of Snow Treasure, everyone enjoyed a shortbread cookie :)

Took Violet to Ballet, boys to gym for basketball w/daddy.

Groc shop, library stop, post office to mail a Mondays With Mary to Australia!!

Ground Turkey Tacos and Cannelinni Beans w/garlic, red peppers and spinach for dinner.

Looking forward to some knitting this evening... TGIF tomorrow!!

Wednesday 10.14.09

Morning Basket ~ Listening to Nature Sounds; decade of the rosary with the boys; St. Callistus-collect, morning prayers and singing; Robert Louis Stevenson poems-"Autumn Fires" "Singing" "From a Railway Carriage" "Windy Nights" "The Wind"; read Frisky's Nutting Party from Child's Stories from Many Lands; Catechism questions for Seamus and SP.

Violet:
Still feeling kind of poohey so took her book review sheets and other books and notebooks to her room to work for the morning, we're praying for her to feel better quick, we miss her cheeriness in the schoolroom!
Came up for lunch, feeling better, whew!!Finished her embroidery work for a special quilt block she's creating :)
She also managed a couple of book reviews for me to add to her reading page. (I need to get going on Matthias' page too...)

Matthias:
Reading- finished Captain Nobody and narrated it to me (cute book)!
Math- working diligently on some A+ algebra, solving equations when x=?
Grammar- ILL# 179/184 Synonymns/Homonymns review/words pairs, sentences using homonyms
Afternoon piano lesson;

Seamus:
Awoke and began his new knitting project (a super hero cape for his gingerbread man that Violet knit him) on the couch even before cocoa and breakfast;
Math-Skip counting 4's;
Morning cello lesson;
Cursive practice

Sean-Paul:
asked to say rosary first thing and handed them out all around :)
He wants his own math book so he can do his numbers in the squares (what is it with grid paper???)
Made lots of squiggles in his mini-cop "spy" notebook "that's my secret code mom!"
Discovered the Rocks and Minerals tackle box and began taking each one out and comparing to some loose rocks/minerals we have.

Lunch-Homemade Brioche sands for the boys, Cream of Cauliflower Soup w/bread for V, daddy and I, yum!

RA-ch of Snow Treasure

Babysat for Violet during M's piano lesson, little boys played around with our little guest and Seamus knitted some more - he ripped out the super hero cape and decided to knit himself a hat instead, I casted on for him and knit the first four rows :)

Hmmm, time to think about dinner.

Tuesday 10.13.09

Morning Basket ~ St. Edward the Confessor; collect, Saints Stories for Everyday and Our Island Story. Oxford Book of English Verse; "For the Baptiste" by William Drummond, "The Character of a Happy Life" by Sir Henry Wotton, "Weepe you no more sad fountaines..." Anonymous; Kids painted their St Edward's (thanks Matilda;) and Violet worked on some different horse faces in her sketch book.

Violet:
Math-more A+ algebra; solving word problems with variables;
Lingua Mater-pre-writing her ballad;
History-read Ch 29 and marked dates on timeline;
Marine Biology-working on her shell collection identifying and classifying;
Reading-didn't catch all her books today, but I think one was Downright Dency, others...

Matthias:
Math-1-8 solving equations with inverse operations;
History-reading Ch 29 end of WWII  (never finished from yesterday, didn't like the Atom Bomb ch :(
Latin-practiced Mass responses;
Grammar-outlining lesson/drafted his descriptive paragraph of a grocery store;
Reading-Captain Nobody (funny, he's enjoying this one) 

Seamus:
Math- Skip counting 3's and Saxon 5/4 L: 35; using words to write mixed numbers, money;
Cello practice 20 min's;
Reading-new Seton reader "These Are Our Friends" independent reading, then read a ch to me :)

Sean-Paul:
started the morning w/cocoa and a Max and Ruby,
Forest Animal Alphabet matching upper and lower case letters with clothes pin :)
Owl shapes worksheet w/Violet, then he colored the whole thing with an orange colored pencil;
Storytime with me-some Parables of Jesus (TdeP) Mary Mother of Jesus-Flight into Egypt and Findng in the Temple (also TdeP) Come Along Daisy,
Botany-First lesson from "In the Child's World" Fruit and he worked on the lifecycle of a fruit (apple). This is a question and answer style kindergarten/pre-school lesson from the late 19th century, very dear little lessons and he really liked it :)

Lunch-RA from Snow Treasure 3 ch's

Little boys doing Cars PS2, Violet not feeling well, sniffly and scratchy throat, pooh!!! Matthias and I discussing the future of technology... 

Rainy afternoon, perfect for a Sour Cream Coffecake and lots of good books, may even pull out my knitting and dust it off :)

Printed out some art appreciation pics (scroll down a bit) from Barb at Handbook of Nature Study to use in conjunction with our Autumn Nature Studies! LOVE THESE!

Dinner- Grilled steaks, mashed potatoes and zuchinni with parm!

Monday 10.12.09

Monday ~ morning basket-Lord Byron- "She Walks in Beauty"; The Amateur Naturalist, a few pages; Violet read about the "Turkish towel" seaweed she found yesterday at the beach.

Violet:
Math: A+ Algebra Ch6 solving equations w/varibles
Read Klickitat Island w/SP and showed him his new Forest Animals area (she organized his work area over the weekend and created all new activities based on Forest theme :)
Lingua Mater: working on finishing Week 33/day 3& 4
Reading: Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden, Anacaona (Royal Diaries)
Homekeeping: read parts of intro in Home Comforts-discussed the difference between "playing at homemaking" and housekeeping/what are the things that make our house "tick"
Afternoon-read about Marine grasses, notes.

Matthias:
Math: Pre-algebra worksheet-solving equations with variables/finding true solutions (1-6)
Grammar: ILL #180-Descriptive sentences 
Piano: 1/2 practice (Organ lesson this afternoon)
Reading: The Singing Tree, SOTW 4 for History-end of WWII 

Seamus:
Math: Skip counting 2's, Saxon 5/4 L:34 numbers to hundred-millions, number word cards
created cover for his 2nd grade subjects notebook
Cello: 1/2 hour practice
Reading: Seton (independently) RA last ch to mommy (woohoo finished it); looked at awesome Sword book I found in the new books section at the library over the weekend/ he showed it to Sean-Paul and they marveled over many pictures together, then I read aloud some of it and especially a snippet from Beowoulf included!

Sean-Paul:
Forest activity w/Violet-hunting for animals and their tracks (Download Texas Tracks) (he likes to do this with a magnifying glass in hand :)
Hot Cocoa w/a Caillou
Played in his Forest animal activity area (I'm pretty sure I saw some marine animals join in for a party!!)

Grandpa arrived for a quick cup of tea and chat, his delivery made some big & little people very happy.

New Lunchtime Read-aloud: 1st chapter Snow Treasure!

Violet babysitting, Seamus cello lesson, Matthias Organ lesson, Sean-Paul and I storytime: Dr. Suess' Wish for a Fish, The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail, all the while building elaborate roads and towers with cherry tree blocks. I think there was some egg shaker juggling as well....

Curry Chicken and Rice Soup, Homemade Bread and salad.

Week in Review 10.05.09 to 10.09.09

Monday - no morning basket again to start the week. Mondays are always difficult for some reason, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now, sigh. Everyone did get right started on Math though, so it's my fault for not insisting that we do it first. Maybe we'll do it for lunch today.

Matthias: Reading-The Singing Tree; Math-variables, solving for; Grammar-pic study/prepositions; History-SOTW 4 start of WWII/oral narration; Piano-1/2 hour before lunch; Organ lesson today.

Violet: Horse NB-parts of and enchanted learning stuff; Math-area of triangles, cross mult/solving for variable; Reading- Blue Willow; played math game for "If you give a mouse a muffin" that she printed off of Making Learning Fun site-clothes pin activity (too cute)!

Seamus: Math-mult tables and worked some problems in Saxon 5/4 (L38); Science NB drawing; Cello 1/2 hour and lesson today; Copywork-letter C; Basketball outside w/Sean-Paul before lunch

Sean-Paul: Math- Activity with sissy

Lunchtime RA-Twenty and Ten

Tuesday - St. Bruno, collect. Matthias' 11th bday today! Bday breakfast and gift stuff, kitchen clean-up and upstairs for fun crafts in the morning.

Mass and lunch, then Latin Mass altar server training with Fr. S for Matthias and Seamus.

Bday dinner menu request: Mommy's BBQ Ribs, Baked Beans, Twice-baked potatoes, Brown-sugar Carrots, and of course a German Chocolate Cake :) YUMMY!!!

Wednesday - Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Latin Missal, talked about Last gospel and meaning of St. John the Apostle's words. RA-The Secret World of Walter Anderson, poems of Robert Louis Stevenson by Brian Wildsmith (lovely illustrations in this edition).

Math for everyone ~ Matthias review of properties and mental problem solving
Violet: Percents and proportions word equations.
Seamus: review of place values to the hundred-millions, solved a few equations writing numbers in expanded form
Sean-Paul: Checkers and chess with mommy

Grammar ~ Violet: working through week 33 in Lingua Mater "The Wreck of Hesperus"

Matthias: also working on Lingua Mater day 2 prewriting and identifying prepositions in a copywork selection.

Seamus & Sean-Paul playing with their race car track!

History ~ Matthias reading more on WWII in SOTW 4.

Lunchtime RA - Twenty and Ten, finished this one.

Book discussion with Violet: Rilla of Ingleside :)

Matthias - piano lesson (we babysat)

Library stop and ballet.

Thursday ~ Morning basket-readings for St. Briget of Sweden (traditional calendar) prayers and singing, finished Cardinal book 1 stories (Seamus grabbed it and started it from the beginning by himself :), Katie and the Impressionists read more about Monet, Renoir and Degas.

Math-Matthias & Violet worked on Distributive property pre-algebra stuff, worked some equations. Seamus-snake game addition/made up his own equations and remembered how much he liked this for math :) Sena-Paul-tweezered tiny red pom-poms onto a hundreds apple tree.

Boys to gym for basketball with daddy.

Friday ~ morning prayersand singing. Violet finishing up her Confirmation class ?'s. Wrote book review for Kathleen and the Celtic Knot.

Matthias-finished Math page on dist. prop. Then began work typing a book review/narration for Edmund Campion.

Seamus and Sean-Paul drawing together at their table.  Sean-Paul also worked on some number and letter tracing while Seamus did some copywork, letter d. I did some dinasour math w/Sean-Paul, then he wanted me to show him the short chains and squares/we did through the 5's.

Read aloud: Eggbert, the Slightly Cracked Egg, Hedgie's Surprise, Ch 3 of Trumpet of the Swan (Seamus' read aloud right now)

Pick up Violet, Mass and lunch out. Cello this afternoon for Seamus and a concert for he and I tonight :)

Week in Review ~ 09.28.09 to 10.02.09

Monday ~ No morning basket to speak of today as I am fending off a sniffly cold and cough :( Readings for the Mass, St. Wenceslaus.

Presented Matthias and Seamus with their new weekly worklists that I created on Excel and they were off and running with Math! Please email me if you are interested in seeing how I set up their weekly sheets.

Violet: Math-solved proportions; Lingua Mater week 32/day3 pre-writing for poem; Reading-First Farm in the Valley, many horse related books, a Nancy Drew;  Marine Bio - pH test and salinity test with observations and notes; Religion-Confirmation ?'s. Babysat during organ lesson and after for an hour.

Matthias: Math w/ Violet; Lingua Mater; week 3/day 1-I chose a different poem to insert for this lesson "The Eagle" by Tennyson/adjectives; Reading-Castle of Lyr, The Singing Tree; Marine Biow/Violet-pH test & salinity experiment/notes; Latin prayers-begin memorizing mass responses. Organ lesson after lunch.

Seamus: Math-Lesson 28 Saxon 5/4; Green reading cards-stamped the DGE endings in a blank book; Costco trip with daddy, gone through lunch. Cello lesson in afternoon.

Sean-Paul: played game with Violet then went to Costco w/daddy and Seamus.

Tuesday ~ Quick morning basket; St Michael the Archangel, prayers and singing.

No math today for Violet. Math with Matthias-percents in A+ Notes. Seamus-Mult tables for 0, 1, 2, 5's filled in chart and reviewed the 2'3 & 3's. Sean-Paul game with sissy.

Violet: Anne copywork for Sunflower basket; Essay on kites for LM week 32; Reading-Anastasia Krupnik, Freaky Friday, Place to Hide; Confirmation ?'s; Geography-Germany/rivers

Matthias: Grammar- recited part of The Eagle/adjectives oral w/me; Reading-Castle of Lyr-finished History-SOTW4 Ch26 stockmarket crash & Rise of Hitler/marked dates on timeline/oral narration; Latin Mass video-practiced responses

Seamus: Cello practice; Latin Mass video w/Matthias; Geography-finished Wa st. page; lots of outside play with SP

Wednesday ~ Morning basket - St. Jerome and the Lion picture book and Cath Mosaic ?'s (we love this one, need to put it on Xmas list) prayers and Mass readings.

Sean-Paul: colored lion picture; Math game with mommy.

Seamus: morning cello lesson; 4 times table; Read aloud to me from reader; painting.

Matthias: Math-percents and applications with ratios/proportions-solved about 10 equations A+ Notes; Grammar-pre-writing poem and recitation; Reading-Edmund Campion, The Singing Tree;

Violet:  Reading-Plain Girl, horse encyclopedia, other stuff; Math- percents equations; Letter writing-Anne to Diana (her version of what really happened at the tea with the raspberry cordial incident :); Confirmation ?'s; Geopgraphy-Germany/regions

Sean-Paul: lion cupcake decorating w/me for St. Jerome's feast :)

Thursday ~

Matthias: Piano lesson in morning; Geography-Germany/rivers; Grammar-write poem/?'s w/me; Marine Bio-Beach day-seaweed collection and microscope/sketches and notes/finished Ch3 Seaside Nat. Nature sketching-eagle

Violet: Marine Bio-Beach day-seaweed collection and microscope/sketches and notes/finished ch3 Seaside Nat; History-Reading SOTW4 Rise of Hitler/Stockmkt Crash-Oral narration/mark dates;

Seamus: no notes for him today???

Sean-Paul: seems he didn't do anything of note either, LOL! At least I never managed to write anything down, such is life :)))

Friday ~ First Friday Mass, Feast of the Guardian Angels and a lovely homeschool social where we created Mystical Rose Cupcake baskets with about 50 other homeschoolers in our parish, fun fun day!!

Good week.

Week in Review ~ 09.21.09 to 09.25.09

Monday morning: Feast of St. Matthew, prayers and collect of his Mass, nice morning basket time; more Thomas Burgess autobiography, Their Hearts Are His Garden, some Cardinal reader stories (very sweet), The Children's Kindergarten Hour poems.

Math for Matthias & Violet- decimal review, comparing fractions and decimals

Violet - Rilla of Ingleside, They Loved to Laugh, Lingua Mater poetry writing, babysat during organ and after for another hour, tennis courts and park with boys and I in afternoon.

Matthias - Edmund Campion, The Castle of Lyr, Baseball stats, Organ lesson, tennis and park,  piano practice in evening after dinner.

Seamus - Math worksheets - fractions, watercolor painting and beeswax clay, read aloud to me from a Magic Tree House, Cello lesson after lunch, tennis and park, outside play with Sean-Paul until dinner.

Tuesday morning: kind of a blur, I know we read the collect for St. Thomas of Villanova, a few poems and some discussions about the Latin Mass (our main focus for religion this year).

Everyone did a little math, reading, writing, playing and more reading and playing :) 

Afternoon - quick trip down to the beach with the bigger two to collect some sea water. Decided it was such a nice afternoon (and hot) that we quickly went home to retrieve the other two boys and headed back for some great beach combing and fort building :) LOVE, love, love these kinds of days :)))

Ballet for Violet and dinner.

Wednesday Morning: Feast of Padre Pio (new calendar), read various stories from our basket including some poetry.

Seamus has cello in the mornings on Wed's so our morning gets a little disjointed, I need to remember this and try not to compatmentalize everyone so much and have the morning be a little more free form. Also the grandparents came over in between cello and lunch to hear Matthias' concert recording from Friday night, so the whole day was really a wash.

Violet and I did manage to get some more book reveiws loaded on to her new 2009-10 book list page, so that was nice. She's really crankin' through her list already, so it's nice to keep on top of it.

Afternoon - Matthias piano lesson and babysitting for Violet, then I took the three boys to the gym for basketball time before I needed to get Violet to ballet.

Dinner was yummy "Big Fat Greek Stuffed Peppers"! (Saving Dinner)

Thursday Morning:  Our Lady of Mercy (Ransom) readings and prayers.  More on Latin Mass focus on the Confeitior, nice discussion about examinination of conscience.

Math for Violet & Matthias - ratio, rate, proportionality and equivelency, word problems and cross multiplication.

Seamus - Math - mixed fractions, whole to parts, definitions of numerator/denominator
Geography - began state geography pages beginning with Washington (our home state).  He really enjoyed doing this and I did too :)
Cello - almost a 1/2 hour practice this morning!!

Snack and read new 2009 Sylvan Dell picture books for review, will write up kids reactions and post my review at Sweetness and Light soon.

Marine Biology experiments for all performed after lunch. "Salinity and Density" test.

More here at Nature's Sweetness!

Ballet for Violet, daddy took boys to the park, I got some solo shopping in :)

Dinner - Curry Chicken and Rice Soup with a yummy Multi-grain cibatta. Getting back to my Saving Dinner recipes, so easy and good :)

Piano for Matthias and the Sammantha movie for all!

Friday morning: more on the Latin Mass, discussion about the Kyrie, Introit and norms of the rite.

Everyone tidied up their cubbies and we decluttered from a busy week of learning fun!

Busy afternoon including Cello lesson, Sean-Paul's very first Soccer class, ballet stuff (pointe shoe fitting) and an incredible Latin Mass with the Archibishop (history in the making here in our Diocese!!!) 

Have a great weekend friends! 

Rest of Week ~ 09.15.09 - 09.18.09

Weekly recap, since I never posted after Monday :)

Tuesday Morning ~

Christina Rosetti "The Wind"
Baltimore Catechism "The First Sins"
Ch 2: Thomas Burgess autobiography
Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, discussion

Matthias: finished fractions review
Violet: Confirmation Baltimore questions t/f
Seamus: lesson on mixed fractions with me
Sean-Paul: tracing dinosaurs

other stuff, Matthias: hour of piano
Seamus: 20 of cello and lesson after lunch
Big boys had tennis, Violet ballet, Sean-Paul park play with me.

Wednesday morning ~ our Artsy time with music! Also a little math was completed by everyone and plenty of reading.

lunch: Swallows and Amazons
piano lesson for Matthias
Violet babysat
boys played around her and made a huge mess for me to clean up
burned the granola bars I started just before piano teacher arrived, sigh... 
more reading
outside play for all during which I discovered this site (thanks to Christine) and downloaded all sorts of delightful FREE goodies!! Sean-Paul had a great time working on the bumblebee in the I is for Insects pack, too cute!

Thursday morning ~ more watercolor postcards during which I read aloud: Stigmata of St. Francis followed by great discussion on the five wounds of Christ
Burgess finished Ch 2
The Magic Flute from The Children's Kindergarten Hour (a library gem)

Violet: confirmation catechism ?'s, writing assignment for Lingua Mater, "Anne" copywork and discussed some favorite sections

Matthias: Math - order of operations review, Edmund Campion (affectionately refered to now as "Eddy Camp") grammar lesson 2 in Lingua Mater, 1/2 hour of piano

Seamus: math worksheets on measurement, number word search, used his protractor for several different things, read aloud to me, 20 min of cello

Sean-Paul: colored pictures, stories with me

afternoon: outside, last tennis, park, ballet, library

Friday morning ~ Anniversary day! St. Jospeh of Cupertino, morning collect

Busy morning before Violet's confirmation prep class.  Read aloud from Story of Mankind about the beginning's of WWI. Then it was time for her to leave with daddy.

Boys~ music practices, reading, snacks, time to prep for Mass and go!

Seamus: cello lesson after Mass & lunch (yummy baguette sammy's) beautiful day, lots of outside play, Sean-Paul in pool for a bit, then tea party with V & M :)

Anniversary night concert!! Pure bliss :)

Monday ~ Triumph of the Holy Cross 09.14.09

Fairly productive day:

morning basket ~ Tale of the Three Trees (everyone loves this one) Catechism questions "Who God Made"

Violet ~ marine biology - wrote up summary of wave measurement from friday night, shell identification; created a little partitioned holding box from an unused tackle box
~ math - writing equations from word sentences and solving
~ copywork - Anne of Green Gables
~ lingua mater - finishing lesson on interrogatives; who/whom
~played bingo dice game with Sean-Paul based on brown bear, brown bear what do you see? (very cute)
~lots of reading (Rilla)

Matthias ~ math - fraction review A+ notes algebra worked several problems
~marine biology - a couple of ocean games on computer, wave measurement summary/lab report
~harpsicord lesson + 45 minutes piano after dinner
~ reading (The Singing Tree)
~ tennis w/ Seamus, Sean-Paul and I (fun, fun fun!)

Seamus ~ math - finished fraction worksheet with metal fraction insets
~ read aloud to me several pages of The Cat and the Hat Comes back; made words with moveable alphabet; this, that, there, then and copied into a small blank book
~marine biology - ocean games and marine animal word search
~ watercolor painting (St. Paschal)
~ cello 20 minutes practice before lunch
~ sketched a black kitty and colored in with colored pencils and created a gallery of his artwork above his table in the learning room :)
~ tennis with us

Sean-Paul ~ many various coloring and collage projects today using lots of gold glitter glue :)
~ dice game with sissy (brown bear, brown bear...)
~ outside for basketball
~ a few read louds included Amelia Bedelia, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, many others
~ tennis with boys & I

We headed to the park again after dinner just before it got too dark, our weather has been delightfully warm and pleasant in the evenings! Good start to the week :)

Weekly Review ~ 05.11.09 to 05.15.09

We began a new daily lesson rotation this past week: Download New Lesson Rotation Spring 09. It's been a nice change in our daily routine that had gotten kind of (yawn) boring!  I'm one to mix it up a bit in the learning room so we had fun going back to our "short lessons" that we love from Charlotte Mason. We are able to get more lesson subjects in and complete more work without a lot of down time.

Some benefits that I especially enjoyed:

1. We worked more RA time on various different topics including Saints, History, Art Appreciation, Nature Lore (my favorite) and others.
2. Kids actually did accomplish more of their work in less time with minimal frustration
3. Learning room attitudes were better (this is always a plus)
4. We had more art and drawing time and more time for creative free play during read alouds or whilst listening to audio books!

Violet and I changed out many of the Montessori shelves and created some new work and put away quite a bit. I am amazed at all the materials that we are kind of "done" with for my younger boys, they have accomplished so much in the past year. It will be sad to leave that stage behind, sniff, but the future is very exciting for them nonetheless ;-) (I'm thinking SALE pretty soon on some materials)!!!

Here are some of the activities that Sean-Paul chose repeatedly:

• Lots of coloring with his rock crayons, colored pencils and on occasion markers (supervised only!)
• Dinosaur cards and animals, his new books for his b-day
• geography habitats cards with me
• blocks
• listening to the Frances audio Cd's and more coloring
• chick and fish "how to draw" (need to blog these photos, adorable activity first found here)
• helping me make smoothies, laundry
• emptying the d/w, table setting

Favorite bedtime stories this week:  Nobunny's Perfect, Read to Your Bunny, How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends?, Dinosaurs Roar.

Seamus  is doing great with his reading and his cello lessons and little league are the highlight of his week :)

Matthias played Ode to Joy on the organ at Mass over the weekend, just lovely, he has such a special gift, we are so blessed :)

Violet continues to keep the library staff busy supplying her hold requests and baking for us regularly. She made herself the most adorable skirt over the weekend, need to post at Threads of Love! 

That's a wrap for last week! Hope your week is off to a great start with your sweeties!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Well, so much for keeping up with posting notes!  I know it's been a while and we've been in and out of sick.....

Here's what today looked like :: Morning was a bit of a flurry and we didn't get to prayers, at all, until lunch, sigh.  Babysat the piano/organ teachers little girl while he played for a funeral at church.  This was excellent for SP as he kept her quite occupied and himself out of everyone else's hair for most of the morning.

Math :: Violet and Matthias are doing all the tests in Saxon 7/6.  Review of material for Violet and just good practice for Matthias, although he will most likely surpass her in the field of mathematics fairly quickly, which is fine.  She has done excellent with her pre-algebra work up to this point and I scored on a Pre-algebra text at amazon for $5 bucks, so we may work through that for next year, or not, still contemplating the Saxon Algebra 1/2 as well.  Maybe can find a cheapie kit online as well.

:: Seamus is doing so much math everyday I can hardly keep up!!  He has totally mastered addition of ANY number including carrying.  Subtraction with borrowing/exchanging is singing along for him too and he's pretty much taught himself all of the times tables up to 9 so far on his own :)  We've eeked in division by virture of all the multiplication and he's in heaven being able to "split" numbers in two, etc! Happiness in math is a good thing!

:: Sean-Paul continues to amaze with his ability to impart things he knows.

Books Read :: Seamus is whipping through the Little Stories for Little Folks and his Seton reader.  Our current RA together (mostly at bedtime) is Edgar Eager's Seven-Day Magic, it's very cute, silly and all the elements that entertain a 7 year old boy :)

:: Matthias is enjoying St. Anthony and the Christ Child and various books on Robotics, How to build a robot and some Star Wars novels.

:: Violet's page continues to burgeon with books read, and her current read is Across Five Aprils. She just finished Nory Ryan's Song and is listening to the King of Siam during audio book time.

:: SP's favorite read alouds are the Rosemary Well's Max and Ruby set, these are quite silly and enjoyable. He also loves any book about animals especially whales and dolphins!

Montessori Work :: This continues to be a huge choice for the math work for Seamus. SP is also starting to get with the program and choose some of the work, although he's mainly in the counting phase right now and doing lots of sorting and patterning.

SP's favorite sensorial work is the Trinomial Cube, he loves this and will repeat it time and time again.

Our Dinosaur Discovery work is in constant use mostly by SP and sometimes by Seamus.

There's so much more going on, but my time is all up for this entry of learning notes.  Thanks for stopping in today and I hope that your days are filled with love and lots of learning with your sweeties!

Monday ~ 02.23.09 ~

Weekend went too fast...still trying to get over my cold, Violet is good now!  She's ready to go back to ballet, ankle doing better.

Today:

morning prayers, rosary

everyone math, we're in a good place with everyone here
V-prealgebra
M-Saxon 7/6
S-tons of Montessori and worksheets(about 2-4th grade level)
SP-took all the Saxon Manipulatives out of crate and explored each one!

M-My Path to Heaven and ?'s w/ me, Stories w/a View poem study & doing his own, Ozone book-told us about this at length during breakfast, RA from Seton to me, 45 min piano and organ lesson today

V-copywork from Eight Cousins, read Seton (narr), Sammantha book reviews (her own historical trail), reading Great Horn Spoon, finished Black Hearts in Battersea over the weekend, babysitting organ teachers babygirl for an hour, then off to PT and ballet

S-LSLF level 2, book 2 w/ me, puzzles with SP, rokenbok w/SP, *helping* V w/babysitting

SP-many self-directed activities during math time - so great to see him getting comfortable with being able to *do* stuff w/o direction from me and being distracting, rokenbok w/S, window washing inside and out, now also *helping* w/babysitting, aack!!!

Good day, didn't feel like Monday, yeah!

2009

Wow, has January and half of February already passed???  And how long it has been since I posted any of our doings here, mea culpa dear followers, you are so faithful and sorry if I have disappointed you in keeping our learning to ourselves for so long. 

After the move and getting settled in sort of put the kabosh on extra blogging, but my goal for this space in 2009 will be bi-monthly updates, more if I can manage :)

We've had our share of  "new place" related illnesses, catching all the new germs in our new and wetter climate, it's a bummer, but so far nothing terrible, thankfully.

Anyhoo, on to some notes ~

• I've been keeping track of Violet's voracious reading habit at her Reading Page.  Trying to keep one for Matthias too, and am in the process of making one for the read-alouds for Seamus.

• Seamus is a whiz at Math, and am keeping him stocked with lots of worksheets from Math Mammoth that he does using all of our Montessori Math Materials. He likes the Learning Page worksheets too, but isn't so interested in coloring in the sheets anymore, he just wants to get to the math and do it!!

• Sean-Paul is finally starting to "get' behaving in the schoolroom.  He will actually occupy himself for snippets of time, sometimes up to 15-20 minutes which is big for him, but ultimately he really just wants to be outside...a Naturalist in the making methinks :)

• We are really enjoying daily poetry readings from the Classic Poetry Aloud site.  Lissa linked this eons ago and we have been enjoying it ever since :) Thanks Liss!

Well, that's all I can muster for a round-up, there's so much more, but life takes over!!

Thanks for stopping by if you're reading at all :)

Friday ~ Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist ~ 08.29.08

Breakfast RA - from Saints for Young Readers - St. John the Baptist

Seamus is totally taking off in his Seton reader and immediately brought it to me after breakfast so he could read aloud to me!  He's loving being a true reader now, it's so cool!

Breakfast cleanup and other morning chores, I love following the Motivated Moms Daily Chore Planner, it's only $8.00 for the pdf download and so worth it!

Violet: Grammar - wrote letter to friend

Home Economics - started bread machine with our favorite White Loaf

Math - worked a page in her Suduko book of puzzles

Reading - Gone Away Lake and some Nancy Drew Notebooks, she also RA to me from Old Fashioned Girl while I worked on some knitting :)

Matthias:  Piano for 30 minutes before breakfast

Math - times tables sheet, completed

Grammar - re-worked writing prompt from yesterday with correct punctuation and spelling, polished a bit with me.

Reading - RA to me from Seton, then he read Pearls of Lutra at quiet time

Seamus:  Language - copied his full name with proper case on the Blue and White paper, later her chose the Curvlinear Triangle from the Metal Insets tray and filled it in nicely, much improved from last year!

Art - worked on coloring a Eastern Box Turtle picture with Sharpies from our Forest coloring book, Color Mixing again

Outside time he made a bow and arrow from some sticks collected this past weekend on a hike, very cool!

Sean-Paul:  Good day form SP.  Color mixing kept him busy for another half hour this morning, then he asked for the Rice Box.  Outside and back again and mopped a portion of the kitchen tile.  Many read alouds from favorite board books, still need to get his list up, probably after the MOVE!

Signing off for now, next week will be REAL life with lots of action and reading in the car!! 

Love and blessings to all my readers,

Meredith

Thursday ~ St. Augustine ~ 08.28.08

Breakfast RA - from Saints for Young Readers for Everyday - St. Augustine.  Signing Time Songs CD, "Do You Know the Colors of the Rainbow" lots of singing and dancing!

Morning Prayers and Devotions - prayed a rosary decade chosen by Violet - Wedding at Cana

Violet:  Math - fractions and decimals

Latin - worked through page 3 of her lesson, she's doing great with her translations with very little help from me.

Grammar - quick grammar study finishing lesson on predicate nominative and polished her Interpretation writing.

Independent Reading - Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

Matthias:  Piano after breakfast - 45 minutes, worked heavliy on Canon D and Fur Elise

Math - times tables review sheet and worked with the Multilication Bead Board for variety.

Latin - review pg 2

Grammar - writing prompt - Describe Obi Wan from Episode 3

Independent Reading - the next Redwall, Pearls of Lutra

More Piano after dinner about 20 minutes.

Seamus:  Math - Acorn Counters with # cards (thanks Nina;-)  Spindle Box presentation, he did this perfectly the first time!

Language - RA from his Seton reader, he's doing great with these.  It's the first three books in one and he finished book one today!  Finished up with the Pink series with the last few Pink Sentences cards before lunch.  More Seton reading in the afternoon.

Art - Color Mixing activity, this is a must have for your 3-6 crowd, so fun and so easy to set up!

Sean-Paul:  Pouring pitcher to pitcher for Practical Life.

Art - Color Mixing Activity for a little over a half hour, SCORE!

Geography - African Animal matching

Lunchtime RA - Finished The Mitchell's Five for Victory!  What a GREAT book!

RA a chapter of Henry and the Clubhouse at dinner!

Newsie's for movie night and more popcorn, woohoo!

Wednesday ~ St. Monica ~ 8.27.08

Today was Library Day and so we did errands while out as well, post office and groceries. 

Lunch just before departing was left over lemon chicken and pasta, love those leftovers :)

Kids played outside most of morning doing bubbles and gymnastics, PE right!  Then they danced and sang a bit to the Signing Time Songs CD.  If you like the DVD's the music is the best!

Dinner was easy and good, Tacos and strawberries! 

We also had popcorn and a movie as dh is still away!  Looking forward to all our new books for tomorrow!