Weekly Report

We did lessons this Friday because we took Tuesday off for appointments. It was a busy week and I'm beat and crankier than usual. On Monday, Eleanor and I hosted a tea party for some of her friends. She had two cookbooks that she has been reading and wanted to try some of the recipes so we decided to have a tea party. We had a great time but somehow I didn't manage to get any pictures. We used the china and everything too. Boo. We made cheesy biscuits, fruit tarts, mini banana muffins, cupcakes and heart-shaped sandwiches with a cream cheese and homemade (by my mother-in-law) blackberry jam spread. We served tea (for kids) but no one liked it. The entire bowl of sugar cubes, however, was consumed (sorry to the moms for that one, I should have known).

We're making more changes at the Academy. I am dropping history for Henry for a while. He really just wants to do our animal study. I continued on with history for a while as long as it seemed like he was still getting something out of it but now I don't think he is. He tolerates it and enjoys the maps but its too much investment of our time for 4 minutes of map work per week. We are adding nature study and more time outdoors after our formal lessons as part of our Charlotte Mason-ification of life.

Eleanor: Eleanor is memorizing Emily Dickinson's "A Slash of Blue". Not to blaspheme but I'm not in love with this poem for a third grader. For dictation I chose "The Song of the Almond Blossom Fairy" by Cicely Mary Barker in honor of our almond trees. Its very sweet:

Joy! the Winter's nearly gone!
Soon will Spring come dancing on;
And, before her, here dance I,
Pink like sunrise in the sky.
Other lovely things will follow;
Soon will cuckoo come, and swallow;
Birds will sing and buds will burst,
But the Almond is the first!

In history she is learning about the Romans which is fascinating to her. In science she is beginning her space unit. Our current read-aloud is "Black Beauty" which has been really enjoyable. At bedtime, she and Rick are reading the Fagel's translation of, "The Iliad". Math plugs along with us still doing Saxon but at a much faster clip now that I've cut out all of the things she has mastered. In other good news, we have been getting to French nearly every day since the beginning of the year and we are in the second book in the Power Glide series.

Henry: Henry is memorizing "Halfway Down" by A. A. Milne.

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn't any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So, this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.
Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up,
And isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really
Anywhere!
Its somewhere else
Instead!"

He is still doing animal study for science and we're nearly finished with mammals. He wants to move on to birds which is perfect because I have some books on birds on order to accompany our nature study. We are still reading "The Story of Doctor Dolittle". I'm not sure if he loves it like he loved the A.A. Milne. I think we will start the Thornton Burgess story books next week when we finish Dr. Dolittle.

Susannah: I've introduced her to the starfall.com website and we've played on that a couple of times this week. No changes otherwise.

We had a lot of time playing with other kids this week. When it rains it pours. It was good because the last couple of weeks have seen a dry spell in that regard. No one seemed to mind.

A Word on Wordless Wednesday:

That picture was taken in the Lake Tahoe area. The bank was next to a driveway and was the result of months of plowing and was taken about a week after a stretch of incredible snowstorms.