The Aquitaine Academy: September 2008

This is the end of our second week and I only hesitate to say it because I'm actually starting to write this on Tuesday, but, things are going very well.

Eleanor: Some big changes for Eleanor this year. Saxon 4/5 is a completely different format than the preceding levels. Fortunately, we seemed to have gotten the hang of the new format without much trouble. We're still reviewing and she seems to be recalling things well. No complaints here. We started Lively Latin this year and it is favorite curriculum for both of us so far. We switched from last year's French program to, "Ecoutez, Parlez", and its been a great move. Not only have we done French everyday but she asked to do French on Saturday (we didn't...long story). We're continuing with Spelling Workout, have moved to the next level of Classical Writing (Aesop B) and of First Language Lessons (FLL4).

Henry: He's in first grade now so we've added subjects. He's moved from Explode the Code to Spelling Workout. We've started a writing program, Writing with Ease (or Writing with Eeeeeee's, as the kids prefer to call it). He's moved on to Saxon Math 2 and First Language Lessons 2.

E & H combined: I have combined the two of them in science and history. We are using Story of the World 2 for medieval history and a hodge-podge for our science focus with is geography. This week's history lesson was the Celts. Geography was introducing some simple map concepts.

Eleanor's coloring page of Brigid:

Susannah: I started a preschool curriculum with Susannah this week. Its a very sweet, easy to implement curriculum that was brought to my attention at the WTM message boards. Its called, Letter of the Week: Preparatory Curriculum. On Monday we colored a picture of a cow and colored the word "cow". Then we put it on her poster. We read, "The Cow", by Robert Louis Stevenson and the book, "Kiss the Cow". On Tuesday, we colored a square and put it on the poster. We read our poem and we read, "The Cow That Went Oink". On Wednesday she colored the letter, "A", we learned, "Hey Diddle Diddle", read, "The Purple Cow" by Gelett Burgess and made a cow out of paper squares. On Thursday she colored the number "1", ate one Cheerio, put 1 sticker in her sticker book, sang, "Old MacDonald" and reviewed the week. We will read, "Click Clack Moo! Cows That Type".

Sadie's cow with coloring pages of Celtic clothing:

E, H & S combined: We're doing a "nature study". My version. It doesn't require us to go outside. We learn about a bird and a flower each week. As our geography unit progresses to covering the 50 states we will be learning about 2 birds and 2 flowers each week. The last 2 weeks have been house wren/dandelion and house sparrow/jack-in-the-pulpit. "The Burgess Bird Book" and "Bird Songs" are our 'spine' with additional reading from the library, like, "The Dandelion Seed", "Luba and the Wren", "House Sparrows Everywhere" and "Wildflowers". For flower inspiration I've used Mary Cicely Barker's "Flower Fairies" poems. Lots of coloring and looking for flowers and birds, WHEN WE ARE OUT without pressure to carve out time for it. I'm still hoping that will come.

Also with all of them combined we have turned Friday into our Art/Music day. This week we will learn about Celtic hand bells and I have a set of kids' hand bells for us to learn to play.

Extracurricular:

Last Monday we went to a "concert" for some homeschoolers given by Janet Sirret. She was great and there were only about 10 kids there so lots of opportunity to interact with her. The cd is a huge hit. Eleanor had piano and dance as usual. Henry had OT. Sadie had her first ballet class. We also went to home school park day one day each week. On Saturday night, Eleanor and I attended a lecture on the Crusades. This Saturday we will participate in the local Coastal Clean-Up.

Whew.