Week in Review

For the last year and a half I have stuck to a 4-day school week which seemed like a wonderful deal for everyone. The kids got three free days and I would have an extra day for cleaning and lesson planning. The results were four days that ran longer than any of us really loved and one day spent recovering and not getting much of anything accomplished because, you know, I had EARNED that day off.

That attitude, however, runs in direct opposition to my broader philosophies about what it means to earn something. Never mind the more pragmatic consequences. I am officially declaring my 4-day school week a failure and moving to a 5-day school week that I hope will result in 4 somewhat shorter days and one half-day. My intention is to do our second history day on Friday which will hopefully incorporate the project. Eleanor's writing project will now have an extra day. That's all I've worked out so far.

I'm dismayed by our lack of read-aloud time this year. I have not done a read-aloud that was not attached to nature study or history or geography since before Christmas. Bleargh. Rick reads to them at night and we've listened to almost the entire Little House series on CD (we are listening to Farmer Boy now and will not be listening to The First Four Years) and, like I said, I've read many things tied to our other lessons so literature has happened but, I like a stand-alone read aloud time and I've let that slide.

This week we tackled the Crusades. I had intended to read Diane Stanley's Saladin but was troubled by the tone so I set it aside until I can do more research. The Story of the World says that the Crusades were instigated in part by the Christian's and Jew's lack of access to Jerusalem. Saladin makes no mention of this and in fact, seems to suggest that Christians were just thirsty for blood and land. I don't have a dog in this particular fight except my grudge against modern interpretations (based on feeling, political correctness and anti-establishment sentiment rather than scholarly analysis) of history so I will need to do more research before deciding whether or not I want to to read this book. Based on Amazon reviews I'm leaning toward "Not".

I actually purchased a lot of Stanley's books (with the recommendation of the WTM, oddly enough) and now I'll have to give them more scrutiny.

We did read a great picture book version of Chanticleer and the Fox and Eleanor read a cute version of The Canterbury Tales, both of which I'll put in my sidebar.

We looked at three very cute members of the warbler family: the Common Yellow Throat, the Yellow-Breasted Chat and the Black and White Warbler. We colored and then read about lupines in two very enjoyable books: Miss Rumphius and Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers. Neither to be missed as the illustrations are gorgeous in both.

Our state's study took us to North Dakota and Minnesota. We listened to Red River Valley and I have yet to read to them about Paul Bunyon but will do so this weekend. The states study has been an excellent means of introducing lots of great songs and stories of America. I'm glad I ditched a more formal science in favor of geography this year. It has also allowed us to expand our nature study as we've touched upon the various state birds and flowers.

Eleanor finished her writing project which was a rewrite of Robin Hood from James Baldwin. We talked a lot about stealing from the rich to give to the poor and about how stealing is wrong no matter who benefits and who loses. A very important lesson at any time but in particular at this time in history where moral relativism reigns.

Eleanor finished Spelling Workout D and has started book E. In Latin we have switched from the classical pronunciation to the ecclesiastical. There were any number of reasons for doing it but it was no small matter that we both realized we just like it better. The switch is so simple that its really easy enough to learn both.

Susannah continues to learn her letter sounds. We made it through "R" this week. I was hoping to get further. Its been more challenging to integrate her into our day than I imagined and I imagined it as pretty challenging.

Henry has worked through letter "R" in cursive. He's doing really well and loves it. I think its actually easier for him than printing. He is very close to finishing the Thornton Burgess animal series.

My own lessons wobble along. I'm part of a Henle Latin study group and I'm really enjoying it. I trucked along for the first 18 exercises and then did a huge face-plant on lesson 19. The first lesson being: first know that you don't know squat. My Well-Educated Mind directed reading of Don Quixote has been equally fun and hey, who knew DQ was a FUNNY book? My economics reading fell a bit behind and then I got a little hung up on Sowell's arguments against labor unions. Still working through that. This week was Spring Break (woo hoo!) from my Renaissance class but its back to the grind next week.

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