Treehouse happenings: catching some up

As opposed to some down...I've been pretty much out of things with a virus (human, not computer) for a few days.  But the worst seems to be over.  I'm back to working on my craft challenge.

Dollygirl is finishing her term three exams--then she's done for the summer.  She has a temporary job every day watering a vacationing neighbour's flowers (a lot of flowers).  And her swimming lessons start up again in July.

Ponytails wrote her grade nine science exam yesterday--so she's done too.  She's getting together with some homeschooled/used to be homeschooled friends for a movie (Brave) and end-of-school celebration later today.

Our zucchini has pretty much lost its fight, and the marigolds are similarly terrible--both those in the regular flowerbed, and those we added to the lasagna garden.  So we can't blame the peat moss.  The two apple trees and the magnolia blossomed too soon because of the mild winter, then got hit by frost (i.e. no apples this year).  It just seems to be an all-round terrible year for gardening (not including the neighbour with the flowers?).  Anybody else?

(One thing that has done almost too well: our hostas by the side pathway are so big you almost can't get by them.  Go figure--I don't think you can eat hostas, though.  --You're kidding.  You can?)

Year-end status: Crayons' Grade Five

We have one week of classes left to go for this school year--then exams.

The obvious highlight for us has been readalouds. It's one of Crayons/Dollygirl's favourite school activities, we've had good books, and it's probably the way that she has learned the most this year. Crayons knows that she can often get out of a less-desirable school activity by talking me into reading another chapter of something. Some books we read:

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Father's Big Improvements
The Trail of the Conestoga
Parts of Story of the World, Volume 4: The Modern Age
Parts of Story of Canada
Part of The Book of Marvels
Part of A Passion for the Impossible (it seemed to get too long for us towards the end of the year)
Part of The Loghouse Nest
Some miscellaneous science and invention books
The second half of Madam How and Lady Why
Tennyson's poems including "Lancelot and Elaine"
Evangeline
The Adventures of Robin Hood--we're almost done this
Stories of Alexander the Great--almost done this
Great Expectations
Silas Marner
Caddie Woodlawn
Prince Caspian
Ballet Shoes
Alvin Fernald books
Underground to Canada, and other books about the Underground Railroad
Meet the Malones and Beany Malone
The Book of Think
Brothers Far from Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates (Dear Canada series)
Orphan at My Door: The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope (Dear Canada series)
Roller Skates
Makers of the English Bible
Canada: The New Nation, by Edith Deyell
Several sets of American Girl books
The Secret of NIMH

Shakespeare (two plays) and Plutarch (two lives) went well, and so did Great Expectations and Silas Marner. Watching online episodes of Wishbone helped round out literature.

For picture study, we did Fragonard (that seems about a thousand years ago now) and Mary Cassatt. Artistic Pursuits pretty much fizzled.

We did French for part of the year, then it got dropped. I still like the Mission Monde curriculum, but the lesson plans in Level 3 weren't working for us; that is, I was not happy with the small amount of French that Crayons seemed to be able to understand or use, and I think it was the way the course bounced around a lot (both in topics and in grammar points). I have the next level waiting to go for next year, but we will be using it slightly differently.

Crayons got halfway through Pet Store Math, finished Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade Four, and did a set of Grade Five worksheets. She is now writing the Grade Five end-of-year test (it's long and is meant to be done over a few days), and the plan is to use Grade Six for next year. I thought about making up my own program for a change, using books like How Math Works, but the Grade Six book covers most of what I'd want to include anyway, so we'll download that.

Science was not a big subject area this year--none of the books we used seemed to arouse a lot of interest, and some of them we just left aside this term. Next year we get into Archimedes, Einstein, and Rachel Carson, so I think there will be more to work with.

And Crayons' favourite new skill was learning to swim.

What's happening around the Treehouse

We are still settling into some new routines.

Mr. Fixit has been finding things to fix.

This afternoon he's out with the Apprentice, looking for a new mattress set, because the Apprentice and Ponytails switched bedrooms and beds, and Ponytails' old mattress turned out to be on its last bounce.  The Apprentice and Crayons are now sharing the bigger bedroom, and Ponytails can do glam design things in her own room.

The Apprentice is taking a night course at the university, but she's here most of the time otherwise because she doesn't yet have a summer job. (Jobs are generally hard to find right now, and even hairstyling jobs are a bit tricky when you have to quit in September.) 

Ponytails got an excellent half-semester report card.  Her English class is just about finished reading The Hunger Games and will be moving on to A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Some of the grade nines are apparently not looking forward much to Shakespeare.  One student reportedly said, "Who's that?"

Crayons/Dollygirl and I read a scene from The Tempest, a chapter about how inventions are inspired, some of Orphan at My Door, and a chapter from Robin Hood. She also did some multiplication, some copywork, and we tried to see if we could stump Mr. Fixit on Ontario map questions. (What is the large lake southeast of Georgian Bay? If you go south from that lake to Lake Ontario, what Canadian city are you in?)

In the oven:  a pan of  Brownies for a Crowd.  Planned for supper:  fish and tortellini.  Weather: the sky looks like it's about to break open any time.

Coming up later this week:  something involving the number eleven.  Here's a hint.

Photo:  Mr. Fixit.  Copyright 2012 Dewey's Treehouse.

What we did in school today (Crayons' Year 5)

We read the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and sang Morning Has Broken.

Crayons started a Math Mammoth worksheet about months and years.  Her homework is to calculate how many days old she is.

We read a little bit of Evangeline.  Evangeline is still waiting for it to be tomorrow so that she can go hunt down Gabriel.  But these are my favourite lines from this section:

Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, the herdsman...spake to his guests, who listened, and smiled as they listened:--
"Welcome once more, my friends, who long have been friendless and homeless,
Welcome once more to a home, that is better perchance than the old one!
Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the rivers;
Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the farmer.
Smoothly the ploughshare runs through the soil, as a keel through the water.
All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom; and grass grows
More in a single night than a whole Canadian summer..."

Aw, c'mon, we do get summer here too, you know.

We read about Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June, 1897, using this short guide to the Royalty and Empire exhibit created in 1982.  This led into a discussion about Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, and the Queen's family, and what happened to Princess Margaret Rose (Crayons remembered her from an American Girl movie), and the hats that the princesses wore to The Wedding (which was a year ago yesterday).

Crayons did some copywork, and we did a quick review of the writing lessons about paragraphs.

We also read about how Alexander treated the female relatives of Darius after the battle of Issus (kindly), and about the reluctant king Abdalonymus of Sidon. (It's a good story, even if it seems like kind of a historical urban myth.) Crayons recreated both stories with her dolls afterward.

Oh, and we started reading Orphan at My Door, by Jean Little, one of the Dear Canada diary series.  It begins in the spring of 1897, is set in our part of Ontario, and it mentions the Jubilee, which is particularly important to the main character because her name is Victoria.  And that seemed an appropriate way to end the school day.  If you don't count a swimming lesson tonight.

What did we do in school today? (Crayons' Year 5)

We did the same group of opening songs and Bible verses that we've been reading all week.  I personally was a bit O-Canada'd out by today, but Crayons' two teddies (that have been participating this week during school) requested it again so they could practice their French.

We played a round of Professor Noggin's History of Canada card game.  Crayons won by two cards.

We read about how Evangeline was reunited with the father of her sweetheart Gabriel, but that she had just missed Gabriel himself going the other way (through the alligator swamp?).  Gabriel's father promises that they will track him down. 

We worked on a page of fractions review.

Mama Squirrel had planned that we'd read some of The Tempest together, but Crayons requested another chapter of The Adventures of Robin Hood instead. 

Our weekly work in Write Source 2000 continued with still more details about Mr. Brown the Gym Teacher.   Mr. Brown is dissected in descriptive paragraphs, narrative paragraphs, expository paragraphs, and persuasive paragraphs.  After discussing the difference between these, we each got out a novel, picked out a couple of good paragraphs to read to each other, and tried to sort them into their various types.  (Some did fit, some didn't.)

We read all about the Battle of Issus in Stories of Alexander the Great.  King Darius jumped out of his royal chariot and ran.  Alexander, bleeding and dirty but victorious, commandeered the tent of Darius and enjoyed the monarchical bathtub. Seriously:

But Darius' tent, which was full of splendid furniture and quantities of gold and silver, they reserved for Alexander himself, who, after he had put off his arms, went to bathe himself saying, 'Let us now cleanse ourselves from the toils of war in the bath of Darius.'

'Not so,' replied one of his followers, 'but in Alexander's rather; for the property of the conquered is and should be called the conqueror's.'

Here, when he beheld the bathing vessels, the water-pots, the pans, and the ointment boxes, all of gold curiously wrought, and smelt the fragrant odors with which the whole place was exquisitely perfumed, and from thence passed into a pavilion of great size and height, where the couches and tables and preparations for an entertainment were perfectly magnificent, he turned to those about him and said, 'This, it seems, is royalty.' --Plutarch of Chaeronea

Alexander the Great, by Rembrandt

Happy weekend!

What we're doing in school today (Crayons' Grade 5)

Besides waiting for some predicted snow...this morning we had lots of reading.

We sang O Canada in English and French. Crayons is just beginning to learn the French words, so she mostly listened to that part.

We sang through the books of the Old Testament. Then Mama Squirrel sang it with "empty spaces," which Crayons had to fill in.

We read Psalm 148:1-6 together. ("Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord from the heavens.")

Mama Squirrel read a passage from the Gospel of Matthew.

We read a hymn by George Herbert ("King of glory, King of peace / I will love thee") and some of Longfellow's Evangeline.

Crayons finished a page from Math Mammoth.

We read a chapter (M.S. read, Crayons listened) about Alexander the Great. King Darius (the third) counted up all his troops by ten thousands, and took an inventory of all his shiny war stuff, in preparation for a battle with the Macedonians. When he asked the opinion of an advisor, Charidemus, Charidemus told him that what he needed was not more equipment but some well-trained Macedonians. King Darius responded, of course, by having Charidemus executed.

We reviewed where Alexander and King Darius fit into our big timeline; also Daniel (who lived during the time of Darius the first), David, Solomon, and George Washington.

We read two chapters from our new natural history book, The Loghouse Nest, about chickadees and cardinals.

We don't have much left for this afternoon except for copywork and science. We might fit in some Brahms. Also some crocheting--Crayons is making a hamster. Really. And she has some homework: one page of math, plus reading from The Prince and the Pauper.

Image from Wikipedia.

What we learned in school today

How Alexander the Great conquered the Persians.

That Red Admiral butterflies love dandelions.

That Alexander Graham Bell claimed the patent on the telephone about two hours before another inventor showed up to do the same thing.

How Lucinda gave her little friend Trinket her first-ever Christmas tree (Roller Skates).

How Johannes Brahms wrote his Academic Festival Overture as both a "musical thank-you" and a memorial to his favourite summer vacation.  (This 1983 performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein is very entertaining.)



Forgot:  we started reading The Tempest today too.

Friday school plans (Crayons' Grade 5)

Bible reading: Gospel of Matthew 25:14-46 The parable of the talents; the sheep and the goats.

Science: Soap Science. "Soap Smarts," part one of two. What happens when you mix oil and water? Why does that show how soap works? What's the difference between soap and detergent?



French: quick review of yesterday's work.

Biography: A Passion for the Impossible (Lillias Trotter), finishing chapter 10. "It fell to the three women to make sense of the endless holes and corners, to distinguish huge cupboards embedded in the walls from tiny, windowless rooms. With characteristic gusto they tackled the domestic challenge. First, they explored their new domicile, discovering twenty-five rooms (including stable, cellars, and mosque), of which only eight were inhabitable given the lack of air and light..."

English Composition, using Write Source 2000: Sections 75 to 77, Building Paragraphs. Write a descriptive paragraph of someone (human or animal), after examining the sample "Mr. Brown, the gym teacher."  (Also read Meg's description of her dog Robbie in Jean Little's Spring Begins in March.)

History and Geography games:  Usborne Map of the World Jigsaw.

Math: "Subtracting Big Numbers." What's six million minus four hundred thousand? What's one billion minus two hundred million? Not so easy to do mental math with these!

Artistic Pursuits: unit on Balance. Extra time today to make some art.

Crayons' Grade Five: Thursday School Plans

Bible:  Matthew 24:15-31  (Signs of the end)

Readaloud:  finish the "William Shakespeare" chapter of Roller Skates

French:  Work on the preposition "à" (to).  Listen to the French story "Jonas wants a cat."

Poetry:  continue "Evangeline" from "Four times the sun had risen and set" to "Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession."

History:  Learning about the beginnings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.



Math:  Division review worksheet

Music:  More about Brahms

Literature or biography:  Robin Hood, chapter 2

Copywork:  passage from Robin Hood or "Evangeline"

Nature study:  look at the April nature calendar.  See what spring plants, critters, and birds are around.

Free reading:  The Prince and the Pauper.

School plans for today (Crayons' Grade Five)

New Testament Reading: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 3, J.B. Phillips translation:

33-40 “Now listen to another story. There was once a man, a land-owner, who planted a vineyard, fenced it round, dug out a hole for the wine-press and built a watch-tower. Then he let it out to farm-workers and went abroad. When the vintage-time approached he sent his servants to the farm-workers to receive his share of the proceeds. But they took the servants. beat up one, killed another, and drove off a third with stones. Then he sent some more servants, a larger party than the first, but they treated them in just the same way. Finally he sent his own son, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ Yet when the farm-workers saw the son they said to each other, ‘This fellow is the future owner. Come on, let’s kill him and we shall get everything that he would have had!’ So they took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those farm-workers?”

41 “He will kill those scoundrels without mercy,” they replied, “and will let the vineyard out to other tenants, who will give him the produce at the right season.”

42 “And have you never read these words of scripture,” said Jesus to them: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?’

43-44 “Here, I tell you, lies the reason why the kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its proper fruit.”

45-46 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables they realised that he was speaking about them. They longed to get their hands on him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who regarded him as a prophet.

Copywork: “…the loveliness of the town rising tier above tier in a glow of cream colour against the blue-grey western sky.”—Lilias Trotter

A Passion for the Impossible (Biography of Lilias Trotter): pages 103-107 (introduction to Algeria)

French: Unit 3 lesson 23b (continue) and 24a. Continue working on the story about Burundi. Conversation about things you do at home (phrases for "wash dishes," "do laundry," etc.).



Canadian history: p. 351-354 "Currency in the Colonies."  Why did Canada (pre-Confederation Canada, meaning Ontario and Quebec) adopt the decimal currency of dollars and cents (in 1858)?  How did currency help bring about Confederation and unite the provinces?

Math: online fact practice.  Crayons' favourite division-fact game site.

Handicrafts:  sewing doll clothes

Spelling/writing:  Study for dictation from one of the books we have been reading

School plans for Tuesday, now with photos

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 2

Math Mammoth: working with metric and decimals, page 170-171

Madam and Lady Why Ch 11 "The World's End" from "Come, I say, and sit down on this bench" to "make one think that so it must have been." (pg 236-242)

Copywork: “...taking so little care and regard to their business, that now when they thought the castle was sure their own, they almost lost their city."--Plutarch

Canadian history: pp. 342-343 British Columbia joins Canada and pp. 344-347 Prince Edward Island joins Canada

And maybe a walk somewhere if the weather stays nice.

School plans for this week (Crayons' Grade 5)

These are the plans--as always, they may get shifted around and added to. I haven't included the science activities that Crayons is doing with Mr. Fixit, or things like crafts.

Monday

The Bible, J.B. Phillips translation for schools: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Grammar lesson: Learning Grammar Through Writing, pages 30-32: agreement of subject and verb; using parallel constructions
Composer study: Johannes Brahms
French: Unit 3 lesson 23a. Conversation about telling time. Read another of the short poems included in last week's lesson. Pay special attention to new words.
Plutarch’s Life of Dion, Lesson 10: narrate orally
Copywork: "For they having nobody to command nor rule them, employed all their joy in rioting and banqueting...”--Plutarch, "Life of Dion"
Math: Arithmecode (free in the newspaper)
Readaloud: Alvin’s Secret Code: “Money from a Broken Code”
Readaloud: Alvin’s Secret Code: “A Lesson in Cryptography”  (we got ahead of ourselves)
Cryptogram puzzle

Tuesday

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 2

Math Mammoth: working with metric and decimals, page 170-171

Madam and Lady Why Ch 11 "The World's End" from "Come, I say, and sit down on this bench" to "make one think that so it must have been." (pg 236-242)

Copywork: “...taking so little care and regard to their business, that now when they thought the castle was sure their own, they almost lost their city."--Plutarch

Canadian history: pp. 342-343 British Columbia joins Canada and pp. 344-347 Prince Edward Island joins Canada

Wednesday

Makers of the English Bible, chapter 7, pages 78-83
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Copywork: “A moment more, and, all unseen, it knows not whence, strong warm wings are beneath.”—Lilias Trotter
French: Unit 3 lesson 23b Read the story about life in Burundi on page 44 (listen to the CD). Begin working on new words from the story.
Math: continue from Tuesday
Biography of Lilias Trotter: pages 96-99
Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 15, “Fol de Rol-lol.”
Afternoon volunteering

Thursday

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 3
Copywork: “…the loveliness of the town rising tier above tier in a glow of cream colour against the blue-grey western sky.”—Lilias Trotter
Biography of Lilias Trotter: pages 103-107 (introduction to Algeria)
French: Unit 3 lesson 23b (continue) and 24a. Continue working on the story about Burundi. Conversation about things you do at home.
Canadian history: p. 351-354 "Currency in the Colonies." Written narration.
Math: online fact practice
Study for dictation

Evening: student performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel

Friday

Makers of the English Bible, chapter 7, pages 83-88
More details: Codex Sinaiticus
More details: Stuffed crocodiles
Math: online fact practice
Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 16: “Warren Performs”
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Studied dictation
French: Unit 3 lesson 24b Review some of the verbs we have learned. If there's time, look at page 46, a list of careers--otherwise, save it until next week.
Plutarch: Dion #11: discussion questions, narrate orally
Composer study and drawing

School plans for the end of February (reposted with fixes)

These are the plans so far for this week--I'll try to flesh out the vague parts as we go.  UPDATE:  Best-laid plans and all that...Crayons woke up Monday feeling too sick to do school, so we'll have to regroup when she's over it.

TUESDAY

Bible: Gospel of Matthew
Memory Work
Canadian History:  Read page 330 to yourself.  Skim pages 331-336 with Mom, reviewing the Red River settlement.  Read pages 336-338 together, introducing Louis Riel.
French:  Mission Monde Level 3, Unit 3, Lesson 21a.  Mostly review.
A Passion for the Impossible:  chapter 7, "Lily's Choice," pages 77-82.
Copywork:  "Montagu Square was that unique household where Lily lived with her mother and brother and sisters, a place of sunny gladness and laughter, as well as varied work and interest and unstinted hospitality."
Alvin's Secret Code, chapters 1 & 2

LUNCH BREAK

Pet Shop Math with Dad
Poems
Math.  Math Mammoth Light Blue 4B, Decimals Unit, page 168.  Multiplying decimals in columns.
Crafts/sewing
Free Reading

WEDNESDAY (short day)

Bible: Gospel of Matthew
Memory Work
Grammar:  Mad Libs
Readaloud:  The Great Quillow, by James Thurber
(break)
Math:  start page 169.

World History:  Review where we left off with France and Germany/Prussia at the end of George Washington's World, last year.  Look at Brain Power World History Time Lines, pages 41 and 43. Read Story of the World Volume 4, the first part of Chapter 7, about Napoleon III of France.

A Passion for the Impossible, pages 82-88
Copywork:  "How God would use her life and her art...Lilias could not fathom at that time.  Nor did it matter.  'The one thing is to keep obedient in spirit,' she would write, 'to do otherwise would be to cramp and ruin your soul.'"
Poems
French:  Unit 3, Lesson 21b:  Reading short poems about the seasons.


THURSDAY
 
Makers of of the English Bible, half of chapter 6, "King James at Hampton Court"--read the section about Elizabeth's reign
Memory Work
Canadian History:  read pages 338-341 to yourself and narrate orally (about the 1870 Riel/Fort Garry events and the Manitoba Act).  Research question:  when is Louis Riel Day, and in what province(s) is it celebrated?
Math:  finish page 169.
Caddie Woodlawn:  Chapter 12, "Ambassador to the Enemy."  Narrate orally.
Copywork
Free Reading

FRIDAY

Makers of the English Bible, finish the chapter--short section about King James and the Authorized Version

Picture Study:  Edgar Degas (mini-study relating to Mary Cassatt)

Story of the World Volume 4:  second part of Chapter 7, "The Second Reich."  "Just as France was becoming a republic, Prussia was becoming a kingdom."  This chapter talks about Wilhelm I, Wilhelm's son Friedrich (who happened to be married to ??), and Friedrich's son Wilhelm II, the third German emperor.  Why have you (Crayons) heard of Kaiser Wilhelm I before? Hint.

Copywork

Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 13.  Read to yourself and narrate orally.

French, Unit 3, lesson 22b.  Re-read the poem about winter.  Workbook page 42, "Did you know?", about cultural differences and "third culture kids"

Time working with Dad

Free Reading

NEXT MONDAY

Bible: Gospel of Matthew
Composer Study:  begin study of Johannes Brahms
Plutarch's Life of Dion, Lesson 10
Copywork:  "For they having nobody to command nor rule them, employed all their joy in rioting and banqueting...taking so little care and regard to their business, that now when they thought the castle was sure their own, they almost lost their city."
Poems
Cooking
Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 14, "A Dollar's Worth." 
Math: page 171
Nature Study
Time working with Dad
Free Reading

School plans for this week

We're done the Underground Railroad study, so back to our regular Term Two this week.

The Canadian history textbook moves on to the reasons for Confederation, with a special focus on the Atlantic provinces.  I'm happy about that, since all year long we've talked mostly about Ontario and the West, but haven't done  much with the Maritimes.  We might even throw in a little extra Canadian geography there for good measure.  UPDATE:  we also read the chapter about David Livingstone from Story of the World Volume 4.

We have five weeks left in the term, so we're going to work on a chapter on decimals from the Math Mammoth Grade 4B book.  Crayons is still doing Math Pet Store with her dad when he comes home at noon, but it's going slowly.  They're also doing some telephone experiments for science.

We will be getting back into Madam How and Lady Why, A Passion for the Impossible, and the Mary Cassatt picture studies.  We've been keeping up with Plutarch.

We're almost finished Silas Marner--that went pretty quickly, and I'm not sure what we'll read next for literature.  I think we'll squeeze in Caddie Woodlawn as an extra read-aloud book, since it fits with our history time period.  Also "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head," from Dorothy L. Sayers' Complete Stories.

What are you doing this week?

Crayons' Year 5: A quiet Friday

On today's homeschool menu:

Singing "Holy Holy Holy" (not the Heber hymn, the Schubert Sanctus that I learned during a brief stint in the Presbyterian Church of Canada)



Singing "Ontari-ari-ari-o" (we usually sing something Canadian on Friday mornings)

Online math game

Reading about William Tyndale in Makers of the English Bible

Short keyboard (music) lesson

Plutarch's Life of Dion, half of lesson 4. King Dionysius keeps the philosopher Plato trapped in his palace in Syracuse, and sends Plato's older friend Dion off to Greece, because he wants Plato to be his (and only his) best friend forever. 300ish B.C. is not that far removed from the experience of some ten-year-olds!

(short break here)

Picture study: Mary Cassatt, Woman and Child Driving.

Cursive writing practice

Silas Marner, most of chapter 10, and written narration

Lunchtime:  reheated minestrone, bagels, and Magic Milkshakes (Mama Squirrel recently received the lovely gift of a Ninja blender, so we're making things we haven't had for awhile)

Helping shovel snow, and sliding down our hill

That's about where we're at now...some things left to do like laundry and cleaning.  Also we're going to work in a chapter of Ballet Shoes.

And it's the weekend!

Written narration by Crayons: Silas Marner

Silas Marner's comfortably isolated existence has been interrupted by the theft of all his savings.  Although the robbery devastates him, it also brings him into closer contact with his neighbours. This narration is from a section near the end of chapter 10.

Dolly Winthrop came to Silas’s cottage one afternoon with her little son Aaron and a basket full of lard cakes Silas greeted her a little shyly “I suppose you didn’t hear the church bells?” she asked “I did.” He said “but don’t you know this is Sunday?” she asked “I do.” He said “but you were working!” she accused “well I always do.” He said

“Um well yes…” she said slowly “I brought you these!” she handed him the box of lard cakes. “Thanks” he said then she talked for a while about church and then she said: “Well now Aaron get up and sing your song!” Aaron did and the only thing Silas thought he could do was give the boy a lard cake then she talked some more about church then said: “Well we most be going. Do consider church. Goodbye. Aaron, bow!” Aaron bowed and then they left Silas was a rather glad they had gone.

Illustration found here

Back to school: all we've done so far

I did have a schedule for today, but we seem to be going at it very slowly.

As of lunch, we have gotten through one chapter of Silas Marner* (first chapters of things are always slow), two pages of math, and one history lesson about what happened when the prairie people started doing all their business with the Americans down south, in the middle of the 1800's. (One factor that led to Confederation a few years later.)

Just call it quality rather than quantity.

UPDATE: In the afternoon, we watched a Wishbone episode, started reading a French story, and practiced some chords on the digital piano. Crayons also did some Pet Store Math with her dad.

*Yes, we are making the experiment of reading Eliot with a fifth grader. Or at least trying a few chapters and seeing how it goes. We got through Great Expectations last term, and that's really no harder.

What are the Squirrelings doing today?

The Apprentice is at the university for a pre-exam review class.  She's already written most of her exams but there are still a couple left.

Ponytails is at high school--she's not done until the 23rd of December.  But she told me yesterday that there only about twenty school days left in the semester, so that's kind of motivating!

Crayons/Dollygirl has just finished a Plutarch lesson and is now transforming herself and Crystal into big and little Josefinas.  She's also re-doing her homemade fashion-doll snow cabin "dupe" that she put together last year.  Small wonder that math has little attraction this week.  But we are almost done A Midsummer Night's Dream, and we're re-reading Prince Caspian.  Re-reading because I'm sure that Crayons has heard it somewhere along the line, but I don't think she remembers it very well.

What are you all doing today?

Crayons' photos: our bookshelves, the monkey mob, and Crystal's popcorn hat

Jeanne wanted to know where we put all our books.

Most of the school-related books are on this wallful of bookcases in our downstairs rec room.  This is what you'd call a candid shot, because Mama Squirrel did not attempt to get rid of the leaners or the over-stackers before Crayons took the picture.  You can see more books in the photos of Crayons' doll Crystal.

Mr. Fixit has a small personal bookcase in his workshop, and there are bookcases in the bedrooms.  And a few cookbooks in the kitchen.  But that's about it, except for a few boxes of stored books--our living room upstairs does not have a good spot for bookshelves.  A few years ago, having an excess of time on my hands, I did a rough count, and I think it was about 1600 books.  I cycle them in and out pretty evenly, so I still don't think we have over 2000 total: probably more than the average North American household, but still less than many homeschoolers we know.

Crystal has a new hat to cover up the fact that her back hair is embarrassingly skimpy.  It started out to be a potholder, but the sides kept curving up and it just looked better as a hat.  Mama Squirrel added chain-stitch ties to each side so that it can be tied under the chin or under her hair.  Crayons is making Crystal a red holiday jumper at her Saturday sewing class, so this will finish off her outfit.

A back view--see the popcorn stitch?

I also stitched the monkeys' hands together so that they can hold candy canes.  Much more cheerful, I thought.  People can snip them apart later if they want.

All photos copyright by Crayons, 2011.  All yarns are Red Heart SuperSaver. 

What did you do at school today?

Crayons/Dollygirl:  "We finished Great Expectations."

Ponytails:  Still waiting for an official response.  But she did bring home an excellent first-term report card yesterday.

The Apprentice:  "We fed caffeine to daphnia so we could watch their heart rate increase."

Doo doo doo doo doo doo, it's just another day.