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September 13, 2008
Still Schoolin'
It just adds to the fun of the weekly update that I don't update every week, doesn't it?
We may just have to abandon school, though, until the election is over. My oldest child, at least, has the fever (my next oldest is not far behind), and all I do is read blogs and then either walk around giggling or raging incoherently. (No, I can't do your Latin lesson right now! Someone is wrong on the internet!) It would probably be more entertaining for all of you if I giggled or raged incoherently here. I'll think about. I generally dislike blogging about politics, but I might have to make an exception this time.
We've been looking for an Obama event to attend, something at which either he or Biden will be present. So far we've found nothing. This is a battleground state, though, so I hope he'll be back through.
As for the rest of school, things are much the same. We are still doing nicely with TOG. We're even mostly on schedule with it, if you don't count geography. We've just finished week 24 of year 2 (remember, we started with week 20), which dealt with William Penn, La Salle, the Salem Witch Trials, Louis XIV, and the ways in which Charles II, William and Mary, and Anne dealt with the colonies. It sounds like a lot, but it's gone very smoothly.
I usually do the end-of-week history discussion in the car. This works very well, as all the children are present and are a captive audience. Heh. The TOG questions are all geared towards Connor's history reading for the week, but if we are in the car then all the kids hear the questions and answers, and often Aidan is able to participate. Sometimes even Lachlan and Griffin are able to participate. Not likely this week, as I never actually read L and G's history to them. Bad Mommy.
One of the TOG questions this week asked the child to use his Bible concordance to find Biblical justifications for the actions taken in the Salem Witch Trials. I'm going to make Connor do that one. That will certainly lead to a nice discussion, don't you think?
Both older boys are reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond this week. This is one of those times when the TOG literature corresponds with what I was going to do anyway. This is a favorite book from my childhood, and I am going to love discussing it with them.
I had intended to school four days out of the week, and to save Fridays for art, science, and nature studies. So far, every week there's been some reason we had to skip a day of school and use Friday to make it up. This is not going to get any better, as our activities get into full swing, and as Scouts starts. Ack. And of course, we need more time for field trips ... who has time for school, anyway?
Other stuff: Aidan did long division in Right Start E. The little boys continued their Singapore, and Connor started up his math lessons with Jeff. Connor continued working in Chapter 8 of Latin Prep, and Aidan learned the 3rd declension in Henle.
The little boys and I worked in FLL and WWE. These two books are a little tricky to use together, since they involve so much repetition. I primarily use FLL. On days when the lesson in FLL does not involve narration or copywork, I do a WWE-style lesson. I'm very glad I did not buy the WWE workbooks, or I'd have felt compelled to use them. This system is much more flexible. This system has also helped me to see how the fable level of the progymnasmata can be done in a much more low-key way than Classical Writing.
Areas we still need to work on: Aidan is not actually doing any formal writing right now. He is writing a short story, though. That counts, right?
Posted by lynx at September 13, 2008 6:33 PM
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Comments
Connor, doing Biblical justification? Ohhh, I so want to see that :)
Posted by: Mark L ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.caerdroia.org/116/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 14, 2008 9:19 AM
Oh we are so excited too! We actually have a rally with Obama today a BLOCK AWAY from my house. Deanna from KC is here and we're both kicking off US Politics/History units with the rally today! We're in Pueblo, CO, so look for us on the news. ;)
Posted by: Gina at September 15, 2008 11:49 AM
Good grief. I got tired reading that. Whaaaaa. Now I feel inadequate. We don't do that much!!!
My copy of FLL looks like it just arrived. It's just been sitting on the shelf. It's a first edition & I think I preordered it from peacehill waaaay back. I just can't get into it.
So fast forward a couple years to last Friday. We're in our local hs supply store (cause it's the middle of Sep so maybe we'd better buy some stuff & actually start something, hmmm?) and I see WWE. Glee! Pick it up with so much joy you'd think I just found a $100 bill. Or a "free gas" coupon. And look! They have the workbook in stock! Double Glee! I won't have to pay shipping from peacehill!
I carried the suckers around the store for about 30 mins waiting for someone to just finally finish buying their insane boxed curriculum (lady,you are SO going to burn out on that) & then actually started flipping through it. And it was all a bit familiar. And a bit overwhelming.
And reason prevailed. I put it back on the shelf 'to think about it'. But I think I'll end up getting it. If nothing else, I will have a bookshelf with the complete works of SWB.
Posted by: hornblower at September 16, 2008 10:03 AM