Where we are UPDATE.

Over the last three weeks we've made some changes and I've made some decisions. Time to record it all!

= Math =

    Son1: Now he is alternating weeks, not days, with online Kinetic Books Algebra I and the Singapore Math 6B textbook.
    To use next:  After Singapore Math is done, study of logic and geometry (Living Math book suggestions, then Euclid's Elements?).
    Later:  Singapore Math 6B Intensive Practice, weekly use (have it). Zome Geometry (have it)

    Son2: Now he has moved on to the Singapore Math 4A textbook and 3B Intensive Practice book, both daily.
    Add:  Living Math book suggestions.
    Later:  Singapore Math 4B & 5A textbooks (have them).

= Composition & related =

    Son1:  Now he's doing a full lesson every day (!) of History Odyssey and its writing projects, summaries, and/or outlining, to finish Middle Ages soonest. Also routinely writes Boy Scout patrol minutes; occasional emails and thank you notes.
    After we move on to HO Early Modern and 3x/week history, I will add back in:  Classical Composition: Chreia (have it) lessons for progymnasmata exercises on days with little HO composition work, probably adapted so it is fun and very different from the HO writing. Occasional copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin.
    Then add:  Spelling words, Son1's request; I've decided to use the National Spelling Bee 2009 Spell It download for the themed word lists and spelling tips, and, as needed, phonogram and other resources I've found online.
    Later:  Possibly do a block of Analytical Grammar.

    Son2:  Writing Tales Level One at a slightly faster pace, combining lessons when we can; this program includes grammar, editing, progymnasmata exercises, and a little spelling. Thank you notes.
    Add back in:  Copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin, for language and handwriting practice.
    Then add:  Spelling at, Son2's request; I decided on All About Spelling, a program that uses Spalding-style phonogram fundamentals rather than memorization of word lists.

= Latin =

    Son1:  We just got back to Latin Book One, two lessons/week, and he is fine with competence and simply feels rusty, yay! I am ready to have him write the exercises on his own now.
    Add:  Solid memorization of conjugations & declensions; consider chants or example sentences. Introduce Latin dictionary. Study short Latin prayers & Bible texts. Begin free composition in Latin.

    Son2:  Have not yet tackled this. Decide! Lively Latin ($$) or Latin Prep. ORDER & begin.

= History =

Renaissance, explorers, Reformation & Counter-Reformation. Next, "early Modern" -- late Renaissance, colonization of Americas, slavery, revolutions (agricultural, industrial, American, etc.), nationalism.

    Using:  Son1 -- powering through the last of History Odyssey 2 Middle Ages, doing one full lesson each day. Parallel reading in This Country of Ours (the USA) and Our Island Story (Britain); catching up in History Lives 2: Monks & Mystics (church history). Son2 -- essentially finished with The Story of the World vol.2: Middle Ages text & activity book.

    Have ordered:  For Son1, I've ordered History Odyssey 2 Early Modern and History Lives 3: Courage & Conviction (church history). For Son2, we're moving up to the History Odyssey Level One program! It still uses SOTW, he is ready for more mapwork and lesson work, he doesn't care about coloring pages, we can find our own projects, and I can use book lists in HO and online to run with at the library. So, I've ordered History Odyssey 1 Early Modern, the required Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History, and The Story of the World vol.3: Early Modern!

    Later:  any HO-Early Modern required books that the library doesn't have, and History Lives 4: Hearts & Hands (church history). More church-history-related stories and biographies, too.

    Continue with:  This Country of Ours (the USA), Our Island Story (Britain).

= Science =

    Chemistry study. Also, a variety of DVDs and TV programs, and bird habits and identification since we now have bird feeders.

    Son1:  Periodic table/elements exploration and Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry I, weekly. Read The Mystery of the Periodic Table.

    Son2:  The Elements (a periodic table exploration), weekly.

= Literature =

    Son1:  Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. History Odyssey assigned books. Greek Myths (Coolidge); In Search of a Homeland (the story of The Aeneid, by Penelope Lively); The Classic Fairy Tales (Opie & Opie).
    Add:  I need to research and get a study guide/overview for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Poetry.

    Son2:  Favorite Greek Myths, Favorite Norse Myths (Osborne); Viking Tales (Hall); fairy tales; American folk tales; Oscar Wilde's Stories for Children; The Children's Book of Virtues.
    Add:  Poetry.

= Piano =

Back to daily piano practice and music theory with the Schaum books.

= Bible literacy =

At some point I want to return to Bible Study Guide for All Ages, 2x/week, but so far I'm not making it happen.

= Scouts =

    Son1: Boy Scout merit badges -- Citizenship in the Community, Communications, Environmental Science, Camping. Community-building activities with his fellow district Scouts attending the 2010 BSA Centennial Jamboree

    Son2: Bear Cub Scout electives.

= Later =

    Geography. I really like Trail Guide to World Geography and Trail Guide to U.S. Geography, but now is not the time; we're working hard on enough stuff as is.

Where we are in homeschooling.

I needed to think this through and get it all written down. Now, next, and then what. We've been doing fine all fall and early winter, but it's very much time for stepping it up and making sure the boys are ready for the next thing, and the next, and what's after that. So, here's where we are right now.

= Math =

    Son1: Kinetic Books Algebra I, parallel with Singapore Math 6B textbook (nearly completed).
    To use next:  Singapore Math 6B Intensive Practice, weekly use (have it). Then possibly geometry study (Euclid's Elements?) and then Zome Geometry (have it).

    Son2: Singapore Math 3B textbook, nearly completed.
    Add:  Singapore Math 3A Intensive Practice, weekly use (have it),
    To use next:  Singapore Math 4A textbook (have it). Later, Singapore Math 4A, 4B, & 5A textbooks, and 3B Intensive Practice (have them all).

= Composition & related =

    Son1:  Get back to History Odyssey and its writing projects. Routinely writes Boy Scout patrol minutes; occasional emails and thank you notes.
    Add back in:  Classical Composition/Chreia (have it) lessons for progymnasmata exercises on days with little HO composition work. Occasional copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin.
    Then add:  Spelling words, Son1's request; use National Spelling Bee resources. Later, possibly do a block of Analytical Grammar.

    Son2:  Writing Tales Level One, including grammar, editing, progymnasmata exercises, spelling. Thank you notes.
    Add back in:  Copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin.
    Then add:  Spelling words, Son2's request; use National Spelling Bee resources and Spalding-style phoneme fundamentals.

= Latin =

    Son1:  Latin Book One, 2 lessons/week.
    Add:  Memorization of conjugations & declensions; consider chants or example sentences. Introduce Latin dictionary. Study short Latin prayers & Bible texts. Begin free composition in Latin.

    Son2:  Decide! Lively Latin ($$) or Latin Prep. ORDER & begin.

= History =

Renaissance, explorers, Reformation & Counter-Reformation. Next, "early Modern" -- late Renaissance, colonization of Americas, slavery, revolutions (agricultural, industrial, American, etc.), nationalism.

    Using:  The Story of the World vol.2/Middle Ages text & activity book -- Son2, History Odyssey Middle Ages II -- Son1, and parallel reading in This Country of Ours (the USA), Our Island Story (Britain), History Lives 2/Monks & Mystics (church history).

    Needed next:  SOTW3/Early Modern text & activity book, History Odyssey Early Modern II and related books, History Lives 3/Courage & Conviction & then History Lives 4/Hearts & Hands (church history). Continue with TCoO & OIS.

= Science =

    Son1:  Periodic table/elements exploration and Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry I, weekly. Read The Mystery of the Periodic Table.

    Son2:  The Elements (a periodic table exploration), weekly.

= Literature =

    Son1:  Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. History Odyssey assigned books. Greek Myths (Coolidge); In Search of a Homeland (the story of The Aeneid, by Penelope Lively); The Classic Fairy Tales (Opie & Opie).
    Add:  Midsummer Night's Dream study guide/overview. Poetry.

    Son2:  Favorite Greek Myths, Favorite Norse Myths (Osborne); Viking Tales (Hall); fairy tales; American folk tales; Oscar Wilde's Stories for Children; The Children's Book of Virtues.
    Add:  Poetry.

= Piano =

Back to daily piano practice and music theory with the Schaum books.

= Bible literacy =

Bible Study Guide for All Ages, 2x/week.

= Scouts =

    Son1: merit badges -- Citizenship in the Community, Communications, Environmental Science, Camping.

= Later =

    Geography

Before I forget, I'm trying to note what we did last week -- our first week of our 2008-2009 homeschooling year. We started our homeschooling year on Monday, August 18... and then took a goof-off day on Wednesday, the first day of the public school year!

The kids are so much happier -- in better moods -- cheerful -- with a daily routine than they were all summer. I'm not sure what lesson to take from that, since our summer was so busy, but maybe there's something I can try next summer.

On our first day, I introduced them to some new responsibilities. We will each do one thing daily to contribute to the house upkeep beyond the regular chores (so we can make headway around here!). Each boy will do one load of their combined laundry each week (Son1 -- brights & darks, Son2 -- lights & whites). The boys will also learn to cook and bake some things, so we brainstormed a bunch of meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that they would like to make and to eat.

Daily

Handwriting practice. Continuing where they left off in their workbooks; on Monday, they also shared writing down all of their meal ideas (two pages!). Piano refresher. Reviewed all of the short pieces learned in the current book.

Throughout the week

Math. Math facts refresher with dice (6- and 12-sided) and skip counting. They looked through their not-quite-finished math books. After that, they began reading and thinking through the problems in Primary Challenge Math (Son2) and Challenge Math (Son1), to "get their math brains working again".

Latin. Son1 and I reviewed all of the vocabulary flash cards (nouns, then verbs, then adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, etc.). Son2 browsed through his Minimus book and listened to the Minimus audio files on the computer.

Composition. Son1 is Scribe for his Boy Scout patrol, so he created an agenda template document on the computer for his upcoming patrol meeting, and printed it for his meeting notes. He typed up his minutes from the previous patrol meeting and emailed them to the patrol leader and the scribe mentor. After the patrol meeting, he typed up those minutes and, likewise, emailed them as needed.

History. Son2 read a chapter in The Story of the World v.2: Middle Ages, but I delayed Son1's more challenging history and composition curriculum for the second week of school.

History & literature reading. Son1 read a chapter in Our Island Story (British history); This Country of Ours (USA history); and Monks & Mystics (church history). He also began reading The Lord of the Rings (literature). Son2 read a chapter in Our Island Story (British history); This Country of Ours (USA history); and Kings & Queens for God (church history/biographies). He also read a chapter in O. Coolidge's Greek Myths.

The boys also watched some science and history TV shows, and finally watched most of the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.

Both boys did lessons and games at FreeTypingGame.net on several days, and Son1 did a lot of typing for his patrol minutes.

By the way, our Wednesday goof off day was breakfast at Panera Bread with my friends whose kids started school that day. Bowling at a local alley. Library visit. Home to read and play video games. Fun day!

I'm finding it hard to focus on the week past! That's because after our work was done on Friday we started a week-long fall break, woohoo! My mind is filled with thoughts of decluttering and dejunking of clothes and toys and papers, meal planning, thoughts about more consistent quiet time and reconnect time in our homeschool days, and ways to shift gears with the arrival of fall weather (early fall, so cool nights but warm days). I shall attempt a weekly update despite my scatterbrain. (Pictures will come tomorrow; I'm posting right before a big ol' thunderstorm line hits -- I can hear the rumbling, and the wind is picking up, sounding the wind chimes and the house's creaks. No time to scan and insert pictures now!)

In general this week we stayed close to my original daily schedule/routine while Son1 used his daily assignments checklist to figure out what to do. Right now it's working okay; my current goal is to give him responsibility without it driving me crazy!

We started the week with a little bit of emphasis on Columbus Day. Not too much, because we'll come back to the related themes several times this year. Later this year in world history we'll study native Americans in the Americas and, some weeks after that, their encounters with European explorers. In their American studies reading, the boys were reading about Christopher Columbus. So... this week Son1 finished the fast, enjoyable book Christopher Columbus, by Mary Pope Osborne (great pen and ink illustrations!), and Son2 read the Columbus picture book by the d'Aulaires. The DVR was set to record two special programs on Columbus for viewing later in the week, and we talked about Columbus and related topics for a bit. On Tuesday morning I was surprised to find that Son2 had gotten up before me and watched an hour of the two-hour program about Columbus's voyage to the Americas! We'll watch some or all of both programs this coming week, and call it a wrap for now.

Also, on Monday we took an unusual music appreciation break mid-morning. Son2 found a live Pink Floyd album in my dear husband's music collection, so I astonished the boys by cranking it loud for, oh, 45 minutes or so! They loved it! It was a great break in our day, and I chuckled all day about it.

Math

Son1 plugged away all week at the word problems in Singapore Math 6A Intensive Practice for the topics of ratio and fractions, and ratio and proportion. Each word problem is a different twist on the relationships among these concepts and ways they can be put to use. Both his brain and mine are getting a workout!

Here's a sample: Three sisters, J--, A--- and N--, share a sum of money. The ratio of J--'s share to A--'s share is 3:2. The ratio of A--'s share to N--'s share is 4:5. If J-- gets $78, what is the total sum of money shared by the three girls?

Son2 worked through the two review sections at the end of his Singapore Math 2A textbook and finished it on Friday. We did a little celebrating with him. It's not every day you finish your math book, right? He also spent some time with an online math game, doing addition and subtraction flash cards!

Latin

Son1 spent Monday revisiting his most recent lesson in Latin Book One because he had, um, er, not bothered to read the grammar section when he did that lesson the previous week. I pointed out that the grammar section was kind of important for doing the exercises correctly. (I also made a mental note to check the gist of the exercises when I preread the chapter so I know what he should be doing, rather than rely on a backwards translation from his work to see how it compares to the original; I must be more hands-on now.) We went over the lesson's grammar and vocabulary together, and he corrected his previous work using the "new" information. The next lesson was a review lesson that was indeed a good review for him, followed by the first substantial Latin reading, the (rather bloody) story of Latona's children. We read that together and talked about the story, trying not to translate but rather read for understanding.

Piano

The boys continue to love playing the piano. They're having a ball revisiting every song they've played in the last year. I realized it's a lot like reading: there is the forward-facing challenge of learning new concepts, the current challenge of applying learned concepts (learning several pieces to basic mastery), and the pleasure of revisiting familiar stuff and finding it much easier and, often, rather fun. This tells me that I should choose an enrichment music book that's a bit easier than their current level of study! We also did a rhythm exercise, and I'll continue teaching Son2 rhythm basics while we catch up with Son1 in this. A friend and neighbor stopped by, and both boys insisted on playing a song or two for him; that was neat.

Short stuff

We did memory work this week! My goal is to memorize 3-4 stanzas of the 20th century hymn, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God," by All Saints Day, November 1.

The boys did less handwriting practice with workbooks this week, because... well, that's just how it worked out. They did copywork, and this week both boys had the Latin version of their Bible quotes. I chose sections of my favorite saying of Jesus, from St. Matthew's Gospel.

Son1's copywork, Matthew 11:28,29

Son2's copywork, Matthew 11:28

We got back to our Bible study this week, squeezing it into our relaxed Friday.

Composition and writing

Son1 spent his writing/composition energy on his History Odyssey lessons, so Classical Composition took a backseat this week. Son2 enjoyed a book about body-related idioms ("tongue tied," "butterflies in her stomach") that I reserved, sight unseen, in a search for kids' books about the human body! The boys' copywork contributes to their writing skills as well.

History

I finally got to a good stopping point (yes -- stop! cut it out! perfection is not a reasonable goal!) with my plans for Son2's medieval history this year using The Story of the World vol. 2. Now the weeks match up reasonably well with Son1's History Odyssey Middle Ages level 2, I've noted pages to explore in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, and I have notes on what projects, which pages we'll need in the activity guide, and what music and art, architecture, etc. I want to pull in if we can. Soon I'll post it here, after removing the references to SOTW2 activity guide info.

Early in the week, while both boys were studying the medieval Jews, I played klezmer music clips I found around the Web. We all loved it!

Son2 did a very nice map full of purple arrows showing the medieval Diaspora of the Jews. Also, to my surprise, he really wanted to color Herod's Temple. He also read about St. Brigid (Early Saints of God) and about Alfred the Great (Our Island Story, British history).

Son2's map of the Diaspora

Son1 finished his mini-timeline about the Jews from the destruction of the Temple to being expelled from England and France.

Son1's mini-timeline (about 2 1/2 inches tall)

After that, he started what I'd heard was an unusually frustrating lesson, No. 7, in which he was to write short summaries of 4-5 religions of the middle ages. The low-down I've heard is that there's not enough info in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, but I've got to say, it didn't seem that hard. Maybe it's because I adapted the lesson... and we borrowed The Usborne Book of World Religions from the library (which Son1 poured over for a couple of days)... and he worked on it for most of the week.

What I meant about adapting the lesson is that I printed some History Scholar World Religions pages for the religions Son1 chose, and told him we were going to use them our way. For each religion I asked him to note several "fast facts", copy an interesting statement of his choice from his reference book, and make note of what reference book he used. For most of the religions he also drew a related picture in the space provided. He did five religions, and taken as a whole I like his work for this lesson. I expect he'll add to these pages later, but perhaps not (there's a place for a brief bio of person of importance, and maybe more facts).

Son1's page about Islam in the Middle Ages

After our fall break, Son1 will research and write a biography of an important person in one of the major religions of the middle ages. He's chosen Saint Francis of Assissi.

Son1 also finished Peril and Peace, and got within a hair's breadth of finally finishing The Door in the Wall (which means he will do a writing assignment that has been pending from Lesson 3).

I let the boys get a little behind in their reading this week while I dealt with keeping our days on track, cracked down on dawdling, stepped up the level of household chores being done during the week, and attempted to get back to quiet assigned-reading time twice a day, a simple key to daily happiness in our homeschool. Maybe they'll catch up on their assigned reading during our week off (in that twice-daily reading time...).

Science and nature

The human body was a big part of our week: Son2 had a bloody nose outside, he watched "Inside the Living Body" AGAIN, and he poured through a bunch of different kids' books on the human body (that I got from the library because he is generally interested).

Both boys watched a very good, fairly up-to-date TV program about climate change that was first shown last January. Later in the week we watched a program about Venus and global warming that presented climate change on Earth very differently. Sure enough, the second show was nearly six years old.

We've sighted a hawk numerous times this week, less than half a mile from our house. The kids played a lot outside, which I chalk up to the cold front that brought early fall weather for the week, and to my new walking program that draws me to our neighborhood park for a walk after dinner most nights. We ended the week with a visit to the little nature center at our city's reservoir/lake, and then went to the earthen dam and walked it. That was fun!

Hmm, I guess that's it. This week, our fall break, is mostly unplanned, but the concluding weekend will include Oklahoma history and reenactors, and plenty of time in a beautiful natural setting. Mmmm, wonderful.

I've come to realize, though I'm sure it's obvious to any who stop by and read, that I write long weekly updates as a way of thinking through our week!

The big news this week was that I wrote up a daily checklist of assignments for Son1 to work through somewhat independently. This was because I wondered if our struggles were somehow related to me running his life, er, I mean, his school day, and only offering information about his lessons as we came to each subject in the day. Thanks to some related discussions on my homeschooling discussion board hangout, The Well-Trained Mind boards, I decided to try providing him with a daily assignment checklist.

It was a good idea and I plan to continue, but here's a tip: don't hand your preteen an assignment checklist, expect him to work on it steadily, AND let him work out of your sight... when he has finally gotten from the library the latest book in a series he really loves. OOPS. Next, he thought having a checklist meant he could do all of the easy subjects first and then dawdle and balk at the stuff that requires some mental focus. Ahem. After those glitches, the rest of the week went fairly well. The checklist/independence idea was most successful and least frustrating when I nudged Son1 along to his choice of acceptable-to-me subjects, rather than leaving him to his own devices, and told him what time he needed to be done with his work for the day.

Math

Son1 continued with his Singapore Math 6A textbook and Intensive Practice workbook, doing ratio and proportion. Through checking his work (working the problems myself) I learned some stuff I don't remember ever learning!

Son2 is nearly done with the Singapore Math 2B books. He did a review of addition and subtraction of money (making change, etc.), and had fun with some geometry and an introduction to the concept of area -- I got out the pattern blocks for that. He completely finished the Extra Practice workbook and has one day's work left in the textbook. He also played some math games online, practicing addition to shoot the asteroids or some such thing, and learning about angles.

Latin

Son1 did two lessons in Latin Book One over four days and took it in stride, yay! He also wrote out conjugation drills twice and did some Latin copywork (see below).

Son2 did Latin activities most of the week. Day 1: we made word slips with verbs and with Latin versions of friends' names. Day 2: Son2 cut them out and put them in the baggie with the previous slips. Day 3: he made sentences with the slips and decided he needed more "est" slips, so he made some. He also did activities on the Minimus Web site. Days 4 and 5: he listened to the current lesson on my iPod.

Piano

They both played the piano a lot. They spent most of their time mastering a song they found at the end of Teaching Little Fingers to Play -- not actually their current piano book! -- and playing every song in TLFtP. We never quite got to a lesson this week, but I can live with that. Oh, and I worked with Son2 on a rhythm exercise/challenge; I need to give him a good foundation in all that rhythm stuff before he gets much further in music study.

Handwriting and composition

The boys did their regular penmanship workbooks on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I introduced copywork for Tuesday and Thursday, which for Son1 is more handwriting practice but for Son2 is also practice in grammar, mechanics (capitalization, punctuation), and a model of good language.

After they got over the change in expected routine they seemed to enjoy the copywork. I gave Son2 blank notebooking pages from History Scribe files so he could draw a picture if he wanted to (um, nope). I've been working on character and discipline issues with the kids, hence the Bible selections for Tuesday. On Thursday I chose the John 1 verses, and then realized I could look up the Latin and did so for Son1's copywork. I think he thought that was kind of cool, actually.

Son2's Tuesday copywork, Ephesians 4:31

Son2's Thursday copywork, John 1:6,7

Son1's copywork, Ephesians 4:30,31 and John 1:1,2

In Son1's Classical Composition program, he picked up where we dropped it last week. He finished the rewrite of the story using the outline, and learned and added two figures of description. He'll continue with the lesson next week. This fit pretty well with my new plan of smaller bites of CC, doing a lesson slowly over two weeks, while also doing the writing and analysis in his History Odyssey lessons. Indeed, late in the week he outlined a text as part of his history lesson.

Music and art

In history they've both read about monasticism and early Christianity, so one day this week I played a CD of Anglican chant -- sung Morning, Noontime, and Evening Prayer and Compline, in English. Another day I played "Chant," a CD of Benedictine monks chanting their daily prayers in Latin. None of these are strictly of the correct time period, but I decided to go for music and art that are related in some way. As far as general music appreciation goes, the boys also got a little exposure to Elvis Presley, the foxtrot, and the cha-cha; we watched the "Dancing with the Stars" TV show...

No particular art study this week. There is still much doodling on Son1's papers and workbook pages. Oh my word, there's a lot.

History and literature

Son1 kept working on his monastery floor plan -- the graph paper turned this into a fun rather than frustrating project, hurrah -- and continues to avoid The Door in the Wall. To his surprise I made him move on to the following lessons and finish those other lessons on his own time. He did two substantial, writing-oriented History Odyssey lessons with little complaint, which is downright wonderful. One lesson had him outline the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia text on the medieval Diaspora of the Jews and record in his notebook the definitions of a bunch of relevant words. The other lesson had him map the Diaspora, write a one-paragraph summary of the origins of medieval anti-Semitism -- I typed as he dictated, in order to focus on the analysis and structure rather than the agony of writing on paper, haha -- and create a mini-timeline of related events that folds up and fits on a page in his notebook. This was a great, steady week in history for Son1!

Son1's map of the Diaspora

Son1's outline about Jews in the Middle Ages

Son1's summary of roots of anti-Semitism

For Son2's history he really needs more activities and reading, and the basic map work annoys him, so I worked on a year-long plan of activities and resources (see below) and decided to add the advanced map work from the SOTW2 activity guide.

This week, anyway, Son2 did a map of St. Augustine's travels to Britain as sloppily as possible (which is when I realized this map work was too simple, "easy," boring). Mid-week we all had a "monk's supper" for lunch, with a delicious lentil soup (I used the recipe in the SOTW2 activity guide), and bread and butter. He also watched "Timeblazers" episodes (Discovery Kids?) about revolutions, and another about disasters through history, and a couple of episodes of "Liberty's Kids" (PBS) set in the American revolutionary times.

As for reading, Son1 pretty much caught up with Our Island Story (British history, currently Alfred the Great, etc.), Famous Men of Rome (Cato the Censor, etc.), and This Country of Ours (Amerigo Vespucci and the name "America"). I put off the planned Tales from Shakespeare reading for literature because he'll be assigned some in a few weeks with History Odyssey. As it turns out, Son1 also picked up and really enjoyed reading the original Pinocchio story, a translation of C. Collodi's Italian tale, that I borrowed for Son2's literature reading. No church history reading this week 'cause Son1 read way ahead last week.

As for Son2's reading, he started Collodi's Pinocchio and also read the story of Saint Genevieve, the first half of a Mary Pope Osborne book about Christopher Columbus, and a chapter in The Story of The World v.2 about medieval India.

Science

Last weekend Son1 camped with other members of his Boy Scout troop when they attended the Oklahoma Centennial Camporee... with 5,000 other Scouts, adult leaders, and family members. Wow! He had a great time, spent the whole weekend outside, and came home pretty tuckered out.

We looked at weather data after a cold front came through, because I have a little desktop program that plots the last 24 hours of humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. The cold front was easy to see in the data, so that was fun.

Son2 brought home seeds from pods that fell off a tree down the street, and we discussed seeds and the acorns that will soon be all over our front yard and driveway thanks to our young oak tree. Son1 and I spent some time watching spiders in spiderwebs outdoors; we have noticed a lot of them this summer, for whatever reason.

I recorded a National Geographic TV show, "Inside the Living Body," for the kids. Son2 watched it twice! Since then, he has talked about the blood vessels in his body, and mentioned that when a baby is born its heart is the size of a walnut. He also watched an episode of "Survivorman" set on the African plains.

Other stuff

Hmm, I didn't mention Bible study or memory work, did I? On the other hand, I am delighted that everyone did well with the core studies all week and we even added copywork to the mix at last. We had a difficult day on Monday that I didn't even mention, a meeting that I combined with a library visit on Tuesday morning, chess club on Wednesday afternoon, and plenty of work all week on character, discipline, and how to tackle an assignment list. So, I'm very pleased.

Alongside all that, this week I worked on a year-long plan for Son2's history. I decided to reorganize his The Story of the World: Middle Ages chapters and activities to fit with Son1's History Odyssey Middle Ages 2 order of topics, so the other activities, music, and art would fit both boys' history studies. After setting that up, I chose activities from the SOTW2 activity guide for each lesson AND scanned the ones I thought we would use this fall (for easy printing later) AND brainstormed and researched art and music for as many of the lessons/chapters as I could. It didn't help this week very much for Son2, but next week should be better.

I'm off to reserve books for Son2 and get my ducks in a row for the coming week.

A week on a pretty even keel, even with some big waves to manage. This week included a day of hospitality ministry at church, and two big milestones for Son1: the first "real" lesson of the History Odyssey (Middle Ages level 2) program, and the first of the Latin Book One lessons at a faster, two days per lesson pace. All went quite well, no big upsets signaling frustrations, the week was fairly cheerful, and I'm content.

The biggest challenge was probably Monday. We spent most of the day at church preparing for and running a funeral reception. Wonderfully, the boys still got their core work done and I didn't fret over it. Son2 has a light load and cheerfully tackles it nowadays. I did assign Son1 most of his as homework for the rest of Monday afternoon since he chose to read at church rather than do his work. Interestingly he didn't argue about homework. Perhaps that set the tone for the week: Mom will assign homework if need be, and Son1 will get it done.

= Math =

Son1 worked steadily through his Intensive Practice workbook word problems on ratio and fractions, and then had some troubles. At that point I realized there was a separate lesson -- after the ratio lesson -- on ratio and fractions... and Son1 hadn't gone through that in the textbook. Oops! I backed him up, and got him working through the actual lesson. He found it a lot easier, LOL!

Son2 likes to skip around in his book. Problem is, he ends up in a similar situation to Son1: frustrated because he doesn't think he needs to work through the related lesson (sound familiar?). The rapscallion is now sentenced to review work for a little while. He is working through the practice pages after each lesson, starting at the beginning of the book he's nearly done with. So... in the latter part of this week Son2 set aside time and capacity, and got back in practice with multi-digit addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division of two-digit numbers by one-digit numbers.

= Latin =

Ah yes, Latin. Son1's week was a good solid one, with no real complaints but some serious dawdling and assigned afternoon homework on a few days (done cheerfully!), and in the end plenty of good work. He started with a review lesson that I used to introduce him to recalling the cases by their names (nominative, genitive, etc.). Until now we'd focused on function, but now it's time to tackle this part. Over the next four days he did two full lessons, with good comprehension and vocabulary recall! I'm reading ahead of him again, since he's doing this work mostly on his own. What a change for both of us!

Son2 had a less eventful, less varied week with Latin. He read Minimus lesson 5 several times on his own, with and without the CD, and he and I sat down with it one day and talked about the various words and concepts. Minimus is so fun! He ought to have had some activities too, but some weeks are like this.

= Memory work =

Ha.

= Piano =

The boys are back to being unable to keep their hands off the piano. Today I had to declare the piano closed (as is the kitchen often declared) to gain some quiet! Yet it was so enjoyable to hear them work on the various songs they were assigned last week, and master or nearly master most of them. This week's lessons with me went well. Something new: Son1 has been assigned a piece from Schaum's beginners book of "popular pieces" -- well, if you're talking about the 70s! In that book I found three fine, lively pieces and two okay ones among the many maudlin, sappy 70s songs. Henceforth I'll avoid such "popular pieces" books and prefer Schaum's graded books of folk songs, patriotic songs, and so on.

= Handwriting =

Moving along. Son2 becomes quite creative with invented handwriting styles on occasion. See his History Odyssey notebook page, below.

= Bible study =

I changed Bible study time to after Math and Latin, and that ended up in reality as, after piano and handwriting, too, and we only actually did it once this week. The kids like it, so we'll keep aiming for the intended three times a week.

= Music and art =

Partway through this week I had the bright idea to plan music from my CD collection to play when we're doing history stuff. Since we're still emerging from late antiquity in the middle east, with Son1 doing monasticism and Son2 already reading about the Byzantine empire, I played middle eastern music. That is, Peter Gabriel's "Passion" -- ethnic/traditional regional music similar to what he used for the soundtrack to the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ". The kids love it. Next week we'll do some Gregorian chant and related stuff -- I have a lot, oops! -- and Ofra Haza for middle eastern.

As for art, Son1 is becoming a master doodler, the boys love to draw all over their Bible study activity pages, and they had a ball working on their illuminated letters from Son2's history activity guide.

Son2's illuminated letter, with markers:

Son1's illuminated letter, with colored pencils:

= History & literature =

Son1 found History Odyssey quite a change from our relaxed tour through the ancient world! On Tuesday and Wednesday he did his History Odyssey lesson 2, which includes reading a two-page spread on monasticism in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (with lots of great pictures) and writing a series of summary notes in his new binder for history. He fancied it up with some invented handwriting styles. Next week I'll gently point out spelling errors, but I wasn't ready to do it after he had poured a lot of effort into pulling together the information. The picture is one of his pages.

Son1's notebook entry on monks:

Funny, church-nerd moment: reading aloud to Son1 from my copy of the Rule of St. Benedict after he learned about it, while he unloaded the dishwasher. What? Doesn't everyone own a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict??

Son2 enjoys the projects and activities from the activity guide for The Story of the World v. 2. This week he did some map work, and both boys got the chance to color an illuminated letter at last (as you saw, above).

Son2's map of the migration of Angles and Saxons into Britain:

Son1 started and finished the week behind in his reading -- for history (two chapters behind and the last of Outcast), classical studies (three chapters), and American studies (one chapter). On the other hand, he caught up and read way ahead in church history (Peril and Peace)! He also started The Door in the Wall for History Odyssey at my urging, setting aside Outcast for the week. I'm generally okay with this, though he'll have big chunks of assigned reading time early next week to help him catch up.

Son2 read ahead last week, so he had just a bit of reading this week: The Hero Beowulf picture book, a last story in Osborne's Favorite Greek Myths, a final story of his choice in Viking Tales, which he does not like at all, a couple of chapters of British history in Our Island Story, and a story from Early Saints of God. Ever heard of St. John the Short? Me neither!

I still like the different reading topics on different days. I think I need to go ahead and buy one or two of the three books the boys are reading online (Our Island Story, Famous Men of Rome, This Country of Ours). It would simplify their reading time, even though the boys seem to enjoy reading from the laptop.

= Writing/composition =

Son1 started over with the Classical Composition lesson from last week (total meltdown day), and worked steadily on it. Unfortunately, we began to run out of time in the week, so I decided that the summarization he is doing for his History Odyssey lesson is enough composition work for this week. He'll continue with the CC lesson next week in smaller amounts of time while we see how much time the various types of History Odyssey lessons will tend to take. I'm digging deeper into the History Odyssey program, and I may modify some of the HO work so he has time to do Classical Composition lessons about every other week... or perhaps he could do CC lessons more slowly, in small amounts per day over two weeks. Hmm.

I really need to set up some copywork for Son2. Probably drawn from his history topics or his reading.

= Science =

Last weekend at Son1's campout he had the opportunity to stargaze with a telescope! Son2 and I sat on our entryway bench during a rainstorm today and talked about what we noticed. That was pretty neat.

Breathe, breathe, grin.