Week in Review -- Snow Edition

Yes, it is finally snowing starting yesterday,  and we finally got some sort of winter schooling momentum going.   All this January, Paddy and Kieron have been reading for hours a day, and Aidan has been immersed in making notebooks, and everyone was doing school here and there, but we weren't back in our typical schedule.  We still aren't, but it's heading in the right direction. 

Schoolroom


This is also the week that will be remembered as the occasion when Aidan learned how to add by 2's in his head.   For years he has known numbers up to the hundreds and can sequence fine but still didn't get the concept of adding.    All fall we worked on Kumon books adding 1's to all numbers from 2 to 100.   Finally he got the concept of adding enough so that he could add 1 comfortably.   But today was a milestone because if you can count 2 past something mentally, you are really doing something conceptually that you aren't doing by adding 1.   

He is also reading much more fluently now.  And the dot to dot books he loves help his fine motor control and his sense of sequence.  

Paddy and Kieron have been reading especially voraciously this week because a box of books came from Barnes and Noble (the books they ordered with gift certificates they got from the man who supervises their altar serving).    Plus we went to the library and found some books there, and plus I finally let Paddy read the last 3 books in the Harry Potter series, now that he is 11.

Planning and Notebooks

 I have finally dug into planning for the next few months.     A couple of years ago I went back to year-round school schedule (we used to do this but stopped for a few years when we had kids going to school or college or enrolled in virtual charters).    And just last year, I decided to run a January to December school year rather than August to June.    It makes sense because (1) most of my kids have winter birthdays and (2) I always reset things after Christmas holidays anyway because our old schedule deteriorates in the second half of Advent. 

I found a super-pretty downloadable Family Homeschool Planner for a good price.    You can find a review here.     It was just the type of thing I needed to boost my motivation to start getting things reorganized in the homeschool.     Yesterday I had a lot of fun taking digital scrapbook pages and using them as backgrounds for the pages I wanted to add to the binder, so that they wouldn't look plain and boring next to the pretty planner pages.   

Printout of AO Year 6 Overview

Print-out of SCM Typical Weekly Schedule

The Rest of Life

In addition to planning, reading and making notebooks, we had our ordinary routines of CCD, Catholic book club and piano lessons, plus our walks to the post office and the trip to the library.   And SNOW!  (I don't like snow but I don't like creepy rattling-dry thirsty looking trees everywhere either). 

Aidan liked my printout of Cindy's Morning Time schedule (I can't find it right now, but it is here somewhere) and made his own calendar using the boys' altar server schedule as a model.  He worked really hard and there is number sequencing, copywork, and creative use of copy/paste all in there! 

He has also been fascinated with pictures of traffic jams and made his own version using all his cars.  The crayon on the top of the blue van stands for an ambulance's siren lights. 

He is trying to put together a traffic jam binder of pictures.  I notice how whenever I am doing hands-on papery things like Montessori cards a few years ago, foldables last year and photo-editing/ scrapbook-planners this year, he wants to do the same things but using his own interests.  Cute.  I hope he keeps it up because he acquires lots of skills while doing these things, even though he also needs lots of help and support too so sometimes he has to wait while I am working on my things to get to his things. 

Week in Review: What We've Been Doing This Week

This week was kind of uneventful and flowing.  We seem to be mostly unschooling still.   Having three birthdays in January, falling in weekly sequences after Epiphany, seems traditionally to break up the Ordinary Time rhythm and interfere with academic momentum.

Paddy has been voraciously reading.  

 I keep partial track of his reading by taking a picture of the pile next to the dining room table.    Here you can see the pile for this week:

• The Assassins of Rome (Caroline Lawrence)
• Detectives in Togas
• Hank the Cowdog
• Mrs Piggle Wiggle 
• My Father's Dragon
• Peanuts Collection Volume 13
• Catholic Treasure Box

With the exception of the Peanuts Collection, which was a Christmas "everybody" present, and possibly the Roman mysteries, these are all nostalgic favorites from when he was five or six.

Aidan was the only one who I worked with on school much this week.  

 Here, he is drawing a map of the entrance to his Grandma and Grandpa's house, and on the left is the schematic drawing itself.  You can see the cars going up the road, and the sidewalk in front of the condo subdivision, and the condos themselves at the top.   I love his style.  Aidan's Grandpa has just recently come home from rehab after breaking his hip (fortunately a mild break as these things go) and so this seems to be Aidan's way of expressing what is in his mind.

Aidan doesn't draw pictures of people -- his art usually takes the form of cars or other artifacts.

In addition to drawing and working on his scrapbook, Aidan did lots of connect-the-dots (he is passionate about them right now) and some reading and spelling/dictation.  Not much math.

Kieron had his birthday on Saturday.  

He has been absorbed in a Wii video game he got as a birthday gift.   Otherwise, he has been doing his academic reading, helping his brother repair his laptop, running, and working on his imaginary universe.   Everyone in this family has their own imaginary universe.   I have one, too, but I don't get to visit it as much these days.

Kevin and I have been walking almost daily to the Post Office.

Here is a picture of the beginning of the 2.5 mile journey.   We have had no rain, so everything is crispy dry and brown, except the evergreens, which are a faded shade of evergreen.    But it makes for nice walks, temperatures in the high 50's --- my perfect comfort zone for a brisk hike.

Other things I have been doing:

• Reading a LOT.... January is Philosophy month. Heidegger and Kant and Cardinal Newman!  
• Practicing the piano.
• Playing video games with the kids.
• Helping Aidan with his art projects.   He is getting so INTENTIONAL about what he wants to do.  
• Trying to restore the house to its lost state of order.  First I was sick, then we went to Eugene, then came the holidays in which I did a lot of sitting around.  Now I think I was still recovering from being sick!   But now I am revisiting Flylady, which has helped me in other not-coping-so-well times in my life.  
• Looking back at old photos and writings.   That is my ongoing project for this year of 2014.   What memories!   Memory..... let your memory lead you... in the words from a song in the soundtrack Aidan has been listening to constantly, recently!  (though right now he is listening to the Clancy Brothers).  

Looking Back into the Past

Since I've been doing so much looking back into the archives and photo-sorting and reflecting on memories, I thought I would try to regularly make a collage of the past.   This is from the first day I used my first digital camera, a low-end point and click.   That was in June 2006.   I never graduated from the low-qual point and click.  Now I use my iPhone.

I love the memories brought to life by the photos.

Note to Self:  Take pictures!   

Main Thought:  I don't miss Aidan's hospital trips (though he sometimes talks about them wistfully, those days of unlimited Sprite and videos and attention from Dad!)  But I do miss my only daughter so much!   Virginia is about as far as you can get from California!  

Week in Review: A Week Without a Car

Sunday:

The older boys left for Oregon -- Liam to get back to work, and Brendan to start a new term at college.  Kevin drove them up since his workplace is up there (he telecommutes from home most of the time).     So we are carless until tonight which made the week quiet and different.

All week the weather has been like this.... drought conditions, but pleasantly cool and livable outside.   I feel sorry for the dry trees though, and the farmers in the valley.



Monday:

Two cords of firewood arrived.   We started stacking it.

Tuesday

We finished stacking the firewood.  It's way easier when your help is 11 up to 20 years old than all 11 and down.

Wednesday

Nice to have an active fireplace again (we were totally out of wood by the time the truck came)

This is where I sit in the morning until everyone else gets up...  my devotions, daily planning and then journaling or writing.  Social media if there is time.  

Paddy finished reading Famous Men of the Middle Ages.  

Thursday

We walked to the post office.   That was good.   A box of books was waiting for us.  That was not so good because the box was heavy and the walk is about 1.5 miles through fairly rough up and down trails.

We broke open the box and redistributed the books among the three of us.  Good again because the Sierra National Forest was the setting for a troop of two boys and their mom carrying these:

They are the Journey through Bookland series from 1909.    Sort of a Christmas present to myself -- they were less than the price of a video game for the whole lot, and they are very pretty.

The boys didn't complain much (good again) and in fact we discussed fairy tales all the way home.

Friday

Paddy finished reading Sassafras Science:  Zoology 1.  He must have liked it since he asked me to buy the next one.

This week, we dabbled in a return to homeschooling routine, but mostly the week was just stacking logs, talking, walking, and working on returning the house to tidier state.  

We still have a way to go.  But now we will be able to step up to a more normal homeschooling momentum next week -- at least, that is the plan.

~looking slightly less cluttered around here~