Unschooling Moments of the Week 1/21/11

Monday:  MLK day.  Josh and I did Latin in the a.m.  Josh started doing Geometry at the Khan Academy site, which he really enjoyed.  It was a take it easy kind of day.  Becky, Will and Rick chopped an old tree in our backyard into firewood.  Sean did ????  Probably played a lot of computer games.  He's going through a phase like that.  We listened to MLK's I Have a Dream speech on youtube.

Tuesday:  ice storm closed the schools so homeschool classes got cancelled too; no Latin class, Art class or Biology.  Rick drove me in to get my aunt transferred from the hospital to another facility.  Very depressing.  But amazingly the kids did some schoolwork at home.  Sean and Becky both did cursive practice and math.  Josh was busy catching up on his Church History reading and also reading Hillaire Belloc's William the Conqueror.  Will was supervising.  We watched Discovering Music Unit 15 (I thought we'd stopped before Christmas at Unit 11.  I was wrong!).  It was on Wagner.  Now I know that Wagner was incredibly innovative and a creative genius but I fell asleep during the lecture.  This is exactly what I did during the only Wagner opera I've ever seen.  Intellectually I know Wagner was one of the greats but I thought his opera was the most pretension, long-winded thing I've ever been subjected to for money.

Wednesday:  We did Bible History.  We read about the exile in Babylon.  that reminded me of these two songs so we listened to them.  Becky and Sean both did cursive.  Sean did Latin and read from his Muse magazine.  Becky did some math, read from a McGuffey reader and then built a bridge out of toothpicks and marshmallows.  Josh was finishing up his Church History study questions.  At 12:30 the other teen who joins us came.   We spent two hours just focusing on history.  We went through all the study questions and then watched a video about William the Conqueror.  Not sure what Will did except that he took Becky to VT for me and also went to his music lesson.  Hannah had to deal with getting her laptop fixed and buying stuff for Rome!  She's been busy with lots of sundry errands in preparation for that.

Thursday:  I realized I am married to an angel.  He said we can bring my aunt home here to take care of her instead of in that awful nursing home.  I feel totally overwhelmed and overjoyed at the same time!  I spent most of the day visiting my aunt, but we did read aloud some, do some penmanship, Latin and math.  Will went to his piano lesson.

Friday:  Hannah and Becky went to an ice skating party in the a.m.  Becky  had been asking Hannah to take her ice skating anyway.  Can't believe Hannah is leaving for her semester in Rome this Sunday.  She'll be gone for 4 months.  Sob!  Josh started back with his Biology study group and class.  Sean and Will sat around discussing stuff.  This p.m. we have a new gym class to attend.  This evening Josh has his first 4H Teen Cooking Project meeting.  They are doing Swiss Fondue.  Will and Sean are going to see the new Narnia movie with the parish youth group.

Read alouds:  We've been reading David Copperfield out loud to everybody (except Hannah), and Rick has been reading the next book in the Westmark series entitled The Begger Queen to Becky and Sean.  I've been reading more of The Story of the Romans to Becky, Sean and Josh and reading Hitty, Her First Hundred Years to Becky at night when she's tucked into bed.

I'm too stressed to bother with pictures for this review.  We are suddenly trying to turn our study into a bedroom for my aunt.