Reflections on Week 7 and Break Week

It is amazing how fast habits get ignored when life’s routines are broken. We’ve spent most of the last two week re-establishing habits that were broken during my 96 hours in Denver with my mom. It took us a full week to put our routine back together, and most of break week was eaten up doing schoolwork that should have been done the week before. This coming week is show week for Lion King Jr, and I am working on what to delete from the schedule to accommodate the added responsibilities outside of the house. Also, there is a birthday in our house this week. We might skip Morning Meetings entirely, but they will be back next week. Perhaps I can get ahead in compiling a few week’s worth of ideas again

Rejoice: I was quite tired and slept in more mornings that I should have. I’m working to get back to getting up an hour before the boys because I need the morning quiet and prayer time that I have been missing. I need the rest, and I need exercise, and I need prayer. Getting all of that in before the boys get up is hard.

Relate: Jon spent a good chunk of his week working towards the Alternatives to Methodological Naturalism Conference that he hosted on Saturday. The boys and I spent quite a bit of time hanging out together while he took care of that. I went to a large annual local book fair and brought home some treasures. We finished Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and started on Marguerite Henry’s King of the Wind (aff. links).

Remember: We had three successful Morning Meetings and one in which we all walked away before we finished after an argument at the table. Bad days happen. We moved on into the day, talked about it later, and did the work the following morning.

Reason: Math, English Grammar, Latin all done. We missed Chess Club because of a commitment, but the boys are looking forward to returning to it.

Read: There was a lot of reading. Josiah and Gideon realized that they are now behind in their Million Word Reading Challenge because they re-read a bunch of stuff that they had already read instead of starting something new. They enjoyed themselves, but now Josiah is halfway through Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Gideon is reading Pyle’s Men of Iron (aff. link).

Record: Both Josiah and Gideon finished a longer writing project (the Knights essay from IEW Medievals). Micah worked on a short story, a 1AC about the electoral college, and a research paper about police dogs (all long term projects). I wrote nothing, hence the lack of blog posts. But I did generate a short list of things I’d like to write here. It just might have to wait until the semester is over.

Restore: We resumed our habit of reading at bedtime, and Jon and I have still been ending the day with a half hour or so of Netflix. I have not given myself the brain space and journaling time that I crave, but that’s a work in progress.

Margin Report: We prepared for this week of having more hours dedicated outside of our home by staying home more than usual. Micah and I both wanted more time at home that wasn’t dedicated to work, but Josiah and Gideon need to be out with people more than Micah does.  This is a constant balance to strive for in our house. We are three introverts (who love our people but need some alone time to recharge) and two extroverts (who need more people to recharge). Sometimes the little extroverts have to make do with just each other. And sometimes those of us who would rather put on our headphones and hide from the world have to put on our big kid pants and deal with people away. Constantly, some of us are stretching and growing.

Winter Term, Week 7 Intentions

February Hymn: “One Day” by J. Wilbur Chapman (link to YouTube) (Link to printable Hymnal)  (Note: the YouTube link to to Casting Crowns’ version, which has a different tune than the Hymnary version, but the same words for the most part)

February Folksong: “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (link to YouTube)

Winter Term Poet A: James Whitcomb Riley (link to poems on AmblesideOnline) (One poem per Morning Meeting)

This Year’s Shakespeare: Henry V (We are reading through Henry with friends outside of our Morning Meeting.)

Morning Meeting Day 1:

  • Bible: (yr 7 week 33)  Joshua 14; Proverbs 30:10-23
  • History: This Country of Ours chapter 35: The Founding of Maryland
  • Picture Study: Edgar Degas (day-GAH; 1834-1917; French Impressionism)     Before the Race, 1882-84

Morning Meeting Day 2:

  • Bible:(yr 7 week 33) Joshua 15-16
  • Myths: Age of Fable chapter 3 (Apollo and Daphne)
  • Composer Study: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
  • Danse Hongroise (Hungarian Dance), Op. 6 No. 2 (YouTube)
    String Quartet, Romance (YouTube)

Morning Meeting Day 3:

  • Bible:(yr 7 week 33) Luke 22:7-53; Psalm 102
  • History: Trial and Triumph Chapter
  • Citizenship: Plutarch’s Life of Crassus Lesson 2

Reflections on Winter Term week 6

This will be short and sweet because I am typing it on my phone while laying on a hotel bed in Lakewood, CO. 

We had a good but abbreviated school week. My mom and I ran up to Denver for the weekend on Thursday for my nephew’s birthday. And we are going to zip home tomorrow. 

Monday was our usual crazy. I worked with the boys on Tuesday, and it wasn’t fabulous. There was a mutiny. I wound up eating chocolate in my closet. There was a little school work done, and chores assigned for wasting my time with whining. Eh. Some days are like that. 

We worked together on Wednesday with more success. They worked hard with their father on Thursday so that they could spend Friday at a friend’s farm doing meaningful labor. 

And I had a lovely weekend with my mom and brother and his family. I am going to puzzle out assignments for my Caesar and Cicero classes on the way home tomorrow.

Winter Term, Week 6 Intentions

February Hymn: “One Day” by J. Wilbur Chapman (link to YouTube) (Link to printable Hymnal)  (Note: the YouTube link to to Casting Crowns’ version, which has a different tune than the Hymnary version, but the same words for the most part)

February Folksong: “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (link to YouTube)

Winter Term Poet A: James Whitcomb Riley (link to poems on AmblesideOnline) (One poem per Morning Meeting)

This Year’s Shakespeare: Henry V (We are reading through Henry with friends outside of our Morning Meeting.)

Morning Meeting Day 1:

  • Bible: (yr 7 week 32) Joshua 11;  Psalm 100, 101
  • History: This Country of Ours chapter 34: The Witches of Salem
  • Picture Study: Edgar Degas (day-GAH; 1834-1917; French Impressionism)   The Little Dancer, sculpture; executed ca. 1880 or 1881; cast in 1922 (another view)

Morning Meeting Day 2:

  • Bible:(yr 7 week 32) Joshua 12-13
  • Myths: Age of Fable chapter 2 (1/2)
  • Composer Study: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)    6 Symphonic Dance op 45 “summarizes Rachmaninoff’s compositional output” (YouTube)

Morning Meeting Day 3:

  • Bible:(yr 7 week 32) Luke 21-22:6; Proverbs 30:1-9
  • Myths: Age of Fable chapter 2 (1/2)
  • Citizenship: Plutarch’s Life of Crassus Lesson 1

Reflections on Winter Term, Week 5

 

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Rejoice: I managed my quiet coffee and moment alone five mornings this week. The other two I had crashed the night before, and I needed to sleep in. I didn’t make it to the Y at all this week, and I only hit my step goal twice, though I was close two other times. But, I do feel a little more rested. I missed my morning quiet this morning because I slept for ten hours. I really have to work on this whole sleeping business.

Relate: I didn’t do so well in this area this week. I was tired and feeling very overdone. (Introverts who homeschool hit this wall every once in a while.) Micah was also at his max for interaction with people, and he didn’t have the greatest week either. I did manage to read aloud to and snuggle with Josiah and Gideon nearly every evening. We were generally nice to each other, but it was a week to draw in and recover in the quiet moments instead of constantly reaching outward.

Remember: We had our Morning Meeting two days this week. The schoolwork was done in general. The day that we missed Morning Meeting was because I fell asleep during a read aloud and napped for two hours. I didn’t mean to. I was just so tired.

Reason: Math, check. Science, check. Latin, check. Grammar, check.

Read: The boys read a few more chapters of Robinson Crusoe. We read aloud a few more chapters of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. We also read from or listened to the Bible, Age of Fable, This Country of Ours, and Trial and Triumph. I have a pile of reading material to conquer that is taller than me, but I did very little reading. That was bad since I am supposed to have A Tale of Two Cities finished by 6pm tomorrow night. I’m on page 100, and I have a pile of grading and planning to do before I can read. Sorry, book club friends. I won’t be done when I arrive.

Record: The younger boys each wrote started an IEW paper about Knights. Micah started an essay about Born Again. I wrote very little. I read very little. It wasn’t my greatest week.

Restore: So, the week was crazy, and I drowned in it. I watched a little television with Jon each night. I didn’t do a good job with planned self-care. It was rough. We did decide that I will go with my mom to my nephew’s birthday party in Denver next weekend. She needs a travel buddy, and I am pretty desperate for a break from the norm.

Margin Report: This week, there was no margin. There were extra classes to teach and a talent show to take part in and acts to polish and laundry to wash. I am not exactly sure where things went wrong, but I drowned in it all.  Next week will be better.