Semester 2, Week 8

What I’m Reading: Lavender Blue Murder (A Teashop Mystery #21), A Dark and Stormy Tea (A Teashop Mystery #24), and Lemon Curd Killer (A Teashop Mystery #25) by Laura Childs
I started reading the teashop mystery series quite a long time ago.  I would read one or two new ones a year.  By the time I reached the 18^th book, I was frustrated by the formula and the trajectory of the main character.  I wondered if Laura Childs had started using a ghost write because the characters and situations seemed a little ridiculous.  I gave the series a break thinking I would probably never read them again.  Then a year or so ago I wanted a Christmas mystery to read.  I turned back to the tea shop mysteries.  This year I’m finally back in the mood for cozy mysteries.  All of these books increase my tea drinking cravings helping me clean out my never-ending stash.  They’re also good and predictable reads for the end of the day.  Just enough fun mixed into a formula so that I don’t have to do much thinking to enjoy the book.  If you’re looking for a clean, cozy mystery series, this is the one for you.

Co-op
We had two park days for co-op during this school week.  The first park day was one rescheduled for later in the week due to inclement weather.  It was a busy day for us between going to the park, ballet class, and a family dinner.  It was hot, but there was a little bit of shade.  I felt like a great mom because all the kids enjoyed the carrots I brought.  We only had four families come, but I think it was a great amount so that we could really get to know one another.

Our second park day was our end of the year “party.”  It’s basically another park day that includes ice cream.  It was a great turn out.  We were missing a few of our families, but we had a well-attended event.  It’s great that the last two park days have been close to our house.  We also are really enjoying the spring weather.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We are on the final lesson in the grammar book.  I don’t think we will complete the very last assignment.  We are analyzing two sentences a week, and we’ll get through what we can.  We are spending our other grammar day completing a Mad Lib.  Both the kids think the stories are hilarious. 

We started listening to Little Britches by Ralph Moody.  We aren’t very far in, but we’re enjoying it so much.  This book will carry over into our summer reading.

Kindergarten Highlight

We finally finished reading through the Beatrix Potter books! I’m still keeping our nice collection on the top shelf of the kids books, but I look forward to the day I can pass the box along to my daughter’s care in her room.  What a good series of books.

Mom Highlight

I’m busy planning next school year, but I’m in the encouragement phase.  I’ve chosen our books, divided our weekly readings, and now I’m laying out our daily plans.  I’ve been listening to a few podcasts and reading books/articles to remind me of my priorities.  I’m {currently} feeling confident in taking off some of the books and tasks.

Semester 2, Week 6

What I’m Reading: Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
What a delightful read.  I saw this book mentioned in a book subscription and put it on my TBR.  I ended up getting a copy while I was ordering school books. I found out that D.E. Stevenson is related to Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island.  What a neat connection!

Frances goes to Cairn for her first real holiday.  Her choice isn’t to do anything in particular but because she once saw a picture of Cairn and thought it would be a nice place to visit.  That’s my kind of travel! She goes there at the same time that troops are coming in (WWII) and befriends several of the wives.  She also befriends some locals, but there isn’t very much a focus on them as a particular young gentlemen who is stationed in Cairn.  It’s definitely a love story, but I found that there was so much more depth as she described the places and people.

I was pleasantly surprised at the richness and recommend this book wholeheartedly.  (I read a couple of the Miss Buncle books about a decade ago when one of them was free on kindle.  I enjoyed it very much but have never read anything else by Stevenson thinking they may all be too light.)

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Baby blue birds and irises.  The baby blue birds have hatched in the bird house.  I saw mama bird bringing a worm while papa bird looked on from the fence.  My irises are blooming too.  I thinned them out in the fall, so it’s so nice to see them growing all nice and straight and sans aphids. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

Right now my son is reading about Paul Revere in his independent history reading.  I like hearing him make some connections to other people we’ve discussed. 

I’ve noticed in the past with other assignments that my son’s reading comprehension isn’t always spot on.  I’m not sure if it’s a maturity thing or something we need to focus on a bit.  Narration is helpful for me to hear what he knows, and I try not to ask too many leading questions.  This summer we’re participating in the library reading challenge but I’m also setting up a reward system of my own for the kids.  I’m hoping this will help me better guage where my son is with his independent reading comprehension.

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m having so much fun listening to my daughter learn how to read.  She really likes Bob books and is not going to be left behind in our reading challenge this summer.  We finished one of her nature books this week, so she asked when she can start picking her chapter books like her brother does.  I told her she’ll get to do that more as she learns how to read, but it’s also coming up in the next school year and I bought a few for to choose from this summer.

Mom Highlight
We (mostly I) needed a school reset this week.  We are half way through our semester (not counting exams), but it’s feeling like February.  And technically, we should have been where we currently are by the end of February. We have had quite the school year.  I drastically reduced our school load, but it seems like we haven’t made any headway.  I’m sure by the time I do our evaluation, I’ll feel differently, but I’m in a will we make it through the hump funk.  We have also received some discouraging news about a close family member who has a cancer battle in the upcoming months.  It’s been a lot. 

Thus, a reset in the form of a nature walk.  I realized while we were at our favorite nature preserve that’s been a year since we’ve been.  I can’t believe it.  We enjoyed a slow walk, stopping at every bench to eat snacks.  We saw so many things that we’ve been studying in recent years.  We saw mushrooms, wildflowers, spring blooms, working ants, butterflies, a caterpillar, nesting birds, chirping birds, bees, deer, nuts.  We also brought along a picnic.  The kids always love running around afterward looking for pecans and walnuts.  You know what we didn’t see? Squirrels and chipmunks.  That’s a first.

I felt far better after our morning out.  We still took it easy with school work since I had to be away for a day and we needed a work day to go through all the kids’ clothes.  I’m not sure how my attitude is doing going into the second half. I’m still feeling a little discouraged that we aren’t farther along, but I also don’t feel like we have so much that we can’t make it through.  I’ve been trying to look on the bright side that school going into June at least gives us some routine. I would love to just be done, but I also really think our curriculum is worthy of our time.  I wouldn’t be soul satisfied if we were to leave things undone.  It’s too good to neglect.

A day has passed since I wrote that.  I received a message from a(nother) friend who is researching Charlotte Mason.  I kept my affirmation brief in reply, but it’s so hard because that’s how much I love CM.  I could talk about all the things we do and the philosophy and the soul feeding we’re doing every day.  My little explosion of how lifegiving our schooling is was enough to encourage me for these upcoming weeks.  Yes, it’s not been a breezy season of school, but school isn’t a burden. If we were to set it aside right now, it would be a break but we would just be seeking these same things to fill our days.  When we miss tea and poetry or art or nature walks or our variety of books and subjects, the kids are sure to be asking when we’re going to do it again.

Semester 1, Week 5

What I’m Reading: An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
I don’t know what prompted me to finally read this.  I’m so glad I did.  I thought it would be a very difficult read.  While there were parts I didn’t understand, I got the gist of what he was saying.  I think it also helped inform my view of grace on other’s reading (and entertainment/educational) lives.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Spring is quieter than usual in the backyard this year.  I am not planting my usual wildflower garden or attempting vegetables.  The puppies are too busy exploring every nook and cranny and below every nook and cranny.  We cut down our only tree in the fall.  Our backyard is a bleak mire of mud and weeds.  Sad, rather.  BUT in the midst of the bleakness, there are small reminders of life.  Many of our native weeds are flowering.  I have spotted grape hyacinth, orange fameflower, baby blue eyes, and sweet William.  I also saw the first hummingbird of the season the first week in April (later than previous years). That is still the only day I have seen a hummingbird at the feeder.  I assume I won’t see as many due to the loss of our mimosa tree and complete lack of flowers.  

We also watched the eclipse.  It wasn’t quite as amazing at 2017 since we weren’t in totality.  However, it was still really cool to watch it get twilight over the hour.

Co-op

We had class day four.  I pulled double duty assisting in my son’s first class and then teaching his second class.  It’s a watercolor class, so it was pretty easy finding a project for us to follow.  The kids painted a coneflower.  I loved all their interpretations and color choices.

Fourth Grade Highlight

The major highlight of the week was finishing The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.  This was the reigning favorite of mine when I last read the series.  I still really liked it, but currently The Silver Chair is my new favorite.  My son also really liked this book.  He says it’s one of his favorites right now, but I don’t know if I unduly influenced him or not.

Kindergarten Highlight

All is going well in the kinder land.  Spring is a pleasant time to be outside picking all the weed flowers!

Mom Highlight We’ve had kinda a crazy week.  I’ve had more requested of my time and attention than usual, but I know it’s a very temporary season.  And today I finally have a little respite.  When I have these times, I do my best to maintain a routine and set aside time for reading or knitting as a bit of rest. The downside of these times is that I usually start reading too many books at once because I have a shorter attention span.

Semester 2, Week 4

What I’m Reading: Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad and The Wanderings of Odysseus: The story of the Odyssey by Rosemary Sutcliff

My husband’s favorite books are Rosemary Sutcliff’s Eagle of the Ninth series.  I will eventually get around to reading them, but I thought I’d start with some familiar stories first.  I read The Iliad and The Odyssey in high school and college.  My son is reading the Mary Pope Osborne Odyssey aloud to me while my daughter is in her ballet class.  I’m enjoying these summary versions of the stories as they are reminding me of the full story.  It is also interesting to see which aspects the authors choose to tell.  Rosemary Sutcliff versions are story driven rather with little to no dialogue.  I don’t think I would have noticed that these books are missing dialogue if it hadn’t been for the Mary Pope Osborne version.  If you want a summary of the full stories, I think these are good books.  However, I do look forward to reading the full poetic version again in the future.

What I’m {commonplacing}:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1, Duke Senior   

Co-op

We have a couple weeks off from co-op, but I did have a board meeting.  It’s fun getting involved with leadership since I really enjoy our group and want my kids to really feel like they’re part of a good community. I will be helping with membership/registration.  It fits well into my past life experience.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We are in full preparation mode for co-op family night.  Piano song(s) have been chosen and crafts are being designed.  We also had some great moon viewing in the morning hours this week. 

We did end up having one day with a longer than usual math lesson reviewing all the problems my son got wrong in his lessons this week.  Most of his misunderstanding came from not reading the problem well and not giving his full focus.  Some of the concepts are tricky too and I can see that he’s relied heavily on his memory or a formula rather than learning the concepts for himself.

I’ve increased the copywork time from 10 to 15 minutes.  I did the same with his grammar only because I handed him the worksheet to do on his own.  He seems to be doing fairly well labeling all the parts.  We also fit in a couple games of geography BINGO. 

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter completed her very first potholder this week.  It was fun to see her thought process as she began her second.  She has about a 15-20 minute attention span for working on her potholder.  Even though I only have it on the school schedule for every other week, I may start pulling out the handicrafts for other times to give her more opportunities to work on her potholders for the family night sale.

My daughter also had her first lesson with coins.  She loved it.  I don’t know how much she’ll remember, but it sure was fun!

Travel

We ended up taking the puppies with us on our family road trip.  We found a family friendly Vrbo and brought them along.  It worked out so well.  One of the pups is more nervous than the other, but she did well in the end.  It was such a delightful experience for us to snuggle with them during the drive and all the downtime we had during our visit.

Semester 2, Week 3

What I’m Reading: Murder at Vicarage and The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
A few years ago I completed my quest to read all of Agatha Christie’s books.  Now I’m making my way through the Marple mysteries in order.  I was so scattered in my read through of all the other novels that this is giving such good continuity.  I’m able to focus on one mystery solver, get to know a smaller area of the world, and see different characters pop up again. Despite previously reading these books, I didn’t remember the specific murderers as I read.  I did vaguely remember that background characters played more of a role than I expected on the first reading.  I know a lot of people recommend the Poirot books when they’re recommending first reads of Agatha Christie, but I feel like the Marple books capture a lot of Christie’s talent.  (The Tommy and Tuppence books are my very favorites.)  The books develop everyday characters and places well.

Co-op
We had our third day of class.  I really enjoy helping in my son’s storytelling class.  During this class the kids were broken into two groups.  Individually they were given specific topics/things to draw on a little paper.  The group got together to put these into the “pool” to create a beginning, middle, and end.  (This is all from Show Me a Story by Emily Neuburger.)  It was fun mixing up all the elements that the boys and girls created.

Fourth Grade Highlight
We’ve already hit a groove in this semester that I feel like there’s nothing fun to talk about.  My son did finish reading Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare and then we watched the movie.  I also ended up buying my son his own copy of As You Like It to make it easier for him to follow along reading aloud. Oh, and he had engineering with grandpa.  They made a fan of some kind…

Kindergarten Highlight
My daughter is doing well with phonics.  While she doesn’t feel confident in what she’s doing (since it’s a challenge), I think she’s doing really well.  She’s getting quite a variety of the short vowel sounds in her sentences.  She still looks to me a lot for reassurance, but I’m encouraging independence where I can. She is also obsessed with watching Super Why DVDs from the library.

Semester 2, Week 2

What I’m Reading: Howards End by E.M. Forster

I’m reading this to follow along with The Literary Life Podcast.  This isn’t a book I would have chosen on my own.  I didn’t particularly like it, but I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t really like the style of writing jumping from one event to the next and not always understanding the timeline of going fast and slow; it didn’t have a great flow. The really compelling part of the book was the story of the classes and place/home. Forster wrote a clear picture of the middle and lower classes in their social/educational/working life but also the cultural story of where we find refuge or sanctuary and ultimately ourselves.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  We have had so much rain building a natural pond of our backyard that I got to observe a wonderful bit of nature the morning we finally had sunshine.  I could visibly see the evaporation happening all over our backyard, deck, and neighbor’s yard.  The shear volume of moisture plus the perfect rays of sun made for a magical five to ten minutes of vapor swirling rise.

Co-op

We went on a field trip to a local bread factory.  It was amazing.  We had fun watching the entire process of loaves of bread and buns being made.  By the entire process, I mean everything.  We heard the flour being sifted in the silos, dough being lifted into the final mixer, the mixed dough being dropped and then processed to the pans, the oven, the cooling rack, the slicer, the bagger, and finally the loaves being loaded for delivery. (I’m leaving out steps but only because we saw this on such a giant scale that it’s difficult to remember things in order.)  We also left with a loaf of bread and a bag of donuts.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My dad and son complete an engineering project together once a month.  The previous month my dad left a packet to read along with questions for my son to answer.  He’s slowly been chipping away at it.  It’s a completely different task for him as I have never had him do reading comprehension worksheets before.  This does not fit into a Charlotte Mason education, but I do think it’s a good skill to learn how to research, find pertinent information amongst all the other information.  I don’t know if he’s actually assimilating any information.  I do like that my son is writing out some definitions.  I would prefer that he could see these things on his own and want to put them in his science notebook.  However, he hasn’t quite caught on to the significance of keeping such information.

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter is finding more moments for independent play and crafting.  We opened up one of her birthday presents of jewel crafting.  After a little help getting her started, she can finally do it on her own.  She also started weaving her first potholder this week.  She’s not completely independent on it yet, but she has caught on quickly.  It’s a matter of practice to make her better.

Mom Highlight

We took the puppies to our vet for the first time.  The kids were very helpful since the puppies aren’t quite ready to be on the leash.  Both pups are growing quickly and getting into everything!  It’s like having the days of a newborn and a toddler mixed into one.  Their cuteness covers over a multitude of teaching moments. 

We also finally made it to our living library as a family.  I accidently checked out the wrong Roosevelt book, but I told my son it was a good opportunity to learn about a different Roosevelt than the one he intended.  My daughter found plenty of princess books and a really good one about dogs that both of the children enjoyed. 

Semester 2, Week 1

What I’m Reading: Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie Bober
I don’t think I meant to read this book in its entirety, but I did and I liked it.  I’ve checked out a pile of pre-reading books from the library in my usual fashion of seeing what’s available and if I’m going to assign them for next school year. As usual, I’m having difficulty settling on what we’re going to do for history and science.  Even though we follow Amblesideonline in many ways, we’ve gone another route in those subjects in the past.  However, I do skim the books from the list that I’m able to find.  (Sorry, a little tangent there…no need for planning notes here.) Abigail Adams was an enjoyable way to read more about her life.  I’ve read snippets of her relationship with John Adams, but I’ve never read any other books about her.  This was a great biography that wasn’t too detailed to make it boring but also not lacking in substance.  I was able to get a full picture of her character and hopes for her husband, family, and herself.

What I’m Commonplacing: “You only care about the things that you can use, and therefore arrange them in the following order: Money, supremely useful; intellect, rather useful; imagination, of no use at all.” E.M. Forster, Howards End, Warbler Press 2021, p 25 

Co-op
We had our second class day.  My daughter’s classes are about holidays and animals.  She’s having so much fun.  I liked my son’s storytelling class and hearing all the stories the children came up with.  His second class is watercolor painting. I subbed in one of the youth classes.  Nothing like feeling really old than when you realize you haven’t had many conversations with teenagers since you were a teenager…a looooong time ago. (My job was easy.  I only had to be the adult once. They’re self-sufficient.)

Fourth Grade Highlight

Math went very well this week.  I didn’t have to teach any of the lessons, and we only had to review four problems total. 

We finished The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  I loved it!  I didn’t remember anything about my first reading of this book.  I loved everything about this book especially after everything I’ve learned through the House of Humane Letters and The Lit Life podcast. 

In preparation for our Shakespeare play, we read through the Lamb’s version of As You Like It. It’s one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so I look forward reading through it with my son. Z

We started reading Clyde Bulla’s story of Wagner’s Das Rhinegold.  We enjoyed the similarities to The Lord of the Rings. We’re also listening to short selections of the opera.

Kindergarten Highlight

We finally finished reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.  Both kids seemed to enjoy the stories. It was a good, nostalgic experience for me.

I’ve been sneaking in a Bob book every other week to introduce new sight words and to work on my daughter’s skill of sounding out words and blending sounds on her own.  She prefers the Bob books to our reading lessons. 

We had perfect weather this week to spend a lot of time outside.  It perfectly coincided with our neighbor’s school break. 

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that we’ve been following the lessons on Children of the Open Air on YouTube.  We’ve been doing it for quite awhile now.  We’re going very slowly through our progression of the videos.  My daughter came in yesterday showing me the hand signs for sol, la, and mi.  It was super cute, and I’m glad that she’s learning from the videos. 

Mom Highlight

After being really slack and laid back in our (non)routine, we are back on track getting up early with mornings free of tv and full of responsibilities and starting on school early freeing up our afternoons for outdoor time. The day that I didn’t enforce our new routine, school took all day.  Being the responsible party is work!

Semester 1, Week 13

What I’m Reading: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year, my husband and I listened to Dracula and the accompanying podcasts by The Literary Life Podcast.  This is most definitely a book I would NOT have read of my own choosing.  Sometime last year, we (my husband and I) had a lengthy discussion about his reading/education of Frankenstein in high school versus my recent reading/education of the book.  Wow, what a difference.  This sparked interest in Dracula as we repeated this conversation.  We both decided to set aside our perception of the book to read it together.  We were changed by this tale of the dragon, the princess, and the hero. We had lively discussions and praiseworthy revelation. You should read the book, but you should also listen to the podcast.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  Friends, it’s cold outside.  We did walk in the cold, but I didn’t write a single thing down about it my nature journal! I felt like we had neglected our insect portion of our journals this semester, so I had the kids find an insect from a book to copy into their books. I was excited that my son read through a lot of the insect book as he chose what to draw; usually he’s rushing through his nature journal assignment.  I had plans to do the same, but again, I didn’t write in my journal.  I guess I need to pick up my resolve.

Travel: We do not have co-op this month (minus a mom meeting), so we are filling our time with travel and appointments (and another illness…).  We have traveled around the southern states.  It’s been cold.  It’s been beautiful.  It’s been great getting home to snuggle in the warmth. We especially liked our extended stay in North Carolina as we visited the mountains.  The kids enjoyed the toy stores.  I enjoyed the Battery Book Exchange in Asheville and bought some lovely editions of Penrod by Booth Tarkington, The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge, and The Santa Fe Trail by Samuel Hopkins Adams (we just finished up one of his other Landmark books, The Erie Canal).  I was happy to find all three.  I have an original of Penrod and Sam that was my husband’s grandfather’s book.  Finding a hardback edition of Penrod was a special find for me even though it wasn’t a first edition (I’m only into collecting for reading’s sake). I bought the Elizabeth Goudge book since I have a new interest in her.  I read checked out The Rosemary Tree from the library a couple years ago after several podcasts mentioned it.  I was so moved by the book that I ended up buying one on my Kindle so that I could take my time reading it.  Her writing is so perfect as a before bed read.  I’m trying to shift over to more physical copies of books this year that this was my favorite find of the day.  I waivered in buying The Santa Fe Trail.  Now that we have access to all the Landmark books through our living library, I’ve been holding off on some of my book buying.  I have already read The Tree in the Trail with my son.  It’s such a great book for explaining the Santa Fe Trail that we don’t need to read anything else.  However, I was thinking I may read the book for myself when it’s time for me to read The Tree in the Trail with her in a couple of years.  Even though the Landmark books are written for older children to teens, I find that many of the stories are captivating, far less dry than history books written for adults, and tell very compelling stories.  I was more convinced to buy this edition since it was in perfect condition, had a dust jacket, and was a good price. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

We finished The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams. His grandfather helped build part of the canal, so he had firsthand access to stories and letters and did other research to write the book.  Parts of the book were rather dry.  I read the highlights of the book aloud to my son so that he would get a general overview of who, what, why, and how.  We read this because my history plan of choosing Discovery biographies from our living library was thwarted during an extended illness.  We’ll go back to my original plan during the next semester as we will have full access to the library again. I do have a small pile of TBR Landmark books in my son’s TBR, so we may still pick one of those up before the end of the school year.

We finished reading Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge and then watched the movie.  I always have my son draw a picture of his free reads for his notebook.  He mixed in a little Star Wars delivering the silver skates as the prize.  Definitely not a true rendering.

We’ve started The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  It is so good so far.  I read this book in college, but I don’t remember anything about it.  I do think it’s one that took me a long time to read the first time because I didn’t find it interesting.  Total opposite this time!

Kindergarten Highlight

We finished reading the first Betsy-Tacy book. I’m enjoying this series.  It’s fun having a chapter book series to read with my daughter.  When my son was this age, we read the robot in the wilderness series and the Ralph mouse series.

Charlotte Mason Arithmetic is going slowly and I’m not sure how well but still on track as we haven’t given up. Phonics has picked up a little as my daughter is recognizing certain words as we’re driving and from a book she checked out at the library this week. She also received some kindergarten workbooks for Christmas to keep her busy when she’s asking for school but I’m working with her brother.  The scissor skills book is especially nice as she colors, cuts and then creates new art work with the glitter glue and stapler she also received.

Mom Highlight

We’re almost there, folks. I can almost see the end of our semester.  I’m about to plan out our exam questions and need to print out our second semester family folder.  If we take zero breaks we’ll finish school before Memorial Day.  I know that won’t happen, so I’m feeling more positive (as in happy and in full knowledge) that our completion in June won’t be so bad afterall.