Fall Session of St. Brigid's

Well, it's been a while since I blogged.

This fall session of school, we are studying Nature Study for science, and working on the Cub Scout Wildlife badge and the Wisconsin Junior Ranger badge.

Other classes include:
Math (addition and subtraction review)
Geography: Maps and Rivers (working on Geography requirements for Cub Scouts)
Spelling
Reading
Grammar and writing (working on Communications requirements for Cub Scouts)
World Literature Greek myths, Irish Myths
Bible Study
Piano
Art

We are big on field trips ever since we got the new car. Here are some of the things we have done this year so far:

3 trips to Brookfield zoo (and another one tomorrow)
Thorn Creek Forest Preserve Cleanup
Fair Oaks Farm (dairy farm) tour, including seeing a calf being born
Goodenow Grove Forest Preserve Fall Festival
Pinhook Bog (Indiana Dunes national lake shore)
Fungus Hunt in Goodenow Grove
Dissecting Owl Pellets
Olld-fashioned fall festival at Spring HIll nature center in Schamburg.

In addition, Kiddo belongs to Cub Scouts, 4-H, Modern Woodmen of America, a homeschool club, and a model train club. He is going to go back to hockey as soon as I can afford it.

4-H is studying Ireland for the International Fair. Ted also signed him up for about 11 projects. I hope he plans to help---a LOT!

This week at St. Brigid's

So we went back to a normal (for us) routine at the beginning of the week. This involves morning quiet time, morning play time, reading Alice in Wonderland at the breakfast table (a tradition we started in pre-school and both have always loved) and then on to lessons. This weeks lessons included:

• The Bible story of Samuel
• Grammar & Handwriting (nouns and proper names.)
  
• Memory work (From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson and a bit of Shakespeare)
• Math (addition facts)
• Story Time (Greek Myths and Legends)
  

They made an Advent Calender out of Reece's Peanut Butter cups for Library Reading Club.

Super Ted says at Cub Scouts they did some bullshit repetition of stuff Kiddo already did at Day Camp.

We skipped ice skating this week because kiddo has a horrible cough.

Our art project was making cloth "wrapping paper" for Christmas. We also baked some yummy pumpkin bread. Service Learning was helping out at the local Main Street committee.

No lessons yesterday or today because kiddo's cough medicine knocks him out. He is going to Grandma's today to have dinner with her and her friends, and hopefully his cough will be sufficiently under control for him to go to hockey tomorrow.

I am resigning myself to not getting a bunch of actual lessons done this coming month, because we will be doing a lot of crafts and kitchen gifts for the holidays. Super Ted and Kiddo will be doing a bunch of decorating. Of course, I will need to start preparing the Christmas Eve dinner, and there will be a bunch of parties to go to. It's all good.

This week at St. Brigid's

I am starting a new feature here on my blog. Every week or so, I will be writing what we did this week. It will make a nice record of stuff I can't keep in a portfolio.

This week was a little weird because it was a short week.

Monday: We did our normal lessons. This means that we read our chapter book (Alice in Wonderland) during breakfast, then we did some grammar, memory work, math, and I think reading of ancient myths. Kiddo wanted to make hand turkeys, so that was art. Super Ted took Kiddo to the library reading club, where they read a story together and finished their cookbooks that they started last time. Each kid told a recipe for a thanksgiving food and drew a picture, and the library lady had them all made into a little book. So cute!

Tuesday: Kiddo wanted Play-Doh for morning playtime. He played with it for over an hour and was still having a good time with it, so I just let him keep playing. He played with it all morning and I actually had to force him to put it away so we could leave for our field trip. There was supposed to be a special exhibit on animal habitats at the Children's Museum, but it was junky. So we just hung out at the museum and goofed off. I meant to take him on a short nature walk after the museum closed, but I didn't take into account how early it gets dark. Oh, well. We came home and had supper, then I took him to 4-H. He's in the Cloverbuds, which is like a little-kid version of 4-H. I got to taking to the leader, and it turns out that she has no idea what she is meant to be doing. She just has the kids color or make a little craft each time they meet. Shoot. I can have him color at home. They are meant to be doing projects that build character and so forth. So I am going to volunteer to be his Cloverbud leader.

Wednesday: Wednedsay was service-learning day. Our little town is part of the Main Street program, which is meant to help re-vitalize little towns that are having problems. I volunteer with them and serve on the Economic Revitalization Committee. Wednesday we did a mailing, sending 300 fliers to people who live out of town and have expressed an interest in our town, to tell them about the Christmas program. Kiddo worked with focused attention (more or less) for 3 hours. I am so incredibly proud of him.

Friday: Today we had another learning-by-living experience. Kiddo has been planning a "Train Festival" for a couple of months. It was supposed to be a day for him to get all his friends over here to play trains all day. Unfortunately, most of the people he invited couldn't make it, but it turned out to be a fun day anyway. His 3 cousins came over and they had a wonderful time playing all afternoon. This was Kiddo's first experience in planning a party. He had to help with cleaning the house and getting ready. Then he had to greet his guests when they got here, entertain them, and be sure to say goodbye appropriately and thank everyone for coming. We had a little issue because I had told him before the party that the kids were to remain in his two rooms, and not to go into my exercise room or the bedroom. Well, the first time I heard noises coming form the exercise room, I went upstairs and found the kids swinging on my stripper pole. I had told Kiddo earlier that I did not want them using the pole because it is dangerous. So I had to chase the kids out of there. Later on, I could hear them up there again and found they had been in my exercise room AND the bedroom, and Kiddo was JUMPING ON MY BED. They had gotten out all my exercise DVDs and tossed them all over the floor, without the cases. They all got a stern talking-to. I made certain to impress upon Kiddo that we have boundaries, and as the host of his party, he is responsible for making sure that his guests follow the rules of the house. All in all, he was a fairly gracious host, and the party went well overall.

So that is our week in home schooling. Next week we will return to a more regular schedule.

Happy Turkey Day!

Hand turkeys inspired by "Setting the Turkeys Free."

St Brigid of Kildare is now in session

Today was the first "official" day of classes at lovely St. Brigid of Kildare in Kankakee County.

We started with playtime and then breakfast, then Reading (15 minutes) and Bible Story (Supposed to take 15 minutes but took about 8) . Reading is just Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Kiddo HATES this book, but we are already up to Lesson 75, so he will just have to live with it for a few more weeks. Bible Story is easy: I read him a story, and then he narrates back what he heard.

Then I let him take a break and watch a video about Caterpillar machines. That was the bribe for finishing his reading lesson. I used that time to do housework.

After the break, I had him read to me. Then we had planned to take a nature hike for PE (his choice--I don't care what we do so long as its active!) but he got side tracked and got in the pool. I used some of that time to put laundry on the line (right next to the pool--don't worry!) and the hopped in with him. Good times! I also did a reasonable amount of ballet exercises so got in a good workout that way. Coming back inside, I showed Kiddo haw we are logging our exercise time to earn a President's Award for Physical Fitness. He's into awards, so he thought that was a cool idea.

Then kiddo goes off to watch another video (I allow 2 per day) and I let him eat lunch in front of the TV because by now I am TIRED. Hubby comes home. There is a period of debate and confusion regarding my broke-ass van which has spent 6 of the last 7 weeks in the transmission shop and still runs exactly the same as it did when I took it in. This is a SERIOUS ISSUE now because Ted's POS Toyota finally gave up the ghost and I got that bit on news today, too. So I had to call the tranny shop, chew some ass, go to the tranny shop with husband and kiddo in tow, practically kidnap the mechanic and force him to go on a diagnostic drive with me. In the end he did tell me there is some sort of pressure in the lines that he did not notice before. I have to take the van back tomorrow so I can drop it off and use his car until he gets my van fixed the right way this time. He knows he needs to fix the tranny right because it's just a matter of time before I start wondering if I really needed the other $2400 worth of work he did.

So then we stopped at the Library. I was there Friday, but forgot my card. I spent awn hour picking out books (including tracking sown books I had selected Friday, but could not check out) only to discover I STILL did not have my card. I just found it, about one second ago, while typing this. (Well, actually I took a break to search around). It was under my desk. Dunno why.

Never mind. Now that I have the card, I can pick up the stack of books I reserved tomorrow, when I drop off the car. Joy.

Anyway, we came home from the Library and had a snack while Ted shopped for used cars on line. I did a quickie Goegraphy lesson with Kiddo. Geography for First Grade consists of Richard Scareys' Busy, Busy World, and a globe. Each story in the book is about characters who live in a different country. There are a lot of pictures, many of which show things that are unique to the location. For example, today's story was about London. It showed several unique London Guards, London Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. We read the story and talked about the pictures, and found England on a map and a globe. We did this for preschool, too, without the globe. It's fun.

Then we went on the long-awaited nature hike, which took MUCH longer than expected. Found some deer bones by the creek. We meant to pick them up on the way back but forgot. Also found a discarded tire to use for a swing. Ted will have to grab that tomorrow on the way home from work.

We got home by 8:30 and I had dinner on the table by 9:00. Kiddo showered and put on jammies before dinner. Grilled cheese sandwiches on home-made bread, roasted veggies, and vegetable soup. Hubby in bed by 10, kiddo watched a video (I'll admit it, I'm weak!) and had a snack, then we read Irish Fairy Tales and A Child's Garden of Verses until he conked out, at 11 pm like clockwork.

So now I have my quiet time, which is running out. I should be in bed my Midnight, and it is now 12:09. Enough for me. Good night.