Monday Thoughts

From our 3 year old
Danny thinks I have to twist off the stem of an apple before he can eat it. He comes up to me with an apple in his hand and says, "Mama, open please."

Latin
I'm seriously considering adding Prima Latina to our line-up, we already have the teacher/student books, CDs and DVDs. I'm looking at our materials to figure out how we can keep the lessons short and enjoyable and keep French within our days.

At the Post Office
"Yeah! New Grammar!" Camille shrieks in delight shocking our postmaster as I open a box containing Intermediate Language Lessons. When we get home, I squeal in delight too as I flip through the pages and see how rigorous and beautiful it is as a product. I'm so glad I went ahead and ordered this instead of wondering for another year or so if we'd really use it. Now I'm not sure if we will use Writing Tales 1 in between Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons. What a great problem to have, too many wonderful products that fit our goals.

Read Alouds
Mr. Pipes has been discontinued as a read aloud, Camille will read it as soon as she comfortably can because it really begs to be read by a child with all its excitement. Camille brought George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl from her bookshelf to me and said, "I want to read this aloud if you'll read Mother West Wind's Children to me." DEAL! This is BIG news! She went of her own accord and picked one of the numerous books from her shelf to read! Wooo-Hooo!

Science
We're planting a flower garden this week and it will contain Marigolds to attract butterflies. We're still studying Astronomy and reading Mother West Wind's Children. Today we read about why Reddy Fox doesn't have any friends. Tomorrow, Camille will write down each character's name and what the chapter said about what each likes to eat. Astronomy is really our only structured science at this point, today Camille identified and drew a Flowering Dogwood tree in our yard. It was impromptu so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to help her identify all of the flower's parts. It was still a great half hour of time spent.

My Reading
I'm reading A Philosophy of Education, Volume 6 of The Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason, Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss and reading tidbits of The Educated Child by William Bennett. Although it seems like a heavy plate of reading, it is the best reading I've done in a while.