We begin with our Watts Family Education plan which reminds us that we are walking with Jesus and living for him by expanding our imaginations, learning the basics and aiming at mastery. Then we review one of a few phrases - this week's is "to live ably and generously" (which I think I found in a Wendell Berry book at some point). Then we mention a virtue which comes from the four cardinal virtues and the Christian virtues discussed in After you Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.
Then we go through our memory work. I am making sure the middle one knows the Lord's Prayer before we get to it in Prima Latina and I decided to do the confession of sin from the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal). Last semester we worked on the Apostle's Creed. We also do one New Testament, one Old Testament verse (alternating days) and a few proverbs and mottoes. I stole one of Mystie's mottoes - business before pleasure - and it has already come in handy! Last semester we did two parables but I decided to go with something different from the New Testament this year. At some point I intend to add in the catechism questions - we were doing Big Truths for Little Kids so that covered it.
After that, we read from the Bible. I was going to start one of the shorter Epistles but the older one requested Romans - so Romans it is. Typically we read Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs and then a book (like Leading Little Ones to God) - one for each day of the week. We finished Joshua last semester so I guess we are into Judges now. Today I tried to sing a hymn - I have a book called 12 best loved hymns. It was painful - but later I did find "Take My Life" on a CD we had. Everyone is thankful.
I decided to stop reading the Latin stories I was reading and switch to reading aloud the passages used in Visual Latin. My kids were pretty excited that they could translate most of what was included in the first reading. We will read the same thing each morning for a week so that they hear and really memorize parts of it. The readings follow the Biblical narrative so they already know the stories. It ramps up pretty quickly but I think they will enjoy it. Typically I read it in Latin (my best guess) and then say the sentence in English.
We also started back with CC today. It was good to see everyone again and I learned some new things about teaching drawing. It truly is 101 - but it's new to me. I think my older one had trouble re-entering the classroom setting but he figured it out. Yes, my kids were the ones who showed up in layers but without coats. Turns out the heat wasn't working properly so one of them was PRETTY cold most of the morning. I am hoping that the Love and Logic approach works here - they say just let them get cold once and they will remember in the future.
Once we got home from CC, I had my oldest finish up his individual work. He read for 20 minutes (or at least looked like he was) - without complaining which is a big deal for him. He copied the CC history sentence for copywork and then did his two pages of math and violin. I decided that we are going to use the Memoria Press choices for 2nd grade readers this semester - he is excited about reading Mr. Popper's Penguins - but he's not ready for it yet. Hillyer was opened up again and we read about Frederick the Great of Prussia and the 7 years war. We ended the day by finishing our Christmas read aloud - Carry on, Mr. Bowditch. My oldest LOVED it. Afterwards we had pirates and storms as my kids played that they were on the sea. There was a fight over who was captain and they used the world map to "round the horn".
Overall, except for the middle one getting a little feverish, it was a great day back. Now on to the rest of our crazy week - we have swim lessons (indoors)!
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