Today we had our first homeschool book discussion meeting of the "new school year." (New school year in quotations marks because we school year round, so we never really start "new." Though I will sort of feel we are starting a new something when we finish Year One of TOG and finally get on to the Middle Ages. I am tired of the Romans.) Anyway, the meeting this morning was at 8:30, and we made it! Admittedly, I did vote to meet at 8:30, but we are Not morning people and I wasn't really sure it would happen. But there we were, opening the library with the somewhat startled librarians.
The kids recited the poems they had memorized, started learning their Veritas Press history cards, did book discussion, played (and had a great time with) grammar games, and finished with a drawing lesson. The art was a sort of last minute idea of one of the moms, but I am delighted with the idea of the kids getting a weekly drawing lesson that I don't have to give! She is using Drawing with Children, which is a book that I have and really like, but which I never used successfully.
The mom who was going to lead The Phantom Tollbooth had some family stuff come up and needed the week off, so I handed off the discussion of Lassie Come-Home to another mom and took the older group and The Phantom Tollbooth. Definitely a good deal for me, as The Phantom Tollbooth is oodles of fun to discuss and also had a good write-up in Deconstructing Penguins!
We finished the whole thing in two hours, which was a little longer than planned but still not bad. The kids and I still managed to get in a tolerable amount of school work after we got home. Next week we will be doing writing and logic, along with the drawing and timeline cards. I'm not sure about teaching logic (don't laugh, Daddy!), but I expect it will work out okay (my oldest student is twelve -- still young enough to be fooled into thinking that I know what I'm doing).
This week in history/literature we are continuing with imperial Rome, focusing on a few choice emperors, daily life, Pompeii, and Paul and the early church. Travis has been excited about starting a new Dead Famous book, this one Boudica , and, despite his initial reluctance, he is enjoying his book on Pompeii (turns out that he thought it was a biography of Pompey).
Having finished Fred's Fractions, we are starting Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents this week. Katie wept this morning when I suggested that Travis should read the lessons to himself, as the introduction suggests, because she loves Fred and can't bear to wait until she is ready for the math to hear the story. So I am continuing to read them and then Travis works the problems. I am a pushover.
Our other subjects continue as usual.
And here is Katie's latest Harry.
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