St. Francis Academy

Icy pics

Today was the first day we've had sun all week.  The schools in the area have been closed since Tuesday.  Since I'm starting to get over my cold, I decided to trek out in the snow for a few minutes to catch some photos of the setting sun's rays shining through the icy trees.  This is my favorite time of the day, lighting-wise, but it's even more heavenly with the ice!

 

A tree in our neighbor's back yard.  I especially love the dark gray clouds overhead...they really set off the glimmering branches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the pussy willow shrub at the front corner of the house.  We intensely dislike this shrub which the builders planted...such an odd choice for ornamental shrubbery.  We will likely pull it in the spring.  Still, it does have some redeeming qualities, like how those little ice globules formed around the buds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same shrub.  I love how the light shines!

Winter Weather

It's "snow day" number two here in the Greater Cincinnati area.  Yesterday we received a few inches before Matt had to fly out of town.  Lucky Matt is in San Diego.  After his flight, the snow switched to sleet, then over night it switched to freezing rain/ice.  There's a coating of ice on everything outside.

It just started snowing again and it is coming down heavy and fast, so we should get several more inches today.  Fortunately we're stocked up on just about everything, even videos from the library and Blockbuster.  As long as the power doesn't go out, we should be good to stay put.  The videos are important, especially since the satellite isn't working as a result of the icy coating from last night.  Obviously, the internet connection is up and running.

In fact, the only real damper to hunkering down in this snow storm is that I'm sick with a cold!  I suppose it's a blessing the weather is bad, since at least that means I don't have to drag my sick and sorry butt out to take John to basketball practice.

Meanwhile, the kids are in and out of the snow, having fun, while I dodge the puddles left behind from melted snow.

 

The view up the street from our front porch.

 

 

 

Where my thoughts are these days...

Here and here.

Most of us ventured out yesterday to the local United Art and Education store (aka the "teacher store"), as I was on a quest for this puzzle of Europe and wanted to save on shipping and get a couple of other things.  We wound up with a new sketch book for Julia, a "fat" pencil for Drew, Algebra tiles and accompanying book for John, Schleich animals for Cate and Connor, and Lizzy got herself a new pencil and a stress ball...oh, and, yes, the aforementioned puzzle.

We got home and baked some brownies, then played with the puzzle until they were ready.  The puzzle is very cool, since the shapes are the outlines of the countries and bodies of water.  John has been asking to learn algebra, so I'm hoping the Algebra tiles and the book will help him on his way.  The book basically deals with polynomials: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.  Solving for a variable, very basic algebra, should come quickly to him, since he has worked with this 'algebraic' concept in previous programs we've used. 

Funny thing with John...he also asked about doing SAT tests "for fun."  I'll have to look into seeing if there are any websites that have sample tests for him to peruse.  If not, then I may need to look into having a test prep book around.  Or maybe he just means the state tests the school kids in Ohio need to take???   Hmmm....I'll need to clarify that.  Oh, and another funny thing with him: he aksed if I could "force" him to "do Spanish." :-)  We have the Rosetta Stone software that he has worked with previously...I guess he's wanting some external motivation from me?  The request made me laugh. 

His reason for wanting to learn Spanish is related to baseball.  Over the years, he has come in contact with several teams which spoke Spanish.  Last year, during the CABA World Series, there were at least three spanish-speaking teams (2 from Mexico and 1 from Puerto Rico).  Then there are the bilingual hispanic teams that were at Cooperstown two years ago (from California and Florida).  We're going back to Cooperstown this summer, so I'm guessing he'd like to be prepared. :-)

Happy Birthday, Aidan!

We celebrated Aidan's first birthday last night, since today is gearing up to be a busy day.  We will be flitting from one thing to another all day, from church to a practice to a game to another practice.  Actually it won't be "we" as in all of us, since one of the kids is recovering from being sick last night.  Let's just say that last night was our only chance to have everyone together before our busy Sunday and before dad goes out of town for a few days.  He was supposed to leave on Saturday, but those plans changed miraculously. 

Believe me, I'm thanking God for that, and for family and friends who are able to help us out in a pinch!  Anyway, here are a couple of other pics from AJ's birthday celebration.

 

John and Drew horsing around.  This never would've been allowed with the first few kids!

 

But look how much he enjoyed it!

  

This one's for grandma...he LOVES it!  For all others, this little critter walks around and little kids' voices sing "Happy Birthday" when you push a button.

Back to the grind...

Nothing like a child puking to get you up early in the morning!

OK, so for most of the civilized world, 7AM wouldn't exactly be early...but we're an uncivilized bunch here, and after nearly a month of nobody rising before 8AM on the weekdays, getting up at 6:15--when it's still dark--seems downright barbaric.  The only redeeming quality of rising at such a barbaric hour is it was done out of Christian charity...it is charitable to care for one's sick child, right? 

Perhaps this will break the vicious cycle of staying up late and waking once the sun has risen.  And maybe, just maybe, we'll get things in gear before it's time to eat lunch!  We don't regularly start "schooling" until 10AM on a good day (I know, gasp, gasp...you don't start school at 8???), but it has been a struggle for us to even get back to that time!  Sheesh!

We've been breaking back into the swing of things gently this week, focusing mainly on math, science, and history.  For science, we're studying human anatomy again.  We did a brief study last year before the birth of Aidan, since it seemed a natural thing to do.  This year, it will be more in-depth.  This week's study is light and (hopefully) fun, kicking things off with the five senses and a bunch of hands-on "experiments."  I made up smell bottles for our Montessori shelf, but even the older kids enjoy working with them.  Yesterday we did a taste experiment, noting where on the tongue sweet, salty, sout and bitter tastes are most pronounced.  I have no idea what we'll be doing today...maybe watching a Bill Nye video on smell.

History is really laid back this week, as we're only watching a video.  We cruised through the Crusades and the "unit" on Marco Polo (which consisted solely of a video, no follow up reading) before Christmas break.  Now we're heading into the Hundred Years' War.  This week's video is The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.  It is rated 'R', but since I've seen it before, I was able to fast forward through a couple of scenes that were objectionable (we haven't gotten to the war scenes yet).  We're watching about 30 minutes a day, which, for some of us, means we stop the DVD just as things are getting interesting.  Oh well.  Next week we will follow through with some text readings and possibly plunge into watching Henry V.  I realize that will be going backwards chronologically, but I thought Joan of Arc would capture the kids' interest more than Shakespeare's Henry V.

Well, it's still really dark right now, and I'm hoping that nobody else wakes up sick.