St. Francis Academy

First Day of School (ever!)

OK, so he didn't attend a full day, but John did survive his first day at Jr. High without any worries!

He mentioned that he was expecting the classes to be looooong like the classes he has taken for CCD at church, so he was pleasantly surprised at how short his time at school seemed. 

Now the challenge is to build some sort of home schedule around his school schedule.  His first class (life science) starts at 12:25 and his second class (math) ends at 2:05.  As a part-time student, he isn't eligible for taking the bus, which is fine with me...less stuff to be exposed to.  My goal is to try to get our schooling started earlier this year so most of our work is done by the time I need to drive John to school.  That will be a challenge since we are used to keeping a very relaxed flow around here.

The rest of the crew isn't starting back up until Monday.  My printer has been working overtime spewing out pages for Julia and John's quarter notebooks, to the point that I have needed to get ink a couple of times (sigh).  I'm waiting on a cartridge so I can finish up Lizzy and Connor's books and print out some reminders for myself as well. 

Cate, who is 5, asked for a new folder (Princesses, what else?) and some math sheets to put inside.  I printed out some number sheets I had in my files and she got busy tracing the number 1 and the word "one."  She did a great job, earning herself two stickers.  I think she just wants to have proof for her little friends (one is in K, the other grade 2) that she's "in school" also, just here at home.

In the meantime, I'm perusing ideas at Morning Time Moms, delving into The Original Homeschool Series by Charlotte Mason (in modern English), and considering a purchase of the Laying Down the Rails e-book from Simply Charlotte Mason.  We've all slipped into some rotten habits over our busy summer and I think "Morning Time" would be a great way to start replacing them with good ones!

Back From Vacation

Well, we've been back for about five days now and life is slowly getting back to some semblance of 'normal.'  I can hardly believe that the last time I blogged was over a month ago!  No wonder I rarely get any hits...you all are passing me over to get to bigger, better, or more-frequently-posted-to blogs.  I don't blame you in the least. :-)

We spent our time in New York, Cooperstown for the most part, though we did briefly stay in my hometown of New Paltz before heading back to Ohio.  We were brought to Cooperstown because John's team played in the Week 4 tournament at the Cooperstown Dreams Park.  Their first game, a loss, was a tough one against the team that wound up winning the whole tournament, the Texas Rattlers.  They played a few other decent teams, winding up with 5 wins and 4 losses for the time they were there, and making it to the final 36 teams (out of 104).  Here are a few photos of our family at CDP that one of the moms took:
Our little Cate at the Opening Day Ceremony.  We all wore these brightly colored team shirts, which was a fantastic idea.  I was able to keep tabs on my crew in the crowded stadium and the extended Flames Family were able to locate one another quite easily.

Yes, Cate's hat clashes with her shirt, but she didn't care.  She was more interested in pin-trading than looking good.  She's still pretty cute, though, isn't she? :-)

Matt agreed to smile for the camera, but AJ was less willing.  We had FANTASTIC temperatures while we are Cooperstown...mild in the 70s or low 80s.  We did have rain...it seemed like every day we were there.  However, I only remember having a delay for one game when we were actually already at the fields.

AJ was cold and tired after the final game at CDP.  Matt Daddy bunched him up in his jacket to keep him warm and corralled while we waited for the boys' coach to finish talking to them.  They played a great game, losing 11-10 to a team from California.  Had they won, they would've been subjected to a lengthy rain delay the next day, the final day of the tournament. 

When I went to pick up John that final morning, it was pouring down rain with no hint of stopping anytime soon.  Since Matt had flown home to Ohio to oversee another tournament, we decided to clean up the rental home, pack our things, and drive south to New Paltz.

Our rental home was wonderful.  We stayed close to CDP at Fawn's Lair, a lovely 4 bedroom home set on 12 acres.  I highly recommend this rental.  Not only was the home accommodating for our large family plus Matt's parents (sleeps nine plus an "infant in crib"), but also it was clean and comfortable and the hosts are welcoming and friendly.

Since they are a young family with children who reside there on the premises, our children had built-in playmates and guides to the flora and fauna of the woods.  They enjoyed catching salamanders and snakes in their off times! 

Here is AJ looking into a bucket of salamanders the kids had collected.  I think there were probably about 15 of them crawling all over one another.  He was fascinated and was squealing in delight at the wriggling little things.

Before heading to New Paltz, the in-laws, kids, and I hit the last stop on the Cooperstown Beverage Trail: Fly Creek Cider Mill.  On a much nicer day earlier in our trip, I had visited the other three locations on the trail with my in-laws. 

Fly Creek was saved for last since it was supposed to be a fun place for the kids to visit.  It probably would've been more fun had it not been raining.  Still, we went, tested food and drinks, and received our free Cooperstown Beverage Trail glasses.  The kids amused themselves briefly by feeding the ducks in the rain.

Our drive south through the Catskill Mountains was pretty, interspersed with thunderstorms. As we got closer to my mom's home, it was fun reliving the memories with my kids.  They were excited to see Skytop Tower after we drove over Mohonk, since I have several photos of the place hanging in the den and it was a familiar site.  They had forgotten how close to the Shawangunks their grandmother lives.  On the 4th of July my mom threw a big family party and many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came for feasting and fun.  It was great to see everyone again and for my kids to meet my extended family.

The day after the 4th of July was nice and clear, so we took a drive over the ridge to catch a glimpse of the Catskills (in the distance) that we had driven through days before.  John commented that we should live in New York.  I think he liked the mountains.  I briefly entertained the idea of taking the kids to MInnewaska State Park to hike a little and see Lake Minnewaska and Awosting Falls.  However, it was a holiday weekend and the park was incredibly crowded.  Instead, I entertained them with stories from my childhood in the 70s of catching brief glimpses of skinny-dippers through the trees and going skiing at Ski-Minne with my brother.

We left New Paltz on the 6th and headed home through southern NY.  We stayed the night in Erie, PA and spent a few moments watching the sunset over Lake Erie at Presque Isle State Park.  The kids enjoyed finding a few shells and skipping rocks into the lake.  It was one brief moment that made Lizzy remark "Now THIS is what I call va-cay!"  To bad we couldn't have spent more time relaxing, though I think everyone was eager to get back home to their own beds and their own routines.

My mom rode along to Ohio with us since Matt had previously flown home.  I sure was glad to have another adult present to help wrangle the kids.  Not that doing it on my own would've been impossible, just more of a challenge. :-) 

She has been staying with us this week and I fear she is coming down with the cold I was hit with upon coming home.  She will be flying back home later this week and I'm sure all the kids will miss having her around.

We're winding up baseball and softball season with a couple of more tournaments.  John was asked to play with another team for the end of the season as an extra player.  He is playing in a local tournament this weekend with that team and then will travel to Toledo, OH for the 12U CABA World Series.  Lizzy's team qualified for USSSA 10U Fastpitch World Series in Branson, MO and will be travelling there in a week.  She's very excited to be travelling with her team.

And then we move on to football and soccer...sighhhh.

June

The past couple of weeks have gone by in a blur, all of it related to one ballgame or another.  Nearly every night of the week is booked with practice or a game, the price to pay for the rain-outs earlier this spring.  Nearly every weekend is filled with a tournament--or two!  The littlest ones, bless them dearly, they just roll with whatever is on the agenda. 

This weekend saw us dividing and conquering yet again.  Matt and John flew south to meet up with the team for the East Cobb (GA) Tournament of Champions.  The Flames faced tough competition against the warm-weather teams in pool-play.  They lost their first game in double elimination bracket play, won their second, then faced familiar competition from last year's CABA World Series against Gravel Baseball (IL), being eliminated after a 19-11 loss (Matt told me they made an outstanding comeback from an initial score of 19-2). 

Meanwhile, Lizzy, the two littles, and I headed to northern Kentucky for the Sluggerfest I (10U/12U divisions).  This was the third tournament weekend in a row for this first-year "select" team, and the first time the girls had to face a day of playing four games.  The first three games were nearly one right after the other, with only about a half-hour break between the second and third games.  The parents brought coolers of food and drinks, snacks, tables, and canopies to set up outside the ballpark fence.  (Apparently this is a BIG thing to do at softball games...some teams even bring grills!)  The girls lost their two pool play games, entering double elimination bracket play as the #4 seed in the 10U "B" division. 

After their first loss in bracket play, there was a long gap between games.  Since Liz was hot, tired, and frustrated after losing so many games (carried over from the last two tournaments), we packed up our stuff and headed back towards home to watch the little boys' Little League game.  My in-laws graciously offered to have the little boys sleep over and to take them to their game since Matt was out of town and I was unsure if I'd be able to get them there on time because of Lizzy's schedule.  I could've left Lizzy with her team, but since she has inherited Familial Hemiplegic Migraine from Matt, I'm not comfortable leaving her with someone who isn't familiar with the symptoms and how to care for them (the condition often mimics stroke symptoms and can be frightening for all the first time around).

After we got to see both boys at bat (a double, hit past 2nd base, for Drew; a single for Connor), we headed back to KY for the last game.  The girls probably played their best defensively all season, with the exception of one inning where they were throwing the ball around instead of getting it in to the pitcher's circle.  It had been a close game (8-7, the other team in the lead) until then..the other team scored 4 runs on those fielding errors!  Coach put a stop to the throwing around and we held them in the last inning, but lost 12-8 (I think?).  All in all, we were away from home for over 12 hours....we left at 7:15am and got back at 9:30pm.  A looooooong day!

Later this week we will be gearing up for our 12U Flames Summer Classic, which Matt is coordinating.  We have  44 teams coming from 7 states, with some very good competition from "cold-weather" teams.  While it would be nice to see the Flames play some of their better baseball at their own tournament, it really is a significant fundraiser for our team. 

At the end of June we will be heading back to Cooperstown Dreams Park (Week #4).  It's a little less than 3 weeks away, but I'm sure those 3 weeks will go by as quickly as the last 3!  I am beyond excited about this trip.  We have rented a house for a week with the in-laws, staying only 2 miles from the ballpark.  It should be a fun break for all, and I hope to have some free time to meet up with Angela and her crew.

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.

Countdown to Christmas

The traffic feed thing in the left sidebar has been showing a lot of folks traveling to the post "The Joy of Homemade Ornaments" from two years ago.  If you scroll down to the bottom of the post, I give instructions on how to make clay ornaments for the O Antiphons.  From that website, we read that "The seven "O Antiphons" (also called the "Greater Antiphons" or "Major Antiphons") are prayers that come from the Breviary's Vespers during the Octave before Christmas Eve, a time which is called the "Golden Nights.""  Thus, we've made it our family tradition to save these ornaments as a way to countdown to Christmas, hanging one ornament each night starting on December 17th.

'Tis the Season...

...to be crabby jolly...(yeah, that's it)...fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-laaaa

This is a snippets post, similar to Maryan's "Hitting the Highlights", though I don't expect to make it a regular thing...at least, I don't think I will!  Anyway, here is what has been going on in our lives since I last posted:

Basketball: We have two boys playing basketball this season.  Connor is in his first year with the local rec team (2nd grade, very cute organized chaos); John is playing on the local select team which plays in two different leagues as well as whatever tournaments are going on.  The result is usually around 3 games per weekend plus 3 practices per week.  John's team is also fun to watch as they are very well coached and the boys are all equally good.

Advent: Well, the Jesse Tree kit still has not been started.  What has it been now, three years???  ::sigh::  We still have our Advent Wreath tradition, though, and we do light the candles when we sit together for dinner.  So, at least it's not a total Advent bust.  We celebrated St. Nicholas day with stocking stuffers and cookies on the 6th, but we missed celebrating the feasts of the Immaculate Conception (8th) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (12th) due to minor ailments and general misery here. We do have the Christmas tree up, which makes its appearance sometime after our daughter's birthday (12/9).  The elves decorated it this year, which was completely fine with me.  See, that's battling perfectionism and lowering my standards. LOL!

Birthdays: Drew turned 6 on Thanksgiving this year.  Matt turned...37 on the 4th.  Lizzy turned 10 on the 9th.  Lizzy got her ears pierced, maintaining the tradition in our immediate family of getting pierced ears on a girl's 10th birthday.  She did great and is being very responsible caring for her own ears.  Hooray!  We get a short break between our family birthdays and that of our Lord, then another short break between Christmas and Aidan's 1st birthday (1/11).

Illness: what a great contribution to the general misery around here!  Sleeplessness came to us following the feast of St. Nicholas, with 6 yo Drew complaining of a toothache which wound up being an infection.  He just finished his course of antibiotics and is scheduled for a "nerve treatment" (root canal) for the offending tooth.  To add insult to injury in the misery department, Aidan decided it would be a wonderful time to sprout a couple of new teeth.  Oh joy!  So, for a couple of nights last week, it was fitful sleep at best.  Add on top of that a hubby battling a cold, which the baby now has.  'Tis the season to be crabby...

Relationships: Despite the illnesses, Matt and I went on a date on the 12th, with dinner and a show being the main attractions.  We left the somewhat miserable kids in the very capable hands of my mother-in-law and her mom...a great pair!  We dined at the local Ruby Tuesday's then went downtown to catch the opening night of Jersey Productions' "The Sound of Music" at the Aronoff.  One of Matt's kids from religious ed. was playing the role of Friedrich.  We had a great time and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Because of the illnesses, though, we've been forced to slow things down a little, which means a better opportunity to just be present to the kids.  That doesn't mean that things are peachy keen and super-harmonious around here.  It just means I'm not hurried or distracted doing "necessary" things...whatever I'm doing (like blogging) can be dropped so I can be present to whomever needs me at the time (like the 4yo asking for a bowl of cereal, or a baby with the sniffles wanting to nurse for the 100th time this morning...OK, it seems like 100).

School: We embarked on a really light schedule last week when the tooth fiasco hit, focusing only on history in the form of watching a video.  We watched Marco Polo, which was surprisingly "not suckish" (quoting oldest daughter).  It is nearly 3 hours long, though, so we watched it over the course of three days.  That was it...no reading, nothing else.  This week we are in full-fledged, albeit early, winter break.  We're not doing anything academic.  Despite that, education still happens.  The two little boys have gone through a wonderful phase of reading more or less solo and the little kids are right now watching Leap Frog's "Letter Factory" DVD.  The bigger kids have gotten hooked on an anagrams game on a handheld device someone gave to us (just like their mama has gotten hooked on Scramble on Facebook) and they are exercising their math skills playing some card game I have no idea how to play!  I'm hoping to watch Mongol this week so I can send it back to Blockbuster.  It is subtitled, not sure if it's in Chinese or what.  It's rated R for violence and possible sexual content...

Plans for the rest of this week include Matt and the little boys getting their hair cut, baking cookies and brownies now that our supplies have been replenished (thanks to Matt, who does a bang-up job shopping), stringing the outside Christmas lights on the porch and shrubbery, possibly wrapping Christmas presents, and maybe, just maybe, adapting the Jesse Tree kit to sew up some felt ornaments for our Christmas tree. 

I leave you with a Christmas photo, imperfect as it is:

Look Who's Walking!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much does a video score??? :-)

What's Working...

Goodness, it has been over a month since my last post.  How time flies!

I was going to continue my series on "multi-level learning", but I thought it important to say a word about some of what is working for us right now since we are starting our sixth week of structured schoolwork. 

This year I purchased the Good News planners for the three oldest kids, plus a teacher planner for myself.  The oldest two have decided they don't like working with the planners, so they have elected to go back to the daily checklist method that we adopted last year.  I like the teacher planner because it has lots of extras to help celebrate the liturgical year all in one place.  The third oldest, for whatever reason, has elected to stay with the planner.  I think it might be because it is dated, has monthly calendars in the front, and has lots of reference in the back.

My main reason for getting the planners was to have some assistance or motivation to do some sort of religious education here at home, especially since Julia and John are not in our parish CCD program this year.  However, since they're not using their planners, I needed to come up with something different!  Fortunately, I came across the Dominion Family blog, which has an excellent series of posts discussing the use of what the blogger calls "Morning Time." 

I mention this because I'm using our morning time to cover several areas in a timely manner since our other approaches weren't working that well.  We start off reviewing the Baltimore Catechism and prayers for religion.  On Fridays I read the coming Sunday's Gospel.  IT helps us all pay better attention at Mass when we've gone over the Gospel beforehand.  Then, we review in several other areas.  For instance, I've been reading to the kids those Ruth Heller books on the different parts of speech for our grammar study, but we didn't do the pretty notebook (or main lesson book) pages that were suggested in the Serendipity plans online.  So, instead of making the grammar books a main block that takes a lot of time, we're just reading and reviewing as a part of our morning time.

I also had elaborate, multi-level plans for history and science that are sort of going by the wayside.  Well, I'm not totally ignoring them.  They are serving as frameworks for our studies, but I'm not letting myself be tied to how they were written!  For our history morning time, I'm reviewing basic dates for the time period we're studying, using the 8th grade history dates list from Laura Berquist's book Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum.  We're also covering a geography topic on the globe at the beginning of the week, review throughout the week, then follow up with a map at the end of the week.  Lastly, I'm reading aloud from a few books: The Story of Europe, The Story of Mankind, and Famous Men of the Middle Ages.  Usually the kids have their own related historical fiction they're working on, or they may be assigned some readings from other books (I'm hoping this helps with retention for ds 12).  Our art and music are history-related.  One day I'll get a post up with some fabulous links that provide you with a school year's worth of FREE art and music history.

For science, we're taking a more living books and hands-on approach, which seems to be appealing to all ages.  I came across wonderful digital editions of some classic natural history books: Jean-Henri Fabre's Story Book of Science and Fabre's Book of Insects, Arrabella Buckley's Life and Her Children, and Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. I just print out the sections I want to read, then we follow-up with a project or a lab.  Right now we have an ongoing earthworm project on our kitchen counter, although we're "technically" moving onto insects and looking at the parts of various insects under the microscope.  We haven't done any kind of morning time review for science, but I think it might be an excellent time to start with the classification system of the "Tree of Life", working our way from Kingdoms all the way down to Species.

I'm also sneakily working into a study of Shakespeare as part of our morning time read aloud.  Right now I'm reading the kids "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" from Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare.  Lest you think that reading a child's prose adaptation to a Shakespeare play may not be a proper study of good literature, I suggest you take a look at the links I've provided here.  The language in this "child's" version is quite complex, so much so that even I occasionally stumble through some of the sentences!  My plan is to then move onto the actual play, reading our way slowly through it for the rest of the term.  I'll also rely on these great teacher notes for our study.  Lastly, we will most likely watch a DVD of the play.  It has been a while since I've watched Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet, so I'll need to pre-screen it before the kids see it.

 

Multi-Level Learning, part 2

In which we sail through history, from the Barbarian Invasions to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England...

After flip-flopping back and forth over deciding about using Tapestry of Grace for Medieval/Renaissance History this year, I finally went back to the plan I began working on last year.  To refresh your memory, we are studying History chronologically as a family.  Last year we studied Ancient History using Connecting With History, Volume 1 and Units 1-5 of Volume 2, ending around the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.  Although Unit 6 (500-800 AD) is now available and Unit 7 (800-1054 AD) is likely in the works, that is currently where this great Catholic multi-level curriculum ends.  Fortunately, though, Sonya has provided an excellent framework from which to work in her Middle Ages Literature-Based Unit.  With some extra help from the History Odyssey eBooks and some other curricula I already owned, I finally developed a course of study:

• Unit One: "Light In the Darkness" (500-800 AD)--this is CWH 2's Unit 6, studies the Fall of Rome, the Byzantine Empire and the rise of Monasticism
• Unit Two: " Great Kings" (500-1066 AD)--studies Charlemagne, the Vikings, and the Norman Invasion of England
• Unit Three: "Feudalism"--studies feudalism, knights, and castles
• Unit Four: "High Middle Ages"--studies Henry II of England and his sons, rise of towns/guilds, Robin Hood
• Unit Five: "Islam and the Crusades" (1071-1291 AD)--studies the rise of Islam, the Turks, and the Crusades
• Unit Six: "Missionaries and Travelers: Trade in the Middle Ages"--studies Marco Polo, medieval explorers, China and the Mongols
• Unit Seven: "The Hundred Years’ War" (1337-1453 AD)--studies the Black Death, Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc, Henry V
• Unit Eight: "New Interest in Old Ideas: The Renaissance"--studies Gutenberg, Italian Renaissance, Wars of the Roses, the Hapsburgs
• Unit Nine: "Spain, Portugal, and the New World"--studies the Incas/Aztecs, conquistadors, Isabella and Ferdinand, Columbus
• Unit Ten: Reformation and Counter-Reformation--studies Luther, Henry VIII of England, Ignatius of Loyola, Thomas More
• Unit 11: Elizabethan England (1558-1603 AD)--studies Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish Armada
• Unit 12: Age of Exploration--studies Diaz, da Gama, Vespucci, Magellan, Cartier, Drake

If you're interested in how I aligned the lessons for levels 1 and 2 of History Odyssey, the document below will help.  It's not the sequence I eventually settled on for the above units, but it's pretty close.  Also, I'm really only using HO for lesson ideas, so I don't feel tied to the curriculum very much at all.

Download revised_lesson_sequence.doc

For background information, I went to this great free resource:

Student's Friend: Unit 5 Early Middle Ages

Student's Friend: Unit 6 Late Middle Ages

Student's Friend: Unit 7 Early Modern World

I need to get going on our day, so I will try to post more on this later, especially in regards to how to go about doing a multi-level study.  I will also have a post that details art and music study as it relates to the time periods in the above units.  Stay tuned!