The Sinister Scribe

and a few hours if you want to get picky… my son was born.
I can’t believe how much he has grown.
I can’t describe how proud I am to be his mom…

Happy Birthday, Sam! I love you!!

My how time flies when your busy! And procrastinating. I kept waiting for a good time to do this each week and never found it. So here’s a batch update and I’ll just have to carve out times as I go.

Despite holidays and life in general, we’ve managed to stay on schedule (and have fun). Huzzah!

Math has hit a bit of a snarl but I think it is because he’s having to work a bit harder with new material. MathScore.com has incorporated a performance test function that allowed me to easily see the areas we need to work on. Between that site and Math Mammoth I think we’re set.

Science is still a favored subject by all in our house. I’ve finally hit on a timeline that works for us and we’re putting up timelines for fameous astronomers. (need to get a picture). Each one also has a basic fact card that we’ll add pictures to at the end. Those we’ll keep, but the wall timeline can be recycled and reused. Woot!

Literature/Dictation is cruising. We’re listening to Shakespeare’s plays translated by the Lambs as posted on Librivox and reading along from the Baldwin Project. Sam said he likes listening to them. Yay! His latest illustration for “Winter’s Tale” came out really nice.

Japanese is back to me. We’d been doing lessons with a campai from Sam’s Karate dojo and he just wasn’t keeping up. So based on her suggestion we’re working through the Katakana alphabet and I’m incorporating as much Japanese into our everyday life as I can. He’s certainly doing better at remembering the characters than I am!

Latin is very relaxed. We’re working our way through Minimus Segundus. I’m only testing him on vocab this year. Still planning on Lively Latin for next year.

Writing has slowed somewhat. His enthusiasm on his books has ebbed a bit. I’m going to make an effort to do weekly or monthly letter writing time… starting now. The picture here is from a session of writing. He loved using the dip pens. Jessie loved putting her letters in the mailbox herself.

Art has taken a leap forward. For Barb’s Sketch Tuesday his sketch surprised me with the amount of dimension it showed. We were talking yesterday about some local art lessons and decided we need to get more serious at home. By that I mean more deliberate. Still fun I hope.

History is not my best subject so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it is rather dry seeming in our lessons. Sam still finds interesting facts to share. We watched a History Channel special on the Black Death. Pretty heavy stuff but it lead to some great conversations on why personal hygene is so important. (I noticed he’s been washing his hands more often)

Music Appreciation is still going on. It really only consists of listening and the occasional comment or conversation. They’ve both liked the CD I have of classical music of the middle ages. I was glad it was something I already had on hand.

Art Apppreciation has kinda fallen off the radar. We still look at paintings that we come across (especially during history research) but I’ve not organized anything for a bit.

With Jessie, I let her participate as much as she is interested. We’ve worked a little on numbers (using a clock because she had it in her hand) and letters. She frequently asks me to read words she’s written (usually a long string of letters) which is kinda fun. She’s even glued bits of paper into letter shapes. She’s bringing me books to read during the day now. “Just for fun” she says and we read at least 3 just before quiet time. I’m making sure I set aside time each day just to be with her and do whatever is holding her interest at the moment. Though it has made my day more hectic (and let the house messier) it seems to be helping to even out her mood during the day.

Next week is going to be mostly review I think as Tuesday is the boy’s birthday then Thursday and Friday are a holiday. So Monday and Wednesday are it. On our “off” days we’ll still practice Japanese, do Barb’s Sketch Tuesday and maybe get to some sewing!

Just been going to bed on time and not making excuses to myself about working out. The upside is that I feel great and am holding steady very near if not at 160. Downside is that I can’t find the time to blog. But I will!

Homeschooling is going well. Sam’s going to need 3+ years of braces starting next year. Bob’s entering a couple of triathlons. Jessie is keeping us all in line. So things are hopping as always. I’ve just had trouble keeping up with the beat.

More soon!