May A.D. 2024 || Week 1

Sweet peas

It was a good week. Lots of sunshine and the world is turning into a green jungle (though today as I write, it's pouring rain, which is great). Some decluttering happened, which also leaves yours truly even more emotional about all the decluttering I still want to do, evaluating past decisions, etc., but need to just focus on moving forward and learning and that we did make progress. 

Book study wise, it was a really good week for reading practice in particular (excellent stuff happening there) and also had some very sweet mama-daughter moments while exploring the outdoors.

Also absolutely loving all the purple vetch and lupines spreading everywhere out and about. So much purple this year! <333

So yes, a good week.

Daily

Bible

Beginner's Bible + narration

Memory Work

Children's Catechism

Verse Memorization -- review & Colossians 3:17

Psalm/hymn/song of the week: 

Twelve Apostles (Jamie Soles)

Poem: Spring Rain by Marchette Chute

Other memory work: name, age, address, parents names, where Daddy works, phone numbers

The Hobbiton garden really needs a good clear out / weeding, but everything we put in last year is surviving and thriving, so that's super exciting

Phonics / Reading

Alpha-Phonics by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Math

Saxon Math 1

Picture Books (English/Lit), alphabetically

A Fine Mouse Band by Cyndy Szekeres

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Anytime Mapleson and the Hungry Bears by Mordicai Gerstein

Around the Year by Tasha Tudor

Goodnight Mr. Darcy by Kate Coombs

Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever!

Johnny-Jump-Up's in Hobbiton

Rotating Subjects

Monday (Art)

Katie's Sunday Afternoon by James Mayhew

Classical listening:

finished the Maiden's Prayer album:

• Salut d'amour, Op. 12 by Edward Elgar (1857-1934) || mm 1:02:05
• Vilja Song from The Merry Widow (arr. Balázs Szokolay) by Franz Lehár (1870-1948) || mm 1:06:00
• Poème, Op. 41, No. 6 by Zdeňek Fibich (1850-1900) || mm 1:10:35
• Caprice viennois, Op. 2 (arr. Balázs Szokolay) by Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) || mm 1:12:20
• Parade of the Tin Soldiers, Op. 123 by Leon Jessel (1871-1942) || mm 1:16:05

Madame Alfred Carrière against the sky

Tuesday (Art)

Big marker drawing time / swallowtails

Tuesday (Nature walk/study)

(Mon) Had an appointment outing, so pulled over on a side road to study a cactus (on the edge of an open lot behind a church & a utility yard) and had a little stump jumping adventure 

Took a nature walk out on our road and watched yellow and black-and-white swallowtails (+ two others we weren't able to absolutely identify as they were moving so fast) on blooming yerba santa

Also have lots of these flowers, which we have yet to identify:

(Fri) Found this darling bird's nest with five eggs in it in an old rose bush (please excuse the rust) under our kitchen window. We get bird's nests around every spring (so lovely), but usually they're high up under the eaves and this is right under the kitchen window. Squealing ensued. And we can juuuuust see it from inside the window, too, so hoping we can see and hear the baby birds, etc. (I just cannot believe it. It's literally like something out of a storybook. 💓😍🫠🫠)

Wednesday (Further Nature Study)

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pp. 50-57: A Spectacular Sunset Descends, A Snail Leaves a Trail, A Tree's Leaves Change Color, A Sparrow Takes a Bath)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pp. 24-25: Cracking Clams with the Tuskfish, Australia)

Thursday (Further English / Language / Myth)

Rhyme / Poetry

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

Fairy tales:

Classic Bedtime Stories illustrated by Gustafson: Sleeping Beauty

Note: in general, we're currently tracking along with the curricula outline from Veritas Press (swapping out a few of the resources) + trying to consistently add in Charlotte Mason inspired material/subjects (narration, nature study, poetry...) plus, of course, some additional important-to-our-family subjects (creation science, etc.)