The Lesgaux School

Last week went smoothly. We finished all we had scheduled.

Today and yesterday, I had a killer headache. Today, I was not even able to read aloud. Luckily, T & D both showed their independence. T did his math, copywork, spelling and read 2 Aesop’s fables. Unfortunately, my headache was so bad that I dropped off and missed most of his narration. I’ll have some catching up to do on the Ambleside readings. D read a book to me. Other than that, we just laid low. (DH also had a sore back from Daddying over the weekend.)

We all did our chores, ate, and played. R even unloaded the dishwasher! The olders were very quiet upstairs for 2 hours while I napped with R. Then it was back to the couch while T made sure the blinds were all closed. When D got home, he made stir-fry and T helped with clean-up and got R ready for bed.

Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Today was a marvelous day! After a slowish start, I actually cooked breakfast. (Actually, I often do this because the boys like cooked breakfasts better. Who doesn’t?) The olders managed to do all their chores and schoolwork. T went to the dentist, had his teeth cleaned and examined with nary a scream or fuss. He sat so still!

After we returned, he finished his schoolwork. He had a difficult time committing his narration to paper, i.e. an illustration. After two attempts, he gave up. I’ll get the narrations from him tomorrow. He had had an exhausting time, I believe, holding it all together at the dentist. We opted instead for P.E. or as it is also known, Shooting Water Guns and Blowing Bubbles in the Backyard for an hour. That revived him. Afterward, he did his piano work, labeling the white keys on a keyboard chart. We also read our history readings and practiced our Spanish.

Oh, and I finished most of my chores too. It’s just after the boys’ bedtime and the kitchen is cleaned.

WOW!

Today is the first day of Saturday school. T is doing great! He started his work at 9 and is now almost finished at 10:15. We agreed that he would do his tablework (math, spelling, and copywork) and any readings that we didn’t finish during the week. I plan to add Greek to tablework starting on Monday. I think this will work out well, as on Saturday, there is an adult available to help him if he needs it and another adult to mind the younger boys.

It’s funny, but Charlotte Mason also had a six day school week. Maybe she knew something that we’ve forgotten, or never knew about our children. They need to be occupied and have a predictable routine.

See ya next week.

The Ass and his Driver

A driver was leading an ass through the woods. Then very suddenly, the ass decided to pick its own route. He saw the stall that was over a cliff, so he went in the direction of the cliff. The ass pulled his driver almost over the cliff, but the driver holded onto the ass so he wouldn’t go off the cliff. The ass pulled harder and the driver yanked on the ass’s tail. But then the ass pulled harder and the driver said, “Oh, very well. I’ll let you go, but you’ll soon see that the thing you have chosen to do will lead to misfortune.”

It has been a light week, schoolwise. We’ve done our tablework (math, spelling handwriting, and copywork) every day so far. We’ve only read library books aloud. T still has two Aesop’s fables to read by Saturday. It took two sessions to read our selection from Parables from Nature. I think the language is a bit challenging for him. But we slowed down, narrating every two or three paragraphs and voila! Now on to the Week 4 readings.

The big change is that T wants to do school on Saturday. He says he needs more routine on the weekends. He also has agreed to finish two pages of math a day so that he can finish his Level A book before the end of summer.

We will extend Week 3 for a little longer. We’ve squeezed two regular weeks into every one, making a 36 week schedule an 18 week schedule. Therefore, we can afford to take a little longer when needed. Even if we used the full 36 week schedule, we’d more than finish by August or September. For Year 2, we won’t be doing this, due to the increased length, quantity, and difficulty of the readings.

Tablework
Math, Spelling, Handwriting (D), Copywork (T), Phonics (D)

Reading
The Bible – Joshua 1,2 ; Job 1, 2, 3
An Island Story Chapter 3
Aesop’s Fables: The Fox and the Grapes
The Bundle of Sticks
Just So Stories: How the Camel Got His Hump
Child’s Garden of Verses: 2 poems every day – we did this the first 2 days
Astronomy: 1 sections

On a more personal note, D has his first loose tooth. He seems a little upset over it. He’ll probably loose the tooth within a few days. I’ll let you know. R, on the other hand, is still growing his teeth. Soon he’ll have a full set!

P.S. How do you like the new look?

It’s Thursday and we’re in the middle of Week 3 of our Ambleside Online Curriculum. This is so much better. T has even started reading some of the work by himself. One of his favorite ways to narrate is to tell the story over to his 2yo brother. Then the 2yo tells the story back to T. It’s so cute.

Today T woke up with the jumps and leaps, so we went to a playground first thing to work them out. We have since returned home and done math and some reading. He finished his chapter in spelling yesterday, so I gave him a day off. We’ll take a break from copywork today as well. T has been doing beautiful work with no complaining. We still have quite a bit of reading to finish by tomorrow.

I had planned to take the kids to resell some of their toys at a local resale shop. They can use the proceeds to buy some books from Half Price Books. The rule I would like to implement is “No toys unless 1) it’s your birthday, 2) it’s Christmas or Hannukah, 3) you buy it with your own money. After we eat, we’ll do this, then return to do the rest of our reading. We may have an early night as far as baths and dinner go, since D has very bad Cedar Fever. Hopefully it will rain tonight so he will feel better.

I’ll post tomorrow with our weekly list of accomplishments.

This morning started out rocky. Before the kids were fully up, DH said he had something in his eye. After waking up quickly, I tried to take a look, with no success. Whatever it was was causing him extreme pain. We decided a trip to minor emergency was in order. I went upstairs and told the olders to get dressed quickly. Meanwhile, I took a quick shower and dressed the 2yo. Having done all this in less than 15 minutes, DH informs me that most of it came out and he would like to just let the tears do their work.

OK. Well, at least we were all dressed. I made a quick breakfast and let the kids watch PBS while I did chores. By this time, I realized that I felt terrible. For the rest of the day, I nursed an unrelenting headache. DH made it to work, albeit a little late. Despite the rocky start, I managed to finish the weekly chores, except for some folding. We also completed math, spelling copywork, history, and literature. T even washed the door shelves in the fridge by hand. D also took a turn at dishwashing. He washed 1 cup before declaring that he was done. We even went to the grocery store for lunch items. Not bad for a bad day.

DH saved the day by coming home early and fixing dinner. I still have the remnants of a headache. Oh well…