• Studied Catechism I for 30 minutes each morning.
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1
• We continued reading Augustine Came to Kent.
• Read two chapters from Our Island Story and Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History. We finally received The Birth of Britain for Dominic, but he found it "too boring."
• We read Chapter 1 and half of Chapter 2 from The Child's Fairy Geography, or, A Trip Round Europe and identified the United Kingdom and England on a map. The first stop on our "European tour" was London, where on Monday we visited St. Paul's Cathedral (better photos can be found on Flickr) and the Tower of London; we also watched a short video on executions at the Tower. Next, we visited St. Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace (Richmond), and Windsor Castle. I had hoped to start a scrapbook project, documenting our "travels," but sadly that just didn't happen.
• We watched 4 segments from the video Visions of England; we'll be watching the rest of the video next week as we continue our travels through England.
• On Friday, we read This is London by Miroslav Sasek (wonderful!) and reviewed some current facts about London. We also perused these amazing photos of London.

• On Monday, Maddie read The Wind in the Willows Chapter 2 and had to draw a picture of a gypsy caravan, which led to some impromptu research.
• I am now reading The Hobbit out loud. Dominic was struggling with it on his own (or rather, pretending to) and Maddie preferred it to The Children of Green Knowe.
• We also started a second daily read-aloud: King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle (we had attempted The Once and Future King first, but could *not* get into it!); we'll be alternating between this and The Hobbit daily.
• Continued studying Classical Arithmetic and Latin/Grammar, they're *still* not able to pass the exams!
• Math facts drill on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; Dominic completed Life of Fred Pre-Algebra w/Biology, Chapter 2.

• Maddie missed her cello lesson on Monday because she was sick, but practiced for about 20 minutes each day.
• In music, we backtracked a bit and reviewed the parts of the orchestra and listened to a CD of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf while following along with the book. Later in the week, we watched and discussed this *excellent* animated short film (which won an Oscar in 2008).
• On Monday, we read "The Story of the Cattle Raid of Cooley" from English Literature for Boys & Girls. Tuesday, we read "Beowulf" from Legends of the Middle Ages and on Wednesday, we read "Tom Tit Tot" from English Fairy Tales. Thursday, we began reading about Geoffrey Chaucer in Stories from Old English Poetry and on Friday we read "The Tempest" in Tales from Shakespeare. This will more or less be our new weekly schedule for literature - one selection from each book daily, which gives us a nice variety.
• Finished reading Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4) (Maddie).
• Nature Study: We observed many Sparrows, Chickadees, Juncos, and even two Cardinals at our backyard feeders, and read about them in Nature Study in Elementary Schools (clicking on the bird below will take you to the appropriate section).
• We completed the discussion questions on stars from For the Beauty of the Earth and copied several star poems.
• The kids completed a number of experiments from Nature in a Nutshell on their own. They learned about how pinecones protect their seeds, the effects of acid rain, and cloud formation.

Personal Highlights (This was quite the week for new discoveries, scroll down on the page for *much* more!):

• This year's Doodle 4 Google contest was announced, my kids are quite excited.
• We received the *amazing* (and huge!) Bumper Book of Look and Learn: The Best of the Classic Children's Magazine, which definitely surpassed my expectations and is perfect for the boys (shown below; my photos do not do this book justice!).
• Also received my Google Books order from the Harvard Book Store, they're perfect!
• Discovered Pomegranate ~ a great little shop for fine art books, calendars, note cards, etc. Their coloring books are especially nice (and include designs from William Morris and Carl Larsson) and they have some terrific things on sale currently. I ordered art bookmarks and a few other odds and ends.
• I stumbled across this article about why The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments was banned, and naturally had to find a copy to investigate (the download link in the article is no good). A .PDF of the book can be found here.
• I rescued an enormous stack of vintage Golden Books from my grandparent's house. In doing so, I re-discovered the illustrations of Corinne Malvern and Eloise Wilkin.
• My usual reading was set aside this week so that I could pre-read How the Heather Looks (an Ambleside geography selection for Year 7). Much as I suspected, it's not something Dominic will appreciate, but I am loving it very much! Unfortunately, it's also costing me money as I keep finding references to books which I simply *must* have... Dorothy Spicer books (The Book of Festivals and From An English Oven: Cakes, Breads and Buns of Country Tradition, with Legends and Festivities Associated with Their Origins and Use), The Slow Coach by E.V. Lucas, A Critical History of Children's Literature: From Earliest Times to the Present by Cornelia Meigs, and The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett thus far.
• Snagged a complete set of the 16-volume set The Children's Hour (c. 1953), in great condition, for only $20. on eBay!
• Oh-so-appropriate quote for the week: “When I have a little money, I buy books. If any is left over, I buy food and clothes.” ~ Erasmus

A few of the new Google/Espresso Book Machine Books!

Yet another fabulous find, The Pictorial Webster's:

"Featuring over 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century, this chunky volume is an irresistible treasure trove for art lovers, designers, and anyone with an interest in visual history. Meticulously cleaned and restored by fine-press bookmaker Johnny Carrera, the engravings in Pictorial Webster's have been compiled into an alluring and unusual visual reference guide for the modern day. Images range from the entirely mysterious to the classically iconic. From Acorns to Zebras, Bell Jars to Velocipedes, these alphabetically arranged archetypes and curiosities create enigmatic juxtapositions and illustrate the items deemed important to the Victorian mind. Sure to inspire and delight, Pictorial Webster's is at once a fascinating historical record and a stunning jewel of a book."

Also available:

• "Icons & Curiosities" Wall Cards
• "Flora & Fauna" Stamp Set

This past week I've encountered a number of publishers devoted to reprinting classics, including some previously rare or hard-to-find titles. I thought I would share a few of my favorites here!

For Children

Jane Nissen Books (UK)

Jane Nissen Books is an imprint founded by a former Associate Publisher at Penguin Children's Books. "The purpose of this personal venture is to bring back into print some of the best-loved children’s books of the 20th century and to enable a new generation of readers to discover for themselves high-quality, timeless titles that should not be lost." A list of titles and descriptions can be found here (*wonderful* selections!). Many of the books are available to US customers via The Book Depository, the rest can be found at Amazon UK.

"Publisher of fiction from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. We have many of your favorite girls fiction books and series - and more to come! Image Cascade publishes heart warming stories of family, love, and timeless values. Our authors have written novels that are rich with nostalgia, true to life social and dating situations, strong families, and, of course, love and romance. This is the cornerstone of Image Cascade. There is something for everyone - tweens to teens, young adults to adults."

Purple House Press


"Our mission is to revive long lost, but well loved children's books. Today's children deserve to read wholesome stories from a simpler time and we know grownups want to revisit with old childhood friends too!"

Fidra Books (UK)


"We are an independent publishing company specialising in rescuing neglected children’s fiction and making it available to a new generation of readers. Our books range from 1940s adventure stories to iconic 1960s fantasy novels, and from pony books by Carnegie medal winning authors to rare boarding school stories from the 1990s." Fidra Books are available to US customers from The Book Depository.

For Mothers

Persephone Books (UK)

"Persephone prints mainly neglected 20th-century fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women. The titles are chosen to appeal to busy women who rarely have time to spend in ever-larger bookshops and who would like to have access to a list of books designed to be neither too literary nor too commercial. The books are guaranteed to be readable, thought-provoking and impossible to forget." Authors include Noel Streatfield, Frances Hodson Burnett, Dorothy Whipple, and many, many others. (For US customers, these books are most easily acquired from The Book Depository)

The Bloomsbury Group

A simply gorgeous line of cloth-bound classics, designed exclusively for Waterstone's in the UK. The titles include: Madame Bovary, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility, Cranford, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Pride and Prejudice, Crime and Punishment, Jane Eyre, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Fortunately, the books are now also available at Amazon in the US. An interview with the designer, Coralie Bickford-Smith can be found here.

By 1910, both Corinne and Gladys were moonlighting in motion pictures as well, and profiled in the series of newspaper articles, "On the Moving Picture Stage: Have You Seen this Face?" More details can be found here. The only film that Corinne actually received credit for appearing in is "The Luring Lights" in 1915. In a later interview, Gladys would state that, "[growing up] home to me was anywhere - hotels, trains, boarding houses; for my sister and I were 'stage children.'"

A railroad accident put an end to Corinne's acting career and left her crippled for two years. In the 1920's she attended the Art Students League in New York, studying with Theodore Lukits, and then moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister. The 1930 census indicates that, at that time, she was employed as a fashion artist for a millinery studio, while her sister Gladys was a Sales Manager at a department store. Corinne continued her art education in Los Angeles by taking night classes, and occasionally selling her paintings to earn extra money.


By at least 1937, Corinne was back in New York where she shared a studio apartment with her sister and worked as a [freelance?] art editor for Ladies' Home Journal (one of her covers is shown on the left), contributing work to other publications as well. In 1939, her first book, co-written with Gladys, was published by McLaughlin. The book was entitled Brownie, The Little Bear Who Liked People. In 1942, she illustrated one of the very first Little Golden Books, Nursery Songs.

During the 1940's, Corinne worked as an illustrator for Ginn Readers, in particular, their Faith and Freedom series, while also continuing to illustrate books for both McLaughlin and Random House. This she continued throughout the 1940's - 50's, and when her sister began publishing novels, she illustrated those as well. Frosty the Snow Man (1951), Twas the Night Before Christmas (1949), Doctor Dan the Bandage Man (1951) and Nurse Nancy (1958) were among her most popular Golden Books; only these last two have been re-printed in recent years. (Am I the only one who would love to see a Corinne Malvern anthology?! Surely not!)

A 1953 biography notes that "she divides her time between New York and Connecticut, where she indulges in her favorite hobby of gardening." Corinne Malvern passed away at a Weston, Connecticut convalescent home at the age of 50, on November 9, 1956. She was survived by her sister Gladys.


Gladys A. Malvern was born in 1900-1903 (again, dates vary) in Newark, New Jersey. After ending her stage career at the age of twenty-one, she worked in a variety of positions ranging from advertising manager and radio script writer to producer of fashion shows. In the late 1930s, she began writing and publishing books, eventually starting the series of historic romance novels for teenage girls which garnered her greatest success (and are currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity among homeschoolers). Her novel, Valiant Minstrel: The Story of Sir Henry Lauder won the 1943 Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation Award. A mostly complete bibliography, including downloads of eighteen of her books, can be found here. Gladys Malvern died in Weston, Connecticut on November 16, 1962.

A very thorough and interesting article from Cosmopolitan, c. 1900. Clicking on the image will take you to the complete article:

The cold, wintry weather of late has me reminiscing about the many jaunts that we took last fall, exploring old and forgotten places. This place, in particular, still haunts me, and how could I forget the bank we were offered to buy?! Truly, I'm looking forward to spring so that we can resume our adventures again!

Believe it or not, there's actually a careful method to my madness (madness, indeed, is probably quite apt!). I begin by studying old maps of a given location; then, town after town, research all that I can about the history of each particular location. When was it founded, what was its principle industry, what buildings did it have, who were its families, and when did it cease to be?

Flickr can be immensely helpful in determining what may be left of a town, though I also enjoy searching out places as yet 'undiscovered.' Next, I plot out a rough itinerary of our trip, though undoubtedly we encounter things that I hadn't planned for. All in all, it is rather like a treasure hunt (with a history lesson included) and always a splendid adventure!

The following photos were taken in the tiny, oh-so-hard-to-find town of Floral, Cowley County, KS. I knew from the moment I discovered it online, that we *had* to find it, and we spent nearly an entire day searching for it. The town's history remains elusive, but I was primarily interested in seeing the old limestone Baptist church and the Timber Creek Bridge (ah, and the road just beyond the bridge is the stuff of dreams!).

"Whenever I hear the word 'Gypsy,' I feel the wanderlust spirit call to me. I see visions of mysterious campfires and exotic dancing. I hear echoes of lively music and gentle laughter. I feel the pull of more romantic and adventurous times gone by. While these visions do not accurately describe the life of the Gypsies, there is nothing that captures the essence of romance and adventure as fully as a magnificently carved and brightly painted Gypsy Wagon." ~ Delvin Jasper Tetz, 1914-1975

Today, Maddie read Chapter 2 of The Wind in the Willows, which begins with Toad showing the Rat and the Mole his new gypsy caravan. After we discussed the chapter, she was asked to draw a picture of a gypsy wagon or vardo. As it happens, I had just been reading about "gypsy caravans" the night before in How the Heather Looks, so naturally this led us to some impromptu research: Gypsy Waggons being very informative, and the photos here simply gorgeous. If I should ever become very wealthy, I *must* have one of these!

UPDATE: In resuming my reading of How the Heather Looks, I was pleased to find another caravan reference here:

"I have wanted to live in a caravan ever since I was ten years old and read a book called The Slow Coach, by E.V. Lucas. It is about a family of English children who receive a caravan delivered to their door mistake, and who set along the dusty roads on a series of delightfully pastoral adventures. The book has the same Robinson Crusoe quality that the Arthur Ransome books have, although itwas written a generation earlier and is long out of print. I had not been able to find a copy to read to Ian, but I think I managed to communicate some of its charm by telling him about it and finding substitutes. We read Doctor Dolittle's Caravan by Hugh Lofting and The Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter..."

A quick Google search revealed that The Slow Coach is available from Google Books, which makes me seriously happy because that means I can have a copy printed!

After our school work, I was inspired to do some additional research on the history of the Romani in England. Here are just a few of the random, interesting things that I found:

• The first written record referring to gypsies in England was in 1505 (a timeline can be found here), though they were mistakenly believed to be Egyptians, which is how they came to be called "Gypsies."
• Gypsy caravans were not used in Britain until around 1850.
• John Bunyan may have been of Roma descent.
• The Gypsy Lore Society (founded in 1888) has much of interest, several of their journals are available via Google Books.
• At Google Books: A History of the Gipsies by Walter Simson (c. 1865), Lavengro and The Romany Rye by George Henry Borrow (Classic 19th-century accounts of life among the Romani in England), In Gipsy Tents and Gipsy Folk-Tales by Francis H. Groome
• A brief article on the portrayal of Gypsies in British Literature
• Gypsies and the British Imagination, 1807-1930

So, *lots* of new reading to do, but I'm quite pleased with what I found (there's so little material available elsewhere!).

I've long had a deep, abiding fascination with Romani culture (much to my husband's distress), and music in particular ~ oh, the music! Several years ago, I discovered the films of Tony Gatlif, a director of Roma descent whose films are especially rich with Romani music and dance. Really, one must watch them for the music! In particular, I loved Gadjo Dilo; I was thrilled to see that he currently has a new film out, Liberté. Here are a couple of clips from his films Gadjo Dilo and Vengo:

Here's another vintage British treasure: "Look and Learn" magazine.

Look and Learn is fondly remembered by thousands as the classic children's magazine from the 60s and 70s. It covered a vast range of subjects, from bumble bees to rocket science, from English literature to Greek and Roman legend. But history was its chief concern, and its brilliant illustrators filled its pages with beautiful pictures of the past.

This seems like the sort of thing my boys would enjoy, but unfortunately the reprints are prohibitively expense for U.S. consumers. As a slight consolation, there is a compilation available: The Bumper Book of Look and Learn: The Best of the Classic Children's Magazine. I've ordered a copy, along with the equally boy-friendly The Eagle Annual of the Cutaways, and can't wait to explore further!

More about the Eagle can be found at Eagle-Times and Nigel's Web Space is a great place to see more British children's annuals.

Next, I discovered Ladybird Prints ~ a website containing over 4,000 prints from the Ladybird Books, available to purchase as prints and canvasses. There are prints available in such diverse categories as Adventure, History, Hobbies & Crafts, Religion, Science & Space, The Natural World, and so on. I can easily picture prints from the science books in the twins' bedroom, while the nature prints would be well-suited to our school room.




The products can be found at Mulberry Hall, as well as other online British retailers.

I seriously need to step *away* from the computer tonight because I keep finding ways to spend money, yikes! My newest discovery was this gorgeous Enid Blyton Nature Lover's Book. A peek inside the book can be found at The Blueberry Patch.

While I'm not personally familiar with Enid Blyton's work, I've heard so much about her, both good and bad. Naturally, out of sheer curiosity, I then also had to order a "Best of Blyton" boxed set (at a great price!). Since we're studying British children's literature this year, I think I can kind of justify this.

I'm *loving* these paintings by artist James Browne. As an added bonus, many of his prints are currently on sale!

Overall, this was a surprisingly good week, despite the fact that we fizzled out mid-week when I came down with the flu (isn't it always something?!).

Here's what we managed to accomplish:

• Monday - Tuesday: Studied Catechism I for 30 minutes; passed exam Wednesday
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1
• Finished reading St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills; started Augustine Came to Kent
• Took a test on "St. Benedict and Monasticism" (from Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation by Veritas Press)
• Read a selection from Bede's The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Dominic)
• Read two chapters from Our Island Story and Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History (we're *still* waiting on The Birth of Britain for Dominic!)
• Read about St. Boniface of Crediton in Beggars, Beasts and Easter Fire
• Read and narrated two chapters from The Story Book of Science
• Read selections from A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky: The Story of Stars, Planets, Constellations and How You Can Find Them in the Sky (a very nice book!) by Michael Driscoll
• Read Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton (Maddie)
• Read "Orion" by Ingri D'Aulaire, from For the Beauty of the Earth; created a journal entry for Orion (Maddie)
• Studied Classical Arithmetic daily, retook Lesson 1 exam Tuesday (M~37/41, D~38/41)
• Math facts drill on Monday and Wednesday
• Started Life of Fred Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology (Dominic, at his own insistence)
• Studied Latin/Grammar daily
• Read a chapter from English Literature for Boys and Girls and The Age of Chivalry
• Read and discussed Chapter 1, The Wind in the Willows (Maddie)
• Began reading The Children of Green Knowe (Maddie)
• Read Introduction and Chapter 1, The Annotated Hobbit (Dominic)
• [Geography] Read & narrated "Early Mariners," A Book of Discovery (Maddie)
• Started Cello lessons; daily Cello practice (Maddie)
• Free Reading: Finished The Problem Child (The Sisters Grimm, Book 3), started on Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4), (Maddie)
• One afternoon we spotted a coyote running across our back field, which led to some impromptu research. This is the first time we've ever seen a coyote near our property!
• Today, Friday, the twins had a snow day ~ so no public school. Since I'm still not feeling so well, and the kids are showing signs of getting sick, this translated into a day off for the rest of us.

A few personal highlights:

I discovered that you can purchase Modeling Beeswax from Etsy and promptly placed an order. Maddie enjoys working with Sculpey while I'm reading (otherwise she'd be quite fidgety!), so I thought she might enjoy trying her hand at beeswax.

We received some especially noteworthy books this week, including The Castle Corona (which is so beautifully illustrated!), The Adventures of Marco Polo, and Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages. Also, a number of books from Crabtree Publishing's The Medieval World series, which I've been wanting for quite some time. Happily, they did not disappoint! I found a free teacher's guide here.

After praying for, ahem, wisdom in handling my personal finances, I was startled to receive an order the following day for *four* copies of Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. Barnes & Noble accidentally sent the books instead of the Winston Churchill text I'd ordered for Dominic. Ah, the irony!

The absolute highlight of my week was, of course, my Google Books discovery. Since then, I've been searching out [public domain] books that might be useful for our studies this year (so much so that, much to my embarrassment, I was temporarily blocked from Google Books last night!). In doing so, I discovered the delightful Books for Children by Emma Gibbons, a slender volume with helpful book lists for the study of History, Literature, Nature, etc. Many of the titles mentioned will be familiar, but there are some real gems yet to be discovered! After perusing dozens of book lists, I think I've found some really excellent selections.

I haven't had much time (or energy) this past week to pursue my own education. I did, however, manage to finish The Autobiography of Henry VIII and resume The Book of Margery Kempe (which I find disturbing and yet strangely fascinating).

This afternoon, while browsing The Well-Trained Mind Forums, I stumbled across a downright *thrilling* discovery. In an old thread, I found a link to this Wired Magazine article about custom-printing public domain books. Now, I'm an avid Google Books user, but *hate* reading books online (as do my kids). I also dislike printing everything out as it results in significant paper/toner usage and just isn't quite as nice as having the actual book in hand. Unfortunately, many of the public domain books that I love are either impossible to find, or prohibitively expensive.

The Espresso Book Machine will turn a digital copy into a library-quality, perfect bound book in just minutes (how magical is that?!), but unfortunately, only a handful of book stores in the U.S. own the machine. Even more distressing is the lack of a shipping option offered. Finally however, I found this: the Harvard Book Store will print and ship books! And better yet, their search system appears to tie into Google Books directly. This really is, in my mind, completely revolutionary and opens a whole new world of possibilities for homeschoolers!

After quick deliberation, I ordered copies of the following (at a mere $8/apiece):

• Handbook Of Nature Study: For Teachers And Pupils In Elementary Schools by Dietrich Lange
• Nature Study in Elementary Schools: A Manual for Teachers by Lucy Langdon Williams Wilson
• In the Child's World: Morning Talks for Kindergartens, Primary Schools and Home by Emilie Poulsson (I adore this book and refer to it often!)
• Nature in Verse: A Poetry Reader for Children by Mary Isabella Lovejoy
• The Child's Fairy Geography, Or, A Merry Trip Round Europe by Forbes Edward Winslow (absolutely delightful and quite informative!)
• Legends of the Middle Ages: Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art by Hélène Adeline Guerber
• Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages by Edward Lewes Cutts (contains some good information not readily available elsewhere)

Already I'm making a list of the books that I'll need to order next (a few, in particular, that I forgot to order today!):

• Sharp Eyes: A Rambler's Calendar of Fifty-Two Weeks Among Insects, Birds, and Flowers by William Hamilton Gibson (referred to often by Emilie Poulsson in the above volume)
• The Book of Nature Myths by Florence Holbrook
• The Fairy Land of Flowers: A Popular Illustrated Botany for the Home and School by Mara Louise Pratt-Chadwick
• The Stories of My Four Friends by Jane Andrews (The "Four Friends" are the four seasons)
• Types of Children's Literature: A Collection of the World's Best Literature for Children by Walter Barnes (a fairly useful anthology)
• Merrie England: Travels, Tales and Historical Sketches and Bonnie Scotland: Tales of Her History, Heroes and Poets by Grace Greenwood (excellent!)
• Chaucer for Schools by Mrs. H.R. Haweis (also excellent!)
• Stories from Old English Poetry by Abby Sage Richardson
• Old Ballads in Prose by Eva March Tappan
• The Open Road: A Little Book for Wayfarers and The Friendly Town: A Little Book for the Urbane by Edward Verrall Lucas
• A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Lands by Charlotte M. Yonge
• English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
• Ethics for Young People by Charles Carroll Everett ("A dry subject attractively treated")

Well we've managed to survive another week, and what a long (but productive) week it's been!

Monday was a busy day with more back-to-school preparations for the twins. Much to my distress, they decided they'd like to bring bento lunches to school every day. While bentos are fun (and quite a novelty here), they can be very time consuming! Prior to pulling them from public school, we were completely bento-crazy around here. I used to spend *hours* making their lunches and even ordered numerous bento supplies (via a shopping agent) directly from Japan. As a result, we have several large cabinets loaded with bento boxes and bags, plus every kind of accessory. A lot of our stuff has never even been used. Finally, I agreed that they could bring very basic bentos. They started school on Tuesday, full of enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, here at home, Dominic, Maddie, and I managed to stay quite busy. Here's what we accomplished.

History

• Continued reading St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills
• Watched the rest of "Saints" on In Search of Ancient Ireland
• Read Brigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story
• Read Saint Brendan and The Voyage Before Columbus
• Read Across a Dark & Wild Sea
• Read about St. Cuthbert in Beggars, Beasts and Easter Fire: Stories of Early Saints
• Learned about the uniquely Irish concept of white martyrdom
• Learned about the importance of pilgrimages in the Middle Ages and explored this excellent Virtual Pilgrimage site.
• Practiced Uncial hand lettering using this handout (it's much harder than it looks!)
• Browsed this utterly wonderful 1494 illuminated sketchbook for illumination inspiration
• Created an illuminated letter
• Watched The Book of Kells: The Work of Angels?
• Colored a page from Color Your Own Book of Kells
• Finished our St. Patrick puzzle and started a St. Brendan the Navigator puzzle

As for what I've added into the schedule: Maddie read two chapters from Our Island Story and starting next week, she'll also be reading two chapters per week from Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History by Geraldine McCaughrean. Dominic will be reading a chapter per week from The Birth of Britain: A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill, in addition to the history work we'll continue doing together (loosely following the schedule outlined in TruthQuest History). I spent most of the week trying to align everything neatly so that our TruthQuest work would match up to their independent history work, but finally gave up. I'm fully aware that this is a rather muddled way of doing things, but it will have to suffice for now; my poor brain is just worn out!

Our curricula additions were inspired by a combination of sources: Ambleside Online, Mater Ambilis, and this mysterious St. Thomas School Curricula that I discovered and have fallen in love with (something about the way each lesson is so nicely plotted out is very appealing!). My Amazon Prime trial membership really and truly came in handy this week also, but as I've discovered, is slightly dangerous. I ordered oodles of books with very little thought and have yet to make sense of them all.

Geography

Geography is a subject that we never managed to squeeze in previously, so I'm happy that we were able to start on it this week. Maddie read from A Book of Discovery by MB Synge (available for free here). Hopefully by next week we'll have Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels and she'll read one chapter from each book per week. Dominic read portions of Sun Dancing because we're still waiting on The Brendan Voyage to arrive. I'm considering adding in Mapping the World with Art as well.

Literature

We began some pre-reading work for the books they'll be starting next week. Dominic will be reading The Hobbit and completing the Progeny Press Study Guide, and Maddie will be reading The Wind in the Willows. I'm compiling a study unit for her using ideas from this and this. Dominic will also start on The Once and Future King next week, and they'll both be reading a chapter per week from English Literature for Boys and Girls. Maddie may also start The Princess and the Goblin next week. Lastly, we read the Preface to Bullfinch's The Age of Chivalry, another book they'll be reading from weekly.

Science

Science is yet another subject that we've woefully neglected in the past. The kids read two chapters from The Story Book of Science (available for free here), and again, we're waiting on a book to arrive: For the Beauty of the Earth (which I purchased from the delightful Keller Books). They'll be reading and/or completing activities from For the Beauty of the Earth twice a week as well. On Fridays, we'll be doing a science activity from Nature in a Nutshell. This week it was frost crystals (which even the dog enjoyed!):

Catechism / Arithmetic / Latin / Grammar

CLAA memory work continued in these subjects this week and once again, the memory work was a battle. The kids are feeling quite discouraged that they haven't yet passed any exams, but we're making a determined effort to master the material. Currently, they're spending half an hour per day on catechism, half an hour per day on arithmetic (mainly because they already know the material, just not quite well enough), and an hour on grammar. I would imagine that we'll need to increase these times a bit in order to make better progress.

We skipped Singapore Math this week because it somehow slipped my mind entirely (yikes!).

Art and Music Appreciation

For art history this week, the kids read through Lesson 1 - 'Ancient and Early Christian Art' in Art through Faith. While I had a project planned to go with this lesson, the kids ended up making Celtic crosses from clay.

For music, we read the first chapter (Palestrina) from Famous Composers for Young People and listened to portions of Missa Papae Marcelli.

That, in a nutshell, was our week. I must say, I'm impressed with how smoothly school went overall, despite the extra work. Having only two at home is a lot easier than four! Nevertheless, I've already run into a few *issues* with the twins' school that I'm not the least bit pleased about, so we'll see how things go next week. Since state assessments are coming up, the entire focus right now is on teaching for those, which annoys me tremendously. However, I've also been extremely sleep-deprived all week (since I now have to be up early to get kids ready for the bus, ick!), which probably isn't helping my patience any.