This week was, quite frankly, a bit light. We've been fairly relaxed about certain subjects this year while I've been struggling to find curriculum and a method that actually works for us (after nearly a year of homeschooling, I'm still feeling pretty clueless!). The kids don't work well independently and I don't have hours a day to spend reading (nor will they tolerate that). I had high hopes that things would improve this week, but alas, it didn't happen. We managed to muddle our way through the Barbarians and the Byzantine Empire in history - with a heavy emphasis on Byzantine art & architecture, and two Math lessons were completed per day, but there was no Language Arts, Science or Latin. Yikes!

Though I enjoyed using Tapestry of Grace to study Ancient Rome, I tweaked it so much, it became something else entirely (truthfully, it was also a little overwhelming). So now that I've exhausted nearly all of our options for history, I'm back to writing my own curriculum with the help of TruthQuest. I can't promise that it'll be spectacular since I'm having to essentially plan as we go, but at least the Middle Ages is a subject that I'm passionate about, which will help.

What I did accomplish this week was to establish a strict new schedule and rules. Part of the problem is that the kids have become lazy and difficult, and that's simply not acceptable. I have a nearly full-time job to manage, in addition to homeschooling, cooking, cleaning and lesson planning. Since my husband recently accepted a job out-of-state, everything falls on my shoulders these days and it's a lot to deal with when I'm getting NO cooperation from the kids (especially when, despite surgery, I'm still having near-daily headaches)!

So here's my plan... From now on, bed time is strictly at 9:30. Everyone is expected to be up in the morning by 6:30, fed, and ready for school at 7:30. School will be held daily until 12:30. After lunch, they will have a mandatory 30-minute free reading period followed by chores. At 2:00, if all work is complete, they will be allowed computer/television/Xbox time until dinner. Arguing/disrupting class/not doing work will result in the total loss of electronic privileges for the day *and* extra chores. For every five minutes they are late to school in the morning, they'll be writing 25 lines. To alleviate the complaints that school is "boring," each child was allowed to choose an elective that they'll study for the last hour of school each day. Dominic and Jaymon chose Japanese and manga drawing, Maddie ~ drawing and painting, and Elon ~ electronics. They'll start on these electives in January.

For Advent this week, I managed to follow my Week 1 Plans pretty faithfully. We added a book ~ Sister Wendy's Story of Christmas, which was just wonderful (and a steal on Amazon right now)! Our paper plate angels were a *total* disaster, so instead, the kids made some simple angel ornaments as shown below (can you tell we're in love with Martha Stewart glitter these days?!). Also, we didn't get very far on our tissue paper roses, so will be working on those this weekend since we'll need them for something else next week.

• A brief overview of Byzantine Art & Architecture can be found here.
• Presentation on Byzantine Art & Architecture (an alternate presentation can be found here)
• Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium: An article from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Gallery of Icons at St. Catherine's Monastery, Mt. Sinai (over half of the remaining Byzantine icons in the world are at St. Catherine's)
• Presentation on Byzantine Icons: The Art & Science of Depiction
• Additional Reading:
  The Annotated Arch:"Byzantine Splendor" p. 32-37
  Art Through Faith (Seton): Week 3 - Mosaics, p. 10-13, Week 6 - Byzantine Icons, p. 24-29, A Child's History of Art: Architecture: "Eastern Early Christians"
• Free Orthodox Icon Coloring Book

Next week we'll be back to our *full* course load and taking a look at the church in the early Middle Ages, with a special emphasis on Saint Benedict and the rise of monasticism. We've got a lot planned for Advent as well, so it will be a busy week!