This week was our second *full* week of school, because of all of the computer issues I've had the past couple of weeks. All of my plans, and much of our curriculum, is on the computer so no computer meant little formal schoolwork. I'm starting to realize that the more carefully I plan, the more certain it is that something will happen to disrupt those plans! September was supposed to be a very full month, and yet we weren't able to accomplish much of what I'd scheduled. I'm hoping for better luck in October!

Here's what we accomplished:

Religion: Daily readings from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, and the corresponding art from Saints: A Year in Faith and Art. We also reviewed what we'd learned in the Old Testament last year and read about the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist in A Life of Our Lord for Children. In Peril and Peace we read about St. Paul of Tarsus, and in the Bible, we read Matthew 4, 5-6 & 7.

Language Arts: We completed four lessons from Spelling Wisdom, four lessons from Intermediate Language Lessons (for the 4th/5th graders) and four lessons from Lingua Mater (for the 7th grader). We also completed four lessons from Catholic Heritage Handwriting. Since we're currently reviewing the parts of speech, we read about "Little Article" in Grammar-Land.

Our current read aloud is When You Reach Me, which the kids are enjoying immensely. Though we're only half way through the book, they've gotten very close to figuring out the puzzle (they just don't know it yet!).

Latin: We began Latina Christiana this week with Lesson 1. The DVD's and CD really make this program a breeze to use and the kids had fun with it.

History: We spent a second week on TOG Y1U4 Week 29, since last week we were only schooling part time. The kids continued to learn about the birth of the Roman Republic, Roman law and the Forum. They also learned more about daily life in the Republic and for fun, were challenged to create a catalog of items the Romans would have used (though of course there was no catalog shopping in Roman times!). The finished product was a catalog they named "Rome Today," and it included various kitchen utensils, clothing, accessories, and of course, weapons. Frankly I was surprised how much research and detail went into the project - I'll try to post pictures soon.

Math: The boys reviewed fractions, doing both Math Mammoth worksheets and assignments in their Singapore books. Maddie continued to work on division and multiplication review.

Science: I've given up on most of my plans for science this month since it's, uh, the end of the month already. We have been learning about all kinds of things, but most of it has been completely spontaneous (which really, has been rather fun!). I'm currently contemplating a unit on the prairie ecosystem, which we've already been studying a bit in the past week or so.

We have not had a single Fine Arts Friday this month, which I'm rather sad about. However, I decided not to start today since my plans really required starting at the beginning of a month. Therefore, we'll begin next week - I've had a number of projects ready to go, so I'm anxious to begin!

Also, this week the kids had their first Lego Robotics class. Since the local homeschool robotics club was already very full, they will be on a local private school's team. This actually works out great because rather than meeting with the club bi-weekly, they'll be in class every Wednesday for two hours, learning more than they would have otherwise.

A few end-of-summer caterpillars

A bountiful harvest of tomatoes!