After a lovely Christmas break, this week has been one of easing back into our school routine and trying out new curriculum, yet again. And what a week it's been! Let me just say now that I am totally and completely wiped out!
Last month I spent a fair amount of time researching the Classical Liberal Arts Academy and found myself deeply impressed with the school on many different levels. Realizing that it would be quite a *challenge* for us (especially in its demands for structure and discipline, two areas in which we're rather lacking), I enrolled the kids in the three core classes: Classic Catechism I, Classical Arithmetic and Classical Grammar I, while also enrolling myself in the Praeceptor Training. I naively anticipated that the addition of a few online classes would simplify my life somehow, because it seems I've struggled a lot with homeschooling this past year.
However, this week has been nothing short of a *total* nightmare, made worse by the fact that I've been dealing with an increasingly nasty migraine for the past three days. Every single day has been a battle, replete with hours of whining/crying/arguing over the work and how hard it is to do. Essentially, there's a lot of memorization (it's ALL memorization), and while I knew it wouldn't be easy, I certainly wasn't expecting this. How on earth do you force a child to memorize pages (and pages) of material? It's overwhelming, I do understand that, yet not completely impossible if they'd avoid working themselves into such a frenzy over it! At any rate, we're committed, and I do believe the classes are valuable, so I'm not prepared to let them win this battle. I firmly believe that once we get past this hurdle (if I survive it), we'll all have benefitted. I can only hope that next week I'm headache-free and in a better position to deal with this, um, challenge. This weekend I'm going to begin praying this Novena for Homeschooling Mothers (Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), which certainly can't hurt.


Aside from our online coursework, the kids each completed a lesson in their Singapore Math books daily. In History, we continued to read from St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills by Mary Fabyan Windeatt (perhaps the emphasis on the obedience of the monks will rub off on them?!) and Life in a Medieval Abbey by Tony McAleavy. In particular, we began to study the art of illumination; we read Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson and started on Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide to Illuminated Manuscripts by Elizabeth B. Wilson. We'll continue this study next week using some of the resources listed below. I am deliberately keeping history quite light right now until we get more settled with our other classes. Given my tendency to over plan everything, I'm trying to do as little planning as possible ~ not an easy feat.
Online Resources:

• The Making of a Medieval Book from The Getty
• Digital Library of Illuminated Manuscripts from Lehigh University
• Leaves of Gold from the Philadelphia Museum of Art ~ a wonderful site that was recently taken down, but thankfully still available via the Internet Archive

Lesson Plans / Hands-On Activities:

• Understanding Medieval Manuscripts (PowerPoint Presentation)
• Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: Lesson Plans & Ideas for Discussion from The Getty
• Illuminations: A Lesson in the Art of Illuminated Letters
• Create an Illuminated Alphabet Book from The Getty
• Make a Medieval Book from the V&A
• Make Your Own Medieval Manuscript 8-page codex templates from the Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Tools of the Trade & How They Were Used: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• Find the Tools in the Margins: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• The Scribe in His Workshop: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• Crayon Resist Illumination
• Medieval Letters Set
• The Illuminated Lettering Kit
• Make Your Own Manuscripts! Templates Suppliers

In other news...I've been doggedly pursuing my own self-education this week. In addition to my Praeceptor Training class, I read A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester ~ a lousy book riddled with inaccuracies! The only thing I gained from the book was a renewed interest in Henry VIII and a desire to learn more about Europe's primevil forests. So to that end, I'm currently reading the excellent and exceedingly well-researched The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Sommers by Margaret George and have ordered The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, which mentions Poland's ancient Bialowieza Forest.
Speaking of books, it's worth mentioning that Amazon is currently offering another trial of Amazon Prime, this time for 3 months (!), with the purchase of any textbook (through 2/5/2010). Their definition of a textbook appears to be a bit loose, but to qualify I ordered The Book of Margery Kempe and The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages by Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke (which does not qualify). I had a trial of Amazon Prime right before Christmas and have been dearly missing out, so I was thrilled to discover this offer (thanks to Jessica at Shower of Roses!).