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.

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).