February sunbeams
Brighter grow each day
Telling that the winter
Soon will pass away.

• Studied Catechism I, Classical Arithmetic and Latin/Grammar near daily (Their interest in these subjects is waning since they're still unable to pass exams in the Arithmetic and Grammar).
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1
• We continued reading Augustine Came to Kent.
• I spent Monday afternoon trying to teach the twins (who had a snow day) all of the Math concepts they're required to know for the state assessments this year. - Concepts not covered in their Singapore Math textbooks, which was a little distressing.
• Science: We read the myth of Clytie and several sun poems in For the Beauty of the Earth. We also read about the sun in A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky.
• We sculpted a sun with homemade air dry clay; this would have been a great project too, especially as we'll be studying the moon next week.
• Read Chapter 1 of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and actually liked it! Completed discussion questions and activities from this study guide. (Dominic)
• Read Chapter 3 of The Wind in the Willows and had to draw a picture of the Wild Wood. (Maddie)
• In history this week, we studied the development of Islam and learned a little about the Silk Road. As we read about Muhammad's early life as a merchant, three board games came to mind immediately: Yspahan, Through the Desert and Oasis (all pertain to camel caravans, which I suppose is why I thought of them.). A little research later led me to this excellent site about Silk Road Board Games. I'll have to keep them in mind for our later study of Marco Polo!
• Read about Muhammad in Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and also read Muhammad by Demi; completed a worksheet on Muhammad from Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation by Veritas Press.
• Read Mosque by David MacAulay (The Haba Middle Eastern building blocks would have been perfect to go with this, but much to M's dismay, I refrained from purchasing them.)
• The kids read one chapter from Our Island Story and three from Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History.
• In Chapter 2 of The Child's Fairy Geography, or, A Trip Round Europe, we finished our tour of England and watched the rest of the Visions of England DVD. We read This is Britain by Miroslav Sasek.
• On Monday, we read "One of the Sorrows of Story-Telling" from English Literature for Boys & Girls. Tuesday, we were supposed to read "Gudrun" from Legends of the Middle Ages, but skipped it. Wednesday, we read "The Three Sillies" from English Fairy Tales. Thursday, we read part of "The Two Noble Kinsman" by Chaucer from Stories from Old English Poetry.

• On Wednesday, for the Feast of St. Scholastica, we read The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica by Kathleen Norris and completed the discussion questions in Catholic Mosaic.
• Thursday, for the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we read Our Lady of Lourdes by Father Lovasik and watched Bernadette. I've had Song of Bernadette from Netflix for weeks now, so will need to watch it this weekend. I also printed this for the kids (c. 1954) from Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, a Catholic comic book published from 1946-63.
• Friday was sunny and warm ~ a beautiful day and thus all plans went out the window! We worked on painting our clay-sculpted suns (which met with some misfortune during the week as the boys accidentally poked holes in a couple of them) and prepared for our Valentine's celebration. More about this later...

Dominic's Sun

Maddie's Sun

Dominic and I did not start Ethics, Economics or Logic this week as I'd hoped, nor did I read aloud from The Hobbit and Pyle's King Arthur and His Knights. Very disappointing, so hopefully next week we'll be back on track!

Personal Highlights:

• On Tuesday, I gave Maddie a haircut! I've been cutting the boys' hair for years, but have never been brave enough to attempt even trimming her very curly hair. I took a total of 5" off, because she wanted it short, and it came out great!
• I read/finished Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple (and wrote a brief review) and started Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield and English Children's Books: 1600-1900 by Percy Muir.