This is our first weekly report in awhile because for the past two months the kids have been doing much of their work independently. I got very busy with my job, but also needed to take some time away from our more teacher-intensive work to rest, reevaluate and recharge. Happily, the kids did really well during this time, though they missed the hands-on activities and read-alouds. Now, we're back to "school as usual," or at least, doing as much as is possible during this oh-so-busy time of year. 

Religion

• We continued reading daily from Saints for Young Readers, Vol. 2.
• This week, we resumed memory work from the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism and are still on the first part of Lesson 2.
• The kids are also now taking religious education classes at the parish school twice a week in preparation for the sacraments of First Reconciliation (Confession) and First Eucharist (Communion).

History

• In our textbook, From Sea to Shining Sea, we read pages 99-105 about the founding of Jamestown, Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.
• The kids had fun studying a reproduction of Captain John Smith's Map of Virginia. This led to an impromptu discussion and examination of other 16th-17th century maps in The Atlas of Atlases: The Map Maker's Vision of the World.
• The kids read the first chapter of both Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland and Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners.
• I read aloud 20 pages per day from Stories of the Pilgrims (available for free here).
• The kids read 20 pages per day from Blood on the River: Jamestown, 1607.
• We watched the following DVDs: NOVA: Pocahontas Revealed, The New World and Beyond the Movie: The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown. 
• The kids learned a little about their 11th Great Grandfather, William Dawson, who arrived at Jamestown as an indentured servant via the Discovery in 1621.
• From History Pockets: Colonial America, the kids completed a notebooking page on Pocahontas, a John Smith mini-book and a map of Jamestown mini-book.
• From Time Travelers: American Revolution, the kids completed a 3-D replica of Jamestown.   
• From Colonial America: Cooperative Learning Activities, the kids did a cut, color and paste model of a ship and created a "shopping list for the New World." After creating their shopping list, they selected a Wilderness Condition Card to compare to their list, to see if they brought everything needed.
• On Tuesday, we watched a webcast from Plimoth Plantation (which we'll be studying next week), though we mysteriously lost our live feed about halfway through. 
• We sampled a number of recipes from my new favorite cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes. One of my favorites was a creamy peanut soup (recipe here), garnished with lardoons (thin strips of Virginia ham, fried in butter) and whole berry cranberry sauce. Apparently peanut soup was quite popular in colonial times. According to this, colonists planted peanuts as fodder for pigs, and their slaves used the peanut to make peanut pie and peanut soup. This is an interesting article on colonial cuisine.
  
  Links:

• Jamestown 1607: An interactive journey
• Jamestown Interactive from The History Channel
• Jamestown Teacher Guide from The History Channel
• Jamestown Settlement - the official website
• The Jamestown Chronicles: Video Biographies
• Jamestown: Why There?
• Jamestown Timeline (.PDF)
• Jamestown Rediscovery: Artifacts found at Jamestown

• This week we set aside our Seton readers and workbooks to try something different. M began reading I, Coriander and J began reading Brendon Chase; they will be doing a report upon completion of the books. M also began reading Little Women.
• For vocabulary, the kids completed one lesson per day (M-Th) from Vocabulary 5 for Young Catholics.
• In Voyages in English, the kids started a unit on adjectives and completed one lesson per day.
• Daily copywork from the Bible and George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation, part of the Time Travelers: Colonial Life unit.
• For composition, we studied sentence writing (primarily, ways of making sentences interesting) and the kids completed several exercises from Alhambra Denning's Methods and Material for Composition.  I also had them record examples of interesting sentences that they encountered in their reading and we discussed these.

The past couple of months have been unexpectedly busy, not affording me time for the usual fall/holiday planning and preparations. With things settling down and cooler weather forecasted for the next week (finally!), I've started searching for some new fall recipes to try. Here's what sounded good:

Sweet

• Spiced Apple Upside-Down Bundt Cake
• Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce
• Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
• Ricotta Apple Cake with Cider-Maple Glaze
• Nick Malgieri's Chocolate Hazelnut Pound Cake
• Miniature Pumpkin Spice Cakes
• Chai-Spiced Honey Bundt Cake
• Browned Butter Pumpkin Bundt Cake
• Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread
• Clementine-Vanilla Bean Quick Bread
• Salted Fudge Brownies
• Dorie Greenspan's Applesauce Spice Bars
• Pumpkin Spice Scones
• Hazelnut Cookies
• Caramel-Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies
• Maple-Butter Spiced Popcorn
• Vanilla Bean Sugared Cranberries

Savory

• Maple-Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter
• Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing
• Cranberry-Pecan Stuffing
• Apple and Cheddar Scones
• Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Cheese Fondue
• Beef Chili + Sour Cream and Cheddar Biscuits
• Cider Brined Grilled Stuffed Pork Chops
• Dorie Greenspan's Cauliflower Bacon Gratin
• Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Bacon and Gorgonzola
• Irish Pumpkin-Cider Soup
• Bacon-Cheddar Biscuits

Beverages

• Pumpkin Spice Latte 
• Hot Rum Cow
• Apple Cider, Cranberry, and Ginger Punch 
• Warm Vanilla Cider

Also, from my newest cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes: Peanut Soup with Cranberry Sauce and Lardoons, Butternut Squash and Pear Pottage, Sugar and Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Red Cabbage and Pear Compote, Gingered Pumpkin Muffins, and Applesauce Buttermilk Biscuits. Yum!