Okay, so I'm now two weeks behind in those "weekly" reports, but the truth is that we just got so busy with RobotBoy's Nutcracker performances (12 shows in 10 days) and so distracted by having Moonheart home and so wrapped up in various holiday events that we just didn't get a lot of school done in the last couple of weeks. Just so I don't feel like I completely dropped the ball, here's a quick rundown of how things have gone since my last post.
December 10 - 16: RobotBoy squeezed in four math lessons, reading a few chapters of Alice Rose and Sam, a little bit of Latin and Spanish, some science reading, watching Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a piano lesson, attending a Christmas-themed show at the Shakespeare Theatre, and one lesson of CHOW in between three Nutcracker rehearsals and four performances, the show's cast party, the end-of-semester party for his Sunday school class, plus a three-hour choir rehearsal and the choir's Christmas concert and reception.
December 17 - 23: This week was supposed to begin our official holiday break. However, because we took a week off from math last month that I did not plan for, RobotBoy had to keep working in his online class. So, he did another three math lessons and made corrections to a couple of lessons he had submitted the previous week. He spent Wednesday afternoon at the final session of his science center physics class. At the last minute, he was asked to come be in the series of three abbreviated Nutcracker they do for school groups. He then had regular shows on Thursday and throughout the weekend.
I honestly believed that he would be thoroughly sick of The Nutcracker by the time he finished this run, but it wasn't so. He was very disappointed to see it end, and even the prospect of Christmas, itself, didn't seem to help all that much.
On Christmas Eve, we headed out to church. Moonheart had volunteered to sing in the children's pageant and then was invited to sing for the later, grown-up service, too. We had decided RobotBoy would not participate in the pageant this year, because of the Nutcracker schedule, but he got recruited to sing a short solo, too. The pageant was the usual rocky experience: Right up to the very last minute, we're all sure it's going to crash and burn, but, somehow, it all comes together. Of course, my favorite moments were the ones involving my kids, but it's possible I'm not exactly an impartial observer.
I thought folks might like to hear a little sample of Moonheart's performance. I think I've finally figured out how to get the video to show up here. Cross your fingers!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Another Interrupted Week
RobotBoy had his recurring “substitute teacher” again this week for two days when he stayed home with Dad while I drove to Virginia and back, bringing Moonheart home for the semester break. On the heels of his weekend “on the road” with the ballet school (during which he spent a lot of time hanging out in the dressing room with a child who spiked a 102-degree fever on the last day), he was also distinctly under the weather for a couple of days. He even more or less quit eating! (You have to know RobotBoy to understand exactly how noteworthy that is.) We forged ahead, though, having him do light days of schoolwork alternated with some extra rest.
The out-of-town ballet performances went very well, by the way. I served as a dressing room chaperone for most of the weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how many electronic devices are brought into boys’ dressing rooms, but the kids were really good and managed to remain as friendly and cheerful as a room full of kids could be expected to be when required to spend more than 20 hours of a weekend cooped up in a room smaller than most children’s bedrooms. The group my son performed with received compliments both from the show’s director/choreographer and from the mom who coordinates all the backstage stuff. And my son had a wonderful time. So, I’d say it was a good experience.
After three years of performances, he's also acquired a nice (and growing) collection of nutcrackers, which he enjoys arranging and displaying throughout the year
He had this weekend “off” (just a two-hour ballet rehearsal plus three hours of choir on Saturday morning) before heading into two more weekends of local performances.
Meanwhile, Moonheart and I made it home late on Thursday. I was a bit surprised to find actual snow on the ground in Virginia.
She had Friday at home to goof off and relax, then went to a rehearsal with her old choir on Saturday afternoon. She was preparing to make her debut as an alumna at the choir’s Sunday evening concert. When I picked her up, she told me with great joy and amusement that everybody wanted to hug her! That trend continued when she went with us to our church on Sunday morning. She reconnected with many old friends of varying ages and seemed to have a lovely time. She then went to an hour’s worth of rehearsal for the upcoming Christmas Eve pageant, for which she has volunteered to sing a short solo. After that, we had just enough time to run home, let her eat sometime and change clothes so that she could go back downtown for the choir concert.
The concert was lovely! RobotBoy will have his turn with the boychoir next weekend.
And, in the middle of it all, we’ve managed to more or less keep up with the schoolwork, too. Here’s the rundown for the week:
Math:
RobotBoy took the final for the geometry module on Monday and got himself a nice ‘A.’ He has moved on to the module in algebraic thinking, which isn’t quite such a piece of cake for him. He’s doing fine, but has to pay a bit more attention. (Not a bad thing, in my book!)
History & Literature:
We accomplished exactly no reading of Great Expectations last week. Instead, once Moonheart was home, we started reading aloud How Mrs. Clause Saved Christmas, the sequel to Jeff Guinn’s Autobiography of Santa Claus that we all enjoyed reading last year. At this point, I’m assuming we’ll have to catch up with Mr. Dickens once Moonheart is safely back at school. In independent reading, RobotBoy finished Red Badge of Courage, which got two big thumbs up, and has started reading Kathryn Lasky’s Alice Rose and Sam.
English:
It was a writing exercise week, so RobotBoy took his first stab at a photo essay about our field trip to Fort Sumter. It still needs to be refined, and once I’ve signed off on it, he’ll write out a final copy for his notebook.
Science:
He had the third of four sessions of the physics class at the museum. As homework, he researched and wrote a paragraph about catapults. The class then built a model catapult and apparently had a grand time. At home, he read from his Human Body and Earth’s Waters books. We ended up postponing the experiments about ice from the Marine Science book, because I had forgotten to prepare the necessary supplies for him. (Bad homeschool mommy! Bad!)
Latin:
This week, RobotBoy did the first half of Chapter 5 of Minimus Secundus. He got through the first picture story and well as the Grasp the Grammar and Latin Roots exercises. He also had a good time coloring and cutting out the stand-up figure of poor Duccius, the standard bearer.
Spanish:
He worked on The Learnables three times this week, earning perfect scores on all five ejercicios.
Music:
He got back to learning new pieces in Themes to Remember this week, starting with Beethoven’s Symphony #5. It’s become the height of humor around here for him to randomly sing snippets of classical pieces or to figure out how to segue smoothly from a tune from a popular song or film score to a classical piece.
We also watched Amadeus with Dad as a family movie night, which was a big hit.
Oh, and he had a double piano lesson on Monday to make up for a portion of the time he’s missed over the last couple of weeks.
All in all, it’s been very busy, but we’re keeping our heads above water so far. The plan is to try and stay on track with a more or less normal schedule this week, then take off from everything except the online math class until the second week of January, after I’ve deposited Moonheart back at the dorm.
Let’s just hope I can manage to wash, dry and fold all of the dirty laundry she brought home in time to drive her back.
Hoping everyone is having a lovely (and not too stressful) holiday season so far!
The out-of-town ballet performances went very well, by the way. I served as a dressing room chaperone for most of the weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how many electronic devices are brought into boys’ dressing rooms, but the kids were really good and managed to remain as friendly and cheerful as a room full of kids could be expected to be when required to spend more than 20 hours of a weekend cooped up in a room smaller than most children’s bedrooms. The group my son performed with received compliments both from the show’s director/choreographer and from the mom who coordinates all the backstage stuff. And my son had a wonderful time. So, I’d say it was a good experience.
After three years of performances, he's also acquired a nice (and growing) collection of nutcrackers, which he enjoys arranging and displaying throughout the yearHe had this weekend “off” (just a two-hour ballet rehearsal plus three hours of choir on Saturday morning) before heading into two more weekends of local performances.
Meanwhile, Moonheart and I made it home late on Thursday. I was a bit surprised to find actual snow on the ground in Virginia.She had Friday at home to goof off and relax, then went to a rehearsal with her old choir on Saturday afternoon. She was preparing to make her debut as an alumna at the choir’s Sunday evening concert. When I picked her up, she told me with great joy and amusement that everybody wanted to hug her! That trend continued when she went with us to our church on Sunday morning. She reconnected with many old friends of varying ages and seemed to have a lovely time. She then went to an hour’s worth of rehearsal for the upcoming Christmas Eve pageant, for which she has volunteered to sing a short solo. After that, we had just enough time to run home, let her eat sometime and change clothes so that she could go back downtown for the choir concert.
The concert was lovely! RobotBoy will have his turn with the boychoir next weekend.
And, in the middle of it all, we’ve managed to more or less keep up with the schoolwork, too. Here’s the rundown for the week:
Math:
RobotBoy took the final for the geometry module on Monday and got himself a nice ‘A.’ He has moved on to the module in algebraic thinking, which isn’t quite such a piece of cake for him. He’s doing fine, but has to pay a bit more attention. (Not a bad thing, in my book!)
History & Literature:
We accomplished exactly no reading of Great Expectations last week. Instead, once Moonheart was home, we started reading aloud How Mrs. Clause Saved Christmas, the sequel to Jeff Guinn’s Autobiography of Santa Claus that we all enjoyed reading last year. At this point, I’m assuming we’ll have to catch up with Mr. Dickens once Moonheart is safely back at school. In independent reading, RobotBoy finished Red Badge of Courage, which got two big thumbs up, and has started reading Kathryn Lasky’s Alice Rose and Sam.
English:
It was a writing exercise week, so RobotBoy took his first stab at a photo essay about our field trip to Fort Sumter. It still needs to be refined, and once I’ve signed off on it, he’ll write out a final copy for his notebook.
Science:
He had the third of four sessions of the physics class at the museum. As homework, he researched and wrote a paragraph about catapults. The class then built a model catapult and apparently had a grand time. At home, he read from his Human Body and Earth’s Waters books. We ended up postponing the experiments about ice from the Marine Science book, because I had forgotten to prepare the necessary supplies for him. (Bad homeschool mommy! Bad!)
Latin:
This week, RobotBoy did the first half of Chapter 5 of Minimus Secundus. He got through the first picture story and well as the Grasp the Grammar and Latin Roots exercises. He also had a good time coloring and cutting out the stand-up figure of poor Duccius, the standard bearer.
Spanish:
He worked on The Learnables three times this week, earning perfect scores on all five ejercicios.
Music:He got back to learning new pieces in Themes to Remember this week, starting with Beethoven’s Symphony #5. It’s become the height of humor around here for him to randomly sing snippets of classical pieces or to figure out how to segue smoothly from a tune from a popular song or film score to a classical piece.
We also watched Amadeus with Dad as a family movie night, which was a big hit.Oh, and he had a double piano lesson on Monday to make up for a portion of the time he’s missed over the last couple of weeks.
All in all, it’s been very busy, but we’re keeping our heads above water so far. The plan is to try and stay on track with a more or less normal schedule this week, then take off from everything except the online math class until the second week of January, after I’ve deposited Moonheart back at the dorm.
Let’s just hope I can manage to wash, dry and fold all of the dirty laundry she brought home in time to drive her back.
Hoping everyone is having a lovely (and not too stressful) holiday season so far!
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