135 days of school completed!
We plowed through another month of school, working hard with the promise of a spring break.
Our goal has been to work 6 weeks and then enjoy a week off, allowing us breaks interspersed throughout the school year (and hopefully avoiding burnout!). This year, our December move interrupted that plan - we took an extended break (to move), which necessitated a longer run of school. We've been at it solid since mid-January. We are overdue for a break!
This last month, we've focused on our symposium time together, math, language arts, and lots of reading. The kids all completed their February read-aloud challenge - all of our readers read aloud for 10+ minutes each day for the entire month of February, earning a Dairy Queen treat. Although I think the biggest winners of this challenge were our four little girls - they were a great audience for reading and loved having lots of stories read to them each day.
This month, we learned about the end of the Great War, post-war politics, the Roaring Twenties, Amendments 18 (and 21) and 19, The Harlem Renaissance, Black Tuesday, the Great Depression, the presidential administrations of Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. The kids memorized "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row,
that mark our place; and in the sky
the larks, still bravely singing, fly
scarce heard amid the guns below . . .
And, "I, Too" by Langston Hughes:
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow. . .
We've read together "The Railway Children" by Nesbit, "Bud, not Buddy" by Curtis, "The Hundred Dresses" by Estes, and started Bud's companion "The Mighty Miss Malone" also by Curtis. We've been working through memorizing the Baltimore Catechism and praying the Rosary daily.
The older 6 students are continuing to work hard with their online classes (and we've signed up for more next year). These have been a challenge as they are all learning to work with timelines, (non-parent) teacher expectations, communication, note taking, and test prep - all very valuable skills and ones we're glad they're learning now! Our two youngest students (Kopin and Maclaren) and making great strides in their reading. Kolpin is reading through the "Nate The Great" series and Maclaren is halfway done with her phonics book - reading with mama in bed and with M&M rewards helps :) Dabney is very motivated to begin her reading too - she's starting!
Overall, it has been a very successful month and we're looking forward to a week (or more!) break before kicking it back into gear to finish out the school year. We're so close to being done!
