1. California
Four of us returned from six days in California on Monday evening, which you may read all about below, if you missed my earlier posts!
2. Summer School
We've launched into summer school. As a homeschooler, some years I have taken the summer entirely off. On the years I had a baby, I generally had to do summer school because of time lost during the school year. And this summer we are doing summer school because I'm finding at this stage (majority of kids are not independent learners yet), I can't manage to get all our school done in nine months of an academic year, so we need to keep puttering in the summer in order to lighten next year's load (read: to keep my sanity next year).
Goals for rising 7th, 5th, and 3rd graders:
Science: Complete science textbook over summer so they do not have that subject next year
Typing: We are trying the Typsey program daily for 15 minutes.
Spelling and Penmanship: They are each writing 6 dictated spelling sentences in their best cursive daily.
Math: One lesson of Teaching Textbooks and 15 minutes of Times Alive (to learn multiplication facts) daily
Music: Practicing their one or two instruments daily
Goal for rising 7th grader only: 10 minutes of Latin review daily
Goals for the rising first grader: Do phonics and math with Mama daily, as well as piano. Pray that I can do my part to keep him learning this summer!
My hoped-for and not-onerous schedule is:
- Knock out music practice between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m.
- Play outside while it is cool.
- Do school between 1:00 and 3:00 while tiny tots are in Quiet Time.
- More free time (this week: kids building forts in the woods daily!)
- 5:30ish Dinner
- More free time
3. Auto Class
The 10- and 12-year-olds and I attended a neat, basic auto class one evening. It was so helpful to have the basic aspects of an auto engine explained, as well as to be warned of some bad practices by mechanics (e.g., "If the mechanic says XYZ to you, run away.").
4. Giant Nightcrawler
We thought this fella was a snake.
5. Little Sugar Creek Greenway
Little Sugar Creek Greenway has had a segment completed right behind our neighborhood, so we took a family walk after dinner to check it out. It is beautiful! We saw a swooping Great Blue Heron and a hawk, a deer bounding across the river, and picked up a very hairy caterpillar.
6. Pool
We were all very chilly at the pool and it turns out that I chose to take us on the day we broke our record held since 1903 for the coldest morning temperature.
But it wasn't too cold for ice cream. Is it ever?
7. Decluttering
I've accomplished decluttering a few closets this week. These kind of projects are so good to do on hot summer afternoons (indoors anyway) because I don't have the time when I'm teaching during the school year.
For more 7 Quick Takes, check out This Ain't the Lyceum.
Your California travelogue was interesting because I'm from northern California originally (raised in San Jose, alum of Santa Cruz, twin brother is an Aggie) and I lived in Galt (25 miles south of downtown Sacramento) for three years.
ReplyDeleteThe homelessness issue is pretty complicated and the fact that housing is crazy expensive out there doesn't help at all. (It's similarly bad up here, especially in Seattle, but my small town has issues as well.) I also have yet to see a Pride parade, mostly because I'm never near downtown areas anywhere. Marijuana being legal is not that weird for me as I live in Washington now and it has been legal here for a few years. (You can't get high in public and it's regulated the same way liquor is elsewhere.)
The Train Museum in Sacramento is something I remember visiting 35 years ago and I'm bummed that we didn't make it there while we lived in Galt. I do have fond memories of visiting the Sacramento Zoo with my kiddo while we lived in Galt because we had a membership and that made it actually pretty cheap to go.
Katherine, I found your blog through a search for traditional Catholics in Charlotte. Blessings on you and your beautiful family! We will be moving to Charlotte next year, sight unseen, from a different continent. I am looking forward to attending the weekly Latin Mass. Beyond that, I hope to send our elder two to a solidly Catholic school. I realize that you homeschool, but I wonder if you would have any advice in that respect, i.e. which are the “best” Charlotte schools from a traditional Catholic perspective? It’s so hard to figure out what is what from thousands of miles away, based only on websites! Thank you and God bless.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
DeleteI look forward to meeting you here in Charlotte! I would like to answer your question in depth via email privately instead of posting my opinions on this for the world to see. Are you able to share your email address with me? I will say that the two Catholic high-schools in town (Charlotte Catholic on the south side and Christ the King on the north side) have many worldly problems that parents report. The bishop has been working hard to clean them up in the last five years, most importantly replacing their entire theology staff with solid, orthodox teachers. But the bishop can't change the home lives of all the students. Now, Regina Caeli Academy is almost definitely starting here in Charlotte in 2020-21, and that would be a hybrid school (K-12). Students attend two full days per week, then come home and do their independent studies three days a week. Also, at St. Ann's parish, there are middle- and high-school classes covering all the core subjects offered to homeschoolers, and they are entirely orthodox. We could discuss it more in depth over email.
Dear Katherine, thank you for responding! It would be brilliant if we could get in touch via email. My address is moononthewing AT yandex DOT com.
DeleteI had not heard about Regina Caeli Academy. What a fantastic concept! I'm not sure the two-days-a-week concept is for us but that would be a wonderful option to have. Hope they do come to Charlotte.
I look forward to hearing from you! God bless.