Trip to the Museum of Science

We had been meaning to do this for a long time. So this week, my husband took some vacation days and we went into the city via the T, to the Museum of Science.

It was great, we really enjoyed the Lightning Exhibit and the Butterfly Garden. Much of the extra stuff was expensive, even with our library discount pass, so we did not see any of the films or the planetarium.

It really re-inforced some of the things that we have already learned this year. My son and I enjoyed putting together and taking apart the models of the eyes, teeth and other parts of the body.

I think that next year we will go back and focus on the exhibits that relate to what we will be studying. I really liked the mathematics exhibit, which is not something that would normally thrill me. Overall, I thought it was really well-done, and it was clean and well kept. I regret that we did not take more pictures, most of them are from the Butterfly Garden.

Weekly Update

Now, it is time for our not-so-weekly update. I am really trying to keep up with this, it is just that my cooking blog is more interesting :)

Language Arts:
We are on book 20 of the Now I'm Reading, purple set.
We began the yellow Bob Books set, but cannot find some of the books because Meenie played with them.
We're on Lesson 120 of OPG, and reviewing some of the consonant blends.
We're doing the Act of Hope for our memory work
We're on Letter G in Seton's Handwriting for Young Catholics 1.
We just finished Lesson 44 of FLL 1 and we are doing any suggested copywork, plus some other random copywork.
We're on Lesson 12 of SWO A.
Our Read Aloud is currently Huckleberry Finn.
Meenie is learning letters C and H, and getting past the humps of reciting the alphabet.

Math:
Saxon 1-Lesson 48
Meenie is learning to count 1-10, somehow she was able to count from 1-19 but forgot. I don't know how but I believe the explaination is that she is two and therefore insane.

History:
We're on Chapter 11 of SOTW 1, and finishing up our spider project plus getting ready to read about Ancient Africa in our library books.

Geography:
We're still memorizing the locations and names of the states. We're about half way done. I think Boo knows at least 27 of them, Meenie knows 6-8.
We're on pages 17-18 of Maps, Charts, and Graphs A

Art/Music/PE:
We kind of just take this as it comes, it is usually integrated with another subject. We listen to plenty of classical music. Walking is our main form of exercise though sometimes the kids like to dance to music. I don't really know what else to do when the weather gets cold.

Religion:
We're on Lesson 4 of the St. Joseph First Communion Baltimore Catechism, this month we'll be focusing on the Holy Souls.

Celebrating All Saint's Day

We celebrated All Saint's Day in every way we could this year. It was a rather successful day, I promise not to rant about my disliking of Halloween as a secular holiday. We just ignored it and went on our merry way to give our children a taste of Catholic culture.

We invited a three guests to our home, who were greeted by St. Dominic and St. Cecilia. In the above picture, you can see our home altar which was to honor our patrons for the day and will become an All Soul's altar this week.

We began our day by gathering at our altar and praying the Litany of the Saints as a Family. The house was clean and tidy and I prepared for our dinner. First, we snacked on spinach dip and fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. For the main course we had a slow roasted beef brisket and vegetables. I made buttermilk biscuits for the first time ever, I even cut them out in Fall shapes --acorns and leaves! I made a yellow cake with butter cream icing for dessert.

My children watched a movie about St. Francis of Assisi and played with our guests who also brought wine and ice cream. It felt like a holiday, my children were giddy with excitement all day long, which was exactly how I want them to feel about the great feasts of the Church.

The only other thing that I had planned, but did not do was to read about some of the lives of the saints, I was getting a cold and my throat was pretty sore by the end of the day. But there are plenty of other opportunities to read about the heroes of our Faith; I would consider the day well-sanctified and perfectly wonderful.