1. First Daughter had her first band class last week! She's learning the saxophone, because my aunt had one we could use and First Daughter is a good sport about that. I should really have a picture of her with it, She's practiced diligently every day despite her siblings' groans.
2. Second Daughter created a paper dog for a project in her art book (Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book One). She gifted it to Second Son and the proceeded to create a menagerie (and accessories like a Santa hat for the puppy shown below) by cutting up all our construction paper and leaving bits of paper all over the living room floor. They did eventually pick all the mess up.
3. First Daughter had her first meeting with a family from our parish for whom she will be a mother's helper this year. She loves children and helping around the house and I love being able to share her with those who have more children than hands and need a bit of breathing space. They seem like a lovely family and hopefully they will find joy in being together.
4. First Son has his first PSR class. They meet on Wednesday nights, beginning with dinner together. We also have dinner as a family before he goes, so he has "second dinner" there. Sometimes "third dinner," too, if any of his friends isn't particularly hungry. He loves this time with his friends each week.
5. All the children joined me for my dentist visit this week. First Son stayed in the waiting room and focused on some lessons he brought. No cavities for me! Yay! Then we went to the zoo for nature study. First Daughter and Second Daughter are both studying Africa this term, so we visited lions and meerkats and gorillas. We were able to see the lion close-up and both daughters sketched wonderful pictures. (First Son sketched a lion, but he's more interested in finishing than artistic flourishes.)
6. Second Daughter wrote an amazing narration of her catechism reading this week. She's reading The Mass Explained to Children by Maria Montessori because I have a lovely copy I picked up at a library sale. (We used to read Faith and Life but our parish did that with them, so I dropped it. Now they've just started using the new Sophia program but I sold all our books so...not going back.) Second Daughter has no assigned written narrations, but she often decides she prefers to write a narration than wait for me to have a minute to listen to her orally narrate. I have never had a child do this before, but I like it!
It's probably hard to read, so I'll type it here, just as she's written it:
When you go to mas you go inside a bilding. the bilding is called the church. once you are inside the church you will see lots and lots of benches. the benches are called puoes. you walk down a alise and kneel down on one knee and make the sign of the cross. this is called genuflecting and you do it to show respet to God. after you genuflect you go into a puoe. then you kneel down on a cushon. the cushon is called a kneeler. it is there so your knees will not hurt after you kneel becuse God dose not whant you to be uncomfertible. and you look at the alter. the alter is a table at the Front of the church. but it is not a ordinary table it is speshal becuse Jesus is on that table after every mas.7. First Daughter made a delicious chocolate angel food cake for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on Friday. (recipe from Marian Devotions in the Domestic Church)
8. We ate the delicious angel food cake as we settled at the park to watch a free outdoor production of Twelfth Night, from which the children have memorized many passages with How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. We couldn't always hear everything and it's a shame there aren't more men in our area interested in performing Shakespeare (necessitating casting women in important male roles), but live Shakespeare is always a treat. Sir Toby was magnificently played.
9. Not a school highlight, exactly, but Second Son and I went on his outing on Saturday. This was an outing I'd promised we'd do as soon as the play ended...(cough) on April 1st. We had lunch, frozen custard, visited the science museum, saw a movie there (which we never do with all the kids), got something at the snack bar (which we never do), played at the park, and I let him pick a book at the used book store. He focused his energy at the park on the funky monkey bars (set at odd angles) and succeeded! An afternoon well-spent!
