in pursuit of wild things

Not much happened so there are not many pictures to share. Oldest took his turn at Extreme Lego Camp…so we spent a bit of time (too much for me) on the road. I am glad summer camps are over for us. Most of the week I let the crew listen to the Frozen soundtrack during the long drives. The fist couple of days we listened to “Your Story Hour” CD’s that went with our Primary Early American History. We listened to the story behind Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the frightening tale of Pvt. Billy Scott during the Civil War. The nineteen year old Pvt. Scott had the great misfortune to fall asleep during sentinel duty and was ordered to be executed. His fellow soldiers rushed to the Capitol to obtain a Presidential pardon for him. After listening to

the soldiers plead for Pvt. Scott’s life the President went to the military encampment and personally pardoned him. I was fighting back tears as we listened to the story and Sparkles’ tears were free-flowing. Later, I learned that Pvt. Scott died seven months later at the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862 and is buried at Yorktown National Cemetery. Yorktown is also the place of the last major Revolutionary War land battle where Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis surrendered. Someday, I’d love visit these hallowed places of American history.

While Oldest enjoyed camp, I worked on plans for next school year which begins very soon…in about two weeks!!! I finalized the yearly overview and made weekly lesson plans for nearly all of our courses. I’ve learned the past two years that I do not need to make a daily lesson plan. This year I will use the lesson planner (A Simple Plan which I purchased from Mardel) as a journal. I’ll simply write-up what we do each day. First I made up a calendar page and marked off all breaks and days off. Our school year is five sets (or terms) of nine weeks beginning the first Monday in July.  For my yearly subject overview I made up a page in Excel with five sets of nine weeks. I then

printed off a page for each subject and planned out the weekly lessons, labs, and projects. No details, just lesson numbers and chapters. I’ll write in the details in the lesson planner as we do the work. I’ve always written these up ahead of time each year and then got discouraged when we ended up off schedule…and we always end up off schedule. This way I won’t get so upset and have to rework my lesson planner but will still have the yearly overview pages to keep us on track. I also made up my grade and attendance keeping pages.

Now that all of my planning for the school year is done I can work on the school room. The place is a disaster at the moment. We will spend this week cleaning up the room and organizing for our upcoming school year. We need to clean out the workboxes, complete portfolios and throw out all of the old work. We’ll also spend the next couple of weeks finishing up our weather science kit and working on our Geography Through Literature course. I doubt we will finish the geography work in the next two weeks so I will add that into our schedule for our academic year…most likely just one lesson a week. The crew loves this study and we’ve slowed the pace down to savor every book. I’ve hunted down most of the extra books (there are always extra book recommendations in the Beautiful Feet Books’ guides) and we will continue to read these wonderful books.

Today I cleaned out my desk and threw away several bags of papers and junk. In the back of the desk I found my Grandma’s Bible and spent some time rummaging through the pages. My mother purchased the Bible for her before I was born. I remember my Grandma taking her beloved Bible to church and marking in it every Sunday. I would look at the pictures sometimes when the church service was especially long. After she died I was stunned to learn that no one asked for her Bible. My mom didn’t want the Bible either and handed it over to me without a second thought. Grandma’s Bible is so worn it is taped together. I must have spent the better part of an

hour looking through the pages and reading her notes. She marked sermon notes, dates, names and listed passages for healing prayers. I found little papers with food she was supposed to bring to potlucks and Old Fashioned Days (a day for wearing bonnets and homemade dresses from the 1800’s). I cried when I saw her handwriting and a bookmark I made for her during my monastery years. The pages still smell like her home…

I also found my old Rosary and case that I carried for many years. My Rosary is made of rose petals from Israel. I was surprised by the strength of the roses when I opened

the little box. I remember buying the Rosary. I really wanted a very pretty crystal and silver one but could not afford to spend so much. Instead I purchased the rose scented one on clearance at the bottom of a basket in the shop. Over time the metal has darkened but the beads still smell like roses. I always thought I would save up for a pretty Rosary but I never did…I miss the Catholic Church sometimes…the rituals that brought me comfort. I always felt connected to the Christian past in the Catholic Church…a connection that I cannot find in Protestant churches these days…

Well…guess I’m feeling a bit melancholy this evening…goodbye last day of Spring…

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers