Catching up

Well, it's been too long since I posted but honestly, I do have some great excuses!  Start with a dragged-out cold, add an unusual number of outside activities, throw in some early panic that Christmas is closer than you think, and for a grand finale, pour a mug of hot tea all over your open, running laptop and voila!--there you have a recipe for Neglect the Blog.  (Really, I didn't pour the tea on purpose, you know--I tripped and the tea did the rest.  )  Anyway, said computer is on it's way to a hospital in Texas where I hope they will be able to doctor it up and send it home well.  (Oh, Lord, please!)

In the midst of our jam-packed schedule, we have been able to stay steadily at school, SweetPea and I, albeit not as thoroughly as I would wish.  I was getting frustrated at the big bite Saxon math was taking out of our day, sometimes as much as two hours, so I made the executive decision to limit math to one hour a day during our busy times--just work at whatever and not necessarily try to complete a lesson a day.  I've been amazed at how it's helped us get other stuff done.  (Now why didn't I think of this sooner?!  By the time we finish high school I'll have all this stuff figured out.)

So here's what we're working on this week, besides math:
    - overview of our solar system, starting with the sun; I'm having her do a diagram/fact sheet for each heavenly body
    - Reading Detective (literary analysis)  
    - Keys to Good Language for grammar review
    - Wordly Wise for vocabulary study
    - poetry analysis and writing a couple of them
    - ROME! - Genevieve Foster's "Augustus Caesar's World," "Beyond the Desert Gate" read-aloud, "Eagle of the Ninth" read-aloud (this one is really well-written), "The Bronze Bow" reader
    - mini-report on Hadrian's Wall
    - I hope to work in a couple of art lessons on ancient Rome
    - SweetPea is also working on a fun piano composition called "Menagerie," a suite of vignettes of African animals on the savannah, really expressive and fun.

I have to put in a plug for Sonlight here--this is the most amazing curriculum.  It's all we've ever used and I am utterly sold on using literature for history rather than textbooks.  What a way to learn, benefitting from someone's thorough research and digging deep into cause & effect, etc.  It's our best part of the day and I am incredibly thankful to be getting the education I didn't get the first time around!

Here in Colorado we're having a really mild fall, not even snow yet except in the mountains.  We've loved the long display of colors and are finally tackling the last rake-up.  It's been wonderful to enjoy the sunshine and gentle temps this long.  Hubby told me today that we're near to setting a record for such a late snowfall--set back in the 1930s!

And oh, joy...gas is down to $1.97 a gallon today!

Well, 'nuf for now.  God bless your day!