Learning Update & Booklist

We're a couple of weeks away from finishing up our "Winter Term." I can't believe it's almost spring!  Madeleine and Erika have transitioned into doing a lot more of their reading on their own. 

Read-Alouds Together:

Finished: Door in the Wall (audio), By Truck to the North, Ginger Pye (audio), Lion-Witch-Wardrobe, Saint Thomas Aquinas: the story of the dumb ox.

In Progress:  The Little Duke,  Favorite Medieval Tales, Canterbury Tales,  Our Island Story,  Joan of Arc (Stanley), Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, (this will take us forever, but we're reading with audio in little bits with Pete, and we're liking it), Burgess Animal Book, The Princess and the Goblin (audio), A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent, American Tall Tales (audio), Little Pear.

Read lots of Snow,  Winter and Medieval Picture books.  

Madeleine, 8.5 yo ~

• Finished: Schoolhouse in the Woods, Sword in the Tree, Otto of the Silver Hand, A Prairie Boy's Winter, The Young Life of Pope John Paul II, Minstrel in the Tower, The Story of Helen Keller, Family Under a Bridge, Favorite Norse Myths, Sarah Plain and Tall, Angel Food, various MTH & Boxcar Children books.
• In Progress: The Little Flower, Ginger Pye, The Way of the Cross-a story of Padre Pio, Up and Down the River, Caleb's Story, Among the Forest People, Plain Girl, The Cabin Faced West.

Erika, 7.5 yo~

• Finished: True Stories for First Communicants, Otto of the Silver Hand, A Prairie Boy's Winter, Minstrel in the Tower, Fantastic Mr. Fox, All-of-a-Kind Family, Sword in the Tree, St. Rose of Lima, Family Under a Bridge, Along Came a Dog, Favorite Norse Myths, Story of Rose of Lima,  Angel Food, various MTH & Boxcar Children books. 
• In Progress: Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, Young Life of Pope John Paul II, Among the Forest People, More All-of-a-Kind Family, Sarah Witcher's Story.
  
• She's also continuing preparation for First Communion in May, continue working on FHC Notebook! She's doing such a great job, and we're so excited!
  

Other Notes:

1. It's Lent, so we're living the Lenten season of the liturgical year.
2. We took a break from Math-U-See back in December, and just started "Gamma" (mulitplication). Playing lots of games.
3. In the middle of following The Iditarod!  Reading a few books and following the race. 
4. Nature Study - focusing on just getting out in little 15 minute spurts together, observing, talking, drawing. Getting them used to looking things up on their own in their field guides.
5. Each girl picked an animal a few weeks ago and they've been reading and learning about it.  Madeleine-Siberian Huskies.  Erika-Penguins.  Dorothy Jo-Deer. 
6. Charting our Sunrise/Sunset Data for Journey North.
7. We've learned the Table Blessing in Latin and we're working on The Our Father. 
8. Pete does "Map Skills" with the girls a couple times a month. 
9. Continued daily copy work and simple dictation sentences. I've started asking for simple 1 or 2 sentence  narrations about 1/week.  And random journaling & written stories are happening more and more.  They are both working on cursive on their own "for fun."
10. Girls go to Mrs. Asel's house for some heavier-duty Art Projects once a week.  They are working with CLAY right now.  We do an occasional Artistic Pursuit project. Other than that, art just "happens" while I'm off "creating" in the kitchen. 
11. Shakespeare - MacBeth
12. Poetry - No poet this term.  Got caught up in lots of winter poetry, and now are working on What Robin Told
13. Composer: Haydn
14. Artist: Beginning Winslow Homer next week, will go into next term.
15. Piano - Continuing with our home-lessons.  Dorothy Jo is showing interest....may start her pretty soon. 
16. Choir - continued choir program at the Cathedral, which has exceeded ALL expectations!  It is AMAZING!
17. Irish Dance - Madeleine, Erika and Dorothy Jo continue their lessons. 

Little Ones

• Colors with the Little Ones (and big ones too!). We've been painting up a storm and mixing colors and playing with the color wheel with the older girls.   Lots of color books for the little ones!
• Reading picture books, drawing, painting, cutting/pasting, outside play, puzzles, practical life activities and games. Caroline and Jacqueline play well together for the most part, except when Jacqueline wanders off and...........   :-)