This Morning Time

This is a detailed (read boring) account for those with a need to know. I am sorry to post so much in one day but this one is really for the new homeschooling moms. This post is really the companion to the January MT post below.

First of all I got up later than usual. For some reason I have failed to wake up at my usual 6:30am the last couple of days. That did not stop the children from getting up and beginning their school lists. Finally around 10:00am I called everyone to come to our Morning Meeting.

I began by telling the children about a new idea I had. When I have an extra odd job I am going to look around the house, count the items left about, find who has left out the most and give the job to that person. It won't work but it really does sound like a good idea.
Then my dh came in and discussed a few logistical things with the children. The boys give him 30 minutes a day in the yard or on projects. We almost always start the Morning Meeting with family logistics. Even on non-school days we have a MM.

Time to take prayer requests. This morning we focused on Nicholas since he has been sick. Usually we all pray but this morning James (not a student) needed something so I just prayed.

We began saying the books of the OT and the phone rang. The dh, now running errands had a question. The kids went on without me.
Christopher read Eph 6:10-18, Nathaniel read Psalm 100.

Because this is our first week to relearn A Mighty Fortress we only sang one verse. We will add a verse every week. It is the first hymn in our family hymnal.
Then we sang Psalm 148 changing keys with each verse.:)

I got out the Bitesize Theology book and read 2 short paragraph's titled God is Holy. This led to a discussion on whether a 4 point Calvinist ( no L), isn't really a 3 point Calvinist (no U) or not a Calvinist at all. I didn't bring up the topic but we followed through with it anyway. I won't tell you what we concluded lest I hurt your feelings.

At this time I finish up the things the older boys need to stay for. We haven't started a new Shakespeare yet so I just read a couple pages in The Ballad of the White Horse and we discussed some of the allusionary language. ( Maybe I made that word up)

Big boys departed. They don't go too far away though and frequently shout in their answers to questions I ask the younger children.

Andrew recited Who Has Seen the Wind and Alex begged to do White Sheep, White Sheep on a Blue Hill.
Emily recited The Creation and Benjamin The Charge of the Light Brigade. I had to excuse myself for a few seconds while they recited. They must have them completly memorized by next Friday. I am doing things a little differently in this area than I used to because the younger children did not have some of the older poems memorized and they were going to grow up missing some very good poetry.

I reviewed the poem The Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson and discussed it at length with Alex who told me he doesn't always say what's true. He said that James had just told him that if you crossed your fingers it was still lying. He was distressed. Apparently he had been using the crossing the fingers ploy frequently.

Emily read the Declaration of Independence through the first "he has..." This is a wonderful piece of prose and worth memorizing for its supreme use of argument and language.

I recited The Preamble to the Constitution.

Then I read Question 35-37 of the Civics lesson (see January MT post). What is the Bill of Rights? What is the Capital of your State? On question 37: Who is your Governor? Andrew answered George Bush. Alex answered John Quincy Adams and Benjamin and Emily swore they knew the answer after I told them.

I got out the Book of Life and we read about David's jaunt living with the Philistines. This is basically a KJV Bible with notes and pictures.

Then I had to take a break. I had not eaten breakfast and it was after 11:00am. I told everyone to do something else until after I had eaten.

I returned nourished and ready to read.
I read 2 pages of Plutarch's Antony. In this particular section we ended with Antony decimating his own troops for failure to keep watch on a fortification. We learned that decimation meant killing 1 out of every 10 soldiers. I never knew that, did you? The remaining soldiers had to eat corn and barley instead of wheat. We argued over whether this was a wise way to deal with your own army. Finally, we had to move on without agreeing.

Next up was English Literature for Boys and Girls. I read about Shakespeare's final years living in Stratford. Andrew was the only one to remember that Shakespeare had died in April.

Moving on to The Story of the Middle Ages we read about the towns and villages of medieval times and discussed the lack of freedoms and fuedal lordships.

Finally we got to The Princess and Curdie. My dh came in to listen (obviously home from running errands) and we read 2 chapters.

As MT ended we began our Latin lesson (Latin for Beginners: I love it!) and finished up in time for lunch. During lunch we listened to Minstrel Boy. Andrew had put on our Schumann files earlier in the morning. Hopefully we can have Ambleside Time after Alex's phonics this afternoon.