Teaching Catechism to the Unfaithful

Off and on for the last 15 years I have been a catechist for the parishes I've attended. I guess I'm on my 6th year of teaching catechism. I've taught 1st grade, 4th grade (twice), 7th grade (twice) and 8th grade. And then a couple of years in there I was a substitute.

There are so many things wrong with the model of catechesis my parish uses. They are much better at the Youth ministry thing. They also have a wonderful apostolate with the Youth Apostles who take over with the teens who have been confirmed. Official RE only goes up to 8th grade and confirmation. The YA program, entitled Catholic Life Communities is absolutely phenomenal. It is led by trained leaders who mentor the young men and women. They meet almost every single week of the year (no summer breaks!), they regularly go on retreats and also do fun social things. The meetings consist of reading the scripture for the next Sunday Mass, discussing it in small groups and then learning about the catechism and how to live a truly Christian life in this culture. However, this is entirely voluntarily and of the 70+ kids who were confirmed in Josh's class only about 8 joined.

Anyway, the actual RE model is awful. They take a few solidly Catholic volunteers and then because they never have enough of those folks, they take other volunteers who really don't know their faith very well OR have no clue how to teach like a teacher in a classroom, they have the kids come in and sit in desks, bored to death, and they use materials that are confusing, watered downed and basically trying so hard to relate to the kids they only earn the kids' scorn (which makes me respect the kids!). They is virtually no quality control. There is very little connection between the parents and the volunteer teacher. The children are often not really practicing Catholics and know appallingly little of their faith. They barely go to Mass on Sundays. They never pray as a family. They have no clue about anything in the Bible. It is truly depressing.

So this year I'm teaching 7th grade girls. I keep explaining things to them, like Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. Or the virtue of prudence is something like practical wisdom in action. They'd never heard of the word prudence before. Or that theology comes from the Greek root words for God and Word or Study. Then I was talking about Geography. We were reading from Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. Where is Corinth, I asked? They didn't have a clue. I asked them where the city of Damascus was. They didn't know. So jokingly I said if you really know your Catholic faith, it makes you smarter!

The more I thought about this the more something occurred to me. What if we taught RE as a supplement to the rest of the child's learning? Right now it is so disconnected from everything else in their lives. What if it wound up helping them on the SOL's or the SATs? Wouldn't parents take it much more seriously? I think this could be a real hook for the whole family. You could take different aspects of the faith and break it down so that it might complement the student's learning in various grades. Here's just a very brief outline of what I came up with:

Grade 1: Issue each child a Children's Bible and have them practice reading at home. They can become familiar with Bible stories this way, the parent can renew their memory of various Bible stories and then the parents/children can come in and participate in various activities, skits, etc.

Grade 2: This grade might be the best one done at our parish because it is the big Sacrament year with First Confession and First Holy Communion. I think they could expand what they've already got going.

Grade 3: Focus on Art History using a program like Christian Heritage Curriculum.

Grade 4: Focus on saints in American history. I mean both North and South. St Peter Claver, St Isaac Jogues, St. Kateri Teckawitha, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Blessed Father Juniper Serra, St. John Neumann, St. Katherine Drexel, etc.

Grade 5: Begin focusing on word roots; teach them a little Latin. (program: English from the Roots Up plus Lingua Angelica). Have someone from music ministry teach this.

Grade 6: Reading analysis otherwise known as Bible study. Use the new Kids Great Adventure.

Grade 7: Study the saints before America. (In preparation for choosing a saint's name for confirmation.)

Grade 8: Finish up Confirmation prep. Our parish usually has Confirmation in the Spring.

During the course of the year I think every grade should have:

1) A couple of family workshops (maybe Sept and April)
2) A retreat (Dec)
3) A speaker of interest to both parents and children (Oct)
4) A fieldtrip (Nov)
5) A service project (during Lent)
6) A performer, play or a movie night for the whole family (Jan)
7) A special Mass for all the RE kids (Feb?) Have confession beforehand. Most of these kids haven't gone to confession since their first one in second grade.
8) A big May crowning for the RE kids, in, of course, May

So if you have one big event each month that parents are expected to attend then I think they should make the classes bigger so they don't have to stretch for so many volunteers but REQUIRE that parents volunteer to be aids in the classes. They can pick times when they can be available. That way the parents get catechized too.

Okay so that's a very rough draft of my idea. Needs lots more thought I know, but I think it could work! Something's got to be better than what we are doing now.

Weekly Report 2/1/10 - 2/6/10

MondayJ did a lesson of Alg on Sunday and then another one Monday

• J did his NLE practice exam and studied for Latin quiz
• B and S - read Bible History - Solomon's sad end
• B and S - WWE
• S did a lesson in Saxon
• B did another addition problem with carrying
• B is quitting violin. She hasn't had more than 1 lesson since before Christmas. She was already fading in her interest and that gap really made her stubbornly refuse to go. I was going to force the issue but frankly Mondays are so rushed and it would be really nice to not have to rush around all Monday afternoon and evening.
• S went to piano lessons
• W has been very industrious but I haven't really been keeping tabs on him at all.
• B picked The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew out as her new chapter book
• R is reading the last book in the Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian.

Tuesday

• Got up and studied some more for Latin quiz
• During Latin class B and S did penmanship, spelling/phonics and math. Or at least S did math, B didn't. B is going through a, how to put this politely, obnoxious I don't want to do it and you can't make me phase. Sigh.
• I got a 99 on the last quiz but on the one today I got a 91. For some reason I stuck macrons all over where they didn't belong. J got B's on both quizzes and W flunked both. He says he studies but I think he really thinks about studying and then doesn't actually end up doing enough to get him through. I think he has to learn the hard way. I reminded both him and J about GPA's and how colleges will look at them.
• Took J to Algebra tutor. He had a good session.
• I got a new book from Amazon. I bought all these books by Miroslav Sasek. The one that arrived today was This is London. I read it aloud to B and S.
  
• J and I watched next lecture in How the Earth Works about continent collisions. Very, very interesting.
• B and S did a lot of line rider today which they haven't played in a long time.
• Discussed what we want to do for Lent.
• Finally finished reading Book XIV in the Odyssey w/ J
• J has been reading The Life of Pi this week.

Wednesday

• slept horribly last night. Did I drink too much caffeine???? Today was painful and slow as molasses.
• Read next chapter in Cure of Ars
• Read next chapter in Herodotus
• S did a bit of math (very simple multiplying by 10s and 100s)
• B and I went over end of ch test.
  
• J did a writing exercise for Writeshop (describe an animal. He described Tillie)
• J did a lesson in Alg II
• I collapsed and didn't get any more academic stuff done
• B and S went to VT
• S and I watched most of a frontline report on how the internet is changing students possibly for the worst: computer/game addiction and becoming so distractible. We decided memorization, exercise and sitting down to read something for an hour each day with no distractions. Then he went downstairs to play a videogame and I got on the computer LOL! We are gonna have to work at this!!!
• Took B and S to Starbucks where we sat and brainstormed about getting the kids to eat better at each meal. I told them no more snacking between meals (except fruit or veggies). Instead they should eat the meals I plan and put before them to keep them nice and healthy!
• W shovel the whole driveway. Took him 2 hours. And he didn't sleep much last night either. I don't know if W did anything academic.
• J is still reading Life of Pi.
• Wouldn't you know it? B is now taking out her violin and trying to play it and begging me once again for lessons. What is a mother to do with a child like this??????? Other than tear my hair out!
  

Thursday

• News of big snow on the way here tomorrow, so instead of starting off with our studies I hit the grocery store
• Finished reading Cure of Ars to B and S
• Read next ch. of History of Medicine. S thinks it is fascinating. B hates it. Way too gruesome for her (dissecting corpses and such); she was writhing while I was reading it. Poor thing! LOL! So I guess I'll just make this a S and I thing and find something else for B.
• Showed B how to borrow when subtracting
• S did some vocab review in Latin. The one complaint I have about this book is that you learn tons of Latin vocab but you don't ever use it very often. So it just becomes lots of rote memorization. Some of that is fine but I think they are doing overkill. I do love their presentation of the material and the way they teach the grammar.
• S and I did Saxon Lesson 30 talking about percents and fractions. I worked through every single problem with him since we hadn't done any review for a couple days.
• J did his logic lesson on line
  
• J did a tiny, tiny bit of Writeshop.
  
• J carefully numbered his Alg copybook in preparation to do the next lesson, then took the dog for a walk. Came home and crawled into bed with his book. Since everything has been cancelled for tomorrow, I'm not worried. I'll just make him do the stuff tomorrow!

Friday

• With all the talk of a huge snowstorm I just don't seem focused on academics much.
• S did his music theory class on line.
• S and B did a little bit of WWE
• I finished reading aloud the ch on Herodotus' travels to Egypt
  
• J did a lesson in Alg.
• W went to his Music Comp class and got home before the snow got bad
• I splurged and bought books this week. I got Life of Fred books for S. He dug right into the Fractions book with great gusto.
• B did another borrowing subtraction problem on the white borrow. I made a big deal of the one's column having to go next door to it's neighbor the Tens and borrow from them. It made her laugh and the lightbulb went off! She got it!
• I made everybody spend 30 minutes reading. Don't know if W actually did. J read History of the Ancient World. S read a book about the Percy Jackson series by the same author. B read to me from the McGuffey Reader. She read very well.
• S did a little VT
• B doesn't want to listen in on the History of Medicine. So I asked her to tell me what she wanted to learn about. I expected her reply to be flowers or pulleys (she loves to make stuff. She made an elevator for her stuffed animals using a pulley idea!). But no she said Reptiles! So I got out a book on Reptiles and it was just as gruesome as the Medicine book but for some reason, it didn't gross her out!
• R is home because of the snow. He finished his work early and is now reading the very last chapters of the whole Percy Jackson series to the B and S.
• We got the rest of our Miroslav Sasek books! I think we'll attempt to read them over the course of our snowy weekend.
• I'd still like to get some Greek done.
• I asked the kids, since we are done with the Cure of Ars if they wanted to start up a Geography study. I have A Child's Geography of the World. But S loved the Cure of Ars book so much, he wants another saint biography. I went searching and found Frontier Bishop by Riley Hughes. He's not a saint but a significant figure in American Catholic history. I went to Mount St. Mary's College and one of our dorm building is named for Father Brute. I thought it would be cool to read this book. Maybe we can take a fieldtrip up there if the snow ever clears! Anyway, he lived a little bit earlier than St. Jean Vianney but more or less at the same time. So we'd get some reinforcement about the French Revolution, Napoleon, only this time the priest doesn't stay in France but comes to America. So it will tie into a lot of things and then we can actually go see the places that Father Brute lived. They, of course, mention Baltimore a lot. We are going over there to the Aquarium with their cousins at the end of March. Maybe we can pop in and see the Cathedral as well.
  

52 in 52

Okay it has been 5 week since the beginning of the year. The books I've read in January:

1. The House that Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark
2. The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul
3. The Story of the Other Wiseman by Henry Van Dyke
4. Beyond the Heather Hills by Melissa Wiley
5. Hold Onto Your Kids By Gordon Neufeld
6. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

I'm also more than halfway through Villette by Charlotte Bronte.

I think I'm going to reread Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids by Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller. Hold on to Your Kids was a good secular book for attachment/peaceful parenting but I remember really liking this book because it came from a Christian point of view and had some real practical steps for developing good relationship with your children and disciplining them in the way that discipline originally meants, as mentors or teachers.

For Lent I've decided I'm going to make myself finish Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict. I started this book, what, 2 years ago????? I love it! But I pick it up, read a few lines, go WOW! and then leave it alone for months. I need some discipline (ha!) to get it finished. Also I want to finish reading Introduction to the Old Testament by Lawrence Boadt.

Weekly Report 1/25 - 1/31

Monday

• S threw up in the night. Is he sick or was it just a surfeit of potato chips? Stay tuned. . .


• S's friend Joe who goes to school wound up coming over early in the morning and was supposed to be picked up at noon. Their power was out, both parents work and for some reason he didn't have school (he goes to school). However, no one showed up to get him until 2:30 p.m. Threw quite a bit of a monkey wrench into my plans!
  


• I did manage to read to B and S Bible History - Solomon's Temple.


• We also read an old Troll book about Ancient China. We are going to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at National Geographic on Wednesday (if we don't all come down with a stomach bug!). This got the kids into playing with their new dragon puppet, finding out when the Chinese New Year is (Feb 14 year of the tiger) and finding out what everybody's Chinese Zodiac sign is.


• Later in the morning B took all the silly putty she's been playing with (each child got some in their Christmas stocking but she stole it all from them!) and made The Great Wall of China! And then she went over to the globe and copied over the word Mongolia on an index card, then placed the card on one side of the wall! Spontaneous hands on unit study!


• J worked on National Latin Exam practice.


• J did lesson 3 in Logic class


• J worked on Chin Dynasty questionnaire in Trisms


• B and S did WWE


• S did did the first part of vocab review in Latin - 10 words


• Instead of doing math formally S, B and friend played with the math dice. It was too hard to settle down to MCP and Saxon with friend roaming the house!
  


• W did some writeguide (very little I think)

Tuesday

• Latin class for W, J and I, W has a very bad attitude anymore when it comes to Latin. Senioritis?


• B and S did penmanship, math (S - factoring; B carrying in addition with bigger numbers), S did a page of spelling, B did a page from her phonics workbook.


• W took B and S to Vision Therapy. We found out last Friday that S needs glasses. I must get the prescription filled very soon! But when? He is so happy he'll be getting glasses. He is hoping he can read for longer periods of time. Right now he gets frustrated that his eyes tired so quickly.


• I took J to math tutor. He really likes her. She is a nice lady.


• W took B to gymnastics


• J and I watched next lecture in Science: Subduction Zones.


• I p/u B from gymnastics. She loves gym. sooo much.


• I read next ch. of The Cure of Ars to B and S.


• J and I read Book XIII in The Odyssey and answered study guide questions.
  

Wednesday

• Read B some Pinocchio - we are enjoying this very bizarre book!

• Read a ch in Herodotus about his travels to Babylon


• Read Growing Up in Ancient China


• B and I did about 5 minutes of estimating in her MCP math
  


• S finished Lesson 25 in Saxon


• J did a little bit of Writeshop - not much


• Went downtown to the see the Terra Cotta Warriors. It was really crowded. B got claustophobic after about 10 minutes. But it was cool to see the statues, the coins, the crossbow, the statues of horses and carts, the armor. R met us there and bought a dvd about The First Emperor. He joked about how he'd seen the movie the Last Emperor and now he was going to watch about the First Emperor and then he'd know everything about Chinese history!!!


• We ate a late lunch with R before he went back to his office. Then we peeked in at St. Matthew's Cathedral (we were parked in their parking garage!) and walked around the glorious church. They are doing construction on the main altar but the mosaics and statues and everything are very beautiful. B lit a candle and we prayed for H at college.


• When we got home, B and S got the charcoal pencils out and started drawing.
• Went and got S's eye glasses order. 7 to 10 days until we get them.
• S had been asking for a jumble puzzle book so I picked one up at the drugstore plus another book of all kinds of puzzles (suduko, crosswords, word searches, etc) He loves them and started doing them at bedtime.
  

Thursday

• Read first ch of The History of Medicine by Tiner - Imhotep, Hippocrates and Galen.
• Did long division with S - it totally, totally clicked! He thought it was fun! I had him use the mnemonic device Does McDonald's Serve Burgers (I got it from someone on WTM!).
  
• B did one addition problem on the whiteboard. She did it very quickly. It involved lots of carrying. I think she's getting this addition thing down now.
• WWE with both B and S. Every time I get this program out I appreciate its sheer genius in doing so much so easily and efficiently.
• Reviewed more Latin nouns with S
• Read Greek words in Greek workbook: agape, etc. Kids were losing focus at this point.
• Took B to Little Flowers where they wrote a letter to nursing home folks and learned about St. Jane de Chantal. It's her b-day today. Happy birthday St. Jane!
• S and Jack got to play together
• J - did most of Alg test but just wasn't focusing too well this morning.
• J - did a little bit of his writeshop, just a little.
• J - watched the DVD on the Qin dynasty. I saw half of it - very interesting!
• W was incredibly organized today. He slept late but he spent 4 hours on music stuff (1/2 hr on soloing; 1/2 on sight reading; 1/2 on piano; 1/2 on singing 1/2 on ear training; 1/2 on guitar pieces for his teacher). He also did his Writeguide and even some of his Latin homework!!! Wow, I was very impressed.
• W helped S with his on-line music theory lesson.
• S practiced piano.
• I read a lot of Pinocchio to B
• Read next chapter about St. Jean Vianney in Cure of Ars. The ch was about St. Philomena who he attributed all his cures to.

Friday

• W got up and went to 6:15 Mass, then to his music composition class
• J, S, B and I went to our Socratic Discussion/art class. I don't even know what J's group talked about. S, B and I, with the other kids finished making Southwestern Indian designed with stencils. I read about Blessed Father Junipero Serra to the kids while they colored. Very pleasant time.
• J started his new Intro to Chem. class from 1 to 3.

Projected for weekend:

• J needs to finish his Algebra test and do another lesson
• Also I'd like to finish reading Book XIV of the Odyssey, maybe tonight.
• We need to finish our bluebird box project - need to build one more, paint them all and put on predator guards.
  

Weekly Report 1/18/10 - 1/23/10

Monday, MLK day

• Watched 3 of my friends' kids on MLK day. Played the youtube of last part of MLK's last speech for S and friend. They were not that interested but I wanted S to hear MLK voice.
• S and friend played with S's animating program
• B and her friends made up a pretty ballet dance and played with dolls. (B attended her cousins Nutcracker production and now is enamoured with ballet).
• Took B to violin lesson but teacher wasn't there! But all was not lost, I sang B all the songs/lullabyes we used to sing when she was younger.
• J did a short exercise in his Writeshop and then had nice daddy time driving to the farm (about an hr away) to pick up our beef order.
• Rick took S with him to home depot to get materials for building bluebird boxes.
• B watched The Robinsons and then Mulan
• She also played a lot of plants vs. zombies with Rick
• J and I studied for Latin test tomorrow (some in afternoon and some in evening)
• W went to his band practice
• W studied for Latin
• W went to meet his friend for mass and Bible study but there was no mass and no Bible study. MLK day strikes again!
• B read a story in her reader to Rick
• R is reading Battle of the Labyrinth
  
• S played a lot of piano today. Right now he is sounding out an Eric Satie piece.

Tuesday

• Went to Latin class - took two quizzes. W and J did not do well. I got a 94% on one, the other one wasn't graded.
• B and S did penmanship. S did a little Latin and math. B did reading workbook but didn't do her math.
• Took J to his first tutoring session. Liked the tutor a lot. Seems enthusiastic and relieved. While waiting at the tutor's B and I went over the math she didn't do. Then she got to play on the wii with the tutor's son.
• I got my Latin homework done while waiting.
• I made J and S go for a 30 minutes walk to get some exercise.
• B went to gymnastics
• Read next chapter in Cure of Ars in and Herodotus
• J started the China unit in Trisms but didn't get far. I need to give more direction in that area.
• J and I read book X in Odyssey and answered study guide questions.

Wednesday

• Read Bible History - Solomon's wisdom
• Did WWE - S took perfect dictation! B was supposed to narrate a passage from Pinocchio but got upset that she hadn't read the book and the passage was giving away the story. So we ditched that and I read her the first two chapters of the real book of Pinocchio. She announced that it would be her new chapter book.
• Worked with B on addition patterns that would help her add faster. She only partially paid attention.
• S read first chapter in his Alex Rider book
• S and I went over vocabulary and little bit of grammar in his LfC workbook
• S finished lesson 24 in Saxon.
• J baked cookies!
• J tried to do China unit but just can't get started!
• J worked on Writeshop exercise.
• Went for a 40 minute walk with J, B and S
• J, B, S and I went through the 50 States Fandex reviewing state capitals, just cuz it happened to be out and I picked it up while we were eating lunch.
• J and I watched the next Earth Works lecture on Transform Faults. Lots of stuff about the San Andreas Fault and CA earthquakes.

Thursday

• W got up and went to 9:15 Mass
• I Read ch. 3 and 4 in Herodotus
  
• Did WWE with B and S - S had to summarized passage; B did copy work
• S did Music Theory lesson with W
• S read next ch. in Alex Rider book
• I played adding game with B with dice
• Played multiplication game with S using dice
• J finished Alg lesson from yesterday and started on next lesson
• J did 2nd lesson in Logic
• J did a little exercise from Writeshop - he just had to describe a simple object. It took him forever to settle on what he wanted to describe. Either he couldn't find the words to describe something accurately enough like his hat or the dining room clock, or it was something that he realized the exercise didn't allow, like a banana. Finally he settle on a red candle sitting on the coffee table. Then he literally used 5 words and that was it!
• J and I read Book XI in the Odyssey
• J and I went to the drs and his scoliosis has gotten very bad quickly. So the dr recommended surgery. We are looking at Feb. 24th right now. That will put a big hole in things for a while!
• W went to his music theory II class. He hates it and wants to drop it. He says he'll learn lots of music theory in his composition class and at piano lessons.
• I'm assuming W is working on his Writeguide course; better check up on that.

Friday

• J went with the youth group down to the March for Life
• W has 4 hour Music Composition class
• S has VT re-evaluation today at 2:00
• Did a little bit of Greek, learned about smooth and rough breathing marks and how to say the 'h' sound. This got S going because he knows the author in the Percy Jackson series got this wrong! He was spelling the h sound with an 'ata' which really forms the long A sound.
• Read the next chapter in the Cure of Ars.
• Read Pinocchio to B. S spent the night at friends house.
  

Saturday

• Did our big bluebird box building workshop. Kids came over in the afternoon to participate but wound up mostly playing outside.

Today, Sunday

• Mass
• J needs to do a lesson in Alg.
• I'd like to read a book of the Odyssey with him if we can.
• W is having band practice today I think.
• W and J have youth group this evening.
  

Weekly Report 1/11/10

Monday 1/11

• Read Bible History - David and the Psalms
• Did WWE - S did a great job on his summary!
• S finished practice problems in L. 22
• B did 10 more addition problems with regrouping. Did a magic square
• Watched L. 17 dvd lesson in Latin - reviewed new vocabulary
• Both S and B were barely paying attention - painfully drawn out to get this little bit done!
• S played lots of piano
• B set up a school for her stuffed animals and dolls and was more interested in teaching them than being taught by me!
• J took Test 8 in Saxon
• I studied for Latin test
• B and S decided to have a Veggie Tales dvd marathon
• J took his first Logic lesson on line
• B's violin lesson was canceled - teacher's kids are sick.

Tuesday 1/12/10

• Studied for Latin test
• Latin class - no Latin test! Instead quiz on verb forms. Only got a B! W and J completely unprepared. Didn't do well. Started studying for NLE
  
• B and S did penmanship, math (S - fractions; B-addition with 3 columns), spelling
• After lunch - J did Trisms worksheet 1 on Mayans
• J and I watched Science lecture on Plate Tectonics
• J and I read Book VII in Odyssey, answered study questions
• W played his banjo a lot and took B to gymnastics
• S animated on his dsi and then took a walk
• H has been lounging about. She made dean's list!

Wednesday 1/13/10

• had bad migraine all night. Didn't go away until afternoon!
• everybody slept in!
• Did oral narrations from WWE with B and S
  
• Got everyone to an 11 o'clock appt (we were late) to have portrait of kids taken for very late Christmas gift for Rick
• Ate lunch out
• Took B and S to VT
• Started reading Herodotus by Jeanne Bendick to B and S
• W and J went to CLC

Thursday 1/14/10

• B and S - Bible History - David and Absalom
• B and S did WWE copywork - I am really loving WWE so far!
• B practiced adding doubles and then figuring out how to add their 'neighbors' She does not like to focus on arithmetic!
• S did more work on fractions and review of word problems. L 23 in Saxon
• S reviewed -are present conjugations, sum conjugation and Imperfect conjugations. Also we reviewed declensions. Went over L. 17 vocab. B listened in.
• S did his first music theory class from LPH. Will helped him. S discovered the chat room which delighted him!
• S and B - we also got the next clue in our Greek Code Cracker, reviewing more Greek blends.
• J - did worksheet on music history for Mayans and also the vocab quiz.
• J and I read Book VIII of Odyssey and answered study guide questions
• J is finally starting Writeshop. Did 1st lesson making sentences more vivid through concrete wording; using Thesaurus.
• W took it easy. Attend his first Music Theory II class at CC in evening.
  
• Rick went over J's Alg II test.
• J and I went to meeting at church about fundraising and prep for the teen workcamp this summer. W couldn't attend because of his class.
  

Friday 1/15/10

• W went to Music Composition, 4 hour class
• J had Socratic Discussion - Newton's Laws of Motion!
  
• B and S and other kids did a lesson on Southwestern Indian designs; made template of geometric shapes and practiced making designs.
• J did some dictation and next lesson in Writeshop
• J and I read Book IX in the Odyssey; did study guide questions.
  
• Found an Algebra tutor for J! He starts next Tues. afternoon
  

52 in 52

I hadn't thought about blogging this but then I saw MommyFaithe was so I decided to follow suit.

This is a challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks. The idea is to read a book a week, however that is too unrealistic for me. Some books, like The Odyssey, are just not readable in a week given all the other stuff I have to do in a week! I think if you really tried to do the book a week thing with an otherwise busy life you'd either have to give up sleeping or just read very short, light books. I don't want to sacrifice the quality of my reading so my plan is to try to finish a book a week. I usually have several books going on at one. Usually three or four I'm reading with the kids and usually a couple of books I'm reading on my own.

So far in 2010:

1. The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux (this was an audio book I listened to in the car).
2. The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke (this is either a very long short story or a very short novella. Absolutely beautiful and faith-filled.

Update! I forgot a book!

3. Archimedes and the Door to Science by Jeanne Bendick (I don't know if this counts as it is both a children's book and a re-read. However, I have such a bad memory re-reading books really isn't all that different from reading them the first time! And it had been several years since I had read it.