A Planning Routine

I loved Dawn's posts on planning . It makes so much sense to have a routine. This week I have been able to consolidate the bulk of my dc's outside activities into two days, Tuesday and Thursday. That frees Wednesday for planning purposes. I'll try this and see how it works.
This is what I am thinking about next week:

• History:
  
• Read chapter on Mexican Independence from Story of the World Vol3.
• Read chapter on Miguel Hidalgo from Fifteen Famous Latin Americans.
• Geography
  
• Review countries and capitals of South America.
  
• English
  
• G:
  
• Continue online spelling course
• Continue Bravewriter course
• Copywork
• A:
  
• Continue polishing his piece on Bolivar.
• Do some grammar exercises from the KISS Printable workbook
• Spanish
• G:
  
• continue her current work on So You Really Want to Learn Spanish

• A:
  
• Play Combinaciones
  
• Review vocabulary from the previous units before he goes on to the next.
• Math
  
• G: continue her current work on Teaching Texbooks
• A: read chapter from How Math Works about presenting data.
• Latin
  
• G: continue Henle I through Memoria Press.
• A: I am not sure what to do with A. at this point. He doesn't seem to be grasping the concepts from Latina Christiana. I don't know if I should continue, try something else or simply abandon Latin until he is older. Maybe I should just do some Latin and Greek roots and play Rummy Roots with him. Or maybe look into some other program for him. I am not sure at this point.
• Science
  
• G: continue her regular course work
• A:
  
• read books on longitude as part of the Journey North Mystery Class.
• continue his book on Thomas A. Edison.
  
• Reading
  
• G:
  
• continues her reading of Treasure Island
• continues her reading of A Philadelphia Catholic in King James Court
• A:
  
• continues The Seventeenth Swap
• continues Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Art
  
• continue study of Vermeer - I need to find out more about picture study
• Music
  
• continue study of Elgar
  

January 29 to February 2nd

This week we will:

• Finish reading about Simon Bolivar. The kids took notes while I read. Alex would use his notes for copywork, he will polish his grammar and spelling.
• Fill out and color a map of South America.
• Play some online games to review the countries and capitals of South America http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geospy http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/South_America_Geography.htm
  

• Look through some books about the different South American countries.
• Read about Jose de San Martin. The kids will take notes as I read.
  
• Continue our study of Vermeer-We will look at this tutorial for the picture Woman Holding a balance. http://www.nga.gov/feature/vermeer/
• We have several prints of Vermeer. We would look at them and try to identify common elements. We will also pick one of the paintings and narrate it.
  
• Continue our study of Edward Elgar (see sidebar for links)
• Do the work require for the Journey North Mystery Class http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/mclass/About.html
• Continue our reading of the retelling of Comedy of Errors.
  

Today

This is what we did today:

• Clean house: a good habit we have been able to establish in our house this school year has been our Home Blessing Hour - a la Flylady.
  
• Watch the second part of the Jacqueline du Pre dvd (Jacqueline du Pre: a Portrait)
• Watch Great Artists vol.5- we watched the section on Vermeer.
• Read Johannes Vermeer by Mike Venezia.
• Went to Co-op.

All in all it was a good day.

Clarifying My Ideas

I have been struggling with what I want this blog to be. I seem to function better when I consolidate. I am thinking that this blog would be a place where I think, where I record, where I discuss, where I list. El Pan Nuestro de Cada dia refers to my daily sustenance, the Lord, but it also refers to the ideas I feed on. In a given day tons of thoughts cross my mind. Some are important some are not. Some deserve to have follow up, some don't. Some have to do with our homeschool, some are related to my own education. But regardless of importance, I think ideas and thoughts deserve attention. And that is what I want to use this blog for : to pay attention to my thoughts and to learn how to share them.
I am also using this blog to enter the 21st century. It is my learning tool, my way to keep in touch with modern times and my way to learn about them.

Today

• Got up on time
• Prayed Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. I am trying to make it a habit: morning an night prayers.
• During Breakfast: Finish the chapter on The Baptism of Clovis from Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know.
  
• Block 1: G. and A. work independently. In the meantime I do reading with N. and try to get some chores done. At this time I try to get a head start on lunch and dinner as well as put a load of laundry in the washer.
• Block 2: Read the chapter on Simón Bolívar from Fifteen Famous Latin Americans. Made the kids right down one sentence after each paragraph.
• Noon: stop for lunch (scramble eggs, homemade bread, carrots and fruit)
• Took G. to the Ballet Studio for the class for preschoolers she helps to teach. While we waited I read a chapter from Children's Homer.
• After we got home I read a couple of chapters of our read-aloud, The Long Winter.
  

Week of Jan 22nd to Jan 27th

This is what we have planned for this week:

Religion:

1. Christian Studies lesson 7 (Monday and Tuesday)
   
2. Catholic History chapter 3 (Wednesday and Thursday)

History:

1. Finish book about Toussaint L'Overture.
2. Do notebook page and place in the book of centuries
3. Transition to South America and Bolivar
4. Read Story of the World chapter 34 and do map work

(note to self-look for some books about South America, look for some online activities to learn countries and capitals, search for Geography Songs tape to use next week)

Art

1. Introduce Vermeer
2. Show first print Woman Holding a Balance
3. Go through internet tutorial of this painting
4. If it arrives to the library watch tape on Vermeer

Music

1. Finish watching Jacqueline du Pre's tape
2. Find a biography of Edward Elgar and make a notebook page
3. Listen to Elgar's music purchased on I tunes

Teatime

1. Begin reading Comedy of Errors
   

Our daily Bread

That is the title of this new blog. It is only a way of organizing my thoughts about school and keep a diary of what we actually do. I have the bad habit of planning school on loose bits of paper. The result I can never find the papers when I need them. I am hoping that this blog would help me consolidate my planning.