Friday, January 22, 2010

Weekly Report

*1*

Tantara (tan·ta·ra (t n-t r , -tär ). n. 1. a. A trumpet or horn fanfare. b. A sound resembling such a fanfare. 2. A hunting cry. ...) Season is here! Tantara is the yearly Festival of One Act Plays for homeschoolers in our neck of the woods. The kids perform at the local college theater to a packed audience (friends and family) after weeks of memorization, practice and laughs! The years alternate between tragedy and comedy (this year is comedy) and we have another award winning play that is being polished for performance!

*2*
We had a peaceful and productive week of homeschooling. WWE- LOVE it. Cub started an IEW theme book and despite his apprehension, had a great time with it. Math, of course. Cub's ability seems to have returned after weeks and weeks of not being able to remember what 8+3 was! Argh. Just too much stress for his 10 year old mind. It's nice to see my smart boy back on track. KB read Habibi out loud this week and they loved it. Lots of questions regarding faith, the Middle East and salvation. I love books that get them thinking! Mazes for both, and Cub continues to read Augustus Cesar's World and 100 Most Important Church Events. Flower is reading with more and more ease and has begun reading to herself. It's really started to "click" for her and she is handling 3 syllable words with not too much effort. Next week I plan on adding in History and Latin- woohoo. Feche-Boy delved deeply into MP's study guide on The Odyssey. Couple of comments from him this week focused on how beautiful and lovely and rich The Odyssey was, and also that he wants to read it in the original Greek. My little homeschoolin' Momma's heart just goes pitter-patter when I hear words like that! He's also reading "100 Most Important Church Events." I've ordered Life of Fred for him for math and we are waiting on that and signed him up for Latin on line (his request). I also unearthed IEW's Advanced Spelling and Vocabulary http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/catalog/new-products and we'll start that on Monday. Living Memory arrived and memory work is on the docket for Monday. Can't wait to get back to some poetry, Latin phrases and grammar catechism.
*3*
Watched "All Passion Spent," another Masterpiece Theater production. We really enjoy Dame Wendy Hiller's performances, she is so elegant! This piece focuses on expectations, roles and fulfilling one's destiny; letting your "light" shine rather than hiding it behind social roles.

*4*

This week's read has been Philip Yancy's "The Bible Jesus Read," which is about the beauty and wisdom of the Old Testament. I've always loved the O.T. so I don't need convincing, but he does have great insight into specific books, like Job. His premise is that many of us don't question God's existence, but rather God's goodness. Food for thought.

*5*

Beit Midrash. Genesis 45. Another great Bible Study. Viking Man keeps using imagery such as "the hell's angel's of the desert" (i.e. the Canaanites) and I have this emerging Rock Opera going on in my head. I just keep getting pictures of Genesis in leather (not goatskin, more like Davidson) with lots of booming operatic histrionic in the background. Maybe someday I'll have the time and develop the talent (cause I don't' have it now) to write something so profound. My favorite line of the chapter is when Joe tells his bro's "don't fight on the way home, boys." Great chapter on forgiveness and God's fulfillment of vision.

*6*

Our good friend Kathy gave us a Yiddish Word of the Day calendar. Viking Man received Rosetta Stone Hebrew for Christmas and I have been known to exclaim, "Oy, vey!" so she thought it would be fun present for us. It is!! She does, however, ask me what the word for the day is everytime I see her! I'm much better at memorizing phrases each week than each day! The calendar is a hoot, however, and we LOVE it, despite the pressure = ).
*7*

More time spent with the Pod People. So many books have molded, but we need to inventory them all before they're pitched. Some we'll have cleaned but a lot of just going in the trash. So much waste. We've talked about it a lot because we are re-use, re-cycle, re-claim kinda people; pitching so much that could be re-done (albeit with a time, effort and money) has been a stress. So we've had to re-define. Fires waste. That's just how it is.

9 comments:

Our Westmoreland School said...

What a good week!

My head's stuffy and that's the best I can come up with. It WAS a good week, I just wish I could come up with a fancy way of saying it. The plays sound great, and Hebrew ooooh...

I remember throwing out so much stuff that was ruined, when we went through something similar. None of it was easy. I don't think I worried about landfills though, it was just that every single thing seemed WORTH the effort to save it, but I simply did not have the whateveritis to do the work. The whole thing made me feel like such a lazy jerk.

homemama said...

Tartaras (did I get that right??) sounds like a lot of fun!! Wish we had something like that around here! :)

Daisy said...

I'm amazed by your week and the wonderful activities you have near you.

The Odyssey is one of my favorite books and I'd love to be able to read it in Greek!

Karen said...

Congratulations on getting your week flowing again. I'm very happy for you. That is terrific about wanting to learn Greek - those are the little moments that make me happy to be teaching my kids.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mandy in TN said...

Let us know when the work commences on the rock opera! LOL

Liza Q said...

The Odyssey was a huge hit here as well!!

I can't even imagine dealing with a fire...you have such a calm attitude!

Tonia said...

Sounds like you had a very good week. I've read a few of Yancy's book but hadn't heard of that one - just reserved it at my library. It sounds interesting.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you all had such a great week. I am considering LoF for my oldest (for next year) and will stay tuned to see how your DS enjoys it.

MissMOE said...

Sounds like you had a productive week filled with lots of fun activities! I'm sorry about having to throw your things away. In a way, sorting through everything is hard, but it does allow you to say goodbye and have some closure. Thanks for sharing.