Plugging Away

We have had a super busy, intense, hard work U kind of fall. It's been great. It's been fun. And this coming week the kids have Blue Book exams- the CC Challenge equivalent to end of semester tests. Except they are not multiple guess, teach to the test kind of tests. They are utilizing tools (Topic Wheels, ANI charts, Have/Are/Do charts), drawing from Memory Work (Latin, Catechism's, Geography terms and maps) and asking the kids to integrate and talk about what they've learned.

It's super cool, a bit intimidating and totally classical.

We've spent the past week getting ready, as much as one possibly can. In other words, drill and kill, baby. Should've been my middle name. We've drilled Latin vocab, forms and grammar. We've drilled Catechism charts to the point that the older boys know the definition for The Hopeful Monster Theory, et al and have made every kind of fun of it, and have drawn map after Western Hemisphere map in prep for drawing the whole thing from Memory early this week, including Prime Meridians, Tropics of Cancer, bodies of water and features, along with capitals and countries.
And that's just for the 7th grader.

The 9th grader has been busy, ohsobusy, researching Padua- the city where The Taming of the Shrew took place, in order to write a paper and do a 5 minute presentation. I typed it for him, so he could get other stuff, like another formal Science Lab written up, and boy howdy, Padua is a cool little ancient city that's had a lot going on over the years. Listening to Ravi Z's sermon on I, Isaac, Take Thee Rebecca, this semester, solidified Ravi Z's place for Cub as one of the current greats of the faith. Love his preaching/teaching!

In the midst of it all we've been wrapping presents to send, buying presents for under the tree, putting up even more lights (because Dr Dh is obsessed passionate about making it shine in our valley) and getting ready for the annual Christmas Craft Party at our sweet friend and remarkable crafter Jannell's, and making ornaments and photo booth props for our end of semester Challenge party.

For fun this week, while all three kids were procrastinating, including College Man, they divided up the world- map, Risk-style, fighting over countries and making trades, arguing about the viability of the countries resources, geography and politics. Love that. 




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