October 7, AO year 1, week 4

So, yesterday we had the first weekly meeting of our outdoor playgroup here in our little town. It was great fun. We had our regular people plus two boys (6 and 8 yr olds) whose pregnant mom went home to nap with her two year old. More of the village raising kids. It was nice to help her out and her boys were very fun and were well enjoyed by the other kids. Fina had never really had dealings with them and said that they were very nice and very fun. So that was great. The weather was just beautiful! It was a great afternoon outside for us! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics. At the end of the afternoon, the kids found their way to a giant mud puddle, the only water anywhere for miles around, but they found it! Fina was covered in mud, but very happy. I had her splash pants and boots, but she went in with her pants and bare feet. That shows you how warm it was.

I've put up posters around town for our outdoor playgroup and I'm hoping we get more people next week.

Listened to Brahms during breakfast.

Of course, Fina wanted to do poetry first. We read some new poems: "The Swing" and "Time to Rise." She almost has "The Cow" memorized. She needs to work on the last stanza. She enjoys reciting poetry.

We read "Moses the Kitten," the first chapter from James Herriott's Treasury for Children. James Herriott is a vet and he tells of his adventures. It was very cute. Lots of pics, which is different for our school work, and Fina narrated it very well. The gist of it is that the vet finds a baby kitten on a farm and the farmer and his wife take care of it. The farmers have a sow who had just had 12 piglets, so they had put a heater in with the pigs to keep them arm. So they put the kitten and his bowl of milk in there to keep him warm as well. The next time the vet comes, the farmer shows his a funny sight. The kitten had decided to suckle with the other piglets and cuddles up with the sow all the time and follows her around. The kitten becomes part of the pig family. Even years later, the cat looks at the pig barn lovingly.

Fina's a bit antsy today. (Our homeschooling friends in town went out to jump on their trampoline for a few minutes before starting school today. We can't do that, but we can do some yoga. Indoor movement). Fina wanted to do episode 9, "Mike the Cosmic Space Monkey" from www.cosmickids.com. It is a shorter one, but a good episode.

Then we continued working on her cursive x, and ax as well. She did fine. Though we really need to keep working on paying attention (and not throwing herself on the floor whining, with mom raising her voice. Yeah, not a stellar moment for us.) It isn't that the cursive itself is difficult for her. She likes it to be perfect (and so do I) but she gets so easily frustrated. Part of it is her acting very dramatic, everything is the end of the world etc. Very annoying to me. Very fun yet upsetting for her. And a great waste of time for all of us. How I am going to fix this, I don't know. Her letters were fine though, of course! My mother would say "B-R-A-T!" At least if there was frustration for a real cause, it would be a bit easier to handle.  I literally prayed aloud that God would help me not be upset, and she kept whining right through it. Help! Thankfully this doesn't happen all the time, but I would love it to NEVER happen. I'm asking too much, right?

We got over that spat just fine and moved on to some fun and well-done narration. We read "Alexander and Bucephalus" as well as "Diogenes" from Fifty Famous Stories. Becephalus is Alexander the Great's horse. The boy Alexander tames him and his father realizes he is destined for great things. Diogenes is a wise old crazy man who Alexander goes to visit. Alexander asks is there is anything he needs, and Diogenes just asks him to move out of his sunlight. Alexander says to his soldiers "If I could not be Alexander, I would be Diogenes."  She got it, I think. Cute stories from Greek history. We are going to the add these historical figures to our Timeline.

Then we read two Aesop Fables: "The Kid and the Wolf" and "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse." She narrated them fine as well

On to MUS, 13D, E and F. She gets it very well, but is slow to get through her pages, and then gets tired of Math. I would like her to give her full attention to what she is doing. She is learning, though. It isn't dire (yet!). I might consider doing the timer thing. She gets the concepts and she enjoys it. She just likes to fiddle around and work slowly, I think. We will keep working on it.

Catechism Session 3. "God is our Father." Fina drew a picture of Jesus holding her hand and holding mom's hand.

The Bible is God's message to us. It shows us how God loves us. God sent Jesus to show us how to love.

Overall, it was a bit of a stressful and finicky day, (though it got better) but certainly not as bad as I had anticipated that some of our school days could be. This is just to show you things aren't perfect at home. But we are happy to be doing this together!