We started with a pep-talk / devotional / wonderful words of encouragement by our friend E. The kids sang our national anthem and prayed the Lord's Prayer together.
We moved to recitation. T did a great job with his speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Our friend SF recited a couple funny poems / tongue twisters. Fina recited "The Cow" poem wonderfully.
We looked at Rembrandt's Prodigal Son for our picture study.
L told us the painter's name, and then we looked at the painting for 3 minutes. Fina nearly freaked out crying because she remembered that she doesn't like having to look intently and then having the pic taken away to then tell back what she remembers. But she was able to remember, just like everyone else. She had some very insightful observations (like the people in the background look not nice). I think today's experience really helped her not be stressed about this anymore. She sees she did just as well as the older boys did. I am so grateful for this co-op. Not having siblings and schooling alone is a challenge. Seeing the other children participate in this showed her she CAN do it. Priceless!
We took turns saying what we saw. Then L read to us the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke. Then we looked at the painting again and tried to relate it, though the kids didn't quite get who was who, but I know we moms enjoyed making the correlation.
Henri Nouwen has a book about this painting. The Return of the Prodigal Son. I have a lenten devotional book based on the lectures that formed the book, From fear to Love. In it, I remember reading that one hand is of a woman and one hand is of a man. I saw that right away when I saw the painting.
Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream as retold in E. Nesbitt's book - I can't believe that Fina remembered a lot about the story, and was retelling Puck's mischevious acts, and she could answer the questions about who did what. We had read this a few weeks ago! This CM reading and narrating thing REALLY works.
Hymn. L lead us in the Doxology. We sang it through a few times. It was fun, I thought.
Finger knitting. I was a bit flustered to start, but the kids got the hang of it just the same. It goes to show you how difficult it is each to teach people stuff! They enjoyed it. Even little 3-year old E did quite a few rows of hers. We hope to knit a few tubes of finger knitting, and then sew them together to make a scarf.
Nature Study. E showed us how to paint a landscape, with a blue sky, golden fields and some green trees in the middle. The children took turns presenting their water colour painting (using the dry-brush technique) to the rest of us.
We had our lunch somewhere in there, because our time had moved on and the kids were getting antsy. Our plan is to have our lunch outside of the library. We also did some jumping jacks, push ups and a few dances of "Ring around the Rosey" sprinkled throughout our time.
We got outside to play at around 2pm (it takes quite a while to wrangle up all 5 kids, plus 3 moms!)
We went to the park near our house, and the kids got to play on the play structure, on the dirt hills, and in the snow. It was a lovely time had by all!
Seriously, geese? You are tardy!!!
S says his favourite part was "playing with his friends and the finger knitting." Fina told me her favourite part was the finger knitting and the painting. SA said she liked the finger knitting and the painting (and signing out books, ha!). We will have to ask T what he liked most about the day.
What a blessing to have people to share this journey with. I have no words to describe how blessed I felt today with these ladies and their lovely kids. What we did today might not advance us in checking things off our homeschooling list, but it is SO MUCH more than that. Worth beyond measure.
It is so nice that the children enjoy each other's company. The play so nicely together. But they also learn well. They did their best to respect each other and to respect the moms. I know Fina enjoyed listening to others.
Our friend E summed up our day much more eloquently in our FB group. This is what she wrote:
"What a great day! Our children sang, prayed, played, observed and reflected on a Rembrandt, laughed at the fun of and acted out Shakespeare, practiced practical handicrafting: finger-knitting! Painted a Manitoba landscape, practiced public speaking through recitation (poetry, rhymes, and Shakespeare lines) and presenting their artwork to one another. A blessing of a day... Not to mention the first snow day of the season!"
After supper, she wanted to do more water colour painting.
All in all, a wonderful day!!!
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