AO year 1, week 23 January 11

We had a very fun outdoor playgroup yesterday afternoon. It was very cold, but sunny and nice. Fina and I were outside for about 4 hours.  Here she is with one of her friends, playing in a little natural fort.

Today, we listened to some Schubert over breakfast.

We are working on some housekeeping habits here. I offered Fina the choice between taking the dry clothes off the racks or making the beds. She wanted to do both. And she organized her pj drawer. (We did a craft yesterday about an "Act of Kindness beads" which just so happens to be affiliated with St Therese de Lisieux, whose autobiography we are currently reading as a family). Fina pulled it out and thought she could count these 4 jobs as part of her 10 beads for the day. (And she wants to keep track on a calendar, for every day she does all 10 acts of kindness, she wants a check mark. And if she goes one week with all her check marks, she'd like to do something special. Funny, I never really used rewards with Fina, but they are working well with her today! Very motivated and "with a cheerful heart.") Win-win, I say! Thankfully she did her jobs quickly and efficiently and we were able to get on with our school work in a timely fashion.

I read Luke 1:26-38 and Fina gave a very good narration.
We sang through our folk song, "She's Like the Swallow."

I read the story of Antonio Canova from Fifty Famous Stories. Fina loved the story and gave a wonderful narration.

We read poem 52 from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse, "Upon Boys Diverting Themselves in the River" by Thomas Foxton.

Fina recited the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
She did 11E of her math book.
Fina wanted to have "recess" to play a bit while listening to Schubert. So she did. We don't really do recess as a normal thing, but every once in a while she gets wistful for it (though she never went to public school.)
She reviewed her uppercase cursive letters and learned the letter K.

She read a few pages aloud to me (from a Berenstain Bear's bible story book).
We did chapter 4 of her catechism.
She recited a bunch of Shakespeare passages to me. I read through her new passage to learn to recite, from Twelfth Night, Act II, scene iv, starting at 105.

VIOLA
My father had a daughter loved a man
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship. 

ORSINO
And what’s her history? 

VIOLA
A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' th’ bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
… 

ORSINO
But died thy sister of her love, my boy? 

VIOLA
I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too—and yet I know not.

That is going to be a tricky one. It is quite lengthy!

We started a new hymn, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." Fina read through the entire first verse, singing it herself.

Fina also wanted to paint and this is her painting.

It is a gift for dad.

That is it for today. Join us tomorrow!