When is a Blog a Plog & Our School Day

No, I don't think Plog is a word. Web-log=blog. Photo-log=Plog. That's my thinking. And along those lines, I was just looking around to see what I could photograph to include in my post. There's the crockpot, cooling with homemade turkey broth. Or the large stack of library books sitting on the kitchen table, waiting for our trip to the library. Or there's the backyard, with the flattened, reclaimed garden area. Ooh, I could grab a photo of the notes I took at Round Table this morning.

And then I had to stop. I don't want a photograph. I don't want to take the 'perfect' photo for the this post, then upload it to Picmonkey so I can tweak it more to make it better. I'm sure I could pin the post if I had a photo, or those on Facebook might get more interested in reading it if they see an image attached to the link. But, honestly, I don't really care. 

I seem to be digressing in this technologically advancing world. I want more simple. My cell phone {yes, I still prefer a cell phone to a land-line} doesn't even have a camera. It is a cheapo flip phone. And it suits me just fine. 

Someday I won't even have internet at home {gasp!}. Someday.

But for now, here's my post on our school day. I record it for my benefit and for those who care to read or those who are looking for ideas or assurance that they aren't the only ones {"only ones" that good, bad, or otherwise things happen in their school day}.

Round Table! I like, I like! I won't say it's become habit yet because I'm sure there will be a day that I just won't want to make the kids gather at the table. Will they be there on their own? I don't know. No, it's not a habit yet.

• Hymns- We sang only parts of three because Lee and Fox have sore throats {Fox is actually 'sick' but Lee has a new molar causing some discomfort}. "I Will Praise Him", "More About Jesus", and "Rock of Ages"
• Folk Song- On Ilkla Moor Baht'at. Lee has to keep us in tune. I'm still looking for another one; one that is connected to one of the time periods being studied by at least one of the kids' for school. 
• Presidents- got through the first 7 {of which I personally at this moment can only name 5- George Washington, ?, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, ?, Andrew Jackson} edited: I just had to look; I missed John Adams and John Quincy Adams! 
• Reading of the Declaration of Independence. We read the rest of it and talked about those who signed.
• Fox shared a drawing he did and then talked about how he draws hands. Lee has always struggled with drawing hands and feet. 
• Habits- I think we've done well. Fox 'tested' me yesterday to see if I would check on his work and not just assume it was done right. I passed *wink*. That is one thing we've been working on. They must do what is expected, and I must check to make sure they have. Otherwise, they don't always do what they are supposed to and I don't make them since I don't check!
• Closed with prayer.

Since it is Wednesday, the kids' schedules are a bit lighter. Fox has Young Marines and there is prayer meeting on Wednesday's. I'm not sure if either of those will happen tonight since none of us are feeling quite well. They worked well on their independent subjects {which I'm not going to record this post} and we worked outside earlier in the day on reclaiming the garden area. We finished our together subjects of Chemistry and ASL, and then the school day was finished. Chores and all were done by 2 pm. It just occurred to me that today was about 6 hours of school. The kids get up at 7:30 and start their 'school day' really. They read their Bible, which for us is a school subject. We went right into Round Table, which covered other areas that fall under 'school'. Then they did their other subjects -including Home Ec- and were done by 2 pm.

In between 'teaching' times, I've been working on the Term 1 exams for Y8 and Y10. Since I wiped out all the files, other than what I thought to save, from my computer, I don't have any Y8 exams from when Lee went through that year. I'm very appreciative of AO! On the website are complete exams but also on the forum is a spot for asking questions about exams, offering suggestions, and other questions to put on the exams. 

I might share the questions for the exams here, if they are different than what is on the AO site. 

And now, I must go deal with the cooled turkey broth in the crockpot and then start dinner. 

Sharing Some of Our School Day

Ilkla Moor Baht 'At, a Yorkshire folk-song. It took us a couple times listening to it to 'get' what they were saying. We especially like that version because it's fun. Here's another version, little less eccentric *wink*. Oh and here's one that Lee especially likes: Star of the County Down

Round Table lasted about an hour this morning. Here is how it went, but not necessarily in this order:

• We read more from the Declaration of Independence (the grievances of the king against the colonies). We talked about some of those grievances and how they relate to today, with the government shutdown. Also talked a little about what we think might happen with the bullying going on from Washington, D. C. Yes, I said bullying.
• We also looked at a list of all the Presidents and are in the process of memorizing all of them (we got the first five this morning). They both were given the task of finding a 'personal' piece to memorize. Lee wants to do the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence; Fox is looking at The Gettysburg Address.
• Habits: the day before we seem to have forgotten to pay attention to them; works in progress. 
• I asked if there was anything they wanted to share- drawings, poetry, etc. They said no. Someday they will -I hope. Lee did her narration on her Bible reading.
• Hymns: "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart", "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder", "When We All Get to Heaven"
• Prayer

Otherwise the day has been fairly smooth. I got up around the same time as the kids; an hour late for me. They got their breakfast and their Bibles. Fox did his written narration for the day on his Bible reading. Then we did Round Table. 

After RT was right into school. It was almost exactly 9:00 am; that's when school is supposed to start! Lee's worked on math, Latin (First Year Latin), current events/Weekly Barden, health (THM), Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and artist study (Degas), which she chose to do a written narration. Fox did math, biography (Galileo's Daughter) and narrated, current events/Weekly Barden, nature study (Rural Hours), German (Babbel app *affiliate link, but it's free), artist study (Degas), recited his verses, and he read James 1:5-8 for our Bible study that we'll do in a little bit. Together we went over chapter four of Exploring the World of Chemistry (and were so extremely excited when oxygen was discovered!). 

All together we still have to do ASL and James "commentary"/study. Lee still has geography (Eothen), government ("The Law"), verses, economics (Economics 101) and literature (Les Miserables) to finish. 

A little later, after school is all done and maybe after they've had their screen time, we have to do some work in the backyard. We are pulling up the garden and pretty much filling it in and smoothing the ground for grass to take it back. The garden was a failure this year. 

Circle Time... Er, Round Table Planning

After a week off of school, we'll be back at it tomorrow (actually in just a few hours since I'm still up and it's technically 'tomorrow' already). It's always nice to take a break but I like to get back to our schedule and routine. 

Since I posted a week or so ago about implementing our Round Table, I've been thinking more about it. Going off of Cindy's post, I came up with just a few things I want to start with on Monday, in addition to our usual Bible reading and prayer time. 

• Verses
• Poetry
• Hymn
• Habits
• Memorization

For verses we are still going through "100 Verses in 2013". 

I have two poems that I personally would like the kids to read and possibly take to heart. If by Rudyard Kipling and If for girls by McEvoy (the first name escapes me at the moment). 

The hymn we will chose from the hymnal we've borrowed from the church. I don't know if we will focus on one particular hymn or just sing some as we want. I like that idea.

Habits will be some things to work on individually. We all have some ones we need to break.

I'm not quite sure on the memorization yet. Perhaps we'll work on the Gettysburg Address. I memorized it in elementary school and it's stuck with me all these years. Well, the beginning of it anyway. {Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent...or something along those lines.}

I think it's a good start.