Like Anne, I am thrilled that I live in a world where there are Octobers. We had a long stretch of late summer that lasted half the month, followed by a string of beautiful days that we are still soaking up. October in Oklahoma is glorious.
Rejoice: We have fallen into a pattern of all getting ready for bed when the younger boys do and then spending the late evening working or writing at the kitchen table. So, I am not getting up early, but I do get the spend the evening near my husband instead of sleeping while he works by himself. We did start a new Bible plan with the boys, and I am still reading SheReadsTruth and IF:equip every morning because I am enjoying both studies at the moment.
Relate: Part of working at the table in the evening is the chance to draw Micah into our more quiet evening study time. Occasionally one of us is tutoring him in algebra or Latin or editing work for him. Most of the time, we are just all working around the table together on our own projects.
Remember: We had our Council of Oaks meetings four times a week and did memory work each time. We are on track with the Foundation and Essentials memory work as well as our Spanish and German lessons and hymns and poetry. It feels like we are behind in Scripture memory work, but in reality, I think I had delusions of grandeur in that area when I made the Memory Work Packs for each month. I’ll update them in December and fix that.
Reason: Math, Algebra 2, and Calculus are all on track. Logic and Latin are on track. English grammar is too. Check. Check. Check.
Read: We did a lot of reading (cataloged below). I finished up several books, including one that I’d been working on for three years according to Goodreads.
Record: Like I said, I worked on developing a habit of writing daily. I don’t know how much of it will become public, but it felt good to be writing. I wrote a series of Instagram posts for the #mybesthomeschooltip challenge at @learningwell. I had noticed a lot of the people only had tiny children, and I thought they might need a little look at how days might be later in order to help make it through the temper tantrums and toddler messes. That did mean that I wrote every day and developed a better habit of writing in the evening after we send everyone to bed. My kids all did their assigned writing, and Micah is still also working on his book. He is looking forward to the long holiday break in which he plans a lot of writing. (So do I.)
Books Finished in October:
By Micah: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, and snippets of other books that he will read a little at a time over the year. He also internet reading of research for a large project.
By Josiah: Johnny Tremain and Prince Caspian were the books of the month for the younger boys. He also read bits and pieces of other books that he will finish over time. He also read most of the Ranger’s Apprentice again series.
By Gideon: Johnny Tremain and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as well as parts of other books that he will finish over time. He feel in love with Narnia, and he read most of the Ranger’s Apprentice series again too.
By Me: I finally finished Stratford Caldecott’s Beauty for Truth’s Sake. It took me three years. He has some interesting comments on the liturgy of learning. I also read Present Over Perfect, Jennie Allen’s Nothing to Prove, Anthony Esolen’s Out of the Ashes, and a book for boymoms called Knights in Training that I highly recommend.
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