26th September, 2008
More Grammar and Novena
Ever since I found the google book search I have been obsessed with looking at books. 
I found another Grammar book today, this one I’m going to use. There are three books in the series and the first book starts in about third grade. I like this one because it has dictation, poetry, composition and grammar all in one book. It seems gentle and yet more meaningful than the other Grammar we used. I can place my children where they are and easily keep up with them. I like this one Introductory Lessons in English Grammar by W.M. H. Maxwell.
Today is the third day of the Novena to St. Theresa
Little Flower Novena
Prayers to be said each day:
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: O God, who have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit; grant that by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be ever truly wise and rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love: O my God! I believe in Thee: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in Thee: do Thou secure them. I love Thee: teach me to love Thee daily more and more.
The Act of Contrition: O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance , and to amend my life. Amen.
Fourth Day
Dear Little Flower of Carmel, bearing so patiently the disappointments and delays allowed by God, and preserving in the depths of your soul an unchanging peace because you sought only God’s will, ask for me complete conformity to that adorable Will in all the trials and disappointments of life. If the favors I am asking during this Novena are pleasing to God, obtain them for me. If not, it is true I shall feel the refusal keenly, but I too wish only God’s Will, and pray in the words you used, that I “may ever be perfectly fulfilled in me.”
Intercede for us all the days of our life, but especially during this Novena and obtain for us from God the graces and favors we ask through your intercession. Amen.
Dear Little Flower, make all things lead me to heaven and God, Whether I look at the sun, the moon, the stars and the vast expanse in which they float, or whether I look at the flowers of the field, the trees of the forest, the beauties of the earth so full of color and so glorious, may they speak to me of the love and power of God; may they all sing His praises in my ear. Like you may I daily love Him more and more in return for His gifts. Teach me often to deny myself in my dealings with others, that I may offer to Jesus many little sacrifices.
Intercede for us all the days of our life, but especially during this Novena and obtain for us from God the graces and favors we ask through your intercession. Amen.
Concluding Prayer Prayed Each Day:
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
Posted at 8:41 pm | Comment (1)
25th September, 2008
Grammar, Writing, Spelling and the library
The closest library to us is in another county. I’ve been putting off going this year as they now charge forty dollars to use the library if you do not live in the county. I don’t. I asked if perhaps they let homeschoolers join free, nope. If you live or work or go to school in the county you can join free. Oh well, I paid. We could only check out 3 items this first visit, next time we can get up to 15.
All these resources are free, I found them on google book search.
This looks like a fun way to introduce the 9 parts of speech. They are personified in this story called Grammar Land.
This looks like a good, fun book on writing called Elementary Composition.
The Dictation Spelling Book looks like a good supplement to a spelling program, it lists writing from well known authors to use as dictation.
Today was day 33 in lessons. We did Math, Spelling test, reading and writing.
Here is the novena for St. Theresa for day 3.
Little Flower Novena
Prayers to be said each day:
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: O God, who have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit; grant that by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be ever truly wise and rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love: O my God! I believe in Thee: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in Thee: do Thou secure them. I love Thee: teach me to love Thee daily more and more.
The Act of Contrition: O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance , and to amend my life. Amen.
Dear Little Flower, make all things lead me to heaven and God, Whether I look at the sun, the moon, the stars and the vast expanse in which they float, or whether I look at the flowers of the field, the trees of the forest, the beauties of the earth so full of color and so glorious, may they speak to me of the love and power of God; may they all sing His praises in my ear. Like you may I daily love Him more and more in return for His gifts. Teach me often to deny myself in my dealings with others, that I may offer to Jesus many little sacrifices.
Intercede for us all the days of our life, but especially during this Novena and obtain for us from God the graces and favors we ask through your intercession. Amen.
Concluding Prayer Prayed Each Day:
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
Posted at 10:55 pm | Comment (0)
24th September, 2008
Book of Centuries
Today was day 32 of our school year. I thought this morning before lessons to print each of the kids a book of centuries. I found a free one to print here at Simply Charlotte Mason. It was easy to print and I whole punched the pages and put them in three ring binders, one for each child. For History and Religion today I had the children paste pictures in their century books. I found the pictures last night on the internet and printed them. I also had each of the children write briefly about Eve, St. Patrick, Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain John Smith, all the people we have studied so far this school year. We also finished the chapter on Virginia in history talking about what a rebellion is and what a tyrant is. For read aloud I read ch. 4 and 5 in Shadows in a Glasshouse. Everyone did Math, dd8 did handwriting, everyone did grammar and dictation and homonyms - their and there in spelling. Everyone also had to plan their next topic for their paragraphs in writing.
The novena to St. Theresa continues to day with the following prayers.
Prayers to be said each day:
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: O God, who have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit; grant that by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be ever truly wise and rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love: O my God! I believe in Thee: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in Thee: do Thou secure them. I love Thee: teach me to love Thee daily more and more.
The Act of Contrition: O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance , and to amend my life. Amen.
O dear little Saint, now that you see the crucified Jesus in heaven, still bearing the wounds caused by sin, you know still more clearly than you did upon earth the value of souls, and the priceless worth of that Precious Blood which He shed to save them. As I am one of those children for whom Christ died, obtain for me all the graces I need in order to profit by that Precious Blood. Use your great power with our divine Lord and pray for me.
Intercede for us all the days of our life, but especially during this Novena and obtain for us from God the graces and favors we ask through your intercession. Amen.
Concluding Prayer Prayed Each Day:
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
Posted at 4:37 pm | Comment (0)
23rd September, 2008
Tired, Happy Novena to St. Theresa
Day 31 is done. Everyone did Spelling, they wrote out their lists and did their dictation. It was good. We also talked about the writing process in writing and got ideas about keeping a writing idea notebook, everyone wrote down five ideas. Everyone did Reading. Dd10 finished If You Lived in Colonial Times and Insects Do the Strangest Things. She worked hard to finish them both on the same day. She chose Stuart Little and Birds Do the Strangest Things for her next reads. Everyone did Math and Typing and Art. Today was the unit test for Art, it was a crossword on patterns and a few questions. I finished reading our read aloud Call it Courage. It was a great ending ! We all really enjoyed that book.
I spent the afternoon writing out our menu, going food shopping with Dd10 and trimming bushes in the yard. I’m beat.
I wanted to tell you all though that today is the first day for the novena to St. Theresa. Today, join me in this prayer to the Little Flower. Her novena is said for nine days. I’ll post the prayers for each day here. I got them from this site.
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: O God, who have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit; grant that by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be ever truly wise and rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love: O my God! I believe in Thee: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in Thee: do Thou secure them. I love Thee: teach me to love Thee daily more and more.
The Act of Contrition: O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance , and to amend my life. Amen.
St. Thérèse, privileged Little Flower of Jesus and Mary, I approach you with childlike confidence and deep humility. I lay before you my desires, and beg that through your intercession they may be realized. Did you not promise to spend your heaven doing good upon earth? Grant me according to this promise the favors I am asking from you.Intercede for us all the days of our life, but specially during this Novena and obtain for us from God the graces and favors we ask through your intercession. Amen.
Concluding Prayer Prayed Each Day:
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
Posted at 9:57 pm | Comment (1)
21st September, 2008
Faith Bingo and New Cereal
Thursday was day 29 of lessons this year and we had a light day. I finished ch. 4 in Call it Courage and the kids wrote about a cereal they had to invent.
On Friday we had the second meeting of the Little Flowers Girl’s Club. We played Faith bingo, did a word find on St. Theresa of Lisieux, talked about what faith is and wrote out our memory verse in cursive, ate flower shaped ham sandwiches and talked about different kinds of bikes for our bicycle badge.
Posted at 7:01 pm | Comment (1)
17th September, 2008
Learning Log: 9-17-08
Day 28
Formal Lessons: 11:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon.
Language Arts
We did a sheet from our unit study on homonyms.
Then the children read from Writing Paragraphs by Bryan House and told whether the writing was a paragraph or not.
We used a Sketch and Scribe by Ona Patterson page to design a new drink and write about it.
Dd’8s Love Drink
If you need a love drink than I am your girl.
I will make you love someone.
For boys and girls.
Dd10’s Red Juice Drink
Buy Red Juice , it is the greatest drink in the world.
It turns you into any animal you would like.
First say what animal.
Poof.
Ds11’s Gamer’s Fuel Drink
Want energy for gaming? I’m your man in a can.
Gamer’s Fuel.
Gamers Get it !
Read Alouds
Religion - finished Ch. 4 in St. Patrick’s Summer
Language Arts - read more from Ch. 4 in Call it Courage
Poetry - read a page of poems about the sea from Random House Book of Poetry
Science - read about the dirt wasp and mosquitoes from CLP Nature Reader Book One
Posted at 2:37 pm | Comment (1)
16th September, 2008
The First Meeting of The Little Flowers Girls Club
My girls and I and my Mom decided to start our own girls club, just us. Our first meeting was last Friday September 12th and I meant to write about it sooner, but the cold got me down. Anyway we are using some materials from Ecce Home Press as part of our club. The Little Flowers materials has the girls studying virtues by way of Saints and earning badges. The next part of our club uses the Keepers at Home Handbook, this book for girls 7-16 has badge requirements in home making, nature study, geography and other skills. My girls are earning charms for these “badges” to put on a bracelet. I’m also using a book called Sewing With Saint Anne for the girls to start to make things for their Hope Chests. We are going through the American Girls Body Book called The Care and Keeping of You and making a lapbook.
At our first meeting we learned about St. Theresa and made good deed beads.
We decorated bags to keep our supplies in.
And we decorated our notebooks.
Posted at 3:41 pm | Comment (1)
16th September, 2008
Learning Log 9-16-08
The cold is getting better, still a sore throat though. I got the LA materials to go with our unit study and I started those today. Good stuff.
Day 27
Formal lessons 9:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon
Everyone did Math, Handwriting, Independent Reading in both History and Science, Writing about their independent reading, art ( questions about patterns), French, LA- identifying different kinds of sentences and Science ( creating their own insects ). Ds11 finished his science like novel, Ned Kelly and the City of Bees and chose Charlotte’s Web for his next novel. We are all looking forward to getting back to our read alouds tomorrow, I’m thinking I will feel pretty good by then.
Here are some pictures of the insects the children drew.
Posted at 3:22 pm | Comment (0)
15th September, 2008
Learning Log 9-15-08
I have a cold.
This weekend I took the kids swimming for the last time this season. Ds11 went to Cosmic Bowling with the Scouts and Dd10 sang at Mass on Sunday and went to choir practice on Saturday morning. I have some great pictures from the first meeting of our Little Flowers Girl’s Club on Friday and lots to share about Finding Mary’’s Heart, but that will all have to wait until I feel better.
Formal Lessons 11:00 - 3:30
Day 26
Everyone did:
Math
Handwriting
Independent Reading in History and Science
Writing facts for History and Science
Science writing about a paper wasp and nature journal drawing.
Finished History Maps of Jamestown and did Word Find.
Posted at 3:51 pm | Comment (0)
11th September, 2008
Learning Log 9-11-08
I’m late in posting my log, it was market day and for some unknown reason it seemed the day flew faster than usual. I had that Martha inspired I’ve got a lot to do feeling until just now. I did make enough burritos to freeze and even tried my hand at homemade tortillas. I don’t have it down yet, but had store bought waiting in the bread basket for back up. Made salsa too, needed with burritos.
Day 25
Formal Lesson 9:30 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon
Today at Turtle Island, that is the name we gave our school and it is still our name though ds11 was considering Trinity Prep Homeschool now that he is in sixth grade. 
We started with journal writing. The olders dd10 and ds11 wanted to write stories, but dd8 decided to just cry at the table. I have no idea why, even now. She just seemed to be having a hard time with life this morning. I suggested she bake. That is how I work through my moods -I bake. dd10 got into the cooking mood as well. Dd8 made fudge and Dd10 made brownies. I’m calling this Home Ec.
Dd 10’s journal entry, the first chapter of a story about her Cat, Sadie.
Everyone worked on their map of Jamestown for History, DS11 finished his.
The map comes from our Colonial America History Pockets. The idea to put it on a paper bag was the children’s.
Ds 11 did his reading in The Witch of Blackbird Pond and wrote his fact. He also read in his book, Ned Kelly and the City of Bees and wrote his fact. He is almost finished with that book and says it is really good.
Now the little girls were in no mood for lessons after cooking. They were too involved with their beanbags, a handicraft from last year.
I decided more handicrafts were in order and the two of them decided they wanted to make more bean bags. Only this time they wanted them to be three dimensional. I found a tutorial on this site and set to work letting the girls chose fabric and begin cutting.
They got all their pieces cut and I decided for Math or maybe we could call it life skills, I needed some help sorting through the art supplies, and that is what we did.
Posted at 7:33 pm | Comment (0)
