Weekly Wrap-up: After the Holidays

We welcomed the new year with something of a yawn: two members of the family went to the doctor on New Year's Eve, and the only reason anyone at all was up at midnight is the Daddy and I usually tuck the boys in between 10 and 11 and then head to dreamland ourselves shortly after midnight. Happily, everyone but the Daddy is feeling much better; hopefully we can get the Daddy back to full strength quickly because although the baby is due at the very beginning of February, the doctor today said she thought we were more likely looking at a January birthday! I'm feeling big as a barn, and every bit as awkward as that implies, and sooner is OK with me... after my regular doctor comes back from his holiday on Monday.

Probably the biggest excitement this week was taking the tree down. This happened a bit precipitously, after Dragon tried to hide in it and the base gave way. However, no boys were injured (though the tree did die- the base was destroyed), and I didn't freak out on anyone, so I felt like we handled it pretty well. Even the ornaments survived: only one plain ball ornament broke, and I'm pretty sure that it broke as a result of rough handling, not the tree falling.

As far as actual educational stuff this week, we're still taking it a little easy, what with the whole family getting over the nasty grunge that we've had. But I got some studying done for myself. My sister and her husband found this amazing course which they gave us for Christmas, and I'm having a blast listening to it and doing the reading it suggests. The booklet for the class is in the middle, and the other two are some of the recommended reading. It's not light, and it's not easy; this kind of reading is work, no doubt about that. But I've already learned a ton and I haven't even finished off the first lesson yet! The Federalist Papers were already on my list of books for the year, but this is actually making it easier to do that, because it's breaking it down into bite-size chunks for me, and also the instructor points out things that I would otherwise very likely have missed. Both of those are awesome. This is my third attempt at the Federalist; maybe with a bit of a guide, this time I'll make it all the way through. It may take me all year to finish the course, but I'm loving working on it!

As for the boys, we took it pretty easy on them for school this week. Hero was one of the sickies that started the week at the doctor's office, but we did do a little. We finished off our read-aloud, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which the boys both loved. Hero practiced his reading a little, and we learned just a little bit about medieval life.

We also read "You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle" and watched a couple of videos to clarify things that they mentioned. The little girl that worked in the castle was working with a distaff, so we had to find out what that is.







And then the castle was attacked by Prince John who use 5 trebuchets during the seige. Off to YouTube again! We found this really cool clip, and when it was done Hero asked me an awesome question: "Can we build one in our backyard?" Sadly, no, we can't. But maybe we can look for a little model kit. It's not the same, but it's still pretty cool.