Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks

Back-to-School Mass and Gathering

Festive Trimmings...

It's a party! Bring on the balloons...

The Cafeteria Catholics have arrived...

A Cookie Rosary...

Yum! 

Happy Little People...

Afternoon Delight

I'm not sure why, when I'm focusing on adding beauty and art in my home, that my afternoon is spent like this:

Observing Chelsea's pet turtile, Skittles, in his new boxed habitat created by older brother Corey:

Feeding him...

worms dug-up from under the fig tree!

Giving Skittles a bath...

Running through the sprinkler because it's hot and summer is not nearly over yet.

And finding something swimmingly EEK!!! inside the watering can:

Do you see them?  Those little squiggly exclamation marks?

Yep! that's right! Seems we've "hopped" right out of tadpoles in the neighboring ditch and got us some good ol' mosquito larva brewing in the backyard watering can.   But they aren't as cute as tadpoles and we've been told to get rid of all standing water.  So, even though it's gross and weird, we're homeschoolers.  We only see that it's grossly, weirdly "educational".

I don't think you can view them that well but they are in there, popping around like popcorn kernels, twisting and lurching left and right.

Into a jar they go...for observational recording and educational study purposes, ya know:

Besides, we have a turtle named Skittles to feed!

It might not be beautiful, but it's all true and, being ordained by God, it has to be good.

August 20 Schedule

Watched news with Annie

Nursery Rhyme review with sticker book with Annie

Got rest of kids up and read Cendrillon: Cajun Cinderella with girls in bed.  Located Louisiana on map and Annie marked it with a star sticker.

Pancakes for breakfast. 

Read "On Beauty" aloud and discussed beauty in our home and art in our lives.

Garrett went to room to read another chapter of Harry Potter 7

Got Chelsea started on geography crossword lesson

Annie and I did Leap Frog Phonics

Chelsea ran outside to find worms to feed her pet turtle

I typed this while Annie did her numbers with her Leap Frog magnetic numbers then I showed her how to make 11-20 and 20-29 with the magnetic numbers.

Chelsea and Annie sat down to play Annie's ABC game while Garrett did his Math class with The Teaching Company DVD

Opa and I visited and drank coffee

The girls' game did not last long before hissing ensued.

They turned to the drawing pad and taped sheets together to draw huge houses on them.  Chelsea plans to label her rooms in French and make furnishing inside of them, also labeled in French. Annie just drew and colored her house.

When Opa left I took some time to color with the girls then went and sat in on the rest of Garrett's math lecture with him. Then Garrett did his math lesson on the sofa while I typed this.

Did Little Stories for Little Folks with Annie.

Did a Social Studies lesson on families with Annie.

Got Chelsea started on math lesson and did thinking skills and math lesson with Annie.

Helped Chelsea and Garrett with math.

Let Annie have computer time while Chelsea, Garrett, and I did Latin together (Introduction/Prayers/Prounciation Rules/Conversational Latin)

Copywork:  Latin Prayers (The Our Father and Table Blessing)

Checked Garrett's Math

Went over Spelling/English/Vocabulary for Garrett to do

Popped Pizza into oven for lunch

Garrett did Spelling while eating with us

Chelsea read Blood and Guts for Science and Time of Wonder then colored some nature scenes.

Chelsea did Map Skills (she loves these workbooks)

Corey and Kayleigh came breezing through for lunch then disappeared into their own grown-up worlds of work and school.   

Girls went outside to plant a garden in some plastic bins while I checked email and Garrett did Science.

While the girls played outside I got my papers ready for a Day of Recollection & Tea we're having tomorrow at the home of one of my homeschooling friends.  She asked me to talk on Venerable Zelie Martin and I said I'd be happy to. 

Chelsea came back inside to do her Reading Comprehension then the next thing I knew the two girls had turned on the talking globe and were dancing to the different cultural music.  They did that for a good twenty minutes before Chelsea resumed her reading paper.

I helped Chelsea with her English assignment (review of nouns/proper/common/possessive) then left her to complete it while Kayleigh and I talked. 

Annie continued dancing with the talking globe then went to throw a full-fledged birthday party for her little ponies.  Everyone invited!

Garrett read Twenty and Ten then did English and Vocabulary.

Chelsea and I began reading Pagoo together.

We ended the school day with chores: vacuuming the living room carpet and mopping the kitchen and sitting room floors.

A very full, a very good, a very rewarding day.

The Rest of the Very First Day

The rest of the morning was spent, looking over our history curriculum which I blogged about here:

(Photo Courtesy of Annie)

Chels is very excited about using it.

Then it was time for a science experiment and discussion using the same book I used ten years ago when I first began homeschooling my oldest Science in a Bag by Sandra Markle and June Otani.

Here the kids are mixing the yeast and water:

We did the "Does Yeast Need Sugar to Grow?"  A no-brainer for breadmakers but it certainly was fun watching the bag with sugar mixed into it blow-up like a blow fish. Here Chels watches the bags closely:

delighted that her bag was the one that bubbled and brewed:

Annie did Webkinz for a while:

Now dressed the girls took turns drawing on the dry erase board:

And we watched two of our new Signing Times videos:

Then Kayleigh arrived home from her first day (loving and talking wildly about her Medical Assistance Class):

By now it was lunch time, so I ran to the library to make copies of all those papers she has to bring back and of her insurance card and driver's license, etc. etc. etc (there's no end to the paperwork), and to pick up our Cinderella books so Monday morning we can begin our Around the World with Cinderella geography study:

We've got a ton and there are still more at the big Central Library in the neighboring town. 

I brought home a quick snack and had plans of the girls making a poster board for their Cinderella travel:

But a friend had called for them to go stay the night and go to an art festival in the morning. 

Art!!!

Seems we're going to have a busy art year. : )  The children declared it was a perfectly wonderful first day of school.  Even Garrett...probably because by the time his sisters left we still hadn't put his math disc into the DVD player. 

All Before 9:00 A.M.

This morning we were so glad we are homeschoolers:

We weren't going to begin school officially until Monday morning but with area schools opening today I thought it'd be fun to join the buzz, go over our new school books, sculpt with some playdoh, listen to new DVD's, and do some other fun stuff.  With the rain, thunder, and lightning highlighting the morning, it was a good idea.

School supplies were set out properly and, yes, the children were genuinely excited.

Annie's stash:

Chelsea's stash:

Garrett's horde:

And his "living books" for his World War II study at his request:

All the rest of it:

Yes, my children have every reason to feel overwhelmed:

And so the day began with a breakfast of buttered-cinnamon toast, apple-cinnamon oatmeal, and a cup of warm milk:

And dinner was started in the crock pot (tender round steak cooked in a milky gravy of mushrooms, onions, and spicy Tabasco Worchestershire sauce--made in New Iberia, LA):

Then it was art time:

After attempting a bit of art with each girl, I went to clean and change the vents:

Then the girls sculpted with playdoh (still in their pajamas):

While I read a FIAR selection The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift to them:

What was my oldest student doing?  I found him in his room reading:

Come back and join us for the rest of the day...