Weekly Report...Week 24

I really don't have much to report this week. We did some school work, but not enough of our regular subjects to merit a full blown weekly report. So, I guess I'll just let you know what we did do.

History and Literature... We are in the middle of a two week study on Shakespeare. We started off by learning about Queen Elizabeth I and life in England under her reign. Collin has read the boys various excerpts from Shakespeare in the original language and Magnus eats it up! We have also shown the boys scenes from Kenneth Branaugh's Much Ado About Nothing and again, Magnus can't get enough! He loves Dogberry and often quotes him around the house. It's the only time he gets away with saying "ass"! I found some great retellings of Shakespeare's plays written by Bruce Coville that are also beautifully illustrated. Magnus has read them over and over. His favorites are A Midsummer Nights Dream and Twelth Night. He has pretty much stayed away from the tragedies as he is very sensitive to things like that. Then...I came across this great lense on squidoo. Jimmie has the videos from Shakespeare's Animated Tales linked. I was skeptical at first, but then when the dialogue was true to the play, I fell in love! They are great and the boys have watched them over and over.

Test Prep...
Ugh!!! This is one of the only things I hate about being registered with a charter school...standardized testing. I did have the attitude of, "Who gives a you know what" but, that has changed a bit. I don't want Magnus to go into an unfamiliar situation and feel like he has failed because he was not prepared. I want him to approach it with confidence. So, we have been doing some prep work. We have taken a break from our regular math and language arts studies to give this some attention. He hasn't minded. He has actually enjoyed it. But I do want to say... we are classical/Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. We do not follow the state standards and don't care to. As classical/Charlotte Mason homeschoolers I truly believe that I am giving my children the best education. An education that creates and nurtures a love of learning as well as rigorous academic standards. It does not matter to me how they compare to other kids. As long as I know they have done their best and have ended the school day feeling loved and cared for by me, what more could I want?

Field Trip...

We took a "field trip" to Napa with some friends. If you scroll down to the next post, you will be able to see some incredible pictures. I am not tooting my photography skills. I truly think it is impossible to mess up a photo of the amazing wildflowers we saw. They were amazing! And if you want a laugh, click on over to Zelda's post about the day. She is a hoot! And she captured some great pics too!


That about covers it for the week. I have decided that I am not going to end this post with a promise of pictures from the beach. It has not worked out for us to go the past 4 weeks and I don't want to jinx our chances of going this weekend.