Weekly Wrap-Up: And We're Off!

A nip of fall is in the air here in Maine. A few mornings this week were downright chilly. And some trees are changing color, too.  We began school lessons this week, sticking with the basics: grammar and spelling, math, history, and, a new one of us, logic/critical thinking, literature. We’ll add more when we get back home.

With Miss Priss entering the logic phase as described in the trivium, I added logic as a separate subject this year. Both girls are using the Mind Benders Warm Up book, as suggested in TWTM. They are flying through it. Then we’ll be on to Beginning Book 2, which introduces the logic chart. Although Tiny Girl is technically still in the grammar stage, she has a naturally analytical mind (evidenced by her strong mathematical bent), so I decided to begin her in logic as well. Miss Priss’s study delves a bit deeper; she has also begun the Building Thinking Skills Level 2 (for grades four through six) book. But we’re treading lightly. We do a few Mind Benders puzzles a day, and then one page in Building Thinking Skills.


Over the past two years, I’ve been more relaxed about grammar, allowing the girls to absorb ideas and information about language through reading excellent literature and copywork from the same. However, this year I’ve chosen to more intentional about our grammar study. My goal is for the girls to have a firm grasp of grammatical structure at the end of the middle years.

In history, we read about Sir Walter Raleigh and the lost colony in Virginia.  And even though I'd planned to begin science, it didn't happen this week.  We had to work around a few other calendar items, seeing friends and volunteering at the library one last time before we leave Maine for home.


Here's was a highlight of the week: we are big winners! Miss Priss won Portland Sea Dogs (farm team for the Boston Red Sox) baseball tickets in the library summer reading program drawing, and we are going to the game Monday evening. Woo hoo! I love minor league baseball. It has a hometown Americana feel that professional baseball just lacks.  We're looking forward to it.

Himself arrives later today, and we are driving to Portland to pick him up at the airport.  Next week, we have a field trip planned to visit Pemaquid Point lighthouse, and the we'll start the gargantuan job of packing up.

Wish us luck!