A Week in the Life: Perfect Days

When the girls were younger, they adored the videos from the World of Peter Rabbit and Friends collection, a BBC production. Each video featured a live action segment followed by an animated story. Each detail of the entire series is marvelous. Some episodes are available on YouTube. However, the title song is what tends to come to my mind every now and then, "Perfect Day," sung by Miriam Stockley.



We've had a series of perfect days here. The nights were pleasantly cool, and the days were lovely, with temps in the high seventies to very low eighties and the sun shining in an October blue sky. The word "blue" just doesn't do it justice. Azure seems more fitting. Or cerulean.

Our work has progressed well, too. The girls are especially enjoying The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle; Miss Priss remarked this week, "I like the way they talked then." She's her mama's girl, that one!

In history, we're learning about the troubles and crises that led to the making of the Constitution (to replace the weak Articles of Confederation). One of our resources helping us is the DVD A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation, which I picked up for a buck at a homeschool used curriculum sale a few years ago. I'm planning to write a review of it in a couple of weeks, so be on the lookout!

We also began a serious study of Plutarch's Lives, delving into "Poplicola." Thank heavens for Anne White's marvelous study guides! To prepare for the first lesson, the girls read the chapter "Rome Kicks Out Her Kings" from Hillyer's A Child's History of the World, as Anne suggests. I was happy with the girls' understanding of the material; I'm looking forward to continuing our Plutarch studies!

After much thought, I decided to replace the reading of Shakespeare's plays with actually seeing Shakespeare's plays. Our city has more than one Shakespearean company, so opportunities abound to see those scripts come alive onstage. One company even offers productions aimed at school-aged audiences where they tone down any bawdiness.

Tiny Girl and I made applesauce this week. It was tasty (it's all gone now!), but seemed almost like apple butter instead of sauce. But I consider it a culinary success, still and all.

We also sipped our fair share of homemade iced coffee, that elixir of the gods.

Oh, and Tiny Girl stepped on a nail at a friend's house, which pierced her Croc and her foot. Thank goodness she was wearing shoes! I shudder to think what could have happened had she not. She was almost due (a few months) for her DTP booster, so we went on to the doc for that and got a flu shot as well. We made a list of things to be thankful for even in such circumstances, but these sorts of adventures are not my favorite.

Pizza delivery tonight! Ham, pineapple, and black olive was the request. Hope the weekend is lovely where you live!