Morning Basket

Learning Attende Domine for Lent. Counting down the days until Easter with a Lent Calendar. Poetry tea time. Reading the New Testament Gospels in The Golden Children's Bible. Reviewing poems from this year and last.

Just a note about poetry tea time: this is just about the kids' most favourite "school" thing. I first heard about the idea from Julie Bogart of Brave Writer in an interview over at Read-Aloud Revival (how's that for dropping homeschool names?!) We just love it, but don't do it enough. Basically, you make tea or some other warm, lovely drink and sit around reading poetry (or, as we often do, fairy tales, etc). This month we were finishing off some fairy tales and diving into The House at Pooh Corner.

Language Arts
Joseph is already reading some of the books I read to him as read-alouds just after Christmas. He completely loves Tomie De Paola's autobiographical children's books and is begging me to just buy the three others we don't own yet. He also flew through the remaining Faith and Freedom grade two readers and is devouring Nate the Great books at an alarming pace.

We read The House at Pooh Corner and are working our way through Charlotte's web as read-alouds.

  

 

The other components of Language Arts aren't nearly as interesting, but we do phonics, writing, spelling, and all that.

Math

Addition/subtraction math facts to 11. Double digit addition/subtraction. Review, review. We are nearing the end of Joseph's text and aren't covering as much new material.

John Paul and Emilie love to play play dough. 

Social Studies
Colouring pictures of RCMP, grain elevators, Saskatchewan flags and symbols.

Listening to Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times. Ok, finished. We will have to start all over again for me to get in on more of the listening. Joseph will come out with random comments like, "Dad, do you know what nomads are? Because I can tell you!" and "Alexander the Great was really great. He conquered everyone" and making his own plans to conquer our neighbourhood. Oops, we're raising nerdy homeschool kids.

Science
Studying 5 senses. Learning about the body and playing SomeBody.

Playing "how would you describe how this feels?"

  

Playing "how does this taste?" They really didn't like cold, black coffee!

 

Art

Painting winter birch tree scenes with water colours. 

 

Holy Thursday: colouring a Da Vinci inspired Last Supper and making unleavened bread from Catholic Icing. This was their best attempt at normal smiles:

Mama School

I started a course in the fall from Spalding Education International covering how to implement the Spalding method in a homeschool (or really any) setting. We use the method for phonics and spelling right now and I think it's going really well. I'm trying to finish up the 10-session online course now before my time expires. 

Spy Wednesday

"Oh no!" I cried out to the kids, "I think Judas has been in our basement and left something behind!"

The kids: "Really?!"

"Yes! Let's go check it out!"

We ran downstairs. Sure enough, we saw a couple of silver coins lying around.

"Hmmm... if we find 30 then I'll bet it was Judas!"

And so the kids searched and searched.

In the end we counted up the coins and sure enough, there were 30 pieces of silver! We decided to give the money to the poor. To which Joseph asked: "Do we even know any poor people?" Sigh...

We then headed out to Mass. The boys' ears perked up when they heard the Gospel. Something about a conspiracy, Judas and 30 pieces of silver.

Catholic Culture Renovation: Palm Sunday and other Tidbits

A blessed Palm Sunday to you, if you are indeed reading this on Palm Sunday. Otherwise, a most blessed and suffering Holy Week to you.

We had our Palm Sunday Mass last night, and let me tell you we pulled out all the stops for it! Not organ stops (we'll get to those later). All the stops to get Emilie to behave. I was scheduled to narrate the Gospel, which meant Becca and the boys had to contend with the little "doll". Holy cards, objects, toys, treats... they lasted her all the way through to the homily! Later on I had the joy of chasing her around the church. That little girl can run when she wants to!

Speaking of the Gospel. As I read: "Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last," and then we all knelt down, John Paul turned to his mother: "Do we wave our palms NOW?"

Well we got through Mass. I stayed up late working with the palms. And we're stuck in Tisdale today. There's another snowstorm, of course. Following this storm will be a couple of weeks of cold temperatures. Highs of 13 below. Lows of 20 below. Not counting wind chill. We're skipping Spring this year, apparently. The Easter bunny will freeze his ears off.

Back to organ stops. Sort of. Before Mass our priest asked me if we should sing All Glory Laud and Honor, or The King of Glory Comes. I tried not to choke as I replied that All Glory Laud and Honor would be just fine. Here is a fine organ version of it.

There is a reason why the Church speaks so highly of the organ. Not the guitar. Nor piano. Nor even the theologically rich Trinitarian triangle. And this hymn, written by the great St. Theodulf, was created specifically for the great procession of Our Lord into Jerusalem. Fr. George Rutler, in his book The Stories of Hymns, explains that for St. Theodulf, a great defender of the faith was imprisoned for various false reasons: "it was the loveliness of 'Gloria, laus, et honor' that won Theodulf release after he was imprisoned on charges of treason against King Louis the Pious" (p. 59).

One final liturgical note as we enter Holy Week (ours has a birthday for a four year old in it!). The Collect from the Extraordinary Form on Friday was rather to the point.

"Mercifully pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we who restrain ourselves from sin by voluntary chastisement may suffer for a time rather than be condemned to eternal punishment. Through Our Lord."

Amen to that.

One final note. The boys have been keeping fit with me. I cannot wait until they get even older. I'll have spotters for my weight workouts! A blessed (with some suffering) Holy Week to you indeed. Remember, no pain, no gain(s).

Time to Play: Guess the Church Musician

I often pose Guess the Band pictures for my grade 5 students. It's both fun and depressing. Fun to see them try to figure out the band. Depressing to note they know nothing of music. "Rolling Stones? Eric Clapton? Stawberry Alarm Clock?..."

I present to you: Guess the Church Musician. Figure out the writer of sacred, and not so sacred (hint), music that you might hear at Mass.

1)

2)

3)

4)

"I'll be..."

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Bonus:

Answers:

1) Palestrina (polyphony)
2) Franz Gruber (Silent Night)
3) Dan Schutte (City of God)... Actor's name is "Daniel" who threatens to "shoot" in Sound of Music.
4) Johann Sebastien Bach (Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring)
5) Bob Dufford (Be Not Afraaaaaid)
6) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Requiem)
7) Georg Friedrich Handel (Messiah)
8) Carey Landry (The Spirit is a Moving)
9) John Henry Newman (Firmly I Believe and Truly)
10) Ludwig van Beethoven (Ode to Joy tune)

Bonus: John Foley (One Bread, One Body)

More Kwasniewski

The great professor Peter Kwasniewski has an engrossing "imaginary tale" article over at Onepeterfive. It involves a theoretical, yet most-real, situation of a Catholic born in the year 1938. I add that Catholics born in 1983 also, to a degree, know the struggle. Here are a few highlights to whet your appetite:

"You were born in 1938. You grew up in a parish where multiple Sunday Masses were packed with Catholics. Some of your earliest memories are of the hats and veils the ladies wore as the final touch on their Sunday best, the men’s dapper suits and polished shoes. You learned your catechism in Q&A form—and to the present you can recall whole sections of it. You fasted as best you could throughout Lent and always ate fish on Fridays. There was no question about going to communion without having gone to confession. Your time as an altar boy in the late forties taught you discipline, observation, and reverence. You felt a sense of humility mingled with pride in being able to enter the awesome sanctuary alongside the priest and watch him close up as he whispered the strange words of the Mass. You have striking memories of the quiet church early in the morning with sun streaming through the east window; you see the golden stitchwork on the chasuble, you feel the hard, smooth surface of the biretta that Father handed to you.

In 1955 your Easter week changed dramatically."

Oh yes, those evil days of Catholicism. Now in his books Kwasniewski does not advance the idea that Catholicism in the 1940s and 50s was perfect. Not at all. Yet the essence of the faith, and liturgy, was still most desirable (whether certain lax clergy and laity practiced it or not). Further, and most importantly, it was certainly far better than what we've had since. He goes on:

"In Advent 1969, everything changed again. There was a new rite of Mass. The familiar prayers were gone. Latin was never heard. It was like a different denomination. In fact, some friends of yours said: 'Doesn’t the Catholic Church know what it wants to be? This sea change every five years or so looks like a lack of confidence or a crisis of identity or something.'"

Read the next section. There is a money line at the end of the following:

"Decades passed. Pastors came and went. Your parish was renovated twice: the first time it was whitewashed, turned upside-down, and brutalized past belief. Familiar statues and candlesticks and pews were removed, and large chunky objects—in particular, a baptismal font that looked like a combination water-fountain and trash receptacle at a National Park—were hauled in. Felt banners were hung all around, reminding you of the Scripture verse: 'may there be darkness upon the land of Egypt, so thick that it may be felt' (Ex 10:21)."

Yes, we've all 'felt' the pain. And so, Kwasniewski's story ends with external apathy, yet internal heartbreak:

"So you sigh, and you take up your Rosary beads—at least these have not been prohibited or taken away. There may not be much hope for you in your neck of the woods, but you figure that others are doing better elsewhere, and besides, you are getting old, and shouldn’t expect too much or complain. [...] At your age, you can put up with anything a little longer. Then it’s goodbye to the world and its mess. Some problems only God can fix."

 Please read the entire article here.

And consider buying:


I haven't been able to read it much lately. It's a little too heartbreaking, lest I be led to apathy, or madness. Perhaps it's true that some problems only God can fix.

Winter Fun (Photo Dump)

Before it's gone (soon, we hope!) I figured I'd better do a winter photo dump because I have a few months worth of photos that haven't seen the light of the internet. 

January found us hosting some very special guests: Aunty Maddy and Oliver!

Our ONE warmer (I think it was -5; every other day was well below -20) day during the first two months of the year happily happened during their visit. We were able to build a great big huge snow bear.

 

  

A few weeks later, while digging the snow down to our back sidewalk, Dan and the boys made a massive fort out of snow blocks. This was in the early stages:

Since it was so cold at Christmas, we weren't able to do our annual bonfire out at Grandpa and Grandma Millette's. We went back over the February Break to get in the fun. It is a massive pile of everything that's been collected from fallen trees, brush, old wood, etc throughout the year. And it's just the best! This year we roasted hot dogs and drank hot chocolate too.

Just some dress-up fun: a knight, a cowgirl, and a superhero.

The weather finally warmed up in the last few weeks. We had a great time of outdoor skating and fun in Nipawin two weekends ago. Probably the last skate, since the sun has been melting spots.

The bystanders: Emma and Emilie. Yes, we get their names confused a lot.

Poor Emilie has yet to make it into our family frame in our living room. We got some nice pictures for that so she doesn't feel left out. 

Emilie and her best friends: Emma and Grandpa

Joseph had been begging to try out skiing. After Grandpa and Grandma spent significant time adjusting them for him, he was so excited!