My favorite month. We entered it with a funeral and a birthday wrapped around the same weekend, and it all seemed apropos for the heart of autumn. My grandfather passed away in the final days of September, so we drove home for the funeral, and celebrated Evil Genius's birthday (post on that to come).
I've had a hard time getting out of the return-from-unexpected-travel funk and back into the homeschooling mindset, though. I don't know why. I love what we're doing, on every level. But I just can't jump start myself into meeting the morning with enthusiasm. I'm trying to get to bed earlier, which is fabulous in theory, but in reality, when the Wild One doesn't wind down enough for bed until 11 pm, and I finally have my brain to myself and my to-do list in front of me, it's impossible to just sleep. Anyway, whining and excuses aside...
Her Royal Highness is entering a Saints and Heroes block this month. We're starting off with one of my favorites, St. Francis of Assisi. She's still doing some grammar, and math practice every day, and she wants to start cursive writing now. I think we'll do that as a group. Hufflepuff knows cursive but is far out of practice, and Evil Genius was never interested before, but he's writing more now and I think it would help him write faster.
Speaking of Evil Genius, he's started the Waldorf block that troubles me the most, Human Beings and the Animal World. It's one of those points where Steiner's worldview and my own are so entirely different that I've actively avoided it in the past. But I got some fantastic advice on approaching it at Taproot this summer, and I think we're going to do all right. I'm using a lot of nature documentaries for this block because, while not so Waldorf an approach, they can cover a whole lot of things that I cannot.
Hufflepuff has started Rome, and I'm trying to balance out my need to cover ALL OF ROMAN ART HISTORY with her need to discover the history and social significance of the Roman Empire. It's neat how her Latin studies have suddenly become more relevant. Still doing geometric drawing every Monday. I'm pretty sure by now she can use a compass to divide a circle into twelve equal parts in her sleep.
