Ocular Athletics

A Lego
by Joe

Today I am writing about a lego. There are many types of legos. I am writing about the most common, an eight dot brick. This type of lego has two rows of four dots. It is about one centimeter tall and one and a half inches wide and half an inch thick. On the bottom are three holes big enough for a dot to go into. You use them for building things like towers, spaceships, cars, etc. I like to build spaceships and boats. Right now, I am building a ship.


A Dog
by Adam

A dog is man's best friend as you probably know if you have one. It can be a life saver, a friend to play with, or a guard, although I would not train it to be a guard. A dog needs company, it needs people around. If it is not treated carefully it becomes mean and will bite. So treat a like like a friend you can play with. There are hundreds of different kinds of dogs from the St. Bernard to a poodle. People often say a dog is the mortal enemy of a cat but that is not true. My dog, who is a Golden Retriever and very playful,(although a little lazy because we don't take him out enough)and named Zeus and the cat, Frodo get along very well. In fact, they are the best of chums. I wish I could say that Frodo was our friend too but he seems to have a cold heart for everyone except Zeus. Most dogs are worth having around. Do you have one? If you don't, bring the topic up with your mom or dad. They may want one too. I will see you next time I do a report. I may do cats or maybe something much more complicated. Until then, see you.

What's working

I just finished the quarterly report required in New York State and so this seems like a good time to review and see what is working. Surprisingly, quite a lot. There has been significant tweaking done since this post but not as much as some years.
The self propelled Bible study never got off the ground and the twins are working through Bible History by Johnson,Hannan,and Dominica and Ken is reading The New Catholic Picture Bible. The rest of the religion outline is working although we are behind with The Adventure of the Amethyst. The boys love this book and sit rapt every morning as I read aloud the further adventures of the Lovell children. Today the older three were baptized. (the youngest was baptized earlier during an illness). Tomorrow--First Holy Communion. As converts ourselves this book really hits home and also the children ask the real questions of their friend the Bishop that my boys would ask. Is it a sin to spit in your brother's bath water? Are all Christians Catholic? Is there any salvation outside of the Church and what is hell really like? (Tough one). This book is great and we are loving it.
Latin is going well and I have resisted tweaking here. We are on lesson 16 of Latina Christiana (second conjugation!). Lingua Mater didn't make it though. The twins just aren't ready for a composition course yet. Instead we are working through the writing part of Voyages in English 7. Today they gave talks they had written on how to tie knots. For some reason I can't fathom they are not giving me any grief about this. We are also continuing Poetry Monday (copying of poetry into a lesson book, memorization optional)Ocular Athletic Thursday, and narration Friday (they are narrating The Trojan War and Adventures of Odysseus by Padric Collum--even Ken). Spelling is going amazingly well with the Seton workbooks and awhile back the boys declared spelling their favorite subject. I guess that fit I pitched was for nothing.
Math was switched to Saxon 7/6 as less confusing and time consumming. Ken is reviewing 3rd grade math with the new Seton Math 3. He likes that book so much he has been seen to pat it. I think it is the art work but he likes that it only does one thing a day. I didn't realize that the Saxon method of doing several math topics a day was confusing him. String, Staightedge and Shadow is going well and we read from it once a week.
History has completely changed. The Old World and America just didn't cut it here and we are now using The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. This is really sticking--Joe aced all the ancient history on Jeapordy a couple of nights ago. Okay, it was teen Jeapardy but still, he's only twelve!
So, thanks mostly to Seton workbooks (I can't believe I'm typing this!)this year is going very well and another benefit has been that after this week's stomach bug everything just fell back into routine. There was a routine to fall back into!

Ocular Athletics

A Sword by Adam

A sword is one of man's deadliest weapons. They all have a blade, most have a sharp point for stabbing. Others have curved blades for slashing. Those are the two basic styles. Other swords are straight with zigzag patterns for cutting. Others, like the Greek sword, are short with curved sides. And finally, the Japanese Kitana:curved blade then straightens to form a stabbing tip. The handle helps you weald the blade accurately and comfortably. Guards across most sword blades creates protection for your hands. All these added together makes man's most deadly weapons. All through the ages mankind has updated the sword with stronger metal and better balance. It takes months to make a sword and much care and a lot of devotion to make a good one. Swords now have been replaced with guns but I will miss swords.

NB: This came with many illustrations of the type of swords discribed.

And for something completely different---

Rosary by Joe

A rosary is a thing to keep track of your prayers. A rosary has 59 beads, 53 Hail Mary beads, 5 Glory Be/Our Father beads, and one just Our Father bead. Rosaries always have one Crucifix and one image of Mary on them, The Crucifix is always on the end of the rosary and the image of Mary is always five beads before the Crucifix. My rosary is black with a cup with a piece of bread in it. The bread has 3 letters--IHS.

Feast of All Saints

The Hobbits and I attended our first All Saints Day party! It was great fun! First we attended Mass and then we had a pot-luck supper followed by saints presentations. Following are the Hobbits' contributions.

Saint Martin

St. Martin was a soldier in the Roman army. He was very kind. He gave everything away. If he had money he gave it away. If he had nice clothes he gave them away, too. He gave pretty much everything he had away and he was well known for it. One day, his friends gave him a warm red cloak. One of them said,"Martin, if you love us you will not give this cloak away." Martin liked the cloak very much and kept his promise.

One stormy, snowy, windy, and very cold night Martin was riding on his horse when he saw an old man in ragged clothes sitting by a tree. Martin stopped his horse and looked at him. He had nothing to give the old man but his cloak and he did not want to offend his friends. Then he had an idea. He drew his sword and cut his cloak in half. He kept on half for himself and gave the other to the old man, then rode away.

When Martin was sleeping, the old man appeared to him in the half-cloak then he turned into our Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus said to Martin,"I am the poor beggar man you helped. Your cloak is keeping me warm. What you do to others, you do to me."

Saint Juan Diego

When Juan Diego was 13 years old he witnessed the Night of Darkness when 80,000 Aztec Indians were killed in human sacrifice. Juan Diego wished there was another way to live but he did not know another way. Around 15 years later the Catholic Faith arrived in Mexico and he learned another way.

One day when he was about 50 years old Juan Diego was going to Mass when there, on top of a hill, was a bright light, then there was a beautiful lady instead. The Lady told Juan Diego to go to the bishop and ask him to build a church where they were standing and she would bless Mexico. Two time Juan Diego asked the bishop to build a church on the hill yet the bishop did not believe.

Juan Diego left the bishop for the second time and went back to the Lady. The Lady said," Go home and then meet me here in the morning." When Juan Diego went home he saw his uncle dying. The next morning Juan Diego's uncle was worse. Juan Diego went to get a priest, being sure to go another way so as not to disappoint the Lady. The Lady found him anyway and said,"Juan Diego, why are you going this way? I told you to meet me on the hill, yet you avoided me."

Juan Diego said,"I go to get a priest . My uncle is dying."

The Lady said,"Go to that hill and pick all the flowers you can find. Then bring them here to me in your tilma." Juan Diego did as he was told even though he doubted that there where going to be any flowers this late in the year. When Juan Diego got there, to his amazement he saw hundreds of roses. He gathered all the roses up and brought them to the Lady who arranged them in his tilma. Then Juan Diego went to the bishop and showed him his tilma with the roses i nit. The bishop gasped and dropped to his knees and started praying. Juan Diego asked what was the matter. The bishop pointed to the tilma. Juan Diego saw the image of Mary. The church was built and the uncle healed. Juan Diego and his uncle lived happily ever after.

Saint Joseph

Joseph was a carpenter and the foster father of Jesus. One day Mary got pregnant and a few days later the emperor Caesar said that everyone had to go to their hometown so that they could count the people. Joseph's hometown was Bethlehem and it was a long way away. But they had to go, so they went.

When they got there, there was no place to sleep. Finally, they met a boy that said there was a cave up on the hill that you could sleep in. When they got there Joseph made a bed out of straw so Mary could lie down. Then the cave was filled with light and when it was gone a little baby was sitting on the straw. They named him Jesus.