School Days

With Jackson at school most of the day, Francis and Nicholas and I have been staying busy, exploring some of their interests. Both of the younger boys attend a Cathechism class once a week focused on coming to know Jesus as The Good Shepherd. I attend Nicholas's class with him and it is fun to watch him explore the material. One of his favorite activities is setting up the prayer table. He gets out the Bible, the Good Shepherd statue, a little Chalice and Paten and some candles and has his own little "Mass". He goes from item to item picking it up and ringing the bell and then returning it to the table. (Just so no one gets the wrong idea, he also spends a fair amount of time pushing the objects off the table onto the floor for no apparent reason) but when he is at his best, it is really sweet to watch.

We have also continued with the Classical Conversations, the homeschool co-op we did last year, this time for Francis. It is amazing to see how much Francis has grown up in the last year. He went from doing whatever he wanted in the three year old class, to being a star pupil in the four/ five year old year old class. Things are a little different this year, his class is all boys with a male tutor, (not that our family lacks for all male activities...) but he is attentive and well behaved and he has an amazing capacity to remember the material. One of his favorite parts of CC is that he has to give a bi-weekly presentation. He has earned quite a reputation spending the whole week before compiling and making his presentation materials. So far his topics have included: tropical rainforests, Richard the Lionhearted, The Ten Commandments and the Alps. This week he plans to dress up a Saint Francis of Assisi and talk about his life. Here are a couple of pictures of him and his handiwork.