Our Poem for Today

The Pulley by George Herbert (1593-1633)

   When God at first made Man,
   Having a glass of blessings standing by -
Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
   Contract into a span.

   So strength first made a way,
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure;
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure,
    Rest in the bottom lay.

   For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on My creature,
He would adore My gifts instead of Me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;
   So both should losers be.

   Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
   May toss him to My breast.

I'm not so sure about all of the theology in this poem, but we all liked the poem anyway.  

Bryna - 7th grade

Term 1 (although some books go over the whole year)
Bible, etc.:
The Gospel of John: Beholding the Glory by Fr. Lawrence Farley
Memorize: John 1:1-7 in English, Latin and Greek
The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer by frederica Mathewes-Green
Saints and Heroes by George Hodges 
Ourselves - moving slowly through this per AO

History:
The Birth of Britain by Sir Winston Churchill
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People - selections that I have picked out; she is enjoying this already and reading parts to me
History of English Literature for Girls and Boys by H. E. Marshall - per AO
A History of Scotland - just ch. 1-4
This Country of Ours - Marshall (she never got to this book so we're doing it now)

Literature:
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Once and Future King - only book one

Poet:
Tennyson

Grammar & Composition:
written & oral narrations
studied dictation
copybook - copying selections from readings
Lost Tools of Writing - I started this last year; I hope to finish it with B. this year

French:
Rosetta Stone

Shakespeare:
Richard II

Biographies:
The Life of King Alfred
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution

Short Stories:
Words Aptly Spoken - a Classical Conversations book

Life of Fred math program - we're trying something new this year...I can't seem to break the "math barrier" - my hope is that she'll get through all of the "Before High School Mathematics" books

Geography:
The Brendan Voyage

Drama:
Cincinnati Shakespeare Groundlings Jr.
South Dayton Youth Homeschool Drama group

Music:
Kettering Children's Choir - concert choir
Piano lessons

Bryna and I will do together:

Artist study - Giotto this term

Nature Study:

Lay of the Land

Classical Astronomy

The Friendly Stars

Greek: 

Classical Academic Press's Greek for Children primer A

The Gospel of John copybook 

We did some Greek together last year with a different book; we're taking a bit of a break and just keeping our elementary skills alive with these (we hope)

Latin:

Henle Latin is the plan - we haven't started it yet...I get my plates spinning one at a time over these first weeks of school :-)

Jared, Bryna and I will do together:
Psalms - reading and hopefully memorizing some
Memory work - Classical Conversations cycle 3 material

Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior - just reading bits over the next few years till done

Biblical Economics in Comics - I haven't done much on economics besides what we try to teach incidentally

Shakespeare - Taming of the Shrew

The Art of Poetry - we started this in the summer and I really like it; we're doing just one poem a day (when we get to it)

History of Western Music - instead of doing a composer study, we are doing a sweep using a book I found at a library sale - we're reading about and listening to Medieval music right now, and we're really enjoying it.
Some of our favorites:
Festival of Gregorian Chants
Canticles of Ecstasy
Miracles of Sant'Iago
Vox Sacra Ancient Voices
Four Centuries of Chant
And we have to include Byzantine chant :-)
Divna
The Glory of Byzantium

Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery -Dayton Duncan - we'll watch the video later

Nature walks/notebooks on the grounds of our church and local parks (we are hoping the Turri boys will be joining us at least part of the time) 

Drawing skills: Charles Bargue Drawing Course - I've already done the first 10 lessons or so in this; the children will begin it too