Kids: Amazing what they absorb!

The idea that children are always aware and learning and soaking up really came home to me today with my youngest.

We've been spending lots of time over at dh's new high school, talking about dh's new school and basically revolving our lives around their schedule. We have gone to as many home-games of the various teams as possible; we've been to the dedication and weekly school Masses; we've immersed ourselves in helping to build the culture of life within the new school that opened in August 2008.

Well, seems Bam-Bam (six years old in November) has picked up quite a bit of this and he spent much of today (with us roped right in) deciding the following for our homeschool, St. Athanasius Academy:

1. Mascot: knight eagles – a mascot LegoManiac will draw
2. School colors: black and gold
3. Motto: semper pugna pro iustum (“always fight for what is right” -- we translated it into latin using InterTran so it might not be EXACTLY right, but it looks right!)
4. Prayer for when we win: 3 Our Fathers & 3 Hail Marys
5. Fight song: I couldn't get all the words but I know it ends with “win for Jesus”
6. Administrative staff:
□ Headmaster: dad
□ Lead teacher: mom
□ Athletic Director: Bam-bam
(he’s the head, but he’s made me the “neck” – I can turn the head anyway I want!, and Dad is the heart; String Bean and Lego Maniac are the toes … well, actually the "toes in training" – wait, late breaking news: String Bean has been moved up to “stomach” of the Athletic Dept, while LegoManiac is still “toes in training”... then when Lego Maniac complained, he was promoted to the "shoulders", which is "really close to the head")
Coaching Staff:
□ Football – Mom
□ Soccer – LegoManiac
□ Cheerleading – String Bean
□ Baseball – String Bean
□ Swimming – Kotch
□ Tennis – Kotch
□ Lacrosse – BamBam, Dad - assistant
□ Hockey – BamBam, Dad – assistant
□ Gymnastics – Dad, LegoManiac - assistant
□ Golf – Mom

Bam-Bam is quite proud that he is the AD for the SAA Knight Eagles ... he even dressed up for a "press conference" and kept the attire on for dinner with our newly named chaplain, Fr. Z. (who is also the chaplain at dh's school, so that makes it easy!).

Bam-bam is taking his job a bit seriously: firing the "coaches" who don't do what he wants, creating contracts for them to sign (altho he's signing the contracts for them as many have mutinied), deciding who will play on which teams and when we'll play (don't tell him we only have a total of six people in the house -- he sees us fielding a "real" team). He even made a sign today that "the new teams will be introduced on Friday, Oct 31st at 10:00pm on FOX sports" (he was quite proud he didn't need help spelling FOX!).

I'm thinking this youngest is going to go pretty far in the world of management! As the Young Marines put it, he just "adapts, improvises, overcomes" EVERY obstacle to his imagination and plans.

[BTW, the scratch-looking mark below his lip is from playing "football" with his brother yesterday afternoon and almost biting all the way through to give himself a nice fat lip/bruise and generally look really bad!]

So, we'll probably have a new banner for this blog soon -- once LegoManiac designs the "Knight Eagle" and we get it scanned in!

Our first day ... it worked!

Here the gang is before we headed to morning Mass -- don'tthey look happy to start a year of school? Of course, the promise of donuts after Mass always helps!Here's right before we went to morning Mass -- don't they look happy to start their school year?

Here are the aprons they created -- Lego Maniac made a leprechaun, String Bean did stars, hearts and a typewriter (signing her name, "Kit") and Bam-bam put dots (or "olives" as they look to me) all over his apron. I think they came out wonderfully -- I hope they think so as they'll be using these for YEARS!

Why St. Athanasius?

Many people have asked us, "why is your home learning adventure called St. Athanasius Academy?"

Eight years ago, when we were looking at moving to Austria so dh could get a Masters in Theological Studies (which he's now using to teach at the new John Paul the Great Catholic High School), we began looking at home-educating the older two, Brikhead and Kotch. They were in Catholic parochial school, but not knowing what we'd find in Austria, we looked to home school them.

As we read book after book on Catholic homeschooling and Christian world-view homeschooling and secular books on homeschooling, we became more and more enamored of the idea of steeping the children's day in Catholic teaching while also giving them all the subjects of traditional school. We read more and more about education and began to get involved with online home-education communities.

At the same time, dh was applying to the Masters program in a small village in Austria. He needed to write a divisio textus on a sermon by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. He and I became enamored of this 4th century bishop who fought against security, fame and fortune for the Catholic faith -- being exiled at least three times for his defense of the Catholic faith against the Arian heresy . He did what was right. We decided then and there to place dh's application, our move to Austria and our homeschool, under the patronage of one of the greatest defenders of the Catholic faith.

Eight years later, as we start out seventh year of "living, loving and learning in the home" we again place our school under St. Athanasius' patronage -- asking him to intercede on our behalf, helping us to be good defenders of the Faith, and (most importantly) helping me to raise the now younger crew steeped in the Faith.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Pray for US!

And so it starts ...

Today we start our first day of St. Athanasius Academy for the 2008-2009 year. LegoManiac (9), String Bean (8) and Bam-bam (almost 6) will be our "student body" ... with me as there teacher, companion and co-learner. I love homeschooling, especially since I can steep the days ahead in the rich and vibrant Catholic heritage and teachings our Our Church!

We'll start today with Mass -- always a great way to start the day. Our plan is to head to Leeslyvania State Park after for a bit of nature study, playground time and history. They have some great programs at the end of this week (bees and backyard habitat) which will fit in nicely as an introduction to our science program this year.

We'll head home to work on our aprons. Each year at the start of the school year I like the kids to craft something that we'll use all year: fabric lunch bag, canvas field trip bag, etc. This year, we'll fabric-paint canvas aprons for use during cooking, cooking-math, gardening, craft projects, etc. [We did aprons a couple of years back, but all three have out-grown the "kiddie" ones!]

We'll make a fun lunch ... than a read-aloud for quiet time. Today we'll start Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence by Esther Averill, a great story about Cartier's explorations of the Northeast of the continent which will mesh nicely with our American history unit.

After a chapter or two, I'll pull out all their books and ideas for what we'll do this year. This will be the first time the kids see it all laid out and I'm sure they'll be thrilled with some of the changes this year. One thing, I am trying to get them more self-led with some of their work -- so I have worked out weekly assignments for spelling words, math assignments, copy work and memory work which they will do at their own time (as long as they're done by Thursday evening). If they can't finish by Friday morning, rather than having a relaxed, "specials" day, they'll make up the work.

We'll round off our day with one-on-one mom time, 30 minutes each of working on their chosen electives:

• Bam-bam will learn all about the history and strategies of Chess
• String Bean will learn about journalism, creating her own newspaper or magazine (she will also be responsible for this year's family Christmas letter)
• LegoManiac will research American military history, with a particular emphasis on the U.S. Marine Corps (including joining the Young Marines in September).

Looks like a pretty full, fun day for the little tikes (and Mom!).

Day 2: Two feasts and lots of fun work

Today is not only the feast of Our Lady of Knock, it is also Pius X's feast day! So for religion we didn't start reading the Old Testament (as originally planned) but instead reviewed these two wonderful feasts.

Our Lady of Knock, one of my favorite Marian apparitions, occured in the small Irish town of Cnoc (meaning "hill") on August 21, 1879 to a crowd of 18 parishioners. It's a "silent apparition" -- the tableau was described as the Blessed Mother, hands raised in prayer, with St. Joseph to one side and St. John the Evangelist on the other. Near the church gable, a lamb floating over a table, surrounded by circling angels. In other words, no one needed to speak -- this apparition is so filled with Catholic symbolism. It is an absolutely awe-inspiring site!

It is also Pius X's feast day. He's the one who said:

"Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven".

He also believed that children as young as 7 should receive First Holy Communion -- so he's a popular guy around here (and we're fortunate to own a first-class relic of him)!

In addition to learning about these two wonders of Catholicism (and making sure we included the info in our new "Book of Ages"), we got math done in record-time. Even Bam-Bam got into math when I read him, 20 Hungry Piggies, a fantastic picture book that helps practice both cardinal and ordinal numbers!

We also started our history unit using a wonderful book mentioned on 4real, called A Little History of the World, written back in the 1930s (but updated by the author when he was 94 in 2003!). This book is written for children and really does a good job. The kids loved it! We were originally going to use Bauer's Story of the World, but it just doesn't compare for interest and readability!

We also got some copywork done (which is probably the first time in the past year or so!). And began our read-aloud for our Beatrix Potter unit, The Fairy Caravan, which is Ms. Potter's only long novel about a wonderful jumble of animals on the road. I was only going to read the first chapter, but the kids were enjoying it so much we got through the first four!

Just before lunch, we tried our hand at mysteries by reading three Challenging Whodunit Puzzles. These are fun and really get the kids focused on WHY something happened or WHY someone did something. We also fit in a game called "Cross-It" which is a cooperative game (I'm trying to cut down on the competition around here!) sold by FUN Books. We had fun, working together, coming up with words that worked and just generally enjoying the non-competitiveness of the game!

We also fit in some reading practice -- my three children are so very different in learning to read that we're all over the board with what we use. But, I think it's all finally starting to kick in -- LegoManiac is a BIG fan of the Asterix series and is avidly reading those, String Bean WANTS to read the basal readers (the old style, Catholic school type where it's "Jean and John" or "Joan and John" instead of "Dick and Jane"), and BamBam is just so thrilled that he knows his alphabet he's ready to jump right in.

Another GREAT day at St. Athanasius Academy!

St. Pius X and Our Lady of Knock -- PRAY FOR US!