E e

 Turns out, "empathy" was a really good one to use! We referenced "showing x empathy" all week!

To the question, "Why does Jesus come to us in the Eucharist?" Paul says straight away, "to show people that Jesus loves us." Love.

We skipped Wednesday because I had my last physical therapy session (yay!), and when I got back, we all piled into Vincent van Geaux to pick up Juni the scooter! We watched as Papa pulled off for work, and we went to Chick-fil-a for an early lunch treat and some play. Consequently, our egg shells sat a day drying out, and we painted them Thursday instead. But I didn't take any pictures! So, here's one of our partners-in-homeschool, Kate, doing the same thing:

D d

Oh, that was the plan? Interesting! That's not quite what happened...

Halloween. To be more specific: Halloween candy. 

In all honesty, they haven't been that bad. All Saints' Day Mass was pretty hefty with them, though, so the rest of the day was a holiday! Dylan and I had a mix-up regarding the car, too, so what was supposed to be our field trip day for All Souls' Day was just Tuesday's lesson. Here's what we actually did this week with "D", including a couple of days of school in the afternoons instead of after breakfast, plus Mass at St. Dominic's, my dad's elementary school, on Friday, thus necessitating Saturday school - gasp, shock, horror! In actuality, the kids love this stuff, and Papa was busy brewing beer on Saturday; so we had a chance to play a little catch-up, which would otherwise just have been scrapped. The only thing I did scrap was the dirt-pie snack because ... did they really need something else sweet this week? Plus, we made Soul Cakes.

Halloween's dirty D

"Diamonds in the sky

Ordering numbers 1-10 and also 11-20, the first thing Paul met that was actually challenging!

Dylan's Day Out + Dalmatian spot gluing

C c

C - for Catherine of Siena, charity, coffee, cake, coffee-cake, circle, cross/crucifix, caterpillar & chameleon. I don't have much to add to this week's photos, which showcase much of Paul's and Ada's work. I did, however, have the bright idea to visit the church of this week's saint for daily Mass if there is one in town, and there is! There is! St. Catherine of Siena in Metairie, about 15min away, happens to be a few blocks down from where my mother grew up, where she was baptized, went to elementary school, was married, and where she buried her parents. We even met up with one of her sisters, my Aunt Mollie, for Mass & lunch. 

Tracing circles and putting them in order largest to smallest or smallest to largest.

Cross vs Crucifix

Circle Caterpillars + letter writing (Ada had help...)
+ Shoutout to Uncle Pete on his 30th!

C-word collage

This weekend, for the first time, we visited a school as prospective parents. Daunting! It was the 1-block away neighborhood school, International School of Louisiana - Spanish Immersion. We're in the very early stages of checking out things for next Fall's kindergarten, when Paul will be 5. We haven't decided anything, and we're keeping our options open. We plan to look at 2 Catholic schools here on the Westbank, too, before deciding on one of those 3 schools or homeschool.

B b

The kids are enjoying themselves so! They get dressed before breakfast so that we can move quickly into school - it's such a joy to see! This week gave us two days with early morning appointments (me for physical therapy and Jack for his 4mos check-up), so school was shifted to post-nap. I was afraid this would burst their bubble and make them lose interest, but as soon as they were up, "School!" I think deep down somewhere, I'm still waiting for and expecting an "I don't want to", but so far, it's really been quite lovely to work with them. A very nice flow - yay!

Bb week had us learn about "Bravery - fearless & courageous behavior" and a little about St. Bridget of Sweden. Plus there were bridges and balloons and yummy bread and lots and lots of butterflies - even real ones! We had our first school field trip to the Butterfly Garden!

Weighing to see which weighs more: the boat, bread, bear, ball, book, or baby!

 On Wednesday, we painted butterflies and made banana blueberry bread.

 Friday: Paul is brave. Ada is brave.

 Saturday's field trip to see the butterflies - with Papa, too!

A a

Letter A!
A for St. Augustine, for alligator, for apples and acorns and ants-on-a-log!

Here was the plan as of Sunday before school started:

And we actually changed very few things! We did happen to come across a ton of acorns on the way home from Mass, so we used those instead of expensive and delicious almonds. Otherwise, I simplified the writing, leaving the "a"letters blank instead of attempting a whole word. Paul's "A" & "a" improved over the course of the week =).

Tuesday's math manipulative-turned-applesauce:

St. Augustine, pray for us.

Dylan's mentioned how well-behaved the children have been after he's gotten home - that usually crazy dinner + bedtime hour. Coincidence? Perhaps. But also maybe not - yay!