Conclave and New Stuff

Conclave begins today. So in honor of the upcoming election of our new pontiff, Boog and I will be doing this Papal Lap Book/Unit Study.

Girlie is an artist!

We began by coloring a "Thank you" picture for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. That will be page 1 in our lap book. Then we read about Saint Peter from one of the Saint Stories books by Father Lovasik, as well as the passage in Saint Matthew's Gospel where Our Lord gives the Keys to the Kingdom to Saint Peter (Matt. 16:18-19). We then followed the recipe and instructions here to make Saint Peter's Pretzel Keys, of which I did not partake. The kids say they are tasty, though.

Brushing on the egg wash

Most definitely NOT low carb!

  And, of course, what discussion of the Pope would be complete without a Pope Hat?

Pope Hilarius II

So that was our Papal Unit Study for the day. Tomorrow we'll be checking out Saint Peter's Basilica. Online, of course.

One website I'm really enjoying is Have Fun Teaching. I've been using it to print out free (my favorite word!) materials to help us review work we have covered. Today we reviewed telling the hour on a clock with hands using one of their units. We also reviewed the vowel sound of short /a/, as well as did some addition practice.

Vowel practice

  Boog seems to respond really well to the visuals.







After we did our reviews it was on to the Seton work. The basics of the Seton program are Religion, Phonics, Math, and Handwriting. These are the subjects we do every day, without fail. I like that the lessons are fairly succinct. They do a very good job of making them repetitive enough that the concepts are remembered without being boring or drilling so much that Boog gets annoyed and burned out.

The drawing on the left-hand side, which is supposed to be for the Blessed Mother, likely involves battle droids and lasers. I'm sure Mary loves that.

Aside from all that, we made sure to take some time out this morning to watch the beginning of the conclave, and after lunch we kept an eye on EWTN's coverage of that chimney on the top of the Sistine Chapel. Alas, black smoke today. Maybe tomorrow. 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus!

Checking out the Cardinals as they process into the Sistine Chapel

Taking a time out for some sibling love!