Martinmas

2023-24 School Year–Week Twelve

Last week was a long short week! We took Friday off, but the rest of the week seemed interminable! I guess that’s just what happens as the holidays approach.

Ladybug used double angle and half angle identities in pre-calculus. She did problems calculating torque in physics. She began reading The Divine Comedy‘s “Purgatario.” In religion, she read Eusebius’ account of the building of the church at Tyre. She read about Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, and the explorations of Lewis and Clark in US history. In health, she finished reading about the five senses, focusing on touch, smell, and taste. She read about the Magna Carta in history.

Chickadee learned how to calculate range, mean, mode, and median in math. She read about William the Conquerer and feudalism in history. We finished the chapter on the respiratory system in science. We started reading The Hobbit…I really think the first chapter, with all of the dwarves showing up at Bilbo’s door, is my favorite part of the whole book! She reviewed conjugating irregular verbs in grammar. We started reading Happy Birthday Felicity.

This year, we also made a craft for Martinmas for the first time. I found the directions for these lanterns last year, but the idea of Mod Podge was too intimidating for me at the time…this year, I decided I was ready. They were fun to make, and so pretty with the light shining through!

We’re hoping to make our annual trip to Cahokia Mounds sometime this week!

Martinmas

Last year, we celebrated Martinmas (the commemoration day for St. Martin of Tours) for the first time by making Martinsbrezeln (German sweet pretzels) and reading Snow on Martinmas. I really enjoyed this pre-Advent holiday, so we celebrated again this year, with more Martinsbrezeln:

And an added craft…Martinmas lanterns. After all of these years of homeschooling, this was my first experience using Mod Podge, and it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought! The lanterns turned out really well, and are so pretty with the candlelight shining through them!

This is a very natural addition to our rotation of observed Saints’ Days, as Martin Luther and (I assume) Martin Chemnitz were both named in honor of Saint Martin, as their birthdays are both adjacent to his commemoration day. It’s also a fun way to break up the conclusion of the endless green days of Pentecost!