Monday
As I’ve spent the last two weeks doing various intensive online courses, I’ve had to put all my usual daily subjects on hold, and unfortunately that includes Herodotus’ Histories! I had to pause my studies of that at a really exciting, cliffhanger-y time as Herodotus was just about to narrate the events of the Battle of Thermopylae when I started my Greek course. So I was naturally really looking forward to cracking back on with Herodotus this morning, where we got right into Book 7’s Battle of Thermopylae. After my piano lesson, we spent the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon doing that. You can read my summary/analysis of all the books of the Histories here on this post (which might feel almost as long as the Histories itself).
In the evening, we started watching 300, which is (very!) loosely based on the events of the Battle of Thermopylae. My mum made a delicious crumble using blackberries that William and Andy picked from the garden! 😛
Tuesday
This morning, I did an hour or two of physics, which is something that I haven’t done in over two weeks due to these online courses! I revised both the waves topic and the heat/expansion topic I was doing most recently by watching some YouTube videos on it and reading through the textbook a bit.
Then I did a load more Herodotus! I finished Book 7 yesterday (which mainly focused on the Battle of Thermopylae) and now I’m about three quarters through Book 8, which documents the Battles of Artemisium and Salamis.
In the evening, we finished watching 300. Overall I thought it was quite well done. You can read my review here.
Wednesday
I had arranged to meet with some of my little learners (students at Lavinia’s Little Learners!) this afternoon in the park, so I cracked right on with Herodotus in the morning. We got a fair way through Book 8, in which Herodotus focuses on the Battle of Salamis.
In the afternoon I walked up to the park by the local library where I met Georgie and Charlie, two 6-year-old twins that I’ve been informally tutoring for a year and a half now. We’ve been trying to convince their mum to home-educate, so I spent quite a while chatting with her about it. Then I read the children some stories and played with them in the park for a few hours before going home. After a delicious spaghetti bolognese (courtesy of mother dearest) Tilly and I walked up to the gym and went to a really difficult virtual biking class. Then I got home, did my instruments, got Tilly to show me how to get this cool journaling/planning site, and went to bed! 🙂
Thursday
Today, I watched the next couple of episodes of a Hillsdale College MOOC that I’m doing on Athens and Sparta. I’ve started writing a summary about it from my notes, which you can read using this link. Hillsdale is the college I really want to go to when I’m eighteen, so it’s been really interesting to see some of the professors and the President of the college (and of course the lovely lecture room and library!).
Friday
I did some more of my Hillsdale course today, and started a presentation on what I’ve learnt so far about Athens and Sparta. We also finished Herodotus Histories this afternoon! In the evening I had a gym class called The Trip with Tilly. It’s a forty-five minute, very intense and difficult biking class with a big virtual screen that takes you through fantastical lands while real-life instructors scream in your ear to go faster. 👌
Weekend
Nanny came round as usual on Saturday, and I started drawing a picture of one of my favourite singers, Skin from Skunk Anansie. So far it’s going really well! I think I’m going to have one page with a load of different singers on it like they’re all in the room together – I’m currently thinking Skin, Amy Winehouse, Tori Amos, Dolores O’Riordan (from The Cranberries) and Neneh Cherry.
On Sunday, we actually went somewhere! It’s literally been years since we really went anywhere apart from our usual daily walk around the block, due to this evil virus of course. We drove an hour down to my mum’s friend Kate’s house, where we talked about home-educating and stuff and played with her six children (!!) except one of them was out with their dad so there was just a manageable five. She has an adorable little baby called Vera, an almost-two-year-old called Wilfred (they have the cutest names!), a three-year-old called Ethel, a 7-year-old called Stanley, a 13-year-old called Florence and a 16-year-old called Freyja!! 😨 My favourite conversation ever happened between Stan and my mum today:
Stan: How old are you?
Me: 14
Stan: How old are you?
Mother dearest: Haha! 27
Stan: Oh. You don’t look young enough to be 27
We went to the park and played with the children in the early evening before heading home for a delicious homemade late-night chili!