A very very long time ago, my mum wrote me a sort of timetable. It basically said that I would do 12 weeks of intense learning, followed by 6 weeks of more ‘fun’ learning, with only one day in which I had to do physics, maths etc. In the other four days, I can do Latin, English, creative writing, reading, history, classics and all the other things I love to do the most! I must admit that we’d actually forgotten about this timetable of sorts, until we discovered this week that we had done our 12 weeks of intense learning and that today, Monday the 5th, would mark the first day of the next more ‘fun’ 6 weeks! So this week, I’ll only have to do 1 day of maths/physics, and the rest will be more creative, only doing the subjects I really love the most ☺
Monday
On Monday this week, I spent most of the morning after my violin lesson making a delicious vanilla cheesecake! In the afternoon, William and I got out a circuit-making kit that we’ve had for ages but never understood how to use! We connected circuits that made lights glow, fans work and very annoying and out-of-tune renditions of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. We even made a working radio, and tuned into the sports station (the only station there was on that radio, but we won’t talk about that).
While we were making a radio, my mum made some delicious lemon hummus in the food processor! We sprinkled paprika and olive oil on top and it was really tasty.
I’m now about to go and watch the X-Files with my homemade lemony, vanilla-y cheesecake!
Tuesday
Tuesday was perhaps a slightly more productive day! We did some Latin in the morning, translating some (very difficult!) English passages into Latin, and then I finished my Massolit course on Agamemnon and finished off my analysis. I have to quickly write up a few paragraphs for my background/introduction, predominantly covering how the play would have been performed, how it was received at the time of its first production and a little background information on Aeschylus himself.
In the afternoon I had some jabs at the local surgery─it didn’t hurt as much as I’d prepared myself for it to, so that was a pleasant surprise! However, I think most of the pain came afterwards, as my arms are really sore and stinging now. 😕
In the evening, I watched the Bake Off and The X-Files with my mum, Andy and William, and played my favourite game on my phone, This War Of Mine. 🙂
Wednesday
In the morning, we drove to my grandma’s house to have a walk with Tilly (who’s currently staying there) and our friends Grace, Eve and Anne. It was really nice to see them again, but it was absolutely freezing cold (it even snowed at one point!) and I’m not sure my thin raincoat helped much!
In the afternoon, I read Atlas Shrugged for a very long time, and then did some Latin with my mum. We’ve moved onto the future tense now, which means we can now translate in the past perfect (“he walked”), past imperfect (“he was walking”), future (“he will walk”), and imperative (“walk!”). For each tense, we have to learn the four different conjugations and how they decline, and any odd-words-out that conjugate differently from all the others.
I think our walk that morning had knocked us all out, so William, Mummy and I watched some of the Bake Off in the early afternoon with some tea and a biscuit! Then I did my piano practice for a day, read some more Atlas Shrugged and made a delicious ganache crumble from my mug crumbles cookbook!
Thursday
In the morning, we did some more Latin, in which session we learnt about how the verbs to be able to and I am decline in the future tense (e.g. I will be able to, and I will be). Annoyingly, it isn’t quite as simple as I will be and I will be able to; you have to learn, for every single Latin verb in every single different tense, case, declension and gender the words for I, you (sg), he, we, you (pl) and they [do such-and-such a verb]. So you can see how confusing and tiring it is!
In the afternoon, I read half of the next play in the Oresteia, The Lantern-Bearers. I’m not going to write a full analysis on that, but I will add to my one on Agamemnon with a couple of notes on The Lantern-Bearers and the Eumenides (the other two plays in the trilogy).
Friday
On Friday morning, before my mum left to pick Tilly up from Nanny’s house, we did even more Latin! We learnt a few different verbs in the future tense and applied them to some English-to-Latin translations, both short exercises and whole passages. Then, while my mum picked up my sister, I read some more of Atlas Shrugged (I’m on 21% now, according to my kindle!) and wrote on this blog.
Later I intend to do some baking, as we munched our way through that vanilla cheesecake long ago! Update on that in the afternoon ☺
Weekend
On Friday afternoon, we didn’t get the time to do any baking in the end as I was too busy finishing the second play in the Oresteia, The Lantern-Bearers, and adding to my so-nearly-complete analysis! Instead, I made some keto chocolate muffins today (Saturday) which are in the oven now. Let’s see how they turn out…