St Gianna Molla

The last few weeks we have been reading, studying and looking into various aspects of St Gianna Molla.

She is quite an amazing women.
Dermot read her book early in the year, so when our unit study arrived from CHC, I was quite excited. Brid was excited at first but then came all the questions that follows 'a bought unit study'. We culled them, and this freed Brid up to look at the questions she didn't really want to answer. Go figure- but it worked !
So this project has taken us all over the place.
We have looked at where Gianna lived, her travels around Milan and parts of Italy. It saw us look at WWII, Italys involvement in WWII, We looked different orders of our Faith -Franciscans, The medal of Our Lady of Good Counsel, St Francis, St Elizabeth of Hunguary.
It saw Brid start a week by week diary of an unborn baby. This took us on a journey of what a baby looks like at various gestational ages. I was able to explain lots of questions that arose. Such as, medical terms and the sizes of babies, and more.
We touched on conception, pregnancy and the use of Ultrasounds. We looked at photos of her as a baby.
It led us to looking and researching contraception and its misuse. It took us down the Planned parenting road, It took us to look at Abortion and the evils of these areas. We looked at the devaluing of family and married life with these issues. I did balance this out with teaching from Humanae Vitae, Our Pope, The warnings they gave and The gift of children, and pro-life. We used a wonderful book called Following Christ in the World- well written and I chose the small chapters  needing to be read aloud. Brid was so interested in this research, she actually graphed different statistics, with help from her Dad.
She gooed and gaaed over lots of gorgeous baby photos and we looked at Giannas Sainthood. Its date and her husband being present at the canonisation.

I couldn't have bought this time we had discussing this book. It was timely. It had so many sensitive issues to discuss. I wasn't sure when we would have a chat about them. As a Mum and a midwife I felt quite qualified to discuss all these issues raised. Was all this too young? No.
I know there will be more questions but its been a great journey.
It is coming to an end. Brid is sorting out her lapbook and how she will present it. Nevertheless, I think this unit study will be one she remembers for a while to come.
If you haven't read St Gianna Mollas Biography, buy a copy. Its inspiring reading.

Changes and ..culling.....saints.....Jane...

We have been really looking at our current school workload.
Recently, we culled curricula and books that are not suiting us anymore.
At the beginning of the year we had a long list to get through, and I was stressed looking at the list wanting Brid to get right in and excel.

Well within a week or 2 we had tears, loud words and uncomfortable silence, as we licked our wounds. Not a good start to the year. We both tried to please each other but we weren't fooling each other.
My expectations put Brid under enormous stress, she wasn't enjoying all of our day. And nor was I.
We rearranged our subjects and I took away my expectations. I looked at what she liked to do. I let Brid achieve in her time. This wasn't easy for me, but necessary.
This term, we have dropped Geography, Science and History. All worthwhile curricula, and we will come back to them in the future.
I said to Brid lets  stop the train, and spread our wings for a while.
Instead we are looking at these areas in context with Stories of the Saints and Literature for Young ladies-. I have blogged on these before, but as we get further into these Brid was interested going deeper. This is usual for her and why I started a subject a week last year.
So let me explain.
Apart from Maths these are the only areas we do.

At the moment Presenting Miss Jane is a hit and will lead nicely to introduce Jane Austen to Brid's reading list. She reads through her list and no expectations are made to write about them. This will come next year as we continue our Tuesdays with a friend.

St Gianna Molla is a modern day Saint and one I admire greatly. Dermot read a biographical book about her life recently and It was with delight we saw the first in the Series "Stories of the Saints", was this amazing women. It is a unit study, spelling vocabulary words comprehension analysis are covered. We have covered Italy in WWII, Milan, Looked at various speeches from the time of WWII.
We have researched areas of faith, other saints- St Francis and related these areas to her life.
We will cover Science and look at stages of Pregnancy and talk about Pro-life choices. I am sure this will led to some great discussions.
These 3 focus areas are taking us on many interesting trails. She is still gaining a solid education, but in our way.
We talked about not living inside a square, we have decided we like living in a semi circle- or a big smile. We can occasionally get out and smell the trees and jump back in to safety. The smile symbolises being able to stretch and grow and not having restrictions.
So where to next,
Brid is fascinated by women in various periods of history. 
Women like-
Queen Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, Caroline Chrisholm, Marie Curie, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Florence Nightingale, Cleopatra, Queen Victoria, Suffregettes, Mary Queen of Scots, and then a few authors such as Louisa May Alcott and Enid Blyton. the list keeps growing.