Composer Study/Music Lesson

We are getting know three composers this year, beginning with Vivaldi, then Pagani, and ending the year with Wagner. This post by Jennifer Spencer encouraged me very much last year and gives a wonderful explanation of how a composer study can help our children really connect with the composers and their music.

"First, in order to help my students form a relationship with the real person behind the music, I decide to only choose composers for whom there were living biographies available." -Jennifer Spencer

We have always loved Opal Wheeler's books as they give us a heart warming view of the composer as a child growing up which all children can connect with. This year I did not find a book by OW for Vivaldi but I did find one for Pagnini and Wagner. Our living story about Vivaldi will be from the Vox Master collection of CD stories. This one is called The Stories of Vivladi and Corelli.

"The decision to study one work for the term instead of sampling songs or movements from different works was made as a kind of experiement. I based it on the desire to connect with the ideas through the narrative." -Jennifer Spencer

We decided to study Vivaldi's Four Season this term, Another from Paganini next term and one from Wagner the following term. I am not as musical as Jennifer is but we are listening to the music with the idea that there are picture or ideas to be out into our minds. For the four seasons we listened all the way through the entire piece as the boys played quietly with their toys. Then during the following weeks we have been painting a season picture to go with the music. Here is an example of summer by Zak.

"The beauty of the music depends upon the quality of the ideas expressed, not just the technical skill of the performer or the emotional experience of the listener." -Jennifer Spencer

We do this lesson twice a week so we spend about three months with each composer. We also add each composer to our composer lapbook we started two years ago.

If time allows we also enjoy Classical Kids musical dramas. This year we hope to find time for Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery.

That concludes our music appreciation lesson which I teach, then every afternoon my dh gives piano lessons, each of our guys gets two lessons a week.

Thanks for stopping in. :)

Character Lesson

I have put off doing this Charlotte Mason suggested lesson in the past because I just could not figure out a way to teach it in a way that agrees with me. Character studies can become tools with which to regularly be pointing out where we go wrong, it can be discouraging and self focusing. It is often a place where we look at the glass half empty and forget all that has been given to us. However, on the flip side I have always felt that this particular lesson "could be" a wonderful way to inspire my children to nobler and better deeds. Until now I have not discovered just how to teach it so it brings hope and freedom and not condemnation.

Let me explain my approach first with an example. Years ago I ran into an old friend and she and I were discussing a new diet method we had heard had helped many to lose the unwanted weight, fat. The diet begins with eating a specially designed nugget at different times a day. This nugget seemed to trigger the body to lose weight effortlessly and when you get to your ideal weight you stop eating this nugget and begin to eat real food and in moderation. You see you are set free from your weight, then you are encouraged to begin a healthy approach to eating diet.

Character study can be like most diets to lose weight, you first work to get rid of the weight then you rest, while the diet my friend and I were discussing sought to rid you of the weight then you work to keep it off. See the difference. In one approach you have the thin body you want so you appreciate the freedom from your excess weight and in turn this gratitude can lead to a willingness to do some work to keep it that way. In the other approach you are still burdened by more weight than you want or need hoping your hard work will make you thin.

When I was listening to my friend describe this new diet it reminded me of the freedom and hope I have as a Christian. You see I have been freed from the power of sin much the same way the diet freed those who tired it of the burden of weight. Because Jesus died 2,000 years ago and paid for all our sins it has nothing to do with my own efforts aside from the fact it will not be manifested in my life unless I believe it and try it out and see that it is so.  Jesus's death set me free from God's wrath and the need to be righteous on my own, much the same ay that the diet nugget sent messages to my body to drop the weight, it was effortless. In short, I am already clean and made new, I have dropped the extra weight. Because Jesus not only died but rose again, I have a new life, a life free of the extra weight of sin. So I can begin my day free and with ample power to do what is right. This is what I want my kids to know. I want them to realize what a trust in Jesus can do for them and how this trust can build in them character that is worth having.

So when we read the morally sound stories that inspire in us to nobel deeds and to honor and we talk about what good character qualities the characters possesses we remind ourselves that we have a way to obtain those traits too because of Jesus's victory for us on the cross. We also discuss how we could fail like many of the characters in our stories if we fail to believe we are free and have the power to resist or overcome the temptations in the world around us to be lazy or greedy etc. We remind ourselves also that Jesus's gift of salvation we have received is also a gift to have the power to please God and live right here on earth.  Somehow it is easier to remain free than to try to get free. If we are already free what could make us more free? Somehow the appreciation of knowing our burden has been taken from us makes us feel we never want to go back.

There is no absolute proof that Jesus's death 2,000 years ago has set us free from sin but when we face the decision daily to chose to believe it we are learning to receive by faith what is right, noble and true as our own. We find it is possible to be noble and honorable. In so doing our faith in this truth is proved  true time and again. The things we once believed had us bound to bad habits of wrong doing we are seeing are simply not that powerful and in truth they are really just lies we are learning not to believe.

We have two books we are reading through twice week; Created for work by Bob Shultz and The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett. I read from each of these books once a week then we narrate the chapter or stories and have the grand discussion about the ideas we found in them. In this discussion we talk about the truths I wrote about above. It is where we talk about our own lives and how we can apply the truth that we are free to do good, and that we have the power to do good. It is where we do not rely upon our own efforts to be good but remember Jesus's promise to be with us always. We discuss how we can include him more in our daily lives. We lean upon HIM for our goodness and worthy and virtuous traits. This lesson is simple but the discussions will last for a long time in our hearts. There are no lists, or reminders to be posted on the bathroom mirrors we simply invite Jesus to live with us in every moment and we drink in the ideas strewn about in the atmosphere of learning that has been carefully cultivated.

For further discussion on this topic I found Nancy Kelly's article entitled The Habits Pendulum inspiring and enlightening.

Science Lesson

Much to Max's Sheer delight our science topic this year just happens to be Oceanography his FAVORITE thing in the whole world. What a pleasure to teach something you can see someone simply drinks in every little thing you do. His appetite for anything science is voracious but he has a special love for all things regarding the sea. The twins can take or leave this class loving all things weapon, and war but they get plenty of that in our history lessons. This lesson is where Max thrives.

We are using a book from the Young Explorers Series by Jeannie Albright: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. For the first time since buying her books I am going to follow her straight through with only a few extra additions of living books where I have them and they fit in. Following can be boring and often the text in a given curricula just doesn't fit our plan but this year it does and I am not bored one bit I am enjoying the relaxation of letting another plan, research and deliver the lesson. She is by the way an excellent author and the text always gives glory to God which I appreciate. She includes so many fun and I must say simple experiments that the boys can do to understand more completely the sea creatures we are learning about.

I have laid out her chapters into individual lessons so I knew where the extra things I wanted to include could fit in and so I can know we will fit it all into the school year and at what pace we will be taking the readings and activities/experiments. Below is part of plan so you can get an idea how it works for us. We have a science lesson 5 days a week but the lessons vary so you will see.

Oceanography
105 lessons	Paddle to the Sea/map	book/map work	5
Chapter 1: Aquatic Animals	ECWZ Ch 1: Aquatic Animals Pg 1-7 narrate	spine	2
	Activity: Ocean currents Pg. 7	hands on	1
	ECWZ Ch. 1: Aquctic Animals Pg 8-15 narrate	spine	1
	Activity: air pressure in a bottle Pg. 15	hands on	1
	ECWZ Ch. 1: Aquctic Animals Pg 16-18 narrate	spine	1
	Activity: Ocean Box	hands on	1
	Experiment: cold and hot water	hands on	1
	BSBFC:  ch. 1 -3 narrate	book	1
Chapter 2: Whales	ECWZ Ch. 2 Whales pg. 19-28	spine	2
	Activity: megaphone pg. 28	hands on	1
	ECWZ Ch2.: Whales Pg. 29-32	spine	1
	Activity: freezing water pg. 32	hands on	1
	ECWZ Ch. 2 Whales pg. 33-39	spine	1
	Activity: sound through water pg. 39-40 / put a whale in your ocean box	hands on	1
	BSBFC:  ch. 3-6 narrate	spine	1
	Dolphin Adventure	book	1
	Dolphin Treasure	book	1
	Water Sky	book	6

In chapter one we began making our "ocean Boxes" but our idea was more of an "ocean board." We made wave shaped stamps from foam sheets and printed many waves onto a large cardboard board, then the boys added a cloud and a sun. Each chapter we select a sea animal and color it and place it onto the board. We just did the chapter on whales so that is all they have on their boards so far. By the end of the year it will be full of sea creatures they know.

I purchased Jacque Cousteau's DVD series to play on the weekends jut for fun.

On project day the boys still practice doing an entry in their nature notebooks. This year they can filling the scientific data portion in the upper left all by themselves by looking at past entries etc. to figure out how it goes.

...and that concludes our science lesson.

Latin Lesson

Latin is a breeze this year as I am letting Duane do the lessons via the Visual Latin curriculum.  Duane is a guy and that is a huge benefit as the boys relate to him far better than myself or another lady. It says something subtle and that is that Latin is for men. He is also silly and though his lessons are sound and clear they are fun for the boys. The lessons also fit into Charlotte Mason's principles of short, 20 minute lessons. Whether we are watching the DVD or doing the worksheets they never take much longer than 20 minutes. So it is easy, fun, meaty and we all are loving it.

Our lesson plans look like this:

Day 1: Lesson 1: grammar video with Duane
Day 2: Lesson 1: grammar worksheet reviewing the video lesson the day before
Day 3: Lesson 1: Sentence Video with Duane
Day 4: Lesson 1: Sentence Worksheet reviewing what we learned in the video the day before.
Day 5: Lesson 1: Reading Video with Duane
Day 6: Lesson 1: Reading worksheet reviewing what we heard in the video the day before.
Day 7: Review all three videos

Begin with lesson 2.

Before I made the switch to Visual Latin I had planned to continue on with the second edition of Minimus called Secondus. I had purchased the text for the boys and the teacher text for me, but somewhere along the way I lost it. When I went to begin planning for it I did not have it any more. I did have the Visual Latin DVD's and worksheets and as I looked at it I thought the boys would do better with this curriculum this year anyway and I sure liked the idea of having one less lesson to plan each day. I am so glad it turned out the way it did. If I ever find the Secondus I suppose I resell it, it is still in my humble opinion a fun way to learn latin.

History Lesson

We are studying the Middle Ages this year. It is so much fun for it is full of castles and knights, and classic stories I have been wanting to read to my boys for years like Robin Hood and the Story of King Arthur. There is so much out there to make this year wonderful it was truly hard to pick and choose for fear something fun will be left out. See my pinterest board on the Middle Ages/Renaissance. My saving grace was the spine, Story of the Middle Ages by Christine Miller and Passport to the Middle Ages a hands on trip through this historical period by Homeschool in the woods. Between these to resources I have just what I need to flesh out the middle ages time period with fun activities, great books and with more ease and peace of mind than I first thought was possible.

Apparently we have the old out dated cover image. If you checked out the link to The Story of the Middle Ages you can see that it has been redone. I think I like our old version better. One of the best aspects of this book is the suggested book list in the back. It suggests living books that fit in with the story of the Middle Ages narrative. It also give you an idea just where they go in the flow of the historical story. So by using this suggested book list I was able gather together relevant living books and plan them out with the spine readings, and with the help of the SCM panner, I know it will all fit into the school year. Yeah!

Below is a portion of my master list of books and where they fit into the spine. I have not stuck to the 20 minute lessons here as my boys can absorb more so my readings are a bit lengthy. It is working for us but it may not work for you. See for yourself, maybe you can do more. :) I also supplement with audio books when I need a break. See my other post on the ones I found for free at Librivox.

SOTMA: Europe Long Ago-Ceasar in Gaul and Britain (one lesson)

SOTMA: Europe under the Romans-The 1st Martyrs (one lesson)

In God's Garden by Amy Steedman(7 lessons/days)*

SOTMA: The Patron Saint of France- The Early Germans (one lesson)

Children of Odin by Padraic Colum (portions of it in 3 lessons)

SOTMA: How the Franks Came into Gaul-The first Kings (one lesson)

The White Stag by Kate Seredy(two lessons)

SOTMA: Theodoric and Ostrogoth-The Bishop of Ireland (one lesson)

Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman chapter on St. Patrick begin lap book (two lessons)

Lantern bearer by Rosemary Sutcliff (11 lessons)

SOTMA: The Anglo Saxons-King Arthur (one lesson)

King Arthur by Howard Pyle (five lessons)

SOTMA:  The story of St. Augustine (one lesson)

Augustine came to Kent by Barbara Willard (six lessons)

* If the book has 14 chapters in it like In God's Garden, it will take 7 lessons/days to complete the book if I can read two chapters/saint stories a day. Some books will be shorter or longer so the days it will take to read each one is different. 

Following is the rest of the list of living books we plan to use for History.  

Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard

Story of Roland for Children by H.E. Marshall

Castle by David MaCaulay

DK: Castle at War 

Castle Diary by Richard Platt

Vikings by Janeway

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French

The Viking adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla

Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire

Dragon and the Raven by G.A. Henty

Illuminations by Hunt

Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge

Cathedral by David MaCaulay

If All The Swords in England by Barbara Willard

God's Troubadour by 

Winning His Spurs by G. A. Henty

Magna Charta by James Daugherty

In Freedom's Cause by G.A. henry

Otto if the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff

The Door in the Wall by

St. George for England by G. A. Henty

Canterbury Tales by Barbara Cohen Illustrated by Trina Hyman (a favorite illustrator of mine)

Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley

You may have observed as you read through the list that some classic books noted to be good for this time period like Robin Hood and Adam of the Road are missing. I have scheduled them into our literature readings instead of our history lesson and they should correspond also with the flow of history as it moves through time in the middle ages. 

Passport through the Middle Ages is something we do on project day which is the last day of our week. Project day was instigated last year because we love hands on activities but we also value the simplicity of Charlotte Mason's methods. One thing I wanted to make time for in our school week was to include more living books to fill them with ideas, "a banquet of mind food", and I also wanted to limit our hands-on work so we could practice narration which stimulates the mind to work on the ideas gained instead of and activity which may or may not accomplish this. So Project day is the sixth day in our week and it is where we do the fun activities, games etc. that we enjoy without losing the great advantage of sticking closely to a CM method during the week.

This is TJ's notebook where he keeps his passport notebooking type activities. 

Sample of one of their notebooking pages describing the different class levels in the Middle Ages. 

The boys also keep up a time line as we go along.

The boys write fictitious newspaper articles.

And illustrate some.

Here is Max's passport to travel into the Middle Ages. 

Each week I also read from a tour guide about that particular time in history, it sets the stage for the activities. Sometimes there are audio tours as well as the readings. This last week we listened as a reporter interviewed different people about their role in the Medieval class structure.

Now and then we get postcards from historical people telling us about the event in history where they played a part. The boys then illustrate the front of the post card and place into their post card rack.

We also are creating lapbook mini books as we go along and at the end of the year we will assemble the whole lap book. It should make for a fun review of all the things we have studied. 

There will be recipes to make, things to make like a castle out of sugar cubes and a Robinhood hat. We will also learn about every aspect of Medieval life. More about all that as we go along. I also have found oodles of wonderful you tube videos that go along nicely with each weeks readings and activities which I will be showing the boys each project day. 

NOTE: Many of the titles below are not suitable for children. We got around this by downloading the video and editing it in a editing program. Then we can be sure they boys get the content that is worthwhile for them at this age.

Here is our list of Medieval history videos. You can find them all on you-tube:

BBC Rise and Fall of Rome Series

History Channel's "The Dark Ages"

Merchant of Venice

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Peasant

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Knight

Medieval Warfare: Castle at War

Who were the Vikings BBC part 1/3

Viking Trading Empire BBC part 2/3

End of the Viking Age BBC part 3/3

History Channel's : "The Real Vikings"

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Monk

Illuminations BBC parts 1-6

History Channel's "The Plague"

El Cid

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Kings

Terry Jones: The Crusades parts 1-4

Terry Jones medieval lives:  The Outlaw

Christina: a Medieval Life

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Damsel

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Philosopher

Terry Jones Medieval Lives: The Minstrel

Bye for now....Enjoy!

Art Lesson

There are three parts to our art lesson this year. Art skills, Art history, and Art Appreciation. Our Artist Study this year is centered around just one artist Giotto Di Bondone. We will be at times looking at some of the other famous artist of the Medieval times like Cimbaque Giotto's teacher,  but mostly we will be studying Giotto. I spent a entire term at University doing an art history course on Giotto's Chapel in Scrovegni and I am excited to share this wonderful artist with my boys. So we will be reading about Giotto and the world he lived in and looking at his many many paintings and sculptures. We will also be improving our won art skill once a week by learning more about painting with tempera paints and water colors.

Art skills is something I believe every child can develop. Like any other skill some take to it more readily than others but all can learn to mix paint, hold a brush and draw what they see. All can make art. Each week we have been doing a painting lesson out of the wonderful text by Barry Stebbing called I Can Do All Things. This is our study in mixing different blues and using them in the dolphin drawing.

And heres a close up our mixing greens picture with the grasshopper.

and here is TJ's study of mixing red.

I am using a large picture book entitled Masters of art: Giotto and Medieval Art as my spine for the year in our Art History lesson and adding to it Giotto Tended the Sheep by Opal Wheeler for our back ground info about the artist. Sister Wendy also does a wonderful you tube introducing Giotto in her series called The Story of Painting. (part 2 "The hero steps forth is about Giotto) and Madeline L'Engle has put together a beautiful book entitled The Glorious Impossible but we will use this book more in our art appreciation lessons than here in the art history lesson.

Our Art Appreciation lessons are mostly picture studies, but sometimes we will do a hands on project to help us further understand the art in Giotto's time and how he made his art on frescoes and with egg tempera paint etc. I am using Simply Charlotte Masons Picture Study Portfolio and Madeline L'Engle's book The Glorious Impossible, and there is a wonderful collection of Giotto's work online here that allows you to see the paintings as a slide show.

Geography Lesson

This is the first year we actually have a subject on the schedule called Geography. We do this subject three days a week for about 1/2 of an hour each lesson, so it is not a huge time commitment but it is fun! Maybe it's fun because it is Europe we are studying or perhaps it is just that maps can be a beautiful thing to learn.

Our lessons are varied but regular and we all are loving this. 

The first lesson of the week is a read-a-loud lesson. This year I will be reading from Lucy Fitch Perkins Twins Stories. We plan to read the following twins stories this year:

The Belgium Twins

The Dutch Twins

The Irish Twins

The Eskimo twins

The The Italian Twins

The Swiss Twins

The Scotch Twins

The Second Lesson of the week is adding pages to our country book one week and a short half hour to an hour long you tube about the country the next week. Here are a few you tubes I m=have bookmarked to choose from.

Austria (Part 1/6) Each part os about 10 minutes

Belgium the whole movie is about 1 hour

Denmark A little over 9 minutes

England: Oxford/ London Bridges/ Hampton Court/ Villages/ Berkeley Estate less than 10 min. ea.

France: travel by train(10 min)/A trip to Paris(10 min)/Visit France (23 min)

Germany(1 hour)/ Neuschwanstein Castle (4 min)

Hungry, Budapest (part 1/3 each 17 min.)

Iceland (43 min.)

Ireland (44 min.)

Italy the great cities part 3(14 min.) part 4, part 5, part 6/ Italy Revealed (1hour 37min.)

Norway (23 min.) Beautiful Norway (14 min) A Norway Passage (1 hr.)

Spain: Village (6 min.) Sister Wendy in Madrid (9 min.) Taste of the Sea made in Spain (24 min.)

Gaudi's Barcelona

Sweeden: The Real Stockholm 1/2(10 min.)

Switzerland part 1/2 (14 min.)

The pages for our country book include a notebooking page on the country we are focusing on, other cool icons like the Belgium coat of arms below that we found online when we researched about Belgium and a map drill page. The cover I designed myself in Publisher. We bound our book together with the Pro-Click Binder.

The Third Lesson of the Week is a map drill. 

Lesson one: With a blank map and a map with labels, practice finding Belgium on the blank map. color it in and copy it's name. Memorize how to spell it. Add all the flag labels to the large, colored map of Europe. (includes 20 countries and three seas) 

Lesson two: Add Belgium to a new blank map without looking. Color it in and spell it correctly. Then, practice finding Austria on the same map but now using the map with the titles. Color it in and copy the name learning to spell it correctly. Add all the flag labels to the large, colored map of Europe.

Lesson three to twenty: Add another new country and review the previous ones in the same way. Add the flags each time to the large, colored map.

Sometimes we play games like the one below, Viking Voyages, on project day, the last day of the week. Viking Voyages is a FREE game you can download, paint, and tape together your self. My boys helped me make this game.

On Their Own

Via Flicker

This spring we were not at home, so homeschool took on an 'on-the-road,' loose sort of a look. I loved it! We did spontaneous things and less seat work. We were in the outdoors more (when it wasn't raining) which was therapeutic for us all. This kind of change in schedule satisfied the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants longings I have when I do execute a well planned day. Well this spring I got my freedom, for a time, and actually some good things came out of it.

I am posting today about one activity that I initiated but became kid driven as we went along. It began with a bird book and time to look outside. I purchased this beginning bird watchers book with stickers. I know it isn't a "real" nature journal like we usually try to accomplish at home, but it did accomplish something our 'real' nature journal making has not yet done....my boys asked to do it and got out their books on their own to do it.

My guess is that they felt confident that they could wield this tool of observation and the 'real' nature journal entries we have been doing are still beyond them skill wise. The skill they have not yet acquired with ease is drawing and handwriting. Just about the entire 'real' nature journal entry activity is either drawing or handwriting. They will most likely catch on later as their fine motor skills develop but for now the sticker book was just within their grasp so they used it. You know something is working because your children will use again and again. They will drain it to the dregs if it is the right tool for them.

They were not allowed to simply put the stickers onto the birds as they liked it was a unsaid rule that they must have seen the bird and had someone witness that they saw it. SO they began a sort of guy like competition to see who can spot more birds than the other. Typical. I love it when their 'boyness' really accelerates their learning because there are so many times when the 'schoolish' type things simply do not appeal to boys and thus make it seem they are just not so bright. But now in the wild they can hunt down birds and add a sticker and they could do it faster than the next guy. Enthralling.

They would often beg for help to fill out the info about the birds because THEY WANTED TO KNOW more about the bird they had found. They had developed a connection or relation to the birds.  It was fun for them to add in the sticker, learn more about the bird they saw and of course be first. I know this is not to be encouraged in a CM approach but I have yet found it detrimental to learning. There needs to be obvious sportsmanship rules but all in all I have found that good competition is healthy for boys. Also my boys are all within 1 1/2 years of each other with the oldest being 9 and the twins being 7 so there is room to spur one another on and it is truly a fair fight to the finish.

One activity that we did near the beginning turned out well indeed. I purchased a high quality molding clay in lots of fun bright colors. It is the kind of clay that never dries so you can reuse it again and again. It just gets better with time. However looking back maybe it would have worked better had we used an oven bake clay like FIMO because then they could have kept each bird they made.

We created several clay models of our birds but these are the only pics that survived some how. RATS! At first we tried going 3-D but that wasn't happening so the boys ended up making 2-D relief like images of the blue jays they saw in the park. The colors were very rewarding to work with and the way the clay moves in your hands makes working with it for beginners simple and successful. We still have the bags of clay at my mom's house which we can use again for another project. I love it how a simple resource like clay can become so many things over time.

Via Tumbler

We don't aways do education on the road or away from home and in the way we did this Spring but it worked for us for that season of the year. I have many happy memories of the lessons we did and the things we learned. It was truly relaxing. Maybe we can learn something from it too and let our children wiled appropriate tools so they can really do the learning for themselves without us grown ups always telling them how to do it.