Week Thirteen Wrap-Up

HI, something we have been enjoying lately....

Bible: Genesis

Stories of Faith: Grandpa's Box

Math: Same old same old this week in the Matrix Caveman Rotation, except that the boys are upping their accuracy and their end time on the matrix. TJ has the current best score of 6 min 66/67 correct. The other tow are getting 100% however they are taking more time to do it. It is working really well to have them try to beat their own score, for it has eliminated some of the competitiveness that was destructive between them. Conversely they are enjoying doing the math and finding it more interesting.

We learned about another female mathematician named Sonya Kovalesky in Mathematicians are People too Vol. 2.

Ancient Greek History: We have begun two new books this week relating to history. Firstly, I added a lesson right after lunch because we were regularly ending school at 3 pm an hour earlier than I have scheduled for. This is happening because the boys are really getting better at following directions and just getting their work done without a lot of moaning or complaining. Amazing how much time is lost here. I intend it to be a geography lesson for I realized that we already have several books that would lend to this kind of lesson and I saw that Amblesideonline.com schedules for one so why not try it. It would be more food for the mind. So we have begun to read My Little Macedonian Cousin by  as it relates so well to the other book we started which is Alexander the Great by John Gunther. It was a tremendous fit and the boys adore it so we are still on schedule and getting more mind food served. Cool! Charlotte says,

"Our aim in education is to give children vital interests in as many directions as possible-to set their feet in a large room..." Vol. 3 pay. 231

Aesop's Copy Work:

Max's Aesop copy work.

Science the observation of Birds: We continue on this week with Blacky the Crow by Thornton Burgess. I also mention a fun game we picked up at the local Goodwill store this summer. It is a memory game of 100 photos of birds. I introduced the boys to the game one night  a few months ago and they have been playing it themselves oft and on, more recently as they have been listening to the bid stories we read in our lessons. They have decided that the Red Tail Hawk and the Big Horned Owl are the best and most desirable to win their other favorite is the wren. This year they are able to read the names of the birds on the cards and so without me they are learning. I love it!

Nature notebooks:

Language Arts: This week the boys wrote a composition about a rabbit family and what they did in their free time, completed some sentences that asked the question when? and they did dictation with sentences that distinguished there from their.

TJ's composition "What I do in my free time..."

Bed Time Read-Aloud: We all felt sad that Jack died in our new read aloud On the Shores of Silver Lake the next book in the Little house series. We all cried when Pa tried to wake him so they could travel west together. I am aiming at reading two books of the series each year so On the Shores of Silver Lake will be our last one until next year. Last year we read Little House on the Prairie and Farmer boy.

Latin: Our lessons last week pertained to a dialogue about Julius and Flavia in writing class with Corinthus. As the dialogue was about writing we have been doing some exercised involving roman or old latin writing. We wrote a message in latin script, we completed a worksheet about roman numerals, we translated some latin verbs into english and we made our own seal stones and a letter written on a thin board like they did way back then.

Art/Music: In drawing lessons this week we drew circles, snowmen and completed a drawing practice sheet.

And we continue in our rotation of reading about Chopin in his early years and listening to his piano music.

Have a great day!

Christmas is Coming

Via Fifth and State Blogspot

Today as I am writing this we have taken a day off of school. One of the many things I love about homeschooling is that lessons can harmonize with life and you get the best out of both. This week we have been busy with company already and we all needed a day without the pressure to get something done to simply digest life, spread our wings and follow our interests without a schedule. It is more likely me the free sprit who wanted the day off but I was listening when Zak had a melt down day before yesterday. One of the things he said as he cried and used his amazing vocabulary (thanks Charlotte for the narration practice) to describe how he felt was that he feels a lot of pressure on him and it never seems to let up. Thus a day off. I am enjoying it immensely. :)

It has been several years now since I heard about the wisdom of slowing down during the holidays instead of ramping up, and I intentionally slow down in many ways. Last year we took the whole month of December off and did fun crafts, read vintage christmas stories, and cooked together. The boys also had oodles of free time to play. I purposely shop early for Christmas presents. I read more, take long walks, and cook fun and nourishing treats for my family and friends. I plan little and fly by the seat of my pants for one month out of the year. I do not over decorate but simply do the tree, and the nativity and a few other things. This year we are still doing school 6 days a week because we plan to travel in the spring so I am fitting Christmas in to the already existing schedule and I am still intentionally aiming to keep the holiday a holiday for us all.

Photo by Faletiz

But what I do that helps me the most is to remembering that it isn't the amount of material I get through in a year because "education is not to give a technical skill but to develop a person. " Charlotte Mason said this in Vol. 6 pg. 147. So many things can develop a person and each family has the privilege of choosing that for themselves. For us we keep life simple during the holidays.

Because we are continuing on with our schedule this year and not taking a month off I am slipping Christmas into the framework of it knowing that schedules can be tools for relaxation too. I am  replacing a book here and a book there and adding a project that will enhance what God is saying to us this year about who He is and what He wants us to remember about His coming. For our stories of faith lesson we are currently reading a delightful story about God's plan of redemption beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden of eden and on through to revelation. It is called Grandpa's Box. The story like many vintage books we love the story is told via an ongoing discussion between Grandpa and his two grandchildren Marc and Amy. In the past we have read One Wintery Night written by Ruth Graham Bell for it tells to whole biblical story too which I find so good to review each year at Christmas.

Once we finish with Grandpa's Box I have several vintage Christmas stories the boys can pick from.

Good Stories for Great Holidays compiled by Francis Jenkins Alcott (This one is a huge anthology of short Christmas stories that are all good. We read through it last year and it took us a while. But is was fun to read so many heart warming stories one after the other.
The Bird's Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin This one always makes me cry and the boys say "oh mom!"
This Way to Christmas by Ruth Sawyer We have not read this one yet.
Why the Chimes Rang by Raymond McDonald Alden Another tear jerker.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause by Amelia Houghton This one we have read three Christmas's in a row and I wonder if the boys are tired of it yet.
The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein We have not read this one yet.
The Pajama Elves by Hayden Edwards Just found this one on pinterst a week ago, looks fun.

We will also sing some Christmas hymns and do a few crafts.

My men are not too fond of sweets so the one special thing I make for them every year is a homemade cheese ball. I may attempt homemade crackers to go with it since the boys just bought me a new range for Christmas and I am unwrapping it this week. (smile)

Have a Happy Holiday!

Week Twelve Wrap-Up

Bible: Last week we read through the end bit of Ephesians, started and finished Colossians, and this week we are at the beginning in Genesis which fits really well with our reading of Grandpa's Box.

Stories of Faith: Grandpa's Box is a delightful story written as an ongoing conversation between Grandpa and his grand kids, Marc and Amy. Everyday after school as the children help him in his junk to treasure shop He tells them the story of the Bible. Behind each story is the backdrop of the war between God and Satan and how we play a part in it. Marc is especially interested in battles so although he knows the bible stories he is fascinated by Grandpa's war analogies. The boys are loving this book and like Marc though they know the bible stories Grandpa's analogies and unique point of view brings up for them a new take on God and what He has done for us.

Last week we completed The Stories of the Pilgrims right on Thanksgiving day!

Math: We have completed our lessons which took us through the multiplication table, table by table and learning some patterns in each number table, and through out the table. We learned skip count songs for each of the numbers and we did all of the multiplication story problems in Ray's Primary Arithmetic several times over. So last week and this week we have been doing a new lesson rota. I began with introducing the boys to The Matrix, a tool I found over at Don Potter's website for getting the math table facts down quickly. Then we work a page or two in The Usborne Math Skills book called Multiplying and Dividing Puzzles.

The Matrix is a set up so the child works all of the math facts from 2X2 up to 12X12 as is done on the multiplication table however all the duplicate problems have been removed. So, 3X4 in the 3's table is not re introduced again as 4X3 in the 4's table. There are then 67 problems to complete. The table is filled in and timed. Once the boys have completed the table I mark down how long it took them to do it and how many out of 67 they did correctly. I post their best times and they try to beat themselves. Thus far the best time is 8.5 minutes with 2 mistakes (65/67). The goal is to do the problems until they come so easily that you simply are racing to write them down. This could get old day-in and day-out so in between doing the Matrix challenge I give them some fun math problems to play around with from the Usborne puzzle book.

Our rota is three days a week The Matrix, two day Usborne, then the next week it would change to three days a week Usborne two days a week The Matrix.

The mathematicians we read about on project day are Neils Henrik Abel and Ada Bryron Lovelace.

Ancient Greek History: We are still reading The Children's Plutarch by F. J. Gould and working on our paper mache' armor.

And we put a few things in or History notebook...

Armor of God pages. The one on the left was drawn by Nadene from Practical Pages.

Zak and TJ completing a map drill

Aesop's Copy work: I used to have to give out treats to get them to aim for making no cross outs or mistakes, however now that I have stopped doing that they still aim for it themselves and do their best in the coloring because it is good to do it even without the treat. TJ especially hates to make any mistakes and works very hard to get it right. Zak is wonderful at the handwriting but this year he has lost all interest in coloring or drawing etc. But my shinning example really is Max my oldest. Last year he was such a dawdler and I wondered just how I was going to deal with it and for how long because it really bugged me. However this year he is such a different student. It is plain he does not like some of the work I assign but he willingly makes himself get it done. In addition he has become my advocate as he encourages the other two to stop their whining and get with it. Those are his words not mine. :) "It takes less time if you just obey and do what she says," he tells Zak, "She'll make you do it later on your free time if you don't." They both shudder and get to work. I think their understanding and value of time has been the incentive to work it through. As they have grown older and have more ideas of their own they want to work on then their time is more valuable to them. Natural consequences have paid off no nagging needed!

Science/Birds: After reading all the way through The Tale of Jolly Robin by Arthur Scott Bailey we are reading Blacky the Crow by Thornton Burgess.

Nature Notebooks: 

After reading from A Pocket full of pinecones the boys headed outside to find something to draw. Max and TJ both found a lizard and TJ was so excited! "Mom it had yellow on its back see I drew that in!" I was so pleased. For the last few weeks when he looks for something to draw he comes back with the same leaf...but not this week.

On project day we made some bird feeders from old paper towel rolls, peanut butter and birdseed for the winter birds.

Language Arts: Our lesson in Primary Language Lessons was to memorize The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson. We took four days to do this. Day one, orally go through the poem reciting the first stanza then the first and second etc until we are saying the whole poem altogether. Day two, the boys copied 1/2 of the poem and drew a picture. Day three, they copied the second 1/2 of the poem and drew a picture. The fourth and last day the boys orally recited separately the entire poem, then they recited it al together. It is so amazing how they memorize these verses so easily. And how adorable they sound as they do it.

Max's copy work.

Last week they wrote about what they would do on vacation. Here is Zak's composition and drawing.

Read-aloud before bed: Gentle Ben, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Latin: Minimus dialogue and verbs and adjectives.

Art/Music: Drawing Lessons # 3-#8 in I Can Do all Things

TJ's Wally the worm in the garden, a lesson on forshortening

Max's drawing.

Zak's drawing

We began reading Chopin the Early Years by Opal Wheeler last week. I read from the book one day and then on the other day we listened to his music ( 99 most essential Chopin Masterpieces) and began to color a page from Opal Wheeler's book.

TJ's work in progress