My Classical Homeschool

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T03:27:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Historical Fiction to Read Aloud

2011-10-10T06:14:00.001-04:00

Reading aloud to my children is one of my favorite things about homeschooling. I love our cuddle time on the couch with a blankey and a good book. In case you're looking for some good reads, here's our American History read aloud plan:

Our First Day for the 2011 - 2012 Homeschool Year

2011-08-30T19:24:00.000-04:00

We truly consider it a blessing to homeschool, so we have a few little traditions that make our first day of school special. Our traditions revolve around school supplies, a school year overview, and a breakfast outing. First of all, my boys don't enjoy shopping for new school supplies. In fact, they would be okay with just using things we already had on hand. Me? Not so much! I like the look and feel of new folders, papers and pens. So, I always put together a little assortment of goodies I think the boys will enjoy foru our school year kick-off. I found a cool container and put pens, pencils, markers, crayons, smelly erasers, a small daily school planner and a stash of candy. When the boys come into the school room on day one, they are greeted by their new supplies. I also display our new books/resources and tell them about some of the things I've planned for the year. After that, we head over to Dunkin' Doughnuts for a delicious and nutritious breakfast. Once our breakfast is over, we pile into the van, turn on some fun music and take a drive, being sure to swing by a nearby public elementary school. As we drive by we shout (inside the vehicle, of course!) "Homeschool rules!!" Then we take turns listing off all the things we appreciate about homeschooling. Here are a few things at the top of our list:

A flexible schedule
A great teacher AND terrific students! :)
Lots of read-alouds
Field trips almost every month
The ability to study things we're truly interested in
Lots of projects and experiments
Classical Conversations
Getting school work done faster than a "regular" school kids in a classroom setting
Having mom help whenever its needed
Being able to pray, read the Bible, and talk about God in the things we study

So . . . here are a few pictures from our first day of school:

Brandon - Grade 4

Nathan - Grade 6

Nathan & Brandon enjoying our traditional doughnut breakfast on our first day of school.

I think they're ready for the fun to begin!

I pray the Lord will bless us as we seek to glorify Him in the things we study together this year. May we grow and learn and use our knowledge to further His Kingdom.

Children's Literature and Picture Books for the Young and Young at Heart

2011-07-22T05:00:00.002-04:00

Hallelujah! I've recently rediscovered that you're never too old for picture books!

Yesterday I went to the library and felt a bit of sadness as I looked at the seemingly never ending book stacks filled with illustrated children's literature that my boys children are now too old to read. I thumbed through a few titles the librarian had carefully set out for the display and reminisced about the days gone by when we would pour over dozens of picture books with great anticipation and interest. As the kids have advanced in their reading abilities, they have graduated out of the heavily illustrated books and into the world of chapter books and children's novels.

Making a trip to the library is something my boys and I have done since they were tiny tots. To this day, we still enjoy our weekly jaunt to the "big house of books". Over the years, we have read hundreds of books. I've gone through countless lists, checking off titles we read to ensure that I exposed my children to some of the finest titles ever published. I remember a time when I longed for the days of getting lost in a Newbery Award-winning novel with my boys. But . . . now, I sometimes wish for those sweet moments and memorable lessons that only a picture book can bring.

As I reflect on the past couple of years, I have found myself gravitating towards the chapter books and children's novels in effort to stretch their reading skills and train them to read for longer periods. Now, the boys are now terrific readers, so I find myself in full circle wondering, "Why not return to an occasional classic told in pictures and words?" As I stood in the midst of so many beautifully illustrated stories, I found myself wondering how a few picture books would go over with my boys. Would they think the books were babyish? Would they think I was crazy if they found a boatload of these so called juvenile easy readers in our book basket?

I LOVE children's literature and picture books. I STILL enjoy looking at the pictures and allowing my imagination about these short stories to run wild. So . . .I wonder, "If I still like these books, why wouldn't my kids?" I could find no answer to this question, so I decided to load up my book bag with a dozen classic children's books!

Here's a look at what I checked out:

Well . . . long story short: my kids did NOT think I was crazy! They did wonder WHY on earth I brought home so many "easy" books (as they called them). But I simply explained, "A few years ago, I read all of these to you boys. We read them together before you knew how to read. We loved these stories then, and I still love them. I'll bet you will too."

Just a little while ago, I found my 9 year old son doing this:

He set the timer on his watch and decided to read ALL of the books--and he DID!! (By the way, his favorite is "Dick Wittington and His Cats".)

So, I once again have a list of classic children's literature for younger readers. (Children's Book Guide has a terrific list!) This summer I plan to fill our book basket with several titles from the list every week. I'm going to encourage my boys to rediscover some of those beautiful stories told with pictures and words. And . . . if no one is looking, I'll probably spend a few moments getting lost in some of these precious stories, too! ;) After all, they're for the young AND young at heart, right?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-20T05:00:00.002-04:00

"Mitsie"--Our New Kitten

Educating Your Children through High School with Classical Conversation's Challenge Programs

2011-07-18T14:38:00.003-04:00

Many parents begin to feel inadequate in the homeschool arena as their children enter the middle school and high school years. As you know, these pre-teen and teenage years are crucial and impressionable years! This is when interesting and deep discussions about the things around us and the things we study often begin to take place, but this also is when educating our children becomes more tricky and involved. Parents often ask the questions, “How can we continue to educate our children successfully? How can we do it all?”

The Classical Conversations Challenge Program was specifically designed to assist and empower homeschool parents in the ever-important process of providing an academically rich and well-rounded homeschool experience for middle school and high school students. Trained tutors teach the more difficult subjects and model learning skills. Parents still retain oversight of their student, and continue to hold onto the blessing of learning alongside them. Students receive an opportunity to meet once a week in a small group of their peers, and learn to work more independently as each Challenge Year is completed. Best of all, the curriculum is fully planned, meeting (or exceeding) all educational requirements for Virginia and West Virginia! CC not only helps to prepare kids for college or interesting careers, but for a lifetime of learning. More importantly, our Challenge Programs train and encourage students to ask hard questions, to analyze carefully, to argue and debate, and to think from a Biblical perspective. The Challenge Program provides an excellent choice for families all over the country, so that homeschooling through high school can continue to be an option.

A sampling of some of the books used in Challenge A and Challenge B

If you know what you DON’T want for your teen, but need a positive educational plan, then consider one oe of the Classical Conversations Challenge Programs. The planned curriculum, integration of subjects, and partnership with a trained tutor helps to make a classical Christian education at home DOABLE!

• To learn more about Classical Conversations visit the website: www.classicalconversations.com.

• This Challenge Page contains a great overview of the program and educational philosophy.

• These audios are helpful if you’d like to learn more about the scope and sequence of the Challenge program.

Sumer School and Summer Fun

2011-07-14T16:49:00.000-04:00

We've been on summer break for the last six weeks enjoying carefree summer days, but it's time for us to get back in gear. As planned, I'm giving the year round homeschool thing a try! ;)

For the next six weeks we're going to do some summer schoolin' that includes:

Bible: We're going to work through Training Hearts Teaching Minds, by Starr Meade. This is a simple Bible study/devotional that helps to clarify and teach doctrinal truths of Christianity through short catechisms and answers. The book focuses on one catechism each week and provides daily devotions and scripture passages that provide deeper meaning and understanding of each catechism. We just started the book this week, and we're all really enjoying it.
Math: Horizons Math is still working quite well for us. I will go through daily lessons with the boys and ask that they complete at 4-5 lessons each week. Brandon will also continue working on mastering math facts, especially division!
Latin: We're still working! Latin for Children is a terrific program for us. The activities and "Latin Flash" game makes the lessons especially fun.
Spelling: We'll continue working on lessons from "Spelling Plus".
Literature: The boys are participating in our library's summer reading program, so fortunately, motivating them to read has not been an issue! Right now, Nathan is reading "Phantom Tollbooth", and Brandon is reading "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". --Two terrific books!
History: I wish we were further along in our history studies, but we just linger too long on the topics that interest us. But, that's the beauty of homeschooling, right? I've made some shifts in our curriculum in this area! I know . . . shock of the world! Ha! (Maybe I'm a curriculum junkie!) Well . . . we're going to drop lessons from My Father's World so we can do a focused study about American History. I'll write more about our history plans soon!
Typing: I haven't decided what to use yet, but I hope to get this rolling next week.

We'll continue to do lots of summer things, but I plan to spend the bulk of our mornings (and maybe the early afternoon) with our noses in books. Our summer days will not be "full school days" but I hope they'll be days full of learning.

Fresh Ideas and New Life after the Virginia Homeschool Conference

2011-06-12T14:44:00.001-04:00

I just spent three intense days at the HEAV (Homeschool Educator's Association of Virginia) Conference. It was fun, educational, and inspirational! If you have never had a chance to go to a homeschool convention, try to make a point to attend the next one. Homeschool parents have the huge responsibility of providing an education for their children. Why not spend a little time at a homeschool conference for your "trade"?

If you like to actually touch and feel the homeschool resources you buy, then a convention is for you! You will not find a larger gathering of book vendors than at your state homeschool conference. In addition, you will likely encounter an array of resources that you'd never even heard of! For me, it is fabulous fun to browse the HUGE exhibit hall, filled with books, resources, games, college recruiters, and other homeschoolers. There have been many times I've wished that I could explore more of a book than just the few pages that are available online. It's hard to make a buying a decision when you're unsure about a product! Well, I was able to put some awesome resources in my hot little hands . . . and even in my book bag to take home!

Guest speakers can be a fountain of knowledge, providing new insight and information for the homeschool parent. When I'm able to peel myself away from all of the book tables, I attend the workshops. This year, I focused my time listening to talks that would give me ideas and information to make me a more effective teacher. I was able to learn more about the tools and the process a teacher should take when evaluating writing. I also learned how to incorporate unit studies and Charlotte Mason techniques in my homeschool. I listened to advice about parenting teens from an experienced and successful homeschool father of six, and I discovered some terrific educational ideas that take learning experiences beyond books, and thus more memorable. I'll try to write about each of the talks, so I can share the wealth of information I received!

Beyond the exhibit hall and guest speakers lies one of the most important reasons to attend a conference: inspiration! It is simply exhilarating to be with hundreds of other homeschoolers, people who are taking similar journeys, with similar trials and triumphs. The HEAV Convention has breathed a breath of fresh air into my soul and has given me new energy to continue educating my children.

Homeschooling Conventions inspire homeschooling parents towards excellence and provide a myriad of opportunities to learn about educational resources, methods and techniques that will make their homeschool more successful. I'm already looking forward to next year. Maybe you'll get a chance to attend your state homeschool Convention, too.

Classical Conversations and Memory Work in our Homeschool

2011-03-23T23:21:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered how someone does Classical Conversations at home? Well . . . it's not as difficult as you might think. Classical Conversations provides parents with a toolbox containing all kinds of things that make it easier to provide a classical Christian education for your children at home. People use Classical Conversations in different ways. Some structure their entire homeschool around Classical Conversations. On the other hand, some parents use Classical Conversations as their source of memory work -- as a supplement to other curricula they use at home. I am one of those moms. For our family, Classical Conversations is an "added extra" to the things we use at home. Here's how I cover the memory work presented in Classical Conversations' Foundation Program:

Before I begin telling you about our weekly routine, let me explain that we cover the Bible memory work first thing in the morning when we do our Bible Study. Therefore, it is not part of our Classical Conversations memory periods because we cover the Bible memory work when we do our Bible Study.

I try to allot about 30 minutes for our Classical Conversation memory work on Mondays. Here's the breakdown:

History: (8 Minutes) Sing History song twice, and read the history highlight page aloud.
Science: (5 Minutes) Read the information from the Classical Acts and Facts Card. Write the science fact on the board and recite several times, erasing more words each time until it has been memorized.
Geography: (5 Minutes) Using laminated maps, trace all new countries, cities or features for the week. As we do this, discuss things that may make it easier to remember the locations.
Timeline: (5 Minutes) Display the 8 new timeline cards and recite them. Recite several times, taking away a card each time we say the 8 cards until there are no more displayed.
Latin: (2 Minutes) I write the week's Latin words on the whiteboard, then we sing/chant the material a few times until we're comfortable with it.
English Grammar: (5 Minutes): Chant or recite the new material. Discuss the material in context, by thinking of a few sentences that provide meaning for the material.

Here is a more detailed description of our memory period:

Monday: Our classes are held on Fridays, so Monday is the day that we delve more deeply into the weekly Foundations material at home. As I cover each subject of memory work, I explain the things my kids don't understand or give them background information about the topics that need more detail. Classical Conversations has a few terrific resources to help me do this: Classical Acts and Facts and History Highlights.

The History highlights are available via free download for members of the C3 Community. There is one page for each of the 24 history songs. The page has the words of the history song on it and a nice summary of the historical event/person. After singing the song a couple of times, I read the History Highlights page aloud.

Classical Acts and Facts are not only available via download (entitled Science Snippets), but are also available for purchase in a card format, entitled "Classical Acts and Facts". These lightly laminated 5 x 8 fact cards make a great addition to any science program. They are arranged into four sets according to major science categories. The Classical Acts and Fact cards compliment the Foundations science memory work perfectly and would also be a nice addition for anyone seeking memory work for their science studies. Each Monday, I pull out the card that corresponds to our science memory work and read the card. The front has a nice picture for the kids to look at, and the back includes good, basic detail about the science fact/event.

Following science and history, I pull out a a couple of large laminated maps. We find all of the locations on our week's geography list and the kids use their dry erase markers to trace and label the locations. As we find the locations, we discuss other locations that we've studied in relation to the new things we're learning.

Next, we practice the history timeline. We memorize 8 Veritas Press history cards each week. On Monday, we only focus on the 8 new cards. Later in the week we practice reciting all cards that have been introduced thus far. As we do memory work, we stick to memorizing the the events that are listed on the front of each card. It is during our regular history studies that we elaborate! I often pull out the relevant Veritas Press card during our history reading time, so we can make deeper connections as we learn the story of our past.

For Latin, we usually sing the chant that goes with the material. Oftentimes, I write the Latin words that we're to memorize on our white board and circle the endings of the words to make the memorization more meaningful.

English Grammar usually evolves into a mini grammar class. I try to pull the memory work into context. For example, if we're memorizing the definition of a preposition, we chant through prepositions and then locate prepositions in sentences that we make up.

Finally, we learn our math material. The first 15 weeks of Classical Conversations covers multiplication math facts. The last 9 weeks covers basic math rules and formulas that we all need to know.

Tuesday: We spend about 15 minutes on memory work by quickly reviewing the current material and everything from the past 6 weeks. We usually just recite things, doing our best to do it from memory.

Wednesday: We spend about 20 minutes on memory work on Wednesdays. This is the day that we focus on 3 subjects. I usually try to cover Geography in more detail by asking the boys to find the locations on their large maps. They outline and label the locations. After we've covered a few weeks, I drill them by asking them to point to the locations in a random order.  We often use the C3 community for review on this day. The boys love this!

Thursday: This is the day we try to do a review game. Anything that has been introduced in CC is fair game! Sometimes I choose to spend about 30 minutes for our game, so I pair our review time with our snack time.

Friday: Classical Conversations Classes!

So there you have it! That's how we cover CC at home.   There is no one "right way" to do memory work. Remember: Classical Conversations provides parents with a toolbox filled with things that help them to provide a classical Christian education at home. CC provides us with a wonderful foundation of memory work for the grammar stage and it is giving a foundation for deeper learning.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T08:29:00.001-05:00

Snow Play!

Aww . . . ! They still like playing with thier dump trucks!

Brandon, next to the start of his igloo.

Nathan gives me a quick smile as he builds the igloo wall.

Happy day!

My Father's World Curriculum: A Review

2011-02-14T22:29:00.002-05:00

I am in my second year of My Father's World, so I'm by no means an expert, but I thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences with the curriculum packages I've used so far. Last year we did "Rome to the Reformation" and we're currently working on "Explorers to 1850" lesson plans.

My Father's World uses a 5-year cycle for 2nd - 8th graders:

Creation to Greeks
Rome to the reformation (ancient Rome, middle ages, renaissance & reformation)
Explorers to 1850
1850 to modern
Countries & Cultures (a geography, cultures, and missions tour around the worldd

General observations and experiences:

My Father's World combines Charlotte Mason and classical education methods using a unit study approach. The lesson plans open-and-go, requiring very little advance preparation. Everything is scheduled and explained in their teacher manuals. An easy to follow schedule was just what I needed the year I began the "Rome to the Reformation" cycle! My Father's World lesson plans include Bible, history, science, Latin or Greek vocabulary (some years), read-alouds, art, and music appreciation. Missionary books and/or church history is also woven into the plans. You, the teacher, have the flexibility to use your choice of math, spelling, grammar, and writing programs. This means that you need to plan how you would like to integrate your writing assignments into other subjects.

Literature:

My Father's World book basket approach provides parents with plenty of flexibility on “extra reading”. Each week, there is a list of books in the appendix that relates to other things you’re studying. Sometimes my library doesn’t have some of the books, but it has been easy enough to find alternatives.

Activities:

My Father's World schedules activities such as maps, timeline, notebooking and hands-on projects. The activities always relate to what you study. I appreciate that I don't have to spend time deciding which activity to do--it's already planned. This I like! The frequency of scheduled activities is just right--not too much and not too little. Another thing I like: all of the worksheets, maps and timeline figures are in one place which make implementation a snap. Extra student sheet packets are inexpensive add-ons to any of their curriculum packages. Notebooking is often assigned in the history and science lesson plans. It is very open-ended, allowing parents and students to use the recommendations and suggestions for without locking students into restricted worksheet-type assignments. My boys enjoy getting creative and adding things to their history and science binders to make their learning experience memorable.

Teacher Notes:

The teacher notes in each curriculum package usually explain how to implement the assignments, and sometimes include occasional background notes about the topic being studied. Since these plans are geared for grammar and dialectic level students, I feel this is sufficient. I usually get more than enough information from the reading that I do with my children as we read assigned pages aloud. I am then able to provide them with explanations and connections across other subjects because I'm learning alongside my kids! Everything that you do in a week ties together beautifully. This, of course, makes it easy to discuss and explain deeper connections with my children. I must say that I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed experiencing the integration of Bible, art, music appreciation, history, read-alouds and sometimes even science in the lesson plans.

Comprehension/Discussion Questions:

The two packages that I have used ("Rome to the Reformation" and "Explorers to 1850") do not have comprehension questions or discussion questions as part of the curriculum. However, some of the main history books, such as Story of the World and Exploring American History have discussion questions at the end of the assigned chapters or in the Activity Guides. I have frequently used the discussion questions that are included in these books as a spring board for discussion or to check comprehension levels with my kids.

Read Alouds:

My Father's World schedules historical fiction for their read alouds, which I like very much. Some of the books have been wonderful, and others were not hits with us. I am a box checker, so I have a hard time giving myself the liberty to just switch books, but I’m coming around. Since there are no assignments/discussion questions, etc. that relate to the read aloud books, it is okay to substitute. I've also discovered that there is room for me to squeeze in two or three read-aloud books of my own choosing.

My bottom Line:
My Father's World has the flexibility for customization in the areas of notebooking, book basket, writing, math, spelling, foreign language, and grammar. Their lesson plans also provide the ability for parents to schedule either 4 or 5 days school days per week. My Father's World is great for someone who wants to teach their kindergartner through 8th graders together in one group--especially for history, science and Bible. For someone who doesn’t want to plan, MFW is a great choice. They integrate Bible lessons, history, music, art and even some science together nicely. My Father's World is an excellent program. It is well rounded and provides richly integrated study experiences for the entire family.

Homeschool Week in Review: Monday, January 17th - January 21st

2011-02-12T15:59:00.001-05:00

My Father's World Exp. to 1850: Week 2

Again, we had another productive week! I'm so happy to have had 2 strong weeks since we took such a long Christmas break. Here are highlights of our accomplishments:

Bible

We continue the study of Joseph using Bible Study Guide for All Ages. This week we focused on Genesis 42 and 43. We read the passages aloud and then the boys like to do their worksheet/activity sheets on their own. When they finish, we go over the material together. I like this method, because they really cover the passage three times in one sitting: by reading aloud, by completing their activity sheet, by going over the sheet together as a family and discussing it.

Classical Conversations:

We focused on timeline card memorization this week. After reciting the timeline cards for weeks 1-14, Nathan only had two errors. Yeah! Brandon and I spent time practicing them together and he's doing a fine job. He'll be ready to quiz through them soon. Since Nathan has to truly know all of his math facts from 1x1 through 15x15, he's also been practicing those. He knows his math facts pretty well, but not perfectly . . . yet. Brandon does an excellent job skip counting, but he still has a few weak areas, too. The boys also spent some time reviewing memory work using the online tutorial.

Their presentations were about a favorite memory. The thing that came to their mind was last year's HUGE winter snowstorm and all of the winter snow fun they had. I wish I would have been able to hear their little speeches as they reveled in sweet memories gone by.

Math

Nathan's assignments have centered largely on fractions, averaging, and decimals. One afternoon he asked if he could get the scores from all of his past tests and average them together. What a terrific exercise--applying his math lessons to real life. After he averaged his test scores, he discovered he is getting an 89% in math. Although I'd like to see his score come up a bit higher, I'm fairly pleased with this knowing that he had a difficult time grasping division.

Brandon, of course, wanted to know his math score as well! I quickly averaged his test to reveal a 93% for him! He was quite pleased with himself.

Spelling

Usually the boys shine in spelling, however they encountered some tricky words this week. Nathan had some confusion with a couple of homonyms. (Words that sound alike but have different meanings.) He missed threw and through, as well as believe and chief. Those words will be added to next week's list for continued practice.

Brandon's spelling list was comprised mainly of contractions. Although he did get most words correct, he missed more than usual. He will continue studying his missed words as well.

Grammar

I've always wanted to try "Fix-it! Grammar", published by Institute for Excellence in Writing. We began lesson 1 this week and I think this is gong to be delightful! There are 30 lessons, each retelling a bit of a classic novel. I chose Tom Sawyer for our first go-round. Weekly lessons are broken into daily tasks/assignments. On Mondays, Nathan will look up bold-type words, usually quite descriptive in nature, and write down the definition as it is used in the text. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Nathan will read the passage, looking for errors. The teacher's guide directs me on the grammar/language mechanics lesson to focus on. I like that the editing is not just looking for random errors. There is a lesson and a focus each week! Finally, Nathan will rewrite the passage in a spiral notebook on Thursdays. By the end of the 30 lessons, Nathan will have edited and copied a retelling of Tom Sawyer AND practiced/studied many language mechanics concepts.

Brandon has been doing an excellent job diagramming sentences and learning about direct objects in his grammar lessons from First Language Lessons 3. One of my favorite things about FLL is the short, yet focused lessons--gentle, with good coverage of basic grammar that includes sentence diagramming.

Science
We opened our week with readings from Answer in Genesis' elementary science series entitled God's Design for Life: The World of Animals. Let me just say, "I think it's perfect for us! This book contains some very good information, while not overwhelming the younger child. It is also easy enough to look into topics further by filling a book basket with library books about the topic of study. I appreciate the books suggestions that the MFW Lesson Plans offer for this!

This week our focus was on the classification of living things. We made a binder and divided into the sections so we can classify the living things we study all semester. First we'll study mammals, so we discussed the fact that animals are classified as either vertebrates or invertebrates. We made a notebook page about mammals and a model backbone, too! Take a look:

A backbone, of course! The straw represent the spinal cord. The spools represent vertebrae.
The clay represent the discs between the backbone.

History
We spent a fair amount of time reading Story of the World, Vol. 2. The boys narrated each section of the book after I read it aloud and they made a couple of notebook pages, too. I'm looking forward to "Coming to America" next week! We'll begin our study about Jamestown! Whoo! Hoo! We'll be in the New World! We're all excited about this!

Literature
We're nearly finished listening to Crispin: To the the Edge of the World, an audio book that we each savor each time we listen to it. Avi's books are filled with feeling, excitement, and rich historical content. The Crispin books are certainly among our favorite read alouds.

Nathan continued reading The Silver Chair and Brandon began reading Baby Island this week.

Latin
Chapter 2 of Latin for Children proved to be just as good as the last. The boys are happy to be studying together and enjoy the Activity book especially. I wasn't sure how our schedule would feel with the addition of this new-found focus on Latin, but it was just fine. Bart encouraged me to make it a priority, so we did!

Homeschool Week in Review: Monday, January 10th - Friday, January 15th

2011-01-26T07:18:00.004-05:00

My Father's World Exp. to 1850: Week 1
Our first week using My Father's World: Explorers to 1850 was terrific. We got much accomplished and had fun, too. Here's what we did:

Bible:
Our Bible studies were terrific! The boys always look forward to the worksheet pages that are part of Bible Study Guide for all Ages. We're currently studying Genesis, with a focus on Joseph.

Classical Conversations:
Since we didn't practice our memory work during Christmas break, we spent a little extra time on some of the material. We especially focused on weeks 10-13. The highlight of our CC time was playing "Will the Winner Lose." --very fun! If you'd like to know how to play an easy-to-make and fun review game that you can use with virtually any subject, then visit the link above. It has prinable instructions an a picture of what my supplies look like.

History:
This week we read about several New World Explorers in Exploring American History. In addition, we read about several notable explorers in the book, In God We Trust. I must say that these were faith-filled and fabulous! To help provide pegs of information about history in our minds, I always pull out our Veritas Press history cards when they tie into our history studies. We covered:

Columbus Sails to the New World
Magellan Circumnavigates the Earth
Cortes, de Soto, de Leon and Coronado: the Spanish Explorers
Explorers of the Northeast: Cartier, Champlain and Cabot

The Veritas Press cards provide a concise summary of persons and events that we study. Reading and discussing the cards helps to cement the things we're learning. Love that!

After we read about each explorer, the boys wrote a short summary on their history notebooking page.

Science:
This week’s science studies provided a nice overview of God’s Creation and the account as told in Genesis. I showed the boys how to make a simple drawing of the 6 days of Creation that would help them to remember what was created on each day. I found this idea on the Answers in Genesis Website. Here’s a link: Draw the 6 Days of Creation

Here is Brandon's drawing:

Here's Nathan's drawing:

Music:
The hymn we’ll be learning for the next couple of weeks is This is My Father’s World. We were all touched after reading the story behind the hymn. If you don’t have the book, Then Sings my Soul, I highly recommend it! For each week that a new hymn is assigned, I will play a traditional version of the hymn and then I’ll find a more contemporary remake of the hymn for us to listen to. Our remake of This is My Father’s World came from “The Go Fish Guys”. Take a listen:: This is My Father’s World. We also listened to the Story of Schubert in Words and Music this week. I always enjoy these.

Math:

My boys are moving right along in math. Thankfully, Horizons has been a great fit.

Grammar:

Essentials Week 13 focused on sentences with an S-V-IO-DO pattern. Nathan spent time memorizing information from the “Noun Job Chart”. In addition, we completed a task sheet on 3 different days. When we do this, I dictate one of the “task sentences” to him and he writes it down. We always check for punctuation and spelling errors. The next step is to label the sentence and to identify various things about it structure, pattern and purpose. He then diagrams the sentence, rewrites it a according to sentence purpose and rewrites it according to sentence structure. This sometimes feels mundane, but it’s thorough and it gets the job done. This week Nathan also completed 2 lessons in his Daily Grams Level 5 book.

Brandon completed lessons 36 – 39 in First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind-Level 3. We’re a few lessons behind, so I plan to do four lessons per week to make up for lost time. I am very pleased with his level of understanding of grammar concepts.

Spelling:

My spelling plan is another thing that is going well for us. Yeah! The boys especially enjoy the activity cards that they do on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I feel that Spelling Plus is providing a nice review of basic spelling rules and is helping to solidify the correct spellings of commonly misspelled and commonly used words into their little minds.

Writing:

So far this school year, Nathan has completed 10 essays on topics about the Middle Ages. We’ll continue those since he’s taking Essentials of the English Language in our Classical Conversations program. (We’re using Institute for Excellence in Writing’s theme based writing books on Middle Ages until April.) Meanwhile, Brandon completed a week’s worth of Writing with Ease assignments on Nurse Matilda.

Literature:
Brandon thoroughly enjoys reading The Boxcar Children books. He just finished book 5. Brandon recreated the main characters using an orgami pattern we found in one of our Veritas Press Literature Guides! He's happy to have the whole family:

The boys recently saw the third Chronicles of Narnia movie and Nathan was quite interested to find out what happened next. So, he’s currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. He doesn’t enjoy reading as much as Brandon does, so I’m thrilled that he’s truly interested in this novel.

Latin:

Nathan has done very little Latin work since last spring. Not surprisingly, we took a break in the summer. When it came time to resume our Latin studies, I instead chose to focus on writing mechanics and math. (May I add that we’ve made significant improvements in those departments?) Well (blush, blush) . . . Nathan is certainly not able to pick up from where he left off. The only good thing about this situation is that the boys can now study Latin together, which has definite benefits.

This week, we began from the beginning: using Latin for Children: A. Nathan didn't mind that he was starting over. In fact, he was delighted to work through the ease with a greater understanding and with such ease. We watched the DVD lesson, studied the text, chanted vocabulary, completed several super fun worksheets in the activity book and even played a few games at the Headventureland website. Wow! What a fun learning journey this was! The boys even had their noses in the books looking for fun words such as pugo (I fight), necco (I kill), and oppugno (I attack). Once they were armed with plenty of “fighting words”, they grabbed their Nerf guns and had a battle—all the while shouting Latin phrases at one another! I think I’ll forever be able to hear little Brandon shouting “Oppugno, Nathan!” and Nathan yelling, “I got you! You’re hit! Necco you, Brandon!” This was learning at its best!!!

50 Blogs Worth Visiting

2011-01-24T22:38:00.008-05:00

I found a terrific list of homeschool blogs and just have to share!

It's a list of blogs by homeschooling parents, teachers, group leaders, and professionals that are worth a visit.

So, go grab a cup of your favorite beverage and . . . enjoy!

50 Blogs Every Homeschooler Should Bookmark

My Father's World: Our New Curriculum for the New Year!

2011-01-18T09:34:00.008-05:00

New starts come with the New Year, and we are getting just that in our curriculum! Last week we just started My Father's World: Explorers to 1850 lesson plans. We are very excited to study American History, especially in the context of other events that happened throughout the world. Here's our second semester lineup:

My Father's World: Explorers to 1850 lesson plans

Bible:

A study of the Book of James using Boy, Have I Got Problems!

History studies using these books:

Exploring American History, 2nd Edition
In God We Trust

Building a City on a Hill

George Washington's World

The Last 500 Years

The Story of the World, Volume 3

American Pioneers and Patriots

Trial and Triumph

Here are some of the history and Bible books we’ll use:

Here is some of the literature we'll read:

Read-alouds include:

Almost Home

Amos Fortune, Free Man

Bound for Oregon

Madeline Takes Command

Mary Jones and Her Bible

William Carey

Here are some of the science, music and art books & CD's we'll use:

Science studies using:

God's Design Science: The World of Animals

The World of Animals (Encyclopedia published by Parragon)

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany

Fine Arts:

Weekly art lessons, integrated with history using God and the History of Art

A tour of 12 hymns using Then Sings My Soul

A study of three composers using:

The Story of Chopin in Words and Music

The Story of Schubert in Words and Music

The Story of Mendelssohn in Words and Music

The Best of Chopin

The Best of Mendelssohn

Schubert Symphonies

A few Changes I'm making to the MFW lesson Plans:

I guess I'm a curriculum tweaker at heart! I can't seem to leave well enough alone. Since we do substantial memory work in Classical Conversations, we will not memorize the book of James as directed in the MFW lesson plans. As I went through the teacher guide, I noticed that after a chapter from Boy, Have I Got Problems! is introduced, the lesson plans schedule a 3-4 week period to memorize scripture passages before moving on to a new chapter from Boy, Have I Got Problems!. Rather than memorize the verses from James, we'll move through lessons from Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We will be memorizing Ephesians 6: 1-24 with our Classical Conversations group.

I also plan to integrate several of the projects from Time Travelers: The Revolution (published by Homeschool in the Woods). The MFW hands-on projects can certainly stand alone, but I wanted some things that were a little more involved for my art & craft loving boy! Time Travelers projects seem to be a perfect fit!

Our New Homeschool Room

2011-01-03T00:27:00.002-05:00

In October 2010, we completed a small remodeling project in our basement. One of the things we added was a separate room for our homeschool! I haven't finished decorating, but wanted to share, anyways! As you can see, we still need window treatments. I also want to hang our maps and make an "art wall". Here are a few pictures our our new space:

This is what you see when you walk into our school room. My desk and book case stretches about 9 feet and our homeschool table is just beyond that. I found the table at a terrific little thrift shop.

Each side of the table has two little drawers, where my boys keep their school boxes and other desk supplies. Super handy!

This is the view standing as I stand on one end of the room and look towards the school table. We have a white board mounted on one wall, and oposite the board is a window. I love having a view of the outdoors as we school. The framed picture is actually an antiqued world map.

Here is a better view of my desk. I keep lots of reference books here as well as our yearly homeschool files. To the left of the book case is our mini print center. I store copy paper, colored printer paper, cardstock, and envelopes in one drawer.

Essential office supplies at our fingertips!

The top left drawer contains containers of our most often used art supplies: markers, glitter glue, crayons, tape and paper towel!

This is the bookcase where I house the binders were the kids store their work. Each of my boys has a binder for Language Arts, Math, History, and Science. I use the middle shelf and bottom shelf for most of the school books that we use for the year, as well as my "teacher notebooks".

I color code my binders. My oldest son's binders are green, my youngest son's binders are blue, and mine are peach. This helps us to get our hands on what we need more quickly.

One end of our room has a nice sized closet. I love having a place to store all of our "stuff" behind closed doors.

We keep all of our games, science kits, manipulatives, art supplies, maps, and other extras on these shelves.

One end of my closet has cubbies that house bins of math manipulatives, art supplies, construction paper, and extra school/desk supplies.

The Twelve Days of Homeschool

2010-12-17T00:56:00.003-05:00

Homeschool Christmas: Some of my Favorite Things

2010-12-12T00:26:00.008-05:00

Merry Chrismas!

Come on in and join me as I share some of my favorite things for the Christmas Season!

My favorite Christmas Treat Recipe:

One of my favorite Christmas CD's

My kids' favorite Christmas Website:

Our Favorite Read Aoud for Advent:

One of my favorite Christmas Movies:

Okay, now you know about some of my favorite things for the Christmas season. What are some of your favorites?

Math: Beyond Worksheets

2010-09-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

The Horizon Math program that we're using is working well. In fact, it is one of the few things that I have not changed in years. We've been "happy Horizons homeschoolers" for the last 4 years!

Generally, I follow the Horizons math lessons as written. We do drill work, I explain new concepts on the white board, and occasionally we pull out some manipulatives to make the lesson "more real". These things are working for my children, but there are a few resources that I've found to be quite helpful to work towards math fact mastery. Let me share!

First, Classical Conversations has a terrific tool that children can use independently during their math drill time. We use it a great deal. It is called "Tables Squares and Cubes". Click on the link to purchase the $5.00 download! It contains multiplication tables from 0's through the 15's, squared numbers, and cubed numbers.

I have this document in a 1/2 inch 3-ring binder and put all of the pages in page protectors. As children work across each page, they read/chant the math fact, complete the math facts, and think about the math fact using a chart system that is part of this document. Everything you need for math drill work is contained in this helpful document! It is especially helpful when I don't have time to drill math facts using flashcards with my kids or when we're just tired of the flashcard method!

Another tool that I discovered through Classical Conversations is Scholastic's Mega Fun Math Card Game book. It is terrific!

Click HERE to see inside this book on Amazon.

This book contains 25 fun AND educational math card games. Even though my kids were adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing during the games, they didn't feel like they were doing something educational. That's a big bonus in my book! Last year, my 2nd grader was able to play quite a few of the games. Our family absolutely loves board games of all kinds, so this is right up our alley.  I have enjoyed using it on rainy days or when we need to take the mundane out of mathematics.

Another great game that I discovered at a homeschool convention is a game called, "Over and Out". It is made by a company called Jax Games.   It is easy to learn and doesn't take more than about 15 minutes to play and is a game that even parents enjoy.  "Over and Out" has a good mix of critical thinking, strategy, and math education. I highly recommend it!

Last year, I went through a period of thinking that I absolutely could NOT hold up another math flash card. For some reason it became absolute drudgery! I began looking for an online solution and found what I think is a real gem: Facts First.  This product requires a yearly subscription ($50.00 for one year), but it is worth it IMHO! Check out the link for a free online demo trial. Facts first is a math fact mastery program that introduces math facts systematically and tracks what your child has and has not mastered. I love that the math facts are not thrown out there randomly. It covers addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The best part? After the student completes a lesson and a math fact quiz, they are rewarded with arcade games . . . BUT the games happen to be educational! Wonderful, huh?!

Spelling: Bridging the gaps

2010-09-13T05:00:00.009-04:00

Both of my boys are fine spellers, but I do feel there are gaps. I've tried a variety of spelling programs, many of which I like, but I feel that I should not continue giving them more difficult spelling words if they do not know the difference between "there, their, and they're". Some of the basics have just not been mastered! Before we advance in any further, I feel that we need to finish developing the foundations for good spelling.

To do this, have chosen Spelling Plus: 1000 Words Words Towards Spelling Success, by Susan Anthony as our spelling "spine". This book includes the 1000 most commonly used and mispelled words in the English Language. In addition, I'll use the companion, Dictation Resource Book, which provides sentences that uses only words from past Spelling Plus lists. I love that the Dictation Resource Book includes capitalization and punctuation rules that you can cover during your "spelling lesson". I'm all for crossing two hurdles with one leap. KWIM?

I've done some research online and developed a plan that is doable for my family. I wanted something that was quick, to the point, without if feeling like it was absolute drudgery. I found some terrific spelling activity cards from the Busy Teacher's Cafe website. Our spelling time only takes about 10 minutes each morning. After I discuss/review the spelling rules, my boys are able to study on their own. On days we do dictation, we squeeze it in just before lunch. It only takes a few minutes and is a perfect end before a break. Here's my plan of attack:

Monday:

1. Hand out the word list worksheet from the Spelling Plus book.

2. Discuss spelling patterns, phonics and spelling rules.

3. Practice the spelling words using this method:

    a. Read the word then spell it aloud

    b. Trace the word as you spell it aloud

    c. Write the word as you spell it aloud

    d. Flip and write: Flip the page over, then write the word it in cursive.

Tuesday:

1. Review the spelling rule(s) and spelling patterns.

2. Select an activity from the activity file box to complete.

3. Dictate/write 4 sentences from the Dictation Resource Book.

4. Proofread the sentences and correct any errors.

5. Add any misspelled words to the personal spelling list.

Wednesday:

1. Review the phonics rule(s) and spelling patterns.

2. Select an activity from the activity file box to complete.

3. Sentence dictation from Dictation Resource Book.

4. Proofread the sentences and correct any errors.

5. Add any misspelled words to the personal spelling list.

Thursday:

1. Test

2. Write all misspelled words 5 x’s each.

3. Carry any misspellings over to the next week’s lesson.

Top o' the List: Homeschool Goals for the 2010 - 2011 School Year

2010-09-11T10:06:00.002-04:00

We all have goals. Goals are good. Mine may be a little lofty, but here's what I'm aiming for: a firm grasp of the basics, such as spelling rules and math facts; school weeks centered on activities such as reading, narration, memorization and hands-on projects; and the establishment of habits and routines that develop Christian character and virtue.

My Homeschool Goals:

Intensive phonics review to improve spelling
Master math facts with a goal of automation
Move away from handwriting worksheets and do copy work using Classical Conversations history sentences
Master Classical Conversations memory work
Narrate history readings 2 times per week
Develop writing skills using methods from Institute for Excellence in Writing
Expect 20-30 minutes of individual reading time each day, using MFW book basket
Read aloud at least 30 minutes per day
Study the Bible together using “Bible Study Guide for All Ages”
Complete art lessons (don't skip them!) scheduled in “My Father’s World” curriculum
Take one field trip per month
Develop life skills such as household tasks, fishing, building fires, camping, etc.
Discipline: develop a happy heart attitude and increased patience
Take nature walks
Be thankful unto the Lord in all we do!

Homeschooler's Book Club: Peter Pan

2010-09-09T07:49:00.005-04:00

My boys enjoyed reading Peter Pan, but they felt like they already knew the story. (I wonder why!) Since it was so familiar, they did not enjoy Peter Pan as much as some of the other books they've read for Book Club. Although, it was still fun for them to experience the adventure, warmth, and humor of the story.

We chose an edited version for intermediate readers that was beautifully illustrated by Scott Gustafson. This edition was perfect for them to read on their own.

Peter Pan

Our book club meeting was held under a large canopy in a friend's backyard--perfect for a book adventure! The kids had great fun discussing this book. They especially enjoyed sharing their favorite parts and acting out some of the scenes. During our craft time, the girls made Tinkerbell wands and the boys constructed imaginative pirate maps. Actually, the girls enjoyed a little map making, too! We used glitter, colored pencils, sticky foam decorations and large sheets of manila paper for our maps. The kids were all happy to have an "X" marks the spot on their creations.

"Second to the right, and straight on till morning
That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to Neverland."

Our snack time was quite imaginative! One of the moms passed out plates and said, "Isn't this a fun and wonderful snack?" The kids looked at her in a state of confusion because there was nothing on the plates! She reminded us of the vivid imagination that was in the story of Peter Pan and so we gave "pretending" a try, too! With empty plate in hand, each kid pretended to eat a delectable snack and then shared with the group what it was that they were feasting on. Nathan decided that he was eating spaghetti and Brandon proclaimed that he had a HUGE plate of candy! (He's definitely my sugar boy, so I wasn't surprised by this :)

"If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire." --Peter Pan

After our book discussion and activities, the kids piled into the backyard trampoline and bounced some of the energy out of their little bodies.

"I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back, and away we go." -- Peter Pan

It is always a treat to get lost in a book. I know the kids in our book club book have certainly enjoyed reading great fiction. Getting together to discuss, craft, eat, and play has been icing on the cake! I remember my mom reading Peter Pan to me when I was a little child. Many an evening I'd hang on the last words she read, looking forward to the next time snuggle up to our book again. I have since grown up, but I've never forgotten the immortal line in the story, "All children grow up . . . except one." My boys are 10 and 8 now. Lord, let them be little for just a bit longer.

Our 2010 - 2011 Homeschool Calendar

2010-07-26T20:38:00.002-04:00

I've always been interested in trying to do year-round school, but I just can't seem to give up the traditional summer break. I love it too much! As I've spent a little time planning our upcoming school year, I came up with a 180 day plan for studies with plenty of breaks spread through out the year. Here's what I think will work for us:

2010 - 2011 School Year Calendar

Homeschooler's Book Club: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2010-05-28T06:00:00.003-04:00

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a huge hit as our second book club book! The boys and I read this story alout about a year ago, so I decided to ask them to reread it independently. In addition to reading it aloud, they’ve both watched the movie (the older version). I wasn’t sure how interested they’d actually be in reading it, but boy, was I surprised. They each seemed to devour the book! Wonderful!

When our group met to discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it was easy to see that all the Children enjoyed the story immensely.

Following discussion time, the kids were tasked with creating a commercial for a candy bar AND with designing a candy bar wrapper for their product. We supplied everyone with paper, markers, stickers, glitter, glue and other fun embellishments. The commercials were creative and fun. Everyone enjoyed watching—and performing!

The snack truly made book club memorable. One of the moms brought a chocolate fountain. The children speared marshmallows and fresh fruit into the fountain until the chocolate was nearly gone. This made for some ooey-gooey fun! As if this was not enough—mud pudding with gummy worms was also served.

Charlie and the Chocolate factory was so much fun. My boys can’t wait until next book club. This is exactly what I was hoping for.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Beautiful Panama City Beach - the view from our balcony!

Homeschooler's Book Club: Swiss Family Robinson

2010-05-22T09:20:00.002-04:00

Our Book Club selected Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss for our first meeting. Each family chose their favorite version and was invited to read it aloud or independently. Since my boys and I were interested in getting lost in the adventure of the Robinson’s together, we read the book aloud. The Junior Library Illustrated version had beautiful pictures, but had some old style language, which made it a little difficult for my 8 year old to comprehend at times. For this reason, I usually tried to keep our readings to about 20 minutes in length, pausing whenever necessary to explain things that seemed to be over my boys’ heads.

In order to simplify things as much as possible, we plan to have the same general routine for each Book Club. The 1 1/2 meeting begins with a short discussion time, followed by a a craft that relates back to the book. We end our time together with a festive snack and some free time for the kids (and moms!).

When it was finally time for our first meeting, we gathered the children together for discussion time. Our group has children age 6 – 11, so the discussion was kept simple. Our goal is not to deeply analyze the story, but to develop a love for literature and interest in sharing and experiencing stories with one another.

After discussion time, we headed upstairs to make a tree-house craft. This was great fun! The base of the tree house was made with an empty soup can, wrapped with construction paper. We used tacky glue to hold the craft sticks together, which worked well because it dries more quickly than Elmer’s glue. After the tree house was glued to the base, we embellished it with silk leaves and a rope ladder. The kids had lots of fun personalizing their structures.

Finally, it was time for an island-themed snack: bear-paw cupcakes and island punch, complete with festive umbrellas. The kids enjoyed their goodies and then had some time to play outdoors. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon with friends!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 28

2010-04-08T21:21:00.002-04:00

The weather was absolutely beautiful this week, so our spring fever made it a little challenging to get all of our work done. We sole one day and spent it outdoors with dear friends, but were still able to accomplish some great things.

Bible: We worked through all of the week 17 Bible passages. This week we focused on the miracles that the disciples performed shortly before Christ was crucified. Alongside these passages, we read about Bonifice, Charlemagne, and Pope Gregory. Despite their faults, these men worked to spread the news of the gospel and increase the numbers of Christians in their lands. The chapters in Trial and Triumph brought new depth and meaning to the passages we read in Story of the World and Streams of Civilization.

History: This week I combined the MFW Rome to the Reformation history lessons from week 16 and week 17. I did this so we could easily include the Veritas Press History card, "Charles Martel, Pepin the Short and Charlemagne." MFW studies Charles Martel during week 16 and Charlemagne during week 17. After our assigned history readings, The boys made a nice notebook page, colored a map about the Frankish Empire, and completed a worksheet that summarized our studies. In addition, the boys summarized this week's material on an index card for the biography presentation at classical conversations this week. I'm patting myself on the back for "killing two birds with one stone!"

Literature: We have not yet begun reading Starting Chess, which was scheduled in the MFW lesson plans--partly because my boys already know how to play chess, but partly because we're still reading Swiss Family Robinson. We're reading an older unabridged version. It's a little tough for the boys to understand, but the story is fun.

In addition, the boys are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is the next book selection for our book club. I think we'll have lots of fun with this one. It would be fun to make chocolate (lots of chocolate!) with our group.

Classical Conversations - Essentials: Nathan worked had on his IEW writing assignment from his Classical Conversations Essentials class. This week assignment was to write a personal essay about what you'd miss if you lived during the ancient times. Nathan, being the Star Wars crazed boy that he is, wrote about the toys that he'd miss--specifically Galactic Heroes! No matter. He did a fine job on his assignment. We've been able to keep up with most of the assignments, and for that, I am pleased. The topic for grammar was compound-complex declarative sentences. We diagramed on of the sentences from the lesson plans and spent some time reviewing the main sentence structure chart. The grammar lessons also focused on adjectives, so we completed a lesson about adjectives in his First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind book.

Science: We are almost finished with our Earth science unit and will soon begin astronomy. I plan to use the MFW science lesson plans. I'm excited about that! It will be nice to be using all of the MFW materials from the Rome to the Reformation package! This week we did a fun experiment with cheese in order to illustrate how rocks and minerals differ. Take a look:

If you look hard enough, you will see that the "plain, one-colored cheese" represents minerals because minerals are pure and made of only one substance. The "mixed, multi-colored cheese" represents rocks because rocks consist of two or substances. In addition, the boys made sketches of their observations:

Latin: Nathan completed Chapter 18 in Latin for Children A. He also spent some time on the new Classical Academic Press website playing their "Flash Dash" vocabulary review game. It's VERY cool. Here's a link to the site. It is called "Headventureland". They also have some AWESOME video cartoons. I highly recommend them! To compliment our studies about Charlemagne (Charles the Great) we learned about English derivatives of the word magnus, which means large or great. Charles Magnus eventually became Charlemagne!

Math, Spelling and Handwriting: The boys are progressing well in all three of these areas. They both aced their spelling quizzes and cursive penmanship seems to improve weekly.

Fine Arts: We are thoroughly enjoying lessons about Mozart. Today, we listened to a Clarinet Concerto while putting a puzzle together. Unfortunately, we were not able to squeeze in time for the MFW art lessons. But we did begin a weekly art lesson at a local studio.

We're Starting a Kid's Book Club!

2010-03-30T14:27:00.001-04:00

I have some terrific girlfriends who love good books as much as I do. We, of course, want our children to enjoy the world of reading and experience as many of the great works of literature as possible. So . . . we've decided to start a kid's book club together.

Between five moms, we have 19 children. The kids participating in Book Club are between the ages of 6 - 12 yrs. old. This means that there are varying levels of reading abilities. No matter, families will chose the version of the book that best suits them. Some will have their children read abriged versions of the classic. Other families might choose to read the original version as a read-aloud. We just want our children to develop a love for literature. Hopefully our little club will encourage this! (I don't know . . . maybe we moms are just looking for an excuse to get together! LOL!)

Before beginning, each mom made a list of some books that we thought our children would enjoy. Some of the favorites include:

Robinson Crusoe

Swiss Family Robinson

Around the World in 80 Days

Peter Pan

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Oliver Twist

Black Beauty

The Wind in the Willows

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

Twenty-One Balloons

Treasure Island

Ginger Pye

The Prince and the Pauper

During Book Club, the children will have a time of discussion, work on a fun craft, and have a snack. The crafts and snacks will relate to the reading. The hostess mom will provide the snack and host the discussion time. Another mom will plan the craft and bring the supplies.

I am hosting the first gathering and am look forward to it. The first book we will read is Swiss Family Robinson. Hopefully the children will enjoy it! So far, it seems to be an easy thing to get up and running. If you're interested in encouraging a love of literature, maybe you could start a Book Club of your own!

Homeschool Priorities

2010-03-14T23:29:00.000-04:00

Spring has almost sprung and the fever has already begun! As the weather begins to get a little warmer and the days become longer, I find it increasingly more difficult to stay focused on homeschooling. So . . . how do I stay on track for the last stretch of our school year, while still taking time to enjoy our days?

In efforts to stay in our homeschool "grove", I decided to make a list of things that I can do to stay productive. Maybe my list will help you too:

Begin our morning at 8:30 AM. When we have a late start, our day tends to drag on much too long. The earlier we start, the sooner we'll be able to enjoy our afternoons outdoors.
Allow the answering service to get the phone when we're doing school. A side-tracked mom can lead to a side-tracked day.
Wait to check my e-mail until AFTER we've finished school. E-mail can sometimes leads me down a time path that is time consuming. Homeschooling should be a higher daily priority than e-mail!
Spend time with the boys outdoors at lunch time. Hopefully the outdoor time will be refreshing and provide us with new found energy to do a little schooling during the early afternoon.
Prepare for my day the night before. When I do this, our days run so much more smoothly. I like to stack the books that we're going to use for the day on our desk, make any necessary copies, put book marks in books to mark pages that we'll read etc. Taking time for these little things helps us to keep our momentum and to stay productive.
Make a trip to the library every week to ensure that we have any necessary books on hand.
Stay focused on the three R's, but take time to do the fun things, too.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-17T08:15:00.002-05:00

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 18

2010-01-21T08:51:00.006-05:00

Rather than spend a week studying some of the Roman Emperors after Caesar Augustus and then a week studying the Fall of Rome, I decided to combine the MFW Rome to the week 12 and 13 Reformaiton lesson plans. We spent a good bit of time on the Fall of Rome last year, and like I have already mentioned, we are ready to move on! I'm not at all suggesting that leaders such as Nero, Flavia, and Vespian are not important. But . . . since my boys are young, I feel that we've collected enough detail about Ancient Rome for them to have a basic understanding of this time period.

I felt that a nice transition out of Ancient Rome and into the Middle Ages would be to read the last couple of chapters of The Story of the World, Vol. 1 and the first chapter of The Story of the World, Vol. 2. These readings took us to the time of when the Jewish Nation was coming to an end and their temple was destroyed. One of the points I chose to emphasize was that Rome had quite a few bad leaders following the Pax Romana. We read about Nero in The Famous Men of Ancient Rome and then watched a Storekeeper video called The Catacombs to bring our history alive! The video tied in perfectly with our reading about Nero because it gave some nice information about Catacombs. The boys had seen this video a million times before, but our studies gave it new meaning! We also discussed the religious differences between the Romans and Christians and how the shape and feel of the Roman Empire was changing. As we completed our readings for the week, we spent time preparing for a Roman Feast. What fun that was!!! Here's what we did:

Our Roman Feast:

The boys decided that they wanted to wear costumes to the feast. Brandon wore a long tunic, toga style and Nathan dressed in armor, as if he were a Roman Centurion. They looked great! Near the entry way of the dining room, we put some of our favorite projects and books on a table for a festive display. As they announced our names and greeted us for the evening, the boys invited us to recline on the sofa, just as the Romans did. We planned a simple menu of fruit, cheese, olives and . . . PIZZA!! We thought, "Pizza is from Italy, so that will be fine!" We made sure that we ate everything with our fingers so as to dine authentic Roman style! Evey thing was delicious. After dinner we pulled out our history notebooks and looked through those together. My eyes welled with tears as I observed the sweet pride on Brandon's face as he showed Daddy his best work. They went through every page together and then Nathan did the same. It was precious to see the boys take such interest in their "school work". Knowing that entertainment was very important to the Romans, the boys planned a special after-dinner show. They set up all of their Playmobil Romans and performed a little skit. There as even a gladiator fight! I could almost hear the massive crowds from the time roaring!

I wish I had taken pictures of our evening, but I wanted to just enjoy it and fully be part of it. Our feast was a wonderful grand-finale to our Ancient Roman studies. I'm glad we did it!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 16

2010-01-15T07:05:00.013-05:00

Happy New Year! I'm praying for a strong start for our year and for a continued season learning alongside my children. I must admit, it was hard to get back into the swing of things, but we did it!

Literature: I think I'm finally convincing Brandon to read something other than Geronimo Stilton books!! He started reading Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective this week and seems to be enjoying it! Nathan is reading The Borrowers.

History and Bible: After spending time soaking up lessons from the life of Christ, we are now making our way to the book of Acts to study Paul's Missionary Journeys. This week we read through acts 9 - 11 using The Children's Story Bible. Since we had truly studied this section of the Bible before, I felt it would be helpful to read this material in an easier to understand format. We also continue to memorize the Ten Commandments and spend a little time most days practicing and reciting Exodus 20: 1-20.

Attention all Classical Conversations Enthusiasts!!! I recently came across this song of the Ten Commandments. This may be a wonderful tool for you to memorize our Bible verses for Cycle 1. Take a listen. It's terrific!!

Ten Commandment Song

Read Aloud: The book Twice Freed is our scheduled read-aloud, but we haven't started it yet. We spent nearly a semester studying ancient Rome last year and read several historical fiction titles from that period last year. Our MFW lessons have taken us to a deeper study of Ancient Rome and we've read a few more books set during that time period. I tried to read it. I have no doubt that its a great book! We're just ready for something different!

Science: We're continuing with our Earth Science Studies using Pandia Press' Real Science for Kids. Did you know that you can print out 5-6 weeks of lesson plans and try before you buy? That's what I did. After using the curriculum I was hooked. It's easy. The kids enjoy it. They're learning. I bought the Earth Science curriculum to use the rest of this semester. This week we did a unit about the water cycle in cold climates: icebergs and glaciers. In addition, the boys watched a movie on the Geography Channel called "Arctic Animals." It tied in nicely to our science studies. We also made a water cycle in a bowl. It takes a few days to see the results, but it has been fun to observe it.

Latin: We haven't hit the Latin studies as hard as I thought we would this year. I've noticed that there are some things that Nathan has not yet mastered, so I plan to not only do more review, but also to begin actively putting the Latin that he has learned to daily use. The Classical Academic Press website has some terrific printables that coordinate with the Latin For Children A curriculum. I have printed out many of these pages for Nathan to complete to help him master the material we've covered thus far. In addition, I will ask Nathan to decline two nouns and conjugate two verbs each day.

Math: The boys are both doing VERY well in math. Nathan is almost ready for the next level. Yeah!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 11

2009-12-15T11:21:00.005-05:00

We are now transitioning from our studies about ancient Rome and moving to the early Christian church. This weeks history readings came from the book of Acts, supplemented by The Victor Journey through the Bible book. What a sweet time of learning!

As I mentioned before, I planned for a lighter load during December. I let the boys have some extra time to read books of their choosing when we usually do grammar. Brandon read The Nativity and a Geronimo Stilton book about Christmas. Nathan read several "fun" books: A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, The Nativity and Oliver Twist (children's classic version).

I had both of the boys complete a math and spelling lesson each day, but we relaxed a little on the writing front to make more time for Christmas projects. Yeah!

This week in the MFW Week 10 Rome to the Reformation lesson plans, we spent time reading the Story of Jesus' birth and the life of Christ. We paired our Bible readings with a terrific children's video called The Nativity Story. It was nice to cuddle up on the couch together for this! We THOROUGHLY enjoyed our read aloud: The Bronze Bow. It was the perfect thing to read while studying the life of Christ.

When we finish our Christmas break, we'll be ready to learn about Paul's Missionary Journeys and the spread of the church.

Merry Christmas!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 11

2009-12-05T10:46:00.003-05:00

I always find it difficult to stay on task with our school work in December! Thankfully, I planned to scale back on a few subjects this month to make room for some special Christmas activities.

History and Bible: I appreciate the way Biblical events are interwoven with Roman history in the Week 9 MFW lesson plans. This week we read about the life of Jesus as well as the last days of Augustus Caesar. The daily Bible readings and history readings helped us to better understand some of the main events that occurred during Christ's time as well as some of the major political events from the Roman Empire. To summarize our week, I asked my boys to color a pictorial history of Jesus' life. The coloring page depicted Jesus' birth, his days of teaching, his death, and his resurrection. We practiced oral presentations about the life of Jesus several times, and the boys presented their 3 minutes speeches at Classical Conversations. It turned out to be a perfect presentation topic at Christmastime!

We did not make the resurrection cookies, as the MFW guide suggests. I think it is a wonderful project, but we'll wait and do this activity for Easter. Instead, we baked Christmas cookies together for a cookie exchange that we attended. This, of course, was great fun!

Classical Conversations: We continue to memorize our weekly Classical Conversations material. The boys especially enjoy using the online tutorial helps when they practice their memory work.

Read aloud: We finished reading "The Bronze Bow" this week. What a wonderful book! It was the perfect thing to read while learning about ancient Rome. The story was quite engrossing and it had a beautiful ending. I highly recommend it!

Math et al: I hope to do a little extra math with Nathan during the month of December. Brandon, on the other hand, is right on target. We've made our way through 16 chapters of the Latin for Children book. We'll have to stay on task next semester in order to finish the book by May. :) All other subjects are going well. It was a great week!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 14

2009-12-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

We're on MFW Rome to the Reformation week 9. Hard to believe that we're only on week 9. It's December!! What am I doning wrong? We ARE working! We ARE learning. I guess all is well. :)

We're nearing the end of the book Augustus Caesar's World. I must say that I've enjoyed it and so have the kids. They've had a lot of fun coloring some of the pages that I copied from the book to color. We read about the resurrection of Christ from Luke chapter 4. It seems that this has been a perfect thing to read since it is just a few weeks before Christmas. The scripture passages led us to a light discussion about sacraficial giving. Oh, such blessed time with the boys!

Nathan covered Latin for Children chapter 15 and the boys did their normal work in math and spelling.

We're now gearing up for a busy season, so we didn't get to science or art this week. I'm hoping to have quite a few "fun days" for school in December. This will hopefully give me an opportunity to finish some lessons that we've have not yet covered, but I don't want to miss.

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 14

2009-12-05T00:40:00.005-05:00

I always find that it's difficult to "do school" once Thanksgiving hits. This week was certainly no different. For the most part, our studies were rather light, since we were busy decorating the tree and gearing up for Christmas. We were, however, able to get in our usual spelling and math lessons, as well as a fair amount of reading.

We're only on week 9 of the MFW Rome to the Reformation lessons. I'm feeling VERY behind schedule and have hopes that we can get a good amount accomplished in the areas of history, Bible and science during the month of December.

This week Nathan worked through chapter 15 in Latin for Children and both of the boys completed all of their math and spelling lessons for the week. Yeah! We also read about the death and resurrection of Christ. This seemed to be the perfect thing for us to encounter in scripture, as it lead to some very sweet talk about sacraficial giving--perfect for Christmastime!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 10

2009-11-30T06:59:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving gave us a short week, but we were still able to breeze through week 8 of the My Father's World Curriculum.

History & Bible: We spent lots of time reading, which we always enjoy. We're nearly finished with Augustus Caesar's World and The Bronze Bow, our two history read alouds. In addition, we've been reading from the books of Matthew and Luke about the events that occurred when Jesus was a child. Weaving the Bible readings in with our history resources have made our study of Ancient Rome so rich!

Science: We are also nearly finished studying weather and have begun unit about the water cycle. This week we read The Magic School Bus: at the Waterworks, The Water Dance, and The Water Cycle. We especially enjoyed The Water Dance, for it's beautiful illustrations and poetic descriptions. This is a terrific picture book about how water travels around the earth and in the atmosphere. I highly recommend it! The boys completed a water cycle worksheet and an experiment about solids, liquids and gasses to go along with their reading. It was another good science week!

http://www.librarything.com/work/74555/53645051

http://www.librarything.com/work/96312/book/53645055

http://www.librarything.com/work/6425630/book/53645071

Literature: We've finally moved into some new fiction! Nathan is reading Secret Agent's Four and Brandon is reading The Water Horse. Both of the boys seem to be enjoying these books.

In addition to all of our reading, we did our usual work in math, grammar, writing, spelling, and Latin. As I reflect on all that we have to be thankful for, I can certainly add "week 8" to my list. Not only are we learning a lot, but we're enjoying the journey!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 13

2009-11-26T02:11:00.021-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Like most families, homeschooled or not, we had a short school week. We completed MFW Rome to the Reformation week 8. Even though we've been working hard, I feel so behind schedule! I wish I would have stuck with the plan during the earlier part of the year.

Much of our Bible and History lessons were intertwined this week. I LOVE discovering how subjects are connected. It is fun to help the kids realize that events from the Bible ARE a part of REAL history. This week we studied Jesus at the Temple in Luke 2. It seemed to be the perfect scripture to encounter before Thanksgiving break.

Nathan is reading "Secret Agents Four" and Brandon finished the book, "The Water Horse." He liked it so much, he asked if he could draw a picture of it and write about it. Of course, I was delighted with that idea! He added a picture and a little copywork to the literature notebook that we've been keeping all year. His drawing is quite nice.

In science, we studied the Water Cycle and read quite a few books, including: "The Magic School Buus at the Water Works", "The Water Dance", and "The Water Cycle". We also completed two labs about the water cycle. One was more of a project where we cut and pasted a pictoral representation of the water cycle. The other was a demonstraton of how water exists in varous forms, followed by a discussion about how the planet's water is just recycled over and over and over again.

It was a good few days. Now we're ready to eat some turkey. :)

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 12

2009-11-21T06:00:00.059-05:00

Well, here it is the middle of November and we're just getting through week seven of the My Father's World curriculum. No matter. I don't mind because we're not running on a traditional school schedule. That said, week 7 was quite enjoyable. Since we studied Augustus Caesar a little last year, we've been able to dive in a little deeper this year. As we read through Augustus Caesar's World, we discovered some very interesting things including the story about how the Torah was translated into Greek for the first time and some background on some of the Wonders of the Ancient World. Last week there was a pretty heavy focus in writing, so we went a little easy in that area this week. It was nice to have some extra time for science reading and math mastery. Here's are some of the other details for the week:

Classical Conversations: We're gearing up for week 12 and then we'll be on Thanksgiving/Christmas break! We played one of our favorite review games called "Will the Winner Lose?" It has been especially fun lately, becasue Nathan (who knows the material better) keeps losing! Thankfully, he's had a sweet spirit about being down on his luck!

Bible: Our hearts have been delighted to read the Scriptures that tell the story of Jesus birth in concert with some of the events that took place during the Pax Romana. Even my young boys could understand that God brought Jesus into this world at just the perfect time.

History: The boys completed a notebook page about Augustus Caesar and we reviewed some of the Veritas Press history cards. Several of them complemented the material from our readings: Ministry of John the Baptist, Birth of Christ, Ministry of Christ, Reign of August Caesar, and Greek Philosophers. We studied all of those cards last year, so it was fun to review for a deeper understanding. We also spent some nice time adding important events to our timeline.

Read Aloud: Last week I had laryngitis, so I was unable to read The Bronze Bow aloud. We were happy to finally continue with the story. I hope to do some extra reading this weekend so we can "catch-up"!

Science: This semester we've made a rain gage, an anemometer, and a weather vane. We're now in the process of using all of our weather tools and graphing the information. In addition, we discussed why different places in the world have different seasons and climates. A hands-on project brought this to life for us. We stuck a skewer through an orange to observed how the earth's axis is tilted. During this activity, I demonstrated how the earth revolves and orbits around the sun. We read several science books. Two of our favorites were, On the Same Day in March and The Earth and Sky.

Math: I hit a rough spot with Nathan in math! Ugh! It was rough. Nathan was frustrated. I was frustrated. I even spent time investigating other curriculum. Alas, I resolved to continue with Horizons. Horizons has worked so well for us in the past, so I decided to just persevere. I'm glad I did. After putting a little extra effort into the many new things Nathan has been learning . . . he's getting it! So, we're once again in a comfortable groove. I just need to make sure we work through a few more example problems together than we had been in the past. My other dear son, Brandon, is just beginning lessons in multiplication and feeling like a big boy now! I'm thankful for his enthusiasm.

Latin: Nathan is working on Chapter 15 in Latin for Children. Introducing second conjugating verbs was easier than I had anticipated. I plan to focus on verb conjugation and noun declension practice in the next few weeks so it will become a little more second nature.

Literature: Brandon just finished reading The Third Grade Detectives. He's looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Nathan is currently reading Secret Agent's Four.

Grammar: Nathan's Essentials class through Classical Conversations is going so well. I can't emphasize how pleased I am about this! Since I'm not in class with him on Fridays (I teach Challenge A classes), I wasn't sure how it would go. He takes good notes and works hard at home. He is now able to diagram compound sentences on his own and can write paragraphs using techniques from Institute for Excellence in Writing. He's always enjoyed writing, in fact, he began keeping a journal as soon as he was able to scribble a sentence. Composition and grammar have been areas of huge growth for Nathan. Yeah!

Brandon continues to work through First Language Lessons. We always do the dictation exercises and we usually do the enrichment activities, too. Most likely, we'll begin First Language Lessons Level 3 in February. I'm in no hurry to push grammar, but I don't want him to forget the things he's learning either. Once we begin level 3, we'll most likely continue lessons at least twice a week.

Fine Arts: Listening to Haydn's Symphony No. 94 entitled Surprise was terrific. The full piece is about 20 minutes long. My lesson plans explained that the music contained a loud "surprise" after a quieter movement. While we listened, my boys practiced building Roman-like bridges and buildings. It was an inspiring time!

We're using Berry Stebbings, I can Do all Things. I decided to begin our art lessons at a more introductory level than MFW recommends, since my boys have never used the How Great Thou Art curriculum. Believe it or not, I've been able to find many comprable lessons to those scheduled in the MFW lesson plans. It has been very fun to set aside a little time each week for art. The boys are loving it!

Learning naturally: Thoughts about Charlotte Mason

2009-11-19T11:31:00.002-05:00

Our children grow so fast. It seems that just yesterday I was helping my boys zip their jackets and tie their shoes. Although we still love to curl up with good books and work on educational projects, our schooling has a feel that is too serious, too traditional. This "get down to business" atmosphere has lead me to search for new things that will keep our schooling rigorous, but natural and enjoyable. My search has recently reintroduced me to Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophies. Charlotte Mason wrote extensively about the value of living books and real life experiences when teaching children. Foundational to her approach to education, is the discipline of habit and the importance of a natural learning environment. I agree with much of what I've read, and am interested in integrating some of her ideas into our lives. As my boys grow up, I want to be sure that our homeschooling journey is both enjoyable and productive.

The use of living books brings much delight to our family as we learn together. I make trips to the library every week, being careful to select books of all kinds: engrossing picture books, interesting non-fiction books about science and history, and quality literature that will instill a love of reading in my boys. Charlotte Mason insisted on the use of real books, not texts or summaries of the original. I enjoy books that will tell the story of the topic at hand from start to finish. I am thankful that the My Father's World curriculum has helped me to keep our book basket filled to the brim with great reads. The use of living books of all kinds, as Charlotte Mason recommends, has enriched our learning experiences tremendously.

Another thing that Charlotte Mason emphasized was the discipline of habit. Habit is important in many areas of our lives, not just homeschooling. It is essential that children learn the value of a good work ethic, routine, and responsibility by example. Most homeschooling parents often have many things going on at one time, often feeling stretched and torn in too many directions. Life happens, and it is routine and good habits that can help us make our way through the trying times. In our home, it is a priority to work through our lessons each day, but I can certainly improve our routine and create new habits that will help teach my boys the value of helpfulness, responsibility, and diligence.

As important as routine is, learning should happen naturally. Charlotte Mason believed that learning should not occur in a vacuum. All too often, I limit our learning experiences to the school subjects that I teach. I'm looking forward to finding ways of taking full advantage of the teachable moments that come our way. This is probably the area where I can make the most changes. I hope that I can instill in my children the joy and satisfaction of a job done to serve others, such as laundry or preparing a meal. Everyday life is filled with teaching these types of opportunities. A little more focus on natural learning will enable me to savor our experiences and more fully appreciate the discipleing opportunity the Lord has given me.

Although I no longer need to tie my sons' shoes or help them zip their jackets, it is still part of my job is to help them become more independent. Some day I'll be releasing them into the world to soar on their own! I have but a few years with them--to teach an learn alongside them--to love them and grow with them. The home is the best place to experience many important life lessons. I look forward to what the Lord will bring us next and to the small changes I can make in our routine. While the use of living books is very important to me and our book studies are a huge priority, I need to remember that learning doesn't stop there. Learning can take place anywhere anytime and at any age!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 10

2009-11-16T01:43:00.002-05:00

With all of the excitement about arches and aqueducts last week, we were not able to finish all of our assignments for history. This week we chugged through our usual core subjects, but finished up week 6 for MFW Rome to the Reformation.

Nathan is reading, "Jake Drake, Teacher's Pet" and Brandon is reading "Flatfoot Fox." Both of these books have been light for them, but I'm pleased that they seem to be enjoying their reading time.

It has been a joy to work through the prophecies of Jesus during our bible time. In order to help the boys remember some of these important Biblical events, I had the boys make a notebook page about Jesus' birth, his work, his miracles, and his death. This was an especially sweet time for all of us. Thank you Jesus!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 11

2009-11-13T01:31:00.012-05:00

I've lost my voice! I couldn't even begin to speak, until the middle of our week. This meant that I didn't get nearly as much reading aloud done as I had hoped. I basically spent the week trying to get through our core subjects, writing instructions on the boardto help the boys better understand our lessons. Ugh!

In spite of my laringitis, I'm happy to report that we were able to get in a full week's worth of math, spelling, handwriting, composition, and grammar. Nathan reviewed Latin for Children Chapter 14 and wrote a paper for his Essentials class about the Fall of Babylon. Brandon spent a fair amount of time enjoying the book, Third Grade Detectives. Since we studied bridges, arches and aqueducts last week, I was able to find a fun video for science on bridges. They boys enjoyed that as well as a nature walk that we took together.

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 9

2009-11-08T10:10:00.006-05:00

This week we worked our way through MFW Rome to the Reformation Week 6 lesson plans. It has been fun!

Read Aloud: The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare is a Newberry Award winning novel, and I can certainly see why. Tears welled into my eyes as we read chapter 6 together. The reading is a little more advanced than other books that I've read aloud, so I occasionally stop to explain concepts to my 4th and 2nd grade boys. But despite the "harder to understand parts", my boys LOVE this book! Even though we're not even half way through the novel, they proclaimed it as one of their top three read alouds ever. That's what I call a good read!

Science: While we read about life during the times of Jesus' ministry in The Bronze Bow, we also spent time reading about Roman architecture, specifically their arches and aqueducts. We combed through several non-fiction picture books from our book basket, looking at real life photos and detailed drawings of ancient structures. This provided terrific background information for our science experiment for the week: "The strength of an arch." The pennies on the bridge represent Roman soldiers trying to cross the bridge. My boys adorned the area will real soldiers to spice up the activity just a little.

We build a standard straight bridge first. We found that the index card was only strong enough to allow 5 soldiers to cross.

The second step was to build an arched bridge. We discovered how strong an arched support really is. Our arch was able to hold 26 soldiers (pennies), 4 horses (nickels), and two chariots (quarters)!

Finally, our arch could no longer support any more troops, and it tumbled down!

When we had finished our experiments, I asked the boys to record their findings. Here are some pictures of their work:

History: We continue to read portions of Augustus Caesar's World, and summarizing it orally after most of the readings. This week we learned some very interesting information about how the days of week were named. Did you know that Sunday used to be known as the "Sun's Day" which was a weekly day of rest and dedicated to the Germanic and Norse sun god? Likewise, their "Moon's Day", was the second day of each week, which we call Monday. We are skipping the section about Moses, as recommended by My Father's World, and plan to read some of Tomie DePaola's Book of the Old Testament. This will provide a nice review and overview of some of the biggest events from Creation to the days of Moses.

Another part of our hands-on work included making Roman arches. I didn't what to buy 15 boxes of pudding, which was needed in the MFW recommended activity, so I used an alternate project. Here's what we did:

First, we cut an oatmeal container in half. Then we build a Roman arch by placing stones on each side and "cementing" them into place with clay. The last stone to go in was the centerpiece.

Once all of the stones were in place, we removed the "support".

Voila! Our Roman arches turned out great!

Math: Horizon Math is a great fit for us. The boys continue to work on mastering their math facts.

Latin: Ah . . . we are finally finished reviewing what we learned last year! I took it quite slow this semester and actually didn't even introduce Latin until after we'd been using MFW for a full month. Nathan has been working on Chapter 14 of Latin for Children A. We did the chants along with the DVD and also listened to the weekly grammar lesson. If you've never looked at this program, I highly recommend it!

Language Arts: We went light in this area, as we did quite a bit more reading in other subjects than we usually do! Brandon continues to work through First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Part 2 and Nathan is using Our Mother Tongue.

Checklist Makes Completing Assignments Easier

2009-11-02T00:05:00.004-05:00

I sometimes have a difficult time keeping my boys on track with their assignments. This challenge arises most often when I need one child to work independently, while I give one-on-one attention to the other. So, I created a checklist for them to use on such occasions. This page certainly doesn't cover all of their assignments, but only things that I feel they could do on their own while they wait for their time to work with me. As they check things off of the list, the boys feel a sense of accomplishment. The list also helps them to keep track of some of their work. This checklist has been quite helpful to us. The document posted below can be altered to fit your needs. Maybe it will help you, too.

School Work Check List

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T06:00:00.003-04:00

Sights inside a local apple orchard.

A Rotating Schedule

2009-10-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

There have been many weeks that I've had a hard time completing all of the school work that we have scheduled. Unfortunately it always seems to be the fun activities that get skipped: art, music appreciation, the science experiment, etc.

I've been loosely implementing a "rotating schedule" and it is working well! All of our subjects are getting done. Each Monday I look at the prevous week's schedule. I begin our day with anything that we were not able to complete from the previous week.

This has truly improved our homeschool. We're now getting to the fine arts and science experiments that are scheduled . . . eventually!

Field Trip

2009-10-26T21:59:00.008-04:00

Who can pass up fresh cider dough-nuts, warm apple cider, wagon rides, apple picking and wandering through the pumpkin patch? We certainly can't! We had a wonderful day and were blessed with perfect fall weather! Here's a little about our day:

After the kids played on the playground for awhile, they went inside the "barn" to listen to a story about Johnny Appleseed.

The wagon ride was great fun!

We took in some beautiful scenery of
the Shenandoah Valley.

All of us thought the "wild life" was interesting!

We enjoyed picking apples together.

We explored the pumpkin patch and found some

little pumpkinsfor our breakfast bar.

We also found some real treasures in
the "pumpkin market",

but our favorite pumpkin was this one!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 8

2009-10-23T01:11:00.002-04:00

Whew! What a full week! Since I paused our MFW lesson plans a few weeks ago, I'm trying to play catch-up just a little bit. We read over 50 pages in Augustus Caesar's world again, and completed any other assignments that were part of MFW Rome to the Reformation Week 5.

I enjoyed learning about how Augustus Caesar desired for the Romans to have their own Bible--similar to that of the Christians. He, therefore, comissioned Virgil to write a "Roman Bible"--Virgil's Aneid. Many parts of the Aneid to reflect things that are found in the Bible. Interesting, huh?

In spite of my decision to just follow the MFW plans, I continue to tweek! I'm not following all of the art lessons as written. I feel that it's more important to allow my boys to enjoy art at a more basic skill level, so we're using some of the material from Barry Stebbing's "I Can do All Things." This art book is geared for children up to around age 10. So far, this is going well.

We continue to enjoy our current read aloud, "The Bronze Bow." The cuddle time on the sofa with my boys is my favorite part.

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 7

2009-10-16T06:44:00.001-04:00

We are thoroughly enjoying My Father's World lessons. I'm pleased that I have been able to complete most of the assignments with the boys. For those things that we do not get to, I simply start the following week with the 'things that we didn't get to'. This "rolling week" structure has helped me to ensure that we get to ALL subjects. I know the boys are happy that music or art don't get left out because we "didn't get to it!"

Bible: We finished memorizing the books of the New Testament. This was something we enjoyed doing each day. Next week we'll move into a study of Romans.

Classical Conversations: We zeroed in on our memory work and traced geography maps almost every day. In additin the boys memorized a poem for their presentations.

Handwriting: Brandon continues to learn cursive, while Nathan copies verses of the Ten Commandments in cursive. I like the copywork that Nathan is doing because it also happens to be the Bible Memory Work for Classical Conversations.

English from the Roots Up: Each week we introduce two Latin word roots and discuss English diratives. We've been keeping a glossary with definitions and sentences for each word.

Spelling: Spelling is going well. The boys each completed another weekly lesson in their books.

Grammar: Brandon is coasting through the grammar lessons from First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. The lessons are thorough, but short--just what a 7 year old needs! Nathan and I have been working though the Essentials for the English Language lessons that are part of the Classical Conversations curriculum. I am very pleased with his progress. This week we worked on diagramming complex structured sentences with direct objects.

History: Surprisingly, neither of the boys wanted to complete the hands-on history projects that were suggested in the MFW lesson plans. One project suggested making a clay mosaic and another suggestion was making an old-fashioned set of knucklebones (an ancient Roman game). I think we'll probably try to do one of thoses projects this week. We enjoyed our afternoons reading Augustus Caesar's World and The Roman Empire. There were no timeline figures or map work to do this week.

Read Aloud: Although it seems to be slightly challenging for the boys to comprehend, we're just begun reading The Bronze Bow. I don't mind the higher reading level. I think it's good for them to hear it. I'll be sure to stop and explain as needed. I'm very excited about reading this book!

Science: We read Watching the Weather: Wind. This book provieded an excellent, readable foundation about wind and weather. In addition, we constructed homemade annemoneters, which are instruments that measure wind speed. There was really no wind to speak of, but it was still fun to "measure" the wind. Although our annemoneters are quite rudementary, we gathered much useful insight about wind from this project.

Math: Brandon aced his math test! Although Nathan didn't have a math test this week, he continues to work hard and progress well. I need to focus on math facts next week. They know them well, but complete mastery has not yet been achieved.

Literature: Nathan is currently reading A Cricket in Times Square. Braondon finished The Little Red Lighthouse and has moved on to The School Mouse.

Latin: We are still reviewing things that we learned last year. Oh, how I wish I would have done more Latin during the summer with Nathan! We have 1st and 2nd declension nouns under our belts, as well as 1st conjugation verbs. Now were ready for adjectives! We'll start reviewing chapter 11 of Latin for Children Part A on Monday.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

I was greeted by the light of the moon.

Will the Winner Lose?

2009-10-13T04:21:00.010-04:00

There are many great games posted online. I found one of my favorites on the Education World website, called "Will the Winner Lose." Here at home, we use it often while reviewing our Classical Conversations material. I like this game because it initially requires about 10 minutes to prepare, then you're done! It's a handy "grab & go" game that you can use to review in many areas of your homeschool. To fit our needs, I altered the instructions slightly. Here's how we play:

Review Game: "Will the Winners Lose?"

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 6

2009-10-09T03:53:00.002-04:00

Classical Conversations: Our local CC group is on fall break, so we had time to catch up on things we had not studied thoroughly. We also took some time for some fun review game. One of our favorites is "Will the Winner Lose".
This week we did a lot of reading. Nathan finished Homer Price and a sequel to Jake Drake. Brandon only read of few chapters of Encyclopedia Brown, but he did finish 3 Geronimo Stilton books. I'm not sure how I feel about "serial junior chapter books", but I'm happy that he is enjoying the time reading. I know that all things pass, and he too will move on to other literature someday!

History:
We read 50 pages of Augustus Caesar's World this week. This is an interesting book, but I find that it is a little difficult for the boys to follow at times. Because of this, I try to read for short periods, stopping as needed to explain things so they can understand it a little better. There are some very nice drawings in the book that we have chosen to copy and use as coloring pages. They boys enjoy coloring these pages as I read aloud. Our readings have brought Octavian, Brutus, Antony and Cleopatra to life. The book has also given very nice descriptions of Hanukkah and the Ancient Roman holiday Saturnalia. We've learned about the Roman Calendar and discovered all kinds of things about daily life during ancient Roman times. Another book we've used this week, The Roman Empire, has photos of realistic looking models of Roman houses gardens public buildings and cities.

Science: We're learning about weather. A couple of weeks ago we did some fun temperature experiments and this week we made a rain gauge. When we finished our project, we set it outside in hopes of a little rain to measure the next day. The Lord blessed us with a light shower that very night. The boys were happy to use their newly made rain gauge so soon!

Bible: Along with our Bible readings, we're memorizing the books of the New Testament. Each day we add a few more books to our list and we also listen to a song that sings through the books of the Bible. This has made the memorization of the books easy AND fun!

Electives: We had some art fun doing a couple of projects from Barry Stebbing's I can Do All Things. We also spent some time listening to the music of Haydn. I was thankful to have an opportunity to do these fun things with the boys.

Our School Room

2009-10-04T21:08:00.007-04:00

I thought I'd open the doors of our school room . . . Welcome!

Our school table is in the basement of our home and is located directly across from the fireplace and bookshelves. We are thankful to have a dedicated area to do our schooling where we can keep our supplies and have our books nearby. Adjacent to the school area is what we call the "school room." This room houses our desktop computer along with the curriculum bookcase, a work area and another shelf for the binders that we use. This room often gets used when someone needs quiet study/work time. Thanks for stopping by!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 5

2009-10-01T22:27:00.010-04:00

Whoa hoo!! I feel like I'm back on track again!! We're back to My Father's World - Rome to the Reformation. At this time in life, as I also direct and tutor a Classical Converations Challenge A class, I need to use curriculum that frees me up from planning things. We had a wonderful week. After much prayer, I feel at peace with my curriculum choices. Thank you, Lord!! My husband was a huge encourager, and for that, I'm so thankful. Well, here's our update:

Bible: We began each morning with Bible time. In addition to memorizing The Ten Commandments as part of of memory work with Classical Conversations, we read several pages from "How the Bible Came to Us" and discussed several Bible passages that went along with it. It was fun to see the discover some of the history of our scriptures. They enjoyed seeing pictures of some of the oldest known Bibles and scrolls.

Classical Conversations: I want to emphasize our memory work this year and both boys have expressed interest in trying for "Memory Master." This means that we need to diligently review our memory work! In order to ensure that we spend time memorizing, I decided to begin our memory work right after our Bible time. This worked SO well this week! We used the online tools that Classical Conversations has available, we played a review game and we did lots of chanting and regular drill work. Very productive!

History: I've been at a loss about how and what to cover in history. For the last few weeks we have not followed the MFW history portion of our lesson plans. This week, I decided to give the Roman history another try (even though we studied Rome last year). I know that following MFW lesson plans will simplify life dramatically. Besides, it's likely that the boys will greatly benefit from covering Rome again--isn't that the classical way? We spent quite a bit of time reading Augustus Caesar's World. This is a little difficult for the boys to follow, so I try to stop often to explain what I've read. I asked them today if they liked August Caesar's World, and they both said they did. I, of course, was happy about that! I've copied several pages from the book for the boys to color while I read. They are loving that! One of the things we focused on this week was Roman towns and houses. I found the above pictue in a coloring book that we already had, which was a nice addition to our history notebooks. We were able to look at several other history sources during our book basket time. This time has already prooven to be invaluable and thoroughly enjoyable.

Language Arts: Handwriting, spelling, and grammar is progressing well. New assignments were completed in all of these subjects. Brandon only missed one word on his spelling test and Nathan missed 2. We'll be sure to add those missed words to our tests next week. Nathan wrote an IEW paper on Gilgamesh, as assigned in his Essentials class. Brandon wrote a thank you letter to his Aunt Bec.

Math: We're using Horizons math this year. It works well for us!

Literature: Nathan is thoroughly enjoying Homer Price, while Brandon reluctantly began Reading Encyclopedia Brown. Both books are MFW recommended readers. Brandon has become quite attached to the Geronimo Stilton books, which is fine, but I do feel that it's important for him to also spend time reading other things. For some reason neither of my boys seem to believe me when I hand them a book and tell them that it's really good. Hopefully I can keep Brandon's nose in Encyclopedia Brown long enough for him to realize that it's good fiction, too!
Fine Arts: While we working on fabulous Lego sculptures, we listened to Hayden. Quite enjoyable! We'd already listened to the biography "story" of Haydn, so I simply told the boys the names of the songs as each one began. Rather than begin Barry Stebbing's How Great Thou Art, I decided to do some of the practice lessons from Stebbing's I can Do All Things. I found lessons similar to those assigned in the MFW guide for us to do. I felt that we should try some easier assignments so the boys didn't get frustrated. This week the boys did an assignment on "perspective".

Science: Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone! Nothing happened here--again! I'm going to do better next week!

Read Aloud: I basically had no voice for the first two days of our week, so I did very little reading aloud, other than our history readings. We're still enjoying Roman Mysteries.

New Discoveries: A Plan to follow a Plan

2009-10-01T21:29:00.002-04:00

I keep discovering things about myself. I've long known that I enjoy homeschooling and count it a huge blessing to have the opportunity to learn alongside my children. I enjoy reading and discovering the best books to compliment our subjects. In addition, I love planning. All too often, I get sidetracked by some curriculum that seems to fit my needs better than what I'm currently using.
This year I'm directing and tutoring a middle school program through Classical Conversations called "Challenge A". The planning and preparing for these weekly 6-seminar classes keeps me very busy. Because of these new responsibilities, Ironically decided to use a packaged curriculum to eliminate some of the planning and preparing work that is necessary for schooling my boys at home. I decided that a packaged curriculum would enable me to spend more time enjoying my children
My boys and I were off to a good, strong start with the "Rome to the Reformation" package that I chose from My Father's World. We were enjoying it, but I kept thinking, "If I were planning history I would do this. If I were planning, I would have added that and read this." By week two I was already second guessing myself, so I decided to plan my own history curriculum!
Many hours of hard work and days of ignoring my family led me with the fruits of a seemingly beautiful and perfect plan! I made a weekly lesson plan that encompassed Bible and history, complete with projects, read-alouds, copy work and book lists for extra reading. Wonderful! --Or so I thought!
Last week I put my newly written plan into place and began teaching anew. We had a nice week, but again found my mind wondering. Did I choose the best books for this topic? Should I try to find some cute notebooking pages to go with our history studies? Is there anything I've forgotten?
I know. I know. Anyone who's reading this is probably thinking . . . this lady is nuts! She's putting WAY too much time and energy into homeschooling!
As I mentioned previously, I keep discovering things about myself. Although I do like to plan, I like to learn along side my children more. I've also realized that even the most well laid plans have flaws. Last week was a big reminder to me: if I follow my own plan, there will be additional time requirements, even if I have everything written out on a fancy grid. Unfortunately, that's just my nature. Right now, in this season of life, I should just not spend extra time planning curriculum if I don't have to--and I don't have to!
I have a thorough and well planned curriculum sitting on my shelf ready for me to use! My Father's World may not be EXACTLY how I would approach things, but it's close. Furthermore, it has many things integrated into it that I know I'd miss if I were planning on my own. When I factor in the time I save by following someone else's plan, then My Father's World comes up on top! I wish I wouldn't have forgotten this so quickly! Ugh!
I'm ready to relinquish the dream of a perfect curriculum and instead follow one that has been tried and tested. I'm ready to use the time I would normally be planning and preparing for the tings we study at home on more important things: Enjoying my children. Living, loving and laughing with them. I'm returning to my original plan: to follow someone else's plan during this busy season of my life. So, My Father's World, here I come--again! My need to stick to a plan is something new I've discovered about myself. New discoveries are wonderful, aren't they?

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 4

2009-09-23T21:15:00.000-04:00

This was a short week because we spent 3 days at the annual Classical Conversations gathering at Great Wold Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. We had an awesome time!! When we got home from the lodge we focused on or Classical Conversations memory work, math and Language Arts. We did another Veritas Press Bible card: David and Bathsheba and focused on the end of the Western Roman Empire in history. We spent a good bit of time adding things to our timeline, which we always enjoy.

Although I've enjoyed our history studies and the ability to "do our own thing", I must admit that it's been too time consuming for me to keep up on a regular basis. I found myself thinking about school plans too much, which took me away from my family. Not good!

Still Planning!

2009-09-18T06:00:00.001-04:00

Color Coded Daily Homeschool Schedule

Weekly Lesson Recording Form

2009-09-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

Here is the form I use to record our completed assignments. I print out about 20 copies and put them in the "Lesson Plan" section of my homeschool planning binder. I just pencil in whatever we accomplish in each subject. This helps to keep me on track! Downlaod it and add your own children's names and customize the subjuects for your personal use.

Blank Weekly Lesson Record

In The Throws of Planning --Take Two!!

2009-09-16T06:00:00.002-04:00

As you know, I'm making some changes to our curriculum -- not a complete overhaul, but still some signifigant changes. I've decided to start at the beginning. I figure this will help me to make sure I have all of my ducks in a row. Who knows, maybe it'll help someone else too!
Here are the steps I go through when I'm planning my homeschool year: First, I prepare my planning binder and put the following tabs in it.

Curriculum Description (required by my state)

Calendar

Weekly Lessons

Reading Lists

Projects

Notes

Next, I set my school year calendar. I like to plan for 180 days of school, which is similar to the number of days many public or private schools meet. I decide when we'll begin our year, which holidays we'll take off, and when our school year will end. I like the forms available on Donna Young's site. Here's a link to the form I use: Donna Young's Vertical School Year Planning Calendar . Click on the "calendars" tab and then "vertical calendars". I use the green and white one. As you''ll see from exploring the site, Donna Young has AWESOME resources. Check it out!

After I figure out when we'll "do" school, I put my vertical calendar in the "calendar" section. I also print a regular, one-page-per-month calendar. This is where I record the ACTUAL days that we do school. I number the days from 1 to 180 on the calendar (referring to my vertical calendar so that I know when school is "scheduled".) During the school year, I flip to the appropriate month in the calendar section and then record the ACTUAL days we "do" school. The top number represents an actual day that we had school and the bottom number represents the planned day of school. The top and bottom numbers will not always be the same. Inevidably, someone gets sick or we go out of town, or something "just comes up!" It's okay if they don't match. I just like knowing where we are in the school year. This calendar provides a visual picture of when we've had school along with a comparison of when I've PLANNED to have school.
After completing my calendar pages, I put blank paper in the notes section. This is where I jot down reminders or "think on paper." Maybe you won't need this section, but I find that I like having note paper on hand.
There are two more sections to go, (Weekly Lesson notes and Reading Lists). I'll save those for another post!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 3

2009-09-14T20:57:00.001-04:00

This has been a very productive week! We were able to keep up with all of the memory work from Classical Conversations and we did loads of "regular school work" too!
Since we covered Rome last year, I've found myself wondering if it would be better to move away from My Father's World because the MFW curriculum spends the first 12 weeks on Ancient Rome. I thought I was fine covering this subject area again, but now I'm just not sure about it.
Rather than follow the MFW lesson plans for week 3, I decided to try my own thing. Here's what we accomplished:
Bible: We studied a Veritas Press Bible card which focused on Solomon building the temple. We also worked on memorizing the 10 commandments.
Spelling: Nathan completed lesson 3 in the "Flash Kids" spelling book and Brandon completed a lesson in "Building Spelling Skills." These books seem to be a great fit for the boys at this stage.
Handwriting: Brandon is very much enjoying his introduction to cursive. Nathan has been doing a little copy work from Exodus 20 (The Ten Commandments).
Grammar: Brandon completed lessons 130 - 133 in First Language Lessons. Nathan completed several lessons from "Our Mother Tongue", as assigned in his Essentials class from Classical Conversations. I wasn't sure how I'd like following the Essentials guide, but it is going very well.
Composion: Nathan worked on an IEW Ancient History Based writing assignment for his Essentials class. He was very proud of his paper on Ziggurats and the coloring page he made to go along with it.
History: This is where things got difficult for me! Rather than follow the MFW lesson plans, I chose to review our studies from last year. We discussed the fall of Rome and also began talking about the invasion of the barbarians. We read through the first chapter of Story of the World, did some map work and made a notebook page.
Science: Ugh!! I was not able to get any science done! This always seems to be a subject that gets neglected. I need to make changes to ensure that science gets done!
Latin: Rather than just jumping into Latin where we left off from last year, I decided to spend a few weeks reviewing the lessons Nathan covered during 3rd grade. We reviewed chapters 1 - 4 this week. Yeah!
Read Aloud: We're very much enjoying Roman Mysteries: Thieves of Ostia. We always find ourselves looking forward to finding out what will happen next!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 2

2009-09-14T14:15:00.010-04:00

We had a good week and were able to accomplish a lot during week 2 of the MFW Rome to Reformation lesson plans. Here's the scoop:
Classical Conversations: We spent about 15 - 20 minutes reviewing every day. The boy by the end of the week the boys had mastered the two weeks of material that has been presented so far. I am thrilled with this! I made myself a "memory work" binder with 4 sections: weekly memory work material, Bible verse memory work, Geography maps, and Presentations. This was quite handy each morning when we were ready to learn the new material.
History: As I mentioned in another post, I am planning to move away from the Rome to the Reformation lesson plans used in My Father's World. I have decided that I do not want to spend time re-studying ancient Rome and only covering the Middles Ages for part of the year. When I chose the MFW curriculum, I thought I'd be fine with a little repeat. But as we began reading August Caesar my thinking completely changed. In spite of my curriculum fickleness problem, we were still able to cover a fair amount of history. We reviewed the life of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. The boys also worked on presentations about the clay writing tablets used during ancient Roman times.
Handwriting: This year I decided to have my fourth grader do cursive copy work for handwriting practice. Rather than use a curriculum, Nathan will do weekly copy work taken from the Bible verses that we're memorizing in Classical Conversations.
Read Aloud: We are thoroughly enjoying "Roman Mysteries". So far it is a page turner!
Bible: this week we discussed some of the writers of the Old Testament and the New Testament and have been reading through "How the Bible Came to Us." The boys are thoroughly enjoying the colorful pictures in the book and the discussion that we have as we relate Bible verses to the reading material.
Math: Nathan and Brandon are progressing well in math. Nathan is working on getting his multiplication facts down pat, while Brandon continues to strive toward mastery of addition and subtraction facts. Since Labor Day was on Monday, they each completed 3 (rather than 40 Horizons math assignment.
Fine Arts: We listened to the first half of a biography of Hayden and excerpts of his beautiful music. This was an enjoyable and worthwhile activity. I highly recommend the "Introduction to the Classics" series! Each CD includes a narrated biography of a composer with many snippets of his music. The set also includes a music only CD for each composer.

Shifting Gears (sigh) . . . Again

2009-09-14T13:41:00.005-04:00

When I selected the Rome to the Reformation curriculum, I knew that we'd be spending the first 12 weeks studying many of the same topics that we encountered during the last school year. FYI--last year we studied ancient Greece, Rome and events recorded in the New Testament using Veritas Press. As I weighed the different options on the market, I decided that repeating topics would be fine. After all, repetition is a big part of the classical model of education. Right? Well . . . (sheep eyes) to make a long story short -- I'm not happy. I'm not satisfied with the choices I've made.
I do believe that the My Father's World curriculum is terrific! I love the grid that they use, the teacher notes, the book basket list and all of the reproducibles in the back of the book. HOWEVER--I just don't think I can bear nearly the entire first semester studying Rome again. I enjoyed our studies about Rome very much last year. I'm just ready to move on. Furthermore, Middle Ages history is an exciting time period--with barbarians, vikings, knights, stories about Christianity, the rise and fall of empires, kings, and queens, inventions and artists and much more. I have convinced myself that the Middle Ages deserves a full year of study, and I'm ready to begin that NOW! This, of course, means shifting gears -- re-thinking things -- AGAIN!! Ugh!!
As I said in a previous post, I really enjoy studying history in a story format. After all, history IS the story of the past. So, without much detail right now, I do know that we will use Story of the World, Volume 2: The Middle Ages as the core part of our history studies. Right now I'm working on putting together a reading list and schedule for myself. I feel that I need this in order to stay on track through out the year. (Hopefully I won't lose too much sleep burning the midnight oil!) More to come!

From the Teacher's Desk: Week 1

2009-09-08T00:01:00.011-04:00

Our first week of school was terrific!

Our first day: We celebrated our first day of school by going out for breakfast at IHOP. Dad joined us for the outing, which made our morning all the more special. When the boys got home they were surprised by a few special school supplies that I had picked out for them. I had also decorated their pencil boxes and gave them a little "sweets" stash. They were excited and it added a nice touch to our day.

I asked the boys to complete a very cute "All about me" worksheet that I found on http://www.abcteach.com/. I have them fill out an "all about me" page each year. I always keep their completed page, along with their school picture in their portfolio. It's fun to look at them at the end of the year to see how they've changed.

Our Curriculum: This year we'll be using My Father's World - Rome to the Reformation. I think it will be a very good fit for us. I found that I missed the story format for history last year, so it will be nice to use "The Story of the World, Vol. 2" in many of our upcoming history lessons. I am especially excited about the art and music appreciation lessons that are part of this curriculum. In addition to My Father's World, we'll also be attending Classical Conversations every Friday. We're looking forward to a fun year with this, too!

An overview of our week: This week was meant to provide a fun, yet thorough introduction to the things we'll be studying for the year. The history lessons provided a nice overview of the Roman Empire. We did several notebooking pages and had a lot of fun making clay writing tablets, which we discussed during one of our lessons. The boys did a math and grammar lesson every day, but most of it was review. In addition, Nathan spent a few days on his writing assignment for his Essentials Writing Class, which is held in the afternoons at Classical Conversations. Next week we will add Latin and Science into the mix.

As I worked through the lesson plans this week, I realized that we'll need to use our time wisely if I want to get everything on our list accomplished, but I think it's doable.

I'm glad to be back into the swing of things and looking forward to a great year with Classical Conversations and My Father's World!

Our 2009 - 2010 Reading List

2009-08-29T23:05:00.007-04:00

Fourth Grade Reading Lists:
From the Mixed up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L Konigsburg Henry and Ribsy – Beverley Cleary
Misty of Chincoteaque - Henry
The Toothpaste Millionaire – Merrill
Homer Price – Robert McCloskey
The Borrowers – Mary Norton
Twenty one Balloons – William Pene du Bois
The Cricket in Times Square – george Selden
The Railway Children - Edith Nesbit
The Dragon of Lonely Island – Rebecca Rupp
Secret Agents Four –Donald Sobol
Red Sails to Capri – Weil

Second Grade Reading List:
Encyclopedia Brown – Donald Sobol
The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams
The Boxcar Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner
Jake Drake: Bully Buster – Andrew Clements
Bears on Hemlock Mountain – Dagliesh
The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel – Thornton Burgess
The Ugly Duckling – Hans Christian Anderson
Blueberries for Sal - Robert McCloskey
Make Way for Ducklings – Robert McCloskey
Lentil – Robert McCloskey
Mirette on the High Wire – Emily Arnold McCully
The Random House Book of Fairy Tales
Winnie-the-Pooh – A.A. Miline
Marshmallow – Clare Turlay Newberry
Stone Fox – John Reynolds Gardiner

Noun Declension Chart

2009-08-14T09:57:00.004-04:00

My son sometimes gets frustrated when I ask him to decline Latin nouns because he has not yet mastered the noun ending charts. We're working on memorizing the noun endings, but while we work towards mastery I want him to practice declining nouns. (The practice will certainly help him to memorize the noun endings!) Here is a chart I plan to use this semester. It provides a model for the first and second noun declensions with room to to practice declining a couple of nouns.

Review Games

2009-07-24T10:18:00.004-04:00

I've been combing through some of my files and found a couple of good ideas for review games. I found a game called "SPIDERS AND CANDY" on a website called Free Printables for Teachers. This is especially fun in October! I changed the format slightly to fit my needs. Here's how I play:

Spiders and Candy:

Scatter your review flashcards around on a table (the floor would work too).
Have the children turn around and cover their eyes. While no one is looking place one marker (see the cut outs below) under each card (either a piece of candy or a spider) I usually do it in a ration of 2 candy markers to 1 spider.

The kids take turns selecting a card and answering the question on it. The more candy markers the child collects, the more candy they earn! He or she lifts the card to reveal what is underneath. If it's a candy card, the student takes the card and keeps it. If it's a spider card, they should answer the review questions, but leave the spider marker on the table. Leave the spider on top of the card and proceed to the next player.
The person with the most candy markers wins! When the game is over you can give a piece of candy for each candy marker the child collected. Or you can allow them to collect 5 candy markers for a snack size candy bar. You can decide how you want to do the candy!
For older students, you can play that they only get to keep the candy marker if they answer the questions correctly.
Click on the link above for the free printables to go along with the game.

Another game I sometimes play is called "PASS THE CHICKEN!" This is easy to do with flash cards where the students need to memorize a list of information, for example: US presidents, science facts, English grammar terms, Latin vocabulary, etc. Here's how I play:

Pass the Chicken:

To begin the game, all of the children to sit in a circle. In this game, nobody wants to hold the rubber chicken -- the game's only prop! Select one person to be "IT". That person holds the rubber chicken. A grown up will be the"caller". The caller says to the person holding the chicken, "Name five presidents of the United States. Pass the chicken!" As soon as the caller says, "Pass the chicken," the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five presidents of the United States, the holder is still It. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when he/she finishes listing five presidents is the next person to be "IT". You should prepare the topic cards for this game in advance. Topics can relate to your curriculum or memory work. The student who is "IT" must name five items in the called-out category so he/she can get rid of the dreaded chicken!

Popcorn & Movie Night

2009-06-23T18:18:00.008-04:00

This past Friday, we had our first official Family Fun Night of the summer. We decided to make fancy popcorn bags and watch a movie together. We put on some of our favorite music and then got busy on our popcorn project. Decorating the bags was great fun and it made our evening feel quite festive. This was a very simple activity, but the kids loved eating popcorn out of their special bags.
To make them: Cut two pieces of white construction paper to be about the same size as the front and back of the bag and then personalize the cut-outs to your liking. Paste the decorated pages to a lunch size paper bag (one for the front and one for the back), and then you're done! Here is a closer look at are our creations:
Our Family Fun Night was a great success and we're looking forward to next Friday!

Family Fun Night!

2009-06-21T17:54:00.001-04:00

Last week the boys and I brainstormed a few ideas for some evening summer fun at home. We came up with some terrific ideas. Here are some of them:

Movie and Popcorn Night - Decorate popcorn bags and watch a good movie together.
Pizza Night - Make two teams and have a contest to see which team can make the tastiest pizza.
Campfire Night - Roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire in the backyard. Afterwards, talk about favorite memories or tell funny/spooky stories.
Game Night - Play a favorite board game together and munch on some favorite snacks while we game the night away
Bowling Night - Play a few rounds of Wii Bowling
Craft Night - Make something cool or useful together or even make hand made gifts for others while we listen to some of our favorite music.

We've reserved Fridays all summer long as our Official Family Fun Night. Easy, relaxing summer fun with the fam. What could be better?

Summer School

2009-06-07T06:00:00.002-04:00

School's out! School's out! The teacher let the monkeys out! Oh, how I wish I could let my little monkeys completely out of school work for the summer. This summer, however, we're going to do a little work, but we'll be sure to have plenty of fun. I've already written about this, but I thought I'd provide a little more detail. Here are our plans:

Summer Studies

Horizons Math - 4 lessons per week
Latin for Children - 2 or 3 lessons per week (I don't want to forget what we've learned!)
Grammar - 3 short lessons per week
I plan to read A Child's History of the World aloud to my kids so we can get a review of the history we've studied so far and a preview of what is to come in our studies.

Educational Fun

Summer reading program at the library
We'll work through some of the lessons of How Great Thou Art - I Can do All Things
Brandon will attend the Classical Conversation's Art & Geography 3-day Camp
Nathan will attend the Classical Conversation's Speech Making 3-day Camp
Both of my boys will attend College 4 Kids (one week summer day camp) at a college.
Both of my boys will attend a geology / earth science summer camp at Blandy Farms. This is a 5 day summer camp.
We'll participate in VBS at our church.
Swim Lessons

Things I'd like to do this summer with my kids:

Spend time hiking in the Shenandoah National Park
Make a scrapbook and teach my boys some tips and tricks about digital photography
Go swimming - a lot!
Spend plenty of lazy summer days reading together
Build an indoor hide away fort in our basement

We will take a more relaxed approach to school this summer and if something comes up that sounds fun, we'll probably do it!

Veritas Press Bible Study

2009-06-05T06:00:00.002-04:00

Most mornings, my boys and I begin our day with Bible study. This year we have used the Veritas Press Judges through Kings study. It is terrific! Here's what we do:

We open in prayer. Many times we talk about what we would like to pray about and then we each take a turn praying. This time has been awesome. My heart is always filled when I listen to the things my kids would like to pray about!
We listen to the Bible song that is part of the Veritas study each morning. There is a verse in the song for each of the 32 Bible cards you study. The song is over 8 minutes long, so I usually stop the CD at the place we are studying.
We study one Bible card each week. Each day, I read the same Bible card aloud. I have found that the repetition of this has been invaluable! By the end of the week they REALLY remember what we've been reading about and learning.
In addition to reading the Bible card, we use other resources to deepen our study. The resources are all listed on the back of the card. Here are some of our favorites: Journey through the Bible, The Child's Story Bible, the NiRV Adventure Bible, and The Children's Illustrated Bible.

Once a week we do some kind of project or assignment from the Teacher's Manual. Sometimes I add in a coloring page or picture narration.

If you're looking for a meaty Bible study for elementary aged children, consider Veritas Press!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-03T10:21:00.003-04:00

My little sweetie pies snuggled in at Nana's house for the night.

Kitchen Science

2009-05-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

We recently did a little kitchen science. We talked about solids and liquids and why some solids disolve when they are mixed with liquids, and some solids do not disolve. After our discussion, we made a fun breakfast called Magic Pancake Puff, which is in The Pampered Chef Let's Eat cookbook for kids. The pancake fluffed up until it was nearly overflowing out of the pan! This was a fun surprise when we took our concoction out of the oven. Our dish was pretty tasty, too. Here is the recipe:

You will need: Butter or margarine, 3 eggs, milk, flour, salt and vanilla. Top it with fresh fruit, powered sugar cinnamon sugar, or syrup. We used syrup and it was quite yummy!

Preheat the oven to 425. Put 2T. of butter or margarine in a bowl and melt it in the microwave.
Add 3 eggs, 1/2 c. of milk, 1/2 c. of flour, 1/2 tsp. of salt and 1/4 tsp. of vanilla. Whisk together until all of the ingredients smooth
Spray casserole dish with cooking spray. (My dish was about 8x8x3 and was a perfect size. I wouldn't go any smaller.)
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and puffy.
Top your pancake puff with powdered sugar, fresh fruit, or syrup and enjoy!

Blog in Isolation

2009-05-27T14:13:00.004-04:00

One of my readers, Expeditions with G3 Mom, recently tracked me down to ask me a question about the Latin program I use with my 3rd grader. When I received her message, I discovered that my blog comments were not working! Ugh!! I'm not sure how long my blog has been isolated in this way, but I must apologize. I had no idea! Well, the good news is this: comments are now working. I know that my little patch on the web universe is small, but big things sometimes begin with a small thought. If you feel so inclined, you may leave a comment anytime!

Winding Down the School Year

2009-05-26T09:21:00.003-04:00

It is time for us to begin winding down the school year! The warm weather is here and the whole family is ready to begin a season of summer fun. We have a trip planned to visit family and our summer vacation to the beach is already scheduled. The boys will also be participating in several summer camps.
Some years we have taken the whole summer off of school. This summer will be different. Nathan will have math and grammar lessons each day. We will do Latin 3 times per week. Brandon will work on mastering his math facts and begin learning cursive. I plan to read Child's History of the World aloud to them to give them an overview of the history we've studied and a preview of what is yet to come. Trips to the library and lazy days reading good books will definitely be woven into our days.
I hope to do several art projects with the boys and some gardening, too. Brandon is interested in learning how to put pictures from his camera onto the computer for printing. I'm sure he'd love to make a scrapbook of his photos. Nathan is interested in learning how to type, and I'm sure he'd enjoy the camera and scrapbooking activities as well.
I plan to accomplish a good deal this summer when it comes to school work, but we'll be sure to have plenty of fun. Rather than having a set school schedule, I think it will be best if we be take each day, one at a time.

Math Memory Work

2009-05-18T22:54:00.004-04:00

Mastering basic math facts is essential for success in advanced levels of math. Math memory work can be one building block towards a strong mathematical foundation. Here is a multiplication chart that you can use to practice multiplication facts. Mastery of this will make everyday calculations a snap! Check out this Multiplication Chart. When I began teaching my son multiplication, I asked him to read across a row and say the math fact pair aloud. For example:

1 x 2 = 2, 2 x 1 = 2
1 x 3 = 3, 3 x 1 = 3
etc.

This chart is also a nice tool when you want to teach your child how to skip count. We use songs for skip counting. As my children learned the song for the first time, they would look at the chart and sing the skip counting song. Before we knew it, the chart was not needed.

History Curriculum - What I'm looking for

2009-05-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

As I spend time researching history curriculum, I decided it would be helpful to outline the things that I'd really like to have in a history curriculum. Here's a list my top priorities:

I prefer a history program that uses a "spine" or main resource that provides the story of the past.
We LOVE the Veritas Press history cards, whatever history resources we use, I want to be able to easily include the history cards into our studies.
Timeline activities are very important to all of us. Timeline plans/ideas that are clearly outlined and easy to follow are a must!
An integration of map work and geography activities should be included in our history studies. Again, we are looking for activities that are simple to use and follow.
I would like to have a list of historical literature that coordinates with our history studies.
I would like to have a list of historical literature and/or other great books for our children to read individually that will foster and enhance educational growth.

Now that I have a concrete list of what I'm looking for, maybe making a curriculum decision will be a little easier! Any suggestions? Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

When is Easter?

2009-04-06T21:26:00.008-04:00

Have you ever wondered why Easter sometimes falls in March and other times comes in April? I have wondered many times, but have never taken the time to find out why . While reading "The Easter Chick" to my boys this evening, I was delightfully surprised with the answer to this question. We learned that Easter is determined by three things. First Spring must come, which is always on March 21st. Next, the first full moon must be taken into account. Finally, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the first day of spring! Did you know that? "The Easter Chick" has beautiful illustrations and explained how the date for Easter is determined through a sweet and simple story. We enjoyed it, maybe you will too!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-03-25T08:24:00.006-04:00

Two new Webkinz: Chimzee (monkey) and Smokey (bear)!

The Wonderful World of Curriculum!

2009-03-23T09:51:00.006-04:00

Do you ever find yourself thinking about the other curriculum products available that you are NOT using? We homeschoolers have so many choices and I'm grateful for that, but . . . as I begin to think about changes and improvements to make in how we approach our school day and in what curriculum we use, I've allowed my evenings to become absorbed by curriculum research! I cannot stop wondering about My Father's World, Winter Promise , Tapestry of Grace, and Sonlight!

As I've written before, we are currently using Veritas Press Scholars, and it is going very well. We are learning a lot, but our school days are often too long. I am hoping to make an object list of pros and cons about Veritas Press Scholars for myself sometime very soon. I'll be sure to post a "report!"
I'm wondering, what are YOUR curriculum experiences? What helped you really teach your children how to learn? You see, that is part of what I desire: I am hoping to find materials that will provide me with tools of learning that I can pass on to my children. I am looking for a program that is based on Christian principles that will equip my kids for college and a lifetime of learning! Maybe I'll have to go back to the mix and match approach, but I must admit, that I sure have enjoyed having lesson plans to wake up to each morning!

Curriculum Thoughts for Fourth Grade

2009-03-17T01:07:00.005-04:00

We have participated in Classical Conversations for two years and love it! My children have learned so much AND have enjoyed learning all the material! I'm in the process of considering several resources that Classical Conversations recommends. This would mean moving away Veritas Press which has gone well for us. Here's what's on the table right now for my older son who will be in the 4th grade:

Math: Horizons 4

Spelling: Spelling Plus Dictation or Rod and Staff - Building Spelling Skills 4 or Phonetic Zoo A

Handwriting: A Reason for Writing or Classically Cursive

Language Arts: Essentials of the English Language with Our Mother tongue and IEW, or First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind 4 with IEW or Writing with Ease

History: Story of the World 2 or Veritas Press Rome to the Reformation

Science: God's Design Science

Latin: Latin for Children - last half of A and 1st half of B

Making sure I've covered Everything this Year

2009-03-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spring is approaching and inevitably I begin to wonder if I will have taught my children everything I'd like for them to know by the end of the school year. At the beginning of the school year, I outline home learning goals for each of my children. Sometimes, however, things fall apart mid-year. Someone gets ill, a baby is born, life happens! Well, don't worry, there are some things that you can do make sure that your school year is complete, without significant gaps. Here are some things that have helped me make sure that I have all of my "i's" dotted and my "t's" crossed.

First, I access where my children are in each subject. On a piece of paper, or on a spreadsheet, I take note of what my children have completed in each subject and how many lessons are left to complete. This is easier in some subjects , such as math, than in others. For example, there may not be a "lesson number" in literature, so I take stock of what my children have read and what I'd like for them them to read by the end of the year and compile a list.
Next, I take a look at how long I plan to school this year and divide the number of assignments left in a particular subject by the number of school days left. This helps me to figure out the pace by which we need to move. For example, If I have 75 math lessons left, and only 50 planned school days, then I would need to have my son complete 1 1/2 lessons each day to be finished by the end of the school year. I make note of this information as well. Obviously, another option is to extend the school year. As homeschoolers, we have that luxury! Figure out what will work best for your family and go for it!
I personally like the book Home Learning Year by Year, by Rebecca Rupp. It is a wonderful resources that outlines concepts that a child should learn each school year. Now, I don't use this as my hard and fast rulebook, but it does provide me with a thorough outline of what could be covered in various subjects. About this time each year, I revisit the list that corresponds to my child's grade and I write down all of the things that my child does not yet know. For the rest of the school year, I keep this list handy and cross things off we cover them. Again, some of the things may not jive with our personal school plan, but I use it as a guide.
Finally, I revisit my lesson plans and schedule: I take a look at what I think we should complete on a daily basis so that we can successfully accomplish our home learning goals by the end of the year. I make adjustments and then try to ward off spring fever!

Homeschooling is certainly not only about checking things off a list that should be learned. But I believe that teaching our children and teaching them how to learn is a worthy goal. I pray that my children will be equipped for a life time of learning and that I will be able to provide them with the tools of learning. Part of providing these tools includes teaching them the basics and working through the grammar of a subject, such as math and reading. The outline above simply helps to guide me and maybe it will someone else, too! Blessings!

Weekly Report March 13, 2009

2009-03-14T08:08:00.007-04:00

This week was another rough week! Is it spring break yet? We only completed 4 days of school, and one of them was our Friday School at Classical Conversations. Well . . . during the other three days we were able to do some very valuable things:

On Monday we completed all of our regular studies. Nathan is progressing well in Latin, and his math is going well too! Brandon is doing great also. While the weather was warm we headed outside and built an aqueduct! This was a fun activity to do as we studied how the Roman Republic Developed. After the boys poured water down the "tube" several times, they turned it into a car wash!

On Tuesday we studied very hard on our Classical Conversations material. Both of the boys are interested in attempting Memory Master, which means that they'll need to memorize everything from Cycle 3 from the entire year. This includes all 160 of the Veritas Press history cards, math skip counting ones through 12's, lots of science facts, John 1:1-7 in English and Latin, lots of English Grammar facts and more! In addition to this we progressed nicely though all of our usual studies. Last week in Classical Conversations we listened to Symphony No. 6 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. This is a mournful, lamenting piece, so I wanted to let the boys hear some of his other work that is more exciting (IMHO) and upbeat. We spent about 30 minutes listening to the Nutcracker Suite and enjoyed every bit of it!

On Wednesday we got down to business again and worked through all of our studies. Nathan finished chapter 12 in Latin for Children and both boys got 100% on their spelling review tests. For a bit of afternoon fun we took a trip to our local children's museum. While we were there, we made papber bag puppets:

On Thursday all we managed to do was a math assignment, and some reading. We also studied Classical Conversations material. At least the day was not totally wasted!

On Friday we spent our day at our Classical Conversations program. We have now worked through all of the 160 history cards and are beginning to memorize the U.S. Presidents. This week, the children learned the first nine. They actually have a pretty easy time memorizing them because they sing the list of presidents in a song. During this week's orchestra time we listened to La Mer by Claude Debusy. In addition, the kids worked on a fun, hands-on probability science lab. CC always makes our Friday great!