Handmaking Christmas

With the emergence of Dollar stores in the past few years it is very tempting to load up on a bunch of cheapo toys and gadgets to give for niece and nephew gifts but something in me fights against doing that. So I'm going to pull out my long dormant crafty side and whip out some super cute gifts. I also wanted an excuse to buy fabric so that my kids will have some on hand to mess around with.

Here's what I will be working on:

Felt Brown Bag Lunch

Art Tote

Child's Apron

I also have been throwing around different ideas for my sister and sister-in-laws but have settled on this super easy and cheap gift.
P.S. if you fall in the above category don't look at this link:)

Question Jar

And if I'm a good homeschooling mom!?! I will have my kids join me for some easy sewing lessons:)

Weekly Wrap-up: The Outdoors Version

On the 1st day of Spring it snowed......
On the last week of March it was summer.....

Not sure what happened to Spring but maybe we'll see it yet.

The temps read in the low 80's most of this week so we did light schooling in order to enjoy some extra outdoor free time. You never know how long it will last so I like to take advantage of the sun and warmth when able.

We are winding down our 2nd term of our school schedule and will be missing our beloved Little Duke but I'm excited to begin reading the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood!
In our History book "Our Island Story" we have been reading about the battles in the Hundred Year's War, this is written from a British perspective so Ali and Tom have been cheering on the English army in the battles with the French. I will be interested to see how they will react when in term 3 we will be a French perspective through Joan of Arc's eyes.


We are still focusing on Living Math through books I've snagged at our Library.
Our favorite this last week being "Math for All Seasons". Ali and Tom had already looked through it but we had a good time solving the riddles and looking for faster ways to figure the problems out.

 
We also picked up some math drills again this week and continue doing mental math informally. Next term I will use Ray's arithmetic more fully and we will add Miquon Math back into our routines.

Wes wanted to do his school so we pulled out the Cuisenaire Alphabet book for him to try. He is a hand-on learner and really enjoyed working these pages.

Pleased with his work on the "A" page.

Our Cecropia Cocoon in a jar....waiting to see if it will transform into the moth.




To close out our week we had a Fool's Day meal. All enjoyed the time and it will be a tradition to carry on for many years to come.

Priorites of a Home School

I have just finished reading a delightful and insightful article written by Charlotte Mason for the 3rd volume of The Parents' Review (1892-93) called "The Home School".

I am going to do my best to narrate back what I remember from my reading......and I'm seriously fighting the urge to grab the paper and re-read it (that would so be cheating!)

Miss Mason was writing for those parents that were homeschooling their children using the curriculum provided by her school. She felt that no parent should be ashamed or disappointed if their children were unable to attend a public or private school because she was convinced that on the whole the Home School was the best teaching and training ground for children provided the parents took a serious and active role in educating their children.

I was vastly encouraged when when she stated that it is nothing for a teacher to organize and teach a class of 20 or so children of the same age and grade but a much more difficult task to teach and organize a class of 3 children in 3 different grades.....Amen sister!

Miss Mason takes great pains to enumerate on the benefits of both education and experience for the teacher. She tells us that experience is not necessarily the best teacher in all matters because so often bad habits are trained through experience when this could have been avoided through better education.
She is quick to point out though that the experience of learning is quite a different thing and when one has a teachable spirit there are very few doors that aren't able to be opened.

Next she lays out the very basic priorities that should be included in every Home School.

Most importantly is the learning of the Bible. She places the importance of learning the stories from the bible for not only moral and language learning but mostly of spiritual training. The system used in her schools was for a short portion of the scriptures to be read and then to be narrated back word for word as possible by the student. She encourages the teacher or parent after the narration to feel free to ask a few questions if this will help the understanding of the student but to never consider the answers as narration. She also encourages the teacher to add any historical notes or insights that will be a help to the student.
She very specifically points out that there should be NO written narrations by children under the age of 10 siting that it is too easy for the child to put out poor work because they are not capably ready to write good composition before this time.
I was convicted by her statement that it is much easier for a teacher to set the student to write a narration because that then frees up her time for other things but that the more difficult task is for the teacher/parent to require a spoken narration from the student because it takes her time and attention.
(for a simple bible reading plan see my Scribd documents in the side bar)

Next in importance is the learning of History. She encourages the learning of Greek and Roman history and details some of the benefits of children learning from Plutarch's Lives.

She also encourages all teachers to put much effort into Natural History, not just in reading about areas of Natural History but to get in touch with Nature.
It is very important she says for children to keep tadpoles and caterpillars and other creatures to learn first hand about them. What is read in books should be a side benefit of learning Natural History not the whole of the education.

Physical Education and drills rank high in Miss Mason's list as well and she encourages teacher/parents to not just have their children go through the motions of the drills (Swedish) but to make sure that the children are using and training their muscles in the work.

Lastly, she encourages all parents to take the brave step into the world of foreign languages. I appreciate how she breaks down the learning to just 40 lines of a french tale for 1 term as a manageable amount. Miss Mason shows of the high esteem she has for children by affirming her belief that the students will surprise the teacher/parent by how much is learned and retained by consistent work in this area.

As a closing reminder Miss Mason clarifies that these schooling priorities should never consume a child's whole day. She reminds teacher/parents that 5 of the 13 waking hours of the child should be spent in free play and 3 of those say between the hours of 2 and 5 pm should be spent out-of-doors. Short lessons as always are an important essential and she places importance on not nagging or badgering or humiliating the student who does not complete the work set before them in the proper amount of time. There is nothing like personal experience for the child to learn to value time and do the work allotted for that specific time.

I hope you were encouraged and educated a little by my narration but I would highly recommened that you read the real article yourself.
You can find it here in the Parents' Review articles posted under Volume 3, title The Home School.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Mud & Bugs Week 20

It's still wet.  And muddy.

It's supposed to be APRIL showers not March!

But it is getting greener and since I banned carpet from my main living areas in our house years ago I really don't need to complain. The crawling baby complicates things but at least my floors get mopped a whole bunch more than normal.

This week we got caught up......almost. One scheduled chapter in An Island Story got left behind but it's short so we should be able to get it in this next week.

Mr. Dad has every other Friday off of work right now and this past week was a free Friday week so we did a light school day and then visited the Insect Zoo nearby. Originally we were supposed to visit the zoo back in December after finishing Term 1 and a 12 week insect focus, but it just didn't happen. Better late than never though.

Is there anything cooler than huge insects that freak your sister out!

Ali found an insect that didn't "freak" her out.

Up close and personal

Hungry anyone??

Weaver Ant Eggs, preserved Grasshoppers, preserved Silk worms, preserved Mole Crickets

Yes, these are for eating!

Of course, we can't have an insect zoo without some mind-numbing insect movie!!!! Heaven forbid the children actually learn without being glued to a tv. 

Playing pretend adventures with large bugs.

Willy loved the dark room with the flashlights and spiders!

Sadie was just happy to be on the floor.

My favorite was the walking stick displays. They are in there.....can you see them?

Wes liked this snake that one of the employees kept at the zoo.

We finished listening to Burgess Animal Book this week much to the delight of Tom, and Ali's disappointment:)
We also made it through all of the long chapters in The Little Duke so were able to get current with those readings as well. Tom and Ali have struggled off and on with narrating from this book but as we have worked to slow down on it we have really enjoyed the adventures of the Little Duke (Richard of Normandy). I think we will miss him but next in line is Joan of Arc so the middle age adventures are sure to continue.

This week I did well with getting math done daily and moving forward in that and incorporated a couple of living math books during Circle/Morning Time which created a lot of discussion for the rest of the week.
By the way do you know what a googol is? I didn't until we read On Beyond a Million.

Along those lines there is a great group on yahoo for living math and in the files is a looooong list of living math books that are sure to please both parent and child. We have read several and will be working our way through the list for quite awhile.

I'm working to set up and use a workbox type system this next week and concentrate on the habits of attention and obedience during school time for all of the kids. Hopefully I'll be able to report some progress or success along these lines next week.

Thoughtfulness

In a thinking mode lately and seeking and praying for direction and guidance.

Do I switch to workboxes?

Should I start Wes with Kindergarten work?

How do I fit in everything I feel we are missing?


Mostly, I'm fighting to keep my focus. To not be distracted by what others are doing and what works for them, but prioritizing what our goals are and how to meet them.


Praying:
His priorities become mine
I do not waste my time on frivolous ways

Reading:
Magnanimity Newsletter
PNEU articles
For the Children's Sake
School Education

Weekly Wrap-up of Week 19

We've had a long, short, crazy, normal week around here.
I'm sure you know what I mean:)

We spent a long weekend at my parents house and visiting family and arrived home late afternoon Monday but since I had made a quick trip to the library before we left I was stocked up with good audio books to listen to while driving. We caught up on our chapters in Wind in the Willows and hubby especially enjoyed the chapter on Mr. Toad.

Unfortunately a trip like that pretty much wipes me out and the rest of the week I've been trying to catch up on sleep, laundry and dishes and trying to get the smoke smell removed from my poor oven after a seriously gone wrong oven clean involving lots and lots of choking smoke filling our house and necessitating a removal of all children for a few hours. (note to self...do NOT clean the oven in the winter, do NOT spill cream into your oven)

So let's see.....we finished reading Tree in the Trail last week and started reading Seabird this week. I printed off a couple notebooking pages and we kind of sort of filled them out. I definitely need to plan this ahead so it doesn't take so much time and let the kids do the research on their own or frankly I just need to forget this extra step.

Due to tiredness and lack of motivation we didn't get much of the foundational subjects accomplished, like math, phonics and copywork but just keeping up with reading our books was enough.
Thankfully the weather has been wonderful all week so we've gone for a few walks and the kids have spent tons of time digging, running, climbing and playing in the yard. A blissful break from the cold although it has included plenty of mud.

On Thursday Mr. Dad loaded the upper 5 kiddos and took them on a "mommy needs a break" trip to a local park. This is more of a nature park that runs along a couple of creeks so of course they had a muddy enjoyable time:) They did explore around and found horse, dog, and coyote tracks and received an impromptu lesson on following and identifying tracks and of course told it all back to me in various forms after returning home. I was especially impressed with Wes (5yo) who drew a picture of the horse tracks.

All in all....we made it! The week is over and it's on to the next thing...until Monday.

I'm rethinking our book schedule and will probably be cutting Pilgrim's Progress out since we will be covering it again next year. I may look into using Pilgrims Progress told to the Children or just take the audio version that we have along with us on some trips. I get the most complaints from this book but I know good and well that they do really enjoy it. I think it would work better for a longer listening period than restricting how much we listen to to keep on schedule. Maybe I'll just slip it in during Quiet Time one of these days:)

February Flab

Anybody else feel the need to trim things up a bit?

Yes, my waistline is in dire need of this but mostly I'm talking in school/home terms.
Somehow my bookshelves have multiplied and even though I have 5 boxes of packed away books in my basement my 2 bookshelves are overflowing!

I'm sure it has nothing to do with my inability to pass by my libraries used book corner......seriously, can you pass up a 50 cent copy of a favorite or needed book? I can't.

Thankfully, after much prayer and thinking God inspired me and I was able to rearrange our livingroom so that I can squeeze in a couple more bookshelves.
Now just need to actually get those shelves......have to talk to hubby about this one:)

I'm hoping to organize my shelves kind of like a library does...not dewey decimal but more along the lines of a shelf for each year in Ambleside. We'll see what I actually manage to get done.

Here are some different ideas for how other moms have organized their "space".

Our Homeschool Space @ Gaze Into the Heavens

Our Classroom @ Sunshine and Lemonade

Avoiding February Homeschool Burnout before it happens @ Like Mother, Like Daughter

Organizing Children's Books A Category Simple Method @ The Tranquil Parent

Organizing Part Two: The Bookshelves @ Everyday Snapshots Explores Homeschooling

Bookshelf Organization @ Higher Up and Further In

Organizing our Homeschool @ Color me Orange

How you Organize your Home Library @ Mental Floss

Not to beLabor the point, but... @ The Pioneer Woman

(I could probably keep going all night just to avoid exercising but, for my children's sake I had better knock this off!)

How do you keep it all together?
Do you wing it?
Do you have a "school room"?
Are you drowning?
Does your space flow well?

Slowing Down

Recently due to some narrating issues that we were having I've had to slow our school progress down a bit.

Granted, this is not easy for me to do.
I'm the kind of gal that likes to check things off of the list....any list. In fact I will make lists of things that I've done just so I can check them off!
I know some of you can relate.

So when I look at the weekly schedule laid out for my kiddos on Ambleside it does not even compute with me that we have a choice NOT to do a certain book or to go at our own pace through other books.

Since this is our second year in using Ambleside I have been able to let a few book choices go but I start to get really worried and anxious if we fall behind in our weekly readings. So you can imagine my dismay upon doing some research and reading into helping my oldest son, Tom, better his narrations when I found one of the best methods would be to SLOW DOWN.

Not just slow the speed of my reading....but literally to take smaller sections of the books and require more narrations.
I wasn't sure how this would work out since we have struggled all year to keep up (adorable baby distractions and the like).

But on the encouragement of a veteran CM'er and her own experiences with narrating I jumped in with both feet.
We started with the last few pages we were reading from "Wind in the Willows" and I took it sentence by sentence reminding both Tom and Ali often to listen to the "first part" of the sentence to be able to "tell back".

I think that last page & a half took us about a 1/2 an hour. But by the end of it Tom was already doing better and was listening and narrating from the "first part" of the sentence rather that just telling back the last portion of what I had read.
Ali, who doesn't usually struggle with narrating unless out of laziness, was a bit frustrated at the slow going initially but gradually caught on and has also been giving better narrations.

We continued this for the rest of the week, sentence by sentence readings with the twins taking turns in narrating back to me specifically listening to the "first part" of the reading. Towards the end of the week I was able to do 2 sentences at a time and Tom has done a much better job of cohesively retelling them in his own words. I have also noticed that in the beginning both of the kids would try narrating back to me word for word what I read, but after encouraging them to use their own words they have been able to take a portion of the reading and tell it back in their own words but with greater detail than if I had given them a larger reading.

I am encouraged though still slightly fretful over the slow progress we will most likely make. I have had to continually remind myself that it would be a pointless journey through these "living" books if my children were unable to train their minds to the habit of attention.

"A vigorous effort of will should enable us at any time to fix our thoughts. Yes; but a vigorous self-compelling will is the flower of a developed character; and while the child has no character to speak of, but only natural disposition, who is to keep humming-tops out of a geography lesson, or a doll's sofa out of a French verb? Here is the secret of the weariness of the home schoolroom––the children are thinking all the time about something else than their lessons; or rather, they are at the mercy of the thousand fancies that flit through their brains, each in the train of the last. "Oh, Miss Smith," said a little girl to her governess, "there are so many things more interesting than lessons to think about!"

Where is the harm? In this: not merely that the children are wasting time, though that is a pity; but that they are forming a desultory habit of mind, and reducing their own capacity for mental effort."

Home Education pg 139

In the wonderful issues of the online newsletter Magnanimity published by Karen Glass, she has an article that has been a breath of fresh air to me entitled "The Still Progress of Growth".
In it she points out that we need to view our children's growth and education like a tree growing. We may not see with our eyes any growth but we do not always know what is going on under the surface. Roots are being pushed deeper, limbs become denser, sap is rising to produce more fruit.
Our children are the same way. Being able to check off of a list that we have read a particular chapter is fine, but if I have not taken the time to slow down and train habits of attention and listening so that they may order their thoughts. Then I have not necessarily made "progress".

"Is there not some confusion of ideas about this fetish of progress? Do we not confound progress with

movement, action, assuming that where these are there is necessarily
advance? Whereas much of our activity is like the waves of the sea, going
always and arriving never. What we desire is the still progress of growth
that comes of root striking downwards and fruit urging upwards. And this
progress in character and conduct is not attained through conditions of
environment or influence but only through the growth of ideas, received with
conscious intellectual effort."
A Philosophy of Education, p. 297.

To read the newsletter Magnanimity - join here.
To read the article The Still Progress of Growth join the yahoo group and find Volume 1, Issue 2.

How to Keep School going all week

Still working on this one!
This year we've been using a 5-day week schedule but I'm seeing the need to revamp it and change to a 4-day schedule. It seems we end up doing 4 days anyway and at least 1 day is a catch-up or errand day.
Also recently my husbands work schedule has changed so that every other Friday he has the day off and obviously it would be nice to be more free from a schedule when he is home.

It is extremely helpful to be able to make cd's of the books we are reading from librivox and take with us if we are traveling. Someday here I will get another mp3 player or maybe (Lord willing) even an ipod! I'm always leery of purchasing higher priced electronics just because of the destructive nature of children......especially mine, but I'm really missing the help of my old mp3 player in getting all of the kids readings done.

If you have and ipod or mp3 player available to you I would highly suggest using it for your kids school readings. I found that my oldest son, who often has difficulties attending to my reading with other noise and distractions going on around him, could narrate back more of a story he had listened to on the mp3 player because the other noise was eliminated.

Don't be discouraged if your schedule seems to need constant revamping and reworking....I have realized that this is just life and our job is to remain fluid in it. Be purposeful in your school time but don't fret the small stuff.

Narration Encouragement

We sailed through our first term this year with loads of great and thorough narrating especially from my oldest son who has always struggled with language arts stuff. I was pleased and excited and really felt that we had made it....problems solved, they knew what to do and had acquired the habit of attention for narrating purposes.
Then we had a long Christmas break and ever since starting our 2nd term narrating has been a HUGE struggle. Some for Ali but mostly for Tom, sigh.

So I've been trying to evaluate what has changed and what might need to be changed to help the poor kid out.
First, I remember that I used a narration jar for most of the 1st term and both kids really enjoyed that, so I finally made up more questions this morning and restocked our narration jar.
Second, because I've been frustrated and Tom has been unwilling I've found myself falling into the habit of quizzing, goading and just plain nagging him. Bad mom!!

Teachers become so inured to this practice of goading their pupils' thoughts along prescribed channels, that information not given within the limits they choose to place seems illogical and discursive.

Today, blessedly, I received a very informative and inspiring email from yahoo group AmbleLore. Seriously if you aren't part of this group you simply must join. I don't get to read it that often but when I have read it has been an excellent addition to my education as an educator.

Go, right now and join this group and then look for the message titled On Narration. You won't regret it, even if narration is not a struggle right now this author gives incentive for you and your children to take it to a new level.

You can also visit my scribd docs and find the narrations cards that I just made today (copied from several sources) for our narration jar.

A Broad Education - The Arts

When children have begun regular lessons (that is, as soon as they are six), this sort of study of pictures should not be left to chance, but they should take one artist after another, term by term, and study quietly some half-dozen reproductions of his work in the course of the term.

Charlotte Mason - Home Education pg. 309

Something wonderful has happened in our home over the past year or so and I can't help but lay my personal thanks to Charlotte Mason and her ideas on "short lessons". Instead of sticking to only the basics of school subjects I have been able to open broad doors to a very liberal education for my children starting at a young age.
Left to myself I would never have felt able to tackle such subjects as literature, world history, art, classical music and composers, poetry and handicrafts. But being bolstered and instructed by an experienced educator (Miss Mason) we have boldly entered into each of these subjects.

"the lessons are short, seldom more than twenty minutes in length for children under eight..."

I have talked with other home school mom's who wish to add many of these border subjects to their child's school routine but are too overloaded with current schedules or unsure of how to proceed that they simply don't even try. Frankly had I not read Miss Mason's work I would have been in the same boat. It seems as though we as home school moms feel that we must cover all or not at all, we tend to overdue all subjects especially those that are not considered basics. Normally I would have approached art study or composer study thinking that we needed to read several books on the artist or composer and hear or study all of their works. Miss Mason's protocol for art and music study would have seemed very simplistic.
Thankfully, I was willing to try and have been overwhelmingly pleased with the results. Not only do we have the time (5-15 minutes, once a week) to study paintings and listen to musical selections we have also learned from narrating our impressions to each other and each of my school age children has enjoyed learning more about a particular artist or composer on their own.

The art training of children should proceed on two lines. The six-year-old child should begin both to express himself and to appreciate, and his appreciation should be well in advance of his power to express what he sees or imagines.
Charlotte Mason - Home Education pg. 307

If you are using Ambleside Online's composer rotation then at some point you will want to listen to Jean Sibelius's Symphony no. 1. I can't say that I've heard this symphony before or for that matter much at all by Sibelius but I am happy to say that it is a very good piece and we all enjoyed listening to it as well as watching the orchestra perform it.

You can read more about the symphony here and more about Jean Sibelius here.

If you are looking for an avenue for your kiddos to learn more about the symphony and the various musical instruments then I would highly recommend the games found at Carnegie Hall Listening Adventures. My children have really enjoyed playing the games and have learned a large amount about instruments and the symphony. They can each name the instruments by sight although we are still working on being able to name them by sound.

FREE Eugene Field Resource

If you are using Ambleside Online curriculum and in Year 2 or looking ahead to using Year 2 then you will want to download these resources.

Available today through Homeschool Radio Shows and audio biography of Eugene Field and an ebook of poems from Mr. Field.

Don't miss it!

When Life gets in the way of blogging

Okay so really it's the other way around but since the holidays are past and we are on the tale end of doing some remodeling and school is back under way I might get a chance to drop in here and post some stuff.
We took the entire month of December off from formal school and while it was really very nice and needed it was a bit too long. I stopped thinking in school terms. Not the worst thing in the world but kind of makes starting up again a bit sluggish. The plan was to start school the first week in January but I realized after returning from my parents house that I hadn't planned the first week out much less the entire term and so I spent the week planning and organizing.
It was worth the effort as this last week (our first in term 2) went by smoothly, not easily just smoothly:)
So far so good but we are already behind in 1 history book ( The Little Duke) so we will be reading a bit from it every day to keep up. I've found that this year I've had to spread our readings out over an hour or so but have to keep rotating books because I can't stay awake while reading in the afternoon much longer than 15 minutes. Such is life with a baby.
I'd like to add in some extra studies this term but it just may not happen, and that's okay too.