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.

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:)

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!

Narration Gathering

Sometimes I just need a one-stop shop for all the ideas that I find around the internet. So in order to facilitate my being able to find what I need when I need it and to hopefully help some of you out as well I'm gathering all the links and articles that have helped me with narration.

I'll also post these in the side-bar.


We use narration daily instead of tests or review or questioning. After I finish reading a portion of whatever book we are working through I pass around our Narration Jar and let the kids each pick a question. Some questions aren't always appropriate for what we have read so it's not a hard and fast thing.
Each child must narrate. I don't require long answers but "I don't remember" or "I don't know" are not passing grade:) If a child balks or can't seem to come up with anything I either move on to the next child (I have 2 in 2nd grade-twins) or I may ask a few general questions to help stir their memory. I have often found it helpful to narrate to them what I remember. Sometimes I have one of the children ask a question and each of us has to answer it.
I have found that using the narration jar and questions gets better co-operation and more enthusiasm than me just asking "what do you remember".
I haven't been really good and consistent about writing down narrations but I am making a better effort towards that end.

In case you are wondering, out of the 3 children old enough to give me narrations my son (8) by far gives me a shorter narration than my girls, but he has made tremendous progress. Tom didn't begin talking until he was 3 and spent a couple years in speech therapy, but after just one year of narrating his speech was brought up to his age level and now in our third year of narrating he is able to remember and narrate more than the last sentence!

It has been my experience that shorter portions of harder or highly detailed books makes narration much more doable for my kids. Pictures of what we are reading about are sometimes helpful as well.
My daughters both enjoy drawing their narrations while my son does not. Ali and Emi can narrate after longer passages while Tom does better with shorter ones.
The slower I read the better.

Anyways, I hope this helps and encourages you. If you are struggling or feeling like this isn't working please don't give up.
Relax and try again tomorrow.


NARRATION WHY AND HOW:

The art of Narrating
Narration Reminders from Jimmie's Collage
Narration and the Narration Cube
Articles on Narrating from Lindafay
Narration Jar from A Dusty Frame
Narration Ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason
Parents' Review Article at AmblesideOnline
Narration Bookmarks at Gentle Art of Chaos (I love these!)


Narration Starters

Week 9 Wrap-Up

Combine sick baby, potty-training toddler and time change in the same week and to be honest school takes a bit of a back burner. We were able to get some done every day but not all. Thankfully I'm really too tired to worry about it and since we did keep up with our weekly reading schedule I won't fret about what wasn't finished.


The weather this past week has been simply amazing! Sunny and warm, so we have spent many, many hours outside playing. We have 2 large sycamore trees in our backyard and their leaves are simply huge so make wonderfully large leaf piles to jump into. We have yet to make it to the local arboretum for some exploring since Sadie was born but maybe it will happen this next week.


Ali and Tom are getting the hang of Miquon Math and seem to be enjoying the format of the books. Emi is exhibiting more staying power with her math and phonics and is still making rapid reading progress.

We enjoyed listening to the newly purchased Pilgrim's Progress mp3 cd for our weekly reading and I think the kids will be able to get a bit more from it than before.


We spent a few hours at a local city park one afternoon as well.



Nothing exciting or extremely note-worthy at least that my sleep-deprived brain can remember:)

Seeing what we are Reading - Burgess Animal Book

In following year 2 of Ambleside we have been reading the Burgess Animal Book for Children. Well, okay, we've been listening to it thanks to Librivox.
I wanted the kids to be able to picture the animals that we have been reading about so I went searching and found a great picture album put together by Lindafay on shutterfly. The only problem was that I had to search through the whole thing to find the correct pictures and I kind of wanted something a bit more detailed.
So I created my own album.
I'm not quite finished yet but so far I'm liking how it's working. I've made an album for each of the chapters in the book with the same title so that I can just click on the chapter we are listening to and look at the pictures of those animals. I've also tried to listen to each chapter with the kids and make sure that the pictures I have chosen correspond well with the description Mother Nature provides for us in the book.
Check it out and see what you think.

Burgess Animal Book Pics

Week 4

So I'm a bit late posting this but I guess, better late than never.

Last week was a bit rough, mostly my fault for staying up too late for several nights (C. S. Lewis Space trilogy is just too good!) and not resting during the day. But we made it through with only a little bit of reading to catch up on.

Our fav thing of the week was finally getting the timeline up on our hallway wall. Everyone has enjoyed looking at the pics and dates and can't wait for Fridays when we put any new ones up.


I had 1 set of timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods (yellow lines) and then copied that format and made the rest of the dates myself. I used different colors for each of the different time periods and followed the measurement guidelines given by Terri at Knowledge Quest.

I spent some time before school started going through each book for Year 2 from Ambleside and made my own timeline cards. Most of the info was taken from Wikipedia and didn't take long at all. Someday when I figure it out I'll make it available as a download.

Everyone enjoyed browsing through new library books and we've been reading some of them during circle time.

Emi worked on her reading skills using Bob Books. She is making progress but I'm finding it interesting meeting her needs. She is a very quick learner which means she gets bored easy. She is also a young 1st grader so some things take a bit longer for her to get figured out simply because she lacks the patience to learn it. I did find some great resources for reading practice and phonics work here and for the most part they have engaged her a lot better and spurred her on to try harder. I'm also planning on ordering this adorable reader for her to gain more confidence with.

We've been using Tanglewoods Corebook Health & Safety guide for a weekly focus and this past week was Tooth Care. We read some books from the library and talked a bit about keeping our teeth healthy and then of course we all had to practice it.



Over the past weekend I had a crisis about math study and was concerned that I was focusing too hard on drill work and not enough on math concepts, so I spent some time re-reading what Charlotte Mason had to say on the subject and then going over the links given on Ambleside Online. I decided that I just needed to strive for better balance than I was giving so am currently trying a rotation during the week using Calculadders, Math-It and Quarter Mile Math for drill work; Miquon Math and Family Math for mathematical concepts and Ray's Arithmetic for well, arithmetic. So far it's working o.k. I just can't quite check out of teaching like I'd kind of like to do:)

Don't forget to check out more great posts HERE!

New Experiences in Nature Study

This term in school we are studying insects as suggested in the Ambleside Online rotation. Initially I had planned on using Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" but felt that it was a bit too much to handle for me as a teacher this year. Instead I downloaded Barb's "Outdoor Hour Challenges" for insects and plan on using them. I also spent some time reading portions of the Handbook of Nature Study to familiarize myself with what insects we should look out for and some places to find them.
As I was browsing through the butterfly section I read how you could find Monarch Caterpillars on milkweed plants especially in the month of September, so on Monday, our nature study day, we walked to the end of our block where I knew there were several uncut milkweed plants. It took us a bit of looking and poking around but just before we were ready to give up we spotted a caterpillar sitting on a leaf.



The kids quickly ran back home and got a jar and some scissors so that we could take it home. Luckily I thought to grab an extra top from another milkweed plant to stick in the big jar at home because this would come in handy very soon.
We brought "stripey" home, put him and a couple stalks of milkweed into a gallon size glass jar, spread some cheesecloth across the top and then waited.....and waited......and waited.
I thought we had killed him somehow when after 24 hours he hadn't so much as moved a muscle, but lo and behold he was in the process of shedding skin. We were able to observe the tail-end of it and then stood in amazement over the next few days as we watched this little caterpillar eat, and eat, and eat and eat.
The boys would try to race the caterpillar at supper time to see if they could eat as much as fast as the caterpillar did; my husband and I would laugh as we watched it's little head tick back and forth while it ate reminding us of a typewriter and my girls got completely grossed out as the bottom of the jar filled with caterpillar droppings!
Once everyday I would boil some water on the stove to add some humidity to the air (not that it was needed much) because we were instructed not to let the air get too dry. We also replenished the food supply a couple of times and cleaned out the droppings as well.
On Saturday I took it out to clean the jar and add fresh milkweed but noticed that the caterpillar was hanging upside down and it's back-end was attached to the stem. I decided to leave it and just see what would happen. Sure enough later on it let go of the stem and just hung so I assumed that it would be changing into a chrysalis soon.
We missed the transformation because it happened while we were at church but you can see how it happens here.



Can you imagine the excitement when we came home and saw no longer a two inch upside down caterpillar but a tiny little jade chrysalis?

Now we wait. According to HNS it will take about 12 days to mature into a butterfly, but the changes to the chrysalis each day are absolutely amazing!

"The monarch chrysalis is, I maintain, the most beautiful gem in Nature's jewel csket; it is an oblong jewel of jade, darker at the upper end and shading to the most exquisite whitish green below; outlining this lower paler portion are shining flecks of gold."
HNS page 307-308

Geography and Paddle-to-the-Sea

Could there possibly be a better choice for Year 1 students but this book Paddle to the Sea?

Tom, Ali and I have enjoyed reading through this book very much and have learned a lot about the great lakes in the process.
My DH grew up around the great lakes so the kids enjoy asking him questions about each lake that he has seen or been to. For instance we had just read about Lake Erie and where telling DH what we had learned and he was able to add that he had swam in that lake and that it was a murky lake.
We've used mostly maps for learning about the areas that Paddle drifts through and this has worked very well. I have a large U.S. map on our livingroom wall that we refer to for the big picture of where paddle was and is in each adventure.


I also printed out a couple of outline maps for the kids to color in. This map gives a nice view of all the lakes and surrounding states without any state or city names, while this map helps them to locate each state and lake by its name. As we read each chapter I have them color in any new area that we learn about and then we discuss the states that surround each lake and how to tell the difference on a map between each lake.


Another fun tool especially for Tom has been following Paddle's adventures on Google Earth. This has been fun to get a bird's eye view of the areas that Paddle floats through. We have also googled searched the Soo locks and various other landmarks to help with picturing the areas.
And for a grand finale of our geography lessons for the year we will be watching the movie of Paddle-to-the-Sea on youtube. The kids are bummed that I won't let them watch it now but I want them to use their own imaginations of what they think things looked like for Paddle before they see a movie of it. But since the movie is live action and not a cartoon it should be very enlightening to watch.

We are also working on a plan to visit the great lakes possibly next year.

Anyway enjoy your reading and if you've found other helpful links in your research please post them in the comments.

Term 3 Artist Study

For most of this year we have been using Harmony Fine Arts Grade 1 curriculum for our music and art appreciation and while I love this well put together curriculum I found that there were too many artists for my kids to get a good grasp on and I wasn't getting any of the wonderful extra activities in. So I decided to simplify a bit and go ahead and follow the Art rotation laid out on AmblesideOnline.

Now if you have not gone through AmblesideOnline with a fine toothpick comb yet, then please find an area and start clicking on all of those delightful links that have been provided. I just clicked on a few on the Art Schedule page and am really excited about using them.

In the past a member provided the art prints each term at a low cost but she is not able to do that anymore so you will need to find a way to get them yourself. I would highly recommend joining the AO Art yahoo group because you can download the terms artist pictures and those of past years. While you could print them out yourself at home I have found a cheap alternative that I wanted to share.

Since we have a fedex/kinkos store in the town that I frequent I got online yesterday and registered on their website and then placed an order to have the Van Gogh pictures printed out by them. This was unbelievably easy and took a matter of 10 minutes or so. I chose cardstock glossy paper and full-color copies to be made from the file that I had downloaded from the yahoo group and had uploaded to the kinkos site. And they have a promotion going right now for users to receive 20% off of a printing order so my total cost for having 7 pages printed was under $7!!!

Today I had errands to run in town and dropped by the store to pick up my prints. I was very happy with the results and can't wait to put them in use. I will be putting each print as we view it into a binder with page protectors. I also plan to keep my eyes open at garage sales for some nice 8 x 10 frames so that I can hang a few of our favorites up throughout the house.

Seriously, do you ever wonder what we would do without the internet!

My Favorite Charlotte Mason Resources

Here is a list of the many different resources that I go to for help, information, encouragement and guidance in implementing Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies in our homeschool.



WEBSITES & BLOGS

Ambleside Online

Higher Up and Further In Blog

Understanding Charlotte Blog

Simply Charlotte Mason

In the Sparrow's Nest Blog

Handbook of Nature Study Blog

Hearts and Trees Blog

In the Heart of my Home Blog

Penny Gardner

A Charlotte Mason Education

Dominion Family Blog




BOOKS & EBOOKS

Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss

Charlotte Mason Study Guide by Penny Gardner

Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Shafer

For the Children's Sake/For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

The Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason

When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper

A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

A Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola

Education is..... by Sonya Shafer FREE

Masterly Inactivity by Soyna Shafer FREE

Education the Wholehearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson

Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock




SCHOOL HELPS

LibriVox Recordings - Free downloadable audio books

Project Gutenberg - Free downloadable books

E-Nature - America's Wildlife Resource

Paddle-to-the-Sea with Google Earth

Outline Maps to print

Seterra - Free geography game



There are also many great yahoo groups that correspond with Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online if you are wanting to know how other women work this educational approach in their own homes I would highly recommend finding these groups on yahoo.

If you go to Ambleside Online and click on the "Introduction to Ambleside Online" you will find several resources and links available.

Also a great way to meet other CM moms and be inspired is to join the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!


Don't forget to go on over to Kim's Blog to check out other resources.

Thoughts on Poetry part 2

"Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing, and it is well to store a child's memory with a good deal of poetry, learnt without labour." CM Vol. 1, pg. 224

I certainly haven't been as consistent as I had hoped to be since my last post on this topic but we have made progress regardless.

Emily memorized her poem after only 3 readings and the fun part is that the other kids did memorized hers right along with her. Tom is very close to having his completed and Alissa has conquered the first part of hers as well as Tom and Emily's. I've even noticed that I am memorizing these poems right along with them!

A couple of things that I have noticed while we have "not" been memorizing is that often in the beginning they don't get all of the correct words in but they are able to "tell back" the main gist of the poem. Alissa does not understand most of the words in her poem but she has only asked me about a few of them for explanations, but she can relate what the poem is talking about using her own words and those of the poem.

Also, since my kids are still not complete independent readers I do read all of the poems aloud to them so everyone is memorizing each other's poems. So far this has not confused them in the least and I'll just have to keep tabs on how well they can remember their own poems and not confuse it with the other poems. If I see this becoming a problem I will either have to read their poems to them separately or we'll just all work on one poem at a time together.

I have decided that for our scripture memory we will all be working on one passage at a time. Since I have been rather neglectful of this I am committing to start on Psalm 1 this coming Monday.

Another item that I hadn't of thought of practicing until reading Jacci's post was to have them recite properly. Emily has done a good job with expression but tends to rush it a bit.



"I hope that my readers will train their children in the art of recitation; in the coming days, more even than in our own will it behove every educated man and woman to be able to speak effectively in public; and, in learning to recite you learn to speak." CM Vol. 1, pg. 224



I do have a video clip of Emily's recitation but I haven't had time to figure out how to post it.






Thoughts on Poetry Memorization part 1

How I found Charlotte Mason and Why we use it

It all started back when we first got married, except I didn't know it at the time. We were given the book "For the Family's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay and while it looked interesting I just never got around to reading it until the year that I was nursing my 5th baby William. I usually go through a boat-load of books while nursing and this book happened to be one that I picked up. Not only does she give lots of good advice she also leads you into a general, approachable understanding about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophies.

Also around that same time the Spring 2007 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine showed up and as I perused it I ran across an article where a mom , Ali Telfer, shared how they were using this FREE curriculum called Ambleside Online and how much they were enjoying it, so this intrigued me as well, I mean who can pass up FREE.

I don't know if I had heard of Charlotte Mason persay but I did know that somehow Karen Andreola was "into" that kind of education. Honestly I thought it was an unschooling approach which I was not interested in simply because of my personality.

After reading several chapters in "For the Family's Sake", and doing some internet research I borrowed the book "Pocketful of Pinecones" from my library and that is probably what finally lit my fire. Each of these bits of information that I had come across not only heightened my curiosity but touched something deep within me that needed answers.

I spent a lot of time researching on the internet and then ordered a used set of the "The Original Homeschooling Series" by Charlotte Mason. At this point I was reading everything that I could get my hands on and when those books showed up I devoured the first volume in short order, some of it actually bringing me to tears!

As I read I couldn't help but think back on my own schooling years (all homeschooled) and realize that those times when I learned the most and remembered the most all came from reading living books and being left alone in nature. I knew that that was exactly what I wanted for my children and the idea of a broad education not only excited me as a teacher but as a person.

I have always had a huge appetite for knowledge and have never ceased to educate myself continually throughout my years out of school although only a few months were spent in college. I knew that at the heart of my goals for my children would be that they would never lose that eager curiosity and longing to know more. I saw the steps to keep this flame lit in their lives given to me through Charlotte's writings.

I also was searching for the kind of education that would not stifle my oldest son, Thomas's, unique personality. Thomas did not speak more than a few words until he was 3 years old and had every indication that he was somewhere on the autism spectrum. We had him in speech therapy and I had radically changed his diet but I knew that it would probably be a life-long effort to teach him. Since language was his main issue I needed tools to use in schooling at home that would increase his vocabulary and his ability to express himself. Enter Narration! This has been an answer to prayers, not an easy one mind you but very effective in Tom's life.

We started using narration (a technique his speech therapist was using as well) during his Preschool and Kindergarten years and while it was a huge struggle at first and I would often become very frustrated we were able to see the benefits when we returned to speech therapy after a years absence. For financial reasons we were unable to continue speech therapy during his Kindergarten year but I used as many CM principles as I could, especially narrating. When we returned to his therapy his advisor was completely astounded by the progress he had made. Literally she saw a completely different boy than the previous year had shown. His vocabulary had gone from being 2-3 years behind his age to being in a normal range, his understanding of reading material was at a normal range etc. Everything that we had thought would never be possible for him or he would struggle with was gone! We continued his therapy only until they had finished evaluating where he was at and it was decided that he no longer needed their help. One of the greatest compliments that I received was from his advisor who had been very concerned about us homeschooling him; she said as we left that she had no doubt that he would succeed and catch up completely because he was being homeschooled! Praise the Lord! She also wanted to know if I had a teaching degree. Nope just Charlotte Mason.



To make a long story short I can say most emphatically that a Charlotte Mason style education is a perfect fit for our family. I continue to read and learn more and have never ceased to be inspired by her writings and wisdom for our school and for me as a mom.

Everyday is an adventure and because of the wisdom that Charlotte so willing shared as an educator to parents and her hearts desire to see parents teaching their children I do not feel lost and unsure about the direction to take in education my own children . She has given us a tried and true method to follow and taken the guess work out of providing our children with a broad and complete education that will enhance the rest of their lives.



P.S. Go on over to Homesteaders Heart for more about homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way.

Reviewing Year 1

With the 1^st Term and most of the 2^nd Term of 1^st grade under our belts, I’ve been looking back and reevaluating what has worked and what hasn’t; what I like and what I don’t.

What I Like:

• Ambleside Online curriculum has been a huge blessing and has eased my fears and uncertainties during this first year. With few exceptions every book and idea has been wonderful and we have truly enjoyed ourselves. That being said I did make the decision to not read through “Trial and Triumph”. While I found it fascinating the kids were a bit bored and I feel the need to pre-read this one in its entirety before reading to the kids.


• Ray’s Arithmetic is awesome. Easy, concise and cheapJ I felt the need to go with a more hands-on oral math program partly from Charlotte’s direction but mostly from seeing where my son Thomas needed help. Thomas has a very sharp and quick memory and after going through much of the CLP Math K I didn’t feel that he had a real grasp on what he was doing so by making him do the majority of his work orally I am in no doubt as to what he does know and what he needs work on. I have also added Math-It to our daily arithmetic lessons and have seen great results from it as well. I used Math-it as a child and loved it and so far my kids have had the same response. My mom has been giving away most all of her homeschooling books since she has graduated the last child so I was blessed to receive her Math-it program!


• Reading Reflex, I really can’t say enough about this book and program. I love it, the kids love it and their progress has been very rapid. I can’t wait to test them at the end of the year and see what grade level they are reading at! I have also started Emily on it and she is able to read a few of the first Bob Books.


• Language Lessons for Little Ones from Queen Homeschool has been a blessing to us as well. I was initially skeptical of this series because after all wasn’t it just “bookwork” and possible “twaddle”? It most definitely is not! I am using for Emily since I felt she needed school just for her and have found it to be a perfect fit. Emily is 5.5 but in preschool because of a summer birthday even though academically she could be in Kindergarten I do not feel a need to rush things with her. Her favorite lessons in the book so far are the picture studies, but we did enjoy the poem from last lesson and the ensuing discussion. At first I was going to “save” this book and not let her write in it so that I could use it for Wesley next year as well, but he is such a different learning style and personality than her that I don’t know if he would care for it anyway.


• Harmony Fine Arts-at first I was a bit disappointed that I had paid $20 for a few printed off sheets of paper for this “program” but the actual doing of it has been anything but disappointing. The layout is easy and precise and you know exactly what to do when, which in my world is a HUGE deal. We have not done this as consistently as I had planned and even though I bought the material needed for Option 2 of the 1^st grade program we have mostly just done Option 1. But the kids have learned so much! And I will be able to use this for each child to come. Their favorite is the composer study and listening to the music. So far Beethoven has won hands down as the best composer and Alissa is very upset to be moving on to a new composer and in retaliation for the offense puts on the Beethoven cd programs it to Fur Elise and refuses to admit there is another song that can compete, lol. They are able to recognize about 1 or 2 songs from each composer study and when possible I dig out some of my old music and play them a few pieces from that particular composer. For the art study we view the pictures online and then after narrating about them I set that picture for the wallpaper background on our computer so that everyone can enjoy it a bit longer.

What I don't Like

• Structured preschool programs! I’ve tried a few and after a few weeks throw it out because it simply is not pleasurable. Maybe it’s my type A personality or maybe it’s the amount of littles to teach but I have not found anything that fits our family well. And then when I’m feeling guilty about not doing anything “structured” I open up volume 1 of Home Education and all my fears and distresses are relieved! I know from the depths of my being that what Charlotte speaks is true and it works. I have given up the fight and I am going to “let my children alone to just be children”.

Now I would say that is a pretty good start on Year 1 when the Likes outweigh the Dislikes.