Betsy Ross Co-op 4

By Lynn, on October 16th, 2010%

I wanted to share some information about the last Betsy Ross co-op we had, where I co-taught, focusing on medicine in the 1700s, especially herbal medicine.

First, though, let me share that my son will have to have surgery for his arm.  The bones have already slipped out of place again and are causing him quite a lot of pain.  While the doctors are in to repair the radius with a plate, they will go ahead and do a carpal tunnel release.  Apparently there are structures (can’t remember if the doctor said bone or just swelling) putting pressure on the carpal ligament.  Anyway, we’ll be glad when the surgery is done.  I realize it’s not major surgery, but anytime it’s one of your babies having surgery…   Well.

Here is the “medicine box” I carried to the co-op.  Can you imagine?  It is full of all sorts of herbal tinctures and powders, vinegars and soaps, etc.  I think the children were at least intrigued by it!

At this point I have to thank my sweet friend, Marqueta, of Sweete Felicity, because I recently received a wonderful, delightful package from her, full of the work of her harvests and herbal knowledge!  The medicines above fit into the herbal medicine box perfectly!  In addition, the comfrey leaves she sent, mixed with some goldenseal, helped to cure one of the bunnies of an eye infection.

Other things in my medicine box included rosehips, chamomile, parsley, and mustard seeds.

I had black walnut powder for all manner of illness and my little boxes full of headache remedy or nausea remedy.

Can you believe the headache remedy?  Yes, since walnuts look like brains, they were considered to be a medicine for the brain, including alleviating headaches.  This approach to using plants for medicine is called “The Doctrine of Signatures,” meaning that God has put a stamp on each plant, telling us what it is good for.  Since the walnut looks like a brain, it’s good for the brain.  One thing interesting about this is that many  nuts contain choline, which is super good for the brain. Nuts also contain a good kind of fat, which the brain needs to stay healthy.  Also, think about aloe.  Have you ever seen the inside of a piece of aloe?  It looks like ice, and true to that, aloe is good for cooling burns.  There are other medicines that fit this doctrine, and they actually work!

One of the things I try to do when I teach a co-op is to make a set of laminated cue cards so that I have something easy to follow for talking to the kids, and also as a review tool for Michaela to use here at home.

If anyone is interested, I have put links to my cue cards on The Healthy Homeschool website.  Bear in mind that these cards contain information about what might have been used in the 1700s and not necessarily what would be a good idea now! 

The children get a whiff of what they might have smelled like after a treatment proscribed for muscle strain.

I had each child draw a slip of paper from a bag.  On each paper was written the name of an illness or injury.  The children then found out what their treatments might have been in the 1700s!

I hope the children enjoyed it as much as I did.  I know one thing.  It was sobering for both the children and adults to answer this question:  “Would I still be alive at this age I am now had I been born in the 1700s?”  There were at least three parents and one child who would have already been gone if it were not for modern medicine. 

The next portion of the co-op was a fair where the children were allowed to display things they had made!  It could be food, crafts, or even things they had put together as a collection.  Just as in the Betsy Ross story we read, money was the prize.  Each child got a replica of a piece of colonial money!

Following the fair, we had a time for devotion and then we learned about history, playing a game where the children had to line up with cards holding the names of well known events or places (colonies).

The children formed a human timeline, putting things in their proper order.  This was a good review me, too!

The co-op marks the end of our time with Betsy Ross and the Revolutionary time period, at least for now.  Now it is on to Homer Price and depression/early post depression era.

I must get busy working.  I’ve missed quite a few hours with doctor appointments this week and there will be more to come in the next few weeks.

Enjoy this day!

3 comments   Betsy Ross, Beyond Five In A Row, Herbs and Wild Edibles

Four Hours of Sleep

By Lynn, on October 14th, 2010%

So, yeah, I’m running on fumes today.  I was going to be so good and post last night, but at about 5:30 p.m. my third son was on a bike that decided to lose the chain and send him flying onto his wrist.  Sometimes you wonder, “Is it broken?”  But when the arm is deformed, you know it.  It’s broken. 

It was broken.  Very broken.  I’ve always wondered what an “obvious deformity” looked like after typing it all these years, but I can honestly say I did not want to see it on any of my children.   Actually, I didn’t want to see it IRL on anyone, but I now know what it looks like.

It’s been a wet, rainy morning, which suits the mood around here.  We got home at about 3:00 this morning, slips of paper in hand to remind us to schedule upcoming appointments.  He may need surgery.  He broke his radius and his ulna (both bones in the forearm), and even after heavy sedation and lots of pulling to try and set the bones, the bones don’t want to line up just right.  They keep slipping. 

It could have been worse.  He could have landed on his head. 

I do have updates I wanted to share, but it was only fitting to start with what’s been most pressing here for the last 24 hours.  I have a picture of his arm on my phone, but I have no idea how to get it to here.  If and when I figure that out I’ll be sure and share it (with a warning for the squeamish, of course).

Update#1 would be that The Adventures of Sarah Awswell has a bit of a change in its URL. 

So here’s Quinn Ferrell popping in to remind you to update your link (hopefully this will be the only time you have to do this) so that you can follow the stories of these Orchard Elementary School kids.   The link above is the current one.

Now, let’s talk about school. 

Homeschool, that is.  I owe you weeks worth of honest updates about what we have actually gotten done.   Here goes.

Week 6
09/20 – 09/24/10

Read Betsy Ross chapters 13-16
Math – still reviewing (more to come on that)
Copywork #11, 12, 13
Spelling week 5 — #3, 4, 5
Spelling – Write all words from week 1-5
Cursive week 5 and week 6 work.
Alexander Hamilton and John Hancock bio/coloring pages to go on time line. 
Watched a movie about Anne Frank (Again.  A personal interest of Michaela’s.)
Daily violin practice
Violin lesson
09/23 — fieldtrip to Joel Lane House
Music lesson about Haydn and Bach to go with Revolutionary time period
State information page about Pennsylvania

Week 7*
09/27 – 10/1/2010

Read Betsy Ross chapter 17
Betsy Ross co-op on 09/30 
Spelling week 6
Cursive week 7
Math — set up math center to work from. 
Library trip
*I co-taught this week’s co-op and it was all about medicine in the 1700s.  Our week was much taken up with that, so not much appears on the lesson plan sheet, but I feel that much was learned!
Daily violin practice
Violin lesson
Independent reading

Week 8
10/4 – 10/8/10

NC Museum of History 10/7 — Mt. Vernon exhibit
Math — Saxon 7/6 lesson 43
Created science poster using books from our home library and pictures from our large garden spider (Nature Study)
Learned about classification
Planned how our math center will work
Spelling week 7
Cursive week 8
Created creative writing blog with friend
Wrote her own “declaration”
Independent reading

So there you go.  You see our weak spot, right?  Does it just jump right out at you?  Math.  Why?  Because I love to be involved in what she does with math.  I want to know she got the lesson.  On my work days it’s a challenge, so sometimes we dawdle around and don’t do a formal lesson.  We do, however, have a white board that we go to to solve problem, review concepts and explain how real life math problems would be solved.  In the past couple of weeks we have created a math center — a plastic bin with drawers full of manipulatives, books and worksheets so that some kind of math will get done every day, even if we do not do a formal lesson from the Saxon book, although it’s in the plans to do a Saxon lesson each day as well.  I feel we’ve just been extremely slow getting going this year. 

Annie continues to be my best friend while I work.  Michaela snapped this picture of Annie curled up behind me while I was typing away.  She does not look like she’d take too kindly to be picked up from here, does she?  You’re right!  She growls if you try to move her from this little spot.  I do love that spoiled rotten, problem of a dog, Fatso Beagle Annie.

I’m off to get a nap now.  I’m hoping to catch up on comments soon.  I feel that life is in good order, even in spite of the broken arm situation.  I’m thankful for what we are able to do.

7 comments   Betsy Ross, Beyond Five In A Row, Daily Thoughts, Grade 7 Lessons, Homeschooling, Nature Study, Pets    

The Joel Lane House

By Lynn, on September 28th, 2010%

Last Thursday was another excellent fieldtrip with our Five In A Row group!  Yes, it’s a challenge to be out of the house for something every week, but it is so worth it!  We always learn so much, Michaela’s friendships grow, and it gets me refreshed from a homeschooling standpoint!

The Joel Lane House is a beautiful old house in Raleigh, built in the 1770s and then in later years restored beautifully and furnished with items of the day.  It belonged to Joel Lane, sometimes referred to the “Father of Raleigh.”

Here’s the group of older kids who toured the house.  I love that Michaela can enjoy fieldtrips like this with kids her own age.  Even though many of these children have “aged out” of Five In A Row, the spirit in which they are educated remains the same, and they never age out of the homeschool group!

Don’t you love the juxtaposition of an old chamber pot sitting across from such a modern foot?  :)

This bedroom is very small, but oh so sweet and neat.  I wanted to stay and enjoy the simplicity.  The mattress, called a tick, might be filled with a variety of substances, including corn husks.  Can anyone say bed bugs?

We were told that 12 children were in this home at times, and all of the girls would have been in this room together.  Wow.  No one had their own bed!

I loved this wide, old staircase, built wider than many of its time.  One of the docents said that Joel Lane wanted to give a good impression, one of sophistication and means, but I wonder what Mr. Lane would say.  Maybe it was so all those kids could fight their way up the stairs and not fall down.  ;)

Did you know that pomegranates would grow in North Carolina?  I, for one, did not!  I now want one in my yard, thank you very much!  ;)

Once the formal tour was done, all of the children gathered in the courtyard for some learning at various stations.  There were kitchen gadgets from the 1700s, toys and games, and other old teaching items. 

These two girls played and played and played with these hoops that are thrown back and forth and caught on little sticks.

Michaela loves seeing the little ones as much as she enjoys seeing the kids her own age.  I love that in a group like this the children get exposure to all ages.  I still don’t get the common question about socialization.  Wouldn’t children who interact like this have more social skills?

I digress.

Be still my heart, look at this lovely herb garden!  The co-op I will be co-teaching this week will finish up our study of Betsy Ross, and my focus for teaching the children will be on herbal medicine.  I will try really hard to put my lessons on line, in case anyone is interested. 

The Beyond Five In A Row co-op that we are in is a small slice of kids from the larger Five In A Row group.  Because of this co-op, the first seven weeks of school for us has centered around Betsy Ross and Revolutionary times, so this fieldtrip was a perfect go-along for us.  I love that it was planned like this.  We, of course, have not done nearly as much as I wanted to, but we have done a lot.  I think educators at home or in a public classroom feel that way, however, that they never cover all they want to!

One last photo.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all grin like this at the drop of a hat!  This little princess totally made my day by grinning at me.  What a sweetie.

I’ll try to catch up on our lessons done:

Week #5 Lessons
09/13/2010 through 09/17/2010

Read Betsy Ross chapters 9-12
Betsy Ross co-op, 09/16 (learn about blood, illness, making a sampler)
Math review of concepts in lesson 41 and 42 from Saxon 7/6
Review of wetlands (marsh, bog and swamp) from 09/09 fieldtrip.
Copywork Lesson 9 and 10
Butterfly lesson outside
Spelling Week #4 – lessons 3, 4, 5
Spelling Week #5 – lessons 1, 2
Cursive – go back and fix any errors from weeks #1-4
Cursive — all of week #5
Practice Violin
Violin Lesson
Independent reading and craft work

Michaela also has the job of caring for her bunnies all week.  And don’t forget Annie and Oreo.  :)

Enjoy this day.

5 comments   Betsy Ross, Beyond Five In A Row, Grade 7 Lessons, Homeschooling

Our First Lessons

By Lynn, on August 27th, 2010%

Though our first “official” day of school was August 25th, some light schooling actually started for us the week of August 16th because that is when our Beyond Five In A Row co-op started with our very first week of “rowing” Betsy Ross!  It was oh so much fun!!  Soon I will share some pictures of the co-op, but for now I just wanted to share how our lessons will work this year. 

Ambleside.  Ambleside.  I tried it last year and here’s what I found.  I am a Charlotte Mason kind of teacher at heart, and therefore what I do is generally a Charlotte Mason sort of style without really trying too overly hard.  I love the Ambleside book lists.  From those, we found some great books that became part of our school curriculum last year.  However, with my work schedule and my eclectic bent, I found it impossible to 100% stick to the reading schedule.  This year, we are still using Ambleside, but, again, Beyond Five In A Row will be our #1 focus.  From Ambleside we’ll take book suggestions, support and ideas from the e-mail loop, and once again I’ll be reading from Charlotte Mason’s own writings, as time allows. 

Now let’s talk about Beyond Five In A Row!  Our co-op has scheduled four books for the upcoming school year (2010-2011).  Betsy Ross, Homer Price, Thomas Edison, and The Boxcar Children.   If the books seem “young,” don’t worry.  There will be so many lessons surrounding this and so much other reading, I don’t consider it a problem for us.  And actually, Michaela has never read these books!

Each book will cover 8 weeks and from each book there’ll be 4 co-ops.   The co-ops rotate from home to home with 2 of the moms volunteering to teach at each co-op.  We spread the work out so that each mom teaches and hosts the same number of times.  Lessons are taken from the Beyond Five In A Row manual, with children learning unit-study style from home and at the co-ops each week.

Since we started with Betsy Ross, I have made the focus of our first 8 weeks of school, Colonial America and the American Revolution.  Here are some things we’ll be using.

In the Charlotte Mason style we do these: copywork, cursive, and spelling, all from Queen Homeschool; old books with reading selections covering early American historial figures; old record albums with traditional American and traditional European music from the 1700s, as well as famous composers from that time period; a journal for daily writing (dictation) covering what we’re doing. 

We started with Mozart, but plan to listen to all selections before we are done, placing musicians and music on our timeline as we go. 

My mother-in-law had a wonderful collection of books in her time.  From those books, I was given a book called More Minute Biographies. 

From this I was able to copy several pages that featured men to know from American Revolutionary times.  We color in the pencil drawings while we listen to music from the 1700s, then they get pasted around the timeline.

Things are going well so far.  We plan to make some very old-fashioned recipes from our Cooking in the Young Republic. 

Week #1 In Review, 08/16 – 08/20/2010 (very light week):
Read Betsy Ross chapters 1-4
Watched Episodes #1 and #2 of Liberty’s Kids on you tube.
Attended co-op:  sensory awareness, quakers, kindness.

Week #2 In Review,08/23/2010 – 08/27/2010  (started on Wednesday and had some celebrating, so, again, not a full week):
Took School Pictures
Review of Betsy Ross week #1
Math Review
Lesson #41 Saxon 7/6
Copy work lessons 1-2
Cursive week 1
Spelling week 1
Read and talked about Mozart.
Listened to Mozart.
Added Robert Morris, Betsy Ross and Mozart to timeline.
Colored page and talked about Robert Morris.
Journal entry Wednesday.
Journal entry Friday.
Fieldtrip at Harris Park – Thursday

Happy Homeschooling!

9 comments   Betsy Ross, Beyond Five In A Row, Charlotte Mason, Unit Study   , , ,