Yesterday was an okay school day.  I guess. 

The snow is still trying to compete with me.  Many neighborhood children were at the door throughout the day to see if Princess of the Universe could come out and play.  A couple of times I let her go.  I mean, how often are we able to go sledding?  Especially if one of the parents is accompanying them to a “really big hill?”

Nevertheless, we managed to get some school work done.

We had fun yesterday looking at

• a piece of dandruff – eewwwwwww
• a seed from a plant — groovy
• a little rosemary leaflet (still very green this time of year) — way cool

Michaela is not really doing any formal botany or biology yet, but I want her to become familiar with a microscope and to develop a sense of observation.   It’s a nice science lesson just to note the differences in what you see and to be able to say them or write them.

Along a Charlotte Mason line, we got serious yesterday about our nature sketching.  Michaela loves to draw, and does so regularly, but I want her to work more on her nature journal and observations.  Since there was not much stirring outside yesterday, we used a little resin robin that sits in my office as a model.

Michaela and I sat side by side in front of the warm heater, sketching our own versions of the little robin perched on the mantle. 

Michaela said she loves mine, but I love hers — the first one.  I love her drawings and the way she sees things, and I think she should further develop her drawing skills.  I see she needs to work more on observing exact colors perhaps, but I love her detail.  Tomorrow we will be placing these into our nature journals and labeling them as American robin, Turdus migratorius.

In preparation for a field trip to the Ackland Art Museum, we have read a bit about Ovid from What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know.

(there’s a newer version of this book, I think, but this is the one I have and use)

We are also reading about Augustus from Famous Men of Rome – a great book, by the way, from Memoria Press.   (Writing a review of this book is on my to-do list.)  Pictures to represent both Ovid and Augustus will go into the timeline notebook.

Finally, for math, we got as far as completeing one lesson in Saxon and then cutting out some fraction manipulatives for the next lesson…

and doing a one-minute math drill sheet. 

I guess I can’t complain, really.  Did I fail to mention how grateful I am that Princess of the Universe is learning from home?  And that she and I are great friends?  And that she really has it all: plenty of social interaction with friends and an amazing homeschool group AND she gets to be taught by the people who love her most and be the boss of her free time?  Yeah.  I can’t complain. 

Lynn

As I’ve said before, I’m mostly eclectic in my approach to homeschooling.  Oh, I’ve lamely ventured onto a totally classical path before, and I’ve toyed with unschooling, mostly due to circumstance, but mostly I’m eclectic, pulling from all kinds of sources and styles and knowing first-hand that life circumstances and our children’s learning styles impact how we are able to teach.  I’m not sure any one thing fits every single student perfectly.  In fact, I know it doesn’t.

However, I know it’s important to be well read, and I think it is important for graduating students to be familiar with as many of the classics as possible – with basically a healthy swim through the sea of the good and great literature of the world.

That said, with all the homeschool catalogs pouring in, there’s one that I’ve enjoyed immensely this year.  It’s The Classical Teacher by Memoria Press.  In it there is an article called Harry Potter and the Attack of the Critics.  This is a very useful article.  So useful, in fact, that I have read it twice and then given it to my rising senior to put in his school notebook.  He’s interested in writing, and this article goes into clever detail about what defines good and great literature and why it’s important to be familiar with both.  I think it’s worth the read.

There is also an article in the Spring 2008 edition of The Classical Teacher called, “What’s so great about the great books?”  It reminds us of the virtues that truly great books should possess.  My son wrote down some of the information contained within the article and placed it in his notebook as well.  It will help him not only in his personal writing, but also in how he evaluates what he reads.

Hmmm.  Wonder how many of the classics we can cover next school year? 

Memoria Press has what look to be some good books.  I’m particularly interested in their Famous Men of… series. 

In all honesty, I am putting together a list of what I think should be read or listened to before high school is completed.  What “classics” do YOU think must be on that list?  Please let me know!

Lynn

I woke up this morning realizing that life has changed — again. Yesterday was my last day at Whole Foods. I have the next couple of weeks to do some old-fashioned spring cleaning and to finish up the office and then I will start my new job at home. 

It’s a wonderful feeling and it feels like the timing is right.  I will miss my coworkers at WF, especially the beautiful friend who bestowed upon me this delectable cake! 

 
I understand now why someone would eat three pieces of this cake. 

She and I were the “dream team” and I was told again last night how much we were appreciated there together as “the dream team.”  (It’s a long story.) 

I wanted to share something we are doing for school right now.  Anyone who reads my blog or knows me at all knows that I am a very eclectic homeschooler, and I do see benefits of all the various homeschooling philosophies:  unschooling, classical, unit study, boxed curriculum, Charlotte Mason…

We have never chosen to fully adhere to a classical education, but I love the depth of history that’s taught with a classical education.  The last time I was at The Homeschool Gathering Place, I purchased this:

Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times Audiobook CD: From the Earliest Nomads to the Late Roman Empire, Revised Edition (7 CDs)

It flows.  Jim Weiss has a voice like silk — though it’s a deep voice, it’s smooth, clear and engaging. I love the way he reads. We’ve been listening to this as a family while we drive. I can tell you that it’s engaging enough that my youngest remembers it’s in the van and says “put in The Story of the World.”  That’s saying something.  And it’s not just Jim Weiss’s voice.   It’s Susan Wise Bauer’s writing — how she has taken history and created characters that my children can relate to, even though they lived 5000 years ago.

We plan to listen to all the volumes in this fashion, at least once, if not several times. I will be providing cut-outs for our timeline notebook to paste in as we hear the story of historical events.

On a gardening note, I pulled the first radish from my little container garden on the front porch.

It was very good.  Yes ma’am.

Lynn

By now you know me and thrift stores.  Yes ma’am. 

Coincidentally, one of the glorious things about my job is that right next to the store I work in is – you guessed it — a thrift store!  ~:-D  So you know I walk through there for a hot second every day to see what’s on the shelves.

Yesterday I was thrilled to find a history book, and I mean exactly what I have been thinking I needed to have for our interest in a classical education these days.  It was publised in 1935, so those who labored to put this massive book together could not know of the impending World War.  It is bittersweet to hold the book and think of just that fact.

It’s The Illustrated World History — A Record of World Events from Earliest Historical Times to the Present Day.  Edited by Sir John Hammerton and Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes.  Illustrated with Nearly One Thousand Historical Documents and Scores of Specially Drawn Maps.  New York, WM. H. Wise & Co.  MCMXXXV

This book is an awesome resource for history up to the time the book was published.  It begins with ancient history in the Nile and Euphrates river basins, Egypt and Mesopotamia.  The book has 1144 pages and beautiful black and white picture illustrations. 

I don’t know what it is about history books, but I can hardly resist the old ones.  It gives me a cold chill to hold history in my hand — just a book — and know that kingdoms, common men and women, martyrs, soldiers, impassioned lovers, plagues, famines, and the joys of everday living are wrapped up neatly in sentences for future generations, who will do the same things.  One day you and I will be wrapped up neatly in the pages of a book, just tiny, probably nameless parts of a larger fabric that makes up a chapter for others to read.  They’ll read not about us, but about the great events of our time.

I was reading on the last page of the text of the book: 

Imperialism is curbed by the shortage of capital for export, the collapse of foreign credit, and the exhaustion of virgin areas for investment and the export of capital.

Little did they know.  And there’s more.  Would the authors reconsider this statement?:

Our technology for production has far outrun the mass purchasing power of man necessary to utilize the increased volume of products.

Our consumption of “products” has only grown.  The need for homes to have computers and extra televisions and cars; and, elementary school-aged children carrying around cell phones and pocket-sized video games would stun the authors!

Finally:

World war, using the deadly methods of destruction now available, may drag all civilization down once more to the level of barbarism.

Perhaps they did see that the stage was set for World War II.  I won’t even go into the benefits that came from World War II, nor will I ponder here about the state of the world today.

Anyway, one of the things I am most excited about is that each chapter begins with a table of dates for that chapter.

I say again, it’s just what I was looking for.

I know I have made this entry picture-rich.  Please bear with me.  One more picture.   Look at the inside cover.  I love it!

It says:

I know as well as you that history is only a succession of images.  That is why I love it; that is why it suits men.  It is the romance of the universe.  If it is not entirely true, it contains truths your statistics will never contain.  Old history is an art; she paints man and the passions of man, the most faithful images that man has traced of himself.  It is a portrait…  Anatole France.

There’s more to come about making your own timeline notebook.  When you see our timeline notebook and hear of our studies, you’ll see why I so love this book.

Do you know how glorious it feels to look out and see this:

That, friends, is a rain barrel overflowing.

We live in an area in the south that has been severely affected by drought.  We have not had a rain like this in months!  Literally, months.  My plants are singing.

This morning’s school lessons were awesome.  My 11th grade son is really not a boy anymore.  He’s nearly a man.  We learn together, like we always have, but I can’t really steer him like I did when he was little.  We talk and interact.  I am so very thankful, however, that he has an obedient spirit and he continues to indulge me in teaching him the things I think he should know.

We are into a more classical bent these days.  The early years were relaxed and fun and pretty much unit studies and hands-on fun.  Now, I am pushing Joseph harder to focus on languages and history.  Our greatest gap is probably math, but I know we can conquer that as well.  Perhaps math will be the icing on this delicious cake that has been the privilege of homeschooling a child.

We watched a VHS this morning about Greece and Rome. 

I am itching to put a new timeline on the wall that highlights the great ages of history, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  I have to head out in about half an hour for work.  I can go to work rejoicing over the rain and all we accomplished this morning.

I found a shelf at the thrift store that is exactly what I have been looking for.  I have bookshelves all over the house, but I needed one area to unify the books and sheets and movies that we are working through currently.  I love this tablestop shelf, which gives me a bookcase on top and a place to lay things underneath.

I look forward to reading with all the children tomorrow about history.  I have an old text that I want to read to them from.  We’ll learn more about all that today’s world took from the Greeks and the Romans.

Gather, girl, the roses…