I’ve been promising a workbox update, and here it is.  Though I don’t use Sue Patrick’s Workbox System in the purest sense, I highly recommend her book and her methods.  I simply do not have room for the cart, and Michaela LOVES the mystery of her assignments being hidden in the cereal boxes until she pulls them out one by one.  So, for now anyway, we are sticking with the cereal boxes and loving the organization this has brought into our homeschool.

Our system consists of 9 cereal boxes, which I first posted about nearly a year ago.  I fill them up with assignments each evening or each early morning, so they are all ready to go when Michaela starts school for the day.

Box 1.   I think this piece of paper speaks for itself.  And one thing I want to say right now about these boxes is that it takes me out of the loop in a way.  I know that sounds crazy because I’m the teacher and the one who puts the boxes together and the one Michaela comes to with questions, and yet once the ball starts rolling, it’s like Michaela is answering to the boxes getting done and not to me.  I love it!

Box 2.  The next day in her Daily Gram book.  Upon completion, Michaela immediately checks and grades her own paper and we talk about anything she did not understand.

Box 3.  Spelling Power.

Box 4.  Need I say more?  Well, maybe I’d better.  In years past, one of my biggest weaknesses was grading math sheets.  Then the next thing you know we’d be a week or two into ungraded papers when, lo and behold, I’d realize a child totally was not getting something and we had moved on and suddenly were behind!  With the boxes, I do not allow myself to put in the next lesson until I’ve graded what Michaela has done. 

Which brings me to a second point here.  When Michaela is done with something, she sticks it right back in the box.  I pull it out that evening and file it or put it in her end-of-year keepsake book or whatever. 

Anyway, only when math is graded do I put the next assignment in — either the next lesson or review on what she’s not getting. 

Box 5.  Oh, yeah, the chores.  They go in there too, and once again, she’s answering to the box, not to me.  I have been surprised at how little complaining there is when it just comes out of the box and not from my mouth.

Box 6.  Her read-aloud.  And no, she has not finished this book yet.  It has been a slow, wonderful read, along with our other Ambleside books that we are lazily working through.  The good thing?  She has enjoyed this book tremendously and tells me something about it each time she reads, and it’s sticking. 

Box 7.  A test I made to review some writer’s tools we’d talked about just the day before.  (Thank you, Five In A Row.)

Box 8.  Practice your harmonica.  Michaela had been wanting a harmonica.  She got one in her stocking at Christmas and is learning to play it.

Box 9.  Oh yay, the fun box!  This week our Five In A Row Co-op will be centered around Grass Sandals.  Michaela and I “rowed” this book last year, but it’s been very good to go back and revisit it.  It’s a beautiful book.

When we review like this, I like to revisit the art element of the book.  For this assignment I filled the basket with bright pieces of felt in primary colors. I put in black acrylic paint, a black pencil and a black marker.  I took a couple of sheets of blank sketch paper and folded them to make a “greeting card” shape.  Michaela’s asignment was to create a Haiku poem, type it into the card, and then decorate it with inspiration gained after looking through the book.  She was only allowed to use materials that I had chosen based on colors and art media used in the book.

This is how her card turned out!  I’ve used this specified-materials-only concept several times lately to review a FIAR book and to teach art, and it has turned out great each time!  Michaela also gets to use her typewriter, which she loves!

Making The Cereal Boxes:

Several of the cereal boxes are very large family-size boxes, because they hold large books and a lot of stuff.  Some are covered in fabric, some in scrapbook paper. They are embellished with little bits of this and that. I used some glue sticks, but mostly the hot glue gun. Be aware, it takes a few hours to cover 9 cereal boxes. I cut the tops out of the cereal boxes first. I chose either a base paper or fabric for each box and just wrapped the box using a hot glue gun. One sheet of paper was usually not enough. I did one side at a time, wrapping neatly around the bottom and sides. I did fold over and wrap down into the top about two inches for neatness and glued this down as well. It took quite a bit of glue and — AGAIN — time. I, however, LOVE doing things like this. Once a box was covered, I embellished it.  While working, I was thinking of how I would fill the boxes each day!

Tomorrow is a big day, so I better sign off and get some zzzzzzz’s.

A peaceful night to you,

“We cannot escape history,” is what Abraham Lincoln said, and as we listened to Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait this morning, Michaela and I worked on our project of re-creating Lincoln’s birthplace for our homemade doll house collection.

It is simply a cardboard box that we are coloring the logs and mud plaster onto.  We cut out the one door and one window and hung a bearskin (felt) over the door.  The single window in the small cabin was covered with oiled paper (we used wax paper).  The floor was hard dirt so we painted on a thick layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled sand into it and let it dry.  After allowing it to dry and shaking off the excess, we had a nice dirt floor.

We have several items to add yet, including a bed of saplings, a homemade coverlet and a fireplace.  We will continue to add items as we read on through Abraham Lincoln’s World by Genevieve Foster.  It’s one of Michaela’s books for Ambleside Online Year 5.   I have gotten questions before regarding what to do for handicrafts and boys, and I think a project like this is so much fun!  It’s does not have to be classified as a doll house!

Lately our school days have been full of history, made even richer by our participation in our Five In A Row co-op activities.  I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoy being a part of a co-op and learning alongside other moms (super nice friends) and their children. 

A few weeks ago we had a two-hour co-op class here.  All activities were centered around the book Cowboy Charlie, which is the story of Charles M. Russell, American painter of the American Wild West.   It ties in nicely with our other current reads as the times of Charles Russell pick up where Abraham Lincoln’s world left off. 

We read the book, Cowboy Charlie, as a group and then set off to travel around the yard by pretend train to different areas set up to represent different phases of Charles Russell’s life.

Michaela and I had made a tepee ahead of time, and you can barely see it because it blended right into the background on this cold, gray day, but the children enjoyed it and some of them came dressed up and ready to re-enact!

One of the parts of the co-op that I worked on was “passports” to the west.  There was a mystery character for each child, sealed in an envelope until everyone had received theirs.  The children then opened their envelopes.  We had many famous people there:  Buffalo Bill, Crazy Horse, Annie Oakley, Laura Ingalls Wilder and others.  It was really fun to see the children open their envelopes and find out who they were!

The original passports were made from luggage tags and then laminated.  I made a quick black and white photocopy of each one to keep a laminated set on hand for personal reference.   (Not to mention I wanted a tangible reminder of the day.)

My co-teacher (love her) talks about an area concerning one of the historical figures we had chosen to tell the children about.

After being outside and getting almost too chilly but not quite, we all came in and learned about the 12 constellations that tell the story of Jesus’ birth, death, and return.   Cowboy Charles M. Russell worked under the stars, remember.

We then crowded into the toasty kitchen and had warm apple cider, coffee, venison sausage, rice cakes, peanut butter and carrot sticks.  Everyone was so kind and I enjoyed so much having everyone over.  It was a day that made some precious memories for Michaela and me.  (Leslie, thank you for the pictures!)

We cannot escape history.

Lynn

Since I’m recovering from the effects of a non-working thyroid, which has probably been building over a year’s time, I don’t want to add any more stress to my life than necessary. 

For writing, Michaela will keep a journal about her new puppy, Annie.

For reading, I am definitely following the Ambleside Year 5 lessons and just calmly going with our own flow with those books.  There is one book that Michaela absolutely “does not get” right now.  (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.)  Stress?  No.  That one’s going on the back burner right now and I’m hoping to read that one with her aloud later.  In the meantime she is loving the other books and placing figures on our timeline as we learn about new people.  Pictures are easily printed from a Google search for this!

Last night we snuggled up with Annie and read more from Farmer Boy, our current read in the Little House series. 

I think I have to work?  Well, no, Almanzo’s father had to get up at midnight, at 40 below zero, and take a whip outside to rouse the cows that were not in barns.  He had so much livestock that they could not all fit into his many barns and shelters.  If the cows that were exposed to the air were left to sleep too long they would freeze in their sleep.  So little Almanzo awoke to the sound of the door closing at midnight — father going out to keep the cows alive.  He’d drive them around until they were good and warm and then let them rest again.

Now that was hard work.

There’s a wild aster in my garden that’s beginning to bloom.  I love the tiny little blooms.  It’ll look like a snowstorm before it’s done.

We’ll do some light and easy nature sketching.

I’m involved in a Five In A Row Volume 4 co-op this year.  I’m very excited about that.  As far as creative lessons and things done away from home, that’s where my energy will go right now.  It’s easy to choose lessons from the Five In A Row manual, but we’ll be getting the children together to work on lessons and learn together.  So much fun!

The Ambleside takes care of itself if we just do the reading.  It gives us copywork material, timeline material, discussion material and more.

Of course we are doing math (Saxon 7/6) and many handicrafts.  Even now, Michaela is working on a new bed for the doll house.  It is being recycled from something I no longer needed.  I’ll be sure and post pictures!

Have a lovely Monday!

Lynn

One of Michaela’s school books this year (Year  5 using Ambleside Online), is The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella Buckley.  It was first published in 1879 and I am sure you know it does not take much twisting of my arm to opt for an old book and to think that the garden is full of fairies. 

The forces of science are presented as fairies in The Fairy-Land of Science. In our week 1 assignment we were introduced to a handful of Fairies. There’s fairy Cohesion who locks atoms together, fairy Gravitation who causes the raindrops to fall to earth, and other fairies and giants that you might want to read about yourself!

As Michaela’s copywork assignment for the day, I took a few lines from the first week’s reading, a few lines from a Wordsworth poem about Peter Bell:

A primrose by a river’s brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.

We discussed those lines and what they meant and I asked Michaela if she thought a flower was just a flower and nothing more. At that point we escaped outside and investigated flowers. We knew already, of course, that a flower is a world unto itself and yet an intricate part of Nature which fairy Life must certainly spend much of her time working on.

Fairy Gravitation pulled our water into the birdbaths.

Perhaps we’ll soon meet the fairy who changes the plants from green to brilliant reds and oranges and yellows every year.

Maybe there’s a fairy Oxidation.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s not one fairy alone whose job it is to create dandelion wish-makers for all the children who instinctively blow the dandelions’ seeds away and make wishes.

One of the passages I loved most from our reading was when Arabella Buckley was writing of imagination and how necessary it is to have imagination when trying to understand the forces of science.

Most children have this glorious gift, and love to picture to themselves all that is told them, and to hear the same tale over and over again till they see every bit of it as if it were real. This is why they are sure to love science if its tales are told them aright; and I, for one, hope the day may never come when we may lose that childish clearness of vision, which enables us through the temporal things which are seen, to realize those eternal truths which are unseeen.

I really had to stop and think about that. I considered when Jesus brought a little child before those around him and said that’s what we should be like — a little child.  There is indeed a sweet, innocent and easy belief in all that is told them that children possess. I don’t want to lose that gift of believing what I cannot see.

There were tiny gourds in the garden and one that had broken off of the vine at this tiny stage.  Michaela loved its little size.

We tested the fairies.  Is a flower really only just a flower? Of course we found flowers to be homes, and food….

for all sorts of creatures.

Nearly every flower offered something of a wonder to us.

The flowers seemed to be even a place of refuge for the injured.

I feel like I’m still just getting started with Ambleside.  There’s a tendency in me to push too hard and feel stressed when we do not get enough done.  The reading assignments in Ambledside are plenteous and the books are full of important references and rich with vocabulary. I determine everyday to enjoy this transition. I aim for a little more each day. A little more reading, a little more narration, a little more stretching of our minds and training of our abilities to read well. That said, I want to aim with joy and good sense.

Lynn

Encouragement That I’m On The Right Track:

If there was any doubt that I had made a wrong choice about using Ambleside Online this year for Michaela, that doubt was alleviated this morning when we started school.

It’s a refreshingly cool morning here.  In fact, the weather is so much cooler, we turned off all air conditioning last night.  Michaela and I retreated to her bedroom this morning, closed her doors, opened her windows and let the bunnies out to run around in the breeze blowing in under the curtains. 

I asked Michaela, “Would you like to do your reading in here this morning?”

“Yes,” was her immediate reply.

“I’ll go get the books,” I said.

“Get Isaac Newton!” she yelled after me.

Inventor, Scientist, and Teacher: Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner

Ambleside Year 5, as part of the assigned reading, includes simply ”biography of Isaac Newton” under Science Biography for Term 1. I love that we have some room for personal choice here, and that freedom to choose on some occasions will be exactly how I work in Beyond Five In A Row this year. 

We chose the Isaac Newton biography shown above and so far it is excellent.  I have skimmed the first chapter and then let Michaela take off on her own.  I was very pleased that she is now asking for this book, especially since she was clearly (and verbal about it) put off by the idea of reading about Isaac Newton. She told me this morning that she had expected it to be a boring book full of dates she’d have to remember. 

Beginning The Day In The Garden:

This morning began for me in the garden, thinking about how to make the most of the day. Days off go by quickly here and I know I have to make the most of them each week. If I don’t, we don’t get enough done.

I’ve been going through old magazines (I have way too many of them), tearing out the articles that I love best, putting them in clear protectors in a notebook, then recycling the old magazines.  I mean, I have only so much book space and it can’t all be devoted to magazines!

Since today is September 1st, I finished up the rest of my August magazines and have now pulled out all of my old September issues. I’ll go through them little by little this month, weeding out, preserving articles, and choosing which ones I just cannot part with. Going through these magazines was a restful time and allowed me to think easily about the day’s school work that lay ahead.

I pulled out an old window to look at and dream about while sipping on tea.  Thomas told me last night that his goal is to have my potting shed done by our anniversary in September!  That’s two weeks away, people!  Do I dare get my hopes up?  He’s a busy man and I don’t like to nag too much for him to work here after he’s worked and done building all day in someone else’s house. Still, my very own potting shed/greenhouse.  Sigh.  I can’t wait to show you pictures.

The garden is bright and cool. The sunlight even seems different this morning. How can I share the just-right temperature with a photo?

Even the goldfish seemed full of energy this morning and there weren’t any mosquitoes that I could see, where usually they are such a nuisance, even in the mornings.

I think it’s a perfect day to do some schooling outside on a blanket.

How Yesterday Went - Working and Homeschooling:

Yesterday was a work day for me, but I had Michaela’s boxes filled with work.  She moved through them with enthusiasm while I typed.  Some of the things she did:

• word find
• Mavis Beacon typing
• Saxon 7/6 lesson 4
• reading in Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis and Clark
• reading in Isaac Newton (see above)
• made brownies for our dessert
• worked on her knitting (scarf)
• began a science experiment from the science bags
• drew a picture for friends who are having to give up a beloved pet
• oral narration

Doing Even More As We Go Along – Finding Our Rhythm:

Today I’m off work and am trying really hard to get a rhythm going so that our weekly Ambleside reading gets done, I get my Charlotte Mason reading done, and Michaela’s boxes are always filled with work on my work days.  Working in Language Arts in the Charlotte Mason style is on my list of things to conquer this week. Michaela’s a good writer — a creative writer — and I want her doing plenty of writing this year, even on my work days.

I could continue writing on and on and on, my to-do list is so full of wonderful things (art, timeline, our yearly notebook, ideas about the workboxes), but I’ll stop here.  More later on how this day unfolds.

Happy Tuesday!
Lynn

Preparation continues for the uncoming school year; however, our first official school day is still not set.  Ambleside’s Online Yahoo! group is such a rich resource, I want to follow along with them for the school year, and Term I begins in September.  That does not mean I can’t start a few days early, but for studies such as art, Plutarch, hymns, folksongs, etc., it’s nice to work as a group for information sharing purposes.

Meanwhile, the Year 5 books keep rolling in.

A few of these I had on hand already, like the “Little House” series which qualifies as free reading, but many I have been ordering at the best prices I can find on line.

One book in particular I had to think about was Bulfinch’s Age of Fable: whether or not to get this illustrated version, The Illustrated Age of Fable.  The inside cover says this:

Since it was first published in 1855, Thomas Bulfinch’s masterly collection of the myths and legends of Greece and Rome has proved so popular that even today it makes essential reading for any newcomer to mythology.

Now for the first time, Bulfinch’s stores are published with the full-color honors they deserve. For this special edition, his ninetheenth-century literary references have been replaced by paintings — 100 of the most stunning and dramatic masterpieces ever inspired by myth. The array of artists includes Michelangelo, Botticelli, Titian, Poussin, Rubens, and Burne-Jones.

Some of the paintings are disturbing in the sense that they interrupt our comfortable existence and show us pictures of tragedy, suffering, revenge and conquest. Some pictures, such as An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, I wondered about. There’s nudity, as is not uncommon in art from the time period. There’s also seduction, envy, father time and more. I must admit it’s a good lesson even for me to have a visual of how tricked one can be in the face of beauty and temptation. But is Michaela old enough for this painting?  Is anyone old enough for this painting? I won’t put it here because I don’t really want it on my blog in case some of my readers think it’s better done without.

Some of the paintings inspire me!

At any rate, I purchased the illustrated copy.  I am a very visual person and I think Michaela is the same way. The art books we already have, she will sit and look at them for hours, carrying them with her from room to room.

I like that Ambleside is broken into Terms and that the group follows some subjects together.  I noticed that in Term III we’ll be studying Monet and some specific paintings of his.  (You can see the Art Schedule on this page.)

Over the weekend, Michaela and I drove over to Barnes and Noble. I was so excited to find a book of 14 large framable Monet prints, at least two of which are included in our Term III Ambleside art study.

I love that we’ll have a large version of Women in the Garden.  This book was only $9.98 and they let me apply my teacher discount.  They have new teacher discount cards, by the way, that can also be used online!

Reading in Charlotte Mason’s original series continues with the CM Series group.  The feedback from reading with a group will be of great help I think. 

I am still getting the hang of it.  The group sent a notice that reading was in volume 6, pages 112-119, but then they sent an updated notice that reading continues in Volume I.  It was, however, good for me to read what was assigned in Volume 6!  I am finding that Charlotte Mason did not care for unit study where connections were made for the child ad nauseam.  I must admit that there have been times when we’ve been on rabbit trails before and my children had stopped running long before I had.  They were ready for a new idea.  I’ll need to be careful of this!  This is not to say that I don’t like Unit Study. I love that Ambleside offers room for free reading and biography, and we’ll be using Beyond Five In A Row for some of  this.  What I am saying is that I need to make the distinction between doing something because I’m enjoying it and doing something because it is benefitting Michaela.

Following along with the group reading is a good way to read the original CM series and not be overwhelmed.  It was easy to join the group (if you’re using Ambleside, or plan to), then print the assigned pages, and read and discuss via e-mail throughout the week.

It’s Monday, a work day, so I must run.  Happy planning!

Lynn

A Child’s Relationship with Almighty God.

I have continued to read on in Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Volume I.  (Thank you so much, Ableside Online, for making these resources available.)

My second son, Joseph, who though dyslexic and not immediately appearing to be the brightest academic star on our tree (just give him time),  has always had sayings and thoughts that made me think he had wisdom beyond his years.  He has always said that little children understand the difference between right and wrong and that you don’t have to give children a lot of reasons for saying no. You just tell them kindly, it’s wrong, and they’ll understand.

Daniel reading his little bible, 21 years ago.

Charlotte Mason wrote:

The most fatal way of despising the child falls under the third educational law of the Gospels; it is to overlook and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God.  ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me,’ says the Savior, as if that were the natural thing for the children to do, the thing they do when they are not hindered by thier elders. And perhaps it is not too beautiful a thing to believe in this redeemed world, that, as the babe turns to his mother though he has no power to say her name, as the flowers turn to the sun, so the hearts of the children turn to their Savior and God with unconscious delight and trust.

My morning garden time with my watering can and my camera in my apron pocket have become a nurturing habit. Karen Andreola might consider it a part of Mother Culture.

Charlotte Mason’s words have given me some nice things to think on today.  (And Philippians 4:8 is my own personal memory verse for this week.)

Though I had not nearly enough wisdom when my children were little, I am very grateful to have had wonderful, steady examples in my life, and bible studies to keep me from getting lost in my own way of thinking.

The morning sunlight points out a lovely web for me to photograph for you.

The garden is full of spiders this time of year. While I don’t enjoy walking through a web, I marvel at the creatures and enjoy studying their habits in my tiny little garden.

Spiny orb weaver.

I don’t know the genus and species, but I know this is a spiny orb weaver. It worked away diligently, allowing me to take a picture or two.

Spiny orb weaver up close.

The garden is full and many flowers are totally spent, bloomed out and turning to seed. If I am going to plant any vegetables for the fall, it’s time to get busy planning and doing.

Today, of course, is a work day, but I’ll look forward to breaks in the garden with Lady Earl Grey tea.  This evening I am planning to order some more of the books we will be using with our Ambleside Online this coming school year.  I have much to be happy about today. 

Finally, a resource you might enjoy.  It’s a website that lists books needed for AO and you can categorize them into year, categories, free reading, required reading, etc.   Access To The Classics.   I’ve put the link in my sidebar under “Ambleside Online Helps.”

Happy Monday!
Lynn