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 (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 (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!

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

2010 Conference Lessons – Part 2

By Lynn, on June 1st, 2010%

Part 2.  Sounds important.  Makes it sound like I was at the NC homeschool conference for an extended period of time, but really I only had Friday there, and that for only 8 hours.  As I mentioned before, I went in with the hopes that I would get some direction especially for my own particular needs and weak areas.

I was downstairs at the bookfair, and for the first time ever I noticed Queen Homeschool.  With my love for all things Charlotte Mason, how did I miss this in years past? 

The beautiful covers of some of the books appealed greatly to my senses.  There were ladies dressed in modest long dresses, some looking Victorian, some looking very Colonial.  There were gallant men to remind us of the Revolution and little boys playing outside.  I flipped through some of the lightweight booklets of copywork lessons and thought how much easier this would make our copywork throughout the year.  But which one would I choose?

My heart was drawn to Copywork for Girls.

It was filled with wonderful verses from the Bible and many excellent (some obscure) quotations from literature, all designed to instill modesty, godliness and a feminine confidence  into girls.  I picked one up and carried it around the booth. 

I picked up a Language Lessons book, looked inside and decided almost immediately that we’d be using it for language arts next year.  It appears to be exactly what I’ve been looking for to go along with some other things I already have on hand.

Written for a child  between the ages of ten and fifteen – whenever they are reading a variety of classical literature and able to write a short  report without much effort.  This volume contains grammar, punctuation  skills, copywork, narration, dictation, picture study,  letter writing, and more – with a strong emphasis on learning about and learning to write different types of  poetry.  A consumable  text with 180 daily lessons and full color classic paintings throughout, this is the  perfect language arts course for  your upper elementary or middle school aged child who is using  the Charlotte Mason approach.

I looked at my watch.  I only had a few minutes!  It was almost time for the next talk I wanted to hear:   Reality Homeschooling by Bonita Lillie.  Reality sounded like something I needed to have more of an understanding of.  What should a homeschool look like, in reality?

I put the books back into their places on the shelves and left the Queen Homeschool booth, determined to come back after the talk and get the books I wanted.

Reality Homeschooling turned out to be an excellent talk.  Excellent!  There were so many things I needed to hear.  Bonita Lillie gave the talk in her PJs.  How real is that?  Very real, on some days, for many of us, I expect. 

I won’t give you a blow by blow account, but one thing she said really struck me:  be aware of your limitations and your child’s limitations.  “Limitations” doesn’t have to mean “disabilities.”  We can place all sorts of inappropriate expectations on our children.  We can even try to live our lives again, through them!

It’s not that we should not exert our authority in making good decisions for them; in fact, one point in Bonita’s talk was to always cover the basics first — reading, writing and arithmetic.  She also pointed out that our children need to be excellent communicators to get along well in life, both in oral and written communication skills.

It is more about celebrating the freedoms we have as homeschoolers to tailor school to fit our children’s strengths and to allow our children to become who they will become.  When we place drastically unrealistic expectations on them, it’s like making them wear chains around their necks. 

I thought about that copywork book I was about to purchase — the one with the long frilly dress on the front.  It really was not Michaela.  It was me.   Thank goodness I figured that out before I purchased it!  (I’m not sure how many more times I’m gonna have to be smacked by that 2 x 4!)

When the talk was over, I went straight down to Queen Homeschool to make my purchases, but for the copywork book, I chose Lessons from Leaders.   

If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, you’ll know that Princess of the Universe humors her mama for things like Prairie Tuesdays, but she’s really a sometimes-rambunctious tomboy who’d rather be swinging from a tree. than wearing a frilly dress.  She’s also been complimented for her leadership qualities. 

I have every intention of continuing to instill ladylike qualities in Michaela, but I love the peace I have about my second choice of copywork books. 

I’ll close on that note of peace. 

More certainly to come later about our entire curriculum line-up for next year.

11 comments   Charlotte Mason    

Lesson Planning

By admin, on January 4th, 2010%

Ahhh, the school bell is ringing this morning.  Yes, it is.  The past two weeks have been full of fun and relaxation, and plenty of food and family and friends, but it’s time to put our thinking caps on once again.  I don’t know about you, but mine feels a little loose this morning.  Uh…

As one of my brooches says, I believe that we’ll get back into our school groove.

The brooch pins are coming along nicely.  We are working, working, and Michaela has found her own little niche, but more about that later.  I’ll let her post when she’s ready.  In the meantime, I am working on something special for my Etsy shop for Valentine’s Day.  When the Etsy shop is ready, I’ll be sure and post a link here.

For lessons today, the following is on tap:

  • Ambleside Reading — will all be independent today, as I have to work
  • Practice harmonica
  • Math – Saxon next lesson
  • Work on further training Annie
  • Grammar will be copywork from Snowflake Bentley
  • Review Snowflake Bentley as we have a co-op built around that book this week
  • Science - Bug review sheet from a previous field trip
  • Nature Study – More copywork – write the definition of metamorphosis and then glue pictures of butterfly life cycle onto cardstock for notebook – label.  (The pictures are lovely pictures from our garden from this past summer.  I think Charlotte Mason would approve.)
  • Work on craft project
  • Practice sketching
  • Review Raphael prints for Ambleside art

I do hope you have a wonderful Monday.  Mondays are work days for me, and they are sort of hard for me — a real transition after being off with my family on Sundays.  But it is okay.  It really is.  I try my best every morning to smile out at the world and focus on everything that’s lovely and pure and of good report.  I believe God gives us grace when we really want to have a right spirit for His sake.

12 comments   My Crafty Self, Snowflake Bentley, Working and Homeschooling   , ,  

The Fairy-Land of Science

By admin, on September 8th, 2009%

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

4 comments   Book Reviews, Charlotte Mason, Nature Study   , , ,  

Beginning Ambleside Year 5

By admin, on August 27th, 2009%

I think Ambleside Online Year 5 is going to be a perfect fit for us. I am so happy that I chose to go with it this year.


Even after saying she’d like to forgo Prairie Tuesdays for awhile, Miss Michaela suggested we put on some “prairie clothes” and have tea.  Apparently just a bonnet is enough to make one feel prairie-ish.

We began school on Tuesday by easing into our weekly Year 5 assigned reading. I chose three books to start with and read out loud to Michaela from each one. The first was Wild Animals I Have Known, the second was Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 5, and the third was The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.

The reading went much more quickly than I’d expected.  I know that at Michaela’s age (11) she should be doing much of the reading on her own, and she will be.  At this juncture, however, I want to get a feel for which books I think she should read on her own and which I want to read with her.  I also want her to have a sense of how long she should sit and read each day – how long it will take her.  And did I mention that I just want to read some of the books myself?  :)

My ”assigned” reading this week, from the CM Series Yahoo! Group I am taking part in, is Volume 6 pages 119-127 of Home Education.  In it Miss Mason shares the thought (from A. Paterson, Across the Bridges) that “reading aloud is but a poor gift compared with the practice of reading in private.”

I do not think this means that reading aloud can’t be fun or worthy (we love read-alouds), but that a child should have to put some effort into their own education.  They should train their minds to be able to read and then digest complex works of literature on their own.  It is what their minds crave, if Miss Mason is correct, and I think she is.


Michaela had Lady Earl Grey while I had green tea.  She then worked on a scarf she is knitting with a circular knitter while I read more  to us about Lobo.

The reading from Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Volume 6 pulled on me as much as any of her writing has.  I love the thought that “a well-educated man with cultivated imagination, trained judgment, wide interests…is prepared to master the intracacies of any profession; while he knows at the same time how to make use of himself, of the powers with which nature and education have endowed him for his own happiness; the delightful employment of his leisure; for the increased happiness of his neighbours and the well-being of the community; thst is, such a man is able, not only to earn his living but to live.”

If you teach a child to learn; if their minds are cultivated to enjoy learning, reading, the humanities; if their spirit has not been neglected, but rather good character has been nurtured and duty to others made important, they will excel in whatever profession they find, and enjoy life too.

I love that!  More than once yesterday we encountered life situations to which having a right response was way more important in the long run than cramming ourselves full of facts and figures. 

One such situation was that a friend had worked on Michaela’s scarf during a recent visit and had nearly ruined the project by making the stitches too tight.  Michaela almost could not proceed at all, the stitches were so tight and hard to pick up.  We abandoned reading long enough for me to make two new rows of stitches, working past the nearly-impossible row, while I spoke to Michaela about not dwelling on the natural tendency to be angry over this, but by remembering how delighted this little girl had been to sit with us and work on something domestic.  After handing the knitting back to Michaela and continuing with our reading, the reading seemed even better than before. 

One quote from these assigned CM pages I feel I have to mention, though sad and quite alarming is this: “Germany became morally bankrupt (for a season only, let us hope) not solely because of the war but as the result of an education which ignored the things of the spirit or gave these a nominal place and a poor rendering in a utilitarian syllabus.”

It feels good to do something nice for another person, to give of oneself, to nurture the spirit.

As the days progress, we will add in more books.  We have started light copywork (at this point, one quote a day from her reading with attention paid to excellent handwriting), and of course math, and will add in subjects and work until we are doing a full Year 5 schedule. 

I have set up the white board and am keeping track of new words we find in our reading, writing out the definition and keeping it up so that all the family might notice it.  So far we have:

  • puissant
  • bivouac
  • descried
  • fastidious
  • despot
  • loup-garou

Narration so far is going beautifully, with Michaela telling me at intervals about the stories we are reading.  This will soon be transitioned to blog entries and writing. 

Last night at bedtime one of her stuffed animals, a wolf no less, was given a new name:  Blanca, from Wild Animals I Have Known.

I will continue to post about our progress.

Have a wonderful Thursday!
Lynn

9 comments   Charlotte Mason, Prairie Tuesdays   , , , , ,  

Inspiring Copywork

By admin, on February 24th, 2009%

This week we’ve got some inspiring copywork going on. 

Monday: (Yesterday)

Go Forth to Life
by Samuel Longfellow

Go forth to life, oh! child of Earth.
Still mindful of thy heavenly birth;
Thou are not here for ease or sin,
But manhood’s noble crown to win.

Though passion’s fires are in thy soul,
Thy spirit can their flames control;
Though tempters strong beset thy way,
Thy spirit is more strong than they.

Go on from innocence of youth
To manly pureness, manly truth;
God’s angels still are near to save,
And God himself doth help the brave.

Then forth to life, oh! child of Earth,
Be worthy of thy heavenly birth,
For noble service thou art here;
Thy brothers help, thy God revere!

Nature Study/art work for Princess of the Universe yesterday was to pick the bird of her choice from one of our many science/nature books and draw it.

 

I went to AtoZTeacherStuff and made up a nice work find puzzle to hopefully help us retain information gleaned from reading about Augustus Caesar recently.

Copywork on tap for the rest of the week:
Tuesday:

Kindness to Animals

Little children, never give
Pain to things that feel and live;
Let the gentle robin come
For the crumbs you save at home;

As his meat you throw along
He’ll repay you with a song.
Never hurt the timid hare
Peeping from her green grass lair,

Let her come and sport and play
On the lawn at close of day.
The little lark goes soaring high
To the bright windows of the sky,

Singing as if ’twere always spring,
And fluttering on an untired wing–
Oh! let him sing his happy song,
Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.

Wednesday:

A Child’s Prayer
by M. Bentham-Edwards

God make my life a little light,
Within the world to glow;
A tiny flame that burneth bright
Wherever I may go.

God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.

God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,
And makes the singer glad.

God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strangth I have
May serve my neighbors best.

Thursday:

Beautiful
From McGuffey’s Second Reader

Beautiful faces are they that wear
The light of a pleasant spirit there;
Beautiful hands are they that do
Deeds that are noble, good and true;
Beautiful feet are they that go
Swiftly to lighten another’s woe.

Beautiful is something we’ll be reading every day this week for memory work.  I think it was a very useful thing for me to memorize passages when I was young.   This week while visiting some of the blogs in my blogroll, I dropped by The Pleasant Land of Counterpane where I was directed to an interview with Andrew Campbell.   

Boy did these sentences jump out at me.

We can’t express what we don’t have words for. By stocking our minds with “the best that has been thought and said,” we have a storehouse of phrases to express, succinctly and beautifully, what we want to say
 

I am entirely convicted to incorporate weekly memory work into our schedule for Princess of the Universe. On Friday, she should be able to recite Beautiful from memory.

Our reading about Roman history has tied in nicely with our study of Angelo using Five In A Row for lesson plans.

Happy Tuesday,
Lynn

Leave a comment   Charlotte Mason, Drawing, Nature Study