Tolle Lege Christian Academy

It's a Wrap!

JB officially ended her second grade year today!  We had a list of "must do" work to finish, and she decided to work to finish a little earlier than scheduled.  Latin, Logic, Math....check, check, check.  We'll continue reading together and independently; and will carry over some science and history into the new year.

Third grade is scheduled to launch July 5th.  We may actually make it till then, though we'll see.  It will be the longest break we've taken; but I think we are about ready for it.  Once we get started, I am going to try a six week on, one week off rotation and see how we like that (with the month of  December off from regularly scheduled work to make way for seasonal studies and fun).  We've always been an ebb and flow type of family as far as our schedule, and that will probably still remain to a large degree.  I am just finding that I need more time to organize and prepare for upcoming studies, so I'm trying to build in some time where I will feel free to do that wholeheartedly and not just feeling like I'm squeezing it in here and there.

So for now, I'm busy planning our first six weeks down to copywork and art prints and all the other details.  Perhaps I'll post when I have it more together.  I definitely have the goal of posting regular WEEKLY updates in our new year.  Meanwhile......we are on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.

American History

Our history plans for next year focus on the Middle Ages; however, we will also read picture books as an overview of early American history.  I have arranged some books from our home library in a loose chronological order and we have started with our first one in this series: Jamestown, New World Adventure by James Knight. 

Side Note:  I found a really neat Jamestown related online game at National Geographic Kids called:  On the Trail of Captain John Smith.  I think JB will enjoy the site.  (I haven't previewed it entirely, but did spend some time looking around and going through the beginning of the adventure myself, so preview before using it with your own family.)

The remainder of the line up will be:

• Pocahontas
• If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
• The Pilgrims of Plimoth
• Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving
• On the Mayflower
• Sarah Morton's Day
• Samuel Eaton's Day
• Tapenum's Day
• The New Americans:  Colonial Times
• If You Lived in Colonial Times
• Mary Geddy's Day
• If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Times
• A Picture Book of George Washington
• A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson
• A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin
• A Picture Book of Paul Revere
• George Washington
• Benjamin Franklin
• The Fourth of July Story
• Liberty!  How the Revolutionary War Began
• The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
• George Washington:  A Picture Book Biography
• Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
• Revolutionary John Adams
• A More Perfect Union:  The Story of Our Constitution
• If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution

Spring Plants and Sunflower Project

We've been freshening our flower beds and have started growing potted strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes.  So far we've been able to eat a few very yummy strawberries!  The birds or other little critters seem to get most of them, and that's okay. (As long as they stay out of the way of the tomatoes, especially.) 

We also planted sunflower seeds so that we might be able to participate in the Great Sunflower Project (HT:  Barb) if all goes well.  Here are a few close up shots from around the yard, starting with our sprouting sunflowers, which have already grown a few inches since the picture was taken. (Fun!)

 

 

 

Oh, and our orange tree blossoms smell so good!  Bees and birds have been having fun in the trees.

A Recent Nature Walk

We had a great time recently with friends on a nature walk.  JB decided that she wanted to draw this underwater spiral looking plant, and she did a great job.  She also drew a reflection of a tree in the water of the pond.  I've tried searching to find out what the plant is, but to no avail.  (Does anyone know?)

 

 

Weekly Report-October 16

Here's this week's wrap up!  :-)

For our World History studies, we have been listening to Story of the World Volume 2 while we travel to violin lessons and as we travel to field trips and such.  We are up to Chapter 8, The Great Dynasties of China.  We had some good discussions about the spread of religion as went through the chapters on India.

For our American History studies, we finished up reading about the beginning of European exploration of the "New World".  We have been reading selections from This Country of Ours and America First; and we also read The Discovery of the Americas.

In Math, we finished up chapter 9 in Math U See, and JB started working in her "October Problem Solving" book.  I am going to try to add more variety into our math studies as JB continues to cement all of the basic facts.  She finished up week 9 in her Daily Math book.

 

 

 

In Language Arts we are focusing on nouns and have begun making notebook pages.  We started a grammar lapbook last year, but we are reviewing with notebook pages as we read through the Ruth Heller books.  This week we read Merry-Go-Round:  A Book About Nouns.

 

 

We started two new read alouds: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Ben and Me:  An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson.  JB is currently reading Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea McBride on her own  (She loves all things "Little House"). 

We are going to begin to focus on some of my favorite picture book authors and this week we started reading books by Patricia Polacco.  We read and enjoyed Babushka's Doll and When Lightning Comes in a Jar.

I am also excited to report that JB did an oral narration of a chapter from Fifty Famous People without one bit of hesitation!

JB has been doing a lot of writing in her free time lately.  She is working on one book called Fairyland and another called Miriam Marigold.  She has also taken great delight in starting a journal/diary for herself and has made several entries this week.  Here is an excerpt from Fairyland.

 

JB also finished an art project inspired by a post at Art Projects for Kids.  She really enjoyed the process of using the tissue paper to stain the paper---though some of our tissue paper didn't really bleed like it was supposed to!  I'll have to see if I can find another brand for future use.

 

She continues to enjoy dance and violin lessons and is learning her second variation of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the violin. 

And there you have a sampling of what we've been up to this week! 
:-)

Weekly Report-August 28

What a great week we've had!  JB was so enthused to start her history and astronomy study this week.  I have not felt settled with history and science plans until now, but thankfully Story of the World 2 and Exploring Creation with Astronomy have already brought much delight and learning from the first pages.  I think they'll be "keepers".  I think I get a little bogged down with all the choices out there, but having these books as our main study from which we can jump off into further interests will help us (ME) focus!  LOL   We will continue reading America First for our American history study also.

I decided to add in Writing with Ease Level 2 this week.  We will continue to use the Classical Writing Primer, but since JB and narration are a little like oil and water right now (when asked specifically to narrate....she can tell up a storm when not asked  ;-) ) I thought the WWE approach of summarizing might actually help her comfort level with narration overall.  Short and to the point.  :-)

We're plugging along in our other subjects, so I thought I'd just share a few pictures from our week.

If there is singing involved, JB likes to be behind the book.  :-)

 

We are learning the hymn, Take My Life, and Let It Be.

 

Reviewing the song in Chapter 12.

 

 

A history narration.  She wanted to find an especially fierce looking barbarian online.

She asked to color something else for history (she had a lot of fun coloring the flying carpet picture from the SOTW workbook), so she picked this coloring page we found  here.  And yes, there is PINK on that helmet, because "if I were a queen, all my soldiers would have a little pink on their helmet somewhere."  :-)

We went on our first group field trip of the year this week as well.  It was a behind the scenes tour at an animatronics factory/studio.  Cool stuff!  :-)

 

Weekly Report-July 31

This week I was a little ambitious in my planning for what we could accomplish, but we had a wonderful week, nonetheless!  :-)  I am trying a different idea for organizing/planning for the week; and if it seems to be one that will stick, I"ll share it here soon.

Here is the summary of the week:

Math-
JB actually asked to do more math this week!  I was so proud of her independent work!  Math U See is just her style!  We are almost finished with  Lesson 7 in the Alpha book and are taking things in stride. I am hoping that she will really master all of her facts as we work through this book, so we are not in a great rush to finish.  I was able to purchase the Beta book at our convention, so we'll have that ready and waiting for later in the year. 

We are on week 5 in the Second Grade Daily Math book.  I really recommend this book series for anyone wanting to cover more traditionally sequenced math concepts in short daily practice.  For those who are required to take yearly standardized tests, but whose main math program may follow a slightly different sequence than government school math texts----the Daily Math series is an excellent resource!

Language Arts-
We have been reading Little House on the Prairie together.  JB is continuing to work through the Classical Writing Spring Primer, although at a much slower pace than the author has written.  There is just so much in this book, and since she also does other copywork and narration, etc. we are enjoying the Primer at our own pace.

Latin-
We are still working through Song School Latin and enjoying the songs and new vocabulary that we (yes, we!) are learning!  :-)  I planned for this to take more than a year, and I am still looking for what we will use when we finish SSL this year.

Natural History-
Oscar, Cat About Town by Herriot

Map Drill/Geography-
JB is working on learning all of the states this year.  She LOVES geography!  We are using Sonya Shafer's ideas for map drill, and I am completing a weekly map along with JB.  I have never done that well with geography, so I have areas to work on myself.  We also read the first three chapters of Paddle to the Sea.  (I really like this book, and I am excited to share it with JB!)

History-
We have been reading Viking Adventure and also began reading Leif the Lucky this week.  I am going to use the Beautiful Feet guide and suggestions for the notebook pages as our "spine" study of sorts as we study early American history this year.

Logic, Picture Study and Sewing rounded out JB's week this week.  She is excited to begin work on her second sewing project soon!

Sew Teach Me

Sew Teach Me is one of this year's summer convention finds!  JB has been wanting to learn to sew and she just completed her first project from this curriculum!  The first three projects are hand sewing and then she will begin to learn how to use a sewing machine, and she is so excited (as am I  :-)  )!

This first project is a "Twig Treasure Wall Hanging".  We altered the directions a bit by using a dowel instead of a twig, and then JB added three of her treasures from two special friends (the beaded animals at the top and bottom and a bracelet that she can slip in and out of the stitching to wear).  We found some wooden beads and embellishments in one of our craft boxes that sparked her imagination. We recently had some crape myrtle trees planted in our yard, so she made a crape myrtle tree with the brown, pink and green beads.  She then cut out some paper hearts to finish everything off.  I think it turned out lovely.

Narration

One of my goals for this year is to have JB narrate (Charlotte Mason (CM) style) from at least one subject each day.  For some reason, she does not seem to enjoy narrating orally.  However, she asked if she could do a written narration for one exercise this week (a narration of the first chapter of The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse by Thornton Burgess), and it was so nice!  Much more expressive and detailed than the verbal narrations that she has done.  :-)  Being the proud mamma, I just thought I'd share.  I'm going to type it up exactly as she wrote it----spelling, capitalization and punctuation are hers.  :-)  The only thing I've changed is typing JB where she actually wrote her first and last name.  :-)

Danny Meadow Mouse is Worried
Narrated by JB age 7

Danny Meadow Mouse was sitting on his doorstep thinking and thinking.  But of course he was only thinking because he was worried.  He was worried because his tail was so short!  The reason he was worrieing about that was becasue---well nobody knows not even Danny himself.  But I can tell you somthing.  When he had met his cousin Whitefoot the day before Danny saw how elegantly he was dressed.  And Danny thought the most wonderful thing about him was his long slim tail.  And since then he was jealous about that long tail couisn Whitefoot had and the short tail he had himself.

At the bottom of her composition she drew a quick sketch of Danny. 

Since this chapter and narration was a part of her Classical Writing Primer (Spring) work, she has already asked when she can do another from that book.  :-)  We'll continue to work on verbal narrations, but I will also allow her to write anything by request (though this is not a requirement of CM at her age). 

And We're Off!

We are off and running in JB's Second Grade year!  She was so eager to begin, that we just jumped in mid-week last week.  We celebrated the first day with a special breakfast and new supplies.

Here are a few shots of some of the work she has completed already.

A lesson from I Can Do All Things

Copywork from Classical Writing Primer (Spring)

Science notebook page from our first week of Noeo Chemistry 1

Revisiting Plans

I went to a Charlotte Mason (CM) seminar not too long ago, thanks to a lovely hostess and Simply Charlotte Mason's excellent DVD seminar.  I have been studying CM for the past few years, and I have used some of her methods loosely.  I say "loosely" because I have been a very "eclectic" homeschooler so far and feel like I've not settled into a groove, so to speak.  I know that I will continue to draw from various resources and methods (especially Classical resources---though I consider CM a Classical method in and of itself, but that is another post), but I am more convinced than ever that CM in all of its glory :-)  fits both my daughter's natural interests and style of learning; and our family goals for education very well.

I truly think that many of Charlotte Mason's methods could be applied in any type of home or school education program.  For example, in a time when many public schools are cutting art and music programs, CM's art and composer study would be a breath of fresh air to students and teachers alike.  In the home, what freedom we have to focus on the Beautiful even more!

So the stirring that has been in my mind/heart all along coupled with the highly practical and motivational teaching from Sonya Shafer has inspired me to more thoroughly and consistently apply CM methods to our home school as we prepare to begin our new year.  The "short version" of the decisions I've been working through is this:  we are not going to be using My Father's World (MFW) Adventures program this year.  (I do realize it uses CM principles.) For the expanded version, keep reading.  :-)

Instead, we are going (to remain) on a dual track history focus.  We will work through Early American history while also studying Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.  We are going to be attending a Bible study next year that is focusing on the book of Acts, so what better time to study the ancient Greeks and Romans?  JB loves American history so here we are (right where we started).....LOL.  I have been busy searching various curriculum websites as well as using my trusty Truthquest History guide, All Through the Ages book, and Baldwin Project Online Books/Yesterday's Classics to find excellent living books for our studies.

I actually worked through Simply Charlotte Mason's (SCM) Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education several months ago and now I have revisited those notes and plans and am ready to take the plunge in ideals, ideas, methods and resources!  Since I am soooooooo not good at following someone else's schedule (I discovered I'd probably be off track with MFW by week 5 I think it was----because I wanted to devote more time to one subject area), I am also taking the plunge to use SCM's CM Organizer for at least three months to see how it will help track my own schedule.  I've subscribed to use it in the past without much success---but they have added additional features and there are many more tips on how to use it now than when I first subcribed.   Since it is so flexible and I now understand how to use it in varied and better ways, I can be sure that I will always be *exactly* where I should be, because the schedule will work for me and not against me.  It won't matter if we speed up in some areas and slow down in others.  The CM Organizer will keep me organized!  LOL 

So for all posterity, here is the initial plan of action as for what subjects we will study each week with an approximate time for each lesson (note:  I've added in a couple of things that are strictly CM, but that we enjoy such as science experiements and history projects)

Bible Reading/Scripture Memory (M-F; 15 min.)
Grammar/Daily Language (orally done) (M-W, F; 10 min.)
Math (M-F; one 10 min. oral lesson and one 20 min. lesson at another time each day)
Latin (M-W; 10 min.)
French (Th-F; 10 min.)
Handwriting (learning cursive) (M, Th; 10 min.)
Copywork (Tu, W, F; 15 min.)
Dictation (M, F; 5 min.)
American History/Patriotic Songs (M, Tu; 20 min.)
World History (W, Th; 20 min.)
History Project/Notebook Work (F; 30 min.)
Map Drill (M-W, F; 5-10 min.)
Geography (M; 15 min.)
Picture/Artist and Composer Study (with Tea Time-M; 20 min.)
Art Project (F; 30 min.)
Science Reading/Experiments (M; 30 min.)  Natural History Reading (Tu, W; 15 min.)
Nature Study (F; 30+ min.)

Hymns (with Bible study once or twice a week)
Poetry/Folk Songs/Read Aloud (with or after lunch or read aloud in the evening daily)
Independent Reading daily

I know that some days in some areas we will not spend as much time as listed, but I think overall this is a good estimate of the ideal routine I'd like to have.   I hope to share even more weekly reports this year, so stay tuned.  :-)