Less Traveled By ~ Homeschool Edition

Homeschooling Highlights - September 19-30

A glance at what DG has been up to in recent days.....

 

Completing Unit 10 of Creation to Christ

I thought I'd type out her narrations from her notebook page this week since there is a discussion going on about written narration on one of my favorite CM forums, and I know the picture is sometimes hard to read.  Though one assignment each week is to copy from her reading, she sometimes elects to do narration instead, which is okay with me!

She is reading The Story of the Ancient World independently and then completing short writing selections over portions she reads.

The Philistines were fighting the Israelites.  David's brothers joined in.  David often went down to bring food.  One day he went and saw a giant come out of the Philistine army and challenge any Israelite man to a single combat.  But all the Israelites shuddered in fear.  David said, "Let me go fight this man!"  So he went with just a sling and a stone.  He swung his first shot and knocked him down.

******

Saul was searching for David in vain for awhile, when he finally stopped at a cave and fell asleep.  Little did he know, David was in the cave also, only a few feet away.  So David cut off a piece of Saul's robe and kept it.  When Saul arose, he went outside.  Suddenly, David appeared at the doorway holding the piece of Saul's robe.  Saul was stunned by David's generosity, and stopped pursuing him for awhile.

 

Crocheting- She finished three coasters and a scarf.

Sewing- She completed the pet blanket, and it is being enjoyed by her little dog already!

 

Painting- We went to a paint on plaster store the other day and she completed this project:

 

Dance- Four days of dance this week!  The first company performance for the year is coming up soon and the dancers are working really hard.  DG is excited!

What We've Been Up To

I don't know how the days and weeks pass so quickly, but they do!

We have been enjoying much of our new year and will be entering phase two soon!  We'll be adding in a few more subjects on a regular basis and also ending our summer co-op.

So what have we been up to?

We've met during the summer with some other families, and it has been a nice!  We have completed nature study, drawing lessons, picture study. poetry reading and narration practice together.  We studied works of Henri Matisse and used Drawing with Children for art lessons.

Here is one of JB's drawings and watercolor inspired by the drawing lesson too:

Some other things to note:

JB has completed her first nine chapters of math.  She is doing GREAT!  We are using Math U See Beta right now and anticipate starting Delta this year.  We'll see  She is also working some from Math Mammoth (time, money, fractions, geometry) and completing Daily Math too.  (Last year we used Evan Moor's Daily Math, this year, so far, I've been making problems for review.)

She also completed her first current events report page.  I thought we'd use God's World News this year to practice writing short current events reports based on the articles.  I got the idea when thinking about how Ambleside Online incorporates current events reading for the older students.  She enjoyed writing her first two reports.

We've been reading from various books including Meet Christopher Columbus, Christopher Columbus, Understood Betsy, One Small Square:  Arctic Tundra, A Child's History of the World and Grandpa's Box.  JB is currently reading Treasure Island on her own and she is REALLY enjoying it!  (It's so exciting to listen to her talk about enjoying books.)

That's just a small sampling of what we've been up to!  Stay tuned for more....  :-)

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). 

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.  :-)