Day 22

We are still finishing up, but I ought to get this log typed up now while Aidan is occupied in helping his Dad set up the exercise book (Haha, I meant to type "Bike", I guess that's a significant typo), and before I zip off to speech therapy at the school with him.

Here is the most recent (September) booklist for the two middle boys -- 14 and 11.

Now that the exercise bike is here, my husband Kevin has lots of plans not only for physical conditioning for the family, but for applied geography -- he's trying to get a "race across the United States" going for the kids.

Sean:

• Stanford Vocabulary
• Greek bk 3
• Latin -- review grammar lesson on predicate nominative, plus assignment to learn the irregular declension "sum" etc.
• Algebra -- inverse variations -- a mental workout!
• He is now reading Creator and Creation, and Earth Science (Prentice Hall).
• Still working on Lord of the World
• Geography labelling continents
• He watched some of The War yesterday with his dad and older siblings.

Kieron

• Hands -On Math -- (I'll try to upload a picture) -- he did a few addition problems, and one subtraction.
• Handwriting
• Since I was busy with Sean, I had him color in his History of Swords book and Reptile/amphibian field guide.
• Now he's playing with Bionicles, but I'm going to have him do Quia for math and Latin drill, plus continent labelling, and read Aliki: Shakespeare and the Globe. Also play the "SUM, es, est." flashcard drill I made just now.

Paddy

What slowed down the morning was spending quite a lot of time with Aidan and Paddy on reading. We reread the BOB book about Polly the parrot. The littlies think it's funny. Then I wrote out some rimes in my notebook, which is how Charlotte Mason recommended starting reading. .... using the Starfall rimes for inspiration. (these Rimes and Rhymes use a nursery-rhyme schematic a bit like hers, though more schooly, and I may check those out again because the nursery rhymes don't irritate my twaddle-detector as much as the BOB books!)

Paddy just loved this and wanted to write more words, try writing himself and then tell a story for me to write down. Then we ended up drawing a football game -- actually three. This took forever and Aidan wandered off, but this was a pretty easy and natural way to do some reading instruction. I may check out the What Your Kindergartener needs to Know again since I remember it having some ideas for lowkey phonics instruction.

(I've always used 100EZ Lessons with my kids with great success but on this fifth and sixth run-through of beginning reading, I need some variety -- and am trying to explore a more unschooly, organic, rambling way of learning to read)

Aidan:

In addition to the phonics practice, Aidan is helping his Dad, has speech therapy later, and was promised a Nature Walk this afternoon if Mom isn't too wiped out by then.
He also scrubbed the bathroom floor yesterday, very contemplatively and thoroughly, and I will try to buiild on that since it looked like it filled a need. Also, helped me make pizza and cinnamon rolls.
I also intend to get out the HWT letterforms and figure out a simple math game for the two of them to teach addition. I have a list of Montessori-type materials to prepare but just haven't gotten around to it.

What I have written down on my Preparation list:

• Cut out Greek flashcards (get Kieron to help)
  
• Dig out beeswax -- a nice metaphor there but means that I have to sort through my craft closet to find it)
  
• Find Chemistry text for Clare (we just can't stand Apologia anymore)
• Review dividing fractions with Sean.
• Look for Giotto materials (reproductions, Glorious Impossible, other art books)
• Plan a morning time for the older kids (I know, I always say that) -- I'll start with Kieron then try to think of ways to include Sean for devotions, at least. Memo: Keep it Super Simple!
• Start roughing out the progym curriculum (I have made progress -- found all my CW materials and had some ideas just before I went to sleep last night).
• Type out activity list for the littlies (take pictures?) Also perhaps an activity list for olders since juggling all the materials is getting confusing.
  
• Plan a weekly sheet for the kids in a sort of Natural Structure style -- where they have choices in some of the subject areas -- I used to do it this way with Liam and his study skills turned out exemplary.

Thinking About:

• Monthly "Examen" -- Where We've Come From/Where We'd Like to Go from Here/Kids' Input
• Marva Collins' Way -- interesting book! I like the way she starts praising and then works with the kids on the areas for improvement. "If you can't make a mistake you can't make anything."
• This post by Donna Marie -- I have been trying this way to do things and it works great for me -- I used to do classical homeschooling this way but stopped during the incredibly hectic years of Aidan and Paddy the medically fragile youngsters. (here is a post about Montessori Folder on Europe)
• A monthly "location" focus for our general Geography theme -- covering places of family significance -- Scotland, Holland, Alaska, California, and so on. I already have the subthemes for Poland and Japan that I did with Brendan -- I have to dig them out of my old files though. And maybe one on the Middle East. It really is coming together, though slowly.