Roman Theme

It's just a list of ideas right now, so I'm putting it in a Google document:

Beginning Ideas for Roman Theme

Blogging as a Product?

I am a lot like Molly describes herself. Even to the lapbook -phobia. When I think calmly about why I can't do lapbooks, it comes down to (1) my slight weakness in executive function, ie, details. (2) the fact that lapbooks have that schooly feeling to me. I think the second item is a mis-categorization. I think I am imagining some bright twaddly classroom where all the kids have to cut out, fold and glue the same (educational) thing. Probably, if we really did one we would have fun (see, just talking about it helps me let go a bit).

For my the lapbook-phobia even extends to "notebooking" and for the same reasons. I think there are legitimately people who aren't very rewarded by "products" -- see Apple Star's post on The Death of Show Me Work.

And again, there is that executive function difficulty. What's the best way to organize a notebook? What if we do it and realize we wanted it different? I get paralyzed.

Anyway, I was thinking that blogging might be a solution to this. For me, it's been a good way to try things out and rearrange them in different ways without a fixed, solid result --which is a plus for me.

Right now I am just taking pictures of things that get done. ... and jotting notes about it on here. But I was thinking of asking Kieron to start his own blog for the specific purpose of recording learning. He might like the idea.... or might not. But it's a possibility.

I was thinking that it would be a lot easier to take photos and write descriptions of things in e-form, and then we would have the option of printing it off if we wanted to. Anyway, just some ponderings -- this is my place for pondering as well as writing down what we actually did!

Day 8

We woke up to a storm today -- the rain intoxicated Kieron and Aidan (everyone else was asleep) so we went for a couple of short nature walks to see what our favorite spots in the forest looked like during an August rainstorm. They also had fun trying out their Irish umbrellas -- we don't get to use them very often in central California highlands!

So that along with the bat, and a cluster of daddy-long-legs we found, counted as Science/Nature for them for today.

Aidan helped me make Rice Krispie squares -- not exactly health food, but various forms of pouring and stirring and measuring -- so, Practical Life for him.

Kevin took the older kids off to watch the matinee screening of Harry Potter in town; they will be gone till late night because after that, it will be Sean's therapy and then his football practice.

Kieron has rediscovered the Tintins and is reading those.
Sean is reading Laughing Gas by PG Wodehouse -- he read us a part this morning.

Last night we listened to Les Miserables and to Amazon samples of Scarlet Pimpernel.

As far as formal academics --
Sean didn't get anything done before they went.
Kieron did Math (parentheses and order of operations)....Greek, Thinking Skills (he is enjoying these!) and I reviewed Latin vocabulary with him since Clare didn't have time to do Latin. I must say he knows the vocab well. Whatever the two of them are doing, it is working!

(Incidentally, I remember how I used to read about older kids teaching younger ones, and feel bad because I never tried to train them to do this. However, now I see lots of natural teaching like this going on in my home, and I never had to "train" -- something I rather dislike and prefer to avoid. It makes me happy now that I waited, though I think that if I had respected my style and my kids', I probably would have seen signs of this process and been able to build on it and encourage it a lot sooner).

This will be the last academic journal for about a week, since I am going to Alaska to visit my parents, along with Brendan. I THINK I will tell the kids to do their Greek and Vocabulary daily, and I probably couldn't STOP them from reading -- I intend to collect a pile of books for them to choose from. But that's about all they will be doing.

Summer Nature Notes

Sierra Highland Notes

August --
Several hot days, and more to come next week. Aidan and I walked up to the granite ridge and saw two large hawks circling above. Several visits to the lake near our house, swimming and playing in the sand.

The daddy-long-legs have come. We always find lots of them in the house in late August or early September.

June -- wildflowers everywhere, fringing the hiking trails around our forest community. Temperature warmed up to the 80's for a while but we have had a cool spell recently and have needed our wood stove again.

The Steller Jays on our porch hatched but unfortunately two of them fell victim immediately to some predator. There was a ladder next to their nest which might have been an accidental accessory to the destruction.

Influx of carpenter ants in our house. Kevin treated target outside locations with Raid and we have not seen any more.

Kieron found a spectacular, but deceased, moth -- 3 inch span and orange/brown/creamy. We think it was a moth because of its furry body and the latticework on its antennae.
------------------

May-- Sunny and warm,, in the 70's. There is a Steller Jay nesting on our deck light. Brendan saw a Douglas squirrel mama moving her babies to a new nest, and we saw the squirrel bringing some insulation from our roof down to line the nest. The lupins and dogwood trees are in bloom further down the mountain

Further informal learning --

We did have the tea party. I hope we can start a tradition.

And now Clare is playing musical games with the younger boys, having them match their voice with her guitar note, and having them Name that Tune, and singing Irish music with them. Before that, she was swing dancing with Kieron and Patrick. They will be so cultured!

Sometimes things just go so well around here! I also cut Brendan's hair.

Liam has a music class this year at TAC. His tutor told them that they will all learn to carry a tune by the end of the year.

Day 7: Serendipity

Great learning day today.

Sean brought me his Algebra first thing in the morning, since he hadn't done any math yesterday. We went through two lessons -- review of division, and powers. Then we did Latin exercise 13 which brings us up to where we stopped last year. Then he did Greek, Vocabulary, and read a bit more of Creator and Creation. Then we did the heat, massage, ice treatment for his leg that we are supposed to do in the morning and evening.

When I got a chance, I worked on his literature booklist for this year. I'll take a picture when I get it all collected, and write out a list.

Kieron did Latin with Clare, though part of the time they seemed to be singing songs .... NOT setting paradigms to song, they assured me (they seem to resist these kinds of auditory drills -- thinking it confuses secondary ends with primary ones musically, I suppose)

Then I did something I think I will have to try more often since it works well with my kind of teaching style and the type of kid he is. I gave him the old KidsArt "Art of Ancient Rome" which is sort of like a self-enclosed unit study with a focus on art. I have a whole series but never really used them with the other kids. I asked him to read it and tell me if he thought any of the projects looked interesting. He chose the Roman arch and the design-your-own-coin.

Then the day took a magical turn. .... you know what I mean about magic -- not Harry Potter -- I think serendipitous is a sort of synonym. The Roman arch called for sugar cubes. I vaguely remembered that we had some sugar cubes around the house from when I was using Greenleaf history with Liam -- about ten years ago! So I went looking for them in my sorely-needs-to-be-organized craft closet (it is the house's linen closet, but who needs a closet for linen??).

I finally found them in the laundry room -- go figure. And in the process I spilled Liam's pastels and a bunch of balsa wood blocks -- wonder if those would be useful for anything??? But here's the neat part -- I found Liam's old metronome -- and it worked! Clare needs a metronome for her violin practice, so she was thrilled. She immediately embarked on an impromptu (timed) concert.

Kieron worked happily for a long time. I helped him when he had problems, which is SO much in tune with my personal style (rather than being the initiator). When he was looking for something, he found some sort of mystery insect, and Clare took a picture. We can look it up and ID it and that can be science.....

He didn't want to stop to do math, so it was serendipitous again that the lesson was a review of graphing and consequently extremely easy and interesting.

Clare noticed the sugar cubes and to her that spelled "old fashioned tea party". So she started planning a tea party -- and we decided we could come in costume -- and we dug up an old sugar bowl from her great-grandma. And then, I found Kevin's old X-acto knives! I have been looking for these for a long time. Kieron used them to make "coins" -- first he made a pencil sketch, then foil over clay, then cardboard. He had a fun day.

As for Aidan, no formal academics, but he has kept busy with Practical-life exercises. He made lemonade, "made cookies" (I made him some edible playdough and he used that). And he played a bit with the matching picture cards. I am thinking of ways to do this with other materials for him.

Paddy did a wooden clock puzzle that we found in Ireland.

The two teenage boys are playing football on the X Box.... Sean has to go for rehab and then to practice today, and in between, Kevin is taking him to watch the high school football practice. Sean said (complaining about Algebra) -- "first I go through mental pain, then physical pain!" : D

I hope we get another day like this at least every seven days : ) -- it went well.

Day 6

A very light day as far as academics go.

Kieron did: Math, Greek, and Drawing. I'm not sure if he did Latin with Clare or not.

Sean did vocabulary, Greek and started reading Hedge School's Creator and Creation, but there we stopped. No math or Latin. He is making lots of progress on David Copperfield.

Paddy and Aidan, nothing...

We had appointments in town today -- Sean to see his uncle for rehab for the torn muscle, and then Aidan for GI Clinic. We dropped Sean off at practice and I stayed with them there. Aidan walked with me, and played with the glider and Tic Tac Tow board they gave him at the clinic. Our main road was closed because there is a fire going on above it (!! not too uncommon in the area we live in) and we had a spectacular view of the smoke and flames and the planes and helicopters coming to fight the fire.

The kids are watching Lost in Space now.

I spent more time making forms. This seems to be how I get myself organized ... by making up forms.

They are here:

(These ones have my kids' names on them)
Day Overview
Fall 2007 Overview (loosely based on Ambleside -- list of subjects for books with room for titles to put in)
(These ones are pretty simple, and no names)
Week Planner by subjects(a shaded box to put the weekly goals for each subject in, and then room underneath to put actual notes, and a final shaded box to put what actually got done in that subject)
Course Overview (room to put the different subjects, with resources used)

I am using Google Docs, and haven't yet figured out how to avoid the redundant titles...hm

Day 5

Sean:

Greek
Vocabulary
Latin (exercise 8 of Henle)
Algebra
He finished reading the Space Trilogy -- Perelandra and That Hideous Strength -- and is now reading David Copperfield.


Kieron

Greek
Latin (Quia)
MCP Math
Thinking Skills F from Essential Learning Products (apparently OOP but from this series)
For science, he colored a salamander from the Peterson's field guide coloring book.

Aidan

Wasn't interested in 100 Easy Lessons-- got halfway through lesson 16 -- tense morning for him. Started to do math but ran off when Paddy came to watch.
Later he found a card matching game based on short "e" and "o" CVC words. HE played that for a long time and matched all the cards.



Paddy

Lesson 10 of 100ez lessons
Colored in the math book and helped me sharpen the colored pencils.
"P" in Handwriting without Tears.

Later I took the three youngers to the library. Then I took Aidan up to our granite ridge and he played a bit and seems happier now. He is outside playing right now.

Clare was sick today -- I don't know all that she did but I know she was reading Peggy Noonan's book about Ronald Reagan, and now she is watching the old BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.

Yesterday she finished Sean's pirate coat and today she is trying to sew a little girl's dress. She got stuck at one part and we spent a while trying to figure it out together.

Yesterday for teacher prep, I separated the Audubon bird cards for Aidan, and today I made a Kindergarten log form. I also looked through All Ye Lands and the CHC study guide for it. I may use it for Kieron along with some of Faith's booklist and also, there is a list of homescholars doing World Geography this year. I did one with Brendan back when he was in 6th but would have to dig through computer archives to find the details. But it was really fun.

Progress Notes

A couple of weeks ago we got a new car, a bright red SUV which seats seven. As a consequences, Aidan has rediscovered his old fire engine, which has roughly the same shape and color as the Dodge Durango.

He found an old play house of Clare's which has been neglected for so long that I had it in the Goodwill pile.

So at first he was playing the game "driving the Durango into the garage."

A bit later he discovered that the back hatches open just like it does on the Durango. So he stuffed a couple of duplo blocks in the back, which is exactly what Kevin does when he drives to town to go shopping.

Today he discovered while washing the real Durango, that there is a spare tire under the carriage of the car. So now he has put a broken yo-yo, that is shaped like a tire, in the back of his firetruck.

All evening he has been saying, "The coolers are in the back of the car. We're going to Costco." and "Now we're going to Mass," and "It's time to go to college to see Liam." He came up pretending to hold things in his arms and said, "Where does the chicken go? Where do the eggs go?" I realized he was imitating his siblings who ask when they are unloading the groceries.

It is nice to see this....pretend play getting more and more sophisticated.

Learning Log -- Weekend

Sean had his football game yesterday right after Mass at our "station church". He attended though he did not play because of his injury. Clare went too. Kevin filmed the game and we watched it together after they got home.

Today, Sunday, I talked to Liam in the afternoon -- he called from campus. Lots of news about the first week of junior year.

Then Kevin and the three younger boys washed and waxed the car.

Then I took them to the lake for a couple of hours, and we had a late supper (burgers and bbq chips).

Now Kieron is reading, Paddy is working on a gif animator, and Aidan is playing a game with his firetruck.

Clare, Brendan and Sean are talking -- engaged in one of their what-if conversations that go all over the place.

Clare is sewing a pirate costume for Sean. Sean and Kieron helped me do Clare's after-dinner jobs.

A few things to come back to:

Tribe of Autodidacts -- Learning Log, with links to other resources.
By Sun and Candlelight -- The Learning Room
LaPaz Home Learning -- First Day of School

Day 4

Sean

Henle Latin: more review
Algebra -- lesson 2 -- it was a bit of tough going
Greek
Vocabulary lesson 4

Kieron

Henle Latin -- with Clare
Math -- MCP F -- lesson 2
Greek
Spelling (from Writing Road to Reading)

Aidan

Alphaphonics lesson 1 and 2 -- blending a bit better.

Paddy

100 Easy Lessons #8-9
Horizons K Math -- coloring

Kieron is printing out coloring pages for the little ones.

Later on we are going to homeschool Stations of the Cross -- so that wraps up our first week of work.
-----------------

Update and Informal Learning Log:

Stations was cancelled, which made me sad because of Kieron's sadness. He looks forward to seeing his friends all week. Instead we made peanut butter cookies together, and then when Kevin got back from town where Sean was seeing his uncle, a chiropractor, for his muscle tear, --- we went to the lake after dinner. It was spectacular, and so quiet. Clare and I talked about future plans and her reactions to her course of studies so far, and several other things, while the younger boys played in the water.

Oh, and also Clare, who had been pretty sick and miserable this week, took Kieron and Aidan for an "expedition" out in the woods, and later sang Irish drinking songs with him : ) like Wild Rover, which cheered him up quite a bit.

It was nice, but I wish it was easier for Kieron to meet up with his friends. Because a miscarriage came between him and Aidan (we lost twins in mid-gestation) there is 3.5 years between them and 3.5 more years between Aidan and Paddy. Aidan's developmental delays put him closer in level to Paddy than Kieron, and Sean is firmly planted in the teenage world, while Kieron is still a youngish eleven, and a very different type than Sean. Consequently, though there are consolations like Irish songs and trips to the lake, Kieron is lonely in a way the other kids weren't.

(photo, courtesy of my Treo -- it's not good quality, but it gives you a glimpse of the beauty -- we've made plans to go back there again one of these late summer evenings, and maybe we'll bring a "real" camera)

Resources to Start Offf With

Here are Sean's books at the moment -- the basics we are starting with (it takes him about an hour to zip through this, barring the reading--- he finished the CS Lewis book and is now on GKC's The Man Who was Thursday, so I guess he is reading more than an hour a day)

Here are some of Kieron's books, though he isn't doing all of this, yet.... a few he will start working on next week, and this pic doesn't show the Latin he is doing with Clare.

His work, too, takes about an hour all told, so far.
















We will be adding more reading-type resources in the next couple of weeks.... otherwise this would be a dry course layout indeed.

But it's nice that we have the basic stuff off the ground, and it isn't going so badly.

Some Printable Forms I Made

Lesson Planning Forms

Daily Overview — I printed out a group of these and bound them in booklet form — I can check off what’s been done and write quick notes as the day progress. Probably not very useful for anyone who doesn’t have my kids’ age breakdown.

A Day Overview left blank for planning.

Weekly Lesson Planning Sheet — this is where I can write out plans and goals for the week.

Course Outline — this is similar format to the weekly planner, but allows me to plan out the big picture of the different courses.

Syllabus Outline — This is a more detailed course syllabus form.

Detailed Syllabus — this has space to write in detailed plans for the syllabus, or to record things after the fact.

12 page calendar

Lesson Planner

I made another booklet with these forms (I printed them out doublesided) which is where I put down notes and plans for the week's work.

This is
a book log form — it has spaces for several books and 20 check-off boxes arranged by weeks so you can check off the days they are read. There is room on the page for 2 students, or for one student to use both parts of the page.

Here are two forms to use with House of Education/Mater Amabilis type curriculum. This one is arranged by the different subject areas and by 3 terms. This one is similar, except that the terms are arranged across two pages so that there is more room to write.

These are all pdfs. I'll try to figure out how to upload them as the original spreadsheets, sometime, so they can be modified.

Review Forms:

Henle Latin 1 — review sheet

Thinking about Music

Bookworm's Thursday Thirteen: Music

Starting the School YEar Explosively

Kieron made a volcano using the Young Scientist kit #6. He seems to really enjoy this approach, though I really need to be on top of things and have him actually read something alongside doing the project. However, this served its purpose of starting off the new year with a bang, or rather, a sort of fizz.

He set up the cone.

He put on a flour paste — we forgot the strips of newspaper.

Waiting to dry out.

He added paint… and is getting the ingredients for the lava.

It worked!

He enjoyed the process very much. Having the ingredients provided in the kit is worth the $$ to us but once he’s gone through the year perhaps I could just do it the old-fashioned way and gather ingredients myself.

Nature Study Thoughts

I was asking a friend what she did for nature study and she gave me some ideas which I will share, with due credit to my friend who is another veteran hser and a mom of six:

First, we both have older children who will be following the Mother of Divine Grace Natural History syllabus so she suggested starting with that as a sort of general spine theme for the whole group of kids (she is way, way better at multi-level teaching than I am).

Then:

Go to the Forest Service or tourist information center in your area (we both live in National Forests surrounded by spectacular scenery) -- pick up any free brochures and bring them home to generate ideas about possible field trips.

Visit a couple of selected spots at regular intervals during the year -- building up a relationship with them, take photos and then sketch at home. See if there's any notable art based on the scenic spots. You can bring your sketchbook to the scene, but we agreed that this was very difficult for us during the many years that we had little ones. But drawing at home based on photos taken is a nice alternative, and you could even use the photos and sketches to make a natural history scrapbook.

Pick a few nature writers to study -- some examples we came up with are: John Muir, Rachel Carson, Thoreau, Audobon (her ideas) -- (my ideas)Beatrix Potter, Donald Culross Peattie, Edwin Way Teale, and JH Fabre (a family favorite).

Once you have a few selected, you can read a few of their books alongside with a well-written biography or documentary of their lives

She has a kindergartener who loves to color, so Prismacolor pencils and Dover-type realistic coloring books can come in very handy with the littlies.

There you have the embryo of a nature study plan that includes all the age groups.

In addition, I realized we have a Sierra Historical Society bookstore in our area that has various local history and nature books and resources on sale. It might be nice to develop an intimacy with our local region this year -- it is really the first year we haven't had various issues that prevented us from exploring -- for several years it was pregnancies and babies, then medical difficulties, then last year our car was dying slowly and we didn't trust it on the backroads and byways.

Finally, more on the science proper front; Kieron seems to love doing those simple experiments and projects and crafts, so perhaps we will build on that this year.

Catholic Teen Booklist

I wanted to make a note of Love2LearnMom's Teen Discussion reading list.

Some of these may be useful for Sean's reading this year.

Day 3

Sean

Today I made breakfast and then after getting dressed came down to find Sean already working on his schoolwork. He did Greek and Vocabulary, then told me that since he had already finished reading Out of the Silent Planet, he was going to read The Man Who Was Thursday.

Then I worked on Algebra and Henle Latin with him (for Latin, we are reviewing last year's lessons quickly in order to make sure the past declensions are clear in his mind).

Then he went off to do his "weeklies" (chore rotation).

We still have religion, science and history to add, plus logic, but so far things seem to be going pretty well.

Kieron

I made a book change for Kieron in math. When I looked at Saxon 76 I remembered how tired I get of Saxon after a year. We usually do Saxon 65 and that's about enough of the incremental approach for me. Kieron also was not looking forward to it. So I remembered I had the old MCP Math F that I had used with Clare. It's not a high level math program but it is solid, I believe. This one looked much better to Kieron and so we got math off to a start today.

He also did Greek, and is now doing Henle Latin and Nature Study with Clare (bless older siblings!). She is having him draw a bird, with good results. Later on in the month I will photo some of his work.

I keep forgetting to start the morning with a prayer. This first week is always about slowly introducing new books and methods, and making notes of what is slipping.

Aidan

He did lesson 16 of 100EZ Lessons.
And a bit of coloring in his math book.
He "cooked" with his playdough which he has been doing every morning while I make breakfast.

Paddy

He is on lesson 7 of 100EZ and really skating, though he has the attention span of a water strider. Well, he is only 4, but he is like Clare ..... SO ready to start decoding.

He also wanted to "do math" so we talked about smaller and larger, same and different, and did some simple picture based adding.

Note: I want to bring out the Parent/Child masterpieces and also the Audobon bird postcards I bought last year, so they can both play matching games.

(Another Note: I usually don't mention Liam or Brendan or Clare in this chronicle because L & B are graduated and Clare, does most of her things independently and keeps her own records. Liam is starting his junior year at Thomas Aquinas College. Brendan is working part time and continuing his reading and writing -- right now he is reading The Rise and Fall of the Communist Revolution. I'll probably incidentally mention things that the older ones are doing that seem to trickle down to the rest of the family, because I do notice that part of a learning environment consists of what the rest of the family is doing, even if a particular child is not actively involved in a given experience).

History Thoughts -- Year 6 and 9

I have been reading Puck of Pook's Hill, which I acquired years ago but somehow hadn't read up till now. It looks like it is in the Year 5 Schedule of readings at Higher Up and Further In.

See, Kieron said he would like to do more Romans for history, but I wanted to move ahead during the course of the year, and I was wondering if Puck would be a good tie-in between Rome and Britain .... and it looks like it will be. I am enjoying it, though I don't think he will find it to be a page-turner, and I haven't finished it yet; there is some strangeness about the Old folk, who were believed to be gods. I can't imagine anyone who is creeped out about HP, for instance, feeling altogether comfortable about this book, but it's got solid 19th century credentials (it's by Rudyard Kipling).

If we can get to Britain.... I find I would really like to do a British history and literature year. So many possible side tangents, such a lot of richness. Puck has lots of connections --- to 19th century illustration, to Shakespeare, to old poems, to British history, even to mythology and religion by an indirect route.

There are lots and lots of books written by British folk; we'll have our pick.

Possibilities to consider:

Our Island Story
English Literature for Boys and Girls
(Sean read some of this last year but I'm thinking it's too light for an almost-high schooler.)

But Sean could follow the MODG British Literature syllabus. It's meant for 12th grade but is not that difficult and would be easy to adapt.

August: new books strewn for Paddy

So far he's asked to read all of them, several times, except Mike Mulligan and Strega Nona. Oh well -- I'm sure we'll get to those ones eventually. He seems to go for animals on the cover.

Day 2

Not too much got done.

Sean did Latin, Greek, and Vocabulary -- SAT prep (that's a new subject, but I thought it would be good for high school level language study). I gave him "Out of the Silent Planet" to start and he finished it, commenting "It was kind of strange."

Kieron worked on his volcano, and did Greek, and Latin with Clare.

In the afternoon I took the younger ones to the beach, which we are counting as building relationships to Nature. Later, Sean went to football practice.

Some photos of the day:

Keeping my spiral open on the counter so I can write things down.


Kieron finished his volcano.

The lava... it works!
I'm checking my lesson notes.... who are those people in front of the camera??

Clare and Aidan having a break together.

Mapping out the Day

Here is our basic daily routine.

Here are some PUS Timetables that were useful to me last year in planning a CM-y flow to the day and week.

Today I wrote a few notes as we walked through our easy-ish first day of school. Part of the reason for starting gradually is simply because it's an advantage we have over those who are going to a school building; we can take off to the beach right after lunch. And another part of the reason, honestly, is that I'm easily intimidated, and starting off slow is better than waiting, and waiting, until things are just perfect (and they never are, and the pressure builds). Finally, starting off gradually gives me a chance to scribble notes, and that is what I do. I scribble about the glitches, the blank spaces, the moments when several needed attention, the way the kids reacted to what we did (for better or worse). I do this for several days, and I go back to doing it whenever we hit a slow or difficult spot during the school year. I don't know where I read about doing this (I think it was in Evaluating for Excellence) but it has worked well for me.

So anyway, this is what I scribbled about a possible homeschool schedule for this year:

8 am Make breakfast, supervise chores
8:30 Work with Aidan a bit on reading and math -- give him something he and Paddy can do on his own.
9 am Religion (start off by prayer and reading aloud, then go from there)
9:30 Math for Sean and Kieron-- help as needed (they can finish in their own time)
10 am Sean and Kieron work on Latin with Clare -- I can work with littlies on literature themes.
10:30 Clare does Nature Study twice a week with Kieron; on the other days, do something science-related -- reading, or drawing in sketchbook, or lab
11 am Break, Activity --
11:15 Language Arts, ending with freewriting or copywork/dictation (see Bravewriter) -- also, Greek and Logic and drawing during this time.

around noon-- break

1 pm I go outside with little ones -- olders come with us or stay at home and do independent reading (see PUS Timetables for choice of subjects).
2 pm Narrations ??? (little ones do project)

3 pm -- I rest or run errands.

Wow, the day fills up fast.

I've never really had a chronological timetable for the morning hours before.... usually the morning is just about Getting Things Done, with a few built-in pegs like Reading after Breakfast. I thought I'd try it because the boys seemed to sort of like the idea and it might help keep things going a bit. I'm not attached to it, and if it gets artificial, I'll drop it.

I told Kieron that if he has eaten and done his morning jobs before 9 am he can work on his story, or read, or play, but that he should stay off the computer until the afternoon.


I made a list of other things I'd like to include -- I like the list of Prince Caspian's education:

"He learned sword-fighting and riding, swimming and diving, how to shoot with the bow and play on the recorder and the theorbo, .... besides Cosmography, Rhetoric, Heraldry, Versification, and of course, History, with a little Law, Physic, Alchemy, and Astronomy. Of Magic he learned only the ehtory, for Doctor Cornelius said the practical part was not proper study for princes. "And I myself," he added, "am only a very imperfect magician and can do only the smallest experiments." Of Navigation ("which is a noble and heroical art" said the Doctor) he was taught nothing, because King Miraz disappoved of ships and the sea."

First Day of School

Today we officially started up the academic year again. In spite of the "official" term, though, it was a very lowkey start.

I started the day by making cookies. Yes, I did manage to get up by about 7 am, which gave me a headstart.

I gave Aidan a reading lesson -- he didn't want to stop and kept "reading" for about 20 minutes thereafter.

I gave a spelling test to Sean and Kieron -- something they generally enjoy since we don't do it very often. Sean got 8.0 grade level and Kieron, 5.8. Then they both did Greek independently using Hey Andrew (continuing from last year).

Then I looked at the Algebra book with Sean, while Kieron started working on his volcano, from the Science Kit #6; he had already set up the makings on the table and wanted to get to it as fast as possible.

We worked on the volcano.... constructing a cone and putting on a layer of, well, flour paste -- we forgot the mashed paper part of papier mache. This is why my kids are doing hands-on projects in spite of me, not because of me.

Sean went off to read Harry Potter and ice his leg, while I started Paddy on 100EZ lessons. He was fine with it though in a hurry! and then wanted to write some letters. He wrote an S and a P freehand, then wanted a handwriting book. I couldn't find his old HWT so I gave him an old CHC penmanship book.

Clare then gave Kieron a Latin lesson and they also did a nature study, going off into the forest with their sketchbooks.

I was tired out (we're fighting off a cold) and had a short rest on the bed.

Then we ate lunch, I talked on the phone with a friend about lesson plans for this year, then we went to the beach where I made some catch-up phone calls.

This afternoon Kieron worked on finishing his volcano. We are having internet problems and so I can't get to the computer with the photos, but when things are back to normal I'll probably upload pictures to my Every Waking Hour blog.

We will add a few more subjects as time goes on. I haven't finished planning history or science, and intend to consult my old copy of The Well Trained Mind since I think that approach for science will work pretty well for Sean and Kieron.

Sean is off to football practice tonight... still in a lot of pain.

Friday -- summer

No formal academics, though we have been talking about it and planning a bit.

We went to homeschool Stations of the Cross. The kids had fun playing together.....ages 4 up to 11, and all got along pretty well, which is usual there. Clare and LIam came too -- Clare played the piano there for a while.

Sean had football practice. After this week it cuts back to 3 days a week. He is still out of action because of his torn muscle and told me as he went in to soak it in warm water "It's incredibly stressful and draining to feel this bad all the time" (!).

Aidan and Paddy playing with play dough and Duplos, but not getting along quite as wonderfully as they did during the first days last week.

Kieron was reading the electricity Usborne book, and "Secret Spaces and Hideaway Places" and tried to make a homemade compass and has plans to make a fishing pole.

Clare's Plans

Clare and I talked about planning today in the car. I'm writing it out quickly in note form while it's still in my mind.

Clare pretty much plans her own courses with some input from me. This year she is doing:

Math: Geometry.
Latin: Henle (she wants to do it with Sean, and possibly with Kieron, though I think a high school level class will move too fast for Kieron).
Science: Some text -- maybe Apologia Chemistry?
Nature Study: with Kieron, twice a week -- go out in the forest, take pics and sketch.

History -- she wanted to ask what to do about this. We are thinking maybe the 20th-century course I made for Liam, based on Kolbe's senior year. American Government and Economics alongside.

Literature -- she's designing her own course. I may give her some suggestions that fit in with the history.

English -- that comes naturally. She writes all the time.

Religion -- also comes naturally. We have a lot of books around and she reads extensively, participates in church activities and takes an interest in the Catholic internet world. Maybe I can get some ideas from her on how to inspire the younger boys.

SAT prep..... we've traditionally included this as part of a course on study skills.

I think I am missing something..... she is planning out a schedule. Music will be high priority too, of course.

The top box of books are her core materials and the books here on the shelf are the ones she is going to bring in later in the year.

(Another good blog post of hers about HP called "Ridiculous")

Oh, that's right! The last course is literary analysis. I'm having her read essays on criticism and analysis by CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Flannery O'Connor, and hopefully I will be able to collect some more. Liam did a similar course in his last year and it was a good thing for us -- we had lots of good discussions.

Planning -- Random Notes

For the little ones, use Five in a Row and Real Learning booklist. Go on rabbit trails. Search online for activities and related books. Basically, just have fun and explore. Perhaps use the books they particularly love for some word-recognition games.

Kieron wants to learn about animals, particularly reptiles, for science.

I think, upon consideration, I'll have Sean do a Well Trained Mind type thing for science -- basically, just read through various science books, keep a notebook, choose further things to go in more depth upon. Something similar for Kieron. This is a relief to decide -- it worked for past kids. Perhaps I'll have him use a textbook later in the year to learn how, just in case he does go to school next year.

Both like to do nature sketches -- take local photos and perhaps reproduce in sketchbooks (their grandma, an excellent artist, does this).

There is a community college opening relatively near us. A possibility for Brendan and perhaps Clare next year, in the interim before they go off to regular college or university. Note: Find out more about transferring credits, dual credit, online options etc.

Brendan -- work for Kevin.

Continue story society during the year. Find ways to get Sean and Kieron writing more, especially Sean.

History -- Kieron wanted to continue the Romans. But perhaps phase into the middle ages from there.

Sean????

Thursday

I think that once we start the "school year" (scheduled for next Tuesday) I will list the formal academics at the top, and then the informal learning log underneath in a bit more detail.

No formal academics today.

When Paddy got up he was following me around with stories to read, so I read to him for about half an hour.

We did our weekly jobs, then I took the three younger kids to the lakeshore and to the library. Kieron went into the market to buy a couple of things -- he has gotten pretty comfortable with doing this (a life skill I neglected with the older set). We stayed at the lake for about an hour; cloudy and a bit choppy on the water. I read "Deconstructing Penguins" (recommended by JoVE at Tricotomania -- showed up in our library pile today).

Brendan and Sean played Madden '08 and Liam worked on designing a robot for Kevin's new game.

Paddy and Aidan are still playing with the playdough set at interims during the day. The cabinets have become an oven and a refrigerator. They love to make food and Aidan will saying "How long will it take to cook? About one hour ...oh, my goodness, it's steaming" and then he rushes to get it out...cute.

When we got back home I cut the hair of the younger set....Kieron, Aidan and Paddy.

Then I read to Paddy again.... several stories. He wanted to keep reading and I wanted to have a little nap, so I got out the Duplos. When I woke up a few minutes later, music to my ears.... Paddy and Aidan engaged in imaginative play with the Duplos -- you know that intense, connected conversation that little kids have when they are deep in a shared pretend game. They never really did this together at all until this summer... Aidan was apparently not there developmentally, and Paddy wasn't able to carry the play, though Paddy could play this way with Kieron. They played together for nearly an hour.

Kieron was working on his Bionicle comic strips -- he does them on the computer.

Sean went off to football practice with Kevin. Clare and Brendan and I talked about Harry Potter, and liturgical music. .... agreeing on the most execrable songs. Sorry, and parodying them. Some things just lend themselves to parody, and "Ashes" and "Gather us In" are two. There are plenty more. Please note it is not sacred things we are making light of.... it is like Chesterton says, some things are not funny and not serious. But making a joke of them can be a defense.

On the home front, I straightened the freezer.

Learning Log -- summer

No formal academics. Next week.....

Yesterday, Aidan and Paddy had a pretty good learning day though. I took Aidan on an extended nature walk -- we saw a couple of what I am pretty sure were hawks. He must have walked almost a mile, sloowly, over the course of almost an hour. Aidan, that is.

When we got back we found that Kevin, who had been shopping at Costco, had brought back a present for Aidan. ... playdough. I put the pictures here.

Today, I drove to town with Liam and Clare. We did college shopping for Liam, started building up a sewing stash for Clare, and got some semi-alone-time with these two since the older kids at home watched the little ones. We listened to Bach cantatas in the car, and discussed things like liturgical music and Harry Potter. Liam read us bits of Don Quixote.

like a dandelion clock.....

Scattering Planning Thoughts

Logic Planning

I was just talking to a friend about resources for Logic, and thought I'd get some of it down before I forget.

Here is a collection of the various logic resources we have around the house. Not included are wonderful games like SET, Robo Rally and plenty of others.



First, there are these:


These are labelled A through F, roughly corresponding to grades 1 through 6. They are cute and simple -- my kids haven't exactly been enthralled with them, but I bring them out occasionally when we are on a trip or have other things going on that make it difficult to get our regular academics accomplished.

At about sixth grade my kids can usually use the Introductory Logic book from Canon Press. It is formal logic and there a a few glitches in the presentation (at least in the ancient edition I have) but it works well for discussion and only takes a few minutes a day. The Intermediate Logic course is on the right and I haven't ever really gotten through more than a couple of lessons of that with any of my kids.



Here, on the left is the Building Thinking Skills series from Critical Thinking Co. I haven't used them that much, but they cover somewhat the same territory as the little mini-workbooks above -- they are rather pricey, but reproducible, which is nice.

Logic, Anyone? has those word logic puzzles like the ones where you try to determine who is sitting next to whom on an airplane. They are about 6th grade level and pretty challenging.

Then there is the Traditional Logic series -- I actually have volumes 1 and 2 though only 2 is shown here. I have found it reasonable to start volume 1 anywhere between 7th and 11th grade. If you start with an older student, you can do each volume in a semester. Memoria Press has another logic book -- Material Logic -- which I do not have yet except on my wish list.


Here are two miscellaneous books. Logic for Beginners is a simple modern-logic type book -- I went through some of the puzzles with my oldest when he was in sixth grade but haven't really used it since. With Good Reason is a college informal logic text and quite good. My second son went through it and seemed to get a lot out of it. He still can pick out a fallacy at ten paces.


Finally, here are a few books that aren't primarily logic, but have a logic subsection or component. Jacob's Geometry starts off with a brief logic course. Classical WRiting: Diogenes is a writing program meant to be used along with Traditional Logic.

The one on the left, Process and Thought in Composition, is a college textbook by Frank D'Angelo who wrote the textbook on the progymnasmata called Classical Composition. POTIC has a chapter on enthymemes, which sort of skirt the border between logic and rhetoric.


I haven't exactly decided what to use with whom this year, except that Sean, my 14 year old, will probably go through Traditional Logic 1 (he started it last year) and also do a bit of CW: Diogenes. I may use some of the Building Thinking SKills with Kieron, my 11 year old, and possibly also a bit of Introductory Logic. I'd like to get him interested in logic puzzles and concepts since he has one of those types of minds (likes Rubik's Cube, SET and things like that).

Tuesday

No formal academics.

In the morning I played Robo Rally with Liam, Sean and Kieron. This game actually involves a lot of programming-type logic and strategy. Liam usually wins, but this time Sean got ahead by just a bit and took the game.

In the afternoon I took Kieron, Aidan and Paddy to the lakeshore and they played in the sand and water.

Clare started a new blog devoted to family doings.

I forgot to mention it before, but Liam has been showing Kieron how to use Torque Game Builder a bit.

Sean went to the doctor and she said he has torn a muscle in the back of his leg.... puts him out of the first part of the season. Three to four weeks before he can play. But he is still going to daily practices to be part of the team even though sitting out of uniform on the sidelines.

Random Notes

No formal academics.

Kieron made slime over the weekend. He also did the experiment with baking soda and vinegar.

Paddy is still insisting on me following the words on the page with my finger as I read to him. Tonight I read him "Giants, Indeed!" and several Bible stories and a Little Critter story.

Sean still suffering from pulled hamstring and couldn't really practice at practice today.

I talked about homeschool planning with a friend on the phone; I am still having trouble deciding on how to approach this school year, which is coming all too fast.

Brendan has been making some college-type plans, and Liam is getting ready to go back to college for his third year.

There is a thread here about setting unschooling-type goals.

"look how disgusting it is; and I get to keep it!"

Kieron made this homemade slime, yesterday — it’s unusual for us to do project-based learning so I photo’d the whole procedure, happily feeling just a bit like Theresa:

He puts in the glue:

He has laid out the instruction sheet and all the supplies ahead of time, which is nice — I didn’t teach him to do that:

Adds some food coloring and stirs:

Paddy wants me to pay attention to him for a moment:

Adds the Borax and water:

Slime!

You knead it and squeeze out the excess water in order to make the consistency firmer.

The finished slime, which feels a bit like Silly Putty (Kieron compared it)

Paddy gets a bit to play with:

The version of the project we used came from the Young Scientist’s Club — this costs a bit of money per month but has been nice because it comes with all the supplies, and the instructions are nicely laid out — he can follow them easily himself.

Learning Log for Friday

No formal academics.

We got to go to Homeschool Stations of the Cross for the first time in a couple of months. It was fun for the kids but they got tired out. Still not completely recovered.

Paddy listening to No Roses for Harry, Caroline and the Stag, Prince of the Stables, a Little Critter book, and A Snowy Day , Somebody's Dog, plus a few others I can't remember offhand-- that's eclectic, I would say. I started reading him an illustrated version of Men of Iron (at his request) but he couldn't get into it. Kieron grabbed it and read it, though. I think I will give Kieron some of the Howard Pyle books this year.

Kieron was playing with his Young Scientits's Club kit yesterday -- he wants me to help him do some of the experiments today so that is on my list of things to do.

Clare brought her violein and played it while the kids were playing after Stations. The other mom was impressed at how well she played after only 2 years and said she compared favorably to the high school string players. SInce I know so little about the violin that was good feedback.

Liam is progressing in Noad classical guitar.

Sean had football practice. He's pulled a hamstring but was in less pain yesterday and seemed in a happier mood. Football seems to take a lot out of him. I hope it will get easier as the season progresses.

I intend to start minimal academics the week that Liam leaves -- which is, I think, the 19th.

Plans for the 3Rs.

So here is a list of the very core basics for my children:

MATH the 6th grader will use either Saxon 76 or Ray's Arithmetic. The 9th grader will use Jacob's Algebra. The special needs 1st grader will continue Horizons K Math with lots of manipulatives and activities. The pre-Ker will use activities from the Montessori preschool book.

LATIN:
Henle 1 for the 9th graders (review, then continue from lesson 15).
Latina Christiana 1 for the 6th grader, supplemented by Simply Grammar and various sentence construction activities.

GREEK:
continue Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek

READING: 100 Easy Lessons for the 1st grader, Montessori for him and the pre-Ker. For the others, reading is part of the rest of the curriculum.

WRITING: Handwriting without Tears for the 1st grader, preschooler, and 6th grader. Supplemented by copywork and narration. The 6th and 9th grader probably will use Classical Writing.

LOGIC: Traditional Logic for the 9th grader, Introduction to Logic for the 6th grader and maybe some Critical Thinking Press activities depending on how things go. Also, of course, games.

History and Science and Religion and Literature are still coming together. If I'm fairly organized about pinning down the core "skill" subjects, then it doesn't bother me much if we're looser about the content subjects since the kids pick up so much from incidental reading, conversations and movies.

Planning 3Rs

I like to get the 3Rs pinned down early because with those in place, the rest can be pretty flexible.

I used to make cool printouts with dates and page numbers and places for check marks. I still feel the pull of this but in fact, last year I didn't do that and we still made equivalent progress. It's usually sufficient to figure out

Total pages or lessons = T
A rough idea of how many days or weeks you want to use to complete the book = N
T/N gives you the rate of progress -- how many lessons or pages to complete per day or week

Then I also divide the total by quarters or months or trimesters

T/12 = M

M is the number of pages to be complete per month. Let's say M = 4 lessons to be completed per month. Then I can make a simple calendar that shows where I ought to be in each subject for each month, which helps keep me on track.

If I make it more structured than this, it may be a fun way to spend an hour, but I usually don't end up using the carefully wrought out assignment sheets. Though they are pretty to look at ....sigh. ....maybe I'll do them retroactively this year.

An even more basic way to do this is simply: "Do the next thing". ..... just work for an allotted time each day, and next time pick up where you left off last time. Doing this keeps you from hurrying a child through a half-understood lesson just so you can "be on track". But for me, the monthly goal sheets are helpful in avoiding the spring panic when I suddenly realize I have a third of the book left to complete.

REvisiting the Rhythms of the Day

Routines and Priorities

Learning Log, and Random Notes on Goals

Sean and Kieron are still reading Harry Potter.

Sean has had daily football practice.

We had a story meeting yesterday. Clare read a section of "The Fox", I read a bit of my Oldhaven story, and Liam read from his story about the firrels. He has finished the first part (out of three) in this story, which has grown into a novelette-sized entity.

An incidental learning note: Paddy has been having a bit of trouble sitting through stories. He still asks me to read but he gets squirmy. Could be convalescence or could be the extra juices and sodas and screen time around here during the sickness. Books read included: Magic Spectacles, Miss Suzy -- hmm, blocking on the rest. It was cute though -- after listening to Miss Suzy he shouted, "Will you go peacably, or must we fight you?" (quote from the book).

Anyway, today's the last day of open season on the TV, since everyone is pretty much recovered. And we can stop keeping the OJ and soda factories in business. So we'll see if the restlessness is environmental or just developmental.

The kids did their weekly jobs. I need to revise those for next schoolyear but am having trouble knowing where to start. SO: I'm going to list the little regular jobs I find myself doing about once or twice a week. Those will be the ones that aren't on their chore chart lists. I also want to figure out a way to delegate some of the monthly deep cleaning jobs a bit better. In the past, with a complicated pregnancy and new (ill) baby, I used to reserve Thursdays for that and make a list of jobs to assign; perhaps we can go back to that.

Random academic goals
(I'm going to list them as they come hoping they will reach a critical mass and fall into place):

Extend Aidan's reading scope (or rather listening scope). I am thinking a loose FIAR type approach similar to this one I described in Paddy and His Books. Aidan likes familiarity and repetition.

I also think continuing simple poetry and word books and pattern books (which he loves and are in his comfort zone) as ways to move into reading.

This is just an idea in the back of my mind. I have been discerning about Montessori, since Aidan loves hands-on. I have a couple of the Hainstock books which I intend to use for inspiration. But, and I've made a deal with myself, ONLY for inspiration. I seem to have problems with my perfectionism here -- I've hesitated to use Montessori at ALL because I don't understand the big picture and I think I wouldn't be doing it RIGHT. But I want to focus on the idea of "presentations" for now because this does seem to have a vein of richness to it, to me (sorry to be all intuitive but I almost always have better results when I follow this kind of golden thread).

So to put it in action terms: Learn about and try to apply the idea of presentations, and record results.

Enough for now!