Day 45

Our 9th week ended with a bit of a whimper. For a combination of reasons, it has been really difficult to make much progress the last few days. One child just got fitted with braces and is in pain; another one has a mysterious chronic injury in his leg and is in pain; another one has elevated liver function numbers, and though he is showing no signs of infection or rejection or pain, it is worrying to his mom. And I am sick. ....and worried about the mystery health issues, and annoyed that they will probably entail lots of expensive time consuming follow-up interventions ... and just tired.

Combining that with the festivals and holy days this week, and several doctor's and dentist's appointments, the result was, for one thing, me losing patience with my 14 year old during algebra (not good! temper and teaching are not a good mix -- I am not talking verbal abuse, just an irritated lecture, which is bad enough!!). If I had had to assess the two boys' math level today in isolation from the other days, I would've put the 14 year old at the 6th grade level and the 11 year old back at wherever you master your times and division tables.

Still, Sean did get through all the "basics" (no attempt at composition) and I did a Plan B with Kieron -- verbal quizzes and reviews for most of the subjects, while we worked on carving pumpkins together. I also worked on some fraction manipulatives that I can have him use to reinforce equivalency ideas (he seems to be getting it fine, but MCP Math F moves FAST through fractions, probably because a lot of it is supposed to be review -- and it IS review for him but I want him to have it down completely, since it often trips you up in the upper levels).

I did a bit of reading with Aidan on lesson 18 of 100 EZ Lessons.

I am going to read aloud to Kieron now.

On the brighter side (and really, nothing BAD is happening -- it's the worries that are draining my energy, and kicking myself for worrying) --

The house for some reason looks SO much better than it has looked for weeks -- I'm not quite sure why. Maybe the grey days don't show up the dust so much???
AND
I finally exercised today -- I had a bad food and activity week last week while I wasn't feeling good, and I gained almost 4 pounds. But now some of it is coming off again.

Fun Things

Aidan figured out a way to work with the Pink Cards, along with some old letter stamps I found in our closet:

My clock manipulatives, inspired by Theresa's ---

Mostly I want Aidan to understand the positions to help him with the WRTR handwriting instructions, and also I thought the manipulative would help him with his everlasting-question-loops whenever he is looking forward to something.


This is an old "Reading Reel" I found around the house -- if you click on the picture you can see a close-up -- anyway, it seems like it could be used for a narration manipulative something like the "narration jars" mentioned here and here and here.

One more thing: someone on my classical list reminded me of this old link I once had to an "Educational Products Taxonomy" . That is a very jargony label meaning different types of writing and other projects classified by the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Day 44

We zipped a bit because there are going to be various interruptions during the rest of the day. Still, we got the basics done. But the basics can be demoralizing when they are done in condensed form; I could feel discouragement coming from Sean, and Kieron was quite distracted because his oldest brother gave permission for him to use his Lego robot, so he was full of plans for how to modify it.

Sean:

• Algebra (I accidentally had him do a lesson from an earlier chapter yesterday --blush-- the graphing review didn't hurt, but still -- it is irritating). Anyway, today we proceeded with Area and Perimeter equations.
• Latin -- quiz on the declensions, noting patterns. He is getting them down a bit better. Next week perhaps we'll be able to move on.
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Spelling Test on vocabulary lessons 30-39. He aced it.
• Gave him Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea -- he remembers the movie.
• Mere Christianity.
• Taking notes for short paper.

Kieron

• Math (fractions with unlike denominators)
• Latin verbal review, starting on 2nd declension masculine.
• Discovery of New Worlds -- Vesuvius -- he gave a great running commentary, bringing in other sources he has read.
• Then we marked it on the timeline, but he was distracted by the robotics by then. Another time I will have him draw a volcano to put on the timeline, but today was definitely not the day.
• If I have time I will do a bit of the spelling notebook with him, but probably not writing today -- too hurried -- instead, I will go over some of the rules with him: "qu", "c" and "g" before "i, e, and y".
• Robotics! (counts for science!)
  

Clare is too nervous about her upcoming dental appointment to do any work, so she was playing her fiddle, talking about Logic with us and playing with and reading to Paddy.

Year 9 -- Sean -- Weekly Lesson Plans

Week 11
Week 10
Week 9

(Note: I like this form better than the spreadsheet one I did for Kieron, so next week I think I'm going to change Kieron's to make it more like this one).

Year 6 Course Outline

I completed the first draft of Kieron's course outline/checklist. A couple of readers commented that they could not get to Sean's Year 9 syllabus pdf, so I'll have to figure out what is going on with that -- I made a Google group as a repository for my PDFs, and I seem to be able to get there just fine, but apparently others can't (???).

Anyway, here is the Year 6 one. If I can find a better way to upload them, I will. It is a bit less, hmm, complete than Sean's, because the way Kieron's school year is happening, I invent subthemes based on what I think he would like or what he expresses an interest in. It is almost like units, or Main Lessons perhaps, except that they overlap considerably -- studying one thing at a time makes me claustrophobic!

So for example, right now for science he has been studying reptiles, by his request, but I'm also strewing some space/earth science type resources because Sean is doing Earth Science and it makes sense to me to use some of my research and collecting for Kieron's benefit. He just came in to narrate some material about black holes so apparently he must have picked up one of my strewn books. If I plan something he is not that interested in, I pass through it quickly --but I try to have more resources available if he is interested.

We have a big overarching theme of Discovery and Exploration this year -- which you can imagine encompasses just about everything, but it gives me a sort of focus -- a "golden thread" to follow.

In history/geography right now, in addition to the main texts he is reading, we are just finishing a sort of main lesson about Vikings. And in our read alouds, we seemed to focus for a while on World War II. The Vikings and WWII connected because of Snow Treasure, which is set in Denmark. Now we are reading the Flying Dutchman which serendipitously also connects to Scandinavia, because the story starts in Denmark, and the ship then sails down into the Atlantic.

You get the picture -- I am building the syllabus as we go. I prayed for joy at the beginning of this school year and this approach seems to bring to light at least a few little joyful sparkles.

Forecast for the Week

I'm going to start writing out what the week holds just to see if it helps me juggle all those plates a bit better. (Plates! Liam said there was a knife juggler at a variety show at his college this weekend! Yikes!)

• Monday, today, the occupational therapist and then the regular trip to the library and the market. We go to the market once a week to let each child pick out a treat -- longstanding tradition.
• Tuesday, some of us will be running errands half the day. Clare has to get her braces and Aidan has a clinic.
• Wednesday -- Halloween
• Thursday -- Holy Day -- visit Liam possibly. I was going to let the kids have the day off but with all the other things happening this week I am not sure if we can afford to. Maybe do some kind of Main Lesson or intensive and drop the regular classes, for variety.
• Friday-- things going on most of the day -- homeschool Stations, and a doctor's appointment.
• Saturday -- playoff game? (we don't know yet if they made the playoffs)

For the actual weather, it is thundery today!

ETA: In future forecasts, I will try to put something about what is high in priority for the week. For this week, right off the cuff, I would say just keeping somewhat of a still center with all the busy-ness and, hmm, well, sugar! Other priorities: getting that firewood stacked (Brendan has commissioned himself with doing the bulk) and getting Sean's writing program off the ground.

And starting some semblance of Novel in a Month starting November 1st.

And doing SOMETHING for the liturgical year -- thinking of having Kieron read some of the Catholic Mosaic picture books -- fun and pretty easy.

Then at the end of the week, I can journal about hits and misses.

Day 43

This morning was a hurried one. I got up a bit late because I was up late the night before. Aidan's OT was expected at noon, which meant we needed to get the house clean by then, and I had to make a phone call, and the kids badly wanted me to go to the library before the OT came because they were hoping a movie they had requested was in (it turned out not to be).

On the bright side, cleaning the house is scheduled on Monday's agenda, and the rest of the things I plan on that day are generally things where a bit of hurry isn't fatal. We managed to get through almost everything, though I didn't have much time for the little ones. The little ones were unusually self-directed today and played productively while I was getting through everything else.

The only things the older children didn't get to that I had planned were: Kieron -- updating his timeline; Sean -- starting to read Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Sean:

• Algebra
• Greek (up to lesson 17)
• Vocabulary (lesson 43) -- I told him to study for a spelling test tomorrow
• Latin -- declensions -- still stuck on them -- I really want him to get them down but it seems to be a lock with the methods we are using.
• Earth Science -- Stars and Galaxies
• Mere Christiantiy
• King Solomon's Ring
• Weekly chores -- he is my helper and the window and monitor washer this week.
• Also, I told him to plan a short paper on a topic of his choice. We discussed his own goals for increasing writing correctness and fluency. Apparently he really wants to tune-up his skills. So his assignment today was to think about it. Tomorrow I'll have him sit and brainstorm, I guess. Then write Wednesday, revise Thursday, and turn in the final draft on Friday.

Kieron

• He was somehow inspired to do a Grade A plus job on his job, which was tidying and dusting the upstairs. It looks like I did it, which does happen to be the gold standard around here still since Liam left (though Brendan is a runner-up). He even made his bed and tidied his area without being asked.
• Greek -- he is up to page 109 now on Book 2.
• Handwriting -- on page 10
• Latin -- reciting first declension and "sum". Then we went over the first five grammar cards. Then I had him put the cases in order (NGDAA) then match them with their significants (subject, possessive, indirect case (to/for), direct object, and by/with. I think I understand the set-up of Latina Christiana better now that I am trying to teach Henle as a beginner's book. The two kids simply coast on the vocabulary, because we spent all our Latin time last year learning that. But if they had gotten those declensions down everything would be so much easier. I tell ya, Aidan and Paddy are going to get those down by next year! Joking, but Kieron has such fun reciting "terra" orally that I wish I'd just done it for five minutes 3 times a week with him last year.
• Math -- adding fractions with like denominators -- easy.
• Spelling notebook -- the first page -- from Writing Road to Reading. This is a combination remedial handwriting and spelling course. I did a similar one with Brendan about 8 years ago, -- it made a huge difference in his fluency and confidence level. He took off after that. But it's SO not the kind of thing I enjoy doing.
• Then I had him read about Leif Erikson in the Rainbow Book of American History, and
• Color his map of North America (finally)
• He finished Beorn the Proud over the weekend.
• Read Alouds -- we've finished The Secret Cave and are on chapter 3 of the Flying Dutchman.
  

Aidan

• Lesson 17 of 100 Easy Lessons.
• Wrote letters on piece of paper.
• Thinking Skills/Speech (bigger, smaller, behind, in front of, shapes, etc)
• Clock (I made him one out of cardstock and he loved it). I'm going to try to get him used to the clockface so I can use the terminology in WRTR about 2 o'clock -- I think the verbal instructions will help his motor processing a LOT.
• Productive Play -- used the suitcase carrier and planned 'trips".
• OT -- cranio sacral therapy, working on pincer grip, drawing lines down and across (working on accuracy)
  
• Library and market.

Paddy

• Tintins.
• Listened to Flying Dutchman with Kieron.
• Duplos.

Year 6 -- Kieron -- Lesson Plans

I've been trying to figure out the best way to do this. So here goes -- I'm going to put a post which I edit weekly by adding the link to the most recent lesson plans, and then link to the post on the sidebar. I hope this isn't too confusing to any onlookers! (if so, sorry....).

Week 12 -- Exams

Week 10

Week 9

Week 8

Weekend Work: Year 9 Syllabus

(I accidentally posted this to my other blog first, so am moving it over here. That's what happens when you stay up too late the night before, and then are doing things in a rush on a Sunday afternoon)

This weekend my goal was to get Sean's coursework figured out. So I browsed through the Kolbe syllabi, thought hard, typed out tables of contents, looked at the syllabi a friend sent to my classical egroup, and finally came up with this:

Year 9 Course Outlines
(it is a PDF)

The way it is structured is basically just as a checklist. Obviously, it is a work in progress. What I would like to add is a table of contents, a list of memory work, and more details about what the method is actually like. But just getting the breakdown typed out took about 4 hours.

I stayed up till almost 3 am -- it is SO. MUCH. EASIER to get things done when the little ones are asleep. You don't want to know how much coffee I've gone through in the past 15 hours. But it's nice to have this written out. Kieron's schoolwork has been flying -- a spontaneous, impromptu approach has been working great for him this year -- I love teaching sixth graders! But it has been harder with Sean because I didn't have things mapped out and he likes to charge through his work and then go about his day. So we'll see if this makes a difference.

One more thing: When I looked at it all laid out, I felt discouraged for a few minutes. I hate feeling like I'm caught in a lockstep with academics. Takes all the joy out of it. SO one more thing I'd like to work on alongside the basic syllabus is a list of topics for what Ignatian education calls "lectio statataria". That means something like a spotlight or focus, or what the Real Learning community calls a Rabbit Trail. It could be a bit like a Main Lesson, too. Basically, you stop for a bit as you progress through in order to concentrate on a particular event or person or theme.

With that as a priority, I will not worry if we don't get all the way through every book. It's just there as a guideline, but if we're finding some richness in dwelling on a skill or a subject, it doesn't matter if we slow down the pace.

Afternoon Learning Log -- Friday

With the visit to the local Pumpkin Patch (a small production at the local Color Growers, but a nice little seasonal interlude on this beautiful WARM autumn day, and the little ones got to pick out a pumpkin) -- then the Halloween/All Souls Day party at the church with the homeschool group, we rounded out this last day of the week.

I was tired out and a bit ill today and pumpkin patches and parties weren't exactly what I would have ordered, but as I drove home in the gathering dusk with a car full of happy younger children, with my teenage daughter singing to Big River, I was glad we had gone.

Later on I talked with a homeschooling friend on the phone.

I read another chapter of The Secret Cave to Kieron and Paddy, and then Paddy fell asleep, while Kieron got into a conversation with me about heaven and hell and "hearts' desire".

A nice ending to a rather scattered, slow yet still nice homeschool week. After all, autumn is meant to be a harvesting season. Perhaps there is more value than I always see right away in the days of slowly gathering and sifting and storing.

Day 42

Today we didn't get all that much done, but the morning still had a nice feeling to it. Here is the short version:


Now, for the long version:

Sean

• Greek -- up to page 74, lesson 16
• Vocabulary -- up to chapter 41
• Latin quiz on vocabulary and grammar(I told him to study for another quiz on declensions on Monday).
• Mere Christianity -- he made it up to book 3 chapter 4, and I am skipping him to chapter 7.
• King Solomon's Ring -- up to chapter 6
• Algebra -- up to Chapter 5, lesson 5

Kieron

• Finished the book cover of a dragon

• no math today since he finished chapter 5
• For handwriting, I took him through the beginning part of WRiting Road to Reading -- diagnosing some of his directional difficulties and pencil grip. (Next week I'm going to continue this and then phase into the spelling notebook-- I did this with my other son who had some handwriting difficulties, too, and it helped him a lot)
• I have started doing Thinking Skills with him because it leads to conversations and is in general, more thought-provoking when it's interactive. We did four pages. (SInce I can only spare the time once or twice a week, we're going to do more pages at a sitting).

Here is the Thinking Skills page -- he had the idea of actually punching holes to test the accuracy of our guesses, which made it into a nice investigation.


I assigned him for reading:

• Beorn the Proud
• Hunters of Souls
• Spotlight on Vikings (continue)
• Also, yesterday I read him 3 chapters of The Secret Cave while he was exercising.
• He talked to a friend on the phone.
• Yesterday evening he helped me make treats. I have been trying to cope with his tendency to want to get on the computer when he's bored, by finding pleasant tasks for him to do.

Paddy/Aidan

• Aidan did a bit of 100 EZ Lessons
• Paddy wanted to do Thinking Skills when he saw us doing it (Sean and Clare got interested and did a couple of Kieron's figural exercises, too).
• So I brought out the beginner Thinking Skills A -- and he did some patterns, sequencing, and identifying "same" and "different."
• Yesterday I read Paddy several books at bedtime (but have forgotten what they were). He also sat through The Secret Cave, which is one reason for reading Kieron books he could easily read silently by himself. I think I will keep that up since we are building good memories.
• Aidan: "Hey Sean -- false one! You have deceived me!" This shows the value of a one room schoolhouse, so to speak. The littlies are always coming out with phrases never heard in a typical Kindergarten. In general, Aidan made it his business to help Sean learn focus -- he bothered him all morning, systematically, while we worked. Have to think of something for little ones to do while older ones work.

This afternoon we have a field trip to the local Pumpkin Patch, and then a Halloween party after Stations of the Cross, so it will be fun for the younger kids.

The firewood yesterday!

Day 41

Today I started the morning early since Sean had an early appointment with the doctor. So I did the pink word cards with Aidan, and he worked on his HWT letterforms.

Then we brought Sean down to the doctor to start the process of referrals and diagnostic procedures. He is to see an orthopedist whenever they can fit him in.

We didn't get home till after ten, and I made a "real" breakfast for the first time this week. Meanwhile, Kieron was reading Mary Poppins and The Enchanted Castle (by Nesbit) and Sean was reading an old Star Wars book.

I decided to leave Sean to his junk reading -- he obviously didn't feel inclined to tackle his academics and this is not his usual practice -- he's usually attacking his Greek and Vocabulary as soon as he gets up. I made him a protein drink.

So, with Kieron, I did:

• Latin flashcards
• Math -- test on Chapter 5.

(Oh, and yesterday we finished the Snow Treasure read aloud)

This took an awfully long time, especially since I was reading to Paddy from the American Girl books in between times. I also worked on a 100 EZ lesson with both Paddy and Aidan.

But I am OK about it, because I see that Kieron is on page 98 of Hey Andrew book 3, which is ahead of where I thought he was, and the books he is choosing to read on his own are pretty good books.

Then our firewood came -- four cords dumped in our front yard. So now the kids are outside stacking logs, and Paddy just came in with a splinter. Kieron asked for paints and paper because he is making a book cover for the story he is working on.

Later today I will probably start reading The Secret Cave to Kieron.

(And yesterday I read two Beatrix Potter stories to Paddy as well as the ubiquitous Tintin).

Day 40

Little Ones:

• I did Lesson 17 with Aidan in 100EZ lessons -- he found it and wanted to work on it with me.
• Clare got out her American Girl dolls and her old books for Paddy, and so Paddy wanted me to read one of the Molly books. So I read him the first chapter.

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Algebra -- chapter 5, lessons 2 and 3. It is solving equations, and he did so much of that last year that I decided to move ahead.
• Latin -- review. I looked at where he is on the Memoria Press syllabus and decided we could easily review for 2-3 weeks and he would not be "behind". So we did vocabulary and grammar flashcards.
• MEre Christianity
• Earth Science -- Unit Two is on Stars and Galaxies -- he finished reading section 2.1. I asked him the questions at the end of the section.
• (He finished Knight of the White Cross and almost finished Collier Jr Classic -- Sports and Adventures)

Kieron

• Math: comparing fractions using least common denominators. ... he did them diligently but he made a few mistakes which I helped him correct.
• Greek
• Handwriting
• Latin -- vocabulary drill, and reciting declensions.
• Discovery of New Worlds --we finished the story of Nero and the Fire of Rome, and discussed it (making connections to other stories we read, and talking about Christian vs Roman views of suicide).
• Looked up VIKINGS in the encyclopedia (research skills) -- rather than reading it, I used the section to review and discuss with him.
• Living My Religion #6 -- he is starting this today; I want to see if it will round things out for him better than Faith and Life (though I love Faith and Life for the artwork and succintness of the material, the kids tend to have trouble "unpacking" it.
• Kieron is reading Mary Poppins for free reading, and several OZ books.

Dental Appointment for Sean this afternoon, and football practice this evening. He is very sore from the game so is going to see the chiro again. He does feel a bit better about the game, though, after talking to the coaches yesterday, and particularly after talking to the JV coach who is interested in him as quarterback.

Hooray again -- no cavities! just a baby tooth that needs to be removed since it's keeping the adult one from coming in properly. When I get the good results from the dentist visits I always wonder why I procrastinate and agonize so much about dental visits. I think probably I just hate interventions in general after all that's gone on with Aidan.

Tomorrow Sean has to go see the doctor again to see if we can get to the root of what's going on with these recurrent hematomas..... his uncle, the chiro, was muttering about vascular problems.... hopefully not some ongoing issue that will affect his future, but of course, Fiat Voluntas Tua.

Day 39

I think I will count today as day 39 even though a trip to the dentist cut out most of the day.

I read 3 chapters of Snow Treasure to Kieron, while he exercised. That brings us up to Chapter 25.

It looks like Sean is most of the way through the Collier Junior Classics: Stories of Sports and Adventures. The first story was a football one and I think that pulled him in.

I read several stories to Paddy.

We assembled a bookcase together so now there is a place downstairs to put the school books.

Hooray, Kieron only had one cavity in a baby tooth that is almost falling out, and Aidan, who has never been to the dentist before (long, involved story) only has two teeth that need attention. He also did superbly well coping with going off to get his teeth Xrayed -- considering that this is a kid with severe oral defensiveness, who was G Tube fed until only a couple of years ago.

And Clare helped me make dinner.

Brendan is finished reading the first of the Christendom series by Warren Carroll.

Clare, Kieron, Aidan, and Paddy played an involved cowboy-western game/movie. Yes, Clare is 17 but she has a great older-sister talent for getting imaginary play going.

SEan's Kolbe Course List

Religion: Our Life in the Church
Reading (see Literature)
Phonics/Word Study: n/a
English Grammar: Voyages in English 8
Vocabulary: Stanford Vocabulary
Spelling: Test every 2 weeks on vocabulary words
Penmanship: n/a
Literature: Kolbe Middle School Literature
History: Guardians of Freedom
Geography: All Ye Lands
Mathematics: Jacob's Elementary Algebra
Science: Prentice Hall Earth Science, Natural History
Foreign Language: Henle Latin 1
Other: Art & Music
Seasonal Sports for PE
New Testament Greek (using Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek)

Day 38

Today was a bit crazy since we had a very full weekend. We went to Sean's away game, which took out most of Saturday, and then early on Sunday went down to town to go to Mass, since we had missed our local Saturday vigil mass.

Then in the afternoon we worked on Halloween costumes, which resulted in, today, a Mungojerry and a Pikachu walking around and playing.

Sean:

• Algebra -- started chapter 5.
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Latin -- we went back and reviewed the first 2 declensions. He doesn't have them automated, so I don't want to move on to the 3rd declension until he has them down better. Hmm... pondering how to get them to stick in his mind.
• I sent him off with some reading:
• Mere Christianity
• Junior Classics -- a football story.

Kieron

• Greek
• Handwriting
• Latin -- memorizing first declension.-- this got a bit silly --putting "terra terrae terrae.." to the tune of "Tarantara" in Pirates of Penzance.
• He is cutting out snowflakes with the little ones right now.
• His Young Scientist's Club kit arrived so we are going to try to make rock candy.
• We did math (converting improper fractions into mixed numbers)
• and he read the first part of Hunters of Souls (about saints)
• For free reading, he is rereading the OZ books (Scarecrow of Oz, most recently)
• Also Mary Poppins
• I read him several chapters of Snow Treasure while he rode the exercycle -- we are up to chapter 22.

Aidan

• HWT letter forms -- he can make several of the letters from "scratch" recently, which is progress.
• The Montessori pink cards -- matching the pictures with the words. We didn't do any wordbuilding today
• He and Paddy both did cutting with scissors -- Paddy "made houses" out of paper -- Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff : )

We went to the library, post office and market. Right now the older ones are watching The Rocketeer.

Day 37

Today the weather was beautiful for a change, and Kieron was fielding a call from a friend, so I decided to take the littlies for a nature walk. I got Paddy to help gather some stuff for our seasonal basket.

Sean

• no math or Latin today --he is done with Algebra chapter 4 so he gets a day off.
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• 2 Days worth of Traditional Logic, in order to get him up to Chapter 2 for next week.
• Reading Assigned: Mere Christianity, Stories from Virgil and King Solomon's Ring.

Kieron
(This is what's on his card -- he is working on math right now)

• Trace edges of North America map with his colored pens.
• Timeline -- we are just starting one, so we looked at all the centuries unfolded, and marked the birth of Christ and the invasion of Norway by the Germans.
• Greek
• Handwriting
• Thinking Skills
• Math (converting mixed fractions)
• Discovery of New Worlds
• Hunters of Souls

We are in haste a bit because we have homeschool Stations, and then Kevin is taking the older boys to a big varsity football game.

Yesterday I read several chapters of Snow Treasure to Kieron, bringing the total up to I think 14 chapters so far. He rides the exercycle while we are reading.

I also read quite a bit to Paddy -- but nothing spectacularly new -- some old favorites.

Paddy's Reading

I have been reading this book called Primary Reading and Literature -- up on the Baldwin Project site. I printed out a copy of this Primer by the same author. The idea is that children start right in reading "real books" rather than basal-phonics nonsense stories like "Nan ran at a rat." Charlotte Mason and Romalda Spalding (author of Writing Road to Reading) also believed that children should start right in reading meaningful things, but Harriette Treadwell's approach is more like Charlotte Mason's than Spalding's, because Spalding recommended teaching the children to write and spell a whole bunch of words before starting them on "real books" like Ten Apples up on Top.

Anyway, since Paddy is so young (four) and is much more "literature-oriented" than Aidan, I wanted to try to work with him a bit in the Treadwell style and see what happened.

Besides the Primer, here are some cards -- on the big light green one I wrote down all the words used and all the consonants and blends (using phonogram charts like this one and this one at the excellent Don Potter phonics site).

Then on the small yellow cards I wrote down all the words individually, and on the small green cards I wrote down the individual-letter phonograms. The blends are in yellow, underlined, to visually demonstrate they are blends.


The book about Teaching Reading includes two sets of lesson plans for using the primers to teach beginning reading. NOW -- the approach is a blend of "whole language" with teaching systematic phonics following closely. To me, the amateur, this approach seems to make sense. However, most of the proponents of straight phonics I have read recommend NOT confusing the child with whole word reading except in very limited circumstances. So I'm trying it with Paddy because he's very young and if I make a false step, we can take a break for a month or so and then start afresh. On the bright side, WRTR shows how almost ALL the words in the English language have logical phonetic consistency, so "whole language reading", in the homeschool, can easily go right alongside phonics explanations, if you know your phonograms.

To take an example -- Writing Road to Reading introduces "do" as one of the first five words to spell. The "o" sounds like "oo", and this is the third sound for "o" and one that is relatively uncommon. Samuel Blumenfeld, in Alphaphonics, doesn't teach this sound till much farther along. He starts in the ordinary phonics- oriented way with short vowel sounds, then some consonant blends, etc.

Sorry to go on so looong -- I suppose I am assimilating -- narrating -- as I go!

Anyway, Paddy and I had a lesson where I wrote "the little red hen" on the whiteboard and then got him to match the cards with the words on the board. He was mildly interested but not as enthusiastic as AIdan was about his pink cards. But I'm going to keep trying, about three times a week. The nice thing about a Literature approach to reading is that you can easily extend the lessons to words in his Read Alouds. Several of my kids would have absolutely hated me distracting them from the story by talking about letters and sounds, but as I've mentioned before, Paddy spontaneously asks about titles and words and asks -- DEMANDS -- for me to follow the words I'm reading with my finger as I read. So with him, I want to explore a natural approach like Scout Finch's with her father.

Paddy retelling his "Wall Story" -- this was his idea~!

Aidan's Reading

I used the Montessori pink cards with Aidan for the first time yesterday. I print them out on regular paper with our black and white laserjet, and then I put them on pink cardstock with contact paper to seal them. It takes a long time, but is soothing and I can talk on the phone or supervise the littlies' craft activities while I'm doing it.

(I chose the five highest interest ones -- VAN, GAS, CAB -- he loves cars and all things around them!-- )

I presented the cards -- asking him the second part of the Three Period Lesson -- giving him a choice between two word cards -- for ex, saying "Which card says VAN?"

He got the concept almost right away and did a great job matching the words with the pictures.

At the end he was almost up to the task of matching five sets by himself, without my prompting. He would get too excited and mismatch them sometimes, and then I would have him sound out the letters to try to give himself a clue.

NOW -- as I mentioned in an earlier post -- he doesn't really "get" sounded-out words, but this process helps him practice it and also demonstrates to him the usefulness of sounding-out. He grasped that fast too, and would "sound out" by himself even though it didn't completely help.

I noticed that in the process of working with him, I was quite naturally helping his pronunciation, so it was a phonological lesson as well as a sort of motor programming and thinking skills lesson. That is what I LOVE about open-ended methods -- there is more than one learning process going on at the same time.

Trying to match

Success!
Then I asked him to choose one word to write. I was expecting this to be less fun, but he liked it so much he asked to write several words. (I use the Writing Road to Reading "language" to help him think about the mechanics of the handwriting, but unlike WRTR, I hold him next to me and hold my hand over his very gently -- he has some spasticity and tremors and this along with his motor processing makes it very difficult for him to tell his hands and fingers what to do)

Then he wanted to paint. More letters! He can make a capital A, I, O, and X by himself now, which is definite progress from last year.


"Cooking" with playdough and the pots.

Day 36

Sean Progress Report

• He is finished with chapter 4 in math, so he gets tomorrow off and starts chapter 5 next Monday
• He is midway through Lesson 10 in Henle (using the MP syllabus)
• He is on lesson 37 in vocabulary
• He is midway through Lesson 15 in Greek
• He is finishing chapter 1 in Traditional Logic.
• He is just starting Unit 2 on Stars and Galaxies in Earth Science

Kieron

• I gave him Viking Tales by Jennie Hall and a book called Vikings: Focus (or something like that -- with a Dorling Kindersley feel to it, with 2 page spreads. I thought he could focus on Scandinavia (lectio stataria) while surveying geography through Discovery of New Worlds, plus the Geography maps and drills we are doing
• He did some Latin vocabulary work.
• ...review. He is up to Lesson 7 in the MP syllabus.
• Also, we discussed Faith and Life chapter 6 (Third Commandment) using the study guide. He needs to learn to match the Holy Days of Obligation with their dates. Which means, really, I ought to be making more of a big deal of them when they come up (though we always go, of course). I am planning a lapbook for all this religion memory work.

Day 35

Sean

• Algebra ch 4 lesson 5
• Latin ex 34
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Logic

Read

• Stories from Virgil
• Plutarch
• Knight of the White Cross (Henty)

• Went to Football practice
• went to doctor

Kieron

• Math (Quia reducing fraction -- 2 games)
• Handwriting
• Thinking Skills

Read
Children of Odin(he finished it) -- narrated some of Norse myths from another book he read, and discussed gruesomeness of some editions with Sean.
Our RA: Snow Treasure -- up to ch 7 (I am reading him this while he exercises on the cycle

Do

• Wrote a story which I edited (this is the second story of his I've edited for the bionicle board; after I edited the first one he got better feedback, which was a motivator for him to use correct expression. He also has cleaned up several of his problem areas in comparison with the last one)
  
• Playdough with little ones
• Exercised twice for 20 minutes

Paddy and Aidan

• Playdough
• Cars
• Letter forms
• Reading Lesson with Paddy
• Tintin to Paddy
• Nursery rhymes to Aidan

Afternoon Learning Log

Afternoon Learning Log 10-17

Aidan has been on a creative spree. First he "made coffee" using my little espresso percolator. Then he wanted to paint, so I got out watercolors and he painted on a couple of coloring sheets the SLP gave him.

Then he wanted to do something strange -- I forget what, but he was getting kind of mad about it -- so I brought out the playdough and he has been playing with that for the last hour. Paddy played a bit with him but then left.

Aidan also gathered kindling today.

Brendan, after talking to me about history for quite a while, he is now talking to Clare about movies. He read Warren Carroll's Communist Revolution book and is now reading Founding of Christendom.

Sean is at football practice.

I read a Frog and Toad story to Patrick and all the BOB books he could find.

Day 34

Sean

• Algebra ch 4 lesson 4
• Latin -- matching cards
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Logic -- I've started him on a habit of reading the day's work and then answering the questions.
• Mere Christianity
• King Solomon's Ring
• Clean room

Kieron

• Math
• Latin -- other half of exercise 21
• Greek
• Handwriting
• Tidy area
• Thinking Skills -- no, never mind -- Kieron was putting up a bit of a fuss because he had delayed schoolwork and wasn't going to get to eat his treat until he was done, so I sent him out to fill a box with kindling instead, on the theory that learning is a privilege.

Aidan and Paddy

• pink Montessori cards -- they both did great but Paddy doesn't know the sounds as well as Aidan does!
  

A couple of discussions about various things -- I ought to keep notes at the time so I don't forget!

I helped Clare with geometry.

Brendan and I had a great discussion about history last night -- he has read Warren Carroll's book about the Communist Revolution, plus Modern Times, and watched The War, so he knows a lot about the subject.

I have been researching literacy theory.

Day 33

Emily at Real Learning has lesson plans for a Math Main Lesson -- to last about 3 weeks -- I would like to do something like this sometime so am filing it for future reference.

Today we have several errands plus a visit from the Occupational Therapist, so it was a quick schoolday.

I am going to type out the checklist I gave Kieron for today -- there is an asterix beside the ones he did:

Monday

Math *
Greek *
Handwriting *
Latin *
Thinking Skills *

Weekly Jobs -- #3 *

Choose one and check off:
Drawing Book *
Coloring Reptiles
Coloring in HIstory of Swords

Choose two and check off
Following Christ *
Columbus *
Knights of Our Lady

Sean did the usual basics and his weeklies -- no extra reading.

For Aidan, I took the first lesson for Alphaphonics: am, ax, an, at
I wrote them down on cards and did the second period of a Montessori 3-period lesson -- asking him to pick the right one -- so, I'd say "at" and he chose. At first I'd only give him 2 choices, then I started giving him all four. He did great! I tried to have him use the moveable alphabet to form the words. That is more difficult, presumably because of his motor processing issues -- always much better at reception than at expression.

He loved the choosing game so we will keep doing that. It was a bit of a breakthrough, the first in reading for some time.

I think I could try having him write out the words -- my hand guiding his, at first, or maybe have him trace the letters from a grayscale?

Paddy Power -- set to music!

(Paddy Power was the trademark of Ireland's largest bookmaker -- we saw the outlets everywhere and Paddy thought it was so cool that his name was on a sign on practically every street)

It's entered our family lexicon to describe something about our lively four year old -- if you have one of those energetic ones -- I have had two -- that seem to get this feyness or punchiness every now and then -- very cute, but can easily go over the top into acting out or tears! A quality to be cherished -- and refined through the years.

Paddy Power!

Anyway, Paddy's last couple of days have been powerful. I thought I'd write down a list of new things he has done in the past few days. Nothing prodigious, just nice things that show how his mind is working.

He drew several pictures and wanted me to hang them up on the wall, yesterday -- and today stood by them and told a story from them.

He is asking me about ALL the text on the front covers of books, including the author's name -- so now he understands the concept of authorship a bit.

He's listened to a wide variety of books in the past few days -- I got out some new ones and we went through them several times apiece.

And then, if you remember, my oldest son Liam challenged Clare and me to write an arrangement of a tune.

Here is the original tune (he bitmapped it)

Here is my arrangement (I got too frustrated with the bitmapping, so I wrote it out and took a photo of it):

Paddy watched me carefully during my short trial with the bitmapping, and then went to work to produce first this:

then this:

then this!
no help from me at all. So if he has a musical career in front of him, you saw it here first.

Clare helped host a swing dance for the church youth group and for families in general on Saturday evening. I stayed home with the little ones, but Kieron went, and it sounded like it went great. I admire Clare's sheer courage -- she was the little girl who used to run behind me and hide her face in my legs if someone talked to her, and now she is more poised than I am. If that could be called a compliment. But you know what I mean.

Kevin and Sean meanwhile went to a football game -- checking out the opposition for next week's game. When they got home they brought pizza and Clare was full of energy. Paddy danced with her.

I guess the point is that he is becoming such a little human being. My good friend says to me, "You are so lucky.... you are going to have a five year old for a whole year!" That's how I feel about it, too. These little persons are so competent, have so much emotional range, and so much energy and drive to do what those around them are doing. Each one is unique in their interests and personality.

Today he and Aidan had fun stamping -- with a stamp set. I am going to try hard to keep strewing things like that.

Learning to Read --LD

I am stuck on teaching reading to Aidan using 100EZ lessons. He has been able to identify letters by their sounds for a couple of years now but is not getting blending. Part of this, I realize, is because he isn't segmenting sounds or being able to put them together again. So when I sound out "d-o-g" it has nothing in common to him with "dog". It might as well be "man on the moon".

So I'm reading different books trying to figure out ways to get him comfortable with decoding and blending. Here are some resources I found this weekend:

Montessori Mom -- Learning to Read.
--Lots of good information about the pink cards and how to use them. One advantage for this approach with Aidan is that (1) he needs lots of repetition (2) he loves doing things he can do by himself.

Some ideas for Teaching Blending and Decoding
There are some visuals for phonics manipulatives here.

Here is some information on teaching LD students Phonological Skills.
Aidan has been able to recognize rhyme and generate it for a long long time -- probably because of the ongoing music immersion in this house. But there's a step from there to being able to produce it on call. With him, there is a big step between producing something spontaneously, and being able to produce it on call. This is showing up in all different areas of his life.

This site does give a progression for teaching to discern broken-up words, which is something Aidan has gotten stuck on both in 100EZ and in Reading Reflex.

(A thought! Get Aidan's SLP involved in this -- it does seem like an aspect of speech and langauge therapy and most therapists seem to settle in more productively when they have something concrete to work on -- probably because unavoidably, they know the therapy better than the individual child).

Finally, I am thinking that teaching the signing alphabet might help him segment. When he was struggling to learn to talk, he made huge strides once I figured out a "combination" approach. He had DK-type realistic picture books which he loved. I found that pointing to the picture and slooowlly, emphatically saying the word, and then talking about it (because his receptive skills were way above his expressive ones) was effective, and so was signing the word and saying it slowly at the same time. After a while he took off on verbalizing and I dropped the picture and sign talk because they became cumbersome. But thinking about that, maybe writing out the letters, signing them, laying down cards and so on might help him in the same way.

Day 32 -- and weekly report

• I went to pick up Kevin (DH) at the airport last night, 55 miles away, and the car broke down! He quickly rented a car at the airport but we had to wait forever for the breakdown truck to show up, and then guide him up the mountain to our local auto repair. By the time we got home it was almost 2 am. Considering that also, yesterday, I was up at 5 am, took Aidan to the transplant clinic 55 miles away, then in the evening took Sean to football practice 18 miles away and Clare to youth choir..... I am surprised that I actually was up at 8 and feeling pretty good and energetic.
• This morning Clare and Kevin went up to help Grandma close up the lakeside cabin.
• This afternoon is our homeschool group meeting.
• Tomorrow Sean is going to a football game with Kevin, and Clare has a swing dance with the youth group.
• With all that went on this week, I am quite proud that we still managed 4 days of academics even though we were on the barebones side of the scale as for as what we did.

Sean:

• Algebra -- chapter 4 lesson 2 -- absolute values which are the one thing from high school algebra I personally STILL don't really get. So it is difficult to teach it to the kids, and gives me some insight into the difficulty of dealing with something that is not comprehended.
• Latin -- third declension --- translating English into Latin -- really hard and he got discouraged. Too bad! He doesn't have all the declensions memorized and where the vocabulary fits in and this makes it hard. So for example, he was trying to decline Christus as a third declension noun.
• Greek
• Vocabulary
• He has finished Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare.
• He read some Earth Science.
  
• He matched up labels with countries in North America (much as I blush to admit it -- my middle set have very little geographical awareness. My older three knew all kinds of geographical information -- we did it so casually and sporadically that I didn't realize how much of it sunk in).
  
• Finished Heinlein's Star Beast.
  

Kieron

• Math (fractions, easy stuff) and a bit of multiplication review.
• Latin -- matching up declensions.
• Maps and Things -- I showed him the NA map and we discussed the countries.
• Religion -- went over chapter 5 which he read on Tuesday, and talked about the word definitions
• Greek
• Handwriting.
• Read Nesbit's Shakespeare -- read 2 stories yesterday so now he is up past The Winter's Tale
• Read 2 parts of Discovery of New Worlds (Nero and the Roman fire) -- I reminded him of the book we read together last year, City on the Golden Hill, which is about the same topic.
• He picked up Heinlein's Star Beast and is reading it.
• He saw that I had checked out Spenser's Fairy Queen from the library and expressed interest in reading it, since he liked it so much when he read it last year. In our family narrations seem to arrive 1, 2, or sometimes several years after the reading ;-).
  

Paddy:

• More Tintins.
• Make Way for Ducklings

TO DO:

• I need to plan some supplementary lessons for Sean in Latin.
• I need to start asking for daily readings of Logic/Thinking Skills.
• Find some books on Mexico, Canada, Greenland etc to make the territories more vivid.
• Look at my old FIARs to try to think of some activities to do with Aidan and Patrick.
  
• Clean the house!
• (I did start a new habit of having the kids tidy up the house at intervals -- based on "pegs" like going to the library or having computer time).
• Look up absolute values in the math dictionary or online and see if I can finally grasp it. The thing is, I understand the CONCEPT of the values, but when asked to do problems using the concept, I have to look at the answer key.... which is something I almost never have to do with beginning Algebra.
  

SUPPLY LIST

(This is where I ought to just take a picture, but am too lazy to gather all the things and get my camera. I got to go to the craft store yesterday with Aidan, and bought yarn, knitting needles, Sculpey, playdough, and nice colored cardstock -- the cardstock is for me -- I am a paper addict!). So with all this in hand I am hoping to do some art projects with the littlies next week.

Next week will be another hectic week of running errands, but not quite as bad as this week because Kevin will be here.

Good news! The problem with the car was only a rock that got stuck under the chassis somewhere when I pulled off road to answer Kevin's phone call. So the auto repair guy is doing some maintenance that is due and we can pick up the car this afternoon. Whew!

My Further Learning:

I just finished reading the Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff. Interesting, and lucidly written, but strikes me as "mythological" -- not in the sense of being fictional or a fraud, but in the sense that Freud built his theories about Oedipal complexes and so on. That is, using anecdotes and observation to describe and support a "paradigm" which seems to me to ring true in some places, but a bit stretched or vague in other places.

Liam "assigned" us a sort of musical progym -- I think I mentioned it before -- making our own arrangement of a given tune. Clare's already done hers, and I want to work on mine today. One of the things that has come out of our homeschool experiment is that the kids occasionally take on the role of teacher, mentor or inspirer in their own areas of interest.

Book Resources -- Geography & More

A thread about living books about "the other side of the world". Quite a list growing.

Also, books about the Arctic.

And Advent with a nature focus.

Day 31

Today I REALLY didn't want to do anything. It was an at-home day for the first time in quite a while, but I am still sick. No motivation whatsoever. Yes, I can force myself to do things I don't want to do, but I hate to push through on lessons too much when I'm feeling like that. It seems to have long-term ill effects on motivation. So we compromised and did a few things, because I've also learned that just letting the day go completely is a morale-downer too, for me, and isn't necessarily a good example.

Sean

• No math today because he finished the chapter.
• Henle -- I had him do the declension drills, then I gave him a quick grammar lesson -- because we are getting up to appositives and I want him to be clear on the differences between direct objects, appositives, and predicate nominatives.
• Mere Christianity
• King Solomon's Ring.

Kieron

• Latin and Math Quia.
• I gave him a choice between two Columbus bios and he chose the Daulaire one. I told him that we were studying Columbus a few days after the fact and he was good with that. Tomorrow, I'll ask him about the book, and also try to find Columbus journey in the historical atlas. (It's also in ABCs of Chr Culture).
• He reports he has finished IN Search of a Homeland.
• I am going to read to him while he exercises.
  

Aidan and Paddy

• Mostly, lots of Tintins for Paddy.
• We read the story of Ping, and Paddy named Ping's siblings using the "Make Way for Ducklings" rhyming rule -- there's a connection there!
  
• Lots of "real life" experience for Aidan -- he loves all our goings to and fro.

With both of them -- I have a language and thinking curriculum for young ones by Ruth Beechick -- it has lots of common sense ideas for conversations in real life with younger ones -- so I've been trying to do that. Basically, expand on the everyday situations and books, and make "connections" in conversation. This type of thing doesn't necessarily come easily to me.

I took a nap and feel way better.
We went to the library and to the market.
I had the guys clean the house -- their "weeklies".

Tonight, football practice.

Notes:

As usual, we are great on reading. .... way ahead of schedule. I always feel this blank space where productivity ought to be, and it usually hits me full force just about this time -- six weeks into the term. They don't necessarily interact with the material they read, except in their own thoughts. Which is fine -- but sufficient? I am not sure. The older set, of course, grew up that way for the most part, and received a fairly decent education. They don't rememeber everything I had them read, but it is surprising what they do remember, and what, more importantly, planted long term seeds that flowered into what Charlotte Mason calls "Living Ideas". I guess it is the idealist in me that's always searching for something a bit better -- who wants to be able to SEE what is going on under the surface, if anything. Perhaps a slight lack of trust in the process.

Day 30!!

(By the way, I am thinking of doing things a bit more like Kolbe and saving the last ten days of the semester for review and catching-up and experimenting. That is what I am going to do on a modified scale for the rest of this week, I think. )

Today I'm going to do a chronological log, instead of by subject:

7:30 --

• up after a troubled night -- have a cold and my jaw and lymph nodes are really hurting. What's up with that??? So of course, I had nightmares about dentists all night.
• Exercised on the bike for 15 minutes, said part of Rosary, read to Aidan, got him something to eat.

9 am

• Phone Calls -- the physical therapist, then the neurology clinic, then the GI clinic -- all about ongoing things with Aidan.
• The boys woke up and all four embarked on a football game upstairs -- this was actually an agreeable symphony to my ears since it has been months since Sean has organized a sibling football game -- he must be feeling LOTS better.
• I wrote out a list of daily assignments for my own records. I am trying to figure out a checklist for the boys so that they can be a bit more self-directed.

10 am

• Kevin called and I talked to him for a few minutes, then caught up on some moderator stuff online.
• Math with boys -- Sean finished up Chapter Three so that means he gets tomorrow off. Kieron worked on Prime Numbers and factor trees (which are fun)
• Kieron did Thinking Skills -- matching topic to specific example -- one for sports and one for geography. I taught him the skill of finding the ones he's sure of in order to eliminate the possibilities, and he only got one wrong.
• I gave a book about Vesuvius to Kieron.
• Then I had Kieron trace the continent map from ABCs of Christian Culture. He did a good job so I let him off handwriting today since labeling the continents worked for that.
• Meanwhile, Sean did his rehab exercises.
• Aidan spent most of the morning going in and out of the house.
• Brendan appeared and ate breakfast.
• Kieron and Paddy started playing Bionicles.

11 am

• I did Latin with Sean -- third declension now. Assigned him the task of declining a noun in writing, and we did parts of 2 exercises orally.
  
• Assigned him readings in Earth Science and in Mere Christianity.
• Since Kieron was still playing I wrote out the rest of his work: Greek, Latin match-up declensions, reading Faith and Life, reading In Search of a Homeland.
• I gave Aidan his anti-rejection meds -- a bit late today.

noon

• I made a protein drink for Sean and a snack for Aidan
  
• the boys are playing football again.
• I gave Sean 2 more Heinleins since he has an appointment this afternoon and might have to kill some time.
• I took a bath -- Aidan played with his cars.

You will notice I didn't do much with the little ones. This week I think I will have to fit their work in the late afternoon or evening.

Poor Aidan has been bored.

Day 29 -- Columbus Day

Today was a bit of a rushed day since we had to leave the house at 10:30 for various appointments in town.

Sean:

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Latin (third declension)
• Algebra -- getting close to the end of this easy chapter on integers
• Mere Christianity
• King Solomon's Ring
• Tales from Shakespeare

Kieron:

• Greek
• Handwriting
• Math -- GCF's
• Latin -- translating from English to Latin
• Tempest -- from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
• Amazing Lizards, Amazing Alligators and Reptiles (from Eyewitness Junior)
• Thinking Skills (categorizing things as alike or different)
  

Paddy

Read all the Bob books to him, also a couple of Tintins, Saint Francis and the Proud Crow, Simon of Cyrene, and several others I can't remember off-hand.
Duplos.

Aidan

Went to town with me, imaginary play "loading the back of the car",
Duplos

• When I got home this afternoon, I talked to Liam on the phone. He had the day off today.
• I am getting sick (sigh) but this week is going to be pretty intense -- lots of appointments scheduled.

Next Week's Plans -- mid term

Wow, I have been having trouble getting on here to update, and next week will be no better... there is LOTS on our schedule... various appointments and other things. Plus, tomorrow is Columbus Day.

We have "done" 28 days, so this week we will pass the mid term mark. Remember we are doing a 3-semester year, 60 days or 12 weeks per semester.

In light of all this, I am planning a sort of transition type week. Realistically, we will probably get 4 days in this week -- I will be OK with 3, actually.

• I hope to do some catching up on things we didn't get too well off the ground. Like Logic, perhaps?
• I also hope to spend some time reviewing, and planning for the rest of the semester. I already have some things written out but I'd like to get it into organized form.
• I hope to start Free Writing this week, for 15 minutes per day.
• Continue various readings.
• Trace some maps from ABCs of Christian Culture
• Get back to coloring, drawing and other art with the preschool set.
• Some crafts for Kieron.

Day 28

Sean

• got a day off Latin today since he's finished the 2nd chapter in the book. I have to figure out how to consolidate the first and second declensions in his head and move on to the third declension. Henle does it very carefully and well but I think it's a good idea to move slowly on that.
• Math -- review of integers continues.
• Greek and Vocabulary -- he did them and I told him there will be a quiz tomorrow.
• He read King Solomon's Ring and Mere Christianity. I'm going to look through the books this weekend and devise a sort of outline of progress and some key points or things to discuss or write about.
• That was about it for him. Oh, I had him look at the world map in the atlas in preparation for some of the other atlas activities we will be doing.
• And he did his weekly chores and is now straightening his room. He continues the rehab stretching.

Kieron:

• I showed him the atlas too. We looked up Assisi (since today is St Francis's feast day and I had given him a couple of books to read on Francis). I showed him the index, then showed him how to find things by page number and quadrant. We never did manage to actually find Assisi because I can't see any more without my magnifying spectacles! But we found Napoli, familiar from Dean Martin, and then I showed him the plate tectonics section and the prehistoric timeline and some of the other features in the atlas.
• This is to start a research skills practicum -- I realize my tendency is to get so caught up in other things that I forget to teach my kids "how to's" like how to look up things. They usually figure it out for themselves in the long run but I thought it would be interesting to Kieron (and he did seem interested). So the other research activity was to look up snakes in the family encyclopedia. This was a review of ABC order as well.
• He also did math (Least Common Multiples -- we skipped ahead in the book) and I went over Greek with him and assigned him his handwriting.
  
• I assigned him the next chapter of Discovery of New Worlds.
• Yesterday, I read to him while he exercises (see below)
  
• I also taught him to use the sewing machine, and he made himself a cape for Halloween!
  

Miscellaneous:

• I worked with Aidan a bit on writing and phonics -- his attention span was short.
  
• Yesterday afternoon we went on an extended walk and then I constructed a seasonal table (I do like that very simple and congenial Waldorf idea) and the youngsters got very interested in helping me do it. This was definitely a good thing.
  
• I read a lot to Paddy last night -- he is into the first Little House books (the picture books) and they are nice because they are both focused on seasons (autumn and winter) with all the attendant preparations. Paddy loves to hear about the different activities Ma did with the girls -- he asked me to make paper dolls (soldiers! warriors! with swords and shields! well, not QUITE like Ma and Laura and Mary!) and reminded me today. So I made paper soldiers in between helping the boys with their schoolwork.
• Yesterday, I also started a new habit of reading to Kieron while he exercises on the bike. We read (reread) the Great and Terrible Quest. Paddy listened a little too. Reading to Kieron, even material he can read himself, will have trickle-down effects to the younger crowd. SO it's something to encourage.
• Today is homeschool Stations of the Cross. So maybe it doesn't matter that academics are shortish today. I do think we made progress.
  

Other things/concerns/issues:

• Too much screen time! With so many kids, even a short time per kid adds up to the screen glowing for a good bit of the day. The main problem is Paddy.
• Not enough challenge for Sean -- he's still zipping through his work too fast. Challenge isn't the word precisely -- he needs something to be meticulous and self-directed about, because he tends to zip through things fast. Busywork isn't the word, but maybe I'm thinking about the academic equivalent of his football practice..... a routine composed of different levels of skills and different focuses (foci). I wonder if this is making sense.
• As far as Kieron's routine, it's going much better than it was when I complained about this a couple of weeks ago.
• I have to keep in mind a second and third wave for the day -- where I can focus on the littlies, and on some longer-term projects for the older boys.
• I am really thinking about a consolidated MATH day where we do a LOT -- perhaps on Monday -- and then the rest of the week I won't feel worried if we have only short lessons.

Action Plans:

• SO, for lesson planning today and tomorrow and during the weekend..... go through the books we are reading and make chapter breakdowns and key points/questions -- use the Kolbe materials as a guideline.
• And also, think of ways to integrate and extend different subject topics.
• And think of ways to vary the rhythm during the day -- so the kids are doing more constructive activities. The duplos have been getting lots of use recently -- and so have the cars and racecourse. So that's good, and so are homemade activities like the paper soldiers. I am not that much of an arts and crafts person, but I am rediscovering my joy in improvised homemade games and crafts -- used to do this a lot with the older set when they were littlies, but somehow got away from it later on -- probably too busy and too worried about keeping the older lot on track with their academics.

Day 27

Sean:

• Algebra
• Latin (he just finished the second chapter of Henle -- so we're doing a bit of review).
• Greek and Vocabulary.
• I gave him a retelling of Don Quixote and he read a good bit of it.
  
• Football practice tonight and he has been given some exercises which he is supposed to do three times daily for rehab.
  

Kieron

• Math -- multiplying and review of addition.
• Latin -- review.
• I am not sure if he got Greek and handwriting in.
• I gave him Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue today to read (Clare and I were having an abortion-related discussion and that reminded me I wanted to have Kieron read this book).
• also, gave him In Search of a Homeland which he is reading now (retelling of the Aeneid, and fits in with his Rome interest and with the exploration theme.
  

Aidan

I was reading Reading Reflex -- about remedial as well as introductory reading. The method used is rather similar to Montessori, with the word-building. Anyway, I think I will try to use it for a while -- the first exercise is for me to sound out words like this D..O...G... with intervals between the sounds, and then ask the child to guess what word is being sounded out. This is where Aidan is stuck at 100 EZ Lessons -- with the "say it fast" skill. He just isn't able to do it, probably because of his auditory processing deficits (he is deaf in one ear and has motor processing problems) So this game, which we can do any time we are together, hopefully will help with that.

We did that for a while, and then some of his physical therapy exercises, and also some handwriting.
(He had physical therapy yesterday and got some exercises to work on at home, too)

Paddy -- I read him another Tintin, and yesterday we read for about an hour at his bedtime.

Yesterday was so extremely busy, running all over town, and this afternoon I have to bring the dog down to the vet for shots--- which is anxiety producing for me in a big way -- this week and next week are anti-procrastination week -- trips to the dentist, and all kinds of miserable things. So homeschool may be a bit more cursory for a little while.

things to remember:

• Tomorrow is Saint Francis's feast day (so get out the books) and next Monday is Columbus Day (which fits in with our geography theme) so maybe print out some maps to trace his journey.
• I want to start teaching Kieron to knit, since we've been skimping on the hands-on side of homeschooling recently. It would also be interesting to do a bit more with watercolors -- perhaps a map or some borders to a drawing.
  
• Also, in the works are teaching some piano and music theory.
• I intend to take the younger set on a Nature Walk just as soon as I get this typed.

Day 26

Sean got the basics done: Algebra, Henle Latin, Greek, Vocabulary. Then he read Prentice Hall Earth Science and he is also continuing to read Lamb's Shakespeare. We started reviewing ID of countries in North America. That part goes easily.

Kieron did things a bit differently today. I had him do an online spelling test, and a multiplication speed drill (he is MUCH faster and more automatic than last year). Then he did a couple of multiplication games online. I worked with him on countries of North America too.

We are sort of tight on time because Sean and Aidan have therapy appointments down in town in the early afternoon.

To do: Think about spelling with Kieron, and the writing program with both of them. Also, some Kolbe paperwork.

Aidan and Paddy did a bit of HWT with the letterforms. I read bits of the first My Book Shelf to Paddy yesterday and it went well. I also read a whole pile of board books to Aidan. I ccan count that as math because several of them were shapes and counting. I notice that Aidan has a very auditory approach but picks up on sounds more than meanings. He loves the rhyming books. If I could invent a reading curriculum for him, it would be a bunch of separate (and nicely, not stupidly, illustrated) nursery rhymes in the form of board books, and flashcards to go along.

Nota Bene: In general, this day is a bit too loose for my comfort level but much of that can be attributed to me not prepping things ahead of time. The day goes so much more smoothly when I do spend a few minutes setting up a bit MORE than is needed. Also, I have to admit that I typically stop being thrilled about the plans by about this time and so it may be needed to plan some variety just for MOM's sake.

Another thought -- a slack-off or interlude might just be part of the normal course of things and maybe trying to force through it leads to burnout? Just occurred to me.

a bit more on progym

So then, after all the informal writing experience I talked about in my last post, I became enthused about the progym. I heard about it on my classical list and it was affinity at first hearing -- which is odd for me -- usually I dislike new things at first sight. But the progym seemed like a way to flesh out written narration and make it more understandable to my kids, and for me, to lead them step by step from simple narrations to the more complex writing that Charlotte Mason recommends in the upper grades.

The progym usually starts with the simple fable -- usually Aesop. I skipped that. My kids were a bit too old for fables by then.... ages 12, 13, and 15. I started them into narrative -- the first assignment was to retell the poem of King Bruce and the Spider in narrative prose. I wish I knew where the results were because they were all quite charming. They each told the story in a different way. My kids are notoriously resistant to new ideas, but this one seemed to work for them.

The next assignment we did was to take one of the stories of Alexander the Great, one where he would not eat food if his soldiers were starving. (I can't find it online at the moment). They were supposed to condense it first, then expand it.

Condensing is a useful skill which appears in the later progym, where a story will appear in summary to illustrate a point or lead into one (induction or deduction).

Expanding is done more thoroughly in progym like description, and also is one of the preparations for later exercises in expanding upon a topic.

They particularly did well on the expanding one and it was fascinating to compare results and see how each child according to temperament brought out different aspects of the story -- one son focused on the physical and visual details of the battle-weariness and the blazing sun, another had the drama be largely an intellectual and moral one, and another described the emotions of Alexander and the soldiers very vividly.

At this point I stopped doing the progym with the group -- I think that was when Paddy was born and his stay in the NICU and followup issues took up all my energy. Later Liam, my oldest, proceeded through Frank D'Angelo's Composition in the Classical Tradition by himself (caveat: this is a worthwhile book but not one to simply hand to a kid because there are lots of rather sordid examples concerning child abuse or marital discord -- taken from newspapers -- I think dAngelo must have written the book for law students in college. I would write out assignments for him based on the book, and later, I whited out all the objectionable articles so he could use the book on his own without getting discouraged by all the dysfunction).

Later I got Lene Jaqua and Tracey Gustilo's Classical Writing: Aesop -- I wrote a review for it here. I used the program for Sean and Kieron, who were then 7 and 10. Kieron wasn't writing well yet, so I would take his narrations from dictation and then type them in. I got some excellent narrations from him with beautiful language. His oral narrations are still very good, to this day, so maybe that early grounding was helpful. Sean would do his own, but he was at that age when fables bring out the Pert or Dialectic in a young preteen. He loved to criticize them, write them out and change the message, which sort of defeated the purpose. Or so I thought. Anyway, after about half a year we let it drop in favor of other things.

I think this time around I will approach it more like I approached it with the older set. Partly because the kids are older now, and partly because things seem to go better if I do them my own way rather than trying to do it just like it is written in the book. I still like the CW series for reference and ideas. It's my favorite progym resource of the ones I've seen for the younger set.

Day 25

Sean's Kolbe materials came today. I'm looking forward to going through them. This is the first year with Kolbe when we didn't have at least three kids enrolled, which for this ADD mom makes for a lot of confusion. One eighth grader is considerably simpler than, say, a senior, a sophomore, a freshman, a sixth grader, a third grader and a special-needs kindergartener, like we had one year (the Ker wasn't enrolled, but he had a massive paper trail of his own because of all his therapies and medical interventions).

This was a rather brief day. We did most of the usual basics but in less depth. I let Sean cut the algebra exercises a bit short (more graphing and negative numbers, which is review for him anyway). For Kieron's math, we worked a bit with multiplication of larger numbers, then he did a review sheet on place value up to trillions.

For Latin, they both did the declension match-ups and then I introduced the indirect object to Kieron (who got it quickly) and gave him a sort of model for what order to translate these more complex sentences in -- he did exercise 19. Sean is on predicate nominatives still.

Sean did Greek and Vocabulary; Kieron did Greek and Handwriting. The Italics program is doing nice things for his handwriting; I'm happy about it so far.

Sean started King Solomon's Ring (Konrad Lorenz) and read a bit more of Mere Christianity. There are study questions in the MODG syllabus which I ought to look up so I can discuss these books a bit with him; I have read them but not recently.

I gave Kieron a retelling of Don Quixote but I don't know if he got around to reading it or not. ANyway, he read a library book about squids.

Aidan and Paddy didn't do anything academic, though I did read to Paddy yesterday for over an hour, and managed to introduce the first Catholic Treasure Box magazine in honor of St Therese's feast day today.

The major assignment was to write a long-delayed thank you letter to Grandma and Grandpa for the trip to Ireland this summer. The easiest were the little ones and the older ones. With the little ones I just said, "We're saying thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for the trip to Ireland. Did you like Ireland? What did you like? Anything else? Now write your name (or at least the first letter). Draw a picture." So easy!

Aidan dictated:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa -- I liked Ireland. There was a phone in the bathroom at the hotel. I took a quick shower. I liked Killarney. The kitties were aggressive.

Paddy dictated:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa -- In Ireland we had a big time for a little while. I like the candy, and playing with Declan (his cousin).

Since I sent the letters off without taking a picture (sigh!) I have to write it down before I forget!

With the middle boys, especially Sean, it was like pulling teeth. Oh well.

Then we went on our local errand day -- market, library and post office. Now Sean and Brendan are playing Madden Football, Clare is making lunch, and Paddy and Kieron are trying out a BIonicle game.

We got several nice legend-type books from the library:

1. In Search of a Homeland by Penelope Lively
2. Children of Odin by Padraic Colum
3. MacMillan Book of Gods and Heroes

Clare got Mr Smith Goes to Washington to watch again this afternoon, since it's our "screen" afternoon. (The teenagers and Kevin finished watching The War last night).

And I got a book called If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. HT Ragamuffin Rosie. ... who also has some really pretty printable plans on her page, for world geography unit study.