Therapy Sheet for Aidan

This is from Spring 2007 so it is out of date. Therapy Checklist for Aidan (PDF).

Here is a form I'm going to try to use as a planner for next year. Therapy Planner (doc)

I had a more complex one last year and it was TOO complex. This one might be too, but I'm going to try to work with it at least until I get into the habit of it.

Math Sheet for Year 7

A math sheet for my middle schooler (doc) -- it looks horrible in gif form so I didn't put it up in picture form.

Anyway, it is a bit like a Cornell note form. There is a grid section on the right for working out problems, and blank spaces on the left side (numbered) to write the final solution to the problem.

My middle schooler has a bit of trouble organizing his work spatially on the paper so I thought this might help him, and help legibility in general for my sake too ;-).

It is a 2-page form --I print it out on both sides of the paper.

CM/Classical Lesson Plans

A CM Series member linked to this PDF of the CHild Light newsletter
One of the articles, by Carroll Smith, discusses a Charlotte Mason type lesson plan which goes as follows:

1. Teacher introduces the new text
2. Student recreation of old text (imaginative review)
3. Reading of living book text
4. Narration of living book text
5. Grand conversation
6. Closing

The article goes on to discuss these steps in more detail, so if you are interested, check out the PDF. I first noticed that CM proposed more complicated lesson plans than simply: Read/Narrate when I was reading this section of Home Education. If you scroll down to the pictorial arts sections, you see some sample art lessons that include basically these same components. Also, this Parent's Review article called "A Rational Lesson" has similar components.

What interests me about this is that the process used is so similar to the Ignatian Method. Often when you read about the Ratio Studiorum (the Ignatian Method in practice, written in the 16th century) it sounds very formal and teacher-directed. I think this is true to some extent, but I also know that it is common understanding that the Ignatian Method depends upon the self-activity of the student. Also, that the Ignatian Method is based on Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises.


Here is a summary that I wrote of the Ignatian method, several years ago, using several different sources -- it is a bit different than CM's, but has a fair amount of overlap:

Recalling the past lesson -- forging a link between past work and present


Introducing new lesson, clearing away possible obstacles and preparing child's mind and imagination to work on the reading.


The Reading itself.


A brief review (narration)

Recitation (discussion, etc)

Extensions: writing a theme, a memory lesson, sometimes a "contest" (students would debate or take different sides of an issue), or erudition (researching a related topic to present to the class on the next day)

Anyway, being familiar with this format is helping me do a bit more preparation ahead of time.

Children's Hour

I made this form based on Cindy at Dominion Family's "Morning Time" (this is her old site -- I can't seem to get to her wordpress one right now -- I really hope it isn't down for good since it is a treasury, even though she isn't actively blogging anymore).

I am calling it "Children's Hour" firstly, so I don't totally plagiarize Cindy; and secondly, because Charlotte Mason several times talked about a "Children's Hour" that wasn't directly associated with "school" but rather, with family life.

The form is basically for filling out what I want to be focusing on in each subject area.

I also have this Memory Notebook outline that I made last year based on Trivium Academy's, combined with Cindy's ideas. I already mentioned it here. Also, this Memory Book which includes more links (but is under construction right now). If you don't have MS Word 2007 but want to access the files please leave a comment or email and I'll put up a PDF or doc version.

Quote from Home Education:

Particular Knowledge.––But we are considering lessons as 'Instruments of Education;' and the sort of knowledge of the world I have indicated will be conveyed rather by readings in the 'Children's Hour' and at other times than by way of lessons. I know of nothing so good as the old-fashioned World at Home by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby (for lessons) for children between six and seven.

From Formation of Character

In connection with this subject let me add a word about story-telling. Here are some of the points which make a story worth studying to tell to the nestling listeners in many a sweet "Children's Hour";––graceful and artistic details; moral impulse of a high order, conveyed with a strong and delicate touch; sweet human affection; a tender, fanciful link between the children and the Nature-world; humour, pathos, righteous satire, and last, but not least, the fact that the story does not turn on children, and does not foster that self-consciousness, the dawn of which in the child is, perhaps, the individual "Fall of Man." But children will not take in all this? No; but let it be a canon that no story, nor part of a story, is ever to be explained. You have sown the seed; leave it to germinate. Every father and mother should have a repertoire of stories––a dozen will do, beautiful stories beautifully told....

So from these bare hints I am picturing that she intended something informal -- a sharing of the heart and mind of the mother with her children.... a sharing of family culture, so to speak. I don't want to make it formal or stiff or compartmentalized to a certain literal "hour" but I thought if I centered the idea around a particular "hour" of the morning, we might be able to move from there out into the whole day and life. Hope this makes some sense.

Waldorf calls it Circle Time but this has always sounded so Kindergarten-y to me. Still, some of the Waldorf circle time ideas may work well here.

Summer Time Table

A Summer Schedule by Teri Maxwell (and another one)
A High and Noble Calling: Scheduling in the Summer

I wrote these ones quite a while ago (PDF)

Planning for Summer
Summer Days


Also, Elizabeth's daily rhythm (for fall, but I like the format).

I don't really like that word "schedule". Looking up the etymology, I found it is basically a modern word (at least in its modern usage-- it originally meant something like "piece of paper". It is pretty much associated with the industrial world in its present usage, which probably explains why it seems to me like something you impose on top of things, not something that develops out of something.

So I looked up synonyms and found this:

agenda, agendum, appointments, curriculum, inventory, list, menu, plan, program, programme, prospectus, regime, tariff, timetable.

Charlotte Mason used the word timetable; the Ignatians use the word "agenda" which is basically derived from Latin "agere" and traditionally meant "things needing to be done". In deliberative meetings, the agenda may also be called "the order of the day".

And then there is the monastic "Horarium". Here is an example. I love the word, but wonder if it sounds pretentious to use it in the context of the domestic church. Hmm.

Now, is it just me who has to research etymology and collect all sorts of samples before doing anything as simple as planning a schedule?

I put this together and am going to try to work it for the next week or so, figuring out what I forgot or what doesn't work.

See "basic planning" here.

finishing up basic planning

I think I have almost finished this planning thing. Over on the left is a gif of this PNEU Programme I found over at Ambleside (you can click on the gif to make it more readable). I can use it alongside this categorized Formidable List of Attainments for Age 6.

The next things I have to do involve planning some methods and habits and how to approach the detailed planning that inevitably takes place during the year.

That takes a different part of the brain.

I also have to think about the "meta-organization" -- meaning how I actually work with this mass of information. That's usually rather a weak point of mine. In the past, I've made all these methodical plans and then found myself without a clue how to actually access them day by day. I've gotten better at this in the past few years, realizing that I have to pay conscious attention to processing the information. I usually have to write out a master list something like this:

1. Look at basic weekly plans
2. List materials and books used
3. Make notes for presentation or method

etc.

I plan to script out the "first week" very thoroughly. NOW, I've learned from studying St Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises that a week doesn't always have to be exactly five school days, nor does a script have to be followed exactly. It's a starting point. In fact, I usually start the academic year rather slowly, giving myself and the kids a chance to transition, so basically allow myself TWO weeks to finish the "first week".

Oh, and one more thing I have to do is plan a summer routine. I am not one of those who does formal schooling in the summer. Yikes, I hardly do that in the fall or winter or spring. But I do hope to get a routine planned for ME -- to remind me to interact with the kids, go outside, play games, science investigations, etc. I have realized that I'm a natural workaholic who can sit and study and plan for hours forgetting to eat or pay attention to my headache, basically growing roots to my chair.

So I want to get back to a bit more "intentionality" in the way the days go. This is our "Core"---but the details of how I actually manage it seem to vary from season to season and year to year. But that's the essence of what I'm going to set up a routine for.

From Elizabeth Foss's post On Being Intentional, though it is about housekeeping, I extracted a sort of examen for working on the environment, discipline and life elements in the home. Where I used her exact words, I put quotation marks and italics. Basically, the rest is just a paraphrase of what she wrote, applied to the daily rhythm as opposed to housekeeping in particular.

1. "Claim a quiet moment" and think about what you want for your daily life for this season
2. Think about the priorities -- the most important elements of life.
3. Think about the problems ... say, too much time on the screen. How can that change? Visualize bedtime, mornings, different parts of the day. What are problems? What are good things that could be developed in light of your priorities and those of your children?
4. As you engage your imagination, jot down those things which come to mind. It's all fair game right now. Don't let the things that pop into your head be distractions; all of them to shape the picture.
5. Now, what stands in the way?
6. Make a list -- a simple list (no need to bother with a system yet)
7. What would you like to do every day? Occasionally? What do you need to get done daily, weekly, monthly? Try to include the urgent (need-to's) AND the important but likely to be pushed aside (like playing games, talking)
8. What would help make the daily environment richer, more peaceful, more imaginative and intellectual?
9. "The list needs to make sense within the context of your family. No one can make the list for you. "
10. "Which days are you home all day? Which ones call you out into the world? Which days precede days with special needs? "
11. "Think about the individual children." How can they help? What is the balance between solitary time and active together time? What habits can be started that bear fruit in the long run?
12. "It's not a perfect list. PRINT IT OUT. Hang it on your refrigerator. Live it for a week. Make notes on it. Tweak it. Think, think, think about it. But do it.
13. "At the end of the week, look at your notes and adjust.Then do it again.
14. "Give yourself three weeks before you really will have nailed your routine."

So I'm going to spend some time journaling on these questions and then trying to set up a foundation that can be built on when we add formal work in the fall.

Monthly Themes and Memos

Here is a form I made last year: Monthly Themes (pdf)

The form was based on Dawn's beautiful monthly themes at By Sun and Candlelight. Though it is a very inadequate representation -- she is an artist and I'm not ;-).

I always have struggled with temporal sequence. I don't have too much trouble with daily habits, but less regular things just don't happen if I don't keep a watch over them. So I have worked on forming a habit of planning by month. This form is supposed to help with that.

Some things I try to do or think of near the beginning of every month:

• Plan housekeeping projects
• Check the next month for the liturgical year and list topics and resources
• Make a library list or plan "baskets" of crafts and related books for the children.
• Make a list of seasonal activities and possible places to go.
  

I never do as well at keeping up with this as I would like to, but planning it out helps me be more intentional than I would be without the plans.

Detailed Planning

It is so geeky to be all happy about something like a note-taking system, especially when it's something I'm already familiar with. I have been spinning my mental wheels trying to think of a tidy way to organize my more detailed notes. For some reason, suddenly remembering the Cornell Note system was a logistical breakthrough for me.

Here is information about Cornell Notes

Here is a Cornell Note-taking Generator

Over on the left is a gif of the notes I started taking yesterday on the Gospel of Mark. You can see that it's very abbreviated so far, which is why I am not going to waste my file space uploading a doc form. It wouldn't be worth seeing.

My idea is to go through the books we are using and jot down key points very briefly. If a "connection" occurs to me I can note it, too. Other related resources, possible conceptual difficulties, memo to search for map, that type of thing.

Another priority is to list writing topics. This is something I wanted to have at the top of my list, as I have mentioned before, because last year it was so difficult to scramble up writing themes. You would think it would be easy when using the Progym -- just grab writing selections from whatever you are reading in order to analyze and imitate -- but it didn't work out that way for me. I needed more thinking time ahead of the moment.

So this format will allow me to revisit and add to my notes as the year progresses. Anyway, this clarified my thinking processes so I wanted to write it down while I was still thinking about it.

basic curriculum for year 1

This is the basic materials form for Year 1 (docpdf).

Over on the left you can see the gif version.

I don't think I will write out specific course charts because I want to follow their lead and not tire them out with too much book work.

I have already written out some "method" notes and will probably continue doing that but with little kids it's difficult to predict what will be needed for very far ahead.

There's a nice Observation Form (pdf) over at Montessori Materials.

There are Montessori Albums here which I use loosely for my delayed child's OT.

Year 7 Summary of First Term

First Term Summary for Year 7 -- page numbers and so on.

I will see if this is helpful to keep track of the big picture. If it's not, out it goes ;-).

Topic List for Year 1 -- part II

I made another topic list, this one based on What Your First Grader Needs to Know.

Once again, it is condensed.

A lot of the topics between Core Knowledge K and 1 overlap. But CK1 goes into more depth, particularly in math and science. So I wanted to have them both in order to cross-reference, and to know where I'm going later in the year.

I've started writing out some resources to go along with the topics but it's a work in process.

Next, I want to think up some sort of monthly routine to deal with the seasons and liturgical year with these children.

Topic List for Year 1

It's so funny to go from a transcript form to a "themes for primaries" form. Definitely, that's life around here. The age span in our family is 17 years. ... almost a generation in time lapse.

This form is based on Hirsch's What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know.
There are Core Knowledge Lesson Plans online, including some unit studies. I look at them occasionally but usually find them too schooly and standards-based for our purposes.

I thought that if I took the book as an outline I could pull out my own resources throughout the course of the year. I notice that I like to do things my own way, so I don't much care for teacher's manuals or lesson plan resources, but I do usually like to have some overview that I can start with.

In this topic list (here is the pdf version), I didn't list out the specific stories and biographies and that kind of thing. I just wanted a basic overview.

You notice that science and history, for example, has categories of content, like "magnetism" and "Columbus". The Literature is based on categories, though, like "Fables" and "Sayings". Rather than having a "fable unit" per se at this age I would probably just weave fables throughout the year.

I do not think my 2 young students are ready for a full-blown Ambleside Year 1. I'm going to start planning it a bit since I really did want to try to use it, but right now I want to focus on the "preparatory" stage a bit more, and various habits so that when they get to that point some of the groundwork will be laid already. Details to follow, probably. It's something I've been thinking about.

Transcripts and High School Outline

Since I have just finished helping my daughter pull together a transcript for college applications, I thought I'd share a sample. General Transcript (doc)

This one is sort of a mix of the three transcripts we've produced so far for the two older boys and my daughter. They had variations depending upon particular gifts and strengths -- for example, my oldest son had a computer programming elective and apprenticeship, while my daughter learned several musical instruments during this time period, and my second son embarked on an extensive dendrology (tree) study that included all sort of research and field observations (since we live only 20 minutes from a Giant Sequoia grove). He also studied much extra history and wrote a 400 page novel. I would try to write their transcripts in a way that showed their particular focus but still looked fairly conventional and easy to figure out for the admissions officer.

The basic outline of our high school course (based on Kolbe Academy's) is over here at the Classical Co-op. I made that wiki page several years ago when my oldest was a senior, and now I have 3 high school grads. Time moves fast!

Term by Topic 2008

I uploaded a topic chart for Year 7 (part 1 and part 2, both PDF) It isn't quite complete yet because I didn't have topics yet for things like local nature study, life skills and art projects.

This is part of the first page (left). I have six "terms" because we are operating in the trimester system and it makes it easier for me to get my brain around smaller units -- so I divided each trimester in half. Only the first 3 terms show up in the gif.

I think I am going to use this topic chart as a sort of springboard for casual "themes" for the Year 1 children. Not that they will be reading Spenser or trying to deal with decimals, but some of the religion topics and history topics (shown in the doc file but not in the gif) can be adapted to younger ones.


I have What Your First Grader Needs to Know and it might be a good thing to use as an occasional resource because it covers the earlier days of US History.

History

I found a neat site -- a bit like Baldwin Project but devoted to "living history".

Heritage History

I have been wondering:

Does my Ambleside plan for this year fit in with Non Multa Sed Multum? Talking about the History program in the Latin Centered homeschool, Drew Campbell says:

Still other programs divide history into two streams, studying world history and national history simultaneously. This is the method of the acclaimed Core Knowledge Sequence, championed by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., and of some Charlotte Mason-influenced home school programs, such as Ambleside Online. This dual approach is also common in traditionminded European schools.

He goes on to say:

In the previous edition of this book, I recommended a multi-stream approach encompassing classical (ancient), Christian (medieval), and modern historical studies. While I still believe that such an approach can work well and commend it to those who have found it useful, it proved too complicated for most readers, particularly those with larger families.

When I first started homeschooling 14 years ago, I had no theories about how to approach history. I used a conventional Catholic correspondence program and soon knew what I DIDN'T want to do -- repeat American history through boring facts and short, dry sentences and a few pious sentiments.

That was one of the things that attracted me to Kolbe Academy. Kolbe used Greenleaf's Famous Men program and my children and I loved the chronological cycle approach to history and used it for several years.

One of the drawbacks, however, was that we never seemed to get around to very much American history. Thus, the Core Knowledge approach appealed to me. But raising six children, one of them medically fragile, I had enough to do covering the basics without planning and implementing two or more separate history programs. Often, we ended up progressing through World History for seven months of the year and then doing an extended unit on American History in the spring and summer.

Ambleside and later, Mater Amabilis, was a help for me here. These combined the Core Knowledge type sequence with books of literary value. I have been doing it this way for the last couple of years but it has taken time and effort to feel comfortable with the "scattered" effect of so many different courses.

I still am not sure. I get a bit claustrophobic with the "straight chronological cycle" too. And I found that my family would get so wrapped up in the cool ancient/medieval European history (which we loved, and so much good fiction for the middle ages particularly!) that we would tend to skimp on US History.

This wasn't so much so with my second son. He devoured history books during the summer and in his spare time. But my most recent set of kids -- hmm, sometimes I wonder if they could tell me who Abraham Lincoln was. I'm a bit scared to ask.

So I am making sure we focus on US History next year and still have some room to spare for our Plutarch and our Renaissance Europe.

I think it will still fit in with Multum non Multa because I keep an eye on the main thing -- a few books read carefully, the rest there for entertainment and extra context.

Middle School History Chart

A History Planning Outline (doc) partly filled out. This is just for the first year, and right now has only some literature and biography selections.


Year 1: Our Country in Story, History of Mankind

• Term 1: Exploration and Discovery/ Colonial Days
• Term 2: American Revolution, Early Expansion
• Term 3: First westward movements, Civil War

Year 2: Story of the World -- Modern Times

• Term 1: Post Bellum
• Term 2: World Wars
• Term 3: Post World Wars

It will probably change, but I wanted to start listing books and other resources in the proper time periods.

Year 1 Weekly

A first try at a simple Year 1 weekly timetable (PDF)-- based on Mater Amabilis Prep Level schedule.

The gif turned out horrible, but is here just so you can see it:


I am going to revise it a bit in August after we test-drive a bit. And then I'll change the heading from Kindergarten to Year 1 or Primary -- that slipped by! : )

one last little bit.

A more detailed outline of the first block of Year 7.
Also, a form where I can keep track of weekly progress -- or write a short plan by page number (PDF).

So I'm pretty much done on the Year 7 overview. This is more complex than it strictly needs to be, but like I said, I'm experimenting with preparing more extensively. We'll see how it goes! ... what parts of the prep pay off and what is just redundant and silly.

This is the Progress Chart gif.

This is another chart from the outline I linked to above.

Progress on Year 7 -- basic course breakdown beta

I finished the basic outline of Year 7. It is in PDF form. Some of the classes are outlined more specifically than others. Partly that is because of the difference between the "skill" lessons and the more "exploratory" ones. I will probably keep tinkering with it and will eventually upload a doc version -- I converted this one to PDF because I wasn't sure if the Word 2007 format would transfer easily to the older Word format.

I have almost finished writing more specific lesson plans for the first Term (I have divided the year into 6 Blocks so I can follow the trimester system of the local schools (since Sean is going to school this year, that is more of a consideration than it was in past years). In order to have some kind of unity, I wanted to be able to think in terms of six Blocks (I wish I could think of a better word).

Each Block will have a list of Sub-Topics and then I can decide which subjects have priority, dependent on what we've emphasized in past blocks, interest, life circumstances and that sort of thing.

Does that make sense?

For example, right now the first Block out of the six has this outline:

• Religion -- first part of creed.... Creation and early salvation history.
• Bible History -- Early Salvation History.
• History -- exploration and early discovery, focus on Americas. Geography related to history; same with literature and readers, poetry and arts.
  
• Science -- Galileo, astronomy
• Math -- Advanced Multiplicaton and Division (work a bit on algebraic terminology)
• Latin & Classical History -- Romulus & Theseus, review of 1st and 2nd conjugations and declensions, etc.
  
• Greek & NT -- Gospel of Mark, reading Greek letters (review) and prepositions
• Logic. .... Statements. Grammar -- prepositional phrases, review of modifiers.
  
• Composition -- Narrative

You get the picture. By having this laid out, I can "hyperfocus" on these topics and fill them out in detail. So I want to get together materials and ideas for these specific subjects and since there is quite a bit there, decide what we should dwell on more thoroughly and what can take second place. Also figure out connections between the different subjects -- not so much for Kieron, since I want him to make his own connections, but for ME.

Now that I have this laid out, I can also figure out composition topics, poetry and Scripture memorization choices, dictation and copywork selections, research topics and that kind of thing. That's where I always end up unprepared during the school year -- so my goal for this year was to prepare it ahead of time, hopefully gathering way more than I can actually use.

Final note -- I'd liked to get each block summarized like the one above, and have a little packet for each one, but I don't want to micro-plan too far ahead.

Also, a day by day schedule -- to help me figure out what we are doing each day. Here is the first page, in gif.

Hyperfocus, and Transitioning

This doesn't exactly belong on here -- but it does in a way. I mentioned hyperfocus a few posts ago, and now I wanted to mention a related problem -- transitioning.

This site describes an ADD characteristic this way :

The student finds it difficult to "sustain attention, effort and persistence, or the student becomes so focused on a task they find it difficult to change activity when asked.

Solutions:

Assistance through transitions to and from the classroom, and from one activity to another. Set up routines and use them consistently. Alert the student to transitions coming up a few minutes before the instruction to change is given.

Of course, this is very school-y. However, the principle may be helpful. I notice that the corollary to my tendency to hyperfocus is a difficulty in moving on. This happens in all areas of life, but particularly in areas where I am focusing mentally. No doubt that I have to work so hard to get into the focused state, that I get locked in and have trouble moving out again.

So in future I'm going to try to plan a transition stage ahead of time. When I used to have to go to the hospital every week when I was pregnant with Paddy, I would plan a few moments after I had just gotten home, to potter around and get back in touch with the house and kids. I do this whenever we go to town, actually, because I get car-sick and it's difficult to simply resume normal activities.

Schedule for Younger Two

I have been thinking about my little ones. For them, I don't want to have an academic type schedule. I want to focus on habits and baskets : ).

Here is a schedule for a young child from Mater Amabilis:

Monday - Religion, Reading, Painting, Break, Number, Handwork, Geography, Writing

Tuesday - Tales, Number, Handwork, Break, Reading, Singing Games, Writing, Nature Study

Wednesday - Poetry, Reading, Nature Study, Break, Number, Handwork, History, Writing

Thursday - Religion, Number, Handwork, Break, Reading, Singing Games, Writing, Tales

Friday - Tales, Reading, Picture Study, Break, Number, Handwork, Nature Study, Writing

It looks simple and uncluttered. In addition or rather, overlapping, are my "Preschool Priorities".

I am going to try to make lists -- mental or physical "baskets" -- that can help me come up with things for these different areas. I'd like to overlap with the Year 7 topics a bit, just so that (1) the Year 7 child can help design activities for them (he is good at that and enjoys it) and (2) so that my head doesn't explode.

Now, for habits -- this year I want to read Charlotte Mason's ideas on habits, which are traced through all of her books, and come up with some things I want to emphasize and work on.

So the main "goals" for the little ones are goals for myself -- what *I* want to do and think about.

Here is the Level 1 Timetable from Parent's Review














(For "Drill and Dancing" I can think Aidan's physical therapy and work Paddy in there too. For "handicrafts" and writing, brush-drawing etc I can work in his OT goals. and for the other subjects, I can work in his speech goals --- widening vocabulary and organizing skills for the content subjects, oral expression for narration, receptive language for listening to read-alouds).... then visual discrimination for things like nature study and object lessons)

When I have "baskets" or in other words, too many choices -- I get paralyzed, so I'm going to make some tentative sequential lists. But definitely, the curriculum is a lot more open at this age than it is for the older children.

If you take this Goal List (A Formidable List of Attainments) it gives a start on categories:

Nature Study and Local Observation

• to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
• to describe the boundries of their own home
• to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
• to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
• to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
• to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
• to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
• to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
• to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Song and Verse and Language -- Oral Expression

• to recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
• to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
• to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
• to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song

Number, Reading and Writing

• to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
• to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
• to copy in print-hand from a book

Literature and Narration

• to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English (or American!), and 3 from early Roman history

Handwork

• to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed

You can see I could break it up differently, to emphasize all the different subjects, but I am trying to keep it simple and targeted towards "habits" rather than a bunch of different "subjects".

History 7 -- Our Country

I found this Our Country in Story in the Google Books repository. It is intended for Grades 5-6 but I am thinking of using it as a spine for US History for Kieron for these reasons:

• It is Catholic.
• It has only 35 chapters so it would be easy to read just once a week and pull in other resources to deepen the study.
• It has a geographical, exploration-oriented emphasis.
• It is quite nicely written.
  

I've written out a chapter breakdown.

In the future, I'm going to try to add some resource lists and books to read alongside this outline.

Pace for next year

Here is the 2008 Calendar (PDF)(tentative) -- gif version below.

Something I've noticed several times about the "pacing" balance in our homeschool:

We seem to do best when there is opportunity to pause in the homeschool.... when every day, every week is not the same.

Last year went much better than any previous "structured" year because I acknowledged this and let some days just unfold. I want to take it one step further this year, however, and have a pacing similar to the recommended Ignatian one.

Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly review.

In Ignatian education, "review" doesn't mean drill but is rather, just as it implies etymologically -- another view of the subject.-- a chance to step back and look at it differently, to think, to consolidate, to make new connections. You pause, breathe, look down at the mountain path you have come up, and look up at where you still have to go.

THe manual Implementation of Ignatian Education in the Home (I HAVE to figure out an abbreviation for that) says that this type of thing is so important that if you have to cover less material in order to make room for it, you should.

In past years I ignored this advice. I am thinking now that my neglect of the need to review and retreat is a form of acedia -- to just want to push on through something to "get it done".

Kieron is very motivated to learn. When I present something new he usually says "Good!" and often plans out his own activities to further knowledge. However, I have squelched this natural motivation of his in the past through hurry. This year, when he is the only older student in the house, I don't have an excuse for hurry. So I will have to pay attention to that.

Speaking of "retreat", another "re" word -- I was just rereading a book about Jesuit (Ignatian) education last night and it reminded me that the yearly retreat was considered one of the most important aspects of the school year. Teachers had their own retreats and there was also a simple week-long retreat.

A few years ago I found this Online Retreat based on the Ignatian method. It wasn't bad (I only made it through the first nine parts, I think).

Googling a bit more, I found this Response to Pope's Call for Greater Use of Spiritual Exercises

Cool. I didn't know the Pope had called for greater use. The Jesuits have not always acted well since Vatican II, which is partly why I use the term Ignatian rather than Jesuit often. My guess would be that Pope Benedict is trying to reclaim the valuable and truly most-needed for our time elements of the Jesuit tradition which too often, the order itself has abandoned or diluted.

(Once when we drove to a Tridentine mass the Monsignor presiding shouted very emphatically: "Fifty Four Jesuit colleges in the United States and not one of them signed the Mandatum!" )

OK, I'm drifting.

Course Outline for Year 7, and more

Here is the semi-detailed Course Overview for Kieron, Year 7 (it's a doc). It's a more detailed version of this.

I am looking at it and thinking -- no way. It is way too much. On the other hand, there's no time frame yet -- and I'm not even sure I'm going to PUT a time frame on the content. My syllabus this year may be something more like a time-period-spent checklist plus tables of contents, so I can keep the accountability of this year without a feeling of having to speed up or slow down to meet the requirements of the syllabus.

I still have determined to go slowly..... and look for connections, and time to ponder.

By the way, this seems like a good occasion to talk about something that I was very happy to hear Angela at Three Plus Two mention -- hyperfocus.

From this article:

ADD suffererers will sometimes hyperfocus on a desired subject in order to accomplish a task. This is very similar to "paying attention" as non-ADD people will do. With so many distractions, we have to narrow our field of attention to a specific task, blocking out distractions like a person might block out the cold weather by pulling a blanket closer around them....

My routine day is filled with hyperfocus. With a few exceptions, if I do not hyperfocus on a task, it will not get done. Those exceptions are usually _very_ routine things that I do each day without fail (brush teeth, shave, go to work, etc).

As an example, I know that flossing my teeth is a beneficial task because my dentist tells me so. So I should do it each day without fail. However, I have fallen out of that habit. Getting started back again is a major undertaking for me. Its not that I need to be reminded, its that I have to hyperfocus on the task so that I can prioritize it correctly and get the task done. A reminder note or to do list will not sufficiently help me to pay attention to this detail. ..

Once I am hyperfocusing on a task, .. that task gets all my attention. Attempts to communicate with me during that time are seen as distractions and are irritating. It is physically hard to break the hyperfocus, then concentrate on another task, and then to resume the hyperfocus. Frequently, after I read a book for hours, I am literally a zombie afterwards because I cannot easily break the hyperfocus.

My day is a regular pattern of moving from hyperfocused task to hyperfocused task.

I am not sure if I am ADD -- never diagnosed anyway -- but I know I totally do this. Indeed, this description explains a LOT to me. And the coping mechanisms mentioned were extremely helpful.

Goals for Year 0

From AO Year 0

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six"

A reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's. from Summer 93 Parents Review pub by Karen Andreola

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Kindergarten Schedule from Higher Up and Further In
Teaching Diligently Kindergarten Curriculum
One Day At A Time

Also, see The Rosetta Project

And An Old-Fashioned Education

Timetable for 2008, Year 7

I am trying to figure out Kieron's daily schedule for next year. It seems to work best for us if there is a basic daily routine with similar lessons in similar time slots every day.

If you look here there are some PUS timetables -- Kieron is Level III. Here is one AO user's daily schedule.

Here is my Timetable 2008 (PDF). We usually playtest it for a couple of weeks and then revise according to the child's feedback and other things that we figure out in the actual implementation : )

Here is a gif of Year 7.

Year 7 Course Outline (beta)

This is a second draft. It lists the books I am going to use and a few instructions, but I want to have a more detailed version eventually. The first-draft Middle School Scope and Sequence is here. When I get this finalized I'm going to upload it as a doc.

After that, the next thing I am going to do is make a comprehensive outline listing all the resources together.

I used this 12 year old curriculum from CM's School Education as a basic model (in these appendices is also a list of things a child should know by age 12 -- interesting). I've decided to try to have a CM year but a slow one. I'm going to focus on thoroughness rather than trying to zip through all this in a cursory way. Still thinking this through but I notice that Charlotte Mason would often only assign a few pages a term rather than trying to race through a whole book.


Religion 5 x a week

• Bible History
  
• Gospel of Mark. Teacher to prepare lesson beforehand, and to use the Bible passages in teaching.
  
• Faith and Life -- The Life of Grace. (start discussing reasons for belief type issues)
  

Recitations. -- daily Repetition

• Learn 2 Bible passages and 3 poems.

German. -- 1 x a week

• Essential German
  

Latin. -- 2x a week, plus review

• Latina Christiana 2.
  
• Epitome Historiae Sacrae
• Latin is Fun.
  

Greek -- 2 x a week

• Basic Greek
  
• Build a dictionary
  

US History. 2 x a week

• Makers of the Americas
• And Modern History Sourcebook

World History. -- 2 x a week

• Story of Mankind (Renaissance and following) OR Famous Men of Modern Times
• Keep a century book
  

Roman History. 1 x a week

• Plutarch

Geography. -- 4 x a week

• Selections from All Ye Lands and Book of Discovery (perhaps some unit studies)
• special reference to recent events; map questions to be answered from map and then from memory, and then in filling up blank map from memory before each
• Know something about foreign places coming into notice in the current newspapers. T
• Ten minutes' exercise on the map of the world every week.
• An Atlas
  

English Grammar. -- 3 x a week

• KISS
• Daily Grammar
  

Music -- 2 x a week

• Folk Songs, Catholic traditional music.
• Classical music and musicals
• Piano Instruction
  

Writing. -- 2 x a week

• Choose and transcribe ten poems or passages
  
• Latin and Greek Copybook
• Handwriting -- go slowly
  

Drill. -- daily activity

• Daily Activities
• Seasonal Sports.
  

Dictation. -- 2 x a week

• four or five pages a week of a subject from History to be prepared, a passage dictated, or, occasionally, written from memory. (perhaps using a Catechism of Church History)
  

Drawing. -- 1 -2 x a week

• Twelve wild fruits on their branches, with background, in brushwork;
• illustrations in brush-drawing from The Lady of the Lake.
  
• Study and be able to describe the pictures from Faith and Life
  

Natural History. -- 2 x a week

• Keep a Nature Note-Book.
  
• Geology(mountains), with questions (use Core Knowledge? do a unit?).
  
• Study animals and draw.

Botany. -- 1 x a week (or unit)

• Local field guides
  
• Record the finding of and describe twenty wild fruits. Specimens must be used in all botanical work. Observe all you can about the structure of various fruits (not edible), and about the dispersion of seeds.
  
• Plant Life unit.
  

Physiology. 1 x a week (or unit)

• ?? A few pages of an anatomy resource -- the human anatomy coloring book?? overlaps with health -- the Joyful Mysteries of Life.
  

Physical Science

• The Boy Scientist
• History of Inventions

Arithmetic. -- 5 x a week

• Mental Arithmetic -- There are a whole lot here.
• Ray's Higher Arithmetic
  
• Vol 3 pg 307

Euclid. & Logic -- 2 x a week

• Key to Geometry
• First Geometry (here's one I haven't looked at much yet)
• Introduction to Logic
  

Literature & Reading

• History of English LIterature & list of readings based on that
• Poetry should be read daily.
• Catholic National Reader or Seton Reading Comprehension
  
• (Comprehension Skills worked into Narration?)
• Shakespeare, booklist of biographies and historical fiction etc (see below)
  

Composition. -- 2 x a week

• Read on Thursdays and write from memory on Tuesdays (do this with Classical Writing; Aesop)
• Composition Classical Tradition (resource book for teaching skills)
  

Work 2x a week, both on "open" day
(make up my own list including cooking, knitting etc -- these below in italics are examples from CM's School Education)

• Attend to garden. Bent Iron Work, Make six models. SeIf-Teaching Needlework Manual
• Make a baby's crochet petticoat with body part. Make a linen book cover, with design drawn and worked by yourself.
• For illustrations for History, Geography -- look in DK type pictorial encyclopedias
  

Civics & Habit Formation 1 x a week, plus work into daily life (I am putting together a list of topics to work on)

• Ourselves
• Joyful Mysteries of Life
• Current Events

-------------------------------------------------
Minimal Booklist:

Knights of Art -- read 3 times a week for first quarter
George Washington -- 2nd quarter
Westward Ho
Tales from Shakespeare

Free Reading List to follow (things for fun and context)

Geography 7 -- Around the World with Books

For geography, I'm thinking of simply reading different fictional books and then collecting more information about the locations through maps, encyclopedias and the like. Maybe a map skills book or internet geography games. The only problem with this approach in the past has been a sort of scattering -- maybe that's not a problem since we are being more structured with some of the other classes.

If I had him make a geography notebook.....

There are some books arranged by continent at Love2Learn Blog.

Weaving a Daily Schedule

I was looking back through my archives and found this nice post from The Common Room:

Patterns Instead of Schedules

It seemed to fit in well with what I have been thinking about recently. ... I put it on my other blog but wanted to link it here, too.


Space, and Shelter

Starting to Plan Year 1 -- some lesson plan models

I have been looking for Charlotte Mason lesson plans and have come up with a few things that I want to list -- just a few odds and ends for planning for the little ones for next year:

• First, I really like this Tanglewood Curriculum. It is a Classical/CM blend and there is a free reading schedule. I have their corebook and it is really charming -- it is now available as a download so you can make your own planbook.
• I also found this Camrose Classical Academy with sample lesson plans for the various grades.
• HEre at Lakeway Learning there are some lesson plans for first and second grade. Also quite a few articles about CM topics like habits.
• Carol Hepburn has CM-inspired lesson plans and other resources at Little Red Schoolhouse.
• Mainly, I am not looking for specific lesson plans since I already have resources that I like, but just ideas of what to do to prepare ahead of time.
• I like the way Elizabeth and Katharine plan lessons at the Waldorf-inspired blog Serendipity.
• Also, I have several times looked over Oak Meadow's sample lesson plans.
• And here are samples of the Christopherus first grade curriculum.
  
• I like the format that Kolbe uses.
  

Personally, I generally have trouble using lesson plans that other people have written. In fact, I think I can say that in 15 years I have NEVER used a lesson plan successfully. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Some of my high schoolers have been able to follow a syllabus independently, and sometimes I get some method ideas from a lesson plan, but I just can't seem to make myself do this.

Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In talks about Charlotte Mason and lesson planning. The basic idea is that Charlotte Mason believed in teacher preparation but not in teacher spoon-feeding. All the lesson plans above seem conducive to preparation as opposed to spoon -feeding. In other words, they provide a valuable resource for people that like a literature-based approach and need a bit of guidance.

I was browsing through the Ambleside site once and found a clip from a post by Wendi Capehart. She said that no matter how well something is laid out for her, she still has to write it out herself. So even with all the Ambleside resources -- forms, plans, etc -- she will look at them and be informed by them but she still has to rewrite it all for herself.

I found that very freeing. I am the same way -- once I acknowledge it I can move on. I get more out of the "how's" of a given lesson plan than the actual content.

Links for Year 0/1

I'm starting to think about planning for the two little ones. They will be starting off with a more "intentional" focus on Year 0 accomplishments, and then phase into a Year 1, probably around the time Paddy turns 6 in December, but maybe later than that depending on how it goes.

SCM: Early Years (CM)

Ambleside -- Year O
Piney Woods Homeschool
List of Attainments for a Child Age 6 and 12

Ambleside Year 0
AO Year 1

Mater Amabilis Prep
MA Level 1

Another Thought....

I wanted to write down before it goes out of my mind again.

I am realizing that where I often come up short during the school year is in METHOD, not so much material. Habits, not so much assignments.

I could take the amount of books I have now for Kieron and make 2 or 3 years work out of it -- with a few books and art supplies thrown in. So really, we're pretty much set for that, if I really stop to think about it.

Where we seem to falter and lose stride is with variety. I've tried different ways of dealing with it through the years -- last year I even had a deck of index cards and shuffled through every week and pulled out a pile of activity ideas. It worked pretty well!

But those were provisional solutions.

Maybe preparing more intentionally for the times when the normal routine isn't working would help me more than planning out book lists and chapters.

I would like more richness, not just more clutter of "to-dos". More learning seeds planted and more rhythms established, not just more assignments and work-lists.

Another balance to keep in mind!

essay exams, narration, composition

Some types of essay verbs -- from Taking an Essay Exam

classify: Into what general category/categories does this idea belong?
compare: What are the similarities among these ideas? What are the differences?
contrast: What are the differences between these ideas?
critique: What are the strengths and weaknesses of this idea?
define: What does this word or phrase mean?
describe: What are the important characteristics or features of this idea?
evaluate: What are the arguments for and against this idea? Which arguments are stronger?
explain: Why is this the case?
identify: What is this idea? What is its name?
interpret: What does this idea mean? Why is it important?
justify: Why is this correct? Why is this true?
outline: What are the main points and essential details?
summarize: Briefly, what are the important ideas?
trace: What is the sequence of ideas or order of events?

Another take:

The following words are commonly found in essay test questions. Understanding them is essential to success on these kinds of questions. Study this sheet thoroughly. Know these words backwards and forwards.

• ANALYZE: Break into separate parts and discuss, examine, or interpret each part.
• COMPARE: Examine two or more things. Identify similarities and differences. Comparisons generally ask for similarities morethan differences. (See Contrast.)
• CONTRAST: Show differences. Set in opposition.
• CRITICIZE: Make judgements. Evaluate comparative worth. Criticism often involves analysis.
• DEFINE: Give the meaning; usually a meaning specific to the course of subject. Determine the precise limits of the term to be defined. Explain the exact meaning. Definitions are usually short.
• DESCRIBE: Give a detailed account. Make a picture with words. List characteristics, qualities and parts.
• DISCUSS: Consider and debate or argue the pros and cons of an issue. Write about any conflict. Compare and contrast.
• ENUMERATE: List several ideas, aspects, events, things, qualities, reasons, etc.
• EVALUATE: Give your opinion or cite the opinion of an expert. Include evidence to support the evaluation.
• ILLUSTRATE: Give concrete examples. Explain clearly by using comparisons or examples.
• INTERPRET: Comment upon, give examples, describe relationships. Explain the meaning. Describe, then evaluate.
• OUTLINE: Describe main ideas, characteristics, or events. (Does not necessarily mean *write a Roman numeral/letter outline*.)
• PROVE: Support with facts (especially facts presented in class or in the test).
• STATE: Explain precisely.
• SUMMARIZE: Give a brief, condensed account. Include conclusions. Avoid unnecessary details.
• TRACE: Show the order of events or progress of a subject or event.

Boring, I know -- yawn.

But I do think I learned a lot from writing essay exams in high school -- it occured to me that these types of imperative verbs could be used as forms of narration.

Here also are Narration Ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason.

There are some thoughts on Narration at AO.

Over the years we used many different narration techniques. Narration, to me, is similar to a 'workout' - you emphasize different muscles at different times.

In the early years, the habit of attention is the main goal. Children learn to train their minds to interact with the material, not to look out the window, think about what's going to happen after school, or poke their sibling :-) My child might not always get out of the reading what I would have gotten out of it - and they might even miss the three or four points I would like them to know, but they are learning the habit of attention. Learning a few random facts may make them sound 'educated' but they will be ill-equipped in the discipline of self-education for the work ahead that requires serious concentration and attention.

A post about literary analysis and narration.

Composition in the Classical Tradition

First Four Units:

The Narrative
Introduction
Retelling Narratives

• Condensed
• Expanded
• Slanted

The Description
Introduction
Methods of Describing

• Times
• Places
• Actions
• Persons
• Things

Ordering the Details

• Spatial
• Temporal
• Order of Impression

The Fable

Introduction
Retelling Fables

• Expanding -- dialogue
• Expanding -- description
• Expanding -- adding both
• Shortening a Fable
• Inventing a New Fable

Adapting Fables to Given Contexts

• Adding a Moral Tag
• Adding a Fable to a Moral Tag
• Fitting the Fable into the Full Pattern

Proverbs
Introduction
Amplifying Proverbs

• Heaping up Aphorisms
• Giving Examples
• Giving Reasons
• Combining Reasons with Examples
• Developing the Full Pattern

Relating Parts to Whole

• The Three Part Pattern
• The Standard Pattern
• OTher Possibilities

My ideas about what I want him to be able to do:

• Write simple stories -- written narration
• Use examples to support a point
• Generalize a point from an example
• Compile information or ideas from more than one source
• Improve oral narration and ability to discuss
• Research a topic with only a bit of guidance.
• "invent" topics and amplifications
• Condense longer things into shorter
• keep a book of ideas and examples as a source for invention.

Other things to fit in:

• Notetaking and Outlines
• Public Speaking (presentations)
• Summarizing from Notes
• The Precis
• Commonplace Book (copywork topically arranged)
• Research Skills (compiling information from 2 and more sources)
• Style (correlated with grammar -- work on description in relationship to modifiers, etc)
• Developing own topic (invention)
• Writer's notebook
  

Go through his books and make lists of topics to pursue. This is partly dependent upon what he shows an interest in.

References:

• Brave Writer Lifestyle
• Online Writing Lab
• Classical Writing Forum
• Recommended Reading in Rhetoric
  

MiddleSchool Scope and Sequence -- Catholic Classical

• Middle School S&S
• Scope and Sequence PDF
• Catholic Classical Model

What's below looks complicated and like too much -- but I'll list about 3-5 topics per month in addition to the core classes -- Catechism, Math, Latin, Greek, Logic -- and then go from there.

Reading, working with hands, art, and oral/writtten composition are the other components.

It's helpful to have this laid out for the future. Anyone reading this can ignore it, though, since it's extremely rough right now.

Plans for Middle School (Seventh and Eighth Grade)

Religion

• Faith and Life 7-8
• Bible History (Schuster)
• Gospel of Mark, Luke
• saints' bios (list to follow)
• Apologetics (list to follow)

Math

• Ray's Higher Arithmetic
• Key to Algebra

Latin

• Latina Christiana, Henle

Greek

• Basic Greek in 30 Minutes a Day

Logic

• Introductory Logic,
• Traditional Logic 1

Literature

• Kolbe Junior High Literature
• Shakespeare
• Poetry, Short Story Courses (1 quarter each)

History -- US History & Modern World

• Makers of America (focus on different time periods)
• This Country of Ours and various Baldwin readers as supplements
  
• Story of the World Volume 4 (last 2 terms of eighth grade)
  
• List of supplementary readers to follow
• a research paper each term

Geography

• Physical
• Historical

Civics

• Plutarch (history of political life)
• Growing in the Virtues of Jesus
• Ourselves (maybe)
• Joyful Mysteries of Life
• Whatever Happened to Penny Candy (maybe) -- OR
• Land of Fair Play (for economics -- 1 quarter)

Science

• Nature Study
• Design a Study -- Science, keep notebook of projects and reading -- I think I will alternate Life Science with Physical Science
  
• Periodic Table, Chemical History of a Candle (others -- list to follow)
  

Composition

• Composition in the Classical Tradition (spine)
• List of topics to follow
• Scope and sequence to follow

Art

• Knights of Art
  
• Correlated with US History study -- American Artists
  
• list of artists to follow

Music

• various composers and genres -- list to follow
• start piano

Other

• Arts and Crafts
• Life Skills
• Vocational
• PE
  
• (lists to follow)

Languages -- Charlotte Mason

English Grammar

English is rather a logical study dealing with sentences and the positions that words occupy in them than with words and what they are in their own right. Therefore it is better that a child should begin with a sentence and not with the parts of speech, that is, he should learn a little of what is called analysis before he learns to parse.

They must be familiar with verbs and perhaps the simplest way to approach this idea is to cause them to make sentences with two words, the thing they speak of and what they say about it..

French Language -- Narration

Children in Form IIB have easy French Lessons with pictures which they describe, but in IIA while still engaged on the Primary French Course children begin to use the method which is as full of promise in the teaching of languages as in English, that is, they are expected to narrate the sentence or paragraph which has been read to them. Young children find little difficulty in using French vocables, but at this stage the teacher should with the children's help translate the little passage which is to be narrated, them re-read it in French and require the children to narrate it. This they do after a time surprisingly well.

Latin

"Latin is taught at the House of Education by means of narration after each section has been thoroughly studied in grammer, syntax and style. The literature studied increases in difficulty as the pupil advances in grammar, etc. Nothing but good Latin is ever narrated, so the pupil acquires style as well as structure. The substance of the passage is usually reproduced with the phraseology and style of the original and both students and children learn what is really Latin and realise that it is a language and not a mere grammar."

Depth vs Breadth

I wanted to write down a quick note about the planning "big picture", in case I forget it.

I'm looking at all these planning sheets I'm writing out, and trying to remember that this is supposed to be a matter of "setting feet in a wide room" not locking the feet into a treadmill. Ah, the old balance between preparation and exploration.

Anyway, the year is divided into nine months with approximately 3 weeks per month (12-15 days). I am thinking of trying to divide the various lesson plans into "topics" to focus on for each month.

Though I don't do well with unit studies, I do seem to plan better with a sort of "theme" approach that allows me to prioritize my goals.

So for example, for the first month I have:

• Math --Properties of Numbers
• Religion -- Salvation History -- creation and pre-flood
• US History -- exploration & discovery
  
• Latin -- review of vocabulary and grammar from LC1
• Logic -- I forget

I don't even have writing, music, science, literature, handicrafts or any supplements in there yet it feels packed already.

For our family, one of the problems in the past with a CM-approach has been the feeling of disconnectedness across the curriculum. Yes, I know that children make their own connections. But the way my children naturally work is to focus on one or two areas at a time.

This week I was trying to read across the curriculum myself. I was reading Paul Johnson's "History of the American People", Charlotte Mason's "Philosophy of Education", "The Language of God" by Francis Collins (science-related), SAT algebra and geometry (with Clare), and something else, I forget what. I almost wiped myself out, and I am an adult, and most of these were only moderately difficult material -- not more difficult than what a high school junior or senior would do. I think I have to acknowledge that for the children -- Kieron, specifically -- it is going to be difficult to cover such a wide range.

If I have a general sense of what I want to focus on I can handle it more loosely. This doesn't work well with strict syllabi, but I can still collect different resources and pull in different things as necessary.

The Ignatian concepts of lectio cursiva and lectio statataria come in handy here. In the past I've usually picked one or two topics in a given time period to focus on more deeply and let the others stand subordinate to the main thing.

Quick Links

Kristie at A Walk in the Woodshas some ideas for planning next year -- sounds like some of the same things I am trying to focus on this summer. Also this one.

Also, Elizabeth Foss is having a Charlotte Mason book study over at In the Heart of My Home.

Finally, here are two articles that I have come across recently that bother me in different, though related, ways:

• Kindergarchy
• In the Basement of the Ivory Tower

Just wanted to park them somewhere while I think about just WHY they struck me as wrong-headed, or IF I am right to evaluate them that way.

Shakespeare Year 7

I like Mater Amabilis's choices for Year 6:

Term 1: Merchant of Venice
Term 2: Hamlet
Term 3: Richard III

Possible Alternatives:

Macbeth

Henry V

Some MA Shakespeare Resources

Nota Bene

Sorry about the massive blocks of quotes, for anyone who is reading this. I know they're hard to read, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get them in there for my reference, without making a mess of the readability of the post.

A couple more notes:

As I mentioned on my other blog, I'm trying to read through Charlotte Mason's Philosophy of Education, and figure out what parts of it apply to our homeschool. I don't want to mess up what we have that's already working. But neither do I want to fall into a default.

I have an opportunity this year -- two "Year 1" children. They are just starting their formal education so I would really like to try to work out a CM-type curriculum for them. When I look back on our past relatively successful couple of years, it is a combination of CM -type "literary" education, plus LCC-type language-focus, and plenty of time and space for other pursuits, that has worked the best.

One of my 2 Year 1 children is what CM politically incorrectly calls "backward". I like the term almost as much as developmentally delayed though, which IS politically correct and implies much the same thing -- a present state which is not necessarily fixed, and also a present state which is comparative, not absolute. So "backwards" in that sense is more optimistic and doesn't judge the child for WHAT he is, just describes WHERE he is, for whatever reason.

I don't care much for "retarded" because that falls into a whole system invented by the French a century or so ago -- they classified "mentally deficient" into several categories, all of them unpleasant-sounding -- moron, idiot, and imbecile. These terms tend to imply what someone IS and also seem to describe a fixed, permanent state. Then people jumped on that to propose eugenics and scientific testing and all sorts of coercive measures. My husband was just talking to me about an article in Wall Street Journal about how delayed children were often put in institutions and often were rarely or never again seen by their parents.

Back to my point -- Charlotte Mason wrote that even "backwards" children could benefit from a humane, liberal arts curriculum such as the one she offered -- in fact, she mentioned several times that a delayed child had just as much right to a humane education as anyone else. This obviously is what I believe too -- and I've seen how much Aidan loves "liberal" learning

There is more about CM and special needs at Special Needs Ambleside.

I forgot the other point I was going to make. Hmm.