Day 96

Kieron

• Tennyson poem
• George Washington's World -- pages 30 -45
• Robinson Crusoe chapter 2
• He is going to do math
• He drew a bird for nature study.
• He made cookies
  

He has been riding on the stationary bike for exercise so I am going to read Johny Tremain and another page of Plutarch to him then.

Paddy

• First half of Tale of Prickly Porky -- about 12 chapters
• a couple of Henry and Mudge books from the library
• a book called Chicken and Egg -- photos and simple descriptions. Not very glitzy but he has asked me to read it several times -- he's seen chickens at his friends' house and I told him they are getting some more chicks soon so I think that raised his interest level.
• He tried to write his name
  
• He read the first 20 words in SWR -- but he couldn't really spell them.

Aidan

• I wrote out the first 20 SWR words on cards and we have gone through them a few times. I thought maybe I can have him memorize them and then go on to the next set, etc, until he has a few more words basically memorized. He seems to enjoy this.
• He wrote QUIET (with my hand guidance).

Day 95

Kieron

• Creed in Slow Motion -- we finished Chapter VIII , reviewed and discussed
• Math -- MEP Year 7 13.2 -- he got 3 wrong and corrected
• Boy Scientist -- finished chapter on Newton's Three Laws
• This Country of Ours -- The Rebellion of Pontiac, narrated
• Johny Tremain -- finished Chapter 2 and started Chapter 3
• Robinson Crusoe -- started this today and read chapter 1

Paddy

Some of this is from Wednesday.

Wednesday

• 2 Aesop's Tales (easy reader version) -- we "round robin" read them.
• 2 more Aesop's Tales from Milo Winter -- I read them to him.
• A storybook of parables.
• My Father's Dragon (we read the whole book again at bedtime)

Thursday

• 2 poems from Child's Garden of Verses
• James Herriot Treasury -- Moses the Kitten
• Fifty Famous Stories -- King Alfred and the Beggar

Aidan

• Went to clinic and was quiet but responsive with the "team"
• Went to labs -- coped great as usual.
• Helped with fire
• listened to stories I was reading to other people, a bit.
• I wrote another story with him while we were waiting for labs.
• He spelled "cooler" with a little phonetic prompting from me.
  

Day 94

Kieron

• Johny Tremain.
• Creed in Slow Motion "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary" -- first half of chapter.
• George Washington's World, up to page 28, narrated
• Ways of the Wood Folk, first half of Fox-Ways, commented.
• The Boy Scientist, first 6 pages of Newton's Laws of Motion (chapter 4), commented. This book may run into next year.
• Tennyson, poem #3.
• I'm setting up his math now.

Paddy

• Golden Bible, Noah -- the ark, and the flood
• Paddle to the Sea, chapters 3 and 4.
• 3 poems from Child's Garden of Verses
• He told me about a birthday toy and I wrote it down and had him read it back.

Aidan

• He talked about his Dad going off to town and I wrote it down (3 sentences) and then we went over it a couple of times using phonetic principles.
• He's in a mood -- doesn't like Daddy being gone.

Music (background)

• Mick Malone and Robbie O'Connell -- Irish folk songs.

Year 1 schedule modified from one in the Ambleside files.
Year 1 Schedule (MS Word 2007)

Day 93

Kieron

• This Country of Ours chapter 49
• Johny Tremain
• weekly chores
• The rest of Midsummer Night's Dream from Tales of Shakespear
• The Eagle by Tennyson

Aidan and Paddy

• Literature Primer (trying to read bits of it with Aidan, and then Paddy read some of it for himself)
  
• Worked with occupational therapist -- she brought a concentration game with faces of children from different countries and Paddy and I discussed what countries they were from.

Sometime during the past few days I read Dragons of Blueland to Paddy, The Story of Ferdinand, and The Drinking Gourd. Drinking Gourd bothered him a bit because he didn't find out if the slaves had escaped or not.

We went to the library and market, and Clare found the lost box of old photos so all the kids have been looking through them.

Day 92, and schedule for next week for Year 7

I made a weekly schedule for Kieron -- based loosely on a sample schedule in the Ambleside group files.

I uploaded it in 2 doc forms:

Microsoft 2007
Microsoft 1997 -2003

• Today Kieron read up to page 14 in George Washington's World.
• He also read several pages of the Introduction to Bulfinch.
• He read a Tennyson poem.
• He did math (angles -- he had surprising difficulty -- usually everything is easy for him).
• I read him another page of Romulus.

Still light days as you see but next week we'll be close to full schedule (the jpg shows the details).


Paddy:

• Sleeping Beauty
• The Elephant's Child
• Gingham Dog and Calico Cat
• Macavity
• The Fairy Who Didn't Believe in Children

(all from some sort of anthology of good childrens' stories -- we also read a section of My Father's Dragon which inspired Paddy to go dig out the complete versions by Ruth Gannet that we have around here -- so now he wants me to read those).

Paddy knows how to "add ten" --- and I had him do a bit of spelling from SWR.

Aidan

• Wrote numbers with my help.
• A "together story" -- at the doctor's office -- write and reread.

Day 91

Kieron had the inspiration to do his (still minimal) schoolwork last night instead of this morning. So he did computer math, then read and narrated chapter 48 in This Country of Ours, then read the rest of the first chapter of Johny Tremain. He is also reading The Lost World on his own. This is still very light but it's going to be hard to be on a full schedule while Sean's still home. It feels like the holidays.

Kieron has a habit of narrating by making a general statement then supporting it. Like "Hey, X was really brave" then listing the details. I remember Sean doing precisely that at this age. So I am wondering if it is a natural tendency for kids, when they get to that more analytical age, to start narrating that way. .... more in the form of topic sentence, then support.

I played chess with Sean this morning. He was on the defensive for almost the whole game and then when my spatial sense got too overloaded by all the positions, he checkmated me in a single move. Sigh.

Sean played the Brain Game and Word Challenge and GeoChallenge at Facebook. While he's on vacation he is trying to move in on other family members' high scores in the various games. But I guess all those have a learning component too, so I'm noting it down.

(Yesterday I told him that he didn't have to worry about his mental ability since he can beat almost everyone in the family in chess. He said, "Why did you say that?" and I said, "Just in case you ever doubted." and he said, "I'm not the kind of person who has much doubt about my abilities." Just thought it was funny).

I finished reading Reddy Fox to Paddy. He will be good at chess someday, I think.... he suddenly asked me, "What happened to the chicken that Reddy stole from Farmer Brown's boy? Did he get to eat it before he got shot?" That took place near the beginning of the book, which we started reading several days ago.... and he stumped me. Actually now that I think of it I believe the chicken-stealing episode took place a bit before the shooting episode, but still, I am always surprised when a child is following so closely with a story and trying to solve plot difficulties. Maybe I am raising a little English Literature scholar LOL.

I'm trying to pace out the Thornton Burgess books at a rate of about one per week for him. We're waiting for the Burgess Bird Book which is recommended for Ambleside Year 1. I thought it would be more delightful if he already was acquainted with the characters of the Green Forest and Green Meadow before we started. All my kids have loved Burgess's books. I love them too.

Aidan has the coolers playing chess. He keeps asking me who will win. I vote for the little cooler. His money is on the big one.



Now I wanted to write out the way Kieron and I decided to do narration yesterday so I can remember it.

• We talked a bit beforehand "placing" the next reading in context of the last one.
  
• He read and commented aloud to me as he read..... this is really entertaining for me, hearing about US history from a 13 year old perspective.
  
• Then I told him to try to give the whole picture and he did.
• Then we discussed it a bit.

I am trying to make a habit of spending a bit of time talking about the last reading before starting a new reading, with Paddy. I haven't started asking for narration with Paddy yet -- I want to work into it gradually. I think he will like it though, because he is more extroverted than my older kids and his thoughts don't sink deep down into his brain where it is a real struggle and almost a trespass to try to dredge them back up.

Day 90

Today seemed so much like a holiday, with the snow outside and Sean in full energy mode after a few days off from school. So mostly I just let the day flow. There was a lot of running around playing football together and also a computer game together and bionicles.... nothing very highbrow but all good in the way of brotherly rebonding.

Kieron and I had a talk about video time this morning and though it sort of stopped without coming to a resolution, I think some of it sunk in because tonight he was asking to have his work laid out for him tomorrow "so he would know what to expect". He probably has a point that we've been kind of inconsistent and that probably detracts from his focus. If I can manage it, I'm going to lay out all the work left (12 more weeks) and then give it to him so he has a concrete sense of beginning, middle and end.

(this bugs me, incidentally, and I'm not exactly sure why. I don't think I like the thought of "schola" being basically on the level of chores. Sigh. In this very thoughtful post on Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Brandy quotes Douglas Wilson who says:

One result of fallenness seen in children is the aversion to work, and natural curiosity is not sufficient to overcome that aversion..... Another problem with home schooling is a common, but mistaken, assumption about human nature...[T]here seems to be a prejudice among some home schoolers against "forced learning," and the prejudice appears to be based on an overly optimistic view of the child's innate love of learning...I am afraid there is more than a little sentimentalism here, with the nature and power of sin being overlooked. Many children need to be disciplined in an intellectual way early. If they are not, then the opportunity is lost; a mental laziness is already habitual.

.... however, I can't quite totally buy that. If I could it would make life easier in so many ways. I buy it partially, in that I can easily accuse myself with some justice of sentimentality, but I still dislike the thought of "forced learning" and I think my dislike is grounded on something more than touchy-feely mom softness)

But anyway, this is not force. Kieron's willing to meet the requirements, he's just not thrilled.

Didn't mean to get so far off the day's log. Anyway, Kieron did math today and his work around the house. And he got a workout playing indoor football and wrestling with Sean and Paddy, and he and Sean played chess. Aidan spent the day totally going all out on puzzles and manipulatives. He must have dug out every manipulative in the green brassbound trunk where I keep that stuff. His competency in looking for and getting out the materials in his environment is getting quite impressive, and he is getting slightly, very slightly better at picking up things after he uses them. A long way to go still on that though.

• He made a World Map puzzles (with Brendan's help)
• A Pond puzzle (with a bit of help from me and Paddy)
• His fire engine puzzle.
• He played dice games.
• He set up the chess board that Sean and Kieron later used.
• He set up some words with the Scrabble set of wooden letters.
• He came to the Post Office with his dad and me.
• He helped me make cookies (and eat them).
• He helped me make dinner.
• He helped build a fire.
• He did some laundry.

So a very busy, constructive day for Aidan!

Paddy wants a bedtime snack and story so I'd better stop now!

Day 89

I printed out these two quick charts on one piece of paper and have been using them as a sort of cheat sheet like the nurses used to have on the pediatric floor. I keep it in my pocket and check things off as we do them and scribble quick notes on them.

It looks like we have about two more days before we finish the first week of reading. We've done a couple of the "weekly" things but not really started back into the "dailies" like math and language.

So far so good, still. The reading schedule feels less cluttered than it did last term when I was adding things right and left. We'll see what happens as we move back up to full schedule.

Year 7

• A bit more of Johny Tremain -- almost through with chapter 1 (which is 25 pages long).
• Finished chapter 47 in This Country of Ours -- narration.
• 1 page of Romulus from Plutarch -- he "prenarrated" since he already knew the story.
• He read a few pages from Midsummer Night's Dream (in Tales from Shakespeare)
• He read the preface of Ways of the Wood Folk (the edition we have belonged to his great-uncle who died at age 19 in World World II).

Year 1

• Sang folk songs with his older sister.
• Listened to first 10 chapters of Reddy Fox.
• We read the preface and first chapter of An Island Story (Albion and Brutus)
• Two Aesop's Fables (Wolf and the Kid, and The Crab and His Mother -- we skipped the Turtle because he's on the sensitive side and I wasn't sure if it would bother him when the Turtle dropped to the rocks).

Day 88: Getting College Things Done

Nothing in the way of academics today. We had to go down the mountain early in the morning to bring Clare for a physical exam -- for her college admissions. I dropped Sean off at his school and then we went to the grocery store and to the bank to open a bank account for Clare. That's something we have been planning to do for quite a while so that was good to get done.

When we got out it was snowing, which is quite rare so far down in elevation! We started back up towards our home but the weather was SO bad -- snow flying, fog, cars off the road everywhere -- that I started worrying about Sean taking the bus home that afternoon. So I dropped by his school and picked him up -- along with a bunch of other parents who had the same idea. We took forever getting up the mountain in the blizzard but finally made it home about noon.

Kieron had bought a Superman game with his birthday money and was expecting it to arrive from Amazon today. But when we got the package it turned out that it had broken through at the bottom and the game was gone. So he was pretty disappointed. I emailed Amazon and they answered right away saying they were sending out another one.

I sat by the fire for a bit reading with my husband. Later I went upstairs and IMed back and forth with Paddy. This is his new favorite thing to do -- I'm on my laptop and he's on the computer in the other room. He has a little notebook with various phrases so he can copy them out like "How are you?" and "A monster is coming" and so on. So we did that for a while.

Then I had to get Paddy into trouble --sigh. I told him he had to stay off the computer for the rest of the day. Then he ripped all the pages out of his cute little notebook. BIG sigh.

Aidan is now playing with Duplos -- and Paddy is now putting leads back in a pencil. From the archaelogical evidence on the floor, Aidan constructed the dinosaur puzzle and Paddy played with his stuffed animals while I was gone.

Sean is SO happy to get an unexpected half day off of school. He tells me his language arts teacher read part of his paper out loud in class.

So now we have piles of snow outside our window -- 2-3 feet of new snow piled on the old, looks like. Except for the tragedy with the package, everything is going pretty well.

But at least we got those errands done and we're all safely here at home. It was a nice adventure to drive through the blizzard and "rescue" Sean from his school prison -- me and my daughter. Sort of a role reversal I guess! : ).

Edited to Add:

• I read the whole of The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon to Paddy.
• Later he said, "We didn't finish the story of the water and the boat!" (he was talking about Paddle to the Sea).

Day 87: Back to Ambleside

For us, Ambleside seems to work better on an at-home day when we aren't expecting to go somewhere or do something that interferes with attention. Just a note for my future self!
: ).

So today was one of those days when we had no real plans for anything outside the home.

While Paddy was eating breakfast I read the Golden Bible to him (recommended by Laura Berquist as a good retelling for children because it uses Biblical language, and it is quite profusely illustrated and though I don't totally love the illustrations, I haven't found a better version). We skipped the Creation story -- just talked about it from the pictures. I read about the Garden of Eden and the snake, and Paddy wanted very much to continue, so we read about Cain and Abel too. Then we looked through the rest of the book for a little while.

Then I read him two chapters of Paddle to the Sea. Aidan was getting antsy by then (putting his hand over the page) so I am not sure if Paddy got very much of it.

Then Kieron came to eat breakfast after checking his mail. I read part of Chapter 47 from This Country of Ours, about the Mississippi Bubble, and we talked about "bubbles" in history and about the problems with manufacturing paper money too freely.

Then we read some more of Johny Tremain. Aidan and Paddy listened in.

Paddy and Aidan somehow discovered the chalk board easel that they have mostly ignored for the past several years. They started working on it with sidewalk chalk.

Meanwhile I assigned Kieron the preface of George Washington's World and the preface of Bullfinch's Fables. He read those while I helped the little ones who wanted to (1) draw numbers (2) draw maps.

Now Paddy is IMing me on Facebook. It's taken me half an hour to write this along with answering to "HI" and "YES" and "how do you do". Kevin says he's about to unfriend him since he's always getting messages from Paddy while he's trying to work : ).

Aidan is playing with the Age of Imperialism board game... he likes the wheels on the cannons, which are detachable.

I was intending to ramble a bit more but this has taken me a long time so now I'd better go.

Results of Ambleside Thoughts

I took the Ambleside plans and made a sort of weekly checklist that I am going to use for now.

I couldn't figure out how to approach it with my Year 7 son because we are in early American history and I didn't want to skip ahead. So I put him in the second part of Year 5 at Ambleside. Hopefully it won't seem too easy for him; many of the books are quite suitable for a middle schooler.

There are a couple of places that I changed things from the AO curriculum. In "history tales" there is supposed to be "Trial and Triumph", which isn't a Catholic book. Since Kieron read SO many saints bios last term I think he is all right on church history for now.

Then I added Current Events because we already do that a bit and I want to do more of it; a Year 7 child needs to know something about topical issues.

For Paddy, I'm going to be very slow with the Year 1 material. I figure it can easily take us a year and a half to go through the Year 1 material, so there will be time and space to keep up the literature trails we like to do together.


I put forms for Year 1 and Year 7 up in doc. The Year 7 pages are on the left in jpg so you can see what they look like.

You know, there really isn't all that much reading required.... I'm wondering if I assign too much reading when left on my own. Last term got sort of confusing because I was juggling so much material.... why do I do that? Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Day 82

History through Reading

I have started reading to Kieron again from Our Country in Story (an old Catholic history reader for 5th and 6th graders, a little simple for him but not inappropriately so, given that we have done little US History in the past and the style is old-fashioned and thus more literate than the modern book written for the 5th-6th grader). Paddy usually listens in too, though I'd be surprised if he gets much out of it. But I've been surprised before.

We just made it to the mouth of the Mississippi, via Father Marquette and Robert de la Salle.

De la Salle was killed by his men as he tried to establish a colony near the Gulf, and Kieron was very indignant about treachery as the worst possible offense. Dante would agree, as he puts traitors in the inmost circle of hell.



Reading (Phonics)

On the left is a production that Aidan directed, with just a bit of advice from Paddy at the end. Aidan wanted me to write the words from his V-tech phonics board and then google for pictures. I would google and then he would tell me which picture he wanted and I would paste it on the word document.

More Reading

I got several Henry and Mudge books from the library. Paddy reads them and gets me to read them, so we've gone through them several times. Not quite great literature but not as deadly as primers, either. I've never found anything that I love as much as Frog and Toad, though, for simple reading level combined with philosophical depth.

More Phonics

Aidan and Paddy both played on the Starfall site for a long time today.

Handwriting

I had Paddy write a few "P's". My goal is to get him writing his name.

Nature

It was snowing today and Aidan was outside in it for quite a while. Clare and Brendan went out hiking in it but Kieron and Paddy were homebodies.

Conversation

Superheroes again, I believe. There was another discussion but I've forgotten.

Movies

Kevin and the older kids are watching Charlie Chan movies at night.

A Few Links for February

Liturgical Calendar -- February overview.

Activity Idea Place --February Themes
Teacherview Themes
ABC Teach themes for February


February Poetry, Sayings, Folklore

Character Education through Literature, for February and March (PDF) -- appears to be booklists for different levels, I haven't looked it through yet but it might be interesting.

Dawn's Notes for February