Topic Correlation

I cross-correlated the Year 7 and Year 1 Topics for the first term. Here is the doc form.

This is going to (hopefully) help me keep my head straight and also more intentionally gather resources for the topics for both the age levels.

By the way, here are a few thoughtful posts about the hows and whys of planning.

Stephanie
Elizabeth
UK Bookworm -- about filtering a learning goal through several different methods -- kind of neat : ).

Revised Year 1 Timetable

Year 1 Timetable -- tentative.

Follow-up on this version.

Here is a doc version.

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This is from Spring 2007 so it is out of date.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.

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.

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.

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.

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! : )

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".

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

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.