Language Arts -- Fable Theme

Every weekend, I have been choosing a planning focus. It's not set in stone, but it helps me keep in mind what I want to be thinking about and researching for instead of getting lost in all the choices and different subject areas.

Since composition just hasn't been happening with my seventh grader so far, I decided to take what I know about the Progymnasmata and tailor it to what I want to do in our family. I decided that we work best with a big introduction time.... basically our INPUT has to be quite significant before I can expect a product (OUTPUT) from most of my children. Or maybe the inhalation/exhalation described in Waldorf schools would be a more organic metaphor. And I am like that myself, actually.

So I put a list of resources and ideas up -- Fables (a Google doc)

As we actually go through the unit I'm going to refine it, write down daily plans, etc. So the final version will probably be some sort of PDF.

The Blood Red Crescent

I wrote a study guide for The Blood Red Crescent.

Basically just some questions on each chapter, some topics to look up or write about, and a list of characters with questions.

November Calendar

Day 43

We woke up to rain. The forest around us looks like it is melting in autumn colors -- cool grey-greens and delicate fiery tones of gold and orange-brown, set off by the grey sky.

It's Halloween, so today has been a bit different than usual. For one thing, Paddy is still in sugar-shock from yesterday's homeschool party. The kids wanted to be in the rain, so they were in and out all day. This, I count as part of the curriculum which really ought to include more out-of-doors time than it actually does.

• I read 2 chapters of The Blood Red Crescent to Kieron and Paddy.
• Then I read a bit of Chesterton's poem to Kieron.
• Then we looked for outdoors jackets -- haven't really needed to use them before this so they were buried deep. And they went outside a few times (Nature)
  
• Then I had him do math online -- review on order of operations.
• Then I assigned him a written exercise in Latin. He is groaning about it since we do most of it verbally under ordinary circumstances.

That's about it. On his own time he read a bio of St John Bosco (religion, reading).

This week I read Paddy a few science books which I forgot to mention before:

• Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats
• MSB and the Beehives
• MSB and Weather

Aidan half-listens to these too.

This week 11 will be review week. My project for this weekend is to figure out what and how to review.

Lepanto Resources

Update: I wrote a study guide for The Blood Red Crescent.

Since I have been reading The Blood Red Crescent to Kieron and Paddy and Aidan, I compiled a few resources on the Battle of Lepanto from online resources.

Here's a Google Doc just listing the links: Lepanto.

Here is a PDF: Lepanto. The packet contains the actual text of the bulk of the resources. Most of them are Baldwin Project tales in public domain. I noticed a couple of typos after the fact, but there it is.

I was going to make an activity sheet or study guide to go along with it, but I didn't have time/couldn't make myself do it since we usually free-wheel for our literature units. Maybe next time, or maybe I will try to reconstruct after the fact --we should finish the book today or Monday, I think. I have some ideas for ways to do this that don't make me feel claustrophobic ;-), but we'll have to see if I can translate the ideas from head to paper.

Here's another neat picture with a Catholic perspective, at Salve Regina. The one above is from the Vatican archives.

Day 42 & Week's Wrap Up

Yesterday we really didn't do much academic stuff at all.

I had Kieron read this story that Liam recommended to me.

• Martian Odyssey
• We had a homeschool Halloween party in the afternoon.

I used a new form this week, so here is an incomplete summary of what we actually got done for Year 7:


You notice that record-keeping is a huge challenge for me. I never find something that works perfectly, and I have a tendency to get bored using the same method week after week.

I am going to try this one again next week, though, because I like being able to see at a glance the areas we did OK at and the weak areas as well..

Here is a blank form in doc.

November Themes

Picture of the path below our house, by Clare

And the way up is the way down,
the way forward is the way back."
TS Eliot

So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age.
Lin Yutang

November in the Liturgical Year
November Poems

November Themes from:

ABCTeach
AtoZ Teacher's Stuff
Enchanted Learning
MRs. Jackson's Class
Homeschool Learning Network
Simon & Schuster -- Books and Themes

Autumn

Fall/Autumn Theme
Teacher-Planet
Autumn Themes and Holidays

Day 41

Another review day for Kieron, pretty much exactly like yesterday. Notes:

• We finished The Shakespeare Stealer. .. the last 5 chapters.
• In Latin, we've started Unit III (looking at the vocabulary). I'm having him review the grammar we've learned so far by declining a couple of nouns from the vocabulary list every day.
• He seems to rather enjoy the review readings and worksheets we are doing for Renaissance/Reformation and Chemistry. Doing these, though, I'm seeing why it wouldn't be a complete education to rely on them. That kind of information does not stick in the brain in the same way as the material from a "real" book. I think some summaries are useful for a framework at his age, though.
  
• We did part of this Peter Rabbit cloze for grammar. It actually is a quite valuable pre-composition/literary discernment activity as well as a verb sensitivity exercise, and he enjoyed it. It made him want to do mad-libs though, so I am going to look for some of those for next week.

Paddy:

• Read the subtitles in a cartoon. Wow! He can really read.
• Read part of a story in an Aesop's Fable reader.
• Did simple addition, subtraction and multiplication mentally.
• Wrote a "P" and an "A".

Aidan (who is a bit sick today and last night).

• matching numbers.
• tried to read a bit of Go Dogs Go.

More History Pages

Civilization Page (doc)
Meso-American Page (doc)

I made these to use as outlines when we get to pre-explorer America, probably next term.

The docs include maps and some links to further sources.

They are roughly middle-school level -- I based the questions on California standards for 5th and 7th grade.

Day 40

A Time to Review

I have started reviewing with Kieron. It was one of those decisions I started to implement before I even knew I had decided. I had been gathering review-type materials and so I just started handing them to him. I will try to pull together a sheet later on.

Anyway, he did:

• Latin -- finished Unit II
  
• Math -- chapter 7.3 of MEP Year 7.
  
• History -- review of the Renaissance
  
• Science -- review of Matter.
  
• English (grammar) -- started volume 1 of the KISS workbooks.
  
• Literature -- Shakespeare Stealer study guide -- used it as a kind of review/narration starter.
  

and we read five chapters of Shakespeare Stealer (got to an exciting part and couldn't stop).

He really seemed to enjoy the day, even though it was sort of "schooly". I have some thoughts about that but am still trying to decide on what the thoughts are ;-).

He has been doing a lot of writing recently and has been playing several RPG type games.

Comments:

• Paddy and Aidan listened to Shakespeare Stealer, too. I realized that Aidan has basically vaulted from toddler board books to chapter books. Not that he drinks in every syllable of the chapter books, but he does listen, and the funny thing is that he laughs with delight when he hears a familiar word or a cool new one. I don't know if he'll ever hit the intermediate picture book stage, but I'm feeling better about his literary progress now because I realize he doesn't have to comprehend in detail in order to get delight from books. Paddy really does follow the story line and even posed a discussion question -- what does Julian want? What does Nick want? What about Widge? Maybe I'm training a future literature professor ;-).
  
• I'm going to start saving the little ones' learning notes for the next day. My best logging time is at lunch time and I usually am more likely to work with the littlies in the afternoon. Plus, they often do informal things in the afternoon and evening that I "count" for their homeschool. Just writing this down to remind me.

Day 39

Kieron

• Thatquiz.org -- practice on multiplying with decimals
• Quizlet on the Renaissance
• Weekly housekeeping jobs

Paddy and Aidan

• Starfall -- long "a's"
• Occupational Therapy
• picked up toys upstairs
  

More About Exams

We're heading up towards the end of the first trimester, so I've started thinking about exams. Last year we did a bit of Charlotte Mason type exams, at least in the first term.

I went searching online back then for resources and examples, but a few new ones have shown up online since then:

The Tyranny of Exams -- not against CM, but against the "competitive exams" so prevalent nowadays. According to this very interesting blog post, CM wrote:

We absolutely must get rid of the competitive examination system if we would not be reduced to the appalling mediocrity which we see, in China, for example, to have befallen an examination-ridden empire.

CM believed that exams were supposed to be an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they knew, not be caught out in what they didn't.

Ambleside Online has updated their site quite extensively during this summer and has a Exam Project site with examples of CM exams for different age levels. It also has a list of Big Questions that CM tended to emphasize in her exams.

Simply Charlotte Mason has a blog on exams, too.

From the sample PNEU Exams for middle schoolers you find a lot of examples of quotes given and explanations asked for, such as this:

"The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." Where and by whom was this said? What ancient story is referred to?

You also get lots of:

Describe
Explain
Give an account of....
What do you know of....?
Sketch...
Tell the story of...

and in language

Translate....
Parse...
Take from unstudied dictation...

In some ways, not unlike narration itself, except looking at a bigger picture.

Oddly enough, the verbs in the exams are quite similar to those in the public-school standards such as California's. Where I think they differ is that the CM exams referred to particulars and to specific books of literary quality, whereas the CA standards, for example, refer to general knowledge and often to abstract ideas. I think that CM expected students to read excellent works and dig out the meat for themselves, so to speak. Whereas many of the standard-based lesson plans I find online, at least, are like this, or this. There is a well-meant attempt to pull students in with references to their own experience and conventions, but I think CM would have thought this missed the point of a liberal education, designed to foster the ability to look past one's own time and frame of experience. And the modern standards seem to be designed towards teaching the child what to think about the events he reads about.

It SOUNDS nobler in a sense to say "Study the early strengths and lasting contributions of Rome" than to say "Give an account of Horatius at the bridge". But I fear that the student in the first mode will basically be taught to say what the teacher or the textbook says about "strengths" while the student who has read about Horatius and perhaps then read Macaulay's poem will understand the strengths in a much more lasting way.

I had planned to write down study questions for my Year 7 student as we went through the coursework this term, but it did not happen. Sigh.... anyway, I'll probably work on that in the next couple of weeks. Those verbs I isolated are helpful -- now I just have to relate them to objects. I have to admit I am finding the Standards useful in looking at the big picture in what we're doing. I'll try to write more about that some other time.

Exams are kind of humbling for me because they make me realize how much we haven't gotten to that I meant to. For example, Music and Art, and handwork. Nature Study has taken a back seat too. And by no means the amount of writing I had hoped to do, though I think he's gained some ground in mental idea formation by the discussions we've had.

Week 9 in Review

Summary of what Kieron did this week (gifs on left).

We did pretty well on History and on Shakespeare.

Didn't get to Latin or Greek very seriously.

Next week I'd like to spend a bit more time on Art and Music.

Day 38

This brings us to the end of Week 9--- we seem to maintaining the 4 days per week plus a couple type schedule.

Morning Time

• -- 3 chapters of Shakespeare Stealer
• a bit of Christ the King

Kieron

• Math -- patterns (multiples) -- chapter 7.1-7.3, including making formulas for patterns
• Studied the guide to the Shakespeare Stealer

Projects

• Photography (Clare)
• Made Toll House Cookies
• Sand Art project

Aidan

• Matched numbers

Paddy

• Magic Schoolbus and Weather
• Went outside
  

Setting Sail

I was researching the pros and cons of block scheduling, and liked this Setting Sail in a Waldorf 7th Grade. I realized while looking it over that we don't really do "Main Lessons", but we do something more like "strands" that go through different permutations and link with each other. Does that make any sense?

So here is my tentative list of Strands for my 7th grader -- sorry, the descriptions are sort of vague in places, since this is just a starting point:

The Creed

Thorough study of the Apostles Creed through reading and discussion, with reference to the Catechism and to apologetic source books, and increasing understanding of different religions and their histories and beliefs. Understanding of the compatibility of faith and reason, and how this plays out in what we believe.

The Pauline Year

Read about St Paul, his life and work and thought. .... trace up to Benedict and his declaration of the Pauline Year.


Research Skills

Reading a range of different sources; summarizing; starting to compose simple reports

Composition

Understanding, discussing, retelling a literary tale. ... beginning literary analysis; applied grammar.

Renaissance

Covering the achievements in art, literature, science, architecture, music etc during the period of the Renaissance in Europe. How discoveries led to new discoveries. Side Topics -- history of science, developmental of new artistic and architectural techniques, printing press.

Reformation

Luther, Calvin and others -- the origins of Protestantism, its spread, its effects, the Counter-Reformation. Ignatius, Edmund Campion, Southwell.

Shakespeare

His life and literature, what stories he used (Plutarch, etc) and who he influenced. Some of the history of drama and the theatre.

Lepanto

The battle, its significance, Church history related to the time period, literature. Cervantes, GKC.

Age of Discovery

Mapping, exploration, discovery of the New World. Geographical review and consolidation; mapping skills; some exposure to different cultures in different parts of the world, mostly through a variety of reading.

New World

What the original meso-American civilization and Native American peoples lived like; their first encounters with Europeans. The physical terrain and how it affected the civilizations.
The first explorers, discoverers, pioneers and colonists; their history and their encounters with the indigenous peoples.

Math

Inductive introduction to algebra and geometry, problem-solving creatively, consolidation of skills in basic arithmetic -- particularly fractions and decimal fractions.

Mechanics and Astronomy

Science through biographies of Renaissance and early modern scientists and discoverers, and descriptions of what they discovered. Origins of modern science and its interaction with Faith.

Chemistry and Physics

Basic introduction to Matter, Light, Sound, Motion. Development of a science vocabulary; understanding of physical and chemical processes.

Local Landscape

Local investigation and identification of things peculiar to our environment, plus some of the history of the area -- geographical and social. Seasonal journaling.

Classic Languages

Latin and Greek with some analytical English grammar and vocabulary.

Logic

First elements of logical thinking through formal logic, Venn diagrams, and discussion. Application through composition.

Music

Introduction to piano; exposure to variety of different types of music, particularly Renaissance music.

Art & Architecture

Drawing techniques including perspective, shading. Beginning drafting and design; history of architecture. Work with different media.

Health and the Human Body

The history of anatomy; the structure of the human body; how to draw human forms, sculpture and forms. Respect for life, knowledge and care of person.


Founding of our Nation

Early history of the United States. Focus on biography.

Vocational

Exploration of different skills related to the child's talents, temperament and interests. Examples: Cooking, Cartooning, Woodworking, Science Investigations, Weightlifting, Running, Football, Computer Programming, Story-making, Photography, social interactions, paid jobs around the house, managing money.

Where we seem to differ from standard units or main lesson blocks is that we weave these in and out in different ways on different days. I've always found it very difficult to categorize learning into subjects, yet I do tend to plan in subject boxes. But I see that I am really planning more in terms of "topics" that are connected to each other across the subject compartments.

Since my other kids are so young, it's very easy to just let them come along for the ride and do what Kieron is doing, except on an extremely simple level.

On a given day, I am realizing, we don't do "History, Math, Latin, Logic" , Instead, we tend to turn from a read aloud on Shakespeare to a retelling of Hamlet to a reading on European history in the 16th century, to some mapping, etc.

I think I have been influenced by Charlotte Mason who did a combination of "integration" with a bunch of short lessons. She didn't really go for unit studies or "concentration schemes" as they were known back then, but she did believe that knowledge interlinked and that a sequential, connected curriculum was important.

Anyway, just a few half-thoughts. Maybe now that I see this pattern I will have an easier time keeping records. Looking back at this week I can see that we were heavier on Shakespeare, studied European history and early science just a bit, and skimped on religion .... etc.

I have a Google Doc where I'm revising the basic list as we move through the year: Main Lessons for Year Seven.

Also, here is the link list for block scheduling. It's mostly of interest to public schools who have challenges changing their time format. In a homeschool you can do whatever seems to work. Personally, we like to vary, but we tend to operate in short lessons (15-20 minutes) for most assignments. If the child is still interested we can always extend the time and of course crafts and projects and read-alouds need longer periods, but 15+ minutes usually seems like enough to do a complete lesson in math or Latin or catechesis, with a few minutes of independent work afterwards.

Day 37

Morning Time:

• 2 chapters of The Blood Red Gauntlet
• a bit of Christ the King, plus discussion

Time for the Bairns(I'm going to try to start having a preschool-type time for the younger ones -- a book and a simple lesson besides the 3Rs):

• Blueberries for Sal
• Sand painting (Paddy)
  

Kieron:

• Math -- chapter 6.3
• Latin -- conversatio, filling in the blanks
• Logic -- the relationship of contradiction

Assigned:

• The first part of Lesson V from Maps, Charts and Graphs
• A reading on the periodic table
• The first couple of scenes of Hamlet from Shakespeare for the Middle School by A Cullum.

Aidan

• Did a bit of math on the computer
• Starfall
• Wrote a couple more words.

Paddy

• Base Ten and a couple more games on the computer.
• Worked on Handwriting without Tears book -- C's.
• Read a bit from Word Mastery word charts
• Lesson VI (review) from Catholic National Primer

Notes:

• Let Kieron read the Shakespeare Stealer study guide.
• Look for an article about the Battle of Lepanto.
• Review/Quiz on Latin grammar.

Day 36

Morning Time:

• The Shakespeare Stealer -- almost 4 chapters today.
• Christ the King -- finished the chapter on Renaissance and Reformation.

Kieron:

• Math -- MEP chapter 6.1, and most of 6.2. About different ways to multiply, which Kieron seemed to think was quite interesting.
• Latin -- a Conversatio (Kieron said the substance of it was boring -- just "how's it going" type stuff) and a grammar review.
• A skimming/fact-finding exercise where I took the first assignment from Redwood Game's Core Knowledge geography worksheets, and read them to Kieron, and he looked up the answers in the book, and told them to me, and I wrote them down. This is sort of a distant cousin to narration and composition, or that's how it works here.
• Review questions on the science chapter on matter.
  

On his Own:

• Handwriting -- Italics G.
• Math practice on multiplication
• Reading: Shakespeare from The Latch Key to My Book House.

Notes/Resources:

• Found this study guide (pdf) for the play version of The Shakespeare Stealer. Sort of cute and lightweight, with a few context readings and the like.
• A "have you really read this" type study guide (doc) for summer Honors English. Might have some questions that would be useful for discussion.

While I was trolling for study guides, I found this blog post. It is about schoolkids googling for helps -- cliff notes and summaries -- for elementary-level books. Not really related to Shakespeare Stealer, except for the question of trying to slide by on someone else's work, but quite interesting in respect to the modern approach to literature study. You might like the blog, Jo, if you're reading here. The blogger writes about children's literature from a feminist perspective.

Here's the post referring to The Shakespeare Stealer that brought me there on Google, I suppose -- Smug presentist science and historical fiction. Actually, that post also relates to one of the themes I'm trying to address with Kieron during this Renaissance study:

Science is perceived as the marker of modernity as well as the thing that makes modernity superior to whatever came before it.

and this:

Why is it that in historical novels for children, the main characters always magically transcend the scientific paradigms of their times and intuit the tenets of today's science?
........
It always goes something like this: everybody says disease is caused by foul air, but Spunky Protagonist feels, just feels in her or his heart, that it is transmitted by "tiny seeds" that get passed along by rats and insects. It's just a feeling!

History Pages

I made some"pages" for use in review, notebooking, etc.

Explorer Page (pdf)
Event Page (pdf)
Famous Person Page (pdf)


They are much the same except for the questions, so I only put the event page up as a gif.

On the gif, the timeline is fixed at 1500-1700 since that's the period we are studying, but the pdfs have blank timelines.

Sean did something a bit like this when I was starting him off writing short research papers. He would use the worksheet for a starter and then pull out the information to write a simple 1-2 paragraph paper. So I thought I would try something that like with Kieron occasionally.

Day 35

Morning Time

• 1 chapter of The Bloody Gauntlet
• a section of Christ the King -- continuing about Charles V and the Turkish threat, and Suleiman
• some poems from Harp and Laurel Wreath -- a passage by Prospero from The Tempest, The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc, and Captain Kidd by SV Benet.
• Creed in Slow Motion -- started chapter V, discussed a bit.

Kieron

• Measuring angles of crossing lines -- 20 problems.
• A Shakespeare background information reading and a Shakespeare biography quiz.

Paddy:

• Another reading from the Living My Religion primer.
• Lesson V in the Cardinal National Primer.
• 2 pages of adding numbers to make 8 and 9.
• some work from Handwriting without Tears -- drawing exercises (filling in a circle with circular motions/putting spokes on a wheel; putting legs on a caterpillar body)

Aidan

• Counting, lots of it. He is counting up past 40 with guidance. He has trouble keeping track of where he is.
• Recognizing number names (like 38, 24, etc). He can easily pick one out of three possibilities but I don't know if he could name the numbers spontaneously.

Week 9 Checklist for Year 1

I made a similar checklist for the younger two, but left it mostly blank because we don't really do many things in order, and I use lots of different books. Here is a doc form in greyscale.