Triduum

Because I had told Paddy so firmly all the minutiae of good behavior at Easter mass, including a prohibition against asking questions, I thought it would be good to pay attention to preparing him beforehand about what Easter meant. So he wouldn't have any important questions left to ask during the service itself.

So I read him the Good Friday Bible story on Good Friday. It was surprisingly hard to read the story of Our Lord's arrest, trial and crucifixion to a 6 year old. He knows it generally but the actual story is so horrible in the details. Something in me wants to protect him against something so shocking happening to someone he has learned to love through the Christmas stories and the stories of his miracles. Besides, I was afraid I would start to cry, which would embarrass him.

However, it went off all right. He was very interested. And when we got to Easter mass, very early because his older brothers were altar serving, some serendipity came in because the bulletin had a line drawing of Jesus emerging from the tomb. Paddy said with delight "There's Jesus!" and I explained about the stone rolling aside and the angel and the women (reminding him because we have talked about this story before).

Then the bulletin also talked about how we go to mass on Sundays because we are re-celebrating Easter... how the Jews celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday but the custom was changed from the earliest days of the Church. So I paraphrased that for him because one of his recent questions has been "WHY do we have to go to church every Sunday?" I have been telling him about how much God does for us every second of every day and how little he really requires in return so this was another way to present it.

Also, on Friday we finished reading The Law of Authority and Obedience. Parables from Nature has been a stumbling block for me for years. Every time I looked at Ambleside, I would see this book and glance through the text and hesitate. I just couldn't bring myself to read it to my children. However, Paddy's my last (though Aidan will be the last chronologically to go through Year 1, I guess) and so I wanted to give the whole Ambleside curriculum a fair try. To my surprise these stories suit him well. He gets all fired up with enthusiasm -- the Big Questions put his mind in high gear. The older kids were listening sub rosa and after I finished we had an interesting discussion about roles, etc. I'm glad however that there are only a few of these stories for Year 1 because "just a little is enough" -- I can see that it would be a strain on his mind and heart to have a steady diet of these stories, which is probably why I instinctively hesitated in the past.

He was pretty good at Mass. That is the main habit we're working on right now. He tends to get so restless that he almost closes off his mind and senses. I'm thinking of having him practice during the week. At home he CAN sit still for long times when I'm reading to him, but it's harder for him when his mind isn't fully engaged. So I need to teach him to be able to reflect and take in what's around him when there's no "narrative" so to speak. Picture study and composer study might help a bit.... just thinking this through?

We are still on vacation -- resume studies tomorrow. I wanted to use this blog as a place to jot down teaching notes rather than just list what we did. And sometimes learning happens on the off days, too.

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

December Calendar

December Calendar in PDF
It is blank except for the pictures and the notations for the holidays.

I'm not going to list themes for December like I usually try to do each month because:

(1) Everyone probably has their own December activities already and
(2) I'll probably be listing them all month.

But here are a couple of nice Advent Calendar links

"a nice online Advent Calendar" HT: Lent and Beyond, and
Countdown to Christmas at About Homeschooling


Here's the Liturgical Year overview at Catholic Culture.



Oh, OK, just a few then:


I liked this Stocking Advent Activity at My Montessori Journey.
Advent Lapbooking at Squidoo
The Jesse Tree -- a unit study for the homeschool
Forms for an Advent Lapbook (PDF) -- not mine
50 Frugal Christmas Ideas
Nice Christmas on a Budget

not a freebie but has an Advent lapbook: Faith Folders for Catholics

Liturgical Year -- September

Liturgical Overview for September (taken from Catholic Culture)

trying to work with liturgical year

I am trying to start planning how to approach the liturgical calendar this year.

There is a beautiful liturgical planning form by Jenn Miller here, in pdf.

Here's an online list of resources I hadn't seen before.
Catholic Mosaic Book List (PDF)

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.

Planning for Week 15

So, as the five year old gently breathes in slumber and the hail pounds on our roof, and I sit in bed with this laptop (so cool) I am thinking I ought to plan for next week. Next week starts tomorrow, on Friday; continues throughout the weekend, though we don't do any formal academics for those days; and carries through next Thursday.

Usually I just jot down page number goals for the week, but just for variety's sake I thought I would try to do it differently this time, as a narrative. Hopefully it won't be too confusing; but if it is, we can just keep doing the basic "next thing" all next week, so it won't be too bad.

I am thinking that we have two weeks left in the term, but week 16 will gradually turn more and more into games and art and cooking and informal things because Liam will be home and we will be getting into the holiday. I would like to journal!

Math

Kieron starts chapter 8, on decimals. I want to start having him do a long division problem every day, since we skipped lightly over that chapter and it will likely come again in this chapter in some form.

Sean continues chapter 7 in Algebra. It looks like he can finish up just a bit after Liam gets home for Christmas break. So at that point I think I will do a bit of review with him and then we'll close down for the break on the 20th. Kieron's chapter on decimals will be finished at just about the same time.

That review I mentioned for Sean ought to be written out fairly so I can send it in to Kolbe.


Latin

Sean has resumed Lesson 11 in Henle. He can continue; and work on memorizing the third declension form. I am going to start Kieron on the third declension form, but go back quite a bit in the book and pick up at his easy comfort level, in order to consolidate and build confidence. Memoria Press says that it's better to go slowly, even repeating several times, than to rush through and have kids who fear and loathe the language.

I think I will use the Language Lessons to reinforce the grammar in Henle (details remain to be worked out).

Greek and Vocabulary/Spelling--

continue. Kieron is still in penmanship limbo. I was going to start him with SWR but hate to do it until the curves and lines are just a bit more fluent. Not sure exactly what to do about that. I've let the spelling tests for Sean drop. I think I need to have him do a comprehensive review of the whole lot of words; spelling and meaning; to send in to Kolbe.

Progym

Oral composition for Kieron (narration and learning to organize his thoughts in writing structure; I write down things for him).

Sean write a 3 paragraph paper from a topic of his choice, and continue notes narrations and copywork/dictation every day as the situation requires. Focus for this on writing to learn and remember. Focus for the 3 paragraph paper on structure and on expressing some sort of an argument in written form.

For me -- try to write some essays in progym form, for practice, and work on my story!!!!

Religion

Focus on Advent. Religion takes top priority this month. The Jesse Tree and story of Jesus are the main focal points. Also, the doctrine about the Incarnation. Books they are reading:

Sean-- The Life that Changed the World, Gospel of Luke.
Kieron -- The Jesse Tree, St Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Very First Christmas, sundry books from Advent shelf.

For doctrine -- Baltimore Catechism, Divinity cards, and perhaps Pocket Catechism and Baltimore Catechism explained. I had Sean copy out some of the Penny Catechism; it might be good to do this with a nicer-sounding catechism, like the St Pius X one.

I would like Sean to get up to the Incarnation in his Book of Discovery if possible. He is also continuing to read the Screwtape Letters -- not much to do with the season but he seems to be enjoying the book.

Vatican Treasures -- artwork and scripture.


I can't remember if Sean's already read the Bronze Bow?

Science

Takes a back burner for now. A couple of times a week Sean is reading Earth Science. I'm having Kieron look up topics in the Encyclopedia. I'm trying a method of having Sean memorize a few basics to do with the Earth Science topic, and having Kieron memorize the same thing too.

Geography -- I am thinking we will bring the atlases downstairs and just look through them a page at a time.

Art, Crafts and Music -- I wanted to have a lot of that this month. Realizing that, I realize I am not making that happen. I wanted to have a quieter, slower approach to our work this month, and mingle the academics with taking care of bits and pieces of our household. Little jobs like polishing one section, etc. .... concentrating on care rather than getting a whole lot done. The art approach was supposed to echo this. Actually, it's been happening a bit but I've been feeling troubled about the slowness rather than celebrating it. Hmm, something to ponder.

Also, I'd like to have some conversations about the meaning of Advent and Christmas. I will look at the Glorious Impossible and see if that has some questions to ponder together.

I guess that is it for now since it looks like my battery is running low. Still raining hard out there!

Second Term Plans -- Miscellaneous

Still planning:

• According to my Year by Terms, the second term starts right after Thanksgiving, comprises Advent and Christmas, and ends just around the start of March, a bit after Ash Wednesday.
• Here is the December liturgical year as a calendar; here as a list. January and February aren't up yet so I shall have to turn to my own resources for these.
• I think I shall try to take these plus the family goings-on and translate them into a more detailed calendar like my Year by Terms.
• You know, if I took some of the month's saints like Francis Xavier, Nicholas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Wenceslaus, and Thomas Becket, I could have some geography-focused mini-units or "themes" there.
• Every time I look at the Catholic Culture overviews I think how fun it would be to draw or color some of the saints' insignias. They are so pretty. That is something to think about.
• I have revised our Weekly Chore Rotation -- finally! (if you wonder about the pictures, it is sort of a family joke). (Here is the explanation and dinnertime routine, but that needs to be upgraded a bit too). My next home management child training project is to get a system for the littlies -- going to look at Montessori for practical life ideas.
  

I am just going to keep posting these little brainstorming lists as they come up -- bear with me, and eventually I'll try to put it in some sort of order.

Winter TErm Gathering Snowflakes

I really wanted to try a lapbook sometime this year. The Homeschool E-store has a free What is Snow? lapbook out, suitable for grades 3-6. Easy stuff for Kieron, but he might have fun. He and the little ones had a ton of fun cutting out snowflakes last year. A simple thing, but the sort of thing I often get in too much of a hurry to do.

As usual, Real Learning has a wonderful compilation of resources on a thread about Snowflakes.

On the Advent front, there is Elizabeth's Advent and Christmas unit.

I found this Catholic Mosaic supplement booklist by Lara Muse over at Amazon.

We have any amount of books around about weather, and about Alaska (grandparents live there) as extensions. So Science and Geography will come in easily.

Of course, any amount of Christmas books too. This year, I have the Jesse Tree book by Geraldine MacCaughrean which I wanted to focus on with Kieron, along with a Jesse Tree. Also, the Madeleine L'Engle book with Giotto paintings as illustrations.

We have glitter paint and sculpey. What more could you need?

About the snow lapbook: I looked at the pages last night and finally, finally "got it" a bit, what the lapbook thing is about. It is embarrassing to admit -- I've been reading about them for absolutely YEARS and haven't been able to make any sense of them. I can be awfully dense. I think it must be some personal disconnect between cognition and action.

If I'm correct about almost grasping it, I can go through this one with Kieron and then I'll have the personal "tools" to try my hand at designing one. Maybe not right away, but sometime.

Why do I want to be able to do one? Honestly, the minit books and everything are cute, but that's not the main reason. But it's always seemed like a good review/interaction thing.

Pen-Ultimate Week

There are only two weeks left until the term ends. So I have to think about how to wrap things up for the term -- what will change in our routine, if anything.

• There are a couple of changes I am planning. One is to have a given number of "unschool free pass" days where we get to just live life and count it as a day. Especially if there is travel or something enriching going on, like last week with Halloween and All Saints Day.
• Another is to have a given number of sick or medical appointment days. ... where we go to a minimum plus reading type schedule.

Yes, we already have some of these in effect -- but acknowledging them might be helpful.

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I also wanted to try to have an Ignatian review/exam/Charlotte Mason exam week for the 12th week.

I looked for exam week information online and found:

• Sample Exam Questions at Ambleside Online
• A PUS article on exams

Also:

• An end of term retrospective at CM, Children, and Lots of Grace
• A Second Grade Exam at Our Golden Apples
• Exams for a 13 year old at Higher UP and Further In
• Plus, general information on narration at SalmonMe's and at Dominion Family

This will all be helpful if I can assimilate it all! I will let you know what ends up happening!

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Now, as for temporal plans, two of my older kids are going to be visiting friends next week. I am going to count these days as school days for two reasons (1) because travelling and visiting are excellent education in themselves, and (2) because I'm having them bring some easy review type material with them. The family they are visiting is also a homeschooling family, so the schoolwork they bring will be things they can do while their friends are doing their academics.
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That means that week 11, for at least one of my boys, will be an away week. I think, THINK, that I will do review for the one at home as well. Plus a writing intensive. Then by week 12 I will be prepared to do some sort of informal exam/retrospective type week. That will be a shortish week anyway because Thanksgiving is coming up.
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Looking ahead even further:

Once Thanksgiving is over, we are heading into Advent. Since I am just SO organized this year :D I would really like to have the rhythm be a bit different during Advent. But the details remain to be worked out. I know I DON'T want to have a burnt out, frustrated feeling all during Advent like I did last year. I want it to be a time of peace, anticipation and preparation.

Help me, St Francis de Sales and St Brendan the Navigator! (my two patron saints for this year's homeschooling)