Friday, November 14, 2008

Thursday and Friday (November 13-14th)

Thursday

Homeschool Swimming Lessons
Came home and ate lunch while I read SOTW 2 (last chapter) and As Rich as Croesus.

Then we had friends over for the afternoon to play.

Ballet, Bible Study, etc. and bed.....

Friday

Slow morning after yesterdays busy day! But so nice to be inside with the wind howling outside. C. and Aa. ate breakfast and went outside to play in the snow as I prayed which was so nice.

All:
Prayers and today's Gospel reading
Poem recitations for all
Read The Practical Geologist to all re. Plate Tectonics
Read a page of One Drop of Water (what a neat book)

Ar:
Algebra- Lesson 2 Review (going very well)
EGrammer Plus- next page
Read: The Age of Fable
The Story of Art
Cleaned Room and changed sheets
Still need the whistle and Latin!

H:
Algebra- Rest of Set 2 (She is loving the graphing)
Spelling
Read: The Turning
Cleaned Room and changed sheets
A few scales on the piano
Latin: new vocab. review, chants of flumen etc., oral translation lesson

C:
Math- out loud (too busy building Bionacles to stop!)
Writing- Italics
Traced and labeled a bunch of rocks from the rock book
Chores and Violin still to come....(as well as the Hobbit on his own reading time)

Aa:
Designed some really cool Bionacles
Life!


I will read to them over lunch from East of the Sun and West of the Moon. H. and I are going to have a read of the Borrowed House this afternoon- this is an awesome and gripping book. We are almost halfway done in two reads (and I have the perk of owning it so I can flatten the spine (don't tell my husband- it would be sacrilige in his books!) and knit at the same time.)

Knitting group on here tonight and then preparing for Aa.s birthday. Does anyone know how to create Popeye with icing??

So, for the sake of my brain....

chores for little boys
instrument practice
quiet reading for little boys
Latin for Ar. (after lunch when the little boys are cleaning their room) with me
read aloud with H. when the others are in quiet time

That seems to wind up a nice serendipitous day here (although on paper or screen it doesn't look quite as mellow as it has been to live first hand.)
.
Thoughts brewing in my head from this post: Too Little, Too Much. My initial thoughts love the idea of lots of good living books and not much of the assigned types of writing- hey, I like that. It's what happens very naturally around here. It's another reason to leave the heaps of educational baggage at the door!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Today- November 8th 2008

After a couple week wonderful break with the grandparents!!

An early start (yeah for the winter time change.)

All:
Prayers and Gospel
SOTW 3- Shakepeare
The Taming of the Shrew (from Lamb's)
The Wheel on the School
East of the Sun and West of the Moon (after lunch)

Ariel
Algebra- Set2
Writing- New exercise with thesaurus
Reading- Age of Fable, Story of Art, various other reading
Music- Whistle

Hannah
Algebra- new lesson and set 1
Writing- ditto what Ar. did
Reading- the Turning
Baked cookies for a dear friend who lost her dad this morning.
Lots of knitting of mittens.

Caleb
Math U See- next page
Math It- double it and times it
Reading- The Hobbit and Mad Libs
Lots of lego, creative play with Aaron and snow play

Aaron
Math with mom!
Reading lesson- my creation
Italics book A
Read- the Foot Book

Lots and lots of great outdoor time, first thing after breakfast and again after quiet time. Quiet time was great today and the early morning and hence early start was heavenly!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 8-9)

Wednesday
Today was going to be a day out this afternoon so I sort of planned accordingly (HA!)

I think in the morning the children all covered their Math and reading. The older two worked on their Latin (I made them some worksheets from Henly- easier for them to be self motivated then) and H. did some copywork from the Lady of Shallot.

The middle two went to knitting class then off to the optomotrist and violin. A. stayed at home and read the Age of Fable and pulled off a great narration on the computer! Much LOTR video game for him at this point.

Thursday:
Swimming in the am then friends over in the pm. A. still did math later around dinner time and the three oldest read LOTS today.

Friday:
Was going to be another friend day but friends were ill so H. just went to a friends. She did copywork and reading first, as well as cleaned her room.

A. cleaned his room and vacuumed, did a heap of math, and is copying out his current poem 'If' by Kipling. He is still going to do some reading for me today.

C. did some Math, reading, and is going to copy our his poem on the computer as soon as I vamoos from here. He also read me a whole Norse Myth- that kid is a great reader!

A. did some reading and I read him some Frog and Toad up in his room.

C and A and I made some killer double chocolate cookies and I baked cinnamon buns and bread!! We are all WIRED!!

Language (Grammar) and Writing Plan

Love how Valerie has organised a multi-level plan here....
I would follow this, using Warriner's for some help in the teaching of the paragraphs and sentences department, and using my EGPlus for some grammar practical stuff for Ar.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Our Books and such at the moment...

Poetry: Emily Dickinson and each a poem to memorise
Shakespeare: the Tempest
Art: Millet
Nature Study/ Art: Fabre's Insects (Eomar), Geology (All)
Literature: Taran Wanderer
Winnie the Pooh
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
History Read aloud: I, Juan de Pareja
Michaelangelo (Stanley)

History Plans

Right now we are at the Rennaisance. We will continue to do this together and add in some great picture books. I will also tie in some Canadian History and the Little History of the World for the older two.

Eventually (later this year or next) we will move onto the Modern Era where we will branch of out of our 'group'. Ar will read from Sonlight 7 and 300 (adding in necessary Canadian History), and we will do some read alouds together and Ar. will listen to SOTW CDs and the Little History of the World and narrate etc. Small ones at this point??

Edited to add: I like how Valerie uses topic weeks (such as how Tapestry of Grace does it) to organise her studies. This would be helpful for us, but we would definitely not stick all that info into a week (it would just be a good way for my mind to look at it- a skeletal plan of sorts.)

Tuesday October 7th, 2008

Chores:
Ariel-swept main floor and garbages
Hannah-laundry
Aaron-sink
Caleb-white floors

Morning Time
Prayer- the Trisagion Prayers
Each child chose a poem and we read them out: Hannah- the Lady of Shallot (again!)
Ariel (can't remember), Caleb- Cornish Magic, Aaron- The Rain
Geography- we went over countries vs. cities, Canadian provinces and capitals then Caleb moved onto Geosafari. The older two and I reviewed continents and major bodies of water.
New Art Print- Millet (the Haystacks). We just discussed it today.
Geology- online (went well!). Interactive rock cycle and description of metamorphic rocks.
Bible- continuing on in Genesis...

Pippin
-Alphaphonics
-poem
-read some Calvin and Hobbes buddy reading

Merry
-violin right after breakfast (up to 15 minutes on the new big violin!)
-Math lesson 14F Gamma
-ETC page
-English from the Roots up- 5 cards and he made his own

Arwen
-read the Turning (her assigned reading) in bed
-Algebra lesson 6 finished (only one wrong!)
-Latin- finished ex. 47

Eomer
-read Journey to the Centre of the Earth (finished)
Story of Art
-Latin- finished ex. 47
-writing- continued on LOTR retelling

At this point we still need to do spelling with two olders, math with Eo., writing with Ar., and M. needs to do his reading.

Lunch: cheese melts and apples
Dinner: roast potatoes and quiche and coleslaw
Tonight: ballet and whistle

Monday, June 16, 2008

The Return of the King


We are enjoying this book so much....again.

Right now the men of the Mark have just encamped by the Paths of the Dead.

Forms

At this point I think we would do well with some goals for next year and in that vein I have begun some focused planning and much too much of the unfocused type (the type that fills up headspace but gets you nowhere).

Willa has one form here which I really like the flow of. So much so that I think I will plug in my own things under her headings. For me forms have to be appealing to look at and visually work with my brain. This one does.

Next step: filling it in.

My Reading on Writing

Since the Well Trained Mind came out I have balked at the whole idea: it looked too overwhelming, too structured, too much, and so on. Even the Story of the World books, that my kids do enjoy, I have sort of avoided. I think it is the idea that my 6-9 year olds need some sort of in depth chronological history study. Yes, I am opinionated. (I think that there are way better ways for that age group to spend their time.)

That said, somehow I linked over to the WTM boards and found out that Susan Wise Bauer is writing a series of books on the topic of writing.

I downloaded a sample that outlines that three stages of a writer. I went in thinking it would be all complicated and drudgerous but came out agreeing with a lot of what she wrote and appreciating the simplicity of which it was set forward.

The Three Stages

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Wednesday April 30

We started the day of SLOW with a capital S. Too many late nights around here!
The older two children did their reading in bed (Hannah is nearing the end of Many Waters (she likes to have one book at at time on the go, unlike the rest of us) and Ariel was reading the Brendan Voyage and he has finished up Call of the Wild. He also listened to SOTW 4 on his Ipod today), we all ate pancakes together at the table while having a section of Acts read to all by me. Then ...

Eomar and Arwen:
Practiced their instruments, did some laundry, sweeping etc. then moved onto their Math

Merry:
He hung the laundry (in quite interesting ways) , practiced his violin right after breakfast, then did some pages in the Singapore math book.

Pippin:
Got himself ready and played outside, did a reading lesson, read Peg and Ted, I read Sinbad the Sailor (comic version) to him.

At this point we came together for prayers and Merry and I picked a new Diego Rivera print to look at. Then we looked over the characteristics of the Mustard Family and I asked the kids (with mixed results) to put something in their Nature books about it. Eomar photocopied the page and colored it, Merry did also (after crumpling many first and becoming distracted and finishing it much later in the day!), and Arwen did a stellar creative, insightful drawing and booklet (yes, she loves hands on projects!).

Lunch was a wee bit late as we had mid morning choco-chip cookie overload (probably partly responsible for my sluggish feeling today.) We ate a beautiful lunch out on the deck, watching the birds collecting nest materials (and taking it into our attic), and listened to some of the Vikings.

During lunch prep I sliced open my finger cutting a frozen bagel so by about 3 I figured it was time to go get some steri strips from the drugstore and some new bandaids. Pippin and I went and then decided to get him a haircut at the same time (to fix up the years worth of 'mommy' haircuts). The time out was good for all of us and when I got home the kids were happily engaged in their own pursuits; Arwen and Merry with creating a set for a video they were making involving mummies coming back to life, and Eomar downloading books onto his Ipod.

On the way to ballet I asked Matt is he could see that Merry read some of his book. I am trying to do this more as I see that he is really butting heads with me when I ask him to do things lately.

Dinner: potluck (I made ceaser salad, fried rice with garlic and cilantro, and leftover minestrone soup)

Lunch:bagels, smoothies, and oranges

It's nice at the end of the day to write this out and look over it. It was a tough day in some respects, but looking back on it I see joy and light woven through and it makes my heart glad as I prepare for bed.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Finishing up the year...

This time of year my mind moves over to the planning of next year and I can cease being present in the here and now. So, I am starting to mull over what we would like to do to finish up this season well.

Some of my thoughts off the top of my head are:
Math
Ar- keep doing a page or half a page a day as retention with him is much better this way than a long break
Hannah- her book will be done and I am in the process of getting her Algebra book. Maybe I will download her some interesting geometry stuff to work on, or have her peruse the I Hate Mathematics Book (which she always laughs at because she really likes math)
Caleb- not sure. This kids loved math until I got him a text. I might just ditch it again- he's so young still

Reading
Aaron- keep on with the 100 easy Lessons but find something more interesting to move onto as he is getting a little bored with the format. Make up a basket of early readers for him to practice on. Work on this with him throughout the summer as a priority. Read to him heaps!!

Caleb-get him to finish The Horse and His Boy and keep strewing for him!

Latin
Not sure here. Perhaps daily chants together and alternating days of exercises in Henle??
Maybe I should use the Quia for the summer?

Writing
Bravewriter's lifestyle is looking great for spring. We will do a day of copywork, one of dictation, and then a free write.
The younger two have stories they need to wrap up.

History
Should we shelve the MA for now? Basically we just read anyways and we will keep doing that. No one seemed to interested (or maybe I was just not motivated enough) for a more hands on study (not really my style anyways!).
Hannah wants to study India- I am not a great rabbit trailer. We have read a bit of Indian history here and there, we eat Indian food a couple times a week anyways, and we read about Gandhi and Mother Theresa this year already. So not sure what I will do with this. I always feel guilty when I don't follow up on these things. This child just has so many and she doesn't like to read alot at this point and for me a study=books!

Nature Study
I want to really focus on this. I just recieved Botany in a Day and we are going to start to look at the Mint family this week. I want our drawings/outings/writing to come from here alot and make this part of our week/day a priority. Have to plan some fun out of the city low stress outings.

Art
We have been looking at Diego Rivera's paintings on our moniter. We decided to skip the lurid details of his life (not a very kid friendly picture- I sort of compared some his exploits to those of Zeus, whom the kids like to joke about).

A good spring schedule might look like this (famous words of a non-schedule-conformist..)
Prayers and Instruments
Math (20-30 minutes for Ar and H, a little for Caleb)
Latin (recitation or short translation and flash cards)
Nature Study/History Reading
Literature or History Reading at lunch.
Writing incorporated into the Nature Study, Art Study, or copy/dictation some days and a freewrite on Friday.
Independent Reading- in bed in the morning or sometime throughout the day.

Note to self: Do I continue to assign Ariel reading at this point or should I just let him finish the Brendan Voyage, listen to the History CDs and let him gobble up books like he always does (I will strew with this)?

Looks good on screen, we will see how it fleshes out.

Let's see- Where did April go??

A visit from the Grandparents
The best weather we have had in a VERY long time (only to be replaced by another snowfall, which thankfully has melted)
More math
A smattering of the third declension
Heaps of Asterix (that would be 5 family members reading it up!)
Some retellings of a creepy story of Baba Yaga (just have to love those stories of the creepiest lady around) by Hannah and Caleb which are still in progress
Various copywork by hand (Ar) and in cross-stitch (Hannah)
Designing the up and coming tree fort
Lots of time outside
Newly refinished hardwoods (and consequently, conveniently misplaced lesson books!)
Three Part Parts of a Flower cards
Some seedlings rising up on the craft table in front of the sunny dining room window
Our first bike ride of the season
Baseball in the backyard
Outdoor Ultimate
Spring swimming lessons

Those were some of the up points from my perspective (the boys would probably add on that we had our first ever month of cable, to coincide with my parents visit and the Masters. Sorry boys, that month ends soon!)

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Thursday March 6th, 2008

All:
-CHOW Arabian Days (looked at some pictures also in Mosque)
-Nature Journaling while I read from The Burgess Bird Book and The Handbook of Nature Study (we were studying the Nuthatch today). Ariel narrated in his book, while Hannah pasted in some drawings she had finished earlier and Caleb drew and labeled his picture.)
-finished The Last Battle. We read it at lunch and at dinner, as Papa was out for dinner.

Ariel
-Whistle
-Math 20D Zeta
-Latin: rest of ex. 25 Unit One Henle. He also did his vocab. drill.
-Read: -Tom Sawyer
-Fabre Book
-Gospel of Mark
-Writing: he wrote more of his battle scene from The Return of the King
-Spelling: we continued our small foray into a spelling focus by starting the list from the WRTR and reviewing the 1-1-1 rule and the dropping the e rule. Boy, I don't know any of these rules and they do seem a bit much.... we will see!

Hannah
-Math 25 D Zeta (ordered her next book today)
-Latin: rest of ex.25 Unit One Henle. She did her vocab. drill.
-Read:- out loud to me today from the Young Person's Book of Virtues
-a story from the Pink Fairy Book
-Writing: copywork from current poem, Spring by Tennyson (she is making a booklet from this with watercolors)
-Spelling: ditto what Ar. did except I did them separately. Oh yes, and they both did all 70 phonograms.

Caleb
-Math 8D Gamma
-Writing: oral lesson from EFTTChild and his nature journal
-Reading: Spiderwick Chronicles Book 4
-violin

Aaron
We had a nice time in the morning reading a new Anansi story. Later, we worked on a page in Word Mastery (this needs some sprucing up with some stories...it can get dull!). Then we looked at his grip a bit and I made him a cute fruity math page (Caleb always liked these). Then I did something I had done with the other 3; I wrote out the first line of Twinkle, twinkle little star and cut each word out and we practiced putting them in order. That was so easy for him he wanted to do the next line which he also got no problem- he was so proud of himself and grinning ear to ear. I also wrote him a little comic today which made him really happy.

We had a late lunch and then H. and I researched making a larger Guinea pig pen for Ginny. Caleb and Aaron had a blast playing so I really let them be a lot today. After a while we regrouped and did our Nature Journals and then I sent everyone out for some fresh air- the older two walked Goldie and the youngers played in the snow. Boy is it ever cold here again!

After dinner I decided we would play Blokus. I have wanted to for so long but have always been puttering around too much. It was alot of fun, and even Aaron had a good time.

Dinner: Rotini with sauce, coleslaw and garlic bread.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Tuesday and Wednesday March 4th and 5th

Tuesday

Learning Centre Day.
All: we prayed on the drive and listened to the second to last chapter of A Single Shard. My how I love this book, and it is so wonderfully read.

In the morning....
Chores were done by all.
Ariel did Math.
Hannah baked lots of cookies and touched up her chickadee presentation.
Aaron read a bunch of words from Word Mastery and Starfall.
Caleb did his chores and violin EXTRA fast to get to play his new multiplication game Timez Attack (ht. Lissa for this one).

Bedtime Read Aloud:
Magic Treehouse etc. for younger set
Last chapter of A Single Shard for everyone.

Dinner: black beans with sauteed veggies and cumin and cilantro with cornbread (YUM!)


Wednesday

All: chores
Lord of the Rings- big read with Papa while children drew

Ariel:
whistle (big practice)
Math- next page in Zeta
Writing- rewrote passage of Mark and added to his retelling of the large battle at the end of The Return of the King
Latin- oral drill of all grammar cards and did Ex. 26 Henle outloud with H. and I
Read- Tom Sawyer (no Nature Study or History for this bit)
We also did a Writing Road to Reading Session for some spelling practice.

Hannah:
piano (a few songs and some scales- first lesson with Joy this week)
Math- 26D Zeta (she flew through this)
Read- part of a story in the Red Fairy Book
Latin- oral drill of all grammar cards and did Ex. 26Henle out loud with Ar. and I
Writing Road to Reading Session for spelling practice. (went well for all!)

Caleb:
Violin practice
Math- Timez Attack (he is onto the 3s and picking up speed!)
Read- The Minstrel in the Tower
-a story from the Book of Virtues out loud to me
Writing- dictation

Aaron
We worked on some reading and holding our pencils!
Read him The Meat Eaters Arrive

I went and helped a friend move today for a couple hours over lunch. Unfortunately I let myself be sucked into blogland soon after this so I have to pull it together to make dinner and get ready for ballet. The kids are playing a Harry Potter Board game Ar. got for Christmas. Oh yes, and Ar shoveled the front walk this afternoon.

Dinner: black bean soup and cornbread for potluck (made extra beans the night before!)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Monday March 3

We began our day with a prayer time. I have just been rounding kids up in whatever state of readiness they are at (teeth brushed etc.) , before or after breakfast, and having our Morning Prayer. This has been working great. We are still working at memorizing the Beatitudes.

Ariel: Math (at breakfast)- lesson 20
Whistle
Latin-oral with me
Poem- with me and on own

Hannah: Math- new lesson 25 (also lots of Timez Attack)
Latin- oral recitation with me
Poem- with me
Writing-lots of writing on her Chickadee project, including a poem and short report! Note to self: this child loves projects .

Caleb: Read in bed in am (Spiderwick book 3)
Poem with me
Math- lots of Timez Attack

Aaron: Read new list of words
Poem with me
Read a few books on Starfall

We gathered for a good read this morning, with lots of good Lincoln log play, knitting and cross stitching. It was so refreshing, as it seems as if the 'list' was ruling our days as of late! (Also, I was up ridiculously late at Ultimate last night and was determined not to let 'grumpy' mom rule today!).

We read a picture book (it was a wee bit strange), a chapter in The Last Battle, the chapter in FMOMA on Charles Martel (with a good discussion) and I think something else as well. Over lunch I read some random poems from the Harp and Laurel Wreath.

After lunch we gathered and I decided to do Drawing With Children with Ariel and Aaron. Hannah wanted to join in and we made some great birds. Caleb did one after we were done and did a fabulous, creative job of filling his in (I would love to post the pics but our camera is still in the shop).

We got up the second bird feeder and were thrilled to see lots of chickadees and nuthatches at both Hannah's homemade suet log and our old feeder. (Thanks Papa for the great new setup- what a great view from the table!)

Hannah got busy in the afternoon (no surprise there) with her chickadee project. She wants to present it at the Learning Centre tomorrow. Ariel and Caleb played a game of Monopoly and I had a very long bath and a good read of the Simirillian.

Outside play for three boys while Hannah made cookies for the LC. Phase 10 with Papa and then a great Cauliflower Cheese Soup and homemade bread.

It was a nice easy flowing day. No Latin, missed a bunch of music practices, but it was the kind of day we needed. Refreshing, even after only 5 hours of sleep!