{Scrapbook} :: A Peek into our School Days of late...

So many things go into this wonderful world of a Charlotte Mason education.

Here is a photo gallery of all we've been up to lately...

Catching little minnows in a pond after a good rain.

Looks like a Great Blue Heron has been fishing down here too!

It is quite impressive how large this footprint is!

This is little Almanzo's "math", as he refers to it :-)
I am quite impressed with his coloring skills!
Alice helped him make the flowers.

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Some keeping...

Copying a passage from Heroes

Copying the hymn Jesus Paid it All

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Artist study...

Sketches from memory of Monet's Haystacks, end of Summer

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Drawing Lessons

practicing contour lines, drawing with one continuous line

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Math...

Multiples of 4

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Mapping

with Paddle-to-the-Sea

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Composer Study...

Drawing scenes from Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf while listening to the pieces

one of the hunters

drawing Peter, with the cat, bird and duck under the tree

Happy Spring!

Royal, Almanzo & Alice :-)

Morning Round-Up, Revamped

I have been struggling for awhile with getting going in the morning and making it consistent. 

I am not a morning person, and with my kids now being 8, 6 and 3, they tend to leave me alone and just play until I get up. 

So, while that can definitely be nice on days off, it really aids in my tardiness on school days. 

And how can I expect the kids to do things on time and consistently when *I* can't do it?!?

Another struggle I have been having is how to get the kids to do their morning routine of their own accord 

without me having to remind them every 10-15 minutes to get their chores done. 

Well, for whatever random reason, I had the brilliant idea of setting little alarms. 

I set my iPad alarm for 7:30 every school day. 

This is the signal for kids to eat breakfast (if they haven't already) and then get started on their morning chores. 

At 8:25, another alarm goes off as a 5-minute warning. 

At 8:30, it goes off again, at which time all (including me!) need to be at the table ready for Round-Up. 

A secondary benefit to these alarms is that I am now more aware of how long our Round-Up takes. Pretty much an hour later, we are finished. 

Included in this Round-Up:

• Bible reading/Devotional
• Prayer
• Memory Work for the day (Bible verses, Hymn, Poetry, Songs, Map Drill)
• Spanish lesson (includes Calendar work)
• Geography topic (if scheduled)

So about 9:30 we are wrapping up and head straight into Math Drill for 5 minutes.  

Usually we can get about one reading done after Math Drill before the 10:00 alarm goes off, signaling snack time. 

I chose to include an alarm here because I just got so tired of kids asking for snacks all morning long!!! 

Now I can just say we have to wait for the alarm to go off at 10:00. This has worked like a charm!

At 10:15 another alarm goes off to let us know it's time to get back to work. 

And anywhere between 11:00 and 11:30 we stop to fix lunch and eat. (No more alarms) 

The structure set by all these alarms has really increased our consistency and productivity as well. 

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And so what happens if the kids aren't at the table by 8:30 for Round-Up? 

Well this happened on Day 2 of the new alarm system. 

So I just told them to continue until all their chores were finished and I would count how many more minutes past 8:30 it took to finish up. 

This time was assigned as cleaning time they owed me during the lunch break. 

So when I started fixing lunch, they started cleaning baseboards. 

Another time when they weren't ready to get back to work by our 1:00 afternoon start time, 

I had them clean cabinets and sweep behind places that have needed a good TLC for awhile. 

Anyway, all this to say it has (so far) been a win-win for me and the household!

So how are things going over at your place?

{Keeping} :: My Commonplace

A few varied thoughts from:

• the Bible
• Charles Kingsley
• Karen Glass

Moses answered the people, 

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. 

The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Exodus 14:13-14

I am always in awe and grateful to know that when God calls us to a task, it is HE that does the work. 

We only need to be obedient by showing up!

 

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Little boys must take the trouble to find out things for themselves, or they will never grow to be men.

The Water-Babies

Charles Kingsley

p268

This reminds me of Charlotte's words: There is no education but self-education.

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We are not reading books merely to check off a list or to be able to say we have read them. 

We are reading to grow as persons, to know more that we may understand more, and ultimately, it is to be hoped, to act according to our greater wisdom.

Consider This

Karen Glass

p90

I am a list maker and love to make lists and check them off!

I can totally relate to this quote. 

It is a good reminder to me of the whole point of reading living books. 

Although, yes, it is enjoyable, the greater goal is to be educated and awakened to higher thoughts in order that we may act in a more right manner.

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...a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

2 Peter 2:19b

Hmmmmm....what am I a slave to?

Also food for reflective thought!

{Nature} :: A Hodge-Podge of Springtime Observations

It has been a while since I have done a post.

It has been a while since I have been in the mindset to do a post.

About a month ago I came down with something that put me out of commission for awhile, and I just couldn't shake it. 

Lessons went slowly. 

I did try to get outside for some fresh air, and one day I just lay in the sunshine on a blanket watching the kids and taking pictures of nature. 

And as I got to feeling better, we continued to spend some good time out-of-doors.

Interestingly enough, the more time I spend seeing things in nature, the more overwhelmed I become because there are so many things I realize I don't know! 

Thankfully, education is for a lifetime, and hopefully during this time I can come to know the plants and animals around where we live at least.

"We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

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Here is a sampling of what we have been observing around our neck of the woods.

At the end of March, we saw our first Texas bluebonnet bud ... in the creek bed.

Within a few days, they were all in full bloom.

Texas bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis

Our redbud tree started losing its blossoms with the emergence of new branch extensions and leaves. 

At the beginning of April Royal spied a wheel bug nymph, which is a type of assassin bug. 

Apparently they hatch this time of year and also happen to be akin to ladybugs in that they are very good for gardens.

Royal caught a small toad, which made for a good discussion (using Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study) of the differences between frogs and toads. 

The two undeniable identifying factors that led us to deciding this was a toad were the warty bumps on its back and also when we applied gentle pressure to the eyes, 

they went down into the toad's head.

On one of our nature outings we also encountered a long-jawed orb weaver.

We finally identified the nest that is on the porch of Nana & Grandpa's house as well.

It's from an Eastern Phoebe.

A cute little snail

And, of course...flowers, flowers, flowers!

Stork's bill blooming

Stork's bill, Erodium cicutarium

Common field speedwell

False garlic, Nothoscordum bivalve

Winter vetch, Vicia dasycarpa

Ten-petal anemone, Anemone heterophylla

Drummond wild onion, Allium drummondii

some sort of mustard?

some sort of mint?

I should go back and take a closer look at the type of Fleabane this is:

And I honestly cannot figure out what this is, but it is so lovely!

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“If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. 

Let the mother go out to play!” 

Alice's Exams :: Year 1, Term 1

If we were "behind" with Royal's school schedule, we are really behind with Alice's! She has a fall birthday, so after a few weeks of being 6 and allowing me time to finish up Year 2 with Royal, we jumped into Year 3 with him and Year 1 with her around mid-November. I noticed fairly early on that she would not be as ready to sit still and pay full attention for longer chunks of time like Royal was at her age. This forced me to slow down a bit on what I was hoping to accomplish each week. I had to remind myself that checking off items on the list was so much less important than catering to my daughter's educational level and needs. Thus, our exam weeks (and consequently our Years) are now "off." But... onward we march and plod along! Education is a journey, not a list or a formula, right? It is living and breathing, and so we must learn to live and breath at the same rate as each unique child does. This is definitely a long-distance run, not a sprint, so I've got to learn to find the right pace, and when the time is right...turn on a little kick! :-)

So after reviewing the suggested questions for the Term 1 Exam over on the Ambleside website, I have made appropriate adjustments and come up with the following:

Oh, and the subjects Royal and Alice do together are identical for him and for her (Bible, although a bit simpler and condensed for Alice; #3 on the Geography section; Spanish; Picture Study; Recitation; Singing; Handicrafts; Composer Study; Art and Read Alouds).

Bible
1. What do you know about Moses' babyhood and early life?
2. Tell about something from Jesus' childhood.

Penmanship
Copy "The little red hen"

Tales
1. Tell a fairy tale you remember from The Blue Fairy Book.
2. Tell how the leopard got his spots or about Moses the Kitten.

History
1. Tell about how Caligula conquered Britain.
2. Tell about what the Britons were like before the Romans came or about St. Alban.
3. Tell the story of William Tell.

Geography
1. Tell what the shape of Italy looks like; then show where it is on the globe.
2. Find Lake Superior on the map. What does it remind you of?
3. Draw the shape of the earth and show where the hot countries are and where the cold ones are.

Natural History & General Science
1. Describe the mistletoe or the Inca Dove from memory and tell everything you know about it.
2. Talk about one of the birds we have read about in the Burgess Bird Book.
3. Tell me everything you know about the hen bit we find in our yard.

Reading Skill
(read a short passage from Treadwell & Free's Primer: The Little Red Hen)

Art
1. Color in the primary and secondary colors on the color wheel.
2. Draw Wanda the Worm winding through the grass, coming straight towards you.

Wanda's body should actually taper away from head to
tail to show the correct perspective.

I had to coach her along here to help her remember a bit.
Basically the top half of the circle she knew.
The bottom half I tried helping her reason out.

Biography
Talk about something Benjamin Franklin did during his life.

Arithmatic
1. 8+2
2. 9+5
3. 7-3
4. 13-8
5. Write the numbers: nine, two, eleven, sixteen
6. What is missing? 10, ___, ___, 13, ___, ___, ___, 17, ___, 19, ___
7. Fill in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to show order
8. Write the missing numbers (number bonds)

Spanish
1. Sing Noche de Paz
2. Sing the abecedario up until the letter we have learned.
3. Answer:
    ¿Qué día es hoy?
    ¿Cuál es la fecha?
    ¿Qué tiempo hace?
4. La ropa:
    *Using the bears family puzzle, talk about what your bear takes off/puts on in the morning and at night. ¿Cómo estás?
    *¿Qué llevas tú? (Talk about what you are wearing today)

Picture Study
1. Describe your favorite picture you studied of this terms' artist, Fra Angelico.
2. Do a quick sketch of it.

Noli me tangere

Recitation
1. James 1:2-12
2. Choose a poem to recite:
    A Good Play, by R.L. Stevenson
    Ferry Me Across the Water, by Christina Rossetti
    Little Boy Found, by William Blake

Singing
1. Sing The Yellow Rose of Texas
2. Sing Joy to the World

Handicrafts
1. Give one of your handicrafts to someone else
2. Do your best floor and table duty cleanings.

Composer Study
Talk about the sounds of Hildegard von Bingen and why you liked her compositions or not.
Tell a little about her.

Read Alouds
Which was your favorite book, On the Banks of Plum Creek or Alice in Wonderland? Why?
Draw a scene from either of these books and tell me about it.

This is one of the Ingalls' horses with Spot, the cow

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Keeping in mind the introduction to this post, I can say that Alice did quite well; however, I found myself getting frustrated at times with her lack of memory on certain questions. Some she simply did not answer.

Another interesting point I noticed is that although she really enjoys singing and will stand up with her brother to recite, when she had to do it alone with me, she was embarrassed to perform by herself! Perhaps next time I will just have them both do their shared exam questions together.