{Mixed Bag} :: What We've Been up to Lately

Lots of happenings over here in Beracá Valley the past couple of months...

~Royal got his much-anticipated puppy. He has been wanting a dog for some time, and his grandparents surprised him at Christmas. It's a Blue Lacy, the State Dog of Texas. Read about this impressive breed here and here if you're interested!

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~My littlest munchkin is growing up! We celebrated 'Manzo's 4th birthday at the end of January with a blueberry muffin breakfast and Star Wars light saber cake later that evening with family :-)

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~As we were working one afternoon at the dining table, a cardinal crashed into our window. Royal went out to inspect and determine the bird's state. The cardinal must have been pretty dazed because he was statuesque for a good 5 minutes, just blinking his eyes and slightly turning his head. Notice our dog sitting so close as well!

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~Alice had received a cornhusk doll kit for Christmas. We worked on putting this project together a couple of afternoons. She turned out really cute for our first attempt!

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~We have been reading Madam How and Lady Why in our Year4 lessons. It has been interesting all the connections to nature we are making: chines/ravines...glens/valleys, metals, etc.

Little "chines"

We figured this clump of dirt/clay has iron in it due to the rusty colored layers

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~One Saturday we attended a Feather Fest event, which included making pinecone bird feeders, native plant seed balls, observing birds through the park's new bird blind, and learning more about raptors.

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~And a wet walk this past weekend. It has been unseasonably warm here this winter in Texas, with very little rain; however, this Sunday was wonderfully wet! We went on a family hike at our favorite state park and just reveled in the warm showers, getting completely soaked in the process! I was reminded of how Charlotte Mason encouraged us to get outdoors even in "imperfect" weather conditions and found this wonderful quote of hers on the subject:

A mere time and distance tramp is sufficiently joyous for a wet day, for, taken good-humouredly, the beating rain itself is exhilarating.

-Vol 1, p88 

~And I leave you with another fun, rainy-day image... 

My Valentine and I were blessed with an afternoon kid-free, so we were able to enjoy the last day of the Caillebotte exhibit at our art museum.

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Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope your New Year has gotten off to a good start as well!

Raising the Bar :: Year 4 Narrations

As my children get older and mature in their lessons and abilities to narrate, I've got to keep up too! I found that by Year 3's end, my oldest was quite capable (and good!) at giving oral narrations of his readings. At the beginning of Year 4 (we are in our First Term now), I realized the necessity to push his narration capacities a bit ... to stretch his compositions. 

This last year I attended a homeschool conference where Sonya Shafer was one of the speakers. She gave a talk on narration, along with a handout of narration ideas. A nice list of ideas she presented is here.

She asked the question, "Is narration enough for high school?"

Answer: "Yes, IF you continue to raise the bar."

So here is a general guideline for narration "bar-raising" she gave:

Years 1-3 :: narrative
Years 4-6 :: narrative PLUS expository
Years 7-9 :: narrative, expository PLUS descriptive
Years 10+:: narrative, expository, descriptive PLUS persuasive

You can find a more in-depth explanation of the above in this article.

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...it is not a bad test of education to be able to give the points of a description,
the sequence of a series of incidents, the links in a chain of argument...

...to tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause;
to discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact...

-Vol 3, p180

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What is expository writing? (It is called writing, although at this point ... Year 4 ... the majority of the "writing" is still oral). I viewed a helpful YouTube video here to outline the basics for me. The following are my notes:

Expository writing's purpose is to inform or describe. This is in contrast to just re-telling the plot in the early elementary years.

The 5 techniques are:
1) descriptive (use of the five senses; location, etc.)
2) process/sequence (how-to; order of events)
3) comparison (2 or more ideas)
4) cause & effect (seek to answer "why" and "what"; this technique is useful for science and anything occurring in nature or with inanimate objects)
5) problem & solution (seek to answer "what was the problem" and "what did people do to solve it"; is used only when people are involved)

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I have this list of techniques posted near my desk where I plan lessons for quick reference as I pre-read Royal's upcoming chapters. After reading the assigned pages, I grab a Post-It, jot down one or two narration prompts, then stick it at the end of Royal's reading for him to ponder until I can hear his oral composition. (Alternatively, SimplyCharlotteMason also offers some free narration bookmarks with general narration prompts printed on them).

The teacher's part is, in the first place, to see what is to be done, to look over the work of the day in advance and see what mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that lesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils' mental activity.

-Vol 3, p180

The following are a few questions I have posed for him:

Trial & Triumph : The Two Margarets
     * According to King Charles II, what was the "problem" with the Covenanters?
     * What did they do to solve their "problem"?
     * How did the two Margarets handle the situation?


Madam How & Lady Why: The Glen (reading pages 14-18)
     * Why does the water run along the top of the clay near the New Forest? What is the resulting effect in nature?

Fun to find our own little "wash-out" due to water running atop layers of clay.

Storybook of Science : 
"The Age of Trees" (Ch 9)
     * Describe one of the oldest trees. Where is it? What is special about it? Did anything interesting or unique happen to it?

"The Length of Animal Life" (Ch 10)
     * Explain how the length of animal life differs from that of human life.
     * How do you think the jobs of each animal affect how long they live?

"The Kettle" (Ch 11)
     * Describe the process of mining copper.
     * How is copper fashioned (or made) into useful tools or kitchen items?


This Country of Ours : 
"The Witches of Salem" (Ch 34)
     * Pretend you are a reporter on the news. Report the story of the witches of Salem.

"How New Amsterdam became New York" (Ch 36)
     *How were the Dutch patroons like the feudal lords of old time?

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"...'In all labour there is profit,' ... and the labour of thought is what his book must induce in the child.

He must generalise, classify, infer, judge, visualise, discriminate, labour in one way or another,

with that capable mind of his..."

-Vol 3, p179

{Keeping} :: My Commonplace

On Deliverance

Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call on me, and I will deliver you," in a different sense from what I had ever done before; for then I had no notion of any thing being called deliverance, but my being delivered from the activity I was in; for tho' I was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world; but now I learned to take it in another sense. Now I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort: as for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no consideration in comparison to this. And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction.

Robinson Crusoe 

Daniel Defoe

Ch 12, p111