Winter Quarter Update 2009

We are a few weeks late completing the Winter Quarter since we were sidetracked with illness.
Sam


Reading- We are making excellent progress with reading! I suspect it has more to do with his age ( 6 1/2 ) then any adjustments that I have made with our approach. We are working through 100 EZ lessons at a pace of 2 lessons per week. I have been writing out the stories and a separate piece of paper and he reads them throughout the day. This has helped his speed and accuracy. He has started enjoying reading! Cheers!


Spelling- AAS is back! He loves using this resource. It isn't a big surprised since he has always liked using letter tiles and manipulating words in such a manner. I have been enjoying using this resource as well. It is well laid out and the pieces are conveniently keep in place with magnets. We just completed Step 10.


Language Arts- We have completed FLL lesson 58 and WWE week 14. He has memorized 2 more poems. FLL introduced pronouns prior to verbs which I found odd. The concept of pronouns has proven elusive to Sam. I think that my ambilivance to teaching grammar to a 6 yo is clouding my judgement with this resource because I grow weary of using it. We will keep plugging ahead with this resource for the next quarter.


Math- currently starting lesson 25 of MUS Alpha.


History- SOTW 1 is going well. We have just finished Chapter 13 and are working through a chapter per week.


Geography- We are almost compete with Paddle to the Sea. We will miss him! This next quarter we will spend some time with Geography A-Z before moving on to a new Holling C. Holling title.


Natural History/Science- Going well. We are almost done with CLNR book 1. Sam loves his science experiments! We do one weekly using our science kit. Our homeschool group might be starting a weekly nature study that we will definitely try out. I want to start blogging about our nature study again.


Poetry- We completed A Child's Garden of Verses but did not start Now we are Six by A.A. Milne. Instead we are reading The Random House Book of Poetry for Children which should keep us busy for years.


Literature/American History- We have read through Just so Stories, Lang's Blue Fairy book, Among the Meadow People, and Aesop. We are currently using our Literature reading time to read through our American History selections. D-Aulaire's Leif the Lucky didn't make my list for this year but that is the book that we are currently reading. Our other American History selections will be added to next years booklist.


Art- We started attending a Art Class with our local homeschool group and it has been a big hit!

Extras- Sam earned his Tiger! He is playing T-ball in a homeschool baseball league which he thinks is AWESOME! Charlotte

She is still enjoying the AO year 0 selections but is starting to insist on doing her "schoolwork." I have been able to keep her satisfied with Mighty Minds, Wedgits, Pattern Blocks and painting but I need to have something tangible ready for her by her 4th birthday.

Plans for the Spring Quarter-

--Get consistent with Nature Study. I think blogging about it really helps me to stay focused on this. I don't even know where my Handbook of Nature Study is at the moment!

-- Get a plan for Charlotte. I prefer to not start any type of "formal" schoolwork until age 5 but she is not going to tolerate much more of this informal learning.

Reading......again.

Here I go blogging about Sam and reading.....again. Honestly, you would never know that I've already had one child who was a "late" reader. A late reader who just aced her college entrance exams thank you very much.

I did have another eureka moment when talking about Sam and grade level placement. If I had sent Sam to PS I would have held him back a year and he would only be in Kindergarten this year. Looking at all the variables......summer birthday....prematurity......speech motor issues.....male......holding him back a year would've been the only alternative. When compared to K'rs his reading is awesome. So I really need to just relax a bit and keep plugging along.

I had seriously thought about trying yet another reading program. Instead we have spent the last few months focusing on speed and fluency using the resources that we owned. His speed and fluency have improved! We just recently picked back up with 100 EZ lessons with much success. I am not going to add back in ETC online because I think that is where he was picking up his "cheats". I am also going to restart using AAS. AAS plans on adding corresponding readers so AAS will be our ongoing reading/spelling program. Sam has missed doing AAS in the past few months. Missed doing spelling???? I know it sounds like an oddity but it is the truth.

Our ongoing reading program will be composed of 100 EZ lessons( to get to independent reading), All About Spelling (to learn all the phonograms) and Pathway readers for a controlled vocabulary reader until he gets to reading chapter books independently.

I will forget about grade levels. I will forget about grade levels. I will focus on mastery. I will focus on mastery. That will by my mantra! Thinking of this year as Sam's Grade 1 has been a mistake. If I did not start thinking in terms of grade level, I think that I would have been more content to let him learn to read at his own pace instead of comparing him to some hypothetical first grader who is an advanced reader! Actually I think that is the best assessment of Sam's reading ability. He's doing fine when allowed to learn to read at his own pace....I'm the one with the problem. My problem is that I'm trying to have him compete with some hypothetical advance reader and I'm pushing him too much.

Ahhhh....glad I figured that out!

Homeschooler's dog

Ranger's version of waiting for the school bus.

Winter Schedule

We no longer need to take a break mid morning! I have streamlined our day and Sam is able to stay on task better now that he has matured a bit.


~8:45am
Charlotte- Read AO year 0 selection, work on topic of the week, start activity
M-Playdough
T- Pattern Blocks
Th-Watercolors
F-Wedgits

While she continues on her own , I start working with Sam.

Reading-includes spelling
Math
Poetry ( Garden of Verses -1 poem per day)
Speech Therapy work
First Language Lessons
Writing With Ease
HWT on narrations days with WWE
Nature Science Reader
M- Geography, T&TH Story of the World, F- Fairy Tales
Review


Rest of morning with indoor freeplay while listening to composer of the quarter.

After lunch

~15 min with longer Literature selection (any other book on our list that is not scheduled in the morning)

M- Artistic Pursuits
T- Nature Study
Th- Handicrafts
F- Park day or science experiments depending on weather/expected turnout at park

Rest of afternoon spent outdoors playing.

Winter Wonderland

LCC -List of Attainments

I posted a question on Latin Classical Ed yahoo groups regarding a list of attainments for LCC similar to CM's list. Mr. Andrew Campbell , author of LCC, posted the following reply.



"........ there are some skills that students need to have by the end of 8th grade in order to get the most out of the high school curriculum as written.

* Mastery of Latin grammar, a varied Latin vocabulary (1500 wordsmin.), and the ability to read Latin fluently (i.e., without translating)
* Mastery of the fundamentals of Greek grammar, but to a lesser extent than Latin
* Mastery of math facts and concepts through pre-algebra, including the basics of geometry (shapes, area, perimeter, etc.)
* Mastery of English grammar via Latin and/or through composition
* Mastery of basic composition, including the paragraph and the three-paragraph essay
* Familiarity with the foundational stories of our culture,particularly the Bible, Greek and Roman myth (including the stories ofthe Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid in retelling), fables, fairy tales,legends, and Shakespeare (in retelling), plus a generous selection of poetry
* Familiarity with the broad outline of world history, with an emphasis on Greek and Roman history
* Familiarity with world geography (including land forms, waterways,nations and capitals, plus states and/or provinces of one's owncountry and its near neighbors)
* Familiarity with the natural world by observation and, by the end of 8th grade, the general divisions of the natural sciences, the types ofquestions each science seeks to answer, and the most important principles of each branch
* Some work in formal logic (although some may want to defer this to high school)

It is also good for students to be familiar with well-known artists and composers and to be able to sing or play an instrument and draw ana ccurate representation of a natural object (including persons). I don't schedule the arts formally, since families have very different priorities and opportunities there, but I do think they are important for a well-rounded education.

Hope that helps!-Drew"

Multum non Multa or Where do we go from here....

I started off this blog with a list of goals to work towards with Sam. We have met many of them and should have no trouble meeting the remainder by his 7th birthday.



"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's.


1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
He has memorized 2 poems.

2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
We haven't done this yet but he memorizes quite easily so this shouldn't be a problem to complete in the next 6 months.

3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
Already done with MUS Alpha. Will continue to work through MUS.

4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
Nice vague goal, huh? I've rambled enough about his reading in our Fall Quarter update.

5. to copy in print-hand from a book
Sam's handwriting is getting better and better each week.

6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundaries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
Easily met.

9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
He recalls many of our stories from our Readings. Easily met.

10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
We were working towards meeting all these goals without difficulty until getting side tracked this fall. We should have no trouble meeting these goals.

14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
Easily met.

16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
I keep putting off Spanish.

17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.
All easily met except the Spanish song.

So with the exception of Spanish that we just haven't started we will meet all these goals this year.

So the question is where to go from here? I started down this path of a CM education because of my observations of my older kids as they self-educate. This past year I have re-read the CM series, reviewed her PNEU curriculum and participated in many dialogues with CM educators and I have come to a few conclusions.

- I do not have the ability or desire to recreate a carbon-copy of a PNEU curriculum down to the precise page count and brushwork! Counting pages per quarter would drive me crazy.
- I work better with curriculum that has some of the work done for me.....so although there are many a homeschooling mama who likes to choose their own copywork , etc. I am not one of them.
-It is more important to work with my children's abilities/nuances than to work with a specific curriculum recommendations. Sam preferred SOTW and retains far more of the readings then if we followed the AO Year 1 recommendations.

Sam's current age 6 curriculum has 3 ....yes 3!....Susan Wise Bauer texts and I would never classify myself a classical educator according to her definition of the word. Her LA texts help me to fulfill my CM Language Art framework for this age and Sam's just likes SOTW. I have reread The Well Trained Mind and walked away with the same feeling I had the first time I read it. Bah! TOO MUCH STUFF! Will NEVER work for me and my kids! I have continue reading classical education texts specifically the Latin-Centered Curriculum and now have a more balanced sense of what is a classical education.

Another thing I relearned...... Nothing..... and I mean nothing...... gets a bunch of CM-purists riled up quite like comparing CM to Classical Education. Obviously TWTM and CM have virtually nothing in common even though SWB texts do mesh quite easily. BUT compare LLC and CM on an academic level and the similarities are there.

So back to the original question....where to go from here. What I will not do ......textbooks, unit-studies, lapbooks, TWTM, or unschool. So does that make me a CMer, Classical, Literature-based, LCCer, or the plain ol' nondescript eclectic? Does it matter? Probably not. But my new maxim is

Multum non Multa

not many things, but much.

I have been reviewing CM List to attain by age 12 and LCC trying to get a feel for the direction we will head. LCC does not have such a list but Handicrafts, Tonic Sol-fa, brushwork would not be on that list....and it most certainly would not be on that list before Math, Latin or Plutarch!


CM has a list of attainment for children to accomplish in the years 6-12.
What a Child Should Know at Twelve, from the appendix at the back of School Education, Volume 3 of her series.

The six years' work--from six to twelve--which I suggest, should and does result in the power of the pupils--

(a) To grasp the sense of a passage of some length at a single reading: and to narrate the substance of what they have read or heard.
(b) To spell, and express themselves in writing with ease and fair correctness.
(c) To give an orderly and detailed account of any subject they have studied.
(d) To describe in writing what they have seen, or heard from the newspapers.
(e) They should have a familiar acquaintance with the common objects of the country, with power to reproduce some of these in brushwork.
(f) Should have skill in various handicrafts, as cardboard Sloyd, basket-making, clay-modelling, etc.
(g) In Arithmetic, they should have some knowledge of vulgar and decimal fractions, percentage, household accounts, etc.
(h) Should have a knowledge of Elementary Algebra, and should have done practical exercises in Geometry.
(i) Of Elementary Latin Grammar; should read fables and easy tales, and, say, one or two books of 'Caesar.'
(j) They should have some power of understanding spoken French, and be able to speak a little; and to read an easy French book without a dictionary.
(k) In German, much the same as in French, but less progress.
(l) In History, they will have gone through a rather detailed study of English, French, and Classical (Plutarch) History.
(m) In Geography they will have studied in detail the map of the world, and have been at one time able to fill in the landscape, industries, etc., from their studies, of each division of the map.(n) They will have learned the elements of Physical Geography, Botany, Human Physiology, and Natural History, and will have read interesting books on some of these subjects.
(o) They should have some knowledge of English Grammar.
(p) They should have a considerable knowledge of Scripture History and the Bible text.
(q) They should have learned a good deal of Scripture and of Poetry, and should have read some Literature.
(r) They should have learned to sing on the Tonic Sol-fa method, and should know a number of English, French, and German Songs.
(s) They should have learned Swedish Drill and various drills and calisthenic exercises.
(t) In Drawing they should be able to represent common objects of the house and field with brush or charcoal; should be able to give rudimentary expression to ideas; and should be acquainted with the works of some artists through reproductions.
(u) In Music their knowledge of theory and their ear-training should keep pace with their powers of execution