Is it possible that September has come and gone?!
“Up, sluggard, and waste not life. In the grave will be sleeping enough.”
~ Ben Franklin
“The question is not, – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”
~Charlotte Mason (HT: Carole)
:: Why I (almost) gave up homeschooling by Edie @ Life In Grace:
‘It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
And to quote Simcha, “It wasn’t the hard work that wore me out; it was the crappy job I did, and the worrying about it. That’s what was so exhausting.”
Ouch. And if I’m honest, that’s the same thing that wears me out. Worrying about it all. Did we do enough? Why can’t she remember 12×9? Why am I not more patient and kind and prepared? Can I not just get a substitute today and go antiquing or just sit in a coffee shop and stare at the walls all day?
And haven’t I brought this all on myself—which I think excludes me from any of your compassion and pity?’
:: Once Upon a Time at Home: Why You Should Read Aloud to Your Children by Martin Cothran @ Memoria Press
‘Having been read Where the Wild Things Are, my children knew, when they were told, “I’ll eat you up I love you so,” just how much love that meant. They had been read P. D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? and so they knew what to think when, after saying “Mommy?!” to get their mother’s attention while she was trying to get supper together, she responded impatiently, “I am not your mother. I am a snort!”’
:: The Writing Revolution @ The Atlantic
“New Dorp’s Writing Revolution, which placed an intense focus, across nearly every academic subject, on teaching the skills that underlie good analytical writing, was a dramatic departure from what most American students—especially low performers—are taught in high school. The program challenged long-held assumptions about the students and bitterly divided the staff. It also yielded extraordinary results.”
:: Teaching Reading for Writing @ The American Conservative:
“But there’s an obstacle to learning to write that the Atlantic piece doesn’t bring up: few students have much experience as readers of expository texts. English classes generally emphasize fiction and drama (the New Dorp students are reading Death of a Salesman). Social studies classes rely on insipid textbooks. Asking students who have only these models to develop analytic arguments is something like asking rugby players to take up American football. They could be taught the rules. But they’d have trouble mastering a game they’d never seen played.”
:: Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well @ The New York Times (such good stuff—go read the whole thing):
“In “My Life’s Sentences,” Jhumpa Lahiri writes:
’In college, I used to underline sentences that struck me, that made me look up from the page. They were not necessarily the same sentences the professors pointed out, which would turn up for further explication on an exam. I noted them for their clarity, their rhythm, their beauty and their enchantment. For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.’”
Classical Conversations (Cycle 1, Weeks 1-3) Foundations: One morning each week. Memory work in timeline, history, science, Latin, English grammar, math, and geography. Includes weekly hands-on science projects/experiments, fine arts projects, social time, and public speaking. Essentials: (Levi) One afternoon each week; includes grammar, vocabulary, writing, public speaking, and challenging math games. (We are also reviewing the corresponding weeks of memory work from Foundations cycles 2 and 3 at home.)
Faith: CC Memorized 10 Commandments
God Our Provider (CD) (Bible memory songs)
The Children’s Illustrated Bible (reading through together, again)
Telling God’s Story- Year 2 (lessons 1-
Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God (daily family devotions)
The Gospel Story Bible: Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments (corresponds with Long Story Short)
The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (for me!)
Buck Denver Asks…What’s In the Bible?: Genesis (DVD series, fun time)
(Luke and Levi: weekly hymns on piano) (I will share more about our Bible studies in a post soon. I am *loving* our line-up!)
Math:
Teaching Textbooks (Leif: 3, Levi and Luke: 5)
Life of Fred (All boys: Elementary series, Levi: Fractions and Decimals & Percents. For fun free reading.)
Beast Academy (Luke: level 3, just getting started) CC math memory work (skip counting) Challenging math games in Classical Conversations Essentials (Levi) Rock ‘N Learn: Money and Making Change (DVD, Leif’s favorite)
Science:
CC weekly science memory work (classification, parts of animal cells) CC weekly science projects and experiments
Field trip to The Oregon Garden
Real Science 4 Kids Biology (ch 1, 2) Biology Connects to Language (RS4K) (connects vocabulary from science text to Latin and Greek roots! Love it!!)
The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (pp 52-53: Classification of Living Things)
The Story of Science series by Joy Hakim (history-integrated science studies, ch 1) Bill Nye: Cells (DVD)
The Magic School Bus Goes Cellular (YouTube)
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe (one of my favorite picture books, beautiful!) (Three days of biology science camp in August to jump-start our studies)
P.E.: Swim Team (3x week) (mini trampoline, bike riding, and outdoor play)
Fine Arts:
CC drawing
The Story of Classical Music (CD, disc 1)
13 Art Inventions Children Should Know (LOVE this gorgeous series of books, LOVE the timeline across the top of each page)
Cave Paintings to Picasso (history-integrated art studies, pp 10-13) IEW Poetry Memorization Piano practice
Language Arts:
Classical Conversations Essentials of the English Language (Levi: grammar, IEW writing (theme-based: Ancients))
IEW Poetry Memorization
Writing With Ease (Leif: level 1, Luke: level 3) CC grammar memory work (prepositions)
Under, Over, By the Clover: What is a Preposition? by Brian P. Cleary
All About Spelling (reviewed phonograms and rules, Level 3: lessons
Latin:
Latina Christiana I (reviewed lessons 1-5) CC Latin memory work (Noun Cases, Noun Endings-1st Declension)
Spanish:
Rosetta Stone (just getting set up)
Geography:
CC geography (Middle East/Ancient Empires) Geography Songs (workbook map and song on CD: The Middle East)
Geography games (free online)
History/Literature:
The Story of the World: Ancient Times (Intro- Ch. 2)
Began creating our own history timeline (Add-a-Century Timeline) integrating all subjects
SOTW Vol 1 Resources @ Tending Our Lord’s Garden (using the notebooking pages!)
YouTube videos corresponding with SOTW chapters at SOTW Video Links CC weekly history memory work (10 Commandments, Greek and Roman gods)
The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (Luke and Levi: pp 98-109. The First Artists, From Hunting to Farming, The First Farmers, The First Towns)
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (Levi: p 8. The First Farmers)
CC Timeline Cards (memorizing) Famous Figures of Ancient Times (movable paper figures to cut, color, and assemble—made Kind Narmer of Egypt)
Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke (a fun but excellent picture book introduction to archaeology!)
The First Dog by Jan Brett
Ice Mummy: The Discovery of a 5,000-Year-Old Man by Mark Dubowski (Step Into Reading)
Discovery in the Cave by Mark Dubowski (Cave Paintings at Lascaux) (Step Into Reading)
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses by Henry Barker (All Aboard Reading)
Modern Rhymes About Ancient Times: Ancient Egypt by Susan Altman and Susan Lechner
Good Times Travel Agency: Adventures in Ancient Egypt by Linda Bailey
Eyewitness: Ancient Egypt Discoveries Library: Ancient Egypt
Discovering History: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt
by Neil Grant
100 Things You Should Know About Ancient Egypt
INsiders: Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley
Levi’s Free Reading
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss (read twice)
Adara by Beatrice Gormely (historical/Biblical fiction, II Kings 5, 850 BC)
Mary Emma and Company by Ralph Moody (Little Britches series)
Luke’s Free Reading:
The Boxcar Children (several)
Tollins 2: Dynamite Tales by Conn Iggulden (author of The Dangerous Book for Boys)
26 Fairmount Avenue series by Tomie DePaola
The Famous Five: Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
Leif’s Free Reading:
Hundreds of Geronimo Stilton books (maybe not hundreds…)
26 Fairmount Avenue series by Tomie DePaola
Miscellaneous Picture Books:
Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca by Deborah Kogan Ray
Pedro and the Padre: A Tale from Jalisco, Mexico by Verna Aardema
For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Peggy Thomas
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery
Miscellaneous:
Hiking at McDowell Creek Falls
Bowling with Paisley Distance Learning families Assessment Testing for Paisley Distance Learning Program
The Renaissance Faire
Family BBQs and birthday parties
Football game