tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40068337437142067362024-03-20T08:10:49.339-07:00Flare of LightAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-89029651691204018632019-08-27T15:32:00.001-07:002019-08-30T06:11:51.997-07:00Shakespeare Line CountsHave you ever been reading Shakespeare out loud with a group of children and accidentally assigned a not-entirely-fluent-reader a part with way too many lines?<br />
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Have you ever accidentally assigned a child a part in a scene, only to realize at the end of the scene that this person didn't actually say anything? <br />
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Have you ever spent spent a big chunk of time carefully counting and logging all the lines spoken in a play so that you don't accidentally do what I described above?<br />
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Have you ever had to disrupt the flow of the play by assigning parts on the fly because someone new wandered into the scene that wasn't mentioned in the beginning?<br />
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Have you ever wondered why no one has created a simple list of all the line counts for each scene in a Shakespeare play? <br />
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I have done all these things (and more, I'm sure) in the eight years we've been reading Shakespeare in our family and the five years I've been leading a Shakespeare class with other families.<br />
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And after making an offhand comment to my husband about these problems, he whipped up a little script and voila! scene by scene line counts for Shakespeare's plays.<br />
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The index is linked in the top navigation of this website for easy access as well as <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/shakespeare-line-counts.html">right here</a>. I just added <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/romeo-and-juliet.html">Romeo and Juliet</a> and <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/macbeth.html">Macbeth</a> today. <br />
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We haven't run it on all of the plays yet--only the ones we've read in the last couple of years--so if you have a request, leave a comment and I'll see what we can do.<br />
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UPDATED: I added <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/midsummers-nights-dream.html">Midsummer Night's Dream</a> too.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-28578533485798228512019-06-29T14:35:00.001-07:002019-06-29T14:35:28.240-07:00Y1 Year in Review (2018-2019)<h3>
General Remarks</h3>
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Justin has a September birthday, and we opted to start him in 1st grade, or Form 1B this school year. I'm glad he had that additional year to settle a bit more, as I think we had a much more successful year this way than we would have if we had started him a year earlier. </div>
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Justin, in some ways, is like Gregory in that he loves outdoor projects, tools, and working with people on projects. He has a more affectionate nature though, and he is also our "crazy monkey boy" as we sometimes call him. He's shot up quite a bit this year, and often seems all arms and legs, especially when he capers around the house, making noise and generally annoying everyone older than himself. </div>
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Justin and Hannah are best buddies, and do just about everything together. Hannah and Justin both told people that they were in Kindergarten and First Grade, because they do everything together. Hannah was present for much of the work below, but would often wander away during the more skill oriented subjects like math, copywork, and reading practice. But sometimes she would do it on her own at the table with us, writing very carefully whatever she wanted to write in pink or purple pen in her notebook or setting out manipulatives and creating her own equations.</div>
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I feel like a Mason education is such a gift for a boy like Justin. Short lessons hold his attention, the breadth of studies keeps him interested, and the overall short day gives him lots of time to build and play outside. He also benefits from separating the work of the mind from the development of skills like reading and writing. His mind is fed with all sorts of ideas from a variety of books, even though his reading progress, while still definitely progress, is slow. <br />
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Subject Areas</h3>
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Bible/Faith</h4>
3x/wk, 20 min - Old Testament Studies: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings<br />
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I do this subject with Gregory, Nathan, and Justin and read the Bible text aloud. Everyone narrates, and we do appropriate map work afterwards.<br />
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On most evenings, Justin and Hannah have a Bible story read aloud to them. This is probably their third time through <a href="https://amzn.to/2XmZl2p">Egermeir's Bible Story Book</a>, and their 6th time through a Bible story book in general. Egermeir's, even though it isn't Catholic, still remains my favorite Bible story book because I feel like she has just the right level of detail and I generally like the quality of her writing. The illustrations aren't amazing, but they are decent and definitely not cartoonish.<br />
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Language Arts</h4>
Building the habit of narration is of course a huge part of starting a student in a Mason education. And having heard his siblings narrate all his life, narration was natural and easy for Justin. He narrates fairly well, but often lets himself get distracted in his narration by all the life that is going on around him.<br />
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Justin does copywork in print 5x/wk for about 6-10 minutes. I've used poetry, nursery rhymes, sentences from his reading, and a short story I made up for him so that he could get more practice writing the names of people in his family.<br />
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Justin does reading practice 5x/week for about 15 minutes and we largely work with a moveable alphabet, poetry/nursery rhymes, and his word book. At the beginning of the year I was generally slogging through simple readers, but after re-reading Mason's section on reading instruction in Vol. 1, I stopped the madness and went back to her much more effective and pleasant method. I found this quote particularly convicting:<br />
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Now, compare the steady progress and constant interest and liveliness of such lessons with the deadly weariness of the ordinary reading lesson. The child blunders through a page or two in a dreary monotone without expression, with imperfect enunciation. He comes to a word he does not know, and he spells it; that throws no light on the subject, and he is told the word: he repeats it, but as he has made no mental effort to secure the word, the next time he meets with it the same process is gone through. The reading lesson for that day comes to an end. The pupil has been miserably bored, and has not acquired one new word. Eventually, he learns to read, somehow, by mere dint of repetition; but consider what an abuse of his intelligence is a system of teaching which makes him undergo daily labour with little or no result, and gives him a distaste for books before he has learned to use them. (<a href="http://amblesideonline.org/CM/vol1complete.html#1_5b">Vol. 1, p. 206-207</a>)</blockquote>
I don't know why I had reverted to such an ineffective method, but I think it serves as an excellent reminder as to why it is so important to keep studying and reading Mason's work and the Parent's Review articles. Just because you've read how to do something once, or even because you were doing something using Mason's methods in the past doesn't mean you will automatically continue to do it that way in the future. It is so easy to drift back to what we grew up with or what we started homeschooling with, even if we completely do not intend to do so!<br />
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Mathematics</h4>
I was fortunate enough to go to Sonya Shafer's presentation about Living Math in 2016 and I bought the <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/mathematics-book-and-dvd-bundle/">Living Math book and DVD</a>. I was so impressed by what she presented, that I knew this was the way to go. I implemented some of the strategies with my two older sons and it made a huge difference for them. I was excited to start from the beginning using these living math methods with my younger children.<br />
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I purchased <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/charlotte-mason-elementary-arithmetic-series-book-1/">Book 1 of the Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic</a> series right when it came out, but I was at a bit of a loss as to where to start with it. It starts at the very beginning, like the student has never seen a number before or ever thought of counting anything. That certainly doesn't describe Justin, so I put it aside and we played lots of number games with <a href="https://amzn.to/2XIZY5o">these great dot cards</a>, used money, practiced counting by two's, three's, five's and ten's using different objects, wrote numbers and equations, and played lots of different games where we made 10's. Justin grew very solid on adding and subtracting into the teens, and I decided it was time to push into tens bundles. I took another look at the Elementary Arithmetic book and decided to start using that in the Twenty through Twenty-Nine section about halfway through the book. We transitioned smoothly over to this, and while Justin still misses the dot cards upon occasion, this is more appropriate for him and is helping him to progress further in his mathematical learning.<br />
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Literature</h4>
While I was planning, I had this brilliant idea that I would have three literature slots, each about 20 minutes. In one slot I would read from Fairy Tales (I chose an illustrated <i>Andersen's Fairy Tales</i>), and in the second I would read from a rotation of <i>Just So Stories</i>, <i>Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare</i>, and <i>Aesop's Fables</i>. We would read from one until we finished a story, then move to the next book. That way we would be reading just a few fables a term and we could still read from these other two literature books I wanted to include in his curriculum. It was a great idea, but it just didn't have enough reading time in the schedule to make it work well. Each <i>Just So Story</i> would take 2-3 weeks, and a story from <i>Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare</i> could take 4-6 weeks, which meant that we sometimes only made it through one rotation in a term. In the third slot I read <i>Velveteen Rabbit</i>, <i>King of the Golden River</i>, and <i>Peter Pan</i>. (although Peter Pan got moved to Morning Time because I realized the other kids were all trying to listen in while pretending to do other lessons)<br />
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I'd like to revisit the idea of a literature rotation slot next year, but I need to think about how to implement it better. I think it is better to just read a handful of fables in a term, and this helps me to remember to read them periodically... but I would like to be reading more than 3-4 per year!<br />
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History</h4>
Since Justin is in Form 1B, he was not included in our history rotation. He'll join us for history next year when he enters Form 1A. This year his focus was on heroic tales from early America. He had three history slots, each about 15 minutes.<br />
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<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2J7hres">America Begins</a> (can you believe I found a copy of this for $15 at a local used book store? I was amazed!)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/America-builds-homes-story-colonies/dp/B00085N0BI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=america+builds+homes+by+alice+dalgliesh&qid=1561842140&s=gateway&sr=8-1">America Builds Homes</a> (we started this after America Begins and I am using a copy of the book which is probably illegal so don't tell anyone.<i> </i>It is a lovely book though, and really needs to be reprinted!)</li>
<li>D'Aulaire bios: <a href="https://amzn.to/2Jg3z1w">Leif the Lucky</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2RIBp3j">Columbus</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2JcyBHK">Pocahontas</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2XiIPQI">George Washington</a></li>
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I also read to him from 50 Famous Stories, because I love that book and have used it with his three older siblings. It feels like a quintessential Form 1 book to me and is always well received. It proved a favorite with Justin as well, and I'm glad I included it in the curriculum.</div>
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Geography</h4>
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<u>Practical Geography</u></div>
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We read <a href="https://amzn.to/2RJUSAx">Me On the Map</a> at the beginning of the year, and did lots of work on finding the cardinal directions, observing shadows at different times of day, discussing where the sun rises and sets... very basic orienteering sort of work. </div>
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In any reading of Justin's that had a geographical component, we would study the globe and find where we live, then find the place we were reading about. We would do the same thing with our large US wall map.</div>
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<u>Cultural Geography</u></div>
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<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Jey0W8">This is How We Do It</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Xb9Wbz">Frozen Lands</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NkjbXj">Lucia Morning in Sweden</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2xi0fgY">Little Folks of Many Lands</a></li>
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In the half of the year we read the first three books, and referred often to the map to discuss where these children lived. I felt like the literary quality was lacking though, and they didn't create vivid images of the places they were describing. I had hesitated to use Little Folks because it isn't a particularly accurate representation of how things are now in various places, but the writing is so much more vivid that I decided to give it a try. It quickly became a favorite, and I'm glad I switched over. </div>
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Natural History</h4>
We were a little light in Natural History this year, although we do read nature lore as part of our family studies. We read once a week from the following:<br />
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<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2JcTiDr">Little Wanderers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2xiCLIB">Hexapod Stories</a></li>
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Spanish</h4>
We spent about 10 minutes a day on Spanish and I focused on colors, numbers, parts of the body, very basic sentences, and some common animals and objects in our Spanish studies. We also sing Spanish folk songs as part of our family studies. <br />
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For our lessons, I used <a href="https://amzn.to/2ZZ2Rwm">Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, qué ves ahí</a> (and used <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a33GlCwJiRc&list=PLqoFb-GnD2MYhkLa5FkDTsmi2BI0abA3M&index=2&t=0s">Erin's very helpful videos on YouTube</a>), cards with the animals in the colors from the book, basic questions like "Cuantos libros hay sobre la mesa?", "Toque tu cabeza", "Dondé está la silla?", etc. for our practice. It was very interactive, and Justin could generally understand what I was saying by the end of the year, and can come up with words and sometimes even sentences to respond. So, progress! But I'm looking forward to moving him to <a href="http://theulat.com/">The ULAT</a> so that it doesn't take quite so much out of me.<br />
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Handicrafts</h4>
Justin has been working on sewing, weaving, and knitting for handicrafts this year. He's also started Sloyd, and is on the 9th project in the first year. We generally make each project 2-3 times, in different weights of paper. I had hoped to do Sloyd with him every week, but I think it was more like 3 out of every 4 weeks. <br />
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Music</h4>
Justin has started piano lessons with <a href="https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/">Hoffman Academy</a>. He is doing well with it, and is about halfway through the second unit. He does a new lesson about once a week, and I usually have him do some practice before doing the practice session on the website. He's making good progress, and enjoys playing the piano. He will even come to the piano and play some of his songs when it isn't time to practice, which I consider a good sign. I generally watch the lessons with him as well as sit with him for the 10 minutes or so that he practices each weekday.<br />
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Drawing</h4>
I need to do brush drawing lessons with Justin, but it didn't happen this year. I did have Justin do a couple drawings from how to draw books to share at our Family Keeping Meeting each week and that has helped his drawing ability and fine motor skills. I also did art lessons with him sporadically, generally from <a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/">Masterpiece Society</a>. This is an area where I definitely need to improve as a teacher!<br />
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<h4>
Family Studies</h4>
I should probably mention that there are other subjects in a Mason education, but we study <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">those together as a family</a>.
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-27579203792667527582019-06-29T10:42:00.001-07:002019-06-29T10:42:09.542-07:00Y5 Year in Review (2018-2019)<h3>
General Remarks</h3>
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Nathan is the youngest of what we think of our older set of kids, and is not quite sure he wants the responsibility of being one of the older kids. But he definitely wants the privileges, so there's often a struggle between wanting the privileges but not wanting to step up to the responsibilities. </div>
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Nathan really values time alone, which is challenging when you are 3rd in a family of 6 kids. He also is required to share a room with 2 brothers, but at least he has a top bunk which gives him a little bit of personal space. Nathan has a deep caring streak, doting on his beloved guinea pigs and often attending with great kindness to his baby sister. He'd much rather be on "Charlotte Duty" than do any other sort of household work. He loves to read and play Legos and would happily do that day after day after day if allowed to do so. He's interested in cooking, but often the thought of clean-up is enough to keep him from doing it. He is our chief lizard catcher and is the one most interested in catching and observing the various critters who live around here.</div>
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Nathan's my child that I really wonder what his "bent leather" will end up being. I feel like there's a lot of different possibilities, but I also have a suspicion that whatever it is will end up being one of those things that is obvious in retrospect but surprising when it happens. In the meantime, we keep trying to initiate a large number of relationships with different ideas and things so as to prepare him for whatever kind of work is before him in the future.</div>
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Subject Areas</h3>
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Bible/Faith</h4>
3x/wk, 20 min - Old Testament Studies: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings<br />
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I do this subject with Gregory, Nathan, and Justin and read the Bible text aloud. Everyone narrates, and we do appropriate map work and lists of kings and prophets afterwards.<br />
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5x/wk, 10 min - New Testament Studies: Nathan reads from the Gospels on his own.<br />
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1x/wk - Devotional Reading: <a href="https://amzn.to/2RLkk8F">The Curé of Ars</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2XAXJ4h">The First Christians</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2FGn7vf">My Path to Heaven</a><br />
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<h4>
Language Arts</h4>
Nathan has moved to three compositions a week, and I would generally type one of them for him. Getting Nathan to write is definitely a struggle, and compositions are the most dreaded part of his school week. He's made good progress this year though, as his compositions have gotten fuller and more detailed. But if he put as much effort into doing his compositions as he does into complaining about them, he'd be in a much better place with his writing.<br />
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Gregory and Nathan do dictation together 4x/wk, and Nathan does copywork daily for about 10 minutes. I've changed how I am doing dictation thanks to Celeste Cruz's dictation immersion at CM West :: Retreat in Old San Juan and that has greatly increased the rate of improvement.<br />
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Nathan finished up the first level of <a href="https://www.winstongrammar.com/">Winston Grammar</a> this year (which he started last year) and has definitely made progress. I think adding Latin this year (I'll talk about that further down) was beneficial for him, and has helped him to get a better grasp of the parts of speech. Next year Nathan will start the <a href="https://www.analyticalgrammar.com/our-products/junior-analytical-grammar/">Analytical Grammar Jr. Mechanics</a> book.<br />
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<h4>
Mathematics</h4>
Nathan is working in the <a href="https://www.strayer.uniquemath.com/su-book2.php#.XRecYS2ZOi4">Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetics</a> Book 2. I work with him every day and we do not do every page. This year we've focused on fractions, while also keeping the long division and multiplication fresh in his mind. Because he saw Gregory working in it and thought it looked interesting, we work about 1x/wk with <a href="https://www.borenson.com/">Hands-On Equations</a>. I wasn't sure how he'd do with it, but he's taken to it very well and understand the concepts quickly. We also work 1x/wk in <a href="https://amzn.to/2ITW0im">Lessons in Experimental and Practical Geometry</a>, and another 1x/wk doing game-based arithmetic practice, generally with Gregory.<br />
<br />
In general, I like the multi-stream approach to mathematics, but sometimes I feel like our we're a little too scattered. But he's making progress and generally understanding well, and that's what is really important.<br />
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<h4>
Literature</h4>
Nathan read <a href="https://amzn.to/2XisICI">The Aeneid for Boys and Girls</a> for the first half of this year, which had the added benefit of allowing him to join the family in our Aeneid discussions. He liked the fact that he was moving through the story more quickly than we were too. <br />
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Nathan also read some of <a href="https://amzn.to/2RGL6PG">Kim</a> this year, and I think he'll finish it over the summer.<br />
<br />
I feel like Nathan's scheduling was a little light in literature and a little too heavy in historical fiction, but I think it was a good choice for this student for this year. Last summer just about all Nathan wanted to read was Redwall, so I thought assigning more historical fiction might spark interest in that direction. This has completely succeeded, and now his free reading is far more broad than it was a year ago. And it isn't just historical books, but other more literary childhood classics as well.<br />
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<h4>
History</h4>
This year we were studying the 19th Century in European and American History, and Ancient Rome in our Ancients stream.<br />
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<u>American History</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Xjxno7">This Country of Ours</a> (which he said was one of his favorite school books of the year)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2XDuJJ0">Across Five Aprils</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NlXYMG">Counting on Grace</a></li>
</ul>
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<u>English History</u><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Xgvl8i">Our Island Story</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2XFmJau">Hero of Trafalgar</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2XE39vd">Napoleon by Marshall</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2FDF9xZ">Florence Nightingale's Nuns</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2XL8npi">Into the Ice: The Story of Arctic Exploration</a></li>
</ul>
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<u>Ancient History</u><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2IYuBfe">Story of the Roman People</a></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OkjHw4XL4fI8gC9NgfOjjIeIxEuln00bqkvBVtkK49KLbEFmkTJvCcyJ8-FgWlJlOXsf2z3stYReoT5oGHmFihbW66-Sah1hRaGA1bN12KogJ5JOeWG9f29doLe8cUS0Da87XvnDbIM/s1600/IMG_0421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="192" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OkjHw4XL4fI8gC9NgfOjjIeIxEuln00bqkvBVtkK49KLbEFmkTJvCcyJ8-FgWlJlOXsf2z3stYReoT5oGHmFihbW66-Sah1hRaGA1bN12KogJ5JOeWG9f29doLe8cUS0Da87XvnDbIM/s400/IMG_0421.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drawing the clock at the Crocker Art Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h4>
Citizenship</h4>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2XFyX2Q">Young Citizen's Reader</a></li>
</ul>
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Nathan also joined us for Plutarch as part of our <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">family studies</a>.<br />
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<h4>
Geography</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2csYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Our Country and Its People</a> by Buckbee - I thought this went reasonably well, although I need to work more with the maps and in setting up the lesson.</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2FB56hV">Book of Marvels, The Occident </a>- another favorite (and really, who doesn't love Richard Halliburton? And isn't it wonderful to have this back in print?). Nathan read, narrated, and added locations to his map for this book. </li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2xirech">Mapping the World with Art</a> - 1x/week I did a map drawing exercise from this book with Gregory and Nathan. I really like how the author breaks down and explains how to draw the various parts of the world. </li>
</ul>
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<h4>
Natural History</h4>
Last year Nathan and Gregory their science together, but this year I split them as Gregory moved into Form 3. Each term had a general Natural History book, a book about Inventions, and then a theme for the term. There were 2 20 minute slots and 1 30 minute slot each week.<br />
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Term 1: <a href="https://amzn.to/2XFmUTc">Great Inventors and Their Inventions</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2JcfXje">Storybook of Science </a>(continued from last year) and Junior Science Book of Electricity with Snap Circuit challenges<br />
Term 2: Great Inventors and Their Inventions, Storybook of Science (finished) and <a href="https://amzn.to/2IW0RPX">Rain, Hail, Sleet & Snow</a> (I didn't use the study guide w/ experiments because I just didn't have time to do that with him that term. I thought the book was rather light, but it probably would have been better with the guide)<br />
Term 3: Great Inventors and Their Inventions, <a href="https://amzn.to/2RHJLrW">The Life of a Spider</a> by Fabre and <a href="https://amzn.to/2XifDte">From Shore to Ocean Floor</a> (I got some great narrations from this book)<br />
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<h4>
Latin</h4>
We used <a href="https://amzn.to/2RJEoZ2">Getting Started with Latin</a> and I really like this book. Nathan generally did too, which was great. We did it all orally, where I would read the sentence in Latin, Nathan would repeat it in Latin, then translate it into English. I really like the format of the book and the pacing. There was a lot of review in the book, but there was enough variation that it didn't feel like drudgery. And introducing just one new word each lesson made the vocabulary building feel painless.<br />
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I'm so glad to have finally found a good way to ease students into Latin!<br />
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<h4>
Spanish</h4>
This is the first year that I feel like we've actually made some solid, if slow, progress in Spanish! It has been part of our curriculum for years, but it wasn't something that the boys enjoyed and no one was learning much. We started using <a href="http://theulat.com/">theulat.com</a> and, finally, progress is happening! We aren't spending as much time on it as we should, and there's still definitely some serious foot dragging happening here, but still... progress!! I think what Steve Nesbitt has created in the ULAT is absolutely brilliant, and I am so impressed by his program. We also learn folk songs and poetry in Spanish as part of our <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">family studies</a>.<br />
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<h4>
Handicrafts</h4>
If only Legos could count as handicrafts, Nathan would be a very happy boy. As it is though... Nathan has been learning to knit this year, and does still like to whittle and build with his brother. Nathan is also in the second year of the <a href="https://amzn.to/2xgYaBN">Paper Sloyd</a> book and probably could benefit from some more attention in that area as his progress has definitely slowed now that I am not doing lessons with him.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Music</h4>
Nathan is is continuing piano lessons with <a href="https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/">Hoffman Academy</a>. Progress has slowed this year, probably because I am not keeping very close tabs. He generally likes playing the piano, but isn't one to challenge himself much with it. I still really like Hoffman Academy though, and so grateful that it allows us to affordably study piano in our home.<br />
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<h4>
Family Studies</h4>
I should probably mention that there are other subjects in a Mason education, but we study <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">those together as a family</a>.<br />
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<br /></div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-11645810773085182872019-06-28T19:03:00.000-07:002019-06-29T10:34:53.246-07:00Y7 Year in Review (2018-2019)<h3>
General Remarks</h3>
Gregory became the second teenager in our family in the course of this school year, and has grown 2 inches since December. His love for building and creating has continued and developed, especially as he has gained more skill and access to a wider variety of power tools. He helped buy a gas powered string trimmer this spring and has taken over keeping the weeds down on our property as well as being a huge help to his grandpa in trimming along our private road that we share. He's interested in construction and this summer he is learning how to frame walls, hang drywall, and install trim.<br />
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<h3>
Subject Areas</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Bible/Faith</h4>
3x/wk, 20 min - Old Testament Studies: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings<br />
<br />
I do this subject with Gregory, Nathan, and Justin and read the Bible text aloud. Everyone narrates, and we do appropriate map work and lists of kings and prophets afterwards.<br />
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5x/wk, 10 min - New Testament Studies: Gregory reads from the Gospels on his own.<br />
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1x/wk - Devotional Reading: <a href="https://amzn.to/2XGJI4Q">Created for Work</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2RFZK9Y">A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2XlDNmN">Faith and Reason</a><br />
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<h4>
Language Arts</h4>
Gregory's writing has progressed well this year. I've moved him to four written narrations a week which caused some consternation at the beginning of the year, but he rose to the challenge and now it isn't a big deal. The narrations have gotten longer and fuller, and while spelling is still definitely an issue, his sentence structure is generally good. <br />
<br />
Gregory and Nathan do dictation together 4x/wk, and Gregory does copywork daily for about 10 minutes. I've changed how I am doing dictation thanks to Celeste Cruz's dictation immersion at CM West :: Retreat in Old San Juan and that has greatly increased the rate of improvement. <br />
<br />
Gregory finished the Analytical Grammar Jr. Mechanics book this year (he started it last year) and I thought it helped him quite a bit in his use of punctuation. I don't think it is necessary to do this sort of book for every student, but it was useful for him.<br />
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<h4>
Mathematics</h4>
Gregory has started Algebra this year, but I've been easing him into it. 1x/wk he has been working with <a href="https://www.borenson.com/">Hands-On Equations</a>, 1x/wk working in <a href="https://amzn.to/2ITW0im">Lessons in Experimental and Practical Geometry</a>, 1x/wk doing game-based arithmetic practice. and 2x/wk with Jacob's Algebra. <a href="https://www.borenson.com/">Hands-On Equations</a> was really helpful for Gregory, because at first the whole idea of an equation was absolutely mystifying. The novel approach of this kit was just what he needed to make it accessible and to get him going in Algebra.<br />
<br />
In general, I like the multi-stream approach to mathematics, but sometimes I feel like our we're a little too scattered. But he's making progress and generally understanding well, and that's what is really important.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Literature</h4>
Gregory read the <i>Aeneid, Tale of Two Cities</i>, a selection of 19th Century American short stories, <i>The Red Badge of Courage</i>, and <i>Silas Marner</i> this year along with his parents and his 17 year old sister. We had weekly discussions about the readings and also watched the Roman Roads lecture series about the <i>Aeneid</i>.<br />
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The <i>Aeneid</i> was stretched out over most of the year since the videos counted as the week's reading, and the other selections were read in turn, about one per term, with the short stories and <i>Red Badge of Courage</i> sharing a term. The short stories we read were The Birthmark, Young Goodman Brown, The Cask of the Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Gift of the Magi, and The Necklace.<br />
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Having the family discussions around the book and reading it together added a lot of enjoyment and interest for everyone, and we plan to continue this in future years. We found that dinnertime worked well for these discussions, and it had an added bonus of helping the younger children to practice their ability to sit quietly and listen even when they weren't involved in the conversation.<br />
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Gregory also read the 19th century sections of <a href="https://amzn.to/2Jb4WyE">A Short History of England and America's Literature</a>, which I like so much better than H.E. Marshall's History of English Literature. I thought Tappan's book was more respectful of the student while still offering a similar sort of content. And it has the added bonus of including Americans, rather than just English authors.<br />
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<h4>
History</h4>
This year we were studying the 19th Century in European and American History, and Ancient Rome in our Ancients stream.<br />
<br />
In all these areas I did not assign additional biographies or other historical books, as Gregory is an avid reader and history is one of his favorite genres. I knew he would read history before anything else, so made it a point to give him other books in his evening reading stack so that he would have a little more breadth.<br />
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<u>American History</u><br />
Gregory read from <a href="https://amzn.to/2RInLwQ">The Oxford History of the American People</a> by Samuel Morison for most of the year, although at one point I switched him back to the history spine he had read last year because Morison is just so long. I was starting to wonder if we would even get to the Civil War at the rate we were going and wanted to jump ahead a bit so that we could read about the Civil War in Term 2. Gregory missed the book though, and offered to read it more often than originally scheduled so that he could switch back to Morison. He started reading 1 section 4x/week and with our jump ahead this was a good pace. I plan to continue to use Morison because it is just that good, but I still am not quite sure how to handle it. Not assign some sections? But then how do I decide?? Just read more? Tempting, but I don't like shifting the balance of the curriculum and the day like that.<br />
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<u>English History</u><br />
Gregory read from Arnold-Forster's <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/h-o-arnold-forster-and-blossom-barden/a-history-of-england-anne-to-victoria/paperback/product-23988688.html">History of England</a> this year, and I'm so glad this book is back in print. I think it worked well for this school year, and it was a lot less pages than assigning Churchill's History of the English Speaking People. And with Morison being so many pages already...<br />
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<u>Ancient History</u><br />
I like the Dorothy Mills Ancient History books, and this is the third one Gregory has read. I used about 2/3 of the chapters in <a href="https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/classical-studies/book-of-the-ancient-romans/">The Book of the Ancient Romans</a>, focusing on the history chapters. I did assign some of the day in the life and what things were like chapters too, but did not use all of them. <br />
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<h4>
Citizenship</h4>
I was going to assign Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, but then didn't end up doing it. I'm not sure why. So Gregory's only Citizenship reading this year was Plutarch as part of our <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">family studies</a>.<br />
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<h4>
Geography</h4>
For most of the year Gregory read from <a href="https://archive.org/details/geographicaland00allegoog/page/n81">The New Europe</a>, but Nellie B. Allen. I think this book fell a little flat and didn't quite serve the purpose it was supposed to serve. I think that I was not framing the lesson well, not drawing him to the maps enough to help him picture what he was studying. We switched to a different text (a geography text from the 1920's) that I happened to pick up at the library used book sale, and I think that worked better for us. Part of it was the writing style of the text, and part of it was the book had good map work questions included to help set the stage for a good geography lesson.<br />
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Mapping the World with Art - 1x/week I did a map drawing exercise from this book with Gregory and Nathan. I really like how the author breaks down and explains how to draw the various parts of the world. <br />
<br />
Gregory also read and mapped <a href="https://amzn.to/2JaTcwf">The Story of David Livingstone</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/2XbxMsy">Oregon Trail</a>, and <a href="https://amzn.to/2xiY3pk">Around the World in 80 Days</a>. <br />
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<h4>
Natural History</h4>
This year instead of using a different Sabbath Mood Science Guide each term, which last year started to feel like too much, especially with all the experiments, I opted to pick one study guide and spread it over the whole year. Gregory did the <a href="http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/downloads/chemistry-study-guide-form-3-4-grades-7-9/">Chemistry</a> guide, and I thought it went reasonably well. <br />
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I also gave Gregory two other natural history "slots" of 20 minutes a piece. These were reading/narration slots, without experiments. <br />
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Term 1: <a href="https://amzn.to/2xhqC6J">Secret of Everyday Things</a> (continued from last year) and <a href="https://amzn.to/2NAjg9B">Phineas Gauge</a><br />
Term 2: <a href="https://amzn.to/2xhqC6J">Secret of Everyday Things</a> (finished) and <a href="https://amzn.to/2FENf9Y">Eric Sloane's Weather Book</a><br />
Term 3: <a href="https://amzn.to/2RHJLrW">The Life of a Spider</a> by Fabre and <a href="https://amzn.to/2Nk5SGd">The Sea Around Us</a><br />
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We both liked this mixture of a science guide plus additional natural history reading in different topics much better than the one guide a term plus Secret of Everyday Things scheduling that we did last year.<br />
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<h4>
Latin</h4>
We are slowly moving through <a href="https://compassclassroom.com/shop/product/visual-latin-1/">Visual Latin</a> and I probably need to get more involved because I'm finding a lot of errors in his work and his progress has pretty much ground to a stand-still. I'm not sure if it is a lack of attention to detail, a need to do more memorizing, or a straight-up lack of understanding of what is being presented. <br />
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<h4>
Spanish</h4>
This is the first year that I feel like we've actually made some solid, if slow, progress in Spanish! It has been part of our curriculum for years, but it wasn't something that the boys enjoyed and no one was learning much. We started using <a href="http://theulat.com/">theulat.com</a> and, finally, progress is happening! We aren't spending as much time on it as we should, and there's still definitely some serious foot dragging happening here, but still... progress!! I think what Steve Nesbitt has created in the ULAT is absolutely brilliant, and I am so impressed by his program. We also learn folk songs and poetry in Spanish as part of our <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">family studies</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Handicrafts</h4>
Gregory vastly prefers handicrafts that involve wood, particularly if it includes using knives or power tools. But he has been learning to knit this year, and has completed several sewing projects too. Gregory is also in the third year of the <a href="https://amzn.to/2xgYaBN">Paper Sloyd</a> book and is hoping to start Wood Sloyd next year. (That is, if his mother can figure out how to make that happen...)<br />
<br />
<h4>
Music</h4>
Gregory is is continuing piano lessons with <a href="https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/">Hoffman Academy</a>. Progress has slowed this year, probably because I am not keeping very close tabs. Gregory plays piano out of a sense of duty, because it is on his checklist, and is looking forward to the day when he can stop. I told him that all students can either stop when they finish all the lessons on Hoffman Academy or reach the end of eighth grade. He was relieved to hear he has only one more year to go. I still really like Hoffman Academy though, and I don't think this is a reflection on Hoffman Academy. <br />
<br />
<h4>
Family Studies</h4>
I should probably mention that there are other subjects in a Mason education, but we study <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">those together as a family</a>.<br />
<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-41933178995758001362019-06-27T13:42:00.000-07:002019-06-28T14:27:21.883-07:00Y11 Year in Review (2018-2019)Well, here we are, with only one year left of high school for our eldest child. But before I start to cry, I'm going to look back at her second to last year of high school, make some general remarks, and share what we've used this past year.<br />
<br />
<h3>
General Remarks</h3>
<br />
Emma manages her own schedule at this point. Each week I print off a checklist of her work for the week, and then she takes that and schedules it all out, using time blocking. She doesn't have a planner or a binder or anything, each week is planned on a piece of paper I print with a grid on it, marked in 30 minute increments. She uses iCal on her iPad to track commitments and to be aware of the family's activities.<br />
<br />
This year, her main outside activities have been working about 4 hours a week as a mother's helper for a neighbor and helping teach the 3rd/4th grade religious education class at our church. In the second half of the year the lead teacher had surgery, and Emma ended up taking over the teaching for the rest of the year. <br />
<br />
She published her first book, <a href="https://amzn.to/2xaVgib">Genevieve of Alea</a>, this year, and is working on a second book with a friend she met at CM West :: Retreat in Old San Juan.<br />
<br />
She's a huge help with her younger siblings, and I couldn't have done all that I did this year without her to make dinner, console Charlotte, and keep her younger siblings heading more or less in the right direction <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-overview-2018-2019.html">when I was unavailable.</a> <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGwZ12g3tZ36b1KrHu-AbjCoMi5LKhqHEhIEQJk-WlgZRg2UlizbCz1psnWFenG0zEclRCpt854H6JIzVXoIV5ChSjzd747qVL9CIxvTVVN0AbqBTjT3y6u5VRDlhbjukrEz5jzr0ERCM/s1600/IMG_0043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGwZ12g3tZ36b1KrHu-AbjCoMi5LKhqHEhIEQJk-WlgZRg2UlizbCz1psnWFenG0zEclRCpt854H6JIzVXoIV5ChSjzd747qVL9CIxvTVVN0AbqBTjT3y6u5VRDlhbjukrEz5jzr0ERCM/s400/IMG_0043.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: Emma Vanderpol</td></tr>
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<h3>
Subject Areas</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Bible/Faith</h4>
All during Emma's high school, I've had her spend 20 minutes each day with a different category of Bible or Faith based reading. The areas are: <br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Bible - Old Testament: Joshua, Ruth, Judges</li>
<li>Bible - New Testament: <a href="https://amzn.to/2XzbY9A">Romans</a> and other letters</li>
<li>Saints: <a href="https://amzn.to/2XD6j2g">Fathers of the Church</a></li>
<li>Catechism of the Catholic Church</li>
<li>Summa of the Summa</li>
</ul>
<div>
I've continued to use the Ignatius Study Guides for the Old Testament (although at this point we've used just about all of them!) and I also started Emma on the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series. It is perhaps a little too meaty for this level, but the one on <a href="https://amzn.to/2XzbY9A">Romans</a> is still readable, interesting, and not so scholarly that it doesn't feel applicable to life anymore. The <a href="https://amzn.to/2XD6j2g">Fathers of the Church</a> is one I read years ago, and remembered appreciating because it pairs a short biography of each father with a couple excerpts from that person's work.</div>
<br />
<h4>
Language Arts</h4>
Emma is a great writer, especially in fiction, but still needs some more polishing in her essay writing. We set out a plan of monthly papers and term papers, as well as the usual daily written narrations and weekly short essays so that she could get more practice. While we could have kept to the schedule better than we did, it still helped her writing a great deal and and she's on much better footing in that area than she was at the end of the year last year. She's more comfortable with it, her writing is better and clearer, and a lot of progress has been made.<br />
<br />
Her written narrations and short essays are published on a private WordPress blog, which she's been keeping since 7th grade. It has become quite a record of her development as a writer, as well as the breadth of her studies.<br />
<br />
Emma has such a good grasp of the mechanics of writing that I have her proof my writing if I'm working on something I want to make sure is correct. (I should note that she did not thoroughly pre-read this post, so any errors are all my fault). Because of this, she does not do dictation, grammar, or any sort of mechanics of English study.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Mathematics</h4>
Emma has been using the Life of Fred books since we bailed on Math-U-See back at Delta. They've been ok, but I'm not planning on using them for other students. She's completed Algebra (9th grade) and Algebra 2 (10th), and has been working on Geometry this year. She hasn't finished the book, and is struggling with the proofs. My husband and I aren't exactly a lot of help in this area, so it has been a slog. She's hoping to get this book finished this summer so she can have the full school year to complete Trigonometry.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Literature</h4>
Emma read the <i>Aeneid, Tale of Two Cities</i>, a selection of 19th Century American short stories, <i>The Red Badge of Courage</i>, and <i>Silas Marner</i> this year along with her parents and her 13 year old brother. We had weekly discussions about the readings and also watched the Roman Roads lecture series about the <i>Aeneid</i>. <br />
<br />
The <i>Aeneid</i> was stretched out over most of the year since the videos counted as the week's reading, and the other selections were read in turn, about one per term, with the short stories and <i>Red Badge of Courage</i> sharing a term. The short stories we read were The Birthmark, Young Goodman Brown, The Cask of the Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Gift of the Magi, and The Necklace.<br />
<br />
Having the family discussions around the book and reading it together added a lot of enjoyment and interest for everyone, and we plan to continue this in future years. We found that dinnertime worked well for these discussions, and it had an added bonus of helping the younger children to practice their ability to sit quietly and listen even when they weren't involved in the conversation. <br />
<br />
Emma and I also read Les Miserables this year, at a pace of about 25 pages per week. Here's her <a href="https://howthesunrose.com/victor-hugo-is-annoying-but/">response to one of her exam questions about Les Mis</a>, which I throughly enjoyed.<br />
<br />
<h4>
History</h4>
This year we were studying the 19th Century in European and American History, and Ancient Rome in our Ancients stream.<br />
<br />
<u>American History</u><br />
She started the year with Paul Johnson's <i>A History of the American People</i>, but as Emma listened to Gregory and I discuss his history readings from Morison's <i>Oxford History of the American People</i>, she asked if she could switch. I agreed with her that Morison's book is better and we made the change. The only downside to Morison is really a positive and a negative: the book is more thorough and therefore a lot longer. Both of them didn't mind the extra pages because it is so interesting and well written.<br />
<br />
Emma also had assigned:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Arguing About Slavery (long, so she has continued to read it after the end of the term as an evening read)</li>
<li>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass</li>
<li>Reflections on the Civil War (I particularly enjoyed this thoughtful book by Bruce Catton)</li>
<li>Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington</li>
<li>Continental Ambitions (a few chapters in the time period)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>European History</u><br />
I also switched spines in this area too. She started the year with Dawn to Decadence but ended with <a href="https://amzn.to/2Jd5Smf">Medieval and Modern Times</a>. Dawn to Decadence is a great book, but she was starting to feel like she wasn't really getting a good grasp of what was actually happening in the 19th Century in Europe because DtD is a social history, not a political or military history. Med&Mod is a much more straightforward history book, and probably would have benefited from some supplementation from DtD, but I didn't think of that until now.<br />
<br />
I also had Emma read from the appropriate chronological sections of <i>The Catholic Church Through the Ages</i> and <i>Church History in Plain Language</i>. I included the second one so that she could have a better understanding of the development of the various Protestant churches during the 19th Century.<br />
<br />
<u>Ancient History</u><br />
I used the <a href="https://romanroadsmedia.com/store/the-historians/">Roman Roads Media series about the Roman Historians</a> and created a one year schedule for the lectures and readings. She also was reading History the Ancient World by Starr at a rate of 5 pp/week. We added the Starr book (which she had read in previous years) a few weeks into the school year to have a better overview of the whole historical period.<br />
<br />
We wanted to like the RRM series more than we did. As much as I admire and respect Wes Callihan's knowledge of and experience with the texts, we felt like he did too much narrating during the lectures. And as a Mason household, we know that narration is the work of the student, not the teacher! He did have background information, additional connections and thoughts to share, but we felt like the bulk of the videos were him telling us what was in the readings we just read.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Citizenship</h4>
In addition to reading Plutarch as a family one night a week, Emma also started <a href="https://amzn.to/2X7wKxC"><i>Roots of American Order</i>,</a> reading it at a rate of about 7 pages/week. This was a favorite of the year, and a book well worth reading. It has added so much to all of our historical studies, as well as given us many new thoughts about political theory and the development of government. She read half of it this year, and will finish it next year.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Geography</h4>
This is a subject area that just didn't really happen this year. I had picked a book in this area, but it wasn't a good fit for the subject so we dropped it after a few weeks. But then I didn't find anything to put in its place.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Natural History</h4>
I've had Emma following a multi-stream approach in her natural history studies, where she has an area of focus each term, then some additional natural history readings. I had planned to spend fall with physics, winter with chemistry, and spring with biology, but we ended up splitting the year between physics and chemistry. <br />
<br />
For physics we used <i>Conceptual Physics</i>, reading various selections from the text based on her interest. We also used <i>Drawing Physics</i>. Both books were great and I look forward to using them again.<br />
<br />
Since we had already spent two terms with the Sabbath Mood Chemistry study guides in the last two years, we decided we would go ahead and finish it out this year. Emma never liked the text that goes with this study guide, and I think she liked it even less this year. I think she felt it was too dated, and not really at the right level for a high school chemistry text. She did appreciate that she could pick her own, more involved, chemistry experiment in this study guide, and made soap for the family.<br />
<br />
For her general natural history reading:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs (started last year - definitely recommend)</li>
<li>The Invention of Air</li>
<li>Krakatoa</li>
<li>Science Matters</li>
<li>The Island of the Colorblind (initially assigned, but moved to evening reading)</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Latin</h4>
<br />
Now this is an interesting one... Emma had switched from Henle to Lingua Latina in 10th grade, and started to really enjoy Latin. But then we spent several days at Wyoming Catholic College in February and Emma got to participate in an immersive Latin class where they also use Lingua Latina. Since all the students at WCC have to take that class anyway, and because the way it is taught at the school is so much better than what we can do at home, Emma decided she's done enough Latin for now and she'll pick up Latin again in college. She's looking forward to taking Latin in college, and she still confounds her siblings by speaking to them in Latin.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Spanish</h4>
The first 2/3 of the year went really well with Spanish, with Emma studying Spanish through weekly lessons with a tutor from iTalki. Emma narrated to her, had her correct her writing and exam questions, had conversations with her... it was great. Then the tutor started to argue passionately that Shakespeare was gay and Emma was trying to defend the Bard with her limited Spanish abilities. The tutor suggested that they prepare for further argument in the next session, and we both felt like this was really inappropriate. I should have stepped in and done something, but I didn't, and instead Spanish just dropped off a cliff.<br />
<br />
I'm really not quite sure what to do for next year. Talk this out with the current person, even though it has been a couple months? Find a new tutor? Try a different online approach that isn't quite so open-ended? Decide that she has enough foreign language credits and not go any further? <br />
<br />
<h4>
Handicrafts</h4>
Emma has become an expert knitter, and crochets extremely well too. She's teaching her younger siblings to knit with far more patience than I generally possess. She still likes to do lettering upon occasion as well. She bought a new iPad with the new Apple Pencil this year, and has enjoyed drawing and lettering with that as well.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Family Studies</h4>
I should probably mention that there are other subjects in a Mason education, but we study <a href="https://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2019/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2018-2019.html">those together as a family</a>. <br />
<br />
<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-955089673622500332019-06-26T14:56:00.000-07:002019-06-28T15:41:35.398-07:00Year in Review: Family Studies (2018-2019)I read through <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2018/07/year-in-review-family-studies-2017-2018.html">last year's Family Studies post</a> just now so much of it holds true for this year as well. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right??</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Since that's the case, I'm not going to elaborate on all the pieces. Please see <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2018/07/year-in-review-family-studies-2017-2018.html">last year's post</a> for a fuller description.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Also, I recently hosted a day on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/charlottemasonirl/">CharlotteMasoniRL</a> Instagram account where I went into detail about our family studies. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/vanderpolfamilyhomeschool/">Here's a link to all the posts I've done for CMiRL</a>, not only about the most recent series about Family Studies, but also A Day in the Life, and a series about how I plan.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
Subjects We Study as a Family</h3>
<div>
<br />
In our family studies, we tackle subjects together at set times during the day and week. Some of my children will have additional readings or work in these areas, and some will do all their work in this area with the family. Our family studies include:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
As Part of Morning Prayer</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Lives of Saints</li>
<li>Mass Readings</li>
<li>Hymns</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
As Part of Morning Time</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Folk Songs in English and Spanish</li>
<li>Poetry</li>
<li>Memory Work</li>
<li>Literature</li>
<li>Nature Lore</li>
<li>Historical Fiction</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
As Part of Group Work</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Picture Study</li>
<li>Composer Study</li>
<li>Geography</li>
<li>Folk Dance</li>
<li>Drill</li>
<li>Bible</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
As Part of Our Family Life</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Plutarch (one evening a week)</li>
<li>Shakespeare (one evening a week, and I also led a Shakespeare study with other families in the fall and spring where we read different plays than we read in the family)</li>
<li>Nature Study and Journaling (as a family on Sunday afternoons)</li>
<li>Art Instruction (on Sunday mornings after Mass and caffeine)</li>
<li>Family Keeping Meeting (Saturday morning, where we all, parents included, share our keeping work from the past week)</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Books and Resources</h3>
<div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lives of Saints</h4>
We've enjoyed reading about the Saint of the day through <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/ebooks/">this series of (free) ebooks from CatholicCulture.org</a>. They are my favorite Saint of the day resources by far.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Picture Study</h4>
<a href="http://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-artist-prints/david">David</a><br />
<a href="http://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-artist-prints/drer-pneu-historical-collection-kxl75-mnybe-z5rmw">Turner</a><br />
<a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/picture-study-portfolios-monet/">Monet</a><br />
<br />
I highly recommend getting physical prints, and I really like the <a href="http://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-artist-prints">print sets from Riverbend Press</a>. I used the Simply Charlotte Mason Monet set because I had it from a previous year (and didn't get to that year...) and then printed additional prints at Staples because I only had one set. I like the Riverbend Press sets better than the SCM one as they are more affordable but still beautiful. I really don't like having to get my own prints made, but I did swap out a couple of Monet choices so we could take advantage of a Monet exhibit in SF and study some of the paintings were were able to see.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Hymns</h4>
<u>Ordinary Time</u><br />
The King of Love My Shepherd Is<br />
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name<br />
O Queen of the Holy Rosary<br />
Our God, Our Help in Ages Past<br />
<br />
<u>Lent</u><br />
Were You There<br />
The Glory of These Forty Days<br />
<br />
<u>Easter</u><br />
Thine Be the Glory<br />
<br />
We had new songs for Advent and Christmas too, but I can't find any records of what they are on my computer and the song books are with all our Advent things in our storage area. I should probably have a running list of these books in case I ever needed to recreate them... and I'll be needing to make an additional book here soon as my younger kids gain reading fluency.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Folk Songs</h4>
<u>English</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Blow the Man Down</li>
<li>The Ash Grove</li>
<li>Oh My Darling, Clementine</li>
<li>Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground</li>
<li>Battle Hymn of the Republic</li>
<li>Polly Wolly Doodle</li>
</ul>
<div>
<u>Spanish</u></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>La Araña Pequeñita</li>
<li>Los Elefantes</li>
</ul>
</div>
Not nearly as many as we should be learning, but something is better than nothing, right?<br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Folk Dances</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>The Geud Man of Ballangigh (learned at CM West :: Retreat in Old San Juan)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46K4V6xmOww&list=PL86_YOns1db5bjs74IoU7e5EwZeyL7Wsw&index=3">Heel Toe Polka</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBBdgcHimoM&list=PL86_YOns1db5bjs74IoU7e5EwZeyL7Wsw&index=5">Virginia Reel</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Poetry</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NgvrYO">Rime of the Ancient Mariner </a>and other Poetry by Coleridge</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2MU6Bcc">Waiting on the Word</a> (Advent)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2uc2DUu">Word in the Wilderness</a> (Lent)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2FuCUx2">John Brown's Body</a> (An Epic poem about the Civil War - loved this, but it did require some on the fly editing)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Yd1fir">Poems Every Catholic Should Know</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2xbw2jD">The Oxford Book of Children's Verse</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br />
<h4>
Plutarch</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Finished Alexander the Great, which we started the previous school year</li>
<li>Julius Caesar</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NcHy9b">Demosthenes</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
We haven't used Anne White's books for Plutarch for awhile, but I decided to pick one up for Demosthenes. It was nice to get back to it, and I appreciate her notes and how she breaks up the life into readings. That being said, I would really like to own a complete set of Plutarch's Lives in hardback someday...<br />
<br />
<h4>
Shakespeare</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Finished Henry IV, Part 2</li>
<li>Henry V</li>
<li>Hamlet (with our Shakespeare group)</li>
<li>Much Ado About Nothing</li>
<li>As You Like It (with our Shakespeare group)</li>
<li>Julius Caesar (in progress - we will continue this over the summer)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Memory Work</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Old Ironsides, by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.</li>
<li>Gettysburg Address</li>
<li>Henry V, Act III, Scene I (One more unto the breach, dear friends...)</li>
<li>Hamlet, Act III, Scene I (To be, or not to be...)</li>
<li>O Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman</li>
<li>Psalm 23</li>
<li>Henry V, Act 4, Scene iii (St. Crispian's Day speech)</li>
<li>Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene ii (If you have tears, prepare to shed them now...)</li>
<li>From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson</li>
</ul>
<br />
Better than last year, but still... and I think I need to balance out the Shakespeare with some more poetry and Scripture selections. <br />
<br />
<h4>
Literature, Nature Lore, or Historical Fiction Morning Time Books</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2FyO3gj">Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Ndvsgg">One Day on Beetle Rock</a> (Such a great nature lore book!)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NaHQxp">Sun Slower Sun Faster</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2NaHSFx">The Ranch of the Golden Flowers</a> (a light, fun California historical fiction that we all enjoyed)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2X4nTrM">From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</a> (some of the family got to go to the Met this spring and I just had to read this to the kids!)</li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2X7Na9s">Peter Pan </a>(this started as a read aloud to my 1B kids, but after a couple chapters I realized everyone else was listening in too so I moved it to Morning Time - a definite favorite!)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Composer Study</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Chopin</li>
<li>Dvorak</li>
</ul>
<br />
I always feel a little embarrassed about how Composer Study plays out (or, really, doesn't) in our home. Even though I've given a talk on Music Study in the Mason Curriculum (twice!), composer study is one of the first things to go when I am struggling. Noise makes things so much worse for me, and even beautiful music counts as noise when I'm floundering. And in Term 2, I was definitely needing to cut back and have less noise in my life! <br />
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I have at least figured out a way to include casual listening to the composer's pieces. I set a piece as an alarm that goes off before our group work begins. When that piece starts playing, it signals to the kids that they need to wrap up their work and get ready for group work. This only works for pieces that are less than 6-7 minutes long though, but it has worked well for this year's composers who have a large selection of shorter pieces.<br />
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<h4>
Art Instruction</h4>
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We finished <a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school/">Alisha Gratehouse's Drawing 101 Course at The Masterpiece Society</a> as a family. Our teen, who has spent more time drawing than the rest of us combined, found it too easy to be helpful, and it was a little too challenging for our 13 and 10 year old boys who only draw when they have to. My husband and I benefited from it a lot though, and felt it was well worthwhile.<br />
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We decided we wanted something that was more specifically focused on nature study drawing after this, and we've been doing some of John Muir Laws' <a href="https://johnmuirlaws.com/drawing-plants/">How to Draw Plants series</a>. Video instruction seems to work very well for us to do drawing instruction as a group. This summer, we've also started working on some watercolor videos from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv6GKopxZztw6EqG6OoIGCQ">The Mind of Watercolor</a>.<br />
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Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-50128426848107864272019-06-25T15:33:00.001-07:002019-06-25T15:33:37.835-07:00Year In Review: Overview (2018 - 2019)So, to pick up <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2018/07/year-in-review-overview-2017-2018.html">where I left off last year</a>...<br />
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I started out my planning for the 2018-2019 school year intending to totally develop my own plans for the year. However, about 2/3 of the way through my planning, I was able to get access to a private Mason curriculum and I ended up replacing a few things I had planned, as well as using some of their choices. I was pleased with this curriculum, and I am looking forward to using it more fully this year. In case you're wondering, this curriculum is supposed to be more widely available at some point, but I don't know when. I think they are doing a great job with it though, and I hope that will be soon!<br />
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I feel like this past year has been a really solid year for us, even with the challenges. I can see areas that need improvement, but they are largely little things. Solid progress was made by all my kids, and I feel like our books, routines, and really everything overall went reasonably well. I do want to discuss some of the challenges of the year, because I think that's what is most helpful to me. I also review these posts as I plan future years, so I'm hoping this can also serve as a warning to my future self!<br />
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<h3>
Challenges for the Year</h3>
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<h4>
Adding a New Student (or Two)</h4>
Justin, who turned 7 in mid-September, started Form 1B (aka Y1 or 1st Grade) in the fall. Hannah, who turned 5 in November and is Justin's constant companion, was not interested in being left behind in anything. I ended up feeling like I had 1.5 students in Form 1B, only one of which was actually required to do the work. This for the most part went fairly smoothly, but carving out the time for two students to do reading practice was challenging. Hannah really would have liked to have more time dedicated just to her, but it was very hard to do that consistently. <br />
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<h4>
Shifting Naptime</h4>
Charlotte, who turned 1 at the beginning of the school year, started the year napping 4 to 4.5 hours a day. It was amazing, and it made it bringing in the 1.5 Form 1B students much simpler. But by November, the napping had declined to about 2 hours. And then by the spring, it was sometimes only 1.5 hours. And she was often cranky, because 1.5 hours is really not enough napping for that girl! I ended up redoing our schedule four times this year, and by the end of the year had resorted to assigning the older kids 30 minute shifts with Charlotte and wearing her a lot in the Ergo during morning lessons. I'm not as young as I used to be, and those hours in the Ergo were sometimes challenging. But we got lessons done a lot more peacefully that way, and I'm thankful I could still do it.<br />
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<h4>
Additional Church Commitments</h4>
This year I started teaching the second year Confirmation class at my church. I enjoyed the kids and the teaching, but it added more to my schedule than I had anticipated. Not only did I need to be ready to teach a class every week, I also had to plan an overnight retreat, speak at multiple Masses on some weekends, coordinate community service activities at the church, help with a parent session... and then there was the preparation for the Confirmation Mass itself. It was a lot, and it was largely all undocumented. But I took lots of notes and I've made a calendar for next year, so I'm hoping this next year will be a lot smoother.<br />
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Also under this category is being a leader for a small faith group at my church. We met during the morning for 1.5 hours for (only!) six weeks in the fall and another six weeks in the spring. In the first session we met at my home, which at least meant I didn't lose transit time too, but in the spring we met in town so the commitment was more like 2 to 2.5 hrs each week. It was tough to lose that much prime school time, especially when I realized that while 12 weeks total isn't that much out of 52 weeks in a year, it is a lot out of a 36 week school year.<br />
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In the end, what with co-planning and speaking at the CM West San Juan retreat in February, leading a Shakespeare group, two week long trips our of state, and additional church commitments, I feel like I was overcommitted this past school year. There were times, especially in January through April, where I felt really overwhelmed, and it took all I could muster to press forward and to try to keep things moving along. I was able to keep the school and home going reasonably well, but corners were definitely cut, especially in my home management and my being able to be present and engaged with my high school student.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-27046752688242860972019-04-14T21:03:00.000-07:002019-04-15T07:10:31.701-07:00Why Charlotte Mason?How I choose to educate my children depends greatly on what I think of the nature of a person. Is a person a bucket to be filled? A fire waiting to be lit? Clay to be formed? A plant to be tended so as to bear fruit? An image-bearer of the Living God? How I conceive of the human person influences how I go about educating my children, whether I realize it or not.<br />
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How I choose to educate my children also depends on what I think of knowledge. Is it something that is discovered from within, waiting only to be drawn out? Is it something that exists solely on the outside, the development of man’s thought through the ages that must be given to the child? Is knowledge something that is primarily gained in childhood through schooling, or is it a lifelong endeavor? Is knowledge a bitter pill that must be disguised or sugar-coated for a child to accept it, or does a child have a natural appetite for knowledge? And where does knowledge come from? Is the Holy Spirit the inspirer of all knowledge, or only the sacred?<br />
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I believe a child is a person, and a person created in the image and likeness of God. He is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and his inheritance is the Kingdom of God. He deserves to have a living relationship with his Creator, fully grounded in prayer, knowledge of God’s Word, and His Church. Since the Holy Spirit inspires all knowledge, not just sacred knowledge, a child also has as his inheritance the Kingdom of Man. He is also a citizen of the world he is born into, and deserves to be firmly grounded in where his country and people came from and how they developed. His inheritance from the Kingdom of Man not only includes history and the great ideas of man, but also art, music, literature; all that is true and good and beautiful. As a child of God, he has a natural appetite for this knowledge, and he deserves to be introduced to his inheritance with living methods, methods of education that build relationships and honor both what is being learned and the person learning. He is also an inhabitant of this wondrous planet that God has created, and deserves to have relationships with a great number of the things that God has placed here for us to know. There are so many wonders in this world, wonders of God, Man, and God’s creation, that we must be lifelong learners, continuing to explore and grow our entire lives. With all these opportunities, however, comes concupiscence, that limitation on our nature which can prevent us from becoming the person that God has created us to be. A child must learn how to have good habits, to pursue virtue, and to live magnanimously in his family and in the world so he can live out his calling in this world and be happy with God in the next. <br />
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I have found Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methods of education to be the best way to educate my children. It is a way that honors them as individuals, helping them to become the unique persons God has created each of them to be as well as helping them to form relationships with God, His creation and our heritage of history, literature, music, science, art, and mathematics. It helps them to develop themselves as writers and speakers with their own voices, and helps them to have a wide range of interests and worthwhile thoughts to contribute. It assures that every child, no matter how gifted or struggling in a particular area, has an opportunity to join the feast of ideas and relationships available to her. My children can study together in many areas, building our family culture around great ideas and beauty. Where skill levels prohibit working together, my children can study independently using methods that take them from what they know to draw them further up and further in. Mason’s methods require me to come alongside my children to help them learn and grow, encouraging me to continue to learn and to model lifelong learning. Mason’s methods help my children to overcome their shortcomings by insisting on habits like full attention and careful execution. Habit training and lessons in virtue are not extra subjects tacked onto the curriculum, they are woven into the very fabric of the lessons themselves. <br />
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I have been homeschooling for almost eleven years now and did not start as a Charlotte Mason educator. I started as an eclectic homeschooler, influenced by the Latin Centered Curriculum and The Well Trained Mind, with a smattering of Charlotte Mason’s methods. When I decided to transition fully to Mason’s methods eight years ago, it was a move born out of my desire to bring more beauty into our homeschool and to preserve my daughter’s writing voice and joy of writing. It was a gradual process which became a paradigm shift, giving my family all that I had hoped for and so much more. As I have grown in the philosophy by reading and discussing Mason’s volumes and attending, leading, and speaking at retreats and conferences, I have have found that our homeschool has gotten better and better for me and for my children. It has also had a profound impact on my husband, and has led him to have a larger role in our family and homeschool. I believe this philosophy of education is a gift for everyone, and while it isn’t a quick and easy system, it offers so much beauty and glory that the way becomes easy and the burden becomes light.<br />
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<i>[This was prompted by a email to my local homeschooling list, asking what style of homeschooling we use and why. I've long thought about writing something like this, and as I went about my day this afternoon, this is what was in my mind.]</i>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-41131111172962237832018-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:002018-07-19T16:07:49.709-07:00Family Keeping Meeting, Summer EditionLast fall we started a new tradition in our family. Just about every Saturday, we gather around the breakfast table at 7:15 and share a meal and pieces of our work for the week. This isn't just for the kids, but also for my husband and I as well. This acts as a time to check in our the kids' work, as well as an opportunity for my husband and I to share what we are learning about and our attempts to be lifelong learners.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglworTg6YEOIKUxVKhQQg4uBLiiFVoaHBSUIroPu0-mSnQst_XiAnSKdimP0IDvc2L6sWDV7fy-Is0W6L7gmQwNZ7odJBRt4GuR7Neslzuyz-No5BQU15StEL1-e9u0X1hKPUlAzCkPhI/s1600/P1000275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglworTg6YEOIKUxVKhQQg4uBLiiFVoaHBSUIroPu0-mSnQst_XiAnSKdimP0IDvc2L6sWDV7fy-Is0W6L7gmQwNZ7odJBRt4GuR7Neslzuyz-No5BQU15StEL1-e9u0X1hKPUlAzCkPhI/s400/P1000275.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You know, it is very challenging to take a picture of a large family sitting at the table and have it turn out decently. But I guess that's just to be expected. Photo courtesy of Gregory (and his new-ish camera with a timer)</td></tr>
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In our Family Keeping Meeting, we share each item from youngest to oldest before moving onto the next item. We don't all bring everything each week, but we all have at least something to share.<br />
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<h4>
What we share</h4>
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<ul>
<li>Book of Centuries/Century Charts/Stream of History or other time keeping</li>
<li>Commonplace or Copywork</li>
<li>Drawing Practice Exercises</li>
<li>Drawn Narrations</li>
<li>Written Narrations</li>
<li>Nature Observations</li>
<li>Finished Books (which I note and add to their reading lists)</li>
</ul>
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<div>
Then we review the activities for the weekend and discuss upcoming events for the week. We also settle on a schedule for our shared family work in Shakespeare, Plutarch and Art. The kids then have an opportunity to ask questions or make comments about the week past or the the one to come. The whole thing takes 45 min to an hour, but I feel like it has a much bigger impact on our overall life as a family than that. It keeps my husband and I accountable for using these various tools that we know are important, it allows all of us a glimpse into what we each are doing, and it gives us additional opportunities for conversation about what we're learning.</div>
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<h4>
Examples from a recent Family Keeping Meeting</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhmtQPuD9JayLm0tYBEYr-q_dEoDhPUK_-0Utxp4_MtsXt5iZnS-7EgiMXRAuvtZ6pLJZIqn4NqwbOPJ0ugIIz-KISHkYYpchiUnxZjW-jtf_ZK_RQS_BUE6KdzEt0C-nc-DbiVaP9Hk/s1600/IMG_8463.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhmtQPuD9JayLm0tYBEYr-q_dEoDhPUK_-0Utxp4_MtsXt5iZnS-7EgiMXRAuvtZ6pLJZIqn4NqwbOPJ0ugIIz-KISHkYYpchiUnxZjW-jtf_ZK_RQS_BUE6KdzEt0C-nc-DbiVaP9Hk/s400/IMG_8463.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gregory (12) - From Top Left - Drawing Practice, Drawing Exercise from <a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school-drawing-101/">Masterpiece Society Drawing 101</a> Lesson, Drawn Narration of the layout of the fort complex he is building with his siblings, and Nature Observations</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdEJgceq4YjSnnfqgrib3gjWec0GvIVu0gQrX0P5P-lPXvup_p9MGKA1ptkSw0kFskRR-WfHTfwtMFF1soaUsOoZP2HnyqXACpDWU9DmU4oqzCUhY6te46hPDcAmAOUEmx-xtPYOddcc/s1600/IMG_8466.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdEJgceq4YjSnnfqgrib3gjWec0GvIVu0gQrX0P5P-lPXvup_p9MGKA1ptkSw0kFskRR-WfHTfwtMFF1soaUsOoZP2HnyqXACpDWU9DmU4oqzCUhY6te46hPDcAmAOUEmx-xtPYOddcc/s400/IMG_8466.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan (10) - Drawn narration of watching the fireworks on the 4th of July, Nature Observations, Drawing Exercise from <a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school-drawing-101/" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Masterpiece Society Drawing 101</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Lesson, and Drawing Practice</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3lXoPik9-AUHblZa7P927K52ygo70BkqODtXbPPvRYk6JgxAf_5jp9VDwk819Ef3RRBTgajPE-gHkM44E4u5stIVT6NSz5TI63nnLl-ievXvFPScYvDMeQfN-5FajKpmFPmy9DbwmTw/s1600/IMG_8467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3lXoPik9-AUHblZa7P927K52ygo70BkqODtXbPPvRYk6JgxAf_5jp9VDwk819Ef3RRBTgajPE-gHkM44E4u5stIVT6NSz5TI63nnLl-ievXvFPScYvDMeQfN-5FajKpmFPmy9DbwmTw/s400/IMG_8467.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emma (16) - Written narration (on iPad), quote shared from <a href="https://wyomingcatholic.org/admissions/peak/">PEAK</a> packet, Lettering in her PEAK journal. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6hCX5HF4ZajEwIo1ywSqzbC1TTvaYARNRGvFqIUFw30K6iHPqdLlqbMZX33SVp6R83OhlZcQ9Qcvck1bRPo5uTTl8_v7rBzOv5SC-uSTS8XxYlKtSsKYfVNujwpcTZy1pIsrcG7DOaM/s400/IMG_8461.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My work - Written narration (on iPad), Drawing Exercise from<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school-drawing-101/" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Masterpiece Society Drawing 101</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Lesson, Commonplace quotes from The Memory of Old Jack and Norms and Nobility</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6hCX5HF4ZajEwIo1ywSqzbC1TTvaYARNRGvFqIUFw30K6iHPqdLlqbMZX33SVp6R83OhlZcQ9Qcvck1bRPo5uTTl8_v7rBzOv5SC-uSTS8XxYlKtSsKYfVNujwpcTZy1pIsrcG7DOaM/s1600/IMG_8461.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbqVpGh_8R8MQRUvy4xL4nyXSNRvdLcEelvnNPeLyJE7g6tG_hyphenhyphenlNKYEBnTBVc8KYxSqYAs3xwLTFhwGkKPH-gYa89fsN9Xcdq58EXeWrEm7VT81lA5kFmsGoZl7NAcPAXvf17LDfbuE/s1600/IMG_8462.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbqVpGh_8R8MQRUvy4xL4nyXSNRvdLcEelvnNPeLyJE7g6tG_hyphenhyphenlNKYEBnTBVc8KYxSqYAs3xwLTFhwGkKPH-gYa89fsN9Xcdq58EXeWrEm7VT81lA5kFmsGoZl7NAcPAXvf17LDfbuE/s400/IMG_8462.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt's work - Written narration (on iPad), Commonplace (on iPad - he uses his Commonplace for quotes and images that come from his reading), Drawing Exercise from<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school-drawing-101/" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Masterpiece Society Drawing 101</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Lesson, and his Book of Centuries entries</span></td></tr>
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Checklists</h4>
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And some might be wondering about how I manage to keep track of what we are doing, and what I give my kids so that they can be prepared for this meeting. </div>
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I keep a general Weekly Reference on my clipboard - this isn't just for the weekly meeting, but also has my evening review steps, weekly review steps and Sunday activities. I mark it up as I go through the Family Keeping Meeting and use it as a place to jot down what the kids have read as ebooks or listened to as audiobooks. (I have a place by my desk where the physical books are stacked.) Each week I print a new one on the back of my weekly overview sheet.</div>
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And since it is summer, the boys' list of weekly work is a lot shorter, and they do not have to bring time keeping or written narrations to the Family Keeping Meeting. They are welcome to, of course, but neither has taken me up on that yet! This goes on their clipboard and they get a new one each week.</div>
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Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-76633183294693578042018-07-09T20:11:00.000-07:002018-07-09T20:11:32.132-07:00Year In Review: Family Studies (2017 - 2018)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orienteering with a map and compass on a Sunday family nature walk</td></tr>
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<h3>
Subjects We Study as a Family</h3>
<br />
In our family studies, we tackle subjects together at set times during the day and week. Some of my children will have additional readings or work in these areas, and some will do all their work in this area with the family. Our family studies include:<br />
<br />
Lives of Saints<br />
Mass Readings<br />
Picture Study<br />
Hymns<br />
Folk Songs<br />
Poetry<br />
Plutarch<br />
Shakespeare (I also led a Shakespeare study with other families in the spring)<br />
Memory Work<br />
Literature<br />
Nature Study and Journaling (as a family on Sundays after Mass)<br />
Composer Study<br />
<br />
<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">There's a few changes from last year, but many things have stayed the same.</a><br />
<br />
<h3>
Changes This Year</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Shakespeare, Plutarch and Art Instruction</h4>
Last year my family started a process of integrating my husband more into our family studies by moving our nature walk and nature study to Sundays. This year we moved Shakespeare and Plutarch to the evening so my husband could join us in those subjects as well. When we read Shakespeare, we all take parts and read and then narrate the scenes together. With Plutarch, I read and those who want to can also follow along with a digital version of the text. We spend about 30 minutes two nights a week doing this and we've enjoyed this time together. I also appreciate how Shakespeare and Plutarch have become so much more of our family culture. In the spring, we also started working through <a href="https://masterpiecesociety.com/art-school/">Alisha Gratehouse's Drawing 101 Course at The Masterpiece Society</a> one evening a week. We will continue with these activities through the summer, because they are regular parts of our lives now, not just school subjects.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saturday morning family keeping meeting</td></tr>
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<br />
<h4>
Family Keeping Meeting</h4>
In the same vein as above, we've started a weekly Family Keeping Meeting. Really, this could be a post of its own, but essentially it is an opportunity for the entire family to come together and share work we've done over the course of the week. I make a breakfast we can share, generally a baked oatmeal and sausage links, and we sit down at the table together at 7:15 a.m. each Saturday morning for about 45 minutes. Each person, including my husband and me, share things like Book of Century entries, commonplace quotes, written narrations, drawn narrations, drawing practice, and nature journal entries. We move through this in order, sharing each type of keeping in sequence and we share from youngest to oldest. Once we finish sharing, we review the calendar for the day and the upcoming week, then we move onto the rest of our day.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Memory Work</h4>
<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">Last year</a> I tried moving to just having the kids do individual recitation by themselves, and letting them chose from a binder of pieces what they would practice. Each day of the week they had a different area to focus on - Shakespeare, Poetry, Bible passages, Hymns and Psalms. I saw some improvement in their recitations - less mumbling, more engagement - but I didn't like how individual our memory work became, and I didn't like how pieces were dropping from our collective memory. One of the things I've long appreciated about our shared recitation time is how the pieces we have memorized together have become part of our family culture, and touchstones for us as we share our lives together. After Charlotte was born and I had my feet under me again, we brought memory work back to our morning time. However, I did keep the individual recitation time for my two younger students (4th and 6th grade). They enjoy that time to recite by themselves, and it has made them stronger in our group recitation time. Everyone has welcomed this return, and it also keeps the pieces we have learned fresher in our memories.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Reading Aloud</h4>
This is an area that has become sadly and surprisingly deficient in our home. The younger ones still get read to throughout the day and especially before bedtime, but the only things I read with the older kids are the daily Mass readings, Shakespeare, and Plutarch. My husband still reads aloud after dinner, but often this is only once a week at most. I intentionally dropped the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">lunchtime read-aloud</a> when Charlotte was born, and I've found it a surprisingly difficult habit to resume.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Books and Resources</h3>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Lives of Saints</b><br />
We've enjoyed reading about the Saint of the day through <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/ebooks/">this series of (free) ebooks from CatholicCulture.org</a>. They are my favorite Saint of the day resources by far.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Picture Study </b><br />
<a href="https://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-artist-prints/drer-pneu-historical-collection-kxl75-lsjhg">Vermeer</a>, <a href="https://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-artist-prints/drer-pneu-historical-collection-kxl75">Constable</a>, and then a shorter study of E. Charlton Fortune and Benjamin West in the third term. This was my first year buying prints from Riverbend Press, and I thought they were very high quality. After seeing how great it is to have physical copies of the art, I had my own prints printed for the last term's subjects. I had previous just showed art on my iPad, but having the prints is definitely worth the money and hassle. Having physical prints also let me put one up on the fridge, which then informally included my husband in this part of our studies. We also watched <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tims-Vermeer-Martin-Mull/dp/B00K31E8NQ">Tim's Vermeer</a>, which we thoroughly enjoyed and led to some great discussions not only about Vermeer's art, but also about possibilities versus proofs. (Warning: brief bad language at one point at about the middle of the movie)<br />
<b><br /></b>
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<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Hymns </b><br />
<u>Ordinary Time</u><br />
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise<br />
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty<br />
For the Beauty of the Earth<br />
Be Thou My Vision<br />
<u>Advent</u><br />
Canticle of the Turning<br />
<u>Christmas</u><br />
Hark the Herald Angels Sing<br />
We Three Kings of Orient Are<br />
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen<br />
<u>Lent</u><br />
O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded<br />
Change Our Hearts<br />
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence<br />
<u>Easter</u><br />
Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise<br />
At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia! Hearts to Heaven<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Folk Songs </b><br />
I've Been Working on the Railroad<br />
O Susanna<br />
This Land is Your Land<br />
Star of the County Down<br />
She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain<br />
Simple Gifts<br />
<br />
<b>Folk Dances </b><br />
(Thanks to the Alveary to pointing me to these YouTube videos, and to my daughter for actually learning the steps to the first one, teaching us, and getting us going on it!)<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3GpysVsa3s&t=0s&list=PL86_YOns1db5bjs74IoU7e5EwZeyL7Wsw&index=2">O Susanna</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4l1HKihSRw">Big Mountain Circle Dance </a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Poetry</b><br />
The Courtship of Miles Standish, Malcolm Guite's two poetry collections (<a href="https://amzn.to/2MU6Bcc">Waiting on the Word</a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/2uc2DUu">Word in the Wilderness</a> for Advent and Lent, respectively), a poetry collection called Poetry Out Loud (which I don't particularly recommend - I read selectively and didn't share some of the notes - it was a library book sale find) and we've just started a long poem by Robert Service called Ballads of a Bohemian.<br />
<b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Plutarch</b><br />
Pericles, Fabius Maximus, Alexander the Great (in progress - this one is long, but good)<br />
<br />
<b>Shakespeare</b><br />
Macbeth, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 (not quite finished yet) and The Tempest with other families as part of our spring Shakespeare workshop.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Memory Work</b><br />
As a family I've only added Wisdom 2:23-3:9. Otherwise we've just been solidifying what was already in our memory work system.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Literature </b><br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2m47fsp">On the Far Side of the Mountain</a> by Jean Craighead George and <a href="https://amzn.to/2u3mTs8">The Little White Horse</a> by Elizabeth Goudge (shows how little we've read aloud together, doesn't it!). Both of these were read immediately after dinner at the dinner table by my husband over the course of the school year.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Composer Study </b><br />
Mozart, Handel's Messiah, Bach - I thought we did a reasonably good job studying the Messiah (and it is encouraging to see how familiar it is now that we've studied it for a few years now each Advent) but the other studies were not well executed. I never found a particularly good time to play the music for casual listening, and our focused listening was only so-so at best. Unfortunately, in a baby year, beautiful music becomes noise when I can't focus on it. And noise, which is always a trial, is even more difficult in a baby year.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-18440841664009232832018-07-02T15:47:00.000-07:002018-07-02T15:47:09.054-07:00Year In Review: Overview (2017 - 2018)<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/our-school-plans.html">In previous years, I've been able to write very detailed, multi-part summary of our school year.</a> This year I'm not going to be able to be as in depth. We welcomed a new little one into our family in the later part of August last year, which delayed the start of our school year by a few weeks, which then pushed out our end date out as well. That time I would usually use to write the summaries was taken up by finishing the school year, and now I'm at the point where I really need to start planning our next school year so I can start when we usually start. However, I know I will regret not writing at least a little about the school year and how it went, so here it goes.<br />
<br />
In the spring of 2017, as I prayed the <a href="https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Our-Blessed-Mother/novena-to-our-lady-of-good-counsel-april-18-26.html">Novena to Our Lady of Good Counsel</a>, (<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/search?q=good+counsel">as I do every year</a>), I focused on what our school should look like in the upcoming year. How was I going to manage the planning time I needed for the school year, write my conference talks for the CMI Western conference, be able take the kids to the pool, lake and river during the summer, endure the third trimester, and prepare to welcome to our sixth child? And once that all happened, how would I ever manage to actually run our homeschool with three students (10th, 6th, 4th grade), a 5 year old and a 3 year old, plus a newborn?<br />
<br />
In prayer, I realized that I was in a good position for the year, as my three students were all strong readers and could do quite a bit on their own. I would not be able to run a scheduled day with them - no morning lesson time table this year - but I felt fairly confident that with direction and some help, they would be able to do a reasonably good job. I could focus on reading practice with my five year old, and that, with lots of outdoor time and reading aloud, would be sufficient. My three year old could be included in this to whatever extent she wanted to be included, and this would be sufficient for her as well. Our morning time with prayer and poetry, music and art would continue, and would also continue to be a blessing to us all.<br />
<br />
The main sticking point was the planning. Last summer I was burned out on planning. I had spent a huge amount of time on it the previous summer (2016) and while it was a good year, I felt like things were just a little off. I also knew that I did not have the time to throw at the planning that I had in 2016. I also was far more enthusiastic about writing conference talks than doing all the planning work, which might have been a distraction I allowed myself rather than a legitimate project. <br />
<br />
In the end I decided to try the <a href="http://www.charlottemasoninstitute.org/alveary-membership/">Charlotte Mason Institute's Alveary</a>. I wouldn't have to select books, schedule them out, or create the spreadsheets. All those subjects that were taught in Mason's schools but aren't well supported by other CM curricula, such as sol-fa, foreign language, geography, drawing, and dancing, were included. With it, I was left with very little to do other than plan Sunday<br />
reading, buy books, print schedules, and make sure we had the appropriate supplies. It was a blessing for our family, and it made our summer last year much better than it would have been otherwise.<br />
<br />
I am thankful for the Alveary, and I feel like we had a good year. I appreciate the work they are doing to create such a full Mason curriculum, and I am glad it is out there. However... we won't be returning to the Alveary in this upcoming school year. I wanted to like and use the materials that are exclusive to the Alveary, but after trying them for a term, I dropped them and replaced them with other materials. The pace of the scheduling often did not suit my children, and by the second term I had made a number of changes. The level of the books also was problematic, and I ended up making a number of substitutions. In the first term I printed out the lesson plans and used them for their daily lists, in the second term I used the lesson plans for a couple of subjects, and by the third term I wasn't looking at them at all. My high school student did use the lesson plans throughout the year for some of the subjects, but there were other issues as well.<br />
<br />
As I prayed the Novena to Our Lady of Good Counsel this year, I realized that all the things that were working well in our homeschool were either books we had used or were using already or were books or resources I had found outside of the Alveary. Initially I was not looking forward to planning another school year, but once I realized how well we were doing while only giving the Alveary a passing nod, I decided that I could gird my loins and do it. Besides, with a ten month old, I have no summer or fall conference plans to distract me. <br />
<br />
And since I used the Alveary this year, I am not certain I can give as full of a review as I have in the past, even if I did have the time. Their work is proprietary, and I do not want to infringe on their hard work. In subsequent posts, I plan to share a few favorite books as well as things I've found on my own. It won't be as complete as previous years, but I am hoping it will be helpful for me in future years and perhaps helpful for others as well.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-67602094866236616772018-01-01T12:46:00.002-08:002018-01-01T15:39:16.135-08:002017 Reading Recap<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/01/2016-reading-recap.html">Last year in my reading recap post</a>, I listed all the books I had completed — with kids, pre-reading, as audiobooks, and my own reading — but this year I think I’m going to simplify, be more selective, and focus on the books I read without any strings attached.<br />
<br />
In 2017 I began a physical reading journal, and have faithfully entered every book I have read by month. This list maintains that chronological order.<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Three Men in a Boat</b></u> by Jerome K. Jerome - I had to read this one after reading To Say Nothing of the Dog. I thought it was entertaining, but not hysterically funny. But it was worth reading after reading Connie Willis’ book.<br />
<br />
<b><u>A Touch of the Infinite</u></b> by Megan Hoyt<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Doomsday Book</u></b> by Connie Willis - I read this at the same time as my daughter and husband, and we enjoyed sharing the reading experience and discussing it. A beautiful and haunting book.<br />
<br />
<b><u>On Being Catholic</u></b> by Thomas Howard - I decided to re-read a couple books that I read around the time of my conversion as I approached my ten year anniversary of being received into the Catholic Church. I remember when I read this book the first time it felt very foreign and strange, but yet like the story of a family I wanted to belong to. It was fascinating to reflect on how much more of a sense of belonging and understanding I have now.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Royal Road to Romance</u></b> by Richard Halliburton - OK, so this one was a pre-read, but just so delightful I couldn’t pass it up. If you have a student who is reading The Book of Marvels, you should read this book. It is so much fun to get more of the story than the little bits he touches on here and there in that volume.<br />
<br />
<b><u>New Grub Street</u></b> by George Gissing - This was one of my favorites from the year. Extremely well written, complex, and with much to think about in the book. I was also left wondering about where the author’s sympathies were. Did Gissing think he was writing a happily ever after ending?<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>The Joy of the Gospel</u></b> by Pope Francis<br />
<br />
<b><u>My Path to Rome</u></b> by Hillaire Belloc - I found this in my Kindle cloud and thought it was some sort of conversion story. Much to my surprise, I realized it was travelogue and really nothing else. In it Belloc slogs over hills and mountains, trying to take the most direct route from a point in France to Rome with nothing symbolic or particularly introspective about it. He complains a lot, drinks a lot of wine, and occasionally marvels at the view. I kept waiting for something more to tie it together or push it towards being something more, but it never happened. This was one I regretted taking the time to read.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>Marking the Sparrow’s Fall</u></b> by Wallace Stegner - This is mostly a collection of non-fiction essays on the West, with one novella at the end. I read this bit by bit as I rested after lunch during my first trimester and it was a wonderful companion, providing me with much food for thought and enjoyment. One thought that stopped me in my tracks was this one:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Until the Civil War and after, most of the West was not a goal but a barrier. Webb properly remarks that if it had turned out to be a country adapted to the salve economy the South would have fought for it, and its history would have been greatly different. He also points out that if the country beyond the Missouri had been wooded and well watered, there would have been no Oregon Trail.</blockquote>
<br />
<b><u>Oranges</u></b> by John McPhee - and early book by him, and not nearly as good as some of his later ones. But interesting nonetheless.<br />
<br />
<b><u>A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep</u></b> by Rumer Godden - While reading about what it was like to live in India before and during WWII was fascinating, and while I appreciated reading about how she was coached as a writer, I was left feeling like I would rather have not known more about her life and had just read her novels.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Kitchen Madonna</u></b> by Rumer Godden<br />
<br />
<b><u>Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer</u></b> by Rod Andrew Jr. - After reading Johnny Reb with the kids in the spring, I wanted to know more about Wade Hampton. There are a few biographies about him, but I’m not sure any of them are especially well written. This one was decent and reasonably thorough without being too detailed, but I thought the quality of the writing left something to be desired.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Last Child in the Woods</u></b> by Richard Louv - We read and discussed this in our 14 and up family reading club. For the most part it was interesting and we had a few good discussions about it, but I think we aren’t exactly the target audience for the book, as we live on 10 acres, spend a lot of time outside, hike and backpack as a family and provide a lot of open time for our kids to explore and play.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The 12 Week Year</u></b> by Brian P. Moran - A blog post drawn out into a book.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Lord Peter Views the Body</u></b> by Dorothy Sayers - I thought I had read all the Lord Peter books, but then this one came to my attention. Oh happy day! Even if it wasn’t particularly amazing, it was still fun to get to read some new stories with this character.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President </u></b>by Candice Millard - Excellent book, absolutely fascinating and hard to put down. It also made me want to read a biography of Joseph Lister, but I don’t like the one I bought. Anyone have any suggestions?<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>The Vatican Pimpernel</u></b> by Brian Fleming<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Gift of Birth: Discerning God’s Presence During Childbirth</u></b> by Susan Windley-Daoust - I read this in an attempt to make myself understand that, yes, I really was going to go through childbirth again.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Through Spain with Don Quixote</u></b> by Rupert Croft-Cooke - Quirky and fun to read. In this book he was citing other authors who had done a similar sort of trip in the late 1800’s, which was about the same amount of time between when Croft-Cooke’s book and me. I wonder what these villages and places are like now?<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>Catherine de’Medici</u></b> by Honore de Balzac - Yes, I read it but I felt like it went over my head.. I found it puzzling and strange. What was de Balzac trying to do here? I'm really not sure.<br />
<br />
<b><u>David Copperfield</u></b> by Charles Dickens - My Dickens for the year. Can you believe I had never read this one before? So good.<br />
<br />
<b><u>All the Gallant Men</u></b> by Donald Stratton and Ken Gire - WWII autobiography by a Pearl Harbor survivor. I enjoyed it as did my 12 year old history buff son.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Boys in the Boat</u></b> by Daniel James Brown - Another favorite from the year’s reading. So fascinating, and really neat to get to see Lake Washington where they trained when I was up in Puget Sound for the conference in September.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Mere Motherhood</u></b> by Cindy Rollins<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Benedict Option</u></b> by Rod Dreher - It sure would be nice if people would actually read the book before lambasting it. I enjoyed it and found it thought provoking. Yes, he's perhaps a bit over the top at times (I kept thinking, now this would be a hard man to be married to!) but I think what he says is worth thinking about.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Travels to the Interior of Africa</u></b> by Mungo Park - Mentioned by Mason in one of her volumes and an interesting read. Park was a very early explorer in Africa and I was surprised by how modern his writing felt.<br />
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<b><u>Hannah Coulter</u></b> by Wendell Berry - Such a good book! Another favorite from the year.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Paradiso</u></b> by Dante - Hooray, I actually read all of The Divine Comedy! I found this one a struggle. Purgatorio was my favorite, but I’m glad I stuck to it and finished it. I’ll look forward to reading it again sometime in the future.<br />
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<b><u>A Place of My Own</u></b> by Michael Pollan - I read this while I was recovering from childbirth. This is my kind of escapist literature - a book about building a little cottage out somewhere on the property where the author could be alone. I would love to have a little building like this, but unfortunately I won’t have the time or means to do so until I no longer have the need to get away from the noise and bustle of a busy home.<br />
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<b><u>The Singing Sands</u></b> by Josephine Tey - I was so pleased to find out that there are more Inspector Alan Grant mysteries!<br />
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<b><u>Deep Work</u></b> by Cal Newport - A family book club read. It was a little strange to be reading and discussing this book as I was preparing to give birth and recover from having a baby. But we had some good discussions and it was a helpful one for my husband in particular.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>Crossing the Threshold of Hope</u></b> by St. John Paul II - Another re-read from my time of conversion. My favorite from that time, and one that was extremely meaningful to me.<br />
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<b><u>The Man in the Queue</u></b> by Josephine Tey<br />
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<b><u>Sir Gibbie</u></b> by George MacDonald - Great book, although I felt like it sort of dwindled at the end. I am really bad at reading Scotch dialect in my head. There were pages where I felt like I was only understanding a few words at best. Interestingly, my daughter said she had no problem with the dialect. I wish Audible had a recording of it, as I would love to hear it read.<br />
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<b><u>Witness to Hope</u></b> by George Weigel - I bought this book the day before I went into labor with Charlotte and read it throughout my labor that day. St. John Paul II is Charlotte’s name saint (Karol being the Polish form of Charles, and Charlotte being the female form of Charles), which made it all the more appropriate. I felt like the first part of the book before he becomes Pope was stronger, but I can see the challenges of writing about such a long and far reaching pontificate. I felt like Weigel was summarizing more than storytelling though for the second half of the book, which made the book bog down. I also thought he pushed aside some of the criticisms of his pontificate a little too readily, at times reading a little too much like a hagiography rather than a biography.<br />
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<b><u>The Awakening of Miss Prim</u></b> by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera - Absolutely least favorite book of the year, hands down. Not worth reading. Didactic and annoying.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Slow Regard of Silent Things</u></b> by Patrick Rothfuss - I haven’t read any of his other books and I don’t intend to, but this novella about a minor character in a series of his was fascinating.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir</u></b> by Carolyn Weber - I loved reading about what it is like to attend Oxford. I thought her conversion story was well told, but I thought the romance angle with TDH was annoying. I think I just generally dislike romances, especially ones where’s there’s a lot of animosity and sparring in the relationship. The book did make me reflect quite a bit on my own conversion to Christianity, 14 years ago. This enriched the experience of reading it as I could see similarities in our stories, but also detracted from it, because I knew there was no way I could remember the sorts of details she was pulling out for her story. But then again, my story largely consists of God, me, a stack of books, a voraciously nursing baby and a lot of conversations in my head. It doesn't really sound like good fodder for a book, does it?Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-74062139141531286252017-10-17T14:36:00.000-07:002017-10-17T14:36:18.924-07:00CM West :: Conference at Puget Sound 2017 Recap<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEojSTk6wQaT0LogN590l82ihWysmEDXZjbQmyZRPfXhj3t8vinjgzw0rI_335fbz5uqJWLyKxpu4YsXHOLwzo8TMRWBet1b9T6N-2uzKvr1JQ3TItgNVAmwHSwCtl8FFcevyvl_3p3Ak/s1600/IMG_6719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEojSTk6wQaT0LogN590l82ihWysmEDXZjbQmyZRPfXhj3t8vinjgzw0rI_335fbz5uqJWLyKxpu4YsXHOLwzo8TMRWBet1b9T6N-2uzKvr1JQ3TItgNVAmwHSwCtl8FFcevyvl_3p3Ak/s400/IMG_6719.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All ready to go! I am so glad I checked the carseat and suitcase instead of trying to drag everything through the airport. It was so worth the extra money!</td></tr>
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At the end of September I traveled with my 5 week old daughter to Seattle to attend <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/2017/10/16/cm-west-conference-puget-sound-2017/">CM West :: Conference at Puget Sound</a>, the second Charlotte Mason conference in the Seattle area. I had attended the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/09/2015-northwest-charlotte-mason.html">first one two years ago</a>, and I was glad to be going back, although a nervous at the idea of traveling with a baby. I have traveled a fair amount, and I certainly have a lot of baby experience, but I don't have much experience traveling with babies. Thankfully she traveled very well, and was not the screaming baby on a plane that all parents and passengers fear to the depths of their hearts.<br />
<br />
At the conference, we had arranged for <a href="http://sageparnassus.blogspot.com/">Nancy Kelly</a> to give the majority of our talks, and I didn't have many responsibilities other than to help make announcements, answer questions, and keep the conference moving a long as near as possible to the schedule. Having such an experienced speaker certainly made that last job a lot easier! When we first began planning the conference 18 months ago, I had no idea I would be bringing a newborn with me and I was very thankful I wasn't also trying to speak and lead any discussions or other activities. <br />
<br />
Having a baby along at a conference was a new experience for me, and not one I'm particularly eager to repeat. Charlotte did wonderfully at the conference, given the circumstances, but I found it just about impossible to immerse myself in the talks, take notes, and participate to the degree that I am accustomed. I also found myself needing to retreat to my room with a cranky baby at the unheard of hour of 9 p.m., missing out on all that wonderful late night conversation time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EsVU_sNF3oQlc_qnPboHUXvO3tLmYCyY4lFGfc7Ym8IA2klf-py_HGnmBVok2GymmcjiLZs5prbXIJSkrydeX7asYDLefG_IiELCnVjptN5gX_UlQtZXMSUtBmxQNngbAxs-5ZGlhSU/s1600/IMG_6757.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EsVU_sNF3oQlc_qnPboHUXvO3tLmYCyY4lFGfc7Ym8IA2klf-py_HGnmBVok2GymmcjiLZs5prbXIJSkrydeX7asYDLefG_IiELCnVjptN5gX_UlQtZXMSUtBmxQNngbAxs-5ZGlhSU/s400/IMG_6757.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Washington - After reading The Boys in the Boat, I wanted to see the lake if I could get a chance. I got to take a lovely walk here after the conference with a few of the ladies who had later flights out, as well as a friend who lives locally</td></tr>
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As I've considered my conference experience, I've tried to tease out what I took away from it. I have a couple handouts, a slide deck from the wonderful Audubon presenter, a few scrawled and scattered notes taken while either standing or trying to balance a baby and a notepad on my lap, and a few photos. I have the example of how one master Mason educator listens attentively to narrations and gently encourages more responses by a quiet, "What else?" I also have memories of wonderful conversations at meals with people who live far from me but who have become dear through internet connections and seeing each other at conferences. I have new acquaintances and friends, found through time spent in nature together, at meals, and by trying to narrate to each other during the sessions. I was able to visit my husband's aunt and uncle, people I enjoy very much and don't get to see very often. <br />
<br />
I'm so thankful for this chance to go to the conference, to enjoy the beauty of the Puget Sound area, and spend a little time with friends and family. I'm looking forward to going back a third time for another conference... but perhaps in a couple years, when my youngest is old enough to leave at home.<br />
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<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-27999578887667899862017-07-11T16:04:00.000-07:002017-07-11T19:35:41.548-07:00Y9 Year In Review (2016-2017 School Year)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before I start planning our new year, I like to spend some time reviewing this past school year, the materials we used, and the changes we made. I'd like to share not only what I planned, but also what I ended up actually doing. I think one of the greatest shortcomings in homeschooling blogs is that we're great at sharing all the wonderful things that we want to do and plan to do, but not so great at following up and sharing what actually worked, what we bailed on halfway through, or what sounded like a great idea but never really got off the ground.</div>
<br />
I have definitely benefited from the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/">Delectable Education podcasts</a> in planning this school year, but as of last summer, there wasn't all that much there for the high school age students. They have since recorded several podcasts that were quite helpful during this last school year, and I'm glad to see them sharing information that is helpful for the older children as well as the younger ones. <br />
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The two most helpful things for planning this school year were the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/scheduling-cards/">scheduling cards from the ladies at Delectable Education</a> and designed my schedule using them. I treated each card as a bucket that I need to fill with some resource and pulled from a variety of places to fill my buckets. I also was able to attend Nicole William's science immersion at the CMI Western Conference last summer and that was very useful.<br />
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Emma still joins us for our whole morning time, and we study a number of areas as a family, including composer study, nature study, and picture study. You can read more about our selections and our year of family studies <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">in my previous post</a>.<br />
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In case you're curious, here's my write-ups for <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/06/ambleside-online-y7-in-review-2014-2015.html">Y7</a> and <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/07/year-in-review-y8-2015-2016.html">Y8</a>.<br />
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From Emma: <i>After Mom wrote this post, she let me look it over. I did this, and asked if I could retake the notebook-entry photos. She said yes, so all the photos here (except the one of me drawing) are ones that I took.</i><br />
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<h3>
General Remarks</h3>
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This was our first high school year for our first high schooler, and on the whole I am very pleased with how it went. It seems a little hard to believe that we're already in the high school years, but I'm also finding that they really are a joy. It feels very fulfilling to be assigning books that I had been looking forward to reading with her since we started our homeschooling journey 10 years ago!<br />
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Emma is still expected to narrate all her readings, and these may be in the form of a science notebook entry, a written narration, an oral narration to me or an oral narration recorded into Evernote. Most of her narrations are either written or in her science notebook, although I tried to have her do one oral narration to me each day. She would also narrate into an audio recording in Evernote if she had a lot of readings on a particular day. <br />
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All of Emma's written narrations get published to a private blog that is password protected. I get an email notification when there is a new written narration, and this is a great help in keeping on top of reviewing her narrations. She also publishes any of her digital science notebook entries there as well.<br />
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I've shared a small sampling of her science and nature notebook entries, as I thought they might be of interest.<br />
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<br />
<h3>
Subject Areas</h3>
<br />
These subject areas are from the scheduling cards I used to plan our year, not including the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">subjects we did as a family</a>.<br />
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<h4>
Bible</h4>
In addition to hearing and narrating the daily Mass readings, Emma was reading through the book of Genesis using the Ignatius Study Guide. I tried a different commentary at the beginning of the year, which we both didn't like at all (Haydock), so we didn't get quite all the way through Genesis. I gave her the option of using an Ignatius Study Guide for the New Testament or contining with the New Testament portion of A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture, and she chose the latter. She should also have been using our Bible Atlas, but in the little she looked at maps she relied more on the maps in the study guide.<br />
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<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sNVpTP">Genesis, Ignatius Study Guide</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tqWzH5">A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture</a></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Experimenting with a digital science notebook entry for a Physics lesson</td></tr>
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<h4>
Faith</h4>
In Mason's programmes, this category I think would be called Sunday Reading. We do have a period of Sunday reading, but that is for lighter devotional books. I decided to borrow some time from Bible to build a more robust faith component during the week. What it came down to was that I wanted Emma to write narrations about her faith readings, but I was not comfortable assigning written narrations on Sunday. Also, I wasn't sure that our Sundays would be stable enough because of other family commitments to allow for regular and systematic reading of more challenging texts.<br />
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<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tK77nk">Summa of the Summa</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sr3vTh">Catechism of the Catholic Church</a></li>
<li>St. Teresa of Avila's Autobiography, <a href="http://amzn.to/2tqPnL7">The Life of Teresa of Jesus</a> - After two terms we threw in the towel and decided to move on from this book. I think St. Francis de Sales <a href="http://amzn.to/2tK7IW9">Introduction to the Devout Life</a> would have been a better choice. </li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2srmw85">Saints of the American Wilderness</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sHI3gV">How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist</a> (Sunday Reading)</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sqJ2xL">Beautiful Mercy</a> (Sunday Reading)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
English Language</h4>
This, along with Citizenship, are categories I used rather liberally, including some things which perhaps were a bit of a stretch for the definition of the category.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://iew.com/shop/products/fix-it-grammar-robin-hood-student-book-2">IEW's Fix-It Book 2</a> - This book was not a favorite at all. In the end I had her do one term then said enough.</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sNB3tS">Roar On The Other Side</a> - Great book, definitely enjoyed this one</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2uLkb8K">How to Read a Book</a> - Multi-year read, and more interesting this year than in previous ones</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science Notebook entry</td></tr>
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<h4>
<br />
Composition</h4>
Frankly, I floundered in this area this year. Emma writes extremely well, and seldom has mechanical errors to correct. I sometimes had her expand a piece of writing or improve the structure of a written narration, but really, it was hard to know what to do in this area. We also sometimes used this slot for dictation, but again that was generally done so well it seemed rather pointless, like we were going through the motions just because we were supposed to.<br />
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<h4>
Literature</h4>
This is an area where we didn't make as much progress in our readings as I had hoped, which was entirely my fault. Last year we were reading through Dante's Divine Comedy, discussing two cantos at a time and watching the Great Courses lectures when appropriate. If we had continued doing this as regularly this school year, we would have finished Paradiso in the first term, moved onto The Epic of Gilgamesh, then read Paradise Lost. In the end we *ahem* are still around eight cantos from the end of Paradiso. Again, all my fault for not making the time for the discussions and lectures on a consistent basis or being willing to step aside to let her move forward without me.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sr8IKA">Paradiso</a>, Esolen translation</li>
<li><a href="http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dante-s-divine-comedy.html">Great Courses Divine Comedy Course</a></li>
</ul>
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<br />
<h4>
History (American, European and Ancient)</h4>
European history got off to a rough start because I ended up really disliking the spine I had chosen. Europe: A History is an example of what can go wrong in a modern history text, where they focus too much on the individual's foibles and sins and not enough on his accomplishments. And then there were all these strange full page sidebars that gave lists of famous figures with high intellects (including scores - how did they figure that out??), who was sexually deviant, and all sort of other speculative and useless trivia. <br />
<br />
I switched to Dawn to Decadence about midway through the first term, and while we enjoyed the book, I forgot to adjust my page counts which caused some problems in the third term. The other drawback to Dawn to Decadence is that it is much more of a cultural history than a history of events, although events are certainly mentioned. All the discussion of ideas in the book led to many great conversations, though.<br />
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I was very pleased with the American History book, A History of the American People, although I scheduled it incorrectly and we finished what we were supposed to be reading at the end of Term 2. Not sure what happened there... but it gave me room to add in a book that just came out last fall which I think is excellent. Continental Ambitions weaves together happenings in the Old World and the New in a very engaging and fascinating way, and it quickly became a favorite of mine. It brought a whole new light to New World events, and I ended up assigning chapters about the Spanish and French efforts in the New World. This made for some good conversation (and term exam questions!) where we were exploring the differences between the two countries' efforts.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tK2fi3">Dawn to Decadence</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tKeDys">The Catholic Church Through the Ages</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/trent6.htm">Council of Trent Document on Justification</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tSf8qC">A History of the American People</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tihpd0">Continental Ambitions</a></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science Notebook entry</td></tr>
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<h4>
<br />
Citizenship</h4>
Again, I used this category rather broadly.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.riverbendpress.com/shop-books/volume-4-ourselves-our-souls-and-bodies-combined">Ourselves</a> - finished Book 1, 5 chapters into Book 2</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tS4Fvg">The Prince</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sNH2PK">The Discarded Image</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2srmey7">Aristotle for Everybody</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Geography</h4>
This area had a couple bad picks too - I had planned to use Kipling's From Sea to Sea, but we found it boring and not all that useful as a geography read. We also started Chevalier de La Salle, but the anti-Catholic bias was annoying, and the target audience was younger than what was appropriate for my daughter. <br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tS9d4V">Christopher Columbus, Mariner</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tK3TzZ">Royal Road to Romance</a> (such fun!)</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tKwpBw">In Search of the Trojan War</a> - a used book sale find that I tossed in when I pulled a book</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2srmw85">Saints of the American Wilderness</a> - I included this in two time slots in the third term, since it also had a strong geography component</li>
</ul>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeGmIjNNwsayTqfAAOf_XFsVyxZ96D4pq_DUi6FhLtawU0TFdrpLrtIKpIe0R2pnJVJUaI8voUH4Kc-3j-snSEfhKx1fg31yBAOLmVeLanwr6DXITcIjUoVrCmlbh1qdykpj7gOckjJQ/s1600/IMG_3248.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeGmIjNNwsayTqfAAOf_XFsVyxZ96D4pq_DUi6FhLtawU0TFdrpLrtIKpIe0R2pnJVJUaI8voUH4Kc-3j-snSEfhKx1fg31yBAOLmVeLanwr6DXITcIjUoVrCmlbh1qdykpj7gOckjJQ/s400/IMG_3248.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science notebook entry and experiment record</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
<br />
Natural History</h4>
This area went well. I used Nicole William's guides for Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy and was pleased with them. I thought the Astronomy one was perhaps a little young for her, but workable. I also had a Biology track, as Williams recommends, and she spent two terms studying Botany and one term on Intelligent Design, taking a class offered in the evening once a week our community. I had her use the time slot during the day to write a detailed narration.<br />
<br />
In Botany in a Day, I had her read through and narrate the first section, then do a detailed science journal entry on each of the major families. Each week in the third term, I had her find a local wildflower and create a science journal entry where she described the family the flower belongs to and show the features of the flower that helped her to identify the family.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/living-science-curriculum/form-4-6-science-curriculum-gr-9-12/">Nicole William's guides to Chemistry, Astronomy and Physics and the books and experiments recommended in them</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tqzsMJ">Botany in a Day</a></li>
<li>Local Class on Intelligent Design</li>
<li>Local wildflowers and Identification Guide</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2tJMCqG">Wicked Plants</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sHUysW">Luther Burbank, Plant Magician</a> - more of a middle school level book, but still an interesting read</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2urLRAi">Brother Gardeners (First Section)</a> - I had hoped for more botany and less of a personal story, but still it was interesting to read about how plants we consider common were originally noticed and brought to the attention of of the Western World.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cDc0QpsloM1ky0nD_27MMftY4McdJvY5yG2R8o5or0gRHOliSjBAtOMpIhITWXVUvlcKf8tC8l6KWTc8tD1-w0ZF-GqHUhD1waIg2uqtK51i5O6wv4YGGVTkFwrHkJPpfxmpjYkb6Do/s1600/IMG_3255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cDc0QpsloM1ky0nD_27MMftY4McdJvY5yG2R8o5or0gRHOliSjBAtOMpIhITWXVUvlcKf8tC8l6KWTc8tD1-w0ZF-GqHUhD1waIg2uqtK51i5O6wv4YGGVTkFwrHkJPpfxmpjYkb6Do/s400/IMG_3255.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Nature notebook entry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
<br />
Math</h4>
This year Emma finished Life of Fred Algebra and started Algebra 2. I had some angst about using a book that is not widely used in the CM community, but in the end we decided that it is working well for her and we wouldn't change simply for the sake of conformity. I did change the Algebra 2 to 4x/week and add a one day a week geometry lesson to her schedule. I like the idea of the multi-stream approach to math, and this has been a reasonable way for us to incorporate it. The book I'm using is too easy though, although there are concepts in there that she has not encountered yet.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ztwistbooks.com/node/69">Life of Fred Algebra</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ztwistbooks.com/node/70">Life of Fred Advanced Algebra</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/practicalexercis00eggauoft">Practical Exercises in Geometry</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Modern Language (Spanish)</h4>
This is another area that could use some work. This is complicated by the fact that she's surpassed me in Spanish, which makes it difficult for me to figure out a course of work or to correct what she's writing. <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/">Celeste</a> suggested contracting with a translator through a translation service to do corrections which I think is absolutely brilliant, but I haven't done the work to set it up.<br />
<br />
At this point her Spanish consists of reading through a Spanish grammar and writing narrations (in English), reviewing conjugations and grammar concepts, and copying short stories and poems from a Spanish reader and either translating or writing narrations. I can handle correcting translations, but the written narrations are a lot trickier!<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/First-Spanish-Reader-Beginners-Dual-Language/dp/0486258106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435115348&sr=1-1&keywords=first+spanish+reader">First Spanish Reader</a></li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/29gh3qy">Essential Spanish Grammar</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAau4QXztGfg5jeimH9WLng0Vhcx7IWziNAaa00UHEMXtZvxMBW2w2Xd0I-sZgejjM9B1ZTK5HkPdVb5b-TMxDQVIs0wLdsxu-e7U_vol-rRpJACbwiBIm9DfCUBejG3ESdVilBTyoxyU/s1600/IMG_3254.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAau4QXztGfg5jeimH9WLng0Vhcx7IWziNAaa00UHEMXtZvxMBW2w2Xd0I-sZgejjM9B1ZTK5HkPdVb5b-TMxDQVIs0wLdsxu-e7U_vol-rRpJACbwiBIm9DfCUBejG3ESdVilBTyoxyU/s400/IMG_3254.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Botany in a Day entry where she used a local plant and identified it using the family information in the book.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
<br />
Latin</h4>
This is another subject where she has surpassed me. Ideally I'd like to find an online class that only requires one - two hours of class/work a week, but they all seem to require quite a bit more than that. In the meantime, she continues to do the exercises in Henle and I have to hope she doesn't have any questions, because I can't answer them!<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2sO6xQO">Henle, Book 1</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Music Appreciation</h4>
<div>
We used Robert Greenberg's fantastic Great Courses lecture series called How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. We didn't make as much progress in this as I would have liked, again because I wasn't making the time to always listen with her. But since I have listened to this course before, I eventually gave up and let her listen without me.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/how-to-listen-to-and-understand-great-music-3rd-edition.html">How to Listen to and Understand Great Music</a> </li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
Afternoon Work</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Music</h4>
<div>
Emma has been doing some piano study with Pianophonics. I am glad she's getting the opportunity to gain some familiarity with the piano, but I also realize that she can only go so far with a resource like this. But since familiarity is a reasonable goal for her and for our family, this fits nicely.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<a href="http://pianophonics.com/">Pianophonics</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
</h4>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9Kh65VIl6E_0H_7kG4dj1rvzWFdXUY4hTb3U1Ge4yIY5cjxIJi1Z0ZoCYbm-eYinZoIuDFg-KShvOr4jDhojeh53O0xyJdee2WSv2E4-MQgVu-QSgi6O3D-3wRGrhkh-Tw6vXJPfwc8/s1600/IMG_3247.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9Kh65VIl6E_0H_7kG4dj1rvzWFdXUY4hTb3U1Ge4yIY5cjxIJi1Z0ZoCYbm-eYinZoIuDFg-KShvOr4jDhojeh53O0xyJdee2WSv2E4-MQgVu-QSgi6O3D-3wRGrhkh-Tw6vXJPfwc8/s400/IMG_3247.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science Notebook entry from Botany in a Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
<br />
Drawing</h4>
<div>
We haven't done much formal work here this year. But she does sketch on her own (on paper and on the iPad), and her nature and science journal sketches are getting consistently better.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_0kpbl05tPJW5UMztLqXHfirXpEHpv0WuwVlJVHGQDAF0Wu8MhFLiExr4uhBaf2dupmW0pJnR4j-JkH8_W7vTIOVilJZaS_5TmoqiY5GL4cWRHqdDu2npjJUZlUKCmizFkrwn3GB8AE8/s1600/IMG_3211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_0kpbl05tPJW5UMztLqXHfirXpEHpv0WuwVlJVHGQDAF0Wu8MhFLiExr4uhBaf2dupmW0pJnR4j-JkH8_W7vTIOVilJZaS_5TmoqiY5GL4cWRHqdDu2npjJUZlUKCmizFkrwn3GB8AE8/s400/IMG_3211.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmwjlmVgNJ48nungSPwN6WGDmIZcz7MdwRhocoEoBe-_TGrFdE5NQk_PeFYZt_SEYNZSbakKZYEg768xo8T-DP3VZh7zomOp0K15-MtNsqgIBCib5vIrV_cmocdu2F0WkpglGOUQelwA/s1600/IMG_3257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmwjlmVgNJ48nungSPwN6WGDmIZcz7MdwRhocoEoBe-_TGrFdE5NQk_PeFYZt_SEYNZSbakKZYEg768xo8T-DP3VZh7zomOp0K15-MtNsqgIBCib5vIrV_cmocdu2F0WkpglGOUQelwA/s400/IMG_3257.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4>
Handicrafts</h4>
<div>
Emma didn't have any particular instruction in handicrafts this year, but she has continued to knit, crochet, and has also started working on calligraphy using instructions from The Postman's Knock. She's also been exploring mapmaking, at first to get a better idea of the geography of the country she was writing about, and then in a more general way as she grew more interested in the subject.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<a href="https://thepostmansknock.com/">The Postman's Knock</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.fantasticmaps.com/">Fantastic Maps</a></div>
<div>
</div>
<h4>
Current Events</h4>
<div>
Hmm. Yes. This area needs work. Current events are mainly in the context of things my husband or I bring up over the breakfast or dinner table - and since neither one of us are news hounds, that doesn't happen daily. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Writing</h4>
<div>
Emma spent a huge amount of time and effort working on a novel this school year. She started it in April of 2016 and finished it about a year later. She's now in the editing process with the book and is brainstorming and writing scenes for a second novel. I'm obviously biased, but I think it is an excellent effort and I'm proud of what she's written and also proud of her diligence and perseverance in the project, particularly when she realized in the fall that she needed to re-write significant portions of the book.</div>
<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXdgbj0ILhIiHSZpnu8yZZMEmY5yB1q_lSJxYQL3OcMHekPPJGihZBlasCq30100uBhPUxQjMAPO3dIwF5e5CjBBb6LHyJxfe7DEHI41Aqe2s-KCIDZgx1WeT03k64wAxkHEYbUXI6e4/s1600/IMG_6140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXdgbj0ILhIiHSZpnu8yZZMEmY5yB1q_lSJxYQL3OcMHekPPJGihZBlasCq30100uBhPUxQjMAPO3dIwF5e5CjBBb6LHyJxfe7DEHI41Aqe2s-KCIDZgx1WeT03k64wAxkHEYbUXI6e4/s400/IMG_6140.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lettering</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Favorite Reads</h4>
I keep a record of all of Emma's reading, and I asked her to look through the list and select some favorites. Some of the books are re-reads. None of these books were assigned, they were all ones she chose because they were on our shelves, were gifts, or were books I had downloaded. She does check with me before she picks up a new book, but I do not do much more than offer a lot of good books in our home and on our Kindles.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen</li>
<li>Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers</li>
<li>Pilgrim's Inn by Elizabeth Goudge</li>
<li>Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens</li>
<li>Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery</li>
<li>Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Younge</li>
<li>Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card</li>
<li>The Rosemary Tree by Elizabeth Goudge</li>
<li>Doomsday Book by Connie Willis</li>
<li>Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery</li>
<li>Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw</li>
<li>Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton</li>
<li>The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield</li>
<li>Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<i>Some links are Amazon Affiliate links which benefit <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/">Charlotte Mason West</a></i><br />
<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-44326497476366399002017-07-04T10:53:00.000-07:002017-07-05T15:21:08.258-07:00Y5 Year in Review (2016-2017 School Year)Before I start planning our new year, I like to spend some time reviewing this past school year, the materials we used, and the changes we made. I'd like to share not only what I planned, but also what I ended up actually doing. I think one of the greatest shortcomings in homeschooling blogs is that we're great at sharing all the wonderful things that we want to do and plan to do, but not so great at following up and sharing what actually worked, what we bailed on halfway through, or what sounded like a great idea but never really got off the ground.<br />
<br />
This year was a significant departure from the last two years, where we largely used <a href="https://amblesideonline.org/">AmblesideOnline</a> (<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/06/ambleside-online-y3-in-review-2014-2015.html">Y3 review</a><span id="goog_160915971"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_160915972"></span>, <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/07/year-in-review-ambleside-online-y4-2015.html">Y4 review</a>). I’ve been listening to the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/">Delectable Education podcasts</a> just about from the beginning, and I’ve found them extremely helpful, encouraging, and useful. They have vastly improved our homeschool and I have grown significantly as a homeschooling educator and mother.<br />
<br />
In planning the 2016-2017 school year, I decided to use the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/scheduling-cards/">scheduling cards from the ladies at Delectable Education</a> and designed my schedule using them. I treated each card as a bucket that I need to fill with some resource and pulled from a variety of places to fill my buckets.<br />
<br />
Some areas are studied as a family, including composer study, nature study, and picture study. You can read more about our selections and our year of family studies <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">in my previous post</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7k681LjrTI3PaL6tw5OZZ6PKWbVVVujw-yL_H4K8UM27U-N424wvcFaXR14VxqbqsOE6kwRhpELlQsOryxPbN52l5dj5-F5tdY60Pt8RZ32MRXKXZ9AU5dabGJc6lxlsCOkwWRznokU/s1600/IMG_5568.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7k681LjrTI3PaL6tw5OZZ6PKWbVVVujw-yL_H4K8UM27U-N424wvcFaXR14VxqbqsOE6kwRhpELlQsOryxPbN52l5dj5-F5tdY60Pt8RZ32MRXKXZ9AU5dabGJc6lxlsCOkwWRznokU/s400/IMG_5568.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Describing the boat he recently made</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
Subject Areas</h3>
<br />
These subject areas are from the scheduling cards I used to plan our year, not including the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">subjects we did as a family</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Bible</h4>
For a number of years I’ve considered our time spent reading, narrating and discussing the daily Mass readings as our Bible study time, particularly for the younger kids. However, over time I could see that while the younger children knew individuals and certain events in the Bible and the Gospels reasonably well, they lacked a coherent overview of the Bible. So in the second term I added 15 minutes a day to Nathan and Gregory’s where we read systematically through the Old Testament (Joshua, Judges, Ruth and part of First Samuel this year) and the Gospel of Luke (we’re about half-way through) We’ve really enjoyed this time together, and I can see how their knowledge and appreciation for the story of the Old Testament has grown dramatically, as well as their knowledge of Biblical locations.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tP7CZG">Bible</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sW7lXY">Student Bible Atlas</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tPf0nE">Sacred Art Series: The Holy Gospels of St. Luke and St. John</a> (Beautiful book!)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<h4>
Copywork</h4>
Gregory continued to work on copywork in print and cursive. I largely pulled from poetry and psalms for the first two terms of the year, but in the third term I realized he needed more practice with punctuation. I started assigning passages from Kim, particularly ones with a lot of dialogue, to help with this.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PPeaBHphXjtG3TTZMJ9CJoE6EzU1ppXmxfuyhFQqLpYJE6TFrH3AuRxkATbKIoZDKMi-bXrF1xgEdsLD7HQ4M3nDUEcdspyF5GL7IRMB5EMTWHZcW1f2Sv25jbaSwgPy8Hlx92M7SVQ/s1600/IMG_6004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PPeaBHphXjtG3TTZMJ9CJoE6EzU1ppXmxfuyhFQqLpYJE6TFrH3AuRxkATbKIoZDKMi-bXrF1xgEdsLD7HQ4M3nDUEcdspyF5GL7IRMB5EMTWHZcW1f2Sv25jbaSwgPy8Hlx92M7SVQ/s400/IMG_6004.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dictation Lesson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Dictation</h4>
Spelling is an area where Gregory struggles. Dictation has worked well for him, but it is a slow process. I've been using the Simply Charlotte Mason's Spelling Wisdom, which as worked well for us and is very easy to use. <br />
<br />
In practicing the words, for most of the year I had him build the words using a movable alphabet. This worked extremely well in getting him to slow down and to think about the sequence of the letters in the word he was studying. Towards the end of the year we were able to graduate to having him write the words on a small whiteboard, as he had improved so much in his sequencing that the movable alphabet was starting to feel like an impediment rather than a helpful tool.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/spelling-wisdom-book-1/">Spelling Wisdom, Book 1</a><br />
<a href="https://www.pinkmontessori.com/products/small-movable-alphabet-wood?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=7154416963">Moveable Alphabet</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2ttPNmE">Small Whiteboard</a> and markers<br />
<h4>
Grammar</h4>
<div>
I've continued to use Winston Grammar with Gregory, and it has been a useful and successful program for him. This is the only grammar program that I've actually been able to implement in our homeschool, and this is my second time through it. I appreciate how it has lots of practice sentences for the student, and builds the concepts gradually through the lessons. When I use it with him, I usually have him build the sentences and not mark up the sentences in the workbook. Then we go through each word and phrase. I would also sometimes have him copy a sentence and mark the it up using the directions in the program. At this point he's only about three lessons from the end of the first level.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<a href="http://shop.winstongrammar.com/Basic-Level-Winston-Grammar-Program-Complete-Set-001.htm">Winston Grammar, Basic</a></div>
<h4>
Literature</h4>
Thankfully Gregory is at the point where he's reading all his assignments to himself, except for Shakespeare, Plutarch and Bible.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2slmpPt">Age of Fable</a> (not a favorite, and did not lead to good narrations or retention - I'm not that impressed with it either even though it is a classic... but I'm not sure what I would replace it with)<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2s67RPi">King Arthur</a> by Howard Pyle<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2unFRYm">Kim</a><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzICR3PIAJXu8P3tzeGYq9ePl1HfQL2a2YlKRhuGamPdTjCecmFGpZEkZfbbFtvtz0fYRWzemK8gRtZhkfirv5nlKseTqrZi0U9EsE7uy_rbNWXNU_BXSB9iJp14Odl9M4xeYdK1Fg-s/s1600/IMG_5731.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzICR3PIAJXu8P3tzeGYq9ePl1HfQL2a2YlKRhuGamPdTjCecmFGpZEkZfbbFtvtz0fYRWzemK8gRtZhkfirv5nlKseTqrZi0U9EsE7uy_rbNWXNU_BXSB9iJp14Odl9M4xeYdK1Fg-s/s400/IMG_5731.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mapwork and narration, using a battlefield map</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
American History</h4>
Each history block also included narration and mapwork as appropriate. I also had him look up the various battles as he read about them if he had additional time, sometimes tracing or drawing battle maps for particularly important battles.<br />
<br />
In the first term I used America Grows Up and while I liked the quality of the writing and how the author encouraged the reader to consider some of the ideas behind the events of American History, I felt like it was really short on details. As were were going into the second term and starting our study of the Civil War, I looked ahead in the book and found that the book covers the Civil War in 22 pages, 4 of them full page illustrations. There's almost no details about battles of the Civil War, and little about the figures of the Civil War except Lincoln. I thought the discussion of the ideas surrounding and influencing the Civil War was good, but I was puzzled in how to actually use the book since there were so few pages. Did it really make sense to assign a page or two page each week? And what else would I assign during his American history work period? <br />
<br />
Even though the book is highly regarded in some circles, in the end I decided to put it aside and return to This Country of Ours, which we had been reading the previous two years. <br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2u3aT8x">America Grows Up</a> (which I bought last June for under $10 - can't believe how much it costs now!!)<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2s6ft4s">This Country of Ours</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2toZXo5">Of Courage Undaunted</a><br />
<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11171">Uncle Tom's Cabin for Young People</a><br />
Civil War Battlefields<br />
Lots of Historical Free Reads (see list at the end for favorites)<br />
<br />
<h4>
British History</h4>
<div>
The number of chapters in Our Island Story was a little light (15 chapters) for this time period, so I spread them out through the year and alternated with readings from three historical books and one book of historical fiction. This worked reasonably well, and I think we liked alternating better than trying to do a little of each in the time slot. These readings were all narrated orally and mapwork was done when appropriate.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2ttEBq6">Our Island Story</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2unT2Zh">Hero of Trafalgar</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tu1slw">Florence Nightingale's Nuns</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sr89zH">Into the Ice</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32934">The young Colonists; a story of the Zulu and Boer Wars</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Ancient History</h4>
<div>
This was an area of history that Gregory hasn't studied at all, but enjoyed quite a bit. Each weekly reading was joined with mapwork, oral narration, and often a drawn narration as well. Rather than having Gregory draw the maps freehand, I had him trace the maps using a light box then label them using a reference. It was an excellent compromise between just labeling a printed map and having to do it all from scratch. He was much happier with the results and much more confident in his mapmaking.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Resources</u></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/classical-studies/book-of-the-ancient-world/">Book of the Ancient World by Dorothy Mills</a></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=048990&subject=History%2FGeography/14&category=Map+Trek+%28Knowledge+Quest+Blackline+Maps+of+World+History%29/4737">Blackline Maps of World History</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tp3D9i">Light box</a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8tQElIWn3P9qSadBaThfmhegKvTyDgvySATeAYuKOLTGnoLY3hfFNPSH69gtIJK9ThbMA1RgQp6ZY-NFJchHVXnOqxlwdrtEiPk4ewLB01NfgfAzIYZB7ohd4VDMTfet7t56s4e_e1iY/s1600/IMG_5639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8tQElIWn3P9qSadBaThfmhegKvTyDgvySATeAYuKOLTGnoLY3hfFNPSH69gtIJK9ThbMA1RgQp6ZY-NFJchHVXnOqxlwdrtEiPk4ewLB01NfgfAzIYZB7ohd4VDMTfet7t56s4e_e1iY/s400/IMG_5639.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making a topographic map of an island he created out of clay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Geography</h4>
This was scheduled twice a week, and in one session Gregory read from Halliburton's Book of Marvels and in the other we did hands-on geography activities. In our hands on session, we explored local maps, political maps, terrain maps, and the globe through discussion and exercises. <br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
Halliburton's Book of Marvels, The Occident<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rScXm9">Illustrated Atlas for Young America</a><br />
Various maps and a globe<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1x9z7fA5DEx1YLFRzncpfsJ2eNtWBMW9pzfkihUQTYlNnZV0A6UWKe_IyPPJbzCw3P5dARd5WTJPQxRMXME-FJMJUkHnzt7liMNN7YIdnRynnHQdRtlMakI8ikXz638_rc1YrN4nTZg/s1600/IMG_5902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1x9z7fA5DEx1YLFRzncpfsJ2eNtWBMW9pzfkihUQTYlNnZV0A6UWKe_IyPPJbzCw3P5dARd5WTJPQxRMXME-FJMJUkHnzt7liMNN7YIdnRynnHQdRtlMakI8ikXz638_rc1YrN4nTZg/s400/IMG_5902.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exploring with Snap Circuits</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Natural History</h4>
Gregory had three natural history slots in his schedule, and each slot had a different focus. In one he read Great Inventors and Their Inventions, narrating and drawing something from what he read. In the third term I also had him start writing some narrations from this book as well. This was one of his favorite books this year.<br />
<br />
In the second slot, he read through the Christian Liberty Reader, Book 5, about the human body. This book was not a favorite for either of us, but we made it through. He also narrated this, both orally and in diagrams or sketches.<br />
<br />
The third slot changed each term. In the first Gregory read Rocks, Rivers and the Changing Earth and did most of the suggested experiments in the book. This was another favorite of his. In the second we sort of used Nicole William's Astronomy guide, but between me being in my first trimester of this pregnancy and an incredibly stormy winter, we didn't really do a very good job of it. In the third term Gregory studied electricty, which was also a favorite. He read from the Junior Science book of Electricity, did experiments from that book, built with Snap Circuits, drew diagrams and had a grand time.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2uoiZYS">Rocks, Rivers and the Changing Earth</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2uod8T7">Find the Constellations</a><br />
<a href="http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/downloads/elementary-school-astronomy-study-guide/">Astronomy Study Guide</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2unYyv6">Junior Science Book of Electricity</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tu8k2n">Snap Circuits</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<h4>
Math</h4>
This is another area where I made significant changes. Over the summer I heard Sonya Schafer speak about Richele Baburina’s book, Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching and demonstrate what living math instruction can look like. I was incredibly impressed and decided that this is what I needed to do with Nathan and Gregory. I had been using MEP, but I found it difficult to break away from the worksheet mentality of it. Gregory was going through the mechanics of what MEP was asking of him, but I could tell he didn't fully understand what he was doing. He also seemed to be lacking in some foundational understanding of numeracy, and this was hindering him as he grappled with multi-digit multiplication and long division.<br />
<br />
We spent the first part of the year solidifying our math foundations using techniques in Baburina’s book and running a store where the boys were practicing with a variety of math operations as well as writing receipts and keeping financial records. After the first term, it became obvious that I needed to separate the boys for math, because something happened in Gregory's math understanding and he leaped ahead of his brother. I shuffled the schedule and figured out how to make the time to teach them separately. I was so thrilled to see this happen, it is one of the biggest successes of this school year.<br />
<br />
In the second term I started to use a geometry book one day a week, which was a nice addition to his math studies. I really like the multi-stream approach to math. <br />
<br />
In the third term I started using the Strayer-Upton book to make it easier to come up with practice problems and such. Pregnancy was taking a toll on my on-the-fly creativity, and I really appreciated having a straight-forward resource that I could easily pick and choose problems from as needed.<br />
<br />
We also included some logic work a few times a week using a couple different resources.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/mathematics-an-instrument-for-living-teaching/">Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching</a><br />
Play Money<br />
Coins (including lots of pennies)<br />
Strayer-Upton, Book 2<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2srNwXt">Logic Links</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sVdunR">Tangoes</a><br />
<a href="https://archive.org/details/practicalexercis00eggauoft">Practical Exercises in Geometry</a><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8APD50ZO7WrkvH6KjIRbW7C9A00RaHo5pu3L91NHau-aX_q9ss4iLZTeWKgrrg28NHU5EdZ150zCFGxkuIxbXuWVbOwXnNKK6llo2WxkjzZ0QQX9p7GmATjIOlvO-KoOfb9XcGZfcsg4/s1600/IMG_1193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8APD50ZO7WrkvH6KjIRbW7C9A00RaHo5pu3L91NHau-aX_q9ss4iLZTeWKgrrg28NHU5EdZ150zCFGxkuIxbXuWVbOwXnNKK6llo2WxkjzZ0QQX9p7GmATjIOlvO-KoOfb9XcGZfcsg4/s400/IMG_1193.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installing the new wheels for the garden cart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Recitation</h4>
As I mentioned in my family studies post, we added recitation into the boys’ schedule about halfway through the school year.<br />
<br />
<u>Selections</u><br />
The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth<br />
O Captain, My Captain! by Walt Whitman<br />
Psalm 67<br />
Psalm 33<br />
Psalm 19<br />
Gettysburg Address<br />
Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Scene 1 (about half of the scene)<br />
John 15:1-11<br />
John 10:1-16<br />
<br />
<h4>
Latin</h4>
I had used Latin for Children Primer A last year, and wasn't all that happy with it. I wrestled with what to do quite a bit last summer, and decided I would go ahead and teach from what I know well, which is Henle. This worked reasonably well, as we took it slow and plodded along, making progress. However, Latin became Gregory's most dreaded subject in the process, which started to impede his learning. In term 3 I decided that we needed to mix things up a bit and grabbed Minimus off the shelf. This was a very welcome change, and while I didn't completely cast Henle aside, using the combination of the two books worked well and became much more effective and enjoyable (although more teacher intensive!).<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tu72o0">Henle, Book 1</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2uo248J">Minimus</a><br />
<h4>
Modern Language (Spanish)</h4>
This is an area where we’ve had a lot of transition over the course of the year. We started with just using Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and François, Volume 1 and including a song, a poem, and prayers in Spanish and then added in other activities such as building dictated sentences with picture cards, calendar work, vocabulary games like Simon Says, rhymes and increasing the number of songs we learned. I’ve learned a lot from <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/">Celeste Cruz</a>, particularly from her talk at the <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/2017/03/04/cm-west-conference-redwoods-2017/">Conference in the Redwoods</a> in February, and I’m looking forward to continuing to improve in this area.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://cherrydalepress.com/?page_id=15">Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and François, Volume 1</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rDypr8">De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sRzRtj">Pio Peep!</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Singing</h4>
This is another area that has seen a lot of growth. I have been focusing on developing the boys’ sense of rhythm and beat using a variety of means. I have done a little Sol-fa with them, but largely trying to reinforce what they are learning through the Hoffman Academy. As an aside, Hoffman Academy has been wonderful for the boys! We signed up for their subscription service and it is well worth the expense. They are learning a lot, enjoying the lessons, and the scripted practice sessions are so helpful. They have a great ear training game as well which has been a very helpful addition to their music studies.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://enjoyingmusicathome.wordpress.com/">Music at Home</a><br />
<a href="https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/">Hoffman Academy</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Physical Education/Drill</h4>
This was going to be the year I learned about <a href="https://afterthoughtsblog.net/author/Dawn/page/2">Swedish Drill through Dawn Duran’s series</a>… and, then, well, it didn’t happen. This is definitely an area that needs improvement.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5A4A3TjVqzM_NOVsGGGeIJnC_LzSNTC3BQZJkFfZCYL07zKxSbEaQAqcE1iJWHGL6qUpiuUJCZ98AWwY3Lmw1IL-l1Za5qbJGzmnMvuN-2Lzxt8E4_-nnTBgjKPyFts8Kpm6s9Y9I_74/s1600/IMG_5895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5A4A3TjVqzM_NOVsGGGeIJnC_LzSNTC3BQZJkFfZCYL07zKxSbEaQAqcE1iJWHGL6qUpiuUJCZ98AWwY3Lmw1IL-l1Za5qbJGzmnMvuN-2Lzxt8E4_-nnTBgjKPyFts8Kpm6s9Y9I_74/s400/IMG_5895.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A goat he whittled for his aunt's birthday</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4>
Handicraft/Work</h4>
We started doing Sloyd this year, which has been a great success. I am coming to appreciate the importance of Sloyd in the curriculum, so much so that I’ll be speaking about Sloyd at the CMI Western Conference in July.<br />
<br />
Gregory has really taken off with whittling, and one of his favorite pastimes is tinkering down in the shed with this idea or that. He's retrofited a garden cart with wooden wheels, built several catapults, a wagon or two, and innumerable muskets and rifles. We have also done some sewing together here and there, and Gregory tackled the lap loom to make some Christmas gifts as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://archive.org/details/papersloydhandbo00rich">Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades</a> - if you are going to use this book, I highly recommend printing the PDF. The book isn't that long, and if you print the PDF the illustrations in the book will not be stretched.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0BGUBUKOOPgGOdy8eArh6PGYxCm5oyUyzWyWrMLbWYkuQyfE546YqCTUZA9tPRjYKryG0LPGZfFmbiZY7wcgEqEHX6GNyqKmwy3Fe309J9OpZ0rodV3NCQGeMb7cRhxBGv3zo0RlNhVE/s1600/IMG_5822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0BGUBUKOOPgGOdy8eArh6PGYxCm5oyUyzWyWrMLbWYkuQyfE546YqCTUZA9tPRjYKryG0LPGZfFmbiZY7wcgEqEHX6GNyqKmwy3Fe309J9OpZ0rodV3NCQGeMb7cRhxBGv3zo0RlNhVE/s400/IMG_5822.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing what he can make out of stuff that is laying around... this is his wheelbarrow</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Favorite Free Reads</h4>
I also like to include a few favorites from the year's reading. I try to record all the books the kids read throughout the year by having them place completed books on my desk. I also try and capture ebooks and audiobooks, but without that physical place to put the books they sometimes slip through the cracks. As I'm doing this review, I print out the list and have the child mark their favorites. I ask them to be discriminating and to not choose too many... but as you can see from this list, there were a lot of favorites!<br />
<br />
Gregory has a particular fondness for historical books, but reads quite a lot of fiction as well.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>White Fang</li>
<li>Little House Series</li>
<li>Mr. Bell Invents the Telephone</li>
<li>Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, Return of the King</li>
<li>A Nose for Trouble (his favorite Kjelgaard book)</li>
<li>Clipper Ship Days</li>
<li>The Battle of Lake Erie</li>
<li>The Swamp Fox of the Revolution (he's read this a number of times)</li>
<li>Daniel Boone by John Mason</li>
<li>The Story of Andrew Jackson</li>
<li>Captain Cook Explores the South Seas</li>
<li>The Golden Goblet</li>
<li>Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo</li>
<li>Tarzan of the Apes</li>
<li>Casting the Gods Adrift</li>
<li>Of Courage Undaunted</li>
<li>Raccoons are the Brightest People</li>
<li>Riders of the Pony Express</li>
<li>Harry Potter series (books 1-6)</li>
<li>John Paul Jones, Soldier of the Sea (I'm not sure I can count how many times he's read this book)</li>
<li>The Cave by the Beech Ford</li>
<li>St. Philip of the Joyous Heart</li>
<li>The Story of King Arthur</li>
<li>Rocks, Rivers and the Changing Earth</li>
<li>They Flew to Glory</li>
<li>Invincible Louisa</li>
<li>Swiss Family Robinson</li>
<li>Florence Nightingale's Nuns</li>
<li>Rifles for Watie</li>
<li>Across Five Aprils</li>
<li>The Story of D-Day</li>
<li>Lee and Grant at Appomattox</li>
<li>Saint John Bosco</li>
<li>Bull Run</li>
<li>Stonewall Jackson</li>
<li>Clara Barton</li>
<li>Into the Ice</li>
<li>Hero of Trafalgar: The Story of Lord Nelson</li>
<li>Wyatt Earp: U.S. Marshal</li>
<li>Chaplain in Gray: Father Abram Ryan</li>
<li>Stormy</li>
<li>The Black Pearl</li>
<li>The 290</li>
<li>St. Louis and the Last Crusade</li>
<li>Girl of the Shining Mountains</li>
<li>Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath</li>
<li>Sailing on the Ice</li>
<li>Messenger from K'Itai</li>
<li>Rascal</li>
<li>The Story of Thomas Edison</li>
<li>Roald Amundsen</li>
<li>Leonardo Da Vinci (which he read in Y3, but picked up again this year)</li>
<li>Simon Bruté and the Western Adventure</li>
<li>Great Inventors and Their Inventions</li>
<li>The Book of the Ancient World</li>
<li>Commander of the Flying Tigers</li>
<li>Kim</li>
</ul>
<div>
(Phew, I can't believe I just typed all that - and no, this wasn't every book he read this year!)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Some links are Amazon Affiliate links which benefit <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/">Charlotte Mason West</a></i></div>
<div>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-61175207317105884342017-06-27T13:43:00.000-07:002017-06-27T13:43:07.438-07:00Year In Review: Y3 (2016 - 2017)Before I start planning our new year, I like to spend some time reviewing this past school year, the materials we used, and the changes we made. I'd like to share not only what I planned, but also what I ended up actually doing. I think one of the greatest shortcomings in homeschooling blogs is that we're great at sharing all the wonderful things that we want to do and plan to do, but not so great at following up and sharing what actually worked, what we bailed on halfway through, or what sounded like a great idea but never really got off the ground.<br />
<br />
This year was a significant departure from the last two years, where we largely used <a href="https://amblesideonline.org/">AmblesideOnline</a> (<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/06/2014-2015-y1-in-review.html">Y1 review</a>, <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/06/year-in-review-ambleside-online-y2-2015.html">Y2 review</a>). I’ve been listening to the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/">Delectable Education podcasts</a> just about from the beginning, and I’ve found them extremely helpful, encouraging, and useful. They have vastly improved our homeschool and I have grown significantly as a homeschooling educator and mother.<br />
<br />
In planning the 2016-2017 school year, I decided to use the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/scheduling-cards/">scheduling cards from the ladies at Delectable Education</a> and designed my schedule using them. I treated each card as a bucket that I need to fill with some resource and pulled from a variety of places to fill my buckets. <br />
<br />
Some areas are studied as a family, including composer study, nature study, and picture study. You can read more about our selections and our year of family studies <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">in my previous post</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNTSG7D1DjDElBCpfen6Qo9TeapOj5Bvyep3WehAoBFddD9Ey_fhSxnfoHUT5rk0K6RBsiwpLYBNryeJL-P0nDSku7O12HJS43oRS-PAw6bnKIqOWfLGBOMiIL9isBwSaAjIhTAQtNcU/s1600/IMG_5457.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNTSG7D1DjDElBCpfen6Qo9TeapOj5Bvyep3WehAoBFddD9Ey_fhSxnfoHUT5rk0K6RBsiwpLYBNryeJL-P0nDSku7O12HJS43oRS-PAw6bnKIqOWfLGBOMiIL9isBwSaAjIhTAQtNcU/s400/IMG_5457.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checkers are always better with an audience, don't you think?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
Subject Areas</h3>
<br />
These subject areas are from the scheduling cards I used to plan our year, not including the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2017/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2016-2017.html">subjects we did as a family</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Bible</h4>
For a number of years I’ve considered our time spent reading, narrating and discussing the daily Mass readings as our Bible study time, particularly for the younger kids. However, over time I could see that while the younger children knew individuals and certain events in the Bible and the Gospels reasonably well, they lacked a coherent overview of the Bible. So in the second term I added 15 minutes a day to Nathan and Gregory’s where we read systematically through the Old Testament (Joshua, Judges, Ruth and part of First Samuel this year) and the Gospel of Luke (we’re about half-way through) We’ve really enjoyed this time together, and I can see how their knowledge and appreciation for the story of the Old Testament has grown dramatically, as well as their knowledge of Biblical locations.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tP7CZG">Bible</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sW7lXY">Student Bible Atlas</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tPf0nE">Sacred Art Series: The Holy Gospels of St. Luke and St. John</a> (Beautiful book!)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilOGFJgryFz0MWbiGucz3Tj5ixB05G0zSlj8EdNIQJAicTYc_8f7tnz_YLgwPXnz0MVYUEZr7OQpj-bAdhCQKibvdbXO6h_smOYmILwMBUey4ZMauhqLPSDZkS5C0oc8xqmdlat1_aRJM/s1600/IMG_5159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilOGFJgryFz0MWbiGucz3Tj5ixB05G0zSlj8EdNIQJAicTYc_8f7tnz_YLgwPXnz0MVYUEZr7OQpj-bAdhCQKibvdbXO6h_smOYmILwMBUey4ZMauhqLPSDZkS5C0oc8xqmdlat1_aRJM/s400/IMG_5159.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
Copywork</h4>
Copywork was sort of a hodgepodge this year, a combination of pages from Classical Copywork, the Simply Charlotte Mason print to cursive book, and copywork assigned from his recitation work. I continued to make copywork books with my ProClick, which worked well.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://www.classicalcopywork.com/">Classical Copywork</a><br />
<a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/print-to-cursive-proverbs/">Simply Charlotte Mason Print to Cursive Proverbs</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tP912o">ProClick</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Literature</h4>
I read all of these out loud, except for the Uncle Tom’s Cabin for Young Folks.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tOUhR0">D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sWyLgx">Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rSlaqE">American Tall Tales</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tP3zfX">Uncle Tom's Cabin: Young Folks' Edition</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2tP3zfX">Jungle Book</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
American History</h4>
This year I decided to switch Nathan’s history to an American focus and I lined up his historical period with his older brother’s. We used to study the same historical time period as a family, and that’s one of the things I’ve missed in the two years we spent largely following AmblesideOnline. I don’t think it has to be this way, but it is definitely our family’s preference. This was scheduled twice a week, and once a week he would read from the spine, and the other from one of the other books listed (in succession). Each history block also included narration, mapwork as appropriate, and occasionally a drawn narration.<br />
<br />
This is the second time I've used American History Stories as a spine, and while there are some things I like about it, namely the quality of the writing and the variety of stories included, I feel like it also can be a little long-winded and it definitely contains some inappropriate references to people of other races. Like last time I skipped some chapters and it worked out reasonably well. <br />
<br />
I read aloud American History Stories in the first and second terms, then let Nathan read it to himself in term 3. He read all the other ones himself. It was a little challenging to find good books at his reading level, particularly since his reading level changed so dramatically over the course of the year.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
American History Stories, <a href="http://amzn.to/2rWuqVX">Vol. 3</a> (partial) & <a href="http://amzn.to/2rSBgAu">Vol. 4</a> - spine<br />
Sacajawea<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rWoSL1">Walking the Road to Freedom</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sWnxZm">Riding the Pony Express</a><br />
Abraham Lincoln: For the People<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sVgjoC">Gettysburg: Tad Lincoln's Story</a> by F.N. Monjo<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rDvGho">Stonewall Jackson</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Geography</h4>
This was scheduled twice a week, and for the first two terms I read from Elementary Geography in one session and we did hands-on geography activities in the other. In our hands on session, we explored local maps, political maps, terrain maps, and the globe through discussion and exercises. In the third term, we finished Elementary Geography and I had him read, narrate and do mapwork with Paddle to the Sea.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sWJreY">Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rScXm9">Illustrated Atlas for Young America</a><br />
Various maps and a globe<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFTyRO2N3yQzSQocW_oik5-FHglHIOfVZ1gRCrVUPMFTWXgM3mg_CRFz2LY6psXLgp_ezf8C_zQuwVpQxuqTWXjoYhiDJwZVnzppncSu1i1Q3eAUQu9AjiLFcN8orAEhXWd5_Zt5kMwY/s1600/IMG_1199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFTyRO2N3yQzSQocW_oik5-FHglHIOfVZ1gRCrVUPMFTWXgM3mg_CRFz2LY6psXLgp_ezf8C_zQuwVpQxuqTWXjoYhiDJwZVnzppncSu1i1Q3eAUQu9AjiLFcN8orAEhXWd5_Zt5kMwY/s400/IMG_1199.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cataloguing everything he could see within a circle of string in his nature journal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Natural History</h4>
This year Nathan read through A Drop of Water and did the experiments in the first half of the year and then focused on astronomy in the second half of the year. In his astronomy study, he made drawn narrations as well as oral narrations, and towards the end of the year I had him add a sentence, either copied or composed, to his drawn narrations.<br />
<br />
Nathan also read several nature lore books over the course of the year as well.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rWpqAr">A Drop of Water</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sWBKpf">Fun with Astronomy by Mae and Ira Freeman </a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rWj5Fp">Our Solar System by Seymour Simon</a> (not my favorite planets book, but the best of what I had - I’d like to find a better one though!)<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2srvRPx">Trees and Shrubs</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sWoKzS">Plant Life in Field and Garden</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sV10fV">Pagoo</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rWkyeV">Secrets of the Woods</a><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATZNHNEeFPpm6U738tpgrZkE8UXHJm5CVOQwhNErh8QDtKJbC_V1FRUqCv7hf4THeCF2b1EfPSQRye2PfdPICIV30SRVaRvYAwsgP51TO5RTTIRie4MrI4iK9VshjR22sSD5_qZ6owkA/s1600/IMG_5157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATZNHNEeFPpm6U738tpgrZkE8UXHJm5CVOQwhNErh8QDtKJbC_V1FRUqCv7hf4THeCF2b1EfPSQRye2PfdPICIV30SRVaRvYAwsgP51TO5RTTIRie4MrI4iK9VshjR22sSD5_qZ6owkA/s400/IMG_5157.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working on Logic Links with our shop receipts in the foreground</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Math</h4>
This is another area where I made significant changes. Over the summer I heard Sonya Schafer speak about Richele Baburina’s book, Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching and demonstrate what living math instruction can look like. I was incredibly impressed and decided that this is what I needed to do with Nathan and Gregory. I had been using MEP, but I found it difficult to break away from the worksheet mentality of it. Nathan was largely plodding along, not really stimulated or engaged because the material was too easy for him. But I didn’t really know how to jump him forward in MEP or how to make that program work for him.<br />
<br />
We spent the first part of the year solidifying our math foundations using techniques in Baburina’s book and running a store where the boys were practicing with a variety of math operations as well as writing receipts and keeping financial records. After the first term, it became obvious that I needed to separate the boys for math, because my 5th grader made a huge leap forward (more on that in his post!) and I started doing that subject individually.<br />
<br />
In the third term I started using the Strayer-Upton book to make it easier to come up with practice problems and such. Pregnancy was taking a toll on my on-the-fly creativity, and I really appreciated having a straight-forward resource that I could easily pick and choose problems from as needed.<br />
<br />
We also included some logic work a few times a week using a couple different resources.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/mathematics-an-instrument-for-living-teaching/">Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching</a><br />
Play Money<br />
Coins (including lots of pennies)<br />
Strayer-Upton, Book 1<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2srNwXt">Logic Links</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sVdunR">Tangoes</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Recitation</h4>
As I mentioned in my family studies post, we added recitation into the boys’ schedule about halfway through the school year. <br />
<br />
<u>Selections</u><br />
Lucy Gray by Willam Wordsworth<br />
Bivouac on a Mountain Side by Walt Whitman<br />
Psalm 67<br />
Psalm 33<br />
John 15:1-11<br />
John 10:1-16<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgPGKxMwPPx2j0ZVELAPgH0FnO_s7CbGSZ6csNJ4fShmRQa40ViIvBzSjYVVavOn9PmV8OsTgjuBP17DW6NZsMjPy9ZNkvN6usNMmkLsO7xzvLupP5xPzBdzbJH0ZRcpbC73516ylQALg/s1600/IMG_5826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgPGKxMwPPx2j0ZVELAPgH0FnO_s7CbGSZ6csNJ4fShmRQa40ViIvBzSjYVVavOn9PmV8OsTgjuBP17DW6NZsMjPy9ZNkvN6usNMmkLsO7xzvLupP5xPzBdzbJH0ZRcpbC73516ylQALg/s400/IMG_5826.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reading with his beloved guinea pigs, Portia and Bianca</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Reading</h4>
Nathan made the jump into reading fluency this year (hooray!!) and went from moping around in November, complaining, “why does Gregory want to read all the time? Why won’t he play?” to by March being so deeply immersed in whatever he was reading that he could tune out everything around him. At this point I’m having to set limits on how much time he reads, otherwise he’d barely put the book down!<br />
<br />
<h4>
Modern Language (Spanish)</h4>
This is an area where we’ve had a lot of transition over the course of the year. We started with just using Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and François, Volume 1 and including a song, a poem, and prayers in Spanish and then added in other activities such as building dictated sentences with picture cards, calendar work, vocabulary games like Simon Says, rhymes and increasing the number of songs we learned. I’ve learned a lot from <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/">Celeste Cruz</a>, particularly from her talk at the <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/2017/03/04/cm-west-conference-redwoods-2017/">Conference in the Redwoods</a> in February, and I’m looking forward to continuing to improve in this area.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="http://cherrydalepress.com/?page_id=15">Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and François, Volume 1</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rDypr8">De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sRzRtj">Pio Peep!</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Singing</h4>
This is another area that has seen a lot of growth. I have been focusing on developing the boys’ sense of rhythm and beat using a variety of means. I have done a little Sol-fa with them, but largely trying to reinforce what they are learning through the Hoffman Academy. As an aside, Hoffman Academy has been wonderful for the boys! We signed up for their subscription service and it is well worth the expense. They are learning a lot, enjoying the lessons, and the scripted practice sessions are so helpful. They have a great ear training game as well which has been a very helpful addition to their music studies.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://enjoyingmusicathome.wordpress.com/">Music at Home</a><br />
<a href="https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/">Hoffman Academy</a><br />
<br />
<h4>
Physical Education/Drill</h4>
This was going to be the year I learned about <a href="https://afterthoughtsblog.net/author/Dawn/page/2">Swedish Drill through Dawn Duran’s series</a>… and, then, well, it didn’t happen. This is definitely an area that needs improvement.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc93WPOKfSAaGaq9yIbwNHfxjyumRa5XoiwM7UsZearVvYjHZWZp3mPsU4OdBu63V_zFqsI5JL9GDgU_SJdYGIFP41K09BiAwXhMwUOROBTDxmYj6U6dJvg3lGFdFIy2mqBKUtoc8Xo2g/s1600/IMG_6060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc93WPOKfSAaGaq9yIbwNHfxjyumRa5XoiwM7UsZearVvYjHZWZp3mPsU4OdBu63V_zFqsI5JL9GDgU_SJdYGIFP41K09BiAwXhMwUOROBTDxmYj6U6dJvg3lGFdFIy2mqBKUtoc8Xo2g/s400/IMG_6060.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working on making an insulated sleeve for his backpacking mug</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
Handicraft/Work</h4>
We started doing Sloyd this year, which has been a great success. I am coming to appreciate the importance of Sloyd in the curriculum, so much so that I’ll be speaking about Sloyd at the CMI Western Conference in July. <br />
<br />
Nathan was also introduced to crochet and whittling, and we spent some time improving his sewing skills as well. Even though handicrafts is supposed to be in the morning schedule for a Form 1 student, I found it easier to do this in the afternoon with his older brother. I have also started to include more dry brush work in Nathan’s work, assigning that as the medium for a drawn narration or a nature journal entry.<br />
<br />
<u>Resources</u><br />
<a href="https://archive.org/details/papersloydhandbo00rich">Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades</a> - if you are going to use this book, I highly recommend printing the PDF. The book isn't that long, and if you print the PDF the illustrations in the book will not be stretched. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV8kJ5UNwpo135fbpTVolY-5sMdA5-RoXKXA6Bx-1T6Q-svBOWaSHAn9lnsv6IbXfTkH95gQ6LoRczsHE8xGn6XqjpkrBrb_w66xqALs-odMg6gvKDZ1knlFrDD5qRhvTEJIIowEhsG8/s1600/IMG_5736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV8kJ5UNwpo135fbpTVolY-5sMdA5-RoXKXA6Bx-1T6Q-svBOWaSHAn9lnsv6IbXfTkH95gQ6LoRczsHE8xGn6XqjpkrBrb_w66xqALs-odMg6gvKDZ1knlFrDD5qRhvTEJIIowEhsG8/s400/IMG_5736.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready to start a paper sloyd project</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Drawing Practice</h4>
I started the year using <a href="https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=002584">Bruce McIntyre’s Drawing Textbook</a> as we were using that last year, but Nathan really disliked it. I finally decided to switch to some other drawing books we owned, because it didn’t seem like that book was worth making him dread drawing practice time. Since we switched this has been a much more successful and happier experience for both of us.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCtRUdCwwWg3oow2EcuIdSnMNTtEcqrKLRcYCnFXrdq-DEar7KbZzVQtQT8gdk_xpnhyphenhyphenLUYlkcQNjXmv2h28vRBbLiaJ58SvO2CLSNEhr1lBf9TZzeVAdPDK-CQdBDidT405pmkIWIsg/s1600/IMG_5857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCtRUdCwwWg3oow2EcuIdSnMNTtEcqrKLRcYCnFXrdq-DEar7KbZzVQtQT8gdk_xpnhyphenhyphenLUYlkcQNjXmv2h28vRBbLiaJ58SvO2CLSNEhr1lBf9TZzeVAdPDK-CQdBDidT405pmkIWIsg/s400/IMG_5857.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan reading to his two younger siblings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
Favorite Free Reads</h4>
I also like to include a few favorites from the year's reading. I try to record all the books the kids read throughout the year by having them place completed books on my desk. I also try and capture ebooks and audiobooks, but without that physical place to put the books they sometimes slip through the cracks.<br />
<br />
This has been a big year for series for Nathan, as he's gained reading fluency. Some favorites:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Happy Hollisters</li>
<li>Boxcar Children</li>
<li>Bobbsey Twins</li>
<li>Harry Potter (Books 1-4)</li>
<li>Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle</li>
<li>Cleary's Ralph books</li>
<li>Enright's Melendy books</li>
<li>And in May he fell into a Redwall hole and read very little else since then!</li>
</ul>
<div>
Some non-series favorites</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH</li>
<li>Frankel Mouse</li>
<li>Civil War Spies</li>
<li>The Monitor and the Merrimac</li>
<li>Black Ships Before Troy</li>
<li>The Green Ember & Ember Falls</li>
<li>Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye</li>
<li>Babe: The Gallant Pig</li>
</ul>
</div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-59781337147652293912017-06-20T13:35:00.001-07:002017-06-20T13:35:46.998-07:00Year In Review: Family Studies (2016 - 2017)Before I start planning our new year, I like to spend some time reviewing this past school year, the materials we used, and the changes we made. I'd like to share not only what I planned, but also what I ended up actually doing. I think one of the greatest shortcomings in homeschooling blogs is that we're great at sharing all the wonderful things that we want to do and plan to do, but not so great at following up and sharing what actually worked, what we bailed on halfway through, or what sounded like a great idea but never really got off the ground.<br />
<br />
So, with that in mind, here's my synopsis of our Family Studies.<br />
<br />
(<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/p/our-school-plans.html">Previous Years' Write-ups can be found here</a>)<br />
<br />
<h3>
Subjects We Study as a Family</h3>
<br />
In our family studies, we tackle subjects together at set times during the day. Some of my children will have additional readings or work in these areas, and some will do all their work in this area with the family. Our family studies include:<br />
<br />
Natural History and Nature Lore<br />
California History<br />
Lives of Saints<br />
Picture Study<br />
Hymns<br />
Folk Songs<br />
Poetry<br />
Plutarch<br />
Shakespeare (we studied Shakespeare with a group of other families in the fall and spring)<br />
Memory Work **<br />
Literature<br />
Nature Study and Journaling<br />
Composer Study<br />
<br />
<h3>
Morning Time</h3>
<br />
We decided to move our Morning Time to 8 am this year, which was definitely more 8-ish than I would have liked. However, we still managed to keep to that fairly well, even through my first trimester. In our Morning Time we would:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Pray the Morning Offering</li>
<li>Chant a psalm</li>
<li>Sing a hymn</li>
<li>Read something about the day's saint (if there was one) and discuss</li>
<li>Read, narrate, and sometimes look up maps or commentary for the Mass Readings of the day</li>
<li>Take turns praying for various intentions</li>
<li>Sing another hymn</li>
<li>Read a poem</li>
<li>Do our memory work for the day **</li>
<li>Do an additional activity, such as Picture Study or Composer Study. I did these on the days when we started (closer to) on time, usually doing something with Composer Study a couple times a week and Picture Study once a week (although I accidentally dropped Picture Study for part of the year).</li>
<li>Sing a folk song or two</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Poetry</h4>
For poetry this year we read Hiawatha by Longfellow, and selected poems from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and William Wordsworth. Robert Service is our summer poet.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Memory Work (**)</h4>
We stopped doing memory work this year and switched to individual recitation instead. I have been very frustrated for awhile with how our memory work was going. I had one student who did an excellent job, one who generally mumbled along and sort of knew the material, and one that barely participated at all. It was too time consuming to try and have each child say the material individually, and taking turns didn’t seem to give enough review to make progress on the work, particularly for the mumbler and non-participant. I also tried setting and reminding them of the expectations for participation but it didn’t amount to any sort of longer term improvement. It really didn’t seem like our memory work time was cultivating good habits, and I spent some time considering what I was trying to do with this time, and what my goals were, as well as what this sort of work looked like in Charlotte Mason's schedule.<br />
<br />
After a lot of consideration, I decided to add a period of recitation to my younger students’ schedule, and assign a particular type of recitation to each work session. It was a little tricky getting them to understand what they were supposed to be doing during this time, but after couple months it started to go fairly well and I think it has been a positive change. However, recitation has not become a regular part of my oldest student's afternoon or evening, unless she has a particular piece she wants to memorize. I think she misses this memory work time and laments that the pieces she once had memorized are slowly drifting away. <br />
<br />
<h4>
Picture Study</h4>
Term 1 - Peter Paul Rubens<br />
Term 2 - Winslow Homer (started mid-way through the term)<br />
Term 3 - Winslow Homer (finished mid-way through the term)<br />
<br />
After finishing our picture study of Winslow Homer, I neglected to move to the next artist. We continue our Morning Time through the summer though, and I think I’ll go ahead and do that picture study over the summer. I had planned on studying Monet, and I have one set of the <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/picture-study-portfolios-monet/">images from Simply Charlotte Mason</a> on hand, but I need to either order more copies or set up the images on the iPads so everyone can have their own. I’ve found it works so much better that way, but it also creates an obstacle for actually doing it, because I have to remember to set it up!<br />
<br />
<h4>
Composer Study</h4>
Term 1 - Dvorak<br />
Term 2 - None<br />
Term 3 - Wagner, Ring Cycle and <a href="http://amzn.to/2rSbWFO">The Book of Great Musicians: A Course in Appreciation for Young Readers</a><br />
<br />
I dropped Composer Study in the second term, as that was the term that overlapped with my first trimester and I needed to do less. In the third term I started an ambitious study of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, which we are still working through. We are alternating between reading a bit from a <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47139">retelling of the opera</a> and listening to a few tracks from <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/Arts-Entertainment/Wagners-Ring-Motifs-Audiobook/B00TL5B0RM">Wagner’s Ring Motifs</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Nature Study</h4>
This year we had a couple new things happen in our nature study. We started doing nature study as a family on Sundays and we also started a monthly nature study group that meets about an hour away from where we live.<br />
<br />
Weekly nature study as a family has been very rewarding. On most Sundays, we go to Mass, have a little down time while my husband enjoys his morning coffee, then we take a walk. We either journal as part of our walk, or we will do an activity from <a href="http://johnmuirlaws.com/">John Muir Laws</a> once we get home. Having the whole family involved and journaling has been a lot of fun, and a great family activity.<br />
<br />
Our monthly nature study group has been a great addition as well. The previous year I had tried to get one started closer to where I live, but with no success. Driving an hour isn’t the greatest, but if it means we actually can meet up with other families - CM families, no less! - it is definitely worth it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Lunch Time Reading</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
I either eat beforehand (if I was particularly on top of things that day - this didn't happen often!) or I eat a bit while the kids recapped the last reading and then more while they narrated. An unexpected bonus of this was that it encouraged my older kids to be more helpful with the youngers. If there was a problem, they were expected to hop up and clean up a spill, get a refill or seconds, or help clean up a younger child so I could keep reading. Previously that had always been my job, and I think practicing this sort of responsiveness to other people's needs has been good for them.<br />
<br />
I allow the child of the day to pick what we're reading off of whatever is currently available on the list. A book cannot be picked again until a selection from all the books have been read. With five kids, it works very nicely to delegate a child per day. This child gets to light the prayer candle, pick the lunch reading, lead the Divine Mercy chaplet (if old enough) and do other little things on their day. And it is extremely cute to hear my three year old pick Plutarch for the read aloud!<br />
<br />
In our rotation this year, we had five books and this which worked out well. Some weeks we would read all five, but sometimes we would only get to three or four. But since there weren’t as many as there were last year, we were generally able to keep moving along in each book often enough that we didn’t forget what was happening when we read last.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Books in Our Rotation</h4>
<b>Plutarch</b> - <a href="http://amzn.to/2sN5PXP">Titus Flamininus</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2sQvO19">Phyrrus</a>, both using Anne White's Plutarch Project Guide<br />
<b>Natural History</b> - <a href="http://amzn.to/2sT56od">The Wild Muir</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2rAhoOC">One Day On Beetle Rock</a> (still reading)<br />
<b>California History</b> - <a href="http://amzn.to/2sy0Ho6">Jessie Benton Fremont: California Pioneer</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2rAoB0N">The Shirley Letters</a> (still reading)<br />
<b>Faith</b> - <a href="http://amzn.to/2sNf0am">The Royal Road</a> (finishing from last year), <a href="http://amzn.to/2rSHwn6">First Communion by Mother Mary Loyola</a> (still reading)<br />
<b>Music/Art</b> - <a href="http://amzn.to/2sQk5zC">The Well Tempered Listener</a> (still reading)<br />
<br />
<h3>
Evening Time</h3>
<br />
Once I was pregnant, our <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2015-2016.html">rather robust evening time</a> that we enjoyed together went by the wayside. We moved our read aloud to after dinner which worked really well until allergy season started and my husband couldn’t real aloud anymore. That, coupled with the lengthening day and the prospect of playing outside a bit after dinner too, has made this read aloud time pretty spotty.<br />
<br />
We still read poetry, picture books, and a Bible story to the two little ones (5 and 3, at this point) and we all seven pray together before putting the two younger ones to bed. After the littles are in bed, the bigger kids read and I tackle my pre-reading for the next day. If it isn’t a school day the next day, sometimes some of us will play a game together. I miss the Great Courses lectures and drawing time, but trying to do those things and the pre-reading and getting to bed early enough for my pregnant self was more than I could handle.<br />
<br />
<h3>
This Year's Family Studies Favorites</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sT56od">The Wild Muir</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sN9jto">Old Squire’s Farm</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rAk7Y7">Johnny Reb</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rAodQ4">My Side of the Mountain</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sy0Ho6">Jessie Benton Fremont: California Pioneer</a><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2sQk5zC">The Well Tempered Listener</a> (the older two in particular)<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2rAhoOC">One Day On Beetle Rock</a><br />
<br />
<i>(Amazon Affiliate links are used in this post, benefiting <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/">Charlotte Mason West</a>)</i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-43028662928748862592017-03-18T14:57:00.000-07:002017-03-18T15:17:12.754-07:00Joy in LivingLast month, <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/">Celeste</a> and I had the pleasure of seeing the first Charlotte Mason conference in Northern California come to fruition. Thankfully, <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/2017/03/04/cm-west-conference-redwoods-2017/">CM West :: Conference in the Redwoods</a> was a definite success, as we've had many positive comments both during and after the conference. I hope and pray that it will continue to be a positive influence and help for all the attendees into the future as well.<br />
<br />
I wanted to share an expanded version of opening remarks for the conference, as I think they show what was (and is!) on my heart as I planned this conference, and as I move into planning other Charlotte Mason conferences as well. I am considering a post on what goes into planning a conference, one that is a little more nuts and bolts focused, but I think it is vital to share the living idea behind the work of details.<br />
<br />
My first experience meeting another CM educator in person was when Celeste and I met at a park about two and a half years ago. We had a delightful visit, full of great conversation and watching our children joyfully romp together. My next opportunity was about a year later, when I was able to attend the first<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/09/2015-northwest-charlotte-mason.html"> Charlotte Mason conference</a> on the West Coast, in Seattle, Washington. This experience was an absolute delight, and I felt so encouraged by being around so many thoughtful, intelligent, and interesting women who shared my passion for Mason's Philosophy of Education. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/10/nature-walks-nature-journaling-and.html">I came home from this conference a changed person</a>. Being around this group of people who take Mason seriously encouraged me to take my role as a home educator, and particularly as a Mason educator, more seriously as well. I realized that I, with two (now three!) children who aren't even school age yet, still have time to get good at this. I also found a clear path forward in this, largely comprised of my own keeping (largely in my nature journal, commonplace, and Book of Centuries) and a commitment to the regular study of Mason's books (the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/">Delectable Education podcast</a> has also been a huge help, but obviously that came along a little later!). I also saw how galvanizing it is to be around people who are trying to do the same thing I am, and it encouraged me to try to both find people at least somewhat near where I live, as well as work to create more of these conferences. <br />
<br />
I find it challenging to be the only one who is educating in a model that is different from everyone else around. Not only am I homeschooling, I am home educating in a way that is foreign to those around me. I've been invited a few times over the years to get together at someone's house so we can "do school" together. This seems to largely to consist of sitting the kids around a large table with their workbooks while the mothers visit and occasionally help a child who has a problem. It is a welcome change for the kids and moms, but it is not something that is going to be successful for a Mason educator. I've also had experiences where I've seen a little interest in Mason's ideas, only to have someone who has many years of homeschooling experience as well as graduates say, "oh, you don't need all those extras! Just stick to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as learning about the faith, and your kids will be just fine." And confronted with that sort of voice of wisdom and experience, what little interest there was quickly withers.<br />
<br />
But as Mason said in her preface to her sixth volume, “we have no axe to grind”. A little before this in her preface, she puts her finger on the difference between her method and the standard way of doing things. “No doubt children are well taught and happy in their lessons as things are, and this was specially true of the school in question; yet both teachers and children find an immeasurable difference between the casual interest roused by marks, pleasing oral lessons and other school devices, and the sort of steady avidity for knowledge that comes with the awakened soul.” (CM, Vol. 6, Preface)<br />
<br />
Mason goes on to say just a little later in the Introduction to Vol. 6 -<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But the people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for an education which shall qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the man who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve society.</blockquote>
I think the fact that we had a full conference is a testimony to this! When Celeste and I were first planning this conference, I was worried about getting 20 people - instead we sold almost 50 places in three weeks, and we ended up with another thirty plus people on the wait list. <br />
<br />
Celeste and I wanted to offer a leading thought for the conference, and as I considered this, the phrase “opportunities for joy” came to mind. As far as I know, it isn’t a phrase Mason uses, but I became curious how Mason used the word joy. One phrase she does use is “joy in living” and I wanted share a quote where she uses that phrase.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We launch children upon too arid and confined a life. Now personal delight, joy in living, is a chief object of education; Socrates conceived that knowledge is for pleasure, in the sense, not that knowledge is one source, but is the source of pleasure. It is for their own sakes that children should get knowledge. (CM, Vol. 6, Section 3, Ch. 4)</blockquote>
We have the opportunity to help our children and ourselves discover this joy in living through the rich feast Mason helps us to place before our families. My hope is this is a phrase is one that is memorable to us all not only at a conference, but also that we can take this phrase into the day to day, to help us remember what we are doing in this educational journey we are offering our families and ourselves.<br />
<br />
<i>I originally wrote this a couple weeks ago, but hadn't been able to edit and post it until now. I am glad though, because this reminder about why I work on these conferences is very timely! Planning next year's conference became far more daunting last week when we found out that <a href="https://www.presentationcenter.org/closing">Presentation Center, the lovely location where we held the conference, is closing as of June 30th</a>. We were really looking forward to going back there, as well as not having to go through all the effort of finding a location. We have started looking for another location, however, and we hope to find something soon.</i>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-11107863816474237152017-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:002017-01-06T06:00:22.184-08:00Looking Back at 2016 GoalsAt the beginning of 2016, I posted a <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/01/looking-ahead-at-2016.html">list of projects and goals for 2016</a>. As a way of reviewing 2016 and following up on my previous post, I thought I would do a review of that list. Next week I hope take a look at my goals for 2017.<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Successes</h3>
<div>
<b><a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/05/charlotte-masons-20-principles-live.html">Start Here: 20 Principles Live Online Video Discussion</a></b> - This has been a little tricker than I had expected, because there's been a number of people who signed up but who either had to drop out or just don't come. And discussions don't work as well when people don't come! At this point we have two active discussion groups, and we decided to run them as open groups where people can join in any month. We've picked up some new members, and we have a reasonably decent number of participants. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Charlotte Mason Conference(s)</b> - This one has been rather challenging, and has had a lot of twists and turns! Celeste and I ended up having a <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/04/cm-west-retreat-at-beach-impressions.html">very successful retreat last spring</a>, and now we're set to have a conference in the Bay Area in February (<a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/conferences-2/conference-in-the-redwoods-2017/">CM West :: Conference in the Redwoods</a>). The conference sold out in about three weeks and now has a very healthy waiting list, so that is extremely encouraging. There will also be a <a href="http://charlottemasonwest.com/conferences-2/2017-regional-conferences/">Seattle Charlotte Mason conference in September</a>, and we expect to start selling tickets for that in the spring. I hope that it has the same sort of reception that the Bay Area conference had!</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/05/shakespeare-with-small-group-part-1.html"><br /></a></b></div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/05/shakespeare-with-small-group-part-1.html">Shakespeare Co-op</a> </b>- This has gone very well. We had a good group in the spring session, and an even bigger group for the fall session. I moved the meetings to a park in Auburn for the fall session, and that made it possible to have a bigger group and made it more centrally located for participants. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Sorting Books</b> - Other than taking forever, this project is complete and I ended up getting rid of a good 1/3 of our books. I also was able to get some new bookcases, so we actually have quite a few empty shelves! It is always good to have room to expand, right?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Reorganizing the Study</b> - I conquered this over the summer, and am generally pleased with the results. I also made my second son very happy by making room for a guinea pig cage in the Study. He's wanted pets for ages, and while he still would like a dog, a cat, and chickens, he at least has some critters to care for and hold. I also completely went through our craft cabinet and consolidated the supplies such that each of the three older children can have a shelf of their own for works in progress and personal items. This has been such a big help in keeping the table clutter at bay. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Girls' Bedroom Re-do</b> - This turned out well, and the girls are quite pleased with their new furniture, trim and bunk beds. Next time though I'm going to buy a pre-finished bunk bed rather than an unfinished one...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Somewhere In Between</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Teaching from Rest Live Online Video Discussion</b> - I wanted this to be a more local discussion, with the hope that the people in it could potentially meet up. I had a lot of interest, but very few people actually showed up to the discussions, which was disappointing. Initially I thought there was enough interest for two discussions, but no one came on the second time slot, even though there were at least 4-5 women who signed up. The discussions that did happen were generally good though, and while it hasn't created any new friendships, it did help to deepen an already existing friendship.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Failures</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Nature Study in Nevada County</b> - This just didn't work out. I had a good turn-out for the first one, but none of them came back the second time! I think there were few reasons for this. First, I didn't provide clear direction for a stopping point, so they ended up stopping at a not so great spot instead of at the pond as I had intended and mentioned at the beginning. I was with a two year old who adamantly wanted to walk, so I couldn't provide clear direction during the walk. I also didn't provide very good leadership about what we were trying to do. Were we out for exercise? To take a walk with other families? Were we supposed to be looking for something in particular? I also didn't communicate clearly the value of returning to the same spot the following month. There seemed to be a general sense of, "oh, we've been there, we don't need to do that again" and a slight spark of interest in perhaps meeting up at another spot in a different month. I had one family come for several months then drop out, another come once and not again, and another talk about coming month after month and never actually ever coming. Clearly a lack of communication of vision on my part had a lot to do with the failure of this project. Perhaps if I had figured out how to communicate the value of nature journaling and exploration more effectively to people who aren't already on board, as well as found new avenues for advertising the group I might have been more successful. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On the plus side, however, I did find a group of CM educators in the greater Sacramento area over the summer and we've been meeting once a month since July. In the Summer we met by the American River in Fair Oaks, and in the Fall we moved up to theAuburn State Recreation Area. I much prefer the meeting place in Auburn as it is about an hour from me instead of an hour and a half, as well as being more scenic. Also, it is far easier to get together with a group of people who already understand the whys and hows of nature journaling than starting from scratch!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>First Saturday Adoration and Social</b> - I had high hopes for this one, but then I found that the bulletin is out of date, and the church in the next town over doesn't actually have Adoration on the first Saturday. I might be able to get something going in Auburn (really, what is it with Auburn? That seems to be the place I need to go to make anything work - too bad it is at least 50 min away) but then that's another day I need to be driving down there, and in the evening too so I haven't tried.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
New Projects</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Surprisingly, there weren't that many substantial new projects that cropped up in the course of the year. As I mentioned, I started participating in a new nature study group. I also helped start a new online discussion group where we are reading through Charlotte Mason's second volume. This one is through CM West, and has had a good response - better than the 20 Principles discussion. We have more people signed up for it and usually have more participants as well. I also ended up helping a little with the CMI Western Conference in August of 2016, and really enjoyed attending it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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Around the house, I went through papers over the summer as well, which was nice to get done. If I'm remembering correctly, "all" I have left in Kondo's method is the miscellaneous. I've made a start on that with the craft cabinet and the pantry, but there's still other looming areas like the hutch, the top shelf of my closet, my fabric collection, and more boxes in storage.</div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-38970148153434891352017-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:002017-01-02T10:39:12.938-08:002016 Reading RecapIt has been a number of years since I've written a reading recap post (<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2013/01/2012-reading-list.html">since 2012</a>!) and I think the main reason is because of list paralysis. I keep six different reading lists in Evernote: one for myself, one each for my three readers, one for family read alouds, and one for family audiobooks. It isn't like the data isn't there... but how much do I include? This sort of quandary is what makes me enjoy reading everyone else's lists while thinking vaguely that perhaps I should post my own.<br />
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Last year <a href="http://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/01/book-awards.html">Brandy Vencel</a> had this to say about the whole angst issue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Do I include books I read aloud to my children for fun? What about all the books I read aloud for school lessons? Pre-reading for school lessons? Does that count, too? It’s hard for me until I finally remember that whether I read it aloud or silently, whether I read it for fun because I “had to,” I read it. Therefore, it qualifies.</blockquote>
So, taking a page from her book, here we go. And I'm even going to include audiobooks too, as I think those count as well. The only books I'm not including are ones that I'm always reading from, namely the Bible (mainly John's Gospel outside of the Mass readings this year) and Charlotte Mason's volumes (mainly 2, 4, and 6 this year)<br />
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<h3>
First, Some Books of Note from 2016</h3>
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<b>Best Nature Writing</b>: Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez<br />
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<b>Best History:</b> 1491 by Charles C. Mann<br />
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<b>Best Fiction:</b> Pilgrim's Inn by Elizabeth Goudge<br />
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<b>Best Read Aloud:</b> Rascal by Sterling North<br />
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<b>The Book that Was the Most Fun to Read/Listen to</b>: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis<br />
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<b>A Book that Made Me Cry:</b> A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park<br />
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<b>Best Poetry</b>: Purgatorio by Dante and translated by Anthony Esolen<br />
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<b>Induced the Most Discussion:</b> Utopia by Sir Thomas More and Whatever Happened to Justice by Richard J. Maybury, closely followed by The Prince by Machiavelli. <br />
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<b>Most Useful (although I haven't read every page):</b> The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws and Homeopathic Medicine at Home by Maesimund B. Panos, MD<br />
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</h3>
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<h3>
The Full Lists</h3>
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<h4>
Audiobooks - Family (we listen to these in the car)</h4>
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The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien<br />
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien<br />
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien<br />
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome<br />
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott<br />
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott<br />
Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott<br />
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Interestingly, none of these are new listens, although some of the children either were not born or not able to actually comprehend the stories when we listened to them last. But they are all so excellent none of us who could remember listening to them minded listening to them again! I suspect this will frequently be the case at this point in our family's life. We did attempt to listen to a new-to-us book, The Coral Island, but it was so gory and full of cannibalism that we bailed on it about 3/4 of the way through. I definitely should have screened that one more carefully!<br />
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<h4>
Read Alouds - Family</h4>
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Crossbows and Crucifixes by Henry Garnett<br />
The Young Brahms by Sybil Deucher<br />
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight<br />
A Weekend with Degas by Rosabianca Skira-Venturi<br />
The Green Ember by S.D. Smith<br />
Rascal by Sterling North<br />
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (my husband read this one)<br />
Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson<br />
Ways of Wood Folk by William Long<br />
Cruise of the Arctic Star by Scott O'Dell<br />
Diary of a 49er by Chauncey Canfield<br />
The Royal Road by Ann Roos<br />
Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br />
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park<br />
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<h4>
Books Read as Part of My Children's Schooling</h4>
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The Sea Around Us<br />
Inferno<br />
Utopia<br />
Arctic Dreams<br />
1491<br />
Kidnapped<br />
A Briefer History of Time<br />
The Chemical History of a Candle<br />
Julius Caesar<br />
Come Rack, Come Rope<br />
Characters of the Reformation<br />
Seabird<br />
Along Came a Dog<br />
The Incredible Journey<br />
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution<br />
Microbe Hunters<br />
Whatever Happened to Justice?<br />
Galileo’s Daughter<br />
The New World<br />
The Family that Overtook Christ<br />
Purgatorio<br />
The Red Bonnet<br />
The Days of Alfred the Great<br />
Henry V<br />
Twelfth Night<br />
Of Courage Undaunted by Daugherty<br />
Sacajawea by Wyatt Blassingame<br />
The Prince by Machiavelli<br />
Christopher Columbus, Mariner<br />
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<h4>
Books I Read Because I Wanted To</h4>
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Teaching from Rest (re-read)<br />
The 39 Steps<br />
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Little Dorrit<br />
Pilgrim’s Inn<br />
A Book of Bees<br />
Anne’s House of Dreams (audio - re-listen)<br />
Busman's Honeymoon (re-read)<br />
My Life as a Spy by Baden-Powell<br />
Science & Human Origins by Ann Gauger, Douglas Axe & Casey Luskin<br />
Land of Little Rain<br />
To Say Nothing of the Dog (ebook/audio)<br />
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne<br />
Essentialism<br />
Puck of Pook’s Hill<br />
Life Together by Bonhoeffer<br />
Gentian Hill </div>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-39693928463768683012016-12-30T14:49:00.002-08:002016-12-30T14:49:48.483-08:00From My Commonplace, Selections from 2016In 2016, I used my Commonplace notebook, but not as often as I would like. I spent a little time this afternoon reading through what I did write, and that little review was an encouraging reminder of the value of this practice.<br />
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I thought I'd share a selection of quotes from my Commonplace and finally join <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2016/12/keeping-company-december-2016.html">Celeste's Keeping Company link up</a>. In the new year I hope to return to blogging regularly and I want the Keeping Company posts to be a monthly occurrence.<br />
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"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it." John Adams, in a letter to Abigail Adams, as quoted by Natalie S. Bober in Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution</blockquote>
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"'What species is that?' is one of the first questions many people ask of nature. [...] The name is not the thing. Identifying a species is only the tip of the iceberg of inquiry. It is not necessary to know something's name to ask an interesting question or make a discovery about it. " John Muir Laws, Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling</blockquote>
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"Relationships with the land that are intensely metaphorical, like Kent's, are a lofty achievement of the human mind. They are a sophisticated response, like the creation of maps, or the development of a language that grows out of a certain landscape. The mind can imagine beauty and conjure intimacy. It can find solace where literal analysis finds only trees and rocks and grass." Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams</blockquote>
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"The goal of science is to make the most useful and accurate explanations possible, based on the available evidence. To have scientific integrity is to approach this process with humility and with the awareness that it is possible, even quite likely, you will be wrong. " John Muir Laws, Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling</blockquote>
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"Tears often release us from a great internal burden. Our weeping releases the grop we are trying to hold on ourselves by remaining 'strong', not letting ourselves feel some pain, not admitting our powerlessness and brokenness in face of some terrible loss or suffering." Fr. Sylvester Kwiatkowski, church bulletin</blockquote>
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"The key here is finding the glory of God within the practice or work and not only in the final product." Megan Hoyt, A Touch of the Infinite</blockquote>
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"What distinguishes the work of someone like Vivaldi from another who, perhaps, remains lost forever? The goodness of God? The patronage of other composers or benefactors? History can be brutal, and the quest for fame can be an enormous wild goose chase. I think we can safely say that any artistic endeavor is best performed to the glory of God, and not in pursuit of fame and fortune. History may forget your contribution, but God never forgets." Megan Hoyt, A Touch of the Infinite</blockquote>
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"How imperishable are all the impressions that vibrate one's life! We cannot forget anything. Memories may escape the action of will, may sleep a long time, but when stirred by the right influence, though that influence be light as a shadow, they flash into full stature and life with everything in place." John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, excerpted in the Wild Muir by Lee Stetson</blockquote>
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"The Psalter is the vicarious prayer of Christ for his Church. Now that Christ is with the Father, the new humanity of Christ, the Body of Christ on earth, continues to pray his prayer to the end of time. This prayer belongs, not to the individual member, but to the whole Body of Christ. Only in the whole Christ does the whole Psalter become a reality, a whole which the individual can never fully comprehend and call his own. That is why the prayer of the psalms belongs in a peculiar way to the fellowship. Even if a verse or psalm is not one's own prayer, it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certain the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his body on earth." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together</blockquote>
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"The person who comes into a fellowship because he is running away from himself is misusing it for the sake of diversion no matter how spiritual this diversion may appear. He is really not seeking community at all, but only distraction which will allow him to forget his loneliness for a brief time, the very alienation that creates the deadly isolation of man." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together</blockquote>
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"The prayer of the morning will determine the day." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Whenever escape is necessary, there is a great necessity for prayer." St. Augustine, Catena Aurea, St. John's Gospel </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Personal sanctity, after which he had striven with such desperation ever since his sojourn in the Irish monastery, was not enough. He had been regarding it as an end in itself instead of that which determines the quality of what a man can do for his fellow men." Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill </blockquote>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-43315747832876595822016-12-02T16:58:00.000-08:002016-12-02T17:15:37.880-08:00Observing AdventIn our family, we observe Advent and celebrate Christmas. We do this not because we want to pretend that we’re still in darkness and we don’t know if or when the Messiah will come, as I heard someone expound during a webinar yesterday, but because we want to be like the wise maidens who prepared for the coming of the bridegroom. Yes, Christ has come and saved us, but Christ will also come again on the last day to judge the living and the dead. Of course we can and should repent and prepare for His second coming at all times, but by that logic, why have a special season to recall and celebrate the Incarnation, since we can and should remember and celebrate this at all times?<br />
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It does not matter to me or to my family if a family decides to celebrate all during Advent and ignore the Christmas season, and if that’s what your family does, I hope it is meaningful for you and brings you closer to Christ. But I do get a little riled when I hear someone completely mischaracterize the historical celebration of Advent and speak dismissively of families who do choose to spend this time of Advent remembering and considering instead of jumping straight to the celebrating.<br />
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Now that that’s off my chest, I’d like to share a few things our family does in our observation of Advent.<br />
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Advent Candles </h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPTclx0Rj0vnYeFnTwzmX7ZrlTsSacL-At6AqnmP-b2_9lKaEy0YBrFEsW7tlT439KAfoFrM_JH7KBsNviAK5nzpgp67Ga05uXNNXCbTvcsBiDxpxjFWGDS7pZu8AJC0AXNFT7XVOLrY/s1600/IMG_5054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPTclx0Rj0vnYeFnTwzmX7ZrlTsSacL-At6AqnmP-b2_9lKaEy0YBrFEsW7tlT439KAfoFrM_JH7KBsNviAK5nzpgp67Ga05uXNNXCbTvcsBiDxpxjFWGDS7pZu8AJC0AXNFT7XVOLrY/s320/IMG_5054.jpg" width="320" /></a>Each year we roll our own Advent candles from beeswax sheets that I buy in bulk from <a href="http://www.knorrbeeswax.com/">Knorr Beeswax Candles</a>. It is a very simple craft, but the kids really enjoy it and feel such a sense of pleasure from getting to use their Advent candles all season long. <br />
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We light the candles each night at dinner, and each child gets a week where they are the one who lights the candle. We generally sing <a href="http://justlikemary.blogspot.com/2012/12/light-one-candle-advent-song.html">"Light One Candle" from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd</a> program as the candle is lit.<br />
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<h3>
St. Andrew Novena, or Christmas Anticipation Prayer</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9API8AaHFBKSb-3u0cigLcn_vELwYQ_9cOYcKkzbAhuZaUIl2Ad6LM2RIEWIjF96u3wIrmCd1e92Uacs1FKp5_SZ98T2QMcYKBBf2LcnFeR8HLGg5QGcshajlTloqqqrygjunzoEB_hA/s1600/IMG_2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9API8AaHFBKSb-3u0cigLcn_vELwYQ_9cOYcKkzbAhuZaUIl2Ad6LM2RIEWIjF96u3wIrmCd1e92Uacs1FKp5_SZ98T2QMcYKBBf2LcnFeR8HLGg5QGcshajlTloqqqrygjunzoEB_hA/s320/IMG_2023.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
There's nothing like praying "Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen." fifteen times a day from Nov. 30th until Christmas Eve to help you keep your focus on what Christmas is truly about. <br />
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As a convert to Catholicism, novenas and rosaries and other repetitive prayer were a stumbling block for me. It was something where I had to decide to move forward in faith, out of respect for the witness of the Saints and the teaching of the Church. I still don't completely get it, but I have seen amazing fruit come from these persistent prayer practices. <br />
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(This prayer card is the one <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-time-to-prepare.html">Celeste links to here</a>)<br />
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<h3>
Jesse Tree</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlGbo6OMyCKYB1pi-vZFliZDYW6ZIofKHvy-tPtA7vq5QWlBFqMt5GJU_uduGOGXS9zxC3FlBHM2Ibmj05BRIGQjXWdtJGacRiJOV4BvFt7OfpoXzDaXYW_aac6P3gf0Z_SalU9hDLp0/s1600/IMG_2021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlGbo6OMyCKYB1pi-vZFliZDYW6ZIofKHvy-tPtA7vq5QWlBFqMt5GJU_uduGOGXS9zxC3FlBHM2Ibmj05BRIGQjXWdtJGacRiJOV4BvFt7OfpoXzDaXYW_aac6P3gf0Z_SalU9hDLp0/s320/IMG_2021.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
The Jesse Tree was the first Advent observance I ever did, way back when I wasn't even Catholic yet and was trying to figure out just what exactly liturgical seasons were. I was completely Biblically illiterate then, so the Jesse Tree seemed a particularly good place to start. The overview of salvation history that I've learned from sharing this devotion with my family for eleven years has been priceless for myself and my children.<br />
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The first year my three year old daughter and I drew pictures and hung them with yarn on a small fake Christmas tree. In a particularly crazy and difficult Advent, I maintained my tenuous grasp on sanity by crafting little felt ornaments for a simple Jesse Tree write-up I had found online. That's what we still use, eight years later.<br />
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(This picture is from last year, we obviously aren't that far along yet since we just started on the 27th)<br />
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<h3>
Handel's Messiah</h3>
For the first two years of listening to Handel's Messiah during Advent, we used <a href="http://www.ordo-amoris.com/2014/08/25-days-to-handels-messiah-advent.html">Cindy Rollin's Messiah schedule</a>. It worked reasonably well, but this year I wanted to be able to dive a little more deeply into the Scriptures and learn more about the music itself. <br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Handels-Messiah-Institute-Christian-Liturgical/dp/0802865879//ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=cmwest07-20&linkId=3359de21c14e3e2ed7c4e5df83675587" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0802865879&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=cmwest07-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=cmwest07-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0802865879" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
I ended up buying <a href="http://amzn.to/2gQ9a2q">Handel's Messiah: Comfort for God's People</a> by Calvin R. Stapert, and so far I am very pleased with it. The first part of the book is about Handel, how he composed the Messiah, how the Messiah was received, and the musical traditions and forms of the day. The second part goes into depth, section by section, about the Messiah. He breaks it down into 22 sections, which works nicely for an Advent study (because really, who can actually do it every day for all the days of Advent?? Not me!) <br />
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We’re only 4 sections in, but we’re all enjoying it and finding that it helps up to listen more carefully and with more interest. In the evening after the two youngest are in bed, we listen to a part of the Messiah, read the commentary out loud, discuss a little with different people sharing what we want to listen for this time, listen to the part of the Messiah again, and then discuss a little more.<br />
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<h3>
Advent Calendar</h3>
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My mom made this for us years ago and it is a fun little tradition for us. Each child takes a turn putting an ornament on the tree in age order, starting with the youngest. It will look much more interesting when all the ornaments are on the tree, but I couldn't find a picture with them all on there! Since each child has a different first letter, they all have a stocking with their first letter on it. It was a wonderful gift for our family, and one I look forward to pulling out each year for many more years.<br />
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<h3>
St. Nicholas</h3>
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On the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, we make simple chocolate goodies together, which then appear, wrapped, in the children's shoes the next morning. On some years we'll have a few new Christmas books or other books, and in other years it is just the treats. (This photo is from last year too.) I would like to share some of the treats with family, but haven't quite gotten that organized yet. Maybe this year!<br />
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<h3>
Our Lady of Guadalupe</h3>
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We have a little tea on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with Mexican hot chocolate and almond cookies (and usually some sliced bell peppers too, because I apparently unable to serve my kids just sugar, even on a feast day!) that the kids eat while I read one of the books I have about Our Lady of Guadalupe. A simple affair, although in some years I make more of an effort to decorate the table and use nice serving dishes. <br />
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<h3>
St. Lucia</h3>
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On the feast of St. Lucia, we decorate the house with a few strands of lights, remembering and discussing how Christ is the light of the world. Again, a simple observance, but one that has a big impact on the kids.<br />
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<h3>
O Antiphons</h3>
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We begin the O Antiphons on Dec. 17th, singing the appropriate verse from O Come, O Come Emmanuel and using this <a href="http://familyfeastandferia.com/2010/12/o-antiphons/">lovely devotional guide from Jennifer Miller</a>. I don't do gifts or special foods, but the discussion and singing adds a special note to these last days before our Christmas celebration.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-68755407873165520392016-07-27T15:09:00.000-07:002016-07-27T15:09:01.314-07:00Homeschool Planning Thoughts (way) after the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, 2016 EditionThis is the fourth year I've prayed the <a href="https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Our-Blessed-Mother/novena-to-our-lady-of-good-counsel-april-18-26.html">Novena in honor of Our Lady of Good Counsel</a>, asking specifically for wisdom and guidance as I consider our next school year. Each year I've found this an excellent and clarifying experience, and it has become an essential part of my homeschool planning process.<br />
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This April was a particularly busy one for me as I <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/04/cm-west-retreat-at-beach-impressions.html">planned and helped lead a retreat</a>, finished the <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/06/shakespeare-with-small-group-part-2.html">spring Shakespeare session</a>, had my work-from-home husband away for a conference, and prepared for and traveled to a family wedding. I still diligently prayed the novena, but I didn't feel like I had time to process what God was telling me during this time.<br />
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As I continued to consider this experience over the last few months, the message gradually became clearer and clearer, and as I re-read what I wrote <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/04/homeschool-planning-thoughts-after.html">last year</a> and <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2014/04/homeschool-planning-thoughts-on-feast.html">the year before</a>, I can see how it fits into the continuum of what I have learned before. The phrase that kept coming into my mind was the idea that "education consists of books and things". <br />
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Now the word "things" is not particularly profound, and it is both vague and encompassing. I've heard <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/blog/hands-on-learning-in-the-charlotte-mason-method/">Sonya Shafer talk about this idea</a>, and I think that's why this particular phrase kept coming back to mind. We've certainly improved over where we were a couple years ago, but there is still room for improvement. For example, my kids could be more physically fit and active. There's also more work we should be doing with our readings beyond narration, and we should be making more of an effort to do that. <br />
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In considering how to move forward, I realized that a couple things needed to change. I needed to figure out how to free up more time in my children's day so they could have that ample free time that the students in Charlotte Mason's schools had, and I needed to figure out how to maximize the work they were doing in each of their lessons so we can get the most out of our books and other work. It is easy to get stuck in the read and narrate rut, and pass over the other sorts of work the students in the Charlotte Mason paradigm are supposed to do as well. Narration is certainly the cornerstone of the child's work, but it is not the only work she expected from the students. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Studying my Form 1 and Form 2 schedules to make sure I wasn't double-booking myself and trying to make sure it all made sense.</td></tr>
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In the end, and after re-listening to a number of the <a href="http://www.adelectableeducation.com/">Delectable Education</a> podcasts and re-reading <a href="http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/preparing-a-cm-schedule/">Nicole William's scheduling series</a>, I decided to move to a completely schedule based system. My books would be picked such that they filled the blocks of time I have set out for the different subjects, and if the book didn't fit into that block, then it would move to the free reading shelf or it wouldn't get used at all. I believe this will keep me from that subtle booklist and activity creep that gradually makes the day longer and longer. I'm so good at thinking, "oh, why just do this twice a week? Let's do it every day!" Or, "this would be a great book to add, why not add this one in too? It is just one more book..." The s<a href="http://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/preparing-a-cm-schedule/scheduling-cards/">cheduling cards from A Delectable Education</a> were extremely helpful with this endeavor. There was something about working with physical cards that made the process much easier, more creative and actually even enjoyable.<br />
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The other piece of the puzzle is <a href="https://edsnapshots.com/homeschool-procedures/">procedure lists</a>. I need to communicate clearly what I expect from my children in the course of their lessons. And I need to have a clear idea of that myself! We need to move beyond a simple read and narrate model, which is all we had time for (barely!) when we had so many books. We'll still have that wide and varied curriculum that Charlotte Mason's philosophy is so known for, but I anticipate fewer assigned books in our core school time and more books on the free reading shelf and sprinkled throughout our week.<br />
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<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-50992427046381297422016-07-18T09:29:00.000-07:002016-07-18T09:29:01.388-07:00Keeping Company: Pilgrim's Inn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lucilla knew always, and Nadine knew in her more domesticated moments, that it was homemaking that mattered. Every home was a brick in the great wall of decent living that men erected over and over again as a bulwark against the perpetual flooding in of evil. But women made the bricks, and the durableness of each civilization depended on their quality, and it was no good weakening oneself for the brick-making by thinking too much about the flood. ~ <a href="http://amzn.to/29H1YmR">Pilgrim's Inn</a>, Elizabeth Goudge, p. 48 </blockquote>
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This is the first book I've read by Goudge, but it certainly won't be the last. What a beautiful writing, and such memorable characters! And her descriptions of the Pilgrim's Inn and Damerosehay... I so hope there are places like that in the world.<br />
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I'm trying to shore up my commonplacing habit this summer, and I've decided to take a cue from how I have my kids do some of their work. If I plan to spend about 30 minutes with a "stiffer" book I'm reading, I break it up into about 20 minutes of reading and the remainder for writing in my commonplace. I either write quotes from what I've just read, so I copy something from an easier book I am reading in the evenings. I appreciate not having to find another chunk of time for just writing, and it makes the commonplacing much more likely to happen.<br />
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Currently Reading (by category)</h3>
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Lighter Non-Fiction</h4>
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<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2a3yg9K">A Book of Bees</a> by Sue Hubbell (because I am fascinated by bees and would love to have a couple hives someday)</li>
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Continuing Education</h4>
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<li><a href="http://amzn.to/2anCtUq">The Liberal Arts Tradition</a> by Clark and Jain (for the Scholé Sisters Summer book discussion - not that I've managed to find time to participate)</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/29JCxwl">A Touch of the Infinite</a> by Megan Hoyt (because I've always wanted to know more about music study)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/vol_2_all.html">Parents and Children</a> by Charlotte Mason (for a CM discussion group)</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/29H1bCj">For the Children's Sake</a> (for a 20 Principles Study group)</li>
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Fiction</h4>
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<li><a href="http://amzn.to/29H1YmR">Pilgrim's Inn</a> by Elizabeth Goudge</li>
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Faith</h4>
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<li><a href="http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php">Catena Aurea</a> - The Gospel of St. John (<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-new-keeping-habit-for-new-year.html">I started this in January</a> thinking it would be the year's focus... but as I'm only about halfway through Ch. 5, I think I'll be working on it a lot longer than that! But I love it, and I am so glad I'm continuing to read and ponder it)</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/29It2yr">Life Together</a> by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ok, so I haven't actually started this yet, but I will - soon! - maybe even today!)</li>
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<i>This post is linked to <a href="http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2016/07/keeping-company-july.html">Celeste's Keeping Company link-up in July at Joyous Lessons</a>.</i></div>
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<br />Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006833743714206736.post-77376750767939776942016-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:002017-07-05T14:25:21.647-07:00Year in Review: Y8 (2015-2016)Before I start planning our new year, I like to spend some time reviewing this past school year, the materials we used, and the changes we made. I'd like to share not only what I planned, but also what I ended up actually doing. I think one of the greatest shortcomings in homeschooling blogs is that we're great at sharing all the wonderful things that we want to do and plan to do, but not so great at following up and sharing what actually worked, what we bailed on halfway through, or what sounded like a great idea but never really got off the ground.<br />
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My plan for my daughter's Y8 work owes a great debt to the work of the amazing women at <a href="http://www.amblesideonline.org/">Ambleside Online</a>. However, I departed in many ways from their programme in Y8, so I don't feel I can call this an AO review as I have with <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/06/year-in-review-ambleside-online-y2-2015.html">Y2</a> and <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/07/year-in-review-ambleside-online-y4-2015.html">Y4</a>. My changes largely reflect my desire to give more of the Catholic side of the story of the Reformation, to read and discuss a great work of literature with her, and to pick a few books that I thought would speak to her more than some of Ambleside Online's choices.<br />
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<a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2015/06/ambleside-online-y7-in-review-2014-2015.html">Here is the review of Y7 from last year</a>. I'll be using a similar format in this year's review. <a href="http://flareoflight.blogspot.com/2016/06/year-in-review-family-studies-2015-2016.html">Emma is still a part of all our family studies, which I've detailed in a previous post.</a><br />
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I asked Emma to share some photos of some of the things she has created over the course of the school year, and you'll see some different examples of her work below. All the photos are hers as well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYZILx4gBD-osZgO_cxAYhwxH2ft8x9G9mgRDoaZHIxMOLIHWck5yK2hwsv16elg-sghOwoLlNmqdCAUX_ZtVjQ40YGF3VmY2Ve6FcGNQfugywtIwQh63IUYPFvHBXrCqpzCVYAR0rPk/s1600/DSCN1205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYZILx4gBD-osZgO_cxAYhwxH2ft8x9G9mgRDoaZHIxMOLIHWck5yK2hwsv16elg-sghOwoLlNmqdCAUX_ZtVjQ40YGF3VmY2Ve6FcGNQfugywtIwQh63IUYPFvHBXrCqpzCVYAR0rPk/s400/DSCN1205.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earring and necklace set</td></tr>
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Daily and Weekly Subjects</h3>
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Narration</h4>
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Emma narrates each of her readings, generally between finishing her math and lunch and in the late afternoon while we are making dinner. If we have an afternoon event, she will usually narrate in the car. She writes one narration each day, although towards the end of the year that wasn't as consistent. There were a few books where I assigned written narrations, like Bacon's Essays, but for the most part she picked which reading she used for her written narration.</div>
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Towards the end of y7 we set her up with a private Wordpress blog and she writes all her narrations there, with the exception of her science ones. The science narrations go in her science notebook, and they stay separate because they usually have a sketch or diagram to go with them. On the blog, they all tagged by book and nicely ordered. It is password protected and my husband and I are the only ones who have access to it. I get an email each time she posts a new narration, and this has made it easy for me to keep up with reading them. I seldom find spelling or grammatical errors in her narrations, but I will occasionally ask her to add more detail. Her narrations are generally a delight to read, full of big thoughts and well chosen phrases.</div>
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Writing</h4>
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I have not done any formal writing program with Emma since we had a complete and utter fail with a progymnasmata program in 3rd grade (can I admit that publicly?). Since then all she has done is narrate, narrate, narrate, and I am extremely pleased with her ability to share her thoughts in her writing and how she already shapes her argument and narrative. Her writing is enjoyable to read, well worded, and worth reading. Narration works, and it is for a very long time.</div>
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Occasionally I will ask her to revise and polish a narration, and this year I have started asking her to add supporting quotes to some of her written narrations. In her written narrations for Bacon's Essays, I asked her to do things like make an outline of Bacon's argument, restate his argument in your own words, write a bulleted list of the pros Bacon lists about a subject and the cons, as well as the more standard written narration. </div>
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This spring she's started writing a novel, and right now it is about 30,000 words into it and going strong. And for the most part, the book is a delight to read. There's a few parts that need some work, and she recognizes that and is willing to go back and polish when the time comes. But that seems like that should be expected - after all, who writes a perfect first draft?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9mpI-gLevscbOpmXAzUQs-sIkdaVeFiXNXyLwRiR_b83bfesyfpUIZhgTeMU33dS1mjX4FxJCmUVMCLYAfKm79NPe4Z5VsoNOicQRuYoozcABpapaS6dgn9QrXsvX3JRrLNtVeAaoAiA/s1600/FullSizeRender-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9mpI-gLevscbOpmXAzUQs-sIkdaVeFiXNXyLwRiR_b83bfesyfpUIZhgTeMU33dS1mjX4FxJCmUVMCLYAfKm79NPe4Z5VsoNOicQRuYoozcABpapaS6dgn9QrXsvX3JRrLNtVeAaoAiA/s400/FullSizeRender-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These earrings are her signature pieces right now, and she's sold quite a few of them.</td></tr>
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<h4>
Keeping</h4>
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Emma should be writing in her commonplace, but is not. I have not tried to make that a requirement, although I probably should.</div>
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I am requiring a weekly nature study entry, although I was letting her do this with photographs on her narrations blog for a little while. I think that was a mistake, and I am now requiring a weekly nature journal entry from everyone - including me!</div>
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Emma has continued her Book of Centuries from last year, and is adding a couple entries a week. I've also assigned her to create some timelines of people's lives or eventful periods (Galileo, English Reformation) and those were a mixed success. Lack of inspection on my part was a real problem.</div>
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Emma keeps a science notebook, and adds sketches and diagrams as well as some narrating from her science reading a couple times a week.</div>
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<h4>
Dictation and Grammar</h4>
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In order to make dictation happen at least a little more often, I started using <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/spelling-wisdom/">Simply Charlotte Mason's Spelling Wisdom Book 4</a> with Emma. This has worked extremely well, and has had the additional bonus of introducing Emma to some new books. We try to do dictation twice a week, but I think we probably averaged just a little over once a week.</div>
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For grammar, I tried using Our Mother Tongue again but just didn't find it working for Emma. I ended up buying <a href="http://iew.com/fix">IEW's Fix-It Book 2</a> for Emma and I'm having her do for about 10 minutes 3-4 times a week. She is not doing the copywork or the vocabulary aspects of the curriculum. I wouldn't say it is the greatest thing out there for grammar, but it is working well for her where she is at and helping her to move forward. As a principle I don't like having kids study things that are wrong, but I think she's old enough that the copy-editing practice is helpful.</div>
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<h4>
Classical Languages</h4>
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Last year Emma studied both Greek and Latin, but over the summer we decided to drop Greek. We didn't have enough room in the schedule to do them both justice, and I decided Latin was the more important one for her to continue to study. </div>
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She's continued to move slowly through Henle Book 1, working 30 minutes at a time, 3-4 days a week. <span style="background-color: white;"> She has picked up speed this year, and is moving through it more quickly than in previous years.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2AqVCq1oWpkaXjbiye2T6rrNBOsPb9bpArgpaJA2xmsMBXQ_eG3p2amfbULMDkyvTuMgCdpZMhyuMerTPwCf9Q_p3vfbvqfqKOZxHC8c5o4B8nNg9_tdx3W4_8xhyphenhyphenBgsLN1c5Vz1vzI/s1600/FullSizeRender-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2AqVCq1oWpkaXjbiye2T6rrNBOsPb9bpArgpaJA2xmsMBXQ_eG3p2amfbULMDkyvTuMgCdpZMhyuMerTPwCf9Q_p3vfbvqfqKOZxHC8c5o4B8nNg9_tdx3W4_8xhyphenhyphenBgsLN1c5Vz1vzI/s400/FullSizeRender-3.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lovely scarf she knitted - she has an even more elaborate one on her needles right now</td></tr>
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Spanish</h4>
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Emma has continued to use Rosetta Stone for about 15 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week. She also has continued to use Duolingo, doing 1-2 sessions a day. In addition to this work, she is spending about 15 minutes three times a week on Spanish translation from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/First-Spanish-Reader-Beginners-Dual-Language/dp/0486258106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435115348&sr=1-1&keywords=first+spanish+reader">First Spanish Reader.</a> She is also studying Spanish grammar by reading a section of <a href="http://amzn.to/29gh3qy">Essential Spanish Grammar</a> 1-2 times a week and writing a written narration. </div>
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<h4>
Math</h4>
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Emma has been using the Life of Fred books for several years now, and they've worked well for her. She is most of the way through the Algebra book at this point. She's found the Life of Fred books very self-explanatory and only occasionally needs help from me. I do check her work at each city to keep abreast of how she's doing. During the summer she's changing gears and working through some of the Khan Academy Algebra materials. She's enjoying the review and the different presentation of the material. I'm not quite sure what we'll do in the Fall.</div>
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<h4>
Geography</h4>
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For Geography review, I have her using the TapQuiz Maps app two to three times a week. I also have her look up locations for her reading, and she has a large map of Britain and Ireland next to her work area that gets a fair amount of use. I also have her doing a map drill of the shires of England 1-2 times a week. This is challenging work, but I think she's finding it helpful in her reading. I should probably have started it a lot earlier.</div>
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<h4>
Handicrafts</h4>
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Emma is a handicrafts superstar. This year she's started selling earrings that she designed, set up an Etsy shop, is learning how to make baskets, worked with clay, knitted, crocheted, sketched, painted, explored cartography... the list goes on and on! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL3HLXDZbzS4n6hHIj_S7_3AyVg1DKLW0Npt7_fFT2e1K3NcVG7hDu0hKILhb3omi95Dhqvien1Pql_6_Wm_6L-n6YPaEkzkV7IS02zeoTVJ9GSndA_zSIu3Kdy_45vaxK3g0E4B5iBs/s1600/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL3HLXDZbzS4n6hHIj_S7_3AyVg1DKLW0Npt7_fFT2e1K3NcVG7hDu0hKILhb3omi95Dhqvien1Pql_6_Wm_6L-n6YPaEkzkV7IS02zeoTVJ9GSndA_zSIu3Kdy_45vaxK3g0E4B5iBs/s400/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Her first basket</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
The Booklist</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Titles in Bold are books we used and finished all I had scheduled</b>, <i>books in Italics are books we abandoned or didn't even begin</i>, and books in plain type are books we put in some work on, but did not complete as scheduled. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
*Books with asterisks are her favorites. </div>
<div>
+Books with a plus are ones I read as she was reading them.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Faith</u></h4>
<div>
<div>
<b>A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+Christianity, Pure and Simple</b></div>
<div>
<b>+The Family that Overtook Christ</b></div>
<div>
<i>The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - In the third term I decided I needed something a little shorter and easier than The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, so I picked The Family That Overtook Christ because I think it is a must read. It would probably be better as a Y7 book, but oh well.</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>History</u></h4>
<div>
<b>+The Great Heresies (one chapter) by Belloc</b></div>
<div>
<b>+The New World (Churchill)</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Characters of the Reformation by Belloc</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Speeches/Docs as selected by Ambleside Online</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Pilgrim Journal</b></div>
<div>
<b>The Voyage of the Spanish Armada</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+1491</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Life of Francis Bacon</b></div>
<div>
<i>Everyman</i></div>
<div>
<b>*+Man for All Seasons</b></div>
<div>
<i>Coffin for King Charles</i></div>
<div>
<i>Charles II: The Last Rally</i></div>
<div>
<b>*+Galileo’s Daughter</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes -</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Next time I would skip The Great Heresies. It has some interesting ideas, but it was too complex and had too much assumed knowledge for Emma to get much out of it. </li>
<li>Characters of the Reformation was a little uneven - some chapters were excellent, others were decent, and some felt like filler. Next time I think I'll just assign some of the chapters rather than the whole book. </li>
<li>Reading 1491 was a fantastic read for this year. It was also fascinating to read the back story of what was going on in the Americas when the Pilgrims arrived, and to gain a fuller understanding of the New World. This book sparked lots of great discussions!</li>
<li>I assigned (as usual) too much this year. Thankfully I realized it early enough to pull some books so I could lighten her load. It all was still probably a little too much, but it was much better than it would have been otherwise.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8TUaJkv61QH4fxUY3OsGGTIAgjg1YdICvo61-3kvnmeaMcezQpXX4jqeWvZdwzW9BQhhWcxecAafOyMUfDrVPnjetgIZm0fHu4b3QR25qBIfB9sICpDpv0KDhLpuNx6kq6BmW5DjXi3U/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8TUaJkv61QH4fxUY3OsGGTIAgjg1YdICvo61-3kvnmeaMcezQpXX4jqeWvZdwzW9BQhhWcxecAafOyMUfDrVPnjetgIZm0fHu4b3QR25qBIfB9sICpDpv0KDhLpuNx6kq6BmW5DjXi3U/s400/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are made out of Sculpy - aren't they amazing?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Literature</u></h4>
<div>
<b>+Utopia</b></div>
<div>
<i>I, Promessi</i></div>
<div>
<b>+Come Rack, Come Rope</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+Faerie Queene</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes -</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>I moved I, Promessi to her free reads list because I needed to remove some books. She hasn't read it yet, but I'm going to bring it up to her again soon. I read it a few years ago and I thought it was wonderful!</li>
<li>I used a different version of the Faerie Queene than what Ambleside Online recommends. We felt like it dumbed down the Faerie Queene, and added help that wasn't necessary. We were also very interested to notice that some of the interpretations of the allegories that the editor gave in a canonical manner were quite different from the interpretations offered by the editor of the version I got from Project Gutenberg. </li>
<li>Come Rack, Come Rope is a great book to read in Y8. It gives a good view of the Catholic side of the English Reformation in a way that is very matter of fact and not incendiary. The author isn't trying to make the Protestants out to be all bad guys, rather he's trying to tell the story of the people who tried to remain Catholic in a very difficult period of history. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Geography</u></h4>
<div>
<i>Geoge Morison's Columbus</i></div>
<div>
<i>Book of Marvels</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - I decided to cut them both, letting the geography in our family reading and in Emma's other books stand in for this year's geography reading.</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Science</u></h4>
<div>
Chemical History of a Candle</div>
<div>
<b>+Briefer History of Time</b></div>
<div>
<b>+William Harvey On the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Adventures with a Microscope</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+The Sea Around Us</b></div>
<div>
<i>Brother Astronomer</i></div>
<div>
<b>+Microbe Hunters</b></div>
<div>
The Great Courses: Our Night Sky</div>
<div>
<i>The Great Courses: Experiencing Hubble</i></div>
<div>
<b>Assembling California</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes -</div>
<ul>
<li>This was a tough year to plan science. I had to get it planned before the new AO science recommendations were out, and ended up with a hodge-podge of books and resources. I felt like it was an ok science year, but not a great one.</li>
<li>We did not do all of the experiments in A Chemical History of a Candle. <a href="https://northwestbynorth.wordpress.com/living-science-resources/">Having Kathy's study guide</a> was great, but even still it was quite an effort to get Emma to do them... and I wasn't sure how much I should take the lead in getting them done.</li>
<li>I had really wanted to use these Great Courses lectures, but it turns out that one course is all I can make time for, and Emma won't do it on her own. I decided to prioritize the Dante course, which I think was the right choice, but I think these other courses would have been a great addition to the year.</li>
<li>I am really looking forward to going to Nicole William's science immersion at the <a href="http://www.cmiconferences.org/">CMI Western Conference</a> in August! I'm hoping it will make science a lot easier to plan and a much better experience for our family in the years to come.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Natural History</u></h4>
<div>
<b>*Arctic Dreams</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - I loved this book! It was especially wonderful to read after having spent three weeks in Alaska last summer. I highly recommend it.</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Citizenship</u></h4>
<div>
<b>+Ourselves</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Bacon's Essays</b></div>
<div>
<b>+Pepys</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+Whatever Happened to Justice..? </b></div>
<div>
<b>+The Story of the Constitution by Tappan</b></div>
<div>
<b><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Easy_Lessons_on_the_Constitution_of_the.html?id=AXsAAAAAYAAJ">Easy Lessons about the Constitution</a> (ebook)</b></div>
<div>
How to Read a Book</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>I've been having Emma read 15 minutes of How to Read a Book each week, but that isn't enough to get us to where we're supposed to be according to AO's schedule. Oh well. </li>
<li>Whatever Happened to Justice...? was one that sparked a lot of conversation. Sometimes it is good to read a book that you argue with so you can hone your thinking. We had a lot of good conversations about concupiscence this year, and how damaging it is... as well as conversations about how we aren't made for this world, and we can't expect to be able to recreate Eden. Reading Utopia played into these conversations a great deal too. </li>
<li>The two Constitution materials were a last minute addition to satisfy a charter school requirement, and they left something to be desired. But they were better than the textbook that the charter offered, so at least there's that.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">And a note by Emma -</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>I have noted <i>Whatever Happened to Justice</i> as one of my favorite books; not because I agree with all of what he says, but I have marked it rather because... well, because I liked arguing with it (highly enjoyable and stimulating, if a bit warlike) and enjoyed discussing it with Mom.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Poetry</u></h4>
<div>
<b>Grammar of Poetry (carry over from last year)</b></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dante-s-divine-comedy.html">Divine Comedy Great Courses Lecture Series</a></div>
<div>
<b>*+Inferno</b></div>
<div>
<b>*+Purgatorio</b></div>
<div>
<i>Paradiso</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - I had scheduled out reading the Divine Comedy over the course of the year, but it was something where I needed to be highly involved. We were supposed to watch a new lecture at least every other week and read and discuss 2-3 Cantos each week. And there were some weeks when it just didn't happen like it was supposed to, so we gradually drifted behind. But we had some wonderful discussions, and I think our study of Dante's Comedia was a highlight of the year. We really enjoyed the Great Courses lecture series, it added a lot to our reading and study of the work. (But please buy it on sale!!) </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Reading Dante's Divine Comedy, even though it was written earlier than the historical time period Emma studied this year, was such a wonderful complement to all our reading of schism and reformation. Dante doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the corruption of the Church - after all, he has popes in hell! - but yet he has a vision of the Church that is greater than the corruption of individuals. And this vision, with the deep repentance Dante models in his poem, is a welcome antidote to all the worldly wars and power struggles that consumed the Western World during this time period.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGQDQ2ChuDcDFW-ukSuK2wZGdrfW2J2vy3-FRE6OpokIaKfr2eFkExNllJMJN7Vpk7yGfSeuhyphenhyphen855xinMFEReceOG13mZoc6R2f-ti39yfRMrMghO4eWsvugqNKago0r4N-N6GcGwnz8/s1600/IMG_1828.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGQDQ2ChuDcDFW-ukSuK2wZGdrfW2J2vy3-FRE6OpokIaKfr2eFkExNllJMJN7Vpk7yGfSeuhyphenhyphen855xinMFEReceOG13mZoc6R2f-ti39yfRMrMghO4eWsvugqNKago0r4N-N6GcGwnz8/s400/IMG_1828.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a piece that started as a sketch, then she took a picture of it, imported it into a graphics program on her iPad, traced over it all and cleaned it up, and now has it ready to print or use in other ways.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<u><br /></u></h4>
<h4>
<u>Art</u></h4>
<div>
<b>*+The Story of Art by Gombrich</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Additional Notes - I'm so glad I happened to find a new edition of this book at the library book sale, because this new version has all color pictures! That makes the book even more enjoyable.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Favorites from Emma's Reading</h3>
<div>
<br />
I keep a record of all of Emma's reading, and I asked her to look through the list and select some favorites. She had lots of favorites this year! Some of the books are re-reads. None of these books were assigned, they were all ones she chose because they were on our shelves, were gifts, or were books I had downloaded. She does check with me before she picks up a new book, but I do not do much more than offer a lot of good books in our home and on our Kindles.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tunnel in the Sky, Heinlein</div>
<div>
Foundation Series, Asimov</div>
<div>
Complete Collection of Short Stories, Twain</div>
<div>
The Trees of Pride, Chesterton</div>
<div>
The Tale of Two Cities, Dickens</div>
<div>
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell, Clarke</div>
<div>
Persuasion, Austen</div>
<div>
Emma, Austen</div>
<div>
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Tolkien (a re-read, and an all time favorite)</div>
<div>
The Prince and the Pauper, Twain</div>
<div>
David Copperfield, Twain</div>
<div>
Pride and Prejudice, Austen</div>
<div>
The Thurber Collection, Thurber</div>
<div>
Laddie, Stratton-Porter</div>
<div>
The Phantom of the Opera, Leroux</div>
<div>
Moby Dick, Melville</div>
<div>
Murder Must Advertise, Sayers</div>
<div>
Sillmarilion, Tolkien (a re-read, and an all time favorite)</div>
<div>
Strong Poison, Sayers</div>
<div>
Have is Carcase, Sayers</div>
<div>
The Resurrection, Tolstoy</div>
<div>
Gaudy Night, Sayers</div>
<div>
Busman's Honeymoon, Sayers</div>
<div>
The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great, Merkle</div>
<div>
Beauty, McKinley </div>
<div>
Anne's House of Dreams, Montgomery</div>
<div>
To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee</div>
<div>
Once and Future King, White</div>
<div>
Along the Shore, Montgomery</div>
<div>
Rainbow Valley, Montgomery</div>
<div>
Rilla of Ingleside, Montgomery</div>
<div>
Kilmeny of the Orchard, Montgomery</div>
<div>
Order of the Phoenix, Rowling</div>
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<br /></div>
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Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12689104216675201913noreply@blogger.com5