Category:

Hibernate

1/5/2014

With the current temp at -11 and windchill at -37 we've mostly been entertaining ourselves indoors this Christmas and New Year, with the exception of visits with friends and an occasional abbreviated jaunt through the woods or down to the mailbox. The new child-sized snow shovel is already lost in a drift somewhere, sigh. Along with the stories, stories and more stories and a few new presents to play with, here's what's been filling the little minds and hands and tummies at our house.

"Mom, can I please learn to finger knit?"
He picked some chunky rainbow yarn out of my stash and sat on my lap.
We watched and paused this video several times.
It was a lovely way to spend a frigid afternoon. He's been making 'scarves' and fake beards and moustaches for imaginative play ever since!

Singing Noche Buena and cooking Bunuelos
(Mexican Christmas cookies meaning 'puffs of air') We drizzled ours with honey.

Learning to weave with a similar kit to this.

After this read aloud, since we couldn't go in person, we went to
the Nutcracker Balet via youtube with popcorn and everything.
Even the little one still asks me, "Mom-mom, I want it, honey bees."
Slightly different version then the story, but very beautifully done
....and there are dancing bees!

The tree and ornaments had an expedited removal thanks to the curious and
oh-so-busy two year old, so now it's back to regular school and
on to more wintery adventures here at home!

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The Rhythm of Year 1

11/18/2013

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"To push ourselves to work daily at education, to live, act, think and speak in front of children so that they'll be better every hour because of our example, is a lot harder than making a single enormous sacrifice."
--Charlotte Mason

It's November, and we're settling into a gentle rhythm for fitting school into our days here at home. It takes a little bit to get supplies organized and the posted routine turned into an actuality. It also takes some thought and preparation to take a child who at age four has free exploratory play taking up the majority of his day, to then, by age six, be able to sit down for a structured period of time and apply his mind to learning as well as telling back what he knows. I have found a slow, gentle introduction to one new subject at a time to be the most attainable in our home setting and much preferable to a throw-them-in-at-the-deep-end approach.

The lessons

In progress

School is pretty high on the ‘fun’ list around here, for teacher and student. I mean that too! Really, who wouldn’t appreciate a guilt-free opportunity to ignore housework and laundry and go read a few really good books for a while each day. I hope and pray that the day I begin to find it turning to drudgery for either party, I would pause for a long hard look and make the necessary changes. How well can learning happen when the mind is overwhelmed or in a state of resistance?

From broken basement discard, to refurbished school-cupboard. A dream come true!

In an ideal world, where obedience reigns, nothing falls apart and fairies do the dirty dishes, this is what the school portion of our daily rhythm looks like.

I've heard it called gathering time and morning meeting and other lovely names; we begin our time after breakfast with the same concept. We've found which subjects work well while the little one is dashing between our feet and save the others for nap time. I'm still crossing lots of fingers praying he doesn't grow out of nap time for a long while. It's been an adjustment for me to give up my mid-afternoon time to get some work done around the house. I'm not a fan of change in general, but in this case, the rewards far outweigh any negatives.

During a morning we try to do the following subjects:
Bible Reading/Prayer
Recite our memory Verse
Calendar-Weather check
Listen to our composer
Spanish lesson
Sing our Hymn/Folksong
Read our daily poem

Chores and outdoor play fit into our morning, as well. Other times we run errands or have play-dates with mom friends and their little ones before lunch. I might remember to grab the cds and then we listen/sing/recite any of the above subjects in the car. We also love books on cd in the car!

Espanol

Using Ambleside Online Year 1 as our guide, our total time spent in focused learning during a given day is about an one and a half to two hours. I take my planning time (usually about 15 minutes) on Friday when school's over. Then my thoughts from the week we've just completed and where we're headed are still fresh in my mind. I find that it takes me much longer and is harder to get back into the mindset if I wait until Sunday night.

As soon as baby's down for the afternoon and the table is cleared, big brother and I pop onto the couch and begin with a book and narration, which one depends on the day and our reading schedule.

Viking Tales drawing narration

Short and varied lessons are the keys to keeping attention and interest. We do 5-20 minute lessons depending on the subject. When he asks, I let him choose which order the afternoon falls into, but, as I can sense that a certain predictability is a comfort to him, we generally follow his favorite order of things. Number comes next,

Making 8 with pennies and beans. "Which ones look alike?"

then copywork.

"Can I please write a letter to Auntie for copywork?"

Next he does his letters (aka learning to read),

Melt-mom's-heart-first-reading-lessons!

"...She gives me cream with all HER might, to eat with apple-tart."

and then another reading and narration.

Where did Shaka Zulu live?

"Mom, this is how Shaka did it."

Handcrafting, nature notebooks- a.k.a. science, drawing, outdoor geography, timeline, common placing, citizenship etc. fit in here depending on the day. We attempt to do each at least once a week.

Garter snakes have no ears, we discovered.

our time line

And Shakespeare comes last. Often baby wakes up and does Shakespeare with us. And that's it for school! We used to head out and pick eggs after this. I 'm already looking forward to resuming that part of our daily rhythm with new birds next year and listening to contented chicken noises and giggling at their antics once again.

Playing at The Globe Theatre. "I want to be Banquo."

Numbers in real life

The majority of the time the teacher role falls to me. Dad likes to be involved in school, more than just, "We did this or that today," but among his many bread-winner responsibilities he doesn't have much chance to dive too far in. It makes sense for me to help offer opportunities for him to connect to what we're doing.

Reading Peter Pan and dressing the parts

One evening I set out an 'assignment' for suppertime, a Picture Study narration that had already been assigned to us for our TBG community. It was very fun to sit back and listen to it happen. They looked quietly at a beautiful print from Vermeer. Afterwards, these are a few of the comments I heard.
"There was a box on the table."
"It was brown."
"No, Dad, it was blackish brown."
"She had a letter in her hand."
"Ya, it might have been a letter from her husband."
"There was some cloth."
"No, that's the table. It was blue."
"Like her dress!"
"Let's look at it again. Oh, I see what you were talking about that was a hook on her face. It's her hair, a curl."
"It's hard to see."
Another recommendation I've heard for dads is to keep a read aloud book going at all times, one they can pick up and read to the kids whenever it works. We're using the free reads on our list for some of our 'dad books.' It's an opportunity not to be missed!

And baby gets his share of stories too...

"...let us consider where and what the little being is who is entrusted to the care of human parents. A tablet to be written upon? a twig to be bent? Wax to be moulded? Very likely, but he is much more-- a being belonging to an altogether higher estate than ours; as it were, a prince committed to the fostering care of peasants."

Our favorite Poor Richard's Almanac quote: "Men and melons are hard to know." After we read this D'aulaire on Ben Franklin, DH and I watched the HBO miniseries John Adams bringing the famous revolutionary to life for me!!

"...mothers owe a thinking love to their children...
how shall this heart, this head, these hands, be employed?
to whose service shall they be dedicated?"

Oh, the stories we get to read!!!

Wishing we could step into this nature collection

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Mariposa: {Butterfly}

4/23/2012

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16. to name 20 common objects in Spanish, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one Spanish song

Spanish: Another goal of ours from the list

He worked quietly with patience and persistence to catch a couple of butterflies out in the yard last week. We kept one overnight to observe and enjoy.

It helps, when we are learning, to have a sister/auntie who can speak Spanish to us.

Isn't the word 'mariposa' beautiful to say?

We're using this and this to continue our learning.

A friend of mine has a great post on word culture that has got me thinking on more ways to incorporate a second language into our days.

I also love her list 'Think on these things" at the very bottom of her blog. It has helped me more then once to re-focus on what is truly important when homeschooling my children.
She is a gem!

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Welcome!

"I am recording this so that future generations will also praise the Lord for all He has done." -Psalm 102:18

I am a mama to 2 sweet brothers who aspires to a "thinking love" toward my children.

Take a peek into our journey towards a living education inspired by the writings of Charlotte Mason.

Be sure to leave me a comment if you're inspired!

I prefer to keep my text and images right here. Please don't copy without permission. Thanks!

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Librivox free audio books

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Bible verses put to song

Storynory free audio stories for kids

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Previously...

Our Story

Our Year 1 Rhythm

Cloth Diapering

Century Chart

Learning to Read

Wool Felting

Nature with Little Ones

Playful Learning ABC

Living Math

Raising Tadpoles

Homemade Cleaning Recipes

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Beginning a Foreign Language

Animal Tracking with Kids

Beginning Preschool

First History Lessons

Maple Sugaring with Kids

Children in the Garden

Sloyd handwork

Monarch Miracle

I Participate

"In this field small efforts are honoured with great rewards, and we perceive that the education we are giving exceeds all that we intended or imagined.”
- Mason