Category: Geography

All on a Friday morning

9/26/2014

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things
Philippians 4:8

Every other Friday for 2 terms a year my son and I experience the joy of being together with friends to share our teaching and learning. 10 subjects ; 4 1/2 hours; 1 snack; 14 kids; 6 moms. It's a refreshing, invigorating addition to our regular at home days. Here's is a taste of our morning.

Shakespeare
Folk Song
Picture Study
Nature Study
Composer
* Snack *
Geography
Poetry
Handcrafts
Plutarch
Hymn

Learning alongside these older kids and their mothers who have gone before me has been the most valuable thing to the practicality of my teaching at home. Seeing narration in action with all ages, hearing the moms' choice of wording presented in different subject areas, the level of expectation, the atmosphere, the little ways each one is treated as a person, the flow of the morning, the simplicity yet variety in the lessons, and mostly being able to see where I am headed in this journey being fleshed out in front of me, are some of the most amazing things I have been blessed with from these times together. I don't really know who's learning more, my son or I? I know for a fact that our school times at home would look much different if it was not for this group.

If you're interested, you can read more about our Truth Beauty Goodness group's latest adventures via another one of the moms from over here.

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A great thing

9/15/2014

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It is a great thing to be a parent: there is no promotion, no dignity, to compare with it.

Inspiration from last week's book study:

Mothers owe a 'thinking love' to their Children.––"The mother is qualified," says Pestalozzi, "and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; ... and what is demanded of her is––a thinking love ... God has given to the child all the faculties of our nature, but the grand point remains undecided––how shall this heart, this head, these hands be employed? to whose service shall they be dedicated? A question the answer to which involves a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee. Maternal love is the first agent in education." -CM Vol 1

handcraft: paracord bracelets

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This Moment

12/6/2013

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Joining Soulemama today for a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from today. Quiet. Simple. A moment to pause and remember.

Map drill: A day to remember in South African history. (We just happen to be studying South Africa this term.)

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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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This past week we...

11/10/2013

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... woke up one morning to snow!! It's mostly gone now, but it was a glorious frosty surprise in which we were out playing before 7 am.

sent

... participated in an online nature exchange and received a fun package of beachy items all the way from sunny CA! The sand dollar and piece of lobster shell were the favorites.

Received

...said goodbye to our chickens. It was a cold but successful butchering day. Despite the gross factor, I have to recommend the experience to everyone at least once. There's something natural and wholesome to get up close and personal with the circle of life of which we are so often far removed. Oh, and I learned what the eggs look like when they're not out yet... strangely fascinating. I kept recalling childhood memories from butchering day at Grandpa Joe's farm w/ my large herd of relatives. We are hoping to raise a new flock again next spring.

...stuck the baby in a giant pumpkin... he didn't like it too much. I thought it was very cute.

...took an evening walk down our country lane.

...read a favorite story and had a birthday party. The big 2!

...harvested the last of the garden. Carrots. Yum! Harvesting in snow reminded me of when we planted last April. See?

...did some geography and some sloyd with friends.

(more to come on sloyd) stay tuned,,,

"We must make it our business, as much as in us lies, to bring beauty to places where it is not."
-Charlotte Mason

XO
from out here on the prairie!

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Want a boat ride?

10/29/2013

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"Mom, that way is North and over by those reeds is South," was a comment that blessed my heart this past weekend on a lovely autumn day.
Outdoor geography ties in with our math lessons in such a lovely way.

"...firm hand on the tiller he cranked up the make and break on the Tidley Idley..."
Burt Dow Deep Water Man

Pockets were filled with shells and pretty leaves (and sand for good measure.)

And we tried not to disturb the fish while we were at it.

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The Admiral and I

10/14/2013

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Seven years ago when I stood on the soil of Granada, Spain, or more specifically in the halls of the Alhambra castle, I had no idea it was the very place Columbus had long ago asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his voyage in which he discovered the New World.

I look forward to Columbus Day in a fresh way after having read some wonderful living books about the life of this impressive hero who earned the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

Chistopher Columbus at the Royal Court of Spain, by Václav Brožik c.1884

As the story goes, Columbus waited until the Spaniards conquered the Moors taking control of Granada and the Alhambra. The king and queen then had the means to fund his journey to the Orient.

See the castle in the background? I wonder, did the D'Aulaire's visit Alhambra too?

In true tour guide fashion, here we are in The Hall of the Ambassadors (Gran Salón de Embajadores,) the room where it is claimed that Columbus was received by the King and Queen.

A visitor here would have stepped from the glaring Court of Myrtles into this dim, cool, incense-filled world, to meet the silhouetted sultan. Imagine the alcoves functioning busily as work stations, and the light at sunrise or sunset, rich and warm, filling the room.
Note the finely carved Arabic script. Muslims avoided making images of living creatures — that was God's work. But they could carve decorative religious messages. One phrase — "only Allah is victorious" — is repeated 9,000 times throughout the palace. Find the character for "Allah" — it looks like a cursive W with a nose on its left side. The swoopy toboggan blades underneath are a kind of artistic punctuation setting off one phrase.
In 1492, two historic events likely took place in this room. Culminating a 700-year-long battle, the Reconquista was completed here as the last Moorish king, Boabdil, signed the terms of his surrender before eventually leaving for Africa.
And it was here that Columbus made his pitch to Isabel and Ferdinand to finance a sea voyage to the Orient. Imagine the scene: The king, the queen, and the greatest minds from the University of Salamanca gathered here while Columbus produced maps and pie charts to make his case that he could sail west to reach the East. Ferdinand and the professors laughed and called Columbus mad — not because they thought the world was flat (most educated people knew otherwise), but because they thought Columbus had underestimated the size of the globe, and thus the length and cost of the journey.
But Isabel said "Sí, señor." Columbus fell to his knees (promising to pack light, wear a money belt, and use the most current guidebook available). quote here.

In that relational way, those newly learned facts and ideas hung themselves on the pegs of previous experiences in my brain.

My imagination is weaving all sorts of interlocking webs as I learn more from here and there.

All these tidbits are fitting in to create that sweeping panorama of history in my mind.

I remember this stunning castle and the way it filled my senses, the tinkling fountains the smell of orange blossoms and jasmine, the cool halls and intricate carved archways. I bought the book Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving in the bookshop at the end of our 5 hour tour. He wrote these little tales of Spanish history during his stay at this beautiful palace when it was no longer the main housing for royalty but used by a lower-ranking military official. Reading it is like taking a little stroll with him through the Spanish countryside.

Not too long ago I picked up a kids' pop-up book with words from Columbus' own journal which my son has enjoyed.
I also found this sweet storybook of Spanish folktales gorgeously illustrated by Emma Brock. Spain, and Columbus... it all weaves together in a fascinating way, doesn't it?

For a more detailed tour of Alhambra, look here and here.

Photos in this post are from around the web as well as out of my own camera :)

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Why I love Homeschool

8/13/2012

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It was a windy saturday evening shortly before bedtime and we took a quick trip to the shore. Can you tell what we're doing?............ geography

A map of our recent travels. Do you see the highway, the lake, the pasture with cows, the fence with chickens and the race track grandpa took him to "waaaay far away"?

And hymn study.......

"When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well. It is well with my soul"

sea billows

We let the 'waves' crash on our ankles. Drew 'maps' with sticks in the smooth sand.
Watched the sun play peek-a-boo with the clouds. Poked dead fish with sticks.
Followed the 'sea billows' far out on the water as they came nearer and nearer
and then diminished into greyish foam at the waters edge.

It was one of those nights spent with my boy that I want to remember fo always.

By the way we had a wonderful weekend at the Living Education Retreat! More to come......

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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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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