Noble Haven Conservatory

Melody's and Eliza's Poems

2011-09-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

A day late, but not a dollar short!

America

by Melody

Sun-bleached, sandy seashores,

With seashells in the sand.

The lazy, quiet rivers,

That run through the land.

The mossy, quiet forests,

With trees all around.

The snow-capped, majestic mountains,

Rising from the ground.

The green, perfect plains,

With the May, spring air.

People, who are loving and kind,

And at night would say their prayer.

America

by Eliza

The sparkling, white seashores

That glitter in the sunlight.

The broad, rushing rivers

That splash day and night.

The quiet, mossy forests

Of the majestic mountains.

The perfect, golden plains,

With the beautiful smell of jasmine.

The smooth and delightful melody

That hangs in the air.

The people who care for their families

With a loving heart.

They sputtered out a bit at the end because they were working on a deadline, but overall, I think they did a great job!

The next lesson also is poetic. Rebekah and Joel are working on them now. I'm dividing up the two poems for the little girls, so they're working on the first now and will write the second next week.

SDG!

English Assignments: poetry

2011-09-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

School is getting off to a good start!

We began the Tuesday after Labor Day (even though schools here start in early August, I'll never think that's a good idea; fortunately, homeschoolers have the flexibility to do it our own way!)

Rebekah, Melody, Eliza, and Joel are working through IEW's U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons this year. The two olders will work through Volume 1 and Volume 2, while the two little work through Volume 1.

The first lesson was about strong adjectives and used a poem as the model, sort of. I must say I wasn't really impressed with this assignment and the kids thought the model was lame (not their word). It purported to be a poem, but had no instructions about rhythm or rhyme (since the lesson wasn't about that, I understand, but I think choosing a real poem as a model would have been a better idea). I know poetry without rhyme and rhythm is considered acceptable, but I've always had a hard time seeing blank verse as real poetry. However, I thought that, since it's only one assignment and things should improve as we go through the book, I wouldn't make a big deal about it.

The two older kids' assignment was due today. Rebekah had the same idea that I did - simply get through it, but Joel added in rhythm and rhyme. Here are their creations:

America

by Rebekah

Land of sunny, shell-strewn seashores,

Dark, mossy forests of evergreens,

Majestic, snow-capped mountain ranges;

Broad, rushing, and lazy rivers travelling

Among rolling, golden plains.

America, a land populated by thriving,

Independent men and women whose

Lives are paving the way for generations.

America

By Joel

Sparkling and sunny seashores,

Sandy and with shells galore.

Forests leafy, mossy, dark,

Mountains majestic and stark.

Rivers rushing, rocky, broad,

Plains great, created by God.

Men who fought for freedom old

Men, courageous, free, and bold.

I'll post the little girls' poems tomorrow. They've been playing with rhyme and rhythm, too! I can't wait to see what they've come up with!

Composition

2010-11-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

I've struggled for years in trying to teach the kids how to write. I've let the perfect become the enemy of the good enough.

This year, I enrolled my two oldest in Camille Golston's Lost Tools of Writing class through Memoria Press. My goals were two-fold. First, I wanted them to get the instruction that I just can't seem to give them. LTW is being worked on continually, by I didn't think I'd have time to figure it out for my two oldest. My second goal was to learn how to teach the program. I sit in each week (either with Judith or Benjamin) and take notes on both the content and Camille's teaching. I think this is going to be a huge help to me. I'd love to enroll in Andrew's apprenticeship program, but it's just not doable right now.

For the younger kids, I bit the bullet and bought a couple of Middle Ages themed writing programs. I'm tweaking them, but I must admit that I'm enjoying having things laid out for me. The kids are doing more writing and I can adjust the checklists and the 'rules' as we go; for example, instead of simply banning certain words, we discuss propriety in using them (I can't ban said - too many great writers use it too often to simply ban it and I've read too many modern novels that avoid it and they're just ridiculous).

Here's an example of nine-year old Eliza's latest efforts:

A certain fox requested a stork come and dine with him. The stork came and the fox, who was planning to play a practical joke on the stork, gave his guest soup, which was in a wide and shallow bowl. The fox enjoyed his meal, but the stork, who had an extended beak, left for home starved.

In return, the stork kindly invited the fox to dinner. The stork gave his visitor minced-meat, which he served in a tall jar with a narrow mouth. The stork had a pleasant meal and filled his stomach. But the fox, because of his short and big snout, could not fit his mouth into the jar. And the poor fox left for home on an empty stomach. As he drove home in his car, he confessed that he was given what he deserved.

Moral: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

SGD!

French Update

2010-11-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

We've slowed down in working through Barbier from the plans I posted last time, but lots of learning is going on.

Little girls: We're parsing and construing our way through their homework assignments, one sentence at a time. This is slow going, but I really think it's going to give them the best foundation for continued learning. We work on only about five sentences each day, so each exercise takes about four days, but this gives us time to continue with French Phonics, Madeleine, and their paradigms.

Older girls: We've slowed down here, too, but as we work through each sentence, the girls' understanding is growing by leaps and bounds.

I type up each homework sentence in Pages on my iPad (one at a time, so I don't have to work ahead). Then we go through and discuss each word, its part of speech, its job in the sentence, the various elements of each word (person, number, tense, mood, and voice for verbs; person, number, and gender for nouns; number and gender for adjectives and articles). We also color-code each word as to its job in the sentence and adjectives match the color of the noun they modify, but in italics.

We haven't really done any English grammar in quite awhile, but they're learning so much that I think we'll be okay. Even though we're not really discussing English grammar as a separate discipline, we do discuss it lots in their composition assignments.

An additional help: I let the girls change the colors of the words in the iPad - they think that's pretty cool! The touch screen is still pretty new for them.

SDG!

French

2010-10-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling to teach the girls French for quite awhile. I've tried traditional curriculum, not so traditional curriculum, and graded readers and just not been satisfied with any of it.

I enjoyed our literature approach, but making up assignments was slowing me down. I didn't have that much time to work on them and wasn't that satisfied with what I did come up with. And I wasn't sure the little girls were really getting anything, even if the older girls were getting a little. I wasn't keeping them challenged and interested.

Then a friend suggested that I read Roger Ascham's The Schoolmaster. Ascham was Queen Elizabeth I's tutor. I read the preface to The Schoolmaster and was very impressed.

He was at dinner with the Queen and the Privy Council (as the Prime Minister and the Cabinet were called).

'I had strange news brought me,' said Mr. Secretary, 'that diverse scholars of Eton have run away from the school for fear of beating.' Whereupon, Mr. Secretary took occasion to wish that some more discretion were in many schoolmasters in using correction than commonly there is, who many times punish rather the weakness of natuare, than the fault of the scholar. Whereby, many scholars that might else prove well be driven to hate learning before they know what learning is, and so are made willing to forsake their books and be glad to be put to any other kind of living.

Mr. Peter, as one somewhat severe of nature, said plainly that the rod only was the sword that must keep the school in obedience and the scholar in good order.

Mr. Wotton, a man mild of nature, with soft voice and few words, inclined to Mr. Secretary's judgement and said, 'In my opinion, the schoolhouse should be in deed as it is called by name, ludus, the house of play and pleasure, not of fear and bondage.'

I said that young children were sooner allured by love than driven by beating to attain good learning.

That was a good start and got my attention. I kept reading and soon found myself lost in the old spelling and vocabulary, but the parts I could understand intrigued me.

Time to turn to the dictionary to find out what he meant by 'construe' and 'parse' as he described his method for teaching Latin. I figured out that he suggests that the tutor (he was a tutor, not a classroom teacher as far as I can tell) should read through a Latin text and then explain to his student the grammar of each individual word, both in general and in that sentence in particular, and then translate it.

He adds an interesting reverse translation, where he has the student take his initial English translation of the Latin and, on another day, translate it back into Latin and then compare with the initial Latin excerpt. I wish I'd been taught French and Spanish this way!

In the meantime, I'd downloaded several older French books from Google Books to look over (there are no corresponding, old Spanish books!). Several of them were too Latin, approaching French as if it were Latin, but French isn't as inflected as Latin and I don't know enough Latin to pretend that it is. I narrowed it down to Paul Barbier's Elementary French for Beginners, pubished in 1883. It would mean a lot more writing for the girls (but less trying to come up with lessons for me). The language has changed a bit in the intervening 130 years, but I can deal with that.

I wasn't sure how they'd respond to it, but I thought I'd give it a try. (I also found a French composition book that looks very good as we get farther in.)

M. Barbier starts with definite articles, gender of nouns, and feminine and masculine agreement between nouns and adjectives. Imagine my shock (and delight) when they all did great on their assignments, and also told me how much they'd enjoyed them!

When we went through their independent work, we parsed and construed the sentences together. For the first time, 9-yo Eliza recognized an adjective and 11-yo Melody recognized direct objects (we'd been working on both in English for quite some time). After the little girls finished their initial French to English assignment, I had them translate their English back into French. They did great and when we went through their work together, they were able to pick out their own mistakes (and giggled all the while!).

The older girls went through two lessons and four exercises, but now that we're adding in reverse translations, we'll slow down a little.

We're also working slowly through a little French phonics book so they can learn proper pronunciation and how to read correctly. The younger girls are taking Madeleine one sentence at a time (construing and parsing one word at a time, and sometimes diagramming sentences), and the older girls are working on l'Histoire de Babar, in the same way.

I finally feel as though I have a solid French program and that the girls will learn French and so much more!

With the lack of Spanish texts on Google books, I translated the first lesson from French to Spanish (and have friends who can help me with my rusty grammar and vocabulary, as well as a great Spanish dictionary on my iPad). Judith and Benjamin are working on the Spanish exercises, along with some phonics exercises from my old high school Spanish text and reading through Huevos Verdes con Jamón.

SDG!

P.E.

2010-09-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

We went rollerskating last night. I was hoping to do so once each week in my efforts to get us up and moving more, but the price has almost doubled since we went last summer--what I thought was going to cost $15 ended up being almost $30. That won't work on a weekly basis, so I need to re- think this.

It's almost cool enough to spend more time outside (100 degrees is still too hot for much exertion), but soon. In the meantime, I'm just not sure what to do. Physical education has never been a strong area, but I want to do better, for both the kids' and my own health. I don't want it to be drudgery, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a blast.

Thinking ... thinking ... thinking ...

The Prodigal Returns

2010-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Life got crazy last year, especially through the summer, but things seem to be calming down now and we're getting off to our new school year, so I thought this would be a good time to begin to post some updates. (To see how I spend my summer, see my personal blog.)

One new thing we're doing this year for school is to learn the Psalms. I ordered a metrical Psalter from Crown and Covenant and downloaded three of the CD's they have that go along with the Psalter (the fourth, with all of Psalm 119 is due out soon). Many thanks to my friend, John Hodges, for the recommendation - I wanted something that wasn't too pop-musicuish and trendy, but that wasn't childish, either, and John came up with just the right thing.

We've been singing through about ten Psalms each day during Morning Time and we're all beginning to learn them. The harmonies are beautiful and I love that some have familiar tunes. We also enjoy the more ethnic tunes that some have been set to. It'll be awhile before we're able to obtain recordings of all the Psalms (they haven't been relased, yet), but we're well on our way.

I love that my kids are learning Scripture as they learn these songs, that the tunes are appropriate to the words, and that the kids are beginning to learn to sight-read when they sing. Our church uses an overhead with just the words during worship, so I've had to figure out a way to expose them to sight-reading as they sing. Learning the Psalms in this way definitely contributes to this.

We've also been reading the Psalms from the Sidney Psalter and the kids are beginning to be able to recognize them when they hear them (even though the words are slightly different and there's no tune to rely on).

We're studying Christendom this year, so this focus on the Psalms is appropriate, given the rise of monasticism that we're learning about (I've read that Benedictine monks sing through all the Psalms each week as they go through their daily offices). I'd love to incorporate more of the daily offices (the opus dei) and the monastic hours into our days, but it's tough alone at home and I don't know that I'm up to diving into it. A little at a time is probably a better approach.

SDG!

2010-03-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

During our trivium time a few days ago, what one son affectionately calls 'Adventures in the Trivium', we parsed and diagramed the following sentence from The Wind in the Willows, which I'm reading aloud to the little girls:

Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way!

Today, we imitated that sentence together in preparation for the older four imitating it on their own. Here's what we came up with:

Spring! That was what they meant, that stirring zephyr, that scarlet crocus staining the snow, that robin heralding the break of winter's hold.

I'll post the kids' individual sentences when I get them.

We also began a little logic today, covering univocal terms. I only know a bit of logic, so we're taking it slowly, but I'm looking forward to adding this to our 'Adventures in the Trivium'!

SDG!

French - Littles

2009-11-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

The littler three were having trouble keeping up with the grammar of Les Oeufs Verts and the French phonics were a bafflement, so I switched them over to oral French lessons until they're more solid with English phonics and spelling.

They're learning the same paradigms as their older siblings, but at a bit of a slower pace.

They've begun learning the parts of the body and left and right. We play Simon dites … or sing Alouette, pointing to various body parts. They've also begun learning the verbs lever (lift up), baisser (put down), toucher (touch), and montrer (show). Sometimes I'll ask them, 'Où est la main gauche?' and they answer, 'Voilà la main gauche!' while pointing to it or holding it up.

They're learning how to count to ten. I'll hold up fingers and they have to tell me as quickly as they can how many I'm holding up. I pulled out the old pre-school number flashcards and they use those for practice, too. I've heard them counting things in French - plates when setting the table, or cups of flour for a batch of pancakes.

Les Couleurs. I simply point to something or hold something up and ask , 'Quelle couleur est-il?' and they answer by saying, 'Il est …', naming as many colors as they can.

Yesterday, we also started working on the names of rooms in the house and parts of a room (floor, door, ceiling, window, etc.). They're most recent paradigm is aller, so we'll be able soon to talk about going into different rooms in the house or touching the wall or the floor.

I have a list of topical vocabulary I want to teach them, along with verbs and some aural constructions (il est … vs. ils sont …, la main droite vs. le pied droit, etc.). We'll simply move through them as we can. I'm also astounded at how much they're learning and how much they all seem to be enjoying it.

An added benefit is that I'm reviewing my French and am filling in some of those holes that have cropped up through my years of not using it.

SDG!

Negative Numbers

2009-11-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

Benjamin has gotten up to adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers. Some of it makes sense, but subtracting a negative has been a bear to wrap our minds around. If zero is nothing, then how can you take away even less than nothing? I was really struggling to find a real life example. Drew came up with a great one and a friend tied it into English for me. I'll be going over this with Ben today - we'll see if he sees it as clearly as I'm beginning to.

Drew's thought - He compared it to heating and air conditioning. Heating is positive numbers and cooling is negative numbers. Turning either the furnace or the AC up (more power) is adding and turning them down (less power) is subtracting. So, turning up the heat is like adding a positive and it gets warmer. Turning down the heat is like subtracting a positive and it gets cooler. Turning up the air is like adding a negative and it gets cooler. Here's the tricky one: turning down the air is subtracting a negative and it gets warmer. I can see this organized on a chart with up & down on the sides and heat & AC on the top (like Mendel's sweet pea genetics), but I don't know how to reproduce it here.

My friend reminded me that, just as in English, two negatives make a positive.

A bunch of other friends sent me other examples that I haven't had time to look closely at yet, but we'll tackle them this afternoon.

SDG!

French - Olders

2009-11-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

We're reading Les Oeufs Verts au Jambon (Green Eggs and Ham). This was a great book to start with because of the sheer amount of repetition. I went through the book and listed out the vocabulary and grammar my students would need to know to puzzle out and understand each section. I pulled paradigms from the verbs in the book and homework assignments were transformations of sentences in the book or the composing of original sentences and questions using the grammar, vocabulary, and paradigms we'd already covered. We're almost finished. So far, here's the grammar we've covered:

basic -er verb conjugation and subject pronouns

negation with ne … pas (Je n'aime pas ce Sam-c'est moi!)

masculine and feminine nouns and articles

singular and plural nouns nouns and articles

making questions with est-ce que …

making questions by inversion

negative questions and subject pronoun placement (N'aimes-tu pas les oeufs verts au jambon?)

elision and liaison

using an infinitive with another noun (J'aime manger les oeufs.)

introduced direct object pronouns (les, en, me) and their placement

future tense

faux future

introduced passé composé

All this will continue to be reviewed as we come across it in our next book: Histoire de Babar.

Our paradigms, so far, include

aimer

vouloir

avoir

aller

être

The transformations I mentioned above were my friend's idea - I'd take a sentence from the book and have the girls re-write it according to a pattern. For example:

Je n'aime pas les oeufs verts au jambon.

The assignment would include:

make positive

change the subject to second person, singular

use est-ce que to make a question

make question with inversion

make the subject plural

make the subject third person, singular or plural

change to false future

change to future

change to passé composé

Sometimes we'd do it as a chain, after one change, the new sentence would become the basis for the next change. Sometimes we'd change the original sentence over and over. This is how the above assignment might look upon completion:

Je n'aime pas les oeufs verts au jambon.

positive: J'aime les oeufs verts au jambon.

2nd person: Tu aimes les oeufs verts au jambon.

question: Est-ce que tu aimes les oeufs verts au jambon?

inversion: Aimes-tu les oeufs verts au jambon?

plural subject: Aimez-vous les oeufs verts au jambon?

3rd person, s: Aime-t-il les oeufs verts au jambon?

false future: Va-t-il aimer les oeufs verts au jambon?

future: Aimera-t-elle les oeufs verts au jambon?

passé composé: A-t-il aimé les oeufs verts au jambon?

I'm stunned at how much we've covered in only six weeks and am looking forward to Babar. Since it was originally written in French, I think we'll all learn a lot! And we're having fun, which means we're actually doing it!

SDG!

French

2009-10-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

I've tried different French curricula through the years, both for high school and for younger kids, and have hated them all! The books feel like a strait-jacket, sapping creativity and the joy of teaching (which definitely diminishes the joy of learning on the other side of it).

So, with the hand-holding and encouragement of a friend, we're tackling French differently this year and it's going very, very well.

I thought I could start my olders and youngers together and split them after about six weeks, but that didn't work. I ended up splitting them after only about two weeks, but it's been good. I'll outline what I'm doing for each level in future posts.

SDG!

2009-10-19T21:46:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I haven't been planning on the blog. I've been playing around with Numbers and finally figured out how to use it (thanks to a friend who is much smarter than I am!).

School has been moving along well for 12 weeks now (with two Sabbath weeks) and I thought I'd post an update.

Our routine looks like this:

Morning Time: prayer, Scripture (the same one all week, the text of next Sunday's sermon if I can figure out what it is); reading from either Piper's Don't Waste Your Life or Spurgeon's All of Grace; either a paragraph of three from Plutarch's Lives or a few poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, our poet of the session. On Fridays, after reading Scripture, I hand out a copy of a work of art (associated with our history study, if possible, but not always) for the kids to sketch while listening to a piece of music I want them to become familiar with: this six weeks it's Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring.

English: altogether we parse and diagram one sentence, right now we're working through the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V; when we get to the figures, we'll do one each day. We needed to spend less time on this each day so we'd have time for their other work.

Spelling with the littles: I'm combining Tricks of the Trade, Touch-Phonics, and The Natural Speller; we do three words each day, one rule per child, but they all learn the rules the others need; we'll have a spelling bee soon, which the kids are really looking forward to. The kids look in their reading or other work for words to go with their particular rule.

Math with the little girls: I've been working with the girls, letting them solve their equations on the dry-erase board and attitudes are quickly improving, as are skills and enthusiasm for math; I'm also finding that it's contributing toward better relationships. And now that we've been doing this for several weeks, they're beginning to work more independently and do more in their books.

After lunch, we tackle French (both upper and lower levels - more about that in another post), reading aloud, reading silently, correcting math with the older kids, listening to history narrations, Gileskirk lectures, science lectures, and anything else we need to finish up.

Whew! It sounds like a lot, but we're getting so much done and enjoying the time together!

I'll try to post more about planning and French, soon.

This Week's Plan

2009-08-29T14:14:00.001-07:00

We'll jump back into school on Tuesday.

My basic plan for our days is as follows:

Morning Time
English
French
Spelling with my littles
Reading aloud
Math
History
Science

This order is based on the number of kids working in each discipline. We all do Morning Time and English together. I'm still not sure if Nathan and Ben will want to study French with us. If not, they'll use that time for their Latin studies. Then we peel off Judith and Rebekah while I work with Joel, Melody, and Eliza in spelling and read aloud to the three of them. After that, it's independent work time for everyone. If I can corral my teaching time into a solid block, it's more likely to happen consistently than if I try to break it up through the day.

Next week we'll start everything but science (still on order or undecided). Latin starts in mid-September.

I'm basically prepared for everything I'll be teaching. I hope to use the kids' independent work time for the next few weeks to get our physical surroundings more organized and de-cluttered. It's a slow, slow process.

School Starts Today

2009-08-24T10:58:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd be starting school for reals this week, but something came up that'll take up most of Wednesday through Friday, so we're just starting math (after a week off) and Gileskirk (Antiquity this year).

We watched the first Gk lecture on Friday. Second one this afternoon (kids are reading and working on vocabulary to prepare) and number three Thursday. We're tackling as much math as we can this week, too.

Next week, we'll start English, French, and history for my middles and littles. Latin doesn't start until mid-September and I'll finalize science sometime in the next couple of weeks and we'll start a little later. We have lots of time.

I spent a lot of time this summer learning Numbers so I could set up more-easily maintained plan books and grade books. I think those are practically ready (although I may need to tweak just a bit more).

We also started morning time, à la Cindy at Dominion Family, but with my own flavour. After Nathan opened us in prayer, we read Psalm 107 (99% sure that'll be the topic of next week's sermon), which we'll re-read and discuss all week. Also read a page of The Gospel Primer and finished a chapter of Fellowship of the Ring.

I wasn't able to attend the CiRCE Conference in July, but lots of friends did and have shared. I'm inspired and encouraged and am eagerly awaiting my conference CD's, which should be here soon!

SDG!

Status

2009-06-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday went well, but not as well as I'd hoped. We're still making progress, so I'll view yesterday as half-full, rather than half-empty.

I played with Numbers and am tweaking their gradebook template. I think it'll work. I'll play with it this summer and hope to have my gradebook settled by the time we start our real school year in August.

We had a great time in English. We've parsed the first three sentences of Psalm 1. We've diagrammed the first one and will diagram the next two today. The three little ones are copying it for handwriting and our pastor will preach on it in two Sundays. We learned about some cool rhetorical figures - antanaclasis (or a clashing of words) and hyperbaton (changing word order for effect and emphasis). We're also looking at the difference between the seven basic parts of speech and the different jobs that are done in a sentence by words, phrases, and clauses.

We haven't tackled logic yet this week, and we have more economics to do. We're about half-way through Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson, reading it aloud and watching Jeffrey Tucker's interviews with various economists about the book. When we're done with that, we'll begin watching the Teaching Company's Economics lectures and reading Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics.

We also started working on learning to sing in parts. We're starting with 'Happy Working Song' from Enchanted and I'm thinking of adding in 'How Will She Know?' from the same movie. And we've started doing some exercises that I remember from my high school theatre classes. We may do a readers' theatre or else choose a scene or two from a play and block it as both a play and a film.

It's time to head to the salt mines!

New Session

2009-06-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Last week was a Sabbath week, and boy did we need it!

I spent some time messing around with PlanBook and had great hopes for it, but I don't think it's going to work. I'm tired of writing our all the kids' lessons by hand in their planbooks, so when PB didn't pan out, I began messing around with Numbers and finally got it figured out - thanks to a friend who graciously answered all my stupid questions. Now to see if I can get my money back for PlanBook - I'm not holding my breath.

I had hoped to audition for a summer play, but that didn't get off the ground. I also had hoped to teach at least one film class, but I'm not sure if that's going to fly either (I'm still waiting to hear).

So, what to do with my summer? I decided that I want to teach the kids to sing parts and I want to start doing some theatre exercises with them. We'll also continue with English, math, logic, economics, and Latin review.

I hoped to get us up earlier so we could finish our academics and have time for extra stuff like sewing, more gardening, and baking. Didn't work out yesterday - restless night on Sunday caused me to wake up late on Monday. I didn't give up and we did some of what I had planned.

Today was better. We started a bit earlier and I got more of my to-do list done. We dove into Psalm 1 for English (our pastor is preaching on it in a couple of weeks), parsing and diagramming the first sentence. Also discussed nouns: definition, categories (abstract vs. concrete, proper vs. common), and the many jobs of nouns in sentences. Will tackle verbs tomorrow.

Began our singing with a lecture on posture, opening our mouths, and abdominal breathing, then warmed up and played around with singing different notes of a chord together. Found that our 'Happy Working Song' sheet music has parts, so we started there. Need to call Music Mart and order another song to work on. Nathan is hoping for Handel's 'Messiah' (yeah, right), but the others are hoping for a song from a Broadway musical. We'll see what Ross has to offer.

Also went through some stretches and posture and drama exercises - made the kids move across the room as if depressed. I've got a few more in mind, but I found a book with theatre exercises for kids at B&N which I hope we can pick up tonight.

SDG!

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Nathan

2009-03-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

Fiction and Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read aloud by Mama)
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (August)
Silas Marner, by George Eliot
Inferno, by Dante (July)
Purgatorio, by Dante (September 23)
Paradisio, by Dante
The Antiquary, by Sir Walter Scott
The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis (September)
Eldest, by Christopher Paolini (August)
The Man Who was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton (August)
Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis (August)

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

1984, by George Orwell

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Song of Albion, by Stephen Lawhead

The Edge of Eternity, by Randy Alcorn

Taliesin, by Stephen Lawhead

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Nonfiction:
More than Dates and Dead People, by Stephen Mansfield
Empire, Niall Ferguson

Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

What's Wrong with the World, by G.K. Chesterton

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Eliza

2009-03-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

Literature (read by herself):
Mouse Soup, by Arnold Lobel
Serving in the Shadow of Death, by Laura Blakey
Bright Night, by Nancy Wilson

The Chick and the Duckling, translated from the Russian of V. Suteyev by Mirra Ginsburg (10/8/08)

The Little Bear Treasury, by Else Holmelund Minarik (including Little Bear's Visit, Little Bear, and Little Bear's Friend

Literature (read to her):
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read by Mama)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (read by Judith, finished 28 Sept.)
Grimms' Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm (read by Joel)
Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis (read by Judith)

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (read by Jared)

History:
A Child's History of the World, by V.M. Hillyer (read by Mama)

Science:
Jack's Insects, by Edmund Selous (read by Mama)

Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar Update

2009-03-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

It took us a week and a half to parse and diagram our way through Portia's courtroom monologue from The Merchant of Venice, but we made it.

Then we shifted to looking at the flow of argument in the speech. I pulled in the basic list of topics from Andrew Kern's Lost Tools of Writing. We also found a couple more figures of speech: simile and metonymy.

The younger kids have been working on copywork while the older are beginning a writing assignment. They have to come up with a conflict (from a book or film) and step into the shoes of one of the characters and write a speech, letter, or persuasive essay based on the passage we've been studying. Nathan chose a situation from a book he's writing. Judith chose Cars, the conflict between Lightning McQueen's self-centered desire for fame and Sally's desire for him to help her save the community of Radiator Springs. Benjamin got a bit stuck, so I chose The Patriot for him, the conflict between Lord Cornwallis's desire to defend civilization from the rebels against the king's authority and Tavington's desire for personal advancement by any means available.

These may not seem like conflicts of opposites, but that's part of how Portia approached Shylock's request for 'justice' (which was really personal vengeance dressed up pretty). She placed mercy over against justice and showed how mercy really is the greater virtue.

The little ones still seem to be listening in and paying attention. This morning, as they worked on copywork, they continually asked questions about what the older kids and I discussed as we looked at the topic questions in LT. I'm amazed at the depth of the questions I'm getting from my 10, 9, and 7 year olds.

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Joel

2009-02-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read by Mama)
Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy (finished in August)
Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

Pearls of Letra, by Brian Jacques

Redwall, by Brian Jacques

Martyrs of the Catacombs, by anonymous

Martin the Warrior, by Brian Jacques

Salamandastron, by Brian Jacques

History:
George Washington Carver, by Geoff Benge

Cameron Townsend, by Geoff Benge

Amy Carmichael, by Geoff Benge

Science:
Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Grade 3 (finished in August)
Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Grade 4

How the Weather Works, Reader's Digest Books

Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar

2009-02-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but life's been settling down and I have a bit of time today.

We took last week off, and I've added in a few things this week. It's only Tuesday, but we're off to a bang-up start.

We used to parse passages of literature together each day. I stopped because it was taking so much time that we seemed to have time for little else (I was aiming for an entire passage each day - too much!). However, a conversation with a friend got me thinking about reinstituting and expanding this idea. Debra commented, when I told her that I thought I might need to abandon rhetoric for awhile while covering logic with the older kids, that the trivium used to be taught in an integrated manner, instead of separated out into different subjects. This really got me thinking (the more lumping together I can do, the happier we all are). She also mentioned that the trivium was taught in one-room schoolhouses and that the younger learned much from listening in on the olders' lessons. We work for an hour each day and pick up the next day where we left off the day before - line upon line, precept upon precept.

So far this week, we've parsed and diagrammed the first four sentences of Portia's courtroom speech from The Merchant of Venice. We've also learned about ellipsis (leaving out a repeated a word or phrase or clause in a sentence). We've been dealing with subordinate clauses, predicate adjectives, direct objects, etc. - pretty advanced stuff. I use the Shurley question and answer flow, but we then parse according to Ed Vavra's KISS Grammar, (Google it, it's available free online) and diagram with the help of Mary Daly's Big Book of Diagrams. We've jumped into the deep end of the pool and none of us seem to be drowning, yet; although yesterday, I had to ask for a life preserver from ClassEd when I hit a sentence that I just didn't know what to do with.

Once we're done parsing and diagramming, we'll look at the flow of argument in the speech and we'll look for rhetorical figures, tropes, and schemes. The kids have started notebooks with their parsed and diagrammed sentences, a page for each figure with the definition and examples, and vocabulary. The little ones will add copywork, which I set up using Educational Fontware.

We're having a really good time and we'll all learning bunches. We'll be alternating between Shakespeare and the KJV Bible (for the poetic language) for awhile, but I'd like to be able to look at some of Churchill's speeches, our founding documents, and modern political speeches, as well as literature from Antiquity (where we'll be in history next year).

SDG!

Economics Lectures

2009-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

To go along with Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson for second semester!

The Campaign for Liberty has posted 12 lectures expanding on and explaining the chapters in the book.

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Benjamin

2008-11-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read aloud by Mama) (finished 10/08)
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy (August)
Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton (mid-November)

History:
Corrie ten Boom, by Sam Wellman (September)
Gladys Aylward, by Janet and Geoff Benge (September)
Amy Carmichael, by Sam Wellman (September)
Cameron Townsend, by Janet and Geoff Benge (September)
David Livingstone, by Sam Wellman
Run For Your Life!, by Betty Swinford (10/25/08)

Science:
The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved, by Ken Ham (August)
Connnections, by James Burke
Refuting Evolution, by Jonathan Sarfati

Progress

2008-11-23T20:15:00.001-08:00

Our seventh week break is over. It's hard to believe I started this blog seven weeks ago, but, there it is.

We were able to make good progress in some areas and not so good progress in other areas. I'm making a few changes for this next several weeks to see if we can improve.

The first change is that, for content areas (as opposed to skill areas), we're going to a weekly block schedule. That means we'll study science for a week, getting at least 3 weeks of science done. Then we'll study history for a week, and then we'll focus on composition, using the kids' writing from the previous weeks' study of science and history.

The second change has to do with our daily routine. There are certain health issues that are affecting my ability to get up early and Drew's schedule doesn't really give him much time at home with us. To adapt to these two situations, we're drastically changing our daily routine.

Drew leaves very early for work and is gone for 13-14 hours each day. Because he leaves so early, he goes to bed fairly early. The kids and I normally get up on the latish side, so we're going to work with that (most of the kids are night owls, like their mama). We'll aim to get up at 9, give ourselves an hour or so for quiet time, then we'll eat breakfast together and have our morning Bible reading, memory work, and discussion time while we eat. Once we're dressed and breakfast is cleaned up, we'll start our daily work.

Our daily work will consist of math, English, Latin, French, phonics, spelling, copywork - those things that really are more skill-based and that need daily practice.

Since the little ones have so much less daily work than their older siblings, I'll take some time to work on their block subject while the older kids finish their daily work, most of which is independent. Once everyone's done with their daily work, we'll eat lunch and clean up. After an hour of working on whatever block we're tackling that week, we'll take some time to work on housework, yard work, baking, other creative pursuits, and begin preparing dinner and to spend the evening with Drew. Once those tasks are finished, we'll read quietly until he gets home, when we'll put the books away.

After Drew goes to bed, we'll pull the books back out and study for a few more hours. The little girls will go to bed when Drew does. Joel will go to bed before the older kids, as will Rebekah, although they'll both work for awhile each evening.

I think that we'll get more done without the distractions of the phone ringing, email and mail arriving, and the other random things that happen during a busy day. I also hope that we can get more done by doing fewer things each day, allowing me to concentrate and provide better accountability.

I also like the idea of the older kids having time to work without the little ones underfoot. And I'm looking forward to some time to write and sew in the evenings.

So, that's the plan. We'll see how it goes.

Since I didn't read as much of Jack's Insects to the kids as I'd planned, I'll be re-posting what we do read this week. And, since this is Thanksgiving week, the kids started their science assignments Saturday and will work next Saturday for awhile, too. I normally let things like Thanksgiving go, but we haven't been diligent enough, so this year our noses stay pressed to the grindstone.

SDG!

Science: Joel, week 6 (3-7 November)

2008-11-01T07:00:00.004-07:00

Monday: read pp. 42-43: 'Water in the air'

Tuesday: complete experiment: 'Humidity tester'

Wednesday: read pp. 44-45: 'Couds and fog'

Thursday: complete experiment: 'Making clouds'

Friday: complete experiment: 'Clouds and nuclei'

Science: Littles, week 6, Thursday, 6 November

2008-11-01T07:00:00.003-07:00

Ch. 15: A Flying Visit to Mexico

Fire Beetle, cucujo

Science: Littles, week 6, Tuesday, 4 November

2008-11-01T07:00:00.002-07:00

Ch. 14: A Queer Trial Without Any Verdict

Glowworm

Great Lantern Fly

Candle Fly

Great Lantern Fly

Candle Fly

Biology, week 6 (Nov. 3-7)

2008-11-01T07:00:00.001-07:00

Mon: test 4

Tues: read pp. 236-middle of 244

Wed: read pp. 244-247; quiz 14

Thurs: read pp. 248-258

Fri: read pp. 259-middle of 264; quiz 15

English, week 6 (Nov. 3-7)

2008-11-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 7.1 Metonymy, pp. 63-65, ex. 7.1.1, 7.1.2
grammar: read ch. 13: Adverbs

Tues:
composition: 7.2 Synecdoche, pp. 65-68, ex. 7.2.1, 7.2.2
grammar: ch. 13, ex. I

Wed:
composition: 7.3 Personification, pp. 68-70, ex. 7.3.1
grammar: ch. 13, ex. II

Thurs:
composition: Style Check 7: Freshness, pg. 71
grammar: ch. 13, ex. III

Fri:
composition: Review Questions, pp. 71-72

Science: Joel, week 5 (27-31 Oct.)

2008-10-25T07:00:00.004-07:00

Monday: read pp. 36-37: 'Optical effects'

Tuesday: complete experiments: 'Using a prism', 'Shimmering heat', and 'Making a rainbow'

Wednesday: read pp. 38-39: 'The water cycle'

Thursday: read pp. 40-41: 'Plants and the weather'

Friday: complete experiments: 'Releasing gases' and 'Catching water'

Science: Littles, week 5, Thursday, 30 Oct.

2008-10-25T07:00:00.003-07:00

Ch. 13: Jack and Maggie Are Found Not to Be Quite in Tune

Great Golden Digger Wasp

Science: Littles, week 5, Tuesday, 28 Oct.

2008-10-25T07:00:00.002-07:00

Ch. 12: A Remarkable Autobiography

Cicadas, cont.

13-year Cicada, just after molting

Annual Cicadas

Biology, week 5 (Oct. 27-31)

2008-10-25T07:00:00.001-07:00

Mon: read lab 10 to prepare for tomorrow.

Tues: lab 10 w/Mrs. Lambros

Wed: read pp. 217-223; quiz 13

Thurs: read pp. 224-top of 230

Fri: read pp. 230-235

English, week 5 (Oct. 27-31)

2008-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 6.1 Simile, pp. 47-51, ex. 6.1.1
grammar: read ch. 12: Adjectives

Tues:
composition: 6.2 Analogy, pp. 52-54, ex. 6.2.1
grammar: ch. 12, ex. I

Wed:
composition: 6.3 Metaphor, pp. 54-57, ex. 6.3.1, 6.3.2
grammar: ch. 12, ex. II

Thurs:
composition: 6.4 Catachresis, pp. 58-59, ex. 6.4.1
grammar: ch. 12, ex. III

Fri:
composition: Style Check 6: Demetrius on Metaphor, pp. 59-60, Review Questions
grammar: ch. 12, ex. IV

Biology, week 4 (Oct. 20-24)

2008-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon: read pp. 187-190

Tues: read pp. 191-199

Wed: read pp. 200-206; quiz 12

Thurs: read pp. 207-212

Fri: read pp. 213-217

Flag Football!

2008-10-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Practice before the game.

He caught a pass! Run, Joel, run!!!

A moment of contemplation.

His coach, Mr. Tong, shouts encouragement.

More photos!

Science: Joel, week 4 (20-24 Oct.)

2008-10-18T07:00:00.003-07:00

Monday: read pp. 28-29: 'The albedo effect'

Tuesday: complete experiments: 'Insulation' and 'Comparing albedo'

Wednesday: read pp. 32-33: 'Everyday Weather'

Thursday: read pp. 34-35: 'Sunshine'

Friday: complete experiments: 'Focusing heat', 'Aiding evaporation', and 'Making metal grow'

Science: Littles, week 4, Thursday, 23 Oct.

2008-10-18T07:00:00.002-07:00

Chapter 11: A Very Classical Insect

Cicada Song

17-Year Cicadas

Science: Littles, week 4, Tuesday, 21 Oct.

2008-10-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

Ch. 9: A Very Distinguished Musician, and 10: Jack and Maggie Go to a Concert

Katydid Songs

Katydids

English, week 4 (Oct. 20-24)

2008-10-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 5.1 Distinctio, pp. 39-41, ex. 5.1.1
grammar: read ch. 10: Exclamatory Sentences

Tues:
composition: 5.2 Exemplum, pp. 41-42, ex. 5.2.1
grammar: ch. 10, ex. I

Wed:
composition: 5.3 Amplification, pp. 42-43, ex. 5.3.1
grammar: ch. 10, ex. II

Thurs:
composition: 5.4 Metanoia, pp. 43-45, ex. 5.4.1, 5.4.2
grammar: read ch. 10 summary

Fri:
composition: Style Check 5: Clear vs. Opaque Writing, pp. 45-46, Review Questions
grammar: read ch. 11: The Parts of Speech

Pride & Prejudice Ball

2008-10-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

A waltz

Nathan, Lynne, Drew, and Judith

The gentlemen lined up for the 'Shoe Dance'

Nathan waltzing with Miss Trudy.

The ladies lined up, sans shoes

More photos!

Science, Littles, week 3, Thursday, 16 October

2008-10-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

Chapter 8: All Full of Glory and Grandeur

Plague Locusts

Australian Locusts

Science: Joel, week 3 (13-17 Oct.)

2008-10-11T07:00:00.004-07:00

Monday: complete experiments: 'Measuring melting ice' and 'How much latent heat?'

Tuesday: read pp. 24-25: 'Pressure and the weather'

Wednesday: complete experiments: 'Is air heavy?' and 'Measuring air pressure'

Thursday: read pp. 25-27: 'Heat and temperature'

Friday: complete all three experiments: 'Convection: warming fluids', 'Making air expand', and 'Radiation'

Science: Littles, week 3, Tuesday, 14 Oct.

2008-10-11T07:00:00.003-07:00

Chapter 7: Jack and Maggie Have Their Lives Saved

Leaf grasshoppers

Biology, week 3 (Oct. 13-17)

2008-10-11T07:00:00.002-07:00

Mon: read pp. 153-159; read through lab 9 to prepare for tomorrow

Tues: labs w/Mrs. Lambros: #9 & owl pellet; test 3

Wed: read pp. 160-168; quiz 10

Thurs: read pp. 169-top of 177

Fri: read pp. 177-186; quiz 11

English, week 3 (Oct. 13-17)

2008-10-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 4.1 Metabasis, pp. 29-30; ex. 4.1.1
grammar: ch. 8, ex. III

Tues:
composition: 4.2 Procatalepsis, pp. 30-32; ex. 4.2.1
grammar: read ch. 9: Imperative Sentences

Wed:
composition: 4.3 Hypophora pp. 33-35; ex. 4.3.1
grammar: ch. 9, ex. I

Thurs:
composition: Style Check 4: Transitions of Logic, pp. 35-36
grammar: ch. 9, ex. II

Fri:
composition: Ch. 4 Review, pg. 37
grammar: ch. 9, ex. III

History: Middles, week 2

2008-10-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

Revolutions of 1830 and Australia

Mon: look over questions, read and research

Tues: continue research

Wed: write answers to questions/ Ben: write 2 paragraphs on each topic (due Friday)

Thurs: continue reading and writing; timelines

Fri: map work, written answers due, compositions due

Weekly Report: Rebekah

2008-10-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Week 1 of 6, ending 10/3/08

Morning Time: reading Philippians, A Gospel Primer, Northanger Abbey; memorizing Psalm 23 and William Blake's 'The Lamb'

Math: worked diligently, made good progress

English: not so good this week: she didn't do any of her verb/verb phrase worksheets and she only did part of her spelling each day - she'll make up her missed work this week, along with continuing on in both spelling and grammar.

History: not so much done this week; more make-up work next week

Science: reading all week

Rebekah didn't have such a good week. We increased her thyroid meds on Friday and I think she'll be more energetic and not so foggy next week.

Weekly Report: Joel

2008-10-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Week 1 of 6, ending 10/3/08

Morning Time: We began reading Philippians; continued the Gospel Primer and Northanger Abbey. We also worked on memorizing William Blake's 'Little Lamb' and the 23rd Psalm.

English: Joel has worked diligently this week in both Mother Tongue and Simply Spelling. He's reading Stevenson's The Black Arrow for his boys' book club.

Math: He loves math and I don't really have to push him much at all. He's working faster than I expect him to.

History: Joel was a bit frustrated at my lack of specific direction this week. I'll be more detailed in his assignments for next week. He read about Simon Bolivar and Latin American independence.

Science: He's excited about learning about weather and eager to begin the experiments and activities. We need to take him shopping to see that he has everything he needs.

Flag Football: his team lost this week and he caught his first touchdown pass, but it didn't count on a technicality. Oh, well! He's pretty optimistic when they lose, as long as they did their best. He's learning a lot about the game and sportsmanship, and enjoying that time with the other boys and their dads (as is Drew). I hope to get pictures next Saturday. The running around is good for him, too. I can tell when he hasn't had enough exercise during the week - he gets the grumps and doesn't know what to do with himself.

Weekly Report: Melody

2008-10-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Week 1 of 6, ending 10/3/08

Morning Time: We're reading Philippians, The Gospel Primer, and Northanger Abbey. We worked on memorizing the 23rd Psalm and William Blake's 'Little Lamb'.

History: we read about Handel and classical music this week. The girls spent quite a bit of time listening to the works of Handel, Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven.

Science: we only read half as much as I wanted, but we can easily catch up. Melody is also reading one of the Christian Liberty Nature Readers on her own. And, we saw a Blue Morpho butterfly in Madagascar last night. How cool!

Math: Melody tends to drag her feet in math, but she's making progress. I'm trying to watch to make sure she doesn't get behind like her older siblings did.

English: She's reading Ginger Pye and is eager to start the other books that arrived from Amazon this week, but I won't let her until she finishes GP. She's doing well in Mother Tongue. She especially likes the picture study assignments, where she gets to spend some time contemplating a painting and then write about it. She started Simply Spelling this week. I think this will be a good fit for her.

Weekly Report: Elizabeth

2008-10-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Week 1 of 6, ending 10/3/08

Morning Time: we started reading Philippians this week since our pastor will be preaching through it now that we've completed Acts. We're also working on memorizing the 23rd Psalm, which Eliza is getting down pretty quickly. We read aloud from and discussed The Gospel Primer and are working on memorizing (or at least familiarizing ourselves with) William Blake's 'Little Lamb,' which was also her copywork for the week - she's learned the second stanza by heart and can recite the first along with me. She's been listening to Northanger Abbey and has been able to follow the story. At first, she thought it was too hard for her, but after awhile she asked if her making pictures of the story in her head was understanding it. I assured her it was and she's been content to listen ever since.

History: We read about the history of music this week. Then she and Melody spent quite a bit of time listening to Handel, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Science: We only read one section of science this week, but that's easy enough to catch up on. Bonus - while watching Madagascar last night, we saw a Blue Morpho Butterfly flitter across the screen (which Alex tried to eat, but didn't succeed, to our great relief!). The girls were delighted to recognize it.

Math: She did great in math this week and is understanding her lessons.

English: Eliza is working diligently on her phonics and making great progress. Even if we miss a day of work, she continues to improve in her reading daily. She's been reading the word problems in her math book with just a little help from me.

Science: Joel, week 2 (Oct. 6-10)

2008-10-04T07:00:00.003-07:00

Monday: read pp. 18-19: 'The atmosphere'

Tuesday: complete experiments: 'Atmosphere ingredients' and 'Air expansion'

Wednesday: read pp. 20-21: 'Light and weather'

Thursday: choose two experiments to complete

Friday: read pp. 22-23: 'Water and the weather'

Biology, week 2 (Oct. 6-10)

2008-10-04T07:00:00.002-07:00

Mon: read pp. 130-134

Tues: read pp. 135-138; quiz 8

Wed: read pp. 139-143

Thurs: read pp. 144-146

Fri: read pp. 147-152; quiz 9

Science: Littles, week 2 (Oct. 6-10)

2008-10-04T07:00:00.001-07:00

Tues: Ch. 5, Caterpillars Extraordinary

Snake Imitating Caterpillar

~~~~~

~~~~~
Caterpillars imitating bird droppings and leaves

~~~~~

Thursday: Ch. 6, Very Surprising Adventures

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~~~~~

~~~~~

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English, week 2 (Oct. 6-10)

2008-10-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 3.1 Irony, pp. 21-22; ex. 3.1.1
grammar: ch. 6, ex. II

Tues:
composition: 3.2 Understatement, pp. 22-24; ex. 3.2.1
grammar: read ch. 7: Kinds of Sentences

Wed:
composition: 3.3 Litotes, pp. 24-25; ex. 3.3.1
grammar: read ch. 8: Interrogative Sentences

Thurs:
composition: 3.4 Hyperbole, pp. 26-27; ex. 3.4.1; Style Check 3: Emphatic Positioning
grammar: ch. 8, ex. I

Fri:
composition: Chapter 3 Review, pp. 27-28
grammar: ch. 8, ex. II

This Week's Photos

2008-10-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Benjamin submitting a Latin assignment.

Melody and Elizabeth began cathedral window quilts. They start on the machine and then it's all handwork. They're excited - they've been asking for quite awhile to learn more about sewing.

Joel working on history research. He read about Simon Bolivàr and Latin American independence.

Judith working on composition.

'Smile for the camera, Joel!'

Nathan, listening to a Gileskirk lecture. Look at him taking notes! It does a mom's heart good.

Breakfast on Monday morning. The little girls cut up the peppers and grated the cheese. Yum!

French, week 1 (29 Sept.-3 Oct.)

2008-09-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

(Sorry about all the edits on this post. I had to re-work my vocabulary list so it only included things that were fairly stationary and that weren't too small and wouldn't walk away or be tucked away in the fridge or pantry!)

This week, review greetings.

Introduce the following vocabulary, while teaching grammatical gender:

la chaise
la table
la télévision
la porte
la pendule
la fenêtre

le livre
le tiroir
le bain
le lit
le mur
le panier

Have kids write the words on index cards and post them appropriately around the house. Introduce a few adjectives next week, along with the third person singular and plural, est and sont.

Science: Rebekah, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-28T10:13:00.001-07:00

Read each day from I'm Just Here for the Food, by Alton Brown. His information about how food works is fascinating.

Math, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct): Rebekah

2008-09-28T10:11:00.001-07:00

Monday: 9E, 10C, 11 DVD & A

Tuesday: 9F, 10D, 11B

Wednesday: 9 test, 10E, 11C

Thursday: 10F, 11D, 12 DVD & A

Friday: 10 test, 11E, 12B

Math, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct): Judith

2008-09-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Monday: 9 DVD & A

Tuesday: 9B

Wednesday: 9C, 10 DVD & A

Thursday: 9D, 10 B

Friday: 9E, 10C, 11 DVD & A

Math, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct): Nathan

2008-09-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

Monday: 4 test, 5F, 6C, 7B

Tuesday: 5 test, 6D, 7C, 8 DVD & A

Wednesday: 6E, 7D, 8B, 9 DVD & A

Thursday: 6F, 7E, 8C, 9B

Friday: 6 test, 7F, 8D, 9C

Eliza, week 1 (29 Sept.-3 Oct.)

2008-09-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

Monday
phonics: 108B: 'Serving in the Shadow of Death'-109B: kn, gn, wr
math: 2B
copywork: 'The Lamb', by William Blake, first stanza

Tuesday
phonics: lessons 110: kn, gn, wr-111: silent gh, silent b following m (lamb), silent t following s (whistle)
math: 2C
copywork: 'The Lamb', by William Blake, second stanza

Wednesday
phonics: lessons 112: more silent consonant practice-113: alphabetical order
math: 2D
copywork: 'The Lamb', by William Blake, first stanza

Thursday
phonics: lessons 114: more silent consonants-115: even more silent consonants
math: 2E
copywork: 'The Lamb', by William Blake, second stanza

Friday
phonics: read Bright Night; lesson 116: comprehension
math: 2F
copywork: 'The Lamb', by William Blake, the whole thing!

Math, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct): Joel

2008-09-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Monday: 13F, 14D, 15B

Tuesday: 13 test, 14E, 15C

Wednesday: 14F, 15D, 16 DVD & A

Thursday: 14 test, 15E, 16B

Friday: 15F, 16C, 17 DVD & A

English, Joel: week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

Monday
grammar: MT 1: sec. 14
spelling: level B, lesson 1, day 1: copy and answer questions
reading: three fairy tales; read one to Melody and Eliza

Tuesday
grammar: MT 1: sec. 15
spelling: day 2: copy and answer questions
reading: three fairy tales; read one to Melody and Eliza

Wednesday
grammar: MT 1: sec. 16
spelling: day 3: copy and answer questions
reading: three fairy tales; read one to Melody and Eliza

Thursday
grammar: MT 1: sec. 17
spelling: day 4: copy and answer questions
reading: three fairy tales; read one to Melody and Eliza

Friday
grammar: MT 1: sec. 18
spelling: dictation
reading: three fairy tales; read one to Melody and Eliza

Gileskirk, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct.)

2008-09-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Monday
Gileskirk: Opportunity #4; listen to lecture 11: 'French Revolution'; read Pride & Prejudice
Am. Gov't: lesson 20

Tuesday
Gileskirk: Opportunity #5; prepare for lecture 12: read Empire: pp. 93-110; read Pride & Prejudice
Am. Gov't: unit 5 intro, lesson 21

Wednesday
Gileskirk: prepare for lecture 12; Opportunity #6; read Pride & Prejudice
Am. Gov't: lesson 22

Thursday
Gileskirk: listen to lecture 12: 'Conspiracy and Terror'; read Pride & Prejudice
Am. Gov't: lesson 23

Friday
Gileskirk: prepare for lecture 13: read Empire: pp. 110-136; read Pride & Prejudice
Am. Gov't: lesson 24

History, Middles: Week 1 (29 Sept.-3 Oct.)

2008-09-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Research: 19th C. missions and missionaries: William Carey and India; Hudson Taylor and China, Japan, and the Opium Wars; missionary biographies; David Livingstone and Africa

Label your map of India with the items on your list.
Write Answers to Accountability and Thinking Questions.

History Topics, Littles

2008-09-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Week 1: classical music: Hillyer, ch. 79; listen to Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Spread music throughout the two six-week sessions; 19th Century painters - spread throughout the next two six-week sessions; Charles Dickens

Week 2: Queen Victoria; Napoleon III and King Louis Phillipe

Week 3: Unification of Italy; Unification of Germany

Week 4: Second Great Awakening;

Week 5:

Week 6:

Math, week 1 (29 Sept-3 Oct): Melody

2008-09-27T12:10:00.001-07:00

Monday: 23 test, 24 DVD and A

Tuesday: 24B

Wednesday: 24C, 25 DVD & A

Thursday: 24D, 25B

Friday: 24E, 25D

English, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3): Melody

2008-09-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Monday
spelling: Level A, lesson 1, Day 1: copy the excerpt and answer question for that day
grammar: MT 1: sec. 16
reading: read Ginger Pye for 1 hour; one fairy tale read by Joel

Tuesday
spelling: Level A, lesson 1, Day 2: copy the excerpt and answer question for that day
grammar: MT 1: sec. 17
reading: read Ginger Pye for 1 hour; one fairy tale read by Joel

Wednesday
spelling: Level A, lesson 1, Day 3: copy the excerpt and answer question for that day
grammar: MT 1: sec. 18
reading: read Ginger Pye for 1 hour; one fairy tale read by Joel

Thursday
spelling: Level A, lesson 1, Day 4: copy the excerpt and answer question for that day
grammar: MT 1: sec. 19
reading: read Ginger Pye for 1 hour; one fairy tale read by Joel

Friday
spelling: Level A, lesson 1, Day 5: Dictation: copy the excerpt and answer question for that day
grammar: MT 1: sec. 20
reading: read Ginger Pye for 1 hour; one fairy tale read by Joel

Science: Joel, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Monday: read pp. 8-9: 'The home laboratory'; go shopping

Tuesday: read pp. 10-11: 'Observing the weather'

Wednesday: read pp. 14-15: 'Learning basic principles'

Thursday: read pp. 16-17: 'The earth in space'

Friday: complete activities from pp. 16-17

Weekly Report: Joel (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Math: all done

English: all done!

His team won their first flag football game this morning. He's quite pleased! Pictures coming soon!

Benjamin, Math: Week 1, 9/29-10/3

2008-09-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Monday: 12F, 13C, 14 DVD & A

Tuesday: 12 test; 13D, 14B

Wednesday: 13E, 14C, 15 DVD & A

Thursday: 13F, 14D, 15B

Friday: 13 test, 14E, 15C

Weekly Report: Benjamin (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Math: all done! 97% average on 2 tests! Well done, Benjamin!

English: finished Mother Tongue; excellent job!

Science: read 1 hour each day

History: researched, but didn't write paper about Latin American Independence

Latin: keeping up and doing great!

Weekly Report: Judith (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

Math: finished lesson 8 - got 100% on lesson quiz; had trouble with lesson 9

English: finished composition; finished reading Silas Marner

Latin: ch. 1 quiz: score coming soon; class on Monday; finished through Wednesday's work; more to do to prepare for next week's class

History: finished Gov't; nothing else completed; much to do to catch up

Science: misunderstood that Sabbath week doesn't apply to biology; will catch up.

Weekly Report: Nathan (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

Math: all math but Friday's; 100% on all three tests

English: little bit of composition; researched Wordsworth, read his poems; didn't complete accountability questions

History: read Armstrong, ch. 5-6 - must read through ch. 9; Gov't: finished lessons 15-16 - must finish lesson 19; listened to lecture 10, prepped for lecture 11; contributed much during co-op discussion; completed no Gk Opportunities

Latin: kept up until Wednesday's class; has much work to do to prepare for next week's class

Biology: completed no tests or quizzes; completed Monday's and Tuesday's reading assignments; has much to do today to catch up

Weekly Report: Eliza, Melody, Rebekah (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Since this was our Sabbath Week and these three kidlets had gotten everything done, they had to do nothing this week but play and relax.

The two little ones pulled out the dress-up box and had a blast! They were also read some Grimms' Fairy Tales and a few chapters of Northanger Abbey.

Rebekah rested and read. She started on thyroid medication this week and her energy levels are slowly rising, but it will take a bit of time.

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Judith

2008-09-27T07:00:00.005-07:00

Fiction and Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read aloud by Mama)
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (August)
Silas Marner, by George Eliot (24 September)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (read aloud to Eliza)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

History:
More than Dates and Dead People, by Stephen Mansfield
Empire, Niall Ferguson

Biology, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-27T07:00:00.004-07:00

Mon: Quiz 7; read through labs 6 & 7 to prepare for tomorrow.

Tues: labs w/Mrs. Lambros: labs 6 & 7, covering chapters 4-5

Wed: read pp. 116-120

Thurs: read pp. 121-124

Fri: read pp. 125-129

Science: Littles, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-27T07:00:00.003-07:00

Tues: Ch. 3, Great Bird-winged Butterfly, a.k.a. swallow-tailed butterfly

Leaf Butterfly

~~~~~

Thurs: Ch. 4, Butterfly with a Grievance & Other Butterflies

Helioconia Butterfly

Week 1: English, Rebekah, 9/29/08

2008-09-27T07:00:00.001-07:00

practice finding verbs and, especially, verb phrases this week.

Monday
grammar: go over pg. 22, and 26-26 in MT2; extra exercise for Monday
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 1

Tuesday
grammar: verb/verb phrase exercise
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 2

Wednesday
grammar: verb/verb phrase exercise
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 3

Thursday
grammar: verb/verb phrase exercise
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 4

Friday
grammar: write 8 sentences, mark the verbs and verb phrases
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 5: Dictation

English, week 1 (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

2008-09-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mon:
composition: 2.2 Asyndeton, pp. 12-14; ex. 2.2.1, 2.2.2
grammar: read ch. 5: Complete & Simple Subject & Predicate
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 1

Tues:
composition: 2.3 Polysyndeton, pp. 14-15; ex. 2.3.1, 2.3.2
grammar: ch. 5, ex. I
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 2

Wed:
composition: 2.4 Expletive, pp. 15-18; ex. 2.4.1, 2.4.2
grammar: ch. 5, ex. II
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 3

Thurs:
composition: Style Check 2
grammar: ch. 6: The Copula 'Is'
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 4

Fri:
composition: Ch. 2 Review questions, pg. 19
grammar: ch. 6, ex. I
spelling: Level C, lesson 1, Day 5: Dictation

Reading List Overview

2008-09-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished setting up reading list posts for each student. The plan is to add to the posts throughout the school year as the kids read. I'll continue to change the dates of the posts as I add to them.

The older kids (or the 'biggles' as Drew now calls them - get it? 'littles', 'middles', and 'biggles'? and if I type it fast enough, it often, appropriately, comes out 'giggles'!) may write book reviews as they have time. If they do, we'll post them here.

SDG!

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Rebekah

2008-09-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read aloud by Mama)
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy (finished in August)
Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson (finished in September)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (September)
Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis (September)
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis (September)
The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis (September)
The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis (September)
The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis (September)
The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis (September)

History:
Corrie ten Boom, by Sam Wellman (September)
Brother Andrew, by Alan Millwright (September)
Eric Liddell, by Ellen Caughey (September)
David Livingstone, by Sam Wellman (September)
Watchman Nee, by Bob Laurent (September)
Amy Carmichael, by Sam Wellman (September)
Abraham Lincoln's World, by Genevieve Foster (August
Heritage Studies 5, by Eileen M. Berry and Dawn L. Watkins (September)

Science:
I'm Just Here for the Food, by Alton Brown

Miscellaneous:
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson (late August)

Annual Reading List, 2008/2009: Melody

2008-09-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

Literature:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (read by Mama)
Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes
Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
Ramona Quimby, by Beverly Cleary
Socks, by Beverly Cleary
Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm (read by Joel)

History:
A Child's History of the World, by V.M. Hillyer (read by Mama)

Science:
Jack's Insects, by Edmund Selous (read by Mama)

Literature: Biggles

2008-09-24T16:33:00.001-07:00

{edit} This list covers the whole year, not just the next six weeks!

In addition to our Gileskirk discussion titles:

Silas Marner, by George Eliot
Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexandre Solzhenitzen

I'm adding:
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (finished in August)
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
The Complete Father Brown Mysteries, by G.K. Chesterton
The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan

I'm pre-reading the following to evaluate their appropriateness:
Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, translated and abridged by Walter Starkie (as recommended in Honey for a Woman's Heart)
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackery
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy

Any other suggestions?

Literature: Middles

2008-09-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

{edit} This covers ideas for the whole year, not just the next six weeks!

The Warden, by Anthony Trollope
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
Pilgrim's Inn, by Elizabeth Goudge
Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madelaine L'Engle
The Good Master and The Singing Tree, by Kate Seredy
Good-bye, Mr. Chips, by James Hilton
How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn
An Episode of the Sparrow, by Rumer Godden
The Book of Three, by Alexander Lloyd

Additional ideas, not in any particular order:
Many Moons, by James Thurber
Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell
Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbraith and Ernestine Carey
A Means of Grace, by Edith Pargeter
"A Modest Proposal" and Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana
Mama's Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes

Literature: Littles

2008-09-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Eliza:

Island Boy, by Barbara Cooney

Babar and His Children, by Jean de Brunhoff

Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard Atwater
The Complete Tales, by Beatrix Potter

Melody:

James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl

Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg

The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright

Favorite Animal Stories, by Thornton Burgess

More ideas for the future, in no particular order:

Yellow and Pink, by William Steig

The Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois

Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden

Miss Pickerell books, by Ellen MacGregor

The Complete Peterkin Papers, by Lucretia P. Hale

Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer

Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink

What Katy Did, by Susan Coolidge

Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

Heidi, by Joanna Spyri

Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Joel, Catch-up 22-26 September

2008-09-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Monday
Math: 13C, 14 DVD & A
English: MT, sec. 9; ~~read Grimms' Fairy Tales #19-21~~; read one aloud to Eliza & Melody

Tuesday
Math: 13D, 14B
English: MT, sec. 10; read Grimms' Fairy Tales #22-24; read one aloud to Eliza & Melody

Wednesday
Math: 13E, 14C, 15 DVD & A
English: MT, sec. 11; read Grimms' Fairy Tales #25-27; read one aloud to Eliza & Melody

Thursday
English: MT, sec. 12; read Grimms' Fairy Tales #28-30; read one aloud to Eliza & Melody

Friday
English: MT, sec. 13; read Grimms' Fairy Tales #31-33; read one aloud to Eliza & Melody

Judith: Catch-up, 22-26 September

2008-09-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Monday
Math: 8E, 9 DVD & A
English: Harris, pp. 12-14, ex. 2.2.1, 2.2.2; Silas Marner plot and character notes; Wordsworth, background research
History: Amer. Gov't: lesson 15; prepare for lecture 10

Tuesday
Math: 8F, 9B

English: Silas Marner plot and character notes; Wordsworth poem & accountability questions
History: Amer. Gov't: unit 4 intro, lesson 16

Wednesday
Math: 8 test, 9C

English: Silas Marner plot and character notes; Wordsworth poem & accountability questions
History: Amer. Gov't: lesson 17; listen to lecture 10

Thursday
English: Silas Marner plot and character notes; Wordsworth poem & accountability questions
History: Amer. Gov't: lesson 18

Friday
History: Amer. Gov't: lesson 19; co-op

Benjamin, Catch-up: 22-26 September

2008-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

Monday
Math: 10E, 11C, 12 DVD & A
English: MT, read pp. 24-25
History: research Latin American Independence; Simon Bolivar and others associated
Science: read for 1 hour

Tuesday
Math: 10F, 11D, 12B
English: MT, pp. 25-26, ex. I
History: continue
Science: read for 1 hour

Wednesday
Math: 10 test, 11E, 12C
English: MT, pp. 26-27, ex. II (do it sensibly!)
History: continue
Science: read for 1 hour

Thursday
Math: 11F, 12D, 13 DVD & A
English: MT, read pp. 27-28, ex. I
History: continue
Science: read for 1 hour

Friday
Math: 11 test, 12E, 13B
English: MT, pp. 28-29, ex. II
History:map work, accountability questions, 3 paragraphs about the topic due today
Science: read for 1 hour

Nathan: Catch-up work 22-26 Sept.

2008-09-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Monday
Math: 2F, 3E, 4B, 5 DVD & A
English: Harris, pp. 8-10: ex. 1.3.1, 1.3.2; Style Check 1: Rhythm; Review Questions; Romantic Poet: Wordsworth - background
History: Armstrong, ch. 5; Amer. Gov't: lesson 15; take notes on SM

Tuesday
Math: 2 test, 3F, 4C, 5B
English: Harris: read pp. 11-12; ex. 2.1.1; Wordsworth: read and finish accountability questions
History: Armstrong, ch. 6; Amer. Gov't: unit 4 intro, lesson 16; prepare for lecture 10

Wednesday
Math: 3 test, 4D, 5C, 6 DVD & A
English: Harris: read pp. 12-14; ex. 2.2.1, 2.2.2
History: Armstrong, ch. 7; Amer. Gov't: lesson 17; lecture 10
Latin: class

Thursday
Math: 4E, 5D, 6B, 7 DVD & A
English: Harris: read pp. 14-15; ex. 2.3.1, 2.3.2; Wordsworth: read and accountability questions
History: Armstrong, ch. 8; Amer. Gov't: lesson 18; prepare for lecture 11

Friday
Math: 4F, 5E, 6C, 7B
English: Wordsworth: read and accountability questions
History: Armstrong, ch. 9; Amer. Gov't: lesson 19; prepare for lecture 11; co-op

Blue Morpho Butterflies

2008-09-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Sabbath Week To Do List

2008-09-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

~~Make sure ~~MT 1~~ & 2 are ready for the next six weeks~~ (I'm converting a couple of one-hundred-year-old grammar textbooks to workbook format, and printing them as I go. Some of the kidlings need three-ring binders).
~~Plan out 30 day's worth of MT 2 assignments.~~ (MT1 is divided by sections, each one day's work. MT2 is divided by chapters and not quite so easy to just 'do the next thing'.)
Plan history topics for littles ~~and middles~~.
Plan, print, and collate extras for history for all levels: resource sheets, timeline sheets, worksheets, discussion questions, maps, etc.
Find pictures to go along with the next 12 10 5 chapters of Jack's Insects
~~Plan middles', ~~littles',~~ and olders' literature and order books.~~
~~Plan daily biology assignments to correspond with the lab schedule.~~
~~Make sure GK syllabus is ready for the next 7 weeks~~ (I'm taking George's pdf syllabus and converting it to a Pages document, using a loose outline format instead of his charts and quintuple spacing everything to leave room for notes).
copy spelling lessons
Listen to GK lectures and take notes! - One down!
~~Pull all the GK information into an easier-to-skim format, to correlate quizzes, reading assignments and lectures.~~
Plan our morning time.
Make copywork sheets for Melody, Joel, and Elizabeth, pulling from Project Gutenberg, MT1, and morning time poetry and running the text through Educational Fontware.
~~Pull excerpts from Project Gutenberg for Rebekah's verb phrase practice for week 1.~~
Set up books read post for each student

Weekly Report: Eliza, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

Math: there's no keeping this girl down! She was getting to the end of her very tattered Math-U-See Alpha book, so I had her start the Beta level. I figure the review at the beginning will be easy for her and will cover anything she missed at the end of Alpha. Well, along with her assignments in Beta, she is insisting on completing her Alpha book. She just can't seem to leave it unfinished. Not sure if this will end up being a virtue or a vice, but time will tell.

Phonics: she did quite a few lessons and read a reader with Jared. She also reads the word problems in her math book with just a little help from me and she's been reading her flower girl gift from Anna, Mouse Soup.

History: Eliza is part of our history and science read alouds. Instead of repeating what I wrote for Melody, look down a few entries to find it.

Weekly Report: Joel, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

Math: Monday's work done, a test that was assigned on Tuesday; that's it.

English: nothing done

Science & History: I didn't have anything scheduled for Joel in science or history this week, but he sat in and listened when I read to the girls.

After the wedding, by the time I sat down to work on lesson plans, I had no brain left. We'll pick these up again after our Sabbath week, along with French.
~~~~~
Well, we seem to have another boy in trouble. He'll be working this week to catch up and will lose privileges until he is caught up.

I'll post the specific assignments my recalcitrant boys need to complete before they get their privileges back.

Weekly Report: Nathan, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Math: Monday's work completed; nothing else

English: no composition assignments done; he did read Silas Marner.

Latin: partially completed

History: no American Government (he was supposed to catch up from the week before when he got nothing done); no Study is Hard Work, which was also catch up from weeks before; he did listen to Lectures 8: 'Nationalism' and 9: 'Industrial Revolution, pt. 1' and read the textbook assignment for Lecture 10: 'Industrial Revolution, pt. 2'. He also participated well during our co-op discussion yesterday.

Science: stayed caught up in the reading until Friday. However, he didn't complete any of the tests or quizzes listed.

~~~~~
Nathan will have a full load this week and won't be able to take any advantage of our Sabbath week. If he'd kept up, he'd only have to work on his outside courses. Since he didn't…. I think we're looking at loss of privileges here, too.

Even with this dismal week, on the whole, Nathan has improved greatly from last year. I think this year might be full of two steps forward, one step backward. I'm praying for patience!

Weekly Report: Benjamin, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Math: one test completed.

English: nothing

History: nothing

Latin: completed all assignments.

Science: nothing
~~~~~
Well, Benjamin is in some hot water right now. I think his father will have something to say about this. He was tired from last weekend's craziness, but I don't think that excuse covers this complete lack of effort.

He'll be working to catch up next week while his younger siblings and I rest and play, as he had his Sabbath week early this time around. I think he'll be losing some privileges this week, too.

Weekly Report: Judith, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Math: completed all but Friday's assignments; she'll work on them today.

English: completed three of four composition assignments. She'll finish that last one this week if she doesn't do it today.

Read no more of Silas Marner, so obviously took no more notes about characters and plot. We finish discussing SM next Friday at Gileskirk and then move onto Pride & Prejudice, one of my favorites.

Science: finished her independent work. I still need to administer a quiz and a test. I'd like to do that today, too, so she doesn't get too far behind and have to rush through to keep up with Mary's lab schedule.

History: listened to lecture 8: Nationalism, and lecture 9: Industrial Revolution, pt. 1. Also did the reading for each lecture and participated well in our discussion on Friday at co-op.

Latin: looking pretty good here. She has one quiz to finish and submit, which she's working on now. I'm thrilled that she's enjoying Dave's class. I wasn't sure if she'd be able to tackle Latin after the disaster that her last online Latin class turned into, but Dave is a great teacher. He takes a literature approach instead of a grammar approach. His students read Latin from day one and Lingua Latina is much more interesting than Wheelock.
~~~~~
All in all, Judith had a good week. I'm pleased at the effort she's been putting into her school work this year.

Since next week is a Sabbath week here, Judith will work only on her outside classes: Latin, biology, and history.

Weekly Report: Melody, 9/20/08

2008-09-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Math: all done, with the exception of the quiz for lesson 22, because she can't find her test booklet. We'll continue looking this week.

English: read Ginger Pye for one hour each day; finished most of her Mother Tongue 1 assignments - she's working on the last one now. She didn't understand the directions and didn't ask. Oh, well!

History: I read to her and Eliza from Hillyer's A Child's History of the World about Napoleon and the Latin American revolutions for history; no maps this week - I wasn't up to finding them and printing them out.

Science: I read to her and Eliza the first two chapters of Jack's Insects: one an introductory chapter, in which our heroes, Jack and his sister Maggie, find themselves in Jack's new book about insects. The other about the Blue Morpho Butterfly. I found pictures of the butterfly online which I'll show the girls this week. I hope to find these kinds of pictures ahead of time and that's part of what I'll work on this week.