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I wrote an update on how our first few weeks of Year 1 went (read here) and since we finished week 12 today I wanted to recap the connections that were made through the curriculum!
Morning Basket
Our "Morning Basket" is still a work in progress but we have a system where we sit down to breakfast together and read the Bible. I've alternated between the AO Bible story, a New Testament reading, a Proverb, and a Psalm. Sometimes, (like the Gideon and Samson passages) the story is spread out for several days because it is longer. Most of the earlier stories in the term could be done in one sitting. We also sing a hymn and pray before moving on to get ready, or the kids will play while I get ready first, etc! One of the connections we made this term was with the word "Tempest." It is in the hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" and we also read the word in an Aesop story, and the title of the Shakespeare play "Tempest!" I love the fluidity of introducing vocabulary to my kids and how it naturally is reinforced!
History
I don't know who enjoys these stories more - me or Christian! One thing I did notice in our exam this week was that he got the stories of William Tell and Arnold Winkleried intertwined. I'll talk more about our exam during the post and embed some videos of our exam! I did write down his narrations for the exam and I might type them up in a document if you're interested in reading what he said! I'm so glad there is a 50 Famous Stories story for each week. The length is perfect and the stories are so rich! My mom took over for school one day and asked me about the 50 Famous Stories. She was surprised that it was in the curriculum for his age because of how advanced the language seemed to be. I laughed because I had just read from Volume 6 chapter 3 (read it here) which basically says don't dumb down your literature for kids. And don't over explain everything to them! Allow them to make their connections and fill their mind with ideas!
Benjamin Franklin was also a wonderful book to read through! It took us 4 weeks to read and we did probably 2-3 readings a week. The connection we made came from visiting the History Festival in Nashville!
Mr. Hobart had a lot to say about Benjamin Franklin and it was neat for Christian to see a "soldier" dressed in the time of Benjamin Franklin's life!
As for Our Island Story, we read all of the Term 1 chapters last year and will pick up in Term 2. I am going to do a little recap with him this next week before we start week 13! Trial and Triumph is hard for me to read through. I think I'm the one that is making connections more than Christian but I'm so glad he's getting an introduction into the lives of these brave martyrs! About 2-3 weeks after we read Polycarp I was at our women's Bible study (Beth Moore, Revelation) and the timeline was given about when Revelation was written. Polycarp and Irenaeus were mentioned and I gave myself a fist pump that I knew who that was! LOL!
Natural History
Burgess Bird has proven to be a wonderful resource to help with connections! For example, in Paddle to the Sea, a warbler lands on Paddle's boat when he enters lake Superior! We picked the Burgess Bird chapter on warblers to continue that connection since we have the freedom to pick a chapter in the book! Then, we had another reinforcement on warblers when we opened up Parables of Nature in week 11!!! It was week 8 that we first learned about the warbler and 3 weeks later we heard the most touching story of trust as we met the warbler family in the "Unknown Land!"
Christian also enjoys coloring the birds (free guide here) and listening to the sounds! One day we were out and he asked if that was a song sparrow singing. We looked it up and I'm not 100% sure, but it very well could have been!
I love Paddle to the Sea but I still feel like I'm not doing our map work the right way and I may end up buying the maps from Beautiful Feet. The maps that I printed (you can download them free here) came in handy last week when we talked about the "International Border." He thought it was so interesting that Canada and the USA share lake Superior! I grew up in Michigan and didn't even realize that! I was hoping to take him to a lock on the Cumberland river but they are closed until Memorial Day so we'll try again then!
Literature/Tales
I've spent some time reading more about the importance of fairy tales and LOVE what several blog posts have said about the fact that fairy tales can really lead to those big ideas that Charlotte Mason talks about and also teach morality! I love, love, love, love what Sarah McKenzie had to say (read here.) Christian said his favorite fairy tale this term has been "Toads and Diamonds!" We had quite a lot of laughs while reading that one!
Our Aesop Fables is probably our favorite book this term. The illustrations are wonderful and Christian has been able to read them with very little difficulty. His narrations are also getting easier and easier when it comes to narrating these short fables! I don't know if he completely understands the "moral of the story" during each reading, but maybe that is better since CM writes on how we shouldn't draw those conclusions out for the kids. Thoughts?
Christian hasn't been into the Just So Stories as much as I thought he would be. Shakespeare on the other hand, is a HUGE hit! He loves narrating the stories back to me with Lego characters and our co-op has done a wonderful job in fostering a love for Shakespeare. I feel so blessed to have my son in such a rich environment with the quality of readings in our curriculum and the monthly interaction with other kids that love all these riches too!
Here's a little narration video on the fairy tale "Princess and the Frog" that we did at co-op.
Poetry
We don't always get to a poem a day, but we definitely get about 3 a week! Anytime we have a normal day of school in the morning we also have our tea time that includes poetry readings! This term we have worked on memorizing two Robert Louis Stevenson poems. My Bed is a Boat and Autumn Fires. I'll use the verses as copywork practice and we'll also work on recitation a few times a week.
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Again, I can't say enough good things about Miquon! I look forward to starting the orange book with Eva Mae next year! Christian is over half way through the Red Book and has had no troubles understanding and completing the worksheets. I am not a huge math person, although I do love solving problems! (Go figure?!) I've enjoyed reading through the teacher annotation book to really understand the approach they take in this curriculum. So far it has clicked so well with Christian's brain! Here's his exam questions in video form:
Copywork/Handwriting
Christian is doing wonderful and Eva Mae is on her way to gaining independence in her handwriting! Just this week I noticed how much more comfortable she is with holding her marker:
I feel bad that I don't really have any examples in video or picture form for C, but he is doing awesome! My focus has been more on Eva Mae in this department.
Phonics/Reading
This week was the first time I caught Christian reading in bed after we had turned out the lights and put him to bed! I heard a sound of paper turning and came upstairs to see him laying in bed reading a book!!! I turned on a light for him so he wouldn't hurt his eyes and gave him 15 more minutes! I've also seen more moments like this one that I secretly caught on camera:
Reading is clicking with him and I'm so proud of how far he's come! I pray that it becomes a passion and a love for him just like it was for me!
Foreign Language
We're still slowly going through our Song School Latin. We've slacked off for about 3 weeks and haven't started the next unit. We've spent all of Term 1 reviewing and learning all the lessons in Unit 1. Here's Christian's exam narration question!
Nature Study
There is no lack of nature study that goes on around our house each week!!! I love how rich our area is in opportunities to learn in and about nature! I would say that seeds has been the theme for this term! We studied sunflowers and shucked the seeds to store away for planting next year
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The acorns was his favorite this term:
And since our focus this month is on invertebrates, we've looked for opportunities to learn more about them through insects and water invertebrates!
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We also took a trip to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter and we were able to do more connections to invertabrate animals throughout some of the exhibits! The insect area was especially fascinating! I'm so thankful for the freedom to travel and do fun field trips like that with the kids! I wrote a post about our field trip here
I'm going to kind of skip over Recitation, and Geography since I touched on them already in the post! With Timeline we haven't done something every week, but we do have a century chart that we've added birthdays to. And we'll talk about some of the composers we've learned about and when they lived in relation to our century.
With the artist study, I've loved spending a whole 12 weeks on one artist. I feel like Christian really knows Mary Cassatt's name now and can recognize her paintings if he were to see one in a gallery. Here's his narration on his favorite painting:
And here's his copy
I have a whole post talking about Christian's handicrafts and a video of him making a Paper Sloyd envelope! Read it here!
Composer
Dvorak has been a favorite of his especially since he learned to play the melody of Symphony 9 on the piano!
We did a ton of activities with our co-op group last month when I taught a lesson on Dvorak! You can see some of my ideas in this post here!
Not only did we get a lot of Dvorak in our education this term, but our first Symphony performance was last week! We had an amazing time! I wrote up a post about the music we heard and you can read about it here. When it comes to learning classical music, it's all about feeling the emotion!
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Folksongs and Hymns
I have a post for each folk song this semester if you want to read more!
Blow the Man DownLoch LomondLet Us Sing Together
Christian's favorite was Loch Lomond! Here's his exam video for folksong and hymn!
And because I can't resist, here's the cutest little girl singing Let Us Sing Together!
If I haven't already stated, I am SO BLESSED to have found this curriculum and method for teaching! I'm thankful for my fellow book study moms too and the "iron sharpening iron" time we have each month as we read through the Charlotte Mason principles! I am learning sooooo much and look forward to continuing down this road! I'll make another huge update as we complete some of Term 2! If you read and followed this post all the way to the end you are one brave and patient soul! LOL! Thanks!!!!
Community dancing is such a wonderful activity for all ages! I have seen the question pop up in many homeschool groups about suggestions for resources to teach folk dances so I want to share some of my favorites from teaching music and dance to elementary students in public school and our homeschool groups! If you have the opportunity to find a group already in place to attend and learn dances and observe how they teach you will have a better understanding of how to approach this in a group setting! You may feel like at the beginning like you are herding a bunch of cats but that's ok!!! Practice and consistency will improve the process! Cited Material First, I want to just say how blessed I am that I have been fortunate to have training under the most talented folk dance and movement specialists. I feel like my education and experience has been in the "golden" age through first hand workshops by the following professionals. New England Dancing Mast
While planning and working on preparations for Year 1 Ambleside , I have found some amazing resources for study guides. Unfortunately, one of the resources is no longer free so I came up with my own document that you are welcome to download and use! CLICK HERE to download the coloring pages I also wanted to have a resource to see the color versions of the birds so I created a photo guide to each bird. CLICK HERE to download the photo companion. Here are some other helpful resources! Burgess Bird Study Guide Burgess Bird Images and more links
Our family enjoys a "December Term" each year. I've also heard homeschooler refer to this time as "Christmas School!" Basically, we hold off on our regular curriculum studies and spend a quiet and peaceful month at home with poetry, music, literature, and activities that bring us into a spirit of Christmas! You can find a post about our first December Term in 2018 here! While looking through the website archive.org (my favorite public domain library!) I found adorable Christmas stories published by Dana Estes & Co. out of Boston in the early 1900s. I read each story in the collection and knew they would be perfect for our December Term so I spent the weekend writing lesson plans with links and ideas to make the most out of a cultural holiday experience! The age range for these stories is 6-12 years old. In Christmas in Austria , the children in the story include an 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl! That's exactly the ages of my children in Decemb
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