{A Week of Gratitude (in pictures)}:the chance to visually reflect on my daily blessings; an opportunity to let the good in my life soak deep in my memory; a moment to appreciate the happiness that surrounds me; a chance to acknowledge how incredibly beautiful this life really is

Sunday: A day of rest fun before the school year kicks off.

Monday: First day of a new school year.

Tuesday:  The arrival of the last few school items. Wednesday: Homemade apple cinnamon play-doh.

Thursday: A beautifully led children’s book club meeting and a chance to meet new friends.

Friday: A lesson on bees and the amazing honey making process from the Texas Honey Queen herself!Saturday:  A surprise visit from dear friends!

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A new school year is almost upon us.  We begin our new adventure on August 1st and we’re all a bit excited.  Here’s a peek into our upcoming year…

Morning Time:

Morning Time is really only the first 30 minutes of our day (after that we start to lose the attention of the little ones).  We begin it at breakfast with our prayers and our read-alouds and then it transitions to morning time table work as I clean up the kitchen.  I hesitate to list all of our morning time activities because it looks like a massive load, but it really isn’t (some topics only take a few minutes to cover!).

In the past we’ve always kept a family memory work notebook, but this year, in addition to that, I’ve also made Joey and William their own Morning Time notebooks.  Andrew and Katie each have a folder with a copy of the Good Morning Dear Jesus prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, their character chart and a hundreds number chart.  Andrew’s also has a copy of Charlotte Mason’s Formidable List of Attainments.

Joey and William’s books each contain a reading log and their daily “map”, as well as sections for memory work, hymns, art appreciation, music appreciation, drawing, map drill, physics, and bird study (our herb studies are recorded in our nature journals and their president studies will be recorded on a collection of Presidential “collector cards” that they’ll be making after each lesson).

Nature Studies:

I was inspired by a friend in my local Charlotte Mason group to create a nature nook.  Our nook is on the top shelf of our manipulative/toy shelves, just under the window.  We hung the hummingbird feeder right outside the window and at some point we’ll replace our broken bird feeder.  I filled a bag with our nature study guides, magnifying glasses, binoculars, art supplies and clipboards.  It’s all in a bag so it’s portable…we can just grab it and head out the door.  We also have a small microscope and a treasure box for lucky nature finds (I think there are a few pressed flowers and sand-dollars in there right now). 

Each child also has an individual bag with watercolors, colored pencils and a nature notebook.  Joey and William each have a nature notebook in there to use for their herb studies. (We’re continuing with our herbal studies using A Kid’s Herbal Book, Shanleya’s Quest, the Herbal Fairies over at learningherbs.com and the lovely Wildcraft! game.)  We’re waiting for these precious pocket pads to arrive for us to tote with us on our daily nature walks around the neighborhood.   This year we plan to participate in the Texas Nature Challenge again, which was full of nature study opportunities last year.

Math:  This year will be an adventure in Math.  We’re going a bit off-road.  We’ve tried multiple math programs and each of them has been a disaster.  For Joey, at least.  William has done well with Saxon, but I was at a turning point with him, debating about whether to move him into Saxon 3 Intermediate or Singapore.  In the end, the thought of spending so much more money on another math program was enough to send me desperately searching for a better answer.  After reading Richele Baburina’s Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching and watching the companion DVD, I am inspired to try Charlotte Mason’s methods so we’re all going to switch to CM style math using Ray’s Arithmetic and the Strayer-Upton math books.  For geometry, we’ll be using Paper Sloyd and for Outdoor Geography, we’ll be using Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography and Long’s Home Geography for Primary Grades.  Joey and William both have a spiral with grid paper for their work (although much of the younger years will be spent doing math orally).  We’re still continuing with Life of Fred (see my Morning Time list), Bedtime Math, and our math book basket, as well.

Paths of Exploration: 
I wanted to try a boxed curriculum this year for a little break from planning detailed plans each week.  After much searching, reading, and thinking, I finally decided on GeoMatter’s Paths of Exploration.  We’ll be covering American explorers this year.  It’s a CM style curriculum with daily copywork/dictation, readers, read-alouds, word study, geography, and writing lessons.  It incorporates nature studies and drawing lessons as well as practical life skills like cooking and navigation skills.

Other Studies:

The Homegrown Preschooler:  Katie and Andrew will be following A Year of Playing Skillfully in addition to their math and phonics lessons.

Sonlight Readers:  Joey will be using Sonlight Readers 4/5 and William will be using Sonlight Readers 3.  While I’m not a huge fan of comprehension questions and we rely mostly on narration, I feel a bit overwhelmed trying to read and keep up with each child.  It makes it hard to be sure they are comprehending well if I haven’t read what they are reading…so to train them in good narrations, we’ll be using the readers (Sonlight’s reading lists are always full of little gems!) along with the comprehension guides so that I can be sure they are properly narrating and comprehending.  Hopefully a year of good narration habits will build a foundation for next year so that we can choose our own book list.

 

Rosetta Stone:  Joey shows an aptitude and an interest in learning a foreign language so he will be using the Spanish version of Rosetta Stone this year as an independent study.

Hoffman Academy:  Both Joey and William will continue their piano lessons with Hoffman Academy.

All About Spelling:  Joey is almost finished with Level 6 and he really wants to finish out the program so a few times a week, we’ll continue on our AAS journey.

IEW Geography Based Writing Lessons, Fix It Grammar Book 2, and Elementary Diagramming Worktext:  When I first told Joey we were going to switch and use Paths of Exploration for our grammar and writing lessons, he was devastated.  This kid loves language…everything about it from writing to diagramming sentences.  He asked if he could continue with his Fix It Grammar and some diagramming.  Who am I to say no to that?!  Also, when he and I saw the Geography Based Writing Lessons in the IEW catalog, we were excited to think of how well that would dovetail to the POE lessons, so we added it in.  If he finds himself overwhelmed, we’ll either drop his portion of the POE writing/grammar lessons or we’ll scale back on how quickly we’re covering the IEW lessons.

Cheerful Cursive and Typing Instructor for Kids:  William will be slowly working his way through the Cheerful Cursive book and he’ll also practice typing at least once a week.

Our Classroom:  Since October 2014, we have had our schoolroom out in the back with Daxson’s office, but it’s been a bit impractical.  It’s a small room out there and since we were all confined to that tiny space together, it was hard for the big kids to concentrate while the little ones had a hard time playing quietly for extended periods of time.  So I moved us back into the house.  The schoolroom took over the playroom, booting the toys to various other places such as the living room and bedrooms (and still a few shelves of toys remain in the schoolroom).  I tried my best to make our schoolroom look like just another room in the house, but doggone it, it’s just in my blood to make a schoolroom look like a schoolroom.  At least no one will be confused as to which room is which.

We squeezed one of the bookcases from the schoolroom into our dining room (and Alphie somehow made it out of the giveaway pile and onto the book shelf!), but ended up leaving the bookcase full of history and science books out in the office suite.  We moved a couch out there, so it makes a nice cozy spot to go hang out and read.

It’s nice having a little table for the little ones to work at and when their attention wanders, they can play just around the corner in the living room without disturbing the big kids.  Also, Pappy provided a beautiful sensory table for Andrew and Katie and it’s just outside the schoolroom window.  Andrew is already in love with his table and the opportunities are endless.  Pappy even included a light box, which allows the light to shine through transparent items placed on top.  All beautifully constructed with precision and attention to detail.

Schedules and checklists:  I work much better with a written plan as do the boys.  Last year we tried the spiral notebook method of keeping up with assignments, but the truth is, I rarely remembered to fill them out each evening and by the time school started, I was frantically scribbling away in their notebooks.  I’m much better at thinking about the week as a whole, so this year we’re going back to a checklist that I fill in at the beginning of the week.  Subjects that need to have their day’s work completed before moving on (such as math) will be filled in on a daily basis.  I tweak our schedules as we go to help them fit us more comfortably, so by the end of the first week, this may all change (already after filling in the boys’ schedules for the first week, I’ve realized they need a little tweaking).

I also included a year-at-a-glance calendar for myself that highlights important feast days that we like to celebrate throughout the year.

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Nothing beats the experience of setting up your very own sidewalk store.  In my day, it was simply a cardboard sign, a table and a jug of lemonade.  This week my kids took the old fashioned lemonade stand to a whole new level (and made about 10 times more than I ever did).  It all started when I pulled out the bin of beads and the skein of yarn solely as a way to get the kids’ hands busy while I read their American History to them.  Next thing I know they’ve got a whole slew of beaded necklaces ready to sell.  Sell?  To whom?  “Well to whoever will buy them,” Joseph calmly explained to me.  “You should set up a little store out front on the sidewalk.  Maybe some neighbors will pop over and buy a necklace,” I told him and then I went about my business.Next thing I knew, the boys were all sorting through toy bins and book shelves trying to find anything they could to sell. 

“Hey Mom,” William called, “these books out here…whatcha planning to do with them?”

“I was going to drop them off at Half Price Books,” I replied.

“No need.  We’ll sell these for you at our store,” he gleefully responded as he added them to the pile of stuff for sale.Dax pulled out the table from the schoolroom.  Joseph made price tags and signs.  I frantically searched the cabinets for lemonade ingredients.  No such luck.  But I found some Lemon Chiffon Tea, lollipops and Hershey kisses.  Their first customer arrived.  It was Grandma Nury.  She tried her best to bargain with them.  At first they resisted despite her protests that she should get a family discount.  Then she made the comment that she really liked the rosary and was willing to pay $5 (not $6) for it.  The “rosary” she was referring to was never meant to be a rosary.  It was simply a necklace with a crucifix on it (although for all I know, maybe it has the correct number of beads on it…no one bothered to count).  The boys looked at one another and silently seemed to communicate a message between themselves.  Then they innocently looked at her and said, “Mmm, yes it is quite nice and we’ll gladly take $5 for it.”  Omitting the truth for the sake of $5 or shrewd business men?  I still haven’t decided, but I promised to mind my own business so I stayed out of it (although later we did have a brief discussion on the ethics of being honest and true in what you sell).  Their first sale was a success! 

Neighbors came by…some bought their overpriced goods; others laid down 50 cents and enjoyed their cup of Lemon Chiffon Tea.  With each sale, the boys grew more confident: Joseph in giving change; William in advertising their goods; Andrew in waving to the cars.  In the end, Joseph handed over the following statistics to summarize their experience (I added the last one):

Items to sell: 10Change in the envelope before the store opened: $5Business owners: 3 Investor: 1 Customers: 8Items sold: 9Money made: $31Tips received: $4Hours spent minding the store: 2.5Lollipops taken from the inventory to keep the little ones busy: 2The experience of a sidewalk store: Priceless

Once upon a time there was a family of children who ADORED all things Lego.  They begged their mom for a summer full of Legos.  The mom thought and thought and came up with a plan.  They’d spend the summer with a Lego Lab, and that mom, being a sneaky, but brilliant mom, would use the Lego Lab to continue with their language lessons, after all, what better way to be inspired to tell a story than to build it with Legos.  School disguised as play!  So, not wanting to burden herself with planning and designing lessons (after all, she needed a summer break, too), she searched high and low for something already ready to use.  And eureka!  She found it.  Quickly, she ordered it (and winced only once at the price, rationalizing that Lego character sets could easily be just as expensive but not nearly so open-ended plus the convenience factor of having lessons already ready, Lego pieces organized beautifully and with purpose and a software program with raving reviews obliterated any second thoughts she might possibly have).  She and the children waited, very impatiently, for the first day of “summer school” and voila! today you can find this mom kicking up her heels, reaping the benefits of a brilliant idea as all these little minds are engaged, active and learning.  Grammar lessons disguised as a Lego Lab…seriously brilliant!  I thought you might enjoy a sample of what the Lego Lab is producing.  This particular lesson was focused around the fairy tale genre.  We brainstormed ideas about what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale and special characteristics of fairy tales.  We discussed fairy tales that they know and are familiar with and checked to see if they had all the characteristics that we had listed (they did!).  Then I gave the kids an idea starter and off they went to finish the story by building in the Lego Lab.  *Unfortunately, we’re having an issue with the StoryVisualizer software, which the Lego team is working very diligently to solve.  In the meantime, we’re using good old-fashioned Word to record our stories.

The Battle of the Knight and the Princess by Joey

Once upon a time, there was an unhappy princess.  She was in her castle, thinking about how to kill her enemies.  She disguised herself as a bride getting married in the castle in case the bad guys broke in.  Her enemies would think that she was just a bride.  They would not realize she was the princess they were after. 

There was a knock at the palace door.  A stranger walked in and approached the princess.  He gave her a chalice filled with potion and told her, “Drink this and it will make all your dreams come true.”

The stranger watched closely as the disguised princess thought about what to do with the chalice and the potion.  “Will it really make my dreams come true?” thought the princess, “or will disaster strike and I will get wounded or killed?”  She unsteadily drank the potion, with her hand shaking.

The empty chalice fell to the floor.  The princess lay unconscious beside the chalice. 

A moment later she was awakened by a handsome knight. 

The knight said, “Get dressed in this,” and he gave her some knight armor to disguise herself.

He gave her a sword to go with the knight armor.  They both went off into the shadows.

Then the two villains came to the spot where the knight and the princess were hiding.  There was a short villain and one with a red hood.  The one with the red hood said, “Show your faces.” 

The knight said, “I have never shown my face since I became a knight, unless you consider when I go to bed.”

The princess just said, “No.”

The villains became angry with the princess and the knight.  They went to go fetch their dragon.  The short villain climbed onto the front of the dragon and the red-hooded villain climbed onto the back.  They soared off into the sky. 

The princess and the knight only had a little dragon, but he could fly, too.  They both climbed onto their little dragon and flew away after the villains. 

The good guys used their swords and cut off the wing of the evil dragon.  The dragon, with the villains on his back, spiraled to the ground.  The villains climbed off.  The heroes steered their dragon to the ground and then they climbed off.  The red-hooded villain revealed his sword, pulling it out, but the heroes already had their swords out and were ready to fight.  A battle began.

Then the knight knocked the villain down with his skilled fighting techniques.  The hood fell off, revealing an angry red face.  Then the princess said to the red-hooded villain, “I am the princess you were hunting down, but now I’m going to put an end to you.”  She picked him up and threw him off the side of the mountain.  The villain was slashing his sword wildly as he flew through the air, trying to see if he could get back up, but he swung his sword so wildly that he cut off his own head. 

Then the princess and the knight grabbed their swords and carried the other villain to the castle and put him behind bars. 

A happy ending came to the kingdom.  The villains were no longer a threat and the princess and the knight got married and lived happily ever after. 

THE END