Why I Don’t Eat Meat on Fridays of Lent

Posted on March 4, 2014

It really is quite amazing to me that I chose to be a Catholic.  I am the first to bristle at any kind of authority telling me what I can and cannot do.  Maybe it is that inborn American desire for rebellion.  More likely it is my own pride and arrogance.  But when it comes to the Church, I submit to her teaching authority.  It is through the Church that Jesus instructs and leads his sheep to heaven. 

Following the teachings of Christ is not always easy, especially when it is my inclination to defy.  Like a small child though, I am called to obey first and seek understanding after.  So for the past decade or so, I have dutifully abstained from eating meat on Fridays of Lent.  And to answer the obvious question of why, I say because it is a sacrifice.  But then come the inevitable litany of rebuttals:

  • Am I really making a sacrifice to plan a different meal once a week?
  • Do eggs and chicken broth count?
  • What if I am pregnant?
  • Why is fish okay to eat?
  • And so on…

I know, absolutely know, in my heart that the Church’s teachings are true and just and for my spiritual benefit.  So I began to ask myself, why are we still obligated in this day to abstain from meat.  Certainly for the average American, this is truly not a sacrifice.  There must be another purpose beyond the meager inconvenience of not eating a particular food. 

Today is Mardi Gras, but all week, I have already begun to think about what I will plan for my family’s meals on Ash Wednesday and the upcoming Fridays.  Today, while I was contemplating how to maintain my metabolism while fasting, it finally hit me.  Every time I think about meals for these days, I think about sacrifice and I think about Jesus.  That is my purpose for fasting and abstaining.  It has very little to do with what I actually eat. 

Just imagine your day tomorrow or Friday.  At least three times a day, and probably more, your body will tell you that it is hungry and you will think about food.  But rather than just meeting the physical need, you will remember that today is special and you will need to adjust your habits.  Multiple times a day, you will recall the sacrifice of Jesus and make a tiny attempt to join your sacrifice with His.  Isn’t it brilliant that the Church chose such a fundamental and universal desire, hunger, to help us orient ourselves to God again and again throughout the day?  In my busy life, I often forget that God is here with me, but I won’t forget that I am hungry.  The physical desire for food reminds us of our insatiable spiritual desire for Christ.  And that is why I do not eat meat on Fridays of Lent.

May you all have a blessed Lenten season as we await the joy of Easter.

~Catie
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Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With the First Pinewood Derby

Posted on January 27, 2014

homeschool weekly wrap up

I hope everyone had a great week.  The motto around here lately is “Survive and Advance.”  We seem to be accomplishing that goal every time.  Qapla’!

Saturday
I started the morning with grocery shopping.  Sales were not great today except for some produce at Aldi.  I like to buy meat from a regional store chain called Food Pyramid.  They typically have marked down meat on Saturday morning, but they were wiped out of almost everything this morning.  Not sure what that was about, but I was stuck paying over $3 a pound for hamburger meat.

Sunday
Everyone was finally healthy enough to go to Mass and Sunday school.  Our long-time nursery workers retired from duty before the holidays and college students have been taking over the job.  Which means that the nursery has been without staff for almost six weeks.  Now, I can’t actually leave my babies there.  Cooper throws a fit and Josh is too young to be left alone (per the nursery rules).  But, I do appreciate having a worker in there.  At least I have someone to talk to. 

The church also forgot/didn’t leave the nursery open for parents to use.  I know how to get in through another room, but no one else seems to so I was stuck in there, just me and the babies, for most of Mass.  We also have a baby cry area, but the glass doors leading into the chapel were left open.  Cooper made a mad dash for the pews at least twice before I decided that wasn’t worth it and broke into the nursery instead.

THEN, I tried to take the babies back inside the chapel for communion, but someone had already slightly opened the doors to the kitchen.  They usually do not do that until after Mass.  Cooper saw the light from the kitchen and started yelling,  “Donut!”  We had to leave again. 

Most of the parishioners and the priest are all very welcoming of children.  No one ever gets shushed or glared at, but my goodness, they didn’t make it easy on me this day. 

In better news, I performed a miracle during Sunday school to everyone’s amazement by turning water into….colored water. 

Monday
We tried to get some schoolwork done, but accomplished very little.  I’m pretty sure Alex thinks that Martin Luther King, Jr. fought in the Civil War.  Progress on making a pinewood derby car was made. And finally, the boys were put to bed and I watched Castle.

Tuesday
Josh greeted the day at 5:25AM.  It actually turned out to be a pretty decent day since I was up before (most of) the kids.  I was quite productive doing laundry, keeping the kitchen clean, and giving two haircuts.  I really wish I would get up early every day.  I also wish that I could get 8 hours of sleep in a row.  Sometimes we just don’t get we want.

Wednesday
FINALLY had a playdate with our friends.  It had been more than a month!  I also began sprucing up my YouTube page to mesh with the blog.  I plan on using it with Mother of Divine Grace syllabi next year.  The tentative plan is to use a combination of second and third grades for Alex and kindergarten for Ryan.  We won’t use every subject, but one of the things that I really liked about Seton this year was having a daily lesson plan for at least our core subjects.  I am hoping that MODG gives us that daily plan in a more classical style. 

We’ll see.  MODG encourages more discussion than writing in the elementary years, which is what I prefer.  However, some days it is impossible to hear anyone speak around here with Josh’s constant fussing, Cooper’s constant commotion, and Ryan’s constant interruptions.  I’m sure whatever I choose will be a disaster in its own little way.  Can you tell that I’m ready to start fresh with a new year already?

Thursday
We survived our morning and accomplished learning about St. Stephen of Hungary.  It was such a stereotypical homeschool lesson.  I had a baby on my hip so he wouldn’t cry, the toddler was pulling things off the shelf behind me, Ryan was seated across from Alex at the table, interrupting my reading and discussion every third word, and Alex tried to learn through the chaos.  By the grace of God, it was actually a successful lesson.  If only I didn’t feel like I were yelling every lesson just to be heard above the circus.

Derby CarIn other news, the derby car is ready for weigh in tomorrow.

Friday
We managed to finish up 90% of the scheduled schoolwork plus another 10-15% of unschooled stuff.  I gave Alex a haircut, too, so overall, a very successful day.  The big event was weighing in the car for the derby.  Ryan got to go, too.  Dad managed to get the weight of the car right up to the 5 ounce limit.  We’ll see if it wins any races tomorrow.

Big plans for the weekend include the derby for the big boys and a date to see Chicago for hubby and me.  We’ll wrap it up with Mass, Sunday school, and dinner with Aunt Caren. 

Have a great one!

~Catie

 

This post is linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Posted in Preschool, Second Grade, Weekly Wrap-Up | Tagged | 2 Comments

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Took Four Boys to Wal-Mart by Myself

Posted on January 17, 2014

homeschool weekly wrap up

This weekend I went fishing around my old Weekly Wrap-Up posts trying to figure out when it was that we visited the fire station.  It was so much fun to go back and read about those weeks, so I am going to make a better effort to keep up with these recaps.

Let’s start with a quick catch-up: Christmas was awesome and exhausting, then everybody was sick for a week, and now we are back to school.

Saturday
Most of the boys and hubby were still recovering a bit from various sinus and respiratory infections so we stuck close to home and rested.  I (poorly) finished some grocery shopping and drug Alex around to every shoe store in town.  We never did buy any shoes.  Have you seen the cost of those things? Absurd. 

dove paper bag puppetSunday
Hubby and the youngest three boys stayed home from Mass and Sunday school.  One last day of recovery and not coughing all over people and then they were all better.  Alex and I enjoyed a quiet Mass together.  At Sunday school I taught about the Baptism of Jesus.  We talked a lot about the Holy Spirit and made this dove craft.  I had the children trace and cut out their handprints to use as wings.

After church we put away the Christmas decorations and made a blackberry cobbler for after-dinner desert.  It was yummy.   

Monday
First day back following the week of illness and the two-week break for Christmas.  Since everyone was feeling pretty good, we packed up and went to PE.  It was really for me more than them.  I haven’t seen one of my very bestest friends in like a month and she was going to be there.  So, the boys played and I chatted with my friend.  We ended the day with homemade chicken soup and biscuits for dinner. 

Tuesday
Confession Time – I suck at making a menu, shopping list, and cooking.  I tend to forget to buy ingredients like hamburger meat for a meal like hamburgers. 

So, I realized that I didn’t have what I needed to make dinner for the night.  I am trying really, really hard to stick to my budget and menu this year, so I weighed my options and opted for hauling all four boys to Wal-Mart this morning to buy what I forgot.  After a half-hour of getting everyone ready and giving them about fifteen pep talks, we piled in the old van and hit the road. 

You know how these talks go.  “No, we can’t look at toys.” “Everyone is going to do exactly what Mommy says, right?”  “We aren’t getting anything that isn’t on the list.”  “No swearing.”  Okay, that last one is for me.

I’m glad to report that we survived the thirty-mile-per-hour wind and all of the looky-loos and successfully obtained the lettuce for taco salad.  Dinner is saved.

Wednesday
We were supposed to have playdate today, but one of our friends was sick.  I hate winter.  Someone is always sick, or it is too cold to go outside.  Either way, it makes for a houseful of crankiness.  I didn’t feel great myself today.  I slept in too much, screwed up my metabolism, and then didn’t eat well.  Ryan didn’t fare much better.  We need to clean up our eating habits again.

Thursday
This started out as another tough day.  Ryan and I fought all morning, and I was seriously ready to send him to public school for all day pre-K in August.  Let them deal with him.  But instead, I sucked it up and tried to find an eating solution.  He tends to wait it out and only eat the less healthy food, thereby having multiple breakdowns all the live long day.

So I gave him two green craft sticks and two red and told him he gets to use the red to make two food choices for the day, and the green are for eating two vegetables for the day.  It worked pretty well and we certainly had less fighting. 

The weather was also above 50 and not super dooper windy so the big boys spent at least two hours outside.  I think that alone turned everyone’s attitudes around.  I guess I won’t send him to school after all.

Friday
Today’s plan is to just get through the week.  We barely did any schoolwork the past two days, but today is colder so we will probably stay inside.  Alex had a den meeting this evening.  I will probably do some grocery shopping.  Nothing special on the horizon for the weekend.  I’m very glad that our busyness has slowed down after Christmas. 

I hope everyone has a blessed weekend.  Stay warm.

~Catie

This post is linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Posted in Series, Weekly Wrap-Up | 2 Comments

Mr.Q’s Classic Science Curriculum Sale 50% Off!

Posted on January 13, 2014

Experienced homeschoolers say it takes about three years to feel like you know what you are doing.  I think it takes about three years to settle on the curriculum that works.

What joy and relief it is when you finally find the right one for your family!  That is how I feel about Math-U-See, and now, that is how I feel about Mr.Q’s Classic Science.

I first stumbled upon this series of PDF textbooks when I found Easy Peasy.  I have been using EP Biology for science this year and that website uses the Free Mr. Q Classic Science Elementary Life Science text for the first half of the year.  Alex loves this book.  He appreciates the humor and funny pictures.  I love this book for the excellent science content.

If you recall, I despised the Seton science book, mostly for lines such as this:

Some people do not think correctly because they do not follow God’s words in the Bible.  They think that the universe created itself!  They say that human beings came from, or ‘evolved’ from, animals.  Such people believe that there is no God so they ‘hypothesize’, or guess, the most incredible things!.

~Seton Science 2 for Young Catholics, 2007 Edition, pg. 3

Even if I agreed with these statements (which I don’t), how condescending is that!  For me, this kind of thing does not belong in a science book.  I quickly abandoned any hope of finding a Christian science text that was both rigorous, non-Creationist, and non-infuriating.  So, I turned to a secular approach, but most of those texts are very expensive and very dry.

Mr.Q’s series is $50 per book, but for this week only you can get your entire order half off!  Use this link to access the discount code.

These books are far from dry.  Mr. Q taps into a humorous approach that only a kid can truly appreciate, especially boys.  His jokes and funny pictures are mixed into lessons that are rich in vocabulary and theory.  The 36-week curriculum is broken into units so you can pick and choose if you like, or use then entire book for the school year.  Lessons are set up for three days: one day for reading and discussion and two for experiments and tests.  The elementary level is for ages 7-12.  I found that Alex could easily read the Life Science text on his own in second grade (about a fourth grade reading level).  It would have been pretty challenging in first grade.

Let me say one more thing about the experiments.  They are unlike any that I have ever seen in a non-college level course.  He uses a method that he calls Exploring Scientific Procedures (ESP).  I know this method by the name inquiry-based investigation. 

Do you remember that dusty old scientific method that your teachers made you learn?  You know, that thing with the five steps.  I bet you learned those steps, maybe did a few word problems where you identified them, but did you ever actually conduct an experiment using them?  I’m guessing not. 

Mr. Q’s ESP experiments are designed to show your child through direct investigation how real scientists use the scientific method to answer questions, design experiments, and solve problems.  Now I have taken a good deal of science classes in my day and I have had one, ONE, that included an inquiry-based laboratory course.  It was in college and it was incredibly challenging since I had absolutely zero experience in this kind of thinking before hand.  But as someone who had planned on science as a career, it was an essential skill.  This is how research is done in a real lab.  I know we are not all training our children to be research scientists, but this level of problem solving will serve a student well in so many ways that go beyond science and career.

I just purchased Elementary Earth Science to use next year.  If you are searching for a great elementary level science curriculum, check out the free Life Science text, or use the link above to purchase another book at 50% off!

~Catie
 

I am not an affiliate for Mr. Q Classic Science Curriculum and a review was not solicited.  I do not receive anything if you use the discount code to purchase a book. 

I do love these books and want to share them with my readers! 

Hip Homeschool Hop Button

 

This post is linked up to Trivium Tuesdays and the Hip Homeschool Hop.

Posted in Science, Second Grade | Tagged | 1 Comment

Curriculum Review: Math-U-See Alpha

Posted on January 2, 2014

Math-U-See

PRODUCTS WE USED: Math-U-See Alpha

  • Student Text – 2004 edition
  • Instruction Pack (Teacher’s Manual and DVD) – 2004 edition
  • Test Booklet – 2004 edition
  • Manipulative Block Set
  • Skip Count CD and Book

TOTAL COST:

All materials were purchased used or in previous school years.  Total cost for Alpha material was about $50.

STUDENT BACKGROUND:

This curriculum was used to teach a 6 year-old boy at the first-grade level. He used Math-U-See Primer for Kindergarten.

PROS:

  • The DVD provides all of the teacher instruction necessary to teach the skill, so there is no need to worry that your own knowledge will fall short.
  • Various learning methods (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) are used in each lesson.  
  • Ample practice & review for this level.
  • Downloadable supplements and an online drill application are available.
  • Mastery based lessons are taught in small, manageable chunks so that mastery can be achieved quickly without needing to spend weeks on a particular lesson.
  • A small number of lessons (30) allows for extra time to be spent on a difficult set of facts or time to add in extras that are not covered in the curriculum.

CONS:

  • The teacher’s manual is more useful than the Primer level, but not much.  It has a few extra ideas for lessons, but most of what is in the book is also on the DVD. It does include some mental math lessons and some review sheets that you can copy.
  • Being a mastery based curriculum, this book focuses heavily on one skill only, single-digit addition and subtraction.  Other than that there is a lesson or two about shapes and skip counting.  It can get a bit boring just learning addition facts week after week – at least for the teacher.
  • I felt that some skills were missing from this curriculum, namely an introduction to fractions, money, time, and measurements. (NOTE – 2013 student texts include enrichment lessons that may have these types of skills added in, if you want to include them.)

FINAL RECOMMENDATION:

We still love Math-U-See and I highly recommend it, especially for these younger years.  While I felt a bit bored by the strict focus on single-digit addition and subtraction, I tried not to pass that on to Alex and he never really seemed bothered by it.  The idea with a mastery based lesson is that you do not move on until the child can teach the lesson back to you or quickly rattle off the facts that were to be memorized.  I honestly probably moved too quickly.  Alex’s recall of some of the more difficult facts is not very fast, but I figured he would still be working on them at the Beta level.  Plus, he is pretty decent at quickly doing drill on the computer or on paper, but aloud is not as proficient. 

I will probably purchase the new student texts in the future to get the enrichment pages.  This will make the Math-U-See curriculum cover a few of those missing skills that are included in programs like Saxon (or in public school.)  Some people are very up in arms about the changes to Math-U-See, claiming these included skills are making the curriculum align with the dreaded common core.  What I say to these people is calm down.  If you compare the early years of the common core standards with the early years of Math-U-See, the lessons already aligned.  I think Math-U-See is the way these types of skills are meant to be taught to attain understanding and retention of the concepts at an early and appropriate age level. And obviously Math-U-See isn’t changing all that much as they are printing new student texts, but not filming new DVDs.  And as always, you are the teacher.  If you don’t like a particular part, just skip it.  The perfect curriculum does not exist so stop looking.

 

~Catie
 

I am not affiliated with Math-U-See in any way. All comments are my own opinion based on personal experience. Math-U-See did not provide any of the above materials to me for free and did not solicit a review.

Posted in First Grade, Math | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Challenges of Scheduling One Student and a Bunch of Littles

Posted on November 15, 2013

I haven’t written much on the blog in the past few years regarding schedules.  Don’t misunderstand – I love schedules, but I have found that much like Apple products, they are obsolete as soon as they are released into the wild.  With the ever changing development of little ones, it just doesn’t make sense to stick with something that no longer works.

Speaking of things that no longer work, our current school routine is feeling some growing pains.  Typically, Alex works in the early morning before I am even out of bed, and then we work together at quiet time when babies are napping.  Lately however, Alex’s mommy has been tired (lazy) and has not set out work for him to do in the early morning.  This means we get nothing done schoolwise until quiet time.  Then Alex has been increasingly tired and uncooperative at quiet time, and that leads to fighting and still no schoolwork.  Plus, his workload has increased to the point that we just cannot get it done in an hour at quiet time even if we are both focused and energized.

Luckily, we are wrapping up our first semester next week.  This is the perfect opportunity to rethink the game plan. 

And here is the new one in all its glory:

Focus Calendar

(Click here for a larger pdf view)

The goal is to sit down during Josh’s morning nap and work on that day’s FOCUS (the pink blocks).  I hope to do this at the dinner table with Ryan and Cooper right there with us.  Ryan may work on his own project, or join what Alex and I are doing.  Cooper will be properly distracted with snacks, quiet toys, coloring, and board books.  I’m sure he will eventually want to get down and play.  I imagine this part of the day will take at least an hour if not two.  Things always take longer when we are all together, but it is so much better.  I hope this cuts down on the TV watching, too. 

The blue blocks are where I will schedule work that Alex can do independently or with very little help from me.  I haven’t decided yet when this work will happen.  I may try the boring stuff in the morning at the table or in his room and leave the stuff he likes for quiet time.  My quiet time goal for Alex is to cut back to only 30 minutes of school, 30 minutes of free choice (meaning iPad), and 30 minutes of reading.

I suppose we can repeat the table time in the afternoon if we are still finding it hard to fit in everything that we want to learn, but I would rather just whittle out the busy work.  It seems to sneak in when I get tired (lazy) and just follow the lesson plans blindly. 

Obviously, the gray blocks mean that we do not cover that subject on that day.

If this plan works, it should set us up nicely for the next couple of years when Ryan begins more formal lessons.  I will just add FOCUS subjects in for him and alternate between working with him and working with Alex and eventually combine a few subjects for both of them.  I know this is how homeschool moms with large families juggle the teaching duties, but they typically have the added benefit of older children that can play with the younger ones.  We aren’t that large…yet.

I’m sure you will be seeing a post in about three months on how this plan isn’t working.  That is just the way of things.  If anyone has advice on how to handle one student and a bunch of littles, just stick it in the comments.  I’ll take anything I can get.

~Catie
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Early Planning for Third Grade: Language Arts

Posted on November 13, 2013

We are just about to wrap up our second quarter of school before Thanksgiving, so of course that means that I am knee deep in planning the next school year.  I like planning even more than actually teaching.  I thought I would get everyone’s two cents on some of my choices.

The overall theme of next year is more classical.  After going with a highly traditional program this year, I realized that there just isn’t enough actual reading of real books.  I want to change that before too much damage is done, and Alex learns to dislike reading.  What I do love about this year’s curriculum is the lesson plans.  This has saved our homeschool.  I would never have been able to create my own plans this year.  So when I was looking around for more classical curriculum, I kept in mind that I will still need some help in this regard with two toddlers running around.

Let’s take a look at language arts first.

Literature
Alex tends to be a consumer of books rather than a critical reader.  It physically pains him to not finish a book in one sitting.  This has ultimately led to him reading only quick and easy books that are no longer than about ten short chapters.  The characters are one-dimensional and few, and the plot usually revolves around solving a simple mystery.  My goal next year is to slowly walk him through digesting and analyzing a few good books. 

I plan to read Farmer Boy, Charlotte’s Web, and The Moffats using Memoria Press Grade Three Guides and Lesson Plans.  I also considered purchasing guides from Angelicum Academy, but have decided to go with Memoria Press because they offer lesson plans.

If anyone has used the guides from both places, I would love to hear a comparison of the two programs.  I also went with Memoria Press because I wanted fewer books in a year and simply preferred their selections for third grade.

Grammar & Writing
So far we have used the English books from Kolbe in first grade and Seton in second grade.  Both were pretty boring workbook types where the child circled nouns in sentences and such.  Seton’s book began to include some writing, but I didn’t really find it beneficial. 

For third grade I am going to try Memoria Press Intro to Composition and English Grammar Recitation.  This program has the added benefit of tying in with the literature guides.  I was very drawn to English Grammar Recitation where the student is encouraged to memorize grammar rules such as what are the types of nouns, rather than just randomly find them in sentences. 

Spelling
At this point, if I had all the money in the world, I might just throw in the towel and buy All About Spelling.  Rather, I am going to try the How to Teach Spelling program again and use How to Spell Workbook 2.  I think I have tinkered with the program enough to have finally figured it out.  I plan on writing my own guide and lesson plans for Workbooks 1 and 2.  This takes time though, and I can’t make any promises.  I may actually have more money than time, and that is a sad state of being.

Handwriting
I gave up with printing practice and have moved on to teaching cursive using these videos.  Third grade will just be practice through copywork that I will make myself and any writing that he needs to do for other assignments and notebooking.

Phonics
None!  I think we are more than finished with phonics as its own subject.  Any phonics instruction that he still needs will be part of the spelling curriculum. 

Latin
We will finally start learning a second language next year.  I’m pretty excited about that.  I am going to go with Prima Latina though I really don’t have a good reason over any other program.  I am open to suggestions. 

~Catie

Posted in Classical, School Planning | 1 Comment

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Didn’t Write About Classical Education

Posted on November 9, 2013

homeschool weekly wrap up

I’m back with a wrap-up!  In case you are just joining me, I have just finished a big writing project with my 31 Days of Classical Education Lite series.  That was the most writing that I have ever done on a consistent basis, and I’m a little shocked that I made it.  I rewarded myself by taking a week off and catching up on the neglected things like eating and laundry.  There are only so many hours in a day people!  If you notice that I am blogging a lot, it probably means that I am not doing something else, like showering.

Now, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled program.  Here is what we did last week.

Saturday
Our town has a new store, Aldi, which I checked out.  It was pretty awesome, and I love sacking my own groceries.  It brings back fond memories of shopping with my mom at Buy for Less, which she always called Buy Less (and Payless, Pay for Less).  I can’t wait to bring Alex.  It will blow his mind.

So I’m not really sure if this happened this weekend or last, but my family chipped in and bought us a new crib. (Thank You!!)  We set it up in the nursery for Cooper and gave Josh the old crib.  Now both babies are in the same room.  That is working out about as well as you imagine it would.  I’m pretty sure at least once this week I went in there at 2AM and picked up the wrong baby.  It’s hard to tell which is crying when I’m in a sleep-deprived fog.

Sunday (School)
After taking off last Sunday for fall break (I know.  Don’t get me started on why we have random Sunday school breaks.  It drives me nuts.), we are now back to almost a whole month of Sundays in a row before a break for Thanksgiving.  We learned about Moses today.  I had one class session to teach the Moses stories.  I skipped the baby in the basket and went right on to the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea.  After the story, the kids took turns making this burning bush craft and coloring this map of the Exodus. 

I will probably tack on the ten commandments lesson to next Sunday right before we learn about Joshua and Jericho.

Monday
Monday started out pretty typical with a bit of school and then PE.  I was in charge of keeping an eye on my friend’s son at PE since she couldn’t stay.  It was all going well until her son attempted to pick up my son and body slam him to the floor.  Why do boys insist on wrestling?  I have never once thought that my friends might like to be picked up and thrown on the floor.  Keep in mind these boys are four years old.  I had to abandon the babies for a few minutes to talk them down from fighting.  Good grief.

Hubby raced home from work this night to take Alex to a pack meeting.  It was out at the lake so they could have a Dutch oven cook-off and work on astronomy belt loops.  It was too cloudy to look at the stars, but they had a trivia contest.  They both came back smelling of camp fire and grinning ear to ear.

Tuesday
We try to get a good amount of school done on Tuesdays through Thursdays.  I have been having a challenging time this quarter though.  I would love to sit down with Alex from 9 to 11 and just do everything, but with three younger brothers, that is just not an option.  Everything I try to do with the littles just distracts Alex so much that there is no point trying to teach him.  I am going to have to go back to what I did last year which was to send Alex to another room to work independently for thirty minutes.  He strongly dislikes being separated from the group, so this is a big deal for him.  I just don’t see any other way around it though.  He isn’t getting his work done if he waits until quiet time to get started.  By then he is tired and unfocused and getting him to do anything that he isn’t super dooper excited about is like pulling teeth. 

Alex Office

Alex doing math in his office.  Sometimes all you need is a change of scenery.

Hubby and I employed the services of Aunt Caren this night so that we could go on a date…to a meeting at church.  (In case you are curious, Aunt Caren is paid in food and quality time with her nephews.)  Plans on the new church building are moving right along.  Next weekend we have a get together to bless the building site.  Pray for good weather!

Wednesday
We stayed home and Cooper decided to act like a two-year old six months ahead of time.

Thursday
This was a pretty big day considering we didn’t go anywhere.  First thing in the morning, Ryan decided that he wanted to practice his letters in his journal.  Sure, buddy, you can practice writing.  In the front cover of the journal, I have a chart where we had been counting the first 100 days of school  We left off on 46, but are actually on 77.  Clearly this is not a top priority.  Anyway, I filled in the chart and then asked Ryan to count by tens, fully expecting him to get to about forty and then stop.  To my amazement he went all the way to 100.  I said, “How did you know how to do that?”  He says, “Starfall.”  I love it when they teach themselves stuff. 

Then he hightailed it outside to play where he discovered that the ladybugs are breeding.  It’s like the eleventh plague out there – a plague of cuteness.

I decided on a whim to see how Josh would do with eating solid food.  I planned on starting with veggies, but since I had none, I tried oatmeal banana baby cereal instead.  He did fine, but clearly indicated that it was the grossest thing he has ever tasted.

And finally, Alex received in the mail his equivalent of the giant, Christmas toy catalog.  It is the Mindware advertisement for the year.  I’m pretty sure he has read it cover to cover no less then four times already.

Friday
Alex had his dress rehearsal this morning so after dropping him off, we made banana bread.  Then after quiet time we had a visit from three family members.  I love when they come over, but why do the boys have to freak out and be so loud.  For cryin’ out loud, we see them every few weeks.

We wrapped up the day with a den meeting for Alex, a basketball game for Hubby and Ryan, and a few precious moments of silence in my own home for me. 

The weekend should be fun and eventful.  We have tailgate, Mass, Sunday school, and a party to bless the new church site.  Then it is on to plenty of activities to keep the crew hopping all week.  I’ll be glad when things slow down after the holidays.  Everyone have a great week!

~Catie
 

 

This post is linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Posted in Preschool, Second Grade, Series, Weekly Wrap-Up | Leave a comment

Our Classical Experience: Day 31 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 31, 2013
If you are new to this series, feel free to start at the beginning.  For each of the 31 days of October 2013, I will write about practical ways to include classical education in your school routine, whether that is preschool, homeschool, or afterschool.  I will focus on an age range of birth to fourth grade.  This includes the grammar stage of the Classical Trivium.


31DaysLiteIf I could sum up our classical experience thus far, I would definitely say it has been lite.   In Kindergarten, I tried a classical approach to religion before I had much understanding about narration and notebooking.  I quickly abandoned the method without giving it a chance.  Reading was phonics based, math was math, and we learned handwriting with a workbook.  That was about all we did for Kindergarten.

In first grade, I had grand plans, but God’s were grander.  Life threw me a curveball with our fourth baby and I was lucky to make it through the year.  I did try more copywork that year, and now that I look back at it, I think it was the best method for improving Alex’s handwriting.  I do wish I would have started him with cursive, but I can’t turn back time.  We tinkered with a bit of notebooking and due to lack of time, most of our lessons ended up being narration.  Even though I could clearly tell through conversation that Alex was learning so much this way, I still had a feeling that it wasn’t enough.  I didn’t have any worksheets with grades and stickers on them to prove that I had ‘taught’ him something.  My feelings about classical methodology was apprehensive at best.  Traditional schooling is very much ingrained in my upbringing and culture. 

Now this year, to survive it better, we are using a highly traditional form of schooling through Seton Home Study.  I knew I was giving up a lot of classical methods, but I was hoping it would get the job done.  It is adequate and Alex doesn’t hate workbooks, but I am finding the task oriented work to be pretty mundane and not very challenging.  After a quarter and a half, I am slowly switching the lessons to more classical methods.  Here are some of the easy changes I have made to a very traditional program:

Reading
The lesson plans for reading are to have the child read aloud from the reader, then answer a series of questions that mainly focus on the plot.  Questions like, “What did Bill do when he arrived at the barn?”  Not very thought provoking. 

Instead of this, I have been having Alex read the story to himself and then narrate it to me to check his understanding and foster discussion of more interesting themes.  These are Catholic readers so the stories often provide a springboard for talking about God, the Church, and good moral behavior. 

We do reading aloud only two times a week.  I also have him read storybooks to his brother.

The other major part of the reading curriculum are weekly book reports.  We have been struggling with these from the very beginning so the first thing I have done is cut the work down by 50%.  We only do a report every other week.  Again, the focus is on telling back the plot.  I haven’t changed the structure much since this is an assignment that we turn in to be graded, but I did get permission to take dictation instead of Alex having to write on the form.

English
Most of the assignments for English are simple workbook pages focusing on parts of speech.  We do those or just read them if they are easy.  Once a week, English includes a creative writing assignment.  Usually these are ‘have your student write a beginning sentence that says My favorite month of the year is…’  I have been scrapping those altogether and instead going through the Simple Writing Series from The Measured Mom.  I am seriously considering switching to Primary Language Lessons next semester.

Spelling
Seton is a list type of spelling program with no spelling rules included.  It is a bit of a hot mess for Alex to deal with.  We are still going through each list every week, but I prepare him ahead of time by teaching or reviewing any spelling rules that will be needed for our specific words.  I have half a mind to just teach the words on the quarterly tests and continue with the rules through the How to Spell Workbooks.

Religion
The religion lessons are broken up into three days of reading and then answering/memorizing questions.  This is fine except that the lesson days tend to be highly repetitive.  I typically read all three lessons to him in one day, then we use the other days of the week to review and memorize. 

Handwriting
We had been dutifully finishing every page in the manuscript workbook, but I wasn’t seeing much improvement in Alex’s handwriting.  He has settled into a very sloppy style that improves when he writes on smaller lines.  I’ve decided to just move on to cursive.  We are using these videos and copywork.

I have been very happy with the changes we have made to Seton to make it more classical.  This month long series has really renewed my interest in the philosophy and I hope to have the time to build my own program for Alex (and Ryan) next year.  My major goals are to move away from readers and instead move to literature and study guides. 

I hope this series has been helpful and encouraging.  I know I get very caught up in doing a particular method perfectly.  That is just not realistic.  It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  I also once heard that it takes about three years of homeschooling to finally get it figured out.  I’m not sure I will ever get it completely figured out, but every year of experience helps with my confidence in teaching.  Thanks so much for tuning in all month.  Now I need a nap.

~Catie

This post is part of the 31 Days in October link up sponsored by nesting place.  For 31 straight days, hundreds of bloggers will come together to write about a topic of their choice.  Join us for hours and hours of great blogging!

Posted in 31 Days of Classical Education Lite, Classical, Series | Leave a comment

Resources for Classical Education: Day 30 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 30, 2013
If you are new to this series, feel free to start at the beginning.  For each of the 31 days of October 2013, I will write about practical ways to include classical education in your school routine, whether that is preschool, homeschool, or afterschool.  I will focus on an age range of birth to fourth grade.  This includes the grammar stage of the Classical Trivium.


31DaysLiteWell, I think the hard part of writing this series is over.  This post is going to be a compilation of websites, books, curriculum and what-not that I have found helpful in our classical journey.  You may want to bookmark this post and check back.  I will update it as I find new stuff.  And I think it goes without saying that there are going to be some affiliate links in the mix. 

An * denotes a specifically Catholic resource.

Getting Started and General Classical Information
The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
*Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist
The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers

Classical Curriculum Providers and Schools (Many Subjects)
*Mother of Divine Grace
Memoria Press
*Angelicum Academy – A good books program that ties in easily with a classical approach
*Mater Amabilis – A Charlotte Mason approach that is similar to classical education
Ambleside – Another Charlotte Mason site
The Classical Curriculum
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool – Though not strictly classical, I find it fits my needs for several subject, especially ancient history and science.

History & Literature
*Connecting with History
*Reading Your Way Through History
Historical Fiction for Children
The Baldwin Project – Online ebooks of children’s literature
Classical House of Learning – A blog with history cycle literature guides and lesson plans
Guesthollow – A blog with history (and science) guides and resources

Science
The Lab of Mr. Q – The only grammar stage science texts that I like, so far. (Not Free)

Blogs
Living and Learning at Home – Includes a weekly classical link up, Trivium Tuesdays, where I was recently featured.  Thanks, Amy!

The Measured Mom – Check out her Simple Writing series.

 

You can also check out my curriculum reviews page that will be updated yearly.  There you can find my two cents on any specific programs that we have used. 

~Catie

This post is part of the 31 Days in October link up sponsored by nesting place.  For 31 straight days, hundreds of bloggers will come together to write about a topic of their choice.  Join us for hours and hours of great blogging!

This post contains affiliate links.  Please see my legal disclosures for details.

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Posted in 31 Days of Classical Education Lite, Classical, School Planning, Series | Leave a comment