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.

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

All the Rest for the Grammar Student: Day 29 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 29, 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.

31DaysLiteYour grammar student has covered reading, writing, spelling, English, math, religion, science, history, geography, art, music and theatre.  What could possibly be left?  Truth be told if you can do everything on that list, your student will have an excellent education.  All the rest is simply things you may have overlooked, never wanted to consider, or want to push off until the later grades.  Let’s take a look.
 
Physical Education
PE in the early grades should really just be playtime outdoors.  If you want to add in more, I suggest trying something for a few weeks during a slow time, like summer.  Swimming lessons or a dance class might be a good option.  We have the opportunity of taking a weekly homeschool PE class at a local gymnasium.  Alex and Ryan are in the class, while Cooper and Josh are allowed to play in a preschool area of the gym with me supervising.  We also tried soccer for Alex once.  I like to choose activities that have a small time commitment and allow the boys to play with other kids that we don’t normally see. 
 
As always, be cautious when choosing activities that take you away from home.  If it is causing stress and not allowing for enough time to cover core subjects, it just isn’t worth it right now.
 
Latin (or Greek)
A truly classical education includes the study of a classic language.  You would not want to begin this study until the middle of the grammar stage as the first half would concentrate on reading and writing of your student’s first language.  But once that has been reasonably achieved, it can be beneficial to learn the structure of an old language like Latin that so many other modern languages are based upon.
 
A Second Spoken Language
If your family is bilingual, this would naturally be part of grammar stage learning.  If not, then you may wish to begin the study of a second language with the intent of becoming fluent.
 
For Alex, I plan on beginning Latin in third grade and studying that exclusively for two years.  After two years, I plan on beginning Spanish and continuing Latin.  We would keep working on Latin for a couple more years and then focus completely on Spanish.  In high school, there would always be the opportunity to go for a third language.
 
Computer Science
I really think any specific study in computers can wait until after the grammar stage.  Most children in this day are going to learn how to use one simply by living in the world.  I would say that for the grammar stage, it would be sufficient to teach a child how to use the internet, the mouse, and the keyboard.  By late grammar stage, maybe how to use word processing software and proper typing.  Something like computer programming can definitely wait.
 
Philosophy
I would never think to specifically teach this to a grammar stage student, but when I was looking at the Angelicum Academy program the other day, I noticed that it is part of their curriculum.  I suppose if you just need one more thing to add to your day, go for it. 
 
There you have it.  I can’t think of anything else that a grammar stage student could possibly need.  And if you do everything that I have included in this series, I’m not sure when your family will find time to eat!
 
Tomorrow I will compile a list of my favorite classical resources and curriculums. 
 
 
~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, First Grade, Second Grade, Series | Leave a comment

Music and Theatre for the Grammar Student: Day 28 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 28, 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 you missed yesterday’s post, you can go back and read about art.  Today I will talk about how to sneak music and theatre into your classical routine.  This is one of those subjects that kind of gets pushed to the back burner in a busy homeschool, and that is fine.  It isn’t like you can shove reading instruction back there.  Once reading and handwriting get going by third grade, you can add in more of the arts.  In the meantime, if you only get to it sparingly, don’t fret.  We only do music every now and then and theatre is a only once or twice a year.

Applied Music
If you are able to teach your child to play an instrument or sing, that’s fantastic.  Of course, you must schedule in a little time every day for practice.  We have tried some piano, but just can’t find a good time for daily practice so we have stopped for now.  If you do find that you have time for piano and are looking for an inexpensive introduction, try Hoffman Academy.

Singing is also another option for applied music if you can’t swing the cost and lessons for an instrument.  Seton includes a song book as their music instruction, but no accompanying CD, so I find it a bit useless.  So far, our applied music training consists of singing children’s songs when the mood strikes us.  I would like to add in some hymns, but again, when would we practice? 

As the boys get older, I will consider the cost of outside classes.  I really think that is the only way the boys will learn an instrument.  And if they never do, I bet they will survive.

Music Appreciation
Like art appreciation, I would like to tie this into our history studies.  Right now, I have been doing Easy Peasy Music – Ancient every week.  It has been fun for Alex to learn about drums and flutes.

The easiest way to do music appreciation is just to play the music.  Turn on the radio or a CD while you do housework or play and let good music be part of your regular day.  Celtic music is one of my favorites.  Alex has been requesting Bluegrass lately.  I blame his father for that. 

And finally, look around your city for free concerts.  My husband usually joins the community band in the summer and we attend the outdoor summer concerts for the month of July.  We are also in a college town, so there is always something going on at the university. 

Theatre
Theatre should be seen and performed, not just read.  While reading plays is good to include in your literature studies, it is not how the medium was meant to be experienced.  Imagine just reading the sheet music to a concerto and never hearing it.  So, if you have enough people in your family, at least arrange to do a reading with everyone once a year.  No need to memorize the lines, but do get up and act out the movements.  If you don’t know what play to choose, check your local library.  They are bound to have a book of children’s plays available.

Alex sheep

Alex’s theatrical debut as a sheep in the Christmas pageant (2009)

Our homeschool group performs two plays a year, one for K-8 and one for high school students.  As much of a pain it is to drag everyone out to take Alex to rehearsal, it is one of the only chances we have all year to do theatre.  It is only for a few weeks and he has such a good time. We also have a children’s theatre group that comes to town in the summer and does a show with whoever wants to audition.  And if that isn’t enough, we have a regular children’s theatre group that performs several plays a year (for a hefty price) and a community theatre that often has children’s roles in their shows.  The point is check around your town.  I bet you have more opportunity for theatre than you realize.  Almost every church has a Christmas pageant and the season is approaching!

Ali Baba .JPG (3)

Alex as a thief in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

And if acting is just not for your child, at least go see a show once a year.  Community and university theatre are your least expensive options, but nothing beats the quality of a professional show.  Check out the theatres in your nearest large city. 

I hope I sparked an interest for you in music and theatre.  The point is that you don’t need to overthink it when it comes to the arts.  Just get out there and have a fun experience with your family. 

Tomorrow I will tie up a few loose ends in the classical education of the grammar student.

~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, First Grade, Second Grade, Series | Leave a comment

Art for the Grammar Student: Day 27 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 27, 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.

31DaysLiteEducation of any kind is incomplete without the humanities.  A classical education even goes so far as to dedicate the last stage of the trivium to the expression of ideas.  In the grammar stage of development, the student’s expression is in its infancy, but the child is given the tools to begin this skill.  Also, the study of other people’s expressions is studied across the board in literature, art, music, and theatre.  Today, I would like to focus on art – both creation and appreciation.

Applied Art
I like to use drawing as an introduction to applied art.  Other media is fine, but requires more supplies and can be messy.  There are several good drawing books available.  I like one that introduces different shapes, lines, and strokes such as Drawing is Basic, but I also like one that teaches how to draw specific things in a step-by-step manner.

Seton Art 2 is a really good program.  It includes step-by-step drawing instructions as well as a bit of art appreciation.  And Draw Write Now is another popular set of books.

Seton Art 2 Lion

Alex drawing step one of the lion on the bottom of the page from Seton Art 2.

Seton Art 2 Lion

Erasing some of the guidelines and adding details.

Seton Art 2 Lion

The final product.  Not his best effort.  Some days he just doesn’t want to draw.

Alex really loves art and we encourage it.  Along with drawing we have plenty of time for crafts and painting.  He also has had an introduction to clay from some classes through our MultiArts Center.  He was in a two week art camp this summer and had a blast.

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that it is worth it to buy good art supplies for your school time studies.  It is very frustrating for a young student to try and implement the techniques with products that are meant for easy clean up and not good art.  I typically spend my money on good paper and colored pencils (Prismacolor).  I stick with good old Crayola for crayons and markers.

Art Appreciation
I intend to include art appreciation as part of our history studies, and since we are in ancient times, there hasn’t been much to look at yet aside from architecture.  We talk a little bit about the structures’ shapes, purposes, materials, and decorations.  So far we have mostly modeled the buildings with Playdoh.

Playdoh sphinx

Alex’s Sphinx

I hope to do something like this great idea when we get to a time with paintings.  Amy at Living and Learning at Home combines art appreciation and applied art by studying a painting, then imitating and replicating the artwork.

Art appreciation doesn’t need to be stressful.  If all you can do is look at a painting and have your child describe what he sees, that is great.  The point is to get him to slow down and really look at the piece.  Just like learning to read a story, the first step is simply telling back the plot, characters, and setting.

Tomorrow I will discuss music and the often neglected humanity, theatre.  Halloween is right around the corner so this series must be almost done!

~Catie

 

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Geography for the Grammar Student: Day 26 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 26, 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.


31DaysLiteYesterday’s post explained how to teach history using the classical model of chronology and cycles.  A classical history study isn’t complete though without the addition of geography.  You could teach geography completely separate, but at least for the grammar stage, I like to incorporate it into the historical timeline. I teach both the historical maps of the time period as well as current political maps of the regions.  I do this by layering the maps on top of one another.  For example, here is how Alex studied the map of ancient Mesopotamia. 

grammar geography current

We begin with a current political map of the region.  Alex colors and labels the countries that are associated with the region of ancient Mesopotamia.  We use globes and the internet to add our labels. 

overlay mapping

Over the top of that map, I attach a piece of tracing paper.  This is actually design vellum.  It is a bit thicker than tracing paper.  I have it on hand from our theatre days.  Alex then uses the internet and the underlying map to trace rivers and oceans and label the areas of the ancient world. 

Mesopotamia map

Here is what it looks like with the ancient map overlay.  This was our first go at a mapping project.  Alex loved it.  Next time I will have to find a better map so we don’t end up with so much white space.  I also should have had him color the regions of Mesopotamia.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to do maps, you can always check out Timemaps.  It is an interactive, online timeline map application.  Alex loves this, too. 

I also recently did a simple mapping project with my Sunday school class.  Remember, these are five and six year olds.  We colored a map of Abraham’s journey from Ur to Canaan.  It was very simple – really just a coloring project, but it was a big hit.

Abraham Map

My example map of Abraham’s journey for the students to copy.

Try different ways of mapping.  I haven’t found a kid yet who didn’t like maps and globes.

Next, I will finish up this series with a few days of fine arts beginning with art itself, a few odds and ends, a list of resources, and a final recap of our classical journey.  I hope everyone has found something of value in this series.  It has definitely renewed my enthusiasm for classical teaching.

~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 is linked up to Trivium Tuesdays at Living and Learning at Home.

Posted in 31 Days of Classical Education Lite, Classical, First Grade, Second Grade, Series | Tagged | 1 Comment

History for the Grammar Student: Day 25 of 31 Days of Classical Education Lite

Posted on October 25, 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.


31DaysLiteWhen I was in school, history was always rather random in its presentation.  I never made the connections between events of one people and those of another.  And this mishmash piecemeal way of learning produced very little desire for me to pursue the topic when it wasn’t absolutely required.  Sadly, this left me with a distinct lack of knowledge on most things historical. 

So when I read about the classical model of teaching history chronologically, I was intrigued to say the least.  It made a lot of sense,and I knew I wanted to teach this way for my children.  Before I get to far ahead, let me explain this method.  History is taught chronologically and in cycles, just like science.  You repeat the cycles once for each Trivium stage.  The time periods are as follows:

Year 1 – Ancients – Creation through 400 A.D.
Year 2 – Medieval/Early Renaissance – 400-1600 A.D.
Year 3 – Late Renaissance – 1600-1850 A.D.
Year 4 – Modern – 1850-present day

Now, you will not find a neat and tidy curriculum ready to go for such a study.  (Well, maybe a few are close, but you will pay a ton of money for all the books.)  The Well-Trained Mind suggests some kind of history encyclopedia as a spine with lots of supplemental books about specific topics, people, places, events, customs, and historical fiction.  I have yet to get myself organized enough to plan such a study, but I am trying again.

I am also thinking of changing the grammar stage cycles a bit.  Much of the modern age is a sad tale of war after war.  I’m not sure I want to teach that on a global scale.  Here is the cycle I am thinking of sticking to for the boys:

Year 1 – Ancients – Easy Peasy through the Greeks
Year 2 – Romans/Middle Ages – Pre-Reformation
Year 3 – Reformation through Early America
Year 4 – Civil War to present (American History only)/State History

One of the challenges of teaching history like this is keeping it affordable.  Sure I could make an awesome Catholic curriculum if I had several hundred dollars to spend on history books every year.  To make this way of teaching cheaper, I am trying to stick to books that are available at my tiny library, a free, online history survey book as my spine, and a little money spent on some historical fiction or specifically Catholic books.  I’ll let you know how this endeavor pans out.

In the meantime, we are using Easy Peasy history.  I really like this for ancient history, but it takes a turn around the Reformation.  This is such a difficult time period to teach.  Authors of course have bias.  Protestant authors only tell of the horrible tales of Catholic leaders while using adjectives like great and wise to describe figures like Martin Luther.  Catholic authors only tell the horrible tales of Catholic persecution and fill in the gaps with biographies of saints living during this time.  And I have yet to find a balanced book that wasn’t mind-numbingly boring.  Easy Peasy actually just kind of skims over the period entirely.  I can see why.  It isn’t a pretty part of history, but it is vitally important to the foundations of our country, so I don’t want to just skip it.

When I do find a decent (and free) history spine, I plan on mapping out a lesson plan and finding supplemental books and websites to go with it.  This sounds a lot easier that it really is.  I am much better suited to the raw data and facts of science than the ethereal memory of historical events.  It drives me crazy when I read stories about the brave and good Christopher Columbus and then another that paints him to be one notch above the Devil himself.  In the wise words of Bob the Tomato – We can’t teach kids the wrong facts!

Another fantastic classical method that I hope to explore is to have Alex make a timeline, or a book of centuries.  This is super important if you happen not to teach history in order from the beginning.  At least once it gets all filled in, your student can go back and see when the events really occurred.

Well there you go.  Another crash course.  I think the best advice I can give if you just don’t have the time to teach this way or you are supplementing public school is to invest in a decent history encyclopedia.  Encourage your student to skim though it and if they find something interesting, get thee to the library and find more books about it!

Tomorrow I will talk about a subject that will tie in closely with history study and that is geography.  See you then!

~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!

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