Ambleside Online: The Perfect Fit for Our Family

I love a literary-based education, and Ambleside Online fills the bill for our family. Read my review of Ambleside Online and why we use it for our foundational curriculum at Curriculum Choice!

Weekly Happenings: Back in Action

 The last two weeks have been quite busy, and I've neglected my blog. That weighs heavy on my mind, let me tell you. Blogging is my one real creative outlet, and if I'm away from it too long I feel. . .  weird. Dissatisfied. It's hard to explain.

But one of the things taking me away from the blogosphere is paying work, and that makes my heart happy.

Anyway. The girls and I swung back into action last week. For the most part, they enjoy Year 6, term two readings. Animal Farm is not a favorite of my eldest, despite our background discussion earlier this week. "I can understand what it's about, Mama, but I still don't have to like it." Too true; but that doesn't change the fact that you have to read it.

But Augustus Caesar's World and Story of the Greeks continue to delight. I think it helps that a lot of the material is familiar to us. We learned about Julius Caesar's death and the following wars in Plutarch's Life of Brutus. And we've covered many of the Greek stories in our myth readings in previous AO years.

In math, Tiny Girl and I turned back to Master Math sixth grade video lessons and worksheets. This week, we covered decimal/fraction conversions. Miss Priss is swinging right along at Mathnasium and is due for her first assessment since joining. We are very interested to see what the results will be!

On Wednesday, we visited the Genghis Khan exhibit at a nearby museum. WOW is all I can say. The exhibit was really well done, and we learned a lot. We all brought along our sketch pads and sketched a few items that interested us.

On Friday, I got my brand new computer all set up and running. Yippee! Our old desktop was doing the best it could, but new technology made it glacially slow. The new desktop was my Christmas gift, and I picked out everything just like I wanted it.

All our activities have kicked in. This week, the girls attended drama class, piano lessons, and Mother-Daughter Bingo night with Girl Scouts. Only Miss Priss and I enjoyed the latter; Tiny Girl spent the afternoon and evening at the barn on the first sunny day we'd had for a week!

I also managed to make a loaf of no-knead white bread on Thursday evening. If you haven't tried this recipe, I highly recommend it!

So that's our week in a nutshell!

I'm linking up with:
Hammock Tracks
No Ordinary Blog Hop
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

New Term, New Books!

Yesterday found us easing back into our lessons after a lovely holiday season. A new term often means a a couple of new books, but this time it means quite a lot of new titles, since the Ambleside Online history cycle winds us back to the ancients in term 2 (of Year 6). Yay! For history, our new books are Augustus Caesar's World and Story of the Greeks. Our science biography swings back to ancient times as well with Archimedes and the Door of Science.

Other new titles this term are:

• Animal Farm
• Plutarch's Pericles
• The Sea Around Us
• The Story of David Livingstone (Technically, this book begins in Term 1, but I scheduled things differently. I'm totally a tweaker.)

Other new joys await in the form of Bach and Renoir, the artist and composer we're studying this term, and poet Carl Sandburg. His work is quite a jolt after Robert Frost, whom we all loved. Miss Priss was unimpressed by yesterday's poem, Jazz Fantasia. I can see she's going to take some convincing that Sandburg is worth reading.

Good stuff!

Weekly Happenings: Promises to Keep

This week was a bit different from normal (I'm wondering if there's such a thing as a normal week, anyway), what with dreary, chilly weather for a few days; The Elections and a friend of the girls hanging out with us most of the day; a day meeting at church, some theatre excitement; and horse show preparations.

I made a few amendments to our schedule, bypassing spelling, grammar, and memory work for the week. I also stretched out our composition assignments and Miss Priss's Critical Thinking workbook lesson.

Hot chai and composition on a wet day

A breakdown of some things we learned:

• Ordinary Genius, a biography of Albert Einstein and AO Year 6 selection. They've been notebooking each chapter, and I was pleased overall with their initial attempts.
• In history, we read about events following World War II, such as the Marshall Plan and the building of the Berlin Wall; South Africa and apartheid; and the Communist victory in China.
• Dion and Dionysius battle it out in Syracusa in "Dion," one of Plutarch's Lives.
• Newton's law of universal gravitation was the focus of our Secrets of the Universe: Objects chapter. I'm telling you, the way natural phenomena can be reduced (if you will) to mathematical equations simply blows my mind!
• In It Couldn't Just Happen, we read about the ozone layer of the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect and how termites (!!) greatly contribute to it.
• Ulysses (Odysseus) and his men are taking their own sweet time getting back to Ithaca in The Odyssey for Boys and Girls. This week, they lounged and feasted with Circe (after she changed half of the men into pigs and back again) for a year or so until one of them said, "Hey, shouldn't we be thinking about heading home?" (I'm paraphrasing.)
• We regularly catch sight of a blue heron at our lake cabin and sometimes one flies overhead here in the South, so School of the Woods delighted us.
• On Friday, we enjoyed another Hodgepodge pastels tutorial: Harvest Moon Nocturne. The girls were less panicky this week than they were last week and loosened up a bit.

Tiny Girl's on left; Miss Priss's on right.

One of our Frost poem's this week was "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," one of the best-known poems of the twentieth century. And no wonder. The calm, quiet pastoral scene beckons us in and then surprises us with an unexpected depth. Here is an unmissable link: a video of Robert Frost reciting this simple yet magnificent poem.

On Monday evening, Tiny Girl's theatre troupe's production was announced: Peter Pan! And Tiny herself was cast as Captain Hook. Already she's in the throes of practicing at home with her lines and songs (she has a short solo). Miss Priss's troupe has been rehearsing their production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Miss Priss was cast in several ensemble parts, and she also has a brief solo for one of them.

Petal the pot-bellied pig came to visit us at the barn.

Tiny Girl has a horse show tomorrow, so we have schooling later today at the show venue. We'll also be cleaning tack, polishing boots, ironing jods, etc., tonight. She and Max are going to the show, but here she is with Tuli, who's coming along well with her training.

Not so familiar with the Great Blue Heron? Here's a fun video to watch:




I'll leave you with Frost:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923)

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

I'm linking up with:

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
The Homeschool Mother's Journal
Hammock Tracks
Homegrown Learners
No Ordinary Blog Hop

Robert Frost: Fragmentary Blue

We began our term study of Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets. Much to my delight, the girls enjoy his work, too.

One of the most wondrous things about Ambleside Online is that it introduces us to literature we might otherwise have missed. For example, all three of us were happy to have "met" poet Paul Laurence Dunbar last year. But I am also pleased to acquaint my girls with old friends, such as Frost.

And my heart goes pitter-pat when I learn more than I thought I knew. I love to be surprised like that.

Images courtesy of Foter.

Here's a Frost poem that was new to me (perhaps not to you, though).


Fragmentary Blue

Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)--
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

Unveiling Our 2012-2013 School Year (Finally)

Since we got home from our extended trip to Maine (lots of related posts on that; check them out by clicking the Summer label on the list at the right!), I've been a busy girl. I spent a few days and nights making final plans and gathering all our materials for this, our sixth homeschooling year. Miss Priss is now in seventh grade, and Tiny Girl is in sixth. We are thoroughly entrenched in the middle school years. (Aside: When and how did that happen?? They keep growing, yet I'm still as youthful, dewy, and wittily charming as ever....)

Some background: we use Ambleside Online's fabulous and rigorous FREE curriculum as our foundation. Since I am a rebel, I amend AO's schedule, adding and subtracting to create a unique plan for my family, one that fits us best. This year, we are beginning AO Year 6. And we're trying our hand at notebooking in a few areas, which I think will be wonderful.

Spiritual Growth
The girls have begun a pre-inductive study of the Psalms called Young Hearts Longing for God, which I purchased during CurrClick's recent sale. This year, they prefer to work on this independently, which is a new thing, and one I'm not so sure about. But I'm willing to give it a try. If I notice any slap-dash work, I'll be back at the helm.

Math
After much curriculum-switching, we decided to enroll Miss Priss at our neighborhood Mathnasium center for her math studies this year. She goes to the center Monday through Thursday for 1.5 hours each day. So far we've all been pleased, and we have high hopes for this year. Tiny Girl opted for a change as well, and we went with MasterMath, a free online middle school math website with video lessons. (For more info, read my review at Curriculum Choice.)

Logic
Miss Priss has begun a new course, Critical Thinking, by Anita Harnadek. Both girls will continue with the MindBenders series, which they love, and the BalanceBenders series. All of these are from the Critical Thinking Company.

English Mechanics
For spelling, we're staying with Spelling Power. Three days a week, we spend a bit of time on grammar with Daily Grammar. You can read my reviews of both here. Copywork continues as well. However, we are taking a more formal approach to composition this year and using Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Skill, book 5 in her writing series.

Literature
AO's poet for Year 6 fall term is Robert Frost. To my great joy, Miss Priss is already entranced. We will be incorporating memory work and recitation this year, which we've done in the past but let slide the last two years.

Both girls are reading The Hobbit independently this term. We are STILL reading Oliver Twist as a family read-aloud. Now that we are home and on a more regular and predictable schedule, I'm hoping to move a little more quickly through this one. Tiny Girl and I enjoy it; Miss Priss does not and strongly voices her opinion every time I crack open the Kindle. Also, AO's list of Year 6 free reads is packed with some wonderful selections.

Now that my girls are older, we are returning to Bulfinch's Age of Fable, beginning with chapter 27, the Trojan War and the Iliad. This fits in well with our geography study (see below). I love serendipity!

As for Shakespeare, we will attend a few theatre productions this year. Macbeth is first -- in October, of course. Later, I have in mind Much Ado About Nothing; Julius Caesar; and Romeo and Juliet. Tiny Girl was much put out that A Midsummer Night's Dream is not on the theatre's schedule this year.

Foreign Languages
I had a hard time deciding on a French study. We're beginning with Child's Illustrated First Book in French, by J. G. Keetels (in the public domain; I found it on Google Books). This will be somewhat of a review. Miss Priss wants to continue her German studies via PowerSpeak on our library's website, and I have no intention of dissuading her. Tiny Girl will begin -- and Miss Priss continue -- Latin and Greek roots later in the year.

Readings: History, Geography, Science, Natural History, and Biography
Story of the World, volume 4, by Susan Wise Bauer
Exploring the Holy Land, by Ann Voskamp and Tonia Peckover
Secrets of the Universe (selections), by Paul Fleisher
It Couldn't Just Happen, by Lawrence Richards
School of the Woods, by William J. Long
Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein, by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
"Dion," from Plutarch's Lives
Queen Victoria, by Noel Streatfeild (a Tanglewood selection)

Artist and Composer Studies (Fall Term)
Renoir and Debussy

Outside Activities
Theatre, both girls this year
Riding, Tiny Girl
Piano, both girls
Mid-week small group Bible study at church, both girls
Girl Scout Cadettes, all of us

So there you have it! Our 2012-2013 year. Some titles will change as we finish them, of course, and new ones will be added. But this is the basic framework.

Let the learning begin!

It's a Carnival of Curriculum!

Welcome to my contribution to The Curriculum Choice's Carnival of Curriculum! I'm very excited you're here, and I hope you find some encouraging and informative tidbits to help you in your homeschooling adventure.

A little about us and what we do:

• I have two daughters, both of whom will be in middle school this coming school year. I'm still having trouble coming to terms with that fact. Last week, they were in diapers, for Pete's sake!
• This fall begins our sixth year of homeschooling, so we are no longer neophytes. I still experience moments of nail-biting anxiety or a sleepless hour or two during the night now and again. But I am sure we are on the right path for us.
• My girls and I love to read! So it's natural that a literature-based educational philosophy suits us best. Our first year of homeschooling, I began in classical mode and quickly made the switch to a more Charlotte Mason approach. Now I blend elements of both.

My top curricula sources:

• Ambleside Online: This FREE, Charlotte Mason-based curriculum is, in a word, astounding. So much thought and effort went into its design. I've studied the book lists through Year 11, AO's final year, and am very impressed with the selections and options offered. We will begin our sixth year with AO, Year 6, in September, and I can't wait.

Have I mentioned that I'm a life-long learner? I have an academic's desire for research, discovery, and enlightenment; ergo, I enjoy searching for other books or educational avenues. Here are some sites where I've located titles to read:

• The Tanglewood School Curriculum is another FREE curriculum guide that offers ideas for supplemental literature and history selections. More book choices is always a good thing!
• Heritage History offers a huge selection of book titles, many of which are in the public domain, as well as study aids, such as historical maps, and information on wars and battles. Browse the library to find books listed by genre.
• A Book in Time is another fabulous booklist. Organized by time period, such as Early America or Middle Ages, listed books also feature annotation and age recommendation.
• Epi Kardia, a CM curriculum, provides a book list I like to peruse for ideas and options.
• Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library offers a wealth of information on FREE books, arranged by subject.

I also use books to help me plan a thorough education for my children:

• A Literary Education, by Catherine Levison
• A Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison
• More Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison
• When Children Love to Learn, ed. Elaine Cooper
• The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
• Honey for a Child's Heart, by Gladys Hunt. You can read my review on The Curriculum Choice here.

A source for other education materials that I find particularly helpful is The Critical Thinking Company. Over the years, we've used several of their workbooks, including Mind Benders, Building Thinking Skills, and Word Roots.


Although reading is at the heart of our educational pursuits, we do some math as well! One of my children has used the free MEP curriculum (Mathematics Enhancement Programme) for five years. The other has required a few different curricula, and most recently we enrolled her in our nearby Mathnasium, a math tutoring facility. Already, we've seen a vast improvement in her attitude and confidence.

So that's a description, albeit brief, of most of my curricula resources. It took me a few years to winnow through the myriad options available to homeschoolers today, and these are what suit my family. I hope I've helped you on the way to discovering what's best for your family!

For more information on what goes on around our house as well as other resources, take a look at my posts under both the "Reviews" and "Homeschooling Helps" tags.

For more wonderful ideas and encouragement, spend some time browsing other posts at the Carnival of Curriculum! The review team has a wealth of homeschooling knowledge, experience, and tips, all ready to share with you.

Poetry Push-Back: Working Through Resistance in Young Children

Photo credit: Tampa Bay Times

Young children naturally seem to enjoy poetry, in general. But what if yours don't? What if their eyes glaze over when you read a poem to them? What if they openly resist listening?
Well, you could grit your teeth and slog through. But if your end goal is to cultivate a love of poetry in your children, I have a few items for you to think about:

Are you careful in your selections?
The unfortunate truth is that many poems for children are utter twaddle. I reviewed some online poetry websites and found a few that made me wrinkle my nose in distaste. Potty humor, slapstick silliness, doggerel*, and poor verse abound. The same holds true for nursery rhymes. Some are fun, lovely, or both; but others are just plain foolish. Of course, many of these parameters depend on personal taste. What's ridiculous to me may not be so to you.

But if you're asking Just what is poor poetry?, consider this, which I’ve just made up out of my own brain:

A rose climbs up our garden wall
as red as red can be.
When visitors all come to call
it’s quite a sight to see.

Ta da!

We can call this little quatrain a verse, but we cannot call it poetry. It inspires no connection, it invokes no emotions or understanding or images (other than the rose itself). It's not one whit engaging. In fact, there's nothing to it besides an ABAB rhyme scheme and a plodding meter. So in my most humble opinion, this is not poetry.

Let Philippians 4:8 be a guideline for you; it's excellent advice for anyone: ". . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things."

Are the children developmentally ready for the poems you've selected?
A year or so ago, the girls first encountered William Wordsworth, one of the poets AO designated for a term. Dutifully, I began reading his work to my daughters. They gave it a frosty reception, so I laid it aside for now. They were simply not ready, and I didn't want to ruin Wordworth for them, before they even begin to fathom "thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

How do you approach the poems?
First, take care not to bog down younger children with too much background or biographical information on the poet. As Silvia points out, "They [her young children] are starting to pay attention to some of those poems, and they know, for example, who A. A. Milne is when we read his poetry because of Winnie." And that's all they need to know at this stage.

Second, consider your delivery, i.e., how you read poetry aloud. Take in account the themes, tones, or moods of poems when you read them to your children, and do your best to read poetry in such a way that inspires a connection.

Do you like the poem (or poet's work)?
You can't fake it with your children. They know you well and will be able to sniff out your dislike. Select poetry that you enjoy, too, and perhaps your enthusiasm will impress your children. (If your children are older, as mine are, the latter is not likely to be effective. More on older children in another post.)

Whew! That's a lot to think about. If this sounds like work, well, it can be. In my last post of this series, I'll point you to resources to help you in selecting good poetry for your family.

Here's an example from our family, in case you're interested:
When my children were toddlers, I had a subscription to a lovely little literary publication written for their age group. It's been many years, but I still remember this poem (and can quote it from my feeble memory):

Rickety Rackety
Rickety rackety
Rocking chair
I bring my book
And my teddy bear
Mama reads
And strokes my hair
As we rickety-rack
In the rocking chair.
-- by Heidi Roemer

And here's another:

Taste of Purple
Grapes hang purple
In their bunches,
Ready for September lunches,
Gather them, no minutes wasting.
Purple is Delicious tasting.
-- by Leland B. Jacobs

Yesterday, I read a marvelous post about one family's poetry experience. Pop over and read about Angie's quest to engage her younger children in poetical delights. For more insight into these topics, read part one of this series, especially Rev. H. C. Beeching's comments about poetry.

I'd love to read your thoughts and ideas, so comment away!



* Doggerel, according to Wikipedia, is a "derogatory term for verse considered of little literary value. The word probably derived from dog, suggesting either ugliness, puppyish clumsiness, or unpalatability (as in food fit only for dogs). "Doggerel" is attested to have been used as an adjective since the fourteenth century and a noun since at least 1630. . . . Doggerel is usually the sincere product of poetic incompetence, and only unintentionally humorous." The article also points out that writers often use doggerel to "for comic or satiric effect" and to lampoon "popular literary tastes. "

Weekly Happenings: Volcanoes and A Biting Lizard

A windy week here! The girls and I planted some morning glory seeds in mini peat pots, but the wind has overturned them so many times that only one pot of seedlings survives. My rosebushes have suffered as well; the front walk is littered with rose petals. It looks as if we hosted a wedding.

Our lessons were back to normal after last week's CAT5 testing. Here are some highlights:

This Country of Ours: the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Stonewall Jackson's death
Oliver Twist: Oliver shows some grit but pays the price for it
Plutarch's Lives: Brutus flees Rome in the aftermath of Caesar's murder

In Story Book of Science, we read about volcanoes. Since Himself and I were recently on the Big Island of Hawaii and visited Volcanoes National Park, I especially enjoyed these two chapters. The girls looked at photos we took, and so can you!

The crater at Kiluea, an active volcano on the Big Island

A closer look at the smoking crater. Pay no attention to the wind-blown woman on the left.

The Kiluea Iki crater, which erupted for several weeks in 1959, filled with lava several times during the eruption. There's a fantastic hike along the rainforested rim (at right) then down into and across the crater. If you look closely, you can see the trail through the crater (on left side). The crater is huge and there are multiple steam vents. From the top of the rainforest rim overlooks, people on the crater trail look like ants.

On another part of the island, the aptly-named Road to the Sea, south of Kona and Captain Cook, leads through a surreal landscape, courtesy of a massive lava flow 250 years ago. The road reaches a black sand beach and massive sand dunes.

There are lots of trees and other vegetation at the top of the road. But then the landscape changes. 

Sparse vegetation. Can you see the ribbon of road at the top left? 

Soon all plant life disappears. But not humans. Believe it or not, there were a few houses on this road! 

The wind was blowing briskly, but other than that, there was no sound. 

Large lava rock piles appeared as we got closer to the ocean. 

Black sand beach. The photo does not do this scene justice. The water was the most glorious blue, and it looked amazing next to the black sand. 

The surf was extremely strong, and the wind was, as you can imagine, forceful.

And that's what a lava field looks like, more than two and a half centuries after the eruption. The whole experience was astounding. It was the longest six-mile road we'd ever driven (DON'T try it in a regular car), but it was completely worth the trouble.

A bit of nature study: Georgette found a small lizard yesterday, and Tiny Girl rescued it. She held in while I ran inside to get my camera. I ran back out to yells of: "It bit me! It actually bit me! I'm bleeding!"

The stunned lizard swooned on the driveway. I swiped it into a small bucket for further inspection. In case you're wondering, Tiny Girl's wound was slight. No Band-Aid required.

We took a lot of photos, most of which turned out poorly, amid comments like, "Can we let it go now? Don't get it near me!" (Miss Priss) and "That thing is vicious!" (Tiny Girl) and "It's trying to defend itself. It's scared" (me).

After some research, we concluded that it was a green anole. At first I wasn't sure, because our lizard looked different from the online photos. However, we learned that green anoles can change color when stressed (our was a bit mottled) and also black bands appear around males' eyes when they are feeling aggressive or stressed (ours had dark around its eyes). We determined it was a male due to the black bands and its pink dewlap.

So that's our week! How was yours?

Six Tips for Enjoying Poetry with Your Children

I'm embarking on a new series about poetry. I'll discuss studying poetry in your homeschool, cultivating a life-long enjoyment of poetry (instead of loathing); and finding wonderful sources of poetry.

Homeschoolers, especially those who adhere to a literature-rich philosophy, tend to agree that poetry is an important component of their children's studies. That's progress. I was educated in the public school system and didn't study poetry until high school. Fortunately, I enjoyed it, but many of my peers had an unfavorable opinion. I'm now persuaded to think that poetry appreciation, like many other fine arts, must be cultivated, and it's best to start when children are young.

Here are some tips I've learned:

Make time for poetry. Our days are full and busy; fine art study can fall victim to our schedules. Commit to setting aside a routine time for reading poetry, whether weekly or every day. Some ideas include: at mealtimes; after family devotion and prayer time; right before bed; even in the car!

Select age-appropriate poems. Reverend H. C. Beeching, in his excellent article "An Address on the Teaching of Poetry," says it this way:

The poetry must be suitable to their years. You must not expect little children to enjoy what you enjoy. You can drink claret, perhaps port, perhaps champagne, they cannot; their natural beverage is milk. The sources of joy open to them are the simplest, and to these you must bring them. The grandeur of Milton's blank verse will be as little to them as an organ concerto of Handel's; they must have simple rhythms to begin with, and they must have rhyme; they must have verses that sing themselves. And the subjects, too, must be appropriate to their age.

Strive for joy and charm, especially for younger children. There are many, many wonderful poems for young(er) children, but there's also a world of twaddle. How can you discern the difference? Here's an example Rev. Beeching offers:

. . . I agree with Miss Mason (whom we all delight to honour) in somewhat dreading nonsense verses for children as being a trifle (shall I say) profane. I once heard a mother of the upper classes reciting to her young hopefuls these graceful and spirit-stirring lines:

'Old Mrs. Hubblechin,
Had a little double chin.'

What a criticism of life!

Indeed. You'll find that much verse for children is of this ilk. But that's all they are: verses. They are not poetry. Is there anything inherently wrong with verse? Well, not really. I'll go so far to admit that some of it's quite fun! Just don't call it poetry, and don't teach it as such.

Focus on one poet at a time. There are lots of children's poetry anthologies, and those are lovely. But in the study of poetry, it seems best to select a poet and study his or her work for a bit of time. Call it poetry immersion. Introduce the poet to your children with a brief biographical sketch. For example, my children and I were much better equipped to appreciate the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier because we knew something of his life. Also, when you immerse your children in the work of one poet at a time, you can compare and contrast different poems. Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet, wrote movingly and beautifully about life's difficulties and triumphs; but he also wrote immensely humorous poems in the black dialect of his enslaved forebears.

Read the poem more than once. This year, I've been guilty of slighting poetry. Although we've dutifully read our poems, I've tended to read each aloud once to the children, discuss it briefly, and move on to other things. I'm now seeing the weak and withered fruit such activity produces.

Here's a better method, which we've followed in the past. Read the poem out loud to the children. Read carefully; pause at punctuation marks, inflect where it seems natural to do so. Then let the children take turns reading it aloud. I find they enjoy the poem more after several readings than on its debut.

Talk about the poem, giving it more attention that a mere, "Do you like it?" Here's where true poetical delight comes in. Ask children to consider their personal responses. What feelings does the poem prompt? Could you see the scene in your head? How did you picture it? What ideas did the poem suggest to you? Can you relate to the poem or the poet's experience? How so? What line/phrase/words did you find especially lovely/moving?

Some of these questions are obviously more suited to older children, but you get the idea. Talking about the poem encourages us to connect with it and relate to it.

One more tip: don't kill children's nascent apppreciation for poetry by introducing literary criticism too early. Frankly, that can wait until they are much older. When I read poetry today, I never assess a poem's meter, form, or rhyme scheme. Instead, I read for the beauty of the words, my overall response, a connection to the natural world and often the spirit world. I'm reading for the joy of poetry.

And that's what I want to cultivate in my children.

For further enlightenment, I recommend reading Rev. Beeching's excellent article yourself. Here's a link to it on Ambleside Online. I'm linking up with this week's Hip Homeschool Hop. Check it out for great ideas!

Weekly Happenings: Testing, One, Two

It's been an atypical week here! We set aside most of our regular subjects while Miss Priss endured the CAT5 for sixth grade and Tiny Girl suffered from test envy. To stay on schedule, we continued with our readings after testing for that day was complete.

Readings this week:

• Oliver Twist: read through chapter five. Still a favorite.
• George Washington Carver, by Suzanne M. Coil: read through chapter four. Tiny Girl especially is connecting with this book, which pleases her mama.
• Lilias Trotter: A Passion for the Impossible: read through chapter three. Miss Priss loves this!
• Story Book of Science: read the chapters "Rain" and "Volcanoes."
• Abraham Lincoln's World: problems cropping up around the world, e.g., Ireland's potato famine, Canada's dissatisfaction with the mother country, working-class rebellions.
• This Country of Ours: the battles of Shiloh (in Tennessee -- I visited the battleground when I was a child) and New Orleans; the importance of control of the river system.
• Mapping the World: a new geography resource. Read my review here.
• "Brutus," from Plutarch's Lives: Caesar's assasination. Both girls thought there should have been a better way to handle Caesar's thirst for power than murdering him.
• Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar: we finished our readings for the term.

In other activities, Miss Priss had a fabulous time at her first junior docent meeting at a local antebellum house museum. Tiny Girl has been working hard with the new pony, Max. I've implemented a new schedule for writing and life. The girls and I greatly enjoyed Miss Priss's theatre company's high school drama troupe's production of Seussical. The kids did a wonderful job. The girls and I planted morning glory seeds, carrots and corn, lamb's ear, and basil (potted).

Yesterday, Tiny Girl and I had an up-close interaction with a baby squirrel at the barn. The mother died (drowned in the horses' water trough) and left several babies. We are giving them food and water and hoping for their survival, but it's going to be tough for the little guys.

Jasper and Georgette, our delightful and much-loved corgis, are shedding their undercoats. We've witnessed birds carrying in their beaks tufts of dog fur for their nests. I had to smile while watching a tufted titmouse struggle with a particularly large clump; she managed it in the end!

I'm linking up with I'm linking up with the Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you're looking for some inspiration and ideas, you're sure to find both on other linked-up blogs!

Happy weekend!

Weekly Happenings: Highlighting Our Books

It was back to business this week after taking a week for spring break. Our daily activities of Bible/devotion, poetry (Paul Laurence Dunbar), math, piano, copywork, foreign language, Latin roots for Miss Priss, critical thinking, grammar, and spelling clicked along as usual.

I'm still pleased with Daily Grammar for our grammar studies. This week, we reviewed nouns. What I particularly like about Daily Grammar is that the first lesson is quite rudimentary, and the lessons afterward pick up in complexity. Today's lesson, for example, highlighted collective, mass, and count nouns.

• Collective nouns: class, group, choir
• Mass nouns: gasoline, water, oil
• Count nouns: arena, girls, bus

We made good progress in our readings, as well:

• Oliver Twist: read through chapter three. We are all enjoying this story, but Tiny Girl does not comprehend many of Dickens's ironical descriptions (which are laugh-out-loud funny to me).
• Harriet Tubman: completed. Both children liked this.
• Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude: completed (Read my review here.) We thought this was very interesting.
• George Washington Carver, by Suzanne M. Coil: read through chapter two. Both children are enjoying this thus far.
• Lilias Trotter: A Passion for the Impossible: read through page 43. Miss Priss and I are enjoying this more than Tiny Girl, who wasn't thrilled with Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, either.
• Story Book of Science: read the chapter "The Velocity of Sound," which discusses the differences in speeds of light and sound in a thunderstorm. AO added this to Year 4, and I thought it looked good. So we're reading it this year in our Year 5.
• Abraham Lincoln's World: manifest destiny and westward expansion.
• This Country of Ours: the Civil War, particularly the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. I've noted that Miss Marshall's overall tone is decidedly pro-Federal; it's especially noticeable in this chapter, wherein the Merrimac is described as a "black monster" and "ugly" more than once, while the Monitor is a speedy, clever machine. I was a tad surprised, since she was able to keep a more balanced tone while writing about the American Revolution.

Next week will be different for us, since Miss Priss will be taking the CAT5 exam. I ordered from Seton Testing Services, and they offer the short form of the test. Ergo, it won't be a tedious exercise of leviathan proportions, like our state's own standardized test.

Here's a lovely poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, written in 1901:

Rain-Songs
The rain streams down like harp-strings from the sky;
The wind, that world-old harpist sitteth by;
And ever as he sings his low refrain,
He plays upon the harp-strings of the rain.

I'm linking up with the Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Pop over to both, do some blog-reading, and refresh yourself!

Review: Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude

I've always appreciated AO's geography books, and we've dutifully done our mapwork with each one. However, I wanted my children to understand the principles behind both latitude and longitude and why each was critical (even moreso than today) for navigation in years past. So I was pleased when I ran across (in our church library) Louise Borden's Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude.

And what a story! Although sea navigators had long been able to ascertain their whereabouts north or south of the equator, thanks to lines of latitude and their handy sextants, they had no idea of where they were east or west of their home port. Ships tended, then, to stick to well-known routes along lines of latitude -- which were well known to pirates, as well. Pirates weren't the only difficulty, either. Storms blew ships off course, adding weeks or months to a journey's length. Crews often ran out of rations long before they found their way home. Not only were businessmen and investors losing their money, but sailors were losing their lives. It was a serious problem, and it seemed impossible to solve.

Enter John Harrison (1693-1776), a mechanical genius with no formal education but plenty of determination and perseverance. A clockmaker by trade, Harrison spent most of his adult life attending to this problem of longitude by devising and building five different sea clocks, forerunners of the chronometer. He also endured a long battle with the Royal Society and the Board of Longitude for recognition of his life's work to such a degree that even King George III himself got involved in the predicament.

The book is designed as a picture book, but unlike many of that genre, the text counts more than the illustrations here. Borden does a good job of explaining just enough technical details to engage readers without boring, confusing, or alienating them. Since I tend to get bogged down in too much mechanical detail, I was happy with her descriptions.

We enjoyed this book very much and came away with a genuine respect for John Harrison and his accomplishments, which are nothing short of astonishing. We also made note of the back matter, which tells where Harrison's sea clocks are now on display. They made the list of "must-sees" when we go to England in the next couple of years.

Are You Looking Ahead to the Next Year?

About this time, many a homeschooling parent's mind turns to plans for the next school year. I know mine does. If you use a boxed curriculum, attend a virtual school, or just plan to keep on keepin' on with what you've already got going, then planning's a breeze. Or, if you're more like me, you start with a basic framework, add some elements, subtract others, touch it up here and there with some embellishments -- all in accordance with your vision for your children's education, your family's beliefs and values, and your children's learning styles/preferences.

For example, (I LOVE examples! I'm that kind of person.) folks with a literary bent may select a Charlotte Mason-style curriculum and then add in notebooking. Another family with a more classical emphasis (a la The Well-Trained Mind) may opt for extra hands-on activities or visual elements to their studies, such as videos or movies. And then the eclectically-minded choose from the entire smorgasboard.

So many choices! So much responsibility. It can be enough to make a mama lose some sleep at night.

I'm one who has a firm foundation, and that's Ambleside Online. I start there, and I mostly stay there. But I must admit, I'm one who likes to look over the smorgasboard. If you do, too, let me point you to Curriculum Choice, an excellent curriculum review website. (Let me hastily point out that I am in no way swayed because I'm a reviewer there -- I'm only a newbie!) It helps me tremendously to read what other homeschooling parents think about curricula and resources and what their experiences have been like.

Tip: If you're considering a specific curriculum or resources that hasn't yet been reviewed on Curriculum Choice, just Google the name of the product along with the word review. Bingo! A wealth of information at your fingertips.

Another idea: you've probably hung onto many of your homeschooling help books. I know lots of us re-read our favorites to inspire and refresh us anew. I flip through mine for highlightings, things I noted in the past and now we've reached the point to use. I see where I can add those items to our year's plan.

I'm an avid blog reader. Seriously, there's not enough time in my life to read all the blogs I want to with the level of commitment I wish I could devote. And I learn so much! I'm forever bookmarking blogs and websites on my Favorites bar.

Think of the blogs you most like to peruse for practical information and how-tos. (Aside: I know I "should" write how-to's for the sake of clarity, but I cannot STAND to put an apostrophe where it does not belong. An apostrophe shows possession; it does not indicate a plural. I beg your forbearance.) Then set aside some time to peruse those blogs. You may want to rise earlier than the children one day (or a few days) to give yourself this luxury. Read archived posts; click on links. I am almost always rewarded with gems when I take time to research my favorite blogs.

I have highlighted links to helpful homeschooling websites on my blog's sidebars. If there's one (or a few) that you haven't checked out, the planning stage is a great time to do it.

But the very first thing I do before I begin to plan is pray. I ask for guidance, wisdom in decisions, and rejuvenation on this journey. After that, I don't feel like the full responsibility of my children's education weighs on my shoulders alone. And that is a lovely, freeing feeling.

Weekly Happenings: New Books to Read!

It's been a while since I wrote a weekly report; lots of things have been going on, and I've been busy. My Friday afternoons/Saturday mornings have either not been my own, or they've been too much my own, and I've neglected my reporting. I hope to get things up and going again!

We began some new AO titles this week: Oliver Twist; A Passion for the Impossible: the Life of Lilias Trotter; and Plutarch's Life of Brutus. We enjoy all three. Regarding the Trotter biography, Miss Priss said yesterday, "I think I'm going to really like this book."

Last week in This Country of Ours, we read about the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. The girls were intrigued. Apparently, the Underground Railroad has popped up in other books they've read (their own free reads). I wanted them to dig a bit deeper, so I checked out from the library a basic biography of Harriet Tubman called, amazingly enough, Harriet Tubman, by George Sullivan. It's part of the In Their Own Words series. Tiny Girl finished it this week, and Miss Priss is more than halfway through.

The poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar has been a focus for the past three weeks or so. I was not familiar with his work, but I found I am familiar with a line from one of his poems: "I know why the caged birds sings," from the poem Sympathy. Some of his poems are lyrical and deeply meaningful; others are laugh-out-loud funny. I am glad we are now acquainted with Mr. Dunbar.

For two weeks, we've studied helping verbs and verb phrases. I found that the best method for this was asking the girls to memorize the list of 23 helping verbs, a worthwhile activity that has reaped benefits.

Today, Friday, we took a field trip to a nearby house museum, which dates from 1839. Miss Priss learned a few weeks ago that the museum offers a junior docent program, which piqued her interest. We set up a meeting for this morning with the woman who leads the program. After the meeting, she gave us a tour of the house, free of charge! Miss Priss is beyond excited about the program.

The girls' piano recital is in May, and they are seriously practicing their pieces. Miss Priss's drama troupe is also in rehearsal for their end-of-season variety show, scheduled for the first weekend in May. After much begging on her part, Tiny Girl was delighted to get the go-ahead from Himself and me to participate in the drama troupe next season. She and the new (leased) pony, Max, have been working hard, getting ready for some shows in April. We gave the March shows a skip; Max was lame for a few weeks and developed a minor thrush infection in one hoof. This set back their training schedule a bit. But they should be good to go for April!

That's our week. How was yours?

Always Inventing: A Biography of Alexander Graham Bell

On its Year 5 curriculum booklist, Ambleside Online (AO) schedules a biography of Alexander Graham Bell for term two and suggests two titles. We selected Always Inventing: A Photobiography of Alexander Graham Bell, by Tom L. Matthews. This has been an excellent choice.

• The engaging text is well written, easy to read, and easy to understand, a very important element when discussing scientific matters.
• Photos, illustrations, and explanatory captions grace each two-page spread. More than simple (or simplistic)additions to break up the text, we've found these to be absorbing on their own. We especially appreciate artwork of Bell's various inventions, which are too difficult to envision based on written description alone.
• Some Bell quotations, from letters and the like, are also used as design elements on several pages.

Although an older child could easily read this book on his or her own, we've enjoyed reading it together. We pause often to remark on a photo or discuss more fully a diagram. Sometimes we merely marvel over Bell's intellectual curiosity and fortitude, which never lessened his kindly nature and moral uprightness.

I highly recommend this book as part of your science or biography studies.

"The study of Nature is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of all pursuits. God has strewn our paths with wonders, and we certainly should not go through Life with our eyes shut."

New Books on the Way!

Recently, the girls have hit a wall regarding their independent reading. Perhaps I shouldn't admit this, but they much prefer many of AO's free reads as read-alouds as opposed to personal selections. So I pulled out my much-loved Honey for a Child's Heart and surveyed some options.

 I've always loved poring over this wonderful annotated bibliography of children's books. Of course, it's much more than just a book of lists; Gladys Hunt's opinions and perspectives on reading mesh well with my own, and have actually informed my expanding viewpoint on literature's great value. Of course, she's preaching to the choir when I read her work; I have a master's degree in English. But I find her words exhilarating and empowering all the same.

 I also use Honey for a Child's Heart as a checklist. I mark off those books the girls have read and make note of other works by the same authors. In the past, I've also highlighted those titles that are on other lists I consult, such as AO's free reading lists. These guide me in making informed choices.

 As an added bonus, I've earned an admirable amount of points on Paperback Swap. Time to shop!

 So I sat at the computer and compared Paperback Swap's offerings with my list. Of course, not everything was available. In one or two cases, I chose a title that wasn't on the list but either its author was (other books listed) or one of the girls had already read and enjoyed a book(s) by said author.

 Here's what's on the way to us:

• The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
• Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes
• Our Only May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm
• The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
• Mysterious Miss Slade, by Dick King-Smith
• The Children of Green Knowe, by L. M. Boston
• Bluish, by Virginia Hamilton

Since Miss Priss is on the cusp of teenage-dom (small shudder -- I can't believe it and I'm not ready for it!), I also have on my shelf of resources Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Teen's Heart. It never hurts to be prepared.

 Happy reading!

Weekly Happenings: A Few Beginnings and Advent

The house is very quiet. Himself and the girls have gone on an overnight trip out of state to see Himself's alma mater play in football play-offs. Although I've been looking forward to some quiet time alone, and I enjoy my own company, I have to admit the quiet is deafening. This must be how the dogs feel when we leave them behind.

We began two new AO Year 5 readings this week: Abraham Lincoln's World and Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis & Clark. We said goodbye to Abigail Adams last week; you can read my thoughts on that here. Other readings we enjoyed included King Arthur and His Knights, This Country of Ours, Gods and Heroes, and "Poplicola" from Plutarch's Lives.

Much to Miss Priss's revulsion, we learned about spiders and silk in Storybook of Science this week. I was so intrigued that I hopped online to find a video and more information. I blogged about my findings, and you, too, can learn more by popping over to that post. And in A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth (which is a tweak of mine; AO schedules volume 2 for Year 5), we tried our hand at a project that depicts the moon's gravitational pull on the ocean tides.


Gravitational pull project.

Our geographical study of gravity nicely coincided with our recent readings from Sir Robert S. Ball's Great Astronomers and its biography of Sir Isaac Newton. While we'd been following along quite adequately until last week, Ball's writings on Newton's gravitational studies are too esoteric even for me. We managed to understand that Newton proved mathematically Kepler's laws of observation regarding planetary movement in our solar system; but I felt we needed a bit more explanation. Turning to the online world once more, I found what I was looking for at Physics4Kids. Here's the link to the article we found most helpful.

Miss Priss has been making strides with Math Mammoth, but then I found (via Blossom at North Laurel Home & School; thanks, Blossom!) cK12.org, the home of "customizable, free, curriculum-aligned content for K-12." So we did some work in their sixth grade math program, which was a review for her. I only wish they offered a teacher's edition of this flexbook! It would save me some time. Tiny Girl began a geometry segment in MEP math, working with perimeter, area, and volume of solid figures.

We also got a handle on direct objects with our new grammar program. Read my post on that here. And we also began a new online and free French program, provided by our library system.

But it's not all been work, work, work! We managed to get in some Christmas decorating. Our tree is in all its glory, the Christmas village bedecks the top of the piano, the stockings are hung, and the nativities are gracing our foyer dresser and bookcase. Both Tiny Girl's advent garland and our advent candle, a gift from our friends from Germany who visited for Thanksgiving, add to our time of preparation.

 


My first nativity, a gift from my mother many years ago.



A smaller, funkier nativity, another gift from my mama.




Our Christmas village, a mix of Dollar Tree finds and handpainted treasures from Michael's.

 

Miss Priss, still sporting her purple cast, decorating the tree.


Today was our second morning of hard frost. Miss Priss was so taken with the hoary world that she ventured out for a few photos.

A sweet gum ball leaf in the grass, both silvered with frost



Look at the lacy edges of these tiny leaves!



Tonight I will be cutting out and baking Christmas cookies for our Girl Scout troop to decorate at Sunday's meeting. We each eat one or two, but we give the majority to a local charity for women and children. A double batch of dough chills in the fridge while I type. Perhaps this will be the kick-off to my Christmas baking bonanza! If you need something to get you started, I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.

I'm linking up with:

 

Spider at Work -- With Silk

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.
-- Edwin Way Teale

Today the girls read Chapter 25, "Spiders," from The Storybook of Science, by Jean-Henri Fabre.* Uncle Paul's description of the spider spinning its web is facinating, but seeing such a work in action makes an unforgettable impression. I searched on YouTube for a video that clearly showed a spider's spinnerets in action, and this one is really nice. A few seconds into the video, the camera zooms in for a close-up view.



The Smithosonian National Museum of Natural History has an excellent article on spiders here. Although technically dense, I found especially intriguing the three paragraphs related to spider silk. Did you know that a spider can produce different types of silk to use in different ways, such as one for spinning webs, another for cocooning eggs, and yet another for wrapping captured prey? Silly me; I thought it was all the same!

Silk is also extremely tough. This article on Wikipedia states, "A frequent mistake made in the mainstream media is to confuse strength and toughness when comparing silk to other materials. As shown below in detail, weight for weight, silk is stronger than steel, but not as strong as Kevlar. Silk is, however, tougher than both [toughness being the ability to absorb energy before breaking]." The article goes on to delineate many other of silk's impressive qualities. I had no idea it is so remarkable.

At our Maine cabin, there's always a spider or two that makes a web in the corner of our picture window (outside!) or in the corner where the exterior wall and roof overhang meet on the deck. I let them be. I like watching them in action when I can, although they tend to be secretive. To me, their webs are things of beauty.

* The Storybook of Science is a new addition for science in AO Year 4, but I'd heard pleasing things about it in the past and decided we'd read it even though we're in Year 5.

Closing the Book and Saying Goodbye

We finished Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, an AO biography for Year 4, the day before Thanksgiving, and it was like saying goodbye to a friend. The last few paragraphs I read through tears. Even Tiny Girl, who did not like this book at the beginning, was sad to see her go.

I wish I could have known Abigail. I am sure her industry would have shamed me, but oh, to witness her quiet strength, to learn from her uncommon wisdom, and to share, even in the smallest fashion, her experiences would be astonishing.

And what a time to be alive! It was certainly a time of grave uncertainty and horror, not merely due to the events leading up to a revolution, but also due to the immense difficulties of the every day, the spider's web-fragility of life. Abigail and her contemporaries suffered losses and trials many of us avoid today due to our improved health care knowledge and resources.

The lack of education for girls greatly irritated the young Abigail, and as an adult, she deeply believed in women's primary role as wives, mothers, nurturers, and healers. But she also believed that husbands and wives were equal partners in life. The precarious position of women in society prompted her to write to her husband:

... and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.

Along with the confusion, anxiety, and fear of war came to chance to create something new. Abigail, through John, was greatly involved in these events. John sent her "a feast of letters" detailing events in Philadelphia, and Abigail followed military operations on her own map. Joh relied on her to run their farm, but he also relied on her good sense and wisdom, which she sent in numerous letters of her own.

Reading this most wonderful book allowed my children and me to live vicariously though Abigail. We were concerned when she faced difficulties, like her many and long separations from John, her "dearest friend." We were sad when she grieved her losses. We appreciated her wit, so evident in her letters to others. We, too, wondered at the outcome of events. We watched the birth of the United States. Together, we learned much.

As for me, I've so often longed for a quiet life, but Abigail had something to say to me about that wish. On her way to join John in Europe, Abigail's ship endured a dead calm, which left the ship motionless. She wrote: "a Calm is not desireable in any situation in life. . . . Every object is most Beautiful in motion, a ship under sail trees gently agitated with the wind & a fine woman danceing (sic). . . man was made for action" (p. 124). And so am I.

What a lovely, blessed life to celebrate!

P.S. If you're interested in reading more of Abigail's letters to John and others, please see, About.com's page on John and Abigail Adams, which features links to digital bookshelves.