Reading Goals for 2016

In addition to the Back to Classics challenge, I want to be a little more intentional with my other reading for 2016.  I read a lot of great books and a few subpar ones in 2015 - you can see what I accomplished on Goodreads.  Many of them were read with official or unofficial discussions on the AO forum.  I find that reading with others is a great incentive to both keep going and to finish!  I'm going to go ahead and include the ones already listed in the Classics challenge to fit them into categories that make sense to me.

*Asterisks indicate I'm reading with others from the Ambleside Online forum.  
^ indicates I will be reading aloud to my 11 year old.  

More may be added as the year goes on - follow me on Goodreads to see what else we read and how I progress on the ones below!

Educational Philosophy/Homeschooling

• *I have been reading through all the Charlotte Mason volumes - 6 dense books - and will finish the last one (volume 4 - Ourselves) in February. [DONE]
• *When Children Love to Learn by Macauley
• Enjoying the Journey by Frank
• *Minds More Awake by Anne White  [DONE]
• Living Page by Laurie Bestavier

History

• *Birth of Britain by Churchill  [DONE]
• Democracy in America (Volume I and II) by Alexis De Tocqueville
• *Christopher Columbus: Mariner  [DONE]

Math

• *Euclid's Elements

Classic Novels

• Westward, Ho!
• Middlemarch by Eliot  [DONE]
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie  [DONE]
• ^Little Women by Alcott
• *The Betrothed (I, Promessi Sposi)  [DONE]
• Emma by Jane Austen
• *Utopia by Thomas More  [DONE]
• Dracula by Brams Stoker
• The Daisy Chain (Aspirations) by Charlotte Yonge

Modern Novels

• Hood by Stephen Lawhead
• War Horse
• ^The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford  [DONE]

Plays

• *A Man for All Seasons
• ^Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing  [DONE]
• ^Taming of the Shrew
• ^The Winter's Tale  [DONE]

Biography 

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Bonhoeffer Student Edition: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxes  [DONE]
• Story of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondley

Poetry

• *Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves by Spenser
• *Paradise Lost by Milton  [DONE]
• AO's selections of Williams Wordsworth  [DONE]

Health/Cooking

• Adrenal Reset Diet by Alan Christianson
• Trim Healthy Mama - Serena and Pearl
• The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome by Atwood  [DONE]
• Natural Body Detox by Sue Woledge [DONE]
• Food Chaining by Fraker et al

Relationships

• Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend  [DONE]
• Beyond Boundaries
• Easy to Love; Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey [DONE]
• Hold On to Your Kids by Neufeld and Mate
• Two Empty Bedrooms (foster care/adoption) by Vandepas  [DONE]
• The Adoption Option by Hunt
• Children, Parents and Chores! by Cynthia Tyler

Short Stories

• ^The Peterkin Papers by  Lucretia Hale
• Stephen Archer and Other Tales by George MacDonald
• The Door in the Wall and Other Stories by H.G. Wells

Philosophy/Religion

• The Everlasting Man (got halfway this year) by Chesterton
• Teach Me to Pray by Andrew Murray
• Praying God's Word by Beth Moore
• Breaking Free by Beth Moore
• The Message (Bible)
• How We Got the Bible by Neil Lightfoot
• *The Holy War  [almost done]

Culture/Technology

• Endangered Minds by Jane Healy
• The Shallows by Nichola Carr

Children's Books (from AO Year 4's free reading list)

• ^Lassie, Come Home [DONE]
• ^Gentle Ben
• ^Gone Away Lake
• ^Return to Gone Away
• ^Calico Captive
• ^Tree of Freedom
• ^Justin Morgan Had a Horse
• ^The Cricket in Times Square

I'm not including the scheduled reads from year's 4 or 5 that we will be doing as part of homeschool in this lists, but you can see that over at AmblesideOnline.

If anything seems to be in the wrong category, please let me know!

Fourth Grade, First Term 2014-15

Fourth grade!  I still can't believe its here, and we are 11 weeks into the curriculum (using Ambleside Online's Year 3.5) and 15 weeks into our official school days, due to finishing up year 3 over the summer and into August.  I am enjoying the book selections, especially catching up on the free reads (no narration required; we do these at bedtime) we missed from years 2 and 3.  Below are many of the books we are using this year.  The ones you can't see are e-books and audiobooks.

Fourth Grade Terms 1-2 books/AO 3.5

We are using MEP for math, which we started around March of this year.  It is a free program for K-12, and you can download everything you need and just print out the practice book and lesson plans (or keep those on your tablet to save paper!)  If this interests you, there are several fantastic posts on getting started with MEP on Jeanne's blog, Peaceful Day.

For copywork, I am using a 3rd grade penmanship book (orange one in above pic) to reinforce his cursive letters and word formation.  He does print with his occupational therapist, and she works with him on speed.  I work with him on fewer carefully done letters and words.  He is now to the point in the workbook where he gets back to copywork, which is copying poems and such word by word.

artwork learned from Draw Write Now book 2

We have backed off of spelling since summer, and he is now realizing how useful spelling actually is, especially when you want to tell your Minecraft friends something and can't type it. (Hey, whatever provides motivation!)  My intention was to use Seeing Stars: Symbol Imagery for Phonological and Orthographic Processing in Reading and Spelling, which I borrowed from the library and took notes on, to implement myself.  I ended up pushing too hard early this term, so quit on it, and will add it back in this week.  Seeing Stars helps with visualizing the letters and words in your mind, phonics and more.  (Keep in mind that for most kids, doing copywork then dictation the CM way will work!  My son has some vision challenges, so needed extra help.)

For Spanish, I've backed off of Rosetta Stone (one day a week) and have added Duolingo once or twice a week.  I'm looking into ULAT now, going over the teaching videos and figuring out how it would work for us.  Its free online and looks very complete, from what I've seen so far.

For picture study, music (classical, folk and hymns), Shakespeare, and now Plutarch's Lives, we are following the rotations at Ambleside Online.  These 'riches' really bring life into our homeschool, along with handicrafts, nature study and poetry.  He has now added 'painter' to his list of possible occupations, along with builder and weatherman. :)

Lookout, future painter at work!

AO Year 4 adds a jump in difficulty due to additional subjects and longer readings.  We are using a couple terms of year 3.5 to transition to those extra subjects more gradually, while the main readings are easier (also allowing him to build confidence in his own reading).  We added grammar in January during year 3, going through Simply Grammar very slowly.  We added 'real' Shakespeare this term, and just last week started Publicola by Plutarch.  I'm still debating adding Latin in Term 2...

We are almost done with What Would Jesus Do? (buddy reading), which along with memory work, has been our Bible time.  I'll go back to the list of stories we used in year 1 and 2 and finish it off for next term's Bible.  I'm doing poetry selections from some nice picture books I found at Half-Price Book Outlet (love that place!).  For history, science, literature, etc., we are following the AO schedule exactly.

All in all, term 1 of fourth grade has been a success, despite various health issues, new kittens, frequent babysitting and other life things trying to throw us off.

Third Grade Math

In this previous post, I gave a brief overview of A+ Interactive Math.  At that point, I hadn't yet successfully installed it, so here's what's going on now!

I was not able to get the software installed on my Mac, even in Parallels, so I put it on the old Windows laptop that's been kid-abused.  It works just find on that one.  (There is an online option, as well that I plan to use for fourth grade.)

A+ exam 3; Addition table to help him out

As  my readers know, we follow the Charlotte Mason method's in our homeschool, so this time I'm going to discuss how this program can be used in a CM way.  AO has created a new topical CM Series, making it easy to research by subject - here is Math & Arithemetic!  So very handy.  The first quote that strikes me is the first sentence.

Of all the subjects a young child learns, the most important one might be arithmetic. It's not so much that he needs to be able to add that makes it important, but using the skills he needs to come up with the sum has a beneficial part in the rest of his education.                     -Vol 1 p. 254

Then the following paragraph begins with

We don't need to say how arithmetic has practical value for everyone, no matter what their station in life. But arithmetic's practical value is the least of its benefits.

Hmmm.  These thoughts do not often occur in modern public education, do they? I always thought of math as a mostly practical skill, like using a hammer.  As I read more CM, however, I can see what she means - math is a brain exercise, useful for learning to problem solve and logical thinking.  For those with a biblical worldview, math is yet another subject that points us to God.

Children should approach math from the perspective of that unalterable law. They should understand how impressive it was when Euclid said that two and two equals three or five is an absurd possibility, as absurd as a man claiming that, on his tree, apples fell upwards. It's absurd to think that apples would break the law of gravity. Figures and abstract lines work just like an apple falling. They are confined to an unchangeable law. -vol 6 p 152

Adding and multiplying with marshmallow manipulatives

A+ is computer-based, but has many printable worksheets and exams.  When I was a kid, I would have loved this!  My son, though, does not.  He likes the computer interaction, but not the worksheets.  Except on days he likes the worksheets better.  Yeah, its like that around here. :)  So, I find that mixing it up and following his lead works well for him.

We do a couple lessons on the PC one day, then some worksheets to review the next day.  About one day per week, I forgo A+ completely and use Graded Work in Arithmetic (free online, a book for each grade), which is a lot of math facts and oral work, and old-fashioned word problems.  (I think GWA is more CM, but we hit a wall there sometimes, too.)  For us, variety in math is important, so that when he gets stuck one place, I just move away from it for a while and change the focus, even moving back to 1st grade workbooks to build confidence when necessary.

The main value of arithmetic and higher math is the way it trains reasoning powers, habits of understanding, quickness, accuracy, and being truthful intellectually.  -vol 1 

In the younger grades, CM recommends using many manipulatives (household objects to count and add with), so that the child has concrete understanding before moving on to using symbols.  Questions should be asked orally and worked out physically until the basics are mastered.  She gives examples of word problems that make the child work through the correct processes in order to get the answer.

Now the child is ready for more challenging word problems, such as 'A boy has two baskets of ten apples. How many bags of four can he make?' He'll be able to work with a bigger variety of numbers, like 7+5-3. If he needs the beans, let him use them. But he should be encouraged to use imaginary beans as a way to get him closer to working with abstract numbers.  -vol 1

I think A+ fails at this.  It aims for the child to learn the appropriate definition of addition, multiplication, etc., and the practical application - ie, system - to determine the answers.  Its a straight-line, follow the rules and you'll get the right answer sort of program.  It teaches the process but doesn't make him think about which process to choose...at least not at this point in the curriculum.

In order to make A+ "fit" us, I don't print out all the worksheets.  In fact, I only print 1 or 2 of the 4-5 pages per lesson, and sometimes don't print any at all.  I do like that there are only 4-6 questions after each lesson on the computer - if he struggles, then I know to print out something for the next day to work with him on.

Problems should be chosen carefully. They should be easy enough for him to do, but challenging enough to require a little mental effort. -vol 1

Some second grade work

On the other hand, Graded Work in Arithmetic really does make one think.  There are a lot of oral questions - every other lesson is done aloud.  There are word problems at least every 5 lessons.  He still has trouble with them. Determining the correct process is really tough for him, even though we've done manipulatives, oral work, and word problems for so long.  Could be this...

No other single subject benefits as much from good teaching as arithmetic, and no other subject results in such damaging results if it's taught wrong.  -vol 1

....as in, teacher error.  Hopefully, we have plenty of time to fix this problem!  I believe, like reading, there will be times when intellectual leaps will happen, regardless of the teaching time-table.  So, we'll keep plugging along, using GWA and A+ in tandem for the foreseeable future.  I don't want to be a curriculum hopper, especially in math, where future skills are built upon all the previous skills.

I do believe, after reading a bit more CM and writing this post, that we need to go back to "counting beans" for awhile before coming back to "imaginary beans"and A+ Interactive.

This post was submitted to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!  Hosted this week at Aut2BHomeinCarolina.

AO Year 2, Term 3 Review

Now that there's just a month left of summer break, I had better get my review of the last term completed!  We finished AO 2, Term 3 about May 15th, which is nearly 2 months ago now.  Time flies.  Let's see how much I can remember about those last 12 weeks of school....

Here is Ambleside Online Year 2.  This review covers weeks 25-36.

This term's poet was Christina Rossetti.  Most of her poems were short enough that we could read them at least 4 times a piece.  For example, day one we read the first 5 poems.  Day two we read poems 2-6; day three we read 3-7, etc.  If we really dislike one, I may just read it 3 times, and if its a favorite, it gets copied onto an index card and put in the memory box.  We aim for one per term, in addition to the scripture verses that we memorize.

Bible time went through some more changes this term.  I stopped using Calvary Curriculum, because I realized at the pace we were going, we would never make it to the New Testament, and we were both getting bored with it.  We got through Judges in last term, and switched to using this schedule alone, instead of in conjunction with CC.  We covered Samuel through Second Kings.  Here is another option for Bible, but now, AO has a Bible schedule, too!  (Here is AO 2's Bible schedule.)

Our hymns this terms were Ah, Holy Jesus How Hast Thou Offended, When Upon Life's Billows, and All Cratures of Our God & King.  I had heard the last 2 in church as a child, but the first was completely new.  Let's just say that it had to grow on me. :)  We sang them almost daily, before or after Bible time.  We continued with one folk song a month, covering All Through the Night, Maggie, and The Wild Coloniel Boy.  These were fun, as always.

Composer study covered Opera overtures.  All the famous pieces...at least all the opera I had ever heard, which is limited, was covered.  He liked it better than I though he would, possible because his daddy was so excited about the Barber of Seville, as seen in Bugs Bunny, LOL!  Artist was Georges Seurat, the French Impressionist.  He wasn't particularly impressed by these works.

Hunting for frog eggs

For Spanish, we didn't really change anything from term 2.  We tried a few other typing programs, since the fun of Dance-Mat Typing had worn off, and he was getting tired of not succeeding or moving on to the next level.  He ended up liking Typing Club best.

We made it through about 4 McGuffey reading lessons each week, and completed the second grade reader and ended the year in third grade, lesson 19.  I plan on continuing with some McGuffey, but maybe mixing in some Treadwell readers as well.

He completed second grade Rod and Staff Penmanship, and was able to do copywork in cursive at the end.  We will continue to do copywork in cursive for third grade, after a week or two of review so he recalls proper letter formation.  He has been going to occupation therapy (OT) since late April, working on core strength, wrist and hand strength and coordination, and desensitizing him so that the sound and feel of paper don't bother him so much.  His OT is awesome and he loves her.  She sees great improvements in him, and I'm hopeful the coming school year will be more enjoyable for both of us!

He started the second Graded Work in Arithmetic, which starts at operations with the number 20 and goes through 100.  The first week included review, so he breezed through 7 lessons; second week was 5 lessons, then he slowed down to about 4 lessons per week. He got through Lesson 44.  Next year I plan to continue with this book, but we will also add A+ Interactive Math for third grade...if I can get it installed on one of our computers (compatibility issues)!

We slowed piano lessons down to once a week, as we caught up to the end of Mr. Hoffman's freepianolessons4kids.  See more about that here.  I know they are busy adding more lessons, with plans to go to 100, so I'm hoping to continue using this resource for third grade.

First bareback ride

Handicrafts were unfortunately dropped from the schedule this term, although he tried his hand at Soap Carving.  For physical development, we added horseback riding lessons once it got warm enough.  We also repaired the trampoline and got a playset for the yard, complete with a fort and rock wall.

We completed the AO scheduled reads for year 2, and several more of the free reads.  This term he finished Wonderbook for Boys & Girls and Tanglewood Tales, and Brighty of the Grand Canyon.  I hope to get Mary Poppins read before school starts, but we are in Alice in Wonderland (year 3 free read) right now, and also listening to At the Back of the North Wind via Librivox (get the free audio for year 2 here).

I feel like we did a really bad job on nature study this year, although we had our moments.  The weather fluctuated wildly, and we just didn't make the time for it.  We must do better!!  On the other hand, we did finish Bob Jones second grade science book and are in the process of raising tadpoles.  Once they turn into froglets, a post will be forthcoming. :)

AO Year 2, Term 2 Review

My goal of posting each week didn't really work out, but I still want to chronicle what we accomplished, so I'll try to capture the look and feel of Year 2, Term 2 in this post.

Here is the week by week break down of Ambleside Online Year 2.  Look at weeks 13-24.

During this term, we worked on 2 different poets (Eugene Field & James Whitcomb Riley).  I enjoyed quite a few poems from each of them.  As time went on, the poems got longer, so I went down to reading 4 a day instead of 5, then to 3 a day at times.  I made sure we heard each poem 4 times, since you often hear something new or understand it differently after some repetition.

For Bible, we continued using Calvary Curriculum, but towards the end of the term, I quit printing the coloring pages, and just took a bookmark sized piece of paper and wrote down the suggested readings to use as a check-list.  This saved paper, as well as my frustration as he would refuse to even look at the coloring page most days.  I kept thinking he would enjoy looking at an illustration while listening to the reading, but that never happened.  We made it through one lesson per day most of the time, although some of them were multiple chapters and had to be spread out over 2-3 days to keep the lessons short.  We made it from the end of Genesis to Judges this term.  In addition, we completed Kids of Character during week 21, so have one more day a week with which to work through CC.

Alongside Bible, I was more consistent about listening to and singing the hymns.  I put more on the YouTube playlist and hung the words next to the computer in case the video didn't have the words on-screen.  It was quite nice to start school off with pretty music and him cuddling up as we tried to learn the words to Anywhere with Jesus, Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, My Song is Love Unknown (brand-new to me, and I loved it!) and This is My Father's World (a childhood favorite of mine).  As with most things, he resisted the new routine for a while, but I know he enjoys it now along with me.

Our folk songs for term 2 were I'se the B'y, Silent Night, Keys to Canterbury (his favorite) and this month is Mairi's Wedding, which is lots of fun!  I have a playlist for our folk songs as well, but normally am able to use what I've purchased in iTunes, so its not as thorough as what some others have created.  Composer was Bach, and artists were Dutch - de Hooch and Ruisdale.  Neither he nor I are fans of their styles, but did enjoy Bach! 

I tried to expand Spanish beyond Rosetta Stone, since its getting quite a bit harder for him now.  I'm finding some sites with fun children's songs in Spanish and doing those once a week, watching Salsa once a week, and doing RS just once a week instead of twice.  That's helped him groan less. :)  One days we don't do Spanish, he practices typing, using mostly Dance-Mat Typing from the BBC website.  His pace has been much slower than I expected, but I try to remember that its not a race!

As his resistance to reading has decreased, I was able to increase his McGuffey reader lessons from 3 painful ones a week to 4 mostly pleasant ones.  Whew!  He worked from lessons 23 through 57 this term, and I think we'll be able to finish it this school year.  I like how short the lessons are and the gradual introduction of new words.  It always seems the right amount of challenge.

Penmanship and spelling continue to offer resistance, but it has improved, in fits and spurts.  We are still on track to finish both courses before school ends.  I think he wouldn't admit it, but he's enjoying learning cursive.  The research shows that those with higher resistance to writing often do better with cursive, so I'm really hoping that will be true for him.  I haven't really focused on spelling, or offered tests at this point.  I'm using it more so he will notice patterns, review phonics rules, and practice handwriting.  I keep trying to help him visualize the words in his mind, but so far he's had a hard time with that.  When he's through the workbook, I will spend the rest of the weeks of school going back to Charlotte Mason's word-building exercises, like we tried last year.

Math lessons continued at a pace of 4 per week, with day 5 being needed to finish up a longer lesson or play math games.  (We purchased Wings for iOS, for multiplication practice, and I think it will help, since he can't stand flash cards, or me helping him review.)  Just yesterday, on the last day of term 2, he completed lesson 100 in the first Graded Work in Arithmetic.  This took him through basic operations through number 20.  So, term 3 we will start the second volume, which takes him through all basic operations with numbers up through 100.  He seems to have a decent grasp of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, although fractions and word problems are tough and I have to step him through those.

tools of the trade

I intended to add PE to the daily schedule, but it keeps skipped most days.  I bought Family Time Fitness, and love how the plans are laid out, but this just hasn't happened.    Handicraft is going along fine, with his grandpa doing leather-crafting with him.  He enjoys learning new stitches and creating gifts for us.  Another subject that's been almost completely neglected this term was Nature Study.  I'm sad about that, and not sure how to get it back in, but I definitely will be re-working the plan so that it gets in there.  Part of the problem was the cold weather (I despise winter), part was him dragging out other subjects so that there was simply no time for the fun stuff.  Yes, he and I both need to work on some more discipline, which would easily done if times didn't cause meltdowns on his part.  Works in progress, we are!

his first coin purse

He has kept on with piano, doing 1 or 2 lessons per week and practicing for a short time on the other 3 days.  He made it through lesson 43 at freepianolessons4kids.com and is pretty proud of what he can do now.  He does need more review as to how to actually read the music, but his finger control has improved much.  Here he is:

Now, for the Ambleside Online suggested readings!  We followed the schedule as written, and finished The Little Duke.  That was his favorite!  He didn't care for Wind in the Willows, but got through it.  He likes Pilgrim's Progress, and that is made easier due to reading Dangerous Journeys last term.   He enjoys the Burgess Animal Book, more so after we slowed from 2 chapters a week to 1.  We are using a spreadsheet another AO'er created that has picture and video links for all the animals mentioned, and DS really likes watching the nature videos.  He can take or leave Our Island Story; regardless, his narrations are improving.  He sometimes does a really good job telling back a story, and I get many fewer "I don't knows" or repeating the last sentence that was read.

I scheduled a few of the free reads to be done during school time, to be sure they geo read.  Others I read at bedtime, or listened to on his iPod.  He is not a pleasure reader, despite the rewards system we tried.  He loves to be read to, though, so for now, that's good enough. 
The free reads we've completed in term 2 are:

• Abraham Lincoln - liked it
• The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (this took forever, it seemed!) - liked it
• Pied Piper of Hamelin (can you believe I never knew the whole story?!) - liked it
• Five Children and It - he loved it
• A Tale Dark & Grimm (not AO, but for library group) - he loved it 

  As a testament to how any age can enjoy good literature, he now asks to listen to Lamb's Shakespeare for fun at bedtime!  All in all, it was a successful term.

Year 2, Week 6

This was a week of beginnings.  While my husband was off for his second missions trip to Nicaragua, DS started fall soccer and Minds in Motion.  Everything went well, including my babysitting job and meetings.

Week 6 of AO Year 2, followed nearly to the letter!

The Bible - continue with the story of Abram and Sarai
An Island Story ch 26 William the Conqueror - Death of the King
The Little Duke - second half of chapter 3
Tree in the Trail - through chapter 24
Burgess Animal Book: A Fellow with a Thousand Spears; A Lumberman and an Engineer
Poetry of Walter de la Mare - through poem 25
Understood Betsy: ch. 5
Pilgrim's Progress Dangerous Journey - watched video for chapter 4
Parables of Nature - The Light of Truth

For handicraft Thursday, he created this coin purse.

We intended to do ants for nature study, but ran out of time with everything else going on.  We did, however, spend quite a bit of time at the park and playground, so at least outside time happened.

Mushrooms growing prolifically on our property

His copy work is improving - going to the park first thing in the morning, combined with his time at Minds in Motion resulted in him voluntary pulling his paper out of the sheet protectors and touching the paper with no issues.  If you are wondering why we were using sheet protectors, see Overly Sensitive? from earlier this year.

For math, we did Lessons 29 and 30 from Graded Work in Arithmetic, which I like so far.  Its gotten harder fast, so I'm slowing down some more.  We supplemented with Greg Tang's multiplication book, called The Best of Times.  That's one I want to come back to again next year.  If you haven't looked at any of his books, they are a fun, different way to look at math facts.

 

Year 2, Week 3

This post wraps up my introduction to Year 2 (see part 1 & 2). My goal is to post the readings we've done every week, along with any interesting stories or new resources I have discovered.

Week 3 readings were completed with the just a couple changes:

The Bible -we have read through nine chapters of Genesis, with him narrating each story.
Tree in the Trail chapter 4  3-6
Poetry of Walter de la Mare (poems 11-15)
Pilgrim's Progress  Dangerous Journey - finish chapter 2

For Dangerous Journey, we watch Answers in Genesis video of each chapter after reading.

What do we do other than read those books?

Handwriting (copywork): Rod and Staff's Penmanship for grade 2  This goes from print to slant to cursive, using short lessons; he does this 2 days a week.  Bible verses and other phrases are done on other days, if spelling doesn't take too long.

Spelling: Rod and Staff's Spelling for grade 2 (1 lesson weekly, which we are breaking into 2 days)

McGuffey readers (free at Gutenberg or Amazon) for introducing new words - once or twice a week.  I have him read aloud something everyday, but he is still very resistant to this.

Math: Graded Work in Arithmetic, book 1.
Hopefully, we'll get through all of 1 and part of 2 this year.  We did more than one lesson a day at first, but now we've slowed down a bit.  Finished up lesson 20 this week.

Spanish: 2-3 times a week.  Rosetta Stone (new!) and Salsa episodes (once a week).

We are following AO's rotation for music and art appreciation, using resources found for free online, and some composer's pieces purchased through Amazon and iTunes, as well as from the Homestead Pickers CD's we purchased last year.

Term 1's artist is Renoir.  For weeks 1 and 2, we studied his Girl with a Watering Can.  This week and next, we are looking at Girls at the Piano.  The composer is Claude Debussy, and this month we are listening to Suite Bergamasque (Prelude, Menuet, no.3 Claire de Lune, no.4 Passepied).  Our folk song for August is Gypsy Rover and the hymn is the Rock that is Higher than I.

Girl with a Watering Can, from NGA

The Handbook of Nature Study, which is to be used as a teacher's guide, is leading us through insects this term.  Right now we are just working on the life-cycle of insects, and what exactly IS an insect...did you  know that bugs are technically just one part of the insect family?  I love learning right along-side of him. :)  The nice things about studying insects is that there is no shortage of them in our yard to investigate!  Ick.  We are also working through the Bob Jones 2nd grade science book.

Last year, his handicrafts included hand and machine sewing.  This year, his Pa is introducing him to leather crafting.   So far, he has looked at the tools, played with the hammer and visited the Tandy store.   He is also working on hand-sewing a stuffed puppy from a kit and hopes to get that done in time to submit it for the local fair.

For his instrument, he decided to stick with piano.  We are using Free Piano Lessons 4 Kids.  We have gotten through the first 10 lessons, which hasn't taken us any farther than we got using KinderBach or pianolessons4children last year.  However, this guy really knows how to get kids involved, and does it using little stories and simple games, which DS really enjoys.  Now, the videos themselves are free, and there pdf downloads for the first few lessons are free...then he starts charging.  If you like the first couple of lessons, make sure you pay the $26 or so to get all the pdf's instead of purchasing individually.  I think its worth it, to support his efforts.

There you have it!  Hard to believe it took me 3 posts to get it all down!  Doesn't a Charlotte Mason education sound fantastic?  Its deep, and its wide...and will hopefully open many doors for the future.

*submitted to the CM Blog Carnival, hosted Sept 4, 2012 by Amy in Peru*

Book Review: What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know (Part 3)

Welcome to the last installment of my book review of What Your Second Grader Needs to Know.  If you missed the first two posts, here is part one and part two.  I'm attempting to compare and contrast this book to the curriculum we use.

   Today I'm going to look at Math and Science.  Ambleside Online, which I use, doesn't specify a math curriculum, and there are already blogs out there discussing how "CM" the different math programs are, so I won't get into that.  WYSGNTK (whew, that's a long title, even abbreviated!) does a good job covering math, and the scope seems reasonable for a year.  Here is some of what is covered in the book:

• basic addition and subtraction to 18, as well as how to add/sub 3 digit numbers
• beginning multiplication, up to fives
• practice word problems, geometry, fractions and money (which were all introduced in first grade)
• skip count by 3's, odds, and evens, 50's and 100's (2's, 5's and 10's should have been covered in K or 1st)
• number words to 100
• telling time to 5 minutes
• measuring length and weight
• recognize #'s to 1000 and learn to compare (< > =)
• shapes, symmetry, and locations

   As with most elementary math, these lessons can be done almost entirely without a workbook of any kind, using real life applications and oral work.  This is great, especially for pencil-phobic kids like mine.  There is a great more detail in the book then what I've listed here, but it gives you a general idea.  WYSGNTK could be worth buying for this chapter alone, in order to avoid purchasing a math curriculum!

   For science (nature study) in the elementary years, AO focuses on putting the child in touch with nature as directly and as often as possible, as well as using living books about nature, such as the Burgess Bird and Animal books.  Through these books and observing our natural world, I think AO does a fantastic job of sufficiently covering science.

   WYSGNTK covers quite a lot in science, so I'm sure much of it is meant to be touched lightly and gone into deeper in later years.  It goes over tools, simple machines, and engineering which I would have categorized as technology, but there wasn't a chapter for that.  It also goes over the human body, food groups and nutrition, which I would categorize as health.  It covers how to use a compass and others ways to find North, which I consider geography.  In addition, it covers the following science topics:

• life cycles and season
• biology - botany, zoology
• cells
• definitions of the main branches of science, as well as what those scientist do
• famous scientists - Galileo, Edison, Nightingale and Mae Jemison (another name that was new to me!)

Overall, I recommend that any parent interested in their child's education should take a look at Hirsch's What Your __ Grader Needs to Know series of books.  You can use them for after-schooling, as a homeschooling resource, or to compare what your child is learning at public school and supplement their summer learning.

To see another analysis of the Charlotte Mason method, Letters from Nebby has just written about this unique approach to home education, and mentions how with CM, there is no set curriculum or core standards, but that each child will take away what he needs.  

Year 1, Weeks 29, 30 & 31

I haven't written lately due to the beautiful summer-like weather, and the demands of many children and not a lot of help.  Plus, my inspiration ebbs and flows for blogging, just like other things.  When I blog less, I read a lot more!  I've read 4 books in the past 3 weeks, in fact. :)

 So, I'm back-tracking a bit to earlier this month.

Weeks 29-31 from Ambleside Online

The Good:

• We are enjoying Viking Tales, and Buffalo Bill was a big hit as well.  
•  We are continuing with Life of Fred (for math), and he seems to be enjoying it much more lately, as we near the end of Apples, the first elementary book.  
• We finished Birds in the Handbook of Nature Study...but haven't started wildflowers, beyond looking to see what we have outside our door.  
• We are almost finished with the last 1st grade reader, and he is doing very well.
• We have also gotten some more of the free reads in - St. George and the Dragon is completed and Pinocchio has begun.  I've checked out the Red Fairy Book, but honestly these foster kids don't want to sit long and its going to take a while to get through free reads unless my own son starts reading on his own.
• He built a wooden model tractor from a kit this week.
  
  We found a great Norman Rockwell study guide, and started using it this week.  I've missed having the term's art prints posted on the wall, but Rockwell is too modern for his painting to be public the way the others have been.  Here is another site that may be useful to Rockwell enthusiasts: http://collection.nrm.org/highlights.page.do
  
  
  
  

The Bad/Ugly:
We haven't really done much spelling in week 30 and 31, due to some reluctance on his part.  The newness wore off, and he has had struggles to get copy work done as well.  Trouble in one area typically means an extra hour of schoolwork due to time-outs and just plain wasted time, so spelling has been put off.  The few times we have worked on it, I've been using my foster son's 1st grade spelling list from public school :)

The Other :)
I've continued to work on Ambleside Online Pinterest boards most afternoons or evenings for a few minutes, and have gotten the Librivox recording of AO books pinned through year 7.  Once I'm done with Year 8, I plan on completing the booklists in the same way for years 6-11.  Its quite a lot of pinning, but I am sure it will be useful to myself and other in the coming years.  If anyone wants me to add them as a collaborator on any of the AO boards I've started, let me know!

Post-Storm Learning

Last week at this time we were huddled (me, 5 kids and a large dog) in a rather small bathroom to avoid being swept away by those awful tornadoes.  Luckily, none of them touched down too close to us, and no one I know was harmed.  Last week, my son learned the joy of storm coverage on local TV...mostly that if there is a storm, I turn the TV on during the day, LOL!

As follow-up to the excitement of last week, and the let-down of not-as-much-drama this week, we made a tornado-in-a-bottle.  Very quick and easy - and just look at his face!  (I learned how here, through a link on Pinterest.)

We also did AO's week 28, as written.

In addition, we are continuing to use The Months by Sara Coleridge for copy work - 1/2 a month per day, which is two lines on our lined handwriting paper.  No, its not much but he continues to complain of hand cramps and an occasional allergic reaction to touching paper.  Sigh.  If anyone has a cure for an imaginary paper allergy, I'd love to hear it! (Update: This was my first clue that he has sensory processing disorder, or SPD. We did occupational therapies with him for all of 2nd grade, and he is much improved!)

In math, we were continuing to do Xtra Math each day...until we found Timez Attack will actually work on our Mac now (free download for home use = not tying up our small bandwidth to play).  The way it works is almost identical to Xtra Math in the way it learns what the child needs to practice on and gives more of those problems before moving on.  And it has awesome gaming graphics, which for a 7 year old is a huge draw.  So...not sure which way I'll go with mastering his math facts.

As far as a math curriculum, we are trying out Life of Fred, borrowed from a friend.  As I expected, he resisted at first, but it only took 3 days before he was asking to do math next instead of putting off until last.  Hooray!  We are starting with Apples, and doing one lesson each day.  Its super easy for him right now, but I'm hoping that starting at the very beginning will help ease him into doing the reading of it on his own much sooner, and give him confidence in both reading *and* math.

As for reading - he leaped ahead of the schedule, and is now using a book light each night to read the leveled readers.  He hates reading aloud, and giving him this freedom has been very encouraging to him, in my opinion.  I'll probably give it another week before requiring him to read something to me aloud each day.

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing week.  Next week will most likely not be that way, due to several meetings and the hubby's 7 day business trip.  Wish me luck!

* I'm linking up with the Weekly Wrap-Up!*