Pre-school-Ruby Slippers Style

I told my girls a few weeks ago that during our “summer break” we were going to do three things and three things only. First we were going to work on our Summer Reading Lists, secondly we were going to continue with Bigger’s math by actually finishing the last 9 lessons in the RS Level B book and playing RS math games. And finally we would be working with Brother on his letter sounds.

Seeing as we only have 7 weeks for our break I’m not sure that we will get through all of the letter sounds but I figured that we would at least work on the letters in his name.

Yes, I know that my son is almost 5 and I also know that for most it may seem like we are getting a late start but through personal experience I have learned that for our family doing “academics” later is MUCH better than doing things early.

I don’t plan on doing anything major or fancy with our summer work but since he asked so many times during the course of the school year to “do school too” I figured that doing something with him this summer might be a great thing for him.

Let me say that he has been so excited about what we have been doing! We keep our “lessons” quick and to the point and for my boy that has been utterly successful.

Here is what we have done so far.

Monday:

Introduce this week’s letter by showing him the letter card.

For this I just dug out some sticky craft foam letters, stuck them to an index card and viola, textile letter card. I say textile because our foam letters are rough and not smooth, similar to sand paper but nicer to look at.

I told him what sound the letter made (emphasizing the sound more than the letter name) and had him repeat it to me a few times. Then I quickly explained how we form the letters by tracing the letter shape with my finger. I then had him do the same.

Introduce main book for the week.

A few years ago I purchased a set of books called My First Steps to Reading off of ebay. I tried to use them every now and then but plan on using them more consistently with Brother. These are great books-albeit a bit on the twaddly side of things.

Anyway, we read through the book and Brother makes the letter sound every time we come to the little boy or girl who is suppose to represent that letter.

We began with ‘S’ and in the book the ‘SH’ sound is also used so I went ahead and decided to teach Brother that anytime ‘S’ is buddies with an ‘H’ we make the ‘shhh’ sound. I wondered if he would have a hard time understanding that but he did great!

In the book Little ‘s’ goes around finding things that begin with his letter sound and puts them in his sound box. At the end of the story there is a review of all items in the box plus other words that begin with the letter sound.

Activity Time/ Phonics Review.

After reading the book and talking about some of the items in the sound box I decided that this would be a fun active activity for him. So, I pulled out an old shoe box an we went ahead and found stuff that made the ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sound in our home. This was great fun for him and I wish I would’ve taken pictures but I did not. I will for future lessons though!

After that we gathered our items together on the floor and brother grouped them into items that made the ‘s’ sound and items that made the ‘sh’ sound. He did this all on his own and did great!

Printing practice.

I printed out some handwriting practice sheets so that we could do one every day. I just printed out the week one sheets from the Writing Readiness category. One thing this boy has never been fond of is sitting down with a writing instrument for any amount of time but he did enjoy these little sheets. He did want me to help him trace the lines. I will help for now but will try to have him do a few on his own as well.

That was our short Ruby Slippers style Preschool for Monday.

Tuesday:

Review letter sound/Activity Time.

We reviewed our letter sound by having Brother do another active activity. I said a word of an object-from our First Steps to Reading book-and Brother would jump forward once if it started with the ‘s’ sound or twice if it started with the ‘sh’ sound. He LOVED that activity!

Bible

I introduced the Bible verse on this day since I failed to do it Monday. For Bible I am using a beautiful book that I purchased from Vision Forum a couple of years ago. It is entitled Teach Them to Your Children. It is on sale right now for only $6.80 which is sooo worth it!! It is like a devotional in that it begins with a rhyme that reflects the theme of the character building story that you will read to your child and then ends with a Bible verse. I must say that I cannot talk about this book without expressing how absolutely beautiful it is! The pages are wonderful and glossy and the page sized drawings are gorgeous! A must see for sure!

Our Bible verse for the letter ‘s’ is Psalm 141:3 and the lesson was about guarding our mouths. Such an important lesson for our little ones don’t you think?

To help Brother with the Bible memory I typed up the Bible verse on a chart. I had the verse in full up top with the verse again below but replaced the key words with clipart since Brother cannot yet read. This will help him (I’m hoping) to be able to review on his own and to paint pictures in his mind to help him understand the verse a little more.

That was our Tuesday.

Wednesday:

Today We reviewed the letter sound again and he also wanted me to read the book again so I did.

Activity Time/Art/Phonics Review.

We made his first Letter sound poster. We cut out some pictures that started with our sound from an old magazine and then glued them on a piece of construction paper. I plan on turning these weekly sound posters into a book for him when we are done.

We reviewed the Bible verse.

We also did another (actually two because he wanted to) handwriting sheet.

So far that is it but like I said earlier he has loved every minute of it!! 

Now typically I would throw in some books about things that begin with ‘s’ or ‘sh’ but haven’t been able to sit down with my non-twaddle book list and find some that would be good for him :). We do read so much though so I don’t really think that he is missing anything! We are currently going through Ginger Pye and for his age I think that is wonderful!

And yes, once we “officially” begin schooling him I think that I will have to think of a new name for our school at home. Any ideas?

Our New Friend

For a while now the children have all begged for a puppy. We've always said no because we understood the work involved in having one; the cleaning, checking for invaders, vet bills, food costs, house breaking, wondering where to keep it when we go on vacation. All of those and more that I can't really think of at this late of an hour have always cause me and McPapa to firmly say, "No, not until you all are older." Well before McPapa left for Cuba the pleas for a pet were stronger and more frequent than ever. He appeased the kids by telling them that after he got back he would consider it. Well that was enough to content them for the eight days that we was gone.

As soon as he got back however the pleas returned full force...not sure if McPapa meant for them to forget about the pet but they surely did not forget!

Well after some talking to McPapa finally took the first step and allowed us to begin looking on the web for a pet to adopt. There are so many little animals out there that are in need of a home. It's really rather sad!

We saw many that we liked, some of us liked beagles, others dalmations, others anything that was cute..our hearts were smitten more than once!

Well after much drama that I am not going to go into here the Lord finally gave us our little pet. Yes, we prayed about it, pray about everything right?!!!

This little fella is a cutie, are you ready?

He is a chihuahua. Not sure if he is a mix, we got him from someone in the church who has family that breeds them. We suspect that he is a long-haired chihuahua...all we need in this family-more hair! ;) He is so adorable! Right now he is quietly sleeping in his kennel. He hasn't eaten much yet, we are hoping that is because of his new surroundings and that tomorrow will be better. We are still deciding on a name. Here is our list of choices:

Charlie, Pepper (Pepe for short), Alex, Ginger, Baxter, Cuba, Max, Dash.

Not sure what we will end up with but we'll let you all know!

Here is a video of him.

Our New Friend

For a while now the children have all begged for a puppy. We've always said no because we understood the work involved in having one; the cleaning, checking for invaders, vet bills, food costs, house breaking, wondering where to keep it when we go on vacation. All of those and more that I can't really think of at this late of an hour have always cause me and McPapa to firmly say, "No, not until you all are older." Well before McPapa left for Cuba the pleas for a pet were stronger and more frequent than ever. He appeased the kids by telling them that after he got back he would consider it. Well that was enough to content them for the eight days that we was gone.

As soon as he got back however the pleas returned full force...not sure if McPapa meant for them to forget about the pet but they surely did not forget!

Well after some talking to McPapa finally took the first step and allowed us to begin looking on the web for a pet to adopt. There are so many little animals out there that are in need of a home. It's really rather sad!

We saw many that we liked, some of us liked beagles, others dalmations, others anything that was cute..our hearts were smitten more than once!

Well after much drama that I am not going to go into here the Lord finally gave us our little pet. Yes, we prayed about it, pray about everything right?!!!

This little fella is a cutie, are you ready?

He is a chihuahua. Not sure if he is a mix, we got him from someone in the church who has family that breeds them. We suspect that he is a long-haired chihuahua...all we need in this family-more hair! ;) He is so adorable! Right now he is quietly sleeping in his kennel. He hasn't eaten much yet, we are hoping that is because of his new surroundings and that tomorrow will be better. We are still deciding on a name. Here is our list of choices:

Charlie, Pepper (Pepe for short), Alex, Ginger, Baxter, Cuba, Max, Dash.

Not sure what we will end up with but we'll let you all know!

Here is a video of him.

TOS Blog Walk Week #3

Another week, another set of 10 wonderful blogs to get aquainted with!! Enjoy~
1. All American Family
2. Growing Fruit
3. Learning to Teach
4. Codex Young Author's Publishing Program
5. Stairsteps Homeschool Academy
6. Kingdom Academy
7. Living Sola Gratia
8. Wynfield Christian Academy
9. The Cow Queen
10. Peace Creek on the Prairie

Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

The Habit of Attention

So I originally planned to follow up the narration blogs with some information on what many Charlotte Mason homeschoolers would label as “twaddle” however I have misplaced my notes. I will-once found-add that very important topic to our Miss Mason Mondays but until then I will leave you with some thoughts on the habit of attention from Penny Gardner’s wonderful book, The Charlotte Mason Study Guide..

For me this is a personal struggle! Before going to sleep every night I try to read a little from one of the few books that I am working through. It never fails that after a few minutes of reading I find myself not sure of what my eyes have been scanning because my mind has wandered. My eyes are still dutifully doing their job but my mind is no longer paying any attention! (Ever happen to anyone else?)

It’s frustrating isn’t it? This happens so much to me yet I am ashamed to admit that I get frustrated when my little ones do it. It is so important however to train our minds to pay attention but how do we go about doing it? Here are some quotes from Miss Mason’s Home Education Series.

“Our minds go off on tangents. Attention wanders because there are so many things that run through our minds.” (Vol. 1, p.137)

That pegs me right between the eyes!!

“It is the mother’s part to supplement the child’s quick observing faculty with the habit of attention. She must see to it that he does not flit from this to that, but looks long enough at one thing to get a real acquaintance with it.” (p.140)

That is so hard! Or at least seems like it would be! But think about it, how long will a little child, one of even two or three years, stare at the T.V. while watching a favorite video or show? The answer, as long as we let them!! Now we recently got rid of the T.V. in our own home and I am so glad that we did but I can remember times when my little ones would sit in front of the one-eyed monster like hypnotized little followers. It truly bothered me! Even though what they watched was always monitored I didn’t like what they looked like while they were watching it. But, if they can sit still and watch a T.V. show for any amount of time it is because the T.V. has their FULL ATTENTION! All we as Mothers have to do is to transfer that attention to things that are actually edifying and exercising their little minds.

Whatever it is that we are wanting our children to pay attention to we need to remember that Miss Mason advocated SHORT lessons. In keeping lessons short but expecting FULL attention we will be more successful in training this habit of attention. It will require some watchfulness on our parts, making sure that the child's full attention is given to whatever work is being accomplished at the moment. It will seem like a lot on us at first I'm sure (especially those of us with numerous children) but the effort will be well worth it because it will produce bright, educated lovers of learning people!

It is recommended to do something like this, “This applies to babies and toddlers also. Once the child starts lessons, keep them short and interesting. Don’t allow dawdling to even start. You might have to go to a very different subject then come back to the unfinished one after the change. Follow a schedule so child can see that he has only 20 minutes for math, 15 minutes for the next subject, and so forth. If he attends well and gets done early then the time left over is his free time-his reward (natural consequence) for attending."

Doesn’t sound too difficult does it? It’s consistency on our part that will add much to the success of training our children in the habit of attention.

I love this next quote, “Ability-a different thing from genius or talent-is simply the power of fixing attention steadily on the matter in hand and success in life turns upon this cultivated power far more than on any natural faculty.” (Vol. 5, p 94)

Our children will have the ability to accomplish whatever it is that they desire if they are successfully trained in the habit of attention.

“We need not labor to get children to learn their lessons; that, if we would believe it, is a matter which nature takes care of. Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight. The call for strenuousness comes with the necessity of forming habits;but here again we are relieved. The intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the following out of the due curriculum in the right way. As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. We are all aware, alas, what a monstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of our memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural and spontaneous ‘act of knowing,’ as easy to a child as breathing and, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves. The reward is two-fold: no intellectual habit is so valuable as that of attention; it is a mere habit but it is also the hallmark of an educated person.” (p.99)

Whew! Did you get all that? If the children are allowed to do the work and parents don’t spoon feed the information to be learned, the children will learn their lessons and learn with delight. We just need to be sure that what we are doing we are doing in the right way. (And to be honest I am still learning and getting comfortable with the “right way” that Miss Mason speaks of.)

But you know what I'm thinking? If we, as parents, would work diligently to train our children in the habit of attention we would eliminate the need for all of that "cramming" that is done by high schoolers and college students alike. I can remember being in college and trying to cram a semester's worth of information into my little brain the NIGHT BEFORE the final. Ya know what, I didn't always do so well on those tests. But if I had been trained in the habit of attention as a young child then I am sure that the things that I was learning would have actually been aquired knowledge and not just crammed, temporarily memorized knowledge. Just my thoughts.

So, that is my little bit for this week. Nothing profound, not a lot of McMama in here. Just some great suggestions on the important habit of attention. If you have any thoughts please link up and share!



Lovin' Learnin'

Suddenly Salad giveaway plus extras!!

Are you looking for a great summer giveaway? Well then head on over to Hearthside Homeschool Reviews...and more and enter to win a box of Suddenly Salad Mix, salad bowl, Pyrex dish and insulated bag.

Go on, summer won't last forever!!
Lovin' Learnin'

TOS Crew Blog Walk Week #2

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew I will be able to meet an enourmous amount of other homeschooling folks. Each week I will be sharing 10 of their blogs with you so that you have an opportunity to get to know them as well. You may want to follow some of their blogs as many have wonderful ideas and resources on their blogs! Here are this week's blogs:

1.  Reaping a Harvest

2.  Pink & Orange Coffee

3.  Live, Laugh, Learn!

4.  Mrs. Mandy's Musings

5.  The Fantastic Five

6.  Refined Metals Academy

7.  Just A Moment in Time

8.  Providence Farm

9.  My Journey

10.Petra School

Check them out!!

Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

Summer time is upon us! We will be finishing up our '09/'10 school year this week and are looking forward to a more relaxed pace. Although to be honest with you it has been pretty relaxed here these last couple of weeks!! It's been hard keeping our focus when we've felt the end ever so mischiveously tickling at the backs of our necks.

So I said that I would talk about summer narration today. This is what I am planning to do. I am planning on having my school age children read 10 books of my choice this summer. These are good quality literature books that I have picked using the following resources:

• Honey For A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
• For the Love of Literature by Maureen Whitman
• Classical Christian Education 1000 Good Books List (Great place! Bookmark it!!!)

I will have the girls go through the books on their lists this summer and once done I will allow them some free choice reading (from a McMama approved list). I am doing it this way because as we are still learning and growing in the CM philosophy we are also slowly training an appetite for the best in literature. My children still seem to lean toward twaddle so I feel that it is best for now if I do the book choosing.

The books that I have chosen for them are not very long books. I have carefully selected books that are on the shorter end as far as page numbers are concerned so that they can feel a sense of accomplishment more quickly. Baby steps...baby steps.

Once a day I plan to have my children narrate from their reading. I will mix it up so that they do not always have to verbally narrate. My hubby and I are both people of few words and our children tend to be the same way. In this aspect verbal narration is going to be a benefit to them as they grow older however it is not a natural strength. What is a natural strength is art. The girls are fabulous artists and have been drawing since I can remember! I will incorporate much drawing for narration and some drama (acting out parts of the story) along with the ever faithful verbal narration. Here are more ideas that I have found from The Common Room:

• Draw a picture of a scene from your reading.
• Set up a scene from the story with your blocks.
• Model something from the story using play-dough.
• Narrate into the tape recorder.
• Narrate orally to Mama.
• Write down five sentences about what you read.
• Tell me about another story or event that reminds you of what you just read about. Write down three sentences about what you read.
• You have 10 minutes to plan a short skit from what you read.
• If you were giving a test on this reading, what are three questions you would ask? Skip the narration today.
• Write a letter (or e-mail) to Grandma about the reading you did today.
• Tell me what you think is going to happen next, and why.

These ideas will be typed up in large bold print, cut into strips and put into our Narration Jar. When it is their turn to narrate they will choose a slip of paper and do whatever kind of narration activity that it listed. I am anticipating having some fun with this one!!! We will also use a simple narration cube.

This page over on Squidoo has some great narration bookmarks avaliable for printing. There is also a link to a page on Funschool for narration cubes. All of these will help us in our journey in narration.

Why am I going through all of this trouble this summer? Well I have prayerfully decided that we will do only two "school" things this summer with the girls, Math games (from Rightstart) and Reading. I am going to devote as much time to working on narrating as I possibly can. Beginning this in the summer will allow me to do just that! We are also going to try to work with Brother on his letter sounds.

Okay, so that is my summer narration bit. Now, here are my *unfinished* lists of reading choices:

Biggest age 8:

1. Leave Horatio Alone
2. Horatio Solves a Mystery
3. The Velveteen Rabbit
4. Fiona's Flea
5. Pimm's Place
6. The Most Wonderful Doll in the World
7. Betsy and Bills
8. Betsy and Tacy Treasury (a selection or two)
9. George Washington's Breakfast
10. A science book from our shelf

Big Sis age 6:

1. The Little Wooden Farmer
2. The King at the Door
3. Dandelion Hill
4. When I Was Young In the Mountain
5. 
   
   
   George Washington's Mother
6. Bread and Jam for Francis
7. Bedtime for Francis
8. Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader Book
9. The Ordinary Princess
10. Tales of Trotter Street

Brother's "Read-to-Me" List:

1. Blueberries for Sal
2. Corduroy
3. Caps for Sale
4. Angus Lost
5. The Carrot Seed
6. Mike Mulligan
7. George and Martha
8. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
9. Johnny Crows New Garden
10. Happy Winter

Family Read-Alouds

1. finish Ginger Pye
2. Missionary Stories with the Millers
3. Mr. Popper's Penguin's
4. The Adventures of Old Man Coyote
5. Mountain Born

And here is a sample of Big Sis' narration from her Christian Liberty Nature Reader bk. 1. In this narration she is describing a robin and a moth.

"The robin has a brown body but his belly is orange. He has an orange beak and orange feet. The robin's song is like this, "Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet."

"At first a moth is a caterpiller. Then he turns into a moth. During metamorphosis he changes inside his cocoon. The caterpillar makes his own cocoon. Inside he is changing into a moth. When he comes out he has two antannae, two wings and a head."

Still a work in progress!! Any suggestions? I had to prompt her quite a bit during these two narrations...patience...I need patience!!!!

**Update** We just used the Narration Cube that I printed off at Squidoo. After we finished with our History reading I had Biggest roll the Narration Cube. She rolled the PLOT square she was to describe what happened in the story. She procedeed as follows,

"In the story General George Washington put on his coat and left his cabin for a walk. As he was walking he came to a group of soldiers that were trying to build a fort. They were trying to lift a very heavy log. Their Colonel was shouting orders at them but wouldn't help them. General Washington ran up and helped them to get the log up. After they were done he asked the Colonel why he did not help his men. The Colonel said that because he was their Colonel. Then General Washington took off his coat and they were all surprised to know that their very own General had helped them. The Colonel was ashamed. General Washington was not too great to help his men."

I was sooooooo excited as her narration progressed because this was hands down turning into the absolute best narration she had ever given!! Normally narrations from her are choppy and disconnected and she needs lots of prompting but this time it was so beautiful!!! I think that the "fun" in rolling the cube, not knowing what they were going to have to do took a lot of the pressure off of her...Mommy pressure that is!! I am excited about all of this!!

 Okay, post a response, thought or suggestion to your blog and then link up! Why? So you can share your own experience with Miss Mason's philosophy with me (I could use the suggestions!) and others. Tell us how narration works in your home, how your children are growing with it etc. Hope to see somebody sharing!!

Thanks!!! See you next at the next Miss Mason Monday!!
Lovin' Learnin'

A Great Puppeteer

Our little town library had a wonderful free activity today. They had a man by the name of Doug Berky from just outside of Indianapolis I believe come to down and put on a great show for us!!

Not only is Mr. Berky an awesome storyteller (with a beautiful rich, deep voice) but he also designs and creates his own masks! His daughter even took costume designing classes in college and made some of his outfits.  The costume with the man riding on the back of another is one of them.

Mr. Berky, with his great dramatic acting skills,  had the children laughing the whole time! He chose some very popular children’s stories such as the Lion and the Mouse from Aesop’s fables and the Boy Who Cried Wolf to share with us today. This was great because the children could relate the skits to the stories that they have heard. Being the creative storyteller that his is though he never   failed to put in his own personal twist.

This was a great activity  and I encourage all of you to look Mr. Berky up and get him invited to your local libraries, homeschool groups, public schools etc! You won’t be disappointed! His email address is dougberkytheatre.com

As a side note, after taking one glimpse at the masks I was convinced that my very easily frightened kiddos would be in fits but they were not at all taken back by these odd yet beautiful masks. Imagine, he created these all himself! Look at the detail in the Indian mask! Truly a work of art!

Lovin' Learnin'

Our newest addition to the family…

Okay, it’s not what you think! It’s actually an object and not another child or animal…Mom…:)!!!

Big Sis, being the typical 2nd child is always pretty quiet when it comes to asking for what she wants. She’s not pushy about it either. Sometimes I really feel badly for her because I feel that she often gets looked over.

Well when Biggest started piano lessons back up last summer we started Big Sis as well. She did great for a while but soon started to say that she wanted to stop for a while. I don’t think that she lost interest but I think that it bothered her a little that she couldn’t play like her older sister. Although I was uncomfortable allowing her to stop McPapa (yes, I changed his name…sounds better?) and I decided that it would be okay to take a step back for a little while. Don’t want to force her to do it now and then in a couple of years have her end up hating the piano altogether.

Well just this summer she had started asking about playing again. She has mentioned various instruments this past year such as the harp and guitar (neither of which we felt we would be able to supply lessons for) but here lately-and off and on in the past-she has mentioned the violin.

Well it just so happens that we know a young lady that gives violin lessons. This young lady also happens to play in the Charlotte Symphony. So terrific. We are going to talk with her in July about setting up lessons for Big Sis.

However Biggie immediately put this at the top of her prayer list. And the Lord already answered a big part of that list! We found a great violin (great as far as I’m concerned because I don’t know violins) on Craigslist for $40!! We were so excited when we drove out to take a look at it because it looks so great!!

View Full Album

It was a surprise for Biggie too and she was all smiles thrilled when she realized what we were doing!

So I am asking our family to pray that everything else will work out for this little one. If this is truly what the Lord wants for her then I know things will fall into place. Please pray for all areas: finances, faithfulness on Big Sis’ part, schedules for practice times etc.

Who knows, wouldn’t it be grand if the girls could play in church together? Brother wants to play violin too. We will wait another year for him. We used age as an excuse but I don’t think that we’d be able to afford THREE sets of music lessons!!

Thank you all!

Our newest addition to the family…

Okay, it’s not what you think! It’s actually an object and not another child or animal…Mom…:)!!!

Big Sis, being the typical 2nd child is always pretty quiet when it comes to asking for what she wants. She’s not pushy about it either. Sometimes I really feel badly for her because I feel that she often gets looked over.

Well when Biggest started piano lessons back up last summer we started Big Sis as well. She did great for a while but soon started to say that she wanted to stop for a while. I don’t think that she lost interest but I think that it bothered her a little that she couldn’t play like her older sister. Although I was uncomfortable allowing her to stop McPapa (yes, I changed his name…sounds better?) and I decided that it would be okay to take a step back for a little while. Don’t want to force her to do it now and then in a couple of years have her end up hating the piano altogether.

Well just this summer she had started asking about playing again. She has mentioned various instruments this past year such as the harp and guitar (neither of which we felt we would be able to supply lessons for) but here lately-and off and on in the past-she has mentioned the violin.

Well it just so happens that we know a young lady that gives violin lessons. This young lady also happens to play in the Charlotte Symphony. So terrific. We are going to talk with her in July about setting up lessons for Big Sis.

However Biggie immediately put this at the top of her prayer list. And the Lord already answered a big part of that list! We found a great violin (great as far as I’m concerned because I don’t know violins) on Craigslist for $40!! We were so excited when we drove out to take a look at it because it looks so great!!

View Full Album

It was a surprise for Biggie too and she was all smiles thrilled when she realized what we were doing!

So I am asking our family to pray that everything else will work out for this little one. If this is truly what the Lord wants for her then I know things will fall into place. Please pray for all areas: finances, faithfulness on Big Sis’ part, schedules for practice times etc.

Who knows, wouldn’t it be grand if the girls could play in church together? Brother wants to play violin too. We will wait another year for him. We used age as an excuse but I don’t think that we’d be able to afford THREE sets of music lessons!!

Thank you all!

Revolutionary War Links

We have been slowly going through the birth of our country for history this year and have enjoyed it immensely. We have now made it up to the time of the Revolution. I personally have been touched at the dedication that the men of our past gave to their new country. Reading about this time will put into perspective the great price that was paid by humble men to gain our Independance. Oh that we strive to love our country as they did.

 

In our reading today we were instructed to find maps and locate particular cities where major battles were fought. I found some great websites and wanted to share some with you all here. I hope that you find them useful.

 

• This site has an interactive Revolutionary  battle map, timeline, Revolution activities and more!!
• This site has an awesome interactive map that shows victories in two different colors.
• Here is an extensive timeline with clickable links to learn more about specific events. More for the older set.
• This place has a map of the original 13 colonies, the land clamied by Great Britian and Spain as well. It's set up kind of reminded me of Wikipedia but for children.
• A neat game called the Road to Revolution can be found here. By correctly answering questions surrounding the war you make your way towards liberty. Other great resources on that PBS page as well.
• Check out some free streaming videos. Not all are great quality but still watchable.
• More maps. Beautiful maps of early America.
• Information on major events of this time period here.

 

I'm sure that there are tons more sites out there, these are just a few of the ones we found.

 

Lovin' Learnin'

The Legacy of Home: To use Coupons or Not - That is the Question - With lots of stories about Home Economics

I came across a great article on whether or not to use coupons today and just wanted to share it with you all. I say great because it really struck a chord with me. Although I have tried so hard to be a "faithful" coupon user it's never been something that I've been able to stick with. I guess the reason that I don't stick with them is because I feel that I can save so much money without ever having to worry about getting the newspapers, checking the ads, running from store to store etc.

I am an Aldi shopper...that place saves you tons! And although I don't buy everything there (I do make sure to read labels and just refuse to buy certain products with certain things in them) I can get the staples at much lower prices. I also limit what I buy at grocery chains because unless it's on sale their items are priced high! When I am in town (as we are 25 minutes from the FIVE Wal-Marts that surround us) I will stop by Wally world to get some things from them.

I don't depend on name brands and we don't buy a whole lot of snacks...at all!! Sometimes I feel bad about that but after reading articles like the one that is linked below I know that the Lord has given me the wisdom that He has seen was necessary for our home. We do well in the frugal food shopping department. I'm sure others are better, but we are doing well!! Anyway, read on!! In this post you will find Mrs. White sharing her own personal experience with couponing.

The Legacy of Home: To use Coupons or Not - That is the Question - With lots of stories about Home Economics

Miss Mason Monday

So it isn’t actually Monday…I know! Yesterday was so crazy (as life can sometimes be with four little ones) that I didn’t get around to typing up my notes. Sorry!! Although this is one of my many priorities it takes a back burner to the others. I am hoping that this will be the exception and not the norm but we will see…

Narration- Chapter 3

This has been one area that we have struggled with so much this year! No, we haven’t struggled in implementing narration because anything can be turned into “narration practice” but we have struggled with getting good narrations from our children.

A typical narration from them is a fragmented sentence hurriedly spat out. They are also masters and mumbling. I know that this may sound harsh but it is the reality in our home. I know exactly where they get those habits from by the way!

So, we have slowly worked on this thing called narration.

What exactly is narration? It is the assimilation of information and retelling it in your own words. Catherine Levison says in her book that  “you cannot narrate what you do not know. If you can narrate it, you know it.”

Miss Mason states in her The Original Home Education Series, “Things that we read only become knowledge as we assimilate it, as our mind acts upon it. We must read with the specific intention to know the matter being read. We can read without that effort but it does us no good.” (Vol. 6, p.12-13)

I have seen the truth of this in our own experiences! It is very easy to tell if a child has gained understanding and knowledge using the method! But why is this so important to us? It is important because this is a cornerstone of the CM philosophy.

“This, of getting ideas out of them, is by no means all we must do with books. ‘In all labor there is profit,’ at any rate in some labor, and the labor of thought is what his book must induce in the child. He must generalize, classify, infer, judge, visualize, discriminate, labor in one way or another, with that capable mind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected, according as he shall determine; for the determination rests with him and not with his teacher.” (Vol. 3, p.179)

Wow huh? I’ve read this before but just know am able to more clearly see what Miss Mason was getting at. Narration is labor, it is a work but is profitable! Books, great books must speak to the child. He then needs to grown into bringing all that was read into his own thoughts and then his own words. BUT he is to determine what parts he will leave out and what parts he will include. This is his work, not the work of the teacher.

I have a hard time with not feeding my children information. I guess it is because we are still slowly growing with narration that I feel I must give to them ideas and thoughts instead of just letting them take the time to form their own. I however am working on this!!

So, how do we go about executing narration? Miss Mason’s suggestion, “The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading, –one reading, however slow, should be made a condition.” (Vol. 3, p.179)

For those starting out it is suggested that narration be taken slowly, bit by bit, piece by piece. There should be no rush. Read one passage 10-13 minutes in length. Now I will interject that I have been advised to even do paragraph narrations or even more extreme, sentence narrations. If the children are struggling with narrating a whole chapter (as I would even struggle) then shorten it to whatever length that your child can handle. Slowly, throughout the course of a few months to even a year, build up to longer readings.

Also we must require that our children give their complete attention to the readings. Do not interrupt the readings to define words (also hard for me). Once finished with whatever length of reading that is appropriate for our children we are to ask them what the reading was about. Our main job is to sit back and listen. We can then comment on the narration when it is over, add in details that were missed (not pointing out, “You forgot this and this and this!!) and even ask if anyone else has anything to add.

Oral narration is to begin at age 6. 

“Until he is six, let Bobbie narrate only when and what he has a mind to. …narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.”  (Vol. 1)

Before age six we should allow our children to narrate about what they please. Let them tell you about a bug that they just saw outside, what happened in Sunday School, what he and Daddy did that afternoon, anything!! I had my son (4.5 yrs.) run in the other day and tell me about something that he saw outside. I stopped what I was doing to get down, look him in the eye and listen. A few years ago I would have kept on doing whatever it was that I was doing and not even looked at my girls when they were his age. I’ve learned a lot since then and am trying to correct my errors. Miss Mason is helping me along the way! Children will narrate about anything and everything…if we let them! This is wonderful for their little minds! Let’s all try to do it more.

Well, my time is quickly running out so I will leave it here for this week. Next week I want to share some ideas about summer narration. I am also working on a summer reading list. Share yours in the comment section if you would like! I am also going to share a narration or two from my own sweet children. Just remember, this is a work in progress here!!

Until next time!

Lovin' Learnin'

The first fruits of our garden

Although it’s taken us quite a few years to plant a garden we have been quickly seeing the fruit of our labor! We are newbies at best so it has been so exciting for us to see these little veggies grow from tiny to ripe in a matter of weeks.

Just this week I was able to cook our very first homegrown garden vegetable. It was a lovely zucchini squash – whose plant has overtaken the garden by the way – that we excitedly brought inside to wash, slice and fry for supper.

It was so satisfying to know exactly where that little guy came from and what kind of chemicals – or lack thereof that he’s been exposed to.

Now he was so big that I was able to cut him in half and serve him the next night sautéed with onions and sausage for a mighty tasty meal that we all loved!

Here is a jalapeño that is so ready to be put into a salsa!!! Ole!  I can’t wait for our tomatoes and onions to hurry up and grow!!

Now you will see some weeds in these pictures because we had neglected our garden while Mr. Mac was in Cuba but last night we got out there (after these pictures were taken of course) and cleaned that place up. It’s a beautiful garden now!!

We also have some corn that we cannot wait for!! Just check out these babies!!! Ignore the weeds, ignore the weeds!! They’re gone now remember?!

What else did we plant?! Hmm…we have some greens that Mr. Mac planted, beans, sweet taters, onions, green peppers and cucumbers!! Oh my, can’t wait for the cucumbers!!! We also had two heads of lettuce but I accidently pulled one of them up!!! And there is a stray strawberry plant that was planted just to see if it would grow…the squash has that pretty covered up right now but it is growing. We have decided however that next year the squash will get a place all of it’s own! That thing is monstrous!! I don’t have a picture but you can see some of it behind Brother in the photo at the top.

And no, the cucumbers are not sitting in a bed of weeds. That is our grass. It’s neighbor, the overgrown squash, has taken up so much room that this little thing has had to stretch it’s vines out of the garden plot completely to get some sun! Bad squashy!!!

Miss Mason Monday

So I've read the first chapter in my Miss Mason Monday series. I have to applaud Mrs. Catherine Levison, author of A Charlotte Mason Education. She packs a lot into one little chapter!! Much of what I read in chapter 2 was actually just renforcing my knowledge of Charlotte Mason because I have done a good bit of studying before but review is always a good thing right? And I am starting with chapter 2 because I kinda delved into chapter 1 during my intro a couple of weeks ago. Well, let's begin.

The Method in Brief-chapter 2

Miss Mason belived whole heartedly that "children were born persons and should be educated by the humanities."

So what are humanities? They are academic disciplines (or field of study) which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical (relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory) approaches of the natural and social sciences. Some examples of the disciplines of the humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, law, history, philosophy, religion, and visual and performing arts (including music).

That right there lays the basis for why Miss Mason included the "subjects", if you will, that she included.

She also believed that "children should have a love for learning and we are not to kill that love." I believe that most children are born with a natural desire to learn. Have you ever been around a young child who has constantly asked question after question? I know that mine do that often! Honestly it is diffcult to not want to ignore them after some time because it is easy to grow weary of all of the questions. But if we are to foster a love of learning in our children we are going to have to "go the extra mile" at times to do just that.

One thing I appreciate about Miss Mason's educational philosophy is that the goal is to gently and gradually lead the child in such a way that they learn to self-educate. That means that in the beginning we are needed quite a bit but as they grow and mature they will become self-educators who need no one to encourage them to learn because they have fallen in love with learning themselves.

And although we may be needed more in the early years Miss Mason stresses that we are not to "be in the way" of the learning in the sense of not leading a child to learn this or that but to be available for whatever help is needed.

That is a hard one for me because my kiddos seem to need me to show them "what to do next". I'm not sure they would ever learn if it weren't for me....but then again maybe I should just let them try.

So how, you might be asking, does a parent know if a child is actually learning? Well that is where narration comes in. After a child spends time studying and learning about something have them tell back to you what they have learned. This method of narration is a wonderful way of varifying knowledge rather than comprehension questions or workbooks. I will warn you however that good narration takes patience. I will admit that I have been frustrated a time or two because the narration that I've recieved from my kiddos was just plain sorry. I know though that time needs to pass and practice given for them to be able to give a full and beautiful narration.

Narration is something that I have found to vary from Mom to Mom. What one might require of her children differs from what another requires. How do you know then what to expect? You pray first of all. Ask the Lord to allow you to begin to intimately understand each of your children so that you can teach to them as individuals. And then decide, from what you are learning about your precious children what each can handle at their various ages.

I have one child who excells at narration and another who struggles greatly at getting her thoughts out in an understandable manner. This process will take loads of patience and you will have to refrain from comparing one to the other because each is made differently.

Miss Mason also belived in the use of exams but only to show what a child does know rather than what she doesn't know. The child is to learn a body of information say about Australia and then they are to be asked to tell what they know about the country, essay style. This allows the parent and child to focus on the learning that has taken place rather than what has been "forgotten."

One of the most popular aspects of the Charlotte Mason method is her use of "whole and living books." A whole book is a book that the author wrote-one author. The opposite of this would be a book comprised of selections of different author's works.

A living book is opposite a textbook. Texts are facts-just facts. Living books have lives, emotions, people are married, and pass away. They are "clothed in literary language." A good example would be an accurate historical novel or biography.

I have read that Miss Mason didn't entirely give up on text books. I belived that they were used for subjects such as grammar and math I think but the emphasis in her schools were not put on textbooks as they are in our schools today.

Miss Mason's method also consists of short morning lessons with a large variety of subjects. She recommended switching subjects every 15-20 minutes in the younger grades because she felt that this invigorates the minds of the children. She was very adament that dawdling not be allowed during those few minutes so that the time was used as efficiently as possible. Mrs. Levision recommends using a timer and stopping when it goes off and moving to the next lesson. I think that this is a great idea and will be doing that tomorrow!!

The following is the child's motto:

I am, I can, I ought, I will.

• 
  
  
  I am a child of God.
• 
  
  
  I can through the power of God
• 
  
  
  I ought to out of duty
• 
  
  
  I will is different than I want. (It shows a choice or decision has been made. The child decides to do what is right.}

Parent's motto:

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

We need to make education, learning, a natural part of the lives of our children.

That wraps up our first Miss Mason Monday. As I stated before, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here. So much has been written and written well about the CM philosophy but I just wanted to share what little bits and pieces that I am grasping. I still have a LONG way to go before I become as seasoned homeschooling CM Mommy but I wanted to jump in somewhere and get some real understanding of this wonderful philosophy. Blogging about it just holds this "put it off until later" Mom accountable and gives me a deadline.

I hope that you learned a little something new. And please if you have any imput feel free to comment about it!

Lovin' Learnin'