CM/Classical October Thread - Page 3

[Jennifer3141]

Crunchy, we are reading Tomie's cat book right now. It's ready to go back to the library Wednesday.
I also just pulled Latin Centered Curriculum off my shelf again. It's been a year or two since I last read it.
Your reading list sounds wonderful! I wonder if you'll end up going further when it's actively winter? It rained last week for a couple fo days and I read until I lost my voice.

MLW, the part you hate about REAL science is the part I love the most. I LOVE finding all those and materials. I love the thrill of the hunt. (As long as I have the money. )

[crunchy_mama]

I bet I will read more in the winter, but still only so much time in the day. WE can do one chapter book read-aloud a week but it doesn't always happen. Of course with the long list of picture books I want us to read as well. Always more bookls toread though! I am looking forward to reading Narnia, Oz and so many other great books with them.

[Bluegoat]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

Oh, I am curious about adding in some handcrafts- ideas from anyone? Easy things to learn and teach?

I'm planing to teach my kids to hook rugs the traditional way. It's not too hard to learn, doesn't require a lot of equipment (and even if you go all out there isn't a ton), can use many recycled materials, and makes really nice useful things.

I learned a few years ago. It's done on burlap for the most part, and you can use a large embroidery frame, or a small lap quilting frame to start. It uses a simple hook, and strips of wool cloth. Though you can also use sweatshirt material (but you probably need to cut that by hand - but then you don't need to bother with a cutter!) And there is only one "stick" to learn.

Here is a website. Depending on where you live, there might be a group - usually a bunch of old ladies. There are lots of other websites - I just like this lady's rugs a lot. You can find youtube videos showing how to do it.

[*Jessica*]

Welcome Carrie!

crunchy_mama, literature is one subject where I've relaxed with the planning. There are soooooo many good books to read that I know if I made a list and planned it out I would be trying to cram in twice as much as is comfortable. We just finished week 9 and we've read Little House in the Big Woods, My Father's Dragon, and a few chapters of The Door in the Wall. We've also listened to a few audio books. (I love audio books, they save my voice!) Marc reads to the boys at bedtime, and he has taken over some of the read-alouds that I wanted to get to for school. They read Mr. Popper's Penguins and are about to start The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. There was another one, but the title is eluding me now and I'm too lazy to get up and search for it. They also read the first Harry Potter book, but I'm not counting that as a school book!

So that's about 2 weeks per chapter book, I guess. With audio books added, plus plenty of picture books, I think we're setting a nice pace. I feel like we're putting a dent in the list of good books, but with Marc and audio books helping out with the reading I don't feel overwhelmed.

We took today off to have lunch and play with old friends from preschool who had Columbus day off from school. We spent the afternoon playing with my nephew, who we don't see enough of now that he's in school. He is 2 days younger than Nik, so they are pretty close. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to visit my parents before they leave for a month-long vacation. Oma needs to get her grandchild fix before they leave. So we're probably not going to accomplish as much as I wanted to this week.

Maybe we'll be alright, though. I had more of a unit-study approach planned this week. It's not something we've tried before, so we'll see how it goes. October 10th-16th is Earth Science Week, and October 13th is National Fossil Day. We'll be watching Journey to the Center of the Earth (again) and using this educator's guide. For Fossil Day we'll be using this Junior Paleontologist Activity Booklet. We're studying earth science this year, so we had to do something special this week. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Marc was just teasing and asked me if I was typing a novel, so I think maybe I've said enough.

[crunchy_mama]

Thanks Bluegoat for that info. I was thinking some about crocheting or knitting but I don't know anything about any of it. I will look into that. I was thinking maybe some sewing w/ felt or fleece today. Maybe a simple running stitch, even I could do that. I seen a book on kid's wordworking projects as well. I will have to check out the hoop rug as another possibility. Oh, and we read a book last week talking about origami- so I thought that might be a fun one as well.

Jessica- I think making a list of books will keep me focused without always thinking about all the books I should/could be reading, we will see! We loved My Father's Dragon series! I haven't read any Little House books yet, it is on the list though!

Anxious to hear how your unit studies go, we have started doing that w/ history as I am really attracted to the unit study idea myself and it seems appropriate w/ his age. We really enjoyed Journey to the Center of the Earth- I am enamored again w/ Brendan Frasier since we have been listening to his reading of Dragon Rider(I think I mentioned that already but we all love it!).


Oh, and I forgot exciting news I ran into a lady from co-op who actually is a Classical homeschooler. First person I have met irl! So, that was kind of interesting. Although, she seems really stuck on using all WTM rec's exactly as planned, which isn't necessarily my idea of classical. I think there are other providers that fill that need and I plan to use whatever curriculums seem to work w/ the kids at whatever pace they are at- then oddly she said she wasn't much on reading to her kids. The reading to me is one of the most important aspects to me.

It is interesting about the different interpretations of classical. As I said earlier today I just reread LCC and with fresh ideas I see a lot more that ways it diverges from WTM. He isn't stuck about doing history in any certain cycle and actually doesn't rec formal hist until 8th(IIRC). Also, science consists of Nature Study until 8th as well(again IIRC). Of course both them and all CM really stress the importance of copywork, dictation and memorization. LCC doesn't stress over formal grammar either but really stresses more on the importance of Latin in everything and learning grammar through Latin and of course great works.

I am not certain exactly where I stand on any of it myself but enjoy reading dif. perspectives. I feel we are where we need to be currently or on our way at least. Always tweaking though.

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

Maybe we'll be alright, though. I had more of a unit-study approach planned this week. It's not something we've tried before, so we'll see how it goes. October 10th-16th is Earth Science Week, and October 13th is National Fossil Day. We'll be watching Journey to the Center of the Earth (again) and using this educator's guide. For Fossil Day we'll be using this Junior Paleontologist Activity Booklet. We're studying earth science this year, so we had to do something special this week. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Marc was just teasing and asked me if I was typing a novel, so I think maybe I've said enough.

Oh...this sounds fun! We may join you. We r doing a biology/earth science mix right now. I had no clue it was Earth Science Week!

[Jennifer3141]

Good morning everyone!

I love waking up in the morning and reading what you all are going to be doing. The day feels so fresh!
(I must be channeling Pollyanna this morning. )

We've got a little bit of science, a little bit of history, and some more math and readers to do today.

That's about it. I've got to find out what times the hanuted hayride runs and finish reading FLL.

Hmmmm... after deserts, I think we'll do fossils as our weekly earth science subject now. Thanks Jessica!!
My kids love making tiny books.

[*Jessica*]

It's almost 11am and I'm just getting to eat breakfast. Does anyone else do that? I have hypothyroidism and my medication must be taken an hour before, or two hours or more after, eating. That means that I get up, take my meds, take a shower, get the kids breakfast, and then get caught up in tidying the house and starting laundry before we start school. Great for my house, not so great for my poor hungry body! lol I think I mentioned that we are going to spend the afternoon with my parents today. I made corn chowder this morning so I can toss it in the slow cooker and have dinner mostly ready when we get home tonight. I'm enjoying a bowl of it right now for brunch.

As soon as I'm done eating we need to start school. We usually start earlier than this, but my chowder making disrupted our usual schedule. We'll only have about an hour of school before we leave, so we'll do math, history, and reading. Tonight we'll be watching Journey to the Center of the Earth so we are prepared to start a science-heavy few days.

I guess I need to get started!

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

It's almost 11am and I'm just getting to eat breakfast. Does anyone else do that? I have hypothyroidism and my medication must be taken an hour before, or two hours or more after, eating. That means that I get up, take my meds, take a shower, get the kids breakfast, and then get caught up in tidying the house and starting laundry before we start school. Great for my house, not so great for my poor hungry body! lol I think I mentioned that we are going to spend the afternoon with my parents today. I made corn chowder this morning so I can toss it in the slow cooker and have dinner mostly ready when we get home tonight. I'm enjoying a bowl of it right now for brunch.

As soon as I'm done eating we need to start school. We usually start earlier than this, but my chowder making disrupted our usual schedule. We'll only have about an hour of school before we leave, so we'll do math, history, and reading. Tonight we'll be watching Journey to the Center of the Earth so we are prepared to start a science-heavy few days.

I guess I need to get started!

I have been HORRIBLE about breakfast for myself. The kids eat 8-830am but I have been skipping. Not good when you are a pregnant mama of some to be 7!

Today so far (been up since 8) a donet, coffee, and some water.

[MyLittleWonders]

Ah, the topic of breakfast! When we went dairy free, my easy, get-it-yourself breakfasts went out the window. So, now I have to be creative. : This morning I made my usual - coconut milk smoothie (I'm usually drinking about 1 can of coconut milk each day). Then, I toasted some bread and put butter & jam on it for the boys. I also cut up what I think was the last watermelon from our garden. (I have to check - we might have one more outside waiting to be cut up but I can't remember.) The hardest thing for me is to make sure we all get some good protein in the morning.

I also think I need to resign myself to the fact that we just are not going to have school started until at least 10:30, if not 11am. I'm just moving more slowly these days and so it's just the way it is. That said, we have been productive this morning - we are working through Ch. 7 in LfC A - the boys were happy that we finally are learning the 2nd declension - masculine nouns. I am loving all the English derivatives - for instance our vocabulary this week includes:
-vigilare
-demonstrare
-tardare
-habitare
-socius (think social or associate)

We also have done math (ds#1 is working with equivalent fractions - I think he's getting it pretty well, though when he had to find pairs of equivalent fractions, it was easiest when one of the fractions had 1 in the numerator; he was stumped when he had to match 2/6 with 3/9), writing (IEW - we made a key word outline from a shortened version of Belling the Cat and tomorrow we'll look at changing some common verbs for stronger verbs and also how to correctly use quotation marks), and grammar (I am liking Growing with Grammar though I am glad we have the foundation of both FLL and MCT Island materials - I think on it's own, at least for my kids, GWG isn't "meaty" enough but it is a wonderful addition to our other grammar/language arts materials).

After our break, we'll do memory work, MCT (analyze a sentence from Practice Island and read some more of Sentence Island), history (SOTW ancients ch. 22 & 23, plus read some Greek Mythology and Ch. 1 of Archimedes & the Door of Science), and then the boys will alternate independent work (math drill sheet, ETC, and either HWOT for ds#2 or an outlining page for ds#1) with reading to me. It sounds like a lot, but it should only take us about 1 1/2 hours (this morning took 2 hours). I like to keep our days under 4 hours.

How is Tuesday going for everyone else?

Oh, and Jessica - corn chowder sounds SO good! I need to find a good dairy free recipe or a good recipe I can tweak.

[MyFullHouse]

We had a relatively boring school morning, though ds did score a 90 on his Algebra test, and only one of the incorrect answers was due to dropping a sign!

But we made up for it by getting out to the used bookstore, where I found - get this - Latina Christiana I, teacher and student books, for $2 each!

Ds is using the Forms program, but my dd keeps begging to learn. For $4, she can play with LC!

Ds got a book about writing fiction, and another about self-publishing. Dd8 got a book of myths and legends along with some fluff, and dd7 got all fluff. Ds3 grabbed whatever was most colorful, lol.

It's not the greatest used bookstore (the owner says 75% of his business is romance novels), but it's our only used bookstore, so this was a pretty impressive haul!

[Mama Rana]

Carrie, I love finds like that. The other week I got Writing Strand 3 & 4 for 50cents each I don't even know if it's a book I want to use [DS is only 6], but for that price I figured it wouldn't hurt to hold on to them and find out!

We took a 4 day weekend Friday-Monday, so today was our first day back. Unfortunately, I forgot to finish planning for it, AND our school table was a mess. We got as much done this morning as possible, then had a field trip this afternoon, then wrapped up later.

Today I set aside OPGTR, and started Phonics Pathways. I'm hoping we like it better. I also had ordered "Word Ladders" just for fun, but we haven't had a chance to start that yet. For "history" we started writing a fairy tale, a la Gilgamesh from SOTW. His involves Egyptians, specifically Playmobil Egyptians, and sorta based on "The Three Little Pigs". Should turn out interesting!

[MyLittleWonders]

Mama Rana - you need to post your fairy tale when you are all done writing it! It sounds like it will be great!

Carrie - I need to find out if we have a cool used bookstore locally. I love books and love collecting old books, and would love to find them all in one place. My dad used to collect old books too, and I kept them all when he passed. Right now ds#1 is reading through a book called Arctos the Grizzly, which was published by the California Depart. of Ed. as part of their State Series - Wildlife Adventure Series. I think it's from the very early 60's.

We did not yet get to Greek Mythology, and the boys still have independent work & reading to do (more than likely with dh but it depends on how late he is home). But, we did most everything and I needed a break.

[Jennifer3141]

I drink a Coke for breakfast. I know. Kill me now.
The kids have real breakfasts. Today was whole wheat toast and my homemade jam and juice. An hour later, they had hard boiled eggs. An hour after that, it was some homemade granola. And on and on all day long.

We actually did nothing for school today. Sarah (my classical friend) and I have another friend in the hospital who took a turn for the worse today and Sarah hadn't seen her in there yet. So I stayed home with FIVE kids while she went for a visit. It was actually fine. It was also a little under 2 hours...
But we all survived!

Tomorrow we all go to the library in the afternoon for a fireman program.

Thursday is history/science co-op day. We need to get cracking tomorrow morning!

[Jennifer3141]

We're posting together, MLW!

I'm another lover of old books. But I get mine on the internet because I'm lazy and we share a car.

I got The Winged Cat today - the REAL one. The one that's on amazon for $1000. I got it from another site for $8 because I have kind of gotten a relationship going with this used book store in Seattle. The owner is so freaking nice - I've emailed him the book lists from HO and now REAL science and he's pulling what he's got and will sell to me at a fair price.

$1000 for a used, beat up 80 page reader is INSANE... Sometimes amazon's sellers really tick me off.

[MyLittleWonders]

I totally agree with the prices on some of the used books on Amazon.

Sorry about your friend, too. I hope she is able to recover. My hat's off to you for having 5 kids for almost 2 hours! (Though in the long run, sometimes I think it's easier to have other kids here with mine as they tend to entertain each other, but then the noise level escalates and then it's no longer easier! )

I think we'll finally make the library next week for the first time since dh went back to work. We've been getting such a late start in the mornings that by the time we finish school, I'm too tired to go to the library! But next week is our week off, so I think we'll manage to make it. At least I hope so! Dh has been going for me after work on his way home, which is sweet of him, but I do miss our library. We used to have the most awesome children's librarian, but she was transferred to another branch. The new children's librarian is nice, but just doesn't have quite the same personality, if that makes sense. (Our old one would either email me or call me whenever Borders or B&N was having Educator's day because she knew they also honored homeschoolers, she would ask me if there were books I thought would be good additions to their collections, and she was just overall, and awesome librarian.) We do have an awesome adult librarian though, and she is often over on the children's side of the library too. She is working on ways to make the library homeschooler-friendly, for instance, by having homeschooler hour before the library opens to the general public where we can get together, chat, have refreshments (the first time they did it, my boys were shocked that they were able to drink lemonade and have an apple in the library!) and meet other homeschoolers. She also has a daughter that homebirthed, cloth diapered, and is homeschooling, so she totally understands our lifestyle!

[MissRubyandKen]

I'm enjoying checking in and reading everyone's posts even though I don't contribute much . Another lover of books. I spent a lot of time this summer filling some shelves with quality chapter books so the kids' could have a better variety at home to choose from. I too love buying used and love deals, lol. I'm all the time on the lookout for cool used stuff.

We finally finished Prehistory yesterday and started Ancient History today. The kids enjoyed the mapwork! I used to love doing mapwork too. I only had one class I remember getting to do mapwork in. In sixth grade my teacher was an older eccentric man. He taught any of us interested how to play the harmonica and accordian. He also often played music during class, I especially remember the song 'Won't you play with my dingaling", lol. Yeah. Good times!

Dd who is 10 is currently reading Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and ds who is 8 is reading Time Cat. They're both enjoying the books . I'm trying to decide if I want to do one or two read alouds this year as well as their independent reading. Or maybe I will have them both read the same book once or twice so we can have discussion about them. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm already wanting to read The Bronze Bow with them, I'm just not sure how I want to go about it. I've already read the book and I think they will enjoy it.

In Science we just finished up electricity and are starting a unit on magnetism.

For Math we're still combining Miquon, Singapore, and MEP. For now the Miquon and MEP are good review and with Singapore they are building confidence and have fully shaken out the summer spiderwebs. I really think I'm going to have them both do 2-4 Math problems 3-4 days a week during next summer. It is frustrating for them to feel they have lost ground in Math every year after summer break. Ds even asked me at the beginning of last summer if we could continue to do Math and it got swept under the rug. Shame on me!

[Jennifer3141]

Miss, I love when you post since you are a cycle ahead of me and it makes me smile to think of getting there someday.

[AngelBee]

Pretty good day. Abigail finished her MUS book and moves up tomorrow.

I am still super sick. NO VOICE! Makes read alouds pretty hard. I should be in bed....but here I sit tinkering with a couple different homeschooling planner to see which one will work for our family. If only I could dream one up.

[crunchy_mama]

Wow, you guys were chatty yesterday!

re: breakfast- we are dairy, gluten, soy free here. I generally eat grain free but the kids do not. They love gf oats, other days I make eggs, coco flour muffins and pancakes on Sun. For me I eat a lot of eggs.

re: books- LOVE good books as well. I probably bought at least 100 books this summer. Lots of chapter books as well. Picture books are harder to find it seems. I check goodwill a lot and yardsales.

re: winged cat- ? on this why is the one on Amazon 40 pgs and the other 80 pgs? Seems like a great deal!

We went to the library yesterday, set off the security again! Sigh, then the system doesn't tell what books didn't check out and I had like 60, I barely got them out the door.

I decided to take off the rest of the week from formal academics. It is our 7th wk and I decided after the fact that I wanted breaks every 6 wks. We are just going to do our math games and reading review. I need to get the house back in order as well.