CM/Classical November!

[crunchy_mama]

Hope I am not stepping on toes- thought I would go ahead and start a new thread! Welcome to all the Classical and Charlotte Mason homeschoolers!

So, many exciting things going on for everyone.

Jessica - sounds like you had a really beautiful day! You didn't say or I missed, what did the boys think of the new 'style'?

MLW- I think I will be dusting off TWTM for the science rec's again as well. We are doing lots of nature time and exploring various areas there but I could use some guidance. I think I have the spines recommended- I am actually really excited about it all and will also be looking forward to what you are doing.

I am wondering does anyone here have any of the Lyrical Science cd's? I was looking at the Life Science one today and am considering ordering it. Seemed like a good way for some fun Science memory work.

Jennifer- I think that is great that the kids are so interested! Hey, if it's working don't change it!

We had a really great school day here, I love Mondays! Only problem is there is so much fun stuff to do I have a hard time stopping! We took a little walk this morning as well and actually managed to make it only 30 min. Before that we did our singing and lit. The kids adore singing. Right now we are working on learning Christmas carols as our co-op will be singing carols at a nursing home and Christmas carols are fun!

We studied Peter Paul Ruben today and one of the pieces on wiki by him was titled Massacre of the Innocents- I wasn't familiar but when I seen the title I thought that it was likely intense. However, when he said he wanted to look at it more I let him. It was so interesting watching him examine it and take it all in, the faces and such and try to figure out what he was conveying. At first he thought they were playing and then shortly after he realized it wasn't a happy painting.

He really enjoyed studying several of his paintings, I was amazed at the attention it held for him. However, when I asked him which one he liked best his quick answer was one of the lady- ie the one w/ the barebreasted lady. Now we don't really hide nudity around here, so it surprised me for a bit. He didn't freak out about it or anything- but they both did make note of Eve's nipples.

We got some new acrylic paint this weekend so of course we had to try it out- even I painted which was a blast. We also worked on mixing the colours together and seeing what new colour they made.

We also listened to Peter and the Wolf- the free Kiddie Records version- which I HIGHLY recommend, it was wonderful. Then we watched a Disney animated version and tonight we watched a version from 2006 which was an animated short film- won an Oscar(IIRC). So, I had dh burn me a copy of Peter, The Whale at the Met and Nutcracker (all from Kiddie Records) onto a CD for the van.

We did the basics as well, reading, writing, Math. We finished Poppy, when I started I was thinking it would be over their heads but it really held their attention. I did edit it a bit because I really didn't care for some of the dialogue but overall it was enjoyed. Now, I just got to pick the next read aloud- I had kind of planned for The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe but don't have the version yet that I want.

Tomorrow is Library day, so we will be rushed in the morning and be gone all day to Library and then co-op playgroup. Wednesday we will be home but Mom will be coming over we are starting on quilts then. I bought some fabric paint and am so excited to start this project, the plan is for a square a month- we need 9 for a twin-size quilt- then one square for them to sign and do handprints. Then they will pick out the material for the borders.

[MyLittleWonders]

Thanks for starting the new thread. That's all I have to say. I'm tired!

[Jennifer3141]

Thanks for the fresh start, Crunchy!

We got a hard frost last night so my kids are outside in their new snowsuits, running through the crunchy grass! We'll have breakfast when they come in and then get to it.

That book about 1001 children's books has been amazing. I've given two copies to my best friend and my Mom becuase it's so good. Add that your Xmas/Yule/Hannukah lists everyone!

[Momma Aimee]

I am still here taqgging along with my 2 littles (3 now, oh wow -- and 5 in 12 days)

[AngelBee]

Hey everyone. Jess...we are a bit Waldorfy over here too, so I am glad that you are staying. Mondays are always crazy around here! I just started coaching dance team last Mon, so that added in the mix has been a bit....well...

[BabyCrazy]

Hi, I'd like to join in too. we have just started HS this fall and I think we are going CM....
school at home didn't work lol

[Mama Rana]

Happy November, Everyone!

We had a good morning already. We went as a family to the polls to vote. DH walked DS1 through the process while holding DS2. Nice change for me!

When we got back DS was exploring our iMac and discovered he can make movies using the iPhoto Booth. So he's been making movies. Right now he's in the middle of an epic Halloween/Scooby movie. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We did a lot of reading today. We read about el Dia de los Muertos, a book on weird ocean creatures, from SOTW and KHE about Ancient Cretes, and we worked on our abridged 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'd like to read the full-length version next if he'll "let" me. I've enjoyed the abridgment but I recognize it's lack of depth [a tunnel under the isthmus between Africa and the Middle East covered in 2 sentences?! I want details, people!].
Then we did reading. I'm liking Phonics Pathways better than OPGTR. DS read "Sleepy Bear" to me. And we did some handwriting practice.
We started the unit on shapes in math. I'm not planning to spend tons of time on this as he got a thorough intro to that last year, and I'd rather focus on other things, like patterns and the functions.

We haven't done any science yet other than the ocean creatures read-aloud. I'm not really enjoying the Classical Life Science curriculum I down-loaded. Some aspects are interesting, but.... meh.
Who was it that did the huge felt wall? That sounds more fun.... It doesn't help that I don't enjoy "doing" science. bah

Now we ate lunch and he's working on his movie, which is already 10 minutes long! Eeep! I hope he doesn't fill up the hard-drive.

[Jennifer3141]

MLW, Living Memory showed up today! Very, very cool. Thanks for the recommendation. We've mastered Caterpillar so it's time to move on.

We're having a relaxing day here. It was supposed to be 40 but it's closer to 60 and that's rare enough that I think everyone just needs to be outside. We saw a praying mantis and to see that in November is pretty cool!

[MyLittleWonders]

Oh yay on Living Memory!

We are going to go vote soon - I am not feeling well (ended up getting whatever dh and ds#3 had/have) and don't think I'll have the energy to go later when dh gets home from work. So, he can take the boys again this evening. Otherwise, we are having a cranky day around here - I have no patience (really need to be sleeping but that won't happen until tonight), and the boys all decided to wake on the wrong side of the bed. Overall, at least, their behavior isn't non-stop, but it's trying enough.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

Jessica - sounds like you had a really beautiful day! You didn't say or I missed, what did the boys think of the new 'style'?

They LOVE it. Even Nate participates, whereas before he would be busy off playing by himself. The stuff we're doing is too much fun to miss out on, though! I don't know why I didn't do math this way before. Nik loves Noble Knights of Knowledge, but we were only doing it one day per week. Math Mammoth is a good program, but it's not much fun! Today we did a "2 is" lesson and then I modified the Math mammoth lesson we would have been on to be Waldorf-y. (I know you're all impressed by my made-up vocabulary! ) Then Nik asked to play Zeus on the Loose, so I had him write some of the additions he couldn't do in his head in his main lesson book and solve them. We spent twice as much time working on math as we normally would because Nik was having so much FUN! Our main reason for homeschooling was to give our children a better education, but an equally important reason was to make them love learning and for their education to be fun. I feel like maybe I'm finally on the path to accomplishing that.

I told the story of how the apple got the star today, continuing with our Autumn theme. Then we made apple stamps and painted for a bit. We also carved an apple to turn into an apple doll.

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

We also listened to Peter and the Wolf- the free Kiddie Records version- which I HIGHLY recommend, it was wonderful. Then we watched a Disney animated version and tonight we watched a version from 2006 which was an animated short film- won an Oscar(IIRC). So, I had dh burn me a copy of Peter, The Whale at the Met and Nutcracker (all from Kiddie Records) onto a CD for the van.

Thank you for recommending this! We actually read a picture book of Peter and the Wolf yesterday. So today we pulled the book out and listened to the Kiddie records version while looking at the book again. It was great! We're watching the Oscar-winning version on Netflix instant play right now.

Nate spent most of the time Nik and I were learning re-arranging the nature table. There is now a lion chasing a swan. Peter and the Wolf's wolf chasing duck, perhaps? We don't have wolf or duck toys, but the Schleich lion and swan figures are an excellent substitute!

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

Wednesday we will be home but Mom will be coming over we are starting on quilts then. I bought some fabric paint and am so excited to start this project, the plan is for a square a month- we need 9 for a twin-size quilt- then one square for them to sign and do handprints. Then they will pick out the material for the borders.

That sounds like fun, too! My dad is a quilter, so I'm just waiting for the boys to be a little bit bigger before we do a project with him.

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

We got a hard frost last night so my kids are outside in their new snowsuits, running through the crunchy grass! We'll have breakfast when they come in and then get to it.

We got frost, too. We didn't go out an play in it, though. We should have! My stomach was a little upset this morning, so we're doing our walk this afternoon.

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

That book about 1001 children's books has been amazing. I've given two copies to my best friend and my Mom becuase it's so good. Add that your Xmas/Yule/Hannukah lists everyone!

I missed the mention of this book. I need to go back and re-read the thread, I guess!

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I am still here taqgging along with my 2 littles (3 now, oh wow -- and 5 in 12 days)

5 is a fun age! It's not without it's challenges, of course, but they are becoming so independent by then that things become fun in a whole new way.

We're going to spend the afternoon making and playing with scented playdough, taking a walk to gather pinecones and acorn caps, and fingerknitting. My parents will be home from their almost month-long vacation tonight, so we'll probably spend tomorrow with Oma finding out about all of the places they visited and tracing their route on a map. I know she found some great treasures for them, and I can't wait to see what they are! She's really good about bringing them things that teach them something about the locations she's visited instead of just bringing them back a t-shirt or something. We have taratulas and scorpions in acrylic, books about animal scat and habitats, shells and rocks, a sombrero and poncho, etc. I love my parents! (Now if only I could afford to travel with them!)

Peter and the Wolf is just about over, so I guess I should go gather the play dough ingredients. I hope everyone has a fabulous afternoon!

[Jennifer3141]

It's November so I threw Latin in today. This is going to be just fine!!

Jessica, I'm lusting after your Noble Knights. I'd sell my crabby DS to get that.

[CherryBomb]

Thanks for all the feedback on the other thread, I appreciate it! I dug out SOTW vol 1 and the activity book and dd1 was really excited. And stocked back up on some art/craft supplies. So hopefully that will get her mind off of public school

So we had a decent day. We got a late start because I had a funeral to attend but dd1 didn't whine or pout at all when I got back and we got started. Her attitude has been a big issue this year (and last year) and it's frustrating for me. My mom says I need to put her in public school (because apparently there are no bratty kids in ps? )...actually she said it in front of dd1, which was what spurned the "I want to go to public school!" My mom doesn't think sometimes.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

It's November so I threw Latin in today. This is going to be just fine!!

Jessica, I'm lusting after your Noble Knights. I'd sell my crabby DS to get that.

As much as Nik loves it I couldn't ever sell it. Especially for a crabby DS! If it was a happy DS I might consider it. I wouldn't mind more children.

I posted a message, I think on the WTM boards, that I wanted to buy it and eventually got a response. I really wish the company would sell the rights to publish it to another company if they aren't planning on re-opening and re-publishing it themselves.

[Jennifer3141]

Jessica, I am in agreement with you. Why not sell the rights before you quit if there are still people interested??

I'm glad things are going better for you, Cherry!

[crunchy_mama]

BabyCrazy- Welcome!

MamaRana-Do you guys enjoy Nature Studies? The kids always enjoy that and Science experiments- Magic School Bus is a fav as well. Netflix has Beakman's World and Bill Nye is available on-line- maybe something to spark their interest.

I have some of the Classics Illus. as well and trying to decide if we should read them. I think right now though we are sticking to other full length books that are shorter. But whatever they get of good literature has to be a positive. I have read it does help pique their interest in the classics.

CherryBomb- Glad the day was better! I don't have advice about crabby kids- it seems my son's attitude greatly depends on his amount of sleep. And yes, plenty of kids w/ attitude in public school!

Jessica- I enjoyed reading about your day. It is always interesting for me to read about what others are doing, sometimes it gives me ideas of things to add or things to consider. I love the focus on crafts and nature, those things are huge around here. Another thing I have figured out ds love to color, adores it, so I think I might start w/ some coloring, work it in one way or another. We have a little Nature area as well, although I didn't really plan it, we needed something to put all the cool things we found on hikes.

The Noble Knights of Knowledge sounds very interesting as well. We do have fun w/ our games.

MLW- Hope you are snoozing away and have a better day today!

We had a good day yesterday, no official schooling though, just reading. Library day is always busy. We had worked ahead in writing, religion and lit. I meant to do Math and Reading but it didn't happen, although likely we will do some an extra day this weekend. That seems to work better than trying to cram things in before or after library- we leave by 10am and get home 5 or so.

My mom now says she likely won't be over as my nephew they think has strep, typical.

Aggravating as she has the flat sheet for our quilt blocks, hopefully we can get it soon though. I will have to think of some other artsy project for today.

Oh, I found a shield for ds for 25c at Goodwill today, so we bought it and put it back for Christmas, he has been lusting after the ones in Rainbow Resource and will be thrilled. I think I might have dh make him a wood sword to go with it.

[Mama Rana]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

MamaRana-Do you guys enjoy Nature Studies? The kids always enjoy that and Science experiments- Magic School Bus is a fav as well. Netflix has Beakman's World and Bill Nye is available on-line- maybe something to spark their interest.

Sadly, I don't really know what a nature study is. : Nor a nature table, really [and sadly, I don't really have a place to put one at the minute since my toddler is into EVERYTHING]. I need to make a commitment to look into those. DS1 is really interested in a lot of science things. I had originally planned to basically unschool that and follow his lead, but I felt like we weren't getting much actually done, so I thought I'd follow a curriculum to get a more consistent coverage and sequence.
I liked the idea in the Classic Science by Mr. Q of doing lots of experiments, but so far there have been "activities" but no actual investigations with questions, controls, experimentals, etc. :/ And there are so many typos in the text. Argh! Drives me bonkers. I'm glad I'm reading it aloud so I can correct them as I go along rather than having him reading incorrect language. Frankly the REAL Science Odyssey looks better, but I'm loathe to switch again.

[Jennifer3141]

Good morning!

It's library day for us. We leave in an hour.

Mama, we are loving REAL science and my friend found it used on ebay for about $10. It was missing a couple of pages but luckily they were from the time period where the lessons are free on the net.

[MissRubyandKen]

I really like the looks of REAL Science and I may use it when my youngest is of age.

I've been off for awhile, but I finally caught up reading old posts to October's thread and now this new one. We took a week off school as Halloween and ds' birthday are in the same week. We had company and other fun things to do. We harvested the last of our veggies, dp broke up and turned under the plants, and we all helped top mulch the garden spots with leaves. My older dd (10) did some crafts with my younger dd (2). We cut out shapes of pumpkins and various facial features to choose from and glue on. Also some handprint spiders with google eyes, lol. Too cute. Eldest dd carved her first pumpkin using a pattern for a haunted house. It turned out quite excellently! I carved a cat for younger dd and she was pleased. I made gf cupcakes and Nana made ds (newly 9) a cool guitar cake to celebrate his birthday.

I can't remember who mentioned the egg molds, but I am now lusting after those and cute sandwich cutters, lol. I reserved a book Yum, Yum Bento Box from the library and I am completely enthralled with this type of eye candy! Its so funny a concept to me and I'm adoring penguin rice balls and meat and cheese mushrooms.

As for school we've begun Ancient Egypt this week. I purchased a papyrus making kit and the kids are currently attempting to make papyrus. It also came with a piece of papyrus plain and one with hieroglyphs printed on it. I but the papyrus into four cartouche shaped pieces and dd and ds wrote their names in hieroglyphs while I did little dd's. Little dd enjoyed writing on hers too. I'd also lucked into an Ancient Egypt kit and the game senet at the thrift store. They decoded a message with a hieroglyph decoder wheel and made a simple paperstock model of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at Giza.

I'm still reading Charlotte's Web aloud, though we're not as far as I'd thought we'd be by now. Dd, 10, is reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and ds, 9, finished Time Cat and has started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

My kids seem to be 'behind' most other classical homeschooler's kids as we're just now using WWE 1, starting formal grammar (though they've picked up a lot already) and are starting our first cycle through History. I'm very happy with where we're at though. I've seen a dramatic improvement in both children's handwriting this year. My dd is also really grasping Math concepts that seemed difficult to her in the past. Best of all to me, they are both finally really enjoying reading quality chapter books themselves! Yah for that!

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by MissRubyandKen

My kids seem to be 'behind' most other classical homeschooler's kids as we're just now using WWE 1, starting formal grammar (though they've picked up a lot already) and are starting our first cycle through History. I'm very happy with where we're at though. I've seen a dramatic improvement in both children's handwriting this year. My dd is also really grasping Math concepts that seemed difficult to her in the past. Best of all to me, they are both finally really enjoying reading quality chapter books themselves! Yah for that!

I've actually realized this week that I was trying to push ds#1 (9/4th grade) too fast with writing. He has been behind, and when I look at the progress he has made, he's done very well. (He was working at a K level half way through 2nd grade and is now almost at "grade" level with reading.) We were trying to do WWE 4 this year after doing WWE 3 last year. But, last year we did not do dictation from WWE 3 even though it is written as such. So, this year I realized we needed to start with dictation, but the passages are so long and so complex (for example: 3 sentences, the first has a comma and two hyphens, the second is fine and the third has 3 commas!) that he was struggling big time. The narration passages also got really complex quickly. So, after posting about it on WTM and talking it out, I'm taking him back to the last 5 weeks of WWE 2 and then we're going to go through WWE 3 (but I don't think we are going to do the workbook again - I think I'm going to use the hardback WWE The Complete Writer book to plan my own). Then in 5th grade (probably mid-5th grade) we'll go back to WWE 4. I think I'm going to model my WWE 3 lessons around either Mr. Popper's Penguins or Farmer Boy. That way we can read the book together and also use it for narration and dictation. We'll continue to do narration/dictation or copywork from his oral dictation for history and science.

He's also just restarting his first cycle of history with the Ancients. I've decided that starting history in 1st grade was too fast for us, mostly because the content gets really "heavy" in SOTW 3 and 4 (in my opinion). So, ds#1 has already done Ancients and Medieval, but in the middle of last year I decided to restart Ancients again and we are finishing it this year. He'll only end up with 2 full cycles of world history, but I figure that's probably two cycles more than he would get in school. Ds#2 is doing Ancients this year with ds#1 and will continue on the same cycle, so he'll end up with a bit more history than his older brother. But, I've also decided that ds#3 and Little Bean will start world history some time around 3rd grade. So, I supposed on all that I am working behind most other classical hs'ers too.

(Oh, and after my experiences with ds#1 and ds#2 and WWE - ds#2 is doing WWE 2 right now but I think it's a bit much still for him too and I may backtrack him to WWE 1 for the rest of the year - I'm not going to start ds#3 or Little Bean in WWE 1 until 2nd grade.)

Today we did some school work. I'm still not feeling great, but am in a slightly better mood than yesterday (which is funny because I slept horribly last night). So, we did math, spelling, writing, and grammar. Ds#1 actually seemed happy to go back to the end of WWE 2; I thought he might not like using the same book as ds#2 (though that's probably going to change anyway ) but he did really well. I'm not going to worry about science or history the rest of the week; we can catch up with those next week if need be (science was going to take all of 10 minutes to do two labs; so we can do them on Friday if I want along with dictation/copywork on sedimentary and metamorphic rocks; history was just more of Alexander the Great, which we covered well last week too).

[craft_media_hero]

Well, this week so far has been pretty non-productive, at least academically. We had a lot of errands and running about to do on both Monday and Tuesday, so Monday was just bare bones (but we did get two spelling lessons in!) and Tuesday was nada. To be fair, though, we did do a pretty lengthy nature walk and have just really been enjoying family life together.

Today we did our language arts minus copywork, reviewed Latin, a little Miquon Blue, and dd did a fun Geography activity sorting animal cards to match each animal up to its home continent. She did really well and enjoyed the work; we read a little bit about each animal. I think we'll do it again this week and then something similar with the landmark cards I have. Geography is going great!

We have pretty much fallen off of the Singapore Math wagon this week. I hope we can "catch up" tho this chapter was really important (subtraction with borrowing), and she "got it" last Friday, but now has had several days with no exposure to the concept. Oh well, life happens!

We've also had a handy-man in and out of the house and banging and spraying and sawing, so that has been pretty distracting to homeschool, but hey, dd has learned a lot about plaster and building things---he is a dad interested in homeschooling and receptive to all her questions. It's really cool to see someone understanding the value of every day learning opportunities and being very positive abt hs-ing.

Lots of practical life work here, too. She has been helping a lot in the kitchen and independently taking on chores around the house Most importantly, her attitude is a lot more peaceful and non-confrontational this week

I think we will do a little AAS tonight, a quick FLL, and maybe I'll read the sotw chapter to her---she doesn't like re-playing the audio but definitely benefits from several "listenings".

Oh, and we worked it out with our charter for dd to come visit and read with the reading specialist; dd's actually really excited about this. I think for her "level" she's reading really good . . . IDK I go back and forth, but I think the really informal evaluation might help give us some feedback on what her needs are and how to help her. We also learned that they will be supportive if we our decide to "retain" her one year, but that the charter can only advance/retain a student once during their entire enrollment. Right now I'm still about 80% positive about holding her back "on paper" and continuing with our regular plan . . . but I will wait until the end of the academic year to make a final decision.