A Great Attitude...I Hope I Can Live Up to It
17 years ago
Showing posts with label M-C. Show all posts
Figuratively and literally. I've been looking at some blogs written by some amazing Catholic moms, and feeling completely inadequate. Where do they get the time? I hardly have time to glance at anything non-school or work related! In any case, I'm doing some housecleaning. On the literal front, that means I'm cleaning out the school room - not because we take the summer off (are you kidding?), but because it provides something of a transition point. We're also cleaning out the kids' rooms as best we can, and we re-sodded both the front and the back yards (not so impressive - small yards). I'm cleaning out this blog, too. Why? Surely not because I have too many posts! I really like reviewing for The Old Schoolhouse, but those reviews are not well placed here. I'm creating a separate blog just for reviews. I'll then move them there.
When I see what the kids were doing curriculum-wise one year ago, it seems like a lifetime ago. In some ways we've made tons of progress, while in others we have moved very slowly. I have made some curriculum decisions I'm ecstatic about, and T continues to be my easiest child to teach. I love planning what I'll do with her. N is a challenge, simply because of how quickly he picks up on things, and because of how little he likes to sit still. He loves to learn, but he doesn't love to work. I'm so grateful for my opportunity to write for Heart of the Matter, as it has compelled me continually to research the learning styles of gifted kids. Without the constant bombardment of reinforcement that N is not completely insane and abnormal, I would probably go pony express.
In any case, N has finished Math 3 and is halfway through Saxon 5/4. I expect that he will finish it by the end of the summer. Fortunately, T is done with 6/5 and is into 7/6, freeing up 6/5 for N. I keep warning her that he might catch her! She is staying ahead of him for now, though! My biggest find for the year, though, was definitely Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts curriculum. I should probably cut and paste from an email I wrote to my SIL rather than try to reproduce a coherent review. Better yet, I'll wait until I have peace and quiet (or until I'm dead, which will probably come first) so that I can properly extol the virtues of the amazing curriculum. Although written specifically for gifted kids, I don't see why anyone couldn't use this wonderful program. I have never met (or "met") anyone who loved words the way I that I did until I encountered MCT. He doesn't try to make grammar fun or interesting because he recognizes that grammar *is* fun and interesting. Words are meant to be dissected, understood and, ultimately, to be played with. A sentence cannot properly be understood without an understanding of its component parts - its phrases, its clauses, etc. Even better, from the youngest ages, MCT incorporates a study of poetry: not poetry simply as memorization or "appreciation", but poetry as construction and technique. By understanding these poetic techniques, children can then be equipped to recognize them when they read prose (there is a reason that most great writers also wrote poetry).
Well, suffice it to say that T is thriving with this curriculum, and that N would stop whatever he was doing to listen in.
If T had her choice, she would do religion all day. We kind of two-tracking religion. For our instruction, we use the series I outlined back in June or July (I still love it) in conjunction with Fr. Laux's Chief Truths of the Faith. Fr. Laux quickly moves into a discussion of each of the books in the Bible, and here is where we begin our second track. We have brought in Peter Kreeft's book You Can Understand the Bible in order further to explicate Fr. Laux. Here is my conundrum. Fr. Laux has another book, a wonderful book, which is more in-depth, and focuses exclusively on a discussion of the books of the Bible. Part of me says to wait until T is older to bring this book in. Part of me says that she is old enough or, more importantly, mature enough, to handle it now. We don't have to go fast, and taking a couple of years to move through the Bible, book-by-book, now will give her a huge advantage. She can hear it all again when I do it with the younger set but, even better, she can move on to more sophisticated exegesis. Alternative #2: she can set aside the Kreeft for now, and not pick up the 2nd Laux at all. We can just keep moving through Chief Truths of the Faith, and add Bible History, which was written for 6th-8th graders. The huge advantage for me is that this is written as a textbook (although since it was written in 1931, it is not typical textbook for *our* times; it reads quite nicely, and the questions at the end of the chapter are discussion style - with mapwork!). This gives her another independent subject. Of course, I'll read the book, too, so that we can discuss, but I won't have to read it to her, like I do with Kreeft, so that we can discuss as we go. It will give her more background to do the more in-depth Bible study next year. I think I'm convincing myself; she won't be happy, though.
Religion for the little kids? St. Joseph Catechism, lots of Bible stories, narrations, and drawings. They love to do their drawings! I want N really to work on his narrations this year. He is becoming quite a good writer, and his grammar sometimes amazes even me. M and M-C love to color anything I put in front of them, especially these Rosary coloring pages.
More subjects to discuss next time. History -- oh that history. How can I love it so much, but have so much trouble figuring out how to teach it coherently? I am trying to teach the unified history of the world and everything. It's not going all that smoothly. However, M is drawing Ajax as we speak, and the kids love to reenact the Trojan War, so at least they are in touch with their roots. There's nothing bad about that. T can tell you just about anything you might want to know about the Tudors (including which of Henry VIII's wives escaped the blade!). They all know a thing or two about the Tlingit Indians. They even know that American Indians called themselves "The People." I guess we're doing okay. Now to break out those timelines so that the Tlingit don't end up fighting the Trojans. It hasn't happened so far...
July 24, 2009
I have to confess that I have not loved our mini-vacation. If one cares about the children's grade levels, than I feel that we stopped just short of finishing their prior grades. To a Type A like me, that feels like we're starting in the middle, never mind that we are just taking three weeks off for summer (one more week to go!). Still, I guess it will help me to organize my thoughts as to where we will be picking up. It seems as if I do that quite a bit. So, the kids' curricula will be as follows:
T - turning eight and starting 5th grade
Language Arts - Saxon Grammar and Writing 5 and Writing with Ease
Math - Saxon 6/5
Latin - Latina Christiana (but I'm still awaiting a recommendation from an expert on that)
History - Connecting with History (a Roman Catholic history program) VERY loosely, but
mostly my own devising. We'll spend at least a couple of months in Egypt (more if the kids want to), aided by a WEB interactive unit study by Brandenberg Studies. We'll then spend as much time as we want to in Ancient Greece. If we get to Rome this year, great. If not, we'll continue next year. Along the way, I'll document what we do and what we read, because I still feel very called to write a curriculum.
American History - Joy Hakim's books will be our spine here, but I plan to use many OOP books available on Project Gutenberg (and pray that a Kindle drops into my lap) to really make this a living books, read aloud subject for everyone except T (about whom, ironically, I am writing now). Again, I am going to document how and what I teach as I go.
Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I really think the kids are going to enjoy this one, especially once we get past all of the young earth nonsense.
Religion - Our Holy Faith 5 - Living Like Christ, in Christ. I'm really happy with this series. T likes it, too. It's comprehensive, meaty (but not on Fridays), and highly readable. We'll also continue with Fr. Laux's Chief Truths of the Faith. She *really* likes that book. I'm trying to figure out how I can work in Bible History. Maybe I'll wait a few years until I get get all four together.
Handwriting - cursive practice combined with copywork/catechism on magistra-created worksheets with the aid of Startwrite.
Art - Meet the Masters online edition
I'm really excited about the Saxon Grammar. It starts with Grade 5, which is just right for us. I can tell that much of it will be repitition for us (thanks to the awesome work of FLL), but I can't skip her to 6 because of the writing lessons, which look really good. The format is just right for her learning style, so she's happy about it, too, although she was originally skeptical. I think this year will work really well for us. I bought her an assignment notebook, and every day I will write the assignments that she and I have to do together in one color of pen, and those that she can do alone in another color. That way, she will always know what to do, and she will never have any "dead" time.
N - just turned six and starting second grade
Language Arts - FLL 2 and Writing with Ease
Phonics - Explode the Code 4
Spelling - Spellwell Aa
Math - Saxon 3
Latin - Prima Latina
History/American History/Science - same as above
Religion - listening with T and bible stories
Handwriting - my creations with Startwrite
Art - same as above
M and M-C - four years old and starting K
Phonics - ClickNKids
Math - Saxon 1
Handwriting - Startwrite worksheets
Spelling - All About Spelling One
Religion - Bible stories
Any part of any other subject to which they want to listen.
How do I plan to schedule all of this you ask? Good question - I have actually been doing most of it prior to now. I'll post my schedule in a coming update. I am blessed with independent workers (mainly T, obviously) and all-around great kids.
As for me, I still work for edHelper, and I love what I do for them. I also review materials for The Old Schoolhouse and for Teacher Book Bag. Further, I am rolling around a plan for a business of my own...it's just all about the time! N started coach pitch this year (he sort of had to "try out" for his team, and they've already started practice, even though sign-ups don't even end until the end of September! I can't believe how competitive they are already at this age. M is still in t-ball, so we won't even know his team for at least a month. Thank goodness! I expect to be at the field five days a week this fall! T has dance for 1 1/2 hours, and M-C for an hour. I should get a lot of knitting done once the year begins in earnest :)
