2011: Fall Term

This term, I'm homeschooling because:

1. My oldest is going to be baptized next June, and the most important thing she can be learning about right now is

faith

repentance

baptism and

the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

2. My children were put together, in our family,

by Heavenly Father.

They have things they need to learn from each other

that no friend in this world can teach them.

We need to be together.

3. As a mother, I need more of a purpose

than to take my kids to and from school.

I homeschool so that I can fulfull my calling on this planet.

4. I want to solidify our educational foundations.

Each of my children has weaknesses and strengths,

and they both need more of my attention.

5. To broad our horizons, as a family.

To discover together and learn together and be amazed together.

6. To meet new people and be more involved in our community.

Ambleside: Week 4 Planning

Devotional: The Bible
Review 1st and 2nd commandments. Work on the 3rd commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

Fifty Famous Stories Retold: "Alexander and Bucephelas"; and "Diogenes" (Greek)
Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephelas
Possible discussion questions: Based on our nature study, why is a horse afraid of his shadow? What do you think would happen if you were mean to a horse, just because it was afraid? How did Alexander help the horse to feel better and trust him?

Diogenes was a very wise man who taught that "no man should have more than he really needed and no man needed very much." Make a list of your favorite things. Which of them are things that you *need*. How is a need different than a want? Choose something to give away so someone else can have it.

Burgess's Bird Book: chapter II "The Old Orchard Bully - The English or House Sparrow"

Aesop's Fables: "The Kid and the Wolf" (pg. 13 in the Milo Winter version) and "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" (pg. 14 in the Milo Winter version)

James Herriot's Treasury: "Moses the Kitten"

Some topics for discussion:
Why did the farmer's wife put the kitten in the oven? How is the oven in the picture different than our oven?
When the farmer put Moses in with the pigs, what happened?
What can we learn from Moses?

A Child's Garden of Verses: a poem every day

Nature Study: horses
Latta equestrian center (pony rides - $8.00)
Craigslist ad posted

Composer Study: Beethoven's Piano Sonata 8 (Pathetique) Opus 13

Artist Study: Delacroix's "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage."

Ambleside: Week 3 Review

Dragonfly pond at Reedy Creek Nature Preserve.

We had a great homeschooling week this week. I woke up Monday and decided to haul everyone, against their will, outside for a walk. (Why yes, it was because they were already driving each other and, therefore, me crazy and it wasn't even 9:00 in the morning .Why do you ask?) Walk = torture = judgmental comments from old people = check. But that walk turned into climbing trees. Which was awesome. And then, while hanging from the trees we noticed some dragonflies that were resting on the bushes. Which led to up close inspection and, finally, petting their wings. And noticing all kinds of interesting things about them. Cue nature study and our topic for the week.

Skip to Friday and our weekly hike--this time to Reedy Creek Nature Preserve and Dragonfly Pond Trail. Perfect.

There is nothing like watching your three children flying down a trial in the woods. Noticing them noticing things around them. Helping them to be silent for a few minutes and realize that you couldn't hear a single other human being. Incredible.

It was a good week. For all of us. We ALL learned stuff this week. And that's my favorite.

Summary of this week's reading:
An Island Story: chapter 2 "The Coming of the Rom

ans"-- I'm not sure how much my kids grasped from this story, but we've talked a few times about the idea of a "Standard", as used in the story. I'm wondering if I can apply this to a Family Home Evening lesson about standards--who sets them, why, and how we fight to keep them.
Fifty Famous Stories Retold: "The Brave Three Hundred"
The kids loved this story. We read the story, then watched Part 1 of the documentary on the Battle of Thermopylae on YouTube. They've requested the story several times since.
Aesop's Fables:
"The Boy and the Filberts" (pg. 12 in the Milo Winter version)
"Hercules and the Wagoner" (pg. 13 in the Milo Winter version)
Blue Fairy Book: "The Glass Slipper"
Paddle to the Sea: chapter 3 and project.
Nature Study: Dragonflies and damselflies, observed at the ponds by our home; continued on a nature hike at Reedy Creek Nature Preserve--Dragonfly Lake Trail.

Artist Study: Delacroix's "Entrance of the Crusaders Into Constantinople"
Composer Study: Beethove
New this week: Explode the Code (phonics)
Fell to the wayside this week: morning devotional, daily poetry reading.

Ambleside: Week 3 Planning

Coming up in week 3 (ohpleaseohplease let me do a better job than this week!)...

Reading:
The Bible and Hymn
"Nearer My God to Thee"
3rd Commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4th Commandment: Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.

An Island Story: chapter 2 "The Coming of the Romans"

Fifty Famous Stories Retold: "The Brave Three Hundred"
The story of the Spartans taking a stand against the Persian Army and how 300 brave men killed 20,000 Persian soldiers. As I read this, two lines stood out to me:
"No, we will be free."
"To the Spartans there was no such thing as fear."

Aesop's Fables:
"The Boy and the Filberts" (pg. 12 in the Milo Winter version)
"Hercules and the Wagoner" (pg. 13 in the Milo Winter version)

Blue Fairy Book: "Beauty and the Beast" OR "The Glass Slipper"

A Child's Garden of Verses: a poem every day

Paddle to the Sea: chapter 3
This week's chapter is when the ice melts slowly, forming a canyon, until Paddle actually begins his journey to the sea. The little boy gets there just in time to see his boat start down the hill. I think I will freeze a large block of ice that we can place on the table in the morning and watch how it melts--evenly and unevenly throughout the day.

Nature Study

Artist Study

Composer Study

Foreign Language

Ambleside: Week 2 Review

Damon and Pythias

Um, I'm pretty sure that if I homeschool like I did *this* week... my kids will learn absolutely nothing. Except, perhaps, how to drive me completely insane.

So what *did* we do????

Uuuuuh... let me think. Oh yeah.

From 50 Famous Stories: Damon and Pythias
There's nothing like that completely... bored... look on your kids' faces. I found this story about friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice rewarded to be deeply touching, but my kids grappled a bit with the concepts. We did some narration (which went something like this "Uh, there was a guy. Can't remember his name. He did something. I don't remember what..."), but they could generally re-tell me the story at the time, but the next day they couldn't seem to remember it. At all. "Pythias who? Damon what?" This weekend, I think we'll be doing some writing and/or drawing to see if we can get this *very cool* story to stick.

A Laconic Answer

Aesop's Fables:

"Belling the Cat" (pg. 11 in the Milo Winter version) and

"The Eagle and the Jackdaw" (pg. 12 in the Milo Winter version)

Burgess's Bird Book chapter I "Jenny Wren Arrives: Introducing the House Wren" (pictures for each bird)

Paddle to the Sea: chapters 1 and 2
We actually did this chapter last week before we left on our camping trip. After reading chapters 1 and 2, we took some crushed ice and placed it on top of slightly tilted pie plates and then melted it on low with the warm "sun" (blowdryer). Our "Paddle" was a small flower petal. They had fun making him run from one pie pan to another, and blowing him around the edges of the pan to make "currents". I was surprised at how intrigued my kids were with Paddle, and saw that they'd really absorbed the story when we took it to the mountains and spent their happiest hours racing various "Paddles" down creeks and waterfalls, crying out "Goodbye, Paddle to the Sea!"

A Child's Garden of Verses: a poem every day

Composer: Beethoven
I've just had "Beethoven lives Upstairs" on repeat in the morning while we did our chores, and hoped that some of the stories and melodies would sink in. I think it's beginning to, as I heard Emily loudly singing "Ode to Joy" this morning at the table.

Art: watercolor waterfalls

Fell to the wayside this week?? Nature study. Artist study. Extra reading in The Jungle Book.