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 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.