Our Final Week

This week we are finishing up our first term. Along with that, we finished this term's history spine, Joy Hakim's Reconstructing America. Our final topic has been African American issues and leaders, and I had dd choose one topic or leader to do a scrapbook page on. She chose "Booker T Washington," and I thought I'd share the page. It has a quote, a couple facts, and a mini-bio. As Providence would have it, this topic fit perfectly with discussing how big of a deal it is that we have elected our first AA president!

Next week, we begin a new term studying the Progressive era with Joy Hakim's book of the same title. I am switching and ditching a few things, and I'll post on that later. : )

Middle Ages and a 2-Year Plan

I am the type of gal who likes to have both short term and long term plans. It's helpful to begin with the end in mind, and it keeps me from being willie nillie in my buying decisions. The other thing is that I don't feel pressured to focus on every subject every trimester, or even every year. With a long term plan, I know everything will be covered eventually, Lord willing.

For the last few weeks, I have been looking at what is on the horizon over the next 2 years, for 7th and 8th grade. Our time periods will be Ancients and Middle Ages, so I have been tweaking plans and looking at curriculum. I have looked at Winter Promise, My Father's World, Tapestry of Grace, Sonlight 6, and TruthQuest. For science, I am looking at Prentice-Hall Science Explorer or Rainbow Science.

In the end, I prefer to 'do my own thing' and know that spending a lot of money on a prepared history/literature curriculum will be a waste of money in the end. After spending some time window shopping, I have decided to stick with an Ambleside Online/TruthQuest blend for now. It's been working for years, so why change it? I like to modify Ambleside by using the AO subject headings and plugging in books that will work for my family.

The TruthQuest commentary is wonderful, and I like to have the increases flexibility on book or spine choices that TQ offers. I don't need a schedule so much as options and choices. I have finally hammered out the rought draft of my internet-linked schedule for 8th grade. This will combine TruthQuest Middle Ages and parts of Ambleside Year 7. I plan to have dd use the links to complete history spine reading right from the computer. In the past I have always printed out the e-books, but I think she is old enough to read from the computer. In fact, I think she will enjoy it!

My schedule has spine readings, required reading, and optional extras. Required reading will be done slowly, over the course of each term, Charlotte-Mason style. I have found great advantage to this in terms of mulling over the ideas presented and letting the mind soak up all the characters and ideas in the book. There is also a "less is more" philosophy reflected in the fewer books chosen: only 2 are required each term. The rest will be student-selected from TruthQuest choices.

If you want to take a look, I will share my 8th Grade Middle Ages Schedule in PDF and Open Office. Let me know what you think. Also, I am looking for more videos set in the Middle Ages, so please let me know if you have favorites I have not listed.

Happy planning!

Anatomy of a Notebook Page

Today Miss M decided to create her first notebook page of the (5th grade!) year. She would like to present it here!

Together we would like to show you show how she put together her page. We'll try to go step by step and show pictures – I am a visual person, as you can see by all my posts! : )

Step 1:
Learn about a history, science, or other topic. That should be a no-brainer, we do it all the time, right? Here's the clincher: schedule in a couple of hours to notebook about it. Include any writing or copywork you have done and create a beautiful page or pages to enhance it.

Step 2:
Mommy Prep. : )
Mom's involvement will depend on the ages and abilities of your children. If your child is younger, you do more prep, and as they get older they take the reigns and do almost everything themselves. Miss M is a new 5^th grader this year, and here is what I did to get ready for a smooth notebooking session:

• Chose and printed out decorative paper. I tend to scrounge around for mine at sites like Shabby Princess Free Digital Page Kit Downloads
  

• Provided copied directions for the notebook project, using a page from Country Report Projects for Any Country by Scholastic. Another good place where your child can see directions for pages is ScrapbookingtoLearn.com.
  

• Provided questions (we have previously gone over) from our Sonlight 5 curriculum. Textbook questions work well too. Miss M uses them to create Question and Answer matchbook mini-booklets. (Another option is a written paragraph or sentences about the topic.)
  

Step 3:

Using Google, books, digital encyclopedia, or purchased software, acquire 1 or more images for your page. (Miss M is using the World Book recommended in Sonlight 5)

Step 4:
Cut images out and arrange on page. Don't glue yet!!!

Step 5:
Add writing. This week we didn't do any, so Miss M made question and answer match books using some Sonlight 5 discussion questions. Arrange writing with images until you are satisfied. Don't glue yet!!!

Step 6:
Add title, and any optional decorative embellishments such as photo corners, stickers, buttons, etc. Ours was pretty simple. When you are happy with how it looks you can finally glue it down!

When your beautiful new page is dry, add to your notebook (we use a binder full of blank page protectors) and you'll have something you can be proudly show off to family and friends. Kids love notebooking most when some of the (boring!) prep is done and they get to do the creative part. Moms love notebooking because it serves as a systematic record and review of what has been learned! Love, love, love looking back at our notebooks over the years. If you've never tried it, have a go at it this week. Maybe the notebooking bug will bite you, too!

P.S. --Miss M says she hopes you liked her 'Pacific Islands' page!

Back to School: Week 2
In Which Miss M Makes Siapo Cloth

We survived our first week of school last week! Today was the beginning of our second week, and the only subject I added was Bible. I am too much of a wimp to add in Math or English. It is enough to try to get back into the routine of school for now. We are keeping our day pretty light and fluffy so far. : )

Our day today went fairly smoothly, although I overslept this morning and got started a bit later than I would have liked. Miss M got up fairly willingly, and that is always a good sign.

Here was our day ended up:

9-10:00 am - Sonlight 5 reading

10:00-10:15 - Memory Work and Poetry

10:15-10:30 - Copywork and Composer Study

10:30-10:45 - free time

10:45-11:00- Bible

11:00-11:30 - chores

11:30-12:00 - Sonlight 5 World Book reading on computer (2 days' worth)

LUNCH

Productive Free Time - (Miss M chose to make an art project, did science reading, did a paid chore, crafted a home-made bulletin board)

Our second week is feeling more 'normal.' We are slowly getting into the swing of things again. I am pretty satisfied. Maybe I will get up the nerve to start math next week? Gulp.

How is your week going?

Sonlight 5 Art Schedule

I am so excited that we will be doing Sonlight Core 5 : Eastern Hemisphere this fall!!! Ever since I first saw it in that glossy catalogue four or five years ago, I knew we wanted to use this core someday. This will be our 6th year HSing, first year of Sonlight. Since we need some hands-on to supplement our reading, I will try to post any hands-on supplemental schedules as they are made.

This is my SL 5 art schedule using Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter. Most of the projects I chose are of the higher difficulty level for my rising 5th grade, but there are many simpler projects inluded in the book. I think some of them could even be done by preschoolers with a little help from Mom.

Here is the Global Arts schedule:

Weeks 1-2 (Pacific Islands)

Stuffy Cod Hanging (Fiji) p 144
Soft Coral Watercolor (Fiji) p 145
Siapo Cloth (Samoa) p 147

Weeks 3-5 (Australia & New Zealand)

Yumbulul Story T-shirt (Aboriginal) p 139
Mimi Rug (Aboriginal) p 140
Dreamtime Painting (Aboriginal) p 141

Week 6 (Antarctica)

Snowy, Blowy Stencil p 41

Weeks 10-15 (China)

Eraser Signature p 49

Weeks 17-19 (Russia)

Jeweled Eggs p 101

Week 21 (Southeast Asia)

Tet Trung Thu Lantern (Vietnam) p 72

Weeks 22-27 (India)

Clay Stone Inlay
p 57

Weeks 28-30 (Middle East)

No-Ruz Centerpiece (Iraq) p 58
Stone Mosaic (Israel) p 61

Weeks 31-36 (Africa)

Tie-Dye Top (West Africa) p 34
Clay jewelry (Egypt) p 18
Ivory Carving(Congo) p 23
Bambulina Hanging(South Africa) p 28

Finishing Up

The year has zipped by. It's hard to believe that this week's history project was our final one! Dd chose 2 projects this week: A Famous Woman of the Civil War 3-D Report and a Civil War Photo Scrapbook.

Here are some pics of the Clara Barton (Famous Woman) report from front, back, and open views.

After reading a biography of Clara Barton from the Childhood of Famous Americans series, she was amazed by all that Clara Barton did! Great job, kiddo!

Her other project was to pick out favorite Civil War photos and put them together in a home-made scrapbook. She used the Civil War Photo postcards from Dover, and it ended up being 14 pages long! It was a fun and easy project to close our history adventure with.

Here are some pics:

This Week's Project

We have been studying the Civil War for several weeks, reading a ton of good books, writing, and doing projects here and there. This week we made Civil War camp postcards. I had dd and her friend write imaginary postcards 'home.' After they were done addressing the postcards, we sealed them with an image of a Civil War era Andrew Jackson stamp we found on the internet.

Here dd is posing as Clara Barton, Civil War nurse. No smiles!

A Basket of Books

To require or inspire? Since I don't really 'assign' reading books, but let dd chose from our library basket, I thought it would be fun to publish what she has decided to read and view this year so far in our TruthQuest studies. They are a mix of chapter books, picture books and videos. We have a few weeks of history left, so she may finish another book or two -- but this is the majority of her history 'meals' from this year.

I have to admit that it was hard to let go of the control in the reading area, but the reading basket method has worked out extremely well at our house. No more assigning pages or chapter numbers, no more anguishing over which book is 'best' to assign, no more groans when a book is assigned! How freeing. I call it the Old Country Buffet History Method. In truth, more seems to be read when "inspired"than when "required." What a blessing to find a method that works with a more reluctant reader!

• A New Nation by Joy Hakim

• Liberty for All? by Joy Hakim

• War, Terrible War by Joy Hakim

• George Washington (CFA) by Augusta Stevenson

• Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Margeurite Henry

• Sightseers: Paris, 1789 (Kingfisher) - French Revolution

• Sacagewea: Girl of the Shining Mountains by Roop

• Meet Thomas Jefferson (Landmark)

• VIDEO: Lewis and Clark (National Geographic)

• VIDEO: Sacagewea: Heroine of the Lewis and Clark Journey (Questar)

• Oceola (CFA) by Electa Clark

• Nightbird: A Story of the Seminole Indians by Kathleen Kudlinski

• The Seminole by Lepthien, Emilie U (New True Book)

• Native Crafts by Maxine Trottier

• Traditional Native American Arts and Activities by Arlette N. Braman

• Dolly Madison (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Monsell

• Robert Fulton: Boy Craftsman (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Margeurite Henry

• John Quincy Adams (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Weil

• South America (A New True Book)

• Capyboppy by Peet

• Canals (A New True Book) by Elaine Landau

• Iron Horses by Nerla Kay

• Erie Canal: Canoein America’s Great Waterway by Peter Lourie

• VIDEO: Xavier in India (AIMS Multimedia)

• VIDEO: Religions of the World: Hinduism (United Learning)

• Story of the Trail of Tears (COF)

• VIDEO: How the West Was Lost (Discovery School)

• Welcome to Josephina’s World 1824: Growing Up on America’s Southwest Frontier (American Girls)

• The Story of the Santa Fe Trail (COF) - RA

• Jed Smith: Young Western Explorer by Olive Burt (CFA)
• Jim Bridger: Mountain Boy by Gertrude Winders (CFA)
• Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell-1847 by Kristiana Gregory
• Cowboy by David Murdoch (Eyewitness Books)

• Pony Express by Steven Kroll

• Pony Bob’s Daring Ride: A Pony Express Adventure by Joe Bensen

• Buffalo Bill by d’Aulaire

• Yippee-Yay: A Book About Cowboys and Cowgirls by Gail Gibbons

• Born to Be a Cowgirl: A Spirited Guide through the Old West by Candace Savage

• Bufffalo Gals by Brandon Marie Miller

• Frederick Remington by Mike Venenzia

• Caddie Woodlawn by Brink - RA

• Video: ‘Texas Legacy’ by Rainbow Education
• How I Survived the Oregon Trail by Laura Wilson

• Oregon Trail Cooking by Mary Gunderson

• West by Covered Wagon by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

• Roughing It on the Oregon Trail by Diane Stanley

• I’m Sorry. Almira Ann by Jane Kurtz

• The Donner Party by Scott P Werther

• The Story of Gold at Sutter’s Mill (COF)

• Almost to Freedom by Nelson

• Who Owns the Sun? By Chbosky

• Under the Quilt of Night by Hopkinson

• Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Ringgold

• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Hopkinson

The Patchwork Path by Stroud

• Escape from Slavery by Rappaport

• A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth by Adler

• The Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester

• A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Adler

• VIDEO: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Grace’s Letter to Lincoln by Roop

• Abe Lincoln: Frontier Boy by August Stevenson (CFA)

• Behind Rebel Lines by Reit

• The Boys' War by Murphy

• Who Comes With Cannons? - RA

View reading list as PDF file

Hooray for History

Ok, I'll admit it -- I detested history when I was in school. Studying American History year after year with a dry textbook and uninspired teachers was as exciting as left-over meatloaf. In truth, I was never taught a shred of world, ancient or medieval history in all my years in schoool! Suddenly, Christopher Colubus appeared out of (apparently) nowhere each year. As far as methodology, we learned facts and dates from our textbooks and took a test to make sure we 'retained' the material. *Blech*

When we began homeschooling in 2001, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to look forward to learning each day, and not dread it. Not wanting to face a stack of workbooks each day, I poured over homeschooling method books, and was attracted to several styles: unit studies, classical and Charlotte Mason. We chose and began with Unit Studies (Five in a Row) for Preschool.

We modified FIAR to include only a single reading and expanded on daily reading with related books from the library. Both dd and I loved Five in a Row! The FIAR art, geography, and literature ideas are some of our fondest memories of HSing. We (well, actually more mommy than dd) did a bit of lapbooking with our FIAR studies, added a little phonics and math, and had a delightful year. We read many good books, learned world geography, made lots of artsy tartsy messes, and had some cute lapbooks to show friends and family. Back to my comment on our delightful year... I will clarify that while the FIAR was delightful, our phonics and reading lessons were another matter that I will save for later. Take heart if you have a reluctant reader -- it does get better! ; )

Next we delved into KONOS and did much of Volume 1. Dd still talks about our KONOS 'Horse' study to this day, and asked for a repeat study in 4th grade (a request which I gladly granted) All of the activities were fun for dd (of course!) and required some planning to make it come together each week. The pro's of KONOS, in my opinion, are the character focus, the activities to encourage a love of learning, and the flexibility. KONOS is great for active youngsters! I liked KONOS and loved our time with it, but decided that the following year we would begin a more literature, not activity, based year. Knowing my dd, I wanted to encourage a habit of reading and study, not an expectation of 'fun' and activities every minute of the day. I suspected the activity focus would be hard to train out of her in later years.

In 2003, we found the answer to our history dilemma: Story of the World by Susan Bauer. Using the activity guide, we were able to focus on the narrative story and literature, and not miss out on the activities that we were used to with KONOS/FIAR. Story of the World is the best blend of the activity approach of KONOS and the literature method! We worked through SOTW 1 and 2 over a couple of years and added in literature read-alouds, fine art, and poetry from Ambleside Online. It was a perfect fit for an active, hands-on child. My only complaint with SOTW is that a world history text jumps around from country to country so much that it is hard to get the flow of any one country's history story. Being more of a unit study family, we did rearrange the SOTW topics to go a bit more country by country. Studying China for 2-3 weeks all together gave us more time to add in literature, art, projects, and the like. I have found that we prefer to cover more depth than breadth. I would rather cover fewer topics WELL. Of course, there are pro's and con's to this too!

In 2005, we were torn between doing world history with Story of the World 3 and going with an American History focus with a different curriculum. Each side has merit, but in the end we decided to go with American History for this history cycle. We chose TruthQuest American History for Young Students as our base, Joy Hakim's series as our spine, and off we went! Both World and American history will be the focus when we cover it again in later years.

I am sooooo glad we ended up going the American History route. There are oodles of delicious American history books for elementary children! Rather than selecting particular titles for dd to read, we chose the “History Basket” method for the year. Using the TruthQuest Guide and checking our library system, I fill a big basket with worthy books for 2-3 weeks at a time. The KEY thing is to never put books in the basket that you, as a parent-educator, don't feel are worthy. The child seems to have a way of picking the ONE book you think is a waste of time! Choose the best books and put them in the basket. Then, schedule reading time each day and discuss informally. That's it! It is so low stress and enjoyable for all. We do read-alouds in the evenings, often from AmblesideOnline. ; )

We stayed with TruthQuest for 2006-7, and are at the end of AHYS II. The only difference from last year is that dd is less interested in doing history projects and more interested in 'real' handicrafts such as crocheting and sewing. She is getting past the activity/project phase in her schooling. Dd has also taken off in her reading ability, and will read at least an hour or two every day – which I consider to be a miracle of God's grace! (She is a former reluctant reader who hated both reading and phonics, so we did it in extremely small, regular doses, Charlotte Mason style.) I am a firm believer in short lessons in easy reading for reluctant readers, rather than dropping lessons altogether. Practicing bit by bit slowly turns reading from an exercise in laborious decoding to an enjoyable pass time!

At this present time, we are finishing up AHYS II and we look forward to completing our American History studies by continuing with TruthQuest next year. We have found the literature approach of to be extremely enjoyable and thorough. We can add in activities anytime we want, but our studies don't DEPEND on them. There is flexibility, challenge, a myriad of choices, and freedom. Truly the best of the best that homeschooling has to offer. There are so many awesome curriculums out there: My Father's World, Tapestry of Grace, Sonlight, Mystery of History, and on and on! What is really important is that we find something that works for our family, and then go forth boldly, without second-guessing our choices. Enjoy the pageant of His-story as it unfolds for your family.

History studies offer the opportunity to learn from the past, apply Biblical principles, and study villains as well as heroes. These things are recorded that we and our children might learn from them and not repeat the sins of the past. We dare not squander the opportunity to to go forward with greater wisdom learned from the lessons of antiquity!

Our prayer and hope is that you may find inspiration, wisdom and joy in one the many excellent history choices available! Thank you if you made it all the way to the end of this loooooong post....LOL!

Hooray for History!