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August 27, 2008
That's no flower ...
I love to garden. I always, always garden using organic methods.
The problem is that I don't like BUGS. I don't like surprises like this:
"Hmmm ... I think I see an interesting white flower in my tomato jungle. How weird - there shouldn't be any white flowers there! I wonder what it is? I'd better go in for a closer look at the little flower ... AAHHHH!!!"
I guess this is our science lesson for the day, except that I can't get Connor out to look at it. Wimp.
(Psst - Angie! You're right - they're carpenter bees. Thanks!)
Posted by lynx at 3:37 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 21, 2008
Week 2 - This Is Too Easy
How odd. This is really too easy.
This was our second week with TOG, and so far, so good. This week everyone read about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, and the Native Americans who worked with them. It was very low-key. The older boys did their assigned readings - we even did the geography work. I read Three Young Pilgrims to the little kids, as well as the section on King James I in Kings and Things (H. E. Marshall). TOG does not schedule Kings and Things; it's my own addition. It's too delightful to skip.
The older boys did their Latin - Aidan wanted a change, so we're doing Henle. Really, there's no point in my saying what Latin curricula we use. We use one of three or four, depending. So for now, he'll use Henle. Both boys did Greek. Connor attended his writing class. I started Aidan, Lachlan and Griffin in Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease, each at his own level. Aidan did lessons in Right Start E, Griffin in Singapore 1B, and Lachlan in Singapore 1A. Connor finished through Book 2 of the Iliad.
No one was overburdened with work, and we all had plenty of free time.
On most days, the big boys start their work around 10 a.m. The little boys prefer to play all day. Sometimes we don't do their work until 5 or 6 p.m. Tonight it was after dinner.
Monday we had a field trip:
It was our first time to use the Metro to go downtown.
We got as far as the WWII monument. On the way back to the museums, Connor jumped off a tree, landed badly, and sprained his ankle. That cut our trip short, as I had to support him while he hopped back to the Metro station, through the station, through the next station, and out to the car. It took us three hours to get home, with the hopping. It was not fun.
Posted by lynx at 8:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 17, 2008
More on Tapestry of Grace and Planning
I still shake my head as I type the words.
Rose asked how much planning I'm doing. Actually, I'm up to my eyeballs in planning, but I think that's just because I'm figuring out the system, and how to mesh their system with my system. They have everything very nicely laid out, but I must also have 1) my own overview of what I'm doing in a week, with not only TOG but everything else, and; 2) some assignment system for the two older kids so that they know what they are doing.
I'm experimenting with a couple of different spreadsheets for my own weekly overview. TOG has nothing to do with this - I always do some kind of weekly overview. However, now I have to fit TOG into it. I now begin to see why people make TOG workbooks for their kids. If I copy the pages for each child, I can just circle the appropriate reading and geography assignments and go. I can also add in the history questions, and any maps or activity pages (usually coloring pages for the younger set). Karenciavo seems to be the TOG notebook queen, and I assume I will succumb to the desire for those sexy Levenger Circa notebooks. (How sad it is that I can use the adjective "sexy" for a notebooking system.)
I have been using Pageflakes to give the older boys their assignments. They like this a great deal. I think it's a bit of a pain, but I can't think of any better options. Pageflakes lets me give them a reading list for the week, as well as daily assignments. I just have to remember to update them every week.
For years I journaled our homeschooling, using a paper planner for a basic idea, but only writing in it what we did, instead of what I planned. Now, I need an actual planner. A flexible, good planner for the Mac doesn't exist. I'm hoping Jeff will write one. It's on his list. In the meantime, I use Pages and Numbers to make up weekly sheets that tell me what each child is meant to work on in each subject on each day. I used a chart drawn up in Pages last year, and I'm experimenting with one in Numbers this year. (I'm doing this because Susie did the gruntwork of making the layout, and making it TOG compatible, so I don't have to. Ha. I mean, thanks, Susie :)
But what this means is that I'm simultaneously putting assignments into Pageflakes, making workbooks, and creating detailed plans in both Pages and Numbers. I am deep into planning Heaven or Hell, depending on your point of view. The upshot of this is that I do not yet know how much planning TOG will really require of me.
In the comments, KathyJo noted that it might be easier for a non-Christian to deal with the religious content, than a Christian of a different flavor. That may be true. I want to note that the worldview used in TOG is specifically one of providential history. If that is not your cup of tea, you are warned.
Here are some examples of Christian content we've seen this week. We had one question that asked the student to discuss John Smith's character, to think about whether or not he had the qualities of a good leader, and whether he should have been in charge of Jamestown ... and why we thought God allowed him to be the leader. That's an example of a question that's easy to modify. We simply do the first part, and ignore the second.
The student is given some Bible verses, and asked to use them to think about and discuss Galileo's positions, and why the Catholic Church was so threatened by his views. When we have the time, I don't mind at all doing an exercise like this. This can be a very interesting and informative exercise, and I want my kids to know how Christians think, and what the Bible says.
However, at the high school level, you encounter questions like: "What specific events in the story of Jamestown obviously show God's Providence at work?" And next week, at the Dialectic level: "In what ways did God provide for the Pilgrims?" Those will have to be tossed out wholesale, while I attempt to not gag.
But later on: "Using the Bible, define the qualities of a hero." Okay, we can define the qualities of a hero based on our own yardsticks. We can even compare our definition of a hero to a Biblical definition.
So it varies. There is still much we can use. Some of it we can use to learn about Christianity and Christians. And some of it will be kicked out the door.
We had our first end-of-week discussion today. It should have been on Friday, but, well, it was today, in the car on the way to and from the mall. (Captive audience!) It went really well, and was fun. Of course, encouraging Connor to discuss history is like encouraging a politician to talk about himself. Jeff enjoyed it a great deal. We particularly liked the fact that teacher's notes led us to discuss how the colonies were funded by joint stock ventures, and what that meant and how such companies work. All in all, a good discussion like this, with the whole family, is worth the price of the curriculum for me.
And oh, oh, I think the best moment for both of us was when we were discussing money and value, and Jeff asked the kids what "value" is, and Aidan responded: "Oh! Oh! Heinlein talked about this in Starship Troopers!"
Ah, the indoctrination is going well.
Posted by lynx at 7:41 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 16, 2008
EPA!
We went into DC today, and, well, this was just a shot I couldn't resist:
Posted by lynx at 9:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 15, 2008
Week 1 - What are we doing, again?
Week 1, folks. Yes, we've started back to school. This year I am teaching first, second, fifth and seventh grade. And the first grader is mightily resistant. Mightily.
But, we're back into it. Every day the older two did math, Latin and Greek. Every day the younger two did math, and either phonics, copywork or grammar.
There has been one little change. We've decided to try something new. I haven't been happy with history since my oldest finished all of Story of the World. Yes, he can do history independently, but 1) I like it better when we do the same topics at the same time; and 2) his independent work was becoming something easy to dash off, which was not my goal.
So we're trying out - and these are the words you thought you'd never hear on this blog - we're trying out Tapestry of Grace.
(Shhh! Don't tell anyone!)
For those of you who aren't homeschoolers, or who have never heard of this, Tapestry of Grace is a history-based curriculum plan for teaching one topic of history at a time to various levels of children. It's a very nicely laid-out plan. It is both meaty and flexible, and leads the older children to deeper and deeper levels of analysis.
So why would I say that you'd never hear of me using it? Well, it is heavily Christian. Heavily. It is called Tapestry of Grace, after all. The teacher's notes and many of the questions for students assume a Biblical worldview. If we continue to use this program, I will have to toss out their entire philosophy component, and at least half of Year 1, as unusable for us. Some of it contains so much Biblical worldview that we're not going to be able to pick it out or overlook it.
It is also an all-encompassing curriculum. It can take up your whole week, every week. i don't want to spend that much time on history. On the other hand, it is time to ramp up the difficulty for the oldest, and TOG's plan seems to do that for me nicely.
It also moves really, really fast. This one week covered what, with Story of the World, we would have taken six weeks to do, and we'd have had more world history thrown in.
Still, so far, I like the plan, I like the questions, I like the way it all comes together. I can always slow down when I want to, and take advantage of those times when we will not be able to use the TOG material.
It does feel odd, though to be using it. So, stay tuned to see how a pagan family uses Tapestry of Grace. I bet the publisher will love it.
So, we did week 20 of unit 3, year 2 (in TOG-speak that's Y2U3 Wk. 20, for LG UG and D), which covers the first English settlements in America. TOG recommends large amounts of reading and for some reason, my kids did it all. I'm flabbergasted. Usually, I assign and they weasel. But they read it. All. Connor even gave written answers to questions about the readings (in his usual, concise, way). And we did those nifty maps. Everyone read different books, but they were all about the same topics. We were all able to talk about the same events and people, with each kid having slightly different information.
I was not planning on using TOG's literature component, but it turns out that they schedule many of the books I was going to use anyway. I'll just throw out the ones I don't want to use, and add in others.
So far so good, but I remain skeptical and open to chucking the whole thing. It does have decent resale value.
I bought Writing With Ease to use for my two little boys. However, did I mention the youngest one's resistance to all things school? It will take some time to get into a rhythm with them. Which is fine.
Along with all the TOG reading, Connor is reading the Iliad this year. We're going to watch videos from the Teaching Company to supplement. We've got all year. If this turns out to be doable for him, we'll read the Odyssey, too. If not, if we take all year to do the Iliad, that's fine.
Hmmm. It felt like we did a lot. Now it doesn't seem like so much. We still had time for a day with Grandma and Grandpa, and we only did review today. Today we also did some science (gasp!), and art (gasp!). I know. We're just crazy, aren't we? And we watched a NOVA about Galileo.
Meanwhile, Connor discovered Asimov, and Aidan discovered Heinlein. We are proud parents. But, er ... it is kind of tricky finding Heinlein that is going to be, well ... I'm not sure about a 10 year old reading Stranger in a Strange Land. He found Starship Troopers, and fell in love, but I steered him towards Have Space Suit, Will Travel after that. Connor is reading the Foundation series. Did I mention that I'm thrilled?
Posted by lynx at 9:05 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 12, 2008
Homeschooling Goddess
Yep, that's what I am.
Check these out for proof. Peanut-butter ball dough maps of the U.S. Are they learning geography, or is it just a sugar rush? Who knows? They look cool, though, don't they? Oh, you don't know, because I haven't shown them to you? I put them all here rather than have four big map images here on the blog. Don't ask me why it works that way, it just does. I could stop it, but I'm not interested in trying. I'll put just a couple of shots here.
The map itself is made, as I said, of peanut-butter ball "dough." The rivers are red Twizzlers. The green sprinkles indicated the plains. The chocolate chips are the mountain ranges, the blue icing represents lakes, and the M&M is Washington, DC.
And here are the boys working on the project:
Posted by lynx at 3:23 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
August 7, 2008
Who *doesn't* want to play with paper dolls?
Here is a link to sign up for free Dover paper doll samples ... including free paper dolls of McCain and Obama.
Posted by lynx at 7:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 3, 2008
Manassas
One of the coolest things about living here is that we are surrounded by so much history. Yesterday we took a spur of the moment trip to the Manassas National Battlefield Park; it's only half an hour away. We got there so late in the day that we only had about half an hour before the Visitor's Center closed; but no matter, we were really there to walk around the battlefield. You can view the other photos here.
I haven't been posting many pictures lately, because Apple has changed iPhoto in ways that make it more of a pain for me to get my pictures from my camera to my blog. I think I'm finally working out the least irritating way of managing it. It's sad but true - I'm lazy, and if it's not easy, I won't do it.
Posted by lynx at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack