Classics Challenge: Six Easy Pieces

This isn't really where I thought I'd be going with the non-fiction category. I probably assumed I'd choose a biography or travel book. But I started doing a bit more pre-reading while I prep for Lucy's High School years and I read several science books and thoroughly enjoyed this one. It took me a while to figure out if it qualified because I couldn't find the original publication date. Most of the publication dates I found were after the author, Richard Feynman, had died so at least I knew they weren't quite right. But the book is based on the lectures he originally gave in 1960 and I finally found something that says they were compiled and published for the first time in 1963 which makes more sense so I'm going to go with that and say it works!

It's exactly what the title says. It's 6 lectures written down that talk about a variety of physics topics, some "easier" than others. I thought it was very interesting and I do think it would make an a great accompaniment to intro to physics because it shows how interesting and fun physics can be...if you just stick with the math for a a bit. I know some of it is out of date and some of it will be over a high schoolers head but exposure to the ideas and stating to get them thinking about what and why we care about this is important. Of course, I really like Physics overall so maybe I'm not the best judge. But I do think it will be getting added to Lucy's coursework in the near future. I'm curious to see what she thinks of it!

It also reminded me to read more science books. I clearly like the subject I just don't tend to think about science books much - probably because I read mostly based on recommendations and my literary friends don't recommend much in this genre. But I shall continue to scour the Charlotte Mason High School booklists I have access to and see what else I can find. 

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman is my Back to the Classics Non-fiction Selection. 

2020 School Year in Review (Year 2/Year 5)

We finished exams for Year 5 Term 1 and Year 2 Term 2 this week, doing the last tiny bit Christmas eve. I'd feel guilty about this but our exams are short so even an "exam day" is normally less than 30 minutes and the kid's actually did extra work the week before to finish up there readings so we would have time to have exams. The thought of skipping exams was completely unacceptable to them! Which in and of itself should make me happy (and it does!)

Now, the exams were a bit hard on me because I had to delete a lot of questions before we even started. I've mentioned before that I tend to go into exams feeling kinda beat down and harshly judging myself and this was no exception! Recitation, folks songs and hymns, handicrafts, french, nature journal entries - didn't get to, didn't do formally, not at all, and weren't even cracked open. I love the Ambleside Online exams so this isn't a reflection on them but I was fighting the feeling of failure before we had even started them!

At this point you may be asking yourself if I was really berating myself for not doing handicrafts and french with my elementary students while managing an international move during a pandemic. That would be correct. And I wonder why some of my children struggle with perfectionism! 

But I quickly slapped myself in the face (metaphorically speaking) and reminded myself that it was a split term. This summer in Colorado we did a lot of what Charlotte Mason mom's sometimes refer to as the "riches" so our lunch times were filled with poetry and recitation and songs and read-alouds and we did lots of nature study and hiking and exploring, I just hadn't packed our journals with us on that road trip so we observed but didn't journal.  This fall was readings and math and a bit of writing throw in among unpacking - and that's okay. I also added some questions to reflect the unique things we did end up learning. I'm feeling better now. But I will keep saying this because I can't believe I'm the only mom who feels this way! 

So here is a bit about we did do these past few months!

- The kid's did great learning amidst the chaos and I am really proud of how well they did on the exams they were given. And not just exams, I'm really proud of how they grew as students this term. Lucy is getting more and more independent which is great (and sad - I want to read those books with her!) and most of her narrations are better when she reads it herself. She also has some really strong opinions about our history and Plutarch readings and its fun to watch those come out. With Lucy, we seemed to be slowly than most to shift to independent reading (speaking specifically about AO reads) and I just had to trust my mom instincts and understanding of CM principles even when other moms said their kids were doing all/mostly readings on their own by year 4 and that wasn't us. She did some on her own starting in year 3 and they were increasing every term and it has been pretty clear (by her narrations and understanding, not just by her attitude/desire!) how that should go and its has worked well. By the end of this term she was doing all but a few (Plutarch and Marvels with me, Inventions with her dad; She could handle Marvels on her own but I don't want to miss it). I feel like understanding CM principles and not just memorizing a few of her lines about making kids read as soon as they can helped me to be confident in this and not worry we "were behind." 

Samples from  Lucy's Exam

What do you know about the Monroe Doctrine?

It was a document that said no European country could interfere with America and that America could no interfere with Europe. It was made by President Monroe and he made it because England was capturing Americans and forcing them to join their navy against their will.

Tell what you know about Lewis and Clark.

Napoleon needed money and at that time France had all the land west of the Mississippi and so, he’s like “well, if you give me this much money, which wasn’t a lot, then I’ll give you this land” and President Jefferson said sure, we’ll do that and he gave him the money and then Jefferson sent for Lewis and Clark to be the captains of the expedition to explore the new land. And Lewis and Clark set out with a lot of men and they started at the Missouri and it was very difficult and there were a lot of Indians and they traded and some were friendly and some weren’t and there were a lot of grizzly bears and Lewis (or Clark, I can’t remember which) was almost killed by one. he was in the woods hunting when I big grizzly bear came and he couldn’t get up a tree so he threw down his gun and jumped into a river and yelled and the bear look at him in astonishment and just ran away. And then one time they came to a fork int eh Missouri river and the crew thought it was on way and the captains thought it was the to her way so Lewis went with part of the expedition to the south to see if that was the right way. And it was and there was a big waterfall and they kept going. At one point they couldn’t take the big boat they had to take everything in the small canoes. And at they meant an Indian tribe and there was an Indian woman who came with them named Sacagawea and she had a little baby boy and then they reached the Pacific. And when they went back to Missouri, only one single man in the entire party had died.

Would you like to live in Sparta? Why or why not?

Not. Ever. Ever. Ever. I’d rather live in a desert island by myself than in Sparta. Because people all walk around naked. And people have to steal their own food but they get punished if they get caught stealing their own food. And everyone shares meals, they come together and shares a meal of a disgusting soup. Also, if someone wants to come into the group to eat together, they have to be voted on, and if they don’t like the person they squeeze their bread real hard before they throw it into the basket but if they do like the person they put it in nice and light and fluffy and if even one person crumples their bread, the person can not be entered. Lycergus was the leader and he said he wanted a republic and wanted everyone to have free choices but they couldn’t ask questions or suggest things, they could only say Yes or No to laws so it didn’t quite work out.

Describe a picture from this term’s picture study.

Our artist was Turner. There is one where it’s in the middle of the ocean and it’s all stormy. And they said he insisted on being tied to a mast in the middle of the storm so he could get a better view of everything. And he survived. In the picture, there is a boat being tossed and turned and there is a city behind it. 

- Jonah started doing some of his books and audio with recorded narrations and less hand holding. He really likes listening and narrating on his own. I'd like to say that is because he is a dedicated learner or even perhaps because he can concentrate better without little siblings in the same room. But honestly, he's told me its because he can go play legos while he listens. But he gives really good narrations this way so I don't mind the legos - or the honesty! He's also gotten better about adding details (Lucy's been my detailed narrator, Jonah normally gives basic ideas and is ready to move on. Both are learning balance). Other things I've noticed - he's starting the story at the beginning and moving chronologically through the story without having to backtrack too often to add to previous sections and his narrations are starting to take on the tone of the original author which is so great. Obviously, you can't hear his tone in my transcription but I think the energy of it comes through a bit. I love narration in general but seeing the ages and stages as my kids move through them is fascinating and exciting.  

Samples from Jonah's Exams:

Tell about the Siege of Calais or Wat Tyler's rebellion.

The Siege of Calais. So, the French had put a siege on Calais and they were surrounded and a siege is where they surround the city and if they ever come out they kill them and people can’t get food to them so they eventually run out of food and have to give up otherwise they’ll die of starvation. So they didn’t want to do that and they couldn’t stop and it was a long time, so the leader wrote a letter to the king of I don’t remember, the king of someplace to come and help them. And then he sent the letter. So it was 3 months and then the king came but he didn’t do anything so they all waited and waited but he didn’t do anything and then, a long time later, he went away without doing anything. So they were angry and then they said “we have to give up” so they did and they said “spare us” and they said “the rest can go but pick 6 men and I will do anything I want with those men” so they said “well, we have to.” So the bravest and wealthiest and best man of the city said “I will go” and the best other 5 men said the same thing so the king said “we will put you to death” but the queen said “NOO! Don’t” and then she said “I will set them free with food and clothing” but the king said “I wish you weren’t here but I will do it” so he gave them to her and she gave them food and clothing and some money and sent them off.  

Tell your favorite part of the Wind in the Willows.

So Toady was going, going, going, going and singing while he went. And then he saw a motor car and he was so happy. And it went poop, poop, poop and then it came closer. But then he said “Oh, no” and then he fainted – because it was the very people he had stolen the motorcar from! So he fainted. And the people inside the motorcar said “Oh, no, there is a poor washerwoman!” And then they took her up and then he started to feel better so he sat up and said “oh, my, could I sit in the front seat” “Oh sure” said the person next to toady. And then he said “Oh, can I drive the car?  I’m sure I have watched you good enough” and they said “okay” and then he started slow but went fast, faster until he was zooming. And then he went “I am no washer woman, I am the masterful toad!” and he drove it right into the pond. And the he was singing a song a bit like this “The motorcar went poop poop, all down the road, and who should drive it into the pond, Ingenious Mr. Toad!” but before he was singing he was saying “oh, drat, oh, drat,” but that was before he was driving the car. And then he said “oh, no a policeman and ran away from the policeman.

Describe your favorite picture from this term's picture study.

So it’s in a temple sort of thing and they are looking at a bunch of pictures, like we also did, and there are two people and there is a big view of Rome and its open at the side and there are some statues and art and its like a temple or something like that. 

- Growing into the hard books. Its pretty common for me to panic when I look at a hard book that I'm adding to Lucy's schedule, especially the first term of each year which always seems like the biggest jump up. Now I know to trust AO and that she will probably grow into it. And yep, at the beginning of the term I felt like King Arthur was too much, that we'd always be behind and I was frustrated there was no audiobook of the version I picked. But by the end she was done reading the chapters by Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, sad that she had to wait a few days to read the next part! I don't panic as much Jonah because I've done those years before but we finished Little Duke a week early and Wind in the Willows was his favorite so he's growing too.

- Potty Training. Enough said. Actually, I will add one thing. Potty training in a small house is a LOT easier than potty training in a large house, especially if you are trying to keep school going or pay attention to your other children at all. 

- That stuff we didn't get to. The kid's have been filling in themselves! Lucy begged me to help her with a book binding project we bought supplies for before we moved so we've finally started that. Craig had the big kids off at a volunteer project last week and Jude was napping and when I asked Norah what she wanted to do, she asked to do something with yarn. So I taught her to finger knit and she loved it. I foresee lots of random finger knitting streamers will be decorating our house soon. Jonah's room has lots of science and nature diagrams scattered about. And the big two kids were so excited to get their piano back and have been learning/playing Christmas songs in the afternoon just for fun all month. Seeing them start to take ownership of the skills they've learned in the past and grow themselves.

And just yesterday morning I found a snail as I was starting my morning walk with the dog. I put it on our step and not surprisingly, he was still there when I got back an hour later. We made him a little home and had a blast observing him. Not sure how long we'll keep him but he's a fun little pet for now. He's got way more personality than I expected! And because I was feeling pretty lame about us not having put any entries into our nature journal, I had kids grab them and they all did great entries. 

This is Norah's (she still has a clipboard because a real "nature journal" is a 6 yr old privilege in our family. She's counting down!) I love the beginning nature journal entries because while the pictures aren't normally great by art standards, its a lot easier to actually see their observations. She's got the body's ruffled bottom and the long eyes and shell.

-Lots of fun read alouds. Stretching books are great and all but sometimes you just need to sit back and enjoy a good laughing book. And we did! It's not easy to read aloud with all four. I get interrupted ALL the time and it drives me crazy. I have to tell people not to touch each other (or to stop humming or to stop putting there hands and feet between my eyes and the words on the page) way more than I should by now. But I don't think we built our family culture faster any other way. And we happened to read some really great books together the past 6 months. 

-  Novel writing. On a similar note, Lucy's been writing a novel in her afternoon free time. She's finished the first draft and working on the illustrations before she does any last editing. I'm excited to see her finish it. She's written a 3 book series in the past but this was a considerable longer project and she's really stuck with it. Here's some of the illustrations to whet your appetite!

Lucy's not the only one who can write a novel so I'll wrap this up with just a few of my focus points for next year. We didn't get to as much of the non-reading things as we normally do because my afternoons were busy doing - not school. And the next few months will still have me busy getting us more fully settled so instead of spreading all our afternoon stuff through the week, I'll be lumping it into two days but putting us on a loop. I'm not longer upset that I didn't get to those things before but I really want to prioritize those riches now that I can and get us back into "together time" (aka morning basket, circle time, etc). Last two goals will be stretching Lucy that last bit to independence by having her manager her chart a bit more instead of relying on me. And bringing Norah into the fold. She begged for reading lessons and I bought All About Reading (because she LOVES workbooks and wanted something that seemed like real school) but have only made to through Lesson 2. Her fault, not mine. So she's going to get her 20 minutes a day this term if it kills me! (might not always be reading lessons but something. 

Lucy's End of Year 4 Review and Plans for our Crazy Next Term

Since I lumped a lot of our group subjects year in review into the last post with Jonah's term review, I'll put our next year term plans into this post with Lucy's review. I'm nothing if not inconsistent in my writing! And if you aren't an Charlotte Mason Mom, this post will almost assuredly be overkill for you but feel free to skip to the bottom to see the TL/DR links to explore section. Fair warning!

Lucy Highlights:

Moving towards more independence: Our checklists this past term worked really well. She got off to a great start the vast majority of days. I actually can't think of a day when she didn't. And she did better on narrations (both first narrations and exam answers) on the books she read by herself and narrated into my phone app. That might be because the books I read to her were the harder ones but I think being able to go off where its a bit quieter and narrate in detail without noise or any time pressure makes things easier too (I don't ever intentionally put time pressure of her for narrations but when its getting louder and louder by the second because the toddler is demanding attention...). We'll keep this up again next term and she'll probably be reading even more on her own. I always want to have a few things we read together but she's ready for more and I'd rather spend our 1:1 time working on things like math and foreign languages. She was also given more freedom for copywork and that will continue. I used a dictation source this past term but next term I'll have her pick books/passages herself. 

I talked on instagram about our new Juniper Journals, but to summarize here, I love them and think they'll be perfect. I personalized them for her so I'll be really encouraging (and expecting!) her to take the lead on her  keeping and written narrations even more so than in the past. I think she'll rise to the occasion just fine.

Century Chart - more of these hopefully coming next term!

Hers has a Science notebook for diagrams as well as written narrations from her science books and biographies (George Washington Carver and Marie Curie). 

A History notebook for maps, timelines and written narrations from history books. 

A booklet of century charts. Not quite a Book of Centuries (I'll save that for when we restart history cycle in Year 6) but this will ease her into that way of thinking with less pressure.

Poetry and Prose book for copywork, dictation and written narrations from Literature. I hope it will include more comic book narrations because her comics of Age of Fables crack me up.

George Washington's World - Probably her favorite book. She read both on her own, GWW daily which worked well so we'll try the same thing with Abraham Lincoln's world this next year.  I'm a bit sad I didn't keep up with this one although I got a lot from listening to her narrations.

Tell about the Reign of Terror or Napoleon in Egypt.

So Napoleon Bonaparte was, well he had just conquered Italy. And he was a great hero of the French because he had captured all of Italy’s fine art and sculptures and all the lovely things the Italians had. But he wasn’t done fighting and he said “If I were to stop now, a hundred years later, my story would not fill up half a page of a history book” and that’s funny because in the page that said “Bonaparte to Italy” it did take up much more than half a page of history, it took up three pages, so he was wrong. And so he set out to Egypt, he coaxed the people into listening to him by saying” France’s old enemy is England. So if we can capture Egypt, that will block England from going to India where they trade a lot and get a lot of fine things. So they went to Egypt. He and his big army. And they conquered a city and they tried to conquer Cairo, but instead of conquering Cairo, Cairo conquered them! So half of his army was gone so he didn’t want to fight again so he went back to France. But the didn’t like to be defeated so he pretending that he had actually defeated Cairo and they believed him.  But while he was in Egypt, in the town of Rosetta, the people had dug up a large stone. It was black. And it was the Rosetta stone! Before then, no one had been able to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, because at that time no one was still alive that could read them so that were a lot of inscriptions on tombs they could not read. But on the Rosetta stone there were several lines of Greek, and another language and Egyptian hieroglyphics but they thought they said the same thing so then, if their guess was right, they would be able to read hieroglyphics. 

All the other book selections too: Third terms just always seem relaxed, maybe because they've grown into the books by the third term. She really loved almost everything. Minn wasn't a favorite but I'd say we only had one book we struggled with (see below), everything else was well received and well narrated. She loved Incredible Journey and Ocean of Truth. We both loved Abigail Adams although I wish there was a good audiobook because my voice got tired of those long chapters. She didn't like to break them up unless I just insisted because I was getting hoarse (keep in mind, by the time I get to her readings, I've done a full year 2 day plus read some pictures book to the little ones). We both enjoyed the short stories (she probably could have read them to herself but I hadn't ever read them myself so we did them together).

Tell the story of Cupid and Psyche, or Echo and Narcissus, or Niobe.

Niobe was a very rich woman and she had 14 children, seven boys and seven girls. And she was very proud of them. And one time there was a ceremony for this goddess. But Niobe came and she said “Why are these people worshipping Diana? I have 14 children, she has only two! I am much richer than her. All you stop worshiping HER.” So all the people did, they just went away. But Diana was angry. “How dare this woman say she is greater than I am. She’s just a mortal. But I am a goddess!” So she said “that woman must be punished” and then she shot all of her seven sons. And then Niobe was very sad but she said “But I am still greater than you Diana!” but that was not a very good decision at all because then Diana shot all of her daughters. And then her husband killed himself. So Niobe was so sad that she turned to stone. 

The Form 2 add-ons books: We finished this year having completed 2 Shakespeare plays and 1 Plutarch and I think that's a good start.  It took us two terms to finish Hamlet but its long and we went slow at first because she was a bit resistant (she's a comedy girl and so am I so I sympathize) but she did enjoy it in the end. Even when she still would have said that Hamlet was in the "it's not my favorite" category, it was one that I would say was the most likely to get a full laugh out loud response from her. Words are just one of her things and nobody does words like Shakespeare.  Plutarch is something you really have to grow into but she did great for her first time and we had some really good discussions about leadership and right and wrong. It's so much fun to see them so opinionated about things! Overall, the additions weren't as intense as I expected. Challenging, but manageable. 

Why do you think Valerius/Publicola cared about the fate of one very lowly slave (more than he did about the lives of two Roman citizens)?

The king had been kicked out of Rome because he wasn’t good. There were two co-counselors instead, there was Brutus and another man. And Brutus’s sons, people thought they were good but they were actually traitors. They were trying to let the king in secretly. Brutus’s own sons! But Brutus was good, he didn’t want the king to come back in because he was mean. So one of Brutus’ son’s slaves overheard the Brutus’ sons talking. And they were talking about how they would let the king back in. And he went to tell Publicola. And Publicola told Brutus and then they killed his sons even though they were his sons, Brutus let the people kill them. Publicola wanted them to die because they were bad traitors. And the slave was set free because he loved his country. 

Grammar and Latin: We did Michael Clay Thomson Grammar and loved it. We did Grammar Island last summer then spent the first two terms of this year doing Practice Island and Getting Started with Latin the past three terms. I think that worked really well because we started Latin having finished Grammar Island so none of the Grammar was totally new but they reinforced each other in a nice way. And I didn't worry about having to keep up with Grammar when she finished Practice Island at the end of term two because we were still using the ideas in her Latin time.

Art - because Grammar and Latin don't have pretty pictures. Lucy's dragonflies and Jonah's sea turtles. They carved the stamps themselves one week then used alcohol ink techniques to create the background around the ink stamped images. Did I mention that we're really going to miss our art teacher?

Now, I only bought the Grammar Town Teacher guide but both the Teacher and Student Practice. and none of the other language arts components. Last year I just did Teacher and wrote the sentence on a white board. That worked well because we did it together. This year, I'm hoping she'll be more independent so I wanted the practice book. But know that MCT doesn't have to be expensive if you use it selectively.

More of the picture maps I talked about in my last post. 

Describe a picture from this term's picture study.

I like the picture of Jesus telling the disciples the parable. It’s called the Parable of the Sower. It’s a picture of the ocean with a river running through. On either side of the river is land. On the right there is a big city, with a little boat with the disciplines and Jesus in it and Jesus is telling them the parable. But closer to you, what you actually see, is the man throwing some seeds and you can see the briers, and the path and the birds eating them up and you can see the good soil and the seeds starting to grow and some houses and sheep and there are a lot of boats in the ocean and some islands and some trees, there’s a forest. And there are some mountains on the other side with the city.

Masterly Inactivity:

I'm loving this age for letting her go off and take the skills we've worked on with handicrafts and art and see how she expands them in her own creative way. Youtube watercolor tutorials are a favorite.

And not just art, but other areas. Both kids wrote their first essays this term because Craig mentioned a contest at our new local aquarium. And they've been researching different topics for fun. Lucy won a library poetry contest. 

And here is a mask she's working on. (Can you guess her favorite animal?) It's so much fun to see my kids develop all these skills and turn them into hobbies. And to not have to plan it all makes it even more enjoyable! 

What didn't work:

My keeping up with her independent reads. That's all on me. I just couldn't do it. It's not a lot of reading each day and I'm a fairly fast reader but I couldn't make it happen. Craig is taking on some of the load this year and I've already started pre-reading the Marie Curie bio I've picked and Nature Reader. I just finished Undaunted Courage so I should know enough that I don't have to pre-read Of Courage Undaunted (and yes, I had to Google which title was which because that will never fail to confused me :-) I won't be able to pre-read all of Abraham Lincoln's world before she starts but if that's the only one I have to keep up with every week, maybe it will happen. If not, I do trust AO so I'm not worried about it too much but it really is best if I know what's happening.

I also struggled to keep up with listening to her narrations. I listened to enough that she knew I was listening, didn't slack off and we could have discussions about things. Actually, I don't think she even knows that I hit a point in may where I just deleted everything over 2 weeks old and caught up on the rest. But the more books she reads, the more narrations I have to find time to listen to - ack! I think I need to switch to a voice memo app that has a 2x setting. But the books Craig is taking over the pre-reading for, he's also taking over the narrations listening and follow-up discussion time which I will appreciate I'm sure. 

Madam How and Lady Why. Ugh. We did okay up until this term. It could just be that chalk isn't as interesting as volcanoes but I tried a couple things and Lucy still has some pretty legitimate complaints about this book. Unfortunately, we have one more year of it to go. I'll be pre-reading Anne White's new edited version. it solves one of Lucy's pet peeves about it right off the bat (the "little boy" comments drove her nuts!) but if I still can't muster up any love for it despite pre-reading and scaffolding, Craig will try. He, generally speaking, likes earth science much more than me. If he doesn't like it, maybe we'll go rogue and drop it.  Scandalous! Although since we're on the old schedule, we don't have that much left so by the time we've tried all those options, we'll probably be done anyway. 

You may notice a common thread in my solutions. I'm very thankful to have a husband who can help out a bit. It's not just that I'm getting stretched thinner as kid's are getting older but we've always planned to him be a bit more involved as kid's get older so the kids know he cares too and that homeschooling is our family's way of educating, not just "mom's thing."

Next year:

None of our skill subjects/curriculum are changing. We'll just keep on chugging. That might be one reason this year feels less overwhelming. The books are changing but the rest is all just a matter of doing the next thing. I'm also not changing Ambleside Online plans very much. Even thought I said I felt a lot more confident applying her principles myself, if it's not broken, I don't feel the need to fix it! If I change something, there is normally a pretty good reason. And I'm really excited about our plans for next year. I think more excited than any year before except maybe our first. 

For Jonah, I feel really confident in continuing Year 2 as its written because it is a favorite of mine. We have bumped him up in science a bit which might cause trouble down the road but I'll cross that bridge later. 

For Lucy, Year 5 just looks so wonderful. I love this period of history and know approaching it with the background of the last 4 years of studying British/American History is allowing her to make all these connections and its so exciting. I've been waiting for the Book of Marvels for years now and the science looks great. Last year's literature scared me a bit (although Lucy rose to the challenge of Robinson Crusoe and Kidnapped much better than expected - trust the process!) but I think this year's literature is going to be great. That said, I am tweaking year 5 a tiny bit. 

Additions: 

I'm adding Macauley's The Way We Work. We love Anatomy over here. And yes, I mean me because my major was Biomedical Science but not just me. Lucy pretty much memorized this book several years ago so the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Now, The Way We Work is really dense. We'll  be taking it very slowly and we might not get to it right away because its a very big heavy book and if something had to be left out of luggage, this will be it. But whenever we do have it, I plan for us to read 2-3 pages or so a week and take probably 2-3 years to get through it. So nice and slow. I'm also adding The Body Book for some fun hands-on work. The one I have is actually the same on my mom used with us when I was a kid, she saved it for me. It's probably one of the few things from elementary school I actually remember so I'm excited to add it in. Jonah will probably join us and maybe Norah too because my kids all love paper projects and they'll be offended if excluded. 

I've also added Heart and Soul based on the recommendation of Amber over at Heritage Mom. It just came in the mail yesterday and its just what I was hoping it would be. The illustrations are amazing and it looks like it will be a pretty seamless fit into our next 4 terms if we cover about 3 chapters a term. I will be reading this one with her. I'll also sure This Country of Ours isn't a book I have her reading on her own. I haven't pre-read all of the Year 5 readings but just selectively searching for problems, I've seen a few so I'll be reading and editing as needed. 

If you haven't check out Heritage Mom's blog, definitely do so if you're looking for diverse but quality book recommendations. I have really enjoyed her perspective and was happy to see her describe the ways she teaches African and African-American history to elementary ages and how similar my approach has been. Last fall we did Shaka: Zing of the Zulus with our mini-coop along with African is a Not a Country and many pictures books and folk tales from Africa. Plus some Africa Map drill work. That's about as close to a unit study as I get. Along with trying to incorporate as many books on kids of all colors just being kids although after reading her post, I also had to add Freedom's Daughters for myself. Book collecting, it's a problem. (And I didn't include any links so go over to Heritage Mama to see her descriptions and get her links).

I also don't want to create cynics or expose my kids too early to too much darkness before they have a base of normative behavior.  That's a principle of mine so it applies when we talk about African American History or the history of my family's German heritage or abortion. So we've talked about slavery when it comes up in books or on field trips like Andrew Jackson's Hermitage or the George Washington Carver National Monument (we won't have time to go back here but I'll have to pull up these pictures because Lucy will be reading a biography of Carver next term) and Brown vs Board of Education. (can you tell we really love historical stops on our road trips!) So I don't mean we're trying to teach our kids to be color blind or that we've ignored the topics the idea of racism/slavery but we've talked about it not studied it until really last year when it came up more and will continue on this year and next as Lucy completes her first history cycle over the next 4 terms. When we get to the slavery and Jim Crow laws and the Holocaust in our books, I want to be able to tell enough of the truth that they are horrified and when I say enough, I mean that, we'll still be very cautious and skipping rape stuff. Lucy will learn about that on our next go round through the history cycle. Again, normative behavior before dysfunctional. I can't do that if I start too early on specifics. I can definitely start early on concepts of people of all colors are valuable because they are made in the image of God and why sin is in the world. And other parenting things like make sure we have dolls and stories showing the many types of beautiful people God has made. Hopefully that makes sense and it's probably more than I would normally say about it but also completely inadequate as a description of the thoughts and principles we use to educate out kids... All that to say that we're now ready to go deeper and continue wrestling with big hard ideas together. I'm taking a lot of Heritage Mom's recommendations for historical fiction as well but those will be mostly term 2 and 3 so I'll fine tune my selections post-move when I'm allowing myself to buy books again. 

What I'm NOT doing: 

While I'll be adding in lots of historical fiction free reads, I'm really only adding those two narrated school books to the AO Year 5 schedule. And I may be taking something out. Well, I am taking something out of year 6 it's just a matter of whether I'm replacing it or not. Craig has been wanting to read The Hobbit to the kids for a little while now. He normally is pretty content to just take whatever book I give him because he knows I'm good at what I do and pick ones I think he'll enjoy too but when he has an opinion about his bedtime read aloud to the bigger two, I need to let him have it. And I'm glad their first memory of the Hobbit will be his voice. And my kid's don't fight narration during the day because I've always been very consistent. But if I asked them to narrate a bedtime story, I don't think it would go well. So it will go unnarrated, at least by Lucy, and all will be okay. 

But that means I have 18 weeks left without a literature selection. I'll move Kim forward from the last 12 weeks of Year 5. If we finish King Arthur and Oliver Twist in a term each, I"ll probably add a Alcott book, either Little Woman or Jack and Jill if I have time to pre-read it and like it better for her. But if those two take us longer, we'll leave it as is. 

I'm also going pretty low key on a lot of the riches. We'll do picture study on the computer. We'll keep listening to our folk songs and hymns but not add new ones unless kids really get annoyed by that (they love the beginning of a month when they get new ones to learn), they'll just pick one poem each to work on and maybe a bible passage. (In other words, no fancy printed menus this term). For nature study, we'll be busy learning the new plants, birds, flowers of our new area/yard. 

We aren't doing any formal handicrafts although that happens quite naturally (Lucy and I just went and bought supplies at Hobby Lobby yesterday for a book binding project we have planned. I think they'll survive without a weekly handicraft time.  I did buy the Trailblazing Transit art lessons from Yellow Spot Sun. They tie in with Lucy's history but Jonah will join in. I'll might find a few youtube videos that tie in with his history too so we can rotate.

And reality:

These are awesome plans. So much good stuff. And technically, I"m not done planning. I still have together time plans to tweak including a few other books I want to fit in (Hillyer's Architecture book for example. Gotta learn some architecture basics before we travel Europe) but mostly AO stuff I've combining kids (Trial and Triumph) so not adding work just shifting it. 

But, it's also going to be a school out of a suitcase while quarantined in a foreign country crazy term. I'm holding these plans pretty lightly. If it wasn't for the quarantine part on the move, I probably would have already dropped them for a few months. And depending on timing, I might drop them part way through and pick them up again after a few months. I just don't know. So, I press on! But writing all this down has reinvigorated me. It's gonna be a great, crazy, messy, learning filled year! Bring it on!

And since I think I might have new people considering homeschooling, here's the TL/DR version with links you can explore if you are interested:

Lucy: 

History/Literature/Science/Language Arts - AO Year 5 and Charlotte Mason's Principles

Grammar -  MCT Grammar Town and Practice Town 

Latin - Keep Going with Latin

Math - Beast Online during move, MEP 4/5 once we're into new home

French - Continue ULAT 

Keeping - Juniper Journals to hold narrations, copywork and century charts

Jonah:

History/Literature/Science/Language Arts - AO Year 2/3 and Charlotte Mason's Principles

Math - Beast Online during move, restart books when into new home

French - Start ULAT (he just finished Learnables 1)

Together - 

Art - Trailblazing Transit

Now that I've written way more than anyone wants to read about school work, it is summer vacation so let me wrangle up those kids, slap some sunscreen on them, and head off to the pool! 

End of Year Review

We finished exams this week. Yay! It ended up being a pretty intense term. Mostly because we didn't have any of other filler things we normally do. Filler isn't quite the right word because I think our mini-coop, our playdates, nature hikes and field trip days all have an important role but they also lighten up our schedule when mixed with our regular school days. I also added a few books that suddenly became available on archive.org but for a limited time. I don't care if Ziner's Squanto is a year 3 book and I have kids in Year 2 and 5, I can't afford the crazy cost this book would normal be so we're reading it while we can (and yes, it is really good! But no, not $150+ good). But we powered through pretty well and overall, given the circumstances, it was a pretty good term.

Highlights for Jonah/Together Time (Year 2 Term 1): (Exam Questions and Answers in Italics)

Beast Academy. I love MEP math but Beast is just a perfect fit for him. We started with the books then added online when they offered a free trial. We're keeping online and it's going to be great for the move but he's also doing the books too.

Understood Betsy: I know a lot of boys fight this one initially but sharing "quiet time audiobook" time with Lucy means he has listened to and loved enough "girly" stories that this wasn't an issue for him, especially since she saw it in his stack and told him he'd love it. It did take a week or two for him to really love it though. But its so good. He was sad when it ended.

Pilgrim's Progress: Again, just like Lucy, and not really like me because its not a favorite of mine, he's loving Pilgrim's Progress. His scroll narrations are totally different than hers but he clearly knows what's going on. We're taking it a bit slower than we did with her because I really didn't like Christina's Journey for year 3 age students so I'm not in a rush to finish it by the end of year 2. We might, we might not. We'll just keep going until we're done. And he's not in a hurry for that.

Tell about two things Christian saw in the House of the Interpreter, or about Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

So Christian went with interpreter to one of the rooms and it had an iron cage in it with a man inside. And he said that he had been put there because he didn’t believe in Jesus and he said “I will be stuck here forever because Jesus won’t have pity on me because I was already put here” and Christian said “why can’t you as for another chance?” and the man in the iron cage said “Jesus will not let me. I have hardened my heart so much that  I can not repent and no man can let me out.”

The second one was when Christian went into a room and there was a fire and a man was pouring water on it but it kept going higher and higher and then Christian said “what means this?” and he took him to the other side of the wall and there was another man pouring oil on it. And he said “this is Christ and the man you saw before was the Devil trying to pour out the fire of faith but the Devil can not break through Jesus and get into man’s heart is Jesus is already there.”  

Nature Study/Lore: We're both loving Burgess Animal book. We're doing the same sticker tree of animals that I did with Lucy but we have a hard copy this time which makes it so much easier for me to read. And I added Hexapod Sories for our insect themed nature study since we weren't able to get out as much. We only finished half of it but the kids would look up the insect in our different field guides and draw it while I read (and this reading was specifically timed so the toddler was napping). That worked so well. It's not "real nature study" but it builds an interest.

Tell what you know about a squirrel or a beaver.

Beavers have a flat tail and their tail is darkish brown and it has scales on it. There upper body is light brownish and their tummy is lighter. They make dams, they make houses and when it freezes, they make a hole in the ice so they can go down under the water to get their sticks. And they also have a door that goes out and that’s how they get out. And most creatures that want to eat him can’t get through the ice. He makes the dam out of sticks. He cuts down the trees with his sharp teeth and then gnaw through the branches into logs so he can make it. Their flat tale helps them steer when they swim and their front feet aren’t webbed but there back feet are. 

Describe a different insect you've studied this term, including its life and work.

The gall wasp. So the gall wasp starts out as a larva that in its tail, it breathes. And then it keeps getting new clothing until the pieces of clothing have little wing things but not real wings just tiny flaps and each one gets bigger and bigger wing flaps until it has fully grown wings and then it is not the larva anymore and it goes to an oak leaf and it pricks it with something it has and then an oak apple or gall grows its self around it and other things can go it in but the gall wasp is the only one that goes in the middle. The end. 

And I'll tell you, God really blessed the times we were out hiking. We saw some of the best stuff this term - three different turtles (two types), a snake we could identify, multiple frogs and skinks. It was like every hike had at least one really great find - and a couple ticks. Right after we read about the gall wasp we took a hike and saw 4 or 5 different types of galls ranging from big oak apples to a tree covered it teeny tiny ones. It was amazing. Jude's starting to love painting so I'm hopeful that next year, he'll be content to paint some rocks with water while we nature journal out in nature again but if not, this method will keep us going.

 

 

Picture Study: We did Pieter Bruegel. What a fun artist! He was a favorite of everyone. I also stepped up my game a bit and challenged them to picture maping consistently on our "second weeks." It's one of those things I hesitate to mention because it isn't necessary and keep in mind that even thought Jonah is only starting year 2, my littles ones join in one picture study from, well, birth, and would be very offended if they didn't get a chance to narrate the pictures too. So this is not necessary and it was
 challenging at first, especially for my perfectionist leaning child, but I can tell by their exam answers that it really improved our noticing. Of course, it helps that Bruegel's pictures have so much to notice! The National Gallery has three different pictures of his one display so I'm pretty sure when we visit we'll be headed to Room 14 right away!

My technique is one our second week, I give everyone a few minutes to look the picture over. Then we flip it so its hidden and they have about 1-2 minutes to map (MAP, not draw!) the picture. Then they look once more, flip again and have one more minutes to draw. The second look and flip started when we had a few panic moments. But I actually think its really good because you think you know it and then you flip it and you realize you don't. You haven't observed what you think you have. So our second look is actually much more beneficial. This is our first term doing this so hopefully we'll gain enough skill that one look is enough but for now, this works.

Describe your favorite picture from this term's picture study from memory.

So the hunter in the woods is a picture with hunters at the bottom left corner and dogs with them. And there is a house on the left side right above them with trees at the top. At the right side there is a big pond with people skating on it and its all snowy and there is a big bridge at the bottom right. At the top there is also birds sitting and flying. 

Outsourcing Art: Obviously Covid ruined some of these plans but they did get to finish the year out with their teacher (well, she's going to keep coming up until a few days before the movers come so we aren't done yet!) .We are going to miss her tremendously but I'll also be praying and searching for new opportunities for art student when we get settled.

Jonah's Watercolor still life. 

Printing: Lucy made the dragonfly stamp, Jonah carved the turtle. They used them for basic printing and then alcohol prints on tiles the following week.

History: I love Year 2 history. It's even better when I know it myself. I added the poetry book Kings and Queens and after we finish a King, we read his poem. They are hilarious and Jonah loves "getting" all the jokes. And obviously, knowing we're so close to getting to be there makes it all the more special. I've already told Jonah we'll take a pilgrimage to see Thomas a Beckett's memorial.

 Tell the story of the White Ship.

So this guy he had a white ship. And he said it was very swift and like a bird. And so the King went on another boat and went there but the person who owned the white ship and the people who were going to go on it said “oh, its okay, my ship is very fast so we can wait” and then they kept waiting and drinking wine and having a party and then finally they left but they hit a rock and then the ship started sinking. And they let down a safety boat for the prince. And then they went back for the princess, the prince’s sister, and everyone else wanted to get on too so it was so crowded and it sank. And the big boat sank and only two people were left. The butcher who had sheep skin coat and then there was another person but that person drowned so it was just the butcher and then finally someone came and picked him up and the butcher thought maybe he was saved because he wasn’t very important but then they went back. And when the king (Henry I) heard the prince and princess were very sad and he kept eating too many lampreys and then he died.

More British things: I switched up the poet this term. Jonah had participated in poetry for Lucy's year 2 and we really covered Eugene Field pretty heavily because he's from our town. We visited his home and all of my kids down to Norah have memorized several pieces by him. So this time, I went with a British poet - Charles Causeley. He's great, very funny. I read this to all of them and the big two had just finished memorizing the British county's so they loved hearing tidbits about specific ones and being able to say "I know where Cornwall is!" It just helped us keep that excited feeling when the move was postponed due to Covid.

I'm really enjoying doing a year over again. Adding in a second student with the baby made last year a year of growing. But now I feel like we're reaping that produce of that labor and growing pain time. I also feel like I'm really understanding the principles now and able to apply them to different books and topics that I want us to read and what our own specific family needs are. And that's not at all a slight on AO, I know that is what their hope is and I'm so immensely grateful for the curriculum they have provided and the encouragement to really reach for that personal understanding of Charlotte Mason's principles of education.

 I will be completely honest and say that every time we go into exams, I'm tired and feeling exhausted and discouraged because I'm a perfectionist and all I'm thinking about is the list of things we didn't do or finish. Even recognizing that I shouldn't have that feeling, I have to really fight it. And then we might have 1-2 exam questions that flop. I get super short answers or blank faces and while, that's totally okay. (Thanks Karen for the much needed reminder!), I start to hyperventilate. Then we finish the exams and I put the portfolio's together with the typed exam answers and their maps and century charts and samples of work and I'm amazed at what we've learned. Amazed and humbled that God would give me these brilliant small human beings that I get to walk alongside and guide in their introduction to His amazing world and all the beauty and truth and goodness that it holds. Is this real life? My life? How am I so lucky that this is my "job." So I sincerely hope that these glimpses into our terms and exams are encouraging. If you also face the end of a term like that, you aren't alone but I didn't share the exam answers that flopped!

And now this is getting long so I'll be sharing Lucy's end of term and new year plans in a separate post.

Homeschool Planning and Record Keeping

I'm not that type of blogger that normally shows you things in a timely or useful manner. I'm more like "here's what we did for St. Patty's day" three weeks after the fact when it's of no use to you and you probably won't remember for next year even if you do think it would be fun to copy.  And we start our new grade of school curriculum in January (or whenever we finish one book if it's handwriting, math or piano) so I can't even participate in the regular Not Back to School carnival. I still love visiting those because I love all things planning and organizing and curriculum related but I I have a hard time finding motivation to write about something that's 6 months old in my life. But in this case, I'm starting to use my newly designed homeschool planner/hour logger in July so you might actually be able to glean some ideas if you start on a regular rotation! 

Last year I used a weekly checklist that was modified from Elaine who I think modified Celeste's, along with the basic AO one sheet term overview pdf which I used by simple highlighting the readings as I read. The last term I tried adding dates to each reading but the spacing was tight as I felt  my basic record keeping was a little sparse. (Sidenote:  I am in the sorta unique position that I believe in giving the state exactly what it legally requires and not a dot more on a principles level- but I also am involved with the foster care system and while our licensing worker has been nothing but enthusiastic about our kids and their education, I still want to make sure all our t's are crossed in case we end up with a different case worker that is a bit more antagonistic. So, this might be more involved than most people but it works for my peace of mind.)

Then I used a cheap weekly calendar to record what we actually did each day for the legal record and so I could input that into my excel hour log. That all worked. It was simple, which I liked, but in three different places, which I didn't. I needed to streamline. 

I started with the Big Happy Planner. I got mine from Michaels online using both the standard 40% off coupon plus they were having another 20% off everything and surprisingly it let me combine those so I got it for a really good deal. 

It's really pretty. I love it. 

It's my first time using a disc bound planner but so far I'm really liking it. I saw a number of great planners, even self designed ones and thought about doing that and having it comb bound but I knew that I needed something I could alter as I went because I'm not even sure yet when I'll be starting Jonah in Year 1. But last year I found my 3 ring binder to tear up pages and take up a lot of space on our very small kitchen table so didn't really want to go that route again. I got an Arc punch which was a bit pricey but works really well so this is what I added to their basic calendar. 

A couple very simple reading logs to track hours (for our library's program) and another set to list the titles that they have read as well as our read alouds so I can remember what I've already checked out so I don't put a hold request on it again. (Not that I've ever done that ;-)

I'll use the year at a glance to plan our breaks. I normally only do a term at a time and hold it loosely but this time I'm having to be even looser. Notice that week between the blue and green is still a ? I'm guessing we'll be doing school since I've never had a baby come before their due date but I'd actually prefer to be holding my newborn. A pregnant mom can hope. 

Behind that I keep my term overview sheets. I'll start filling these out tomorrow as it's our first day of the term but will continue as we learn things and move on to the next. These are very helpful at 1) exam time because I often forget where the term began and exactly what poems/bible verses are new and 2) when trying to look back on the years and remember when we did different things like handicrafts. It seems like something that wouldn't be THAT hard to remember, but apparently it is.

Then before each monthly's spreads is a paper printout of my excel hour log. I'll fill it in as we go along but update the computer version so it does the calculations for me and then print out a nice neat version to save for our records. As Missouri residents, this is our main legal requirement and its slightly annoying but not really difficult. 

Next is the main planner portion. The left side is an updated weekly checklist I mentioned above. It's basically the same as last year except I've included a few things for Jonah.  This is my messy sheet. I write notes about exactly what we did for nature or our science experiment. I scratch things out or make notes on things I need to look up. It's the working part of the planner. And because of that, and because I don't think the state needs to know what days we went to the dentist, I don't want this to be a part of my official records. Plus I get great joy from looking over these at the end of the term, seeing what things consistently got missed and making notes and then THROWING THEM AWAY. It's the last thing I do after exams and its cathartic. 

 The right side is new. I've always liked to work with each "AO week" being treated like a unit. We do 2 or 3 AO readings a day depending on their length and our schedule that day. With just one AO student and my still doing 90% of the reading aloud, I don't need to plan which readings to do which days in advance. We almost always finish our term + exam in about 13 weeks so we really do make it through about a weeks worth of material in a week but it almost never matches up exactly and trying to do so would stress me out.

This is to replace the term sheet but still allow me to keep working things as a unit, separate from our regular "weekly" schedule. It gives me more space to write the date(s) when each reading occurred. So these sheets, along with the hour log and the calendar pages will make up the official record I'll save in their portfolios for a few years. 

If I didn't need to save/not save them separately, I'd probably print them front and back but I printed on just one side and put a month's worth in front of every month. When I use up either side, I'll move it to the back of the stack ( from where I'm looking at it here, still in front of that month's tab) so I always have my two current sheets together for easy access. 

I also used my arc punch and a spare binder tab to cut out a few bookmarks to keep my place at this spot as well as my weekly work page so it's easy to find. 

After all my additions, we finally get to the purchased planner part. This monthly overview sheet isn't something I'd thought about but I do want to do a better job about the fun/memory part of homeschooling so I hope to use this to set some goals/intentions as well as record our highs (but skip the lows, we can forgot those)

This is the weekly schedule planner I used last year as my legal record book (and source of hourly info for the hour log).  I know how long a lesson typical takes so I write "AO reading" or "copywork" on my record sheet and only indicate times if it abnormal for some reason.

The Happy Planner has a weekly planner page which I'll be using instead. I think I'll really enjoy having the three vertical boxes. I'll probably use them for the same three categories I did last year: Lucy, Jonah, Everyone. I like that is has the weekends unlike a lot of homeschooling record books I've seen because while we don't do regular school on the weekends, we do often have education experiences I can count for our hours.

The planner also has monthly calendar pages. I don't foresee a need for those right now but that if we start any sort of co-ops or group activities in the fall, that might be useful. I also took another plastic tab sheet lying around and punched new holes to make a clear dashboard. I'm not sure how much I'll use this but there were some times that we were doing messier things but I still wanted my planner next to me and it got a bit sticky. So this will allow me to keep it covered but visible during tea times or other messier activities. 

And there you have it! More than anyone ever wanted to know about my homeschool planner. Now it's time to start school tomorrow and put it to use!