I did it! I did it!

I did it! What did I do? I finished The Odyssey! I'm not sure I've been more proud of myself for reading as much as this. I'll get to that in a minute but first I have to take a moment to thank the little guy in this sucess story - narration!

Narration! I love narration. My (school aged) kids have to narrate all their (school) books for every single reading. I'm just that mean of a mom ;-) But that doesn't mean I'm always quick to use it myself. Because it's kinda hard and I'm kinda lazy. True story.

However, I do believe in it's "power" so when I was really overwhelmed at the beginning of this book and  I was starting to just skim it and lose track of what story within a story I was at. So I stopped and got a notebook and started writting down my narrations. I had to stop a lot but suddenly I understood so much more! It was clicking and it was fun. Then my joint pain started up again so I switched a voice memo app I have on my phone for Lucy's narrations. That worked too. Funny thing though. When I stopped using the app and just tried to narrate to myself outloud, it didn't work. My brain knew I could fudge it too easily. So back to the memo app I went. Because it is work but fruitful work and reading something but not really understanding it feels like such a waste of time. I'd rather spend more time but get something out of it!

Lucy even "caught" me once and asked what I was doing. It was neat to share that I was choosing to do narrations because it was helping me understand. She asked who was listening to them and laughed when I said "No one! I delete them when I'm done reading for the day."  She kinda rolled her eyes a bit at her weird mom but secretly I thinks she liked that I'm willing to do the same thing I assign.

And slowly but surely, I made it through, I actually did stop narrating towards the end but not because I was lazy, but because I got into the story and I was excited to read it. Which is huge. Back when I started learning more about Charlotte Mason and Classical education, I stumbled upon this idea of Ordo Amoris or rightly ordered affections, loving what is lovely and true and how loving what should be loved is really what virtue is all about. That was pretty deep and while it stood out to me back then, it's also been a concept I've come back to again and again to think about what it really means for me as a parent/teacher and as a person.

But even that initial introduction to this idea caused me to change how I viewed my opinion of certain subjects. Poetry being one of them. I had all these reasons why Poetry was not for me. I'm analytical, I like things black and white. I want to know I have the right answers and its not always clear what a poem is about or trying to say and I don't like being confused. I don't like flowery writing. Excuses, lots of them. But I stopped looking at poetry as the thing that was wrong but rather that it was a flaw in me that caused me to dislike poetry. A failing even.  Don't worry, I didn't get out the cat o'nine tails and start whipping myself but it WAS a big shift in my view. (Good) Poetry is good. I don't like poetry. Therefore, I am wrong. And I set out, to change myself. To re-order my affections.

I started really small. I knew I didn't actually hate all poetry. I liked A.A. Milne. So I started there and we read lots of that. Luckily this was around the time Lucy started AO Year 1 so I've gotten to go through her poetry schedule for 4 years with her. That certainly helped. And then I just kept picking up more and more, trying to get more challenging as I went. Some I loved (Beowulf!) and some I stumbled through (Dante's Inferno).

 And because I am a type A person, I did have an end goal. And you might be guessing it right about now - The Odyssey! Which is what makes this upcoming point so special to me. I've wanted to reach the end of the Odyssey for 4-5 years now! And it's not that now that I've read it that I have arrived, no, scary books have this tendancy to not feel very scary or intimidating once you've read them. The books I haven't read always seems much more important than the ones I have in terms of literary achievement. So I've got a lot more poems to read. But it does mean that I can no longer call myself someone who doesn't like poetry.

It also means, this thing, it works. Just like I believed in narration but as still so surprised what I use it and get such good results. Similarly, I have believed in the idea of ordering of affections and cultivating tastes enough to have structured our homeschool lives around those concepts for going on 5 years now and have no plans to change that in the future.

And yet, its huge relief to see that it's worked in my own life. I've taught myself to love what is good and true and beautiful about poetry. Actually, poetry has taught me to love what is true and good and beautiful in it. I've just gotten out of the way (and put in some time). Which seems so simple and yet, it's so huge! Life confirming huge! It's confirmation of what I've been doing all this time!  If it has worked for me, how much more so for my little people with their slightly more flexible minds. Homeschooling is not about seeing fruit quickly. But it is really nice to see some blossoms popping.

Mason for Me - Fall (aka brutally honest) Edition

I'm including my own personal update in with this post instead of separately because it's not got a lot in it. My brain slowly faded and faded over the end of my pregnancy. By my last month or two I was barely even reading at all let alone adding to my commonplace book or reviewing my Latin flashcards. I was so tired (measuring 4-5 weeks ahead hugely pregnant, hot and anemic is not an energetic combo!) and my brain just wasn't working. Listening to Brandi Vencel talk about her anemia on a podcast reminded me that it was probably mostly the anemia and that would go away did help because I was feeling pretty defeated with even what I thought were low key goals.

So I re-evaluated. I picked up super light books and tried to read for 10 minutes a day. By super light I mean, barely above twaddle level novels or re-read old favorites that I know so well by know that I can pretty much pick the book up at any spot and read a page or two. Anything I could just to keep the habit of picking up a book instead of turning on netflix at naptime. Even if I did end up falling asleep 10 minutes 2 minutes in.

And I don't talk much about bible reading here because I assume that any of you Christian homeschooling parents out there already realize the vital need for Bible reading apart from Mother Culture, but I do consider to be one of the most important forms of Mother Culture. Let's not be planning elaborate self-education plans to read through the classics if you aren't at least reading your Bible daily. First things first. And this needed to be addresses in my life. We were going through the Psalms in church so I defaulted to that. I started at Psalm 1 and read one a day. I normally like to get out a physical bible instead of relying on my phone but that rarely happened. And sometimes, I even let the ESV website read the Psalm to me. Then I wrote down my favorite verse and tried to pray that - either as a request or a thanksgiving or praise and keep thinking over it throughout the day. Now, just like poetry hasn't always been my favorite form of literature, Psalms haven't been my go-to part of the Bible. But having pushed myself in the area of poetry, I can see pay-off when it comes to the Psalms. I was actually enjoying them!

I've often heard people encourage moms to give themselves grace when it comes to their Bible reading and prayer time when they are deep in the little people stage of life. And yes, there are times and places for elaborate Bible studies and Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and there are times when those aren't the right choice. But you have to be careful because too often it comes out sounding like "don't worry about making that a priority."

To me, not making God and his words a priority is not "giving myself grace." Choosing to do what I can, even when it is just a little, is giving myself grace. Or actually, it's letting God give me grace.  I came to him saying "This is it, God. This is all the time/energy/brain power I have right now in the circumstances you have put me in so please use it to grow me."  And he does. Which is good because I don't know how I'd deal with all the ups and downs of this stage without having His words flowing through my mind. I'm trying, not just keep my children alive until adulthood, but to have them actually turn out to be virtuous, God-fearing men and women by then - that's not an easy task! I need God!

And to a lesser degree, that can mostly apply to my desire for Mother Culture as a whole. I need the
quality ideas running through my brain to give me something to ponder at 2am when Jude decides he has slept enough or when my brain feels like it will explode if have to answer another question about Star Wars (especially since they all end with "I'm actually not really sure what that particular robot/droid/guy in a suit is called")

I'm 9 weeks post-partum right now and Jude is, for the time being at least, a good sleeper and a decent napper, but my hormones are giving me quite a bit of emotional trouble this time around. I'm starting to come out of the fog but its slow going. I am getting there though.  I want to read more, I want to get back into really studying things, I want to clean the dust bunnies on my ceiling fans that I've been looking at the for the last 2 months but physically unable to fix (oh wait, different topic).

I've started my slightly more intense Bible reading plan, am actually making progress in books, and finished two (You Are What You Love by James K. A. Smith and The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter both of which I'd recommend. Not too difficult but full of ideas to get your brain going) and I've finally started Giants in the Earth which has been on my to-be-read pile for several years so just starting it and going slowly feels like a big accomplishment. I know I'll be able to bring out my big Mason for Me plan from earlier soon  and I'll keep trucking along. But either way, God is good...and so are books :-)

Now, onto the link-ups. How are you going with your plans? Soaring with the energy of a new school year and a mug full of newly sharpened pencils? Or plodding along? Either way, we'd all love to hear about it!

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!

Year 8 and other mason for me stuff - Summer Update

In which I am still chugging along, albeit slowly. I actually really well for a good 6 weeks when my nausea stopped. I completed up to week 22 of year 8 and then kinda went off track. I realized my brain and my body were both pooping out and I needed to start using naptime for not just resting, but actual napping if I wanted to be somewhat helpful at dinner and bedtime. I choose to focus only on reading the few library books I was using before they had to go back. It was still slow reading so I didn't break any cm principles, just narrowed it down a bit. I finished Kon Tiki, Johannes Kepler, Phineas Gage and Napoleon's buttons. I talked about Napoleon's buttons last time and I'm still think we'll be skipping that one but the rest I liked a lot.

 And I'm actually almost finished with A Coffin for King Charles. That one felt really dry for the first 1/3 although to be fair, I had stopped reading Churchill so I didn't have quite as much context as a regular student and felt a bit lost. But once it got going, I really liked it and forced Craig to discuss a few of the ideas when he was trapped in the car with me. Fun times.

I didn't do very much journaling at all. I got a few quotes copied down in there and summarized Kepler's laws on a page but that's about it. I miss it and hope to get back to it but honestly, since I'll be starting my next term with a newborn, that might not happen. Unless the 4th baby miraculously decides to prefer napping on his/her own and not in my arms but that doesn't seem to be the way my kids work.

I did add Latin. After starting Lucy with year 3, I realized year 4 would be next and with year 4 comes Latin so I wanted to brush up on mine. I thought I'd just start going thought the curriculum I used in high school since my mom saved it for me and it was sitting in the basement. I've gotten through 7 of the 16 units in the first level. Despite not doing a lick of Latin in 17-18 years or so, it's really coming back quickly and its making me remember that I really really loved studying Latin. My ultimate goal right now is to finish all three levels (which I own so no excuses!) and get to the point where I can read some original Latin texts. That is NOT a short term goal but I was about 1/2 way through level 3 when other high school obligations called and it got dropped so I'm pretty sure its possible if I take a slow and steady approach.

So my new goals for the summer are very low key.

 - Finish A Coffin for King Charles. Then I'll put aside Year 8 and pick up again after my "maternity leave." I actually normally feel really great after my babies arrive and my brain feels refreshed despite the lack of sleep so I don't think I'll have an issue finishing up the year even if I wait until September/October to really get started again.

- Work on some handicrafts that, not surprisingly, revolve around the baby (Moses basket and sheets are done, still working on the baby nest and I'm working my way through an online mamarazzi photography course)

- I probably won't make any progress in Latin but I do want to go through my current vocabulary cards 1-2x a week.

- Pick a few very light reading books to have so I don't resort to Netflix or mindless web surfing when I'm too tired to get off couch. The Emily books by L.M. Montgomery and re-reading a few Austen novels are probably the top contenders. And I've gotten a few non-fiction reads about foraging and wild plants coming through our library system shortly that I can peruse as well.

Mason for Me - Summer 2018

Well, June snuck up on me. Actually, I knew it was coming but was powerless to stop it just to get in all those things that needed to be done. But I'm here now! (She says in her best Piggie Voice for anyone who's read this book)

Summer is a funny time for us homeschooling parents. I've been seeing lots of blog posts/facebook comments/podcasts about how to manage your kids for the summer and how to survive because for moms of elementary and up students, they suddenly have more kid time to manage but for me, and I suspect many of you, it's a bit of a break. I don't have any lessons plans or books to get through, I send my kids off to play and I can actually do some chores in the morning when I've got a bit more energy and have some free(ish) time in the afternoon, and my brain isn't trying to juggle so much stuff.

Which can make it a perfect time for mother culture. Maybe you're working your way through an ambleside year but not making as fast of progress as you'd like. This could be your time to shine! Or you could be super busy with vacations and running kids to camp and vbs and swim lessons and off your regular schedule and the progress your making comes to a screeching halt. Or maybe you were making good progress but just like you're kids do, you need a bit of a break. All of those options are totally reasonable.

This isn't a podcast strictly for homeschooling moms, but I really enjoyed The Simple Show Episode 130 Grown-Upping the Summer. It was a good reminder on balancing the seasons but still making time to learn and grown as a person. And balancing the seasons could mean the seasons of the year or the seasons of life. My summer will contain a big shift in my seasons of life and put me back in the newborn stage. I'll be trying to get up a post with my Mason for Me plans but the short version is - it's not gonna be full of deep brain work!

If you are up for some deep thinking but need a break from your regular scheduled Mother Culture do check out Brandy's two posts: her 2018 Mother Culture Reading List and her slightly more ambitious 2018 Mother's Education Course. They're be sure to be at least a few books you want to add to your tbr pile.

Or maybe put down the books (for a little while, you can pick them up again soon :-) and try out a new handicraft. Something you can take to the backyard while you watch the kids play or even the pool..if you're in that stage where your kids aren't potentially drowning every 30 seconds. I'm not quite there yet. Cross stick or Embroidery? Crochet or knitting - that would be good because I always get the hankering to knit when the weather turns cold but I've very slow so I finish my mittens or scarfs right about - spring time. Maybe if I start in the summer, they'd be ready for us to use when its still cold!

Or try to up your nature journaling and keeping game. This time of year is perfect for flowers and bugs - especially if you go out and grab them in the morning when it's still cool and draw/paint them inside an air conditioned building. It's not cheating. Not at all. At least, that's what my 32 weeks pregnant body is telling me.

So how are you fitting some of the Charlotte Mason philosophy in your life right now? I'd love to hear from you, whether it's in the comments or using the instagram hashtag #MasonforMe or leaving a link below.



Also, on a small housekeeping note. I can pretty much guarantee that the Fall edition of this will be delayed because I'll be busy with a newborn. I'll try to get around to it eventually. Which will give you a lot of time to feel refreshed and have plans for the fall all ready to share with us! Because despite what if might feel like now, eventually we will be craving pencils and sweaters and stacks of books again. 

Year 3 Term 1 Exams

Another term ends! No matter how well the term has gone, I always feels completely exhausted by the last week. But I can't skip exams, it's too much fun. These are mostly based on the AO exams found here but I add to them because Lucy LOVES exams. She still says its her favorite part of the year, even more than break! I also changed some things to make them more opened ended or more drawing orientated because she enjoys that and normally follows it up with a great oral narration just by describing what she drew. I try to write those down too but don't always get to it - she talks fast!

In each category, I've also tried to include some of the other things we did for those categories. These are the types of things I've mostly gleaned from other moms here and there, from the forum or blog posts and they seem to be the types of things that moms new to ao are uncertain about so yet it's hard to come up with them when asked. Hopefully it gives you an idea of what we do. Yes, it's mostly read and narrate but not always. 

For a while, we were working on getting shorter narrations in our daily work because she kept trying to get every detail and every exact quote in there and it was stressful for her if I read too long of a passage and not really necessary. So in these exams, I did got some nice succinct answers but then I had to prompt her for more detail! Poor kid is probably thinking "Mom, just make up your mind!" She also started experimenting during our regular narrations with answering in rhyme or poems which was fun but needed to be limited or school would end up taking an extra hour. I'm excited about starting written narrations in a year or so as I think she's take off with them. Beyond the academic side of things, I just love how a child's narrations give me such insight into who they are and how they think and I can't wait to see how Jonah answers the same questions because I know he'll do it in his own unique way as well.  But on to the exams...

BIBLE

What do you know about Moses' babyhood and early life?

He was born in Egypt and the Pharoah said to kill all the baby boys so his mom hide him in the river in a basket and the Pharoah’s daughter found him and he lived with her.

 Tell about Moses and the burning bush, or a story of Moses and Aaron.

So when the Israelites were slaves in Israel, Moses saw a burning bush and the bush said “Take off your sandals for this is a holy place” and the bush said “Go tell Pharoah to set the Israelites free and if he does not say yes then tell Aaron to put his hand over the river and all the river will turn into blood”

 Tell about Mary's visit to Elizabeth, or something from Jesus' childhood (i.e. newborn presentation at the temple or being left at the temple later).

So Jesus and his family went to the temple and they went home but Jesus stayed behind but Mary and Joseph thought he was in the crowd and so they left without him but then he wasn’t there so they had to go all the way back. And when they got there he was answering the questions of some wise men and they were surprised. That’s all.

Tell about the healing of the man who came through the roof, or of the centurion's servant.

 Jesus was in a room healing people and doors was crowded and there was no more room for anyone and there was a man who couldn’t walk and there was no room for him to go in so some people took off the tile of the roof and lowered him down that way and Jesus healed him and he got up and walked away. And he was very glad that Jesus did that.

    Writing/Penmanship

 Copy "The queen went stumping along in one shoe of stone and one of skin." In print once and then again with as much transitions (cursive italics) as you know.

History

Can you name the kings and queens we know from Henry VIII on and tell me one fact about each? This is less open ended question than I'd normally ask but I wanted to test "myself" on how well our increased scaffolding was working when it came to history and the timeline and not being confused. I think part of the improvement was that things slow down after the War of the Roses and it's less confusing but the scaffolding did help too. 

Henry VIII – Had a bunch of wives and he kept killing them. And he was not a good king and no one liked him.

His son (I had to reminded her of his name – Edward VI). – I can’t think of anything to say. The book didn’t talk about him much because he didn’t live very long.

Me: Well, that’s something, he didn’t live very long.

Lucy: Oh, yeah, I guess it is. I thought you meant something else about him.

The 10 days queen, Lady Grey Jane (She meant Lady Jane Grey ;-) ) – She was queen for 10 days.

Queen Mary – Bloody Mary. She kept killed everyone.

Queen Elizabeth – People liked her and she was a good queen. 

 What do you know about Martin Luther, or how Elizabeth became a prisoner?

So, there was a plot to take Mary off the throne because no one liked her and she thought Elizabeth her sister was a part of this so she put her in the tower and there was a boy who came and talked to her and she said “I’d rather be a milkmaid than be a prisoner and a princess”. And then she got out of the tower and lived until Mary wasn’t queen anymore.

Tell what you know about the boy king or Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey. She was only queen for 10 days and when they took her up to the tower no one said “Long live Queen Lady Grey, no one wanted her to be queen except the protestant people, the other people were Catholic. But then Mary made her a prisoner and she become queen and everyone wanted her to become queen – but then eventually they didn’t. Eventually they REALLY did not.

Tell about El Dorado or a story about the new world.

I don't remember El Dorado so, uhm, new colonies from France! Some people from France wanted to go to the new world and start colonies so they sent a big ship, well some ships, with food and they set out for the new world. When they got there they started colonies and built that fort called Fort Caroline and although some people started to get sick and they were protestant and they were at war with the Spaniards who were Catholic so they decided. Well, the people that were well decided to go over and fight the Spaniards leaving only the sick at the fort and while they were setting up to do that, the Spaniards went through the grass and went through and said they would conquer the sick people in the fort while the others were gone and that is what they did. And they took over the fort and killed all the French.

Tales

Tell your favorite part of The Princess and the Goblin.

That was one of my favorite books. So Irene was in her room and she was bored and she saw these stairs and went up the stairs and up and up and up and to a room with three different doors. And there was a humming sound from one of the doors and she opened one of the doors and there was an old lady and the lady said “hello Irene, I’m your great great grandmother” and Irene said “What’s a great great grandmother” and the old lady said “It is your father’s mother father’s mother”. I think that’s what she said. So the room was all blue, with blue walls, with a spinning wheel and the old lady was spinning and Irene asked her “what are you spinning” and she said “I’m spinning something for you” and that’s all I remember.

Tell the story of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill.

Paul Bunyan was a giant. And one day some people wanted to clear a space for them to live and to make sure the land was good, he planted corn. And in a few minutes it was taller than Paul Bunyan himself, and he was a very big giant. And so everyone came to see it and they sent a man up except it was so strong, he went up with it and it kept growing and growing so they put a chain around it and they pulled and it got tighter and tighter until it broke. And he had found a blue bull and it was a giant bull but it was small compared to Paul Bunyan so he called it Blue Babe.

We also did picture narrations for each of these stories during the term. Her Stormalong one was my favorite. 

Tell me about your favorite Shakespeare story of this term, either Merchant of Venice or Pericles of this term and draw a picture to illustrate it.

This is my favorite scene of Merchant of Venice. It’s at the end where she dressed up like an advisor and advised them not to kill him and so she saved her husband’s friend’s life.  That’s Portia, does she look like a boy? And she’s smiling and saying “No blood” because he asked for a pound of flesh but you can’t get that without blood. She’s using his own words like “you said this and you can only do that, haha, because that’s what you said”. She’s really smart. And that’s the other guy and he’s stomping his foot. And this guy is crying because he thinks he has to die.

Note to self: Give her a list of names before asking for Shakespeare. There are too many to remember even for me who is who all the time!

Draw a picture of a scene from the life of Perseus. 

She wanted to do too. On top is Perseus's mother and him as a baby (look hard, he's in the boat so you can just see the top of his head) . Below is him flying to fight Medusa.

I didn't get her description of the pictures because she finished it and brought it to me while I was sitting with a toddler in the bathroom - it isn't all tea time and nature walks, real life homeschooling (and potty training) happens here! But I do remember she wanted me to know that she knows that because he's wearing the hat he would be invisible but she still wanted to draw him anyway because it wouldn't be a very good picture if he was invisible. 

Geography

Use your map to show and tell me about Marco Polo's journey to China'

He started at Venice and they crosses the Adriatic sea into the Mediterranean sea to Acre but they hadn’t chosen a pope yet so they went down to Jerusalem to get some special water and went back and then to Turkey and then went back and then back to Turkey with some missionaries because they had chosen a pope. And they went past Mt. Ararat which was supposed to be the place where Noah’s Ark was, still standing there on the mountain, and they went past that to Mosul and to a bigger city which was Baghdad and they followed the Tigris river to the Persian gulf and they landed at Hormuz and went up to Kerman and then back almost across to Mosul to Tehran and then back up again to Balkh and past a bunch, a whole range of mountains and went across to Samarkand to Lop. And past the Gobi desert and came to Campicion and they were almost past Campicion and they had to wait there for a long time because there was a war going on and the war went straight across the path they were going in. But at last it was time to go and they were in China and at last got to Shangdu and to the palace of Kublai Khan!

Here is her map we've been working on. Some of the locations were hard to pinpoint exactly but we're getting the general idea. 

Draw the shape of the earth, and show where the hot countries are and where the cold ones are (three zones)

She did a picture in addition to explaining but I can't find it :-)

Frigid Zones are cold and icy and there are icebergs and it’s all frozen because the Sun. Well, let me show you (gets an orange and a pencil and shows how rays don’t hit straight on) when it tilts away, the earth is away from the Sun so they have one long big day for summer and at winter they have one long big night.

And in the middle zone, the torrid zone, it’s warm and the sun hits directly there and because when the earth is tilted away or towards, either way, the sun always hits so they get lots of sunlight.

And the temperate zones are in between and they have four seasons. And in the winter, it’s tilted away and in the summer its tilted towards.

Map Drill of Asia 

I'm stepping up the difficulty of our map drills this year and we actually practiced it weekly and she did great on this exam version! My husband actually works with maps at his job so I thought it would be fun to see how he did with the same exam question. She got 100%, he missed two which made her smile :-) 

Map drill is another one type of activity I've seen done in a variety of ways but I'm really happy with how ours is going so if people are interested, let me know and I'll share what we do. 

Natural History and General Science

For Pagoo this term, she got a blank book and did a picture narration (after orally narrating it section by section).It was her own idea to do a Pagoo "nature journal" but I I loved seeing her pictures each week. 

I also loved the contrast between these two narrations. The first, while not wrong, was SO short and I was confused because she seemed to really get a lot out of the story each week. But then the second just went on and on! So if you kid is stuck on a question, I guess its good to try asking about the same book/topic in a different way!

  What is plankton?

The Soupy Sea. The little stuff that lives in the water, it’s baby stuff, and Pagoo liked to eat it.

  

Can you tell me about Pagoo’s life so far? Where has he gone or what he has seen?

So when Pagoo was little, he would run around by floating around on the water’s surface and everyone once in a while he molted and got bigger and changed until one time when he changed he got a tail. And his tail didn’t have any protection and he needed to find a shell to take care of himself and he looked for a shell and one day he found one but he jumped out of it because he was so happy and he wanted to show the other one his shell but then that other hermit crab jumped into the shell. And he was so sad he had lost his wonderful fabulous shell that he ran away. And he saw some anemones and they looked like flowers but he saw a snail go by but when it did, it got swallowed up by them and the shell went away and he said “that shell is empty! And now it’s use is for someone else and that someone else could be me!” and so he went down there to try and see if he could get that empty shell. And when he got there, he didn’t only find one shell but he found a whole ton of shells. A ton of shells. And he picked a limpet shell and he was so proud that he had a shell that he sat on a rock. And when he was sitting on the rock he saw a fish and he closed up because he was surprised but when he open up again he saw a piece of steak there but as soon as he cut it up, he did it so well that everyone heard and saw him and everyone came running to get some of the feast but they chased him away running as fast as they could to get some of that delicious meal but he said “how mean they were, it was my feast” and he wished he had picked a shell with a smaller opening and said “as soon as I’m done with this shell, I’ll go get a different shell”

We started writing up very simple lab reports this term which has been fun and really helped cement what we learned. A Drop of Water is also the only book she is reading on her own yet and she loves it. I'm sad there aren't more books like this out there. 

Describe an experiment from A Drop of Water both what you did and what you learned from it.

We put a blue drop of food coloring in a cup of water and we waited and it slowly mixed around, slowly, slowly, slowly. And when we used hot water it went even fast and when we used cold water, it went sl-ow-ly. So the hotter it is, the faster it goes.

Nature Study

 Tell me about how a plant emerges from a seed.

So a navy bean seed, a little bit of its shell cracks open and a flower seed is kind of the same thing and eventually, it cracks open more and more and the roots come out of the navy bean seed, and the flower seed is similar but the shell almost comes off but he roots don’t come out yet. And even later on, the roots have grown almost all the way and even start to go under, deep, deep, deep. And the shell of the bean just comes off and sits there and just decays. And the plant comes up out of the ground and leaves start to grow. 

From earlier in the year when we made those observations:

List three flowers you might find in our yard. Describe/draw one from memory (or all three. She couldn't pick just one so she drew and described all three :-) 

Dandelion – Orangish-yellow and later on they turn into flowers that you can blow. And you can blow the seeds so that become more dandelions.

Dead Nettle – The grow all over our yard and have little purple flowers with heart shaped leaves. And they are very tiny and that’s all.

Another little yellow one that grows in the front yard that – They are little yellow flowers with five petals.

I was surprised because we had actually drawn and watercolored 3-4 different blossoms from our yard but she didn't pick ANY of those for this question. Then I realized that these are the prolific flowers that she and her friends use almost daily when making their "honeysuckle muffins" (aka mud, sand and flowers in an old muffin tin I gave them). A good reminder that formal work is beneficial and I think it does wonders in terms of observation skills but the connections they make in their play might still be stronger. But it did help ensure the next question wasn't too much of a repeat of that one.

Describe your favorite drawing from your nature journal this the last term.

So the daffodil is yellowish-orange and it’s like a cup with other little petals coming out of it, at the bottom, and the top of the cup kinda folds out. And the Easter lily is white. And yellowish in the center. And there are three front petals, inside and three outer petals and the pollen gets smudged very easily and it has long slender leaves. And that’s all about the Easter lily.

Picture Study

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

Pieta or David. Can I describe both? David has slingshot and he’s completely naked. And you can see all his veins and muscles and he looks very realistic. It’s a sculpture. Pieta looks likes it’s inside a closet. And she’s holding Jesus. And her dress looks like it’s actually made of cloth and she’s looking down at Jesus.

Composer 

Can you name our two Composers and tell me the names of some of their works.  We actually just started on Gershwin two weeks ago because they loved Copeland so much. But we'll keep listening to Gershwin over the break, no biggie. 

Copeland - He wrote Billy the Kid and Rodeo and some others..(Jonah – Appalachian Spring!) well, yes, and Quiet City.  

Gershwin – He was a good composer and he composed Rhapsody in Blue and he had a brother which helped him.

Math  - I didn't come up with any questions so I'm just sticking her last review page in her portfolio

Solfa - Similar. We did do it this term but I didn't come up with anything for the exam. 

Handicrafts – No handicrafts. I made an executive decision that I couldn't handle teaching any new handicraft skills until after the baby comes. But both Jonah and Lucy picked up some of their older craft work and made projects in their free time anyway. 

This time, I kept back all the recitation and singing things until the end. I printed her answers above and gathered all the other things I wanted to put in her portfolio to show to her dad and let her do the recitation things to him. I normally do all this but in a more haphazard way and I think having a "term review night" and some set aside time for him to see it all made it a bit more special. 

Recitation

Recite your favorite poem from this term. 

Singing

 Sing your favorite folksong and hymn from this term.

Catechism
Answer the first 7 catechism questions.

Reading Skill

Select a passage for student to read aloud.

Foreign Language/Bible Memory

Recite our school motto in English and in French. (I am a Child of God...)

Recite the bible verses that go with each part of the motto (this part is just in English)

And now, we take May off and Mommy gets to sit on her butt a bit more....I mean, the kids get to play. That's what's important :-)