Preventative methods of discipline by St. John Bosco

Here is the link.

Teacher "in service" and familyschooling

We love well-illustrated books. The LovetoLearn blog has been spotlighting a picture book of the week, and this book, published by National Geographic, is high on my list to purchase. It is just the type of book good for what many hschoolers call familyschooling which can mean, among other things, that parents are enjoying and working hard to educate, at home, several children of varying ages. When a topic can be covered at varying levels for varying ages, this is so fun and enriching. Families who love to learn and have their children in school do this too(...really all good families do this...).

So, I am making some notes today, and cleaning off my bulletin board and white board to get ready for some beautiful, monthly plans for February, as well as try to give some direction to our family history studies. I am going to read the section in Christ and the Americas on the Louisiana Purchase. I just printed this out over at Unity of Truth for some snowflake science this week. We are reading about the Apostle Paul to honor the Year of St. Paul.

Here are some books from our home library to read, discuss and write/draw about this week: Saint Paul, the Apostle by Fr. Lovasik (HRM read to J), The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children by Marigold Hunt(assign to JB). Schedule a time for a chapter out of year 2 and 5 of Faith and Life. Hopefully, we can make it to the St. Paul study at the parish Wednesday morning since we do not have a Challenge meeting this week.

Finished "Guns" and moving to 6th century England...

Wednesday: We got up and read and finished Guns for General Washington, prepared and ate lunch in a hurry and drove a vanload of girls up to Cumming for girls' Challenge. We really enjoyed the afternoon, as it involved the whole North Club; the girls made lovely multi-colored rosaries for an upcoming mission trip to Ghana. At certain moments, Miller nearly drove Mom insane, but, as Mom's friend KB likes to say, "It's all good!" Thursday: For various reasons, we did not like Cathedral, as much as I thought we would. So, back to the drawing board for mom to add some zest to Architecture. I had gone to the library and checked out Owl at Home for J by Arnold Lobel (author of Mouse Soup, which the girls and I read and re-read, when they were younger), so he and I took turns reading that, laughing as we read. I agree with this review of Owl at Home. Winter is personified in one of the Lobel stories, so I reviewed that literary technique with the girls. I read a poem from book 2 of the Christian Liberty Nature Reader and showed to all some of my favorite art work from various seasonal books in our personal library. JB took a Teaching Textbooks placement test and quizzed me on the multiplication tables. The sun was shining today, so we ended our day with running and playing in the yard.

And, yes, it is winter, and the "I am bored," comes from JB and J, and we are learning how to combat that. HRM tends not to get bored, she gets busy weedling me for things (...shopping online is fun, at times....at other times, I want to throw the computer out the window...) I am an odd bird in that the slower days, like today, are often my favorites -- ie when it is quiet enough for people to be bored, then real learning often begins. Sure, Mom has to discipline more when there is more time on our hands, but that is good. We had lots of time-outs and lost privileges today, but we also prayed together more than usual and had the chance to talk about how we can control our emotions and actions better.

I am nearly finished planning my coop class for tomorrow. I may post about it, as it is coming together nicely.

Various chores and topics being worked on: Housework is a big part of our homeschool day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have nearly got all the laundry done. This week, laundry is a chore for Mom, JB and J, because HRM is handling most of the dishes, with help from J. HRM shopped, planned and is cooking many of our lunches and dinners. We bought the new Rachel Ray magazine and are watching the Weather Channel and FOX news. HRM is working to memorize her lines for one of our upcoming TORCH spring plays. We are also working out the financing and finances of our new house that will soon be done, and HRM is learning lots from that. Planning: We are going to all try to listen, first thing in the morning, to one main book for historical fiction. Guns for General Washington was so engaging and led to so much good, what I call "white-board work, " as well as questions and discussion, that I want the one read-aloud book to be of interest to everyone, then, we can use our M, T, Th as a general inspiration to get around the globe, pursuing topics related to the time period of the day, but it can come from any source, from the liturgical calendar, geography, current events, even a movie or t.v. show. I putting our new read-aloud, Augustine Comes to Kent by Barbara Willard on the sidebar as a Thursday read, because it is in the classical period, but it will be the first read of the day each day. I am also going to cycle back in our Pauline Saints for Young Readers Every Day, beginning Monday, February 2nd, to help prayerfully transition from our read-aloud to the next activity. I have been putting all written work in our LA notebooks and want to get those Book of Centuries underway. Lastly, Dad and I held a family meeting a couple of days ago to reinforce guidelines for what we call "screentime" (all computer use and television).

Still going great guns....

I noted in an earlier post, and now, as we sadly come to the end to this great book, I'll say again that Guns for General Washington is not just one of the best read alouds we've done, but one of the best and most inspiring books I've ever read. Like all high caliber fiction, this book provides so much food for thought, so many nice rabbit trails to pursue. This morning we got out several of our geography resources and talked about various geographical and math topics. The Mohawk and Hudson rivers are huge factors in our tale, as well as the little colonial hamlets nearby. The true story takes place during the winter of 1775-76, and the evocative descriptions of overcoming weather and treacherous terrain have led us to discuss many important facts. Who knows, maybe we can make a family field trip to Fort Tigonderoga and Boston in 2009?

Religion: We are trying to memorize The Angelus. Most days, HRM leads it for us at lunch time or tea time. We went to Mass today and had a good chat with our pastor, who gives of himself like few other people I have ever met in my life. I am so grateful for the influence he has had in this family.

Math and Architecture: In being more attunted to the architecture around us, we are discussing and visualizing many math skills. I'd like to do something like a lapbook to put to paper many of the discussions we've had about lines, dimension, area, and perspective. We have not cracked Cathedral yet. (JB is reading Marley and Me on her own and then she is going to lend it to me.)

All in all, I had a good time with all three scholars. It was one of those rare days, when it was only the four of us, and we put in a nearly 9am - 4pm of intense learning, discussion, and good writing. It is days like today that keep me very committed to homeschooling because I see how integrated learning can be when the setting is right. We have been very social lately; and, while this stimulates lots of learning and growing, I also love to "get back to the drawing board," and have our little "one-room schoolhouse", where we do our best to tackle the 4 R's (reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic and religion).

Last, we put copywork pages in both Miller and JB's Language Arts notebooks and quizzed HRM on the geofacts that we put in the notebooks.

We want to make maps of Colonel Henry Knox's "crazy," and, wildly successful and courageous, round trip journey from Boston to Fort Ticonderoga and back to Boston again. There are so many good parallels that could be drawn between this wonderful fictionalization of history and what happens to a person when they say yes to the demands of the Gospel. There is nothing overtly Christian in the text, but it is redolent of Christian values.

Going great guns....

Last Thursday to Today and into the weekend....
Last Thursday and Friday afternoons we invited other hschool moms and kids over for play and art and tea and food and lots of good discussion. I received good recommendations for reading, as well as, books on CD to listen to...this is something I do not do, nor do the kids (listening to books on tape/CD) and we need to do it! JB is still spending lots of time on canine research, and she has a new blog entitled, "Cat Scratch, Dog Bark". J is still in to WWII. He made his 1st Reconciliation Monday night and said, "It was fun!" Well, if that boy is not a sanguine, I'll eat my foot! (...my grandmother used to always refer to her foot -- I loved it...)

HRM could write a book on the MAC makeup company; I see a creative writing project brewing. HRM cooked dinner for the family Monday nite. Lots of talk about the Inauguration. Lots of talk about a couple of good movies we saw this week. We are learning an amazing number of things, both general and detailed, in getting to the final phase of contruction on the house we are building in Forsyth County. We are very immersed in Guns for General Washington and this book is prompting an integrated study in itself -- math, history, geography, spelling...I love it when we are so in to a book that we can hardly put it down. Hopefully, we will finish it in the morning before friends pick up JB to go to the March for Life downtown.

Challenge today was such a gift, as was having lunch with our friends beforehand, and getting to see our other friends' new puppy, little cookie "crumb". I am too tired to journal all the skills, activities and seized learning moments like I'd like to....I can say that if we accept the definition of "to educate" as "to nurture, to grow," well, then I have the privilege to participate in the education of three bright, giving, loving young people --- Alleluia!

Dad's parents will arrive from Kentucky tomorrow and, along with both girls going to the March for Life, we have our 1st TORCH coop the next day and a family party in the evening over at Dad's cousin's house, along with her sister, husband and two little ones. JB wants to get up Saturday and go over to PetSmart to look at all the dogs and puppies up for adoption.

The good, the bad and the surprising...

As I was running a few errands this afternoon in the van, I thought of a way to describe some impressions for the past few days:

the good: waffles and real maple syrup, almost every morning
lots of writing and some white board math
mom got to go to a mini retreat with Mass and Confession Tues. nite
HRM is helping alot with house and home duties
did some fun "Mallschooling on Tuesday" with good architecture discussion
got to have tea and a short visit with Regans yesterday
Guns for General Washington is one of the best read alouds ever
my dad called this morning
Rach came over for lunch and a much overdue "gab fest"
Rach and JB put me on Facebook and it is, hopefully, going to be a good thing


the bad: lots of bandaids and blood today; lots of siblings squabbles
Mom is not getting kids to help pack up the house
Dad is back to regular working hours (translate: lots of working hours)
JB needs to have oral surgery and braces
my dear friend Rebecca's husband is in the hospital

the surprising: Fr. James really wants to come from Ghana to the US this summer. And, today, our good pastor loaded the kids with candy and blessings when we had to drop paperwork and a check to the parish for HRM's upcoming February retreat

A new week...

Fr. Flood, pastor at St. Benedict's parish, gave a rousing homily yesterday about, among other things, new beginnings. After having some good downtime yesterday afternoon and evening (Dad cooked and served up his famous chili for dinner.), this morning I awoke refreshed and energetic and ready for a productive day. Notes: Miller and I read some of this wonderful picture book about his fast-approaching 1st Penance and Reconciliation. It is quite long, so we'll have to read it throughout the week. He and his sister copied and read from their Seton spellers, and did whiteboard math. We had a very involved grammar lesson, studying verbs, reviewing the parts of speech, prepositional phrases and diagramming. I used JB's Seton 5 Grammar book to introduce verbs, talk about sentences and begin diagramming. It was one of those golden 45 minute jam sessions with lots of questions, creative interpretation of materials (read: acting out various verbs), whiteboard work and covering so much material in such a short time. While I was facilitating our grammar learning, JB was fast at work on her gum wrapper chain. She found this, and we all laughed. I am working to get JB doing more cooking, so she made alot of our lunch. Dad ate with us too. After lunch, J and JB and I read the introduction (excellent!) and 1st chapter of Guns for General Washington and JB copied a paragraph; it was neat that one of her Seton words, "hardy," was in the text. HRM is doing math and I will work with her later on history, religion and LA. HRM will be thirteen in May, and I could burst with gladness at the fine young lady she has grown to be, so far. She is annoyed with me as I probe her with Twilight series plot details. Notes for last Friday: JB did math facts and copywork from this encyclopedia of dogs. She had bought it, and a book about old dogs, at Barnes & Noble over the holidays and has been carting both books here, there and everywhere. I also sat down with her and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia to review and plot our BC notebook. We discussed the Appalachian trail, a topic of ongoing interest. The kids played lots of Guitar Hero while I was glued to my novel.

Exploring Math and Science through literature and everyday activities...

I was over here at the Living Math! site and see our approach in this approach. I want to look at this to inspire us to think more about math history. I also bought, and read much of, Maureen Wittmann's new book back in August, and found her philosophy affirming. I have watched all three of my children learn so much math and science while cooking, asking questions and discussing various topics, playing video games and board games, playing pretend (an elaborate restaurant game two years ago was an entire primary math curriculum), painting, drawing, sculpting, putting on plays, self-taught music, formal music lessons, reading and writing poetry and exploring the great outdoors -- oh, and like every suburban mom, driving is also time, with a captive audience, to "carschool" in an interdisciplinary manner. "Mallschool" is our latest venue for interdisciplinary learning. It is my experience, for nearly 13 yrs as a stay-at-home mom, that, when children and young people come to you with a burning question, they soak up the knowledge like a sponge. Even when mine were infants and toddlers, the self-directed games and activities they came up with on their own simply amazed me. It is not a big surprise that I have, time and time again, found wonderful results with a very child-led form of home education. It is a "both-and," meaning that it is often Mom-led (or Dad-led) as well. To educate means to nurture, to grow. What a constant task! What struggles, yet what joys!

HRM and I bought CHC's High School of Your Dreams a while back ago. This type of logging hours is so helpful for unschoolers or other "mixers".

"W" Day: waiting, watching and WWII

Notes: We watched birds. We waited for and on each other. We studied a good amount. Miller led the pack today with this Usborne book. He did some excellent copywork. Need to get that snowman math working (the idea is for him to learn how to use a compass, to discuss diameter, radius, basic fractions). HRM did her history and thought about getting back on track with Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra. JB did spelling, math and, overall, we had lots of good discussions about diverse topics, including -- the architecture at Macy's, why to or not to homeschool high school, why Mac makeup is addictive, what freedom really means, who Winston Churchill was, much other WWII stuff, and then, we ended the day buying fixings for both burgers and pasta because everyone was so keen on their "independence of mind" (...one of Mom's recurring lecture topics...) that we are making two dinners for dinner tonight!?!

Why I enjoy homeschooling...

I love the unexpected joys, the "fits of harmony," as my husband so aptly described this past Sunday afternoon when he told me what he most wanted to do (stay home and experience "fits of harmony," that is...). Of course, he always lobbies to stay home because he is away from home so much, hammering out software in a confined, and often noisy, environment. Well, as is often the case after we have had a prolonged period of pure unschooling, everyone was ready to sit down and bone up on what we call the "4Rs" -- reading, writing, 'rithmetic and religion. So, I have so much I'd like to write about, but I really want to go find a quiet corner and read HRM's Twilight novel, that I am borrowing. So, here are some notes:

Monday..............We were a whiz-bang cleaning team. We officially were off since everyone in both local public and private schools were off. Our friends came over and helped us clean and organize. I slowly took down some cherished Christmas ornaments and decorations; but, the tree and the Nativity is still up.

Tuesday..........Tonight the Magi will come to the Crib during our evening family prayer. We ate all of our meals at home today. HRM made a nice pasta sauce from scratch and led the Angelus before lunch. Earlier, Miller, Jellybean and I did a Gospel reflection and later, we were absorbed in this book, a fine start on seasonal science. J did alot of whiteboard copywork for math and LA. JB helped with that. We discussed the periods of history, planned some snowman math for Miller. As a kick-off-of-the-term treat, we went to the 2pm Matinee showing of Marley and Me and loved, loved, loved this heart-warming film. Before lunch, I read the poem, "Dream," by Langston Hughes from our poetry book The Seasons, which has an intensely lovely watercolor on every page:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Book and DVD wishlist

for HRM:
a George MacDonald treasury

for Miller and Jelly Bean:
Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West by Steven Kroll
Becky Landers: Frontier Warrior by Constance Lindsay Skinner

the Daniel Boone book in the Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Order the David Macaulay Cathedral DVD

Winter 2009 plans big and small...

George MacDonald life and work study for HRM and Mom

Language Arts Notebooks for JB and J
(Spelling, Copywork, Dictation, Narration and Creative Writing)

Math
(grades 2 is misc, Saxon 5/4 for JB and Teaching Textbooks for HRM)

History
HRM is reading Anne Carroll's Christ and the Americas. Begin "Book of Centuries" notebooks for Jelly Bean and Miller. We will use the following schedule to make notebook pages for either our LA or BC notebooks. Note: beef up our Geography by drawing more maps and put these in the BCs. Read lots of historical fiction, concentrating on the following areas:

Readings in American History

Readings in Medieval or Contemporary History

Readings in Ancient/Classical History or Architecture
Fridays

TORCH Coop (catch up day until Coop starts)

Religion
Keep up our morning routine of reading the daily saint from the Pauline series.
Find a better schedule for Faith and Life series for JB and Miller.

Look at Catholic Mosaic for January - March.

Church history, catechisis and lives of the saints that follow the historical period of the current read aloud(s).
Handwriting

Various. We love CHC. I want to put some pictures of samples on this blog.

Science

Will post later...

Latin
Our Roman Roots or Minimus