March has been a major learning month except for the week when the younger children and I were all ill. That week,we worked a bit and slept a fair amount while I consoled myself that if the children had been in school, they wouldn't have been well enough to attend. Suddenly, the next week, everyone felt better and we seemed to manage so much more.
We have finished my version of Year 3 science using the National Curriculum (NC) outline. My feeling was that the NC outline was quite thin and I had to add, and extend, a fair amount to make the topics interesting. It turned out OK but I would like to add more literature, visits and videos to a future attempt. I wasn't in a big rush to push onto year 4 science, partly, because writing my own programme was quite time intensive so after a fair amount of thought and some helpful advice from an on-line home educating group, we have decided to use the Apologia Elementary book: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. This is a topic which really appeals to the children and is less affected by not being in the US than the Flying Creatures book. So far, the book is going well but it is very early days!
To mark the start of the new topic, we went to the London Aquarium.
Our nature walk from Exploring Nature with Children that week was about frogs and toads so we went to a local garden with a pond. This fitted in well with the general topic. We saw toads but no toad spawn, as yet.
I've been working on the content of our Circle Time/Morning Time. Pam Barnhill's podcasts have been helpful with this although I haven't finished listening to them all. This time has been useful for making sure that we actually do music and art appreciation and some other extras, along with its first and most important task of starting the day with prayer and learning about the Bible.
These are the resources that we used one day, this week, along with some A4 sheets of Bible memory work and some sheets that I used so that we could talk about some of the words used by Shakespeare.
If anyone has recommendations for books to go with music appreciation, I would be grateful. We are currently using the Ladybird composer books which work well but I am aware that these will only last a few more weeks. I have wondered about using Classics for Kids but haven't decided yet.
This week has been Shakespeare Week. We used some of the many resources on the website: the virtual tour of Shakespeare's home, a radio rendition of Henry V and talked about words from Shakespeare each morning using a worksheet from the Shakespeare site although we used this more as a discussion guide. Poetry tea did include a Shakespeare sonnet although also plenty of other much more modern poetry. I do struggle with the content of some of Shakespeare's plays although I know that he had an important influence on the language. At present, I am reading, rather slowly, Ken Ludwig's book How to teach your children Shakespeare which is a helpful background to Shakespeare for this non-literary person. Hopefully, after that I will read a Christian overview of the Bard.
Today, has been our Spring nature walk, at almost the Equinox. It was cold but we took a warm picnic and rather to my relief, sat on a log rather than the very muddy ground. The children loved their time outside and we stayed out far longer than I had thought: hot chocolate in a thermos definitely helped!
The children took pictures for the scavenger hunt. This is the bird's nest.
I'm pondering Charlotte Mason style education. Ambleside on Line has a useful explanation. Some of the elements work really well for one of my children, in particular, but I'm less happy with some of the underlying ideas about the child. Doubtless, we will end up using the short lessons, narration, literature rich and outdoor time elements and not use some of the rest. Charlotte Mason's original works need to go on my reading list!
Nearly, time for our Easter break!
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We have finished my version of Year 3 science using the National Curriculum (NC) outline. My feeling was that the NC outline was quite thin and I had to add, and extend, a fair amount to make the topics interesting. It turned out OK but I would like to add more literature, visits and videos to a future attempt. I wasn't in a big rush to push onto year 4 science, partly, because writing my own programme was quite time intensive so after a fair amount of thought and some helpful advice from an on-line home educating group, we have decided to use the Apologia Elementary book: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. This is a topic which really appeals to the children and is less affected by not being in the US than the Flying Creatures book. So far, the book is going well but it is very early days!
To mark the start of the new topic, we went to the London Aquarium.
Our nature walk from Exploring Nature with Children that week was about frogs and toads so we went to a local garden with a pond. This fitted in well with the general topic. We saw toads but no toad spawn, as yet.
I've been working on the content of our Circle Time/Morning Time. Pam Barnhill's podcasts have been helpful with this although I haven't finished listening to them all. This time has been useful for making sure that we actually do music and art appreciation and some other extras, along with its first and most important task of starting the day with prayer and learning about the Bible.
These are the resources that we used one day, this week, along with some A4 sheets of Bible memory work and some sheets that I used so that we could talk about some of the words used by Shakespeare.
If anyone has recommendations for books to go with music appreciation, I would be grateful. We are currently using the Ladybird composer books which work well but I am aware that these will only last a few more weeks. I have wondered about using Classics for Kids but haven't decided yet.
This week has been Shakespeare Week. We used some of the many resources on the website: the virtual tour of Shakespeare's home, a radio rendition of Henry V and talked about words from Shakespeare each morning using a worksheet from the Shakespeare site although we used this more as a discussion guide. Poetry tea did include a Shakespeare sonnet although also plenty of other much more modern poetry. I do struggle with the content of some of Shakespeare's plays although I know that he had an important influence on the language. At present, I am reading, rather slowly, Ken Ludwig's book How to teach your children Shakespeare which is a helpful background to Shakespeare for this non-literary person. Hopefully, after that I will read a Christian overview of the Bard.
Today, has been our Spring nature walk, at almost the Equinox. It was cold but we took a warm picnic and rather to my relief, sat on a log rather than the very muddy ground. The children loved their time outside and we stayed out far longer than I had thought: hot chocolate in a thermos definitely helped!
I'm pondering Charlotte Mason style education. Ambleside on Line has a useful explanation. Some of the elements work really well for one of my children, in particular, but I'm less happy with some of the underlying ideas about the child. Doubtless, we will end up using the short lessons, narration, literature rich and outdoor time elements and not use some of the rest. Charlotte Mason's original works need to go on my reading list!
Nearly, time for our Easter break!
If you enjoyed this post you may like to follow Delivering Grace by Google Friend Connect, G+,Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or e-mail.
What ideas of Charlotte Mason's are you unsure about? I'm interested... I've got the complete writings on my shelf and have read a couple of volumes - much is good, but there are also odd, dated ideas - for example her reasoning for lots of fresh air is quite different from mine, and makes little medical sense! The outworkings and benefits may be the same, but her theory was certainly off there. I am sure there are other bits - in fact I get a bit frustrated when Charlottmasites take her views as gospel. I'm in some Facebook groups where people get really upset about what is and what isn't consistent with her philosophy, rather than realising we don't need to adhere rigidly to any one school of thought!
ReplyDeleteKondwani, mainly her views of children as not being born good or bad but with possibilities for either. I felt that she was ignoring original sin. I see that Ambleside on Line rather waters this down. I have read Karen Andreola's modernisation "A Charlotte Mason Companion" but not the originals which I ought to read. I certainly felt unsure about the how closely the philosophy could be aligned with Scripture. However, not taking the whole philosophy there are some really useful ideas. https://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/20Principles.html
DeleteThanks - yes, that makes sense. When of course, they are all born sinners!
DeleteWe have used the hymn study e-book Count Your Blessings by Kim Sorgius from Not Consumed for music appreciation, which includes printable worksheets and composer studies. She also has two others- When I Survey, and Gloria, although we have not tried those. We have also really enjoyed the Mr Pipes series by Douglas Bond, about an English organist who teaches two American children about hymns and their writers.
ReplyDeleteGwen, these hymn studies sound really interesting. I will look them up. We have the Mr Pipes book-I need to pull this out for the younger children although there are a few misreadings of UK culture which irritate me e.g. tea with cream.
DeleteSarah, "the gift of music" by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson is really good. It gives an outline of the life of a composer and then several pieces to listen to. It is written from a Christian point of view and in chronological order.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recommendation. It sounds ideal for our next step in music appreciation. I think that I remember reading about the authors and how they stayed in L'Abri.
DeleteHa ha, yes, I tend to 'translate' things like that when I read aloud, e.g. 'mum' instead of 'mom', and 'rubbish' rather 'trash'!
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one!
DeleteMy boys think it is hilarious to call me 'mom'. Hmmmm
DeleteYes, my older children used to sing a song about "Mom's apple pie" which amused them greatly.
DeleteFor music appreciation, we've used books written by Opal Wheeler. We've used "Mozart the Wonder Boy" and "Sebastian Bach the Boy from Thuringia" so far. Our family also loves the Audio CDs from Classical Kids such as "Mr Bach Comes to Call" and "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery".
ReplyDeleteLin, thank you for these really helpful suggestions. I'm feeling that I have a bit more direction now for when I finish the Ladybird books.
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