Milad-the voyage to Ophir

Last week, on our visit to the Phoenician ship, I brought the book: Milad-the voyage to Ophir by Nazam Anhar. Not surprisingly, it is historical fiction about a Phoenician boy who sails with a fleet to Ophir (present day Ethiopia) to bring back treasures for King Solomon of Israel.

This book would be, I think, what the nineteenth century educator, Charlotte Mason, would have described as a living book. It is fiction and certainly not a textbook or twaddle but had me looking at my atlas to see what the modern equivalents are called.

Milad comes from a farming family in Phoenicia-modern Lebanon. He has always wanted to go to sea but his parents have wanted him to stay on the family farm until drought threatens their livelihood. Milad is taken on a ship travelling to Ophir to bring back treasures for Solomon. He encounters pirates and a runaway princess as well as travelling deep into Ophir with the crew who trade for treasure.

I don't want to tell you too much but Milad and an experienced Phoenician navigator have a hair raising journey home via Egypt and the Nile.

 It was fascinating to think that some of the pyramids were several hundred years old even then. I learnt more than I had known, well that wasn't much, about the Nile and the area surrounding the Blur Nile.

This book is a suitable read for older children probably from about age 10. It would definitely appeal to boys.

Caveats: the adventures are fairly extreme. I was a bit surprised that they arrived back in one piece.

Solomon doesn't come off in the best light-I don't have a problem with this. I wouldn't have wanted to be the nth wife anymore than the runaway princess did. Milad isn't a Jew and doesn't have any understanding of the God of the Jews nor of the circumstances of Solomon's accession but then these are discussion points.

It is obtainable in the UK from the Phoenicia but it also appears to be sold by LCP. I've never ordered from LCP which seem to be primarily a schools company but they do seem to sell the book in quantities of one! It is published by the Australian branch of Scholastic and is available on Amazon.com in the US.

Picture book fatigue

There seems to be a point, around the three to four year mark, when children have learnt favourite picture books by heart. Generally, the parents have too. My three year olds haven't been ready for chapter books but there doesn't seem to be a clear, or any progression, in picture books. Both children and parents are in need of fresh and slightly more complicated material.

I was first aware of this problem, many years ago, when my eldest son went to preschool aged almost four. The book for the first part of term was Eric Carle's The Hungry Caterpillar. A great book but one that my son had been given for his first birthday and been able to recite, almost word perfect, for probably more than half of his life. Of course, this may just have been to make the children feel comfortable in their new environment and they soon progressed to other books.

This problem has surfaced again. Our youngest, aged 3 and 1/2, knows many of his books by heart and to be honest, I've probably read some of them hundreds of times over the last almost 19 years. But he isn't quite ready for chapter books.

We've found some books which seem to fit the bill, and I would love more suggestions.

• Most of the Five in a Row books are in the "slightly more grown up" picture book group.

• The Katy books by James Mayhew have been tremendously popular here, both with Mr Exuberance and Miss Belle. Being able to spot pictures in art galleries has been a great "wow" factor.
• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Conor. I really brought these for Miss Belle but her brother appreciates the humour and funny vocabulary.
• The lighthouse keeper series by Ronda and David Armitage

• Some of the old Ladybird books from the series about science. Water, Ducks and swans and Bridges have gone down well. Our youngest finds the history series too complex but his five year old sister loves these books.

I've got a few science type picture books on order and some other new books hidden. It does seem to be worth bringing out new books gradually so they can be savoured. I've also taken to hiding books for a while so when they re-appear they are fresh.

Has anyone else met "Picture book fatigue"? Any suggestions for counteracting this?

I always planned to do this

When we started home educating almost three and a half years ago, I had the idea that once a week, we would spend the morning at home working and then go to a museum or gallery. It hasn't quite worked like that. 

Initially, travelling on public transport with a baby and toddler was just too complicated-those buses that only take two unfolded prams-mine seemed to be the third. Getting on and off buses also seemed complex as I needed an extra hand. Over the last 18 months, getting into the centre has become easier and we have had more trips there.. I  even wrote some tips. 

Still we had never managed to have a normal morning and then disappear off to London until today! Just to prove-here is a poor photo. (The children were keen to keep moving.)

I'm not sure that we will ever do this regularly-it really depends on whether there is something that fits in with the learning that we are doing. Still since we are looking at Ancient history, there might be a fair number of valid reasons to make the most of the resources in the British Museum. It is even free although I did buy a rather fun activity book in the shop! The idea of learning about pyramids by making coconut pyramids rather appeals-I hadn't thought of that before or eaten coconut pyramids for more years than I care to admit.

Any tips on making outings easy and useful?

Phoenician ship

We are studying ancient history this year so I was rather excited when I found that a lifesize model of a Phoenician ship was moored in  St Katharine's Dock, London.

The Phoenicians came from the Lebanon area and were great sailors and merchants. They are mentioned in the Bible for their alliances with Kings David and Solomon and brought materials for building of Solomon's Temple in their boats. They are also responsible for the first  known circumnaviagtion of Africa which is said to have been commissioned by the Egyptians in 600BC and recorded by the Greek historian, Herodotus over a hundred years later.

The replica ship, the Phoenicia, uses construction techniques from a wreck of a Phoenician ship. Despite the wreck, the Phoenician construction, using carpentry joints, was apparently much better than the ships of other nations of the time who used ropes to hold their ships together.

Just to prove this really worked, the replica has been sailed all round Africa and then onto the UK. Quite impressive-they had a few modern features: a compass and an engine for getting into ports but generally, the ship used sail power.

The crew are enthusiastic and keen to show people round both the ship and the exhibition in the bows where the cargoes would have originally been stored. They had a few amphorae around to demonstrate.

The boat isn't large but worth seeing. The day we visited tours were free but according to the website there usually is a charge. The exhibition is only open until 30th September 2012. For people on the other side of the Pond, there are plans to sail over and tour the Americas in 2014. I haven't found any details of where the ship will dock.

Just to add to our day out, there was a Chinese junk also moored in St Katharine's docks. We were able to go on board-a fun reminder of Ping.

First week back

We started back this week. The start day was meant to be Wednesday but the two younger children were keen to start back earlier so did a little from the beginning of the week. This didn't seem at all unreasonable. On the other hand, Middle Son wanted to make the most of the last couple of days of holiday seeing friends which also didn't seem unreasonable.

What has worked for us

• Middle Son has more independence, this year, about his work. He has the plan for the main subjects at the beginning of the week and can work through at his own speed. This means that he did his first maths exercise without any teaching, it was revision, but then talked to me and used a Khan Academy video to reinforce concepts in further exercises. I mark daily to check that he hasn't run into problems.
• Practical kitchen chemistry to look at the differences between reactions and changes in state: heating and cooling egg white and chocolate respectively.
• New Berol felt tips and A3 paper have lead to a frenzy of drawing from the younger two.
• Cooking for our Venice unit. Post about this later, I hope.
• Music from the Four Seasons lead to excited dancing from Mr Exuberance and Miss Belle.
• Friday afternoon outside for the younger ones with  tree climbing, dens

 and writing in the dirt.

 

What I need to think about

• Books for Middle Son. He is reading fast! My plan is to read just ahead so I can talk to him about the books but he is making rapid progress through the Silver Sword. I need to get reading.
• Activities for Mr Exuberance. He is living up to his internet name which is meaning that I need to provide plenty for him to do while his sister is working.  Activities that have been useful this week have been drawing, Duplo, marble runs, puzzles, play dough plus cutters, books and painting. 

The sea

What I've been thinking about

• When I was in medicine, we used to talk about reflective practice. This is a useful concept, for me, as a home educator.
• New books and curricula take a while to settle. I can begin to see how I need to jiggle things to make them work well.

Hope you have had a good week.

Inspiration for September

Summer is almost over and we are about to start back. Today has been a day of pre-term photos and general getting ready as well as two little people who wanted to start a bit early! We had a great time doing a little work and enjoying the new large drawing paper and good quality felt tip pens.

As we are starting formal learning again, I've been looking again at this post from In Lieu of Preschool on 125+ ways to practice making letters. I've used these ideas, a little, over the summer but this is such a great resource. We've made letters in bubbles, from paint, in sand and from scraps of foam since reading this article but there are plenty more ideas.

Se7en has a post on hospitality in the here-and-now even in the midst of a busy home educating family.

The next links are about life not education.


This moving article by Ruth is well worth reading. I don't know Ruth personally although I have friends who do. Ruth has been married  for just a year during which time she has been particularly ill with cystic fibrosis. Ruth's reliance on the Lord in the midst of her illness is encouraging and challenging.

A thought provoking series is that by Joel Beeke on his late mother. The first part on prayer is something that Christian mothers should read. Personally, I was encouraged by the second part about loving Scripture and how his mother loved and understood God's Word during her illness.



I've realised that not much of this is about learning-yes, there are plans for that but hopefully, more anon.

Quiet Book Basket

When we started home education I wrote a timetable with just over an hour for lunch. Within days I discovered that this didn't work.The reason was  that while an hour for lunch might work in school, it takes longer if the teacher is cook, dinner lady and is feeding and changing a three month old baby. Things have moved on since then but we rapidly instituted a time after lunch for Middle Son to read. This has worked well for all concerned. 

Now the little ones are three and five and definitely not sleeping after lunch nor are they independent readers.  Still they, and I,needed a bit of quiet after lunch. A few weeks before we finished for the holiday, I read about the Discovery Quiet Time Basket over at The Unlikely Homeschool. We put this idea into action for the last few weeks of term and hope to re-start this when we start the new term, later this week.

The Book Basket has worked well. Each child chooses two items and looks at them quietly and independently in a place in their own.Twenty minutes seemed to be a reasonable length of time to keep interest and prevent boredom. 

We found the books were better than puzzles and games. In particular, we found that cross-sectional books inspired a fair amount of interest. A book called Slice through a city by Peter Kent was a real hit as were books about the ocean.

 So for this term, I'm using a cross section book, trying two sticker books that we had sitting around, a book about sharks, two books about the alphabet one of which is in the form of a puzzle book and a book about the monarchy. The puzzle book means that the children have to find objects and once a sample page has been read they should be independent with this.  

The books will need changing regularly. From the few weeks we used this before the holidays, a weekly basis is about right for changing the books. I don't intend to buy new books for this but to find books from our home library or the public library which are new to the children. So far, the Quiet Book Basket has been a win-win: a happy time for the children, maybe helping concentration, and time for me to get ready for the rest of the day as well as have a quiet cup of coffee.