tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571318689389676512024-03-15T11:23:13.406-05:00our dozen beautiful feetloving god and others, learning at home with four kids, cross-cultural cooking, adoption, and anything else that makes up my lifeMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.comBlogger253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-42991985152800679972022-08-02T22:41:00.001-05:002022-08-02T22:53:43.331-05:00Curriculum Picks for 2022-23!<p>Things are starting to change around here at Spero Academy. This year, everyone is in middle school or high school for the first time, which feels really unreal for me. I can't believe I'm done with elementary school! It's a little bitter sweet, because elementary school is so laid back and fun, but middle school is fun in a whole different way. </p><p>But with everyone growing up and becoming more independent, and with me doing a lot of repeats with Levi and Meryn, my plate is finding itself with a little more space on it. This is a refreshing change for me, and I've got some plans for how to fill it back up this year! :) </p><p>Homeschooling is still my priority though, and I'm excited (as always) for what we've got planned for this year! </p><p><u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Junior Year for Luke and Kiryn</u>: </p><p>We still are working towards a solid liberal arts education, so I try to organize their studies around the seven liberal arts. This year, they're done with the grammar and logic studies for now, so they only have rhetoric, math, science and great books left to do the next couple of years. With outsourcing science, that leaves me with only three things to do with them! </p><p><b>Rhetoric</b>: <u>Writing & Rhetoric Book 11: Thesis Part 2</u>. In this book, they will continue to study formal rhetoric, pathos, ethos, logos, and will write three speeches: judicial, political and ceremonial. In the spring, the kids will work through <u>Rhetoric Alive! Book 1.</u> This will prepare them to do a senior thesis next year. </p><p><b>Math:</b> </p><p><span> -</span>Last year, the kids finished <u>VideoText Complete Algebra</u> and started dipping their toes into the <u>Complete Geometry</u> program. This year, they will finish Geometry which will give them one full credit in Geometry and the other 1/2 credit of PreCalculus (the first half was part of Complete Algebra, along with one full credit for Algebra 1 and one full credit for Algebra 2). At the end of this year, they will have four high school credits of math. I'm also going to have them read a book my dad told me about. He has a math degree, and told me this story about when he was in high school. He said there were a handful of students at North High School in the 1960's who had taken all the math courses in the school catalog, so one of the teachers created an "off-the-books" class using a book called <i>How to Solve It</i> by Polya. He said the main idea was that, "It's not enough to know how to get the right answer, you have to know how to ask the right question." This dovetailed perfectly with a book I've been reading called <i>The Global Achievement Gap</i> which has highlighted the lack of preparation for real work kids are graduating even from college with. One thing the author highlights is a lack of inquiry and curiosity and an inability to ask good questions. So I'm hoping this book will help them learn how to ask the right questions in math on their own. Next year for their final year, I'll give them the choice between taking Economics, Probability & Statistics, calculus as a dual-enrollment class, or Calculus for Everyone at home.</p><p> -In addition to formal geometry studies, we're going to continue with a type of sacred geometry. We've been slowly working our way through <u><a href="https://www.constructingtheuniverse.com">A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe</a></u> for a couple of years and really love it. This year, hopefully we will finish through number 10 and call it good!<br /></p><p><b>Science:</b> It's time for Chemistry. DIVE Biology went just OK last year. It was really just checking the box of biology. There was no love grown or curiosity cultivated by this class. I really want them to have at least one science class in their education taught by someone who really loves what they're doing in an engaging way. So we decided we would enroll them in Dr. Jay Wile's online class <i>Discovering Design with Chemistry.</i> This is totally off my plate, and I couldn't be more happy about it. :) But, I'm also going to have them read <i>Napoleon's Buttons</i> and <i>The Chemical History of a Candle</i> to enhance their real-life understanding of chemistry and hopefully stoke their curiosity. Next year, they'll do Physics. If they enjoy Dr. Wile, they can take his class for physics, or they could do dual-enrollment through the local college. </p><p><b>Great Books:</b></p><p><b> -History</b>: We really enjoyed <u>Dave Raymond's American History</u> last year. So we're going to continue with his <u>Modernity</u> class this year. Because of their reading and class load this year, I'm going to give them the option to do either the weekly exams or the portfolio, but not both. We have a little group of families all using this program that meets together for the kids to present the projects that are assigned. We so enjoyed that last year and I'm really looking forward to seeing what all the kids come up with this year! I'm going to really stretch and push my kids on the research paper this year with a couple of extra resources to support their research paper process. Last year was their first research paper and it was pretty basic. I want to challenge them this year! <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv6wZN7tgV6ksfFa8i3g5N_pR6P8IyXvUiOvQYSDfS2BkYYQBoIg-p1qfxmaiR0Sg-RB0a9lB_4CBl0SLxhfPNGNq3IWQ6_3zLbP9rQdHs2As_ykhymb2u9Rct0Msn3qKS2ZTf7geaJhzSFqOFpCBTsmXW0wo5DqM1BiIweIm_iXvpsPPnMXeumXCU" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="668" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv6wZN7tgV6ksfFa8i3g5N_pR6P8IyXvUiOvQYSDfS2BkYYQBoIg-p1qfxmaiR0Sg-RB0a9lB_4CBl0SLxhfPNGNq3IWQ6_3zLbP9rQdHs2As_ykhymb2u9Rct0Msn3qKS2ZTf7geaJhzSFqOFpCBTsmXW0wo5DqM1BiIweIm_iXvpsPPnMXeumXCU=w357-h640" width="357" /></a></div> <b>-Literature:</b> I'm super excited about our literature class this year! We have a good group of kids joining us and a really fun and challenging book list. For my two kids, my challenge for them is coming with reading two books at a time this year: one fiction and one non-fiction. Typically, we like to really take our time and dive deep into a book and read about one book per month. The next couple of years they need to learn to juggle more than one book at a time. For this year, here is our book list: <br /><p></p><p><br />I'll be using Canon Press's Brit Lit Volumes 5-10, and adding in Crime & Punishment for a dip in Russian literature, and All Quiet on the Western Front for a German author and using Tapestry of Grace as a guide to those. Canon Press weaves a lot of poetry through these volumes so kids will get a good exposure to British poets through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. I love this list because it's very balanced with short reads and long reads, light fun easy reads and heavier, dark reads. I think the kids will really love the books they'll engage this year! </p><p><b>Philosophy:</b> In addition to this literature list, we'll continue with Tapestry of Grace's Pageant of Philosophy. This will be our fourth year reading through the Pageant and the kids will finish it up this year! I have really loved this track and it has introduced them to a lot of philosophers and ideas in a very approachable way. </p><p><b>Electives: </b></p><p><b> -Philharmonic Orchestra: </b>the kids are going back to the public school for orchestra. I'm just delighted that they don't want to quit playing! <br /></p><p> <b>-Dual Enrollment Classes:</b> The kids are going to take American Government at WSU Tech. It's their first college class. AAA! :) Kiryn's also taking Interpersonal Communication because she won a scholarship in a raffle that's only good for one semester, so we're capitalizing on that! <br /></p><p>Sometimes this feels like a lot and other times it feels like a pretty light year. We'll see how it goes when we get into it! I'm just so excited that they've reached the end of Latin and Logic in high school. They've worked hard and put in a lot of hours and done so well! Also, I want to say that last year I intentionally chose things to plug some holes that had been revealed by the CLT (Classic Learning Test). We worked really hard at VideoText and re-did whole sections that they had not mastered.... we worked hard at Lost Tools of Writing and reading analysis through Teaching the Classics and Tapestry of Grace literary analysis. And it paid off. Both kids improved their CLT10 scores by 15+ points! So thankful to see that validation after a lot of hard work! </p><p><br /></p><p><b><i><u>Levi: 7th grade</u></i></b></p><p><b>Grammar:</b> Grammar Voyage, Kilgallon Sentence Composing for Middle School, and Dr. Whimbey's Thinking Through Grammar web program. </p><p><b>Logic:</b> The Art of Argument at Derby Scholé Community</p><p><b>Rhetoric:</b> Writing & Rhetoric Books 7-8</p><p><b>Math:</b> Rod and Staff Math 7. He really did well with Rod & Staff last year and it was a good challenge for him. Math comes easy for Levi, and he needs something that stretches him. I wasn't sure whether to do a Pre-Algebra this year, start VideoText, or do another year of Rod & Staff. I ended up opting to do Rod & Staff, but we're not going to do every chapter. If we finish early, he can get started on VideoText. I just thought he was a little young for it at the beginning of this year. And we've got plenty of time. </p><p><b>Science:</b> The Story of Science vol. 1-2 by Joy Hakim at Derby Scholé Community. I am so excited for this! Luke and Kiryn read through the first two volumes of this series in 8th-9th grade and we really liked these books. But we just used them as supplemental reading. Levi is going to be doing it as a whole program through our co-op as his whole science. After doing intense science in middle school with the older kids, I decided that while it was good, I think an understanding of the history of science would be a lot more beneficial going into high school sciences based on the scientific method and inquiry based studies. So I'm very content to let Levi spend 2-3 years doing this series. Next year for 8th grade, I do plan to add Secrets of the Universe and count it as a Physical Science credit. </p><p><b>Good Books</b>: Modern world History and Literature. Both Levi and Meryn are going to be reading through A History of US, also by Joy Hakim. They'll be building a history portfolio that I bought from <a href="https://www.homeschooljourney.com/inquiry-based-notebooking-based-approaches/" style="text-decoration: underline;">Homeschool Journey.</a> We'll also be reading through a collection of modern literature, like The Wind in the Willows, Diary of Anne Frank, The Phantom Tollbooth, J.R.R. Tolkein stories, Homeless Bird, a few others. </p><p><b>Electives:</b></p><p><b><span> -Latin for Children Primer C, second half</span><br /></b></p><p><b> -French for Children Primer B:</b> Levi finished the first half of Latin for Children Primer C and French for Children Primer A. We alternate weeks for chapters and spread the series out over two years. This worked really well for the older kids and so far so good for Levi! <br /></p><p> <b>-Geography I by Memoria Press:</b> I really like this straightforward series that thoroughly teaches geography of the whole world across three books. We've only ever gotten through the first two, but it's better than nothing!<br /></p><p> <b>-Viola:</b> we don't really have an orchestra option for this year, so we're just going to do some private lessons this year. Levi's also picked up the electric bass and is enjoying that a lot too! <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i><u><b>Meryn, 6th grade: </b></u></i></p><p><b>Grammar: </b>Meryn is going to be continuing Alphabetic Phonics with mom this year. I'll also do some Sentence Island with her, and maybe some Kumon Writing workbooks. </p><p><b>Logic: </b>Meryn will be doing Reasoning & Reading. </p><p><b>Rhetoric:</b> Cottage Press Fable & Song. Meryn got through Writing & Rhetoric book 3, but book 4 was just a little too much of a reach, so we're going to take a break and do some Cottage Press this year. If it goes well, it may just be a better fit for the long haul for Meryn. So we'll see!</p><p><b>Math:</b> Making Math Meaningful, Level 5. This went SO well for Meryn last year! She has always struggled with math, and this didn't necessarily come easy, but it clicked with her brain and she could do it without tears. Win. We will continue with this I think through their Algebra book. </p><p><b>Science: </b>Meryn has the privilege of taking Apologia's Anatomy & Physiology through our co-op this year. I think it's going to be really good for her!</p><p><b>Good Books:</b></p><p><b> -History:</b> Same as Levi: A History of US with History Portfolio and a few extra historical fiction thrown in. <br /></p><p> <b>-Literature: </b>she and Levi will read the same set of books and we'll talk about them together this year. I'm looking forward to this!<br /></p><p><b>Electives:</b></p><p><b> -Latin for Children Primer A:</b> we shelved this for the last couple of years, but we're login to give it a go again this year. <br /></p><p> <b>-Violin</b>: same thing as Levi. She'll get to do some private lessons this year. </p>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-90587768164023408032021-08-10T17:25:00.001-05:002021-08-10T17:25:12.640-05:00Spero Academy 2021-22 Curriculum Picks!<p> Last year was kind of a blur, wasn't it? I think like everyone, we felt a little off-kilter with all the covid restrictions. For the first time in five years, my kids weren't able to go to the public school for orchestra classes or choir. Thankfully, their school orchestra conductor decided to set up a homeschool orchestra that they were able to participate in. So they didn't lose any momentum. </p><p>Overall, we had a decent year last year. My health was really deteriorating towards the middle of the year and I struggled to finish the year strong as a result. My thyroid was just dying. By May, I made the decision to have it surgically removed. That happened in June, and they ended up finding cancer there, so I'm very thankful that we made that decision and I've had about six weeks to heal and prepare for the coming year! </p><p>The nice thing about where I'm at in the homeschool and classical education journey is that I don't have to do a lot of guessing or thinking to move on each year. We've chosen our path, it's pretty well laid out for us, I've found the curricula that work for us (for the most part), and how to schedule our days in good rhythms. Most of my kids are on board and work hard (with one exception). :) So this year was pretty easy to get prepared and roll-out. </p><p>First, I want to kind of break down last year just a bit. Here's<br /> what our upper school kids did last year: </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh25Gzfw2YS7bqr4WGl3oFpNkHpoC7L72xwpZ8lLdP9W5-UVfyUk0ND8GBR3SEYoYSIDPta5Ao5kZ1SLmAUDPMVnJeFzbAGtVYI8zlwEwY8FzZ6gYcAymj4VzGnXXZwIEyPjAXK_VBKKo/s2048/IMG_20210522_090536899_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh25Gzfw2YS7bqr4WGl3oFpNkHpoC7L72xwpZ8lLdP9W5-UVfyUk0ND8GBR3SEYoYSIDPta5Ao5kZ1SLmAUDPMVnJeFzbAGtVYI8zlwEwY8FzZ6gYcAymj4VzGnXXZwIEyPjAXK_VBKKo/w640-h480/IMG_20210522_090536899_HDR.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>-Math: VideoText Complete Algebra</p><p>-Science: Signs & Seasons Classical Astronomy</p><p>-Grammar: Latin Alive! 2</p><p>-Logic: Discovery of Deduction (formal logic)</p><p>-Rhetoric: Writing & Rhetoric Book 10 (with some skills sharpening from Writing with Skill)</p><p>-Music: Homeschool orchestra (cello/viola)</p><p>-Great Books: </p><p><span> History: </span>Oxford University Press Medieval World books; Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation; A History of Science by Hakim; </p><p><span> Philosophy: </span>The Pageant of Philosophy and The Philosophy Book</p><p><span> Literature: Book of Pastoral Rule, Beowulf, A History of the Kings of Britain, Sir Gawain and the <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span>Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, The entire Divine Comedy, The Faerie Queene, Foxe's Book of Martyrs & the Golden Legend. </span><br /></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>So there are just a couple of things I would change about this year. </span></p><p>First, I would like to start Hakim's series a little earlier than 9th grade with my younger kids. Hopefully in 7th grade. It's a great series, and I'd like to get all the way through it. We made it through about half of the Newton book, so halfway through the series. </p><p>Second, I just really struggled with Signs & Seasons. The lab manual was just unfortunately not very well put together. There was very little guidance or support and no way for at teacher to know whether the students were doing things the right way or getting the correct answers to the observations. No answer key! The book itself is really cool, but if we do astronomy in high school again, it will be with Experiencing Astronomy. It will be worth the cost of the online class. I just felt like this was a total bomb. My other alternate is to do Astronomy in middle school with the Masterbooks set. </p><p>Third, I won't have my 9th graders in the future read the whole Divine Comedy. :) I loved it myself, but it was a little much for my kids. :) I may have them do a survey of it instead a la Tapestry of Grace, a few cantos from each book to get an idea of the story, writing style, importance scenes and the influence of the work. Maybe I'll get the Old Western Culture unit on it and just have them listen to Wes Callahan talk about it. But we won't read the whole thing again with high schoolers. </p><p><br /></p><p>Otherwise, I thought our choices last year were solid and went really well. I especially loved The Discovery of Deduction and Writing & Rhetoric Book 10. So deep and rich, and Discovery of Deduction has so much fun and interest built into it. Who doesn't want to have "watch Monty Python" as a homework assignment??? :) </p><p>So, for next year, here's what's up on tap for us. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><u>Upper School: </u></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Math: VideoText: Finishing Complete Algebra, moving onto Complete Geometry</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Science: DIVE Biology with online virtual labs (plus three labs we'll do hands on)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Grammar: Latin Alive! book 3: the last year for Latin studies for the kids! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Logic: Axiom Executive Functioning class Fall/Intermediate Logic (Canon Press) Spring</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Rhetoric: The Lost Tools of Writing Level 1; Elements of Style; Advanced Academic Writing by Michael Clay Thompson</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Music: Wichita youth Symphony Repertory group and private lessons</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Great Books: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span> History: Dave Raymond's American History</span><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span> Literature: American Lit: The Scarlet Letter, Billy Budd, Sailor, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Old Man and the Sea, Willa Cather, The Chosen, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird</span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span><span> Philosophy: The Pageant of Philosophy</span><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span><u style="font-weight: bold;">Lower School</u>:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span>-Math: Rod & Staff Level 6 for Levi; Making Math Meaningful 4 for Meryn (These are BIG Changes!)</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span>-Science: Memoria Press Birds; Chemistry</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span>-Grammar: Well-Ordered Language, Latin for Children, Rod and Staff Spelling, Cursive </span></span>copywork, McGuffey readers</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span>-Logic: Reasoning & Reading</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Rhetoric: Writing & Rhetoric books 5-6 for Levi, 3-4 for Meryn</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Good Books: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span> History: America's Story (Masterbooks)</span><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span> Literature: living book list for each child of American historical fiction, 17-18th century</span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I think this will be a really great year. For my upper school kids, I'm really excited about Dave Raymond's history series. It's focus on moral philosophy and why we study history is excellent, and his lectures ae really engaging. I love the source text reader with really well-chosen source documents. I may add a couple of biographies. The kids are reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin the first three weeks of school, and in the spring I may have them read Abraham Lincoln's letters and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm also VERY excited to outsource science. Overall, DIVE has everything I need. In my ideal world, we would use Novare science all through middle and high school. The problem with Novare is that its strength is in its mastery and integration of skills. This is why it's ideal and is wonderful! But logistically, it's impossible for me. The quizzes and tests are all paragraph length answers and each question has about 10-20 points possible. It takes me FOREVER to grasp the material, compare their writing with the answer key's answer and determine how many points they've earned. I just can't do it. Novare also has very high expectations of labs to be done at home. I also just can't do that. Aside from putting the kids in an online course at $750 each (plus textbook, plus lab book plus lab kit, we'd be at over $2000 just for biology!), DIVE is the next best thing for me. It does have a very strong youth earth creation bias it puts out right at the start, but at least it doesn't hide it. I bought the Novare biology book for my kids to get a more balanced, nuanced perspective on origins of life and the debate surrounding the age of the earth. We feel like we can compensate for the inherent bias of DIVE and provide an interesting conversation for our kids. But we'll see how it goes. :) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For our Morning Time this year, we'll be learning the first 35 questions of the Westminster Catechism, reading Wooden Books Quadrivium, using the Harp and Laurel Wreath for poetry, and following the Ambleside Art study tracks. Oh, and a nice group of read aloud. First, we'll finish up Watership Down and then begin Gulliver's Travels. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We officially start school this week. I've got the school room all cleaned up and ready to go, books on shelves, pencils sharpened, spreadsheets made, planner printed. </div><p></p>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-13168908666954326282020-07-22T09:00:00.002-05:002020-07-23T22:52:29.691-05:00Mapping Out A Liberal Arts High School at HomeI'm a planner. I like to have a plan. I'm slightly obsessed with curriculum research. Lucky for me I'm really also obsessed with a classical education for my kids (and me), which narrows down my potential curricula to research. The past five years, I've looked at almost everything out there to find just what will provide us with the most richly restful, and diligently delightful education. <div><br /></div><div>My oldest child is officially starting high school in just four weeks. I have worked the past two years to come up with a solid plan that leaves as little room for discontent, guessing, and changes as possible. Dr. Perrin outlines some problems with the frenetic pace of high school for a lot of students in <a href="https://insideclassicaled.com/1461-2/">this article</a> and urges us to a measured approach instead. In conference talks over the past two years, I've heard him prescribe his solution (though he's never written another article outlining it), and here it is. </div><div><br /></div><div>He suggests that to give our high school students a foundation in the liberal arts, we should do six things only: </div><div><br /></div><div>-Mathematics</div><div>-Music</div><div>-Natural Sciences</div><div>-Logic ---> Rhetoric</div><div>-Latin</div><div>-Great Books</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm fully on board with this. I can squeeze so many of the things I want into Great Books! It becomes the catch-all. But in all seriousness, this is the basic structure I'm using for my high school plan. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mathematics</b></div><div>For math, there's not a lot in a classical education that's different from what you'd find in a traditional or modern education, except for perhaps the method of teaching, and the purpose of mathematics. We're going for depth of understanding, solid quantitative reasoning and real mathematical skill. But we're also looking at math as a language that reveals the mind of God. We're not learning math to use as a tool for production, or to manipulate the world around us. As God spoke the world into existence with language, He holds it in motion with mathematics, which is why these two found the trivium (three arts of language) and the quadrivium (four arts of mathematics) of the liberal arts. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, there's lots of paths to this. My ideal plan is to do VideoText Complete Algebra and then VideoText Complete Geometry over 7-10th grade. This will cover credits in Algebra 1-2, Geometry, Trigonometry and PreCalculus. I hope to use 11th-12th grade as a year to teach an Economics course, and Personal Finance. If a particular child needs/wants more advanced math, they can continue in dual enrollment classes to get Calculus their senior year. </div><div><br /></div><div>We will also intentionally incorporate books that give glimpses into arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and harmonics as mathematical liberating arts. Some of the resources we plan to use are A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe, Classical Math, Byrne's Geometry, and various reads from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2EP70H323MZ0D?&sort=default">this Amazon list</a> I've been collecting titles on. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Music</b></div><div>For us, this means playing an instrument, music theory, and learning to appreciate great music. Through high school, the kids will continue in either their orchestra classes or private lessons, choir, and listening to great music in our Morning Time/Floralegium. I don't aspire for the kids to be professional musicians. I want them to have music as a creative outlet and be able to use music to know and express themselves in a deeper way. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Natural Sciences</b></div><div>This is the one that's most intimidating for me. I never had a good science teacher and never caught a love for it. I don't really understand it or enjoy the intricacy and tediousness of labs. So this is my one area that I'm uncertain of. My ideal plan is to do Classical Astronomy as freshman and then continue with Novare sciences: conceptual physics in 10th, biology in 11th, chemistry in 12th. I'm comfortable and excited about astronomy next year. But nervous about physics after that! I want to get through physics. After that, we may opt for DIVE online classes or dual enrollment classes to finish out their science credits. This greatly depends on what their future plans are looking like. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Logic--->Rhetoric</b></div><div>I'm just toeing the line on the Classical Academic Press path on this. We have loved all of CAP's products, especially the ones in this track. The kids will do Formal Logic in 9th with Discovery of Deduction, Everyday Debate in 10th, Rhetoric Alive in 11th, and Rhetoric Alive Thesis in 12th as a capstone project. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Latin</b></div><div>Latin is probably one of my favorite things to study and teach. Again we love the CAP products for Latin. Their upper level course, Latin Alive, is excellent. We began it in 8th grade, so they will do Latin Alive 2 in 9th, book 3 in 10th. There is a reader they can work in over the last two years to keep their interest and skill sharp, while also studying a more modern or other biblical language of their choosing in 11th and 12th grade. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Great Books</b></div><div>As a family, we've been studying history, geography, and literature on a four year chronological cycle for a long time now. It has landed my kids in 8th grade studying the ancient world, so for 9th grade they'll study Christendom, about 400-1600 AD. They will read study the Oxford University Press Medieval World books for history. We will do an online class for literature discussion, reading key texts from the same time period. They will also do some studies in government and philosophy this year with Tapestry of Grace. Next year for 10th grade, we will use Dave Raymond's American History, our own literature list of concurrent authors, and probably Tapestry of Grace's government and philosophy tracks. For 11th, we'll do Dave Raymond's Modernity, our own literature list, and Tapestry's government and philosophy. For 12th grade, I'm planning to give them the option of going back and studying the ancient world again, or choosing a time period of their interest that will relate to their rhetoric capstone project. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here it all is in a nice little spreadsheet. </div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black;"><tbody><tr><td style="background-color: #5b8aa4; border-color: rgb(143, 143, 143) transparent rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 1px 1px; height: 15px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #5b8aa4; border-color: rgb(143, 143, 143) transparent rgb(90, 143, 35); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; height: 15px; padding: 4px; width: 222px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: white; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"><u>Freshman</u></font></p></td><td style="background-color: #5b8aa4; border-color: rgb(143, 143, 143) transparent rgb(90, 143, 35); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; height: 15px; padding: 4px; width: 220px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: white; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"><u>Sophomore</u></font></p></td><td style="background-color: #5b8aa4; border-color: rgb(143, 143, 143) transparent rgb(90, 143, 35); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; height: 15px; padding: 4px; width: 207px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: white; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"><u>Junior</u></font></p></td><td style="background-color: #5b8aa4; border-color: rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(90, 143, 35) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 0px; height: 15px; padding: 4px; width: 197px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: white; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"><u>Senior</u></font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Math</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">VideoText Algebra: (Algebra 2)</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">VideoText Complete Geometry</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Economics/Stewardship</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(90, 143, 35) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">DE Calculus</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Science</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Astronomy: Signs & Seasons</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Physics: Novare</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Biology (Novare or DE)</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Chemistry (Novare or DE)</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Logic/Rhetoric</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Writing & Rhetoric Books 10-11: Thesis</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Writing & Rhetoric Book 12: Attack/Defend</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Rhetoric Alive!</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Rhetoric Alive Thesis</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Discovery of Deduction (Formal Logic)</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Everyday Debate</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Essays in History, Literature, Rhetoric</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Essays in History, Literature, Rhetoric</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Poetry & Humanity</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Beauty</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Truth</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Music</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Orchestra & Choir</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Orchestra & Choir</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Orchestra & Choir</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Orchestra & Choir</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Latin</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Latin Alive! 2</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Latin Alive! 3</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">First Form Greek or Modern Language</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Second Form Greek</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#4d4d4d" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Humanities</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">History of Christendom & the Church</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Dave Raymond’s American History & Govt</font></p></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Dave Raymond’s Modernity</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Antiquity (OR History topic of choice)</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 28px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 28px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Close Reads: Christendom Thought & Poetry</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 28px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Close Reads: Revolutions</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); height: 28px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Close Reads: Modernity</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #f2f2f2; border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 28px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Antiquity (OR Literature topic of choice)</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(128, 128, 128) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 75px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(128, 128, 128); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 221px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Government & Philosophy of Christendom</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 219px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Government & Philosophy of Revolutions</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 206px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Government & Philosophy of Modernity</font></p></td><td style="border-color: rgb(179, 179, 179) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(143, 143, 143) rgb(179, 179, 179); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 196px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>To all this we'll add living well. Sports if they're interested, art skills if they're interested, handicrafts, gardening, family read-alouds and art and music in our home, common placing and journaling, being active in church and community service, nature field trips. </div><div><br /></div><div>So that's my plan. And I'm hopefully sticking to it. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-7107527046786990942020-07-21T11:11:00.000-05:002020-07-21T11:11:31.134-05:00Simple, Flexible Planning (for Homeschooling Four Students at Once)I'm beginning my 11th year homeschooling in about two weeks. Last year, I experimented with planning for high school credits before it *really* mattered, and I'm glad I did. I came up with some best practices for myself for simple and flexible planning to help me facilitate and stay on top of assignments, assessment and schedules for doing four students at once! I wanted to share my planning steps over the summer that allow flexibility and simplicity and make the school year as restful for me as possible. I typically use this process only for my upper grade kids for whom I'm going to be assigning grades and credits. My elementary kids do not need such thorough planning. We just work faithfully and build skills without worrying about grades. <div><br /></div><div>So here's my planning process for flexibility! <br /><div><br /></div><div><i><b>Step One: Source any pre-made lesson plans and weekly rhythms available.</b></i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Several of the curricula I have chosen for the year either come with pre-made weekly lesson plans from the company, or other moms have put together plans and sell them or give them away as a free download. I find all of these that I can for all of our programs. This year, I was able to find pre-made lesson plans for math, logic, literature and astronomy. Additionally, Latin and writing came with a suggested weekly rhythm to the ways the chapters are structured, and this helps a lot with the next step. So I download and print all of these and put them in my planner. This basically leaves our humanities. Here are some examples of free lesson lists I downloaded that came with our programs: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic849ModakgpW8nGEZI4yCQUSmpjNfYcw9x5uOpCkvxdXRGxQaxafO6G2sBpkGgvcbTlFkEPKnUXL991M-kegAy98Go2t0p7T_pgaK1_hLnL14m11zS92naPNO0y_4zJTLXs8cvGfWd1I/s1354/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.46.10+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1354" data-original-width="1108" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic849ModakgpW8nGEZI4yCQUSmpjNfYcw9x5uOpCkvxdXRGxQaxafO6G2sBpkGgvcbTlFkEPKnUXL991M-kegAy98Go2t0p7T_pgaK1_hLnL14m11zS92naPNO0y_4zJTLXs8cvGfWd1I/w410-h500/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.46.10+AM.png" width="410" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discovery of Deduction plan: free download from CAP</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCfZY0cMUG_GNRhmjFoM-ZzJrITkcPGi5nxGUFIWX4RYhNlt7UbxmQ_Ts7dLdF6PWq4uSUfKTrAVNUpSIDaEPBuR29XUMnHlOJyXXRLOc-uggMHIPy2TXfqiuPqIHu5oxGr6wJSQW4ck/s1104/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.47.17+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1104" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCfZY0cMUG_GNRhmjFoM-ZzJrITkcPGi5nxGUFIWX4RYhNlt7UbxmQ_Ts7dLdF6PWq4uSUfKTrAVNUpSIDaEPBuR29XUMnHlOJyXXRLOc-uggMHIPy2TXfqiuPqIHu5oxGr6wJSQW4ck/w500-h410/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.47.17+AM.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brit Lit Lesson Plan: Free download from Logos Press<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqU4YL8kENZfZKWq3Ve8DG4yYUR4_COa3dSlZ6tbrdvuunJWni2a1D2YMDdUOgjzl9AKwDGfTbuqA7iJ6dDS774cv8U2hiLd8t5psKpZREIo-NI1bGo3LnkLXZSA5xMbRXvxBvvuL1YU/s1342/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.47.46+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1342" data-original-width="1326" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqU4YL8kENZfZKWq3Ve8DG4yYUR4_COa3dSlZ6tbrdvuunJWni2a1D2YMDdUOgjzl9AKwDGfTbuqA7iJ6dDS774cv8U2hiLd8t5psKpZREIo-NI1bGo3LnkLXZSA5xMbRXvxBvvuL1YU/w494-h500/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.47.46+AM.png" width="494" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lesson List for Complete Algebra: free download from VideoText</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><i><b>Step Two: Create a list of lessons for certain subjects. </b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>This may sound daunting, but it doesn't take me very much time at all. I don't do this for every subject, because they don't all need it. I don't make detailed lesson lists for Latin and writing, because they have "weekly rhythms" that make it easy to assign a chapter each weekend. </div><div><br /></div><div>This year, I made detailed lists of lessons for: </div><div>-history</div><div>-philosophy</div><div>-government</div><div>-astronomy (because I'm adding in readings to the pre-made plan I found)</div><div><br /></div><div>With these lesson lists in hand, and the pre-made plans sourced, I have everything I need to weekly just do the next thing in the list in each subject without opening up all the books every weekend. This is HUGE for me. It also means if we get sick, have something come up and miss an afternoon or morning of school and get off in a subject or two, but not in everything, it's very easy to adjust and keep doing the next thing on every list. Here's some screen shots of lists I made: </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gXgp2Bvfb49ZaQlL9jCBdkeZVEfDY1zZmi48Ks9eGX5xzlvBjECNJPYT1YVOELdI4dXQW9oGBqWJKVFqXfl5hccgGfRrXxduDMrDoaCLX07um0Q3VFcAvyCeomHatnt31BlOR4ihbvk/s1394/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.45.21+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1244" data-original-width="1394" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gXgp2Bvfb49ZaQlL9jCBdkeZVEfDY1zZmi48Ks9eGX5xzlvBjECNJPYT1YVOELdI4dXQW9oGBqWJKVFqXfl5hccgGfRrXxduDMrDoaCLX07um0Q3VFcAvyCeomHatnt31BlOR4ihbvk/w625-h560/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.45.21+AM.png" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">List of Field Activities for Signs & Seasons</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsT6KbD-sb5RIwLUhd78g3Y4lcCr2zRArm_UxHS2GU4sEvJEO2sZ2k-JXarryTRfinHCmV0-CC_GaHwj4nilFIJXXz36uWlKPsQa4mffdSp_5xwd1Alk1hiDf3ZqIiID9E4wN8uKRoPUQ/s2048/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.45.33+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="2048" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsT6KbD-sb5RIwLUhd78g3Y4lcCr2zRArm_UxHS2GU4sEvJEO2sZ2k-JXarryTRfinHCmV0-CC_GaHwj4nilFIJXXz36uWlKPsQa4mffdSp_5xwd1Alk1hiDf3ZqIiID9E4wN8uKRoPUQ/w625-h344/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.45.33+AM.png" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">List of reading assignments in Signs & Seasons by chapter</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIV7_UZldLC_teOdIhZaIr5usneSX_07NlRUlJrWQjG9qx4nAR-glQO944RoVr-1ejwnJkLIg5rNbghQUEx9N5s34X_i2ukHlpw11Ffau7fGz2Pz1TvhuPR6W00cXimmYqG0LgEC7kJQ/s1344/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.46.54+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1344" data-original-width="1254" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIV7_UZldLC_teOdIhZaIr5usneSX_07NlRUlJrWQjG9qx4nAR-glQO944RoVr-1ejwnJkLIg5rNbghQUEx9N5s34X_i2ukHlpw11Ffau7fGz2Pz1TvhuPR6W00cXimmYqG0LgEC7kJQ/w468-h500/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.46.54+AM.png" width="468" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">List of included topics and activities in Oxford history program we're using</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Step Three: Identify Assignments and Assessments that will be graded. </i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Because I'm giving high school credits this year, there will be grades given on certain assignments, and there will be exams. I identify which assignments I'm going to grade, and when tests will fall in the lesson lists. This is simple to do with the lesson lists already made, and most of the exams provided by the curriculum. </div><div><br /></div><div><i><b>Step Four: Enter Graded Assignments and Exams into OLLY</b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm using OLLY to keep track of our high school. It allows me to create our own courses, credits, and grading rubrics. Based on the information I enter into OLLY, it will produce quarterly or semester grades, GPA's, and formal transcripts of each year of high school. I found last year that the best way to use OLLY was to ONLY enter the assignments that would receive grades. Within OLLY, each course has then a list of graded assignments that you can drop onto a calendar. When the assignment is complete, you simply enter the score in OLLY. The app does all the rest. :) </div><div><br /></div><div>I also created my own grading rubric in OLLY. Because I'm not thrilled with giving percentage scores to their work because it's basically meaningless, I created a simple, more meaningful way to assess their work. I score them on three categories: </div><div><br /></div><div>A or I: Accepted or Incomplete. If Accepted, they did what was asked. If Incomplete, I give them feedback in writing or in conversation, and they keep working on it. </div><div><br /></div><div>P or L: Punctual or Late. If Punctual, it was done on time. If Late, obviously, it wasn't. </div><div><br /></div><div>E or M: Excellent or Mediocre. If excellent, I can tell they worked to the best of their ability. If Mediocre, I can tell they put forth minimal effort and did not give their best. </div><div><br /></div><div>A, P and E are all worth two points each. I, L, and M are worth one point each. So the highest "score" is a 6. I should never assign a 3 to an assignment, because if they receive an I, they will keep working until it is an A, accepted. So the lowest possible score will be a 4. I've ranked these roughly like 6=A, 5=B, 4=C. Really, they'll get a C because they didn't do their best the first time or turn something in by the deadline. In order to give certain assignments more weight than others in the overall grade, I have simply multiplied the point totals by a factor of 3. Here are some screenshots of our OLLY: </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkuRAV7cp1N-H3t_ixGr2jDq9pizEk9LrKXcKsTfQbbKfN_TA_BRNHWEtjOd5wQgzFOftsWLoueYjHWvSjlCT5WRvxaGjMBUQN0bp4fddlOBgZclE2m9qSi66EZaa_oMgejJ7_89ywHQ/s1694/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.06+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="1694" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkuRAV7cp1N-H3t_ixGr2jDq9pizEk9LrKXcKsTfQbbKfN_TA_BRNHWEtjOd5wQgzFOftsWLoueYjHWvSjlCT5WRvxaGjMBUQN0bp4fddlOBgZclE2m9qSi66EZaa_oMgejJ7_89ywHQ/w625-h305/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.06+AM.png" width="625" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbTd9v-BYW_sbnXeWWTKNwKBuIpNY3rFIQloC7-VwvfDtQtD-S2AOvXhkk4Bj5l9zRQ6cwQAG3FDhEG4r-SKmN19tRVLgle-SKntIsZAymcvZzi4GleU9Cb-HdLy3FYXbVSu1rvgpndY/s1784/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.21+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1784" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbTd9v-BYW_sbnXeWWTKNwKBuIpNY3rFIQloC7-VwvfDtQtD-S2AOvXhkk4Bj5l9zRQ6cwQAG3FDhEG4r-SKmN19tRVLgle-SKntIsZAymcvZzi4GleU9Cb-HdLy3FYXbVSu1rvgpndY/w625-h345/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.21+AM.png" width="625" /></a> </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi30YoZTL34d6jTQH6qRsPH0lAt4Q28Yd1ZcqgE5Fv_mXV-b1G0Vo66f-9kvlGb9bve4fqun0x8wi8a7rhCRsHKzmB1FeQQhOMowkjQiRtkKJp_rLakZO9NodejeGrxvCOz0W57tfWKwTI/s1652/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.31+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1652" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi30YoZTL34d6jTQH6qRsPH0lAt4Q28Yd1ZcqgE5Fv_mXV-b1G0Vo66f-9kvlGb9bve4fqun0x8wi8a7rhCRsHKzmB1FeQQhOMowkjQiRtkKJp_rLakZO9NodejeGrxvCOz0W57tfWKwTI/w625-h270/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.54.31+AM.png" width="625" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Step 5: Plan Your Week</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Each weekend or Friday, I take the lesson lists and drop the next assignments into my weekly planner so I know exactly what to do each day. At the end of the week, I check off in the lesson lists what we actually accomplished so I know where to pick up with planning the next week. How simple is that? Here's what my weekly lesson sheet looks like: </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3GqfGZKcmXN-JT2US7MPVP2GPLEGs89FxdK3RYVs2VGcejHuCi6Eo4xbBsMxI3HJgTcf5wOpSyloCHMhn_hn8MLox6m35fV7HsrRNs2xFu9RnqdrVkVfGhXYFpurM_SuEFho9RG3v6tw/s1390/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.41.22+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1110" height="625" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3GqfGZKcmXN-JT2US7MPVP2GPLEGs89FxdK3RYVs2VGcejHuCi6Eo4xbBsMxI3HJgTcf5wOpSyloCHMhn_hn8MLox6m35fV7HsrRNs2xFu9RnqdrVkVfGhXYFpurM_SuEFho9RG3v6tw/w500-h625/Screen+Shot+2020-07-21+at+10.41.22+AM.png" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>That's it! The lesson lists allow me to easily bump one subject and not all. They allow me to easily see the next things that are coming this week, next week. They allow me to easily see if we're falling behind. The OLLY assignments keep grading simple by only having me enter grades for the things that I want, rather than all their weekly assignments. Keeping my grading to a minimum is key to staying on top of things. I love putting in the time to get this all set up over the summer so that my weekends are more free through the school year. Assessment and accountability is CRITICAL to high school success, so I'm hoping that the things I learned from last year to create this plan will set up us to succeed this year!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-68256993693208663222020-07-20T10:17:00.001-05:002020-07-20T10:17:51.836-05:00Spero Academy 2020-2021 Curriculum PicksAs we're only two weeks from our start to school year, it's time for my Spero Academy Curriculum Picks post for 2020-2021! I really, really love planning for our studies! :) <div><br /></div><div>Upper School: Luke and Kiryn are 13 and 15. They are doing the exact same courses this year, which will count for full high school credits for Luke as a freshman, and maybe also for Kiryn. I don't know that I want her graduating a year early, but it might be an option depending on what her immediate plans are. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've tried really hard to reach for multum, non multa: much, not many. I want us to go deep and read rich things. I want there to be time to live fully too. So for the next four years through high school credits, we are focusing on the liberal arts. So our categories of studies are: </div><div><br /></div><div>-Mathematics</div><div>-Natural Sciences</div><div>-Great Books</div><div>-Latin</div><div>-Logic-->Rhetoric</div><div>-Music</div><div><br /></div><div>So here's our picks! </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCZjbWYHWCcs4cesQ1M96AcG7wuY-Jc0IajnIkqHKBX5PVB0lfVFgY-aRhK2dyFiE8hamGse3N_WPTVnXmHsSiDPi-2bgCGSWbFFeJ4qEq5SQJrDBNLwcISW6UTdUE1MPPnj06ZLTlPE/s2048/1508AB8B-4E8F-423B-ABE4-325E5E4BE1FD_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCZjbWYHWCcs4cesQ1M96AcG7wuY-Jc0IajnIkqHKBX5PVB0lfVFgY-aRhK2dyFiE8hamGse3N_WPTVnXmHsSiDPi-2bgCGSWbFFeJ4qEq5SQJrDBNLwcISW6UTdUE1MPPnj06ZLTlPE/w500-h375/1508AB8B-4E8F-423B-ABE4-325E5E4BE1FD_1_201_a.jpeg" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>-Mathematics: <a href="https://videotext.com" target="_blank">VideoText Complete Algebra</a></div><div>I wrote in my reviews for last year all about the major mathematical reasoning gaps we discovered. I've always wanted to have the kids learn all of algebra before moving on to geometry. When we figured out we needed to start back at the beginning of Algebra, VideoText was clearly the winner. My major fail was that I wasn't inspecting well enough the work they were doing. Also, another issue is that Luke was doing geometry while Kiryn was doing Algebra 1. It was difficult for me to keep up with both separately. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I realized we had some major holes to plug, I opted for VideoText for a lot of reasons. First, we can feasibly get through the entire thing this coming school year, which will provide Luke and Kiryn with a credit in Algebra 2. We will sit down and go through the lessons together each day, and immediately check their work. We tested it out this spring, and the lessons took about 30 minutes on average start to finish. I can handle that amount of time, especially considering it included the grading! On top of that, the kids said, "I can see why we need to do this." They realized how much they weren't actually understanding. </div><div><br /></div><div>Provided the rest of the course goes like the first unit, we'll likely continue with VideoText Geometry, which will give the kids full high school credits in geometry, trig and precalculus. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://classicalastronomy.com" target="_blank">-Natural Sciences: Signs & Seasons for Astronomy </a></div><div>High school science is going to be my biggest challenge, and I'm just not fully ready to take on lab sciences yet. Since we are studying medieval times this year, and since as a liberal arts educator, astronomy is absolutely necessary for my kids, we are going to do astronomy this coming year before moving into upper lab sciences. Signs & Seasons will help the kids l<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 16px;">earn to follow the seasonal cycles of the celestial bodies, and to find the bright visible planets in the night sky.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Signs & Seasons is classical astronomy and exactly what I'd like them to have. The book is a fairly short read, so we'll read it pretty quickly and spend the rest of the year doing observation activities. The observations actually *do* count for a full science lab, and they're the kind of labs I can get behind: stargazing! In addition to this, we're going to read selections from Joy Hakim's The Story of Science, (Aristotle Leads the Way, and Newton at the Center). They're great books that cover the history of science and I hope will be good additions to our study of astronomy. I'm really looking forward to this last year before we get into things like physics and biology. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>-Latin:<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/collections/dialectic-rhetoric/products/latin-alive-book-2-program" target="_blank"> Latin Alive! 2</a></div><div>We're strongly continuing on with Latin Alive! We loved it last year and I'm looking forward to stretching our vocabulary and reading skills!</div><div><br /></div><div>-Logic: <a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/collections/dialectic-rhetoric/products/the-discovery-of-deduction" target="_blank">The Discovery of Deduction</a></div><div>This has been my biggest summer project. I knew nothing about logic and figured I needed to go through the whole thing myself. I'm about halfway through, so I'm in good shape. I've been working through the class on ClassicalU, and reading Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft. I'm so excited about this study! Discovery of Deduction is Aristotelian, language based logic. I'm really looking forward to the brain training the kids are going to get, and me too! At the end of the year, they'll do a capstone project of identifying the logical argument presented by C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity. </div><div><br /></div><div>-Rhetoric: <a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/collections/upper-grammar/products/writing-rhetoric-book-10-thesis-part-1-program" target="_blank">Writing & Rhetoric book 10: Thesis Part 1</a></div><div>Continuing on with Writing & Rhetoric. This book is going to stretch the kids really well. The final essay in the book is entitled, "What is Beauty?" The book provides lots of readings exploring the idea of beauty that the kids will have to assimilate and use as evidence to support their thesis. They also be learning some new rhetorical devices and practicing more in using the five common topics of invention they learned last year. </div><div><br /></div><div>-Music: Orchestra and (hopefully) Choir at the public school like the past four years. Luke is still loving the cello, Kiryn is still playing the viola. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>-Great Books: Christendom (early church through Reformation)</div><div>I'm so excited about this! Our Great Books this year is going to encompass:</div><div><br /></div><div>-history</div><div>-government</div><div>-philosophy</div><div>-art history</div><div>-literature</div><div><br /></div><div>I was going to do Church History instead of art history or government, but our church youth group decided to use my church history curriculum this summer! So the kids have already gone through it there! Bonus! We would have used <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Christian-History-Made-Bible-Basics/dp/1596363282/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-p13n1_0?cv_ct_cx=christian+history+made+easy&dchild=1&keywords=christian+history+made+easy&pd_rd_i=1596363282&pd_rd_r=43da5c68-3a8e-49d9-857b-e1f834fb7d29&pd_rd_w=Xyb20&pd_rd_wg=4CRck&pf_rd_p=1da5beeb-8f71-435c-b5c5-3279a6171294&pf_rd_r=92C0R81ARWF2F7V2ESHZ&psc=1&qid=1593998309&sr=1-1-70f7c15d-07d8-466a-b325-4be35d7258cc" target="_blank">Christian History Made Easy</a> by Timothy Paul Jones. This may seem like a lot still, but each of these individual tracks are very light. There are 24 history lessons, 18 government lessons, 16 philosophy lessons, and 12 art history lessons. So they won't be reading all four of these each week. It will be on a rotation. And the readings individually are fairly short and easily manageable. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzp77u2QOIOubbBpI4Y_tw1p-BvcFxxbSVUYoOhESmhyJEeR-z6KIqH-fV5hj0MnFZCBYGs9QaFHt1Yh4iRpgcX8lrjc9DNyLpujicGkoaF8osGNUOSrd5n-ALNjvXOZNlW7xLzwjv84/s2048/31C29A6A-CF1A-4543-BC7F-F6EED088D63D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzp77u2QOIOubbBpI4Y_tw1p-BvcFxxbSVUYoOhESmhyJEeR-z6KIqH-fV5hj0MnFZCBYGs9QaFHt1Yh4iRpgcX8lrjc9DNyLpujicGkoaF8osGNUOSrd5n-ALNjvXOZNlW7xLzwjv84/w625-h469/31C29A6A-CF1A-4543-BC7F-F6EED088D63D.jpeg" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Freshman book shelf</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>For History: </div><div>-<a href="https://www.amazon.com/ideas/amzn1.account.AGTAUGT46LX43HIVXCEOSNJMWGIQ/23OJ6JW4A1C1N?type=explore&ref=idea_cp_vl_ov_d" target="_blank">Oxford University Press The European World and Age of Voyages</a>, with student and teacher guides: These look awesome. The text is really well-laid out and enjoyable, with great pictures and graphics. It includes some source-text readings as well. The student workbook offers lots of thinking and working with the concepts. The kids will learn how to use a variety of graphic organizers, cause and effect, points of view, sequencing, write various types of descriptive and persuasive essays based on the topics in the chapter, and do various mapping activities. The teacher's manual has more options for groups as well as discussion questions to lead the kids in a conversation about the chapter topics. It looks excellent and I think my kids are really going to enjoy all the various ways to engage with the reading, and doing less history reading than we've done ever. I wanted a more analytical approach to history this year, and this is going to provide it. </div><div><br /></div><div>For government, we are using <a href="http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php" target="_blank">Tapestry of Grace</a>'s rhetoric government track. I love Tapestry of Grace, but it is too much for us right now as a whole. But their government track is great! There are about 18 lessons over our time period. The kids will read source text readings from Justinian's Code, Alfred's Book of Dooms, Islamic Law, Machiavelli's The Prince, Luther, Copernicus, Calvin, and more. Tapestry provides some thinking questions for the students and a discussion script for me as a teacher. There are also some readings from The Theme is Freedom by Evans and On the Medieval Origin of the Modern State by Strayer.</div><div><br /></div><div>For Philosophy, we're also using <a href="http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php" target="_blank">Tapestry of Grace</a>. They have written Pageant of Philosophy into their week plans. Pageant is a dialogue between Simplicio and various philosophers through time. It introduces the student to the ideas of each philosopher in a summarized way, and also provides a discussion script for the teacher. There are some context readings in The DK Philosophy Book. We started this track last year in the ancients and my kids really enjoyed it. The readings are light and the questions lead to great discussion. </div><div><br /></div><div>For art history, we're using a living book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-Art-Young-People-5th/dp/0810941503/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=A+History+of+Art+for+Young+People&qid=1593999170&sr=8-3" target="_blank">A History of Art for Young People</a>. I picked this up at a used bookstore and it is lovely with succinct information on time periods and beautiful photos of significant works from each period. I've chunked up the readings and will assign them to correlate with their history as best I can. I also will print poster sizes of some of the art and hang them up around the house so they're filling up our environment this year. </div><div><br /></div><div>For literature, we're doing an online class with <a href="www.sperovirtualschole.info" target="_blank">Spero Virtual Schole</a>! I'm co-teaching this and it will operate like a flipped classroom. The kids will read: </div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "open sans", arial, sans-serif; line-height: 26px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em 1em; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book of Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Beowulf</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">History of the Kings of England by Monmouth</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Canterbury Tales (selections) by Chaucer</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Selections from Reformation writers</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Golden Legend</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Foxe’s Book of Martyrs</li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"><font face=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The really great thing about this class is that as long as the students read these titles, they can use any curriculum they like. We are going to use </span><a href="https://logospressonline.com/products/brit-lit-volumes-1-10-includes-poetry-workbook/" style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">Brit Lit by Logos Press</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the first three volumes plus the Poetry Workbook for the main titles (Beowulf, Monmouth, Chaucer, Spenser). Brit Lit also schedules The Hobbit alongside Beowulf, and That Hideous Strength alongside Monmouth. I love the simplicity of the Brit Lit program. The readers are really lovely and have conversation style questions written in. I love the inclusion of the Poetry Workbook, as the kids will learn to write Anglo-Saxon kennings, Shakespearean sonnets, and more. We'll spend about a month on each of these titles, two on Dante, and take all of December off. The kids will meet once a week for discussions, to share recitations or writings, to learn Close Reading skills, and to learn the historical context and author background of the works. I'm so looking forward to this year! We have an extra few books that if we have time, I will work into our reading. I'd LOVE for the kids to read Augustine's Confessions, The Rule of St. Benedict, some Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius and some Luther and Calvin. But I'm going to see how the year goes before expecting that just yet. </span></font></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFoPu4BLOYrjSurtcdE5OHaqseHJfTdhHIsaY9WBml5931xAtqU1Jhhnc6xK3Zr3cjnhQRTPzLiatyzncAprTNR_MkWF4Z75ca8l5TddEuFhLR5MUHBQnUC4vQdXT9akSGljfJwXBtIbU/s2048/BDF51A6B-C1FE-4B4A-8BC5-2069C2059A47.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFoPu4BLOYrjSurtcdE5OHaqseHJfTdhHIsaY9WBml5931xAtqU1Jhhnc6xK3Zr3cjnhQRTPzLiatyzncAprTNR_MkWF4Z75ca8l5TddEuFhLR5MUHBQnUC4vQdXT9akSGljfJwXBtIbU/w500-h375/BDF51A6B-C1FE-4B4A-8BC5-2069C2059A47.jpeg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the books on stand-by</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><font face=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So that's it for my Upper School kids! </span></font></p></div><div>For my Lower School kids, Levi will be in 5th and Meryn will be in 4th. Holy cow. How did that happen???</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm trying to keep them fairly simple too, by focusing on four main things: </div><div><br /></div><div>-language</div><div>-books</div><div>-math</div><div>-music</div><div><br /></div><div>For Language </div><div>Levi will do</div><div>-Grammar Voyage for grammar, Paragraph Town, and Music of the Hemispheres</div><div>-Writing & Rhetoric Books 3-4</div><div>-Latin for Children Primer B</div><div>-Reasoning & Reading Book 1</div><div>-All About Spelling Level 5</div><div>-McGuffey Reader 3-4</div><div><br /></div><div>Meryn will do: </div><div><div>-Grammar Voyage for grammar, Paragraph Town, and Music of the Hemispheres</div><div>-Writing & Rhetoric Books 1-2</div><div>-Latin for Children Primer A</div><div>-All About Spelling Level 4</div></div><div>-McGuffey Reader 2-3</div><div><br /></div><div>Grades 4-6 are our super language intensive years, so if this looks like a lot, it kind of is. :). We do it on purpose. </div><div><br /></div><div>For Math: </div><div>Levi will continue with MUS in Epsilon. </div><div>Meryn will continue with MUS in Delta. </div><div><br /></div><div>For music, the kids will keep doing piano lessons. </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgE5DN2aGHGvhW0_P6OOPPvV4fHJrLaJECkFxhPWyh2qZJZzRaKnAWALWqwDpZsrlYek-Vw3TJHiooMHsSzd9RjwU0-Q9EjInV72Ok_bOp8wXEmSUnGCR46l0zOq5okrodRluZm_6pO5o/s2048/227FA5EF-7D86-483B-83A1-D137D8B6FBA0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgE5DN2aGHGvhW0_P6OOPPvV4fHJrLaJECkFxhPWyh2qZJZzRaKnAWALWqwDpZsrlYek-Vw3TJHiooMHsSzd9RjwU0-Q9EjInV72Ok_bOp8wXEmSUnGCR46l0zOq5okrodRluZm_6pO5o/s2048/227FA5EF-7D86-483B-83A1-D137D8B6FBA0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgE5DN2aGHGvhW0_P6OOPPvV4fHJrLaJECkFxhPWyh2qZJZzRaKnAWALWqwDpZsrlYek-Vw3TJHiooMHsSzd9RjwU0-Q9EjInV72Ok_bOp8wXEmSUnGCR46l0zOq5okrodRluZm_6pO5o/w625-h469/227FA5EF-7D86-483B-83A1-D137D8B6FBA0.jpeg" width="625" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Upper Elementary Read Aloud for history, science, geography and grammar</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>For books, we're going to study the same time period as the older kids, Christendom. We're going to read Vol. 5-8 of A Picturesque Tale of Progress (we read Vol. 1-4 this past year). Here's a list of other books we'll read together! I'll also have the kids do some mapping activities with MapTrek and Drawing through History. We're going to as a family make time each week for journaling, so that will also be a part of their history studies next year. I bought everyone neat bullet journals so they can get as creative as they want to. </div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black;"><tbody><tr><td style="background-color: #3f5c82; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#b2b2b2" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b2b2b2; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Lower School History</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #3f5c82; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 14px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#b2b2b2" face="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b2b2b2; font-family: "century gothic"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Lower School Literature</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">A Picturesque Tale of Progress vol. 5-8</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Arabian Nights</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e3e3e3; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Castle by Macaulay</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e3e3e3; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Story of King Arthur by Pyle</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Cathedral by Macaulay</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Beorn the Proud</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Leif the Lucky by D’Aulaire</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Otto of the Silver Hand by Pyle</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Usborne Medieval World</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Crispin by Avi</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Living History: Knights in Armor</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Augustine Came to Kent by Willard</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Famous Men of the Middle Ages</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Adventures of Robin Hood by Green</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Famous Men of the Renaissance</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Adam of the Road</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Good Queen Bess by Stanley</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"> The Vikings by Janeway</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Genius of Leonardo by Visconti</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 26px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Lady Jane Grey by Carr</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #d29500; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="SignPainter" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: signpainter; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;"><b>Independent Reads:</b></font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Marco Polo by Roth</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e9e9e9; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 16px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Door in the Wall</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 29px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">William of Orange - The Silent Prince by Van de Hulst</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 29px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Sword in the Tree</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 29px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Will Shakespeare and the Globe Theater by White</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 29px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">The Reluctant Dragon</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 17px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Huguenot Garden</font></p></td><td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 17px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Leif Ericson Explorer</font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 170px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Various titles by Vernon on Reformation</font></p></td><td style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 25px; padding: 4px; width: 169px;" valign="top"><p style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Garamond" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: garamond; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: normal;">Pedro’s Journal</font></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div>Levi's ten, and he's been a little slow to take to independent reading. He's able, just uninterested or easily distracted. He has a hard time finishing a book before starting another one. The past few years I've relished my reading aloud to kids on the couch, so I've pretty much read everything to him and Meryn together. This year though, I realize he needs to start reading for his own learning. So I'm assigning at least the five books listed above as independent reading. These are all in Tapestry of Grace Upper Grammar, so I'll have him complete the student worksheets from Tapestry after he reads them. If it goes well, I'll have him keep going in Tapestry Upper Grammar Literature. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdJWYq8OcLnUu1gf5j-RwFI5CWjYvlkhuYZXWWDkZPcAb1kavqkif6tKWlbgMvUlQyRaAEmVxfPGYo2-N4PufWH7fsMJydBH0jrTXeIWbt933geP0eKKnkWBTACypvS9Fq5Wq_XuE3ls/s2048/9B161064-7B47-4999-97E9-480CA17F7764.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdJWYq8OcLnUu1gf5j-RwFI5CWjYvlkhuYZXWWDkZPcAb1kavqkif6tKWlbgMvUlQyRaAEmVxfPGYo2-N4PufWH7fsMJydBH0jrTXeIWbt933geP0eKKnkWBTACypvS9Fq5Wq_XuE3ls/w500-h375/9B161064-7B47-4999-97E9-480CA17F7764.jpeg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upper Elementary literature shelf<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoczhsa5I7V8zg-cK1wdE_0K7_Un-5QKzt8jOH_NArbFs7HcuipFAA9AGt8aWZMVxv1EaJp_-349Kuv_tQSft5SHRN8zbmIuBIXRxBlhw_r46miIjJXcXCLvURptGXqne4vbocOLd7230/s2048/B1BAEAB0-06C7-40BC-994B-8B3A96B7FE93.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoczhsa5I7V8zg-cK1wdE_0K7_Un-5QKzt8jOH_NArbFs7HcuipFAA9AGt8aWZMVxv1EaJp_-349Kuv_tQSft5SHRN8zbmIuBIXRxBlhw_r46miIjJXcXCLvURptGXqne4vbocOLd7230/w500-h375/B1BAEAB0-06C7-40BC-994B-8B3A96B7FE93.jpeg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upper Elementary History Shelf</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As part of our books study, we're going to do Memoria Press Astronomy and read The Storyland of the Stars, since big brother and big sister will be learning the stars. We'll all enjoy doing some stargazing together!</div><div><br /></div><div>That sums it up. I think it's going to be a great year!</div><div><br /></div>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-91626237088215200292020-06-03T21:54:00.000-05:002020-06-04T09:17:47.190-05:00Spero Academy Year-in-Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's time for my year-in-review. These post have come to mark a sense of accomplishment for me. They're milestones in our school-as-life journey. I can easily see my own growth and change as I look back on this set of posts from the past six, seven, eight years. My <a href="https://ourdozenbeautifulfeet.blogspot.com/2019/08/spero-academy-curriculum-picks-2019-20.html">2019-20 plans</a> post goes over how and why I chose these things.<br />
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So this year went almost to plan. I tried a few new things, and had some hits and misses. Here's how it shaped up.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_b7Xy5p8nMNx5Uf37dWi4dP-0KcqBd5T6WlGFrxXf3iAP0hJA9Mi5FayCyblaGbbw7Z7loi086lJM99qUcrfq5SllD2paSyaK9nGmUigcgQ1kXRTg1zVHninuyal5LttHW05Eb_r_RFk/s1600/EE9F1904-0E3B-4802-898C-D7443AB2373C.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_b7Xy5p8nMNx5Uf37dWi4dP-0KcqBd5T6WlGFrxXf3iAP0hJA9Mi5FayCyblaGbbw7Z7loi086lJM99qUcrfq5SllD2paSyaK9nGmUigcgQ1kXRTg1zVHninuyal5LttHW05Eb_r_RFk/s400/EE9F1904-0E3B-4802-898C-D7443AB2373C.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
<u><span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: large;">Meryn: 3rd grade: </span></u></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>Language</b>: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-All About Spelling Level 3</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-McGuffey Reader Book 1 & 2</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Writing Through Ancient History by Brookdale House</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Song School Latin 2</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Math: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Math-U-see Gamma</span><br />
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We accomplished all of this. I saw Meryn take big strides this year in her reading, reading comprehension, math skills, and slower, but steady gains in spelling. I've learned to adapt the spelling for her. She needs smaller bits and more hands on, less dictation. So we've moved more to dictating individual sounds and studied dictation for words and sentences, copy work for longer sentences. I make copy work packets for her based on her All About Spelling lessons and this is much better for her. She rocked her multiplication this year! So proud of her.<br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: large;"><u>Levi: 4th grade</u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>Language</b>: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-All About Spelling Level 4</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Writing & Rhetoric Books 1-2: Fable and Narrative 1</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-McGuffey Readers 2 &3</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Writing Through Ancient History for cursive copy work/practice</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Math: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Math-U-see Delta</span><br />
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Levi also accomplished all of this. I saw him really excel in writing and Latin this year, which was very satisfying for me. :) He also really got into history and I enjoyed seeing his interest get piqued by Egyptian and Greek mythology. </div>
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<u><span style="color: #134f5c;">Combined Subjects for Levi and Meryn together: </span></u></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>Science</b>: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Berean Builders Science in the Ancient World (last year we did a lot of nature study on animals, ecosystems, habitats, plants and trees. They want some active experiments this year!) </span><br />
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We did about 8 lessons in this book, and that's it. We read about Aristotle's life and did a few experiments. But I didn't really meet my goals here with this one this year. It was mainly a timing issue. As in, there wasn't enough time, and of their course work, this was (and has always been) the thing to give....</div>
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Humanities: </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-History: A Picturesque Tale of Progress vol. 1-4</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Various projects with books like: Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors, Tools of the Ancient Greeks, Explore Ancient Rome</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://www.christianbook.com/the-story-niv/9780310950974/pd/950974?event=Church|1001217">The Story</a>: a narrative version of the Bible. This will be a family Read-Aloud.</span></div>
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We completed most of this! I ended up swapping out The Story for The Children's Story Bible, which is my go-to anyway. The Story wasn't quite as thorough and engaging as I wanted it to be, so went back to Catherine Vos. We read the entire Story Bible, and all four volumes of A Picturesque Tale of Progress with some exceptions for summaries of biblical stories we read from Vos, as well as a good stack of historical picture books. Levi really got lit up on history this year. They both enjoyed making lap books too, which surprised me. We made a couple of lap books using Tapestry of Grace printables and that was fun!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb1fb1Z3nX4x4iAK_mKVtggoyGUK4nbtHdT-HBlvt1D8d6Pu-q7tWJNr2wGTHWizEFnvW-YVRnDxdIfpST0k4nD9nuZjLiILm3tyS5Yr_-CTtaOlXG7kQ66-hIC5ek0vZrviz40PRY2o/s1600/C3A3FFED-C35A-46A5-9F83-10A0D8A24BD1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb1fb1Z3nX4x4iAK_mKVtggoyGUK4nbtHdT-HBlvt1D8d6Pu-q7tWJNr2wGTHWizEFnvW-YVRnDxdIfpST0k4nD9nuZjLiILm3tyS5Yr_-CTtaOlXG7kQ66-hIC5ek0vZrviz40PRY2o/s400/C3A3FFED-C35A-46A5-9F83-10A0D8A24BD1.jpeg" width="300" /></a><b>Literature Book List: </b></div>
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-Famous Men of Greece</div>
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-Exodus</div>
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-Cleopatra</div>
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-Gilgamesh Trilogy by Zeman</div>
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-The Golden Goblet</div>
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-Joseph</div>
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-The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum</div>
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-D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths</div>
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-God King</div>
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-City by David Macaulay</div>
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-Mystery of the Roman Ransom</div>
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-Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome</div>
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-Cautionary Tales by Hillaire Belloc</div>
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-The Phoenix and the Carpet by Nesbit</div>
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-My Bookhouse vol. 6 & 7<br />
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All these titles were read and enjoyed! This was a good list for us that covered some good historical fiction, biography, as well as some poetry and more modern reads. Cautionary Tales was a hoot! </div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Luke and Kiryn: 8th and 7th</span></u></div>
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Language: </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/latin-alive-book-1-online-module/">Latin Alive! 1</a>: I will be teaching an online class with one other family. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/the-argument-builder/">The Argument Builder</a> by CAP: The other mom is teaching this. It's a good trade-off. :) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/writing-rhetoric-book-9-description-impersonation-teachers-edition/">Writing & Rhetoric Book 9</a>: Description and Impersonation</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://www.rfwp.com/series/grammar-elementary-program-by-michael-clay-thompson">Magic Lens 1</a> and Poetry and Humanity by Royal Fireworks Press. </span></div>
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We did accomplish all of this except Poetry and Humanity. <br />
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Latin Alive: I loved this. I thought the work load was perfect. It was flexible and could be tailored to individual students needs. The translation work was challenging and engaging and stretched our reading ability significantly. The video lectures were a little long and felt unnecessary at times, so we skipped a lot of them in favor of just reading the text. But, much of this book was review for us, having completed fully all three Latin for Children primers. We may not be able to get away with skipping videos next year for Latin Alive 2.<br />
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The Argument Builder: I traded this off with another mom. I taught Latin, she taught this pre-Rhetoric class. She did an AMAZING job and brought in loads of extra content, a wonderful debate topic that she wove through all the lessons, taught them internet research skills, just wonderful. My only regret with this is that I didn't take the class or keep up with reading the book, and now I'm playing catchup this summer to keep stretching the skills they gained next year. The Argument Builder is all about the five common topics of invention and they will continue to work on deepening their understanding, use, and application of these skills for the next four years. So I need to know it! Summer homework for me.<br />
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Writing & Rhetoric Book 9: This book seems slightly out of place or like a bit of an out-lier from the rest of the Writing & Rhetoric series. These were not persuasive essays by nature at all. So in some ways, it was a nice breather from more serious writing. My kids enjoyed and excelled with the descriptive writing; they could really flex their creative muscles here and enjoyed the narrative story writing with descriptive details. They struggled with the impersonation essays. It was difficult to be using a specific author's "voice" to recount a memory or life experience that was either their (the student's) own, or NOT their own. One essay asked them to recount the memory of a favorite holiday. My daughter wanted to write about Thanksgiving, but struggled because the author she was impersonating was British. I took a look at Memoria Press's Characterization book, and they took a slightly different approach to this writing style, and I think I'd have preferred it to the four essays in Writing & Rhetoric. It was more imaginative: like what Leonidas would say as he was surrounded, what a Great Book would say on being abandoned by a reader, what a pencil would say after just being sharpened. Those exercises seem like they would have been a lot more fun and instructive than what we did in Writing & Rhetoric! It's hard for me to say this because I have thoroughly loved every other book in this series. But this one, I may skip in favor of Classical Compositions Impersonation next time around....<br />
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Magic Lens was excellent and challenging. I assigned the readings and had the kids work through sentences on their own, and during a writing "class" time each week, we'd talk through their sentence analysis and pick apart any misunderstanding.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Math: </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Jacob's Geometry with Dr. Callahan's videos</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-MUS Algebra 1 with Honors lessons</span></div>
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I have struggled with crafting our math sequence for middle and high school. I've really wanted to do Algebra all together, back to back, but I could not find a good program that did this without inserting geometry in the middle. So we went on with Geometry this year for Luke. About November, I recognized that both of the older kids just really were not getting the proper mathematical reasoning and learning to ask the right questions for deep understanding and problem solving. After their CLT8 scores came back in March, my suspicions were confirmed. This was despite faithfully working these two curricula, no red flags on exams, regular grading, etc. So I decided *not* to finish either of these math programs and start from scratch. We began VideoText Complete Algebra, both kids together in April. After the first few lessons, both kids said, "I can see why we needed to do this." They also enjoy it more than what they were doing, and it takes less time each day than their previous math texts. So this is a major win. We finished the first unit of 10. <br />
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<b>Science: </b></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<a href="https://www.novarescienceandmath.com/catalog/physical-science/">Novare Physical Science</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Geography III by Memoria Press</span></div>
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<br />
So we quickly realized that Geography III was just not going to happen. They were pretty bored with it and found it to be busy work. They had a pretty heavy reading load for history, literature, science, and writing and logic, so this was one thing that had to give.<br />
<br />
Novare Physical Science: I really liked this book. This was our second year with Novare, and now having been through two books, I see how their layout is consistent and how it works towards mastery in a more big-picture way. I also see what's expected of me as a teacher. Here's some things I really like about Novare Sciences:<br />
<br />
-The text: it's small. The text on the pages is not overwhelming, because the pages are small, like half the size of an Apologia book. There are a good number of pictures of nature so that most pages have something in addition to text, but not overwhelmingly so. It is written at a great readable and understandable but challenging level.<br />
<br />
-The content: it's measured and reasonable. They are not trying to expose a student to every concept in physical science. They're trying to lay foundations of mastery in skills needed to study higher sciences. The selections and scope and sequence are excellent.<br />
<br />
-The method: it's mastery focused. Each section of reading is closed with a Learning Check. Learning Checks require writing. They're not short answer or matching. They're paragraph length answers required. There are regular quizzes. Same thing. All paragraph length answers. There are semester exams. Same thing. The kids have to answer all questions in multiple sentence or paragraph length answers. This is great for the student. It's challenging for me as a teacher, because I have to have a pretty good handle on the material in order to assess/grade their papers, have a discussion over the learning checks, and more. <br />
<br />
Overall, as long as I can keep up with reading the book with them and grading their quizzes, I'd love to keep using Novare. Their books glorify God while being very responsible with scientific theories.<br />
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<b>Humanities:</b></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<u>Ancient History</u>: Streams of Civilization and The Story of Ancient Greece, The Story of Ancient Rome by Suzanne Strauss Art, covering pre-history through the Roman Republic. </span></div>
<div>
<br />
Again, this was an area I struggled with making choices in for this year. We typically use living history books, but I wanted something more analytical for this sweep of history for middle school and high school. I looked at a lot of things, and ended up deciding to continue with Tapestry of Grace's dialectic history, but using Streams of Civilization as a spine since it's written into to the TOG week plans, and then two other books on Greece and Rome and keeping it simple. TOG has some Dialectic Accountability and Thinking questions so I had the kids do the assigned reading and answer the questions. Some they answered in writing and others we used for discussion. This lasted about half to two thirds of the school year. There were too many questions, and I had a hard time narrowing them down each week. I also felt like they weren't quite getting at the meat of what I was looking for. So I was pretty disappointed with this track this year. Selling all three of these books.<br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<u>The Bible as Literature</u>: A House for My Name by Peter Leithart, and The Bible Project videos as aids to reading through a good portion of the Old and New Testament over the year</span></div>
<div>
<br />
I loved this track this year. The Bible Project videos were fantastic and we watched pretty much the whole Old Testament. The kids read sections of the Old Testament, some whole books, and read a good bit of A House for My Name, which is an excellent resource. We had some good discussions and picked up on some wonderful themes and literary elements in the Old Testament. I was pleased with how this went!<br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-<u>Close Reads: Antiquity</u></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #134f5c;">This will be a class at co-op in which we will read: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Greene</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughreon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Bulfinch's Age of Fable</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-The Odyssey, translated by T.E. Lawrence</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Julius Caesar by Shakespeare</span></div>
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<br />
Our Close Reads class was a lot of fun again this year. This was a great selection of books and was just about right for the class, which ranged from 6-8th graders. If I'd had just 7-8th graders, I'd probably have used Edith Hamilton's Mythology instead of Bulfinch, and read the full Aeneid instead of a re-telling. The Church re-telling was just a little okay, not great. But Black Ships and Gilgamesh were great, and we all really enjoyed Lawrence's translation of The Odyssey. Highlight of the year.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #134f5c;">I also would like for Kiryn and Luke to read with Paul and me: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-Classical Me, Classical Thee by Rebekah Merkle</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">-The Screwtape Letters by C.s. Lewis</span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span>
So I read through Classical Me, Classical Thee in August and decided I wasn't sure I wanted them to read it. What I loved in it, I loved, but what I disagreed with was so distasteful it gave me pause. So, I shelved that. They were pretty busy with reading and life as it was so I decided not to assign the other books either. But I'm definitely going to strongly encourage (a.k.a. bribe) them to read them this summer. :)<br />
<br />
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this year went. Aside from a few changes, when Levi and Meryn get to middle school, we'll repeat a lot of this, I think!<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-74984696986378834732020-05-18T21:46:00.001-05:002020-05-18T21:47:33.826-05:00If I Could Design a School...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just a few weeks ago, I posted about how I really do believe in the mentor model of education and that's convicted me to keep going through high school with home educating my kids. <br />
<br />
But we are in the midst of one of the most intense social and medical global crises of the past century. Our whole lives are shut down and everything is turned on its head, including education. I've seen lots of posts and articles on how families are reacting to this downtime, and it's mostly been positive. Kids are behaving better. Parents are less stressed. People are eating together. There is no rushing from one activity to the next. Kids are actually less bored and more happy.<br />
<br />
I really hope all of this makes all of us take stock of how our lives had run away from us, like an out-of-control horse with us just hanging on for dear life, not sure how to stop it. I hope this experience gives us permission and confidence to say "no" in days to come so as to preserve a little bit of the margin we've had for all these weeks while sheltering in place. <br />
<br />
One of my biggest hopes is that it gives us the space to re-think education and realize a few things. Like how kids need to play and have unstructured time. Not just preschool kids, but pre-<i>teens</i> and teens as well! Like how capable they are of learning and taking on some agency for their own learning when provided with good resources and attention and time. Like what's really most important and essential in a quality, humanizing, liberating education.<br />
<br />
It's made me think, if I were to consider a school, what would that school need to look like? What kind of an environment would I want my kids to be in all day every day? Would school need to be all day every day? What <i>could</i> it look like? What <i>should</i> it look like?<br />
<br />
Here are some just rambling thoughts I've been rolling around.<br />
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The building would need to be beautiful. No institutional plastic or metal chairs and desks or cold paint colors. Warm colors, wood tables and upholstered chairs in a circle with students facing each other. Art on the walls. Sunlight in open windows. Rich curtains and inviting ambience with plants. Like a home set in beautiful order.<br />
<br />
This.<br />
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(I promise I wrote that paragraph and <i>then</i> went looking for a picture, not the other way around). </div>
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Not this.</div>
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<br />
The classes would need to be small. And long. The teachers would be people that I'd want my kids to be like, that love their subject and find wonder in it, that love Truth, and that model by being the lead learner, not the master. In my ideal world, a school would cater to 5-12th grade. I think kids around the age of 10 or 11 are most benefitted by formal instruction and community learning. There could be 7 blocks in the curriculum:<br />
<br />
-mathematics<br />
-natural sciences<br />
-Latin<br />
-Composition(5-9th)--> Logic (7-9th)--> Rhetoric(10-12th)<br />
-music: choir and theater, instrumental music<br />
-humanities: integrated history, literature, art, science, government, philosophy and Bible with church history<br />
-Electives: lots of handicrafts, creatives, music theory and composition, shop, robotics, drafting, so many options<br />
<br />
To provide students with plenty of time, there would ideally be two blocks before lunch of 90 minutes each, then a 60 minute lunch and outside time, followed by two more 90 minute blocks. Each Monday and Wednesday would have the same schedule, and Tuesday and Thursday would have the opposite schedule. Humanities would meet everyday, and the rest, twice a week.<br />
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Fridays would be set aside for Scholé. Families could chose to stay home together. Students could volunteer to do community service or visit elderly in nursing homes or find various other ways to give back. Fridays could be used seasonally for building beautiful sets for theater and choral productions. Students could opt to pursue another course of study on something that interests them.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, I think a University model school would be even more ideal. University model schools hold classes 2-3 days a week depending on the learning level, and students are home with families the other days of the week. The school provides the curriculum and resources and at-home plans and assignments. Parents get to enjoy reading aloud and helping with assignments and co-teaching, but without all the planning and assessment. <br />
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Surely I'm not the only one who would want an education like this for their kids? A school with long leisurely classes with plenty of time to discuss and reflect, focused on these few things that lay the skills of thinking well with language and mathematics that lead to the ability to learn anything else, with a mind well-furnished with knowledge of art, literature, music, people and ideas from across geography and time?<br />
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This is what a liberal arts high school <i>could</i> look like. Wouldn't it be beautiful? </div>
Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-3087840953382092982020-05-08T09:17:00.001-05:002020-05-08T14:04:47.816-05:00How I'm Making Choices for High School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I don't know about *most* kids, but I know for my kids for most things, they need a guide that's an actual person, not just a book. They need accountability. They need someone that's going to inspire them, model for them not only a good grasp and love of the subject at hand, but also what kind of a person they ought to be becoming. They need to engage in conversation around the ideas they're encountering and be sharpened and challenged, shown how to engage ideas without accepting them. I want them to be interacting with and inspired by adults in their teenage years in real life (or virtually). I want them to have great tutors that love their subject for all their classes. That can be me and their dad for most things, but not for all things. I realize that about myself.<br />
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High school credits/subjects/courses seem to fall into three categories for me as a homeschool mom:<br />
<br />
1. Things I know well enough to help my kids learn<br />
2. Things I *want* learn with them or ahead of them<br />
3. Things I have no interest in studying or learning about<br />
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For us, being as we are focused on giving our kids a Scholé education in the liberal arts, there's just SIX things we're attempting to do really well:<br />
<br />
-Composition --> Logic --> Rhetoric<br />
-Latin<br />
-Mathematics<br />
-Natural Science<br />
-Music<br />
-Great Books<br />
<br />
So for me personally, this is how things break down:<br />
<br />
1. Things I know well enough to help my kids learn:<br />
-Music<br />
<br />
2. Things I want to learn with them or ahead of them:<br />
-Composition, Logic & Rhetoric<br />
-Latin<br />
-Great Books<br />
<br />
3. Things I have no interest in studying well enough to guide them in:<br />
-Mathematics<br />
-Natural sciences<br />
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So the funny thing about this is that the one thing that I have fully outsourced is the one thing that I know well enough to teach! But, this is because music is ideally collaborative, and our public schools allow us to attend for fine arts only. So my kids go to the public school everyday for orchestra and choir. (They even get to rent an instrument from the school for the year for next to nothing.) This works for us for one big reason. So far, the teachers they've had for choir and orchestra have been people we would have hand-chosen to be their mentors and guides in music. They are wonderful people that love their students, love music, see the wholistic and beautiful place of music in education, and bring that to their students. They are completely in harmony with the rest of our curricula. They also have become friends and encouragers, and I feel like they respect what we're doing in our home. I'm so grateful for their work and respect them so much as well. Getting to know to each other has been a good thing for all of us, I think.<br />
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Here's how I'm making the rest of this work though.<br />
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Things in Category 2: I want to learn!<br />
<br />
Composition & Logic: We love all things <a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/">Classical Academic Press</a>. The major advantage I have found in the CAP composition and logic books are that they do a great job of teaching the teacher while teaching the student. There are no DVD's, but their books are so well laid out that it's possible for me to read through them the summer before, and if not that, then for me to read through them a week or two ahead of the kids and know enough to facilitate their learning to write and the topics in the logic courses. This is working for me because the things I'm learning here are helping me in general in life, relationships, faith, and that motivates me to keep studying it. It's rich and deep and restful.<br />
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Latin: I love studying Latin. I stay right alongside the kids, doing the same chapter as them each week, but I understand it in a lot greater depth than they do. We get together once a week for class and go over the exercises and translations and make sure they understand why things are the way the are. <a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/collections/dialectic-rhetoric/products/latin-alive-book-1-program">Latin Alive! by CAP </a>makes this possible.<br />
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Great Books: I have found some excellent resources that have provided me with the skills and confidence to tackle the hardest books! If you have not yet, get yourself a copy of Center for Lit's <a href="https://www.centerforlit.com/teaching-the-classics">Teaching the Classics</a>. Also, get yourself a copy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Classics-Masterworks-Louise-Cowan/dp/0801011566">Invitation to the Classics</a>, <a href="http://www.lampstandbookshelf.com/ZC/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=99_97_15&products_id=650&zenid=rkiff6a5l4nudo59fn52h50944">Poetics</a> by Christina Somerville, and <a href="https://www.circeinstitute.org/store/literature-guides/circe-guide-reading">The Circe Reading Guide</a>. These are the four basic resources I'm using to teach high school literature. We read books. We talk about them. Then they write essays about them. We cycle back through essay types they've learned in their composition books for practice. This year, they've written first person narrative stories of being a part of the Jewish exile to Babylon, a confirmation or refutation of Odysseus' killing the suitors, and comparisons of three ancient civilizations. This is not rocket science, and there are some basic but great questions and tools to teach them to read closely and search for the themes in the books. I make my book lists myself based on lots of factors (maybe another post on that another time). But this is definitely something I don't want to miss out on with them. This is where we apply a lot of the other things we're learning. I can handle doing the pre-reading in the spring and summer to finalize our reading lists and then re-reading through the year at the pace we do. <br />
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History also falls into this category. I have struggled with history. Most history programs are like majoring in history. I do think history is important, but I think it's less important now than I once did. Because of this, I'm opting for lighter loads in history to allow us to go deep with logic, rhetoric, and the Great Books. I've found simple resources that have built-in assignments and assessment that are easy for me to schedule and assign and don't require much of me otherwise. Because history is content and not skill, I can assess their understanding and apprehension of the topics by their assignments and writing, and move along.<br />
<br />
So category 3: things I have no interest in studying.<br />
<br />
I think there are basically two different ways to outsource responsibility for high school courses.<br />
<br />
1. Full-on Outsourced: hiring another teacher (privately, online class, online self-paced)<br />
2. Partnered/Supported: DVD based teaching from a great teacher, with packaged assignments and assessments with grading rubrics. This allows you to learn alongside your kids<br />
<br />
I have no business teaching science. I am not at all motivated to set up labs and attend to details and repeat things when they don't work, figure out what went wrong, think hard about covalent and ionic bonds and such these. No interest. It's labor for me. I don't want to rob them of the wonder in these things though, because the wonder is real. I just don't have the margin in my brain for it. So it is absolutely best that I outsource this. This is going to be one of those things that I fully outsource, because I have not seen a DVD based science curriculum with labs at home that I feel does an adequate job. As of now, I plan to do astronomy next year, and then *maybe* do the Introductory Physics on our own and expect them to do the labs on their own (because there's only 5 or 6 in the course) and see how it goes. Novare Science does offer a ton of support in terms of assessment. But I've found I still have to have a handle on the material in order to assess their answers on quizzes and tests. Because Novare never uses multiple choice or matching, all their quizzes and tests are short answer, the answers vary a lot from the answers in the guides, so I have a lot of interpreting to do! We may do <a href="https://www.memoriapressacademy.com/catalog?pagename=physics">Intro to Physics through an online class</a>, and then biology and chemistry either online or through dual enrollment. All I know is I don't want to be responsible for it.<br />
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Mathematics: I've been trying to keep up with their math. But I've not done a very good job. Their mathematical reasoning at the end of this school year (Luke finishing geometry, Kiryn finishing Algebra 1) is not near as strong as I'd like it to be. I'm working the curriculum fairly well and their tests scores were not raising any red flags, but when I ask them questions I can tell they don't really understand what they're doing. So I'm back to the drawing board with math. We're trying <a href="https://videotext.com/">VideoText Interactive</a>, because it's manageable for me, and it is strongly attacking the gaps that we have. The lessons are short and immediately assessed the next morning with a quiz. It doesn't take a lot of time and there's not tons of problems to grade, just ten each. So far this is taking a lot of uncertainty and guess work out of math for all of us and feels solid and secure. The time saved here is making it possible for me to continue teaching their high school math for now. Because I'm not teaching it. The videos are, and I'm listening in and am able to really assess their comprehension.<br />
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So this is my process:<br />
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1. Do I want to learn this really well?<br />
2. Can I learn this really well (do I have the time?)<br />
3. If I don't have the time or desire to learn this, are there programs that will allow me to learn alongside my kids (like DVD based with support) and provide them with accountability and assessment?<br />
4. If I can't find a well-supported program I can work, I need to find a class or tutor.<br />
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Nota Bene: This year has been our first year doing high school credits in our home academy. Next year will be the first full year of high school credits for me as a teacher. The principles I'm outlining here are the ones that have informed what I've learned from this past year and how I'm approaching the coming year. I make no claims that this is a good idea yet. :)<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-88479345570410910862020-05-04T19:37:00.000-05:002020-05-18T09:43:29.970-05:00Getting Started with Homeschool: How Do I Choose the Right Curriculum? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's a good problem to have. All the options. The last ten years have seen an explosion in curricular options for homeschooling. The homeschool conferences are like going to the cereal aisle at the grocery store: SO MANY CHOICES. <br />
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It's so tempting to think that there must be something better out there than what you currently have, that your kids are missing out on some magical experience in spelling, that *that* program would be so much easier for you to use, more colorful, more fun, more.... I want you to hear: most of the time, switching programs will not fix a problem if you haven't been consistently and diligently working the program you have.<br />
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When you're beginning to homeschool for the first time, especially if you're jumping in with multiple kids in different grades, I've got three pieces of advice to get started.<br />
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1. Do some basic reading on the different philosophies of education. There are four or five major prevailing theories or philosophies of education. The public school has one and homeschool curricula all have one too. If you figure out what philosophy you prefer to follow, it will really narrow down your choices and help you identify a program that will really work for you, not fight against what you really want because it's philosophically opposed to your philosophy. I love this quiz to give you an idea of some philosophies to investigate: <a href="http://eclectic-homeschool.com/what-kind-of-homeschooler-are-you/">Eclectic Homeschool Quiz</a><br />
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2. Your first year, buy boxed packages by grade level. There are some great options out there for every philosophy. Like traditional schooling? Get A Beka or BJU. Want to try Classical education? Memoria Press and Veritas Press has something for you. Unschooling or unit studies more your style? Check out Timberdoodle, Sunlight, Beautiful Feet, My Father's World.<br />
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3. Focus on your big rocks. Imagine you're filling a jar with rocks. You need to put the bigger rocks in first before filling in spaces with little pebbles that will roll in. The big rocks are language arts and mathematics. Do these faithfully and well. Anything you can do in addition to that is awesome! But don't let geography or art distract you from doing the primary things well.<br />
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Once you've got your feet under you, you may find you feel confident to make some choices or substitutions in your boxed program, or to scrap it all and make all your own choices. But this is especially hard when you're just beginning to be overwhelmed with these options. How are you supposed to evaluate and narrow down phonics or math programs and make a decision about what to use in your home for your kids?</div>
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What do you do when you've got something, like phonics, narrowed down to two or three options, and you think one looks perfect for your kids, but has lots of moving parts and may be too complicated for you as the teacher? And the other looks pretty simple and easy for you to handle, but you're not sure it's enough for your kids? </div>
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I like to break things down to categories and questions to ask. </div>
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Curricula fall into two categories: </div>
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1. Those that Mom can consistently and diligently implement</div>
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2. Those that Mom cannot consistently and diligently implement</div>
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Things fall into that second category for lots of reasons. Maybe it's too complicated with too many things to keep track of. Maybe it includes too many things (manipulatives, games, choices in lessons for the day) and requires Mom to make lots of decisions. Maybe she's got lots of little kids and needs her phonics lessons to be super focused and short for her oldest before all chaos breaks loose in the house. Maybe Mom has older kids and what worked for her older kids is not going to work for her youngest, because she's now teaching four grades and needs phonics to be streamlined. Maybe Mom's got two kids close in age and wants an in-depth program because she's got the time and eager kids and wants to keep them engaged. </div>
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When you're evaluating curriculum, the single most important thing is whether or not you as mom and teacher can diligently and faithfully work that curriculum. It can be the greatest program in the world; if you can't work it faithfully, it won't work for you. </div>
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Only you, mama, can take stock of your home, your family, your child, your time, and evaluate what you need, what you can give and how the two needs compliment each other. </div>
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Also please know that when you first start out homeschooling, it takes a few years to find your stride. It's totally normal and ok to try a bunch of things before landing on the right fit. But the more research and review reading, talking to veteran moms you can do to land there quicker, more the better for you and your kids. Do your research and stick it out at least 6-8 weeks before abandoning ship. Don't be quick to be tempted by the new thing, the thing your friend suddenly is raving about that's a miracle for her kids. If what you're doing is working, don't let your imagination run wild with what if's and second guesses and doubts based on what someone else is doing. Doubts and considerations of change is only allowed based on assessing what's happening inside your four walls and in your kid's minds. </div>
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There is one other thing to consider when looking at curriculum. First, there are two types of subjects. Some subjects are skills-based, and others are content based. Curricula also tends to come packaged in two different ways. Some programs are integrated and include lots of subjects, others are singular and focused on one particular subject or skill. </div>
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I like to match things up like this: </div>
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Skills based learning --> singularly focused programs</div>
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Content based learning --> integrated, buffet style programs</div>
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It's really common to come across homeschool packages for a grade level that includes all the standard subjects for a "2nd grade" package with plans for each day of each week of the year. This sounds great! Everything's included and planned out! It might be great. But, when your child just really takes off with math, finds it easy, wants a challenge, but is struggling with spelling and needs to move slowly with lots of repetition, suddenly all that nicely laid out planning becomes really complicated when you're working out of different weeks plans for different subjects and trying not to feel pressured "catch up" what's behind. This is the point at which you could consider picking your own programs for skills based things. Or at the very least, making your own lesson plans so your child can learn at the right pace. This is one of the draw-backs to a boxed curriculum long term. But when first getting started, especially with multiple kids and grade levels, a boxed curriculum with everything planned out is a great way for Mom to learn how to plan by following one example of planning for a year. It's worth it that first year!</div>
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It's also quite common to find full language arts programs. These are prone to the same pitfalls. If your child is progress asynchronously (not at equal paces across all skills) then these integrated skill programs become a real headache. This is why for anything that's teaching a skill, I look for and purchase something that teaches *that skill only*. Some examples of skills-based learning are: </div>
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-phonics/reading</div>
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-spelling</div>
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-handwriting</div>
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-mathematics</div>
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-foreign languages</div>
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-logic</div>
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-writing</div>
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But when it comes to content-driven subjects, I think the more integration there is the better! I love buffet-style content programs. Buffets present a lot of options and you're not really supposed to "eat" all of it. On any given day, you're supposed to decide what looks the most tempting and enjoy that. Some examples of content-driven subjects are: </div>
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-history</div>
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-geography</div>
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-literature</div>
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-science</div>
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-art</div>
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-vocabulary</div>
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-writing</div>
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Why not teach history and geography together, and read literature from the same time period, while learning about scientists and artists that lived at that time? A program that puts all that together for you is like gold! This kind of a buffet can be the icing on the cake for your homeschool. It can fill your studies with imagination and wonder, bring you into a bigger world, and make it easier for you as a mom to explore it all with your kids instead of trying to pull together lots of different programs that are disjointed to cover the same things. <br />
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So. Skills vs. content. Single focus vs. buffet. It's ok to let a box be your guide at first!</div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-19758786406888497202020-04-24T13:41:00.001-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.239-05:00Close Reading the Bible<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A couple of years ago, I started digging into how to teach my kids to really understand literature. Luke was finishing sixth grade and had read a lot of great books on his own. But we hadn't done much with literary analysis, or real literature. He'd mostly read classics for kids or historical fiction to bring his history studies to life. As we moved into middle school, I was trying to figure out the best way to tackle the Great Books. I started out looking for the perfect curriculum to guide us through the Great Books, to provide us with a reading list and the right questions to think about.<br />
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I downloaded samples and made book lists, compared book lists, re-arranged book lists. I thoroughly examined Veritas Press Omnibus, Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside Online, Classical Conversations, Old Western Culture, Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Memoria Press, Excellence in Literature, Schole Academy, www.classical-homeschooling.org. With a few exceptions, I felt like most of these were attempting to do too much, and just a handful were not doing enough, or not doing what I felt like I wanted. I could not find the right thing. <br />
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At the Great Homeschool Convention while investigating all these different programs, I stumbled into a talk by Adam Andrews titled, "How to Teach Literature without a Curriculum." Sounded interesting! As I listened to him, I realized that what he was saying was exactly what I needed. I didn't need someone to tell me what books to read, I needed someone to teach me how to read books. His program, Teaching the Classics, is like teaching a mom to teach her kids to fish, rather than handing her a fish to pass on to her child. This was what I was looking for! Teaching the Classics teaches mom how to have great discussions on the books as a family.<br />
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At the same time, CiRCE was releasing their Reading Guide. This book teaches tools of close reading. It's a simple highlighting system designed to help a reader learn to pay attention to what the author is attempting to say. I decided these two things would be the backbone for our literature for middle school and high school. We're now two years in, and it's been a great decision. The Reading Guide tools help us pay attention while reading. Teaching the Classical helps us talk about what we've read and perceive the main themes, conflicts, and truths in the books.<br />
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But there's been a really neat by-product of this decision. I've discovered that learning how to read has spread to other areas of my life. One day early last year I was trying to read through Jeremiah and was having a really hard time. All the sudden, I thought, what if I used the close reading tools and colors to read my Bible? I decided to give it a try. I've never looked back. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPmIei6EDSRwV1cpldCppgeD_51sTjGwD0zrumd0xpu6llbISBbF9yLZGbEgh4N_u-3iTHMwz7k8BC7aT8mPI-rg4w7UZMVhNNdrwglG-FnxNafkTTnfrpx2UvuuRwslpNGNTL3B8LcY/s1600/5AA3DF03-1C10-4887-A553-7CB644239A40_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPmIei6EDSRwV1cpldCppgeD_51sTjGwD0zrumd0xpu6llbISBbF9yLZGbEgh4N_u-3iTHMwz7k8BC7aT8mPI-rg4w7UZMVhNNdrwglG-FnxNafkTTnfrpx2UvuuRwslpNGNTL3B8LcY/s640/5AA3DF03-1C10-4887-A553-7CB644239A40_1_201_a.jpeg" width="640" /></a>It's always amazing to me when things I'm learning for my kids' education actually improve my own life in real ways. Below are some pictures of my Bible now that I'm using this system. I've read all of Jeremiah, lots of Genesis and Matthew this way. The Reading Guide suggests the following uses for colors:<br />
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-Green: dates, passing of time, or textual structure<br />
-Pink: proper nouns, places, repeated words<br />
-Yellow: main ideas, main actions<br />
-Blue: things you love<br />
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I've also added:<br />
-purple: obvious literary devices like similes and metaphors<br />
-orange: confusing or unclear things, things I don't understand or want to study more<br />
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I'd highly encourage getting a copy of the Reading Guide and learning to read your Bible like this! it has brought so much more delight to my reading, and a deeper understanding of Scripture! I try to read one chapter a day carefully, and write a narration of it. It's simple, but very effective and doesn't take a ton of time! Here's a link to the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Highlighters-Peter-Pauper-Press/dp/1441324739/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=bible+highlighters&qid=1587659279&sr=8-3">Bible highlighters</a> we use. Yes, we. My two older kids have now requested Bible highlighters and have begun applying this to their Bible study time too, after seeing me do it! :) I've even made a bookmark to keep to remind them of the color uses, and been blessed to begin teaching a Close Reads Bible class to a group of girls at my church with these same tools! <br />
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An example of the bookmark:<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-41757679033380348192020-04-18T23:12:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.164-05:00The Quadrivium ???<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A little over a year ago, I posted an essay I had written for The Atrium class I was taking through the Circe Institute on the seven liberal arts. Our fall semester was spent taking a close look at the history of education and the first three arts, known as the Trivium. That essay is <a href="https://ourdozenbeautifulfeet.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-trivium-grammar-dialectic-and.html">here</a>.<br />
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I've been meaning to follow that up with some thoughts on the Quadrivium. It's been more of a challenge than I anticipated. After reading Beauty for Truth's Sake (twice), The Liberal Arts Tradition (three times) and listening to Andrew Kern wax eloquent on the quadrivium for about 16 weeks, I feel like I know just enough to know that I know nothing.<br />
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Over the past 40 years, the renewal of classical education has done a lot of really great work and made some wonderful discoveries about true education. There's been a lot of great discovery and reconstruction of ideas in a modern context specifically related to the Trivium arts. A quick search of "classical curriculum" companies yields multiple options of Latin, logic workbooks, fallacies, formal and material logic, composition, rhetoric, and more. We've got the language things covered. Or, at least we're well on our way.<br />
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The quadrivium is another story. The quadrivium, most simply defined, are the four upper mathematical arts; the arts of mathematical reasoning. The four arts composing the quadrivium are:<br />
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-arithmetic<br />
-geometry<br />
-astronomy<br />
-music<br />
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I don't know enough to write a proper essay on this. So I'm just gathering my thoughts enough to barely offer a blog post. Because I've been trying for a year, and this is as good as it's going to get. <br />
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Here's my basic definitions of these four mathematical arts. When talking about these things as liberal arts, we are not talking about them as subjects. My previous essay on the Trivium covers the differences between types of arts, and what a liberal art is. It is not a subject or area of study.<br />
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The liberal art of arithmetic is the understanding of number as a quantity. It is the physical number of things, and the truth of the essence of number as well. For example, there can be seven paperclips on the table. That's a quantity. But "seven" is a reality whether there are seven somethings to count or not. Seven was a reality before any human ever counted seven of anything. <br />
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The liberal art of geometry is the understanding of relationships between quantities in space. <br />
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The liberal art of astronomy is the understanding of relationships between quantities in space across time (this is also called cosmology, but is different from origins theories/science). Astronomy/Cosmology seems to me to be more about observing the heavens and understanding how the bodies of the heavens shift in relationship to each other, in ways that form beautiful patterns, across time.<br />
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The liberal art of music is the understanding of relationships between quantities across time. Music is all about ratios and proportionalities of mathematical notes on a page or relationships, moving across time together in harmonious ways. Music is the crowning art of the quadrivium.<br />
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The purpose of the quadrivium is to raise us above our senses; from the material to the immaterial. Studying the quadrivium arts gives us a window into the mind of God and how the universe is ordered and held in motion in harmony. Material to the immaterial.<br />
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Honestly, this is really all I've got at this point. It's clear there's a lot left for me to learn, and a whole lot left to be developed as far as recovering the quadrivium for the purposes of being applied to true education. I have a long list of books I'd like to read, with Augustine's de Musica being at the top of that list, to start peeling back the layers here. One thing I have had to accept though, is that this is still too raw to really be able to give my kids much if anything of the quadrivium. It's also become clear to me that in ancient education, this level of study was *not* happening before the age of twenty. Or maybe even thirty. It was not a teenager's game. Up until mid twenties, students were largely focused on the trivium from what I've gathered, with some exposure to arithmetic and geometry.<br />
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So as to not leave us totally hopeless, I want to find things we can do to give our kids just a taste of some of these things. Here's a few ideas I've tried for quadrivium arts, or will try at the proper time. <br />
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<b><u>Arithmetic: </u></b><br />
-We focus on solid numeracy and number theory in elementary school. I really like <a href="https://www.mathusee.com/">Math-U-See</a> because of it's mastery-based focus on learning to use the four operations really well.<br />
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-In middle school, we started slowly working our way through <a href="http://www.constructingtheuniverse.com/">A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe</a>. We watch the DVD, I read aloud from the text, and both of my kids have a workbook and work on the constructions on our Friday Schole days as often as we can. This set of materials focuses on number more as idea and pattern than quantity. It's fascinatingly beautiful!<br />
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-Continue to use math curricula through high school that focuses on mastery and mathematical reasoning.<br />
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<b><u>Geometry: </u></b><br />
-Constructing the Universe begins to bridge into geometry a little bit by teaching the students to construct shapes with the number patterns they're learning.<br />
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-We will study two years worth of geometry: one with a more traditional plane/solid geometry program. Our second year will be reading Euclid with <a href="https://polymathclassical.com/curriculum-classical-mathematics/">Classical Math One by Daniel Maycock </a>as a guide. (I realize this link leads to a discontinued item. Daniel is revising the guide book and re-releasing it this summer. So check back! It will be there!)<br />
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<b><u>Astronomy: </u></b><br />
-The best thing I've been able to find for this is <a href="http://classicalastronomy.com/">Signs & Seasons</a>. I guess I should qualify that with the best thing I've been able to find that is also do-able/affordable for us. Remember astronomy is not a science subject, but a liberal art in this context. So I'm not looking for a traditional astronomy course. Signs & Seasons teaches at least observation of the night sky and charting over the course of an entire year and navigational skills by the sky. The math required to actually do astronomy is prohibitive. So this is the best we can do. I'm going to pair this with some history/biography of astronomers as well. At least we'll be turning our eyes to the heavens, above and out of ourselves, and learning to see and observe what's going on.<br />
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<b><u>Music:</u></b><br />
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This is the big unknown for me. There are some practical things we can do to start off with.<br />
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-Learn to play an instrument: piano, guitar, violin, anything really. This has always been a priority here and we've got piano lessons starting at an early age, and in 5th grade, adding another instrument. Our older two kids have added choir around 7th grade as well. Playing and singing daily is pretty crucial to laying a foundation of music in a liberal arts education.<br />
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-Listen to good music. What they listen to shapes what they crave. Expose them to the best music from history. <a href="https://www.professorcarol.com/">Professor Carol'</a>s music programs do a great job of this. So do classical radio stations. There are lots of great YouTube channels on classical music, like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPZUQqtVDmcjm4NY5FkzqLA">Rousseau</a>. We could watch these visualizations for hours. Get to know different composer's music as a whole body of work. Teach them how to listen to music. Memoria Press has a great program called <a href="https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/art-and-music/music-appreciation-i-set/">Music Appreciation</a> that teaches them basic elements of music that help them listen intelligently to great works.<br />
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Here's the thing though. There is much more to music as a liberal art than listening to and playing music. There are three different aspects of music as a liberal art, according to Augustine:<br />
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-musica instrumentalis : instrumental music, as described above<br />
-musica humana : the proportionalities that exist in human society<br />
-musica mundana : the proportionalities that exist in the world<br />
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That last one, I'm pretty sure I don't understand that. It seems to have some cross-over with cosmology/astronomy. Maybe it has to do with the sounds of the stars? Pretty sure we'll watch <a href="https://vimeo.com/44172007">this vide</a>o every year just in case that's what it means. :)<br />
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But that middle one. I think this is where music as a liberal art is really pointed: proportionalities that exist in human relationships. Augustine wrote,<br />
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"Musica est scientia bene modulande" - Music is the knowledge of modulating well.<br />
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This is about learning to order and harmonize ourselves with other people. Harmonize our own lives and live proportionally, within our limits. Learning to bring ourselves back into the harmony of God when we've stepped out in sin and are creating dissonance. To learn to see the master harmonizing skills in Jesus as he redeems and makes all things new. The harmony of the Trinity and Jesus as Logos of all things.<br />
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Music is not extracurricular. It is foundational, and ultimate, at the same time. By laying the foundation of music through playing and listening, we have an experience of harmony to draw on. We have heard harmony. We have felt discord and dissonance in our soul. We have experienced that relief when a dissonant chord resolves into harmony. <br />
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The point of music is to learn to modulate well. In life, keeping relationships healthy across time is all about modulation. Parenting is about modulation: not treating our children at twelve years old in the same way we did when they were two. Marriage is all about modulating to each other, on a daily basis. <br />
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"The well being of the human soul is a matter of internal and external modulation." (Andrew Kern. He must be credited with far more than this quote. Most of what I've written here is simply a narration of listening to him for a couple of years on the quadrivium and processing. It's a regurgitation of Kern's thoughts).<br />
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How do we teach this? I have no idea. But one thing I can do is to keep learning about it and modeling it in my own life and home. <br />
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There's so far we have to go yet. So much left to do. I'm so so thankful to those blazing the trail like Andrew Kern, Carol Reynolds, Christopher Perrin, Daniel Maycock, Martin Cothran. Support their work if you can! It is so important! And join me in giving our kids what we can and resting in that as being enough!<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-47278214485914143832020-04-07T16:52:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.424-05:00When the Going Gets Tough...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm sure we've all found ourselves in situations beyond our control that are surprising, frustrating, discouraging and more. I've been processing this for myself as I walk through an unexpected situation, and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate it. (I know you're all thinking right now this is going to be about coronavirus. It's not at all...)<br />
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<a href="https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-boy-walking-on-dark-lonely-road-in-early-evening-sandra-cunningham.html?product=greeting-card"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHL-h6rOqu5-jCyKOSpuCobxu44FH7MdKDaxBW7YnCLfBdvCXPRBkFD9ceDcNOlGpZmoe2OSC3eDxQEi2Jaxcjwa9Q8q6CACBs-MoSJnb49zfOP4v1yQJTgaqZsMuG5-bIxfatU7Mir8/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-04-24+at+1.50.51+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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After spending seven significantly lonely years in India, finding tight, close-knit community was really important to us when we returned. I worked hard the first couple of years here in the US to identify other people, specifically homeschoolers, looking for that. And then I worked really hard to build a homeschool community. We started with about six families, and a core group of six fourth graders starting out with ancient history projects, Latin for Children A and Writing & Rhetoric together. </div>
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That was five years ago. We've been meeting for five years! Those little fourth graders are finishing middle school and heading off into high school in just a few months. My end-vision for my group was to have a deeply connected group of students and moms to study with in high school. I wanted the kids to have known each other long, be comfortable disagreeing, talk about books and ideas, and have built a culture of trust and transparency, of challenge and delight in stories and ideas and faith. </div>
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But this past year, it's all fallen apart. It probably started coming apart at the seams last year or the year before, but it's all officially finished at the end of this year. In the fall, my two children will be the only two kids in that group that are still homeschooling. And it's left me grieving. </div>
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I know and trust that all these moms are doing what's best and right for their kids in their specific situations. I don't blame any of them. All of that is totally out of my control. But it doesn't make it any less painful to have poured so much time and energy into relationships that are now going to drastically change because the nature of their education is changing, and ours isn't. It doesn't hurt any less to find ourselves alone. It doesn't make it any less real that at this point, going into high school credits and studies, pretty much everyone else who is homeschooling has found their group, their people, their plan, and we are kinda left with nothing to show for the last five years of "community building." </div>
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We now have no community. What do I do now? </div>
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I've spent a lot of time this spring contemplating and evaluating what I really believe about homeschooling. Do I really believe in the mentor model of education? Do I really believe that I can provide my kids with the proper resources, the proper accountability, and the proper instruction and assessment to keep doing this through high school? Do I still believe that's best now that we're here? </div>
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For the first time this year, my older two kids have taken an informal online class. I traded off with another homeschool mom: she taught the five common topics of argumentation, I taught Latin. I definitely got the better end of this deal, because she was a phenomenal teacher, had a lot more students than I did, and just overall provided them with a great experience and drastically grew their reasoning and language skills this year. I'm so thankful for her time, knowledge, and skill. </div>
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But because I wasn't teaching, I didn't read their books or sit in on their class. I am uneducated on the five common topics, and I'm out of the conversation now. I can't ask them to use those tools in their studies, work at practicing what they learned in their writing the next couple of years, review or assess how well they're applying what they learned. Because I don't know it. And I realized that for the few things that a liberal arts education is founded on, I, as their mom and primary mentor/tutor, need to be involved in their core studies. That doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't outsource some things. It just means I can't check out totally when I do, especially if it's a core skill and if I don't know it myself. I still need to read the book and learn it. I still need to know what they're learning so I can help them apply it across their curricula. </div>
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I realized, I do totally believe in a mentor model of education. I'm not at a place in my own self-education that I can afford to hand off their core skills to someone else, because I need to study and learn them too. I do believe that if I'm getting a liberal arts education focused on the right things, we can do it (we: Dad, Mom, kids, with Jesus as our Logos!) Finding myself as the only one of my group left homeschooling has made me question much. Am I crazy? But just like everyone else in my group, I'm choosing the right thing for us. I'm still more than bummed that there's no one else choosing the same thing. That's beyond my control. What's not beyond my control is how I respond when the going gets tough. </div>
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All this has made me dig deep and think about what we really truly need. In some ways, our community was taking a toll on us by inserting things we didn't need into our schedule. Community inevitably requires compromise, and that's as it should be. With that gone, I'm going to be able to be very specific with what I seek out or offer for other people to join us in doing. I've done a lot of thinking on how to determine what to outsource and why, which I will outline in a later post. For now, we're going to be focusing on seeking community around a book list for next year, and that's it. Reading books together is the most important thing to me. It's so much better than reading them on our own. Getting other people's perspectives is challenging, affirming, and enriching, and talking about the ideas in books (especially learning to disagree) is one of the most valuable experiences I can give them. So I'll be offering a literature class again next year. This will be the first time in three years I'm not teaching at least three classes. That in itself will be restful and is pretty exciting for me! </div>
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I know that homeschooling through high school is not for everyone. My recent life experience has more than taught me that, if I didn't know it already. If you're on the fence or wondering if you can do it, I can't answer that question for you. But it's worth considering for several reasons. Here's my top reasons I'm willing to take the risk to keep homeschooling high school. </div>
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1. Keeping spiritual and academic lives married to each other. I heard Andrew Kern say in his Ask Andrew podcast that if you take the academic branch of the tree and chop it off, it might still look green and good for awhile, but it eventually it turns to rot. It's important to note here that the academic life is just one branch of the tree. He didn't say this, but I really see the spiritual life of the child as the roots and trunk of the tree. But secular academics does not recognize there are roots, and can treat the academic branch as the trunk. Maintaining academic discipline as an outflow of spiritual life and discipline is important to us. So keeping the two in proper relationship with each other and with Jesus Christ as the main central truth that is taught and allowing every idea we consider to flow out of His truth is best done through home school for us. </div>
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2. Relationships are essential to us. I can look back on my life and recognize that from the age of 5, I spent the majority of my waking hours with strangers, not with my parents and siblings. For me, this really affected the quality and trust in the relationships in my home. I don't really know my siblings very well. We aren't at all close. I love how close my kids are. I love how they really know each other. I love knowing them and being known by them. Outsourcing half or more of their education writes the rest of out of most of their life experiences. I don't want that for any of us. Yes, I realize I have to let them go at some point. Believe me, I want to let them go at the right time! (International travel: Paul and I are coming for you at that point!) But I also want to enjoy building family culture every minute we're able to. Our relational rootedness being so important is another thing best achieved for us by holding on to the bulk of their instruction through high school. </div>
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3. On a more pragmatic note: I've worked really hard and researched copiously to find programs that will make this possible. There are certain areas that I *want* to dig into to know for myself in order to teach them. In order to do that, I've also found other programs that provide enough support and DVD instruction that I can learn alongside them without a ton of prep and still assess how they're doing. Now that I'm not formally teaching any classes except literature, we can learn history, Latin, logic, and writing together on our own schedule. My time will be my own again. Finding the right programs makes me feel confident to keep going. One year at a time!<br />
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I want to be careful to say that these priorities are not unique to homeschool families. Most Christian families share these priorities and values. Homeschooling is NOT the only way to achieve them, NOT the best way to achieve them for <i>everyone</i>. It is for <u style="font-style: italic;">us and our family</u> I know intentional, hard-working Christian parents doing a smashing job of this while harnessing public schools. I know homeschooling families struggling with their kid's discipleship. There is no formula. It's about balance. It's so personal. It's so difficult. Each family has to figure out how best to keep to their principles and achieve their goals for their family and their kids. </div>
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I've got a long list of posts coming up on thinking through high school and what a liberal arts high school course could look like. I've been learning a LOT about how simple, yet deep and rich it can be, and I'm really looking forward to walking these ancient roads with my kids! </div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-51233545873399337582020-03-22T12:32:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.655-05:00Great Homeschool Convention 2020 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Every spring since 2017, I've made the trek to Fort Worth to attend the Great Homeschool Convention, pretty much solely to sit in on the classical education track and investigate curricula at the vendor booths. It has grown me so much and being able to speak personally to people like Dr. Christopher Perrin, Carol Reynolds, Andrea Lipinski, Adam Andrews and Andrew Kern has been challenging, formative, and inspiring in many ways. These conferences keep me going!<br />
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For various reasons, I had decided not to go this spring. But, thanks to coronavirus, the entire conference moved online! The past three days, I've sat in the comfort of my own bed and had the privilege of listening to these wise people, and being challenge and inspired for the coming school year.<br />
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I have a composition book that has become my "GHC Notebook." I've used it exclusively for taking notes at GHC conferences the past four years. Yesterday after the conference, I flipped back through it to see what kind of things I noted down three years ago, two years ago. I was surprised to find that overall, a speaker has said the same things every year! <br />
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And you know what? I need to hear the same basic things every year. <br />
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I need to hear Christopher Perrin encourage me to "multum, non multa", much, not many. I need to hear him repeat every year the foci that we should have at different levels.<br />
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Before middle school, there are four arts children should be focused on:<br />
-grammar (of language, through Latin)<br />
-music: learning an instrument or choral singing<br />
-mathematics<br />
-literature: the Bible, fables, fairy tales, classic novels, poetry, speeches, historical fiction, etc.<br />
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From middle school on:<br />
-mathematics<br />
-music: continuing with instruments/choral music, and music appreciation of classic works<br />
-Language: translating Latin and/or Greek<br />
-Great Books: allow and deep read through literary classics that have formed though over the past 2,000 years<br />
-logic & rhetoric: formal and informal logic that will give way to the study of rhetoric in 10-12th grade<br />
-sciences: a progression through specialized sciences like biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy<br />
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How simple is this? This will lay the foundation for students to learn anything they'd like to go on and learn. Being reminded of this allows me to not get distracted by all the extra shiny new things, or superfluous subjects. Be faithful to study and teach these well and it will be enough. More than enough.<br />
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This is why I justify every year the two hours a day spent at the local brick and mortar school for orchestra and choir. Yes, music in general raises overall academic success and test scores. But I'm not giving them a musical education as a pragmatic means to a better academic end. Music nourishes their souls. Music opens windows to understanding math, ratios, proportions, because music is an embodiment of those things. Music in a community setting like orchestra and choir forces them to pay attention to those around them and begin to learn to adjust (modulate) themselves for the good of the whole. This lays the ground work for learning to modulate within relationships and the skills to harmonize sentences, arguments, relationships within community for the rest of their lives. We cannot afford to not learn music.<br />
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I need to hear Carol Reynolds say over and over again: take your children to the high school choir, orchestra and drama presentations. Expose them to the arts. It doesn't have to be professional performances, and in fact, it's better if it's not. Because children will be able to better relate to people in their community and churches and their performances will seem more near and inspiring. <br />
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I need to have her remind me to not push the kids too hard. Stop lessons before they want to stop, and leave them with the feeling, "That was cool!" instead of, "That was exhausting!"<br />
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I need to hear Andrew Kern say all the philosophical things. <br />
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Four Ways of Thinking:<br />
1. Questions<br />
2. Names<br />
3. Forms<br />
4. Analogies<br />
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Six Desires all Humans have:<br />
1. Knowledge<br />
2. Dominion<br />
3. Glory<br />
4. Rest<br />
5. Life<br />
6. Harmony<br />
that ultimately all point us to a desire for union with God. Our job as parents are to nourish, discipline, and harmonize each of these desires. Not to squash or ignore these desires. <br />
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Music is the art of modulating well.<br />
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When teaching, there is only one thing needful: what is the logos (the truth, main idea) the child needs from this lesson? How do I embody the logos with types, analogies, things?<br />
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Jesus is the Logos of all education. The main Truth we want our children (and ourselves) to perceive.<br />
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Gaze on the True<br />
Contemplate the Beautiful<br />
Imitate the Good.<br />
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Do this in community!<br />
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It's never too late to start.<br />
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I've heard these same ideas every spring for four years. I still don't totally understand them. I am unable to even begin to embody them. I fail at modeling them to my kids for them to imitate. But I want to keep hearing the, thinking about them, dwelling on them in hopes that their truths begin to slowly seep into my heart and pour over into my words and actions. </div>
Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-14251727710884108682019-08-01T17:18:00.002-05:002020-04-24T17:40:40.898-05:00Spero Academy Curriculum Picks: 2019-20<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yes, you read that right. We are no longer Preedy Academy! When we moved to our new house, I had to update our address for our school registration, and thought I might take advantage of the opportunity to give us a more creative name that reflects our style more. Spero is a Latin word that can mean "I hope, I dream, I wonder, I Imagine." That about sums it up. Latin, Wonder, Imagination.<br />
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So. These curriculum pick posts may be becoming a bit redundant, as about three years ago I really found our sweet spot and the people and companies we trust. There's not much deviation now. But I suppose each year we're doing a new grade level for the first time, and are figuring that out as we go. :) So here it is: </div>
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Time Period as a Family: Antiquity</div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Meryn: 3rd grade</span></u></div>
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<b>Language</b>: </div>
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-All About Spelling Level 3</div>
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-McGuffey Reader Book 1 & 2</div>
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-Writing Through Ancient History by Brookdale House</div>
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-Song School Latin 2</div>
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Math: </div>
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-Math-U-see Gamma</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Levi: 4th grade</u></span></div>
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<b>Language</b>: </div>
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-All About Spelling Level 4</div>
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-Writing & Rhetoric Books 1-2: Fable and Narrative 1</div>
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-McGuffey Readers 2 &3</div>
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-Writing Through Ancient History for cursive copy work/practice</div>
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Math: </div>
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-Math-U-see Delta</div>
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<u>Combined Subjects for Levi and Meryn together: </u></div>
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<b>Science</b>: </div>
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-Berean Builders Science in the Ancient World (last year we did a lot of nature study on animals, ecosystems, habitats, plants and trees. They want some active experiments this year!) </div>
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<b>Humanities: </b></div>
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-History: A Picturesque Tale of Progress vol. 1-4</div>
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Various projects with books like: Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors, Tools of the Ancient Greeks, Explore Ancient Rome</div>
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-<a href="https://www.christianbook.com/the-story-niv/9780310950974/pd/950974?event=Church|1001217">The Story</a>: a narrative version of the Bible. This will be a family Read-Aloud.</div>
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<b>Literature Book List: </b></div>
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-Famous Men of Greece</div>
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-Famous Men of Rome</div>
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-Exodus</div>
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-Cleopatra</div>
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-Gilgamesh Trilogy by Zeman</div>
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-The Golden Goblet</div>
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-Joseph</div>
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-The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum</div>
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-D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths</div>
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-Ulysses by Charles Lamb</div>
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-God King</div>
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-City by David Macaulay</div>
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-Mystery of the Roman Ransom</div>
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-Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome</div>
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-Cautionary Tales by Hillaire Belloc</div>
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-The Phoenix and the Carpet by Nesbit</div>
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-The Cat of the Bubastes</div>
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-My Bookhouse vol. 6 & 7</div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Luke and Kiryn: 8th and 7th</span></u></div>
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<b>Language: </b></div>
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-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/latin-alive-book-1-online-module/">Latin Alive! 1</a>: I will be teaching an online class with one other family. </div>
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-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/the-argument-builder/">The Argument Builder</a> by CAP: The other mom is teaching this. It's a good trade-off. :) </div>
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-<a href="https://classicalacademicpress.com/product/writing-rhetoric-book-9-description-impersonation-teachers-edition/">Writing & Rhetoric Book 9</a>: Description and Impersonation</div>
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-<a href="https://www.rfwp.com/series/grammar-elementary-program-by-michael-clay-thompson">Magic Lens 1</a> and Poetry and Humanity by Royal Fireworks Press. </div>
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<b>Math: </b></div>
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-Jacob's Geometry with Dr. Callahan's videos</div>
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-MUS Algebra 1 with Honors lessons</div>
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<b>Science: </b></div>
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-<a href="https://www.novarescienceandmath.com/catalog/physical-science/">Novare Physical Science</a></div>
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-Geography III by Memoria Press</div>
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<b>Humanities:</b></div>
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-<u>Ancient History</u>: Streams of Civilization and The Story of Ancient Greece, The Story of Ancient Rome by Suzanne Strauss Art, covering pre-history through the Roman Republic. </div>
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-<u>The Bible as Literature</u>: A House for My Name by Peter Leithart, and The Bible Project videos as aids to reading through a good portion of the Old and New Testament over the year</div>
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<br /></div>
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-<u>Close Reads: Antiquity</u></div>
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This will be a class at co-op in which we will read: </div>
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-Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Greene</div>
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-Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughreon</div>
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-Bulfinch's Age of Fable</div>
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-Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe</div>
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-The Odyssey, translated by T.E. Lawrence</div>
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-The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church</div>
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-The Young Carthaginian by G.A. Henry</div>
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-Julius Caesar by Shakespeare</div>
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The kids will continue practicing close reading with the tools in the CiRCE Reading Guide and discussion with the tools in Teaching the Classics. I also would like for Kiryn and Luke to read with Paul and me: </div>
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-Classical Me, Classical Thee by Rebekah Merkle</div>
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-How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay</div>
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-The Screwtape Letters by C.s. Lewis</div>
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In addition to this, they will both be enrolled at the local middle school for 8th grade Orchestra, as well as choir. So two hours a day at the middle school again!</div>
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<b>Friday Schole Day</b></div>
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On Fridays I hope to have most of the book work done, and have a lot of rest and beauty infused into the day. We'll do artist and composer studies, spiritual formation read aloud. We'll spend time on our quadrivium studies with A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe, watching the videos and drawing the constructions. Fridays will also be discussion days for history and Bible, as well as time set aside for Keeping. The older kids will keep a commonplace and/or timeline/journal of their studies this year across any and all subjects. </div>
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For some comments on 8th grade picks: </div>
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<div>
-Math: I took the Liberal Arts Atrium class last year. I came away from that fully convinced that Euclidean geometry is the only way to go. I could really only find two options: Jacob's Geometry, and Classical Math 1 by Polymath Classical Tutorials. As CM1 is reading Euclid's Elements and some Nichomachus and keeping a journal of the proofs, I didn't really think that Luke was ready for that, since he's only 14 and starting geometry in 8th grade. So based on the advice of Mr. Steve and some folks in the Atrium class, we're doing two years of geometry. :) This first year will be a normal textbook, but still Euclidean geometry. Next year, with that as a background and foundation, he will hopefully be ready to do Classical Math as an Honors Euclidean Geometry course. I gave Luke the option of doing either Math-U-See Geometry or Jacob's. He took a look at both and picked Jacob's! I got the textbook and answer key for $20 at a used sale, found the DVD's on homeschoolclassifieds.com for super cheap, and then found an extended Teacher Guide and My Father's World Lesson Plan for the year on eBay. It's the whole book planned out over 34 weeks. Easy button!</div>
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Language: Typically we do two books of Writing & Rhetoric each school year. But since The Argument Builder covers Aristotle's Five Common Topics and is a good bit of writing, I opted to do one book of W&R. Also, to spread it out evenly, we'll do the whole Magic Lens in about 6-7 weeks at the beginning of the school year, and once it's finished, we'll begin Writing & Rhetoric. We'll take three weeks for each essay, giving them plenty of time to write a good one. Poetics will be the last 8-10 weeks of the year after we're done with W&R. So just two things at a time</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Science: So last year about halfway through Novare Earth Science (which I loved), it was just a bit of a stretch for them, so I looked and realized... Novare intends Physical Science for 7th grade, and Earth Science for 8th grade! It was a stretch for my 6th and 7th graders for good reason. The good news is, we finished it, and the kids are in for an easier year of science this year! A shorter text with more engaging labs. :) I grabbed the $5 lessons plans from Memoria Press for another major easy button. No thinking about how much to do or when. Just follow their plans! </div>
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<br /></div>
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Humanities: I'm really excited about all of this this year! I wanted a simple, but more analytical approach to history. After pre-reading several different books, to my surprise I settled on Streams of Civilization. One big thing that persuaded me is I already have the Tapestry of Grace lesson plans, weekly questions, and evals for all of the years. They schedule Streams in as an alternate spine book. So, that's my history planning basically done. Questions written, tests ready, discussion prompts, creative writing assignments on the reading all ready to go. I decided to make it as easy on myself as possible. Streams has a really good scope of ancient civilizations all around the world. And we'll dig a little deeper into Greece and Rome with the Suzanne Strauss Art books.</div>
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It's a a constant challenge as a homeschool mom to give our kids the education we envision while also living and operating within our real limitations as one mom to many kids, many grades, all the subjects, all the books, all the plans, all the grading. As we move forward into high school, I'm going to be relying more on trusted programs from master teachers, and on my kids to be self-driven learners. I want to be more of a learner alongside them in a few areas like Latin, history and literature, and then just hold them accountable to all the other things they have to do while providing the support they need in thing like math and science. :) </div>
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I'm basically ready. All the plans are printed, my planner is done, I've done a whole lot of the pre-reading for history and literature already. I'm praying for a restful year and for my kids to grow in knowledge and wisdom!</div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-80121566598202550012019-08-01T15:48:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:43.554-05:00"Assessment That Blesses": Keeping Track of High School Credits and Grades<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's two weeks away from the start of the school year. It's been hitting me this summer. Luke is doing Geometry. Geometry is a high school credit. I need to have a plan to keep track of actual grades and credits and such, at least for this one class....<br />
<br />
Years ago, I purchased <a href="https://www.ollyhomeschool.com/">OLLY</a> for both my desktop and the iPad. I quickly realized it was more than I needed, and I couldn't figure out how to make it work for me at the time. So I abandoned it. But thankfully, I didn't delete it!<br />
<br />
I resurrected that dinosaur of an app this month and began tinkering around with it. It's going to work GREAT for me to keep up with grading assignments that really need to be graded, assigning credits and keeping track of what we need to get to graduation.<br />
<br />
I've set it up to give me accountability with grading. I don't have all the kids assignments in there. I just have plotted out the assignments and exams that will receive a grade. This year will be a trial run to see if I've set it up well. Geometry is the only thing on our schedule this year that we NEED to keep track of for high school credit, but I'm going to grade things in every subject they're doing, for the first time. Once I wrapped my head around how OLLY is designed to work, thanks to their helpful videos and flow charts on the website, I think I've got a handle on things.<br />
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First, you create a Course:<br />
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These are the courses I have created for last year and this coming school year. I think it's going to work better for me to name the courses each year based on what they're actually taking, because the Course Title is what shows up on the transcript, from what I can tell. I started off with a generic "Humanities, Math, Science, Language Arts", but it didn't have any detail as to what was actually done on the transcript. So I've given more specific Course Titles. </div>
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Next, you make Lesson Plans: </div>
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Each of these assignments are what I will actually grade and what their grade will be based upon. </div>
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Once you have your Lessons Plans done, you assign each lesson plan to a course by dragging and dropping them. This is what our course load looks like. Some of our courses have more than one lesson plan, like science: it includes physical science and geography. </div>
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Next, you assign the Lesson Plans to specific days on the calendar: </div>
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This is as simple as dragging and dropping each lesson onto the date you want it to be completed (or, the date that I want to grade it). I wasn't too precise about this though, because I can grade it anytime. </div>
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Next, you go into Records and enter the grades for the actual assignments.</div>
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At the end of the semester, I'll be able to quickly run a report (provided all my grading is done!) that will calculate their grade by percentage and letter, assign a GPA, and how many credits they've received for each class. I'm really hopeful that the moderate amount of time it took to set all this up will pay off well through the year when I have something telling me: Catch up on grading!!!<br />
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On a related by completely different topic...<br />
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At the Great Homeschool Convention this year, Andrea Lipinski shared that in her Lost Tools classes, there are two "grades" possible:<br />
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A: Accepted. You did what was asked. Well done.<br />
I: Incomplete. You've not yet done what was asked. Keep trying.<br />
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That's it. I LOVE the simplicity and encouragement in those two responses. The I will come with feedback, as will the A. I wanted to adopt this for my assessment going forward with my kids as we are right in the throes of middle school and accountability is really needed. But I also knew my kids needed just a bit more. <br />
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I want to keep it simple, but two other factors that I really want to assess them on are:<br />
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-Punctual vs. Late assignments<br />
-Excellence vs. Mediocrity<br />
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I have one child for whom it is possible to do what was asked and yet turn in mediocre work. I can't very well give that an A. :) <br />
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So I've arranged these in several ways to have a three-letter score on each assignment I give them:<br />
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APE: Accepted, Punctual, Excellent. Two points for each top mark. This is 6 points.<br />
ALE: Accepted, Late, Excellent. Top marks two points each, bottom mark 1. This is 5 points.<br />
IPM: Incomplete, Punctual, Mediocre. 4 points.<br />
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Et cetera. Scores of 5-6 don't have to be re-worked. 3's and 4's will be given back with feedback on how to get a 5 as a final score.<br />
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We'll see how this works. :) I'm only using this for those not-so-objective subjects: writing assignments, history narrations, literature discussions and Bible-As-Literature written work. Latin, Science, Math will all be given number and letter grades based on objectively correct or incorrect answers.<br />
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I'm not really looking forward to all this record keeping, but it was inevitable that it would need to be done. I'm hoping I've made it as easy on myself as possible. </div>
Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-58715892295460205072019-05-13T20:49:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.916-05:00Putting on Your Own Oxygen Mask First<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For the greater part of my adult life, I always knew when my next flight was. The summer before my senior year of college I took my first trip overseas to Izmir, Turkey. From the anticipation of that trip in 2000 until the summer of 2014, I was in a state of perpetual anticipating of the next flight. Those years of jet-setting every few months saw my life morph from a single college girl to a married working woman to a seasoned missionary and homeschooling mother of four.<br />
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As a mother, I always thought the announcement at the beginning of every airplane ride was pretty unrealistic. What mother really puts the oxygen mask on herself first while her kid is sitting there struggling for breath? I always tried to picture myself doing that, and it always seemed wrong. I really do understand how badly things could go if mom passes out, but I never could wrap my head around that mental picture of just taking care of myself first.<br />
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But.<br />
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When it comes to educating our kids, I think this picture of putting on my own oxygen mask first looks a little more valid. Education is so not just academics. Education is learning to live. It's not about getting the test answers right. It's about the expansion of self in community. It's about the pursuit of wisdom and virtue. It's about the perception of truth and the growth of the soul as we behold the glory of God, the Logos, Jesus Christ, radiating through all we study. Certainly we want that for our kids. How can we not want that for ourselves?<br />
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How often have I heard the phrase, "We become what we behold"? <br />
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What are my children beholding as they gaze at my life everyday?<br />
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Irritation. Frustration. Short-termperedness. Franticness. Distraction and escapism. Disengaged. To-do lists. Get it done.<br />
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Is this really what I want for them? What do I want them to remember?<br />
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I want them to remember me reading to them. Studying my Bible. Smiling at them. Doing chores with a smile. A soft encouraging voice.<br />
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I also want them to remember me being a student. Digging into things they're learning to understand it myself. To pick something that I want to study and grow in, maybe even master, that's a part of their education as a way of sharing something with them. To see me working at something hard for me, like a piece of music on the piano, a crochet project that's a challenge, getting a garden to grow. To see me regularly bringing harmony out of chaos, creating beauty as an act of worship and adoration of Jesus, the master harmonizer.<br />
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I want to model being a zealous student and living fully. I want to inspire them to wonder and inquiry, not because I handed them a book said so, but because I showed them how by reading with curiosity alongside them.<br />
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We genuinely cannot give our kids something we don't have and don't want for ourselves.<br />
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We need to put our own oxygen mask on first. </div>
Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-45698090904337648262019-05-09T17:22:00.004-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.309-05:00End of Year 2018-19 Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This year has been so full, so busy, and I'm really ready for it to be wrapped up. :) I taught four classes. I took a class. I started a part-time job in January from home. My autoimmune health has been all over the place. <br />
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I've loved our studies, but I way over-planned. (What's new?!?) We ended up totally dropping both Memoria Press programs, as well as the Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe. My older two kids started doing two hours a day at the local middle school which left them with less time at home each day. We had to pull back and focus on the main things. And I learned a lot from this. Like:<br />
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-orchestra, drama, choir are REALLY worth our time and not getting in the way of the curriculum, they are a majorly important part of the curriculum<br />
-more books and academics is not necessary for a quality education or a happy life<br />
-it's okay to do some of a program and not all of it, to scale things to what we need<br />
-it's ok to leave plenty of white space for the kids to just have time, even if that means not doing everything I feel like is important as far as books go. More is not always better.<br />
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That said, here is what our year *actually* looked like.<br />
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Meryn: (2nd grade)<br />
-Veritas Press readers and other leveled readers<br />
-All About Spelling 2 with copy work and dictation<br />
-Grammar Island as a read aloud<br />
-Song School Latin 1<br />
-Math-U-See Beta<br />
-20th Century History: Landmark History of the American People, selected biographies<br />
-Literature: My Bookhouse vol. 4-5, Andersen's and Grimm's Fairy Tales, read-alouds below<br />
-Science: Burgess Book of Nature Lore, The Tree Book, Physics: A World of Marvels, Childcraft vol. 4: The Green Kingdom<br />
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Levi: (3rd grade)<br />
-McGuffey Second Reader<br />
-All About Spelling Level 3<br />
-Grammar Island with notebook, Practice Island<br />
-Song School Latin 2<br />
-Cottage Press Primer 2, Fall book only<br />
-Math-U-see Gamma<br />
History, Literature and Science with Meryn<br />
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Read Aloud list:<br />
Peter Pan<br />
The Railway Children<br />
Where Poppies Grow<br />
Home Run<br />
A History of US: Age of Extremes<br />
Understood Betsy<br />
Bridge to Terabithia<br />
Betsy-Tacy<br />
The Hundred Dresses<br />
Mr. Popper's Penguins<br />
Homer Price<br />
Pippi Longstocking<br />
100 Cupboards<br />
A History of US: All the People<br />
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Kiryn and Luke (12 and 13 years old)<br />
-Math-U-See Algebra 1/PreAglebra<br />
-Novare Earth Science<br />
-Latin for Children Primer C, second half<br />
-French for Children B<br />
-A World of Poetry<br />
-Writing & Rhetoric books 7-8, Encomium & Vituperation, Comparison<br />
-The Art of Argument: informal fallacies<br />
-Intro to Close Reads: 20th Century literature (with Teaching the Classics and CiRCE Reading Guide)<br />
-20th Century History: U.S. History Detective book 2 and The Century videos and discussion guide with Peter Jennings<br />
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I don't have any negative reviews to give here. We have loved every single thing we've done. I think it's been a really rich and vigorous year.<br />
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I loved the Novare Earth Science book. The text is readable, not overwhelming, but also challenging. The pictures are beautiful. I love that it requires the students to write out answers to questions at the end of every section. This was our first year with a real science curriculum, and the resource CD that Novare sells as an accompaniment to the text is wonderful. It is also totally necessary to teach this course well. It provided a lesson schedule for the whole year with the book broken down into daily segments, review days and experiment days scheduled in, quizzes scheduled, everything. I pretty much just followed that schedule as written this year. We do plan to stay with Novare and do Physical science next year, and I've learned that it's really okay to back off from that suggested schedule. It was really more geared toward a school setting, and it wasn't quite necessary for us to do as much as it was suggesting. We did make it through the book, though! (My daughter does not understand why she had to read so much about the composition of soil). :) If you've got a science minded kid or just want a challenging, deep, God-glorifying curriculum that also deals really responsibly with the science, Novare is something to consider.<br />
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One helpful tidbit I learned at GHC this spring is that Novare has ebooks they license for a month or for a year. You can license one of their books for one month for $5 to try it out, and for only $30 for 12 months. This can potentially make it a lot more affordable. The ebook also has a "read-aloud" function for kids that need to listen to learn. It is a very electronic, unnatural voice, but the function is there. You can find the licensing option on their website under each book on the purchase page.<br />
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The Art of Argument may have been one of the highlights of the year. This was just a really fun path to walk. I taught this in a class setting with ten kids, and hearing them debate back and forth whether a fallacy was being committed in an argument and trying to figure out which one was just a lot of fun for us all. I say it every year, but each new resource we try from Classical Academic Press just gets better and brings real delight to the subject it's presenting. This book is written to the student and is really accessible to them on their own, but is definitely best if studied at least alongside mom or a friend to foster conversation and debate on the fallacies presented. We spread it out over the whole school year, doing one fallacy a week and I'm glad we did. We finished the year last week with a Fallacy Escape Room that was tons of fun. Kids loved the challenge and I as a teacher loved seeing the depth of knowledge they'd gained and how able they were to apply it under pressure!<br />
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The Close Reads class was a part of the live class I taught. We met for two hours every other week and spent an hour on logic and an hour on literature discussions. I used Teaching the Classics to discuss the books, and I taught the kids the tools in the CiRCE Reading Guide to help them begin to do some close reading and common placing. This was a beautiful pairing, and I saw such growth in their reading skills as well as their understanding of literary themes. We read:<br />
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The Call of the Wild<br />
Wind in the Willows<br />
The Phantom Tollbooth<br />
The Lion, the Witch, and the Windows<br />
Farmer Giles of Ham<br />
Number the Stars<br />
Homeless Bird<br />
100 Cupboards<br />
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness<br />
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I think Farmer Giles was my favorite discussion all year. The students came in all grumbling about how much they disliked this story! I was so surprised. I thought they'd all love it. I started asking them questions from the TTC list, and the discussion got really rolling. It was the first time I'd seen them so animated and engaged, everyone had an opinion, things they didn't understand, things they liked or made them laugh. An hour and a half later, I said, "So you guys really didn't like this story then, did you?" And the all laughed and admitted it was pretty great after all.<br />
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This year I also treated myself to the pleasure to being a real student again. I enrolled in an online class through the CiRCE Institute called The Atrium. The topic this year was the seven liberal arts. (For those of you not familiar with these, they are grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and harmonics/music). We took a close look at the development of these seven as the chosen arts as the liberating arts, and then at the major thinkers and writings on each one individually and what they mean today. This class was so formative for me, and has really helped me understand these arts and the integral role they still ought to be playing in our education today. I'll be writing more about this over the summer as I process what I've learned and hopefully sharing it here. :)<br />
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Next year looks much like this year, just taking the next steps in the paths we're on. I have gotten some wonderful ideas from my class in how to teach the liberal arts here at home to my kids in fun and creative ways. More on that in my Plans for Next Year post!<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-69963262555318101052019-01-23T17:00:00.000-06:002020-05-01T13:40:54.746-05:00The Trivium: Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Last spring, I went to the Great Homeschool Convention in Fort Worth, TX with a big question. For a couple of years, I had been studying the liberal arts on my own. I'd read pretty widely and thought I understood the first three arts, the trivium. As I began to try to understand the quadrivium, I had read The Liberal Arts Tradition by Clark and Jain, as well as Beauty for Truth's Sake by Stratford Caldecott. I still didn't even begin to understand what the quadrivium was about. I went to the conference ready to ask people for their thoughts on how to teach the quadrivium.<br />
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I left pretty unsatisfied. I got varying answers from "teach sol-fa for music" to "let them take a drafting class" to "teach them what home means." I knew I would not make any progress at this point without a guide. </div>
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A few weeks later, I heard that a new class was being offered by the CiRCE Institute. It would be The Atrium with Andrew Kern on the seven liberal arts. It took me about two minutes to decide to register. </div>
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We spent the fall studying the trivium. I realized I didn't know near as much about them as I thought I did. At the end of the semester, Andrew asked us to answer this question: </div>
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What is the Trivium and why does it matter? </div>
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Here's my answer!</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">What is the Trivium and Why Does it Matter?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Trivium is a word referring to the first three arts in a series known as The Seven Liberal Arts. It consists of Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. These liberal arts have been the foundation of education for the majority of human history, were cultivated in early Greece and Rome and practiced into the Middle Ages , were refined and trusted as a path to free persons by the early Church and beyond until very recent times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The liberal arts became the foundation of education because the goal of education was to humanize a person, to enable them to perceive truth, to grow in wisdom and virtue, to order their loves toward Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The liberal arts were a means to this end. To become a more humane person was to become what we were created to be, which is a nourished, healthy, robust soul living in the example of Jesus Christ, whose words and actions are blessings to their community. This is an education not only that all human beings deserve, but all are capable of receiving by virtue of being a human. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>An art has many different definitions and connotes a variety of ideas. In the past, different kinds of arts were recognized. There were service arts which were handicraft and craftsman skills and today would be things like electricians, carpenters, or any other job-skill set that qualifies a person to perform services as an expert. There were also fine arts, which were arts that were an end in themselves. Their name “fine” comes from Latin, finis, the end. These arts are practiced to bring beauty into the world and to entertain as an end in themselves; their enjoyment is their purpose and meaning. A third category of arts were the liberal arts, which might be better termed the liberating arts. An art is that which joins imitation of other masters and one’s own reason to create something new. The liberal arts are ideas that once learned, give a person the tools of learning. When those tools and abilities are joined with our human reason, it creates a human being that is capable of learning anything else they want to learn. By making us independent learners, the liberal arts release us from dependency on others and make free human beings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The seven liberal arts liberate a person by helping them to perceive truth, which is also to see the one central unifying idea in everything. In a liberal arts education, truth is real, and Jesus Christ is the unifying idea, the Logos in Greek, of everything that we can possibly learn. It all reveals Him to us as students. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The seven arts are divided into two categories: the trivium (three-fold path) and the quadrivium (four-fold path). Our world is made and governed by two things: language and mathematics, words and numbers. Our world was spoken into existence through the Word of God, and it is held together by mathematical rules God designed to govern everything in creation. The liberal arts are focused on these two things: understanding language and mathematical arts. The Trivium arts in particular can be understood as arts of language.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Trivium is compromised of the arts of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, which are all foundational to mastering the use of and understanding of language. Language is unique to human beings, and it came to us as part of being an image bearer of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In beginning with grammar, we help our students get to know their world and giving names to everything they encounter. Grammar is about naming things, about remembering that which is worth remembering, and beginning to form a relationship with the world. In grammar, we also go beyond naming and help our students find the meaning of things and interpret the symbols they encounter every day. The meaning is found in the relationship between the thing and other things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A basic example of this is the progression of letters to words to sentences to whole texts. Each letter is a symbol for a sound; letters form a relationship to make a word that is a symbol for a thing; words form a relationship to make a sentence that is a symbol for an idea or action; sentences form a relationship in a text that is a symbol of a larger idea or a symbol of many things. Grammar involves naming, relating, attention, contemplation, story, participation in community, and grounding in traditions. The content that is studied in grammar can literally be anything! It does involve lessons in language syntax and etymology and especially in literary tradition and culture, but it can and ought to be a general introduction to anything and everything that could tell a student who and why they are. The universe has meaning on large and small scales, and grammar is the beginning of uncovering that meaning. Teaching our kids to discover the meaning of symbols is the beginning, and the interpretation of that meaning can be a great challenge and delight! Interpretation leads us into Dialectic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Dialectic is the second art in the Trivium. The simple definition of dialectic is the art of reasoning. Dialectic is learning to think. But we can’t just learn to think; we must learn to think about something. The something worth thinking about is the truth. Thinking is the mental process of separating truth from falsehood. All seven of the liberal arts are arts of truth perception, and dialectic is an integral tool to this end. The search for truth is fundamental to our humanity. Dialectic is mainly taught in two ways: by teaching logic, which is comprised of skill and ideas, and by Socratic teaching, which is a teaching method, or pedagogy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The skills gained in logic have to do with being able to reason well. Reasoning means the power of mind to think, understand, and form judgments. Making sound judgments and interpreting things well is a vital part of an education. Logic teaches how to analyze arguments by learning informal fallacies and syllogisms of thought. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Socratic teaching is the art of asking good questions. The goal of asking good questions is to harmonize our minds with reality. “The search for truth keeps us sane because it always brings us back to reality.” (Kern) Learning to ask the right questions also helps us keep faith and reason in harmony with each other. They depend on each other. Faith opens reason to a transcendent horizon; it encourages reason to aspire to greater truth than that which we can simply observe with our five senses. On the other hand, our faith needs reason in order to penetrate ever more deeply into the mystery that has been revealed, to unfold its implications and explore the world in its light. “The quality of one’s life depends on the quality of questions being asked.” (Kern)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Dialectic is an aid to the main goal of education: the expansion of the self. “It has to be understood that learning, which is the expansion of the self, takes place in community. The expansion of the self, we might say, requires the development of empathy and courtesy - empathy in order to be able to see another’s point of view, and courtesy to act as though one were not the center of the world.” (Caldecott p. 81) Recognizing where all we have and all we know comes from leads us to humility, repentance, and ultimately gratitude. Gratitude could be considered the highest form of thought, and therefore, the the ultimate of dialectic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The art of rhetoric is traced back beyond Aristotle to Homer and even to the prophets of Israel. Rhetoric is often though of as the art of persuasion, but it is more about becoming a good communicator of truth. Teaching rhetoric can be a dangerous endeavor if the central unifying truth is forgotten or ignored. and the ability to persuade is focused on without being grounded in the truth of Christ. Without Jesus, all the liberal arts are learned in vain. Rhetoric especially has a temptation to lead people to thirst for power through their ability to persuade others with words, not caring whether or not they speak the truth. In Christ, however, rhetoric is the work of being a person fit to speak and act in a way that displays truth and blesses others. When truth enters our soul, it immediately starts trying to find a way out; to radiate out. (Hebrews 1:3) The truth enlarges the soul and love is the outward expression of it. If dialectic is the pursuit of truth, rhetoric is the love of apprehended truth spilling over and expressed in words and actions that bless. If the highest form of dialectic is gratitude, the highest form of rhetoric is worship. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Each of these Trivium arts, grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, are learned not in succession, but on a gradual continuum that may vary from student to student. For example, a student is doing rhetoric level phonics when they read their first book independently and understand it and can tell the story. They are using all their knowledge of individual letters, sounds, and the meaning behind each word and sentence to understand a whole story. Young children can be performing at a rhetoric level in some subjects, and older students will need to begin challenging high school subjects with the grammar of the subject: learning the symbols and terms unique to an area of study so they can begin to ask questions and then communicate the truths they discover. We are always using the art of grammar to learn something new, while also using the art of rhetoric to communicate other truths we already know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Trivium, the first three of the seven liberal arts, matter for every human being. By learning these arts, students begin to have the ability to know reality and the truth, to think deeply and well about the reality and the truth, to ask good questions about reality and the truth, and communicate to others what they have discovered. In this way, our children become more like what they were meant to be. They become more human, their soul is enlarged, their mind harmonized with reality, and their loves fixed on the truths that so delight and satisfy them. </span></div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-75499142932236466502018-08-30T16:34:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:43.467-05:00Best Laid Plans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It seems no matter how much time I spend preparing, once we get started on a school year there will inevitably be some tweaks that are needed.<br />
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This year, it was in the area of language arts for my younger kids. I'm not entirely surprised by this. I have a plan that I veered from this year. Typically, I use Cottage Press Primer for 2nd grade, then begin Writing & Rhetoric in 3rd grade. Levi is in a co-op class and the majority of his class was not ready to begin Writing & Rhetoric, and I felt it would be a stretch for him. So I had to figure out something else for this year to stretch him toward readiness for it next year. Meryn also just did not seem quite ready to take on Cottage Press Primer 1. Her handwriting needs work. She's just starting All About Spelling Level 2. Her reading is right on beginner 2nd grade level and we need work on that. So I had to find something to stretch her as well that was not part of my original plan. <br />
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Since I've been hearing a lot of buzz about Good & Beautiful curriculum, and they offer their language arts as a free download, I thought I'd try it. We got four lessons in and abandoned it. It assumed enough skills that my kids hadn't been taught (like it directed Levi to write a five paragraph essay with no other instruction... what?!?). It also was all over the place without a lot of repetition or continuity between the lessons. Lastly, it was overly moralistic to the point that it was really annoying for me as a teacher.<br />
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So I was back to the drawing board. Upon reflection, I decided that they both need a lot of practice on their printing/handwriting. Meryn needs intense spelling/phonics lesson to progress her reading. She needs LOTS of repetition, not lots of bells and whistles and spiral. Levi could stand a bit of challenging reading and some introduction to basic grammar before he starts Writing & Rhetoric next year. So I decided I'd focus on these things with resources I already have. We're doing the following things with them together:<br />
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-Spelling: All About Spelling levels 2 and 3. I'm focusing hard on this and being really diligent with them on their phonics and spelling.<br />
-Handwriting: copywork from spelling, dictation from spelling, copywork from poetry, Scripture in pages that I put together for them.<br />
-Grammar: Grammar Island, Sentence Island, Music of the Hemispheres by Michael Clay Thompson<br />
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I found some fonts that worked to make up copywork based on their spelling words and phrases/sentences for dictation for each level of All About Spelling. They're getting multiple opportunities to practice their spelling concepts while they work on their handwriting. This is what they both really need. It only took me about an hour to type out six weeks worth of worksheets for both of them, print them, and put them in their notebooks.<br />
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For Michael Clay Thompson, we are reading Grammar Island first. When we finish it, we'll read Sentence Island, and then Music of the Hemispheres. I'm really drawing out the lessons in Grammar Island. We spent two weeks on the first three parts of speech and took the lessons off the page. I had them make notebook pages for each of the parts of speech and color them to match the colors used in Grammar Island (nouns=blue, pronouns=green, adjectives=purple). We're adding words to these pages as we go through the book. And as a first step at "sentence analysis," I had them copy sentences from the book onto their own white boards, and then use colored dry erase markers to circle the words with their corresponding color. I thought this might be a bit beyond Meryn, but that she would just be along for the ride. But I've been pleasantly surprised by how she's kept up so far! This seems to be really helping them grasp the ideas of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives! I'm really pleased with their progress with these things so far!</div>
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This has been a very streamlined, simplified approach using stuff I already had at my disposal, and I love that! We're just laying really firm foundations for language. I think this will prepare them both really well for what's up for next year!</div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-21024959781981577272018-06-29T19:01:00.002-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.326-05:00Year-Long Term Planning <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A few years ago, I started doing year-long planning for one subject over the summer. It started with history. I tried to basically plan out our books and projects for the year so I could have the books ready to go, and the project supplies on hand in hopes these things would actually get done. When my oldest kids were 3rd-4th-5th this was a great way to save some time over the course of the year by doing long-range planning in the summer. But as they've grown, I've started expanding this long-range planning to other subjects.<br />
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Last year, I added science because the older kids wanted to study the human body. Since I haven't ever loved Apologia and it was the only ready-made curriculum for elementary I could find on anatomy, I decided to put together our down study. I had a few resources chosen, and I laid out which chapters coincided with each other, and what order we'd do them in, how long we'd give to each body system, etc. This worked out really well for us last year and left me with very few decisions to make during the school year. Decisions make me tired. :)<br />
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So this year, I decided to try this for *all* the subjects to eliminate almost all big-picture decisions throughout the course of the year. I've realized that once I have the science book out to plan six weeks, or even one week, it doesn't take that much longer to keep going and plan the whole year. Actually, it's easier to just go ahead and do the whole year.<br />
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I look at the program/book/resource and divide it into six equal portions (as even as I can make it). Since we homeschool on a sabbath schedule, we do six, six-week terms each year. So those six portions get divided down further into six chunks. These chunks are what will be assigned each week. Then I plot them on my spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets. :)<br />
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This is the whole year. I can see exactly what will be assigned in each track for the whole year. This process really allows me to see if I've over-planned (almost always) or under-planned (almost never!). From here, I can make decisions about subjects that are top priority, or subjects that are more elective and good for looping or only for half the year. This allows us to get a lot more done! The top few subjects or courses are year-long things. The further down you go, the more flexible I am with these subjects. I have them on loops for certain days, and what's on here is what will be assigned for the term its listed under. These are goals, and are held loosely. :) </div>
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From the year overview, I move over to a term spreadsheet. Once I have one term's worth of work listed out in one column, it's pretty simple and straightforward to just break it up into six chunks and plan it over six weeks. Once I see exactly what a week will consist of for them, I can see clearly if what I'm expecting and planning is reasonable for my kids. This is our first year with official middle school material, and I have been feeling like I've over-shot for them. When I started looking at the books, the amount of reading and work, I realized I had. But if I reduce some of the less-necessary subjects and put them on a loop, we can still do a lot of what I had hoped to do. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't taken a week this summer to look at each subject in-depthly. Then I would have been scrambling mid-year to figure out what to cut, where to go, how to make things work. I know this because it's happened before. I get totally de-railed. :)<br />
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At the same time, I plot out all the books the kids will read for every subject so I can get a feel for their reading load. Of course, I have a spreadsheet for this as well. Since we kind of follow Tapestry of Grace, I set it up by 9-week Units. Since my older kids are getting most of their history from <i>The Century</i> by Peter Jennings this year, they will have a few biographies to read each unit alongside and that's about it. My younger kids have a longer reading list which will mostly be read aloud. Picking and choosing books ahead of time helps me have a real plan and not be overwhelmed with all the options. I've had years where I was just overwhelmed with all the books to the point that we hardly read any of them. :) Making a list before hand of the ones I really want to make sure we read helps me to work that list and get them read.<br />
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Hopefully this year, I won't get totally de-railed when things don't go to plan. I'll hold this plan loosely and be flexible, but it helps me keep my goals in sight. I take what's on these spread sheets and just copy it onto the weekly assignments sheets in just a few minutes each Sunday afternoon... <br />
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How do you plan for the year? If you've never tried year-long or term planning like this, pick one subject and give it a try! See if it helps reduce your decisions and time spent on planning through the year. It helps me reduce decisions mid-stream, eliminates pulling out all the books every six weeks (or even every weekend!) to decide what to do next. With these spread sheets and a few hours over the summer, I have a plan for the whole year that allows me to just do the next thing every week. It frees me up to actually read many of the things the kids are reading and have meaningful conversation with them about it. <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/SeekingSchole">Less time planning, more time playing!</a></div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-37625855667971873312018-06-24T14:03:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.904-05:00How to Get Started with Morning Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Morning Time is quite a buzz-word in homeschool circles these days. I first heard of it through Cindy Rollins' old blog Ordo Amoris. We've been beginning our days with Morning Time for about four years now in an effort to not skip over the really beautiful and rich parts of our education that usually get shoved to the side in the busy-ness of a normal day. </div>
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We started small: Bible reading, memory verse, and a read-aloud together. But gradually over the four years, we've grown into a robust hour of Morning Time on an average day. Here's how I organize and plan it over the summer so that it actually happens during the year. :) </div>
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I begin with this overview chart for the year. </div>
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I organize Morning Time into six terms. We try to do school on a semi-Sabbath schedule: six weeks on, one week off. The top chart of the page lays out by each term what Bible passages or catechism questions we'll read, what hymn we will learn, and which Shakespeare play or Plutarch life we will study. I rotate them, spending one term on each play or life, so we get through three plays, and three lives each year, hopefully! :) </div>
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For catechism, we use Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade along with the Westminster Catechism songs. For Shakespeare, I follow How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig, and I'm using <a href="https://reneematheny.com/launch/">Renee Matheny's materials on Shakespeare </a>this year as well! For Plutarch, we use <a href="http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=kaufman&book=plutarch&story=_contents">Our Young Folks Plutarch</a> free on mainlesson.com. </div>
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For Composers and Artists, I usually pick 2-3 of each that are relevant to our historical studies. This year, since I have <a href="https://harmonyfinearts.org/grammar-stage-plans/grade-4-modern-times/">Harmony Fine Arts Year 4</a>, I'm using some of their ideas to study three 20th century composers and three artists. We'll spend one term on each one, rotating again. </div>
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The bottom grid of my planning page helps me organize our recitations for the year. I set the goal of working on one Scripture passage, one poem, and one Shakespeare passage or speech simultaneously. This has proven to be do-able for the kids if we just simply read all three each day together or individually. So here, again by terms, I set out to choose the passages in each category we'll commit to memory. This is where Living Memory by Andrew Campbell comes in to help. </div>
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Living Memory is basically a catalog of rich things to commit to memory. Mr. Campbell has done all the work of compiling a great list that you can choose from and you really can't go wrong. There's way more in here than we could ever get to! Each year, I progressively work through the Scripture, hymns, Poetry, and Historical speeches sections, just kind of choosing the next selection that fits for us. This makes it REALLY easy to pick out recitations for the whole year in under an hour. </div>
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My younger two will be doing their first formal recitations this year, so for them, I'm using a simple little stack of poetry cards I downloaded free from somewhere. I can't for the life of me remember where, it was years ago. But I'm finally putting them to use! They'll do these and Bible verses. </div>
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In the past we've had binders to keep our recitations in. The past few years, this has worked fine, but gradually, the binders have become cumbersome and one more thing to keep track of. This year, I'm trying to be more diligent about actually doing our recitations, so I need to figure out something else. If our binders weren't with us, we'd just skip it. And I had a hard time keeping them organized with the recitations changing regularly, mainly because I didn't always have the next selections ready to print or already printed, and I'd put it off. Then a whole term would have passed before I'd get around to doing it! So, this summer I am putting together a document that I'll print and put in their one student notebook at the front. It has: </div>
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-Catechism song lyrics</div>
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-Music and verses of all the hymns for the year</div>
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-Pictures and short bios of the hymn writers</div>
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-Shakespeare selections in order</div>
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-Scripture recitations in order</div>
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-Poetry recitations in order</div>
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-Speech recitations in order</div>
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I am hoping by having all of this put together neatly and printed ahead of time, it will make it easier for us to implement our Morning Time plans and reach our goals! The last step is to transfer all the plans from the overview sheet to the sheet for each term, which looks like this: </div>
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This is where I keep track of what we actually do. Those little boxes are not supposed to all be checked, but they sure help me see how many days it's been since we actually did recitations, or read Shakespeare, or sang our hymn! :) It's Morning Time accountability. </div>
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Check out these sheets at <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/SeekingSchole?ref=search_shop_redirect">my Etsy shop</a> if you'd like to put them to use for your Morning Time plans! They're completely customizable, so you can change the categories, terms, frequency or anything to fit your goals and plans! </div>
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To get started with Morning Time, pick the things you're most excited about, but the things that get pushed off the schedule too often. If that's reading aloud and an artist study, start with that. If that's Bible and recitation, or catechism and Shakespeare, start there! Start with 1-2 things your first term, and as you feel hungry for more, add one more element until you're satisfied with your Morning Time routine! It shouldn't look like mine or anyone else's. It's yours, for your family. You may need 4 elements for Morning Time, or you may want 15. Morning Time is a great time to gather together as a family and feed your souls on things that nourish us together, to build family culture, and to create memories of shared experiences. Here's to happy Morning Times this year!</div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-34820661647123021302018-06-23T17:11:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.790-05:00Preedy Academy Plans: 2018-19<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's what's on tap for next year at Preedy Academy!<br />
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This is the plan for my older two kids. They do all their studies together with the exception of their math studies.<br />
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<i><u>Language:</u></i><br />
-Writing & Rhetoric Books 7-8: Encomium & Vituperation, Comparison<br />
-Latin for Children C: Second half of book<br />
-French for Children B<br />
-Poetics: A World of Poetry by Michael Clay Thompson<br />
-The Art of Argument: Introduction to the Informal Fallacies<br />
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<i><u>Logic:</u></i><br />
-Math-U-See PreAlgebra & Algebra, some select Art of Problem Solving work for fun<br />
-Novare Earth Science<br />
-A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: Numbers 1-6<br />
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<u style="font-style: italic;">Humanities</u>:<br />
-20th Century History: The Century by Peter Jennings, biographies<br />
-Literature: 20th century literature with Teaching the Classics AND<br />
-Memoria Press American Literature: Poetry & Short Stories (selected works)<br />
-Memoria Press Geography 3: 4 units of the 8<br />
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They will also continue with piano lessons and orchestra at the local school. We will study hymns, Bible and catechism, Shakespeare and Plutarch, composers and artists in our Morning Time, as well as recitations.<br />
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We have two new elements for next year, but I'm compensating for that by basically swapping Reasoning & Reading for Logic, which is a new study for us. We're also taking a break from grammar for this year to make room for the Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe. I'm so excited about this book! It's about the art of number and how number is used in nature to literally construct the universe. This is my attempt at dipping our toes into the quadrivium. I hope to work on this fun study of number for the next 2 years and then move into Euclidean geometry, possibly with Polymath Tutorials curriculum.<br />
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I'm also beginning a gentle on-ramp to upper level literature and history. We'll be in year 4 of our history cycle next year, so it will be covering modern history. We'll be using a spine book called The Century for Young People and reading a number of biographies that the kids will get to choose with certain parameters. They'll also get to read some topical non-fiction books on major events like WWI and WWII, the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, and more.</div>
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For literature, we'll read 6-10 modern novels like The Call of the Wild, The Tolkein Trilogy or Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, The Little Prince, Lord of the Flies, The Red Pony. The kids will have some choice in this. We will use the tools from Teaching the Classics by Adam and Missy Andrews to discuss the themes and plot of these books, and the kids will have an essay writing assignment at the end of each book. We'll use these assignments to cycle back through reviewing the types of essays they have learned through the first seven books of Writing & Rhetoric. As the Andrews suggest as well, we'll start the year off by learning to analyze the plot, characters and themes by applying their tools to simple picture books the first four weeks of school. We'll also be reading the CiRCE Reading Guide to learn how to skim, close read, and their highlighting system to annotate as you read. The goal for next year(s) is to learn to read (well).<br />
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We're also stepping into upper school science this year. I gave the older two the option of one more year of nature study on birds and trees or to begin the Novare science sequence with earth science. They opted to do birds and trees over the spring and summer and do earth science next year, because they wanted to do it all!</div>
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I'll be taking a class on teaching Logic over the summer in preparation for teaching that. :) In writing this year the kids will continue to practice writing encomium and vituperation essays, as well as begin learning about writing research papers, in addition to beginning comparison essays. </div>
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I'm really excited about this coming school year! I have a fully fleshed out plan for high school, and this is hopefully a gentle step to higher level work they'll be doing in a couple of years. My hope for the older kids is they will be able to really delight in what they're learning, learn to read deeply, reason well, while also having plenty of time to enjoy music, art in their own way (crafts, Lego design, drawing), meaningful work, being outside, sports, quiet contemplation, and service to others. I don't want our family to be hyper-focused on academic achievement. I do want to give them space to develop well-rounded, full lives lived in wisdom and virtue to the glory of God. </div>
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For My Lower Grammar kids: </div>
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<i><u>Language: </u></i></div>
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-Song School Latin 1 & 2</div>
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-The Good & The Beautiful Language Arts, Levels 2 & 3</div>
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-Copy work and New American Cursive</div>
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<i><u>Logic: </u></i></div>
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-Math-U-See Beta and Gamma</div>
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-Nature Study with ChildCraft books, Christian Liberty Nature Readers, etc.</div>
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<i><u>Humanities:</u></i></div>
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-20th Century History with picture books from Tapestry of Grace</div>
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-My BookHouse and a year with Andersen and Grimm Fairy Tales </div>
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For my younger two, we're just pretty much repeating what we did 4-5 years back for the older two. They both will be continuing in their math studies which are working so well. We have a pretty heavy focus on language learning in the elementary years. Meryn is dying to learn Latin (to the point of making up her own words and claiming they're Latin!), so I'll let her begin next year with a very gentle intro with Song School Latin 1. Levi has worked on it over the last 18 months and is ready to move on to Song School Latin 2. <br />
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Levi is not quite ready for Writing & Rhetoric, and as much as I was dying to try Cottage Press Primer 2, I wasn't sure that was going to be a good fit for him either. So we're trying something totally different this year to bridge him into being ready for Writing & Rhetoric next year. He and Meryn will both be using The Good & The Beautiful language arts (levels 2 and 3) next year. I had planned to start him with Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island books this year, but I'm now thinking I'll wait until he begins Writing & Rhetoric to start those since G&B is extremely thorough. Right now I don't plan to do any other spelling or grammar, but once we get into it we'll see if its sufficient. I have All About Spelling ready on stand-by to rescue us if we need it.<br />
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We'll keep with our organic nature studies for the younger two for another year, and more Tapestry picture books and My Book House for history and literature. I do plan to begin to teach them the tools in Teaching the Classics with some of these pictures book. I'd like them to learn to identify and talk about the characters and plots to some of the short stories that we read. <br />
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Overall, my goals for this age is to develop a real wonder in learning: how letters form words and words form thoughts and stories express truth and beauty is really wonderful. How numbers work together in the mathematical operations and never fail is truly wonderful. How the intricacies of design in creation show us a glimpse into the creative genius of God is truly wonderful. This is what I want to cultivate in the younger two kids through their studies!</div>
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I'm really excited about next year. And for the third year in a row (or maybe fourth?) I'm finishing this school year feeling really filled up rather than really drained. This is the grace of God, and I think also due to the philosophy of education we're allowing to guide our days, to inform our habits and to shape our loves. When you work along the grain of your nature, instead of against it, things are so much easier! </div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-39894781912603538152018-05-03T17:48:00.001-05:002020-04-24T17:37:42.077-05:002017-18 End of Year Evaluations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Three more weeks left in our school year! Things are beginning to dwindle as some subjects are finished and more are dropping off each week. It's that time of the year where we start feeling a bit more free! I've come to love the end of the school year, not because I'm exhausted and so ready to be done, but because it is so satisfying to reflect on the past year and all that was studied, experienced, read, discussed, made, and enjoyed. Focusing on filling our souls with truth goodness and beauty has resulted in full hearts and minds at the end of the year. Of course we're all ready for a break, but we're not exhausted, burned-out, and dreading the start of "school" again...<br />
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This past year, my 5th/6th grade kids had the following subjects:<br />
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-Math: Art of Problem Solving PreAlgebra and Math-U-See Zeta<br />
-Latin for Children Primer C<br />
-French for Children Primer A<br />
-Writing & Rhetoric Books 6-7 (Commonplace, Encomium & Vituperation)<br />
-Grammar Voyage by Michael Clay Thompson<br />
-Building Poems by Michael Clay Thompson<br />
-Reasoning & Reading Level 1<br />
-Lyrical Life Science Anatomy<br />
-Tapestry of Grace 19th Century history<br />
-Hand-picked literature titles<br />
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Much of this is just carrying on in the paths we've been walking for the past few years. I had planned to also work through Memoria Press Geography 3, but it proved to be too far above their level for this year. We'll try again next year. :)<br />
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Math: We did our best with The Art of Problem Solving. We both really liked it. It was super challenging, but it required a lot of time, and incurred a lot of frustration. The results were what we enjoyed though, as the math concepts were coming to life for both me and Luke. But, after one semester, we were only a third of the way through the book. :( He chose at semester to switch back to Math-U-See Prealgebra. He started at the beginning of the book, and found it so easy after The Art of Problem Solving that he's going to finish the whole book by the end of this semester! So, I'd call that a win. I'm going to have Kiryn work in it a little bit next year too for fun.<br />
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Language: We all still love Latin! It is the kid's favorite subject, with French now a close second. We are translating harder and harder sentences and it's a lot of fun. They both really enjoyed French this year, and we'll continue into the second book next year. Writing & Rhetoric is going so well. They are really turning into wonderful writers, and best of all, they enjoy it! I have been so pleased with their encomium essays this semester!<br />
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Again, we love love love Michael Clay Thompson grammar and poetics. We made it through both books this year and I'm so impressed with the depth of understanding they have of poetical devices, complicated sentence structures, and their ability to use different phrases and clauses in their writing appropriately.<br />
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We began the year with Sassafrass Science as our main text for our human body study. But somewhere in the middle of the first semester, they got bored with the reader and we weren't getting to the experiments. They really preferred the Lyrical Life Science book, and so I let them focus more on that. They did great with the songs, and with the workbook. I also had them do some sketches in their nature book of the body systems they were studying. This was a really interesting study, and kept things simple for science this year. We finished it with six weeks to spare, so we're moving on to birds using Memoria Press's What's That Bird? set. They both are LOVING that since high now we have lots of different kinds of birds in our yard building next. We have European Starlings, blue jays, robins, cardinals, and several small sparrows or finches... Great time for a bird study!<br />
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Tapestry went really well this year. I really just use it as a guide. I did my Big-Picture planning over the summer where I planned out the books we'd read and how long we'd give each one, what projects we might do, maps, and what literature titles we'd read. I kept it fairly restrained and set reasonable expectations that were just about right. I wanted them to be reading 45-60 minutes per day. I'm so very pleased with their finished book stacks this year! They've written some great narrations on their history, done some beautiful projects, and thanks to the Accountability and Thinking Questions in the Tapestry student pages, we've had some really good discussions together as well. I plan to keep doing Tapestry my own way for the foreseeable future.<br />
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In addition to this, we studied Rembrandt and Botticelli paintings all year, got to know Vivaldi and Beethoven's works, read two Shakespeare plays in their original entirety (Twelfth Knight and Romeo and Juliet), read two lives of Plutarch (Theseus and Romulus), learned six hymns, and memorized I Corinthians 13, Psalm 100, and the Gettysburg Address.<br />
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My younger two had a great year with Veritas Readers, All About Spelling 1-2, Explode the Code, Cottage Press Primer 1, Song School Latin 1, MUS Alpha and Beta, and lots of wonderful books from Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside, and My Bookhouse. <br />
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And now for Mom. I have somehow managed to complete the following ClassicalU classes:<br />
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-Essentials of Effective Teaching by Robyn Burlew<br />
-Teaching the Great Books by Joshua Gibbs<br />
-Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing by Andrew Pudewa<br />
-Principles of Classical Pedagogy by Dr. Christopher Perrin<br />
-Essential Latin by Karen Moore<br />
-Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator by Dr. David Diener<br />
-Teaching Math Classically by Andrew Elizalde<br />
-How to Teach History by Wes Callahan<br />
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Over the summer, I plan to take:<br />
-Reading and Teaching the Odyssey<br />
-Assessing Students Classically<br />
-Essential Logic: The Logical Fallacies<br />
-Teaching the Classics by Center for Lit with Adam Andrews<br />
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I've also read:<br />
-Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator<br />
-Villette by Charlotte Bronte<br />
-Treasure Island<br />
-Robinson Crusoe<br />
-Life Under Compulsion by Anhony Esolen<br />
-The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse<br />
-Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass<br />
-Little Women<br />
-Uncle Tom's Cabin<br />
-The Iliad<br />
-You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith<br />
-Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie<br />
-Norms & Nobility by David Hicks<br />
-A Thomas Jefferson Education<br />
-The Black Moon and Angry Tide (Poldark novels) by Winston Graham<br />
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I'm currently reading or will read over the summer:<br />
-How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler<br />
-Beauty for Truth's Sake by Stratford Caldecott<br />
-The Aeneid by Virgil<br />
-A Beginnner's Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael Schneider<br />
-The Vicar of Wakefield<br />
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This is one of those things like when you look back at your budget and you cannot figure out how you paid all your bills. I look back at this list of books read and classes taken and cannot account for how I did this. :) It does not seem like it should have been possible. But, there it is! I did it! It's been a tremendous year of growth for me personally, and I'm so thankful for the time I had investing in myself as a person, mother, and teacher before we step into the middle school and high school years. I feel equipped and prepared. I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. Well, not really. I'm sure it will be drastically changed! Maybe I should say, I have principles and a philosophy, and I'm sticking to them. :)<br />
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Here's to a great year next year!<br />
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-26007585048111622952018-04-18T16:27:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.528-05:00"Multum, non Multa" or a "Broad and Generous Feast"? Yes please!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Nota bene: this is not a scholarly article. I'm a homeschooling mom. These are the ramblings of my mind as I'm processing the things I'm reading, listening to, and being changed by. Please forgive me for not citing sources or attributing quotes properly. I'm summarizing. If you think I'm getting it wrong, please comment and let me know!)<br />
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There has been much and lively debate about whether Charlotte Mason deserves to be considered part of the larger classical tradition of education. Having first discovered the classical tradition, and through that being introduced to the ideas of Charlotte Mason, I have always been curious about the differences and similarities between the two. Last year I chose Charlotte to be my educational mentor for the year and set a goal to read as many of her volumes as possible in one year. I made it through four: Home Education, School Education, Formation of Character, and Towards a Philosophy of Education. I found myself nodding in agreement with much of what she said, and encouraged and affirmed with the study on classical education I had done. It seemed to me, uneducated as I am, they were much in agreement.<br />
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Since then, in reading and interacting with others who strongly disagree that Charlotte Mason is in any way part of classical education, two main differences between her method and the classical tradition have risen to the surface. The first is the role of the teacher. The second is the contradiction of a broad and generous feast with the classical principle of "multum, non multa." Charlotte proposes the implementation of a broad and generous feast, and uses the analogy of a broad and varied diet for the mind, just as for the body. In classical education, a main principle is multum, non multa: much, not many. <br />
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In all the curricula I've looked at based on Charlotte Mason's writings, there are lots and lots of subjects. Most have at least twelve, some up to fifteen or more. Each subject or area of study has one or two books assigned to be read over the whole year. Often times, the books are read very slowly over a long period of time. A student may read one chapter a week in nature lore, one chapter a week in history, one chapter a week in science. Different subjects are studied everyday, or, lessons are kept very short and every subject is read every day. <br />
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The idea of multum, non multa, would seem to be in contrast to this. Dr. Christopher Perrin likens it to digging deep wells with our students. When you are digging a deep well, you inevitably can only dig so many at a time, so you must focus and think deeply on a handful of things at any given time. I have heard some strong Charlotte Mason proponents criticize this idea by saying it is like starving your child. I rather think that the way most curricula spread a broad and generous feast could be doing that instead.<br />
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C.S. Lewis talks about treating books as if they were people. (I think.... it could have been Mortimer Adler. Or maybe Angelina Stanford. I know she talks about this in her lecture on the Nourishing Your Soul Circe Conference audio CD.) But this idea has gotten me thinking. We all know that we can only handle so many relationships at a time. Trying to juggle too many friendships can leave them each neglected and prevent them from deepening as much as they could otherwise. What's an ideal number of friends to have? Isn't this a relative question? For some people, it's one. For others it might be 7 or 8. For others, 3-5 good friends is a healthy number. <br />
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Charlotte Mason also talks about education as the science of relations. I think this is a really important idea. We want our kids to develop relationships with their areas of study. To care about them. To make friends with them. We also want them to notice the relationships between one subject and another. We want them to see the connection between one author and another. But in order for our kids to develop good relationships with their studies and to love them each, shouldn't we bear in mind how many relationships they can handle at any given time? Is it realistic to think that any child could really develop a deep love, relationship with, and understanding of 15 or more friends at a time? <br />
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It is possible that digging a little each day in lots of wells will achieve the same results over the course of the year as digging deeply in a few for a time, followed by digging deeply in a few more wells for a time. But what is going to be more rewarding and healthy for the child? Many children will do much better with a more focused, long gaze at a few things. It will enable them to focus their interest and think deeply about things. Over the course of a year, if we spend a twelve-week term digging 2-6 deep wells, and the next 12 week term, pick 2-6 new wells, and so on, by the end of the year, we could have even more deeply dug wells than digging 15 a little each week! Not only is this good for the students, but it's so much more manageable for moms! <br />
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I put this theory to the test this year. I had been attempting to follow the Ambleside Online recommended reading lists and schedule for a handful of subjects. I used these mostly as read-alouds for our Morning Time. Last year, it just felt like slogging through waist-deep water; it was a lot of effort, and very little progress to show for it. Reading 8-10 books at a time was just wearing me out. None of us enjoyed it. It just felt like so long between meeting each character or entering each story, and it felt like starting all over each time (much like seeing friends infrequently for brief encounters). <br />
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This year, I decided we'd focus on only 2-3 topics each term, and we'd change them up from term to term. (This is in addition to our core studies). We are reading a something historical (historical fiction, biography, or a narrative history), and a literature title for pleasure at all times. Then we have one other thing we're reading. It could be a science classic like The Storybook of Science or Parables from Nature. It could be a life of Plutarch, or a Shakespeare play. But, it's only one thing. And we'll read it until we are finished with it. We'll read it everyday. I have been so surprised and pleased with how this has worked out in our school this year. Far from starving my children, they have loved the books we've read. We read through (almost) the entire Parables from Nature the first term, and my daughter did a lovely drawn narration of each chapter. We moved through it much more quickly than Ambleside schedules it, and we still loved it. We spent eight weeks reading Swiss Family Robinson. We read it everyday for about 20-30 minutes. We LIVED in that story. We knew the family. We could picture their homes and the entire island. It became a regular topic of conversation. <br />
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The best benefit of all has been the amazing finished book stack we have as we are approaching the end of this year. It is the biggest and best shelf of finished books we've ever had.<br />
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By serving a few dishes at a time and savoring them each for their intricacies, we have feasted royally this year. There's more than one way to serve a broad and generous feast to our children. </div>
Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157131868938967651.post-39087698789608694482018-04-10T13:44:00.000-05:002020-04-24T17:37:41.990-05:00My Schole Journey: Guest Post on Schole Groups blog!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Check out my guest post on the Schole Groups blog <a href="https://scholegroups.com/my-schole-journey-a-disciple-a-wife-a-mother-an-educator/">here</a>!<br />
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About five years ago, as my oldest child was entering the third grade, I was at a loss to teach him how to write. I didn’t know anything about writing, and it seemed like such a difficult, subjective thing to teach and evaluate. I had been dabbling in what I thought was classical education and enjoying it, so I started researching how to teach writing classically. I stumbled upon the idea of the progymnasmata, and realized I had a lot to learn. This began a deep dive into classical education that led me eventually to Classical Academic Press, the Scholé Sisters, and the Circe Institute. Since I still had two very little ones at the time, learning and study was slow going for a few years without much real progress.</div>
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Fast forward three years. I began to feel like it was time to really do some more study on classical ed and what it looks like beyond the grammar years. But how could I do that while also homeschooling my kids, being a part of a church, keeping up with all their schedules, keeping a home, and all the rest?</div>
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No homeschooling mom “has” the time to make this kind of study a priority. It has to be borrowed, made, and asked for. For me, it’s like time in God’s word or time spent exercising. We moms desperately need those things to stay healthy spiritually and physically, and we don’t have the time. If we recognize our deep need for it, we find a way.</div>
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After years of struggling to read and learn, I’m in a “growth spurt” season when it comes to classical ed right now. I have a hunger inside that beckons to be fed. That hunger developed from taking small forced bites at first, because I knew I needed it. I needed it for my my own sake, to be intellectually healthy and challenged. To move past the mushy-mommy-brain phase that babies and toddlers induce, and reclaim my brain. I also needed it for my children’s sake. If I truly wanted to give them the kind of education I was gaining a vision for, I needed to be equipped, transformed, and grown into a different kind of teacher. I wanted that. I wanted to be that kind of a teacher.</div>
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For me, it meant intentionally forming a habit, slowly, and starting small. At first, I made myself read for 15 minutes after the kids went to bed before I allowed myself to do anything else. It was often the last thing I wanted to do, but it was important. It’s like anything else in life you know is good for you. In my flesh, I’d rather indulge in a Netflix show or read an easy novel. My forced fifteen minutes often turned into a delighted half hour or longer. Then I’d reward myself with Netflix or dark chocolate.</div>
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The desire to learn grew, and I started this school year with the goal of finishing ClassicalU Level 1 by May. I went through the classes and made a plan, and I started an Evernote file for each class to keep notes, resources, links or downloads that come with the class. Sometimes I would watch a lecture while I made dinner. My husband and I have a long-standing routine that the kitchen during the dinner prep hour is my sanctuary. He is on duty, and entertains the kids while I get some much-needed quiet time to myself. This was a good time for me to put on a lighter talk or lesson, having my Evernote file open to take notes as needed while I chopped and stirred. But some of the more challenging classes I reserved for a quiet Sunday afternoon or evening after the kids had gone to bed. I admit that sitting down for an hour and a half lecture was often the very last thing I wanted to do, but once I’d done it, I was always so glad!</div>
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I have had to get creative to make time. I’ve listened to podcasts, audiobooks, and lectures while:</div>
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<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">washing dishes and staring out the window (a marble mortar makes a great amplifier for an iPhone, by the way)</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">cooking dinner</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">driving my kids 20-30 minutes to practices, field trips, the zoo, birthday parties</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">putting my make-up on in the mornings</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">pulling weeds</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">crocheting</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">scrubbing bathrooms, sweeping floors, vacuuming (this may result in hearing loss, due to the volume level required to hear over the vacuum!)</li>
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The benefit of this, for me, has been manifold.</div>
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<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">As a disciple: Digging deeply into the nature of human beings and what it means to be educated has been truly a spiritual awakening for me, has deepened my love for Christ, and has given me new depths of understanding of how He is the source of all Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. I cannot adequately put into words how learning about classical education and scholé has transformed my spiritual walk and given me so much life and joy!</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">As a wife: It’s given me so many things to talk to my husband about. We’ve debated topics ranging from philosophical ideas like defining wisdom and virtue to educational priorities and spiritual formation for our kids. All kinds of theological implications have come up as a result of this study. I almost always narrate what I’ve learned from classes and lectures to him. Instead of the daily minutiae of small victories and challenges at home that I used to offer him at the end of the day, I bring life and ideas to our conversations because of the study I’ve done. I’ve seen him grow in admiration and confidence in what I’m doing with the kids as a result, and that is very affirming!</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">As an example to my kids: When they see me in the kitchen, chopping vegetables and watching a discussion video on ClassicalU with Dr. Perrin, they see me being a student. I’m able to tell them, “Just like Dr. Perrin is teaching you Latin, he’s teaching me to be a better teacher.” To which they responded, “Wow, he must know everything!”</li>
<li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">As a facilitator of my kids’ education: Before this study, I felt like I could make pretty good choices about which curriculum to use. Now, I feel confident enough to set our own goals and make significant changes to curriculum to fit our goals. At this point, I even want to design our own course of study. ClassicalU courses have been so helpful for me in this. Listening to Joshua Gibbs on Teaching the Great Books, Wes Callihan on How to Teach History, and Robyn Burlew in Essentials of Effective Teaching, has given me so many wonderful ideas, and such freedom to set our own goals and priorities. I would never have gained the confidence to do that without these classes.</li>
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When I first began to study, I really felt like my brain was atrophied. I literally could not understand some of the things I read and heard. I felt so simple-minded and intimidated by the hard things I wanted to read. But when we recognize we are spiritually or physically weak, we don’t just give up and say, “Well, I’m too weak to make myself strong again. I’ll just stay weak.” No! We take baby steps and build up our strength with small challenges at first: a short walk two times a week, ten minutes of Bible reading a day. Over time, I built up stamina and endurance, and even a hunger and desire for more. I’m so surprised now to go back to books I picked up two years ago that were a riddle to me then, and they speak volumes to me now. I know many moms feel like this is impossible for them; their intellectual powers are just too far gone into the nursery rhymes of toddler-land. It may seem impossible, but we are created to love the Lord our God with all our minds! I encourage you to pick up that book, turn on a podcast, enroll in that class. Feed yourself as a disciple, wife, mother, educator. You’ll be so glad you did.</div>
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Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541722811479993606noreply@blogger.com0