Music Appreciation and Composers

I love the Charlotte Mason method of studying composers. You study one per term, three per year. It allows one to fully explore the composer in question: to get used to his style, his music. My children, however, are quick to judge and easily bored. Listening to the same composer for 14 weeks would be torture to them, I expect.

So, instead, we will study one every three weeks over the next year. (That's also the same schedule for our artists' study).

According to the Well-Trained Mind, we should have already worked through The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten one double page spread per week with music selection. Check out this site for a taste: Classics for Kids. Our library doesn't have a copy of the book plus CD. Which may explain why we haven't done this yet.

Then, the children should read through The Story of the Incredible Orchestra: An Introduction to Musical Instruments and he Symphony Orchestra. Put dates on time-line.

Finally, the children ought to read through Understanding Music. After completing each section, they should write a brief one or two sentence summary of the information and, again, put dates on a time line.

THEN the student is prepared to "study" composers.

...whenever the student encounters a great composer in her history reading, she should jot down the name. During music appreciation, she should record the birth and death dates on the time line, read a brief biography [and create a "biographical page" for the history notebook], and spend the rest of her music appreciation period listening to the composer's works. p. 34, WTM, 2004

So, here they are, arranged chronologically, to correlate ever so roughly with Story of the World, Vol. 3, Early Modern Times.

These selections are from the wonderful CM site, Ambelside Online. (In fact, the whole thing is from AO, I just copied and pasted it in chronological order).


Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695, Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Selections based on the CD "Essential Purcell" from the Hyperion label. Available from amazon.com Barnes and Noble


Johann Sebastain Bach (1730) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Magnificat in D (4 weeks)
Chaconne (2 weeks) look for this played by Jascha Heifetz on YouTube
any Church cantata (2 weeks)
Brandenburg Concerto no. 6 (2 weeks)
Art of the Fugue (2 weeks) look for Contrapunctus 9 played by Nageeb Gardizi, and then on organ, on YouTube


Antonio Vivaldi (1730) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Gloria (choral work);
The Four Seasons;
Trio Sonata in C major, RV.82;
plus 3 concerti - Maybe one for violin, one for guitar and
one for a woodwind instrument such as oboe or bassoon.

George Frideric Handel (1750) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Messiah (an oratorio) (4 weeks)
Water music
Any of the organ concerti (such as Organ Concerto in B-flat Major, op. 7,no. 6)
Rinaldo (opera)
Harmonious Blacksmith (from suite in E major)


Franz Josef Haydn (1780) (Classical)
Listening selections for this term:
String Quartet Op 76 no 3 "Emperor" OR String Quartet Op 76 no 4 "Sunrise" (2 weeks)
London Symphony no 104 (4 weeks)
The Creation (4 weeks)
a horn concerto (2 weeks)


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1785) (Classical/Roccoco) (This term may change in the future - next rotation, 2012)
Listening selections for this term:
Piano Concerto 20 (2 weeks)
Symphony 40 (4 weeks)
Quintet in A maj for clarinet (2 weeks)
Piano Sonata in A maj K.331 (2 weeks)
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra in B-flat major, K. 191 (the only bassoon concerto he wrote)

2011-2012 TERM 1 (This term's artist is Jean Honore Fragonard, Rococo style) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (early classical)
Listening selections for this term:
Eine Kleine Nacht Musik
Requiem [A Vocal work]
Symphony no. 41 in C major (Jupiter)
Sinfonia Concertante
Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major (K.467)

Ludwig von Beethoven (1810) (Classical/Romantic) this term subject to change
Listening selections for this term:
1. Symphony 5 OR 6
2. Piano Sonata 14 (Moonlight, Opus 27) OR 8 (Pathetique, Opus 13)
3. Razumovsky String Quartets Opus 59, no 1-3 OR Septet in E-flat Opus 20
4. Piano Concerto 5 (Emperor, Opus 73)
5. Symphony 7 OR 9 (Opus 125)
6. Fidelio
Options are offered for those who did Beethoven with us in 1999 and would like some new music this term.)

Franz Schubert (1823) (Late Classical/Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Trout quintet
Symphony no. 8 ("Unfinished")
Symphony no. 9 ("The Great") (2 weeks)
Impromptus op. 90 (D. 899)
Die schone Mullerin (a song cycle)


Frederic Chopin (1840) (Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Op 09 no 2 Nocturne in E flat maj
Op 10 no 3 Etude in E-maj
Op 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude in C minor
Op 21 Piano Concerto number 2 in f minor
Op 28 Preludes no's 15, 20 and either 16 or 17
Op 53 Polonaise in A flat, Heroic


Felix Mendelssohn (1840) (Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Songs without words
Violin Concerto in E minor
Symphony no. 4 in A major (Italian) (4 weeks)
Octet in E-flat major
Fingal's Cave ("Hebrides") Overture


Robert Schumann (1848) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Carnaval (for piano)
Scenes from Childhood for piano
Symphony no 1 in B flat Op 38 "Spring"
Symphony no 2 in C Op 61
an arabeske or humoreske
Liederkreis or other song cycle
Lorraine N. collected some resources - biographies, free and pay downloads of the term's music and posted it to the AO email list.


Camille Saint-Saens and Hector Berlioz (1850) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Saint-Saens - Symphony no 3 in C min
Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre
Saint-Saens - Carnaval of Animals (Le Carnaval des Animaux in French)
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz - Dance of the Sylphs
Berlioz - Rakoczy March from the Damnation of Faust


Franz Liszt (1855) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Piano Concerto no 1
Hungarian Rhapsodies (esp no 2)
Les Preludes
Liebestraum for piano
Piano Sonata in B min
Mephisto Waltz


Antonin Dvorak (1888) (AN-toe-NEEN d-VOR-zhak) 1841-1904, Late Romantic
Listening selections for this term:
Symphony 9 From the New World
Slavonic Dances
Carnaval Overture (may also be spelled Karneval)
Humoresques for piano
Quartet in F maj ("American")
Trio in E min ("Dumky")
Recordings of these pieces may be available at public libraries. If your local branch doesn't have them, ask for them through interlibrary loan. You should also be able to find many used copies available at local used bookstores or Internet sites such as www.half.com or www.ebay.com.

Weekly Report

Weeks 9 through 16

Wow. Sorry to have disappeared like that!

I quit smoking on our "break week." October 22nd to be exact. As a result, I scaled school back drastically. We did only the bare minimum.

Spelling:
SWR. Finished up L6 which is technically the end of Grade One. (See p. 64 of Spell to Write and Read).

For Grade Two, Sanseri recommends you go back and dictate Lists J-L at the rate of two lists a week and then resume the pace of one list a week for the new material in lists M to O. So, we did all of J and K over again and L1. We'll continue with this plan in the New Year.

Latin:
Lively Latin: Lesson 10 to almost finishing Lesson 12. If that seems slow, that's because I took a week after our break and did vocabulary and declension review. I am inclined to do the same again when we start back up.

Writing:
None. We're still somewhere in Aesop A. This is not good.

History:
SoTW2. Ch 33 to 42. Hooray! We did it. We finished on schedule! I tried to have the kids do a written narration for each section (as we were not doing any other writing). We did all the map work, colouring pages and chapter tests.

Art:
None.

Science:
None.

Dictation and Copywork:
None.

Poetry:
None.

Bible:
None.

Geography:
Canada Map Book 1: finished it.
Canada Map Book 2: pp. 3-7

Canadian History Read-Aloud:
Section 1: Native People's Before Contact
Days 12-14

Math:
The Older: Finished Singapore 3B.
Singapore 4A, completed Weeks 1-4.
I am concerned about my son's being "behind," so I upped the pace, for now. We'll see if I continue this in the New Year when we're back up and running the full roster.

The Younger: Finished Singapore 2B.
Singapore 3A, completed weeks 1-3.

Grammar:
The Older
R&S4: Lessons 25-39

The Younger:
Finished FLL 1 (Hooray!! Excellent program, hated every minute of it!)
R&S3: to Lesson 20.

Assigned Reading:
I do not want to talk about it. I reduced it from 6 to 5 days a week for both of them and chopped 15 minutes off the older's time per day (from an hour to 45 minutes.). As a result, they did nearly NOTHING. Not that they didn't read: but it wasn't what I wanted hem to read.

Logic:
None.

I have my plans made up, more or less, for the new year. Just basically carrying on.

We are, however, going to take a break until Jan 5th. Honestly, though, I wouldn't really mind starting up again December 29th but my kids are too attuned to the public school schedule. I'd probably have a huge fight on my hands. Still, they are going to drive me nuts.

Weekly Report

Week 8.

We took it easy this week. With no heat and low temperatures, I didn't make the kids get up early. We also worked Monday and took Tuesday off--the first Tuesday of the month is always a big grocery day. It threw my rhythm entirely "off." Well, that and shaking from cold.

Highlight: The Albrecht Durer print exhibition at the Provincial Art gallery and making our own prints from carving lino blocks. My son developed an appreciation for Durer's exquisite detail. "How did he do that?" he asked more than once, after he'd done his own.

Print by the Older:

Print by the Younger:



Spelling:
SWR--Dictated L5, did an Antonym and Analogy worksheet, wrote our words to cards--and FORGOT to do the Spelling test! That's supposed to happen Friday and with all the excitement and activity of having out new furnace installed, I simply forgot.

Latin:
Lively Latin: Ex. 9.6 to Ex. 10.2 (The Imperfect tense.)

Writing:
Aesop. Didn't do any writing this week.

History:
SoTW2, Ch. 32: The Kingdoms of the Americas. We did only one narration, our map work and the chapter test.

Art:
Durer exhibit and print works at the Art Gallery.

Science:
Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Finally finished Ch. 11, Social Insects.

Dictation and Copywork:
1x. (Told you it was a light week!) Here's the Older's:



Poetry:
I introduced Jabberwocky. They groaned and protested. What's wrong with these children?

Bible:
Proverbs. Chapter 7. My son went on and on about what a bad thing it was for a woman to sleep with another man not her husband. It was curious: where had he picked up all these opinions? As far as I knew, this was the first time we'd discussed such a topic.

Geography:
Canada Map Book, p. 24 and 25.

Canadian History Read Aloud:
(see sidebar for program). Days 10, and 11. (We're supposed to be finished the 21 day program for "Native Peoples Before Contact.") Oh well, the kids are well into our main novel, The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.

Math:
The Older.
Singapore 3B, Workbook Ex. 35, Reviews 5 & 6, Practice 6B and Review D. drill 3x

The Younger:
Singapore 2B: Textbook Reviews B, C, Workbook Ex. 45, 46, 47 and 48. drill 4x.

Grammar:
The Older
R&S4: Lessons 23 and 24.

The Younger:
FLL: Lesson 185 & 186.

Assigned Reading:
The Older:
(1 hour a day 6 days/week plus 1 book report or summary/week)
--behind by 1 week, 3 days and 2 book reports.

The Younger:
(1/2 hour/day, 6 days/week plus 1 book report/week)
--behind by 1 week, 4 days and 5 book reports.

Logic:
The Older has finished the Visual Mind Benders book from Critical Thinking Press. I'm not sure what to move into next. He started the new Mind Benders book, A1 and did the first three.


This coming week is Canadian Thanksgiving and then we're taking a week of "School-Lite." I need to plan some activities for us and keep it structured--but fun. But you can bet they'll be doing a lot of Assigned Reading!

Weekly Report

Week 7.

One word: harried.
I'm not good with strangers in my home and this week there were three: two furnace salesmen (our furnace is quite obsolete and quite dead) and a fellow from the Federally sponsored Eco-Energy program (which may net us a $600.00 rebate on the furnace).

Highlight:
No breaks. I was frustrated with how long our day dragged when I let the kids go out and blow off steam. More than a couple of times they'd be late returning from the break because they hadn't done as I'd asked (clean the Guinea pig cage, get dressed). So, as a discipline measure they were not given a break either Thursday or Friday--the minute one was done one thing, I handed him another. To my surprise, it worked very, very well. One day we were even done by 1pm (except for grammar which got pushed aside as a result of all these appointments).

Spelling:
SWR, List L4. Dictated L4. The kids wrote sentences. I made up a worksheet on antonyms, homophones, homographs and homonyms for them. We quizzed L3 and counted it as the "test." The older had one error, the younger, two. (And this was after a fight about studying her words before the test.)

Latin:
Lively Latin: Lesson 9.2, Ex. 9.2, Lesson 9.3, Ex 9.4, Coriolanus, Ex. 9.5 and The Roman Legionary. For the most part, it went quite well this week. This is a page from the Younger:

Classical Writing:
Aesop A: Diogenes. We did a lot of thesaurus work with nouns and removed as many "said"s as possible.

illustration by The Older.

History:
Story of the World 2, ch. 31, Columbus and others. I took a slightly different approach this week. I had the kids do their reading on Tuesday and Wednesday before we did our work with SoTW. Retention was much better. Colouring pages, map work, review questions, one narration, and the chapter test.

Dictation and Copywork:
3x.

Poetry:
Didn't get a minute to introduce it. Not a problem. Jabberwocky will be here next week.

Bible:
1x (oops). Proverbs 6: 9-19. Though, I must admit, it's fun to say, "Wake up, you sluggard!"

Geography:
2x. Canada Map book, pp 20-23.

Canadian History Read Aloud:
Day 9. And I did it only because the kids were still awake and bouncing around at 10:00 last night. So, I got off the computer, made hot chocolate and had them lie on the couch. It was a wonderful discussion. I enjoyed how relaxed and "unschoolish" we were.

Math:
The Older: Singapore Math, 3B, Week 11: Fractions. Ex. 31-35. drill 4x. Here's what his drill sheets typically look like:


Obviously, they aren't timed!

The Younger: Singapore Math, 2B, Week 12: Fractions. Ex. 40-45. Drill 3x.

Grammar:
The Older: Rod and Staff 4, Lessons 22 & 23.

The Younger: FLL: Lessons 180, 182, 183. I'll be skipping great chunks of this, so we'll be done sooner than I expected!

Science:
We really didn't have a lot of time today, unfortunately. We read about honeybees from Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and did up a quick comparison between them and the honey bees. (I never even knew bumblebees weren't honey bees!)

The kids have been reading all about honeybees, though, and the older did a "report" on bees as part of his required weekly "book report."

Art:
Next Saturday. The Provincial Art Gallery has an exhibition of prints from wood cuts by Albrecht Durer. How cool is that? On Saturday afternoons, they have an activity lead by a local artists to

Learn the techniques of traditional woodblock printing and create your own relief print.

We have to rearrange my son's music class to make it work, but I hope we can go next week.

Assigned Reading:
Older: 6h/week plus one book report or summary.
Younger: 3h/week plus one book report.

This is not going terribly well. I had incentives set up to be rewarded every three weeks. Last week the kids were supposed to qualify for their Week 6 reward. The Older did work fairly diligently at it and got his this week. But, he's still behind in "real" time. My daughter isn't motivated by a reward at all it seems.

Younger: 4 hours 15 minutes and 2 book reports behind.
Older: 5 1/2 hours and 1 book report behind.

CW Aesop A: Diogenes

Diogenes
By The Older

Diogenes was a strange man but extremely wise. He thought people didn’t need luxuries and to show that he lived in a barrel.

One day, Diogenes walked through the streets carrying a lamp. The people asked, “What are you doing,” The sage replied, “I am looking for an honest man.”

One day, Alexander the Great came to the city to see Diogenes.
One man said “Hail the mighty Alexander the Great!” But Diogenes didn’t come to see him. So, Alexander searched for the wise man.

Alexander found him and said, “I will give you anything you want in the world, Diogenes.”
The strange man replied, “Would you please move? You are blocking the sun.”
“He is a fool not to take such an offer,” the people murmured.

Alexander thought that if he were not Alexander, he would want to be Diogenes.

**********************************

Diogenes
by The Younger

Once there was a man named Diogenes. He lived in a tub. He was very wise. He always said no man should have more than he needed. Every day he sat in the sun and preached worthy advice to people around him.

“Diogenes is so wise, Alexander is coming to see him.” said the people excitedly.

Alexander sailed to Corinth. Diogenes wasn’t there to meet him. So, Alexander searched for him. When he found him, the wise man was lying in the sun. When he saw Alexander coming, Diogenes sat up.

“I’ll give you anything you want.” Alexander offered, “What will it be?”
“Could you please stand a little to the side? You are blocking the sun.” Diogenes answered.

Alexander left. Later he told his adviser, “I would like to be Diogenes if I were not Alexander.”

The End

Wordless Wednesday

Our New Poem.

It's recommended in the book, What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know, ed. by E.D. Hirsch. It's in The Harp and Laurel Wreath, ed. by Laura M. Berquist twice--once in the selections for the Grammar stage child and once for Rhetoric.

We need something silly. Something funny. Something different.

Jabberwocky it is!

I have bad memories associated with this poem, however. I first saw it on an English test in Grade eight or nine. We were given a stanza and asked to pick out the parts of speech! The what? And what on Earth were all these strange words? What was this thing, anyway?

I remember the teacher was shocked. Had we never done parts of speech before? "Surely, you've been taught grammar?" she may have cried. It seems to me she may have missed the point. Most of us had never heard of Lewis Carroll!

JABBERWOCKY
By Lewis Carroll


‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"


He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.


And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!


One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.


"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.


`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)


PS: In the Rhetoric section, Berquist suggests parsing or diagramming the first verse.

Weekly Report

Week 6.

It's the watershed week. We have made it this far before--and then stopped. School came to a screeching halt, partly because I had planned, in the past, to do a six week on/one week off schedule. The problem with that, however, is that the one week would flow into many.

Last winter, however, after a long break in the fall, I got serious. We did about 12 weeks before we took our vacation in May. I learned we don't really need a break after six weeks, as much as I'd like one. I learned we do better with our routine in place for a longer period of time. I learned we need to keep going, that we simply must persevere. Does it sound like I'm trying to convince myself?

I am.

Highlight: none. And I wish I had something to show you, but none of their work this week was "good enough" to be featured. (I use it as an incentive for each of them to be neat and accurate. Nothing "passed."

Spelling:
SWR, taught the 1-1-1 rule. (When do you know to double the final consonant when adding suffixes to words? When the word is 1 syllable, ends in 1 vowel and 1 consonant, and when the suffix begins with a vowel. Isn't that cool?) Dictated L3, wrote sentences, had the kids add random suffixes to the words on the list, and did the test.

Latin:
Lively Latin: Vocabulary E, Word Power Ex. E1, E2, Lesson 9.1 and Exercises 9.1, 9.2 and a history bit on Coriolanus. We also played Latin bingo and the kids really struggled. I'm unhappy about that!

Classical Writing Aesop.
Originally I had planned to turn last week's outline into a story but it was more difficult that I'd anticipated. So we gave that up and turned to Alexander and Bucephalus.

History:
SoTW(2) Chapter 30: The Moghuls in India. Narrations, mapwork, colouring page, chapter test. Once again, neither are retaining the information very well. I taught the younger how to go through the chapter to look for the information she needed to complete the chapter test, but I'd rather she'd been paying attention in the first place.

Science:
Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, Ch 11: Bees. I read, they wrote out a few notes on the bees jobs. We need to switch curriculums, soon. We really need to blow things up.

Canadian History Read Aloud: (see side bar.) Day 8. This is going much too slowly.

Dictation and Copywork.
Older 2x
Younger 3x

Poetry: The Splendour Falls, By Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It's not memorized, but it is time to move on.

Bible
Skipped Proverbs 5, and did Proverbs 6, 1-8.

Geography: Canada Map Book 1.
pp. 16-19. Map Keys and Map Symbols.

Math
The Older:
SM: We started fractions. Did you know I never, ever knew that you can tell how large a fraction is compared to another by simply looking at the denominator when the numerators are the same? It seems so obvious to me now, but all my life I have always, always had to convet to the same denominator in order to figure it out--yes, even 1/3 and 1/4. Embarrassing, but true.
Review 4, graph worksheets from the Intensive Practice book, and Ex. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Practice 6A. Drill 4x.

The Younger
SM: TB Practice 3C, WB Review 3, WB Review 4,
drill, 4x.

Grammar
The Older:
R&S4: Lessons 19, 20, 21.

The Younger:
Lesson 176, 177, 178, 179. (Only 20 more lessons to go. Only 20 more lessons to go. Only 20 more lessons to go.)

Logic
The Older: Visual Mind Benders, 9-14. Mind Benders Beginning Book 2, 30-35.

The Younger:
Undisclosed number of Mind Benders, Beginning Book 2.

Art:
We did the Botticelli Lesson. I photocopied The Birth of Venus onto watercolour paper and printed it out (Hooray for the new printer). However, the older found it difficult to control his watercolours and therefore "boring" the Younger fought with me about what music to listen to. The whole excercise was, in the end, most dissappointing.

Alexander and Bucephalus

The objectives this week were three:
1) Include lots of dialogue (or direct speech).
2) Vary the position of the utterance words.
3) Vary the kinds of utterance words. In other words, find and use alternatives to "said." For stylistic reasons, I'm not actually sympathetic with this objective of Aesop, but as a learning excercise I suppose it's all right.
___________________

Alexander and Bucephalus
By The Older

One day, King Philip bought a big black horse. No one could tame it. Philip was going to take it back to the place where he bought the horse.

Then Philip’s son Alexander came” Father I wish to tame the horse, and if I can not I will pay you back what you paid for it. ” he exclaimed.
The people who watched were very surprised at this and whispered “He’s dead meat.”

Alexander noticed that the horse was afraid of its own shadow. So, he led the horse in circles and jumped on it and rode until the horse tired out. When he rode back, “Well done, my son.” his father approved. ”You have tamed the horse.”

Later Alexander and Bucephalus were inseparable friends and Bucephalus wouldn’t let anyone but Alexander ride him. Alexander rode him in many a battle and Bucephalus saved his life many a time.

___________________

Alexander and Bucephalus
By The Younger


King Philip once bought a horse for a very high price. He thought it was worth it. But when no one could mount the horse, he told his men to take Bucephalus away. King Philip’s son, Alexander, didn’t want that to happen.

Alexander declared, “Father, maybe I can train the horse. May I try?”

“I suppose,” answered King Philip. “If you succeed, you may have the horse. If you don’t, you must pay me back the price of the horse.”

“Yes Father, I will do it.” Alexander said proudly.

Alexander looked at Bucephalus and noticed that he was scared of his own shadow. Alexander jumped on his back. Bucephalus was startled and started running but Alexander stayed on and he earned his new horse.

Alexander and Bucephalus were the best of friends. They had many adventures together. Bucephalus saved his life more than once.

The End

From the Archives.

When I first began this absurd adventure, I joined our local homeschooling association. One day, talking to someone in my usual ranting and rambling fashion about the million and one things I was now learning, someone asked me if I would "write something" for the newsletter about my experience.

Today, I found a copy of the old (edited) article, deep within the hard drive. Truly, it was in text format! As it turns out, it seems I've written something vaguely like an article at the beginning of each year since we began. We're now starting our fourth year.

Re-reading that first article, it was interesting to see that fresh frightened face through the lines on the screen: and so I thought I'd share. It's rather long, of course, especially for a blog entry. So grab a cuppa and some chocolate and begin to remember those early days with me. It was given its nifty title by the newsletter's editor:

New Paths, New Ways

This is an account of the adventure of our first twelve weeks of homeschooling. It’s not about curriculum, it’s not about what we do, and it’s not even about my son and daughter. No, it’s about me. In particular, it’s about what I’ve been learning about myself, my interactions with B-- and E---, our relationships, God, and our family.

In September, I packed my daughter off to kindergarten while my son and I sat down at the kitchen table. She wanted to go, and I wanted time alone with B--, to ease into this new experience. Being new and a bit unsure, I chose a classical curriculum based on The Well-Trained Mind by Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Baur. We did math, then phonics, grammar, spelling. He read to me, and then I read to him and asked for a narration page and a picture in return. We tried to do science twice a week. History, three times. But, the honeymoon wore off quickly. B-- had had three years in school: two years of kindergarten and one full year of grade one. He hadn’t enjoyed any of it except recess. I had read enough to know he needed some time to “unschool” - but that was what the summer was for, wasn’t it? Three weeks into our homeschooling adventure I found myself nagging him not to dawdle. B-- was resisting, passively, but resisting - and now, of course, he wasn’t just resisting school, but me!

Last spring, when I first began to investigate the idea of homeschooling, a friend (a homeschooler with grown kids) had warned me we weren’t ready to homeschool. I had had no idea what she meant. Now, I think I’m beginning to know.

I grew up the only child of a young, single, struggling, insecure parent. I had little respect for authority and challenged it at every turn. I only mention that because it means I don’t really have a lot of respect for my own authority over my children. I let them argue with me. I let them demand explanations. They can resist me at every turn and it is such a battle, I am often inconsistent.

Second, and far worse, was my attitude towards my kids. I was thirty-three before I married and had my first child...and having a family was a shock to my introspective, usually solitary self. My mother had mentioned homeschooling to me when B-- was still in diapers. “Homeschooling?” I had laughed derisively. “Homeschooling, me? No, I need my time to myself!” I gladly shipped my son off to Kindergarten, even though he didn’t want to go.

The next year, because he wasn’t “ready,” I followed the advice of his teacher and made him repeat it. If you know anything about the social hierarchy among children at school, there wasn’t anything worse I could have done to him. I deeply regret it, now. I should have just let him come home, of course. But I didn’t. As well, as a result of my selfishness, I let my kids become addicted to television. Their very presence overwhelmed me and I made efforts to create distance between us whenever I could. Do you see why my friend was right? During the month of September, I realized my kids were totally out of control and there was very little relationship to build upon.

This is the environment I brought my son home to, a place of never-ending conflict and bickering and inconsistent and unclear expectations. But now, we’re homeschooling. And homeschooling, I’m beginning to understand, has almost nothing to do with the kitchen table, and everything to do with everything else. As there is no longer any separation of “school” and “home” for my son, there is no separation of “mother” and “teacher” for me.

I’m not sure why this has taken until my son is eight years old to hit home so forcefully. Maybe it’s because I’m never “off” anymore. There is no “downtime.” If I’m lazy and procrastinate, that’s what he learns. If I give excuses, then he does too. If I wear myself to a frazzle cooking and baking for Thanksgiving and shoo the kids out of the kitchen at supper time because they are “in the way”--well, just what is that teaching them? My actions and non-actions and attitudes and beliefs and even my reading material will have an impact of some unknown measure on both my kids. This is, of course, a lesson of parenting, not homeschooling. But without having put ourselves in the pressure cooker of homeschooling, I may never have learned it until B-- and E---’s adolescence. And that’s too frightening to even think about!

In the midst of this awakening, God sent me some angels on the Internet. As part of a reply to an anguished plea someone quoted Marilyn Howshall:

".....God's initial goal for Christian homeschooling families is not the raising of godly children. Instead, God's wonderful, but subtly hidden agenda is that the homeschooling experience be so challenging for the parents that they feel the need and hunger for a closer walk with their heavenly Father."

And so it is. As a Christian, I believe that true change can only occur by the working of the Holy Spirit. But, thank God change is possible!

For starters, I began breaking our addiction to TV. I imposed a black out until 4:00 p.m.. As my daughter comes home from kindergarten at noon and there’s no one else to play with - the two of them have spent many, many afternoons outside just playing, riding their bikes around our cul-de-sac and petting every dog that passes by. They’ve mastered climbing the tree outside, set up and successfully hung a rope to swing on. They’ve become closer - real buddies.

Sometimes, I think no two children more different than each other could possibly exist as siblings. It is particularly gratifying to see the two of them build their relationship with each other. No doubt about it, I’ll be bringing E-- home next September. By then, I hope, our environment will be able to withstand the explosive forces of the two of them constantly in the same small house!

Like nothing else I’ve ever known, homeschooling gives us the chance to re-create our relationships with each other: healthier and happier ones. I have to stop yelling: he has to print neatly. I have to stop nagging: he has to dawdle a little less. I have wash the dishes every night so he can dry them and check it off the chore list. As I slowly, slowly, make the transition from being a parent in “coping” mode, from being the drill sergeant who must keep everyone on task and on time (and failing miserably) to being someone who gives direction and guidance, to someone who creates an environment of love and acceptance, I’m learning that context changes everything. I still expect obedience. But the means to this end now has time to change, to grow, to become the fruit of a relationship - not a command. Now that my eyes are opened, and I am taking the time to get to know my son, I am falling in love with him all over again.

It’s just like when he was first born and I was full of hopes and dreams as I smelled and nuzzled his baby sweetness. Now, he sits at the table beside me, swinging his legs, singing and talking to himself as he plays with his math manipulatives. I want to nag; instead, I try to take a deep breath. As I do, I catch a glimpse of what an incredible boy he is. He truly has the most amazing imagination! We’re homeschooling - and that means that once again I have hopes and dreams for him. As we struggle through the math, roll our eyes at the grammar lessons and read to each other, I’m praying, “What do you want me to do with this child for you, Lord?" It’s a completely different way of interacting, a completely different model of relationship. I am not just his mother, not just his teacher, but a servant of God, “training up my child[ren] in the way [they] should go.” (Proverbs 22:6)

So now, when we play a “math game” at the kitchen table after dinner, we’re not doing math: that’s the side benefit. As my husband reads a tale from the Arabian nights or one of Aesop’s fables to our son from one of his “school” books, they are discovering each other in new ways-ways a book about Spiderman or Ninja turtles couldn’t touch. (Though don’t tell them I know they still sneak in a few at bed-time!) No, the real purpose of homeschooling is to bring our family back together, God’s way. Right now, it’s still a huge learning curve. But finally we’ve turned down the right path. We’re learning what it takes to be a family.

Western Artists--A beginning.

This is still a work in progress. I will be updating it as I find more art works, projects, lesson plans and readings to accompany each artist.

There is one thing, though. These projects will not teach my children the skills they need to actually express themselves artistically. They're just projects to keep things fun. To actually teach children art, I would have to find a bona fide curriculum (incidentally, I have at least three) and teach it, skill building on skill. I've tried. They aren't interested and it's not worth fighting over. The Well Trained Mind suggests 18 weeks for Art Insruction, dividing one's time equally between drawing, painting and sculpture. A nice ideal.

I haven't decided whether we will cover all of these. There are 28 listed. As we only do Art every other week, I will have to pare this down quite a bit.

However, I thought I'd post for two reasons:
1)It may be useful to someone else and
2)If you can help with lesson plans and/or suggestions, I'd be ever so grateful!

Arranged chronologically by birth:
(beginning with correlating to the latter half of SoTW2)

Donatello (sculpture): 1386-1466 Lesson Plan

Van Eyck: 1395-1441 (done)

Botticelli: 1445-1510 Lesson Plan
(includes reading)

Hieronymous Bosch: 1450-1516
Works and biography here.
Project: Make a triptych. (Adapt for elementary!)

Leonardo da Vinci: 1452-1519 Lesson Plan
read: Leonadro Da Vinci. An Introduction to the Artist's Life and Work by Antony Mason (Famous Artists Series) and Knights of Art.
Video suggestion (from Ambelside Online): "Leonardo: A Dream of Flight," one of The Inventors' Specials by Devine Entertainment.

Albrecht Durer 1471-1528 This Lesson (.pdf file) discusses the difference between engravings and wood cuts and has the children create a wood cut with styrofoam. It also discusses Durer as religious.
Optional Art Project: Painting on Foil

Michelangelo 1475-1564 Lesson Plan
read: Michelangelo. An Introduction to the Artist's Lfe and Work by Jen Green (Famous Artists Series) and Knights of Art.

Raphael 1483-1520 Lesson Plan
read: Knights of Art.

Titian: 1485-1576
read: Knights of Art.

Born in the 1500s
Tintoretto: 1518-1594
read: Knights of Art.

Breugal (the Elder): 1525-1569

Caravaggio: 1571-1610

Reubens 1577-1640

Born in the 1600s
Rembrandt 1606-1669

Vermeer 1632-1675

Antoine Watteau: 1684-1721

William Hogarth: 1697-1764

Born in the 1700s

Joshua Reynolds: 1723-1792

George Stubbs: 1724-1806

Fragonard: 1732-1806

Benjamin West: 1732-1820

Jean-Louis David: 1748-1825

William Blake: 1757-1827

J. M. W. Turner: 1775-1851

John Constable: 1776-1837

Ingres: 1780-1867

John James Audubon: 1785-1851

Born in the 1800s (SoTW3 ends in 1849)

Honore Daumier: 1808-1879

Weekly Report: September 15-20, 2008

Week 5.
This was an extremely difficult week. My daughter was snuffling and suffering from a sore throat on Wednesday. We plowed through, but she didn't get her math done. On Thursday, though, it was a different story. She complained of dizziness and nauseousness. We did what we could.

Not only has her illness thrown off our school schedule, but our sleeping schedules as well. It also makes me anxious. It makes me so uptight and so anxious, I'm afraid I'm going to spiral into a tempered frenzy and lash out in anger at every provocation, however slight. It's important to keep our frustration levels low, as mine is already too high.

I've put myself between a rock and a hard place. (Knowing it is self-inflicted doesn't help that much.) I want to drive those kids forward, wake them up and get them caught up and yet I must back off, as they are tired, grumpy and unable to learn under pressure.

So, today, Saturday, I plan to go to our city's Library Book sale. I don't expect to come home with much--I don't have the shelf space to come home with much!--and all the "good" books will still be in the library.

That means dropping all expectations of getting our planned work done. It means dropping both art and science this week. It means I'm stir-crazy inside.

Enough.


What did we manage to accomplish?

Highlight 1:
I "invented" Latin vocabulary Bingo. They were struggling badly with their Latin last week and someone suggested we slow down a bit and make sure our vocabulary was rock solid. So, I made up and printed off a few Bingo cards (with the Latin) and called out the English. It's more of a review than a proper game--they tell each other the answers all the time!

Highlight 2:
Still slowly introducing the Older to his Grade 5 curriculum. This week it was what I call Baby Logic. He started "Visual Mind Benders" amidst much resistance only to discover he doesn't mind it too much. I also hauled out our Mind Benders Beginners book 2 and started him again on that. He's only required to do one a day, 3 days a week. His comment when he'd finished the last one: "This is easy!" But he wouldn't do another one.

Latin:
Lively Latin, Mucius, the Left Handed, Lesson 8.4, Ex. 8.4, Vocabulary E, Ex 8.5, Ex. 8.6.

Spelling:
SWR: List L2. Dictated and Tested. We did up a small worksheet on analogies I made from The Wise Guide. Here is the Older's (complete with doodles.)


History:

SoTW2, Chapter 28: African Empires. This was utterly fascinating to me--I'd never learned any of this stuff, ever. We only completed one narration, however and most of it didn't stick in the kids' heads at all as was evident from the chapter test on Friday. But my son enjoyed reading West African folk tales, and Mansa Musa by Khephra Burns. My daughter liked her Anansi tales and Travelling Man, the Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354. by James Rumford. The older also outlined a chapter on "Ancient Kingdoms" from a book on Senegal.

Writing:

CW Aesop, week 9. We did all the "analyses" (that we do) but no writing! I did have the kids outline their model: A Laconic Answer by Baldwin, but we didn't turn those outlines back into the story as I had planned. This is an example of how we mark up our models (from the Younger):




Science: sigh.

Dictations & Copywork: Only one dictation. One sheet each of 'm's and 'n's.

Poetry: The Splendor Falls by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. We recited on one day only.

Bible: Proverbs, Chapter 4.

Geography: Canada Map Book. pp. 11-15.

Cdn. History Reading Program.
At least when someone is lying on the couch, they're receptive to being read too! See relaxed reading under Cdn. History in the side bar. We did Unit 1: Days 3-6.

Math:
Older: Singapore Math 3B. Graphs. Ex. 24, Ex. 25, Review 3 and extra practice sheets from the Intensive Practice workbook. Drill 3x.

Younger: Singapore Math 2B: Text Book Practice 3B and drill 1x. Nothing else.

Grammar:
Older: R&S4: Lessons 16, 17, and 18.

Younger: FLL, Lesson 174 and Lesson 175.

Logic:
Older: Visual Mind Benders, Ex. #1-8.
Mind Benders, Beginning, Book 2, Activities #26-29.

Younger: she clamoured to do her Mind Benders Beginnings book, too. Insisted. She's up to Activity #32.

Assigned Reading:
Older: (1 hour/day) behind by 2.5 hours and 1 book report or summary.

Younger: (1/2 hour/day) behind by 1 hour and 45 minutes and two book reports.

Botticelli

Remember when I said there was nothing written about Botticelli for children (or words to that affect). I was wrong. There's a great book over at the Baldwin project by Amy Steedman called Knights of Art. And yes, there is a chapter on good ol' Sandro.

Here is a fantastic web image of The Birth of Venus, too: http://www.aneb.it/wm/paint/auth/botticelli/venus/venus.jpg

The plan is the have the kids pre-read the above selection. Then, on Saturday, we'll read the myth from D'Aulaire, and colour the line drawing of the above painting courtesy of Dover's Art Masterpieces to Colour: 60 Great Paintings from Botticelli to Picasso. It's on lovely heavyweight paper--I even bought a box of watercolours!

Weekly Report, September 9-13, 2008

Week 4
Attitudes were horrible this week, mostly mine. We were sleep deprived every single day too. I went for advice and was told: On our days off, get up no later than 1/2 hour after the time we get up for school. (sigh.) But if it means happier days (eventually) it'll be worth it.

Highlight: My son's first book summary. We took a couple of days and read through the first few pages of the Remedia Publications book: Beginning Outlining. Then we tackled a book on Praying Mantises. This is what part of his outline looked like:

As you can see, it wasn't a terribly complicated book. In fact, it was perfect.

Latin:

Lively Latin: Lesson 8.1 to Ex. 8.3 This was a dense and difficult week. My complete and utter ignorance of Latin is beginning to show, too.

Spelling:

SWR: Dictated L1. Reviewed past tense endings and wrote some great sentences. I asked the kids to make them related--all about one thing. My daughter says: "You mean like a paragraph?" Well, yes. Who told her about paragraphs?

History:

SoTW2, Ch 28. Listened to both sections, did our narration pages, my son read all the relevant KHE pages (first time!). We did the Chapter test, but I forgot the timeline.
For some reason Henry the Navigator just didn't stick at all.

Writing:

Aesop A: Goldilocks and the three bears. They dictated their narrations to me at the keyboard. I ran them off for editing. This week they were to change the positions of the explanatory words (he said, she said...so that's what the program means by explanatory words!) and find three other new words for "said."

Science:

Apologia, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Ch. 11 (Ants.) This was on the schedule all week. Finally I was able to cope with it at 8am Saturday morning. We took the advice to get up only 1/2 hour later than usual on days we don't get up with Dad (He's up at 5:30am on Saturdays) and it gave us lots and lots of time--even though I had plans to be somewhere at 10:30. Except for a fight about who got to use the blue playdough, it went wonderfully well.

Dictation and Copywork: 3x

Poetry.

The Splendor Falls by Tennyson. Recited 2x. I was going to give up on it, but I found my daughter singing it under her breath as she set the table last night. However, when I remarked on it, she said, "You weren't supposed to hear that." So, I'll give it one more week.

Bible: oops again.

Geography: Canada Map Book 1. pp. 6-10

Cdn. History Reading program: (see relaxed book list in side bar.)

Did Day 1, 2.
This is tough. At the end of our school day no one wants to sit and listen to me read. They'd rather dash off and do something. (I'd rather they did too.) As a bed-time program it would be perfect, but it won't fit there. Not sure what to do.

Math:
Older: multiplication drill every day and Singapore 3B: Ex. 23, Ex. 4.2 (in the appendix of the HIG), Practise 4C, and Review C.

Younger: addition drill everyday and Singapore 2A Ex. 35, 36, 37, 38 & 39.

Grammar:
Older: R&S4, Lesson 12 (we skipped 13, on purpose), 14 (two days, on purpose!) and 15.

Younger: FLL 168-172.
She still needs to write her letter out on "fancy" paper and for that I need to hook up our new printer.

All in all, a good week, though if you had asked me yesterday, I'd have said it was our worst week yet. Funny how some rest and a good day changes one's perspective.

Jackdaws.

In The Well-Trained Mind, Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer advise that starting in fifth grade, a student should begin to study history using primary source documents. They helpfully include a list of questions the student should run through whenever evaluating a primary source document and then they recommend a few providers of such documents.

There is one on-line called the Internet Modern History Sourcebook (which I will check out another time) and Jackdaws.

Each portfolio/area of interest is to take one to two weeks. The authors don't recommend a set number of these to do, but for fifth grade they recommend six different ones, and for sixth grade they recommend four. These, however, are based on the available materials from Jackdaw for the time period being covered and so are not "grade specific." Hard to say, then, how many one shoould do in any given school year.

The suggestions in WTM for which Jackdaws to study during the same time period as SoTW3 follow a course of American history. Of course, my interests are not the same, so I've had to come up with my own list. (All prices in US dollars from the Jackdaw site)


SoTW2:
Columbus and Explorers Come to the New World $51.95


SoTW3: Possible Jackdaws for study.

SoTW 3:4 The Northwest Passage $27.95

SoTW 3:12 Cromwell's Protectorate $27.95

SoTW 3:12 The Plague and Fire of London$51.95

SoTW 3:16 Newton and Gravitation $51.95

SoTW 3:21? Wolfe at Quebec (1759) $51.95

SoTW 3:25 The French Revolution $51.95

SoTW 3:33 The War of 1812 However, it seems to be a bit one-sided--and on the wrong side for us! $51.95

Famous Men and SoTW

Well, I've got Famous Men of Modern Times by John Haaren correlated with the Chapters in SoTW3, at least. (I did SoTW2 a few weeks ago)

Here it is in case it is useful to anyone else:
(SoTW Volume#:Chapter #)

Famous Men of Modern Times
by
John H. Haaren


Lorenzo the Magnificent
Christopher Columbus (2:31)
Ferdinand of Aragon (2:28)
Vasco da Gama (2:31)
Chevalier Bayard
Cardinal Wolsey (2:34)
Charles V of Germany (3:1)
Solyman the Sublime (2:24)
Sir Francis Drake (2:42)
Sir Walter Raleigh (2:40)
Henry of Navarre
Wallenstein (3:9)
Gustavus Adolphus (3:9)
Cardinal Richelieu (3:9)
Galileo (2:37)
Oliver Cromwell (3:12)
Louis XIV (3:13)
Sir Isaac Newton (3:16)
William III, King of England (3:15)
Sobieski (possibly 3:18)
Peter the Great (3:17)
Charles XII of Sweden (3:17)
Frederick the Great (3:14)
William Pitt (3:21)
George Washington (3:22 or 23)
Robespierre (3:25)
Napoleon Bonaparte (3:29)
Horatio Nelson (3:29)
Thaddeus Kosciusko (American Revolution 3:22 or, possibly, attack on Imperial Russia, 3:26)
Abraham Lincoln (4:5)
Garibaldi
William Ewart Gladstone
Count Von Bismarck

Whew.
(updated December 29, 2008)

SoTW 3--Correlating.

We aren't starting until after Christmas, but there are a number of things I want to go with our study of history, since I've decided to become serious about this chronological thing.

This post will serve as my list of things to correlate and the resources I've found to help me do that.

SoTW3 starts in the latter half of the 16th Century and ends in 1849 with the Gold Rush.

To correlate:
Timeline Figures by Amy Pak. Already done here.
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Child's History of the World by Hillyer.
Both of these are done here (along with tons of other things).
John Haaren, Famous Men of the Modern Times
James Baldwin, Famous Stories (if any).
Jackdaw portfolios.
Books to read.
Science Figures
Art History
Music

And, of course, I want to slip in some concurrent Canadian History. That may be a major challenge! (The chapters with US content are listed here).

If you know of any other resources, I'd love to know, too!

Weekly Report September 1-6, 2008

Week Three.

We schooled Monday, took Tuesday off with Dad and then went back at it from Wednesday to Saturday.

Spelling:
SWR. List K7
Worked on Homonyms and alphabetized the words.

Latin:
Lively Latin: Lesson 7.2 to Exercise 7.5. We skipped the Poem "Horatius at the Bridge." I'm beginning to get very frustrated with this program. We copied out all the declensions on one piece of paper in order to work with them better.

History:
SoTW2, ch. 27. War of the Roses, Narrations, mapwork, timeline and chapter test.

Writing Program:
Aesop: Retold, rewrote and produced final Drafts of the Top and Ball. Both compositions here. I told them they could illustrate their stories when they were done and this is what they did.

Older:



Younger:
Odd. They did their drawing independently of one another. I don't know why both of them did storyboards!

Science:
Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Insects.
Metamorphoses diagram. The kids read a bunch of books on Ants, Bees, and watched a DVD on bees.

Read the second half of chapter 10 on defenses and filled out a little review worksheet I made up.

Dictation: 1x.

Recitation:
Poem, The Splendor Falls, 2x.

Bible: (oops)

Geography: Apple Press, Canada Map Book 1, pp. 3-5

Math:
Older: SM 3B, Review A&B, WB 17-22, Practice 4A & 4B, drill: 2x,3x,4x,5x.
Younger: SM 2B, Practice 3A, WB 30-34.

Grammar:
Older: R&S4,7-11
Younger: FLL, 164 to 167

Art:
Lesson plan #15 from this site. This week, we compared and contrasted two different paintings of marriages: Arnolfini Marriage by Van Eyck and The Marriage of the Virgin. We looked at the Arnolfini Marriage in detail (from The Story of Painting by Sister Wendy Beckett, pp. 104-105) and then wrote a list comparing the two paintings. We put small printouts of the paintings on our timeline. For their art project, I used the idea of using a mirror from here and this is what they did:

The Older:



The Younger:



Reading: (6 days/week)
Older: (1 hour/day): 1h and 45 minutes behind.
Younger: (1/2 hour/day): caught up.

Other:
Older: Book Summary of Twenty-One Balloons by W. P. du Bois.

A HUGE success this week: I went to the library and got a ton of books on insects. The kids, the boy in particular, loved reading them. He kept saying, "The male? Right after they, um, mate? He dies." Poor kid.

And now, to prepare next week!

CW Aesop--The Top and Ball Compositions.

These are the kids' compositions this week, based on the model: The Top and Ball by H.C. Andersen.

The older:

THE TOP AND THE BALL

One day a Top fell in love with a Ball. He wanted to marry her because she was beautiful. The Ball did not wish to marry the Top.

“I am engaged to a swallow” boasted the Ball with her nose in the air.


One day the Boy took the Ball out to play. He bounced the ball too high. He lost the Ball and could not find it. Many years later the Top one day spun into the dustbin. He found the Ball in there and she was thoroughly drenched and filthy.

The Top was found, but he never spoke of his old love
again.

By the Younger. (I took her original narration as she dictated it to me, hence the longer composition!)

The Top and the Ball

There was once a Top who lived in a toy box. A ball lived there too. She wore a morocco dress. The Top said. “We should make a very good pair. Shall we be engaged to each other?”

“I am half engaged to a swallow,” the Ball bragged.

Then the boy came to play with his Ball. It looked pretty when it bounced in the air. On the ninth bounce it did not come back down. The boy looked high and low for the Ball but did not find it. The ball was missing for five years.

The Top was gilded and was something to look at. A couple of years later, the Top fell into the dustbin. He found a ball there.

“Finally someone I can talk to,” the Ball said relieved. “I am made of morocco and I have a Spanish cork in my body.”

The more she talked to him the more it became clear that this was the same Ball he had once loved.

Soon the maid came to empty the dustbin and found the Top. Nobody saw or spoke of the Ball. Soon after, she died.

The End

And so, it is.

Planning Art.

Putting together a list of painters to study for the period from 1300 to 1600 is easy.

Van Eyck --1385-1441
Botticelli --1445-1510
da Vinci --1452-1519
Durer --1471-1528
Raphael --1483-1520
Titian --1488-1576
Bruegal, the Elder --1524-1569

and there, I think is as good a stopping place as any. (Maybe.)

My plan is to present the kids with at least one painting every two weeks for discussion, analysis and imitation.

That means 7 lesson plans, paintings and relevant art projects to find, research, prepare and print between now and Christmas.

I've always been too ambitious for anyone's good.

(Though I did find an excellent lesson plan for this week comparing Van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage with Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin (above) written for fifth graders and a cool art project to go with it. May I continue to be so lucky!)

Today Was Not the Day...

to do the Wars of the Roses.

(Not with less than five and 1/2 hours of sleep, each.)

Chronological Study

One of the reasons I was attracted to the approach of The Well-Trained Mind is that it advises and guides parents to study everything in relation to a particular historical period.

I think it is a wonderful approach to making sense of the world: but have I done it?

No.

Part of the problem is the lack of materials available for elementary school-aged children. Ever see a biography of Roger Bacon written for third graders? I thought not. How about a discussion of Botticelli?

We are just a little over 1/2 way through SoTW 2--about 1400. This is the time when the ice and small streams in art and science begin to melt and start a torrent and cascade of activity.

I'm going to find a way to catch up.

First, though, to the most difficult of areas: Music.

I love the Ambelside Online curriculum for resources. This is what they recommend for a study of Medieval music:

Medieval Era Music (see Notes for this Term)
Listening selections for this term:
1. "A Feather on the Breath of God:
Sequences and Hymns by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen" featuring Emma Kirkby and
Gothic Voices; Hyperion label.

2. "Salve Regina - Gregorian Chant" by
Benedictine Monks of Saint-Maurice & Saint Maur of Clervaux; Philips label,
Silver Line Classics series.
3. "A Dance In the Garden of Mirth: Medieval
Instrumental Music" by the Dufay Collective; Chandos label.

Alternate
Option - "Miri It Is" by the Dufay Collective; Chandos label. [If you choose to
purchase only this CD, we do urge you to check your library for Gregorian chant
and Hildegard of Bingen selections to supplement your study.]

I also introduced the kids to a favourite of mine, the British rock/folk band Steeleye Span. My son particularly loved this Latin ditty:

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I'll have to post about Artists/Art Study and Scientists/Science another time.

Writing. CW Aesop A&B

I have been quietly tearing out my hair over this.

My son and I have done the first four weeks of the first program in the Classical Writing progymnasmata; Aesop. At week five I decided to fold my daughter in with us. This is week six.

The idea of the program is to read the stories and then narrate them. This is familiar territory to us as we have been doing this with our history material for about two years now. (My daughter, actually, has only been at it about a year.)

Then child works on his or her re-telling to meet certain writing objectives. According to the appendix, these objectives are:

By the end of "A:"

1. Change sentence types.
2. Change quotation type. (From indirect to direct).
3. Reposition quote explanatory words
4. Vary utterances
5. Make up new quotes for characters
6. Change noun synonyms and modifiers
7. Come up with verb synonyms.

At the end of "B" the child will be able to do all of the above and

1. Write quotes with different positions for explanatory words and varied utterances.
2. Change the verb modifiers.

We are on Week 6 (of 18) in "A." In my teacher's manual I am told that next week we will begin "adding quotations" to our retelling. Well, we've been doing that from the start! We've also been playing around with sentence types. That was fun for exactly one model!

I was bored with it. I wanted something more interesting and engaging for us. However, until tonight, I hadn't read through the rest of the directions for the re-writes.

Weeks 1-6 focus simply on re-telling. Get the story order right. Get the characters right. (sigh).

However, it seems the fun begins next week.

Weeks 7 to 11 focus exclusively on adding quotations and varying utterances. (This may sound dull, but there are some interesting directions in the Teachers Core manual, such as asking about the tone of voice, how the character may be feeling, his posture, and the look on his face. This could actually be fun!)

Weeks 12-13, the above plus noun synonyms.

Weeks 14-18, all of the above plus verb synonyms.

Now that I have looked through it in detail, it doesn't look too bad. I guess those thesauruses I bought will come in handy!

Weekly Report, August 26-30

Week Two.

Short Version:

Unfortunately, there is still work outstanding which is why I'm late posting this.

Copywork: a, o, c, d

Dictation:
Older--two longish passages
Younger--everyday with FLL.

Recitation: Memorized The Flies and the Honey Pot.

Latin: finished up Lesson 6 and began Lesson 7 in Lively Latin.

Spelling: List K6 in SWR, plurals page.

History: SoTW2 ch. 25 and 26

Writing: Aesop A: not done (and I've decided it won't be on those weeks we double up on SoTW.)

Math
The Younger--SM 2B, Ex. 24- 29
The Older SM 3B Review 1,2, and well, he didn't finish.

Grammar
The Younger--FLL 159-163
The Older--R&S4, 5, 6 and 1/2 of 7. Again he's not finished.

Science:
First half of Ch. 10, Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.

Long Version:

Tuesday.

Up at 6:30am this morning. This time it did not go well! I let them watch Arthur for a bit and what with one thing and another we didn't actually sit down to start until 8:30. Then the Older had to take a bathroom break. He takes looong bathroom breaks.

Spelling (SWR); I started with it. It took 50 minutes to dictate K6. It was torture--for all of us. In six or seven weeks, we start over again at list J. I can't wait!

Latin: Review of Junius Brutus. It wasn't as bad as I'd thought it might be. Note to self: do not take a month long break in the middle of a two part history lesson.

Aesop A: We read The Top and the Ball by Hans Christian Anderson. I took the part of "narrator", The Older was the top and the younger read the part of the ball. When I first read this story this weekend, I nearly cried. The kids had the same reaction. The younger actually said, "I die?" We had a nice discussion of whether the top "really" had loved the ball or not.

I dictated a complicated section to the Older and had the Younger copy it out.

Break.

Oh Happy Day. We did Chapter 25(a) The Plague. And we did the colouring page. And the map. And our narrations--all in about an hour! The younger dictated hers to me and I dictated the first two sentences back. (Boy, has FLL made this process quicker and smoother than it has been with the Older!) The Older wrote his out. Here's what he wrote (after correcting for spelling and punctuation. I don't correct everything all the time, so his idiosyncratic use of caps is retained!)

In the Middle ages people suffered from the Black death (the Plague). People were dying Left and Right and through the window. Animals and humans died from it. Even the sick cloths made everyone get sick. No one could stop the Plague, some said "it's the End of the world!" If you felt a headache or had lumps in your armpits, and a lot of pain, you had the Black death. P.S. It does not exist anymore.

My eight month old nephew arrived and stayed several hours. I can see why Moms with little ones love reading aloud so much! All three sat on the couch (with the dog!) and listened to me read a chapter of The Railway Children. I was surprised, but it calmed the little one (as long as we played his little music toy very softly from time to time. Fortunately it didn't bother me a bit.) My kids were so good with him! My daughter, the Younger, decided she would feed him. So he sat on my son's lap and it went like this:
Daughter: spoon feed baby.
Son: Wipe baby's face
Daughter: pass the baby his sippy cup.
Son: help the baby hold his sippy cup.
Daughter: spoon feed baby.
Son: Wipe baby's face
Daughter: pass the baby his sippy cup.
Son: help the baby hold his sippy cup.
lather...rinse...repeat.

It was funny until he started to fuss--and that was no surprise! But they were so good with him that when my sister arrived to pick him up, I gave them about 45 minutes "off" until we started school again.

Grammar:
Younger: FLL Lesson 159. Prepositions. When she came into the room and saw the table "set" she asked, puzzled, "I thought we were doing grammar."
Older: R&S3, Lesson 5. I had thought we'd do 5 lessons a week--but really, it's enough to do four. Why stress? It's much more thorough and the lessons are longer than R&S 3. But it's still good. It seems to be much more at his level than R&S 3 which felt like going through the motions, even though the material was all new to him.

Math:
Younger: breezed through two money exercises in 2B. She got all but two of the "American coin" questions right. I was surprised! I also gave her a Canadian Coin supplement--but she's been counting change since last year!
Older: Excused from Math today.

Evaluation: Didn't do Bible, or penmanship and neither did their first draft of The Top and Ball. But that's OK. We had Read-Aloud and Baby Feeding 101 instead!

Wednesday.

Up at 6:30.
45 minutes of assigned reading.

Bible--
Proverbs, 2: 6-end. Still dealing with procedural issues. Talked a bit about integrity. Hope they "got" it.

Spelling--
Taught how to make words plural. It was excruciating. I wonder how much they will remember?

Break.

Latin.
The Government of Rome.

Break.

SoTW2: 25 (b) How Europe Changed.
It's tough to do Review questions, narrations, and the chapter test all in one day! And then I gave them a craft on top of it: the Bubonic plague wheel. It was the carrot, you see.

Grammar--Younger did FLL 161--making up sentences with prepositions and nouns. She loves dictation but had a melt down when she realised that she was to write four lines of "Bed in Summer" by R.L. Stevenson. So, I let her write the first two.

Older--writing assignment. I didn't leave clear enough instructions about how to do it, but he did write something! So, that's all right.

Math--
Younger: played with the Rainbow Rock CD for quite a while and then did exercises (2B): 26 & 27
Older: Did yesterday's and today's work, 3B Reviews 1 and 2

Evaluation: It was a horrid day. I was upset and impatient through most of it. We actually made up a new song. (To the tune of the first line: "A sailor went to sea, sea, sea"):

You drive Mommy up the wall (repeat)
You drive Mommy up the wall. (shout).

The kids were singing it again at bed-time (but thankfully without the shouting).

Yikes.

Thursday

Up at 6:30. They read for a while (my daughter wanted me to read Railway Children. I hadn't had my coffee, yet.) and also watched an episode on DVD while playing Skip-Bo. So, I figured their brains were awake enough to start with
Latin. Finished Lesson 6 with a Vocabulary Exercise. Hooray.

Spelling:
This was interesting. I wanted them to do two things: 1) Use alliteration to write sentences from their words and 2) Pluralise at least one list word per sentence. They managed the second (but not the first). It was an excellent review of yesterday's lesson.

Copywork/Dictation.
I set myself up with a trial version of Startwrite (I used to have the full version and it's been a process getting it restored to the computer!) and ran off a sheet of "d's" each which they did.

Then I had my daughter copy while I dictated the following to my son:
"Many died daily or nightly in the public streets: many others died at home" Giovanni Boccaccio

Then we took a break.

As it was too hard to read our poems three times through a grilled cheese sandwich, we moved on to listening to Chapter 26(a) The Battle at Agincourt. Narrations took a long time. Again, the older wrote his directly from doing the review questions orally, and I dictated the first four sentences (two at a time) to the Younger.
Then they had an eraser fight.

Math--
Younger. It was funny. During our first break I corrected her math from yesterday. She had only one mistake, so I took it to her, saying, "Look, you did really well. Only one mistake." and she asked me, "Can I do it now?" So, she did Ex. 27 on her break! She did Ex. 28 after Grammar.

Older--oops. I haven't marked his work for a while and there were a number of errors. I'm a little concerned. We worked on a few corrections, but it is mostly my fault. When did SM start introducing equations with two different kinds of operations? And in the word problems no less?!

Grammar:
Younger--FLL 161. "Before, behind, below, beneath." We actually made up a little dance! That was so much fun.

Older--We went through the lesson part, but didn't do the written work. A friend he hasn't seen for a long time invited him over to play. School starts next week for him, so they haven't much opportunity to play.

However, I think the fact that we've jumped into this is beginning to cause some problems. I had to get out some pencil crayons and mark up a sentence in different colours for identifying the complete predicate, the simple predicate, the verb phrase, main verb, helping verb. ALL so we could then find the simple subject!

Friday
Up at 6:30. Really, really feeling it. So tired, my back felt glued to the bed. When the kids popped in a movie, I didn't say a word but let them watch it until it was done at 8:45.

Spelling test of List K6. The Older got 100%, the Younger missed three. Not bad, but not great either.

Latin: Started Lesson 7. It has been much, much too long since we covered subject/verb agreement and how to find the right declension for the noun. I should probably type up a little handout. If I don't forget. Or fall asleep.

Bible: Proverbs 3: 1-4. Had a great discussion of what it means to be loyal (and kind).

Poetry: They just about have The Flies and The Honey Pot memorized. Time for another one!

History: SoTW2 26 (b) Joan of Arc. Mapwork, colouring page, Timeline, chapter test.

Grammar:
The Younger--FLL 161.
The Older--

Math:
The Younger--Ex. 29 and she made brownies.
The Older--

Saturday
Science:
We did Metamorphosis. It took 1 1/2 hours. I don't want to talk about it.

Independent Reading:
Younger: 2 1/2 days (or 1 hour and 15 minutes) behind.
Older: 3 days (or 3 hours) behind.