Year 4: Ancient History, Term 1 Wk 1-2

March 30, 2017March 10, 2018 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 22 Comments

My children skipped summer break. Yes, you read that right. They were SO excited to start Ancient History from Beautiful Feet Books and continue on with Right Start Math and IEW and all the rest that they canceled their own summer break. We’re giving year round schooling a try. Six week on, one week off. Something tells me we will be sticking with it for a long time. In these posts I will be sharing about our studies with an in depth look at how we blend Charlotte Mason and Classical Education. This first post is heavy on the set up and light on the practical blending, but as time moves on I’ll have more room for greater specificity. Here is a look at our first two weeks on the new schedule.

Morning Time:
Genesis 1-20
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Hymn: “O God Our Help in Ages Past.”
Giotto Tended the Sheep by Opal Wheeler
Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study Portfolio: Giotto
Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and Francois
Poem: “The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson, “Opportunity” By Edward Sill
Biography: “Mathematicians are People, Too. Vol. 2” by Luella Reimer
Geography: Visits to Africa
Handwriting: Classical Conversations Prescripts
Composer: Corelli and Vivaldi

Ancient History with Beautiful Feet Books
Let’s begin by saying that this guide is geared for 4th grade-7th grade in the Intermediate section, which is the first half of the book, and 8th-12th grade in the Advanced Section, which is found in the second half of the book. My two boys are now in 4th grade so I am making adjustments as needed since they are at the very bottom of the recommended age range. The first four lessons of the guide cover Creation- Hammurabi.

I love how open-ended Beautiful Feet Books is. Enough direction to keep us on track but the overall unscripted assignments allow us to really follow our interests for each section which is so life-giving and keeps the boys engaged, invested and eager to dig for more!

One of the main texts used in the first four lessons is a TEXTBOOK called Streams of Civilizations. It is obviously not a living book and to be honest, if I read every word aloud my kids would have probably run away screaming. I took time before we started this unit and read through the first assigned chapters of Streams of Civilizations so that I could have a grasp of where things were headed. I marked interesting sections to read aloud to the boys and then I went in search of living books that explained the unmarked sections in a more engaging way. I’ll add our book list at the end of the post.

A couple of set up notes for everyone following along. The boys will be filling out a standard composition notebook for their Ancient History study. Maps, narrations, drawings, terms, research etc. are contained within. The boys have dubbed them “Field Journals.” We also have picture story pads from Miller Pads & Paper for all of their Bible reading narrations. Secretly, I am using these notebooks to ease them over to more formal written narrations. We divide the scripture reading over a period of a few days and each time we read the boys narrate the story, then we get out our Bible Journals (picture story pads) and they illustrate what they learned. On a separate sheet of notebook paper they write out a few sentences/short paragraph about the story in their own words. I check for any spelling mistakes and then the sentences are written out once more in their best handwriting in the notebook. (All spelling mistakes are added to a list and then worked on at the end of the day). The written narrations will lengthen over time. We are also using a Book of Centuries from Miller Pads & Paper and updating it every day.

Lesson 1
We stretched the first lesson out over a period of three days. We spent the first day reading through the entire Genesis account of creation, narrating and discussing it. Day two was spent reading about evolution and going through Streams of Civilizations. The third day was spent further discussing terms found in the Streams of Civilization book. Everything from uniformitarianism to sequence dating. I am a bit surprised that the kids were so excited about their glossaries! We read additional living books each day and on the third day we also read several living books about archeology and anthropology and even went on a “dig” in the backyard to uncover some chicken bones I had buried the day before. Have you checked out the newly released film “Is Genesis History?” The boys and I saw it in the theater a few weeks before our study began and it was such a helpful starting point for our discussions about Creation, Evolution and the Flood. We spent the remainder of our time on the third day researching the bronze age before the lesson migrated to the backyard with the boys all fashioning spears and weapons out of rocks. I probably should have seen that coming.

Lesson 2
I really love that the moment we opened our book about Noah, a rainstorm began outside. It felt like a hug from the Lord. When the boys were younger we looked at Peter Spier’s book Noah’s Ark and the flood account in the Bible beginning in Genesis 6. This time we also added in the phenomenal Tom Dooley book, The True Story of Noah’s Ark The boys responded so well to it that I am now considering a trip to the Creation Museum in Kentucky this fall so they can see the Ark replica. We spent a full day on the Flood topic and made sure to read flood accounts from around the world. We also discussed geological studies about the flood which were quite fascinating. On our second day with lesson two we read an excellent account about Sumer, Akkad and Sargon in the book “Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors” by Lorene Lambert. This book is EXCEPTIONAL and a much better read than the Streams of Civilization account. I did highlight a few terms and excerpts to go over with the children from Streams after we finished reading from Lambert’s book. We brought out some Crayola Terra Cotta Air Dry Clay 2.5 lb Bucket and wrote our names in the cuneiform language using popsicle sticks.

Lesson 3
Ziggurats. These kids were captivated by ziggurats. They built several versions of ziggurats out of legos while I read stories about Mesopotamia, Babylon and the Tower of Babel. When it was time to read about Abram and trace the map of his journey the boys sat up a bit straighter and pointed with wide eyes to the city of Aleppo, which we just discussed at the end of our Exploring Countries and Cultures study. I always try to compare the ancient maps to the modern day maps so the boys can see where everything is now. We pulled out our giant timeline to see how things were weaving together. My eldest mused at the end of the lesson, “Ancient history still really matters today doesn’t it? Its hard to talk about anything political if you don’t understand the history of a place.”

Lesson 4
Again, Lorene Lambert saves the day. Don’t get me wrong, Streams of Civilization is helpful, but nothing beats a living books account of a topic you want your children to experience and bond with. Her account of Babylon, Nebechednezzer and Hammurabi was excellent. We made sure to visit the Louvre for a close look at the Code of Hammurabi stele. The boys made more recordings in their notebooks. We also took our first look at the beginnings of the Egyptian Civilization and the boys were completely captivated.

Lesson 4.5
Ok there is no lesson 4.5, but I wanted to read about the Assyrians, Hittites and Persians so I made a lesson 4.5. Plus, the kids were begging to learn more about the Indus River Valley Civilizations from our Classical Conversations Timeline. We mainly used Lorene Lambert’s book but we also included a few living books found in the list below. We also pulled out our Pin it! Maps for some more geography practice and a chance for the boys to narrate a bit about life along these four rivers. We spent another chunk of time talking about irrigation and drawing plans for a system in our orchard.

Science
We did an in depth animal study for science during these lessons. We studied camels! What unbelievable fascinating creatures they are! Our two primary texts happen to be out of print books, but you can visit any public library and find plenty of great books on camels!

Since we happened to study no less than FIVE major rivers these past two weeks: the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus during Ancient History study and the Yangtze river during my first grader’s FIAR study. we decided to conduct a few experiments with stream flow.
We also went online to see photos and video of the headwaters for each river.

We butchered a pig on our farm last weekend and the boys helped us to package everything. We also saved some of the organs for dissection and microscope inspection.

Math
We are now using Right Start Math and LOVING IT. Once we have worked on our daily portion of History, we take a quick break and return for a math lesson and some games. For those unfamiliar with Right Start, the program comes with a spiral bound book of Math Games that helps children gain greater fluency in their math skills. It is not unusual to find my children playing these games together long after math is over. We take breaks between every subject and right now, math is the time of day when the kids forgo the break and keep chipping away at their games and lessons. The transition from Saxon has been much more fluid than I initially anticipated. We started a level lower than they were at with Saxon and I am so glad we did! I can’t believe how many foundational things my children had missed out on. They’re already demonstrating a greater understanding of mathematics. They aren’t just giving answers, they can now explain the WHY behind their answers. I am finding that this program is extremely helpful for my dyslexic learner. He has loved using his abacus and everything is flowing so much faster now.

Latin
We are progressing well with our Memoria Press Latin. After a solid year of Latin its great to hear the boys come across a derivative in their regular reading and hear them chirp out the Latin word it comes from. “Ha! Navigate. That SO comes from navigo.”

IEW
We are still faithfully chipping away at Student Writing Intensive Level A as we prepare for our first upcoming year of Essentials. I am seeing tremendous improvement in my children as they work through this program. My twice exceptional son (dyslexia and creatively gifted) is flourishing right now. He loves the assignments and appreciates their meaty brevity. I’ll be posting more in depth about this program in the weeks to come!

Music
Our History of Classical Music Study from Beautiful Feet Books takes place every Friday morning. After taking up so many new instrument this year I realized that the time was ripe for capitalizing on this family interest. This study does not disappoint. We complete one lesson each week and we could not be happier with our lessons. We seem to have fallen into the habit of preparing a cup of cocoa and gathering round our CD player as we listen to our Music Masters CDs. My eldest usually draws while he listens and my second born works on his knitting or crochet work. We are recording our work in these lovely lesson books.

Friday Exam
Our last two Friday exams were a blend of oral questions from the Streams of Civilizations tests and narrations from the boys about what stuck out most in their minds. They have vivid recall of every battle I mentioned in the past two weeks. They also carried forward quite a bit about Sargon and the flooding of the Nile each year in Egypt. If you don’t know about our Friday exams, you can read about them here.

Symposium
Friday afternoons will never be the same! After lunch I let my youngest children watch Mr Rogers neighborhood on my laptop and the older kids and I cozy up on the couch and we discuss, debate, ask questions and exchange ideas on things we learned throughout the week. This has become our prime time for witnessing the fruits of blending Charlotte Mason and Classical Education. We pull out our timeline cards and retrieve some of our cycle 1 memory work from Classical Conversations. The exchange of bigger ideas begins to happen in this space and I am witnessing their slow transition to the dialectic phase. I often bring some sort of hands on work for us to do while we converse. A few weeks ago we ran stitches through canvas while discussing the sea voyage of Columbus in anticipation of our visit to the Niña and Pinta replicas. This task made a tactile connection in their brain about Columbus that built relationship to the event. Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. Poetic knowledge is a powerful thing!

Extra Curricular
The boys practiced their individual instruments after Blessing Hour and we put in our usual 5-6 hours on the mat training in mixed martial arts. Handwork this term consists of wood whittling, crochet and basic hand sewing.

Book list for Ancient History Lessons 1-4(.5)
Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert
The Creation Story for Children
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The True Story of Noah’s Ark by Tom Dooley
Indus Valley City by Gillian Clements
Looking at Ancient History by RJ Unstead*
Land of the Two Rivers by Leonard Cottrell* (new print version released in 2012)
Archaeologists Dig for Clues (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
Birthdays of Freedom by Genevieve Foster*
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
DK Eyewitness Books: Mesopotamia
Adam’s Synchronological Chart or Map of History. (The GIANT timeline picture above!)
Camels: Ships of the Desert by John Waters*
Camels are Meaner than Mules by Mary Calhoun*

*=harder to find. Check abebooks, thriftbooks, Amazon Used, eBay and etsy.

The Road to Morning Time: A Pregnant Pause

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 6 Comments

There are some aspects of pregnancy that are hard to recollect now. Brain damage from sleep deprivation will do that to a person. While this brand of selective memory loss is certainly essential for the perpetuation of our species, there are some parts of pregnancy that were so joyful (or dark) for me that I will probably never forget them. My children were still very young when my sixth and final pregnancy began nearly five years ago. Everyone was still four and under. It feels crazy just writing that. But that was my life back then– My Big Fat Gestating, Lactating, Homeschooling life. (Officially calling dibs on that for a future book title).

Morning Time was short and sweet back then. A prayer, a song, a story and they were off. When we first started morning time, food was the major draw and I was the only one at the table not wearing diapers. After a solid year and half things were slowly progressing upwards. I finally felt like my PPD/PTSD was at a manageable level and I was enjoying life with my boys. We were on the home stretch of grad school and flat broke. We lived in this little yellow bungalow I had loved since I was a girl. Hubby built a brick pathway and a white picket fence around the front so I could plant a beautiful garden. It was healing to be out there with the boys. We would often bring in flowers to set on the table and they became part of the simple beauty of our morning time. I didn’t have a plan for each and every day, but we were consistently reading something and we were always singing hymns we learned at Bible Study Fellowship. I woke up craving that simple time every morning. 10-20 minutes of peace before the boys were unleashed upon 1100 square feet.

Then I got pregnant.

Again.

I kept it to myself for two weeks, trying to shield my poor husband who was wearily working through his dissertation. I probably would have kept the secret longer but my girl Whitney Houston died and as we watched the livestream of her funeral my hormones took over and I weepingly confessed all.

You know that bone deep exhaustion that comes with those first weeks of building a human inside your uterus? When all you want to do is hibernate but the tiny humans that live with you are flat out not having it? Then the morning sickness kicks in and you spend most of your day heaving in the bathroom while little fingers are poking in from under the door and a little lisping voice is asking “Mommy! Mommy! Wath that noithe? Are you vomiting again?” Yeah, Morning Time is hard to do when all that is happening!

This was the season in our lives when Morning Time briefly became Afternoon Time. We didn’t start our days out together singing. We started our days out caring for one another. Even the littlest one recognized that Mommy was ill and needed help. My hubby would get up before the sun to do some research, then he would wake the boys, change their diapers and feed them breakfast before heading out the door for another day of grad school. I would often walk out of the bathroom after a bout of morning sickness to find the hallway littered with “gifts.” Treasured cars, trucks, dinosaurs, animals, all waiting for me, carefully put in place by three tiny boy warriors with hearts growing in empathy for their mama. This was the season when one of my sons emerged as a natural caretaker. When someone needed something and I was unwell, he would go and solve the issue or find what was needed. One son emerged as our resident encourager. He would walk over and sweep the hair off my forehead as I lay on the couch nursing the baby and he would say “My poor sweet girl, you are doing such a great job Mom.” Then there was the baby, just over a year old. He didn’t care when we had morning time, he cared when he had Mommy Time.

Mommy time always trumps Morning Time.

After all the nausea passed and the day was half over, the boys would go down for their naps. I would rest a little and when they awoke we had our Afternoon Time. It was a sweet way to transition out of nap time. A snack, a song, a story, a prayer, a handful of flowers. It was peaceful and purposeful. It was not part of the original plan, but its what worked for that season.

On the really bad days, there was no Afternoon Time, and the world kept turning and the children kept growing and we would try again the next day.

We moved across the country when I was about six months pregnant. This upheaval led to two months without Morning/Afternoon Time. The longest stretch we ever went without. It was a hard period in our family history, but we were blessed to be near my husband’s family and to have access to a wonderful amount of nature!

Once we were settled into our new space I realized that I was ready to have Morning Time again. We had barely gotten into the habit when our last little boy came lightning fast into the world and everything turned upside down again for a few months.

But by now we had seen and tasted the beauty of Morning Time. We all loved it. We all needed it. Morning Time was here to stay. Now I set my eyes on stretching their ability to linger at the table, to long for more beauty and more stories. I was mere months away from meeting Charlotte Mason and the boys were growing by leap and bounds. In many ways we were crossing a bridge together, the bridge that would take us to a whole new world of learning that would change us forever.

Stay tuned for our next installment of the Road to Morning Time: Bridging the Transitions.

For The Birds.

February 22, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 1 Comment

As a dad, I want my home to be full of LIFE– learning and discovery, excitement and joy, good music and delicious food.

One way that we infuse our home with life is by keeping a variety of animals. We are starting small and slow on our little hobby farm (For some larger-scale farm beauty check out our friends at Marmilu Farms), but we did develop a master plan for the property that incrementally includes chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks, rabbits, bees, quail, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, horses, llamas, alpacas, ostriches, capybaras, lesser kudu, and velociraptors. OK, well maybe not quite that much, but we’re learning as we go, and this is the story of how we stumbled wing-deep into turkeys.

Two months after moving on to this property, we picked up a handful of chickens. Soon after, Elsie went to our local farm store for chicken feed and came back with chicken feed and two turkey poults. (Which, incidentally, helped create a new family rule: NO IMPULSE BUYS OF LIVESTOCK.) Only one survived, but I built a small coop for it and after seven months we had a fantastic backyard-raised turkey dinner. Our first foray with turkeys was a success!

So when year two rolled around we upped the ante and brought home 3 poults from the farm store. I expanded the first coop for them, they had plenty of fresh air, sunshine, and room to roam, and everything was fine and dandy. Then one day when they were about four months old I heard a huge commotion coming from the coop, and as I walked over to investigate, what I saw was basically an avian version of a vintage WWF fight. Two of the birds were duking it out, kicking, scratching, pecking, beating each other with their wings. It took me a second, but then I realized “Ooooooh… I have two males and one female, and the males are fighting with each other because of her.” So the next day I sold a male to a coworker and revised our turkey strategy: initially we planned to fatten them up and eat them, but now that I knew I had one of each sex, I was just going to let them go and see what happened. Sure enough, two months later they started mating, and one month after that she started laying eggs. At some point in the process they picked up the names Tommy and Shelley, the former because male turkeys are called toms, the latter because her production of nearly one egg per day over the course of six months was simply amazing, not unworthy of a namesake like Mrs. Duggar.

Turkeys really are amazing animals, and the boys and I were endlessly fascinated with them.

The assortment of feathers, the way they walk and eat, the way that Tommy would puff himself up and snort, and his inclination to dance. We found ourselves regularly walking out to the coop to check on them for sheer entertainment, often several times a day, and they became an instant point of discussion with friends and family that visited. We had many a deep conversation standing around that coop watching them. And they continued their daily cycle of mating and laying. My 6-year old once witnessed the act and later told us “I saw the turkeys play this kind of wrestling game. Shelley sat on the ground and Tommy crawled up on her back and was waving his feathers and doing a weird dance on her back. He looked like he was having a lot of fun, but she didn’t seem to like it very much.”

With such a prolific production of fertilized eggs I excitedly bought an incubator with the dream of having a mini turkey farm, keeping some of the poults for ourselves (for more delicious backyard-to-table dinners down the road) and selling the rest for some extra cash on the side. Little did I know how much the odds are stacked against the production of good, healthy poults! If the egg is fertilized in the first place, the embryo has to grow successfully. And even if an embryo develops properly, carefully maintaining the incubator at a certain temperature and humidity, it has to hatch itself. Sadly, I had several poults die while hatching, as they were not strong enough to sufficiently crack through the shell and push themselves out. And of those that did manage to hatch, some had defects or were ill and others wouldn’t eat or drink, and they ended up dying within the first few days. The harsh reality of life and death shattered my turkey breeding idealism- I’d guess that for every dozen eggs I put in the incubator, only 2-3 would make it through to be healthy birds. But boy did I try! I borrowed a friend’s incubator and had them running in tandem for nearly five months, so that as one batch of eggs was hatching, the eggs in the other incubator would be halfway through, and so on.

The boys enjoyed the whole process as much as I did and were exposed to important life lessons in the meantime. They liked watching me give the birds their food and water, and would accompany me on the daily trek to retrieve the egg. Once the incubators were running, I would catch them sneaking into the room to check on the eggs through the incubator window, even if they were still weeks away from hatching. And as the hatch day approached, I taught them how to candle the eggs with a flashlight to check on the development. And if you ever want your normally rambunctious kids to sit still and channel their energy into excited shrieks and yells, let them watch something hatch out of an egg! Some poults started and finished the whole process in about two hours, others took nearly two days, and others died halfway through. And, of course, watching a new hatchling is fascinating, so they all took shifts on Turkey Patrol.

They loved helping me feed and water the poults and watching them grow and change over the first few days and weeks, and experienced the sadness when I told them a sick newborn had died. One day they came home and asked where the newly-hatched turkeys were, and I explained that I had sold them and that we would use that money to help take care of the other animals. The boys gathered a whole range of valuable experiences with these turkeys, hands-on experiences that balanced nicely with their classroom studies.

And what about Tom and Shelley now, you ask? They were delicious!!

But they gave us one last parting educational gift- Can you guess what those two things are in the picture below? Incredibly… those are still-forming eggs! When we butchered Shelley, we found those inside. It takes more than a day for a turkey hen to form an egg internally, so there is a pipeline of several forming eggs inside her at any one point. AMAZING!

A New Rhythm.

February 9, 2017February 11, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 21 Comments

As our children grow, their rhythms change. Sometimes I feel like the moment I pin everything down, we have a three month respite before the boys and their needs change and I must plan again. Lately I have felt the need to come up with something with more longevity. In the middle of this last school year, I realized that the boys weren’t the only ones growing— I am too! My confidence in my calling as a homeschool teacher has slowly crept upwards over time. I am finding it easier to pray for direction and then step out boldly in faith. The truth is, after years of reading books and observing our children’s learning styles, we have found our own way of doing things.

When we first started homeschooling, I asked someone, “What curriculum should I use?” They told me to get My Fathers World. I went out and bought it. You can read about our years with MFW in great detail here. MFW introduced me to Charlotte Mason, Classical Education, nature study, living books and gentle education. We enjoyed our K-3rd grade years with them to the fullest. This year I watched my children closely and as the months went by I knew in my heart that our learning styles and needs had grown away from MFW. It was a hard realization, but I knew that stepping more fully into a full blown CM/Classical homeschool study was the right thing for us. I reminded myself that these curriculums are tools, not masters. MFW will always have a special place in our hearts. We are so grateful for our years with them! (And you better believe my little one will be having his MFWK year two years from now!) For those that have been shoulder to shoulder with us for the last few years and are now continuing on to MFW CtG, have a beautiful year. We are so excited for you guys.

What else is changing around here?

Well, we kissed Saxon math goodbye (for now). I wish I had dropped it sooner, but I was too afraid of my own math weakness to do so. I needed that scripted crutch. But this year I noticed that my older children did not understand the math questions they were answering correctly. Yes, you read that right. They were answering questions correctly without UNDERSTANDING the math they were doing. No bueno. I did a lot of research and finally settled on Right Start Math. The change doesn’t start next year, its already started! We dropped Saxon mid-year and made the switch. The boys are ecstatic. Not only are they gaining a better grasp on math but they are begging to do math! They love all of the games that come with the program and are flying through their lessons while demonstrating deeper understanding of what they are learning. Hallelujah.

Even more changes?

Our school year has always run from June-March with a one month break for Advent. The summers are too unbearably hot here and we really want to enjoy our beautiful springs fully, so we take our “summer break” earlier in the year. When school ends in a couple of weeks we will be taking a one week break before jumping into our new schedule.

Six weeks on, one week off. We will be doing a special “Adventure term” in the spring, which will essentially serve as a summer break. The course load will be lighter but we will still be learning every day. We will also try something new for advent but this is still TBD.

We have had so many people ask to see our upcoming schedule. For those who have no interest in that click away now. For those that want the nitty gritty, I have two grids to share. One grid for my two fourth graders and one for my first grader. I have not completely solidified the schedule for my youngest yet. I feel a bit like an orchestra conductor right now, I have all these movements and entrances I am weaving together but in the back of my mind I know I have a renegade piccolo just dying to jump in. My older boys have demonstrated such maturity and responsibility this year, I am handing the reigns over a bit more. I am planning out details by the six week quarter. I drew heavily from 3 sources: Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins, Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie and Consider This by Karen Glass. Here we go…

For the older boys:

Details
Now this schedule reflects our Classical Conversations community day on Mondays. We have a hiatus from CC between April and August. So between cycles, we will have an exact copy of Wednesday each Monday. All of our “Essentials work” will be a continuation of our IEW Student Intensive A program, which we are currently using to prepare us for Essentials next year. Once August arrives, one child will be in Essentials and one will not. The child not attending Essentials will continue with the IEW writing program at home.

On a typical day the boys will wake up, make their beds, brush their teeth, feed the animals, go for their run, wash up, set the table and begin Morning Time.

What will Morning Time be comprised of?

Morning Time Schedule
Opening Recitation/Gloria Patri
Prayer Requests/Prayer
Nicene Creed

Hymn Sing

Scripture Memory
Spanish Lesson

Stories of America

Loop: Artist, Poetry, Shakespeare, Church History, Folk Songs, Nature Study, Biography***

Ancient History

Loop: Bible Study , Geography

Close: Prayer, Doxology

Loop List Example***
Artist: Whistler, Homer, Sargent
Poetry: Emerson, Whitman
Shakespeare: As You Like It, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest
Church History: Trial and Triumph
Folk Songs–
Nature Study: Botany–trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, gardens
Biography: Mathematicians are People Too, Vol 2.
_________________________________________________________

Did that overwhelm you? Take a deep breath. Remember that most of these things only take a couple of minutes. We usually accomplish everything before Ancient History in about 40 minutes. This leaves us an hour and twenty minutes for the last two items.

You’ll notice that our schedule is divided into blocks. I have scheduled margin for each of these. Morning Time is the only one we will use the entire designated time for, with many of the subjects on a loop (Taken from Sarah Mackenzie!), that way we are never “behind” in Shakespeare or Art Study, we simply cycle through them over and over again until they are finished. The rest of the subjects have buffers around them because some days the toilet backs up or the dog vomits on the carpet or people’s stinky humanity gets in the way of our to do lists. On days when things progress well then the children have nice buffers of time between blocks to go play together.

As I mentioned before, we are using Right Start for math. We will also be using Memoria Press for Latin and I have yet to choose between Memoria Press and Apologia for Astronomy.

The older boys have two other loops: Language Arts and Independent Work. Each day they do one or two things off the loop and then the next day they go to the next thing on the loop.

Independent Work Loop
Paper Craft
Handwriting
Pin it Maps Geography
Crochet/Knitting
Typing
Correspondence
Independent Math Games
Paper Sloyd
Stop Motion Explosion

Language Arts Loop
Dictation/Spelling
Grammar
Reading
Writing

Our Read Aloud list for next year has not been completed yet. I’ll share a list soon of all the books we plan to read aloud for 2017. We love Lit lunches!

Friday is a day unlike any of the others. We are starting our day off with an in depth study of music. I’ll be sharing all about that in a later post as well.

The boys will have a bit of free time while I prepare everything for either our Friday Exam or a Nature Adventure of some sort. We’ll be alternating Friday Exams every other week. On days when we have nature hikes, we will be eating our lunches and reading our book outdoors.

In the afternoons we will have Symposium. This is Sarah Mackenzie’s term for Morning Time when its done in afternoons. I have borrowed the name but this time will be quite different from Morning Time. Symposium will be our time to gather up and have round table discussions and debates about to dive deeper into our weekly studies. We’ll be making connections between our Classical Conversations work and our study at home. We’ll be pulling out a different timeline card each week to study and discuss. We’ll discuss our science experiments from community day and come up with new questions to test. I am so excited to start Symposium. I’ll be sharing more in depth about this in the future and I hope it will be helpful for those who always ask how we can blend CC and CM.

You will notice that Blessing Hour is still on our schedule. That is one thing (along with Morning Time) that I will never kiss goodbye!

The last component of our school day is our mixed martial arts training, which the boys adore. Its not scribbled in the grid but while the boys are on the mat, I’m enjoying a bit of scholé. I have read so many books while the boys grapple behind the glass. Its been wonderful to study topics that interest me in a quiet room while my boys release pent up energy.

For the 1st grader:

Now, knowing my little guy he will want to do independent work during the “free play” slot. But he is still young enough that I want to make it his decision. His Right Start math and language arts lessons (Alternating Delightful Reading & Copy work) have been averaging about twenty minutes lately. Ive noticed that at 3pm every day he wants to be with me. He wants all of my attention. So now he has it. While the other children do their independent work, I will be enjoying Five in A Row with my boy.

My youngest and I are still trying to figure out our next step. We’ve used The Homegrown Preschooler for two years now. Many of the activities are second nature to us now since we have done them for so long. Truth be told, I think we’ll be using elements of HGP for years to come. But I may be slowly adding in a few more things if he demonstrates an interest in them. For now, its looking like YEAR THREE of The Homegrown Preschooler for us.

Did you read all the way till the end? Crazy pants. Take a deep breath and remember that all the above is what happens to work for my family with our combination of personalities, learning styles, farm life, etc. Please don’t feel like you need to copy all the above. Take little bits that make sense and make them your own. Pray. Make a plan. Pray again. Scrap the plan. Pray again. Talk to your husband. Eat Chocolate. Pray. Make a plan. You’ll get there!

I’ll be updating as time marches on.

MFW ECC: Japan

February 9, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 3 Comments

For this unit we were able to take a trip to Japan! Well, actually, it was the Morikami Museum & Gardens, but the experience was so incredible, the boys felt like it was the real deal.

After strolling through the gardens we arrived at the Children’s Museum.

We got to experience a day in the life of a Japanese child. We had already read several books about Japan so the children (and I) were pointing things out that we recognized. Everyone was very excited to ride the Shinkansen to school.

When we “arrived at school” we looked at the welcome area, which provides each school child with two types of hardhats (one for travel, one for earthquakes) and a rack with school shoes. The boys were so intrigued by the thought of having specific shoes only to be worn inside a classroom.

After school we headed home for a snack.

The boys loved getting to walk through the home layout. The final room housed an exhibit about Japanese Pioneers in our state. It was so fascinating to see our world history study collide with our state history.

We walked back to the main museum for lunch.

The boys enjoyed sushi, teriyaki, cellophane noodles and one boy even tried red bean ice cream!

Next we explored the museum’s gorgeous Origami exhibit and Japanese library.

The boys each sat down with their choice of book. How strange to be in a room full of books we could not understand but could still appreciate for their beauty.

I wish I could share photos of the origami exhibit but cameras were prohibited.

At this point my wonderful mother broke away with my two youngest children and the older boys and I went to catch a portion of the film “Between the Folds.”

The museum’s description of the movie:

“Between the Folds” chronicles the stories of 10 fine artists and intrepid scientists who abandoned careers and scoffed at hard-earned graduate degrees – all to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paperfolders. The film paints an arresting portrait of the remarkable artistic and scientific creativity that fuels this ever-changing art form, fusing science and sculpture, form and function, ancient and new.

As these offbeat and provocative characters converge on the unusual medium of origami, they reinvent an ancient art, and demonstrate the innumerable ways that ingenuity and expression come to bear as we all struggle to understand and honor the world around us – as artists, scientists, creators, collaborators, preservers and simply curious beings.

If you have any way of tracking this film down and watching it—do so! My idea of origami was blown away by this film.

We remember so much from this week, even though we did much less work at home. There is such value in these sorts of experiences.

We’ll be recapping our time in Russia, Australia and Antarctica soon!

MFW ECC: China

February 9, 2017February 9, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 1 Comment

Have you ever had one brilliant living book take over an entire week of study? That happened to us with “You Can Write Chinese” by Kurt Wiese.

We’ve had the unexpected blessing of a living book library opening up in our county. Its such a delight to walk into a library and know that my children can select any book from the shelves and it will be a beautiful living book. I asked our wonderful librarian Mrs. Michelle if she had any special recommendations for our study of China. She pulled Kurt Wiese’s book from the shelf with a gleam in her eye. “This is a new acquisition. No one has checked it out yet. You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”

We took our bin of books home and the next day I asked the boys to each chose one to read that afternoon. My eldest, who wrestles with Dyslexia, chose the Wiese book. The story follows a young American boy who is experiencing his first day of school in China. His teacher relieves the young boy’s anxieties over learning this complex new language by describing the characters of the language in story form.

My son was emotionally overwhelmed by this book. He could understand Chinese. The characters made perfect sense to him. He was so thrilled to at encounter written language with ease. We read the book over and over again. Then, completely unprompted, he sat down and wrote a story…in Chinese.

The background to this story is all the time spent in prayer, begging God for victories in homeschooling for our son. In many ways, his dyslexia is a gift. His mind is incredible. He sees, understands and creates things the rest of us cannot. His mind is otherworldly, but it has to go through the torturous experience of learning how to process things in this world. My heart is often heavy for him. We do our best to encourage and gently challenge him. We have seen steady improvement and had wonderful days that end with celebration and praise. This was one of those days. After weeks of consistent lows, I prayed that God would hug my boy with a victory. He set a 72 year old book in our path to bolster my son’s confidence.

Needless today, this book was never far from his sight that week. He wrote a new story every day and I made sure to set everything aside so I could sit down and listen to his retelling with undivided attention. I smiled. He glowed.

Here are a few of the other books the rest of us enjoyed this week.

BOOKLIST

You Can Write Chinese by Kurt Weise
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong
Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
Growing Up in Ancient China by Ken Teague
We’re Riding on a Caravan by Laurie Krebs
Little Pear by Eleanor Francis Latecomer
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo
Gladys Aylward by Janet Benge
Hearts and Hands: Chronicles of the Awakening Church by Brandon Withrow
Homesick by Jean Fritz
Wild China –BBC Production

The Road to Morning Time: Starting Out

February 6, 2017May 6, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 13 Comments

My heart still squeezes a bit when I think of those first months of Morning Time. Partly because I was in a really bad place and partly because my kids were so itty bitty and all I wanted was to be a good mom to them.

Back in 2010 I was in the throes of dealing with PTSD. My husband was in grad school. We had zero money and three kids aged 3 and under. I had a bookshelf that was 90% twaddle and I was pretty convinced I was going to ruin my kids.

I remember feeling overwhelmed going from place to place with the boys, because someone always seemed to be pushing something on us. That “something” usually cost lots of money and it was almost always “something” we were told we needed in order to be good parents. You can ONLY eat organic, you MUST buy all these oils from plants you’ve never even heard of, and it is ESSENTIAL that your child receive chiropractic care after their infant suzuki lessons. Ok, I am being a *leetle bit sarcastic* here. But you get the point. Nothing wrong with any of the above listed things, it just felt like everyone wanted me to prove my good intentions for motherhood by dropping tons of money we didn’t have. It taught me the lesson early on that you don’t need a lot of money to be a good parent. What their hearts truly need, can’t be bought or purchased. With money out of the equation, I had to make the intentional choice to create a culture of love for my children using my words and actions. But how to fight through darkness to this place of love and light?

I’ll be completely honest and say that my panic attacks were terrifying. I often crack jokes on here to minimize things, but there was nothing funny about PTSD. My attacks came with terrible frequency and were the single most discouraging thing I have ever had to face. They made me feel like a bad mom, even though deep in my heart I KNEW that was not the case.

What does this have to do with morning time?

I never had panic attacks first thing in the morning. They usually happened between the early afternoon and late evening hours. Early in the morning, I still felt like maybe I could be a good mom. I still had hope. I wanted to make the most of it!

If you read our first post on Morning Time, you’ll remember that I mentioned the exciting revelation of preparing food for the purpose of luring my children to the same spot each day so I could teach them all at the same time. I chose the morning hour, not for any philosophical reason, but because I could survive it. I chose to feed them simply because it would make them stay. I chose to make it as beautiful as my means would allow so that it would nourish them. Those were the roots of our morning time. Pure survival with a tiny dash of hope.

When I think of beauty born from darkness, I think of morning time. It was the highlight of our days. They are the memories I pray my children stored in their hearts.

It wasn’t fancy or academically rigorous. It was simple and humble and honestly life-giving. Its where we first started bonding over stories. Its where my boys began to appreciate things like intentional meals, shared conversation, and special touches that make a house a home. Their eyes, ears and hearts were slowly opened to ideas bearing truth, goodness and beauty. They heard about honor, mercy, justice, courage, love, kindness, humility and good humor.

I would set out a vase of flowers from our garden, or whatever weeds they had ripped from the yard–roots intact! I would gather the few books I knew in my heart weren’t twaddle. The Bible, AA Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry, and a book of Aesop’s fables. On days when I had the wherewithal to make a bigger breakfast, I’d make the most out of the extended minutes and read a bit out of each book. On days when I could only offer up a few bowls of cereal, I read what I could while they quickly guzzled their food.

Some days they were thrilled and asked for “one more story!” before jumping out of their seats while I was mid sentence. This never really hurt my feelings or discouraged me. I had a feeling deep down in my heart that this was a bit like learning how to walk or ride a bike. They were trying things out, testing to see how it worked, deciding whether or not they liked it yet.

Little by little they learned to like it a lot.

My first big breakthrough was the day I discovered “Honey for a Child’s Heart” by Gladys Hunt. This darling woman made a book filled with lists of all the wonderful stories I longed to share with my children. I now had a map for the library, an inside scoop, a cheat sheet!

The boys started to blossom as they heard these stories, but they were still jumping out of their seats too early. Each reading session was only ten minutes and I wanted so badly to finish just ten measly peasly minutes!!!

One day, I tried something new. When they left, I kept reading aloud as though they were still there. I read aloud until I finished that day’s portion. Then I closed the book and called them back to help tidy up the table and sweep up the crumbs beneath. After a week or two of reading to my children even after they had left the table, they started to squirm out of their seats, leave and return— and then linger a bit. Diaper clad bottoms would lean against chairs or dangle over the sides of chairs and my words would roll around the room while they wiggled and weighed their options. After another six weeks they started staying in their chairs until the story was done. One day the eldest chirped up, “And now for a wittle bit more stowies, Mama.” A meager three minutes a day stretched to 15 minutes after nearly 9 months of morning times. This may not sound like much progress, but keep in mind —THREE BOYS AGED THREE AND UNDER. It was miraculous! Whats more, it was a HAPPY 15 minutes.

That first year we only read picture books, the Bible, poetry and fables, and it was wonderful. Messy, imperfect, hilarious, humbling and wonderful. More than half the year was spent with no more than 6-8 minutes of morning time and we grew it ever so slowly.

After the year had passed I set my sights on doing something a bit more “official” than before. I was motivated and ready. My panic attacks were still lurking around, but the mornings were victorious. I was gaining confidence little by little. “Official” sounded good and I was almost positive that if I prayed hard enough, it would happen!

And then I found out I was pregnant again…

Stay tuned for the next stop on The Road to Morning Time— the pregnant pause.

MFW ECC: INDIA

January 31, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 3 Comments

India. We studied India several months ago and I am just now getting around to recording it. We integrated India into our morning time, drinking masala chai on a few occasions and reading all the Kipling we could get our hands on. We also did a nice study on the life of Ghandi. We found an excellent Ghandi book recommendation on Simply Charlotte Mason, see the booklist at the end of the post for details. We also enjoyed looking through some of the books on this list of popular Indian books for children.

This was definitely a book heavy week! So many adventures to be had in far away India.

The boys wanted to hike in our local preserve and “just pretend its India for a bit.” I said very little to them during the hike. The ran out of the car and lost themselves in play for an hour or so. It was beautiful to see them still thriving in imaginary play between their studies.

On the third day of our studies I set out numerous spices for them to smell and taste. I prepared a few recipes ahead of time for them to prepare and try. The boys loved getting to try their hand at these recipes! Our favorite by far was this beef and mint samosa dish (we did not make the accompanying sauce). We kicked off a mini kitchen frenzy with many of these recipes and experienced a long stretch of days with the boys wanting to cook (and juice!) everything.

Then we were slapped with back to back rain, with mom under the weather for the end of the week. So I picked up some of my favorite film adaptations of Frances Hodgson Burnett books, “A Little Princess” and “The Secret Garden” for us to watch while we caught up on some of our handwork projects. These films gave us further opportunity to discuss colonization, which we initially discussed during our study of Africa.

The final day of our study dawned bright and beautiful. We made a simple curry dish for lunch and finished off the last of the books on our list.

Then we read Steve Jenkins wonderful book about Mt Everest and took a 360 degree tour of Mt Everest thanks to Project360! (You can also take a 360 degree look at the Taj Mahal)
My boys were not up for this particular experience, but if your children are interested pick up some Kokila Mehandi Cone for Henna tattoos.

The boys were definitely up for a messy color fight with Rangoli Festival (Holi powder) in the backyard.

We capped off our studies by taking our daily tracings of India and making one last tracing in various colors and smearing our favorite spices on the map to scent them. (This site is drowning in ads, but if you look at the left hand side you will find many helpful maps of India for your studies).
India Booklist:
Ghandi: The Young Protestor Who Founded a Nation by Phillip Wilkinson
The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman
The Rajah’s Rie by David Barry
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
Tusk and Stone by Malcom Bosse
Amy Charmicheal by Kathleen White

The Very First Morning Time

January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 9 Comments

When we first began morning time I didn’t have a name for it. What I had was three kids in diapers, sleep deprivation and a raging case of PTSD.

I knew that I wanted to homeschool. I knew that I wanted it to look completely different than my classroom experiences thus far. I knew that I had a tiny house, next to no money, a husband in grad school, a three year old that refused to potty train, a two year old that I was convinced would grow up to be a serial killer and a nursing baby.

We dove in.

My first problem was figuring out how to get all these active children gathered up and settled into one spot for any given length of time. It was hard not to notice that the boys were constantly eating. The only time it was relatively quiet and peaceful was when little mouths were stuffed with apples or cheese or yogurt. I decided to lure them in with food.

Our very first morning time lasted five minutes. It consisted of myself, two small boys strapped into high chairs and one baby in a sling. I had set out a small vase of flowers from the garden and lit a candle. I placed chopped fruit on table trays and started nursing the baby. I cracked open a random book selected three minutes prior and began to read aloud.

They pretty much ignored me as they wolfed down their snack and mere minutes later they were all chanting “down! down! down! down!”

That was it.

Our very first morning time.

What we have now is quite different of course. Starting with the fact that we now have a name for it after discovering other families had been doing the same thing all along. Morning Time. On most days its beautiful and wonderful and so engrained in our family culture that if we skip the boys get upset. It is honestly my favorite thing we do as a homeschool family. The road from that very first morning time till now is quite a bumpy one, paved with the stubborn determination of a mom too thick headed to throw in the towel.

Building up our morning time was the work of thousands of days. Stretched in the most minuscule daily increments that have started to pool together into something truly life-giving and refreshing.

I have posted a series of short videos on Instagram with tips for Morning Time and at the request of followers have decided to begin a series on Morning Time here on our blog. I am not a Morning Time expert. I don’t have all the answers. I can only testify from what we have walked through the last six years.

If you want true expertise, read Cindy Rollins book “Mere Motherhood” without delay. She has a smaller accompanying book called “Morning Time” packed with wonderful suggestions. Cindy Rollins, of course, is the woman behind Morning Time. While many of us may have started our own version of it in our homes, Cindy was the gal who ordered the philosophy of it all. You can visit her blog at Morning Time Moms.

Join us on our series, “Road to Morning Time.” You can subscribe over on the left somewhere and have each post delivered to your inbox. If you have any specific questions you would like answered over the course of the series, leave them in the comments below!

Nature Study with the Giles Frontier

January 17, 2017January 17, 2017 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 3 Comments

Since last summer we’ve been quietly working through a nature study guide. We haven’t really shared much about it, simply because I wanted to work through a good portion before sharing it with you all.

We get questions about Nature Study all the time. Most of them from moms that have no idea what to do once they get outside. They slather on the sunscreen, coat themselves with bug spray, plop sunhats on everyones heads and march outside and sit out in the sun waiting for something to happen. Or from moms in those middling years when you want to do more than take a nature walk but your not quite sure how. If you are not an outdoorsy person, where do you begin? And once you do begin, is it really worth it? Can you really get anything out of it?

If you are using My Father’s World, you know that every week you will open your manual and see the scheduled “Nature Walk.” If you are feeling stuck when you reach this point in your week or if you are using another curriculum entirely and need something to give you direction when it come stop nature study and nature hikes, then please read on!

Holly Giles is the charming and relatable boy mom force behind “Blazing New Trails: Purposeful Nature Learning.” A multi-age, unit based guide for what the heck to do with yourselves when you finally get everyone outside.

Guys, if you read this blog with any frequency than you know I have no problem deciding what to do once I am outside.

I benefited greatly from this guide.

I still love open ended play and interest led discovery outdoors, but goodness gracious is it ever nice to have a plan for the day or a focus for the month. There are 12 chapters in this guide, the last one directed to Florida residents, and over 150 pages of guidance. Huzzah!

We began with the study of birds. Not our first rodeo with ornithology and we still gleaned a lot from this study. Drawing flight patters, learning new poems, conducting field studies, working with measurements, recording observations, and the building of one very sad looking bird feeder that I treasure with all my heart!

One of our favorite chapters was on raising chickens. Since we already have chickens, I figured this one would be easy peasy lemon squeezy. (If you don’t have chickens you can do this study at a local farm. If you are feeling plucky you can incubate eggs for a farmer!) The embryology study was FASCINATING to my boys. They loved it.

On our second go around with the boys (Yes, we will be redoing chapters next year!) we plan on maximizing on the unit’s wonderful ideas on advertising, design, and business skills. This will be wonderful for my budding entrepreneur.

Study state and local parks, beaches, butterflies, turtles, birds. Have adventures at U pick farms, farmer’s markets and the country fair. Hand the guide over to your kids and let THEM PLAN IT ALL. There is something very empowering for children when they get to be the teacher and run the show. My eldest boys loved the times when I handed them the guide and asked them, “Can you please plan our day for tomorrow? Pick your favorite portions, questions, ideas between pages __ and __ . Then make a schedule for us leaving time for lunch and bathroom breaks. I can’t wait to see what you come up with tomorrow!” How those little chests puff up with confidence and excitement.

The boys had so many things to chose from within each unit. I love that this guide introduces several “subjects” and combines them all together. History, math, art, literature, etc. all dwell in within these pages! I enjoyed geeking out over the combinations of study and how well the boys did with all of it.

There are pieces we really went crazy with and other portions we held off on for another year. All my boys ages 9-4 were able to participate with each chapter in some way. You can read through the chapters and organize it however your hearts desires, or if you need a daily plan, there is a schedule in the back all ready to go. While you can use this book in any state, Holly gives special attention to all the nooks and crannies her home state of Florida has to offer. I have a very long list of all these wonderful places to visit now that the weather has finally cooled down.

Now I have to share that this guide also gave us all so many great bonding experiences and memories. Watching my little guys shriek and giggle as they worked out the flight pattern of the red tailed hawk that always visits our backyard, visiting the turtle rescue with our cousins, hatching all those fuzzy baby chicks and marveling over their development inside those eggs, adding depth to our nature study, taking new trails, bonding over new books, memorizing poems, walking outside with a plan that turns into sweet memory, those are the things I have valued most about using this guide. Visit The Giles Frontier and check them out!

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Review Policy: Farmhouse Schoolhouse received these materials with the opportunity for review. Our policy states that we do not review products, resources, books, media or curriculums that do not fit in with our methodology/homeschool life.