MFW Adventures: 1492—go with the flow.

June 27, 2015June 27, 2015 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 1 Comment

Christopher Columbus!

I always love the way June Allyson, as Jo March in Little Women, lets that expression fly.

I ended up saying it all week…

i.e. “Christopher Columbus! There’s an armadillo in our yard!”
I have lived in Florida for the majority of my life and never once met an armadillo in the wild. To be fair, this armadillo has presumably lived its entire life in Florida and never encountered me once. We kept our distance out of respect for Mr. Armadillo’s wild nature and all around creepiness. Hooray, nature walk! Always exciting when something other than birds, bugs and/or types of bark, happens.

And that is not the only strange thing that happened around here….

My boys asked to do multiple crafts.

Multiple.

Crafts.

They made a pirate ship (Not what Columbus sailed on but I’ll take it), three maps, bead necklaces to trade for Indian gold and a flaaarrllaarggllaar made out of popsicle sticks. Ok, even after it was explained to me three times by my exasperated six year old, I’m still not quite sure. I believe it was some sort of navigation tool. I said “ooooo” and “aaahhh” whenever he paused for approval during his explanation. A flarrrrllaarggllaaar you guys! All on his own!

Ah, Columbus. He really wanted that trade route.

He wanted the route and I really wanted the boys to hit certain goals this week. Halfway through I realized that they were going in a completely different direction than I.

Just like Columbus, I had hit an unexpected barrier. Pesky ol’ South America kept Columbus from finding Asia (and months of madness, possible mutiny, starvation and eventual death in the middle of the Pacific). I decided to respect the road blocks my kids were putting up, lest I meet with disaster, and follow their lead. Last week, they were up for long discussions about Leif Ericsson. This week, they wanted hands on experiences and in-depth play about Columbus. In other words: “stop talking Mom and play with us!”

We enjoyed the MFW materials in this unit–especially American Pioneers and Patriots. This became one of our favorite read alouds during our Literary Lunch hour. When the rains came, we hid in the boys bunks. Catalina, Pedro and Martin, riding out the storm. (We did not wedge any knives into the door)

Our Beautiful Feet book study continues to delight the boys. While I enjoyed “Leif the Lucky” more, it was great to add in “Columbus” for a few great comparison discussions. The boys have learned so much about diligence and self-control in these last two weeks of BF study. We press on, eager for more great living-book learning!

The younger set of siblings had a great time tagging along this week. Every time the elder boys asked to draw maps or star charts, the younger boys would jump in on the fun. Lots of paint everywhere. Truly, a fantastic mess. They were so happy!

The boys are still loving their manipulative maps from Interactive 3D Maps: American History. Its probably our favorite resource this year!

We also enjoyed watching the Drive Thru History episode about Columbus. We asked for the series last Christmas and its been great fun so far–we highly recommend it!

After days of reading and mapmaking, the boys were itching for some adventure. When an afternoon rainstorm rolled in on Friday, my eldest stood at the window and watched the powerful winds shake the trees in our orchard.

“Can you imagine this kind of fury in the open unknown sea?” he asked.

“It must be terrifying,” I said.

“Mom, is it too late in the world to have an explorer’s heart?” he wondered.

“Never.” I assured him.

“Thats good. I am a kind of boy thats made up of courage and exploration but with safety too because, well, you’re my Mom and I love you,” he grinned at me.

I’m glad I went with the flow. Forcing them to do everything on my agenda, well, they may as well matriculate into our local school system for all the good it will do them as independent, creative learners.

I love watching them develop a love of learning.

I love that studying about Columbus and Viking Explorers has left my boys with a heart for exploring and a yearning for discovery, instead of an ache from sitting down all day staring at a textbook.

I read a passage this week about the unfurling of a mighty white sail from its massive yardarm. The boys were listening attentively, faces smiling and eyes alight with wonder. I’ve spent the last years hoisting their sails onto yardarms, tacking everything down and tying everything in place. Now the sails are beginning to unfurl, the wind may not have caught yet, but the sails are starting to stretch out and its a breathtaking experience.

Book List for Columbus (I found nearly all of them at the library)
1. Explorers Who Got Lost by Diane Sansevere Dreher
2. The World of Columbus & Sons by Genevieve Foster (this is an upper level BF book. We just looked through it)
3. Who Was Christopher Columbus by Bonnie Bader
4. Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky
5. Animals Christopher Columbus Saw by Sandra Markle
6. Pedro’s Journal by Peter Koeppen
7. Into the Unknown by Stewart Ross
8. Great Ships by Patrick O’Brien
9. Columbus by Ingri & Edgar d’Aulaire
10. Land Ho! Fifty Glorious Years in the Age of Exploration by Nancy Winslow Parker (This was a great read for any kiddos wanting MORE explorers!)

MFW Adventures: Vikings & Intestinal Disorder

June 22, 2015June 22, 2015 ~ Feisty Mama ~ Leave a comment

And so it begins…with Vikings!

I had grand plans for this week, my MFW friends. Have you done a pinterest search for Viking projects? Chances are you have. I know I have. In fact, I have a pinterest plan for every unit this year!

This is because I routinely set myself up for catastrophic failure by inundating my life with self-imposed, unrealistic expectation via pinterest. Super healthy, right?

But God is gracious, you know?

For this first week of school, He decided to smote us with stomach flu, which was probably the best gift He could have given us. Perceived failure at the starting gate and then GRACE.

This is a pretty standard pattern in my life. I make enormous plans and from the get go, the rug gets torn out from under me. I pray, reevaluate and the dust settles into something way better than I had planned for. I am stupid enough to need this method of correction repeatedly, yet so drenched in grace that I can only feel relief afterwards, instead of shame or defeat.

Confession: I wanted to build a kid-sized historically accurate viking ship out of cardboard boxes, duck tape, aluminum foil, wasted hours and bitter tears.

Yup. We have four kids, a farm, house chores, church commitments, co-op commitments, relationship commitments, etc. and I wanted to spend my nights not talking to my husband and building a kid-sized Viking ship.

Instead, I spent my nights escorting tiny people to the bathroom for a not so tiny horror show.

In the mornings, I’d stare at my planner with disgust and regret.

After a few minutes I’d move on to the question, “which of these activities translates naturally into our learning styles so that my kids can enjoy quality, skillful learning this morning?”

There are about a zillion ideas and pins for Adventures. You won’t have any trouble finding ideas. But you will have trouble if you overwhelm yourself with unnecessary fiddle-faddle.

Thats right, I said fiddle-faddle.

So ask yourself the question, let it lead to other questions and start gleaning.

Does this translate? Does this fit in with the way you homeschool? Does it fit in with why you homeschool?

Does it fit the learning styles? You are an expert on your kids. How great that your child gets a custom tailored education! There is a lot of stuff out there. You can’t use all of it. If your kid loves playing with dolls, by all means, forgo that snotty looking handout from smartchildrenonly.com and give your kids some paper dolls to act out the story with.

Don’t get overwhelmed, get picky! Choose things for your child that will increase their joy in learning and your joy in teaching. I might have to make a sign for my desk.

Don’t get overwhelmed, get picky!

Here’s what rose to the top for us this week…

My boys are big on things they can touch and/or manipulate. I can read a story about the Viking voyage ten times and it won’t soak into their brains the way moving a boat through a chart will.

Interactive 3-D Maps: American History is a big win for us this year. Several of the MFW units are included in this book. The copyright allows for reproduction within your class so this will be a reusable tool for us.

My second born was under the weather on this day so I colored his map and he helped me assemble it.

My eldest had no trouble coloring his own map and needed little assistance in assembling the pieces, specifically, he need help cutting the line into an open slit for the ships to travel in. Every time I read a Viking Tale or story last week, the boys would pull out these maps and play/follow along, moving Eric the Red’s ship from Iceland to Greenland while emanating accompanying growls and other boisterous Viking sounds.

My eldest loves detailed pictures. Richard Scarry books are one of his favorite things on the planet. All those thousand of delicious details for mothers to read out like a robot when its 9:30pm and they are exhausted….
Kidding, I love me some RS. (le sigh)

I found “Into the Unknown” and the kids adore it. Details, galore! Beginning with Pytheas the Greek sailing to Ultima Thule circa 340 BC and ending with Apollo 11 in 1969, this wonderful book gives us historical play by play, along with diagrams of navigation tools, charts and beautiful drawings of the vessel’s insides. Sophisticated Busy Town.

Guess what happened after they read that book? They went out and built their own longships and knarrs out of legos. Pretty sure building their own lego ships cemented this story in their heads to a greater degree than my building a giant cardboard ship would have. Although, they probably would have remembered the weeping, wailing and eventual surrender. Lets face it, I never would have finished that ship and if I had it would have been a hot mess. They wouldn’t have helped out or learned much while watching me stress out over cardboard cutouts and a glue gun. Build with me/learn with me was not a realistic goal for this week, which we are already referring to as “Viking Pukefest.”

Getting these children to willingly engage in craft or art time is an art in and of itself. On a week when we are feeling under the weather, I pretty much let them do whatever they want instead of insisting on a project I want them to do.

This was craft time. They loved it. They didn’t whine. I loved it.

Viking are fascinating. The mythology, the survival skills, the head gear. They created some truly beautiful things. But like all other humans, they also did some pretty horrific things.

I wasn’t quite ready to read accounts of Viking marauders to my kiddos, but I did want to give them a closer look at Vikings, their place in history and the damage they did.

I also wanted them to stay in one place with a puke bucket next to them. (Seriously, what is it with the classic kid move of running while vomiting? So much ick.)

Sit down. Hold this bucket. Watch this….

We watched “Secret of Kells,” which is an incredibly beautiful movie. The Vikings are the bad guys and we follow young Brendan, master illuminator, on his quest to help preserve the Book of Kells (a copy of the four gospels) from Viking raiders with the help of his kinda creepy wolf/girl friend. Visually, it is art work from start to finish. I love exposing my kids to that kind of beauty and detail. Spiritually, it provided a great framework for us to discuss “mythologies” of the day. Celtic mythology, Norse mythology, mythology within medieval Christianity and so on. Lots of myth and false gods entangled in there, but the gospel was still “the light in the darkness.”

We looked at pictures of the Book of Kells and marveled over the details of this lavish work. I even found the wherewithal to crush some berries so the kids could paint a picture like the illuminators did.

We talked about the latin vulgate and the preservation of the four gospels. We talked about the death of certain characters and the very real, every day brutalities faced by some groups of people. Really, the quality of the discussions which sprang from this movie surprised me.

Oh, we also watched How to Train Your Dragon because VIKINGS.

The quality of the discussions which sprang from this movie, did not surprise me.

But we had fun.

We’ll post Vikings Part 2 soon.

PS. If you actually managed to build a kid-sized viking ship, post a picture. Way to go! Hope your kiddos had a blast.

My Father’s World Adventures Year: Getting Ready

June 17, 2015June 22, 2015 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 14 Comments

I can’t believe second grade is upon us, but here we are! After a lovely “Summer in Spring” break, we are ready to start My Father’s World Adventures.

For all you MFW Mamas out there—here is a breakdown of how we “organized” our year, what extras we tossed in and what we took out.

I know lots of über-organized Moms like to label, laminate and make special work boxes for each subject, etc. God bless you, wonderful organized women! I am not gifted that way. If I tried to buy one of those rolling rainbow carts I keep seeing on the Facebook page for Adventures, it would end up hijacked by toddlers driven wild by malicious intent to destroy shiny newly discovered object. The once lovely homeschool cart would end up a fully weaponized derby cart for chickens before the week was out. So yeah, this post won’t feature work boxes of doom.

BEHOLD!

I call it, “Basket of Curriculum.”

Don’t everybody pin it all at once.

The MFW manual has planned out the curriculum by week. I have found that the homeschool planner term “week” is equivalent to a thumbtack-encrusted anvil about my neck. Weeks 1-4 will be fairly smooth, but you know by the time 5 hits someone will be throwing up on Tuesday and on Thursday you will need to make a meal for your super pregnant friend who is on home lockdown with her 9 kids. You’ll have to mash tons of lessons in on Friday and miss your nature walk, all for the sake of getting that crisp week long unit in.

So I ignored the word “week” and subbed in “unit” or “theme.” The lid is off the pressure cooker AND if we are having a great time on a certain topic we can stretch it out a bit without feeling like we are behind.

Each unit has its own high-tech manilla folder. I write out all the various themes, supply lists, Draw Write Now page numbers, pinterest ideas, correlating Magic School Bus episodes, etc., on the outside. I enjoy pulling it out for the sheer pleasure of gazing upon its state of the art efficiency.

Thankfully, there are lots of loose hand outs this year.

Yaaaaaayyy.

Gone are the days of 1st grade spiral-bound splendor.

Last year, my Christmas list had a comb binder on it (take a moment to absorb the coolness of that confession) so we traded spiral binding for comb binding…

The boys each have four bound booklets.

1. States Notebook (State sheets from MFW)
2. State Motto Copywork book. (Extra handwriting practice)
3. My Father’s World Scripture Copywork (Scripture sheets from MFW)
4. Student Sheets Notebook

The rest of the basket contains:

1. Saxon Math 2
2. Spelling by Sound and Structure
3. Writing With Ease Level 2
4. First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
5. Usborne Scince (Included in MFW Curriculum package)
6. Teach Them Spanish Grade 2 (A cheap win!)
7. Star-Spangled State book
8. Maps
9. CTB Bibles
10.Early American History: A Literature Approach for Primary Grades
11.Classical Conversations (which includes our new grammar, Art, Music Theory and Science)

Most of my reference books I stack next to my other basket, which holds timeline cards from Classical Conversations, tin whistles, flashcards, etc.

Explode the Code, Draw Write Now and any other remedial teaching aids I need to access quickly rest against that basket.

If its one area I don’t skimp on, its books! I am a mathematics disaster zone so the personal library overload is a bandaid on my numerically illiterate heart.

The boys have small book baskets on their bed, filled with read alouds from the library.

I am encouraging them to keep a simple log of their favorite books this year.

Found this puppy at convention last month in the Rainbow Resource booth. I have no doubt that this particular item will either be a total hit or miserable miss.

I have also surrendered my counter space in the classroom to our History books. We received many of these when a local library closed and everything else was found at thrift stores or thrift sites. I’ve added several books off of the Sonlight core reading list for American History, which I bought used.

And now for a quick look at the setup in our classroom (which was once a garage, refurbished into an office space by the family that lived here before we bought the farmhouse).

This is the cleanest my work space will look all year. I am more than ok with it looking a bit messy. I love those Montessori preschool spaces with their airy light and open bookcases and trays of educational goodness, free from pesky bourgeois germs, boogers and crayon marks. Alas, this classroom is dripping with books and papers and life, and so the lofty Montessori Play Space pins remain in the graveyard of my pinterest board.

The work table. A donation from the basement of my generous in-laws’ home. I go through at least one bottle of Goo Gone on that table alone each year.

The upper cabinets are stocked with art supplies, audiobooks, math manipulatives, science supplies and yard after yard of lovely fabric and bundles of yarn, relics from when I used to have this amazing thing called “Time.”

The rest of the classroom is outfitted for the imaginative play needs and heavy-handed dictatorial demands of the preschoolers. Nothing matches and everything is covered in a fine layer of cracker crumbs.
I love our play stand, which is rarely used as pictured in the catalogues. It is, in fact, a jungle gym for marine training, and occasionally moonlights as a covered wagon, submarine, wigwam, and/or a Starbucks.

The book nook was built by my Hubs and Father-in-law. I modge-podged pages from a science book onto the back wall. The lower cubbies hold a science center to the left, puzzles and cars to the right. When the curtains unfurl they display a terribly inaccurate map of the globe courtesy of Urban Outfitters.

I try to stack things in corners for the nosey ones to sort through: lacing cards, magnet tiles, a basket of peg pirate people. By the end of the school day these shelves are typically empty and some enraged tiny person is standing on its wiry top, shouting down at the rest of us.

All of our Schleich toy animals live in wooden sorting crates under these science posters. They do take frequent sojourns throughout the house, but this is their main landing place.

Lastly, the littles enjoy these Big Joe chairs (which lost their shapes 5 months after we purchased them). I usually leave the elders working on an assignment so I can cuddle up with Team B and a few books.

And that is how we pulled stuff together this year for MFW Adventures. We are adding in our preschool curriculum this August so stay tuned for that bit of lunacy.