Wordless Wednesday

Free Literature...A Treasure Trove

I just LOVE to buy books! I love reading books on learning and on all subjects but this year we had to really cut back! The Baldwin Project is one of my favorite sites. These books online are free for all to enjoy. Also, if you'd like to purchase these books they are quite reasonable. You can also check out Yesterday's Classics by genre. I just love the conversational tone of these "living" books.

Here are a few we just couldn't pass up...

The Story Book of Science by Fabre is lovely! Read this aloud while your children sketch in their science notebooks. In fact anything by Fabre is a gem!

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Houghton is also another pick for our family this season. A fun addition to your holiday traditions!

English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall is a wonderful pick not only for your younger children but for your high schoolers too! This book is divided up by author. Need some information on Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bunyun? You got it!

"Relaxed" Homeschooling with Schedules

Relaxed homeschooling by the fireside...

Schedule for 16 year old...especially handy for him when traveling...

I've tried homeschooling without schedules. I just can't do it. It isn't in my nature so I won't fight it. I really do these schedules more for myself so that I can see we are accomplishing something. We love our Macintosh computers! I could go into how much we love them but that's another post! I will just say this though; Using a Mac computer is just so easy, and I know it because I am in no way computer literate and yet I create films, open up notebooks,write, create folders, and upload pictures with ease.

I have created a notebook file for each of our children and there is where I keep their schedules, books read, and activities. We don't stick staunchly to the schedule but it helps our family to have a much smoother day of learning and has created for us over the years a "relaxed" style of homeschooling.

Yesterday, I captured our children learning together at the fireside. Our highschoolers were studying SAT vocabulary flash cards, our six year old was writing her numbers, our ten year old was reading about Saint Benedict, and our thirteen year old was reading A History of US.

I loved the atmosphere so much that I had to take a few photographs!

Finding your style as a homeschooling mother or father is the first key to successful homeschooling, and writing schedules yet keeping a relaxed atmosphere is the best way to school for us!

Since our boys travel a lot, here is a sample schedule for our 13 year old ( mind you...he's got to be done by noon so he can work:):

Theology-Read 1 chapter per day of Saint Paul the Apostle

ch.4___ ch.5___ch.6___ch.7___ch.8___

Beginning Algebra (do math exercises in gridded notebook) This book is going to be really fun!

___Day 1 read pp.7-20 and do “your turn to play” NEATLY in your notebook

__Day 2 read pp. 21—25 on page 25 do “your turn to play” numbers 1-20

__Day 3 read p. 28 and do city of __Adin and city of __Elberfield (p.29)

__Day 4 do odd #’s for city of ___San Francisco & city of __Gainsville (p.30)

__Day 5 do __Palmer & __Racine (all) I will check these when you get home!

Language

Spelling- copy into your notebook from Sequential Spelling

__21^st day__22^nd day __23^rd day__24^th day (Really try to remember these words their syllables and prefixes and suffixes as you copy them.)

Copywork from David Balfour by Robert Louis Stevenson

__day 1 __day 2 __day 3 Really closely look at spelling and puntuations and copy neatly!!!

History-read volume 5 A History of US by Hakim

__ch.27__ch.28__ch.29 ­­__ch.30

Literature: Continue to read your book of choice for your literature studies. Let me know what it is so I can enter it into your book log.

Earth Science: continue to read from your field guides entering in points of interest in your notebook, the gems and their chemical compositions.

Writing in the Style of...

Thanks to Julie Bogart's site Brave Writer and her blog, a seed was planted in our hearts of how to approach writing this year. Three of our children came up with very creative and fun writing projects. Our 10 year old is writing a story with the working title "The Magician", our 13 year old is writing in the style of Andy Rooney from 60 minutes beginning with the line "Why do people have so many...", our 16 year old is making diary entries as if he was Benjamin Franklin, and our 17 year old who is studying British literature, wrote a short paper using the style of Jane Austen.

I am dying to purchase Bogart's book The Writer's Jungle and hope to do so in the future:)

Of course, one needs to learn how to write the five paragraph expository essay, but for us that isn't the only approach that we want to take. In homeschooling writing, we hope to have our children develop a love for writing and if not, at least not a fear of putting the pen to the paper.

Yesterday, our ten year old would not put down her story and spent a couple of hours working on it while periodically coming up to me excitedly saying, "Mom, listen to what happens next!"

The key: Do not correct sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. Yep, that's right! We save that for our SEPARATE spelling and dictation exercises. Also, we will correct one paragraph a week in their stories. But, at that point they will not be playing the author but the editor. (This does not apply to the high schoolers. But, they are very capable of proofreading and it is not a drudgery to them.)

Here is a sample of our 17 year old's writing in the style of Jane Austen:

As I walked through the gate that opened onto the garden behind the vast expanses of Lord Peter’s manor, I thought back on what he had said regarding his brother’s disposition and character, which must now be in doubt. Sir Charles Blake had always seemed like such an agreeable fellow, and this version of his character given by his own brother was such a different account of things that it vexed me greatly. My own father, who deemed himself an excellent judge of character had said that he thought Sir Charles was a very pleasant sort of person in his own right (if not a little silly and air headed). However, to hear this account of a very different and wild young man (if the accusations of his brother were to be taken for the truth) was all too horrible to believe.
I continued through the maze of shrubs and flowering bushes until I came upon the white marble bench that I was accustomed to read on. I opened my book and so enveloped in the novel, I never heard the steps of Sir Charles coming up behind me.

“Miss Catharine,” he said in is jovial drawl that was so particular to him.
I gave a start and quickly arose.

“Sir Charles, you startled me,” I said. “I didn’t hear you walking.”

“I apologize for giving you such a start and interrupting your novel, but I admit that this manner of my brother’s is so dull and you’re much the pleasantest person in the house. How about we take a turn about the garden?"

These attentions, which would have been so welcome earlier, now only made me more curious in finding out the alleged “sinister secrets” that now plagued my thoughts of him.

“I thank you Sir Charles,” I said. “I had just been thinking of abandoning my novel when you arrived and would be delighted at the exercise.”

“Oh good!” He said, “Let us walk down by the river. The air is so delightful there.”

I walked beside him, my mind fixed intently on other things, returning his pleasantries and carrying on the conversation, but thinking on all the things I had ever heard said about him, or by him. I was thinking also on the conversation of last night that took place between Lord Peter Blake and myself. His brothers vague words that had lead me to believe that Sir Charles was somehow involved in the horrid goings on taking place across the seas in South Africa and his assertions that his younger brother would do anything for a little sport were chief in my mind.

“Are you alright madam?”

“Oh yes, yes, I’m quite alright.” I said wondering if my thoughts were that conspicuous.

“Because you seem a little lost in thought,” he said with the same smile he always wore. “You seem detached.”

“No, no, I assure you,” I said turning red. I never could bluff. “I think it is just the damp river air. I feel chilled”

“No, it is not that” stated Sir Charles (a little too assertively for my taste) “No, something is on your mind. I hope my brother hasn’t been telling you tales.”

How did he know? Something on my face must have shown him that he was very near the mark for he said his smile fading slightly, “I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea of me.”

We stopped walking and Sir Charles looked intently into my eyes. I looked back. His face had changed. He now didn’t look like the country dandy that I had originally taken him for, but neither did he look like a hardened criminal. He looked more serious somehow and to me it looked more natural. Almost as if that silly smile and drawl were a game he was playing to hide a true identity.

If this were the truth, he must have suddenly realized he was giving himself up, for he quickly resumed his dapper smile and said, (once again with that peculiar drawl) “What a conversation we are having. My silly brother, a good chap though he is, has a propensity to think the worst of people. For him it is much easier than liking them. The truth is I did do some traveling in my youth, and did end up in South Africa with my father. Aaaahhh, I see by your face that you have learned of my trips to South Africa from my brother. Well then, know only that I was only there for my Father. It was recommended that he travel there for his health, and I went with him to make sure of his wellbeing. There is nothing more. Well Miss Catharine, I bid you good day.”

“Well,” I said to myself taking out my novel again and watching the retreating form of Sir Charles Blake. “This gives me something more to think about!”

A Big "Amen"

I have to say a big AMEN to Ginny Seuffer'ts Column in Seton's September newsletter "Reflections on St. Paul" (page 4). She speaks of the trials of homeschooling but also how the benefits outweigh any sacrifice and of the glorious fruits of our labors. What an encouragement to read this beautiful reflection!

Making a Map with Our Six Year Old

This was a really fun activity with our six year old daughter. We made a mini piece of land that she could draw a map from. We made map symbols pertaining to the physical features on our make believe topographical map. She then drew her map using the map symbols on our map key. This was great fun in which the whole family got involved and what a fun way to teach map skills!

After, she brought the tray outside to our patio table and played with her miniature animals on her makeshift piece of land. All in all a successful project!

Lesson Plan for Our 12th Grader

Lesson Plan for 12th Grade 2009-2010

1. RELIGION-

Chief Truths of the Faith by Laux (one chapter per week) along with
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Imitation of Christ by Kempis

2. MATH- lots of review Geometry/Algebra Teaching Textbooks along with SAT review in SAT prep book
The Joy of Mathematics by Pappas

How to be Happy How to be Holy by O'Sullivan

3. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT/ECONOMICS -
-ECONOMICS

iTrade Stock Market Simulator (our son loves this) Learning how to trade in the Stock Market...totally simulated and totally free!!!

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury

A Blue Stocking Guide: Economics by Jane A. Williams

Literature and Government following much of the Ambleside Online lesson plans

-GOVERNMENT
1. The Law by Fredrick Bastiat

2. Ourselves by Charlotte Mason

3. The Great Democracies by Winston Churchill
Quick Civic Lessons

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

U.S. Constitution


Plutarch’s Lives following Ambleside Online’s rotation

Caritas in Veritate papal encyclical on Social Justice by Pope Benedict XVI

4. British Literature using Ambleside Online's resources

English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall ( ch. 77-85)
Silas Marner
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A Tale of Two Cities
David Copperfield
Frankenstein
Julius Caesar
Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
Les Miserables
British Poetry using The Harp Laurel Wreath by Berquist and using the discussion questions in this lovely book.

5. Chemistry – Using MacBeth's Opinion High School Chemistry booklist

6. P.E. weight lifting/ice skating/running
7. Language:
-Completed 2 years of high school Latin with Lone Pine Classical
may do one year of high school French