Wrapping Up 9th Grade

Kieron and I just talked about this year.  We both think he made quite a bit of progress and that he doesn't really need to work into the summer. 

He has a good routine going. He didn’t work particularly intensely this year, but none of my other 9th graders ever had a particularly productive year, so I was comfortable with it.

He audited several lecture series from Homeschool Connections

• Introduction to Logic
• Logical Fallacies and Paradoxes
• Latin Boot Camp
• Latin 1
• Homer's Odyssey

He read voraciously, mostly library fare – fantasy and science fiction. Also some historical fiction and some PG Wodehouse.

For Formal Reading he went through:

• Old Testament Readings vol 1 and 2
• Readings fin Ancient History
• Famous Men of Greece
• The Iliad
• The Odyssey (not finished yet)
• King Solomon’s Ring
• Instant Biology
• Mystery of the Periodic Table
• Fabre’s Book of Insects
• Screwtape Letters

In Math, he is halfway through Jacob’s Geometry. I wanted him to have time to fill any gaps from Algebra and basic math so we did a lot of review type exercises and SAT sample questions. I think he has more confidence than he did last year.

He wrote several stories (that was the heart of our language arts curriculum, though we did some grammar and literary analysis earlier in the year).

He did some online Biology and History tests, and reviewed the Catechism a little.

He also participated in Morning Time – we read and discussed Treasures of the Snow, King of the Golden River, some poetry, and various historical pieces.

And he played lots of board games with his brothers, narrated many, many reviews or critiques of games and movies, and did football during fall.   He sledded with his brothers during the winter. 


So the last couple of months are going to be wrap-up.

My plans:
• Historical Tales:  The Romans
•Readings in Ancient History (Rome)
• Apprenticeship – computer programming with his Dad
• Start “Crash-Proof Your Kids” with familiarity with cars and how they work
• Homeschool Connections – The Mass Explained (probably)
• Photo nature study (his sister gave him her old camera and I want him to go out and use it once the snow melts – that can be his “nature study project” for this year).
• James Herriot – at least one of the books
• Galen and the Gateway to Medicine
• Chemical History of the Candle (if time provides – otherwise next year).
• Keep working on story-writing using the progym.
• Finish Latin 1 from Homeschool Connections
• If time provides, some books from modern literature like The Chosen, To Kill a Mockingbird, An Episode of Sparrows etc. – things he wouldn’t pick up on his own that I still want him to read at some point.

April Thoughts on Homeschooling

It's  April, which is usually when I start praying and planning for next year.   Next year I will have a 12th grader, a 10th grader, a special needs 5th grader and a 3rd grader.   Plus 3 grown kids in college or beyond. 

When we visited my daughter at Thomas Aquinas College last week, Suzie Andres (whose husband is one of the tutors at the college) gave me a copy of what we have been calling The Book, meaning this one.   In The Book, I am one of the contributors who does not entirely unschool but who relies a lot on unschooling principles.   That has always been the case.  When I try to unschool entirely I get unhealthy.  I start becoming self-conscious about whether this thing or not is "really" unschooling.   But when I leave unschooling principles too far behind, I get away from the core of what our family's homeschooling is about.   

This happens regularly.  April's often the time that I realize it and start reflecting on where we've been going and where we want to go.  

So where we've been coming from: 

Last school year, Paddy did California K12, Kieron read and wrote stories, worked out geometry proofs, and listened to lectures from Homeschool Connections.   Aidan pretty much did whatever he wanted to, which meant learning how to help with almost all the household duties, and recently, coloring all kinds of pictures of vehicles.   And Sean left "building school" and went to "public charter school" which involved using the state textbooks but at home, with biweekly visits to a teacher, and participation in a 7 on 7 traveling football team.   So you can see we fairly well cover the spectrum.  

Kieron had a light year, Aidan had almost a neglected year.  Sean is old enough to do what he thinks right about his education (with our help of course).    Paddy -- well, Paddy has been doing K12 --Lite.  But even that feels a bit too much right now.  I'm trying to decide if it really is too much or just feels that way because of other things going on.

So for next year?

I don't know for sure.  Unschooling was my first love, mostly via Nancy Wallace's Better Than School,  then came Charlotte Mason and classical.  In common, they have respect for the child as a person with great potential.   They look towards the whole person, not just the academic part.   They all consider the student to be the primary agent in his own learning.  They all aim to form a free man (or woman) who is a  lifelong learner with strong (and hopefully true)  interior values.  Of course, in day to day aspects they might differ quite sharply.   I try now to avoid deciding what "method" a given thing we are doing fits into.   That kind of thing makes me lose my focus on what my family, my kids are doing at a particular time.

Recently I have been trying to envision going back to a more integrated type of homeschooling.   If I do depart from K12, which is where I think this is heading, I will be sad in many ways.   It was so nice to sit down and have everything ready to go.   It is as sequential and well thought out as anything I have seen in the way of planned curriculum.   It used Real Books and stories to teach understanding and virtue (at least, in some respects...).  As we advance further in, however, it takes a bigger part of the day, at least if we do it right.   Not that taking a bigger part of the day is wrong per se, but if it's stuff that doesn't seem necessary, then it is clutter.  

So, I'm thinking! 

"Desultory" Education

Charlotte Mason discusses "desultory education" across several of her books, as here in School Education:

Education not Desultory.––But I am not preaching a gospel for the indolent and proclaiming that education is a casual and desultory matter. Many great authors have written at least one book devoted to education; and Waverley seems to me to be Scott's special contribution to our science.

Edward Waverley, we are told, 'was permitted in a great measure to learn as he pleased, when he pleased, and what he pleased.' That he did please to learn and that his powers of apprehension were uncommonly quick, would appear to justify this sort of education. But wavering he was allowed to grow up, and 'Waverley' he remained; instability and ineffectiveness marked his course.

I am reading Waverley right now for the first time. Here's the chapter on Waverley's education that CM thought interesting.  I'll quote part of it:

Sir Everard's chaplain, an Oxonian, who had lost his fellowship for declining to take the oaths at the accession of George I, was not only an excellent classical scholar, but reasonably skilled in science, and master of most modern languages. He was, however, old and indulgent, and the recurring interregnum, during which Edward was entirely freed from his discipline, occasioned such a relaxation of authority, that the youth was permitted, in a great measure, to learn as he pleased, what he pleased, and when he pleased. This slackness of rule might have been ruinous to a boy of slow understanding, who, feeling labour in the acquisition of knowledge, would have altogether neglected it, save for the command of a taskmaster; and it might have proved equally dangerous to a youth whose animal spirits were more powerful than his imagination or his feelings, and whom the irresistible influence of Alma would have engaged in field-sports from morning till night. But the character of Edward Waverley was remote from either of these. His powers of apprehension were so uncommonly quick as almost to resemble intuition, and the chief care of his preceptor was to prevent him, as a sportsman would phrase it, from over-running his game—that is, from acquiring his knowledge in a slight, flimsy, and inadequate manner. And here the instructor had to combat another propensity too often united with brilliancy of fancy and vivacity of talent—that indolence, namely, of disposition, which can only be stirred by some strong motive of gratification, and which renounces study as soon as curiosity is gratified, the pleasure of conquering the first difficulties exhausted, and the novelty of pursuit at an end.

Andrew Lang wrote an introduction to Waverley in which he said:

Scott was, apparently, seriously of opinion that the "mental discipline" of a proper classical education would have been better for himself than his own delightfully desultory studies.

On the other hand, Cardinal Newman wrote that if an education only gives the habit of application, that it is not nearly enough. Though certainly he was not blind to the problematic aspect of auto-didacticism, here he takes note of its advantages:

How much more profitable for the independent mind, after the mere rudiments of education, to range through a library at random, taking down books as they meet him, and pursuing the trains of thought which his mother wit suggests! How much healthier to wander into the fields, and there with the exiled Prince to find "tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks!" How much more genuine an education is that of the poor boy in the Poem —a Poem, whether in conception or in execution, one of the most touching in our language—who, not in the wide world, but ranging day by day around his widowed mother's home, "a dexterous gleaner" in a narrow field, and with only such slender outfit

"as the village school and books a few
Supplied,"

This almost sounds like a description of Waverley's education, not to mention the early education of Guy Morville in The Heir of Redclyffe.  Though this type of education may have its lacks, I can think of worse outcomes of education than is evidenced in Waverley's youthful life.    Waverley is generous, noble of impulse, sympathetic to people of very different types.   In the novel, he avoids the zealotry, ineffectiveness, narrow-mindedness and machievallian maneuvres of some of his associates, and ends up finding happiness and honor.   Though he makes mistakes, they are shown to be noble mistakes, and opportunities for growth in character.   Where is the downside here?  Within the book, the answer is not obvious. I suppose it is implied in the sketch above -- if Waverley had been of different material, the style of education might have been more harmful.

Not plugging for desultory education, of course, but it does make me wonder about what the outcome of a good education should be.

Homeschool Front

Ordinary at-home days seem to be increasingly un-ordinary ever since Christmas.    Today we were all at home, though.   I scurried around for a couple of hours in the morning making breakfast, tidying, getting the fire going, taking my bath, and so on.  

Then we had our Morning Time (Paddy groans:  "Do we HAVE to read?  I can read way faster by myself!"  But I'm not giving in!  literacy through auditory channels is something I feel strongly about) .  Today we started with Tom Playfair, then read A History of English Literature for Boys and Girls, then Famous Men of the Middle Ages -- about Rollo the Viking, who was too huge to ride a horse.   Paddy does groan and sometimes tries to sneak in a little bit of reading his own book while I'm reading (he is now reading the first Guardian of Ga'hoole book, after watching the movie).  But he does hear, and sometimes remembers and discusses what he heard later.  Oddly, A History of English Literature, which is an Ambleside Year 7 book, is the one he recalls the best, maybe because I read in short sections and make comments before and after so that they are listening actively.  

Then we went our separate ways -- Paddy and I worked on K12, Kieron listened to his lectures and did his reading, and Sean sat there reading Eragon.   He was having trouble making himself settle down to his independent study.  He says it's because he's been out of the house for most of the day for the past 3 days.

In K12 we are on Vikings, too.  Today the lesson was about their burial customs.   At the beginning of last year it was almost impossible to keep Paddy's attention on a non-fiction description even if it was written in a lively fashion.   A year and a half later there has definitely been improvement.   Sometimes I still skim to the salient points if his attention is wandering.

Kieron is slowly making his way through Latin, Logic, and the Odyssey through Homeschool Connections.  In addition, he is reading:  Screwtape Letters, The Odyssey, Readings from the Old Testament, Readings from Greece and the East, and Famous Men of Greece.   Science has been taking a back seat.  I may start him on Sean's Chemistry book so I know the book better for when Sean hits a wall in the subject.

Kieron also works on Geometry using Jacob's, and supplemented with ThatQuiz.org quizzes for review and fluency.    For fun I give him questions on Sets.  We both like trying to figure out what the symbols mean just from context.  

After I made lunch and helped Kieron with Geometry, I helped Sean with Algebra II.  He was in a bad mood with a headache and blurry vision (and I'm wondering if he's migraine-prone).  

Sean and Aidan spend all day harassing each other.  Aidan loves to pull Sean's hood over his face while he's doing his math, chanting, X -8 - 13! or something equally inflammatory.    Sean roars and tries to get him.  Then at other times Aidan is fixing himself a bowl of stir-fry or something and Sean says something like, "That's all for me," and Aidan roars "Seany!" and tries to kick Sean in the shin.   One can't help cheering for Aidan.   But sometimes I feel like I have 3 second-graders in the house. 

All in all, Sean has been so much livelier since he stopped going to school.  I suppose that makes sense.    He is attending an off-season football training course and going to a 7 on 7 in Las Vegas later in March.


This weekend we were going to visit Clare at college, since she is having her 21st birthday, but the weather forecast looks like snow maybe even down in the valley, and the Grapevine will probably be closed.   Of course, I know we can't go charging over snowy, windy mountain freeways filled with crazy trucks in a blizzard, so I'm resigned to reason.  But at the same time it's making me sad..... a lost adventure and reunion.   It takes me so long to access my feelings that only hours later do I realize what's sub-consciously making me feel blue!    

Stepping Stones -- Morning Time with Ambleside

Ambleside stepping stones, Lake District, 1890

With my new netbook (!)  I thought I would try to do more reading aloud off the computer rather than printing out lots of materials.  So I decided to post about it so I could (1)  keep a running list of links and (2) talk about homeschooling for a change! 

Today I downloaded Kindle and Nook apps so I can read them on my netbook. But in fact so far I haven't really needed them too much since a lot of books are fairly readable online.  

Now I'm making a list of the books we want to read and where to find them online.    If I can find them at Google Books, that is my first choice usually.

If I can't find them there I look for them at other places.  I am putting a note by all the ones that AREN'T at Google E-books. 

As we finish a book I will put it on the bottom with a date.

I usually go to Ambleside Online Year 2 for book choices and then add my own. I love Ambleside's reading choices--  a lot of them are the books I grew up on.  

I found the Ambleside photo at Old Pictures. I really like it!   I think I will use it for any future Morning Time posts.

Anyway, here is the list as it stands right now.  It will probably change over time.


Reading Now

The Secret Garden
Treasures of the Snow (not online)


Our Island Saints At Heritage History
An Island Story

For the Future
The Little Duke
Handbook of Nature Study

The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
The Wind in the Willows
Understood Betsy
Tales from Shakespeare
Parables from Nature
Otto of the Silver Hand
Five Little Peppers

Chanticleer
Red Fairy Book
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales (Ambleside Collection)

(Ambleside Poetry Collections)
Walter De La Mare
Eugene Field and James Whitcombe Riley
Christina Rossetti
Year 6 Poetry



Others that aren't on Ambleside list
Amongst the Flowers
Tom Playfair
Puck of Pook's Hill
New Testament Parables for Children


Storybook of Science by JH Fabre
Joan of Arc by HA Guerber (substitute for Diane Stanley version)

or, from Heroines every child should know


Finished Books
Viking Tales
12/10
King of the Golden River
11/10

Island Saints and Stories for Morning Time

Here are some more books I have been reading to my boys for Morning Time. 

• Our Island Story by Henrietta Marshall
• Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman

I usually also read them a poem or two.   Right now I'm reading from The Harp and  Laurel Wreath. 

Morning Time for us is basically strictly supplementary.  All the boys have separate curricula and I don't really try to keep the reading time correlated to their formal work.   However, I do look first at Ambleside's Year 2 Booklist.   This is for two reasons:

1.   It happens that Year 2 basically ties in with the time period Paddy is studying this year for K12.
2.   I wanted to make sure that Kieron got to hear some of the good childhood books he might not have heard when he was actually that age (he has read a lot of the books on the Ambleside lists, but not all of them).

oh, and one more reason:

Most of Ambleside's books are readily available online and it's cheap and easy to print them up and bind them here at home.  

You know, I used to regret that we never had afternoon Tea Time, an idea that was popular when I was first homeschooling in the Charlotte Mason tradition.   For one thing, I had a bunch of boys who weren't particularly motivated by tea cups and pretty decorations, though they did like to eat.  For another thing, I usually was pregnant, had a baby or a toddler, and by afternoon I was usually exhausted and only wanted to sleep.  So it never happened, and I felt bad about that. 

But I just suddenly realized that Morning Time has sort of filled that bill in a way that works for our family.   Many years ago -- a dozen or more -- my now-grown kids hated getting pulled away from their creative playing in order to "do school".   So I started reading to them while they were still eating breakfast, and when they were done, I handed them their spiral notebooks and markers and they could draw while they listened.   They loved to listen to stories, and the stories often found their way into their pretend play later.   After the reading, we would do Memory Cards (basically just index-card matching games for history and Latin and Greek) which they sort of liked,  and then even if we didn't get much more done, I felt like we had gotten somewhere at least.

Now that set of kids are all beyond homeschool and Morning Time is in front of the fire with muffins or breakfast cookies or quickbread, and is followed by all of us going to various learning stations.   Last year I would read them some of the Bible and some of the Baltimore Catechism Explained and we would discuss that, but this year, Kieron reads the Old Testament on his own and narrates it to me, and I work with Paddy and Aidan on Sacramental Prep in the evening before bedtime.

Last year we would sit up next to the stationary bike and Kieron would cycle while Paddy cuddled in my arms.  Every year it looks different, and it's always interesting to see what shape our Morning Time will take from year to year, from season to season.

Design Your Own Story Problem

Aidan, looking at Donald Crews' Schoolbus

Jack had 14 buses, and 2 ran away. How many are left?"

(Covers two buses carefully on the page with his hand)

I am glad he understands the rhetorical structure of a story problem even if he is not yet fully comprehending the actual nature of subtraction.   There are a lot of areas where he is like that.     The abstract significance level of language often escapes him, which makes it tricky to say the least to prepare him for First Confession, but he picks up the poetic resonance and literary structure without a problem.

Kieron's High School

I've updated on Patrick and Aidan -- next one in order is Kieron. Kieron is 14 and in 9th grade.

I put his daily lessons up on the Year 9 Dashboard so as you can see, he is well into the second quarter of the school year.   Daily he loads up the site and then leaves a comment below the lesson when he is done with it.

How is this working?  Generally speaking, I like it while recognizing that there are some drawbacks. 

Advantages:

1. It keeps me organized and if something is happening that day, he can keep going without me.   In fact, he usually loads up the page as soon as he wakes up to get through a couple of subjects.   
2. I don't get so easily discouraged by a bad day and drop a book or method too soon   
3. Since it's on the blog and not relayed by me to him, it is easier for us both to take the objective point of view.   I am having trouble explaining this.  My kids aren't usually directly resistant but to me it's important that they are transitioning into proactivity rather than just reacting to something said by me.  So if we have a "thing" to focus on it makes the discussion more focused on tangibles. 
4. I have an easy record of what was actually done.  It might actually be helpful for when my next one gets to be that age.
5. I like the way I can approach the lesson in various ways by the blog format -- I can have visuals, review games and quizzes, audio/visual aids and also write my own comments.   There is a lot of flexibility. 

Drawbacks: 

1. As you can imagine, it takes some time to write out the lessons and then lay out the organization.   Possibly other people regularly write out lesson plans for their kids, but this is the first year I've really done it.   In the past I would just write down page numbers and that sort of thing.    That's probably the biggest complaint.... the time and focus involved.
2. Also, when he's working on things mostly solo I don't really get to assess by intuition how much he is absorbing.   On the perspective side of this -- that's usually been my experience with a 9th grader.  It's generally been a year of transition in my family (Kieron's the 5th highschooler) and there's often an almost-audible shift of gears during this time.
3. Finally, I started too chaotically with the review/quiz components of the lessons.  I was just getting bits and pieces of things off of various sites.  So there wasn't enough mastery learning.

 Changes:

1. In order to help with the time-consumption problem and also make sure he is interacting with things offline we've started having two offline days per week where he reads and writes and we discuss.   This also helps me get a handle on his thought process.
2. Now that football season is over for him I'm planning to have more nature study and narration.
3. I'm trying to organize the "mastery" component of the lessons so that he has more preparation and accountability.     This also helps with time-expenditure for me because I am not always searching for new reviews. 

Aidan's World

I realize that not only do I hardly ever talk about homeschooling anymore; I also hardly EVER talk about how Aidan is doing in the homeschool.  There are a few reasons for that.

One is that I'm not always quite comfortable about how we're doing.  One thing that all the specialists, therapists, social workers and everyone else involved in Aidan's complicated life consistently ask is:

Health Care Professional (usually to him):  How is school going?
Aidan (thoughtfully):  Good   (that's what he says to every question asked by a health care professional that starts with "how")
HCP:  "What grade are you in?"
Aidan:  (answers vary):  "I'm in highschool this year "  "I don't know."
HCP:  "What are you learning?"
(The conversation usually dies there, and I step in)
Medical Mom:  "He's homeschooled." (You can see where Aidan gets his talent for being laconic).
HCP: "OH so MOM's your teacher!  (So Mom, how's he doing?)"
Medical Mom:  "Well, he functions like a 1st grader"  (I've been saying this for about 3 years -- originally that was a generous overstatement, now it's about right with some bizarre scatters both downwards and upwards).  "He's learning to read, etc."

Then we go on to the kidney or the GI tract or the neurological system or the hypertonic left leg, whatever that particular specialist is concerned with, but you can see how all possible aspects of Homeschool Inadequacy have been covered.    He doesn't even know what grade he is in!  He is not really progressing!   He can't carry on an ordinary conversation!  For that matter, neither can his mom!

But this is SO FAR from representing what our life is really like. 
Sometimes I feel like I need a new language just to talk about Aidan.  The old language isn't adequate.  Maybe Aidan has the right idea with these conversations and I should follow his lead.

"Aidan is learning everything there is to know about our two coolers and our two cars and the wheels on the old stroller he wanted us to buy when he was already eight simply because he was fascinated with stroller wheels.  He asks me to google "stroller wheel coloring pages"!   He also wants me to google "TAC chapel" and "Chevrolet Astro Van" and "battle tops" and "ambulances".   He  takes pictures with my cell phone of things like the red-accented ceiling fans at the Meat Market and the trinitarian hanging lights at the church we attend occasionally in town.  He takes three of the cardboard rolls that toilet paper come on and designs his own "St Anthony lights" as he calls them.   He twirls almost everything he gets his hands on, or spins it if he can't twirl it.   It's surprising how many things can be twirled or spinned and in general, how much physical potential of objects most of us never consider.

He memorized all the Latin prayers in the Rosary when he was about 9 because we were saying the Latin rosary daily during one Lent.   He has memorized most of our little-kid books as well but he can't answer questions about story sequence or what the characters are feeling or any of that. 

He makes up poetic words and phrases that somehow capture something about an event or sight that no one else would even notice. He called our cat "The Bobice".  He tries to grab my glasses when I'm reading, as a joke, always saying the same thing in a rhythmic chant, "You must have spoken of us to read the glasses!"   

He will sit for an hour patiently arranging his magnet letters in alphabetical order and he also regularly sits down with a Word doc and types out the alphabet with each letter a different color.   He can spell words like giant and hippo and queen but not words like cat and bag.   He helps me in the kitchen,and anticipates what I will need next before I even figure it out myself.  He can lug a huge wheelbarrow full of firewood in spite of his disability, and in fact he can spend an hour outside with me lugging wheelbarrows of firewood that weigh more than he does.

He dictates stories about coolers to me and then reads them back, and that is how he has learned to read a little.  Now he is doing addition by counting on the abacus while playing online addition games.  He knew all the numbers up to 100 and could put them in order a long time before he could count objects up to 10 with any kind of accuracy.

Aidan's curriculum is poetic, indirect, repetitive, hands-on, full of laughter and jokes, bounded  and expanded by his intense affections for very specific things, and I don't know where it will go.  Like most mothers of delayed children with significant issues, I worry about his function out in the "real world" someday, but I hope his enthusiasm for hard work, his habit of watching and imitating, his laughter and joyfulness, and even his occasional spirited outburst "STOP IT SEAN!!" when his older brother teases him too much will serve him in good stead. 

You can see why I need a new language.  It's easy for me to talk K12-speak, and fortunately that type of learning meshes well with Paddy's talents, but those words simply don't express what Aidan's life is like. 

By the way, Aidan loves doing jigsaw puzzles either in real life or online, and we found this site where you can upload your choice of pictures -- stroller wheels, econoline vans, coolers, whatever -- and tailor the complexity to whatever level you want.

Aidan wanted a puzzle of the TAC chapel under construction, so here it is!

2825572944 174716a Jigsaw Puzzle

Second Grade -- first quarter

Paddy woke up sick today and not feeling up to doing his normal school.   Instead, he chose to watch videos and keep a bowl close by his head just in case (and a good thing that was, too).  So, just to keep us going and to be able to mark SOMETHING for attendance today, I read him the story of Augustus from Famous Men of Rome. That is what he has been learning about in K12 and since he already knew parts of the story from their lessons, he was quite interested.   I have also been reading him The Family Under the Bridge   Before that, we read Abraham Lincoln, because a K12 account about the Civil War made him interested in that time period.   After that, possibly Viking Tales and Leif the Lucky.   Then maybe Columbus.  In fact, it would be fun to devote a whole year to the D'Aulaires.  He loved Greek Myths last year.

I don't seem to have a recent picture of Paddy so here is one from last month -- it looks like he's stepping on a bug but he's actually playing some sort of pattern game. 

Maybe I can quickly share what is going on in his academics.  I hardly ever seem to talk about homeschooling anymore.

In Language Arts he is learning about past tense verbs, the concept as well as the mechanics (how to add -ed to various present tense verbs, etc).    He also has spelling (consonant digraphs) and reading (various poems and Step-Into-Readings which are too easy for him).    K12 emphasizes non-fictional reading and poetry in the early grades, on the theory that schoolkids nowadays don't get enough exposure to content reading compared to kids of earlier generations.   They are doing something I like -- covering general US history in the language arts curriculum.   I wish I had thought of doing that all those years I was trying to use Core Knowledge and LCC combined US/World History streams.   He reads little articles and historical books and then we discuss the questions, and so he's getting those basic events down like American Revolution, Civil War and Gold Rush, though not on a deep level. 

In Math we are almost through with grade 2.  He is doing 3-digit subtraction with regrouping.  It's hard to make that interesting and this point is usually where my kids drop out of the trees with math boredom.    I'm trying to let him work with the abacus -- we have a Doug and Melissa wooden one and we've figured out a way to represent regrouping that works for him pretty well.   All the other math concepts are easy for him but this one is slowing him down because of the multiple steps required.   It's still boring, though.  I can't wait till we are done and can go on to Math 3.   For fun breaks and drill, this is a nice game site:  Arcademic Skill Builders.

In History we are up to Augustus on our tour through history.   The next lesson is to be about Jesus.   First Grade was the Ancient World and Second Grade started with the Romans and moves up through the Middle Ages.   K12 has online audio stories (sometimes slightly twaddly in tone and illustration, but lively and he really looks forward to them) and review questions and a narration notebook and lots of maps to color and learn.   As I said, sometimes I supplement with Famous Men because the tone is more literary.  History is probably his favorite subject because of the interesting stories and concepts.   One thing he really loves is that he is following the same historical sequence as his sister in Thomas Aquinas College.   She wrote him a letter saying she was studying Julius Caesar in Gaul and his eyes lit up because that was exactly what we had just been learning!   Hooray for academic relevance. 



Science is done by units -- the K12 year consistently starts with a unit on the scientific method and measurement tools (so the kid gets metric measurement down solid by high school if not before!)  and now we are doing a unit on basic physics -- forces and motion.  Science for K12 includes lots of hands-on, simple experiments and usually a computer game to review terminology and concepts.   I am SO not-good at providing hands-on experiences for my kids that even with all the instructions and materials I sometimes still skimp on these.    But I come closer this way than I used to without the support.

The closest I usually come to hands-on

We are just starting Art 2.... some of Art is tied with history (for example, last year there was a unit on Greek architecture and sculpture) and some of it is tied into art concepts like line and color, while other lessons highlight different artists and their lives and key works.   There is a project to go with each couple of lessons, tied into the concept or artist or type of art being studied.   K12 provides a couple of high-quality childrens' art books... last year a series called Come Look with Me and this year, I don't remember because we just got the supplies a couple of days ago.  He used to hate the art projects, possibly reflecting my dislike for concrete activities (see above) but is starting to enjoy the outlet for creativity.    We often tweak the art project to make it fit in with his fantasy world -- for example, when he was supposed to do Chinese burial figures with jade tiles, we made them into Chinese soldiers so they could battle each other.  Battles make everything better when you are a seven year old boy.

We are just finishing Music 1 with a study of Mozart's Magic Flute.  Music combines some theory (solfege, rhythm, singing and kinesthetic memnomics) with some composer study.  K12 provides  a CD with folk songs and one with classical music.    He is enjoying the Magic Flute because of the story line, though honestly, it's a bit strange.

He gets bored with the rhythm and solfege exercises but I think they are good for his development -- music always got short shrift around here -- two of my kids taught themselves one or more musical instruments in the teenage years and the rest have gone without, sigh....



That wasn't so quick.   But that is what we are doing and in general it's working pretty well.   We usually move through it pretty quickly.  He reads for a couple of hours every day and is getting good at helping me around the house.

"Work is when it's something you don't want to do" ~Paddy
"You have to keep trying even when it's hard.  Know what that's called?  Per-sev-er-ANCE." ~ Paddy

He is also preparing for First Communion this year!   And so is Aidan!     The religious director down at our parish in town was wonderfully sympathetic to the idea of home preparation for sacraments, but he got the impression (probably because Aidan is 11, though I mentioned he was special needs) that my kids were older and so he sent us a book called Our Catholic Faith by Sadlier which is for 4th to 6th graders and way over Aidan's head.  For Paddy it works if we read it together and discuss it.   There are quite a lot of resources at the Sadlier site.   When I taught CCD about 20 years ago Sadlier materials were insubstantial and frankly slightly heterodox, but things have changed apparently since the publication of the Catholic Catechism and the corresponding guidelines for catechesis, and I find this resource quite substantial and nice so far.

I WAS setting up First Communion lessons over at Catholic Studies last spring but I lost my momentum over the summer.

"When I'm praying to get better from my sickness I can pray for all the other people who are sick, too, so that they get better fast and don't suffer too much." ~ Paddy

OK, that sounds like something I made up , but he really said it, and since this post is about Paddy I wanted to record it!    One thing I like about almost-8-year olds is their mixture of smart-alecness and sincerity.     They are beginning to be able to reason which means that they can come up with an enthymeme like that (the implied premises are that God answers prayer and that you can fruitfully generalize a specific request -- that second part seems like a genuine perception about the communion of saints that he hasn't been formally taught yet).   Also I am glad he is praying like that right now because we happen to know of some people who are gravely sick and can use some prayers for recovery and comfort. 

Homeschool Connections

I just recently found out about this and it was very timely.   You know that I have been anxious about free-styling high school again after quite a long gap (actually it is only 2 years since my daughter graduated but she was so self-directed I was hardly doing anything by her senior year except support and sympathy and occasional advice). 

I was just reading Sandy's post The Truth about Mom which was a reflection on Sarah's post and ultimately from Angie's Principles of Happy Moms Who Home Educate.    Sandy wrote:

"Delegate out of humility."

Why is that so difficult for me?  I'm delegating in a big way this year, putting my kids in a two-day a week program that will cover all their core classes plus foreign language and then enrolling them in electives elsewhere.  I never, ever thought I would do that.  I resisted doing it for at least a year.  But I don't have any choice.  In the spring, I simply crashed.  I couldn't go any further.  I looked at my soon-to-be high schooler and realized I just couldn't do it again, not without help. So here we are.

Now my history is that for many years I didn't delegate.  Partly it was because I couldn't.   We have no co-ops in our area; in fact, hardly any homeschoolers; if we drove to distant areas, it takes huge pieces out of our day.  And because of Aidan's frail medical condition for many years, we couldn't really commit to much anyway because we never knew when our lives would get turned around.   And then, there was the economy -- not much spare change.   So partly it was because it wasn't easy to delegate, but part was, ahem, that I didn't want to give up control.  I have to recognize that aspect of it, too. 

But I realize now in retrospect that I was motivated to sign on with K12 because I was sooo tiiirred of doing it completely solo.   And I loved doing K12 last year; even though it wasn't precisely custom-designed to my ideal it was close enough to work; I plan to continue with Paddy at least through 4th grade; after that we'll see.  

It wasn't going to be a solution for Kieron in high school though.  It isn't Catholic, and in high school it gets more like a conventional high school experience with lots of intervention and "showing your work".   So I was feeling anxious about that, which brings me back to Homeschool Connections.   I had heard about their live courses, but they were out of our price range and anyway, I have a history of difficulty with getting onto the computer consistently at a set time.   I know, because I've participated in live book chats and in some of K12's live video courses, and I just have problems that way.

But I just found that you can subscribe to Homeschool Connections on a monthly basis for a much more economical rate ($1 for the first week; $30 a month after that), and use all the recorded classes.   This means no scheduled times, and that Kieron can hear the lectures without having to worry that the teacher might, gasp, call on him or something!  (When he's an upperclassman I can see enrolling him in a live class to get him more geared towards college work).   You can unsub easily, too, so you can theoretically be subbed just during the parts of the year where you need some extra input (September and February, maybe?) and then get off when you're doing all right on your own. 

I'm so happy about this right now.  It's Catholic, and classical, and geared to college prep.  I know and like several of the people who are involved in it, which is also a plus.   It fits right in as supplement and enrichment for what I have planned for Kieron.   He can do Logic, and Latin Boot Camp, and the Odyssey as the Soul of Pre-Socratic Wisdom, and SAT prep, and History Camp which helps you think about the presuppositions behind historical writing, and The Mass Explained, and it just goes on... all the things I would like to focus on with him but wasn't sure if I could pull off.   These classes won't be the core of our program, partly because Kieron is going to have to get used to the lecture format and partly because they are mostly set up as mini-courses lasting 4-7 weeks, but it will make a nice plus. 

I was listening to them myself yesterday, and it revived my lifetime-student craving which never quite goes away, but sometimes gets buried.    When you're subscribed, it's one price for the whole family, by the way, so theoretically I could have my college son listen to the adult course on career searches, etc.

This is the sort of thing that makes me love the internet.   Oh, I should do the standard disclaimer that I'm not connected with HC or getting money for this post or anything.    I'm just happy about what looks like an answer to prayer!  Subscribing has already paid off for me in this way though:  because I like the courses myself and am getting more inspired about this upcoming year because of that.    That "when Mama is happy" thing again. 

What I'm Working On

I have put up a blog where I'm working out my highschooler's plan in rough form.    VERY rough form, which is why I didn't want to put them up here. 

I put the link on the sidebar, but I'll also put it here:  Planning 9th Grade

If you go there, you can see on the sidebar the various subject blogs where I'm putting up lessons directed specifically to the 9th grader himself.   I've mostly been working on the Latin and the Geometry ones but I'm hoping to get started on the history and English ones before too long.

Readings for Greek Literature -- Grade 9

The reason I went looking for "ancient history readers" in Google Library was because I was getting in over my head with all the things Kieron could possibly read for Ancient History.   I thought that if I saw what some turn of the century educators thought particularly worthwhile to excerpt, it would give me a way to hit the high points.

On the other hand, while the Greek historians were overwhelming me a bit, the Greek poets are making me very happy.   When I was in junior high school I took an elective class on Greek Myths and my teacher, who was very good, got me interested in Greek literature.  I went on to read Sophocles, Aeschylus, and even a play or two by Aristophanes that were on my Dad's shelves.   I think I was so naive I missed the bad parts in Aristophanes, though I definitely picked up on his irreverence.

I'm enjoying rereading them now.   I remember them pretty well considering it's been thirty years or more.


The plan for literature:

Iliad read aloud throughout the year -- very slow reading.

First Term:  Odyssey
Second Term :  Greek drama -- Aeschylus, Oresteian trilogy; Sophocles, Theban plays (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone).   Aristotle's Poetics. 
Third Term:   Plato
Fourth Term:  (if time provides) Aeneid

Supplement with Plutarch, a couple of Lives per term.

Sources for Ancient History -- Grade 9

I found some books over at the Google Library which I'm planning to use with our Ancient History.   They are all readers -- selections of the Old Testament and of primary sources from ancient history.   If you click on the picture it leads you to the page itself so you can look at the whole book if you want.  These are all public domain:










Other resources for ancient history and literature which aren't available in online form:

• The Founding of Christendom
• Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World
• Norton Anthology of World Literature
• The Timetables of History

Other possibilities (these are online resources)

Students' Friend Outline of World History
Hyper-History -- looks interesting

Kids' Schedule

Sorry -- schedules do not look simple.  Time is a hydra-headed creature and I particularly find it difficult to unify it.

We have a routine right now, of course.  The problem is that some things get neglected and there are parts of the day where the kids are at loose ends and bored.   The beginning of the school year is a good time to brush up the old ways and get some new habits started. 

I searched for some schedules.  I liked this one by Cindy Rushton which isn't by hour, but instead lists out priorities in her family life. I've also always liked this Ten Things to Do with Your Child by the Bluedorns of Trivium Pursuit. If you scroll down you'll see a suggested daily routine that is simple and workable.


Anyway, here's ours.     I tried to peg them around things that happen normally in our house.  Meals and sleep are good places to start because they happen inevitably.   The basic elements besides meals and sleep are similar to the basic elements for every person, with particular focus on some unique features of childhood:   Prayer, Study, Outdoors, Family and Friends, Work, Play, Experiences.   So even if their schedule doesn't go exactly like this (I wouldn't want it to) I hope to basically cover the bases over the course of a few days, a week, a month.

Up by 8 am

• Straighten up area and bed, get dressed, etc.
• Morning Offering, private devotions for older ones
• Breakfast
• Brush teeth

• Do one subject that you can do independently (you can do more if you want)

10 am -- Morning Time with mom (reading, discussion, prayer and memory work)

Work on homeschool stuff -- until 12


Noon -- Lunch and chores
Go outside
Therapy practice

• 2  pm -- Quiet Reading
• 2-4 pm -- Finish homeschooling -- catch up on anything undone
• 4 pm -- walk (if we aren't going anywhere) -- PE

5: 15 pm -- help straighten the house
You can check FB at 6 pm

6:30 dinner

• Help clean up -- see list
• Family/independent time until 8 pm
• Prayers, bedtime snack, brush teeth -- bath (A-- M/Th, P -- Tu/F)

Paddy and Aidan in bed by 9 pm.   Kieron in bed at 10 if not watching a movie with Dad.

Week in Review -- Wrapping up the School Year

This week we had our last "Face to Face" meeting with the CAVA teacher where we discussed progress and looked at the work samples we provided for her to put in the files wherever such things go. The school year ends June 16th so these last couple of weeks will be about tying up loose ends and finishing what we can before they shut down the online school for the summer. Kieron won't finish all his coursework. He is not doing K12 for high school so it won't make a big difference to anything. Oddly enough, his test results for the end of year were slightly lower than they were for the start of the year for both Language Arts and Math. I can't help feeling there was a statistical glitch since I know he did learn this year and given that a good bit of the work is geared towards test scores I would have expected him to do better rather than worse. However, the bright side is that what we were doing before K12 couldn't have been THAT bad. And knowing the weak spots might help us tailor his work next year. I am trying to get enthusiastic about being back on my own. My issue right now is that I know what I want to do but it will just take so much preparation time to do it the way I want. And when I get hyperinvolved in things it's hard on my family.

As a first grader, Paddy is too young to be tested with the normal multiple choice tests so the teacher informally tested him using Bader tests. He had made progress in reading, writing and math. In reading he had gone from 4th grade level to 6th grade level. In math, I'm not sure how it breaks down but he was able to do two problems he couldn't do at the beginning of the year so he had obviously progressed, and he was already beginning 3rd grade level. His handwriting was still sort of kindergarten level but more like late kindergarten, at least. K12 really seems to suit his learning style.

Aidan wasn't in K12 but this will go down as the year he learned to read, though it is still a work in progress. He is just turning 11 and had been stuck at blending sounds for literally about the past 5 years. He just didn't get it, so it seemed like there was some visual or motor processing problem going on since he knew all the letter sounds when he was five. At this point he does not read WELL, but he can participate actively in reading with some help and reminders, what you might call a first grade level of fluency. Someday I will write a post recording in more detail, since how kids achieve literacy is a fascinating mystery to me, but basically, the Dolch sight words unlocked reading for him. Or maybe it was more "Spell to Write and Read" -- anyway, targeting the most commonly used words and some high-interest sight words was what finally got him to where he could make some sense out of word and sentence structure. It's interesting to me since when I started homeschooling it was all about "Back to Phonics", but there are several children in my family who picked up phonics AFTER they could already read some.

Math is taking a little longer but I finally realized that he didn't GET what the "plus" and "minus" words meant. He can add and subtract a bit as long as I keep the examples and terminology concrete. I was really worried a couple of weeks ago because he was so random about it. But it turns out that it was me, ignoring the advice that I have never needed with the other kids, to make sure they are comprehending the symbolic language since that is an extra step into the abstract. He is just not at that point yet.

When Less is More: the Case for Teaching Less Math in Schools (HT: Lindsay)

Schola Update --everybody

Spring fever hasn't really hit here yet. For one thing, it's snowing again today! Maybe cabin fever is more like it!

We've been in a pretty good routine. Kieron is trying to work out a lot so he can get ready for football late in this summer (if it's not still snowing by then ;-)). So he asked if we could do our read-aloud while he cycled on the stationary bike.

So every morning after I get the older boys sent off, unless I have to go into town (usually that is Mondays and Fridays) we sit up in the window seat near the bike. Paddy and I sit, Aidan wanders around, Kieron pedals.

First we say one of the prayers for that day of the week.

Then we read Return of the King. Yes, the trilogy has lasted all the way from August till now. We put it away for a long time when we were all so sick. Now we're just up to the part when Denethor -- well, you know. If you've read the book. If you haven't I don't want to spoil it.

Then I read a bit from the Early Church part of the Golden Bible. I was trying to read Acts from the Bible, but Paddy wasn't following. So this works better -- much the same language, but more oriented around the narratives.

Then we do some of the end of chapter questions in the Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechisms 1 and 2 as discussions, just to try to get conversation started, basically and cover any gaps.


Today I finally started them on their online lessons for the catechism which has been my big spare-time project for the last couple of weeks. This is meant to reinforce what we are doing together. I'm not a good impromptu teacher, though I'm good at reading aloud and informal discussion. Maybe that IS teaching! But it turns out that our religious education lacks something of the richness it could have because I have a hard time gathering resources, switching from book to book, presenting things, etc. For that reason I have high hopes for the blog format. So today I got the nerve to show Kieron his first lesson. which sort of tells him how the course is supposed to work. Watching, Paddy said, "Why don't I get to do lessons like that!" which, believe me, is one of those moments that really doesn't often happen in my homeschool. But that was a great opportunity to show him his first lesson. So the first day was a success, anyway. For me there's usually two really tough spots when I'm trying to do anything more than my default -- the first step, and then a step a couple of dozen away from the first, where second-guessing and second thoughts pile on me. So the first shoe dropped pretty well and hopefully I can face up to the second whenever it comes.

Aidan's school has been getting more off the ground. Today he dictated a story about coolers. He's making some real progress with reading but he still doesn't really get addition. I am just doing lots of games over and over again, trying to work with manipulatives AND some memorization, hoping he'll get it through sheer repetition.

I am having him read lessons from the Christian Brothers Primer and this is going quite well. In addition, we usually do a Starfall reading together. Basically, he's memorizing the stories -- oh well. That's why I'm trying to do the Primer so he gets a bit more phonics practice. I have Paddy spell the reading lesson.

Then every afternoon Kevin's been taking them down to the high school to work out. Sean and Kieron work out, that is, and Aidan and Paddy play mostly. But it's fun for them and really, really unusual for me. I rarely ever don't have my three youngest around me somewhere. And the bonus is that they are doing Healthy Good Things while I am off duty, not watching a video or something. That is SO rare.

Schola Update -- Paddy

I don't often talk about what we're doing in the homeschool these days. We're actually having a pretty good year but I guess since I don't have to plan it, I don't end up talking about it very much.

But here's a few things we've been doing -- featuring Paddy this time, 7 years old and in 1st grade. Paddy finished first grade math in February and is now a good way through 2nd grade math. He finished Phonics a week or so ago, much to his delight, so we are using the time to catch up on other subjects.

Now I'll go through subject by subject.

Language Arts
We got this Little Red Toolbox of word tiles for Aidan and Paddy at Christmas on a big discount -- it was only $15 for the set. It's kind of nice because the tiles are color-coded to parts of speech, and the font is quite clear.

Paddy's been using them for beginning copywork and spelling. He pretty much finished Handwriting without Tears for first grade, so he knows how to form most of the letters.


Every day he takes a tile out of the box and copies it on paper and then spells it to me from memory.

Since I have had the camera out today I thought I'd take a picture of our rare "show-me" type work. I did the writing at his dictation. The object of the project was to get the idea of "writing notes" in preparation for writing a report, which is a bit silly when you are barely seven, but probably a good intellectual habit to get into for the future.


We went and looked up squirrels on Wikipedia and he got interested in the taxonomy on the sidebar and went and looked up the Animalia kingdom.

All the school days have been going like that recently. He has his basic work and I often look for games or pictures online to support the concept. Or we draw pictures and diagrams.

Music

In Music, he is doing a unit on the musical instruments in the orchestra and today we found several games:

• Concentration -- to learn names of instruments and get familiar with their appearance
• Percussion Instrument quiz -- matching pictures with names.

There was one more I can't find now. Here's a few more I found as well:

• A PDF set of printable cards so you can play an instrument matching game.
• Listening to the music and matching it to the instrument.
• Quia quiz game about the orchestra -- slightly more advanced than what Paddy is doing.

K12 has you listen to familiar classical songs that feature the instrument family being studied. I've found that it's really easy to quickly go to YouTube and actually see the instruments being played, which is really fun. We found out you can hear the Mario and the Legend of Zelda theme songs being played by almost any instrument you can possibly imagine.

History

We are on to Ancient India. It's funny because I am reading him the Jungle Books and started even before I knew K12 was moving from Greece to India. Finding out about Hinduism helped him understand a bit more about the life of the villagers in the JB stories. Now we've started reading Rikki Tikki Tavi -- he thinks the name is hilarious.

When we were studying Ancient Greece we read D'Aulaire's book of Greek Myths, and the Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Family Life:

• We're trying to read aloud in the morning -- still plugging through Return of the King.
• Paddy's trying to remember to say prayers at least twice daily.
  
• We're trying to go outside daily again -- we got out of the habit -- here Paddy's looking frozen.

How to Inspect a Book (and putting the idea into practice)

One of the books I'm going to have my highschooler go through is "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren (so it was nice to find this relatively recent post at The Common Room discussing the book).

Even though Kieron won't read the book till next fall, I do want him to use some of the principles contained ahead of time. In fact, I think it will be easier for him to read the book if he's already lived it a bit. My older kids have all found it difficult to get past the title though it didn't stop them from reading the book and getting worthwhile things out of it : ).

Fortunately, the internet makes it super-easy to preview concepts in books -- in effect, do some of the pre-reading or as Adler says, "inspectional reading" or "systematic skimming" that helps one to get the most from the act of reading.

Here are a few links:

1. A Google preview of the chapter.
2. A blog summary of the book. The blogger quotes a fairly substantial section of the chapter on inspectional reading:

Rules for Inspectional Reading I:

1. Look at the Title Page and, if the book has one, at it’s Preface. Read each quickly to note the subtitles and other indications of the basic scope or aim of the book. This would answer the question: what is the book about?
2. Study the Table of Contents to obtain a general sense of the book’s structure. The table of contents are designed specifically for this purpose.
3. Check the Index. Make a quick estimate of the range of topics covered and the kinds of books and authors referred to. [Books on Biblical Studies and or Theology typically have an Authors Index, a Subject Index, and a Scripture Index for consideration].
4. If the book is a new one with a dust jacket, read the Publisher’s blurb. The blurb is not just fluff for marketing but often an author’s attempt at a concise summary of the books contents. At this point you may already have enough information and have made a decision as to if the book will be useful to you or not. If you decide to keep looking the actual skimming of the book now begins
5. Look now at the chapters that seem pivotal to [the Book's] argument. Read the summary statements at the beginning and end to further your knowledge of what the book is about.
6. Finally, turn the pages, dipping in here and there, reading a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages in sequence, never more than that. Thumb through the book in this way, always looking for sings of the main contention, listening for the basic pulsebeat of the matter. Also, do not fail to read the last two or three pages of the book to know its conclusions.

Rules for Inspectional Reading II:
Superficial reading is basically reading a book through once without stopping much to ponder its contents but instead reading through to understand its basic structure and flow. Pay attention to what you can understand and don’t worry about what you might not understand just yet – you’ll get back to that later. Just press on!

Related to Inspectional Reading II is How to Read a Difficult Book (hint: you just read it). This is something else I want my highschooler to have in his mind even before he starts reading the book. Adler points out that generations of children have been taught to hate literature by having to fill out study packets on Romeo and Juliet, etc. It shouldn't be that way. More and more I've been noticing how much our modern study skills are tailored towards knowing "about" things rather than knowing them. It affects everything we do and handicaps the amateur because he has to wait for the expert to explain what the things he reads REALLY means. CS Lewis describes this well.

Adler has rules for Inspectional Reading (pdf) that might help.   Maureen has some notes on inspectional reading, too.


More resources connected to HTRAB:

1. A Powerpoint Presentation intended for a class -- I can't link to it directly but you can reach it through this html version.
2. An outline of the whole book.(Schola Tutorial)
   
3. A tutorial on Reading 101

A couple of PDFs

• How to read a book for discussion
• How to Read a Book (College study skills)
• another version of the same document