In Annie’s words: “Sixth grade is a lot harder than fifth grade!  But I like it!”

So I’m beginning to question whether attempting to complete 2 Sonlight cores this year was the best idea.  The only core we’ve ever used previously was Core K, which was a fun, sweet year snuggling on the couch and reading fun books.   Core 1+2 is more of the same, but Core 6 is A LOT of reading.  A LOT.

Other than that–everything seemed to just fall into place very naturally.  Here’s what our basic day looks like.

9:00 — prayer, pledge of allegiance and then we read a bible story together from the Golden Children’s Bible.

9:15 — Annie goes and does her religion (and then starts her reading) while I read to the twins (religion, history and read aloud)

10:00 –everyone does math

10:30 –Annie finishes her reading while the twins read (Dino boy still reads to me)

10:45 — I get the twins started on their lang. arts and then Annie and I start in on her reading.  We basically read until Cutie wakes up from her nap, and then finish whatever is left at the next nap.

11:30 — break and have lunch.

*************free time after lunch**************

1:30 — Annie and I finish her Core reading

2:00 — Annie does her lang. arts

If it’s M/W/F we also do science in the afternoon.  Otherwise we’re done for the day.

I’m contemplating just reading to the boys from Child’s History of the World and using the read alouds for bedtime stories, just to save my voice a bit.  They aren’t big fans of sitting for long periods of time listening to stories.   They’re boys, lol.  But we’ll see.  We’re already about to drop the first read aloud–Red Sails to Capri.  We are just not enjoying the story at all, and from what I can tell, it’s not going to get any better.

It’s funny how I decided to use Sonlight to make my days easier.  The strange thing is–I like having the work done for me, but I also don’t like it.  I feel like we’re stuck and don’t have time to add or change.  Of course, I can always tweak and change, but then it’ll be something different.  I think we’ll probably end up doing Core 6 over two years, or at least a year and a half.  The twins just seem to do better with straightforward, workbookish type schooling.  Which drives me crazy, but there you go.  We’ll see what happens with their core.  It may get dropped altogether, or just tweaked into something that suits them better.  I need more than 1 week to decide entirely.

We had our first day of school today, and it went really well!   Here are a few pics from our day:

Monkey bread--our traditional first day of school breakfast.

Everyone happily working on science.

The only downside to the new school year so far is the typical “Sonlight laryngitis”, lol.  My throat is killing me right now, and I didn’t even finish all the reading!  Oh well, we’ll catch up as soon as my voice adjusts.  That’s what I get for tackling two cores this year!

I have always wanted to do some sort of history timeline with the kids.  I have tried various methods–mini timelines in lapbooks or notebooks, I’ve had poster board timelines taped to doors, I’ve made a huge wall timeline with strips of paper, I made another wall timeline out of butcher paper and yet another out of that big science experiment fold-out cardboard.  The last is still in use, but it tends to get forgotten quite a bit.

Charlotte Mason recommends using a Book of Centuries…or a timeline in a notebook.  I have always hesitated over this, because I thought the flow of history would make more sense if you could see it spread out rather than have it in book format.  However, we just don’t have the space for a large wall timeline.

So I was reading over at the 4Real message boards and saw this post about how to use a book of centuries, and finally–it clicked.  I finally “get” how a book of centuries can work.  So I’ve been working on setting up Annie’s brand new BOC.   I figure since we’re starting with ancients this year, it’s the perfect time to jump in and start her notebook.

Basically, the plan is this:

Annie will have a large ( I think mine is a 3 in. but it might be 2in.) binder with dividers set up in centuries (or, in the ancients, millennium).    So, the dividers look something like this :

• 5000-4000BC
• 1400 – 1500 AD

The last divider just says 2000-.

So, what will go in between those dividers?  Basically, as we read, we’ll add things that catch her interest.  I have the timeline figures that came with SL Core 6, but I was thinking that at the beginning of each century, we’d have a timeline page where she can put the figures, and any other date worth noting.

Other things we’ll include:

• Drawings
• Maps
• Written narrations
• Pictures from historical coloring books
• Historical copy work
• Copies of historical documents
• Saint bios &/or coloring pages
• Research reports
• Historical creative writing
• Mini-books

My plan is that Annie will use this book of centuries for the rest of her education.  By the time she completes high school, she will have a rich, thorough history book that she’s created herself.  It’ll serve as a reference but also as a keepsake.

I had thought about having the twins start their own books too, but I rather like the idea of starting in middle school.  So they will have a notebook to keep any narrations, coloring pages, drawings, etc.  But we’ll continue with the fold out card board timeline,  as I think it’s easier for young children to “get” the flow of history and see the connections that way.

I’m still getting Annie’s book set up, but when it’s complete (and especially when we have some pages added to show off) I’ll share some pictures.

I can’t believe how fast the summer went by!  Next week we begin our new school year, and I think most of us are looking forward to it.

As of now, I’ve pretty much finalized my plans, so I thought I’d go ahead and post them here.

Annie–6th grade

Dinoboy and Gamerboy–3rd Grade

• Religion: Faith and Life 3
• Golden Children’s Bible (we’re going to read through the whole bible this year)
• Loyola Kids Book of Saints
• Math: Math Mammoth grade 3
• Language Arts: Sonlight Lang. Arts 2 Adv. (Gamerboy will be reading the adv. readers, but Dinoboy is more at the 2 reg. reader level–bordering on intermediate.  So he’ll do his own readers)
• Explode the Code 4-6
• History/Geography/Literature: Sonlight Core 1+2
• Science: Mostly this will be interest led.  I have a text for them (Silver Burnett & Ginn Science) should they want it, but in the early elementary years I prefer to just hop topic to topic as they are interested.  We also subscribe to The Young Scientist Club monthly science kits, so I imagine most of their science this year will revolve around those kits.
• Foreign Language: If they want to, they can join Annie in learning Mandarin Chinese.

And that’s basically it.  I want to add that most subjects will be done daily, but Science will be 3 days a week (MWF).  Also, for religion, they won’t read all of those books everyday.  I’m thinking that they’ll all have bible daily but do F&L on Mondays, and Saints on Wednesdays.

Now this week I just need to get everything set up and ready!  I’m really looking forward to starting on Monday!

FOR TODAY Aug. 10, 2010

Outside my window… sunny and warm.  It’s been really humid lately though, so I have the air conditioners on.

I am thinking… about getting ready for school–we have 3 weeks to go!  I am still in the midst of purchasing curriculum and reorganizing.  Lots to do in the next few weeks.

I am thankful for… Summer vacation.  I love the beginning of the school year, but it’s so blessedly wonderful to just be able to relax during the summer.  I’ve considered year round schooling, but I think we’d really miss our summer vacation.

From the kitchen… I just finished making some 7 layer taco dip for dinner tonight.  It’s one of our favorite quick summer dinners.  The recipe is so easy too:

1. 1 can of refried beans (I add some cumin, cayenne pepper and chili powder to kick it up)
2. 4oz of cream cheese, softened
3. 3/4 c. sour cream
4. 8oz  (or so, I don’t always measure) salsa
5. chopped veggies (tomatoes, peppers, green onions)
6. 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
7. shredded lettuce

Just layer ingredients (mix the cream cheese and sour cream together first) and pop it in the fridge for a few hours before you’re ready to eat.  Then serve it with tortilla chips.

I am wearing… shorts and a orange and yellow striped t-shirt.

I am creating… hopefully I’ll be creating some organized space out of this chaos.  We’ll see how it goes.

I am going… to have to do a lot of purging here over the next several days.  We just have WAY too much stuff.  But it needs to be done so I can create some order around here.

I am reading… I just finished a really neat book called Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows.  It’s written by a woman who lived in China for 3 years and immersed herself in the language.  I thought it would be a neat read since the kids and I are going to try and learn Mandarin Chinese this year.  I learned quite a bit about the Chinese culture while reading this book–it’s fascinating.  However, I’m a little intimidated by the language now.

I’m currently reading All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

I am hoping… to get to the used book superstore soon since I have a 50% off coupon.  I still need to find the rest of the books for the Sonlight Core’s we’ll be studying this year.

I am hearing… the sounds of my kids bickering.  As much as I love my summer vacation I’m really looking forward to the more structured days of the school year.  When the kids are bored they fight.  A lot.

One of my favorite things… when my kids randomly give me a hug and tell me they think I’m great.  I love that.

A few plans for the rest of the week: work on getting things ready for school, and try to spend some time outside while the weather isn’t too hot.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing…

Cutie on the beach

I had a wonderful conversation with Annie this morning.  As we were planning her birthday slumber party, and looking over a catalog she’d been given (for a popular mall store for girls her age), she commented that next to the girls in the catalog, she was pretty boring.

Now, boring is definitely not a word I would use to describe Annie.  Playful, silly, creative, compassionate, insightful…yes.  Boring?  Not remotely.  So I asked her why she thought that.

Annie: “Look at their clothes!  Mine are just t-shirts and shorts.”

Me: “Yes, but do you like those clothes?  I think they’re a bit much, and definitely not something I would be comfortable wearing.”

Annie: “I know!  I don’t think they’re very pretty, but they’re different from how I dress.”

She then asked me if she was normal.  All her friends like to listen to the latest pop music (Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga are favorites) and they like to wear the latest fashions, and talk about boys.  Annie just isn’t interested in those things.

I was so excited about this conversation!  One of my goals in homeschooling is to help my children become the individual that they were meant to be.  So many children are a product of a system–everyone is supposed to like and do the same things.  I don’t want that for my kids.   I told her that there is no such thing as normal.  No one is normal!   Just because her friends like something does not mean she needs to force herself to like them too.    She was still unconvinced, and certain that she is somehow “weird.”

So I told her about a girl I used to be friends with–she was one of my best friends back in high school.  Back then, I was a boy crazy, wild, silly and desperate-to-fit-in typical teen–as were most of my friends.  But not Audra.  She was unique.  She wasn’t interested in dating, or fashion, or sneaking around behind her parents back, or being “cool.”  She knew what she liked and that was that.  She was into musical theater, books and figure skating.  She had decided that she didn’t need to date in high school–which I thought was insane.   She actually got along with her little brother–not only that, she loved him!   (I did not get along with my little brother AT ALL and was always taken aback by how well Audra got along with hers).   She was her own person and she was popular!   Annie asked me what Audra was like now.  ”She’s a professional stage actress.”

Annie’s eyes lit up.   I think I’ve given her a new hero.    She then pondered quietly for a bit, and said, “You know, I really like who I am!”

If I do nothing else right…I at least know that I’ve shown Annie that she’s a wonderful person just the way she is. It’s taken me years to learn that about myself–I am so thrilled that she knows it now.   I can’t wait to see the wonderful, confident, intelligent woman she becomes.

I recently received The Loser Letters-A Comic Tale of Life, Death and Atheism by Mary Eberstadt from The Catholic Company to review.  I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, especially after reading the first few pages and seeing God referred to as “Loser”.  Plus all the slang, pop culture references, etc where a little annoying.  But, once I adjusted to the language it was a fun and thought provoking read.  I would call it a modern retelling of the C.S. Lewis classic The Screwtape Letters.   The basic premise is a newly converted atheist is sending letters to her atheist heroes in an attempt to help them improve the way they go about presenting their views.  The main character, A.F. (a former) Christian is showing them all the ways they “mess up” in converting others to atheism and because she has been on both sides of the fence she figures she’s the one to guide them.   She actually makes a lot of very good points, in a very witty fashion.  The topics covered range from the sexual revolution to abortion to why people have believed in some form of deity though nearly all of human history, to why religious art is nearly always better than secular art, etc. And I liked that it was about belief in God, not necessarily belief in any one particular religion.  This book can be for anyone of faith–Jew, Muslim or Christian.

I think this would be a good read for a teen getting ready to go to college.   Overall, I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who has a teen planning to go to a secular college.

FOR TODAY Thursday, July 15, 2010

Outside my window… it’s slightly cloudy, and not nearly as hot as it has been.  Yesterday’s rain has cooled things off considerably.  Annie even complained of being cold this morning.   Everything is damp and muddy and most likely, I won’t have to water the garden today.

I am thinking…about packing for vacation!  We’ll be heading out to the beach on Saturday and we’re all very much looking forward to it.   This will be Cutie’s first time seeing the ocean.  But first I have tons of packing to do.  It’s no easy feat packing for 6 people–especially when one of them is a baby.   I’m trying to figure out a way to squeeze our oversized playpen in the car since the beach house isn’t babyproof.

I am thankful for… cooler weather!  It’s been so hot lately, and even though we do have air conditioners, we try to not turn them on unless we absolutely have to, and even with them on, my kitchen is always sweltering hot.  So yesterday and today have given us some wonderful relief.

From the kitchen… I’m going to make some refrigerator pickles today with the pickling cukes I picked from our garden the other day.  I also have a fairly large zucchini that I need to do something with–maybe I’ll make some zucchini bread to take on vacation?

I am wearing… khaki cropped pants and an orange tank top.  I’ve acutally been trying to dress a bit nicer lately.  A friend got me hooked on http://chicisimo.com.  It’s fun to see the different outfits people wear, and come up with new and different things out of my own closet.

I am creating… lesson plans!  I have most of our school stuff now, though I still need to get a few more things.  I really love this time of year–planning and dreaming up projects and lessons and books to read…it’s so exhilarating!

I am going… to buy some new sneakers for Cutie either tonight or tomorrow.  She is finally walking, so it’s time to get some shoes on her, especially since we’re going to be out and about the next several days.

I am reading… The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.  I’m really enjoying it so far–it’s a pre-read for  Annie, and I think she’ll really like it as well.  I’ll probably bring the next Sookie Stackhouse novel with me to the beach–you’ve got to have a nice fluffy book for the beach!

I am hoping… to clear some space on my shelves soon to make room for new school stuff.

I am hearing… Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii game.

One of my favorite things… writing lesson plans–cause I’m a geek like that.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Get all the laundry done, get everyone packed…and head to the beach!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing…

A sweet picture I took of Annie--stopping to smell the roses.

It’s not that I don’t have  anything to blog about, there’s plenty going on.  I guess I just get too busy this time of year.  That seems ridiculous.  How could I be busier in the summer than during the school year?  I think I try to take advantage of less school and throw myself into projects–the garden, cleaning/reorganizing the house…I forget sometimes I even have a blog.

So what have we been up to?

Annie went to Jazzercise camp last week and preformed “Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” for their Jazzercise Idol.  She did an amazing job, especially considering that just a few years ago she was so painfully shy that she couldn’t talk in front of people–now she can get on stage and sing and dance!

We finished up scouts for the year–the twins are now going to be Bear cubs and Annie is a Cadette.   They don’t meet much in the summer, so we can just relax until the fall.  Rob is going to be taking over the Bears next year, so he needs the break!

Cutie has been doing weekly therapy, and it seems to be going well.  She’s still not walking more than a step or two here and there, and still no words, though she is babbling like crazy.  She also does this really cute thing where if she sees a flower or you say the word flower she’ll do her fake sneeze–basically she’ll just say, “ah ah ah ah ah!”  Very cute.  We saw a butterfly yesterday and she did her fake sneeze–apparently butterflies are very similar to flowers.

I’ve been on a mission to get the house in order before we start school in the fall.  I really want to redo the kitchen, but there are no funds for a full on makeover.  So I’m hoping to at least paint.  And I can definitely declutter!  I’ve already purged the arts and crafts bins and moved all of them to a large cabinet that was full of junk.  It felt good to get that mess taken care of.  I’d also like to repaint the living room, but that would require Rob to take down all the shelving he’s built on the walls, and I don’t think he’s up for that.

I’ve been doing lots of reading–so far this summer, I’ve read:

The Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (this was a read aloud)

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

Q & A by Vikus Swarup

Prairie Tale: A Memoir by Melissa Gilbert

Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance by Sarah Poole

I went to the Used Book Superstore a few weeks ago when they were having their big kids book sale (all kids books for 69 cents!!!) and I got a ton of great stuff.  I managed to get 4 Prentice Hall Science books for Annie.  We now have middle school science covered for at least 2 years.  I have a 50% off coupon I need to use so I’m hoping to find the rest of the books we need for Sonlight Core 1+2 and 6.   I got the IG’s and about 70% of the books so far.

Our garden is doing pretty well–we’ve got several tomatoes, cukes and zucchini come in, and everything else seems to be growing nicely, except for the strawberries–I don’t know what went wrong there, but after the initial 7 or 8 berries we got, the plants just stopped growing fruit.  Maybe they’ll do better next year.   I’m hoping we can make some homemade pickles this year–we messed it up last year because we waited to long and the cukes were over ripe.  I’m hoping this year goes better.  We love pickles here and the kids are really excited to try making their own.

And that’s been our summer so far!  We’re looking forward to going to the beach in a couple of weeks, as well as the zoo, and next month my father will be in town for a visit, and we’re going to go to the Dinosaur State Park in CT.   And of course just lots of relaxing, reading, soaking up some sun, running through sprinklers, and hopefully some swimming (I’m planning to teach the kids how to swim this summer).

I hope everyone has a great summer!  I’ll try to blog more often, promise!

I sat down last 2 days with the checklist for the formidable list of attainments, and I worked out a sort of plan of action for our summer primer.  Before I go into it, I want to point out that all of this will be done very informally and very relaxed.  It looks like a lot, but in reality, over the course of each day, it won’t really amount to that much actual study time.  And really, it’s surprising how much learning happens without any planning at all.

So here’s my run down:

To recite beautifully 6 easy poems…

-choose 1 poem each week or two and practice reading it aloud.  I’ll try to let them choose their own, but I have a feeling the boys will need some assistance choosing.

To recite, perfectly and beautifully a parable and a psalm.

-same as above–I’ll do the choosing this time, and we’ll just learn a line or two daily until we’ve got the whole thing memorized.

To memorize math facts…

-play computer games, use Mathmania magazine, play Smath, play with flash cards, read living math books, etc.  Basically, we’ll do something math related each day.

To read…

-The children are already required to read every day, for a minimum of 10 min.  Annie usually reads for 2-3 hours a day, but the boys are less apt to pick up a book if I don’t tell them to.  I’ll also read aloud each day for 30 min. or so.

To copy in careful cursive from a favorite book.

Once a week they will choose a passage from their reading and copy it in careful, neat cursive.

To know the points of a compass…Describe the boundaries of their home.

I figure we’ll do this pretty informally.  The boys each have a compass for scouts, so we’ll take them outside and “play” with them around the yard and we’ll take them with us on nature walks.

To describe any lake, river, pond, island, etc…

We happen to live right next to a pond, so this is an easy one.  I’ll have them narrate to me a description of the pond, and then they can choose a medium (water color, color pencils, oil pastels, etc) and draw/paint a landscape of the pond.

To tell 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early American history and 3 from World history.

We’ll read bible stories, Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, Once Upon a Time Saints, etc. and I’ll have them narrate to me what they heard.  Possibly, if they want to, they can write their narrations and illustrate them, either just a drawing and a few sentences, or comic book style.

Describe 3 walks and 3 views

Very informal…I plan to take at least one nature walk a week, and just casually I’ll have them describe their walks.  As for views–I figure we’ll use our backyard, their grandparents back yard and the view from the beach house.  Again, I’ll keep this very casual.  I’ve learned that if they think they’re doing school, they can’t think of anything.  But if it’s just everyday conversation, they can talk enough to fill several notebooks, lol.

To mount in a scrapbook a dozen common wildflowers, leaves and flowers from 6 forest trees…

We’ll start keeping nature journals and I’ll have them either mount the specimens they find or draw them and keep track of where they were found, their common and latin names, etc.

To know 6 birds…

This will be easy, because we are already bird watchers.  We’ll keep watching the birds that come to our feeder and pay close attention to their songs.  We might add in some reading of The Burgess Bird Book, but for some reason (despite our love of birds) this book has never been a favorite here.

To learn a new craft/art

I’ve been wanting to learn sewing and Annie has been trying to get me to help her learn to sew, so that covers her new craft.  The twins can have Rob teach them some sort of art technique or wood working, etc.  Whatever he’s willing to teach them, lol.

Tell 3 stories about their own pets…

They will make little illustrated books about our dog Sam for Cutie.

To recite 2 prayers in Latin.

I own Prima Latina, so I’ll just use the prayers they cover, I think they have the Sanctus and Our Father and the Table blessing…it’s been a while since I used it.

To name 20 common objects in Spanish…

We’ll use the Usborne First 1000 Words in Spanish.

To sing a hymn, a Spanish song and a Patriotic song.

We’ll choose a song they hear frequently at church, I’ll have to do some research on a spanish song–maybe we’ll learn a song they already know, translated into spanish, and for our patriotic song, I’d like to have them learn The Star Spangled Banner.

To keep a caterpillar and tell his life story…

In addition to keeping a caterpillar and watching over it, I’ll have them draw the life cycle of a butterfly and write his life story.

I’ve decided we’ll have notebooks to keep all their work in, nothing fancy, just a binder–we might even keep their nature journal pages loose-leaf to add to our notebooks.  I’m thinking we’ll just call it our Charlotte Mason Summer Primer.