New Grammar links

Over the last year, I have learned to really value the skill of memorization.  My kids and I memorized SO much last year and we have just as much to memorize this school year.  It's exciting and overwhelming!  I have learned to not get discouraged by looking at the big lists but instead, to just stay focused on small chunks at a time.  Then it's very rewarding to look back and realize just how much we have learned in a relatively short amount of time.  So of course the internet provides TONS of support and ideas for learning...everything!  In an attempt to organize and utilize everything I think is helpful.  I'm going to make this post a running list of my favorite links to use.  This idea is not to link up everything I find but just the ones I really want to refer to over and over again.  So here's the first few.

Memory work practice ideas with more links!
mulitplication explained at Khan Academy! (I LOVE this website)

CCOP Timeline weeks 1-4

If you find yourself here in search of the New CC Timeline Video's, they've been moved to their very own blog.  Weeks 1-12 are up and running.  Here's a direct link:

http://classicalconversationsorangepark.blogspot.com/

Asking questions?

 

~I couldn't have said this better!  So here's a copy of an article I recently read.   It sums up where my thoughts are this summer.  My children are in all three stages of the trivium (plus preschool) this coming school year so I'm finding a lot to read and consider before we get started with formal lessons again.~

This summer at Classical Conversations Practicums, I enjoyed turning my attention, again, to the Trivium, the three stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. We often talk about how one learns in each of the stages but I have noticed that there are distinct teaching tools we use in each stage. As a parent and teacher, I want to be aware of how I am teaching so that I can bring out the best in my children in each stage of learning.

(SLOAN)  In the grammar stage, the student needs to memorize the vocabulary of the subject. There are many tools to help students memorize: singing, chanting, drawing, hand motions, body movements—anything that makes the information memorable and pleasant to repeat. Repetition over time will secure the information into long term memory. The parent/teacher role in this stage is to drill and demonstrate. The other tools to have in your toolbox are grammar level questions which enable the student to recite the information they have learned. These questions would be: Who? What? When? and Where? Grammar level teaching should pour into the student lots of rich information, so questions at this level should just ask the student to tell you what they know.

(ETHAN)  In the dialectic stage, we want our student to think about and put to use the information that he or she has memorized. The tool for teaching thinking is also going to involve asking questions, but at the dialectic level, you want to ask questions that get the student processing the information more than they did when they answered the Who? What? When? and Where? questions. There are five good questions to keep in your toolbox. They can be used in any subject to get a student thinking. They are:

1) Can you define __________?

2) How does ___________ compare (or contrast) to another idea?

3) How does ____________ relate to other ideas?

4) What circumstances affect ______________?

5) What do authorities say about __________?

For remembering the five questions simplify them to: define, compare, relate, circumstance, and authority. (DCRCA—Can anyone think of a memory device for this?) My role in this stage is to pull out ideas from the student through discussion. Having these five questions in my toolbox frees me from having to be the expert on a subject; I am the master question asker of any subject.

(CAMRYN)  In the final stage, rhetoric, the student is expected to form his or her own ideas and create original works of writing, art, or speech. This does not mean they need to be left on their own. Life will offer plenty of opportunities for that soon enough. I am still the teacher, so I use this time to help them learn to form original ideas by practicing together. My goal is to pull out ideas from them, and push them further in their thinking. Again, the tool is asking questions to get them thinking. I continue to use the five questions listed above, and I add the more profound, but humbly stated question, “So what?” As a classical educator, I ought to devise a more eloquently stated version of this question, but even though it is plain, it is profound. “So what are you going to do about this problem?” “So what are the consequences of this idea?” “So what does it mean to you?” These are the questions that take the student further in their thinking. We strive to empower them with a sense of responsibility and leadership. They should be using the word “ought” more often. “What ought to be done about this problem?” “What is the right and noble thing to do?” “What are the consequences of these actions?” If the leaders of our country were in the habit of asking themselves these questions, our freedoms and those of the next generation would be protected. We have to train and practice this type of thinking in order to develop responsible and noble leaders. You can do this with your student as you discuss themes in literature, topics in debate, or science papers. Any subject can be questioned this way.  The key is to use rich topics for discussions with my whole family, discussions which I hope will develop their ability to think deeply and act nobly.

As the leading learner in my homeschool, I am growing in the art of asking questions, and I expect that my children will develop the art of asking themselves good questions which will make them great thinkers and leaders.

an Uncle Noah day

tick/tock

  The astronomical clock in Prague. 

Homer Price

I've got to bookmark this for a future book discussion of this book.  Ethan loved reading it several months ago and so I know he will like the movie clips included.  Sloan still has this book on her "to read list" so this may inspire her to read more of the book or I'll wait until she has read it all to share this with her. I love it when someone else makes things easier for me!

Mt. Hope Chronicles: Book Detectives ~ Homer Price

Timeline

I realize I haven't written lately and the things I've been posting are YouTube videos but I have another video to post here.  The kids and I have been very busy this school year learning this timeline (among many other things).  We have 5x8 cards with the titles of each historical event, a picture, and a short summary of the history.  These are the same pictures shown in the video's below.  We've done extra research and reading on the events that interest us the most.  This has brought many great conversations into our school days also.  Each week we focus on 8 events.  and we only have 4 weeks left to get to the last card.  I recently came across these videos from another family learning this timeline also.  I like how they have the pictures flashing in the background and I think the girl here does a great job showing the motions we've been learning along with each card.  Some of the motions are different from what we use but they are very close to the same.  Anyway, this is for my kids to reference during memory practice time.  (And for anyone who may find themselves reading my blog, here's a glimpse of how we homeschool.) 

 

Christmas Tree Fued

Introducing Sylvia, Gloria, Rosemary, Knut, Bjorn, Thor, Cecily and Josh (aka: Uncle Mustache) plus unseen but heard on piano, Nancy.

Otherwise known as The Peterson Family Singers.  

A Charlie Brown perspective

A little comic relief :-)

All my ducks in a row

Quack, Quack

I have eight more mouths to feed and eight more babies to tuck in each night!  The excitement of it all is great for all of us.  My kids are soo thrilled with the new attraction in our backyard.  Without further a due, here they are:

And here is the story:  Last weekend, the girls found a new hatchling of baby ducks at the ponds around the soccer field.  We spend time at the soccer park four days a week.  They were so excited to go back and check on them during the coming week during soccer practices.  After checking on them a couple more times, on Thursday afternoon, we were shocked to find a dead adult duck (the mommy, we presume) next to one of baby ducks.  We were all so sad and concerned for the remaining ducklings.  The kids all begged Daddy to let them bring them home to our backyard pond!  We all decided that if they were still there on the weekend, we'd consider ideas of how to protect them.  So, Saturday morning we woke up early to get Sloan to her soccer game only find that all the games had been rescheduled for the afternoon (I hadn't checked for an email update that morning) so the field was empty and we found ourselves with some "free-time!"  Of course we all ran to find the baby ducks and sure enough, we found them all huddled together but noticed that some of the big ducks were pecking at them a bit.

After about 30 minutes of watching them, we had put a plan together and decided to bring them home.  They were so little that it wasn't too hard to catch them one by one and place them on the nearby picnic table where they wouldn't jump off and run away from us.  Travis, Ethan and Camryn were the catchers and Sloan, myself and Isaac were the table guards.  When they started getting fast and harder to catch, Camryn rose to the occasion and was determined to get them all gathered up!  We were all impressed with her newly found duck catching skills.

I happened to have my favorite beach bag in the car so we carefully placed them all in the bag, got in the car, and proudly brought them home.  We had about an hour to throw together a fenced in area with a bucket of water  and some food scraps before taking off for the actual soccer game that originally got us out in the first place.

Presently we have a chicken-wire fenced in area for them to swim in the edge of our big pond and nestle in the long grass and clover area of the beach.  They seem very happy.  And my kids are thrilled.  We've done some research on them and have learned that they are rouen ducks, about 2 weeks old.  What an adventure for us and for them!

14th, 16th, 19th

Celebrating birthdays for 1/2 of our family during one September week!

And I quote:

"Laying for an extra second, to take in the sound of the two youngest babies asleep on each side of me, I had to ask my body to rise out of that soft comfort and into my day.


The outside world was just shimmering awake. 


I saw bits and pieces of the previous day spread out across the yard.  A wagon.  A bike helmet and shoes.  Several scraps of wood that Adelaide nailed together.  End of the Day Papa may have been less than enthusiastic to see these remnants strewn about but Morning Papa found them pleasant and perfectly placed.


The house was so still...I was allowed to observe everything for a few moments before it started again. 


I saw the Sun almost ready to climb into view and I'll admit to wanting that moment to stretch and that peace of the soft light to go on a bit longer.  But this ball spins and that horizon came gently to light reminding the world to move once again.


I wonder at what today will hold for me, for us.


We are seven paths of life that are moving across this continuum of time.  Each on our own, all of us together.  Our paths cross and come together and diverge and intersect with others and continue across this blank sheet of opportunity that is our future.  That blank sheet bursts into life as each moment passes and then fades with our memories as it is left behind with the rest of history. 


We are only human and this is only one morning, sitting still."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I read this blog post the other day and just went back to re-read it and maybe copy a few quotes but have decided that there are so many good nuggets in here that I may as well just link to the whole thing.

CC week 1

Classical Conversation classes started this week and we were a part of it!  I've just got to say that it's going to be a great school year for us because of this weekly program.  Everything about it just feels right.  While my kids were all in their classes, and I was in my class, our director, Shawne, was busy going from room to room taking pictures.  Here is what she captured for our family.

I'm tutoring one of the two Journeyman classes made up of 8-10 year olds.  Here's our first class pose from last week's orientation day.  I've never taught more than my four kids at one time (on a long term basis) so this is a new and exciting extension from my eight years of teaching at home.  I'm so happy to have Sloan in my class with me.  And yes, Isaac was helping me too.  Helping?  I don't know about that but he WAS there. :-) 

Ethan met his new class last week.  He's in the Master's class of 11-12 year olds.  Because of his 2.5 years at the DOD's school in Spain, he really likes being in a classroom with friends.  This will be a perfect compromise for him to be home schooled again but still have a classroom of friends to hang out with regularly.  His teacher is a Mom with five kids and has been in CC for four years now.  She was one of the original tutors from when the Orange Park classes began.  I feel like he's set up for success.

Here he is busy learning geography this week.  We're all learning the U.S. states and capitals this year.
week 1: Augusta, ME    Concord, NH    Boston, MA     Providence, RI     Hartford, CT

 Getting organized.

Isaac's class is set up for lots of fun playtime.  He loves wearing his backpack so I packed it up with a snack, a drink and extra diapers and wipes and he walked right into his classroom/playroom.  Three hours later, I picked him up with big smiles and tons of excitement.  I think that's a good sign of a good time.

In our class (Sloan's class) we did some cutting and pasting to start a science anatomy lapbook.
Week 1:  What are 4 types of tissue?  Four types of tissue are:  Connective, Epithelial, Muscle, Nerve

Each week the kids prepare and deliver an oral presentation.  For the first week, Sloan shared "All about Me."  She did a great job.  However, while listing all of her family members, she included our ages and this is how it came out: "Isaac is 2, I'm 8, Ethan is 11, Camryn is 13, my Mom is 40 and my Dad is 24.  (I soo wanted to correct her so the other Mom's in the room wouldn't think I was married to a 24 year old but I didn't want to interrupt her speech so I bit my tongue and it's still pestering at me so I'm glad I just decided to blog about it and get the chance to correct that little detail.)  hee/hee

A look around

One summer day I found myself with a little down time to enjoy my Florida backyard.  The humidity and heat were lower than normal, dinner was finished early and it was time to sit back and enjoy a warm summer evening.  So with Isaac by my side, we rested on our bench with the camera in hand.  

 And that's when I decided to document a panoramic view.  To the left of us:

 And to the right of us:

 Then we paused to look right in front of us.

Immediately behind me was the joy and activity of neighborhood kids playing and Isaac decided to join them.

 Looking up to the heavens above me.

 And back down to the ground beneath me.

Enjoying God's creation and ever grateful that this is my little piece of it to enjoy on a daily basis.  I am blessed!