Swim Team: 2013

Ballet/Contemporary/Acro Recital: 2013

music

Veni Veni Emmanuel

Dating back to the 12th century Veni, Veni Emmanuel is a perfect advent hymn because it looks forward to the arrival, or advent, of our Savior. This really is a beautiful version and good for my Latin students to hear and study.

   

To help with translation, here it is in English.

I also love, love this musical piece.  Such a powerful and humble expression.

10 reasons to teach cursive handwriting

1.Relative ease in introducing cursive penmanship to preschoolers.

Contrary to common beliefs, it is very easy to teach cursive handwriting. It only requires 3 movements: undercurve, overcurve and up and down. Print handwriting necessitates an even more complex stroke of straight lines and perfect circles.

2.Prevents reversals and confusion of letters

The letters "b and d", "f and t", "g, q and p" are confusing for young children. In cursive, writing the letter "b and d" require a huge difference in directionality.

3.Enhances spelling ability

In cursive, children learn to spell correctly since hand movements create some muscle memory that retains the spelling patterns.

4.Develops internal control systems that can be used as tool for learning

In a cursive writing, the incorporation of movement, pressure and visual processing is a bit multifaceted. This augments visual spacial and coordination skills. In writing lowercase letters in print, six strokes are required against three movements in cursive writing. Fluent movement is developed. With cursive writing practice, the neuron connections in the brain, responsible for organizing other kinds of information and skills, are greatly strengthened.

5.Potential for errors are diminished

Cursive handwriting reduces errors because of the continuous flow of writing. In print, the child picks up the pencil from the paper to start a new letter in a word, thus the potential for mistakes is higher.

6.Improved reading skills

The goal in reading is to read words instead of letters at a time. Cursive writing promotes reading words, instead of a distinct letter. After words, reading will move to sentences. Thus, remedial support for comprehension and reading of words are occurring less. The child reads what he or she writes as "whole words" rather than as individual letters.

7.Enforces the skills for patterns in reading and writing

Unlike print writing, lower case cursive writing starts from the same beginning point. In print, various letter start from the top, down, middle and many different positions . Letter inversions and reversals are eliminated.

8. Prevents erratic spaces between letters and words

In cursive, the flow of writing moves from left to right. It teaches spatial discipline. In print, the child's handwritings are difficult to discern. The spaces between words are so tight. It is hard to tell where the words begin and end.

9. Helps Left Handed Children

In print, the left-handed child proceeds to write printing from left to right but will cover what he has written with his arms. This is called the hook position. In cursive writing, the left-handed child learns to write from bottom up and turns the paper clockwise causing great comfort and legibility.

10.Use as a tool to put thoughts on paper quickly and easily

Mastery of cursive will be to the advantage of any student in the long-run. The child will be able to write faster. The student can get his or her ideas on paper quicker. It can also be advantageous in taking notes from lectures.

Conclusion:

The handwriting of our present generation is pathetic. The generation of our grandmothers are proud of their cursive handwriting because they labored to perfect the art of cursive handwriting. With print being taught first in schools and many home school curricula, bad habits are acquired that are difficult to break. The shocking proportions of learning disabilities including Dysgraphia and Dyslexia in our generation may be to a certain extent, be related to print handwriting.

Promotion

San Felix, Panama

Travis recently had the opportunity to travel down to Panama and help build an orphanage home.  His mission trip only took up ten days of his personal time but the blessings were abundant.  The Lord blessed the efforts of the missionary team with hard work, many prayers, discipleship and friendship within each other and with the local Panamanian people.  They made a lot of progress during this trip but there is still work to be done on the building.   Who knows, maybe he will find himself there again in September for the next phase.  Here's a little video I pulled together to share a glimpse of his mission trip.  To God be all the glory.

Knowing and Teaching Math

Later this month I'll be attending a homeschool practicum that will focus on the subject of Mathematics.  Doing math is not what I WANT to do this summer, but learning the why and the what to know, about math and how to teach it sounds like a good thing for me and my kids.   So here's a link for me to do a little reading on the subject before I attend my practicum.

Missionary update from Panama

Travis is in Panama this week.  We haven't heard from him since he left a message saying he arrived in Panama City and was loading up in the van.  He had a five hour road trip ahead of him before arriving San Feliz.  Finally, this email showed up today.  

I am soooo bummed that I can´t call you or contact you as much as I would like.  We are definately in a third world country here.  I borrowed a guy´s laptop here (the son of the woman who cooks for us) so I could e-mail you.  It´s hard to type.  The keyboard layout is different and I keep hitting the wrong keys.  

Most of the people here haven´t gotten an opportunity to speak to their families because there just isn´t internet or telephone service unless you want to activate your cell service from the U.S. and pay major $$$.  One guy here had to pay $300.00 last time.  Ehhhhh!

We´re having a great time and getting a lot of work done.  I´m taking a lot of pictures so you can see what we are doing.  We did go to the ocean and swim for a few minutes at the end of the day yesterday and swam in a river the day prior to that.  It´s hot here and we just sweat all day long.  

I´d like to tell you more, but there are a several others here who want to send a quick note to their families.

I love you all so much and miss you tons!

Ballet

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.