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October
2000: This has been another month of just plodding on. Because we
have all been suffering from winter colds over the last couple of months we have
been spending more time getting out of the house. The garden looks a lot
better, the house is a little worse for wear, but we are feeling much
refreshed. Here's what has been happening in our homeschool this month.
- Since the
weather has been warmer this month the vege garden was started and everything is
just bolting away. Jonathon and Alex have their own gardens, while Grace
helped to plant marigolds around the borders. Jonathon did everything on
his own, clearing the space, planting, and now the weeding. He has written
up in his notebook where everything is planted.
- I have
done very little teaching with Alex this month, but he has made great
progress. We have only done about another 5 lessons from the book How to teach
your child to read in 100 easy lessons, but he has gone from sounding out every
word, to just reading the whole word out. The
lesson goes much quicker too, only takes about 5 minutes for reading and then 10
minutes to practice the writing. He has his own little writing book
now. Each lesson he writes his name on top of the page, then he has two
letters to practice from the book (both small and capital versions) and then I
add a number for him.
- Jonathon
spent two weeks writing a tall tale for Language Arts. We use the series
Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the older edition) which I really
like as it tells me exactly what to say. (This is the subject that I have
the most trouble teaching. I need all the help I can get.)
Each day he had to do one step. The first day was just thinking about the
story, then the next couple of days are writing ideas down, then paragraphs for
each event, editing paragraphs, then adding an introduction, next the
conclusion, then finally making a final copy. It was really good as he
only did a little bit each day but he ended up with a good sized story.
(Jonathon finished one page on lined A4 paper, and he doesn't like
writing!) I also typed it out on the computer, leaving room for him to
illustrate it, added a cover page and a border. It looks really
good. We printed it out and put it in his HomeSchool
Yearbook.
- Jonathon
also finished up his ABeka maths book and since we were not able to get another
one straight away (it's on order but has to come from the US), we found another
book to go on with in the meantime. It's called A+ School Certicate
Mathematics by G. Holden. It's a New Zealand book and it is very user
friendly. Jonathon has really enjoyed the change and he zips through his
maths in about half an hour usually.
- I
purchased a second copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The
first copy was quickly worn out and the pages fell out. This time I took
the book into our library and ask them if they would mind putting in some of
their stronger staples. They were happy to do so. Hopefully the book
will last longer this time. 8:)
- All the
kids have enjoyed playing 'The Pretending Game'. It's great for when they
are bored, and it encourages them to think and use their imaginations. All
I have to do is say "Pretend you are...." Suggestions are
cooking tea, vacumming, at the checkout in the supermarket, fixing a car,
brushing teeth/hair, and of course pretending to sleep is a really good
one. 8:)
November
2000: Spring has finally arrived! We're all over our winter
colds so we have been out and about a little more this month. We also
announced to our family and friends that we will be blessed with another little
one in April! Again the midwife has been patiently answering all the
children's medical questions - extra science lessons. 8:)
- November
is a wind-up month for us. Time to finish books and projects that we want
done for the year. It's also a time for us to order new books for the
coming year which means Mum and Dad spend a lot of time reviewing what we would
like to teach and what materials we need. Or rather, Mum looks at
all the catalogs and writes out the wish list, while Dad approves it.
8:)
-Already the
children have been getting excited over Christmas coming! I've been
working out what we will be doing homeschooling wise over December. We
usually cut back all work apart from the basics - Bible, spelling, and
maths. Language Arts is done with our other projects like the HomeSchool Yearbooks
and writing Christmas Cards. I wrote out a Christmas Countdown Calendar
so the children would have something to do everyday until Christmas, besides the
little chocolate calendars they have.
- A
homeschooling friend had some school desks (ones with the lid that flips
up and has storage space underneath) with matching chairs for sale. We
decided to buy them thinking they could go in the boy's bedroom or
someplace. In the end we put them in a corner of the kitchen and they have
worked out really well. Jonathon can sit in the corner and he doesn't get
distracted so much by the little ones, or watching the computer. Even Alex (4
1/2 yo) loves having his own 'work' place. I was a bit worried about being
'schoolish', but the desks have made an improvement on the children's
work.
- At the
start of the month we attended the Masterton Medival Festival. We had a
great day out, spending much longer there than what we had intended. They
had set up a Castle scene, and had people in full costumes, including knights
with full armour, well-to-do ladies and poor wenches. Among the
attractions to watch was battle scenes, joustling and a stage show. What a
fun learning experience! We were thrilled to hear that because this first
year was a success, that they will be repeating it again next year, just in time
for our indepth look at the Middle Ages with the Greenleaf guides.
- I've
designated the weekends as my bulk reading times. During the week I'm
reading through the Bible at a fairly fast pace so that I will finish it before
this baby arrives, but it means I have little time to read anything else.
So in the weekends I'm reading the other books that I've had for a while and
have not had time to read. At the moment I've just begun Sally Clarkson's
book "Seasons of a Mother's Heart". Here's a favourite
paragraph from Chapter 1.
"As
I have sought the input of seasoned homeschooling mothers on this issue, their
response has been consistent. The only way to make it in this
homeschooling life is to reach for God instead of reaching for
happiness. Trying harder to be happy or content will not make you
happy and content; trying harder to rest in God and depend upon his grace
will. It is a spiritual issue, not a practical one. Contentedness
will not come from being more organized, sleeping longer, being a better wife,
having a better home, using better materials, having more time to yourself, or
whatever it is you think might help. Contentedness is learned in the
process of daily accepting life as God gives it to you, and adjusting your
expectations to life's limitations."
I'm so
pleased that I was reading the first chapter on contentedness while going
through all those homeschool catalogs. 8:) See you next month!
December
2000
Whew, it's
been a busy month!
- We have
just about finished this years homeschool yearbooks. We only have to get
another set of film developed, write a piece about each photo and put them into
the books. It has been a much easier job this year as I've been doing
quite a bit of the computer. Jonathon's narrations and stories were typed
out on the computer as we went along, printed out and put into the books.
Then I just had to look at our books like ABeka Science and Maths, and Greenleaf
guides, and typed out what we had covered for each subject. Jonathon spent
a couple of days writing out some of the books he has read, quite a list!
Both boys enjoyed doing their favourite's page again this year. After all
their hard work they got out previous yearbooks to have a look. We
purchased a digital camera this month and as soon as I can figure out how to put
the pics on the web I'll be able to show you how our yearbooks look. 8:)
- You may
remember that I wrote in July about the game Tangrams
that I had downloaded off the web while we were studying China. I recently
came across the site again and I wanted to pass on the link to you.
Six months later my children still
enjoy playing it!
- We stopped
doing LLATL this month, taking a break for Christmas. Of course we
didn't stop doing Language Arts, there was plenty to do! The children were
kept busy writing out Christmas cards, letters to family, their yearbooks, and
Jonathon's copywork was from Luke 1 and 2.
- When I was
typing up what we had learnt in history this year for our yearbooks, I decided
to ask Jonathon to narrate what he had learnt about Ancient Greece. After
an hour of him talking and me typing, he decided he had done enough! We
were very impressed with how much he had remembered. I must remember to
type them down more often.
- I have
begun reading Volume 6 - A philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason. Did
you realise that this was online?
I printed out Vol 6 and hope to get it comb bound soon. Even though I have
read For the Children's Sake and The Charlotte Mason Companion, I am finding
nuggets of wisdom everywhere! Of special interest to me since
I have an ADHD child is what she writes on attention. Here are a few
snippets from Chapter 4 - Authority and Docility.
"Another
misapprehension which makes for disorder is our way of regarding
attention. We believe that it is to be cultivated, nursed, coddled, wooed
by persuasion, by dramatic presentation, by picutes and illustrative objects: in
fact, the teacher, the success of whose work depends upon his 'personality,' is
an actor of no mean power whose performance would adorn any stage.
Attention, we know, is not a 'faculty' nor a definable power of mind but is the
ability to turn on every such power, to concentrate, as we say. We throw
away labour in attempting to produce or to train this necessary function.
There it is in every child in full measure, a very Niagara of force, ready to be
turned on in obedience to the child's own authority and capable of infinite
resistance to authority imposed from without. Our part is to regard
attention, too, as an appetite and to feed it with the best we have in books and
in all knowledge. ..... We must put into their hands the sources which we
must needs use for ourselves, the best books of the best writers."
"All
school work should be conducted in such a manner that children are aware of the
responsibilty of learning; it is their business to know that which has been
taught. To this end the subject matter should not be repeated. We
ourselves do not attend to the matters in our daily paper which we know we shall
meet with again in a weekly review, nor to that if there is a monthly review in
prospect; these repeated aids result in our being persons of wandering attention
and feeble memory. To allow repetition of a lesson is to shift the
responsibility for it from the shoulders of the pupil to those of the teacher
who says, in effect, - "I'll see that you know it," so his pupils make
no effort of attention. Thus the same stale stuff is repeated again and
again and the children get bored and restive, reading for pranks by way of a
change."
Plenty of
food for thought! I'm not sure that it would be wasting labour to train
the attention for a child that already has poor attention. There needs to
be a focus on training this child to concentrate, but I also agree with
Charlotte that it is the responsiblity of the parent/teacher, not the
child. If I keep repeating what I say over and over to the children, but
not taking action when they don't do what I say, then I am responsible for their
behaviour. I am training them not to pay attention to what I say.
One thing I have learnt with ADHD children is that you have to be very
consistent to say what you mean, and show that you mean what you say.
I would
encourage all parents to read Charlotte's work. There is so much more than
teaching academic knowledge!
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Blue
backgrounds from Ritvas
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Yellow
Background from Wendy's
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