Among the more productive things I remember from public school are the hours of impromptu journaling that occured under the teachers' radar!  It was always exciting to see a note from my friend come across my desktop.  

Why not pass notes while homeschooling?

I gave each of the girls a pretty little composition notebook that we pass back and forth, taking turns and alternating pages as we fill it with love notes, drawings, poems, song lyrics, a scripture that comes to mind, or just ponderings.  These aren't graded or corrected; just enjoyed.

The children are always delighted to see their "mommy notebook" returned to their school book stack!  (And when I see their books returned to my desk I open them eagerly, wondering what they have to share with me today!)

This morning Kaira and Keianna each got silly personalized limerick's (along with little stream-of-consciousness notes from whatever else fell out of my brain.) 

Kendra just returned hers to me with some sweet nothings and delightful original poetry and artwork.

I'm debating whether to rouse the PrairieFrogs early tomorrow morning (or wake them at midnight) after this newsflash from one of my "sources". 

"The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a good show this week for those willing to get up in the wee hours of the morning and wait patiently for the shooting stars.

In North America, the best time to watch will be between midnight to 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, but late Tuesday night and also Wednesday night could prove fruitful, weather permitting."

National Geographic says that this particular shower may yield more than 80 meteors an hour!

Thought I'd share the news in case others out there have an interest in watching the sky!

Friday we packed two field trips (and a visit to the Chiropractor, which the children always consider a field trip in itself!) into one day!

We took a little road trip to tour the workshop where my new Highland Harp was made.   Mr. McCrimmon, the luthier, was absolutely fabulous, answering our many questions and showing us all the wonderful ways this little harp is unique.  (And yes, I did say my new harp.  In helping Kaira get started, I became interested myself, and uh... well, we now have two harps.  Kaira's way beyond my level and far more dedicated, but I'm having fun trailing along behind.)

The children got to practice sanding a bit on their souvenir "harp holes" (pieces of wood cut from the soundboard; kinda like doughnut holes!)  We were amazed at all the work that goes into harp making, and Keegan just about signed up for apprenticeship.

Saturday we took a jaunt to a nearby university that hosts a fantastic (phantastic?) physics expo with interactive seminars, demonstrations, and rooms filled with hands-on physics wonders.  The children were fascinated by all the fabulous experiments they experienced in sight, sound and motion!

Kaira was singled out  to stand on stage with a cup on her head and demonstrate something about absorptive properties of some absorbent something.  (I'm not sure I quite grasped the point, but I'm sure it was very cool).  She hadn't volunteered, but they ignored the many raised hands and insisted on "the girl in the purple jumper".  Evidently she has a Physics look about her.

We enjoyed a presentation on sound vibrations, and chicken cluckers were a great hit! 

Cluckers are an easy noisemaker consisting of a cup, a string (secured inside by a paperclip that keeps it from going through the hole), and an unattached bit of damp sponge.  The children jerk the damp sponge down the string, creating a rather loud noise remarkably like a clucking chicken.  Try it!  They are fun!  (Obnoxious, but fun.)

An entire gymnasium full of such "music" in a noise to experience!

 Keegan found time amid scientific pursuits to dance with the lovely ladies attending the event.

We've had a wonderful week studying Chopin, Louis Braille and the Erie Canal. 

We used internet links more than usual in our learning this week, and just in case anyone else is studying the same era--or just intrigued to hop around--I'll share them here.

When we came to Chopin I was stunned to find I don't have any recordings of his music.  (He just isn't one of my favorite composers--and I have dozens of "favorite" composers!)  So we hopped over to Classics for Kids.  If you click on the "Hear the Music" link, it plays some samples. 

For Louis Braille we supplemented our reading with the Braille Bug site.  In addition to Biographical information about Louis Braille (and Helen Keller) it gives a fun inro to children into the Braille alphabet--teaching them to decipher the code.

For the Erie Canal we printed out simple music to the "Low Bridge" song from a Wikipedia link for piano sight reading practice.  Then  we gathered around the computer monitor to enjoy a YouTube musical slide presentation of the Canal Diggers!  The slide show gives a great glimpse into the life of the workers.  (And I love the style of music--I was trying to find he artist's name, but failed.) 

Kaira especially had a heavy week of book work and a lenghty outlining assignment (thanks to her slave-driving mommy), so the web learning was a welcome break.

On a phonics tangent:
I caught Keianna explaining phonics rules to Keegan, pointing to words I'd left on the chalk board.  "Keegan, the e at the end is quiet, but he's powerful.  He makes the other vowels say their name.  Do you remember what a vowel is, Keegan?  I will tell you..."  That e is the strong silent type. 

Ken was off work last week, and we postponed most the regular school work to focus on hands-on projects! 

They built a solar powered hopping frog:





They did fizzy experiments:

They played palaeontologist  and found "dinosaur bones" in a rock.  (This kit said "hours of fun", and meant it!  They still haven't finished getting all the bones out, but have indeed been having fun.  It takes a lot of patience to carve away the rock without damaging fragile fossils within!)






Keegan received a tool box with real (albeit small scale) tools.  He's been perfecting his hammering skills and put together this little train (from a kit).  While the girls and I worked on beading, Keegan painted his handiwork.




Tomorrow it is back to business as usual.  The projects are fun, but I'll enjoy being back to the normal routine--except for the part about Ken going back to work--that part is tough. 

Happy New Year!  We spent New Years Eve rearranging the house a bit, which I hope will give our days better flow.  Yeah, rearranging furniture New Years Eve--I guess we aren't party animals.  It seemed appropriate though, preparing to do a few things differently next year, even in the way we organize the house.

I've also tweaked the schedule again and am trying something rather different.  To keep me from feeling like a ping-pong ball I'm alternating my teacher-instruction days between the two oldest.   

We school 6 days a week (always have), so on the circled time on the charts I'll meet with Kendra on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and assign for two days.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I'll meet with Kaira and assign for two days.  Then on the tapestry/Kieran buddy time they will alternate as well... some days they will do reading and other days play with their little brother for me. 

My children don't focus in tiny little bits here and there, but tend to do better in bigger clumps of time.  (They come by it from me, no doubt.) I hope this gives me time to really focus on each child and allows them to dig in a bit better on their lessons. 

(And with a Keegan and Kieran keeping me busy, I'm thinking it might be just right for this season.)  Little boys sure are fun bundles of energy.

In my collumn, the things listed are what I'm available to do, but I do bounce around.  (For example, I don't necessarily help Kaira with her whole piano practice time.  I check on the littles, read Kieran a story, play blocks with Keegan, etc when she's chugging away fine.)

My poor longsuffering children.  Their mommy/teacher often has a one track mind.  It can lend focus to our days,  but it can make their spelling lessons a bit unusual.

In yesterday's lesson, the words followed our list, but the sentences I made up as examples had a recurring theme.

Shouted: The frantic woman shouted, "Give me a brownie and no one gets hurt."

About: I am thinking about brownies.

Stout: If I eat too many brownies I may become stout.

Mood: Chocolate puts me in a wonderful mood.

Brood:  I may brood and pout if I don't get a brownie. 

Thinner: I would be thinner if I ate fewer brownies.

And so we continued through the list of words....  By the end they were laughing heartily at their silly mommy.  And naturally, I served up brownies to my students--and to me!

I love the smell of sharpened pencils. 

I love seeing Keianna curled up with an Easy Reader. 

I love cuddling with Keegan on the couch reviewing letter sounds. 

I love our little Chaos Factor (aka Kieran), who delightfully disrupts.

I love seeing my big girls engrossed in their studies.  

Ah, how I love my little PrairieFrogs!

School has been trotting along. Keianna is being "folded in" to our Tapestry studies more and more, and I'm amazed at the observations all three girls have about the scope of history. As I introduced this week’s material and reviewed last week, Keianna gave a great summary of Lewis and Clark's expedition--focused especially on Sacagawea.

Keegan thinks he's Napoleon, and all three girls are now Jane Austen and Elisabeth Gaskell fans. They sat riveted watching Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Gaskell's North and South. (Not north and south here in the states, but rather northern and southern England in heat of the Industiral Revolution. This is a fantastic movie to get a glimpse of child labor, the textile industry, unions and strikes. It also has brilliant depictions of the fascinating complexity of human nature. (Kaira thinks romance is absolutely ridiculous, and found it quite amusing that in both Pride and Prejudice and North and South the heroine initially found a man haughty, proud and loathsome, turned down his initial proposal with disgust, and then discovered he really was noble after all.)

Language Study, Math, and our other subjects have been moving along as well. Some days with great enjoyment; some days more of the "get er done" variety.

Someone asked in the comments whether the Language Lessons series from Queen Homeschool is meeting our needs. We started these books for Kaira and Kendra after they completed First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind 1&2. I contemplated going right into Well Trained Mind’s Volume 3 (and even purchased it only to resell). It had beautiful scope. It was by far the most solid and thorough program I’ve seen. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get past the fact that it was entirely written to the teacher rather than the child. "Have the student do ZYZ..." Scripted lessons are tolerable to me for very young children, but seem insulting for use with students who are more than capeable of interacting with books individually. I tried hard to get past it, but just couldn't.

The series from Queen Homeschool is much more "gentle" (read: less rigorous) than Well Trained Mind. If everything were ideal and we weren't juggling so many other things, I'd shun it as too light. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that we can afford to go "light' in this subject. We live and breathe language here, and get considerable practice on composition, parts of speech and other linguistic study twined into Tapestry of Grace.

The books from Queen Homeschool have short, sweet lessons which the girls can usually do independently. (A huge blessing in a season when mommy is busy chasing little boys!) All in all it is a good fit for us for the moment. Combined with our other grammar and composition study, it is sufficient to meet my (reality adjusted) standards, and the girls find the lessons absolutely delightful and engaging.

I do think I’ll continue using First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind 1 and 2 with the little ones. It gives a very solid foundation at an age where scripted lessons (if paraphrased and done naturally) are age appropriate.  I’m thinking though that for the elementary years following 1&2 I’ll ease into the books from Sandi Queen–at least for now. :) 

On our timeline and in our Tapestry studies we are entering Napoleon's world.  Last week, however, we took a minuet-step backward, to the court of Louis XIV, and the French Baroque era! 

The girls worked hard, two hours a day, learning a Polanaise, the Sarabande, the Allemande, and, of course, a  Minuet!  They danced to harpsichord music, and their breaks featured a different additional instrument each day.  Flute, bassoon, clarinet, french horn, oboe, violin, and cello gave demonstrations!

History was entwined throughout, and even this slow-brained mommy learned bunches.

 Dancing:

Playing Harpsichord:


Kendra!  Your right wrist is drooping. 
 

Listening to flute and harpsichord:

Kaira dancing the Sarabande-- Somehow the lighting and soft focus reminded me of Renoir: 

Session 1: I have them count the beads on every row of this little abacus, confirming that every row has ten.  If an abacus isn't available this step could be skipped and go straight to some other manipulative like my magnetic marbles a few steps down. 

Session 2: Again with the abacus we begin dividing the "tens" in each row into "different kinds of tens" We count them, counting the two parts of each ten and then recounting that the whole row is indeed still ten.  When this has been verified, we then do a little chant as she touches the groups of beads,

Chant:

9,1:10;

8,2:10;

7,3:10;

6, 4: 10;

5,5: 10;

5,5: 10;

4,6: 10;

3,7: 10;

2,8: 10;

1, 9: 10; 

Session 3:

Substituting magnetic marbles for the abacus we again make groups to match our chant.

Session 4: As a child points to each section of each ten, we do the chant again, going faster each time to make it a game.  Sometimes I say it and demonstrate, sometimes I have one of the children chant solo, and sometimes we go through the list in unison.   

 Session 5:  (The wee ones are feeling mathish so we have several sessions in a day.)   This time they help set up the groups.   I get out 9 and ask, "What does this need to be a 10?" Keianna (or maybe Keegan) answers, "1".  Then they may get out a contrasting marble.

Once we've formed the tens by adding up, we will do our chant.  The chant changes this time though, and we add in addition termonology!   Instead of just saying, "9,1; 10" we change to "9 plus 1 equals 10" and so on...

 
Session 6: Again I have them count to verify that each set is ten.  (Easier to count if break the circles into rows.)  They count, and then break the groups into the two parts.  They will now touch each part as they say the chant, touching the 9 marbles as they say, "nine" then touching the single marble and saying, "plus one", then touching both togher and saying "ten".  We continue through all the groups.

Session 7: At this point I introduce numeral symbols instead of just the concrete numbers. I simply have them match up numerals to the dot values.  Somehow they knew the numerals already, so it was a short lesson.

Session 8: Now it is time for subtraction.  we separate the contrasting marbles, but keep them near their partners and again do our chant, but this time saying, "10 minus 9 is one; 10 minus 8 is 2; 10 minus 7 is 3" and so on first with the larger number first, then back the other way touching (and saying) the smaller number first.

Session 9:  Now for the chalkboard!  I write a chart of our chant.  I tap the chart while we go through it backward and  forward.  Sometimes we just say the numbers (like the first chant), sometimes with "plus" for addition, sometimes with tapping the 10 on top first, and doing subtraction.  We go through it until it is firmly set, usually just 10 minutes or so because really it is the same thing we'd drilled with abacus and marbles already.

Session 10: Finally I begin erasing numerals and drilling the children on "what was here?" as I erase a single numeral.  Then we run the chart with that numeral missing.  When it is solid, I erase another, tapping all the empty  holes saying, "What goes here?"  Again, we then run the chant with my tapping the chart.  Then we erase another numeral and so on until the chart is a blank tree.  I then drill them tapping just the blank tree a few times a day for a week or two to make sure it is set. 

Additonally, I'll tap the chart as I call out the random facts, calling "10-8" and then tapping the place the "2" would go, I wait for a child to call out, "two!".   

After that, we move on and do the same thing for the 9 chart, 8 chart, 7 chart and on down to 2.  We go through the same steps--marbles and all. (Except after the 10 chart, we skip the abacus in steps 1& 2 and the numeral cards in step 7.).  Usually long before we get to the two chart the child has predicted, "I know what the 2 chart will be, Mommy!  One, One Two!"  They catch on to the pattern pretty quickly.

Once they know all the charts (hence all the addition and subtraction facts up through sums of 10), they are ready to zip through a first grade math text--mostly just doing the text to acquaint themselves with written math.

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*Note: The abacus and marble adaptations are my own, but the chart idea came from the Professor B Math Curriculum.  I used Professor B with Kaira for several years, and retained a few aspects in my teaching for the youngers.

In just two weeks we planned to study the first hot air balloon flight in 1783. Our study (part of our Tapestry of Grace journey) was to focus on the exhibition in Versailles in September. At this demonstration the Montgolfier brothers launched a balloon with a small crew of barnyard animals.