The Johnson family's discoveries regarding classical education

Sep. 25, 2006

Greetings, fellow educators. I guess I'd forgotton what a whirlwind September can be.  We are still finishing up summer and fall matters, while trying to focus more on our educational goals.  The weekend before this, my mother moved, which took up much of our time, and this last weekend was filled with preparations for special church-related meals and meetings.  And now I am fighting a cold, which my youngest had and is nearly over. Well, we have been going through worksheets on Ancient Civilizations, to give us something of an overview concerning the civilizations which passed through the Fertile Crescent in ancient times.  I expect to be picking up further review using Mystery of History in the coming few weeks.  We have also read some books as an introduction to Ancient Greece, where I hope to eventually focus our efforts. In addition, we are reading through selections from a quarterly magazine, called Home Educator's Tutor, which has a character trait, with related verses in several languages (Latin, Greek, Spanish, French) for us to practice.  There are readings based on Plutarch's Lives, readings from Charlotte Mason, and short biographies about one artist and one musician  in each issue.  I will post a link for the publisher of this resource, in case anyone is interested in checking them out.  (No, I'm not an affiliate.  I just like using this magazine.)  For math, at the moment we are trying to get some kind of fun fact most days.  One resource for this is a free web page, which I will also put up a link for on my site, Math Fun Facts.  These can help get the mental gears moving in different directions, and add some interest to what otherwise might seem a boring subject.  I also found a book from more than 10 years ago called, The Joy of Mathematics, with more interesting, short facts and activities.  He is starting to work through Key to Algebra, which introduces the basic concepts in a simple workbook format.  We will add more kinds of resources as we move through our days. This morning we made a simple Mobius Strip from a slip of paper.  Simply give it a 1/2 twist and glue or tape the ends together.  Then we took a pencil and drew a line all around the strip.  It is a little surprising.  Next we took 2 strips, each colored with a different color, held and twisted them together, and taped the  ends together.  This ended up creating a simple puzzle which we plan to share with friends when we visit them this evening.  This is kinda fun.  Youngest Son mentioned to me today that he appreciates the way we began our school year this year.  He likes being able to gradually adjust to a different routine and workload.  So I guess it has been for the best that I did not have everything together at the beginning of the year.  All things are working out for the best.

• Send to a Friend!

Comments