We've just finished up our first term exams.  I'm very pleased with how the girls have done this term.  We have some things we need to work on, but they have made good progress, and we've enjoyed ourselves. 

We will keep working on piano, reading, and math, but at an easy pace.  I have a couple of fun projects planned.  Tomorrow we're planting some paperwhites.  We have some baking to do.  We're mostly just going to enjoy December and prepare for my mother's visit, waiting for the snow to fall... 

 P.S.  I added some new photos, too.  You can see them all by clicking on the flikr badge on the sidebar.

•       use the card that has been turned over and place it face up at the appropriate place ( in the example given it is a four). The card that was originally at that spot is then returned to the discard pile, face up.
•       take the card at the top of the pile and place it in the appropriate position. If that place has already been filled by a card that is face up (1-7), the card is immediately placed on the discard pile.

One of this past week's projects:

The girls were even more excited about these than I anticipated.  I downloaded the template from this page, and we substituted a pretty front page made from scrap-booking paper.  It's the first addition to our lap book about time (more on that later!).

Book template from Making Books with Children

We've

• reminded ourselves what some common math symbols mean.
• followed Christian a little farther on his pilgrimage, and learned that it is easier going out of the way when we are in, than going in when we are out.
• finished one Swedish book and begun another.
• read about Robert the Bruce and added a page to the Books of Time.
• made a couple of cute mini books.
• learned a little bit more about our tree.
• learned a poem and a passage of Scripture, and begun working on others.
• listened to some Mendelssohn and gotten to know a new painting by Cassatt.
• read a few chapters in Charlotte's Web, which we are all enjoying immensely.
• made a couple of pages in Rebecca's ABC book and Annalissa and Katja's Swedish word books.
• talked about shapes and colours.
• learned to be a little more patient and work a little more carefully.

Annalissa has also earned the right to have a hymn book in church by learning to read the hymn "Voici l'enfant nous est né."  (The rule in our house is that hymn books are reserved for those who are able to read them.)

People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas everyone understands words. With me, it is exactly the opposite, and not only with regard to an entire speech but also with individual words. These seem to me so ambiguous, so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison to genuine music, which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. 

Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn, the "Mozart of the 19th century," is my sentimental favourite (in fact, it seems to me I've used that quote before here...), and he is the focus of Music Appreciation this term.  We listened to our first selection today: Piano Trio, D Minor, Opus 49 - I - Molto Allegro e Agitato.  (Performed by the Gryphon Trio. You can also listen to a recording on the Analekta label, where you can also read a description of the piece and it's importance among Mendelssohn's works.)  We listened to only the first movement today, but you can listen to the entire piece at those links. 

Music Appreciation is just that: appreciating music.  The more children listen to music, the better they understand it, and the more they appreciate it.  I gave them a little bit of information about the composer, but not much.  Before we listened to the piece, I told the girls that we were about to hear a piano trio, and asked them to listen for which instruments made up the trio.  They identified the violin and the piano, and I told them the other is a cello.  We talked about the mood of the piece (is it happy or sad?), and I asked them if it made them think of anything.  Then they could draw a picture, if they chose to.  Katja drew the instruments that make up a piano trio, including a very nice violin.

I have some works by Mendelssohn on CD, but I was hoping to find some others that we wouldn't have heard before, and my web search lead me to these places: 

Concerts on Demand at CBC Radio 2 is a wonderful listening resource.  The link will take you to the "Concert Finder" where you can filter concerts by keyword.  Just type in the composer or the artist's name. 

Another great resource I found today is the Analekta website.  I found a new CD to add to my wishlist: Concert Parisien.  You can listen to full-length selections from the CD on this page, and even download one movement from a piece by Rameau.  Music to fill your soul with a thousand things better than words. 

*editing to add one more link: Heifetz with Rubistein in piano and Piatigorsky in cello play Mendelssohn Trio in D minor.

The children and I attended an interesting webinar by Jim and Sheila Carroll of Living Books Curriculum.  We listened live, but you can still see the replay here: Education in a Box

The following is the invitation I received a little while ago.

Here are the highlights
On November 5th I am leaving for Lagos, Nigeria to further train the teachers at in the use of Charlotte Mason's educational methods. Another important part of the trip is the establishment of a training center at the site of our lab school near Lagos.
 
As believers, we know that it is important to reach out to less fortunate children and making available to them the same level of Christian education and discipleship opportunities that our children are blessed with.
 
For the Children's Sake--A Webinar
As you prayerfully consider your tax-deductible support of this mission, we invite you to watch a short, 35-minute webinar so we can share with you our vision for educating the children of Africa and other Third-World nations using the Charlotte Mason method.

I have written before about the "Book of Time" the children keep as a kind of loose chronology of characters in our history studies.  They really enjoy working on these little books, and I find they help them remember the people we read about.  The only difficulty we had with them was how to keep them together in a way that still allowed us to easily add new pages each week.  Last week, at Making Books with Children, I found the solution: The Stick and Elastic Book!  Perfect!

Front cover:

(clickable)

opened:

Just sharing a quick link!  These posies from Marie-Madeleine Studio are too cute!

Festive Posies

P.S. Their sewing patterns are on sale until Wednesday!

We have not space to follow in detail the work of the P.U.S. in French, which of course includes the usual attention to French Grammar…

This hitherto unused power of concentrated attention in the study of languages whether ancient or modern appears to hold promise of making us at last a nation of linguists. We have attained very good results in Italian and German by this same method, both in the House of Education and the Practising School belonging to it, and we are in a fair way to produce noticeable results in Latin. The classical mistress writes,––

"Latin is taught at the House of Education by means of narration after each section has been thoroughly studied in grammer, syntax and style. The literature studied increases in difficulty as the pupil advances in grammar, etc. Nothing but good Latin is ever narrated, so the pupil acquires style as well as structure. The substance of the passage is usually reproduced with the phraseology and style of the original and both students and children learn what is really Latin and realise that it is a language and not a mere grammar." '

 from: A Philosophy of Education, pp. 211-212

For Canadian Geography in Year 1, I used a book called, If You're not from the Prairie... by David Bouchard.  The illustrations by Henry Ripplinger are absolutely beautiful.  We also read Paddle-to-the-Sea, By Holling C. Holling, a book about the Great Lakes.  I am from Alberta and we travel back there every now and then, so that is the best living geography we could have.  I haven't chosen a specifically Canadian geography book this year, mostly because I haven't found anything I liked yet.

We started history with Our Island Story, considering Canada's roots are there.  I am including some French history this year as well.  We also read Leif the Lucky when we got to that point in history in Our Island Story .  This year, we will add My First History of Canada by Donalda Dickie, and read the chapters that fit in historically with Our Island Story.

 P.S. If you click on the category "Year 1" under the title, you can see a few things we did last year, including the programme from one term (my categories aren't very well organised - sorry!).  I can email you the other term's programmes, if you like, just let me know. 

In every church we visited while we were travelling, I was asked if we were home educating our children.  Sometimes other mothers would ask what curriculum we were using.  I was surprised at how few were aware of Charlotte Mason.  Those who had heard of Miss Mason usually had misconceptions about her methods.  Sometimes they would say something like, "Charlotte Mason... isn't that something like unschooling?" 

Simply Charlotte Mason  a wonderful resource for information and support about home education, has just finished up a series comparing Charlotte Mason to other homeschool approaches.  It is well worth reading.  As a follow up, in a couple of weeks they will be putting out another series called "Making the Transition to Charlotte Mason."  You can sign up for email updates and read the articles in your inbox (scroll down to the bottom of the blog page), or go to the SCM blog. 

This poem reminds me so much of my Rebecca, who is exceedingly fond of ladybugs, and is constantly "taming" them.  She carries them around in her hand, and speaks to them just as though they can understand every word.  The other day she had one on the school table and it flew away.  She found it a couple of days later upstairs in our bedroom.   She was sure it was the same one, because it came right to her when she called it.  It went missing again, and a few days later, Gabriel came running, all excited because he had found Becca's 'Nelle (short for "coccinelle"), sleeping in a window upstairs.

* edited to add photo and missing words!

And one more helpful resource: What is Baby Sign Language?   There are many helpful pages on this site.

Enjoy!

Then, taking him by the hand, he led him to a big parlour. The parlour was very dusty because it had never been swept. Then the Interpreter called somebody to sweep it. And when he had begun to sweep, the dust flew around so much that Christian almost choked. So the Interpreter told a girl to go get some water and sprinkle it with water. And when he was done, the parlour was beautiful. 

 

- What is this for? asked Christian. 

 

This is for to show thee that the man had dusted it, that when the dust flew about, it meant a person’s heart must be covered with Jesus. And when it flew around and you almost choked, it was to show thee that some people don’t want Jesus’ blood

 

Now when you saw the girl come sprinkle it with water, this is to show thee, that the King of Glory must inhabit your heart. 

 Then he took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlour that was full of dust, because never swept; the which, after he had reviewed a little while, the INTERPRETER called for a man to sweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that CHRISTIAN had almost therewith been choked. Then said the INTERPRETER to a damsel that stood by, "Bring hither the water, and sprinkle the room;" the which, when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.

 

 Chr. Then said CHRISTIAN, "What means this?"

 

 Inter. The INTERPRETER answered, "This parlour is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel: the dust is his original sin and inward corruptions, that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law; but she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the gospel. Now, whereas thou sawest that, so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about, that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith: this is to show thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart, by its working, from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it; for it doth not give power to subdue (#Ro 5:20 7:9 1Co 15:56).

 

    "Again, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure (ease)—this is to show thee that when the gospel comes, in the sweet and precious influences thereof, to the heart, then I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued; and the soul made clean through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the King of Glory to inhabit (#Joh 15:3 Ac 15:9 Ro 16:25,26 Eph 5:26).

Note: If you have never read The Pilgrim’s Progress, you really ought to. It will likely surprise you, and cause you to you see some things in a way you never have before. There are golden nuggets of truth on every page. 

Before beginning this term’s work I asked Katja to make a map of Christian’s travels so far (up to the Valley of Humiliation). She did a quick outline map with stick men, and only initials for most of the names of people and places (it was intended to be a narration, not a masterpiece). Note the City of Destruction; Christian travelling along the Narrow Way; the Slough of Despond; the Wicket Gate; the Cross of Christ where Christian is delivered from his burden; Interpreter’s House; the spring where Christian refreshes himself; the Arbour where Christian rests and loses his roll; and the House at the top of the hill.  She finds The Pilgrim's Progress  very exciting and it is one of her favourite books.

A few things I've found recently...

Have you seen the Homeschool Freebie of the Day site?  They offer some really excellent things, a new freebie everyday, available for one day only.  You can look through the archives for a sampling of what they have offered.  Today's freebie is Momma's Saving Grace Homeschool Planner in pdf format by Melissa Ringstaff of A Virtuous Woman.  A very pretty, practical planner!

Sense & Sensibility Patterns posts a new freebie on Fridays.  This week's freebie, a vintage 1905 clothing article,  is still available.

You can browse Good Housekeeping articles from 1885-1850 at the HEARTH site.

Katja had fun playing the quizzes based on the Little House books.

And, finally, if you're ever looking for children's craft ideas, you're sure to find something at The Crafty Crow!