Jan. 7, 2008 - 1st Day Back
Today began our second semester of school. Over Christmas break, I had been really trying to weed out some of our craziness, and really get back to the basics.
I have always been a fan of studying history chronologically, and we choose our science topic based around something that stands out from each time period. I just so happens that we are on Renaissance and Reformation this unit. The hard thing about this time period is all the major changes that were going on in the world. Not only were folks making leaps and bounds in the areas of art and music, but science and exploration were also huge areas of this time!
Our days always start off with chores. Once the chores, which also encompasses breakfast, are complete, the kids do their Bible reading. I received a One Year Bible in chronological order as a Christmas gift this year. I thought it was such a great gift, I went out and bought one for each member of the family, as an "extra" Christmas gift. So, the kids read their January 7 section of their 1 year Bibles. This will be a handy addition to our school time, I am sure.
After Bible, we moved on to Language. I am a strong supporter of Ruth Beechick. I have also been reading a lot on Charlotte Mason's ideas and methods. So for Language today, we started off with copywork. Since we are studying Renaissance and Reformation this unit, astronomy is our science topic. I decided to combine my language with our science topic, but also with Bible verses. I had each child copy Genesis 1:1, as it is the intro to astronomy. We will move into dictation and other "natural" language methods later this week. From their dictation, each child will then have a personalized spelling list, based on the words they miss during their dictation tomorrow.
After Language, we moved on to Math. I have always varied our math program, but was extremely happy to find Your Business Math from SimplyCharlotteMason.com. Each of my children are owners/operators of their own pet stores. All of their math topics will stem from the daily dealings with being a business owner. So far, it has been a fantastic addition for my children, as they both had the inclination to really dislike math. With each lesson they have completed, they keep saying how much fun it has been. We have worked with decimals, multiplication, addition, and percentages, so far. I am very pleased with the real life way my kids are using math skills. However, I am even more pleased with the excitement they show to "do their math lessons".
Moving on to science, we began reading Signs and Seasons by Jay Ryan. This book is on classical astronomy, basically, the astronomy we can view with the naked eye. Both my kids were absolutely enthralled while I read it aloud, and easily could narrate back to me the topics discussed in the Prologue. I created a short sheet for the kids to take dictation of a few topics from each "heading" area from the prologue, just to give them something to be able to refer to.
For history, we started a historical fiction biography on John Wycliffe. It is fantastic. I also plan to read 2 books about William Tyndale.
We are going to alternate our art and music lessons each day. Today, we started with an artist, and Donatello was first. He was an important sculptor of the Early Renaissance, born in Italy. I had the kids create an index card on him for our Timeline Chest. I haven't decided if we are going to alternate and do a composer tomorrow, or if we will do another artist tomorrow, and learn about the composers the last 2 days.
Our lessons went so smoothly today, I am praying that this change in our pace will benefit our days. The kids couldn't believe how quickly we finished, and I felt confident in the amount of topics they were exposed to. Very exciting!
Comments
Jan. 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by PraiseHimMom
Hi Molly,
I just found and downloaded ALL of your notebooking forms! I finally feel like I can ditch all the workbooks, use RB methods and notebooking in an organized way.
Thank you for sharing your notebooking forms as a labor of love....it is greatly appreciated.
