Life in our Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 8 Feb 2007 14:16:00 -0600 Thu, 8 Feb 2007 14:16:00 -0600 The past few weeks have been a struggle in our home.  If you had asked me a few weeks ago what was causing the problems, I'd have told you that my son is going through puberty and displaying a bad attitude about the things he is required to do - like math and unloading the dishwasher.  I'd have said that he was making us all miserable and driving me nutty.  I realized something today - and it's not nice.  I realized that my son has been displaying a bad attitude because....I have been setting that example for him!   Rather than maintaining a "meek and quiet spirit" when I'm dealing with him I've been allowing him to make me angry.  I've snapped at him rather than speaking respectfully.  I've raised my voice rather than speaking quietly and calmly to him.  No, I haven't yelled and stomped my feet and slammed doors but the feelings behind my angry voice are the same.  If I expect my son to learn to control his feelings and his temper, to remain calm, to display a Christ-like attitude then I have to control my feelings and temper, remain calm and show him that same attitude.  I'm sure everyone has heard the saying, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  Well, if Mama doesn't have a good attitude then nobody has a good attitude.  So, I have set the goal for myself to train myself to have a good attitude - a "meek and quiet spirit", a Christ-like attitude in dealing with my children, my husband, and others.  We know habit formation is very important for our children - teaching them to pay attention, etc. - it is just as important for mothers! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/282307/ Thu, 8 Feb 2007 14:16:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/282307/ A few years ago we bought the book Managers of Their Homes by Steve and Teri Maxwell.  We set up a different schedule for each season of our lives.  For example, the schedule that starts the school year gets reworked around the holidays when our lives are busy, busy, busy.  We have a completely different schedule in the summer than we do the rest of the year. We are entering a new season and I'm trying to rework our schedule.    I'm never really good at sticking strictly to the time frames and such on the schedule we end up with but having some kind of schedule, even if it isn't followed exactly, helps our home and school to run much more smoothly.  The schedule gives directions to the children so I don't have to keep redirecting them all day.  They know what comes next so there isn't a lot of time wasted while they decide what they want to do.  (We've tried that and it didn't work for us at all!)   I've also decided that my children need to do a lot more writing than they have been.  They both have horrible handwriting and I realized the other day that they really aren't expected to write very much.  We don't have to do portfolios and I hate having to deal with tons of paper so we do a lot of our work orally.  If they are writing a report or an essay then they type those.  So, I'm planning to add in a time for Writing in our schedule in which they will be required to hand write something - journals, narrations, essays, etc.   To help me in setting up our schedules and deciding what needs done and how much time we have to do it, my wonderful husband set up a spreadsheet for me so I can type in the time amount for each thing on the schedule and it will add up the minutes, display a total, then show me how many hours that is.  This is so fabulous!  I now know at a glance if I've scheduled 28 hours of work in a 24 hour day.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/233967/ Tue, 7 Nov 2006 09:41:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/233967/ Wow!  I didn't realize it had been such a long time since I've written.  Life has just been really hectic.   4-H The county fair is now over - it was last week.  We had a really good time, saw lots of animals, learned a few things, and ate a lot. lol   The children both placed third in their projects which was fabulous for their first year.  We learned some things that will help them out for next year.    They both have a lot of projects they want to do for next year. Daughter wants to do two food and nutrition projects, a sewing project, rabbits and chickens.  Son wants to do rabbits, rockets, rope, and cats.  He bought two Holland Lop rabbits the other day and will be building their hutches this afternoon with Dad.  He bought a male and female that he can breed.  The boy was named Zeus so he stuck with that name for him and he named the female Aphrodite.  (He enjoys reading mythology - one of his favorite books from AO is Age of Fable.)  We went yesterday and bought all the lumber and things that we need to build the hutches.  Daughter doesn't have her rabbit yet - she's hoping for a female baby to breed later.  The breeder had two Holland Lop babies but they weren't big enough to determine the gender yet so we have her holding those two and another older Lop that we will take if those two turn out to be males.    Back-to-School Today is our first official day of homeschooling this year.  We now, officially, have a high-schooler and a junior-high-schooler.  There's been a little confusion for the Jr. high student about the new card system and a little whining about written narration but so far, so good.  The Sr. high student has been having a blast!  We'll see how the rest of the day goes.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/183571/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 10:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/183571/ I feel like I'm living in a whirlwind the past few weeks.    Fellowship We have been attending a Bible study on the book of Colossians on Saturday evenings and have been really enjoying it. This week the pastor is out-of-town so there isn't one and I'm really glad to be able to have the chance to sit down and catch my breath!  We also started attending Bible study on Wednesday evening and the group is just finishing up the book of Romans - not sure where they are going next but looking forward to learning with them.  We have been churching with another family on Sunday evenings (dh is teaching) and might go to another homechurch on Sunday morning that we just found out about.  Dh works on Sunday mornings so it would just be the children and me going - we'll see.  We are also planning to attend a Bluegrass Gospel sing on Monday evenings.  We visited with some friends of ours who have been going and we got a chance to sing with them and try out their instruments.  We had a really good time.  Although, my son has now asked for a guitar for Christmas.    But, we are very thankful for the opportunity to fellowship with other believers again!   4-H Both of the children just joined 4-H and we are waiting on their project books.  Dd is going to do a cooking project that looks pretty interesting and ds is doing archery - something he loves doing anyway.  We restricted them to one project apiece since this is their first year.  We live in town and that limits the kinds of projects they can do - no livestock is allowed here.  The children are very excited about being able to attend the fair this year.  Normally dh is working and we simply don't go but this year he is on vacation this week (PTL!) so we'll be able to go all week.   Planning I'm also working on putting together a hymnal for our Sunday evening church group.  The home where we are currently meeting doesn't have instruments so we are singing hymns with a CD and so far we were simply printing out the words and giving everyone a sheet of paper with the words on it.  I decided to go ahead and make a "hymnal" of all the words to all of the songs on the CD's so we'd have them and could reuse them.  Dh decided that he wanted the music score as well as the words to each song so that our children could learn to play them on the piano so my job grew exponentially!    There are 100 songs on the CD's we are using and so far I have over half of them finished and printed out but it has taken hours to get to this point and I'm not even close to being finished yet.   I'm also trying to preview dd's school books for next year.  She will be doing AO's Year 7 and the books are more mature in content and there are certain books that we won't be using and others that will need to be read-aloud so I can edit on the fly.  Right now I'm reading Joan of Arc by Mark Twain and having a hard time getting into it but since it's a history biography book rather than an additional reading I'm going to need to know what happened or I won't know how well she is narrating.  I really should be gathering exam questions while I'm reading but I just don't think I'm going to have the kind of time I would need to do that while previewing all the books and be able to get it done before she needs to start the book.  Dh previewed one book for me and I think I'll have to ask him to try out some more or this will not get done.  I haven't even started ds's books yet and there's at least one that I know he'll need help understanding the vocabulary.    Vacation I'm really looking forward to our vacation in June!  I'm in need of a break and I think everyone else could use one as well.  We'll be going to the races over the weekend, then camping, to my dad's wedding, and Niagara Falls.  Then coming home to relax and do nothing for a couple of days before dh goes back to work.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/126260/ Sat, 29 Apr 2006 14:55:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/126260/ Our oldest will begin her high school career in the fall so I have been busily working out a plan for her high school years.  I've put a lot of hours and thought into this plan so I thought I'd share what I've done in the hopes that it will save someone else a few hours and few headaches.    Graduation Requirements One of the first things that I did was to find out the requirements for graduation from 3 of the local high schools.  I found these very easily on the internet and plugged them into a chart so that I could compare them easily.  Most of the requirements were the same for each school.  All required 4 years of English, 3 Social Studies, 3 Math, etc.  The big difference was in the number of Electives required to graduate and therefore the total number of credits.  The range that we found in our area was between 21 and 24.  So, we set our requirement at 25 credits to graduate since we are requiring 4 years of Bible that none of the public schools require.    Naming our Courses We also found when looking at different college entrance requirements that they often want a certain course to be completed such as U.S. History, World History, Government, Economics, etc.    So we sat down and came up with names for the course our daughter will be taking.  We decided to simply have English each year, US History, World History, Government and Economics, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Biology, Marine Biology (she has been begging for this class since it came out!), Chemistry, Health, Art and Music, P.E., Computer Tech., Bible, Home Ec, Sign Language, etc.   Plugging in the Books Once we had decided on what the courses would be we sat down with the AO book lists and started plugging in the books where they fit.  Churchill's Birth of Britain went into World History, Of Plymouth Plantation went into US History, etc.    In setting up our English courses we tried to keep most of the literature selections together based on region.  So, the American Literature books are together in one year, British Literature in one year, etc.  There is some overlap so we will work on doing the American lit at the beginning of the year to finish it up then move into the British lit books which will continue into the next year.    In each year of English we also included poetry, short stories, and grammar or composition instruction.    Need More? If anyone is interested in more details, feel free to email me!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/122042/ Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/122042/ We are having an absolutely gorgeous day here in Southeastern Ohio!  So, this afternoon after all of our reading and table work were completed we packed up sketchbooks, field guides, drawing kits, kites and a read-aloud and headed off for a local dam located in a state park close to our home.    We took a walk down the backpack trail until we each found something that interested us and that we wanted to sketch in our books.  My daughter sketched Rue Anemone - a little flower that was growing along the path.  And my son and I sketched a little Ohio Buckeye tree.  That was the first time I have ever seen a Buckeye tree and knew what it was.  I did a leaf rubbing as well because I thought the leaves were so pretty.    After we finished our sketches we walked back the trail to a picnic table where we sat down and read a section from our read-aloud.  We're reading the Silmarillion this year and I have to read in short sections because the names are difficult for me to read out loud.    As we headed back to the top of the dam, where our car was parked, the wind blow up some nasty looking storm clouds so we decided not to fly the kites today.  There was a chance of thunderstorms and mom didn't think it was a good idea to fly kites by a lake when there was a chance of a thunderstorm.  :-)    Nature study is something I have a hard time getting into and doing on a regular basis but today was fabulous!  Thank you, Charlotte Mason, for encouraging us to get out and experience nature.  I'm planning to go back and find that little Buckeye tree again to see how it's growing.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/117063/ Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/117063/ We have been on vacation for the past week.  It wasn't a travelling vacation - we spent most of the time at home.  But, it was so nice to have a break and just relax and spend time together!  We spent one day visiting out-of-town family members and another at the zoo.    Book Orders I finally, out of frustration, cancelled most of my book order from a big online store.  They kept postponing the shipment dates.  The last time they postponed shipment until June on books I ordered in mid-February.  I have never had a problem with them before but have never order this much at once either.    I did find most of the books from other sources but am still searching for 4 of the books.  If anyone has any good sources for purchasing books online, please share them!   Grain Mill I received the Family Grain Mill that I ordered the other day and I'm really excited about using it.  We ground flour when it first arrived and baked some carob-chip cookies - they were fabulous!  I highly recommend getting a mill if you can.   Managers of Their Chores I also recently purchased this book from the Maxwells.  I read through it once, fairly quickly, and today was our first day of working on our ChorePacks.  It went pretty well.  We found a couple cards that needed to be placed in a more convenient order but I set them up using ordinary paper so we could work out all the "bugs" before I print them on cardstock.    We had a discussion about work and our chore system this morning which went pretty well.  We've been struggling with attitudes lately so I was concerned that there would be a lot of whining and complaining about the new system but since we started with explaining from the Bible the children were pretty receptive.  I think if I'd just dumped the chores on them and said "Now, this is your job!"  they wouldn't have worked with a cheerful attitude.  To help with their attitudes and to show that they aren't the only ones who are working, I have a ChorePack of my own that I'm using at the same times they are required to do their chores.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/115761/ Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/115761/ Friday is the day we do art and our artist studies in our home. Since I have art and artists on my mind today I thought I would write about just how we do those things in our homeschool.   I know when I first started using AmblesideOnline that I had a really hard time trying to figure out what it was I was supposed to be doing with these artist's print we were supposed to be "studying. There were suggestions to have the children copying the painting they were studying but I knew that would be frustrating for my little ones so we didn’t even attempt that.   Artist Study in the Folden Home I generally like to be at least a term behind the regular Ambleside list when it comes to things like artist study because the people there are SO very helpful and they share all of the links and information that they find. Being at least a term behind gives me the chance to compile all the information that is shared on the group which means it’s much more likely to be used.   There are 6 prints for each 12 week term which means we’ll study one print every two weeks. The first Friday I get the print out and show it to the children. We talk about it – what’s the story behind the print? What colors are used? What do you notice first? How does it make you feel? Is it realistic or more of an impression? Etc.   I also save the prints to my computer. Each term I make a screensaver out of the 6 prints we are studying that term and every two weeks I set the specific print we are doing as my desktop wallpaper. Our computer is in our classroom/library so the children are exposed to the artist’s works often.   The second Friday we get the print out again and if this is the first print for that particular artist we go over a very brief biography of the artist. I usually try to come up with some fun way of dealing with the print this second time but I’m not always very creative. Sometimes we play Guess the Title, sometimes we look at the print closely for 3 minutes then I put it where only I can see it and ask the children to name everything they can remember about the painting. Sometimes we just discuss WHY we think the artist painted this particular painting or WHY he may have painted it the way he did.   Art in the Folden Home My daughter is a very creative person and loves to do art projects. She decided she wanted to do an art curriculum that would help her to be a better artist. We chose Lamb’s Book of Art which we are doing together as a family. My son, who isn’t as into art, isn’t wild about it but he suffers through it anyway. This book has also helped us to be able to discuss things like color and why an artist would choose to use certain colors in his work.   Expanding our Art Study I have occasionally asked the children to illustrate something from a book they are reading. I don’t do it on a regular basis but they enjoy doing it occasionally, especially when they are permitted to chose the scene they illustrate. Next year I am planning to ask for one illustration a week from my daughter but still will only do it occassionally with my son until he is a little older.   I also plan to do more Art History with my daughter next year.   That’s the plan…we’ll see.   In the Beginning We didn’t start out doing all of these things so please don’t feel like you have to do everything. If all you do is pin up one of the artist’s prints every other week where your children can see it, I believe they will still learn to appreciate beauty which is the point of artist study, in my opinion anyway. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/105693/ Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:58:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/105693/ Pre-Play Studies Ambleside Online suggests the use of Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare or Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare to be read to early elementary children before they ever study an actual play. These books tell the stories of what happens in the plays in easier to understand language and in story, rather than play, form. I think these are an excellent introduction to Shakespeare’s works and we still occasionally read one of the stories before doing one of the plays – that way we have a better idea of what is going on.   Beginning the Plays Ambleside Online begins the study of actual Shakespeare plays in Year 4. I have a difficult time reading and following some of his plays as an adult. I couldn’t imagine asking my Year 4 student (at age 11) to read it aloud and understand it. So, I was not very excited about starting to read his plays. I bought the plays we were supposed to read for the year and started reading one of them. Not far into it I realized that we were going to need to find another way to do this. There was no way I could read some of these words aloud so I knew my children couldn’t!   Plays were Acted not Read I realized that these plays were meant to be seen not read – especially not read by people tripping over every other word. So, whenever we can find a video recording of the play we are studying I preview it to determine its appropriateness for our children. Then, if its deemed appropriate, we all sit down and watch it together. We pause the video if the children start asking questions about what is going or if we feel something should be explained.   Instead of a Video If we can’t find an appropriate video, we listen to the play on audio book. We first started doing this when our daughter was the only one studying Shakespeare. She and I had a horrible time trying to read the play! I found the audio book of the play we happened to be studying at the library and borrowed it. We then would play the audio book while following along with the book.   A Love of Shakespeare is Born My daughter LOVED it! She started looking for more Shakespeare audios and asking us to preview other videos. She has borrowed a video of Twelfth Night repeatedly and listened to audio books of Shakespeare’s plays in her free time. Who knew Shakespeare could be so awesome? Certainly not her mother whose only exposure to Shakespeare had been a stumbling (and embarrassing) class read-through of Romeo and Juliet in nineth grade.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/105018/ Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:14:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/105018/ At the Folden house we are busily planning our summer garden.  We will be purchasing and putting up a privacy fence around part of our yard in a couple weeks.  This will enable us to simply open the back door to let the dogs out rather than having to leash them up and take them out - separately since they are both BIG!    Gardening Putting up that fence will enable us to remove the kennel we have in the backyard where we let them run right now and expand our garden space.  Yea!  We will be able to more than double to amount of space for our garden.    Since we live right in town and have a small yard to begin with, we don't have a very big area that we can use for a garden.  The space we are using is 38 ft x about 8 ft.  and runs from the shed behind our house out to the run beside the house.  We use the Square-Foot Gardening method and right now we have 2 blocks that are each 5 foot by 5 foot.  Once the fence is up and the kennel removed we will expand to 5 blocks - which means 125 sq. feet of garden space.    Now we are trying to decide just how we want to use all of that space.  Every year we plant various things that we like to eat in salads.  There is nothing so good as a salad you just picked from your own garden.  Delicious!  We also started planting things to can last year.  We are also going to try growing a few things we haven't tried before - cucumbers for pickles, corn, squash, swiss chard, and cantaloupe.  We'll see how well that works out.    Canning I received a brand new pressure canner, canning tools, and Ball Blue Book from my grandmother last year as a gift - just because she believes that canning your own food is better for you than buying canned food from the store.  So, we planted and canned our own green beans, salsa, and tomatoes last year.  We made blackberry jam the year before but didn't do any more last year, and made and canned apple butter with a friend this year.   Next year we will be canning all of the same things as last year but we are going to try pole beans rather than bush beans this year.  I'm also hoping to do blackberry jam again - or maybe jelly since my son didn't like having the seeds in the jam.    I'd also like to try applesauce and peaches but I don't know if I have all the right equipment for applesauce and I haven't found a good source for the peaches yet.  Those may have to wait until next year.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/104464/ Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:28:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keepermom/104464/