Nature Portfolio from Emmanuel Books.
Now to figure out how to schedule it in . . .
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Planning, Scheduling, Booklisting
I've been doing copious amounts of all of the above, as evidenced by the new pages linked in the sidebar (and more that you can't see if you're a casual visitor, ie someone who's not me). I've been thinking and rethinking our program for next year. Some things are easy, and some things require the kind of logistical thinking I'm not that good at.
The easy stuff:
1) Two history tracks, old-world and new-world. This worked well last year, though I don't think I'll do the alternating-weeks schedule again. Instead, we'll do alternate days in the same week.
2) The books for these two tracks. At this point, our library is fairly extensive. There are a couple of books on my wish list, but if I couldn't buy them, we could make do with what we have on the shelf, plus what's available to us through Baldwin Project.
3) The essential routine for the day: a Morning Basket time which begins with the Daily Office, then takes us through a complement of subject areas through literature enjoyed together; followed by a period of table/written work.
The not-so-easy stuff:
1) Ordering the readings for Morning Basket so as to read everything I'd like us to read in anything like a reasonable amount of time, and deciding which books which child should read independently.
2) Figuring out the table-work part of the day.
Re my second item: I've gone round and round over math programs and am about to settle, again, into the British MEP curriculum. This year, rather than have the two children combined in a single level, I need to have them doing math separately so that B is sufficiently challenged while R continues to receive a thorough grounding. But then that raises the issue of the scripted, "taught" part of the MEP lesson . . . just how much of our day is math going to occupy, and how long can we sustain that? I'm wondering whether bumping them both slightly ahead for their respective levels and moving slowly, so that I can keep lessons shorter, would be the way to go . . .
I'm also rethinking language arts, mostly out of concern for R, who exhibits some mild reading difficulties and more severe spelling ones. She turns nine this year, and at this point I'm not sure I'm willing to trust that these issues are going to sort themselves out. Someone suggested the Logic of English program to me, and now I'm pondering using it with both children at a relaxed pace -- a lesson a week, touching on components of that lesson daily -- as an integrated grammar/writing/spelling program.
At the same time, I don't want to lose copywork from our life.
So our day could conceivably look like this:
1. Morning Basket (1 hour): prayer, hymn-singing, and three-four living books covering history, geography, science, and math, depending on the day.
2. Table Work (1 hour-ish)
a. copywork (5-10 minutes)
b. math (20 minutes: have to figure out how these lessons will work smoothly)
c. language arts, covering one exercise in Logic of English (20 minutes)
3. Independent Reading
I had wanted to do Our Roman Roots for Latin this year, but I think that if we do Logic of English, that's too much . . . and I really think we need to master nuts and bolts of our own language. This will, I believe, make second-language learning easier down the road. Meanwhile, we can incorporate Latin into our copywork by copying prayers in Latin and English.
Thinking, thinking . . .
The easy stuff:
1) Two history tracks, old-world and new-world. This worked well last year, though I don't think I'll do the alternating-weeks schedule again. Instead, we'll do alternate days in the same week.
2) The books for these two tracks. At this point, our library is fairly extensive. There are a couple of books on my wish list, but if I couldn't buy them, we could make do with what we have on the shelf, plus what's available to us through Baldwin Project.
3) The essential routine for the day: a Morning Basket time which begins with the Daily Office, then takes us through a complement of subject areas through literature enjoyed together; followed by a period of table/written work.
The not-so-easy stuff:
1) Ordering the readings for Morning Basket so as to read everything I'd like us to read in anything like a reasonable amount of time, and deciding which books which child should read independently.
2) Figuring out the table-work part of the day.
Re my second item: I've gone round and round over math programs and am about to settle, again, into the British MEP curriculum. This year, rather than have the two children combined in a single level, I need to have them doing math separately so that B is sufficiently challenged while R continues to receive a thorough grounding. But then that raises the issue of the scripted, "taught" part of the MEP lesson . . . just how much of our day is math going to occupy, and how long can we sustain that? I'm wondering whether bumping them both slightly ahead for their respective levels and moving slowly, so that I can keep lessons shorter, would be the way to go . . .
I'm also rethinking language arts, mostly out of concern for R, who exhibits some mild reading difficulties and more severe spelling ones. She turns nine this year, and at this point I'm not sure I'm willing to trust that these issues are going to sort themselves out. Someone suggested the Logic of English program to me, and now I'm pondering using it with both children at a relaxed pace -- a lesson a week, touching on components of that lesson daily -- as an integrated grammar/writing/spelling program.
At the same time, I don't want to lose copywork from our life.
So our day could conceivably look like this:
1. Morning Basket (1 hour): prayer, hymn-singing, and three-four living books covering history, geography, science, and math, depending on the day.
2. Table Work (1 hour-ish)
a. copywork (5-10 minutes)
b. math (20 minutes: have to figure out how these lessons will work smoothly)
c. language arts, covering one exercise in Logic of English (20 minutes)
3. Independent Reading
I had wanted to do Our Roman Roots for Latin this year, but I think that if we do Logic of English, that's too much . . . and I really think we need to master nuts and bolts of our own language. This will, I believe, make second-language learning easier down the road. Meanwhile, we can incorporate Latin into our copywork by copying prayers in Latin and English.
Thinking, thinking . . .
Monday, May 21, 2012
S2W19
This is the penultimate week of our formal school year. Some things, notably read-alouds and art lessons, will continue throughout the summer, in addition to camps, travel, and other living-learning experiences. I never think we're really out of school. Plus I'm hoping to be able (read: have the self-discipline) to keep up our Morning Basket routine. But this week will be the last week of table work before our end-of-year testing next week.
To Do:
*finish Archimedes & Madeleine Takes Command
*come to a reasonable stopping point in math and language arts
*continue most of our other reading, which I hope to keep up during the summer, possibly as lunchtime reading.
To Do:
*finish Archimedes & Madeleine Takes Command
*come to a reasonable stopping point in math and language arts
*continue most of our other reading, which I hope to keep up during the summer, possibly as lunchtime reading.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
S2W18
To Do:
Morning Basket:
Monday: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Herodotus and the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
Tuesday: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Archimedes and the Door of Science (ch. 13), Adventures of Odysseus (ch. XVI)
Wednesday: Morning Prayer, Knights of Art, Adventures of Odysseus (ch. XVII)
Thursday: Morning Prayer, Madeleine Takes Command
Friday: (hymn), Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Among the Forest People, Odysseus
Table Work:
B: 1 math lesson, 1 cursive lesson, independent reading daily
R: 1 math lesson, 1 cursive lesson, 1 Language of God lesson daily
Lunch Basket (every day but Thursday): Madeleine Takes Command
Tuesday: art lesson 4-5:30, Cubs 7:00-8:00
Thursday: Confirmation Mass
Morning Basket:
Monday: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Herodotus and the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
Tuesday: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Archimedes and the Door of Science (ch. 13), Adventures of Odysseus (ch. XVI)
Wednesday: Morning Prayer, Knights of Art, Adventures of Odysseus (ch. XVII)
Thursday: Morning Prayer, Madeleine Takes Command
Friday: (hymn), Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Among the Forest People, Odysseus
Table Work:
B: 1 math lesson, 1 cursive lesson, independent reading daily
R: 1 math lesson, 1 cursive lesson, 1 Language of God lesson daily
Lunch Basket (every day but Thursday): Madeleine Takes Command
Tuesday: art lesson 4-5:30, Cubs 7:00-8:00
Thursday: Confirmation Mass
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
S2W17
To Do:
Morning Basket:
M: "Hail Holy Queen," Herodotus and the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
T: "Hail Holy Queen," Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Archimedes and the Door of Science, Odysseus
W: Morning Prayer, Knights of Art, Odysseus
Th: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Odysseus
F: "Hail Holy Queen," Among the Forest People, Odysseus
Also, one MEP Y3 interactive exercise daily, usually between the 2nd and 3rd Morning Basket activity
Table Work:
B:
1 page daily in MCP math: multiplication
1 cursive lesson daily
1 writing activity
independent reading
R:
1 exercise daily in math: mid-book review test
1 cursive lesson daily
1 Language of God page daily
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Other activities:
daily Mass (morning, evening, or noon)
scouts
Tuesday afternoon art lesson
Thursday Mass & play day at church
Morning Basket:
M: "Hail Holy Queen," Herodotus and the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
T: "Hail Holy Queen," Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Archimedes and the Door of Science, Odysseus
W: Morning Prayer, Knights of Art, Odysseus
Th: Morning Prayer, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible, Odysseus
F: "Hail Holy Queen," Among the Forest People, Odysseus
Also, one MEP Y3 interactive exercise daily, usually between the 2nd and 3rd Morning Basket activity
Table Work:
B:
1 page daily in MCP math: multiplication
1 cursive lesson daily
1 writing activity
independent reading
R:
1 exercise daily in math: mid-book review test
1 cursive lesson daily
1 Language of God page daily
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Other activities:
daily Mass (morning, evening, or noon)
scouts
Tuesday afternoon art lesson
Thursday Mass & play day at church
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
S2W16
To Do:
(with changes, as I think better of things. this is a weekly, if not a daily, occurrence)
Morning Basket Read-Alouds:
M: St. Patrick's Summer, Herodotus & the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
T: St. Patrick's Summer, Archimedes & the Door of Science, Adventures of Odysseus
W: St. Patrick's Summer,Among the Forest People, Knights of Art, Adventures of Odysseus
Th: St. Patrick's Summer, Among the Forest People, Aesop
F: St. Patrick's Summer, Jack the Treacle-Eater (poetry), Adventures of Odysseus
Daily: to break up Morning Basket Read-Alouds, 5-10 minutes of an MEP Y3 math interactive, done orally together. Just working through them in order (the entire year's practice book is available in interactive form), two exercises at a time. We should be able to make Y3 last us through next year at this rate. (and yes, we've skipped forward dramatically, but have not run into anything breathtakingly new or difficult)
Table Work:
R:
Math: Tuesday: math chapter test on addition/subtraction with regrouping; otherwise 1 page daily
1 cursive lesson daily
1 Language of God lesson daily:
On Tuesday and Friday (probably), her lesson directs her to a writing exercise in the worktext's appendix. I don't make her follow the assignment as written, just write. This week I've printed out a sheet of spelling words from an old speller, not to use as a spelling list but as words to write with. She may opt to write in her journal, rather than on the page in the worktext.
B:
Math: 1 page daily, practice multiplication tables
1 cursive lesson daily
Writing: I have also printed off a page of spelling words for him to use as described above, for journal-writing.
Lunch-Basket Read-Aloud: Madeleine Takes Command
Also this week:
Tuesday art lesson for both children
Cubs and American Heritage Girls
mostly-daily Mass
Holy Hour on Thursday evening
outdoor play and bike-riding with friends
Monday notes: both children spent most of the afternoon with friends at the creek behind the neighborhood gym, catching crawdads and salamanders. MUCH hands-on nature study. We now all know that even a small crawdad will eat a salamander, if the two happen to meet it inside a bucket.
(with changes, as I think better of things. this is a weekly, if not a daily, occurrence)
Morning Basket Read-Alouds:
M: St. Patrick's Summer, Herodotus & the Road to History, Adventures of Odysseus
T: St. Patrick's Summer, Archimedes & the Door of Science, Adventures of Odysseus
W: St. Patrick's Summer,
Th: St. Patrick's Summer, Among the Forest People, Aesop
F: St. Patrick's Summer, Jack the Treacle-Eater (poetry), Adventures of Odysseus
Daily: to break up Morning Basket Read-Alouds, 5-10 minutes of an MEP Y3 math interactive, done orally together. Just working through them in order (the entire year's practice book is available in interactive form), two exercises at a time. We should be able to make Y3 last us through next year at this rate. (and yes, we've skipped forward dramatically, but have not run into anything breathtakingly new or difficult)
Table Work:
R:
Math: Tuesday: math chapter test on addition/subtraction with regrouping; otherwise 1 page daily
1 cursive lesson daily
1 Language of God lesson daily:
On Tuesday and Friday (probably), her lesson directs her to a writing exercise in the worktext's appendix. I don't make her follow the assignment as written, just write. This week I've printed out a sheet of spelling words from an old speller, not to use as a spelling list but as words to write with. She may opt to write in her journal, rather than on the page in the worktext.
B:
Math: 1 page daily, practice multiplication tables
1 cursive lesson daily
Writing: I have also printed off a page of spelling words for him to use as described above, for journal-writing.
Lunch-Basket Read-Aloud: Madeleine Takes Command
Also this week:
Tuesday art lesson for both children
Cubs and American Heritage Girls
mostly-daily Mass
Holy Hour on Thursday evening
outdoor play and bike-riding with friends
Monday notes: both children spent most of the afternoon with friends at the creek behind the neighborhood gym, catching crawdads and salamanders. MUCH hands-on nature study. We now all know that even a small crawdad will eat a salamander, if the two happen to meet it inside a bucket.
Monday, April 23, 2012
S2W15 (not sure what happened to Week 14 -- we did it; I just didn't write it down here)
To Do:
Monday
Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive Page 1
Herodotus and the Road to History
Table Work:
R:
1 row of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading: Horse Pie
B:
1 intro to division page/work with multiplication chart (review 3s, 4s, 5s)
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading: Henry Huggins
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Tuesday Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive 1 (finish)
Archimedes and the Door of Science (serving as history, science, and living math)
Table Work:
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading: Horse Pie
B:
math: our skills book is moving into division, when I'm not sure that we're ready to leave multiplication behind so fast. On the other hand, he flew through the first division page, got the concept (and we discussed how division "undoes" multiplication as subtraction "undoes" addition), and exercised his multiplication facts in solving the division questions. I've pulled the multiplication chapter from another half-used workbook, however, hole-punched it, and put it in his binder to come back to when he hits a division wall, for more practice. These two skills will carry us to the end of the year.
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading: Henry Huggins (he has another book going as well, The Cruise of the Maiden Castle, so he may opt to pick that back up some days)
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Wednesday
Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive 2 (begin)
Among the Forest People
Table Work:
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading
B:
math (as above, either division or multiplication review)
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Thursday
Father is back from Rome, so we'll likely have Latin Mass at noon, with social time after. If that's the case, then in the morning we'll run through our workbook work, but probably not much else.
Friday
Morning Basket
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP interactive -- finish previous online page
Aesop (whom we've sadly neglected)
Table Work
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading
B:
math as above
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Saturday:
First Communion retreat for R.
Extracurriculars:
Cubs for B
American Heritage Girls for R (sewing this week)
Monday
Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive Page 1
Herodotus and the Road to History
Table Work:
R:
1 row of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading: Horse Pie
B:
1 intro to division page/work with multiplication chart (review 3s, 4s, 5s)
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading: Henry Huggins
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Tuesday Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive 1 (finish)
Archimedes and the Door of Science (serving as history, science, and living math)
Table Work:
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading: Horse Pie
B:
math: our skills book is moving into division, when I'm not sure that we're ready to leave multiplication behind so fast. On the other hand, he flew through the first division page, got the concept (and we discussed how division "undoes" multiplication as subtraction "undoes" addition), and exercised his multiplication facts in solving the division questions. I've pulled the multiplication chapter from another half-used workbook, however, hole-punched it, and put it in his binder to come back to when he hits a division wall, for more practice. These two skills will carry us to the end of the year.
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading: Henry Huggins (he has another book going as well, The Cruise of the Maiden Castle, so he may opt to pick that back up some days)
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Wednesday
Morning Basket:
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP Y3 Interactive 2 (begin)
Among the Forest People
Table Work:
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading
B:
math (as above, either division or multiplication review)
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Thursday
Father is back from Rome, so we'll likely have Latin Mass at noon, with social time after. If that's the case, then in the morning we'll run through our workbook work, but probably not much else.
Friday
Morning Basket
Morning Prayer
Saint Patrick's Summer
MEP interactive -- finish previous online page
Aesop (whom we've sadly neglected)
Table Work
R:
2 rows of subtraction-with-regrouping
1 cursive lesson
1 Language of God lesson
independent reading
B:
math as above
1 cursive lesson
journal writing
independent reading
Lunch Basket: Madeleine Takes Command
Saturday:
First Communion retreat for R.
Extracurriculars:
Cubs for B
American Heritage Girls for R (sewing this week)
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