CC Cycle 3 Week 5: George Washington

Hands down, this week has been our favorite.  Which is basically what I said last week, too, so if I'm overselling just how much we've enjoyed our sojourn through the revolutionary war, you'll have to forgive me.

For the record: we really, really love George Washington.

We cheer when Washington successfully crosses the Delaware.  We boo at the deceit of that treacherous villain Arnold.  We root for the downfall of the dastardly Cornwallis. 

Many a squabble was had this week over just who was going to be Washington and who had to be Cornwallis.

In the end, they abandoned Cornwallis so that they could play together and fight on the same side.

Seems a good trade to me.

This week's reading list includes:

George Washington by Ingri d'Auliare (Our Favorite of the week!)

Liberty or Death by Betsy Maestro

This Country of Ours by Elizabeth Marshall: The Birth of a Great Nation

The 4th of July Story by Alice Dagliesh

Story of the World

Book of America: Yankee Doodle

Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

The Burgess Animal Book by Thornton Burgess

Poetry: When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

We used Draw Write Now to practice drawing our hero, and mapped out Washington's Delaware crossing.

As it is a new month, we began studying a new virtue.  October, as our favorite month of the year, brings us none other than Joy: choosing to praise God in all things.

We are nearing the end of our composer study on Bach, but, being the month of Halloween, they were particularly enamored with this one, Toccata and Fuge in D minor, for reasons that become obvious the moment you hear it.  YES!  That's good stuff.

For picture study, we tackled (yes, you guessed it!): George Washington by Charles Willson Peale.

Although next week we will move out of the Revolutionary War and on to the next amazing chapter of American history, this has been such a fun place to linger.  

Back to Homeschool 2017: A Charlotte Mason take on Cycle 3

Okay, so it took me three years to finally figure it out, but I have to say: last year I hit my stride when it comes to homeschooling.

Spring craziness aside, we had an awesome year.  I am blown away by the way these two grew during the last school year, and I felt good about the priorities we chose to tackle.

I have spent the last month preparing a wonderful feast of ideas for us to enjoy this year, and I can't wait to share it with you!

Here is the breakdown.

Read Alouds:
We are again pairing our Classical Conversations American History cycle with readings from Ambleside Online, primarily year 2 for my 7 year old (although I used a few things from year 1 that pertain to this year's American history cycle as well):
- Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbitt
- The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
- This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall
- Pocahontas and George Washington by Ingrid D'Auliare
- Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

We will also use the Story of the World to support our weekly history readings and narration, as well as a TON of assorted fiction.  My pride and joy is the resource I've put together - the master plan for our year. You can find the weekly breakdown of readings and activities I've put together for our family by clicking HERE.

Math: Leah and Logan will both continue with Horizon math, grades 3 and K (though Logan is already in book 2 of the kindergarten program).

Science: I've pulled together a science resource from CC Connected which will reinforce memory work.  For the second half of the year, we will continue with Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework.

Copywork: Leah is in the process of learning cursive, and we have thoroughly enjoyed New American Cursive workbook.  I've also put together a book of history sentences - one in cursive for Leah, and in print for Logan - to practice handwriting. Logan, as a newly-minted five year old, will work slowly and only do a little handwriting practice at a time.

Language Arts: Last year, we began working with First Language Lessons, and I found them to be so profoundly simple and valuable.  I admit, we were not very faithful working through it, and sadly only did a handful of lessons before things got derailed in the spring.  This year, I plan to revive it and work more faithfully through the concepts.

One of the things I haven't had time to mention is the fact that Logan taught himself to read.  Which was... AMAZING.  To help him in that process, we are going to use All About Reading (my FAVORITE phonics and reading program!)

I also use the free resources at K-12 Reader and Read Works to pull together some fun, and usually on-topic grade level material to help Leah practice.  She is no longer working through regular formal phonics lessons, so I print these out and have them bound at my local office supply store.

Picture Study: Charlotte Mason recommends selecting one artist to study for a single quarter.  Since we are studying American History, I was able to find a series of paintings by numerous artists from around the time of the American Revolution.  We'll work through the Early American History artwork pack.

Composers: My absolute favorite part of our week is when we come together with something sweet and a hot cup of tea for our Composer's tea.  This semester, we are studying Bach and Dvorak. Classics for Kids is my absolute favorite {free!} resource, although there are tons of lovely books as well.  We also pull information and activities from YearRoundHomeschooling, Making Music Fun and various other sources around the web.

Bible: We are still using the basic plan laid out in my favorite pre-school resource, God's Little Explorers, to teach the Bible.  Each week, we study a Bible story and memorize a corresponding verse.  This year, Leah will add in additional study using her new Adventure Bible, which contains the complete text, instead of the simplified Jesus Storybook Bible we've always used. During our circle time, we memorize scripture, sing worship songs and hymns, and talk about the people and events being covered.

 Additional things of note: I don't know how much we will use them yet, but I purchased Interactive 3-D Maps of American History and Make and Learn Projects: Colonial America.  Projects are so not my strong suit, but I thought I'd give it a go to help bring our learning to life. We also have Draw Write Now as a hand-me-down from an artistically minded friend... and to say that I'm intimidated by it might be an understatement.  We're not naturally a family of artists, so we'll see if that gets into rotation at all.

After a lot of prayer, we have decided not to join a CC community this fall.  With the baby, toddler and two in formal schooling, I just felt we needed that extra day at home to help bring a little peace to our schedule.  Both Leah and Logan will attend an enrichment program geared toward homeschoolers once a week, but we'll be doing CC on our own this year.

In all seriousness, though, we can't wait to dive back in.  Homeschooling has been one of our greatest adventures and biggest blessings!

2015: Homeschool Under Review

One of the most challenging parts of being a new teacher is that, in everything you do, you're doing it for the first time.

You're dealing with that particular demographic and group of learners for the first time.  You're planning curriculum activities from scratch for the first time.  You're trying to modify said activities to fit your spectrum of learners for the first time.  You're learning how to assess on the go, and you're making the necessary changes when any given lesson either works or doesn't.

It's a lot to process all at once at any level, but that first year it is nearly overwhelming.  And you make a ton of mistakes.  It's a phase of most teachers' lives that is such a trial by fire that we simply repress it instead of spending a ton of money on therapy.  (And let's face it, if you're a teacher, spending tons of money isn't an option anyway.)

I always laugh when people try to tell me how easy teachers have it.  I mean, they get summers off and they just re-use all the activities they did they did the year before.  Easy peasy, right?!

To which I reply a very dignified, HA!!!!

Is it true?  Can a teacher just reuse all the same stuff in any given year?

Well... yes and no.

The reality is that you want teachers to be able to reuse their old lesson plans to a certain extent, and not have to start over from scratch every year.

The reason for this is, like a professional sports player, there are two things that make us better: repetition and review.  We get the feel of a certain set of activities and how they will be received by our demographic of students.  We learn to anticipate the questions, the problems, the modifications necessary to make it a success.  We learn to better support the places that are going to be difficult, which parts are a little dry and boring and require a joke or two to keep everyone's attention (or we learn that it's okay to cut those boring parts altogether).  We have the opportunity to edit, edit, edit so that each lesson becomes something wholly different than what we started with.

And trust me when I tell you: Different, in this case, equals better.

There is also the constant (and usually circuitous) flow of information.  If you ask a teacher what he or she does all day, they will tell you the following: 1) Teach.  2) Arm-chair therapy.  3) Plan/evaluate instruction.  And the beloved #4) Meetings, meetings, meetings.

It has been two and a half years since I have been in a classroom in a formal capacity.  When I left, I'd say I was near or at the top of my game.  My scores were strong.  My kids were learning.  There is always room for growth, but I felt good about the state of my classroom and confident in my own abilities as an educator.

In some ways, homeschooling sends me back to feeling like a first year teacher again.  I'm constantly planning, rearranging and honing my material without the benefit of having done - and improved upon - it last year.  And, I never thought I would say it in a million years, but: I miss my meetings, meetings, meetings!

All those hours of "professional development" where I used to think, If only they trusted us enough to do our jobs and teach!

Yeah, somebody take me back.  It turns out after all my silent protesting, professional development is well named and really does help you develop as a teacher.  It forces you to do something that is actually really tough to do when you're all by yourself, and review your performance.  It keeps you sharp and reminds you of things you knew, but forgot in the busyness and chaos of the moment.

There's a reason the sports industry spends so much time and energy on play-back.  Top athletes keep on top of their game by being brutally honest about how they performed, and why.

A desperate lack of all these things has conspired to make me a bit of a lazy teacher.  I'm not going to say homeschooler, because as a homeschooler - who has only two students but walks simultaneously in the shoes of maid, chef, mother, entertainer and overall keeper of the home - I've worked my tail off.  But as a teacher?  Yeah... I haven't exactly been on my game.

So.  A few things under review from 2015:

• Literacy.  Instead of teaching a veritable feast of balanced literacy, I served mostly phonics.  Which is pretty much the equivalent of serving salmon on Thanksgiving: it's a great choice from a nutritional standpoint, but leaves a lot to be desired in all other regards.  
• What's the fix?  It's simple, really.  Practice = progress.  90 minutes of reading everyday, per my favorite ever reading expert Richard Allington.  Not reading instruction.  Not phonics.  Good, old-fashioned, book open, page-turning reading.  Read alouds.  Guided reading.  Independent reading.  Book on tape.  Talking about reading for fun.  All these things I am working into our school schedule for 2016.  And I'm stoked!  Remember in my previous life when I was myself a reading teacher?  Yeah, it seems I forgot, too.  

• Writing. We've been working largely on copy work, which is developmentally appropriate but boring.  And uninspired.  And it's showing in the quality of her work.
• What's the fix?  Modeled writing.  Shared writing.  Guided writing.  Choice writing.  Diary entries.  Brainstorming.  List creation.  Story writing.  And OH SO MANY more!  In short: connected, personally meaningful writing.  (And again, the teacher in me says, DUH!!!)
• I added this writing program to our arsenal to help me structure the day and give us a better routine than our current one consisting of here's some paper, write stuff.  

• All the other stuff.  Yes, I'm trying to do preschool with Logan.  But he's three.  And all those cute and clever activities, while fun, are getting in the way of us using our time wisely.  Instead of going for one hour in the morning, we were often spending an hour and a half to two hours on those activities alone.  TOO MUCH.  
• That's not to say we need more academics.  School is supposed to be fun, but that's where I need to work harder on making reading and writing pleasurable - because they are!  My plan is simply to streamline, bring meaningful literacy into our preschool activities and keep them time-bound so that we really can go on when it's time to go on.  Whatever doesn't get done in that one hour time frame, well, it can wait.  

• Management.  One important thing I've discovered about Leah: She's a perfectionist.  To, like, the Nth degree.  Change one thing about the formatting of a math problem?  Yeah, it's going to completely freak her out.  Ask her to spell a word she doesn't already know how to spell?  Odds are good she'll melt - even though she could totally sound it out on her own.  She doesn't already know it, you see.  She'll cry and tell you that she might not get it perfect - her words, not mine - and will be unwilling to even try.
• What's the fix?  I have always admired elementary school teachers for their bulletin boards and colorful charts and well-placed management systems.  And now it's time to recreate a few of those strategies in my own little elementary school.  So we're working on star charts for when she completes each subject without melting.  We're printing those colorful schedules.  I brought out some puff balls and a large glass vase to keep track of each book we've read, Book-It style.  We are starting off the new semester looking at how to be "Bucket Fillers," an awesome book series that helps kids simply conceptualize the complex idea that their emotions are affected by the behavior of others, and vice-versa.  I've also gone back to my roots and revisited strategies for building a responsive classroom.   The point of all of this effort is to remember that she's little.  And little ones need help regulating their sweet little social-emotional selves in order to do their best learning.  

• Consistency, consistency, consistency.  I've got the schedule.  The one who needs to stick to it is me.  The better their routine, the easier this all gets.  That's just true.  Mom needs to batten down the hatches and make sure we're getting through what we need to do, every day. 

And me.  I'm recognizing the significance of how it all comes back to me. 

To be the best that I can be in all the areas that are required - when there's no back up teacher and frequently not so much as a husband around to take out the trash, - I need some sanity-savers.  I need time to quiet my soul, to rest and reflect and to grow myself.  I know, it sounds overly-ambitious, right?

I re-claimed time to read the first book on my list: 

It seems counter-intuitive to start off my "me time" with a book that focuses on how to help my kid.  But seriously?  It was SO MUCH FUN!  Teaching reading is one of my great passions because my super coolness is off the charts, only one step above those Dungeons and Dragons cats.  

In this place devoid of development meetings, deep conversations with knowledgeable colleagues or even annual repetition, it felt awesome to have a touchstone to help guide my decision-making process and remind me that, even though I'm at home, I am a professional.  

It was a good feeling; one that I haven't had in a while.  One I'm looking forward to repeating more often in 2016.

Strassner Academy: Week 8

It's difficult for me to believe that this marks the third Halloween I've been at home, teaching my own little ones instead of reveling in The Tell-Tale Heart and Edgar Allan Poe with 140 8th graders.

I'm not going to lie - I miss The Tell-Tale Heart.  And Shakespeare.  And being able to make slightly off-color jokes.  And having a vocabulary that didn't include the word Caillou.  I may have gotten off-topic here... let me go back.

Every year at home with the kids, we take time to do some festive, Halloween-y activities as part of our school day.  This year, a few of those included:

A Halloween-themed sensory bin with black beans and all sorts of wonderful little creepy crawlies.

Puff ball-painted candy corns.

I discovered that Olivia is absolutely enthralled by puff-balls, too.

She did this activity forever.  Literally, for nearly 45 minutes she sat and entertained herself quietly, pausing only to ask me to open the top and pour them out again.  It may not seem like a big deal, but doing anything away from mommy for 45 minutes is a BIG deal in Olivia world.  It was really impressive!

I eventually added beans to the mix to give it an auditory quality, too, which made it fun all over again when she began to tire of just the puff balls.

My favorite activity of the week, though, was this witches brew.

It started off simply enough.  Just a couple of kids, mixing a little baking soda, water and green food coloring.  They took the midnight train goin' anywhere.

Next, we brought out the ingredients:

Leg of spider.  Eye of newt.  Wing of bat.  You know, the usual cauldron line up.

Plus some magnetic letters, because, well, fun review opportunity.  Hello.

And then... the most important, final ingredient.  A little blood of toad (aka vinegar and red food coloring).  Oh yes, I went there.

Plus, it gave me a great opportunity to work in a little Double double, toil and trouble MacBeth action.  Finally, my Shakespeare!

And the result?  Awesome!

Not only was there an awesome reaction, but it turned the potion a really fun, spooky black color.

The kids had a great time playing with their witchly concoctions, and we were able to add more baking soda and vinegar and create a few more reactions.

It's no Poe, but I think we do the holiday justice in our own special way!

the great homeschool panic of 2015

It's already getting to be that time again.  Can you tell?

I notice it most in the mornings.  Where I've grown accustomed to waking, even early in the morning, to bright sunshine, these days when my alarm rings I'm finding my eyes opening to light that's increasingly tinged with the pink hues of early dawn.  The air is cool and sweet in the mornings, verging on chilly despite the heat the day brings.  

We've passed the mark, that great centerpiece of summer when we can still pretend those long, lazy days will last forever.  And I know that to my core I'll always be a teacher, because the beginning of the school year looks so much more imminent on this side of July 4th.

Here's the thing: I was promised a husband on regular occasions through the end of the year.  That was the deal.  We pricked our fingers and spit in our hands and shook on it.  No more leaving in September and coming home in February.  A little regularity and predictability were more the speed.  But that isn't how things are shaking out.  Instead, I'm faced with six straight weeks without him, which ends just a few days before we'll start our school year.

Now, the changing of the tides isn't the problem here.  Although I don't love going back to the single parenting life, it was in our best interests and it will be worth it in the long run.  

No.  

The problem is that the stores are filled with brightly colored notebooks and boxes of freshly sharpened crayons.  The promise of a fresh start hangs in the air.  

And I am totally, completely, hopelessly not ready for it.

It is so difficult to find time to really sit down and plan without my husband home.  It takes quite a good chunk of time, energy, and - most of all - attention, all of which is difficult to muster when we're on our own.  

So before he left, I had a good, old-fashioned panic attack.  Full-blown, adult tantrum where I melted sloppier than ice cream in... well, July.

And when that was over, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and sat down to rebuild the fragile pieces of my crazy.

The first step was getting my stuff together.  I'll use that old flight attendant analogy about putting the oxygen mask on myself before assisting littles - there wasn't much I could do for anybody else until I'd figured out what the year looks like for me.

Can I just tell you how very, very glad I was when I found this planner?  I was literally in the process of (poorly) making my own - this is so much better!!

I have never been one to keep a digital calendar.  Not when I worked, and certainly not now that I'm home.  I am what you might call "old fashioned."  I like paper.  I like pens.  I like making lists so that I can cross things off.  Gel pens.  3 ring binders.  Highlighters.  Divider tabs.

Seriously, stop me, I could just go on.

The good news is, should disaster or zombie apocalypse strike and the world be left without basic necessities of power or iPad, my schedule will still run, all color-coordinated and precise and untroubled by the fact that all the agenda keeping is entirely unnecessary, what with the ruin of civilization.  

I may or may not have control issues.  Sometimes I get crazy and schedule things in pencil.  Shhhh... I won't tell if you won't.  

I printed the files out at home, Casey helped me add the personalization, and then I simply had it bound at our local office supply store.  Just to top off my planner-nerd fabulousness, I added these wonderful tabs.  Oh yes.  That's organization level: expert.

The pretty planner high gave me enough momentum to tackle that actual issue at hand: school.  That thing my master's degree was supposed to help prepare me for.

I already knew that we would continue in Classical Conversations.  Last year, we used very little outside of the curriculum.  We did lots of reading on subjects related to American history.  We practiced handwriting using history sentences, and did science notebooking.  We skip counted for math and we read some more.  Although we practiced sight words and did math as the mood struck us, there was no additional formal curriculum. 

I knew that I wanted to change that this year.  We needed a math curriculum, and reading.  We needed more scheduled and regular science, art and music.  We needed something to help introduce Logan to the wonderful world of school.

Here's where we landed:

 
I had already purchased All About Reading, which is a phonics program that I absolutely adore.  Probably largely because when I taught remedial phonics at 8th grade, we used a program that was nearly identically.  I know the brain science behind it is as good as it gets, and as an added bonus, it just feels familiar.

Math.  Not surprisingly for an English teacher, I struggled with a math curriculum.  I think I've probably been holding her back on the math front.  We should have invested in an actual curriculum (rather than the piecemeal practice I had been doing).  At the time, I didn't want to overwhelm her, but in hindsight I think she was probably ready for it.  I looked heavily into Right Start Math, and I really like the idea of it.  The whole premise is a bit different than my own understanding, though, and I wasn't sure I could commit to teaching that way.  Just out of curiosity, I purchased the Horizons kindergarten math book back in April, and Leah has done wonderfully with it.  In fact - as if I needed this to add to my mommy guilt - she didn't even do the second book.  She already knows the material, so we're jumping right into the first grade books next year.

I found some really cool art activity books that I think will keep us going for the year.  They're "in the style of" activities where we can draw inspiration from the masters.

The little ones are from this series, which tells the story of a few great artists while detailing their famous works.  I'm really excited to break into these!

We're keeping science and music on the simple side.  She'll get both once a week at our community day, so we'll do an additional 30 minutes each once per week.  I'm not feeling pressured to delve into "formal" science or music curricula with my five year old, so I'm simply relying on Pinterest to give me something somewhat-related to our science memory work.  Between the internet and Pinterest, I have a pretty good start compiling simple 30 minute music lessons as well.  She's also going back for another year of ballet and tap, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the year we can begin piano lessons. (Step 1: get a piano.)  Yeah, that oughta be enough...

My approach with Logan is definitely more simplistic.  He will just be three when we start the school year, so we are combining a Montessori approach with this amazing curriculum which Leah and I did two years ago.

I'm not entirely sure where he falls on the "readiness" scale for actual preschool - which is completely fine - but he does like to sit with us at the table while we do school.  The goal is to spend the first hour or so of the day reading, singing, playing and doing activities and just see what sticks.  I know he'll get there in his own time, and I'm excited to see which activities pique his interest.

The other thing I've created for him is a series of Busy Boxes to help give him something to do so that I can work more directly with Sister.

Each one has several activities: a puzzle, games, figurines, something sensory-related, fine-motor skill practice, counting activities, building toys, books and more.

 He is big enough to pull out one of these boxes, take it apart, play with it independently for about 30 minutes, and put it all back.

I love them.  The best part is that the vast majority of these activities came from the dollar store.  And also: Target.  $1 section = pure ah-ma-zing.

Classical Conversations will round out the rest.  Leah will get history, science, English grammar, Latin, math (facts and vocabulary) and geography.  We will continue to do writing and copy work that is focused on one or two of each week's memory work to kill two birds with one stone.

The last piece was pulling it all together - physically speaking.  It is amazing how much STUFF a person needs to homeschool.  I've kept it pretty simple - AND I've only had one child until now!

We recently bought this awesome dresser from IKEA, and I'm slightly embarrassed to tell you that I've filled at least half of it.

We don't currently have a homeschool room; all of our work is done at the kitchen table.  I suppose it's not ideal, but at least for the time being, it really works for us. The hope is - at some point in the future when circumstance necessitates - we will eventually turn the nursery into a school room.

But, you know... probably not for a while.  I rather have my heart set on using it for a few more years.

So there we are!  Phew!  Even getting it all down in one place makes my heart begin to flutter.  Mostly in a good way.  My teacher senses start tingling, and I have to look for a phone booth to transform from regular old mom into SUPERMOM: TEACHER EXTRAORDINAIRE!!!

And... also there is heart fluttering because - whew.  Mama's got her work cut out for her.  Mama's gonna need a really big cup of coffee.

We are definitely going to enjoy the next month or so, and then... oh it's go time!

The last day of kindergarten.

Well, the last day of school has come and gone, but I would be remiss if I didn't tell you at least a little bit about it.

Leah Madeline, last day of Kindergarten 2015.  Age 5.

The kids celebrated their accomplishments this year with what we call Finale Night.  I wish I could tell you that I took lots of pictures, but as Casey was out of town... well, I do the best I can.

They were absolutely adorable.  The group recited the presidents in order from Washington to Obama, and then each class got to do a quick presentation as well.  Leah was so excited, as she was responsible for pointing out Montpelier, Vermont on the map by herself in front of the audience.  There was a dessert reception afterward, and our Nana, Mimi and Poppy attended with us.  She was so very proud of herself!

I just can't believe how much she has learned this year.  It stuns me to listen to her, and the sophistication with which she can speak about so many subjects that she really has no context for.
 

"Look, Mommy!  I made water with my snack!  Two hydrogens and one oxygen!"

At her five year check up, our pediatrician was telling me a story about how her grandfather attended one of the schools that was first to be integrated in the south.  Without missing a beat, Leah chimed in, "are you talking about Brown vs. the Board of Education?"  OH, how the doctor's mouth dropped open as she said, "I am!  What do YOU know about Brown vs. the Board of Education?!"  It was just priceless.

It has been such a wonderful year.  Homeschooling is such a blessing to our family.  Even though it is tough sometimes, I can't imagine that we would do anything else.  I don't know exactly where or how far this journey will take us, but we are so very happy to be able to spend this time together now.

Everyone in our family loves to learn!

Besides that, one of the beautiful things about homeschooling is that we're not bound by pesky little things like schedules, or whether school is "out" or "in."

We can learn anywhere, any time!