CC Cycle 3: The Boston Tea Party

A while back, we read George Washington: True Patriot from the Heroes of History series by Janet and Geoff Benge.

The kids absolutely adored learning about Washington, his fascinating, courageous and often difficult life during the time of the Revolutionary War.  So it was with great excitement and anticipation that we came to this week's study: the Boston Tea Party!  They were already familiar with some names that came up often this week.  Names such as Adams, Revere, Henry, and Franklin. Watching their faces light up when they come across information they are familiar with never gets old.

We learned a little about Washington's spies, and did a cool activity writing spy letters with lemon juice.

Just add fire, and the message reveals itself.

Although I'm sure Washington would have envied the ease of my lighter.

Spying is a very serious business.  We also may have briefly discussed what exactly happened to the spies when they were caught.  I tried to edit that one out, but we have entirely too many resources in our house... Leah read about Nathan Hale all on her own.

This week's reading list: 

This Country of Ours: Paul Revere's Ride

Liberty or Death: The American Revolution by Betsy Maestro

We Were There at the Boston Tea Party by Robert Webb

The Boston Tea Party by Russell Freedman

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 and Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow

Picture Study: Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley

Composer Study: Bach and the Brandenburg Concertos 

This week has been my favorite so far.  There's just so much great stuff to cover: Paul Revere's daring ride and Longfellow's beautiful retelling; the stirring words of Patrick Henry; the bravery of the minutemen who stood at Lexington and Concord.  We had a blast!

And, it was reflected in our Thursday Think, which turned out amazing.   Their best work by far!

They took in so much information this week, it was incredible.  And their drawings... WOW!  

The growth I'm seeing each week as we do gather to do this activity is incredible.

CC Cycle 3 Week 1: Columbus

So, I have a confession to make.

This is our first repeat cycle with Classical Conversations.  Although I very fervently believe in the process (and I do), I wasn't exactly sure what our first repeat cycle would look like.  After all... the last time we learned about American history, my kiddos looked like...

....this.

Oh my.  Blast from the past, right?  

When we began CC, Leah was four and a half and beginning kindergarten.  Logan was just two, and little Livvy was all of about one month old.  Back then, I was extremely impressed by the incredible acquisition of facts, retention of dates, and advanced vocabulary CC provided.  

But.  Three cycles?  The same three cycles repeated for the next seven years?  Would it really work?

As we began this week, it took literally three minutes for my faith in the Classical method to be confirmed.  Because, my kid?  She knows this stuff.  She doesn't remember it all, exactly, but this information is definitely in there.  

It was so much fun to see the marked difference between Leah and Logan - who learned everything together last year at roughly the same pace.  Logan is going through this information for the first time, and I have to go slow, pause often and repeat many times (which is perfectly normal.  This is the foundational part of the Classical process, and he is doing an amazing job!).

What is so incredible, what I had heard stories of but had never yet witnessed for myself, is the incredible growth that happens as they go through the information again.  Leah hears it once and has it because she remembers this information from three years ago.  It's CRAZY!  AMAZING!!  And most of all, delightful.  Such a joy to bear witness to this beautiful learning process. Because she has the vocabulary down, we can begin to go deeper and explore topics with dimension and enthusiasm. 

This week's focus was on Columbus, who, I'll be honest, we've read rather a lot about in the past.  So, although we refreshed our memories on the basics, we didn't spend a ton of time on him and focused our attention instead to what life was like as the first colonists began to build their lives in the New World.

This week's reading list: 

This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall: The Adventures of John Smith

Story of the World: Columbus

Roanoake: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen

Paddle to the Sea Ch. 3

Burgess Animal Book by Thornton Burgess

The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish by Cheryl Harness

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit: Two Gentlemen of Verona

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

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

Composer: J.S. Bach (Becoming Bach by Tom Leonard)

Picture Study: Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children by Ralph Earl (1798)

We are focusing our attention on one virtue per month.  This month, we're learning about Respect.  They've defined it and memorized a Bible verse to support the virtue.

This week, we identified and practiced some ways that we can show respect in our actions, and read about how even wolves use respect as an important part of their pack dynamic.

Since it was our first week back with CC, we set up the science notebooks I created for them.  Each week, they'll do a brief reading and activity to reinforce our science memory work (which focuses on anatomy and chemistry this year).

It's so fun to watch the little things that kids enjoy.  Coloring and getting to decorate their science notebooks with stickers took so much longer than I'd anticipated, because they were so excited and took such care in their work.

When they had at last adequately beautified their notebooks, it was time to get down to business.

As my pre-writer, Logan is practicing cutting and pasting his together.  

At 7, Leah reads through the information for us and can write her own answers. 

And, of course, my little Livvy, hard at work.  The ways in which she keeps herself busy as we do school are truly a wonder.  Someday, I'll have to do a post on what she does while we do school.  It's pretty impressive in its own right. 

The two big ones also watched, with alternating disappointment and awe, the Disney movie Pocahontas.  Awe because, well, it might be one of the most astonishingly beautiful movies Disney has ever done.  And the soundtrack?!  It wow-ed us.  Having read several accounts of  both Pocahontas's and John Smith's life, the plot line left something to be desired.  

BUT --- the fact that they recognized and discussed that all on their own?  I'll take it!  

Back to (home)school: week 2

A few important things happened this past week, so as quickly as it began, our homeschool routine was slightly interrupted.

The great part about homeschooling is, you get to roll with whatever life slings at you.  It's really no biggie.

We went to the zoo on Monday to celebrate our oldest son's birthday.  Our local zoo is doing an exhibit that includes dinosaurs, and it's amazing.  The kids had a great time.  Plus... field trip!  Bonus!

Side note: man, oh man... our number two is five!!!!

Seriously, how'd that happen so fast?

 Okay, I digress.  Week two.

Continuing with our Native American unit, this week's reading included:

This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall: How America was Named

Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Shi-Shi-Etko by Nicola Campbell

Book of America: Father Junipero Sera

Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

The Burgess Animal Book by Thornton Burgess

Poetry: The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems

(By the way... how much do you love my rock star hair?  Homeschool.  There's a lot of coffee, but not a lot of hair brushing.)

Composer: We began our study of Johann Sebastian Bach

Picture Study: The American School by Matthew Pratt (1765)

We read about the symbolism behind many native tribes' jewelry and headdress, and made our own as well: 

We also began our study of virtues with Respect.

And took a nature walk, complete with a little nature journaling.

And, of course, finished the week with some rather emotional goodbyes. 

And a whole 'lotta love.

Back to (Home) School: Week 1

A few additional highlights from week 1.

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk at least a little about this cool, rare(ish) thing that happened: a solar eclipse!

Someone in our family (ahem: I have no idea who that someone might be...) was a little slow on the uptake and neglected to get the cool solar glasses that were going around.  Fortunately, amazon visits our house often, and the internet has great ideas.

We did a little role-playing to explain how the orbits of earth, moon and sun all conspire to create an eclipse.

Although, even afterward, Logan was convinced the astronomical phenomenon was purely in celebration of their first day of school.  

We took full advantage of our status as homeschoolers to enjoy the entire effect.  In Colorado, the eclipse was nearly total, which created a fun and eerie atmosphere in which to work and read.

And play, of course.

The light.  It was SO cool!

We will begin Classical Conversations in two weeks, but since this year's cycle centers around American History, we began our own studies - naturally - with a short but oh-so-fun Native American unit.  

The kids had a great time.  Quick break-down of our readings and activities, since I didn't get pictures of everything: 

This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall: How Columbus Fared

Pocahontas by Ingri d'Aulaire

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola

Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Smith

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

The Burgess Animal Book by Thornton Burgess

Thanks to the Animals by Sebastian Allen

The Legend of the Grand Canyon (Book of America)

Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne

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

Composer: Review from last year (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven)

Picture study: Treaty of Penn with the Indians (Benjamin West, 1771)

We made these feather necklaces, and read about the culture and lifestyle of several different tribes of Native Americans.

As our weekly virtues study, we wrote and memorized Charlotte Mason's student motto to kick off our school year: 

I AM, I CAN, I OUGHT, I WILL

On our first day of school, we relish getting dressed up and taking photos...

...but it doesn't take us very long to return to our natural (and favorite) attire: jammies!  Although we've been working on setting an alarm and training ourselves in the morning to dress, tidy and make beds before we come downstairs - tasks that they are absolutely doing awesome with, I might add - I relented by Thursday.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.  

It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth.

- Walt Whitman

Livvy Joy is a champ when it comes to keeping herself busy during our school day.  It doesn't take very many activities, and she stays busy for the roughly four hours as we do school.  That child is dedicated to her play, and has such creativity and imagination.  Logan joined us for a "formal"-ish preschool when he was three, but I am so content to let Livvy play and touch and experience.

One thing that so appeals to me about Charlotte Mason an Classical Conversations: flexibility.  We have a handful of regular workbooks - math and writing, to be precise - but so much of what we do can be moved around to suit our weekly schedule.   We're not glued to the table; we're free to take advantage of the beautiful outdoors, or even, through the magic of audio books, take it on the road.

Of course, that's not to say that I don't have a schedule we adhere to regularly.  Children thrive on routine, so most of what we do follows a predictable pattern.  But if we're having an off day, if a toddler needs extra love or a baby insists on taking five naps instead of two, I'm at perfect liberty to can whatever we're doing, change or tweak it appropriately or simply move it around to another day.  

The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.

- Socrates

I think my favorite moment of the week, however, was the addition of something new.  Something I've never done before.

I called it our Thursday Think.  It's an incredibly simple idea, really.  

I wanted to know what they remembered from our week of learning.  What they had taken in; what they were passionate about.  Which subjects resonated with them or questions still lingered.

I rolled a large sheet of butcher paper across our table, put out the pastels and most of the materials we'd used during the week... and off they went!

I love what came pouring out of them. 

I discovered that Logan likes to write. 

He wanted to write more than he wanted to draw.  I did not see that one coming. He also has quite the knack for spelling... even if not for spacing his words.  (For the record, that purple one reads, "Is Logan here mom?  No.")

And Leah, as ever, is my perfectionist.  This, with it's lack of structure, kid-driven, no-right-answer was way outside of her comfort zone... but she kinda loved it.

And my little artist Livvy adored this project.  She sat and colored for an hour straight.  We're gonna need more pastels.

And then on Friday, to wrap up our week, it was time to head to their enrichment program.

Just in case life wasn't rich enough already.