Exams with Friends

It was exam week here last week. SA(9) finished Ambleside Online Year 4, and JJ(7) finished Year 2. I was feeling very "done" by the end of the school year, and though I intended to do full exams with the boys, in the end I didn't have the energy to do all of it. However, we did do something special that I think I will repeat in future exams. We had friends and family over for tea!

Charlotte Mason style exams are not high-pressure academic exercises. They are more an opportunity for the children to remember what they have learned, and to enjoy realizing how much they know. For me they are an opportunity to assess how I am doing in facilitating the "science of relations." There always seems to be at least one area that I neglect to some degree, and exams are always a gentle reminder to get back on track. On the other hand, exams are also always a reminder that no matter how poorly I may think we did in a term, the children still come out of it with Scripture, poetry, pictures and songs hidden in their hearts and a heart-warming eagerness to share all their favourite books and knowledge. 

Really, an ideal opportunity to share with friends, wouldn't you say?

We had two friends come over for tea one morning, and Grandma and an uncle another morning. I wrote up some exam questions and recitation prompts on strips of paper and put them in a teacup.

As we enjoyed our tea and snacks, we all took turns pulling out the strips of paper and doing what they said.

If you'd like to try this in your family, I have some tips for you:

1. Invite encouraging, supportive, loving people. 

We are blessed to have family and friends who are supportive of homeschooling in general and us in particular. I know that for some of you these people can be hard to find. Don't discount the obvious. If daddy is not involved in the day-to-day homeschooling, he will probably be a great person to include in this celebration. 

2. Do not invite "quizzers." 

Sometimes the most loving, well-meaning people can none-the-less be "quizzers." You know them...whenever they meet your children they challenge their knowledge. How old are you? Can you read yet? Do you know all the provinces of Canada? How far are you in math? If you do really want to invite a quizzer, maybe you could drop a hint that your purpose is to celebrate what your children have learned, and the questions in the teacup related to this term's studies are the only ones to be asked today.

3. Ask the right questions. 

Not all exam questions are suitable for the purpose of sharing like this. Here are some that are:

- Recitations. Scripture passage, hymn, catechism, folk song, poetry, and Shakespeare recitations are ideal.

- Show and Tell. This is a great time for your children to show drawings, nature journals, handicrafts, music they've written out, and even math, copywork and dictation notebooks.

- Performance. Playing a musical instrument is an obvious choice, but also think about other demonstrations of skill. If your child has learned to read, have him read something. If he is quick at mental math, try a math question. 

- Child's Pick. Have your children choose their favourite school book of the year and tell something interesting about it. My children surprised me by both choosing their Singapore math books the first tea time. The second time I had them choose their favourite book of reading and narration. 

4. Limit narration questions.

Questions that involve narration are fine, but don't do too many at an occasion like this. For my two oldest children (introverts who need a minute or two to process before the words start coming), these questions feel more difficult and high-pressure in a situation where we are all eagerly waiting on their every word. For more extroverted children, these questions might release a flow of words that will take a disproportionate amount of time in the context of a casual teatime. I limited myself to one narration question for each child from a book that had consistently good narrations throughout the term.

5. Move on if something isn't going well.

Your purpose is to celebrate what your children do know. If, for any reason, they don't know, keep calm and move on to the next exam question as quickly as possible. Do not be embarrassed, do not take it personally. Do not prompt more than once or twice, or allow your guests to prompt. This will happen. For your children's sake, treat it as no big deal and carry on. A bit of humour at your own expense as the teacher can deflect the attention from your students and help them move on as well. 

At our teatime exam with Grandma, I asked my boys a narration question about the great Canadian explorer David Thompson. They each said something, but I felt they could have said so much more. I started prompting ("I noticed you didn't say anything about crossing the mountains. Can you tell me more about that?"), and regret prompting more than once. I should have let it go. The boys also completely bombed a poetry recitation. I helped them a little, but in the end I let it go and moved on. Exams do expose where we have fallen short. We obviously didn't review our poetry recitations enough this term. We will do better at that next term. Moving on...

6. Don't overdo it.

Put lots of questions in the teacup, but don't put pressure on yourself to get through them all. Keep pulling questions out for as long as it feels enjoyable for everyone, both students and guests. If you notice stress or boredom rising, end with one last song and call it a day. For us, with two students and two preschoolers, our limit was about 40 minutes. We got through about ten exam questions in that time.

7. Don't forget the little ones.

I have an extroverted year 0 student that I knew would also like to share what he learned. Of course, he had learned all the recitations his brothers had. I also asked him to tell us about his favourite book, and to read some three-letter words. I did forget AJ(3), and didn't consider that he probably would like to do what his brothers were doing. Thankfully, one of our guests did not forget him, and asked him to tell all about our cat. He was ridiculously proud to do so. MM and AJ also took their turns pulling questions from the teacup.

I hope this gives you some ideas! We really enjoyed the exams we did with friends. I would love to hear if you try this.

School Education: The Appendices

I did it! I finished reading School Education yesterday, 29 days after starting. Some of it was hard going (Chapter 14, I'm looking at you!), and much of it was surprisingly repetitive. This is something you don't notice as much when you're reading through Charlotte Mason's works slowly, as I've always done. Still, the very repetition shows what was the most important to Charlotte Mason. It's as if she is continually saying, Before we focus in on this one principle, let's step back and see what place that principle has in the whole philosophy of education. Before we dig in to the details of one aspect of education, let's remind ourselves of the principle that informs it. Charlotte Mason was an unusual person, I think. She was a big picture person, a visionary who was yet eminently practical.

The appendices of Volume 3 are pictures of what happens when you apply Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education.

Appendix 1 is a study guide for Volume 3 intended for people who wanted to become "Qualified Members" of the P.N.E.U. by taking the "P.N.E.U. Reading Course." As I was reading very quickly, I did not make use of these questions, but I notice that they seem like narration questions for adults.

Appendix 2 contains samples of answers to exam questions from students in the Parents' Review School. There are answers from children age 6 through 15. Impressive as the answers are, Charlotte Mason assures us that it is "average work." As my own children are 9 and under, I can only compare their exams with the answers of the younger students. I find our results quite similar, with a weakness in nature study (I knew that already...). The work of the older children impresses and intimidates me, but no doubt we will grow into it.

Appendix 3 tells us what a child should learn in the six years between the ages of six and twelve. I will quote the list here in full. 

"a. To grasp the sense of a passage of some length at a single reading: and to narrate the substance of what they have read or heard.

b. To spell, and express themselves in writing with ease and fair correctness.

c. To give an orderly and detailed account of any subject they have studied.

d. To describe in writing what they have seen, or heard from the newspapers.

e. They should have a familiar acquaintance with the common objects of the country, with power to reproduce some of these in brushwork.

f. Should have skill in various handicrafts, as cardboard Sloyd, basket-making, clay-modelling, etc.

g. In Arithmetic, they should have some knowledge of vulgar and decimal fractions, percentage, household accounts, etc.

h. Should have a knowledge of Elementary Algebra, and should have done practical exercises in Geometry.

i. Of Elementary Latin Grammar; should read fables and easy tales, and, say, one or two books of 'Caesar.'

j. They should have some power of understanding spoken French, and be able to speak a little; and to read an easy French book without a dictionary.

k. In German, much the same as in French, but less progress.

l. In History, they will have gone through a rather detailed study of English, French, and Classical (Plutarch) History. 

m. In Geography they will have studied in detail the map of the world, and have been at one time able to fill in the landscape, industries, etc., from their studies, of each division of the map.

n. They will have learned the elements of Physical Geography, Botany, Human Physiology, and Natural History, and will have read interesting books on some of these subjects.

o. They should have some knowledge of English Grammar.

p. They should have a considerable knowledge of Scripture History and the Bible text.

q. They should have learned a good deal of Scripture and of Poetry, and should have read some Literature.

r. They should have learned to sing on the Tonic Sol-fa method, and should know a number of English, French, and German Songs.

s. They should have learned Swedish Drill and various drills and calisthenic exercises.

t. In Drawing they should be able to represent common objects of the house and field with brush or charcoal; should be able to give rudimentary expression to ideas; and should be acquainted with the works of some artists through reproduction.

u. In Music their knowledge of theory and their ear-training should keep pace with their powers of execution." (p. 301-302)

My oldest son is halfway...just starting Year 4. We have three of those six years left. I can definitely see areas that I have neglected (drill, drawing), areas where I need to buckle down (French, Nature Study), and areas that my student is lagging behind (writing). (Also, of course, areas of study that we will just begin this year.) However, overall I am encouraged to keep on offering this wonderful feast. It is good to know the ideal I'm aiming at. Without that I, for one, would not expect (and therefore not get) work of this level at this age.

Appendix 4 shows a term's work for a twelve-year-old: first the programme including all the books used, then the exam questions (2-4 per subject), then exam answers received from a typical (not exceptional) student. My main take-away at this point (since my children are a few years younger) is that I want to find geography books like the ones Charlotte Mason used! 

Appendix 5 shows how oral lessons are used. In general, the Charlotte Mason teacher's role is to "read with" her students, not lecture them. However, oral lessons were also used in Charlotte Mason's schools, "a channel for free intellectual sympathy between teacher and taught, and a means of widening the intellectual horizon of children." (p. 329) The oral lessons were always supplementary to the book-work of the students. Here are some ways they were used:

- to introduce a course of reading

- to bring certain readings to a point

- as an opportunity to read from several books on one subject in order to interest the student in learning more.

- to teach subjects that require oral lessons: languages, math, science

- to expand, illustrate, or summarize some part of students' book-work.

I found this appendix fascinating! I think I've shied away from oral lessons almost entirely because of Charlotte Mason's many warnings against too much talk from the teacher. And we do have to be careful of that. However, I see now that there are times when oral lessons are appropriate. Some of these examples depict what I've always heard referred to as "scaffolding" (introducing a reading in such a way as to capture a child's interest and remove obstacles in the way of his understanding). Read this appendix if you want to learn how to scaffold well. Others are just plain oral lesson plans, often with built-in discussion, and it's helpful to see how the teachers always kept their object (the science of relations...that students would form a relation with the subject/person/place) before them as they gave these lessons.

And that's the end of this series! I'd love to hear from you if you've been reading along, or even if you have just dipped into volume 3 as topics interested you. What do you think of the picture Charlotte Mason paints of her results in the Parents' Review School? Does it intimidate you? Encourage you? Prod you to work harder or in a more balanced way?

Let's talk!

Highlights from Year 2, Term 2 Exams

Last week Thursday, SA(7) finished Term 2 of Ambleside Online Year 2. Since we had one day left in the week, I decided to do just a few exam questions over the rest of Thursday and Friday rather than carrying the exams over into this week.

Bible

He answered two exam questions on Bible, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. For the New Testament, I asked him to choose a parable and tell it to me. He chose the parable of the sower.

"There was a sower that sowed seeds on the path, and they got picked up by birds and the birds ate them. The ones that fell on the rocks sprang up, but then because they had no water and no roots, they withered away. The ones that fell where the weeds were got choked up. When they started growing, they got choked up by the weeds. The ones that fell on good soil were just... they didn't have any problems. They didn't get eaten by birds, they had roots and water. They just grew."

"Do you remember anything about what the parable means?" I asked.

"The seeds that fell on the rocks was one that Satan snatches the Bible. They read the Bible but it means nothing to them. The seeds that fell on the good soil are the ones that read the Bible and it meant something to them. I don't remember the ones that fell among the weeds or the ones that fell on the path."

I was very pleased with how well he remembered the parable, which we read about six weeks ago. He didn't remember Jesus' explanation very well, just some tidbits and interpretations of our discussion afterwards.

SA also recited our Bible passage for the term, Colossians 3:12-17. Normally we try to learn two or three passages per twelve-week term, but this time we had some Sunday school memory work leading up to Christmas and we only started with this in week five of the term. He began well in his recitation, but things fell apart a bit when he missed verse 16 and mixed a little of verse 15 into verse 17. He recited verse 16 when I pointed out his omission.

Picture Study

I did a picture study exam question on the spur of the moment as I was nursing the baby. "Close your eyes," I told SA, "and think about the Tom Thomson pictures we studied this term. Choose one and picture it in your mind's eye. Describe it to me, but don't tell me what it is. Then I'll see if I can figure out which one you're describing."

He willingly did this (It's the willingness that amazed me... picture study might be his least favourite thing.) and described "The West Wind" well enough for me to figure out which one he was telling me about. He started with the hills in the background (hills are very common in Tom Thomson's paintings), then described the rocks in the foreground with their reddish tint, and the wind in the sky. He didn't get around to the pine tree in the foreground until the end of his description, but I already could see the whole painting in my own mind.

"Was that your favourite painting?" I asked him.
"I don't know. I didn't know I was supposed to choose my favourite," he said.
I quickly reassured him that he didn't have to have a favourite, and the one he chose was fine. :)

Literature
I asked SA two questions about literature. One was from Pilgrim's Progress, Part Two, and one was from The Wind in the Willows.

"Tell me three things Christiana saw at the Interpreter's House."

-"The fire which was burning. On the side you could see, you could see water, but on the opposite side was oil. The water was the evil one, and the oil was the 'good one.'

-A robin with a spider in its mouth. Christiana didn't like them anymore when she knew robins ate spiders. When they are roaming, they are nice. When they are by themselves, they eat spiders.

-A tree that was rotted out in the middle, but it still grew and bore leaves. The leaves were for the devil's tinderbox." 

"Tell me your favourite part from The Wind in the Willows."

"The Barge. As he was walking, there was a barge woman, and he said he wanted to go to Toad Hall. And he asked the barge woman, 'Is Toad Hall near where you are going?' And she said, 'Yes, it is near.' He said, 'because my girls might be smashing the glass.' She said she thought they were horrible hussies. He said that he wanted to do the steering, but the barge woman told him to do that laundry that he was fond of. She saw that every moment he was getting crosser, and that he lost the soap for the fiftieth time. And then he untied the rope to the barge and mounted the horse and rode away."

History

I had time for only one exam question in history. "Tell me about the Seige of Calais." As he thought about how to answer he was frustrated to tears because all the details of all the stories we've read were blurring in his mind - he wasn't sure which details belonged with which battles. There were several King Edwards in a row and that didn't help, either. It wasn't my intention to frustrate him, so I tried to help by listing the people involved in the story:

Edward III
Governor of Calais
King Philip of France
Eustace de St Pierre and five other prominent men of Calais
Queen Philippa

Happily, he remembered which story this was when he heard Queen Philippa's name. Even so, he started somewhere in the middle of the story.

"They asked if they could be free people. And then the king said they could be free if they bring him the keys of the city and six men. And they told the king that they wanted to be free six times. They brought him the keys of the city and asked the king to let them live. Then Queen Philippa begged him not to kill them and he finally let them go without killing them and then he had a feast."

Copywork

I had SA copy "The Badger strode up the steps." His copying wasn't as neat as I know he can do it, and I made a mental note to emphasize that he must do his best work as we go forward. However, overall he has made great progress in his writing skills this term. At the beginning of the term I was having him copy my model line by line, and he was copying word by word directly beneath the model. We continued to limit our time to five minutes, but the amount of work he could do in five minutes increased from less than one to more than three lines. Towards the end of the term, I began to have him copy paragraph by paragraph. I modeled three to five lines at the top of a page, and he copied them at the bottom of the page. His neatness suffered, which I assumed was due to him copying more line by line rather than word by word. (I do want him to do that...it is what will help him exercise his visual memory and begin to learn to spell.) However, the fact that this one-line exam question was also not very neat made me think that perhaps he is getting into bad habits and I need to keep a closer eye on it.

Math

SA did his final Review for Singapore Primary Math 2B. We will begin grade 3 next term. He continues to do well with math. I rarely have to teach him anything...he simply absorbs whatever comes his way in the daily exercises. I have been considering how to spread more of a feast for him in math. I begin every term with the intention of doing math activities and games one day a week. I have wonderful resources for this, but somehow the planning involved and the little ones underfoot have meant that I did this maybe six times in the twelve-week term. Somehow I need to streamline a process, or perhaps have more of an open-and-go program that emphasizes the problem-solving/puzzling/pattern side of math. I have been thinking about supplementing his Singapore Math with Beast Academy (a big decision because it's so expensive to get here in Canada), or perhaps doing some beginning algebra with Hands-on Equations. I also continue to be periodically tempted by Right Start Math (also very expensive.). I know I have a good thing for him in Singapore Math. It progresses in a methodical way that makes sense to him. It's just that when his daily exercises usually take him about five minutes and seemingly no challenge or effort, I know I need to be doing more for him. He needs more "captain ideas" coming his way to really feed his mind and inspire him.

This week I am thinking deeply about math and history before we jump into our third term next week. I expect I'll have a post or two about those subjects before long, too.

Highlights from Year 2, Term 1 Exams

SA(7) just finished Term 1 of Ambleside Online's Year 2. Since we finished halfway through a week, I decided to try to do some exams this time.


This isn't the first time I've tried to do exams. The first time I tried was a huge failure. It was my own fault. We ended our term at the end of a week, and I tried to start exams at the beginning of the next week, after I had told him that our term was completed. I tried to sell them as a special event and a way to share with his Papa what he had learned. I even got out the video camera to record his answers. Bad, bad idea, at least with this child.

This time, I took the lessons I'd learned from that fiasco and made the exams as much like our regular school routine as I could. The only difference was that I wrote down his answers. It went much more smoothly.

I know some of you aren't familiar with Charlotte Mason or Ambleside Online, and are wondering why on earth I'd do exams with a homeschooled Grade 2 student. After all, I know what he knows, right? I've been right with him as he's been learning it. The answer is that these exams aren't really like any test you'd be familiar with from school. The best way I can think of to put it is to say I'm taking a snap-shot of where he is right now.

The value of exams for him:
-A sense of accomplishment as he himself realizes how much he knows.
-As we do them regularly, a realization that the things he learns today are not expected to be forgotten tomorrow.
-An exercise for his long-term memory.

The value of exams for me:
-A sense of peace that these methods are working and he is retaining what he has learned.
-An assessment of anything that needs to be adjusted in the future, particularly areas we neglected.
-A record of progress from term to term and year to year.

I'll be honest and say that the true reason I haven't done exams regularly until now is because deep down I had a fear that I would find he hadn't retained what he had learned. That fear was unfounded. True, there were some answers I was disappointed in, but overall I was encouraged.

Bible
We did lessons from both the Old and New Testaments this term, beginning Genesis and Matthew. This is his answer when I asked him to tell about the flood.

"God told Noah to build the ark and to bring seven pairs of the clean animals and one pair of the dirty animals. And it rained for forty days and forty nights. Then Noah sent out a raven. ("I don’t remember the name of the bird." “Dove,” I told him.). Then Noah sent out a dove, and it couldn’t find any land. Then he waited seven days and sent it out again and it came back with a leaf in her beak. And he knew there was dry land nearby. And the ark was resting on a rock. And then God told them to go out and to scatter and fill the land."

He did not do as well when I asked him what Matthew says about the birth and early life of Jesus.

"He was born in Bethlehem.Then God told them to go to different places.And then after a time they lost Jesus, and they searched for him and they were surprised to find him teaching."

(That last part is not even in the Matthew account.) I told him later I was surprised he didn't say anything about angels, or wise men. He said, "I do know that, I just couldn't find the words."


Literature
We've been reading Pilgrim's Progress after breakfast almost every day. We are almost finished with it (I think it was supposed to last us the whole year? Oh well.). Instead of our normal narration, I simply had the boys tell me what to draw after each episode. This meant that they highlighted the events more than the conversations in their narration. I think we will go through Pilgrim's Progress several times over the years, no doubt with different levels of understanding. They really enjoyed it. Here is what Seth said when I asked him how the pilgrims ended up in Doubting Castle.

"Hopeful said they should not go off the way. And Christian wanted to go off the way onto that path. They met another person, and he said it went to the Celestial City. And then he fell into a pit. And then they thought they should get out, but they almost got drowned. They slept beside the path, and then the Giant Despair saw them and took them and locked them in a dungeon. Then he said he would check for key-locks. (I don't think that's the right word.) And then they talked, and then Christian said, “I have a key that can open any lock!” And he tried it, and it fitted. And they opened the lock. But one lock, the gate, creaked so loud that it woke up the Giant Despair, but he couldn’t get out of bed and run after them. Then they went back into the way."

Another highlight this term has been Understood Betsy. I asked SA to tell me about little 'Lias, a character in the book.

"Betsy made some clothes for ‘Lias because he was all dirty and didn’t have any clothes. Then they went to the door and put the clothes on the doorstep, rang the doorbell, and ran. (Rustled in the grass, and lots of other things that make noise in the night.) A person came to the door and picked them up. They looked through the window. He looked like little Molly with no one to feed her. They hoped Mr. Pond would adopt him. The next day at school they saw that he was dirty and didn’t have any new clothes on. Disaster had happened. After little ‘Lias had said the story, Mr. Pond looked over their shoulders. And he said he will get some clothes for ‘Lias. They met him in the Hall in new store-bought clothes."

History 
We have been studying British history, going steadily through Our Island Story and a few chapters of Hillyer's Child's History of the World. We learned about William the Conqueror in both books, so I was a little surprised at SA's response when I asked about him and the Battle of Hastings
.

"William the Conqueror or William the Red?" he asked. 

"William the Conqueror," I said. "William Rufus was his son."

"Harold waited for William the Conqueror.He sailed across the sea to Harold’s kingdom.They pretended they were going away, but then they ran up again and they killed him." 

This took all of fifteen minutes to get out of him. On the positive side, it did include elements from both books. Our Island Story mentioned how long Harold waited for William to come and attack him, and Child's History of the World told about how William and his forces pretended to flee during the Battle of Hastings, then turned and defeated Harold.

I also asked him about another story from Our Island Story, the White Ship. At first it seemed as though I would not get anything. Finally I decided to prompt him. "King Henry was in Normandy, and when he was going home, someone wanted him to sail on his ship, but he couldn't go." That opened the floodgates.

"King Henry said, “The prince may go on.”And they were sailing and they laughed. And the boat suddenly stopped and the laughing stopped. And they cried for help.King Henry heard it and he said, “I hear people far away,” and they said it was a little bird.But he spoke so sternly that they went back. And many people crowded onto the small boat. As the boat overturned, two people were left clinging to the mast. And they cried for help. And one said, “Goodbye, God be with you,” and he slipped into the sea and drowned. And his clothes were made out of satin. The other person who was left wore sheepskin clothes. Just about when the sun was going to go up. And he clung to the mast until some fishermen came, and they saw the person clinging to the mast. And they brought him home. And then he said that Henry’s son died. And they said, “What terrible news to bring to England!” And nobody told the king for three days, and then they pushed a boy in the king’s room and he mumbled out the story. And the king fell down on his face, and they laid him down on a bench. When he opened his eyes again he didn’t have a happy look. Nobody ever saw him smile again."

(If that doesn't make sense to you, there is a gap in his telling...it was the prince, in a little life-boat, who spoke sternly and told them to go back for his sister.) I was struck by the details that had captured his imagination: the way the laughter stopped, the clothes that enabled one man to survive, and "Nobody ever saw him smile again."

Geography
This was a fail for me. I didn't cover the concepts I was supposed to because I assumed SA already knew them. At the same time, this showed me the value of exams... now I know I still need to go back and do it with him! I asked him, "Do you know what a compass is? Describe a compass and tell me what it does."

"A thing that tells you which way you’re going. Its little arrow turns to different directions as you turn. It is round, with an E for East, N for North, W for West, and S for South. It tells you which way we’re going."

He didn't know about the magnetic needle and how it always points north. Oh well, now he does. :)

Nature Study
We had a spider project this term, and I asked SA to tell me about it.

"We caught spiders with our spider net. And also we found them on webs and caught them with a cup and we wiggled the cup to keep them from running out. We put them in poison or freezed them. We gave them to the spider lady.And we could catch them in a spider trap uncovered or covered with a piece of cardboard. And we could check it the next day from making the spider trap and putting it in the dirt. My favourite spiders were the argiopes." (We found two types.)

SA also read and narrated from the Burgess Animal Book. This was the first book he started reading on his own for narration, and he always narrated very well. I kept the lessons very short this term (ten minutes per day, four days a week), and as a result we only got through half of the assigned readings. We will pick up speed over time, I know. I asked him to tell me about a squirrel.

"The flying squirrel. He goes about and he flies in the night. And he goes up a tree to the top of a tree, and then he jumps and flies off. His tail helps him keep his balance. And he can steer so he won’t bump into things until he lands on the tree he’s going for. And then he goes up the tree to do it all over again."

Technically, this is not correct (flying squirrels don't fly, they glide). I know he knows this. I assume the name tripped him up...

Math
I chose a few questions from his Singapore Primary Math 2B workbook, including simple multiplication and division, geometry, diagrams, and word problems with money and subtraction. He answered them easily.

The only question that tripped him up for a second was "David has 8 quarters and 12 dimes. How much money does he have altogether?" He asked me how much a quarter and a dime were worth. I told him, and he had the answer immediately. $3.20. The three was written backwards, but he included the dollar sign and the decimal point.

It wasn't quite fair of me to include that question anyway, as we didn't do the money unit in the book yet (I plan to get some Canadian money for that and haven't gotten to it yet.).

Copywork
I had SA copy a line from our Bible memory passage this term, Psalm 139. "Lead me in the way everlasting." While I normally set the timer for five  minutes and have him complete what he can in that time, I wanted him to complete the line for his exam. I put on the stop-watch so we could see how long it took him. Well. It took him 21 minutes. (I estimated that he is capable of doing it in seven.) At least it was neatly done. There is work to be done there, but then I already knew that...


Looking back over the term, there are a few other things I want to take note of:

Narration has progressed. At the beginning of the term, SA still needed to narrate after every paragraph. Now, I can read several paragraphs or even several pages in the easier books (like Understood Betsy) before stopping for narration.

The choice to slow down and work on our atmosphere and discipline at the beginning of Year 2 was a good one, but I could have picked up the pace a little as we went on and gained our balance. The first twelve weeks took us fifteen weeks including exams and one week off at the end of August. Daily, we did two readings with narration of fifteen minutes each, and one of ten minutes (that he read himself). I didn't include Bible and Pilgrim's Progress in that count, as we put those into Circle Time. I'd like to go a little more quickly as we head into winter. I'll start with the same pace in our second term, but increase the minutes per lesson to twenty over time (fifteen for the lesson he reads himself).

We skipped Parables of Nature this term. I felt I needed to cut something, and that is the book I never learned to love over the year we've already spent with it (So. Very. Wordy.). However, SA asked me about it yesterday, as he noticed it was never checked off on the schedule. He would like to read those stories, so I think we'll add it into Circle Time again once we're done with Pilgrim's Progress.

The boys need to do more chores. I haven't done a good job with that this term.

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And now, it's time to take a week off! We're going to visit my mom and dad, yay!