Saturday Commonplaces 11

Math Notebook:
Fibonacci Sequences are amazing! I can't remember learning about this in my youth. ("Score one for public school," says Stephen. That's okay...his children will learn about this.)


Nature Notebook:
Last week's two storms brought the accumulated snowfall for the winter to over four meters in Charlottetown. Here's a neat little chart showing how much we got. (Please note that this chart does not include April's snowfall.)

Despite the fact that it is not unusual to get a bit of snow in April, this does feel like a lot. I think because we got so much in December, and it is still not gone, it really is feeling like a long winter. We were glad to get outside for hours three days in a row once the stormy weather was gone. We made a snowman, had snowball fights, played fox and geese, shoveled snow, and walked over to the school playground to play.

Homeschooling Notebook:
It surprised me this week what a difference there can be in ease of memorization between different passages. After spending more than six weeks on the Beatitudes and the boys still could not say them, we moved on to a parable (Build Your House on the Rock). After just one week of repetition, both SA and JJ surprised me by reciting it from beginning to end. Why is this?

I love the way SA attacks problems. We started making a multiplication chart this week with the times tables from 1-10. He filled in the 1 times table first, because it was easy. Then he started working away at the 2's. He noticed the 5's next, and filled them out. Then he started working on the 10's column. He noticed the 50 and the 100 at the bottom of the 5 and 10 columns, and realized he could count by 10's across as well. So he filled that row in. He was thrilled that they were the same across and down. Then he knuckled down and started figuring out some of the harder numbers. We actually got about half-way through filling in the chart that day. (He didn't want to stop.) It makes so much sense to attack it this way! Me, I would have started at one corner and worked methodically through the whole chart until it was done. He does the easy stuff first, and there is very little left to actually do the hard work on.

I know JJ said something awfully cute this week, and for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Oh well, I'm sure he'll come out with something else next week.

Have a good week, everyone!

Five Things I Learned from my First Term of Homeschooling

1. I learned that my little children (age 5 and 3) are much better at memorization than I realized! We learned a couple of Bible passages and several hymns. One important thing I realized is that they really need to be able to grasp the basic meaning of what they are memorizing. I taught them the first verse of "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" at the beginning of the term (the Ambleside Online selection for that month), and it has not really stuck with them. By contrast, "There is a Happy Land" with its simplicity, short verses, and upbeat melody was much more enjoyable (and therefore more memorable) for them.

2. I learned that taking the time to develop even the simplest habits in my children makes my days much easier. My eldest child now automatically gets dressed before breakfast, has independent bathroom habits, and doesn't feel right about sitting down to teatime if he hasn't picked up his toys. (Though we're still working on speed and occasionally attitude in that last habit...)

3. I learned that it is worthwhile to at least consider what Charlotte Mason has to say, even in areas where she challenges my strongly held preconceived ideas. This happened in teaching SA to read this term. He has made so much progress, and it has been because I engaged his interest with interesting stories to read (and taught him the sight words he needed to learn to read them) rather than continuing with more and more pure phonics. We still do phonics, but it serves the purpose of learning to read more interesting stories.

4. I learned that a daily morning ritual of tea and poetry is calming and grounding for everyone. No matter how wild our morning has been, it will all be okay at teatime. To my surprise, this has become one of the most important parts of our day. Even if the boys learned nothing at all from the rich language of the poetry we read, Poetry Teatime would still be worth doing for us.

5. I learned how important plenty of outdoor play is for my children right now, during their young years. I started the term very eager to get on with reading and math (After all, I've been planning to homeschool for years now!). Slowly, as I read Charlotte Mason and blogs like 1000 Hours Outside, my priorities shifted. I am in less of a hurry to push the academics now (though we continue with our short reading and math lessons), and am making more of an effort to get outside every day, and for as much time as works for us.



I'm so thankful I began to blog before this first term began. I have recorded so many joyful memories of nature walks and reading lessons, of thoughts and sayings. It has been a happy beginning of homeschooling for us.