Using Children's Books for French Language Study

As a supplement to our French curriculum this term we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in French. I borrowed La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous from the library, and we have been watching it on YouTube weekly so the children hear it read with a good accent. What's nice about this book for beginning French students is that it has a fair amount of repetition. It also includes numbers from 1-5, the days of the week, and the names of several fruit and different kinds of food.



The only drawback to this particular choice could have been that it is not an exact translation (The title is translated back into English as The Caterpillar that Makes Holes). However, the vocabulary is simple enough that we haven't found it to be a problem.

It was so fun last week to hear AJ(2) on the couch with the English version of the book saying, "Look Mama! Un papillon!" He also likes pointing out "la chenille" on every page.

My choice for the second six weeks of our term was going to be Georges va au Zoo (Curious George Goes to the Zoo), but sadly it is not on YouTube. I'm not sure if I want to read it to the boys myself. I could do it, but my French accent is not that great. (My husband has told me that I put emphasis on all the wrong syllables, and gave me an impression of how this would sound if I did it in English. My confidence is gone!)

Does anyone out there have any good ideas for other children's books I can use in this way? We really enjoyed doing this with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I'd like to keep going.

Keep a Thankful Heart as You Plan

Are you an idealist?

I can be an idealist when it comes to homeschooling. I have great ideals in Charlotte Mason's philosophy and methods, and I do my best to live up to them. But I fail sometimes. I lose energy, and things I planned don't happen. These things creep on me almost imperceptibly, until I realize suddenly that we haven't done x, y, and z for weeks. This happens especially at the end of a school year, when spring arrives and boys' attention spans shrink.

The result is that as we wrapped up this school year last week, my first thought was to take stock of everything that went wrong and to plan how it will be better next year.

• SA(7) did only two (of twelve) nature journal entries in the last term. Obviously, that was not well-planned.
• I did not increase the amount of reading for narration that SA did on his own over the year as I had planned. I was enjoying reading aloud to him, and I didn't consider what was best for him.
• I feel SA's copywork got a little more sloppy over the year as he gained speed, and I did not deal with it.
• I didn't go outside enough with my children.
• I didn't sit down every day with JJ(5) to teach him to read.
• And on, and on...

I felt like a failure!
(Don't laugh, you older homeschool moms... I'm realizing as I write this that this doesn't sound all that terrible.)

Once I had a little rest, I realized that my feelings did not reflect reality. Yes, there were things that I could have and should have done better, things that I will plan to improve next year. But there are many, many things to give thanks for, too.

I'm writing this list to remind myself, and you.

Don't jump into planning for next year before giving thanks for the blessings of last year.

Look at all of it with a thankful heart, and you will feel so much more ready to go on and do what must be done.

Here's some of my thanksgiving list.

• We are so rich in books. Not just any books, good, living books. Even better, we don't just have them on the shelf, but we are reading them and getting to know them well through narration. SA has gotten to know the books in Ambleside Online Year 2 this past year. When I asked SA for his favourite, he picked two: Robin Hood and The Wind in the Willows.

• SA(7) has a twinkle in his eye when it comes to poetry that wasn't there before this year. This year, a dear friend gave us Robert Frost's You Come Too, and it became his favourite. He has always enjoyed our poetry tea time. In kindergarten, he loved it for the snacks that he could form into mathematical equations on his plate. In Year One, he loved it because it was a predictable and steady part of our day. In Year Two, he has found a poet he loves. This makes me so happy!

• Despite my failure to sit down with him every day, JJ(5) learned to read. He decided he wanted to. I had an Explode the Code book that he worked in independently, and he insisted on sitting down with Alpha Phonics a few times a week for a while. Then I pulled out an easy to read book one week, and another one the next week, and he hasn't looked back.

• For the first time, MM(3) learned the Bible passage we memorized this term (and is very proud to recite it...).

• Our math lessons were revitalized in the last term of this year by the addition of inspiring stories of mathematicians, by me sitting down with him to explore new concepts orally a few times a week (using MEP), and by the judicious use of DreamBox for fluency. SA had been losing a bit of his sparkle as he sat down day after day with his Singapore Math. He still does Singapore as his core, but the joy and creativity is back with these additions.

As I begin planning for next year, I don't only need to consider my failures. I also need to remember what we did well, and continue the good work there. Of course I continue to reach for my ideals. I'm not saying my failures are okay or that I don't need to improve. But to be healthy and happy in my homeschooling, I will keep a thankful heart.

How about you? How are you doing as you plan for next year? Do you take time to give thanks?

Embracing Routine

A Charlotte Mason education is an abundant one, with its feast of living books and ideas and "extras" that are not extras (Poetry, composer study, art appreciation, and nature study, to name a few.). This is one of the things I love most about it. It's also the thing I find most taxing as an organizationally-challenged mom of four boys aged seven and under. 

The thing that as helped me the most in these early years has been establishing learning routines. There are things that everyone does every day, no matter what. Eating meals comes to mind. I began by pegging my learning routines to things that were already established routines in our home. The After-Breakfast routine of scripture, singing, and prayer was the first routine, and happened every day after breakfast starting when our children were tiny. The Bedtime Reading routine was added when our oldest was about two or three. Then a couple of years later came the Poetry Teatime routine. Later still, we added our Lesson Time routine to the end of Poetry Teatime. Having these routines in place as I've been using Ambleside Online has given me a place to plug in what seemed an enormous feast of learning, and it has not been as overwhelming as it might have been if I had had to set it all in place at once.

Sometimes we homeschool moms have a tendency to read blogs and check Pinterest out. When we do, we find so many wonderful ideas! We want to do them ALL. We want to do them NOW. We start today with several of them, and are discouraged when some of the good ideas don't stick, or when we find we've dropped two or three of them after a few weeks. We compare ourselves to people who seem to be doing it all, and we forget that nobody does it all, especially not all at once!

I want to encourage you to slow down. Yes, you can implement all the wonderful ideas. But take some time to build them into your life. Lay a foundation of the most important things. Set them into your day as a "this is what we do every day no matter what." When that routine is solid as a rock, choose some other important things to add. Once you have some foundational learning routines in place, you will have a place to add the wonderful ideas you come across on Pinterest, and they will stick for as long as you want them to.

 

The After-Breakfast Routine

This routine has always been in place in our home. My boys call it “Read-and-sing-and-pray.” We read a passage from the Bible, we sing a hymn, we pray together. When SA(7) was about five or six, I began to add to this, and it became a “Circle Time” of sorts. First I added a Bible passage to memorize, then later (in Year 1) I added his Bible narration. This year (his Year 2) I added a reading from Pilgrim’s Progress as well.

 

The Poetry Tea Time Routine

This routine began sometime when SA was five and JJ was three. In the beginning, I set the table with tea and snacks every day, and we read poetry. The end. They loved it. Over time, I’ve grown more lax with the tablecloth and tea every day…I discovered that they don’t really love tea so much now that the novelty has worn off, and that tablecloth got spilled on Every. Single. Day. However, we do still always sit down at the table with our snacks and drinks and poetry books at about 10:00 or 10:30. It’s our signal for the school day to begin. (I am hoping to do better with the tablecloth and hot drinks again this year... So far so good.) Starting last year we have done poetry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with art appreciation on Tuesdays and music appreciation on Thursdays. I have added other things to this time as well at different times --instruction in sol-fa, French, drawing --in short, any learning I’d like to do together as a family. 

 

If you've been reading around the internet about "Circle Time" and "Morning Time" or even "Morning Basket" you will notice that the two routines I just mentioned are our "Circle Time." We have found that dividing it in two like this is a very practical option when children are young and have a hard time sitting still.

 

The Lesson Time Routine

This routine began when SA was five with a short reading lesson and a short math lesson or game immediately after our Poetry Teatime. In Year One, it expanded to include math, two readings with narration, copywork, and piano practice. Now in Year Two, the readings with narration have become slightly longer (20 minutes each), and we've added an independent reading and narration (this one is still short at 10 minutes). I have also added some time this year with JJ(5) for reading instruction and math, and for reading aloud to him.

With little children in the house, sometimes it's hard to do lessons at the same time every day. I have found that it helps to have a lesson time routine in which you do your lessons in a certain order, no matter what time you manage to start. That way, the children can at least develop an expectation of how much work there is to do daily.

The Bedtime Reading Routine

The bedtime routine is very simple. The boys get ready for bed, and my husband or I read to them for about twenty minutes. There is no narration, no expectation of anything from them. This routine is completely for the enjoyment of books together as a family. In the beginning, I always did the reading, but lately my husband has begun to read as well when he's home on time. I often choose from the Ambleside Online "Free Reads" for this purpose, while my husband tends to choose more widely.

 

These are the routines we've built in our family so far. I know our routines will continue to change as the children grow older. I expect that your routines will look different than mine. I truly believe that the important thing (if you want them to last!) is to build them one at a time, not all at once.

 

 

 

P.S. I'm still hopeful that someday I will manage to find a cleaning routine that works for me... (Just a little reminder that I don't have it all together, despite these routines that are working well!!!)

 

P.P.S. I apologize that I've been so quiet lately...my internet is still not working consistently. Now that I have Word on my computer I'm hoping I'll be able to write there and just copy, paste, and post in moments the internet is working. Still, it's a challenge, so I'll just do the best I can under the circumstances.

 

The Charlotte Mason Math Teacher 2

Last time we talked about the fact that Charlotte Mason considered the math teacher more important than the math curriculum, and started to explore what makes a good teacher. The first point was one implied in Charlotte Mason's own attitude towards mathematics: a good teacher appreciates the beauty and wonder of math. I'm continuing with two more points on this subject this week, and I'm afraid I will have one more post on you, the teacher, next week...I had to cut this one in half because it was getting too long!

2. A good teacher teaches the child, not the program.

Too often parents look for the perfect math curriculum to plug their children into, hoping that the curriculum will produce a certain outcome in their children. This often comes from a feeling of insecurity (I for one am the most tempted by expensive, all-the-bells-and-whistles curriculum in the areas I feel most inadequate...is anyone with me?). If this is you, I hope you are taking steps to address your fears.

Charlotte Mason talked about using a method, not a system. I am going to write about the implications of this for math later in the series, so I won't write too much about it here. For now I'll just say that we have a great advantage as homeschooling parents. We know our children as “born persons.” We know their strengths and weaknesses, we know what they know and what they don’t know. We have an opportunity to deal with them one-on-one.

What does this mean when you are choosing math curriculum for the early grades? It means that the curriculum isn't everything. It's a tool to help you reach your goals for math. You will be able to see if your child is mastering the concepts. If not, you will not push him through without mastery. You will find other resources and ideas to help in areas that seem difficult. You will not insist on endless drill of concepts your child already understands. The bottom line is, you do not need to find the perfect curriculum. You just have to find one that works, and work with it.

3. A good teacher “quickens the imagination” with great ideas.

“Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book and few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have seldom time to give the inspiring ideas, what Coleridge calls, the ‘Captain’ ideas, which should quicken imagination.” (6, 233)

 "But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas..."  (6, xxx, Principle 11.)

If you are at all familiar with Charlotte Mason's philosophy, you will know about her emphasis on feeding a child's mind with living ideas. In most subjects, this is done through living books. Math is a little different. It does not require the literary presentation of living books, as its ideas appeal directly to the mind.

“I have so far urged that knowledge is necessary to men, and that, in the initial stages, it must be conveyed through a literary medium, whether it be knowledge of physics or of Letters... ...mathematics seem to fall outside this rule of literary presentation; mathematics, like music, is a speech in itself, a speech irrefragibly logical, of exquisite clarity, meeting the requirements of the mind.” (6, 334)

When we think of the early grades, it sometimes can be difficult to see what the inspiring "captain ideas" are, much less pass them on. How can we avoid passing on the simple facts of addition and subtraction without their informing ideas?

The first way at this age is through the use of manipulatives. When a child is handling beans or rods or pennies, he grasps the idea not only that 3+4=7, but also that 4+3=7, and that 7-3=4 and 7-4=3. For a young child exploring his world, this can be a very exciting discovery. I know it was for my son!

A second way to provide inspiration in math during the early elementary years is to use everyday situations like playing games together, cooking together, and measuring all the children, or paying with cash at the grocery store. I am not talking about calling a cooking session a "math lesson" because you used fractions (Does that drive you crazy, too? As if cooking together wasn't valuable in and of itself.). I just mean that these everyday situations often will allow your child to make math discoveries on his own... living ideas that appeal directly to his mind with little or no explanation needed.

Do these thoughts make a difference in the curriculum you choose? First of all, you do not need to choose a math curriculum that weaves the concepts into a story in order to pass on its living ideas. (Though I'm not saying you can't use such a thing...) It will be more important that you use manipulatives, whether you choose a curriculum that utilizes them, or whether you use beans or buttons alongside your more traditional math program. You may have your own ideas about activities and games using math, or you may use a resource book for inspiration and ideas like I do. What matters is that your child has a chance to discover some living ideas for himself. Math is not just about dreary, endless pages of drill in arithmetic facts, it is about inspiring ideas waiting to be discovered and explored. These ideas give meaning to the facts and make practicing them interesting and worthwhile.

This post is part of the series "Choosing Elementary Math Curriculum with Charlotte Mason's Principles in Mind"
Introduction
You are *still* here >>A Good Teacher - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
A Method, Not a System
Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life in Early Math Education
Spiral or Mastery?
Problem Solving
Manipulatives
Putting it all Together: Choosing Curriculum and Resources

The Charlotte Mason Math Teacher

The first thing to learn from Charlotte Mason about choosing math curriculum is that a good teacher matters more than the curriculum you use.

“There is no one subject in which good teaching effects more, as there is none in which slovenly teaching has more mischievous results.” (1, 254)

“Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book and few subjects are worse taught...” (6, 233)

I wonder how many of you read the above quotes with sinking hearts? There is so much math phobia in our time. Many of us had poor math teaching ourselves, and worse, have come to believe that math is just “not our thing.” On the other hand, others of us (and this was me) were good little rule-followers, thinking we were good at math when in reality we had no idea of the greatness and wonder of math.

Fear not. You can be a good math teacher, no matter how inadequate you feel about it right now. There is both less and more than you think to being a good teacher, and I think it will help to consider the specific attributes Charlotte Mason assumes or spells out about a good math teacher. I will cover one of them this week, and several more next week.

1. A good teacher appreciates the beauty and wonder of mathematics.

Mathematics is the expression of the order God built into the universe. As such, it is worthy of wonder and awe, and it is profoundly right that we should appreciate its beauty. Charlotte Mason understood this.

“We take strong ground when we appeal to the beauty and truth of Mathematics…” (6, 230)

"It is a great thing to be brought into the presence of a law, of a whole system of laws, that exist without our concurrence, --that two straight lines cannot enclose a space is a fact which we can perceive, state, and act upon but cannot in any wise alter, should give to children the sense of limitation which is wholesome for all of us, and inspire that sursum corda which we should hear in all natural law." (6, 231) 

“Never are the operations of Reason more delightful and more perfect than in mathematics. Here men do not begin to reason with a notion which causes them to lean to this side or to that. By degrees, absolute truth unfolds itself. We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford. Also, there is great joy in standing by, as it were, and watching our own thought work out an intricate problem.” (4, 63)

It may be that you just don't appreciate the beauty of math. Perhaps it brings back old memories of inadequacy and failure. Or maybe you just don't see how the all the rules you memorized as a child to get through math ("Ours is not to reason why, just invert and multiply...") could possibly be beautiful. If this is the case, may I suggest that this lack of appreciation can and should be remedied?  Because there is truly something to appreciate here. I would recommend that you start by reading Paul Lockhart's "A Mathematician's Lament." It is not from a Christian perspective, but it will help you to begin thinking about math in a way that appreciates its beauty. Second, consider following Tammy Glaser's Captain Idea Log and let her delight in math begin to influence yours. I would also suggest that you head over to YouTube and search for math ideas.  "Fibonacci sequence" might be a good place to start. There are many people excited about math that have posted videos to share its wonder.

If you are able to find Patricia Clark Kenschaft's book Math Power, or Marilyn Burns' Math: Facing an American Phobia at your library, they may help overcome any fear of math you may have as you begin to teach your children. John Mighton's The Myth of Ability is also worth reading. (Quoted here.)


If it's any comfort, this is an area you can expect to grow in throughout your life. You do not have to understand it all to appreciate that it is wonderful. I believe that Charlotte Mason herself grew in her appreciation of mathematics in the years between her writing of Volume 1 and Volume 6. In Volume 1 she said:

“The chief value of arithmetic, like that of the higher mathematics, lies in the training it affords to the reasoning powers, and in the habits of insight, readiness, accuracy, intellectual truthfulness it engenders." (1, 254)

In other words, the most important thing about math is its usefulness in training the mind and the character. But by Volume 6, her emphasis has shifted. The value of the training math provides remains true, but it is no longer the most important thing. She has come to appreciate mathematics for its own beauty and worth, not just for what it can do for the children.

“In a word our point is that Mathematics are to be studied for their own sake and not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of mind. But then how profoundly worthy are these subjects of study for their own sake, to say nothing of other great branches of knowledge to which they are ancillary!”  (6, 232)

So be encouraged. If you don't see the worth and the glory of mathematics at this point in your life, you can grow. An openness to learning more and appreciating more and wondering more is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children. It matters more than how much math you know right now or even how much math you think you can learn. Education is an atmosphere. Children learn to love the things we love in the very air they breathe in our homes. Music, art, birds and flowers, order, ...and mathematics. Wherever you are right now, whether you fear math or find it a source of joy, it is not too late to learn and grow. You can be a good teacher.

(My references are all to Charlotte Mason's volume first, then page number. You can read her Home Education series for free at Ambleside Online.)

This post is part of the series "Choosing Elementary Math Curriculum with Charlotte Mason's Principles in Mind"
Introduction
You are here >>A Good Teacher Part 1
A Good Teacher Part 2
A Method, Not a System
Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life in Early Math Education
Spiral or Mastery?
Problem Solving
Manipulatives
Putting it all Together: Choosing Curriculum and Resources

Choosing Elementary Math Curriculum 1

About a year ago, I attended a meeting of our local Charlotte Mason group, and we fell to talking about Math. As it turned out, no one at the meeting had a really clear idea what Charlotte Mason says about math, and so we fell to speculating based on our limited knowledge of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and method. “I think the math curriculum I use is very Charlotte Mason,” said one. “It weaves the mathematical concepts into stories. My children can’t get enough of them. To me they seem like living books.” “I think perhaps Charlotte Mason was not a ‘mathie’,” said another. “To me it seems like she has a very liberal arts focus, and math was probably not her strong point.”

I was very interested in learning how to teach math at the time. My eldest son, who was just about to start Kindergarten at the time, was showing signs of a particular interest in math –an interest I did not feel qualified to feed long-term. I bought a math program at the recommendation of our local homeschooling math expert. (Read "A Generous Education in Mathematics" by Alice Horrocks here.) Her advice was sound, and I was and am very happy with my choices. However, I have since learned that Charlotte Mason actually does have something to teach us about teaching math, and I want to share what I have learned. I am not an expert on math, or on Charlotte Mason. I am a mother beginning to homeschool, learning things as I go along. I hope this series will be helpful to mothers who are in the same shoes I was a year ago…wanting to homeschool the Charlotte Mason way, and intimidated at the thought of teaching math.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to address the following topics:
A Good Teacher
A Method, Not a System
Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life in Early Math Education
Spiral or Mastery?
Problem Solving
Manipulatives
Putting it all Together: Choosing Curriculum and Resources

I have entitled the series "Choosing Elementary Math Curriculum". As often happens with Charlotte Mason's methods, though, we are going to have to think through some philosophy first. But hang in there...we will get to the practical applications soon enough.

The Term that Fell Apart

All I can say is, it's a good thing this is only Kindergarten. After a very happy and productive Fall and Winter, we lost steam at the beginning of May. I signed up for a theatrical production that required rehearsals three times a week, and we started swimming lessons once a week for six weeks. Add in the garden, and suddenly the easy, calm routine we followed every day all winter just didn't work anymore. The worst thing was that I didn't seem to have the time or energy to sit down and fix it, so we just stumbled along in the chaos.

This is why I plan each season. A fresh start four times a year? Yes please. Things have settled down a little this week, and that has given me a chance to think about what happened with our Spring and plan for better things in our Summer.

I don't want to give the impression that everything fell apart. SA read about fifty books this term, and while he doesn't love reading the way he loves math, he is happy to read every day. Our math lessons did rather dry up after the beginning of May, but he hasn't lost ground. He continued to practice at Khan Academy daily, and has almost finished Early Math there (as far as I can tell, this level covers K-Gr 2). I don't consider Khan Academy a tool for significant growth in math for him, but at least it kept his math love somewhat satisfied. Another area of progress was piano. I started him off with a few lessons from an Alfred book I found at Value Village, and he took off. He practices for the joy of it every day, and that makes me very happy.

But what I felt was the best part of our homeschool this Fall and Winter, our "circle times" of morning devotions and poetry teatimes, really did fall apart this Spring, and I regret that. Every time I needed the car, we would have to go to work with Stephen in the morning. This meant that the breakfast-around-the-table anchor for our morning memory work was gone in favour of a quick sandwich in the car. Tea time also became sporadic, happening once or twice a week instead of every day. This meant that our memory work slowed down significantly. We kept up with Scripture and hymns, but learned only ten new catechism questions and no new poems. I have noticed something good coming out of this, though. The boys are eagerly requesting favourite poems whenever we do have poetry teatime, where before they were rather taking it all for granted.  JJ especially has really connected with some of A.A. Milne's poetry, which we began to read in this term.

Nature study was very informal and mostly related to gardening. They planted some seeds and watched them begin to grow. My nature journal has been sadly neglected.

Habits are another area that suffered. Not only did we not develop any new habits, our old ones have not been doing so well with our irregular routine.

I think the most important lesson for myself is just to pick myself up, adjust my expectations, and begin again. Now to work on my plans for Summer!

March 2014 Favourite Read-Aloud Roundup

It's hard to believe it's already the end of March. We have just had the worst blizzard of the winter, and are expecting more snow on Sunday. It is not unusual for us to have snow in March (and April. and sometimes May.) but this was quite a storm. The boys were very happy to have their Papa home for a cozy snow day. In honour of the winter weather, I'd like you to introduce you to Snow Bears, our favourite winter book ever. It may also possibly be my favourite book by Martin Waddell, though I haven't read them all yet. 

This book is just so sweetly humorous. Three little bears get very white rolling around in the snow, and have a fun little game with their mother pretending they are not her little bears, but snow bears. When they go back inside, the snow melts and they transform into their mother's own little bears again. I recommend it especially for ages two to four, though my five-year-old loves it as well (especially as he can read it on his own now!).

The Mountain that Loved a Bird is a beautifully written story of a bird that visits a barren mountain once a year. The mountain always asks her to stay, but with nothing on the mountain to support life, the bird must go on. Finally the mountain's heart breaks, and the water of its tears is the beginning of a wonderful transformation. 

I think this book will be appreciated by all ages. The illustrations by Eric Carle make it accessible to even the youngest children, and the story itself will be appreciated even up into adulthood. I love reading this aloud as much as my children love listening to it.

One of our favourite books for Poetry Teatime this month was Mother Goose, illustrated by Tasha Tudor. I believe it is out of print now, but we found it at our library. It is indubitably the most beautiful collection of Mother Goose I've seen to date, and my boys loved to choose from it. Of course, many of the rhymes are songs, and they love it that I sing those ones for them. 

We also checked The Children's Book of Virtues out of the library this month. It is a collection of stories and poetry arranged according to the virtues they convey: courage, responsibility, compassion, honesty, and more. The author, William J. Bennett, speaks in the introduction of the purpose of the book:

"Today we talk about how important it is to 'have values,' as if they were beads or a string of marbles in a pouch. But these stories speak to morality and virtues not as something to be possessed but as the core of human nature, not as something to have but as something to be, the most important thing to be. To dwell among these stories and verses is to put oneself, through the imagination, into a different place and time, a time when there was little doubt that children were essentially moral and spiritual beings, when the verities were the moral verities, when the central task of education was virtue."

My boys' favourite story was "The Little Hero of Holland," the story of a brave little boy who kept his finger in a hole in the dike throughout the night to prevent the water from breaking through and flooding the land. (It may have helped that their Opa is from Holland.) The illustrations by Michael Hague are wonderful as well. Highly recommended for children aged four and up.

Sharing with Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word today, 

and also with Book Sharing Monday at Life on a Canadian Island.

Winter Term Goals and Wrap-Up

I made some goals back in January for our winter term. It may seem a bit much to have such elaborate goals for what really amounts to less than an hour a day (not counting Nature Study), but hey, I'm a beginning homeschooler and this is still fun.

Bible: The Goal
-To read a Bible story every day, beginning at Genesis 1 and continuing through Judges using selected passages from Penny Gardner’s list.
-To memorize Psalm 100 and the Beatitudes from the Bible (ESV).
-To memorize one hymn per month:
January: Trust and Obey
February: All People That on Earth Do Dwell
March: How Great Thou Art

Bible: The Reality
We did read a Bible story every day, beginning at Genesis 1. We did not follow Penny Gardner's list after the first little while, choosing instead to simply read the chapters consecutively. (I did skip a few names...). As a result, we are still in Exodus instead of all the way in Judges. I am not unhappy with this. I feel that for the first time, they are really learning the stories. We memorized Psalm 100 with ease, but are still working on the Beatitudes. I simply read the passage for memory every day until they are able to say it with me. We memorized the hymns we planned, but are still in the middle of "How Great Thou Art" because "Trust and Obey" took more than a month to learn with its multiple verses. We also began work on the Children's Catechism, and while I haven't been as consistent with this as with the Scripture and hymn memory work, we memorized up to question 18. I am so thankful to have been introduced to Songs for Saplings songs based on the Children's Catechism. It amazes me how easily my children pick up these songs, even though they still can't carry a tune in a bucket! All of these items were memorized by simply taking five minutes after our meals every day to review them. Now I need to figure out a system to rotate review of things we've memorized in the past so we don't forget them.

Habits: The Goal
To learn habits of attention.
January: Listening to the Bible Story each day
February: Paying attention in church
March:

Habits: The Reality
Attention did not end up being our focus, as I noticed that obedience needed some attention. This ended up being quite difficult for me. Creating practical habits (such as putting away toys or getting dressed before breakfast, as we did in our Fall term) is fairly simple. Creating moral habits such as obedience require a much more constant vigilance and much more wisdom (which I may or may not have very much of...). I think we made progress. I found a way to communicate with my 3-year-old about it that we did not have before, a light-hearted way to get his will on my side.

In other habits, I began having the children do chores after breakfast each morning. They clear the breakfast table and collect the laundry.
I also am working hard on getting SA to sit quietly in church and participate in whatever he can. This also is not easy. He is a fairly calm person, but, boy-like, he does have a hard time sitting still.

Reading: The Goal 
To spend 10 minutes each school day in focused attention on learning to read. Use books that are interesting to SA. Teach sight words, then related phonics rules on alternate days. Use fun games as often as possible.

Reading: The Reality
Shortly after the term began, SA took off with reading. I got as many good, easy-to-read books from the library as I could, and allowed him to read them as he pleased. We recorded the books he read on "reading ladders" and later on a large poster. He is currently at book #30 since January. During this time, I have not done a lot of phonics (maybe once a week, casually, rather than every other day). I will have to pick that up again during our Spring term, but I'm not sorry I dropped it during our Winter term.

Math: The Goal
To introduce a math game from Games for Math once a week (on Mondays).
To spend 10 minutes three times per week in focused attention on learning math concepts presented in Miquon Math.

Math: The Reality
We did introduce a new math game almost every Monday. This was a happy success, and I really feel it helped to continue to build their "math sense." Kalah remains SA's favourite game, and we still play it often. We also did Miquon Math, continuing with the concept of addition and subtraction, and introducing the concept of multiplication. In just the last couple of weeks, SA became interested in adding and carrying, so I taught him that as well.

Pencil Skills: No Goals
SA did some printing incidentally, mostly numbers in his math. He is very neat and accurate. I don't feel the need to push this yet.

Read Aloud: The Goal
To read and enjoy several books from Ambleside Online’s list for Year 0. Begin reading from the Winnie the Pooh series this quarter.
-To read and enjoy poetry at a daily poetry teatime.

Read Aloud: The Reality
Poetry Teatime continued to be one of our favourite parts of the day. The boys memorized several poems. I simply read the same poem (from The Harp and Laurel Wreath) every day at the beginning of teatime until they could say it with me, then went on to the next one. They learned:

The Little Turtle (Vachel Lindsay)

Once I Saw a Little Bird (an old nursery rhyme)

Rain (R.L. Stevenson)

Bird Talk (Aileen Fisher)

At the Seaside (R.L. Stevenson)

Of course, we enjoyed many other poems and nursery rhymes as well. They were always excited to choose what they wanted to hear.
We did read Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, which they loved. (They preferred the first to the second, though. I'm not sure why.) We have also begun to read from When We Were Very Young and Now We are Six, and will continue with those into the next term.

Nature Study: The Goal
To spend time each week observing and learning about nature, choosing from the Outdoor Hour Challenges found at handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com. To buy a birdfeeder and observe and learn about birds there.

Nature Study: The Reality
After reading more from Charlotte Mason, I ended up making much larger goals of spending time outdoors. I failed to meet my lofty goals (10 hours a week). However, having these goals meant that we did go outdoors for at least an hour almost every weekday this winter (barring extreme wind chill conditions). This is an accomplishment to be celebrated, since my usual mode in our Canadian winter is hibernation.

We did get a bird feeder, and it was a wonderful, wonderful thing to see the boys so excited about the birds we saw there. Even MM shouts "Chickadee!" whenever he sees a bird. We saw a couple of unusual birds: a brownheaded cowbird and some snow buntings. We learned about the difference between crows and ravens.
We did not follow many challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study blog. To be honest, most of our outdoor time was spent shoveling snow or playing games of hide and seek tag. But I began my own nature journal, which I hope will be the beginning of a family hobby.

Field Trips: The Goal
To learn from people and activities outside our home. Examples might be homeschool co-op events, or trips to Opa’s bakery.

Field Trips: The Reality
I ended up being without a car for most of the winter, so we just stayed home. We made it to one Co-op event, a Valentine's party. I think SA in particular needs to get out a bit more. We went out this week and he got more and more anxious the farther we got from home. New and different situations take practice, with him.

I felt very happy with this term overall. I think I deepened in intention to do little things every day, and in understanding of how all those little things add up over time. It was exciting to see SA's reading take off, and his enjoyment in numbers and patterns continue to grow. I felt less satisfied with our work on habits, and I'm thinking of how to improve that this Spring.

Favourite Books for Beginning Readers

I have not shared any of our reading lessons lately. There's a reason for that: I'm taking a break. I know it might seem crazy, now that SA has actually taken off with reading. The thing is, I think reading real books is doing as much for his reading ability as my lessons were. Each new book has a combination of words he already can read confidently and new words to learn. The new words are relatively easy to figure out in the context of the stories, and I see him reading these same new words elsewhere without any problem (He's not guessing and forgetting.). I do a bit of casual phonics teaching here and there as I notice he needs it (Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading are great for this), but my main method right now is just making sure he reads a book every day, whether it's a new one or one he's read before.

The books we use are a combination of books I already have and books I borrow from the library. I have not invested in readers (though I have nothing against them, as long as they're interesting.). Here are some of SA's favourites from the last month and a half:


A simple phonics reader, yes, but Dr. Seuss gives it rhythm and rhyme. SA often just picks this up and reads it for fun.

This book has a lot of repetition, which is great when you're building confidence in reading. The illustrations ensure that young readers do not get bored with the simple words.

The great thing about this little book is that it has three short stories, so it's not as intimidating as one long story. And of course Richard Scarry has a sense of humour that really appeals to children.

I've got to admit it, this is my favourite. But it works for SA, too. Other than the word Mother, almost all of the words in this book are simple, one-syllable words.

We have an out-of-print version called The Early Bird. The fun thing about this one is that we have a recording of my husband Stephen reading this book when he was four or five. It's too bad that even our old version has been abridged and is slightly different than the version Stephen read back in the early '80s. Once again, Richard Scarry always manages to make my children smile...Lowly Worm singing "O Sole Mio" in his bath in the sink is just so funny for them.

I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on these two. They were old favourites long before SA began to read. I've found that SA is much more likely to try to read familiar books. In the old days I might have questioned whether "reading" from memory is valuable (as opposed to sounding out every word), but I've found it one of the best, most confidence building practices in learning to read. Every time he looks at those words and says them aloud, he's reinforcing them in his mind.

Another old favourite. In fact, SA loved it when I read this to him when he was only six months old. (Honestly!) And now he can read it himself. Time flies... (sigh)








Every time SA reads a new book, we add it to his "I Can Read it All By Myself" ladder on the wall. We've filled one ladder and had to extend it on a new paper. He seems to find this quite motivating.

How about you? Are there books your beginning readers really enjoy? I'd love to hear of new ones I can look up at my library to try with SA!

Kalah: Our New Favourite Math Game!

I have mentioned before that we learn a new math game every Monday and continue to play it throughout the week as much as we please. This week's game was once again from Peggy Kaye's excellent Games for Math.

Unlike many of the other games we've played, winning Kalah relies on strategy, not luck. Of course, dice-rolling games can often help even the playing field between Mama and children and make them equally likely to win or lose. Still, I found that this strategy game was simple enough that within three rounds, SA had figured out enough tricks for himself to be as likely to win as I was. This game has many variations (and names!), and after checking it out online, we found we enjoyed this version better than the Games for Math version.

While you can buy wooden boards to play on, Kalah works equally well with an egg carton, beans, and a couple of cups. There are already many places you can find directions online, so I won't repeat them here. I found these directions very clear. Peggy Kaye recommends this game starting in grades two or three, but if you have a child who likes math, they may be ready for it sooner.

If you'd like to try it out in order to get the hang of it before teaching your children, you can find an on-line version here.

Enjoy!

The Awesome Mystery of Growth in Reading

Something has happened over the last few weeks.

My eldest son has caught the reading bug!

He is working with a will now in our reading lessons. Eager, interested, proud.
He is asking to read his vocabulary cards and play games with them.
He is showing off what he can read to his Papa.
He is asking for his reading lesson before breakfast is over.
He is finding books everywhere that he can actually read, and he is reading them.

Now, I must admit that these are not difficult books. There is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Hop on Pop, Who is Coming to Our House?, and a few Bob Books and A Beka Readers. His ability has not taken a huge jump. Yes, his reading vocabulary has been slowly and steadily increasing with daily work, but this is not the difference I'm noticing. The real difference is that he wants to read now, and that he realizes he can do it.

How did this happen?
The truth is, I don't really know.
We have worked away steadily at the mechanics for several months now, learning phonics, memorizing sight words.
Charlotte Mason taught me to keep the lessons short and interesting. We have tried never to have a boring or a frustrating reading lesson. And yet, he would have liked some of those short lessons to be shorter yet.
But not anymore.
What is going on here?
Why is it that this sudden growth in interest seems to have little to do with the slow and steady work we've done up to this point?
And why am I getting the feeling that it really doesn't matter what I teach him from this point on? He will read, no matter what I do next. Oh, I'm sure I can still help the process along, but even if I don't, nothing will stop him now.

The mystery of growth in reading seems a lot like physical growth to me. You feed children meal after meal, day after day. You make sure they get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. And yet, they stay about the same height and weight for months at a time. Then suddenly, in the span of a week or two, they shoot up by an inch and a half! (This is often accompanied by eating everything in sight.) It's mysterious and a bit unpredictable, this process of growth.

And yet, would healthy growth have occurred in the same way without day-to-day nutrition and exercise? Our daily lessons, our games, our little motivational record of "Books I Can Read All By Myself," our newly instituted "Quiet Time" when he could choose to read or rest quietly...they were all healthy nutrition to support this growth spurt. And I will continue to supply him with his daily "meals," which will be taken in all the more voraciously now that he's so very hungry for them.

I've been trying to make the lessons a joy.
Now, they are a joy.

This, my friends, is success!

Math Game of the Week: Bean Count!

This term, we have been doing a "math game of the week" together on Mondays. Then we do the same game whenever we feel like it throughout the week. This week's game is from Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. In the book, it's called "Star Count", but since we used beans, we call it "Bean Count."

I got out a few papers, the pencil crayons, and a Dice. I divided a paper in two with a pencil crayon and wrote "SA" on one side, and "Mama" on the other. Then we took turns rolling the dice. For the first roll, we made large circles or squares. For the second roll, we put that number of beans in each circle or square. The person with the most beans won that round.
We actually started by drawing stars in the circles, but switched to beans when I noticed that drawing stars was taking more mental effort than the game. We played four rounds. I won twice, and SA won twice. He had the last win, and it was a good one, so we quit while he was ahead.
You can see that this game is meant to get him started thinking about the concept of multiplication. We didn't use any multiplication terminology yet...no "times" or "groups of." I just let him play the game and let him make whatever connections he's ready to make at this time. Later, when we do study multiplication, he'll think, "Hey, I know what this is!"

{Big Red Barn Reading Lessons} Lessons 5, 6, and 7

We are (more or less) back in routine, and are continuing in our reading lessons from Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. If you are new around here, I posted my introduction to this series here.


One thing that's new this new year is that I got a new resource! I'm hoping that Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading will give me some ideas to add some variety to our reading lessons while I continue to follow my own course. I also received a package of Scrabble fridge magnets for Christmas. I've been making crosswords on the fridge myself, but I'm thinking the letters may be useful for a reading lesson or two as well.

Lesson 5

This was the first lesson following our Christmas/New Year's break. I decided to start off by finding out how much SA had retained of our first lessons. I used an activity called "Word Ladder" from Games for Reading. I quickly drew a ladder with twelve steps on a sheet of paper. Then I wrote fifteen words on index cards:

barn
great
green
field
pink
pig
learning
squeal
horse
little
weather
vane
golden
flying
course

I got a little tiger out of the toys, and we used it to climb the ladder. For every word he read immediately and correctly, he moved up one step. We put these words into an "easy" envelope. He got ten of them. We put the words that he didn't get immediately into a "hard" envelope to work on later in the week. These are the five words that went into that envelope.

learning
squeal
golden
flying
course


SA enjoyed this game, and the whole lesson took about five minutes or so.


Lesson 6

For this lesson, I decided to teach SA the suffix -ing. I made several words on the refrigerator using my new magnetic scrabble letters.

I had him read the words:

fly
play
fish
go
learn (this was a new one for him)

Then I told him the sound the letters -ing make, and put them behind each word in turn. He read the new, longer words with no problem.

flying
playing
fishing
going
learning

This lesson took probably three minutes. He clearly continued to think about it, though, as later in the afternoon he came to me and said, "Mama, singing has -ing in it."
"Yes, it actually has two -ing's in it," I replied. "Let's go make that word on the fridge."

And we did.


Lesson 7

I did another lesson using the scrabble letters. I didn't do a phonics lesson related to the word "course," as I really couldn't think of another word where that particular combination of letters (-ourse) make the same sound.
First, I wrote "OF COURSE" in scrabble letters on the fridge. I asked SA to read it.
"Of cowrse?" he read hesitantly.
"Of course," I said.
Next, I asked him to look at the word very carefully, so that he could see the letters in his head.
Then I mixed up all the letters and asked him to spell it again.
He did not do very well: "OF CORUSE"
I quickly put the words in the correct order again (I didn't want the incorrect spelling to register in his brain, especially as he seems to be a very visual learner.).
Then I mixed up the letters again, and I had a turn spelling it correctly.
I gave him another turn, and this time he spelled it "OF CORSUE."
I corrected it again, but didn't prolong the lesson. I'm starting to realize that he "sight reads" words so quickly and easily by sounding out the first and last sounds and guessing what's in between. He has also mixed up "green" and "golden" occasionally, which would indicate the same technique. I'm not sure how good or bad that is at this stage. For now, I just encouraged him to look very carefully at the letters.

One interesting thing, though. He can read the word "course" now. He hasn't missed it since this lesson.


Big Red Barn Reading Lesson 1
Big Red Barn Reading Lessons 2 and 3
Big Red Barn Reading Lesson 4
The Awesome Mystery of Growth in Reading

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.

{Big Red Barn Reading Lessons} Lesson 4

Today's lesson was fun. It had some cutting with scissors involved, and some nonsense sentences causing giggles. In the end it went off on a bit of a tangent, but that was OK. Interest is a key element of our reading lessons, and when SA is interested in something to do with reading, I (usually) happily follow him there.

Lesson 4

I started the lesson by printing the words

"By the big red barn in the great green field
there was a pink pig who was learning to squeal."

in blue crayon on a white piece of paper. I was going to cut the words out, but SA decided he wanted to do that, so he did.

Before we started to have fun with the words, SA pulled out the word "learning."
"I don't want to use this word, Mama," he said.
"That is a long word, isn't it?" I replied. "I think we can still use it. Look closely at it. It says 'learning.'"
(We have not yet focused on the word "learning" or "squeal" in our lessons. I decided we needed a fun lesson today, though.)

I picked out a few words and arranged them in a sentence for SA to read.
"There was a pink barn."
He hesitated over the word "there," saying "three" instead. I simply corrected him, without making a big deal about it. This lesson is all about practice, after all. He should know the word well by the time we're done with it. He read the rest smoothly, smiling about the pink barn.
I grabbed the word "green" and substituted it for the word "pink." He read the sentence smoothly, but by this time he was ready for it to be a red barn.
"OK," I said. "You find the word 'red' and put it in the right place."
He did so, and read the sentence again. Wait a minute, it should be a big red barn. He hunted among the words, found the missing word, and put it in.
I had a trick up my sleeve. I took away the word "barn" and substituted "pig."
"There was a big red pig."
Giggles all around. While he looked for the word "pink" to put in, I grabbed the word "green," put it in, and got him to read it again.
More giggles.
Finally we got it right, and I scrambled up the words again.

I arranged a new sentence.
"There was a great big squeal."
SA read it correctly, but thought the sentence needed more. He found the words "in the red barn" and added them to the end. He looked around for the word "big," then realized we had already used it.
"Should we make another one?" I asked.
"Yes," he responded. So we did, and he put it in the right place.
"There was a great big squeal in the big red barn."

We continued in this way for about ten minutes, and our reading lesson was over for the day.

Or was it?

SA had the scissors again. He cut the "g" off the word "big."
"I want to make another word," he said.
"OK," I said. "You can write another letter on the paper and add it to make a new word."
I went off to do some dishes.
He came to me a minute later. He'd printed the letter "s" and added it to make the "word" "bis."
"What does this say, Mama?"
"It says 'bis.' That's not really a word. How about you try a different letter? What letter would you need to add to the end to make the word 'bit?'"
"No, I want to make the word 'biscuit,'" he said.
"Mrs. Koughan makes biscuits!" shouted JJ.
So I printed the letters "cuit" on a paper, cut it out, and added it to make the word biscuit.

The end. For today, anyway. :)



Big Red Barn Reading Lesson 1
Big Red Barn Reading Lessons 2 and 3
Big Red Barn Reading Lessons 5, 6, and 7
The Awesome Mystery of Growth in Reading

{Big Red Barn Reading Lessons} Lessons 2 and 3

We've had some bad colds at our house in the last week, and with some holiday busyness, we didn't manage to do much "school". We have done two more Charlotte Mason style reading lessons on the book Big Red Barn. Here they are:

Lesson 2

Objective: To learn the words "great", "green", and "field" by sight.
Method: I wrote each word in turn, telling SA what they said. Then I mixed it up, writing the words in different order and at different angles on a piece of paper until I was confident he knew each one by sight. Later, I pointed out each of these words in other stories we were reading, and he read them confidently.

I hadn't intended to do related phonics work until the next lesson, but SA brought it up himself. He noticed that "great" and "green" both started with "gr", and offered some other words beginning with the same blend on his own, without my prompting: "Grandma" and "grapefruit." I wrote these words down for him as well so he could see how they looked.

Lesson 3

Objective: To learn the "ink" family (in relation to the word "pink" in the story)
Method: I found a list of "ink" words in Phonics Pathways, and had SA sound them out. (I use this book as a resource. I do not really recommend it as a phonics program for young children...it seems more suited to remedial work. Sayings and humour seem more suited to older students. Lists and lists of words to read can be mind-numbing for children if you're not careful. There's a reason I'm using real books to teach reading, at least for the child I'm teaching now.)

Later in the day, SA found the Big Red Barn book, and read the first two pages on his own. Though we had not gone over the words "learning" and "squeal" yet, he read them confidently from memory. We'll still have to go over them so I'm certain he'll know those words anywhere, but next lesson I think I may make a puzzle for fun. I'll write out the first two pages on a sheet of paper, cut apart the words, and let him put them together correctly. We may also make other sentences using these words.

If you missed my introduction to these lessons, you can find it here.



Big Red Barn Reading Lesson 1
Big Red Barn Reading Lesson 4
Big Red Barn Reading Lessons 5, 6, and 7
The Awesome Mystery of Growth in Reading