This is How We Roll…

This week we are schooling “on the road.” Since my husband travels for work, we get to tag along on some of the trips. This week I will get to visit my cousin and her beautiful family in south Florida AND do some school.

Did I mention how the kids are thrilled about that?

School on the go can be a daunting task. So I thought I would share what we do. Maybe it will spark some ideas of your own next time you have to pack it up and take it on the road. The first thing I do is plan how much time we will actually spend doing school. Since my husband is working during the day, we are spending our mornings doing work. This leaves our afternoons and evenings open for fun. Once I have the big picture, then I start packing!

My bag is filled with teacher books, reading material, colored pencils, stories on CD, my Well-Planned Day calendar and even a scrapbooking project I want to get started on. I also have a 3-ring binder that is not in the picture. I packed up my teacher notes from Tapestry of Grace and my lessons plans.

And that, ladies, is how we roll!

Grammarland



Grammarland

This week my youngest and I began our adventure in Grammar Land. We have been doing a variety of grammar-related activities over the years but I thought it would be fun to play in to his wonderful imagination and his love for stories and introduce grammar in a new way.

With that in mind, I downloaded the Librivox podcast of Grammar Land and I have a copy of it on my laptop. After listening to the introduction we discussed the premise of the book. Basically, the different parts of speech are arguing and it is up to the judge to listen to each part of speech plead their case and make necessary rules. My son was ready to get started! Yay!

Chapter one centers around Mr. Noun and at the end of the chapter the children of Schooldom are asked to write down 20 nouns. After our reading, we spent some time discussing the chapter and then he was asked to draw Mr. Noun standing before the judge as well as to write down 20 nouns. I loved watching him draw Mr. Noun based on the details from the story. We will spend a few days letting the concept of nouns continue to sink in before we move on to Chapter two.

Chapter 1 worksheet

A-Ha Moment

We have read much about exposing our children to living books. If you are like me you have probably googled the term "living books" and perused book lists for guidance. If you are like me you may have even had emails or conversations with Charlotte Mason mentors looking for living books.

In our school-house we have been making the transition from traditional school philosphy to one of living ideas like Mason's ideas. There are days when I feel like I have it all under control and then there are days when I am just hanging on for dear life. Both scenerios present great learning opportunities. After all we learn from our mistakes. There are seasons in our school-house when I am uncertain why Mason taught the way she did and it is not until I have one of those a-ha moments that it all comes togther. Last week, I had such an a-ha moment and thought I would share.

For a while now we have been reading living books for history and for literature. We have enjoyed them but I will confess I have wondered how my children were going to make connections or if they were going to make connections. I have seen glimpses of it but I don't think I ever experienced it quite the way I did while with my sisters in Savannah for our FSO Weekend. I dubbed the acronym FSO...Fun Sisters Only.

Mercer House

For a few months we had been planning a little trip to Savannah for my sisters and I and (for the first time) my now 18 year old daughter. My sisters and I decided that we would read the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil prior to the trip. While the book focuses on an alleged murder in the Mercer House, the author spends quite a bit of time allowing you to get acquainted with the people and the history of Savannah. Stories of Sherman's march towards Savannah and the music of Johnny Mercer are just a few of tales he told. I can remember reading one afternoon and feeling like I truly knew the layout of Savannah. He wrote of the beautiful squares and I could envision magnificent trees sprawled throughout the squares. I was craving the slow southern lifestyle of Savannah and began to look forward to our trip. We had chosen a bed and breakfast across the street from the Mercer House. Three sisters from three states were about to converge upon this neighborhood.

We met on Sunday and started our weekend with lunch on the patio. After a brief rest from our road trip we headed out to explore the historic district. Our first stop was the Mercher House and so began my living history moment. I recalled in the book that the owner of the home, an antique dealer, hung a flag over his balcony to annoy a movie crew that was disturbing the peace of his street. As we walked around the outside we tried to determine which balcony this occured from.

We crossed the street and found ourselves wandering through the first square. Again, we recalled a scene from the book and tried to imagine how it played out. We continued walking towards the riverfront not really sure what we wanted to do but enjoying the conversation and the scenery. At one point we saw a horse and carriage and decided this would be a great way to acquaint ourselves with the city and enjoy the atmosphere of old Savannah. We climbed in and began to listen as the guide narrated her way through town. This is where I had my a-ha moment. As she shared the stories of Savannah, I realized that I had heard bits and pieces of them from our book. I listened intently and asked questions and found my mind wandering as we continued. I had built a relationship with this city before I had even seen it. I was acquainted with its history.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. THIS is what Mason spoke of when she said to read living books. THIS is what she referred to when she spoke of building relationships with history. THIS is what education should feel like. I was not labored by the trip or bored as we spent time there. I didn't feel like reading the book or even walking through the historic homes were a chore. I remembered the history of Savannah because I was enjoying the journey. I even came home and voluntarily created two narrations.This being one of the two! My challenge is to take this new understanding and implement it further in our own studies here at home.

TOG: Training in Liberty...

Tapestry of Grace | Training in Liberty from Tapestry of Grace on Vimeo.

TOG: Spiritual Encouragement for Moms

Tapestry of Grace | Spiritual Encouragment for Homeschooling from Tapestry of Grace on Vimeo.

The Dream Poster

Earlier this week I was reading in the Home Educating Family magazine an article Chris Davis wrote about Dream Posters. I couldn't find the identical article online but I did find this one. It reminded me of a project my oldest daughter and I did at the beginning of her senior year and so I thought I would share. I would only like to say that after reading Chris Davis's words, I see room for improvement but hey we were on the right track!

We had spent the previous months struggling with trying to define what life looked like with chronic illness. Days were lost to appointments, fatigue, and just trying to survive. For a planner like myself, this was out of my comfort zone. Beads of sweat would appear on my brow as I pondered how we were going to catch up. School was important but quite frankly we just wanted peaceful days where her breath was not labored or her fatigue was not debilitating. This led me to the decision to spend a day putting it all down.

We divided her board up in to four categories: health, financial, school, and personal. Armed with scrapbooking supplies and tons of magazine, she spent time picking out things that inspired her or were had something to do with her vision of the future. Then the process of choosing what went on the board began. Each section began to fill and after a while she had put her dreams and goals on a board to inspire, challenge, and remind her.

I learned a few things that afternoon. Her personality was expressed through the board. She is a very language-oriented person and her board reflected that with quotes in all four sections. Her most intimate dreams were laid down. One that still sticks out in my mind was the phrase, "breathe easy" placed in the health section. Oh how my heart cried out as I watched this go on the board.

Recently she moved in to her new living space and the board was the first thing she put down there. One night we were moving furniture and her board caught my eye. As I looked over it, I realized that she had already accomplished quite a bit.

After reading the article from Chris Davis, there are a few things I would tweak. The first suggestion he makes is that the parents are removed from the activity. Often, without realizing it, we filter our own thoughts and dreams for our children on to the board. Another suggestion he makes is to use double sided tape. This allows the child to move items around as he continues to think about his dreams and goals.

This year I plan to spend a day with my last two school-aged children and allow them to make a Dream Poster. My hope is that a friend (hint hint) will stop by and help facilitate the activity so that their true dreams will make it to the board. Anyone want to join us?

Spelling...

 I guess I knew at some point this had to be done. If you know me at all you know that I deeply love history and yet the Lord decided to ignite a different passion in me...spelling! Or rather phonics.

My oldest son, unbeknownst to me at the time, taught me about whole language and the ability to memorize what words looked like. While my oldest daughter taught me that the typical style of spelling (list on Monday, test on Friday) produced no true long-term memory for her. So with these polar opposites in mind I began my quest for a way to teach spelling that would cover all the bases. I found that the more I researched Spell to Write & Read the more I could identify with what it was trying to teach both my children and myself. And so began my love affair with phonics.

So what are a few things I loved about Spell to Write & Read?

• One program teaches preschool through high school
• Phonograms & spelling rules give you the tools needed to spell-it takes the mystery out of spelling
• It uses all forms of learning, visual, auditory, & kenestitic
• We could ALL do certain portions together
• Reading came organically, not forced
• I learned so much about phonics

Some of the ways I have used Spell to Write & Read in our home.

• When we first began, I was learning just as much as my children so it was important to stick to what the author had laid out. As I began to develop a strong foundation, I could be a bit more creative without losing the core of the curriculum.
• For early learners, I used this to play games and gently introduce the phonetic sounds. I also made sure that the youngest child was nearby when teaching my older children. Sometimes even pausing to see if he could answer a simple question and praising his success.
• As development progressed we used magnet letters and dry erase markers to continue reinforcing the phonograms. We also enlarged some of the first charts to work on with the magnet letters.
• For remediation, we had different reinforcement tools.
• We made it a part of our "homeschool life" When some one asked how to spell something, I used fingergrams to spell the word.

To keep from being too overwhelming I will share in a different post my thoughts on SWR and merging it with Charlotte Mason's philosophy.

Education is a Life...Mornings

As I continue to meditate on Organized Simplicity, I find myself seeking more intentional schooling. I can look back over the conferences I have attended, webinars I have participated in, and books I have read I see that this is what God has been preparing in me for a while...intentional schooling! With that said, I thought I would share the evolution of our typical school day.

This is mainly what the later half of our week looks like. On Monday we host a co-op here in our home and I try to stick to the idea of the schedule but am realistic enough to know that things happen and that my schedule is meant to be my guide not my dictator. On Tuesdays we are out of the home for a different co-op and after school activities.

Mornings:

We begin our morning with dictation.
I use the Well-Planned Day for our choices.
I do love that planner!
After dictating the selection, we read over it again and punctuate the sentence.
This is where we briefly discuss grammar. We will get more grammar during writing.

This is my youngest's handwriting book.
He copies an English proverb in cursive and then practices saying & writing phonograms.

In order to give our hands a break, we switch gears and read aloud a lesson.

After our Thinking Toolbox lesson, we pull out our respective math lessons and work quietly.

Sometimes I will turn on a Pandora playlist depending on our mood!

Then on to my favorite subjects.
Honestly I could spend hours here and try really hard not to be overwhelming.
I let Tapestry of Grace "drive" the subject.

We read a variety of books and work in our Century Charts or History notebooks.
In this picture, my youngest is reading Story of the World while listening to the CD

Once again, Tapestry of Grace is my resource for Literature study.
I find that the pace is a little ambitious for our family so we do slow things down a bit.
Planning helps in this area.
I have also been having great success with the Go!Chart and like pulling this out on occasion.


Afternoons:
One area of weakness I have is science.
Knowing this about me, we have chosen to seek co ops that offer the sciences.
During the week, each one works on the reading and labs and/or activities are done in co op.
This has been a great help

This is the core of our year. We have languages, music study, art study, etc. but these are not daily activities and so they are interspersed throughout the week.
We also have books we read and our Bible study time before school or in the evenings.

Each year our typical day looks a little different as our needs and schedules change. Only recently have I been able to turn over the responsibility of driving the older ones to their work and activities. This has certainly helped to keep the atmosphere of our day in order. I try very hard to guard our calendar and truly pray over our long-term commitments. Each year has different priorities and goals. I am enjoying our mornings quite a bit more but a huge part of that is being prepared myself. It is not enough to say you want to live simplistically. I think the other part of that must be organization. When things become crazy I still have a plan. I still have a system that I can rely on with minimal effort. I am truly enjoying seeing all the threads of my life weaving together and am finding great peace in knowing the God has been the one behind it all. I am finding great joy in my mornings!

20th Century Diner Project...

After some impromptu presentations of our 20th Century Diner History projects, I decided to put it all together in a little movie. Hope you enjoy!

The Go! Chart...

This one has been in the back of my mind for quite some time. We have played around with it while doing Movies as Lit and was encouraged with its potential but I put it on the back burner for continued research. Then a happy accident occurred. (I love when that happens)

While reading The Wind in the Willows, my 8 year old (without knowing) began sharing orally several elements from the Go! Chart. So I pulled out my copy and we started working through it as we continued our reading. I am still in the infancy stages of using it but already some wonderful observations have come to me.

The chart is broken down in to six sub-categories:

• Predictions
• Vocabulary
• Understandings
• Interpretations
• Connections
• Re-Telling

Since our book is a chapter book we work on it at the end of each chapter reading. We also began this a bit on the fly because so one thing I will take more time in is to engage in conversation about the author and the title of the book prior to reading.




The Go! Chart

 

Because my 8 year old is a pretty strong reader, I wanted him to start gaining more independence so one of his activities is to look for words he may not know the meaning to. We write them down in the vocabulary section and then we spend time looking them up in the dictionary. He enjoys "hunting" for them both in the book and the dictionary.

Another portion of the chart is Re-Telling. This is a basic narration exercise but because this chart is smaller I am working on him focusing on the "big ideas" of the chapter. Typically his narrations are extremely detailed (yes, he's a talker) so this has been good practice for him.

One of my personal favorite sections is Connections. I love making connections between things I am reading, learning, watching, etc. and then having the great conversation. This also happens to be the section that my 8 year old came to me about and started sharing. He read chapter one and wanted to share a connection he made with a personal experience of his and one of the characters.

We are still working through our story and the Go!Chart but so far we are enjoying digging a little deeper than just the basic reading and narration.

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20th Century Chart

This summer I attended our local Charlotte Mason mini conference which recapped several wonderful sessions given during the Childlight conference earlier. One of the recaps was in regards to paper trails...the art of Mason's notebooks.

We have dabbled in a variety of notebooks here. Some more successful than others but my older children still struggled with the idea of keeping a notebook for history. Then I learned about Miss Beale's Century Chart and was intrigued. So this month I have been reading and creating my own.

The premise of a century chart is a 10 x 10 grid that represents one century. The example below shows a chart of the 16th century and the key that goes with it.

Examples of Miss Beale's Century Chart


Key to the 16th Century Chart



As you can see each block is not crammed full of information but rather the child selects what is important to him. Another thing that intrigues me is that not every block is filled up. Investigating further I read that the children might have a science century chart as shown below.


This year we are doing TOG Year 4 which looks at the 20th Century so what better way to help my children understand the century than to ask them to build their own century chart. In my next post I will show you how I chose to do this with my three learning levels: 3rd grade; 8th grade; and 12th grade.

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Education is a Life...

The room was already overflowing when I walked in. People were milling around looking for chairs and quickly coming to the conclusion that it was standing-room only. It took a few moments but then we were all settled in. Some at tables while others littered the floor. We were there to be inspired...hungry to stretch ourselves and our teaching abilities. Today we would feast at the table of ideas.

For more reading, go to Charlotte Mason volume 6.

After a brief introduction, we transitioned from sharpening our skills to peacefully participating as if we were the students. In her quiet manner, we were handed our Book of Prayers and a piece of paper. This was not just any piece of paper. It was beautiful and heavy in weight. One we would want to treasure. The instructions were given and we complied. First with our dictation and then our prayers. We were asked to think upon what we read and choose a portion of the prayer we felt spoke to us. A few shared but all placed their thoughts on this beautiful paper. As we finished writing we listened to her read a portion of St. George and the Dragon while doing popcorn narration to help create the habit of attention. Seemlessly we transitioned in to math work by working on one math problem. We were asked to think upon the equation and quietly show when we would be able to explain how we solved it. She worked on the board as one student and then another explained their methods. Then she asked us to think deeper about our math problem. We would need to draw how we solved the problem. Math is a thing...an idea. It is not just an unrelated string of numbers. Our minds were growing weary but she had already anticipated that and gave us instruction. We were in a new place and we needed to go outside and explore our surroundings. As we left the room we were asked to find something from outside and bring it back inside. A bowl of trail mix was by the door to provide small sustanance as we ventured out in to nature. We explored, some quicker than others, but we all returned with our little treasures from nature in hand. Upon our return, she read to us the history of our temporary home. We sat absorbed, knowing that she may call upon any of us at any time. Instead she asked us to chose something from what we read and save it to share at home or with a friend. Again, in a quiet manner, our instructions were given. We were to take a moment and draw our piece of nature or possibly even the map from which we live. While we worked music played in the background beckoning us to stay, quietly working, until it was completed. Our mini school day was almost finished but again she asked us to reach in to our mind and recall one more time the story she had read earlier. This time we were to think of pictures, images the story created in our mind's eye. We were to add that to our notebook.

As I listen to the song below, I am transformed to the classroom where education is a way of life. Where atmosphere is peaceful and ideas are planted. I recognize that my home can not be exactly like the 3rd grade model I participated in but I can examine the atmosphere of my own home and school. I can prayerfully prepare the soil for ideas...

Kaelyn's Kitchen

I will make this one short and sweet! My third child is a domestic one. She would rather spend her time at home than run off to faraway places like her big sister. She also enjoys cooking and gardening. I think it's because she is such a tactile learner but I could be wrong. Anyhow, we wanted to do something fun before she started high school and I wanted it to incorporate writing. Together we came up with the idea to cook our way through a cookbook and then blog about it. OK I was a bit inspired by Julie & Julia! My hope is that we will each blog about our kitchen adventures for the week. This will accomplish both my goals in quite a tasty way. LOL

We recently set it up so it is still in the newborn phase but we'd love for you to check it out, post comments, and make it fun for Kaelyn. So stop by Kaelyn's Kitchen anytime.

Well Grounded Middle Schooler

**I am still in the middle of my outdoor day but paused for lunch & mail.**

I am so excited! My middle school planner arrived in the mail today. (yes I am doing a little happy dance right now) I currently use the Well-Planned Day calendar and love all that it offers so when I got the email announcing student planners I knew I had to have it. One of the appealing features to both planners is the way that it combines school and home.




A few of my favorite features:

• Month-at-a-Glance
• Week-at-a-Glance
• Monthly study of the 12 attributes of God
• Weekly catechism
• Reference section for all subjects

**And now it is time to get back outside!**

Teaching him to play...

Last week was a nice week of finishing up some simple projects, reading fun books, and generally having a relaxing time. One of our projects was to reorganize my youngest's toys and incorporate some personal responsibility in school. I found this system at Ikea (one of my favorite places for fun organization finds) and my wheels began to turn.

"I realized I am teaching my youngest ones to play."

Those are the words a friend of mine confessed last week and I was struck by those words. In the chaos of juggling school there are moments when I feel more like Elastigirl from the Incredibles than Shelley. During those times, my youngest has taken to a new habit of going outside to play. Now this isn't a completely bad thing UNTIL I realized he was outside more often than not! Uh oh I was teaching him to play instead of teaching him to finish what he started. I needed to retrain this habit. My friend was speaking of how the workbox system has been helpful for her and so I began to read a little more and then began to tweak it. What I decided to do is buy 6 green bins. Each bin has an item of school that Ben can work on independently. I might put a book in one bin and a coloring page with crayons in another; his math workbook and a story he can read. On each item I wrote directions on a post-it note explaining what he needed to do. Each night I "pack" the bins and have been enlisting Ben to help keep the excitement.

By the way, the labels were my son's idea. Maybe I really am rubbing off on my kids!

Post-It Planning

For those that haven't figured it out yet, I am a bit of an organizing nerd! I often tease that there is peace in perfection. Yes I am the one who can't sit down to watch a movie unless dishes are done, kids are bathed and things are put away. This can be quite vexing for my spontaneous husband. For our second child, graduation is fast approaching and instead of panicking at the last minute about what our transcripts are going to look like I called a good friend and we spent an afternoon building her transcript...Post-It style. We began to use TOG during my daughter's freshman year but like anything new, we were just getting our feet wet. As each year has progressed and I have grown to better understand what fits the needs of our family, I wanted to make sure we were also meeting the college admissions needs. After we were done I took a picture to share with you.

• First we listed each class that was completed individually on the same color post-it. I also listed the final grade.
• Then we listed each class that is currently being taken in a new color.
• After that, we listed the classes still needed in a third color.
• Using the kitchen table, we began organizing the post-its by subject matter. This helped me to see clearly if we were meeting graduation/admission requirements.
• Finally I pulled up my transcript template and began plugging in the information.

For me this was a very visual way to see if we were on track. I would even suggest doing this over the summer prior to making class commitments. This may help keep the focus on what is needed as well as show opportunities to add to your schedule.

The Well-Planned Day

Well-Planned Day

For those that know me know that I am an organizing nerd. Sometimes I achieve greatness but most of the time I am simply striving for the goal. :-) I stumbled across this homeschool planner at the beginning of the year and instantly fell in love! It has done a wonderful job of merging the managament of your homeschool life with the management of your home. Here are a few of my favorite features.

• daily Bible readings
• perforated shopping lists for each month
• week-at-a-glance that includes menu planning
• perforated report card (homeschool friendly)
• perforated progress report
• transcript sheet
• goal sheet

For a pdf preview, go to http://www.wellplannedday.com/

One small step for man...

Today has been one been one of those days...

As the children quickly ran off to all corners of the house to explore their more leisurely passions, my friend and I began exploring ours. Yes, I am a complete nerd. I love reading, planning, and discussing school. With laptops running, papers strewn across the table, and laughter filling the room we began the task at hand. This year we are using Tapestry of Grace (TOG) Year 3 and are now in Unit 3. As each child grows, I continue to tweak and improve in all areas. I feel an excitement as I read through the Unit synopsis and my imagination runs wild. I admit it...I can get carried away but I love learning!

Today's task to work with my friend on best adapting Unit 3 to our particular needs. I have heard TOG described as a buffet table. There are many choices and each family will have similar "plates" but not exactly the same. That is what drew me to TOG in the first place. It is perfect for many types of families. In our home, we currently have 3 of the 4 classical levels.

1. Rhetoric
2. Dialect
3. Upper Grammar

This can make teaching a challenge if each child is on his own individual plan. But using the unit study approach can simplify the process.

Today, I worked through the reading lists and began adapting. My youngest (7) has been blessed with growing up in a more Charlotte Mason friendly home. This year we are making a history book filled with maps, oral narrations, and pictures. He has enjoyed reading living books and then re-telling me what he has heard. So using my library's online catalog search and www.Amazon.com, I began building his reading list for this unit. My daughter (12) is my more literal child and so we searched for activities and reading that would help develop and excite her. For my oldest (16), we discussed the virtual co-op plans and went ahead and wrote out our exam questions Charlotte Mason style. I will post those in my next blog. What an accomplished day!

In His Own Words...

This year my second grader and I are building a history notebook. In case it is unclear I am a HUGE lover of history. It is an unquenchable thirst and I hope I am able to pass along some of that to my children. One of our greatest challenges here is teaching elementary, middle, and high school to the best of my ability. Following the unit approach with Tapestry of Grace has been a great blessing but there are times I feel overwhelmed with trying to teach all three levels. In the decision making process I decided to follow the read-alouds for my youngest and read living books on the history topics. We bought a black sketch book and after our history readings, I write his narrations on the portion read. He adds pictures to the page after we are done. Sometimes we do a "picture study" and then reproduce it in our book and other times we simple cut and paste in to his book. I have also added maps to help reinforce the geography portion. In the end, he has a beautiful volume of history that I know I will treasure greatly because it is in his own words.

Give me Liberty or give me death!

Ok maybe it was not quite as dramatic as all that. But on one particular evening it sure felt like it. This year has been a year of transition in our home. At time, it was hard to keep a steady rhythym. One of my greatest challenges is trying to educate three, sometimes four, different levels of eduacation and of course keep my own sanity.

My 10th grader seemed to be doing a lot of stopping and starting this year. Some of it was from not understanding while some of it was from lack of perservering. At the end of my rope, I declared that I would no longer be helping her plan her education. We had seven weeks of school left and I was growing weary. I have always tried to be a planner so I gave her all of my resources and handed her her education. She was informed that I would be around to help in any way I could but she was on her own. I developed a checklist for each subject so that she would know what was expected and that was it. She was given complete liberty and freedom over her education. She had a deadline and a list of expectations for accountability. Unsure of the outcome, I waited, held my breath...and prayed.

The word liberty literally means the quality or state of being free. While the word freedom means the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. Too often, we confuse freedom with laziness. This is not a "get of work free" card but rather a new way of thinking. By allowing our children to become good stewards of liberty, they can reap the reward of freedom.

The deadline fast approached and I watched as my daughter worked tirelessly to complete all her tasks. There were a few weekends where she opted to stay home rather than go out with friends. As the final day approached she sat down with me and presented everything. Tears began to roll down her cheek as she became overwhelmed by her own accomplishment. She had learned to be a good steward of the liberty she was given. At the time, I implemented this plan out of frustration and desperation never thinking about how this aligned with my ultimate goal for my children's education...to be life-long learners. By owning her education she will continue to develop a love for learning.