The Six Swans (First Grade)

The Six Swans

       This week we have been working on the fairy tale, The Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm.  On Monday I told her the story. On Tuesday, I re-told her the story and then we listened to it on story nory.  Storynory.com is a website of free stories to listen to.  On Wednesday, S. told me the story of The Six Swans and I wrote down her narration in her lesson book.  A few times, I would prompt her with questions to help her remember the story, but all in all she did quite well.  I was going to have her practice writing some  s words, but she became so frustrated and angry when she felt her writing wasn't good enough.  I tried to re-assure her that she was doing a good job. In truth, she really was doing a good job.  She has perfectionist tendencies at time.  As a mom, those can get to be annoying.  I don't tell her that though.  She did calm down and took to cutting out construction paper to make shapes and forms.  Cutting is such an important fine motor skill and one that leads to developing writing skills.
     She has been digging in her grandma's side yard today and yesterday. She collected and washed off some rocks to share with me today.  I hope that can counter some of her time spent on tv, though I do try to be sure that she is watching PBS Kids if she is watching tv.
     We continue to play mini math games with mancala pieces. We call the pieces fairy or gnome jewels.  We did a pattern sequence together on Wednesday using the different colored pieces.  She did well with continuing the pattern.  She also drew some patterns of her own.

Seneca had an impromptu tea party with her grandma's porch bears.

Trying to Learn the Lost Art of Storytelling

        When we first started this homeschool journey, I was leaning more towards Waldorf.  However, as I have said, CM really just is a better fit overall for our family. That being said, I did glean a lot of wisdom from the Waldorf method.  Here I share my thoughts on learning the importance of storytelling - a main component of Waldorf education. 

            Pre-K 

            Seneca chose out three books for me to read to her. They were The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss, and Corduroy by Don Freeman.

  I read an article today that said that a child's intelligence was more greatly affected by having the same stories read over and over again.  This helps strengthen their memories. That is not to say that they don't learn from a library book which is read and then exchanged, but that the type of learning from repetition is different.

              In the meantime, I have to learn some more fairy tales to recite to her.  She enjoys hearing the ones she knows, but she is eager to hear some new ones.  I have  a collection of fairy tales, but now I need to really get some new stories down in mind before I can bring them to her.  Before learning about Waldorf education, I had never considered the role of story telling in regards to language acquistion.  However, as is pointed out in Waldorf articles, the child must really depend so greatly on their own imagination to fill in the images when a story is told rather than read.  This helps develop listening as well as visualization skills.  In our world of ipads, iphones, and instant images, we have lost so much of the basic skills of simple learning.

    

List of Books for First Grade

List of Books for First Grade

Books Read To Seneca
1.Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
2 The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
3 Katie And The Dinosaurs by James Mayhew
4 Katie Meets The Impressionists by James Mayhew
5 The Bremen Town Musicians  The Brothers Grimm
6 Peter in Blueberry Land by Elsa Beskow
7 Scuffy The Tugboat
8 The Blue Fairy Tale Book by Gordon Laite
9 Saint George And The Dragon by Margaret Hodges
10 The Brave Little Tailor by The Brothers Grimm
11 Princess Sylvie by Elsa Beskow
12 Amos and Boris by William Steig as retold in The World Treasury of Children's Literature Volume   II
13 The Princess in The Forest by Sybille von Olfers
14 The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie Di Paulo
15 Bumblebee At Apple Tree Lane by Laura Gates Galvin 
16 Ladybug At Orchard Avenue by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Science)
17 Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki (Science)
18 Dinosaurs Big and Small by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Math and Science)
19 Dinosaur Dinners by Lee Davis
20 The Golden Goose retold by Dennis McDermott
21 Annie And The Wild Animals by Jan Brett
22 Cordoruy by Don Freeman
23 The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer (Science)
24 The Hut In the Forest by The Brothers Grimm
25 The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
26 Mary Cassatt by Mike Venezia (Artist Study)
27 The Gift of The Nile by Jan Mike
28 Wooly Mammoth In Trouble  (Science)
29) Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow
30 Rumplestiltskin as retold in The World Treasury of Children's Literature Volume II
31) The Snow Bears by Jan Brett
32) Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
33) Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dreams Come True by Faith Ringgold (Artist Study)
34) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

35) The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy

36) Bill and Pete Go Down The Nile by Tomie Di Paulo

37) Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow

Science

James Herriot’s Treasury For Children by James Herriot

Clouds by Anne Rockwell

Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz

All About Birds by Catherine Sill (read by Seneca)

Giant Pandas by Patricia A. Fink Martin

Designing Dandelions: An Engineering Everything Story by Emily Hunt and Michelle Pantoya

Older Than The Stars by Karen Fox

Stories Told To Seneca
The Fisherman and His Wife
Snow White and Rose Red
The Queen Bee
The Three Little Pigs
Snow White
The Six Swans
Mother Holle
Little Red Riding Hood
Brother Acorn

Books Read by Seneca
Dick and Jane: We Look
Dick and Jane: Go, Go, Go
Dick and Jane: Something Funny
Little Bear by Elsa Minarek
Little Bear'sVisit by Elsa Minarek
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Fox In Socks by Dr. Seuss
Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel
"Three Billy Goats Gruff"  in Elson's Reader Book One
"Bobbie's Yellow Chicken" in Elson's Reader Book One
Picnic by Bobby Lynn Maslen
The Train by Bobby Lynn Maslen
Princess Sylvie by Elsa Beskow
Chickens by Bobby Lynn Maslen

Women's Studies (High School)

Women’s Studies

Born For Liberty: A History of Women in America by Sara Evans

The Road to Seneca Falls by Judith Wellman

 Excerpts from   Words Of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall

We also discussed customs regarding women covering their hair in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Pagan traditions. Y. also learned about the customs of the Jewish Mikvah and Islamic Purdah.  

Human Rights/Social Change: Why Isn't This a Required Course?

Human Rights/Social Change 

            I cannot understand how schools can require a credit for PE and not require a credit in Human Rights.  It's hard for me to even form an argument for such a thing because in my mind it goes without saying.  

Y's study of human rights and social change consisted of discussions and research of the events of The Peasants’ Revolt, the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, the Armenian genocide of ,the Jewish genocide of World War II, the genocide in Cambodia, the Rwandan genocide, the Bosnian/Serbian conflict, the Civil Rights Movement including the murder of the civil rights workers in Mississippi, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the murder of Emmett Till,  the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, and the founding and effects of Amnesty International. I recommend going directly to AI's website for more information and for ways to get involved in human rights.

Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Clapham,

Night by Elie Wiesel

Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibigiza

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Y used various online sources to study the events listed above.

Some recommended movies:

"The Killing Fields" (Cambodian genocide)

"Hotel Rwanda" (Rwandan genocide)


For more information on human rights or to become involved, please visit: https://www.amnesty.org/en/

Education As A Feast

 Charlotte Mason is often described as referring to education as a feast.  You (the teacher) prepare a feast for your child and the child fills up his plate with variety of small samplings.  These small samplings are short lessons.  In an ideal CM setting, a child would cover a lot of topics in one day in short lessons.  A lesson should not be too long (15-20 minutes per subject in the early years) so as not to lose the full attention of the student.
    A Charlotte Mason education would ideally provide a wide variety of topics to study - history, math, literature, science, artist study, composer study, poetry, folk songs and hymns, handicrafts, nature study, and the bible.  This is the feast.  As the consumer of the feast, the student not only experiences a variety of flavors, but has a chance to form their own connection with each dish.  In many ways, a CM teacher is more of a facilitator than a teacher.  The teacher presents the reading material (the dish), the student listens to or reads the material (eats the food), and then the student presents to the teacher what she has learned.
   Here's where my family treads off the CM path.  I have a tendency to cover subjects with a block learning approach similar to that of Waldorf. We work on one main lesson, but instead of chalk drawings we do copywork.  One criticism of the CM method that I often come across on the interwebs is that CM has too much going on at once.  On the one hand, the idea is to train a child to give his full attention to a history story, be able to speak or write about the lesson and then move onto stories in literature, science, and (depending on the age) Shakespeare, and more each day.  I can see learning this way as being very helpful in later years with compartmentalizing and even multi-tasking.  I think one of the reasons that I have resisted it in our homeschool is because going from subject to subject seems a little too "schooly" for me.
  I am not opposed to the CM method of short lessons of many subjects per day. It just hasn't manifested itself that way for us - yet.

Author Elsa Beskow for Elementary Years

The philosophy and methods of a Charlotte Mason education fit my family's culture and needs very well.  I also love a lot of what Waldorf has to offer.  I will often choose books that are recommended on Waldorf sites.  However, I will present those books in accordance with CM methodology rather than Waldorf.  For example, Waldorf lessons often include beautiful chalk drawings from a story or a lesson.  I just couldn't do it.  Waldorf lessons will also include having the child paint or draw from a story.  In CM, a child could do a narration by doing a work of art or acting out the story, but it's just an option. Ideally, in a Waldorf lesson, there would definitely be the drawing aspect of retelling a story.  My children and I aren't artists, so this never clicked for us.  And it is one of the reasons that I chose to go down more of a CM path for us.
   Many Waldorf sites offer excellent suggestions for books of fairy tales and other wonderful read alouds for the early elementary years. One author that is featured prominently is Elsa Beskow.  She is often referred to as The Swedish Beatrix Potter.  We have loved her books and I may even add some more Beskow books to our home since we have another little one to enjoy them.
 In younger years, these books are wonderful to aloud to your child. As the child gets older, these books are a great source of reading practice for them.  They are also a great copywork resource.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=elsa+beskow&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Aelsa+beskow

High School History Suggestions

The Prince by Machiavelli; *Ancient Rome by Charles Kovacs; *The Age of Exploration by Charles Kovacs; The Age of Revolution by Charles Kovacs; The Yorkist Age by Paul Murray Kennedy ; Mary Tudor: A Life by David Loades; The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman; The Lady in The Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir

*A note on Kovacs: His books are designed for Waldorf students in seventh and eighth grades.  It's more of a teacher's reference, but it does have a lot of good information on parts of European history that are not often covered in American schools. Be aware of some religious imagery.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn;
 Letters between the Founding Fathers;
 “The Reynolds Pamphlet” by Alexander Hamilton; Martha Washington: A Life by Patricia Brady; Our Country’s Presidents by Ann Bausum

“The Battle Of Marathon” in The Histories by Herodotus

“The Battle of Thermopylae” in The Histories by Herodotus

 “Pericles’ Funeral Oration” in The Peloponnesian War by Eurcydides

“The Plague and Plague Speech by Pericles” in The Peloponnesian War by Eurcydides

“Melian Dialogue” in The Peloponnesian War by Eurcydides

Julius Caesar and Roman Britain by Walter Du La Garde

“Cincinnatus” in Famous Men of Rome

“Emperor Nero” in Famous Men of Rome

Plutarch’s “Life of Themistocles”

Plutarch’s “Life of Alexander The Great”

Plutarch’s “Life of Julius Caesar”

“The Art of War and Sun Tzu” Documentary

“The First Emperor of China” Documentary

“Ancient Athens and The Golden Age of Greece” Documentary

“The True Story of Hannibal” Documentary

The Byzantine Empire by Jennifer Fretland VanVoorst (booklet 48 pages)

The Life of Charlemagne by Eginhard

William Malmesbury’s Account of The Battle of Hastings 1066

“The House of Normandy” in British Kings and Queens – covers William the Conqueror, Civil War between Stephen and Matilda, and the rise of Henry II

Henry II and Thomas Beckett by Walter Du La Garde

“The Magna Charta” http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-english-translation

“Magna Charta In Context” by Claire Breay and Julian Harrison

 “The 95 Theses” by Martin Luther http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html

“The Transatlantic Slave Trade” article from UNESCO

“The Slave Route” UNESCO

Maps of the Slave Route UNESCO

“The Transatlantic Slave Trade” http://www.inmotionaame.org/print.cfm;jsessionid=f8302320431476677508560?migration=1&bhcp=1

Documentaries:
D: Killer Queens: Queen Isabella of England (Isabella of France)
D: Killer Queens: Queen Matilda (Empress Matilda) D: She Wolves: England's Queens, Isabella [of France] and Margaret [of Anjou]D: The Medici: Godfathers of The Renaissance: Episodes 1-4 by PBSD: Kings and Queens of England: Episode 1: The NormansD: Kings and Queens of England: Episode 2: Middle AgesD: Kings and Queens of England: Episode 3: Tudors D: Kings and Queens of England: Episode 4: StuartsD: Kings and Queens of England: Episode: 5: GeorgiansD: Kings and Queens of England: Episode 6: ModernsD: Reconstructing Richard III's Face

Articles:A: TWOTR: The Battle of Mortimers Cross (www.mortimerscross.co.uk/history.htm)
A: Royalty and Daughters: The Lives of Isobel and Anne Neville by Wendy Zolo (www.triviumpublishing.com/articles/daughters1.html)
A: Marriage and The Neville's: A Brief Overview by Karen Clark (nevillfeast.wordpress.com)
A: Marriage and The Neville's: Richard III & Anne Neville by Karen Clark (nevillfeast.wordpress.com)
A: Marriage and The Neville's: George, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville by Karen Clark (nevillfeast.wordpress.com)
A: Theodora (Byzantine Empress) by Encyclopedia Britannia
D: The War of The Roses: A Bloody Crown (2011)
Show: Horrible Histories (BBC) 

British Literature (High School Literature)

British Literature

Books: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, King Lear by William Shakespeare, and Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life by George Eliot

Poems: “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning; “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning; “My Star” by Robert Browning; “Why I am A Liberal” by Robert Browning; “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; “The Best Thing The World” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; “The Faded Flower” by Samuel Coleridge; “Life” by Samuel Coleridge; “The More Loving One” by W.H. Auden; “As I Walked Out One Evening” by W.H. Auden; “Epitaph of a Tyrant” by W.H. Auden; “The Fall of Rome” by W.H. Auden; “In Memory of Sigmund Freud” by W.H. Auden; “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden

African American Literature (High School Literature)

African American Literature 

Books: Narrative of  the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass, “My Escape From Slavery” Essay by Frederick Douglass, Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington,  A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, and Having Our Say by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany.

Poems: “On Virtue” by Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency General Washington” by Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought From Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, “Cross” by Langston Hughes, “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes, “Easy Boogie” by Langston Hughes, “Enemy” by Langston Hughes “On the Pulse of The Morning” by Maya Angelou, :”Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, “Touched By An Angel” by Maya Angelou, “Alone” by Maya Angelou, “Midway” by Naomi Long Madgett, “Woman With Flower” by Naomi Long Madgett, “Alabama Centennial” by Naomi Long Madgett

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Shakespeare: A Spicey Dish

Shakespeare is a core part of a proper Charlotte Mason curriculum.  Most students would read three Shakespeare plays per year starting in the fourth grade.  So far it's only been my highschoolers who have ventured to works of the bard.  My oldest daughter went from not liking Shakespeare to reading his plays for fun. In fact, I had to remind her to tell me that she had read them so that she could get credit.  For her freshman year of college, her advising group was the Shakespeare class.   Loving Shakespeare doesn't mean you have to like all of his works. Her favorite is King Lear, but she found nothing appealing about The Tempest.  She felt like there was no real ending. In her words, "It's like Shakes just gave up." She also wasn't a fan of "Twelfth Night."
    When she was in a public school high school (part of 9th grade), she applied a feminist understanding to the character of Lady MacBeth.  Yasmeen had also read extensively on the six wives of Henry VIII at this point and had a unique understanding of the survival instincts of women of this era and how society did and did not attribute worth to them.  Anyhow, she wrote an essay that asked the reader to reconsider Lady MacBeth's role as a villain, but almost as a warrior. Unfortunately, her teacher wrote, "I think you sided with the wrong character."  That was her entire point!!  She was deliberately siding with the villain to see the humanity and what might drive someone like Lady MacBeth to such a desperate act.  She returned to homeschooling shortly after that.
    I was certain my son would have to be dragged slowly through Shakespeare and would run as fast as he could from it once it was over.  Was I ever wrong.    He started by watching a BBC production of Julius Caesar (1979) which was a verbatim production of Shakespeare's work and also had subtitles.  I found this use of subtitles to be very helpful as it allows you to read and listen simultaneously thereby letting the audience experience each word on screen as something with life and emotion while reversely seeing the dialogue as almost palpable.
   After Caesar, he made an attempt at "Much Ado About Nothing."  For some reason, it didn't click. Oh, I should have added that I had chosen "Julius Caesar" as his first Shakespeare play because he was very familiar with Julius Caesar and had read Plutarch's Julius Caesar earlier that year.  Much Ado About Nothing flopped the first time around.
  Liam's next Shakespeare play was "Henry V."  Liam already had a great understanding and set of knowledge right off the top of his head on The War of The Roses, so we approached this as somewhat of a prequel to that.  He watched Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V" (1989) in fifteen minute increments.  After that, he read the play using No Fear Shakespeare.  We did some readings together, but then he did most of them independently.  He read the original words and then the modern translation.
    Using No Fear Shakespeare, Liam would continue his Shakespeare readings so far covering "Much Ado About Nothing" (with a lot more success this time), "MacBeth," and "Romeo and Juliet."  By the time, he read "Romeo and Juliet," he hardly had to use the modern ranslation.  He chose not to watch film versions (which shocked me) because he says that they interfere with his imagination and interpretation of a scene.
     Understanding Shakespeare is not entirely a linear process. Yes, it becomes easier with practice and exposure, but some works are harder than others.  We try not to become discouraged if something isn't clicking or needs a lot of modern translation.  Shakespeare is like that oh so delicious spicey dish at a feast.  You want to devour it, but you know you have to take it bite by bite and maybe with some bread (modern translation) to make it edible.  But once your palate is adjusted, just go for it.  That spice won't seem so hindering in the end, but rather delicious - just like the works of the bard.

What is a Charlotte Mason education?

  Charlotte Mason was a British educator who developed a method of education which is now being revived by many homeschooling families.  The main elements of a Charlotte Mason (CM) education are living books, nature study, nature journaling, artist study, poet study, composer study, copywork, dictation, and in later years, the study of Shakespeare and the study of Plutarch.  I want to interject right now that most of what I know about a Charlotte Mason curriculum is from the website amblesideonline.com.

Living books: Instead of textbooks, Mason based her curriculum around what she called "living books."  A living book should be written by an expert on the subject and not talk down to children.  Living books also help students form connections to what they're studying. History becomes fun and alive when you've connected to historical figures through their stories and anecdotes.   Biographies are a big part of our homeschool.  Living books also includes great works of literature.  I encourage my highschoolers to read both the classics and modern works.  I doubt a CM purist would have The Catcher in The Rye or On The Road for their student to read, but as I said, we are an almost CM family.

Nature Study: I love, love, love this component of Charlotte Mason education.  Ideally, you would be outside everyday, but you would set aside one day a week to really explore nature for about three hours.  Children would learn plant, flower, tree, and bird identification.  They would also keep a nature journal.   Truth time: We don't live up to these ideals at all.  But I found out, that neither do a lot of other CM homeschooling families.  I think a lot of bird and plant identification may have been common knowledge for the adults at that time, so they could impart this knowledge on the kids easier than many of us can today.  Also, I have no background at all in botany or orinthology, but I'm slowly learning as I go.  One of our national parks here has a nature trail with a guide identifying the tree and plant life along the trail.

Copywork: In a Charlotte Mason education, children are to recopy sentences - often ones from their readings.  This serves as both handwriting practice and grammar practice as the student.  In a traditional CM program, the Bible (KJV) is often used for copywork practice.  In our home, we choose copywork passages from books that we are reading and poetry.   Sentences chosen for copywork should reflect not only good grammar, but also beautiful use of language.  I find Holling C. Holling books to be an excellent resource for copywork.

Artist Study:  Three artists, poets, and composers are studied per year.  One of each is studied for each term (3 terms per year.)  An example of an artist study would be that on the first Monday of a new term, your child would read about the selected artist.  After the lesson, a painting by that artist would be shown to your child for one minute and then placed face down or somehow out of sight.  Your child would then describe to you in as much detail as possible what he/she had seen.  There should be little to no prompting and no leading questions.  What the student gets out of the exercise is perfect for that student.  The child will connect with what she finds important to connect with in the work of art.  After this lesson, display the picture somewhere easy for your child to see during the week.  On the following Monday, choose a new painting by the artist and repeat the lesson of asking your child what she saw.  Display that picture for the rest of that week. https://secularalmostcharlottemason.blogspot.com/search/label/Artist%20Study

Composer/Poet Study is very similar to Artist Study:  The student would learn about the composer/poet.  One day a new piece of music or poem is listened to per week  heard again throughout the week.  The poem could be also be used for copywork and/or recitation practice.

Folksongs and Hymns: These are done in the same way as composer study.  I feel that we losing a lot of our cultural history as less and less people know many of these songs like "Who's Been Working on The Railroad" and "Buffalo Gals."  I love that this part of a CM education.  We have expanded it to include 60s and 70s folksongs and protest songs.  We have also expanded it to include African American folksongs and hymns.  A couple of artists from this subject that we have covered are Cat Stevens and Paul Robeson.

For more information, I recommend the following sites:
 http://wildwoodcurriculum.org/
http://amblesideonline.org/

Nature Journaling

Confession Time: I'm slacking in this department.  We don't get out for days like this as much as we should.  In fairness, we do have a bit of a crazy schedule and sometimes we're just too exhausted.

That being said, I want to share with you why I do love this idea of a nature journal.   I remember learning in primary school science class about observation and data collecting, but I had nothing to really connect it to.  With nature journaling, my daughter is learning to observe her surroundings and record what she sees and hears.  We've had impromptu discussions on recording techniques which could include sketching, writing a description, making a video, recording sounds, or taking photographs.  Whether or not my daughter pursues a career in the sciences, she is learning how to observe.  I believe that exercises like this can also help with attention and focus.  Do not worry about artistic skill.  There are many tutorials on youtube to help with that, but even if that doesn't help remember that this is about observing and recording.  

Artist Study: Diversifying our homeschool

In a traditional Charlotte Mason school or homeschool, a student would study one artist per term ( 1 term = 12 weeks, 3 terms per year) and their works of art.  Most of the artists studied are White Europeans or White Americans.  I'm not saying that students shouldn't be exposed to these artists or their masterpieces.  I did become concerned by the lack of diversity among the artists recommended by some of the Charlotte Mason curricula.  I believe that superiority - racial, national, religious, etc. is accidentally transmitted by showcasing the best of (in this case) Western culture because it inadvertently demonstrates that best (in this case artists) are White (mostly men) with ties to European cultures and traditions.   I do not think that curricula that includes a large part of his program on White artists is racist or part of some White nationalist agenda.  I am concerned that an unintentional message of superiority is received when a student constantly hears words like, master, masterpiece, genius applied again and again only to European artists or those artists of European descent. I believe that the student slowly begins to internalize a sense of superiority associated with white culture.  Again, this does not mean that we do not study European artists or art history.  We simply make an effort to include a more diversified list of artists and their work to our homeschool.  Below is a list of books read for Artist Study in elementary school so far.  We will repeat some of these over the years as repetition leads to a higher probability of retaining the information.  This is not an exhaustive list. It is merely what we have done so far.  This issue of lack of diversity is one that I am happy to say does come up in secular Charlotte Mason discussions online.  People are sharing booklists and names of artists with each other, so that we can make our Artist Study more inclusive and see the genius of many cultures and peoples.

Artist Study in Elementary/Primary School Years

A free Ebook on Native American Pacific Northwest art and artists!  http://supplies.thesmartteacher.com.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/exchange/Pacific%20Northwest%20ebook.pdf

Misty Copeland: Ballet Dancer  “A Ballerina’s Tale” documentary

Seneca observed the self portraits of Frida Kahlo.

Getting To Know The World’s Greatest Artists: Diego Rivera by Mike Venezia

“The Grinder” by Diego Rivera 1924

“Creation” by Diego Rivera 1922-23

“The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City” by Diego Rivera 1931

“Agrarian Leader Zapata” 1932

“The Flower Carrier” 1935

“Allegory of California” 1931

Georgia O’Keefe

Seneca watched an edited version of a short biographical film on Georgia O’Keefe

“Oriental Poppies” 1928

“Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1”

“Ram’s Head With Hollyhock” 1935

“Petunias” 1924

Getting To Know The World's Greatest Artists: Mary Cassatt by Mike Venezia

Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dreams Come True by Faith Ringgold (African-American painter)

Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artists: Van Gogh

Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artists: Monet

In Her Hands: The Story of Augusta Savage (African American sculptor)

Artist: Jacob Lawrence (African American painter)
The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
Harriet and the Promised Land by Jacob Lawrence

Third Grade Science

Science

Who Was Charles Darwin? By Deborah Hopkinson

Rainforests by Lucy Bowman

Pagoo by Holling C. Holling  Chapters 1 - 13

Science Classes at South Florida Museum:  

Oct. 14 – went outside, identifying non-living and living things

Oct. 21 outdoors collecting flowers and rocks, describing, and classifying.  Used a microscope

Nov. 4 – Seneca made a list of science terms. She learned about cells.

Nov. 18 – Seneca learned about the differences between plant cells and animal cells.

December – Seneca dissected a flower. 

January 6 – Seneca learned about reptiles and amphibians.

January 20 – Class included a bit of scavenger hunt through the museum.

February 3 – Dissection Day! Seneca observed a frog dissection and identified frog-organ’s on a poster.

February 17 – Seneca learned about hammerhead sharks. Class included a visit to the museum’s aquarium.

March 2 – Comparisons of non-living things vs living things

March 16 – Observed a pregnant-shark dissection

April 6 – Eco-systems

May – Made a diorama of a habitat

Gills Club

August – Capturing sharks: taking blood samples, stress in sharks

October – Shark Tourism: Pros and Cons, collecting data from interviews, literature, and art

January – building a model shark

April – Plastics and pollution in the ocean

May – video conference with scientists aboard The Nautilus and exploration in the estuary

Nature Study

-Seneca attended 3 Nature Lab events at Emerson Park in September.

-Nature walk and birdwatching at Robinson’s Preserve.  Seneca watched a bird intently as she knew it was preparing to hunt.  Sure enough, it snatched up some food. She knew it was hunting from what she had learned on Wild Kratts.

Nov. 20 – Around The Bend presentation on limpkins and bird watching

Jan. 8 – Nature Lab: Seneca dissected owl pellets and learned the terms biotic and a-biotic. 

Feb. 5 – Nature Lab at Robinson’s Preserve: Seneca dissected a clam and was shown its abductor muscles, foot, gills, and digestive system. She also learned about estuaries, pollution, dry ice sublimation, and went on a nature hike.

April 1 – Nature Lab: Emerson Park: Theme: Insect communication

April 5 – Ranger guided field trip at Oscar Scherer State Park

April 8 – Nature Lab at Emerson Park: Bees

Third Grade Social Studies

Social Studies

Story of the World Volume I Chapters 27-42

The First Americans by Kathryn Ernst (We only covered the sections on pre-Columbian history.)

Hatshepsut: His Majesty, Herself by Catherine Andronik

Buddha by Demi

Cleopatra by Diane Stanley

Meet Jesus: The Life and Lessons of a Beloved Teacher by Lynn Tuttle Gunney

We also checked out a couple of books on Julius Caesar from the library and read excerpts from those.

Cartoon:  “Joseph”

Animated film on Confucius

-Living History at DeSoto National Park Feb. 19,  2016

Using Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geogrpahy, Seneca learned about the axis, the equator, latitude, longitude, the Greenwich clock, and maps.

She also worked on the names of the seven continents.

She reviewed the uses of a compass.

Third Grade Language Arts

Language Arts

Seneca continued to read classic fables, fairy tales, and poetry. She read passages in The Story of the World.  We did a shared reading of Who Was Charles Darwin?.

Books read by Seneca:

Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle

Peter in Blueberry Land by Elsa Beskow

Pele’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow

The Salamander Room

Corduroy by Don Freeman

Bible Stories: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark, Abraham and Isaac

Concepts of nouns, pronouns, verbs, first person/second person/third person singular and plural, direct objects, subjects, and predicates were covered.

Grammar lessons mostly correlated to the grammar lessons in Latina Christiana.

Celie and the Harvest Fiddler (short story)

Understood Betsy (213 pages)

St. George and The Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges (short story)  

Fourth Grade Ballet

Fourth Grade Language Arts

Language Arts (Readings were followed by oral narrations given by Seneca.)

   Stories read to Seneca:

“How the Raven Made The Tides”

“The Earth on Turtle’s Back”

“The White Buffalo Calf Woman”

Books Read By Seneca

The Knight At Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne

The Day of the Dragon King by Mary Pope Osborne

Viking Ships at Sunrise by Mary Pope Osborne

Choose Your Own Adventure by Anson Montgomery

Choose Your Own Advernture: Space and Beyond by R. A. Montgomery

Choose Your Own Adventure: Search for the Mountain Gorillas by Jim Wallace

Grammar

First Language Lessons Volume 2

Topics covered included poetry readings, proper nouns, common nouns, verbs, the four types of sentences, using commas, using abbreviations, titles of respect, and contractions.

Writing

Copywork was done from many of the readings listed above with attention paid to punctuation and proper use of capitalization.  Writing practice was also done to go along with some of the lessons in First Language Lessons Volume 2.

Poetry

“The Goops” by Gelet Burgess, “Rain” by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Wind” by Robert Louis Stevenson, “I’m Nobody” by Emily Dickinson “A Book” by Emily Dickinson, “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer (Seneca really took a liking to “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer.)

Fourth Grade History

History

The Story of the World Volume 2 by Susan Wise Bauer

Who Was Joan of Arc? (read by Seneca)

Who Was Marco Polo? (read by Seneca)

We also read excerpts from the book Henry II and Thomas Beckett.  We also used the book for reading lessons including vocabulary words, use of a semi-colon, and capitalization of proper nouns. 

The Middle Ages were the focus of this year’s history lessons.  After each lesson, Seneca would narrate back to me what she had learned from the lesson.

Movie: “Ivanhoe” (1982)

Fourth Grade Nature Study

Meeting Jack Hanna!