Poetry, History, and A Sprained Toe

I’ve been neglecting this blog lately. I feel like I’ve lost all sense of homeschooling rhythm. However, when I read my previous entry and reflect on what she’s done in the meantime, I see that we are chugging along albeit at a slower pace these days.

                Her poem for this week is Maya Angelou’s “Awaking in New York.”  She has copied it in cursive into her notebook.  The goal is for her to read it aloud a few times throughout this week.  She also did cursive copywork from Emily Dickinson’s poem “To Make a Prairie” last week which is a very short poem. 

                Seneca’s artist for this term is Henry Ossawa Tanner.  Here’s a link to the biography that she read on him. https://www.amazon.com/Henry-Ossawa-Tanner-Boyhood-Dream/dp/1593730926/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1523973307&sr=8-5&keywords=henry+ossawa+tanner

                For history, Seneca read Who Was Daniel Boone? from the Who Is/Was series.  She types her written narrations. I’m fine with her doing it this way because typing is a much-needed skill and this gives her good practice.  She prefers typing to writing.  Her Daniel Boone narration cracked me up. Here’s an excerpt of what she wrote: He built a coffin for himself because he knew he was going to go soon. He would also polish it (which is very weird) he kept it in his sons house, at age 84 he died his last words were quote “My time has come.” end quote. He even said before he died that he had very good naps in it.

 Joke time- can you imagine you knocked on some old guys door and you kept knocking then he finally answers and he says “Sorry I was late at coming to the door you see I’m old and my now life is really awful and you see I’m going to die soon and so I built a coffin for myself and I just was taking a nap in it.” 

Please note that I am very aware of the grammar mistakes. I’m sharing her original typed response.  These written narrations help me to gauge how well she is or is not applying grammar concepts.  It also helps her to just get into the habit of writing. 

Seneca continues to work on multiplication and three-digit addition and subtraction. 

Our big event here was that she was in a ballet production of The Wizard of Oz at the Opera House!  The show was amazing.  They brought in professional dancers to dance the roles of Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion, but all of the other roles were done by the students of the school.  It is so new that the choreographer (Vadim Fedetov) and the composer were both able to come take a bow at the end of the show.  Speaking of bows, Seneca missed the bow because she hurt her toe in the second dance that she did.  Everyone was so proud of her for holding it in on stage and not letting on that she was hurt.  Back stage the tears started, but seemed to subside.  It was when she got into my car that the floodgates opened.  I took her to the hospital for an x-ray. Nothing is broken, but she did perhaps sprain it so no dancing for a couple of weeks. 

First Day of Fifth Grade!

  Fifth grade homeschooling year has officially begun!

  For history, S read from Benjamin Franklin by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire.  I had some hesitation about her reading it because although it is not from a religious book publisher, it is clearly a Christian book.  Our homeschool is secular, but I don't want to exclude religion or there's also the argument for having religious (Judeo-Christian) knowledge as part of cultural competency.  The books itself was written in 1950 at a time when it was taken for granted that everyone in America was a Christian.  That, in and of itself, is a great teaching point.  For now, our approach is to be aware that this book was written by Christians for Christians and we will discuss those implications as they arise.  For example, S read about the Franklin family saying grace before a meal. That made no sense to her at all.  I had to explain that to say grace means to say a prayer.  She asked if using the word grace like this was an old-fashioned expression. I said it wasn't so much that it's old fashioned, but since we're not Christians we don't ever use this expression.    One old fashioned expression in the book that had her completely thrown was "knee high to a grasshopper."    "Huh?! What?! Okay, this book makes no sense."
        For science, I pulled a book off of one of our bookshelves that had been bought a little while back, but not used as much as I would have liked. It's a reference book on sharks from the Usborne publishing company.  It is definitely not a living book or a book that would meet Charlotte Mason criteria, but it's in our house, so we are using it.  It's a good book and very informative.  I just don't think it would be considered a Charlotte Mason book.  I think if we were to use it along with a book, such as a biography of shark scientist Eugenia Clark then it would lend itself to being more of a Charlotte Mason resource. For now, our book on Sharks will do for science reading.
     Our artist this term is Edmonia Lewis.

Seneca listened to the first ten minutes of lecture on Edmonia Lewis.  In the lecture, it says that her date of death is unknown. However, I looked up Lewis on her Wikipedia page and it gave a specific date of death. At this time, I don't know why there is such a discrepancy.  Here is link to the lecture that we are watching.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e74ImAzS38  We will continue watching the rest of the lecture next week.
     Ballet is back!   Ballet is three days a week for two hours per day.  She will also have jazz class one day a week, pointe class, and Russian character dance class.  This means four pairs of dance shoes! We have two - ballet and pointe.  In fact, we had to stop at Payless (which has amazing deals on ladies shoes at the moment) and buy a new pair of ballet shoes.
    Our poet this term is Joyce Kilmer. His poem "Trees" is Seneca's favorite poem.  I read aloud some general information about Kilmer.  He was killed in World War I. I told Seneca that this was the war in the movie "Wonder Woman." Her response, "Wait. That was World War I?  That couldn't be because in the movie Steve said that that was the war to end all wars, but then there was World War II."    I couldn't believe that she had remembered that line.  We had a discussion about how there really was a saying that World War I was to be the war that would end all wars.    
    As to the poem itself, S read it aloud five times and almost has it memorized.  We'll aim for a daily reading of the poem.  She is the one who wanted to keep reading it over and over again.  I only asked for two readings.
  I'm going to jump in here and mention our use of technology in our lessons.  On the one hand, I don't want us to become dependent on screens for learning, but they can be a huge money-saver.  We will look at pictures of Lewis's sculptures and access Kilmer's poems online.  We also are listening to the lecture on Edmonia Lewis because it has been posted online.  Free online material is also a time-saver.
   We really should have done some math, but we were too exhausted.  Not only is ballet a two hour class, but it's a forty-five minute drive from our house when the traffic is good.

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.

    

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

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 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 Science

Ada Byron Lovelace and The Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark

The Magic School Bus: Electricity and Magnetism (read by Seneca)

“Jupiter: Moons” Seneca came across an article from NASA (June 2017) on the discovery of two more moons of Jupiter.

The Salamander Room (re-read by Seneca)

-Bill Nye the Science Guy S05E08 Atoms & Molecules (watched several times)

-What Is An Atom? – makemegenius

-Homeschool Lessons at home using the chalkboard to discuss and review matter, the three phases of matter, molecules, and atoms.  Seneca drew models of oxygen, iron, and carbon atoms.

-Seneca learned about electrical currents, interrupting the flow of an electrical current, changing a current’s direction, and electrical conductors using a kit on Electricity and Magnetism.  She also watched a short educational film from the 1950s on electricity and intro to electro-magnetism. 

-Bil Nye the Science Guy “Electricity” (She watched half of the episode one day followed by activities in her Electricity and Magnetism kit.  She watched the second half later and followed it up with an oral narration of what she had learned.)

-Technology: Learning about tools through Minecraft.  Learning basic design through Minecraft at computer lessons at Microsoft Store UTC Mall: 6 sessions attended

-Technology: Kano Computer building lessons at UTC Mall.  Topics included - what is a motherboard, what is a processor, and binary code. 3 sessions attended

-Nature Study and Journaling at Emerson Point Preserve 3/28/17  9am-12pm

-Nature Study and Journaling on a found a sunflower growing on her walk to the store.

-Nature Study and Journaling at Robinson’s Preserve 4/12/2017  5:30pm – 7:30pm

-Nature Study at Emerson’s Point Preserve 5/4/2017 10:00am – 12:00pm

-Manasota Kids STEAM – STEM Mystery Bag #1

 -“Can You Reach the End of a Rainbow?”  - short science video that Seneca found after seeing a rainbow in the sky

Fourth Grade Social Studies/Geography Shelters

           In a Waldorf school, learning about shelters is typically done in the third grade.  We moved this to fourth grade and combined Waldorf and Charlotte Mason for this course.  I love the idea of studying humanity and our relationship to shelter as it encompasses a wide range of disciplines from cultural understanding to how climate and environment effects us.  

Learning how to build an emergency shelter

Social Studies/Geography

Shelters:

Houses of Wood: Native Dwellings of the Pacific Northwest by Bonnie Shemie

Houses of Snow, Skin, and Bones: Native Dwellings of the Far North by Bonnie Shemie

Houses of Adobe by Bonnie Shemie

Houses of China by Bonnie Shemie

Reading about shelters included learning about climates and how people adapt their dwellings to their climates. 

Fieldtrip: Crowley Museum and Folk School to learn about wilderness survival

Mapwork:  Tracing Marco Polo’s journey, equator, axis, locating the continents

Survival Videos: Seneca watched survival videos where she learned to put chapstick on a q-tip to make a fire. 

In true Charlotte Mason fashion, copywork was selected from the readings and used for cursive practice.   In our fashion, copywork was done with at the bookstore or coffeeshop.

Copywork being done at the bookstore with an oh-so delicious treat