Literature and Botany

              I feel like after losing a bit of steam, we’re starting to pick back up again. That isn’t to say that life doesn’t seem to be pulling us in all directions at once. I think, for some reason, we’re feeling a little less exhausted this week.  Seneca’s brother is getting ready to leave in July to serve with Fema Corps. He has to fill out a bunch of forms and get his fingerprints done at the Sheriff’s Office. I’ll be starting a new job on Monday, so I had to get a drug test done today.  It’s nothing too strenuous, but it can be time consuming and things like this can only be done on weekdays.  I’m going to miss having a couple of weekdays off, but I am excited about my new job.

                As to homeschooling fifth grade, Seneca has been working on the artist Henry Ossawa Tanner for artist study and Tchaikovsky for composer study. It’s been fun to listen to the music of Sleeping Beauty and imagine the scenes from the Disney movie.  

                Her two main lessons at this time are literature and botany. For literature, Seneca is reading Island Of The Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.  She had a little trouble starting the book. I found some beginning chapters on audio online. This seemed to really help her to at least get started. She wasn’t crazy about the book at first, but now she loves it and is reading it independently.   

                For writing practice, Seneca types up a summary of what she has read so far in Island Of The Blue Dolphins.  She still needs to work on run-on sentences.   She also continues to work on cursive by copying a poem and anything else that pops out at her throughout the week.

                https://www.amazon.com/Shanleyas-Quest-Botany-Adventure-Kids/dp/1892784165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525386091&sr=8-1&keywords=shanleya%27s+quest For botany, I am reading to Seneca from a book called Shanleya’s Quest: A Botany Adventure by Thomas J. Elpel.  The book is beautifully illustrated.  I did think that the beginning of the book was too wordy and spent too much time telling a version of the creation story.  It was a wonderful marriage of science and myth, but since the point of my purchase for the book was for botany lessons, I just didn’t find the opening sections of the story to be necessary.  That being said, Shanleya’s adventures to learn about different plants and flowers, is proving to be a fun way to gain information. Each page features a story and information on plant identification. There is also a sketch with the identifying parts labeled. Seneca copies  the sketch into her sketch book.  To supplement this, Seneca has also been watching short videos on plant identification on the buschcraft channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEwe15rui0&t=331s She screenshots the frame with the notes on the dry-erase board, and copies the notes alongside her sketch.   The best part of all was when she said that she loved doing this.

High School Literature Option B

Books: 

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, 

Deathless by Catherynne Valente, 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, 

The Lady in The Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir, 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Poems:

1.  “Helen of Troy Dances on Counter-tops” by Margaret Atwood; 
2. “Quattrocento” by Margaret Atwood; 
3. “The Queen” by Pablo Neruda; 
4. “Inheritance” by Warsan Shire; 
5. “The Mermaid” by William Butler Yeats; 
6. “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae 
7. “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe 
8. “The Faded Flower” by Samuel Coleridge; 
9. “Life” by Samuel Coleridge 
10. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost; 
11. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost; 
12. “Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost; 
13. “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost; 
14. “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath; 
15. “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath; 
16. “Cinderella” by Sylvia Plath; 
17. “The Rival” by Sylvia Plath; 
18. “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson; 
19. “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson; 
20. “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson; 
21. “Nobody knows this little Rose” by Emily Dickinson; 
22. “A Slash of Blue” by Emily Dickinson

High School Literature Option A

High School Literature

The Martian by Andy Weir

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Poetry of Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson

Short Stories: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Daphne and Apollo” retold by Olivia Coolidge, “Daedalus” retold by Olivia Coolidge, “The Great Flood (in Greek Mythology) retold by Olivia Coolidge, “The Coming of Evil” (aka Pandora’s Box) retold by Olivia Coolidge and “Baucus and Philomen” retold by Olivia Coolidge

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

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

---

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.

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.)