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An attempt with cursive in our history copywork. It had to be corrected.
Camille's fresco, made from plaster of paris like the monks in the Ajanta Caves would have done. Uh, it's best to allow the plaster to dry some before attempting to paint.
Mama's fresco
The earth is hotter in areas where the sun hits directly. Notice the brightness of the circle.
This is what we are doing this year for our scripture memorization. When the page is flipped I will copy the last scripture on this page onto the next, then once a week we'll read through all of them. Yes, I do have to write it once a week but I decided it was best to see them all for a while than to just keep one on the board and replace it each week.
If I were to try the memory box system again I would use tabbed business card sheet protectors and put in a notebook. Can you tell the wheels are turning?This year we've incorporated art with history and I couldn't be happier. It is really bringing our studies alive! This week we'll be learning about the early Medieval Indian period in The Story of the World Volume 2 and in the second section of the chapter is about "Monks in Caves".
What I've decreased:We rely heavily on our library system to get many "living books" for our studies. I'm at the point where I record what date I request each book, some are delivered the next week while others have taken **3** weeks from the requested date to show up finally at our library. Our bookmobile day is Wednesday so if there are any books being delivered, they will be "in" on Wednesday, of course it could be Thursday if our librarians don't enter them in the system until later. This is a frustrating blessing.
I miss the professionalism and work ethic of days past. Enough said on that front.
To deal with this, I'm considering changing our schedule around a bit. There are three things we could do and this is what we currently do. Currently: Monday and Tuesday we study history for 1 hour. Wednesday and Thursday we study Science for 1 hour.
Option 1
Monday: History
Tuesday: Science
Wednesday: History
Thursday: Science
Option 2
Monday-Thursday: History 30 min, Science 30 min
Option 3 (I don't really like because it complicates our reading aloud time)
Read the books as they come in without changing the schedule
Here's the deal, I didn't plan out French for this year. Why? (Why would Jessica the "planner" not plan French?) Good question. The answer is because I felt overwhelmed, a little burned out and finally, confused as to what to do. Our "figure it out as we go" lessons are not keeping us moving forward and it's frustrating me!
Sidenote: Blogger added a VIDEO button to the EDITOR!!! Wow. I just noticed it. Okay, back to the regular scheduled program.
Vive les bulles!
I'm Too Big- Je suis trop gros (French/English)
Goodnight Everyone - Bonne nuit à trous (French/English)
Ma Maman
Mon Papa
Je suis un toucan
Babar et l'étoile due cirque (she said she LOVES Babar)
La petite poule rouge
La ruse de dame poulette (to be used later)
Picture books that are just pictures and vocabulary words for various groups (farm animals, colors, numbers, food, weather, etc)
First French at Home (Usborne I-Linked)
First French at Holiday (Usborne I-Linked)
French Dictionary for Beginners (Usborne I-Linked)
Berlitz Je Parle Français (with Teddy)
Berlitz Visit to Grandma
Berlitz The Missing Cat
Berlitz The Five Crayons
Bible Stories in French (a little difficult)
We also have French Spiritual Songs but we put it in the "wait" pile
Teach Me French
Hop Skip & Sing French
Twin Sisters French
I Can Read & Speak French (pictures to help read and speak french, pretty cool)
Springboard to French
Therefore, if I were teaching French lessons to students in grades 1-6, I'd create a word wall of French words for visual and daily practice. These words would be listed in bold, large type for easy viewing. The younger the grade, the additional need for pictures to accompany the word wall chart. My class routine could consist of reviewing the word wall chart when students enter the room and adding new words/pictures to the chart once introduced to the class.
I would teach French based on a theme approach, whereby, the words learn are associated with a particular subject (i.e. days of the week, months, numbers and alphabet words are part of a daily living unit). This would be highly effective if the classroom teachers could tell you what particular unit they're working on. Sure, this may mean more work for you, but the rewards would be highly visible and the students are learning French based on what they're learning in their classrooms.
Incorporate familiar music and tunes to help students grasp the French language. Younger children enjoy music and I have found that if it can be eaten, sung or rhymed, it has a greater chance of being learned for the long term. Therefore, create a morning or afternoon song to sing when students enter your room. The words would be taught in French and you'd be surprised how many students will share this song with their parents at home.
I'd also create a catch phrase bulletin board or wall to provide quick reference to phrases commonly said in english. Phrases like, "Good morning," "How are you," "Happy Birthday," would be listed and can be easily utilized throughout the day
.
We have Sara Jordan products for 3rd grade to use Beginner Lessons, Thematic Lessons. I want this year to be in preparation for that and learning vocabulary is the prime focus as well as obtaining a familiar feeling with the french language.
It was a beautiful day!I just realized I could easily turn this into a 365 photo blog, lol. We're going to have a wonderful keepsake at the end of the year if I keep this up! Okay, here's some pictures from yesterday, Wednesday after our lessons. What you're not seeing is Danny talking to himself as he's looking at the Things that Go, and the excitement Camille had after reading What Makes a Shadow by Clyde R. Bulla which inspired her to get out her Fun with Hand Shadows by Frank Jacobs book.
Can you identify these hand shadows?
After much prayer, talking to other homeschoolers, Camille's dad, my dh and many talks with Camille, Camille and I have decided to make some changes to our workload and it's distribution.
I put our subjects on the dry erase board for Camille today and told her what we have to do: Bible, Reading (read-alouds and independent), Math, Writing, Grammar, Spelling. And a separate column of subjects that are extras, which means they can be downsized dramatically or not done at all: History with art, Science with geography & the daily weather journal, French, Music, U.S. Geography on Fridays.
After 30 minutes of staring at the board, she came to me and said, "Mom, I love it all. Do I have to give something up? I don't want to." We talked about this past week, how the "have to" subjects are to be done before we can do the extras and that it's up to her if we do the extras. She became upset.
We talked about the changes we've made since first grade, in math we are using the supplement worksheets in Horizons and being consistent with what the TM says. This takes more time, right now I feel this time is needed. The supplement worksheets? I promised to use them only if I feel she needs it, problem solved.
We are dropping U.S. Geography. It can wait until 3rd and 4th grade and we want our Fridays to be very light. Bible, Daily Mental Math, and a little reading- that's it unless we want to do something else. Fridays are for field trips, finishing projects and for interruptions. Friday's work will take about 45 minutes, 20 for Bible, 10 for the math, and 15 for reading.
Our schedule is changing a little too. We can't change the 100+ degree weather right now but we can move around our daily attack plan! Lol. (Update: the weather has improved! This makes a HUGE difference!)
Here's our current schedule (with changes marked)
The kids were enjoying a little backyard time and next thing I know, "Moooom! Come and look, there's a bug the size of a potato!" Lol, well it's not the size of potato but just an exoskeleton of a some sort of beetle. I collected these when I was growing up so I called my mom to ask what it could be. Try katydid she said. Looked it up, nope. So can you tell me what this is? I always called them locusts. By the way, it claimed Danny's football, this was not staged. I'm a hero, you should have seen the pure amazement that I would reach down and pick up this weird looking potato buy like it was no big deal. Danny, who's only 3, said, "whoa!"
THANK YOU CAROLE!!! Thanks to Carole, see inside the comments, this has been correctly identified as a Cicada! A little impromptu science lesson for the kids. THANK YOU CHRISTIE! CHECK OUT THIS PHOTO OF A CICADA COMING OUT! http://boysplusacademy.blogspot.com/2007/07/cicada.html
A cicada also known as a "jar fly" is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are approximately 2,500 species of cicada around the globe, and many remain unclassified. Cicadas live in temperate to tropical climates where they are one of the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable (and often inescapable) acoustic talents. Cicadas are sometimes incorrectly called "locusts"[1], although they are unrelated to true locusts, which are a kind of grasshopper. Cicadas are related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs. In parts of the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States they are known as "dry flies" because of the dry shell they leave behind.
Cicadas do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not considered a pest. Many people around the world regularly complement their standard diet with cicadas: the female is prized for eating as it is meatier. Cicadas have been eaten (or are still eaten) in Ancient Greece, China, Malaysia, Burma, Australia, Latin America and the Congo. Cicadas are employed in the traditional medicines of China and Japan for hearing-related matters.[citation needed]
The word cicada is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada. In classical Greek it was called a tettix, and in modern Greek tzitzikas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
Barb of Harmony Fine Arts and http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/harmonyartmom is sharing a few articles she wrote for a homeschooling group years ago as she is clearing out her files. These are DO NOT MISS, especially for new homeschoolers and those seeking answers in their homeschooling journey. Here are links to the first three posts, but I would visit her daily to keep reading new posts. Please pray for Barb as well, as she is unable to speak due to a bad case of asthma and laryngitis so please include her in your prayers for healing today.
Today we read about the Hagia Sophia and looked at pictures online. Camille has chosen to attempt to duplicate this mosaic. The circle with the cross. Although I think it's wonderful that she wants to replicate something from the Hagia Sophia, why couldn't she choose a fish? This will be interesting and I hope fun.
Danny woke up from his nap and thought Camille was building him a road! She told him, "No, don't drive your bus all over the cross, Christ died on that cross for our sins and so we can live forever with Him in heaven!!!!" I think she's listening in our Bible lessons! Lol. Wow.
The final product. No, I'm not telling you that I was left to finish it about 20 minutes from the time the first picture was taken, or how many vehicles of Danny's has glue on their wheels. Did our lessons go as scheduled? No, and who really cares? This was a lot of fun.
Hey, even I can have a goofy graphic every now and then. The Lord has been working on my heart big time this weekend, putting the right people in the right place to offer encouragement just when I needed it. I've been blessed by His grace and I feel good. I listened to two sermons today (in our car) on the radio, one from a Baptist church about hero worship and a United Methodist preacher (not mine) about why we don't forget our sins when we're forgiven.
Nothing against my preacher husband, but it was refreshing. When I read my Bible this morning I was actually flipping through and you know how some will put their hand in the back of a book while they are flipping through a front part? Well, I happened to look at where my hand had fell in the back while I was looking through Proverbs. My eye immediately fell on Titus 3 and it just spoke to me this morning so I posted it, I didn't know if I was meant to share it or not but seeing how it is Sunday, why not?
Why was I in my car on Sunday listening to sermons? I was on my way to pick up Camille from her visit at her dad's. Danny was calmed by the church music and fell asleep and I had a chance to just listen to God's word and the preacher's message. It's funny how you don't shift in your seat when you're listening to a radio sermon. Lol. Or wonder if the buttons of your blouse are gaping, giving one of the older gentlemen in your church a view. No bulletin, no awkward small talk, just the open road and God. Sigh.
Camille and I talked all the way home about what this week would be like. She was upset when I told her that U.S. Geography had been dropped from our Fridays so I told her that *if* she wants to do it, we can but it's not something we have to do. She was satisfied with that. We talked about what we could do on Fridays if we have a good week in our lessons. We're going to have one field trip Friday a month, go to a museum, state park, something. The other Fridays will be decided during that week due to financial status. We spent 30 minutes coming up with all the free activities we could think of but we both agreed, Friday is for getting OUT of the house.
She's excited about having a "recess" after Math. I'm excited about her finishing her work in a timely way to enjoy recess. Lol. We stopped at Goodwill before coming home and found a used mosaic art kit that still had a lot of the foam squares (mosaics) left in it, paid our $1.50 for this week's art project. We're studying the Byzantine Empire in history and our art project is to create a mosaic, you tell that to a 7 year old and you get a blank stare. I was so excited to find the mosaic kit instead of using paper! Camille said, "I don't know what you're talking about but it sounds like fun!" I'm sure the cashier at Goodwill thinks I'm crazy too, I was grinning ear-to-ear as she rang up our $1.50 purchase.
Isn't the Hagia Sophia absolutely fabulous? Beautiful inside and out. Breath-taking. Okay, here's a link to see it closer and inside. I feel refreshed, the Lord has taken the doubts and worries and vanquished them. Our Fridays have been lightened up and designated, I have faith that the recess will help her stay on task in math, Camille loved the idea of reading when Danny is taking a nap- she was excited to uninterrupted time read to me! She also loved the idea of reading with Danny at bedtime. I've gone through our Bible lessons for the week and highlighted a discussion topic for further character development. I'm toying with the idea of dropping our Bible lesson on Friday and replacing it with a story from The Book of Virtues or Moral Compass by William Bennett.
If you're a new reader, please don't think I've got it all together! I may be intimidating with all this, I understand. Especially if you know that I've done customized lesson plans, we're on a schedule for our lessons and cleaning schedule. It's all God, He's put influences in my life to show me what I should be doing and I've been working hard at doing that and it's making a difference. We tried many different things last year in our first year of homeschooling and although we had a good year, it could have been so much better. I learned leaps and bounds and now I'm just applying what I learned and what is right for us for this year. I'm not done learning and growing by any means, but I've learned the importance of perseverance as well as planting seeds, tending them and having faith we will have a bountiful harvest.
He is the potter, I am the clay.
Jessica
Doing What Is Good
1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no-one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility towards all men.3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. 11 You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Sigh. I just wanted a reminder.
I didn't think of it this week when we were studying Illuminated manuscripts but a fellow blogger, Sylvia loves books even more than I do and she has illuminated manuscript links at her blog which I'll share here. So a big hat tip goes to Sylvia!
The Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research. It bridges the gap between a diverse user community and the limited resources of libraries by means of sample imaging and extensive rather than intensive cataloguing.
http://arb0rv1tae.typepad.com/photos/illuminated_manuscripts/index.html
She has her own collection of illuminated manuscript photos.
If you're learning Latin, love books, reading the great books or like book clubs and blogs- Sylvia has one of the best blogs out there.
Uh, this was my mistake. Horizons' TM said to give her a drill worksheet and see how long the student takes. It wasn't until AFTER she completed this that I realized she was only supposed to do ONE of these four drills on the page, not all four.
Bible scripture this week: 
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