Movies & Books

Charlotte's Web is in theatres and Camille wants to go see it. We haven't read the book yet so I've been contemplating whether to see it in the theatre before we read the book or read the book and catch it on video. Who am I kidding? We'll probably own this movie.

My indecision comes from wanting to enhance her imagination as much as possible. TV/Movies doesn't utilize the imagination, the work is all done- here it is on the screen. Of course we all know that when we read a book before seeing the movie adaptation we can formulate in our minds (imagination) how the character looks based on the author's description. Movies/TV take that away, an actor's face is in our minds as we read. Can you read Gone With The Wind without picturing Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is another example, when we read this will there be doubt that the book is wrong? Since the movie was seen first, will the book be deemed as boring? This is something I have struggled with as a reader, I prefer to read the book before the movie because I cannot get the actors out of my head! : ) In fact there are very few movies that I've watched that when I read the book first I was satisfied with. For example, An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg was a good book and the tone was important to the story. The movie satisfied my reading experience with the exception of Jennifer Lopez. Although she acted the part wonderfully, I didn't picture HER as Jean. However, movies like Message in the Bottle have me talking to the screen, "You left this and this out!"

I'm currently reading The Iliad and while I have seen the movie Troy before, I didn't fully understand what was happening the whys behind it. I'm within the last chapters of The Iliad and I decided to watch Troy. I haven't pictured Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom as Achilles or Paris, my imaginary versions are much more grander. I found myself again saying to the screen, "Not only did you leave this and this out, but you changed the plot! This war was 10 years! Helen loved her countrymen! Where is Zeus? Hera? Athena?" The book is so much BETTER! Of course, how could a movie compete with Homer?

The main reason I wanted to watch Troy was to understand a little better the fighting techniques that I'm reading about. I wanted to have a clearer understanding of the armor and the chariots. Now I do have to say that Eric Bana as Hector fits very well how I envision Hector but his character in the movie is a lot different than the book. I can say that this is one movie and book that the characters I envision are stronger than those of the movie, therefore the movie doesn't ruin my reading experience. Movies have politics, the screenwriters and directors manipulate the scenes to evoke feelings, attitudes and prejudices. Books are you and the author- you get to be the screenwriter, the author the director.

Read then screen. Talk about the differences. In fact, there is a book called Talking Pictures- A Parents' Guide to Using Movies to Discuss Ethics, Values, and Everyday Problems with Children. by Ronald Madison, Ed.D. and Corey Schmidt. Read the book, watch the movie adaptation and discuss!

One Year After Making the Decision

My goodness, is this a homeschooling parent's struggle or what? Looking at lists, catalogs, book recommendations, manipulatives, multimedia and feeling dizzy all the while! It might just be the custom homeschooler's plight. When I first started considering homeschooling (a year ago!) a prepared curriculum was all that I wanted. I didn't "trust" myself to provide wise curriculum choices for Camille.

What a difference a year makes! Now I'm cruising catalogs and book lists, pulling from this source and that source. I feel like with all that I've chosen, Camille will have a very thorough education, the best of all the classical curriculum available!

Last year, I was being told that Abeka was the best homeschooling curriculum and I was anxiously awaiting their catalog's arrival. This year, I have three bookcases filled with "living" books we've bought in the last year.

Last year, after realizing Abeka wasn't for us I discovered Sonlight. What a love affair I had with Sonlight, it seemed to be the best among prepared curriculums! A wonderful literature approach, worldly Christian focus and it even had P.E. classes! We were going to use Sonlight forever. What more could a new homeschooling parent want! This year, I'm using anything that fits Camille's learning style and my teaching style, most of it fits into a classical approach. This year, I know what a classical education is.

I have more confidence in our homeschooling selections this year than I did in my pinky finger last year! And I owe a lot of that confidence to my online friends, the wonderful homeschooling publishing community and most of all God. Without His answers to my prayers for discernment and guidance, I would feel alone in making such vital choices for our children. I've been involved in various conversations with homeschoolers from different perspectives, religious affiliations and educational philosophies in the past year. While at first it made my head spin, it has produced a lot of growth and maturity. After being tested quite a few times, I have a stronger faith, a clearer sense of what I believe and why and the strength and confidence necessary to fully apprecitation other's opinions without entertaining self-doubt. This is a continous work in progress.

Learning about yourself is just part of the process of homeschooling. Homeschooling highlights the parents' strengths and weaknesses as well as the childrens'. I know more about my children in this past year than in the collective eight years I've been blessed to take care of them. I am not the same person I was a year ago and my children aren't either, life is good. God is good.

A Verse Here, A Poem There

One of our new passions is poetry. Camille has blossomed by bounds since I started poetry memorization with her. She is very diligent about memorizing and just burst with pride when she's able to say a poem without prompt or help.

After reading about poetry and exploring it a little more, I made the decision to incorporate it into our day as much as possible. What most people don't realize is that poetry covers many types of verse. Most children's book are rhymed, and songs are considered poetry as well. In fact, a lot of times instead of singing a hymn, I'll read it as a poem.

Here's a few resources that you can look at to include poetry into your day.

Overall Memorization:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath by Laura M. Berquist
I really cannot recommend this highly enough, this book covers Grammar through Rhetoric stages and is filled with wonderful scripture and poems to memorize by increasing degrees.

The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett
This book's primary purpose is to provide moral stories but within it's volume are countless poems that you can use.

A Child's Introduction to Poetry: Listen While You Learn About the Magic Words That Have Moved Mountains, Won Battles, and Made Us Laugh and Cry by Michael Driscoll
This book comes with a CD and although I'm not one for books that look too busy, Camille loves it. The poems are fun and simple.

Classic Poems to Read Aloud by James Berry
This book is nice but I only have it because I bought it at Goodwill. There are other books you can buy that have the same poems, such as The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America by Donald Hall.

A treasury of great poems, English and American with the Lives of the Poets selected and integrated by Louis Untermeyer
This book is wonderful it contains wonderful poems as well as a little biography about the poet, and has both American and English poets.

If you like Rudyard Kipling, you'll love Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition
There are many poems that you can incorporate into history studies with this book.

A New Treasury of Poetry Compiled by Neil Philip
This is a wonderful book and we love the black and white illustrations throughout.

Of course there are many compliation poetry books but once you obtain a few you find that a lot of poems are repeated throughout them. I think I have Jabberwocky in most of them! Lol. These are books I've picked up from Goodwill, thrift stores and antique stores, with the exception of The Harp and Laurel Wreath (which I bought new), I don't think I paid more than $6 for any of these.

For particular subjects:
These are a few books I've found that I feel are gems. I've found that I tend to like any book by Jack Prelutsky, Lee Bennett Hopkins and William Cole.

History:
Susan Altman has done some wonderful books that fit perfectly with our history studies.
Modern Rhymes About Ancient Times Ancient Greece (Ancient Africa, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome are other titles).

Dancing in the Wind: Poetry and Art of the British Isles by Charles Sullivan
An amazing book that can carry you from the Middle Ages to present times.

U.S. History:
A Star-spangled Birthday: A Celebration in Song, Poetry, Facts, and Trivia
My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes by J. Patrick Lewis (also has world figures as well)

The Book of Virtues, The Harp and Laurel Wreath and other books I mentioned as overall poetry books also have wonderful historical poems.

Science:
Dinosaurs Forever by William Wise
A fun book published by Scholastic, mixes fun with science facts about the dinosaurs. The illustrations are very kid-friendly and the poems themselves are fanciful.

An Arkful of Animals by William Cole
This is a wonderful book to have as you study animals, we are incorporating this in with ours.

Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up by Lisa Peters
Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth by Marilyn Singer
A Pocketful of Starts: Poems about the Night
Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems by X.J. Kennedy

These books are great for adding poems to your nature journal or in helping discuss a topic. I've found it's best to find a poem and photocopy it or type/print it out and just stick in your child's science notebook. That way, when you come to that topic you won't be looking the poem up in a book, it'll be right there to enjoy. Plus, if you do a little work beforehand, you'll tend to not forget about it altogether.

Pass the Poetry, Please! by Lee Bennett Hopkins is worth looking at, there is information about poets and the different books they have written. It is a wonderful resource about how to use poetry with children and book suggestions. There are also activities and games to bring poetry alive with your students and how to teach poetry to older students. (It was written for classroom but it is just as valuable to the homeschool parent.)

There are many other poetry books worth mentioning but I don't have time. I have many other books on my wishlist for purchasing that are geared toward particular subjects in science, math and history.

20 Minutes Being Two

This is my son Danny. He's a fun-loving little one who is 2.5 years old and he loves to have adventures.
Let's take a look at what he did for 20 minutes this morning.

His bookshelf, looking rather raided. Hmm.

Oh, look on the floor. That's where the books went!

Danny! Let's clean up the books...Mom says. Where is Danny?

Looks like he got into the toolbox and wanted to do see
the world while I was investigating his book raid.

Where is he?

Oh, he's in his sister's room. Is he helping her clean up?
Let's see.

Oh, he's standing on the Zoob box, look at his coordinating skills!
Okay, why is he standing on the Zoob box?

Well that makes sense, if you can't reach the light chain that has
been shortened so that you CAN'T reach it, then pile up toys
to climb so that you DO reach it.

Two and a half years old. Twenty minutes.
I haven't mentioned the climbing the kitchen counter or
destroying his room.

I love him.

Here he is wearing his sister's Barbie skates.
Don't think I won't SAVE this picture!
Ah, the pleasures of being a stay at home mom.

The Book Of Virtues

I am talking about this book, not the Children's Book of Virtues which is smaller. I just wanted to be clear on that because since the titles are so similar they are easily confused.

This 832 page book contains chapters of literature and poems that deal with 10 virtues: self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty and faith. Sounds all neat and tidy, doesn't it?

While I have been contemplating which books to buy to bring a little more Charlotte Mason into our readings, I glanced through this book and noticed Andrew Lang's name and James Baldwin. If you're not familiar with Andrew Lang, he wrote the Red Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, Yellow Fairy Book and so on. James Baldwin is the author of Fifty Famous People among other books.

The stories in The Book of Virtues are short and perfect for read-aloud but I wanted to see if there was a schedule somewhere that aligned this book chronologically to be read alongside history. There is one site that has done this to a certain extent, Reading Your Way Through History. These stories within The Book of Virtues are just that, at times it is only a section of a longer story that highlights the virtue of the chapter.

Just to give a sampling of what can be found in The Book of Virtues, here's a listing of titles and authors in the first chapter, Self-Discipline.

• Good and Bad Children by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Please by Alicia Aspinwall
• Rebecca (Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably.) by Hilaire Belloc
• Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore by William Brighty Rands
• The Lovable Child by Emilie Poulsson
• John, Tom and James by Anonymous
• There Was A Little Girl by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• My Own Self by Joseph Jacobs
• To the Little Girl Who Wiggles by Laura E. Richards
• Jim (Who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion.) by Hilaire Belloc
• The Duel by Eugene Field
• Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite by Isaac Watts
• The King and His Hawk by James Baldwin
• Anger by Charles and Mary Lamb
• Dirty Jim by Jane Taylor
• Washing by Anonymous
• Table Rules for Little Folks by Anonymous
• The Little Gentlemen by Anonymous
• Our Lips and Ears
• Little Fred
• The Story of Augustus, Who Would Not Have Any Soup by Heinrich Hoffman
• The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc
• The Boy and The Nuts by Aesop
• The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs by Aesop
• The Flies and the Honey Pitt by Aesop
• Mr. Vinegar and His Fortune by James Baldwin
• and many more...

I suggest taking your own look at this book through your library or pulling it down off your bookshelf and reading a little. This is great for 2nd grade and up, of course you may want to pre-read the selections if you have a sensitive child. I forsee this book being used time and time again in our homeschool. I'm planning on using this as read-aloud using the Reading Through History information and for character study as we study history.

Our House Rules

1. Be Kind
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

2. Obey the first time.
Ephesians 6:1-3
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

3. Be Happy, Speak only of good things.
Psalms 34:1-3
1 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

4. Never lie. Always tell the truth.
Proverbs 12:22
The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.

5. Treat others how you want to be treated.
Matthew 7:12
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

6. Do not whine or complain.
Phil 2:14
Do everything without complaining or arguing

7. The first answer is the answer; do not nag.
Ephesians 6:1-3 (see above)

8. Show respect to adults. (May I? Please, Thank you)
1 Timothy 3:4
He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.

9. Share your toys.
2 Corinthians 9:11
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Deuteronomy 15:11
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

10. Always do your best.
2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

We used these for memorization and copywork until Camille was able to tell me what each rule is. I didn't require her to memorize the scriptures yet because some of them are long. This has been very effective in our home. The only rule I've been thinking of adding is Nobody is having fun if everybody isn't having fun. I have to work on that because the grammar isn't correct.

Rules for Mamma
1. Say what you mean and mean what you say
2. Keep your promises
3. Keep your expectations in check
4. Walk away when frustrated and collect yourself before responding
5. Make sure discipline/punishment fits the "crime"
6. Drink coffee, eat chocolate daily

Calvino Meme

Read about at Sylvia's blog, linked back to Kate's blog- where it all started. HT: Sylvia, very cool snap.

the Books You’ve Been Planning To Read For Ages
The entire set of The Great Books of the Western World

the Books You’ve Been Hunting For Years Without Success
All the Cherry Ames Nurse books in good reading condition

the Books Dealing With Something You’re Working On At The Moment
150 Great Books by Bonnie Helms, Invitation to the Classics

the Books You Want To Own So They’ll Be Handy Just In Case
The World Book Encyclopedia set, Norms and Nobility, please feel free to look at my wishlist.

the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer
The Art of the Novel, Habits of the Mind, How to Read Slowly, Aristotle Made Easy, The Story of Philosophy

the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves
Since I've obtained the Great Books of the Western World, I need the Oxford English Dictionary.

the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.
Old books with clean pages and readable type. Compliation books of poetry, biographies and art.

From Our Home Library

These are books I've pulled from our shelves to be read-aloud. I put an asterisk (*) besides the ones I'm not sure about reading yet. I have a few books that I have ordered/will order because they are Ambleside selections for Year 1, hopefully they will be here next week. I'll list them after the ones we already have.

We are currently reading Milly-Molly-Mandy.

Next from our shelves:

1. James Herriot's Treasury for Children
2. Stories and Fables (Childcraft How and Why Library)
3. The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
4. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers*
5. The Adventures of Chatterer the Squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess
6. Giant Treasury of Beatrix Potter
7. Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne
8. Roman Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean
9. A Child's Book of Myths and Enchanting Tales (compliation from older books) illustrated by Margaret Evans Price
10. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (switch to independent read)
11. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter* (switch to independent read)
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (switch to independent read)
13. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey* (switch to independent read)

Books that have been ordered:

1. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
2. Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
3. The Book of Fables and Folk Stories by Horace E. Scudder
4. Reading-Literature The Primer by Free and Treadwell (independent read aloud)
   

Books that will be ordered:

1. Burgess Animal Book for Children
2. Burgess Bird Book for Children
3. Pinocchio
4. Understood Betsy
5. Christian Liberty Nature Readers (Books 1-3) (read aloud to me)
   

Our history read-alouds are for reading during the week as well but I find it's better to read them right after we do our history lesson. If a history read-aloud is longer, it generally is read during our nightly reading time. If you have any input about these books for a 6.5 year old, I'm open to suggestions or warnings.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Be there.
I find there are times I get so wrapped up into being busy that I neglect to "be there" for my children. There are moments that are lost when I say, "yes, sweetie" without really looking and celebrating what my children have done. I want to be there and celebrate each victory and build-up when there's been a loss or failure. Nothing is more important. This is also for my dh, I tend to be too busy for him with the children and I want to make more of an effort to "be there" for him as well.

2. Read GOOD books to my children.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately and realizing that just because a book is visually appealing to a child, that doesn't make the message good. I knew this when I decided to homeschool classically but it takes time and reading a lot of reading lists and books about reading aloud before you get the hang of it. I'm not an extremist, I don't want to only read Christian books or only read long unabridged titles. I do however want our reading selections to reflect the virtues that we value.

3. Play as much as we can.
I don't want to lose sight of the fact my children are 6.5 and 2.5, this is sometimes hard when you're in charge of their education and discipline. I don't do it often because we dance, we play and we run but there are times I find myself wishing they were a little older. : ) I guess this is a part of Resolution #1.

4. Create a yearly scrapbook
I'm doing this though my blog and taking pictures of Camille's artwork. Once a week, I'll post pictures of Camille's work- her choice. This will be printed out at the end of the year and saved for her.

5. Remember ME
I tend to leave personal pleasures by the wayside for my family's preferences. I need to remember to paint my own nails every now and then. I just need to carve out a little pampering for myself from time to time.

The Month-long Week

How can you make a week seem longer? How about making a week as long as a month? Let's see, grab a 2.5 yo boy, throw in a 6.5 yo girl, mix with grandparents that wish to spoil the 2.5 yo boy rotten, a handful of brother and sister in laws with opinions about how you're parenting and stir.

Then repack your vehicle, drive to your parents house and unload. Literally, unload. Go through transitioning with 2.5 yo boy back into disciplining routine while under your own parents' supervision. Go after-Christmas shopping with your mother. Repack, cram, stuff and stack your vehicle with the Christmas booty. Drive eight hours home with 2.5 yo and 6.5 yo wanting to stop every half hour or ask how close we are.

That is how a week can seem like a month. We haven't done the actual drive yet but tomorrow I will be tackling it with dh and grateful to see our own front door. There should be a medicine or something to help deal with visiting family back to back. Why not? There's a medicine for everything else! Lol.

We've had a great Christmas though, the kids are excited about their new toys and I'm 85% happy with what was given them. Playmobil is a new toy that will be requested in the New Year for birthdays and Christmas.

I cannot wait to sleep in my own bed, for my 2.5 yo to sleep in his own bed and be able to tackle the New Year in our own home. I'm thinking about resolutions- although I would be making changes even if we weren't approaching a new year. I'll write about that next.

All I can say is that I am grateful dh brought his laptop along for the ride and that both my inlaws and parents have wireless service. I don't think I could have added arguments about what to watch on tv to the mix. I already have a Wii-crazed dh that swears using it wouldn't get out of control. Say it with me, "yeah, right!" The Wii is pretty cool but I don't want my children to grow up with video games. I stressed the point that we have brand new board games to play, as well as other games on their way once I order Camille's 2nd grade curriculum. BTW, I hope I will be able to say that I've ordered it and it's on it's way this month. Cash is a wonderful Christmas present!

I needed this break from our lessons, it has given me a chance to regroup and refocus. Taking a week off at home just isn't the same as getting away for a week. I'm excited to be going home tomorrow.

Read-Alouds: A little more Charlotte if you please...

I've been thinking about read-alouds lately, among other things, and I've realized that I am naturally drawn to the books available at LostClassicsBooks.com and YesterdaysClassics.com. James Baldwin, Jennie Hall, Alfred Church and others have been enticing me for months now. Meanwhile, I've struggled to decide what children's literature to read next aloud to Camille.

We have wonderful books on our shelves and it is very hard to decide what is good for her at her age now and what will razzle and dazzle her. I also have a little problem with lack of imagination in Camille. She's very sequential and structured, always wanting to know what is next and what to expect. I don't know if Mary Poppins by Travers will be a good pick for her or which books are a little too old for her at her stage. I know without a doubt I want to read James Herriott's Treasury for Children after we finish Milly-Molly-Mandy but what next?

What exactly is the "plan"? I guess I'm a little sequential and structured myself. I need a plan or at least a path. Lol. I want to know what I'm reading to her and why. This makes everything a little harder for a mother who hasn't read the books herself in over 10 years.

I'm contemplating mixing The Well-Trained Mind's literature list and Ambleside Online's literature list for each year. Ambleside Online uses the books I've been drooling over and I feel my goals spiritually for my children are addressed by AO's selections. However, I need to use the books I have on hand too. Hmm. I know without a doubt I am adding more of a Charlotte flavor to our homeschool, at least with picture study, literature selections and poetry study. Nature study is touch and go with us, it hasn't been the blazing success I envisioned in my mind when we first embarked on this journey but I hope that it will become a standard in the months to come.

With poetry, I am eagerly waiting for the opportunity to purchase The Harp and the Laurel Wreath (along with the rest of our 2nd grade year books and curricula). I want to create a poetry copybook for Camille that will have a place to draw a picture narration of the poem and then tackle the poem two lines at a time. This has worked beautifully for us so far. We are both loving having more poetry in our day that Camille reminds me if I forget to read a poem before I read Story of the World or if I don't read a funny poem before our math lessons. I have a math poetry book coming from my recent splurge at the bookcloseouts.com dollar for dollar sale (ends Dec. 30th).

I want to tap into as much goodness as I can with our readings and I feel most comfortable using older books to accomplish this. Milly-Molly-Mandy is a prime example of this, MMM exemplifies character traits that I would like Camille to emulate. Camille is soaking this book up and is enjoying reading a chapter a night aloud. I want to continue this, although I could do it with a book that doesn't twist my tongue all into knots. *grin*

On a homeschooling message board I participate in, we recently had the discussion about whether the Magic Tree House series was worth reading. It was interesting to find out what my fellow classical homeschoolers thought about these books and although I left with the impression- "I have them on the shelf, if Camille wants to read them they are there." I don't really want her to read them. I don't like series books, in fact I'd like to stay far, far away from them with the exception of Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie. I like these mostly because the children grow and their experiences change and they are faced with growing pains and overcome them. Books like Magic Tree House where the characters stay the same and the surroundings change are a little too much twaddle for my tastes.

Just to clarify, I bought the Magic Tree House books 1-29 from Scholastic while Camille was in public school kindergarten. I thought it was a great buy considering the price of these separately. I did not know what twaddle was or even consider these mind-candy at the time. I thought they were great readers, easy on the child but added in a little dash of history and adventure. Now, that I know more about good literature for children, what is available out there and keeping our goals in mind, these really don't fit us.

I don't have a plan of action yet for the read-alouds, maybe after I get back home and compare the WTM literature list, Ambleside Online's list and our books that are currently on the shelf, I can piece together something wonderful. All I know is that I would like a little more Charlotte, if you please.

Early Resolution

I know I'm a little early, I tend to do that. Sometimes I have to be held back! Anyways, my friend Sylvia has a fabulous idea and I wanted to share it and get the idea written about before I wander off to the in-laws for more Christmas joy.

She took a year's worth of her blog and had it printed at a print shop into a book. I think this is a fabulous (see I'm missing doing Fabulous Friends Friday, which I'll start up again soon) idea! To implement this idea without using all my useless banter, I'm going to start a category called Camille's Work. Once a week, we'll photograph her work to be displayed. It'll be either a full day of work or just one piece that she wants to share. Then after we're done, we'll print a Camille book. Of course when Danny is old enough, he'll have his own category.

So go check out Sylvia's post and start thinking about those New Year's Resolutions! Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,
Jessica

Our Christmas

A Click is a Click.

Although it is really nice to find out that I was appreciated while my blog was at Homeschoolblogger.com, I'm still a click away. At some point others had to click on a link that brought them to my blog at HSB, well now instead of staying in homeschoolblogger, that same click brings you to blogger. No difference.

If the difference is the links back to homeschoolblogger, not a problem! I was going to work on links to my friends anyways. I have numerous blogs that I want to link to so that I may visit and wreak havoc at my lesiure. LOL. I'm in a very good mood. We're about to make sugar cookies for Santa and the kids are cleaning up their rooms. Camille has it in her head that if she doesn't put away every single toy, Santa won't leave her anything. I told her that wasn't so but that we clean up because we like our things and want to take care of them. That was a wasted teachable lesson because the next thing out her mouth was, "Danny, Santa's not going to leave any new toys for you if you don't go pick up your room!" Geesh. No wonder he cried when he sat on Santa's lap at the mall.

Personally, I'm about tired of Santa. We'll see after tomorrow. Dh is making dinner tonight-a church member sent us a Omaha Steak package so we'll be eating good tonight. I'm finishing up laundry and wrestling the kids so I'll end here. I had to take a little break from cleaning, I know you know what I'm talking about.

Today is our Christmas Eve

I know it's a few days early but we have to do it this way in order for our children to have a Christmas that isn't rushed. Tomorrow is Saturday and they'll have all day to play with their Christmas goodies and then we'll attend Christmas Eve services Saturday night. Yes, even the services are early this year. Sunday we'll have normal services and then we're hi-tailing it dh's parent's house.

So, yes today is our Christmas Eve and we're going to make sugar cookies for Santa, read Twas' the Night Before Christmas and read our Christmas devotion. I have half of the presents wrapped already, so tonight will not be the mad rush it has been in the past. Dh refuses to wrap presents, he says he "can't" - I'll admit it is a mess when he does it so it's left to me. Which is fine, I like to make the presents pretty. Lol.

I decided we'd take our Grammar, Reading and Math lessons with us to the grands' houses just in case we need a break from the grands. Shh. I didn't just say that. Of course, if you do the visiting thing you know what I'm talking about. Everyone needs a break from being told what to do, the suggestion drops, and the constant- "oh, look at what he did! Danny is so smart!" I'm also taking a few library books to read to the kids. I love our nightly reading time, it's as if the world stops for us just to sit and listen to stories.

Another reason to dislike Bratz dolls- sweatshop conditions in China, CNN just reported on it. I didn't need another reason to dislike Bratz but hey, it works for me. We're reading Milly-Molly-Mandy right now and although I get tongue-tied more times than not, it's a wonderful book. I recommend it for all little girls 8 and below.

I have a few thoughts just rolling around in my head so bare with me. What is up with the FREEBIE that's not FREE? If you're going to entice customers with the word FREEBIE, give it for FREE. Don't try to get a customer to buy something to get something free. Especially homeschoolers. If you're homeschooling, I'm sure your email box has been filled with deals from your favorite online stores, and I check out every single email that says "free" or "freebie"- I completely respect the companies that actually do give away an item once a month for FREE, no strings attached. Getting off the soapbox before I say something I shouldn't.

I'll post Christmas pictures tomorrow, it's one of the pleasures of doing Christmas a little early. I can't wait.

Our First Grade Lessons

Here is a recap of our First Grade using The Well-Trained Mind among other resources.

Bible (in order of how we used them)
Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schooland
Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor
Right Choices by Kenneth Taylor
Explorer's Bible Study Beginnings I: Old Testament

also learned/memorized
The Lord's Prayer
The Apostles' Creed
Our House Rules (scripturally based)
Hymns from Explorer's Bible Study that are on the cd "My First Hymnal"

Handwriting
D'Nealian Handwriting Practice by MCP until we switched to copywork with scripture, then switched to poetry. Started Classically Cursive by Veritas Press (also D'Nealian)

Poetry Memorization
First Language Lessons and Poem Copybook of "A Child's Garden of Verses" by R.L. Stevenson. We also read poems that pertain to anything we're studying, any subject or just to have a good laugh.

Math
Horizons 1 box set, I like the Teacher's Manual, also bought RightStart Math Games but haven't used it but 3x. We will probably use it more as the concepts get more complicated in our math studies.

Science
Life science studies based on WTM rev. ed.'s suggestions. See the right hand sidebar for the Life Science download. We've raised a frog but won't do butterflies this year, we did catch caterpillars but they died b/c we couldn't find their food source.

History
SOTW Vol 1. with Activity Guide reading Egermeier's Bible Storybook alongside with schedule from www.paulasarchives.com. We've added the VP History cards/CDs for memorization purposes and we love them!

Will also read Peace & Peril by Mindy & Brandon Winthrow at the end of SOTW 1 to start church history. We've done about 10 projects throughout the year for history.

Reading
Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading with Dick and Jane, Bob Books, Nora Gaydos readers (Now I'm Reading) series. We tried the McGuffey Readers but we just didn't stick with it.
Books we've read:
Click here to see the list
It needs to be updated but I took pretty good record. I also started dd on a reading log, she's to read 10 books on her level or just about and write in a log:
Date:
Title:
Author:
Favorite character:

this will increase as her reading skills do.


Grammar
First Language Lessons with the audio cd and Ruth Heller's books about grammar as well as poems I've found about grammar.

Spelling
Spelling Workout A (finished in 4 months)
Spelling Workout B (finished in 4 months)
We're done a little dictation throughout the year, really just about spelling words. We've increased from being able to say 1 letter at a time to saying 4 or 5 letters.

Language
We've decided to learn French, in fact- becoming a bilingual family. DD6, DS3 and myself are working towards being able to speak French all day and read/write in French. We're using a bunch of different resources, The Easy French is the curriculum I chose. We're putting off Latin until 3rd or 4th grade.

Art
We decided to focus on Art this year so we used Artistic Pursuits, K-3 Book 1. This went very well, dd's favorite subject! I'm combining Artistic Pursuits into history next year so we can study music as a separate subject. We also used Harmony Fine Arts (www.harmonyfinearts.com) which combines art and music á la Charlotte Mason in chronological order.

Other activities:
-DD started piano lessons (1x a week)
-We tried Recorder but she couldn't finger the holes correctly (used Recorder Fun!)

Our 2nd Grade

As classical homeschoolers using The Well-Trained Mind as a guide, we will be studying the Middle Ages/Early Renaissance & Reformation period in history.

Here's my purchasing list for 2nd grade and I put an asterisk by items we've already acquired. (I find it's useful to buy a little at a time.) We are buying most of our items from RainbowResource.com because they have the best selection and price.


GENERAL BOOKS & OTHER HELPS
The Harp and Laurel Wreath by Laura Berquist
Girls Think of Everything: Stories Ingenious
Writing Without Fear CD by Susan W. Bauer*
Science in the Classical Curriculum CD by Susan W. Bauer*

BIBLE
Daily Morning Study: Explorer's Bible Study-Beginnings II, Precious in His Sight (NT). Evening Reading: We also intend to keep reading Egermeier's Bible Storybook. I recently found a wonderful book called Beautiful Bible Stories by Patricia Summerlin Martin, and will use this as a follow-up to Egermeier's.

LATIN
Prima Latina with CD, DVDs, flashcards, Lingua Angelica CD and songbook.*

HANDWRITING/COPYWORK
Classically Cursive from Veritas Press. Since Camille has learned D'Nealian handwriting this is perfect for us, it uses scripture and catechism for cursive instruction copywork. I'm also looking at creating our own copywork books based on free resources from the web using literature and poetry.

MATH
We're continuing our Horizons usage with Horizons 2 box set. We are very happy with Horizons and Camille is excelling.
Extra: Daily Mental Math Student Book - Grade 2, we also bought Right Start Math Games Kit (K-6) and love it.

GRAMMAR
First Language Lessons, second grade portion. Thankfully, Jessie Wise will have another installment of First Language Lessons for third grade available in 2008 but if for some reason we don't use it, we'll move onto Rod & Staff's English 3. I did purchase the First Language Lessons audio cd and I am very pleased with this.

SPELLING
We're finished with Spelling Workout A and we've just started the B workbook. This is working well for us and Camille enjoys it. If she keeps up the current pace we'll be using Spelling Workout C and D for 2nd grade. Games: What’s GNU Game

SCIENCE
I'm creating my own lessons for Earth/Space and I'm incorporating Geography, there is no better match up! What we're using: Usborne's First Encyclopedia of Our World, First Encyclopedia of Space, and The Geography Book by Caroline Arnold as our spines. The Geography Book has wonderful age-appropriate activities that align perfectly with earth science study.

Other items:
Hands-On Earth Science (this is great!)
Weather Gr. 1-2 (Brown Bag Science)
Color & Learn: Space Exploration
Color & Learn: Dinosaurs
Color & Learn: Rocks and Minerals,
Color & Learn: Solar System
My Calendar Book
Seeing Stars
Break-Your-Own Geodes (Box of 10)
Nature Reader Book 1 & 2
Cheap Charts - Solar System
Fun with Nature: Take-Along Guide
Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations
Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy
Global Puzzle*
A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky* (I highly recommend)
Professor Noggin's Earth Science, Scientists Card games
Activity Rock Kit at RR($4.75)
Galileo and Stargazers CD by Jim Weiss
Planet Quest game

We found a planetarium at Walmart that allows you to rotate the planets around the sun for $20, a deal in comparison to ones seen online. It does reflect the stars on the ceiling but this wasn't my purpose in buying it. I want a visual aid to show the alignment of the planets and their orbit around the sun.

We're also going to use Men of God, Men of Science* by Henry Morris to do a short monthly biographical study of scientists, which I will create a worksheet to use for this.


ART & MUSIC
We're going to continue our journey with Artistic Pursuits K-3, Book 2. It has been super simple to use and Camille loves it. I have added other art books to enhance our learning experience and I absolutely love Harmony Fine Arts' art and music curriculum for this reason. We're going to continue with a weekly nature journal and weekly art lesson, if Camille had her way she'd do art everyday.

Other than private piano lessons, which are dependent on funds, we'll be using Classical Magic. I absolutely love their six year schedule for classical music appreciation. Music will be our main focus of our 2nd grade year and we'll be learning a little musical theory as well. I'm still looking for a great book to introduce us but we will get these flashcards- Essentials of Music Theory Note Naming Flash and Music for Little Mozarts Music Activity Board to help with showing musical notes on a scale. I'm assuming our teacher for piano lessons will have a preference book for theory or will be able to suggest an excellent one. If not, I have one in mind, Let's Learn Music series by Hayes. We're also getting Stories of Great Composers Book and CD for biographies. I'll figure out how to intermingle these things once I have them.

HISTORY
The Story of the World Vol 2: Middle Ages with Activity Guide. Here's the books I'm going to buy, the books we own have an asterisk. Any other books will be borrowed from the library.

To Enhance Biblical History

Fox's Book of Martyrs*
The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History* by J. Stephen Lang, Randy Petersen
Church History in Plain Language* (I'll use to help me along, not for dd)
Peril & Peace* by Mindy Withrow
Monks & Mystics* by Mindy Withrow (these are excellent, highly recommended)

Books
Story of King Arthur & Other Celtic Heroes (love Padraic Colum)
Eric the Red & Leif the Lucky
Historic Communities - Life on a Plantation
Whipping Boy
Making of a Knight
From Akebu to Zapotec
Who Were the Vikings?
If You Lived in the Days of the Knights
Minstrel in the Tower
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess
Before Columbus (Landmark Books)
Medieval Feast / Aliki
Joan of Arc (Landmark)
Montezuma (Historic Bios)
St. George and the Dragon
Shakespeare’s Stories for Young Readers by Nesbit
Who in the World Was the Acrobatic Empress? The Story of Theodora
Who in the World Was the Unready King? The Story of Ethelred

Books we already have
Beowulf: A New Telling
Tales from Shakespeare
The Bard Of Avon
Around the World In a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz
Favorite Tales from Around the World
Medieval Times: Art and Civilization
Kings and Queens (Famous Lives)
Raiders and Traders (All In A Day's Work)
Aztec & Maya Life in an Ancient Civilization
The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by Ann McGovern
Meet Christopher Columbus
East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales From the North
Exploring lost cities (Explorer books)
Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)
Favorite Medieval Tales
Good Queen Bess : The Story of Elizabeth I of England
How Children Lived
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Kings and Queens of Britain
In the Daily Life of the Vikings
The Story of King Arthur
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (Puffin Classics)
Tales of King Arthur (Paperbacks) by Felicity Brooks
The Knight of the Lion
Medieval Times by Pasquale, Giovanni Di
Middle Ages: Everyday Life
The Mightiest Heart
Pirate waters
PRINCE BOGHOLE
Sword In The Stone, The (level 2) (Hello Reader)
The Three Musketeers
Who in the World Was the Forgotten Explorer?: The Story of Amerigo Vespucci (Who in the World)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Great Illustrated Classics) by Howard Pyle

I know I have a few different King Arthur books and we'll decide what to use as we come to it.


Activity Books, Kits, Games and Charts
Knight’s Treasure Chest
Leonardo Da Vinci & Renaissance Treaure Chest
Vikings Treasure Chest
Shakespeare Treasure Chest*
Shakespeare for Kids*
Knights and Castles
Marco Polo for Kids
Prof Noggin’s Explorers, Medieval Times, Ancient Civilizations, Earth Science, Outer Space card games
Middle Ages Chronology/Town Life Charts
Renaissance Chronology/Artists Charts


Coloring Books
these are for our read-alouds
Shakespeare Coloring Book
Castles of the World Coloring Book
Celtic Gods and Heroes Coloring Book
Columbus Discovers America Coloring Book
Exploration of North America Coloring Book
Indian Tribes of North America Coloring Book
King Arthur Coloring Book
Middle Ages Coloring Book
Norse Gods and Goddesses Coloring Book
Story of the Vikings Coloring Book
Medieval Alphabet to Illuminate Coloring Book

I learned a few lessons this year, if you can invest in books that will be used multiple times do so. The library, although it is a homeschooler's best friend, is not as dependable as I would like it to be. I've waited 3 weeks to get a book through interlibrary loan with no good reason and it was, of course, a particular story I wanted to read for the time period. These are books chosen from multiple lists- Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, Veritas Press, WTM, All Through the Ages, and others. I haven't even seen the AG for SOTW 2 so any books from the SOTW AG will come from our library.

I've also decided to get more manipulative items this year, and I'll be forthright, my Rainbow Resource list totals just under $800. Most of what we're purchasing in non-consumable so this is not only Camille's 2nd grade year, it's Danny's too. We've bought the books that we already have through BookCloseouts.com, thrift/antique stores, used bookstores, Goodwill, Salvation Army and I've gotten a good many from swapping books at Book Mooch.

We're also going to be doing a dinosaur study during our month off and starting an informal U.S. Geography/State study using Hold That Thought's U.S. Geography cd. Two states a month is enough for us, like I said this will be very informal.

Coffee Cake and Books

Tomorrow we're doing our lessons, wrapping presents for the grands and I'm going to attempt to make a coffee cake. We cleaned house today, including adding one more 5 shelf bookcase to Camille's bedroom. She now has two. Our parsonage is a good size but the rooms are a little awkward, plus no matter how much I'd love to put certain pieces of furniture into storage and line the walls with bookcases, it's not a good idea.

Actually, I'm just about book-ed out. I'm still mooching books at Book Mooch and I've gotten some really wonderful books for my children and myself. I also participated in the Dollar for Dollar sale at BookCloseouts.com, where no matter what you spend, they give you that amount in free books (of course from their list of books for free). Next month, we're buying our 2nd grade curricula and other than the books from Book Mooch, I'm done buying books. The rest will be housed at the library, lol. My dh says I need to read. I know.

I try to buy books that we would like to read longer than the library would like us to and books that serve multiple purposes or good reference books. That reminds me, I have to go to the library tomorrow and pick up this week's books.

I've got to pick up:
Fire into ice : adventures in glass making by James Houston
The seven voyages of Sinbad the sailor by John Yeoman
Great wonders of the world by Russell Ash
Teaching children about life and earth sciences : ideas and activities every teacher and parent can use by Elaine Levenson.

By waiting until tomorrow I'll also get to pick up (hopefully):
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Cox, Reg.
The king in the garden by Leon Garfield
My First Book about Georgia by Carole Marsh

I have a love/hate relationship with our interlibrary loan system. I love to get the books I need but hate to get in random order or a week before/after we're studying the topic. I also wish they would include audio/video in the interlibrary loan options. However, I can drive to just about any Georgia library and check out whatever I'd like and have it returned through my library.

I better make the ladies at the library a coffee cake too. That means I'll have to make them tomorrow morning. I also have a writing project that I'm working on when I can collect my thoughts to write it.

We're leaving Sunday to go to the grands, dh's parents first then 3 days later, my parents. Stressful. First you go where you know you're going to be bossed around for three days and then you leave to go to another place where your dh is going to be stressed from being bossed around. I pray this year will go smoothly- the 8 hour car ride home gets to be more relaxing once we're an hour away from the place we left. LOL. It's amazing how our parents want things to be a certain way and only give you a little wiggle room for your own preferences. I love them dearly and can't wait to see them.

Geesh, is my rambling finished yet? Yes. It is.

She's a Visual Learner

Yikes. I knew that see preferred some things visual but I had Camille tagged as an auditory learner for most of this school year. My fellow WTMers enlightened me regarding our problems with narration- saying that it might be contributed to the fact she's not an auditory learner.

I guess those Jim Weiss cd's won't be needed, although *I* still want them. I can't justify getting them just because I want them though. It pains me not to be able to utilize something so wonderful but I am very grateful I didn't invest in them yet or the Story of the World audio cds! What stumps me is that she loves for me to record some of our memorizations on cassette tape where she can listen and repeat with the tape. Thinking about it, she usually has the item halfway memorized when she does the tape.

We did a little test to see if the Jim Weiss cd's are completely out of the picture or not- we talked about it (Camille and I) and she said that if she can draw a picture while listening or in a coloring book, she'd try her best to listen. She's such a doll!
It didn't work. She colored a beautiful picture from the Ancient Egypt Dover coloring book but didn't absorb much from the Jim Weiss cd, Egyptian Treasures.

I did get the History Scribe notebooking files for history and biographies to beef-up our history notebook, now I realize what a great buy they were for her. This makes our history notebook more like a workbook- something she needs as a visual learner. We also have charts on our walls, I guess I'll need to invest in those with the money I was going to spend on Jim Weiss.

Since she's visual this means all the wonderful things like Classical Kids cds, Jim Weiss' cds, pretty much all audio files don't do it for her. Urgh. I'm glad to know this but it's a little disheartening. Thankfully I haven't spent too much money on these items but I also guess that I need to cancel our membership to Simply Audiobooks. This is a little hard for me, I enjoy audiobooks. Nobody reads to me anymore. : ( Yeah, I know- "get over it, Jessica." I am very grateful to know what my dd's learning style is at this point. Hopefully by utilizing this fact we can finally avoid some of the more frustrating moments in our daily lessons.

The dvds that I picked up at Sam's Club are going to be invaluable to us. I'm going to learn all I can about having a visual learner, including the struggles they have and what obstacles need to be overcome. First, I need to modify my Rainbow Resource wishlist and see how much money we're going to save by not purchasing the Jim Weiss cds. LOL. I'm still going to get the coloring books so that she can color while I read-aloud to her if she chooses.

Monday in December

I cannot believe we're a week from Christmas! Thankfully, we have all our shopping done and completed. The wrapping is a whole other ballgame. See, I can hide unwrapped presents but once they are wrapped, I have to worry about tearing the paper, smooshing the bow or the tag falling off.

DH says that we should put the gifts under the tree without wrapping them. Yeah, right. He says that only because HE doesn't gift wrap. Online buying is ingenious! I've bought my dad a gift and sent it to my mom, she's got to wrap it- but it comes back on you too. In-laws sent me a gift for dh that's too big to travel with, guess who's got to wrap it? Maybe I'll just take that one out of the box, lol.

I'm going to pick up Camille today, post-NYC trip. I hope she'll be excited to tell me all about it. I can't wait to see photos, which I'll share, of course. There are webcams in NYC that allows you to see live feeds, the only problem is that only PCs can use it, I'm on a very cool Mac. So, I didn't get to "see" her in NYC but she was excited on the phone when they called to check in.

We're doing school Tuesday- Friday this week. Our 3R's are Reading, Math and Grammar. We do these everyday without fail. Bible is in that too but if we miss it, I don't worry about it. Oh, that sounded very sinful. I think we'll have a regular week but I'm not going to stress too much. We're having problems with our narrations and I've known this- I thought it would improve with time. I figured she would understand what I'm asking her to do if we just kept moving forward. Guess what? She doesn't get it.

So back to square one with narrations. We're going to do this everyday until she becomes comfortable, using the Aesop Fables. We're making a narration jar so that I don't ask the same questions all the time. I can get quite boring that way. LOL.