Narration...

image courtesy of hearinghealthmatters.org

One of my favorite Charlotte Mason "tools" is the art of narration. Simply put, narration is "narration is retelling in your own words", allowing a child to tell you what they have learned. Narrations can be verbal, written, acted out, drawn/painted... so many options!

Narration is something I have used all along, and still use, even with teenagers. For example, I leave the kids notes every morning that I work. Today's note asked them to each read or watch something to do with science, and that I will expect them to tell me something about it later. That's a very simplistic approach to narration, one of the most basic. It is certainly easy to implement!

Sometimes I ask for more involved narrations, usually written. They can write a story, or a summary. The Girl writes a lot of short stories, and illustrates them. She's spontaneously made art projects that go with what she learned, such as a 3D frog life cycle collage. The Boy tends to be more straightforward in his approach—he'll write a summary, or an outline of facts. Sometimes though, he'll render an image of something he studied in Blender, and he has notebooks full of diagrams, conversion charts, and things of that nature.

Why use narration?

First of all, it naturally teaches the kids to summarize... at least a little, though as anyone who has listened to kids talk about their interests know, they can really give a lot of detail!

Secondly, telling back what they have learned cements it more firmly in their minds.

Thirdly, it is a form of feedback that can be expressed in so many ways. Tests don't generally allow as many creative approaches! And narration lets kids add in more of what they do know, even from ideas/readings/other things that may at first seem unrelated. Tests don't have that flexibility.

I'm eager to hear about what my kids learned this morning!

Monday Musings...

...Over the Weekend...

We headed to the coast for a sunset. One of my favorite things about living where we do is that the beach is only about 40 minutes away.

...Outside My Window...

It is really fall! We have bouts of rain, followed by days of clear, cold (for us) beauty. Sweaters, scarves, the occasional knit hat... all are coming out of storage at last. There is green poking up through the ground everywhere.

...In Our House & Kitchen...

I am really trying to be more on the ball with menu planning. And making good use of leftovers. For example, after our hike last week, we roasted up some turkey legs. The leftover meat went for turkey nachos after the beach visit, and then the bones will make a great stock for Friday's slow cooker soup, exact recipe to be determined.

And I'm having the kids do cleaning bursts every day. Even if they only spend 10-15 minutes at a time cleaning, it makes a huge difference. And while they're cleaning one area, I tackle another one. That reminds me, we need to clean out the rain gutters again while the sun is shining!

...In Our Homeschooling...

Yesterday we got off to a great start for the week. We read in our history book; read about the sun and seasons; and did math (The Boy got 96% on his first Teaching Textbooks test!). The Girl is making fantastic progress with Mastering Math Essentials (thank you Erin!)

The rest of this week, we plan to read another few chapters of history; start The Glorious Adventure; read some more of The Hobbit; do at least 3 more math lessons; and do some Brave Writer work. The Boy will be working on brainstorming for an essay/writing project, and he'll be crafting his thesis (I'll have him use Thinking In Threes for assistance with this); The Girl will do some copywork (probably poetry); and we'll do some freewriting. I also came across an old book in my bookshelves, called Practical Exercises in Basic English, that has some good exercises for The Girl.

...Art and Such...

Our artist this month is Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and here is what we have been looking at and/or will be looking at (as always, I just print these and hang them up on the fridge):

As far as art projects, I need to pull out a few of our instructional books, and choose something to do! I think we might make these Star Wars snowflakes to decorate the front windows for the Christmas season!

...Reading and Watching...
The Girl and I are just about finished with this lovely version of Cinderella. She's still reading The Marvelous Land of Oz, between nonfiction titles on various animals, and books of poetry. The Boy, in addition to reading his textbook for machine shop/tech, is still reading Dracula. As a family, we are reading The Hobbit, which I hope to finish in time to read Kringle before Christmas, then we'll tackle the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the new year.

We watched Dodgeball not long ago, when we all just needed something ridiculously funny. This week though, The Girl asked for the first installment of The Hobbit, "to compare and contrast it, Mom." And the kids discovered a new show on Amazon called The Olympians. Meanwhile, M and I are watching old reruns of The Practice... we do enjoy a good courtroom drama! And I am partway through season 4 of Parenthood. I only watch an episode or two a week, so it will take me a while to finish.

...Also on the Agenda...
Work, and work. No derby practice right now, so we're getting exercise other ways! The Boy is working on finishing an art project on his own for class, as well as a group project done on campus. The Girl is watching BBC videos (dinosaurs, I think) she found on YouTube (she was very proud and pleased that she found those!). I'm working on my seminar paper for the end of the semester. This week is we reach our twentieth wedding anniversary, so M and I will be heading to a dinner out!

Have a great week! And here's one last picture for you, from our hike last week...

Linked up over at the Coombe Mill blog

Ahhh... Experimenting...

I am experimenting, on my children to be exact.

This week, we tried Option A when it came to homeschooling. There were pros and cons to this...

Pros:
The basics have gone really well! The Boy is enjoying Write With the Best, and both loved Hot Fudge Monday for grammar. The Girl is happy to have her Saxon Math at hand again (strange child). We enjoyed a few chapters from the Story of the World (audio book with Jim Weiss, who strikes us as the American version of Jim Dale, one of our all time favorite narrators!); The Girl had a pleasant nature study; etc. [More details and pictures tomorrow] I did have The Boy start some review work from Math Mammoth on long division, so he hasn't gotten far in Saxon Math this week, but that's okay too.

Cons:
We feel like we're jumping around a lot. And The Boy has said, with The Girl emphatically agreeing, that our days seem long. I think maybe we have too much going on! Probably no maybe about it... we do have a lot going on.

So, the experiment
Next week we're going to switch gears, and try out Option B. Just the basics and a study of ancient India. Nothing else. No extra reading, no actual science. The Girl was browsing through the stack of books on ancient India that I had picked up at the library "just in case", and is eager to get going. The Boy wants "things to be simpler". It'll be an interesting contrast to this week!

I'll do the full weekly report tomorrow, with some pictures, I hope. We have accomplished a lot this week, but maybe next week will feel calmer and less rushed.

Monday Musings... I Need to Simplify...

We are just using, or I should say attempting to use, far too many resources. I have too much going on. M and I spent part of the weekend taking a critical look at all that I have on my Plans Page, and we agree... there is just too much there! We looked at all the resources individually, talked about what's working, and what just isn't happening, scheduling, and more. So soon, there will be a much-trimmed down version of that page!

Scheduling isn't working well either, and for that, I really blame myself. I have failed to really set aside a specific time just for homeschooling each day... instead it is more of a hit or miss approach. Most days we do homeschool, but I feel rushed and disorganized. I realized too that in trying to "follow their interests" we end up chasing whims and fancies every which direction. So, back to a Charlotte Mason approach for scheduling, etc., meaning I decide what we cover and when; we do short but solid lessons; and keep up with the good literature. Then, they have plenty of free time to explore all the whims and fancies, which I will support them in, but not necessarily make a formal part of schooling--I also read the book Project Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners, and discussed a lot of it with M. We have decided that the best way we can approach this is to offer the supplies, tools, and support to our kids to follow their interests, but not center all learning around it. Make sense? Maybe they can choose more of their own path by high school...

Other than that, we took the kids out for a day of fishing yesterday with our good friend W (honorary uncle as well). W set up poles for the kids, taught The Girl how to cast (The Boy already knew), and how to get the fish in a net once they caught it. Within the first 30 minutes, both kids had landed fish! We ended up catching the limit of trout we could for the day, and W gave us part of his catch as well, so we have lots of trout to clean and freeze or smoke. I got to sit back and relax much of the day, catching up on some fun reading (as opposed to my college reading). It was lovely--warm out, sunny, and gorgeous scenery! (pictures to come)

On the agenda for the week:

~ Clean up my Plans Page and reassess our schedule

~ Music and art!

~ Life of Fred and Math Mammoth for both kids, now that we have gotten a new copy of an LOF book for The Girl (I'm running her through the entire elementary series over the next couple of years)

~ Some exploration of prehistory: we're going to finish watching Becoming Human while we wait for my "new" copy of K12's Human Odyssey to arrive

~ Officially relaunch my Narnia lit study

~ I'm considering having The Boy do some work this year in Igniting Your Writing. As much as I love the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc., I am finding it harder to implement at the moment as a writing plan, and think that The Boy could use some good, basic instruction. Either that, or I need to get serious about having him do written narrations for history and science OR just plain more diligent about using the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc.

~ Read from The World in a Drop of Water, and have M follow up on our science reading with some hands-on microscope work with the kids. Start reading The Magic of Reality aloud (1 chapter/week), since we never got very far with it, despite my best intentions. Assess The Father of Anatomy: Galen and His Dissections for future use.

~ Decluttering part... ummm... well, ongoing decluttering

~ Getting ready for camping!!!! We're taking off for a weekend of camping fun on Friday, right on the heels of a Friday morning field trip.

Hope you all have a good week! What are some of your plans?

Wordy Wednesday... The Last Hold Out...

EDITED TO ADD: On further reflection, I don't think I'll be changing much right now! While I daydream about "living math" as being fun, different, and fulfilling, I don't know that I have the time or energy to put it all together! And what we're doing now IS working. The Boy likes Teaching Textbooks, and it is a solid program, while The Girl likes Math Mammoth, another solid program.

In other words, "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" or "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

I can add in some games, living books, etc., which I do to some degree now, but could improve upon, without getting rid of what we're doing now!

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Years ago, when I started homeschooling, we used a lot of pre-made curriculum. You know, the kind that comes with lesson plans and a teacher's guide, all set and ready to go. Over the years between then and now, I've managed to drop nearly all of the pre-planned items. I use a living books approach for much of what we do, though there are a few exceptions, those being spelling, phonics, and math.

Today's focus... MATH. Over the years, though I have toyed with moving away from a math curriculum, and we've dabbled in unschooling, I always end up coming back to a regular math program. Why? I think much of it is a lack of confidence. If we don't follow x program, how will I make sure my kids learn x?

I'm challenging myself to step out side that box. I spend a lot of time (too much perhaps!) reading over at Living Math. And in doing so, I have come up with some resources I would like to further explore:

Books by Marilyn Burns
Kitchen Table Math Book 2 and Book 3
The Art of Problem Solving
Zaccaro's Math books
Patty Paper Geometry
Hands-On Equations
And of course, there is Life of Fred, Family Math, etc.

Then there are individual books and resources that are/look really good as well!

With all these resources available, why do I feel so locked into a math program? Something to think about anyhow.

So what am I actually thinking about doing? I'm considering making a list of math topics/areas for each of my kids that I would like them to accomplish prior to algebra. Then I can gather resources for each area of study.

For example, The Girl is not great at telling time. So we could do a unit on clock reading. Start with This Book is About Time, add in hands-on activities with our Judy Clock, practice telling time with various clocks, etc., maybe add in a book for The Boy like On Time: From Seasons to Split Seconds (and let him build a sundial!), OR I could give her worksheets. The first process might be more time-intensive (no pun intended), and frankly I don't know which she would really benefit more from in the long run.

Lots to research and think about.

Reading... and rambling...

I have been reading that is. Since our Disneyland adventure, and settling back into a routine (with the new job and all), I have been devouring Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Somehow, although it may be considered "old fashioned", it totally strikes a chord within me.

One of the problems I have always had with a CM education is the formation of good habits - Waldorf methods are also big on establishing a sense of rhythm/routine. Since my schedule as a grocery clerk changed on a weekly basis, I have been unable to develop a firm bedtime for myself, or the children, a regular homeschooling schedule, etc. When you work from 7 am to 3 pm one day, and 5 pm to 11 pm the next, habit/rhythm/routine can be a difficult thing. But, in just our first week on a real schedule, I am already noticing differences. The kids are up at 7 every morning now, instead of some time between eight and ten thirty. Of course this is because they have to get up to spend the morning at my mom's, doing arts and crafts, baking, sewing, and more, but then bedtime is so much easier! Now we have a regular time to get up, a regular time for dinner, a regular time for bed... next week I'll tackle regular times for housework and homeschooling!

I also plan to start enforcing chores again, and be more regular with making sure Cyrus is doing his piano practice. I find I am sliding into habits too... I read at bedtime instead of collapsing in front of the TV. I am drinking herbal tea while reading instead of mindlessly munching who knows what while glued to the tube. I do brisk walking on my break at work, and next week we'll start walking or maybe the Couch Potato to 5K running program 3 late afternoons a week (if walking, we'll aim for every day). I have tried that running program before by myself, but now I'll be doing it with the kids. In just 3 days, I have lost 2 pounds. I am also not absolutely exhausted at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Amazing what regular sleep can do!

Anyhow, back to Home Education... so much of it fits effortlessly with what we are already doing. I'd like to add in picture studies beyond what they do in Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons, and I would like to add geography. Miss Mason recommended reading good travel books for this subject, and in my research I found this... Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels. I am getting it through the library first, before investing in it! But from the reviews I have read, it sounds like an exciting (and yes, somewhat outdated) introduction to world geography. For grammar, which I hope to add in after winter break, I am looking at combining The Sentence Family with Grammar-Land. Beyond that, Charlotte Mason methods call for reading good "living" books (which we do plenty of), a wholesome diet and plenty of fresh air, hands-on math, immersion in nature, regular activity, hands-on real crafts, and a sense of respect, as children are people too.

I have made my decision about 4H. I feel that my kids and I need some time at home, days where, besides my work, we don't have to go places and do things. I hope to reserve most afternoons for homeschooling and family life. We will be continuing with Spiral Scouts - I spoke to our circle leader today, and we're going to meet once every 6 or 8 weeks for an awards ceremony, rather than monthly. The rest of the time, we will be choosing and doing the projects on our own, which is fine with me! Another mom at Park Day today was telling me that she feels children need more time at home than out with other kids. They don't need to be involved in too many outside activities/classes, which is how I am feeling these days too. They certainly don't need to be insulated from the world but they don't need daily outings either! I'm likely stepping on someone's toes saying that, but then I am relatively sure at least a few people agree with me.

I especially focused on reading more about CM reading methods, and am going to work more with Cassia on these. We've been making good use of the whiteboard lately, with a book of word families at our side, and a multitude of dry erase markers in various colors. Cassia is retaining all the word families we cover, even when I throw in "challenge" words... for example, we worked on "cash", "bash", "mash" and "rash", so I added "crash" and "smash", which she was able to read as well. I know phonics are not, per se, part of the CM method, but using them in conjunction with her methods is working. She did do work with word families as well, giving specific examples in the book.

I started out my year with lots of solid seeming plans for homeschooling. As usual, I am finding that they shift as we go, the flexibility being one of the beauties of homeschooling. I am still not solid on science... should I go with BFSU or the human anatomy that fascinates my kids in addition to our nature studies? I figure at least this year we're doing more than we did last year!

Experimenting...

We've been going with a classical style of education overall this week, but today I am going to approach some of our lessons a little differently. For example, in history, instead of reading from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, I think we'll read from The Book of the Ancient World (D. Mills) , the kids will narrate (while I take really fast notes), then enter the narrations into their binders along with illustrations... sort of a take on Waldorf Main Lesson Books meets Charlotte Mason. For science today, instead of defining words and outlining from a science encyclopedia, I think we'll head out to the local wetlands and the kids will have a chance to try out nature journaling.

I'll update later, and let you know how the shift goes!

Balance Part Three...

A poster on the homeschooling board I frequent most often asked about living books for science, then another for history and math. As a result, I went through all my bookmarks, which are chock full of links to great book lists, lists that I daydream about but fail to really use. All of this naturally got me thinking about Charlotte Mason education again, and I remembered I had purchased and downloaded, but never actually read, the secular version of Penny Gardner's Charlotte Mason Study Guide. I would highly recommend this - it is only $5 and I wish I had read through it sooner!

Just some quick background as to what constitutes a living book: "...living books contain living ideas from great minds. Instead of presenting dry facts, these books are written in conversational, literary language." (Penny Gardner)

So, in seeking balance in my homeschooling efforts (see Balance and Balance Part Two), I thought I would look at science, history, and even some math from a living books point of view. And, because it is an approach that works with my children, a hands-on point of view. What does this change? Well, for example... science. Instead of spending $x on a "curriculum", I can put together a thoughtful list of books we will all enjoy together, and then compliment those books with hands-on experiments. Currently, we're interested in insects. This is what I have come up with so far:

Books:
Creepy Crawlies & the Scientific Method
Insect Life (an old classic)
The Insect Folk (another old classic)
The Snail's Spell
Where Butterflies Grow
A Girl of the Limberlost (one of my personal all-time favorites)
Simon and Schuster Children's Guide to Insects and Spiders
Peterson's First Field Guide to Insects (Cyrus loves field guides)
Insect Soup: Bug Poems

Hands-On:
LadyBug Land
Praying Mantis Pagoda
An ant farm
the compost heap (loads of worms)
How to Draw Insects
Insects: Make it Work
The kids have pet snails (apparently they are "racing" snails)
And of course, magnifying glasses and nature journals!

We also may watch (for the zillionth time) Microcosmos, which is an excellent film. I am also doing research on living books for chemistry and physics, to start reading aloud in the fall. Biographies will work, and I am reading through The Wonder Book of Chemistry over at the Baldwin Project to see if it might work. Any suggestions? I am also skimming through The Storybook of Science, also on the Baldwin Project, to see if it might work as general science for us.

So, back to the balance bit... I have catalogs from quite a few homeschool curriculum companies, and while I gather many ideas from these sources, I notice that they tend to fall into one of three categories: a) lots of reading and not much else, b) lots of hands-on, or c) more schoolish than not. I need something in between these, which is where Charlotte Mason comes into the picture. Good books, plenty of activity, handicrafts, outdoor time, nature studies... this all sounds pretty ideal to me.

It is funny - we have "officially" been homeschooling for 5 years now, and I still feel like I am just learning how to do it! I was talking to another mom at our Indian potluck yesterday, a mom who is newer to homeschooling, yet I find we have many of the same frustrations and feelings despite the amount of time put in so far. I think we're finding our own pace now that we're not associated with the charter school anymore. I find we're getting more work done on a more regular basis than we did when I had to report each month, and turn in work samples. I think this year so far has been a chance for us to find our footing and our learning path.

Now I want to do more research on living books for math and other approaches there. I am toying with the idea of having Wednesdays as free math days, with games and good books rather than math pages. And I think Life of Fred will fit the bill nicely when Cyrus is ready. I still really like Math Mammoth, and in fact just purchased the entire Blue series from the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, but I'd like that balanced (that magical word again) with more hands-on and varied approaches. In history, I plan to keep using Homeschool in the Wood's Time Travelers as the bare bones, but will shift our reading to more books and less of the text.

Balance is, according to dictionary dot com, "to arrange, adjust, or proportion the parts of symmetrically; composition or placement of elements [of design] in such a manner as to produce an aesthetically pleasing or harmoniously integrated whole." I love the idea of a "harmoniously integrated whole"!

Back to Charlotte Mason...

It turns out that we miss the routine of sitting down to "do school" more than we thought we would. I have been browsing through my collection of Charlotte Mason books late at night, and decided that Catherine Levison was right when she wrote that following the CM method allows plenty of time for children to explore their own interests, since lessons are kept short and sweet. My children also adore being read to, which fits right in. So next week we're going back to CM until we feel the need to unschool again! I also want to blend in some Oak Meadow (semi-Waldorf) approaches. I want to get some nice notebooks/main lesson books, like these.

My plans include:

Saxon Math or Math Mammoth for both - they can choose which each day as long as they do one or the other.

Writing Tales for Cyrus, maybe. We barely put a dent in this book last year, and he is perfectly willing to give it another go. He also like Intermediate Language Lessons, so I think I'll give him a choice, and/or we could do some language arts ala Oak Meadow. He reads, writes something about what he has read in a main lesson book, and adds a drawing... hmmmmm.

The Reading Lesson, guided reading, and some copywork (Oak Meadow) for Cassia. She is really showing some progress reading, and I want to keep the momentum going.

Reading through American history with books I am compiling from various living book history lists. We're starting with Leif the Lucky and the D'Aulaires Norse Myths. Then we'll move into other early explorers.

Weekly nature walks (with journals, or at least the camera and a journal later), along with living books on science. Since my last posting I have found a few good lists! I plan to start The Tarantula in My Purse, and then go from there.

For art studies and music, I am not yet sure...

In geography, we have started participating in a postcard exchange and got our first one yesterday, from Michigan. We'll keep a notebook with a state map printout and some basic info.

I'm thinking about a book of centuries, or something similar.

We're reading, for pleasure, The Saturdays, Little House in the Big Woods, and Cyrus is reading How to Train Your Dragon, book 1. I want to read aloud A Christmas Carol, and some other Christmassy books.

So there are my ramblings for the day!