Weekly Wrap-up: A Few of our Favorite Things in July

Every year I say I'm going to spend the summers getting outside more. Every winter I spend all winter wishing I had focused on outdoor time. Every summer passes before I notice I am not outside.

I think we still spend more time in nature then the average American family, but that is not a satisfactory comparison to me! So a few weeks ago I really determined to make it a priority this year, and have been trying to get out at least once a week. I don't mean an our outside in the backyard, I mean a whole day away from home, in the mountains, with a picnic lunch and school books.

We've been successful so far (one week we went two days!) and I can say it's both rewarding and exhausting. 

A few of our favorite things this week:

Math: Caiden's math on Khan academy is going great. He made the switch from MEP (temporarily) to give our relationship a break, as it had become an area of contention between us. He's doing much better, welcoming my help, and we'll move back to MEP later this year. The other two are doing MEP and it's going well. Even when we have a bad day, it's still a great program and I don't want to use anything else!

The Garden: In the never-ending battle between weeds, bugs, and edible plants, I think we are winning (for now). Tomatoes are huge, squashes are growing, and the beans are taking over. We are hoping to have beans and tomatoes to can, so it's great to see them doing so well.

Hiking: we had a great mountain day on Wednesday. We took our school books but the kids ended up swimming and exploring the whole time, so we did some reading after we got back home and everyone was too tired to play much anyway. The kids are so focused on nature study after all these years that the older ones need no guidance anymore, they discover and observe so well and always see things I haven't noticed. Abby found a pocket knife in the woods and was so happy, she's been asking for a knife for a couple of years and we didn't think she was quite ready.

Kids: 

Hailey: Reading about Phyrrus and the elephants in Plutarch's Lives (Such a mommy pride moment there.)
Caiden: Everything. Getting the net. (He got a fishing net to hunt for specimens in water, and found a crawdad among other treasures.)
Abby: Going in the mountains.
Colby: The mountains. I liked sitting on the rocks.

Favorite Photo: 

So there you have it, a few of our favorite things for this week! 

Weekly Wrap Up, Week Eleven

Wow, where did the last few weeks go? I think I missed a few... there were so changed dates around their visitation with their dad, so we had to re-schedule some of their school. We got it all figured out, but I didn't get much blogging done. (Ok, lets be honest. I didn't get any blogging done. :) )

Week eleven already, next week is the last week of Term One! We are 1/3 of the way through this school year. And we are right on schedule. Thankfully, even through all the changes the last few months, we have stayed right on track.

Next week, the children will be finishing up a few books that are used only in the first term, and getting ready to start some new ones. Hailey will be finishing her biographies of Galileo and Michelangelo and starting new ones. She will also be finishing her literature book, The Princess and the Goblin. Caiden's literature book, Understood Betsy, will be finished up too. It is one of my absolute favorites, and I am glad I will get to read it aloud 2 more times in the next few years!

Hailey's narrations are getting exponentially better, and she is starting to narrate in a story-like form, instead of conversationally. Next year we will probably begin working toward written narrations, a huge, difficult step. Caiden has been doing better at his math. He has great math skills, he just doesn't enjoy the writing. Doing a daily math page everyday has helped him focus, stick to it, and push through.

The pictures are from our drive through the mountains. First, we waited in traffic for what ended up to be the filming of The Fast and the Furious number whatever-one-is-next. :) That was pretty cool for the kids to see. 

Later, we stopped and spent some time gathering "fairy hats" from the scrub oak and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. For the uninformed, fairy hats are the tops of the tiny acorns with grow on these bushes. The critters eat the nuts, and leave the tops hanging. The children gathered a bunch and hailey made a fairy trap with them when she got home. So far, no fairies have been caught. We think its because the trap wasn't secure enough and they escaped. 

Weekly-Wrap up, Week Eight~ Narrations

This week I had the kiddos do some narrations for me to type and save. Hailey's got to be so long, that I will not be writing much else! Her first narration is about the American tall tale of Stormalong. This narration ended up being two fill-length typed pages! I am going to give you just a little bit of intormation on the purpose of narration, so you will understand why we do this. Keep in mind I am not a Charlotte Mason expert!  

Narrations are given after each school reading, whether read to the child, or by them. The narration is simply the child telling back what he knows, or 'got' from the story. There are a couple of things narration is, and couple that it isn't. Narrations isn't comprehension questions, although it is a way to test the child's understanding. Narration isn't testing on knowledge, like a history test, although it does tell you some of what the child knows. Narration isn't for the teacher, it is for the child.

At its most basic, narration is a way for the child's mind to DO something with the new knowledge he has been given. Our minds are not recording machines, simply copying down what is stuffed into them. Our minds have to DO something with that information to remember it. Connections to other information, and the process of the mind making those connections, is the process of learning and remembering. Narration gives that power to children.

It is important to know that narrating is hard work. The child's mind does a lot in order to narrate well, and after a few years of this work, the child will be ready to begin written narrations, which are basically the beginnings of writing essays. The work of narrating orally in the early years paves the way for written compositions. So you can see that narrations fulfill the work of several processes- learning to write, remembering what they have learned, making connections, and reading comprehension skills.

Caiden's narration was much shorter. Remember this is not a test, so hers is not better then his! They both told back what THEY got out of the story, what 'clicked' with them, and they both did a good job composing their thoughts and connecting with their learning. Success for them both, even though one was much shorter! His was also a much harder selection to narrate, from his history book.

Stormalong
No one really knows where Stormalong came from. Some people say that Stormalong came from a place that ends with and 'ig' or an 'oog' or something like that. But all we do know is that he lived by the sea. One day Stormalong got out but before he could even say anything he could tell a knot on a ship from a knot in his mother's yarn. When he could talk he told him mom “I want to be a sailor when I grow up.”

But his mother said, “too many people in this family has been a sailer. You can not be a sailer. If my husband had stayed on shore I would not have been a widow.”

Then he decided to make a boat for himself. He picked up an old house that he knew that nobody lived in and then he set in on the sea. And before he could count to ten that thing floated down. And then when he went back in a little later his mom said, “where is that house?”
And he said, “it sunk.”

And then his mom said, “people bought that house and were going to fix it up for a sea house.”

And then he said, “I think I should be going now that I sank their house,” and for once his mom didn't argue.

So his mom packed him up a bunch of lunch and got the ladder which was made just for that purpose and climbed up on the ladder and gave him a hug and a kiss goodbye. And then he was off! On his journey. And then he went a little ways and he saw people that were signing up for a trip to china. And he said, “I would like to sign up for a cabin boy.”
And then they said, “Okey dokey artichokey!” and then they signed him up.

But before they signed him up he said, “oh, look, your mast is crooked”, and then he lifted it up. Because, in case we didn't already mention, he was thirteen and very very tall, taller then a boat. And then, they were off!

And they sailed and sailed and sailed for a long, long while. And then, the ship was stopped. And one of the sailors said, “on no its a kraken!”
And then the captain called forth all the men and said, “who would dare to go under the sea to see what is holding us back?”

And then everyone except for Stormalong took two steps back. And then he said, “I will go! Except for will somebody get me a knife so I can go see what it is doing?”

And then he saw a monster down there and it had one long tentacle grabbing the boat except it had a claw on the end. And then he saw one eye looking out from the darkness of the depths of the sea and then he saw from a familiar head which had lots of other tentacles to it, with claws. And then he got the knife and started cutting at his arms but the first time it bounced off like rubber. And the second time it did the same thing. But the third time it cut it off but the monster quickly attached two more arms to the bottom of the boat.

And then he had an idea. He threw the knife down and tackled the first arm and tied it into a figure eight knot. Then he took the other tentacle and put it in another knot. And then it quickly latched on two more arms, and he kept making knots and knots until the thousand arms that were on it were all in knots.
But then when he went back up,he saw that there were giant waves and he caused the giant waves tackling the giant monster. Then he got up as slowly as he could, then everybody cheered and hoorayed. Then he decided to go back. And everyone was familiar with him except for the cook. Because she had to make barrels and barrels and barrels of soup for him, because he was a growing boy, and a big one too!
And then he decided he should go, and then he built himself his own ship at his home. And it was huge! It was so big that sometimes it knocked stars from the sky. So he made it that he could lower the masts down. And he was bored with just getting normal stuff so one day he saw a whale! And he decided to be a whaler. And if they were too small he would throw them off.

And then they would have to go through a little place that was only 30 miles wide. So he told the men, get some soap and scrub it everywhere. So they scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. And they scrubbed so much that all the barnacles slipped and fell off. And then they went straight on ahead. And guess what? They made it!

And since he was a whaler, if the whales were less then ninety pounds he would throw it back and say, “I better let that poor whale grow up some more before I take that one on again.”
And then he started getting worried about the new steamships that were getting bigger and faster every year that went on. And then one day he saw one go “whoosh!” right past him. And the next time he saw them go right past him, he said, “I will take you on if I have a good wind!”

And he said, “we don't need a good wind, we've got coal and gasoline!” And then it whooshed past.

And then the next day their sails started to flutter. And then they started to whoosh. And then a giant hurricane wind came and the people said, “lower the mast, lower the mast, it is going to tear our sails up!”

And he said, “no I will beat 'em!” And then they whooshed past the other little boat.

And people saw him laying on the wheel of the giant boat with the masts all torn up, and they saw him laying on the wheel. And then he thought that maybe his mother was right, maybe he was just supposed to stay by shore. And some people think that that wasn't the end of him. Because then at the same time there was also a farmer named Stormalong and they maybe thought that he was him because he was so amazing that when there was a driest drought he worked so hard his own sweat watered the plants.

The end.
Narration by Hailey Snyder, age eight
9/10/2013

The Story of King Stephen
After he died, they refused to let Matilda be the queen. So they made Stephen the king. But then some of the people wanted to have Matilda, and they fought. Lots and lots of fighting. And some people put people in prisons. They imprisoned people and they really did not like Matilda at all. The country did not like it at all either. And they built a wicked castle to imprison all the people in. So they had a very long fight.

But eventually some soldiers went to guard Matilda cause she got prisoned too. Then some people dressed up as white and took her away almost like robbers. Then they took her to a castle and then the two men decided to make peace. And throughout the land it was peaceful for a few years. And they also decided to make when the king died they made the son of Matilda king after that.

From Our Island Story
Caiden Snyder, age 7
9/10/2013

Weekly Wrap Up Week Seven

This week was busy! We don't have enough leeway in our school year to take the week off, so we were right back to school even though we are working on moving and just had a wedding! I did change up our regular math and reading schedules, though, as those are the most mom-intensive parts of the day.

For math the kiddos have been doing either fun worksheets that they can do on their own, or playing a educational website called ZooWhiz. The website is neat because it is really EDUCATIONAL, not simply a game with some letters and numbers added. I can set the kid's learning levels and subjects, and they have to do a lot of learning before they can earn coins, which they use to buy animals for their zoo. The 'fun' aspect is probably not engaging enough to keep them captivated for months, but it will work for a week or two!

The kids had a little trouble focusing on their history, science, and other readings, because life was so exciting... new house, new rooms, trying to get their stuff all set up.... it was pretty tough for them at times. :)

One of Caiden's favorite readings this week was the chapter from A Child's History of the World about castles. The chapter really lit his imagination, and after it was done I gave him a lift-the-flap book full of detailed pictures, explanations, and diagrams about castles.

I forgot to write down narrations for the kids, maybe next week?? I would also like to share how we are using the Life of Fred series to enhance our math studies.  Soon.......

Weekly Wrap-up, Week Six (And Details about Hailey's History)

Week six was a bit of a strange week. Week five was cut short, so that work got added to week six. :) So it was a full week, but fun. We were also working on moving, so that added to the busyness. The kids didn't do much nature study this week, actually they didn't do any with me there. Of course, they always do nature study on their own, especially Caiden who is always finding new bugs to inspect. But we were just too busy to do any focused journaling.

Hailey's favorite book this week was a literature story, an ancient Greek legend about Perseus which she just loves. She also enjoys her science book, Explore His Earth, where we have been learning about the layers of the atmosphere.

Caiden's favorite reading was probably the chapter from The Little Duke, a biography about a seven-year-old duke from Normandy. This is the single hardest book for this year, with old time vocabulary and the long, difficult to comprehend sentences. He does great and is captivated by the storyline.

Abby loves all her books, now that we stopped reading Paddington Bear. Her favorite is probably The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball that Floats in the Air. Yes, that's really the title. The longest in the world, I am pretty sure. ;) She loves these stories about little children in other cultures, and this one is a family favorite, not to be missed!

Last time I promised to detail Hailey's history for the coming year. Because we use Ambleside Online, our history is mostly planned out for us. Some things I edit or change, but the foundation is already done for me. It is such a time saver, and so much better planned then I alone could do! These ladies have years of experience, and combine their talents to make the curriculum, which is much more then boxed curriculum, designed by one person, can offer.

Anyhoo, back off that rabbit trail. Hailey's history. 3rd grade in Ambleside Online covers the years after the Middle Ages, to about the time of the American and French revolutions. The renaissance and reformation. from around 1400 to the middle of the 1700s.

Hailey is enjoying it more then last year, which was about the Middle Ages and had a lot of wars, battles that were hard to keep apart, and all the kings had the same three names. This year, the stories are more personal. There are fewer battles and political scenarios, and more personal accounts and stories. As history gets closer to our own time, the records are more personal and more detailed. She likes that.

Our main history book is continuing An Island Story, as most of the renaissance and reformation happened in Europe. This book is our spine, the backbone that carries us along from topic to topic, chronologically. I actually prefer to think of it as a trail.... the book is the trail that leads us through a time period. As we get to interesting stopping places, other books are added in to give more detail. These other books are A Child's History of the World (our favorite) and This Country of Ours. The latter book is very nearly a spine as well, detailing the American events that were coinciding with those across the pond. We read between one and three chapters a week from these books.

Along with all those history books, biographies are used to give details about VIPs from the time period, as well as a better look at what life was actually like. We are currently half done with our biographies of Galileo and Michelangelo. In the next two terms we will be reading biographies about Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, the pilgrims, and Squanto. Hailey doesn't really enjoy the book about Galileo, because the storyline is pretty complicated and includes little tidbits about many other scientists, which get hard to tell apart. What she doesn't know is that even when she says "I don't remember much!" she still gives excellent, detailed narrations, always several paragraphs long.

I think that I will start including typed examples of their narrations each week. It will be fun to read later, and the kids will love knowing their work in going up for everyone to read!

The pictures are of each child with their books for the year. Although they all have several ebooks that I couldn't really include, and I forgot 4 of Caiden's books, it still made for a fun picture. :) 

Weekly Wrap Up, Week Four

Yes, I missed a few weeks. Oh well. The memories are still being made. :)

This was a busy week. We went camping (again!), this time with my parents. Jeff had to work so he missed out on the fun.

As for the rest of the week, we rushed a bit to get our school done so we could relax and play over the weekend. Hailey is still enjoying her reading lessons, although they don't hold the novelty that they first did. They still help her with those longer stories and unknown words, so we will keep at it. She is working on reading stories that are several pages long, and is reading words like "indignantly", and "comfortable". I am working to help her start reading those school books which are way over her reading level, but right-on as far as comprehension. They are tough for her, so we work through them together.

Abby is working on learning basic CVC words, in word families. She is studying each word family, and then building and saying them with word tiles. We are also working some with sight words. At this point I am not pushing her to KNOW all the sight words, I just want her to have an association with them. Later, when she starts first grade, she will be learning all the words. This is just an introduction!

Caiden's reading is going exceptionally well. He is working though the last part of his reading program, and although he doesn't enjoy the actual program, he does like reading, especially science books (of course!) on his own. He likes sounding out the names of different animals and plants, although most of the time he has trouble getting them right since they aren't phonetic.

This week we did our usual, biographies and history books are a big part of our curriculum. Hailey likes all of her books except Along Came Galileo, and she said that is because I make her read it herself. Silly girl. :) Caiden likes his books too, especially Pilgrim's Progress! I was surprised because that is one of the hardest books for this year. His other favorite books is also the other hardest book, Little Duke. This is a biography of a young duke of Normandy, written in old-style language with many hard to understand words. He does great with it! I can just see their minds growing.

That is all for now... next week I will explain all about Hailey's history for this year. No pictures for now, maybe I will add them later. They take so long to upload because I insist on editing them. ;)

Weekly wrap up~ Week One

Week one is done!  Well, week one-half technically. We are starting out slow so we did about half of our math and language arts lessons each day, and half of the weeks readings. Next week we will do everything. :)

Fireworks~ 

Three kiddos and an aunt.

The kids were so excited to begin their new grades, although it really doesn't mean anything to them except new books. We only schooled for 3 days, because the holiday was on Thursday. On Friday, we headed to the mountains for a short camping trip. Our first week went great! The kids enjoyed all of their books, so far, and the new Charlotte Mason-style reading and spelling lessons were and overwhelming success. They said they like ALL of school now, because we got rid of those irritating phonics lessons with all that writing.


Instead of workbooks, we are doing spelling on the white board or a notebook. I simply pick a word from the reading lesson and together we think of all the words in that family. I write them on the board, and she attempts to place them into her visual memory by taking a 'picture' of each word. Then I erase the words and  she writes them from memory. The whole process only takes about 5 minutes. For Caiden's phonics I did away with the worksheets which were used for spelling practice, and instead we have spelling lessons every other day.

We do several lessons for language arts each day. These lessons are all short, and we don't do them all at once. Instead, working on the principle that brains get tired after too long on one subject, we do one and then go to something completely different before coming back to another lesson. Hailey and Caiden have a reading lesson two days a week, and spelling on the off days. We do copywork everyday.

As we left for the 4th of July parade, we saw three baby deer and two does having breakfast. I was so excited, I have been watching for them for weeks!

Tasting the flowers.

These twins were a little older, and trying a few bites.

Mama and twins. 

This baby was very little, so mama kept him pretty well hidden. He was still toddling when he tried to run. 

Waiting for the parade to begin. 

Later we headed to the lake to watch fireworks. The next morning we were on our way to the mountains... a whole 15 miles away, we stopped to camp in the National Forest. We finally found an un-occupied campsite, without anyone else (Or their dog) around. The kids learned how to set up the tent first. Later, they got to practice starting a fire and had some gun safety lessons. We took several hikes, but had to keep them short because we forgot the baby carrier. :)

Nature study was everywhere, of course, but we worked carefully to identify wildflowers. We found many different kinds, more variety then I have ever seen. Colorado columbines, pink and white paintbrushes, (which were new to me, ) bitter cress, orange sneeze weed was everywhere, pink elephants (Which I have wanted to see since I was a little girl, first fascinated with field guides), and toxic monkshood.  Soon the kids were calling out whenever they saw those dark purple flowers, "There's the poisonous ones! Stay away!" I was so proud. :) We brought several specimens home to press and mount, and they will know them forever. 

I love what I do. :) 

Reading Charlotte Mason's advice on "The Outdoor Life" for children, while enjoying the mountains... what could be more appropriate? 

Nature Study~ Wildflowers

Abby investigating a small 

Colorado columbine.