Advent & Winter Term 2012

We tend to start school in mid August and by Thanksgiving have finished a first term.  I've enjoyed this very much.  It gives us about five weeks to shift our CM education towards preparing for the Christmas season.  We don't stop school and our style doesn't change; materials just get replaced a bit.  The month is filled with activities and to do lists outside our home; that I really noticed a sense of rush rather than the calm that should be.  So for the last several years I've felt that letting the kids enjoy the time filled with great books, handicrafts, poetry, music, nature study/science, art and good thoughts about the coming of our Savior in our home was important. 

All our regular school book baskets are put away and filled with lots of Christmas and winter type books.  This year the kids and I will be enjoying the following:

Religion/Faith:  Destination Bethlehem by Sharon Altman and Christine Winkelman

Geography: Christmas Stories 'Round the World edited by Lois Johnson

Music/Composer Study:  All About Christmas by Maymie R. Krythe (the last four chapters on carols)

Poetry: The Young Oxford Book of Christmas Poems

Art Study(&Religion): A King James Christmas edited by Catherine Schuon & Michael Fitzgerald

Nature Study/Science:  And Everything Nice: The Story of Sugar, Spice and Flavoring by Elizabeth Cooper (this ties in great with the Marco Polo year we're having too) and  Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed (not scientific, but a cute story that gives us some thoughts to research)

The kids also each have independent reading time.  They have lots of books to choose from and I've not been keeping up with my new purchases so I've had to make a few trips to the library to get some new titles for them.  Besides their chapter books; we have on our schedule a picture book daily (which we read as a family).  On the schedule is also a craft or baking/cooking.  They really enjoy this (I'll post next on how this has turned out great with our Spices books).  This gives us lots of time to enjoy our days, but daylight is shorter.  What are they to do?  Well, I've noticed they ended up indoors more this time of year and this gives them time to create or make handmade gifts for people.  One of my girls is on her third set of crochet items she'll be gifting; don't want to spoil what it is in case the grandmas' & aunties are reading ; )

Our math continues as usual (not so creative here, sorry).  I do, however, create a notebook for them to keep all their copy work or written narrations/pictures for the season; a spot for our language arts you might say.  Another instance when I just love my binding machines, pretty paper and my StartWrite program:

This is our second week on this schedule and already I feel like we've slowed down and are enjoying each other.  I can't wait to share with you what's on our nature study table and the cute things the boys are enjoying in that little nook. 

Death Valley, CA in April

My husband finally loaded all 100 plus pictures from his 3 day camping trip with the kids to Death Valley a few weeks ago.  For a few years now he has taken the older 3 and now 4 children on camping trips.  We've been chicken about doing these road trips with non-potty trained little ones : ( maybe next year.

They have always headed towards woodsy mountain terrains. The desert was a new experience for all of them; including dad!  We know how hot it can get and thought that a spring trip would help with the weather; it kind of did.  They weren't sure what to expect or if there would be much to keep their attention.  Oh boy,  let me assure you they came back talking up a storm about all the beauty and wonder they found.  Take a look for yourself and enjoy: 



Red Rock

monolith at Red Rock



Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes the sun is extremely bright!



Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes, it was close to 100 degrees 



Mosaic Canyon

Mosaic Canyon

Mosaic Canyon

Artist Palette

Artist Palette

Ubehebe Crater

road filled with ash near Ubehebe Crater

These are but just a select few shots from their experience.  I have another handful of pictures they took of wild flowers, shrubs and even a few trees.  I shamefully admit we don't own a dessert  desert field guide.  That will be changing soon; we still have to sort those pictures and find out what they are ; ) 

Upcoming School Year in Focus: Geography

I'm really excited about this subject.  I few months ago I couldn't decide if we should do this as a family or let each child do their own study.  I decided the book recommended for my oldest could wait and chose somethings we could do together.  My girls had such a good time with U.S. geography last year that I really wanted to preserve that a little longer.  Their notebooks look so great too; really a keepsake.

Monday:  We will start this when the we get more involved with a particular continent.  I plan on following map drills as described in the Simply Charlotte Mason Seminar.  I will give them a blank map of the continent and let them fill out as much as they remember.  We'll repeat the following week.

Tuesday: The girls will read through one section of A Child's Introduction to the World.  They enjoy reading to each other and I enjoy their narrations afterward.

Wednesday:  Our family read aloud day.  We decided on Hillyer's A Child's Geography of the World.  I'm so bummed that I didn't discover this book a year ago.  I think the girls would have enjoyed reading about the U.S. from Mr. Hillyer.  I've decided to cut those chapters and tag them at the end of our year so that we can concentrate on a more global perspective first.  I really do expect that we will go through the summer reading this wonderful book.  I'm not planning on rushing through it since my little boys will be included in our readings.  (BTW my copy did not cost that much, I'm sure you can find it cheaper on another site.)

Thursday:  This will be an independent reading day for the girls.  My oldest has chosen Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.  I've given her all year to read this, sticking to just one chapter a week.  There are 37 chapters total.  For my younger ones I've picked Around the World in 80 Tales.  My hope is that my third grader will read this to her younger brothers (at least the first grader).  I really want to start getting her used to reading aloud to others.  I know she enjoys listening but I want her to develop the reader role as well.  I will be near by in the beginning to help her through this.  I won't expect a narration, but I'll be all ears if they choose to tell me about it ; )

Friday:  Language arts day, they can work on their geography notebook.  I'll make sure they have some copywork from the week's readings; and they can choose to add a drawing, facts, maps, or clippings to their notebook. 

I understand that sometimes reading through an older book like Hillyer's means that there will out of date information.  For this reason I've chosen to have a few atlases available for the children to look up information.  Our choices include:  Reader's Digest Illustrated Great World Atlas, DK Children's Illustrated Reference Atlas and a Picture Atlas that I picked up at our markets book bin. 

There you have it, short and simple.  Up next: Religion & Faith.

U.S. Geography Done

The girls have officially finished their year long study of the 50 states.  They started back in late August and have done about two states per week (with the exception of the Advent and Lent seasons).   They each were required to create a States Journal.  In the journal they included some facts like admission date, capital city, state tree/bird, major cities, industry and also pick one key fact to expand on for each state.  This was the most fun because they are each very random and interesting. 

Geography was one of the combined subjects the girls did this year.  While they were reading from the same material and asked to each keep a journal, they really made the learning their own and created very unique work. My fifth graders journal has much more written in it than my second grader; whom has many more illustrations than her older sister.

Every Monday and Wednesday they would pool together the books for their study and begin reading.  It was fun to see the system they developed for doing this.  One read the head line, the other the body; then they'd switch.  Sometimes I happen to be in another room and could hear them laughing over something they were reading or I would walk in and they would immediately want to start telling me about their readings: joint narrations can be lots of fun.  As part of the study I had my oldest do a couple of extra projects, which served as part of her end of term exams.  The first term she wrote a state report for our own state (and her younger sister was eager to help with some drawings), so she did do a little extra reading and research on it.   The second term I had them both create a 3D shoebox presentation of any state they wanted and be ready to tell me about the state.  I honestly haven't decided what we'll do for this term's exam, but I'm thinking along the lines of just a simple map drill. 

I did not require that the girls memorize every state and capital or every admission date, but I'm pretty confident that if quizzed they would know most if not all of them (I've already heard of someone trying to stump them).  The reality is that I tried to provide them with some very interesting living books on the subject: DK State-by-State Atlas, National Geographic Quilt of States, United Tweets of America by Hudson Talbott, and Discover America State by State series (as of last week we've collected all 50 books!).  Then I just let them create a connection with each other and the states following a weekly routine.  The connections to the states become clear when we are in the middle of a reading or talk about a different subject and they interject with some fact about the location mentioned. 

I'm sure that they enjoyed this subject (and each other) much more than just filling in the blanks for every state and memorizing facts.   Although, let me be honest, it is nice to know that many facts will stay with them as a result of making those connections.