Tag: homeschooling

Books, Learning, Nature

Week Three

by raisinglittleshoots4 Comments on Week Three
New Earrings - Miniature Sherlock Holme's books!
New Earrings – Miniature Sherlock Holme’s books!

Another great week, but I felt more of a time pressure this week & I didn’t get either of Ellie’s two logic lessons done. What we did do was rich & productive, so I am pleased with that outcome!

Rose in her suit!
Rose in her suit!

We are progressing well with memory work; we are up to the first chorus of The Periodic Table Song, Oberon’s speech from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is proving to be delightful, and we are making slow & steady progress with this book for multiplication. The girls are memorising a poem of their choice. I was particularly touched by Rosie’s choice:

Some people
by Rachel Field
Isn’t it strange some people
make you feel so tired inside,
Your thoughts begin to shrivel up
like leaves all brown and dried!

But when you’re with some other ones,

it’s stranger still to find
Your thoughts as thick as fireflies
all shiny in your mind!
Memorising Maths Facts Under The Table!
Memorising Maths Facts Under The Table!

Last but not least, we are memorising grammar facts. This video was made a while back – we still practice these but have added new ones too.

Our local pond study is keeping us busy! This week we focused on the trees the girls have chosen to study – Ellie’s is Alder, Rosie’s is Beech.

Measuring the height of Rosie's tree!
Measuring the height of Rosie’s tree!
Measuring the circumference of the trunk
Measuring the circumference of the trunk
More Nature Study
More Nature Study

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We have finished reading “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe” and we made turkish delight to enjoy as we sat down for the final reading…never again! It was a sticky mess! But the girls said it tasted good.

Batik Making
Batik Making

The girls have also begun a ‘batik‘ inspired by our reading of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. Once it has dried overnight, they will be able to apply the layers of colour. Ellie is working on a scene with the White Witch, Rosie a portrait of Aslan.

A crocodile doing her maths :)
A crocodile doing her maths 🙂

Some of the books we have been reading this week:

The Tales of Beatrix Potter

The World of Columbus & His Sons

By Pond & River

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe

Twilight Child

Age of Fable

The Story Of The Romans

D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths

Lots & lots of poetry!

Finally, my copy of Norms & Nobility has arrived! I am so excited to get stuck into this book! I think it will be extremely meaty & require me to have a pen in hand, making copious notes.

Happy Weekend!

Autumn, Family, Learning

Week Two

by raisinglittleshoots10 Comments on Week Two
Our Harvest Moon Nature Walk
Our Harvest Moon Nature Walk

Our week went superbly! (Not perfectly, but superbly!)

History
History
Illustrating 'The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe'
Illustrating ‘The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe’
Early Morning Science!
Early Morning Science!
This was our first week of ‘proper’ lessons and all was well. Ellie has really enjoyed her work & is relishing the challenge. I have been able to make lots more free time for Rose this year, whilst still getting everything done for her. Sticking with short, authentic lessons with no ‘twaddle’ has given her space between lessons to play. She is still very much into imaginative play & it has been glorious to see her playing with her stuffed animals & chatting away to them or running in from the garden to tell me about a spider she has found, a fly, or a butterfly….
Origami Maths ~ AKA Paper Airplanes
Origami Maths ~ AKA Paper Airplanes
I am doing the necessary ‘end of first week’ shake up of the time table. Little Passports was mentioned on FaceBook as now being available in the UK. It has come along at the right time as I was mulling over ideas for something that Rose can dip in & out of as the mood strikes her. I ordered on Friday & I believe it will take up to four weeks to arrive, so I am not going to mention it to her & let it be a surprise package in the post.This is just the kind of thing that will fire up her imagination. It will work well with these two books I was planning to use with her this year:
Writing Thank You Notes
Writing Thank You Notes
Also in the ‘Time Table Redux’ I have decided to cut ‘Life Of Fred’
Oh! how sad I was to do this! I was reluctant, but I had promised myself that I am not over stretching us this year. Everything must have a purpose & count. We are not going to dash from subject to subject. The temptation (for me) with short, Charlotte Mason – style lessons can be to ‘pack ’em in’ to every available minute! We need margin…and it was the one thing that wasn’t getting done.  We only got it done once…so it has gone off the time table!
There is a happy ending to the sad tale of LOF…I sold our books, which has funded the purchase of Norms & Nobility: A Treatise On Education I am very much looking forward to slowly reading this book!
More Harvest Moon Walk
More Harvest Moon Walk
Happy Weekend!
Celebrating, Family, Learning

Not ‘Back To School’

by raisinglittleshootsLeave a Comment on Not ‘Back To School’

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I love this time of year so dearly..cool, misty mornings,  warm, sunshiny days, our apple tree & blackberry bushes overloaded with ripe fruit…bountiful blessings.

I also love our ‘not back to school’ day.

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I am so very grateful to have had this wonderful life with my children. To be there with them day in, day out. To see them learning & growing.

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I usually time our ‘not back to school day’ to fall on a Wednesday or Thursday & we ease ourselves back in with familiar activities to reacquaint ourselves with the rhythms & routines of our learning at home.

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This morning we discussed our new books & resources, then chatted about the children’s goals for term 1.  For us, this runs from September to the end of November. 6

After an impromptu trip to the supermarket to pick up toilet paper & to spend birthday money (really! who runs out of toilet paper on the first day of lessons?!?) We came home to enjoy our traditional ‘first day’ lunch of alphabet spaghetti. After lunch the girls & I began work on our new journals. These journals are going to be dedicated to a year long pond study that will we be carrying out of our local pond. I think this may just be my favourite part of our studies this year! I intend us to study not just the pond itself, but also the creatures, plants & trees that surround it. We each stuck one of these handy-dandy ‘observation tools’ print outs into the back of our journals & covered them with sticky back plastic to protect them while we are outdoors for good measure. I would highly recommend you take some time to watch this video by John Muir Laws if you have an interest in nature journaling. It is not only inspiring, but wonderfully practical too. And so on the button. Deep Observation & Nature Journaling is the title. Deep. This video is not about skimming the surface, superficial learning, or any any old ‘box ticking’ activity, but wonderful, deep learning about the world around us. 11 The girls baked & iced gingerbread which we had with apple juice for ‘afternoon tea’ in the garden. We each choose a poem & read them out loud. I read Jaques speech from ‘As You Like It’ by Shakespeare, which we had memorised last year. Elianna read ‘Night’ by William Blake & Rose read ‘The Birthday Child’ by Rose Fyleman, on account of it being her birthday earlier in the week.

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Honestly, I have no idea why the child is now in her dressing gown!

After dinner I took Rose to our local canoeing club & Elianna stayed at home to read ‘D’Aulaires Norse Myths. It was a perfect day. A beautiful, autumnal, perfect day.

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