All summer long I have been preparing for what I call "actual school" and the lesson schedule I wanted to do during the "school year." We are trying to pull off what is called Classical Education. This kind of education is focused primarily on reading, writing, and history. We are primarily following the schedule outlined in Susan Wise Bauer's book, "The Well-Trained Mind." The shortened version of her book is as follows.
Grammar, including spelling, writing, grammar, and formal reading, should take about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours a day (for a first grader). We accomplish this with a handwriting book, a spelling book, and eventually a grammar book. When the handwriting book is complete we will move on to copywork and then dictations. We will keep lists of trouble spelling words, grammar rules, copies of memorized poems and letters written and narration pages on works of fiction that we've read. More on narration later. All of this is compiled into one big binder. In a couple of weeks we will get our German grammar and vocab books so that will add to our language learning binder.
History is divided into 4 major sections and first grade gets to study the Ancients (2nd grade is medieval/early renaissance, 3rd grade is late renaissance and 4th grade is modern history). This is accomplished by reading a page or two in a main history book - our is the Usborne History of the World - and then choosing the most interesting things on that particular page or on that subject to research more fully through library books. Then a narration page follows, as will be illustrated. There will also be memorization of dynasties and pharaohs and stuff like that, but we aren't at that point yet. For instance, the first 2 page spread in our book was called "digging up history" so we checked out a lot of different books from the library on archeology and did our narration page on that. There are also fun projects to do with our history research, as you'll see in a few minutes. History takes about 1 hour 3 days a week.
Our science is also broken down into a 4 year rotation like history. First graders start off with life sciences, 2nd grade is Earth Science and Astronomy I think, 3rd grade is Chemistry, and 4th grade is Physics and Computer Science. In first grade we spend 20 weeks on zoology, 10 weeks on human biology/anatomy, and 6 weeks on botany. For the 20 weeks on zoology we pick different animals out of a main general reference book and then do further research with library books - then a narration page. I'm planning field trips to the Zoo in October and to the Aquarium in the Spring sometime. If we get into birds we might make a trip up to the Aviary as well. It's a cool place. Science is 2 days a week for about 1 1/2 hours each time.
Math is everyday. We are using Singapore math and that seems to be working fine. Joshua is more than half way through with the first semester of 1st grade already. I will eventually move on to Saxon math I think. We do math every day.
I read to the children every day but mostly from our science and history books. I also read to Abigail out of a book of her choosing from the library and Joshua is required to read me at least one book a day from books he and I have chosen together from the library at his reading level. We have a big stack of books in our learning room from all the books the kids can choose from. Of course they can choose from books we actually own off our book shelf, but library books are usually more fun. Joshua already reads on his own for free reading. Bauer recommends the children have 30 minutes of free reading time from books of their own choice. I don't count the minutes he reads, but he spends probably 5 to10 minutes every night reading out of his Book of Mormon. He is already at 1st Nephi chapter 16 I think. And Derek reads fiction to them in the evenings before bedtime. For our study of the Ancients, his reading list consists of stuff like the Odyssey (which he is reading now - a children's version of course), Indian, Japaneses, African, and Chinese fairy tales and other really old stuff. I've got more Greek Myth story books and stuff like that.
Joshua has started piano lessons and so far we are NOT very good at practicing but we do have a chart and he is enjoying his lessons. We will get better at practicing, I'm sure.
We read from the scriptures together every day as well, but I've decided I'm going to have them start memorizing the scripture mastery scriptures from seminary. Also, as we study the ancients it is very easy to show them how the stories from the Bible fit into the history. This helps them visualize Abraham leaving Ur because now they actually know what Ur looked like and where it was and what life was like.
Speaking of Ur, that is part of what we learned this week, so I'll just move on to the interesting stuff. But at least now you get an idea of how we are structuring things around here. I may have left something out, but that is kind of the backbone of our homeschool.
Last week Friday for history we started with the study of Archeology. We read the awesome book pictured below and I've also included photos of Joshua's narration page. After reading the two page spread in our "textbook" he narrated to me what he had learned and then drew a picture of what he learned. At this level, there is a lot of helping with the narration pages, I often ask, "What does an archeologist do? How do they know how old something is? Why is the exact place an object is found important to an archeologist?" and so forth. But the more he does these the better he gets. I didn't really have a good activity for this lesson. We had planned to go to Dinosaur National Monument today with my sister in Colorado but we all got rained out. Paleontology relates to archeology so I figured that counted.
Monday we learned about the first settlers and we also learned how to weave on a loom as they had to learn. We figured it wouldn't be very comfortable to always have to wear animal skins but cloth would be much nicer. The kids also learned a new song on our German CD about the Stone Age. When Joshua was singing to this song in the car after our lesson he shouted out so excited, "HEY!! We are learning about this!!! Their tools were made of stone!!" He's pretty into homeschool, which is awesome. I was so impressed at their weaving skills. Joshua has made 2 or 3 little woven things and Abigail is on her second. She is amazing to be able to do this all by herself!
Wednesday we learned about the first great civilizations. We read first about Jericho an Chatal Huyuk but then moved quickly over to the Sumerians and Ur and did our narration page on that. We also learned about their ziggurats, which were their huge temples where they worshiped their gods and goddesses. We decided to make our own ziggurat.
On Friday we learned how the Sumerians developed a system of writing to keep records of offerings made to the gods and marketplace transactions. We also learned about daily life as a Sumerian and what is was like in their schools. We made "clay tablets" out of home made play dough (and let me tell you, it is not easy to use food coloring to come up with a red clay color but I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!) and Joshua got into it by finding a stick outside to write his cuneiform symbols, as a plastic knife just wasn't as authentic.
Since Abigail was learning "M" in preschoool - this week at someone else's house - I thought we would start our zoology lessons on Monkeys and Apes. We read a lot of different books but Joshua's favorites were Gorillas, Baboons, and Orangutans. I don't blame him. I always liked the little Tarsiers and Bushbabies when I was a kid but my kids didn't seem to think the little bug eyed rat looking primates were very interesting. We made Mini Monkey Muffins (mini banana muffins) to follow with the M and Monkey theme, and made little Monkey books. Abigail's book includes her favorite facts about Monkeys in general, whereas Joshua's book features a different monkey or ape on each page and a fact about that animal. For instance, the Silverback Gorilla is the male leader of the group, Orangutan arms are so long that when they stand, their arms reach to the ground, Tarsiers can turn their heads around 180 degrees, and a special treat for a Baboon is gum from a fever tree. We also learned that the baboon Rafiki in the Lion King is actually not a baboon but a mandrill. Disney messed up on that one. Also, for Abigail's math I printed out a picture of a bed and we did addition and subtraction with monkeys jumping on the bed. I wrote down the number sentences and prompted her along as she made them up and found out how many monkeys were left on the bed or how many were altogether when all those little monkeys got back on the bed. We used unifix cubes for monkeys.
I kind of think that is it. I sure seemed like we did more this week. Joshua chose for his animal group for next week deer and antelope. I don't think that would have been my first choice but it will be interesting to learn about them and moose and caribou and elk and pronghorn and gazelles and stuff. Also, next week we are starting a 3 week unit on ancient Egypt. I found a few lapbook downloads online for Ancient Egypt, so along with our narration pages we will be making a lapbook and doing other fun projects. Personally I don't really think ancient Egypt is that exciting, but I'm going to do my best to put on a smile, because I think the kids would really find it interesting. And how can you learn about the ancient world WITHOUT learning about Egypt. It should be fun.
Grammar, including spelling, writing, grammar, and formal reading, should take about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours a day (for a first grader). We accomplish this with a handwriting book, a spelling book, and eventually a grammar book. When the handwriting book is complete we will move on to copywork and then dictations. We will keep lists of trouble spelling words, grammar rules, copies of memorized poems and letters written and narration pages on works of fiction that we've read. More on narration later. All of this is compiled into one big binder. In a couple of weeks we will get our German grammar and vocab books so that will add to our language learning binder.
History is divided into 4 major sections and first grade gets to study the Ancients (2nd grade is medieval/early renaissance, 3rd grade is late renaissance and 4th grade is modern history). This is accomplished by reading a page or two in a main history book - our is the Usborne History of the World - and then choosing the most interesting things on that particular page or on that subject to research more fully through library books. Then a narration page follows, as will be illustrated. There will also be memorization of dynasties and pharaohs and stuff like that, but we aren't at that point yet. For instance, the first 2 page spread in our book was called "digging up history" so we checked out a lot of different books from the library on archeology and did our narration page on that. There are also fun projects to do with our history research, as you'll see in a few minutes. History takes about 1 hour 3 days a week.
Our science is also broken down into a 4 year rotation like history. First graders start off with life sciences, 2nd grade is Earth Science and Astronomy I think, 3rd grade is Chemistry, and 4th grade is Physics and Computer Science. In first grade we spend 20 weeks on zoology, 10 weeks on human biology/anatomy, and 6 weeks on botany. For the 20 weeks on zoology we pick different animals out of a main general reference book and then do further research with library books - then a narration page. I'm planning field trips to the Zoo in October and to the Aquarium in the Spring sometime. If we get into birds we might make a trip up to the Aviary as well. It's a cool place. Science is 2 days a week for about 1 1/2 hours each time.
Math is everyday. We are using Singapore math and that seems to be working fine. Joshua is more than half way through with the first semester of 1st grade already. I will eventually move on to Saxon math I think. We do math every day.
I read to the children every day but mostly from our science and history books. I also read to Abigail out of a book of her choosing from the library and Joshua is required to read me at least one book a day from books he and I have chosen together from the library at his reading level. We have a big stack of books in our learning room from all the books the kids can choose from. Of course they can choose from books we actually own off our book shelf, but library books are usually more fun. Joshua already reads on his own for free reading. Bauer recommends the children have 30 minutes of free reading time from books of their own choice. I don't count the minutes he reads, but he spends probably 5 to10 minutes every night reading out of his Book of Mormon. He is already at 1st Nephi chapter 16 I think. And Derek reads fiction to them in the evenings before bedtime. For our study of the Ancients, his reading list consists of stuff like the Odyssey (which he is reading now - a children's version of course), Indian, Japaneses, African, and Chinese fairy tales and other really old stuff. I've got more Greek Myth story books and stuff like that.
Joshua has started piano lessons and so far we are NOT very good at practicing but we do have a chart and he is enjoying his lessons. We will get better at practicing, I'm sure.
We read from the scriptures together every day as well, but I've decided I'm going to have them start memorizing the scripture mastery scriptures from seminary. Also, as we study the ancients it is very easy to show them how the stories from the Bible fit into the history. This helps them visualize Abraham leaving Ur because now they actually know what Ur looked like and where it was and what life was like.
Speaking of Ur, that is part of what we learned this week, so I'll just move on to the interesting stuff. But at least now you get an idea of how we are structuring things around here. I may have left something out, but that is kind of the backbone of our homeschool.
Last week Friday for history we started with the study of Archeology. We read the awesome book pictured below and I've also included photos of Joshua's narration page. After reading the two page spread in our "textbook" he narrated to me what he had learned and then drew a picture of what he learned. At this level, there is a lot of helping with the narration pages, I often ask, "What does an archeologist do? How do they know how old something is? Why is the exact place an object is found important to an archeologist?" and so forth. But the more he does these the better he gets. I didn't really have a good activity for this lesson. We had planned to go to Dinosaur National Monument today with my sister in Colorado but we all got rained out. Paleontology relates to archeology so I figured that counted.
Monday we learned about the first settlers and we also learned how to weave on a loom as they had to learn. We figured it wouldn't be very comfortable to always have to wear animal skins but cloth would be much nicer. The kids also learned a new song on our German CD about the Stone Age. When Joshua was singing to this song in the car after our lesson he shouted out so excited, "HEY!! We are learning about this!!! Their tools were made of stone!!" He's pretty into homeschool, which is awesome. I was so impressed at their weaving skills. Joshua has made 2 or 3 little woven things and Abigail is on her second. She is amazing to be able to do this all by herself!
Wednesday we learned about the first great civilizations. We read first about Jericho an Chatal Huyuk but then moved quickly over to the Sumerians and Ur and did our narration page on that. We also learned about their ziggurats, which were their huge temples where they worshiped their gods and goddesses. We decided to make our own ziggurat.
On Friday we learned how the Sumerians developed a system of writing to keep records of offerings made to the gods and marketplace transactions. We also learned about daily life as a Sumerian and what is was like in their schools. We made "clay tablets" out of home made play dough (and let me tell you, it is not easy to use food coloring to come up with a red clay color but I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!) and Joshua got into it by finding a stick outside to write his cuneiform symbols, as a plastic knife just wasn't as authentic.
Since Abigail was learning "M" in preschoool - this week at someone else's house - I thought we would start our zoology lessons on Monkeys and Apes. We read a lot of different books but Joshua's favorites were Gorillas, Baboons, and Orangutans. I don't blame him. I always liked the little Tarsiers and Bushbabies when I was a kid but my kids didn't seem to think the little bug eyed rat looking primates were very interesting. We made Mini Monkey Muffins (mini banana muffins) to follow with the M and Monkey theme, and made little Monkey books. Abigail's book includes her favorite facts about Monkeys in general, whereas Joshua's book features a different monkey or ape on each page and a fact about that animal. For instance, the Silverback Gorilla is the male leader of the group, Orangutan arms are so long that when they stand, their arms reach to the ground, Tarsiers can turn their heads around 180 degrees, and a special treat for a Baboon is gum from a fever tree. We also learned that the baboon Rafiki in the Lion King is actually not a baboon but a mandrill. Disney messed up on that one. Also, for Abigail's math I printed out a picture of a bed and we did addition and subtraction with monkeys jumping on the bed. I wrote down the number sentences and prompted her along as she made them up and found out how many monkeys were left on the bed or how many were altogether when all those little monkeys got back on the bed. We used unifix cubes for monkeys.
I kind of think that is it. I sure seemed like we did more this week. Joshua chose for his animal group for next week deer and antelope. I don't think that would have been my first choice but it will be interesting to learn about them and moose and caribou and elk and pronghorn and gazelles and stuff. Also, next week we are starting a 3 week unit on ancient Egypt. I found a few lapbook downloads online for Ancient Egypt, so along with our narration pages we will be making a lapbook and doing other fun projects. Personally I don't really think ancient Egypt is that exciting, but I'm going to do my best to put on a smile, because I think the kids would really find it interesting. And how can you learn about the ancient world WITHOUT learning about Egypt. It should be fun.
