Narration Alternative

Always on the hunt to make narration easier I found another printable from  B. Nute Productions. This printable adds whimsy to Sister's narratives. We won't use it all the time but it will definitely be a fun alternative.

Memorizing Books of the Bible

Praise God! He is so good!

We are learning the books of the Bible as our first attempt at memorizing. To make this as easy and fun as possible I found this great video. The kids absolutely love it. And the neat part is I will hear them throughout the day singing the song to themselves, so I know it's sticking.

I had this video saved on the desktop of my computer. When it died I thought we had lost it. After a few days struggling with memory I thought we would try to find a replacement. AND HERE IT IS! Thank you Lord!

My Computer Has Bit the Dust

My computer dying couldn't have happened at a worse time. It has become an essential part of our home school. We still have dear husband's but it seems his computer is on it's last leg too. 

I praise God that I started this blog and have been keeping my sites bookmarked (most of them, anyway) through the blog, not only on my computer. This, however, creates another issue. Since I don't want to overload husband's computer I will have to continue bookmarking ALL the sites I want to remember through my blog.

I will be bookmarking most of those things under a separate page at the top of the blog. Your welcome to cruise through and see if you find anything of interest for yourself. 

Narration Cube

Narration is the essence behind a Charlotte Mason education. One can read books all day long to their children but if you want it to take root and remain there, then narration is the key. 

Narration is, more or less, a verbal essay. The "retelling" of what is read teaches the child to mentally organize their thoughts. This is an important step when beginning to actually write. We have found it important to encourage Sister to narrate in her own words. In the beginning she would simply regurgitate what was read verbatim, with little thought put into what she was saying.

The process of "putting it in your own words" causes the piece read to take up residence. Describing how a poem, for instance, makes you feel, or describing what you envisioned while hearing the words read, makes a connection in the brain that is hard to displace. The information isn't just stored in the inbox of your brain temporarily, it is actually filed away in the filing cabinets for safe keeping.

Using a narration cube is a wonderful way to help beginners understand what narration really involves. You roll it like dice and do whatever lands on top. Now this seems almost to simple. Sister likes it because it's "fun." Well, learning is supposed to be fun! So we are going to use this form of narration over the next few months and see how this works out. 

These are the cubes I made from a template in one of the forums. It's based on Penny Gardner's website. I wish I could remember where I saw it to share it. But here is a template you can use to make your own narration cube.

FIRST GRADE PLAN

PLAN

First Grade Curriculum

2012-2013 4 hours/day; 5 days/week

Bible

· Holy Bible NKJV

· OT Bible Readings

· NT Bible Readings

· Studying God's Word Book B

History

· World-

· Child's History of the World

· Baldwin's 50 Famous Tales

· Viking Tales

· American-

· TruthQuest History

· Wall Timeline

Geography

· Paddle to the Sea

· Map

Literature

· Aesop's Fables

· The Blue Fairy Book

· Just So Stories

· Parables From Nature

Poetry

· A Child's Garden of Verses

· Now We Are Six

· When We Were Young

Mathematics

· Singapore Primary Mathmatics 1A

Phonics/Reading

· Adventures In Phonics Level

· Phonics Readers 1-4

· Bob Books

Handwriting

· A Reason For Writing-Words of Promise

Natural History/Science

· The Handbook of Nature Study

· James Herriot's Treasury for Children

· The Burgess Bird Book for Children

· Burgess Bird Book Companion

· The Outdoor Hour-Nature Study Online

· Nature Journal

Foreign Language/Spanish

· Salsa Spanish

Artist/Composer Study

· Six works from 6 artists

· Michelangelo Buonarroti(Italian, 1475-1564)

· Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

· Mary Cassatt (American Impressionist, 1844-1926)

· Peter and the Wolf Sergei Prokofiev (1936)

· The Nutcracker Suite Tchaikovsky(1892)

· The Magic FluteMozart (1791)

HISTORY

We are using TruthQuest History for American history this year. For us, history should be wrapped and interwoven with the One who created and directed it. TruthQuest is organized beautifully, with simple introductions for key events that enlighten one to God's hand in those events.

We found a few of the spines (core books) and are supplementing with what we can find from the library. We have also found a lot of free stuff to use for narration and as supplemental handcrafts.

We did a search for "viking printables" and "viking coloring sheets" and printed a few of these for little brother while we read. Sister isn't able to focus on more than one thing at a time, so her coloring will be saved for after the reading.

We are always on the lookout for free lined pages for narration and have collected quite a few. To keep them organized we have them stashed into a binder with page protectors. Sister looks through and picks what she wants at that moment and I just copy it on the scanner (page protector and all).

Sometimes she will write a sentence or two. Most times, since we are just beginning, I will have her retell or act out what we read. As she gets better at writing I will have her journal more for narration.

For world history we will be reading "Child's History of the World" written by V.M. Hillyer. Mr. Hillyer writes from a Christian worldview, which we find very appealing. We find his writing style very entertaining while providing Sister an excellent introduction to world history. Granted the first few chapters leave little to be desired but by chapter five the book comes alive.

To help Sister grasp the timing of events we have started a wall time line. Making the timeline was as easy as pinning 9 feet of ribbon to the length of our hallway wall. As we work our way through history we will paperclip index cards(printed with key historical events) to the timeline. We even made cards with her and Brother's birthday's on them just for perspective.

We are not focusing on the dates. They are included for Mom and Dad's interest but the timeline itself is purely meant as an overview.

Robyn's Master Planner's for Ambleside Online Years 0-8 These are planning pages for your homeschool binder. They make everything so much easier to follow!

MATH

Math was a bit of a concern for me. Not the fact that it was 1st grade math but because we are teaching Singapore math. We wanted to teach using Singapore because it helps to make the abstract more concrete. Teaching in this way is supposed to help smooth the transition into algebra. A subject which I needed a lot of help in.

Using 10 frames and number bonds was completely foreign to us. We started Singapore as soon as we received the Text and Workbook in the mail. We quickly discovered we also needed the teachers manual. There is one specifically made for homeschooler's and that is the one we purchased. What a difference it has made. 

Sister is learning her fact families first. During this time she is practicing on the computer, using work sheets, completeing oral drills (1+1=2, 1+2=3, etc.), and using flash cards. Following is a list of the sites she likes to play on.

Computer Math Games

Illuminations Ten Frame: A favorite of Sister's! She started with step one "How many?" but now mainly works on step 4 "Add". 

IXL: is a great site with  many games. But you can only answer 20 problems a day for free.

Fun for the Brain-Looks interesting. We haven't really explored this one thoroughly yet. 

ICT-The Funky Mummy- Fun game for number bonds. Sometimes its a bit advanced for my first grader though.

Woodlands Jr School- LOVE their site. Its so much more that math. A must see!

ABCYa!- Touted as one of the best free educational sites. Sister sure loves it!

SCIENCE/NATURE STUDY

I have always loved Science. I can't say the same for the out of doors. Don't get me wrong, I love the outside. When its below 89 degrees. Living in the South doesn't really allow for many pleasant summery days. So, the less I have to plan, the less I will procrastinate in this area. Now when Fall gets here, well, that will be a whole other story. 

Thank God for the Outdoor Power Hour Challenge . This will give us a great jumping off point. She has many freebies and fantastic ideas all approved by AmblesideOnline! 

Pinterest is another wonderful resource for Nature study. The Homeschool Coop is loaded with fantastic ideas for projects, printables, and so much more. 

MUSIC/ART

Ambleside Online has a suggested schedule to follow for artists, composers, folksongs and hymns. But it is totally voluntary. We will follow their suggestions only for the folksongs and hymns.

2012/2013 school year
Term 1: Sep Gypsy Rover** *
Oct Early One Morning *
NovI's the B'y*
Term 2: JanKeys to Canterbury *
Feb Mairi's Wedding **
Mar All Through the Night * * * * (A Welsh lullaby)
Term 3: Apr Maggie (When You And I Were Young, Maggie) *
May The Wild Colonial Boy * * *
June Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen * *

Lindafay at Charlotte Mason Help lists wonderful ideas that she actually incorporated into her own children's education. And since she had both, boys and girls, we feel her ideas are well suited for our family. We feel her curriculum is organized in a way that suits my need for more structure. We tend to blend alot of her curriculum with AmblesideOnline.

Music

Lindafay suggests making a broad sweep the first couple of years and then in Yr 3 settle into specific composer studies. This year we will cover Orchestra, Ballet and Opera. 

Beginning this term with Orchestra we chose Peter and the Wolf. What better way to open up the classical world to our children. Sister listened to Basil Rathbone narrate this wonderful piece online at archive.org this past week. Listen for yourself and see if you don't agree it's perfect for beginners.

We also happened upon a book at the library to give Sister something to look through as she listened. 

We've been leery about allowing to much Disney but still might let her view this at a later date, purely for entertainment. 

If we can find Mark Rubin's book "The Orchestra" at our local library we will try to include this too. From the reviews this little book does a wonderful job introducing children to the orchestra. 

Art

We wanted to start off with an artist that Sister could more or less relate to. Mary Cassatt's subjects are mainly mother's and their children, and her work provides a variety of mediums for Sister to become familiar with. 

An excellent resource we recently discovered is the National Gallery of Art. They provide resources that you can check out as well as use online. 

Librivox Recordings

Librivox is a great resource! It is an online library of audio books that can be streamed on your computer. Sister and brother enjoy the variety of listening to books read to them by somebody else. Someone went through and pinned the best ones to Pinterest. Life just couldn't get any simpler! 

AO Yr 0-2

AO Yr 3-5

AO YR 6-8

"You mean I have to go outside??"

Well, today was the day! Nature study, going out and observing God's creation in 89% humidity, oh me! 

Sister decided she wanted to study Daddy's new Pin Oak he planted this year. Earlier this summer something ate most of its leaves, that would have been a good study! We think it was some sort of beetle. 

In any case, getting back on topic, we took pictures, collected a leaf and observed the bark. Sister spotted a firefly and we took note of the sounds around us.

Actually, Sister took the pictures. You can see her finger there in the pic. I took a better one fingerless one but thought since this was about her nature journal and not mine I should actually use her photos.

We did a quick internet search on fireflies and found out they are actually a member of the beetle family.

At first Sister couldn't hear anything around her. Then finally she heard what she called crickets. After we did a little research, we decided what we actually heard were Katydids.

You can click here to start or stop the sound we heard today. 

After our time outside, Sister completed her journal page and we added it to her big notebook. I think we did pretty good for a first nature study.

Nifty Planner for Sister

As our day progressed, Sister kept asking me, "What's next? How much do we have left? Can I take a break now?"  I would look through our list of subjects, and dread telling her we really just began.

We certainly don't want to turn her off of school. It must be kept fun. We want to keep her excited and instill in her a desire and motivation to take charge of her own education. Hopefully, when she starts college, she will have no issue with putting into practice all the habits we are trying to teach her. One way we decided to do this is by keeping her involved in the planning of her day. 

We printed all the subjects or books that we are covering this term, taped them to card stock, and then laminated them. Sister helped stick magnets onto them, and we found a white board that was magnetic.

During the day as we complete a subject she slides the card over to the done side. When we are all done for the day, we set the board back up for the next school day. I admit I am one of those that likes to have lists to check off, and I believe that habit might be rubbing off on Sister. In any case, we believe it will help teach her good time management skills.

Officially Started School Today

July 30 has started our schooling. We sent Daddy off to work and got started around 12 noon. Not bad for a first day! We didn't go exactly in the order I had planned out but that's okay. I wanted Sister to be excited about her day and to feel like she had some control over it. 

After our family devotional, her and her brother were jumping up and down begging to start with Spanish. Today isn't even an official Spanish day but I couldn't deny them. We started off with Salsa, added some phrases afterward and practiced all day. Our phrases we learned today were, "Buenos dias, buenos tardes, and buenos noches." We reviewed "hola, hasta luego, grande, and pequeno." I think they had great fun!

Charlotte Mason recommends scheduling courses in such a way that your not repeating to many things in row. So, after the movie we moved into World History and read Chapter One from a "Child's History of the World" (CHOW). We began at the beginning with creation and Sister narrated the chapter back after I finished reading. 

Next, she practiced writing the letter L today. No more than 10 minutes for this exercise so perfection is expected. She did beautifully. When she tried to write in other things her writing left a lot to be desired, so this will take lots of practice.

We read a poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson while we ate soup for lunch. Afterward, we moved into a phonics review of short vowels. We flipped through the pages of her workbook and I asked her to say the word for the picture and to identify the short vowel missing from the word. She did well, missing only 2 of the vowels.

After phonics I was to read "The Sword of Damocles" but I was worried about mutilating the language so we listened to that one on the computer through a wonderful website called Libvox. Once that was done I read Aesop's Fables, "The Wolf and the Kid." I didn't require narration after either one of these. However, they did come up in conversation on the way to the library later in the day and over at Mommew's (grandma's) house.

I'm not sure if I will let her color during the readings anymore. It seems the stories where she only listened were better remembered than the ones where she colored while I read. So tomorrow we will just try a different approach with the readings and make sure there are no other distractions.

We wrapped everything up with Math and outside play. I was surprised she did so well with her math but very thankful at the same time. It was about 3:30 when we finally finished with everything. I give the glory to God and continue to ask that He fills in the gaps that I missed.





     

Our Calling

I've always felt it but had tried so many times to ignore it. You know, that feeling you're supposed to be doing something but you don't really want to.

When Sister was born, my first thought was to enjoy the first few years at home with her and then head back into the workforce once she started school. I actually did work for a little while there, and she actually made it through PreK and K in a public school. I had made many plans before I finally started listening to the Holy Spirit.

My husband and I prayed and prayed. Finally, at the end of Sister's Kindergarten year we believed it was time to keep her home. We might have actually let her stay another couple of years had it not been for all the drastic changes our school system put into place. Praise God, He has a way of getting us to where we need to be no matter which out of the way route we tend to take.

With the decision made now we had to choose curriculum. I thought I wanted something all laid out for me, neat and tidy, lesson plans, activities--a boxed curriculum. That was perfect! Or so I thought. Once I got it and started "reviewing" it that little feeling came back again. I just wasn't at peace. I didn't understand, it was exactly what I had wanted all along. Well, at least it didn't take me 5 years this time to figure out God had other plans.

And that brings us to where we are today. The Lord has been so good to us. He put into our hands AmblesideOnline. It's a free curriculum, rich with literature and history. Of course, we have made a couple of changes. Trial and Triumph was a bit much for our young, newly saved 6 year old. We also changed the history just a tad. In place of Our Island Story, we will use the Bible, and A Child's History of the World. We want our children to understand history is exactly that, HIStory.

I will post our exact curriculum over the next few posts. 

Ultimately, we want to encourage their hunger for learning while building a solid foundation for their faith. This blog will log our journey. It will be a place for us to store our ideas, curriculum, successes and even our failures. Failures are only steps toward success.