I think I’ve been a little gun shy about posting on our schooling progress without even realizing it.   Because I am a person who avoids conflict to a fault,  I don’t tend to deal well with snarky comments and emails and thankfully, they’ve been few and far between.   When they come, however, they seem to either be because of something I’ve posted about faith or homeschooling.  But since this blog has replaced scrapbooking for me, I want to document our lives, even what to others may seem mundane and/or offensive.   This will be a post about the details of our schooling so  if that makes you wanna jab sharp objects in your eardrums (and I don’t blame you one bit), you might enjoy this or this instead.  (the first one is ‘why we can’t keep the law of God’ and the second one is ‘reformation theology–the presence of God’)

The rest of you, come along and I’ll tell you what we’ve been doing lately.

I snapped this photo while the girls were painting byzantine crosses with paint we made from egg yolks and food coloring.  It could be my favorite photo of the year so far.   And it wasn’t posed.  This is just how they were sitting for a brief moment while they painted.   But it reminds me how wonderful it is to see the girls become each others’ best friends.   Knee to knee.   Toe to toe.  And often hand in hand.  (and occasionally not for good and pleasant purposes)

History

We cut the crosses out of sugar cookie dough and painted them with the egg tempera paint and then baked them.   And then ate them, of course.    All the while, we discussed our history lesson about how the Ottoman Turks took over Constantinople and made the Hagia Sophia a muslim mosque.  {We are working our way through the Middle Ages from Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World part 2}.   This week, we’re studying the Black Death and making necklaces of herbs and garlic (to ward off the ‘evil spirits’ that were supposed to have caused all the deaths from the plague).    This history program is phenomenal.   And on days like today when I want to be packing and purging instead of teaching,  it’s the history and literature programs that keep me going strong.   I look forward to the coming chapters on Joan of Arc,  The War of the Roses,  Christopher Columbus, and of course Martin Luther.    I’m pretty sure that I’m learning more than they are.

Literature

In general, we use an amalgamation of Charlotte Mason and the Well Trained Mind for literature which means that we read a lot and  use whole books not textbooks.

We are still working our way through the Harry Potter books and are currently reading book 5.   We read HP anytime we get a chance, usually 30-45 minutes first thing in the morning and then whenever else we have time.   I’m also making my way through The Hidden Key to Harry Potter which explains all the christian symbolism in the books.   It is utterly amazing to me the depths of symbolism and hidden meaning and wonderful christian themes in the books, not to mention the sheer amount of words that we’ve read.  {book 5 is 83o something pages long!}   I can’t wait to do a final analysis and review of the books myself.   Rowling is right up there with Lewis and Tolkein and in my estimation may be one of the most gifted and brilliant minds of our time.   We use passages that we’ve read from Harry Potter for dictation and narration.

We also still read a Shakespeare story a week from Charles and Mary Lamb’s  Tales from Shakespeare .   We have 4-5 more stories to read to finish the book— which we should finish by the end of the year.  These are ~ten page summaries of the Shakespeare plays but told in somewhat complicated old english language so that they are easier to read than Shakespeare but rich in vocabulary and complex sentence structure.   I plan to read through this book every year until they are ready to tackle Shakespeare’s works by themselves.     By the time the girls are in 5th grade, they’ll know more Shakespeare than I currently know.  Heck, they may be there already.

We’re also still plugging along through Pilgrim’s Progress (the unabridged version).   We read about 5-10 pages per week and likely will just keep reading until we finish—which may take another 6 months to a year.

The girls are each reading their own books,  which they read aloud to me everyday.   Sweet 7 year old (almost 8 year old) is reading Eight Cousins.   And 9 year old is reading The Little Princess.

We also check out books from the library related to topics we’re studying in history and science.    And I like the short biographies from the kids’ section of our library.  We just read some books on Marco Polo and the Jewish people for history and then one of the girls checked out a biography on Mother Teresa which we read aloud.   We probably spend a good 3 hours a day just reading.
homeade playdough family by emme

Math

We have gone back to Saxon.   I still use some Singapore for enrichment but despite the fact that Saxon kinda bores me,  my girls need the review.   We’re finishing our multiplication and division tables, learning to calculate area and perimeter, learning to measure to the nearest centimeter and counting back change from a dollar.   I struggle with how to teach math sometimes.  I’m not a math whiz but I’m fascinated by people who are and I love the patterns and beauty of numbers.   I ordered Isaac Newton’s Principia and have briefly read a little in it.  It’s over my head but I really want to give my girls a classical math education and I know that Saxon is not the way to do that.    The problem is—I don’t have the skill set to do it.   I’m sure I’ll be looking for a math tutor in a few years.  Or I may need to take a class myself.   Who else should I be reading to educate myself?   Euclid?  Descartes?   There was a great blog post on Gene Veith’s blog about teaching math classically {his comments’ section is always lively and informative} but some of the commenters were over my head.    I think  most people who are committed to classical education still teach math very traditionally.   Any insight or help would be appreciated.

Grammar

We switched from Shurley Grammar to Rod and Staff.   Bauer (author of The Well Trained Mind) recommends Rod and Staff because she says they are the only grammar program that teaches correct sentence diagramming.  I had been using Shurley Grammar because the classical school my children attended used it—and I didn’t want them to fall behind if I decided to send them back.   But it’s laborious to use at home and many have said that the results just weren’t there.  The kids knew the jingles (This little noun—floating around—-names a person, place, or thing….) but then couldn’t apply that knowledge well.    I love rod and staff and we’ve found a cute online song for memorizing the helping verbs that you might like.   I still also use the Daily Grams worksheets with the girls for extra practice.

Memory

I’ve said this before but memory work is one of my favorites of the classical curriculum.  Kids have an amazing capacity for memorization and if you don’t provide them quality pieces to memorize, they’ll memorize EVERYTHING else.   We’re currently working on Psalm 40,  “The Daffodils” by William Wordsworth Longfellow,  the states and capitals,  “My Dearest Friend”,  the Sacrament of the Altar from the small catechism (the girls are preparing for their first communion), and a poem called  “The Paragraph”.   They often complain about having to do memory work but they LOVE reciting things that they’ve memorized.  Which reminds me of Susan Wise Bauer’s advice:   learning does not have to be made overly fun—-it is a reward unto itself.

Science

We have used various curriculum this year.   I like Considering God’s Creation, which I borrowed from Denise.   We just finished a unit on mammals from the Handbook of Nature and are about to do insects then birds.  I did that so that we’d be doing insects and birds in the spring.   I plan to do some human body stuff over the summer so if you have any good  curriculum suggestions for that, let me know.  I’m sure I will soon switch to Apologia which comes highly recommended by so many .

Latin and Spanish

We are still so blessed to have a wonderful teacher who tutors the girls 2 days a week.   We use Latin for Children and I’ve been very pleased with their progress.  I would curl up in a ball and cry if Ms. Susan decided she couldn’t do this.     I ought to be sitting in on the class and learning with them but I often use the time to run errands or exercise.

Spelling and Handwriting

We use Spelling Workout which I love.   I used to do the traditional “one lesson a week with a test on Friday”.  But I find that my girls can easily do two lessons a week so we just do it at our own pace.  We finished our handwriting books Classically Cursive and now just use various texts to copy in cursive.   We’re now working on copying the Sacrament of the Altar from the small catechism for extra practice.

So that’s the nitty gritty.

Many of you email me about homeschooling and I hope this kind of summary helps.   I would much rather write about the abstract aspect of homeschooling–which I will likely do again soon—-but it’s fun to look back and remember the details too.