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August Challenge -- Join us for a month without Screen Time!

Join us in our No-Screen-Time August Challenge of reading top-notch books instead of wasting time with TV and computer games. Pop over to Facebook and let us know what books you'll crack open on the 1st of August. (While you're there, "like"our page, please!)

August will be our books-only month

I was inspired to do this challenge by two things: first, despair at how much of our lives is wasted by living in the virtual world -- telly, computer, email, and even my children's legitimate desires to write books and design 3-D animations are eating up the hours that could be better spent on reading the hundreds of excellent books that currently lie forlornly on our shelves, gathering dust.

Second, I was inspired by Charlotte Mason's writings, especially her 6th volume about a philosophy of education -- as I understood more and more that a child's innate desire for knowledge is ignited through living books, I realised that we couldn't spark a flame if we kept all the matches in the box!

How many books can we get through in a month? That's the big question! We normally have three or four books on the go for our homeschooling, another one or two for pleasure, my elder two (in the online English courses I teach) have up to six books they're working on each week. We also usually spend hours in the car and the pool for swimming training, but all these activities stop in August, so there should be a chance to tackle at least three substantial books for each child's level.

Some thick; some thin; all brilliant!

Phoenix is now 14 and is taking on Middlemarch ahead of her Great British Novels course this year, The Screwtape Letters and the Doris Lessing Canopus in Argos series are also on her shelf (or, virtual shelf, since some are on Kindle).

Killer at 11 is going to have a choice of books from the Ambleside Online list for independent reading: titles like The Borrowers, Puck of Pook's Hill, The Chronicles of Narnia series, a selection of Edgar Allan Poe stories, and Treasure Island.

Rocky, having just now come into her own as an independent reader, has a lot of catching up to do in terms of a twaddle-free zone. Out go the Unicorn School and Flower Fairy books, and in come Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Billy and Blaze series, Doctor Doolittle, and one of my favourites, Pippi Longstocking.

Busy Timmy is 7 and, after getting glasses last year and a Kindle with its adjustable type-face, has started reading books for pleasure when there's time for doing so. He devours the Burgess animal books, but I'm going to try him with a Pocketful of Goobers (about George Washington Carver), Little Owl's Book of Thinking, and a beautiful edition of Hans Christian Andersen tales.

Fancy one of these??

And me? Well, I will still be checking my emails and FB since we'll be coming up to final enrollment for my online courses and I need to stay connected for my job, but I will be sure to a) limit my time on the screen, and b) do it only once the kids have gone to bed.

Book-wise, I usually have about five books on the go at any one time. On August 1st, though, I'm going to crack open George MacDonald's Sir Gibbie. The recommendations for this novel are very high, and the reviews on Amazon are glowing. Others on my list are Thomas Merton's Seven-Storey Mountain and Fahrenheit 451.

Will this be too much for thirty-one days' worth of reading? Too daunting to try? I'm expecting a few days' of screen withdrawal and another day or two as they get into the habit of reading for pleasure. My hope is to avoid incentivising them, threatening, or cajoling. I really want them to feast on the pleasure of reading, just for the sake of the dishes in their grasp and not the whip behind nor the carrot in front of them.

Truly, watch this space!

Time To Start A New Year 2013

I'm finally out of summertime holiday mode, and back into school preparation.  I've just about managed to put away all the camping gear, newly washed clothes, and seventeen packets of cup-o-soup, but now I have to tackle THE SCHOOL ROOM.

Out go all the books about medieval history, and in come those about the Renaissance.

Out go the papers, books, scrap books, and exercise books from our work last year, and in come the new folders, binders, composition books, pens, paper, glue, scissors, and boxes of crayons.

What a mess in the meantime!

Out with the old, in with the New

But wait?  What's this?  You mean, things aren't as chaotic as they first seem?

Guess who's got a new label maker?

My hope is that more books on display in neat categories might encourage more browsing . Still not sure what I'll put in the drawers at the bottom.  These used to have activities and crafts, most of which the kids have outgrown.  They might be a perfect place for the art supplies that currently live in the utility room, but I sure hope they don't encourage Rocky to paint on the carpet again!

Meanwhile, here is a very exciting book shelf:

CM Live Middle Ages Core Texts

These are the core texts for the CM Live Middle Ages course which I teach, and which Killer is going to take this year. I'm very proud of him.  Most students don't read these books till they're in college, and Killer is only 10! (I may have to carve out time to read them with him, though)

Finally, tidying up got delayed when I was inspired to work on our daily schedules.  About three hours later, I had finished the first draft of Phoenix's schedule: 

A Year 8 Schedule based on Ambleside Online

Phoenix is my eldest, and a natural scholar. Her brothers and sister will have shorter schedules than this, though they will be almost identical up until lunchtime. 

This one is heavy on the humanities, especially geography, because that's Phoenix's personal forte. I printed it out, but haven't edited it -- so, who knows if all the timings add up!

Roll on September 9th, when we officially start.

4-Digit Multiplication -- the proof is in the Montessori pudding!

Rocky is just now 8, and though she should be in the 2nd grade (year 3) if she went to school, she's in the 3rd grade (Year 4) Shillermath book.

Rocky, the (not always) model student!

Some of you may be thinking: "Oh, that's all right for you!  She obviously has the genes/the talent/the instruction/(insert explanation here", but let me tell you, this is the most free-wheeling, doll-playing, coloring-book-addicted child I've ever seen.

Yet, somehow, she picks things up.

(I've just deleted the phrase "just by listening", because I'm not sure she even does it by listening -- when we do our read-alouds, she can rarely muster up a decent narration beyond "There was this guy ... and he rode his chariot to this other guy ... and he shot him in the head or something" -- Rocky's version of 2 Kings 9 where Jehu shoots Joram in the back with an arrow. Kudos to her -- there WERE two guys, and there WAS a chariot, and someone did some shooting.)

Maybe she picks things up because she's a thinker behind all that cloud-cuckoo-land exterior.  I mean, usually, she's the kind of child who does things like choosing the alias "Yellow Rocket Ship Plane" when the other kids chose Phoenix, Killer, and Timmy.

Last year, though, she surprised me by saying, "Your grandma must have been pretty young when she had Grandma."  And I said, "Why do you say that?" She replied, "Because Great-Grandma has just had her 90th birthday, and Grandma is going to be 70, so she must have been 20 when she had her."

At that time, her maths books were still only doing addition up to 5. Yet, we were working with the decimal materials like 1000s cubes, 100s "flats", etc, so I'm guessing she just had a really good visual picture of what it means to subtract one number from another regardless the place-number it is.

Anyway, two days ago I introduced simple multiplication to her a la Lesson 3 of Shillermath's Book 3.  We had out the 1000s cubes and the 100s "flats" and the 10s "bars" and unit cubes. We practised multiplying 3 of the 1000s cubes and got 3000. We practised 4 of the 10s bars twice, and got 8 10s bars, or 80.

Then today, she did this:

4-digit multiplication with exchange

I'm flabbergasted. I'm astounded.  And it's not Rocky so much I'm amazed by (though maybe I should be), it's just this Montessori-based maths curriculum that teaches everything SOOOO carefully, SOOOO visually/aurally/kinesthetically, and SOOOO well!

So if anyone asks me what's the best purchase I've ever made in all my 8+-years of home educating, Shillermath would be at the top of my list. (Ambleside Online is also brilliant, but I haven't had to purchase it!)

I wish Mr Shiller had continued his math adventure beyond primary school (there are rumors that middle- and high-school version are on the cards), but that discussion will lead me into a review of Life of Fred, so I will just sign off instead.

In the meantime, you might want to look at my review from a few years ago when the curriculum was still new to us.  It gives a bit more detail, and compares it to other hands-on math options.

Lapbook of Henry II

Here is a page from this year's scrapbook we're making to go along with our study of Our Island Story up until the end of the Tudors. (In previous years, we tried to do the whole book in one year, but felt we missed out on so much fantastic stuff, we slowed our progress this year).

Scrapbook Page on Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine

There are four items that make up the double-page spread, though true to form, Phoenix has added some cartoons and labels that weren't exactly in the plan for everyone.

The items are:

• Map of Europe showing the Angevin empire under Henry II's control and how he had more of France than did the King of France at the time. The link is here: http://tinyurl.com/ceufo39

• A cross-shaped book which, above, is labeled "Turmoil". Inside are some quick facts about Henry II.

With the cross-shaped flaps open, the topics
are Henry's castle-building, the "acquisition" of Ireland,
and his burial in France.

• A booklet of the story of Thomas Becket.

An Accordion-Fold Book of Thomas Becket's Life and Death

• A layered book about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

A 7-layer Booklet
(Sorry it's sideways!)

With some of the flaps open:
Eleanor's vital statistics, and (overleaf)
her two kingly husbands.

As usual, the session was mixed, the girls taking to the activity like ducks to water.  Cutting, pasting, fashioning, some even writing the labels rather than cutting the pre-typed ones.

Some people criticise lapbooks as busy work -
but in order to fashion the items correctly,
the student needs to pay attention to the
information and process what it's about.

The boys, on the other hand, either needed help with the cutting (otherwise, it's too taxing on their fine motor skills and they get tired, grumpy, and frustrated), or they soon got distracted with the shapes.

The cross-shaped lapbook template
gave Killer an extension idea!

Not everyone (ummm ... the boys) finished their scrapbook page on the day, so they got to work on them throughout the following week.  Little and often is fine -- in some ways, perhaps even better.  Daily, they re-visited the topic and got it reinforced.

In the case of lapbooks, sometimes
little and often is less frustrating for boys
who otherwise find the skills difficult.
Here is Busy Timmy, who is 5, who decided
he liked the look of the Big Uns' lapbooks,
and decided to do the activities himself.

Although I got the images from the internet and chose which ones to use, the templates came from a single site which I'm happy to link you to below. It's here, as well, that you can learn more in general about lapbooks. Just be sure you have plenty of gluesticks on hand, because there's nothing like running out of glue when you want to cut-and-paste your lapbook (trust me, I've been there and it was NOT pretty!)

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php

Lest We Forget: Homeschooling and the Law in England

An on-line forum I belong to (OxonHE on Yahoo!) brought up a very helpful reminder today of the important legislation for HE-ers in England.  I thought I would review it here.

First and foremost, we parents are the educators of our children, and we MAY -- should we choose to -- delegate this responsibility to schools.

If educating at home is so flexible and fun,
why would anyone want to delegate it???

Therefore, we must never let the Local Authorities forget that they aren't ALLOWING us to home educate -- that right is ours from the beginning.

Here are the salient points of law:

2.4 - Parents are not required to register or seek approval from the local authority to educate their children at home....local authorities are encouraged to provide support where resources permit

2.5 - The DCSF recommends that each local authority provides written information about elective home education that is clear, accurate and sets out the legal position, roles and responsibilities of both the local authority and parents

2.7 - Local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis

2.12 - Local authorities also have a duty under section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.....It does not, for example, give local authorities powers to enter the homes of, or otherwise see, children for the purposes of monitoring the provision of elective home education.

"Don't you be messin' with my right to learn at home!"

Not enough pictures lately

I just had a glance at my blog and realised that I've hardly been posting photos lately, so the posts look really bland.

Sharing Thanksgiving with our British Friends!
(Gratuitous busy picture to catch your eye)

So, for a visual feast, I'm including some photos from a recent field trip we took with our homeschool history group to St Albans. (Click on the images to make them larger)

St Albans Trip

A little over an hour's drive toward London is the city once called Verulamium by the Romans when they occupied England (roughly 43 AD to 410 AD). Shortly before the Romans left, and during a period of Christian persecution, a local, rich pagan named Alban gave sanctuary to a Christian. While in hiding, the Christian had many conversations with Alban, and eventually, Alban converted to Christianity. One day, Alban swapped clothing with the Christian, who was able to sneak away in disguise, and then, when Alban was captured, he refused to make sacrifices to the pagan gods and was ordered to be executed.

St Albans Cathedral peaking over Autumn Foliage

An abbey was founded on the site of Alban's execution in the late 700s by King Offa, and then under the Normans, the current cathedral was built (c. 1077). During this time, the areas of settlement, which had been on the lower plains across the River Ver, migrated to the environs of the hilltop abbey, and at some point, the name changed to St Albans.

Alban was the first Christian martyr in Britain, and some argue that he should be its patron saint and not Saint George. Some of his actual bones are still kept in the reliquary in the cathedral, having been returned by churches from the continent who, not being subjected to Henry VIII's dissolution, were possessed of them for nearly sixteen-hundred years.

Our Field Trip
This year, we have been studying Our Island Story with a group of six other homeschooling families. St Alban's martyrdom is covered in one of the earlier chapters.

Even though we studied Roman Britain last year (when our topic was Ancient Civilisations), we decided to look at the Roman ruins as well as the cathedral. After all, we'd come this far for the cathedral, why not see the other sites there, too?

So, we had a workshop and tour at the cathedral, and then self-guided tours of the Roman theatre and the Verulamium Museum.  All were within walking distance, and it was arguably the most beautiful day of the autumn.

"Rocky" plays the role of the Roman judge
 in the cathedral workshop:
"Off with his head!"

"Timmy" (L) and "Killer" (R)
Walking through the park from the cathedral
to the theatre ruins

"Phoenix" (middle in teal) with her
friends at the Roman theatre

"Rocky" the Roman

If you want to see my reviews of the cathedral and the museum, see these links at TripAdvisor:

http://tinyurl.com/cr9r7wb

http://tinyurl.com/ced2vd8

I enjoyed them both, and highly recommend them if you can get to the area.

How to Homeschool 4 Children at the Same Time, Part 2

My previous post was about the morning schedule I've devised in order to juggle the homeschooling of my four children, aged 12 to 5.

Now I'm going to look at some afternoon schedules.  One thing to notice is that I have more time with my Year 7 Ambleside Online student, that I've scheduled in some free time for the younger ones, and that we have instituted a new 4 o'clock tea-time session, where we share a pot of hot tea, some cookies, and a low-key learning experience like music appreciation or picture study.

All this is based on the Charlotte Mason method of education, and one which suits my humanities background really well.

First, let me show you the afternoon schedule for my Year 7 student.

Afternoon Schedule for Phoenix
(Ambleside Online Year 7)

One-on-One with Eldest Child

You will see that, after lunch and violin practice (and some chores which I haven't indicated), I spend some time reading with her.  She is someone who has always relished the chance to sit with me and listen to my reading aloud to her, audible learner that she is, so I tried to maintain this connection with her.  It's a lovely time to discuss things that aren't relevant to her younger siblings, which may include issues like whether I believe in Arianism or Athanasius' teachings (a topic that arose from the "Saints and Heroes" reading), or more personal issues like the coming of puberty and what she can expect as she gets older and her body changes (a discussion that came out of studying population control in Singapore).

Any chance to carve out some personal time for the eldest child is a real bonus in a too-busy homeschooling family.

Block 5: CM Live

You may also notice that, after our time together, she has another block on her own, doing something labeled "CM Live".  This is my newest venture into on-line tutoring, or as I like to call it, on-line co-operatives for homeschoolers.

I won't spend too much time on it, but basically, there seemed to be a call amongst AO Yr 7 students to get together to discuss their difficult literary selections like Beowulf and Chaucer and the like, yet to circumvent the issue that they live great distances from their peers.  Thus was born "CM Live".

Have a look to see if it's something for you and your children in the future.  You can be assured that your child is part of an on-line homeschooling community that's safe, stimulating, and scholarly because I'm a teacher who has taught to university-level in the past.  

Phoenix has three sessions in a week to work on CM Live because it involves reading a primary text, two secondary texts, an optional novel, and writing some narrations in the on-line environment, as well as keeping in touch socially with the other 18 students in her class. It's amazing to be able to interact with people all over the world, and though she's in England, she's making fast friends in Texas, Alabama, Massachusetts, and even Germany.

Block 6: Tea-Time Slot

Finally, she finishes her school day with the family-friendly wind-down time of hot tea and cookies, and painting flowers or listening to music or studying a Renoir painting.  Something together, and low-key.  The kids are enjoying this so much that they are keen to boil the kettle, pour the tea, set out the cups and milk and biscuits.  I can see they have really taken a liking to the routine, and are missing it the days when we cannot attend because something else has interrupted it, no matter how cool a field trip, or how special the friendship of someone who drops by.

Child Number 2

Now here's a glance at my second child's afternoon schedule:

Killer's afternoon schedule,
(approximately AO Yr 5)

Unlike Phoenix, Killer has only a half-hour slot with Mom in the afternoon, to read a variety of rock-solid medieval-based stories to go along with our history focus on Our Island Story.

Children number 3 and 4

Finally, the afternoon schedule of the youngest two.  Currently, I'm reading "Seabiscuit" to them after lunch, and then they are free to do as they like (whether it be their daily ration of computer games, playing outside, filming themselves on the camcorder, making good use of their toys, or whatever else they may choose -- today it was trying to shoot bubbles with the hose-gun, resulting in the sudden need for a hot bath).

Rocky and Timmy's afternoon schedule
(Ambleside Online Yr 2)

Again, you can see we finish the school day with our Block 6, Tea Time.

Free Reading

The last thing I'll say is that each student has a list of free reading to choose from.  For the younger two, that means books I read to them after lunch.  I haven't yet made the transition to reading on their own yet, though I'm sure that will be coming this year some time, particularly in the case of Rocky who's nearly 8.

The schedules aren't rigidly adhered to, but a useful guide, and just by using them over the past two weeks or so, I have noticed a vigorous attention to purpose, and a satisfaction that comes with being productive in our studies.

Phoenix was nearly in tears on Day One when she saw these multi-coloured charts, but within a day or two, she was singing their praises.

"I like the feeling that I'm getting so much done," she said. "And it's fun."

High praise indeed!

How I Homeschool 4 Children at the same time, Part 1

We have come back to our school this week and are trying out our new-and-improved schedule based on Ambleside Online.

My eldest is tackling Year 7.

My younger ones are doing versions of Year 2, with my 9-year-old boy wanting to have the Year 5 reading list.

I say "whatever".  AO is a tool and not a prescription, so I've always juggled things to make it work for me (being ever-so-grateful that the Advisory has offered this foundation from which I can build).

First, I'm looking in this post about my basic building-block, the three segments to our morning school time.

You will notice I have only a 4-day schedule.  We meet every-other week with a group families for a history co-op, and we have morning swimming one day a week, so Mondays and Fridays have to blend into each other to form a single day.  Having a 4-day schedule also lets me do things like skip a whole day for an amazing homeschoolers' discount at Legoland, or go on amazing field trips to places like Stonehenge or St Albans cathedral.

Basically, I build in margin because I know I need it!

You will see from the schedule below that Blocks 1 and 2 are pretty much the same for all of them.  Block 3, the individual work varies to allow me to work with children in turn.

Here is the the basic schedule with Block 3 showing what my Yr 7 does:

General schedule for all four kids, plus Block 3 work for Year 7

Compare the Block 3 above with my 9-year-old's Block 3 in this one:

Block 3 work for Yr 4-ish

Just for comparison's sake, here is the morning 3 blocks for "Busy Timmy", my 5-year-old. Note that his Block 2 also includes piano practice, since his math should take a shorter time.  Also, he is finished with his school day once the foreign language is finished in Block 3 for the morning (I will blog later about what he does in the afternoon).

Blocks 2 and 3 for Kindergarten

In my next post, I will show you what I do for the afternoons.

Do I follow my own schedules exactly?  Well, I try to.  They work really nicely when everything goes to plan, but there will be times where we have to miss, alter, ignore, or other such things. Or, times when one of the kids gets so excited about one of their books that they stay up all night to finish it on the first day, and then I have to come up with a new title for that slot.

(I love it when that happens, by the way!)

Charlotte Mason famously wrote that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.  I think by grouping the kids together sometimes, having them do individual work at others, and having a schedule to keep us all on track (and start fostering independence), this is one way that our family manages to live out this learning credo.

Planning for the New Academic Year

Some people love Christmas.  Some people love Spring.  I love the weeks just before the new school year, when I call up my spreadsheets and download all my book lists and sort out the schedule for the kids.

I'm nearing completion on Phoenix's weekly schedule.  Hers is the most complicated because she is going to start Ambleside Online for Year 7.  It looks pretty challenging, but the best fit to go along with our fortnightly history co-op that's studying Our Island Story.

Yr 7 is great for this because it looks at the Middle Ages in greater depth than Our Island Story, so she'll be reading books by Churchill about the Birth of Britain, selections from the Venerable Bede, and lots of mediaeval literature, amongst many, many others.

She's even got readings from Charlotte Mason herself: character study in Ms Mason's book "Ourselves".

Exciting, therefore, that the new CM Live! on-line co-op class is going to allow her to discuss these challenging works with her global peers.

Why not have a look at the on-line co-op for your own pre-teen?

One of the things I've been contemplating this year is Phoenix's copywork selections.  Do I carry on with the Yr 7 selections as provided by former Yr 7 mums, a collection of sayings and paragraphs adding up to 129 pages?

Or do I take a leaf out of my own book (see earlier blog post about Killer's copywork) when it comes to encouraging quality of quantity?

Truth be told, Phoenix's handwriting is fluid but messy. She has been trained in the Getty-Dubay italic hand (a choice made because it seems more universal than the various cursive options), but penmanship is leaning toward poor.

Ages ago, I bought Penny Gardner's little book about Italic Handwriting.  She has since put out another edition, and it seems like her additions to the original are downloadable for free on her website.

Within this supplement are, I think, selections to practice, and so Plan A this year is for Phoenix to tackle these quotations in a methodical and exacting way with the aim of improving her penmanship.

I feel another "before" and "after" post, so watch this space as things progress.