Crayons' Grade Five: Now that we're settled in...

Taken as written, this post may sound either kind of negative, or as if we are really falling down on the Charlotte Mason job.  Well, there are reasons.  We're still adjusting to having just Crayons home for school, for one thing...our dynamic is different this year.  But most school days, we do feel like we've gotten something done.  And that's something.

SCHOOL PLAN FOR CRAYONS/DOLLYGIRL, GRADE 5, 2011-2012
(Changes and additions as of November 2011 are in green)

This is our free adaptation of the Ambleside Online booklist for Year 5, with changes made not because we think these books are better than those chosen for the AO Curriculum, but for reasons such as the following:

a) we already own a comparable book so I didn't want to buy another one
b) we've already read the required Year 5 book together
c) this year I'd like to emphasize Canadian history. The Canadian books (or those with a Canadian connection) are in red.

Asterisks indicate books that are used in the first, second or third term.



DAILY LESSONS

Penmanship or Copywork
This is one place where we deal with general reluctance and "how come I have to do that?" Sometimes we do copywork and dictation in connection with the LLATL lessons, sometimes I assign something else, and sometimes we just skip it for awhile.

Math: Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 4/Grade 5. Calculadder drills. Various math supplements and manipulatives. Pocket Posters.
As noted in a previous update, we put MM aside for this fall and are using a combination of Pet Store Math, Key to Fractions (the last workbook), and Critical Thinking's Math Detective.  We're also reading some of John Tiner's Exploring the World of Mathematics.  I'm not perfectly satisfied with any of this as far as continuity goes; I'm especially finding that Math Detective is all over the place, both in difficulty level and topic.  I think after Christmas we will be using MM again along with Pet Store Math.

Foreign language: French curriculum to be decided; probably Mission Monde Level 3 (Grade 5).
As I've posted in other updates, we've haven't gone as fast with Mission Monde as is probably expected, but that's all right, because we keep running across other things that work well along with it, such as Usborne French For Beginners, L'Art de Lire, and Sally Delaney and Wendy Richards' book Fun with French.  We do a combination of oral and written work, play games with flashcards, listen to the MM and Usborne audio bits, and whatever else I can think of to increase not only vocabulary but real word power.  I'd like to incorporate more "real" reading and narrating, CM-style.

WEEKLY LESSONS

Art Appreciation: follow AO rotation, possibly incorporating Canadian art as well. Possible artists: Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. There are "Artists' Specials" DVDs about Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer.
We've been doing Fragonard picture studies this fall.  Crayons thinks his pictures are somewhat "creepy," which is perfectly true.  She liked "Education is Everything," the painting of children dressing up dogs.

Art Instruction: Artistic Pursuits Grade 4-6, Book II. Includes study of American paintings.
Some weeks Crayons actually gets around to doing the suggested art project; other times I show her the next assignment and then she forgets to do it.  I think we need to set aside a more regular "art time" and maybe have me do a project (if not the same one) at the same time.  I like the concepts being covered, i.e the colour wheel and techniques with watercolour pencils; but I think we need some projects that cover the same concepts, maybe with different media.  Like a fifth-grade version of cut and paste, such as quilt patterns with coloured paper, or maybe tissue paper in the different colour groups.

Grammar, other English studies: emphasizing more writing this year, transitioning to written narrations and longer dictation. Supplement with dictionary, Thesaurus, spelling resources.
Grammar isn't a huge focus this year, but I do keep looking for ways to do "English across the curriculum," in addition to lessons from Learning Language Arts Through Literature (which I think we're going to use a bit more loosely than we have been).

Correspond history readings with a timeline or century book and map.
Maps, we're good--we have looked at a variety of historical maps.  The timeline--not so much so far.

Handicrafts, homekeeping, life skills. Include books such as All-Girl Crafts by Kathy Ross, or Mothers and Daughters at Home: 35 Projects to Make Together, by Charlotte Lyons.
I just found a copy of Mothers and Daughters at Home, so maybe now we will get to do some projects from that.  Also we recently found an American Girl book and craft kit, Samantha's Christmas Crafts.  A big interest right now is making tiny things for a dollhouse, so that may be where our handicrafts can get focused this year.

Crayons is involved in a girls' sewing group that meets a couple of times a month.  Right now they're making tote bags.

Life skills would also include weekly volunteering at the thrift store.

Music Appreciation: Mozart, Brahms, and Stravinsky.  Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts book and record set; Opal Wheeler series biographies; Igor Stravinsky by Mike Venezia.
We are doing the Bernstein book and also watching some of the same material on You-tube (the book was based on the concert scripts.)

Folksongs: Follow AO rotation, using printouts, book of Canadian folksongs
Oh guilt, guilt--we started off well with this, but have slacked off over the past month.

Hymns: Follow AO rotation.  Mennonite Hymnal, printouts from Hymntime.com, You-tube videos.
We sing hymns almost every day.

Plutarch’s Lives: Follow AO rotation, use printouts for Poplicola and Dion. For variety, use Stories of Alexander (Grimal) in Term 3.
We are on lesson 8 (of 12) of Poplicola.

Shakespeare plays: Either The Tempest or Two Gentlemen of Verona; Romeo and Juliet; possibly a third.
Not this term.  But we did review a bit of Hamlet when we got to the part of Great Expectations where Mr. Wopsle makes his theatrical debut.


SPECIFIC SUBJECTS

BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN STUDIES

Bible books to be studied: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Book of Revelation (as recommended in Teaching Children). Lives of David and Solomon.
I did update this in the summer; I decided this was too much for this year, so we are following readings from the study guide Search the Scriptures.  Old Testament:  Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon. 

Memory work: Term 1, Ten Commandments (with questions and answers) from Luther's Small Catechism. Term 2 & 3, passages from the Epistles. Term's Psalm.
Well, we're doing okay with catechism memory work.  Not going through it very fast, but working on it.

Church history: Makers of the English Bible, by Cyril James Davey (8 chapters).

HISTORY (1800-1914)

Canada: The New Nation, by Edith Deyell (covers 1800-1900, incorporates some U.S. history)
***Story of the World Volume 4, by Susan Wise Bauer
*** Story of Canada, by Janet Lunn, chapter on the Laurier era (1896-1914)

Term One: War of 1812 through Lord Durham (approx. 1800-1845). Emphasis on the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario), including local history.
We're on schedule with this, just getting to William Lyon Mackenzie and the rebellions of 1837.

Term Two: Fur trade through the American Civil War and Confederation (approx. 1845-1870).

Term Three: Opening the West through 1914 (approx. 1870-1914).


HISTORY TALES AND/OR BIOGRAPHY

* The Trail of the Conestoga, by Mabel Dunham
We just finished this book --Crayons really liked it.  I notice that the e-text version is slightly different in some places than the paperback copy; there are some passages missing.  No idea why, though.  Maybe the way it was transcribed?

* "Sisters in the Wilderness" (DVD), about Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill
** *** Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffman Rockness
***Story of My Life, by Helen Keller

GEOGRAPHY

The Book of Marvels: The Occident and/or Second Book of Marvels: The Orient by Richard Halliburton
I mentioned previously that we are not doing this book, at least not unless some extra time opens up later in the year.  We're doing geography memory work, though, mostly about the Great Lakes area.

NATURAL HISTORY / SCIENCE

The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock; for variety, use How Nature Works, Kids Can nature guides, Canadian Wild Flowers (Catharine Parr Traill).
Right.  Nature study.  Yeah.

Well, we ARE reading chapters on plant families from The ABCs of Nature.

* ** Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley, second half of book
We're on track with this, using the study notes from the Ambleside Online website.

*** Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton OR one of the William J. Long books from other AO years, OR The Lovely & the Wild, by Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (about birds of northern Ontario)

All Terms:
The Story of Inventions by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman
Physics Lab in a Housewares Store by Robert Friedhoffer
As noted in an earlier update, we're basing the physical science stuff on The New Way Things Work, and using the Friedhoffer books, a couple of other books as supplements.  We also found some helpful hands-on suggestions online for a study of simple machines.  Mr. Fixit is helping with this whenever possible.  (This week they got out the Hotwheels cars and tracks to study wheels and axles.)



HEALTH AND HOME STUDIES

Nutrition 101: Choose Life!: A Family Nutrition and Health Program, by Debra Raybern, N.D., M.H., C.N.C., I.C.A.; Sera Johnson, B.MU; Laura Hopkins, B.S.; Karen Hopkins, B.S. (selected chapters)
We've been studying bones, joints, and muscles, using this book and some other human-body stuff that we already had.

POETRY

Poetry anthology / individual poets: possibly Poetry for Young People: Robert Browning; Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman.
We have been reading Tennyson's poems all fall, finishing up with "Lancelot and Elaine" (the Lilymaid).

LITERATURE

* Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, or another Dickens novel
We are partway through Great Expectations.

** Little Women (Part One, 23 chapters) plus  Barron's activity kit
I'm not sure about this...Crayons says she has read part of the book before, and she's not wild about finishing it.  We might substitute Silas Marner or something else by George Eliot.  Or we could read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, because I know that's one book she has never read, seen as a movie, or had spoiled by anybody else's retellings or comments.

*** King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green. For reference: The Search for King Arthur, by Christopher Hibbert.

All terms: stories from My Book House, e.g. Cuculain, Rustem, Song of Roland, Norse legends.
We haven't had time to do much with these stories this term.  Maybe in the winter.

ADDITIONAL BOOKS FOR FREE READING

*Laura’s Choice, by Connie Brummel Cook (about Laura Secord)
**Invincible Louisa (biography of Louisa May Alcott)
** Thee, Hannah! by Marguerite De Angeli, and other books about the Underground Railroad, e.g. Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker, The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood
***Pioneer Girl, by Maryanne Caswell
Canadian Crusoes, by Catharine Parr Traill
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field
Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott
Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lad: A Dog (or another book in the Lad series; many are online) by Albert Payson Terhune
The Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit
The Wouldbegoods by Edith Nesbit
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink.
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge
Crystal Mountain, by Belle Dorman Rugh
Re-read the Narnia books or The Princess & the Goblin.
Meet the Malones, by Lenora Mattingly Weber  (we are reading this together)
Re-read The Dolls' House, by Rumer Godden

FOR FUN:

Kids Cottage Games Book
Alvin's Secret Code, by Clifford B. Hicks
Alvin Fernald, Master of a Thousand Disguises, by Clifford B. Hicks
The Trolley Car Family, by Eleanor Clymer (if available)
Father's Big Improvements by Caroline D. Emerson
Several Magic Treehouse books
Nancy Drew mysteries
Stories by Stephen Leacock (how could I forget those?)