Mama Squirrel's nature notebook

Wednesday School Plans (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

In the workboxes today:

1.  Old Testament:  finish the chapter of the Book of Numbers.

2.  Key to Geometry:  work several pages on your own.

3.  Ivanhoe.  Written narration.

4.  Architecture Shown to the Children:  continue the term's chapter (Gothic Architecture), reading about gargoyles and flying buttresses.  Make a drawing in your Book of Centuries.

5.  Apologia General Science.  The first of several lessons on macro- and micro-nutrients, beginning with carbohydrates.  (Coming up in another post.)

6.  Balance Benders Level 3.

7.  Shakespeare's King John: continue Act III.

8.  Handwriting practice from Fix It...Write.

9.  Map drills:  10 minutes with Seterra Online.

Dollygirl's Grade Seven: Term 2, Week Five

Plans for this week's school:

Christian Studies
Basic Bible Studies #12: "Salvation—How?"

Optional: The Accidental Voyage, finish chapter 9.

Citizenship

Ourselves Book II:  "We are not Free to give Ourselves without Reserve"; the bad example of Edward II and his close friend Gaveston. "If we choose to yield ourselves to the domination of another, so that our will is paralysed and we are unable to think or act except upon that other's initiative, are incapable of being happy and at ease except in his presence, then we too have sown disorder..."

Plutarch's Life of Demosthenes

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?--continue

Math

Algebra, Lesson 6: Some Rules of Algebra

Geography

Heidi's Alp: finish "Of Tivoli and Travellers". Map work. (" With 4.033 million visitors in 2012, Tivoli is the second most popular seasonal theme park in the world, the most visited theme park in Scandanavia and the fourth most visited in Europe... " -- Wikipedia)

Literature

Watership Down--continue
Sigurd the Volsung--continue

Return of the King--continue

Poetry Reading and Memory Work
Grammar of Poetry: Dactyls

History

English History: Chapter X, The Norman Conquerors 1066

If we have time:  French History: 1098 Siege of Antioch; 1099 Capture of Jerusalem

Natural History
The Lay of the Land: finish "A Cure for Winter"

Keeping a Nature Journal

Science

Apologia Science: Finish Module 7 (features of the fossil record; differing viewpoints on the origin of the Grand Canyon). Start Module 8 (further discussion of Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism)

Read Dinosaur Ghosts: The Mystery of Coelophysis, by Douglas Henderson.

Grammar and Composition
Grammar—Verb tenses

Copywork

Dictation

Composition

Fine Arts
Artist Study: contiue Oscar Kokoschka and Expressionism

Composer Study: Go hear the Madawaska String Quartet on Tuesday.

Dollygirl's First Term Exam Questions

December 2013 Grade 7 Examination Questions (adapted from original PNEU term exams, available on the Ambleside Online website)

Christian Studies.  Choose two of these:
1. Describe one of the journeys of St. Paul. What was the result of his preaching?

2. Describe Annie and Drew's visit to either the Catacombs, or the Duomo in Milan (the third-largest church in the world).

3.  Describe the portrayal of Jesus  in The Bronze Bow.  Do you think it is accurate?  Use examples from the book to support your argument. (question from Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Tan Book)

Writing.
Write ten lines of poetry from memory.

Dictation.

From The Sword and the Circle.

English Grammar.

The chess club served pop and chips at the end of the meeting.

On the way out, many members stopped to read the posters about the upcoming tournament.

We cleaned the room after the club members left.

Several of the members had stuck gum under the desks.

In the sentences above, cross out any prepositional phrases. Underline the subject once and the verb or verb phrase twice. Place any infinitive in parentheses. Mark any direct objects with the initials "D.O."

Literature.
 1. Write the script for a scene from Coriolanus in which his mother Volumnia appears. (This could be for Sock Puppet Theatre.)
2. Explain and give examples of simile, metaphor, pun, iambic meter.

3. Tell what you know of the life of either Bede or Caedmon.

English History.

      1. What impact did the Roman occupation have on Great Britain (good and bad)?

      2. Why are English people described as Anglo-Saxons? Give some account of the history contained in this term. What traces of it have we still? (from a PNEU exam)
      3. Describe the conversion of King Ethelbert (you may wish to mention Queen Bertha, St. Augustine, Coifi).

French History.
      1. Write an account of (a), Clovis, (b),Charlemagne. (from a PNEU exam)
      2. Describe the coming of the Northmen. (from a PNEU exam)

Citizenship and Economics.
   1. What do you understand by humility? What is false humility? In what various ways should humility be shown?
   2. You are an economic advisor to the Queen. The Queen proposes to end poverty in her kingdom by ordering the royal coin-makers to create extra money. What problems might this cause? What do you advise?

Geography. Choose two of these three questions:
1. "There is nothing in Ely but the cathedral; and the cathedral is a lady." Explain.

2. "In a cosy vale is the village of Stiffkey.  It is a curious little village noted for its cockle women." Tell about the rest of H.V. Morton's visit here.

3. "Do you really? We had another song on the Wall: 'Old soldiers never die, never die, never die; old soldiers never die, they only sneeze awayee.'" Explain where this imaginary conversation took place and what it was about.

General Science

1. What are the three types of rock? Give one specific example of each.

         2. Explain and give examples of physical weathering, chemical weathering, erosion.

         3.  (question about dishwasher additives taken from Apologia General Science test booklet)

Architecture.
1. How would you recognize a Romanesque building? Can you describe or draw one?

Natural History.
1. Explain the differences and similarities between the amanita ("destroying angel") and the puffball; OR tell how you would identify poison ivy.

Picture Study.
   Describe Corot's "The Bridge at Mantes," OR another of his paintings that you like.

Arithmetic and Algebra.
    1. In the following expression, how many terms are there? And each term has how many factors? 2a + 4ab + 5a(b+c)
    2. How far would a train go in 15 hours at the rate of 48 km an hour? How many metres a minute does this train travel?
    3. Add according to the rules for adding terms. -6 + (-2) =

French.

(see attached page)

Drawing.
      1. A new book cover for Sigurd the Volsung or Lord of the Rings.
      2. Something you have observed on a nature walk.

Musical Appreciation.
      1. What do you know of madrigals?
      2. Describe a concert you have attended, including the instruments used and the type of music played.

Recitations.
      A hymn, a poem, or a scene from Shakespeare, and a passage from the Book of Romans.

Reading.
      Father to choose an unseen passsage, giving marks for enunciation. (PNEU exam)

In which we finish the fall term (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

So how's it gong, Dollygirl?  Highs and lows?  Favourite subjects or books?  "Lord of the Rings, Balance Benders, handicrafts, and The Bronze Bow, most of it.  Geography is okay."

Not as good?  "Grammar, French, math except for Balance Benders."

What would you like to do more of?  "Algebra.  Arithmecode puzzles. Writing stories."

Today's school plans:

Poems (each one choose one)

Music history: "The Beginnings of Opera and the Rise of Instrumental Music."  "The time had come to link up music a good deal more closely with human affairs--human characters, moods, stories, situations--and to cause music to be an expression rather than merely a design.  Music moved towards plays and stories, and the result was the 'new music': the twin forms of opera and oratorio." (John Russell, A History of Music for Young People)

Play nature card game

Algebra: continue lesson on signed numbers, using TheMathPage.com

The Sword and the Circle (Rosemary Sutcliff)

Apologia General Science:  review physical and chemical weathering, read about erosion

Exam practice (written narrations)

Return of the King (continuing into next term)

The Living Page, by Laurie Bestvater (Book Review)

Have you noticed that Charlotte Mason seems to be keeping unusual company these days?

Over the last few years, Miss Mason's philosophy has taken on what she herself might have called a new small-c catholicity, and it's not unusual to hear her quoted along with Wendell Berry, St. Benedict, and scientists researching brain function. Like Anne of Green Gables with her hair up and her skirts down, CM has taken on a possibly unexpected but not unbecoming seriousness.  At a recent gathering in Ontario, we heard the word "homeschooling" from the speakers much less than we heard both literary language (myth, metaphor) and spiritual vocabulary (transformation, meditation, sacrament, Glory).  As a community, we seem less determined now to "use" Charlotte Mason for our own purposes, and more interested in discovering and discussing the truths of her philosophy.  (The fact that we can even identify a "CM community" is a milestone in itself.)   Even if you haven't attended CM conferences or retreats, you might still have noticed that the general image of Charlotte Mason education is maturing, partly because there is more previously-unavailable information available, and partly because there are some tenacious individuals digging through those resources and sharing their finds.

Laurie Bestvater's recent book The Living Page, published by Underpinnings Press, reflects that different, more contemplative view of CM, and at the same time manages to be a practical resource not only for homeschooling parents, but for classroom teachers and anyone with an interest in lifetime education.  It does not attempt to cover the how-to's of every school subject, and omits the already-well-known history of Charlotte Mason, her college and correspondence school.  Instead, The Living Page puts the focus on the role of Mason's "paper graces," or student-kept notebooks.  Using many quotations from Mason's own writings, as well as archived examples such as the nature notebooks of student teachers, Laurie Bestvater defends the idea that these notebooks are not optional or peripheral, but absolutely central to a Mason-style, living-ideas, relationship-based education. She shows how and at what ages certain activities were begun in Charlotte Mason's schools, and discusses not only specifics of the various books, but the balance and connections between them.  Taken together, they form a large and vital part of a child's self-education.

Giving students choice in what to write and draw, allowing them time to contemplate and observe, may have been unusual in Mason's day; but it is no less rare and threatened in our own time, in these days of easily- reproduced fill-in pages and visual examples at our fingertips.  How does this style of notebook-keeping reflect Mason's consistent rationale, her overall vision that culminates in what she called The Way of the Will?  Laurie Bestvater's detailed descriptions, along with photographs of new and vintage examples, give shape to ideas that may have previously seemed too abstract or not important enough to work into an already-full curriculum. But the book goes well beyond a simple description of how to keep the Book of Centuries, the commonplace book, and the nature notebook as Charlotte Mason knew them, and becomes a plea for a more human heartbeat in children's education.  If a child keeps a notebook that gives her a "sense of possession and delight," and the delight is not so much because the end product is beautiful but because it reflects her own learning," the connections she has noticed, the relationships she is creating, is that not more valuable than many worksheets that will be filed away somewhere and then discarded?

The Living Page is, especially in its final section, a manifesto for what, throughout the book, is variously referred to as being "Keepers," living fully, and knowing Glory.  It echoes what Susan Schaeffer Macaulay wrote in For the Children's Sake: that Charlotte Mason, with her emphasis on the value of the person, had insights that went beyond teaching children to read and do math, that there are important truths in her work that cross the lines of sacred/secular, school/homeschool, child/adult, then/now.

Laurie Bestvater's ability to combine literary examples with personal insights, while staying true to Charlotte Mason's philosophy and practice, makes The Living Page a unique and significant contribution to CM literature. Well recommended.


Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of The Living Page to review, but did not receive any other compensation.  The opinions expressed are my own.

Dollygirl's Grade Seven: We start Week 9

Plans for Monday's School:

Reenactment photo from The Fell Pony Museum website. (Real cool, go see.)

Geography:  In Search of England, chapter 9, part 1:  we read together about Hadrian's wall, and about Mr. Morton's imaginary conversation with a wet, sneezing Roman soldier from the original wall-guarding troops.

Copywork, from the same chapter.

Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, Lesson 8 from the Ambleside Online notes.  Our question to think about:  if Coriolanus was offered his "old job back" at this point (i.e. the opportunity to return to Rome), would he take it?--or would he rather stay with his new friends, the Volsces, who now say they will have no other captain?

Easy Grammar Plus:  one page on past participles.

Natural History:  Discussion of the idea that many nature notebooks weren't all art-based, that they often contained a larger proportion of written notes and simple observations (like Gilbert White's) about the local weather, what was ripening, what was nibbling in the garden.  Read a section from A Field Guide to Your Own Backyard about mushrooms, including the Destroying Angel type (something you do not want to be eating!).

French:  a short grammar lesson with Mom, then review one of the conversations in the Powerglide Ultimate Adventure.

The Sword and the Circle:  begin the story of Lancelot and Elaine.  Written narration.

Book of the Centuries, special daily work this week:  beginning some ink drawings of "artifacts" and things from different periods, on the blank side of the century pages.

Beat Algebra Before It Beats You, by Hal Torrance.

Sewing time:  Dollygirl has a special doll-outfit pattern she found online and wants to try.