Charlotte Mason and the Three Faces of Education

"And Ennui.––This notion, that education is included in environment, or, at the best, in atmosphere, has held the ground for a generation or two, and it seems to me that it has left its mark upon our public and our private lives. We are more ready to be done unto than to do; we do not care for the labour of ordering our own lives in this direction or in that; they must be conducted for us; a press of engagements must compel us into what next, and what next after. We crave for spectacular entertainment, whether in the way of pageants in the streets, or spectacles on the boards. Even Shakespeare has come to be so much the occasion for gorgeous spectacles that what the poet says is of little moment compared with the show a play affords. There is nothing intentionally vicious in all this; it is simply our effort to escape from the ennui that results from a one-sided view of education,––that education is an atmosphere only."--Charlotte Mason, School Education, page 150

Is education only environment, or atmosphere? Charlotte Mason points out, in the passage above, the danger of never applying ourselves to seek out ideas, but only letting them drop in our laps, hoping they'll just sink in (something like the current worries over the bits and bites of news that come shooting at us online). If we never make a serious effort to go out and Think, we might end up worrying only about nothing weightier than how to tie a cravat.

On the other hand, she says, the idea that Education is a Life can also be abused. If we're so obsessed with chasing down every last idea, and so busy Thinking that there is no joy in it (another kind of information overload), we will bore our friends and exhaust ourselves.

Miss Mason also mentions a third approach to learning: "mind as machine," or as she puts it, the belief that "Education is the Cultivation of Faculties, leads to Abnormal Developments." She points out that this idea is not so far removed from "Education is a Discipline," but that the difference is just large enough to cause real mistakes if we don't see it. You don't read Shakespeare with children by giving them long lists of vocabulary to be quizzed on; in fact, you don't read it with them to enrich their vocabularies, or to teach them about the life of Julius Caesar, or what blank verse is; or because you want them to show off (or to show them off?) in front of the grandparents or the public schoolers. You read it with them because you want to give them something that already belongs to them.  You read it because it's worth reading, because it's beautiful or true, because it gives you new understanding of God and people. You read it, as you look at paintings and stars and cathedrals, to gain some lasting "mind furniture."

To wind up: my ninth grader came home from the public library recently and complained that a lot of the "teenage books" there all seemed to focus on the same few topics, most of them inappropriate. She gets that; she's not asking to read them. She just wishes that more writers would realize that lots of young people have broader interests than vampires and whatever. What's the "real world," anyway, and who's to say who is or isn't living in it? Is education just what a teacher tells you to memorize, and information just what comes at you over whatever gadget you carry around? Do we have to rebel so hard, trying to get whatever knowledge is out there, that we frighten ourselves? Or do we allow the hard work of learning to turn us into computers wearing tennis shoes?

We can let education drive us, or we can allow it to humanize us. We need all three of its faces, but, as Charlotte Mason says--"in proportion."

Midnight oil graphic found on Workaholic.org

Linked from the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Education is a Life.

What's happening around the Treehouse

We are still settling into some new routines.

Mr. Fixit has been finding things to fix.

This afternoon he's out with the Apprentice, looking for a new mattress set, because the Apprentice and Ponytails switched bedrooms and beds, and Ponytails' old mattress turned out to be on its last bounce.  The Apprentice and Crayons are now sharing the bigger bedroom, and Ponytails can do glam design things in her own room.

The Apprentice is taking a night course at the university, but she's here most of the time otherwise because she doesn't yet have a summer job. (Jobs are generally hard to find right now, and even hairstyling jobs are a bit tricky when you have to quit in September.) 

Ponytails got an excellent half-semester report card.  Her English class is just about finished reading The Hunger Games and will be moving on to A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Some of the grade nines are apparently not looking forward much to Shakespeare.  One student reportedly said, "Who's that?"

Crayons/Dollygirl and I read a scene from The Tempest, a chapter about how inventions are inspired, some of Orphan at My Door, and a chapter from Robin Hood. She also did some multiplication, some copywork, and we tried to see if we could stump Mr. Fixit on Ontario map questions. (What is the large lake southeast of Georgian Bay? If you go south from that lake to Lake Ontario, what Canadian city are you in?)

In the oven:  a pan of  Brownies for a Crowd.  Planned for supper:  fish and tortellini.  Weather: the sky looks like it's about to break open any time.

Coming up later this week:  something involving the number eleven.  Here's a hint.

Photo:  Mr. Fixit.  Copyright 2012 Dewey's Treehouse.

What's for supper? Stir fry night / cleaning out the fridge

Tonight's dinner menu:

Green Bean-Ground Beef Stir Fry, but made with carrots and shredded cabbage instead of green beans
Brown rice
Leftover beer bread

Homemade vanilla ice cream
Banana muffin cake

What's for supper? (so hot out)

It just kept getting hotter and hotter today, so what might have been an oven meal became a mostly stovetop one instead.

Tonight's menu:

Swojska sausage and sauerkraut
Frozen perogies
A can of baked beans
Leftover coleslaw
Beer Bread (made with non-alcoholic beer), baked in the toaster oven (link updates 2020)
Vanilla milkshakes

Ten Ways to Use Leftovers

The Four Moms are looking at leftovers this week.

I've posted before about my ingredients notebook and the ways I try not to throw out food, also here.  If you read our What's For Supper? posts (link fixed), you'll notice they frequently include leftover-this, leftover-that.  And that's often the way our meals work out: more cooking one night, then an easier reheated or recycled meal the next day.  I suppose it's frugally significant that one of our holiday traditions is to go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve and then reheat the leftovers for lunch on Christmas Day.

So it doesn't seem like I could say much more about it, except that I've noticed that most leftover ideas seem to fall into groups, and I think we've tried most of them at least once.  Here are the Ten Treehouse Leftover Categories:

1.  Put the leftover(s) in a sandwich.  If you have an electric sandwich maker, it will do a great job of squishing any leftovers into a bread "turnover."  Lacking that, wrap a tortilla around a filling of leftovers (and store in the freezer if you're not going to eat it right away, see #8).  Lacking that, heat the leftovers (in gravy or sauce if you have some) and serve over bread: the classic hot sandwich, staple of department-store lunch counters.  (Potatoes, rice, or noodles will also do fine underneath.)

2. Put it in the soup.  (Self-explanatory.)

3. Put it in the muffins.  Or the pancakes.

4. Put it in the granola, e.g. stale cereal. (I added a container full of ground-up shredded wheat and Chex dregs to a batch of granola last week, and it turned out really well.)

5. Put it in the cookie balls.  Or the cookies. (That one was originally courtesy of Kim at InAShoe, one of the Four Moms.)

6. Put it under the mashed potatoes, or the dumplings, or the biscuit dough.  Examples: Shepherd's Pie, Chicken Pot Pie, Fruit Crisp.

7.  Put it in the blender.

8. Put it in the freezer.  As in, if you're not sure what to do with it now, put it aside and wait until you have something else that just needs a cupful of beans, or a bagful of rice, or a bit of spaghetti sauce.  And don't forget that you can freeze yogurt, tomato paste, stock, baby food puree, and other things in ice cube trays.

9. Put it in the microwave.  (Or the toaster oven, or in a pot set on low on the stove.)  Heat and eat.  Or don't heat: eat whatever it is cold, or in a salad.  (That's a bonus category that snuck in there.)

10.  Put it in the compost.  All good things come to an end.

Linked from Four Moms and Leftovers.  Linked from Festival of Frugality #336.

What's for supper? Pizza chicken.

Tonight's dinner menu:

Pizza Chicken in the slow cooker.  Ingredients (I made it up as I went along):  one small can tomato paste, one small can pizza sauce, 1 pound boneless chicken thighs, one chopped pepper, half a chopped pepperoni sausage.  I added mozzarella cheese right at the end.
Hot fusilli
Carrot sticks
Yogurt-covered pretzels for dessert.

What we did in school today (Crayons' Year 5)

We read the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and sang Morning Has Broken.

Crayons started a Math Mammoth worksheet about months and years.  Her homework is to calculate how many days old she is.

We read a little bit of Evangeline.  Evangeline is still waiting for it to be tomorrow so that she can go hunt down Gabriel.  But these are my favourite lines from this section:

Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, the herdsman...spake to his guests, who listened, and smiled as they listened:--
"Welcome once more, my friends, who long have been friendless and homeless,
Welcome once more to a home, that is better perchance than the old one!
Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the rivers;
Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the farmer.
Smoothly the ploughshare runs through the soil, as a keel through the water.
All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom; and grass grows
More in a single night than a whole Canadian summer..."

Aw, c'mon, we do get summer here too, you know.

We read about Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June, 1897, using this short guide to the Royalty and Empire exhibit created in 1982.  This led into a discussion about Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, and the Queen's family, and what happened to Princess Margaret Rose (Crayons remembered her from an American Girl movie), and the hats that the princesses wore to The Wedding (which was a year ago yesterday).

Crayons did some copywork, and we did a quick review of the writing lessons about paragraphs.

We also read about how Alexander treated the female relatives of Darius after the battle of Issus (kindly), and about the reluctant king Abdalonymus of Sidon. (It's a good story, even if it seems like kind of a historical urban myth.) Crayons recreated both stories with her dolls afterward.

Oh, and we started reading Orphan at My Door, by Jean Little, one of the Dear Canada diary series.  It begins in the spring of 1897, is set in our part of Ontario, and it mentions the Jubilee, which is particularly important to the main character because her name is Victoria.  And that seemed an appropriate way to end the school day.  If you don't count a swimming lesson tonight.

What's for supper? Garlicky pasta casserole

Tonight's menu:

Pasta casserole:  Shell pasta, jarred Alfredo sauce (because we bought two jars and the Apprentice didn't use hers), cottage cheese-spinach layer (like lasagna), and mozzarella cheese
Mixture of cooked carrots and frozen vegetables

Watermelon
Choice of leftover/thawed cookies

Teaching them to read...and more...for very little money

Good reading for this week:  Valerie's post Teach a Child to Read for $1 or Less, at Frugal Hacks.

I taught the Apprentice to read for very little money, too, when she was between three and four years old.  It wasn't so much that I pushed her to learn so young, but she had been picking out alphabet letters for months already and was now demanding the rest of the reading secret.  She partly taught herself; I just filled in the gaps.  We used a combination of Ruth Beechick's reading booklet, a couple of library books (The Chalkboard in the Kitchen), and a yard-saled copy of Sidney Ledson's Teach Your Child to Read in 60 Days.  (And we found lots of books to read together.)

With the other Squirrelings, we used more of Charlotte Mason's reading methods (computers and printers make cutting up sentences a snap); but we included Ledson's Cheerios-and-egg-carton reading game (like this one) as well, because by that time it had become a family rite of passage to play "the game."

In any case, Spalding or Cheerios, Professor Phonics or Crayons' method, we agree with Valerie:  learning to read (for most children) does not have to be complicated or expensive.

A new era in Treehouse life

As of today, Mr. Fixit is taking leave from a stressful office job to pursue self-employment.

It's not something we were unprepared for, but it still feels a bit like the first time we pushed off on a two-wheeler without training wheels.

Life is too short to be too grim (Rumpole of the Bailey books)

Recently I  read two mysteries with a revive-somebody-old theme.  One of them was a recent Sherlock Holmes novel (Grandpa Squirrel lent it to us), not bad reading but with really a nasty crime at the bottom of it.  The other was a novel set in 1934 and starring the real-life mystery writer Josephine Tey as one of the main characters.  I finished it dutifully, but I really disliked it, for several reasons.  I never did figure out that blackmail subplot. And Josephine Tey didn't even get all that much to do in solving the mystery.  Besides, as someone else pointed out, Josephine Tey was just one of her pen names anyway, so it's not very believable that her closest friends would have called her that.

It wasn't until I got partway through Rumpole and the Golden Thread this week that I realized what was missing in those other books.  Humour.

I know the Rumpole books aren't strictly mysteries, they're lawyer stories that sometimes have a bit of a mystery attached, so maybe it's not fair to compare them.  But honestly, I would rather have a few 1980's laughs courtesy of John Mortimer than read any more of those grim and gritty newer novels, at least for awhile.  Rumpole doesn't forget that we need to laugh sometimes, even when life is less than perfect.  It's kind of the same reason we still like watching The Rockford Files.

And besides the frequent quotes and misquotes from The Oxford Book of English Verse, they enrich my vocabulary immensely with words like plonk.

P.S.  Grandpa Squirrel says he likes them just for the cover art.

What did we do in school today? (Crayons' Year 5)

We did the same group of opening songs and Bible verses that we've been reading all week.  I personally was a bit O-Canada'd out by today, but Crayons' two teddies (that have been participating this week during school) requested it again so they could practice their French.

We played a round of Professor Noggin's History of Canada card game.  Crayons won by two cards.

We read about how Evangeline was reunited with the father of her sweetheart Gabriel, but that she had just missed Gabriel himself going the other way (through the alligator swamp?).  Gabriel's father promises that they will track him down. 

We worked on a page of fractions review.

Mama Squirrel had planned that we'd read some of The Tempest together, but Crayons requested another chapter of The Adventures of Robin Hood instead. 

Our weekly work in Write Source 2000 continued with still more details about Mr. Brown the Gym Teacher.   Mr. Brown is dissected in descriptive paragraphs, narrative paragraphs, expository paragraphs, and persuasive paragraphs.  After discussing the difference between these, we each got out a novel, picked out a couple of good paragraphs to read to each other, and tried to sort them into their various types.  (Some did fit, some didn't.)

We read all about the Battle of Issus in Stories of Alexander the Great.  King Darius jumped out of his royal chariot and ran.  Alexander, bleeding and dirty but victorious, commandeered the tent of Darius and enjoyed the monarchical bathtub. Seriously:

But Darius' tent, which was full of splendid furniture and quantities of gold and silver, they reserved for Alexander himself, who, after he had put off his arms, went to bathe himself saying, 'Let us now cleanse ourselves from the toils of war in the bath of Darius.'

'Not so,' replied one of his followers, 'but in Alexander's rather; for the property of the conquered is and should be called the conqueror's.'

Here, when he beheld the bathing vessels, the water-pots, the pans, and the ointment boxes, all of gold curiously wrought, and smelt the fragrant odors with which the whole place was exquisitely perfumed, and from thence passed into a pavilion of great size and height, where the couches and tables and preparations for an entertainment were perfectly magnificent, he turned to those about him and said, 'This, it seems, is royalty.' --Plutarch of Chaeronea

Alexander the Great, by Rembrandt

Happy weekend!

Crochet Class #7: Final Project

We had our last in-real-life crochet class last Saturday, but I'm just getting around now to posting about it.

The girls had their choice of projects.  I suggested one of these two amigurumi pieces:

Cupcake, from Ana Paula's Amigurumi Patterns & Random Cuteness (photo: theirs) (I would suggest not working with such dark yarn for the base, though, especially if you're still new to crocheting.  Lighter colours make it easier to see the stitches.)

Birds of a Feather, from the BitterSweet blog (photo: theirs)

We had a few takers for the cupcake, and I think two for the bird.  Crayons decided to make a hamster instead (from a library book). (No photo yet--we'll take one when she's done.) 

All three patterns are very similar:  you start by making a flat single-crocheted circle (just like the mini hat), and then when it's big enough, you stop increasing and just work straight up for a certain number of rows.  The new technique that everyone had to learn was decreasing, because when you get near the top you have to get smaller again!  In the bird pattern, decreasing is written as "sc2 tog," meaning that you single crochet two stitches together.  The cupcake pattern calls it "dec 1," meaning that you decrease one stitch by working the two stitches together.  (Pattern reading is a skill in itself.)

Nobody got completely finished in the last class, but they all got off to a good start on the projects.  Each girl took home an "Each One Teach Two" certificate stating that she "is now qualified to be known officially as a crocheter; is granted all rights and privileges for the use of yarn and hooks in a fun and creative manner; and is authorized to share this new talent with at least two others."

And if you've followed us this far, you can go ahead and print one out too!  Congratulations!

What we're doing in school today (Crayons' Grade 5)

Besides waiting for some predicted snow...this morning we had lots of reading.

We sang O Canada in English and French. Crayons is just beginning to learn the French words, so she mostly listened to that part.

We sang through the books of the Old Testament. Then Mama Squirrel sang it with "empty spaces," which Crayons had to fill in.

We read Psalm 148:1-6 together. ("Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord from the heavens.")

Mama Squirrel read a passage from the Gospel of Matthew.

We read a hymn by George Herbert ("King of glory, King of peace / I will love thee") and some of Longfellow's Evangeline.

Crayons finished a page from Math Mammoth.

We read a chapter (M.S. read, Crayons listened) about Alexander the Great. King Darius (the third) counted up all his troops by ten thousands, and took an inventory of all his shiny war stuff, in preparation for a battle with the Macedonians. When he asked the opinion of an advisor, Charidemus, Charidemus told him that what he needed was not more equipment but some well-trained Macedonians. King Darius responded, of course, by having Charidemus executed.

We reviewed where Alexander and King Darius fit into our big timeline; also Daniel (who lived during the time of Darius the first), David, Solomon, and George Washington.

We read two chapters from our new natural history book, The Loghouse Nest, about chickadees and cardinals.

We don't have much left for this afternoon except for copywork and science. We might fit in some Brahms. Also some crocheting--Crayons is making a hamster. Really. And she has some homework: one page of math, plus reading from The Prince and the Pauper.

Image from Wikipedia.

From the book sale

The pickings were a bit slim in the children's room, but the prices in there were reasonable and I did bring home a few books for the Scholastic shelf.

TX 1159 Charlie the Lonesome Cougar
TX 801 The Mad Scientists' Club
TX 1111 The Shaggy Dog
TX 945 Hans Brinker--oops, this one is abridged
TX 3330 The Magic of Oz
TJ 2904 Pigeon of Paris, by Natalie Savage Carlson (TJ's are harder to find)

I also found a French workbook...sort of a workbook...called Pourquoi? Comment?  I'm still figuring out what that's about.

In the main room I found copies of J.B., by Archibald MacLeish; Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill; a nice copy of Longfellow's Evangeline; an extra copy of Babies Need Books, probably to give away; and an Abbey Classics copy of Lorna Doone.  The cover art made it look like it's abridged, but I don't think it is--I'll check it against an online version, but it looks pretty genuine from here. (It turned out to be somewhat abridged, which surprised me since it was still full of dialect and didn't appear to be dumbed-down. Also I can't find anywhere on the book itself that says "abridged" or "adapted." But the Project Gutenberg version is definitely longer.)

So--not a bad trip!

What's up today in the Treehouse?

1.  I'm trying to get used to Blogger's new interface.  I feel like someone redecorated my house when my back was turned.  (Is that what the DHM meant about feeling like someone reorganized her kitchen?)

2.  The Apprentice is almost done her first-year exams.  I think she has one left next week.

3.  It's a teacher-development day for the public schools, so Ponytails is out sewing with some homeschooled/previously homeschooled friends. 

4.  Tomorrow is our last crochet class.

5.  Tonight and tomorrow are the big annual used book sale.

6.  Mr. Fixit has been hunting old radios lately.  He bought one to fix up called a Tombstone.  (When he told me he wanted to get a Tombstone, I was a bit worried until he explained.)

Photo found here.

Two kinds of oat flour muffins

Last night I had a committee meeting here, and the snacks had to be wheat free and dairy free.  (Oats were okay.)  So I ran some rolled oats through the food processor and made a batch of mini-muffins from the Common Room's Banana Oatmeal Bread recipe.

I had enough oat flour left to make these Carrot Spice Cupcakes from Canadian Living.  They're not meant to be wheat-free, but the oat flour does work in them--I just added a bit more than the cupful of all-purpose originally called for.  I also left out the nuts, and blended the last little bit of oat flour with some oil and cinnamon sugar to make a streusel sprinkle for the tops.

It worked!

What's for supper? Chicken thighs cacciatore

Tonight's dinner menu:

Boneless chicken thighs and mushrooms, baked in the toaster oven with Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Sauce (clarification: the sauce ingredients, without the ground beef)
Butterfly (bow-tie) pasta
Cooked carrots

Vanilla pudding with blueberries

What we learned in school today

How Alexander the Great conquered the Persians.

That Red Admiral butterflies love dandelions.

That Alexander Graham Bell claimed the patent on the telephone about two hours before another inventor showed up to do the same thing.

How Lucinda gave her little friend Trinket her first-ever Christmas tree (Roller Skates).

How Johannes Brahms wrote his Academic Festival Overture as both a "musical thank-you" and a memorial to his favourite summer vacation.  (This 1983 performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein is very entertaining.)



Forgot:  we started reading The Tempest today too.

Red admirals and dandelions

On a windy, warm spring day, we're suddenly inundated with both dandelions and butterflies--mostly Red Admirals.  I don't ever remember seeing so many butterflies in our yard at one time.  You stand in the grass and feel like you're in a butterfly conservatory.

Photo found on Wikipedia.

What's for supper? Crescent roll potpie

Tonight's dinner menu (really cleaning out the fridge):

Chicken potpie, made with leftover cooked chicken, frozen peas, cut up carrots and celery, chicken-flavoured white sauce (made with milk and bouillon powder), and cheese; heated till bubbly in a 9 x 13 inch pan and then topped with the contents of a can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls--that is, the whole flat sheet of dough--and baked until the biscuits were done.  (That sounds extravagant, but crescent rolls were on sale again last week.)

Salad made with lettuce, apples, and a bit of coleslaw mix (cabbage and grated carrot)

And things on the table for whoever wanted them:  almonds, applesauce, etc.

Friday school plans (Crayons' Grade 5)

Bible reading: Gospel of Matthew 25:14-46 The parable of the talents; the sheep and the goats.

Science: Soap Science. "Soap Smarts," part one of two. What happens when you mix oil and water? Why does that show how soap works? What's the difference between soap and detergent?



French: quick review of yesterday's work.

Biography: A Passion for the Impossible (Lillias Trotter), finishing chapter 10. "It fell to the three women to make sense of the endless holes and corners, to distinguish huge cupboards embedded in the walls from tiny, windowless rooms. With characteristic gusto they tackled the domestic challenge. First, they explored their new domicile, discovering twenty-five rooms (including stable, cellars, and mosque), of which only eight were inhabitable given the lack of air and light..."

English Composition, using Write Source 2000: Sections 75 to 77, Building Paragraphs. Write a descriptive paragraph of someone (human or animal), after examining the sample "Mr. Brown, the gym teacher."  (Also read Meg's description of her dog Robbie in Jean Little's Spring Begins in March.)

History and Geography games:  Usborne Map of the World Jigsaw.

Math: "Subtracting Big Numbers." What's six million minus four hundred thousand? What's one billion minus two hundred million? Not so easy to do mental math with these!

Artistic Pursuits: unit on Balance. Extra time today to make some art.

Smells like fall, in the spring: Apple Cake

What's for dessert tonight?  Chef Earl's Streusel Apple Raisin Muffins, baked in two 9 x 13 inch cake pans.  (I made a double batch and froze most of it in sandwich bags for school lunches and quick breakfasts.)

P.S.  I left out the extra white sugar--it's sweet enough without it.

Answers to the Easter Book Quiz

The Easter Book Quiz is here.

1. There were two late breakfasts at the Malone home that noon....

Meet the Malones, by Lenora Mattingly Weber

2. "Maybe I'll just give up acting and design hats..."

Spiderweb for Two, by Elizabeth Enright

3. Emma had given up Little Debbies...

These High, Green Hills, by Jan Karon

4. Business was good that Easter...

The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass

5. I was standing on the bank of the River Goltva...

"Easter Eve," by Anton Chekhov

6. Ellie and Brenda were already fighting...

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

An Easter Book Quiz

Good, bad, sad, ugly, funny, reverent.  (Sorry I've only come up with six so far...I may add to this one later on.)  Name the book, the author, or both.  Happy Easter! Answers are here.

1.  There were two late breakfasts at the M home that noon.  One in the dining room with a color scheme of yellow jonquils and lavender candles; even the broiled grapefruit fitted into it.  That was Nonna's breakfast.  The other was out under the weeping willow in the back yard, with the warmest sun April could manage out in full force after the rain.  And the color scheme of this breakfast was as reckless as nature itself.  For, as fast as the children found their baskets of colored eggs, they ran to the table with them....Nonna's broiled chicken and dollar-sized biscuits monopolized the kitchen range.  The outdoor breakfast party ate yesterday's bran muffins with the bacon and drank cocoa.

2.  "Maybe I'll just give up acting and design hats when I grow up," said M, with pins in her mouth.  "Honestly, R, look at us; don't we look fashionable?"  "Uh-hunh, pretty sharp," said R with mild enthusiasm; he hardly seemed to see the hats at all.  But when, in all their finery, they went out to get into the Motor to go to church, the first thing they saw was Lorna Doone, the horse, greedily cropping crocuses on the front lawn, and on her head she, too, was wearing a new bonnet: a dashing creation made up of a feather duster, some paper roses, and family toothbrushes arranged in a cockade, all tastefully held in place with adhesive tape and the cord from somebody's pajamas.

3.  Emma had given up Little Debbies for Lent three years ago, a sacrifice he deeply appreciated. Being in the same room with a Little Debbie of any variety was more temptation than he could handle.

4.  Business was good that Easter, even though, at the insistence of Matzerath, who was Protestant, the shop had to be closed on Good Friday.  Mama, who generally had her way in most matters, gave in on Good Fridays and closed the shop, demanding in return the right on Catholic grounds to close the shop for Corpus Christi, to replace the boxes of Persil and display packages of Kaffee-Hag in the window with a small, colorful picture of Mary, illuminated with electric lights, and to take part in the procession in Oliva.

5.  I was standing on the bank of the River Goltva, waiting for the ferry-boat from the other side. At ordinary times the Goltva is a humble stream of moderate size, silent and pensive, gently glimmering from behind thick reeds; but now a regular lake lay stretched out before me. The waters of spring, running riot, had overflowed both banks and flooded both sides of the river for a long distance, submerging vegetable gardens, hayfields and marshes, so that it was no unusual thing to meet poplars and bushes sticking out above the surface of the water and looking in the darkness like grim solitary crags.

The weather seemed to me magnificent. It was dark, yet I could see the trees, the water and the people.... The world was lighted by the stars, which were scattered thickly all over the sky. I don't remember ever seeing so many stars. Literally one could not have put a finger in between them. There were some as big as a goose's egg, others tiny as hempseed.... They had come out for the festival procession, every one of them, little and big, washed, renewed and joyful, and everyone of them was softly twinkling its beams. The sky was reflected in the water; the stars were bathing in its dark depths and trembling with the quivering eddies. The air was warm and still.... Here and there, far away on the further bank in the impenetrable darkness, several bright red lights were gleaming....

6.  Ellie and Brenda were already fighting about what they were going to wear to church.  Since Momma got mad at the preacher three years back, Easter was the only time in the year that the Aarons went to church and it was a big deal....Ellie said she would go to chuirch if Momma would let her wear the see-through blouse, and Brenda would go if she at least got a new skirt.  In the end everyone got something new except Jess and his dad, neither of whom cared...

Crayons' Grade Five: Thursday School Plans

Bible:  Matthew 24:15-31  (Signs of the end)

Readaloud:  finish the "William Shakespeare" chapter of Roller Skates

French:  Work on the preposition "à" (to).  Listen to the French story "Jonas wants a cat."

Poetry:  continue "Evangeline" from "Four times the sun had risen and set" to "Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession."

History:  Learning about the beginnings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.



Math:  Division review worksheet

Music:  More about Brahms

Literature or biography:  Robin Hood, chapter 2

Copywork:  passage from Robin Hood or "Evangeline"

Nature study:  look at the April nature calendar.  See what spring plants, critters, and birds are around.

Free reading:  The Prince and the Pauper.

What's for supper?

Tonight's dinner menu after our afternoon out:

Hungarian smoked sausage (that was spicy!), cooked in the slow cooker with sauerkraut and acorn squash
Reheated kasha
Lettuce, sliced cucumbers, leftover bean salad, cottage cheese, applesauce

Fancy dessert glasses with a big spoonful of blackberry crisp, a little spoonful of vanilla yogurt, and a few extra thawed blackberries on top

Can they do enough math to know they're being cheated?

I had planned to repost this 2007 post today (both the part about our own homeschool and the comparison with the third grade math class at the end of the post), and then someone sent me a link to a recent Macleans' Magazine article on the sorry situation in Canadian math teaching.  It reminded me even more of the educational Blerwm (see the old post) that continues to spew, particularly in the elementary schools.  If this situation doesn't make you furious for our children--that is, the children of this generation, even if we homeschoolers have taught our own offspring better--I don't know what would. And it's not just that they grow up cheated on math:  the same applies to standards in reading, writing, and other skills that, until recently, were considered within the normal scope of a child's education.

And what makes me even angrier for these children is that we non-experts, the home-teaching parents who may or may not have college-level math courses or education credentials (many homeschoolers do have advanced degrees), seem to be doing better than the current average at math education, almost without trying.  Some of it's the curriculum homeschoolers use--certain popular programs are known to be a level or two over traditional North American math goals, so kids using them would seem a bit ahead anyway. But even if we take math slow and simple, we have this crazy advantage over the current hands-tied school situation: most of us parents, especially those of us over a certain age, were taught with traditional math methods, and that's what we pass on to our kids.  Here's how you multiply fractions, here's how you divide them.  None of this messing with paper strips. 

It doesn't matter why we do it, though, so much as whether or not it works.  Can our kids add, subtract, multiply, divide?  Can they make change?  Can they figure out a percentage?  Do they just have a good sense of how numbers work?  Apparently the kids taught with the any-way-that-works-for-you method can't, and don't. When they get to high school, where math is still taught using more traditional methods, a lot of them flounder.

Are you laughing in disbelief at this point?  I'm more ready to spit.  Crayons has been suggesting that she might like to go to public school for grade six, just to try it out like Ponytails did.  Sorry: with this amount of un-teaching going on in Canadian schools, that would be my last choice for her for next year. 

Here's the relevant part from our 2007 post:

But on the other hand, there was an article today in the local paper about math teaching in public schools, that tipped things back towards thinking again that we must be doing all right.

"Recently [the grade 3 teacher] taught the children to count by fives, using Popsicle sticks. She had them sit in a circle and line up four Popsicle sticks in a row, with a coloured one laid diagonally across each pile.

"Then she asked how many Popsicle sticks there were. One student crawled into the middle of the circle and counted up the piles: "Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 45 . . ." he said and paused at the final two sticks. "Forty-seven" he called.

"The class applauded him. 'Good job!' she praised, and then sent the children to sit down with worksheets where they again had to add the "bundles" of lines arranged five to a pile.

"Instead of having the children write down the correct totals, though, she had them choose the right answer from some numbers printed on the bottom of the sheet. They were to cut out the right number and glue it in the proper spot.

"The children were enjoying cutting and feeling the texture of the glue stick under their fingernails.

"'Children at this age are very visual and very kinesthetic,' she said. They learn by seeing and often need to move around while learning, even if it's just working with glue."

OK, I know it's still September, and maybe that was a review lesson--but cutting and pasting answers in grade 3? And Crayons (grade 1) has been doing that same kind of counting-by-fives-plus-whatever's-left. Without crawling on the floor, I might add. Or needing to get glue stick under her fingernails.

Related posts:
Multiplication without vexation (2008)
Cookie Connections

Linked from the Carnival of Homeschooling, April 2012

Last night's supper menu: Something sustaining

Mr. Fixit's Favourite Meatloaf, from the Betty Crocker Cookbook
Sweet potatoes
Spinach tortellini
Bean salad (made with a can of romano beans and a can of green beans)

Choice of: no-bake brownies, blackberry crisp, oranges, yogurt

Crochet Class #6: is it a hat, or a basket?

Most of what you need to know for this week's pattern was covered in the last class.  In our last real-life class, the girls worked on making a small flat circle (like the beginning of a coaster); but some of them found that difficult.  The shamrocks actually turned out to be easier for them; everyone completed at least one shamrock before the end of the class, and a couple of the girls said that they really liked making treble crochets. 

Well, this week we're going to go back to making those flat circles, and this time it will be easier because everybody's had a bit of practice--right?  Get your stitch markers ready!  (If you don't have split-ring markers, you can use things like earrings, paper clips, or bits of yarn to mark where you start each round.)

Today's Mini Hat pattern came from a holiday decoration, "Peppermint People,” in Crochet World Magazine, December 2005, by Angela Winger.  The designer's "snowman" person wears a flat-topped hat, boater-style, and that's the part of the pattern that we're using.

But not in snowman's-hat-black, please; black is one of the hardest colours to crochet with, since you can't easily see your stitches.  I'm thinking a lighter brown, and "straw" colour would be perfect.  Or any light colour is fine.  You will need a very small amount of a second colour for one row of trim.
What weight of yarn, and what size hook?  As written, you need a 4mm hook (F or G in American sizing) and worsted-weight yarn; in my own sample, that made a Moxie Girl-sized hat.   UPDATE:  I made another sample, using Red Heart Super Saver in variegated pinks and purples, and a 4mm hook; and it came out a little smaller than the first one--this one was more Barbie-sized.  So your mileage may vary quite a bit on these.

I made another hat, but I doubled the yarn (used two strands at a time) and used a larger, 6mm hook (that's a J hook for Americans), without making any changes to the pattern.  That made a hat that would fit a Ty Girlz doll or a Beanie Bopper.  The larger size also fits a cloth doll from Ten Thousand Villages.

I think if you wanted to make an even bigger hat, say for an 18-inch doll, you would need to change the pattern, rather than using heavier yarn with the original directions, so I'm not going to recommend that yet, unless you're already comfortable adapting patterns.  If you don't have a doll or critter small enough to wear the small-to-medium-sized hat, don't worry, because if you flip the hat upside down, it makes a perfect little basket.  Maybe for Easter, to hold a few foil-covered candies?  You'd just need to add a handle of some type.

I've copied out the pattern as printed in Crochet World, but with my "translations" below each row, in italics. 

HAT OR BASKET

Supplies needed: see notes above.  One strand of worsted-weight yarn, used with a 4mm hook (F or G, in American sizing); or two strands and a larger hook, for a larger hat; or you can experiment with heavier or lighter weight yarn for different effects.  Enough of the main colour to make the hat, plus small amount of a second colour for contrasting row.  Yarn needle, scissors, and stitch markers.

Stitches used:  Slip stitch (Sl st), Chain, (ch), Single Crochet (sc), Half Double Crochet (hdc)

Rnd. 1: With main colour, ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook, do not join. (6 sc)

Chain 2 stitches. Make 6 single crochet stitches in the second chain stitch from the hook. Do not join with slip stitch—just keep going, and remember to count stitches.  The (6 sc) at the end means that you now have 6 single crochet stitches in the round.

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12 sc)

Work 2 single crochet stitches in each of the 6 single crochets that you made previously—this gives you 12 single crochet stitches. Do not join, just keep going.

Rnd 3: [Sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc] 6 times. (18 sc)

In the first stitch, make one single crochet. In the next, make two. In the next, make one. In the next, make two, and so on around. Square brackets plus a number afterwards mean that you are to do something a certain number of times, across a row or a round.

Rnd 4: [Sc in each of next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc] 6 times. (24 sc)

You are continuing to make the circle bigger. In the first stitch, make one single crochet. In the second, make one single crochet. In the third, make two. Repeat this pattern (one, one, two) all the way around.

Rnd 5: Working in back lps only, sc in each st around.

No increases on this round, but work only in the back loops to make a ridge.

Rnd 6: Sc in each sc around, change to contrasting colour in last sc.
No increases—just work around, and change colour at the end.  Don't cut the original yarn--you'll need it again in another row.

Rnd 7: Sc in each sc around change to main colour in last sc, fasten off trim colour.

Same as before—change back to original colour at the end.

Rnd 8: Repeat rnd 6.

Work around with original colour.

Rnd 9: Working in front lp only of each st, work 2 hdc [See notes below] in each st around, sl st in first hdc, fasten off.

This is how you make the brim, and you want to double the number of stitches. Hdc is half double crochet, and the only difference between it and single crochet is that you bring the yarn over the hook first before drawing up a loop, so that you have three loops on the hook. Draw the yarn back through all three loops at once to finish the stitch. Half double crochet gives you a nice solid stitch a bit bigger than single crochet. When turning rows made with hdc, chain 2 instead of chain 1.

If you don’t want to try the new stitch, you could do the brim in single crochet and then do a second round with no increases. Add a handle if you want it to be a basket.

That's enough to keep us busy for this class.  We are planning one more real-life class so that the girls can do an amigurumi animal or some other small project that they would like to finish off with.  Are you in?  Check back here...probably not in two weeks, since that's Easter weekend, but sometime next month.

(Hat photo found here)

Oh, my poor brainwashed homeschooled kids

There is a lot going on in the media about free speech, homeschooling, Christians, and education in general.  A Peaceful Day has a post discussing an article that seems to raise unwarranted concern about homeschoolers, particularly American politician Rick Santorum.  Is the real concern that some homeschooling parents (religious or not) might neglect academics or (puh-leeze) socialization?  Or is that just a smokescreen for those who separate "freedom of worship" from "freedom of religion?"  I'm not sure.

As I've said before, merely occupying a particular place in society is enough to ensure that some people out there won't like you.  I am a middle-aged white female, educated in Ontario public schools and universities. I have been a stay-at-home mom for the last twenty years.  I attend a Christian church.  Our children have received most of their schooling outside of the public school system.  I diapered a baby in disposables, I eat pork, I buy cold cereal, I read books by dead white guys, and I wear blue jeans.  I'm sure there's at least one thing on that list (I could come up with more) to cause general fear and mistrust.  In some people's minds, I'm a very dangerous person.

Well, Bubba and me seem to have larned our young'uns good enough that they can get by with the readin', writin', and figgerin'.  The two that went to public high school have been on the honour roll, and have earned a consistent stream of positive remarks from their teachers.  And they've made friends too--imagine that.  The oldest graduated with not only a high school diploma but with most of the requirements completed for her hairstyling apprenticeship, and she completed that soon afterwards...just before she entered university as a science major. (Yes, big bad science.) Middle daughter, now in ninth grade, has her own ideas about all the marvellous things she'd like to do and how she's going to do them. And what can I say about the fifth-grader, whose "lack of exposure to the real world" includes a weekly stint working with adults at the thrift store, and whose current favourite TV show is She-ra, Princess of Power?

Sure, there are opportunities that we couldn't provide, just because of our own family circumstances.  We're urban, not rural; we aren't world travellers; the girls haven't had much opportunity to participate in organized sports.  (Honestly, they didn't care about that.) Only one of them has taken swimming lessons. But guess what? They (at least the older two) can solder, handle a screwdriver, and change oil.  They've taken voice lessons, dance, improv, and drama (at various times).  They know how to shop for groceries,  mow the lawn, and run the washing machine, and they're aware of the dangers of misused credit.  They're the ones who are recruited to water vacationing neighbours' gardens, and help with younger children at church.  The oldest paid for most of her own "wants" during high school, through part-time jobs. All three of them run circles around me with their electronic gadgets (not around their dad, though--who do you think taught them?).  They are not shy about reading or speaking in public.  They can hold a conversation with people outside their own age group. They have opinions.  They argue with each other, and sometimes with their parents. They also identify themselves as Christians.

(I guess that last one must have been brainwashed into them, yes?)


Related posts:
Answers to some misconceptions about homeschooling
Bubba and me think that homeskoolers are not so freaky
How come your kids don't know that?
Is public high school all that perky?

Linked from Carnival of Homeschooling: Texas Edition

It's March Break here, for most of us: on sewing and books

Ponytails and Crayons/Dollygirl have the week off from classes.  The Apprentice doesn't.  But at least the weather is co-operating; it's funny how often we do have good weather during March Break.  Ponytails will be doing some group sewing.  I think Crayons wants to sew some doll clothes too.  Last week we tried making a doll leotard out of some old Lycra leggings, but the stretchy stuff did not get along well with our sewing machine.  We'll try something else this week.

I saw this vintage poster on A Peaceful Day, and you can read more about it on Brain Pickings.  Having a Chapters gift card from a recent birthday, I decided to take President Roosevelt up on his suggestion and ordered a few books I wanted to read but hadn't found in the used pickings. Helen Hanff's Q's Legacy, Quiller-Couch's On the Art of Writing, and The Mind of the Maker should all be on their way here before the month's out, along with one book for Crayons' spring term.

(I have been reading On the Art of Writing from the Bartleby site for awhile now, printing it out a lecture at a time, but decided a real book would be better.  And I used to have The Mind of the Maker, back in the prehistoric university days, but didn't properly appreciate it then and gave it away again.  That and Harry Blamires' The Christian Mind.  I like passing books around, but really, those were two I should have hung on to, at least until I had finished reading them properly.)

Crochet Class #5: Circles and Shamrocks

I'm posting this a day early--anticipating our Saturday class!

Today I'm not going to reinvent the wheel--just teach you how to make one. 

Well, not this one--but something a bit simpler to start with.  The girls in our class are going to start working "in the round": starting from a center point and working out to make round (or square) flat motifs (think doilies), or tube-shaped pieces (think socks?).  

A big tube-shaped pillow I made for the Apprentice

It's possible to make lots of crocheted things by working only in rows, not rounds, but working in the round has its own advantages: you can just keep going and never have to worry about turning your work or whether your edges are perfectly straight.  You could make a hat, for example, by crocheting a large rectangle and sewing it up the back--but it's just as easy to start with a very small circle at the top of the hat, keep the circle growing until you have something that covers the top of your head, and then work straight down until it's done.  In fact, that's what my first crochet teacher started us with, years and years ago in the fifth or sixth grade--crocheted hats.  Round and round and round and round...

A jar topper or mini doily--see the starting point in the middle?

Almost all the monkey parts were made in the round--saves on the sewing up at the end.

The best online tutorial I've found for in-the-round is this one at Crochet.about.com.  Really, I don't think I can explain it any better, so just head over there and let them teach you.  You chain two, three, or four times; join with a slip stitch; and work any amount of single crochet stitches in the loop you have just made. Does this look familiar? It should—it is the same as making a scrunchie, only without the elastic. The nice part about working in the loop is that you do NOT have to work into every chain—you are just working over the loop. When you are done that round, you can pull on the loose end and the circle should tighten up a bit.  If you follow the tutorial all the way through, you will make a flat circle in several rounds, that can be used for a coaster.  The tutorial suggests making two circles from cotton yarn and sewing them together for a thicker coaster.

More stuffed animals: see how the ponies' noses start small and then increase into the head shapes?  The bodies and legs are also made in the round.

There is a newer way of starting a loop, called a magic ring or magic circle, which gives you more control over pulling the hole closed at the end of the round. You wrap the yarn a couple of times around your finger, anchor the loop with a chain stitch, and then work into that.  But most patterns still have you start with chains joined with a slip stitch. (Sometimes it will just say to chain twice and then to work several stitches into the second chain, acting as if the chain stitch is a loop itself.)

And have I mentioned increasing in crochet?  It's very easy: just work more than one stitch into the stitch in question.  You know--usually you work along, one stitch into each of those chain-looking things in the previous row?  You usually want to increase evenly throughout a row or a round, unless you're trying for a funny effect like a camel's hump.  So, often a pattern will say something like 2 sc (single crochet) in the next stitch, sc 2 (make two single crochets in the two next stitches), 2 sc in next stitch, sc 2, continue across the row.

(More fun with prepositions:  sometimes a pattern might say "in the next space", which some people find confusing at first.  Just remember that you can crochet into or around almost anything, as long as there's room to get the hook through.  You can crochet into a loop, into a stitch, into a space (if you've made chain loops in the previous row), over an elastic (like the scrunchies) or a plastic ring, or into holes punctured into the edge of a handkerchief or napkin.  When you crochet into a space, you don't work into the chain or chains that make the space--just work over the strands.)

Today's other project:  Since it's almost St. Patrick's Day, the girls are going to follow a video tutorial by Teresa Richardson to make a shamrock, using green worsted-weight yarn. (Look on YouTube.)

So far we have used only single crochet, but there are “taller” stitches that you can make by adding “yarn overs.” This pattern includes a very tall stitch called a treble (meaning the same as “triple”), which you make by bringing the yarn twice over the hook, pulling up a loop (which gives you four loops on the hook), and then pulling two stitches at a time off the hook: so yarn over and pull two off, you have three; yarn over and pull two off, you have two; yarn over and pull two off, you have one. (Remember that treble stitch doesn’t mean bringing the yarn over three times: the triple part comes in when you pull the loops off three times.) You will not be using treble stitch very often (double crochet, which brings the yarn over only once, is much more common), but it gives a good effect in this little shamrock. Plus the pattern itself is so easy that all you have to really worry about is making the new stitch.


If you follow the pattern, you will have one small motif that you can pin on something; but you can also finish the shamrock, keep chaining about 30 stitches (or as long as you want) and you'll have a bookmark. You can even finish the chain, slip stitch into the fourth chain from the hook so that you have a loop, and make a second shamrock into that loop, so you have a double-ended bookmark.

Have fun, and I'll post one more class in two weeks.

All photographs copyright 2007-2012, Dewey's Treehouse.

What's the cheapest dinner you can think of?

Linked from Four Moms of Many, March 8 2012

That is, that anyone will eat?

The four Moms of Many, including the Deputy Headmistress, have a linky today looking for extremely cheap dinners: that is, 50 cents U.S. per person. For our family of five, that would be $2.50; everything costs a bit more in Canada, so let's make it $3.

Mr. Fixit suggested pancakes and bacon, or pancakes and sausage. We have gotten marked-down bacon and sausage for $2 a pound, which would be enough for our family and would leave a dollar over for the pancake ingredients. Here's a favourite recipe from More Food That Really Schmecks. As written, the five of us go away feeling a bit hungry; doubling it makes lots of leftovers; a one-and-a-half recipe seems about right.

Note: We never have buttermilk here. You could use thinned yogurt as a substitute. I would probably use either fresh or powdered milk, with one tablespoon of vinegar added per cup. Mix that first and let it sit to clabber while you get the other ingredients together.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups flour (a mix of white and whole wheat if you have it)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1 egg, well beaten (or egg substitute)
2 cupfuls buttermilk or sour milk
1 1/2 tbsp. melted shortening, oil, or butter, plus extra for frying
Toppings: homemade sugar syrup, butter, fruit, jam, whatever you have

Into the sifted dry ingredients add the egg beaten into the milk, then the fat or oil. Melt and heat some fat or oil in a frying pan and ladle the batter into it in thin 4- or 6-inch rounds*. Let fry until golden, flip, and brown on the other side.

*We have a skillet with rounded sides that is not ideal for making round pancakes. Rather than hold everybody up while we try to get the perfect shapes, we've discovered that long ovals work better and taste just as good.

School plans for today (Crayons' Grade Five)

New Testament Reading: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 3, J.B. Phillips translation:

33-40 “Now listen to another story. There was once a man, a land-owner, who planted a vineyard, fenced it round, dug out a hole for the wine-press and built a watch-tower. Then he let it out to farm-workers and went abroad. When the vintage-time approached he sent his servants to the farm-workers to receive his share of the proceeds. But they took the servants. beat up one, killed another, and drove off a third with stones. Then he sent some more servants, a larger party than the first, but they treated them in just the same way. Finally he sent his own son, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ Yet when the farm-workers saw the son they said to each other, ‘This fellow is the future owner. Come on, let’s kill him and we shall get everything that he would have had!’ So they took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those farm-workers?”

41 “He will kill those scoundrels without mercy,” they replied, “and will let the vineyard out to other tenants, who will give him the produce at the right season.”

42 “And have you never read these words of scripture,” said Jesus to them: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?’

43-44 “Here, I tell you, lies the reason why the kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its proper fruit.”

45-46 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables they realised that he was speaking about them. They longed to get their hands on him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who regarded him as a prophet.

Copywork: “…the loveliness of the town rising tier above tier in a glow of cream colour against the blue-grey western sky.”—Lilias Trotter

A Passion for the Impossible (Biography of Lilias Trotter): pages 103-107 (introduction to Algeria)

French: Unit 3 lesson 23b (continue) and 24a. Continue working on the story about Burundi. Conversation about things you do at home (phrases for "wash dishes," "do laundry," etc.).



Canadian history: p. 351-354 "Currency in the Colonies."  Why did Canada (pre-Confederation Canada, meaning Ontario and Quebec) adopt the decimal currency of dollars and cents (in 1858)?  How did currency help bring about Confederation and unite the provinces?

Math: online fact practice.  Crayons' favourite division-fact game site.

Handicrafts:  sewing doll clothes

Spelling/writing:  Study for dictation from one of the books we have been reading

School plans for Tuesday, now with photos

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 2

Math Mammoth: working with metric and decimals, page 170-171

Madam and Lady Why Ch 11 "The World's End" from "Come, I say, and sit down on this bench" to "make one think that so it must have been." (pg 236-242)

Copywork: “...taking so little care and regard to their business, that now when they thought the castle was sure their own, they almost lost their city."--Plutarch

Canadian history: pp. 342-343 British Columbia joins Canada and pp. 344-347 Prince Edward Island joins Canada

And maybe a walk somewhere if the weather stays nice.

School plans for this week (Crayons' Grade 5)

These are the plans--as always, they may get shifted around and added to. I haven't included the science activities that Crayons is doing with Mr. Fixit, or things like crafts.

Monday

The Bible, J.B. Phillips translation for schools: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Grammar lesson: Learning Grammar Through Writing, pages 30-32: agreement of subject and verb; using parallel constructions
Composer study: Johannes Brahms
French: Unit 3 lesson 23a. Conversation about telling time. Read another of the short poems included in last week's lesson. Pay special attention to new words.
Plutarch’s Life of Dion, Lesson 10: narrate orally
Copywork: "For they having nobody to command nor rule them, employed all their joy in rioting and banqueting...”--Plutarch, "Life of Dion"
Math: Arithmecode (free in the newspaper)
Readaloud: Alvin’s Secret Code: “Money from a Broken Code”
Readaloud: Alvin’s Secret Code: “A Lesson in Cryptography”  (we got ahead of ourselves)
Cryptogram puzzle

Tuesday

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 2

Math Mammoth: working with metric and decimals, page 170-171

Madam and Lady Why Ch 11 "The World's End" from "Come, I say, and sit down on this bench" to "make one think that so it must have been." (pg 236-242)

Copywork: “...taking so little care and regard to their business, that now when they thought the castle was sure their own, they almost lost their city."--Plutarch

Canadian history: pp. 342-343 British Columbia joins Canada and pp. 344-347 Prince Edward Island joins Canada

Wednesday

Makers of the English Bible, chapter 7, pages 78-83
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Copywork: “A moment more, and, all unseen, it knows not whence, strong warm wings are beneath.”—Lilias Trotter
French: Unit 3 lesson 23b Read the story about life in Burundi on page 44 (listen to the CD). Begin working on new words from the story.
Math: continue from Tuesday
Biography of Lilias Trotter: pages 96-99
Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 15, “Fol de Rol-lol.”
Afternoon volunteering

Thursday

The Bible: Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, part 3
Copywork: “…the loveliness of the town rising tier above tier in a glow of cream colour against the blue-grey western sky.”—Lilias Trotter
Biography of Lilias Trotter: pages 103-107 (introduction to Algeria)
French: Unit 3 lesson 23b (continue) and 24a. Continue working on the story about Burundi. Conversation about things you do at home.
Canadian history: p. 351-354 "Currency in the Colonies." Written narration.
Math: online fact practice
Study for dictation

Evening: student performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel

Friday

Makers of the English Bible, chapter 7, pages 83-88
More details: Codex Sinaiticus
More details: Stuffed crocodiles
Math: online fact practice
Caddie Woodlawn, chapter 16: “Warren Performs”
Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Studied dictation
French: Unit 3 lesson 24b Review some of the verbs we have learned. If there's time, look at page 46, a list of careers--otherwise, save it until next week.
Plutarch: Dion #11: discussion questions, narrate orally
Composer study and drawing