Only in homeschool...

Why is teaching Dollygirl such a unique experience?

Because only Dollygirl could take a science lesson on the food chain and spend most of it discussing the fact that cows eat producers

and lions eat consumers.

Math, how it's going, and Heather's helpful math post

Heather at To Sow a Seed has a good homeschool math post this week.  That might not sound like enough to get you to click over there, but trust me, she has some important things to say both about math and about homeschooling.

Right now Dollygirl is doing a mixture of Saxon Algebra 1/2 (2nd edition), Key to Geometry, and Balance Benders; also Money Matters by Larry Burkett, but that is more consumer education and citizenship than math.

I know how you're supposed to do Saxon.  That's not how we're doing it.  That would be exactly how to make Dollygirl never want to do math again.  The closest comparison I can make is that I'm teaching it much like I did Miquon, minus the Cuisenaire rods.  There are topics that Dollygirl is already very good at; there are new things she needs practice with.  During a math lesson (which doesn't mean One Saxon Lesson), I try to go over something new or to expand on a concept we've been working on (right now it's rate problems and unit multipliers); we might do some sample problems together on that, or do a few other questions on more familiar topics, such as finding the lowest common multiple or changing improper fractions to mixed numbers.  She might do those orally (if they're that sort of question), might do them on scratch paper (the same idea as working at the blackboard).  I watch while she's working those out and offer a little direction if she needs it; we check the Solutions Manual and if everything lines up, we move on; if not, we go back to the point where she got off track.

Then I usually assign either a few word problems, or, depending on what's in the Saxon lesson, a certain number of the shorter-type questions such as "solve for x."  So it might take us a few days to get through one Saxon lesson, or we might stop partway through and move on, or we might do a whole problem set and then skip the next, or we might even go back to a very early lesson for some arithmetic review.

(I always took Ruth Beechick seriously when she said "teach the child, not the book.")

Back yard nature

It's gray and windy, but the wind isn't cold now, it's just spring wind.

The robin was back on our porch again, ready for attempt number two or three at building a nest over the light.  I watched him (I think it was a him) fly back and forth a few times with clumps of dried grass, messing around, kind of stomping and flapping the stuff down, flying off for more.  I hated to have to tell him that the eviction notice would be posted as soon as Mr. Fixit got home from his errands.

Just then a gust of wind blew the half-made nest to the ground, and the robin (intuitively?) did not return.

Also seen:  a very bad squirrel with his head inside our bird feeder, stuffing his face as fast as he could.  A chipmunk.  Lots of violets.

On the school menu this week (Dollygirl's Grade 7)

Tuesday (the lunchtime concerts are now over for the season)

Old Testament:  continue Numbers, about Miriam's punishment and the spies

Poems: This Crosse-Tree Here, a spacial poem by Robert Herrick

General Science:  begin Module 12, about food, energy, and combustion

Handwriting

Music history:  Robert and Clara Schumann

Grammar

Saxon Algebra 1/2

Return of the King

Wednesday

New Testament:  continue the Gospel of Mark

Backyard Nature (notebooks)

Poems

Ivanhoe

Handwriting

English History:  The Magna Charta (use Century Chart)

Grammar

Balance Benders Level 3

Saxon Algebra 1/2

Thursday

Basic Bible Studies:  finish the study on God the Son, and/or begin the next one about the Holy Spirit

Composition:  watch the sampler DVD we didn't get to yet

Architecture:  more definitions of "Gothic," and Perpendicular Tracery

Poems

General Science:  continue the basic ideas of producers/consumers (and decomposers), and how combustion works

Plutarch:  do some catching up on Cicero, and use the Book of Centuries

Key to Geometry

Return of the King

Friday

Basic Bible Studies:  see Thursday

How to Read a Book:  continue the idea of "unity" in a story or a book

Handwriting

Money Matters workbook

Picture Talk:  Jan Vermeer (make an entry in the Book of Centuries)

History:  continue from Wednesday

Poems

Key to Geometry

Shakespeare's King John: start Act III

Back yard nature: we like you, but go somewhere else

That title could apply to several things around here, including rabbits. However, in this case it's a male robin who was determined to build a nest right over the light on our back porch.  He spent all yesterday morning at it, and then Mr. Fixit spoiled everything (in the robin's opinion) by taking the broom to the avian handicrafts. It's not that we don't appreciate the up-close opportunity for bird study, but letting them build right there means that we can't use the porch till they've moved on--so, that would be a no.  We are happy to let them build on the drainpipes, just not right on the porch.

But he was back this morning to try again.

What can you do with lemon chips?

In the aisle with the Easter jelly beans, Bulk Barn is selling lemon-flavored baking chips--that is, yellow "chocolate chips." What can you do with them?  Lemon-chip cookies somehow just don't sound right. But I think you could use them in the sort of fudge we make at Christmas (mostly melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk), or in other baking recipes that use ingredients like coconut.  I bought only seven ounces, not enough to make fudge.  These no-bake cookies are what I came up with instead.

Lemon Macaroons for Easter

In a bowl, combine (amounts are approximate) 1 to 1 1/2 cups graham crumbs, 1 cup quick oats, 1 cup unsweetened coconut.  (The oats were because I was short on graham crumbs, but I think they gave some needed bulk to the cookies.)

In a small saucepan, heat 1/3 cup milk, but do not boil it.  When it is quite warm, stir in 6 or 7 ounces lemon chips and stir until melted.  Combine with the dry ingredients.  Let sit for a couple of minutes to thicken.  Push by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper-covered tray.  Chill until set.

Wednesday school plans (Dollygirl's Grade 7, Term 3)

Book of Numbers, Chapter 11: the Israelites complain about manna, manna, nothing but manna, so God sends them meat; but they are also punished for complaining.



Key to Geometry, booklet 1, about lines and line segments

Making a chart for the 13th century: still working out the details for that one.

The Spring of the Year: "An Old Apple Tree."  I really love the "tree toad" part of this chapter.  Here's a snippet, but you really should read the whole thing.

"Seating myself comfortably at the foot of the tree, I wait. The toad comes forth to the edge of his hole above me, settles himself comfortably, and waits. And the lesson begins. The quiet of the summer evening steals out with the wood-shadows and softly covers the fields. We do not stir. An hour passes. We do not stir. Not to stir is the lesson--one of the primary lessons in this course with the toad. 

"The dusk thickens. The grasshoppers begin to strum; the owl slips out and drifts away; a whip-poor-will drops on the bare knoll near me, clucks and shouts and shouts again, his rapid repetition a thousand times repeated by the voices that call to one another down the long empty aisles of the swamp; a big moth whirs about my head and is gone; a bat flits squeaking past; a firefly blazes, is blotted out by the darkness, blazes again, and so passes, his tiny lantern flashing into a night that seems the darker for his quick, unsteady glow. We do not stir. It is a hard lesson. By all my other teachers I had been taught every manner of stirring, and this strange exercise of being still takes me where my body is weakest, and puts me almost out of breath. 

"What! out of breath by keeping still? Yes, because I had been hurrying hither and thither, doing this and that--doing them so fast for so many years that I no longer understood how to sit down and keep still and do nothing inside of me as well as outside. Of course _you_ know how to keep still, for you are children. And so perhaps you do not need to take lessons of teacher Toad. But I do, for I am grown up, and a man, with a world of things to do, a great many of which I do not need to do at all--if only I would let the toad teach me all he knows."

Easy Grammar Plus: continue predicate nominatives

Handwriting practice

Ivanhoe: King John's nobles have a secret meeting. There's a good part coming up where the Black Knight makes a new friend (see picture below), but we may not get that far today.

Isn't that an awesome illustration? It's by George Cruikshank, 1837.

Back Yard Nature: Two firsts today

In our back yard:

First dandelion.

First violets.

Spring is definitely here.

Photo from Wikipedia.

Reminder about the Carnival of Homeschooling

We are hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling, and the deadline is tomorrow night (Monday).  I don't have too many submissions yet, so I may have to come around asking some of you for help. If you have a post you'd like to submit, the directions are here.

Term Three Week Four: Dollygirl's School Plans (a short week)

A four-day school week because of Good Friday.

Monday

Book of Numbers.  Use Book of Centuries.

Saxon Algebra 1/2 

Hair and Skin: A Nutritional Viewpoint (Text: Nutrition 101)

The Easy Grammar Plus

Fix It..Write

Map drills (online)

Ivanhoe

Music history:  after Schubert?

Tuesday

Gospel of Mark.  Keep notebook.

Saxon Algebra 1/2

Hair and Skin:  see Monday

Balance Benders Level 3

History of England: "John and Arthur"

Fix It...Write

Poetry: "find the metre"

Return of the King

Wednesday

Book of Numbers.  Use Book of Centuries.

Key to Geometry

Something new in history:  Beginning a Century Chart

The Spring of the Year: "The Apple Tree"

The Easy Grammar Plus

Ourselves Book II: continue with the perils of the uninstructed conscience

Fix It...Write

Poetry: "find the metre"

Ivanhoe

Thursday

Basic Bible Studies: "God the Son"

History of England:  what charters are

Picture study:  Jan Vermeer, painting #3.  Use Book of Centuries.

Key to Geometry

Gothic Architecture: more distinguishing features

Money Matters workbook

Shakespeare's King John:  continue Act II

What's for supper? (Cleaning out the fridge and cupboard)

Tonight's what's-in-your-hand dinner menu:

Chicken Cacciatore (chicken breasts, onions, and canned sauce)
Egg noodles
Three small frozen panzerotti (call them hors d'oeuvres)
Odds and ends of green things
Pickles and olives

Oranges, cut up
Cottage pudding made with the end of a jar of jam
And (for snacks)
A small pan of Rice Krispie Squares, made with the end of a box of cereal

Tomorrow: groceries.

The many uses of homeschooling

I did a conference workshop last weekend and mentioned that reading Architecture Shown to the Children can improve your ability at crosswords (words like APSE).  They thought I was joking.

A couple of days ago I posted about Gothic architecture and ogees.

The crossword in today's paper has the clue, "Pointed arch."  Which has come up before, but this time I didn't have to look it up:  OGEE.

So there you go.  Homeschooling has its advantages.

A bird we hear a lot here: Cardinals

A well done three-minute video that also explains how birds sing:

Back yard nature: Sparrows

Outside the window this morning:  sparrows, up close and personal.

(Photo from Birds of Ontario at TorontoHiking.com)

Dollygirl's Nature Walk Photos

(From yesterday's nature walk)

Winterberry holly bush with berries.

All photos by Dollygirl. Copyright 2014 Dewey's Treehouse.

Linked from Nature Study Q&A and April Link-Up at Fisher Academy International.

A walk by the pond (our nature outing)

A short drive away from us, there's an old fieldstone farmhouse that is now part of a university campus. Behind the farmhouse, there's a nature trail around a large pond.  That's where we went this afternoon.  It's still pretty cold, and not much is sprouting or hatching or moving much around the pond, but we did have a good (although muddy) very-early-spring walk.  We saw several things to note down, and things we'd like to come back and look at again in a couple of weeks:

Tamarack (larch) trees, with cones but no needles. (More about them here.)

Winterberry holly--at least, we're pretty sure that's what it was.  Bright red juicy berries still on the bush from last fall, but no spring growth on it yet--maybe some buds.

A muskrat swam up to the edge of the water and then disappeared, probably into a hole in the bank.  Mr. Fixit and Dollygirl disagreed on whether it had a tail like a beaver or like a muskrat, but it was acting more like a muskrat.

Lots of ducks and geese, and robins, and a blue heron further out.

A few daffodils coming up at the front of the farmhouse.

There were a few little bits of green here and there, but it was a hard winter and I think spring is having a struggle.

End-of-the-week school plans (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

Thursday

The Age of Chivalry: "Taliesin"

Key to Geometry

Grammar of Poetry:  scanning practice (take bits of two poems and identify their meter)

General Science:  Skin and Hair

Fix It...Write (penmanship practice)

Plutarch's Life of Cicero, finish lesson 2 (very short) and start lesson 3

Map drills (Seterra, online)

King John, continue Act II

Afternoon Activities:  see the term's extra activities such as homemaking and crafts

Friday

Basic Bible Studies #15, A New Relationship with God the Son

BrainBox Game: The World

Key to Geometry

The Easy Grammar Plus

Picture Study:  Jan Vermeer, #2

Grammar of Poetry:  scanning practice (take bits of two poems and identify their meter)

History of England: The Crusade (continuing with Richard). Draw something in the Book of Centuries.

Money Matters

Composition time  (if you want, use the demo disk from One Year Adventure Novel that we picked up at the homeschool conference)

What's for supper?

Tonight's dinner menu:

2 Hungarian smoked sausages, baked with a casserole of brown rice and barley  (Whoah, that sausage turned out to be spicy.)
Spinach and feta perogies
Carrot sticks

Homemade butterscotch pudding...and here's the recipe.

Butterscotch Pudding (Source: Food to Grow On, by Susan Mendelson and Rena Mendelson, 1994)

1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups whole or 2% milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium saucepan.  Whisk in milk, and cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  (Keep stirring so it doesn't stick or burn.).  Stir 1/2 cup pudding mixture into the egg yolks, then stir that mixture back into the pot and cook for two more minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.  Pour into serving bowl or Pyrex pan, and cover with plastic wrap to keep skin from forming, unless you just like skin.  Chill for an hour before serving.

(Note: this recipe makes only about three servings, or four quite small ones.  But you can increase the amounts.)

Wednesday school plans

Opening hymn

Old Testament:  Book of Numbers, chapter 9: The Second Passover; The Fiery Cloud

Fix It...Write workpage

Architecture Shown to the Children: Introduction to Gothic architecture...did you ever notice that an ogee looks a lot like the top of a Dairy Queen cone?

Work in Saxon Algebra 1/2 (orally and do a problem with Mom--finish the lesson for homework)

Finish painting cardboard bunkbed for the dolls (with Mr. Fixit)

Easy Grammar Plus: introduce predicate nominatives

Balance Benders Book 3

Ivanhoe

The Grammar of Poetry: a bit of review

Nature Afternoon!

Some news from The Apprentice

Our Apprentice had not even started high school when we started this blog.  We have posts following her through ninth grade at home, her move to public high school, her hairstyling apprenticeship (yes, we thought it was funny too, because the nickname came before the real thing), and her moving on (and out) to university.  Apprentice would have had another year of school to go yet for the Honours program, but she has decided that enough is enough, for now anyway, and she will be graduating with her B.Sc. in June.

And after that?

The Apprentice (who we should probably rename The Graduate, except that Dustin Hoffman already did that) is already set up with her housemates and her mini slow cooker, so she's going to stay where she is and look for a job there.  And enjoy having absolutely no homework, at least after final exams.

CONGRATULATIONS, APPRENTICE!

Monday School Plans, and a new game (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

Old Testament: continue Book of Numbers

New game we bought at the homeschool conference:  BrainBox "The World" (you can sample it here)

General Science: Skin and hair

Balance Benders Level 3

Saxon Algebra 1/2:  begin new lesson

Picture Study : intro to Vermeer, postponed from last week

The Easy Grammar Plus: continue nouns

History of England: The Pope's Gift; The Crescent and the Cross (intro to Richard)

How to Read a Book

French lesson

Poems

Ivanhoe  

(One day this week, when the weather's good, Mr. Fixit is going to take us out in nature somewhere so we can look for spring flowers.)

Conference Weekend!

Nature in our back yard, and a lot of others right now

Gray or speckled snow mold, proper name Typhula Blight.  (Or mould. Canadians can't decide how to spell that one.)  It's a mycelium that appears when the snow's been on the ground too long.  It's showing on a lot of lawns right now, as the snow disappears.

It's sort of pretty, in a weird, Spanish-moss sort of way.  It doesn't kill the grass, just damages the blades (and then hides for the summer).

Are you seeing this where you live?

(Photo found here)

What's for supper? Skillet Spaghetti

Tonight's dinner menu:

Skillet Spaghetti, made from celery, mushrooms, a bit of pepperoni, a bit of leftover homemade lentil burger, a can of pizza sauce, and some broken-up spaghetti.  Black olives for those who like them.  Cheese on top or on the side.

Steamed spinach

Slow-cooker chocolate dessert for those who eat their spinach.

Nature in our backyard

It's staying above freezing this week, which means the snow banks are shrinking and what's underneath is reappearing.  Dollygirl found her small shovel that had disappeared under a drift.

On the strange-wildlife side, a very corpulent raccoon waddled across our yard this morning.  We do get raccoons here (that's why we lock up the garbage), but not usually in the daytime.  We wondered if this one might be a mama-to-be.

Some school plans for this week (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

Daily work:  opening time (hymn), memory work, Easy Grammar Plus, Saxon Algebra 1/2, Fix It...Write, reading poems, French lessons (most days), play some Schubert when possible.  Continue reading Watership Down.

Monday

Old Testament:  Continue the Book of Numbers

English History:  "The Quarrel" (between Henry II and Thomas a Becket)

Ourselves Book II: "Dangers of the uninstructed conscience"

Literature:  Ivanoe  (Gurth's fight in the forest)

Natural History:  The Spring of the Year: read chapter 4 ("Things to See in the Spring"), go outside if possible

Tuesday  (probably going to a lunchtime concert)

New Testament:  Gospel of Mark, read independently and keep personal notebook

Geography:  Into the Unknown

Grammar of Poetry:  Spacial Poetry (last lesson we will be doing, other than review)

Plutarch's Lives: Cicero, Lesson 2

Literature:  The Return of the King

Wednesday

Old Testament:  Continue the Book of Numbers

English History:  'The Murder"

Online map drills

Science:  work on muscles and skin; maybe use the microscope

Shakespeare's King John, begin Act II

Music:  finish chapter on Schubert (short reading)

Thursday

New Testament:  Gospel of Mark, read independently and keep personal notebook

Architecture:  Cathedral, second third of the book

Science:  continue

The Bear Says North: second story in the book

Ivanhoe

Composition time

Friday

Basic Bible Studies:  continue verses about our adoption as God's children

How to Read a Book

French History:  read about the Third Crusade, 1190 AD

Picture Talk:  Introduction to Vermeer

Money Matters workbook, chapter 2

Return of the King

Nature in our back yard: Robins

It's not that unusual to see a pair of robins in our yard, or some parents with young ones; but today we have several males all pecking and flying back and forth past our large basement window.  I think it has something to do with the fact that the snow's finally retreating and we have some patches of bare grass.
And then I found this online:

Q. Which returns first: males or females?

A. Male robins arrive on the breeding grounds a few days to two weeks before the females return. You can tell male robins because their head and tail feathers are very dark black and bright orange in comparison to those of the female. When the first females arrive later, you'll notice their plummage appears faded and drab in comparison to that of the males. 

So I guess you would call it a robin stag party?

Dollygirl's Grade Seven: School plans for Friday

Friday's school plans for Term Three, Week One:

O Canada, because it's Friday

Basic Bible Studies: read verses together about our adoption into God's family

Hymn: "Children of the Heavenly Father"

Composer Study:  Read about Schubert in History of Music and Boyhood of Great Composers Book One.  Listen to one of the songs mentioned.

French history, begin Chapter 7, narrate.  Find something to draw showing life in the 12th century.  (Listen to some Schubert during drawing time.)

Math:  continue Saxon lesson.

Shakespeare's King John: finish reading Scene One.

"Transcription":  "Choose and transcribe passages (in beautiful writing from Bridges) Poems of To-day, and the other books set..."

Discussion of handicrafts and "extra" subjects this term

Money Matters for Teens workbook, first lesson:  read together and do the assignments for weekend homework.

Return of the King.

What's for supper?, asks Cheerfully Frugal

Tonight's dinner menu:

A skillet dinner, one of those non-repeatables because it was made with what we had; but it turned out pretty well anyway.  I browned a pound of ground chicken, added diced onion, a bit of garlic powder, and the last of a bag of frozen vegetables (the old kind with carrots, peas and lima beans); stirred in a bowlful of tomato soup and what was left of last night's vegetarian gravy (milk, water and soy sauce thickened with cornstarch). And three stalks of celery, chopped.  So more or less what you might put in chicken pot pie; more gravy-flavoured than tomato.  I cooked a potful of twisty pasta, the kind that is sometimes labelled Scoobi-Doos; when it was cooked but not overdone, I stirred enough into the chicken mixture to turn it into what looked more or less like tuna casserole.  I also added a few spoonfuls of Parmesan cheese, and let the whole thing sit with the heat off, lid on, for another ten minutes.

Dessert was a can of crushed pineapple and a can of mandarin oranges, frozen and run through the food processor.

Frugal Finds and Fixes, "No, nyet, nein" edition

With an end-of-March wet snow still blowing down this afternoon, we could use a bit of cheerful frugality around here. Sometimes that sounds like an oxymoron, when frugality seems to equal doing without and saying No.

Hey, well, we can dream.

On the positive side, we ended up (after almost a week of no Internet and almost no phone) with things back to normal and actually a better connection than we had before.    Plus one free doughnut won during a Wifi stop at Tim Horton's.

Mr. Fixit installed a couple of extra clotheslines in the garage to take the laundry overflow.  We unplugged the dryer altogether to save money and energy.  We also unplugged a small extra fridge downstairs that was mostly used to store cold drinks.

Mama Squirrel has been able to feed her since-Christmas crossword addiction with not only the really-quite-easy daily puzzle in the paper but with two extras that come on Saturday, including a fiendish New York Times crossword.  (She can't imagine how many Saturday papers with NYT puzzles she put out for recycling before noticing this.)  That definitely beats putting out $8 on a puzzle magazine.

Mama Squirrel also said "no, nyet, nein" to a $12 flea market style magazine.  On the next library trip I will have a look to see if they have back issues to borrow.  Because the new ones are fun, but they really don't change all that much over a year or two.

Mr. Fixit went to a used-CD shop that also sells DVDs, and they were clearing out a lot of their DVD sets. Believe it or not, they're out of date now.  So he picked up a few seasons of old sitcoms for crazy-cheap prices. If you have a store like that near you and you still watch DVDs, you might want to check for similar clearout deals. (We have also found good deals at places like Wal-Mart and Giant Tiger, but nothing like those prices.)

Mama Squirrel used an online recipe to make a big container of instant oatmeal.  I used quick oats and ran it through the Ninja for a few seconds, but you do have to be careful not to get carried away.  I got it  too fine at first, and had to add in some extra (unpowdered) oats for texture.

That's all I can think of for this week.  I am now going upstairs to make a cheerfully frugal dinner.

A Term's English and French History, Week by Week (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

In the Parents' Union School Programme 94, for Form III (grades 7-8), the following is required for the term's work in history:

English History.

Arnold Forster's A History of England (Cassell, 8/6), pages 131-186 (1154-1307).  Scott's Tales of a Grandfather (University Press, 2/3), pp 84-106. Make a chart of the 12th Century (1100-1200), (see reprint from P.R., July, 1910, 3d.). Read the daily news and keep a calendar of events.

French History.
Creighton's First History of France* (Longmans, 5/-)  pp. 45-81 (1154-1307).

General History.
Read from De Joinville's Chronicles of the Crusades* (Dent, 2/6).  The British Museum for Children,* by Frances Epps (P.N.E.U. Office 3/8), Chapter 12. Teacher study preface. Keep a Book of Centuries* (P.N.E.U. Office, 2/6), putting in illustrations from all the history studied. Stories from Indian History (O.L.S.I.), Vol. 1., 2/-, pp. 1-25.

We are following this outline quite closely, with these exceptions:  we are not reading either The British Museum or Indian History, although we are doing the chapter on Architecture that also appeared that term (under Science).  One other slight difference is that the next time this cycle in history came around, several years later, the period covered in that term extended to 1327 rather than 1307, and I decided to go with that.  We are also doing the literature suggested, Ivanhoe (we started reading that aloud last term), and Shakespeare's King John.
So how does one take the pages referred to above and turn them into twelve weeks' work?  This is the plan that I have so far.

Week One 
English: pages 132-138 --Canterbury Cathedral—how it was designed, prologue to the Becket story
The King and the Archbishop—Henry II & Thomas, introduction (explaining how the Church was both a positive and negative influence in England at that time)

French: begin chapter 7, Philip Augustus : Third Crusade, 1190 

Week Two 
English: pages 139-145 The Quarrel : question of whether churchmen should be tried in public courts; also a question of paying homage. Becket banished but then returns.
The Murder : events of December 29th.

French: none this week.

Week Three 
English: pages 146-153 The Pope's Gift (the Pope "gives" Ireland to Henry II)
The Crescent and the Cross (Richard)
The Crusade: Richard's abduction, return, and death

French: continue chp 7 to p. 51: Philip and Richard, former friends, now enemies --Siege of Acre, 1191

Week Four 
English: pages 154-top of 159 John and Arthur (begin chart of the 13th century)
What Charters Were, and How They Were Won

French: continue chp 7, to p. 53: conquest of Normandy, 1204; John loses other territories

Week Five 
English: pages 159-164 The Sealing of the Great Charter (signing at Runnymede, 1215)
What the Great Charter did for Englishmen

French: continue chp. 7, to p. 55: Albigensian war; crusade led by Simon de Montfort. Influence of St. Dominic.

Week Six 
English: pages 165-top of 172 The Judges of Assize (travelling courts)
Personal Liberty and Trial by Jury
How the Law Protects the Weak (Week Six, continued)

French: continue chp 7, to death of Philip, 1223.
Chapter 8, to p. 60: Louis VIII (short) and begin Louis IX (St Louis, king 1226-1270)

Week Seven
English: pages 172-180 Magna Charta and the Seamstress (example of law protecting property)
"Things New and Old" : question of whether laws become outdated
Famous Fifteen (trick for memorizing particular dates)
Henry III (kiing 1216-1272) and his Foreign Friends (Simon de Montfort, his brother-in-law)

French: Continue chp 8 to p. 66, story of St. Louis. Also read from de Joinville. (First Crusade of St. Louis, 1248-1254)

Week Eight
English: pages (bottom of) 180-186 Laws and Law-makers : the House of Commons
The First Parliament -- "Mad Parliament"
The Fall of Montfort (battle), 1265

French: Finish chp 8, the Second Crusade of St. Louis, 1270. Also read from de Joinville.

Week Nine
English/Welsh: pages 187-194 (first half) Edward I (king 1272-1307) : England at War
The Breaking of Wales - death of Llewelyn 1282

French: Read half of chp IX, The Flemish Wars.

Week Ten
English/Scottish: pages 194 (bottom half)-203 Scotland : "Over the Border" (description of Scotland, more about Edward)
The Fight for the Scottish Crown - 1296, William Wallace (d. 1305); "Edward's death saved Scotland"
Edward II (king 1307-1327)  "The Making of Scotland"

French: Finish chp IX, The Flemish Wars 1298-1302. If time, begin chp X.

Week Eleven 
English/Scottish: pages 204-208 (Bannockburn, 1314) PLUS begin "The Rise of Robert of the Bruce" in Tales of a Grandfather

French: Read half of chp X, to page 80, mostly about Philip IV and Pope Boniface VIII. The Estates-General, 1302.

Week Twelve
English/Scottish: Finish "The Rise of Robert of the Bruce" in Tales of a Grandfather (the book will be continued next term).

French: Finish chp X. Persecution of the Templars; death of Philip in 1314; the last Capetian kings. 

School plans for today (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

This week we began Term Three of Grade Seven.  We're experimenting again with some new (new to Dollygirl) resources, so in most cases I can't say yet "this is working great" or not.  So far penmanship (Fix it...Write) has gone fine, but Saxon math has caused a bit of tooth grinding.

Here's what's in the workboxes for today (our workboxes are mostly plastic magazine holders):

Bible:  Book of Numbers, reading together.

English History:  Introduction to Henry II and Thomas a Becket.  A few minutes for the Book of Centuries.

Poetry reading.

Online map drills using the Seterra website.

Penmanship lesson.

Shakespeare's King John (first time we have done this one)

Saxon Algebra 1/2:  continue working on problem set 38.

Easy Grammar Plus workpage on nouns

French lesson

Natural History:  start reading The Spring of the Year.  Go outside if possible, and make notes or draw something in your nature notebook.

A preposition funny (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

For French right now we are reading through a very short library book called Attention, dragon!, by Amelie Cantin.  The book uses several different prepositions, so I thought it would be good to review them by singing a little song I learned somewhere along the line.

The problem was that we had no Internet and i had no way of looking up the right words.  So I just tried my best.  I remembered this much (to the tune of London Bridge):  Sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière, devant, derrière, devant, derrière.  Sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière.  A côté de...

And there I was stuck.  "A côté de" means beside something.  I could not remember how the last line ended and what we were supposed to be beside.  I assumed it rhymed with derrière, so that gave me a choice of "le père," (the father), "ma mère," (my mother), un ver (a worm), la terre (the earth), or la mer (the sea).  I figured that being beside the sea was logical, so we went with that.  We sang "beside the sea" for two days.

Then we got back online and I thought it wouldn't hurt to check.  Do you know what the last line is?  ""A côté de."  That's it, that's all.  You stretch it out.  How unimaginative.  I prefer the sea, or even the worm.

How to get good and excited about two chapters of science (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

Yes, we are still using Exploring Creation With General Science (Apologia, first edition) this school year. When The Apprentice did this book about ten years ago, I had her do the study guides and the tests.  With Dollygirl I think we have done one or two of the tests, but that was it.  I am more interested in having her pick up the big ideas in the book than memorize every component of DNA.  We also don't do a lot of the experiments, either because it's the wrong season, we don't have the stuff, or it just doesn't seem worthwhile because you can figure out ahead of time exactly what's going to happen.  You know that if you leave a jar of chicken broth on the counter for a couple of days, it's going to get all cloudy and gross.  We would rather eat the chicken broth first and just imagine the rest.

I also find one particular thing irritating about this volume, and I don't know if it's been improved in later editions: it could have used some editing to take out a large amount of repetition, and also the too-frequent phrase "You'll learn more about this when you take Biology."  That pops up about as often as references to Mr. Pipes' wiggling eyebrows in Douglas Bond's books, and if you don't get that, never mind.

However, there is one thing I do like about the book, and it's one of the main reasons we're using it.  It encourages the "science of relations."  One topic works its way into another one, just like real life.  It's a bit like Charles Kingsley's Madam How and Lady Why in that way; in Kingsley, a conversation can start with a rock on the ground, and end up talking about prehistoric oceans and sea life.  In this book, we were talking about geology in Module (Chapter) 6, which led to fossils in Modules 7 and 8, and because fossils had to come from living things, that led to the question "What is Life?" in Module 9, and then classification in Module 10.  Both of those modules kept coming back to the question of cells: cells that did not have organelles but did have DNA (Monera), animal cells with organelles, plant cells with organelles; and then the idea that "all life forms have a method by which they take energy from the surroundings and convert it into energy that helps them live."  Every living body makes food from something else.  And the big word that's coming up is:  COMBUSTION.

Well, before that, we do have to get through some basic human body components: bones, muscles and skin.  The chapter compares our physiology to that of other organisms.  But then we get into Module 12: Energy and Life.  How do organisms get their energy from food?  Didn't you always want to know that?  Isn't that more relevant than ever in these days of trying to force fast-food restaurants to post the calorie counts of milkshakes and burgers?  What actually gets burned for energy?  There's a discussion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and our basal metabolic rate...and all this combustion happens within the cell.  Does that amaze you, get you excited to think about how this is more than just a lesson on digestion?

We are, as we've been told, fearfully and wonderfully made.  If any science book, textbook-shaped or not, can get that idea across, I am content.

Charlotte Mason and the Not-Just-Reading Challenge, Part Two

(Part One is here.)

Even when looking at the few samples we have of actual Parents' Union School timetables, the "what you do when and how" question looms....

People talking about Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education sometimes use the word organic.

Yes, organic does mean natural, real, of living things, not artificial.

But another definition is "consisting of different parts that all fit together well." Different organs, working together to make a functioning whole. Yet another is "happening or developing in a natural and continuous process."  

And the word that seems to fit in right after that is "holistic."   The idea that the total effectiveness of a group of things each interacting with one another is different or greater than their effectiveness when acting in isolation from one another.  The whole philosophical and educational package, made up of many small lessons over many days, multiple terms, a number of years, turns out to have a greater meaning and value than we could have forseen.

'Open, Sesame.'––I think we should have a great educational revolution once we ceased to regard ourselves as assortments of so-called faculties, and realised ourselves as persons whose great business it is to get in touch with other persons of all sorts and condition; of all countries and climes, of all times, past and present. History would become entrancing, literature a magic mirror for the discovery of other minds, the study of sociology a duty and a delight. We should tend to become responsive and wise, humble and reverent, recognising the duties and the joys of the full human life. We cannot of course overtake such a programme of work, but we can keep it in view; and I suppose every life is moulded upon its ideal. ~~ Charlotte Mason, School Education

Many living books.  Many ideas.  Many glimpses of the divine, of Eternity, of something beyond ourselves. ("God Sightings.")

And, unfortunately or fortunately (I think fortunately), it's impossible to program all that ahead of time, because we're not programmable beings.

We can plan books, do a little research ahead of time, think of good "narration prompts."  But we can't always predict where it's going to take us.

I spent Saturday in a large room

Have you ever read this 2011 post on the Childlight USA website?

The "Large Room" CM community described by Sandy Rusby Bell is still very much alive, and its leaders took time out today to show-and-tell how it works to a very eager group of Ontario moms.

I wound up going at the last minute, and I mean the very last minute.  But I'm glad I did.

(You do not want to mess with those black locust thorns.)

Charlotte Mason and the not-just-reading challenge, Part One

Even when looking at the few samples we have of actual Parents' Union School timetables, the "what you do when and how" question looms; there's a large gap between a term programme that gives a certain number of pages to be read, plus suggestions for notebook keeping or related work, and then seeing twenty or forty minutes on a timetable simply labelled "Writing" or "Botany."  In a group or classroom situation where everyone is listening to the same story and then taking turns narrating, or exploring the same patch of ground and then getting out their nature notebooks to write and draw, the advantage of numbers may fill in the gap naturally.  But if you are teaching or caring for several children who are working at different levels, how do you fit everybody's work and play time together?  And if you are teaching only one, especially a naturally sociable one, how do you provide an atmosphere that motivates?

Are older students supposed to handle the timetable themselves, including the extra work needed to make each subject really come to life, plus the clock-watching needed to keep on "schedule?"  Do we show them what needs to be done, and simply trust them to get down to business, everything completed by the end of the day or the week? Or do we micro-manage, set timers for everything and refuse to let them write or discuss anything past the buzzer?  If we use daily or weekly checklists to help students stay on track, do we again just write in "Botany?"  Or do we we pre-write or email or verbally tell them everything they're going to need to know and to do?  Where does our direction or authority meet their need for the "meeting of minds," their time for (very necessary) choice and personal response?

Finally, are there situations where a CM-style timetable, 20 minutes of this on Monday, 30 minutes of that on Tuesday, wash your hands and the school day is done, just does not work?  I notice, for instance, that on an early PUS timetable for Form III, there is no mention of music study or picture talk; there is very little time given for reading literature; and there is no in-class time for anything in the "work" category--handicrafts, home skills and so on.  Presumably all this, including the "evening and holiday reading," would have been part of the afternoon's work, and where there were interested teachers and Guide leaders to direct those crafts and nature walks, that would have worked quite well.  But in our particular home situation, perhaps like Jeanne's, we find that some of the variety in our school day comes from mixing desk work or book lessons with a kitchen project, a short walk, or a bit of handwork done while listening to a reading.  And when school time is "done" for the day, there is resistance to reading yet another book with Mom or "for" Mom (even a not-school book), or doing something that might turn up on an examination.  For us, those "extras" (very important extras) have to be worked in as part of the school day, not left for the tail end, if they're going to happen at all.

If we are educating lifelong learners, if education is an atmosphere and a life, then we do need to make "school" a part of the life that we have, and that may mean a life with several children and multiple interruptions, or with one child and the need to keep things interesting when others aren't around.  It may mean a busy farm life or mission field life or travelling life, or life with other challenges such as chronic illness. (You can add your own variations to those.) Yes, a predictable schedule is preferable to a when-we-can one; education is a discipline, too; but we may find that our own version of "predictable" might work better than someone else's--even the PUS's.

Your thoughts?

Charlotte Mason and Wide Open Spaces

"Ultimately, the blank page makes us examine our thoughts for metacognition, and intrinsically, it insists upon space and time for learning." ~~ Laurie Bestvater, The Living Page

I've learned so many new words lately.  From going to free lunchtime concerts, I've learned quodlibet. From doing newspaper crosswords, I've added "olio" (a mixture of things) and "ana" (a miscellaneous collection of information). And while rereading Laurie Bestvater's chapter "The Grand Invitation," I had to look up "metacognition."

Metacognition is knowing about knowing, or thinking about thinking, or noticing that we are noticing.  So how does a blank page (in a notebook) make us examine our thoughts for metacognition?  Laurie says it's because it forces us to stop before we start.

It's like the difference between me grabbing a pencil and trying to fill in crossword blanks as quickly as I can, scanning for a few easy or obvious definitions that will get the thing moving, and facing a diagramless puzzle that begins with a blank grid and doesn't even tell you where to start.  You can't cherry-pick the easy bits on an empty grid, or on a blank page.

(not my puzzle--I found this one online)

But the advantage, rather than just the fearsome aspect, of a blank page is that it gives you space to learn. Laurie says (page 65) that it insists on it.  If our children should learn to run and climb and do all those gross-motor things that Charlotte Mason encouraged and that we're now finding out actually put little bodies in right relationship with the planet--that is, if we must find ways to give them physical space and let them find out what they can do in it--doesn't the same thing apply to other areas of learning?

Narration begins with silence. Silence, like blank pages, or a tree to climb, can be disconcerting.

One of my children was once handed a cassette recorder and sent off  to record some examination answers. In an attempt to cover up the fact that she couldn't remember anything about one particular story, she recorded a few words and then gave us several minutes of feigned static, via some noisy crinkling paper. The cassette recorder had inexplicably developed technical trouble.  And I believed it, for about twenty seconds.

But often it's the adults who don't welcome large spaces, white pages, silences.  There is some risk involved with these things.  Multiple-choice questions give you a defined start, a fixed stop, and, if they're to be computer-answered, you had better not colour outside the little circles.

It's a bit like imagining ourselves flying through the air, or sailing over the sea, or galloping across an open field, vs. staying on the footpath.  Yes, there are lots of places where habit and duty and reason make life easier.  Some things just have to be roads, rails, and structure, and that's a good thing too.  But here we're talking about giving our students' minds room to stretch, play, run, and fly.

"Mr. Quimby set his cup down. 'I have a great idea! Let's draw the longest picture in the world.' He opened a drawer and pulled out a roll of shelf paper....Together she and her father unrolled the paper across the kitchen and knelt with a box of crayons between them.
'What shall we draw?' she asked.
'How about the state of Oregon?' he suggested. "That's big enough.'
Ramona's imagination was excited. 'I'll begin with the Interstate Bridge,' she said.
'And I'll tackle Mount Hood,' said her father....
Ramona glanced at her father's picture, and sure enough he had drawn Mount Hood peaked with a hump on the south side exactly the way it looked in real life on the days when the clouds lifted." ~~ Beverly Cleary, Ramona and her Father

To do my duty (Charlotte Mason and Moral Training)

(Photo of Canadian Girl Guides ca. 1924 found here.) 

A very long time ago I belonged to the Girl Guides of Canada.  I was a Brownie,  then a Guide, then a Pathfinder.  In those days we did a lot of singing and marching (Charlotte Mason would have called it drill).

We also did a lot of vowing and promising.

The Brownies promised "to do my best, to do my duty to God, the Queen and my country, to help other people every day, especially those at home." Guides jacked it up to "help other people at all times and obey the Guide Law," which started "A Guide's honour is to be trusted."

A Brownie was expected to be "cheerful and obedient" and to "think of other people before herself."  Kind of the Proverbs 31 Lady of Browniedom. Which didn't mean that we weren't awfully silly at times, but still we were given an ideal. We tried to get along with each other, we folded the flag properly, we helped wash the dishes, and we didn't litter.

(Yeah, that's me in the knee socks.)

Duty, obedience, patriotism, respect for others' rights and property: right out of the Common Law, as Uncle Eric would say; or right out of Charlotte Mason's writings on topics like Duty and Moral Training.

"High Ideals.––It is time we set ourselves seriously to this work of moral education which is to be done, most of all, by presenting the children with high ideals. 'Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime,' and the study of the lives of great men and of the great moments in the lives of smaller men is most wonderfully inspiring to children, especially when they perceive the strenuousness of the childhood out of which a noble manhood has evolved itself. As one grows older no truth strikes one more than that 'the child is father to the man.' It is amazing how many people of one's own acquaintance have fulfilled the dreams of their childhood and early youth, and have had their days indeed bound each to each in natural piety." 

"Virtues in which Children should be Trained.––One more point: parents should take pains to have their own thoughts clear as to the manner of virtues they want their children to develop. Candour, fortitude, temperance, patience, meekness, courage, generosity, indeed the whole role of the virtues, would be stimulating subjects for thought and teaching, offering ample illustrations."

"We know what is required of us, and that the requirements are never arbitrary, but necessary in the nature of things, both for the moral government of the world and to gratify the unquenchable desire of every human soul to rise into a higher state of being." ~~ Charlotte Mason

Frugal Finds and Fixes: The Apprentice Does the Math

In this edition of "Frugal Finds and Fixes," we interview our resident university student, The Apprentice.  

Mama Squirrel:  You are a busy full-time student, and a lot of money-saving things (the housekeeping, cooking kind) take time. You also have the problem of limited/shared space. How do you manage to do all that and stay sane?

Apprentice:  You're right, a lot of money-saving things do take time. To be honest, I'm definitely no Amy Dacyczyn. I do what I can, but am fine with spending a bit more money to save time or frustration..

One of the biggest examples of this is my living situation. Last year I was living in a student house with five other students. This year I've moved to an apartment shared with two people. The rent and utilities are significantly higher, but the advantages I have living here are worth the money. I have an above-ground room, quiet study space, and a large kitchen with tons of cupboards and a full-size fridge. I'm also closer to school. This living situation is more conducive to sleeping, studying, cooking, and travelling to school from, which are what my house is for! For me, frugality isn't about spending less money, it's about getting the most out of the money you do spend.

A smaller-scale example is food. I really like cooking, but often coming home after a late class I can be fairly tired and not feel like cooking. I know I could spend less on food, but having a few convenience foods around for a quick dinner is still cheaper than eating out when I don't feel like cooking. Yesterday I bought 2 kg of chicken fingers for $10, which will last me for many many meals and costs the same as going to a restaurant and ordering chicken tenders once. I do cook actual healthy meals most of the time, but the point I'm trying to make is that there are less frugal things and more frugal things that you can do. Both of them will save you money compared to a non-frugal thing like eating out.

At the same time, I certainly try to use frugal strategies that take a little (but not too much) time. Examples include baking my own treats, taking lunches and snacks to school, and fixing things that break. What I'd recommend most though are frugal strategies that don't really have a time element to them, just frugal thought. Since I was little I've learned that store brands are just as good as name brands, just without a fancier package. You can find clothes and household items at the thrift store for a tenth of the price, sometimes even new with tags. Textbooks are cheaper bought used from another student, and when the next year I just sell them to someone else and make most if not all of my money back. Taking a walk or bike ride outside costs much less than a gym membership.

Entertainment is a tricky category. It depends on what you like to do. Lots of activities have lower-priced alternatives, but those alternatives are not really the same thing, so it may be worth it to you to spend the extra money if that's something you really want to do. Going out to a movie and watching a movie at home are both fun, but a different experience. There are lots of free concerts and music festivals, but if you want to see a big name artist, you'll have to pay the big money for a ticket. Staying in is always cheaper than going out, but don't let that limit you every time.

Mama Squirrel:  What have you learned since being on your own that you didn't know before?

Apprentice:   Honestly a lot of the things that I do now are things that I picked up growing up, it's just that I didn't need to apply them until I started living on my own. I've tagged along with my parents at all sorts of activities, and helped out a lot at home: I often surprise myself by just doing something I didn't even know I knew how to do. I can pick out a cut of meat at the store, paint a room, bake a birthday cake, and build furniture. None of these things were something I had ever done on my own until I had to, but the knowledge was there and I just had to retrieve it.

Mama Squirrel: Any advice for the young and frugal?

Apprentice:  If there's something you don't know how to do, websites like eHow are incredibly useful. Even just Googling "what temperature bake turkey legs" will help you out a lot.

Definitely make smart choices at the store. If you're not much of a cook, that's okay. But buying a case of drinks, box of cereal and some lunch supplies will save you hundreds of dollars even if you're still eating out for dinner. A 500mL bottle of pop out of a vending machine costs about $2.50 around here, whereas cases frequently go on sale for $3, which works out to 25 cents a 355mL can. That's $5/L versus 70 cents/L. A box of cereal and litre of milk will give you breakfast for over a week for $6 or so. Buying store brand will save you even more.

Mama Squirrel:  Thanks, Apprentice!

"Mom, who is that strange man hiding in the corner of the basement?"

Some unintentional humour in a radio ad we heard today:  a local furnace company promises that they will stand behind their product for at least a year.

Things we did for school today, and a Dollygirl photo link

Just another (cold) homeschool Tuesday?

Well, it is Shrove Tuesday so we had pancakes and sausage and strawberries (thawed ones) for dinner.

But oh yes, school.

We sang John Bunyan's "pilgrim" hymn "He Who Would Valiant Be.". I asked Dollygirl to define a pilgrim; she suggested "an adventurer."

We read about "Prudence" in Charlotte Mason's Ourselves.  Alexander the Great scolded his men for their post-victory indulgent, excessive lifestyle.  Some of them apparently even had special mud shipped in to rub themselves with (beauty or health treatment, I'm not sure which).

Anyway, Alexander warned them that too much leisure and self-indulgence can bring its own form of enslavement.  Which is a timely thought since Lent starts tomorrow.

Dollygirl read about pilgrimages from a Reader's Digest book of Bible history. (That wasn't planned to go with the hymn--just serendipity.)

Dollygirl dd two of the hardest-type Gauss math problems, and got them both right, earning herself an early "morning recess."

After the break we moved upstairs where it was warmer.  Dollygirl checked the progress of a weeklong science experiment (does yeast make things decompose faster?), and then we studied two pages about cell structure and organelles in the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science.

We read a poem about wild horses, and most of a cheerful chapter (for once) in The Return of the King.  (Book VI, Chapter Four.). After all that gloom-and-Mount-Doom for pages and pages, people and hobbits and wizards are back together and singing happy songs.  I can't explain exactly why I liked this chapter so much; it felt a bit like the last parts of The Last Battle, when the children finally get into the New Narnia.  Frodo's friend Sam says, "but then I thought I was dead myself.  Is everything sad going to come untrue?" I like that.

After lunch, Dollygirl did map questions on a map of Ukraine.  She also read a description of teaching English in a Ukrainian school, an essay I found online.  Charlotte Mason says that students should be aware of "places coming into the news," so that's what we're doing.

She also finished the "verb review" section of Easy Grammar Plus, and had a chapter to read in Watership Down.

Later in the afternoon she watched The Magic Schoolbus (her choice, not assigned), and I helped her just a bit with the dress she is making for a dollhouse-sized doll.  

And that's about it.  How was your day?