Dd is for Discovery

We end our week of learning with a focus on science and nature. In Letters of Grace we have included three levels of discovery activities tied into the letter theme of each week. By the time a child has cycled through the three levels of Letters of Grace, seventy-eight different science-themed topics will have been encountered. Sprouting beans into plants, observing ants by setting up a feeding station, learning about states of matter by melting broken crayons into crayon cookies or using your backyard to measure just how big a dinosaur really is. By using materials that are familiar to the child, the goal is to spark the child's interest in the natural world.

We were careful to choose activities that are both age-approrpriate and realistic for use in the home. Simple household supplies and your backyard are the required resources for most of the activities. For those odds and ends that need to be located? All items have been listed by category on the weekly supply list.

Along with the discovery activity, a related book has been assigned for each week. The titles are included in the weekly reading list. With your reading list, supply list and activity page tucked neatly inside your planning notebook, you and your child are ready to discover.

The next stop of the Letters of Grace curriculum tour is Hh is for History.

Aa is for Art

In the letters-of-grace the focus of the third day of learning is art. Whether leading the child towards that which is beautiful or directing the child through the steps of an art project, the goal of this day is to inspire creativity.
We begin the day with picture study centered around the development of virtue and the formation of habit. We have chosen for each week a famous work of art and connected the subject matter of the painting to a corresponding lesson in virtue or habit. Aa is for Attention, Bb is for Bravery, Cc is for Compassion are just the first examples of the topics covered in this aspect of the curriculum. The art work has been beautifully formatted in a printable version and will be available on the website along with the other printable resources for each week of plans. By simply rotating the art work each week on the family's refrigerator or a bulletin board, the young child will be exposed to a variety of famous art along with a constant reminder and opportunity for the formation of the will

The joy of creating with one's hands is another focus of day three. In Letters of Grace you will find three levels of creative projects, appropriate for each of the three levels of learning. We were careful to select art activities that use accessible supplies and can be produced easily by the child. The supplies for each week are listed on the printable weekly supply list along with any other supplies necessary for the week. The third level of Letters of Grace transitions from art projects to handcrafts. Resources for learning the creative hand skill of your child's choice will be included in the resources pages.

Dd is for Discovery is the next stop on the Letters of Grace tour. Please leave any questions in the comment box or send them via email. They will be answered in a single post after the tour is completed. The tour now has it's own page and is archived under the title Letters of Grace on the left side bar under Learning Through the Year of Grace. We are spending a great amount of time creating the resources for the curriculum, building and designing the website, organizing the Amazon bookstore and creating the message board. Please pray for us as we continue to add content to the new website and work on its design. We are so excited to share it with you.

Washington DC

I finally got around to getting the DC pix onto the computer, so here is a look at a few of the highlights (there were too many to name, we did some amazing things in just 4 days!)

We all shared a bowl of the famous peanut chesnut soup at Mt. Vernon, the crocodile hunter said it looked like bat barf - but everyone thought it tasted great!

Peeking out the windows of the Washington Monument, I always wanted to go to the top as a kid!

The fountains at the World War II Memorial - it was beautiful!

My personal favorite - the National Gallery of Art - we spent 5 hours there, and it was amazing to see in person so many works of art we have studied!

The little princess parked herself in front of Monet's Water Lilies - and sketched her own version in colored pencil. Here she is on the phone, telling Grandma what painting she is looking at - it is Grandma's favorite!

For some reason, riding the bus was a highlight - the girls loved getting on and off - and always wanted to sit in the back.

And of course, the subway - a new experience for these country kids :)

Thank God

"Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s."

Thank God someone in the church is finally willing to stand up and say that what is happening is wrong! Thank you, Bishop Basil, and may others hear your voice and stand up beside you.

If you want to stand up and make your voice heard - sign the Manhattan Declaration here.

Cc is for Cooking

Breaking bread. Taking the raw ingredients of God's good creation, using our gifts to create something greater than the individual parts, and sharing that creation to nourish our loved ones. Such is the gift of the family meal. In designing an early childhood curriculum centered on the life of the family, we made sure to incorporate those aspects of family life that serve to bind us together.
In the previous post we toured the first day of learning which begins the week with an emphasis on our Orthodox Faith. On the second day we turn our focus to the family table. Welcoming a young child's help in the kitchen benefits the child in many ways. Reading a recipe serves as a lesson in following directions. Abstract mathematical concepts become concrete when measuring ingredients. Motor skills mature through the tactile nature of food preparation. But most importantly, relationships are nourished.
In Letters of Grace you will find two letter-themed recipes selected for each weekly plan. In designing an Orthodox curriculum we could not ignore the fasting and festal seasons which affect every detail of our daily life, even down to the family menu. We wanted to avoid the situation in which a family would feel compelled to schedule the plans according to the liturgical year, avoiding using the plans during the four major fasting seasons. For this reason we opted to include a choice of two appropriate recipes for each lesson. In each week of plans you will find both a festal and fasting recipe, clearly explained and beautifully presented. The recipes have been formatted for download and printing and are intended to be added to the planning notebook.
Child-friendly, simple and delicious are the goals of every recipe. We have chosen main dish, snack and dessert recipes that are simple enough for a child to assist in its preparation. We hope these recipes will become family favorites and inspire culinary creativity in the children who participate in their preparation.
Please feel free to leave questions in the comment box or send them via email. Next stop on the Letters of Grace tour? Aa is for Art.

Tea Party for the Theotokos

The annual tea party for the Presentation of the Theotokos. Every year, all the little girls (ages 2-12) in our parish gather for a tea party in honor of the Theotokos. This year, 30 young ladies wearing their finest dined on muffins, jelly sandwiches and fruit, and "tea" poured by Father himself. Each girl brings a candle and takes part in a very special procession in the church, in memory of the girls who processed before the precious Mary at age three, as she made her way to the temple, to become the living Holy of Holies, the one human chosen to fully and physically contain God within her.

Ss is for Saint

Aa is for Andrew

The first day of the undated, weekly lesson plan begins with the theme Ss is for Saint. An Orthodox curriculum by necessity must be centered on our Faith and each week begins with the story of a saint whose name begins with the letter of the week. Careful attention was given to the selection of the saints for this curriculum. We could not ignore the need for a systematic introduction to phonics and for this reason, avoided long vowels and soft or blended consonant sounds in choosing the name of the saint for each week.
The lesson begins with the introduction of the letter of the week through original art work. Inspired by the illustrations found in Waldorf alphabet books such as Schrager's LMNOP and All the Letters from A to Z and Zonneveld's The Waldorf Alphabet Book, we have taken the concept of letter art and given it a Byzantine twist. The art will be available as a PDF and can either be viewed on the screen or printed for the child's learning notebook. A black line drawing of the weekly alphabet art will be available for the child to color and keep in the notebook as well.

After the saint and letter of the week are introduced, an Orthodox children's book on the life of the saint is scheduled to be read. These books will more than likely be the only book selections that are not readily available from the public library. We hope that the slow addition of Orthodox literature in the home library will give families a larger variety of books to read when using the resource Reading Through the Year of Grace.
Once our spiritual reading is finished, we will move on to phonics instruction. With three levels in mind, we have made every attempt to cover the many stages of development. At this point we are in the process of creating pre-writing sheets for the younger sibling who is interesting in following along, but not quite ready to begin formal learning. The goal is fine motor skill practice for the aspiring writer.
The first level of Letters of Grace assumes a child's initial introduction to the formation of letters. While short vowel and hard consonant sounds will be briefly introduced throughout the week, letter recognition and basic formation are the primary goals of Level One. Within the first level, you will find two sub-levels of letter formation instruction from which to choose. Both will be available for download and printing. As the pages are available as a PDF, the child will be offered an unlimited opportunity for practice.
The introductory series, My First Letters, was created for the child who is relatively new to working on fine motor writing skills and needs a large letter for formation practice. Both the lower and upper case letter of the week will be available for unlimited download and printing.

Some children will begin Level One with previous letter formation experience and the second sub-level of handwriting instruction was designed for the young child who needs further practice in formation. The model letters offer guided arrow instruction in letter formation and assure that the child is writing them properly.

The child working in Level One will benefit from two sets of Montessori-inspired three-part cards. The first set uses the Letters of Grace original artwork, while the second set offers an opportunity for the child to gain familiarity with the icon of each saint. These cards can be used in future years as well.

For the child working in the second level of Letters of Grace, you will find more opportunity for letter formation practice, along with an introduction to writing words. A second level of phonics is introduced in this level as long vowel sounds will be taught along side the introductory short vowels. Companion reading lessons using the Bob Books series along with additional spelling practice and introductory copywork sheets created for Letters of Grace will be introduced in a future post.

The third level of our curriculum includes an alphabetical introduction of the 70 phonograms. Having the opportunity to be slowly and gently familiarized with all of the sounds of the English language, we have used Orthodox vocabulary to present advanced phonics. Flashcards will be available for download along with ideas for using them. The copywork sentences make up a child's first Orthodox dictionary, as the model sentences define the Orthodox vocabulary used in the phonogram lessons. (More advanced reading lessons and custom spelling and copywork sheets using the I Can Read series, along with an introduction to basic grammar using Father Deacon James Hughes' The Sentence Family will be discussed in a future post.)

As we mentioned in the planning post, please feel free to leave any questions in the comment box or send them via email. We are collecting them to answer in a post after the Letters of Grace tour is complete. Next stop on the tour? Cc is for Cooking.