Overheard from the garden

The queen helped Daddy put tomatoes in, and came to me with a very serious face saying "We planted lots of tomatoes. Daddy's favorite is "better boys," but my favorite is the "girly girls".

Asking for Tips

We will be going to Washington D.C. this fall (husband has a conference there), and I am realizing I need to start thinking about the things we want to do on our trip, so I am looking for advice. Anyone want to tell me the "must see" sites, keeping in mind I will be toting 4 kids around by myself most of the time? I have not been to D.C. since 6th grade, and the things I remember are the Smithsonian (Dorothy's ruby red slippers!), the botanical gardens (what amazing orchids!), and the fact that the rotunda was being restored and we could not tour the capitol building. Oh, and my dad refused to wait in line to take me to the top of the Washington Monument, which was the one thing I really wanted to do. So, those of you who have been more recently, what advice can you give? And is it worth it to try to get a tour of the White House (realizing I may have waited too late to get that one to happen)?

Finally Gardening

A few weeks ago my husband and the kids put in the first of the garden, planting chard, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, squash, peppers and tomatoes. Then, it rained for a week, and the garden ended up a massive mud pit. Thankfully, it looks like most of the plants sprouted, though we have not spotted any broccoli yet (of course, since this is the first year we planted broccoli, none of us knows what the sprouts look like :) So, yesterday came phase 2: corn. Here is the corn patch all tilled and ready for seeds.

The crocodile hunter plants his watermelon seeds (harvested from last years watermelon he grew from a seed from a grocery store melon none of us believed would sprout!)

The baby spent her time sampling the dirt.

The queen preferred raking.

And the best part, here is the little princess carefully placing corn in the rows daddy prepared, and following along behind her is the baby, carefully picking out the seeds and eating them!

Working Out a New Routine

Anyone with children knows there is no such thing as a definite schedule! Naps are constantly changing, lessons and commitments come and go, and you have to learn to bend with the the season of life you are currently living. That said, having a structure to the day is important, and something my kids thrive on when I manage to be diligent and create that structure for them.
To that end, since all of our "regularly scheduled programming" has suddenly changed, I am taking a fresh look at how and when we accomplish our learning. While I love much of Charlotte Mason's philosophy, I do not agree with the idea of lots of little subjects in 10-15 minute lessons. That is too all involving for me, too complicated to keep moving, and does not allow for us to dig deeply into a subject. I tend to lean towards longer blocks of time, and am learning to allow those blocks of time to float through the day, without always tying them to a definite hour. So, taking the concept of lesson blocks (a waldorf term), the principle of multum non multa and some suggestions from an old curriculum guide for Classical Conversations, I have come up with a flexible schedule for us to follow. I did include target times to help me focus, but I also realize that many of those times will have to shift. I am trying to maintain my consistent wake time and bedtime, and currently have a set workout schedule with a trainer, and of course piano, karate and gymnastics are all fixed. Around those peg times, I want to fit in 3 or 4 lesson blocks. Traditionally a Waldorf lesson block is longer than an hour, but I think we are going to work in one hour time chunks in the morning, then allow for longer blocks of time in the afternoon for pursuing history and science.

6:30 - mom up, start laundry, breakfast, morning prayers
7:00 - kids up, dressed, chores, breakfast, prayers and lives of saints
8:00 - 3 days/week - leave for my workout
2 days/week - introduce new memory work, go outside, or start 1st lesson block earlier

9:30 - home, shower, girls play with the baby, crocodile hunter begins Latin
10:00 - 1st lesson block - Math - everyone will work on math, I will begin by teaching the littlest, and slowly dismiss the younger ones to play, moving my way up to the oldest
11:00 - teatime - I have decided to shift this to morning snack time, because our afternoons have gotten busy with outside lessons - this also allows the baby to get an early lunch so she can go down for a nap midday - during this time we will cover poetry, composer study and picture study on a rotating basis
12:00 - 2nd lesson block - Language Arts - this will be the time we cover copywork, spelling, and writing
1:00 - lunch time - listen to CD's - Story of the World or Shakespeare plays
on days we have errands, this is also the time they are to gather what they need for their classes and make sure they are appropriately dressed
2:00 - 3rd lesson block - this will be History or Science, we will alternate which one we cover

twice/week
3:00 - 6:00 we run errands and the kids have lessons

3 days/week
3:00-4:00 - outside time - naptime for the Queen
4:00 - 4th lesson block - this will be for projects, literature, reading aloud, whatever needs to get done, followed by free time and independent reading

7:00 - dinner - time with Daddy, reading together, evening prayers

15 Years Today

2009-2010 Plans for 3rd Grade

I am having a hard time grasping that the little princess could be in 3rd grade already! A rough outline of what she will be studying is below.

Orthodox Studies:
Old Testament history - this will fall under our history portfolio and ancient history studies
Lives of the Saints

Arithmetic:
Ray's exercises
Strayer/Upton Book 1
Math on the Level
the focus of this year will be multiplication and division

English Studies:
SWR spelling
copywork from lives of the saints
Lively Language Lessons for grammar instruction
progym - I don't think she is ready to start CW Aesop, so I was excited to see that Classical Writing has developed a primer. I think we are going to try that out and see how it goes. It may be overkill, or it may allow us to drop other things, I am going to order it so I can get a better feel for whether it will be the right thing for us this year.

Literature:
Wonderbook
Tanglewood Tales

History:
Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt - using the plans a created last year but put on hold - I will post these in the next week or so
D'Aulaires Greek Myths
Ancient History Portfolio Junior

Geography:
We are going to focus on Africa and the Middle East this year, using ideas from Serendipity.

Science:
Apologia Botany

And again, she will continue pursuing piano lessons, gymnastics, and CM style composer and artist studies. In looking back over our plans, I am excited to say that I have no big purchases to make this year! I already have all of the core books we will be using, a large selection of supplemental reading for both science and history, and much of Kindergarten will be home created items. I know there will be fun books along the way I will want to buy, but it is good to know that most of my curriculum is already sitting on my shelf, and the school budget can be used for extra-curricular activities and "fun stuff".

2009-2010 Plans for 5th Grade

Here is what is shaping up for the crocodile hunter this year. He will be in 5th grade, and while there are still some unknowns (we may be in a co-op that will change/add some elements), this is what I am looking at planning out. Again, much of this follows the Latin Centered Curriculum, though we are continuing with more of a four year history cycle and are back around to Ancient history again this year.

Orthodox Studies:
Young Folks Josephus
The Christians - this is a wonderful series - I have the first 7 books, they are beautiful, informational, fascinating reading, and a very balanced perspective no matter your denomination. I am planning to let him read the first 3 volumes at his own pace. If you have the financial ability to support this project, I encourage you to order from them, these books are well worth the cost.
readings from the Prologue from Ohrid

Arithmetic:
I will continue using a combination of the exercises in Ray's Arithmetic, Math on the Level, and possibly Singapore Math. Since this is the area in which I feel the least confidence, I need to be open to some flexibility. I love the way things are laid out in Math on the Level, but it is nice to have a workbook to fall back on when things get crazy.
Update 6/5: I am planning to drop Singapore, and use the exercises in Strayer/Upton Book 2

Latin:
I am not sure if we will continue with Lively Latin Book 2, but I don't think we are ready for something like Henle. I need to do a bit more research here.

English Studies:
Copywork from lives of the saints
Spelling - we probably need to continue with SWR spelling lists, he is a decent speller, but could use some work still

Literature:
Black Ships before Troy
Wanderings of Odysseus
In Search of a Homeland - if we get that far :)

History:
Famous Men of Greece
Famous Men of Rome
Ancient History Portfolio

Science:
Apologia Botany

So that is the core of our studies, and of course we will continue with CM style composer and artist studies and piano lessons.