Clog?

I saw this quiz on Lisa's blog, Koinonia Academy and thought I'd give it a try. Guess what I am, a clog!

You Are Clogs

You are a solid and down to earth person. You seek – and almost always achieve – a really sound balance in your life. You are stylish yet comfortable. Mellow but driven. Excited yet calm. You are the perfect mesh of contradictions. No matter what happens, you have the ability to stay well grounded in your life. People know that they can truly depend on you. You should live: In Europe You should work: At a company dedicated to helping the world

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofshoeareyouquiz/">What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Bird poetry

I love to memorize poetry. For grades 1-5 that is all we formally memorize and after that it plays a key role in our memory work.
Right now our science is focused on birds and nature study, so David, Chelsea, Mariah and Laura are memorizing the following poem:

The Sandpiper
By Celia Thaxter

Across the narrow beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I,
And fast I gather, bit by bit,
The scattered driftwood bleached and dry.
The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind rave, the tide runs high,
As up and down the beach we flit,-
One little sandpiper and I.

Above our heads the sullen clouds
Scud black and swift across the sky;
Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds
Stand out the white lighthouses high.
Almost as far as eye can reach
I see close - reefed vessels fly,
As fast we flight along the beach,-
One little sandpiper and I.

I watch him as he skims along,
Uttering his sweet and mournful cry.
He starts not at my fitful song,
Nor flash of fluttering drapery.
He has no thought of any wrong;
He scans me with his fearless eye:
Staunch friends are we, well tried and strong,
The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be tonight,
When the loose storm brakes furiously?
My driftwood fire will burn so bright!
To what warm shelter canst though fly?
I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky:
For are we not God's children both,
Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

Mariah, David and Chelsea are halfway through and will finish the poem this week. Laura will take two weeks.
I'm not sure what our next poem will be but I suspect it will be from the "Bird - Watcher" section of Favorite Poems. I've seen this book in the Sonlight catalogue many times and have considered and resisted buying it. I was at the local used bookstore recently and saw it there for 3.99, I just couldn't resist anymore. :D
During our American Revolution study I had Mariah and David memorize alternating stanzas of Paul Revere's Ride. Now they're finished and have the entire thing memorized because they were constantly listening to each other recite. They were both very impressed when they learnt they new the whole thing!

LA plans K-12

I thought I had grammar for next year all planned out, Daily Grams and Classical Writing. But guess what I did, I started looking at other grammar curricula and now I’ll never be happy with Daily Grams. I’m in love with Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, they are wonderful. Oh, they are lovely, but who am I going to use them for?
DD7 (3rd grade): She is the perfect candidate for PLL, copywork, memorywork and dictation loving she is kind of a CM girl in all areas of the curriculum. My only worry is that I wanted to start CW Aesop A with her but since she’s never done formal grammar or writing before this may be overkill. I really want to do PLL and CW but maybe if I held off on CW until January then it wouldn’t be so much at once. Or do I really need to drop one of them? Also, should we start at the beginning of the book or in the middle?
DS10 (6th grade) and DD9 (5th grade) will both be doing CW Homer B, I think they could both do ILL but again I’m not sure where to start.
DD12 will be in 8th grade and is very strong in LA so I think she’s beyond ILL. She is doing CW Diogenes Chreia, is that enough? Is there a PLL/ILL like book for older kids? Is there something else she should use?
DD 6and DS6 will be in 1st grade and I wasn’t planning on starting formal grammar with them until 3rd but now I’m thinking about them doing PLL. Should I have them do it or should I stick to my original plan?

TIA!!


Above is what I posted on the WTM boards. I was going crazy trying to decide what to use for grammar and now (thanks Jessica!) I’ve got it all sorted out. I still need to decide on other things but here are our plans so far:


Below Average Average Above Average

K: ETC A & B ETC 1 and 2 ETC at appropriate level Reading Reading Reading
Read alouds Read alouds Read alouds
HWT K HWT K HWT K
Informal French Informal French
Poetry memorization

1st: ETC C and 1 ETC 3 and 4 ETC at appropriate level Reading Reading Reading
Read alouds Read alouds Read alouds
HWT 1 HWT 1 HWT 1
Informal French Informal French Informal French
Poetry memorization Poetry memorization Poetry memorization
Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric.
Narration LLVY PLL
Narration Narration

2nd: ETC 2and 3 ETC 5 and 6 ETC at appropriate level
Reading Reading Reading
Read Alouds Read alouds Read alouds
HWT 2 HWT 3 HWT 3
Informal French Informal French Informal French
Poetry memorization Poetry memorization Poetry memorization
Copy work across the curric. Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric.
LLVY PLL PLL
Narration Narration LFC A
Narration
CW Aesop A

3rd: ETC 4 and 5 ETC 7 and 8 Reading
Reading Reading Read alouds
Read alouds Read alouds Informal French
HWT 3 Informal French Poetry memorization
Informal French Poetry memorization Copywork across the curric.
Poetry memorization Copywork across the curric. PLL
Copywork across the curric. PLL LFC B
PLL LFC A CW Aesop B
Narration CW Aesop A Spelling
Narration Narration

4th: ETC 6 and 7 Reading Reading
Reading Read alouds Read alouds
Read alouds Informal French Informal French
Informal French Poetry memorization Poetry memorization
Poetry memorization Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric.
Copywork across the curric. PLL ILL
PLL LFC B LFC C
LFC A CW Aesop B CW Homer A
CW Aesop A Spelling Spelling
Narration Narration Narration

5th: ETC 8 Reading Reading
Reading Read alouds Read alouds
Read alouds Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Informal French Poetry and other memorizationPoetry and other memorization
Poetry memorization Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric.
Copywork across the curric. ILL ILL
PLL LFC C Oxford Latin Course 2
LFC B CW Homer A CW Homer B
CW Aesop B Spelling Spelling
Spelling Literature with history LL 7
Narration Narration Narration
Outlining Outlining

6th: Reading Reading Reading
Read alouds Read alouds Read alouds
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
Copywork across the curriculum Copywork across the curric. Copywork across the curric.
ILL ILL ILL
LFC C Oxford Latin Course 2 Oxford Latin Course 3
CW Homer A CW Homer B CW Diogenes Maxim
Spelling Spelling Spelling
Literature through history Literature through history LL 8
Narration Narration Narration
Outlining Outlining Outlining

7th: Reading Reading Reading
Read alouds Read alouds Read alouds
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
Narration Narration Narration
ILL ILL Analytical Grammar
Oxford Latin Course 2 Oxford Latin Course 3 Latin with ?
CW Homer B CW Diogenes Maxim CW Diogenes:Chreia
Literature through history LL 7 LL American literature
Outlining Outlining Outlining

8th: Reading Reading Reading
Read alouds Read alouds Read alouds
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
Narration Narration Narration
ILL Analytical Grammar Analytical Grammar
Oxford Latin Course 3 Latin with ? Latin with ?
CW Diogenes Maxim CW Diogenes Chreia CW Herodotus
LL 7 LL8 LL British literature
Outlining Outlining Outlining
Other language
Rhetoric with ?

9th: Reading Reading Reading
Formal French with ? Formal French ? Formal French ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
Analytical Grammar Analytical Grammar AG High School Reinforcement Shakespeare
Latin with ? Latin with ? Latin with ?
CW Diogenes Chreia CW Herodotus CW Plutarch
LL 8 LL American Literature LL Shakespeare
Outlining Outlining Outlining
Other language Other language
Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ?

10th: Reading Reading Reading
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
Analytical Grammar AG HSR British Lit. AG HSR World Lit.
Latin with ? Latin with ? Latin with ?
CW Herodotus CW Plutarch CW Demosthenes
LL American Lit. LL British Lit. LL World Lit.
Rhetoric with ? Other language Other language
Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ?

11th:Reading Reading Reading
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
AG HSR British Lit. AG HSR Shakespeare AG HSR American lit.
Latin with ? Latin with ? Latin with ?
CW Plutarch CW Demosthenes CW Demosthenes
LL British lit. LL Shakespeare LL
Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ?
Other language Other language

12th:Reading Reading Reading
Formal French with ? Formal French with ? Formal French with ?
Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization Poetry and other memorization
AG HSR World lit. AG HSR World lit. AG HSR Shakespeare
Latin with ? Latin ? Latin with ?
CW Demosthenes CW Demosthenes Writing with ?
LL World Lit. LL World lit LL
Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ? Rhetoric with ?
Other language Other language


The “Below Average”, “Average” and “Above Average” columns are guide lines but I’ll pick and choose from each category depending on strengths and weaknesses.
I need to look into curriculum for:
Latin after Oxford
French in 5th – 12th
Rhetoric

At some point I also need to find something for writing after CW, but now I have other priorities.

UGH! Blogger doesn't like my formating. :(
I'll have to try to sort this out or format it differently.

Rest of our year

Here is (roughly) what the rest of our year should look like. Due to pregnancy and moving house I doubt we’ll do everything on the exact dates but so that I have an idea where we’re headed I’ve organized our history, science, music and art appreciation. I haven’t put down other subjects because I can just open up the book and do the next lesson.

April 14-18
History: SOTW 3 chapter 26, Catherine the Great
Science: Local birds, nature study
Art and music: Rembrandt and Mozart

April 21 – 25
History: SOTW 3 chapter 27, A Changing World
Science: Local birds, nature study
Art and music: Van Gogh and Beethoven

April 28 – May 2
History: SOTW 3 chapter 28, China and the Rest of the World
Science: Other birds, nature study
Art and music: Van Gogh and Beethoven

May 5 – 9
History: SOTW 3 chapter 29, The Rise of Bonaparte and 30, Freedom in the Caribbean
Science: Other Birds, nature study
Art and Music: Van Gogh and Beethoven

May 12 – 16
History: SOTW 3 chapter 31, A Different Kind of Rebellion
Science: Focus on one bird, nature study
Art and music: Monet and Brahms

May 19 – 23
History; SOTW 3 chapter 32, The Opened West
Science: Focus on another bird, nature study
Art and Music: Monet and Brahms

May 26 – 30
History: SOTW 3 chapter 33, The End of Napoleon
Science: Nest, eggs, feathers, nature study
Art and Music: Monet and Brahms

June 2 – 6
History: SOTW 3 chapter 34, Freedom for South America
Science: Seashore exploration, nature study
Art and Music: Renoir and Verdi

June 9 – 13
History: SOTW 3 chapter 35, Mexican Independence
Science: Local marine life, nature study
Art and Music: Renoir and Verdi

June 16 – 20
History: SOTW 3 chapter 36, The Slave Trade Ends
Science: Local marine life, nature study
Art and music: Renoir and Verdi

June 23 – 27
History: SOTW 3 chapter 37, Troubled Africa
Science: Other marine life, nature study
Art and music: Picasso and Tchaikovsky

June 30 – July 4
History: SOTW 3 chapter 38, American Tragedies
Science: Other marine life, nature study
Art and Music: Picasso and Tchaikovsky

July 7 – 11
History: SOTW 3 chapter 39, China Adrift and chapter 40, Mexico and Her Neighbour
Science: Focus on marine animal/plant, nature study
Art and music: Picasso and Tchaikovsky

July 14 – 18
History: SOTW 3 chapter 41, New Zealand and her Rulers
Science: Focus on other marine plant/animal, nature study
Art and music: Dali and Stravinsky

July 21 – 25
History: SOTW 3 chapter 42, The World of Forty – Nine
Science: Marine biology not previously covered, nature study
Art and music: Dali and Stravinsky


It would be great if we did finish by then, but we will see what God’s wish is. When we finish we’ll do a brief study of modern times and then begin the new year in September. Our artists and musicians don’t line up with our time period because I want to cover some modern ones, we may still be reading about them when we begin the ancient times which is fine with me because I have difficulty getting books on ancient art.

Weekly Report

History/Geography – While I think we’ll all the quite happy to have a brake from revolutions for a while we did have fun reading about France, and cooking baguettes! I think Chelsea particularly enjoyed reading the books on France because she was able to remember some of the places where she’d been.
When we learn about history in other countries I like to spend some time learning about the country it’s self. Since we got back to school we’ve read about Australia and France, with Russia coming up next week. There are maps of all these countries on the walls of our school room, along with ones of Canada, US, British Columbia and the world.
Our four favourite history/geography books this week were Paris 1789, France, You Wouldn’t Want to be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution and Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Paris.
Paris 1789 is a “travel guide” perfect for thee grammar years and lower logic years. Reading makes you feel like a tourist in Paris on the eve of the revolution. There are “Sightseers Tips” on every page which add to the fun. There are more books in the Sightseers series which we have used before and look forward to using again.
France is from the Horrible History series. I find the books on the sarcastic and gruesome side but let my horrible loving kids read them. I wouldn’t have even thought of this one if I hadn’t been digging through a box of books I’d stashed away. I wasn’t going to look through the box because I would want to keep just about every book and I was trying to sell them. It’s a good thing I did look through the box because I found France and some other books which I’d been thinking of buying. :D
If there’s a series of books we’re obsessed with it’s the You Wouldn’t Want to be a ____ books. Like the Sightseer books they make you be the people in the book and show you just how bad life was like at XYZ time. There are lots of humorous pictures and “Handy Hints” to help you out along the way.
While Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Paris doesn’t have much on the revolution it is well written and clearly shows the changes of the city through the ages. Mariah, David and Chelsea read the entire book and are now asking their Parisian friends how their life and lives of their ancestors compares to the books descriptions.

French – We got very excited about doing French this week. Many of the books included French words and when we knew one of them the house went into party mode! lol We’ve been slogging through French recently and often don’t get it done at all. Next year I want us all to do French; Mariah, Chelsea and David in a formal manner and Laura, Megan and David more informally. Some other moms and I have been talking about starting a small co-op for our preschool – 4th graders and I’m thinking of teaching French. I think a word of the week approach would be good, but I’ll have to see what others think. If we do that then I’d like to do some extra French with my kids, maybe a word of the day.
Mariah and David are currently doing Rosetta Stone 1 and 2 but I’d like them to switch to something else, Rosetta Stone lacks grammar but I think that being able to hear French spoken is very good. I haven’t spent much time thinking about what curriculum to use for them, but I need to. There is always so much to do.


Science – I’ve thought a lot about doing science projects and have decided to drop the idea. Right now we’ve almost (I think) got our house sold, I’m very pregnant and am constantly getting exhausted, DH is very busy at work and the idea of doing science projects is just too much for us. We love Green Hour so we’ll continue with that and we are also starting on a bird study tomorrow (is it really tomorrow? YIKES!). I need to see roughly how much longer this “school year” will last, pregnancy and moving house will cause some disturbance but I’m praying that we will be done by mid August. That seems very far away, but I know time will fly!

We went to the library.

Today our local library reopened after being locked out for about a month and a half. Going to there was at the top of the list of things to do today. :D
We walked down and spent an hour or more browsing the shelves and overloading our arms with books. Then DH came and picked up the books, James and Cassidy up while the rest of us walked home. James pulled almost all the picture book off the shelves which turned out to be a useful (but very messy) way of showing me some new books.
I feel a tad sorry for anyone looking for children's biology books, I borrowed more than my fair share. :D It's such a blessing being able to preview many of the books I'm considering buying by just going to the library.
Seeing us all walk around with hundreds of books made me wonder how on earth we managed when we weren't able to go to the library. I know I didn't buy as many books as we check out, I'd be beyond broke!
Someone on the WTM boards recently asked how many books we assigned our children to read each year. I said that I didn't assign books because they naturally wanted to read and learn but I estimated that the elder ones read about 300. Well I was wrong, maybe 600, 700, 800? Today when were at the check out there was a mother and her two young children. The four or five year old girl was complaining that she had really wanted another video and that they had way too many books, between 10 and 15. The mom turned around to say sorry that her daughter was being so loud. I thought she was going to faint when she saw us! Her eyes bugged out and she made strange gasping noises, Megan thought it was hilarious. I'm often shocked by how little people read.

Green Hour 5, 6, 7

I’ve been getting behind in posting about Green Hour but we have been doing them and they are greatly loved. We changed our focus from flowers to birds and have been spending hours looking at birds soaring around. Eagles are what fascinate us the most, so graceful, so big, so beautiful.
In Green Hour 5 we made a list of birds that we saw, we’ve continued to add to this list over the weeks, here it is:
Crows
Robins
Heron
Eagle
Hummingbirds
Swallows
Little Brown Birds (we are so scientific)
Ducks
Chickens
Pigeons
Some other unidentifiable birds

In Green Hour 6 we made collections, we already had a book of pressed flowers which we’ve continued to add to. We have also started collecting feathers, leaf rubbings, rocks and sticks. Douglas is the only stick collector but his collection is larger than the others put together. Little boys and sticks, the perfect combo. :D
We also have a beautiful centerpiece of flowers from our garden, Laura loves to arrange and water them.

In Green Hour 7 we made field guides. They are at the doctor’s office getting laminated right now (that’s where DH works) when they come back they’ll go into our nature backpack so that we’ll have them when we’re out and about. So far we only have ones for birds but we’re hoping to make some for other animals as well as plants. The part we all really enjoyed was taking pictures, I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to put pictures on their blog so you won’t be getting to see them unless you come to visit.

Other nature activities that we’ve been doing include gardening, Tomatosphere, and picnics. So far 8 “A” tomatoes have germinated and 13 “B” tomatoes.
I’ve been debating what to plant in the garden this year because we hope to be moving ASAP but if we it takes a while I don’t want to have nothing in the garden.
So far our garden has:
Carrots
Cucumber
Peas
Strawberries
Blackberries
Grapes
Blueberries
Raspberries
Apples
Onion
Garlic
Various herbs
Lots of flowers including cascades of Morning Glories

Hopefully whoever buys our house likes to garden. :D

Weekly Report

I haven’t done “weekly” report since January!!

History – Our first week of doing SOTW3 together was GREAT! We really liked going learning about Captain Cook because 1. He explored locally. 2. We read about Australia and made another pavlova which was really good. 3. We got to read a lot of books. There we’re probably some other reasons but those are the most obvious. We’ll be finishing up on Captain Cook today and on Monday we’ll be doing the French Revolution, there are mixed feelings about this. We’re getting a bit tired of revolutions because we just spent two weeks on the American Revolution but we also know people who live in France and we’re asking them what they think about the revolution which will be interesting.

Science – Thoughts on science are whizzing through my brain faster than I can process them! Trivium Academy has been such a blessing because of their Science by Seasons plans which I’ve adapted for us and because there’s a lot of science planning going on there too. Right now we’re doing Green Hour (yes, we’re still doing them even though I haven’t been posting) and science projects for the upcoming science fair. By Monday I want everyone to have decided what they’re doing. We were doing chemistry and physics but they’ve been dropped except for informal reading which the kids do during free time.

Art and music appreciation – We’ve gotten back into them after a two month break. We studied Mozart and Rembrandt this week and will continue for a week or two. After that we’ll do Van Gogh and Beethoven, then Monet and Tchaikovsky (?) if we need to do some more I’ll think about that later. We’re really enjoying both our artist and musician, we do Rembrandt colouring pages while listening to Mozart. There was great disappointment over the fact that we couldn’t find any Mozart music in our violin/piano books.

Logic – We’ve stopped doing Fallacy Detective this year. I LOVE that book, love, love, LOVE it. But for now I feel that we would be more productive spending our time elsewhere. I have put our logic/critical thinking books and games in a prominent place so that if interested DC can take a look at them. When I’m not thinking about science I’m thinking logic. Next year Chelsea begins the “logic years” and I have every intention of her beginning a logic/critical thinking curriculum. David and Mariah will do Fallacy Detective and I know that Chelsea could too. She has a mathematical/logical brain and would be mentally ready for FD, but I’m not sure about emotionally. What really worries me is abortion, which seems to be a major topic FD. It would bring Chelsea to tears, it brings me to tears too but I’m not sure there is any way that she’d understand or want to understand. I’ve looked at other things, but FD still seems to be the best fit. I’m going to have to think and post about this.

I’m trying to organize all our books on Shelfari, now easy task when you have over 2,000! I haven’t done any in days, I think I’ll try for 25 a day and when I get more into it I’ll try for more. The hardest part is choosing where to start, I settled on first grade biology and I’m still there. :D I also have to buy our science books and there seem to be so few on biologists, ancient scientists and hibernation. I’m sure that as I buy and catalogue some more I’ll find even more topics that I can’t find books on. *Sigh*

Happy Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASSIDY!!!!

You are such a joy to be with, so eager to learn and always ready to help. I feel like you’ve been four for ages, but now you are and I’m going to miss you being three. I think I’ll have to stop thinking of you as the baby, now we’ve got Joshua and I’m pregnant. Always remember, you are loved greatly by your family, friends, God and Jesus.

We’ll be having a simple, low key birthday. We had waffles for breakfast, Cassidy’s request. Then we’ll open some presents, we had to stay simple because we’re on a budget so she’s getting:
Homemade diary from my mom who I think is amazing because she can make books (I’ve tried and failed)
A gift card for Amazon because I gave up trying to choose a book for her
A paperweight with Cassidy written on it (homemade)
A packet of beads, she suddenly gotten into beading
Pink wool so that she can make a scarf
A book bag that says I am a bookworm (homemade)
Goodness knows how many birthday cards; Megan and Laura have been going crazy
Some gardening gloves

She’ll probably spend the rest of the day reading, knitting, beading and poking around in the garden. We’re still doing school but Cassidy who just does “preschool” will be left to her own devises as usual. DH is coming home from work early so that we can make pizza and have a picnic somewhere if the weather is nice or else we’ll just have fun at home.

Happy Birthday my little girl.