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*

Where are we going?

So much for Thursday! :D We had family over for Easter and, well, things got busy.

I've decided to take this week as a brake. I feel behind on everything. I haven't posted a weekly report in ages and Green Hour #5 needs to be written about. Most of all I need to decided what I want for my children in an education.
Before Mariah, Laura, James, David and Douglas joined the family I had no trouble with our cycles. Before I began nature study I had no doubt about what to do in science. Before I began teaching with more curricula I knew just what I wanted to do. Now, I'm at a loss.

Here are the ideas that have benn tearing through my brain recently:

History

My options, as far as I can see are:

1. Continue what I'm doing, teaching Canadian history and SOTW 3. Next year teach SOTW 1 and SOTW 4 so that we can stick to the cycles. OR continue with SOTW 3 and Canadian history. In the summer do a highly condensed version of SOTW 4 and start SOTW 1 in the fall. OR continue SOTW 3 and Canadian history and next year do only SOTW 4.
I don't like any of these ideas. I'm finding getting everything organized for two history lessons tiring and I find it splits up our family into the adopted kids and the non adopted kids which I'm trying to get away from.
If I continue with two cycles now I don't want to do that next year. That would mean doing either SOTW 4 which I don't want to do because we had a catastrophe with it this year or doing SOTW 1 which would mean that Mariah, David and Laura would have skipped a year.

2. Drop SOTW 3 and do only Canadian history. Start SOTW 1 next year.
I don't like this idea either. We've been enjoying our study of Canada but I'm very worried about April and May. I'm planning on covering the first European explorers to Canada to the present day in two months. There is no way we can get a rich, fun and informative study in such a short amount of time. I could spread it out into June but Chelsea is so eager to study government and I don't know where we'd fit that in.

3. Drop Canadian history and do only SOTW 3 but read Canadian books. Next year do SOTW 4 or do SOTW 4 in the summer and SOTW 1 next year.
I like the idea of dropping Canadian history. We have Canadian history books coming out our ears which we could ready without the formality of it being school work. All the kids would be studying the same period which would mean less stress on me and more of a family feeling for the kids. The only trouble is tha Chelsea did SOTW 3 last year and she might find it boring. I asked her and she said it was one of her favourite times in history and she wants to do it again but still wants to read all those great Canada books.
Then there's next year. I really don't want to do SOTW 4, I'll have an 8th grader, 6th, grader, 5th grader, 3rd, grader, two 1st graders, a 4yo who really wants to be a big kid and a toddler who is desperate for his mothers attention. I'm sure the 8th, 6th and 5th graders could cope but I sense chaos, tears and the words "I hate history." with the younger ones.
So, that means doing modern history over the summer and starting SOTW 1 in the fall. I'm compiling a list of "must read" modern history books which I'll post soon. This seems to be the best decision.

I just realised we could drop Canadian history now and do it next year but I'm eager to get back to our history cycles. The winter will be an excellent time to watch the Canada a People's History DVDs and sit by the fire and learn about our history. I've got veracious readers who amaze me with what they have learnt through books everyday. If supplied with the right resources they will be able to discover their history and that of Canada.

Science

Never, right from the start of homeschooling, have I thought that RS4K wasn't an excellent curriculum, the perfect one for us. I've been so content with them and recommended them to everyone. Now, they've been moved off our curriculum shelf.
They aren't he perfect curriculum, they aren't the one for us. I've discovered the beauty of nature study and child led science.
Since we began our nature study science has been the most popular subject at Morning Glory Academy. Our nature journals our stuffed and it seems someone needs a new one daily. My kids our outside in all weather, observing all things and have decided that they'd rather study birds than flowers. They're noses are always in some science book, whether its on marine biology or engineering, inventors or pansies. Chelsea has been writing reports of her own free will on every interesting scientific fact she learns about and Laura has been doing narrations on ever science book in the house.
More than anything else science is driving our homeschool.
But will it stay like this?
I'm not sure but I do now that I just can't teach from a science curriculum. I feel as though I've looked through everything and it all has something "wrong". The curricula I previously thought were for unschoolers only now seem to structured.
What am I going to do? Where is this going? I've been asking this question about science, Bible, spelling, grammar, writing, memory work, copy work, handwriting, literature and logic. The only things I feel in control over are math and history, which I'm not totally in control of.

Coming tomorrow, "Where are we going? 2"

More is not always better

What I want in a history curriculum:

Christian

Easy to use for multiple ages and makes history a family activity

Classical education approach

Easy to do activities

Flexible

Map work

Colouring pages

Makes history fun for everyone

Plays a central role in our schooling

Offers book suggestions but can be supplemented with other books

Reading is the main focus

Readable for parents and children



I'm pretty picky!:D

So back in January I decided that TOG would be the best choice for us. That was before our family grew considerably larger and recently I was thinking "I'm so glad I bought TOG. It's perfect for a large family." .

Today I sat down for a few hours and looked through every bit of TOG. What I'm thinking now is "More is not always better.".

We loved SOTW (Story of the World) volumes 1-3. Sure, SOTW 4 wasn't a hit but we won't be using it again for years and by then the kiddos will be older. The only reason I wanted to change to TOG was because Chelsea was getting older and I thought she would benefit from TOG. I'd heard great things about it, I'd looked at it on the web and thought it looked great. So, it must be great!

*Sigh*

I can see why people like TOG, it's got church history, philosophy, geography, writing, map work, activities...you name it. But it's all this stuff that's there that is driving me CRAZY!! I like to pick and choose from a variety of resources and curricula so I won't be using lots of stuff TOG has to offer. I then have to filter through and find what I do want and organize that, for six kids! Due to the fact of the various age and reading levels of my kids I'll have at least one child on each level. Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, Dialect and Rhetoric. I find the thought exhausting.

The other thing I've been doing today is creating lesson plans for this week. Laura (7), David (10) and Mariah (12) are studying the American revolution using SOTW 3. Here's what's planned:
Monday:
Read Chapter 22 of SOTW: Revolution! Discontent in the British Colonies - All
Read about Boston Tea Party in supplementary books - All
Colour while listening to read alouds - Laura
Narration - All
Essay on origins of Boston Tea Party - Mariah
Mapwork - All
Have tea (if wanted) and homemade scones with homemade butter - Whole family
Copywork -All

Wednesday:
Finish Chapter 22 of SOTW - All
Supplementary reading - All
Colouring -Laura
Narration - All
Mapwork - All
Make original American flag with paper -All
Add paper feathers to our pens/pencils and write with a "quill pen" - All
Copywork - All

Friday:
Supplementary reading - All
Colouring - Laura
Essay on American revolution - Mariah
Ethics of war - Mariah and David (?)
Mapwork
Dress in clothing of the day - All
Poetry/Memorywork/Copywork: Paul Revere's Ride - Laura, listening and copywork, Mariah and David, copywork and memorywork
Review on lesson - All

I think it'll be great and I think Mariah and David will both receive an excellent history education without TOG.

So, is TOG for sale?
No way! There are lots of great ideas in TOG and I'm sure that if we don't use it as our main curriculum it will guide us when needed.