On Living Books

When setting out to make our lesson plans for the year, I always find myself faced with two choices.  The choice to choose the often times cheaper text book model of education or to spend more and buy tons of living books.  I always choose the books.  

Living books can be thought of in this way- books that are narrative in form.  Books that are engaging to the emotions, making the reader want to know more.  A book that, long after being put down, continues to stay with the reader, making recollection and comprehension easier.  

Doing school this way can sometimes be cumbersome.  Reading for hours to the children is tiring for all of us.  On somedays, I'll be honest, it seems like a chore.  Especially early on in the year when we've gotten out of the habit of sitting still and listening, it can feel extra hard.  However, I never regret learning alongside my children in this way.  Because even though it feels hard sometimes, for the most part, it is very enjoyable.  

This year as I was wrestling with whether I was going to buy a history curriculum or just go with books again (why do I wrestle with it yearly?  I always know what I'm going to choose in the end!) I was struck with the notion that I needed to know why I was drawn to living books in the first place.  It is a time consuming way of learning, so it needed to be more than just because I like books!  Which I do, by the way.  I really like books!  Two things hit me.  First?  Moonpie will be 12 this year.  TWELVE!  Next year will begin her self guided studies.  This is my last year to sit beside her and read her history out loud to her.  Next year she will be doing much of it on her own.  I decided right at that moment that I was going to soak in this last year with her.  I will read to my heart's content and force her to love every minute of it!  My second reason was less selfish on my part.  It was remembering the heart of literature based education.

One of my goals in homeschooling our children is to equip them to be life long learners.  Much of my job is teaching them how to learn, not just what to learn.  When I sit and think about how I learn now as an adult, it boils down to two ways- reading about it or watching a video.  If I want to know about the constitution of an herb, I read a book about it.  If I want to know how to knit, I watch a video on YouTube.  With that thinking in mind, it makes more sense for me to teach out of living books rather than textbooks.  We opt for books because I want them to have this tool of learning engraved into them after they leave my home!  I feel like it would almost be like me teaching them to ride tricycles their whole lives, and then when they leave me I hand them a unicycle and a thumbs up.  Sure, they will eventually figure it out on their own.  They may even grow to love the unicycle and become expert unicyclists!  But if I know from the beginning that they will be needing to know how to ride a unicycle, why not start that training when they are at home where they can safely fall?

Much of what I believe about education I learned from Charlotte Mason.  I love what she says here about books:

"Our business is to give him mind-stuff, and both quality and quantity are essential.  Naturally, each of us possesses this mind-stuff only in limited measure, but we know where to procure it; for the best thought the world possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children, the best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly serving." 

And her thoughts here:

For the children? They must grow up upon the best . . . There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told. Let Blake's 'Songs of Innocence' represent their standard in poetry DeFoe and Stevenson, in prose; and we shall train a race of readers who will demand literature--that is, the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life. 

I agree with these ideas whole-heartedly.  I also believe that learning is a whole life venture.  That our children learn, whether they are at home learners, or are learning at school, by example, by time spent, by what is poured into them.  Here are Ms. Mason's thoughts on this:

Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin,and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food. 

 

second day of school

Remember how our first day of school was full of kittens and sunshine?  Well day two went a little differently.  Sure, it started out well enough with a little gardening

Later in the day we went back out to demonstrate how craters formed on the moon.  We threw our "meteors" into a bowl of flour to make the craters.  We made moon rocks.  Then someone got the idea to throw the bowl of flour in mama's face.  And mama, never being one to back down from a good food fight, picked up that 5 pound bag of flour and dumped it on "some one's" head.

 Moonpie told me I looked like Jane Goodall.  I'll take that as a compliment.

We showered twice, but I'm still finding dough in my ears.  And poor Buddy, it's still caked on his face even after two scrubs.  We had to take a scrub break so his little face wouldn't scrub right off!

This was FUN!!!  So much fun!  Moonpie told me later that it's the most fun she's ever had with me.  I thought to myself "well, that was easy".  I think there are more flour fights in our future.  For.  Sure.

first day of school

The plan was to learn about the moon.  But we got more excited about our fall garden!  I love teaching on the fly! It's really one of my favorites because we are all caught up in the moment, excited about what we are doing.

Here Moonpie is making our seed tray with toilet paper tubes.  We cut the base in fours and folded it in, then placed it in an egg crate to help hold it all together.  This is an upgrade over my usual egg carton seedling plan.  The thought is that I can plant these tubes straight in the ground without disturbing the seedling's delicate root system.  I'm not sure that it matters, but these tubes came from 7th Generation toilet paper.  Their tubes are not as thick as standard tp tubes are.  But again, I don't think it really matters.  They will all eventually break down.

We dug some soil up out of the newly turned garden plot.  Buddy filled up our tubes.  This is before we decided that a spoon would do a better job!

Buddy and I planted seeds while Gingersnap helped by bumping our arms with his head continually and scattering seeds all over the deck.

Moonpie worked on labels.

And kitty duty.

After all of the seeds were tucked in, we went inside to start a garden journal.  I quickly made sheets on the computer with lines and space to draw.  While we were journaling the discussion came up about cilantro seeds being coriander.  I pulled out the mortar and pestle so we could make our own coriander. We then compared our dried cilantro and ground coriander from the pantry.

Here is a peek at Moonpie's journaling page.  I have to say that I am super impressed by her writing!  When I asked her how she knew how to use a colon and commas when listing (a skill that we haven't covered yet) she said "I read a LOT mom!".  What a good reminder!  I used to tell my students the more you read, the better you'll write.  Learning is all so holistic!  She pointed this out so clearly to me.

This morning we are going to go out and plant some zinnia seeds in the new garden.  We will journal about it when we get back in.  I keep a garden journal to help me remember what I planted when, how it did, what kind of care I gave it, etc.  Allowing the children to have their very own gardening journals allows them to practice their writing skills in a very real world situation.  It is a twaddle free (to quote Charlotte Mason) approach to writing that they find fulfilling and exciting.

from my heart

This morning marks our first day of school around here.  Moonpie is so excited!  Last night she told me "I hope I can sleep.  I feel like tomorrow's my birthday!".  That girl...

But here's the thing.  I am reluctant to start.  A month into our homeschool year this year was to be the time when a new little babe was to be placed into our arms.  We were planning on babymooning it up this time.  Lounging in bed with the little one, the children turning feral as we gazed at our newest one. That's not happening though.  It feels like putting one foot in front of the other is turning into a full on sprint as the fall approaches.  And if I can just stay here, in this spot, while he is still in utero, maybe I can trick time into sitting still with me.

I won't have to finally put the box of diapers and onesies away that have been sitting in the music room, waiting for a turn in the wash.

I won't have to set aside the hope that he is coming.

But on the other hand, I have these two precious ones, so eager for life to move on, to learn new things, to jump creeks with Laura Ingalls Wilder.  So eager that I know that this, this first day of school, is the right thing to do.

Deep breath.

Moving forward.

homeschool plan

I am in full homeschool prep mode around here, and today, the first of my books came in!  Here is a brief run down of what we'll be studying this year:

History:  The Middle Ages, Renaissance and the Reformation

This will be my first time to use one of Sonya Shafer's guides.  The past two years I have used The Story of the World as my scaffold.  This year we are going headlong into the Charlotte Mason method. I am excited to read all the biographies, and hopeful that this guide will enable me to tie up the loose ends.  I am no history buff, I need the guidance!
Some of the living books we will be using are:

• Around the World in 100 Years
• Famous Men of the Middle Ages
• Explorers Who Got Lost
• Castle Diary
• The Vernon Reformation series
• The Apple and the Arrow
• Viking Adventure
• The Sword in the Tree

History will also cover time lines and map skills.

Math: Singapore Math

We are sticking with Singapore Math this year.  I thought it was not the right match for Moonpie, but after a little math break, she started using the concepts she learned over the year on her own!  I really like this math program and I'm comfortable with it, so I am thrilled that we can use it again.

Poet Study:  All the Small Poems and 14 More by Valerie Worth

Language Arts:  

• First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind- Level 3 (Moonpie)
• First Lang. Lessons- Level 1 & 2 (Buddy)  I'm using my copy that I used with Moonpie.  I am going to ease into language lessons with Buddy, we probably won't begin the year with them.
• Reading-  I plan on using a combo phonetic and whole language approach with Buddy this year.  I will be using our poetry book to teach him reading.  He really did not enjoy using 100 Easy Lessons, which Moonpie LOVED!  We'll see how the whole language approach works for him!  I might even do a mash-up of the two- whatever works for him we will do!  Moonpie is a bookworm and needs very little prodding to read.  However, I would like to challenge her with some books that are somewhat outside of her comfort zone this year.

Literature:

The books recommended on our Charlotte Mason reading guide (that we haven't already read) for 1st and 3rd grade are:

The Trumpet of the Swan EB White

The Princess and the Goblin George Macdonald

The Railway Children E. Nesbit

Heidi Johanna Spyri ( I have a vintage copy that we will be using)

The Secret Garden Francis Hodgson Burnett

We will add to this list as the year goes on.  We still have a couple of Tum Tum and Nutmeg adventures to go on as well as a few more with Laura Ingalls.

Science:

• The kids are very eager to learn about space, so we will kick off the year with this as a unit study.  I am piecing together this unit with books we already own and library books.  We have a very small library with not a whole lot of selection, but we will make do!  I plan on covering the night sky (stars, comets, the phases of the moon), with a break in there to discuss nocturnal animals.  We will then cover planets and the solar system, and anything else they want to learn!  I love teaching space- very excited about this!
• We will work in experiments on Fridays when dad is home to lead out in that area.
• We will also pull out A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp.  We used this some last year and it is fantastic!  I learned by using this that geography is more than just knowing where countries are- it's earth science!

Art Study:

We will be studying the works of Michel Angelo and Leonardo Da Vinci in our history unit.  I enjoy using Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artists series.  They do a great job of mixing biography with the actual works of art.  I also love that I can find these pretty regularly at the thrift store!  I will be using some Dover coloring books along with this and some sticker books.

Music:

Moonpie will be starting piano this year!  Buddy likes to play guitar alongside daddy, so he will keep doing that!

Bible:

We usually use the Bible Study for All and we really like it!  However, this year we will be participating in our local Community Bible Study.  The kids have daily homework along with my daily homework!  I love that we are studying the same scripture together.  Then, on Bible study day, they go to their own class while I go to my small group and lecture.  It is a wonderful program and we learned so much last year!  The kids also take part in Awana at church so we spend a good amount of time working on scripture memory for that.

Nature Study:

We will just go outside!  Yay!

Umm...did I say "a brief run down"?

Have you started your planning yet?  What is your slated "start date" to get back to school?  Mine keeps getting pushed back as invitations to swim and water slides comes up!  Oh, and then there's that closet that needs to be cleaned out...As of right now, I'm thinking to ease in next week with our study of space, and then hit the ground running August 20.

I am linking up with the not back to school blog hop.  If you want a look at some more great curriculum ideas, check it out!

ps- I'm an affiliate with Amazon.  Any link you click up there that turns into a purchase results in our family getting a little back to help with our book costs. 

it's official

Well it is officially summer around here.  The kids were in the pool before 9 and they are eating breakfast in their swimsuits.  In the pool.

Here's something else that's official- I'm shutting down school for the summer.  I had considered doing some form of modified school, but you know what?  We need this!  When the kids were stripping down in the backyard at 8:45 am my first instinct was to say "no- we have chores... and math!", but then I thought, no way man, let the kids do whatever they want, it's summer dangit!  So it is now officially official.  And all that homeschool mama worry about "am I doing enough?" is now out the window.  Swimming and freezer pops and chasing chickens and killing stink bugs...this is enough.

we were so mature when we got married- here we were giggling
because we had to kiss in front of everyone!

And finally, it is officially 13 years today that I married my best friend.  And since we have been together for most of our lives, it is 20 years in total that we have been together.  Am I a lucky girl, or what?  I mean, what a gift this life is that I get to spend with John.  He is my favorite, and getting to wake up most every day with your favorite is a treasure.  It's birthday morning every morning.  So happy birthday to this life that we have built.  Together.

For a look at anniversaries past click here.