Classical Conversations Week 14

Ok I am way behind in posting but life happens!

HISTORY

Went over Timeline Song and History Sentance.

Tell me about the Songhai.

Here are our actions that we came up with to go with week 14 History Sentance.

And we read through this book a bit.

GEOGRAPHY

We covered Ancient Africa and made up a little rhythm to say it to.

Followed by looking in our MAPS book and any corresponding sheets in the MAPS activity book related to Africa.

Continued reading Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba Angola, Africa 1595, from The Royal Diaries series. (Started to compliment week 13 geography of Western Africa.

We also picked up this book from the library.

MATH

Linear Equivalents-we didn't do anything extra really, just covered it and used a ruler to compare centimeters to inches and 12 inches = 1 foot.  It was very cold otherwise we would have gone for a walk at a park and maybe walk/ride scooters around the track for a mile.  We will probably do this when it warms up.

We are doing CTC Math now and the kids are loving it and I just feel such a relief and joy over how that is going!  We will still incorporate living math, which was going really well but required much more of me as far as preparing, planning etc and while I was enjoying that and will continue, it just takes the pressure off knowing we can do that more for enrichment than our core since they have taken such a liking to CTC Math and are excited to zoom through it, competing with eachother to get more platinum certificates and get to the next grade level since a CTC Math membership provides access to all grade levels from K-12.

ENGLISH

Nothing fancy here.  Just went over the helping verbs together.

LATIN

Our frog puppet "Latin Leo" helps teach the Latin.

We also got a little extra Latin lesson this week reading from Classic Myths to Read Aloud.  Often the end of a story will include a short paragraph about the meaning and origin of a certain word we use today. We started out with Greek and Roman Gods at the beginning of this cycle and also to incorporate some of Ambleside Online into our study, year 3 include covering Greek Mythology so we haven't left that behind.

SCIENCE

Types of Rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic. 

We turned to one of our favorite books Nature Anatomy on the section about types of rocks and the rock cycle.  The kids copied the illustration of the rock cycle from the book into their nature journals. We also used the book to identify some of our rock collection and talked about our granite countertops.

Science kits with rocks and earth science are great this week.

FINE ARTS

We used the book Discovering Great Artists and did a project based on Ghibertti.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 10

I've gotten behind in posting our CC weeks and now I'm playing catch up.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 10 and other highlights

Timeline 

we learned this weeks acts and facts but it's really review as this is our third year learning timeline.  We listen to the music in the car as well.

History & Geography

We came up with some actions and for both as well as had fun studying and exploring the page about Japan in our MAPS book.

We also have these activity pages that associate with Japan from our MAPS activity book 

In those landscape of Tokoyo, they are prompted to draw aliens attacking and risky robots defending the city.

Math 

This week we skip count the squares, my daughter remembers this all from last year but we try and help B (5) get it. He was in foundations last year too but at age four he got done things but or he might recognize parts of things he learned but they are do little at that age and being a class with other four year olds...it wasn't like they were exactly CC Scholars.

Other math fun this week has included more fun with Tangrams, figuring out how to make other geometric shapes with their Tangrams pieces and recording the number of pieces used etc.  We also did some activities that introduced measurement and finding the perimeter.  In their individual math J continues to work on finding missing addends and multiplication.  B practicing basic addition and subtraction, sorting, puzzles etc.

English & Latin

We went through it and memorized it but I didn't do anything fun or special...it's been one if those blah weeks where mommy is doing what she has to do but lacking some energy and excitement (dreary weather, time change, recovering from a cold and PMS will do that to ya).

Science

Kinds of leaf parts... We looked up what they were and the kids participated with me in creating this nature journal page

Fine Arts - Music 

So have supposed to have been doing fun whistle starting in week 7 but I didn't.  

In our CC community the 2 years prior, all moms dreaded tin whistle time it seemed and except for the poor tutor, most moms quickly found an excuse to leave the room during tin whistle time.  I didn't intentionally not to tin whistle, but maybe subconsciously I just didn't go there.  However I do want them getting the music theory and all and then I remberer the Jon Schmidt (aka the guy from the Piano Guys) music program I had.  My dad had gotten it a few years ago (before the Piano Guys YouTube videos but we already listened to his piano arrangements on Pandora) to teach my niece but then they didn't end up doing it so he sent it to me.  I had attempted it but J just wasn't ready for any formal music lessons and I think I wasn't either.  It was just too much to try and sit down at the piano and focus when we were still new to homeschool and everything else already felt so hands on and intensive it was like, trying to add piano to the mix seemed impossible and I didn't want to kill myself over it.  So I pulled out the program and we got started on that this week.  It went so much better with her being 8 and B is 5 but he was doing very well too but I didn't put pressure on him as he was ready to be done and J was excited to keep going.  I'm fine with him going at a different pace.  

It's a totally different method of learning the piano.  Rather than starting with middle C and playing it over and over again for the first lesson, Jon Schmidt introduces them to 2 anchor lines and memorizing where those lines are on the piano, then from there most notes they can find by determining if it's a step or skip up or down from the anchor line note.  Other piano skills and technique are supposed to be easier assimilated more naturally as they quickly get the hang of finding their way around the piano.

By the end of the first lesson my daughter was to try playing the top hand of Lullaby (not worrying about timing or anything like that...but just finding the notes and typing them in on the keyboard).  I made this sheet to cover the song so she would be distracted or visually overwhelmed by all the music at one and had her start with just the first bar, then sliding the black strip out more as she could confidently find those notes.  I told her only the first 3 bars for the first day and to just take it easy do she wouldn't get frustrated... Woah unintentional reverse psychology on that one...she determined to play the whole first line and start on the second.  I told her to just limit to 10-15 minutes and take a break, she pretty much did it all day.  It was funny AND I'm so glad I waited with her, couldn't have had a better start!

We shall see how it goes but this one line she can play is already much more exciting than my first piano lesson, which I still have the book here it is 

She will be learning to play with the left hand simultaneously in week 2 already.  So anyways we started that as well as J continuing to practice ukulele and B sometimes joins in and wants to try playing certain notes or practice a strumming pattern, but I just let him have fun with it at his age, I don't want to force music too soon and then have them hate it.  So I gently encourage them so they can develop an interest and excitement from within so that when they put the effort into playing, it will be more satisfying, enjoyable and motivating.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 1

So we are officially a hodgepodge of homeschool styles and philosophies.  Is it even possible to be Classical Charlotte Mason Montessori Waldorf Delight Centered Unschoolers?  All those words don't seem to belong together!  But who needs titles, I dislike labels and boxes anyways... but that's basically what we're doing, gleaning good stuff from all those methods and philosophies and applying it in our own way for each child.

We are doing Classical Conversations on our own this year so we could use a day of our week for other enrichment classes and mama could get a little one on one time with my toddler.  The kids are loving their enrichment days and although we liked CC, I figured this year if I was going to pay for something and get everyone out the door in the morning it might was well benefit me too and give me a little break and the kids a break from each other.  They are best buds but also worst enemies at times.....as can anyone be who you are with constantly so I thought it would be nice for them once a week to have a "school" like day with their own classes with their own friends.  So far it's been great!  

We are doing CC using the foundations guide I already had and the CC app on my phone.  I had looked ahead of time taking notes and using my Art History texts for maps, references and inspiration for projects based off of our CC memory work.  I  also using my Art History texts for some picture study, and the text includes broad deep historical info in all the history sentences in this cycle of CC so I was pretty excited.

And I get all nerdy excited having great images like this to open up to and show my kids as we do our geography of the Fertile Crescent and Assyrian Empire and it makes my heartso happy we are digging into these text books I couldn't bring myself to sell back in college because I loved them.  I love that it's getting ME into these text books that have been collecting dust and that it just feels fun.

Flipping through and just looking at the pictures with my kiddos, we can add little snippets of info....here is the Epic of Gilgamesh...the best known literary work from Mesopotamia...

We finished off our week 1 memory work and picture study purusing this text with a hands on project using crayola air dry clay and we made one if the tablets and carved the first 5 commandments as that was the history sentence for the week.  We also talked about how the Fertile Crescent lead to villager and cities which because of farming, not everyone had to worry about working to grow or find food so other skills were developed and workshops for milling flour, making bricks, pottery, textiles and metalware  sprang up and the construction of temples and palaces keep builders and artists busy.  - pg. 28 Art History Volume One.

After making our engraved tablet my daughter made a pinch pot... Her first attempt at pottery. 

Honestly I'm more excited about doing CC than any other year before because rather than just doing the rote memory work at class without any context, we are able to go deeper and make it more part of our curriculum...I guess I could have done this before but having the new baby I wasn't as invested in the CC work myself, that was my break and I was doing my other curriculum in addition and just fighting our way through that so we definitely didn't make the most of CC.  

The unschool/delight centered part of it is I have gotten prepared ahead of time, thought of fun ways to make it come alive and great things to show them and read to them, but I follow their lead.  If they are totally bored I just keep it short, if they are interested We go deeper....I mean just doing the memory work is fine on its own so anything extra they get out of it making deeper connections to the memory work is great...it's like I said I kind of view CC as a form of strewing.  Each week they are introduced to a bunch of new vocabulary on different subjects and it can really be a great launching pad for sparking interests.  I love the idea of unschool/delight centered learning...but how can your kid find out they love learning about ancient Mesopotamia or Aztecs if it isn't some how introduced?  

Doing CC at home was actually the kids idea.  They think the songs are fun to learn and they like getting treasure box at the end so we have treasure box here too with little things I know they might like, dollar store stuff or other little things. Yesterday my sin asked if I could make tickets for treasure box that let them play minecraft or watch a show so I added that.  It was funny because it's not like I never let them watch tv or play minecraft,  when they do I never use a timer.  But I made tickets for 15 minutes of minecraft or 1 show on amazon prime.  They both picked minecraft tickets for treasure box and I put an alarm on my phone to go off in 15 minutes and they happily stopped exactly then...it's funny Bc often the probably play more than that but whatever.  Oh and one more thing I do different with our CC work....I don't do Latin or English.  I really don't see a point to it.  My daughter wants to learn Spanish so we will work that in but even the English....I just see it as being anything they ever need to know.  English was always one of my best subjects and the terms in CC's English I've often never even heard of....like what is a Gerund?  Why would anyone need to really know that?  So I leave that out and instead have my kids do a little math quiz I make up based on what skills they are working on and I write out questions on the chalkboard for them to do and it's the last thing they do before treasure box and Ice never seen kids so excited to do math questions! Lol 

So anyways that's our CC so far and how our first week was. 

If you go on my Instagram page you can find my daughter excitedly sharing week 1 science sentence featuring the Classifications of living things.  I'm just going to make a wild guess but I could totally see this girl going into the health sciences department someday.  

Outside of doing our own twist on CC we are following Ambleside Online's recommendations for each year with the big picture in mind but not in a detailed day to day implementation.  I love the book lists and recommendations for each year.  I also find Waldorff so dreamy so we incorporate Waldorff elements into our day as we can minus the mystical and the knomes. We are part of a Charlotte Mason nature club where we advebture into nature, learn, play, bring watercolors and nature journal.  

A major focus this year will using Simply Charlotte Mason's Laying Down The Rails and implementing the Montessori staple, care of the environment.  Life was pretty crazy for the last coupe years and we are finally getting settled and I feel like I can make a more intentional effort to foster better habits and give the kids more responsibility.  

I'm just feeling really excited and happy and at peace as The Lord has brought me back to the resources and way of living with my children that Ge started out showing me in the beginning but I got away from due to insecurity and trying to please everyone.  But I've gotten over needing everyone's approval of what we do, and just going back to what He originally showed me He wanted for our family and I couldn't be more thankful.  God is good. I Pray for wisdom and inspiration in the moment daily and when I do that and follow the gentle nudgings, things always go much better than when I try and follow and keep a preset plan and let that rule over us.  It's a beautiful thing when we can trust and be free to realize how much you're kids can learn and how much more you can enjoy teaching and learning with them without feeling like your being sucked dry when not held hostage by curriculum or by what others are doing.