Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 3

We just got finished with our new CC material for week 3 today.  We have upped the silly fun factor a little with our frog puppet aka Latin Leo during Latin (I decided not to skip the Latin it's not that big a deal to throw in there after all and the kids are already used to it) and Leaping Leo for math skip counting. My 5 year old actually tried harder than ever to get the skip counting down because he wanted a turn making the frog say it.  I haven't been worried if he got the skip counting yet because he's only 5 but the frog definitely made it more exciting to get it right.

We caught up on the art lessons of CC that we "missed" so far due to other art projects we happened to be having fun with.  We did the OiLs intro and talked about elements of shape which took me back to my days as a Monart Teacher (an art school franchise started by Mona Brooks and her distinct teaching method that starts with the elements if shape).

 Next we did a lesson on mirror image. First we took a mirror and we held it against parts of pictures to see the mirror image effect.  Then we folded white paper in half and started cutting into them and opening to reveal the mirror image.  After they were happy with their images we glued them onto black paper.

Then we got a little more practice on the chalkboard.  I drew a line down the middle and started it with a big curved line for half the head and then had the kids take turns adding onto the image one side at a time then replicating on the opposite side.  Then I let them start their own but they started fighting about how the picture was supposed to turn out so we moved on to something else!  Ahh yes one of the joys of homeschooling...lots of opportunity for character development. 

Next was the actual week 3 project...an upside down image project remembering to focus more on the elements of shape than trying to draw an upsidedown crab. (That's just what we happened to pick).

My 5 year old picked an octopus

For our Science we learned some parts of an Animal Cell and drew a simple picture and labeled the parts.  Labeling our art projects and animal cell parts made for some good copy work/notebooking that they didn't mind doing ;)

Here the 2 books I got to go with our Greek Mythology which is part of the year 3 history from Ambleside and was a nice time to introduce this week since some of the Greek and Roman Gods were the week 3 history song for CC. 

 These aren't the books I saw recommended for Greek Mythology by Ambleside but after looking at a few different books in person at a bookstore and reading reviews online, I decided on these two.  I'm using Ambleside Online for my big picture planning for ideas on what to cover this year and looking at their book/reading lists but coordinating it with CC when possible and not necessarily using the exact books Ambleside Recommends but others that may cover the same topics.  Other times we select books straight from Ambleside's reading recommendations... Just depends. 

It's a little different each day and I like it that way! It might sound like chaos or confusing to have a different rhythm to each day but overall we have a weekly rhythm with our daily rhythms that work for us.  Every family is so different, I think the goal for us is to pace ourselves, gently lead not push, cultivate relationship and connection through living simply and hopefully be a good example on how to enjoy life, be content, choose joy, count blessings and I don't want my kids to think that mommyies and daddies only laugh and smile on special occasions. One day might be very classical, another very Charlotte Masony, the next full on Montessori and Waldof inspired etc....I'm reading a lot myself and getting ideas and things prepared ahead of time so I can gently lead them rather than push them. So we can have a relaxed feel yet actually be really engaged and productive. It's not always easy but we accomplish more when I can do that successfully and everyone is happy.  Sometimes I have to just let go of my grand ideas for the day and save them for later and be flexible so we can follow the curiosity of the moment and seize the day in some unexpected way.  The one thing that happens daily is math practice. It doesn't always have to be Singapore but can also include our supplemental practice and review current skills whether with workbooks, xtramath or other games, books or hands on activities we can use, pulling ideas from Montessori and Waldorf to make it more hands on since Singapore isn't very tactile. Once we finish our current workbook I will decide if we will stick with this program or try something else but my daughter recently started saying math is her favorite so I kinda don't want to mess with that.

We will continue with our Greek Mythology after this week but it was a good time to introduce it.  We will also introduce the MAPS book this week for studying world countries and cultures and start with Greece.  I didn't really know where I wanted to start but since we are kinda starting off with Greek history I figured it would be a good starting point.  

I plan on having the kids dress up like Greeks, make togas, learn about foods and act out Ancient Greek times.  Maybe we'll talk about gladiators a little bit...my son would love acting that out.  I'll let ya'll know what we end up doing.  

I'm enjoying the start of this school year.  We are figuring out a good weekly and daily rhythm where we are enjoying life and learning together in as natural a way possible and trying to apply all the great educational ideas and philosophies in a way that feels natural and enjoyable to us.  I consider us...if I could label it...Classical Masonorri Waldunschoolers?  Lol sounds like an identity crisis but I think you can be a bit of all wrapped up into one.  I think back to the book The Thomas Jefferson Education that I read when considering homeschooling in th very beginning of this journey.  Education is an atmosphere.  We mentor our children and also find them other mentors.  We read to them from the classics.  We don't play "school" and mom doesn't have a double identity as "teacher" during "school" time and then try and switch off and into mom the rest of the day to switch back and forth from. We lead by example and invite them to join us.  We strew and create play and learning invitations that may turn into a deeply covered topic or may not be taken much interest in other than some initial exposure and that's fine too.  We play games.  We play spelling games in the car, taking mental pictures of a word and then recalling the word and spelling it for the next couple days.  Language arts we learn through practical writing with letters to pen pals and grandparents.  We focus on proper form, spelling and punctuation.  We continue that practice doing partner writing, helping my daughter compose stories on the computer or iPad we take turns typing as she dictates and then we edit and she looks for errors, capitalizations, punctuation, rereads parts I point out to see if it makes sense etc.  She also does copy work of poems and verses on her waldorf-y watercolor paintings. 

Narration of stories we've read often happens naturally as the kids will set out in an elaborate make believe playtime together reinacting a story, plot, characters, historical events/ time periods and it's self initiated, I just stay out of the way.  They have reinacted the Vikings, pilgrims from the mayflower, Jamestown and Squanto, they've been pioneer children and cowboys, they've been boxcar children as well as the Children of The New Forest, they've been on Captain Ahabs ship looking for Moby Dick, they've been Fern and Avery from Charlottes Web, and so much more.  These special play times where their learning comes to life and their friendship and roles as playmates continues to blossom wouldn't happen if we were on a rigid schedule and I was stressed about getting everything done on certain days or at certain times. I consider their play to be very important work too.  I love incorporating songs into our day about what we're doing or going to do or making up a song to remember something or just something silly to help a child transition, singing your day is a great thing gleaned from Waldorf and I think part of why Classical Conversations is fun for us because the memory work for Foundations is all put into little songs and I let my kids make up their own actions.  Singing our day helps everyone in our home from mommy to my third grader, kindergartener to 24 Month old. I'm not a great singer but my kids don't seem to mind!  Singing about what is going to happen next is such a nice way to get the kids to transition without having to repeat myself and feel frustrated that their ignoring or dawdling. I like to joke in my songs to my daughter to get her attention like "it's math time it's math time it's time to do some math it's math time it's math time or else you'll take a nap!" Since we typically transition into math once my toddler is napping and we can focus uninterrupted. 

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 wk 2, Unschool Beach Time, Nature Study FUNGI

I didn't have time to post this before we went on a two week trip, but before we left, these are some of the things we did for CC Cycle 1 week 2, followed by 2 weeks of relaxed unschool adventures on a road trip to Conneticut.

For history we made the second tablet engraved with commandments 6-10, to go with the first tablet we made in week 1 using crayola air dry clay.  The kids made up their own actions to go with the song.

 We also did more picture study from the Art History text that featured clay pots, mud bricks/buildings, jewelry, votive statues, and the beginning of visual narrative in artwork from the Fertile Crescent/Assyria. 

  

For science we used our nature notebooks and made a page for each of the 5 Kingdoms of Living Things. For Animalia they made a collage, cutting out pictures from magazines, animal stickers, stamps and drawings.
 

 For Plantae we each made a page full of illustrated plants, trees, flowers etc.

Fungi was a fun one.  We made mushroom prints.  The kids went on the hunt for some fungi outside and we stamped our various fungi samples in ink and stamped them on the page experimenting with different patterns.

For Protista I pulled up a google image and we replicated the protists.  We used green glitter glue to fill in the blob shapes...algae or slime mold I guess...

kind of looks like a page of snot lol! And finally for Monera we made a page where we just used our fingertips covered in ink to stamp little circle stands and clusters.  This one is by my 5 year old.  Not that exciting to look at but they thought it was fun.

The kids LOVED the project and are proud of every page, even though it's simple! But I think they are proud because they know what those words they learned in their science memory work actually mean and put them in context in a fun easy way that I think/hope they will always remember.  

When we were at the beach last week they were excited to point out things and identify which kingdom it belonged to.  We had to google muscles and clams and my daughter was right, they are in Animalia.  The only thing my son couldn't find was Monera but I assured him it was there!  Probably a lot of it in the rotting crab leftovers from the seagulls and the murky water in the marsh that smelled like sulfur when we explored back in there when the tide was out observing crabs scurrying around and eating little bait fish.  And especially certain there was a good amount of Monera (bacteria) in that area when a ranger came over just to make sure people know the muscles aren't safe to eat from that area!  

So we were 2 weeks in and then took a 2 week break for this  trip.  We unschooled at the beach. They were learning so much on this trip and enjoying being outside every possible second.  We were in Madison, CT and the weather was perfect the whole time and the water warm enough I even got in!!! I don't get in the water a lot of the years we've been going because it's cold but it was just slightly cool and refreshing.  Hubby and I definitely took advantage of the kids having lots of quality time with their grandparents and got to recharge our batteries going out to breakfast, taking long walks around the entire town, kayaking, hanging on the beach and just enjoying our littlest one a little extra as he turned TWO while we were there and it's gone by so fast!  Having family around to enjoy the kids is a luxury we don't get to enjoy very often as we live on the opposite side of the country!  

Here the kids are crabbing, when the tide goes out they crack open muscles with a rock, tie it on the end of a little fishing line and drop it down into the openings between the rocks where there are little tide pools.  After collecting crabs in the bucket they dump them out in the sand and have a crab race to see which crabs get back to the ocean the fastest.  They learned to all about this fun activity from another little girl my daughter met there last year and they have been own pals and thankfully, they were able to see eachother again for 2 days while we were there.  Her once a year beach friend pen pal!  Being pen pals with her beach friend and her cousin is definitely part of our language arts as it's such an easy and fun way to work in spelling, grammer, punctuation and neatness!

The kids learned how to cast and reel, I was amazing at how quickly they could easily cast it way out!  But no fish.  Dad and Grampa kept catching fish every time we happened to not be around them ... Or maybe they were just fish stories!!! Lol

The kids started their first business.  First J made flower, herbs and grass soup from yard clippings.

And made a lovely presentation...

Grampa was a good sport and tasted it and then convinced her to taste it.  It looked pretty but after a taste she was onto the next thing...setting up a shop selling cool rocks, sea shells and fresh flowers from the yard

Business was decent due to a nice mail lady, elderly gentleman and supportive parents and grandparents...but when things slowed down they learned that it's hard to sell something that people can go get for free 30 steps away.  A lesson in supply and demand.  So they upgraded to an ice tea and lemonade stand and it was, in my daughters own words, "A SUCCESS!"  She sure was willing to go the extra mile for her customers as she told them she's open til 9 and she can also deliver on her scooter, no extra charge...which everyone had to chuckle at the thought of a cup of lemonade being delivered on a scooter.

They learned about being resourceful when they wanted a sign for the shop. No poster board available but paper plates and fishing line come easy at a beach cottage!  The also got some practice in making change and an economics lesson.  She did pretty good with her sales and tips and we reminded her that stores don't get the things they sell for free.  Even a little calculator from the dollar store, the manufacturer needed those buttons, and what about the plastic casing? And the computer and battery inside that makes it function? And they had to pay a person to make it. So hardly anyone can sell something for pure profit because there are costs in doing business.  So she asked her grandparents how much she owed them for the lemonade she used since they bought it and they said 25 cents would be fine so she paid back one of her quarters and asked how much for the plastic cups? So she was understanding the various costs involved but we said they were on the house, literally... the house had a big supply of plastic cups when we arrived!  It was a spontaneous, organic lesson that got her thinking about how businesses operate but was gentle enough.  She didn't mind paying 1 quarter out of the bowl full of dollar bills and change she had earned.  Since then, she has had more questions about the ins and outs of running a business and at the grocery store will remember "oh yeah so the store isn't really getting $7 from that because they had to spend money to buy it and they have to pay the people that work here and probably have to pay for the building and stuff I wonder how much they really make?" 

Another afternoon during the baby's nap we just had been at the beach all morning so we had a quiet time in the living room doodling on the floor while listening to Children of The New Forest on the Audible app on my phone.  

And I will say, my kids are pretty good with extended creative play together but after this trip, at that old 95 year old beach cottage that is so simple and easy and technology free other than the adults cell phones, the kids ability for creative play now is like seriously impressive ...to me at least I can only compare to what I know but we decided to do the drive home in one day which ended up being 15 hours and we only stopped once for an hour at chik fil a and then just quick restroom and gas stops.  We went about 6-7 hours before I decided to put a video on in the car because my newly turned 2 year old was needing some distraction and when I put it on the kids were enjoying the game they had been playing for the past several hours they agreed not to watch the video and keep playing.  After that it was getting late and I put on a Disney movie and then the babe fell asleep.  After we finally got him asleep we let the kids each play minecraft for about 15 minutes to keep the car quiet so baby wouldn't wake up from their toys doing whatever in their game.  Then we took the phone back and put on some peaceful music and they talked/played quietly until they fell asleep which is where the only fight occurred.  When my son got to be almost asleep he got upset that his sisters leg was touching him, barely.  I told him he always snuggles her in his sleep and he didn't believe me so after his little stink about her leg barely grazing his, he quickly passed out and before you know it he's snuggling into his sister, we had to laugh...after all that fuss about not touching her, he was completely snuggled into her.  My husband and I were seriously impressed and thankful with their hours and hours of creative play with no fights for that long in the car.  We got in late last night and today, they picked their game up right where they left off, but first started by building castles with moats (play silks) filled with alligators (green blocks) and surrounded by knights (the black blocks)  the main characters are my daughters Rapunzle and Flynn Ryder dolls and my son has a GI Joe Ninja and transforming Dino Robots....I'm not sure what the storyline is but it must be really fun! Lol

And then it came full circle back to their CC science week 2 memory work when they discovered all kinds of Fungi that had popped up in the woods while we were away.  We ended up going on a scavenger hunt to see how many different kinds we could find.  There were so many interesting, strange and pretty varieties.  The kids couldn't believe the vastly different shapes, sizes, textures and colors they kept coming across.  We ended up going back inside to grab the camera and go back and photograph some of our favorite finds.  Even my 24 month old was joining in pointing and saying "fungi!"  

See the huge fungi in front of him?  I looked like a turtle shell, it even had an opening where it looks like it tucked it's head in to hide.

My daughter also found these treasures while out studying Fungi today. The middle feather is from a blue jay, the bottom one we think a woodpecker and we still need to find who the long yellow and light brown feather belongs to... But we know they all belong to the Kingdom Animalia ;) thank you fun CC memory work.  I wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it and as you can see it really is a great fun way to strew little bits of knowledge that can spark new interests and learning beyond the time we learn the new material.  

And since this short blog turned super long I will end with a story about one our moments on the trip that didn't go so well.  We went to Five Guys and the babe was crying that he hurt his fingers right when we left relatives house and we couldn't figure out what he did...until we arrived and were waiting inline to order I noticed some little blisters on the tips if his fingers and figured out that whip he and the kids were playing in the living room, we were in the kitchen right next to them but didn't see what happened, I realized he must have touched the light bulb on the lamp.  So we went to the table and put his fingers in the cup of cold water and he immediately was happier but in the meantime, the kids are focused on me helping the Babe with his fingers and my son accidentally spills his full cup of ice water all over the table.  Ok accidents happen my hubby goes and gets a bunch if napkins and cleans it all up.  He comes back and almost sits down when the baby suddenly reaches for the condiment cup of ketchup and it flies towards him and lands on the chair splattering everywhere.  My hubby gets more napkins and cleans that mess up and then is getting to his hair to sit down when our daughter whose a gymnast randomly does some fancy gymnastics salute at the table and sends her full cup if ice water flying everywhere.  My husband gets a S-ton more napkins and again cleans up as I'm still helping the baby with his sore fingers.  He comes back with our food and sets it down and I catch the bag before it falls and knocks over my water... We look at eachother like holy crap is this really happening!?!? Then my hubby gets everything situated and FINALLY sits down and SQUISH!!!  The first cup of water spilled had run off the table onto that seat and we didn't notice because it went everywhere!  So he was sitting in a puddle of ice water!  I mean at that point, what do you do?  Just laugh it off and eat your food and don't worry if looks like you wet your pants when you get up to walk out if the place.  For all the times things go well, there will always be times when randomly we get to be the spectacle that leaves people thinking who knows what!  Or maybe it's just a thing with us and Five Guys....one time my son thought the fire alarm was a dispenser for those little white notecards they draw on and the alarm was so flippin loud the place cleared out completely and they told us we couldn't leave til the fire department came and shut it off.  That was also quite fun!!!! Really!!! NOT!!!  The good news was I put some Lavendar on baby's fingers and he was fine the next morning!  I always bring Lavendar and peppermint with me.  Use the Lavendar in the car to help keep things calm and relaxed and then use the peppermint on the hubby and I when were start getting a headache  or just need a pick me up.  Sometimes I rub a little on his neck and shoulders while he's driving.  Sometimes it comes in handy to rub on our tummies if we are feeling rotten after eating out.   

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.