Homeschool

An Advent Routine

I’ve finally settled into a nice routine with our daily Advent activities. For a while, I felt like I was floundering, trying to fit everything in, yet trying not to cram it all into the same 30 minutes every day!

The first thing Turkey and Bunny do each morning, right after they get up, is open the door on their Lego Advent Calendar. Now, I realize that this is a secular calendar, and isn’t technically an “Advent” calendar, but rather a “Count-the-days-in-December-leading-up-to-Christmas” calendar, but I still think it’s useful. They’re working on being patient and waiting, (a main theme of Advent), which, around here, and especially with Legos, is no small thing. They’re only allowed to open one door each day, there’s no peeking ahead…they have to wait. So, even though Lego’s dates may not match the church’s, it is still a useful tool during the season of Advent. (We’re also doing something similar with paper chains we made, which also don’t count down all of the days in Advent, because I didn’t get my act together soon enough!)

First thing after breakfast, we do our Jesse Tree. This involves a Scripture reading, (or, on some days, readings), a reading from the Jesse Tree book, and the hanging of the ornament on the tree. This needs to be done right away after breakfast to make sure we have time for it before I have to take Moose to school. I actually like this so much, I may try to do our daily religion lessons at this time, even after Advent. I always feel bad that he has to miss out on religion time, (even though he does have plenty of other Bible exposure here at home), and if we can be dedicated, I think that this is at least one part of our school that he can be a part of.

After Moose is taken to his school, we have our school time, which always has some kind of Christmas component, in addition to regular schoolwork. This may included additional Bible readings, (and copywork/dictation/handwriting practice of those readings), the reading of Bible storybooks, reading other Christmas books, and a craft of some sort. These activities can be more secular in nature–we read classic Christmas stories such as the Grinch, in addition to Bible stories, and while some of our crafts may have a Bible-theme, like handprint angels, some are just for fun, like beaded ornaments and wreaths. But, in addition to learning, we’re still preparing for Christmas in some way, even when doing our schoolwork.

Right after Moose gets home from school, we do our day’s reading from Tabitha’s Travels, (or Jotham’s Journey or Bartholomew’s Passage, depending on the year). This was the thing I always struggled with the most. Ideally, according to the book, it should be done at Advent wreath time, and I really tried to make it work. There were two problems with this, however. First, the children’s attention span for the reading, (which lasts about 20 minutes or so each day), plus evenings prayers was being stretched way too thin. In addition, if we did the full prayers and reading while the Advent candles were lit, there’s no way the candles would last through the season! I’ve also tried doing the reading after prayers, before bed, but by then, especially on late nights after midweek worship or whatever other Christmas activity we have, we’re all too tired to care. So, after school works out the best. To be frank, Moose probably wouldn’t mind missing out on this reading, but it’s important to me that he be here for it, so I don’t do it earlier in the afternoon, even though I could.

Our last Advent activity of every day, (except Wednesdays, when we have the midweek service at church), is the lighting of the Advent Wreath, and the saying of prayers. This is the one time of year where we make sure we make time for “long prayers;” the rest of the year, we often allow ourselves to be too rushed, and often just do a short family prayer. In addition to the prayers, we also sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” every night as the candles are being lit, and often sing the Doxology at the end of the prayers, just before the candles are snuffed out.

I’m really happy with our Advent rituals, as they’ve developed over the years. It’s something we look forward to all year-long, it’s familiar and comforting when we begin doing these things at the beginning of every Advent season, and it really helps us keep our focus on Christ as we get closer to Christmas, even with all of the busyness of the season. And spreading things out through the day helps make it a constant reminder of why we celebrate Advent, and keeps us from getting burnt out from trying to do it all at once every day!

Third Grade: Christmas School

I won’t be doing my usual weekly updates until after the first of the year, because we’re not using our regular curriculum this month. Instead, we’re doing “Christmas School,” compiled by yours truly.

This year’s approach to Christmas School is a bit different. Ever since we started homeschooling, we’ve done “Christmas Around the World,” and learned about traditions and legends in other countries, sampled some foods from around the world, made some very unique crafts, and attempted to learn to say “Merry Christmas” in other languages. We’ve learned about some new countries every year, and learned about some countries every year, (like Germany, both because of our cultural heritage, and because so many Christmas traditions are German in origin).

This year, because we’re studying American history, we’re learning about Christmas throughout America’s history, starting with the Puritans in the 1600s, (which was not very exciting to learn about!), and going to the present day. We’ll have a special emphasis on Christmas in colonial times, pioneer days, the turn of the century, the Great Depression, and World War II.

I did manage to find plenty of books, both for reading aloud, and for putting in our book basket, (which has actually turned into a bookshelf for this unit, because all of the books wouldn’t fit in the basket!), but coming up with craft projects and recipes has been more difficult. Some of the crafts I decided upon are paper chains, button ornaments, and tissue paper wreaths. We’ll also be learning about some American Christmas carols/hymns, (although there aren’t many), and maybe trying a few new recipes. Movies will be an important part of this year’s Christmas unit, as well, from the American Girl movies,(which depict Christmas at different times through history), to some American Christmas standards, that everyone should see at least once, (the jury is still out on It’s a Wonderful Life, as I’m one of the few Americans who hates that movie!). And, while we always visit St. Charles for the Christmas Traditions festival every year, this year it will be especially helpful to us in looking back at what Christmases past looked like!

This is always a special time of year for our family and for our school. It’s fun to do things differently for a few weeks…as much as I love homeschooling, it can become monotonous, just like anything else can. And the children don’t even realize they’re learning half the time when we’re having Christmas school–they just think it’s fun!

Third Grade: Week Thirteen Wrap-Up

This week, we got to enjoy one of my favorite features of Adventures in My Father’s World–a week-long Thanksgiving unit.

This is something that I’ve done every year, anyway. But it was nice to have everything planned out for me for a change. Some of the books were new to us, (somehow we had never read The Thanksgiving Story, even though we have enjoyed the sister book, The Fourth of July Story), and we also used some old favorites (all of the Kate Waters books about colonial children). Some of the crafts were new, (somehow, we had managed to never make woven construction paper placemats before!), some we had done before, (hand and footprint turkeys are a yearly must around here), and some we had done before and skipped doing this time, (we didn’t feel like making paper grocery bag Indian vests again).

There were even dedicated science lessons for this week. There were estimating and measuring assignments, and I added the book From Seed to Pumpkin, particularly for Ladybug’s benefit, so we could see the life cycle of the pumpkin. There was even a fun experiment for discovering the density of a pumpkin, as well as growing your own plant using the pumpkin seeds from the previous estimating and measuring experiments.

I love that this was incorporated right into our school year. The unit is designed to be done whenever necessary in your school year, (although it is labeled as week 13, and is arranged in that spot in the teacher guide), whether you start earlier in the year, and so need to delay the Thanksgiving study, or if you start later, and need to do it even closer to the beginning. The flexibility of this program is another big must!

I wish that My Father’s World could find a way to add a similar Christmas unit to one of their programs. I’m thinking that their global curriculum, Exploring Countries and Cultures, would be the perfect opportunity to learn about Christmas around the world, (and would offer a nice counter-option to Winter Promise’s Children Around the World program, which does have such a unit). While I also create a Christmas unit every year, it would be fun to look at it with fresh eyes, and get some new ideas that I might otherwise overlook, or never think of at all!

What We’re Reading–Thanksgiving

I know I mentioned most of these books in my third grade reading list earlier this year, but there have been some additions, and I thought it would be helpful to have our Thanksgiving selections listed together in one place!

Third Grade: Week Nine Wrap-Up

Sorry I’m a day late. An unexpected doctor’s appointment yesterday got in the way.

I’ve really been enjoying our history lessons for the last few weeks. We’ve been learning about people and events leading up the American Revolution. Last week was Ben Franklin, this week George Washington, Paul Revere, and the Boston Tea Party. I think that this is my favorite time period in American history, which makes it really fun for me to teach.

As a teacher, whether in a public, private, or home school setting, you’re simply not going to enjoy every single thing you teach. Even within a favorite subject, there could be certain topics that bore you, or that you don’t completely grasp, or that you just don’t like. And what about subjects you really don’t like? It’s unavoidable, although it’s important not to let on to your students when you don’t like a subject, because they’ll pick up on it and potentially mimic it. That’s why it’s so important to really embrace the subjects you love, and have fun with teaching them. It’s helps mitigate the mundane, yet necessary things that also need to be taught, and shows your students how much you love learning, too!

Third Grade: Week Eight Wrap-Up

Something that’s very important to constantly pay attention to and evaluate when homeschooling is whether or not your curriculum is still working for you. It can be easy to pick something and think you’re stuck with it long-term, but this isn’t the case. I am not by any means encouraging curriculum-hopping, because I think consistency is important, and if you hop around too much, you may manage to miss important lessons and skills. But you shouldn’t be a slave to your curriculum, either–it’s supposed to work for you, not the other way around.

I’ve had to switch a few things up in the three-plus years I’ve been homeschooling. The first switch came at the end of our first year–Kindergarten–when I realized that our Language Arts program was moving too slowly for Turkey and Bunny, and they needed a more advanced program. I learned a similar lesson with a spelling curriculum we were using last year. I also changed our core curriculum after last year, because we needed something more hands-on than Sonlight offered us.

Now that we’re almost a quarter of the way through third grade, I’ve realized that I need to make a change again. We’ve been using, and liking, Horizons math. I’ve realized lately, though, that the level we’re using isn’t providing enough of a challenge for Turkey and Bunny. Yes, new concepts are being introduced, but they’re mastering them almost immediately. And while Turkey likes math so much that he doesn’t mind doing the same thing over and over, Bunny is bored to tears. She will take forever to complete a lesson, not because she hasn’t learned the material, but because she is so bored with doing the same things.

So, I sat down and evaluated the scope and sequence of Horizons fourth grade math. Frankly, I don’t know why I’ve been so reluctant to do it before. Homeschooling allows a wonderful flexibility in choosing appropriate, challenging materials that children need. Yes, there are things that we haven’t learned yet that they’ll need to know. But, there’s also plenty of opportunity for review at the fourth grade level. So, I made the decision to teach a few more key concepts from the third grade book, and then move ahead to the fourth grade books. At the worst, we discover it’s too advanced, and move back to third grade, and keep the other materials for next year. But, I’m hopeful that this will provide the additional challenge they need–the last thing I want is to give them the impression that school is boring, when one of the big benefits of homeschooling is supposed to be fostering a love of learning!

Third Grade: Vacation Week

Not a whole lot to report, as we took the week off. We were supposed to take next week off, after we had finished eight full weeks of school, (I don’t even know why I chose eight–a full quarter of nine weeks would have made more sense!), but we had some other things cancelled this week, so it felt right to just have a week off from everything!

As a homeschooler, it’s easy to “forget” to take time off. Frankly, my children would rather have school than not. They just don’t burn out that easy. As the teacher, though, I really need a break every now and again, or I *will* burn out. So, I make sure to schedule regular time off. We usually end up taking off full weeks like this, instead of a day here and there like the public schools do…it’s just easier for me to keep to a schedule that way.

No matter how you arrange it, though, it’s important to take breaks. Sometimes, for us anyway, these breaks still look like school. In December, for example, we’ll have two to three weeks of “Christmas School.” While we will continue with our regular math and language arts, everything else will be different. To me, this is a break, because we’re doing things we choose to do, (instead of the “have to’s” of curriculum), and we’re doing something different. Just feeling like you’re not “really doing school” is often enough to make even a specialized school unit feel like a vacation!

This week, though, was just about relaxing. Yes, there was still reading time. But aside from that, we had fun. We did puzzles and played games, (which I lost all of, somehow!), and we even watched TV, some of which was educational. There was also a lot of drawing and listening to classical music. So, our house has not been devoid of learning this week, but we did get a break from our usual routine, and I think we’ll all feel refreshed and ready to continue on next week!

Third Grade: Week Six Wrap-Up

This week’s topic is music. Not music lessons, because obviously I’m not qualified to do that, but general knowledge of musical instruments/composers/history and music appreciation. This is one thing I try to make sure we spend time, because it’s something that I didn’t have a lot of exposure to as a child.

This year, we’re using two books that I really like: Those Amazing Musical Instruments! and the Dover Musical Instruments coloring book. Those Amazing Musical Instruments! is a really cool book that goes in-depth for every instrument found in the orchestra (and some that aren’t!). The instruments are arranged by section, starting with strings, and, of course, the first one featured is the violin. There’s information such as how many of each instrument is found in an orchestra, other places you might hear the instruments, (such as a chamber group), the history of the instrument, and its pitch range. There is also an included CD, with several samples featuring each instrument, as well as what their ranges sound like. The photos in this book are excellent, and provide great close-ups of instruments that children might otherwise not get to see.

The Musical Instruments coloring book is a nice accompaniment, (if you’ll pardon the pun), to Those Amazing Musical Instruments! I like that the children have the opportunity to color the instrument they are learning about, and it’s nice to give them something to do with their hands while they’re listening to the music samples. Each picture also has a caption, which reinforces what they’ve learned about the instrument, whether something about its use, construction, or history.

In the past, I’ve used two other books that I also really like. Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin gives children a very basic introduction to the instruments found in an orchestra, and also reinforces counting skills. This is an especially good book to read with small children. The illustrations are excellent, and even just using words, children are able to get an idea of what the different instruments sound like.

The Story of the Orchestra is somewhat similar to Those Amazing Musical Instruments!, in that they both come with a CD, and they both cover the different orchestral instruments. The Story of the Orchestra, however, also goes into detail about specific composers, so many of the samples on the CD are grouped not by instrument, but by time period and composer. Because they are grouped by time period, it also gives a good general overview of music history, as well.

Of course, you can’t learn about music without listening to it, and I have some favorites in that area, as well. My very favorite CDs are the Classical Kids Collection, volumes one and two, (plus A Classical Kids Christmas, when seasonally appropriate). These CDs are, for the most part, arranged by composer, and in addition to giving samples of some of their more well-known works, they also tell a story about the composer and the world in which he lived. I enjoy listening to these as much as the children do, and I can’t believe how much they’ve learned from them!

There’s also Bernstein Favorites: Children’s Classics, which has both “Peter and the Wolf” and “The Carnival of the Animals,” as well as “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” This is another CD which has taught the children a lot. “Peter and the Wolf” is one of the few things I really remember listening to as a child, and it is very useful in identifying musical instruments by what they sound like. I dare anyone to listen to “Peter and the Wolf” without humming it for the rest of the day!

In addition to these, I’d also recommend simply playing CDs of symphonies by some of the greats. For example, we listen to a lot of Tchaikovsky here. We have a CD of the Nutcracker and Symphony No. 4 that is very popular. We also enjoy the 1812 overture (complete version, please), and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6. Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” is also popular, as is anything by Bach, Mozart, or Vivaldi. I also like to include some more “modern” composers in our listening, (although not necessarily officially in our lessons), such as Sousa, Gershwin and John Williams.

Other resources I’ve heard good things about, but haven’t had the chance to use yet include: Beethoven’s Wig; The World’s Very Best Opera for Kids…in English!; Tubby the Tuba; The Farewell Symphony; and The Philharmonic Gets Dressed. The most important thing, though, is making good music available for children to listen to, from a very young age, and talking to them about what they hear and think about when they’re listening to it!

Third Grade: Week Five Wrap-Up

I can’t believe we’ve already completed five weeks of school! This school year is really flying by, (at least for now).

This week, I want to focus on the importance of hands-on activities.

I’ll be upfront, and say that this is the primary reason we switched away from Sonlight–hands-on activities are not an important part of their program, and they’re up-front about that (it is my understanding that they’ve changed that a bit this year, so it’s still worth looking into). I thought I was OK with it at first–I figured I could just add in my own activities. And then I discovered how much work finding and planning all the activities is. So, while I did have plenty of activities for special units, and special days, it really wasn’t a weekly thing for us. You just can’t do it all!

My Father’s World, on the other hand, offers plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning, not only in the history part of their programs, but Bible and science as well. I shared last week the teepees and wigwams Turkey and Bunny made while we were learning about Native Americans. Now, I realize that a lot of people think crafts like this are just busy work, and have no real value in education, but I completely disagree. For example, making the wigwams not only helped Turkey and Bunny visualize what an actual wigwam looks like, it also gave them an idea, on a much smaller scale, of just how difficult it would be to put together a real wigwam.

This week, when doing one of our read-alouds in American Pioneers and Patriots, we read about an oiled paper window in a house. This concept was, naturally, foreign to Turkey and Bunny…windows are glass and nothing else to them. So, we talked about why they would have had paper windows at all, (mainly, a lack of glass), and what the benefit of oiling the paper would be. After our discussion, we took two sheets of paper, and coated one of them in vegetable oil. We then held our two samples up to one of our glass windows, so that we might observe how they are different. It was easy to see that the oiled window let in much more light than the plain paper.

Then the real fun began. We took our regular paper, and put it under the kitchen faucet. It didn’t take long to see that paper and water don’t mix, and only the slightest touch created a huge rip in the “window.” We then repeated the experiment with the oiled paper, and even after it was left under the water for a good length of time, we really had to work to puncture the “window.” This led to a good discussion about the properties of oil and water, and how they interact, (or don’t), and really demonstrated to them why this was the chosen type of window for the Pilgrims. Simply reading about it would not have provided this kind of understanding for them.

The same is true with science. This is one area where Sonlight does offer plenty of hands-on activities and experiments, and even though we’re no longer using that curriculum, I still think that it does a great job of really getting students involved in science. (The DVDs are also a bonus, especially in cases where the experiment doesn’t quite work, usually due to teacher error!)

Beautiful Feet also does a good job in this department, both in the experiments they suggest, and in the books that are part of the curriculum, as there are many hands-on activities in the course of daily readings. For example, this week, as we’re wrapping up our study of Archimedes, we learned about centers of gravity/equilibrium. We then tried balancing different items on our fingertips, as suggested in Archimedes and the Door of Science, ranging from simple pencils and spoons to toys. Turkey and Bunny had a great time predicting where the item needed to be held to balance, (and Turkey, in his future engineer way, was usually right), and then carrying out the experiment.

As you can see, there are many different ways to incorporate hands-on activities, for a wide range of subjects. Sure, sometimes these activities are just for fun, but more often, they’re activities that *are* fun, but are really implemented for the benefits they provide in the learning process.

Third Grade: Week Four Wrap-Up

I’m a day late in posting this, because I wanted to include today’s field trip, which was the conclusion to this week’s history lessons.

We’ve spent this week, (and part of last), learning about Native Americans with Adventures in My Father’s World. It’s been a very fun and informative week, and included some great read-alouds, interesting book basket choices, fun crafts, and the aforementioned field trip. I’m really loving My Father’s World, because not only are there great books as part of the curriculum, they’ve also planned out the crafts for me, which I’m not too good at on my own. It’s easy to just add in field trips where applicable, and really run with the program!

First, our read-aloud books. One of them was new to us–Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims. I think I read this book as a child–it has certainly been around forever! I had a difficult time with the beginning of the book, because it seemed to contradict everything I’ve learned about Squanto. As it turns out, it appears, at least according to this biography, that Squanto traveled to Europe once before he was kidnapped, and that’s the part of the story that confused me. We did get into his kidnapping late this week though, so I felt a little better about the quality of the book we’re reading.

Our second read-aloud was not new to us–North American Indians. I’ve used this book the last two years, for Thanksgiving School. It’s a great overview in the differences between the different groups of Indians in this country, divided by geography. It can’t go too in-depth with any one group, but it really gives a feel for the way different tribes lived, from the homes they lived in to the food they ate.

Our book basket books were also old Thanksgiving School selections, but it was the first time Turkey and Bunny read them on their own, so they were able to glean different information from them this time around. The overwhelming favorite was Native Homes, which shows, as the title suggests, the different dwellings of different Indian tribes. They really enjoyed comparing different homes, (a lot of them are very similar to wigwams), and each had a favorite home style.

They also read If You Lived With the Iroquois. I’m a big fan of this series–we have several titles. It’s written in a Q&A format, and answers all of the down-to-earth questions children have about what it would be like to be a member of this particular nation. It covers everything from how they would bathe, to religious beliefs, to medicine, to holidays and festivals. As an adult, I always learn something from these titles!

The final book basket choice for the week was Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving. Turkey and Bunny actually read this last week, too, as that’s when we started our Squanto read-aloud, but I wanted to make sure they were really familiar with the story. This book gives a good, short summary of the native’s life, with an admittedly strongly Christian slant.

Turkey and Bunny had two crafts this week as well. First, they made construction paper wigwams. This is actually more difficult than it sounds, because of the amount of glue involved. I really think they gained an appreciation for how difficult actually putting together a real wigwam would have been!

They also made a paper teepee. We’ve done this project before, but this time, they really enjoyed decorating their miniature homes. They had a much better understanding of how Indians actually would have decorated their teepees, and included things like pictures of buffalo and other animals.

Finally, we had a field trip to Cahokia Mounds, the largest old Indian settlement north of Mexico. We walked through the Interpretive Center, which has a great display that depicts every aspect of the Mississippian Indians lived, from food preparation to children playing, and everything else you can think of. They were also having a special event, with demonstrations of many different activities, including Atlatl throwing, story telling, and hoop dancing. It was a great day to visit–we all learned a lot!

Pictures don’t really give an adequate idea of just how tall Monk’s Mound is, so you’ll have to take my word for it–it’s enormous! Being afraid of heights, it was a bit of a challenge for me to climb it, especially once I realized just how high up I was! But the view is amazing–you can see the St. Louis skyline, and all of the surrounding area.