A Little About School, Part 2

I also wrote this in the pre-dawn hours, and dedided to break it off from the last post so that it would be slightly more readable and not so hopelessly long.


As for the rest of what we're doing academically, I've been meaning to post something about it, and now seems like as good a time as any.

Art - We are still officially using Drawing with Children, and when we do, the kids are extremely satisfied with their results, which are indeed pretty impressive. In reality, though
I just don't have the time to have drawing lessons consistently. If the little boys are occupied, if everything lines up just right and all is peaceful and harmonious, a drawing
hour is fantastic. Otherwise it can be rather stressful - kids end up yelling and each other, and a frazzled mom will end up just asking everyone to draw what they like.
We haven't done too many drawing lessons yet this year! But we have done a couple of projects from Discovering Great Artists, and that is a neat resource. I don't own it, though,
and have to get it from the library when we want to use it. For art appreciation, we are using Child-Sized Masterpieces, and even the little boys love to play matching games with
the postcards. I wish I could say we had a neatly planned rotation each week of drawing and art appreciation, but usually it's pretty haphazard.

Bible - We are reading from 2 Samuel each night, and a chapter in Proverbs daily (as close as we can to daily, at any rate). AWANA at church has been postponed until at
least after the first of the year, but the kids were so happy to be allowed to take their respective new books home anyway, and they're studying sections from them each day.
They may even be allowed to quote sections to their leaders on Sundays if they like. So this takes the edge of their dissapointment, as well as covers our Bible memory for the
year. I'm also having all of them, including the little ones, continue to learn the Catechism. The little boys are still in the first section, titled "God," Drew is in "The Fall of Man," and Aimee
is in "God's Plan of Salvation." This is just a series of questions and answers, but the kids actually enjoy it.

Crafts - This is by far my weakest subject! :-) Every once in awhile we do a project from the history book, or I'll do something from with the little boys from one of the craft
books we have. Usually we just resort to drawing, painting, and play dough. Actually my favorite kinds of hands-on projects are cooking and baking ones!

Geography - We still like "Geography Songs" and "States and Capitals" songs, both by Kathy Troxel. We look things up on the globe a good deal and sometimes check books
about countries that correspond to whatever we're studying in history. Again, we're going for simple exposure here, not yet any carefully planned studies.

Grammar - We use First Language Lessons at the appropriate age levels. It's a little dry, but thorough, and the lessons are fairly short, so it's not an hour's worth of boredom.

Handwriting - Aimee is working on cursive, using Classically Cursive, which I love because she copies things like books of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the Catechism.
I generally let her go at this on her own, and her handwriting is turning out quite nicely. Drew is still printing, and needs more help than Aimee did or does, but I'm not too concerned with
this area at this stage with him. I have a handwriting practice book (we do the modern manuscript style) that I'll have him use very occasionally when it seems he needs practice
with a particular letter, but generally, I just have him do some grammar copywork a couple times a week, and I think his handwriting is at least adequate for his age.

History - We are still going through the Story of the World, but also planning to put a little more emphasis on the corresponding American History timeline as we go. How could
we spend just one week on pioneer history? I plan to keep our library basket stocked full of pioneer fiction and non-fiction for the next few week, as well as do lots of pioneer cooking
and a few pioneer crafts (catch the theme?). In general, the kids LOVE history, and will happily read and read and read and read and read about whatever we happening to be studying.

Latin - Aimee and I began Latina Christiana late in the school year last year, but it didn't go very well. When we started it again at the beginning of this school year, we had much
more success, and she enjoys, for the most part, learning new vocabulary. The other kids like to join in sometimes, too.

Math - Our Big Bad Subject. Well, only for some of us. Aimee is in Saxon 54, Drew is in Saxon 3, and after much begging, Ryan is dabbling in Saxon 1. Aimee and I struggle
with learning this together, although I believe she doesn't have as much trouble actually understanding it as she does getting past the fact that I have to be the one teaching it
to her. It's not that she doesn't like me personally, but we do have a tendency to butt heads over school. And she probably would do better with a different curriculum, I fully admit. I just on't know how well I would do teaching her some of the methods I've seen. We used Saxon growing up, but my mom did something different with my youngest sister, using Cuisenaire rods, and it didn't make much sense to me. I tend to see things much better in black-and-white, whatever the cost. And we all know Saxon can be tortuous at times, so sometimes the cost is rather high in frustration, but I do think it's worth it in the end, and Aimee has cleared a couple hurdles even recently that have made things a little smoother. Drew, meanwhile, is cruising along with little help (for which I'm very grateful). He's got to be the kind of kid Saxon math was designed for, the kind who actually asks for more fact sheets and enjoys every second of the counting exercises.

Memory - Most of this is incorporated into other subjects. We are, as I mentioned already, memorizing the Catechism and Bible verses. For history, the kids are memorizing the American
presidents right now as well as the Gettysburg Address. First Language Lessons (grammar) provides poems at regular intervals, and both Aimee and Drew have a handful each per year that they learn.

Music - I am giving Aimee piano lessons and Drew violin lessons. I think I can handle Aimee's lessons for a couple of years, after which she can decide she's had enough or wants to continue,
in which case we can get her an actual piano teacher. Drew's lessons I can handle for several years, since the violin is actually my instrument.

Reading - We do a great deal of it! I get recommendations from The Story of the World activity book, as well as from the age-appropriate Sonlight and Veritas Press lists, which I
recently spent some time putting into chronological order. Most of these are histoical fiction and are regarded by the kids as "fun reading." If they need any incentive, which they rarely do, we are doing the Pizza Hut Book It! program this year, and I use that toward Aimee and Drew's required reading. For actual "fun reading" - i.e. books other than those we officially use for school, but that usually still qualify as good literature - there are no end of choices, of course, and the older ones, both of whom are strong readers, always have a book (or two) that they're reading for their own enjoyement.Ryan is just learning to read this year, and is having fun with the Bob Books. I have the Veritas Press Phonics Museum, which I do love, but so far have used only on occasion with Ryan, as he seems to be doing just fine with the Bob Books at the moment.

Spelling - We use the Spelling Workout books, just to make sure we're officiallly going over the fundemental spelling rules, but my philosophy is that if they can spell...well then, they
can spell! I don't see a need to make a big deal about this, and spelling seems to come pretty naturally to the kids. Aimee likes to work in the workbook, so I let her, but Drew hates it, so
recently we skipped about 10 lessons in a day with an impromptu spelling bee that proved he already knew the words from those lessons.

Science - The subject is next to my weakest probably, but I hide behind the classical theory that serious science study is not necessary in the grammar stage. We do experiments now and then, continually observe nature, learn animal husbandry hands-on, etc., and when the kids are interesting in something, they check books out at the library on the subject. We do go through
stages that last a few weeks, in which we will reguarly do "science," and we follow the repeating four-year guideline in The Well-Trained Mind - biology, physical science, chemistry, and physics. Being on the physics year, we've done a little with electricity recently, and we'll be moving on to magnets next. As we start the cycle over next year, we'll probably be a little more
organized about it all, but since they're all so young, I haven't stressed over anything yet.

More than you ever needed to know?