Morning Time and Group Studies - Fall 2015

So now we come down to the REAL nitty gritty: curriculum choices we've made for this year.  You can see where each of these segments fit in to our daily routine here and some of the rationale behind our choices in the Reflections on Relationship series (index here).

Our Morning Time is fairly pared back this year from previous years.  We have moved poetry and memory work to each child's individual time with Mom as we found that this works best for our family dynamics. We've also dropped French almost entirely for now.  French studies have never gone smoothly for us, I think at least in part because it's been a little bit of an emotionally-charged, feeling-the-pressure sort of situation since we "have to learn it because we live in French-speaking Africa" rather than a delight or particular interest of anyone involved.  So while we are away from Africa, we're taking a break from French too.  We'll re-evaluate that plan when we have a better idea of our future plans.  So far, this simplified Morning Time is going really well.  I had planned this to take up to 45 minutes, 15 minutes on each topic, but very often we finish in less than that (which helps especially on those mornings that we start a bit late).  Michelle and James are expected to listen and participate fully (by narrating), Elizabeth is required to sit with us and listen but not to narrate unless she wants to.


Devotional: Reading from Starr Meade's Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds (based on the Heidelberg Catechism), Prayer, and singing a Psalm (a fairly new practice for us - we are using the Book of Psalms for Worship as a resource) 

Read-Aloud: We read aloud from one of the following each day, rotating through them on a loop:

Parables from Nature (Gatty) - currently finishing up the chapters scheduled in Year 3, then we'll cycle back through Years 1 and 2 again for the sake of the younger children.  I don't think it will do Michelle any harm to hear them again since they are quite rich and deep.  Her experience of them at age 10 will be quite different than it was at age 7.

One Small Square: Pond (Silver) - with By Pond and River (Buckley) as a follow up when we finish this.  We are doing a pond study as our nature study focus this semester.

The Avion my Uncle Flew (Fisher) - This is our nod to French for this year.  It is a code-switching story that I have heard recommended repeatedly.

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales - from the Year 2 free reads.  I always like to include a fairy tale selection in our group read-alouds.

Ordinarily I would include Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb) in this rotation too, but they are doing Shakespeare at their co-op this year, so I left it out.


Activity: Again, we rotate through one of these each day on a looping schedule:

•  Folksongs (Cherry Ripe, Kookaburra, and the Brahms Lullaby this term)
• Composer Study (Brahms this term)
• Picture Study (Degas this term)
• Map Drill (on the USA this term)
• Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography - trying to include the hands-on demonstrations she mentions in the text when applicable.

Outside of our Morning Time, we also do certain activities like Nature Study and Handicrafts as a group, usually in the afternoons.  A nature outing and time for journaling is scheduled in for Friday afternoon.  Handicraft projects tend to be tackled a little more loosely - I will perhaps introduce new handicrafts on a free afternoon or weekend, and then we'll just work at them here and there as we have time available.   We have the Artistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 curriculum on hand for drawing instruction too, and did do (and enjoy) a few lessons over the summer, but they are also doing a drawing class at our co-op this year....So we'll see how much we use that.  It's available for anyone who would like to use it, but it won't be required since they are getting other drawing instruction elsewhere.

Our evening family time is also done as a group and is our primary Bible instruction time (we don't follow the Ambleside Bible suggestions as we've always preferred to do this as a group).   We sing a hymn, read, narrate, and discuss a short passage from the Bible (currently going through the Old Testament using Marty Machowski's Long Story Short) and pray.  We follow this up with a family literature read aloud, usually pulled from the Ambleside Online Free Reading suggestions.

What does your Morning Time Look like?  What other studies do you pursue as a group?

Summer Term 2014 Morning Tea Time Plans

I know, I know.  The rest of the world is wrapping up their school year for a long glorious break.  But not us.  We couldn't do anything so conventional, now could we?  Truth be told we already took part of our break between multiple public holidays here in the month of May and our lovely vacation, and the thought of taking 2+ months off all at once makes me want to break into hives.  So, we're intending to continue with school until the first week of July (that should put us just about halfway through Ambleside Online Year 2), which will then give us an entire month off before jumping back in around the same time that our local school does in August.

 

At any rate, here are our Tea Time plans for this coming term. (You can read about our inspiration for Tea Time here.)  I've restructured it a little bit, moved a couple of resources I was working through with Michelle individually with our group time, and have also resolved that we will do French this term.  I have been horribly lax about this, as much as I always have good intentions to include it.  Anyhow.  Without any further ado…here are our Tea Time Plans:

 

Daily Nature Notebook

You can read about our daily nature notes here.   I may play around with the format for this a bit during our month off in July.  I'm finding that I am liking things in binder format less and less – binders are clunky and therefore sometimes don't get done because they are a hassle to deal with. 

 

Story of the Week

We will read from one of these books each week, a little bit each day until we finish the story.  These stories are all too long to be read in one sitting. Then we'll rotate through to the next one the following week…and so forth:

• Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne)
• Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb)
• Parables from Nature (Gatty)

 

Poetry Reading and Memory Work

As per the AO Year 2 schedule, our poets this term are Eugene Field and James Whitcombe Riley.  We may also try to sneak in The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning), a year 2 free read. 

 

Poetry Memory Work we have lined up for this term:

• "The Bees' Song" and "Alone" by Walter de la Mare (children's choices from our poet from last term)
•  Dialogue between Theseus and Hippolyta from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 1, Scene 1) by William Shakespeare  (Our Shakespeare memory work is inspired by Ken Ludwig's book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare)
• Towards the end of the term, the children will choose 1 or 2 of their favorite poems from Field and/or Riley for memory work.  (They are loving Eugene Field and we already have several choices bookmarked to choose from!)

 

Topic of the Day

Day 1: Finish up Rainforest Adventure (Banner) and start Outback Adventure (Cromarty)

 

Day 2:  Little Pilgrim's Progress (Taylor)

 

Day 3: Alternate between Picture Study, Composer Study, and Folk Songs

• Picture Study: Our artist this term is Thomas Cole of the Hudson River School.  I snagged my Thomas Cole resources from Brandy's excellent Circle Time post. J
•  Composer Study: We are doing a term of Medieval music: Hildegard von Bingen (using the album "A Feather on the Breath of God"), Gregorian Chants (using the album "Gregorian Chants" by the Monks of the Abbey of , and Medieval instrumental music (using the album "A Dance in the Garden of Mirth").  I thought it would be a change of pace after spending the past year with Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, and also a nice tie-in with Year 2 history which covers the medieval period.  We listen to our music selections over lunch each day (both our composer music and our folk songs).  I also occasionally talk to the children a bit about the music we are listening to during this time – this term I may read a bit to them about Hildegard von Bingen and show them pictures of medieval instruments.  This used to be one of the composer study suggestions on the Ambleside website, but it looks like it has been updated recently to a term specifically focused on Hildegard von Bingen.
•  Folk Songs: Our songs for this term, as per the AO rotation, are "Scarborough Fair", " The Rising of the Moon", and "Barbara Allen".  We actually don't typically do much with our folk songs during tea time, although I may share some of the story behind the song with them.  Sometimes we watch a YouTube video of the song being performed too, although our internet doesn't always cooperate.  Mostly we listen to our playlist of folksongs for the year at lunch time. 

 

Day 4: Visits to Europe (Simply Charlotte Mason) – I have been using this individually with Michelle this past term, but given James' interest in maps and geography, I decided to move it to our group time.  We will primarily complete the map drills orally, although I will have Michelle continue to label a blank map in writing.  We are using the books Hungry Planet and Material World as outlined in the lessons, but not any of the other suggested reading since I greatly prefer AO's geography selections.

 

French

I was very excited when I saw that Speaking French with Miss Mason and Francois was finally available.  I've heard good things from people who have been using the Spanish version and have been eager to give this a try.  We are also hoping to learn some French songs this term: "Alouette", "Frere Jacques", "Tête, Épaules, Genoux, Pieds", and "Un-Deux-Trois, Nous Irons au Bois".  This is a fantastic resource for songs and simple children's stories in French that I have recently discovered.

 

Devotional Time

We prefer to do our Bible/Devotional Time at the beginning and end of the day, rather than during our Tea Time block, but since many people include this time in their group studies time will share our resources here:

 

Morning Prayer Time

• Short reading from Psalms and Proverbs
• Prayer
• Hymns (we are cycling through previously learned hymns for review)

 

Evening Devotional Time

• The Child's Story Bible (Vos)
• Scripture Memory: Matthew 13:44-46, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, John 14:6, Psalm to be    determined
• Catechism for Young Children – we are currently working slowly through the section of questions that go through the Ten Commandments
• Prayer

 

Sunday Reading

• Devotional Choice: Exploring Grace Together (Thompson)
• Christian Hero Biography Choices: The Fate of the Yellow Wood-Bee (Jackson), followed by  Pilipinto's Happiness (Shepherd), and then either John Calvin (Carr) or Gladys Aylward (Benge)

Do you do a group learning time?  What kinds of things do you include?

 

Winter Term 2014 Morning Tea Time Plans

Our sweet friend Carolyn (my "tea friend") made us the heart shaped cookies special for our tea-time one day last week. :) 

 

So…perhaps it is sort of a joke to call it 'winter term', since we are in our hot-dry season here….but we are still technically north of the equator, and 'winter term' sounds better to me than 'hot and dry season term', so there you go.  (Maybe it's a little bit of wishful thinking?  Although I don't think I'd really dig all that sub-zero stuff going on in the Midwest…OK, now I'm just digressing….)

 

You can see some of our inspiration and rationale for our morning tea-time here.  Many people include Bible/hymns/Scripture memory as part of their group time as well, but we do those as a whole family devotional time and the beginning and end of the day.  But I have included what we are using for those subjects here anyhow.  That all said, here are the plans that I have drawn up for this term:

 

Daily Subjects:

Daily Nature Notebook

 

Poetry Reading and Memory Work

Our poet this term (AO Year 2, Term 1) is Walter de la Mare.  We will probably also sneak in The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning) towards the end of the term – this is a Year 2 Free Read.

Poetry I have already selected for memory:

• "A Child's Prayer" (M. Betham-Edwards)
• Bottom's "Dream" Speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 214-225  (taken from the suggestions in Ken Ludwig's How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare) – this will be the third brief Shakespeare speech we have learned, and all three kids love to participate in this.
• We will also be keeping our ears peeled for a poem or two of de la Mare's that we particularly like to memorize later in the term.

 

French or Folk Song

French songs are TBD – I'm waiting on a new resource for this that I ordered and have coming on the Slow Boat. J I'd also like to add some of the French songs that are sung at our church, but need to remember to ask if I can borrow one of the songbooks we use for a week or two.

 

Folk Songs – we are roughly following the AO rotation, but I think are about a term or so off schedule.  This term we are doing The Battle of Otterburn, Wade in the Water, and Down in the Valley.  Folk Songs have been another big, unexpected hit around here.

 

1 Weekly Subject

See Below. J

 

Weekly Subjects:

Day 1

Cultural Geography: Rainforest Adventure by Horace Banner – part of the Adventure series

AND

Composer Study: We are continuing with Beethoven for another term, since our last term got kind of interrupted with the holidays (and there's a lot of ground to cover with Beethoven anyhow).  We have been slowly reading Opal Wheeler's Beethoven biography.  (We aren't really following the AO rotations for composers, although I use their suggestions for inspiration for pieces to focus on.)

OR

Artist Study: Eduard Manet

 

Day 2

Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor

 

Day 3

The Fairy Book by Dinah Maria Mulock

 

Day 4

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit

 

Family Devotional Time:

Scripture Memory:

It's entirely possible we won't get through all of these this term, but we will continue through them until we've learned them all and then I'll choose new things to work on. J

Books of the Old Testament

Matthew 5:14-16

Psalm 63

2 Timothy 3:16-17

John 14:6

 

Catechism for Young Children:

We are currently on Question 66, and typically get through 10-15 questions in a term, depending on the length and complexity of the answers.

 

Hymns:

We've been learning hymns since Michelle (now 8) was only 4, so we have quite a few under our belts.  Rather than choose any new hymns this term, we are going to spend this term cycling back through all the hymns we've already learned, one each week.

 

Scripture Reading:

In the morning, we read a portion of Psalms and Proverbs.

In the evening, we are reading from Catherine Vos' A Child's Story Bible.

 

Sunday Reading Choices:

God's Promises and God's Providence (Michael)

John Calvin and/or John Owen (Carr)

Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime (Benge)

Amy Carmichael: The Hidden Jewel (Jackson)

Pilipinto's Happiness (Shepard)

 

Morning Tea-Time Plans: Fall 2013

One thing that has sort of eased its way into our schedule over the past few months, and that I think is now here to stay, is Circle Time.   I first heard of the concept from Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace back when my oldest was just a preschooler.   More recently I have been inspired by Brandy and Cindy and their take on Circle Time. 

 

For us, ‘Circle Time’ has taken the form of a Morning Tea-Time, breaking up the rest of our school time into two blocks.  I make a little pot of some lovely, fruity flavor of herbal tea (I add a little cold water to the cups of my littles to cool it off faster and a bit of honey as well) or sometimes hot chocolate, we break out a packet of ordinary store-bought cookies (if tea-time depended on me baking we’d never have it), the kids make themselves cozy spots on the couch and chairs with their pillows and blankets if they want, and we spend some time reading together.  My primary student is 7.5 year old Michelle, but this is the time of the morning when I strive to include my two preschoolers as well (James age 5 and Elizabeth age 3-1/2).   While they certainly don’t ‘connect’ with the material we are covering to the same degree that Michelle does, they do connect with more than you might think.  They also think it is special to be included in ‘tea time’, and at the same time they are being trained in attention (or at least non-disruption!) and slowly eased into the expectations that will be placed on them as they join the ranks of ‘official students’ in our homeschool over the next couple of years.

One of last week's tea trays: 3 hot chocolates for kids, 1 Fruits Rouges flavour herbal tea for mom, and a couple of packets of Parle-G biscuits.  (Parle-G biscuits are ubiquitous here and taste a bit like graham crackers.)

 

Anyhow, this is what is on our Tea-Time schedule for this fall term:

 

Daily Nature Notes: We quickly make notes in our family nature notebook about anything interesting we may have noticed recently – new flowers or birds, weather, or whatever.  This gives us a month-by-month record, as well as giving us a place to record things we may want to look up or study more in depth later on.  (I’m hoping to do another post soon on how our nature study time has been working this year.)

 

Poetry:  We read a poem or two from our current poetry book (right now A Child’s Own Book of Verse, Volume 2) and recite our current memory poem (as well as reciting an review memory poem or two.)

 

Current Events: We subscribe to God’s World News magazine (specifically Early Edition for first and second graders).  Each day we read an article, find places on the map, and possibly talk about it a little bit if it sparks a connection or particular interest.

 

French: Right now we are using a very simple Bible story book: Ma première Bible en images.  We read the short story, talk about new vocabulary, sometimes act it out or find the objects mentioned in the picture.   Each story ends with a simple question, which I will ask and see if they can answer.  (They aren’t anywhere near ready to narrate something in French yet, although that would be the goal!)   This is one area I’d like to expand a bit on (songs, conversation), but that part of my planning didn’t come together in time for this term so it’s a goal for next.

 

Once a Week Items: In addition to the above items that we do daily, we also do one of the following each day:

            Natural History or Geography Read-Aloud: currently Find the Constellations by HA Rey.  The intention for this slot is that it will be an opportunity to add in those “extra” books and topics that I want to cover somehow, but aren’t included in the AO schedules.

 

            Pilgrim’s Progress: Inspired by Brandy’s rotation schedule, since this is a staple AO Years 2 and 3.   We are currently reading an illustrated, abridged version  (Dangerous Journey) which I added to AO Year 1 for Michelle since we’d already read Aesop’s Fables.   All three kids have been enjoying it, though, so I decided to keep it in our group time.  When we’re done with this, we will proceed through Little Pilgrim’s Progress and then on through the real thing just as Brandy described.

 

            Artist Study: See AO’s Artist Study info here.   We are currently a little bit behind the ‘official’ rotation, and are studying Georges Seurat this term.

 

            Composer Study: We listen to our current composer, Bach, during lunch and chore time, but during this slot we might take the time to go a little deeper – reading a biography, talking about the background of a certain piece, listening to a Classics for Kids radio program.  (Read more about Composer Study here.  We aren’t really making an effort to follow AO’s Composer Study rotation, however – I’m choosing my own based on the resources I already have available to me. Once upon a time, I WAS a music major…)

 

            Shakespeare:  Shakespeare retellings are another staple of AO Years 1-3.   All three of my children have enjoyed the couple of selections we have read so far, so I decided to keep this in our group reading time also.   We are currently working through Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, breaking each story up over 2-3 weeks.   (I could say more, but perhaps that’s another post in the making?)

 

We don’t do our Bible related things (Scripture memory, Bible reading, catechism, hymns) during this time, since we do those at the breakfast table.  Altogether, this tea-time takes us 30-40 minutes and is one of the things that I love most about homeschooling.    I would miss this cuddle-up-and-sharing time if my kids were gone at school all day!  (And when was the last time that you visited a school that included morning tea-time as part of the classroom line up?)

 

 

Anyone else do Circle Time?  I’d love to see how you do it too!