Three Plus Two

Week in Review: May 24-31... More Nature Study

Officially, this week was our last week of school.  What this really means is, this is the last week I'm going to make anyone do math or Latin until sometime in July. 

I imagine that the nature study, building, etc. will only continue.

Katydid giving the boys an impromptu class on caterpillars.

We seem to have more butterflies and moths than usual this year, and a really large variety of caterpillars.  Of course, there are the ever present Eastern tent caterpillars:

 

(Katydid took both photos.  She especially liked this close-up.)

We also found two moths we can't identify.

 

This moth is large -- maybe 3 inches long? 

 

A much smaller moth, which we think probably belongs in the tiger moth family given its coloring... but we haven't been able to figure out the actual species. 

(Katydid took both these pictures, too.)

 

Another Katydid picture of a caterpillar... a Black Swallowtail.  We found this one on a parsley plant at the farm where we buy our vegetable plants and flowers every spring.  Since we're moving this year, I resisted the urge to buy any tomato plants, but I did rationalize the parsley by saying I could put it in a pot and take it with me.  The caterpillar was just a bonus science project.

 

Katydid planted all the flowers for me when we got home.

We had a brief incident with the chickadee nest, so no pictures this week... Katydid opened the nest box and two of the fledglings fell out.  She had to pick them up and put them back in the nest box.  "They're the lightest things in the world!" she said.  We do hope they're all right. 

The tree swallow nest also has eggs in it, but the tree swallows are a little more anxious about intruders than the chickadees are.

However, Katydid made an exciting sighting of a pileated woodpecker right outside her window.  Maybe that will make up for the lack of nest pictures.

 

In addition to all the hands-on nature study, we did manage to wrap up our history for the year by reading the John Lackland chapters in Our Island Story, watching Becket (the 1964 movie about Henry II and Thomas Becket starring Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton), and using some of the Story of the World vol. 2 activity sheets I found when I was packing boxes.

 

Farmerboy started working on a coat of arms, which he drew on a shield template included in the activity sheets.

Gareth and Farmerboy both colored a panel from the Bayeux Tapestry, also included in the activity sheets.  This panel is Farmerboy's, which he worked very hard on.

Gareth marched with the Boy Scouts in the Memorial Day parade, Chipmunk came down with a stomach virus, and Farmerboy worked more on his stone wall, especially after we discovered a pamphlet at Agway describing how to build stone walls.  We stood in the store and examined all the diagrams for building a dry stack wall (which is what Farmerboy is building.)  Since we're trying to save money right now (more on that shortly), I didn't buy the pamphlet, which meant that the next day Farmerboy was rather disgusted with me because he wanted to refer to those diagrams, especially after he knocked his wall down so he could dig the foundation V-shaped trench.

The reason we're saving money?

We just bought a house.  In northern Mississippi.  

Now we're taking deep breaths and packing A LOT of boxes.

Week 12: Life with little ones

November 1-8

Katydid and Gareth were sick for at least part of week 12.  When Katydid first came down with whatever it was, it sure seemed like it was flu because it had all the classic "flu" symptoms: chills, sudden onset, fever, sore throat, upset stomach, body aches.  But it didn't spread to any of the little boys, really (although Farmerboy took a nap every afternoon that week.).  So I have no idea what it was.  The big kids all had their seasonal flu shots and the little boys didn't, so it seems odd that the kids who got flu shots would come down with a flu and and the kids who got no shots would avoid it.  H1N1 was aboslutely rampant in our area that week, bad enough that several schools were closed, but... who knows.  It was a mystery virus.

Anyway, because the big kids were sick, the week was mainly focused on little kids.  We did manage to finally finish The Hobbit, and to start reading Our Island Story and The Story of Europe, both by H.E. Marshall.  It felt good to get back to some history again. We're continuing to read A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt.  This is the third book we've read by this author (The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children and St. Patrick's Summer: A Children's Adventure Catechism are the others) and the kids have enjoyed them all.  More than that, they retain a lot from those books, some pretty deep concepts.

I'm afraid that we haven't done much that's special to mark any feast days lately, though... We make a point of praying for the Poor Souls every day, which I hope is enough.

Monday

The twins did a lot of "matching cards".  I actually had to invent some on the spur of the moment, because they would go through a set and demand more.  This is a Bug Bingo game.  Technically, it's supposed to be played like bingo, but for our purposes, I gave them the boards and let them match the cards to the pictures on the boards.  

 
  Chipmunk liked searching for O's in the Alphabet Zoop cards.  (He'd also already drawn on himself that morning, as you can see by the green on his cheek.) 

In the afternoon we headed outside to play on the logs:

Which are useful as forts, ships, and also sometimes nature study...

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning was devoted to all things dinosaur.  I got down a puzzle and the boys argued cooperated to put it together.   I also printed out some matching cards and coloring sheets from this Homeschool Share dinosaur unit.

In the afternoon, the boys shifted gears and concentrated on coloring King Arthur paper dolls from Paper Dali. (HT: Jessica, who shared the Paper Dali link in her Google Shared Items.)

Farmerboy has been on a King Arthur kick lately, thanks to Jim Weiss, and was excited when we encountered Merlin, Uther Pendragon, and Arthur in Our Island Story (in Week 13).

Katydid colored many saint paper dolls, but she immediately whisked them off to her room so I don't have any pictures.

Tuesday also happened to be Daddy's birthday, which he celebrated by making a business day trip and getting home late to eat cheesecake.

Wednesday:

Daddy celebrated the day after his birthday by making a trip to Boston.  The boys demanded American Revolution paper dolls.   They also complained that they couldn't build really good castles because there weren't enough wall blocks for all 4 of them to use at the same time.  I took a deep breath and offered to go down to the basement and bring up all the blocks I had taken away a few months ago because they were not being picked up in a -- shall we say -- timely and cheerful fashion.  We spent the morning sorting and building with the "new" blocks:

That's what it looked like on Wednesday of last week.  By Friday night, all the "new" blocks had been put up in a closet out of reach again, because that was the deal: If I bring these blocks out, you have to pick them up when you're told to, or I will have to put them away again.  Oh, yes, Mommy, we'll pick them up, can we pleeeeese play with the blocks?  Unfortunately, there was a breach of contract, proving yet again that home is not like school.  Many of the Reggio books you read have fantastic block creations and/or block areas, or at the very least inform you that you are to include lots of different kinds of blocks and other materials for children to build and dramatize with.  Personally, I agree.  It is hard to build big castles if someone has used all the wall blocks.  But at home with a large family, reality must be negotiated.  I don't have time to pick up millions of blocks every day, and I shouldn't have to.  (The two year old is actually far better at picking up than his brothers.)  So at some point the environment must be used to teach responsibility, respect, and obedience instead of science, math, or anything else.  In my experience anyway.

I do hope I can try again with the blocks, though, because I really like some of them, and so do the boys.

Thursday

Thursday we went outside.  We had been stuck inside for two days, which is not good for active young boys.  (Can you hear my fear of winter?) Anyway, it was a bit chilly -- temperatures down around 40 -- so we put on our bigger coats and headed outside while the nearly-recovered big kids stayed inside where it was warm and read books.

Did you notice N's new glasses in the block picture?  It turns out his eyesight is really bad, and that's the reason he has always seemed so clumsy (which is why we took him to our developmental optometrist at just barely 4 years old.)  Now, his brother, J., has never seemed to trip as much or run into things as much, so I didn't schedule a screening for him.  When N. got his glasses, J. was most upset.  He therefore decided that he would wear his sunglasses just like N. wore his real glasses.  So he put them on in the morning and took them off at night.  I tried to comfort him by telling him that he does have an eye appointment scheduled in January, but of course that might as well be twenty years from now if you're 4. 

(And, yes, we do still think they're identical.  How identical is identical often depends on conditions for each in the womb, and N had to deal with an improperly implanted cord while J did not.)

Anyway, while we were out, we decided to take a short nature walk in the field, which was cut short by J being accidentally hit in the eye by Farmerboy.  On our way back we stopped near the house to investigate the milkweed seeds by the deck.  (J was feeling better by then.)

The boys called the seeds "parachute guys" and brought some inside to play with.

Friday

Friday is extra chore day, so mostly we clean.  But in the morning, the boys set up some domino rallies...

That's N, who should have his glasses on.  Confusing, I know.  And actually, Friday morning went kind of like this:

8:30 AM -- the little boys have already watched Curious George, a Dinosaur Train episode about poop, been banned from playing monkeys (an old rule) and orangutans (a new rule), searched through a stack of old copies of Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard to find animals they are allowed to play ("We could play worms, Mommy!"), requested a stack of books about "jungles", moved on to dinosaur books, asked if I could go downstairs to find the dominoes and what about "that number matching game?" (Triominos), set up domino rallies, argued about who has more dominoes, and received instruction in both counting and social skills.  Can I take my shower now, please?

I was going to do a 7 Quick Takes post, but never got the chance.

So that was our week, with the exception of the picture books, of course...

 
 

 
 
 

Reading so far this year

(The books I read about homeschooling high school are here.)

Books Finished:

The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size

I have all of Julia Cameron's books, so I felt the need to have this one, too.  I didn't like it as much as some of her other books (most notably The Artist's Way and The Right to Write), but that might have been because I kept grumping about the conventional dieting advice she gives, such as using artificial sweeteners (see Nina Planck's Real Food for why these are bad, and why conventional dieting advice may not be so great.) While I am fairly sure that some of Cameron's other advice is bang-on -- the basis of the book is the same as her other books, namely that doing three pages of freewriting every morning will help you figure out problems in your life, including problems with food and weight -- I also felt that she really focused quite a bit on deprivation.  I don't think she meant to, but it seemed to be there as an undercurrent throughout the book.  She did list a good set of questions to ask before snacking, though, using the acronym HALT: "Am I hungry/angry/lonely/tired?" (I'm not sure what you do if you answer yes to all four, as I do sometimes. Does that mean you're allowed to eat chocolate?)

The Golden Goblet (Newbery Library, Puffin)

A YA mystery set in Ancient Egypt, written by the author of Moccasin Trail, which Andy read to the kids a couple of years ago. We seem to have skipped ancient Egypt this time around in favor of hitting ancient Africa and ancient China -- by kid request. I wondered if either of the kids would like to read this book on their own, so I read it one afternoon while I rocked Chipmunk. (Lest you think I am a speed reader, you should know that I usually have to rock him for hours.)  Good book.  I enjoyed it.  And I liked all the little details about goldsmithing, too.

Li Lun, Lad of Courage (The Newbery Honor Roll)

Another juvenile novel, which I was trying to decide whether or not to read aloud. I ended up passing it along to Katydid, but I think she may be too caught up in her current Harry Potter phase to care too much about it. It would be a good read aloud.  It's part Sonlight's Core 5 program, the story of a young Chinese boy from a fishing village who does not want to be out on the sea.

 The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

I actually started reading this one last year. It's by the director of the Human Genome Project, and is sort of a spiritual memoir (he talks about his conversion as a former atheist) as well as a justification for an evolutionary view which does not deny the existence of God OR assume a literal creationist or intelligent design stance. In the end, though he is not Catholic, he holds up John Paul II's writing on evolution as a paradigm for the way in which evolution ought to be viewed -- a perspective he calls biologos.  Worth reading. 

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft

I started reading Kon-Tiki because I saw it on the Kolbe elementary literature list, and I was thinking about having Gareth read it and wondering if I could read it aloud to both him and Katydid.  After it gets going I think it would make a fine read aloud for older kids, but in our house, with our level of chaos, I think it would take forever.  So I'm hoping to make this Gareth's first "assigned" reading.  Coming from an unschooly, Montessori-ish background as I do, the whole idea of assigned reading makes me squirm in my seat, but Gareth is the kind of kid who needs a little nudge now and then to expand his horizons. And I think he would enjoy Kon-Tiki, as it combines many of his present and past interests: archaeology, fish, weird animals, ships and sailing... I have to admit that I've avoided the idea of assigned reading, because required reading often makes me treat a book like work, which I dislike... but then, I have a lot of school baggage I still carry around with me. I really enjoyed Kon-Tiki  -- Thor Heyerdahl has a companionable understated sense of humor and a gift for description -- and will probably pass the book on to Andy as well as Gareth. 

Great Books

Some notes on this one here.  Now I want to read all the books he read.

Books in Progress:

Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

I love Michael Pollan's writing.  This book is no exception. And I could completely understand why he tried to napalm the groundhog that was eating his tomatoes.  Funny, thoughtful writing.

The Imitation of Christ (Dover Thrift Editions)

This is the first time I've read this book.  I don't know why I have put it off until now; what a wonderful, helpful book of meditations.  I think I had some weird mental block given me by high school English classes.

The Faith Explained

I'm reading this along with the Baltimore Catechism, which the kids and I work through in the mornings. 

Religious Customs in the Family

I've been reading this one here and there, according to season (which is how it's organized).

Project Learning: Cities

   

Yes, there is an Advent wreath hidden somewhere in this picture. (I also just noticed: Pip's cardboard castle is positioned just right to make it seem like something is nesting in an open woodstove. I feel like I'm posting a version of hidden pictures!) But, obviously, Advent and Christmas are not all we are about this December.  Farmerboy built this cardboard castle a couple of weeks ago after being inspired by Superboy's Colossal Castle.  He built the cardboard form all by himself, with the help of copious amounts of masking tape.  The blue cardboard you see taped beneath the staircase (which I think was originally supposed to be a drawbridge) stands for the moat.  He constructed a tower out of a toilet paper tube and made a top for it by cutting up a cardboard carton of some kind, then anchored it using masking tape (of course).  Before he added on, the castle also sported swinging doors: little pieces of cardboard connected to the walls with scotch tape that functioned as a hinge. 

He spent about an hour on it one cold afternoon. I was pretty impressed -- with the level of concentration, perseverence, problem-solving, and independence he exhibited, as well as the creativity involved.  Lately I have been practicing a difficult parenting skill.  I have been practicing the art of saying yes.  Yes to big, messy projects.  Yes, to the use of large amounts of masking tape.  Yes, you can... do it yourself.  Without me.  Without my ideas about how you should do things.  You will have to get everything out yourself.  You will have to put it all away.  I can't help you now, but yes, you can do it.

This is tough.  I have had to shift gears.  In my head, I still think they need me, see, for lots of things.  They do still need me... but not for everything.  I am not required for every project anymore.  My role is often simply to supply space, materials, permission, and encouragement. 

After doing some research into Reggio Emilia, I have also been enouraged myself.  I've been encouraged to take some of what I thought were minuses -- our inability to follow anyone's predetermined plans, for instance, or our collectively disorganized creative right-brainedness -- and consider them instead as pluses.  I've been encouraged to hone and build on what for me is my natural homeschooling style: listening and observing my kids, scaffolding and encouraging their interests, documenting what happens, and using that documentation to make further plans.

So.  I had been hearing about "cities" since this summer.  Gareth, Katydid, and Farmerboy had all built (and argued over) their own "cities" in one of our flower beds, as an on-going, kid-initiated, adults-have-nothing-to-do-with-this project.  They built these cities out of excavated dirt, rocks, bricks, sticks, and anything they found while digging in the flower bed (plastic potsherds, for example), and used them as the stage for Playmobil wars, archaeology digs, and construction sites.  I took some pictures this fall:

(The feather sticking up behind the wall marks the site of an ancient tomb, according to Gareth.)

(A cave, excavated and reinforced by Farmerboy.)

Farmerboy gave me the tour of the cities, punctuating his descriptions with statements such as: "Gareth's city is rich in bricks.  My city is rich in rocks."  The city building echoed another game they played this summer called "Civilizations", in which they all pretended to live in three different civilizations and trade with each other.  I'm pretty sure this play was encouraged by our reading about Mesopotamia and Greece, but the cities in the flower bed have been around for a while.

The cities outside can't really be played in during the winter because the ground is frozen and/or covered with snow.  After reading about the Reggio Emilia way of encouraging learning with preschoolers by picking up on themes from their play, I wrote a few notes in a journal about possibly doing a city project with the kids.  Another key element of the Reggio approach is collaboration, and since working together is a skill I would like my kids to develop (if only to cut down on the bickering), I thought that "cities" might provide a point of common interest for all of them -- including the twins, who also like to excavate in the flower bed.  I brainstormed a list of topics I thought could develop from a focus on cities -- cities in the ancient world, how cities developed, city planning...  well, actually it wasn't a list so much as it was a map of topics and their connections.  (I didn't scan or photograph it, but I can if you'd like.)

Anyway, after I made the list, we got interested in painting for a while, and then there was Halloween and Thanksgiving, and I wondered if maybe I should just sit on the idea  of a city project until January.  But as Farmerboy was covering his cardboard castle with "Fast-mache" (not very fast, by the way, and we had to scrape it all off yesterday -- the subject of another post), he was talking to Pip and Pop (who also wanted to make castles) about how they were building a village with a castle at one end.  So I decided to go ahead and ask the kids whether they were interested in building a city inside.

"How can we build one inside?" they asked.

"We'll need somewhere to put it," Gareth said.

"We'll get a board or a piece of plexiglass or a large section of cardboard to use as a base.  Then I thought that we could just move the whole thing out of the way when we needed to use the table, " I told him.

The response at that point was more positive than I could have hoped.  The kids had a lot of ideas, each building on the others.  They decided how to divide the city up so that each of them would be responsible for a piece.  They made a list of the materials they thought they might need.  They got out some books to use as a reference.  They wanted a a big piece of paper so they could draw plans.

 

So it looks as if, along with baking Christmas cookies and reading Christmas books, we are going to be investigating cities.  I'm waiting on a box from Dick Blick to really get started, and it looks as if it might have just been delivered to our front porch... 

Week 9: Focus on Thanksgiving

   

Farmerboy and Pip made these turkey collages last week.  Pip made the one on the left and Farmerboy's is the one on the right.  They're "hand" turkeys, of course -- Katydid helped Pip trace his hand and make eyes and beak -- but I got out the Murray McMurray catalog and Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds for reference when Farmerboy asked what turkeys looked like.  He knows what wild turkeys look like, because we see them in our field (and garden), but domestic turkeys are different.  I'd originally supposed that the kids would color the feathers all sorts of different colors, the way we did when we were in school.  But it appears that when you provide a child access to nature and books and the freedom to make art as they choose, what you end up with is realism.  I provided some structure by giving them the books to look at, as well as asking them what colors belonged to November skies and grass and cutting out the grass so they could glue the stems down.  (I introduced the grass by saying, "Would you like some grass?"  If they had said no, that would have been okay.  But they both liked the thought of showing the turkey in the field.)  I think the results are quite interesting.  (And I wish I had a better display than the bulletin board!)

Mostly we did not do a lot of themed art this week, though.  We did, however, take a break from the Greeks to read a few Thanksgiving books. 

We read three in the mornings during our family read aloud time:

• The Thanksgiving Story
• Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims (Scholastic Biography)
• Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27)

I sometimes feel as if Farmerboy gets neglected as far as choosing books to read, sandwiched in between two upper elementary kids and two three year olds as he is.  He's in kindergarten this year, and I wanted him to experience some of the same things my older kids experienced at his age.  You're only 5 once, after all.  We've been reading The Children's Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks (Yesterday's Classics) and Farmerboy has been enjoying it just as much as his older brother and sister, but every now and then it's nice to take a break and focus on a holiday.  So the books I chose to read aloud were ones we had on our shelves, that I thought would appeal specifically to Farmerboy, but that I had never really read aloud to anyone before -- at least not in their entirety.  Happily, he bit: I think there were even some tears on Wednesday when I had to stop reading Squanto so we could do our chores.

Gareth also read 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (I Am American) and . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 to himself.  1621 is a National Geographic book with lots of photos from Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, and a recipe for "Stewed Pompion" that we may try next year when I will not accidentally leave the pie pumpkins outside on the front porch in teen-degree weather.  (Oops.)

And there have been picture books, too:

• Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
• The Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving
• 1, 2, 3, Thanksgiving!
• Thanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks
• Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey (Scholastic Bookshelf: Holiday)

I didn't get any new Thanksgiving books this year, so this list is comprised of books we've collected over the years and enjoyed.  The copy of 1,2,3 Thanksgiving -- a favorite since Gareth was 3 -- is now falling apart, and it looks as if I'm going to have to pay a lot more money than I originally did to replace it! 

The kids did more than just read Thanksgiving books and make turkey collages last week, but I think I'm going to have to split this review into two parts.  Andy has taken off all week and we're preparing for a visit from his mom and dad.  This afternoon he took all the kids to the farm where we're getting our turkey.  Seeing as how I am kidless for the afternoon, I'd better get back to work!

Fort Ticonderoga

At the risk of becoming the kind of person who bores her audience with never-ending slides of her vacation... we all agree that Grandpa Bob would like to see pictures of the fort, and -- sorry, dear readers -- Grandpa trumps everybody else. (Don't worry, Grandma, there are pictures for you here, too.)

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of the fort, mainly because I was clinging to the twins for dear life.  They really, really, really liked the cannons, but they also wanted to scale the walls.  (I'm being literal here.  Pip didn't understand why I wouldn't let him climb on top of the two story walls.  Really.  He threw a Pip-style fit about it, too.)  If any of you ever end up in this part of the country, one thing you might keep in mind is that Fort Ticonderoga does not allow baby backpacks inside the fort.  The reason they give for this is "all the glass cases".  Personally, I thought there was plenty of room to maneuver in between glass cases without hitting them, and strollers were absolutely useless on the gravel of the interior fort.  (They did have umbrella strollers available to borrow at the admission counter.)   Plus, there are a lot of stairs in the fort.  Anyway, we managed, but we never did get upstairs.

Some of the pictures came out weird, too.  (This is not making you want to carry on with this post, I know.)  But if you have persevered thus far, here's a brief glimpse of Fort Ticonderoga:

Looking out over Lake Champlain... (These are period cannons, by the way.  Not original to the fort, but not reproductions either.)

Here's a close up of one of the cannons.  What I found most interesting was the attention to detail given to an object like a cannon.  Obviously, people didn't used to think that function precluded beauty. 

This plaque listing famous historical personages who have entered the fort, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Ethan Allen, was located underneath one of the buildings.  (The building was built atop a bridge, basically.)

Inside the fort...

Another view of the fort (the gravel and the stairs, too) ...

Down the hill from the fort are the King's Gardens.  This land originally supplied the fort with all its food.  Personally, I wondered why it couldn't supply the restaurant with all its food today, but I guess it's hard to grow Lay's Potato Chips.  Anyway, I enjoyed the gardens more than the fort probably because I could finally let go of the twins and let them run around!!  (Usually I enjoy visiting historical sites, but this one was a little nervewracking.)

(Andy took this picture.)

Pip in the Children's Garden (taken by Katydid, as were all the garden pictures, I think, and about fifty million pictures of individual flowers)...

Like this one!

Pop (in blue) and Pip (in red) in the sunflower house... See that band-aid on Pop's forehead, hiding his stitches?

The outside of the sunflower house...

I think this is supposed to be a pig.  There were many of these topiaries in the Children's Garden. 

After we went to the fort and drove halfway to Lake George so that certain people would take naps, we ended up at a local park in the Village of Ticonderoga.  As it happened, the park was on the site where Ticonderoga pencils used to be made.  The Ticonderoga Pulp and Paper Company became International Paper, which is now headquartered in Memphis -- Andy's hometown.

All of a sudden it felt a little like we were playing a game of "Six degrees". :-)

Adirondack Museum at Blue Lake:Wordless Version

 

Ancient Mesopotamia

Marjorie recently asked me if I had any recommendations for books to use in a unit on Mesopotamia.  Books about ancient Mesopotamia for kids are really hard to find, so I'm happy to post my cobbled-together list, along with a few pertinent rabbit trails, here. 

A few notes before I get started on the list:

1. I am not a creationist. (ETA: What I mean, of course, is that we do not believe the universe was created in a literal 6 days a few thousand years ago.  We DO believe that God created everything out of nothing, though!  I just wanted to make it clear up front that the books I'm recommending have that sort of leaning.)   A study of the beginnings of history, however, in the place where God first made himself known, can prompt many questions about Creation, faith, and the Bible.  An excellent adult-level explanation for the Catholic view on creation and science is Chance or Purpose? Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith, by Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. This book has helped me field any number of questions from my scientifically-minded oldest child.  I have to thank Jennifer for mentioning it on her blog.  I'm also using Genesis 1: House of the Covenant from Catholic Heritage Curricula for my 9 year old and 11 year old.

2.  When we set out to study a subject, I like to begin with a good read-aloud, usually fiction.  We've almost always talked about what we're going to study beforehand, so I know that the kids are interested, but what I want is a book that leads off in lots of different directions for further study.  Then, when I have an idea of what those directions might be, I head off in search of more books.  Most of our studies turn out pretty amoeba-like as a result.  This one is probably more ameoba-like than most, but that's because there are very few whole books about ancient Mesopotamia out there.  Bits and pieces here and there is more like it.

Anyway, I'm not sure I can grace this with the title of "unit", but here it is:

• I used Gilgamesh, the Hero as our lead-in book, and my kids loved it.  (If you have any sensitive listeners, however, better read through it yourself ahead of time.  Some sections do get a little intense.)

While we were reading Gilgamesh, we noticed several links to the Bible.  A nice complement to the first chapters of Genesis is Walking the Bible for Children and also Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journey.  The first three chapters of Walking the Bible for Children are about Creation (with black and white photos of the Tigris and Euphrates), the Flood (an interesting story about the author's journey to modern day Mt. Ararat), and Abraham, who journeys from the Sumerian city-state of Ur into the wilderness at God's direction.  Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journey is a coffee-table book with really great color photography of the region.  Really nice for getting a feel for the place.  (There is also a Walking the Bible DVD, but I haven't seen it yet.  I think Andy put it in our Netflix queue, though.)

• For a basic reference work which I did not read aloud I found Ancient Mesopotamia: the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.  I didn't read this one aloud because it's not really meant to be read aloud, if you know what I mean.  It does have excellent photography of various sites and artifacts and will provide an independent reader with a fair amount of information.  I put it out for Gareth and Katydid to pick up on their own.

I also read the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian chapters from Story of the World, vol. 1, which my five year old enjoyed.  This means that I skipped all the chapters in between in order to group those chapters together.  I don't have a problem with this, but I know that other, more sequential people might ;-). (Many of the picture books we used were recommended in the SOTW Activity Guide.)  Then I read the Mesopotamian chapter from A Little History of the World, which was very general but excellent.  (Drew Campbell recommends this book in the 2nd edition of The Latin-Centered Curriculum, and it is a lot of fun to read.  I like it much better than SOTW, but it's also much less detailed.)  While we're on the subject of chapters from larger histories, The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim deals with Mesopotamian science in its initial chapters -- mainly astronomy as it relates to the calendar.  (Because this book dovetails so well with our history, I'm planning on using it as our spine for science this year.) 

• The Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors is an acitivity book with some chapters on various Mesopotamian groups. 
• How to Count Like a Martian is OOP, which is really unfortunate because it's such a fun book and definitely worth checking out of your library if it's available.  One of its chapters is titled, "How to Count Like a Babylonian". 
• Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh are picture book retellings of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  We picked these up when Gareth was seven and both my older kids have loved them for years.
• The Great Wonders of the World is a DK book with a spread on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
• Sun-Day, Moon-Day: How the Week Was Made contains Babylonian myths for Thursday and Friday.
• The Story of Writing isn't written for a children, but it's a good reference work and it has examples of cuneiform writing.  Gareth snagged this one as soon as it came and used it to invent his own alphabet.
• King Nimrod's Tower is an OOP picture book retelling of the Tower of Babel.  Farmerboy liked it, but the illustrations are a little weird to me; all the workmen are wearing modern shirts and trousers. 
• The Tower of Babel is another picture book about the Tower of Babel, but this one uses the actual text from Genesis and prints it in Hebrew and English.  The book opens the opposite way as well (on the left, rather than the right).  I think it's a neat little book.  It has a literal translation of the Hebrew in the back.
• You Wouldn't Want to be an Assyrian Soldier! and You Wouldn't Want to be a Sumerian Slave! appeal to five and eleven year old boys.  Save your money and check these out of the library ;-).

And finally, these coloring sheets are great.  I have no idea what the captions say, but it didn't matter to my kids.

July in Review

When I packed away all the work and records from last year, we all really appreciated the weekly reviews I did here.  It was my intention at the beginning of our new year (July 1) to do weekly reviews, but alas, that did not happen.  I comfort myself with the idea that it's just summer.  Around the second week of September when we start carrying a full load again, then I'll be more faithful with my weekly reports.

Ahem.

Without further ado, here are a few peeks at our July, which can probably be summed up in one word:

SOCCER.

Farmerboy was so excited on the first day that he put on his uniform, down to socks, shoes, and shin guards, immediately after he woke up.  The first week saw all soccer-related art, like this picture which is my favorite.  See?  We are all in our big red van heading out to the field: girls drawn in red, boys in black.  I'm not sure where all Farmerboy's little brothers are.  (Farmerboy would be the one in the middle.)  Those are the soccer balls in the back.

Mostly I think that Farmerboy enjoyed soccer so much because he could exert his extroverted charm on a more appreciative audience.  Talk about socialization! 

Gareth and Katydid were in the same age group this year, so they played on the same team.  This soccer league is extremely non-competitive.  No one is really concerned about how good or bad a player is; it's all about learning and having fun.  All that said, it's nice to see the improvements that Gareth has made since he played on his first team back in kindergarten in St. Louis.  Back then, he wouldn't sit next to the other kids, wouldn't talk to anybody, and was really just kind of in his own little world.  But he liked playing the game enough to want to play more soccer.  Over the years, his social skills have really improved.  Now he talks and jokes with the other kids, and this season he scored a goal and assisted on another.  With Gareth's TS have come muscle-related physical delays, and I have to say that it has been very satisfying to see the gains he's made through his own hard work.

He played goal a few times over the course of the season... with a little extra coaching from Chipmunk ;-)

Katie's headaches are still giving her trouble, so just making it through the season was an accomplishment for her, I think.  I also don't seem to have any pictures of her that aren't of the back of her head.

We also went berry picking again this month -- for blueberries and raspberries.  Not all of us were happy about that, but the experience was instructive, if only because it demonstrated the absolute neccesity for us to grow our own berries.  We can't pick enough berries in a morning or an afternoon for our family.  Berries were $2.95 a quart to pick them ourselves, but raspberries were $3.15 a half pint to buy them already picked at the farm store.  When we checked out the ladies told us that their raspberry season was going to be shorter than usual because so many people were picking unripe berries; they didn't know that raspberries won't ripen off the bush.  So at least my kids will know what a ripe raspberry looks like.

(No time to crop the photo; sorry!)

Then of course, we've also been focused on the chickens this month.  Katydid and Farmerboy have assumed responsibility for letting them out and herding them back into the coop.  The chickens seem to be pretty happy in their new home.  We let them free range most of the time, but we do put them in the coop from 11-2 ("hawk time") and at night.

As far as school work goes, we're keeping up with my goals -- more or less.  We didn't keep up very well last week -- I'm not sure I read aloud even once in the morning like I usually do -- but the kids did some spelling and math.  It was easier to let Gareth continue to work in Spelling Workout C, so that's what we've been doing and he's been doing well!  (I'm very excited about that, so it deserves an exclamation point.)  Katydid is almost done with My Catholic Speller B, which I'd hoped to finish out last May but was delayed because of illness.  I ordered My Catholic Speller C  for her, but it looks pretty easy.  I think she will probably zoom through it, as long as I am consistent about giving her quizzes. 

We've basically finished up Ancient Mesopotamia as a focus area, and the kids have requested that we move on to the Greeks when they discovered that one of Sinbad's adventures bore a remarkable resemblance to Odysseus' encounter with the Cyclops.  When we were reading about Gilgamesh, we had to stop and read the biblical account of the Flood, to compare it with Utnapishtim's story in the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Finding and exploring these connections is one of the things I like most about homeschooling. 

I haven't been super organized about any Montessori materials this summer, but the little guys have been using them occasionally.  Yesterday, Pip and Farmerboy worked with the Brown Stair and Pink Tower while I cleaned bedrooms.  I wish I had taken a picture, because Farmerboy used the Brown Stair to build a huge tower.  It was so tall he had to stand on a chair to finish it.  Then when he finished, he put it all away so that Chipmunk wouldn't knock it down and get hurt.  (Those blocks are heavy.)  It was a true work cycle, which I was very happy about. Katydid has been using base 10 blocks, the bead frame, and bead bars for her math work.  We're doing a lot of review for her this summer.  We started with place value, went through addition, and now we are doing skip counting with bead bars since we don't own the long chains. It's a challenge to move her quickly enough that she doesn't get bored, but to move slowly enough that she is able to work with the material enough to absorb it.

Looking ahead to August -- the garden will take center stage, I'll be working on putting together kindergarten and preschool activites, and making lists of ideas for Choice Time.  The IHIPs should be done this weekend (thank goodness), giving me more time to focus on the nitty gritty.   

Summer School

A long, long time ago, I posted about why we didn't really break for summer.  Some of the reasons we keep going during the summer still hold true: for instance, nobody really likes to have to relearn their math after two months off, and Gareth still likes to be able to "plan ahead", as he says.  Another benefit of schooling year-round is that we're able to take breaks when we need to as opposed to when the schools have their breaks; schools don't have to change their plans due to morning sickness, or newborn twins, or chronic ear infections, or physical therapy, or moving.  So we keep going through the summer with a summer schedule.

Here in upstate, we don't have to deal with the heat and humidity of points further south, so my kids would live outside if I let them.  Actually, we all want to be outside as much as possible.  So, although we're still doing some school work, we don't have Choice Time.   Instead, I write a list of activities on the white board that the kids can do if they want to, if they're bored, or if it's raining. (Two of the books I'm leaning on heavily are Nature's Art Box and The Kid's Nature Book.) Otherwise, they're free to go outside and swing, ride their bikes, play soccer, build forts, hunt for bugs... etc., etc.

A brief report here... The eye doctor's prediction that most of Farmerboy's physical delays -- such as pedaling a bike -- were the result of his lack of depth perception have proved true.  After we fixed his training wheels, Farmerboy jumped on and started riding in the space of about an hour.

We do, however, continue to start our day with prayer and read aloud time.  For the month of July, we're saying the Offering of the Precious Blood for Souls and reading The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children. (After we finish this book -- which everyone seems to really enjoy -- we'll be reading St. Patrick's Summer: A Children's Adventure Catechism.)  Then we go on to a chapter book, usually linked to whatever historical period we're studying.  We finished up the modern era in early June -- a bit faster than I had planned, because the kids were begging to start on the ancients.  (This will be Gareth's second time through.)  Our read alouds this year will focus heavily on mythology (that's the plan, anyway), and we've started out with Gilgamesh, the Hero. 

I really, really like this book.  The author does a mostly great job of handling the more inappropriate sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh discreetly.  (There was about a paragraph I glossed over when Hatti, the dancing girl, tempts Enkidu, the Wild Man, out of the woods, but to be honest, that part might not even bother some people.)  It's easy to see why the Epic of Gilgamesh continues to be read; sometimes when I look down while reading this book, all I see is a row of faces (age 11, 9, and 5) turned up at me (because I'm usually walking Chipmunk around by this point), eyes huge and round, while they wait in silence -- that's right, silence  -- for me to finish.  Farmerboy thinks it's a little scary, though, so if you have little guys, be advised.

While we read, the kids usually draw.  While searching for coloring pages for Farmerboy, I happened on this site, which has coloring sheets for practically every subject under the sun, including Ancient Mesopotamia.  (So what if most of the captions are in Arabic?) 

Nature study, of course, is not neglected, but it is very (very) informal, mostly centering on the garden.  Gareth planted a Three Sisters Garden this year, but after a major infestation of cucumber beetles, it's more like a Two Sisters garden; they demolished all the pumpkins.  I also signed us up for Firefly Watch, which also functions like "brown bat watch" for us, as the kids get to go out in the field right around the time that all the bats come out.  I never knew we had so many.   

Basic skills-wise, Gareth and Katydid are both continuing to work on math daily.  Gareth is using Saxon 7/6, and Katydid is back to straight Montessori-based math.  I'm using the Math 1 and 2 albums from NAMC.  They're pricey, but standard math curricula do not work for Katydid, and I needed the visuals.  Katydid tends to forget a lot of math if we have any sort of break, and because of her headaches, she did not do much math in May and June.  Having learned a little bit from past experience, I deciced to start Katydid off back at the decimal system, with a review of place value.  Math will be at Katydid's pace this summer and as slowly as she wants to go.

We're also trying to work on spelling.  Gareth really, really, REALLY needs to work on spelling, but I have been frustrated with some aspect of every single program we've tried.  I ordered Natural Speller, but I haven't had a chance to really get into it yet.  I'm pretty sure this is the very last spelling curriculum I could possibly try.  So we'll see.

The biggest part of the summer, though, is the extracurricular.  The kids are playing summer soccer this year, and hopefully taking some art classes in Cooperstown (if I can remember to make their reservations).  Summer soccer is three nights a week for the month of July.  With kids in two different age groups, we're there for three and a half hours every night.  (And let me tell you, chasing a couple of toddlers around a soccer field for three and a half hours three nights a week is good for the postpartum weight loss.) 

So that's basically what we're doing... oh, and building a chicken coop -- and then there's the firewood shed Andy wants to build --and --

I think I better stop here before I wear myself out. ;-)