Term 2 and CC

Well, we are well into Term 2 of Bryna's school year. I never did get Jared's posted. He did Classical Conversations this year with a fabulous group near us.

I did not expect to love Classical Conversations. Bryna did their Foundations program last year. I thought I would give it a try. Rote memorization. I've always hated that. But now I am seeing that I only hated it because I went to school in the 60's and was taught to hate it.

Bryna memorized a lot of bald facts last year. Knowledge without its informing ideas, and it didn't hurt her one bit. In fact, she would memorize a history fact, or a geography fact, and then afterwards come across the word or place name in a book or movie and a light bulb would blink, the zing would come into her eyes, and she would say, "I know that person." or "I know that river." She already knew it because she knew its name, knew its location. That's all. And some new information about this friend would come along, and all at once she knew him better. But she knew the friend before.

I learned a lot from that experience too.

But this year, she was too old for Foundations and, realizing that this was my last student, I couldn't give up going through Ambleside Online Year 7 one last time.

But Jared is in 10th grade, and I liked the Challenge II program so in he went. It's been a great year too, and he's learned a lot. He's been able to learn it with some fantastic kids and a great Mother-Teacher. One more child to watch and learn from Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? thrills me. I may have changed my views on some things, but Francis Schaeffer will never be irrelevant to me - even if the videos were made in the 70's. Jared also studied more Latin (his third and best year), Logic (which he said was his favorite subject), Chemistry (no worrying about doing experiments around here for the 3rd time), Algebra 2, Drama (although we've gotten a ton of that this year), and British Literature. It's been great prep for college. I also couldn't resist adding some other things to his year. Hey, he'll be on his own and doing what he wants soon enough. For now, I'm keeping his education has wide and varied as I can. I added reading the Gospel of John in Greek (also his third, last, and best year), other various devotional materials for his spiritual life, and more history (you can never have too much history.) He's Daddy Warbucks in Annie this year with Stage LeFters, a local homeschool drama group. If you live nearby, please come see him in it. He did Cincy Shakes's Groundlings group first semester, but he's too busy this semester. He continues KCC, and has added piano.

Bryna:
Continuing with the Gospel of John - the commentary and memorizing
Ourselves - I've decided to go through this at a faster pace than AO.
Churchill's Birth of Britain
History of Scotland - a great book
a generic World History overview that I had
American History - switched out TCOO for the Guerber sold by Memoria Press; w/ the 200 Q. guide
The Namesake  (not in our time period really, but I wanted her to read the sequel The Marsh King)
Ivanhoe
Short Stories
A Taste of Chaucer
History of English Literature for Children
Brendan Voyage
Tennyson - this has been slow going
Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
The Magna Charta - I'm hoping to go see this one.
Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

Life of Fred - continuing this for the year...I hope it's not a waste...
Still doing oral & written narrations, dictation, and copybook
Sentence Combining for Middle School - a fallback

Real Food, Nutrition, and Health
Artist/Picture Study - Van Eyck
The Story of Painting - Janson 1/2 ch. a week
History of Music/Composer - something I had from Jillian's days
The Friendly Stars and Classical Astronomy - we need to improve on this. I'll console myself that we'll be more motivated in the warmer weather when we can stargaze.
Lay of the Land
Bird Study - I've been really pleased with this
Memory work and map drills continued
Art of Argument - had this lying (laying?) around too
Book of Roots - another pleasing product from Memoria Press

Switched to Rosetta Stone German. We couldn't get the French to work anymore so since we were buying again, she had a choice and switched.

Plus free reading - The Hunger Games, etc.

Continuing choir, piano, and Groundlings Jr. The South Dayton drama group has proven to be a disappointment. Henle Latin hasn't happened, but I'm an optimistic person so I believe it eventually will. :-)

A whole slew of our "together" things haven't happened. When all of the extra drama opportunities came up something have to give, and it was unfortunately the other extras. But we're always blessed by The Art of Poetry (what a grand book!) when we get to it. Poetry should never be said with "when we get to it."

I always front-load their school schedules -- putting in more than I know we can possibly do. That discourages some people and it used to discourage me because I thought it should discourage me. But then one day I realized that it didn't really discourage me. I found if I put what was realistic (less) on the list then we actually did less. This way we do more than I hoped. I am aiming for heaven and getting earth thrown in.*

That's all for now.



*I wish I'd said that. It's actually from CS Lewis.

Our Poem for Today

The Pulley by George Herbert (1593-1633)

   When God at first made Man,
   Having a glass of blessings standing by -
Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
   Contract into a span.

   So strength first made a way,
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure;
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure,
    Rest in the bottom lay.

   For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on My creature,
He would adore My gifts instead of Me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;
   So both should losers be.

   Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
   May toss him to My breast.

I'm not so sure about all of the theology in this poem, but we all liked the poem anyway.  

Bryna - 7th grade

Term 1 (although some books go over the whole year)
Bible, etc.:
The Gospel of John: Beholding the Glory by Fr. Lawrence Farley
Memorize: John 1:1-7 in English, Latin and Greek
The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer by frederica Mathewes-Green
Saints and Heroes by George Hodges 
Ourselves - moving slowly through this per AO

History:
The Birth of Britain by Sir Winston Churchill
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People - selections that I have picked out; she is enjoying this already and reading parts to me
History of English Literature for Girls and Boys by H. E. Marshall - per AO
A History of Scotland - just ch. 1-4
This Country of Ours - Marshall (she never got to this book so we're doing it now)

Literature:
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Once and Future King - only book one

Poet:
Tennyson

Grammar & Composition:
written & oral narrations
studied dictation
copybook - copying selections from readings
Lost Tools of Writing - I started this last year; I hope to finish it with B. this year

French:
Rosetta Stone

Shakespeare:
Richard II

Biographies:
The Life of King Alfred
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution

Short Stories:
Words Aptly Spoken - a Classical Conversations book

Life of Fred math program - we're trying something new this year...I can't seem to break the "math barrier" - my hope is that she'll get through all of the "Before High School Mathematics" books

Geography:
The Brendan Voyage

Drama:
Cincinnati Shakespeare Groundlings Jr.
South Dayton Youth Homeschool Drama group

Music:
Kettering Children's Choir - concert choir
Piano lessons

Bryna and I will do together:

Artist study - Giotto this term

Nature Study:

Lay of the Land

Classical Astronomy

The Friendly Stars

Greek: 

Classical Academic Press's Greek for Children primer A

The Gospel of John copybook 

We did some Greek together last year with a different book; we're taking a bit of a break and just keeping our elementary skills alive with these (we hope)

Latin:

Henle Latin is the plan - we haven't started it yet...I get my plates spinning one at a time over these first weeks of school :-)

Jared, Bryna and I will do together:
Psalms - reading and hopefully memorizing some
Memory work - Classical Conversations cycle 3 material

Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior - just reading bits over the next few years till done

Biblical Economics in Comics - I haven't done much on economics besides what we try to teach incidentally

Shakespeare - Taming of the Shrew

The Art of Poetry - we started this in the summer and I really like it; we're doing just one poem a day (when we get to it)

History of Western Music - instead of doing a composer study, we are doing a sweep using a book I found at a library sale - we're reading about and listening to Medieval music right now, and we're really enjoying it.
Some of our favorites:
Festival of Gregorian Chants
Canticles of Ecstasy
Miracles of Sant'Iago
Vox Sacra Ancient Voices
Four Centuries of Chant
And we have to include Byzantine chant :-)
Divna
The Glory of Byzantium

Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery -Dayton Duncan - we'll watch the video later

Nature walks/notebooks on the grounds of our church and local parks (we are hoping the Turri boys will be joining us at least part of the time) 

Drawing skills: Charles Bargue Drawing Course - I've already done the first 10 lessons or so in this; the children will begin it too

A Letter of Sir Thomas More to His Children's Tutor

Today (well, when I started this post it was 'today,' now it is 'yesterday') is the Feast Day for Sir Thomas More in the Roman Catholic church. More was a man of high integrity. In 1518 he wrote this letter and I had printed it up a while back to post on my fridge. Because of the day and because it was time to clean off the fridge, I decided to post it. It impresses me for several reasons.

Firstly, it shows that Sir Thomas More had his daughters educated in a time when girls were not. More saw to it that all of his children and his wife were educated in his home 'Academy.' His wisdom and honor go up in my estimation because of this. :-)

Secondly, he doesn't say that virtue comes *through* learning, but must be *joined* to it. This is very Charlotte Mason (and not very Classical). He rightly points out that learning not joined with virtue is "nothing else than splendid and notorious infamy."

Also, according to some other reading I did, More, like Charlotte Mason, and unlike the Latin-centered curriculum proponents, believed in a wide and varied curriculum for his 'Academy.'

He was devoted to his children. In a separate letter to his daughter, he wrote, "I assure you that rather than allow my children to grow up ignorant and idle I would sacrifice all and bid farewell to business in order to attend them..."

Seven Reasons Why a Charlotte Mason Education is Superior to Classical

1. Her views on the child’s mind -- actually on the whole child 
2. Her views on the sacredness of personality
3. Her views on authority and habits
4. Her views on curriculum 
5. Her views on reason and logic, and the will 
6. Her views on the motives for learning 
7. Her views on the role of the teacher

Catching My Breath

Well, it's been a busy time since I posted last. Two of those weeks were spent in France and England with my eldest. It was glorious. We went to Lyons (well, actually an hour outside of) and Paris, Oxford and London. We were obsessed with going to the Globe (as we were when we lived there). We saw All's Well that Ends Well twice and Hamlet once. Just fabulous! We always get the cheapest tickets - the Groundlings - because it only costs 5 pounds (that's about $8.50 for the highest quality theater a person can get anywhere on the...well...globe!) That means you have to stand the whole time (except for the 15 minute intermission), but you also get to lean against the stage and you begin to feel a part of the story. It's not the only way to experience Shakespeare, but it's the best. :-)

A couple of pictures from France. We ate here one day - Le Relais Hotel - they served us the best Mousse de Foie Gras I've ever had:

I had to take a picture of the public toilet. Isn't it nice that they provide those places for you to set your feet on as you squat over this hole?

At least it's clean.

Kiernan was embarrassed that I took pictures.

But I just couldn't use this restroom. I just. couldn't. And that's how we discovered the lovely hotel restaurant.

We stayed at a lovely organic farm B&B in a small town near Lyons. To have had such fabulous food in a small, quiet town (which is where the above two places are) is amazing to me. We just don't have that sort of thing in the States.

Also during this time there was the ending/finishing up of many activities for the year and all of the requisite closing ceremonies --

piano recital:

soccer:

This wasn't an actual tournament game (I haven't gotten those pics yet) -- it's just a regular game.

KCC:

CC, judging for two speech and debate tournaments, flying down to Dallas and the two day drive back with my daughter from UD, spending a too-short time for his 80th birthday with one of the best men who has ever lived (my dad :-),

and celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

I've also got to plan for going to NC to this next week with my eldest. Bryna will be in Shakespeare Camp I at Cincy Shakes next week (thanks for doing all of the driving for that, Jillian!) which means we unfortunately will miss her performance at the end of the week. Jared will be in Camp II the following week and I'm glad to say we won't be missing that. We go out of town the following week as well for...a long time.

Hopefully we will have internet and down time while away so I can read and write because I am eager to get back to that. It helps me to really think through things when I determine to also write about it. I'm wishing now I had a Kindle so that my luggage isn't so heavy with the books I want to bring with me!

Well, I'm rambling.

I really want to talk about classical education and Charlotte Mason. So I'm going to go work on those posts now.

Is it really Spring?

I realized yesterday that I have been so busy that I missed seeing the crocuses and that the daffodils were already blooming! I was surprised when my son said he was waiting for me to get him seeds and plants and such for his garden. What? Already?

My husband was not well a couple of weeks ago so I made about 10 quarts of beef bone broth for him. He is doing much better. My husband is rarely sick, but this laid him flat.

I'm trying to crawl out from under my to-do list and re-join the blogging world. I have a post on education that I'm working on. 

For the last 18 years, from February to August, I have traditionally been obsessed with planning the next school year, and this year has been no different. This year was a great year. I returned to some of my roots, my daughter added her passion and love of literature and languages to teaching the youngest two, we all grew in discipline and better habits, and I'm pleased with what I am seeing.

One of the goals that I determined while sitting at the kitchen table with my computer and books though was spending more time outside. I determined that while missing the blooming of spring flowers. :-) Not a great start!