The Genial Hearth
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Archive for For Adults
January 19, 2010 at 12:47 am · Filed under Books, For Adults, Home Education, Language, Self-Education
A couple of things have come up in the last little while, and I’m feeling spurred to movement:-)
I want to start reading through the Classics. I have tried starting the Fiction list (from The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
, which is what I plan to use as my guide), but I found Don Quixote
rather impenetrable:-( I’ve kind of started the biographies, with Augustine’s Confessions
… but lacked oomph and dedication.
I think I need to do this with people, so I can talk about it as I read it. So I’ve started a mailing list (Crawling Through the Classics) and invited a few people with whom I’ve previously discussed the idea. If you’re interested though, feel free to join, and point it out to anyone who might be interested (I’ve said homeschooling mums in Perth, but I’ve included a number of question marks, because I don’t feel it has to be limited to that… I don’t necessarily want lots of people, but a reasonable sized group would be good, so there might be some different impression–and so if someone hasn’t read the ‘assignment’ the discussion doesn’t get de-railed for lack of participants).
My plan is that we choose something, and read through at a (CM-approved:-) ) pace (maybe a chapter a week?) and we can talk about it via email as we go (although, I realise a chapter a week is going to take us a long time to get through! Maybe two books, a chapter of each a week? Still slow, but not overloading on any one?). I’d quite like to add a face-to-face gathering in every now and again (monthly? bi-monthly? quarterly?) to discuss in person:-) We’ll sort out the details once there’s a group on the mailing list.
I’ve also discovered that Librivox has a number of the works. So I’m willing to give Don Quixote another go—but I’ll listen to it:-)
I don’t have my copy with me (I’ve just leant it to a friend:-) ), but basically there are 5 lists, Fiction (starts with Don Quixote), Biography (or Autobiography… can’t remember which… but starts with Augustine’s Confessions), History, Drama and Poetry (I’m not especially keen to do that!) I’d like to choose one (or two if people are feeling keen) list(s), and read through from the start. (From memory, this looks pretty accurate, it starts with Fiction, then Autobiography, History, Drama… there are about 30 books in each list)
I haven’t really thought about how to discuss (I’m bad at finding anything to talk about, other than ‘I like/don’t like it’:-) )… but there are plenty of things online we can perhaps look at using to help guide discussion, or take it in turns to ask questions, or something 
If you’re interested, join the list, and any discussion as to which books, can take place there:-)
February 11, 2009 at 1:56 pm · Filed under Bilby, Books, Cygnet, Family, For Adults, Motherhood
A couple of weeks before Cygnet was born, it suddenly struck me that Bilby would still be nursing… (I had never intended to wean her, she was still less than two—too young for me to be prepared to wean her… but I’d always anticipated that she would self-wean). It occurred to me that I might need to do some preparing!
So I asked a couple of friends (being in the fortunate position of knowing a couple of people who have/do tandem feed) for advice. Specifically, I was after suggestions for preparing Bilby, and also ideas about the logistics of it… Nursing a toddler (with their long legs!) can already be a challenge adding a baby…
One of them (as well as answering my questions) lent me a book.
Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond
was a really helpful read! I wished that I had got hold of it when I was pregnant with Bilby herself! I’d ended up weaning Puggle, and angsted about it quite a bit—I probably would have made the same decision after having read this book, but I suspect I would have felt more at ease about it.
It gave me lots of useful information… both about feeding while pregnant, and what I might expect once Cygnet actually arrived (breastfed toddler poo!). There was a good mix of ‘technical’ information and personal stories, and a fabulous collection of photos. I hadn’t considered how Puggle might view things… but that was no problem—he caught sight of one particular photo and started telling me how I would need to hold Bilby and the baby to nurse them:-)
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is currently nursing and might be expecting another baby—or might be considering getting pregnant! I wouldn’t wait until the tail end of the pregnancy… tandem nursing starts before then!
January 11, 2009 at 4:02 pm · Filed under Art, Bilby, Books, Domestic Life, Family, For Adults, For Children, For the Future, French, History/Geography, Home Education, Language, Latin, Maths, Montessori, Music, Narration, Nature Study, Organisation, Plans, Puggle, Reading, Reflection, Science, Singing, Writing
General stuff:-)
This probably seems like a fairly full on year, for what is essentially Puggle’s pre-school year (most of this is for Puggle, although I do have some plans for Bilby included). My plan though, is that we’ll start with this, and it will take as long as it takes. We’ll stick with the three term year, each being made up of three blocks of 4 weeks on, one week break (plus the Christmas block/term).
Language (Including Memorisation and Copywork)
For Puggle, I’m planning a second run through The Writing Road to Reading
, actually beginning to focus on writing the letters. I’ll combine this with the sandpaper letter/phonograms, but he seems fairly interested in writing at the moment. This (and his name) will probably be all the copywork we do for the year. I anticipate using a timer (for somewhere in the order of three to five minutes), because he’s very keen on quantity—and in copywork time I’ll be more interested in quality:-) I’m hoping the second run will sort out the phonemes he hasn’t really grasped. We still have the Fitzroy readers, and I anticipate them being used fairly regularly:-)
We’ll be reading Complete Nonsense Poems
by Edward Lear, and this year, I’ll be trying to encourage Puggle more in the direction of memorisation. We’ll be focussing on the same piece for a fortnight, which may help:-)
We’ll continue with the Latin nursery rhymes, but this year we are going to begin Song School Latin
. It includes a number of songs, and some day-to-day phrases, so I’m not going to worry so much about using my own:-) We will attempt to continue with the French comptines, and I suspect that Puggle will listen in with Bilby’s French:-)
Over the year, we’ll be reading from The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus
by Aliki, The Orchard Book of Roman Myths
by Geraldine McCaughrean and Egyptian Myths
by Jacqueline Morley.
Bilby isn’t at quite the same stage as Puggle was two years ago (she’s effectively 6 months younger), so I don’t think she’s ready for everything I did with him:-) We’ll still do the Nursery Rhymes
, and read the poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses
.
She’ll join us in the Latin and French nursery rhymes, but this year, we’re going to try reading a number of (generally familiar) picturebooks in French:-) La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous
, Devine Combien Je t’Aime
and Ours Brun, Dis-Moi
for starters:-)
Maths
We’ve finally made the decision to go with RightStart. It’s a very hands on programme, which should appeal to Puggle (basically I think the manipulatives approach is a good idea for the early stages of maths).
English Studies (including Narration)
We’ll continue the Aesop’s Fables for Children
with Puggle, and later in the year we’ll begin Fifty Famous Stories Retold
. These will be where we begin paying attention to Narration. I might actually try some with him this year:-) We’ll also be reading The House At Pooh Corner
, The Muddle-headed Wombat
and The Loaded Dog
, along with the Orange
, Green
and Brown
Fairy Books. I plan to try Bilby out with Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales
and the Blue, Red
and Yellow
Fairy Books, but these are where I think we’ll probably skip bits.
Obviously, we’ll be including other read-alouds as they occur to us, but they will include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
, Pinocchio
, Doctor Doolittle
, The Favorite Uncle Remus
and The Wind in the Willows
.
Health and Phys. Ed
We’re continuing with Waterbabies (swimming) this year:-) Or at least we’ll continue with Puggle for now. His class will probably collapse soon (they only take them until they are five), so then we’ll be looking at other swimming classes.
History and Geography
I’m looking forward to this a lot:-) We’re going to begin The Story of the World: Ancient Times
. I’ve ordered the Activity Book
as well, so we should be doing lots of stuff—I keep hearing good things about it:-)
We’ll also be reading Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary 
. I figure we’ll do a page or so each week, and I’ll print some colouring in pages for each word.
Science
Unless Puggle has particular things that he wants to immerse himself in, I think we’ll be doing most of our science through the garden:-) I do hope to do Nature Walks more regularly (well, once the weather settles down a little), and I think this would be a good year to start recording the weather, but otherwise we’ll try and do a lot of planting and feeding and watering and seeing what happens. I’ve ordered The Tiny Seed
and Une Si Petite Graine
(one of the French picturebooks for Bilby:-) ) and I thought they should tie in nicely:-) I might pull out some of the How Things Work
and Backyard
/Kitchen
Science books though, and leave them lying about, in case something appeals:-) (Edited to add: I’m also hoping that Keeping a Nature Journal
will help inspire our nature observations!)
Art and Music
I’m going to try and be more regular about having family music nights:-) This year we’ll begin recorder (Bilby as well—because I don’t like my chances of doing it with Puggle and leaving her out:-) ). Our composers this year are Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt and Gustav Mahler/Anton Bruckner. And of course, we’ll sing:-)
I think I’ll probably repeat my art plans from last year… we didn’t really do much of them, mostly because I ended up putting the stuff away:-( I’m working on keeping art materials in a more accessible way. Our artists this year are Sandro Botticelli, Caspar David Fredrich and Vincent Van Gogh.
Technology and Enterprise
Cooking. By the end of the year, I’d like Puggle to feel confident about preparing one dinner:-) When he’s (quite) a bit more independent in his reading, I thought I might start letting him choose recipes to try:-)
June 28, 2008 at 4:57 pm · Filed under Books, For Adults, For Children, Language, Memes, Reading
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (I have read most of the first, and I will get through the rest one day!)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (Loved this:-) The whole series:-) )
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (Enjoyed this far more than The Mayor of Casterbridge—but that wouldn’t be at all hard!)
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I’ve read an awful lot of them, but I know there are more I need to get to. Some I love, others I like, and others didn’t really appeal to me.)
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien (I chose it for bookclub, and I still haven’t finished it yet:-( )
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot (I was given this for Christmas years ago, and I haven’t gotten to it yet.)
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (I can’t actually remember any details, but I do know I read it.)
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh (I keep coming across references to this, so it’s getting to the time I’ll get around to it.)
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden (Bookclub)
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (Bookclub)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (I’m a big Anne fan:-) )
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (I had already read it, and then we read it for Bookclub.)
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding (Read it in about year 10 and hated it with a passion.)
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (We got it for Christmas a couple of years ago, but we’ve lent it to my father-in-law.)
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (Bookclub. I hated it. The following year I taught a year 11 english class, and someone else had already set the booklist so I had to teach it. By the time I finished doing so, I was far more appreciative!)
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (Hmm… I’m pretty sure I have, although, once again, I can’t recall any details.)
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Really enjoyed most of them.)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton (Haven’t read them in years, but I do have very fond memories.)
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (In French and English.)
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
May 4, 2008 at 9:11 pm · Filed under Birthdays, Books, Craft, Domestic Life, Family, Food, For Adults, For Children, Puggle, Season
Last year, a couple of weeks before his birthday, Puggle chose his cake. At the same time, he chose his cake for this year! And he has continued to be consistant in his choice (he’d flick through the cake book, and identify the Tipper Truck as “the cake I’m going to have for my fourth birthday”).
So he did:-)
The instructions were from the Children’s Birthday Cake Book
which was the book my mother had when we were growing up (in fact, she made this same cake for my brother’s 6th or so birthday:-) ).
January 20, 2008 at 8:00 pm · Filed under Art, Books, For Adults, For Children, French, Home Education, Language, Latin, Music, Picture Books, Plans, Puggle, Reading, Singing, This Week, Writing
Week 2, Block 1, Boronia Term
Language
Introduce phonograms ‘d’, ‘f’ (sandpaper letters and sand tray)
o mea Maria (Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary)
Amabo te (Please)
Frère Jacques
Viens! (Come)
English Studies
‘A Lost Paradise‘ from The Lilac Fairy Book Andrew Lang
‘Great Claus and Little Claus’ from The Complete Illustrated Stories Hans Christian Anderson
Narration: ‘The Frogs and the Ox‘, ‘The Dog, the Cock and the Fox‘, ‘Belling the Cat‘ from The Aesop for Children Ill. Milo Winter (He’s really a bit too young for Narration, so I’m mostly going to be keeping an ear out for re-tellings, or incorporation in play)
Recitation: Buckingham Palace A. A. Milne from When We Were Very Young
Art and Music
Folksong: The Drinking Gourd
Composer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Work: Scheherazade
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Work: Ginevra de’ Benci
Music: Loud/Soft (The Kodály Method 1 Lois Choksy) Hop Old Squirrel
Art: Watercolour
Painting a Wash (Art Ideas Fiona Watts)
January 13, 2008 at 10:32 pm · Filed under Art, Books, Domestic Life, For Adults, For Children, French, Home Education, Language, Latin, Maths, Music, Narration, Organisation, Plans, Puggle, Reading, Singing, This Week, Writing
(I’ll update the sidebars very soon!)
Language
Introduce phonograms ‘a’, ‘c’ (sandpaper letters and sand tray)
o mea Maria (Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary)
Amabo te (Please)
Frère Jacques
Viens! (Come)
English Studies
‘The Fairy Nurse‘ from The Lilac Fairy Book Andrew Lang
‘The Tinder-Box’ from The Complete Illustrated Stories Hans Christian Anderson
Narration: ‘The Wolf and the Kid‘, ‘The Tortoise and the Ducks‘ ‘The Young Crab and His Mother‘ from The Aesop for Children Ill. Milo Winter (at this stage I’m not going to focus particularly on narration:-) )
Recitation: Corner of the Street A. A. Milne from When We Were Very Young
Art and Music
Folksong: The Drinking Gourd
Composer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Work: Scheherazade
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Work: Ginevra de’ Benci
Music: Loud/Soft (The Kodály Method 1) Bye, Baby Bunting
Art: Watercolour
Brushwork and Watercolour paints(Art Ideas)
January 8, 2008 at 8:00 pm · Filed under Art, Books, Domestic Life, Family, Food, For Adults, For Children, For the Future, French, History/Geography, Home Education, Language, Latin, Maths, Montessori, Music, Narration, Nature Study, Organisation, Plans, Puggle, Reading, Science, Singing, Writing
General stuff:-)
As I was happy with the structure of our year in 2007, we’ll stick with the same thing in 2008. I have made a decision about the term names. This year we’ll have Boronia, Dorothea and Edith terms. They’re two great-grandmothers and one great-great-grandmother, covering three of the four branches of our family tree. We’ll start the week beginning January 13th. I have plans for a Cornucopia (as I believe they do in Germany at the start of the school year) containing coloured pencils, some new glue and scissors, more sticky tape, counters, and any other bits of stationery type things I think of to include.
Language (Including Memorisation and Copywork)
I have definite plans in this area, but I’m hoping to be able to keep a grip on myself! I’m planning to begin using Writing Road to Reading this year. I’m not necessarily thinking that we’ll use it as written, but I thought I would use their order to work through the phonograms, and aim to introduce them all this year… but mostly it will act as a resource for me—so I can look things up if I don’t know why phonograms make their sound (there were a surprising number I didn’t know when I read it a year or so ago!) As Puggle reaches the appropriate stages, I’m planning to be ready with I Spy, Moveable Alphabet, Object Boxes, Action Cards, and Reading Folders—the first two should be fairly immediate, the others I’ll work on making, so they’ll be ready when he is up to them. (I’m not going to link to all of the specific materials… I have posts planned when they’re made, or if you’re desperate to know (!) ask me in the comments:-) )
Otherwise, we’ll continue with Latin Nursery Rhymes (I have enough for two per Block!) and I’m going to add in some everyday Latin phrases (look, careful, listen, sit up etc.). We’ll start doing the same for French, so a nursery rhyme per fortnight, and everyday French phrases (I still need to sort out which comptines we’ll use).
For Memorisation, we’ll be using When We Were Very Young
, by A. A. Milne. We’ll basically read and repeat a poem a week, and I’d like to pick one of the four (actually, I think it’s five per Block) to work on memorising. There are sufficient short ones that it should be possible from the start of the year.
We’ll begin Copywork properly this year. I’ll re-introduce the sandpaper letters when we do that phonogram, and I’ll also provide a Sand Tray for practice (still need to finish that). I also need to complete our ‘Metal’ Insets, which he can practice with. For these, he’ll use the ‘Lyra’ coloured pencils which are thick, triangular ones. Hopefully this will assist Puggle’s proper writing grip.
Maths
I’m basically intending a fairly Montessori style approach. I have a number of started Sensorial materials, (Pink Tower, Broad Stair, Square of Pythagoras), some completed (Red Rods, Geometric Solids—a Christmas gift, but still, ready to use), and plans to make some others Geometric Cabinet, Constructive Triangles, Binomial Cube, Trinomial Cube and Geometric Cards. I am similarly in progress with Maths materials, some complete (Number Rods, Sandpaper Numbers, Number Tablets and Number Cards), some almost complete (Spindle Box), and plans to make some of the rest.
My plan is to prepare the materials, present them as he seems ready, but just leave him to work with them as he sees fit. Obviously well also be talking about numbers as a normal part of our day (cooking, measuring and various number related books we read).
I also figured that my resolution to play more games can’t but help with maths:-)
English Studies
We’ll be reading all year from The Aesop for Children
illustrated by Milo Winter. These are quite brief re-tellings, and this is the main place I’ll be working on developing Narration. I am hoping that we’ve both kind of got a grasp on it by the end of the year:-)
We’ll also be reading a selection of stories over the year from The Lilac Fairy Book
, The Pink Fairy Book
, The Violet Fairy Book
and The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. As a family read-aloud (so, not necessarily in Mat Time, and quite possibly starting to be some before bed reading—depending on the story!) we’ll be reading selections from Complete Illustrated Stories
by Hans Christian Anderson for the first part of the year, and all of Winnie-the-Pooh
by A. A. Milne for the last term (Edith Term:-) ) Essentially that will break down to three fables, one Fairy Book story, and one Family Read-Aloud selection a week—which I think should be do-able. I may in fact not do all the fables, but rather choose between them at the time. Certainly I doubt that we’ll be narrating more than one!
Health and Phys. Ed
We’re continuing with our weekly swimming lessons. I thought I might try introducing some yoga (through cards that he can do himself, once I’ve shown them to him). We’re working on making the ‘back’yard more contained, and we’re digging a hole for the trampoline. When he’s out there he rarely stops moving:-) I would also like to work (again!) on establishing regular Nature Walks.
(At his age I’m not seriously planning things here… But in the future I’ll need to consider this Learning Area, so I’m noting it now.)
History and Geography
We’re basically going to stick with geography for now. Puggle is really aware of maps, so we’ll make use of the Picture Atlas we have, and he got a pretty good world map puzzle for Christmas. I have plans to make a few more, plus some land and water forms (more of those Montessori materials!) We also plan to acquire a globe.
Science
I intend (once again!) to work on including a weekly Nature walk. I’m not going to worry too much about it until the weather gets more pleasant (so, not until at least March), as I figure it’s one thing to maintain a habit when the weather drops off… but it’s much harder to establish it. We will do some more gardening. We’ll also begin observing the weather.
Aside from these, I’ve been working on various ‘Parts of Animal’ cards, and I’ll finish those, and I have plans for some of the Botany Cabinet stuff.
Art and Music
After my library find earlier this year, I was really excited to discover a copy of The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas
(a single edition version of the book I’d found, plus its companion volumes) by Fiona Watts in a local shop just before Christmas. It became a family present:-) I’m planning to use this for the practical side of our art curriculum—for some years:-) I’ve decided to stick to a theme per term (at this stage, media), so I’ve pulled all the watercolour and wax crayon/oil pastel ideas out. My plan is to prepare the materials for the activity, and leave that with the book (open to the page) on the sewing cabinet. Hopefully Puggle will have the opportunity to attack the idea multiple times if he chooses. (They’re not really independent things, but it is about the process… and I’m happy to assist or inform when he wants… we’ll see how that goes.)
We’ll continue following the Ambleside Online Artist study schedule, so that means this year will be Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan van Eyck.
When I was at my last school, I was good friends with the music teacher. She was a real Kodály afficienado. She lent me The Kodály Method I: Comprehensive Music Education
by Lois Choksy which I read with great interest. (I can’t follow it all yet, but I find it very inspiring.) I’ve since got my own copy so I can read and mull (and work on!), and that’s where my practical music programme is coming from—I was already planning on singing:-) We’ll continue with our Ambleside based Folksong plan, but I’ll be sure to include a range of nursery rhymes as suggested, and make sure that we talk about and experiment with the ten aspects of music that are introduced in the Preschool year plan.
We’re also following the Ambleside Composer study schedule, so Boronia Term we’ll listen to Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Aelexander Borodin and Modest Mussorgsky. Dorothea Term will be George Frederic Handel, and Edith Term we’ll listen to works by Camille Saint-Saens and Hector Berlioz.
Technology and Enterprise
(This is probably my least consisdered area… bizarre given that it’s what I taught! I guess there are a couple of reasons for that. I just don’t think as an eary it’s as important as some of the others, but equally, I’m fairly confident of my ability to wing it for a while… no need to plan at all at this stage. I do have an idea of developing a woodwork curriculum for junior primary homeschooled kids… when we reach that stage, so a little way ahead of me for now:-) )
He got a toolbox for Christmas… so we’ll start some woodwork:-) And of course, more cooking:-)
(I could never be an unschooler! But maybe I should re-read my The Latin-Centered Curriculum
… this seems as though it may be a little over the top…)
In the next week before we start, I have quite a bit of sorting still to do:-( Arranging equipment/books so that they’re accessible and making sure that we have all the bits (music, still need Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, and the French comptines are proving challenging:-( ) we need. I also have a long list of materials I plan to make (or finish) in the first half of this year… I’m going to be quite busy:-)
October 9, 2007 at 8:32 am · Filed under Art, Craft, Domestic Life, For Adults, For Children, Puggle
In all the recent art talk I’ve been noticing watercolours with interest. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Alice posted her family’s lessons (and I’m hoping there will be more!) I really like what she did, but I’m very aware that her children are much older… so I can’t just ‘follow’. Then the last time we went to the library I picked up The Usborne Book of Art Ideas. It has a number of really cool projects. But more importantly, it included some more information about about basic watercolours.
And today we gave it a go:-)
(I got set up while Puggle napped—I wasn’t at all sure what I was going to do… so I did an experiment first.)
We each had brushes, a palette and we shared a couple of water jars. Before we began I told Puggle how the brushes are like gnomes and don’t like their beards being wet, and how they need to be dried carefully. We sponged the sheets of paper (140gsm card… it’s what we had around that seemed most appropriate). I then put a dab of yellow paint in one hollow, then showed Puggle how to mix some water with it. We then attempted to do a wash on half the page. We then had a go with the red on the other half.
[In the photo you can see clockwise from top left, the pencil swirls, Puggle's effort, my demonstration, and my experiment.]
Puggle painted over the whole thing with the red, because he ran out of yellow:-) We then dabbed off some of the paint with a paper towel.
We were still having fun, so I got out the Aquarelles to add some details to my experiment. Puggle has wanted to try using them, so today he had the opportunity. We both did some swirls and squiggles on the page. Then we went back to the table to add water to our work. And then we both cleaned up. I was amazed at how easy it was to achieve something that looked beautiful!
It was a very satisfying afternoon’s work. Even though he was still enjoying himself at the end, I think I’ll stick with one picture… he was beginning to hit too long on task. The next couple of sessions we’ll do the same with blue/yellow and blue/red, then probably repeat with perhaps more of a focus on mixing. Then we might have a go with all three primary colours, at which point it might be possible to use some of the activities Alice did in her first lesson:-)
And then there’s a whole pile of ideas from The Usborne Book of Art Ideas that I’d love to try with him, but they use other media so they can wait for now.
June 11, 2007 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Books, For Adults, For Children
Yet another thing I’ve been meaning to do is invite people to my Book Look (that’s not a link to the actual invite…just the company). Think a tupperware party—just with books!
When: Saturday June 30 at 3pm
Where: Our place
What: To peruse fabulous books!
Why: Do you need a reason to look at books? For yourself? For children you know? For friends?
I’ll have some nibbles, and everyone is welcome (please let me know if you’re coming, so I have an idea of how many nibbles to do!)
If you can’t come (I know some of you are Terracon-ing) but you’re interested, I have a catalogue you can peer through, or you can always book a party!
October 31, 2004 at 9:22 pm · Filed under Books, For Adults, For the Future, Puggle, Reading
‘Boys and Books’ by James Moloney.
‘Great Books for Boys’ by Kathleen Odean.
‘The Reading Bug… and how you can help your child to catch it’ by Paul Jennings.
Even though I don’t really expect that Puggle will have great difficulties with reading, I am still quite interested in the topic. I thought each of these had worthwhile stuff in them – the reading lists found in the first two were worth a return look when Puggle is older.
October 31, 2004 at 9:02 pm · Filed under Books, Family, For Adults, For Children, For the Future, Motherhood, Puggle
I’ve been doing more reading. D’uh!
‘The Ape Who Guards the Balance’ by Elizabeth Peters is another Amelia Peabody mystery. Fabulous as they all are. Most entertaining.
‘Winterfair Gifts’ by Lois McMaster Bujold is also. I am so very glad Redbraids brought it back with her. We’ve waited so long to find out about Miles’ wedding. It was worth it though.
‘The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King’ by Nadia Wheatley is a picture book I have seen many times before, but had not yet read. It’s currently a bit too long to share with Puggle, but I’m looking forward to being able to do that.
‘How Much is Enough? Everything You Need to Know to Steer Clear of Overindulgence and Raise Likeable, Responsible and Respectful Children’ by Jean Illsley Clarke/Connie Dawson/David Bredehoft. I found this to be mostly common sense. It’s Test of Four may be worth remembering (Does the situation hinder the child from learning the tasks that support their development and learning at this age? Does the situation give a disproportionate amount of the family resources to one or more of the children? Does the situation exist to benefit the adult more than the child? Does the child’s behaviour potentially harm others, society, or the planet in some way?)
Other than that, I’m working my way through another selection of books to do with reading generally, and reading with boys in particular. But I think I’ll save them for another post.
October 17, 2004 at 2:05 am · Filed under Books, Charlotte Mason, For Adults, For Children, For the Future, Home Education, Reading
I’ve continued reading. Most interesting completed reading was Jim Trelease’s ‘Read Aloud Handbook’. It had a lot of general information about getting kids to read, but the second half is a collection of booklists for different ages and stages. I don’t know that I agreed with them all, but there were definitely some I’d like to look for.
I’ve also read Anno’s ‘Magic Beans’ and ‘Multiplying Jar’ (I don’t know that they were the full titles), and the two Sir Cumference books. I preferred the Anno books—they seemed less forced. But the others have some merit, I just didn’t enjoy them as much as I’d hoped.
I’ve just started reading ‘Swallows and Amazons’ by Arthur Ransome (again! I know:-) ) for the AO copywork project. I’ve also chosen it for bookclub in December. I’m hoping I might be able to get it done before then, as that would mean I’ve read it more closely than pretty much anything I’ve read for bookclub. We’ll see…
I tend to read so quickly that I really don’t take it in, and I rarely think in depth about what I read. It was always my problem in Lit. I started reading ‘Don Quixote’ with the Classical Homeschoolers Of OZ list. They’re taking it a chapter a day and I started trying to do it that way. I need to get back to it. I’m wondering if I actually manage to limit myself to one chapter at a time, whether it may allow what I’m reading to sink in more. I guess that’s one of the reasons why the CM approach makes sense to me. (I really must start putting my bookmarks up here for Pad to explore).
I’m also reading ‘Raising Lifelong Learners’ by Lucy Calkins. Most of it is fairly familiar stuff about supporting reading, but I found the first chapter on supporting conversational skills was thought provoking. Likewise her chapter on early writing. I was a little wary at first, but it’s the concept of acting as a writer, rather than the physical skill. I also read with interest her chapter on play. Mostly it was all fairly logical, it was just that she did talk about a few things I guess I’d assumed, without actually thinking.
Anyway. Enough for now. Hopefully I can be a bit more regular about this again (maybe I’ll add updating it to my Desk day tasks as a minimum).
August 20, 2004 at 4:20 pm · Filed under Books, Charlotte Mason, Domestic Life, Family, For Adults, For the Future, Montessori, Philosophies, Puggle
I have now set up (yet another!) blog. This one is to record the explicit learning experiences (and perhaps some of the incidental ones, particularly as we progress) we share with Puggle.
My reading this week has focussed on a couple of different things. Firstly, I’ve been looking at ‘Baby Yoga’ by Francoise Barbira Freedman. So far it looks good—and comprehensible to non-yoga experienced person me. Basically it’s info on exercises for baby—which in essence are simply physical games. Exactly the sort of information I was after as Pad and I are both well aware of our need to focus on Puggle’s physical skills (physical development not being a strong point for either of us).
The other stuff I’m reading is on Montessori methods. ‘Montessori Read and Write’ by Lynne Lawrence is quite informative. I’ve decided though, that I’m not going to attempt any more of Maria Montessori’s writing, I’m having difficulty following her style. But I like what I’m seeing of her ideas—although, I’m enough of a CM-type person that I think I’ll leave the early reading alone. Of course, really, I plan to be driven by Puggle, but I don’t see the need to get him reading early unless he seeks it out. I’m reading ‘Montessori Today’ by Paula Polk Lillard as my primary overview. Not far enough into it yet to comment.
I’m almost through collecting copywork from ‘Anne’. About 10 chapters to go. Then I have to go through and weed the list. I currently have about seven selections from each chapter after the first ten, and I need to end up with no more than about three. That will be a challenge. But I should be able to get it done by the end of next week. I hope.
Today hasn’t gone as planned with Kabuki’s abcess:-(
August 17, 2004 at 2:23 pm · Filed under Books, Charlotte Mason, Domestic Life, Family, For Adults, For the Future, Home Education, Motherhood, Puggle
I didn’t expect Puggle to be a boy. Initally, that’s what I thought he would be, but I didn’t seriously expect that would really be the case.
What do I know about boys?
I’ve spent a lot of time teaching them (workshop classes are largely male), and in fact, in the first term this year I had two all male health classes (my principal said she was preparing me in case Puggle was a boy…) But I don’t really feel I have a clue. What books do they read?
I think that’s a big part of it. We are planning on homeschooling. I lean towards a Charlotte Mason approach–using living books. And most of the ones with which I am familiar are ‘girls books’. I will have a lot of searching to do to find the equivilent boys books (not that he won’t read any of the others, but it’s important that he can see himself in the stories).
So I’ve been doing some reading on boys.
Steve Biddulph’s ‘Raising Boys’ was really informative. I like his style of writing and it had a warm feel to it. It will bear re-reading. ‘Raising Cain’ (by Dr Dan Kindlon and another psychologist colleague of his) had it’s moments. It boiled down to ‘boys have an internal emotional life, don’t forget about it’ and ‘be sure to give boys the vocabulary to talk about their emotions’.
I feel as though I have seen so many broken boys in the last ten years in schools (there have been some that don’t appear so, but they are definitely in the minority) and I just don’t want my son to end up like that.
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