Friday, August 18, 2006

Memories....all alone in the moonlight

I couldn't resist.

I looked at the post and realized no one is going to have any idea what I mean by "memory work." So let me explain.

One of the main tenets of a classical education is that children in the grammar age (4-11) are little sponges when it comes to retention of information. This is why, back in the day, children had to memorize long poems and speeches all sorts of crazy information. During the debacle of 20th century public education, memorization has gotten a bad name. They call it "drill and kill" in the public schools. Classical education people say, "Nuh-uh..." (exactly in those words) "...Memory work promotes mental discipline and makes kids crazy-smart."

So we do memory work. Here's how we do it: I select a list, poem, or whatever for Charlie to memorize. I type it up and put it in his little memory work folder. Then I tape myself saying the poem on his little cassette recorder. During his memory work time, he sits with his folder and cassette player and practices saying the poem or whatever until he can do it from memory. Everytime he recited a poem he got a sticker on that page. Here is a list of what he memorized in 1st grade:

the continents and oceans
the 7 phylum of the animal kingdom
Rain - Robert Louis Stevenson
Singing - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Little Turtle - Vachel Lindsay
The Caterpillar - Christina G. Rossetti
Captain Kidd - Stephen Vincent Benet
There Once was a Puffin - Florence Page Jaques
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost (he recited this one at our end of year presentation night with our homeschool group)
Psalm 19:1-2
Psalm 25:4-5
Isaiah 9:6
Proverbs 15:1
John 20:31
Psalm 118:1

He also learned most of the books of the Old Testament but he was only able to recite them once...so we're still working on that.

I haven't lined up our memory work for this year. I'll post as we go.

Loose ends and more to come.

I was going to post a copy of my lesson plan book that I made. But without tables, it just looks lame.

In the future I'll be posting classroom pictures, a reading book list and (hopefully) some work samples so you can see the kind of stuff we do. Like I said before, you can email me with ANY questions you have about ANYTHING. Seriously. Even if you don't know me.

I hope this made sense and clarified a little of what homeschooling is all about in our home.

Morning meeting? Is this a homechool or a Fortune 500 company?

When I taught kindergarten I called our little 'circle time' the 'morning meeting.' I don't know why I called it that...maybe because there was no way I was going to let 20 five year olds surround me with a circle. (You never turn your back on five year olds...you could die a humiliating, painful death). So this is what the girls and I will do first thing every morning.

Morning Meeting


Calendar

months

days

year

skip counting 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s

numbers 1-20, 1-30 etc.


Alphabet/Phonics

letters/sounds

short/long vowels/silent e

schwa

chunks

(2nd semester)

vowel digraphs, ai, oo, au...

consonant digraphs, ch, ph, th...

vowel diphtongs, au in cow, oi in boil..


Sight Words



We'll probably cover more than this...shapes, our phone number, make sure they've got those colors down, etc. I'll add to this list as I think of things we need to cover. This will give me a starting point.

Moving right along...

This is my dream version of a schedule. In reality, all of these times will be fudged and who knows how our day will really end up. But this will give me a structure to aim for. You always want to start strict and rigid...if it works you can lighten up. But never begin loosey-goosey. Your kids will eat you alive.

I have this saved as a 3 column table...blogger doesn't do tables so I'll have to improvise.

8:00
Charlie - memory work, math
Juliet - morning meeting, math

9:00
Charlie - math cont., spelling
Juliet - memory work, coloring/art project

10:00
grammar, Latin

11:00 lunch/break

1:00
history/geography
handwriting

2:00
writing/science

3:00
reading hour



The slashes mean it's an every-other-day thing. So M, W, F would be history and T, Th would be geography.

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.

I'll start with the texts we're using this year. Italicized means it's for Juliet (and Ava). Print means it's for Charlie or they are all using it together. In other words, I use the same texts for history, science, keyboard, and Latin for everyone. I'll just make Charlie write more stuff and Juliet will draw pictures and dictate.

2006-2007 Texts


Math – Singapore Early Bird 1A, 1B
Primary Math 1B, 2A, 2B

Spelling – Phonics Pathways
Spelling Workout B, C

Grammar – Shurley Grammar 2

Latin – Prima Latina
Latin Christiana 1

History – Story of the World 2

Geography – Trail Guide to the World

Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears – Cursive
Zane Bloser - Print

Writing – Writing Strands 2

Science – Leaf and Tree Backyard Explorer Kit
365 Starry Nights
Star Maps for Beginners
Skywatching

Keyboard – Pianimals A, B