Wow! This is the first time I've been excited about carving a pumpkin! Look at these:
http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/10/saint-o-lanterns.html
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Learning by & while coloring
I've found, over the years, that if children can doodle or color while they are listening to a book, they tend not to get distracted by other things.
So, during our morning activities (where I teach all the children together schoolroom-style), I've been having the children color specific things while I'm reading our St Paul book to them.
For the first few months Allie was supposed to be learning about the human body, so I had all the children work their way through Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body , coloring the projects during our St Paul read-aloud and then assembling them later.
~Here is Allie next to some of her "human body" creations & our beaver wearing a "brain hat":
We've been done with the "human body" activities for a while, so here is what we've been working on lately:
~Chloe's daily reading assignments have been from Genevieve Foster's "Augustus Caesar's World". I photocopy the pictures from the chapters she will be covering each week and she colors them during our reading time. Later, she tapes them into her notebook and writes a sentence or two explaining what the picture is about.
~In history Kievan is studying about the colonization of the Americas. She is making maps for the different periods using "Interactive 3-D Maps: American History: Easy-to-Assemble 3-D Maps That Students Make and Manipulate to Learn Key Facts," another book by Donald Silver.
~Allie and Ben have been working on their coloring books from "The Apostolate's Family Catechism". Here's an uncolored example (the colored ones have vanished...)
So, during our morning activities (where I teach all the children together schoolroom-style), I've been having the children color specific things while I'm reading our St Paul book to them.
For the first few months Allie was supposed to be learning about the human body, so I had all the children work their way through Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body , coloring the projects during our St Paul read-aloud and then assembling them later.
~Here is Allie next to some of her "human body" creations & our beaver wearing a "brain hat":
We've been done with the "human body" activities for a while, so here is what we've been working on lately:
~Chloe's daily reading assignments have been from Genevieve Foster's "Augustus Caesar's World". I photocopy the pictures from the chapters she will be covering each week and she colors them during our reading time. Later, she tapes them into her notebook and writes a sentence or two explaining what the picture is about.
~In history Kievan is studying about the colonization of the Americas. She is making maps for the different periods using "Interactive 3-D Maps: American History: Easy-to-Assemble 3-D Maps That Students Make and Manipulate to Learn Key Facts," another book by Donald Silver.
~Allie and Ben have been working on their coloring books from "The Apostolate's Family Catechism". Here's an uncolored example (the colored ones have vanished...)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
On the Education of Children
St. Claude de Colombiere (1680)
Does it not strike you as a surprising fact that Catholic parents so often do what is asked of them from merely human motives and that everything about their homes tends to nourish luxury? They tell them how such and such a man of obscure birth has made himself famous by his eloquence or has acquired great riches and has married an heiress, that he has built himself a magnificent house and lives envied by all. Such examples are held up to the children, but the parents never think of talking to them of those who are great in the kingdom of heaven. If anyone else tries to speak of these things, the parents stop them as though they would spoil everything by such talk.
There are mothers who take great care of their daughters' health but little of their conscience. Far from forbidding them foolish or even bad books, indecent dresses, undesirable friends, indecent pictures, plays, and dances, they allow them these things and even sometimes force them upon their children. Do not such parents know that spiritual fornication is a crime among Christians; that a look may kill a soul and that a bad desire or thought is enough to rob children of innocence and grace? Some mothers think that when they have brought a child into the world they have no further duty toward it. Yet marriage was instituted and is blessed only that children may be brought up in the fear and love of God. If only parents would take the trouble, what could they not do for their children! If you do not bring up your children well, what do you do? It is the only thing you have to do; it is this that God requires of you, for this that He established Christian marriage; and it is on this that you will be judged. You reply that you have amassed a fortune for your children. Did God ask that of you? At judgment He will say: Give me an account of this soul that I confided to your care. What has become of it? It was the field, the vine that the Lord left in your hands to be cultivated. Have you brought up your children to lead holy lives? What have you taught them? Are they good? Do they fear God? Are they well instructed? Many parents will not know what to answer to these questions. They do not even know if their children are good or bad, well or ill-instructed.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Reading with CHC
This year Allister and I have enjoyed going through the Catholic Heritage Curriculum (CHC) learn-to-read program (intended for K-1st) which is called Little Stories for Little Folks.
This no-frills program is contained in two books:
The book on the left contains the actual readers, each of which is printed on a single page which you fold into a little 4-page reader. In addition, this book contains flash cards which you must cut out to use. There are also bitty word cards you can use to play a noun/verb game (see below).
The book on the right has brief teacher notes for each of the readers. Each reader's note explains the "rule", gives a few vocabulary words to go over, and often a faith-based discussion question.
For example, for Level 3, Book 7, the story titled "Running the Race" and is about a Grandpa explaining how he "races". The children wonder how, since Grandpa has a hard time with his old feet, but they eventually learn that it is Grandpa's soul that is racing. It is running away from sin and toward Heaven. In the teacher notes, the suggested discussion topic is "are we once saved always saved" with Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church references given.
(Here is an example page below):
The readers are divided into 4 levels, each level being a different color. Altogether there are 45 little readers.
The front page usually introduces a particular "rule" and gives a few practice words.
The two interior pages are usually the "story". On the interior pages the earlier levels usually have cute hand-drawn black-white images. As the levels progress, the font becomes smaller and the number of interior illustrations shrinks. The back page is usually a practice page (earlier levels) or a continuation of the story (upper levels)
I really like the stories themselves. They are not preachy at all, but they manage to convey virtuous living, happy family relationships, and components of the faith in a very natural way. Stories feature both Mom and Dad, several siblings, love between family members and for neighbors, Church and prayer as an integral part of their lives, and good character. There is also one little story when a visiting boy gets to learn about how his friend is homeschooled and wistfully wishes he could be homeschooled too. (Living in an area where homeschooling not common at all, I was thankful for this story.)
The sheets of paper which are folded into the readers would be very easy to photocopy. However, the program's copyright does not allow for this, even for use within the same family. Although the program's price is very reasonable, I like to re-use what I have in order to save $$. We take good care of our little booklets and store them in a plastic zippy bag. For each session Allie reads two "old" readers and then her newest one. They are getting worn and I'm not confident that they'll last through three more children, but we'll see... If they don't then the re-purchase will be worth it. They really are great little books.
This no-frills program is contained in two books:
The book on the left contains the actual readers, each of which is printed on a single page which you fold into a little 4-page reader. In addition, this book contains flash cards which you must cut out to use. There are also bitty word cards you can use to play a noun/verb game (see below).
The book on the right has brief teacher notes for each of the readers. Each reader's note explains the "rule", gives a few vocabulary words to go over, and often a faith-based discussion question.
For example, for Level 3, Book 7, the story titled "Running the Race" and is about a Grandpa explaining how he "races". The children wonder how, since Grandpa has a hard time with his old feet, but they eventually learn that it is Grandpa's soul that is racing. It is running away from sin and toward Heaven. In the teacher notes, the suggested discussion topic is "are we once saved always saved" with Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church references given.
(Here is an example page below):
The readers are divided into 4 levels, each level being a different color. Altogether there are 45 little readers.
The front page usually introduces a particular "rule" and gives a few practice words.
The two interior pages are usually the "story". On the interior pages the earlier levels usually have cute hand-drawn black-white images. As the levels progress, the font becomes smaller and the number of interior illustrations shrinks. The back page is usually a practice page (earlier levels) or a continuation of the story (upper levels)
I really like the stories themselves. They are not preachy at all, but they manage to convey virtuous living, happy family relationships, and components of the faith in a very natural way. Stories feature both Mom and Dad, several siblings, love between family members and for neighbors, Church and prayer as an integral part of their lives, and good character. There is also one little story when a visiting boy gets to learn about how his friend is homeschooled and wistfully wishes he could be homeschooled too. (Living in an area where homeschooling not common at all, I was thankful for this story.)
The sheets of paper which are folded into the readers would be very easy to photocopy. However, the program's copyright does not allow for this, even for use within the same family. Although the program's price is very reasonable, I like to re-use what I have in order to save $$. We take good care of our little booklets and store them in a plastic zippy bag. For each session Allie reads two "old" readers and then her newest one. They are getting worn and I'm not confident that they'll last through three more children, but we'll see... If they don't then the re-purchase will be worth it. They really are great little books.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Week 15 plans
This school year I've been printing out weekly plan charts for Chloe's and Kievan's use. They keep them in the front of their main binder and highlight each item when it is finished.
When they finish a subject, they can go on to another without necessarily needing my input (this helps because otherwise they may have to wait until I'm finished doing something with one of their siblings).
It is also helpful for me to be able to quickly glance at their chart and know whether or not they've finished the day's work, and what is ready to be graded.
Here are the charts for this week (some of Publisher's formatting is still visible since I did a screen capture):
~Chloe's
~Kievan's
Many of the 'Morning Assignments' are actually done together as a family.
We start off the morning with our Moolah chart and songs (which I started about two months ago in an effort to help Ben's speech). We then study the verse together.
Because Allister is studying the human body, for some weeks now all of the children have been working on coloring/cutting/putting together activities from Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (good review for the older children- and it's fun) while I read aloud the chapter from the St Paul book by Windeatt .
After this, the younger two are started on something and Chloe and Kievan start on their catechism studies. Some days they have independent work, on other days I go over the concepts with them.
After our break, I teach writing (classroom style) to Chloe and Kievan. They then work on this assignment independently.
After lunch, and after I put Anna Claire down for her nap, we do a similar "combined" school for some afternoon classes including poetry, current events, and reports given by children.
When they finish a subject, they can go on to another without necessarily needing my input (this helps because otherwise they may have to wait until I'm finished doing something with one of their siblings).
It is also helpful for me to be able to quickly glance at their chart and know whether or not they've finished the day's work, and what is ready to be graded.
Here are the charts for this week (some of Publisher's formatting is still visible since I did a screen capture):
~Chloe's
~Kievan's
Many of the 'Morning Assignments' are actually done together as a family.
We start off the morning with our Moolah chart and songs (which I started about two months ago in an effort to help Ben's speech). We then study the verse together.
Because Allister is studying the human body, for some weeks now all of the children have been working on coloring/cutting/putting together activities from Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (good review for the older children- and it's fun) while I read aloud the chapter from the St Paul book by Windeatt .
After this, the younger two are started on something and Chloe and Kievan start on their catechism studies. Some days they have independent work, on other days I go over the concepts with them.
After our break, I teach writing (classroom style) to Chloe and Kievan. They then work on this assignment independently.
After lunch, and after I put Anna Claire down for her nap, we do a similar "combined" school for some afternoon classes including poetry, current events, and reports given by children.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Not a real post...
(I'm just putting these links here so I won't forget about them.)
Jan Brett "Mitten" activity:
animal and mitten pattern
animal masks
animal footprints
more animal footprints
The Homeschool Share site with the ideas
Jan Brett "Mitten" activity:
animal and mitten pattern
animal masks
animal footprints
more animal footprints
The Homeschool Share site with the ideas
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