ThadenPierce School

This really needs to be my mantra. I think I’ve done a pretty good job stepping back and letting the lessons and checklists go a bit. We’re reading a lot, we’re still doing narration back after we read and having the kids do some copywork.

I’m just realizing that I don’t like having a “lesson plan” with specific activities set up only because if I don’t get to them, I don’t want to feel like we didn’t “do school” that day. I like having a list of fun things we can do so I have ideas and I’ve made sure we have the supplies on hand, so we can do whatever sounds fun and check it off. Instead of “Monday – science project A, language lesson 47, math problems 6 through 12″ I like having a craft list, a science project list, etc.

And with the little kids – when Christopher was Bennett’s age we already had in him a preschool co-op and library storytime and all these “learning activities.” Bennett’s not getting all of that and I’ve wondered if he’s missing out on something not being in a preschool co-op or other such thing. Except today while changing his diaper – we sing the ABC song or count to distract him. I counted to 11, then HE kept going – 12, 13, 14, 15, 18… he skipped 16, for some reason our kids don’t like 16. But Bennett was counting. Blew me away. Then I sit down with the toddlers to play (the older two are writing at the table) and we’re stacking blocks that have animals on one side. Bennett named all of them except the horse – kangaroo included, elephant, fish, dog, cat, giraffe. I had no idea he knew those. Then EMY grabs one and says, “Gih-aff.” SERIOUSLY, Emiline said giraffe. And then I thought – wow, I can relax. They’re going to pick this up whether I try to “teach” them or not. Relax. Just relax and enjoy. Play with them, take them outside, read to them a lot, talk to them, and they’re going to do just fine.

I was inspired by another blog and we decided to get together a quick “fieldtrip bag” to make it easier to spend more time outside. It’s that Charlotte Mason influence. I packed an otherwise unused bag with the following:

waterproof tablecloth – big one I found at Walmart for $.50 so we have something to spread out on damp ground.

toilet paper – for emergencies

water bottles

bug spray

sunblock

first aid kit

wet wipes

diaper & pull up

hats for everyone

notebook, pen & paper

towel

hand sanitizer

We also are packing a change of clothes for each kid (in case of duck pond dips) and last minute we’ll grab snacks and a camera. Anything we’re forgetting?

We keep a lot of this stuff in the car already but this is keeps it all in one bag for sudden trips. In the car we also have a roll of paper towels, more diapers, wipes, sunblock & sanitizer, Emy’s sunblock blanket (Secure2me) and the fabric is no longer being made so I’m glad we already got ours! We also have the Baby Bjorn & a stroller. And grocery bags for clean up. I’m excited! Oh, in winter of course we’ll add jackets but that cool weather is a few months away. Maybe we should add a fun storybook to read, too?

The goal is to make it easy for us to get out the door with all four kids and spend some time outside – at parks, at the lake, just anywhere OUTSIDE so the kids can go exploring & work on their nature journals.

Edit: We added a magnifying glass this morning and I’m thinking maybe a compass? If I can find an inexpensive one. Oh, and binoculars!

We’re teaching the kids the months of the year (they know the days of the week thanks to that handy-dandy song – does anyone know of a song for the months of the year??) and Christopher is learning to spell the days of the week. Christopher asked today why the days & months have these names and I could not remember. Something about roman or greek gods? Have to go find a book on that so I can explain. Interesting how we can have something so much a part of our language and culture and yet I can completely forget where the naming came from. I love that we can have a lesson (prompted by “First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind”) but have the kids ask a very good question and we can simply move directions and follow that little tangent for awhile. Get some library books, do some googling, and end up learning something along the way. I remember in school having questions and when I was patient enough to raise my hand and be called on and get a chance to ask, either the teacher didn’t have an answer or dismissed the question because it wasn’t in the lesson plan or told me to look it up myself (not that it’s a bad idea to have the kids look it up themselves but it’s not like they handed me a library pass and let me go look it up right then) or they knew the answer and would tell me in a hurry so we could get back to the lesson plan. I understand a teacher with a class of 30 kids can’t stop everything to answer tangential questions but still… I think that contributes to kids’ natural curiosity being utterly squashed out of them. I had some great teachers, I had teachers that did things differently and challenged the system and encouraged exploration and inspired me to find answers and ask tough questions. GREAT teachers and I’m grateful for every single one. But I spent years and years of my life spent sitting at a desk “learning” from textbooks, filling out worksheets, taking tests designed only to show if I had memorized the right answer, finishing my work early and being left to sit there with no alternative… but getting in trouble for reading non-school books or writing letters or whatever I did to fill my time trapped at those silly desks.

So, I am ALL for tangents. And no silly desks. And inspiring teachers, wherever we may find them.

We just got in the mail our Pizza Hut reading incentive program for the kids. Homeschoolers can sign up on line and we set the goals for the kids to read each month. They sent a little sign up list with spots to check off and coupons for each kid. If they meet their monthly goal they get a free personal pan pizza and a prize at the restaurant. How fun is that?? We signed up both kids since they are reading and we can customize the goals for each of them.

Our county homeschool co-op also has a coordinator for the Braum’s Book Buddy program. That’s for grades 1 and up so we only signed up Christopher, but he can earn a treat for every six books he reads (up to six times a year, I think?)

Christopher & Moira are both so excited to start reading and earning their treats. Not that we want them to think reading is a chore, but I think they love it already so the free food is a fun bonus.

We’re really trying to back off of having Mo doing lessons and just encourage her to play and draw pictures in her nature journal, read to her & let her color instead of doing formal lessons. But Christopher’s sitting here doing his lessons so she pulled out her composition book and started writing words and then asked me for her “plus work” – addition. She said she wanted to do her plus threes and I wrote them out and she’s happily adding and writing the answers. She told me “Pluses are fun!” So, despite Charlotte Mason’s believe that kids should do no school work before six years of age, I’ve got a 4 year old asking for math work. I think we’ll let her do it when she asks and just not expect her to do it yet. She’s barely four, so I do agree she needs lots of play time at this stage – but if she WANTS to do math, I’m all for that.

Ben’s vision therapist came today and he asked her “ABC?” pointing to his magnadoodle. She started writing them and he told her the letters! I’ve never heard him say his ABCs and he missed a few (after M he wanted W since those are connected in his head) but he got at least 20 of them!! AND after she wrote his name and erased it, he said, “B-E-N!” and pointed to the tablet! He spelled Ben TWICE! We were both shaking our heads in stunned amusement, which is usually what happens during Ben’s therapy visits. Listening to him tell her the ABCs gave me goosebumps.

I decided to do an on-going progress report so I can see what we’ve covered and give myself hope that we ARE getting lessons done. It’s a page link on the top right.

So, bit more about Charlotte Mason. As I’m reading her stuff, I’m gleaning bits here and there. There is a lot we already do or things we planned to do but this great website is offering us a more more detailed structure to follow – they have an entire 12 year outline included linked resources. Most of the texts are public domain so you can download them or read on-line. While I like some of their stuff, after reviewing their curriculum we won’t be using Ambleside because there’s too much I wouldn’t want to do (their history texts have gross inaccuracies, big focus on british history and obviously that’s less applicable to us.) But good site to explore if you have time.

Things that are new we’ll be incorporating:
- More time outside. Charlotte Mason (CM) believes kids under 6 years should be outside most of the day. Clearly she did NOT live in Texas, land of 105 degree heatwaves, bizarre backyard flooding, and fire ants. But we are trying to get more time outside in early hours, while Mom runs, after dinner, etc. When in doubt, throw them out (in the yard, that is) and we’re trying to encourage the kids to just go explore. Which means more time in the yard for Mommy, but that’s the subject of another post. We’re also planning to hit the lake at least once a week and a park, take more walks as a family, and make sure everyday we’re getting some time to bond with nature. The kids are starting nature journals and Moira’s is a hoot, I wish I could scan and share the whole thing.
- Nature science for first several years. CM believes kids need time to observe nature and form their own theories & observations as a strong science base. That’s how we become scientists, right? Observing, so give them the chance to do that personally instead of reading about it in a book. The book will come, we’re hoping to purchase The Handbook of Nature Study which is what Ambleside uses for the first six years of science, along with some bird books and such. We’ll be supplementing with our own science books we’ve picked up and our science co-op.
- Music appreciation. We’ve planned on this but their site gives a composer per term (3 per year) to study plus links and key works to listen to – I love it.
- Artists. Same as above, 3 per year and you can download beautiful images they’ve collected of the artists’ work and give ideas for how to incorporate it in your study. Combined with the amazing art history books my family has loaned us, these kids will learn more than I have yet learned about art! And we have the fun art book that has bits of background and art projects in the same style of famous ones, plus a website with more links to their work. I would link you to the book but I cannot remember the name and the book is in sleeping Mo’s room.
- “Handicrafts” since CM thinks students need to learn practical skills. The only one that comes to mind is sewing (good skill) and woodworking. Now realizing this woman was writing in the early 1900s I know these skills aren’t so necessary to life now – but I think they are enriching and worth learning. Yes, they need to learn to type to survive in this world but I know learning to crochet – another great handicraft – has really enriched my life, helped me make new friends, allowed me to make gifts for people I love, improved my fine motor skills. I heard they advised alzheimer’s patients to do work like crocheting because it helps your brain. SO, we’re officially adding handicrafts. Which does fit in with our elaborate “Thaden Pierce Plan” but I hadn’t thought to add more artistic things to that list. It’s more practical, I think woodcarving would still be enriching.
- We’re going to learn geography more in the context of history, and we’re doing a timeline. I haven’t yet chosen a history text/curriculum because there is nothing I LOVE, but we’ll keep looking (Edit: We found something we love, we’re doing Story of the World.) I love our blackline maps and we’ve got some great atlases. I like that the classics approach says go to the books written in that time period and read various view points – don’t read a textbook, which is the biased perspective of someone else’s summary. Read the writings and get your own opinions. The Ambleside site on the other hand does list history writings that are overviews and completely and utterly biased and (as I mention at the bottom of this) utterly off the mark in at least one area. I looked up their chapter on “Mormons” in US history and it was so ridiculous and speculative that it discredited the rest of the book to me. So we’ll be looking for writings that are more source and less opinion/overview.
- Literature. CM advises NO grammar until the kids are 10. I think that’s too late, I’m more comfortable with six or seven to at least gently introduce grammar (First Language Lessons.) I think our kids need it because Christopher is asking me about the difference between nouns and pronouns and verbs and he’s happy to learn now. But CM advises reading, reading, reading all the time and letting them learn from the literature, pick up the grammar in context. I like that idea, but I like the grammar instruction, too. We’re using a lot of their free texts, like Parables of Nature and the Shakespeare stories and Oxford Children’s Book of Verse. And I’m really impressed by how the kids are engrossed in texts which I thought were too advanced.

Which is another big CM point. Don’t dumb things down for kids. Expose them to beautiful music and literature and they will understand far more than we imagine possible. She really stresses narration in the early years – read something to the kids and ask them to tell you what they heard. The point isn’t to get it verbatim but for them to summarize their views, what they got from it, and it’s been fascinating to do that with Christopher and Moira! CM says it’s in the teaching that we most learn so by having the kids narrate for you, it’s cementing it in their mind. Even Moira is enjoying narrating and I love hearing the different aspects they picked up on. Then as they get older we’ll have them start writing down their narration (how crucial is that skill in life? Reading, then distilling key points??) We’ve been using “First Language Lessons” which is classical but does include narration, dictation, copywork, memorization, etc. We’ll keep using that. We also will do copy work for the handwriting, like copying down scriptures or poems. Helps them with memorization and the handwriting but it’s not just copying letters that way. In addition to sight word spelling lists we’re having Christopher write down any new word in his “ABC book” – page per letter and it’s not a dictionary (no definitions) but he can figure out the first word and look it up if he forgets the spelling. He’s doing that with his spelling lists – he struggles with “twenty” but he can flip to ‘T’ and check it.

Math will remain the same, and phonics. Ambleside has no curriculum for those.

So really this means I found great resources on-line, tons of free texts (public domain) and a couple new science books we’ll be buying, a beautiful outline for art & music, great literature ideas, and a schedule that is so loose (just says here are your readings for this week) that I’m in love. I can handle that! Just get this done in this week. Just read, read, read to your kids (but it tells me what to read and in what order to make sure we’re covering topics like history & science, which I would not have come up with these texts on my own) and our kids are LOVING it. I’m really, really excited. (Update two years later – I do like Ambleside as a resource but we are NOT following their schedule.)

But, disclaimer – I don’t mean this to be a rousing endorsement of the Ambleside site. There is a lot we like, but there are also some texts that we don’t like and one in particular they use has a section on Mormons that was so blatantly false that I read it aloud to Kit and we about fell off the couch laughing. So we are picking and choosing very carefully what we’ll be using. So far I really like them for literature, artists, composers and the nature study. But even that we’ll be using for a couple years then moving on to other areas because I think chemistry and physics are crucial, too.

I attended a Charlotte Mason intro class and I’ve fallen in love. You can read a bit (okay, a LOT) about her here and I’m working my way through ever so slowly. Later I’ll post some changes we’re making to our curriculum, our schedule, our long term plans, our reading list… lots of changes. I’m really, really excited. I know we won’t follow that program exclusively, we do a bit of classical and a lot of random because we’re eclectic homeschoolers but I think we’ll be relying a lot on the CM method.

I’m putting this on the school blog because it’s something we discussed last night at the new homeschoolers group – easy meals.

SIMPLE Pantry meals (perishable additions added, not necessary) – all could be made more from scratch, if you have the time.

1: spaghetti – noodles & jar or can of sauce (meatballs/ground meat, salad, garlic bread)
2: tuna casserole – noodles, cream soup, tuna (peas) chips
3: calico bean soup – kidney beans, pinto beans, corn, diced tomatoes, Bush’s beans, serve w/tortilla chips (ground meat, cheese, sour cream)
4: pancakes & syrup (sausage or bacon, orange juice)
5: taco soup – corn, V8 juice, kidney beans, taco seasoning, diced tomatoes, rice, serve w/cornbread or tortilla chips (ground meat or shredded chicken, cheese & sour cream)
6: chicken pasta salad – 12 oz bowtie pasta, 2 cans chicken (12 ozs), 1 cup mayo, 1 cup Kraft coleslaw dressing, can pineapple tidbits, sliced almonds (sliced grapes, diced apple, green onions)
7: chicken pot pie – cream of chicken soup, mixed veggies (can or frozen), can chicken, pie crust (can be homemade or frozen)

Easy Dinner Ideas (not pantry)

Soup – canned or bagged (like Bear Lake) with cornbread muffins, baked potato, tomato
Pasta w/sauce (alfredo, marinara, etc)
Beans & rice w/tortillas & cheese, quesadillas, burritoes, soft tacos, taco salad
Breakfast – french toast, german pancakes, omelettes, quiche
Baked potato bar, salad bar
Stir fry – meat, veggies, rice w/sauce, egg rolls, sweet & sour chicken
Becky’s pizza – freeze dough, cheese, sauce, toppings
Manicotti, skillet lasagna
Veggy burgers, cheeseburgers
Easy crockpot chicken, then chicken mushroom crepes, haystacks, chicken cesar pasta salad
Salmon – lemon w/dill, rosemary, honeypecan, salmon cakes
Ham – ham & potatoes, ham sandwiches, quiche
Turkey – stuffing casserole, turkey soup/dumplings
Pork roast – leftovers for pork w/apples, bbq pork, stew
Chicken breast – bbq, coconut, italian
Ground meat – meatloaf, shepherd’s pie, sloppy joes
Sausage – sausage rice scramble, pork & noodles, moo shu pork
Sandwiches

We’re using First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind with Christopher and today’s lesson had me read him a fable (golden egg hen one) then have him repeat it back to me. I was stunned by the detail he included – “The farmer and his wife fed the chicken hot mash, and every day said, ‘Good night, little hen,’ and thanked the hen for the golden egg…” He has no idea what mash is, I told him as I read it. I love that this text includes lessons on memorization, narration, summarizing and so on – good skills to have that are often overlooked! He’s telling me the story as he plays around in the kitchen and I roll out pizza dough. Christopher definitely learns better while moving around, you can see how much better he focuses while fidgeting. Which sounds funny! But if we expect him to sit still he spends so much energy trying to not move that he can’t focus on anything else. That body has to move!