ThadenPierce School

“Busy & hurried, too often we take ‘natural man’ solutions, rushing from one task to another, checking off the times on our lists to do in a mad frenzy without the transforming power that spiritual insight always brings.”

“Distractions are the enemy of pondering and serious reflection… Why tempt us with dark deeds, when our heads can be so easily turned from eternal things by distractions?”

“We cannot understand the answers to questions we have not asked.”

“Impressions come to minds ope to be taught, not those already rattling with trifles. But we want to cry out: ‘My life is fragmented and torn to pieces by obligations and duties, all the nits and gnats of the modern world.’ I say, we must help it. We are the people of God. He has things to tell us that are only accessible to a mind that can often be given to serious reflection. We did not come here to forget our divine destiny under a clutter of random thoughts.”

“So many things about our lives we cannot choose, but we can decide where our minds travel.”

All from Maurine Jensen Proctor’s talk, “Serious Reflection Precedes Revelation” at the 2006 BYU Women’s Conference.

I suggested they think of something for their school, their body, and their spirit.

Christopher would like to learn to drive to Kit’s office by himself. We’ll reschedule that for 2017. I’ll quote him for the other goals he’s listing…

Christopher:
- make my own bed
- exercise
- listen and feel the Spirit at church
- listen to the Bishop & Prophet talk
- start my lessons yesterday so I have less tomorrow

Mo wants to walk to speech time by herself. What’s up with this desire for independent transportation?? Again, no way.

Mo:
- make own bed
- try new foods (but not broccoli)
- exercise, but not cinnamon rolls (she already does those) but push ups are okay
- read
- eat a whole box of ice cream by herself (no, she didn’t read my list already)
- go to Grandparents’ house again. (She says, “I like that.”)
- swing by herself

Kit was feeding the kids ice cream and I was lounging in bed when a clip came on tv about dipper birds in Yellowstone river – they fly underwater to dive for bugs. It was very cool! So I called everyone in and they raced to watch and as they were heading back to their ice cream Christopher turned around and said, “Thanks for sharing that with us, Mom.”

I claim no credit for this kid, I think he was born this amazing. But it’s sure nice to have him around.

I’m having fun exploring Abby & Eric’s Classical Music 4 Kids blog, with link to the right. We want to give our kids a wonderful exposure to music, I just didn’t know where to start so hooray for them helping us get going!

Hooray for Christopher!! He just officially completed first grade level in First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind which means among other things, he knows four types of sentences, nouns/pronouns/verbs, has memorized six poems, learned the days of the week and the months of the year, and has done lots of narration and copywork.

We’ll keep reviewing what he’s learned this week and moved onto the second grade level (this book covers both years, 100 lessons per year) after the new year.

After second grade level we’ll be using their new Level Three which just came out this year – I’m thrilled, because we’re very happy with this book and I didn’t know what we would use next. I heard they are working on a level 4 soon to be released. But at the rate Christopher is going we’ll be needing the level 3 before the baby comes! 100 lessons, we probably do 20 a month? So he’ll be done by the end of May with second grade language.

This covers grammar, composition, copywork, and narration but does not cover handwriting, spelling, or teaching a child to read. Copywork gives handwriting practice, but does not teach technique (and we just grabbed a cheap workbook for handwriting.) For spelling we found spelling lists on-line and have him write them up or practice orally. And reading – we just read to him and have him read to us. I’m astonished at what he’s reading these days, both how he sounds out and his comprehension.

For Mo we are holding off – she’ll be barely five next fall when she would start kindergarden and Christopher was almost six when he began. I don’t want to use the First Language Lessons with her for at least another year, until she’s 5.5 years old. Even that is earlier since it’s 1st grade. For now we’re focusing on reading to her and doing phonics blends, I think her speech should be our primary goal – before we worry about her reading and grammar skills.

Kit and I are writing up our goals for them for 2008, in the sidebar. We informally started lessons a year ago and I’ve learned a lot… probably more than the children have! I feel like we’re finding a really good rhythm and system.

I have a new approach to homeschool. It’s called, “Quick, Mommy isn’t barfing so let’s cram in as many lessons as we can before I get sick again!” Thus allowing me to feel less bad if we miss days when I’m too miserable to work with them.

I’m also finding that we get a lot more lessons in during the winter months because they aren’t able to spend hours a day in the yard playing. So if we cram when we can now, then come spring we can shift back to our outside “nature study” and science time and I like that idea… we’ll stick with the one math & language lesson each per day even over the nice months, but in winter we can easily do 2 or 3 of each lesson per day and still be done with lessons within an hour! If we focus… Today it helped to let Mo do the starfall website while C and I did math & language and the babies napped. Coordinated naps are wonderful, if only they would do it more often.

In the tub tonight I overheard Christopher discussing his Tigris and Euphrates rubber duckies. We grinned, happy to hear that something is sinking in… Not that we doubted it with our boy that has a brain like a sponge, sucking knowledge from every possible source.

Oh, and after reading a “Magic School Bus” book today Moira informed me that another word for magma is lava. But she says it, “Lah-buh” and it’s bittersweet to me that her comprehension far surpasses her pronunciation. It’s wonderful! We’re thankful her comprehension is phenomenal… I just wish her ability to convey her ideas could keep up with her desire, so she didn’t have to struggle with getting the world to understand her. She’ll find a way.

We did lessons yesterday and we’ll do lessons again tomorrow, today was just a “fun” day (we gave them one day off, we’re such taskmasters) but we did squeeze in that science with the schoolbus books. But beyond asking Christopher to tell me the date & time (which is very handy that he can now tell time) we didn’t do math or language. OH, and yesterday I asked him what time it was and he said 1:60 and I wasn’t paying attention but Kit was – and after laughing at me he clarified for Christopher what time it was. I have no excuse, I just wasn’t paying attention. But now Christopher says crazy times as a joke. Scary to think I’m being trusted to teach this child, eh?

I’ve had friends ask about how this works so here it is:

Story of the World is a series of 4 volumes covering ancient through modern history. It’s the classical approach, teaching history & geography in a linear fashion. There are the reading books and the activity guides (totally optional, copyright is given to copy maps and various activity sheets in the activity guide for family use but not for groups – so you can buy it once for all your kids.)

Each week we read one chapter from the reader, it takes maybe 20 minutes and we try to define words as we go then I have Christopher narrate back to me what he got from it. Moira listens but she’s 4 so I don’t push her to narrate – just tell me something interesting.

So we’re reading every week but our group is meeting every other week. A few families rotate hosting and we pick an enrichment activity to go with the chapter – not from the guide, since we didn’t all buy it, but that’s good for ideas. The kids come having heard the chapter and the hope of the activity is that it will give them a good visual/tactile memory to cement the concept. That’s my goal, at least! The group session isn’t a lesson or very academic, it’s the hands on “fun” stuff like making maps, carving cuneiform, etc.

Once I’m feeling less wretched I hope to do an enrichment activity at home the weeks we’re not meeting with the group. We’re also going to start a timeline and begin some map work, but that’s not going to happen until next year.

So, I think Story of the World is a great investment – several friends said it was a good read for THEM to gather a better perspective of history & the timeline. It’s a four year rotation so we’ll repeat this same book and add more extras (historical readings from whichever time period we’re in, maps, timeline) and the kids will read it on their own then. It’s designed to be a simple read, though they need some vocabulary help. By letting them hear it now we get them familiar with the story so when they’re reading it in another 4 years it’s something they’re comfortable with and we can explore in more depth. Like reading Shakespeare summaries now – when they start the actual plays I think they’ll enjoy them more by knowing some rough idea of what’s happening.

The books can be found inexpensively (around $10) and the activity guides are around $20. I don’t think the activity guides are crucial, but helpful if you need ideas. We also purchased an independent set of blackline maps to print (I think there’s a link to the right?) that’s broken down by time period, both with and without cities marked. I really like those.

I think there are a lot of benefits from the group – I am more accountable for getting readings done promptly, the kids get to enjoy learning from and with others, everyone shares their creativity, and there are the social benefits for both mom & kids. It’s fun to learn with friends. Plus there are more elaborate or messy crafts and projects that it’s nice to do for a group but I would be less inclined to do for just our house.

Our group was created just from a group of homeschool families – some already using the books, others just getting introduced to them. Buying the book isn’t a big investment up – $10. Even if it’s not a sole history curriculum, it’s an enjoyable and informative read for the kids. I was surprised at how much our kids pick up from it and ask for more – I worried it wouldn’t capture their interest. It does.

This week we studied Hammurabi and Babylonia. I bet I’m spelling those wrong but I’m too sick and tired to look… Last week it was Joseph in Egypt, so this week we did a bit of both for our project.

Dayna printed out each of the kids’ names in the Babylonian cuneiform and gave them modeling clay and little tools to write their names – mostly lines and triangles which they made with Trivial Pursuit wedges. They also colored pictures of Joseph in his coat of many colors. The little kids played with (and ate) play-doh.

Christopher’s high points from his narration – the code of Hammurabi was fair laws and he said he got them from the gods (and we discussed the similarity to the law of Moses.) The Babylonians had a calendar and clock like us and they were the first to divide the year into 12 months, day into 24 hours and hour into 60 minutes.

After reading the chapter on Joseph we read the story in Genesis as well.

I’m really, really enjoying the history group and I think the kid are, too. It’s one hour every other week but it’s been a good way to see their friends and cement some of the history stories we’re reading at home. Plus I love the chance to see friends, too.

The Story of Stuff – the kids were entranced by this film. Christopher kept saying, “Is that true? Is that true? Why don’t they recycle? Why don’t they not buy so much stuff?”