Shadowlight Academy Nuts & Bolts

Reading Journal - October

2008-10-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

Oct 1

Oct 6

chapter 4

Oct 10

chapter 5

Oct 13

pages 1 - 32

Oct 20

pages 33 - 64

Oct 21

chapters 1 - 2

Oct 22

chapters 3 - 4

Reading Journal - September

2008-09-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Fall Quarter 2008

Sept 29

Sept 30

chapter 3

Fall Quarter 2008

2008-09-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

This is obviously very similar to the Summer 2008 Quarter. We aren't adding any new subjects this year, so this is basically just a rearrangement of our previous schedule.

Second Grade

*read aloud one chapter, story, or small book for approximately 15 minutes a day, 4+ days per week
*Language/Grammar: First Language Lessons, 4 days per week
*Math: Singapore Primary Math 2B, 4 days per week
*History: Story of the World: Volume 1, The Ancients with Activity Guide and lots of library books; 3 to 4 days per week
*Science: Singapore MPH Science 4A/B, 2 days per week
*Physical Education: Park Day, 1 day per week; Gymnastics, 1 day per week; Soccer (through mid-October), 2 days per week
*Social Studies: 4-H, 1 day per month; life, tv, internet, conversation, as encountered
*Fine Arts: Themes to Remember: Volume 1 supplemented with music from Classical Archives, 1+ day per week; theatrical performances at the Wells Fargo Center, 1 day per month (on average); ballets performed by the PCB and others, 2 or 3 shows per quarter; life, tv, internet, library, museums, as encountered
*Practical Arts: 4-H arts & crafts projects (including puppetry, historic American crafts, and origami), 2 to 3 times per month

Kindergarten

*Phonics: The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, 3 days per week; read aloud,as desired
*Language/Grammar: First Language Lessons, 4 days per week
*Math: Singapore Earlybird Math 2B, 3 days per week
*History: Story of the World: Volume 1, The Ancients with Activity Guide and lots of library books; 3 to 4 days per week
*Science: Singapore MPH Science 4A/B, 2 days per week
*Physical Education: Park Day, 1 day per week; Gymnastics, 1 day per week; Ballet, 1 day per week
*Social Studies: 4-H, 1 day per month; life, tv, internet, conversation, as encountered
*Fine Arts: Themes to Remember: Volume 1 supplemented with music from Classical Archives, 1+ day per week; theatrical performances at the Wells Fargo Center, 1 day per month (on average); ballets performed by the PCB and others, 2 or 3 shows per quarter; life, tv, internet, library, museums, as encountered
*Practical Arts: 4-H arts & crafts projects (including puppetry, historic American crafts, and origami), 2 to 3 times per month

Preschool

*Lentil Science
*PlayDoh
*Cuisenaire Rods
*PBS Kids Sprout
*Starfall
*library books & videos
*Leap Frog Phonics Radio
*whatever works to keep him entertained and out of the way! ;)

Summer Quarter 2008

2008-06-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

Please forgive the fact that I skipped any mention of the Winter 2007/08 and Spring 2008 Quarters. They were not much different than Fall 2007... just less of the same. ;) But now it is a new year and I need to seriously think of our plans. So without further ado...

Second Grade

*Phonics: finish last dozen lessons in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, 4 days per week; read aloud 15 minutes a day, 4+ days per week
*Language/Grammar: First Language Lessons, 4 days per week
*Math: Singapore Primary Math 2B, 4 days per week
*History: Story of the World: Volume 1, The Ancients with Activity Guide and lots of library books; 3 to 4 days per week
*Science: Singapore MPH Science 4A/B, 2 days per week
*Physical Education: Park Day, 1 day per week; Explore Our Community (park day friends out in the world trying out some new fun things like swimming and hiking over the summer), 1 day per week; Gymnastics, 1 day per week; Golf Camp, one week (5 half days) in July; Soccer (starting in August), 2 days per week
*Social Studies: life, tv, internet, conversation, as encountered
*Art & Music: life, tv, internet, library, museums, as encountered

Kindergarten

*Phonics: The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, 3 days per week; read aloud,as desired
*Language/Grammar: First Language Lessons, 4 days per week
*Math: Singapore Earlybird Math 2A/B, 3 days per week
*History: Story of the World: Volume 1, The Ancients with Activity Guide and lots of library books; 3 to 4 days per week
*Science: Singapore MPH Science 4A/B, 2 days per week
*Physical Education: Park Day, 1 day per week; Explore Our Community (park day friends out in the world trying out some new fun things like swimming and hiking over the summer), 1 day per week; Gymnastics, 1 day per week; Ballet Camp, one week (5 half days) in July; Ballet, 1 day per week
*Social Studies: life, tv, internet, conversation, as encountered
*Art & Music: life, tv, internet, library, museums, as encountered

Preschool

*Lentil Science
*PlayDoh
*Cuisenaire Rods
*PBS Kids Sprout
*library books & videos
*whatever works to keep him entertained and out of the way! ;)

We school year round, taking breaks as needed. Spring Quarter seemed to have more needed breaks than usual due to my pregnancy exhaustion. The goal of the Summer Quarter is to get back on track and ease back into a regular schedule for Fall. We'll see what works and what doesn't, where we need to add things or take them away. We will end the Summer Quarter 2008 with a New Baby, so that will shake things up yet again. Hopefully our routines will be set though and we will be able to get back to things as soon as possible. I know from experience that an infant is much easier to homeschool with than a toddler. ;)

Writing Assignment

2008-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

Actually an "oral story-telling" assignment to compose a "Story About Me." It could be fiction or non-fiction and story prompts were given if needed, but Cameron had no problem coming up with this. (I did help a bit with the last two sentences though.)

Cameron's Story About Games

Once upon a time, I was playing chess for my first time. I did not beat Daddy. Another time, I played chess against Cassie and Cassia won! Another day I played Daddy again and I got really close to beating him but I didn't. Another time I played Monopoly with Mommy. I also play backgammon with Mommy. Another time I played checkers with Cassie. I like to play games with my family. I can't wait until Greyson can play games with my family and me.

Thinking "Aloud" about our History Cycle

2007-12-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

Time to do a little rethinking here. I had always planned on following WTM and cycling through History in 4-yr cycles hitting each topic three times over the course of a twelve year education: Ancients (1st, 5th, 9th); Medieval-Early Renaissance (2nd, 6th, 10th); Late Renaissance-Early Modern (3rd, 7th, 11th); and Modern (4th, 8th, 12th). I've always had a bit of a pang with this anyway because since Cassia is listening in and participating in The Ancients in her Pre/K4 year. I'm not going to start all over again for her in two years when she's 6 and officially in 1st grade. That would be silly. And then what about Greyson and anyone else who might come along?

I finally decided to relax a bit on the strict year divisions and just cycle through the years as we came to them, folding in whoever is interested at the time. That leaves the History Cycles starting as follows:

Cameron: 1st, 5th, and 9th
Cassia: K4, 3rd, and 7th with two years at the end of high school to either explore her own interests or to stay on track with the youngers with a more intense study of the first two time periods.
Greyson: K5, 4th, and 8th and one year left over to do the above
Homeschooler-Under-Construction (yes, we are officially TTC so assuming all goes as planned...): PreK3 (though I doubt there would be much interest or activity), 2nd, 6th, and 10th but having to condense the whole thing into 3 years but also with having been exposed to everything 4 times instead of just three.

Wow, that puts me to the year 2025! Talk about long term planning, lol.

But that was the old plan. I'm finding that we are progressing rather slowly through History. Much more slowly than I had anticipated. Double slow, in fact. When I first received our copy of SOTW, I broke it down: 94 stories, 42 chapters, 315 pgs. Assuming a 40 wk school year, that left me to do approximately seven and a half pages or one or two chapters a week. Mmm hmmm. We've been averaging a chapter every two weeks. According to my roughing out of the chapters, we should be starting the Early Greeks next week. It says right there, Dec 17 (which was my scheduled break for Christmas time), be done with Chapter 19. We're still on Chapter 10.

Not that I really think that's a bad thing. I am actually really enjoying our casual pace. We do History two or three times a week (and I'm guessing that it will be three times a week much more frequently now that the rain has come to cancel our favorite park day for several months). Usually our routine goes as follows:

Monday 1: read SOTW, do coloring pages and maps
Wednesday 1: read Usborne Book of World History and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Friday: do craft or read library books
Monday 2: read library books
Wednesday 2: do craft or read library books

Now sometimes we don't read all the stories in a chapter in one sitting. Sometimes we will alternate SOTW and the encyclopedias depending on how related the story topics are to each other and how much interest the kids have in listening to me read them. It's a slow pace, I admit. But I'd much rather have them interested through short bursts than bored into a non-listening comatose state by droning on after their interest has waned. So that leads me to my dilema - how do I keep our slow comfortable pace and still cover everything for the Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric stages of learning?

I think I finally figured it out. I'm just going to have to let things unfold as they will and remember that the type of learning that a child does in the Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric stages isn't defined by the time period they are studying. Their brains don't switch into a new way of thinking simply because we've started on The Ancients again. It happens with age and maturity and I'm just going to have to keep an eye on their thought processes to properly challenge the stage that they're in.

But I can also revise our schedule a bit and plan to stretch it out into a 5-year cycle instead of a 4-yr one. Stretching things out to five years gives Cameron two full cycles and then two more years of high school to explore things, in depth, on his own. Cassia will either have three complete cycles (including her PreK/K studies of History) minus the last section of Modern History OR she will have two complete cycles and all of her high school years to research and explore things on her own. I could even assign a year-long research paper on something in one of the original History Cycle Divisions to focus her studies a bit more. Greyson will benefit from this stretch by starting The Ancients in 1st grade (2012) and having two full cycles plus the last two years of high school for independent study, like Cameron. Similarly, any baby born in 2008 will follow Cassia's path.

I like my new plan. It gives me both the structure to keep us somewhat on track and the freedom to take our time on our journey and smell the roses a bit. I know, even though 2025 seems so far away, it will all pass in the blink of an eye and I don't want to waste a minute of it stressing over the details. What do you think?

A Study of Nouns

2007-11-14T23:02:00.001-08:00

Copywork in which "Person" nouns have been underlined in blue, "Thing" nouns underlined in green, and "Idea" nouns enclosed in red.

Where did my picture go??

The First Cities of India

2007-11-14T22:47:00.000-08:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients)
- The River-Road
- The Mystery of Mohenjo-Daro

Mapwork:
Cameron's

Notice the neatness with which the water is colored. It's actually only colored at all because someone decided to make the river run all the way along the coastline. I said that that wasn't accurate and that the ocean would have to be colored to correct it. I was very pleased to see how neatly that was done. You will notice that Cassia's mapwork is not shown here. That is because her picture was entirely red. Eeek.

Coloring Pages: "An Indus King"

Cameron's:

Cassia's:

Notice her typically amazing use of color.

Favorite Library Books:

Once a Mouse... A Fable Cut in Wood by Marcia Brown
One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi

Cassia's Alphabet

2007-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

Cassia's first copywork. She was writing random letters so I thought I would try her out with the whole alphabet. I was really impressed with her capitals. Obviously, she's not quite ready for lower case yet.

The Assyrians

2007-10-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume 1 (The Ancients), Chapter 8
- The Assyrians
- Gilgamesh the King

Map Work:

Coloring Page:

Gilgamesh the King retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman
The Revenge of Ishtar retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman
The Last Quest of Gilgamesh retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman

"The Little Girl Who Wanted to Be Dirty"

2007-10-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

First draft narration:

A girl had a dream. She hated baths but she had a dream she was in a pig pen. She played with the pigs all day but then when it was time for supper she just got pig food and she didn't like that so she ran home and took a bath and put on clean pajamas. She told her mom all about it and her mom said, "You just had a dream!" The end.

Final (edited) narration:

A girl hated baths but she had a dream she was in a pig pen. She played with the pigs all day but then when it was time for supper she just got pig food. She didn't like that so she ran home to take a bath and put on clean pajamas. The end.

Hammurabi and the Babylonians

2007-10-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients), Chapter 7
- Hammurabi's Code

Map Work:

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Crafts/Activities:
LEGO ziggurat

"The Lion and the Mouse"

2007-10-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

"The Lion and the Mouse" narration 10/16/07

Once upon a time there was a mouse and a lion. The mouse stepped on the lion's tail. The lion wanted to eat the mouse but the mouse promised to help the lion someday if he let him go. The lion thought that was so funny that he let him go. One day he stepped in a hunter's net and the little mouse came to the resue by chewing through the net.

Grammar Definitions

2007-10-10T16:48:00.001-07:00

Noun:

"A noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea." 10/10/07

The Jewish People

2007-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients), Chapter 6
- God Speaks to Abraham
- Joseph Goes to Egypt

Map Work:

The route from Ur to Haran to Canaan and finally to Egypt is shown.

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's:

Cassia's:

"The Rabbit and the Turtle"

2007-10-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

"The Rabbit and the Turtle" narrations 10/8/07

First (long & detailed) draft:

The rabbit thought the turtle couldn't beat him in a race. So then they had a race to see who would win but they had no coach so they asked the fox to coach and he said, "Yes." Then the fox said, "On your marks; get set; go!" and the rabbit went speeding ahead like a galloping horse. The turtle was walking slow behind. The rabbit got tired of hopping so he took a nap beside the road. And when the rabbit was still sleeping, the turtle walked right past him. When the rabbit woke up the turtle was way far ahead so the rabbit hopped just as fast as he could but the turtle was so far ahead that by the time the rabbit caught up he was already past the finish line. The rabbit said "Wait, wait, I'm faster!" but the fox said, "But the turtle already won. You may be fast but being fast and lazy is no good. Being slow and paying attention is better." The End.

Final (summarized) draft:

Once upon a time there was a rabbit and a turtle who were going to run a race. The rabbit thought he would win because he was so fast. But he got tired and took a nap beside the road. While he was sleeping the turtle passed by him. The turtle won the race."

Akkadia

2007-10-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (the Ancients), Chapter 5
- Sargon and the Akkadians

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's:

You can't tell from the scan, but the hat was very carefully colored a light peach or "flesh" color. Speaking of flesh color, before he began coloring, Cameron asked me if the people of Sumer had dark skin. I said that I wasn't sure, but I thought they did. He said, "Oh, ok. I have a brown crayon here for dark skin, but I don't think I'll use it now." He ended up not coloring the skin at all. I wonder if that is a political statement of sorts? It was, certainly, the first time he has ever mentioned skin color.

Cassia's:
(Scanner conked out! It was very red though, lol.)

Map Work:
Not interesting enough to post. ;) Just a red circle around Akkadia.

Other Activities:
*Word search on Sumerian Inventions for Cameron
*Illustrations of the list words for Cassia (click to enlarge)

Arabian Nights: Three Tales retold and illustrated by Deborah Nourse Lattimore
The Three Princes: A Tale from the Middle East retold by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Sumerian Slave! by Jacquline Morley

Memory Work, Fall 2007

2007-10-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 1 + 2, Lesson 35

Days of the Week
a Mother Goose rhyme adapted by Sara Buffington

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is ever so sweet,
Thursday's child is tidy and neat;
Friday's child is prone to a giggle,
Saturday's child is easy to tickle;
But the child that is born on restful Sunday
Is happy and cheerful, and loves to play.

Introduced: 11/01/07
Memorized:

----------

from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 1 + 2, Lesson 27

Hearts Are Like Doors by Anonymous

Hearts, like doors, will open with ease,
To very, very little keys,
And don't forget that two of these
Are "Thank you, sir" and "If you please!"

Introduced: 10/30/07
Memorized:

----------

from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 1 + 2, Lesson 15

Work by Anonymous

Work while you work,
Play while you play;
This is the way
To be happy each day.
All that you do,
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are never done right.

Introduced: 10/17/07
Memorized: 10/23/07

----------

from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 1 + 2, Lesson 2

The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry;
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk.

May no toad spy you,
May the little birds pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

Introduced: 10/2/07
Memorized: 10/4/07

Spelling Words, Fall 2007

2007-10-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

week of 11/5/07

hit
big
win
fill
this
did

week of 10/29/07

hat
man
has
lamp
and
hand

week of 10/15/07

Review

week of 10/8/07

six
box
top
book
mix
pop

week of 10/1/07

van
zoo
you
*queen (quene)
zip
*very (varee)

Red starred (*) words were missed on the Friday test. Blue words were spelled correctly.

The Old Kingdom of Egypt

2007-09-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients), Chapter 4
- *Making Mummies
- *Egyptian Pyramids

Narrations:

Egypt's Pyramids - 10/1/07

Egypt has pyramids. The pyramids are used to hold people who are packed in sarcophoguses, called mummies. The mummies are wrapped in cloth. They thought the mummies would let them live forever.

Egypt is along the Nile river. They made mummies four thousand years ago.

Favorite Library Books

Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki
Cat Mummies by Kelly Trumble

Field Trips:

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium
- *Tour the museum online here.
- *Read about our field trip on September 19, 2007 here.

The First Writing

2007-09-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients), Chapter 3
- *Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform

Favorite Library Books:

Seeker of Knowledge: The Man who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs by James Rumford

Map Work:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's

The black was an artistic thing. I'm not sure what it "means" but he actually left the room to find a black crayon. He really, really wanted that man to be black as night. He wanted to do his map work in black too but I wouldn't let him because I said that you wouldn't be able to see the map if he did!

Cassia's

Crafts:

Cameron's name in hieroglyphic letters
Cassia's name in cuneiform on clay (plus some happy faces)
"Mom" in hieroglyph letters on clay (forgive the faulty autofocus)
"Mom" in cuneiform on clay (again, forgive the faulty autofocus)

Daily Schedule - Fall 2007

2007-09-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

As always, NOT set in stone. This is just a general guideline of what I would like to accomplish each day/week. Fall Quarter 2007 is September 21, 2007 to December 20, 2007.

Spelling: Introduce week's spelling words. Do a page or two of SWO A.
Math: one or more workbook exercises
Phonics: one (or less, if long) lesson
History: read SOTW, do accompanying map work and coloring pages
Lunch
PE: gymnastics
Read Alouds: read more history or other books

Phonics: one lesson or easy reader book
Math: one or more workbook exercises
Grammar: one lesson from FLL
Science: read science text or books or do experiments
Lunch
4-H: meetings or projects two Tuesdays a month
PE: ballet for Cassia
Read Alouds: read more science or other books

Spelling: finish week's lesson
Math: one or more workbook exercises
Phonics: one (or less, if long) lesson
History: read encyclopedias and library books, maybe do project
Lunch
Library: stop by library, pick up holds
PE: park day
Movie Night: watch movies - hopefully educational ;)

Phonics: one lesson
Math: one or more workbook exercises
Grammar: one lesson from FLL
Lunch
4-H: projects once a month
Science: read books and/or do experiment
History: read library books, do project (moved from Friday)
Art History: do coordinated art history project from Artistic Pursuits, when appropriate (moved from Friday)
Read Alouds: catch up on what we've missed through the week

Spelling: test
Math: one or more workbook exercises
Phonics: one (or less, if long) lesson
PE: park day, ~~alternate~~ every weeks
Lunch at park
~~History: read library books, do project~~
~~Art History: do coordinated art history project from Artistic Pursuits, alternate weeks~~

Notes: I am still planning on starting First Language Lessons when we get to (at least) lesson 140 in OPGTR (which should be less than a month into the Fall Quarter) but I'm also thinking of just waiting until after Christmas to start that. I think spelling will be a big enough strain and I don't want to completely put him off of language. Also, soccer is another PE thing but that is variable, about twice a week and, of course, screws up whatever else was planned for that day. ;)

Cassia: Cassia has been rocking with schoolwork but I still can't seem to schedule it. Sometimes she does great doing her math at the same time that Cameron does his, but sometimes they both just need too much attention. Phonics she definitely needs one-on-one attention for and I do still have a hard time getting her attention for that when there are games to be played with big brother. I think it is still working best to just give her some time on the weekends when DH is home and he and Cameron are off doing "boy things." It makes it more special and really a one-on-one thing.

Notes 9/21/07: Our very favorite park day has been changed from every other week to every week so I've had to cut down on our Friday schedule. We are usually at this park day from 12 or 1 until 4 or 5 so nothing much else gets done. Yes, I know I could start earlier but how often does that really happen? ;) Also, I've decided to go ahead and start grammar. If it gets to be too much, I'll drop it or I'll drop Spelling. Twice a week of a mostly oral program shouldn't be too much.

Egyptian Gods and Temples

2007-09-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume 1 (The Ancients), Chapter 2
- *Gods of Ancient Egypt

Favorite Library Books:

Gods and Goddesses in the Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians by Henrietta McCall
Cry of the Benu Bird: An Egyptian Creation Story by C. Shana Greger

Crafts:

Egyptian god dolls

Osiris and Isis

Amun and Horus

Thoth and Khnum

Anubus and Seth

Egyptians Lived on the Nile

2007-08-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Spine

Story of the World, Volume 1 (The Ancients), Chapter 2
- *Two Kingdoms Become One

Map Work:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Nomads & Early Farmers

2007-08-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume I (The Ancients), Chapter 1
- *The First Nomads
- *The First Nomads Become Farmers

Map Work:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Coloring Pages:
Cameron's

Cassia's

Illustration (8/30/07):

"A house in Catal Huyuk."

Art: Cave Drawings 8/10/07

2007-08-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

You Make Cave Art! from Artistic Pursuits, lesson 18 (Art in Caves: European Cave Drawings). Earth-tone pastels on crumbled construction paper.

Cameron:
Buffalo and Deer

Cassia:
Abstract Wall Design

"Teacher" example:
Man and Giraffe

Prehistoric Man

2007-08-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Narrations:

Prehistoric Man 8/13/07

Prehistoric men are the early humans. They lived after the dinosaurs. They were men who didn't wear clothes. They had fur! Some walked upright. Some walked on four legs. Homo hablis was one who walked upright. He also used tools. The tools were made of stones, bones, and hard things.

Some prehistoric men hunted mammoths. Mammoth hunters used spears to hit the mammoth. Some mammoth hunters hunted woolly mammoths. They lived where it was really cold.

Most Useful Library Books:

Stones and Bones! How Archaeologists Trace Human Origins by the Lerner Geography Department
Eyewitness: Preshistoric Life by William Lindsay

Read-Alouds:

One Small Blue Bead by Byrd Baylor
Dar and the Spear-Thrower by Marjorie Cowley

Most Enjoyed Videos:

The History Channel's Ape to Man

Games and Activities:

BBC's Prehistoric Life Caveman Evolution Game
virtual tour of the Cave of Lascaux
Cave Drawings on crumpled brown construction paper with earth-tone pastels

Dinosaurs & Fossils

2007-07-19T09:41:00.001-07:00

Narrations:

The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs (7/24/07)

They went back in time to see Maiasaura eggs but went too far. They came back a little, but not far enough. They saw different dinosaurs than before. And then they came back more but it still wasn't far enough. They saw more different dinosaurs than before. They went back again and they saw an ocean with different animals. They went back again and saw different dinosaurs. One last time back and they saw some more dinosaurs and then walked a little and finally saw the ones they were looking for. But before that they saw Tyranosaurus Rex! And when they found the dinosaurs they were looking for, a big sand storm came and buried all the animals. Then they went in the bus and went back home.

Dinosaurs (8/6/07)

I love dinosaurs! Dinosaurs have been extinct for 150 million years. Some were meat-eaters and some ate plants. Meat-eaters are carnivores. Plant-eaters are herbivores. If you eat both meat and plants, you are an omnivore.

My favorite dinosaur is T-Rex. He is a meat-eater. He is a carnivore. He would kill other dinosaurs for food. He is really cool. He used his sharp teeth to kill other dinosaurs. T-Rex killed other smaller meat-eaters and plant-eaters.

Most Useful Library Books:

Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki
Dinosaur Bones by Aliki
Dinosaurs Are Different by Aliki (heavy on classification)
The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
Eyewitness: Prehistoric Life by William Lindsay

Most Enjoyed Videos:

Great Websites (games):

Field Trips:

LaBrea Tar Pits

Activities:

Mud Dinosaur Fossil inspired by the Stir-In Fossils experiment in More Mudpies to Magnets: Science for Young Children by Sherwood, Williams, and Rockwell
lots of plastic dinosaur play

Writing Samples

2007-07-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

Copywork 7/9/07

The drawing was supposed to be a self-portrait. He drew himself and his friend S6 playing with LEGOs at our dining room table.

"My name is Cameron. I am in the first grade."

Archaeology

2007-07-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Spine:

Story of the World, Volume 1 (The Ancients), Introduction
- *What is History?
- *What is Archaeology?

Narrations:

Archaeology (7/16/07)

Scientists collect things underground. They find arrowheads, spear points, skeletons, and human skeletons. They try to figure out what it is and then put it into a museum.

They wear hats so they don't burn in the sun because they work in the hot sun all day long. At the museum they try to figure out what goes where because some of it is broken.

Archaeologists also find buildings and wood pieces that burned in a fire. And that's it.

Illustrations:
copied from photo, page 32, in Art and Archaeology by Shirley Glubok.

"This archaeologist is using a periscope to look for artifacts in an unopened tomb."

Most useful library books:

The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology by Scholastic
Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke
Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past, 25 Activities by Richard Panchyk (good book with activities that would be interesting to many varying ages - but we didn't do any of them)
Art and Archaeology by Shirley Glubok (the reading isn't exactly age-appropriate, but the pictures are great)

Activities:

archaeological dig in playground
finding and documenting pottery artifact in our backyard

Daily Schedule - Summer 2007

2007-06-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

NOT set in stone! This is just a general outline of what I'd like to accomplish each day and in what order.

~~Spelling - introduce words for the week; do half of a lesson (2ish pages)~~
Math - one lesson
Phonics - one lesson
lunch
History - read SOTW, do map work, read encyclopedias
Gymnastics - catch up time with one while the other is in class

~~Library - get books for general and for history reading~~ (we've generally been going to the library on Wednesdays)
Phonics - do one lesson or read one reader ~~(continuation from ballet?)~~
Math - one lesson
lunch
Science - textbook, workbook, activity book, experiment, or library book
Ballet - read with Cameron while Cassia is in class (HA! More like, chase Greyson while reassuring Cameron that we will be able to leave soon!)

~~Spelling - do second half of lesson~~
Phonics - one lesson
Math - one lesson
History - ~~outline~~ read Usborne Encyclopedia, read a library book
lunch
History - do activity
Park Day - socialize ;)

Phonics - do one lesson or read one reader
Math - one lesson
lunch
Science - textbook, workbook, activity book, experiment, or library book
~~Music/Art Appreciation - read books, look at prints, listen to music~~

~~Spelling - test~~
History - books and/or activity
catch up on anything that may have been neglected during the week
lunch at park, alternate weeks
Art Technique - ~~Drawing with Children~~ or Artistic Pursuits project, weeks we're not at the park

*Notes: I included Spelling in this daily schedule even though I promised Cameron that we would take a spelling break over the summer. I won't start it right away, but am hoping to start it again mid-August when the public schools start up again. Grammar is going to wait until Fall (Autumnal Equinox) and I don't want to start in with both Spelling and Grammar at the same time.

One thing I did leave out of the schedule, that I know we are committed to, is soccer. That will be starting in August and will likely be one or two practices a week plus a game on Saturday. But of course, they won't tell us when or where until, oh, the day before we need to be there. I think that runs through November and then basketball starts up. We'll see how crazy soccer is, but Cam's t-ball coach swore that the Boys & Girls Club basketball is great fun and doesn't take too much time. DH, his brother, and all their cousins are big basketball players so I don't want Cameron to miss out on learning that - I'm certainly not going to teach him!

4-H is another thing that I can't schedule in just yet. The business meetings are one Tuesday a month and the project times vary - people try to keep them on one Tuesday a month though for consistency. But that may not start until September anyway, making it part of the Fall Schedule.

Field trips for next year are going to be more sporadic than this year. Our homeschool group's field trip coordinator is not planning organized bi-monthly trips again. I guess she got tired of she and I being the only ones to show up. She announced that she will notify the group of cool places she is going when they come up, but that is about it. Too bad. I will miss them. But I guess now I will be able to concentrate more on cool field trips that will correspond to our history study.

As a final note, I have to mention that I really wanted to start Cassia on OPGTR this year, but I'm not sure when I can work it in since there isn't really anything that Cameron can do independently yet. Maybe while he's in gymnastics or at soccer practice? Hopefully I'll be able to find some time each day to sit and work with her. I think she'll pick it up quickly if we just sit down and do it.

**End of Summer Notes: Funny how much I "planned" to do but never got worked into my schedule. It's not really that I never got around to these things, it's just that they never seemed "right." I love that I have been able to remain flexible enough to not stress when things don't go according to plan. I've seen way too many posts about homeschoolers just losing their marbles when their plans go awry, lol. I'm happy to keep things in motion and adaptive to our family flow. So Spelling is now slated for Fall Quarter and Grammer, maybe, Winter? I'd still like to get more Classical Music into our lives. I need to get back onto Classical Archives and download some stuff. Or maybe I just need to play the stuff we have, lol.

Art: Abstract Design Warm-Ups

2007-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

from Drawing with Children

Abstract Design Warm Up, Level 1

Cameron:

Cassia:

Abstract Design Warm-Up, Level 2

Cameron:

Cassia:
"Teacher" Example, Level 2

Jenny:

To-Do List

2007-04-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Trivium Academy, I have decided to blog my to-do list for the next school year. I have so many things "in progress" that I'm already forgetting where I am and what I wanted to get done. So hopefully, this will help.

Language Arts

look through Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and determine if we are still on track to start grammar in the summer or fall ...done
look through Ordinary Parents to determine if we can/should skip anything or if we should just take a break from phonics for a while ...done
take a closer look at First Language Lessons and get an idea of how fast we want to move through it ...in progress
try to determine if anything else (besides reading historical fictions) will be necessary, like handwriting, additional poems to memorize, readers to explore, etc...done, and I think we're good for now. I'm just going to play it by ear.

Math

order Primary Math 2A/B and Earlybird Kindergarten Math 2A/B from Singapore ...done
check out Living Math to make sure we keep things fun and active

History

make Master Schedule, coordinating Story of the World, Volume I, the projects I want to do in the Activity Guide, and the accompanying books that our library actually carries ...done through Babylon
add websites for additional history reading and projects to Master Schedule ...in progress
coordinate projects from Lentil Science into Master Schedule
coordinate experiments from Mudpies to Magnets into Master Schedule ...done
coordinate recipes of the times into Master Schedule
coordinate sources (websites, books on hand) for examples of art into the Master Schedule ...in progress
search Library Thing for books we already own that may coordinate ...in progress
find lists for memorization and coordinate them into Master Schedule ...in progress

Art & Music

look through Themes to Remember and decide on a game plan ...done
make playlists and/or cds combining Beethoven's Wig songs, Themes to Remember themes, and complete works ...in progress
look through Artistic Pursuits and decide on a game plan ...done
coordinate works of art and projects from Part III of Artistic Pursuits into Master Schedule ...done
buy lots of art supplies

Other

buy notebooks ...done
make list of project supplies needed
gather project supplies
input personal library into Library Thing ...done
reorganize books so that ones we will be using next year are together ...done
make Attendance Record ...done
look through California Education Code requirements to make sure I'm not forgetting anything legally required ...done
make List of Courses Offered and Faculty Qualifications for school file ...done
look through State Standards for 1st grade (to laugh) ;) ...done, and we're already making a decent dent into them

Spelling Words, Spring 2007

2007-03-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

***Taking a break on spelling until next year.***

hook
stop
leg
pen
car
can
will
cold

car*

can*

rug

wet

will*

cold*

leg*

dog

pen*

duck

nest

jar

fan

fun

bag

jog

3/19/07 and 3/26/07
Spring Break

hot

map

hook *

hop

stop *

tub

bat

bus

see

sit

Starred (*) words were missed on the Friday test. Blue words were spelled correctly.

Long Term Planning

2007-03-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Phonics, Grammar and Writing

Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading - preK, K, 1st
First Language Lessons - 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Writing Strands - ??
Classical Writing: Aesop - ??
Classical Writing: Homer - ??

I'm still torn between Writing Strands and Classical Writing. Or maybe we'll use both? Or maybe something different? Maybe a different program for each child? We'll see when we get there.

Other Language Arts

Spelling Workout - K through series end, however long that takes
Vocabulary from Classical Roots - ??
writing and copywork from history studies
Handwriting Without Tears - as needed

Mathematics

Singapore's Earlybird Kindergarten Math - preK, K
Singapore's Primary Math - K through 6th
Singapore's New Elementary Math - 6th through 8th
I haven't looked into actual algebra/geometry/trig/calculus programs yet

Grammar-Stage History

Story of the World, Volumes 1 to 4 with Activity Guide
Usborne Book of World History
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
From the Stone Age to the Space Age
library books galore

Logic-Stage History

Story of the World, Volumes 1 to 4 with Activity Guide
Usborne Book of World History
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
From the Stone Age to the Space Age
library books galore
corresponding source documents & literature

Rhetoric-Stage History

History of the Ancient World and the rest of the series when it comes out
corresponding source documents & literature
??? who knows, that is so far away!

Science

Singapore's MPH Science series - K through 4th
chronological study of famous scientists and their work/discoveries as they occur in history - 5th through 8th
formal laboratory science classes either at the JC or at home (again, that's so far away!) - 9th through 12th

Foreign Languages

Latin, curriculum TBD - 4th through waning interest
Spanish, French, and/or other Modern Languages - 6th through 12th
Greek, curriculum TBD - 9th through waning interest

Music & Art Appreciation
Still not sure where we're going with this except for a chronological study of composers and artists as they tie into history, and hopefully some practial music and art lessons as well (piano, violin, drawing, sculpting, whatever)

Social Studies, etc
No need to plan for any of these as they will occur naturally in our study of history and of life.

Plans - Fall 2007

2007-03-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

First Grade

phonics: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading; M, T, W, Th
spelling: Spelling Workout B; M, W, F (test)
grammar: First Language Lessons; T, Th
math: Singapore's Primary Math 2A/B; M, T, W, Th
history: Story of the World, Volume 1: The Ancients and library books; M, W, F
science: Singapore's MPH Science and library books; T, Th
art technique: Drawing with Children; summer
art appreciation: Artistic Pursuits; F
music appreciation: Themes to Remember: Volume 1 and Volume 2, library books and cds to loosely follow the Classical Magic 6-yr Schedule; F
music technique: tba, possibly violin lessons; once a week
PE: gymnastics, Mondays; park days, non-raining Wednesdays and alternating Fridays; soccer, basketball, TBA
social studies: 4-H, varies; life ;)

in other words...
MONDAY: phonics, spelling, math, history, gymnastics
TUESDAY: phonics, grammar, math, science, ballet (Cassia)
WEDNESDAY: phonics, spelling, math, history, park
THURSDAY: phonics, grammar, math, science
FRIDAY: spelling test, history, music, art, make-up phonics or math, park

field trips, as needed

phonics: Go For the Code and Starfall, both as desired
math: Singapore's Earlybird Math 2A/B, as desired
handwriting: Letters and Numbers for Me with slate board, as desired
listening in on: history, science, art, music, and social studies from above
PE: gymnastics, Mondays; pre-ballet, Tuesdays; park days, non-raining Wednesdays and alternate Fridays

Daily Schedule - Winter/Spring 2007

2007-03-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Not that we really keep a schedule, but here is what we aim for:

phonics: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading; 3-5 times a week, days vary
spelling: Spelling Workout A; ~~3 times a week; workbook Mondays & Wednesdays, test Fridays~~ taking a spelling break for a while
math: Singapore's Primary Math 1B; 3 - 5 times a week, days vary
science: Singapore's MPH Science 3B; 2 times a week, days vary
music: Poco a poco- Notes and Rhythms; twice a month
music appreciation: The Story of the Orchestra and Themes to Remember; as desired
geography: Globalmania; twice a month
PE: gymnastics, Thursdays; park days, non-raining Wednesdays and alternating Fridays; T-Ball, twice weekly - days vary
social studies: field trip group; two Wednesdays a month

phonics: Get Set for the Code and Starfall, both as desired
math: Singapore's Earlybird Math 1B, as desired
handwriting: Letters and Numbers for Me with slate board, as desired
music: Poco a poco- Notes and Rhythms; twice a month
music appreciation: The Story of the Orchestra; as desired

Welcome!

2007-03-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of Shadowlight Academy. This is where I will be blogging our schedules and lesson plans, book lists and upcoming projects. It's an organizer, a to-do list, a report card. I may also post book reviews and student work. Basically, the nuts & bolts of what we're doing and what we would like to accomplish.