Classical Learning and Classical Mistakes

Industrious little hands at work

It's hectic 'round here.  A flurry of glittery homemade ornaments and text books on Classical Education are building up in breeding piles (and library late fees) everywhere.  Whether it's due to the end of the year arriving or the fact that I'll be returning to work (Popasquash will be taking over the home school reins for a bit), I've been focused on streamlining school as much as possible.  The trouble is... I'm recently inspired and as a result altering the plan to add a classical approach to home schooling.

Dodger's Christmas bird

Now...we haven't had to change too much because it turns out that the way we live our lives actually falls in step with the classical approach (another reason to learn more about it).

My Christmas bird

The book that crops up most on this subject related to homeschooling is, The Well-Trained Mind, A Guide to Classical Education at Home, written by mother and daughter Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.  It’s quite a read.  I have found that my assumptions are correct and that a classical education is language based, Susan Wise Bauer writes;

Kitten's Christmas bird

“Language learning and image learning require very different habits of thought.  Language requires the mind to work harder; in reading, the brain is forced to translate a symbol (words on the page) into a concept.  Images, such as those on videos and television, allow the mind to be passive.  In front of a video screen, the brain can “sit back” and relax; faced with the written page, the mind is required to roll it’s sleeves up and get to work”

Sailor's Christmas bird

I find that the classical approach makes sense to me, I can buy into the idea.  Classical Education is based on the Trivium, the three stages of learning; grammar, logic and rhetoric.  Sailor and Kitten are in the grammar stage, soaking up the world around.  Their job is to work on the fundamentals; reading, writing, math, and beginning spelling.  Dodger is at the beginning of the logic stage, he is learning how to hone the tools of language acquired during the grammar stage to make logical inferences and arguments. 

What we’ve been doing so far that fits in with the classical approach:

Including books daily and constantly

Listening to audio books from a young age including E.B. White, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens

Talking and explaining the world; including the children in cooking, chores, budgeting

Visiting the library

Filling our lives with a variety of experiences and ideas

Memorizing poetry

Learning about the natural world with Grandma

Sailor making bread

Math daily

What we have added to our days:

Daily grammar rules during breakfast for example; definitions and examples of nouns, pronouns, prepositions, verbs, adjectives, rules of capitalization, contractions, silent “e”, r-controlled words, vowels, consonants and  compound words. 

Spelling Workout books daily

Expecting more in terms of grammar and spelling
Dodger does logic puzzles daily

The fruits of Sailor's labor (and patience)

What we haven’t been doing but plan to:

Study history starting with the Ancients-specifically Mesopotamia (we had been looking at American history but Wise-Bauer makes the argument that history is a "story" and therefore you should begin at the beginning, at the "cradle of civilization")

Lay down the foundation of grammar-and not shy away from rote memorization

Consider learning as “hard work” and reap the benefit of putting in time and effort

Dodger will start Latin (despite my earlier fears I think this is a good move, he really loves the little tidbits of Latin he gets in his spelling book)

Diagramming sentences
Music lessons (has been on the back burner but now we have actually scheduled a piano tuning and so hope to get rolling with this!!)

Here's a nice description of what the heck I'm banging on about!

“The classical Trivium - grammar, logic, and rhetoric - describes the way in which all human beings learn. First, we begin by memorizing the fundamentals, the grammar of the subject. Next, we learn how the fundamentals fit together, the logic of the system. Finally, we grasp the true meaning and beauty of the system and begin to contribute our own ideas. This is the rhetoric, or poetic level.  Students who have been classically educated will have the skills required to excel in college or in the workplace. They will have learned how to learn.” http://www.pcastl.org/benefits-of-classical-education.html

Why study The Ancients?  Susan Wise Bauer makes the argument that, "History…is not a subject.  History is the subject.  It is the record of human experience, both personal and communal.  It is the story of the unfolding of human achievement in every area-science, literature, art, music, and politics.  A grasp of historical facts is essential to the rest of the classical curriculum."

Fantastic book...caused a few nightmares though!

I feel as if Wise & Wise Bauer have formulated arguments in The Well-Trained Mind that support my “gut” feelings about education.  Initially I argued that I wanted the kids to “write more often”, I felt they were lacking the ability to write with ease.  By understanding language from the foundation I feel that the kids will be well-equipped to move into the “logic” stage of the Trivium.  

Having said all the above, I am still motivated to follow the children’s interests as well as continue to spend time on art projects, handwork, and learning through our day to day chores and life.  I don’t want it to be all blood, sweat and tears!  Actually there haven’t been any leaky body fluids …the funny part is that the kids quite happily fall into step with the required work.  

Each evening I write out their assignments on the chalk board and in the morning the kids work their way through them.  Sometimes even without prodding…what can I say?  We are creatures of habit and tasks with a clear beginning and end are appealing.  Who doesn’t love ticking things off on the list?  This set of tasks to accomplish doesn't mean that we don't follow tangents and have conversations and enjoy learning new skills.  It feels as if I've gone in a bit of a home school circle...a bit 'Pooh Bear'.  I started with a strict schedule...tossed that out...tried chilling out...and now I'm back to a strict schedule (with chill-out time scheduled in).  Madness.

There are lots of moments of grumpiness, bickering, and general sloth around here.  But on afternoons when we sit around the table sharing a pot of tea and yummy food and our conversation leads us from Scrooge to Pandora's box, I feel so lucky and it's just so cool when it flows...

Re: "Classical Mistake": The mistake I've made so far is assuming that because a book is classical that I should automatically introduce it to the kids.  Now that Dodger and I have finished Animal Farm (and Dodger has written his first compare and contrast paper, there was some blood shed over that one !) I was looking for a book to begin (to clarify; this is a book we will read and discuss together), I decided on an "age-appropriate" retelling of Homer's Odyssey.  That plan back-fired.  It turns out my hard-to-scare son was actually a little traumatized by the Cyclops squishing humans on rocks and eating them alive!  It made for a late night...History was brutal and very often disgusting!

Happy Holidays!

Merging Public and Home School...Some Thoughts

This isn’t going as smoothly as planned.  I support public education.  I plan to have our children return to public education.  I want to have the two worlds merge seamlessly.  That isn’t happening.

Today's assignments

The public school is a very sticky glue that holds our rural community together.  But now we are outsiders.  It’s kind of weird and comes up subtly, but I can see how over time the separation could become significant.

To keep in touch and continue to support our local school Dodger joined the soccer and basketball teams.  I spend Wednesdays running an after school LEGO club and I have volunteered to help with the school play again this year by painting scenery.  Sailor attends an after school yoga class with his old classmates and Dodger has joined in on the school field trips.  He wasn't invited, but I asked if he could go along.  It’s a little awkward. 

It just is.

Dodger, who has a healthy self esteem and rarely displays awkwardness or embarrassment, was nervous heading into the school for a field trip with his old class.  He wasn’t sure how to act or where to sit.  Granted this was only a few moments of hesitation and once back with the old crew things went smoothly, but still it was a little tough on him.  Kids ask him why he’s home schooled, and what he does all day.  He’s an outsider in the group now.  I didn’t imagine kids would even take much notice…but they do.

On the flip side the kids are going to home school events and classes where public school kids are absent.  They’ve joined a home school 4H group and the boys went to a monthly event at a local library where there was a book discussion on DCF and Red Clover books, again filled with home school kids. 

It turns out it’s pretty hard to merge the worlds.

They are really different.

Is one better than the other?

No.  Not in my opinion.

They are too different; it’s not a fair comparison.

Should I be forcing the merge between home school and public school in the effort to stay connected?  Maybe I should back off and not try to have the best of both worlds.  The kids didn’t even want to go to LEGO club last week.  Once they were there, preparing for the club and surrounded by kids who were packing away books into lockers and laughing and grabbing coats, Sailor turned to me and said, “I miss my friends”.  And I know that he doesn’t mean “I want to have a play date” he means, “I want to be part of it, I want to be a part of that group.  I want to belong”.  I felt as if I were rubbing it into his face that he wasn't a part of the school by dragging him there to run clubs with me.

Now, I have to add that as soon as we are home and I explain that it’s fine with me that he goes back to public school and we start to discuss how the days will be, what time he needs to get up and so on.  I find that “rejoining” the group has lost its luster for him and he’s willing to take a rain check on public school.  I’ve told the kids multiple times that they can go back, the only stipulation being that I’d like the return to be after a vacation to ease the transition.  They continue to decline and say they plan to stick out the year!

And so, we’ve been discussing the term “the grass is always greener” at the dinner table lately…

Thanksgiving Madness...Written by Dodger

Meringue

In the last couple of weeks I made a cake, a pie and almond cookies. The cake was coconut-cream topped with meringue. I got the idea for the cake from a Fine Cooking magazine but don’t expect to see it in a recent issue because the one I got it from was dated back to December 2009. It took about three days to make and had me real cranky by the time I was done. The pie only took a few hours and I did it the night before Thanksgiving. Kitten and Sailor were out kayaking with Dad so Mom and I were left to the baking. I worked on my cake filling then did the pie. It was apple pie with extra cinnamon. I made the finishing touch by adding a pastry flower to the top.

Almond cookies with powdered sugar

The almond cookies were actually treats for when we went to our friends Sparrow and Winter’s house and had little to do with Thanksgiving but I want to include them because they are fun and new. They are basically butter cookies, you just substitute half of the butter for almond paste and add almond extract.  

Apple pie

Making advent calendars

We took Thanksgiving week off and on Monday Sparrow and Winter came over to our house to make advent calendars. Rather than taking the little chocolates from behind the doors each day (like the ones Grandma usually buys) we add a star to the calendars we made ourselves (I liked the old way). And on a final note, Mom asked me my opinion on homeschooling vs. public schooling. A couple of things I like about homeschooling are...

• It’s more flexible than public school, for example; if we want to go on a walk or let out some energy we can.
• My family feels closer; I am able to be around them more.
• I get to sleep in more; hey, I’m tired!

November campfire in the sun...Sailor's perfect marshmallows!

The thing I miss most about public school is seeing my friends and my teachers.  I get to see them at basket ball in the winter and soccer in the summer but it’s not quite the same. I also miss getting together and playing soccer at recess, although I do play a lot with my brother and sister. 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, personally I never want to see a turkey again!

PS.  Mom had us each memorize a poem to recite for Thanksgiving and mine is below.

FINALLY!  The chickens are laying!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitten's Thanksgiving roses

A Late Walk By Robert Frost

Family hike during deer hunting season!!

 When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

Finishing up with Fall

We picked all our flowers to enjoy in case Sandy hit us hard!

 I feel at this time of year that I've trod on a "Slip'N'Slide" and it's one long slip into the next one.  The Fall and early winter are so packed with holidays and activities in the United States that it's hard to relax until you're up to your neck in January snow and winter has truly set in.

"Lela" Kitten's Araucana

On the everyday front we've been doing lots of learning through just simply living.  The kids have been recruited to stack wood, clean up the garden and yard and generally get ready for winter.  Our chickens, who are pushing 7 months, are still not laying well so we've decided to give them more love and attention (since they already have fresh water, organic feed, loads of delicious scraps, and a well insulted coop with a lake view-'cmon ladies!).  I was also motivated to clip their flight feathers to avoid escapees and needed partners in crime.

Sailor's art

Hold still!

We spent an afternoon catching, clipping, naming and photographing all the chickens.  Then the kids adopted some for their own and we've been working on watercolors of our chickens as a sort of reference. I've also added a light to the coop to give them at least 14 hours of daylight now that the days are darker.

Digging for treasured potatoes!

"Hermione" sans poop.

Child labor

More Sailor art

On the subject of animals it was our black cat's 13th birthday on Halloween this year and so he was treated like a king with candles in some (gross, wet) cat food-see the photo!  The kids were all agreed in being scary for Halloween which we wholeheartedly support, even Kitten decided to be a "dead" bridesmaid.  We live in a rural community so there's no real door-to-door candy collection, instead the town does "Trunk or Treat" and folks get themselves and their vehicles dressed up and hand out candy at the school parking lot...it's a fun time and there's a clear end which, as a parent, I appreciate.

Happy 13th birthday Mr. Black Kitty

On the official  home school front we have been working on our usual math and reading but we've been doing more writing which I am happy about since it's an area I think the kids need to practice often.  The kids wrote ghost stories and turned them into books with pictures and a front cover painted.  We also listened to Garrison Keeler's Halloween audio CD and took a spooky walking tour at a local town cemetery.  But by far the most successful creative writing exercise I've initiated so far was having the kids pick characters, locations, and "triggers" from a hat and then giving them a half hour to write a story.

Here's what I did...I took small pieces of paper and wrote names on them, all sorts of names like Mr. Fizzy, Drex and Geraldine and put them in a hat.  Then I wrote down locations, for example...the desert, a toy store, a field in winter, and put those in another hat.  And finally I wrote down "triggers" like, "Your main character can time travel", "Dinosaurs have returned", "Money grows on trees" and put these ideas in a hat.  I let the kids choose as many names as they liked and reminded them that the characters didn't have to be people.  Then they each chose one location and one trigger.  I set the timer and they wrote stories.

It may seem that I gave them too much to go on, but the purpose of the exercise (the intended purpose) was to show the kids they can do it.  They can churn out stories and not get hung up on the details such as a character's name.  Picking the ideas out of a hat was really fun and I will certainly use this game again.  The kids are very concerned about getting it "right" the first time and I want to shake that notion from them.  We proof read, we discuss what makes a good story and we talk about the process of flushing out ideas and trying things rather than expecting perfection.  However, I do want them to write with ease since it is an essential skill.  I feel if you can't write well (and quickly) then your learning is seriously impaired.  If you spend too much time in simply translating thoughts to paper you don't have time left to really explore the ideas in depth. 

I see snowy-rain coming as I write so I should go and gather the boys up...they've been outside by the fire playing a game where they are giants.  It sounds complicated.  I wanted to write about the experience of blending with the public school community now that we are home schooling...but I guess that'll have to wait til next time.  For the two of you (probably my parents :) who are reading the blog can you try to leave a comment?  I think there may be issues with this on the blog...though I have been able to leave a comment myself.

The LAST mow..in October

Montpeculiar.

First off FALL!  There are no words that have been left unsaid about this wonderful season in New England.  We took a drive to our state's capital and I couldn't help filling with a sense of pride and love cruising through the mountains with the wild gray clouds above.  Fan-bloomin'-tastic. 

We went to Montpeculiar to go to the History Museum, attending our first official "home school" class was enlightening.  I looked around at the other creatures of home school and felt reassured and intimidated..that's a smart group of kids.  One parent started talking to me about a classical education which I promptly came home and googled.  I had assumed she meant reading classic books and so on but it turns out it's more of a movement including studying Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and Reformation.  I have barely begun to look into it so I feel very naive at the moment....more on classical education to come I'm sure, since (apart from the learning Latin part) it's piqued my interest..

Sailor and Kitten on the capital steps

Our days are much more peaceful than a month ago.  A typical day now looks like this...

Between 8-9am -up and dressed and breakfast
Math for an hour or so
Work on our ghost stories
Reading with Sailor
Reading a chapter a day of Animal Farm with Dodger-good for discussing topics like socialism vs communism and when he reads out loud I can really get a feel for his understanding and pronunciation of the text.
Lunch
Free time-LEGO, computer time, cooking, art, walks.

Lemon Raspberry Meringue!

Usually an evening soccer game for Dodger.
Dinner
Bath and more reading before bed...still on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with Sailor though he's requesting Harry Potter instead.  I can't blame him, C.S. Lewis is pretty dark and humorless.  And, although I'll probably get in trouble for this, I have to say I don't remember enjoying the books much as a child and the movies (like the books) are really violent.  Dodger is working his way through DCF books...voraciously.

I've added some pics of how our fossils turned out as well as our trip to the capital.  We made a couple of fun stops while we were in Montpeculiar, picking out yarn for Sailor's mittens...luminous green and red, at least they'll be easy to find even if they make me queasy!  And a visit to the NECI bakery which was especially fun since Dodger has now decided he'd like to be a pastry chef.  He's always loved baking and I am behind this decision all the way!  Last weekend he made us a chocolate caramel tart...sorry, no pics we ate it too fast.  I think he is newly inspired by the graphic novel we borrowed from the library called "Bake Sale" by Sarah Varon...Cupcake is now Dodger's hero.

Homemade fossils

Impressions in clay of found objects from our walk....

...painted in acrylic and then finished with sparkly Mod Podge.

Rocks...igneous? sedimentary? metamorphic?

The beautiful yarn was a gift from a friend who spins!

Rainy weekend...rainy week ahead.  I had an inkling that this may happen.  That is, we would plummet into the dark days of Fall and Winter and suddenly time would free up for lessons.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't stressed myself out by starting schooling when it was in the 80's!

Brothers...makes me smile.

Outside is a wet shiny world of yellows and greens and the flaming leaf tips are beginning.  It makes me think of Scotland or Appalachia.  There's a mist of clouds hanging over the mountains and the lake has turned to slate gray. Very beautiful.  We started the pellet stove for an hour on Sunday and I've knitted two and half pairs of mittens so far.  As Ned Stark (aka lovely Sean Bean) would say, "Winter is Coming" ;)

Grandma was here at the end of last week and she planned a field trip the Geology Museum at the local University.  It's basically one room with lots of rocks and reading which, to a school group, would probably be really dry.  But since we were able to hang out one-on-one with Dodger and Sailor it was more interesting than I could have imagined.  I felt that we absorbed a lot about the history of where we live and the kids maintained focus for a couple of hours in that small museum.  As we learn more and more about the Champlain Basin it seems important to add some hands on activities.

The kids have been working on timelines and the concept of scale with Grandma, creating their own time lines with photos.  And this has been a fun exercise beyond reading, writing and listening.  Over the past weekend we decided to stretch our legs and we went on a hunt for things in nature to bring home and make our own fossils out of.  As usual it was a challenge to motivate folks at first but by the end of the walk I was shivering and desperate for a cup of tea, whereas the kids had found "rock entertainment" they didn't want to leave.

Kitten was busy throwing rocks and collecting "puzzle rocks", basically ones that have broken into pieces and can be fitted back together.  Sailor found an old railroad tie and smashed rocks...testing Moh's hardness scale I guess!  Eventually he decided to bring home some shale to grind to powder and try to make ink.  And  Dodger made rock sculptures.

Choosing bumpy, textured leaves.

Smashing rocks!

Dodger's art with found objects ;)

Back home in the warm!

The clay was very stinky, despite being non-toxic!

After hot chocolate, pie and  healthy dose of LEGO play we made our fossils in clay...we'll see how they turn out once they are dry, I'm thinking possible Christmas ornaments.  They remind me of ornaments my stepmother made when I was a teenager...maybe that's where I got the idea!

I'm thinking about making homemade geodes next....and we'll be taking a field trip to the oldest coral reef in the world when Grandma comes back next time.  Luckily, it happens to be about 15 miles from here :)

Yummy Enchiladas-Written and Cooked By Dodger

 

 Tonight we made enchiladas. They are completely made out of local food, at least the veggies are because they are from our garden! It was a lot of fun making them because I got to help. Plus I got to use our new bowling ball handled knife! I was cutting onions but refused to stop for so long that when I was done my eyes burned.

Here’s our recipe…

All the tomatoes green and red left in the garden, about 10 large and 30 smalls-sliced

Peppers, green and red from the garden-sliced

3 cloves of garlic smashed

1 small onion sliced

1 bunch of cilantro-chopped

1 tsp of cumin

1 tsp of coriander

Salt and pepper

2 Tblsp of olive oil

2 cups of water or broth

Sauté onion, garlic, spices in olive oil.  Add tomatoes, peppers, and water and simmer 30 minutes.  Purée into a sauce.

In other words we mixed it all together.  Then dip corn tortillas in the sauce, filled the sauce covered tortillas with refried beans and cheese or a filling of your choice.  Wrap and place in an oven dish.  Once you have filled and rolled all the tortillas cover with the remaining sauce and grated cheese and bake at 350F for 35 minutes.

Serve with rice and salad!

“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”-Jack Handy

The famous bowling ball handled knife

Puppets, long division and learning to read!

Keeping busy on the boat, Dodger reads out loud.

Dodger has been working on his narrative about our sailing trip so we'll post that soon!  The multi-day sailing trip was a success, if only that we learned that it is possible to live together, cook together, weather high winds together and even floss our teeth on our boat without a murder.  We sailed south and it was a mini adventure.  What impressed me so much is that the kids never seem bored even though we sailed hours and hours and hours.  Not that they don't crank and bicker and do what kids do (and grown ups too).  But I'm noticing that they seem to get along better these days and I can't help but think it has to do with the slower pace of life now that we aren't on a traditional school schedule.  It isn't uncommon these last few weeks to find the kids playing card games together or kicking the soccer ball around outdoors together or just generally being more supportive of each other and less competitive.  It could be the change in seasons or who knows what and its early days to say it is due to home schooling, but life has been more peaceful than usual on that front.

Searching for treasure on land

How have we been learning?  Well, a variety of ways.  We do math everyday we can...even weekends sometimes and Dodger is working on long division puzzles this week, I've included a photo of his "workings out book" which he seems proud of since it looks to him like a mad scientist’s lab book!  We are working in Math Mammoth, which is going well.  The kids have a clear idea what they need to accomplish and we do it.  Sailor has been storming through addition 1-10 and we've switched to telling time for something new before we begin subtraction 1-10.  We'll also be focusing on money this week since we are planning to sell baked goods (pumpkin pasties as a nod to H.P.) at the "Home School Bake Sale" to benefit a local homeless shelter on Friday.  This opportunity segues into learning about homelessness in our community.  Which is a subject worth understanding and changing, in my opinion.

We managed to combine art, literature and writing into our Flint Heart project.  We read the book "The Flint Heart" which is on the Dorothy Canfield Fisher award nominee list as well as about to become a movie next year!  After reading the book Dodger and I broke the story down into the 8-point-story-arc and then made a puppet show script.  The kids all made the puppets and we put on a show for Sailor and Kitten's birthday party.  We made a "doorway" theater in our kitchen using fabric and cedar decorations.  The show was a hit and the kids now have puppet skills under their belts.  By creating the characters into puppets we had lots of talks about what type of traits each character has e.g. magical, mean, kind, curious and all in all it added so much more to the story for us.

Fum and the Magical Zagabog!  Gotta love those acorns!

To continue to tie our study of the lake together we have been reading Abenaki stories out loud and learning more about the native people of our area.  Popasquash has been working with the kids on their knot tying skills, hierarchy on a ship and nautical flags.  I came home from work on Sunday to find they’d spelled out “Hi Mom, We Love You Sugar” from the mast of our boat! And I replied “Whisky-Oscar-Whisky!”

Watercolor postcards ready to send!

Sailor and I read every day and it’s getting easier.  I can’t believe how much I’ve had to relearn in order to teach Sailor how to decipher words.  Curse the dratted English language and all its nonsense!!  Our favorite books so far?  Dr Seuss’ “Up!” and “I’m Not Getting Up Today!”  Which fits in perfectly with our sleepy heads…another added benefit of home schooling is sleeping in ‘til 8am!  8:30am in Dodger’s case ;)

The infamous "workings out book" of Dodger's