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A Dillar, A Dollar

Aug13

We’re starting school this morning. Stay tuned for further updates . . .

12:15 P.M. Well, we’ve read two chapters from Banner in the Sky,, the story of a sixteen year old boy who wants to climb the only mountain in the Alps that hasn’t yet been conquered, called in the book The Citadel. It’s loosely based on the true story of the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Karate Kid (10) also started on his reader, Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter.

I started The Story of the World: Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer and First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise with my two youngest, Betsy Bee (8) and Z-Baby (6). Karate Kid (10) is doing a mixture of Sonlight 6 and some other stuff I pulled in to study ancient history and literature with us, and Brown Bear Daughter is starting Ancient History: A Literature Approach from Beautiful Feet.

The younger two have done their math (Miquon), and the older two are doing theirs (Saxon 7/6) while we listen to cello music on the radio program, Exploring Music. It’s all going fairly well, despite a bit of grumbling. (Brown Bear Doesn’t want to listen to classical music, and Karate Kid doesn’t want to do Saxon math.) I’m determined to do everything on the list, at least on this first day. I’ll let you know how it goes . . .

The Rule of Six, or Seven, or Eight, or Ten

Aug2

My Betsy-Bee asked me for a list of things to do today, and I thought again of Melissa’s Rule of Six. Melissa of The Lilting House has such a nice, simple list of “six things to include in your child’s day.” I’ve been meaning to use her list with my urchins, but I have such a cluttered mind that I keep forgetting the things on the list. SO, here it is, plagiarized but attributed, in which case I guess it’s just borrowed.

Six Things to Include in Your Child’s Day:
• meaningful work
• imaginative play
• good books
• beauty (art, music, nature)
• ideas to ponder and discuss
• prayer

Melissa even says that “Miss (Charlotte) Mason believed children needed three things every day: something to love, something to think about, and something to do.” So educator Charlotte Mason started with three things each day, Melissa made it six, and I’m making my own list of ????

I’ve been thinking about starting school next week, and I have a list of things in my head that I want to include in each day. These things fit into the six, but are more school/subject specific. I always make things more complicated than they need to be, but anyway here’s my list of things to include in our (school) days:

1. Meaningful work
2. Meals
3. Prayer and Bible reading.
4. Poetry
5. Good books
6. Mathematics
7. Beautiful art and music
8. Play or work outdoors
9. Imaginative play
10. Adventure

The ideas and discussion should flow out of these ten tasks. I know I always try to cram more into a day than is humanly possible, but please tell me that these ten things are possible, doable, and somewhat sane.

1. My children have assigned household tasks, that have been only loosely supervised this summer. We need to be more disciplined about the jobs.
2. Meal planning has been a little loosey-goosey this summer, too. I need to get a plan and a schedule.
3. We plan to have family prayer and Bible reading each morning at 7:00 AM so that my working/college kids can participate. It’s going to take some work to get us all up that early since we’ve been a bunch of ten o’clock scholars this summer.
4. We usually sing a hymn together at family prayer time, and I’d like to read a poem aloud each morning.
5. Not too hard. We are a reading family.
6. Math is the only school subject that I insist on getting done each and every day. I really think that for math proficiency, daily practice is essential.
7. I’d like for us to listen to this program each day on our local NPR radio station. It comes at about lunch time, so maybe we can listen over lunch. I’m not sure about the whole art thing, whether I want us to do art or look at art, or some combination of the two, but I’ll take suggestions.
8. We tend to stay indoors too much. I need more exercise, and the urchins need more nature. Maybe we should start nature journals again.
9. I think if we turn off the TV, the imaginative play will take care of itself.
10. Adventure. I must be open to taking the adventure that comes into each day, whether it’s a great adventurous field trip or a small adventure of exploring the nearest anthill. Adventures can’t always be programmed, but they can be recognized and enjoyed.

More posts about the Rule of Six:
Whence It Came
All Roads Lead to Rome (Especially for Bunnies)
Other people’s thoughts

Summer Reading Programs

Jun21

In2Books: Online reading program.

Shake, Rattle, & Read! Challenge: Register, read books, win prizes!

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program
Get a free book when you read eight (8) other books!

Reading is Fundamental Summer Reading Contest
Reading gets you in the race to win prizes and help donate books to needy children at the same time!

Book Adventure
Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they’ve read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes.

For the fall, there’s the Book It! Program for homeschoolers.

Summer Reading List: Middle School Daughter

Jun4

Brown Bear Daughter is twelve years old. Her favorite books are Harry Potter, Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller, Rules by Cynthia Lord, and Julia’s Kitchen by Brenda Ferber. Here’s the reading list I made for her for this summer. To be accurate, she made the list in consultation with me.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. Brown Bear likes quirky, and I think this year’s Newbery winner is quirky.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. This one was a Newbery Honor book this year. I just read it a couple of weeks ago and found it quite good.

Criss-Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. Brown Bear chose this one from the Newbery award list.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Brown Bear also likes sad, and I’m thinking this story set in Germany during WW II will be sad enough.

Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. I put this book and Dicey’s Song on Dancer Daughter’s list, too because they’re two of my favorites.

Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt.

Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson.

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. Several of Brown Bear’s friends read this book for a class at homeschool co-op last year, so BB thought it would be good to read it. too.

The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood. Shakespeare is on our agenda this summer in preparation for our annual trek to Shakespeare at Winedale. As I’ve bragged several times, Eldest Daughter is one of the students at Shakespeare at Winedale this year and will be studying and performing in three plays: A Comedy of Errors, Richard II, and Measure for Measure.

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. Brown Bear has already started this book, another of my favorites.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. “Am I old enough to read To Kill a Mockingbird” asked Brown Bear Daughter. I think she’s old enough.

The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson.

Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay.

The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle. She’s already read the first of L’Engle’s Austin familly series, Meet the Austins.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare at Winedale reading.


Loving Will Shakespeare by Carolyn Meyer. More background for Shakespeare at Winedale and also a favorite author with Brown Bear.

Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer. About Anne Boleyn.

Marie Dancing by Carolyn Meyer. About one of Degas’ models. Brown Bear is a dancer, too, so this book ought to interest her.

Revelation from the Bible. I told her to choose a book from the Bible for reading this summer, and she chose Revelation. I’m not sure exactly what she’ll get out of it, but “all Scripture . . . is profitable.”

How To Be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Excellent worldview reading for middle school age young people.

Epidemic, Pandemic, Plague, and Disease in Children’s Books

May10

Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease by Jeanette Farrell. This nonfiction book for young adults (272 pages) covers smallpox, leprosy, plague, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and AIDS.

Outbreak! Plagues That Changed Historyby Bryn Barnard. Another nonfiction treatment that relates historical changes to epidemic outbreaks, this book has chapters on plague, smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, tuberculosis, and influenza.

When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin.

Smallpox
A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff. In 1870, 13 year old Dina emigrates from Germany to Brooklyn and finds herself in the midst of a smallpox epidemic.

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Discovery of the Smallpox Vaccine by Albert Marrin.

Polio:
Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. Anna Fay’s little brother Bobby falls victim to the polio pandemic in 1944 even as their father is fighting the Germans in Europe.

Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic by Lydia Weaver.

Influenza
A Doctor Like Papa by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Eleven year old Margaret wants to be a doctor like her father when she grows up, her mother says that doctoring isn’t a job for girls.

Hero Over Here by Kathleen Kudlinski. Theodore’s father and brothers are heroes —fighting the enemy during World War I. Theo learns his own lesson about heroism when he must take care of his entire family, mother and sisters, during the deadly flu epidemic of 1918.

A Time of Angels by Karen Hesse. Hannah flees Boston to escape the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, but she must battle both influenza and prejudice in Battleboro, Vermont where she makes a new life for herself.

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan. When Rachel’s missionary parents die in an influenza epidemic in 1919 in Kenya, she is sent by scheming neighbors to England to pose as their daughter for a rich grandfather who may leave his estate to his fake granddaughter if she can endear herself to him.

Malaria:
The Boy Who Saved Cleveland by James Cross Giblin. In 1798, Cleveland is just a small village, and when malaria strikes the families settled there, ten year old Seth is their only hope of survival.

Yellow Fever
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The French Physician’s Boy: A Story of Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic by Ellen Norman Stern.

Graveyard Girl by Anna Myers. Grace is the Graveyard Girl who must toll the bell each day for all those who have died of yellow fever in Memphis, 1878, and her friend Eli must learn to move past his grief over the deaths of his mother and younger sister.

Bubonic Plague
A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh. A village is quarantined, no one allowed in or out, in seventeenth century England, when the plague infects the villagers by means of an innocent-looking parcel sent from London.

Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. A 11 year old orphan boy survives in London during the Great Fire and the Black Plague.

Any more suggestions?

Lazy Days of Homeschool

May8

IMG_9755Our homeschool year is winding down. We always do this about May/June. I run out of steam. The Great Outdoors invites the children out to explore before it gets too hot in Houston to go outdoors. So, here’s a play-by-play of our school day today:

Starting last night: We watched the video, Building Big: Dams with David Macaulay, that I got from Blockbuster. Last night’s viewing was the second time we watched it because Engineer Husband wanted to watch it, too. This time two of the urchins decided to build a dam, but it was too late last night. So Engineer Dad got out the sand and the rocks and left them for the urchins to build their dam.

9:00 AM: Karate Kid (10) and Betsy-Bee are ready to build their dam. They go outside and begin to play dam-building while Z-Baby (5) watches. After it’s built we take pictures and flood it a few more times.

10:00 AM: Everybody’s finally awake now. Computer Guru Son leaves for college to take his government final. The urchins are grazing on breakfast (bagels, cream cheese, and/or cereal) and doing their morning jobs. Karate Kid is reading the book I gave him yesterday, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin. The book is an ARC that Mr. Berlin kindly had sent to me to review. I’ve read part of it, but I figured a ten year old boy’s opinion would be useful. Karate Kid says it’s sort of like The Westing Game, and it’s a great book, and he wishes there were more books about the same character. Brown Bear Daughter (12) is doing her writing practice on the computer. She’s taking a writing class at The Potter’s School, an online resource for middle school and high school classes, and she’s supposed to write for thirty minutes a day. By the way, I recommend the classes at The Potter’s School, if you can afford them. Most of them that we’ve used have been quite good and helpful. While everyone is grazing, working and reading, I read two books to Z-baby that she requested: The Magic School Bus: Wet all Over, a Book About the Water Cycle and Richard Scarry’s Great Big Mystery Book.

10:30 AM I finally get all the urchins (except Computer Guru Son) together for Bible reading and devotional time. We read from Matthew 6, then read about a missionary to the Philippines who was held prisoner by the Japanese during WW II and later became a missionary to Japan in The One Year Book of Christian History. We sing a hymn, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. The older urchins say that I led it too slowly. I’ll have to remember to pick up the tempo. I remind the urchins to complete their morning jobs, which should have been done long ago, and to start on their math.

11:00 AM: I’m ready to help Betsy-Bee and Z-Baby with their math, but Betsy-Bee says she wants to help Z-Baby with her math. They go outside to the picnic table to do math look at the dam. Then they come inside to start the math pages in Z-Baby’s workbook. Karate Kid is back to reading Winston Breen and laughing out loud. I don’t have the heart to tear him away for math, so I decide to leave him alone and let the math wait until later. I find Brown Bear Daughter back on the computer browsing a forum, and I remind her that she’s supposed to be doing her Saxon math lesson. She complies sheepishly.

11:30: I thought she complied, but I catch her back on the computer again. She says she’s chatting with someone while she does her math. I tell Brown Bear Daughter to “move away from the computer.” (Does anyone else have this problem, a 12 year old who’s computer-dependent? If so, or if not, what do you do to limit computer use? Or do you?) Brown Bear Daughter goes to the living room couch to do her math lesson. Dancer Daughter is practicing her piano pieces for recital.

12:00 noon: I start lunch, pasta salad with tuna. I should have made it earlier and refrigerated it, but I didn’t think. I also put some pinto beans on to cook for supper. Computer Guru Son gets back from his test and says he thinks it went pretty well. He has one more final to go on Thursday to finish the semester. Betsy-Bee and Z-Baby finished Z-Baby’s math, but Betsy-Bee hasn’t started hers. I tell her to get her book and do math.

12:30 PM: Lunch is just as informal as breakfast was. I put the pasta salad in the freezer to cool and tell the urchins to get some as soon as they’ve finished something significant school-wise. I help Betsy-Bee get started on her math. Using the Cuisenaire rods, she’s doing some simple division problems in her Miquon math workbook.

1:00 PM: Betsy-Bee is still working on her math in between distractions. Brown Bear Daughter is still working on her math, too. I have a long discussion with Computer Guru Son about when he should purchase a car. He wants to buy the car now with a thousand dollar down payment, and I think he should wait until he gets another job before he gets the car. Delayed gratification is major lesson that should be required for graduation.

1:30 PM Dancer Daughter and Organizer Daughter leave to go to the church for their drama class. Their class is working on a musical play called Malcolm, based on a story by George MacDonald, that will be presented in less than three weeks, and they’re hitting the time crunch. I’m still trying to get Betsy-Bee to finish her math. Z-Baby and I do a couple of pages in her phonics workbook, Go for the Code. I tell Karate Kid, who has finished the Winston Breen book to go do his math lesson. He wants to write a report on The Puzzling Adventures of Winston Breen instead.

2:00 PM Brown Bear Daughter finished her math, and now she’s reading another ARC, First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins. BB Daughter says it’s a good book, but she doesn’t think I’ll like it because the mom in the story says, “Crap.” I tell her not to make that word a part of her daily vocabulary and think to myself that I probably will like it.

2:30 PM Computer Guru Son wants me to come see a picture on his computer of the car he wants to buy. Z-Baby wants me to write some words in her alphabet book for her to copy and illustrate. I write: “map, tap, lap, cap, nap.” She tries to read the words as I write them and as she copies them, but she’s really just reading my lips and memorizing for the most part.

3:00 PM I look at the car. After Computer Guru Son threw in all kinds of sweeteners, including a promise to redesign the blog and cleanup the backyard, I’m about convinced, but he still has to get his dad’s approval. Brown Bear Daughter and I take a look at Sameera Righton’s blog, SparrowBlog. We learn that Barak Obama now has secret service protection and that presidential candidates’ kids sometimes get to fly in private jets.

3:30 PM The younger urchins are watching Maya and Miguel. I don’t like this show for some reason that I can’t exactly articulate, but the urchins like it. Karate Kid needs to get ready for swim team practice which starts at 4:00.

4:00 PM I take Karate Kid to swim team. The rest of the day will be mostly filled with me playing taxi driver. Betsy-Bee has dance tonight. Brown Bear Daughter has swim team practice later. And Dancer Daughter has an appointment to get an MRI on her knees—the reason she’s not really Dancer Daughter anymore 🙁

See you later.

8:00 PM: I did all the taxi-driving and came home to find supper on the table thanks to my wonderful Engineer Husband. After supper, we made a quick, impromptu trip to the library so that the urchins could get some library books. Karate Kid never did get his math done, but he did write a paragraph about the book he read. Dams and puzzles today, math tomorrow.

Mother Goose Day

May1

May 1 is Mother Goose Day.
My favorite nursery rhyme is one that Organizer Daughter altered when she was little:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and taco shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.


The Mary in the rhyme was either Mary, Queen of Scots or Bloody Mary (Elizabeth I’s half-sister) or Mary Magdalene. And the silver bells and cockle shells are either decorations on a dress or instruments of torture. The pretty maids? Mary’s ladies in waiting or the guillotine. Take your pick. Admit it. Don’t you like our version better than the original? Taco shells are so harmless and good to eat, and they have no hidden symbolic meaning as far as I know.

For more information on how to celebrate Mother Goose Day, go to the Mother Goose Society website.
For recipes, crafts and coloring pages, try mother goose.com, or go to this Nursery Rhyme page for more educational links. Also, DLTK has coloring pages and craft ideas.

Mother Goose-based games: Mother Goose Caboose.
The Mother Goose Pages: Nursery Rhymes.

My favorite nursery rhyme/Mother Goose books:

In a Pumpkin Shell illustrated by Joan Walsh Anglund.

Lavender’s Blue: A Book of Nursery Rhymes compiled by Kathleen Lines.

Mother Goose: If Wishes Were Horses and Other Rhymes illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

Mother Goose illustrated by Brian Wildsmith.

Old Mother Hubbard by Alice and Martin Provensen.

The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright.

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose: A Treasury of More Than 300 Classic Nursery Rhymes collected and illustrated by Arnold Lobel.

The fair maid who, the first of May
Goes to the fields at break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after handsome be.
– Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme

What’s your favorite Mother Goose rhyme or book?

February Homeschool Fun

Feb1

February 1: It’s Friendship Month, American Heart Month, Library Lovers’ Month, National Bird Feeding Month, National Cherry Month, Black History Month, and National Hot Breakfast Month.

February 2: Groundhog Day. Last year we watched the movie Groundhog Day because Barbara likes it.
Groundhog Day was first known as Candlemas Day, a holy day still celebrated within the Catholic Church. Candlemas Day marks the end of the Christmas season and the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. Light the candles in your house to celebrate Jesus, the Light of the World. The custom of predicting the spring weather from conditions on the 2nd of February also comes originally from Candlemas Day.
Here’s more about The Loveliness of Candlemas from a Catholic point of view, lots of ideas and thoughts on celebrating the feast of Candlemas.
Journey Woman on Ground Hog Day, the movie and the holiday.

On February 2, 1949 RCA issued the first 45 rpm record. Do you remember 45’s? If so, do you remember any specific songs you purchased on a 45 record? I remember listening to a set of 45’s of the music from the musical Oklahoma. “Poor Jud is daid. Poor Jud Fry is daid. He’s lookin’ oh so peaceful and serene. And serene.”

February 3: Felix Mendelssohn was born on this date in 1809.

February 4: Lord’s Day and then Super Bowl. Will you be watching the Super Bowl at your house?
Charles Lindbergh, the first man to make a solo transatlantic flight, was born on this date. If you’ve never read the journals of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, I recommend them. The first volume is called Bring Me a Unicorn and covers the years 1922-1928.

February 6: George “Babe” Ruth was born on this date in 1895.
Waitangi Day in New Zealand, celebrating a treaty signed in 1840 between the British colonists and the native Maori tribesmen.

February 7: It’s always fun to see that Laura Ingalls Wilder and Charles Dickens, two of my favorite writers, share a birthday. I think we’ll read some Little House today and maybe we’ll try something with the little ones that I did long ago with the older urchins: make a churn out of a coffee can and make butter. I think I used Tinkertoys for the dasher, but we don’t have any of those, so I’ll have to come up with something else.

February 8: On this date in 1932, John Williams, American composer and conductor, was born in Flushing, New York. I still enjoy the music from Star Wars although I have grown weary of the saga. Play it and remember, if you can, the first time you saw a Star Wars movie.

February 10: February is Friendship Month. Send a friend a letter or a card or a valentine. Renew an old friendship or make an effort to start a new friendship.

February 11: Thomas Alva Edison’s Birthday. On February 19, 1878, he patented the phonograph. Draw an invention that you would like to build. Name ten machines or inventions that are no longer in common use. (Actually, Computer Guru Son prefers phonograph records. Who knew they’d become popular among the musical snobs?)

February 12: On this date in 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered in New York City. Play a recording of it and draw a picture of the city that Gershwin put into music.
It’s also Abraham Lincoln’s actual birthday.

February 13: Betsy-Bee will be eight years old today.

February 14: Valentine’s Day. We’ll be giving out valentines to all our friends and neighbors with these verses printed on them: “Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.” I John 4:7-8

February 15: In 1874, Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer, was born. Of course, he wasn’t a “sir” when he was born.

February 16: On this date in 1923, King Tutankhamen’s burial chamber was opened by archaeologist Howard Carter.
Discovering King Tut Online.

February 18: On this date in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published. Some people say Huck Finn is the Great American Novel. What novel do you think best epitomizes the American experience?
On February 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Speech.
Did you know that February 18-24 is National Engineers Week? Celebrate your favorite engineer.

February 19: President’s Day. Since February is National Cherry Month, and George Washington may have cut down that cherry tree, and my Engineer Husband likes cherry pie and we’re still celebrating National Engineers Week, I declare today Cherry Pie Day. “Can you bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” I’ll let you know how the pies come out.
Memorize the names of all the presidents of the US in order.
Plans for a President’s Day Cabin Fever Party.

February 20: Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Greasy Tuesday). On the day before Ash Wednesday, you were supposed to use up all the butter and cream in the larder before the Lenten fast. >Read about Shrove Tuesday in England.

February 21: Ash Wednesday. Christians from liturgical raditions may go to church on this day, and the minister or priest may smear ashes on the foreheads of worshipppers to signify repentance. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent, forty days leading up to the celebration of Resurrection Sunday. Does your family observe Lent, and if so, how?

February 22: On this date in 1620, the Indians introduced popcorn to the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. That fact sounds like a good excuse to enjoy some popcorn, the homeschool snack.

February 23: Handel’s Birthday. Listen to some Handel today. The Messiah is great, but be adventurous and try something else.

February 26: In 1932, Johnny Cash was born.

February 27: Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Evangeline anyone? Or Hiawatha?
Also born on this date was Gioacchino Rossini who said, “Give me a laundry-list and I’ll set it to music.” What a challenge! Can you and your children set some words to music today? Perhaps something more significant than a laundry-list—a Bible verse or a poem?

February 28: On this day in 1854 a new political party was organized. Their common goal was the complete and final abolition of slavery; their slogan was “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont!” Their candidate for president, John Fremont lost the election of 1856, but in 1860 their candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won —a victory that caused the Southern states to secede from the Union in horror.

Week 15 of World Geography: Saudi Arabia

Jan15

We started “back to school” a couple of weeks ago, starting with this study of one of the key counries in the Middle East. I thought I’d post these lists/plans a couple of weeks behind where we are actually studying so that I could tell you what we did and what worked and maybe what didn’t.
IMG_0076
Music:
Modest Mussgorsky—Pictures at an Exhibition

Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: United Arab Emirates
2. WotW: Beja
3. WotW: Oman
4. WotW: Qatar
5. WotW: Saudi Arabia

Poems:
My Poetry Book: We’ve just been reading random poems from this book, some about winter or January or home life. Some funny stuff. Tomorrow I plan to find a poem for each of the children to memorize in preparation fo another poetry night.

Science:
Astronomy: Stars We did a week long unit on the stars, reading several easy picture science books aloud. Sometimes I had Karate Kid (age 9) read the book for the day to his little sisters, ages 7 and 5.

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Arabs in the Golden Age–Moktefi We didn’t manage to get to this book because, although I know we have it somewhere, I can’t find it. In spite of the fact that I think our books are really organized, this sort of thing happens way too often.

Fiction Read Alouds:
King of the Wind—Henry I started reading this one to the little girls, but they don’t know anything about horses or horse racing. So they were bored, and I was bored. We’ll find something else.
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons–Cohen Karate Kid and Brown Bear Daughter really, really liked this one. We’ve been reading it for the past two weeks and should finish tomorrow.

Picture Books:
The Camel Who Took a Walk–Tworkov
Abdul–Wells

Elementary Readers:
Ali and the Golden Eagle—Grover
The Horse and His Boy—Lewis I know this book is fantasy, doesn’t take place in the Middle East at all, but it does have that flavor.
Nadia the Willful—Alexander
The Rise of Islam–Moktefi
A Sixteenth Century Mosque–Macdonald Karate Kid read this book as his assigned reader.

Brown Bear Daugter read Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller as her assigned reader to help me with my Cybils judging responsibilities. She absolutely loved it, and I think she’ll be writing a guest review for the blog soon.

We also learned the Middle East song from the Geography Songs tape and did some map study. My children now know where Saudi Arabia is and in addition they can find Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, among several Middle Eastern countries in the song.

Previous posts in our Around the World 2006-2007 homeschool unit study.

American Bee by James Maguire

Dec18

Subtitles: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds, The lives of five top spellers as they compete for glory and fame.

First we watched the movie Akeela and the Bee. Immediately, Brown Bear Daughter, who collects enthusiasms as if they were candy, told me that she wants to be in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Actually, she wants to win the National Spelling Bee. Then, I saw this book at the library and thought I’d read it to find out what’s involved in spelling bee competition. I had visions of “stage moms” pushing their over-achieving children to memorize the dictionary and chidren who ended up neurotic by age fifteen.

If those horror scenarios are true, Mr. Maguire didn’t see them as he spent about a year researching spelling bees in general and interviewing some of the top young adult spellers in the United States. These are the kids who get to be on TV (ESPN) once a year as they compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in late May, the week of Memorial Day. The children who compete at the national level come across in the book as somewhat obsessed with words and spelling bees and very competitive, but as Mr. Maguire reiterates in the book, the dedication and hard work required to reach the upper echelons of spelling competition must come from within the child himself. No parent or teacher could manufacture or coerce that kind of discipline and intensity in a middle school aged young person.

American Bee was published in 2006, and Mr. Maguire chose five spellers who were favored to win the 2005 National Spelling Bee and followed their individual paths to the nationals. Unfortunately (SPOILER) he didn’t happen to choose the child who actually won the 2005 bee as one of his five interview-ees. On the other hand, I looked, and one of the spellers he profiled in his book came back and won the National Spelling Bee in 2006 after the book was published. So maybe Mr. Maguire wasn’t such a bad picker after all.

Other chapters in the book give profiles of past spelling bee champions and what happened to them after their spelling days were over, information about the history of spelling and spelling bees, and a general history of English language spelling with an emphasis on why it’s so hard to spell many English words. Mostly, it’s because English is such a scavenger language and no one’s in charge of the development of the language. Did you know that France and Spain each have a government agancy that makes decisions about what words are allowed into the language and how those words will be used and spelled? Americans would never stand for such a bureaucracy . (By the way, I had a lot of trouble spelling that last word; most of the spellers in this book could have reeled it off without breaking a sweat.)

If you’re interested in words or spelling or kids and competition, American Bee is a fine introduction to a particularly engaging subculture. I’ll let you know if Brown Bear Daughter maintains her new-found passion for spelling long enough to actually compete. It’s not looking too promising; she’s already lost the spelling bee booklet she needs to begin her preparations.