We welcomed a new owl timer into our family today. Our yellow friend, Errol, took quite a clumsy fall and is no longer as reliable as he once was ... he needs a good, long rest and has been relegated to the toy basket. Our fresh new green owl, yet to be named, is ready for the task of keeping my four on task. A few of my newest favorite resources for getting outside and connecting every.single.day with my children and for unique handicrafts to create together (as in not the cut and fold some paper and toss later crafts). Enjoy!
Have you seen and held this series of classic books ... The Whole Story? You really should. These editions truly bring the story to life with glorious illustrations and distinctive notes and background information and pictures of what life was like for the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution in England. Mae is reading Heidi with The Whole Story and absolutely cannot wait to curl up with this book every week. She will be reading The Jungle Book as well from this series. They are out of print, but well worth the seeking.
Today was an extraordinarily unusual day of happiness and cooperation from Zeb. He's been with us for just over two years and each day feels harder than the last. I think that just when I feel completely defeated God sets a day like today at my feet and reminds me of why we adopted and what it is eternally worth.
So this is supposed to be our wild day ... all lovely lessons. It is going to take immense discipline {for me} to get into a habit of five days of school a week. We shall see ... for now, here are some gems of my girls with MEP. Last night Kevin asked the girls to choose their #1 MOST favorite part of school.
Viola: Our Island Story Mae: MEP Kevin wants me to honor Mae's fire for MEP and keep her with it and let Fred be something she does independently on our light day. Viola says she wants to do Fred. I asked why. Her reply, "I don't have to think as hard." Hmm. More to mull over for me. Until then ... My girls are happiest counting with jewels or smooth pebbles they find outside. Jack prefers aliens. Why not?
And a little war always makes him beam. It never gets old, for him. ;) We are continuing to work with word building and phonics review alongside our copywork. This is proving to be incredibly beneficial for Mae's spelling, as well as a lot of good fun for both girls to work together, not competitively as Viola is want to do at times. ;) We're using letter tiles that are all uppercase, bummer!, but I am on the hunt for a vintage set of ivory alphabet letters in a box ... a girl can dream, right? Until then ... I spent every free moment this past weekend reading from Charlotte Mason's original writings on arithmetic and comparing it to this, which is the original 1800s Eclectic manual that goes along with our Ray's Arithmetic. That said, today began our exploration of Ray's using the EMOM. {So many thanks to AO users, yet again, for endless conversation on this topic.}
I worked with corn kernels (concrete) with both Viola and Zeb, separately, on numbering and not counting for approximately 15 minutes. I've decided to start Viola at the beginning despite the fact that she is wildly beyond this in math; all the same though, there are nuggets of learning in this manner of learning in which even I could use remediation. This approach to math is perfect for Zeb: concrete -- mental -- written. I can't say for certain if we will use Ray's as suggested by the EMOM or by Beechick in her guide, or just as my intuition dictates, but here we gooooooooooooooo ... I hope to use some of the brilliant concepts and ideas I learned from the EMOM and from Ms Mason with our math lessons, but I foresee Mae pining for MEP, which she has loved from Year 1. It's hard for me to allow the messiness of several different maths happening in my home, but then I step back and remember that is precisely why we home school. ETA ~ We are pressing forward with MEP for Mae and Life of Fred for Viola and MEP for Zeb ... I mix in some Ray's story problems, but we're best right where we're at presently. |
erin.kate
Adorer of my Jesus. Home school mama to four ... three home grown and one from the far reaches of Africa. Ridiculously blessed wife of a man who loves with a servant's heart. Devotee of Charlotte Mason and clean, humble living. Archives
July 2016
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