Week 1- SOTW and TOG Reading List

READING LOG

First Grade

TOG-1, SOTW-1

We're using both Tapestry of Grace and Story of the World this year, so I thought I'd keep a log of the books we read, as well as the sections/weeks we've coordinated between the two spines.  Both kids are in first grade.  I have an Excel spreadsheet in progress but I'll wait to post that until we're further along.

*I liked the way that SOTW laid out the first few weeks in chronological order, so I used that as my main "map."  I pulled literature recommendations from TOG in the weeks that I felt corresponded to the topic SOTW covered.  There are lots of over-laps in the first few weeks.  We frequently read a few of these books out of order, and/or repeated them if we enjoyed them.

** We combined weeks 1 and 2 of SOTW, as we had covered them before.

Week 1: (April 30-May 4, 2012)

Coordinated Weeks: SOTW weeks 1-2, TOG week 1

SOTW chapters 1 and 2

Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, “Early Civilizations” pages 12-14

Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, “The First Farmers” page 8

Archaeologists Dig for Clues, by Kate Duke

The First Dog by Jan Brett

Little Grunt and the Big Egg, by Tomie dePaola

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pyramid Builder, by Jacqueline Morley

Archaeologists Dig For Clues, but Kate Duke

Bible Story: Creation and The Garden of Eden, from The Children’s Illustrated Bible (pages 18-21)
See Inside Ancient Egypt (Usborne Flap Book) by Rob Lloyd Jones

Books in Red are books I consider Historical Texts, and the books in Blue I consider Literature.

Homeschooling- WITH CATS!

It's never a dull moment when you live with a young and adventurous cat.  This is especially true if you also live with extremely energetic five and six year old kids whom you are trying to get to sit still.  A while ago I was trying to take a picture of a weather chart for our month to month weather charting project, and here are some of the results:

 How could such innocence be so frustrating?

 Like he doesn't have enough places to lay out.  Except for, you know, the whole rest of the house.

And no cat picture collection would be complete without the obligatory action shot of the cat trying to eat the camera.

Since that day in August, I've learned to try to do things like this when the cats are sleeping or otherwise engaged in harassing someone else.  


Now that Spring is here and the weather is nice, the kids and I have been doing more and more of our school work outside.  This upsets our cats, who would like to be out there with us.  I'm not convinced it's because they want to spend the time with us.  No, I think it's because they want to wreak as much havoc on me as they can.  So, today, little ChacoKitten has upped the stakes:

I framed and cropped this picture in such a way to limit how much dirt in my window track you can see.

Yes, that is a gigantic hole torn into our window screen.  This annoys me, and not just because I had to chase his maniac self around the neighborhood to get him safely back inside.  No, this annoys me most because that means there is one less window we can open to let in the fresh air during school time.  

Guess we'll just have to spend even more time outside.  Rough life.

The Nitty-Gritty: Curricula discussions

WARNING- This will  only be potentially interesting to about 1% of the population- those that are interested in homeschooling, paranoid family members who think we're ruining our kids and want to check up on us, and strangers with such insane insomnia that they've somehow wandered over to this random corner of the Internet.  If you're not one of those people, TURN BACK NOW.  And if you are one of those people- well, it's still boring.  But I'm writing it for myself, and Josiah and Gabrielle, as a record, and for reminders and accountability when we need it.  So there.


Here it is- the obligatory curricula blog.  Below I will list the curricula we will use this year, and the ones we hope to use but may not get to because, holy cow, where did all the time go?!


One thing you should know about us- we do a wacky May-April school year.  I'm not going to bore you with the details why we chose this right now- there'll be plenty of other details I'll bore you with in this post.  So starting April 30, the 2012-2013 school year begins with both Josiah and Gabrielle in the first grade.


We've chosen to do a Classical approach to education.  That can mean a million things.  For us, it means I read The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, liked what they have to say, and planned our curricula around this.  We'll use the trivium approach, beginning the first of four Grammar years this year.

A copy of the picture of the cover from Amazon.  I am an amateur blogger, deal with it.

We'll use Tapestry of Grace and Story of the World for History, and as our spine.
We'll use First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease, All About Spelling and Explode the Code for Language.
We've chosen Easy Classical Science for, well, Science.
We use Singapore Math for our Math curriculum.
We'll use Artistic Pursuits for art appreciation (although I haven't received this yet, and it will be the first thing I drop if/when we get over-whelmed.)


For anyone still reading, and interested, I'll describe our interpretation of the classical approach.  To me, classical education is defined by three main characteristics: 1) An emphasis on history, 2) An emphasis on language, and 3) The Trivium.  We'll do a lot of reading, a lot of narrating, dictating, and drawing as part of our note-booking, and we'll hopefully get to do lots of fun things like craft projects and science experiments.  We'll chose our literature and projects around what part of history we're in.  This first year, our focus will be on Ancient History through 400AD, the creation of the world through the fall of Rome.  Our second year focuses on Medieval and Early Renaissance history, the third focuses on Late Renassance to Early Modern history, and then in fourth grade we'll study Modern History, 1850 through the present day.  Then in fifth grade, we'll enter the Dialectic/Logic phase of their education, which will last for four years, and follow the same four year pattern.  The last four years, the high school years, are called the Rhetoric phase, and we'll start the pattern over one more time.  So everything the kids study now they'll get two more cracks at before graduating.  I'm excited that this will allow us to choose our pace and depth of study based on our skills.  We can skim Ancient Assyria if we want to dig in and spend extra time on Ancient China because we know we get to do it all over again later.  I also like the fact that they'll be studying history in order.  That just makes so much sense to me.  And, probably most important of all, I just really love the focus on language- the reading of, interpretation of and creation of literature.  


I am excited about this year, but I won'r pretend that a part of me isn't more than a little overwhelmed.  It's a lot to cover!  I hope to do posts every week, on what we're studying, and what we've done.  But as I've said in another post- I want this to be about our lives, too.  We'll just have to see how it goes, huh?


Okay, so there it is.  Wasn't too painful, for me at least...

Restarting the Journey

I cannot believe it's been 2.5 years since I last blogged anything...  Guess perhaps I've been busy.


I decided to start up again because we're hitting a new place in our lives: "Real School."  Okay, so it's not really "Real School" because we're still homeschooling.  But the kids have finished up their kindergarten work and we're beginning First Grade.  That's right, I capitalize First Grade because Gabrielle says it this way.  She is quite excited to tell anyone and everyone that she is now in First Grade.  Grade levels are, of course, completely arbitrary in our homeschooling environment, but I'm not going to be the one to dampen her enthusiasm. 


I hate to add my voice to the already thousands out there clamoring and trumpeting their homeschooling blogs.  So I'll try not to make this a big ol' curriculum review site or personal brag site.  But I am a mom who homeschools full time.  So there's going to be a bit of that mentioned here. 


I do hope to keep this about our lives, too.  Our adventures, our stories, our mis-adventures, our nightmares...  It shouldn't be too hard to keep it wacky.


I'd also like a better way of documenting all that we do.  Sure, we do notebooks and pictures.  But I am not the scrap-booking kind of girl.  Craftiness is not in my bones.  So maybe someday the kids will look back on this and appreciate having it all out here.  Or maybe they'll hate me and try to make me pay for their therapy bills.  Since I'm planning on paying those bills anyway, because of all the other trauma I'll probably inflict on them, I'll take the chance on the blog.


And, at the very least, I will hope to have an outlet to pretend like I'm speaking to the outside world every once in a while. 

Claiming my Children- Elizabeth

For the most part, I don't like to admit that my children have any of my personality. I know, parents are supposed to be beaming with pride every time they uncover a little gem of a personality quirk little Junior seems to have mined from the family genes. Cynics would say I must not love my children enough if I don't want to claim them in public, and a therapist would probably tell me I don't like myself enough to recognize my own good qualities. Whatever, I don't honestly have time to think about that stuff. My kids are crazy. And they get it from Rob.

But I'm starting to have to come to terms with the fact that my kids may actually be a lot like me. And not like the Elizabeth that I try to be, or that I at least try to convince others that I am. No, my kids seem to be the Elizabeth that my mom and sister have always complained about, the one that I am continually talking to inside my head, telling her to back off because if she comes out, bad things will happen. (Any therapists reading this are having a field day with me right now...)

My mom tells a story from my childhood, when I was about 2.5-3 years old. In this story (which is one I fully embrace, not one of the ones I believe she is mis-remembering...) precocious little Beth comes running up to say, "I drew a B, I drew a B!" My mother, being the perfectionist she is, says, "That's nice, but why does your B have three loops instead of just two?" Without missing a beat, little Beth says, "It's a B on a rock!" This story frightens me a lot, especially now that I'm a mother and realize that having a child of 2.5 who can write letters, while impressive, is exhausting. And having a child that can cover her mistakes with excuses and complicated stories is just plain torture.

One of the letters of the week we're doing at our house is, ironically, the letter B. You can only imagine where this story is going. Josiah, being my less-academic child, has always avoided anything to do with letters, writing, spelling... learning in general. (I don't push him, mostly because I don't care if he ever learns his letters because that means he'll never be able to text or email me nasty little messages when he's a teenager...) But yesterday he was all fired up to do some drawing. The first thing he did was draw two circles on top of each other, and then proudly announced that he wrote a B. I cheered him on, took crayons out of Gabby's mouth and returned to removing the stickers from the couch. Josiah kept drawing, and presented me with about four more renditions of his interpretation of the letter B.

I'm not a complete jerk of a mom, so I did a lot of praising and all that jazz the books tell you to do so that your kids wait until they have their own jobs before wanting to shell out money for therapy. Then I held up our little B poster and asked him if we could compare his B to the ones in the picture. We eventually uncovered the fact that his B did not have a long line from top to bottom like the B on our poster did. So I asked him if he wanted to add a line to his Bs.

His response, after barely pausing to take a breath: "Mama, my B doesn't like to stand up straight. Mine likes to roll, fast like a race car, so I need to leave it round like wheels so it can GO! Vroom!" And then his Bs went racing around the room, soon to be followed by Gabby's.

I'm not really sure how to respond. Are we glad he shows creativity and imagination? Are we impressed he even knows what a letter is, let alone being about to identify one AND have the desire to draw it? Do we think he'll be flipping burgers or pumping gas because I don't have to discipline to make him sit down and keep trying until he gets it right? (If you choose the last one, then I'll just tell you now that Josiah will be coming home smelling like gasoline or fry grease, because that whole abuse, I mean strict correction, is simply not happening with me...)

And here's the truth- the only way I know to respond is to finally admit that my little terror may actually be a lot like his mom. And now I have to go call my mom and sister, and apologize for, well, my entire childhood...

Reading- by Josiah

Guess what?! I'm learning how to read! And it is SO awesome!

I should mention that Mom, being the total wet blanket that she always is, keeps trying to tell me that I'm not really reading. She says it in her really "nice" voice- the one she uses when she's totally ruining my world but acting like she wishes she weren't. The one she used when she told me I couldn't grow up to be a dinosaur, the one she used when she told me I could never turn Gabby into a brother, the one she uses when she tells me I can't be a woman when I grow up so I can paint my toenails, too. I know she means well, but as soon as I hear that tone of voice, I stop listening. Because the news is never good.

Anyhow, Mom keeps talking about how I really need to learn all my letters first. Whatever. Gabby knows her letters, she's known them for months. So any time anyone asks me what a letter is, I just stall, and Gabby will yell it out. Then I just repeat whatever she said. That little freak of a nerd has known her letters since before she turned 2, so I figure I don't need to bother with it. After all, she knows nothing about the different kind of contruction trucks, emergency vehicles and race cars. Together, we've got it covered.

Besides, you can totally read without even looking at letters. It's simple, really, you just ask Mom, "Mom, what does that say?" And Mom tells you, and, bam, you've read it. Mom says that's not really me reading, that's her reading. But my theory is that reading is figuring out what signs, books, TV credits, receipts, magazines are all trying to communicate. Well, I've figured out that Mom can tell me, so, by definition, I'm reading, right? It's like that whole "language's primary goal is to communicate things, and if something is successfully communicated, grammar and spelling are unnecessary" argument. (In case you're wondering, Mom doesn't subscribe to that idea, either, she's always correcting me on how to pronounce things and "conjugate verbs," whatever that means...)

My favorite time to read is in the car. Especially on the way to soccer practice, when Gabby's not there, and it's just me and mom. That's a pretty long drive, and we go down lots of streets with lots of signs. I just yell out, "Mom, what does that sign say?" and Mom says something. I don't really care what she says, because I'm already looking for the next sign. I heard someone bragging once about speed-reading, so I figure the goal is to read as many signs between our house and the soccer field as possible. I think today we hit 73 or something like that. I don't know for sure, though, because I only like to count to 20. I let Gabby handle the counting of anything beyond that.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share in case you hadn't learned to read yet. (Gabby just pointed out that people who can't read couldn't read this blog. See what I mean- total nerd. I just hit her on the head with a tractor and she's went off crying to Mom.) Guess I better wrap this up, it seems I'm in trouble. But I'll keep you posted on my reading progress!

Popsicles- or not...- Josiah

I really worry for my Mom. I don't think she's very smart. And I think, when she doesn't know the answer to my questions, she makes things up.

Today, she was working in Gabby's room a lot, which I took to mean she wanted me to play on my own. I got that idea when she kept saying, "Josiah, please put down that laundry / the carpet cleaner/ my hammer and go play on your own!" I figure, since she was so busy upstairs, that probably meant that I should play downstairs. And since she was pulling everything out of Gabby's drawers and closet, she would probably like me to do the same in her room. I figured she's always doing nice things for Gabby and I, and never gets to take care of her own room, so I would help her out. A nice surprise for Mother's Day, right?

So while I carefully emptied the cabinets from under both sinks in Mom and Dad's bathroom, and stacked everything in order by size and color, I can across a pretty pink box. Inside was one nicely wrapped, long packet that looked familiar. I ran up the stairs and found Mom, and yelled, "Look Mom, I found a popsicle! Can I have it?!? PLEASE??!?" Mom started to giggle a bit and said, "Josiah, that's not a popsicle, that's a pregnancy test. Please stop playing in Mom's bathroom."

Okay, here's the thing. Mom is smart enough to know, just by seeing that thing, that I had been in her bathroom. But it's like she's allowed just one minute of intelligence a day, and that was it, and from there on out, she's a total rock. I know this because she could not answer a single one of my questions. I asked her what this "pregnancy test" was for. She said it was to know if we were going to have another baby. Well, Dad has already said that we will only have another baby "if we can figure out what in the heck we're supposed to do with the two we already have, and if we move into a bigger house with a room set aside just for Dad so that he can have some peace and quiet for just 5 little minutes once a week." Well, since we know that's not happening, we know we're not having a baby, so I don't get what this test thing is for.

I asked Mom how it works, and I think she was just too distracted to realize the crazy thing she was saying. She started talking about PEEING on this thing, and how that was just like how I peed in the cup at the doctor's office, and that there were these chemical things that happen in a Mom's body that help her know she's going to have a baby and you can tell this in her pee and this stick would know if the chemicals were there and tell her if she's pregnant.

That's okay, you can take a couple of seconds of silence to try to absorb that crazy talk, I know I did.

Are you all right? Okay, I'll continue... So, yeah, then I figured we should test this thing out. I asked Mom if I could pee on it. She said no. How about Gabby? She said no. How about Taco or Bandit, or Grandma or Grandpa, or Pastor Bill or my Cubbie leaders... No, no, no. She said it only works if the Mom pees on it, which I don't think can be right. I mean, Gabby's the last baby we had in this house, and if any of those other people could have had early warning that she was coming, they would have needed it. She's a disaster! I told Mom the next time we went to the store, we should buy all those people pregnancy tests so that they could know if they are having any babies coming along. As far as I'm concerned, fore-warned is fore-armed.

Not that I really buy into this whole peeing on a stick thing. I mean, it's all a little ridiculous, you know? Just another one of those stories Mom makes up when she doesn't know how to answer my questions. I can't wait until we go to church choir practice tonight, I'll ask my teachers, I'm sure they'll tell me the truth...

Nature vs. Library- Elizabeth

Now that the weather is nice, I'm trying to get the kids outside more. Today, I decided to forego our usual Wednesday morning library trip to spend some time in the yard. Here's what happened:

Gabby ran past me with two dead field mice in her hands.

And Taco brought us home a dead, bloody snake.

I think I've had enough nature for one morning. We're going to clean up, and sanitize ourselves until our skin burns, and go to the library.

My Green Thumb- Josiah

I really, really, really love what Mom calls our "science lesson" this month. She calls it planting and gardening, I call it making a big mess out of dirt without getting into trouble.

We've never really had much dirt for me to dig in. Mom and Dad say they both really don't like yard work, so they purposely chose a house with a small, simple yard "that backs to open space so we can see nature without being responsible for it." I don't really know what all that means, but it basically sounds like my Mom and Dad are too lazy to provide for me something that is fun. Typical.

But Mom's kinda gotten into this educational kick lately (something about TV frying my brain and maybe if I spend some time outside she will stop finding Legos in the air vents...) So she came up with the idea that if I plant seeds, she could try to teach me about roots and stems. And phloem, xylem, sclerenchyma and photosynthesis... yeah, I was listening, but don't tell Mom, it might go to her head. So Mom went out and bought some seeds, dirt and pots. And Grandma bought Gabby and I each some gloves, kneeling pads, trowells, cultivators and watering cans that all match with Diego on them for me and Dora on them for Gabby- because Grandma knows what is important.

Planting the seeds was pretty fun- Mom decided we would plant seeds in the house first, to germinate. (She likes to use big words like that, but it basically means you put them in little dirt boxes until they do something other than sit there like the piles of dirt that they are.) It has been pretty fun, because I get to stand on a kitchen chair and water all the seeds, but Gabby usually gets strapped into her eating chair first. This makes her mad, but it's her own fault for constantly trying to eat the dirt. Anyhow, if didn't take long for some of the flowers to sprout, which is good for me because I was seriously starting to wonder if Mom knew what she was doing at all.

So today, Mom said it was time to move those "flowers" outside. I should really clarify this. Mom keeps telling me that these are flowers and she shows me this picture on some packet and says things like, "See, these are going to be tall and blue, and these over here are going to be yellow..." You know, for someone who was so adamant that I learn my colors, it seems she should take her own advice- those things are green. I kept telling her over and over they are green, but she just doesn't get it sometimes...

So I followed Mom outside and you know what she did next- she made a HUGE mess! It was awesome! I've never seen my Mom do things like this! I mean, she tends to ignore dirt in our house until she thinks "someone is going to call CPS and we'll deserve it..." But she NEVER goes out and just starts making massive, disgusting, beautiful messes. Today, she was a vision in mud. She was tearing out grass and throwing it over the fence. AND SHE TOLD GABBY AND ME THAT WE COULD, TOO!! (There was a little drama with her trying to tell Gabby which grass to pull up that ended up with Gabby screaming and running away and Mom muttering about how Dad is going to kill her for letting us ruin the grass he just planted... but she didn't stop us, so I'm guessing it wasn't that big a deal...) Mom's pants got all muddy, and she kept crawling in all the grass Gabby was watering which just made her more muddy. She had dirt in her hair, and on her face and under her fingernails- and she didn't even rush in and throw herself in the bathtub, like she always does to me when I try to come in the house looking like that.

Now, I'm not stupid. I know that this kind of chance does not come up often- it might even be once in a lifetime. So I went with it, man! I started pulling up grass and dirt and throwing it as far as I could! Sure, sometimes it didn't really make it over the fence, and once it even hit Mom full in the eye. But she seemed to be too numb with whatever she was doing, she barely noticed. Then Mom started to let me water what she was planting with her watering can, and even let Gabby help, too! What, is it Christmas?! Gabby and I took that to mean we needed to help Mom water everything. We kept walking about 10 feet away and watering the same spot of grass over and over and over again. Then we would go back to where Mom was working and ask for more water. Eventually Mom wised up and went and got a big ol' pitcher from the kitchen so she could fill our cans up endlessly.

I don't know what got into Mom today, but I like it! I really did learn a lot about science. I learned how to make the perfect kind of mud- not too wet, not too dry, will stick to everything, but dry quickly so it's hard to get out of clothes. I learned how to find worms and stick them in my sister's hair. I learned that if you hit a cat with a clump of muddy grass, she runs away and may even bonk right into the fence if you catch her off guard. Mom was right- gardening is very educational. And the voodoo effect it has on my Mom isn't too bad, either...

Wisdom Nuggets- Elizabeth

Growing up, my mom had three answers to every problem in my life:
1) It's because you don't eat right
2) It's because you don't get enough sleep
3) It's on the floor of your room.
I would have to say, this truly did solve about 99% of my issues, except the ones that only many years of extensive therapy have any hope of putting a dent into.

I've been a mother now for almost 4 years. I'm trying to find my own little universal nuggets of wisdom that my kids will remember me by. I've been working on one for a while now, I'd like to know what you think. It goes something like this: Ignore it and it will go away.

If I'm honest with myself, I have to admit that I've been applying this to my life for many years now. Some people call it procrastinating. I object. Rather, it's a very carefully thought-out approach to addressing one's problems in a exceptionally proactive manner. It is, my friends, not the easy way out. No, this kind of philosophy takes discipline and committment, and is not for the faint of heart. I will give you some examples in my life:

1) Laundry. Ignoring laundry is really hard. Because when it's not done, it takes over your home. We currently have some clothing that is actually speaking to us, in addition to the normal stuff that just tries to trip you when it jumps out of the baskets. (Dirty laundry is just mean like that...) But in some ways, ignoring it is effective, especially with kids' clothes. See, if you wait long enough, your kids will outgrow the clothes, so you'll just have to box them up for charity once you finally wash it. And, voila, it goes away! So, in this area, I consider my wisdom nugget to be a success.

2) Fighting Children. Yes, my children fight. I know, I know, after all you've read about them, this comes as a complete shock. Sometimes they fight with each other. Sometimes with the cats. Sometimes with their toys. And sometimes just with life itself, because my kids are incredibly practiced in existential ponderings. It is not easy to ignore my children when they are fighting. They are loud. The are large. They have lots of energy. And they are creative. But I believe in my philosophy of ignoring, so, with the help of my MP3 player and strategically closed doors, I stick to my guns. And it's working. Sure, Josiah pushed Gabby down the stairs and split her lip open last week. But it's almost completely healed now, and if that doesn't fulfill the "it will go away" part of the wisdom, then nothing does.

3) That Funky Smell coming from the Refrigerator. This one doesn't need a whole lot of explanation. Pretty much, you can ignore whatever is growing in that box next to the milk. Because whatever it is will either walk away on its own, or the other adult in your home will eventually throw it away. Or, I guess, someone from your county's toxic waste removal services will respond to a call from your neighbor. Ignoring this is hard, people. Perhaps the most challenging of all, but a couple of good nose plugs, or a good head cold, will make this easier.

4) The Change Oil Soon light in the car. Rob likes to take credit for this one, and, to his face, I give it to him. But in reality, if I didn't ignore this light, it wouldn't get take care of. If I was proactive and took the car in to the dealer, then the car dudes would just try to tell me that I needed more spark plug fluid or something. And I would say, "Sure, whatever, don't worry about the cost!" and Rob would say, "Are you INSANE?? Don't EVER try to do anything with the car, don't take it to those crooks!" And the oil wouldn't get changed. So, in reality, my ignoring the light is the impetus that causes Rob to change the oil. Once again, nugget success.

I really could go on and on, but the more I type this, the more I'm convincing myself. So, yeah, I think I'm going to go ahead and ink this in my Mom's Book of Wisdom I'm making for my kids. Now to move onto the next one- Sugary cereals for Breakfast gives you energy for the whole day...