Picture Study Our Way

As a way to incorporate more of Charlotte Mason's ideas into our homeschool, I have introduced the boys to picture study. I was a little hesitant, at first, as I was unsure of their reaction. I didn't want to be faced with resistance. Let me go on record as saying, "This is one of their favorite times during our week!" We have lively discussions about how this week's piece is different or similar than last week's, what we appreciate about it and what we don't, and what the artist may have been feeling or experiencing during the time he/she painted it.

Let me break it down for you:

1. I choose an artist to study for 6-8 weeks.

We have been studying NC Wyeth these past few weeks. It was a totally strategic plan on my part to introduce picture study with an artist who clearly has great works for boys to study.

2. I choose 6-8 works the artist created for the boys to study.

Here are a few we have looked at:




3. The first day I introduce the artist, I read a short biography and the boys fill out a biography page. We are using the free ones offered at www.notebookingpages.com.

4. I hand the boys their own copy of the work.

I purchased these cards from Dover.

5. I give them a few minutes to look at it and then the discussion begins.

I found this list of questions to use as a guide. I say "a guide" because I don't want this time to be scripted. I want the discussion to flow...and boy, does it ever!

I don't tell the boys the name of the work because I like to see what title they would give it. They like this part of the discussion. I write their title on the back of the card and then we place them in their binders.

Oh...the binders...almost forgot. We are using 3 ring binders and placing the pictures in these photo sleeves. The little business card size pocket in the upper right is where we are going to write the titles of the works that are on that page. Our artist biography notebook page will be placed in front of his works.

If you haven't yet started doing picture study in your own homeschool, I encourage you to give it a try!

Shakespeare...Alive and Well

Our Charter School held it's year end Extravaganza. The boys decided to display activities we did during our Shakespeare study.

In case you are wondering, yes, that is William Shakespeare posing with Nick Bottom.

This is the stage from the Globe Theater the boys and I created. This is a scene from "As You Like It".


The middle displayed a picture of Will drawn by Magnus, as well as lists of Shakespeare's plays and a timeline of his life.


This side is Thane's copywork of the famous quote, "All the world's a stage..." from "As You Like It", his picture narration from the same play, and a map of England.

This side is Magnus' writing assignment using Institute for Excellence in Writing's Style and Structure and his picture narration of "A Midsummer's Night Dream".

And lastly, a knight in shining armor upon his steed.

Summer Is Here!

We have officially started our summer schedule this week. Something I have learned about myself and the boys is that we need structure. We need to have an idea of what our day holds for us. We are going to continue "doing school", but take time off for travel, trips to the beach, park play dates, and other activities. I figured we will have roughly 10 weeks between now and the end of August to complete a few lessons and some units.

Here is the plan:

Science...We are going to be finishing up our Dinosaur Unit in a few weeks. After that, we will start our next science unit when school starts in Sept.

History...After our Dinosaur Unit is finished, we'll begin our Pirate Diary Unit. The boys are real excited about this...what boy wouldn't be!?!

Magnus...
Grammar-We've gotten a bit behind so he will be doing 2 lessons a day to finish the 2nd grade level.
Math-We are just beginning Level C. We're going to do 2 lessons a week and hope to finish C by the end of 3rd grade.
Latin-I have not been consistent with this so we are way behind. He is going to be doing 2 lessons a week in order to finish by the end of summer. Luckily it's just vocabulary and he picks up anything having to do with "words" rather quickly.
Lapbook-The boys are going to be working on a lapbook of their choice independently and Magnus has chosen to do one on Gray Wolves.

Thane...
Reading-He is doing real well. He received Hop on Pop for his birthday and he has read it, by himself, over and over. Very exciting! Anyhow, we are going to complete a lesson a day unless he gets hung up somewhere.
Phonics-He'll complete 2 pages of Explode The Code 3x a week.
Math-He will do 2 lessons a week in Level B.
Lapbook-He and I will be completing a Cooking Lapbook together. He loves to cook and told me he wants to be a chef when he grows up...or a builder!

I am going to try to continue to post about our weeks and our summer activities so be sure to stop on by! Hope you have a great summer!

Cut From the Same Cloth?

The way that two boys from the same parents can be so different is beyond me!

If you were to have gone to the park with us the other day, this is what you would have seen...

Magnus being a Palentologist.

Thane being a monkey.


This is only a sampling of the differences between them! I receive great joy seeing their individual personalities, interests, and strengths develop. But how the two can be so opposite is something I can not fathom!

Independent Lapbook Studies

Magnus and Thane both enjoy making lapbooks. If you are not aware of what a lapbook is, check out this great squidoo lense for an explanation. We create lapbooks alongside our history and science studies together, but the boys also enjoy working on them by themselves.

Thane is almost done with his fish lapbook and I will post pictures of it soon. He really took ownership of it and it was neat to see.

Magnus began a lapbook on George Washington and needs to complete it soon. He'll be working on it the next few days.

The next ones the boys chose to work on are:
Magnus...Gray Wolves. He just finished reading White Fang by Jack London and Homeschool Share has a great Gray Wolf unit/lapbook he wants to do. We went to the library and stocked up on books for him to read to fill in the mini booklets with facts.

Thane...Cooking. Yep, he is my lil' chef. He can't really work on it by himself yet, so I will be involved, but I am going to make sure he does most of the work. We found a Cooking unit/lapbook at Homeschool Share for him to do. He'll be learning about kitchen safety, tools, and nutrition as we work through it.

Spelling Project

If you have been reading my blog the past few weeks, you already know that spelling has been a thorn in my side.

We were using All About Spelling and I have nothing but good things to say about that program. It is fantastic. However, Magnus was not absorbing the rules like I had hoped. And I will admit, I may not have given the program enough time, but I just needed to try something different. I do think it'll be a perfect fit for Thane when the time comes.

Then, I thought to give Spelling Power a try. I liked the looks of it and the idea of only studying the words the student doesn't know. But, then my charter school approached me to check out a different program they are looking into providing. That is where Phonetic Zoo from Institute for Excellence in Writing comes in.

I was a little apprehensive in trying this program since it is recommended for grade 3 and up. After watching the DVD Spelling and the Brain and the How To Use This Program DVD, I was a little more comfortable with the idea. So, we started it this week.

I introduced Magnus to the rule and to the animal card the rule applies to. I explained it to him and we went over some of the words on the list. I set him up with headphones and he completed the lesson. I would like to say that it was perfect and he didn't fuss at all. It was a struggle. He does not like the guy's voice who says the words and sentences and the guy's reading went too fast for him. Apparently this is a bit of a problem for most students when they start the program. However, I think I have won him over. I purchased a MP3 player for him to use for spelling (and other recorded school materials). I am also letting him choose 2 different colored ink pens to use...one for his lesson and one for correcting. It's the little things.

Also, we started our own "Sound City". It is a concept that Andrew Pudewa described in the Spelling and the Brain DVD. The idea is to create a city of sounds on paper that the students can refer to and add to. It'll work well for the visual/spatial type learners. I think our pics will give you the idea...

This is our "zoo". In here is where Magnus is going to place his small phonetic zoo cards with the pictures of the animals on one side and the rule on the other. I have encouraged him to take the card from the zoo and read the rule as often as he would like.


Here is the "playground" for our city. Here is where we write the words that follow the rule: "when 'a-y' says 'a' as in 'jay & portray', it comes at the end. See 'decay and delay'."
"Playground" may not have been the best word to choose, but he understands that "play" is the root word or the first word in the compound word so it actually does follow the rule.


Here is Sound City's "Train Station". This follows the part of the rule that says:
"When 'a-i' say 'a' as in 'claim & chain', it comes in the middle as in 'train & pain'."
Again, not sure if "train station" was a smart choice due to "station" having the long 'a' sound and it not following either rule, but it's alright.

The tree you see to the left will be used for words that have the long 'e' sound and are spelled 'ee' as in 'tree'.

The rest of the rule is as follows:
"Don't let suffixes betray you as in 'decayed'. The root never changes. See 'playful & played'."

The boys were both very excited about this on going project. I think the key to keeping their interest is letting them "own" it. I will help them come up with the parts of our city, but I am going to let them draw them. This is hard for my perfectionist tendencies.

Anyhow, I will post more pics of our sound city as we do more!

R.I.P. Finn

It was a sad day in our house yesterday. It was the first time that Magnus experienced true loss. His beloved beta fish, Finn, died.

Here is Magnus' tribute to him...
Here is the memorial we set up for him...
(No, he is not buried there. He is floating in the ocean!)

Rest In Peace, lil' guy.

Our Writing Stuff

Writing is pretty high on the priority list as far as subjects to teach Magnus. This kid has always had a lot of ideas floating around in his head. We call him our "ideas man". Up 'til now he has expressed those ideas verbally, through pictures, and pretend play. Now, he is ready to do it through the written word.

We started working through Susan Wise Bauer's, Writing With Ease Program (Level 2). It encompasses copywork, narration, and dictation in one easy lesson. All three of those components were lacking in our homeschool. I read a short story, Magnus narrates it back to me, I choose a sentence for him to copy, and then I dictate a sentence while he writes it down. All of this is done over the course of a few days. It is working well.

I am also incorporating Andrew Pudwa's (of Institute for Excellence in Writing fame) ideas of writing. I purchased (used) his Teaching Writing Structure and Style and went through the first disc with some ladies from our charter school. It is a very systematic approach and one that is said to work especially well with boys. Magnus and I gave it a shot today and I am amazed at how well he caught on.

The first step is to take a short blurb or paragraph about something. I grabbed our Uborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and chose something short that I knew he had an interest in. Here is what I chose:

The Peasant's Revolt
In 1381, hundreds of English peasants tried to win more freedom by rebelling against the landowners. Led by Wat Tyler, the peasants marched to London and rioted in the streets. King Richard II met the rebels and promised to help them, but later he punished them.

After Magnus read it, we took it sentence by sentence and chose 3 keywords from each sentence and wrote them down in an outline form. Here is what he came up with:

The Peasant's Revolt
1. 1381, freedom, landowners
2. Wat Tyler, London, marched
3. King Richard II, promised, punished

Next, I had him rewrite the sentences using the keywords from above. Here is what he came up with:

In 1381, peasants rebelled against landowners to gain freedom. Wat Tyler led the march to London. King Richard II promised to help them, but punished them instead.

How great is that!?! Magnus did so good! He was able to use his own words while keeping the main points there. I was so proud of him. And the best part? He is excited to do it again!

So, my plan is to continue using WWE a few days a week and to do a keyword outline on the other days. There are many more steps involved in the IEW program, but I think we will just plant ourselves on the keyword outlines for now.

Our Field Trip

Today, the boys and I went with some other families from our charter school to the California Aerospace Museum. I gotta tell ya...if you live anywhere near Sacramento, this place it worth the trip.

They have roughly 30 military planes, that have flown in combat, parked in a large lot for you to view and touch. We were very fortunate to have Roger as our Docent. He flew one of the planes on the lot, during the Korean War. He told stories of how his best friend died due to a failed evacuation from a cockpit and how the soldiers called one of the planes a "flying casket" because of it being unable to glide if one of the engines failed.

A very sobering moment for me was being able to climb inside a plane that flew during WWII and completed 3 drops of troops during the DDay Invasion in Normandy. It was eerie as I tried to put myself in their place. I just couldn't imagine the fear and rush of adrenalin those boys must have felt. The markings on the side show that it flew 3 DDay drops, 2 medical missions, and several supply missions.

A picture of the nose art.

Magnus flying the plane.

This helicopter was used during the Vietnam War (maybe it was the Korean) to rescue downed pilots.

Each helicopter would also have four of these planes near it to provide cover. In this picture the wings are folded up to show the bombs.

Magnus inside the helicopter.

This plane flew in Desert Storm. I didn't get a picture of it (the gun that is), but Roger said this plane was basically built around the Gatling gun that was positioned in the nose. It's bullets pierced the amour of tanks like a knife slicing butter.


If you click on the picture you can see the particular things this pilot took out during his missions.

This was Thane's favorite. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he has a couple of the National Guard Lego sets.

Remember Top Gun? Well, this is the "Tomcat" that Tom Cruise "flew" in the movie.

I took this next picture for all of my conservative friends who miss Ronald Reagan...you know who you are ;0) At one time, this was his private jet when he was governor of CA.
Within the "museum" part of the building, there are several exhibits featuring jet engines and pilot gear. Fortunately, NASA had a traveling space exhibit on display. We got to view an actual moon rock and touch a meteorite as well as a rock from Mars. They also had special scales that read your weight on the earth, on the moon, and on Mars. It was pretty cool.

This is Magnus' weight on the moon.

Magnus exercising like the astronauts do in space. This thing spun around really fast too!

Oh, and did you know that the universe was formed 13 million years ago from a BANG? Whatever. I don't know...maybe God said "Bang" as the heavens and earths were created.

Anyhow, it was a great day and I can't wait to take my dad there when he comes to visit.

Narration, Dictation, and Copywork

I "found" something that may help me do narrations, dictation, and copywork with Magnus. I say "found" but I have actually looked into using it before, but decided against it. I didn't understand how it "taught" writing. The method seemed very elementary to me. (I know...Magnus is in 'elementary' school.) However, since having to deal with his issues in writing and getting it worked out, I have decided to check this "something" out again.

The lessons are broken up into 4 lessons per week. Perfect! We school 4 days a week! (I should say do "seat work" 4 days a week.) They include narration (which I have not been doing but wanting to), copywork (which we have been doing, but now it will correlate with his writing lesson), and dictation (which we have not been consistent with).

What is this "something"?

It's Writing With Ease. We are starting Level 2 next week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Handwriting Woes Solved!

Getting Magnus to write has always been a struggle. The physical act of holding the pencil, forming letters, and spacing the words proves to be too daunting for him. He gets frustrated. I get frustrated. It goes downhill quickly.

I spoke to Ms. Judy, our advisor at our charter school, about it and she helped me to see the issue. For instance...when he was working in his grammar book, he was asked to rewrite this sentence, the sled went down the hill, starting it with a capital letter and ending it with a period. He rewrote the sentence correctly, but I was not pleased with his letter formation, the spacing, and the fact that it was not on the line but gravitating up hill. He had a complete melt down when I had him rewrite it. We are talking an h.o.u.r.

Her encouraging words were this..."he is having to remember too many steps".
1. Capital letter at the beginning of a sentence
2. Period at the end
3. Correct letter formation
4. Proper spacing between the letters
5. Proper spacing between the words
6. Copying/spelling the words correctly
7. Keeping the letters even on the line
She asked me what the objective of the assignment was. I told her it was to capitalize the first word in the sentence and to punctuate it with a period. She asked me if he did that correctly and I told her he had. "Then he is done". She told me to focus on the objective. Focus. on. the. objective. If I feel at a later time that I can add an objective like, "make sure your word spacing is correct", then to do that too. He is obviously not ready for all of that right now and that is okay. I also give him a peice of paper that has larger line spacing with the dotted line in the middle and the top line when he has to write sentences. He told me he likes having that structure.

So, as far as his handwriting goes, I started having him do coywork again. He knows that when he is working on that, his objective is to concentrate on letter formation, letter spacing, or word spacing. I tell him ahead of time what I am going to be looking for.

It's been working. I think he just needed to know that the pressure was off because even though I am not looking for proper handwriting in his assignments, he is not being lazy and turning in sloppy work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGNUS!!

HaPpY 8th BiRthDaY!!!

(big jump in ages since Mom and Dad are storing our photos at their house)

Please join me in wishing our boy a very HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY!

(If you would like to read about the day he was born, you can do that here. It's kind of funny!)