Fun Back-to-School Pics

My friends and I love to go hang out in the nearby canyon with our 12 kids. 

I thought it would be fun to do some Back-to-School pics with our gang, and thanks to my fellow moms' cute props, they turned out great!

 

 

 

William, the historian, who will no doubt be president someday!

 

Heidi, the delightful dancer.

 

 

 

Benny, the kind-hearted warrior.

 

Abigail, the energetic and funny baby-of-the-family!

 

Friends!

 

 

 

Dirty little toes.

 

 

Justus, the cheerful adventurer.

 

Jeremiah, the curious naturalist.

 

 

Dylan, the darling explorer.

 

Diana, the quiet and careful animal whisperer.

 

Kevin, the fun-loving goofball!

 

Alathia, the artistic leader.

 

 

Cheyanne, the creative photographer.

 

Katrielle, the spoiled lil' peanut of the family.

Classical Conversations Conference Part 3

For the past few weeks I've been writing a weekly post (just me being rhetorical!) about what I learned at the recent CC conference in Casper.

Today's post is on what makes classical education different from modern education.

 

I'm not trying to criticize those who do things differently than I do, or to say that teachers in public schools don't teach well.  Most teachers out there are pouring themselves out and spending countless hours working to instruct kids and invest in them.  You may disagree with me, and that's okay!  I'm just sharing information from the conference that I found to be interesting.

 

 

Modern education has the student at the center, with the various fields of study (subjects) being taught separately.

 

A poor Christian education mimics the modern educational model exactly, except that Bible is thrown in as an additional subject.

 

 

A good Christian education will have God at the center, rather than the student, and will showcase God's role in each of the subjects.

 

 

 

A great Christian education will have God at the center and show not only what God's role is in each of the subjects but will also teach how we can know more of God from each of these subjects.

 

 

A classical Christian education will have God at the center, and will study God's supremacy in each study, as well as discovering more of God through that art, and will show the unity of each subject, both with God and with all other subjects.

(I realize my pic only shows 4 studies, that was just to make my drawing simpler, not because classical education skips out on the other areas of study!)

 

This is THE MISSING LINK for me personally regarding education! 

 

All of my life this lack of interconnectedness has been an irritation, and I'm finally having an epiphany about the unity of all subjects!

 

Most of us were trained to cram for the test, pass it, and then dump the info we had studied.  We knew how to jump through the hoops at our respective schools to pass the class, get the grade, get the transcripts, get into the college to get the job, etc.  But if you ask most High School Seniors to tell you about the 8 rules of speech, who Charlemagne was, how to conjugate a verb, or to give a discourse on whether or not truth is relative, most couldn't do it.  We have a country full of kids who can regurgitate info in their short-term memory on demand, but who can't think for themselves or teach others. 

 

 

God designed us to find harmony.  When we find harmony (whether that is learning to play a beautiful piece of music, building something with wood, doing math calculations, recognizing constellations, cleaning up our kitchen, sewing a new dress, writing a lovely essay, preparing a logical argument, figuring out a puzzle, excelling in a sport, writing a blog post explaining the methods of education, etc. etc. etc.) we are acting like God.  We were made in His image, and therefore, we were made to calculate and create!

 

Even as Christians, sometimes we want the "easy" answers.  One example given by our speaker, Andy, would be the Life Application Study Bible.  We don't want to discover things for ourselves, research, look things up, etc.  We want to be spoon-fed the answers.  "Oh, that's what that Bible passage means and that's what I should take from it.  Okay!"

CRAM

PASS

DUMP

 

We are conditioned to expect a practical sermon, rather than a normative one.  Our pastor consistently preaches normatively, but it has been hard for many people in our congregation to get used to because most have had years and years and even several decades of practical teaching.  This is not to say there is never life application in normative teaching, rather, you have to work harder, and actually think about what God's Word is saying instead of just being "spoon-fed" by the pastor each week and told to do these 3 steps to be a better person, etc. etc.

 

Recently a friend of mine was sharing with me how her 12 year-old granddaughter is so frustrated in public Jr. High school. She says, "Nothing makes sense, nothing is related to anything else, and I just don't understand why I have to sit there and learn this irrelevant information."

A classic case of D.I.

Disharmony irritation.

 

Perhaps some kids get so used to the way things are that they don't notice the irritation anymore.  It's like wearing an itchy wool sweater--eventually you won't notice the discomfort if you wear it daily.

But for this young girl, and for myself, the discomfort is noticeable and hard to ignore.

 

 

Disharmony has been irritating to me both as a student and as a teacher of my own children.

And let's face it, as parents, when our kids act disharmoniously with each other, doesn't it drive us absolutely out of our minds?  We crave harmony, in our world, in our homes, in our churches, in our communities, and especially in our studies.  If you don't have the tools of learning, namely, a foundation in the Truth, then when you set out to become educated you do more than just fail....you do harm!  (See Dante's quote in the picture above).  You can leave God out of your life and go to the best schools in the world, but you will not find harmony in education, research, or study without Him at the center.  As Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him."

 

 

Because of The Fall, and our subsequent human condition, we are all "brain damaged."  Some have more damage than others, and we all have it in different areas, but as we find harmony, or in other words, "get educated" we repair the damage.

 

 

 

So, seek today to find harmony, and as a result you will discover more of God and make more of Him known to others.  When your child asks you, "Why do I have to do math?"  remind her that math relates to harmonics (another term for music) and that music is just numbers moving, just as astronomy is shapes moving.  When your child complains about having to research, remind him that "The Greeks studied astronomy not only for naviagtion but for interest in TRUTH, WISDOM, and VIRTUE."  Tell him that knowing the star patterns, or his math facts, or how to write in cursive, makes him a better person. 

 

 

"A mind that has studied the stars is conditioned to see things that cannot be seen any other way...."

 

 

 

Did you miss the first couple of posts in my series?

 

Part 1  Freak-Out Homeschool Moms

 

Part 2  The Way We Learn

 

Sweet!

My friend Amanda is so thoughtful. 

She gave these little gift bags to all of her homeschool mom friends.

 

 

The 3 verses she typed out are good ones to have handy when homeschooling!

 

This summer, at the 5 Day Club Picnic we celebrated 3 years of friendship.  We met at the 5 Day Club Picnic back when we were both pregnant with our fourth babies.

Classical Conversations Conference Part 2

 

Last week I wrote about the CC conference that I recently attended in Casper.  I learned so much there that I'm breaking down the info into 6 parts to share with you here on my blog. 



One of the things we talked extensively about at the conference was the trivium.  I've read The Well-Trained Mind and studied a little bit in the past about classical education, so I knew what the trivium was.  For those of you who don't know what it is, the word trivium is Latin for "the three paths."  In medieval times, students were trained via the trivium in preparation for the quadrivium.  The quadrivium means "the four paths."  Together the trivium and the quadrivium comprise the 7 liberal arts.


Trivium
Grammar
Logic
Rhetoric



Quadrivium
Arithmetic
Geometry
Music
Astronomy



Classical Conversations follows the model of the Trivium by training younger children grammar (words and facts), the older children logic (reasoning and understanding how facts work together), and the high schoolers rhetoric (understanding and the ability to express/teach/debate).

Leigh Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations, puts the Trivium into today's computer lingo in this way:

Input
Processing
Output


Our conference speaker, Andy, declared that EVERYTHING we've ever learned has been learned in this manner because this is how our brain works.   We learned to speak as infants from hearing words over and over and memorizing them.  We learn to read the same way, using the "grammar" of phonetic sounds, putting them together (logic), and understanding the words that they make (rhetoric).  In order to become rhetorical on any subject, you first need to have the grammar base.  Some people get confused by the term grammar and assume it means English grammar.  But grammar in classical education simply refers to "building blocks" or the foundations of education.


Think of a puzzle:

Grammar = puzzle pieces
Logic = putting the pieces together
Rhetoric = completing the puzzle


We had a math emphasis at the conference and as we were working through some math problems together, some us were feeling a bit stupid.  Andy told us that we are not dumb, we didn't know how to solve some of the problems because we didn't have the grammar (building blocks) for them.  So true!  The things I struggled with in school were things I had no grammar for.  I had not been taught the lingo or facts of science, or algebra, but was expected to figure out problems and come up with answers! 

You are never too old to become a grammarian.  If you want to learn to dance, to cook, to speak Chinese, to sew, to change a tire on your car, to homeschool, to ride horses, to do equations in physics, etc. you need to first get the building blocks before you begin to put them together and master them.  I am preparing to tutor my CC kids in Latin by immersing myself in as much of it as I can so that I can learn the terms, eventually understand them, and in turn, share them with my children.


In biblical terms, the trivium could be described as:

Knowledge (grammar)
Understanding (logic)
Wisdom (rhetoric)



Even as I write this post, I'm being rhetorical.  I've gained the information at the conference through taking notes, remembering things I heard and took into my memory bank, processed the info to understand it, and am now sharing it with my blog readers. 

I could write pages and pages about the trivium and the way we learn.  However, others have done far better than me at explaining the trivium in depth.  I suggest you read this article for more grammar on the subject! 

Also, Leigh Bortins has a WONDERFUL, free ebook online called Echo in Celebration, which is a great read!

Our Homeschool Curriculum 2013

I share our curriculum plan here to inspire and encourage, not to guilt anyone into thinking they should do it like us.  Every homeschool family is unique and there are a variety of ways to homeschool and many wonderful resources to choose from.

 

This year, we are trying Classical Conversations for the first time.

 

 

This whiteboard, a fun freebie I scored when our church was throwing out old junk, sits on our homeschool table and contains all the info the kids will memorize each week.  Each week, every student is required to give a presentation.  For the little kids, this is like Show n' Tell, but for the older kids, it is more like a speech, requiring thought and preparation.

 

The Foundations guide is ONE book, containing all the info the kids will learn from age 4 until the 6th grade.  Each half-page contains the week's worth of memory grammar.  There are 3 cycles of information so my 3 younger kids will end up going through all of the cycles twice; they will know the grammar well!

(I jotted down some notes to remember which color I am using for each subject on the white board and where each subject is placed so that I can be consistent each week).

 

 

My wonderful director, Kristi, totally spoils her tutors with laminated schedules, maps, etc.

The schedule contains the plan for our 3 hour school time together each Tuesday morning.

Kristi blessed each of the tutors with monogrammed Thirty-One bags specifically for CC.  These totes are LOADED with fun school supplies and projects for the kids to do.

 

 

Our geography and history focus this year (Cycle 2) is Europe.

 

Kristi made up little geography folders for each of the students so that they can trace the maps each week when we learn our new geography grammar.

 

 

 

 

I borrowed the 200+ Timeline Cards from Kristi not only so I could show the kids the picture that correlates to the Timeline info they are memorizing each week, but also because we are thirsty for the background info contained in the Timeline song.  I played the Timeline song (on our CC memory work cds) on our family camping trip a couple of weeks ago and now the kids beg for it every morning while I make breakfast.  My husband has surprised me by getting really into it and he is always googling different events from the song to find out more.  Now we have the cards on hand to study as we learn the song!

 

We have a Fine Arts lesson each week at CC.  There is a 6-week focus on drawing, a 6-week focus on playing the tin whistle and learning music theory, a 6-week focus on orchestra, and a 6-week focus on studying great artists from history.

 

A friend gave me this book as a gift and I can't wait to delve in.  This will be our first read-aloud to enjoy together after lunch and before Rest Time each day.  It's not part of the CC curriculum but it follows along perfectly with the Cycle 2 work on the Middle Ages this year.

 

 

 

For Phonics/English Ali and Jer will each do 2 pages per day in the Explode the Code Series.

Ali will also do 2 pages in her Prescripts Cursive Writing Book.

Jer will practice handwriting by copying sentences from Bob books.

 

 

 

For Math, I have several Math workbooks we've collected over the years and they will each do about 1 hour of Math per day in their grade level.

 

 

 

Daddy reads a few chapters of the Bible to the kids each evening before they go to bed.  We will practice Bible memory work and do a morning devotional over breakfast.

 

 

 

For reading, we will be doing the Book-It program again, with monthly reading goals.  Ali loves to read, so it won't be hard for her to read a lot of chapter books.  Jer will continue to build his skills by reading aloud to a parent or sibling for 15-20 minutes per day.  One book that is perfect for first graders is the Bible reader from MFW.  I plan to have him read from that daily.  I will read aloud to the kids after lunch.

 

 

Justus will not be doing anything formal beyond his CC memory work and practicing a little presentation for school each week.  He recently taught himself to read simple words, so sometimes he enjoys reading word lists off the white board.  He likes to practice writing his name and loves the little electronic handwriting game we got at a yard sale this summer.  Katri will be coloring pictures, doing puzzles, magnet dolls, watching Dora, etc. during our school time.

 

 

 

Borrowing from the incredible wisdom I've gained from Leigh Bortins, founder of Classical Conversations, this is how I plan to structure our school days this year:

 

Wake before the kids for prayer/Bible reading

Shower and dress

Kids wake and get dressed, make beds, use the restroom, and come upstairs

Play the Timeline song while Ali puts breakfast on the table

Practice Scripture memory and read a devotional while the kids eat breakfast

Meet in the living room to review the grammar for the week (use songs, review games, hand motions, etc. to make the memory work fun) approx. 20-30 min.

Work on Math lessons (1 hour)

Recess and snack

Phonics/Handwriting/English time (1 hour)

Reading (30 min)

Chores

Lunch

Read-Aloud time

Rest Time

Free Time

Dinner

Brief Review of weekly grammar (5-10 min)

 

 

 

We are on the online community of CC, called CC Connected, so I can go on and pull up the computer-version memory work tutorials.  Since my kids love computer games, this will be another fun way they can learn their memory work during their free time.  I'm glad that all of the memory work is on cds and online so that if I get sick, school can still go on without my voice being tortured, like last year!

 

 

 

Since most of the memory work is learned through songs, I don't feel the need to include extra music lessons.  Because we can't afford piano lessons, swim club membership, or ballet right now, our schedule is pretty simple and that's okay with me!  The kids will likely be involved in Lego Club and a creative writing class offered at the library this year, Ali will be in AWANA, and they will all be ecstatic about homeschooling swimming lessons this fall, but we will take each activity in stride as our schedule allows.

 

 

 

In my CC class, I have 8 students, ages 8-12.  Ali will be in my class this year.

My boys will be in my friend Lori's class with kids ages 5-7 and KK will be in the nursery with my friend Mindy and all the little tots in our group.

 

I haven't decided if we'll do school 3 or 4 mornings per week in addition to the morning of school together with our group.  I guess we'll see how things go.

 

I'm excited for a great year and can't wait to learn alongside the kids!