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Confirmed, Sealed and United

A bit of a delay posting this but Rose Red received her 1st Holy Communion and Confirmation this last May!

Third Grade is over now on to 4th!

I confess, it was a rough year for me this year.  Most days my head was barely above the water.  Our learning was pretty much on auto-pilot.  The good news is  . . . they still learn!  Of course, I knew this . . . perhaps I just needed this year to confirm it in my heart.

The Mystical Rose

I've been a blog slacker . . .  here is a pic of Rose Red's All Saint's Day cotume this year.  She dressed as one of her name saints 'The Mystical Rose'.

Feast of St. Bernard and the Pioneers

Today our church celebrates the feast of St. Bernard, patron saint of candlemakers!  It just so happened that were were going to make candles from rendered beef fat today (and a touch of beeswax for strength) like the American pioneers.  This was lots of fun!  We tried it both pouring and dipping.

Brainstorming Curriculum Ideas for 2013-2014

Our 3rd grade curriculum is quickly falling into place and looks something like this . . . 

Our Daily Disciplines

Mass/Prayers, Math Cards, Life of Fred (Math),  LA/Grammar, Latin Vocabulary

Independent Work

Latin Lessons, Spanish, Spelling, Cursive, Singapore Math, Classical Book Club

Weekly Enrichment

Pottery Class, Nature Study Group, Poetry Club, Experiments in Earth Science Group, Gymnastics, Homeschool P.E. Team, Wild Science at the Zoo Classes, Harmony Fine Arts, Spanish Club, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, American Heritage Girls Troop, 

Free Explorations

Anatomy, Astronomy, Botany, Nature Journaling, Medieval/Renaissance History, US History, World Geography/Cultures, History of Mathematics, Thesaurus, Dictionary, Maps, Topographical Maps, Globe . . .

 . . .  pretty self explanatory.  Her 'enrichment' takes us out and about more and her 'free explorations' are just that.  Some we will introduce and explore together but mostly I will make books and materials available for Rose Red to explore on her own. . . . "lighting the fire" so to speak!

Phonetic Zoo for Spelling

We decided to dip into 'Excellence in Writing' this year with their Phonetic Zoo spelling program.  The Phonetic Zoo allows Rose Red to work on her spelling more independently.  I found she was really ready to work at a quicker pace and I was unintentionally holding her back a little last year when it came to her spelling.  I think it was worth it to wait the extra year though as it benefits her to be able to write spelling words more quickly to meet the pace of their audio program.  Last year she was still a little slow writing new words. . .  The price is a little steep so I was very fortunate to have found it second hand through my  homeschool co-op at a discounted price.  Yay!  

We tried it out today for the first time and she loved it!  "Homeschooling is Awesome and I love spelling!" was Rose Red's response after the first lesson.  I think it's a keeper!

Natural Structure

Having the heart of a montessorian and being inclined to favor a classical education for my child I have been pursuing melding these two seemingly divergent methods in our homeschool.  Natural Structure  offers their book free online and has some insight into how this can be done as well as how truly compatible these two methods of education are to one another.

"They seemed – on the surface, at least – to be almost diametrically opposed.  Convinced that there was a solution to this problem, and looking carefully below the surface of each, we began to realize that some critical elements were shared.  Both rely heavily, classical education in the division of the Trivium and Dr. Montessori’s method in the sequence of work, on the natural development and interests of the child.  Both also claim to produce the abilities to think clearly and learn on one’s own.  In this light we realized that they could indeed be combined, and in fact complemented each other perfectly.  Dorothy Sayers’ outline provided the overall framework, while Maria Montessori’s method provided the day-to-day detail.  This is simply an application of the Montessori method which is based upon the concept of free choice within limits.  Dorothy Sayers provided the content and Dr. Montessori provided the method of our curriculum." ~ Natural Structure

         “Let us leave the life free to develop within the limits of the good, and let us observe this inner life developing.  This is the whole of our mission.  Perhaps as we watch we shall be reminded of the words of Him who was absolutely good, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me.’  That is to say, ‘Do not hinder them from coming, since, if they are left free and unhampered, they will come." ~ Maria Montessori

Natural Structure

Words of Saints

"Go forth and set the world on fire."   -- St. Ignatius of Loyola

Third Grade

I am happy to say . . . 3rd grade is falling into place!  Update to come. . .

History Program

I think we will be trying out a new history program for 3rd grade . . .

http://www.rchistory.com/

Wrapping Up 2nd Grade

Poet-tree Tuesday

Our poetry club meets at the park every other Tuesday.  Last time we met we played with couplets and this week triplets!  Rose Red loves Poet-tree Tuesday. 

We found a baby bird with a broken wing, poor thing . . .

Butterfly Release

All five of our butterflies hatched and today we released them into the wild!

Our first brave flier . . .

Our First Butterfly Hatched!

Download IMG_0409

Hatching Butterflies

We're hatching butterfles again this spring . . . it's always very exciting!

We found a great Butterfly Observation Notebook available free of charge at  '123 Homeschool 4 Me' !  

And Insect Lore had a good price on Butterflies which we purchased through Amazon.

In The Garden - French Radishes

We picked our first french radishes this morning . . . spring is here.

Ancient Native American Petroglyphs

We were able to see a real prehistoric site today!  Our nature study group had fun grinding mesquite pods into flour and searching for real Native American petroglyphs at our local Deer Valley Rock Art Center.  We were even able to carve a few petroglyphs of our own and share the story they represented with one another.

Happy Spring Equinox!

A Light Exists in Spring

~Emily Dickinson

 A Light exists in Spring

Not present on the Year

At any other period --

When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad

On Solitary Fields

That Science cannot overtake

But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,

It shows the furthest Tree

Upon the furthest Slope you know

It almost speaks to you.

Then as Hoizons step

Or Noons report away

Without the Formula of sound

It passes and we stay --

A quality of loss

Affecting our Content

As Trade had suddenly encroached

Upon a Sacrament.

Butterfly Watering Hole

We're hoping to attract some butterflies, found some old discarded pots today and created a little restful place for them to drink some water . . . 

Butterflies in the Garden

We spent the day amongst butterflies today!  Our nature study group met at our Botanical Gardens this morning.

Practical Life - Setting a Table

We are working on learning how to set a proper table . . . Rose Red went all out . . . even made her own placemats!  I just gave her the dinner menu and she went to work after watching this helpful video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52nGn-coKo !

 

 

Goats are Mammals

Our nature study group has been looking at mammals . . . and one family in our group shared their new born baby goat with us!  

Home Care and Repair

A little self-initiated, home handywork led to some good work towards earning a scouting badge for American Heritage Girls this weekend and learning a bit about useful tools. . . 

 

Rose Red's 1st Confession

We celebrated Rose Red's second sacrament this weekend ~ 1st Confession ~ washed in Grace.

Her gift from us . . . this wooden Rosary from our pilgrimage to Medjugorje . . . blessed by Our Lady, herself.

"O almighty and most merciful God,
I give You thanks with all the powers of my soul
for this and all other mercies, graces, and blessings bestowed on me,
and prostrating myself at Your sacred feet,
I offer myself to be henceforth forever Yours.
Let nothing in life or death ever separate me from You!
I renounce with my whole soul all my treasons against You,
and all the abominations and sins of my past life.
I renew my promises made in Baptism,
and from this moment I dedicate myself eternally to Your love and service.
Grant that for the time to come,
I may detest sin more than death itself,
and avoid all such occasions and companies as have unhappily brought me to it.
This I resolve to do by the aid of Your divine grace,
without which I can do nothing."
Amen.

Lenten Nature Table

Planting Paperwhites on Ash Wednesday for Easter bloom . . .  we planted 2/3rds of each bulb in the soil and measured them 1 inch apart (math is everywhere!).

Multiplication with Buttons

We've been working on multiplication lately . . .  Math Salamanders is a great resource for free worksheets ;) . . . and always we love our Math Spine, Mr. Base Ten Invents Mathematics.

Ancient History Wrap-up

We are concluding our Ancient History studies this week by creating these History Pockets for fun.  We have really enjoyed The Story of the World audio book (which we were able to find at our library) and Activity Book One this last year!  Now we will be moving on to the Middle Ages . . .

State Study - Pennsylvania

We've been getting familiar with our 2nd state of the Union ~ Pennsylvania.

The home of Crayola crayons . . .

(blending colors here!)

Milton Hershey's Chocolate Town

and our nation's first zoo!

Discovering America State by State !  

Some free worksheets and activities.

State fact sheets.

 

Following Animal Tracks

We've been discovering how to identify different animal tracks and excercising our new skills in the real world . . . keeping our eyes open for prints, scat, scent markings, kill sites, scratchings, rubbings, and scent markings.

Measuring Length of Days

We've been recording sunrises and sunsets since the summer solstice and are now measuring and charting the length of daylight throughout the year.  This chart has given us a great visual on day length through the seasons of a year...  It also proved to be a great project for working with time/clock, seasons, measuring, and art.  We will be continuing to chart our sunrises and sunsets until the next summer solstice.  Rose Red predicts that the light will increase the closer we get to the solstice . . . 

Take only photographs, leave only footprints . . . really?

This article addresses an issue that has been niggling on my mind recently . . . food for thought.

Look Don't Touch by David Sobel

"Nature programs should invite children to make mud pies, climb trees, catch frogs, paint their faces with charcoal, get their hands dirty and their feet wet. They should be allowed to go off the trail and have fun. . . environmental educators need to focus way more on hands-on experience with children and way less on systematic knowledge. Or at least understand that systematic knowledge can emerge organically from lots of hands-on experience. Between the ages of six and twelve, learning about nature is less important than simply getting children out into nature."

I concur!

Biomimicry and Education

"So how would Nature solve our so-called educational crisis? Biomimicry would suggest that education should be decentralized, self-regulating, co-operative, resourceful, always adapting and shifting in response to new information and changing conditions, active and always in motion, with built-in feedback mechanisms. Doesn’t that look a lot like life learning?!

Clearly, Nature wouldn’t create dedicated school buildings full of desks. It wouldn’t coop kids up indoors all day and even get rid of outdoor play time in favor of sitting at those desks. It wouldn’t create a top-down hierarchy where there is a high ratio of young students to adult “experts,” standardized curriculum, tests, or grades. There wouldn’t be passing and failing or report cards. . ."

~wendy priesnitz

Maria Montessori ~quote

“To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of the educator.”

~ Maria Montessori

American Girl Series- Felicity

We are meeting Felicity this week . . . 

 

God speaks to a listening heart...

And the heart's response is Joy!

This morning . . .  Rose Red spent the morning playing and talking with the large nativity figures of Joseph and Mary . . .

Rose Red:  (running up the stairs) Mom, Mom, I've got it!

It's three in one!  Like the Holy Spirit, God and Jesus ! . . . Joseph, Mary and Jesus are like the three in one!

Mom:  Yes! They reflect the Trinity.  Just like your image is reflected in this mirror . . . the family is like a reflection of the three in one.

Rose Red:  Mom, Look!  Another three in one - It is everywhere!  It's everywhere!

Mom:  Yes, yes it is...

Isn't God awesome?!  

Decomposition experiment

She has some sort of experiment on her desk . . .  watching decompostion she said.

Atrium and Advent

We opened our Atrium session today with a silence excercise and my new favorite advent cd ~ a peaceful way to enter into our meditation on the Annunciation to Mary.

Hot Chocolate for St. Nicholas Feast

Cheers!

Living Math - Thales the first mathematician

We are easing into a fun measurement intensive this winter and kicking it off with a look at our first famous mathematician, Thales (THAY-leez).  This book, Mathematicians Are People, Too, by Luetta Reimer and Wilbert Reimer is an excellent resource as well as this squidoo link by Jimmie which has many printables etc.

We ate greek yogurt for breakfast this morning in honor of Thales :) 

Kaya: An American Girl 1764

We're finishing up our Kaya American History lapbooks today and made a little dried fruit and nut mix to share - just like Kaya would eat! (Or almost, since we used the dried fruits, seeds and nuts we had on hand [pineapple, almonds, cashews, etc.] rather than running out to buy ones more typical of her region of the Pacific Northwest ie: berries and pine nuts.  However, we were able to rustle up some dried cherrries and sunflower seeds!)

Next week we will be moving on to Felicity:  An American Girl 1774 ... but for just a little extra Kaya fun - games and video online !

The feast of St. Nick!

For fun on the feast of St. Nicholas tomorrow!

St. Nicholas Day Poem

Holy Bishop St. Nicholas lived faraway
Near the Aegean Sea is where Turkey did lay.
Travel back with us now to a time long ago.
We will visit his country, his life we will know.

We remember this saint, such a holy, good man.
Be like him in charity, do all that you can.
Many miracles Nicholas hastened to do,
Helping people in need with gifts that were new.

Bishop Nicholas traveled to Nicea town,
Where the Creed would be written, to us handed down.
During church every Sunday, we stand for the Creed.
Thank you Bishop St. Nicholas, for doing this deed.

Sailors tossed in the wind and the storms of the sea,
Saw a vision of Nicholas who guided them free.
Now patron of sailing, they remember him yet.
Many icons and pictures with fisherman's net.

Giving money to poor girls, so marry could they,
Made our Nicholas famous, remembered today.
With dowry in hand, soon they were wed.
"God bless you and keep you," St. Nicholas said.

Kid's patron in Germany, Netherlands, too.
Asks that presents be given to children like you.
Their customs are different: they put out their shoes—
Filling them with toys, his coming's good news!

Here stockings are hung by the chimney with care,
In hope that St. Nicholas soon will come there.
Dressed as bishop or Santa, he's one and the same—
Jolly, friendly, good man, we're glad that he came.

Call him "Santa" or "saint," they both mean the same,
For his nickname is Claus, short for Nicholas' name.
Giving gifts was his custom—we still do today.
Deeds done in Jesus' name forever will stay.

Bishop Nicholas still is a hero to all.
Christmas Day, and all others we follow his call,
Bringing gifts and some joy to children in need.
Follow Nicholas today—do a good deed.

—Author Unknown

artwork and poem found on this awesome site 'The St. Nicholas Center for kids'

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

It's all about spies over here lately!  I remember, Harriet the Spy, being one of my favorites too.  

The Beauty of Clouds

We collected all our data on clouds for our bar graph during the month of November. After reading our bar graph we noticed that clear cloudless days made up almost two weeks of the month!  We got lucky though and today there were some clouds out to inspire us for our cloud painting project!  

~painting high level cirrus clouds, mid-level alto clouds and various stratus and cumulus clouds (with shaving cream)

 

Princess Explorers at the Phoenix Zoo

We had a great time at the zoo today being a Princess Explorer!

 

 

Blessed Advent

Wishing you a blessed Advent season!

Our Advent Calendar

This is our Advent calendar ~ which we love and have been using for several years now . . . do you have a favorite way to count down the days before the Great Feast of Christmas too?

 

Preparing our hearts...

We are preparing our hearts for the Advent season this year with an art study and reflection.  Artwork and reflections we found in this book by Geoffrey Bliss, S.J. and Caryll Houselander,

  My Path to Heaven.  

Our first reflection:

"God made me for Himself,

and He made all other things to get me to Him."

We are setting up the picture study at the beginning of the week in a display binder displaying Houselander's artwork on one side and the "closer look" page on the other. Rose Red has all week to absorb the art and search to find the "closer look" items.  At the end of the week we read together the reflection written by Geoffrey Bliss.  So far so good - she is very engaged :)!

(pre-reading reflections is a good idea to check for age appropriateness)

Poetry Recitation - 'The Moon'

We've been working on poetry recitation for Rose Red's winter recital this year.  This week she memorized The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson.

picture:  This morning's November full moon - Beaver Moon

 The Moon

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall:

She shines on thieves on the garden wall,

On streets and fields and harbor quays,

And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

 

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,

The howling dog and the the door of the house,

The bat that lies in the bed at noon,

All love to be out by the light of the moon.

 

But all of the things that belong to the day

Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;

And flowers and children close their eyes

Till up in the morning the sun shall rise.

Mr. Base Ten Invents Mathematics is a great resource

We love this book, Mr. Base Ten Invents Mathematics by Bethanie H. Tucker.  I would highly recommend it!  It makes regrouping simple to understand.  This week we've been excercising our skills with the hundreds place (regrouping with addition and subtraction problems), as well as exploring inverse relationships between addition and subtraction. I was able to pick up free worksheets here at About.com.