The Polls are still open

Hubby had to work late last night, so we didn't get to do our election. The kiddos were zonked by the time he was done. So, we'll try again tonight!

The candidates and the issues

We have some pretty interesting issues in this year's campaign.

Here they are:

The Nouners are for

• Getting dressed before breakfast (except Christmas morning)
• Doing 15 minutes of work before watching TV or playing on the computer
• Clearing the table after supper, but before watching Daddy play computer games
• Ian and Alex can have help with cleaning their room, but only if they really need it.
• Let Daddy have some time to himself after work.
• Ian and Alex have to take a nap if they get cranky.
• I will color with people who have gotten their chores done.
• The cats should get food and water.
• I will make sure Ian and Alex go to the bathroom.

The Wooties are for:

• Everybody can play with my toys.
• I will play with everyone.
• I will color with everyone.
• We will give the cats water.
• Everyone can play on the computer.
• Take a bath, then get dressed, then eat breakfast.
• Ian and Alex should have to do less than 15 minutes of work, Mary should have to do more.
• We should play games, then eat, then clean up, then play more games.
• I need help with my room all the time.
• We should watch Dad play games when he gets home.
• We should only take naps when we're sleepy.

As you can see, there are some highly contested issues.

Now the Candidates:

Mary, the Noun Party candidate, is 9 years old. She likes being tough, watching action shows, dressing up in makeup, and riding big mountain bikes. If elected she will promise to make sure our house will stay really clean and not look like a pig sty. She says she is really good at playing football for a girl.

Ian, the Wootie Party candidate, is 5 years old. He likes playing, eating candy, running around, kid TV shows, and reading. If elected he will promise to play.

Finally, candidates you can feel good about!

Today being election day, we are having the first annual Emperor of the House election. There will be two candidates this year, Mary, from the Noun Party, and Ian, from the Wootie Party. They are currently preparing their campaign platforms and slogans, which I will post when they get them done.

So, the real question of this election is:

Will you be a Nouner or a Wootie?

Memory Work

I feel crappy today. Too little sleep, and I think I'm getting the kids' cold. This week is fall break, due to the fact that Hubby took Monday and Tuesday off of work, and everyone's been sick. Some fun break. :)

I've spoken before about recitation being a great time saver for us, but I've never really outlined how we do it. This is what our recitation looks like, for Mary. Ian follows along, and knows a surprising amount of Greek and Latin, but I'm still working out how to add things in for him, so it's still mostly play time.

1. Latin-Prayer, Song, amo, -o, voco, sum, mensa, -a -ae, servus, -us -i, donum, -um -i, then ten random vocabulary words. (Currently learning the Lord's Prayer and Adeste Fideles.)

2. Greek-Previously learned verses, new verse, blepo, -o, eimi, anthropos, -os, doron, -ov, then five random vocabulary words. (We have about 7 verses memorized in Greek.)

3. Bible-Previously learned verses, new verse, books of the Bible, memory work on current story, 5 random previous memory work items. (We have about 20 verses memorized, and are nearly done with the Books of the Old Testament.)

4. Greek Myths-Current memory work, 5 random previous items.

5. Math-Current fact family (we're starting division), 10 random multiplication, subtration, and/or addition facts.

We need to add in a poem per month, but so far I've been to lazy to do it. The whole bit takes 15-20 minutes on a good day, but up to 30 if there's a lot of dawdling. I stop after 30, even if we aren't done. This covers grammar, bible, history, music, and math. Add in a little reading, and it's the instant 1 hour school day for those days when you normally wouldn't get to anything (co-op day, sick day, field trip, life got in the way, whatever.).

I certainly wouldn't make it the sum total of a child's education, but it is a good way to make sure the basics get covered every day.

Well, today is a big day. Normally I'd be heading out tomorrow morning to sell things at the farmer's market. But, as this weekend is the town festival, there won't be many people there (the market is in the next town over). So, I'm having a porch sale instead. It will give me an opportunity to sell not just my craft and baking stuff, but also books and militaria that we normally take to flea markets in the early spring.

Today we have to clean up the last of the feathers, get the lingering tomatoes out of the garden, and get ready for the sale. It will be a busy day. We haven't gotten much school done the last few days, as Mary has been sick. But, we got a lot of good stuff done while we at the lake, so I don't feel to guilty about it.

We went to East Harbor State Park, Marblehead Lighthouse, Magee Marsh (saw two blue herons while there), Johnson's Island (which was a Confederate POW camp and has a cemetary), and saw the German and Italian POW huts while at Camp Perry. Quite a full weekend. I called it the Great Lakes/POW weekend. A few thoughts. First, staying in a base hotel with children is infinitely preferable to staying off post. On post you can let them outside to play without worrying about kidnappings, being struck by a car, etc. And, there is actually a place to play. If you go to the Camp Perry website, the picture of the motel on the front page is where we stayed. Nice big yard with picnic tables and grills. Second, five year olds can be taught to walk quietly in the forest, unless the path is gravel. Then they simply cannot help but drag their feet. Finally, seaweed, in person, looks nothing like I thought it did.

The Latin Centered Curriculum

Well, my copy of LCC came in the mail yesterday, and Bravo, Drew! I skimmed the first three chapters, because, well, I don't need any convincing at this point. :) I will go back and read through them later, but I'm in the final throws of planning the first 6 weeks of school, getting ready to head to the library tonight, and I wanted to see the recommendations *now.*

Good news, our own little private take on LCE at the Culloden House is largely in line with the recs in the book up to this point. (We're a little behind in a few places, but not enough to be a problem with implementing what is outlined.)

Bad news, I don't have the money for Artners, but my husband and I were both history majors in college, so I guess we'll muddle through.

The thing that I am not sure about is the approach to the sciences. It is very Multum non Multa. I've got a few years yet before we have to do any hard science, so I've got time to ponder. I like the approach, but I'm just not sure if it's practicable or not. My current thinking is to push the introduction of formal science back a year (to 7th grade) and strech the recommended reading over two years, finishing half-way through 8th grade. Then we could take the rest of the year to get a good grounding conducting a lab in various areas. That would equal a highschool general science credit. Then 9th grade would be traditional Biology, then either head into "hobby science" directly, or complete another 1-2 years of formal science first, depending on where my kiddos want to go when they get to that age. At the least, it would equal out to three years of science, and maybe up to 5, for transcript purposes.

Or I may chuck it all and do it Drew's way, because it would still be alot of science and it sounds like all kinds of fun! (Yes, I am a freak.)

The official fall schedule

Well, here it is. I will probably end up tweaking it. I'd like to get to the point where we aren't spending so long on chores, but with the littles that may not be reasonable.

• 7:30-breakfast
• 8:00-morning chores
• 8:30-school: recitation, grammar, math, CW A&I
  
• 11:30-lunch, followed by noon chores
• 12:30-yoga
• 1:30-school: our daily block subjects, school reading, read aloud, writing project, culminating in a snack
  
• 3:30-afternoon chores (most of the house cleaning happens here)
• 5:30-make dinner, leftover seatwork, whatever
• 6:30-dinner, then family time
• 8:30-boys to bed, mom finishes any chores, Mary has free reading
• 9:30-Mary to bed
• 11:30-Mom and Dad to bed

There are various playtimes interspersed, but I didn't bother listing them.

As September rolls around again

Well, it's almost time for the start of our fall term, which officially starts the day after labor day. This will be the first year that I'm officially schooling two, a 4th grader and a K. Over summer term we worked out some scheduling kinks, finished off all the goals for third grade, and got an idea of how Ian learns and what he likes and dislikes.

We have some issues to work out as we gear up for a new term, though. We've taken about 3 weeks off from school for vacations, the garden, and mental health time for mom. However, in that time I've allowed some really bad habits to creep in. The kids have been watching way too much TV, we are slipping on consistent obedience, and there has been a lot of fighting between the boys.

The TV is pretty easy to remedy, I just need to turn it off and leave it off. We will start that today. I let them watch some cartoons this morning, but it is going off for the rest of the day. Let the whining begin! They will ask for it for a couple of days, and then forget about it again, if past experience is any guide. The surest way to ease the transition is to send them outside and don't let them come in for a few hours, except for potty breaks, drinks, and meals.

So, after I finish this post, that is where they are going, while I work on getting the house clean. Hubby is gone to drill this weekend (they changed weekends so they can do security for the moving Viet Nam Memorial Wall), so I'll have the day to really get things done, and to look at our cleaning schedule for the fall. When I get all the schedules finalized, I'll post them here.

Then, tomorrow, with a clean house and no TV, we can work on obedience. I'll start with Mary, as she is the oldest, the least stubborn, and the most likely to behave. Once I get her back in line the boys will likely follow with less stress, as she tends to set the tone for the littles. I'll probably give her some chores, hang around to make sure she does them, and then reward her with a game or something. It doesn't take long to get her back in line when she falls off the wagon, but it does require intense supervision. Call it tomato staking, if you like. A few days of that and she will be back to normal, I hope.

I also need to revise the chore schedule for the kids, because I've noticed that recently I've been giving a lot of chores to Mary, and almost none to the boys. It's a path of least resistance kind of thing. Once I'm done tomato staking her, I'm going to lighten up her load a bit and work with the boys (Ian more than Alex) on doing things consistently. I'll probably get MOTH down off the shelf and dust it off for this. Also, I finally scraped together the money to buy The Latin-Centered Curriculum, so it should be coming in the mail any day now.

As far as the fighting, I think it's mostly a developmental thing. Ian just turned 5 and Alex is 3.5. They are about the same weight (although Ian's got a good 3-4 inches on Alex) so scraps between them are a pretty even match. I can take the wrestling and arguing, a bit, but the name calling, kicking, etc., has got to stop. I'm hoping that getting on a good schedule and less TV will help curb this. Otherwise, I'm going to be doing a lot of refereeing.

Lest you think that I hyper-schedule, I'll point out at this point that I use schedules as more of a guide than anything else. I like to have everything down on paper nice and neat, so that when we deviate from the plan (which is most days) I know where we are supposed to be and we don't loose something in the shuffle.

On the Mom Continuing Education front, not only will I be reading The LCC, but I am also going through The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sr. Miriam Joseph. I'm currently about half-way through the second chapter. The book is a bit of a crash course in the Trivium subjects. It was written in the 30's for a class the Sister was teaching to college freshmen who had little or no exposure to Classical education.

A Day in Our Life

Today, I thought it would be interesting to blog the way through our day. I'll be updating throughout the day and we'll see how it goes.

Our main plans for today are to do school, pay bills, write the grocery list, finish mowing the front yard, weed the garden, and go out tonight with Hubby. It's his normal game night, but we haven't seen much of him and we'll be eating dinner together, then I'll drop him off at the gaming store and do some grocery shopping with the kiddos. It'll be a late night, so I'm letting the boys sleep in.

7:00 hit the snooze and sleep until 7:20.
7:20 get up, get Hubby ready for work (lay out his clothes and sit and talk while he gets ready).
8:00 Hubby is out the door, I wake Mary up, then hit the shower.
8:25 Showers are done, rooms are clean, beds are made. Mary fixes our breakfast while I check email.
8:45 we eat and discuss the plans for the day.
9:05 Mary is supposed to be reading her story Bible, but is dancing around the living room to her favorite Celtic band. I put in a load of wash.
9:15 I remind her to start reading, she relucantly begins. I sit down to pay bills.
[update 1--10 a.m.]
9:25 Ian comes downstairs.
9:40 finished bills, Ian is eating breakfast. I check on Mary's reading progress and start on the grocery list.
9:50 Mary finishes reading, then starts whining when I tell her to get her Latin books. Evidently she doesn't feel like doing her copywork today. I send her to get them anyway. Ian is whining that he doesn't like his breakfast and wants something else.
10:00 Alex isn't awake yet and Mary is still up in her room, so I head upstairs to see what's going on.
[update 2-12:15]
10:15 Alex is up and sort of dressed (his pants are in the dryer, but he has on boxers) and eating breakfast. Mary has finally settled down to do her Latin. Ian still isn't finished with his breakfast yet, but he's stopped whining.
10:25 the grocery list is finished, the boys are driving cars around the kitchen and Mary is still doing Latin.
10:45 Mary finally finishes Latin, after stopping to play at least 3 times. The grocery list is finished. I go to do phonics with the boys.
11:00 We correct Mary's Latin while the boys play a computer game. Then Mary reads to me for a few minutes.
11:20 Playtime! I go fold laundry, in between kissing boo-boos.
11:45 The kids clean up downstairs while I make lunch. Mary puts in a load of dishes and sweeps the kitchen. Ian straightens the family room and vaccums. Alex takes all the toys to the basement. I direct them for about 5 minutes, until everyone gets going on their task.
12:15 check chores, then lunch.
[update 3-1:30]
12:40 lunch is over and we get ready to go outside. It looks like rain, so we need to get things done quickly.
1:15 The rain hit, so we had to come in. I got the mowing done, but not much else. We are getting cleaned up and ready for reading time. The boys are watching the tail end of Jimmy Neutron.
1:30 Time for our read aloud. I will read for about 20 minutes, then we'll have about a 1/2 hour of resting time/free reading.
[update 4-5:15]
3:00 Reading time got a bit out of control (I just can’t stop them when Mary is reading a zoo book to the boys and teaching them about the different animals), so we are having play time while I make some calls and get some business done.
4:00 We finally start formal school! First recitation (Latin, Greek, math), then a Greek lesson for Mary. She is starting to translate simple Greek sentences, so I introduce the concept of diagramming. We learned about parsing when we started with Latin sentences, so it seemed appropriate to cover the next thing.
4:45 I hand Mary some math problems and tackle Copybook with Ian.
5:00 I assign Mary her Spencerian copybook assignment, and go to get the boys ready to leave.
5:15 We clean up any outstanding messes and go outside to wait for Hubby.

We are currently reading _The Magician’s Nephew_ as our read aloud. I consider that to be literature study and modern history study (England in the late Victorian period). We are on a hiatus from CW and D’Aulaire’s, but we will pick back up on those in the next couple weeks.

School schedule

So, I've been working on our schedule for school this fall. I will have two official students for the first time, and the farm chores are getting bigger, so I need to make sure we get everything in as efficiently as possible.

Here is what has made the cut for Mary (soon to be 9, 4th grade, or Year 2 of grammar school):

Grammar and Progym:

• Latina Christiana I with Lingua Angelica. Then begin LCII.
• Elementary Greek I, then begin EGII.
• Classical Writing: Homer (lite).
• Spencerian Penmanship, books 4 and 5.
  

Math:

• Rod and Staff Arithmetic 4.

Classical, Christian, and Modern Studies:

• Christian Studies I with Golden Children's Bible.
• Famous Men of Rome, with study guide.
• Modern Studies: I haven't picked them yet, but we'll read about 3 books about Colonial times.
  

Science:

• mostly ag, since we will be on a learning curve with the ducks.
  
• I'd like to do a few physics experiments from a book I got at the local teacher's supply.

I've decided on a two-week rotating schedule.

Week1:

• Daily: 1 lesson in Math, 1 page in Penmanship, recitation of grammar forms (Latin and Greek) along with memory verses and prayers, any poetry we are working on.
• Day1: Latin-begin new lesson, introduce vocab, saying and background, learn/review paradigm Greek-review previous lesson Christian Studies-begin new lesson, read story together, learn memory verse (if a long lesson, do 1/2) FMOR-read and review previous lesson.
• Day2: Latin-work independently on parts A and B from lesson. Greek-begin new lesson, learn memory verse, introduce vocab. Christian Studies-copy memory verse, answer verse questions. FMOR-read story together, discuss, learn memory work.
• Day3: Latin-review vocabulary, discuss grammar using examples from Latin and English (can be FMOR, Bible, or CW sentences). Greek-work independently on verse copywork, day 1 and day 2 lessons. Christian Studies-discuss any background information, do any mapwork, review memory work, answer some comprehension questions orally. FMOR-work independently on 3 comprehension questions.
• Day4: Latin-work independently on parts C and D from lesson. Greek-review vocabulary, discuss grammar using examples from Greek and English (can be FMOR, Bible, or CW sentences). Christian Studies-work independently on 3 comprehension questions. FMOR-discuss any background information, do any mapwork, review memory work, answer some comprehension questions orally.
• Day5: Latin-review vocabulary, work on derivatives. Greek-work independently on day 3, 4 and 5 lessons. Christian Studies-timeline work, answer more comprehension questions orally. FMOR-work independently on 3 comprehension questions.

Week 2:

• Daily: same as above, and read next story in Bible.
• Day1: Latin-begin new lesson, introduce vocab, saying and background, learn/review paradigm Greek-review previous lesson CW-A&I day 1 FMOR-read and review previous lesson.
• Day2: Latin-work independently on parts A and B from lesson. Greek-begin new lesson, learn memory verse, introduce vocab. CW-rough draft. FMOR-read story together, discuss, learn memory work.
• Day3: Latin-review vocabulary, discuss grammar using examples from Latin and English (CW sentences), include CW grammar level. Greek-work independently on verse copywork, day 1 and day 2 lessons. CW-improve rough draft based on WP level. FMOR-work independently on 3 comprehension questions.
• Day4: Latin-work independently on parts C and D from lesson. Greek-review vocabulary, discuss grammar using examples from Greek and English (CW sentences) include CW grammar. CW-final draft. FMOR-discuss any background information, do any mapwork, review memory work, answer some comprehension questions orally.
• Day5: Latin-review vocabulary, work on derivatives. Greek-work independently on day 3, 4 and 5 lessons. CW-dictation and copywork. FMOR-work independently on 3 comprehension questions.
  

At some point during the year (Jan I hope). Mary will be willing to write more at one time and we can condense the Christian Studies into 2 days. Then on day 5 we will do "modern studies." She will be reading a book in American History and we will take the day 5 block to discuss it. I hope to do about 1 book every six weeks. I figure 4-5 weeks to read, then 1-2 weeks to do a project on it. That comfortably has us doing 3 books for the year. I may also have her do science readings independently, as she likes topical science books. Lingua Angelica covers music, and our modern studies projects will cover art, so I think that's about it.

It should take us 20 minutes for recitation, 10 minutes for a math lesson, 30 for grammar, and 30-an hour for Christian Studies/CW/FMOR. Total instructional time on my part: 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Then I give her an hour and a half for independent work and an hour for reading (30 min school, 30 min free). Finally, I count an hour a day for PE/nature study (AKA playing in the yard and doing farm-related chores). That's 30 hours a week, about where I'd like to be. In Ohio, we have to do 900 hours a year. So, we have to do 30 weeks of school to meet the minimum. We generally school 32 weeks (taking 6 weeks off at Christmas and 4 in the summer), so that leaves me 2 weeks of slack for days we don't feel like doing anything.

Now, for Ian. He will be 5 and officially in Kindergarten, or Year 1 of Primary School.

Grammar, Christian Studies, Modern Studies, Classical Studies, and Progym:

• Copybook 1 from Memoria Press.
• Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek level 1.
• Phonics Pathways.
• Listen to Lingua Angelica.

Math:

• Arithemetic worksheets from the blacklines to Rod and Staff Arithmetic 2. My goal is to cover addition with sums up to 10, but if don't get that far, no big deal.

Science:

• working with the ducks and what we discover in the back yard and garden.

Ian's schedule will be the same every week.

Daily:

• phonics: read 1-2 pages.
• arithmetic: do one page.
  

Day 1:

• copybook: Read a Bible story.
  
• greek: learn to name and recognize 1 letter.

Day 2:

• copybook: Language lesson, look at words he knows how to read, learn the definitions of unfamiliar words, possibly begin grammar work.
  
• greek: Learn to write letter.

Day 3:

• copybook: memorize verse or poem. Copy verse.
• greek: review letters learned.

Day 4:

• copybook: proofread copywork. Cumulative memorywork review.
• greek: none.

Day 5:

• copybook: illustrate verse or poem.
• greek: review letters learned.

Phonics should take about 10 minutes, likewise with math. Copybook and Greek should take a total of 30 minutes together. So, that's 50 minutes a day with Ian. Alex (3) should take about 10 minutes total, 5 of phonics and 5 of playing with numbers and shapes. That's about all he has the attention span for. So, that's a total of 2-2 1/2 hours of school work with the three kiddos. And in another 1/2 hour of read alouds and I'm devoting about 3 hours a day to school. I think that should be very doable. This might increase slightly as Ian's reading improves and he begins to read books to me, but that shouldn't be more than 1/2 hour a day, at the most. I'm not sure of the rotation of subjects throughout the day or the times we will work things yet. I figure that will depend somewhat on what chores we have to do and everyone's mood each day.