'A Rosey Outlook' Adventure: Home Educating: 2010

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our Advent Lesson Plan

So, I started talking yesterday about our Advent lesson planning. I am finding Advent a wonderful time to explore our faith. Faith is a huge part of why we wanted to try homeschooling. I never felt there was enough hours in the day to intertwine faith with learning and meeting my child's learning style. I wanted to do something that also brought my family together in a way traditional school was not boosting (homework, arrival/dismissal time, rushing around). We wanted to create a place where the world and faith came together. It is like air to us. Lovely is at a sweet age where she loves to talk about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, church, Mass, etc and she can't do that at our wonderful neighborhood school. It is so freeing this year to be able to embrace Advent while we learn. We can just "be". It feels amazing.

It also is a great chance to find some balance to my teaching. Lovely and I both are very classically wired. So far, we have closely followed the classical model while trying to blend in other methods (Waldorf, Montessori), but I feel most days, we just do the classical. I still feel a huge pull toward Waldorf especially, and I feel torn trying to find that balance. I could list that as a honest woe-sy problem we're facing in our homeschool - living up to our own vision. I still feel I'm coming up short, not doing enough, doing too much yet not learning enough, but thrilled to be doing it at home and not wanting to do anything different, or back to traditional schooling.

I was venting about this at a co-op in November. I was confessing we were not doing enough in the kitchen, with amazing literature books, with life skills. I felt we were plugging away at the classical model, but the more creative methods were not getting their due. My good friend Kate reminded me that Advent could be a glorious time to slow down some from the purely classical model and embrace other methods because Lovely is still so young and was not under any accreditation rules for upper grades yet, etc. I could put away some core subjects and turn to other forms of those subjects and get a taste at trying something new and find balance in my approach. It has also been a great way to take a break while learning as much as ever, if that makes sense. Lovely and I both needed a break from our focus and pace. So far, I'm so glad I made this decision!!! Advent is a time of waiting, quiet, and preparation for Christmas. It is the start of the liturgical year (Happy New Year!) and a time to settle ourselves for the excitement to come. It is a great time to change pace and take a break too!

So, for now - we are taking a break from Story of the World (social studies/history), Geography, our Reader, Spelling, and Science in our traditional materials. We're still doing these things, but with an Advent focus. Instead, I'm using living books, the internet, and the library to cover those subject areas with the focus on Advent. You should see the books I've gotten, or are on hold, at the library! We still are doing math, writing, and phonics. We'll pick up right where we left off in those other materials in January.

How we are doing this is the following:

Serendipity's (Waldorf)
Tomie de Paola Advent Literature Unit

Elizabeth Foss' (a founder of Serendipity) Advent and Christmas Lesson Plans (lots of activities, crafts, reading, and cooking!!)

Advent Adventures - Daily e-mailed CHILD led videos, worksheets, audio on Advent, bible based, with virtue and character education, and Jesse Tree ornament making.

Ideas and ever unfolding plans from Kate's listed resources.

You can almost find TOO much, and as a lover of tradition and wanting to pass down things I never had...I find myself having to stop from over planning. Since this is our 1st year of homeschool, I'm still stressed, so I need to give myself a break and plan carefully and add things slowly. Some ideas I'll save for next year, like Advent through the Alphabet. What a great idea, and it will be great for Valiant next year when she is 3 and can really build upon her knowledge of letters.

I'll keep you posted on how things work. What do you do in your home? What ideas can you give me? I loved this post over a year ago from Otherwise Educating on doing what I'm doing now. When Kate told me many of the same things Melanie blogs, I remembered Melanie's post. I could have written her post word for word, and that unit is another great thing for me to consider doing in the future along with our Advent traditions!

Off we go! Waiting and Preparing....

Monday, December 6, 2010

Trying a new look

Well, something happened to the background I was using, so I needed to go find something new. What I tried yesterday I was not a fan of. I then found this background called "Old School" from Shabby Blogs. I've always loved vintage 50s daily life art. There is something so sweet about it. I actually collect books that are from that time period, or who have this type of art or vintage look. I can promise my children never look this good - ha! I never do either, but I love how I feel when I look at such pictures.

I wish the little girl was not cut off there, or the little boy's book he is reading. It is a cute "learning" look if not cut off and makes more sense when you can see the whole picture and books.

Anyways - I hope you like it. We'll see how long I keep it.

Just for me

I want to keep this for me for next Advent, or maybe to help you now. What a great idea! Advent by Alphabet from O Divine Night (a literature based Advent curriculum).

Short List Alphabet Advent

Alphabet Advent Short List This is a summary highlighting only a few titles for each day. For more detail, see Alphabet Advent for 2010.

A - Angel	November 29	*Country Angel Christma*s by Tomie dePaola
B - Bethelehem	November 30	B is for Bethlehem by Isabel Wilner
C - Cookie	December 1	*A Baker’s Dozen* by Aaron Shepard
D - Donkey	December 2	*The Christmas Donkey* by Gillian McClure
E - Evergreen	December 3	*The Tale of the Three Trees* by Angela Elwell Hunt
F – St. Francis	December 4	St. Francis and the Nativity by Myrna A. Strasser
G - Gifts	December 5	*The Princess and the Kiss: The Three Gifts at Christmas* by Jennie Bishop *St. Nicholas: The Real Story Behind the Legend* by Julie Stiegmeyer, illustrated by Chris Ellison
H - Holy	December 6	*The Legend of St. Nicholas* by Demi *The Real Santa Claus: Legends of Saint Nicholas* by Marianna Mayer *Saint Nicholas* by Ann Tompert
I - Italy	December 7	Jingle the Christmas Clown by Tomie dePaola Merry Christmas, Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
J - Juggler	December 8	*The Clown of God* by Tomie dePaola
K - Knight	December 9	*The Christmas Knight* by Jane Louise Curry
L - Lullaby	December 10	Christmas Lullaby by Nancy Jewell
M - Manger	December 11	Animals Christmas Carol by Helen Ward
N- Nativity	December 12	Spirit Child, A Story of the Nativity (Aztec) by J Bierhorst
O - Ox	December 13	*The Friendly Beasts* by Tomie dePaola Lucia: Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
P - Poinsettia	December 14	*The Legend of the Poinsettia* by Tomie dePaola
Q - Quirinius	December 15	The Christmas Story by Genady Spirin
R - Russia	December 16	Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan Pedro, the Angel of Olvera Street by Leo Politi The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola
S – Silent Night	December 17	Silent Night by Susan Jeffers
T - Tree	December 18	Uncle Vova’s Tree by Patricia Polacco
U – United States	December 19	Christmas on the Farm by Bob Rankin Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck
V - Visit	December 20	*A Visit from St. Nicholas* by Clement Clark Moore (Gennady Spirin, Jan Brett, Tasha Tudor) *Christmas in Noisy Village* by Astrid Lindgren
W - Welcome	December 21	*Who is Coming to Our House?* By Joseph Slat
X - Xmas	December 22	The Nativity illustrated by Francesca Crespi
Y - Yule	December 23	*Christmas in the Stable* by Astrid Lindgren
Z - ZZZZ	December 24	*There Was No Snow On Christmas Eve* by Pam Munoz Ryan

This is VERY close to what I'm doing (well, literature based wise) from Serendipity's Tomie de Paola Advent Literature Unit (Waldorf based).

Other great ideas are at the end of Kate's post here.

Advent

We have entered the season of Advent, a time of preparation. It is truly one of our favorite seasons. I had a great talk with my friend Kate about some of my wishes for Advent and homeschooling, and she reminded me that Lovely is a good age to take moments to stop and breathe and experience learning with her in ways that can go off the chosen curriculum path. I'll write more about it later, but I'm still trying to find the balance of homeschooling I have envisioned and Lovely seems to learn by. I'm not doing what we feel called to yet. Balance is SO hard. But, Kate reminded me that Lovely is just in 1st grade, and youth is a time rich in experience. If I want to take a step back and delve into the richness of our faith right now, then I should. So, she provided me some links to Advent learning. So far, I love the direction we are going this Advent season. I think it will renew us when we head back to the old routine in January.

So, while we are still doing our math, and our phonics...everything else is on hold OR we are taking another approach. Social Studies, Literature, and Reading all are being done with an Advent focus, and I love it so far. It has come in handy too this week as our house was hit with many ailments, and we've been able to keep up because it is a refreshing, sweet way to learn. I can't wait to share more about it.

Until then...a blessed Advent to you! May this time be a chance of great learning, great faith, preparation, waiting, and renewal for you!!

colored by Lovely

Thankful

One day, after some core lessons and during snack, Lovely made her own cornucopia for Thanksgiving. She filled it with toy kitchen food, and real food. She did it after we read up on the first thanksgiving and other traditions of the season. It was very sweet!

Happy Be-Lated Thanksgiving. You have all helped us these first months of homeschooling. You mean the world to us. Thank you.

Wrapping Up Our Animal Science Unit

As we closed out our many weeks on animal science, we did an experiment with worms. The girls caught some worms, then Lovely filled a jar with soil and sand. She then put the worms on top. She had to hypothesize which "terrain" the worms would pick when they were put in the jar. We then covered the jar in black paper and left it alone for 2 days.

Lovely guessed they would pick the soil..and she was right! It was also neat to see all the tunnels in the jar!

We got this project from her lesson plans. It was really wonderful! Nothing like getting dirty as you learn!

The Great Outdoors!

Now...this is a way to learn and have physical education!!

A "Christmas Fern" - leaves look like sideways stockings hung on the mantle. No kidding!

Beauty Berries

Awesome moss and fungi tree

VERY old tree and info

info

Aquarium Field Trip

We wrapped up our last week on our animal unit in science that took up most of the semester with a trip to the aquarium. It was such a great day. It was also the first time for Valiant to see everything, and really, the first time Lovely went old enough to soak up the knowledge part.

It was also an amazing family day. We took my niece with us and it was so nice to be with her and Hubby too. Lovely sketched, and read, and we learned so much together. It was neat to see Valiant look up to her big sister too. What a day!