Bookish Family: February 2018

Recitation and Memorization Pieces 2017-2018

This year I feel like our recitation and memorization practice finally found solid footing. I had long wanted my children to have some regular practice with memorizing worthy things but hadn't figured out how to make it happen. Over the last year, I toyed with some different habits and practices and I wanted to share both what has been working for us as well as some examples of what we are choosing to recite or memorize.

I plan our homeschool into roughly 6-week chunks of daily lessons with a 1-week (or more) break within each chunk. Basically, I break every term into 2 parts (I call them term 1:1, 1:2, 2:1, 2:2, 3:1, 3:2). Maybe with older children, I might like doing all 12 weeks in a row, but I relish those 1-week breaks, which allow me to work on some home projects, schedule doctor appointments, and include special meet-ups with friends.

During our break weeks, I also schedule our special poetry teas. Our poetry teas are something the whole family looks forward to! We always plan it for a night that we are all home together. I serve a snack-like dinner with things like hummus, vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, nuts, popcorn, and cheese. We also have a little tea. During the meal, each member of our family recites the pieces they have prepared, either from memory (with or without help from mom or dad) or by reading it beautifully.

This event gives the kids a purpose for their preparations and mom and dad enjoy sharing some of our favorite poems, even if they are too long for our normal morning-time poetry reading.

The kids prepare in different ways depending on their ages. The 2nd grader has 3 10-minute slots in his weekly schedule for working on the recitation pieces chosen for that part of the term. I choose one poem and one passage, and he chooses another poem that I approve. I print each piece and put it in a slip sheet in a 3-ring folder. During each 10-minute recitation slot, he takes one piece and reads it silently or aloud many times. For most pieces, this enables him to memorize it by the poetry tea.

After each poetry tea, the kindergartner chooses a new poem to work on memorizing. Sometimes he has something in mind, or else we read him a few to choose from. My husband reads his poem to him every night when he is putting him to bed and occasionally has him try to recite it back from memory. Sometimes, I will also choose to put this poem into our morning-time poetry reading for the week, giving us all some more exposure to it.

The 3-year-old also likes to participate in her own way. She recites from memory a few nursery rhymes or songs. Mostly she recites Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, Humpty Dumpty, and the song, Here is the Sea, the Wavy Sea. She really enjoys getting up and performing each piece, sometimes more than once.

For the adults, we do not memorize anything. It might be nice, but it hasn't been something we have made time for. Instead, we select a poem and read it beautifully, with feeling.

Although we are all performing, we keep things light and positive. We take turns doing our recitations and there is no shame if you forget a few words and need prompting from a parent holding the text or if you choose to read it aloud instead of reciting from memory. After each reading, we clap for each other. Sometimes Daddy makes a video of the reading.

We love enjoying our beautiful poems and passages together as a family. It is truly a highlight of each break week.

This year, here are the poems and passages we recited:

2nd Grade Poetry and Passages Recitation Pieces

Term 1:
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day by William Shakespeare (My choice --Shakespeare was our poet this term.)
The Pledge of Allegiance (My choice)
The Tyger by William Blake (Peter's choice)

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlow (My choice)
Speech: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” by William Shakespeare (My choice --Shakespeare was our poet this term.)
Habits of the Hippopotamus by Arthur Gutterman (Peter's choice)

Term 2:
Introduction to Songs of Innocence/ Piping Down the Valleys Wild by William Blake (My choice--William Blake was our poet this term.)
Excerpt from Speech: John F. Kennedy, “The Decision to Go to the Moon” found on Art of Manliness (My choice)
Antonio by Laura E. Richards (Peter's choice)

The Lamb by William Blake (My choice--William Blake was our poet this term.)
Amendments I-V of the U.S. Constitution (My choice)
My Heart's in the Highlands by Robert Burns (Peter's choice)

Term 3:
She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways by William Wordsworth (My choice--William Wordsworth was our poet this term.)
Amendments VI-X of the U.S. Constitution (My choice)
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes (Peter's choice)

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Williams Wordsworth (My choice--William Wordsworth was our poet this term.)
I Know a Bank Where the Wild Thyme Blows Monologue Spoken by Oberon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1 (My choice--as we are preparing to see this play at a local Shakespeare in the Park)
A Poem (Peter's Choice, to be determined)

Kindergarten Poetry Recitation Pieces (all chosen by the kindergartner)

Dinosaur Diets by Jane Yolen
Escape at Bedtime by Robert Lewis Stevenson
About the Teeth of Sharks by John Ciardi
The Folk Who Live in Backward Town by Mary Ann Hoberman
Daddy Fell Into the Pond by Alfred Noyes
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

My choices

Brave Boy Rap by Tony Mitten
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service
The Fish by Elisabeth Bishop
Song of the Rabbits Outside the Tavern by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Daddy's choices

The Children's Hour by William Wadsworth Longfellow
The Village Blacksmith by William Wadsworth Longfellow
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore
Every Land by Ursula K. Le Guin

100+ Poems to Read Aloud as a Family

Several years ago, I started a tradition of reading the same poem at breakfast every day for a week. I wanted an easy and painless way to expose my kids to more poetry and this seemed like a good way.

I had no idea at the time that this would grow to become the cornerstone of our morning time practice and an amazingly fruitful part of our everyday experience as a family.

Even though Charlotte Mason is speaking about visual beauty in this quote, it captures my feelings about the value of this kind of poetry study

––in fact, every child should leave school with at least a couple of hundred pictures by great masters hanging permanently in the halls of his imagination, to say nothing of great buildings, sculpture, beauty of form and colour in things he see. Perhaps we might secure at least a hundred lovely landscapes too,––sunsets, cloudscapes, starlight nights. At any rate he should go forth well furnished because imagination has the property of magical expansion, the more it holds the more it will hold. --A Philosophy of Education, 43

Especially because we read a poem together at least 6-7 times, the poems really become part of our imagination. Moreover, they become part of our collective family culture and we bring them up often when some experience, word, or idea calls them to mind.

With so many beautiful or beautifully expressed ideas and words hanging in the halls of our imagination, we can't help but draw relationships among them and the new things that we discover together individually or as a family.

I, too, get to make these new connections. Whether it is knowing a little more fully what it must have been like for Columbus' crew heading out with the entire known world behind them or musing yet again on the endless changes of the seasons, any good poem contributes to my lifelong process of fitting my existence to existing things as described in Charlotte Mason's 12th Principle:

12. "Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
"Those first-born affinities
"That fit our new existence to existing things." --A Philosophy of Education, xxx

Below is a list of about 100 poems (or songs or passages from Shakespeare) that we have enjoyed together as a family, one week at a time. I've noted the collection where we read that particular poem but know that many of these poems appear in more than one of the books listed below. I've also grouped them into a few categories just for ease of viewing. Most could fit into several categories.

Some may be too silly, too gruesome, too scary, or just not fit with your family culture. Reasonable minds can disagree about what makes a poem good or beautiful! Nevertheless, I hope that you can find many choices to get you started with your own practice of adding beauty to your family's imagination.

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Shakespeare

Polonius' advice to Laertes from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
To Be or Not To Be from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
What a Piece of Work is Man from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
It would be well if it were done quickly from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Witches Chant from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Is this a dagger I see before me from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
She should have died hereafter from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

More Classics, Patriotic, and Miscellaneous

2nd Grade Plans - 2017-2018

This was my first full year attempting to follow a Charlotte Mason style curriculum for my son who is 7-years-old and in the 2nd grade. To plan out each subject, first I determined how much time I would spend on it each week and then I chose books and resources to fill the time available.

I drew from several sources in devising my plans, especially Ambleside Online, Mater Amabilis^TM, Wildwood Curriculum, and information and resources mentioned on A Delectible Education Podcast. I spent a lot of time reflecting on what materials would work best for my son while following the 20 Principles Charlotte Mason lays out in A Philosophy of Education.

Some of my choices are "conventional" choices in the Charlotte Mason community and others are purely my own. But as we are already in the last week of our second 12-week term, I can say that this year has gone better than I could have hoped and I will not be changing very much for next year.

Although my son is in the 2nd grade, I chose the best books I could find for him (and not a hypothetical child of his age). He was a very early reader and as such, he has been able to read all of these books himself without any assistance, except for a few sessions each week where he would read aloud to me and I could help with unfamiliar words.

Also, he has been passionate about math since age 3 and our math choices also reflect that. For example, although he is in Form I for every other subject, I treated him as Form II for math by starting 10 minutes of geometry a week as well as requiring written math narrations (which he dictated for me to record).

I'm so thankful that I found the Charlotte Mason method and that I'm able to homeschool him because I can create an education that is always at his level where he can take what he needs from the feast of ideas.

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Language Arts: Reading/Literature, Spelling, Copywork/Handwriting, Recitation, Latin & Greek Roots

Reading/Literature (3x20min/week , oral narration after each reading)

Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (free online)
Tanglewood Tales, Nathanial Hawthorne (free online)
A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys, Nathanial Hawthorne (free online)
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Margaret Sidney (free online)
Otto of the Silver Hand, Howard Pyle (free online)
The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin (free online)
The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia Hale (free online)

All are in the public domain and are free via Project Gutenberg, or available at most public libraries.

Spelling (3x10min/week)

All About Spelling Level 2
All About Spelling Level 3 (begin, but will not finish)

I know this is not how Charlotte Mason would have taught spelling, but I like giving my son an exposure to phonics through this program. I don't think spelling is a necessary subject at this age but it really working for us right now and it allows me to do dictation with him in an intentional way without any more planning on my part.

Copywork/Handwriting (4x10min/week)

Beginning Traditional Cursive, Grades 1-3, 3-4 lines of a worksheet daily
Printing a few lines in a primary notebook from a current poem or song we are learning, daily.

It is a small amount of writing daily, but it must be his best work.

Recitation (3x10min/week)

Each 6-week half term he works on reciting beautifully (often memorizing) 2 poems and 1 passage. I pick 1 poem and the passage and he picks the other poem with my approval.

Here are the pieces we chose to recite this year.

Poetry (Listen to the same poem read aloud every day for a week at morning time)

Focus on a different poet each term:
William Shakespeare
William Blake
William Wordsworth

Latin & Greek Roots (daily at morning time)

English from the Roots Up Flashcards
We review a card every day working through the roots meaning and definitions of english words that contain that root.

I do not want to include a conversational foreign language in our homeschool at this time for several reasons. One of those reasons is that I really do not want to put my energy into it. But, I do hope to study Latin alongside my children as they get older and these flashcards are a great option for young children.

Social Studies: History and Geography

History (3x30min/week, oral narration after each reading, plus related mapwork that I keyed to the readings)

Viking Tales, Jennie Hall (completing last few chapters remaining from last year) (free online)

Walk the Worlds Rim, Betty Baker

This Country of Ours, H.E. Marshall, pages 44-273 (free online)

Sir Walter Raleigh, Adele Deleeux

The Story of Pocahontas, Brian Doherty

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, Clyde Robert Bulla

The Landing of the Pilgrims, James Daugherty

Colonial Living (selections), Edwin Tunis

The Witchcraft of Salem Village, Shirley Jackson

William Penn, Kieran Doherty
Famous Discoverers and Explores of America (Chapters on Marquette and La Salle) by Charles H. L. Johnston
The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh

Geography (3x10min/week, oral narration after each reading, plus related mapwork that I keyed to the readings)

Seabird, Holling C. Holling
Minn of the Mississippi, Holling C. Holling
Tree in the Trail, Holling C. Holling

I have really loved sharing these books with my son, but in retrospect, Minn was a bit much for him at this age, although the others were perfect.

Mathematics: Math, Number, Geometry

Math (4x30min/week, dictated narration after each lesson which I record in our math notebook (we use one of these)

Beast Academy 3D (finish from last year)

Beast Academy 4A

Beast Academy 4B

I consider this a living curriculum because it is told in a narrative format by authors who clearly delight in the fun and excitement of playing with numbers. It is a deep and broad program that explores multiple strands of mathematical understanding as discussed in Adding It Up (an interesting book about how children learn math, available as free PDF download). It is challenging choice for my son who has already completed Life of Fred and Khan Academy through 4th grade for "fun."

Number (1x25min/week, dictated narration after each lesson which I record in a math notebook)

For lack of a better term, I call this "number," but it consists of working through Gattegno's Mathematics Textbook 1 using Cuisenaire rods.

Geometry (1x10min/week, dictated narration after each lesson which I record in a math notebook)

Khan Academy Basic Geometry

I don't love Khan Academy for geometry. However, our regular math curriculum does a great job at covering geometry as well, and Khan Academy is free and easy to implement, so it works for now!

Science: Natural History, Special Studies, Nature Notebooking

Natural History (3x10min/week, oral narration after each reading)

Eyes No Eyes, by Arabella Buckley (1 chapter/week)

Burgess Bird Book (2 chapters/week) finish from last year, then

Burgess Animal Book (2 chapters/week)

All are in the public domain and available online, so he reads them using my small android tablet. If you want the illustrations from the Bird Book, you can find a free color PDF copy of them available at My Soul Doth Delight.

Special Studies (1x20min/week, oral narration after each reading)

This is an evolving area for me! I chose the following topics for the year:

Term 1: Wildflowers & Seeds / Birds & Reptiles
Term 2: Deciduous Trees / Birds & Animals in Winter
Term 3: Wildflowers & Trees / Birds Nesting

I used the rotation found on Sabbath Mood Homeschool to come up with this list. During this year, I read this post about special studies and listened to the Delectable Education podcast on the topic.

Right now, our special study for each term involves a weekly time devoted to reading about the topic through books I've selected. I also choose additional books on the topic to read during our morning time.

When the weather is warmer, I try very hard to think ahead about something we can observe about our special study while out in nature. I read up on the topic in The Handbook of Nature Study and spend just a few minutes focusing on it while we are out together. I also try to attend local events on our special study, like a wildflower walk at a nature preserve or a guided hike about animals in winter.

Finally, I encourage my son to focus on the special study when he is making daily nature notebook entries. I also set aside one day a week where I expect him to find time to make what we call a weekly nature notebook entry. Usually, he draws something about the topic he has been reading about in his special study and then dictates something about the topic which I record. The rest of the page we fill with random "I wonder . . . " and "I noticed . . ." statements that show me a little of what is on his mind.

Nature Notebooking (daily entries, weekly entries, nature watercolor drawings)

My son is responsible for noticing something from nature and dictating a line or two to my husband or me to write into his nature notebook daily. We still miss a few days a month and that is perfectly fine for us. We do this all year round, 7 days a week.

During weeks where we have lessons, he makes a weekly page including some kind of drawing and writing about his current special study. Later in the week, he adds color to his drawing using watercolors.

Morning Time

I select many living science and natural history books as part of our morning time. These titles are not narrated.

I haven't finished our list of morning time books read this year, but for example, here are the titles we read at morning time in 2016-2017.

Art & Music: Watercolor, Handicrafts, Singing, Artist Study, Composer Study, Music

Watercolor drawing (2x20min/week)

Once a week we use watercolors to draw a specimen that I choose. I try to pick things that the kids are interested in recently or relate to our special studies. Once a week we illustrate something in our nature notebooks or paint a picture based on some of our history or reading books.

We have all improved over the course of the year with weekly practice! That being said, I would like to work more artistic creations into our weekly schedule for next year. This is definitely my weakest area as I have never had a "real" art class in my life and have never preferred this kind of creative expression.

Handicrafts (2x30min/week)

Once a week, we do handicrafts during our morning lesson time. At this time, I am 100% available for instruction and help. On another day of the week, I have designated a handicraft work session where he is expected to work on his current project or practice the skill he has already been working on with less help from me. He is always able to work on these in his free time as well.

This year we chose to do:

Term 1: Sloyd using Paper Sloyd: A Handbook for Primary Grades by Ednah Anne Rich

Term 2: Finished up Sloyd gifts for Christmas, then embroidering using this kit.

Term 3: Sewing using Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make by Andria Lisle

Both of my boys (ages 7 and 5/6) have loved sloyd! I am very happy with all of these books and materials for this year and I will likely repeat sloyd and sewing again next year as there will still be lots to learn using the same books.

Singing (2x10min/week)

I choose folk songs and hymns. I consult Ambleside Online for suggestions and links, but I don't follow their rotation per se. We work on them and review previously learned ones each week. Once we know the new one by heart, we start learning another one. This year I chose the following:

Kookaburra

The Outlandish Knight

A Nice Field of Turnips

Michael Row the Boat Ashore

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

America the Beautiful

In the Bleak Midwinter

Lord Randall

Oh Susanna

The Riddle Song

Camptown Races

Billy Barlow

Acre of Land

Simple Gifts

Artist Study (1xweek at morning time)

So far we have used the Picture Study Portfolios from Simply Charlotte Mason. Each term we read about the life of the artist and study 6 pictures by the artist. My son is expected to observe the picture, narrate about it from memory, then we do a picture talk about it as described in the portfolios. For the rest of the term, I display the print in our family room.

This year we are studying:

Leonardo da Vinci

Rembrandt

Vermeer

Composer Study (1xweek at morning time)

We read a biography of the composer, which my son narrates. If applicable, I make a Spotify playlist keyed to the story that we will play when we reach each piece. Once a week, I reserve time in our afternoon schedule to play a few noteworthy pieces. After we finish the composer biography, we listen to the short podcasts on the composer from Classics for Kids. We may also read other picture books or watch short movies as a supplement, which are not narrated.

This year our composers/materials are:

Beethoven, Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler

Hayden, Chapter from The World's Great Men of Music: Story-Lives of Master Musicians by Harriette Brower (free online)

Schubert, Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends by Opal Wheeler

Music (7x15min/week)

Hoffman Acadamy

My son began Hoffman Acadamy in the summer and he watches a lesson and/or practices at least 15 minutes a day. I have been thrilled with this program as a beginner piano program and it is very affordable. Best of all, it includes piano theory, sight reading, and solfege, and my son loves it. The songs are timeless classics that I don't mind hearing over and over and the younger children delight in singing them as well. Mr. Hoffman also has a "method" and you can read more about it here.

Physical Education

AYSO Soccer (Fall and Spring)

Ice Skating Lessons (Winter)

Swimming Lessons (Summer)

Hikes, bike rides, and walks around town often, especially in spring, summer, and fall

A Year of Morning Time: Ancient Times through the Middle Ages

I've been doing morning time for over 3 years now. I began my morning time practice with just one thing: a poem I chose to read every day for one week. It was easy to pick another poem at the end of the week and keep the habit going. Plus I loved the beautiful words and ideas we were sharing as a family. We still have favorite lines from poems that we bring up years later. You can find my list of poetry to read aloud here.

Eventually, I added another book to the rotation and then another. I was not familiar with Charlotte Mason's recommendation of short and varied lessons, but I quickly noticed that we could read and absorb so much more if we read only a few rich pages or a small chapter each day. Moreover, the kids who were 4, 3, and newborn, could keep their focus on morning time longer if we switched books and subjects.

I did not have time to make elaborate plans. Instead, I added varied books serendipitously and intuitively as we finished others. I still use this loose planning technique today. Ideally, I have some folk tales, classic stories, and religious stories, and books from several of the following categories--math, history, arts, science, nature--going at one time.

Here are the resources we used during the 2016-2017 academic year with a first grader, preschooler, and toddler. If you look closely, you can see that we studied the ancient world (east and west), then shifted to studying medieval times. In fact, many of my choices were keyed to the chapters we read from The Story of the World, Volumes 1 & 2. We also prepared for performances of Hamlet and Macbeth and enjoyed some of our favorite short chapter books, as well as other folk tales, fairy tales, nature stories and holiday titles.

Maybe you will be inspired to share some of them with your family.