Analytical Grammar - A Review

In my circle of friends I am pretty well-known to be a grammar-nazi. I grew up with a grammar-nazi-English-French-Latin teacher. That would have been my mother. I have distinct memories of sitting around the dinner table which is now in my own dining room, listening to my mom and sister (10 years older than I am) debate nuances of sentence structure over the evening meal.

Today over lunch a few of these friends were laughing about my insistence on using this particular grammar program for the kids and one of them said, "You know, Hitler's speech writer was a grammar-nazi." That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. A true grammar-Nazi!

The weird thing is I hate studying grammar--I don't understand it and I can't always explain it, but you'd better believe I know when something is wrong, and I know how to correct it, edit it, reword it, and make you feel stupid in the process (my bad).

One of my mother's truisms was, "Good manners never go out of style." I have used that so much with my kids, but in this world of texting, internet butchering, and basic linguistic idiocy, I have edited it to add,
"Good manners and good grammar never go out of style."

When I went to school diagramming sentences was falling out of fashion, so I missed out on it until I was studying for my M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and my friend Kendra basically dragged me through a course in Intensive English Grammar. It wasn't my favorite thing, but I determined then if I had been exposed to diagramming when I was much younger, I would have much better fluency with grammar and would be able to break things down better for my students.

When it came time to see that my son was well-versed in the grammar and usage of his own language, I came upon Analytical Grammar, and decided that it made sense to me. I liked the author's explanation that grammar is a finite subject. It need not be studied indefinitely--only practiced once the body of knowledge has been learned. 

It starts out simply enough, but do not be deceived--Analytical Grammar is not easy. By the end of the second season there were a few sentences to be parsed and diagrammed where my son, who has made consistent A's on the tests, would look at me and say, "Who says that?" We may have skipped a few sentences in the exercises because I'm not into hard for hard's sake, but 98% of the exercises have been relevant, thorough and challenging.

Today Matt said to me, "That is one of the most practical programs we've ever done. I really find myself thinking about where to place my commas and how things go together." This is from the 14 year old who started the program at the end of 6th grade and has been working very, very slowly through it. It is set up to be done quite easily in three "seasons" if you are a fast worker and do little else like eating or sleeping. We found that we had to break it up into very small chunks. If he worked for more than 30-40 minutes a day on grammar, frustration would build and tempers would flare. Once we figured out just how much of it he could take in a sitting, however, it moved along much better.

I will admit that I wondered at times if I was killing his love of language, writing, or learning in general by having him tackle such a program as this. On the contrary, he is proving to be an excellent writer, an articulate communicator, and capable of tackling advanced texts. It has boosted his confidence as a student, and the skills he has gained in studying English grammar is helping him to rock the very dead, but not so easy Latin. It is proving to me that rigor is not always the enemy of education, as so many of our modern educators seem to think. Learning is not always fun--sometimes it's just old-fashioned hard work, and this curriculum falls into that category at times.

My daughter (10) has worked through book three of First Language Lessons for The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise. It has been a solid program as well, but I don't enjoy teaching the scripted lessons as well, so we are starting Jr. Analytical Grammar this year, and so far she loves it. Unlike her brother, she more than tolerates grammar study--she loves it. Perhaps she will be able to take AG in bigger chunks when the time comes!

Here's the other weird thing about this curriculum and that is, in spite of my background and my credentials, I have learned more grammar working through this with my son than in any other course of study I have taken. If and when I go back to teaching ESL when the kiddos are done with their educations, I will be a better instructor for having used Analytical Grammar to teach my kids.

BTW - apparently the term "Grammar Nazi" offends someone.

Week 1: Settling into Routine

Last night I was so tired I went to bed before 9:30. Getting my head around this routine without feeling overwhelmed has been tiring. To help work it out, I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and PR'ed a lift and worked out really hard. I felt much better after that. I actually felt just a little bad-a**.

Note to self--Never skip your workouts. Never, ever. Unless you are at death's door or in traction. 

So I woke this morning and made muffins with my daughter and cooked bacon in a cast-iron skillet, boiled eggs and made everyone feel like they had a mother that cared about them. I felt like I was in the kitchen way too much today so tonight we're ordering Chipotle. So domestic.

In case you're wondering what it is that we are diving into this week,

Here are the curricula choices that we have settled on for this year:

Matt, age 14 grade 9

Tapestry of Grace, Beginning Rhetoric level
      This includes history, literature, writing, government and worldview studies
Apologia Biology
Analytical Grammar (finishing the last season)
Think Outside the Border Lingua Latina 1
Math U See Algebra 1 (finishing) and Geometry
Music - Mandolin

Molly, age 10 grade 5

Tapestry of Grace, Upper Grammar level
     includes: history, literature, and worldview
Apologia Flying Creatures
Jr. Analytical Grammar
Phonetic Zoo level A spelling
Writing With Ease Level 3
Beautiful Feet Geography using Paddle to the Sea, Seabird and Minn of the Mississippi
Music - Violin

On Wednesdays we will have co-op. In the morning we cover science and art (for the younger kids) and Biology lab for the older kids. In the afternoon we cover the writing, history, literature and government portions of TOG.

When I look this over it seems like a lot, however, we are trying something new this year, and that is a trimester system. We will cover three units (27 weeks) of Tapestry of Grace this year instead of four full units (36 weeks), and will have longer breaks in winter and spring. We are hoping that by building in rigor balanced with extended rest periods that even include travel and adventures for our family (read SCUBA diving!), we will maximize the time we spend on academics.

Wait for it. You can watch along with me and see if this little experiment unravels or not. Anyway, the plan is made. I can't unmake it. Well, yes I can but I don't want to have to.

Bittersweet Changes

It has been a long and strange summer. I remember saying to a friend last spring as the school year wrapped up, "I feel a season of change coming," and I wasn't wrong. I have had little or no inspiration to write or blog, as I didn't have anything that I felt was constructive to say about much of anything. In some cases I had little inspiration to do much of anything! With regard to school issues, I felt tired and very uninspired. As I sit here writing I am glad to say that  this feeling has passed, but only because in fact, this season of change has come to fruition and now I am prepared to move forward. Normally by this time each year I have the whole calendar sketched out and notebooks set up and curriculum blocked out and set up for the year. Not this year. I haven't even started. It is t-minus five days until we start back to our academic work! Even so, I'm strangely at peace.

I have been blessed for the last five years to work with two other families consistently and other families that have come and gone from our group. We started out in Classical Conversations together, and then left and began meeting together for a smaller co-op based on Tapestry of Grace. This year, we have all reached a point where meeting together is not going to satisfy the needs of our families as it has in the past, and we are finding that we have to disband our little co-op. While I know it makes sense and is the right decision for all of us, it is bittersweet. 

These are the scenes that I will miss so much...

And with that I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Candace, Lynelle and Lisa for allowing me to participate in teaching your children. They brought me great joy! 

I look forward to posting about the plan for this coming school year as it develops over the next few days. Thankfully today I have a whole afternoon on my own to just sort things out...Let's see what develops!

Academic Cycle 2012-13 - Callin' It Done, Year in Review

It seems at the end of every conventional school year (i.e. the September - June timeframe) I am awash with feelings of inadequacy, shortcomings, and the conviction that I have not done enough to teach my kids this year. Then I sit down and write year-in-review post that causes me to realize once again that we are doing just fine, and all is well. I asked the kids what they thought we did well this year and their immediate response was science and writing and history. I asked them where they thought I dropped the ball, and without hesitation and in unison, they said, "Geography!" which is both of their favorite subject. :-/ hmmm...Sorry about that, guys.

This last week Matt wrapped up his history timeline work, writing, and grammar. It is a perfect place to leave off for the next couple of weeks while we prepare for vacation and take a break and regroup for our next cycle of study.

This year I made a major decision to abandon the conventional school year concept and do lessons through the summer, allowing us to take time whenever we need it without the inevitable feeling of "falling behind." I find that I am pushing back against all of the in-the-box thinking about schedules and curricula and what a kid "must" do in order to have a good education. Education, intelligence, and the concept of "school" is such a fluid concept anymore that I honestly believe that we as parents can pretty well choose from any number of options for our kids and have them be "okay," and even far exceed "okay" by public school standards. I have a feeling when our kids look back on their educations they will look nothing like those that their parents received. My son could already attest to this. It has worked well for us so far to allow ourselves the flexibility to take longer breaks if we need to or to work longer than what is expected or recommended in a curriculum on the assignments given. Other things were finished in less time than they would normally take. This gave us the time to develop other things such as taking a hard look at our diet and fitness, and getting deeply involved in the local CrossFit community. (Stop by and see what we've been doing at the Accidental CrossFitter!)

learning to cook

In a nutshell, this is what we covered in lessons for this 2012-2013 cycle:

Tapestry of Grace year 4 units 1 and 2. We covered these slowly and went a bit deeper into the WW2 portion of the year's study. There were many fruitful conversations over dinner. Matt interviewed his grandfather who was one of the Japanese Americans sent to internment camps, and from that wrote his first essay about how the Japanese side of our family was impacted by the war. I am extremely proud of his efforts.

We covered wonderful literature: War Horse, Private Peaceful (Morpugo), The Call of the Wild (London), Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery), The Secret Garden (Burnett), The Railway Children (Nesbitt), Pollyanna (Porter), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum), The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis), The Hobbit (Tolkien),  Our Town (Wilder), Peter Pan (Barrie), Swallows and Amazons (Ransome), Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

These selections lead to both of the kids consuming much more literature than is listed here. Matt went on to read the entire Oz series, and Molly is continuing through the Swallows and Amazon series, and has listened to the entire Chronicles of Narnia several times through. The only book of these selections that Matt did not cover was Mr. Popper's Penguins, but otherwise this list is complete for him. Molly did not cover Private Peaceful or The Call of the Wild due to the difficult themes in these titles. We also read some wonderful biographies of Eric Liddel, Amy Carmichael, and Corrie TenBoom. Matt, Dad and I read Unbroken (Hillenbrand), the biography of Louis Zamparini, which has become one of my all-time favorite books.

We completed Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology book and notebook (Jr. notebook for Molly), complete with experiments. These became some of the highlights of the school year.

frog dissection

the frog's parts on display!

In math, Matt finished Math U See Zeta and began the Pre-Algebra book. Molly is essentially finished with Beta and will move on to Gamma when we return from break.

In writing, Molly finished Writing With Ease 1 (WWE) and began WWE 2. Writing is her favorite subject. Matt worked steadily through lesson 11 of Writing With Skill (WWS). I had set a two-year goal for WWS 1, and we are on track to complete it in that timeframe, or sooner. As his writing skills continue to develop he is able to complete the assignments in less time. Writing is not his favorite subject!

In grammar, Matt is continuing to work through Analytical Grammar. He finds this to be very tedious and describes it as difficult, but from my perspective it is thorough and challenging. He understands it and does well on the tests. I know that at this point he doesn't appreciate all the parsing and diagramming, but hopefully he will see the value of it in the future.

Matt also completed Vocabulary from Classical Roots 1 and Logic Liftoff, and is currently working through Caesar's English and Phonetic Zoo list B.

Reading with Molly has been an area that has caused me some consternation. I have been concerned that she would not develop into a "reader" but I think if I examine her behavior patterns where books are concerned, I can put my fears to rest. In her progress with reading and phonics (she finished the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading this year, and has been working through All About Spelling) she had not demonstrated that "click" that seemed to happen with Matt around this age, in which his reading fluency suddenly leapt up and he was able to read just about anything. She still struggles with reading aloud, but has decidedly improved her silent reading fluency. The lover of good literature in me cringes when I consider the source of this improvement, but it has come from her love of the Rainbow and Pet Fairy book series. Mercifully, these have helped to greatly increase her fluency and enjoyment of reading, and she will now voluntarily sit down and read these. To my delight I will hear her in the other room laughing hysterically at something she read in the books. To me those books are like death by a thousand cuts, but to my fanciful, fantasy-loving girlie-girl, they are wonderful, so read on, dear girl! For her read-aloud skills she has been reading Socks (Cleary) to me. We both enjoy Beverly Cleary, and so I can endure the very slow process of having her read this out loud. On her own, she devours audiobooks, listens to me read aloud to her and reads her picture books to herself. I don't think I need to be concerned about whether or not she will be a "reader."

In March, both kids began attending an art class. Matt concluded his study of piano, fulfilling his 5 years of music study, which is what I originally had hoped for him to do. That is a huge accomplishment, but I cannot deny that I am a bit sad that he has not given it even a cursory backward glance, and does not miss it at all. He even said he had a nightmare the other night that I made him go back to piano lessons! They are both doing very well in the art class and will continue that through the summer.

After reading through what I have written here, I can breathe a sigh of relief. I am pleased with the progress that both of my kids have made this year, and I can trust that, once again, the Lord has guided our efforts. I have grown as a mom this year, learned how to let go a little bit more, and learned how to invest in myself to help me be stronger, healthier and better for them. More on that in a separate post. 

As we close this cycle, I look forward to changing gears a bit, heading back into ancient history and a deeper examination of the roots of our faith and spiritual heritage. It will be an exciting journey with Tapestry of Grace, Year 1 I think.

Week 17...History, Geography and Dissections, Oh My!

Since October 25, my life has been overwhelmed by a lifestyle decision--that in order to be healthy, I was going to have to break down and finally get some exercise. The first three months of this choice have been wonderful, difficult, exhilarating, and overwhelming! Figuring out how to balance three days of going to the box (it's a box, it's not a "gym") and still get school done has been a bit of a trick, but we've been doing okay. I have taken every opportunity to get the kids involved in the process of changing our health and fitness. They continue to love attending CrossFit Kids, and Matt is going to participate in his first CF competition in a couple of weeks! Along with the fitness emphasis, I have also enjoyed spending time with my girl in the kitchen. It is wonderful to see both kids interested in making healthier choices in our diet, as well.

Making bone broth in the pressure cooker

Don't worry, I corrected her right after I snapped the photo!

This week, however, I made the serendipitous mistake of sleeping past my WOD time. The kids were not at all eager to have me rushing out the door to make it to class, so I went to the 3:30 p.m. class instead. What a difference that made in our day! I decided to see if it was just a fluke and went at the same time on Wednesday, and again, it was a great school day! Regular exercise and diet change has also blessed me with sustained energy throughout the day, and so I am able to stay focused, clear-headed and in control of the tasks, allowing us to get far more done. The result was that in this week my CrossFit life and homeschool life came into balance, and actually complemented, rather than competed with each other. I realize in light of this that it's been a while since I did a thorough weekly report, and so today I will bring everything up to date.

Math and language lessons are going well. Matt has begun working through the Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra book, and Molly is doing multi-digit subtraction. Matt is wrapping up week 8 of Writing with Skill (we take two weeks per lesson) and continued his work in Analytical Grammar.
In history the kids have been learning about the beginning of WWI, and I continue to be impressed at the level of reading Matt is willing to do on the subject. He asked me to get a copy of Mein Kampf so he could try to read it. I obliged, of course. He is reading a biography of Roosevelt, and various other selections. One of his favorite books this year has been the very well-written and illustrated World Wars book, published by Usborne. We also colored maps that showed the extent of Germany's domination in Europe, and compared that to modern-day maps. We are also reading the story of Corrie Ten Boom together aloud.

In literature Molly listened to Mr. Popper's Penguins and Matt is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Together we are listening to the unabridged Fellowship of the Ring.

In science, we are continuing our studies of Anatomy and Physiology, and both absolutely love the lessons, the notebook pages, and the labs. This week we dissected a sheep heart and a frog. I was amazed at how the kids were not grossed out by the experience at all, but rather wanted to see, feel and identify everything. The smell of the specimens was far more difficult for them to tolerate than any other aspect of the experience (as evidenced by many of my daughter's facial expressions!) Both of them thoroughly enjoyed the lab, despite the nauseated looks. It was great that Dad got to be part of the experience, too, as he happened to have the day off.

Excited to get started!

Dad this smells gross!

We found the aorta!

Using the probe to pass through the aorta into the left ventricle.

The kids really enjoyed identifying the muscles, digestive organs, liver, kidneys and heart of the frog, which they have learned in previous chapters.

Proud of their work!

Week 1: Back to Routine!

What a great first week this has been, and if you are a regular reader, welcome back! It was a restful and refreshing summer, and I needed the break from both school and blogging, but we're back and ready to go!

Most years I have started school on the local schools' schedule, which is the Tuesday after Labor Day here in Virginia. This year I have not paid attention to that at all and have focused rather on re-establishing a routine with the kids in a gradual way. The goals we set for the week were met with positive attitudes, possibly because I have eased them back into the books this year. We did one week of just math and summer history reading, the next week we did a bit more, adding in writing to the math and history, and then we added in grammar and a bit more reading, culminating in this last week when I added all of their work in sort of a block schedule, devoting certain days to history and geography and certain days to science. This week at least, it proved a very positive development! The kids enjoyed being able to take more time on the subjects they really enjoy.

My girl is now 7, so we are moving forward toward 2nd grade-ish type work. While I really don't know how she compares to other 2nd graders in brick and mortar schools, she is reading well, and we are about 2/3 of the way through the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and will start McGuffy's 2nd Eclectic Reader next week. She also reads various other books on her own, such as the Magic Treehouse series. Her math skills seem to be moving along at an appropriate pace. She can add and subtract numbers to 20, skip count by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s, use an abacus and base-ten blocks. She is a whiz at narration and sentence construction, and can do this at the second level of Writing With Ease (WWE) (our writing curriculum) but her spelling skills are not yet at a point where she can take the dictations that WWE2 doles out. Here is her stack:

Molly's "stack" for 2012-13

This week she enjoyed reading Eat My Dust (about Henry Ford's first race) to me out loud and I read the First Flight (about the Wright Brothers) to her.

Molly's cell anatomy page in the Jr. Notebook

The highlight of our week was starting our science curriculum, Apologia Anatomy and Physiology for the elementary grades, as well as the notebooks that accompany the text. We learned the anatomy of the cell and the kids looked into the microscope at various types of cells in tissue. We also learned about the history of the study of anatomy and physiology. Of course the Egyptians and mummies came up and we did an experiment which, by next week should reveal a mummified apple.

control apple and mummified apple

This is far preferable to me than the home-school standard of mummifying a chicken.

The boy is now 11 and is doing very well in whatever I challenge him to do. He is working on Math U See level Zeta, and very quickly, at that. He also is working through Life of Fred Decimals and Percents. He is an excellent reader and can handle whatever I throw at him, so far. Currently he is reading Call of the Wild by Jack London for his Tapestry of Grace literature selection. Here is his stack of some of the stuff for the term:

The stack does not include all the extra reading that is included in TOG or his logic or grammar. He is using the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia to practice making outlines each week for the core history topics, as described in The Well-Trained Mind.

Matty's greatest challenge by far is the new level of writing he is tackling in Writing With Skill (WWS), which is the continuation of Susan Wise Bauer's writing curriculum. It is a lovely and clear progression from WWE, and as Matty said one day, "Mom, this is hard, but it's not uninteresting." He is successfully writing summaries, doing topical outlines, and working with a Thesaurus. We have come to week 3 in the book, and every exercise seems to have the perfect balance of instruction and challenging work (though not too difficult).

He showed enthusiasm and interest in the timeline book we put together for him. I put it in book form because I think this will be preferable to trying to find a place to string it up in the house. Also, because he has enjoyed lap books and things like that in the past, he will probably enjoy putting this together.

To avoid the scramble for materials that I typically face, I assembled the book beforehand and went through the timeline points in TOG Year 4 Unit 1. For many (but not all) points, I pulled pictures from the internet and printed them onto sticky-backed 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, so all he has to do is cut, stick, and write in beneath or above the picture. On his own he thought of some other events that he wanted to add and pulled some of his own pictures and glued them in. This year we hope to have the book filled from 1900 to the end of the Cold War, and next year we will begin the Ancients. The goal is to have a working timeline for all of history, completed over the course of 4 years.

Overall, it was a wonderful week, and hopefully a harbinger of good things to come this school year. Keep checking back! I'll be updating weekly, as well as getting back to "Wordless Wednesdays" and periodic articles on various topics. Happy learning!

Curriculum Party!

I don't think I have ever been so early before on this but...wait for it...
It is March, 2012. I have decided on and ordered nearly all of the curriculum I believe I will need for next year! I will not post a photo of the happy dance that I am doing right now, because I'm sure it's not pretty, but the truth is, we have enjoyed this year so much that I feel very little need to change, so we will continue with the next steps in the curriculum that we are currently using.

Here is the list:

Tapestry of Grace Year 4 (Dialectic for Matty and Lower Grammar for Molly)
Mapping the World by Heart - I want to do this as we study the modern world so that from here out (we go back to Ancients the year after next) the kids will have a good understanding of the modern map so they can figure out where things are in relationship to the Ancient world. Both kids love geography.
Apologia Anatomy and Physiology-Matty will do the Notebook journal, Molly will do a simplified version along with us.
Writing With Ease 2 (for Molly)
Writing With Skill
First Language Lessons for the Well trained Mind (4 for Matty, 2 for Molly)
Spelling Workout (B for Molly, E for Matty)
Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6 (for Matty)
Math U See (Zeta for Matty, Beta for Molly)
We will continue with Rosetta Stone French and Le Francais Facile

I only have left to consider what we will do to begin studying logic. This is an area that I am unfamiliar with in terms of formal study, so I will be examining my options closely.

In the past I have jumped around from this to that, trying out different things to see which works better. I think I am coming to the conclusion that for our family, if the curriculum works for ME the teacher, it works for US as a learning group. As a teacher, I am not one who needs a lot of hand-holding, and so with TOG and Apologia, I actually enjoy the planning and execution of their very rich curricula. However, I find that the Peace Hill Press curricula (WWE and FLL) are handy for the simple reason that I don't have to plan them. Just pull out the pages and go. I have often tweaked the lessons with my own explanations and silly sentences in order to make it more enjoyable, but the texts on their own are rock-solid. I have not gone wrong with any of the suggestions found in The Well Trained Mind, except for Spelling Workout in the past. It used to make poor Matty cry when he was little. Well, he's over that now, so we're back to it. It is still a solid program, and one he can do mostly on his own.

So, in the midst of dragging my feet through the March blahs, I have managed to find a spark and get very excited about continuing with what we are doing for next year.

Week 8: Colds, Curriculum and Cutting

The students were much improved this week. The teacher, however, succumbed to being sneezed and coughed on one too many times, so as I write this, I am in the process of recovering from having "bit the dust." We proceeded with the basics and Matty did his Tapestry of Grace (TOG) reading that was assigned. Year 3 Week 8 is the second of three weeks of study on South America, so we watched a lovely nature video called Eden at the End of the Earth by National Geographic, to complement our study. The kids really liked it, but there were some "survival of the fittest" moments for which Molly (tough as she is) preferred to hide her eyes. We also watched an IMAX movie about the Amazon, which was okay. The story line was underdeveloped and the IMAX photography obviously doesn't come through as nicely on a t.v., but my kids really did not like the completely naked tribe who wore only a decorative bone or reed-thing pierced through their bottom lips. I personally have no problem with showing my kids things like this, but some people don't want to see any naked bodies, so if that is you, don't watch that video.

As a periodic assessment of how TOG is going for him, I ask Matty what he likes about it and what he would change. He says he LOVES the reading, LOVES the subject matter, LOVES getting together with friends each week for co-op--he doesn't want to change a thing. Well, he could do without the student activity page each week, but even that isn't so bad. This speaks volumes to me. When a kid voluntarily goes to his week's assignments and finishes them ahead of schedule, then asks if he can read the unabridged, or "are there more like this?" something is really going right. I am so glad we made the choice to do TOG this year.

Spending time with friends after co-op on a Friday afternoon

I will not say that we are without any kinks, however. I am still working out how to get all the lower grammar reading done with Molly, as she is not quite an independent reader (although she is making very good progress.) I still have a hard time sticking to the schedule I set for us each week. I have never been good at this, but this year we seem to be doing better accepting the fact that school for us just isn't done until late in the afternoon, thus getting more done. Not always everything, but more. I am approaching school more as a list of things to get done than a certain amount of time we need to spend. This helps cut down on the dilly-dallying. Brilliant. Mostly. Some whining still occurs when the belief that school should be over must give way to the realization that something is still left on the list.

This unit has been a back and forth experiment with how to approach writing with the kids, as well. I have always used Writing With Ease (WWE) by Susan Wise Bauer, and I have seen fantastic results. I thought I would venture to use the Writing Aids (WA) that came with TOG to cut down on the number of things we needed to do--try to streamline, but it is hard to go from WWE, which I absolutely love to use because of its philosophy, thoroughness and ease of use, to something that I am not as sure about. I'd give Writing Aids an "okay" rating. If you are a TOG purist and do everything she describes in the text, then you will cover your grammar and writing pretty well over the course of your school career. I just find it cumbersome. In my opinion, WWE, in combination with First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (FLL) is a tough act to follow. So this week I made the decision to go back to WWE 3 for Matty, to be followed by Writing With Skill (the new writing program for middle grade students by Susan Wise Bauer) next year.

That has been the nuts-and-bolts learning this week. I love the nuts and bolts, but mostly because they cannot be done in isolation. I have to be in a place emotionally and spiritually to manage them. Having had every member of the family down with this cold over these last three (yes, three!) weeks has reminded me that I have a delicately balanced stack on my plate. I have had to cancel things and stay home when I would otherwise be out. The time has come--I need to release a few things. There are two things in my life which continuously beckon me. The first and most important of course, is my family's needs. The joy of putting a well-prepared, healthy meal on the table, tucking kids into a freshly changed bed, and teaching them from organized lessons is a job to which none other can compare. The routine of baking fresh bread on Sundays and being available to help the kids memorize their verses for AWANA are the things that keep me alive inside. The second thing is a ministry with which I have been involved for the past three years (this being my fourth). In this place we pray for and minister to people who are seeking emotional healing. It is a joy and a privilege to serve with this team of amazing people and to help "feed His sheep" in such a precious way. While the second thing is definitely something I could set aside, I feel that I would be losing out more than I would be gaining were I to do so. My whole family participates by releasing me to this work each Thursday evening, and they recognize it as a service we give to God. The other things--too many and too personal to name here, will just have to go, though. It is time. I know that some pruning of the vines must happen, no matter how uncomfortable, in order to pour strength into the branches that are producing fruit.

We have a busy week coming up--a lot of wrapping up of our first unit / marking period. I look forward to finishing well and an even more successful unit 2.

A Change of Seasons: From CC to Tapestry of Grace

Updated March 7, 2012: This post is in no way meant to be critical of CC--on the contrary, I hope to give a fair assessment of why it did and didn't work for our family, and why we have chosen not to continue. We had a great CC season. It was a valuable part of our educational journey. The season, however has shifted, and so we must move on, taking what we have learned and putting it to good use in the next.

Many people have stopped by the Accidental Homeschooler searching for information about Classical Conversations (CC). Last year I wrote about what I called "coming full circle" with CC, and in this and future posts, I want to expand on that information and write about why we decided this year to make the switch to Tapestry of Grace. I have said before that "the right tool for the job gets it done." For three years of our home school experience, CC did help tremendously in "getting the job done." Nevertheless, there were a few drawbacks to using the CC method which I will delineate in this post, which is Part 1 of "Why the Switch."

First, let me identify the ways in which CC has helped us. First and foremost, meeting together with other moms was a very important part of our week. It provided a venue for fellowship and community, support, and even friendly competition. Secondly, it helped me figure out how to best organize and carry out our day-to-day lesson plans. Because there was a weekly framework of material to be covered, I could pull together resources which would support what was being presented each week. I learned in CC that my two kids are crazy about history and geography. We squeezed everything we could out of the weekly material. CC also kept me from completely dropping the ball on studying science, which I am prone to do since we all share such a love for the other subjects. Also, it was very convenient to have both of my children studying exactly the same material, allowing me to adjust the presentation of it according to their ability.

Taking all that into account, what follows are the reasons I decided that our CC season had come to an end. From the beginning I could really connect with the Well-Trained Mind approach to framing our school years with a four-year plan, using history and geography as a spine from which to generate our studies. CC uses a 3-year cycle, and this is just a bit too fast for our family, who really enjoys digging into history and taking a bit more time with it. The first year cycle takes a geography-centered approach to world history, and a very brief overview of the history of every continent is touched upon. The second year cycle begins with the Middle Ages and moves quickly through history to the modern times, and geography studies are focused on Europe. The third year emphasizes U.S. History and geography. All of these cycles have their strengths, and one of the things we enjoyed the most about them was learning the history sentences set to music. I find the kids still singing them from time to time, especially when something we are talking about or studying stimulates their memory. Even so, I prefer a more linear 4-year approach beginning with the ancients and ending with modern times.

Another aspect of CC became a challenge for us to manage, and that is the emphasis placed on the "Memory Master" achievement. You can read about what a Memory Master is here. We found at the beginning that the memorization of the material combined with our supplemental studies was done easily. However, as the school year progressed and we were reviewing and drilling more and more material, there was less and less time to dig in to our reading, writing and hands-on projects which were intended to give life and dimension to the very facts that we were memorizing. When it came time to test for Memory Master (MM), we spent two weeks primarily preparing for the examination, not getting much of anything else done. I will say that the value in this exercise was that my boy learned how to push himself beyond what he would normally do and to challenge himself. It was rather exhilarating in the moment, and I am not sorry at all that we did it, but I learned that a more evenly distributed pace of learning throughout the year is preferable for us.

 Lastly, because of the pace at which we moved through history, it was impossible to dig in to all of the areas that the history sentences touched on. This may work well for someone who has little to moderate interest in history, but for my history-ravenous son, I felt I had to keep moving him through the material before he was ready. Knowing just a little about something was not enough to satisfy him. In science, it was fine--the science questions were sufficient since that is not where he gravitates. He enjoys science, but he is not hungry for it.

I was also beginning to look ahead and study the Challenge program. I had friends who had kids in Challenge A and B, and I was observing their experiences closely, not to mention studying the curricula that the students used. Again, the four-year history cycle is not present. This is not to say there is no "method to their madness" because I believe that there is, and it clearly works well for many people. But as I looked ahead at the program, I could not see our family flowing with that approach. Again, I would like to see a 4-year history cycle, and out of that study related literature, geography, church history, fine arts, and even science. Furthermore, the Challenge program is different from Foundations in that it ceases to follow the cyclical nature of Foundations. With the age span of my children, I recognize that it will be difficult to keep them "on the same page" through their whole school careers, however, middle school was a little too soon (to my mind) to have one child studying an entirely different course from my younger child. I wanted to be able to study the same topics with them, at different levels.

In Part 2 of "A Change of Seasons" I will discuss the ways in which Tapestry of Grace has satisfied the very things that I found to be either lacking or challenging in the CC method, as well as a review of the curriculum up to this point.

Week 22: An Ideal Week!

I think I've written before that one of my early homeschooling mentors (who has taught 7 children of her own) said to me one time, "If you have one really good day of school a week, then it's a good week." Well, if that is in fact true, then this week was fantastic! We managed four good school days and our regular Classical Conversations day, as well. One of the highlights was having Dad home for President's day, and rather than taking the day off, we enjoyed the 1:1 student to teacher ratio. He did math and science with both of the kids, then we switched and I did language arts and reading.

The compass experiment from Lesson 5 in Apologia's Astronomy book.

After that day we were on a roll, and we somehow managed to have the kind of week that my planner absolutely loves, with everything getting thorough attention and all the boxes getting checked.

Since it was the kind of week I wish we could have all the time, I have taken the time to describe what our "ideal school week" looks like, along with the curriculum we do.

Most days we start school between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. We are not early risers, so this is a reasonable time for all of us. Over breakfast, we read and discuss our Bible curriculum and pray, and review any Bible memory work that we are working on. This year we have been working through Apologia's Who is God and Can I Really Know Him?

It has been a very thought-provoking program for my nine-year-old son, and my 5-year-old girl has listened and discussed it as well, though she is probably not grasping it on the same level. I would give this curriculum a definite thumbs-up because of the level of thought that it stimulates, and the kind of discussions we have had because of it. We have delved into the problem of what it means to be separated from God, the problem of sin, the difference between flesh and spirit and the struggle that results...Invariably my heart is full to hear what my kids are thinking about with regard to these issues. We are nearing the end of the book, and the interest level for it has not waned on any of our parts. We did not use the journal or the notebook because we have used it more as a devotional, but we have memorized the recommended passages of scripture, many of which the kids already knew!

After morning devotions, we read our science chapter or section in science and the children narrate back what they remember from the section and answer my questions that I pose to them orally. At the moment I am pushing to finish this book, as it always seemed to be the last thing on our list in the fall. My hope is to finish it in the next month so that we can begin Botany in the spring and work on that through the summer, while using our garden as a hands-on science lab.

So far for us, we have been very satisfied with Apologia's science products (we have also done Zoology 1 and most of 2). The presentation is very conversational and lends itself to good snuggle-on-the-sofa time. I also appreciate that at every turn God is given the glory for the marvels of the universe, and often scripture is used to illustrate a point. The experiments are fun and easy to implement using household products.

After science we usually head downstairs to our school area where our huge white board and maps are, and we review our Classical Conversations memory work. Matty is working to achieve Memory Master this year, and so it is very important that his memory work is reviewed daily. One day a week we cover all of it from beginning to the current week so that it stays fresh in his mind. He sometimes uses the CC flash cards or the study helps online to drill himself, but I do "proof" him once a week to make sure he is not lagging in one area or another. Memory Master is achieved when a student can recite all of the memory work for the 24 weeks with no more than two mistakes. He is then awarded a certificate noting the accomplishment. It is a significant accomplishment requiring diligence on the part of the student.

Then Matty begins his independent work in Math, reading, handwriting, and typing. For Math this year Matty is using Math Mammoth Light Blue Series 4-A and 4-B which to my understanding is a Singapore-like system in that it employs more of the Asian approach to learning math. This program is laid out for for a student to self-instruct. I have found that it is easy for Matty to understand the built-in instruction boxes, and after just a bit of guidance from Dad or me, he is able to complete the assignments on his own. The assignments are challenging but doable. There are "puzzle boxes" that sometimes even Dad and I have trouble with, but they are fun, and I think that it is good for him to see that even Mom and Dad have to sit and wrestle with something to get answers from time to time. My one complaint about Math Mammoth is that occasionally we have stumbled on a mistake in the text, or a concept is included or needed in a problem that has not been covered yet, but overall, it is excellent, and now that we know this we can simply skip over that rare problem and move on.  Molly is also working in Math Mammoth 1A, and she has done very well. We go very, very slowly with her, just working with the concept of addition. Maria Miller (the author) has the students do a lot of "find the missing number" problems, which I think can be hard developmentally for some 5-year-olds. Since this is a first grade text we are taking our time, and my goal with her is simply to have her know her addition facts through 10, and understand the concept of subtraction by the end of the year. She already knew all of the K-level number concepts, shapes, etc, so the next logical step was to go ahead and start the curriculum. I am not sure yet if Math Mammoth will be the right approach with her, but we will continue with this a bit longer until I am sure.

After math, we generally do Language arts, which includes writing, grammar, and spelling. This is my favorite part of the day, and I love all of the curricula that we are currently using for both kids. For Matty, we are using mostly Peace Hill Press's curricula. We had successfully worked through First Language lessons for the Well-Trained Mind 1 / 2. I discovered it a little late, so we finished it in his third grade year, and now this year we are working through FLL 3. At first it seemed a bit too scripted and a little dry, but now that I have become used to it, I can give it my own flavor and spin, and we actually have a lot of fun with it. I appreciate the thoroughness of it and the constant review, and I know that we are not missing anything important. We don't always need all the review, so we do what we need and skip what we don't. My one complaint with the program is that the student workbook uses way too much paper. I think that smaller print could be used and fewer pages taken up to demonstrate the same concept. Small complaint which in no way diminishes my appreciation for the quality of the curriculum content, but it drives me crazy how much space it takes up in the notebook! Overall, I highly, highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to be sure that their child is getting a proper education in grammar.

Another of my favorites from Peace Hill Press is Writing With Ease. We are finishing Student Workbook 2 and will Continue on with Level 3, though we will be working from the text and not the workbook, since I would like to have a bit more flexibility in the reading selections and begin to use more of our history and science readings as selections for the narration and dictation exercises. I will write a review of this curriculum in a separate post, but suffice it to say that of everything that we use this is my favorite, with no complaints. My child enjoys it, the philosophy behind it makes so much sense, and the results are amazing. Thank you, Susan Wise Bauer!

Our other language arts thread is spelling, and for Matty we are currently using what I hope will be his last spelling curriculum, All About Spelling. Spelling has been for us something akin to torture until now. He is not a natural speller, though he is a very good reader. The theory that "the more they read they the better speller they will be" simply is not true in every case. We have tried Abeka spelling, Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling and Megawords. In every case he could memorize the words, spell them for his test, and then have seemingly no other relationship with the words in any other context. Whenever he has needed to spell a word, say for a dictation, he would revert to guessing and spelling however he thought the word sounded. Finally, at long last, we have come upon a curriculum which he likes and I am seeing his spelling improve already, after only a few weeks of using it! He enjoys the lessons are very hands-on and interactive, and sees / feels the improvement himself. I have to give a shout out to the ladies at The Well Trained Mind forums because they steered me in this direction after my moaning about my situation to them. Thank you, thank you!

Language Arts with Molly is becoming more and more fun as she increases in her abilities in reading and writing. We generally work together while Matty is working on his math and other independent work. At the same time I began All About Spelling with Matty, I began The Phonics Road with Molly. Both programs are based on the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching phonics. Both Molly and I are enjoying Phonics Road. I enjoy it because it is "open and go"--I watch the included instructor videos to see how it should be taught, then deliver the lesson as prescribed by the author, Barbara Beers. Molly loves having her own notebook and clipboard and the lessons are engaging for her. She loves to practice her handwriting, and this program has many opportunities for her to do so. It is a little early for me to give a full assessment of the program, but so far, so good. I chose this for Molly because I didn't want her to fall into the same gap of reading / spelling ability that Matty has experienced. Already she demonstrates more of a natural spelling ability, but even so, I want to give her a very thorough phonics foundation so that we don't have the same problems later. My one reservation about using the Phonics Road in the long term is that I love the Peace Hill Press Products so much that I don't want to regret not having used them with Molly. After we complete level one, I will then decide whether or not to continue working with her in The Phonics Road based on the merits of this program or switch to All About Spelling and the PHP products. It is a hard choice--I'm surrounded by excellent products and what it boils down to is personal preference.

Sometime around 11:45 we are all ready for a break, and so I head upstairs to make lunch while the kids play. It affords me some head-space and gives them a chance to work out their wiggles. They are usually very rambunctious at this point! We break for about an hour, and then after lunch the kids practice their piano lessons (30-40 minutes for Matty, 15 minutes for Molly), and then I work with Matty for another hour or more, depending on what kinds of assignments we need to complete. Sometimes we will not have finished all the language arts, or he may need to do some study questions for science, or do some research for a history lap book. Generally speaking we work until 2:30 or 3:00. School is dismissed when all his independent work is checked off, the basement is picked up, and piano is practiced. Then they may use their media time or play with neighborhood friends. Then it's upstairs for a little Facebook time for mom and solving the never ending question..."What's for dinner?"

I should note that it is  ideal for us to have three good study days like this a week because on Wednesday afternoons, both children have piano lessons and Matty has art class for two hours, during which Molly and I work on her art curriculum together. On Fridays we attend Classical Conversations, and after that our school work for the week is finished.

Working in this way with some degree of consistency this year has rendered this our most productive school year yet. Both children and I have enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I feel that there is a healthy balance of rigor and fun in our learning. Certainly we aren't perfect, and we have our weeks where tired, cranky, moody, sinful, and ill throw us off, but when it works well, it's great!

Fall 2010 Curriculum: What We Like

I'm always reading the Well Trained Mind forum's K-8 board where moms talk constantly about their curriculum choices, what they are tweaking, what they trying, what they are ditching.  I have learned a lot from this forum, have participated in many of the discussions, and chosen, tweaked and ditched a few myself.  This semester we have landed on good soil, and our curriculum choices seem to be working and are very enjoyable.  Here's what made the working list this so far.  Note that Classical Conversations is our spine, and we are following along with that for history, geography, science, Latin, and grammar.  We are supplementing the history and science at home, as you will see below.

For Matty (age 9) and Molly (age 5) together:
Classical Conversations
Story of the World, volume 2
Apologia Astronomy
various read-alouds and audio selections to complement our studies in these areas.  We especially like recordings by Jim Weiss, who also reads in the Story of the World audio collection.

For Matty
Math Mammoth 4A and 4B
Writing with Ease 2
MegaWords, volume 1
Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting book C (and soon D)





For Molly
Math Mammoth 1A
Pathway Readers
Explode the Code book 2
Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting book A and soon B

We also make lap books, which incorporates a lot of research, writing and planning skills.  I find this to be a very useful tool for synthesizing information, as well as practicing good summarizing skills, good handwriting, and also incorporates a creative / graphic layout element to the final project.

I have found Classical Conversations (CC) to be a tremendous help in keeping us on track and holding us accountable to getting memory work done.  I am a person who is typically extrinsically motivated, and so having the external factor of a weekly meeting with other families, a goal to work toward with Matty (he would like to try for "Memory Master" this year), and a skeleton of topics on which to build at home, we are having a very successful school term.  I can compare this to last year, in which I took a break from CC, and while it was a very good school year, I often found it difficult to set goals for the children and meet them on my own, whereas this year, each week I have a goal to work for with them.

Story of the World is a continual HIT in our household.  Everyone likes it, not just the students.  We listen to it obsessively in the car, wherever and whenever we go somewhere, no matter how short the ride, and when we need to review a point we pull out the books at home.  I use primarily the audio recordings, because it helps to fill in the gaps and expand on points that the CC history memory work leaves open.  It also helps to give that context which is lacking in the memory work, which my rising dialectic-stage son needs.  (He is the question-man...it can be exhausting.)

Math Mammoth is another shining star in our curriculum.  I find that (for us) this program just. makes. sense.  I love how Maria Miller, the author, incorporates thinking strategies and mental math in every operation that is taught.  It is very affordable, and does not include a lot of extras that must be purchased.  I can use whatever I have on hand to teach a point, and can trust that each point is taught thoroughly, almost to the point of exhaustion for my boy, sometimes.  I will sometimes have to work through some of the more challenging lessons with him, but thankfully, Dad has stepped in and seems to have a real knack for explaining math to the kids...so I LET HIM.

Apologia Astronomy is the third book we've done in Apologia's Young Explorer series by Jeannie Fulbright.  We like it--the writing in this particular volume is a little "young" for Matty, but good for Molly.  He is getting plenty out of it, though, and it is great for Molly to feel like she's really understanding the science that we're covering.  It works well for us right now, because we are currently covering Astronomy as the science topic in CC, as well.