Planning the Progym

I have gotten out all my progym and writer's books. This is Aphthonius's Progymnasmata, which is actually a nice summary -- it's the one I used for my older set since none of the progym books were out yet at that time. More about that later.

Also, here is Melissa Wiley about Bravewriter
and Mother Crone: Praise for Bravewriter

I don't have Julie's Bravewriter program, but I do like her Lifestyle principles.

I stumbled upon similar ones by trial and error with my older set. When they were younger, the only writing programs out there for homeschoolers were ones that I did not like. They all seemed artificial to me. Bravewriter was obviously not out back then. I tried a couple of highly recommended composition programs with my oldest, Liam, who is now 21. He was not very impressed, and since he was usually quite fair-minded about his academics, that was a signal to me to drop them quickly. I'm very glad in retrospect I trusted my instincts on this.

I didn't even try any of these standard curricula with Brendan or Clare, who are now 19 and 17. By that time I'd heard of Charlotte Mason and her methods seemed much more compatible with how I wanted to do things.

I had learned to write by copywork and storywriting and little nature writings I did in the summers when I was very young. I liked to make little books which I sewed or stapled together and decorated. When I was very little, my mom read to me a lot and traced out letters for me to copy until I could write on my own. So that's basically how I did it with my kids. They narrated -- not much, but a bit. They did copywork; again, not much, but a bit. They made maps and scrawled little stories on index cards, or sometimes rolled papers and drawings up into scrolls. They played pretend games by the hour and sometimes audiotaped or videotaped their plays.

I wrote down their stories or journals, sometimes, or labeled their pictures, and collected their work into binders. Brendan and Clare gained fluency in reading by telling me stories that I would type, then have them read back to me. As they got older, they kept their own notebooks and labeled their own pictures. All this never seemed like "enough", but somehow, all my older kids became effective writers.

At some point Brendan seemed "stuck" in his writing. He was at a perfectionist age and had just transitioned from all-caps to a legible italics, but he wasn't yet fluent. Liam had become more interested in serious academics, and was writing a few papers for his "studies", but was no longer doing much creative writing. So I started a daily "free writing" -- we'd all gather for 20 minutes before lunch, and the pre-readers could draw. Even I had to write during this time. It was time that was difficult for me to spare, since Aidan was a medically high needs toddler and I was pregnant with Paddy, but I thought it was important to be there too, participating, not skipping down the hall to fold the laundry.

I also had several "writer" type books around the house from my college days. I strewed these and the kids picked them up and read them, at least some of them. The feedback I got back later was that they often disagreed with the writer's advice, but still, these books gave the kids a chance to "converse" mentally with a writing teacher, and pick and choose what they wanted to try out. The authors who write these "writer's manuals" do have their peculiarities and flaws like everyone else of course, but they don't patronize the young writer quite as much as the standard children's textbook on how to write. I don't think it's necessary to read any of these types of books, and authors like Flannery O'Connor will tell you it could be dangerous, but at least the kids have the freedom to pick and choose their "teachers" here.

Eventually, the free writing period was dropped because it was no longer necessary. From there, all the kids embarked on abundant writing -- opinion pieces, journalling, stories, and creative "newspapers". They haven't looked back. All have their own "style" and their own particular strengths.

It was right after this "free writing" interim in our lives that I started experimenting with the progym. I am sketching out all the things that came before, because I do think the progym ought to rest upon a base similar to the Bravewriter one -- upon experience in creative playing, lots of reading and sharing stories, and some fluency and joy in expression (both written and oral). So I am writing this out partly in order to remind myself -- because whenever I start poring through curricula, I get a queasy, discouraged feeling -- probably another reason I'm interested in classical/CM/unschooling, because teacher's manuals are less necessary when you are learning from real books, real pen and paper, and real life.

So my goal is to use the curricula as a resource, not let it take over my life. When I get that queasy feeling, it's time to do something different for a while!

(Paddy's next to me, poring over the "Tour of the Summa", asking me to read chapter titles like "The Equality of the Three Divine Persons", then making up elaborate stories within the book -- I heard mention of alligators being found -- ST Thomas would probably be surprised to know what could be read from the pages of his work!)

Poetry Friday: October Winds (Or a Ballad, anyway)

The October winds lament around
the castle of Dromore.
Yet peace is in her lofty halls,
my loving treasure store.
Though autumn leaves may droop and die,
a bud of spring are you.

Chorus:
Sing hush-a-bye loo, la loo, lo-lan,
Sing hush-a-bye loo-la-loo.

Bring no ill-wind to hinder us,
my helpless babe and me,
Dread spirits of the Blackwater,
Clan Owen's wild banshee,
And Holy Mary pitying us
in heaven for grace does sue.

Chorus:
Sing hush-a-bye loo, la loo, lo-lan,
Sing hush-a-bye loo-la-loo.


Take time to thrive, my ray of hope,
in the garden of Dromore,
Take heed, young eaglet, till thy wings
are feathered fit to soar.
A little rest and then the world
is full of work to do.

Chorus:
Sing hush-a-bye loo, la loo, lo-lan,
Sing hush-a-bye loo-la-loo.

trying to test timing

I have been spending most of my blogging time over at my Schola et Studium --day to day learning notes and planning -- in case my readers have been wondering.

I put a few pdf forms over there which I made, which might or might not be helpful for others. I hope they are helpful to someone; but at least, there has to be someone else out there that just likes browsing through forms, as much as I do?

I'm setting this post as a sticky note that will expire on September 28th, a month after I said I would stay off this blog for a month or two -- a not entirely successful effort, as you see : ).

Saving Oliver Hill

Read this from Cay at Cajun Cottage:

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"You cannot have the family farm without the family." quotes G. K. Chesterton. Molly uses this quote in her signature line when she writes, so the thought of this dear homeschooling family facing the threat of losing their farm saddens me immeasurably. ...

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Regina Doman has the details at her blog

Please pray for dear Molly and her family , and for others who are faced with this situation.

Pirate Day Finally

Yesterday was the day, actually….. but Sean had a doctor’s appointment, so we postponed it to today. This is from our trip to the beach, which we had to ourselves… fortunately for bystanders, considering our crew of buccaneer types.

The weather has gotten cooler in the past couple of weeks, and the night before it had rained, so we had a quiet gray glimmering landscape to be colorful against.

Most of the crew

Paddy and Aidan

Paddy

Sean

Aidan

Some ducks

Kieron

Brendan

Clare took a picture of me with the littlest pirate.

Kevin (DH) drove us there

Clare making the skull n crossbones cake.

We finished off our celebration with a pirate feast of chicken drumsticks, ginger ale (since most of the pirates weren’t old enough for real ale), bagels instead of biscuits, and of course, apples.

(Clare’s photo and her table setting)

And we watched the TAC production of Pirates of Penzance, and Clare played the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on her violin.

The kids had started filming a pirate movie a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t finish it — still, a nice memento for the future : ).

Clare will probably write up the occasion on her family-newspaper blog, but hasn’t done it so far — there was quite a bit else to do, including loads of dishes to wash!

Very fun!

Too Slow, Too Fast?

US! (Kristie) commented on an earlier post:
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"Willa, it is so funny that your kids zooming through things is what you are figuring out how to fix. Mine are the opposite. It seems like the more I streamline and the less I give them, the longer it seems to take. Even with just math, latin and a little reading we are pushing the morning hours. SIGH! I find that we as a whole (esp. the littles) are so much happier if the bulk is in the morning. But how to do this? I think the first key for us is in waking up! Mine are slow risers. I am thinking of starting to gradually wake them up earlier. We will see if that does it! Are yours early risers?"

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My reply got so long that I'm putting it as a post -- hope it helps and if it raises any other questions, please ask : ).

My kids get up around 8 am, so no, we aren't really morning people. We usually don't get started till 9 am, though I am trying to set up some preschool activities by about 8:30 so I can spend a little time with the little ones before I start, hem, benignly neglecting them in favor of the older ones.

I fix a solid breakfast, and the kids do their morning chores and sort of play around until I'm ready to start.

I actually do remember pushing the morning hours when mine were all pretty little. Everything went so slooowlly, even when I tried "short lessons". I am not sure what has changed. Perhaps little ones just take longer to gather and settle down, and there are more interruptions. Do you think that is part of it? When I had babies, everything took longer and was physically more complicated. I had to make sure the baby was happy and the toddler wasn't wreaking havoc. That is just part of the joy that I miss of having a crew of young ones. Seriously. We learned so much and our homeschool was so freshened by the presence of the little tiny ones. I didn't always appreciate it at the time, but it was really part of our curriculum, and a significant part too.

One thing that occurred to me - my crew tend to do a lot of work separately since my kids are so far apart in ages. If you do a lot of multi-level teaching, it slows things down in a way because there are more group dynamics and it takes more time to get everything and everyone all together. At least, this has been my experience. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I've noticed it and Laura Berquist mentions it in one of her articles too. I do try to group the *content* of what they're doing -- for example, the two littlest ones might work at the same activities, but at different times during the day.

So one way to speed things up is to tutor one child at a time for a few minutes, giving them a start on some independent work like copywork or drawing or reading or whatever you have going on, and then move to the next one. Then perhaps have the group time just before lunch, when the basics are done.

I don't know if this helps.... Some of my older kids, when they were young, really hated starting off the morning with math and that kind of thing. They woke up slowly and they wanted to play or cuddle, not sit down to arithmetic. So I pretty much had to work in gradually by reading aloud and letting them draw and talk a bit before we started the seatwork, and then it would be lunchtime when we finished. This did have benefits -- they still remember those read alouds and leisurely morning times, and I miss that with the younger set who seem to prefer to get the 3Rs out of the way as fast as possible. Thus, my problem with "too fast".

I'm with you about no serious academics in the afternoon for little ones-- it's never worked well at all for us either. I am too tired, honestly, and they don't want to concentrate. Now, older highschoolers seem to need a couple of hours in the afternoon. Mine would work in the morning, then take a longish lunch break, then do some more work in the middle to late afternoon. This would be in junior and senior years, usually, for my set.

Now that I'm thinking about this, to solve my "too fast" problem, I may try to have some group activities to extend our morning hours -- some equivalent to a "circle time". Maybe gather all together about 11 am and do some freewriting, or reading aloud. ... a Morning Time.

My personal homeschool ideal would be to have a productive 3 hours in the morning (some independent work and some together time) and then start them off, plant seeds for some more leisurely, constructive activities that could occupy them in the afternoon. Then some outside activities or errands later on. Today they are engaged in filming a play -- that is the kind of thing I feel good about. I also feel good when they spend the afternoon outside, or following up on books started in the morning hours, or writing stories or doing handicrafts. Sometimes they finish their academics rapidly and are then at loose ends and squabbling, which frustrates me. Those are the days that I wish I had more planned to round out the day. Realizing this, maybe I ought to have some sort of Plan B -- some kind of flexible project planned for days when the kids aren't inspired to come up with anything on their own. Hmm....

This first month always does seem to be a time to break in gradually and recognize what habits need work and what good things we can build on for that particular year. So one other suggestion I have is to go through your morning with a pencil and notebook handy and make a note of all the glitches -- what's taking long, why, and if it can be readjusted. This seems to help me when I'm stuck.

Oh! I'm Back

I should probably have mentioned it before, but life quickly got quite busy …. I put some photos of our trip here.

Now that homeschooling season is here, most of my online time seems to be going to my learning-notes journal, Schola et Studium.

What I’ve been doing, besides normal daily-life-and-homeschooling:

Re-reading Latin Centered Curriculum, (more info here).

Also, another book my father had on his shelves which he passed on to me: The Western Canon by Harold Bloom. (Here’s the short list)

On Ragamuffin Rosie’s sidebar, I found a neat LCC blog called A Bit of Bubbly. I just love beautiful reading lists and forms, and her blog has a bunch of them.

Here’s a picture taken from my parents’ back porch — I think Bierstadt would have loved that view….oh, I miss my home state, though the California Sierras are definitely a consolation.

(sorry about the thumbnail, but I can’t figure out how to resize the photos on wordpress, so they seem to turn out too large when I try to post them full size. You can click on the photo to enlarge it though).

Ecology of Homeschooling

I love this classical homeschooling blog I found on Ragamuffin Rosie's sidebar. It is a combination of LCC and Ambleside, and she designs beautiful forms. I just love beautiful forms. And she looks very orderly. I love order.

This year looks like it's shaping up to be more on the classical side of our continuum and less on the unschooling, learning as we go side. It's interesting how our balance seems to change from year to year, though of course, there is a continuity as well. I used to think this was a weakness, but now I see it as a longterm strength -- like the way our forest ecology outside will shift, well, naturally, according to the severity of the winter or the dryness of the spring or various other factors. One year we'll have lots of wildflowers, another year an abundance of squirrels. Natural things adjust and adapt. It's only industrial type things that maintain a sterile, uniform pace.

I don't think it's a contradiction to love order and also appreciate variety. God's Creation has both, and so does the liturgical year and family life and so many other things.

Another Not-Really-a-Post --- Alaska Pics

Going up the Seward Highway

Mount Susitna
Flora:






















Going up to Hatcher's Pass:





Brendan on my parents' porch:

Family Photo:

This would have been a great pic if not so blurry:

This isn't a real post, just a quote....

The Doctor Who Is Thursday posted this Chesterton quote on Nancy C Brown's blog and I wanted to preserve it since I thoroughly agree --

The man who would not praise Pindar unless he had read him would be a low, distrustful fellow, the worst kind of sceptic, who doubts not only God, but man. He would be like a man who could not call Mount Everest high unless he had climbed it. He would be like a man who would not admit that the North Pole was cold until he had been there.

But I think there is a limit, and a highly legitimate limit, to this process. I think a man may praise Pindar without knowing the top of a Greek letter from the bottom. But I think that if a man is going to abuse Pindar, if he is going to denounce, refute, and utterly expose Pindar, if he is going to show Pindar up as the utter ignoramus and outrageous impostor that he is, then I think it will be just as well perhaps--I think, at any rate, it would do no harm--if he did know a little Greek, and even had read a little Pindar. And I think the same situation would be involved if the critic were concerned to point out that Pindar was scandalously immoral, pestilently cynical, or low and beastly in his views of life. When people brought such attacks against the morality of Pindar, I should regret that they could not read Greek;....

I found the whole GKC article here.

CS Lewis says something very similar in an article about science fiction and who should undertake to review it (NOT, he says, the people who generally despise or have no sympathy for sci-fi or have no understanding of what it purports to be about).