Our Week in Review

We are slowly settling into our new school rhythm.  I say "new" because each year is new and different than the one before.  Our weekly studies are a combination of work we do for mom and work we do for co-op classes, but history remains our "spine."  This week was kindof interesting because I combined three weeks of our Year 3 Tapestry of Grace curriculum into one discussion.  We wrapped up our reading of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, learned about the push for independence in South American countries, and studied President Monroe and his famous speech which became known as the "Monroe Doctrine."

Whew!

Three days this week we just sat in the family room and read history books together.  Much of our high schoolers' work is rigorous and intense, so it is nice to be able to just sit and read with each other sometimes, and spontaneously share what we are reading about.  I love that as a homeschool mom I have control over the curriculum, and not the other way around!

Before discussion today I prepared a lunch of some foods that Lewis and Clark would have eaten on their long journey west to the Pacific Ocean (beef jerky and sausage, which they would have made from buffalo intestines, but we just bought at Kroger!), as well as a traditional Chilean food called stuffed empanadas.  For the empanada recipe, go here.  We ate, we read, we talked.  Delightful!

It was hard keeping the dogs away from our food, haha!

Science and foreign language classes are all taken at our co-op now, but I am still the primary English teacher for all my boys, and I absolutely love doing IEW writing with Little Man!  He is working on a narrative story of King Arthur and doing a fabulous job.  He is quite a good writer already! 

He is also doing IEW's "Fix It" this year, where every day he fixes a sentence or two that has deliberate spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, and then rewrites the correct version in his best cursive handwriting.  By the end of the year he will have an entire story, perfectly edited and written out by hand!  Fix It spans five years (six now, but my old version only has five), so he has four more stories to do after this one.   Here is a sample of his corrected Fix It writing from this week.  He is working on "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer":

This weekend we are looking forward to two soccer games, painting a bedroom, and singing in a worship choir this Sunday.  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Unit Celebration ~ South America!

Last Friday we had our Tapestry of Grace unit celebration (year 3, unit 1).  We had covered the first 25 years of the 1800's, with a three week mini unit on South American independence, so we decided to have a South American fiesta!  This was not completely authentic to the time period ~ for fun we threw in a pinata, which I could find no reference to in the early 1800's, but which is something South American children enjoy today.

We ate "Pabellon Criollo" for dinner, which is a traditional Venezuelan dish of rice, steak, and beans.  "Pabellon" means "flag", and the three different foods are arranged in stripes on a plate, to loosely picture the Venezuelan flag.  I showed the children how to arrange their food, but did not require them to do it this way or to eat food they didn't want to. :-)

Hanging on the walls were the writing assignments/posters the children had each made about different South American countries.  Only two of them were completely done, including our daughter's poster on Brazil...

..and son C's poster on Venezuela.

Son G's poster on Peru.  The paragraphs were the main thing (that was their writing assignment for two weeks) but each of the children did have to finish putting on their pictures after our unit celebration was over.

After eating, each of the children read a report on something they learned about during this unit.  Son C portrayed a young Simon Bolivar, and told how he was inspired to lead revolutions in several south American countries, freeing them from Spanish rule.

Sons G and L portrayed Lewis and Clark.  They told about their expedition to explore and map the western territories.  It was funny and very well done!

Daughter G reprised her role as a reporter for Christian Historical News, and reported on the passage of a bill in British Parliament that made the trading of slaves illegal.  This occurred in February, 1807, hence her scarf and gloves!  She adapted this from the report she had written earlier on William Wilberforce's life.

All of the children present.  What a great looking bunch of kids!

And finally.... the moment the children were all waiting for.... the striking of the pinata!

Even the moms got in on the action!  That alpaca was a tough nut to crack!

It was a fun evening, and I love that it marks the END of that period of study, and now we are mentally moving on to the next 25 years of the 1800's!

Our Week In Review

We've had an interesting week, school-wise and life-wise.  In school we are learning about the push for independence among South American countries during the early 1800's.  Little Man and I have enjoyed learning fun facts about the cultures of some S.A. countries, while the older children studied more about each country's journey to independence.  Fascinating how the ideas of freedom and justice spread from the American War for Independence, to the French Revolution, to South America!

For next week's writing assignment, each of the children got to pick a specific South American country to write mini reports on.  The reports will be put onto posters for our unit celebration coming up in a few weeks.

Just had to post this cute picture of Little Man wearing my reading glasses.  He realized that my glasses are called reading glasses, so deduced that they must cause anyone wearing them to magically READ!  He has been working hard to gain fluency in his reading.... it's a work in progress. :)

In life.... most of our week was spent caring for my 94 year old father in law, while his wife (my mother in law) was hospitalized for major abdominal surgery.  My father in law has had quite an interesting and varied life.... he worked in the 3 C's upon graduation from high school, signaling fire fighter aircraft from a watch tower.  Lived through the Great Depression as a young adult.  Served in WWII.  He went to art school and dreamed of becoming a working artist, but ended up drawing auto parts on a CAD machine for most of his working career.  He became an "older" dad ~ having four children from the time he was 40 to 47.  He used to have so many interesting stories to share.  But he is beyond sharing them now.  They have merged with other pieces of information in his brain to make somewhat fantastical, somewhat scary, somewhat sad, and somewhat funny false memories.  He has dementia.

We tried to engage him in activities, such as painting with our daughter like this:

But most of his time with us has been spent like this:

He is very hard of hearing, so even the noisy activities of the children did not always keep him awake.  And sleeping so much during the day has made it difficult for him to stay asleep at night.  Then he wonders where his wife is, and where he is, and what he is supposed to be doing.  Isn't it time to get up?  No dad, it is 3:00 a.m. 

It is sad for us to see him so diminished.  At times his trademark humor still flashes.  But those times are few and far between.  He has loved his family so well for so many years..... it is our privilege to love him well now.

So, look those you love in the eye and tell them what they mean to you, while they can still understand.  Ask questions and record the answers in some way.  Have your children interact with their grandparents ~ even if through pictures long distance, or through skype (mom and dad, I'm thinking webcam?!?).  Because there is a time for everything under heaven.  My father in law's forgetting time is here.  Thankfully so is our remembering time.

William Wilberforce

We have been quite awed this past week as we have learned more about William Wilberforce's campaign to end slavery in England in the late 18th century.  If you are not familiar with his story, get thee to a library (or just go on amazon!) as soon as possible and get a book about him.  You may have heard of, or seen, the movie Amazing Grace, about his life.  It is a wonderful movie that gets many details right.  But a well researched biography has more of the details right, and gives you a lot more info than a 2 hour movie can.

Our two middle schoolers read parts of a book about Wilberforce, while our high school daughter read an entire (short) biography of him written by John Piper.

Of all the interesting, amazing, noteworthy (insert other superlatives here) aspects of Wilberforce's life, the one that stands out to me the most is his tenacity and perseverance.  He became a member of the British Parliament at the tender age of 21, and took up the cause of abolishing slavery about 7 years later.  From that point on, for 46 years, he worked tirelessly to outlaw slavery.  FORTY SIX YEARS!  That was a LOT of "no" votes, a lot of friendships lost, a lot of ridicule endured, a lot of rejection.  But he never gave up.  He never quit.  He never said, "I think I've done enough."  He persevered until slavery was finally abolished just a few months before his death in 1833.

And throughout this 46 year struggle, he lived his life with an incredible sense of joy.

Truly, his was a life filled with God's amazing grace.

Our three older children are all writing short essays about Wilberforce this week.  Here is our daughter's opening paragraph:

"William Wilberforce is best known for working tirelessly for the abolition of slavery.  Surprisingly Wilberforce did not always live his life with purpose.  In his youth he was a spoiled, selfish libertine, who was completely uninterested in God.  He had inherited a large fortune from his father, and used it, unfortunately, on gambling and dining at fancy London clubs.  Having some interest in politics, in 1780 when he was only twenty one, he got a spot in Parliament, starting his political career.  Later Wilberforce commented, "The first years I was in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose.  My own distinction was my darling object."  Then, at age 25, he was converted to Christ by Isaac Milner, who was his old schoolmaster.  Wilberforce felt God so powerfully that he went in secret to talk to John Newton because he felt confused about his calling.  He wasn't sure if he should continue his political career or serve God by becoming a minister.  Wilberforce had known Newton since he was thirteen, as Newton was his childhood pastor.  Newton encouraged Wilberforce and hinted that he could, indeed, serve God by serving in politics.  Introduced to the horrors of slavery, William Wilberforce launched himself into the campaign for its abolition in 1787."

Doesn't this make you want to read the rest?!?

Last week we read about this incredible man and saw the movie Amazing Grace.  This week we are writing about him.  I am thankful for the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the life of such an obedient and faithful Christian!

(and as an aside to this: for the first time in several years we are not using a packaged IEW product for our writing, but I am creating all our writing assignments myself based on IEW methods.  I am LOVING this opportunity to more closely tie our writing with our history!  Finally following the wise adage of Marcia Somerville (author of Tapestry of Grace) to "read, think/discuss, write." Whoo-hoo!)

Our Week In Review

This week we learned about the presidency of James Madison, and the War of 1812.  We also learned about the end of Napoleon's Empire.  The younger two boys and I had a good discussion about how the War of 1812 got started, and whether or not it was worth it since there were no changes of land ownership after the peace treaty was signed.  Son C described the war this way:

while Little Man dictated to me and I wrote this for him: "Britain and France were at war and they both captured American ships so that the other country couldn't have goods to help them fight.  So America declared war against Britain, and they fought for two years.  Neither side won.  It was a tie."

Our older three children all discussed this in depth during their virtual co-op classes.  Here is son G, discussing the book Frankenstein during his online literature class:
 

At our real life co-op, here is Son C with his amazing two story house he created for lego club!  It has a washer and a dryer, and an actual little tiny lego SOCK in the dryer.  I kid you not.  There is small lego food in the fridge too!

Daughter G (on the right) performing an experiment in chemistry.

And son G performing an experiment in physical science:

Here is a pic of son L, just because he and the dog are so cute. ;)

First Day of School ~ 2012

Out for breakfast per our tradition!  We almost didn't go because we ate out every night for dinner on the drive home from vacation, but tradition rates up there pretty high.

This year we are studying Year 3 of Tapestry of Grace, the 19th century.  We talked about all the different things we would learn about...beginning with the presidency of John Adams, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, pioneers and settlers moving west, states being added to the union, wars with Indians, the slavery issue, the Civil War, reconstruction, and ending with the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt!  Wow!!  So much happened in those 100 years.

For our cookie dough maps this year we made the shape of the Louisiana Purchase.  A few of the children also added the Oregon Territory to their cookie so they could trace the entire route taken by Lewis and Clark on their journey to the Pacific Ocean.  The kids all taped a piece of wax paper over their paper maps, and then made the cookie shapes directly on the wax paper.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking....."

Adding chocolate chip mountains, and green (for the grass) and gold (for the dry areas) sprinkles for the great plains.  Having just driven across much of the Louisiana Purchase, we could attest to its vast green and brown areas!

I then transferred the wax paper to cookie sheets and baked the cookies at 300 degrees for about 12 minutes.  After baking we traced the route taken by Lewis and Clark with blue icing.  Then we ate them!!

Daughter G (age 15) with her finished cookie map.

Little Man, age 7.

Son G, age 13.

Son L, age 12.

Son C, age 10.

While the cookies were baking we decorated new covers for our history notebooks.  This is son G's cover: Lewis and Clark surveying the Rocky Mountains.

Son L drew some dynamite blasting through a Year 3 "mountain" to make the transcontinental railroad.

Little Man also drew Lewis and Clark.

And daughter G drew her customary "collage" picture with lots of smaller pics showing different events of the 19th century.

It was a very fun first day!  Happy to have started!