WRITE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES WILL BE LATE

I work on these books during the summer.  And I have been working diligently on Write from the Middle Ages.  I’ve got the stories, and they only need to be edited and organized.  It won’t take but a month to make it happen.  But I don’t know where I’ll be able to find that month.

We’re selling our house.  The timing isn’t good for me;  it’s out of my control.  It had to be this way.  So I’m painting and cleaning like I’ve never cleaned before.  (Cleaning is difficult for me; it takes enormous will power and control for me to do housework.  Which is probably why God has me doing it right now.   I bet it’s good for my soul, and the kids–’cause there’s no way I’m doing it alone.)  Anyway, I’m packing boxes and it’s been slow going because of my neuroma.

The house is looking great, btw, but my school planning isn’t.  I’m going to have to pare down our work for the fall so we can get the priorities done.  It’s hard because I am doing what I have to do and not what I want to do.

Hopefully, within a month or two, I can get back to work on the books.

I’m praying for God to help me.

CHRISTIAN AND SECULAR RESOURCES

I am a member of yahoo groups for christian and secular homeschoolers. (By the way, I am Christian) What I find to be interesting is that there are members in both communities that try to avoid the other community and its influences on their children at all costs. And I understand it. I really do. I know that I want more than anything in this world for my children to follow my and my husband’s example of following Christ. It is the only thing I consider to be truly important in this world.

But to encourage that, I am planning on introducing my middle school student to more secular materials. I know this is controversial to many. But I really think it’s important for her to be able to see clearly the differences and similarities between different beliefs. At this point, I’m not introducing other religions or atheism in so much that I am introducing different views of history. My goal is to have spines for history with a contradictory world view along with a more in depth study of Christianity and why it is truth.

If I were an atheist, I think I’d do the same think but bulk up the reading on the atheist side.

My reasoning is, how can a child make connections when everything agrees and says the same thing? At least, connections that are deeper and broader than while this was happening here, this was happening there. I really want her to understand the human condition. And I want her to understand it enough to understand the opposing point of view.

I won’t be doing this with my son. He’s not ready, but he’s close.

For medieval history next year, it may simply involve including The Story of Science. But I’m not sure. I just want some opposing point of views for us to analyze and dissect from a Christian world view. So even so, it’ll still be done under a Christian umbrella.

DO YOU NEED A WRITING PROGRAM TO TEACH ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TO WRITE

Absolutely not. I didn’t believe it first, until I actually wrote Write from History.

First of all, Charlotte Mason made the program so easy. Copywork, narration, and dictation is really all that elementary students need. And you don’t need a writing curriculum to make it happen.

For copywork, select a sentence from literature that your student is reading. It can even be Frog and Toad. There are some really well written sentences in Frog and Toad. And they have months and seasons and all kinds of elements that children need to cover.

For narration, your student has to simply retell an experience that he or she has had. It doesn’t even have to be from a story. Practice first by having your child narrate his or her day. Have him narrate the adventure he had with his sister. He can even narrate a TV show. It helps him with recall, with putting his own ideas into his own words. It also helps him to practice speaking in one verb tense.

After your student has copied a sentence, try dictating it to him the next day. Or better yet, mix up the words and make a new sentence using words he already knows.

I made my Write from History books after I realized that I needed to have something organized for me that I didn’t have to think about. Plus I wanted it to be tied into our history lessons to help save us time.

But organized or not, any parent can teach an elementary student to write simply by using copywork, narration, and dictation. And it doesn’t have to follow a specific schedule or layout.

Just meet your student where he is and he’ll be fine. If your son can write two sentences, they have him write two. If he can do a paragraph easily in second grade, then have him do a paragraph. There is no magic schedule. The schedule should be set by where your student is, and with consistency he will learn to write well.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

I am lying in bed about to take a nap on Sunday afternoon. I’m turning the channel and I catch the movie Falling Down. I’ve seen this movie before but I can’t take my eyes off the screen.

In the movie, the crazy guy is sitting behind a cluttered desk, and he’s on the phone. Behind him is a big red flag that has a white circle in the middle. In the center of the circle is what appears to be a lower case black i.

Does this sound familiar? It’s what Bob, Helen, and all of the kids wear in the movie The Incredibles. Also, in one of the movie previews to The Incredibles, Bob Par is in a room that is very similar to the scene in Falling Down. In fact, almost the same. But Mr. Incredible, I believe, is trying on his old suit to see if it fits or something like that. But the setting is the same. I couldn’t believe it. The inspiration for the movie The Incredibles seems to be the moving Falling Down where the main character is a psycho.

In Falling Down, the guy is fired from his defense job before he looses his hold on sanity and goes on a shooting spree. Mr. Incredible is fired from his defense job, too; however, Mr. Incredible saves the day rather than dies.

Another coincidence, the pier in Falling Down is the exact design of the pier that Mr. Incredibles walks down in Syndrome’s control room. Too funny.

GRADING WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

So far all of my posts are about writing. I can’t help it; it’s my new passion.

Here is a grading guide that I made up for my co-op class. I’m still working out the kinks.

I plan to use it next year for the classes I’ll be teaching.

Error Points lost

General Structure
Not double-spaced 15 pts each
Thesis statement missing or misplaced 10 pts each
Thesis doesn’t reference the topics of the 3 body paragraphs 15 pts
Paragraph missing (5 paragraph papers when studied) 20 pts each

Grammar
Misspelled word 2 pts each
Capitalization/punctuation 3 pts each
Sentence Fragments 5 pts each
Run on sentence 5 pts each
Comma use 5 pts each

Paragraph structure
Lack of topic sentence 5 pts per paragraph
Lack of transition sentence between paragraphs 5 pts per paragraph
Lack of clincher sentence for the very last paragraph 5 pts
Insufficient supporting details 10 pts

Sentence level
All sentences begin with a subject 10 pts per paragraph
(sentence openers should vary)
All sentences are approximately the same length 10 pts per paragraph
(don’t forget to vary sentence length)

Word use
Awkward sentences 5 pts each
Informal language 3 pts each
(got, a lot, contractions, guys, slang)
Use of “I, you, me, my, mine, or we, your” 2 pts each
(Unless the paper is an opinion piece)
Pronouns used without indicating the noun being referred 5 pts each
Improper verb tense (should be past tense) 10 pts

LOST TOOLS OF WRITING

I heard Mr. Kern speak and it was fantastic! He is an awesome presenter and, from what I saw of him, an excellent teacher. He really understands children and he understands writing. His program is not only classical in nature, what most of us want for our children, but it is easy to understand, easy to implement, and easy to apply across the curriculum.

His program focuses on invention, something most programs don’t teach. The Lost Tools of Writing actually teaches students how to write from their own ideas. Shucks (this is the country in me coming out), it actually teaches students how to think. If I had to compare it to another program on the market, it is the writing version of Teaching the Classics. Teaching students to study history in the context of ideas.

Further below you will see a middle school writing sequence that I recommended for our co-op. But in addition to that I have my children doing writing assignments at home. We will continue to use my preference at home in addition to my other preference at coop. (I believe in using two multiple resources for school, whenever possible. I may post about this later.)

For my own children at home, we’re doing the following sequence for history, in addition to the co-op work. Some of this is redundant. And this works because we don’t do history at co-op. I like our rotation and don’t want to change it.

Elementary level (1-4)
Write from History (1st through 4th)
Writing Tales (my 4th grader will be doing this at co-op, so he will be getting both programs)

Middle school or Logic stage (5-8)
Write from History(5th and 6th only, my daughter is occasionally rewriting the narratives into 3 paragraph papers–we’re continuing to do copywork and dictation and studying grammar)
Lost Tools of Writing (7th and 8th, for use with history rather than literature which she will cover at co-op)
Institute for Excellence in Writing will be used by co-op for Language Arts at Co-op

High School (not sure)
For High School I’m not sure because we will have to look at College requirements and state requirements for graduation.

TALK ABOUT Stream of Consciousness

I went back and read my last post. I was sick and taking cold medicine.

I must remember to never blog when ill, when tired, or when taking mind altering cold meds.

Not good.

HELICOPTER HOMESCHOOLING–THE NEW ME, THE HELICOPTER MOM

I have been messing up, badly–not scheduling my time correctly. I’ve tried so many ways to schedule and while some times I have done okay, overall I can do better.

After reading more about Charlotte Mason’s methods, I realized that I allow my children to work too independently. This statement seems like a contradiction between current interpretations of her work. The focus that I have read from others seemed to indicate that Ms. Mason didn’t want teachers coming between students and their work. But after re-evaluating my own homeschooling situation, I think that is an over-simplification of her intentions.

I think Ms. Mason wanted to encourage students to make connections for themselves, but not by themselves without guidance. Children need to be kept on task and re-directed all of the time.

For some reason, I bought into the idea, that I was supposed to be able to teach pre-school, K, 4th and 5th grade, while doing laundry, housekeeping, and preparing dinner. Impossible!

I’ve decided to focus on schooling during school, and nothing else. Not quite rocket science, is it? But that is a huge sacrifice. After school, there’s piano lessons or library or just outside time. I can’t send my 3 yo outside under the supervision of a 10 yo. That means that during school, chores wont get done. And immediately after school? Chores won’t get done.

I’m not sure how we’re going to do it all. I’ve frightened myself. All I know is I need to get more directly involved hovering around during most school work. And I’ve got to work with the 3 yo and 5 yo. I hope it works out okay. I don’t have it all figured out, but I’m praying for divine intervention.

Btw, the more complicated teaching becomes, the more interesting it is. If it’s easy, it’s probably not worth it.

NOW AT WWW.CURRCLICK.COM

I am happy to announce that I have placed some of my books on www.currclick.com. I would have sold the products I made on LULU as ebooks, but I didn’t want to do that because LULU doesn’t have the security that currclick provides. I am really pleased with the business practices of currclick as one of their customers and now as one of their associate publishers.

What a blessing!

PRETTY SOBERING, ISN’T IT

How rich are you?