Charlotte Mason Habit Training and Waldorf Rhythm

There are some similarities between Charlotte Mason education and Rudolf Steiner/ Waldorf education which I can capitalize upon when I am interested in pulling a little more Waldorf into our days. 

By "education is a discipline," we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits. CM Vol.6

Today I am thinking about habit. Say- as an example- I need to stop somewhere on my way home. However, instead of paying strict attention to what I am about, I begin thinking on other things that I need to do. Before I know it, I am pulling into my driveway. Oops! I forgot to make that stop. The way to my home is so ingrained in my mind that I have no need to make the choices of which direction to turn. This is habit.

Charlotte Mason puts it this way:
Almost every child is brought up by his parents in certain habits of decency and order without which he would be a social outcast. Think from another point of view how the labour of life would be increased if every act of the bath, toilet, table, every lifting of the fork and use of spoon were a matter of consideration and required an effort of decision! No; habit is like fire, a bad master but an indispensable servant; and probably one reason for the nervous scrupulosity, hesitation, indecision of our day, is that life was not duly eased for us in the first place by those whose business it was to lay down lines of habit upon which our behaviour might run easily. CM Vol.1

She also says:
The formation of habits is education, and Education is the formation of habits. CM Vol.1

Steiner’s rhythms/ Waldorf rhythms of the day, week, season, and year are analogous to Charlotte Mason’s habit training.

This blog post talks about taking baby steps toward rhythm. It talks about establishing four basic activities and building from there. This is an article about Waldorf daily rhythm, but these four things are in line with Charlotte Mason. Think of these things as the first four habits that you will work on.

1. Eating
2. Sleeping
3. Free Play
4. Fresh Air

Set meal times. This is a post that says that meal time and sleeping schedules are our anchors. It really just talks about meal time. It is a practical post.


Similarly, CM says:
Concerning Meals.––What is the obvious conclusion? That the child must be well fed. Half the people of low vitality we come across are the victims of low-feeding during their childhood; and that more often because their parents were not alive to their duty in this respect, then because they were not in a position to afford their children the diet necessary to their full physical and mental development. Regular meals at, usually, unbroken intervals––dinner, never more than five hours after breakfast; luncheon, unnecessary; animal food, once certainly, in some lighter form, twice a day––are the suggestions of common sense followed out in most well-regulated households. CM Vol.1

I left the whole old-fashion quote, but I think it is safe to say that on the point of mealtime there is no discrepancy between the Charlotte Mason habit and the Waldorf rhythm. I would even say that that blog post gives a practical way to help achieve the CM condition of regular meals.

Similarly, CM discusses the need for rest. She talks about sleeping arrangements and ventilation and even says:
It follows that the hours for lessons should be carefully chosen, after periods of mental rest––sleep or play, for instance––and when there is no excessive activity in any other part of the system. CM Vol.1

Another plea for abundant rest is that one thing at a time, and that done well, appears to be Nature's rule; and his hours of rest and play are the hours of the child's physical growth… CM Vol.2

Moving to Free Play:
CM talks about the passive watchfulness of the parent allowing the child to engage in free play. She talks about how if the parent plans or organizes the details of the activity that it is not free play for the child.
The resourcefulness which will enable a family of children to invent their own games and occupations through the length of a summer's day is worth more in after life than a good deal of knowledge about cubes and hexagons, and this comes, not of continual intervention on the mother's part, but of much masterly inactivity. CM Vol. 1

Finally regarding number 4 CM says:
People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well, and their children live out of doors, with intervals within for sleeping and eating. CM Vol.1
As we all know, CM speaks extensively about the importance of being outside.

The four things suggested in “Rhythm- Waldorf Style” could be used in a practical way in a CM home.

Tuesday's Active Learning Group and Week in Review 3/4-3/8

Duncan and I decided to share our last trimester studies by inviting a group of friends to share our introductory day on Tuesdays. So, here is what we did in just under three hours with a group of six middle schoolers and a kindergarten tag-a-long using a little Waldorf, a little Montessori, and a little lapbooking and then tying it all together with Charlotte Mason's patience and short lessons.

Active Learning Group Week 1 

I. Poetry

    A. Introduce ourselves

    B. Define poetry, stanza, end rhyme, and poetic license

    C. Read and discuss Fields section of TheTree That Time Built

 II. Geometry

    A. Short quote about geometry

    B. Brief biography of Euclid (I used the info in the first 2 paragraphs and in the last 2 paragraphs.)

    C. County map to discover points, lines and line segments

    D. A starry night drawing to discover rays

This is my teaching sheet. It is made from small pieces of water color paper glued to a 12x18" sheet of black construction paper.

Mei's County Map

Mei's Starry Sky

Mei's Definition Sheet

III. Biology- Introduction to Botany

    A. Lead students in the Activity for Introducing Botany

    B. Tell the made-up story of Elzeard Bouffier. Here is the story on youtube. I have the book, but told the story more like the woman in the video except with a Southern accent. :)

    C. Read poem Smells by Kathryn Worth 

    D. Define botany

    E. Give students choice of activities

        1. draw tree from my instruction sheet

        2. copy poem from my instruction sheet

        3. work with the parts of a flower set

        4. work with Montessori 3-Part Plant cards

        5. fill in the parts of plant mini-book

This is my instruction sheet. I drew it on 18x24" drawing paper.

Close up of the top left

Close up of the bottom right. This was here.

First page of Duncan's plant mini-book on left and the coordinating teaching card on right

Montessori 3-Part Cards

Parts of a flower learning booklet, pictures from the booklet, and definitions to match to the pictures

IV. Social Studies- Achaemenid Persia week 1 of 4

    A. Physical geography of Iran

    B. Story of Esther 

    C. Fill in a mini-book retelling the story of Esther using WIN's The 7 SentenceStory

    D. Eat hamantaschen

The outside of Sevanne's Esther mini-book, the inside of Mei's mini-book, and the inside of Duncan's mini-book. At the end of the 4 weeks they will be able to put all their work on Achaemenid Persia into a lapbook.

Duncan and I made hamantaschen on Monday and shared them with the group on Tuesday. Here is our hamantaschen ready to go into the oven.

I am not giving grades or assigning homework. This is just a casual three hours of fast-paced introduction of topics. My son will be doing more work with the poetry after reading the poems on Tuesday using the student pages from Moving Beyond the Page Ages 10-12- Concept 4: Systems and Interaction, Unit 2: The Tree That Time Built (LA). Duncan is using MUS Geometry, so this geometry on Tuesday is just for fun. Because he is using Science Daybook the rest of the week, Duncan will not be doing anything else with botany unless he wants to explore it further on his own. He will not be specifically working on the ancient culture introduced, but will be studying that region of the world through stories, poetry, literature, and cultural geography.This week he continued reading in Clouds of Glory, a collection of Jewish Midrashim, and A Picnic of Poems: In Allah's Green Garden. He also read two books by Demi: Rumi and Muhammad.

I guess this is all the stuff that is interesting to share, but he also watched a couple of MUS Algebra 2 videos and did some MCP Word Study, Evan Moor Daily Math, Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing, Kumon Math, and Time4Writing.

Goals for 5th Grade

Short Term:
In 5th grade I would be thrilled to see him become as excited over anything educational as he becomes fairly frequently while playing MMOs, because last year was a dead zone as far as educational joy.


Long Term:
I want my child to be firm in his knowledge of appropriate conduct. I want him to learn the difference between what he wants to do right now and having a strong enough will to do what is appropriate/ right. He must also be taught to be careful not to rationalize something to be right simply because he wants it to be so. Along these lines, there can be no true happiness without first taking care of responsibilities. “…the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them.”

"I am, I can, I ought, I will." is the place from which I instruct, because we achieve through diligence not through intelligence or imagination. I use habit training as a road to success, because I want him to be a responsible, decent, moral person who possesses positive and productive physical and mental habits. I want him to learn to apply these habits to whatever he chooses to do in life whether that is a tinker, a tailor, a soldier, or a sailor.

I exercise habit training alongside the idea that “perhaps the business of teachers is to open as many doors as possible.” I respect that he is born whole and that his mind is naturally designed to learn. I can provide the nourishment of education for his mind to grow healthy through a learning lifestyle where he is trained to be disciplined not in subject matter but in life for "education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

However, my child is not a blank slate, but is a whole person complete with his own personality and capacity for good and evil. Neither my self worth nor his hinges upon his going to college. I will for my part try to open doors and windows and widen chinks in the walls, but ultimately he will choose his own path. I hope that he chooses one that is fulfilling.

Mandy, with quotes from Charlotte Mason

Our Core Book

We do half our year before winter break and half after winter break. Years that are divided into trimesters stink, because the middle trimester is split in two. So, one thing that I strongly prefer is quarters over trimesters. I would really like eight weeks and an exam week to make a 9 week quarter.


I am very happy with the CM-ish/ classical-ish work that we will be doing this year. I created a lesson plan/ core book that seems to be working well. I turned a word doc to landscape, let my little man pick a background color, typed The Well-Nourished Mind across the top, underneath this I typed Overview of Weekly Topics for Recreation, Recitation, and Reproduction, and inserted 6 text boxes. I like this style of Guide.

Text box 1 is narrow and runs about 2/3 of the page with the words artist, composer, poet, life skills/ handicraft, nature walk, and unstructured play/ masterly inactivity. Text box 2 is wide and also runs 2/3 of the page. It has space for memory work in English grammar, cultural geography, political geography, science, Latin, and Farsi. Running underneath and the length of boxes 1 and 2, box 3 goes to the bottom of the page and is my space for dictation. Box 4 begins at the top runs 3/4 of the way to the bottom and is where I will place the poem that the little man is working to memorize. Box 5 is in the little space below box 4 and has space for the title of the literature book he will be working on with room underneath to check off 2 days of narration and 2 days of reading aloud. Text box 6 is narrow and runs the length of the doc for spelling words.

Planning 2012-2013 for Duncan- Grade 4

As sad as it will be to be down to an only, I am also excited to just be looking at curriculum for Duncan. I am planning - neck deep in spreadsheets and surrounded by mountains of books and catalogs. As usually, so much looks so good, but with only one it is all I can do to keep from wanting everything I see!

Duncan’s fourth grade studies will definitely include Religious Studies & Mythology, Math, Language Arts, Political and Cultural Geography, Science, Spanish, and Fine Arts. Within the subject of Fine Arts, I will be including an artist study and a composer study in addition to our violin, drama, and art lessons.

I will definitely be incorporating memory work into his studies. Within the memory work I may attempt to include Latin and Farsi, but I am just not sure that we will have the time. It is difficult to imagine the time stretched before us with just the two of us together every day. I fantasize that it will be easy-peasy with volumes of time to do whatever we can imagine, but you never can tell.

I surfed the net looking at Charlotte Mason schedules, planning sheets, and exams. I designed various schedules attempting to be realistic about how much Duncan could accomplish in a day. In doing this, it quickly became apparent that we could not complete everything Duncan and I wanted and attend Classical Conversations. Although we have enjoyed our time with CC, Duncan and I are both amenable to leaving in order to chase other desires.

We are considering the National Mythology Exam, Lego Robotics, Math Olympiad, Youth Orchestra, and 4-H Shooting Sports. We plan to cover the recommended books for the National Mythology Exam. I have a friend whose dh will be giving Lego Mindstorms a try with their son this summer and has offered to let us join them. If the boys enjoy Mindstorms and work well together, we will then move on to considering forming a team. If there were a Math Olympiad team in place, Duncan would immediately join- alas I do not know of one. I am not keen on starting a team myself, but it is something else to consider. I think that Duncan is not quite ready for junior orchestra and he has never played with a group, so I have contacted the person over the reading orchestra that feeds into junior orchestra to help us decide if that might be a good fit. I am already on the 4-H e-mail loop and I don’t think I need to do anything until fall, but I guess I should check on that. So many choices, so many decisions!

If you have started planning, I hope you are having fun!
Mandy

What is great art and how can I go about teaching my child art appreciation?

"It is beginning to dawn upon us that Art is great only in proportion to the greatness of the idea that it expresses; while what we ask of the execution, the technique, is that it shall be adequate to the inspiring idea." Charlotte Mason

Guernica by Picasso

"We recognise that the power of appreciating art and of producing to some extent an interpretation of what one sees is as universal as intelligence, imagination, nay, speech, the power of producing words. But there must be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by reading, not books, but pictures themselves. A friendly picture-dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful little reproductions of the work of some single artist, term by term. After a short story of the artist's life and a few sympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the little pictures are studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a picture but to look at it, taking in every detail. Then the picture is turned over and the children tell what they have seen,––a dog driving a flock of sheep along a road but nobody with the dog. Ah, there is a boy lying down by the stream drinking. It is morning as you can see by the light so the sheep are being driven to pasture, and so on; nothing is left out, the discarded plough, the crooked birch, the clouds beautiful in form and threatening rain, there is enough for half an hour's talk and memory in this little reproduction of a great picture and the children will know it wherever they see it, whether a signed proof, a copy in oils, or the original itself in one of our galleries." Charlotte Mason

General Thoughts about our Homeschool

I read The Charlotte Mason Companion back when I was considering homeschooling in the winter of 2002. I have no memory of why I purchased it, so I can't honestly say what drew me to CM philosophy initially.

However, I also bought The Well-Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason was pretty much relegated to habit training. Then, in the summer of 2008 I felt that our homeschool journey had taken a wrong turn. In 2008-2009, I used WinterPromise with both my middle son and little son and began to read and re-read CM. I tried to incorporate more CM not only into my parenting but into our homeschool as well. 2009-2010 and fall 2010 we had a more CM year.

Unfortunately, in the spring of 2011 and this school year my educational choices have gotten lost again. Honestly, I haven't done a very good job of resisting the urge to add more and more to our lives. I want to take a step back and find CM again. I want the educational confidence that CM projects rather than some sense of urgency that my child should perform.

It's funny, but when it comes to parenting I have no problem with habit training or seeing my child as having been born a person. When it comes to education, I get caught in the trap that if my child doesn't meet some imagined goal (higher test scores, the best college whatever) that my homeschool is a failure.

I know that if a family uses the "best" products and spends hours pushing and prodding a child to achieve academically, it doesn't mean they will end up with an self-teaching, academic genius in high school or a homeschool graduate at an Ivy League college. I totally get this. In our homeschool I still get caught up in the urgency of achievement rather than having that peaceful confidence that is CM.

Looking forward to next school year!
Mandy

Home Education: Mules and Boulders and Self-Doubt

Duncan is so easy to homeschool. It would be really easy to take the credit and say, “Look at me. I am such a good homeschooling mom!” However, I have two older children and know that this is not the case.

My oldest hates confrontation, so he was all about the yes, ma’ams. This didn’t mean that anything that came out of Christian’s mouth correlated with what he actually completed. He is also 2E (mildly gifted, mildly dyslexic). Encoding and decoding, as it related to language, had been dealt with before I brought him home in fifth grade, but imagine my surprise and confusion when I found out that he couldn’t do math- at least not as well as I thought he could based on his grades, standardized test scores, and the little evening homework assistance that I had given him after working all day to pay for the private school.

Christian is a living-a-learning-lifestyle guy and the things he is interested in he knows about deeply. Unfortunately, his interests and the things he needed to have completed for college admission were not always the same. Only when he fully understood that he had to do something did he decide to work through the material. Trust me- he did this for himself and not because I asked him to. While I could revel in his independent reading and research, he was also very frustrating. You can lead a mule to water, but you can’t make him drink until he decides he needs the water.

My middle son, Grayson, can move so slowly you wonder if he is moving at all. As an elementary student, some days he could drag four hours of work into 12+ hours of work. He also doesn’t mind confrontation. He will look at a situation and determine how much going against what is asked will cost him. If he determines that not doing what is asked is worth the punishment, he will simply tell you that he isn’t doing it. You never have to guess or follow up behind Grayson. If he says it is done, then it is done. If he says he isn’t going to do it, go ahead and mete out the punishment, because he isn’t going to do it. Then, the next day try a different angle. Sometimes homeschooling can be like dragging a boulder through mud.

With Duncan I am finally blessed with a child who is easy to homeschool. He may not love schoolwork, but most days he will move quickly through whatever I say needs to be done. He clearly has his sassy, I-think-I-am-a-teenager moments, but, unlike Christian, he can’t keep a straight face and tell me that he has completed something that he hasn’t (although occasionally he will try.) In general, Duncan understands that the faster he completes what I say he needs to do the faster he can get to what he wants to do. Also, he enjoys having his free time without restriction, so he is rarely defiant like Grayson. My primary challenges with Duncan fall in the is-he-being-challenged, am-I-doing-enough, oh-no-am-I-rewarding-schoolwork-with-more-schoolwork, self-doubt category.

I just wanted to share that when I write about Duncan I know how fortunate I am, because I know what it is like to homeschool a mule and a boulder.

Ramblings about Accelerated Math with My Little Man

I have been in a tizzy about math the past several days. I really try not to plan math too much other than to say that this is what we plan to do next. You never know when a child will fly through lessons and when he will need to squat on a topic. One of the benefits of home education is that I don't have to take into consideration an entire classroom full of students. Anyway, Duncan has used Saxon 54, Saxon 65, and half of Saxon 76 and I had planned to use Saxon 87 next.

With Duncan the problem, in addition to his sloppy 8yo boy handwriting making workbook type materials look really attractive, is that due to Kumon, Key to Algebra Book 1, Math Mammoth Order of Operations, and Hands on Equations he has jumped ahead of his current material in Saxon 76. However, I can't just skip him ahead through testing or whatever, because he hasn't worked with some of the geometry presented in Saxon and it is integrated into the rest of the program.

Another problem is that it is pretty clear that at Kumon Duncan will be hitting Algebra 1 topics by next fall at the latest. Even if I slow him down by requesting less work and stall by requesting more repetitions, he will be hitting Algebra topics long before he could complete the second half of Saxon 76 and all of Saxon 87. Kumon is implicit learning, so I want to explain concepts at home before he hits them at Kumon. It is unlikely that he will want to sit still and listen to the whys of a topic if he can already fly through multiple pages of the topic and come out with the correct answer.

Grayson, my middle son, used Saxon from Saxon 3-87 alongside Singapore Primary Maths. I wish that I had never moved him out of Saxon. I don't really want to be in this same place with the little guy, but the grass is looking greener and all that.

After banging my head against this dilemma for a few days, I have decided that next semester Duncan will be using Key to Algebra Books 2 and 3 while simultaneously doing Math Mammoth Blue Series Geometry 1 and 2 (all the sections with unfamiliar material and any other sections that interest him). Key to Algebra Books 2 and 3 cover the pre-algebra material included in his current Kumon level and Math Mammoth Blue Series Geometry will cover the geometry that is in Saxon. He will also continue with Hands on Equations.

After this is finished, I have several good ideas for math, but I am trying to resist actually planning it.

Favorites of Classical Literature

What is your favorite classic? I don't really have a desire to discuss the definition of classic, so just think of classic as meaning whatever you want.

I wrote my high school senior research paper on Shaw, so I must have put high value on him at one point. Everyone should be familiar with Gilgamesh, Odysseus, and Beowulf, even if only in summary, because epic heroes are, well, epic. And frankly, Moby Dick is quoted too often to be missed. My boys have read quite a bit of Shakespeare, but while I have included the required Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, they are not my favorites. Oh, also, while I see the value of discussing The Scarlet Letter, I detest Hawthorne's writing! Basically, I am really girly when it comes to my favorites of classic literature. I mean I do adore Lord of the Flies, value the message of Animal Farm, think that Poe should be mandatory reading, and appreciate Great Expectations, but my favorites are just plain girly. So, while these all of the previously mentioned literature may be of value none are favorites.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is the work that leaps to mind as a favorite, because it is delightful. Everyone should see it as a ballet before reading and then after reading they should all memorize Puck's ending monologue. This should be done about 7th grade or at least before high school. (If a family enjoys bawdy humor, I also recommend Much Ado About Nothing. All boys should memorize at least one of Benedick's monologues. If a family wants a strong female character and to discuss the treatment of Jews and the trade of money lending in Europe, The Merchant of Venice is fabulous!)

Branching out from Shakespeare into my other girly favorites, I really like Alice in Wonderland and Sense and Sensibility. Along with A Midsummer's Night's Dream, these are the stories that I will read again, because I want to revisit the characters and the plot. How corny is that?

On the other hand, outside of what is probably considered classic into modern science fiction, if your family can deal with a lot of sex, Stranger in a Strange Land should not be missed. This is another that I have read again just because I wanted to watch the message in reruns. Hhmm- well, now I guess I must reconsider Poe, I go back and read him again and again.

Curriculum, Method and Philosophy

There is a difference between curriculum, method and philosphy.
Here is my how our homeschool operates.

Curriculum: Eclectic- This is code for I use whatever materials I want.

•Math- Classical
Saxon, Kumon Drill Work, lots of extras- currently Hands on Equations and Math Mammoth

•Poetry, Grammar, Composition, Vocabulary- Textbook
MCT Island

•Literature- Eclectic
Sonlight books, Open Court Readers, history related, etc

•History- Weekly Unit Studies
Based on Gombrich's Little History

•Science- Trimester Unit Studies
Great Science Adventures- Space
Great Science Adventures- Human Body
Great Science Adventures- Tools and Technology

•Memory Work- Classical

I like to pull our curriculum together using several methods.

•a little bit of Waldorf- the part that emphasizes imagination and creativity in learning

•a little bit of Montessori- the part that emphasizes supporting a child's nature by allowing them self-exploration within prepared materials

•a chunk of Charlotte Mason style Classical- the part that emphasizes narration, chronological history, living books, enjoyment of poetry and short lessons

My overriding homeschool philosophy is adapted entirely from Charlotte Mason.

My child is not a blank slate, but is a whole person complete with his own personality and capacity for good and evil. I respect that he is born whole and that his mind is naturally designed to learn. I can provide the nourishment of education for his mind to grow healthy through a learning lifestyle where he is trained to be disciplined not in subject matter but in life for "education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

My child must be taught the difference between what he wants to do right now and his will to do what is appropriate/ right. He must also be taught to be careful not to rationalize something to be right simply because he wants it to be so. Along these lines, there can be no true happiness without first taking care of responsibilities. “…the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them.”

"I am, I can, I ought, I will." is the place from which I instruct, because we achieve through diligence not through intelligence or imagination. I use habit training as a road to success, but I exercise this alongside the idea that “perhaps the business of teachers is to open as many doors as possible.”

Gotta love CM.

Memory Work

This an update on the memory work that I am doing with Mei and Duncan.

I like Anki, but my little man likes to have index cards to hold in his hands. Honestly, this is nice, because he can do them in the car or take them anywhere we may be going. Although I like the organization of the Simply CM file box and Rose's Mnemosyne design, we are just not that strctured yet. When we were just starting, it seemed silly to have so many tabs with nothing behind them.

I own Living Memory and the CC Foundations book and I do pull some ideas from there, but mostly I just pull from what we are studying. While our memory work isn't as structured as some of the systems online, our weeks of history and science are. So, for those two subjects I typed in the memory work for the semester. For math, I underlined things I would like them to memorize on the content pages of their Saxon books. When we get to one, I type it in. Mei is using Winston Grammar fairly scheduled, so I went ahead and typed up her grammar/ LA memory work for the first semester. For the Duncan who is using MCT Island I am more free form. I pull things based on what he is studying, but I am deciding at the last minute.

I write the week and the subject in the upper right corner of the side with the question. For example, the memory work from this past week all says (subject)15 in the upper right corner.

M15 for week 15 of school and M for math.
HG15 for week 15 of school and HG for history/ geography.
LA15 for week 15 of school and LA for language arts.
S15 for week 15 of school and S for science.

Poem1, Poem2 for poetry.
Some weeks a topic will have more than 1 card and some weeks it won't have any. For example, we just began poetry in Nov and just added poem2 this past week.

We use the large size 4 x 6 index cards and keep them in a soft box. I can't find ours, but it is a 13 pocket and similar to this.

Here is ours.

All the cards the kids are currently memorizing are in the front. Once a card is memorized, we move it to the back pockets where the cards are organized by topic. Occasionally, we will review cards. This past Tuesday we reviewed all the LA cards and Thursday we reviewed all the science cards. If they lack immediacy on a card, it comes back to the front. When they have more cards, we will need to be a little more structured in when and what we review. Currently, they only have about 75 cards each, so we can be pretty laid back and I can spot check as we go. I don't think that we could be this relaxed with 250 cards.

Oh, I did mention that I typed these. I print them off and glue them to the index cards. (You could print them on card stock or printable cards, but that is a different story.) Anyway, I keep a typed file for a couple of reasons. If they lose a card, I know exactly what was lost and can print it out again. Also, I print the Mei's cards in a cursive font and the Duncan's in a bradley hand font (next year I plan to switch him to cursive), because I think it is important they can read cursive. I never write anything in cursive except my signature, so this was an easy way to meet that goal.

If you look very closely at the tabs, you can see where initially I thought we would try the Simply CM method.  





































Memory work gives quite the bang for the buck. For very little time and effort it develops memory skills, installs pegs on which a child can hang additional information, incorporates independent learning, and so much more. Also, it is wonderful how all these things have built confidence in my students!

NaNoWriMo Schedule

This is the NaNoWriMo schedule that I am using with Duncan and Mei. It has been so easy for them. I wish I could say the same about myself. I can't seem to get the words on the page. :-(

We have shut up their editors. I am however correcting spelling, because I can't have them doing things like spelling very as vary for a solid month.

They needed a little bit of guidance as this is their very first NaNoWriMo, so I created a 15 day writing schedule with an IEW challenge for each session. I plan to let them complete days 4 through 6 in any order that makes the best sense for their story.

Day 1 Topic: Setting- Write about the when and the where of the story.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a simile or metaphor.

Day 2 Topic: Write a description of the main character.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include quality adjectives.

Day 3 Topic: Describe a normal day in the main character's life.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include strong verbs.

Day 4 Topic: Describe the extraordinary day in the main character's life when things change.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a www. asia clause.

Day 5 Topic: Introduce the supporting character.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a who/which clause.

Day 6 Topic: Write about what the main character wants or needs.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a quality adverb/ -ly word.

Day 7 Topic: Write about the villain and/ or the obstacle/ problem. (part1)
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include alliteration.

Day 8 Topic: Write about the villain and/ or the obstacle/ problem. (part2)
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a because clause.

Day 9 Topic: Write about how the main character feels about the villain and/or the obstacle/ problem.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include dual verbs (compound predicate).

Day 10 Topic: Write about how the supporting character reacts to this situation and their role in it.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include dialog.

Day 11 Topic: Write about how the main character feels about the supporting character's reaction to the problem and how he now feels about the supporting character.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include a question.

Day 12 Topic: Write about the sequence of events leading up to what the character wants being blocked by the villain or obstacle.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include 3 SSS (short staccato sentences).

Day 13 Topic: What happens? Does the main character get what he wanted? How does he feel about getting or not getting what he wanted?
   LA (IEW) challenge: Begin a sentence with a prepositional phrase.

Day 14 Topic: What happens to the supporting character and the villain? How do they feel about the outcome?
   LA (IEW) challenge: Include dual quality adverbs/-ly or dual quality adjectives.

Day 15 Topic: Write about what the main character learned and facts supporting this.
   LA (IEW) challenge: Begin a sentence with a clause.

My 2nd grader has a 1,750 word goal and thus is shooting for about 120 words in each session.

My friend's 5th grade dd has a 2,500 word goal and thus is shooting for about 170 words in each session. I have also challenged her to use at least one word from the MCT 100 Classical Words list in each session.

They have completed day one and day two without any problem. I hope the rest of the schedule is as uneventful. OTOH- I am starting to think that maybe I set the word counts too low.

I am in no way expecting an incredible story. I am just expecting the words to get on the page.