March 7, 2010 by KellyH.

We’re almost finished with our unit on Family (also the Human Body–these go together quite well if you focus on how each member of the body is unique, just like each member of the family is unique) and the best part has been the read alouds! You may recall, from my earlier post on Chap. 12, that we started with Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams. My children thoroughly enjoyed that story. We then moved on to Billy Graham, which they also enjoyed, but don’t seem to speak of as much. After that we read the Swiss Family Robinson, which was another hit. It was great fun discussing all the things the family had to “make” to live comfortably. Now we’re almost through with Susannah Wesley. There is so much history in that book! The chapters are a little long, but it’s giving us great opportunity to discuss marriages, death, and family living.

One more week until spring break… at which time I’ll be planning out the last couple months of our schooling.

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September 16, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

I enjoy the luxury of not rushing through a book.  I decided to try to find a book that would last through several units and would reinforce the subjects .  I have not read all of Jules Verne’s novels but the few that I have read aloud always teach us so much in such a fun way.  I chose for this unit The Mysterious Island.  It is the sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and my children have been wanting to read it after they finished Captain Nemo’s first underwater adventure.

From the early chapters I immediately saw that it would encompass so much of our future studies while reaching back and touching on others.  Stealing away in an air balloon and barely surviving a hurricane brought back to our minds units already studied.  One of the real surprises was the day we were studying in our math about how to figure the height of something very large by comparing it to a much smaller item, that has a known length, we saw it illustrated by the brilliant Cyrus Smith in the book.  That was very cool.

My 9 year old enjoyed reading through a lovely illustrated version of Aesop’s Fables during this unit.

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May 31, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

Have you ever tried to read a book that is really popular amongst the home school “living books” crowd, given up, and felt bad since everyone loves that author?  You may have even wondered what was wrong with you.  Did you then valiantly try again only to have your children ask you to not read that book anymore? This is what happened when we undertook to read a few of Holling Clancy Holling’s books.  Of the three titles that I have, Seabird, Paddle-to-the-Sea, and Minn of the Mississippi, none captured our interests.  Which is odd since my children are all avid nature entusiasts.  The other time this happened was when we read The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley. The Holling’s books had all the earmarks of a perfect fit with this unit since the contents of the books coincided with many topics to be studied.  But alas it was not to be.

But on the other hand I had a similar experience with another author but this time what once seemed void of meaning now penetrated my mind and gripped me.  Reading the tragic tale of  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in my high school English class failed to engage me but when I dipped into it again while my children sat around it was a different experience altogether.  Words that once seemed remote and enigmatic now seemed within my grasp.  The rhyme was spell binding.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean

And then these well known lines:

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

I have learned that sometimes several tries is good enough to put something away forever, but on the other hand you just never know when that one illusive book or work will suddenly come alive.

Alongside these books my children read  Mutiny on the Bounty and Robinson Crusoe(condensed).

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March 24, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

There are so many enjoyable living books one can read while doing a study on transportation. I really wanted to re-read Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in 80 Days, but the two week time frame of unit 5 prohibited it. I found such pleasure in reading this with my children years ago.  The ending of Around the World is one of my favorites.  If you have only seen the movies than you are in for a wonderful surprise.  I hardly recognize the book in what passes as the movie renditions.

I have had the book Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois on my shelf for sometime and since hot air balloons are covered in this unit I decided to give it a go. Although it was not what I expected it provided some light hearted reading and inspiration during our study. My older two children were not as entertained by it as my 9 year old but that is okay since I usually read on their level and expect my youngest one to appreciate it. I had hoped that it would have been more factual about Krakatoa so I was disappointed. I am glad that I did not save it for a study on volcanoes and read it now. But what it did do was allow my daughter and me to enter into our hot air balloon making with a sense of adventure. My daughter even added a “bamboo” house, complete with provisions, for our balloon ”The Forea-Un”. But just like the ill-fated Globe we had to also cut our shelter loose for it to gain any height.

My son read The Wright Brothers by Charles Ludwig and had no problem finishing it so it must have been pretty good ; )

Next time I will float some other books your way…when we study famines, water and the ocean.

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March 17, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

One of my favorite phrases I love to hear during school time is, “Please read us more!”  When this comes from a teenager it feels more consequential.  Sharing enthralling literature is a goal of mine and when I get my children hooked I feel I have scored a significant victory.  This happened in this particular unit on history.

This unit was so enjoyable that I wished it would have spanned longer than just 2 weeks.  Because the unit was so short I was hard pressed to find a read aloud that could be done in this time frame.  I finally chose to read one of Shakespeare’s tragedies in story form, Anthony and Cleopatra.  Yes, it is one of his tragedies but we read it for it’s historical import as well.   I have a varied collection of books that have transformed Shakespeare’s plays into stories.  They are Shakespeare’s Stories (Vol. I and II) by Leon Garfield, Lamb’s Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb, and The Best of Shakespeare by E. Nesbit   Garfield was the only one who attempted Anthony and Cleopatra .  The writing was done in a way that retained Shakespeare’s flavor and some of his pithy quips.  We pondered Anthony’s words that revealed his hopeless predicament when he muttered, “Ten thousand harms my idleness doth hatch”.   And we mused over Cleopatra’s description of her prior relationship with Julius Caesar as, ”My salad days when I was green in judgement.”  With this subject matter I did use caution. There were a couple words that were for more mature readers that I skipped over.

Other books my children read were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln  by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire, for my 3rd grader, and various selections from Great Lives, Great Deeds  published by Reader’s Digest, for both my 8th grader and high schooler.  My high schooler worked her way through Founding Father by Richard Brookhiser.  I discovered this title about George Washington recommended at www.ambleside.com so decided to try it.  My daughter found it a challenge to read.  Although it was not quick reading she  reflected on the author’s thoughts long after she had closed the book.  I hope to read it soon in order to give a better review.

 Next time, I will share about what books we traveled through in our unit on transportation.

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March 3, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

Unit planning tops my list of favorite activities.  Poring over the objectives in the volume and the supplement,  pulling resources off my shelves, and searching out Internet helps, always stirs up my imagination and creativity.   But that is nothing compared to the actual learning, the reading together, the “aha” moments, and  the meaningful conversations that always take place as we study together.   This unit on  ”Speech, Sound and Language” opened up some areas of discovery for us.  Let me share some of them with you.

One surprise was how fascinated we all were by the book The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.  The only thing that prevented us from non-stop reading was my sore throat, from bronchitis, and lunch time hunger pangs.  I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent towards Helen Keller.  Knowing that she became part of a cult, Swedenborganism, has always tempered my interest in her life.  But in reading about her accomplishments there is no escaping the tremendous determination and genius she displayed in overcoming substantial obstacles.  Learning Greek is difficult for most people but she added to that Latin, French and German.  She developed such a proficiency that she read works in those languages for pure enjoyment.

I was deeply impressed by how her teacher, Anne Sullivan, showed a self-sacrifice that would challenge any of us who calls herself Christian.  Would I be willing to dedicate my life, even to the detriment of my own eyesight,  so that another could succeed?  

One of the great benefits in using living books is all the extra “goodies” we get from our reading experience.  For example, through Helen Keller’s relationship with Alexander Graham Bell a whole different side of his character was revealed.  Even though we studied him as the inventor of the telephone we became aware of his deep love for children and his ongoing work with the deaf.  Helen also had special friendships with several famous writers of her era such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greeleaf Whittier and Mark Twain.  These men showed real kindness to her.  She read from Mark Twain’s own lips one or two of his tales.  She said, “I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake.”

A great challenge I have in using read-alouds is completing the book within the time frame of the unit.  Many times the classic I want to use is much too long to accommodate a 2 week study.  This book would have been manageable but then bronchitis set in.  In the end we were finishing up as we began our next unit.  But no one really minded.

Some other living books that I added for individual reading were, All of  A Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor for my 3rd grader,  It’s a Jungle Out There! by Ron Snell  for my 8th grader, and Fanny Crosby: The Hymn Writer  by Bernard Ruffin for my 10th grader.  Each touched on some of the objectives that were covered during the unit.

Several in my family were hit by a virus during this unit where talking became difficult and our hearing became muffled for weeks because of congestion.  I can say with conviction that we came to value those abilities with new appreciation because of all we experienced in this unit.

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February 17, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

In a strange way my method of searching for living books for the topics in volume 1 chapter 3 reflected one of the themes itself.  For example one of the people introduced in this chapter is Helen Keller who lived in a world of silence and darkness.  As I groped through bookshelves, book lists and websites searching for living resources I felt lost and unable to find the source or two that would energize our academic studies.  I indeed felt shut-out.  Oddly enough when I was browsing among my personal library for the third or fourth time I finally saw The Story of Helen Keller in the Reader’s Digest Best Loved books for Young Readers.  It was a, “I-didn’t-know-I-had-that-book” moment.  The veil began to lift.   

I returned to my internet hunt with more hope.  A favorite online resource, www.mainlesson.com  offers a lovely collection of classic e-books written for children on a whole array of subjects. But the general topics of this unit were not readily apparent in the “subjects to browse” lists.    But at mainlesson.com  I found two works that will enrich this Weaver unit.  First, the book, Great Inventors and Their Inventions, by Frank P. Bachman has several valuable chapters for this study, especially for those who use the Supplement.  Gutenberg, Morse, Bell, Edison and Marconi are all covered in Bachman’s easy to read style.   Then I discovered, Granny’s Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne.  She, a blind Irish poet and author, wrote some fanciful children’s stories that the younger crowd will enjoy, especially “The Greedy Shepherd”.    Since one of the objectives for grade 3 is an introduction to poetry, I looked for one of her poems in my Illustrated Library of World Poetry and found, “O The Pleasant Days of Old!”

Fanny Crosby is one of my favorite heroines.  Although her physical eyes were scarred and blinded she was gifted with a spiritual insight that still illuminates many hearts with her songs.   Hymns may not be thought of as poetry but many of them begin that way.  I like hymns because the melody makes it easier to memorize sacred poetry.  Biographical information about Fanny Crosby and a long list of her hymns can be found here .  I would like to sing a few of her melodies as we open our school day especially since one of the Bible lessons emphasizes that language should be used in praising God.

Another interesting part of this unit shows the wide variety of accents and languages that exist in the U.S.  It was fun to uncover some poems and tales that highlighted differences in speech that exist across America.  If you have some Brer Rabbit stories on your shelf pull those down.  If you don’t you can find nine tales here.   One poem I uncovered in Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen Ferris,  is sure to add some giggles.  It is called, “Leetla Giorgio Washeenton”, by Thomas Augustine Daly. 

The objectives for the 3rd grade look to be a lot of fun.  Although the Supplement work is a bit more demanding, these resources will make it a bit gentler.

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January 17, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

I must admit I have the malady from which most home educators suffer, an inordinate passion for books. One of the attractions that drew me to Weaver, years ago, was that it chose real books over textbooks and encouraged me to bring in to our lessons exceptional books of all kinds. Those were often “living books,” written by an author who is an expert in the field or by someone simply devoted to the subject. Such books never failed to breathe life and interest into our learning. We have experienced excellent writing throughout the years and I desire to encounter even more. I remember the time my three children and I were intently involved in a continent study. We picked up Around the World in Eighty Days and traveled across the world by balloon, ship, elephant, train and wind mobile. Now that I think of it, it would be a great read for a unit on transportation as well. Or the time we studied mountains and later read Heidi where we accompanied Peter, Heidi, and the goats up the steep crags and “felt” the topic in a fresh way.

There are still unfound books that I long to match up with fitting themes. So that is my quest, to uncover these and to share what we are discovering by our reading together. I know that I will uncover new treasures but since this is our second time through the volumes we will re-read some old gems that captivated us and made time disappear.

In the next couple of weeks I will be planning unit 3, Volume 1 and will be on the lookout for some living literature as well as a good dose of poetry for our added enjoyment.

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