homeschool

homeschool highlights

We solved the mystery! Sir I. and I have been doing Journey North’s Mystery Class in which we used photoperiod data and interdisciplinary clues to find the names and locations of ten mystery sites along the globe. There was a lot more math involved in this class than I’d expected, but it helps that Sir I. is a good calculator. David came to our rescue for a couple of the clues, with the result that we got ALL the mystery sites. Woohoo.

Oil pastels and soft pastels, mmm, mmm: Move over crayons and sidewalk chalk! The kids have been drawing and coloring with oil and soft pastels this week. Miss M. drew her apocalyptic scenario, Sir I. spent a lot of time coloring his nighttime sky a deep rich black, and the Baron made an abstract composition entitled “Blue”.

Fledgling Literary Analysis: I read aloud Marguerite de Angeli’s The Door in the Wall to Sir I. and Miss M. Since the titular “door” and “wall” in the title are mostly metaphorical, Sir I. and I had a good discussion about symbols, problems and solutions, and expectations. It’s pretty neat to hear Sir I. think at that level.

And to round things out, here’s some homeschool humor:

Hmm, that last picture on the bottom looks an awful lot like my schoolroom–but it can’t be because we’re sadly short of bookshelves these days!

Happy Friday!

reform english spelling

One of the most magical parts of homeschooling is being right there next to your child when she discovers reading. And it really is magic, because English–let’s face it–is not an orderly language. It’s full of redundancies (what for instance, is the point of x?) and rule exceptions and letters that slyly change what they’re saying every time you turn your back.

For example, just flipping through my daughter’s basic, no-frills primer shows me that the long a sound can be represented in the following ways:

a_e (but not when the word is “are” or “have”)
ai (but not in “again” or “said”)
ay
ey(?!)
ei (say what??!)
eigh (*words fail me at this point*)

Amazingly enough, in spite of the vagaries of the English language, many many of us learn to read, write, and–*gasp*–spell it.

If you could reform the English language, how would you change it? Add or remove letters? Change spellings? Which words do you find a challenge to spell?

(As for how English got to be the way it is, check out this 10-minute video about the history of the English language. It’s a little crude/naughty at times, so be warned if you have younglings peering over your shoulder. Otherwise, it’s pretty funny and informative).

poetry by heart

Poetry memorization is a big part of our homeschool. Here are some current poems-in-progress:

Sir I. is working on The Rainbow by Walter de la Mare

I saw the lovely arch
Of Rainbow span the sky,
The gold sun burning
As the rain swept by.

In bright-ringed solitude
The showery foliage shone
One lovely moment,
And the Bow was gone.

Miss M. recently memorized Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson

The rain is falling all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

My favorite poem to quote (aside from bits and pieces of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) is Christina Rossetti’s Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Whereas David prefers something more in the style of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Which poems do you like to quote? Which ones do you know by heart?