All posts by Lucinda

Audiobooks for All Our Family

September 5, 2013EnglishAudiobooks, Books, grade 3, grade 4Lucinda

homeschooling audiobooks

In my last post I listed some of the audiobooks C(9), J(8) and I listen to together. Today I’ll share some of the books we’ve been listening to individually, plus some non-fiction audiobooks we’ve enjoyed together.

I also go off on a little tangent about reading and empathy. And I consider the impact of audiobooks on reading.

I’ve titled this post “Audiobooks for All Our Family.” This is not because I think all the books I mention are suitable for all ages (some are most definitely not). It’s just a selection of the audiobooks my children and I have enjoyed.

Books C(9) has recently listened to on her own

Little Women

Black Beauty

{Notice I lead with the uncontroversial classics 😉 }

My Family and Other Animals (repeat of a family-listen)

The Hunger Games – We first listened to this sci-fi trilogy together.

Since then, C(9) has listened almost every night. She’s repeated the cycle what must be about thirty times by now. I am reminded of a card from my Unschooling Toolbox:

Your child is getting something important from the 57th viewing of that video. It isn’t important to understand what that is. It is important to understand that it’s important to your child.

Joyce Fetterol

Of course that doesn’t stop me speculating what C(9) could be getting from her thirtieth listen to The Hunger Games. One of the skills C(9) knows she has to work on consciously is empathy. So I was intrigued by this post about how reading builds the capacity for empathy:

Reading fiction – especially when the setting is another culture, another time – has to be the best means of building empathic sensibilities. How do you understand prejudice if you are not of a group subject to discrimination? … How does it feel to be hungry, orphaned, or terrified when you’ve always lived a middle-class life? Harnessing the detail, drama, emotion, and immediacy of “the story,” fiction informs the heart as well as the mind.

Doug Johnson

Whatever she’s getting out of Katniss’s struggles through The Hunger Games’ dystopia, it’s evidently important to C(9)!

homeschooling audiobooks

Books J(8) listens to on his own

J(8) is working his way through The 39 Clues series.

I love how as he listens he shares interesting snippets about historical figures. These have included Ben Franklin, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (“the greatest warrior of all time”) and Marie-Antoinette of France.

Check out The 39 Clues Educator Network for an idea of what kids can learn from these books.

J(8) also listens to The Hobbit and he’s dipped into The Lord of the Rings.

His repeat bedtime listen is The Inheritance Cycle. (We listened to Eragon together.)

homeschooling audiobooks

Books C(9) and I listen to together

When it’s just C(9) and I in the car we listen to the Anne of Green Gables series. It’s so special sharing these delightful books with my daughter. We’re up to Anne’s House of Dreams.

I’ve bought the kindle versions of most of the books; I like to linger over the rich language. I sometimes write out quotes from the Anne books when I join my children for copywork.

homeschooling audiobooks — I remind myself of this quote when anyone questions my choice to homeschool. Will regular school seem the strange idea in a hundred years’ time?

Non-fiction books I listen to and my children overhear

I usually have a non-fiction audiobook on the go which the kids sometimes overhear. I make sure they don’t hear anything inappropriate by discreet use of the pause button.

They enjoyed large parts of Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. I listened to parts detailing Jobs’ personal life on my own.

C(9) learned heaps about astrophysics from Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos.

And at the moment we’re all enjoying From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet. This audiobook a fascinating listen. It’s filling in gaps in my knowledge while baffling my children with the inconceivable notion of life without the internet. Empathy can evidently only stretch so far.

My recent favourite fiction books I listen to on my own

I read so much non-fiction, I used not to have time for fiction. Then two things happened: I joined a book group, and we got a dog.

This got me into a habit I now enjoy immensely of listening to fiction audiobooks on my own, at times when I couldn’t read a book. I listen while preparing food, cleaning my teeth, doing housework…I’m sure all you book lovers can relate.

A couple of books I have loved recently are:

The Rosie Project – If you like Doc Martin or The Big Bang Theory you will love this book. The extremely likeable narrator has (undiagnosed) Asperger’s Syndrome. The story is about his quest to find a wife. On his journey he learns – and teaches us – a thing or two about the value of seeing the world differently from the average person.

As a quirky mother of two quirky kids, this was a life-affirming, uplifting read. I laughed out loud all the way through. My husband James – who never usually listens to audiobooks – got hooked in and loved it too.

Where D’You Go, Bernadette? – Another hilarious, laugh-out-loud book about being different.

Do audiobooks hinder reading?

From time to time James and I ponder the effect of audiobooks on our children. We discuss in particular whether more listening means less reading.

C(9) learned to read early and reads quickly. She read the entire Harry Potter series in a couple of weeks when she was seven. C(9) may read slightly less fiction than she would if we didn’t have audiobooks, but the quality of the books she is exposed to is probably higher overall.

Sometimes, only the first few books in a series are available as audiobooks. In this case C(9) won’t think twice about reading the rest of the series.

C(9) also reads a ton of non-fiction I strew or she finds on our shelves. She tends to choose modern tween fiction (like The Cupcake Diaries series) when we visit the library.

J(8), meanwhile, has mild dyslexia. His reading comprehension was assessed last year as five years ahead (thanks to computer games). But he doesn’t enjoy reading long texts. Audiobooks have made a huge difference to him. As he listens he is exposed to language and literature he almost certainly couldn’t yet read for himself.

I make sure J(8) has plenty of real books available. He loves reading joke books, graphic novels like Stinky, and comics like the Beano. He also whipped through – and rereads – the Wimpy Kid, Big Nate and Captain Underpants series.

J(8) enjoys books, appreciates quality literature, and knows how to read. That’ll do for my dyslexic eight-year-old for now!

So do audiobooks have a detrimental effect on “real” reading? Not at all. In our house, the two formats happily compliment each other, in much the same way as reading aloud supports children becoming avid readers.

Do you use audiobooks in your homeschool?

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I’m happily linking up here:

Hip Homeschool Hop – 9/10/13

Collage Friday

Homeschool Mother’s Journal

{This post contains affiliate links.}

What We’re Reading {Listening To}

September 3, 2013EnglishAudiobooks, BooksLucinda

Favourite audiobooks

Our homeschooling has always involved a lot of driving – a side effect of having a daughter with a zillion outside interests and a son who goes to SPD therapy twice a week.

Our car time has been transformed by Audible. The huge range of audiobooks now available means it’s easy to find something that appeals to everyone.

I buy 24 credits at a time, so each audiobook costs about £4.50 ($7). As we don’t spend money on curriculum I see this as a great investment. Many of our purchases are listened to over and over.

We usually have several audiobooks on the go. What we listen to on any particular journey depends who’s in the car. Here are some we’ve enjoyed when all three of us are together:

Current listen

Right now we’re listening to Birds, Beasts & Relatives, a second delightful collection of stories about conservationist Gerald Durrell’s childhood on the Greek Island of Corfu.

We did a mini-geography unit on Corfu when we listened to the first in the series, My Family and Other Animals.

These books have a special place in my heart because the first overseas holiday my family took was to Corfu when I was eleven, just after I’d read My Family and Other Animals.

I can still remember my excitement at spotting the various villas the Durrells had lived in as we drove around the island. (My own family and no idea what I was doing – they were just looking for beaches!)

C(9) and J(8) enjoy looking at Google images of the people and places from the books. One day I’ll take them to Corfu to see for themselves.

Recent favourites

* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

* Swallowdale – second in the sailing and camping adventure series featuring the five Walker children, set in England’s Lake District in the 1930’s.

I read aloud the first adventure, Swallows & Amazons, a couple of years ago. I was mighty relieved when these long books appeared on Audible! We studied diagrams of boats and learned some nautical terminology when we first read this.

* The Inheritance Cycle – My kids love fantasy – much more than I do. We listened to Eragon together and then they listened to the rest on their own. We often do this, so I can keep an ear on what they’re listening to. I like that Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon while he was a homeschooled teenager.

* The Percy Jackson series – Again, I listened with the children to the first in Rick Riordan’s series based on Greek mythology, and they finished the series on their own. J(8) is now working his way through the Kane Chronicles (based on the Egyptian gods) and The 39 Clues.

* The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I love sharing with my children the books I enjoyed as a child, and C(9) and J(8) love this cult sci-fi comedy as much as their geeky parents did. The third book in Douglas Adams’ “trilogy in four parts,” Life, the Universe and Everything, is next on our playlist.

* The Little House on the Prairie series {Not on Audible. I bought the CDs from Amazon US}

These are some of the books we’ve enjoyed listening to all together. In part 2 I’ll share those we listen to and read in smaller groups and individually. I’ll also share my thoughts on the impact of audiobooks on reading.

audiobooks

To see what the other Homeschool Help families are reading, visit:

Highhill Homeschool – Making Connections with Reading – Our Disorganized List of Current Reads

One Magnificent Obsession – Balancing Interest and Challenge

Barefoot Hippie Girl – What’s on our Reading List… Home School Edition

Hammock Tracks – What Are You Reading?

Every Bed of Roses – Our Current Read Aloud and To Read List

I’m appreciatively linking up here:

Entertaining and Educational – Highhill Homeschool

Collage Friday – Homegrown Learners

Weekly Wrap-Up – Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers

Hip Homeschool Hop – 13/09/03

Homeschool Mother’s Journal – So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler?

TGIF Linky Party #93

{This post contains affiliate links}

Make Your Own Homeschooling Toolbox

August 30, 2013Homeschool StylesConferencesLucinda

unschooling toolbox

Every homeschooler has a set of values close to their heart which are the foundation of their homeschool. They were the reason we started homeschooling, and they’re the reason we sigh with contentment at the end of a happy day with our beloved children.

But what about the not-so-good days? For me, those are the days when – for one reason or other – I lose touch with my values.

It might be tiredness, or illness, or busyness, or insecurity after reading a blog post about some super-effective homeschooling family… whatever the reason, when I disconnect from what’s most important to me, I’m not the homeschooling mum I set out to be.

unschooling toolbox

Joyfully Rejoicing

unschooling toolbox

Joyfully Rejoycing is one of the places I turn when I need inspiration. This website is a treasure-trove of information and advice about unschooling and respectful parenting.

So I was delighted to meet Joyce Fetterol, the woman behind Joyfully Rejoycing, when she spoke at the LTTL Unschooling Conference in July.

I confess I got so caught up listening to Joyce speak that I forgot to take any notes to share with you {oops}.

However, thanks to Joyce’s generous gift to each delegate, I do have an idea to share.

Unschooling Toolbox

What Joyce gave us was an “Unschooling Toolbox”, comprising:

* 48 double-sided cards, each containing a wise and loving quotes about parenting or unschooling

* a magnet

* a small rock (from New England – very exotic to us Brits)

unschooling toolbox

At the conference we were invited to pick out some of our favourite cards and use them as conversation-starters with our neighbours. (People sitting next to us, that is. I’m not quite ready to take them round the houses on our street.)

This was a wonderful opportunity for the shyer among us to make new connections. It certainly reminded me of the value of real-life community.

How to use your toolbox

Joyce suggested storing the cards in a metal tea tin and selecting one at the start of each day, fixing it to the outside of the tin with the magnet. (In my house, I think the fridge will be a safer place.)

The rock is to carry in your pocket to remind you of your chosen card.

I just love this simple way of connecting with my values amid the hustle and bustle of a homeschooling day.

Make your own Unschooling/Homeschooling Toolbox

It would be pretty easy to put together your own unschooling/homeschooling toolbox. (If you don’t homeschool, how about a parenting toolbox?)

1. Collect a bunch of quotes that resonate with your parenting values. If you’re an unschooler, you could search for John Holt quotes like these or these, or visit Joyfully Rejoicing.

You could also use bible verses, or your favourite Charlotte Mason or Emelia Reggio-inspired quotes … whatever connects you with your values.

2. Print your quotes onto card and cut them out.

3. Grab a magnet, and pick a card to stick on your tea tin or refrigerator.

4. Pop a pebble in your pocket to remind you of your special words of wisdom throughout the day.

unschooling toolbox

Don’t forget to come back and let me know if you make an inspiring toolbox of your own!

unschooling toolbox

I’m linking up here:

Homeschool Mother’s Journal

Share it Saturday – Teach Beside Me

Hip Homeschool Hop 09/03/13

TGI Friday #93

How we do Poetry Teatime

August 27, 2013Englishpoetry teaLucinda

Poetry tea

Poetry teatime is my absolute favourite part of the Brave Writer lifestyle.

We enjoyed one this morning. Here’s what we did.

Setting the scene

I lit a candle and put a posy of summer flowers as a centrepiece. Often we gather flowers from the garden. Today I grabbed the fake flowers that normally live in our downstairs loo!

Food and drink

This morning’s poetry teatime was mid-morning, so I set out raspberries, cherries, blueberries and brioches. I made cocoa for the children, and tea for me.

Choosing poems

Everyone chooses their poems beforehand. They can take as much or as little time as they like over this. There are no rules.

J(8) almost always chooses poems from The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry. Today he said he was going to make up one of his poems – “I’ve got the first line, I’m just playing with the rest in my head.”

C(9) spent much of last term writing out poems for copywork. She chose to read a few of these.

I selected a few short, funny poems from Read Me And Laugh.

Poetry Tea

Poetry teatime

Poetry teatime usually kicks off with the children commenting appreciatively on how good the table looks (apparently it’s a rare thing!). Then we tuck into food and poems, taking turns around the table to read.

Both my kids adore reading poems aloud; they do it with gusto. For J(8), especially, this is an excellent opportunity – his desire to entertain completely overcomes his reading difficulties, and he amazes us with his fluency!

poetry tea

Reflections on poetry teatime

Memorisation

I love these lines from Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfils himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

I memorised them for English O Level when I was fifteen, and I quote them frequently.

When I read The Well-Trained Mind, I loved the idea of my children happily committing long verses of classical poetry to memory. That was before I realised that I’m not the kind of parent who can “require” my children to do things (even if that were possible).

But… I was so glad I’d learned the Tennyson. Would my children miss out, because of my non-insistence on memorisation, I wondered?

Over time, our poetry teas have given me the answer. Today, for example, J(8) announced that he was going to read one of his favourite poems – Sky In The Pie! by Roger McGough – “because I want to know it off by heart”. My children can recite plenty of poems, and find dozens more by their first lines. Not because I made them, but for the sheer joy of it.

Poetry tea reading

Will they always choose “easy” poems?

Poetry teatime

I used to wonder, too, whether my children’s choice of poems would mature, without anyone prodding them on to more difficult works. Laughter helped them fall in love with poetry, but would they ever outgrow the limericks and short comedy verses that delighted them when they were six? (And did it matter, anyway?)

My answer to this question came quickly. For a year, we shared weekly poetry teatimes with a slightly older family. It was interesting to observe the poetry choices among the differently aged children. I noticed how the teenager tended to choose longer, more sophisticated works. And over time, I’ve begun to notice C(9) choosing more complex poems – though we all still love limericks.

As for me, I don’t go out of my way to choose poems to extend the children’s repertoire, but neither do I dumb down my choices. I read long poems and short ones, funny poems and serious ones, straightforward and allegorical poems, poems about spring, or elephants, or war, depending on my mood. If a poem inspires me, my appreciation will speak for itself.

Our favourite poetry books

We were inspired to buy most of our favourite books by the friends who introduced us to poetry teatimes.

* The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry

* Read Me and Laugh – A Funny Poem for Every Day of the Year

* Sensational! – Poems Inspired by the Five Senses

* Great Poems – Compiled by Kate Miles

* Read Me Out Loud – A Poem to Rap, Chant, Whisper or Shout for Every Day of the Year

I’d love to hear of any other recommendations you might have.

poetry teatime

To read how the other Homeschool Help bloggers teach poetry, visit:

Highhill Homeschool – Studying Poetry with Children – A Poem a Day

Barefoot Hippie Girl – Waxing Poetical

Hammock Tracks – Poetry – How and Why to Teach It

One Magnificent Obsession – Our First Poetry Smoothietime!

Homeschool Mother’s Journal – So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler

poetry teatime

Here at Navigating By Joy I post regularly about the hands-on way we homeschool science, maths, history, English, art, geography and a lot more besides.

To follow along, just pop your email address into the box at the top right of this page and click the “Subscribe” button.

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This post is linked up here:

Hip Homeschool Hop – 08/27/13

Entertaining and Educational – Highhill Homeschool

Collage Friday – Homegrown Learners

TGIF Linky Party #92

Weekly Wrap Up – Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers

Homeschool Mother’s Journal {September 7, 2013}

Share it Saturday – Teach Beside Me

All Things Thursday Blog Hop {No. 9}

No More School Time

August 26, 2013Homeschool RoutineSchedulesLucinda

unschooling and school time

This year I’m planning a small change to our daily routine which I’m hoping will have big consequences: I’m not going to declare our “school day” started.

Until now, everyone has done their own thing in the morning until about 9AM when I round them up to “start schoolwork”. C(9) might be watching TV, reading or playing Minecraft while Skyping her best friend. J(8) is usually at his computer.

“Schoolwork” in our house is a very relaxed affair, but it has often required the children to put aside what they’re doing in favour of what I have planned.

I wonder if, by calling an end to the children’s early morning pastimes, I’ve inadvertently created a scarcity situation.

Imagine you’re reading a book. You come across an idea that inspires you to write a blog post. But you know that in 45 minutes someone’s going to shout “Stop! Reading time’s over!” After that time you’ll be allowed to write the blog post, but there’ll be no more reading for several hours. Would you stop reading at the moment inspiration strikes and begin writing the blog post? Or would you push the inspiration to one side, deciding instead to the most of your limited reading time?

While my children are relying on me to formally begin the school day, where’s their incentive to take responsibility for planning their own time? If I was relying on an external call to action, I’d probably turn off my internal motivation, too.

I want C(9) and J(8) to become more responsible for their own learning, so I have to trust them with the freedom to make their own choices. Blurring the line between “school time” and non-school time is one step in this direction.

Of course I’ll still be offering plenty of learning ideas. I might try having a fun science or art activity ready to go in the mornings. But I want the children to be free to choose whether or not they take up my offers. I want to be open to putting aside my own plans in favour of their suggestions.

I’ve been chatting with C(9) and J(8) about these changes – I don’t want them to feel I’m suddenly casting them adrift in an uncharted sea of learning. Both have responded positively to my suggestions. I’ve made it clear that there’ll be as much routine as they’d like – copywork, freewriting, maths, science, history, poetry teas, etc – but that they’re free to take charge of their own learning schedule.

Of all of us, I think it’s me that’s going to find the lack of defined “school time” most challenging. I like to know what I’m doing when, so that I can plan my own time. But if I want my children to learn to plan their own time too, I’m going to have to compromise. I’m up for the challenge. Watch this space to see how I get on!

I’m linking with the Day In The Life blog hop at the iHomeschool Network.

Tales From an Unschooling Conference

August 24, 2013UnschoolingConferencesLucinda

unschooling conference

When I heard that the LTTL unschooling conference was going to be held twenty minutes away from where I live, I jumped at the chance to find out more about unschooling from the experts (like Sandra Dodd) and meet some real-life unschoolers.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the highlights of the unschooling conference.

I’ll start today with the speaker who inspired me most – Cathy Koetsier. Cathy has unschooled her five children since 2002. Two of her adult children came along to the conference and shared their perspective on unschooling.

Cathy inspired me to trust my children to choose their own learning paths. She shared many examples of how well this has worked within her family. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Maths-Phobia

Prior to 2002, Cathy homeschooled her children in a more traditional way. At that time, her 8-year-old daughter was struggling with maths so much that she was becoming withdrawn and depressed.

When Cathy discovered unschooling, after much soul-searching, she took the courageous decision to allow her daughter to quit maths. She was delighted to see the little girl quickly return to her former happy self.

Fast forward nine years – this same young lady announced to her surprised mother that she wanted to sit maths GCSE (the public exams English schoolchildren take at around age 16). With the help of a tutor and a short but intense period of self-motivated hard work, Cathy’s daughter passed the exam with a B.

I wonder how differently that story might have turned out – for the young woman, and her whole family – if Cathy had persisted in requiring her daughter to study maths in a way that wasn’t working for her, back when she was eight?

Reading

Two of Cathy’s children struggled with reading because of dyslexia. Her son who came to the conference was one of them. He spoke appreciatively of the many hours his parents had spent reading aloud to him during his childhood.

Then, when he was about thirteen, his desire for book learning began to exceed his parents’ read-aloud-availability, and he taught himself to read fluently and accurately. He didn’t find the task easy, but thanks to his parents, he had grown to have a deep love of books, and by thirteen he had the self-motivation to take the necessary steps to overcome his learning difficulty.

unschooling conference — Photo by Tim Pierce

My own son J(8) was diagnosed by an educational psychologist as having mild dyslexia and last year we used the Toe By Toe multi-sensory reading programme recommended by the psychologist. I’ve heard many good reports about Toe By Toe, and I’ve seen improvements in J(8)’s reading since using it. Mostly our sessions are fine, but there have been occasions when they have induced in J(8) tears of frustration.

Cathy’s talk has given me the confidence to trust J(8) to know what is best for him. He loves books and he loves learning. Next year I intend to respect his wishes if there are days – or longer periods – when he doesn’t want to do Toe By Toe. He’ll get there in the end. Our relationship is more important than the rate at which he learns to decipher phonics.

Oh – and, to Cathy’s astonishment, her other dyslexic child was inspired by a love of mythology to take Classics GSCE at age 16 – she passed!

Unschooling and family relationships

Cathy’s two grown children contributed richly to the conference discussion.

Cathy’s eldest daughter was unschooled for the shortest time. She commented that when the family homeschooling in a more conventional way, she envied her schooled friends their relationships with their mothers. When her friends had a problem with their teachers, they could talk it through with their mums. But while her mother was her homeschool teacher, Cathy’s eldest couldn’t do that – there just wasn’t the room for a normal mother-daughter relationship. When the family began unschooling, she said, “I got my mum back”.

To find out more about Cathy Koetsier’s unschooling experiences, visit her website, Christian Unschooling.

In my next post in this series I’ll share about Joyce Fetteroll‘s Unschooling Toolbox.

Finding Our Way Back to Unschooling

August 20, 2013UnschoolingHomeschool HelpLucinda

unschooling in the woods

I’ve always been an unschooler at heart.

It’s how we started, three years ago when I realised I didn’t want my son cooped up in a gloomy classroom all day, learning what a bunch of politicians had decided every English five-year-old should know.

I wanted my children to have the freedom to explore this wondrous world for themselves. I wanted them to know the thrill of finding answers to questions that had had time to take seed and grow in their minds. I wanted them to have the space to dabble in their interests, and the time discover their passions. I wanted them to fall in love with learning.

So my children came home, and for six months I let them be.

Once we were home-educators, I began a whole new learning adventure of my own. I discovered The Well-Trained Mind, Charlotte Mason, Project-Based Homeschooling, Brave Writer and, of course, homeschool blogs.

All these resources have contributed hugely to the richness of our homeschool. Without these forays into other styles we would not know the joys of The Story of the World, what makes a great living book, or the power of copywork to teach grammar, spelling and writing style.

I don’t regret a single step along the winding path that’s brought us to this point.

But now … it’s time to take the best of what we’ve learned, and find our unschooling groove.

In her beautiful post, Aiming for Love, Not Perfection, my unschooling friend Sue Elvis shares the John Holt quote that has always been at the heart of my homeschooling philosophy.

John Holt quote2

I don’t know yet exactly what unschooling’s going to look like for us. I’m still calling it almost-unschooling, lest the unschooling police knock on my door and swipe the whiteboard out of my hand in the middle of a living maths problem.

I know there’ll still be science, and writing, and art, and history, and geography – I won’t be able to resist sharing my enthusiasm for these subjects with J(8) and C(9). Perhaps we’re still just eclectic homeschoolers. But, whatever our label, next year I’m counting on our homeschool bringing a few surprises.

I hope you’ll follow me on our almost-unschooling adventure!

To find out what’s new in the other Homeschool Help ladies’ homeschools, head over to:

Highhill Homeschool – Homeschool Teaching Style at Highhill Education

Hammock Tracks – Teaching style + clear goals = success

Every Bed of Roses – My Teaching Style Goals for 2013/14

Barefoot Hippie Girl – New Year, New Styles

One Magnificent Obsession – I call myself… Christian Classically Eclectic

I’m linking up here:

Weekly Wrap-Up – Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers

Homeschool Mother’s Journal – So You Call Yourself A Homeschooler?

Hip Homeschool Hop – 08/27/13

Homeschool Music Appreciation

August 14, 2013MusicCurriculumLucinda

It was 9 AM on a grey, winter’s morning. The wind howled and the rain poured relentlessly. But inside our cosy car we were lost in the world of Papageno and the Queen of the Night. The rain didn’t stand a chance against the magnificent operatic strains of The Magic Flute.

We’ve listened to Mozart’s Magic Fantasy many times now, but I’ll always associate it with that first, glorious car journey. We arrived at our destination filled with excitement for the day ahead – in blessed contrast to the other families, with their yawns and grumbles about the weather!

Isn’t it wonderful, the way that music can transform everyday experiences into sublime adventures?

For me, one of the many joys of homeschooling is learning to enjoy classical music alongside my children.

Classical Kids

Our favourite resource is the Classical Kids CD series. We began in medieval Venice with Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery, which tells the story of young orphan Katarina’s adventures during the festival for the dead. The exciting tale is beautifully interweaved with the enchanting music of Katarina’s violin teacher, Antonio Vivaldi.

Next, we learned about Johann Sebastian Bach’s life and music in Mr Bach Comes to Call. And Ludwig van Beethoven and his works were brought to life in the entertaining Beethoven Lives Upstairs.

Which composers?

The rest of our music “curriculum” I pull together from the internet. I search lists of noted composers (like this New York Times one or this one) and their most famous works. Then I source the music on YouTube.

I love it when I turn up gems like this “rant” about Pachelbel’s Canon in D. The comedian’s demonstration of how classical music permeates our culture is hilarious. My kids watch it over and over.

Historical and geographical context

I like to see where composers fit into history, so I’ve created a composers’ timeline on our Timeline Builder app. The kids haven’t paid much attention to the timeline so far, but they might do when we progress beyond the fourteenth century in history.

homeschool music appreciation — Composers timeline

We naturally learn about the places and eras occupied by the composers we listen to, and sometimes vice versa.

Eighteenth century Venice was brought to life for us by Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery, and it was interesting to learn a little about the music of Edvard Grieg before we visited Norway.

Homeschool music appreciation 2013-14

This year we have the Classical Kids CD’s Tchaikovsky Discovers America and Hallelujah Handel to look forward to, and I might look on YouTube for pieces by Schubert, Verdi and Brahms.

If either of my children expresses an interest in going deeper, I’ll be delighted to support their explorations. Until then, we’ll be happy learning about classical music together in this easygoing, meandering manner.

I’m linking with these great link-ups:

Highhill Homeschool’s music lesson planning link-up.

iHomeschool Network Not-back-to-school Blog Hop – Curriculum Hop

It’s a Wrap – Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers

Share it Saturday – Teach Beside Me

Hip Homeschool Hop – 08/27/13

5 Steps to an Organised Homeschool Space

August 13, 2013Homeschool RoutineorganisationLucinda

We moved into a fairly large house six years ago. The great thing about having lots of space is we can spread ourselves out as we learn. The bad thing about having lots of space is that we spread ourselves out – everywhere!

Every now and then I need to pull open the cupboards, clear the surfaces and figure out how to make the most of our space.

5 Steps to an Organised Homeschool Space

1. Make a plan

Needs change as the children get older and our homeschooling style evolves. So I start out brainstorming what we want from our homeschool learning space this year. (This is partly a delaying tactic to postpone the actual tidying, but the five minutes it takes serve me well.)

organised homeschool space — I use the Simple Note app to make a quick mind map

2. Sort supplies by how often you use them

organised learning space — Supplies we use less often in an upstairs cupboard

Homeschool supplies fall into broad categories – books, art supplies, science supplies etc. In the past I’ve stored everything according to these categories.

But in the face of our overflowing supplies, I realised I don’t need to store a volt meter and a kilo of rock salt in our schoolroom just because we use them for science. Nor do we need a hundred polystyrene plates permanently in our art area.

So I took out the items we use less often, put smaller items into boxes, and moved them to an upstairs cupboard.

I used my phone to dictate a note of the contents of each area into Evernote.

The result – more space for the things we use frequently, but if someone has an urgent need for the Bug Barn, they can get their hands on it within seconds. (And how thrilled my husband will be next time he opens the landing cupboard and finds a flower press nestled next to the towels. Does that count as strewing?)

3. Sort books by who uses them

Next I sub-categorised our books according to who reads them (or who I’d like to read them). Do they all need to be at child-level?

When I looked closely at our bulging bookshelves I realised that a whole shelf was being taken up with workbooks and English curriculum books that I sometimes refer to but the children never do.

Once I’d weeded out the ones my kids have outgrown, I relocated the lot. Voilà – a whole empty shelf! (And what do we do with empty shelves? I’ve been on Amazon already…)

3. Designate learning zones

The physical space we use for learning changes as the children become more independent. Here are some of our learning zones.

*Project Desks with pinboards for artwork and project-related items

* Low play table – to keep Lego, Geomag and Hamma beads out of doggie mouths

5 steps to an organised homeschool space — Our main homeschool room

* Quiet area – for the easily distracted, or those who want some peace to help them focus.

* Messy zone – we usually do short messy activities like science experiments at our kitchen table

* Craft desk – for longer projects like papier mache that I don’t want cluttering up the table

* Computer desk

* Comfortable read-aloud area

* Sewing area

organised homeschool learning space

* “Gallery” – We display our most recent artwork on the window sill by our table, in the centre of our open-plan space

5 steps to an organised homeschool space - gallery — Our “gallery” – small but perfectly positioned

4. Designate storage areas

Once I’ve been through our supplies and had a fresh look at our learning zones, it’s time to decide what goes where.

Here are some examples of what made the cut in my most recent reorganisation. All the trays, tubs and clear plastic containers are from IKEA.

Books – on shelves categorised by subject, e.g. art, science, maths, English, chapter books, picture books

Science supplies – in a tub in a cupboard

Art supplies – as far as possible, in clear containers on display and within the children’s reach. Bigger things in a box in a cupboard.

Maths manipulatives – in their own tray

Paper, pastels, charcoal etc – in trays

Art journalling supplies – everything together in a deep tray

C(9)’s current work – in her own tray

Books we use every week – in a big floor crate. Includes J(8)’s current work, our read-aloud, The Story of the World, an Atlas and the children’s French folders.

We keep a stack of individual whiteboards alongside, ready to grab and go.

Board games – Adult games relocated to an upstairs cupboard. The rest in cupboards.

Educational toys – Lego, Geomag, wooden blocks and Play Doh in trays

5. Create simple systems to make the most of your organised homeschool space

There’s no point storing everything in the “perfect” place if – out of sight, out of mind – you don’t end up using any of it. (Guess how I know?)

So I’ve set up calendar alerts on my phone to remind me to browse our various storage areas regularly for strewing inspiration, and to get the kids to do so too.

Finally, in the interests of being real…

…here are some of the “before” shots!

How are you organising your learning space this year?

Collage Friday – puppies, watersports & a birthday

August 9, 2013Random RamblingssummerLucinda

It’s been a fortnight of pure fun around here.

boy wakeboarding.jpg — J(8) had his first wakeboarding lesson. Can you tell that he quite liked it?

Not to be outdone, C(9) decided it was time to grab Mummy’s surfboard and hit the waves. (I have made it very clear that it is still my surfboard!)

We drove down to Wales to collect our new puppy…

king charles cavalier triclour puppy — New puppy, Branwell. The children chose his name after Branwell Bronte, the chief genii in “The Return of the Twelves”

Our older dog, Harvey, was a bit thrown when puppy left the breeder’s house with us.

C(9) is being a wonderful second time puppy-mummy. I hardly know we’ve got him which frees me up to lavish lots of fuss on Harvey, who in turn is shaping up to be a very good big brother.

tricolour king charles cavalier spaniel puppy — Settling into the crook of Daddy’s arm

Homeschool project butterflies — Our butterflies emerged. They seemed to speed through the transformation process thanks to the warm weather we’ve been having.

And I celebrated a birthday…

birthday dress — My sweet sister gave me this lovely dress

Walk in the woods — As the birthday girl I got to choose the dog walk – my favourite woods of course (no swings for miles!)

Then a lovely dinner out and birthday cake at home with my gorgeous family.

My birthday collage — Do you like my birthday hat? C(9) decorated it for me 🙂

It’s been a wonderful week. 🙂