The Lesgaux School

I’ve been doing too much page turning with my current system of lesson planning. To simplify things, I created “lesson plans” for January through July 2006. Taking into account how much we’ve done, how much we need to finish, and the time left (31 weeks), I created a master checklist for the following subjects: History, Grammar (2 books), Greek, Spelling, Spanish, Handwriting (for Duncan), and Phonics (also Duncan). I am awaiting three books which we also plan to cover. I will schedule them in when they arrive. I’m waiting for
A Child’s Garden of Verses
The Blue Fairy Book (Dover Storybooks for Children)
Heroes Every Child Should Know

Our new semester starts January 2, but we have guests coming from out of town, so we may start a few days late. I purposely didn’t schedule by date so that we can take off when we need to. I now can tell at a glance if we are ahead or behind, and have guidelines as to how much work should be finished in a week for each subject.

I don’t plan to post again this year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We have relatives coming in early January and are supposed to be on Winter Break until at least after January 1. However, T has had a hard time after a week of no lessons. He and I discussed it and decided that he missed his routines. So, today we went ahead with our school. I used our regular schedule.

On Monday, January 2 we will start our new, revised schedule using more of the Charlotte Mason. It really isn’t too different from what we are doing now. We’ve added a literature section and Spanish. Greek was already there, but we’re adding in his workbook. Also, we’re getting more serious about Art and Nature Study. Ambleside has a fairly rigorous Art schedule, which I plan to follow. For nature study, I also plan to use Ambleside as a guide. I hope to obtain this book (click on link to see at Amazon) : Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna B. Comstock.

We are also going to start our new geography book. It is Home Geography for Primary Grades. This book is out of print and I have downloaded and printed it for our use. I ordered Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Heroes Every Child Should Know, by Hamilton Wright Mabie, and The Blue Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang. Hopefully they will arrive by the end of the first week of our next Term, starting in January. If not, I can get them online.

Bye for now…

I haven’t posted much lately, as we have been taking a holiday break. Actually, we have been reading and watching various interpretations of Robin Hood. It all started when we went to a stage combat demonstration put on by homeschoolers. We talked about reality versus stage/screen tricks. That led us, quite naturally to Robin Hood. We actually plan to read it in 2 years, but this is a brief intro with easier text.

Curriculum Notes

I’ve been putting together a curriculum from Ambleside Online. It is a fairly rigorous schedule that is very print heavy. If you want to explore more about Ambleside, use the link in the sidebar. We plan to start with Year 0 in January, and Year 1 in August. I am slowly accumulating books to use and also plan to use many online books from the Baldwin Project and Project Gutenberg; one musn’t forget that we make liberal use of our public library (our checkout limit is 999 per card, and we usually keep about 50 at a time).

New in The Sidebar

I have listed the books we are currently using. They are linked, where possible to a vendor if you would like to purchase them. This is not a wish list. It is a current list of books we already own and are using. Later, I plan to add a list of books we want to use or buy. Also, in my dreams, I will add a list of the online books we are using.

December 14, 2005
First Language Lessons
Lesson 140
The Little Red Hen

The little red hen found a grain of wheat. She asked the animals if they would help her plant the wheat. They wouldn’t help her plant the wheat. So the little red hen planted the wheat herself. And her chicks helped.

Grass and weeds also grew in the garden. The little red hen asked the animals if they would help her pull the grass and weeds out of the garden, but they would not help. So the hen and her chicks pulled the weeds and grass themselves.

The wheat needed to be cut and threshed. The little red hen asked the animals if they would help her cut and thresh the wheat, but they would not help her. So the little red hen and her chicks cut and threshed the wheat by themselves.

The little red hen needed to take the threshed and cut wheat to the miller, so she asked the animals if they would help her take the wheat to the miller. The animals would not help her. So she and her chicks took it to the miller to be made into flour.

Then, after it was ground into flour, she needed to make it into bread, so she asked the animals if they would help her. They would not help her, so she and her chicks took the flour and made it into bread and baked it. When it was done, she asked the animals if they would help her eat the bread. They said they would. But, the little red hen said they could not eat it because they had not helped plant it, cut it, thresh it, carry it to the mill, or bake it.

So she and her chicks ate the bread.

The End

I’ve been researching Charlotte Mason yet again. I plan to make a gradual move to this philosophy. We still use The Well Trained Mind philosophy, but will blend it with CM to find a good fit for our family. See the links on the side for more info (Ambleside Online). Below is a proposed schedule and booklist to start in January.

For those who know me and ask. “You, read the Bible?” My answer is that it is a basic text that everyone should be familiar with – a historical/historical literature viewpoint, not a religious one.

Schedule

Monday
Read a Bible story 10
Work on a memory verse 5
Listen to some Classical Music, during lunch
Math (3 pages/week) 10
Spelling (1 chapter a week + test) 10
Literature – Beatrix Potter 20
Copywork 10
First Language Lessons (orally only) 10
Science Living Books on Topic + Narration 20
Greek (1 page or 10 minutes, whichever is first. Know alphabet by memory before starting workbook)
Spanish (5 words per week – orally only) 5
Total Time 110 minutes

Tuesday
Read a Bible story 10
Work on a memory verse 5
Art Appreciation 5
Listen to some Classical Music, during lunch
Math 10
Spelling 10
Literature – Pooh 20
Copywork 10
First Language Lessons (orally only) 10
Science + Narration 20
Greek 5
Total Time 115 minutes

Wednesday
Read a Bible story 10
Work on a memory verse 5
Listen to some Classical Music, during lunch
Math 10
Spelling 10
Literature – Aesops Fables 20
Copywork 10
First Language Lessons (orally only) 10
History Story of the World + Narration 20
Spanish 5
Total Time 110 minutes

Thursday
Read a Bible story 10
Work on a memory verse 5
Art Appreciation 10
Math 10
Spelling 10
Literature – Fairy Tales 20
Copywork 10
History Living Books + Narration 20
Greek 5
Read from Heroes 10
Total Time 115 minutes

Friday
Read a Bible story 10
Work on a memory verse 5
Listen to some Classical Music, during lunch
Math 10
Spelling 10
Literature – What your Kindergartener/1st Grader/2nd Grader Needs to know 20
Dictation 10
Spectrum Grammar 10
Spanish 5
Geography/Map & Globe Skills 10
Read from Heroes 10
Orgami 10
Total Time 110 minutes

Books

History
Story of the World Volume 2, by Susan Wise Bauer

Math
Modern Curriculum Press Level A

Spelling
Spelling Workout Level B

Hero Study
Heroes Every Child Should Know, by Hamilton Wright Mabie online here: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=mabie&book=heroes&story=_contents

Geography
Home Geography for Primary Grades
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12228/12228-h/12228-h.htm

Poetry
Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson online & miscellaneous from our treasuries.

Folksongs
Listen to Bill Staines One More River CD Learn Lyrics

Art
2005-2006 TERM 1 Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)

Copywork Schedule
M – Beatrix Potter (sentence)
T – Pooh – (quote)
W – Aesops Fables (moral)
Th – Fairy Tale (title)

Dictation
Use memory piece. (See Below)

Memory Selections
Pull from poems/quotes/stories in What your Nth Grader Needs To Know
Kings & Queens of England in order
Greek Alphabet
7 Continents/Oceans of the World/Countries on Each Continent/50 States & Capitols
Addition Facts/Skip Counting

Well, we haven’t gotten our printer cartridges back yet. I’ll check on them later today. T had hoped to get out of some schoolwork since we couldn’t copy his math and language pages. Nope. We will do math orally – on the couch. The funny thing is, he did more in the last two days than he has in the last 2 weeks! I just read the problems with him; he did the problems in his head and told me the answers. He did great – 4 pages in two days. I only require three pages a week when he writes it out. This week, his final tally was 6 pages. I think I’ll try to do more couch math with him. He still needs to write some math out, but for now, it’s more important for him to feel successful. D also did two pages on the couch. They both get full credit.

Today we started studying the Vikings. T had a little trouble keeping the fathers and sons (Thorvald, Eric the Red, and Leif Ericsson) straight, so tomorrow (or Monday), I’m going to give a mini-lesson on genealogy. Specifically, how to read a geneaological chart. Also, when we get our printer fixed, I want them to do some map work on Scandinavia, Normandy, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.

D proudly showed Daddy the new chore chart on the fridge. Unfortunately, though, he said he couldn’t read it because it was “cursing”. After we had all recovered from this, I re-copied it in manuscript. Now I have to get him to do his chores. He complains that loading the dishwasher is “too yucky”. Ayee!

Today we schooled in the big world. Translation: it was errand day. By noon we had been to 4 places and the children were pooped. T kept complaining that his knee hurt. I have no clue as to why. D just complained. R sang to himself the whole time. For myself, I couldn’t shake the headache I woke up with and was glad to lie down with R and take a nap.

The rest of the day was spent on chores, cooking, reading and watching PBS. We watched and waited as a cold front arrived. It was big news since freezing rain was expected. If you live in a place that’s usually cold in the fall and winter, you may think we’re nuts. But here it’s a big deal. It means that Daddy will most likely head home early (which he did). DH and I both learned to drive in snowy, icy conditions, but people here don’t know to slow down and leave extra space, and that’s scary. Two people died today as a result of going too fast on slick streets. There is a Winter Storm Warning and Freezing Rain Advisory for our county until midnight. Currently it’s 25F with a wind chill of 11F. We still haven’t had our gas heater inspected for the season. We’d like to hold off until payday, as it costs between 50 and 70 dollars that we don’t have right now. Luckily, the inside temperature is 65F. The kids are warmly snuggled upstairs where it’s toasty warm. R is in our room, where the fan-heater is keeping it very nice.

One of our errands today was to drop off our printer cartridges to be refilled. It will probably be Friday before they (or we) will be ready. In the meantime, it looks like we’ll be doing Math orally and on regular paper, gasp. We’ll do some dictation, and we have some reading assignments to work through. T is on his wait for the new spelling book hiatus. Depending on the weather and road conditions, we may head to the nearest library tomorrow to check out a book on Charlemagne. However, it looks doubtful. We may just head to cyberspace instead.

Daddy surprised us with chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Good Night.

OK, I know it’s only a little while since my last post, but I’ve been doing some research. After looking closely at the two Latin programs in my last post, I have decided that Prima Latina is my best bet. It seems more comprehensive. The parts of the program are Prima Latina, Latina Christiana I and Latina Christiana II. This should take us through 8th grade.

Now to find the best price…

The week so far has gone moderately well. Yesterday was terrible, but today went very well. T likes the checklist. Tomorrow is Friday and he has to finish 1 1/2 pages of math, do 1 sentence of dictation, do a language lesson with me and practice his Greek alphabet (so far, he’s up to Xi). He still grumbles, but he gets the work done. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

This week T also finished his Level A Spelling book. To celebrate, He made a cake. I’ve ordered him Level B and he has a spelling reprieve until it arrives. I also ordered 2 Greek Level 1 workbooks so that the kids can start on them.

T has also asked to study Latin. I wasn’t going to start Latin until next year, but after reviewing a couple of programs, I think he can do it on an individual, self-paced basis. I am currently trying to decide the best curriculum for Latin. Right now, the race is between Latin’s Not So Tough, by the same author as Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek, which we are using, and Prima Latina. Maybe I’ll do one and he can do the other, heh heh .