Day 88 / 102 - West Virginia Symphony Orchestra

We were so fortunate last week to see the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.  The Orchestra, which usually performs in Charleston, had a special performance near Beckley last Friday night.  Best part?  It was free to the public!!  We were thrilled.

The orchestra performed two pieces -- Mozart's Violin Concerto K218 and Mendelssohn's Symphony #3.  Actually, this performance was planned at a perfect time to coincide with our curriculum.  For six weeks every spring, we study the orchestra, instruments, and various composers at our Classical Conversations campus.  We are right in the middle of that unit study, with one of our composers this spring being Mozart.  Today in class, we listened to and analyzed part of his Piano Concerto #22.

Day 87 / 102 - 30 Consecutive Days

My daughter, for years, has been begging to have her ears pierced.  We told her that it was a privilege that needed to be earned.  Our standard to her was this: After your ninth birthday, if you are able to keep your room clean (spotless) for 30 consecutive days, you will show us that you are responsible enough to have your ears pierced.  If you have ever seen her room, you would know this would be no simple task.  However, once my daughter sets her mind on something, she will not quit until she has achieved it.

She turned nine at the beginning of December.  It took us a good six weeks before she and I even had her bedroom in a position to organizationally maintain it.  But we found a place for everything, and the goal was at the end of each day to put everything back in its place.  Every night she would have a 'room check'.  If she passed, she earned a marble.  If she failed, not only would she not earn a marble, but she would lose all the marbles she had already earned.  She's competitive, so to her, it was wonderfully motivating.

She surprised both my husband and I by earning her privilege in the first 30 days.  I honestly thought she would lose focus and have to start over several times.  But she was committed, and the results paid off.  Plus, she even had to wait a little bit longer.  You are unable to wear earrings when you have your dolphin interaction at Discovery Cove.  Because of that, she had to wait almost an additional month before receiving her new earrings.  She waited patiently.

And, the good news in all of this -- her room is still clean.  That was my goal in the first place.

Day 86 / 102 - Creative Youth

Carnegie Hall (in downtown Lewisburg, West Virginia) has proudly hosted an annual juried student art show for the past 20 years.  The show, called Creative Youth, is for Greenbrier County students in grades 4 - 12.  Since our Classical Conversations campus is located in Greenbrier County, my children were able to participate. 

At the last minute my son opted to enter this piece.  He crafted this piece during the art component of our CC day.  That week we studied the artist Albrecht Dürer.  Dürer (1471 - 1528) was a German painter, engraver, print maker, mathematician, and theorist.  Our related assignment was to make prints out of floral foam and 'stamp' them onto paper.  My son's class had extra fun by trading their prints and adding to their designs.

Well, imagine our surprise when we discovered last week that his entry won first place for the Elementary Painting division.  Congratulations!  His work is on display in the Old Stone Room of Carnegie Hall through the end of April.

Day 85 / 102 - Layers of the Earth and Atmosphere

We made our earth, and its layers, out of clay.  Then we identified the atmospheric layers on a piece of paper.  All of these facts are part of our CC Earth Science memory work this year.

Day 84 / 102 - What's Your Type?

Once upon a time my husband and I worked for a non-profit ministry organization.  During our ten years with this organization we worked on, and with, various teams.  Lots of teams.  Eventually, we stepped into leadership with this organization and one of our responsibilities was helping others realize how they could truly be an asset to their team, as well as learning how they could work well with others.  One of the ways we did this was using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

The MBTI is an assessment designed to measure psychological preferences in how people see the world and make decisions.  It measures: how you get your energy (outward focused or inward focused), how you gather and process information (concrete or abstract), how you make decisions (logically or empathizing with the situation), and how you approach the outside world (with a plan or as it comes).  Taking all that into consideration, each individual fits into one of the 16 personality types, with four different letters, pictured above.  I love this concept and believe in it.  I could talk (write) for days about how I've seen the preferences played out in my life or in the lives of others.

After a few recent conversations with friends, my husband and I revisited some of our Myers-Briggs materials.  I have taken the assessment profile many times.  In fact, I even try to fool it, because I know exactly what it's looking for.  However, I always come out with the same four letters.  If you know me well, you will read a detailed description of that type and know without a doubt that it's describing me.  Same for my husband.  But since this blog is to document my homeschooling, I wanted to tell you how I've approached this recently with my children.

While wondering about their 'types', I came across a few online assessments to help us begin the process.  I took each quiz once.  Then, my husband took the assessment with our children.  I want to go on record saying how much I love homeschooling because of how well I know my children.  I also want to mention that I believe my children, even though young, are fairly self-aware.  The results of the assessments I took and then my children took were nearly identical.  A child's profile usually consists of three letters, because how we process information isn't fully developed until adolescence.  However, by revisiting some of our materials, we have accurately identified the four-letter type for our son, and we are quite close to identifying our daughter's.

My son, especially, has loved this exercise.  He enjoys hearing more about his type.  Now, while reading a book, or watching a movie, he tries to recognize the character that is most like him.  One night my husband and he were reading a more detailed description of my son's personality type.  They followed it by reading my husband's.  I interrupted them by saying to my husband, "Yours is so boring compared to his!"  My son's is full of action and adventure and fearlessness.  My husband's focuses more on strategy and intelligence.

Like I mentioned earlier, I could discuss this concept forever.  However, I'll begin to wrap things up.  I've learned through this how to more successfully school my children as well as being a better parent to both of them.  My son is the only 'P' in our family, which means he's extremely flexible and diverse, not adhering to schedules, plans, or commitments and taking life as it comes.  He's the only one!  My daughter is the only 'F' in our family, meaning she's the only one who makes decisions personally and subjectively, she is sensitive towards others, and she is unsettled by conflict.  Both of these truths influence how my children see school work and their school day.  This quote from Isabel Briggs Myers sums it up for me, Whatever the circumstances of your life, the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgments sounder, and your life closer to your heart's desire.

If you are at all interested, the best way to take the assessment is to pay for the real one.  However, if you want to take some similar ones, this one is for adults, and this one is for children.

Day 83 / 102 - Spring Break 2013

It should come as no surprise, after my last post, that my children and I spent the past week in Florida.  We visited Orlando for a few days, and then we traveled southward to visit my parents in Nokomis.  We made the trip via automobile, and one of their educational responsibilities, while traveling, was to follow the journey on the map.  A real map.  They were excellent navigators.

Along with Discovery Cove, we also made stops at Sea World, Aquatica Waterpark, Chef Mickey's, Downtown Disney, and Legoland.  We spent the rest of our trip on the beach at Casey Key.

Day 82 / 102 - Discovery Cove

Last year I was convinced that this was a one-time lesson plan event.  But fortunately, we were able to make a second trip to Discovery Cove.  My children, once again, loved our interactive dolphin experience as well as spending the rest of the day snorkeling in the coral reef.

Day 81 / 102 - ABC Adjectives

We've done this activity, or ones similar to it, for the past several years.  I give my children a noun, set a timer, and see how long it takes them to come up with an adjective for every letter of the alphabet.  Here you can see where we described an athlete.

Another lesson we were working on was discovering how a Present Participle verb form (verb + ing)  or Past Participle verb form (verb + ed) can be used as an adjective.  For example, the exciting athlete, the kicking athlete, the opposing athlete, the determined athlete, the unsettled athlete, etc.

Day 80 / 102 - Writing 'Dress-Ups'

Part of our IEW (creative writing) curriculum includes adding 'dress-ups' to everyday, ordinary writing.  Here is a recent activity I completed with my children.

We started with the sentence - The soldier went into the tent.

1. Change the verb into a stronger verb.

2.  Add a clausal starter to give us more detail about what is happening.

3.  Add adjectives.

4. Add an adverb.

5. Add an who/which adjectival clause.

In case you can't read his writing, my son's new sentence was - Since he felt fatigued, the young soldier, who was injured, painfully advanced into the medic tent.

Of course, there are even more ways we can revise this sentence, but part of the activity is to familiarize my children with their parts of speech and stylistic dress-up techniques.  Plus, this activity is always worthwhile as I see their creativity displayed.  We repeated the activity several times and the sentences became even more elaborate as we see the solider slaying dragons, firing cannons, escaping Nazis, and saving lives.

Day 79 / 102 - Greek/Roman Gods

In keeping with our History study of the Ancients this year, my daughter presented on six of the major Greek gods last week.  She briefly summarized the myths surrounding these certain gods and goddesses and had an artwork display (pictured above).  Greek mythology has always been a subject of fascination to my children ever since our first year of homeschooling.

If you're looking for an age appropriate site with activities, we've enjoyed playing around on this one.  Click here.

Day 78 / 102 - Duct Tape Wallet

The most recent Boy's Life edition taught my son how to make a duct tape wallet.  We now have several of these floating around the house.  Unfortunately, they do not all contain money.

He also wanted me to add that he photographed this wallet himself thanks to his recent Photography Merit Badge camp.

Day 77 / 102 - South America

I've mentioned several times before that I believe the best way to learn Geography (for any of us, really) is to draw maps.  My children and I sketch, trace, color, use dry erase boards, and more as we practice drawing in the boundaries and geographical features of various land masses.  Over the next few weeks, we're learning the countries of South America.  Both the above pictured maps were drawn free-hand.  After just a couple of attempts, my children could easily identify the 13 countries they need to be familiar with for our current CC cycle.