Day 80 / 103 - Classical Conversations of Beckley Family Night

Last night my children, along with their Classical Conversations friends, entertained family and community members with History songs, Latin recitation, artwork, and much more!  In our four years of involvement with CC, this is the first time we've been part of a community that has put together an Achievement Night.  I must admit, it was rather entertaining.

Because of the interest and growth in Classical Conversations in our area, the students pictured above will split into three different campuses next fall to allow for other families to join into this phenomenal program.  This is truly an encouragement and an inspiration to anyone who is familiar with the vision and goals of CC.

Day 79 / 103 - Chalk on Cloth

My children recently studied the artist Edgar Degas, a French impressionist painter and graphic artist best known for his pictures of dancers at the ballet.  Along with paints and charcoal pencil, he often used colored chalk to create his artworks.

Their related assignment was to draw with chalk on canvas.  By soaking the cloth in milk ahead of time we were able to make the artwork look more like a painting.

Day 78 / 103 - Meet Isabelle

For the third time in her 10 short years of existence, my daughter saved enough money to purchase an American Girl doll (which if you know anything about the dolls, is not an easy task).

Our standard for her has always been:  We will get you one doll a year on your birthday.  Her birthday is in December.  The marketing geniuses at American Girl have decided to release a new doll every year on January 1st.  To her, this is pure torture as she waits all year with only the catalog.  This year she was determined not to wait that long because she discovered months ago that 'Isabelle' was a ballerina.  In December, she began putting her pennies away including some Christmas gift cards.  Along with daily chores, she made a ridiculous amount of money selling rubber band phone cases, bracelets, and hair accessories.  Her Rubber Band Loom paid off !!

Early last week, she counted out the money in her jar and realized she was $1.60 over her necessary goal.  We made a quick trip to the closest store for her to purchase her new prized possession.

Day 77 / 103 - West Virginia Symphony Orchestra

Tuesday we traveled to Charleston to see the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra perform a young people's concert of Peter and the Wolf.  Hearing the orchestra perform was both lovely and appropriate as we always complete a six-week study of the orchestra and famous composers each spring.

Day 76 / 103 - The Object

My son's creative writing assignment for this week was to pretend to be a time-traveler from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.  He was to describe something he saw in the future for his friends in the 13th century.  I loved his finished work!

The Object

My fellow citizens of Lorgestown. Recently, I have traveled to America, the land across the Atlantic during the 21^st century. At first, I noticed it had magnificent massive towers as tall as the sky made of glass. It also had giant metal birds that would fly thought the sky without flapping their wings. But surprisingly, no one seemed interested in the tall towers or the giant metal birds. They were obsessed with a small rectangular object that everyone seemed to possess. These objects made bizarre splashing and squawking noises which occasionally sounded musical. After the bizarre noises sounded, the citizens would put the objects to the side of their heads and speak as though someone was listening. Often they would poke furiously at this object, I'm assuming to see if it was still breathing as my great-great-grandfather would do with his cattle during the Black Death. 

I also observed these citizens talk about defending strange lands and castles with these objects. The citizens talked about these castles made of gumdrops. On my journey, I tasted one of these multicolored gumdrops, and I am still perplexed as to how someone would construct a castle made of this sugary delight. Frequently, I heard children discuss building these castles, yet I never saw children doing anything but poking these strange objects. I never even saw a castle during my time in America. 

Holding their object at arm's length above their heads, the citizens would often smile at it. I don't know why. What seemed to make the citizens the most angry was dropping this object, for much shouting and obscenities would follow. They would drop to their knees and holler, “NOOOOOO!” as if praying to a foreign god. All the citizens in the future seemed to find this object necessary, yet I find it odd that we are functioning quite well without them.

Speech given by Sir William Edward Lorges IV, Town Hall, circa 1412

Day 75 / 103 - Roll the Die Sentence Creations

I recently saw an idea similar to this shared on a Classical Conversations message board, so I adapted the game for my children and my Essentials class.

Each sentence pattern, structure, and purpose was determined by a roll of the die.  Then my children had to add in a specific part of speech for their final roll.  After a few tries, I found it was easiest to determine first the purpose (declarative, interrogative, etc.) then the pattern (S-Vt-DO, etc.) then the structure (simple, compound, etc.) then the part of speech.  For example if they rolled 1, 3, 4, and 6, their creation would be a Declarative, S-Vl-PA, simple sentence with a conjunction.  The first sentence listed is: Sierra is six and playful.

This utilizes some some serious thinking and dialectic skills, but is totally worth it!!

Day 74 / 103 - Spring Blossoms

Yesterday afternoon my daughter attended another fantastic children's art class at the Blackbird House.  Her newest painted canvass is proudly displayed above our living room fireplace.

Day 73 / 103 - MocomiKids

Several months ago my children came across the YouTube channel for MocomiKids.  This was a huge score as their goal (similar to Khan Academy's) is to make knowledge fun, visually appealing and available to all.  We have had a blast this year learning new concepts, and mastering others, from their video series.  They also have tutorials of art projects and science experiments, which my children have attempted to recreate at home.

I invite you to check out their YouTube channel where they have posted close to 300 videos, many less than 3 minutes long.  Their Science and Ancient History ones are my favorite!!  Above I shared one on The States of Matter which was part of our Science Memory work this winter.

Day 72 / 103 - Human-Watching at Myrtle Beach

I've posted before (here) about IEW's Writing from Pictures Unit where a student is given three pictures that tell a story and then the assignment is to write that story.  We revisited that Unit this week.  Using the pictures posted above, my son wrote the following story.  Enjoy.

Human-Watching at Myrtle Beach

Swimming home from school to his whale pod, Timmy Junior the whale excitedly shouted, “MOM!! MOM!! Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Human?”

“Yes,” his mother replied. “It is a very ancient legend. But we all know humans do not really exist.”

“But my teacher read us a book today at whale school,” Timmy Junior explained. “We learned that humans don't have flippers. They have legs and arms, which have hands and fingers. They walk on land. If you're really lucky, you can see them in the water. They speak an odd language called Human. I heard they're easily spotted on beaches in the summer specifically around hamburger stands. On the beaches they listen to loud music, play frisbee, and construct castles made of sand.”

Begging his parents permission, Timmy Junior stated, “I think we should take a trip to Myrtle Beach to human watch.”

Timmy Junior's father, Timmy, checked his BlackBerry and discovered he was free for the weekend.  Quickly, he booked a rental condominium on the beach in South Carolina.

When they arrived in Myrtle Beach, Timmy Junior's family went straight to the human watching facilities. It only took 40 seconds of human-watching before seeing a rare female with legs and arms swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. They watched her in amazement swimming effortlessly without needing fish treats from a pail, like Timmy Junior did when he was learning how to swim. Unfortunately, they never heard her speak the rare Human language even after watching her for several hours. Timmy Junior demanded a picture with the mythical human female, but she was not cooperating and wouldn't stay in the picture frame.

To complete their Myrtle Beach vacation, Timmy Junior and his family enjoyed the amenities of the town including fine dining at the hamburger stand and the reduced prices at the outlet malls. Imploringly, Timmy Junior begged his parents to buy him a real human, but unfortunately none were for sale. For a souvenir, Timmy Junior settled on a pair of prescription goggles which would improve his underwater vision as he migrated north for the summer.

Day 71 / 103 - Spider Shenanigans

I've posted before (here) about IEW's Writing from Pictures Unit where a student is given three pictures that tell a story and then the assignment is to write that story.  We revisited that Unit this week.  Using the pictures posted above, my daughter wrote the following story.  Enjoy.

Spider Shenanigans 

Once upon a time, there were two spiders named Bertie and Laura, who lived in a very clueless zookeeper's office window. At 6:00 every morning, they fell asleep. Here's why...

One day they were very, very bored, so they decided to host a party. They invited their spider-friend Albert, and insisted he bring his dress-up clothes which consisted of bow-ties, canes, and tiny bonnets. “Invite every spider you know!” they demanded. Pleadingly, they begged Albert not to mention anything about the party to his annoying web-mates -- twins Hocus and Pocus. “They're such pests,” Laura annoyingly exclaimed! “They repeat everything I say.”

Albert was looking forward to the party. “I'll be there at midnight,” he excitedly sang.

When the clock struck midnight, the party began. Every spider was happily singing and dancing along with the tiny spider jukebox, which played their favorite songs Walking on Spiderwebs and The Eeensy-Weensy Spider sung by Taylor Spider. The banquet table was proudly displayed with raw flies, fried flies, barbequed flies, frosted flies, and a punch bowl of the finest fly blood. After feasting on refreshments, Laura, Bertie, and Albert decided to begin the dance party. They dressed in Albert's costumes, and performed a riveting tap dance routine for the crowd which ended with a rambunctious standing ovation. Because such a great time was had by all, they decided they would repeat the party every night.

Partying for six long hours, the spiders were exhausted. Slowly, they trudged back to their windows and webs. Bertie and Laura sleepily returned to the the corner of the clueless zookeeper's office window. He arrived at work at 8:00 a.m., and began his day without any idea of the shenanigans that took place in his office the previous evening.

Day 70 / 103 - (Outside) School on the Patio Sliders

Fortunately, it has been nice enough to move our school work outdoors.  Rather than writing inside on the patio sliders, we're now writing on the outside.

Since we've spent most of our day outside, this might mean we'll be able to eat dinner at the table tonight !!

Day 69 / 103 - The World Almanac For Kids Puzzler Deck

I'm not sure when I purchased this deck of world history brainteasers.  My guess would be at a bookstore in Boston when my husband was living and working there.  In 2009, I was a new home educator and stocking up on supplies that I thought would provide hours of educational entertainment.  I'm pretty sure these cards have been in a box since then until some recent spring cleaning a few weeks ago.

Now that my children are a little older, we have had the best time reading through these riddles because of our knowledge of History and Geography.  In fact, nearly every card relates back to some piece of my children's Classical Conversations memory work.  Whether it be identifying states and capitals, placing the dates of wars on a timeline, or tracing the routes of certain European explorers, all the terms are familiar to my children because they memorized this information at a young age.  Reading through these cards with my children has been like taking an advanced History/Geography final and acing it!

I'm most certain I paid much more for these cards 5 years ago, but I found them listed very inexpensively on Amazon here.

Day 68 / 103 - Merit Badges

Our son has spent the last two weekends earning three of the required eleven Boy Scout Merit Badges needed to (hopefully) one day earn the rank of Eagle Scout.  He worked incredibly hard and had a couple 12-hour-days in order to achieve the badges.

One rewarding moment for me in the midst of his work was seeing again how the Classical Education model benefited my son.  As I've mentioned before (here), I believe that the primary years of learning are ideal for filling a student's mind with information.  We often refer to this as placing pegs in their minds that they will one day hang ideas on.  Middle-school-age children then begin to process the information they have memorized because they have the ability to ask why and think more abstractly.  They are now hanging ideas on the existing pegs in their minds.

Last Friday I worked with my son to complete his Citizenship and the World requirements before his all-day camp on Saturday.  We needed to discuss recent current events from a foreign newspaper source, so naturally we read about the key events in Ukraine's political crisis.  My son has memorized an European and Asian map.  In his mind he could quickly locate Ukraine, Russia and the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea.  He immediately pinpointed Kiev and Moscow.  He could visualize why gas pipelines running from Russia to western Europe would be affected by this recent conflict.  He was familiar with words like NATO, European Union, United Nations, and Communist Manifesto.

Because those pegs were already in his mind, we were quickly able to discuss the conflict with ease.  I remember current events being a frustrating topic for me when I was 12.  This was not the case with my son last Friday.

Day 67 / 103 - Cherry Ames

My daughter has recently become fascinated with the Cherry Ames mystery novels.  The Cherry Ames character is a mystery-solving nurse in the Nancy Drew mold.  Her early adventures are set during World War II in an attempt to encourage girls at that time to become nurses to aid the war effort. 

My daughter is currently reading the third book, and there are 27 books total. This should keep her busy for a while.