Catherine the Great

At the beginning of this school year I asked Ava to flip throught the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World and to let me know if any topics caught her interest.

First, let me say: I love this book. So much. It's huge. 761 pages. But in spite of it's weight, it's fairly concise in each subject. It's a great jumping off point for further discovery. It's objective and free of religious bias. And, importantly for young people, it has really lovely pictures.

In all of it's 761 pages (did I mention that it's huge?), Ava chose 3 topics that she would like to study. Catherine the Great of Russia. Astronauts and space travel. And Ancient Egypt and Clepatra.

I love it that she was drawn to famous women in history. My heart swellled a little. If I were more emotional, I may have shed a small tear of joy. (I did not.)

So, in addition to our book box selection previously discussed, we picked up a fairly short biography of Catherine the Great at the library. While I was in that stack, I also grabbed a copy of a biography of Anastasia Romanov.

She finished the book about Anastasia quickly and is working through the (longer, more in-depth) biography of Catherine a little more slowly. But the point of this post: picture study.

Children love to create art. Schools love to promote art programs. Both are good, great things. But children do not look at and study enough great art. My children love to visit the Art Institute. They love to look at portraits. And I try to find pretty pictures for them to look at when I can find some relevance to what we are studying. Since I don't like to slice up our studies into different subjects, we don't always do picture study, or art at all. But biographies and major events are good opportunities for incorporation.

So, here she is, our current picture study:

Isn't she lovely? It's so rare to see such an empowered portrait of a woman.

The Earth Dragon Awakes

This is our first week, first book/unit study.

Title: The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 by Laurence Yep

Recommended reading age: 8-12

Ava says she would recommend this book to friend. "It's a really good book. It's about an earthquake and some kids trying to escape. There is lots of danger and excitement all around them."
 
To round out this work of fiction, we also read Earthquakes by Frankly N. Branley (from the Let's Read and Find Out Science series) and will be doing some experiments from Janice VanCleave's Earthquakes: Mind-boggling Experiments You Can Turn Into Science Fair Projects.
 
All books come from the public library. Sometimes I look for lesson plans on the internet for our books, but didn't find one that I liked for this one.
 
To be honest, if there is one thing we did not do enough of last year it was hands-on science. I just don't love it. Or even like it. I'll enjoy a good NOVA episode, or Discovery show about space, or nature hike as much as the next girl. But experiments? No thank you! So this year I have delegated. To dad. And instituted Science Saturdays. Father-daughter time and off the hook for science experiments for me? Win win!
 
We'll update on the success of the earthquake experiments.
 
I am still trying to perfect a way of incorporating Emma into lessons. I do not read aloud from the book draw book and don't intend to. I think I will just get a picture book that can be integrated in our larger theme. Next week, Ava is reading Framed and doing a geography lesson about Wales. Perhaps a Welsh fairy tale for Emma? Yes.

(Oh, and additionally, Ava wanted to read about Catherine the Great and the Dutchess Anastasia. Unschooling sometimes feels completely random!)

Another school year begins...

I guess, being homeschoolers, we could start our school year whenever we wish. Or we could say that our school year doesn’t stop or start at all. And the latter would mostly be true. But when we see the children walking to the school across the street, when stores begin stocking up on cheap pencils and notebooks, when the temperature seems instantly cooler and breezier and the leaves crunchier… well, it seems like the time to proclaim, “Now we are in 4th grade!” This is the time of year that the girls new sports seasons begin, and having grown a year older, they might advance. And this is the time that homeschooling activities like girls scouts and nature exploring begin also. Park days and beach days are ending and camping opportunites become more scarce.

And so… our school year begins like everyone elses.

Though we mostly unschool, our math books have arrived. Our handwriting books are on the way and our grammar lessons will begin.

We don’t do these subjects everyday or very faithfully at all, but after a year, we are pleasantly surprised at what we accomplish.

I guess some unschoolers might say that we don’t unschool at all, but that would be semantics in my opinion. But, having read most of John Holt's philosophy, I don't think he'd be disappointed in our methods.

Our learning is child-led and interesting and communal and joyful and pretty democratic and that is what matters to us.

I am leaning more and and more towards calling ourselves Charlotte Mason learners because that seems to be the direction in which our family has been organically headed in the past year plus.

A new change for this year has been the creation of our book box. Ava decoupaged a shoe box (art!) and I placed several strips of paper in the box with age-appropriate book titles in it. Each week, or more or less often depending on the need, she pulls a strip out and we check out that book from there. The rest of our curriculum (to use the word lightly) is inspired by the chosen book.

She likes the anticipation of not knowing what book is in store for her and doesn’t argue with me about not wanting to read anything, or anything but Harry Potter.

This means that some weeks we will have no science, or no geopgraphy, or no history. But every week we will have a bit of something and over the course of the year, some of everything will have been learned and explored.

Emma follows along as we go, doing science and art and history projects as they come up, but usually without hearing or reading the book Ava has chosen. She is read other books and we continue in our reading lessons using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We are going slowly, as we feel like doing it, but she is learning a lot from it and takes a lot of pride in what she knows. Louise likes to sit in on the lessons, too, although I do not encourage her to practice writing her letters.

I will give each book it’s own post so that it will not get lost.

And if you’d like to read Ava’s book reports, follow her on Librarything.