Inspired by Ambleside

Davin was reading from "Our Island Story" in his room. When he was done, he came out and told me, "Mama, I think I'm going to make a Britain war chariot out of Legos some time.".

If we weren't reading books from the Ambleside Online curriculum, I don't think he would know what a Britain war chariot is and what it looked like....I know that it's something I never learned!

Here's Davin's description: "There's horses at the front and then there's a little space at the back for where the soldiers stand. There's spears at the sides of the wheels. When the horses go forward, the wheels turn and the spears kill anyone that it catches up to."

Sounds pretty brutal!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Diogenes the Wise (and funny) Man

I really love the literature from Ambleside Online's curriculum.  We have the Year 1 books and have enjoyed everything we've read from them.  One of the books is "Fifty Famous Stories Retold" by James Baldwin.  Davin has recently gotten tired of doing narrations, so instead of having him tell me the narration orally, I've asked him to draw a picture instead.  He loves to draw, so this has been a lot of fun for him!

Here is our copy, published in 1896!:

Here is the story, "Diogenes the Wise Man", by James Baldwin:

At Corinth, in Greece, there lived a very wise man whose name was Diogenes. Men came from all parts of the land to see him and hear him talk.

But wise as he was, he had some very queer ways. He did not believe that any man ought to have more things than he really needed; and he said that no man needed much. And so he did not live in a house, but slept in a tub or barrel, which he rolled about from place to place. He spent his days sitting in the sun, and saying wise things to those who were around him.

At noon one day, Diogenes was seen walking through the streets with a lighted lantern, and looking all around as if in search of something.

"Why do you carry a lantern when the sun is shining?" some one said.

"I am looking for an honest man," answered Diogenes.

When Alexander the Great went to Corinth, all the foremost men in the city came out to see him and to praise him. But Diogenes did not come; and he was the only man for whose opinions Alexander cared.

And so, since the wise man would not come to see the king, the king went to see the wise man. He found Diogenes in an out-of-the-way place, lying on the ground by his tub. He was enjoying the heat and the light of the sun.

When he saw the king and a great many people coming, he sat up and looked at Alexander. Alexander greeted him and said,--

"Diogenes, I have heard a great deal about your wisdom. Is there anything that I can do for you?"

"Yes," said Diogenes. "You can stand a little on one side, so as not to keep the sunshine from me."

This answer was so different from what he expected, that the king was much surprised. But it did not make him angry; it only made him admire the strange man all the more. When he turned to ride back, he said to his officers,--

"Say what you will; if I were not Alexander, I would like to be Diogenes."

Here is Davin's illustration from the story, which he thought was so funny!  In the top picture, Alexander the Great says to Diogenes, "Is there anything I can do for you?"  Down below, Diogenes says, "Yes, you can step aside to keep the sunshine on me."  "uuhhh," says Alexander.

Week 9

October 11-17

MFW 1st Days 38-42

• Bible:  Our Proverb to memorize was:

"The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful." Proverbs 12.22.

• 
  
  
  
  • We made a timeline and I told Davin that BC stands for before Christ and AD comes from the Latin Anno Domini and means the years after Jesus was born.  Throughout the rest of the year we will put pictures on the timeline as we read different Bible stories; such as Adam and Eve, the flood, etc.
  
  
  • I also read about the first day of creation, Davin read from his Bible Reader, and Davin started the first page in his "Bible Notebook".  He drew a line down the middle of the page and colored the right half black, representing "day" and "night."
  
  
  • For AWANA, Davin worked on memorizing 2 verses: Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, With all your soul, And with all your strength.  Psalm 96:2 "Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation From day to day."
  
  
  • Each day, Davin independently reads a passage from the Old Testament and New Testament.
  
  
  
  


• Math:  Worked on finishing up the first book of Saxon 1.  He completed 13 pages this week.
  
  
  
  • It's pretty adorable how he drew the socks in the picture below.  He made a design on each of them.
  
  
  
  

Here he's working on a tangram, using wooden pattern blocks.

• History:  We read Chapters 1 and 2 in Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall.

Here are the narrations:

Chapter 1: The Stories of Albion and Brutus

"There once was a king named Neptune. He was ruler of the oceans. Neptune had many sons. The one he loved most was Albion. Each time when one of his sons grew old enough, he owned an island. When Albion was old enough to have his own island, they could not find which one to choose. A beautiful mermaid came. She had sparkling blue eyes. She had golden hair. She said, “Let Albion come to my island. It has sparkling green grass and nice yellow sand.” Albion's parents thought of this and said, “Where is this island?” “Follow me,” the mermaid said. Everybody swam all of the way to the island. Albion lived on the island for many years. He was killed in a battle with the hero Hercules. Still, the parents looked after his island, which was called after Albion. Soon, a prince named Brutus approached the island. He called the island Britain and sometimes Brittania. This is the story of Albion and Brutus."

Chapter 2: The Coming of the Romans

"Long after Albion and Brutus, there were people named the Romans. The Romans were very powerful. They were so powerful that they called themselves kings. The one thing about them was that they were also very greedy. Whenever they heard of new land, they wanted it so they could call it part of the Roman Empire. When they heard about the little island, they came to conquer it, but people called the Britains owned the island. They somehow heard that the Romans were coming and came to battle them. Now this island had cliffs and the Romans saw that it was easy for the Britains to dart them on top of the cliff; so they left. Some Romans, known as sailors, were in chains. They had to defeat the island. When they arrived, the Britains were ready to ambush them. The Britains were so trained that they knew how to train their horses to run forward and attack."

• Literature:
  
  
  
  • We read "The Tortoise and the Ducks" from Aesops Fables.
  
  
  
  

• 
  
  
  
  • 
    
    
    
    • Narration:"The Tortoise, you know, had his home on his back. He was so lazy that he did not even go to a wedding and he wished he had goed to that wedding. One day he saw some ducks. The ducks said, “Would you like us to give you a ride, Tortoise?” He said, “Oh yes, please!” “Bite this stick, but do not talk or you'll be sorry.” And he went off. As they were flying, a crow came along and said, “Why this must be the king of the tortoises!” “It is,” said the Tortoise, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say those words, he fell; crashing into pieces."
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  
  • We also read "How the Whale Got His Throat" from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. Here he is enjoying reading the story:
  
  
  
  

Here is his comic-style illustration of the story.  I was so impressed by his creativity!:

• Poetry:
  
  
  
  • Robert Lous Stevenson's Garden of Verses: "A Thought", "At the Seaside", "Young Night Thought", and "Whole Duty of Children."
  
  
  • Worked on the 4th stanza of "My Shadow" (part of the level 1 poems in Linguistic Dev. Through Poetry Memorization)
  
  
  
  

• Latin:  We started Song School Latin and I really think that we'll learn a lot from this book!  Singing songs is a great way to retain information and is fun for all of the children.  Even little Quinnlyn rocked to the music.  It was so cute!
  
  
  
  • Vocabulary learned:  salve=hello, vale=goodbye, magistra=teacher, discupili=student
  
  
  
  

• Music: Davin has taken an interest in the piano and really wanted to learn how to play "Holy, Holy, Holy", the hymn we have studied.  I just love that every time he hears that on the radio he gets excited and says, "Mama, that's our hymn!"  So, I drew some sheet music for him of the songs "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Jesus Loves Me".


• Science: The topic this week was "The Beach and Waves", so we read about it in Things Outdoors, of course.

Here is Davin working on his illustration, and Dori working diligently as well.



Here's the narration:  "If you look closely at the sand, you will see that it is made up of tiny pebbles.  Sometimes you will see things that look like sand worms.  They eat the sand and pass it out.  When the tide comes in, it leaves seaweed.  Waves are made up of wind.  Waves sometimes break through high edges and leave a tunnel.  Years later, the water breaks through the other end of the tunnel.  Soon, the middle top breaks and leaves a tunnel we call an arch."

• Reading:  Here's a drawing he did for a Reading exercise.

And now for some cute pictures of Quinnlyn playing the piano:





Here's Dorian coloring in his Thomas coloring book:

Week 7

September 27-October 1

My Father's World 1st Days 28-32

The boys had quite a time pretending: the knight versus the gladiator!



For Bible this week, I made a Bible Times costume and Davin thought it was pretty cool!  He also acted out "Jonah and the Whale", which was adorable.  He played outside for quite some time in his costume, running around and having a grand ole' time.  When he finally came in, the costume was covered with grass stains and dirt!  It was pretty cute watching him play outside!  I was thinking about how blessed we are to be able to homeschool, that he can run around pretending in a Bible times costume without another care in the world!  Other Bible things we did:

• Proverbs 29:11 "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."  We memorized that and have had plenty of situations to give warning to each other: "Now, don't give full vent to your anger!"


• Down below is a picture of a Bible Times Map that Davin learned how to draw.  There was a story to go along with it to remember how to draw it, and then a phrase to remember the bodies of water.  It was adapted from The Old Testament Express by Terry Hall.

More cutting practice from a reading activity.



For Science, the topic was "Thunder and Lightning" and this was his narration: "Lots of tiny drops bump into each other in a cloud.  This is the beginning of lightning.  Lightning is made of electricity.  When the electricity leaves the cloud, it makes a spark that shoots towards the ground.  Thunder is made when lightning pushes away air very quickly."  Library books we read:

• Henry and Mudge and the Wild Wind by Cynthia Rylant


• One Dark Night by Hazel Hutchins


• Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley.  We own this book and really enjoy it.

For Math Davin completed pages 72-85 in the Complete Book of Math and did several lessons in Singapore Math.  Math library books included:

• Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert


• Captain Invcincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J. Murphy


• A Cloak for the Dreamer by Aileen Friedman

Down below is an activity from the Complete Book of Math, using a Venn Diagram.



For Ambleside Online Year 1 Literature, we read "A lesson of Faith" from Parables from Nature.  I made a separate post that included his narration HERE.  We also read "The Sword of Damocles" from Fifty Famous Stories Retold and here is the narration:

10/1/10 The Sword of Damocles (Greek)

"Once there was a very rich and very powerful king, but he was so mean and cruel that everybody hated him. One day, one of his friends said, “How rich and powerful you are! I would give anything to let me have all of your gifts for a day!” “Then you must have them,” the king announced. The next day they had a party. At a table, everybody cheered and danced. But what was it hanging over his head? A horse string with a sword hanging from it was almost touching him. He felt very frightened that the string would break any minute! The king said, “What is the matter, my friend?” “That sword! That sword!” he said. “I know there is a sword over your head, but why are you afraid? I have a sword over my head all the time,” said the king. “I guess I was mistaken,” said his friend, “that the rich and powerful are not as happy as they seem.”

Other things:

• Italic Handwriting


• Sparks Awana verses memory work


• Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization: Memorized "The Yak" and "Ingenious Little Old Man"


• Latin's Not so Tough reviewed pages 1-22, what we started several months ago.  Also did page 23 & 24.

A Lesson in Faith

Here's a narration of "A Lesson in Faith" from Parables From Nature, from my 6 year old son. I stopped after each page to let him retell what he remembered from the story, but will gradually read longer chunks before asking for his "telling".

A butterfly had baby butterflies. She saw a caterpillar. She was about to die, so she said, “Caterpillar, will you watch my baby butterflies? You must not give them the food you eat. You must give them dew.  I do not have time to look for another babysitter.” She handed the caterpillar some gold dust as a reward. “I'm getting dizzy!” the butterfly said. As soon as she stopped saying it, she closed her eyes and died.

Before the caterpillar could answer yes or no, she was stuck with “yes”. “What a silly thing to choose a poor little creature like me! But I guess that I'll have to do. I'll need some help by another creature.” But there was a problem. Which animal would be wisest? She started with the dog, but he was to fierce. Next, she went with the cat, but she was selfish. Finally, she went with the lark. The lark went up, way up to the sky. It took a couple hours til he came back down, though.

When the lark came back down, he said, “Unbelievable news, friend! Guess what they are to be fed?” “Honey and drops of dew from the flowers,” said the caterpillar. “No, guess something different,” said the lark. “All I can think of is cabbage leaves.” “That's exactly it,” said the lark, “cabbage leaves!” “But their hopeless dying mother requested....” “Do you even know what these eggs will grow into?” asked the lark. “Butterflies,” said the caterpillar. “No, caterpillars!” said the Lark. “And some day,” said the Lark, “you yourself will grow into a butterfly.” “Extremely impossible!” said the caterpillar.

As soon as the fighting stopped, the caterpillar heard something. She looked around. Green little caterpillars were out of the eggs. One day the caterpillar was going to turn into a butterfly. In her chrysalis she said, “I now am going to turn into a butterfly.” She began to tell everyone that she once was a caterpillar, but no one believed her.

I'm not sure he fully got the meaning of the story, but I'm very happy that he was willing to narrate and enjoyed doing so!  He was so proud of his work that we printed it and he showed Daddy.  I think we may fully convert to a more Charlotte Mason method around here, rather than the Charlotte Mason/Classical bent we began with.  I just love the books we've begun from Ambleside Online Year 1!  My son is so excited about them as well, and being a voracious reader, he is thrilled to have new material that is challenging to his mind and satisfying to his soul.  He didn't say that, of course, but I can see it!