Beginning a Unit Study: Destination ENGLAND!

When we began contemplating the home education journey, a second method that I knew I didn't like and didn't want to use (the first being Charlotte Mason) was the unit study method. Too much work for me, too unstructured, too non-schoolish.

If there's one thing I need to get used to in life, it's eating my words - because we are now going full-steam ahead into - you guessed it! - unit studies. 

Unit studies can be extremely intimidating when they are taken to extremes. By "taken to extremes," I mean the type of manic unit study in which every single school subject is tied to the same unit study topic. For example, if one studied apples, then one would study apples in science, read about apples in history-literature-poetry, write about apples for language arts, draw apples in art, copy passages about apples for handwriting, sing about apples for music, and.... you get the picture.

These unit studies usually come with insanely complicated crafts - and lots of them! - which makes me cringe even more. 

I find that type of unit study to be unpleasant at best, because it is a huge, burdensome, time-consuming nightmare to pull together (over and over again with each new topic) and an incredible amount of work - not to mention that one really can get tired of apples!

And of course, if that type of unit study is something that you enjoy... go for it! (And then publish it on your blog so I can use it for free without having to do all the work!! Mwa ha ha!)

However, I have found that there is a much more common type of unit study, and that is a unit study that is used for only one or possibly two subjects - history and/or science. In this type of unit study, the entire family learns about the same subjects at the same time. For example, the whole family would study the Civil War, or the human body, or whatever topic - all together. Different levels of literature are used per student level, of course, but the family remains unified by topic - rather than, say, the first grader studying the Civil War while the third grader is in Ancient Greece and Rome and the seventh grader studies the Vietnam era (and etc.). 

Science and history can be linked in unit studies or studied separately. When convenient, other subjects can be tied in - for example, while studying the Civil War, it's a great time to learn songs of the Civil War or food of the Civil War. But this is only taken as far as is convenient for each family. 

We are currently using a real-books unit study curriculum for history/science/geography/literature. It's a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying it! This unit study goes country by country and studies the history/geography, science, and culture of that country - mostly through living books, and also through the occasional recipe, game, or craft. It's very simple, which is great for someone like me who gets overwhelmed very quickly by more complex unit study curricula.

The first country that we are studying is ENGLAND, and I'm very excited about this. Being a life-long Anglophile and lover of all things English, England is pretty much my favorite country! Using our curriculum and a host of other online searches, I've come up with a decently long list of topics that we'll be enjoying, and I am excited to share them with you soon! (As this will be a unit study for K-6, I will not include topics that would be appropriate for older students, like hardcore history studies or more complicated literature like Austen and Dickens.)

And, of course, it would be possible to spend the rest of our home education years studying nothing but England and still have more yet to study. England has one of the richest cultures in the world, and plumbing the riches of its historical and cultural gems would be a lifelong study. We will study only a small sample of all the wonderful things that England has to offer. 

Even in just doing the preparation for this unit study, I am finding how poor my K-16 history/geography education was. I actually thought that "Great Britain" and "England" meant the same thing! Oh, goodness. It's lovely to fill in the (many) gaps in my own education while working with my children!

When I started this blog post, I had my list of topics ready to share with you all. However, as we get further into this study, I keep adding more topics... and more topics... and more topics. To keep from having to come back continually to update this entry, I will simply wait to publish the unit study details until we're pretty much done with it. Wait for it - I'll post it before Christmas! (Remind me if I forget.)

In the meantime, I'm off to do a unit study.... on apples. After reading this apple collection at Raising Arrows and this apple book collection at Raising Mighty Arrows (check out her apple activity list as well)... well, it was too much for me. Apples, here we come!

Oh, and England too. Forgot about that part.

The first week's library book load for our unit study on England !

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend, everyone! 

Putting Breakfast on Autopilot - A Weekly Rotation Plan!

As our family grows and our school-time activities expands, I am constantly on the lookout for anything that will make our days and weeks run more smoothly. Anything that can be put on some sort of autopilot is a special blessing, because it removes the time-burden of planning sessions.

One household item that has worked very well on a rotating schedule is breakfast. Planning breakfasts was really turning into a nuisance, and scheduling the same meal for the same day of the week is working beautifully. Here's how it works right now:

Monday: Yogurt with berries (seasonal or frozen blueberries) and homemade granola
Tuesday: Scrambled eggs
Wednesday: Oatmeal
Thursday: Fried eggs
Friday: Cereal
Saturday: Special (pancakes, waffles, donuts, fried cornmeal mush, etc.)
Sunday: Oatmeal

Egg days usually have fruit or meat with them.

I would love to add toast to some of these meals, but - alas! - gluten is an issue around here. If gluten is were not an issue (or if we have gluten-free bread around, which we never do), I love to put Peanut-Butter Banana Toast (toast, peanut butter, honey, sliced banana) on the menu - easy, fast, delicious, lots of protein and healthy fat to keep kidlets from getting hungry quickly.

I don't serve cereal very often because I find that its "staying power" is pretty much zero - in other words, I can't even get the dishes washed before I hear "Mom, I'm hunggrrryyyy." I try to make sure that meals have protein and fat to make sure that they will get kids through to the next snack or meal time.

(All of the above, of course, applies only to the family - for me, breakfast is eggs, usually in the form of a vegetable omelette! Yum.)

Regardless of what meals are chosen (I've changed my selections several times!), it has helped very much to have a regular rotating plan. I'm sure that the meal choices will change, but I plan to continue keeping a rotating schedule.

I know that some families choose to do something similar with dinners - for example, Monday is an Italian dish, Tuesday is Mexican, Wednesday is soup, etc. I've even heard of families that have the same dinner on the same nights of the week - i.e. Monday is meatloaf, Tuesday is tacos, Wednesday is roast, etc. That last one would be a bit much for me! But I do realize that some sort of weekly dinner routine would also be helpful - though I haven't gotten that far yet. Something to plan for the future!

Yogurt Parfaits - plain yogurt, strawberry jam, frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries. Incredibly easy to make! 

How do you streamline your meal planning, for breakfast or dinner? (Or lunch or snacks, for that matter?) I'd love to hear your tips and tricks!

Finishing Our First Charlotte Mason Picture Study Series - John Singleton Copley

This past week we finished our first-term series of Ambleside Online Charlotte Mason Picture Study, looking at the works of John Singleton Copley.

It has been a complete success!

Truly, I never knew that one could actually enjoy classic art. Or that it was really worthwhile to do so. In my seventeen years in the California Public School system, the total time that I spent studying art (classical or otherwise) was a big, fat zero - so this is my first formal exposure to really good art. It's awesome! I am enjoying it very much, as is our 7yo, and I plan to continue using this schedule as we move through our home education experience. I'm so glad that our children are getting this opportunity, and I'm thrilled to be along for the journey.

An added benefit of having art books around the house is that I have often picked them up to read the history and/or artist biographies, and I've really enjoyed learning about the pictures and their backgrounds! We've discussed various historical details as a family, and it's quickly becoming part of our family culture. My husband is becoming accustomed to walking into a room and hearing, "Hey, hon! Come here! You've got to see this picture!" (Or hearing about obscure historical details surrounding the artist and his works.)

Adding art to our curriculum has also been a great way to add even more history, culture, vocabulary, etc. to our knowledge-base. For example, today - as we started with our new artist, Edouard Manet - we discussed the following:

(1) The American Civil War (going on while the painting in question was created)
(2) The meaning of the word "parasol"
(3) Horse-racing, jockeys, race-tracks, etc.
(4) The geography of France
(5) Locomotor ataxia, the disease which eventually killed Manet

What an awesome way to add richness and culture to home education!

For our now-completed first-term work studying the works of John Singleton Copley, here are the paintings that we studied in depth (we studied many others less formally):

"The Copley Family"

"Paul Revere"

"Samuel Reproving Saul for Disobeying the Commandments of the Lord"

"The Nativity"

"The Red Cross Knight" 

"Watson and the Shark"

Here are just some of the topics that came up during our discussions of these pictures:

- Ships and sea travel
- Sharks
- Country flags
- Neo-Classicism
- The legend of the Red Cross Knight (read "St. George and the Dragon")
- Bible history (Saul & Samuel, the Nativity, etc.)
- The story of Paul Revere, and the science of silver smithing (we got lots of books on Paul Revere out of the library - including Longfellow's poem - and are still enjoying them!)
- Period clothing, wigs for men, infant mortality in history, etc.

And those are just a few from memory!

Picture study has been a wonderful addition to our school time - I'd encourage anyone interested to give it a try!

Easy Autumn Craft - Apple Print Wreaths!

I found the directions for Apple Print Wreaths over at Mama Jenn, and we did them yesterday and today. Easy, fast, and drop-dead gorgeous! (Ours didn't look as good as hers, but that's just life!)

See above link for directions!

A couple of my notes:

- Not having green foam, I just painted leaves and cut them out as well. They came out beautifully!

- Not having a stick or lots of apple stems hanging about to use as stems, I used... a broken-up palm frond! It worked beautifully!

- Plan two days for this craft - one for painting, one for cutting and gluing. 

- A glue gun is a must for this project, unless you want it to take approximately two years to complete! 

Hat tip to Amy at Raising Arrows, where I first saw this idea (on her awesome list of apple activities!).

Enjoy!

Family Pictures!

My sweet sister-in-law lent us her photography skills this weekend while our family was in town for our "Fall Birthdays" celebration, and she took some quick family pictures! Here they are!

With our youngest, also known this weekend as "The Clingy One."

DH with our middle child, who was obviously SO into this picture thing!

Notice the tooth on our eldest - hanging by a thread! Any day now!

Because life is just better in sepia. 

Have a wonderful morning, everyone!

We Fought the Craft... and the Craft WON!

Alternate title: "Why Our House Is Now a Superfund Site"

While searching the internet for fun things to do with our Galloping the Globe curriculum, I ran across this fun-looking craft from Pioneer Woman - making a paper-mache globe! Is that an awesome idea, or what?

I decided that we, too, were going to make a paper-mache globe. It looked like fun, and it couldn't be that hard. Right? Right?

However, from the very beginning, this craft was cursed by the universe. Seriously. Every single step of it.

But at the beginning, I didn't know that. So I blithely wrote "balloons" on our grocery list and planned to go ahead. Ah, the innocence of youth.

For several weeks, DH - who does a lot of the shopping - just forgot to buy the balloons. That was okay. I just kept putting them on the list.

After a month or two of that, the balloons were finally remembered and bought, and we moved ahead. The 7yo and I concocted the paper mache mixture (recipe at above link), waited a few hours for it to cool, and grabbed out a balloon to give it a whirl.

Yes, this picture is upside down. But you get the idea. 

Except that the balloons were.... mini balloons. And not just mini-balloons, but oval-shaped at that. (Most balloons are. I don't know why I expected anything different, but I did.) Well, crumbs. Balloons (big ones!) went back on the grocery list, and the toddler got the balloon.

I consulted the internet again, and several sources said that paper mache mix would last for several days in a covered container. Great! I boxed it up and figured that it would be ready for another day.

Two days later, after we had gone to the dollar store and come home with a package of punch balloons (much rounder than normal balloons), we were ready to go again.

We came home, went to the kitchen, and opened up the container of paper mache mixture.

And...

And....

And...

Well, I'm not sure WHAT was growing in there, but...

(1) It was bi-colored. Pink and yellow. 

But more importantly...

(2) It was BUBBLING. Actually bubbling. You could sit there and watch it bubble.

After I got done dancing around the kitchen while shouting "Holy cow, it's bubbling!", I realized that we might not be able to use that batch of paper mache mix anymore. Just possibly.

I realized later, though,that what happened was actually quite the compliment to my kitchen! For several years I've been working on developing a healthy microbial atmosphere in my home. Among other things, I've been engaging in a ton of lactofermentation - making constant batches of yogurt, kefir, kombucha, lacto-fermented salsa, sourdough, etc. - and the fact that my kitchen was basically able to produce something like an active sourdough starter (i.e. my paper-mache-gone-bad) in under 48 hours was quite a compliment to my kitchen!

After I realized that, I got pretty excited - and by the time my husband got home, I was insufferably smug about the fact that my kitchen had been able to produce a sourdough in two days. I met him at the door with a big "Look what I did!" (Notice how I took the credit.)

But I digress.

The paper mache project was put off for yet another day.

The next morning, I made up another batch of paper-mache mix. We let it cool. And we headed outside to make this thing work!

Oh. my. goodness. gracious. What an adventure.

The 7yo, who was supposed to be helping, is as finicky as a cat about getting his hands sticky. So it required something like an act of God (or at least threats of imminent doom from me) to get him reluctantly involved in helping with a few strips.

The toddler, on the other hand, who absolutely glories in messes, was enthusiastic about plunging his arms into the goo as far as possible, and he was soon coated head to foot in one big mess.

And, though I didn't know it (never having done this before!), paper mache is an incredibly messy project that takes forever!

Add in some dirt, plus the cat's water (that the toddler obligingly poured into the middle of everything), and we soon had a mess for the ages.

Oh, and you can also add in an enormous bark scorpion, whom we found about four inches from where both children were standing barefoot.

By the time we were done with round one (of three), the kids were a mess, I was a mess (physically and mentally!), and the patio was a mess. Cleaning up required a hose-off for the patio and table, a bath and full clothing changes for all involved, and an extra load of laundry.

Oh, my! I was not looking forward to doing this two more times! But at least round one was done, and it looked pretty good.

We left it to dry and went on to do lessons (another bad idea). Several hours, I came back to check on it (it's supposed to dry between layers), and found....

Yup. Disaster strikes again. The balloon had apparently popped before the first layer could dry enough to support the shape.

And it was at that point that I walked the entire project to the trash can and said a firm and final farewell.

Of course, I was pretty disappointed. We'd put in a lot of time and work. But when I realized the work that still had yet to be done on that critter (two more paper mache applications, plus gluing on continent shapes and painting), I realized that I should count my blessings. This was one project that was not meant to be.

If you DO attempt this project, here are a couple of tips:

(1) Use punch balloons. But don't buy them from the dollar store.

(2) You're supposed to use narrow strips of newspaper in order to get a smoother finished. Pioneer woman cheated and used wider strips to finish faster - and I should have done the same. A rough topography is easily preferable to the time it takes to do this project using narrow newspaper strips!

(3) Do this project OUTSIDE. But don't just do it outside - do it on the grass or dirt! You'll save yourself the trouble of hosing and/or scrubbing the flour goo off of your cement.

(4) Do not attempt to do lessons on the day that you tackle this. Or run errands. Or do housework. Or anything else. Realize that the entire day will be sacrificed on the altar of this project.

(5) And here's the big tip: Unless you are among the extremely sturdy of heart, skip this project altogether and do something easier.

Enough said. 

Created to Be His Help Meet!

This past week, I devoured Debi Pearl's "Created to Be His Help Meet." It immediately became my absolute favorite marriage book, and I want to highly recommend it to you all!

I read this book simply on the recommendation of a friend, who told me that it was her favorite and that she had benefited immensely from it. I read it to find out what was so awesome, and was amazed to find that I, too, benefited immensely. I didn't know I had so much to improve! Wow! Having read many, many Christian marriage books, I thought I'd seen it all (been there, done that), but this book took it to a whole new level. I found so many things that I need to improve in my behavior and attitude toward my husband, and I am so thankful that my friend loaned me this book. Now that I've read it at lightning-speed, I'm going to go back through it again with a fine-tooth comb, making notes.

"Created to Be His Help Meet" is not for the faint of heart. It is full of biblical truth, but it is biblical truth in a blunt, straight-forward manner that many will find offensive. There is a reason that this book is controversial, and disliked intensely in many circles! It is necessary to discard every shred of culturally-ingrained feminism from one's mind before one will be able to find the blessing in this book. Otherwise, the reader will spend her time being offended and insulted by Debi's manner of writing. She does not candy-coat the truth, or dress it up with ribbons and flowers in the typical "Christian women's book" style. She is hardcore. Very hardcore. Be ready for the challenge of your life when you read this book.

When I read this book, a certain movie scene kept replaying over and over again in my mind. Please note that I do not recommend this movie, and have not seen it since I was a child - but this book really reminded me of this scene, and thinking of it kept me giggling the whole way through. In "Created to Be," Debi Pearl does not pander to our egos or our desire to keep biblical submission quasi-feminist. She tells Truth with a capital T, and she does not gloss over the harder parts. Every page is a new "Get ahold of yourself, woman!" 

And frankly, that's just what I needed.

  

(Please note that I am offering the above illustration humorously. Please don't email me about how I'm either (1) smearing the book and saying that Debi Pearl is an abusive writer, or (2) that the illustration is inappropriate. It's supposed to be funny!)

And that's another thing you will need when you read this book - a good, hardy sense of humor. Or again, you will spend even more time being insulted and offended.

One of the criticisms levied at this book is that "Mrs. Pearl blames every marital problem on the wife!" While I understand the basis for this criticism, I believe that this is missing the point of the book. Instead of seeing it as a blame game, we need to realize the great truth that Debi Pearl is trying to get across - the fact that women have incredible power over their husbands and their marriages. Men do not have the same power over their wives or the same ability to make a bad marriage good. It is women, and women alone, who have an amazing power to change their men and their marriages for the better. This is an amazing privilege, and one that we should take advantage of - rather than whining that "it's his fault too, so why should I have to change?" Women are incredibly powerful in their marriages - much more so than men - and this is Mrs. Pearl's point. 

Do I agree with everything in this book? Nope. Of course not! There are things here and there that I questioned or disagreed with. But there is so much good, solid, challenging truth in this book - and I think that Christian women, and the church as a whole, can benefit greatly from it - especially in an age that really tends to soft-peddle (or ignore, or even contradict and belittle) what the Bible says about women and marriage.

I should note that there are times and seasons in every woman's life when different books (or ministries, or whatever) will hit her in an effective manner. This was the right time for me to read this book. It may not be the right time for another woman to be so powerfully impacted by the same book.

I remember well the first Christian women's book I read. It was when I was a new Christian, in college, and it happened to be the first Christian living book that I had ever read. And it blew me away. I had never encountered the Christian worldview in that way, and I was just riveted to that book.

Now, however, I find that same book tame and insipid, and the material to be ridiculously obvious. The time for that book in my life has passed. At the time, however, it rocked my world.

I remember also another book that I encountered in a women's study several years ago. At the time, I found it to be a bit extreme and unreasonable. Upon rereading it recently, however, I found it to be quite sensible and helpful! Again, there are times and seasons.

If I had read "Created to Be" ten years ago, I do not think that (1) I would have been ready for it, or (2) it would have had the same positive effect that it was able to have now. Now that I've had ten years of seeing that certain things do not work with marriage and husbands, regardless of how hard much they should work, or how hard I try to make them work, I was more than ready to hear the truths that Debi Pearl imparts about what really does work (regardless of how non-politically-correct it is).

Seasons, seasons, seasons.

Regardless, I believe that "Created to Be His Help Meet" is a treasure, and it has taken the place of my favorite and top-recommended Christian marriage book. If you haven't yet read it, I would encourage you to check it out!