Category Archives: Weekly Update Year 2

The Second Week // Year 2

This was a bit of a light week, work-wise, because I had a terrible cold for most of it. A lot of the work we do involves my reading out loud and I just didn’t have the energy (or the voice) for doing much of that. Still, we did get some work done.

Lillia’s Adventures

wise guyWe are continuing our work on Ancient Greece. This week Lillia read Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates, written by M.D. Usher and illustrated by William Bramhall. One of the great features about this book is that there is a narrative aspect which provides an overview of Socrates’s life, but also on each two-page spread there is an info box with more detailed information about his life and philosophy. I’m not sure how Lillia read it, but I thought it was nice that there was an option to read just the story, or just the boxes, or both, in whatever order one chooses. The illustrations are also nicely done — Socrates is not often depicted as a child, but I think the illustrator did a great job of portraying him in his youth. We’re also still reading Black Ships Before Troy and just finished up the part of the story where Patroclus is killed. If you’ve read The Iliad then you know what happens next! (Hint: things don’t look good for Hector…) Next week, when my voice has returned, we will start reading about Archimedes as a nice way to tie the history of Science in to our Humanities unit on Ancient Greece.

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Because I was not feeling that great, Lillia picked up a lot of the slack this week. She did some great independent work in math, but she did get pretty frustrated when confronted with multiplying two-digit numbers with one-digit numbers (ex: 24 x 3). At one point she ran out of the house in tears, but then I looked out the window and saw her trying to solve the problem with chalk on the driveway. When I thought she was calm enough, I joined her and tried to explain the process. I think she got it, for the most part, and practice will help. I have noticed this year that Lillia really wants to be alone when working through a hard problem. She doesn’t want help, necessarily, unless she asks for it. I know it’s because she doesn’t want me to see her get the wrong answer. I am thinking about how to use this aspect of her learning style in a positive way. Suggestions?

I’m feeling a lot better now, so hopefully it will be full steam ahead next week.

Zane’s Adventures

This week Zane was very involved in an interesting construction project. My husband, Damian, has been working hard this past week to build me a desktop for my “office” in our bedroom closet. Zane was really enamored of the whole process, especially the parts that involved power tools!

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And, of course, once the boards were installed there was painting to do! Here he is “practicing” with some of the supplies.

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Also, I am pleased to say that Zane can now correctly identify red, orange, green, blue, purple, and brown, at least most of the time. Color blindness runs in my family, on my mom’s side, so there is a small chance that Zane is red-green deficient. Neither one of my brothers inherited the condition, so it’s possible that my mom and I are not carriers, but we have never had that confirmed. He has no trouble at all identifying red, but sometimes confuses purple and green. I don’t know if that’s because those colors look the same to him, or just because he hasn’t quite mastered them, in terms of labeling. He’s too young to take a color vision test, so we’ll just have to wait and see (no pun intended – ha!).

Mama’s Adventures

I’ve been wrestling quite a bit this week with the subject of women in philosophy. I ordered the Young Person’s Guide to Philosophy for Lillia and was thumbing through it when I noticed that there were only TWO women philosophers mentioned in the whole history of the discipline, dating back more than 2,000 years (Hypatia & Simone de Beauvoir). Was it possible that this was just an overly sexist book? I looked at the information about the assorted editors and consultants who helped to make the book…overwhelmingly female. And, to give the book’s author credit, he tried really hard to include women whenever possible (mentioning the contributions of wives and mothers seems to be a popular technique). But, it turns out that philosophy has been, and STILL IS, so male-dominated that these two women accurately represent women’s recognized (key word) achievements in the discipline of philosophy. Boy, does that make my blood boil. The old cliche that “women can’t think” is alive and well, folks. And, I’m not the only one who has noticed. If you’re interested in reading more, click on the links below. Now I’m on a quest to find a way to teach the history of philosophy to Lillia without bringing attention to the fact that 1/2 the population of the world has been virtually excluded from it…and still is.

“What is it like to be a woman in philosophy?” (a WordPress blog)
Women in Philosophy: Do the Math (from NY Times)
Name Five Women in Philosophy: Bet You Can’t (from NPR)

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Filed under 2014, Books, Weekly Update Year 2

The First Week // Year 2

Can you believe it’s already the beginning of another school year? The summer went by too fast. It always does.

Lillia’s Adventures

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This week we picked up right where we left off last spring with the Ancient Greeks. We’re continuing in Roy Burrell’s Oxford First Ancient History with the Persian Wars. We learned about Darius I and his defeat at Marathon. Lillia felt quite sorry for Pheidippides for having to run so far and then to fight in a war directly afterwards! We also learned about the battles between Greece and the Persian Empire (at this time ruled by Darius’s son, Xerxes). We learned about how the Greeks suffered defeat at Thermophylae, but were able to outwit the Persians at Salamis by ensnaring them in a narrow passage of water between mainland Greece and the island of Salamis. The Greeks had an advantage in naval warfare as their ships were superior to those of the Persians. We are continuing to use the note-taking method that we developed at the end of last year using templates from Tanglewood Education in conjunction with images that I prepare and print out ahead of time (the templates are available as a download and cost on $2.50 — probably one of the best investments I’ve made since we started homeschooling). This method seems to work well for Lillia because I do the work of pulling out key pieces of information and she is still responsible for filling in the details.

We’re also reading Black Ships Before Troy, by Rosemary Sutcliff, an adaptation of The Iliad that is beautifully (I mean really beautifully) illustrated by Alan Lee. I’m a huge sucker for beautiful illustrations, which is what drew me to the book in the first place, but Sutcliff’s prose is equally amazing. I love that she was able to preserve the Homeric-style naturalistic analogies (the movements of soldiers are often compared to water, or birds, or other natural phenomena), while at the same time constructing a plot line that younger readers can follow and that doesn’t dwell so much on the gruesomeness of combat as the original. I highly, highly recommend this book, and you absolutely must get the illustrated hardcover or you’re missing half the beauty.

In math we are starting Life of Fred: Goldfish over again because we were only a few chapters in and I thought it would be good to refresh our memories. Additionally, this is the first book in the series that deals with multiplication and I want to make sure that we are thorough. Here she is diligently answering her “row of practice” problems.

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One of my goals for this year was to help Lillia learn to write on command without freezing up. I thought that a good way to do this would be to use a writing journal with pre-made pages that had prompts on them — nothing too personal, just short little assignments. I found a really nice set of back-to-school themed prompts on Teachers Pay Teachers and we’re giving them a try. So far, she’s done them without complaint, so I’m really thankful for that! The author of the prompts has a package with a whole year’s worth of prompts. If these keep working well for us, I might buy it. The calendars are pretty cute.

That’s about it for this week. Next week we’ll be starting science, handwriting, and poetry/music/art appreciation. We’re easing into the new school year.

Zane’s Adventures

Over the summer Zane experienced a huge cognitive shift: his language skills accelerated at an unparalleled rate; he can now sit through several picture books without getting antsy; he can identify red and blue consistently, and often green; and just this morning I discovered that he can count to 4 (if prompted with 5, he can count all the way to 8)! He just turned two at the end of August, so I think he is doing really well. Here he is enjoying a little mid-morning snack with Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.

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Also, his imagination is really developing. He can now tell little stories to himself while playing with his trucks (he says what they are doing and sometimes includes a little narrative). And, everything has the possibility to be anything. For example, these chunks of playdough and cookie cutters are clocks. He said, “Tick tock, tick tock.”

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I would really like to get him involved in something that gives him access to his peers. The only people he sees are grown-ups and tweens! I am considering story time at our local library, or maybe a dance or tumbling class. He’s very physical, and his gross motor skills are right on track if not ahead of schedule so I think he would enjoy doing something movement-based.

Mama’s Adventures

I’m feeling pretty good about this coming year. With a whole year under my belt, I no longer feel like a newbie struggling to make heads or tails of this whole homeschooling thing. Despite my confidence, I am still hesitant to tell people (especially strangers) that we homeschool our daughter. It’s amazing to me how judgmental people are when they encounter something that’s even just slightly outside of the “norm.” I’m not saying they’re not entitled to their opinion and, given the ubiquity of public education and the sort of religious zeal that people have for it, I’m not that surprised that they think we’re weird and/or damaging our child. But, I know that we are actually doing something great for her and that we are all lucky to have this opportunity for as long as it lasts.

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Filed under 2014, Books, Weekly Update Year 2