School has officially begun. We are starting with a Language Arts block centered around Fables, and later blocks will be stories of Legends/Heroes and Saints. Why? "There is a gentle awakening as the child moves from the dream-like world of fairy tales to the humorous, self revealing world of the fables. The veiled world of magic, of archetypes, of "happily ever after", gradually lifts to expose the world of the individual, a self, separate from the archetype. At around age 8, or when the child is in second grade, is the time for the child to hear stories that reveal the human moral contest between right and wrong. There are saint and hero stories of humans who have striven to do good; to be kind, brave and generous. Conversely, there are stories that reflect the baser side of human nature, human shortcomings that include; pride, foolishness, selfishness and laziness. These are the fables. More often than not, the characters of these stories who reveal these behaviors are animals; animals who can be laughed at, animals whose human-like antics delight, animals who then, ultimately, teach." - Sieglinde De Francesca from "Teaching with the Fables."
After they opened their gifts, we did a circle time which included, verses, songs and skip counting review with bean bag tossing. After that, Grant had his penny whistle lesson.
Once we were done with the music lesson, we headed over to the table to do a form drawing. Grant will be working with some "mirror imaging" forms this year, as he will have to draw the mirror image of what I draw.
After he practiced the form drawing, and then drew it in his main lesson book (MLB), I told him the fable of The Bear and the Bees. I used some props to make the story more fun. The moral of this fable is basically, it's wiser to bridle one's anger over a trifling injury than to risk a thousand more. Getting mad over little things can make it worse. We don't actually tell that to the children, but let them figure it out for themselves.
When I was done telling the story, Grant and I drew a picture from the story with our block crayons in our MLB's (I have a mother's version to keep all of my drawings, etc, for future use).
Mom's Drawing
Grant's Drawing
I did make the mistake of thinking that I didn't need to occupy Julia with a snack and that she would be old enough to play with Johanna while Grant and I were doing our drawing. Wrong! She, of course, wanted to be in the middle of everything, including trying to take the props while I was telling the story. When she couldn't get her way, it led to screams and tears. Aah, such a calm, peaceful environment for our school room......
Tomorrow - Snacks for sure!
Tuesday started with our regular routine of walk, circle time and penny whistle lesson. Once that was done, I had Grant re-tell me the fable from yesterday and then we came up with a short summary of it, which he copied from my writing.
Well, I had the gall to actually ask him to read it once he was done copying it. You should have heard the moaning and whining about that! Then, how could I possibly make him do a language arts exercise by telling him to turn around and tell me which words started with certain letters, and then erase a few words(from the sentences I had copied on the blackboard), have him tell me what they were, and then have him re-write them on the board. The torture! All I heard was, "Mom. Why are you making me do this? This is so boring. I don't want to do this. I don't like reading...etc,etc." The joys of homeschooling.......
On Wednesday I told the story of The Fox and The Stork. Moral: Do as you would be done by. After the telling, Grant and I drew a picture from the story.
Mom's Drawing
Grant's Drawing
On Thursday, Grant re-told the story to the girls using some fun props. Afterwards, the girls wanted to get in on the story telling action, and Johanna (with Grant's assistance) set up her own story.
Julia entertained herself with the rocking rainbows, and Grant set her up with some animals of her own (mostly so she wouldn't steal theirs.)
Grant and I came up with a summary for the story, and he copied it. Once he was done with that he read it back to me and we did some exercises with the summary on the blackboard. Luckily for all of us, Grant was in a much better mood today.
We also had some furry friends keeping us company this week.
Grant and I did some knitting in the afternoon, and my hope is Grant will finish his penny whistle case by Christmas!
We took the day off on Friday to pack for our big trip to Iowa.
