Saturday, May 24, 2014

Last Week of SOTW3 Logic Stage History Ch 38 and 42

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times by Susan Wise Bauer wasn't meant to be used primarily in this Logic (Dialectic) stage. Maybe it was just a way to organize our year.  And it worked.  So, I'm thrilled. Thrilled :-)  We practiced outlining and narrations that coincide with a classical education.  We've read many historical fiction AND non-fiction that followed along with the table of contents in this spine.  It's finished, and we have grown a year older and wiser in the process.  We very much enjoy Jim Weiss's recordings as well as meeting him at the Cincinnati Great Homeschool Convention (4/2014).  

We'll continue to use Story of the World for the last year of our Logic stage history studies.  That, however, is 2 months away, and we aren't there yet.  Enjoying our summer is the next big assignment!

SLIDE CREDITS TO G2

Friday, May 23, 2014

MEXICO AND TEXAS SOTW3CH35and40

SOTW3CH 35, begins on page 329, entitled Mexican Independence with sections about The Cry of Dolores and the struggle for The Republic of Mexico.  Mainly about Mexico 1810 between 1822.  We UPDATEd OUR MAPS FROM GRAMMAR STAGE IN BINDERS & ADDed AN ALAMO PAGE.
We INVESTed IN A BOOK:
Into Mexico with General Scott - Edwin Sabin
Book of Border Battles - Edwin Sabin Brave Hearts in the Alamo, Victory at San Jacinto, Face to Face with Mexico
Historical Tales - American II - Charles Morris Heroes of the Alamo, How Houston Won Freedom for Texas
Historical Tales - Spanish American - Charles Morris
From Empire to RepublicThe Beginning of the Struggle for Independence, The Continuance of the Struggle...
And we OUTLINEd
SOTW3CH 40, begins on page 367, about Mexico and Her Neighbor with a section about Remember the Alamo and was accompanied by a reading in Guerber's Story of the Great Republic: Ch. XXVI  The Mexican War, 1836 along with Copeland, The Story of the Alamo, Dover Coloring Book page.  
The Mexican-American War was a section with all kinds of excitement, and was accompanied with a reading from Guerber's Story of the Great Republic: Ch. XXVII  The Slavery Quarrel 1846-1848.
The accompanying KHE pages are  Pg. 342; Texas and Mexico 1835-1848, KHE pages:  Pgs. 330-331; The Arts 1708-1835. Pgs. 332-333; Architecture 1708-1835. Pgs. 334-335; Science and Technology 1708-1835. Pgs. 337-339; The World at a Glance 1836-1913.

The most exciting part of these 2 chapters was G3's reading about General Scott. He loved the Sabin book.  G2 was thrilled to make the Alamo in a Minecraft format.  

Saturday, May 10, 2014

SOTW3 References to the Dark Continent



  • SOTW3CH 36, begins on page 337, The Slave Trade Ends, The Work of the Abolitionists
  • Comments on Underground Railroad Museum in CVG (w/ pictures) and the Wilberforce movie we watched (Amazing Grace).
  • SOTW3CH 37, begins on page 343, Troubled Africa The Zulu Kingdom
  • KHE pages:  Pgs. 308-309; Africa 1700-1830
  • KHE pages:  Pgs. 272-273; African States 1550-1700


INVEST IN A BOOK THIS WEEK (Choose and report on one)
Stories from Uncle Tom's Cabin - H. E. Marshall (beginner book on kindle)
The Story of Livingstone - Vautier Golding (beginner level book on kindle about a Scotsman)
The Story of H. M. Stanley by Vautier Golding
Stories of the Gorilla Country - Paul du Chaillu (intermediate level kindle book w/ stories of hippos)
Up from Slavery - Booker T. Washington (intermediate book on kindle, read early chapters & review)
Oom Paul's People - Howard Hillegas (advanced level period kindle book w/ chapter 2 about Boers)

[BONUS:  MS OFFICE POWER POINT SKILLS PRACTICE]


Friday, May 9, 2014

Considering Virtues

Wordle: Benjamin Franklin Virtues

As our CBS ended with the final lesson on Philippians, I have implemented plans for the summer Bible study.  I received a tremendous resource years ago that employed The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett.  The book in of itself is not the Bible, but as we mull E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G over in this Dialectic stage, I want the challenge to take the stories and tall tales collected in the Bennett book and relate (debate, compare, contrast) them to the verses in the Bible concordance (I'm teaching them to use the reference tools too).  I, of course, will attempt to bring my children along for the challenge as well. The Mom at Shiver Academy already did so much of the work, I just have to get the kid copies of the books and my adult collection of the stories AND the Bible out each day of this summer to bridge the gap in what could be a lull in their maturing growth.  We've read the Bible in 90 days and we've read The Story version of the Bible by Max Lucado, so why not delve further into virtues... these three people with be paying taxes soon, so they need to know what is virtuous or not and why it is or isn't.

AND IT IS ALL TIED TO GRATITUDE.  How you ask? Well, this is where I bring in the Ann Voskamp resources that I've acquired since reading her book, One Thousand Gifts several years ago. I've followed her blog ever since.  There are monthly challenges with prompts each day to record three things we are thankful for in our lives.  This exercise combined with the reading and consideration of virtues in each story sited in the Bennett source along with Bible verses from the concordance or biblegateway.com search engine help us to practice the presence of God even when there isn't an active Bible study group over the summer.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

SOTW3 Ch 30 and 34 Topics from Latin America

We combined chapter 30, which begins on page 283, about Freedom in the Caribbean, The Haitian Revolt and chapter 34, begins on page 319, about Freedom for South America, Simon Bolivar: The Liberator and Freedom, But Not Unity.  

We read from Mr. Haaren's book about Kosciusko, Mr. Bachman's Great Inventors and Their Inventions Mr. Bell, Mrs. Guerber's Story of the Great Republic about Haiti and More Land Bought along with  Jackson Stories, and Mrs. Synge's Struggle for Sea Power about The Adventures of Baron Humboldt, The Shannon and the Chesapeake.  We didn't get to My Name is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell Dutch Caribbean island slave revolt this time.  But explored the websites https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/crash-course1/crash-course-world-history/you-aint-the-boss-of-me/v/crash-course-world-history-30 and https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/crash-course1/crash-course-world-history/you-aint-the-boss-of-me/v/crash-course-world-history-31.

The Tapestry Of Grace unit about a re-written Frankenstein story (not Mary Shelley's) was very much pursued by all 3Gs.  The questions were easy to discuss in a small group last week as each student clearly felt that Dr. Frankenstein was wrong and a very sad person.  I'd never read the book, but seen a version of the story in a movie a very long time ago. I"m so proud of my kids for reading this and being clear about their views.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Logic Stage Chemistry Final Book Study

After using the DK Chemistry book (2 pages at a time each week), Mr. Fabre's Wonder Book of Chemistry, Mr. Tiner's Exploring the World of Chemistry, Hands of a Child "Introduction to Chemistry" and "Metals" Notebooking pages, websites http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/multimedia/ and 
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry with a little CK12 Webtextbook on physical science included, this source about the periodic table with Christian faith-based topics interwoven was just the right end to our "mostly Charlotte Mason" middle school chemistry year.  We enjoyed a fabulous grammar stage course about chemistry from Elemental Science 4 years ago, and simply added to those materials in our science binder.  This course of study was not heavy on experiments unless you count the kitchen chemistry that we enjoyed eating.  The soil chemistry project commences now that we can loosen dirt from our flowerbeds in spring.  But, we've not exhausted the huge field of chemistry for these 3Gs so the rhetoric stage can delve-deep dive into extensive study in 2017 (if you can believe that).  

So, after exploring Eva Varga's post here about the Bunsen burner and reading the Elements book about Rubidium, we wrote in our notebooks about our trip last year to Germany and the University where Herr Bunsen worked was a great fit.