Weekly book shelf, 2/21/14

We're still hanging out with the Celts this week (SOTW2 ch. 2), focusing more this week on the birth of the legend of King Arthur, which came from much, much earlier than I had ever imagined.

King Arthur: The Evolution of a Legend, is one of the only kids books I found that traced the Arthurian legend to its real beginning in the century following the fall of Rome. Like all the other books in the "Life and Times" series, this one not only presents factual information as we know it, but prevailing theories as well. And it sets the stage well, describing the way of life, traditions, and beliefs that were customary at the time. We only focused on the first part of the book. We'll check it out again when we revisit the evolving legend again in the high middle ages.

And we looked at some other early Celtic legends, too. They are simply told in this compendium, and some of the phrasing is weird. It's hard for me to tell if that's the book, or the legends themselves. We only read a few of them before moving on, but that was enough to give us an idea.

We also watched another episode from the series we started last week: "The Celts". Episode 4 of the series, From Camelot to Christ, covers some of the beginnings of the King Arthur story. I shared my thoughts on this video series last week, and this episode was equally as pretty and momentous, and just as evasive with regards to real information. But it corroborated information from the other video we watched and loved...

Back to our favorite history video guy, Michael Wood. His "In Search of Myths and Heroes" series has an episode about King Arthur that, of course, we loved. Unsurprisingly we never find King Arthur, but it's a great video.

In science this week we covered more of the body systems, focusing on the digestive and endocrine systems (still BFSU1 lesson B9). I'll say it again, but only briefly, this series is really comprehensive without being long-winded, and it's neatly presented, without too many distractions.

In literature study this week, Calvin read and took notes on The House at Pooh Corner. He read it first a few years ago, but wanted to reread it, and I thought an easy and heartwarming read would be good since we've been busy, and battling illnesses. These books are so sweet, they're like comfort food.

And in his free time this week, Calvin picked up 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's been wanting to read it for a while and this week he utterly devoured it. Un-put-downable.

Weekly book shelf, 2/14/14

In our second week of Story of the World volume 2 we meet the post-Roman Celts and the incoming Angles and Saxons (SOTW2 ch. 2)

Raiders of the North is a large book with big, vivid pictures. It has good information and is well presented. Very engaging.

But my favorite supplemental book from this chapter was The Celts (See Through History). Maps and diagrams are just some of the beautiful illustrations in this book that presents the history and mythology of the Celts of yore. Lots of information presented clearly and invitingly.

And in science we are on our second week of studying the body systems (BFSU1 lesson B9), focusing on the Respiratory and Circulatory Systems. The books from the "Our Body" series are full of facts but avoid being overwhelming with clean and careful presentation.

This week in literature, Calvin read and took notes on Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I have never read the book, but "The Rats of NIMH" was one of my favorite movies when I was little. Calvin loved the book, but he find movies a little too intense so it will be a while before we watch it together.

And he also read Winnie the Pooh for his notebook. It's a book that he read several years ago, but I think revisiting books is a good way for him to get used to our new literature study method. Plus Calvin loves revisiting books, and the Pooh series is adorable while still making use of creative sentence structure and good vocabulary.

And for free reading, he finished the NIMH series (Racso and the Rats of NIMH, and R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH), none of which were as good as the first one, of course, and he also read the entire "Plant that Ate Dirty Socks" series. Two brothers end up with a pair of junk eating plants in their room, and the misadventures ensue. Pretty much junk-food fiction.

Year 2 school plan (2013-2014, age 7)

June 2013-June 2014
Age 6 (public school grade 2)

Overview:

Grammar
Last year we were using Susan Wise Bauer's First Language Lessons books. I liked their slow pace, their focus on real literature, and the memorization and copy work strategies, but Calvin mastered the concepts quickly and soon found the repetition tedious. He has completed all the FLL books, so rather than go on with them, this year we will focus almost entirely on free and assigned reading. He will keep a vocabulary journal and write short reviews once or twice a month.
+ Added note July 2014: We started Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts Series with level one in the spring of this year, and we're thrilled. The MCT books are rich and engaging. They vocabulary and language meant to challenge a quick mind, and for us they are the perfect mixture of repetition versus movement. The series includes grammar, vocabulary, writing, and poetry books for each leve. They begin with level 1, meant for late elementary.  

History
We are continuing our journey through Bauer's Story of the World, Volume I this year. Though most people spend only one school year on each book in this four volume series, in order to counter what I perceive as the over sacred focus of the series, we have been spending a lot of time on outside sources with a focus on early civilizations and each people's myths and origin stories. Call it a rudimentary comparitive myths and religions class!

Geography
Most of our study for this discipline comes with history at this point in time—as we learn about the different civilizations we locate them on the map, coming to know the continents and their general makeup over time. I am not ready yet to muddy the waters with current political maps, but we will focus a little more this year on map reading in general.

Details: 

Grammar
Daily free and assigned reading
MCT Island series (level 1): Grammar Island, Practice Island, Sentence Island, Building Language, Music Hemispheres
Spelling Workout E

Math
Math-U-See Epsilon
Logic Liftoff Level 4-6
Perplexors Level A
Logic Safari, Book 1 
Allowance/Budget recording

Science
Building foundations of Scientific Understanding Volume I
+ Personal Inquiry and research: "What was there before the big bang?"
+ Connect the Thoughts: Lower School Physics and Astronomy

History
The Story of the World Volume I: Ancient Times
Intellego Unit Studies, K-2 World History III: Ancient China and Greece
Intellego Unit Studies, 3-5 World History I: Ancient Rome

Geography
The Story of the World: Ancient Times Student Activity Book 
McGraw Hill Complete Book of World Maps & Geography, Grades 3-6
Exploring Maps: Ancient Civilizations
Spectrum World Geography

Art
Classes through our homeschooling group (drawing, mixed media, and metal working)

Music
Piano lessons

Fitness
Swim classes once weekly
Hiking twice weekly in good weather 

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding Vol. I thread plan

We are nearing the end of our journey through the first BFSU book, and I think a review of sorts is long overdue. I love these books, but not everyone does. These aren't the kind of books you can crack open for the first time on the morning you expect to run through a lesson together. They require planning ahead, and sometimes studying ahead, depending on your own science background. Since I studied Evolutionary Biology in college I have a strong science background, but these lessons are so well described that they lend themselves to learning together for those who do not have that background, with maybe just a little extra planning time.

First, though, a bit more about what these books aren't: they are not workbooks or text books; they are not intended to be handed to a student; they don't have tests, questions, pictures, or diagrams; they are not scripted.

What they ARE, is a series of well thought out lesson plans that guide teachers and students through the basic tenets of science by following the scientific model of "show don't tell".

Lessons plans in these books are intended to be taught in a few sessions over one to two weeks, depending on the depth of the lesson and the depth of your interest. Each lesson opens with an overview, a breakdown of the parts of the lesson with suggested time expenditure for each part, and lists of necessary background knowledge, expected knowledge outcomes, and necessary materials.

Every lesson has suggested demonstrations and hands on activities as well as suggestions for general conversation. Most lessons also suggest ways to go deeper into subjects when the interest is there.

At the end of each plan is a list of suggested reading materials.

The lessons are divided into four different topic threads (the nature of matter, life sciences, physical science, and earth and space science), and all lessons in the three books are connected via a flow chart that shows a suggested order of attack and demonstrates how certain lessons flow into others and which are necessary prerequisites to others.

I first started with BFSU I a couple of years ago. At the time I picked it up and started with the first lesson in the book. It actually took me a couple of weeks to realize that the lessons were divided into the four different disciplines and were meant to be taught fluidly throughout. When I did figure that out, I sat down and spent some time with the book, creating a plan of action for us to follow.

It is easy, although a little time consuming, to sit down with the flow chart at the front of each book and make a plan of action for the school year, whatever that means to you. Where possible, we tend to focus on the Life Science and the Earth and Space Science threads in the spring and summer when the weather is nice, while in the fall and winter we focus more on the Physical Science and the Nature of Matter threads. This is what works best for us, but there are many ways to plan the order of delivery while still keeping to the suggested flow order, so you can do whatever works best for you.

We started with BFSU in Marc 2012 when Calvin was 5 (turning 6 in June 2012). Following is the plan I worked out and implemented for the lessons in book 1.

BFSU Vol. I, grades K-2

March 2012
A/B-1: Organizing Things into Categories
B-2: Distinguishing Living, Natural Non-living, and Human-made Things

April 2012
A-2: Solids, Liquids, Gases
A-3: Air Is a Substance
A-4: Matter I: Its Particulate Nature

May 2012
A-5: Distinguishing Materials
A-5a: Magnets and Magnetic Fields
C-1: Concepts of Energy I: Making Things Go
D-1: Gravity I: The Earth's Gravity/Horizontal and Vertical

June 2012
B-3: Distinguishing Between Plants and Animals
C-4: Concepts of Energy III: Distinguish Between Matter and Energy
C-3: Concepts of Energy II: Kinetic and Potential Energy
C-2: Sound, Vibrations, and Energy

July 2012 and all through the summer of 2012
B-4a: Identification of Living Things (ongoing study)
B-4b: What is a Species/Use of Field Guides in the Field (ongoing study)
B-4: Life Cycles

September-October 2012
C-1: Concepts of Energy I (REVIEW)
B-3: Distinguishing Between Plants and Animals (REVIEW)
B-5: Food Chains and Adaptations (ongoing study)
D-4: Land Forms and Major Biomes of the Earth

November-December 2012
B-6: How Animals Move I: The Skeleton and Muscle
B-7: How Animals Move II: Different Body Designs, Major Animal Phyla (ongoing study)

January 2013
B-3: Distinguishing Between Plants and Animals (REVIEW)
C-5: Inertia
C-6: Friction
C-7: Push Pushes Back

February 2013
D-5: Time and the Earth's Turning (ongoing study)
D-6: Seasonal Changes and the Earth's Orbit (ongoing study)
D-7: Gravity II: Weightlessness in space, Distintion Between Weight and Mass

March-June 2013
Supplemental: Connect the Thoughts Lower School Science IV: Physics & Astronomy

Summer 2013
B-4a: Identification of Living Things (ongoing study)
B-4b: What is a Species/Use of Field Guides in the Field (ongoing study)
B-4: Life Cycles (ongoing study)

October 2013
A-6: Matter II: Air Pressure, Vacuums, and the Earth's Atmosphere
A-7: Air: A Mixture of Gases
A-8: Evaporation and Condensation

November 2013
A-9: Matter IV: Dissolving, Solutions, and Crystallization
A-10: Rocks, Minerals, Crystals, Dirt, and Soil

January-February 2014
B-10: Plant Science I: Basic Plant Structure
B-11: Plant Scienc eII: Seed Germination and Seedling Growth
B-12 Plants, Soil, and Water
D-8: Rocks and Fossils

March-April 2014
B-8: How Animals Move III: The Nervous System
B-9: How Animals Move IV: Energy to Run the Body

May 2014
(connect to spring and planting of vegetable gardens)
B-11: Plant Sci II: Seed Germinatin and Seedling Growth (REVIEW)
B-12: Plants, Soil, and Water (REVIEW)

Summer 2014
B-4a: Identification of Living Things (ongoing study)
B-4b: What is a Species/Use of Field Guides in the Field (ongoing study)
B-4: Life Cycles (ongoing study)

For September 2014
Complete book review

For October 2014
Begin BFSU Vol. II

Greece Gets Civilized Again (SOTW ch. 20)

The emergence of Greece from the dark ages with a new language and altered culture, plus Homer's arrival on the scene, makes for a colorful chapter of history. We paused here for a moment, actually, and blended this chapter with a look into Greece's next few years of culture, mainly their contributions to general wisdom that have been passed down through the ages.

The Life and Times series of "biographies" was something we leaned on a lot here, not because I think it's a great series, but because there weren't a lot of options available to us that fell somewhere between picture books and adult tomes. The series is a victim of modern kid book insanity, so it has insets and font changes and tidbits of information that are entirely out of place, but it worked out alright because with each book I selected small sections I thought would impart the knowledge we were looking for, and Calvin had time to peruse the rest based on his own desire. We used The Life and Times of Homer, by Tracy Kathleen, The Life and Times of Pythagoras, by Susan Sally Harkins, The Life and Times of Socrates, by Suan Zannos, and The Life and Times of Plato, by Jim Whiting.

Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates, by Mark David Usher, falls under the category of "well, it was better than nothing." Created to appeal to the younger crowd, the book tries to walk the line between picture book and biography to the tune of over-simplifying the facts. That being said, used with lots of discussion and additional resources, the book isn't a bad introduction, and the pictures keep it interesting.

Pythagoras and the Ratios and What's Your Angle, Pythagoras?, both by Julie Ellis, are fun picture book introductions to the story of Pythagoras and his discoveries. I find historical fiction to be a valuable genre, and these books fit the bill for some lighter yet still informative reading, to go along with the biography we used (listed above).

Aristotle and Scientific Thought, by Steve Parker, was probably my favorite book from this section. That may be due in part to my personal love for Aristotle, but the book was also pretty well done, with lots of information presented in an easy-to-follow yet not overly-simplified manner and illustrations intended to add and not distract.

Rosemary Sutcliff's version of The Iliad, Black Ships Before Troy, is an excellent retelling for youthful readers. Her ability to retain much of the mythical grandeur of the original poem whilst making it readable for the younger set keeps the tale truly enjoyable. There are different issues of her perfect retelling out there. We selected the set (Black Ships Before Troy and The Wandering of Odysseus) with the stunning illustrations by Alan Lee. I cannot say enough about this pair of books, or the others in Sutcliff's estimable library of traditional tales retold.