"'Education is the Science of Relations'; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
'Those first-born affinities,
That fit our new existence to existing things.'"

Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
with a quote from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

Friday, September 4, 2009

Our first week completed!

Summer officially ended for us August 31, the day we started back to our schedule. The week got off to a great start, if not as vigorous as future weeks promise to be. The weather has been so spectacular--the best all summer--that after First Friday Mass and Reconciliation I let the kids go out and play.

I am still updating the sidebar with out spines and readings. This year I have them sorted by child, though I may sort it by subject, too. I posted my schedule on the sidebar as well.

For World History we are studying the ancient world using Connecting with History, so we are at Creation currently. This program is specifically designed to study Salvation history together with secular history, so much of our religious study is tied in with this.

For US History we are studying the 19th century through three units. First we are covering the Westward Expansion, covering topics like Lewis & Clark, the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, The California Gold Rush, the Homestead Act, and the Transcontinental Railroad. Next we are going to cover the Industrial Revolution (there's lots of stuff in Massachusetts to explore this topic, from the Blackstone Valley Corridor to the Lowell Mills to Old Sturbridge Village.) Finally we are going to cover the Civil War, from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.

For Nature Study we are studying plants. I don't have a fun read aloud yet; I've just pulled all the science readers and picture books I have relating to plants so far. I found this interesting link to hands-on activities for learning plant classification that we will do.

We are covering some Earth Science this year, starting with rocks, minerals, and soil. Since we are doing that with our TORCH group, that won't start for a couple of weeks. I'll post more about that on AtHomeScience.

Picked up a book bag full of books from the library yesterday. No one can say they have nothing to read, that's for sure!

2 comments:

Cheryl said...

Oh I didn't know you'd be studying the Industrial Revolution this year too. You might check out the website for the Lowell National Historical Park soon. Sadly they are not open year round. They have exhibits in various locations in Lowell making it a full day field trip and well worth it.
Blessings,
Cheryl

Kris said...

Neither did I, as I always thought of it as a late 19th, early 20th century event. But after the chapters on the Constitution, my spine starts in with the Industrial Revolution, and the interpreters at OSV talked a lot about it when we visited this summer.

But my spine talked nothing of Westward Expansion, yet is one of the few that talks about the Gilded Age. At first I was trying to add in Westward Expansion in between chapters in our spine. Then the idea struck me to cover the century 3 times, first through the Westward Expansion, then through the Industrial Revolution, and finally through the wars.

It sounds really good in theory, doesn't it?