Exam day! Monday February 8, AO year 1, term 1, day 1

Well, Fina and I did her exams for one hour this morning, from 9:25 til 10:30. I was beyond impressed with how she did and how much she remembered.

A few things I learned:

• Catechism taught the way it is with the book does not stick as well as narrating. How can I have her narrate something that isn't living, though? Lots of tidbits. I tried to prompt her with stewards of creation, hoping to trigger the discussion about recycling etc, but that didn't really work.
• Our Island Story is a bit of a weak point, which I already knew. Though she remembered the story of Boadicea, I'm not sure she gets that the Romans were trying to invade Britain. The over-arching theme is lost on her, though she is getting the individual stories. I won't worry about this right now.
• Paddle to the Sea is also a bit of a weak point. I knew that already as well.  She likes the story and everything, but she can't narrate the finer points of it. I wonder if it would make a difference if we had a paper copy of the book (we read it on the iPad right now)?  Maybe she would be able to see the illustrations more clearly? We are learning from it, but I always hear how kids love it so much. Her narration below is fine, but not very detailed.
• she knew that our composer was Brahms, but she didn't know any titles, nor did she have any vocabulary to describe anything to me. So she hummed the theme, which is great. But for someone with a couple of music degrees, I think I could do better! Though I haven't told her the titles, nor have we talked about what we heard. We just listened frequently. Which isn't bad at all.
• She has retained so much of everything! And she had such a positive attitude towards doing the exam. We did 15 questions, so we are about halfway through. I suspect we will only need one more day to complete the exam, even with my having added way more questions compared to the suggested AO exam.

We ended with some celebratory cinnamon buns and a glass of milk. And while I was transcribing her answers, she played some "Camelot Jr." of her own volition. (She hadn't played it in a while.) You know, just to challenge her mind a bit more.  And she even got a couple of hours of outdoor play time, even with the brutal winds out there. 

If I ever only hoped that Fina would thrive in the Charlotte Mason Method, today I definitely have my proof!!! I always thought it would be a good fit for her, but I wasn't sure. I am sure today!

These are the questions we answered today, not in this order. I jumped around, alternating narration with other things.

Here is my transcription of her speaking and some of the audio clips of the ones I think are cute to listen to. Please try listening to a few of them, just for fun.

I hope you enjoy following along with us on day 1 of exam week!

(They say you learn something new every day. It took an hour for the exam, about an hour and a half for me transcribe the exam, and then nearly three hours on and off for me to transfer the info from evernote to this blog and to pull the audio files from evernote and get them onto Sound Cloud so that I could embed them here. I even had to work in the HTML section of Blogger. I have never done these things. Thanks to dad, who even did Facetime with me from work and tried a bunch of things before getting to the Sound Cloud solution! It will go much more quickly next time.)

Please forgive the quality of the audio files. I didn't edit anything out. The sound is at times uneven. Evernote gave me a great way of organizing it, but I wonder if just taking video of each piece would be easier in the end?

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Exams are very special. Here she is on Monday morning, ready to start:

We prayed together for just a minute.

Tell your favourite Bible story so far.

Samson: 

There was a guy named Manoa. And he was married to a girl and her name was, we don't remember. And she had a baby named Samson. When Samson grew up, he fell in love with a girl named Delilah. And she asked him "what makes your strength so much?" He said "If you tie me up while I'm asleep, I'll become like a normal person." They did. And he did. When Samson woke up, he snapped the cords. And then she got upset at him and said "what makes your strength so great?" And he said "Tie me up again. I'll become like a normal person." They did, just like the first time. He died it again. It still didn't work. Then he said the real thing "if you cut my hair, I'll become like a regular person." She did but he did become like a normal person. Then they carried him away, hurt his eyes, and put him in jail and then one day they said "let Samson come out to sing for us" and he did. But he was pushing on the two pillars and the whole thing fell down on him and on the whole people.

Pick one of Kiplings’ Just So Stories and tell about it.

How the Rhinoceros got his skin:

Once there was a Tunny and it was so hot that everybody took their clothes off and the rhinoceros took off his skin to go swimming. The Tunny put all the cake crumbs in it and left it on the beach where he had left it. Then, when the rhinoceros came back to put it back on, it stuck too much. The cake crumbs got into him and he was so itchy. [some discussion]. So he scratched himself on a tree. And it came off. And it made it even more itchy. It made the cake crumbs go into him. It got lumpy. Very lumpy. [Not the best narration, she forgot].

Tell a fairy tale you remember from either the Norwegian Fairy tale book or The Red Fairy Book. 

The Lad and the Silver Ducks - from the Norwegian fairy tale book

There was a guy and he wanted to go and serve at the King's farm. But the king wouldn't let him. But he kept asking, so finally they let him.  And his brothers said to the king's servant "Our brother said he could get the silver ducks for the king." And the king's servant wasted no time in telling the king this. Then the kind said "I'll take you by your will. You CAN get me that, because you said you could." So, he went. He did get it. Then his brothers said he could get the things with checks of silver. Then, he wasted no time and giving it to the king and bla bla bla and he could get it and then he asked for the golden harp, that made everybody happy if they were sad. And the troll cried out "Are you the one who stole my 7 silver ducks?" He said "yes." And he said "are you the one who stole my checks of silver and gold" and he said "yes." And then he snuck inside. And the troll said to his daughter "ask the guy for his little finger and cut it off to see if he is fat enough." And he said "yes." And then she asked for his little finger. She gave him the nail. And she went back and said "he's still tough as a nail." The next day, the troll asked the same thing. This time, he handed her the stick. And he said "no, a little nicer." And then the next day, he gave her the candle end. And she said "he's ready now." So he said "roast half of him and boil the other." But instead, when the princess was asleep, he killed the troll princess and boiled half of her and roasted the other and dressed himself up in her clothes. And he asked his daughter (who was actually the guy) "why are you not eating?" He said "I'm not hungry." He said "Don't you remember where the harp is, where you left it? Go play that!" So she went and got it. She changed out of the princess clothes and rode away. But the troll saw him and he said "Are you the one whole stole my seven silver ducks?" And he said "yes." And then he said again "are you the one who stole my quilt with checks of silver and gold?" And he said "yes." And then he said "and are you going to take my harp? Have you tooken [we both know that is wrong, but that was what Fina said!] my harp? And he said "yes." The troll was so mad that he burst. The End!

Here is an audio clip of Fina's narration of this story. It was probably her best narration.

Tell about Boadicea, or, about Caligula. 

Boadicea:

There was a girl. Her name was Boadicea. And she was trying to fight but when she was trying to fight, she couldn't win. So she gave a potion to her oldest daughter and said "drink this." And she said to the youngest daughter "drink this." And she said "why? Do I have to?" And then she said "I'm also going to drink it." So the daughter did and they both died. And then Boadicea drank it too.

Tell the story of William Tell. 

There once was a guy named William Tell. There was an emperor and he was not very nice to the people. And so he built a ginormous pillar and stuck his hat on it. So that everybody needed to worship the pole, if they passed, or else it would die. So, this guy William Tell, passed that pole, but he did not worship it. And some of the emperor's spies were there to make sure that nobody was disobeying. And they found William Tell doing it. So they brought him in front of the emperor. And he said "Since you are a good archer, put an apple on your son's head and try to shoot the apple." He did and he could do it. All the people cheered. But the emperor said "did you take that other arrow because you thought you wouldn't do it?" "No! That one was for you." And he shot that guy. And him and his son ran away.

Tell me something about our catechism program so far.

St Francis loved animals. And even the wolves didn't hurt him. How did they not hurt him, mama?

What can you tell me about the shape of the earth? 

It's round. Some people thought that if you went, you would fall off the edge, but no. It isn't. It's cuz it's round.

Tell one interesting thing Paddle has encountered so far.

He's gone to the sawmill. He's gone to the Lake Gideon, I mean Lake Superior. And he got caught in a tree stump, floating in water like a little ferry boat. And then the ferry boat got caught on land and zip. He got there too. And then he got hooked. Did he get himself unhooked, mama?  He got himself unhooked and I don't remember anything else.

Tell me about “Moses the Kitten.”

There was a guy, a vet, and he was coming to check something out. And there was a little cat who was near the lake and he picked it up and brought it to who he was helping and they named him Moses the kitten. The lady put him in the oven and then she took him out again and then he was so cute. He was as small as the vet's hand. [Mom: Do you remember what happened at the end?] He went to live with the chickens.

Who was our composer this term? Describe one of his compositions.

Brahms. And she proceeded to hum a large chunk of his "Variations on a theme by Haydn" Opus 56a. (Take a listen to the first few minutes) 

Here is her singing it

How is that for description?!!

Recite one poem from A Child's Garden of Verses.

"Rain" and "Fairy Bread"

Recite one poem from While We Were Very Young

"Corner-of-the-Street"

Recite two passages from A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

"I know a bank"

"Captain of our fairy band"

"Bottom's Dream" - she wants to leave it this way though it is slightly wrong. She didn't want to re-do it.

"Theseus and Hippolyta" - very well proclaimed, with both voices.




Sing your favourite folksong from this term.

"Home on the Range" - sang the extra part with "the critters are locked up in chains"

Sing your favourite hymn from this term. 

"Wood of the Cradle" First 2 verses.