Mid-winter schooling

Perk of homeschooling #132: After having completed a full school day, Fina spent 2 hours painting.

She took her inspiration from Constable's "Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds" (1823) with the arch-like trees!!!

She painted a detail of the nest

And that was before going out to play with her friends in the snow. We are so fortunate.

She worked on sewing using an old costume of hers. Here is some of her stitching!

Neat and even, wouldn't you say?

We read this cute book, Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst. It is about a dad who loves rocks and, after many trials in life, ends up as a curator in a museum.

We finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. It was very funny and cute. And we finished The Calico Captive and we loved it.  Now we are reading The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for our historical fiction and George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin as our free read. Both are really exciting and great fun!

Fina worked a bit on her chalk pastel drawings

We did a great nature study through the window. We journaled about the snow that was falling and resting upon the crab apple tree and upon the apples. Fina dictated the following to me about what she was seeing:

There is snow on the tree. It doesn't look sticky, but I can't tell from in here. There are three cut-off branches plus three more and four more. The crabapples are all shrivelled up. There is a branch where you could sit. Some of the bark is shredding off. The bark is in little layers, not as waxy like a birch tree, but paper-y a bit, but harder and thicker, much thicker. There is snow falling and it is sitting on little pockets on the bark on the tree trunk. There is a thin layer of snow on top of the crabapples themselves, with a bit more in the middle of the top in the hole where the stem is.

Funnily, all morning there were birds at our feeder, but right now there aren't any in the crabapple tree at all.

The snow is falling sort of like little tiny flakes. Not "spitting" in snow. A bit faster than spitting in rain. The snow is coming a bit diagonally from the east. It is swirling a little bit. It must not be very windy. The flakes are not giant.

Over past the house, there is an evergreen tree - maybe a spruce. There doesn't seem to be snow on it, from here. But it is so far away and high up, it is hard to see.

There is a bush with dried leaves. There might be a titch of snow on them, but not enough. [Fina gets her binoculars] No, there is no snow on the leaves with the binoculars.

The sun is visible through the clouds, like a bit of each. The rest of the sky is all white, as white as the snow, because the snow isn't white. It's white-ish with a teeny bit of gray. There is no blue anywhere in the sky. 

Afternoon occupations! Fina was able to spend another few hours doing some brush drawing while listening to The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang on Librivox.

On Saturday, we spent about half an hour watching a Pileated Woodpecker on our crab apple tree through the window. We had never seen one, certainly not so close up. He was pecking and pecking at the rotten crab apples, with the same brute force he uses for a trunk of a tree. The colour of his crest was incredible!

This photo does not do him justice!

And we went for a nice walk with Fina's homeschooling dad in the forest and on the creek. Freezing cold, but the sun did peak out! It was -23 celsius (feels like -33 with the wind) but we lasted for almost two hours!

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The moment in math when your daughter realizes that she can count by 2s forever! She's at 300 now. Oh, what a grin on her face as she puzzles it out!!!

The way we are doing recitation this year, we cover less ground and Fina is less likely to memorize the poems, but she is enjoying the longer read narrations. As for poetry, she is really enjoying the poems we are reading. Again, I think she would enjoy memorizing some of them. I think a hybrid of the system we used to use with the system we are currently using might benefit Fina. Only because she enjoys memorizing poetry and reciting it from memory.

We didn't have a geography mapping lesson this week, but on Tuesday, Fina just decided she wanted to make a map of the meadow in our forest.

If you know our meadow at all, you will see that it is actually correct! She correctly depicted the hold the kids play in, the various wooded areas, the creek (in orange highlighter) etc. I was beyond impressed!

Our piano lessons are going very well.

Though we have some trouble connecting with (and narrating from) Minn of the Mississippi, today we read about the voyageurs and coureurs-de-bois and the canoe that Minn found at the bottom of Lake Pepin. That sort of thing, we get!

And I just have to recount this episode from this morning's lessons.  I'm taking painting lessons from my daughter! Haha! We were painting a spruce cone she brought home from outdoor playgroup this week and this is what she says to me:

"Your is not very realistic. You may want to look at mine, for the next time you want to paint a pine cone, for some inspiration. Yours is very pretty, but it really isn't very realistic, I'm sorry to say." And "Yours is too fuzzy. It looks like a piece of moss. It would be nice if it were a piece of moss. But not a cone."

Then, she proceeded to give me pointers on how to use certain techniques to make it look more realistic. I just had to laugh. Her conversation was in no way malicious, but completely in earnest. To be honest, hers does look more realistic. And I'm not surprised!

Fina's drawing

And mine!

I'm a good sport, I'd say. But she is the more talented painter!

Then, she continued on her theme from last week and painted this.

We're not doing the best with handicrafts during morning lessons (I've taken them out completely from the schedule), but because I am so fortunate, Fina finds time on her own to tackle some projects - during our evening family read-aloud time, or while I'm making lunch etc.

She made this little purse. She sewed on the button, then sewed the felt together at the sides, and I cut the button hole for her. Then she decided to crochet a long chain and she sewed it on the inside of the purse. And ta da!

Cute, right?
Fina got to skate for a little while. There was more snow than I was anticipating, and I cleared a little bit of it with my tiny shovel, but she was skating just fine in 3cm of snow! It is pretty cold but it is better than it has been lately.

skating and skiing!

This week, we learned about rhythm in our Sol-fa lesson. Fina wrote out the rhythm for the poem "Peas Porridge Hot." The Zs are to represent quarter rests.

We have taken up our piano lessons in earnest and things are going very well.

Skiing

and

Skating! 

Zoom in and look at the love in those closed eyes! 

We don't have trouble getting out to play in all kinds of weather, but we haven't gotten our act together for picking up with our nature journalling.  It is too cold to take my hands out of my mitts to write our entries. I need to figure something out. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

We are making our way through Mapmaking with Children by David Sobel as part of our geography lessons. We have been doing the hands-on activities of building models, making maps and creating treasure hunts. Fina has taken to this and made a treasure hunt for me, writing down clues and having me follow them, as well as drawing a map with me having to follow the arrows on the map to follow the path to the treasure.

Fina took some scraps and sewed a blanket, a pillow and a mattress for Alfred. And she has been picking up her knitting and her crochet regularly throughout the week.

Not that serendipity is a driving force in my life or anything, but it is lovely when it happens. This morning we were reading in Calico Captive about a May Day celebration, where the habitants put up the may pole and tells about all the festivities surrounding the holiday. And then, during our history lesson from Brown's The Story of Canada, we read about the feudal system equivalent brought about in New France, with the seigneurs, the habitants and the very May Day celebration. You can't plan things to work out like this!

Year 1, week 34, day 1, April 6

We had a great Manitoba Charlotte Mason Enrichment evening last night. We were 11 moms. We did a discussion on narration and then we spent some time doing a dry-brush of a pussywillow branch. It was really wonderful!

We're continuing to read The Wizard of Oz as our free read. Fina is enjoying it. So far, I find that the movie is surprisingly faithful to the book, which is neat. (Fina has not seen the movie.)

I read Matthew 5:13-16. Fina worked on her recitations. We finished reading Benajmin Franklin by the D'Aulaires and Fina narrated throughout.

We finished Peppa se va a dormir in Spanish.
We read "A Fisherman Robbed" in The Burgess Bird Book. We read about the Osprey and the Bald Eagle.  We watched this very cool video of an Osprey swooping down on fish.

I read poem #179, "The Mouse and the Cake" by Eliza Cook in The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

We did chapter 19 of catechism and read the section about Holy Week as well.

We sang our hymn and folksong.
Fina read aloud from Benjamin Bunny.
We re-read Me on the Map.

And we spent many hours outside at the 6th birthday party of our little friend J. It was a great day!

We've skipped a few days of piano practice. We have had a few late nights and Fina has been sleeping in and I've been wanting to finish by lunch. We will get things back on track!

Year 1, week 33, day 4, April 5

This pic is from Monday. All of our snow is GONE and just look at that sky!

On Tuesday, we had a great outdoor playgroup yesterday.  We found this little guy.

And the kids enjoyed swimming in the chilly water that had pooled on our friend's yard from the flood of the creek. The floodwaters are receding, so that is great.

Today, Fina spent a long while doing a bunch of free "how to draws" from artforkidshub.com.

We started with our Bible reading, Genesis 4:17-26.
We ran through her current recitations, including "The Owl and the Pussy-cat."
I read "The Butterfly that Stamped" from Just So Stories, stopping a few times for Fina to narrate.
We worked on some new Spanish vocab, "el dormitorio/bedroom" from page 10.  We finished Peppa se va a dormir.

I read our next poem, "The Story of Augustus who would Not have any soup," poem #176 from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

Fina read aloud from Benjamin Bunny.
We made a model of Fina's room out of wooden blocks and hid things on the model and in the room for each other to try and find. It was fun! (Yes, tiny Twilight Sparkle was on our model and stuffed Twilight was hiding in the room. It was serendipitous!)

She spent some time working on her wood carving. We are currently reading Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz as our free read. I read a few chapters today. They are very short chapters.

We went out to play for a while in the afternoon.
We have our second Manitoba Charlotte Mason event tonight. We will be looking at narration and doing a nature study / dry-brush painting with a nice group of moms. I'm really looking forward to it!

Year 1, week 32, day 2, March 24

I read from Sarah, Plain and Tall and Stuart Little over breakfast.
Fina practiced her piano pieces.
I read Genesis 3:1-7 and Fina gave a great narration!
We worked on 17X of her math.
We reviewed Fina's current recitations.
I read "The Two Travelers and Bear" and "The Dog and his Reflection" from Aesop's Fables for narration.
We spent some time with our Spanish work. We sang "De Colores," did pages 5-6 from Peppa se va a dormir and reviewed page 6 of the vocab book (kitchen).
Fina worked on her cursive. Fina needs to work on connecting different letters together. We are just writing random words and hoping to hit connections we need to work on. Today, we happened upon "ot" which is good to work on!

We finished reading Paddle-to-the-Sea! So exciting. We reviewed Paddle's journey on the globe and on a map.  We will watch the NFB film soon! She is going to love it. (I don't think I ever saw it.)

We read poem #155, "The Months," from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

Fina read aloud from Squirrel Nutkin. It is a fair bit above her reading level, but she is wanting to read it. We will get back to Frog and Toad which will be a bit easier!

We sang our hymn and folksong. Fina actually knows all 4 verse of our hymn!

She wants to carve her own Paddle-to-the-Sea. I found a template online and she transferred it to a wood block she has.

Then she spent a while painting. I asked her to do a nature study first, so she painted our little succulent.

And then she painted for another half an hour.

We went outside in the afternoon.

Year 1, week 31, day 4, March 21

For life reasons, we had a slightly condensed school day today.

We started with Genesis 2:22-25.

We did some MEP math, Book 1, p9 3-4 and p 10 1-4.

I read "The Quack Toad" and "The Cat and the Fox" from Aesop's Fables. Fina narrated them.

We reviewed her recitations.

We worked on pages 1+2 of the Spanish book, Peppa se va a dormir. I read through them a few times. Fina repeated. She narrated in English what each sentence meant.

She worked on her cursive for a few moments. She is working on a list of "things that people are scared to eat because they think they are too dangerous"

We read Me on the Map and looked at our wall map to place our country, province and city. We looked at google maps to zoom into our town and to see our street.

We read our next poem, #151.

Fina read a bit of Squirrel Nutkin aloud.

She's been continuing to work on her loom knitting and other handicrafts.

And we had our outdoor playgroup in the afternoon. The kids played in freezing cold mud puddles and "ponds" and we had to change them down to their socks and pants. They had fun, but it was a bit much!

Year 1, week 29, day 4, March 8

Yesterday, we had a day full of riches only! Fina's homeschooling dad was home from work, they are on their reading break. We did a piano lesson. Fina learned p 10 out of the Alfred book.

She spent a long time in the morning working on some handicrafts.

This was a pre-existing doll's sleeping bag. 

Fina wanted to machine sew over the three sides with a fancy stitch!

And she is sewing a Moana costume for herself. The red and brown triangles were an existing patch. But she machine sewed all the other little patches to it.

I really must keep the machine out. She would easily sew a few times a week if it wasn't that I had to drag the machine down from the closet upstairs.

She also did some hand sewing on a doll's dress.  She also did some wood carving.

We read a few stories from The Olive Fairy Book as our free read while she worked.

She also did some dry brush painting to send a little note to our Ontario friends.

In the afternoon, we had our playgroup. We had 70km winds and it was a blizzard (but with very little snow). One other family joined us and the kids had a lovely time. We really are polar bear mamas!

Our creek was slushy, kind of frozen in spots, but not in others.

On a peninsula and tiny island in our creek. Yes, that is Fina sitting in 30cm of slush! 

Her boots and pants were soaked!

I have been busy getting my feet wet in my new position as secretary of the board. I don't think it is quite public yet, so I won't say which board it is. But I'm being blessed beyond belief there already!


TODAY

Fina practiced some piano and we learned a new piece, Alfred page 11. We are having short lessons every few days, with practice sessions in between. And by short, I mean less than 10 minutes.

I read from Genesis 1:26-31, day 6 of the creation story. Fina narrated throughout.

She completed 16 C, D and page 1 of E in her math book.

We reviewed Fina's recitations. She ran through all the passages she learned from A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young.

We read two Aesop's Fables. "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothes" and "The Milkmaid and Her Pail." Fina narrated both.

We continued with our next passage from Pio Peep. "De Colores" which I sang for her and she tried singing along. It is a catchy tune. I can not believe what a good attitude she has towards this whole Spanish thing. I'm so glad that I finally decided to start it in earnest!

She worked on her cursive for a few minutes.

We read chapter 24 from Paddle to the Sea, where we see that Paddle spends the winter with a kind old lady outside of Montréal, along the St Lawrence River. Fina wanted to check some things out on Google Earth, so we did that. We looked at Winnipeg and St Pierre and Toronto, Niagara Falls, the Great Lakes and more.

We read our next poem, #130 "The Boy and the Snake" by Charles and Mary Lamb, from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

We sang our hymn and folksong.

Fina read aloud from Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit.

She spent about an hour painting, while I read some of our Olive Fairy Book free reads aloud to her.

A diamond shaped canoe in our creek. Aren't the summery banks just lovely?

There was a snow day here with the local schools, so Fina spent the afternoon outside playing with her little friend K.

Year 1, week 27, day 4, February 21

I am also reading The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards in the hopes to get some ideas for Fina's 20 minute drawing lessons twice a week.

And I started reading Charlotte Mason's Scale How Meditations, edited by Dr Benjamin Bernier. I bought the ebook.

Fina did a lot of drawing, colouring, wood carving etc yesterday as she was sick.  We played monopoly. We read. She listened to the last few chapters of The Orange Fairy Book on Librivox.

She also started doing some MEP math as enrichment. Over the weekend, she did the first 5 pages of level 1.

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Today we did a slightly shortened day because Fina is still feeling under the weather.

She listened to our two Palestrina pieces over breakfast.

Today, we started with reading our Gospel reading for Sunday, Matthew 6:24-34. We used our narration jar and I got to narrate.  Fina added some things I was missing.

Fina reviewed her recitations. She practiced her lines for our performance at co-op. She almost has them memorized.

I read the rest of "The Law of the Woods" from Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty. Fina gave an excellent narration.

We did some geography. We learned about the horizon and how the world is a sphere, using Charlotte Mason's Geography, "Our World, Part II." We talked about the horizon.

We read a new poem, #120 "Loving and Liking" by Dorothy Wordsworth in The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

Fina read aloud from Frog and Toad "A Swim."

I have decided to take the plunge and try to do foreign study as part of the schedule. I was inspired when I saw a book (that we also have) in a fellow CMers pics on FaceBook. Pio Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes.  I read the first poem, "Pito, pito, colorito." I asked Fina what it meant and she was able to decipher much of it.  I had her repeat the poem, line by line, and she did. No questions asked. No explanations given. Ha!

She thought the little bird was doing nature study, because he has a pencil crayon that is the same colour of the worm.  How cute!

I set the timer for 20 minutes of drawing. I told Fina she could draw whatever she wanted. She went and found one of our free reads, Mother West Wind Stories to Read Aloud, and she wanted to draw the raccoon on the cover.

We started listening to The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang on Librivox, while Fina continued painting.

She went on to do some more woodcarving while we continued to listen. She is working on a paddle because she wants to make a giant raft for paddling in the creek this summer. (I have no idea if we can make this happen!)

We were outside for 6 hours this afternoon with our outdoor playgroup. Fina is full of mud and soaked but she had a blast!

Year 1, week 27, day 2, February 16

Over breakfast, we re-listened to Palestrina's "Tu es Petrus."

Fina also spent a long while preparing her costume for our co-op's upcoming performance of a passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We read John 4:5-42, the story of the Samaritan at the Well. I stopped a few times and Fina gave excellent narrations.
In her 15 minutes of math, she was able to complete 14E.
I read "The Goose and the Golden Egg" as well as "The Astrologer" from Aesop's Fables and she narrated both.  We then started "The Law of the Wood" from Parables from Nature. We stopped at the bottom of page 26. These stories are scheduled over three weeks, so we will just keep reading from it at our literature time slots of 20 minutes until we are done.

We are learning a passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream to perform at our co-op. Fina is playing Hippolyta and will also be speaking the Lion's four lines (the Lion is being played by our youngest member, so she will just act the Lion and Fina will speak the lines).  Fina started learning her 6 lines. We have another week to learn the lines. She will be fine! We also reviewed our other recitations. She almost knows all of "The Lamb."

We learned upper case Y in cursive.

We read chapter 21 from Paddle to the Sea.  We learned about Lake Erie.

Fina wanted to do another chapter from her catechism, and since we are a little behind, we did chapter 9.

We read two new poems, "The Sheep" and "The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog." They are both cute poems. We are enjoying The Oxford Book of Children's Verse. I was a little leery at the beginning, because we started with the early Medieval poems, but now that we are in the Nineteenth Century, we are cruising along comfortably!

Fina read a few pages from Frog and Toad, "The Story."
We sang our hymn and folksong.
Fina did 20 minutes of her handicraft. She continued with her crocheting. She learned how to make a slipknot.  While she crocheted, I read to her from one of our free reads, Mother West Wind Stories.

She is making tiny scarves for her tiny pony store.

With these scheduling cards, we now have 20 minutes of drawing scheduled twice a week. So I gave her a new notebook where she can paint anything she wants (including drawn narrations). While she painted, we listened to a Librivox recording of "The Clever Cat" from The Orange Fairy Book (another one of our free reads).

We got out in the afternoon for a ski and some play time with friends!

Fina carrying her skis with our fancy new ski straps!

Of her own volition, after supper, Fina wanted to show dad how to tie a slip knot and how to crochet a chain!