Library Book Sale

Emily Anne and I hit the local library book sale after dropping Will off at preschool today. We scored some great classics at great prices and also helped out our great library! Children's hardback books were fifty cents; paperbacks, a quarter! We came home and displayed our finds on our rain gutter bookshelves.

Here are some books that will be great for American history next year.

I was excited to find some of the books of the Narnia series, especially as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be coming out as a movie soon. I will be on the lookout for the other books to fill out the series.
This book will be great for Biology.


Emily Anne was excited to find these classic books about horses. We read Misty of Chincoteague this summer, and she's very excited to have her own copy of this favorite. She's also looking forward to reading My Friend Flicka.

I thought these books would be good for Emily Anne in a few years, but she surprised me by sitting down with the Nancy Drew and reading a couple of chapters this afternoon. I remember devouring these mysteries when I was young, but not quite as young as Emily Anne!

We thought this book would be good for Will and also good for later this year in history when we cover the Middle Ages in Britain.

Emily Anne is a huge fan of Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putty and Tabby books, so we thought Poppleton might be good, too.

Here are some great classic read-alouds.

I am really excited about this book. It is a poetry textbook from the 1920s and is labeled with the second grade, just right for Emily Anne.

Check out the endpapers! I love the silhouette of the children on a flying carpet and the implication that poetry can take us to other lands!

Here is the title page.

They included "Winken, Blinken, and Nod", along with a charming illustration.

I'm looking forward to reading these poems, perhaps at a weekly tea. Aren't new books fun?

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Week 5

Week 5 at Seven Pillars Academy was kind of slow, due to Emily Anne's stomach virus. It was a more laid-back week, concentrating mainly on read-alouds.

Bible: We continued with stories from The Child's Story Bible. They focused on Paul's travels.

Earth Science: In the midst of a unit on Rocks & Minerals, we continued reading aloud The Magic School Bus's Rocky Road Trip. We alternated the reading, with Emily Anne reading aloud the "reports" that Ms. Frizzle's students wrote.

Language Arts: We continued reviewing and memorizing poems. So far this year Emily Anne has memorized "Ooey Gooey", The Owl & the Pussycat", "The Swing," and "Persevere."

Literature: We continued reading aloud Augustine Came to Kent.

Boxcar Children: Emily Anne had a project to do on the first book in the Boxcar Children series. She chose to do a "Book Sandwich" where she commented on the different elements of the book on a different ingredient of the sandwich. The top of slice of bread included the tittle, author, and illustrator. Emily Anne summarized the book on the lettuce leaf. The tomato included the book's setting, and Emily Anne drew a picture of the boxcar in which the children lived. The meat of the sandwich discussed the main character, and Emily Anne chose to write about Henry, the oldest brother. The next ingredient asked what in the book made the reader smile and say "cheese." Emily Anne wrote about when Benny requested a small skinny tail for his stuffed animal so that he could pull it. On the onion students were to write about what was sweet or tearful in the book. Emily Anne described the scene where the children met their grandfather and found that he was kind and not mean, as they had feared. Emily Anne explained what she liked about the author's style on the bottom slice of bread; she enjoyed the action and the way the siblings took care of one another.
She will have a reading comprehension test on The Boxcar Children on Monday at Co-op.

Beginning IEW: Homework for Beginning IEW including reading a short passage about gardening, choosing three words per sentence, reworking those three words into new sentences, and coming up with a summary of the passage. In addition, she added the dress-up of using hundred-dollar words to replace one-dollar words.

We're looking forward to more exciting learning experiences next week. . . and to better health!

2010-2011 School Year

So, I can finally catch my breath and try to update our year so far. Will is in 4K, and Emily Anne is in second grade. We all go to the Hartsville Home Educators Co-op on Mondays, where Will participates in preschool classes and Emily Anne is taking Beginning IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing), Earth Science, a class on the book series The Boxcar Children, and Art. I teach an Advanced Grammar course for high-school students.

The other four days of the week Will attends 4K preschool at a local church (EA also attended 3K & 4kK preschool). EA and I delve into her subjects after dropping Will off and are often continuing them after lunch from about 1 to 2. Here are her subjects this year.


Bible: We are still reading through (3rd year now) The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos. Emily Anne and I have learned so much by going through the Bible from beginning to end. We are in the New Testament now and will be finishing this study soon. I plan to then go on to a Biblical Character study using Doorpost's For Instruction in Righteousness. I'd like to see an emphasis on application in our daily lives and also some practice in looking up Bible verses. Emily Anne is also participating in Joy4U choir at church and has a Bible verse to memorize each week for that program.

Earth Science/Astronomy: Emily Anne is taking an Earth Science course at Co-op, and we are supplementing those classroom activities with additional reading from the library and The First Encyclopedia of Our World. We just finished studying the earth's interior (core, mantle, crust), and her dad helped her complete her homework assignment of creating an edible model of the earth! They used a red, chewy Dots candy for the core and positioned it inside a marshmallow mantle. The whole thing was dipped in melted chocolate chips and cooled for the earth's crust. We are currently studying rocks and minerals and are reading the Magic School Bus chapter book Rocky Road Trip.

Handwriting: We are attempting cursive writing this school year and are using Zaner-Bloser's Handwriting 2C. So far this program has been reviewing proper formation of manuscript letters, and I've been pleased with how conscientious she has been about making sure that she is forming the letters correctly.

History: History is Emily Anne's favorite subject, and we are continuing to use Susan Wise Bauer's wonderful The Story of the World. After studying Vol. I, The Ancient World last year, we are studying Vol. II, The Medieval Ages. We have covered a review of the fall of the Roman Empire, The Early Days of Britain, Christianity Comes to Britain, and The Byzantine Empire. For each section of each chapter, I read aloud the information from the text, and then Emily Anne orally answers some questions and then tells the information back to me (narration). We alternate her writing the narration and my writing the narration. I am determined to add more of the great hands-on projects this year. During the chapter on The Early Days of Britain, we made Celtic battle-axes and a dragon brooch for Emily Anne's cloak. I couldn't find the blue face-paint (left over from old Halloween costumes) so that they could draw the blue spirals that Celtic warriors drew on their faces to terrify their enemies. The red hair was pretty authentic, though.


Their battle faces are scary, arent' they?


This week we studied the Byzantine Empire. Along with the text chapters on Constantinople, The Just Empreror Justinian, the Empress Theodora, and the Eastern Church, Emily Anne has been reading aloud to me a biography on Theodora, Who in the World was the Acrobatic Empress? She has loved this book, and I wish there were more than four books in the series.

This picture shows Emily Anne coloring in the borders of the Byzantine Empire on her map for this chapter.

Will is showing off his Justinian and Theodora paper dolls modeling the soldier's uniform and wool spinner's clothing before they became Emperor & Empress of the Byzantine Empire. Will loves any kind of hands-on project that has to do with soldiers!

Emily Anne's version of Justinian & Theodora shows off their royal clothing.

While waiting for Emily Anne to finish coloring her dolls, Will built this Byzantine palace. Do you see the red and blue thrones in the top of the palace?

Justinian and Theodora are ensconced on their thrones after their coronation!

I am continuing to read Augustine Came to Kent, which we began in the chapter on Christianity Comes to Britain.

Language Arts: We are continuing are work in the second half of First Language Lessons. Most of these lessons are oral, and it is a great fit for Emily Anne, who is really great at memorization. She can rattle off the definition of a noun, the definition of a verb, and chant the list of being verbs and helping verbs. We are currently working on commas in a series and abbreviations for titles of respect. In addition to these lessons, we are continuing to memorize poetry. Her Beginning IEW class has a list of poems for memorization. We have memorized so far: "Ooey Gooey," "The Owl & the Pussycat," "The Swing," and "Persevere." Some of the poems on the list we learned last year, so I may be supplementing some poetry (I'd love her to learn "The Duel" about the gingham dog and the calico cat!).

Literature: I am trying to provide a variety of literature for Emily Anne. I have tied some of our literature to History. As I mentioned before, I have been reading aloud Augustine Came to Kent, which would be way above her reading level, but supplies some detail to augment our study of history, as well as introduces her to vocabulary and sentence structure. I am trying to find biographies and nonfiction for her to read aloud (so that I can help with unfamiliar names and places and to help with her reading fluency) that tie into our history, too. In addition, she is reading chapters in the Boxcar Children books on her own. She has had a vocabulary test in her co-op class and will have a comprehension test in the next co-op class. She will also have a creative project due the next class. We'll be deciding on a project and completing it next week. Before bedtime we have read aloud a biography of Betsy Ross and are currently reading Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes.

Math: We are using Saxon Math 3 this year. We are still in the section that reviews concepts from last year, so Emily Anne is doing great. She still panics when I pull out the timer for the drill worksheets, so lately I have been just timing her without her knowing it. She does great and finishes within the time frame as long as she doesn't feel pressured by the timer running down.

Spelling: This subject Emily Anne does pretty much on her own. She has such a good memory that she doesn't have much trouble with spelling. We are using Spelling Workout B, though, to solidify those phonics rules into spelling rules. This week she studied spellings for words with long-i sounds.

Writing: We are using Writing with Ease 2 by Susan Wise Bauer this year to help with narration, summarizing, copywork, and dictation. I love how it provides excerpts from classic literature to use with narration. In addition, Emily Anne is taking Beginning IEW at co-op. She is practicing outlining short passages in this class. Emily Anne loves writing and often writes stories on her own time. Emily Anne has also been writing three thank-you notes each day this week for presents she received at her Tea Party that you can read about here.

Well, now that this week is over, it's time to start planning next week. When is my planning period?