Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Learning

Our Days of Creation pages..... so far!


I'm so enjoying learning alongside Peregrine. Together we read lots of books, and while we haven't started anything "official" as far as school goes, there's plenty of learning going on around here. It's fun, and it happens so naturally as we spend our days together; does "school" really have to be much different than this? One of the reasons I'm so excited to homeschool my children is because of all I get to learn along with them! Here are some of the things we're doing right now:
  • Reading through The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine and listening to the accompanying CD. I am totally clueless about classical music so we're really learning this together. The book is separated into three sections; composers divided by era, the instruments, and the conductor. Each track on the CD highlights what we read about. The university here puts on inexpensive performances occasionally so I hope to take him to hear a real orchestra at some point.
  • Learning about the days of creation. We've been making a picture for each day. I'm no artist (read: cannot draw) and I've been raiding my scrapbooking supplies to help him do these pictures! Hooray for stickers and patterned paper!
  • Reading poetry. We have a very old, worn, and well-loved copy of Poems Children Will Sit Still For that my Mom read to me as a child. He also loves the poetry of AA Milne.
  • Reading Daniel Boone: Frontiersman. Peregrine, of course, is fascinated with the battles and the hunting, and I'm learning a lot. (Seriously, my knowledge of Daniel Boone was limited to a 'coon skin cap, exploring the frontier, and some poem about elbowroom. Pertty pathetic, especially since we learned in this book he preferred a plain cap and not the fur cap I associated with him.)
  • We're just getting started with Beginning Thinking Skills. He has enjoyed the few sheets we've done and especially enjoys playing with the cubes and blocks!
So, all this "learnin" is pretty exciting! I was surprised when I realized that Mozart was composing at the same time that Daniel Boone was exploring the Eastern frontier. Which makes me want to have some kind of a timeline we could be filling in. I know there are lots of different options. Does anyone have one they would reccomend?
I'd also like to expand our poetry selections a bit. If you know of any good books of poetry would you please let me know? Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. Timelines are so interesting - like Henry VIII and Ivan the Terrible were contemporaries.

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