Tag: homeschool

More Classical Conversations Lesson Ideas

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Part One: New Grammar Lesson Ideas  Science Experiments Science really varies for me, mostly based on if it is about something I’m familiar with. A lot of what we did last semester was fairly new to me, and I wasn’t able to devote a lot of extra time to research ahead of time. But I have been trying to utilize my resources, such as Khan Academy, and get a really solid understanding of the concepts ahead of time. This week was fantastic because I was able to explain water molecules, hydrogen bonds, and such. If I have a good grasp…

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Classical Conversations New Grammar Lesson Ideas

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This past fall I began tutoring a Foundations class for Classical Conversations. This national homeschool co-op is based on the classical method of education, so the classes are divided by the trivium paradigm. Ages 4-12 are in the Foundations class, the grammar stage. Then they move to Essentials, the dialectic stage, and then Challenge, the rhetoric stage. I tutor a Masters class, the oldest age group in Foundations. These kids are transitioning from grammar to dialectic, and for most of them this is their last year of being in Foundations. My class is really fantastic and I absolutely love spending time with…

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Monday Morning!

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I took a brief hiatus over the weekend as I was trying to get over a rather nasty cold. I figured that either during or after Lakeshore I was bound to get sick, and sure enough, it happened. But thankfully I got it after Lakeshore, so I just spent the majority of last week catching up on Sherlock and Downton Abbey : ) Don’t worry, there will be posts to come about those. And Doctor Who. Considering I haven’t talked much yet about the Christmas special, it definitely deserves a post of its own! Meanwhile, now that I’m feeling much…

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Rebel Against Mediocrity

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The word rebel has negative connotations. People seem to perceive it as hedonistic, self-centered denial or attack of some set structure or system, for the sole purpose of denying something to which other people adhere. Sometimes people rebel simply to rebel, but there can be completely valid and good reasons to rebel. Think about this way. If no one ever rebelled, nothing would have ever been done differently, and society today would be exactly the same as it was 6000 years ago. The first person to invent and use the wheel was rebelling against their cultural system. The Reformers were…

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The Pursuit of Knowledge: An Education Manifesto

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I’m working my way through this fascinating book by Michael Ward, Planet Narnia. It is an attempt to give the Chronicles of Narnia a coherent unity, focus, and theme by arguing that C.S. based each book from the mythical personality of one of the medieval planets. For instance, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is inspired by Jupiter or Jove, the god of happiness, celebration, and so forth. I’m greatly simplifying the scope of this book, which not only explores the medieval mythology in the Narniad but also in his sci-fi series, Out of the Silent Planet, and his…

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Randomness

Well, I wanted to make this a more coherent post, but I couldn’t think of how to make it that way. I haven’t finished any books recently, so I can’t do a book review. And I can’t think of some controversial subject I need to argue about, haha. So instead I’ll just talk about some of the things I’ve been doing and learning recently… I was a little shocked to discover that in my Khan Geometry course I was expected to do algebra! I thought I had left x far behind, but sadly, not. So…I had to do a ton of…

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Strangely Silent

So I haven’t been posting much on here for the last few days. That is not because I can’t think of anything to say, I actually have a list of about 6 topics I want to blog about. The problem is that I simply don’t have the time. Why? You’re probably thinking “yeah right, she’s just lazy and doesn’t feel like doing anything.” Actually… I’ve watched about 6 chemistry videos from Khan Academy. Any videos I watch take a long time because I keep pausing the video to take notes. I also really like the format of the Khan videos,…

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A Tale of One Procrastinator

This is rather ludicrous. I have A Tale of Two Cities on my desk, right next to my computer, with my bookmark inserted at the end of Chapter 1, and although January 31st is looming ever closer, instead of picking it up and plodding through Dickens, I’m blogging. Like, I never blog unless I have absolutely nothing else to do or unless there is some earth-shattering thing to say. But suddenly this evening it is of immense importance that I blog, even to the point of abandoning Dickens for the sake of blogging. So instead of reading a book, I’ll write…

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Report on First Mises Academy Class

If you know me on Facebook then perhaps you were following my saga last night which went like this: 12 hours before class: “Bad news: FB finally forced me to get the new profile. Dislike. 🙁 GOOD news: Mises Academy class starts TONIGHT!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)” 3 hours before class: “Class starts in 3 hours. I’ve got about 18 more pages to finish reading. This is really, really great though. I’m uber-excited!!! :-)” 10 minutes before class started: “This is great! I’m attending the first session of the Intro to Logic course!! It is AMAZING!! If you haven’t taken a Mises…

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So What Is Going On?

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You may have noticed the new buttons (graphics, not little round things on your clothes) on the right side of my site. While I know graphic artists who would do far better at this than I ever could, I don’t like to intrude on them all the time, so I’m slowly figuring out how to do it myself. You might be looking at all of that and thinking, “how does she find time to sleep!?” which is a correct question to ask as I am extremely busy. If you recall, I’m also doing two private classes for my special students…

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