Tress
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Posts posted by Tress
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In a lovely coincidence, there's currently a four-part series on Ella Frances Lynch in a local paper in the Adirondacks, where she lived. I'm not sure I agree with all of this author's take on her educational philosophy, but the historical information is very interesting.
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/08/ella-frances-lynch-minervas-maven-of-early-education.html
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/08/minerva-educator-ella-lynch-goes-international.html
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/08/minervas-ella-lynch-defender-of-parental-rights.html
The last article mentions the court case in the 1930s.
Three cheers for local historians! :001_smile:
What interesting articles! Great find!
Now I really wish we had an archive with EFL materials, like we have from CM's PNEU.
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The Hebrew alphabet organises this psalm,
so you have Aleph (A}, ten verses, Beet (B} nine verses etc.
I'm not sure if all Catholic Dutch translations stick to that, but the 'NBG-vertaling' has still these letters in the psalm.
I just checked the Willibrord translation all Dutch Katholic churches use and you are absolutely right! Man, do I feel ignorant now :lol:.
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Psalm 119 (which is 118 in the Douay-Rheims) would be great for the length, and the Hebrew alphabet would be an interesting addition. You could always use other, shorter poems for the sort of cultural knowledge and poetic meter you'd find in an epic.
Depending on their age and temperament, though, I'm not sure if the content would be the best choice for keeping their attention. For younger ones, I might go for something with more action. Maybe one of the Gospels? But I'm also just musing here. :001_smile:
Psalm 119 in Hebrew....nah, let's not do that :lol:.
I agree that for young kids something with a story line, something epic, would be the way to go. Still looking for something in Dutch....
In English though, one could use the Lays of Ancient Rome by Macauly. Which is probably not really classical-classical, but seems to have been a staple in Victorian times. (My dd10 will have a nervous break down even looking at it.)
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The links are from google books, which doesn't have the same content in every country. I thought I'd put down the page numbers in the actual books so our friends outside the US can look up the passages themselves. The passage with the information about the poetry notebook starts on pg. 188 of Educating the Child at Home, and the passage about using composition notebooks starts on page 186 of Educating the Child at Home.
HTH!
Google book is often a problem for me :glare: , links to Archive.org like in other posts work well fortunately.
Thank you for taking the time to write down the page numbers!!
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In place of Hiawatha, would memorizing a Psalm (a long one like Psalm 119 or several shorter ones) be equally useful?
One would obviously lose the patriotic angle, and I'm guessing the geography/history teaching.
Just musing, if we need to add this to the Latin prayers I've planned.
(Or Psalm 119 in Latin :svengo: :lol: )
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I'm planning to just have each child working on one English poem at a time. They'll also be learning prayers in English, Latin, and French, depending on their ages. (They aren't competent enough in any foreign language to tackle poetry yet.)
We haven't started the copywork -- they're finishing up last year's handwriting workbooks while I get things sorted out -- but for prayer notebooks for the older ones, I've taken half-ruled composition books, numbered the pages, and put in homemade tabs (cut from index cards) to make sections for the three languages. They can illustrate the prayers with drawings, pictures from religious gift catalogs, and so on. Poetry will probably have the same kind of book, but with just one section. She talks about giving the older child a looseleaf binder as a special book for poetry and art, and I might do that for the eldest, but DS9 isn't tidy enough yet.
Younger children are supposed to have a single composition book for all their schoolwork, with tabs for the different subjects.
There's a sample schedule in one of her newspaper columns; I'll try to find it. I think the children would follow pretty much the same basic plan from ages 5 to 9. (At 10, you enter the black hole.)
[ETA: Here's one mother's schedule, though I'm pretty sure isn't the one I was looking for.]
In a way, it might be good that there's so much left unanswered -- as those who try this are all going to have to fill in the blanks for themselves, so it's unlikely to turn into a cult sort of thing.
Although the Hiawatha Potato Cult sounds kind of cool. :laugh:
Thanks for the link to the schedule. The other links aren't working, btw.
:laugh: at the black hole at 10yo comment. I read EFL's books with my 10yo in mind, because I was desperatey looking for what to do with her, so that didn't go so well. I think I got dd10's stuff figured out (although obviously nothing EFL worthy), so now I'm going to reread with my younger dds in mind.
Potatoes...I completely glossed over that. I wonder what marvels I will discovers next :D.
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Please don't judge me thinking "oh, she leaves the house too much!" We live in in a condo in a big city. We are within walking distance from some nice parks but a gang war is raging and it's not safe to walk to the park anymore (I've heard gunfire from our condo twice in the last month). I'm not sure why our gentrified street is worth dying over but it is what it is. So we don't walk to the park anymore and don't play in our courtyard.
I'm not judging, I do want to give you a :grouphug: because it sounds aweful to not be able to go to the park or play outside because of a gang war ( :svengo:).
Two of my grandparents were first generation Americans. They grew up speaking other languages besides English.Three of my husbands grandparents were first generation Americans and grew up speaking German, Dutch, and Norwegian respectively. My father was taught German when he was a boy by his grandfather, and they spoke it together at home.
I think that in the time Lynch was writing, it was not always necessary to study a foreign language during academic time as many Catholics were immigrants or the children of immigrants.
And European culture was most definately a part of the home lives of our grandparents and our parents. I attended Scotch-Irish festivals growing up, and one of the largest Scandinavian cultural festivals in North America was held every fall in my hometown. I still eat lefse every Christmas, my MIL sends me some every year. Oktoberfest is also a popular event in many a small town to this day. We grew up listening to irish music and listening to Irish fairy tales. My grandmother was born in the 1920's, and she is definately Irish-Catholic first, American second.
But, my grandparents were and are also very patriotic. They were taught American culture of the time at school, and education for their children was the top priority for most of the immigrants. The first generation of immigrants in the early 20th century wanted to preserve the traditions of the old country, but they also wanted their children to be educated as Americans.
And so I agree that this is where ELF is coming from with the selection of Hiawatha. The children of the Catholic immigrants needed to study English, and they also needed to learn what it meant, at that time, to be American.
I had thought about it, that at that time lots of children would get exposure to foreign languages at home or in the larger family.
And nowadays, at lots of places in the US (at least that's what I imagine) kids are still surrounded by other languages, e.g. Spanish. Right?
For all the talking about Europeans speaking multiple foreign languages, I have only been able to speak English *once* in the last 10 years :glare: and that's the only foreingn language I speak. Still, that doesn't lessen the cultural pressure to teach several foreign languages...... :leaving: .
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I have to admit that in this age of digital anything, I find it both highly frustrating and highly amusing that there are apparently somewhere 50 boxes with stuff we here would really love to see...but can't get to. Makes me wonder what other interesting stuff is in boxes in all sorts of archives everywhere :D.
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Thank you very much, Eliza, for taking the time to summarize that article!!
That really got my wheels spinning (that's the correct expression, right? :)). I really love what you name her way of 'doing a lot with a little'. That's the part of her writing that is really speaking to me.
I'm very tired right now, so I'm not sure this post is coherent. I'll think some more about it after I get back from a few days vacation.
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I skimmed through her elementary book last night, and she did specifically recommend starting foreign languages by age 10 so that the accent would be good. See pg. 32.
Before age 10, actually.
pg 32: "Foreign languages, if studied at all, should be begun before the age of ten, when the memory is most active, the auditory and vocal organs most responsive to the formation and acquisition of new sounds."
'If studied at all'... :smilielol5: . Anyway, I do understand that in America it might be less necessary to study a foreign language, and that EFL was writing for a general public and didn't want to scary everyone away :D. But it does make it difficult to read her book now and get some plan of action from it for my personal situation.
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I've read in a couple of places that children who were taught with Ella Frances Lynch's system (either at home, or in "schools of individual instruction") were routinely learning Latin, French, and German orally between age 7 and 9, and often continued studying those languages after that, either on their own from textbooks, or with a tutor. Her method for oral language teaching doesn't require the adult to be a fluent speaker. It's beyond my ability to explain right now, though, and probably belongs in its own thread anyway. But she did include foreign languages.
That's extremely interesting! :thumbup:
If you could point me to where you have read that, I would be very happy!
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I should stop reading vintage sources because they stress me out by reminding me of all of my weaknesses.
Thanks for the advice and I'm going back to lurkdom.
:grouphug: Don't go back to lurking!
From what you wrote, I don't see any particular 'weaknesses of *you*', but I do see a difficult situation due to differences between you and your dh. :grouphug:
I'm in the same situation with regards to television, if I leave the kids with dh, he will plop them in front of the TV and get to work on his laptop. Sigh.
This is very much an American phenomenon: the idealization of the self-made man. Personally, I see it as one of the reasons for the more negative aspects of modern society but be it as it may it is certainly a major part of the national character. I am not opposed to a certain level of independence in learning, but I have some serious issues with the idea of a Jefferson Education or a strict following of the Robinson Curriculum. It stems partly from knowing too many self-educated adults (of whom I guess I could be considered one) who have some major gaps and hold opinions that are held in part because of the gaps and to a certain extent there is not enough self-awareness to know how much one may be missing. I don't know if anyone still remembers William Michael of the CLAA but I think many of his own misguided notions stem directly from the fact that he basically taught himself and had too great a confidence in his own abilities to interpret what he read.
Yeah, I remember :glare: .
So if one is an American Catholic then it would make more sense to me (and of course, I speak as an outsider so I could be completely off base!) that it would be far more appropriate to orient oneself towards Europe and specifically English since that is the culture from which America has traditionally derived its mores. In that case something like The Ballad of the White Horse may be more appropriate. Or one can take the notion of distinctly American even further and say that while Longfellow may be appropriate for New Englanders, someone like Poe may be more appropriate for Southerners (though I don't even know if Poe wrote any epics, I'm just shooting from the hip here).
That's not to say I'm opposed to Hiawatha's Childhood, I'm just trying to fully grapple with her ideas and see if there is some way to individualize the actual content to fit with the tradition & culture which various homeschooling families emerge from. Then again, it may be just simpler to stick with Hiawatha.
Really interesting! When I read EFL a couple of months ago, I tried to find a similar epic poem suited to my culture (Dutch), because it obviously makes no sense to have my kids memorize an American poem :D.
I couldn't find any. And I don't really know what to make of that. It's similar with the whole 'read good books in order to read the Great Books' situation. There are almost no classical childrens' books in Dutch. So apparently it isn't as necessary as some modern education writers make it out to be.
This is one of the cases where I really really really wish Ester Maria still posted here because she had such a deep understanding of literature and culture that her perspective would have been very interesting to consider.
Yes, I miss her too.
Even though I read both books by EFL a couple of months ago, I stil don't realy know what to think about it.
Partially because she only writes about educting 6-10yo's and also because it's so American, which makes it problematic for me personally. There is no mention of foreign languages, which is so not my situation :lol:. I'm not a CM educator, but at least she had her 12yo reading Caesar and having conversations in French and starting German. I also had a bad reaction to EFL's writing about math :cool: .
I might need to read it again to remember what I did agree with :D.
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Public school starts September 1st, so that's when we start too.
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I've been using Book Collector. I normally don't use software I install on my pc for something like this, but it does the job, and I can upload our book database to an online website and to my phone/tablet. I do have a scanner I picked up on Amazon, but can also use my phone. Scanner is fastest. :)
Angela,
Book Collector looks nice, but is also expensive. Is there a specific reason to choose Book Collector (or Delicious Library) instead of something like Book Crawler, iBookshelf?
I did download trial versions of iBookshelf and Bibliophilia, I was able to scan books with both and they also recognized Dutch books (necessary for me ;) ). I still have no idea what to choose :willy_nilly: .
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Directed Studies at Yale consists of three year-long courses that are taken by college freshman simultaneously; one could arrange the reading lists sequentially instead.
I have nothing to contribute to this thread, but....I would love to be able to take those courses! :001_tt1:
I'm not sure I would have been ready for them when I was 18yo...but then again, I'm pretty sure those kind of courses weren't and aren't available around here. :glare:
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I have Delicious Library and I just scan using the computer camera. Or I can input manually. I can organize the shelves any way I want and I can show books being loaned out to a friend and put a reminder on my calendar to ask for it back. Love the program!
Thanks! I hadn't heard of this one.
On first glance, it looks really good and I can share my library with friends! My best friend is really going to love that, we are always swapping books :D.
But...but...it costs 25$! Is that right? :huh: That's completely different than the other apps ($1.99-$3.99).
Is it really so much better??
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Do you have a reliable scanner? I bought one a few years ago to use with software and it went badly.
I startd yestrday with librarything.com; you can't scan, but adding by isbn wnt really quickly. I really like th etag fature.
(sorry; my E key is sticking--looks lik a kid was ating at the laptop yesterday...)
I was under the impression that I could scan with the app on my iphone. I do not have a seperate scanner.
Hmmm. Maybe I should download some free lite versions first.
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I have noticed that there are several different book cataloging apps, e.g. iBookshelf, Book Crawler, Bibliophilia. Maybe more.
Can someone recommend one?
I want to catalogue my books preferably by scanning the ISBN and I want to be able to make backups.
I'm not looking for something like Good Reads.
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:grouphug: I remember my surprise last year when the same thing happened to my then dd7 and dd5. It never happened with my oldest dd, so I was totally unprepared :lol:.
It will come back and probably sooner than you think.
And :party: congratulations with the baby!
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Thank you for the encouragement!
The one thing I'm so not looking forward to is the AoPS-I-have-to-think-longer-than-2-seconds-therefore-the-world-is-ending-and-I-will-never-ever-get-it drama. (We are at chapter 4 of pre-A.) I still have 2 weeks of summer vacation. I need them. :D
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Great news! :party:
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I'll stay in the middle of the pack- I cycle for exercise and since that doesn't count as steps, I don't get that many steps. If I get 8000 a day I'm doing really well. Some of you are really moving!!!!!!
I was just going to post the same! So annoying that biking doesn't count.
I read somewhere online that some people put their FitBit on their shoe when they cycle to track steps, if you don't want to log the cycling as an activity (since that wouldn't count towards steps). I have never tested the theory. But DH plays the drums, and if he does't take his Flex off, it counts as steps.
I tried that on Tuesday, barely registered a few steps :toetap05: .
I've done that before but now I use Map My Ride app and it syncs with Fitbit so if I put my fitbit on my shoe I would be double dipping. I really like the info I get from Map My Ride so I just suck it up and live with the low step count. Well, mostly I suck it up. I'm pretty competitive so being part of this group kind of kills me when my 10 mile ride doesn't count!
Does your Map My Ride app work for a stationary bike? Off to check it out.
Man I only got like 5,500 steps in yesterday, but I did walk in a "hurricane", that's gotta count for something, right??
Definitely counts! :D
I reached 10,000 steps for the first time yesterday!
Congratulations!
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They say you can import your data. There are a few things that won't transfer, but the important stuff, like lesson plans, do transfer. They list on their website what things transfer and what things don't.
Thanks!
I couldn't find it last time I Iooked, but now I found it (here): Lesson plans transfer, but LP schedules or reading logs don't.
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Do you know if you can transfer the data from HST+ to the online version? The thought of having to enter everything again is making me cry.Unfortunately, I think most planners are web based now, so you're going to have a hard time finding one that runs on a Windows computer. I'll likely go to the online HST version when I can no longer run HST+ on my computer. It's one of the cheaper online products out there. I've looked at some others, but I really like some of the things HST+ does that other products don't do (like reusable lesson plans!)
If I can't transfer, it might even be smarter to start HST online now.....although the price difference would probably also make me cry. (Or maybe I'm having a bit of PMS now :D)
Does anyone want to start an accountability group?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I'm also more in need of a self-ed accountability thread than a homeschool thread.
I hear you, Ruth, on the difficulties with vocab. It's amazing looking back how easy it was in High School with vocab for English&French&German&Latin&Greek. Nowadays, reviewing Latin en learning new Greek words is making my head explode.