Above The Rowan
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Posts posted by Above The Rowan
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Past elementary, I think you are getting into territory where it is completely appropriate to have a systematic science curriculum of some kind, and by high school I think it's necessary.
It was the talk of BFSU for elementary grades I found questionable. I think it would be a nice program for middle school - a good link between nature study and really abstract, processing math based textbook work.
I agree with you here, then. I never really introduced a formal science curriculum until 4th grade ish. I'll wait and see how they "deconstruct" it and what it looks like before I either rant or rave about it. I know in some CM circles, a lot of parents are doing this very same thing - taking BFSU and chopping it up to be more CM-friendly. I haven't, but I do love the look of BFSU. So if UM has found a way to do this, then I'm interested to see what that would look like.
UM may not be right for every kid, but it will fill a need for quite a few families I think. I'm excited to see it all finished.
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I'd have to wait and see their K-8 schedules, etc, but I do think you can have structured science in tandem with nature study. We do it in my house. There's a time on the schedule for natural history/special studies - and we also have a structured middle grade science curric for my 6th grader in addition to our nature studies (he's doing RSO Astronomy 2). I don't necessarily use a structured science curriculum for my kids in earlier elementary though - just books to introduce topics by interest. Nature study is our prime science in those early years, but we do schedule readings and books about other science areas.
I definitely agree that I'd love to see updated nature study resources. That is something that is definitely lacking on the market right now. We recently started a Botany course from Sabbath Mood, and basically changed all the recommended readings because we wanted something more current. I'll be curious to see what they include for nature study/natural history.
The programming in a language slot makes sense to me if we're sticking to a 4-6 hour school day, including the riches. Finding a way to include a programming language without ADDING one more thing to a high schooler's schedule seems great to me. College (well, university here) admissions may be different here, but foreign languages are not necessarily something they have to see on their credits. So I wouldn't feel like I'm losing out if I replaced one modern language with a programming language. I like that they have given computer programming importance in the curriculum and not just as an elective or bonus subject.
I'm sure once we see the weekly schedules and how they've laid it out - "how cm inspired" they are will be a lot clearer. All I'm seeing now is a resource/booklist, but it's a booklist that actually got my middle schooler fired up for high school. We scrolled through a lot of the Year 9 stuff and he LOVED it.
As a side note: they did mention that they're working on Canadian substitutions for some subjects. This is also a nice touch, as most new curricula sort of forget about us up here lol.
Other note about their science choices: they do mention somewhere on their site that while they aren't making this to be a gifted or advanced curriculum, THEIR students are I think. So it may be that they have a group of children who ASK for more than nature study (my oldest does, for sure) so they're likely creating the curriculum they'll use for their own students.
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While I agree that something like BFSU in early elementary years wouldn't necessarily be something that would be "purist CM", or what Mason would do - - it's worth noting that UM isn't attempting to recreate what the PNEU did. And they have stated that their focus is science-heavy, secular, and CM-inspired. So, BFSU fits what Ursa Minor are trying to create. I'm happy that there will be a CM-inspired curric out there with a focus on science and modern resources. I'm also happy to see they aren't trying to recreate the original programmes - there's already enough of that on the market, in my opinion.
It'll be interesting to see how this all gets laid out in the scheduling.
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I agree. Although I read that email to mean they were making BFSU the spine of their whole pre-high school curriculum so not just 6-8 but that the 6-8 portion is what they are close to releasing.
I've said it on other threads on this forum that I don't get why others find BFSU so difficult to manage, but since so many others find it so then I'll be glad they are making it more accessible. It really is a quality science education. I used the whole K-2 book with my older daughter and she's doing 3-5 now, and my younger daughter is a year into the K-2 book.
That's how I read it too - but I was just saying I'm excited to see the rest of the middle school curric from UM. If they are putting forth this much work into it, I can't wait to see what else is on the plan for Years 6-8.
I've tried a couple of times to use BFSU but I could never stick with it or figure it out - so I think its very cool that UM is trying to make it more user-friendly.
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They sent out an email newsletter today, just a little update on their Years 6-8 that they are working on. It looks like they're planning to deconstruct BFSU and break it down into an easy to follow schedule. I cannot wait to see what they do with this middle school curriculum. Exciting!!
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I actually don't think it looks like *that* much more than any other high school student would have to do.
Many of the history resources are used throughout all 4 high school grades, there's literature and the riches which aren't that time consuming individually, really. Free reading and science don't seem to be more than a high school student could manage.
When I was in high school, I had 6 60-minute classes each day. Typically, CM would have scheduled about 4 hours of lessons by Form IV (9th grade), with the majority of the rest of the day left for independent readings, art, etc.
Obviously, once the weekly schedules are released in December for the high school grades, we'll get a better view of how the Ursa Minor folks have spread it out - but nothing in there seems over the top in terms of expectations or scheduling. So far, just looking at the resource lists, this seems to be the first truly secular and modern version of CM that I've seen yet.
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Brave Writer seems to jive with CM pretty well.
However, my kids have really done well with just a traditional CM approach to language arts - oral narrations after lessons, eventually leading into written narrations; copywork and dictation; grammar can be taught via copywork/dictation or through something like Primary/Intermediate Language Lessons.
I have one child who is a natural writer and a child whose anxiety is triggered by anything language-related and the CM approach to LA has worked very well for both kids and allows me to meet them where they are.
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Nadine from the Up Above the Rowan Tree blog just posted about this new secular CM resource in one of the FB CM groups and I'm impressed and wanted to share over here. It's called Ursa Minor Learning and it's for kids who need a bigger STEM emphasis in high school than some of the other CM guides provide. It seems like it's very creative about tying its upper level science living books in with the MIT open courseware programs.
https://ursaminorlearning.com/
One thing that bugs me about a lot of CM programs is a lack of inclusion of people of color, as if nothing ever written by a POC could be considered a classic or a living book, but this curriculum has much more diversity while still adhering to both what I think counts as classic and living. The literature section itself isn't diverse but scroll down to the free reads to find it.
It seems to still be a work in progress, they have grades 9-12 posted and are working on their middle years stuff now. I'll be interested to see how things go.
Ha! This made me laugh - I was scrolling around in here and saw the title of this post and thought "ooooh I like hearing about new CM stuff", and when I clicked in to read the post I lol'd a little.
I told my 6th grader that this is *most probably* going to be our high school plan. I just love it. I love the computer programming as a foreign language, I love the focus on science, and I love love love the lit/citizenship stuff they have picked.
I keep going to the site to see if magically the middle school years will be up. I can't wait to see what they recommend as a lead up to their high school curriculum. It's been a long while since I've been *this* excited about a CM curric!
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I have overarching, big-picture goals for kids. I have a parenting philosophy.
I read a lot, and looked into a few homeschool philosophies and methods to find which one (or combination of a few) would fit who I am as a parent, as an educator, and also fit my goals I had for my kids.
I've always leaned very heavily into the CM methods/philosophy. I'd say that's our baseline but we do move closer to, or further away, from it from time to time depending on what my kids need. I always say my philosophy is "a bit of a quirky/rebellious CM homeschooler" - in that, we're a secular family, we read from more modern books than vintage books, we study current composers and art styles, and have been known to study the poetry of punk lyrics lol. My son also uses a more structured science curriculum because that's what he likes and we found one that is freakin' amazing (RSO's Astronomy Level 2).
What we 'use' in our homeschool fits us to a tee and may not always look like someone else's idea of 'Mason' - the 'why' we do certain things and how we implement it, is definitely Charlotte Mason influenced.
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When we finished this recently, my 7 yr old daughter didn't get why I was getting choked up.
But my 10 yr old boy just looked at me, blinked, and said "He's growing up. Isn't he? He's getting too big for his imaginary friends isn't he?" And his eyes welled up.
And every night since then he's fallen asleep with his favourite stuffed Duckie snuggled in his arms (before House at Pooh Corner, he had been sleeping with his blankie and Duckie stuffed under his pillow).
*sob sob*
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Her scopes have been what has kept my head above water this year. She's so warm and nurturing and inspiring, and I always walk away from her scopes feeling like "I got this."
Her Awesome Adulthood scopes (there's two!) were amazing, and really kind of shook me up a bit.
She did a scope over the holidays with her son Liam, and it turned into an amazing talk about his gaming, and what he's doing now. My 10 yr old (avid gamer) watched it live with me, and was just blown away and inspired by someone who was Just. Like. Him. as a student, and still grew up to be a pretty cool awesome guy. Plus, all the scopes Julie does with her kids are so heartwarming - to see her pride and joy in her kids is really beautiful.
I'm definitely a Julie Fangirl :)
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I think feeling loved can give you a safe space from which one can do some healing. But love itself is often not enough.
You know there's the saying "if you can't be happy alone you'll never be happy with any other partner". I disagree. I was terribly unhappy and largely unable to heal from some traumas, when I first met my current partner. While his love did not heal me, in and of itself, his supportive loving kindness has given me a safe home base that has allowed me to really heal and to really be happy. Knowing you're in the safe company of someone who loves you, can be very powerful in finding your own happiness and health and healing.
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We have four kids. :D So there's where "spacious" goes...
Ahh. So you have the third row seating option? We wanted that but it cut into the cargo space too much so we opted not to.
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The Nissan Rogue is absolutely tiny and easy to park. It drives like a car. The roof rack makes it possible to bring things around. Low gas mileage and cheap. It's my partner's car, not mine. I can't stand SUVs for myself. I drive alone most of the time [insert long rant about attempts to use transport, bike, and carpool] and I hate dragging all that around, but if I were mostly driving around kids I'd feel much differently about the car.
The Rogue is not spacious. It's the SUV for someone who really doesn't want an SUV and doesn't need a huge van, but has more than five people in the family.
Like us. :)
We have the Rogue and I find it really spacious. We have two kids and two adults and the trunk space is huge!
Parks and drives great, fuel economy is okay, it's a great mid sized suv in my opinion. I miss my pickup truck, but this is a great and roomy suv.
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So far, for us:
Hits:
MCT - my language-phobic son LOVES it and thanks to Building Language he is now begging to study Latin "for real".
Beginning Reading and Reasoning
Elemental Science (Bio for my 2nd grader and Chem for my 4th grader).
Misses:
Anything requiring my 4th grader to write. We are trying W&R Fable with me scribing but he's not liking it. I finally printed BW's Partnership Writing so maybe we will really give BW a go this year once I figure it all out.
Not a miss but We miss our Morning Time. So I'm working on rolling that back into our day since it was when we hit all the Big Things that never seemed to get scheduled.
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Can you give a link for this? Is it Wildwood by Colin Meloy?
Yes sorry I thought it was Tales From... But it's just Wildwood.
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So my son and I are working through the first level of MCT and he is loving it. We just finished Grammar Island and he wants to do Building Language next.
Is there an ideal order or sequence to do this series in? I had planned to follow the schedule on the Satori Smiles blog. But now we decided to jump into BL next instead of her recommended Hemispheres.
He is so in love with all of this MCT stuff and he's looked through all the books (we have several of level two as well) and he just wants to do it all right now. I'm letting him sort of drive this particular subject because normally he struggles with language arts so it's nice to see him LOVE something language-related (and retain what he's learning!)
But my checklist-loving self wishes it wasn't QUITE so open ended lol.
So if anyone has any scheduling ideas or tips or one they've already done up, I would love to hear it :)
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Tales From Wildwood
It is fantastic!! A bit Narnia-ish.
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I agree with so many other replies here.
But if it were me, I would pull my son from that school with no hesitation. The physical safety and emotional wellbeing of my children is a hill I would be willing to die on.
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At least $750 for the year for two kids. Maybe more. A decent part of this expense is due to ordering from US sites - our exchange rate and shipping costs to Canada are not buyer friendly lately lol.
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I'm interested in what ideas you get
You could have been writing this post about my DS, except he's in 4th grade. Math has become drudgery in this house and I have no idea what else to try.
I see some good ideas already in this post. :) I will be following along.
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I'm doing PiYo right now and it's amazing!!
My hubby is doing Insanity Max:30 and it's pretty intense but in just a couple of weeks he's seeing results.
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I rest. And I do something fun just for myself. Because then I feel more likely to have a positive attitude for the upcoming week. I make sure I've taken into consideration any of our appointments or hs group events coming up, and otherwise that's about it.
I know if I spent all week teaching and all weekend planning I would be a miserable cranky mom. Weekends are my days off.
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I would start with a big calendar on the wall that lists the time of all your outside locations.
Next, make a weekly checklist. You might a section of things you need to do with each child. For example:
4th-grader
math M T W R F
composition M W F
spelling M T W F
science M W F
history M T R
art T R
free reading M T W R
2nd-grader
math M T W R F
spelling M T W R F
cursive W F
reading T W R
science M F
history W R F
art T R
or however you want to do things for the week.
I like this checklist idea. I think this could be a feasible way for me to stay on top of things and see what we have to do each week.
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CM people - new resource
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
It took me a long while to figure out HOW a special studies lesson looks in real every day life. I understood it in concept, but it's only just recently that I've really 'gotten it'. We are just starting to feel good about our special studies, and we've been at this for a few years now.
I think you're right, that helping parents help their children through their special studies would be a great thing. Particularly sources that would be secular-friendly. I find the Sabbath Mood lady has some great info about nature study and CM science, but I have to do a fair bit of screening and weeding through her choices and recommendations, as a secular family.