Tangrams + Tolstoy = Total Awesomeness at Young Explorers - Block 3 Day 4

So sorry this post is delayed! I really try to have the blog post from Young Explorers up within 24 hours. I wasn't going to be able to get to it until Wednesday night, but after a day of fasting and not having my Tim's ...  I fell asleep shortly before 7pm.  On the couch. The best kind of nap. Except I didn't really wake up that evening at all. I guess those late nights catch up with you eventually. And, Tim's really does work to keep your energy up.

Here is the rundown for what we did this week.

1. Icebreaker
We did something a little different today. We all sat around the table and I introduced the idea of "Table Topics," like what we did in Toastmasters or Public Speaking courses. Got the stopwatch out and told the kids we'd give them a topic for which they had to try to speak about for 30 seconds. The topics were really simple and most of the kids volunteered their own topic - like whales, flowers, Star Wars, and I have to smile because one girl volunteered her own topic to be "New France." She gave a lovely history narration to us, so that girl's momma should be proud that her efforts are paying off.

2. Poetry - Two poems today
The kids wanted another silly poem, but I wanted to give them something a little deeper. So we did two.  The silly one? Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face, by Jack Prelutsky. Very fun. Good rhyme and rhythm. Very silly.

The second one elicited much socratic discussion. We read Solitude, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, an American poet. She wrote well over 500 poems, but this is her most famous. Here it is:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain. 

I can't say I've ever actually studied this poem in school, but am familiar with the first 2 lines. We talked about it and did do a little bit of analysis, in the name of socratic work. I don't like to do analysis with kids this age because they aren't really ready for it and I don't want to kill the love. But there were some explanations to be made, and we found ourselves in the middle of a conversation about optimists and pessimists. Words that not many of the kids were familiar with, but they knew exactly what they mean. We wondered if there was any truth to the poem - and what is the role of community in supporting you through tough times.  Why does everyone leave after the funeral? Talked about that too.  Um, we went deep.

3. Composer - Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

I recently picked up a copy of My First Classical Music Book, and it is just WONDERFUL.  Great pictures, comes with a CD of some of the most famous classical pieces in history.  Each page has a story of a composer as well as an instrument family. I chose our piece today from this book, Bach's most famous organ piece, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  Have a listen here.  You'll know it right away, and the kids all thought the piece was a little spooky.  In other words, the piece has great tension! I think it might also be called the Dracula music.

Anyone else use this?

4. Socratic Discussion - Tolstoy's What Men Live By

We finished it!

And chatted about it. To summarize, the man Michael was really an angel sent down to earth to find out three "lessons," in the form of a human being.  

His first quest was to find out what dwells in man - "And I understood that in man dwells Love."

His second quest was to find out what is NOT given to man. - "It is not given to man to know his own needs."  This is referring to a man who wanted a pair of shoes to last a full year, but little did he know he was to die that evening. "I understood that God does not with men to live apart, and therefore he does not reveal to them what each one needs for himself; but he wishes them to live united, and therefore reveals to each of them what is necessary for all."

His third quest was to find out what men live by. - "I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love."  And ain't that the truth!

5. Living Math - Tangrams and Math Stories

I realize that most of the kids have probably been exposed to tangram puzzles before. Tans are 7 wonderful, magic pieces that are cut from a square, and can be manipulated into thousands of different shapes and figures. Math logic at its finest and funnest! 

But I couldn't pass tangram puzzles by even if most of the kids had used them, and not all had. I rekindled the magic by reading them two great great great math readers.  I highly recommend them.  After reading the books we cut out our own tangram pieces and gave challenges to try and make certain shapes and figures.  The first, Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes, is soooo funny. Its an offshoot of the original story but when the pigs leave home to find their fortune, they are given the 7 magic shapes. Which most intelligent pig will create something from the 7 shapes that saves her from the wolf? Why, the female pig of course.  Good news for her, she eventually meets the pig from the original story, the pig who built his house out of bricks, and they get married. What a match. LOL! This book actually comes with a laminated page with tans to cut out and play with. Good for all ages, but especially those early learners.

For the benefit of the older kids in the group, I read them Grandfather Tang's Story - A Tale Told With Tangrams. Highly highly recommend. Grandfather tells a story using the tan pieces; the story itself is from Chinese folklore, where two friends (fox fairies) keep trying to one-up each other by turning into different animals that can outrun each other, (made out of tans) but their friendship is put to the test and they find themselves in serious peril. Of course they choose the high road in the end.  A Very Engaging Story.  It also comes with tans to play with.

How many ways can you make a rectangle? 

Can you put it back together as a square?

I have to say that our tangram sets have gotten a lot of use over the years. They give a nice little mental math workout and help develop mathematical logic as well as thinking outside the box.  One of my toddler/preschooler's favorite toy is the Tangoes Jr. set.  It comes with big chunky magnetic tans and lots of card puzzles, with solutions on the back of each card.

Does anyone know of any good tangram puzzle apps? We looked briefly and there are several free ones, but hard to tell if they're worthy. And, frankly, we just don't let the kids do ipad or iphone to avoid mushbrain, but sometimes, when in a pinch or on a roadtrip to Arizona (heh heh), it would be nice to have a few apps that engage you to some educational degree. No?

That's all folks. No YE next week, taking a little break (its Family Day long weekend so I'm extending it). See you all in a couple of weeks then!

Top Ten Books Your Child Should Leave Home With

So I had a nice break. I wasn't anticipating being an on-again off-again blogger, like my blogger friend Tina Marie calls herself over at A Retro Catholic Family, but it appears that is so! I sure hope I can be better about blogging in 2013, but honestly, its a lot of work. And if I'm blogging, then either its very late at night, or something else is going undone. But I like to blog and it is fun to share tidbits of this and that from your life. Its a great personal family record because time blinks by so quickly, gotta capture what you can.

We have been chatting about all things books on our local TJEd forum - a topic I do NOT tire of! Even though there are a million lists of "best classics" and "top 100 books of all time," its always nice to hear someone's favorites and glean book suggestions. No?

The question came up. What top ten books would you like your child to leave home with?  This is a fun thing to think about!  First I asked my 15 yo daughter and this was her list:

Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe)
The Secret Garden (Burnett)
Jo's Boys (Alcott)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Boyne)
Hana's Suitcase (Levine)
Maniac Magee (Spinelli)
and her Nancy Drew originals

I see a lot of emotional attachments to these books on her part, which is obviously why they are on her list.  They each have a special meaning in her childhood and have impacted her, just like a good classic should. For example, I read Anne as a read-aloud during our first year of homeschooling and this book single-handedly restored her love of reading. Which the school had killed by the end of grade two - that was an aside. Jo's Boys was also read aloud during our second homeschooling year.

While Brittany was compiling her list, I thought about ten books I would choose for her to leave home with:

Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)

The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

A collection of Frances Hodgson Burnett (who can choose just one? I love these books especially for childhood, though they still retain their magic when read as an adult!)
Little Women series
A Shakespeare collection
CS Lewis' Narnia series
The Book of Virtues/Moral Compass duo (Bennett) At least to remind them that there is such a thing as virtue and morality. Right?
Tolkien's Hobbit/Lord of the Rings Series
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) plus maybe A Christmas Carol  Dickens to me is essential for any good library!
and a darn good classic cookbook!

To that list, I would also add core classics of our faith:
A Catholic Study Bible and
A Catechism of the Catholic Church

Have you started a library for any of your children? Do you use special occasions to give them a "worthy book?" We have a kazillion books and we may never read every single one on our shelf, but my fellow TJEd'er, who also has a bursting library in her home, said it didn't really matter, because if her own children didn't read every book, maybe her grandchildren will. Or great-grandchildren. You know? Its like a beautiful investment in the future, a statement of what books really mean to a culture.

And so I've resolved to use special occasions, like birthdays, to give a really nice hardcover edition of a classic towards their personal leave-home-with-it library. Now I know there are pretty "collections" of classics ready to go - I've seen them locally - but they have teeny tiny print and very few illustrations.  So I'm planning on choosing editions which I think are lovely, but don't necessarily match each other.  I began with Epiphany and I have more on order for Valentines Day! Fun, eh?

Here's what I gifted for Epiphany:

Dawson - The Annotated Hobbit

Brittany - Anne of Green Gables. Of course. She was so tickled.

Alexa - Little House on the Prairie. Loved it. We're reading it right now.

Maria - Pinocchio. I bought her a hardcover of an abridged version - but you know what, its lovely and she has read through it several times already!

Kate - well, I didn't actually buy Kate a "worthy" book, but she did get a Sandra Boynton board book.

Me - Yes, I gifted myself for Epiphany too! I bought a gift edition of Tolstoy's War and Peace - broken into 3 volumes. More manageable to bite I think.

Tom - Can't forget your husband! He received Kevin O'Leery's The Cold Hard Truth about Men, Women and Money. Again, not a classic "worthy book." I wanted to get him a beautiful version of Les Miserables, which he is reading on his handy dandy kindle.And loving. But when this whole idea took place in my head it was the day before Epiphany and no time to order. Had to buy locally. I knew he'd like this book, at any rate.  Les Mis for next time.

What about you? What books would be on your top ten send-em-out-into-the-world with list? Have you started a "beautiful collection" yet?

Great books and socratic method

My son is all excited about the new script he and his friend are writing. They have been on the phone several times with each other, chatting and hashing out the plan; dreaming it up. He told me they were going to use the "traditional symbols" of good and evil in the script.  Traditional symbols. I love it, and I will tell you this is a direct result of a "Great Books" conference we attended on the weekend, where we pondered this literary concept in depth, intermixed with socratic discussions.

Traditional symbols in literature mean: a dragon is always evil.  Witches are evil. A hero is always a good guy. A good character always behaves as a good character.  Good always wins in the end. Dwarfs are mischievous. You get the idea.  If we read to children classic books and stories with traditional symbols, they begin to develop a clear distinction between good and evil; right and wrong. It provides a framework from which to spring from when they encounter real-life situations.  Consider that author C.S. Lewis would have agreed. In Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Narnia series, the character Eustace  ventures away from the group and goes off on his own. It is foggy, and he finds himself at the bottom of a cliff at the entrance of a cave, out of which "two thin wisps of smoke were coming." The thing that comes out of the cave is something he had never imagined, and C.S. Lewis goes on to describe the thing as a dragon. He writes of Eustace: "He never said the word Dragon to himself." "Edmund or Lucy or you would have recognized it at once, but Eustace had read none of the right books." So we know that C.S. Lewis likely placed great value on the role of good books in forming the imagination which informs our character and even our behaviour.  However, if you look at what's popular in juvenile fiction these days, what's lining our bookstore shelves and our libraries - the subject matter is the occult, and the lines between good and evil are blurred.  Why are we so attracted to this genre?  Is it because we are fascinated with the "supernatural" - the stuff we cannot see - but we are unwilling to go the God-route?  So the other junk - the Twilight stuff, etc - does it attempt to fulfill in us a desire to believe or play with the supernatural? Because the desire to know our supernatural God is written deeply in our hearts; the desire to know that there is a God; but we just keep refusing to acknowledge.  Maybe?

Read good, classic books to your children, not the junk food for the brain! Read books that will clearly portray good from evil! Want to hear more about this? Want some good reading lists to give you a start? Read A Landscape with Dragons - the Battle for Your Child's Mind by Michael O'Brien. Download it to your handy dandy Kindle.

Then, take it a step further.  Read classics to your kids, but be active in your reading.  Discuss.  Ask questions like "Why do you think he did that?" "Do you think 'blank' was a hero? Why? What is a hero?"  "Was it okay for Jack to steal from the Giant?" "Do you think it was okay for her to 'blank?'" And before you know it, you've got yourself a good socratic discussion.  Socratic method refers to the method Greek thinker and philosopher Socrates used to engage his students in intellectual conversation - he asked questions, and answered questions with questions, in the pursuit of truth and understanding.  But you know, Socrates didn't pioneer this method, not really.  It was the method Jesus used. "After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded by his understanding and his answers". Luke 2:46  If good enough for Jesus, then good enough for me :)  I truly believe that this method is essential to getting yourself and your kids to learn to think, and I need to do even more of it! At the conference, it was pointed out that unless you are active in your reading, asking even yourself questions and jotting down ideas as you read - if you don't do this you will miss some important things!  Some important insights!  These insights aren't just going to fall out of the sky and onto your lap because you read the story. No - you have to actively seek them.  Keep a journal. Read. Write. Discuss.  Have your kids do the same. Because the whole point of reading the classics is not only to delight, but to change you for the better; to enlighten.

During the Great Books conference, we broke into groups based on age and discussed the assigned readings in this manner.  It was WONDERFUL!!  It was so awesome to be among kids, from ages 6-18 plus parents, so clearly, eloquently, and thoughtfully articulating and discussing together.  These kids are great; so open; so willing to jump in and put their opinions out there. Its one of the things I love best about the homeschooled community - the kids are usually confident with who they are, comfortable in their own skin. A good sense of self.

And because I was a parent participant, I affirmed something for myself and my kids agreed:  A good, in-person socratic discussion, group setting, is far more valuable than any online socratic class.  And also, a mix of adults and kids is ideal so long as you reserve the adult participation for the latter part of the discussion (otherwise we tend to dominate).

My kids have been in online socratic classes this year - the classes have been quite good - but in no way a replacement for the in-person real deal.  Interestingly, one parent at the conference admitted that she put her kids in online classes to "abdacate" her responsibility to the online provider, while she read to the younger kids (that sounds like my life!).  An online class rep lovingly explained that made her cringe a little to hear, because the online classes in question were never meant to replace outright the parent's role, but to supplement the home learning.  You should still be discussing the material with your kids in addition to the online, and I need to do more of that.

I have resolved, therefore, to create more opportunities for in-person socratic discussion groups going forward. In the last city we lived, we met with another family once a month for "family bookclub." We picked a book, read it, then got together on a Sunday afternoon for a potluck and book discussion.  Often we'd watch the movie of the chosen book.  Fun!! The kids have fond memories of this!

So, if you are one of my IRL friends, expect a call and an invitation!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, blessed by God, and blessing others on your way.