Young Explorers - French Edition Two for One

[homeschool].

I'm sheepishly saying bonjour.

Bonjour.

I haven't really kept up posting what our Young Explorers have been doing - what with Halloween and All Saints and Sewing Sewing Sewing ... I also find that having YE on Thursdays makes it less conducive
to posting right away. Right after the YE kids leave, I get ready to teach my highschoolers a math class and prepare for my biology class the next day. Then I have a couple hours to rejuvenate, tidy up, and make supper before taking the big kids to choir ... well, its just really busy on the homeschooling front as usual and as it should be.

But anyhow, bonjour!

Let me update you on our adventures from the last couple of YE classes. Here is the quick and dirty!!

1. Icebreaker
We usually do a little go around telling the group something interesting, like what we are reading right now, or where we have travelled, that sort of thing. It only takes a few minutes but it gives the kids to practice public speaking in a really safe environment. I love that. So do they.

2. Socratic Core
We have done a couple of read-alouds where we have asked the big and lofty questions of these little children :). Last week, we chose a French folk tale and would you believe it was Puss in Boots. Now, we all know that story, but have you ever approached it socratically? If not, I'd suggest doing so! In this story, three sons inherit something when their father dies. Two sons do "well" but the third inherits the family cat. Turns out the cat is very clever on behalf of his master - he uses deceit, dishonesty, coersion, burglary/theft and even murder (eating an ogre who he's tricked into becoming a mouse) to make his master a wealthy husband to the princess. And the kids were ok with it all!! There are so many interesting themes to pursue with this story. Is it ok to obtain all those things through trickery? Did the princess marry this man because of his so-called wealth? What will their marriage be like? And so on. Have another look at this story with your children, people, it really is a fun one.

Last week, we did another French folktale called Quackling also known as Drakestail. In this story, a wealthy duck lends money to a king, who fails to pay him back. Quackling decides to go back to the king and ask for his money, and on the way meets and brings friends along (a ladder, a river, and a beehive), for you can "never have too many friends." Of course the king doesn't want to pay up; he tries to do away with Quackling, but Quackling's friends come to the rescue. The king runs away after being chased by the beehive and Quackling becomes the new king.  This story provided a lot of discussion about not being selfish (sharing your wealth), paying back debts, and being open to friendships. Cute little French tale.

3. Artist and Picture Study
Last week we studied Degas. He was born in Paris and is famous for painting ballet dancers, in an Impressionist style. I brought back a large poster of 
The Dance Class from NYC - we enjoyed studying and discussing it for several minutes before turning around and seeing what we remembered:

You can download this coloring page right here, as well as other famous artist/paintings to color.

This week, we studied another French artist, Matisse. Oh, I love Matisse. If you have been in my house, you have seen the painting that greets you when you walk into my house. Matisse was a contemporary of Picasso, and the two are considered the greatest artists of the 20th century. We studied the painting I have but alas, I cannot find it online to give you a link! But rest assured, its not the naked dancing people.

We read a cute storybook called "When Pigasso met Mootisse," which tells the story of their initial rivalry and then friendship. It provided some very fruitful discussion about friendship and competition. 

4. Music and Composer
We played the French national anthem, which is incredibly nationalistic and but was written during battle times ... so its really weird ... and all about fighting. 

We also heard from Chopin. Chopin was born in Poland and considered himself a Polish composer, but the fact is he was exiled to and remained in France from the age of 20 until his death. His music is rather haunting, actually, and one of my favorites. We listened to Chopin's Valse in C# Minor and listened for the repeating motifs.

5. Baking - the Fun Stuff!
Over the past few weeks we have had a great time in the kitchen.  Two week ago, our project was simple - Cinnamon Orange French Toast. It provided the girls with lots of opportunity to crack eggs! That's a skill most of us moms would rather do ourselves than let the little ones "play" at, but hey, go ahead and do it every now and then, because practice is the only way to get comfortable with it. 

Then, last week, we dove into Creme Brulee. This is a fantastic opportunity to practice separating egg white from the yolk - the trick is to play teeter-totter with them going back from one half-shell to the other. 

This recipe is a bit time-intensive because it needs to bake long enough to not be too jiggly, then cool long enough to set. I had tested this recipe for time and it looked like it would be fine. But ... we could have used more cooling time because when we sampled our product some of them were still too jiggly. They sure tasted good though (to most of us)!

Well, I think I've updated the last two weeks and I'm ready for another class tomorrow morning! We are making pain du chocolat - another French classic - and of course anything with chocolate is going to be good.

Au revoir!! A bien tôt!

In Which Young Explorers Begins Again!

Look!  A post that actually involves homeschooling!  

Its funny, when I began this blog I was so enthusiastic about posting my thoughts on homeschooling but now, I'm reluctant. There are just soooo many ways to homeschool and it looks so different for everyone, I figure I probably don't have much to offer and I don't want to come across like you *should* do it a certain way, just because we do it that way and it works for us. Does that make sense? I mean, I like the way we do things and I found our rhythm years ago so now we just live it. And I don't write too much about it. Maybe I should? 

Reverse Pulleys and Tolstoy in Young Explorers - Block 3 Day 2

1. Icebreaker
I let the kids come up with an icebreaker this morning and this is what they chose: If you were going to a cabin in California, what one item would you bring and what book? One of the kids brought "Tim Horton's," and that child has now become near and dear to my heart haha! One child brought her mom, another brought a DS or other video systems, another brought a suitcase and one boy brought the Toys R Us store. So he could shop for whatever he wanted. As for books, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are alive and well!

2. Oh Canada
Reviewed how to conduct, and then sang and conducted. We are getting good!

3. Poetry - More Roald Dahl
We read the poem Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.   You have to read it! It is so funny, and this is the stanza the kids loved the best (by their extreme laughter):

'That's wrong!' cried Wolf.
'Have you forgot
To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say,
I'm going to eat you anyway.'

The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head,
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.

My daughter has been busy making her own versions since yesterday.

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

We are reading this over two days and discussing as we go. This is a short story about a Russian peasant couple who take in and care for a young man, Michael, who has been found shivering and naked on the roadside. They have zilch themselves but give him some clothing and bread, and offer to teach him the trade of shoemaking - he will work in return for shelter and food. He becomes famous - an expert at this trade - and the peasant couple begin to be more well-off. But the couple still do not know his story, for he rarely speaks, laughs or smiles. One day a rich man knocks on the door ... and that is where we left off today. We spoke about doing acts of kindness and everyone agreed the peasant couple did the right thing to take Michael in. However, what is their reward? Is there ALWAYS a reward for the kind things one does? Some said eventually you'd get your reward in heaven. I maintain that their IS a reward, right at the time of doing the act of kindness, but I'm letting them think on that one till next week and we'll discuss it further.

5. Art Picture Study - Emily Carr's Totem Walk, Sitka

Isn't it magnificent? I have this print, framed, from an Emily Carr exhibit I attended in Victoria, BC. Most of the kids were not familiar with this Canadian painter and poet, and we talked a little about Totem Poles and their place in Canadian history. I'm toying with the idea of doing some Emily Carr style art for our art day next week ... 

6. Composer - Debussy's "Goliwog's Cakewalk."

Debussy wrote 6 little themes and put them together to form The Children's Corner. Altogether they are supposed to be reminicent of childhood and the Cakewalk certainly has that flavour. Debussy was a French composer who entered the Paris Conservatory at age 10. Debussy was a contemporary of the Impressionist painters, and took that concept and applied it to music! You can listen to the music and learn more about Debussy here.

7. Living Science - Reverse Mechanism Pulleys

Have you ever searched for a pen and couldn't find one? If so, you are in desperate need of a reverse mechanism pulley system to keep your pen close-by. Like the one my son has in his room, handy to his calendar which is taped on his bedroom door. Pull it down when you need a pen, let go and it springs back up. This is what we constructed in our living science today.

This was another e-science project and is simple and easy to do. Except that we didn't use fishing line, we used a good strong kite string that I think was just too thin because it twisted up.  You don't want to use a thick string because it increases the friction, but the kite string is maybe a bit too flimsy. I guess that is the concept with science is that you aren't always going to get it right on the first try. You have to look at different variables - like the string thickness, the weight of the wingnuts, the weight of the pen. Regardless though, the kids have great plans for these pulley systems. You can attach pulleys to tree houses and haul baskets of treasures up. We are going to be working with pulleys this block in living science, so more fun to come!  

We had a few minutes left at the end of our morning so back to our Tolstoy story.  The kids like to do a little sketching while I read, it keeps their hands busy and their attention focused. 

Have a great week!

The First Day - Young Explorers Block 1

WOW!!!

This morning was our first morning of Young Explorers, the community homeschool program I'm currently piloting.  For the benefit of the parents, and for those of you who might be interested in forming a "Love of Learning" group of your own, here is a rundown of the morning.

The group is a good size - we have eight children ages 6-10, plus my own littles.  If  you do a larger group you will need another helper :).

Icebreaker
I asked the children what an icebreaker was, and they gave me definitions involving types of machines in the arctic that break the ice for boats to go through LOL! They were right! And from there it was an easy leap to the concept of "breaking the ice" and getting to know one another better.  Our icebreaker was easy - say your name and tell us something about yourself, and we will all guess if that "something" was true or false. I had lots of interesting factoids, mostly involving wildlife. Some have seen penguins, bears, coyotes, wild turkeys and polar bears.  That was fun and got the kids warmed up.

Read-Aloud #1 - from the Seven Habits of Happy Kids
We read and discussed the first habit - where Sammy the Squirrel is "bored" and looks to each of his friends to entertain him  or suggest something to do. In the end, Sammy finds out that he can use his talents (he likes to fix old things like radios, phones, etc), to make someone else feel better (Allie the mouse was sick in bed). Sammy fixes an old radio and wraps it in a ribbon for Allie. Each of us shared what our passions and talents were and how we can use them to brighten someone else's day.  I had to laugh because one child's passion was eating! T'was good. The icebreaker and story took a good half-hour.


Living Math - Mobius Strips

By this time, the kids needed to move so it was perfect to switch to some hands-on Living Math.  Today we explored Mobius strips - they are super-cool! First, I read a little blurb about Mr. Mobius, found in Famous Problems and their Mathematicians.  Mobius had retired from a long career in math and astronomy, and was on vacation with his wife. They were in a cabin with no windows and flying insects were a problem. He tried hanging flypaper from the ceiling, but alas, Mr. Mobius is a tall guy and kept running into the flypaper. To make it shorter and more effective, rather than making a simple loop, Mobius twisted one end of the flypaper before making a loop. And he was amazed by its properties - as were we :). He started an entire new branch of mathematics! (Incidentally, there is also a Mobius-type bottle which might be fun for you to google and explore with your children).

So we explored Mobius strips. First we made a simple ring using adding-machine paper and tape, and chatted about it. It has an inside surface and an outside surface. It has two distinct edges. We cut it in half lengthwise around the loop and it formed two new and separate circles.  So far so good.

Then, we each made a Mobius strip and tested its properties. We drew a line down the middle and put our scissors to work, with interesting results!!

Some ended up with two new linked Mobius strips and some ended up with one big Mobius strip. Most of all, the kids wanted to keep going and keep cutting down the center of each new strip that evolved, to see what would happen.

And that's the idea, isn't it? To inspire them to be curious! One child said she couldn't wait to get home and make more strips to see how far she could take it :).  And after everyone left for the day, Alexa was busy making more strips as was my 12yo.

Break and Snack
We had spent a good 45 minutes at Living Math. And by that time, we were ready for a break. We took our snacks and headed outdoors. The kids REALLY needed this time to expend energy, and it was a beautiful day. We had a good 15 minutes of outdoor time and that was time well spent.

Power Hour and More Socratic
We moved right into our art picture study. Since my large poster-sized prints had not yet arrived, I had to use pictures out of my art books, which was hard with a large group! We set a sand-timer and I instructed everyone to examine the painting closely until the sand ran out, then I hid the picture and quizzed them on what they saw. We did this for several Monets - and they seemed to really enjoy this.

We read and discussed Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.  First, I read it like a narration with no artistic pauses at the end of each line or verse so it didn't read as a poem at all. Then I read it like a poem - to illustrate to the kids firsthand how a poem is different and stylized and how its much more pleasurable to listen to as a poem. We discussed the meaning of the poem. I had to laugh in my head, as one child said there were two paths you could take in life - one is getting pierced and tattooed and the other is doing the right thing and being a good person LOL. You got it!!

Finally, we read Samba the Coward, from The Olive Fairy Book (free on Kindle!!). GREAT STORY!!! We laughed, we cried, we almost died. Seriously, we had so much fun reading this. ALL the kids were totally engaged. And we tackled the concept of courage, cowardice, and bravery.  Kids are so smart. They came to their own conclusions Socratic style. Are we born with courage? How do we get it? What IS it exactly? Its so funny to hear their thoughts on courage before reading the story versus after. Most importantly, provide time for your kids to THINK about these concepts.  If never given the opportunity ....

So there you have it - in a nutshell! Day 1 a total success.  We meet again tomorrow, this time the focus will be Living Science instead of math; all else will be similar to today.

God bless your week!!