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I'm a part-time clinical psychology researcher and full-time mother to Alex (4/05) and Colin (2/09). We are secular homeschoolers following a modified neoclassical curriculum.
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The Borrowers Aloft
Mary Norton-
Category Archives: five in a row
Looking ahead to third grade.
Our new school year starts on June 1st. One of my goals for third grade is that Alex start to take a little more ownership of her education, so I asked her what she would like to accomplish this year. … Continue reading
Posted in art, five in a row, math, policy & planning, writing
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All good things come to an end.
Back in November, we decided to scale way back on Five in a Row. I scheduled one FIAR book every five weeks, so that in the intervening periods we could devote more time to lab science and history. We’ve done … Continue reading
Posted in five in a row, policy & planning
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Mrs. Katz and Tush, part 2.
We had a pretty busy week with Mrs. Katz and Tush, despite the lack of posting. (The real issue with that? I was reading the Hunger Games trilogy in every minute of my free time.) In the book, Mrs. Katz … Continue reading
Posted in art, five in a row, religious education, social studies
Tagged mrs katz and tush
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Mrs. Katz and Tush.
We’re taking another break in our usual curricula to study a Five in a Row book. Because it’s almost Passover, we’re reading Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco. The story is about a lonely Jewish widow and an African-American … Continue reading
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum!
We wrapped up our study of The Glorious Flight with a trip to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It was our first trip to D.C. since before Colin was born – with very young kids, there isn’t much that … Continue reading
The Glorious Flight.
We’re back to Five in a Row this week with the 1984 Caldecott medalist, The Glorious Flight, by Alice and Martin Provensen. This wonderful book tells the true story of aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, who in 1909 became the first … Continue reading
Historical fiction.
Hanna’s Cold Winter takes a real event – the people of Budapest saving their hippos during an unusually cold winter of World War II – and creates a fictional story about it, about a particular family, their affection for the … Continue reading
Hanna’s Cold Winter.
We’re doing a Five in a Row book this week, our first title from Volume 4. Volume 4 studies are supposed to be more in-depth and extended, but we’ve been a little haphazard about it so far. Alex loves the … Continue reading
Making natural dyes.
In A New Coat for Anna, Anna and her mother color the wool yarn for her coat with a dye they make from lingonberries. To finish up our study of the book, we decided to try some natural dyeing projects … Continue reading
Fibers and textiles.
Today, when we read A New Coat for Anna we focused on the coat itself. Anna watches the progress of her coat from sheep’s backs to the tailor’s window. I asked Alex to think of as many substances as possible … Continue reading
A New Coat for Anna.
Counting down our last few books of “regular” Five in a Row, this week we’re studying A New Coat for Anna, by Harriet Ziefert. Somewhere in post-WWII Europe, Anna has been squeezing into an outgrown and threadbare coat for far … Continue reading
Re-figuring things.
We moved more than a month ago, and yet we still don’t seem to have our groove back. School is getting done, but I feel as if I’m scrambling to catch up. We’re plugging through our skill subjects (math, writing, … Continue reading
Posted in five in a row, policy & planning, science
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Grandfather’s Journey, and tough questions.
Our book this week is the 1994 Caldecott winner, Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say. This is a very unusual picture book, spare and subtle and controlled, with delicate, formally composed illustrations. The storyline follows Say’s grandfather from Japan to America, … Continue reading
Climbing Maryland mountains.
Okay, so “climbing a Kansas mountain” was metaphorical. We still thought it would be a good idea to climb a Maryland mountain this week. “The thing that makes a mountain is a high, quiet view,” the boy’s father says, and … Continue reading
Molding Maryland mountains.
In Climbing Kansas Mountains, when the father suggests that they climb a Kansas mountain, the boy reminds him of the flour dough relief map of Kansas he made for a school project. (Really, imaginary teacher? A flat rectangle of dough … Continue reading
Climbing Kansas Mountains.
Our Five in a Row book this week is Climbing Kansas Mountains, by George Shannon. A young boy’s father takes him to “climb a Kansas mountain,” going to the top of the enormous grain elevator where the father works. The … Continue reading
Quilts and patterns.
On Wednesday of our week with The Rag Coat (yes, I’m behind in posting. We hosted a Halloween party for 20 kids this weekend; I’ve been busy), we started out by listening to the Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many … Continue reading
Coal.
After we began our study of The Rag Coat, it occurred to me that you must be able to visit a coal mine as a tourist. And in fact, just a few minutes’ Googling brought me to several sites in … Continue reading
The Rag Coat.
This week we’ve been studying The Rag Coat, a tearjerker of a book by Lauren Mills. When Minna’s coal miner father dies of black lung disease, the neighborhood women make Minna a patchwork coat out of rags so that she … Continue reading
What a difference a day makes…
This morning, Alex wrote a sentence of copywork with good cheer. We reviewed the words she missed in Monday’s spelling lesson, and she got all seven right – quickly, one after the other, broke – these – those – quite … Continue reading
Posted in five in a row, math, nature study
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