R, kindergarten
These are my notes on homeschooling our then five year old daughter, referred to as R, for what could be called kindergarten. Some names and places have been removed [x], naturally. Enjoy.
Fall 2023-Summer 2024, 5 years old
Mathematics
Gattegno Mathematics Textbook 1, Qualitative Arithmetic—The Study of Numbers From 1 to 20; Textbook 2;
used intermittently to introduce new concepts, requires Cuisenaire Rod manipulatives; a somewhat discombobulating mix of direct instruction, discovery-learning, and conceptualism. While some topics are presented in a very thoughtful way, the dependence on C-rods is so overwhelming, creating a required pigeon language middleman between the student and the subject. The effort to create a C-rod-only paradigm, completely fluent and reflexive, seems hardly worth the effort for R who has proclivities that enjoy abstraction rather than the literal or concrete, especially if the student will advance quickly through elementary school math anyways. This system may be best for the pre-literate child.
Miquon Math Lab Materials, orange, red, blue, and green books
primary, daily material, occasionally with Cuisenaire Rod manipulatives; orange book (complete 1/2024), red (complete ~4/2024) blue (complete 9/2024) green (initiated 6/2024)
If I split my own mind in half and dumped out what it looks like when I do math, it would be Miquon. Miquon is a cognitively spatial approach with a wild spiral scope. The orange (2) and blue (3) books are the hardest, front-loading all elementary math (and some algebra and computer science) at once. Like Beast Academy, they slip in very difficult problems (but, unlike BA, don’t label them). Miquon is broad, deep, and chaotic. The system is not concerned with exact sequences, grade levels or timelines—the books are labeled by color and indexed by subject. One is free to skip around to dive deeper into a particular concept or plod along to the next without the judgment of grade level floors or ceilings. It does not include word problems or any contextual information for the concepts—it is delightfully abstract, grooming students for higher mathematics from the start. I am more than willing to add in historical information and word problems. A direct instruction script is available for parents to use; I whip it out occasionally, usually for a computer science topic in which I am less familiar. When I do check the direct instruction Lab Book Manual for familiar topics, I find that I have presented the information how the system instructs. Some parents find this program overwhelming. There are no example problems to imitate [ENTER Ophelia Technique (see below)]. A parent that is uncomfortable with the topics would have to brush up and prepare prior to the lesson. I also take pauses from Miquon to drill certain math facts in order to increase computational speed. Miquon is not a mastery program that includes drill. Rote procedures may be effective but have a certain amount of unsavory side effects. We have been able to move past what I call “procedural hangovers” in a few days. Our educational goal for our children is for them to have the option to pursue higher mathematics, to be able to understand complex financial and statistical frameworks and, in my mind, this can only be accomplished by developing the ability to think mathematically and be very at home in the abstract landscape.
Fit check: R is a predominantly verbal thinker but as she has grown, her logical thinking has exploded. Miquon has been a way to get her to stretch into spatial thinking while still honoring her exploratory spirit because you can dive very deep and have space to answer bigger questions here. This program requires very little reading or writing so it could be more accessible to children without those skills. Miquon lab sheets look different each day so there’s no “gaming” the page with procedural thinking. Because this program requires quite a bit of parental involvement, R gets to spend a lot of her lesson talking through her thought process, which she loves. There are very, very few irrelevant pictures or text. Even items depicted for one-to-one counting in the earliest book (red) are blobs rather than the typical cookies or animals. This has been great since it helps R focus precisely on what she needs to focus on—MATH. Her lesson usually takes .5-1 hour but never more than 2. In that time, she could finish half of one lab sheet or 4-5 lab sheets. There are marked hills-and-valleys to her progress as her mind learns to use new cognitive skills.
Memoria Press Math Challenge Drills, book B and C, & Multiplication Flash Cards
used when R was in a slump
Rod and Staff grade 2
Repetitive and predictable in the extreme, barely at grade level and hardly touches the subject in any meaningful depth. Includes disconcerting Christian socialization attempts. Not a fit at all; abandoned.
Singapore Intensive Practice 1A-2B
Singapore Challenging Word Problems 1-2
Used during travel, on-the-go days.
The Singapore program seems quite a bit more cognitively verbal than Miquon but both are very logical. It throws in IQ test-like test prep spatial problems here and there but there’s not a committed cognitive spatial process, generally. That being said, it has a very practical, bureaucratic approach that is helpful and their Challenging Word problems are just that. So far, I am glad to pair the two programs but the difference in approach seems jarring to R at times. A minor complaint: the use of cute pictures like ice cream cones or puppies is distracting for an imaginative student like R. I generally don’t appreciate fun-washing subjects; my thinking is this subtly communicates that these educational topics are unrewarding and unimportant.
Beast Academy workbooks and puzzles 1-3
R really loves these books; she thinks the stories are really funny and interesting. We don’t use the online portion much at all. A year ago she would have been terrified and disturbed at the idea of mini monster mathematicians; Now, at 5 going on 6, this is hysterical. She carries these—what are essentially comic books—all over the place, reading them over and over again. The problems and concepts are fantastically difficult and cultivate an ethic of teamwork (appealing to an extrovert!) and problem solving rather than plugging in answers mindlessly. Through these books, R started asking to do math competitions too. Fun done right.
Other topics in mathematics
Fractions introduced to support music theory, measuring with rulers, time-telling, and money/coin introduction (pie manipulatives, musical notation/rhythm blocks, clapping and singing rhythm fractions)
Note: math is very much required for learning to read intermediate musical notation; these applied math skills had to be added into her academic plan earlier than expected to meet this need
Hundreds Board or Geoboard used to support multiplication tables (not very useful or helpful for R)
A variety of manipulatives used to introduce new concepts (acorns, beads, Mortensen materials, and practical life circumstances)
Family board game and jigsaw puzzles nights
½ inch graph paper notebooks—very important and needed
”Washable” Crayola Dry Erase markers and mini whiteboard
Math read-aloud
*The History of Counting, Schmandt-Besserat
Numbers in Motion: Sophie Kowalevski, Queen of Mathematics, Wallmark
*Roman Numerals I to MM, Geisert
Fraction Fun, Adler
What’s Your Angle, Pythagorus? Ellis
*The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, Laskey; biography of the Greek philosopher and scientist Eratosthenes, who compiled the first geography book and accurately measured the globe's circumference; Library of Alexandria
*Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, D’Agnese, discusses the western adoption of Hindi number system etc.
Independent math reading
Fraction Action, Leedy
Subtraction Action, Leedy
*How Much is a Million, Schwartz
*Millions to Measure, Schwartz
*Beast Academy series
* the best of the bunch, what is worth saving for subsequent sibling-students
Results and Modus Operandi:
Note: By the end of the summer, R is comfortable with multiplication (entire table), simple fractions, division, multi-digit addition and subtraction (with carry over), some more substantial study of angles, triangles, simple algebraic presentations, negative numbers, positive and negative infinity, etc. I have purposely withheld some of the applied topics like measurement systems, reading tables, clocks, money, and so on to focus on arithmetic fluency though they have been introduced. I have combined, adapting to her strengths and needs each day, spiral and mastery techniques (I focus on mastery with topics like multiplication but conceptualistic takes on most other units. I haven’t been that impressed with manipulatives although they do come in handy (ha) when R is really, really stuck on a problem or I suspect that she is guessing at answers. I don’t think child-led or discovery-style approaches work here as math seems to be best acquired with a bit of practice daily, much like music or learning to read. I would have R say math facts out loud to herself to see if she could be aided by her aural memory/verbal prowess; this is a very antique technique. I am unsure if it benefited her but her younger siblings benefited enormously. Some days I make her problem sets myself to precisely fit in weaker concepts. Worth noting, the historical context in which math and technology were developed are an important part of how math is presented in our home; it is important to me as an educator not just to expect a correct answer in a box next to the equal sign (which we often read aloud as “the same as” since so many students struggle with algebra later on because they have incorrectly inferred that = means answer) but why we are doing it, how we do it, when and where did this idea come from, who invented it. Many clever children, especially girls, R among them, are afflicted with perfectionism; there’s this unease around not getting every single problem correct. Any teacher can tell you if a student easily gets everything right on their problem set, it’s too easy. So, while adding harder problems adaptively, there is also a conversation about what learning is like, what great minds go through, often working without success for long periods, before their brilliance is actualized. There is also acknowledgment that math, like reading but unlike music, is not natural, that the human mind strains to describe phenomena in objective terms; this state is reflected in early and developing cultures. Time is spent here contextualizing what civilizations are like with and without math. Many math students, especially female math students, get stuck in procedural thinking. Clever ones will quickly pick up patterns of what the worksheet or instructor is asking them to compute. Their talents are more in the game of completion than developing mathematical cognitive skills. This adaptive behavior masks the true ignorance beneath the surface of good scores on lower levels of math; these students, if they don’t autodidactically correct their voids and patterns of thought, bomb out of higher math simply because at higher levels there is too much information for even the brightest student to game for gold stars or interpersonal approval. These students are left without the cognitive skills and advantages that math brings despite years of study. Whenever we take a break from conceptual presentations of problems to build internal arithmetic algorithms to gain computation speed, there is always a “procedural hangover” that needs disturbing, where R looks at her problem set to answer the sheet instead of the thought.
The Ophelia Technique:
“I shall the effect of this good lesson keep/
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,/
Do not—as some ungracious pastors do—/
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,/
Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine,/
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,/
And recks not his own rede.”
- Hamlet (1.3.48-52), Ophelia to her brother, Laertes.
Part of gaining mathematical maturity is not just knowing a single technique, but knowing many yet it’s not just in knowing so many techniques but also possessing a deliberate a sort of wisdom in approaching a problem so that you get the most accurate results—or perhaps the quickest—or perhaps the most explanatory, it really depends on the situation. In our discussions, R and I use Ophelia’s reprimand as shorthand: there are steep and thorny ways to a solution but there are also primrose paths. Before launching into a problem, we use The Ophelia Technique to decide the best way to proceed; this is hardly a novel contempt but, as Shakespeare-crazed girly-girls, this is how we enjoy and label that process.
Questions of fit and troubleshooting:
R has been testing EN[x]P on Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI). These tests attempt to describe how an individual learns and processes information. Her results stand for Extroversion, INtuitive, and Perceptive and these are currently descriptive of her work style. She strongly prefers someone nearby while she is working, claiming she gets “lonesome” otherwise. This has been somewhat of a boon to her since it basically means she gets intensive one-on-one lessons every weekday. Why such long lessons? She hardly cares about finishing quickly and has a long attention span. I spent much of the first semester trying to rush her through 30 minute lessons because that is the “correct” lesson length under some pedagogies. I eventually let that go and leaned into deeper, longer lessons that ended up feeling more rewarding since we could accomplish more. If her current MBTI preferences are descriptive and the system of MBTI has useful validity, this makes a lot of sense: instead of relying on sensorial information (manipulatives, “real world” concrete math like cooking, R shines with the complex and abstract (INtuitive) and has to explore all possibilities regardless of practical application or external goal (Perceptive). When R is tired, she will start making silly mistakes—usually writing numbers backwards.
When a child is accelerating beyond typical grade levels in math, expectations of mature handwriting built into the curriculum become an issue. For a period, most of the frustrations were due to not being able to write small enough to fit numbers into answer boxes or keep columns from drifting. Using the ½ inch graph paper notebooks (special ordered, not usually in stores) helped as she could work on the larger squares and then an adult could transfer her answers into the workbook when necessary. Another tangle, R would read and therefore write her numbers left-to-right instead of right-to-left. This would, obviously, yield unexpected results. It wasn’t until reading through our math and technology history literature that I realized that it was a bug in the patchwork of mathematical procedures, where, our western mind that read left-to-right, had replaced clunky Roman numerals with Hindi numerals (reading right-to-left) and the two different directions just exist in contrast, adults habituated to this inconsistent grammar, blind to it. R similarly gets tripped, generally only when she’s tired or distracted, by the linguistic bugs like “four-teen;” if the teens were written as they are spoken they would be 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91–they ought to be pronounced teen-three, teen-four, etc., to fit the pronunciation pattern of the rest of the numbers. Oh and then there’s the bit where we work problems from right to left but we write multi-digit numbers left-to-right but in some cases pronounce them right-to-left. Madness.
Music, Theatre, & Dance
Harp
Private classical harp tutoring (weekly), at-home practice (daily)
She is the youngest student ever accepted for instruction by [x] , professor of Applied Music (harp) at [x] University and principal harpist at the [x] Symphony Orchestra. [x] was trained under Susan Macdonald at Indiana University.
Young at Harp, Barnes
Harp Olympics, Preliminary Round and 1, McDonald & Rollo
Fun from the First, Vol. 1, Milligan, Lyon & Healy
Performed:
Studio Harp Holiday Concert 2023, [x] University
“Angels We Have Heard On High”
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
Harp Spring Concert 2024, [x] University
“Step by Step,” Grandjany
“Glissando Waltz,” Macdonald
“Moonlight,” Macdonald
Harp Society Recital May 2024
“Moonlight,” Macdonald
Note: Harp? What? Classical harp, yes. Three-year old R, while browsing in a neighborhood music shop, was particularly attracted to the harp. She has an alertness to the instrument’s contributions in Romantic and balletic repertoire; we listen to a lot of classical music and attend many concerts. She refused all other instruments. I handed her the most adorable 1/16 violin and she refused to hold it—complaining loudly that it screeched. Her name was down at the [x] University Community Music School to learn violin, Suzuki Method, at 5, since there were no harp teachers, much less classical harp teachers to be found. It wasn’t until I mentioned this tragedy to our well-connected French tutor who knew someone who knew the harpist in the [x] Symphony Orchestra that the door opened for R to truly choose her instrument. Since becoming a harpist, she has adopted quite a low opinion of piano and seems to find the horizontal nature unnatural and spits at the idea of piano practice. She really, really, really loves the harp, proclaiming this is “the only instrument that always sounds nice—like butterflies,” and she’s hardly wrong in this assessment. So at 5 and ¼, R started formal lessons. There was hesitation for her to be accepted as a student, she was only taken on on the basis that she was truly musically gifted, very personally motivated, would be studying piano concurrently, and had a home life that was supportive, rather, that she would be practicing properly and that she would behave during the 45 minute lesson. When she has lessons, I stay (sisters included—they enjoy it, believe it or not), listening and taking notes. During the weekdays, I supervise her technique (this requires me to study independently because I am a pianist, not a harpist) and practicing what is needed rather than goofing off and running the clock. I am also teaching her music theory, solfège, and piano. This is the full scope of classical training. R spends time outside of formal lessons and scheduled practice sessions composing and improving, making mock performances and shows. Their loveliness cannot be overstated. She intuits how harpists manage their pitches, instinctually throwing her glissandos into a pentatonic tuning, nicknamed “the Hollywood Glisse.” She berates her teacher to show her increasingly difficult techniques after seeing mature players employ them (like harmonics) and she will sit for long periods with a quiet rage-to-master, practicing. When she was much younger, she would have tantrums at herself during these rage-to-master periods. Yet other days she groans when I tell her it is time to practice—this is mostly due to the lack of fluency in reading music. She works well with a metronome. She is truly subjected to full experience of the classical instrumentalist world with the exception of having an exceedingly kind and gentle instructor in [x] . I, leading daily practice, am hardly as sweet, one could call my bedside manner “direct,” either by temperament or by being socialized by my own curt Russian and borderline-insulting French instructors. Perhaps all harpists are just angels? Her first year of formal training was marked by a lot of sickness and travel, her instructor is not exclusively a teacher but a full-time performing musician. Each week we renegotiate times and days, squeezing things in calendars. Rosie could not play the harp with an instructor if she was in a brick and mortar school, the schedule wouldn’t allow for it. We have enjoyed listening to all the major harp repertoire this year: Mozart’s Harp and Flute Concerto, Handel’s Harp Concerto in B-flat Major and so on.
Goals: After a year, she has moved on to intermediate works. Her teacher thinks she will soon be ready for competitions, “she has a high aptitude.” R likes the idea of competitions because she likes to get a big bouquet of roses, wear a beautiful gown, lip gloss, and perfume, get the thrill of her performance, go to a nice restaurant, and get a monetary prize. R is also very interested in building a repertoire to work wedding venues (this can be very lucrative). I seek out opportunities for R to perform not only because she seems to enjoy it but because it may be a healthy way to integrate her thrill-seeking, devil-may-care personality without doing things that are truly dangerous or regrettable. I am curious to find out if this exposure will be a useful, transferable skill to something like public speaking or similar. There is also the phenomenon of working hard on something and realizing it, this concise reward for delayed gratification, for it is a tremendous labor to prepare increasingly difficult classical works and technique to a performance level. Additionally, I want her to have the whole picture of what the musical world is like so she can make informed decisions about her own future. If she decides to step away from the harp, she has a lovely way to spend non-working hours that doesn’t involve the destructive consumption (like screens, shopping, eating, drugs yattah yattah) that typifies most American lives. Something that looms over us as parents is the purchase of a full-sized concert pedal harp. It will be around 20-60K, preferably gilt, obviously, and very fragile and temperamental. Once she is using a full-sized harp, she can join youth orchestras.
Piano
My First Piano Adventure for the Young Beginner; Lesson Book B, Faber
The basics of music theory and notation
Music notation flash cards
Dry-erase board with grand staff
Rhythm manipulatives
Singing note names from score
Clapping/using handheld percussion instruments to investigate rhythms
ABRSM level 1-2 Music Theory textbook and workbook
Note: It has been challenging teaching R music theory as she had already developed strong audiation skills years prior. That, paired with her sharp memory, made musical texts very cumbersome to her as a beginner since she could very easily play anything she heard even once. Her instructor believes she has perfect pitch. She can distinguish not just notes but chords. She has complex and enjoyable improvisations. While she loves performing—studying theory is not her favorite subject but it is tolerated most days. After a little less than a year of studying harp, R is roughly a ABRSM grade 2-3 student and barely a grade 1 on piano. Much of this year has been spent coping with the physically-difficult technique of harp playing. After further research into the historically-successful European conservatories, I would insist on the tradition of piano/keyboard and vocal/solfeggi study for young children before the adoption of a specialized instrument. Learning both the physical technique and monstrous amount of music theory needed to keep up with a quickly advancing student is a humbling endeavor. By fall of 2024, R was becoming a fluent score reader and an intermediate harpist but at the time preceding our eventual success, failure seemed to haunt and threaten us each week due to shear strain.
Ballet
Enrolled at [x] .
promoted to Pre-Ballet 1B for fall 2023,
promoted to Primary Ballet 1A for spring 2024,
promoted to Primary Ballet 1B summer 2024
R’s ballet school uses the American Ballet Theater (ABT) curriculum. R auditioned for Nutcracker and got a part (mouse/train attendant); She started residency August 2024. She really enjoys these long rehearsal days; she likes watching the older dancers and making friends. She is the youngest there so this provides a good opportunity for upward socialization, specifically, the students are selected in part because they can follow directions and simple rules like no hitting or screaming. The ballet company is very strict and organized. The artistic director has very high standards of dress, manners, etc. R remains very passionate and motivated here. She hardly ever just walks but dances and bounds at every locomotive opportunity.
Theatre
Attended live
Cosi Fan Tutti, Mozart, [x] Opera
This was our first live full-length opera. I was not expecting such an intense and satisfying somatic experience. Otherworldly.
Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky/Petipa, [x] Ballet
We knew the ending and cried anyway.
Shostakovich String Quartet No.8 c minor, [x] Music Quartet
Giselle, Adams/Petipa, [x] Ballet
More crying.
Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky/Balanchine, [x] Ballet
Handel’s Messiah Sing-Along, [x] University Dept. of Music
Rosie jumped out of her seat and sang and danced in the aisle.
The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky/Petipa, [x] Ballet
Ravel String Quartet No. 1, [x] Museum
Another transcendent experience. Ravel only wrote one string quartet because this one is perfection.
Wave: Ripple Effects Chamber Project [x] (impressionist music paired with “Matisse at the Sea” art exhibit); harp instructor performance, [x] .
As You Like It, Shakespeare, [x] Park [x]
This was for R’s birthday. We had a full English tea at a pretty cafe and then caught the show. The girls stayed up hours past bedtime and focused completely on the show, enjoying it very much. I read the text to R prior, [x], and by the time of the show, she seemed to have the thing memorized and noticed when the players made little omissions. We pack a big picnic for these outdoor shows. Tremendously fun.
Tchaikovsky violin concert; Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream [x] Festival Orchestra, [x] University
Last year, R was very obsessed with MSND—both music and prose—so when I saw this program I knew we had to go. It was outdoors so the girls danced along in the grass.
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, [x] Park,
I had banned (I put the books on a high shelf) R from reading Shakespeare’s tragedies because I thought she was too young. She snuck “Romeo and Juliet” arguing “Mama, I just love love!” Well, we went to a show and she had to go to the bathroom before every fight scene and eventually started crying in distress at the on-stage conflict. She serendipitously ran into the director of the play who sat with her and told her all the players’ secrets for creating a believable battle and so on. How incredibly kind! She insisted on dressing up as Juliet for Halloween a few months later.
Early Music Society: Baroque Spanish guitar; [x] Art Museum
Recorded
Daphnis and Chloe, Royal Ballet, Ravel, Ashton
As You Like It, Shakespeare, BBC, Helen Bonham Carter, audiobook dramatized and unabridged (twice)
Cinderella, Paris Opera Ballet, Prokofiev, Guillem,
Raymonda, Mariinsky Theatre, Petipa, Tereshkina, Parish
The Nutcracker, New York City Ballet, Tchaikovsky
Coppelia, Bolshoi Theatre, Delibes, Osipova
Vivaldi and Mozart at the Musée du Louvre, ARTE Concert
The Harp, BBC Documentary
Magic Flute, Mozart, Sir Simon Rattle, Berliner Philharminker
How to Build an Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
Scherazade, Bolshoi Theatre
Peau d’Ane, 1970, Demy, Perrault, Deneuve
We now have access to fine performing arts streaming platform Medici.tv
Most of these programs were watched on road trips, flights, on sick days (there were so many sick days Nov 23-Jan 24 that I invoked a quarantine the last couple of weeks before Baby E’s due date), or after long days hiking.
Art read-aloud
Degas and the Little Dancer, Anholt
The Met DK, What the Artists Saw: Edgar Degas, Guglielmo
Still life sketches of statue at museum
R is obsessed with this statue, we’ve read so many books about its subject
Tallchief, America’s Prima Ballerina
Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, Martha Graham, Greenberg
*The First Notes, The Story of Do, Re, Mi, The story of the monk who invented musical notation, Andrews/Hamilton
*Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin, the Story of Young Itzhak Perlman, Newman
*Matisse: The Iridescence of Birds, Maclachlan ; “Matisse at the Sea” exhibit and concerts at [x]Art Museum;cut paper collage craft a la Matisse
Oh, Matisse, Niepold
Becoming Bach, Leonard
*The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori & the Invention of the Piano, Rusch
Composer’s World Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Thompson
*Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova, Snyder
Saving the Countryside: The Story of Beatrix Potter, Marshall
*The Unicorn Tapestries, MET
Note: R loves listening to music, going to concerts and the theatre. Our prioritization of considerate pro-social behavior has enabled R to attend many performances and make connections with professionals. Attending performances hasn’t just been an enjoyable pastime but it has given R an intuitive sense of how to carry herself on stage. The girls all enjoy getting dressed up and being generally admired in more-formal settings.
Reading
Literature read-aloud
*The Little Princess, Burnett
*The Blue Fairy Book, Lang
*The Children of Noisy Village, Lindgren
*Christmas Carol, Dickens
*Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Anderson
William Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, (retold) Coville
*The Secret Garden, Burnett
* “As You Like It,” Shakespeare
* “Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare
*Aladdin and the Arabian Nights; Sheharazade
Rosie really loved the music so we read through the story before watching the ballet.
Independent Reading
A Bear Called Paddington, Bond
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Atwater
supplemented with Memoria Press Teacher’s Guide
Note: These comprehension questions were insufferable and really took the joy out of the reading.
additional resources on geography and biology
The booklist was misplaced, but included general information on the Arctic vs. Antarctic regions, different species of penguins, and Antarctic explorers.
Snow and Rose, Emily Wakefield Martin
Daisy Meadows:
Ruby the Red Fairy
Brianna the Tooth Fairy
Maya the Harp Fairy
Heather the Violet Fairy
Melodie the Music Fairy
Sophie Mouse #2 Emerald Berries
Sophie Mouse #1 New Friends
*Beatrix Potter stories
Dobson series
Cornbread & Poppy series
Mouse and Mole series
*Beauty and the Beast, Craft
Wrenly series
American Girl series
Unicorn Magic/ Pegasus Princess, Emily Bliss series
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling
*Andrew Lang’s Yellow & Red Fairy Book
*Usborne Shakespeare mini-novel series
*Astrophysics for Young People in Hurry, Neil Degrasse Tyson
R thought NDGT was a very funny writer
Brambly Hedge series
La Petite Famille
Raconte Moi une Histoire anthologie
etc.
Weekly Trips to the Library; I largely let her read what interests her.
Read-To-A-Dog Program: Children help socialize service dogs in-training by sitting with them and reading. The service dogs are in-training to be aids to disabled veterans.
Note: By Christmas, R was a very fluent reader. I stopped giving her reading lessons when she hit fluency, roughly a third grade reading level. She would read the above listed chapter books in an hour or less. She reads aggressively and voraciously, preferring sweet stories about little cute animals, fairy tales, beautiful people falling in love and getting married, adventures that feature gems of some sort, anything fantastic or with a pretty unicorn. Harry Potter was a hit except for the scarier scenes and sarcasm. At this point, I will buy or borrow books that I think will interest and/or inform and put them on her shelf to read at her own convenience. She probably reads for pleasure a minimum 2 hours each day outside of her lessons.
Another Note: by this age, we have read most of the classic children’s literature. Much of it multiple times. Since about age 3, R would sit for hours and listen to me read aloud. These great books live in her room on a very crowded shelf; she rereads them by herself now.
Fine Motor & Art
one or more enjoyed daily:
Watercolor painting
Still life study
Clay Modeling
Kinetic Sand
Color Pencils for sketchbook
Tissue paper/masking tape sculpting
Making stage props from old boxes
Stamps
Cut/Paste crafts
Stringing beads
Acrylic model-painting
Beginning sewing/stitching
Holiday crafts (pommes d’ambre, garlands, Valentines, etc.)
Note: Crafts are always enjoyed. I make sure they have quality materials; we noticed that professional pencil and paints make a huge difference in clarity. R spends a lot of time drawing in her sketchbook (Semikolon is the best hardback on the market currently) each day. She has filled many. I buy them in bulk.
Still life of Philadelphia Fleabane in vase
Handwriting
Handwriting Without Tears: My Printing Book 10/2023-12/2023 (completed)
Handwriting Without Tears: Cursive Kickoff
1/2024- (current)
Copy work: Cicely Mary Barker poems, George Washington’s Civility Rules, Shakespeare, Bible verses, address, phone number, thank you notes, etc.
Note: This is a tricky subject for R; I haven’t been happy with any of the scripts but this system is . . . fine. R has her own pretty stationary to use.
She spends a lot of free time with her own notebook or stationary and in these open-ended settings she uses a three-point grip on her pencil (identical to father). I have relentlessly prompted for the “correct” two-point grip for the entire school year with very little success. She can switch to two-point when she feels my gaze but defaults reflexively to three-point.
Physical Education
Ballet (see above) weekly
[x] Fitness gym: children’s drop-in gymnastics, barre, boxing, and classic “PE style” games and free recess time. At least twice weekly.
Weekly hikes
Many trips to parks and playgrounds throughout the week
After-dinner walks.
Catechism & History
Participation in Sunday and Wednesday school, [x] the Great Russian Orthodox Church
Attendance at [x] Greek Orthodox Church
Attendance at [x] Greek Orthodox Church
Celebration of favorite feast days: St Lucia, St Martin, St Nicholas, St Cecilia, etc.
History read-aloud and reference
* Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World
Famous Family Trees, Hauge
* Pegasus, Mayer/Craft
“Daphnis & Chloe,” Barefoot Ballet Stories
Children’s Bible Reader; American Bible Society
Law of God, Slobodskoi
*Art of the First Cities: Third Milennium B.C. From the Mediterranean to the Indus; MET/YALE
* “Aesop’s Fables,” Winter
Three Centuries of Silver: Art and the Coins of Syracuse, Wallenbrock
*Roman Portrait: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze, the MET Zanke
*How Our Alphabet Grew: The History of the Alphabet, Dugan
How to Read Greek Sculpture, The MET, Hemingway
Egyptian Art, TASCHEN, Hagen
Mesopotamia: Ancient Art and Architecture, Bahrani
Greek Architecture, YALE, Lawrence
Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris, CANDLEWICK Press
Mythology: Greek Gods, Heroes, & Monsters, CANDLEWICK Press
Who wants to be a princess? : what it was really like to be a medieval princess
Who Was Princess Diana? Labrecque
Who Was Elizabeth II? Stine
Gilgamesh the King series retold by Zeman
Terrifying. Comparing to a copy of the original primary source, this children’s version is just as violent but not as sexual
Note: Most of the content in history stories scared the daylights out of R; so, for now, I leave it open and let most of our exposure to the concepts come from artifacts and art rather than gruesome stories of war or angry, incestuous gods. Much of the time, I read through primary texts or hagiographies and retell the information, tailoring it in a way that I think will be understood but also important and useful, while looking at art/artifacts. The religious books for children are either heretically insipid or useless piles of poorly-metered facts. As part of our homeschool church co-op this school year, each child was to present their patron saint, alternating each meeting. For Rosalind, Ste. Genevieve of Paris, we had many prints of famous paintings done and prepared them on boards to arrange as a mini gallery, telling her hagiography while listening to “Sonnerie de Ste Genevieve du Mont-de-Paris,” Marais. All families canceled the day of the lesson.
We traveled to many wonderful universities last year and saw many important ancient artifacts in person. Last year we studied prehistoric man and focused on what made man unique from animals, evolution, the book of Genesis. We’re slowly building on that base, chronologically, mostly through a technological and artistic lense until she has enough personal experience (and Super Ego) with the world in order to organize the horrors and tension of history. Looking to recalibrate the subject, geography-forward (while keeping art & technology) next year. While this history method is a form of recapitulationism, incorrect teachings like geo-centric models of the universe are not taught. This model is meant to be a companion to the child’s development and effort by emphasizing that billions of humans have traveled the same path. Both abstract beginnings are taught in conjunction with local geography, mostly climate, at this age.
Science
Maintains a nature notebook
Audubon field guides on all subjects
Study bird songs, Audubon App.
Collecting and identifying feathers, rocks, insects etc
Mushroom hunting
Harvesting and cold-sowing native seeds
Planting bulbs in the fall
Planting crops from seed
Foraging native edible plants
Help removing non-native invasive species from property and replacing, and designing, local varieties; prairie habitat restoration and observation
Creating a pollinator garden and bird feeder
Working with Audubon chapter to re-establish prairie habitat
Field trips
[x] Botanical Garden
[x] Botanical Garden
[x] Nature Preserve
Butterfly House
Science Center
Planetarium
Aquarium
Bi-monthly trips to a sustainable farm to pick-up food and visit
Zoo, monthly
Science read-aloud and reference
Smithsonian Guide to Natural America (full set)
All relevant field guides to our climate
Smithsonian Backyard series
Eyewitness series
Cat and the Hat Learning Library series
Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel, TASCHEN, Willman, Voss
Bird Brains: the Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays, Savage
Periodic Table Explorer: Your Guide to the Elements, Dingle
Give Me Back My Bones, Norman
Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Fossil, Becker
Plant a Pocket of Prairie, Root
Remembering Rosalind Franklin, Stone
Grow, Secrets of our DNA, Davies
Comet Chaser, Caroline Herschel
Before the Seed, Buhrman-Deever
Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom
Bringing Nature Home, Tallamy
The Book of Seeds, CHICAGO, Smith
When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T. Rex
science center exhibit of Sue’s T-Rex
additional projects (physics):
building a model rocket and launching it, making repairs and edits
streaming SpaceX launches/landings
replacing old playground with branches and logs (bushcraft); children then build their own play structures
4/8/2024 travel to solar eclipse totality
watercolor painting of the eclipse
make a clock out of a prism/discussion on mass, orbit, etc.
Note: Oh, R likes plants, animals (especially birds), mushrooms, pretty rocks, and insects. I leave the subject of science open, child-led and interest-based. She really likes corvids, swans, and owls.
French
French spoken part-time at home.
Private tutor (1 hour weekly) with Marseille-native.
Enrolled in Alliance Française Maternelle class 1/2024-6/2024
materials:
French storybooks and songs at home.
Premiers Livres à Lire Seul Lecture Phonétique Montessori, Place & Fontaine-Riquie
series printed in simplified cursive
pink and blue levels (complete)
green level (current 1/2024)
3-4/2024 Conte de Fées class
Riquet a la Houppe
Le Peau D’Ane
Le Barbe Bleue (too scary!)
Cendrillion
La Belle au Bois Dormant
Le Petit Chaperon Rouge
4-5/2025 Géographie de France class
the regions of the francophonic world
Note: When R started learning French in 2020, there was hope that she would be bilingual (using both native English and French with equal ease and no accent). Currently, it seems like fluency will be achievable but perhaps not bilingualism. Maybe it’s too soon to say. As of now, if R is spoken to in age-appropriate French, she will respond correctly but in English though she can read simple books aloud in French. Several of the other dual-language household children in her Alliance Française Maternelle class did this as well. Part of the problem: she’s getting a lot less input than years past. This year has been a dark year marked by several significant familial deaths and other catastrophes so I (mother) haven’t been as comfortable chatting much less chatting in my minority language.
Practical Life
(See science)
Foraging
Weeding
Sowing
Planting
Sustainable farm visits:
Animal husbandry
Discussions on safety
Copy work for personal information like phone, name, address, etc.
Chess Camp for Girls, [x] Chess Hall
Note: R really loved being with all the other older girls.
Watch Cairns Cup (women)
Chess.com App games with father
Family board games, jigsaw puzzles
Chores
Set and clear table
Wipe table and sweep floor
Put clothes in hamper
Put clothes away
Pack bags (list provided)
Pick up sticks and branches
Runner for mom! Big, big help.
Grocery shopper
Sister shoe-and-coat helper
Lunch packing
Take in trash cans from curb
Pick up toys and books
Note: R likes to help cook although she’s not one to ask for food or really seek it, she’s usually very absorbed in whatever she is doing and I (mom) have to call for her to come set the table and eat.
R gained a new baby sister this year and helps by fetching items and keeping the baby company when I have to quickly attend to something.
Accommodations: R is less connected to her immediate surroundings and tends not to notice the mess on the floor or the tears of a little sister. To support her better: diagrams, lists, labels, pictures of the expected behavior and/or routines are laminated and hung on the wall where their information applies. She really likes these resources—we decorated them.
Social-emotional
There is continual emphasis on developing emotional literacy, sympathy/empathy, logic, and considerate, civil behavior. It feels like this is the subject that demands the most time of all of the subjects but is hardly academic. For order’s sake, anti-social behavior is disincentivized in our home.
R’s personal goals:
R is not driven to earn money by the extra chores I offer albeit I shield the children from many places where they would encounter advertisements or grand displays of toys, the bookstore is the only place they see this. I theorize that this has the effect of contentment to a certain degree. The things R asks for are usually very large items like a “gilded harp,” “a ball gown,” “crystal pointe shoes,” or “to make pottery,” “build a castle.” That being said, she is more amenable to the idea of investing more into her skill set to earn larger sums than the few dollars to sweep the sidewalk. Competitions in chess, math, ballet, and music have caught her eye as the payout is generally a few hundred dollars. This is the goal she has for herself. “I don’t want to be a servant.” As previously noted, she is very interested in becoming a glitzy event harpist.
additional notes:
Our home is largely screen-free. R completes almost no work on electronic devices. Her time is spent almost exclusively with paper books, drawing in her sketchbook, listening to music, dancing, playing music, playing outside, going on walks, building with Legos or other blocks.
Cost rounded up to 10K/year
The use of Memoria Press, Rod and Staff, and the anxiety around her pencil grip was all an effort to ready R to go into [x] Classical school where they are very particular. Alas, the math program is almost three years behind where we are working and because the behavior and bureaucratic standards are so tight, skipping grades even in that subject seems unwise. So that along with her commitment to harp have us onboard for another year of homeschooling. Doing more thorough academics at home in about 2-3 hours each day leaves her with the rest of her day to play and pursue her own projects. My focus, as the person responsible for her education, is the hard subjects, the Three Rs: Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic, (plus music) and leave her to do what she pleases beyond that for now. The core subjects, once mastered, form the base in which all else, academically, can be explored. Since R learned to read very young, reading instruction was mostly completed by age 5 which freed our schedule to pursue music with abandon.