Another homeschooling week done! This was an interesting week: I had the coolest plans, and we did some of the funnest activities, but all week our rhythm was off--way off. Things took way longer than I anticipated, and I often had planned too many things for one day, so we had to move other things over to the next day, and the next. I've discovered that something Dallin is totally enthusiastic about on one day just does't have the same impact when it has "to be continued". I dunno, it was just a weird week. If anything, I've learned that sometimes simple really is better, sometimes I try to go overboard with fantastically complicated activities.
Eight-year-olds being educated the Waldorf way spend a good deal of time learning about saints and heroes, and that is our unit this month. We are learning about really good people who had one foot in this world and one foot in heaven, so to speak. This week our "saint" was Columba. I'd never heard of him until reading about him in a book, but he is quite a fascinating figure. Telling his story was a good mix of legend and fact, well, at least as much fact as you can determine about a person who lived 1500 years ago and the only sources of information about him are several hundred years younger than he is. Columba was a monk and missionary in Ireland and Scotland in the very earliest days of Christianity in those countries. I chose his story because he and Dallin have very similar temperaments. There was a (true) story about Columba painstakingly copying a book manuscript belonging to one of his teachers. The teacher refused to let him keep it, claiming that it was the teacher's book, therefore Columba couldn't have his own copy. The king had to intervene and sided with the teacher. Columba got mad about this and another incident and came to battle against the king. 3000 people died in the conflict. Columba later felt so sorry for the incident and the resulting destruction of life that he left Ireland with some of his monks, sailing for Scotland. He decided that to make up for sending 3000 unprepared souls to heaven, he would attempt to convert 3000 people to Christianity. For the rest of his life he was a peacemaker and diplomat among various people of Scotland.
I decided to have Dallin create shadow puppets and put on a little play about Columba. He absolutely loved this activity, but it was hugely time-consuming. We will only do this about once or twice a year! Of course, Sariah couldn't be left out, so I had to help her make shadow puppets for her story-of-the-week too. Between the two stories, we spent hours on this project! Tonight the kids performed their plays for Daddy.
 |
| Sariah's play of Maschenka and the Bear. (I couldn't really get her to hold the characters up to the curtain for a better effect, but at least you can see the scenery!) |
 |
| And Dallin's grander play of the story of Columba. |
 |
| My very lame attempt at a chalkboard drawing, as well as the summary Dallin and I wrote. (Well, honestly, this one was mostly me. Our activities had taken so long that he had little attention span for summary-writing.) We've been learning about nouns this week, so I had him identify which words in the summary were nouns. |
 |
| We had a lot of fun talking about medieval scribes, how all books had to be copied by hand. We practiced making illuminated letters, and Dallin worked very hard on his--at least at first. When we went back to finish it a few days later, he wasn't nearly so into it. I think he learned a lot from this experience and the history part of it; maybe it will carry over into the normal "copywork" that he does on a regular basis. |
 |
| We painted for the first time in months. Dallin initially resisted painting, but now he begs for it. This is a river, green land, and mountain against a sunset. The instructions are on Melisa Nielsen's second painting video http://www.youtube.com/alittlegardenflower#p/u/13/72VHhYsArUY Dallin's painting actually turned out better than mine, which is why mine isn't posted! What's cool about this painting is that it's done with only the three primary colors--red, yellow, and blue. |
 |
| This week was Noun Week. The first day, I had Dallin make categories for Person, Place, and Thing, and think of all the words he could put in each spot. The next day, we did Nouns in the Kitchen. This idea came from a lady on an email group I frequent. Dallin had a lot of fun with this! Thursday, we went on a walk to search for Nouns Outside. At that point it was way too easy. He obviously gets nouns! |
 |
| Main Lesson Book: he was burned out by the end of the week; we didn't have enough time to really do this right. I've learned we must have enough time to do the illustration one day and the writing the next. |
 |
| Dallin made another illuminated letter for Columba's name. He insisted on having swords because of the fight--he is a boy, after all! After I found him adding all the spiders (which have nothing to do with the story!), I suggested that he should put in some elements that actually had to do with Columba, like the water and boat. |
To go along with this block, I've also been reading to Dallin each morning out of the book
Boys Who Became Prophets by Lynda Cory Robison. This is a great book for LDS children, sharing things about the boyhoods of each of our modern-day prophets. I figure they are the ultimate saints and heroes! Dallin has really been enjoying it! I think the book is out of print, but I was able to find a used copy. One of the things I've been enjoying most about homeschooling is the extra, unrushed time we have for daily devotional time, scripture study, etc. Dallin and I have had the greatest gospel conversations! He asks the most interesting and intelligent questions! The other day he, on his own, read over 40 verses from Alma chapter 5. He did not want to stop.
Comments