Sweetness and Light

Poetry Friday :: The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken  is always captivating when read aloud. We enjoyed analyzing this one with Violet recently and comparing it to other of Frost's poems.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same...

Read the rest at the above link at poets.org or you can listen as well with their nice audio feature. Find other great poetry at No Water River. The full schedule for Poetry Friday can be found at the Kidlitosphere site here.

Camping Fun!!

What a great time we had on our early Autumn campout with some great friends this past week. They happen to be the parents of our goddaughter, and such a delight is the whole family.

Here are some great photos of our mini-campout at Wallace Falls State Park.

Heading up the trail

Cool Moss, Gee, do you think it rains here much??

 
Always nice to have the whole story :)

Ah, the River

River Adventurers

This tree has seen better days, but pretty cool upturned.

This is for my friend Patty, I'm sorry I scared you pointing out this beauty of nature ;-0

Super fun time at Wallace Lake, a definite bonus after a 5 mile hike!!

My favorite Michaelmas Daisies, right by the lake :)

This little beauty landed on everyone it could, I think it wanted to hike home with us ;-)

God's Splendor and beauty

End of the trail, almost...

Now, THIS is the end of the trail, and boy did it feel good to be down :)

A super time was had by all. Did you camp out this summer at all, what's your favorite spot?? Do you like mountains or beach?? Many blessings in all your adventures and travels in the upcoming year!

 

 

Seen. Heard. Read. :: Early Autumn

September is in full swing and we're having a beautiful Indian Summer here in our parts. Considering we really had no summer, we'll take what we can as long as it lasts ;)

Wallace Falls

We just returned from a super fun camping trip with friends at a lovely spot not very far from home. Great hiking, a beautiful lake to splash in after our hike, not to mention the super good times around the campfire, can't wait for the next one!! (more pictures coming soon).

Seen ~

 

These two young bucks nibbling to their hearts content in our front yard, which I might add is rather fussy and not really what I would consider deer fodder, but hey, who can be picky in suburbia, it's their turf too ;-)

Heard ~

Matthias on our first night camping, "Hey dad, did you know we can download something called Open Star Map  onto your phone to look at the stars anywhere? We can map the stars right over our head right now."

Dad, "Let's do it!!"  (It's now on both our androids ;-)

This was very cool, can't wait to try it out at home on our next perfectly starry night :) 

Read ~

Sean-Paul is on a Mrs. Piggle Wiggle  stint. It's always hysterical to read these aloud, I enjoy them every time. Other recent favorites we have savored many times over the past few weeks: A Mother for Choco, The Wolf's Chicken Stew, Growing Vegetable Soup, My Car (love the pics in these Byron Barton books), many Dr. Seuss books, Hedgie's Surprise, Where the Wild Things Are, The Story About Ping.

Seamus and I just finished reading aloud The Shakespeare Stealer  and The Buffalo Knife, found this one in Books Children Love, one of my favorite booklist resources. We just started Sign of the Beaver  last night, love this one, hope he does too :) He's also on a Redwall kick reading and listening to the series. Right now he's on Salamandastron audible. For American History he's finishing up Pocahontas (a Childhood of Famous Americans book), next up will be John Adams. Also he's reading and narrating from This Country of Ours  and The New Americans. 

Matthias is reading Far North  and recently finished Moccasin Trail. Up next with be Captured by the Mohawks. He is studying American History this year and enjoying America's Last Best Hope (got this at a steal as a two book boxed set for $4.95 on amazon, score!!), America As Seen by it's First Explorers  and snippets of Christ and the Americas.

Violet is hard to keep up with in terms of a reading list, but here are a few tidbits I spied on her shelf over the last month: Sierra Jensen  (Christian Romance series) by Robin Jones Gunn, Backwater & Best Foot Forward  by Joan Bauer, Warhorse (for bookclub), Green Glass Sea  (WWII novel), Violins of Autumn  (also WWII inspired), The Guardian Duke  and Kisses from Katie  (inspired by a youth group volunteer project she is participating in this year). 

Me ~ I just finished A Solitary Blue  by Cynthia Voight and Off Balance  Mary Sheepshanks (really enjoy both these authors currently). I am just dipping in to the 4th Tillerman book called The Runner and found a delicious relic on my daughter's shelf that she acquired from her grandmother, Green Dolphin Street  by Elizabeth Goudge, yippee!!

Hope your Autumn is in full swing, what have you all seen, heard and read lately???

Homeschool Highschool Carnival!!

 This post is part of a link-up for the Homeschool High School Carnival, hosted the first Monday of September by Erin at Seven Little Australians and Counting.
                                                                                           

I was thrilled to be included in the first Homeschool Highschool Carnival. I haven't participated in a carnival for such a long time, this just seemed a perfect one to join as we are in the thick of homeschool highschool, with not one, but two highschoolers this year, WOW!!

The request for this kick-off carnival starts with some questions:

 

The Wide View....  How does your family’s ‘big picture’/goals/educational philosophy affect/guide your planning and translate into what your highschoolers do on a daily/weekly basis?  Do you generalise or specialise?

 

Well....our wide view has always included the backbone of a Charlotte Mason education. So this also correlates with our educational philosophy and definately guides us as we plan and organize for any given school year. With highschool, this big picture view plays out perfectly as we are finding much joy in Charlotte Mason's methods. My planning has been made much simpler as I tend to plan off of delicious booklists, rather than curriculum guides and textbooks. The living books are truly the best part of homeschooling at any age, but for highschool, they reign supreme. I have chosen to share part of our highschooler's booklists to give you an idea of some of the living books we are using this year.

 

Here is a look at some of Violet's books for this year 11th grade (focus on Ancients)~

• Epic of Gilgamesh (Great Books Study)
• Mara, Daughter of the Nile
• God King
• The Illiad & Odyssey (Great Books Study)
• Sophocles and the Tragedy (Homeschool Connections Online class)
• Ancient Men of Greece & Rome
• Thucydides A History of the Pelopnesian War (Great Books Study)
• On Poetics by Aristotle (Great Books Study)
• On the Incarnation by Anthanasius (Great Books Study)
• Lives (Plutarch)
• Nourishing Traditions...

 As you can see, we are focusing heavily on some Great Books selections this year. Violet has wanted to do this for a few years, and now is the time to indulge her :) I am following the suggestions by Susan Wise Bauer from The Well-Trained Mind. She lays out a very doable great books program for highschoolers and would be very beneficial preparation for any student interested in pursuing a Liberal Arts education such as offered at Thomas Aquinas College. We are not neccesarily leaning in that direction, yet, but it's nice to have some options.

 

For my second and newest highschooler, Matthias, and yes he is truly only an 8th grader age-wise (shh, don't tell him that), he's been doing highschool work for the past 3 years in Math.  So we're calling this school year his 9th/10th grade school year :)

A brief look at his books and work for this year (American History focus) ~

• American's Last Best Hope (Vol. I & II) by William Bennett
• The World's Great Speeches
• America As Seen By It's First Explorers
• Captured by the Mohawks
• Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
• Madeliene Takes Command (audio book)
• Moccasin Trail
• The American Revolutionaries...

These are just a smattering of his first quarter books, his list is pretty extensive for this year as there is so much good reading for this time period. He keeps saying history isn't his favorite subject, but every morning I see him with his William Bennett book looking pretty into it   ;-)

 

As to the question of whether we generalize or specialize, I would say that we do both! For my oldest highschooler and my only girl, we are gearing her studies towards the literary and exploring different writing styles. Poetry analysis and a study of many Great Books this year will enable her to delve into some living works that have tested time eternal. She's very pleased with her workload thus far, I am too :)

 

In regards to Matthias and our approach to his highschool years, it is very geared towards the practical and his intention to immerse himself into anything and everything computer technology! Aside from his extensive reading list for the year he will be applying himself to four courses at an online technology school learning advanced skills in engineering design, digital arts, and 3-D art modeling, all on the computer. I can't wait to learn right along with him!!

 

Because we generalize and specialize it's gives us flexibility in our year to tweak and hone subjects as we need to. Sometimes with a big picture view it's hard to know just how it will all play out with a particular student/child, so by keeping things a little more general we are able to figure out which parts of our schedule we can truly specialize. It also gives them more ownership of the materials they really want to delve into deeper and cover subjects to suit their style and learning ability. Love that!

 

I hope this gives you all a lovely snapshot view into our plans for homeschooling highschool. We are very happy with our decision to continue home educating through the highschool years and can't wait to see what others will share in this great Carnival of Homeschooling Highschool!

 

Many blessings in your year ahead!!

 

**Just a note to add here that if anyone is interested in seeing Violet's or Matthias' complete booklists for the year, I'll be happy to send you a pdf copy to see how I plan out their year :) Many thanks to Jen @ Wildflowers and Marbles for her booklist planning sheets, they are indispensible to my planning for highschool!!