Sweetness and Light

Simile Fun!

 

We had a blast with this book the past few days!  It is featured on Picture Book of the Day blog and I had to check it out for some good language lessons. 

The first time we read it through everyone made their own simile pages.  Here's a sample of each:

:: Matthias ::

 

:: Violet ::

 

:: Seamus ::

 

Next day, we read it again, then we compiled all our similes into one funny story!!  Enjoy :)

Simile Story – Group Activity

January 9, 2009

“Big as a Bear”

I’m as big as a bear!  I like to drink a bunch.  My friend is an eel, he’s as slippery as a seal.  He lived in a tree that was tall as a tower.  He’s as sly as a fox and as old as the alphabet.  He is as light as a feather. He is as slithery as a snake. 

And now the eel had a friend that was quiet as a mouse, in fact she was a mouse.  She was as fluttery as a butterfly and cool as a smoothy.  She’s as rich as a king and good as gold.  She’s wise as an owl and sweet as a flower. 

And there also was a man, he’s as tall as a tree.  He’s as agile as a monkey and his hair is green as a leaf.  He’s as thin as a pin.  He’s as plain as dirt. 

And the man had a friend, a sneaky, sleek cheetah, and the cheetah could run as fast as a track runner.  He was yellow as a lemon and had spots as black as night.  And he had a long slinky tail that had a mind of it’s own.  He’s as calm as a millpond in summer, by the way, what is a millpond??

But back to the buffalo who is as big as a bear.  He’s as hairy as the mane of a mare.  He’s as brown as chocolate and smart as a whip.  His horns are like pine needles and his hooves are black as soot.  His fur is as soft as cotton and his bed is as soft as green moss. When he stampedes he sounds like a giant running and he weighs as much as ten boulders.  He flattens the grass like a steam roller as he munches from dawn until dusk. 

The buffalo’s name was Pete and he never got enough to eat.  He’s thirsty for punch, now it’s time for lunch, and now we must all say goodbye!

We hope you enjoyed some of our silliness. It's good to have fun and be silly sometimes, especially with all things "language arts". Have a wonderful weekend with your families, many blessings to you all!

Narration

Narration.  I realized just recently that I never fully completed my post in OK So Here's The Plan about how we like to do Narration here at Sweetness and Light.  So instead of leaving you all hanging, I thought I'd do a bit of housekeeping here at the blog and finish up some business!!

We (read I) really enjoy Narration as part of the home education process.  If a child cannot narrate, they do not know.  Period!  Now if they are stubborn (have one) and refuse to narrate, or hem and haw about it, then they are just being lazy and most likely pulling a bit of a power struggle on you.  This may or may not be the case in your situation, but at some point in your home schooling journey, one of your dear children will inevitably balk at narration (for lack of a better term)! 

My concept is to call it something else while you get over this hurdle.  Make it a game, like "Can you tell me how many ducks were following Mrs. Mallard to the Public Gardens?"  Or "What did Lucy discover on the other side of the Wardrobe?" These kinds of questions are intriguing enough for the reluctant narrator to eek out a little bit of information so you can gauger whether they were really listening or not!

And isn't that what Narration is all about??  If they listen carefully and attentively the first go around, they will be able to narrate and truly know the piece in question. And as Charlotte Mason so aptly put it, "Knowledge is power..." To true, and to convey this to our little pupils while they are young, narrating back ANY bit of information will be like second nature and not something to abhor!

Here is a sample Narration from each of my schooled dear children:

The Ladybug:  The Ladybug is like half of a ball, with six legs on the flat part.  They are red or yellow, with black spots, or black, with yellow or red spots.  When you touch a ladybug, it will roll on it's back playing dead.  Then, after about a minute, it waves its legs in the air to try and get itself on it's feet.  When she cleans herself, she begins with her front legs and then her middle and her hind legs, nibbling off every grain of dust.  Once I thought I saw a ladybug cleaning itself.

In the Spring, the mother ladybug lays her eggs everywhere, on plants and bushes, etc. When the larva hatches it goes out to hunt for food.  They are black with yellow and orange spots.  They have six warts on each segment which makes them look very rough.  They eat aphids and scale insects.  They shed their skin several times and then they hang from a branch or something and shed their skin again.  It is a pupa for a few days, and then when it comes out it is a full grown ladybug.  It will find a little nook somewhere and hibernate there for the winter.  In the spring, if it is a female ladybug, it will lay all her little eggs to start the life cycle again.  (Narrated by Violet from Handbook of Nature Study, February 12, 2007)

Earth:  Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only planet supporting life forms.  As far as we know, Earth exists because of two reasons, it has liquid water on its surface and it supports life.  God created the Earth to support life and designed it for us to live and survive. 

The Earth is made up of six layers.  The atmosphere, the crust, the upper-mantle, the rocky-mantle, the molten-metallic outer core, and the solid metal core.  Earth's atmosphere is 125 miles high.  It contains the troposphere, the ozone layer, and the stratosphere.

As Earth spins in its orbit, its axis slowly rotates.  It takes twenty-four hours to make on day and 365 days to complete one orbit of the Sun.  Earth has one moon and it illuminates the Earth by night as the Sun illuminates Earth by day.  Narrated by Matthias from the Visual Science Encyclopedia, February13, 2007)

These Narrations are pretty simple, and only a small bit of reading was done for each so that the retention level remained high.  Most of the children's narrations are accompanied by pictures they draw (which for the younger crowd is a narration in itself).

I look forward to hearing about how you approach Narration in your home school, it is a mainstay of our Charlotte Mason Education!!

Dictation

Dictation.  A constant in a Charlotte Mason or Classical Education.  Here's how we like to approach this little gem of a learning tool for Language Arts!!

1)  I like to choose passages that are part of my dear children's current work, such as one of our History Read Alouds, maybe some Shakespeare, or from one of the Saints stories they are reading. 

2)  Depending on which child and their proficiency at writing, I will choose one to six (or so) lines with some noted punctuation. 

3)  Then I will have them study their work to see if there are any words they may have trouble with (ie. spelling).  If there are any questionable words, I will write them on the dry erase board individually, and let them get a "snapshot" in their mind the way the word ought to look when spelled correctly. 

4)  Next I simply read aloud or "dictate" the selection and let them copy it down. 

5)  We go over the work together and if any words are misspelled I will immediately cover it with white out tape and have them "right the wrong" so that mental picture doesn't revert to the incorrect spelling.

And that's it!!  In a nutshell ;)

Once a week for Dictation is plenty, along with copy work of their choosing.  This makes for very efficient means of keeping up with spelling and learning proper grammar within a composition of sorts!!

How do you do dictation in your school, if at all!!  Love to hear your ideas and what works for your children!

Thanks for visiting and May God Bless you in your day today!

Sweet Language Arts

Here at Sweetness and Light we like to mix it up a bit when it comes to Language Arts so as not to get caught in a language arts rut (mostly mine, not the dc's) or to become bored by the same old workbook-style fill in the blanks type learning!  Don't get me wrong here as we do use some workbooks occaisionally, but for us, we try to sweeten the pot with variety, as it truly is, the spice of life! OK, I'll quit playing on words, and tell you the nitty gritty's of what we are using and why it's working for us!!  Before I do though, let me expand a little on why we like to use a variety of materials in our Language Arts programme.  

Much of what we consider Language Arts can be learned just through reading good literature and doing narration, copywork and dictation.  Thus, Charlotte Mason didn't really advocate heavy Language Arts until age ten or so, after the child had ample experience to develop narration skills.  Doing regular copywork and dictation in the earlier elementary years (age 6-10) lends itself to natural language arts development including learning proper sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and later composition.

What we have enjoyed using over the years: 

• Narration
• Primary Language Lessons & Intermediate Language Lessons, both by Emma Serl
• Lingua Mater (for 6-8th grades) by Margot Davidson (Hillside Education) 

Matthias does 1-2 lessons per week in this.  Violet uses Intermediate and is responsible for up to 5 lessons/week, but so far has only managed around 2, which is fine for now.  What I particulary like about both of these books is that they work with the "short" lesson in mind and they work on a progression that is not lost if you skip a lesson a two, you know, "not beating a dead horse."

• Stories With A View, by Margot Davidson is available through Hillside Education and CHC

This is a beautiful and gentle compilation of poetry, art appreciation, and ideas for beginning creative writing exercises.  Violet worked through many of them last year and Matthias will now add them to his LA for this year.  I LOVE the gentle and simple approach to this and it doesn't even seem like a language arts book :)  I also think this is a great lead in to Brave Writer and her ideas for Free Writing!

• Simply Grammar, by Karen Andreola (originally compiled by Charlotte Mason)

This is an oral language arts program that has been very efficient at delivering the necessary progression towards more difficult English.  There is no pressure to fill in the blanks with this one and the calm methodical approach verbally has been an excellent reinforcement.  (Recommended to start after age 10, but Violet started this last year as well and will continue this year)

Here are the workbooks of which I spoke that are great for reinforcing penmanship and can be used for extra copywork. Writing Can Help Handwriting workbooks from CHC and Emmanuel Books.  Violet is now on their Calligaphy book and Matthias is tackling beginning cursive.  We like them for their simplicity to progress at their own pace and effort.