Fourth Grade Foundations

The children and I began lessons a few weeks ago. I have refrained from calling our morning time together "school" and opted for the loftier "research and discussion" or simply, "R & D." It just seems that "Research and Discussion" is more reflective of the way we spend our time in reality and ideally. Actually, a Ph.D. acquaintance was recently referring to getting a position in "R &D" which, in his world, stands for Research and Development. I really like that and may change our morning time to "R&D: Research and Development." Well, enough with semantics, let me get to the heart of the work.

Firstborn is now 9 years old and in the outside world would be referred to, generically, as a fourth grader. He reads well above grade level and voraciously, but this year I would like to gently encourage more narrations of his reading through conversation. Previous attempts at narration were premature and met with a certain contempt. Now, I think he is ready and has a more natural eagerness to share the stories he reads with me. This is especially true of any books in the Redwall Series, Firstborn's absolute favorite book series. I also hope to inspire his creative writing mind with a Magnetic Poetry Kit

Of course, our history research would not be complete without lots of reading. I do follow the academic teaching of history in a chronological format, though certainly don't limit our learning to any specific era. Nonetheless, this year we need to finish up the illuminating Medieval times and march on through a few more centuries. There will be plenty of outstanding books to choose from this year and Firstborn is certain to be thrilled with the vast quantity of quality books. I will keep his reading list updated in the sidebar. We also keep a history album and from RC-History, we have this fabulous wall timeline:

We will continue our journey in mathematics with our wonderfully corny and incredibly logical guide, Steve Demme; I expect Firstborn will make it through Epsilon (Fractions) by late spring. In addition (pun intended), I continue to reinforce those basic operations through flashcards, drill games, word problems in car rides, and our new favorite (math) game: Yahtzee . Even four year old Rosebud loves playing this game. And why not, it's fun! Firstborn has also been enjoying time paging through How Math Works and I intend to slip Math for Every Kid by the ever versatile Janice VanCleave onto his reading shelf. Lastly, I thought we might give Math A Day by Theoni Pappas a few minutes of conversation each morning at the breakfast table.

One of our other daily areas of development is Latin. The past two years have been spent on Prima Latina and quite worthwhile because it helped prepared Firstborn for his role as altar server at the Latin Mass. Nonetheless, I found the program to be a practical, but a bit lackluster and was not able to tolerate the Southern dialect on the pronunciation guide CD. So this year we made the switch to Latin for Children which is totally engaging and pedagogically excellent. Latin studies have the added benefit of teaching us English grammar and word roots. In conjunction (yes, another pun) with the grammar study, we will use the Montessori wooden grammar symbols. And for vocabulary and spelling, we have been playing lots of Boggle, Scrabble (this version so that we can easily save an in progress game) and will soon add Quiddler.

Our catechism study for the year is still up in the air. If I find that Firstborn can prepare for a spring Confirmation, then we shall proceed with Preparation for Confirmation and My Path to Heaven . If the Confirmation path is not ours this year, then Firstborn will undertake a study of the Mass, using Maria Montessori's The Mass Explained to Children , activities from the out of print "The Child in the Church" by E.M. Standing based on the writings and practices in religious education pedagogy of Montessori, the miniature Mass kit from Our Father's House and one of these DVDs of the Traditional Latin Mass. Either way, Firstborn will make an album of his religious studies for the year.

For science, we remain flexible...sometimes reading from Catholic Stories from Science, lots of free reading, bird observation, chicken observation, nature journals, hiking, and utilizing as much as possible our newest research implement, the microscope. We have been having a thrilling time looking at the prepared slides and preparing our own of rubberbands, pollen, leaves, etc. For this year, we will just enjoy it and gradually ease into more knowledge and, much later, scientific method.

We have a few odds and ends: a handwriting book, poetry study, scripture memorization, lot of read alouds and bringing it all together, Firstborn is working on a baseball album. This album will include a history of baseball, short biographies and portraits of famous players, rules of play, techniques (including his illustrations of the different pitches), a study of statistics and a section with tickets and photos of the games he has attended as well as pictures from his first season in Little League.

Outside of the home, Firstborn takes art class and, at present, tennis class. In the spring, tennis may switch back to baseball. There are also piano lessons with the Professor and sometimes children's choir at Mass with Almamater. The children have been doing a lot of cooking, simple meal planning and there is an Autumn garden to plant.

Most importantly, I would like Firstborn to develop his ability to keep a cheerful attitude when he is faced with difficulties. I would like him to grow deeper in his faith and love of the Mass. And, I look forward to seeing all that he has to offer this year as a scholar, a blossoming personality, and a spiritual being.