Wordless Wednesday: RDI Lifestyle Activities (Plus New Interest--Time Zones)

Adventures with Ambleside Online

I have not blogged much about David lately. He is reading books from Ambleside Online (to say the year would be a give-away to my guessing game). I love this way of learning because *I*, *the teacher*, get so much out of it, too. I guess I forgot way too much history since high school. In some cases, my textbooks never covered this material!

Guessing Game Number One
For example, do you know when, where, and who was involved with the first European experiment with communism on North American soil? I will let you guess and reveal the source and answer later in the comments! Here are the conclusions from the Governor about his constituents' brush with communal living:

The failure of this experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times,--That the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort.

• For the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men's wives and children, without any recompense.
• The strongman or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injustice.
• The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labour, food, clothes, etc., with the humbler and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect to them.
• As for men's wives who were obliged to do service for other men, such as cooking, washing their clothes, etc., they considered it a kind of slavery, and many husbands would not brook it. This feature of it would have been worth still, if they had been men of an inferior class.

If (it was thought) all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them. let none argue that this is due to human failing, rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.

Guessing Game Number Two
David and I came across an interesting quote in a biography of a great American yesterday. It sounds so much like Charlotte Mason's view nature, but these are not her words. You can cheat and google it, or have fun and guess!

1. The awakening of a greater interest in practical nature lessons in the public schools of our section.

The thoughtful educator realizes that a very large part of the child's education must be gotten outside of the four walls designated as class room. He also understands that the most effective and lasting education is the one that makes the pupil handle, discuss and familiarize himself with the real things about him, of which the majority are surprisingly ignorant.

2. To bring before our young people in an attractive way a few of the cardinal principles of agriculture, with which nature study is synonymous.

If properly taught the practical Nature study method cannot fail to both entertain and instruct.

It is the only true method that leads up to a clear understanding of the fundamental principles which surround every branch of business in which we may engage. It also stimulates thought, investigation, and encourages originality.

Who has not watched with delight the wee tots with their toy set of garden tools and faces all aglow with happiness and the yearning expectations of the coming harvest as they dug up the earth and dropped in a few seed or illy set an equal number of plants--with what joy and satisfaction they called it their garden or with what enthusiasm they hailed the first warm days of spring with their refreshing showers which bespoke emphatically the opening of the mud pie and doughnut season, and how, even though they were water-soaked and mud-bespattered from top to toe, how very happy they were at the close of such a day's work. So on through the whole list of childish amusements. Instinctively, they prefer to deal with natural objects and real things.

Mystery Science Theater Shakespeare
The last thing we did yesterday, before David headed off to a beach retreat for the weekend, was reading aloud the last act of A Midsummer's Night Dream. David, a tenth grader, has already read five of Shakespeare's plays; I had only read one my entire year of high school. I could hardly understand the plot line, much less get the jokes.

In Scene I of Act V, the four happily-united couples watch a play to celebrate the nuptials of King Theseus and his Amazon Queen Hippolyta. Shakespeare loved sneaking a play within a play, or, at the very least, having one or more character in disguise. Unfortunately, the men acting the tragical moments of the classic story of Pyramus and Thisbe were craftsmen, but their trade was NOT the theater. In a nutshell, the hero Pyramus and his secret love Thisbe are to meet at a wall and talk through a chink in the wall to one another. When Thisbe does not arrive, Pyramus searches for her and finds her bloody cloak. He hears a lion roar and, assuming the lion took his love for a midnight snack, stabs himself. Thisbe finds her love dying, and she stabs herself.

Tragedy turns into comedy because the play within a play is so poorly performed. The first hint of this is when Philostrate warns the king how the scene affected him, "And tragical, my noble lord, it is; for Pyramus therein doth kill himself: which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, made mine eyes water; but more merry tears the passion of loud laughter never shed." After the king demands to see the play anyway, Philostrate warns him again, "No, my noble lord, it is not for you: I have heard it over, and it is nothing, nothing in the world; unless you can find sport in their intents, extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, to do you service."

Thanks to a Charlotte Mason philosophy of education and Ambleside Online, David not only gets Shakespeare, but he gives me better stage direction than I can think of myself! When I read the prologue, he told me I was not reading it right because I sounded good. One character's comment told me how to read--fast with no breaks, except in the wrong places, "He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop." I read the lion too loud and scary, David stopped me and suggested a wimpy lion a la Oz's cowardly lion. And, later on, the royal barbs confirm his instinct, "A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience" and "a goose for his discretion." He did approve of my Ethel Merman voice for Thisbe.

The king and his queen found sport indeed! The couples found sport! We found sport at the badly done scene. As we read through the scene, David and I half-expected the robots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to pop in and add their own barbs to the ones being tossed out by the couples watching the play:
"Indeed he hath played on this prologue like a child on a recorder!"
"His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered."
"This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard."
Right before Thisbe's death, "I hope she will be brief."
"No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse!"

Philostrate was right! The poor wall forms his fingers to be the chink (tells the audience what it is) and spends so much time on exposition he spoils the whole scene. Some keep butchering "Ninus' tomb" to "Ninny's tomb." At times, the actors answered the hecklers back in all seriousness a la Ferris Bueller. At one point, the couples spend more lines criticizing the poor moon than the moon has dialog! Who knew the bard could be so much fun?

P.S. I am not passing out prizes for my guessing games because the pursuit of knowledge is inherently delightful and rewarding in and of itself!

P.S.S. No rotten tomatoes please!

Star-Studded State House

Somewhere along the way, Pamela became interested in the South Carolina State House. I think ETV's coverage of the General Assembly, which is almost as exciting as C-SPAN, has something to do with it. And, if that is not enough excitement for you, try the online gavel-to-gavel coverage. Since she has talked about it for months, I jumped at the chance to join a friend and her family for Homeschool Day at the Capitol. (By the way, you can click on all pictures for a larger version.)

Here are our kids, ready to storm the Capitol and explore it for all its worth! The State House cost 3.45 million dollars to build at the turn of the last century. The dome is made up of eight million pennies worth of copper alone! The first thing we hit was all fifty-two steps in front of the Capitol. Why fifty-two? It took that many years to build the thing because a little thing called the Civil War and Reconstruction got in the way; you can read more at Let's Go, where you can view a six-minute movie. Even though the signs pointed to side entrances for the public, we just had to climb those stairs.

I am not joking about the Civil War getting in the way! General Sherman and his army burned about one-third of the buildings in Columbia, including the old wooden state house. When he and his men arrived, part of the capitol building had been already constructed. The six bronze stars mark spots on the Capitol hit by Sherman's cannonballs on February 17, 1865.


Yes, I could kick myself because I forgot to take a picture of George Washington's statue. Sherman and his crew were so enchanted with destroying the Capitol that they nearly knocked the cane out from him. Those brick-tossing lumberheads did not realize they were pock-marking the United States first Commander-in-Chief! And, of course, the statue still stands today, cane suspended in mid-air, for proof positive of Yankee aggression.

Once we were inside the building, we took a guided tour that started with a fifteen-minute film about the history of the Capitol Building. We learned about some of the architectural features such as the fabric wall covering (not wall paper), maximization of metal, glass, and marble, and minimization of things that burn, namely wood. You can see some of the highlights below. The most interesting story was an eleven-pound gold-burnished silver mace that represents the authority of the house. It disappeared during the American Revolution but turned up in a vault in Philadelphia (the Yankees had it, of course) in 1819. It fared better than the Senate's sword, which disappeared in 1941 for good. I wonder what it would go for on eBay . . . By the way, the dome pictured below is a fake put there for decoration!


The funniest moment happened when we sat down in the front row of the auditorium. One mother had left a jacket draped over David's seat. She quietly said to him, "Excuse me, sir!" SIR? I know he is big and tall, but he already looks like a SIR? She must not have heard him say, "Hey, Mom! It's the red hat mafia!" when he saw a group of Red Hat Society ladies enter the building. Next time, I'll tell him he can wear his shades and baseball cap inside the Capitol so that no one will mistake him for a gentleman.

The oddest thing I saw today was this public school read-in! To celebrate National Library Week, 1,100 students assemble here on the steps of the Capitol to see a magic show and read. (Hmmm . . . I wonder if one has anything to do with the other.) They marched up to the Capitol with their little protest signs Kids Who Read Succeed, chanted their little slogans, cheered for the state mascots (a tiger and completely illegal fighting gamecock), and held their sit-in, I mean read-in. That juxtaposed against homeschoolers, wandering the grounds exploring the monuments, meeting and leaving business cards with their legislators, taking guided and unguided tours, etc. The difference in how the two groups take political action is stunning!

My County's Shame
Briggs vs. Elliot

One in Every Crowd
John C. Calhoun Statue!

Video Games of Yesteryear


Law Enforcement Memorial
Ode to Andre Bauer


I'll Take a Palmetto Tree over a Palmetto Bug


My Favorite Picture: Girl Studying an Atlas

Big Announcement

No! I ain't birthin' no baby! And, we did not win the lottery. To win the lottery, you have to play the lottery, which I don't.

The funds needed for us to work with an RDI consultant appeared much sooner that we had anticipated. We were originally shooting for seeing a consultant late 2008 or early 2009. We had hoped for a consultant, about whom I only hear wonderful comments. She was booked solid, but promised to keep us in mind. A family recently dropped out, so she has an opening. (Talk about God's timing being perfect!) We scheduled Pamela's very first, official RDA (assessment) for May 7 and May 8. We crave all of your prayers as we start to fill out all of the lovely paperwork!

P.S. I am putting in a plug for the monogram and silk-screen business of my Coastie IRL friend. God has blessed me with two IRL friends, and kindred spirits get harder to find with each of our many moves!

Car Games, NOT Car Wars!

Before I launch into this more light hearted post after the sturm and drang of my graphic organizer monologues, I want to know who gave my address to anti-Charlotte-Mason publishers like A Beka and BJU Press! I have my suspicions . . . ahem, the buccaneer blogster who took me in with her April Fool's Day prank. Of course, it could be all coincidental . . .



Today, the kids and I took our two dogs to the vet's office for a follow-up to their checkup. Loa, the eldest dog, has a thyroid condition that caused her to balloon to almost fifty pounds last year (now she is a svelte 37 pounds). She sings arias about this bizarre place where aliens abduct her, poke and prod her, and do all kinds of horrible things to her. From the moment we hit the parking lot until she's back in the car, she howls and moans nonstop (except when we shove a dog biscuit in her mouth).

The other one, the Arwenator (or Beastie Girl), is so hyperactive that she foams at the mouth at the sight of any and all newcomers. Don't let that sweet innocent look on her face deceive you. The moment she sees a new person her tail starts banging everything in sight and ought to be registered as a legal weapon. She is the poster dog for canine Ritalin. If I could bottle her energy, I could feel twenty-years-old!

Today in the 150-mile round trip to the vet's office, Pamela and I enjoyed playing the newest game invented at the spur of the moment on the road. We spent our time looking at license plates: when I stick to the speed limit of 70 MPH, cars pass frequently enough to maintain Pamela's attention. As soon as a car passed, we played our game and reacted. Then, Pamela turned back to look over her left shoulder and peered at the next car or truck planning to pass. The jackpot was spotting unusual states like Illinois or Oregon. Quebec and Puerto Rico completely perplexed both of us. We felt the suspense every time a car was about to pass and laughed and giggled with excitement if the car was out of state. This was emotion sharing at its best!

We have different variations of the game. The most exciting thing about them is that we made them up and often find ourselves thinking of new variations. (1) Figure out if you would fly or drive to that state. If you drive, then you state whether or not you would need to stay in a hotel. (2) Figure out if the car is from a different time zone. Pamela's latest self-taught accomplishment is learning all of the states and time zones and how to calculate times in other zones. (3) Figure out if the car is going in the wrong or right direction. Pamela's sense of direction is so sharp we call her GPS!

I began thinking about what good travelers Pamela and David are. They have never required massive doses of electronics in the car. For example, today, Pamela had her classical CD's and kept the music flowing, while David listened to his iPod. He also narrated some books for me and read a book for pleasure: How to Stay Christian in College. Back in 2001, we survived a 4,500-mile journey from Colorado to Homer, Alaska without a DVD player or video games (okay, I do admit that David wielded his Game Boy until he left it at a rest stop in Washington and did not realize it until an hour down the road). Listening to an audio version of Trumpet of the Swan helped him recover from his loss. They have enjoyed many long, long trips with amusing little games we invent when the mood strikes.

Now, I am the first to admit some kids are such miserable travelers that only a DVD player can keep the peace. One thing I did with three-year-old David to break the habit of whining when the kids and I traveled from Louisiana down the Florida peninsula and up to Connecticut was to play stop the action. If he began complaining, I warned him I would pull over and stop so he could see the real meaning of boring. After a couple of stops, he got the message. When I was a tween, my parents traveled from Washington state to Illinois to North Carolina and back to Illinois with six kids, camping equipment, and a dog with three puppies. When Bill Cosby did the "he touched me" bit, I knew he had bugged our brown van. I spent that trip escaping to the gritty world of Oliver Twist.

Rather than share with you all of the tricks we have learned throughout our years of traveling, I will let masterly inactivity rule the day. The best games are the ones your children invent for themselves. For more ponderings on play, read Rebekah Brown's post called The Art of Play.

Wrapping Up Written Narration of One Chapter

Foreword!

Pamela is a paradox! She can read and somewhat understand books at a 5th/6th grade level of reading. She may not "get" every little nuance, but she understands enough to make reading at that level worth her while. (Think about how Helen Keller delighted in reading books above her head, but within reach). So, we are reading Miracles on Maple Hill plus some history plus some other pleasure books, all at about that level to practice oral narration. The purpose of the graphic organizers is to scaffold Pamela in organizing material and typing narrations for Miracles on Maple Hill and some history readings (a post for another day).

The purpose of the "impertinent" questions and answers I do during readings, which are not part of a typical Charlotte Mason philosophy, is to practice syntax in Pamela's speech therapy program. She has syntactic aphasia, so her expressive language is probably at a 1st/2nd grade level. The Reading Milestones primers (not the workbooks) are PERFECT for speech therapy ala the association method because they are syntax controlled. She does not need vocabulary-controlled primers; like deaf children, she needs syntax-controlled ones for acquiring correct syntax.

Finally!

Last year, I attended a talk by Jennifer Spencer in which she explained her thesis for her master's degree about retelling. She recommended using graphic organizers to help children organize their thoughts before writing. Jennifer did another presentation called "Developmentally Appropriate Use of Narration." I was disappointed to miss it because we presented at the same time. From what I understand she discussed graphic organizers in greater detail. ChildLightUSA just posted the audio file for the one I missed.

This series of posts cover blending Charlotte Mason, the association method, and Relationship Development Intervention with reading, orally narrating, graphic organizers, syntax practice, and writing. I have spent almost a month for me to digest and record it. I have described how we worked through Chapter 3 of Miracles on Maple Hill. The last post covers how we organize the graphic organizers and type a written narration. If you are a new reader, the following links takes you through what I have already covered!

Before a Reading:
Prediction

Asking Questions

During a Reading:
Setting




Answering Questions

Collecting Information

Before a Typed Narration:
Before I sat down with Pamela, I organized all of the graphic organizers and made two main idea/details concept webs with the diagram feature of Microsoft Word. Because the story introduced only one new character, I did not make a concept web for that. I guided Pamela in filling out these webs from memory. I avoid letting her review the graphic organizers because I want to spotlight relying on memory of earlier readings. After we completed the setting concept web, she typed up her written narration. She did not review the graphic organizers before or during the typed narration.


Setting:


Mice:


Fritz:


Pamela's Typed Narration
(No Corrections):

The downstairs had the kitchen, and dining room. The upstairs had three bedrooms. Outside had some trees, grass, and melted snow.

The kitchen had a bath. It had some some chairs. It had a table. It had a drawer with spoons, folks, and knives. It had some dishes.

Bedroom had some pillows. It had some blankets. It had some window. It had some doors. It had some floors with walls.

The mice are dirty, and ugly. The mice feel bad. The mice had some old noses, dirty bodies, short tails, and short ears. The mice made a mess. It made squeaks.

Dad wanted to get rid of the mice. Marley kept the mice. The mice are crawling in the house. The mice had some babies.

Friz is a man. He had some children. They drove to the sugar camp. The suger camp is pretty. It had some hot pots. It had some syrups. It had some trees, too. It had some snow. They feel happy.

Prediction Graphic Organizers--Homegrown and Otherwise!

Happy Tenth Birthday, Hannah!!! (Hannah's mom Sonya is the Charlotte Mason momma who's website first got me interested in RDI.)

Yesterday, I promised to share how we do predictions in a story. Before reading the next chapter of a book, we recall any dangling problems. We fill out a prediction graphic organizer like the one below. The video clip shows Pamela and I discussing the problem that came to light in Chapter 3 of Miracles on Maple Hill and filling out the sheet:




Chapter 4 held the answer to the problem, posted below in case you lost sleep over Marly's poor mice!


Sometimes, the problem occurs in the middle of the reading. If it is an over-arching problem, I hold off filling out the sheet until the next chapter because I can lead off the chapter with the unsolved problem. I also preview the chapter in the morning to figure out what graphic organizers to use. Today, I realized the first three pages of Chapter 5 had four separate little problems (more like daily annoyances). Pamela ended up filling out the following four organizers and we worked on sorting relevant versus irrelevant information.


For every story in the Reading Milestones primers, I have Pamela make a prediction for every single story in the book before she ever cracks the book open. She spends the first day of a new primer identifying potential problems and solutions for all six stories. I make up the graphic organizer show below in Excel. We read one story per day, and, at the end of a story, she records the actual problem and solution and assesses her prediction.

Hearing Journey Bunny Story

Random Thoughts:

• Thanks to Queen Mum, we might be receiving some money for RDI therapy! See if you have any missing money!
• David's youth group made the paper for fixing up the trailer of a needy elderly lady in town: picture and story. Somehow, David evaded the reporter, but I told him to keep Matthew 6:1-4 in mind!
• I cracked up reading Thurber's opinion of Freud in one of our AmblesideOnline--which has a new look--books The Thurber Carnival. If I post the title of the essay, I might lose my blog's G-rating, so you can read the chapter here!
• My fingers are tired from crocheting some baby surprises for friends with child. My niece is due on November 11, but we are not sure what that makes me. I am her aunt, but I have no idea what that makes me to her child.
• Two exciting movies are coming soon: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and Prince Caspian!
• Yesterday, Pamela and I sat on our sunny, delightful back porch rockers, doing school work. We loved seeing all of our feathered friends in action: a brilliant male Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, a House Finch husband and wife team at the bird bath, two feisty Bluejays, a flock of Chipping Sparrows, noisy American Crows, Common Grackles galore, and a Carolina Wren (FINALLY).
• Pamela's latest self-imposed research project is on time zones. She is learning all of the time zones of all fifty states. She does understand what they mean, too!

Back to the Bunny Story:
Awhile back, my friend Queen Mum told me about Hearing Journey, a website for people with cochlear implants that provides free weekly and monthly activities. I have gotten so much mileage. While I rarely use the resources as suggested, I definitely find them useful. One of our favorite activities the site posts in the preschool section from time to time are wordless books. I cut them up into cards, and we flip through the cards. Before showing her one card, we play a guessing game until she guesses the topics. I usually give her a couple of clues. Then, I show her the first card, which she narrates. Before flipping to the next card, she has to guess what might happen next. Every book has six pages.

Before Easter, we read a story about a bunny. I posted a picture here because the activity is no longer available (TIP: Download the ones with potential so you can do them when time permits). The funny thing was Pamela thought the bunny had injured its foot and needed to see a doctor. She did not realize until near the end that the bunny's foot was dirty. I am including a video clip per page because we both enjoyed this experience with many wonderfully warm moments. If your time is limited, page four was the highlight, heart-warming, tissue moment for me!

Page 1 of the Wordless Bunny Book


Page 2 of the Wordless Bunny Book


Page 3 of the Wordless Bunny Book


Page 4 of the Wordless Bunny Book
My Numero Uno Favorite Clip!!!!!


Page 5 of the Wordless Bunny Book


Page 6 of the Wordless Bunny Book

Collecting Information

I am trying to be complete in my coverage of Pamela's reading, oral narration, graphic organizers, and written narration of Chapter 3 of Miracles on Maple Hill. Here is a quick recap: before reading one word from this chapter, we reviewed and recalled earlier readings by having Pamela ask her own questions. Then, we did our typical language arts cycle and Pamela filled out some setting sheets.

In this session, Pamela started off by working on another graphic organizer for setting, pictured below and covered in the video clip below the picture. Earlier in this session, we reviewed and recalled the previous reading. I edited out the redirection I gave Pamela because I posted it elsewhere. Out of thirty minutes of recording, I spent three minutes redirecting her. She rarely does this and I think two things threw her off: (1) her dad worked at home that day and (2) he spent about ten minutes drumming (yes, rock and roll band drums) at the other end of the house!




Then, we transitioned to a fact sheet about mice, pictured below and shown in the recording below that.

What to Do BEFORE a Reading

We're back from a busy week, and I hope to wrap up the stuff I have on graphic organizers and narration. Today, Nicole Beurkens let me know that the Horizons Developmental Remediation Center will make a donation to the RDI Scholarship fund for every person who signs up to receive their free weekly email newsletter. I can't argue with free and supporting a good cause!

Charlotte Mason recommended recalling the previous reading to get into a new reading. She said, "Let each new lesson be so interlaced with the last that the one must recall the other; that again, recalls the one before it, and so on to the beginning" (page 158). Research on learning confirms this because the brain has a better chance of storing new information (unknown) by linking to already stored information (known). She explained what to do before every reading,

In every case the reading should be consecutive from a well-chosen book. Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative (pages 232-233).

In an earlier post, Pamela filled out a graphic organizer that encouraged her to reflect upon the reading and ask herself questions. This is another way to help link a previous reading to the next section. The picture below shows what she wrote and the video clip shows how we did it.



Answering Her Own Question