Imagine that the different kinds of food on your plate are angry at each other. Write a scene with dialogue so we can hear them fight!
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Archive for December, 2016
Flip the Energy in Your Homeschool
Has the initial high of the start of the school year faded? The math books are worn. You can’t find any pencils. The kids are bored.
What do you do when homeschool goes all wrong? We look at this big topic in the recorded broadcast below. We cover these 3 ways in depth:
- Introduce surprise.
- Chase life.
- Trust that home education is a marathon not a sprint.
Bonus Tip: Repair the damage.
Watch the video below to learn more.
Hacks for a Homeschool Day Gone Wrong
Movie Wednesday: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
Harry Potter is the teenage wizard at the heart of one of the most beloved series of all time.
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First through books, then through films, Harry Potter has captured the hearts of millions. Now, a new series of films set in Harry’s world is just beginning, and it promises to be every bit as magical.
In the movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander is a friendly, awkward “magizoologist.” He travels around the world seeking out extraordinary creatures and befriending them. When he arrives in New York City, 1926, he doesn’t expect to stay for long. But when he loses his suitcase full of fantastic beasts and accidentally gets in the wrong side of the American wizard police, his trip to America may be a bit more complicated than he thought!
If you loved Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will show you even more of the magical world.
Discussion Questions
- The word “fantastic” sometimes means “extraordinary,” but it is also used to describe things which are imaginative, fanciful, or remote from reality. Which meaning do you think the film title uses—or does it mean both at once? Explain your answer.
- Which character or characters do you think change the most during the course of the film? How do that change? And why might it be important for characters to change or grow during a story?
- Why do you think J.K. Rowling has chosen to tell the story of Newt Scamander, as opposed to one of her other minor characters? Is there anyone else in Harry Potter you want to find out more about?
- Which of Newt’s fantastic beasts would you most like to meet? How might the conversation go?
- If you had a suitcase like Newt’s, what would you keep in it?
Additional Resources
Are You Doing Too Much Copywork?
Remember: the key to copywork is depth and immersion, in addition to repetition. If you do too much, your kids will let you know by complaining, dragging their feet, and doing inferior work.
Charlotte Mason talks about asking your child to give a full effort (with attention to excellent output) and then to stop. So even if all a child can muster in one sitting is a single beautiful letter of copywork, that can be enough while the child builds stamina, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence.
What that means is that if your child is giving you daily pages of handwriting or copywork and it is sloppy or not well executed, you are actually doing too much! You can ask your child:
Copy this passage and give me your best effort. When you feel your attention flag or you notice you aren’t wanting to continue, tell me.
Then you can stop and we’ll pick up tomorrow (or the next day).
What you are aiming for, then, is copywork that leads to growing ease and accuracy, not copywork and dictation every day that wears out the young writer.
I would round out the copywork/dictation practice with Poetry Teatime, read aloud, and conversations about words (word play, word games). I usually expected that my kids could do some form of copywork or a handwriting page most days when they were young (3-5 times a week). I only did French-style dictation or true dictation once a week and reverse dictation once a month.
Less is more.
Copywork passages are included
in our Language Arts Guides
Friday Freewrite: “Dear Sleep…”
What is your relationship with sleep? Do you sometimes fight it, miss it, enjoy its company? Does sleep give you good dreams or bad dreams or both? Can you and sleep get along anywhere (like in the car or a strange hotel room)? Now, write a letter to sleep.
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