{This and That} :: On to Term 2

Like I mentioned the other day, we just finished up our Term 1 exams and are about to jump into Term 2 on Monday. I decided not to take a break between terms for a few reasons: I was just out of town earlier this month (more on that below), which required a couple days off for the kids, and we have a break coming up at Thanksgiving anyway. I also didn't have TOO much planning to do for the new term, so I was able to get it done during exam week. I am looking forward to a few fresh books and so are my kids!

Before that, though, I thought I'd round up some odds and ends from the past term...

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Exam week was a success! I had a to-do list a mile long, but somehow I was able to get the most important parts of it done around our exam work. All of the kids were excited about exams (they love the novelty), but the little boys were the most excited of all. Each morning they did a count-down until our start time (9am sharp!), then begged me for the next couple hours to give them "exam questions." I took the opportunity to "assign" them time with all of our Kinderleben supplies and they were so pleased. Go figure! I am hoping this jump start with the materials they don't usually grab from their Kinderleben shelves will set them up well for the weeks to come.

We had a simple celebration to mark the end of the term, as we usually do...

We also celebrated with some gifts for the new terms: supplies for our art and handicraft lessons for Term 2, some story cards we will use for Italian lessons, mini-clipboards for my very avid frienship bracelet makers, and refills for lots of supplies we use on a regular basis.

The Form 2 kids also made a seed display to cap off one of our special study topics for this term.

I sat down Thursday night to read through all of the exams and make my term entries in my Mother's Journals for each student. I like to buy myself a treat like special chocolate for the occasion! And I also do my filing and clean out my own planning folders and such at that time. It is always nice to start fresh for a new term rather than leaving all that to the end of the year.

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A couple weeks ago I was in Philly for a long weekend for the CMEC Fall Mini-Retreat. It was focused on art instruction, with immersions in brush drawing, clay modeling, and chalk drawing led by the wonderful art teacher at The Mason Academy. My friend Erin opened with a beautiful meditation on personhood as it relates to art and the students she has worked with, and I discussed practical tips for implementing art lessons in the homeschool.

Although we could not hold the event itself in person, we did broadcast it live for members and were able to meet for various informal gatherings outdoors before and after the event. We also took a group trip to the art museum -- my favorite!

It was so wonderful to see my dear friends there. It had been a year since I had been able to meet in person with the other members of the CMEC team! We got lots done and had so many good conversations too. It was a blessing to be together and refreshed me for the rest of this year.

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My Form 2A students received their own Books of Centuries this year. They were so excited to join the older kids in this practice! The Book of Centuries is one of our rites of passage.

They both knew exactly what they were going to draw for their first entry...

Cate did the emblem from the War of the Roses chapter in Arnold-Forster's A History of England, which was my first entry in my Book of Centuries too several years ago!

She then moved in quick succession to Columbus' ships, which was Xavier's first choice...

At the end of the year, I'll have to share more from their notebooks this year. They have done such good work and I'm always amazed by the variety in the output of two students learning together. Their notebooks reflect so clearly who they are. (I talked all about that on The Charlotte Mason show podcast a few months ago. :))

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And I have to cap off every {This and That} post with an update on sweet Emilia! She is on the go and never sits still for long. So busy. So loud! So precious. 

I have a little video of her walking over on Instagram. She beat the Cruz Family record by a couple weeks when she started walking at eight months. I have had several nine-month-old walkers but never quite as early as her! She is a determined little lady and loves attention from her siblings.

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Speaking of Instagram, I posted the other day about setting up my logbook for Term 2 and got lots of requests for more details, so I am pulling together a simple blog post on my organizational approach for my plans and notes this year. I'd also like to share more about our timetables!

And I have posts in the works for my handicrafts series: knot tying, needle felting, and beginning sewing with felt.

Hope to be back next week to chat on one or another of these topics.

Until then, are you just about finished with Term 1? Do you take breaks between terms? 

Celebrating the End of the Year!

We wrapped up our school year a few weeks ago! Our end-of-term exams were the first week of May.

We ended with a term celebration, which involved notebook displays, recitation, piano, and singing -- and snacks. ;)

Even my Little Girls (K and Pre-K) set up a display to show Daddy. :)

 As usual, we finished with a treat and a stack of new books and supplies to add a little delight to the summertime break.

The kids have been doing a ton of simple knitting using that yarn and the two tools I got: a lucet fork and a knitting tower. (I actually got two of each so we can have four kids knitting at a time -- and we often do!) Both are easy enough for even my 5yo to use on her own!

I also grabbed a bunch of books from the Gift Shelf in the garage, a bunch of book sale finds throughout the year that I keep for occasions such as this...

a set of vintage music books (a personal weakness of mine!): Singing and Rhyming, Singing Together, Singing on Our Way, Singing Every Day
Anno's Italy (a fun connection to our architecture AND Italian studies this year!)
The Golden Bible Atlas (recommended by Nancy Kelly)
George's The Moon of the Deer (to add to our growing colleciton -- tie in to Secrets of the Woods!)
Joseph Jacobs' Indian Fairy Tales (both my Form I kids and my Year 6 kids read quite a bit about India this year!)
World Landmark's The Adventures of Ulysses (Year 6 tie-in)

We also got a full set of Faber Castell Pitt artist pens for their lettering and some more needle felting supplies.  I replaced the girls' needle threaders for sewing, and Xavier got a St. Joan of Arc holy card to add to his ring collection, which is a Year 2 tradition around here. :)

That big stack of black books on the left are our new Books of Masterpieces! We have already had what I called our Books of Masterpieces, where my kids keep their personal prints from each term's artist study...but they were more envelopes than actual books. ;)  I have been looking for just the right storage solution for years -- and I finally found it. These are simple and elegant photo albums from Target that should fit all their prints from kindergarten through 12th grade. Perfect!

Now that we're on summer break, I'm hoping to share some of this past year's school plans as well as some of the keeping we have done. I'm hoping that will be easier to do retroactively rather than as we're living out those plans. :) So hopefully those will be up soon!

Our Exam Week Celebration

We had our Term 1 exams about a month ago. I'm itching to discuss that process here, but for now I thought I'd just jump in to share our Exam Week Celebration in case any of you are looking for a simple way to incorporate some festivity into your exam experience.

The school-aged children each got part of the table on which to lay out their completed exam work as well as a few other visual pieces they wanted to showcase (their completed art pieces from the term, as well as Weekly Paintings and other illustrations).

 Each child had a chance to show Daddy their work, and he read through their exams.  Then we munched on some cookies while the children did recitations, singing, and piano.

Our tradition is to gift a stack of books for the free read shelf at the end of each term, all of which tie into the kids' school reading in some way.  I don't actively seek out particular books, usually -- I just hold back ones I have come upon use to give at end-of-term rather than setting them out right away.  So it's always a bit of a hodge podge!  We go through the pile and the kids try to guess whose studies the book correlates to. Often it's more than one year. :)

Spier's The Sailing Ship (Cate is reading about the Age of Discovery in Year 3, and we found several of the explorers from her studies in this book)
Morrison's Armor (dwells on the ancients, which we're covering in Year 6)
Coolidge's Men of Athens (another Year 6 tie-in)
Selsam's Underwater Zoos (I thought of Pagoo when I thrifted this one!)
Fox's The King's Falcon (Xavier's Year 2 readings like The Little Duke cover falconry)
Musical Instruments (I thought this one would just be great Book of Centuries inspiration)
One Day in Shakespeare's England (Cate is reading Bard of Avon this term)
The Costume Book for Parties and Plays (for the kids' many theatricals :))
Some Tunis books: Weapons; Oars, Sails, and Steam; and Wheels (Book of Centuries stuff)
O'Neill's A Nursery History of England (ties to Our Island Story)
two from the Smithsonian collection: one on manatees and one on seals (relevant to our Jungle Book chapters)
Castle Diary (a supplement to Xavier's Year 2 history)

Like I said, a mish-mash!

Let me show you inside just one: A Nursery History of England. This is one I actually did pick up on purpose to gift my middles, on the suggestion of Wendy over on Instagram, and I'm so glad I did. I recognized the author, Elizabeth O'Neill, as the writer of The World's Story, a Mater Amabilis history selection. My copy unfortunately has some foxing, but it's still such a neat find.

I am so pleased with its charm. :) And it is perfect drawing fodder for my kids since the illustrations are lovely but simple. I see it being the inspiration for many other Weekly Paintings in the future as well as timeline entries and such.

(I'm planning to recap our Term 1 exams, but it won't be until at least the New Year. In the meantime, I have every other term archived here if you'd like a peek at our process. :))