Third Grade in Our Home :: Exams, Term 3

The last of my third graders' exams for this year!  I like Term 3 exams best because many of the books that get stretched out over terms (and even years!) are finished up, and the whole text is fair game for questions. ;) And I have been trying to stretch my young learners just a tad because they're showing signs that they're ready for more "Grand Conversation" discussions, so there are a couple questions here that ask for a comparison or a choice among options that takes a bit of thinking beyond simple narration.  A little novelty always keeps things fun!

As always, below are all the questions and then a sampling of answers.  And if this list looks intimidating, please keep in mind, I have two students answering, so they're often doing just half of each category, particularly for literature, history, and religion.  And the narrations at the end were all oral narrations that I audio-recorded and transcribed to share here.

If you're looking for questions to use for your own exams, check out the wonderful exam page over at AO!

The Questions

Italian:
Sing your favorite song in Italian or recite your favorite Italian rhyme.
Choose one relative to describe in detail.

Poetry:
Recite one of the poems you memorized by Longfellow.
Tell me the story of Hiawatha.

Piano:
Play your recital songs.

Physical Education:
Do ten burpees.
See how many pushups you can do without stopping.

Math:
Complete the following page from Challenging Word Problems.

Free Reading:
What was your favorite book read during free time this term?  What did you like best about it?
Draw a map for Crossbows and Crucifixes, showing the main house and the path down to the old town along the Sapey.
Draw a scene from St. Edmund Campion.  Describe briefly which scene you have illustrated, either in writing or orally.

Recitation:
Sing "Attende Domine."
Sing "Pull For the Shore" or "These Happy Golden Years" or "Highland Mary."
Recite the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Recite the Divine Praises.

Penmanship:
Write the following sentence in your best printing: "Let the jungle listen to the things I have done."
Now copy that sentence in your best cursive.
Now identify what book that line is from, and describe its context.
Now choose you own quote and do the same thing!

Literature:
Draw and label the five most important characters from The Jungle Book.  Who was your favorite animal character and why?
Tell me the story of Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet.  You can look at our character chart as you explain the story.
Recite the lines you learned from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  Who says them and what are their context?
How did Theseus escape the Minotaur OR how did Theseus fall by pride?
Tell about how Christian and Hopeful crossed the river.
Tell me about John Henry or Joe Magarak.

History:
Describe the Union Jack and how it came to be OR about the sad day in Highland glen.
What do you know about Bonnie Prince Charlie OR how Canada was won?
Tell me the strengths and the flaws of the Puritan Pilgrim Fathers.

Religion:
Choose one parable we read this term to tell me about.
Tell your favorite miracle of Jesus from the term, using the biblical language if you can.
Which was your favorite prayer from the devotionals section of our angels book?  Read it aloud in your clearest voice.
Draw and label the priest's vestments.  Describe their use and meaning.
What are some ways we can prepare ourselves each week to receive Holy Communion?
Describe purgatory according to Mother Loyola.  Describe heaven.
How does the description of heaven differ between First Communion and Pilgrim's Progress?

Geography:
Tell me what you know about the desert: its people, its geography, its animals.
Fill in the map of Europe/Asia paying careful attention to spelling for all countries.
Tell me about the war between Genoa and Venice.  How did Marco Polo get taken prisoner?
What do you think was the most interesting sight of all his travels?
Draw a map of our backyard, labeling as many plants as you can.

Nature Study:
Sketch three wildflowers we saw this term from memory and describe where we saw them growing.
Sketch one new bird we saw this term from memory.  Tell me about its call if you can.
Draw a map of <local county park>, noting the presence of wildflowers and other natural features.

Art:
Complete your sketch of a human nose, as assigned by your teacher.

Music Study:
Tell me a favorite scene from Opal Wheeler's Handel.
Hum the theme from one of the Handel selections we enjoyed this term.

Picture Study:
Choose one of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings and describe it as well as you can.
Choose an item to paint up-close using O'Keeffe's style.

Some Answers   (For any written work, I spelled words for the children when asked.)

John Henry from American Tall Tales, by Vincent
First thing John Henry reached for was a hammer, and afterward, when he was old enough to talk, he said that he had been born with a hammer in his hand.  When he was old enough to hold a hammer, he practicing swinging it.  One day, he had a dream that he was working for a railroad company.  There was a war at that time, but when it ended, John Henry decided to be a railroad worker.  When he came there, he saw other men working, and also he saw lots of hammers lying by the fire.  He picked up one that weighed twenty pounds, but he thought it was too light.  Then he picked up another that weighed seventy.  Then he asked someone to hold the stake for him, but no one wanted to because they were afraid that he might hit them.  But a little man called Lee Willy offered to hold it.  The other ones jeered at him and asked if he wanted to be crushed to death.  Lee Willy just ignored them, and soon John Henry had a lot of stakes in the ground.  From then on, Lee Willy was John Henry's helper.  One day a man came to the captain and said that he had built a machine that could work much faster than his workers on the railroad.  But the captain said, "I don't need any machine with my John Henry."  But the other man said, "I'll make a bet with you: if John Henry can beat my machine, then I'll give it to you for free."  And if the machine won, the captain would have to buy his machine.  The  agreed for them to see who could dig the longest tunnel in a day.  Both of htem started.  At first Lee Willy was pale because the machine was ahead.  But then he told John Henry that the machine had to stop to fix a new drill because the other one had broke.  But then it started again, and Lee Willy said, "You're at least two inches ahead."  Finally there were only ten minutes left, and John Henry kept on going and told Lee Willy to sing him a song.  Lee Willy tried to sing as best he could with sweat dripping down his own face as he put in a new drill.  Finally a gun fired, which meant it was the end of the contest, and the judges ran forward to measure.  They came back and it was said that John Henry had beat the machine by four feet.  After that John Henry lied down and looked at the sky.  He said he would die with a hammer in his hand, and then he died.

Longfellow's "Hiawatha," by Vincent

Once there was a girl that had been knocked down from the sky to earth.  She then there bore a daughter and gave her the warning many times not to listen to the West Wind but to bend and play among the flowers.  But her daughter did not obey her and when she was laying among the lilies, the Wind came and wooed her.  She did not know that he was faithless, and he left her alone to die.  But before she died, she bore a son, whom she called Hiawatha.  And her mother took care of Hiawatha.  And she taught him many things and showed him the sky and the stars.  One day, he asked when he heard a owl hooting, "what was that?"  And she said that it was the owl.  And then Hiawatha began getting acquainted with all the animals and birds until he knew them all by heart.  One day a boa constrictor said to Hiawatha to go and shoot a red deer.  He took his bow and arrows and went into the forest, and he saw the tracks of red deer, but they was not here because they had left.  Then he heard the red deer coming, and one of them stopped uneasily, but Hiawatha's arrow was too quick for him, and he fell down in the middle of trying to leap.  And then he brought the meat and skin back to his grandmother, and she made him a cloak out of the skin, and the meat he invited all his friends to feast on.

How Canada was won from This Country of Ours, by Vincent
The French had possession of Canada and they also had possession of Louisiana.  Now the English wanted to continue their colonies out and they wanted to push the French out so they could spread farther and wider. There was a town in Canada which was protected by a great general, a French general, called Montcalm.  There was an English captain, James Wolfe, who was sent with one thousand soldiers to destroy Montcalm and win Canada and Louisiana.  He fought many battles with Montcalm, but Montcalm was too clever to be defeated.  James was getting hopeless because he was supposed to have soldiers sent to him but they did not come.  Finally he wrote a letter to his family saying he would try one more thing and he would either win Canada or die trying.  In the town there was a part that was not guarded strongly because the entrance was in cliffs and it was hard for the English to get up the cliffs.  A few boats went and got half of James' soldiers and they went back as quickly as they could to get the rest.  And then the soldiers climbed up the mountain and they took the French greatly by surprise.  General Montcalm came in the morning to see where they were (the English) and the battle was fought, and James Wolfe was wounded twice and then he got a shot that killed him.  The French general was also killed. But before James Wolfe died one of his friends told him to look, and he tried to raise his head, but he could not, and his friend said that the French were fleeing.  The English wrote a letter to the king saying that they had captured Canada and Louisiana.

Bonnie Prince Charlie from Our Island Story, by Gianna
Bonnie Prince Charlie was one of James' descendants.  He came to Ireland and hoped to win George's crown.  He wasn't as stern, grave, and melancholy as his father had been; he was exactly the opposite.  People crowded around him from all parts of Ireland, and a few from England.  They raised a flag and declaimed King George and claimed Bonnie Prince Charlie as their king.  The king said that he would fight Prince Charlie, and he said that it would be the next morning.  The next morning Bonnie Prince Charlie's men were up so early that they won the battle in five minutes, and they made up a song about him, saying that he could eat his breakfast in four minutes and win a battle in five!  Though he was loved  everywhere, he did not succeed in getting the throne.  He fled to France with the help of Flora Macdonald, who dressed him as a girl.  That story begins with him hiding on the beach, and she, with lots of trouble, made her way to him, bringing a girl's suit. He put this on and she called him her maid, Betty, and she went to her friend's house and asked if Betty and she could stay the night.  When Flora Macdonald's friend heard who Betty was, she quickly made the best rooms for Betty, the prince.  And when her little girl saw this great gigantic woman, she ran screaming to her mother.  So finally Flora helped Charlie to the beach, where he was to sail back to his father.

How Theseus Fell by Pride from Kingsley's Heroes, by Gianna
Theseus, when he had taken Ariadne away, forgot to take her home but left her on an island.  And he forgot to put up the white sails in the morning, so his father fell backward over the cliff and died, and so Theseus was the ruler.  He conquered a very many cities, and he opposed all enemies who came to take the throne and fought them well.  One day, he decided to go and fight Hades, the king of the dead.  He forced his way in with another friend, Hercules.  Hercules escaped but Theseus was chained to a rock, where he had to stay.  Hercules came back and released him, but when he died, his bones were not found on his beloved country but on another desolate, desolate island.  His people had thought him to be dead, so they had a new ruler, whom Theseus did not like.  When he came, they did not recognize him, and they told him to "go away, young stranger."  And so he went away, no longer king of Athens but just a man.

Some Thoughts

:: We don't usually narrate poetry at all, but since Hiawatha is a story poem, I thought it might be fun.  It was unexpected and the kids had a great time telling back.
:: I added a few mapping-as-narration exercises this time, just as I did in Term 2, and they were a good challenge but an interesting one.  Both of them enjoyed the mapping of literary places very much.  But neither of them gave a very detailed map of the nature study spot I asked about, which was a surprise to me--they got the general layout of the place correct, but they didn't add all the plants they know so well.  Their maps of our backyard were a bit better but still could have been more detailed.  I've been wanting to do more mapping for our nature study, and I think this might be a good time to start!
:: History and literature were remembered in great detail, as usual.  Biggest hit in that category: Shakespeare.  Their narrations were way too long for me to type up, but the stories have such a hold on their imaginations, term after term.  I'm looking forward to hitting the "real thing" in a few months.
:: They had a harder time with Marco Polo--I think all the sights started to blend together for them by the end of the book, even with our mapping exercises alongside.  They got a very good general sense of the vast differences in custom between East and West and the amazing riches and influence of the Khan, but distinguishing one city or people from another was a challenge--they remembered details from this and that and kind of mixed it all together.  We used Towle's version, but I think I may try something different when it's Cate's turn, just to see whether we like it better.

Later this week I'll share a quick peek at my kindergartener's final exam!

Our Summer Schedule

 I've written about out partly-schoolish, partly-vacationish summer plans in past years.  Our plans this summer look much the same.

We actually started summer break at the end of March and will start up lessons again the first week of July.  We took completely off for Holy Week through the Easter Octave, and we'll fit a little vacation in there somewhere too.  

For the rest of summer, we'll keep some daily and weekly schoolwork in our routine:

:: I modified the kids' school-year checklist to accommodate three days of daily subjects each week.  

So three times a week, they'll take about an hour first thing in the morning to do...
copywork - five minutes, in cursive
mapwork - five minutes, review map of choice
Italian activity - five minutes, a review activity they can do together without my help
math - short lesson or set of problems

They also have piano practice, hygiene, and chores on their list (all daily) and a few weekly items: nature journal entry (we continue our outing and journaling session through the summer), and piano theory and art homework (given by their piano and art teachers).

And together we aim to hit recitation and Italian three times a week.  For clarity, I've been splitting our memory work into two parts: "recitation," which is our review of previously-learned material, and "memory work," which is our work on new selections.  We won't be learning new items this summer--just reviewing what we already know.  And my goal in Italian this summer is to finish up our family/adjectives unit and move on to verbs.

:: We're hitting lots of read-alouds.  I usually have at least three read-alouds going at a time: two read by me and one on audio.  Summer is no different but we read through them more quickly!  Right now on audio, we're listening to the Chronicles of Narnia from beginning to end; currently we're on The Silver Chair.  And I'm reading aloud two books: right now, The Twenty-One Balloons (a Year 3 free read) and Sun Slower Sun Faster (one of the Bethlehem Books).  I think we'll hit the Swallows and Amazons books on audio next, and I'll likely start on a couple from the Year 4 list.  

:: Cate has made some good progress on learning to read without much help from me this past year, but I'm planning to sit down with her daily this summer to do a short reading lesson.  She's ready for some hands-on involvement on my part.

We also have a list of summertime priorities this year, based on my children's requests:

:: Cooking lessons.  My daughters have been begging for me to teach them to cook, and I think now is the time.  I said this last summer, actually, but this summer I really mean it! ;)  We will start with some basic kitchen skills and breakfast preparation, and then we'll move on to some easier snacks and meals.  Before fall comes, I'd like to at least turn breakfast duties over to my oldest two with my 6yo as helper.

:: Chess.  The kids used to play daily with Daddy, but his work schedule changed and we haven't fit it back into the family routine except on the weekends.  We'll try to fit a bit more playing time in during the next couple months.

:: Running.  I have been running regularly for a long while now, but it has always been my time away from the kids--either solo or with a local running group.  This summer, I'd like to try to fit in a bit of running with my big kids, who are very active and eager to join me.  I just have to carve out some extra time in addition to my usual running schedule, which is already tight!

not at all related to running but so cute ;)

:: Outdoor time.  We'll still be getting out once a week with friends for some nature study; usually we stay close to home, but we have plans this summer to try a few new spots.  We're also adding to our wildflower collection and will be hitting the beach too!  I can't wait.

:: History of Me.  A few of you have asked whether we have decided on a format for the personal timelines I mentioned during my book discussion of The Living Page.  I did come up with a plan and bought the materials, and now it's just a matter of putting it together with my kids.  That was a winter break project, but life happened. ;) Now it's a summer project, and although we'll still be living life, I am hoping we can actually get it done!  When we do, I'll share.

And what I will be doing with my couple extra hours of time each day...

:: Planning Year 4 - choosing a Latin curriculum and a typing program, deciding how to schedule in dictation and written narration, charting out free reads

:: Planning Year 1 - putting together Cate's binder, printing copywork pages, considering First Holy Communion preparation

:: Planing Kindergarten - compiling a kindergarten box for Xavier, including books to read to him and activities for him to do while I'm schooling the other children

:: Planning our Family Work - choosing composers, artists, religion reading, morning basket materials, memory work, mapwork and more

:: Pulling together next year's Italian activities

:: Revamping my weekly ckecklist and my weekly planning session to accommodate multiple years

:: Reading along with our new Charlotte Mason study group (we're using Brandy's Start Here guide!) and my local book club

:: Purging and tidying here at home

:: Pondering a rearrangement of rooms to make our office space more usable for schoolwork and extracurricular lessons

:: Reconsidering chore schedules and home routines

:: Trying to get myself outdoors more often

:: Updating our Life Lists

I have a couple months of our summer schedule ahead of me and I'm so looking forward to it.  So what will your summer look like?

Third Grade in Our Home :: Exams, Term 2

I'm finally getting around to sharing our Term 2 exams for AO's Year 3, which we finished up over six weeks ago now!  (By the way, the thing that always bogs me down in popping these right up is transcribing the audio-recorded narrations.  I only do a few, and I do like to have them for my own purposes, but it's hard to find free minutes to listen and type.  So if anyone has a reliable speech-to-text suggestion for Android, please do share!)

As always, below are all the questions and then a sampling of answers.  There are more questions than you might usually expect because I have two children in Year 3; they didn't both answer all of these questions.  If you're looking for questions to use for your own exams, check out the wonderful exam page over at AO!

Yes, this is really how they sat to narrate together! LOL

The Questions

Italian:
Let's talk about your birthday!  Translate the following sentences:
I like when I celebrate my birthday!  I play games.  I eat cake.  I choose a special dinner.
List three actions you do at the park.
Recite "Stella Stellina" or sing "Con I Rami d'Agrifoglio."

Poetry:
Recite one of the poems you memorized by Sara Teasdale.
Besides the ones you memorized, what was your favorite poem that we read this term and what was it about?

Piano:
Play a Christmas song you have learned.

Physical Education:
Do ten burpees.
See how many pushups you can do without stopping.

Math:
Write two long multiplication problems and two long division problems for your sibling to solve.  Then switch papers and solve the problems!
See how fast you can do your 7s Wrap-Up.
Find the area of the living room carpet.  Be sure to account for the fireplace and air vents.

Free Reading:
What was your favorite book read during free time this term?  What did you like best about it?
Draw a scene from one of the stories in Crossbows and Crucifixes or The Little White Horse.  Describe briefly which scene you have illustrated, either in writing or orally.

Recitation:
Sing "Holy Holy Holy" or "O Come, All Ye Faithful."
Sing "Panis Angelicus" or "Adeste Fideles."
Sing "Barbara Allen" or "Home Sweet Home."
Recite the parable of the Good Samaritan  or Luke 2:1-7.
Recite Blessed Henry Newman's Prayer for a Holy Death.

Penmanship:
Write the following sentence in your best printing:"Two people meet, both bound on the same business, both going to the same rendezvous, and for three days do not venture to trust each other."
Now copy that sentence in your best cursive.
Now identify what book that line is from, and describe its context.

Literature:
Work together to:
Draw a map of the New Forest, complete with distances if you can manage it.  Include as many landmarks as you can.
AND
Draw a character chart outlining the story, just as we do for our Shakespeare tales.
Tell of Christian's experience with the Giant Despair.
Tell me the story of Measure for Measure or The Taming of the Shrew.  You can look at our character chart as you explain the story.
Recite Petruchio's lines regarding Katherine from Act 2, Scene 1 of The Taming of the Shrew, and describe their context.
Which story did you find most unbelievable: Johnny Appleseed or Davy Crockett?  What aspects of his character make him larger-than-life?
Describe one of the difficulties the Argonauts encountered on their journey OR What was Jason's folly, and how was he punished for it?

History:
Describe the Globe theater.
Name two  famous people during the Age of Elizabeth and give an account of them.
Pretend you are one of the pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower, and you are writing a letter to family back home in England.  Describe your voyage, the reasons for your trip, and what you have encountered so far in your new home.
Whom would you rather live under: Cromwell or Charles II?  Why?  Explain your choice.

Religion:
Tell me the story of the tribute of the temple OR the story of Mary and Martha.
What did Our Lord say about little children?  Use biblical language if possible.
Label the bodies of water in this map of the Holy Land.
Tell me about the duties of the guardian angels.
Share with me your favorite line so far from The Story of the Mass and read it aloud in your clearest voice.
What are some ways we can overcome our "pet passion," according to Mother Mary Loyola?
What is one quality that made St. Thomas More heroic?  Describe a scene from his life that illustrates this quality.

Geography:
Tell me what you know about India, including the caste system and its dominant religion.  Describe one way in which Hindu custom is very different from our own.
Describe the geography of India.  How are its plains different than those in the United States?  What animals live there?
Fill in this map of Europe, paying careful attention to spelling for all the countries.
Identify these states by shape.

Nature Study:
Tell me what you know about hermit crab homes OR Tookhees the wood mouse.
Sketch and label the life cycle of the mosquito.  How does it compare to the life cycle of the butterfly?
Sketch one more favorite discovery from our nature study outings this term.

Art:
Complete this warm-up activity as carefully as you can.

Music Study:
Tell me a favorite scene from Opal Wheeler's Chopin.
Hum the theme from one of the Chopin selections we enjoyed this term.
According to Thomas Tapper, why is it important to have control over our hands?

Picture Study:
Choose one of Fra Angelico's paintings and describe it as well as you can or sketch it from memory.

Handicraft:
Show one of your completed projects to Daddy.

The Answers

For any written work, I spelled words for the children when asked.

I thought it might be interesting this time around to share a few side-by-side answers to the same questions.  Both kids both did a very good job on all of these, so I'm not trying to compare whose narrations were more successful at all.  But I think it's really neat to see how two children almost the same age (they're only three months apart) reading the same books at the same time can respond to those readings with different details and styles.  These narrations were done out of hearing of each other or me, into the audio recorder, and then I transcribed them afterward.

One of the adventures of the Argonauts from Kingsley's Heroes

by Vincent

Once the Argonauts sailed by a place where the Sirens lived.  These, um, girls were half-bird and half-woman.  They sang and they lured sailors to come, and then they were put to death by their sweet song.  The Sirens began to play, but Orpheus, when they reached that, began to play on his harp.  But it would not work and the men soon fell asleep.  Then Hera said to him play very loud and crashing; that will wake the Argonauts up.  The Argonauts were woken up, but one of the men jumped out of the boat and ran to the Sirens and swam over to them.  The Argonauts were sad but they knew it couldn't be helped.  He came on the shore and begged to listen to the Sirens.  He was put to sleep by their magical voice and the Sirens ran out and began to eat him.  But just as they were about to, a goddess came up and took him in her arms, and the Sirens were so angry they dashed themselves to pieces.
[Just had to add--he pronounced Sirens as Cyrenes--like Simon of Cyrene.  Ha! And he pronounced Orpheus as "Orcheus," which actually makes sense given Orpheus' special talent--I think he was making the "orchestra" connection!]

by Gianna

One of the Argonauts' adventures, and probably the most brilliant one, is how they really got the Golden Fleece, which was with the help of the King's daughter.  She helped them in many ways.  The first one was she helped them to overcome the things they must do in order to get to the Golden Fleece at all.  First he had to take some fiery bulls and have them plow and tame them (of course you had to tame them first, because what else could you do with fire-breathing bulls that you have to have plow?).  The seeds that he had to plow were the teeth of the dragon, which made soldiers spring up, and he had to couquer every one of them.  He did this by taming them with witchmaiden's charms and then he plowed the land with them, and that was easy.  Once he plowed the seeds, they started to come up, as you would expect plants to do.  He threw his helmet into the middle so each solider struck the other, and they both struck each other dead.  The last two mortally wounded each other in the last moments of their lives and lay there, glaring at Jason.  Jason was glad.  The king said he would have to overcome now a fire-breathing dragon which was under a tree.  This he did in the middle of the night with the witchmaiden's help.  He took some poison or something and killed the dragon...or maybe the witchmaiden stared into his eyes, and Jason got the golden fleece then.  But I think they just killed the dragon because he hasn't been heard of again.  Well, that's the end of that adventure!

[See?  High on style and about average on substance, if you know what I mean. :)]

An account of two figures during the Age of Elizabeth

by Vincent

Sir Walter Raleigh was a fine gentleman and once he saw Queen Elizabeth walking on a road, and he saw a big puddle, and he didn't want her to step in it, so he threw his best cloak on the ground and let her step on it as a carpet. Queen Elizabeth was greatly pleased by this and she let him become a knight.  He wanted to plan an expedition for Virginia, a great part of which John Cabot had already claimed but no one had tried to settle on it. He was one of Queen Elizabeth's favorites, and Queen Elizabeth did not want him to go in case he might die, and he had to stay.  He had one of his brothers go with the expedition, and he also built a ship, which he gave for the expedition.  It came out that each expedition failed when finally, with the fifth one, he managed to settle a colony, but this was in the time when James was king.  Sir Walter Raleigh was put in prison, for people said that he was trying to form a plot against James, and he was executed like many other great men.

Shakespeare was also in the time of Queen Elizabeth.  His father was the mayor of a town.  When he was six years old, he went to school, and when he was a young man, he married a girl older than himself.  Her name was Anne.  A few years after, he left Anne and his few children at home and went to London.  There he began writing plays.  First he began to change some plays, and the people liked them so much that they begged him to write more, and he agreed to write more.

by Gianna

The Earl of Essex was one of Queen Elizabeth's many male friends.  However, it ended up that he was thrown into prison and in the reign of the next king, James, had his head cut off.  But for the time being, they were friends.  He had to go over and help rule Scotland and that is when their enmity started.  One time he put on a play where a king was a bad king and was to be overthrown, and he and all his followers clapped at the right parts. They tried to make Queen Elizabeth act the part of the bad king and he act the part of the new and much better king.  Queen Elizabeth found it out and that's how he was cast into prison.

Mary Queen of Scots also ended up having her head cut off.  She was actually Queen Elizabeth's cousin, and they quarreled, and Queen Elizabeth got so mad that she shut up her own cousin.  Later when she was beheaded, she looked old but she was still young.

The tale of Christian and the Giant Despair

by Vincent

Christian and his companion, Faithful, were walking along the road when Christian saw a better road.  They went on that road but there was a great flood and they had to take a break in shelter.  When they awoke they found that they had been caught by a giant called Despair.  In the morning he put them in the dungeon and gave them no food or water.  The next day he said to them that it would be better if they just killed themselves instead of having to suffer so much.  After a long talk about this, they decided that they should not kill themselves because there still might be hope that they could escape.  Because once when he was beating them with a club, he had had a fit and he stopped moving.  The next day he showed them some bones and said that soon their bones would be among those.  One day Christian said to Faithful, "I forgot that I have the key in my bosom," so they pushed open the prison door and ran out through the gates.  The Giant Despair was just about to run after them when he suddenly pushed open the gates and had another fit, and Christian and Faithful escaped, and they put up a sign to make sure that no other pilgrims went there.

by Gianna

They had just gone away from the lovely meadow and river, and the walking became hard because there were stones on the way and it hurt their feet.  There was a stile which led into another beautiful meadow and they were tempted to go in, though they knew it was not in the way.  Finally they were so tempted to go in it that they did go in it. Christian said to his fellow, "Let us go in it!" until his fellow finally gave in.  No sooner had they gone in than they fell fast asleep for they were tired.  Then a giant called Giant Despair came in.  These were his grounds, and if people were found on his grounds, that meant death.  (At least he thought so!)  They were led away, and for many, many days, he tried to convince them to give in. Christian and Hopeful would not.  They said that they would never ever give in.  He, seeing this, counselled his wife.  His wife told him to "show them all the bones that are in the garden.  They will find, most likely, that it is best to give in to you.  Or else, my dear husband, they will know that it means death."  So they were shown the bones in the yard and they thought nothing of it--at least they didn't think much.  Christian did--he kept telling Hopeful to give in.  Finally on probably the sixth night, they prayed, for they were going to be killed and beaten tomorrow if they hadn't escaped by then.  Christian cried out aloud, "Look!  I have a key in my pocket!  And it can open any lock! It's called the Key of Promise."  And so they went out.  The giant, hearing them, gave chase, but he got into a fit and couldn't move his arms and legs.  To think that Christian had a key there the whole time when he was with the Giant Despair!

Some Thoughts

:: Speaking of narrations, as you can see, Vincent is my one with the nearly photographic memory, but his vocabulary is a bit more stilted, and Gianna remembers less but tells it back with more style. ;) And what you can't tell from these transcripts is that Vincent's narrations are much slower and more measured but also more careful and methodical.  Gianna's are more fluent, but she gets ahead of herself sometimes.  I'm curious to see how this all will play out when we begin regular written narrations next year.

:: They loved the collaborative questions, so I'm going to be doing more of those!

:: They thought it was funny to be comparing Cromwell and Charles II, both of whom they thought were pretty terrible.  I'd like to have asked them to compare two good rulers, but they are so few and far between during this era.  Vincent, grasping at straws, actually mentioned that he'd rather live under Charles II because at least the fire swept the plague out of London when he was king!  That had me laughing out loud--you know it's bad when a citywide fire is the highlight of your reign. ;)

:: We didn't get through as much Italian as I was hoping to this term, but at least they remembered what we did work on.  To be honest, I don't think much will change in that area until summer, when I have a little more time to pull new resources together.

Third Grade in Our Home :: Morning Basket, Term 2

First, a note: Just as in the past, I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family, with the littles. But even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: that which is done over breakfast, and that which is done at the end of our Naptime School block.  Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we did it last year, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, feel free to click over to read more.  ~~ You can read about our Morning Basket for Term 1 here.

A look at our Morning Basket plans for this Term 2 of this year...

Over Breakfast

Calendar Work - in English and Italian (daily)

Poetry - a poem daily from our poet for the term, Sara Teasdale (daily)

Short Reading - from one of the following:

:: Thomas Tapper's Music Talks for Children (one chapter per week)

:: the Kirbys' The World at Home (two chapers per week)

:: Benson's A Child's Rule of Life (one page per week)

:: Benson's An Alphabet of Saints (one page per week)

:: "Fra Angelico" from Steedman's Knights of Art (a bit per week)
:: "An Angel-Like Brother" from Hillyer's A Child's History of Art (after finishing the Steedman)

:: Opal Wheeler's Frederic Chopin, Son of Poland, Early Years and Frederic Chopin, Son of Poland, Later Years (a chapter per week)

I chose these for our Morning Basket work rather scheduling them during Naptime School for several reasons: they're all short readings, have general appeal, and are not narrated.

Read-Aloud - with any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: The Water Babies or At the Back of the North Wind.

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as our current selections:

:: Hymns - "Holy Holy Holy" and "Panis Angelicus"

:: Folk Song - "Barbara Allen," "Home Sweet Home," and "Highland Mary"

:: Bible - The Parable of the Good Samaritan

:: Prayers - Cardinal Newman's Prayer for a Happy Death and St. Alphonsus' Night Prayer

:: Poetry - William Blake's "Tyger," Sara Teasdale's "The Ballad of Two Knights," "The Faery Forest," "Rhyme of November Stars," "Thoughts"

:: Shakespeare - The Taming of the Shrew 2.1.168-180

:: Bird Calls - House Finch, Red-Winged Blackbird, Killdeer

We move on to a new selection once we have the previous selection memorized rather than on a regular schedule, so our plans are just that--plans.  We may end up doing more than just these.  I'll update our Memory Work index with the ones we cover.

And this year, we're combining Memory Work and Movement, so while we're reviewing our previous selections, the kids are doing jumping jacks, situps, pushups, burpees, and dancing.  It's been a happy marriage of activities for us so far--and it keeps the littles busy.

Italian Memory Work (daily) - The older three and I cover new concepts, games, and conversation at a different time of the day, but we do our Italian memory work with the littles:

:: Rhymes - "La bella lavanderia" and "Giro giro tondo" from Filastrocche Italiane

:: Songs - "Tu canterai, "Cosi fan," "Giro giro tondo" from Teach Me Everyday Italian

:: Series - "I do something every day"

Picture Study on Fra Angelico (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch

:: The Last Judgement, 1432-1435

:: Transfiguration of Christ, 1437-1446

:: The Madonna with Saints, 1438-1443

:: The Deposition from the Cross, 1443

:: The Annunciation, 1450

:: Adoration of the Magi, 1445

Music Study on Frederick Chopin (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, including attentive listening and discussion

:: Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1 - Minute Waltz

:: Piano Concerto No. 2 Movement 3 - Funeral March

:: Piano Concerto No. 1

:: Waltz in E-flat major - Grande valse brillante

:: Prelude No. 4 in E Minor

:: Op 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude in C minor

Nature Study at the Beach :: Pagoo!

We're currently reading Holling's Pagoo for our natural science studies, so one of the highlights of our recent time at the beach was finding a hermit crab.  We have seen them in tidepools and at aquariums, but this was a more personal encounter.

I actually stumbled across it (literally) while walking a fussy baby way down a deserted stretch of beach.  A dead hermit crab, lying belly up far above the water line.  I'm so glad I didn't actually step on it because although it was already dead, the crab hadn't yet been attacked by the birds or bugs, which meant that the body was still preserved.

At home, we carefully slid the last bit of his body from the shell and we were able to get a close look at his rubbery bottom, front claws, and hinged legs.

We compared the body to Holling's drawings, and added our own drawings to our nature journals.

little Pagoo, as drawn by Holling

My son hasn't stopped talking about what a wonderful coincidence it was that we found that hermit crab in the same term that we are reading that story.  I think so too. :)

Third Grade in Our Home :: The Morning Basket, Term 1

Just as in the past, I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family, with the littles. But even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: that which is done over breakfast, and that which is done at the end of our Naptime School block.

(Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we did it last year, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, feel free to click over to read more.)

A look at our Morning Basket plans for this Term 1 of this year... 

Over Breakfast

Calendar Work - in English and Italian (daily)

Poetry - a poem daily from our poet for the term, William Blake (daily)

Short Reading - from one of the following:
:: Thomas Tapper's Music Talks for Children (one chapter per week)
:: the Kirbys' The World at Home (two chapers per week)
:: Benson's A Child's Rule of Life (one page per week)
:: Benson's An Alphabet of Saints (one page per week)

I chose these for our Morning Basket work rather scheduling them during Naptime School for several reasons: they're all short readings, have general appeal, and are not narrated.

Read-Aloud - with any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: The Water Babies or At the Back of the North Wind.

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as our current selections:

:: Hymns - "Come Holy Ghost" and "Ave Verum Corpus"
:: Folk Song - "Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" and "Dixie"
:: Bible - Psalm 42 and The Last Gospel (John 1:1-14)

:: Prayers - Saint Michael prayer in Latin and the Confiteor
:: Poetry - William Blake's "The Fly," "The Blossom," "The Lamb," "The Shepherd," and "The Tyger"

:: Bird Calls - American Robin, California Towhee, House Finch

We move on to a new selection once we have the previous selection memorized rather than on a regular schedule, so our plans are just that--plans.  We may end up doing more than just these.  I'll update our Memory Work index with the ones we cover.

And this year, we're combining Memory Work and Movement--so while we're reviewing our previous selections, the kids are doing jumping jacks, situps, pushups, burpees, and dancing. :)  It's been a happy marriage of activities for us so far--and it keeps the littles busy.

Italian Memory Work (daily) - The older three and I cover new concepts, games, and conversation at a different time of the day, but we do our Italian memory work with the littles:
:: Rhymes - "Capra capretta" and "Bim bum ba" from Filastrocche Italiane

:: Songs - "Avena e grano crescono,"Saptete voi piantare i fiori," "Reginella campagnola" from Teach Me Everyday Italian

:: Series - "I go on a nature adventure" and "I do something every day"

Picture Study on Claude Monet (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch
:: Terrace at St. Adresse, 1866

:: La Grenouillére, 1869

:: Impression: Sunrise, 1872

:: Woman with a Parasol, 1886

:: Thinking about Light with the Rouen Cathedral series and Haystacks series - Haystack: End of the Summer, Morning, 1891 and Rouen Cathedral: Sunset, 1894

:: The Waterlily Pond, 1899

Music Study on Johann Sebastian Bach (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, including attentive listening and discussion
:: Air on the G String
:: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
:: Toccata ad Fugue in D Minor
:: Goldberg Variations
:: Minuet in G
:: St. Matthew's Passion

Third Grade in Our Home :: An Overview

We're now halfway through our first term of the new school year, and things are going so smoothly that I'm ready to share our plans here!

We draw very heavily from Ambleside Online's wonderful booklists--our history, natural history, and literature selections are almost entirely from their Year 3 programme.  (Their site has weekly break-downs for each of those books, so go take a look!  What I have here is posted with permission from Ambleside Online.)  I have marked the portions of our schedule that are directly from AO in blue.  The rest is my own plans.

Bible	New Testament - Schuster's Bible History (focusing on the teaching ministry of Jesus through the Ascension)
Religion	Saints - Lauren Ford's Life of Our Lady Stories -  Marigold Hunt's A Book of Angels and Tan's Guardian Angels: Our Heavenly Companions Mass - The Story of the Mass Catechism - Mother Loyola's First Communion (continued from last year) In our Morning Basket - Benson's An Alphabet of Saints and A Child's Rule of Life *NN Other projects - review First Holy Communion catechism questions, practice using hand missal
History The Renaissance and Reformation	World - Our Island Story and A Child's History of the World National - This Country of Ours  Catholic - The Catholic Faith Comes to the Americas, Vision books for St. Thomas More and St. Edmund Campion, Crossbows and Crucifixes, O'Neill's The World's Story Stories - Diane Stanley's Michaelangelo, Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon, and Daugherty's Landing of the Pilgrims
Natural History	Holling's Pagoo Long's Secrets of the Woods
Geography	Towle's Marco Polo The Kirbys' The World at Home (in our Morning Basket) *NN Weekly mapwork - charting figures from all studies on European and American maps, Marco Polo's voyage on world map, life and travels of Jesus on Holy Land map Map drills - Holy Land, Eastern United states, countries of Europe
Literature	Stoutenberg's American Tall Tales Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare Kingsley's The Heroes Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Macdonald's The Princess and the Goblin, Merryat's Children of the New Forest, Kipling's The Jungle Books Scheduled Free Reads - Together: Kingsley's The Water Babies, MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind *NN Scheduled Free Reads - Independent: Goudge's The Little White Horse, Pyle's Men of Iron *NN
Poetry	William Blake, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, Henry Longfellow
Music Study	Bach (Term 1), Chopin (Term 2), Handel (Term 3) Composer biographies - by Opal Wheeler and Anna Harwell Celenza *NN Thomas Tapper's Music Talks for Children (in our Morning Basket) *NN
Art Study	Monet (Term 1), Georgia O'Keefe (Term 2), TBD (Term 3) Art biographies - by Mike Venezia *NN
Art	Weekly drawing lesson using Mona Brooks' Drawing with Children -  Volume Drawing (Term 1), Different Media (Term 2), Back to Still Lifes (Term 3) Daily drawing drill from Donna Young's site Weekly art project using various media
Music	Weekly piano lesson, daily practice
Nature Study	At the Shore (Term 1), At the Pond (Term 2), TBD (Term 3) Weekly nature study outing Weekly nature journal entry Weekly lesson using Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study and Natural Science Through the Seasons: 100 Teaching Units Monthly lesson using Headstrom's Adventures with a Hand Lens
Italian	Daily work and review; one unit each month, including lesson, conversation, songs, games, rhymes
Handicrafts	Sewing with felt, cooking, chores
Copywork	Printing - copying selections of choice in copybook Cursive - continued practice with Startwrite pages
Math	Daily math drill - Wrap-ups or Challenging Word Problem or Timed Sheet Daily lesson from the following: RightStart Level E (finishing up) Singapore 5A/B (finishing up) RightStart Level G Art of Problem Solving: Pre-Algebra Challenge Math
Memory Work	Bible - penitential psalms, parables, final Gospel Poetry - from each term's poet Hymns and Folk Songs - from music books Shakespeare - selections from plays read Prayers - Memorare to St. Joseph, Divine Mercy prayers, Nicene Creed in Latin

Some other notes about our third grade plans:

:: Some selections are noted as *NN, or "Not Narrated."  This is my way of adding books to our schedule without overloading my children.  (All regularly-scheduled books are narrated in some form.)

:: I'm putting a greater emphasis on mapwork this year.  My kids really enjoy geography concepts and stories, and they have very precise knowledge of the United States thanks to the simple map drills we have done over the past two years, but their knowledge of the locations we're reading about in history is fuzzy.  This year, I printed out a few blank maps for us to fill out over the course of the year, just plotting cities and countries that come up in our reading.  Before, I was pointing out locations on a map--but it wasn't sticking.  Their keeping physical track of the places is cementing the knowledge more effectively and encouraging connections across readings.  We're also going to do some map tracing.  They'll be doing this in addition to our regular map drills.

:: My kids gobble up their free reading books, but I'd like for some of them--particularly the more difficult or thematically richer ones--to be savored a bit more slowly.  So just as I did last year, I chose a few of the books from AO's free reading list to schedule out over the course of the year at a slower pace.  Some are for my children to do on their own; some we're reading together.

:: Thanks to reading Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page, I've decided to incorporate some new Keeping habits.  In addition to the binder timeline we have been doing all along, we'll also be doing a personal timeline this year as a special project--I'll share when it's completed!  I'm also having my children do their print copywork in a Poetry and Prose Copybook this year--both of them have been very excited to choose selections to include from the week's reading.  And they're narrating this year's Mass study in the form of copywork and drawings in a blank book dedicated to the project.  The way they choose to lay this out is entirely up to them, though I did have them look at Inos Biffi's work as an example.  It has been wonderful to see what they are choosing to highlight from each week's selection.

:: We're continuing our Italian learning with last year's method, still using the same format and resources.  It's going really well!  I also requested a few extra Italian CDs and books through our charter school--I'll review them when they arrive in a few months and I have a chance to see if they're a good fit for our studies.

:: Our math has been an adventure lately!  I've had some readers ask about our math plans so I'll share a bit: I have loved using RightStart Math for the last three years.  My son and I spent the past few months finishing up the long-ish geometry section of RS Level E alongside the sections from Singapore 5A/B that they don't cover in RS (some extra fractions/ration work, a discussion of volume, practice with order of operations, etc.).  And now we're moving on to something new!  RS also offers Level G, their geometry program, which they recommend using alongside a pre-algebra or algebra program over two or more years.  So once Gianna finishes up Level E, the two of them will be doing that together with me a couple times a week.  Alongside, they'll work at their own pace on Art of Problem Solving, a bit of Challenge Math, a bit of Singapore's New Elementary Mathematics...and I'm not sure what else!  We're going to have to see what ends up being a good fit for my accelerated math students.  Once we've done a thorough try of the program options, I'll let you know what we end up using.

:: In my post regarding this year's weekly schedule sheet, you can see the breakdown of their daily and weekly subjects.  My goal for my third graders this year is for them to take full responsibility for their daily work and their Keeping habits, with me only checking in with them weekly on those assignments.

:: Since we're studying the Renaissance and Reformation this year, I have been editing Our Island Story here and there, and I've added some Catholic reading to our history schedule so that my children get a true sense of the period.  I want to say a particular thank you to Amber, who suggested Crossbows and Crucifixes when I asked about children's books on the English marytrs.  We'll be reading it in Term 2 and I think it's going to be perfect.  We'll also be reading some saint biographies relevant to the time period in lieu of Trial and Triumph, one of the few books in the early years of AO that I strongly dislike and have always substituted for.

Whew!  Okay, so that's third grade here.  Next time: kindergarten!