KONOS

It is WAY past time for me to talk about KONOS Character Based Unit Study Curriculum by Carole Thaxton and Jessica Hulcy. I guess I've been so busy preparing myself for this adventure that I have not blogged as much, must less shared about KONOS.

As you might be able to tell from this blog, I have been homeschooling my children the last few years using the principles of Charlotte Mason and following Ambleside Online. I still believe the principles are great. Last spring, I began to see that I needed help in taking my teaching to a new level.

I began to research KONOS and the unit study approach, especially for my younger two sons. The older of the two had thrived on the great literature we were reading to a point, but I felt he and his younger brother needed me to add more active and hands-on learning. I will admit, there are spurts of this in me, but I am not an original thinker but spurred on by other ideas to make my own.

I had known about and even looked at KONOS before, but was overwhelmed at the time. I decided it was time to give it a closer look. I could immediately see that the boys would get into it and the growth it would cause in them. I got volume 2, but soon decided that I might as well start with Vol. 1 (It doesn't matter which you use first, but they created Vol. 1 when they had younger children).

During the summer months, I collected books, watched Jessica's videos, tried her sample online co-op lessons and read everything I could!

Basically, the volumes are broken down into character traits. Under each character trait, we learn things from every field of study that might connect with that trait. For example: Attentiveness is 4 weeks. First, we talk about what it means to pay attention and concentrate (love the concentrated orange juice example!). We talk about examples in the Bible, like when God Called Samuel, Mary and Martha and how Jesus watched to follow the lead of the Father in his ministry. Then we study the ear, the eye, Helen Keller, Alexander Graham Bell, the orchestra and its parts and much, much more. We watch videos, read books, do copy work, do experiments, act out scenes and keep a notebook of our work.

That is just a brief account, there are WAY more things we have done and way more things available in the lists! But, I'm sure you get the picture.

The next post I will tell about our first two weeks doing Vol. Attentiveness and our co-op that we will have this afternoon!

At Last!

I am investigating At Last! A Reading Method for every child. If anyone has any input PLEASE comment!

Children are Persons

"I have never, as far as I can remember, given one moment's thought as to whether any drawing that I was doing was for adults or children. I have never changed one conception or line or detail to suit the supposed age of the reader. And I have never, in what writing I have done, changed one word or phrase of text because I felt it might be over the heads of children. I have never, I hope, insulted the intelligence of any child. And with God and my publishers willing, I promise them that I never will."

Robert Lawson
Author of Rabbit Hill

Zeezok Composer Series

We are all enjoying our composer study right now! We are reading Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming of Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler, published by Zeezok Publishing. The story is very well written! We are enjoying the story of the childhood of Beethoven right now. We also have the Companion CD (Highly recommend!!). It is wonderful! It has each song in the book as well as coloring pages that go along with the story! The music score is even in the story book so you can learn to play too!

There are many other composers in this series! I can't wait to read them all!

Little House on the Prairie: The Pilot

I know many of us love the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have only just begun to read them this year with my AO Year 2 children. However, I grew up watching the TV show.

I have heard from many LHotP book fans about how far the TV show strayed after the first couple of seasons. Recently, I purchased the Little House on the Prairie: The Pilot and was amazed at how well it stuck to the story line. Not, only that, but it is actually the WHOLE book! Then, the series picks up with the next book, On the Banks of Plum Creek, when they move to Walnut Grove.

I was disturbed with the way they portray Ma as disagreeing with Pa about many things, which she did not do in the book (although she wasn't fond of Indians, she was never disrespectful to Pa about it). However, she does realize the error of her ways reguarding Edwards and the Indians!

I quite enjoyed the Pilot and cannot wait to watch it with the boys when we finish the book in the next couple of weeks.

The Spiritual Power of a Mother

I haven't blogged in awhile; my reading has been a little scattered. But, last night I finished Michael Farris' (President of HSLDA) The Spiritual Power of a Mother. I was very encouraged!



The mother child relationship is something that has always intrigued me. And I have observed very destructive use of the spiritual power that a mother has. So, the title is what drew me to this book.

As mothers, we have an unprecedented opportunity of influence in children's lives. But, Mr. Farris points out one big thing that really struck me; I have mulled it over since I read it. He says, that our primary job as mothers is NOT to teach them not to pick at scabs and wear clean underwear (no matter how much they need to hear that...HA HA). Nor, is it to teach our children ABOUT God.

"Teaching about God is important, but the most important thing you can teach your child is to believe in God....We teach our children to love God through the course of everyday living by having them watch us as we live a life of faith. This is God's ordained teaching method for obeying His most important command to parents: teach your children to love God."

Ouch. So, no amount of preaching AT them will develop a love for God (kind of sounded better in our heads huh?), but mostly, the faith we live in front of them. He goes on to give examples of poor behavior that we often exhibit in front of our children which teaches them the opposite of loving a Sovereign God.

He goes on to walk through many of the daily battles Homeschool Moms face with fatherly advice and humor and realistic goals. I have been very encouraged by this book and hope you will be too!

Great Version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

We discovered a treasure already in our home library! We just read Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Retold and Illustrated by John Patience from the Once Upon a Storytime Series. It is definitely THE best telling of this story I have ever read or heard!

First of all, for you living book lovers out there, it is told in great story telling language (no twaddle here!!) The story tells of how Goldilock's mother told her to stay in the meadow and never go in the woods. However, Goldilocks grows bored in the meadow one day and decides to explore the woods any way, even being careful to see if her mother is watching first. Well, this comes be a regret she will never forget after all she encounters!

Our local library does not seem to have any of John's books. Use this link to the authors website to find them on Abe Books http://www.patience.co.uk/john/fairy.shtml
ENJOY! PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK IF YOU LIKE THEM TOO!!!!