Composition Notebooks and Narration

Using our new composition notebooks has been educational, not just for the kids, but for me, too. I've been a bit frustrated at our exams because the kids don't remember details from their reading, but I haven't known what to do about it, unless I start giving them lists of names, dates and places to memorize. J and L haven't been writing much for school at all. L is ten and just getting to the point where he'd be doing written narrations, so I had started having him do one a week at the beginning of this term six weeks ago. I hadn't been requiring any more than one a week from J because he's still learning to spell and I didn't want to ask too much of him.

So I made them each a composition notebook, a handy size they could fill in a term, and asked them to write a brief summary of everything they read for school. They still narrate orally - longer oral narrations, but concise snippets for their books. That was my thought. So far it's been going well. The biggest surprise is J (Year 7). He doesn't want to write concise summary snippets. He says he'll remember better if he writes more, and he says he loves to write. Who knew? He requested that he do written narrations instead of oral, so we'll try that and see how it goes.

This morning I wrote down some names on a sheet of paper before we read 1 Sam 26 - Saul, Abner, David and Abishai. I told them I wanted them to use those names in their written narrations, and I left the paper out for them to spell the names correctly. Charlotte Mason did that - writing certain things on the chalkboard that she wanted her students to look for in their reading. I don't know if she left them up for her students to copy the spelling. She probably had them memorize the spelling by closing their eyes and visualizing the word, and then erased the board. But we're taking this one step at a time.

L was having a tough time with his Plutarch narration, so I let him dictate it to me - he knew what he wanted to say, but he was having trouble getting it on to the page. I wrote it out on a scrap sheet of paper as he dictated, and he copied that into his booklet in his own handwriting. I noticed that he revised and consolidated as he copied, which is probably a beneficial exercise in itself. I think we're going to do his Plutarch narrations this way from now on.

I don't know what kind of a difference all this is going to make educationally - I won't find out until exam time. But I think it will help.

Here's a peek at their notebooks to show how they're set up and how we're utilizing the space on the pages. This is pretty much how the notebooks I saw from some PNEU students were done - with more than one entry on each page, and each entry dated.

L's book, age ten, Ambleside Online Year 4


J's book, age 13, Ambleside Online Year 7


T's book, age 16, Ambleside Online Year 11; his book is not only a bit bigger, but it has more pages - 48. He'll fill his because he writes more - written narrations are nothing new to him.


Miss M, age 3, Ambleside Online Year 0, has her own book - I gave her the one that I accidentally put the pages in upside down so the top margin is at the bottom. She likes to do whatever her brothers are doing!

Do Parents Have the Right Not to Education Their Children?

"If you're a homeschooler you have heard that question or some variation on it from somebody advocating greater restrictions on homeschoolers. Often it will be accompanied with a sort of backhanded compliment something like this, 'I know you'll educate your children, but what about the parents who won't?'"

The Headmistress at The Common Room wrote an excellent response to this kind of question in which she considers that, with the public schools graduating 25 percent of their students still illiterate, why are we assuming that it's the homeschoolers (who have a 90 percent success rate) who need policing? "...indoctrination is really what it's all about. One reason public schools fail to teach so many children to read is because they are most interested in teaching them something else altogether."

Read the whole post here.

A Month of Grace

Dependence

To keep the lamp alive,
With oil we fill the bowl;
'Tis water makes the willow thrive,
And grace that feeds the soul.

The Lord's unsparing hand
Supplies the living stream;
It is not at our own command,
But still derived from Him.

Beware of Peter's word,
Nor confidently say,
"I never will deny Thee, Lord," --
But, -- "Grant I never may."

Man's wisdom is to seek
His strength in God alone;
And e'en an angel would be weak,
Who trusted in his own.

Retreat beneath his wings,
And in His gace confide!
This more exalts the King of kings
Than all your works beside.

In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from His throne;
Whoever says, "I want no more,"
Confesses he has done.

by William Cowper

Stacks Winter Reading Challenge

Krakovianka posted about this reading challenge:
"If you are anything like me your stack of purchased to-be-read books is teetering over. So for this challenge we would be reading 5 books that we have already purchased, have been meaning to get to, have been sitting on the nightstand and haven't read before." They're hoping to get people signed up by Nov 15.

Krakovianka is going to read War and Peace, a Polish book and something by Jane Austen that I've never heard of. My list won't be quite so serious. We recently sorted and reshelved all of our books, and I came across some children's books that I'd been meaning to read. And here's my opportunity!

My five selections:

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge
The Iliad for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church
All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Just David by Eleanor Porter
The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban

Okay, so that's six. But I've been wanting to read all of these. And, with my schedule, children's books are probably all I'll be able to manage.

A Month of Grace

Grace means the free, unmerited, unexpected love of God, and all the benefits, delights, and comforts which flow from it. It means that while we were sinners and enemies we have been treated as sons and heirs.
R. P. C. Hanson


We're all stumbling towards the light with varying degrees of grace at any given moment.
Bo Lozoff

A Month of Grace

The grace of the spirit comes only from heaven, and lights up the whole bodily presence.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon


Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected.
Jonathan Edwards

Making Envelopes

I was asked how to make envelopes, so, since that's the one thing I do really well, I was happy to share.

It helps to understand what an envelope is: just a sheet of paper wrapped around something. The ends need to meet and overlap so they can be secured together. It's basically wrapping paper. The simplest envelopes are merely squarish flaps at the top and bottom, with narrow little flaps folding in on the sides. In some really cheap envelopes, the side flaps are even left out - some cheap Valentine's Day cards just glue the sides of the envelope together without bothering to have side flaps.

As the flaps are tapered more and more to form a shape closer and closer to a triangle, the sides need to be wider to compensate. You can see that in the diagrams below. Generally, you can tell whether your envelope will need to have squared flaps or triangular ones by placing the item you want to wrap on the paper you're going to cut the envelope out of, and seeing how much room you have for side flaps. How much width is available for side flaps will determine how much you can taper the top and bottom flaps of the envelope. I like flaps that are almost perfect triangles like a Hallmark card envelope.

Even an envelope with squared flaps can look really nice if the bottom flap covers two-thirds of the body of the envelope or more and the top flap covers almost half. A generous top flap makes all the difference. The ratio where the lines meet can make the envelope pleasing or awkward - I imagine it has to do with composition, like the rule of thirds in photography.

If you can design the envelope so that it's placed squarely on an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper rather than diagonal, you can run the paper through your computer printer first and print a return address label in the proper place before cutting them out (I do this routinely).

I guess you could print designs on them, too. Or, if you have a paper cutter or scissors to cut patterns, you can make the top flap really pretty. I've never done that; for me, the challenge and satisfaction is in finding the perfect ratio of height/width, and flap size.

Instructions for making your own envelopes are divided into multiple blog posts.

Getting Started
Making the Template, part 1 and part 2
Cutting them out
The Final Steps: gluing and folding them






Note that, as the top and bottom taper in more and more, you'll need more side to cover the contents. Keeping that in mind will help as you consider the design of your envelope.

Envelope-Making 101: Setting Up

There are a LOT of photos with this, so I've uploaded all of them in five separate posts, and I'll add the text next.

You'll need a sheet or two of graph paper to get really even measured cut-outs, a stiff sheet of paper or cardboard to make the template, scissors, glue, stapler, some paper to make the envelopes out of (I use scrap paper) and a pencil.



Trim the graph paper along marked lines so that you're starting from exact squares.



Measure how big the envelope needs to be. It should be about a quarter inch larger than what's going in it so it goes in and out easily, larger if what you're putting in it is thick. I think I'll make some envelopes for all my money.


Cut exactly, using the grid lines as a guide. Use the first graph paper rectangle to measure a second one.



Cut two identical rectangles from graph paper.

Envelope-Making 101: Start the Template

Use one graph-paper rectangle to trace a rectangle on the stiff paper. Arrange it so that you've left room for a top and bottom and side flaps.



Now fold the graph paper in half. You'll be measuring to make the top flap, but you'll do half of it in order to get an exact mirror image.


Draw dots about a half inch (for a small envelope) or whole inch (for a bigger envelope) from the corners. The slant of the top flap is more slanted near the corners of the envelope. The dot will mark where the slant changes.



Connect the dots using a paper edge to make your line straight.



Sketch out the shape, connecting the straight line to the corners, rounding slightly where the dots are. These rounded edges are what will help make the envelope look nice.



Cut along the line, and then unfold. This symetrical triangular-shape is what you'll trace to make the top flap.



Trace its shape in three places: where the flap goes on the stiff paper, inside the rectangle (to help visualize how the flaps look as you go), and on the other piece of graph rectangle to help show where to measure for the other flaps.

Envelope-Making 101: Finish the Template

You traced the shape of the top flap on the second piece of graph paper. Now sketch out an overlapping shape to use as mirror images for a side flap. It doesn't need to come to the middle if the bottom and tops will overlap in that middle section.


The corner should be pleasantly rounded.


The bottom of the side flap is done the same way, keeping in mind an idea of where the bottom flap will go.You only need to cut out one of these side flaps.



Use the side flap to trace its shape on the stiff paper and on what remains of the graph paper. Remember not to trace the flap upside down!


Now for bottom flap. You'll make a mirror image of this and flip it to trace both sides (or you can use a third graph paper rectangle!) So you only need half of the sheet.


Take a look at where the side and top will be meeting and overlapping. Mark a dot where the bottom of the envelope should meet the side. Also make a dot near the corner. That marks where the slant will change, being steeper near the corner and more gentle towards the middle of the envelope. Note that I've shaded the area where the flaps will overlap to help visualize where the bottom flap needs to be. After sketching out the shape, cut it out.



Trace half the shape, flip and trace the other half.



Trace the shape again inside the envelope to help visualize what the envelope will look like. All the flaps should provide enough overlap that there are no open cracks.