Primary Song for February

The primary song for February is "He Sent His Son" (Children's Songbook, 34-35). See my last primary link for online music.

Looking ahead, March is "Follow the Prophet" (CS, 110-11); April is "The Church of Jesus Christ" (CS, 77), May is song-of-your-choice, June is "The Holy Ghost" (CS, 105), July is "Come, Follow Me" (Hymns, number 116); August is song-of-choice, then the rest of the year is open.

Behavior of the Week

Family Council: various bad habits discussed between Mom and Dad

Bad Habit Chosen for Focus: inability to sit properly during Sacrament Meeting, dinner, etc.

New Habit Introduced: to all children, as family home evening lesson, followed by fabulous treats

Habit of the Week Expectations: sitting (bottoms on chairs) will be practiced during family dinners, time-outs (extra minute for each infraction), sitting on bus, culminating in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, where children must stay on their bottoms until at least the Sacrament is done.

Win-Win (Habit 4): If the family meets this Sacrament Meeting goal, there will be a family outing to a fast-food restaurant on the next kids-eat-free day.

Ancient China: a Book List

Super K is so into our study of ancient Egypt that we've been doing informally since last fall (over the move, Christmas, etc.) I hate to end it, but we "only" have four years to cover 6000 years of human history; by his birthday it should be time to try another ancient civilization. I'm choosing . . . China! I was going to go with the Greeks and Romans, but they had a lot of nude male art that I'm afraid would show up a lot in the DK books. After another delightful browsing session on Amazon, this is the list I came up with:

DK Ancient China (This is the one I'll buy)

Chinese Children's Favorite Stories (good illustrations; a light read)

Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Imperial China (my kids are in love with Ms. Frizzle and that Magic School Bus)

If I Were a Kid in Ancient China (I actually haven't sampled this series yet)

Auntie Tigress and Other Favorite Chinese Folk Tales

Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragon Boats: a Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities and Recipes (I'm not sure if this is more modern or ancient China)

Tales of a Chinese Grandmother looks good, but has far more words than pictures. We might turn to it our next time through ancient history, in fifth grade.

Aside from the DK Ancient China book, what we actually read will depend on what our local library has, but I save so much money taking my Amazon list to the local library.

Beading Letters

I like to get each of the kids at least one "educational" toy or book each Christmas. My 2010 reading goal for Mia is to have her sounding out simple three letter words by the time she turns five. For her for Christmas, I chose a Melissa and Doug Deluxe Wooden Stringing Beads set. It comes with over 200 beads, and shoelaces to string them on. She was eager to spell family names (with careful help). Then she wanted to spell "Mat sat on a rat." It was her idea. I wonder how she came up with something basic and phonetic out of the blue. I talked about spacing between words, and encouraged her to use the flowers to separate the words.

Matching Upper to Lower Case

Mia and Little Nephi are learning to recognize and name their letters. After that, we'll work on letter sounds.

We purchased Melissa and Doug's Magnet Wooden Alphabet. The set includes upper case and lower case letters. I cut cardstock in half, the

n traced each of the letters with a pencil (pictured below is the only set I attempted with pen).

The first time the children saw them, they just had to have every card laid out at the same time. It was a lot of work for them. After that, I decided to only get out one card at a time, with just the letters that go with that card (mixed up). Miriam quickly lost interest in this alphabet activity, but Little Nephi has been requesting it several times a week for a month or more. I try to stay nearby so I can name the letters when he picks them up. Now I will give him up to three cards at once. He can name almost every letter of the alphabet (although a few he pronounces incorrectly).

Primary Songs, 2010

High on my nurturing priority list for this year is teaching my children the songs for the 2010 Sacrament Meeting Presentation, which are:

"Come Follow Me" (Hymns, 116)

"Follow the Prophet" (Children's Songbook, 110-11)

"He Sent His Son" (Children's Songbook, 34-35)

"I Know That My Savior Loves Me"-2010 Outline for Sharing Time, 28-29

"The Church of Jesus Christ" (Children's Songbook, 77)

"The Holy Ghost" (Children's Songbook, 105)

Click here to access the sheet music and mp-3s from lds.org.

The song for January is "I Know That My Savior Loves Me." I'm surprised Mia already knows it better than her older brothers, and Little Nephi gives it a valiant effort.

Summarizing Classical Education

Classical Education (sometimes called the trivium), has its roots in ancient times. It divides learning into three periods of human development, called Grammar (1st-4th grade), Logic (5th-8th grade), and Rhetoric (9th-12th grade). It is a very orderly way of introducing knowledge.

We rely heavily on the outline provided by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer in their extensive book The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (click on the title to see it on Amazon). If my summarization has raised more questions than it has answered, you might just need to read the explanation in the book.