Where can I go to read reviews of Epi Kardia?

If you have asked yourself the question – Where can I find online reviews of Epi Kardia curriculum? Look no further; I am going to give you the answer.

Recently, two of our products have had marvelous reviews so I thought I would pass these on to you as a few of you had asked about this in our recent survey.

The first review is for British Literature: a Study of American Writers, one of our high school courses.  This review is from Cindy Prechtel, who reviews for Heather Idoni’s The Homeschoolers’ Notebook. If you are looking for high school courses for the fall of 2010, you will want to read this review!  Here is part of it:

This course from  Epi Kardia is a welcome addition to the curriculum market….This well-written, affordable
course is definitely worthy of your consideration as you make curriculum  choices for the high school years.

–Cindy Prechtel

If you are in a quandary about what to do about high school curricula for history or literature, or you would like to look at a few useful electives such as public speaking, writing –the dreaded — research paper, or a great high school composition course, take a look at this or contact us at info@epikardia.com

If you have been wondering about our Daily Lesson Plans, read our second review by Diana Sullivan, who writes for The Curriculum Choice blog.  Diana is currently using and recently reviewed our First Grade Lesson Plans. Here is a snippet of Diana’s review:

In my humble opinion, Epi Kardia compares nicely with other, more known curriculum such as Sonlight, My Father’s World, or Tapestry of Grace. Of course, each of these curriculum offer their own perspective, features and lesson plans, which makes each one unique and tailored to each families personal needs. However, I think the Sullivan family has joyfully found our core curricula of choice!

–Diana Sullivan

Want to give us a piece of your mind?

I know, by late April there are not many pieces left, yuk, yuk.

Seriously, though,  if you already use or have used Epi Kardia curriculum, I would LOVE you  to take just a few minutes to complete a survey found right here (as well as on the left sidebar of the Epi Kardia blog).  There are less than ten questions so it won’t take very long and your input is invaluable to us.  Thank you in advance for your time!

Have a great week!

Click on the book cover image to order this book!

The only problem with the book Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys, is that I regret not having had the opportunity to read it earlier.  Just published this January, this 253 page volume (including the detailed index) not only helps us answer those frustrated mommy questions like “WHY did you do that?” when your feisty sons behave oh, so differently than your dutiful daughters.

(The event I was recollecting as I said that was when my now-17 year old son was about seven, and wondered what would happen if he squirted the light bulb in his dresser lamp with a water pistol.  The resulting minor explosion was just one of many ‘experiments’ conducted by my now-not-so-little explorer.)

We have only been blessed with one boy, but he has made quite an impact on our family.  The authors of Raising Real Men have six, so they are more than qualified to write this book; actually, they are not qualified just because they have six sons; they qualify because they understand that boys – just like little girls – are a picture of the image of God, tragically marred by sin. And that our focus must be on leading our sons into godly manhood, not just trying to manage them to make our lives convenient and more pleasant. p. 25

Hal and Melanie Young, the authors of this book, clearly speak the truth as they describe our culture’s desire to feminize men and our misguided attempts to ‘change’ our boys, rather than understand them.  The Youngs not only exhort us to celebrate the uniqueness of our boys, they give us very practical suggestions for how to train and ready them to use those special God-given characteristics to be the men God created them to be.

Listen to some of these intriguing chapter titles/subtitles from Part One – Virtues in the Rough:

• Resisting Feminization
• Boys Need Heroes
• Visual Media
• Heroes from History
• Bring on the Boldness
• When to Comfort, When to Encourage
• Standing Alone
• Responsibility, Then Freedom
• Learning to Stand
• What the bible Says about Leadership
• Developing the Next Generation’s Leaders
• The Biblical View of Competition
• The Puritan View of Games and Competition
• What the Bible Says about Manners

In Part Two – Civilization for the Tough, the Youngs discuss that raising manly men doesn’t mean raising barbarians.  Men can and should be civilized. p. 126   Part Two is concerned with preparing a young man to interact appropriately with a world that so desperately needs his godly leadership. 

How can we teach our sons the things they will need to interact in society, to lead their families, to serve God?  Step by step, suiting the way God made them, in an intentional, thoughtful way… just the way we teach them everything. p. 126

Sometimes – many times – homeschooling seems overwhelming; homeschooling boys can be, especially.  I loved the above quote because it is in accord with the old Puritan saying, “Do the next thing.”  Let’s make a plan and just take one step at a time.  This book will help you make that plan for raising your boys to be the men they were created to be.

One of my favorite chapters in Part Two is called “Your Own School for Boys.” This chapter may well be your favorite chapter, too, if you have been pulling your hair out trying to home school your boys!  Melanie Young has home schooled six boys at a time and has obviously done some reading on the subject, offering us an explanation why and how boys are different than girls in the learning arena as well as many practical suggestions to get the most out of your boys.  Chapter subtitles:

• Developmental Differences
• Developmental “Delays”
• Gender Differences in Learning
• Louder, Mom
• “I Think He Must Be Hyperactive…”
• “Why Do I Have to Learn This, Anyway?”
• What’s Your Goal, Son?
• The Benefit of Stress

This is great stuff! Additionally, chapters include endnotes with scriptural back up!

Other very useful information in this book pertains to teaching boys how to be faithful stewards of their money, why we need to teach them to have good manners, how the Bible looks at work roles and how to deal with male/female relationships.  It even aids with considerations about choosing a college, for the college bound, and describes the counselor role we move into as our children leave the nest.

Imminently readable, warm and biblical, Raising Real Men will help you learn how to train and shape your noisy, dirty, rambunctious boys into real men who can stand on their own two feet and face the world, lead their families, and fulfill the purpose for which they were created.

Enjoy those boys!

P.S.  If you would like to order this wonderful book for you and/or others, please click on the book cover image at the beginning of this post!

A Warm Welcome to our Newest Subscribers!

Epi Kardia has a mailing list that goes literally around the world! Besides home schooling moms from Florida to Alaska, we also have readers from Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, Nepal, China, New Zealand, Peru, Egypt and Puerto Rico!

Epi Kardia is honored and humbled by your support!  This has always been part business and part ministry, so as I said in my last post with our survey results, I want to make sure and respond to some of your direct questions and comments on the survey many of you so kindly completed.

Where is….?

I’m having trouble navigating your website./Your website is confusing.

• I’m sorry you are having trouble!  I have worked on the navigation  in order for it to flow a little better – if you are having trouble finding what you’re looking for, I suggest the following:

1. Go to the home page and REFRESH/RELOAD the page. (That applies to many pages – do it every time you come to a different page on the Epi Kardia site,  just to make sure you are not missing anything.)
2. Start with the Curriculum Overview page.  That page explains the different types of curricula and has links to more detailed descriptions with samples. Hopefully will clarify many of your questions.
3. If you have questions that you don’t see answered, please feel free to email me directly. (dana@epikardia.com)  I will always answer your questions.
   

Why don’t you have book lists on your web site?/Where are your book lists?/Why is there no kindergarten book list?

• We DO have book lists on our website.  You can find them on the left sidebar, under Books! From that first page you may navigate to book lists for our lesson plans and courses.
• We are adding the Kindergarten books as we speak.  Bear with me, those book links take a while to put up but I hope to have them all on soon.

Who is….?

Where can I find others who use your curriculum?/How about having a forum where I can talk to other Epi Kardia curriculum users?

• Good question!  We do put quotes on our website from real live people who use our curriculum, but at present we don’t have a forum of EK users.  (It is on our To Do list, but not at the top yet .)
• So would anyone like to volunteer to be a reference? If you wouldn’t mind answering an email question or two from someone who wants an opinion, please contact me at dana@epikardia.com.
• Alternatively, if you currently use Epi Kardia curriculum and you would like to answer a few online questions about it for others’ perusal, please go to a site such as www.choosyhomeschooler.com and write a quick review. I think you would have to create a user name and password on that site before you could write a review.
• We do have some home school moms who are going to be reviewing our curriculum in the next few months.  We will certainly let you know when they are published.

Please don’t wait for a survey if there is something you would like to ask, a broken link you would like to bring to my attention or just a comment you would like to make – I would love to hear from you (dana@epikardia.com).

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I just read a wonderful book about raising boys that I will reviewing next week!  Make a note to check back or join our list if you haven’t already done so!

I should have done this a long time ago!

A  from-the-bottom-of-my-heart thank you to those who took the time to take my survey!  After about a hundred responses, it is time to let you know a little about what you said you needed and wanted to read about on this blog.

But before I tell you that, it is obvious from many of your comments that a  number of you are in desperate need of a bit of  motivation and encouragement.

Let me give you some.

You are doing a very. hard. but. valuable. thing. in home schooling your children.

Home schooling is NOT easy, or painless, or without major self-sacrifice.

Please stop comparing yourself with other people who make it look easy.

You know who I’m talking about.

• The denim-jumpered ladies who grind their own wheat to make whole grain bread and make all their kids’ clothes.
• The ones you run into at Wal-Mart, wearing make-up, who have nine nicely dressed, perfectly quiet children walking in a line when yours don’t have clean underwear on because you haven’t been able to do laundry* and you have bribed them to behave with the promise of a treat later backed up by several nasty looks.
• The ones who not only have a neat colored-coded schedule for every day but who actually follow it for more than a day and a half.

*true story

And realize that the advice and coaching you get from this blog comes from what we have learned from doing things wrong as well as from doing things right.

I can tell you, though, that homeschooling has been a wonderful thing for my own spiritual growth as well as that of our children.  There is nothing like seeing yourself in your kids’ less than perfect behavior to give you a picture of what our Heavenly Father so often sees in us!  Ouch!

It has been an even more wonderful thing enjoying the fruit of God’s grace and our home schooling labors in seeing children who love the Lord and are working hard to walk in His footsteps.  Home schooling  is oh, so worth it.

I am also thankful for those of you who took the time to answer the last survey question about what you are struggling with the most. Some of you really poured your heart out, and I appreciated your candidness and your trust in me. I plan to address many of those issues in the weeks and months to follow.

Survey Results

Before I give you a peek at the results, let’s look at the basics of who replied (and I’m rounding):

• 12% of you have home schooled under a year

• 24% from one to three years

• 22%  from three to five years

• 42%  for over six years

I don’t know about you, but I am encouraged that so many of you have home schooled for that long, and I hope this blog will support your efforts and give you some practical tools to keep going!

First Things First

1.  Now the interesting and inspiring part of the survey. The single, most important thing to over half of you (51%) was to read about Christian parenting – how to disciple and mentor your children.  That is SUCH an encouragement to me, as this is what we are called to do, even before academics!  And if you have read this blog for a while you know that this is a topic close to my heart!  If you are new around here, you might be encouraged to read a few of these older posts that relate to Christian parenting:

• Six Tips to Start Second Semester begins with a personal inventory – the most important place to start before we ’start on’ our kids!
• Want to be Wise? is another post written from the perspective of getting yourself in the correct frame of mind first, beginning with prayer and listing specific scripture on my prayer list as I approached the second semester of this school year.
• Using Habits in Personal Training is listed under our Charlotte Mason posts, but it describes how children need to be taught, from the beginning (!), that they are not ‘their own,’ but live under a greater Authority – what a contrast from our current child-centered culture!
• Teaching Character through Poetry Part I and Part II are two of Beth’s posts with great ideas for  incorporating character training into poetry studies.
• Cultural Creeping warns that  we need to be constantly aware of how we and our children are bombarded by our culture’s non-Christian worldview and the need to combat it.

The Rest of the Very Important Stuff

2.  How to Teach Different Subjects (44%)

3.  Teaching High Schoolers (39%)

4.  Ideas for Lesson Plans (39%)

5. Charlotte Mason Methods (38%)

6. Teaching Middle Schoolers (33%)

What You Considered Important

1. Home Schooling Support and Encouragement (47%)

2. Description of Epi Kardia Curricula (46%)

3. Planning and organization (45%)

4. Hands on Learning (44%)

5. Ideas for Lesson Plans (39%)

Lesson Plan Ideas

Because so many of you considered lesson plan ideas important, before this post gets any longer I want to list some of our pertinent posts in one place for those of you who are newer readers:

• Writing a Book Review – Writing a book review for the purpose of encouraging someone else to read a well-loved book is a lot more interesting to write than the traditional report.
• Make a Middle Ages Dictionary! will give you detailed instructions and resources to make a book, taken from our middle school lesson plans, that can be adapted for younger or older students studying this or another time period/subject.
• Make a Lapbook! Identifies the benefits of using graphic organizers and includes photos and MANY ideas and resources for making mini-books and lapbooks.
• Picture Study – Ever wondered how to incorporate the study of great art into your homeschooling? Read about this painless way to do so!
• Picture Study for Older Students -A continuation of the post above, this article contains additional ideas appropriate for your older children.
• The Question Box – This creative, hands on idea can be used to review or to incite interest in studying all kinds of topics.  The lesson example given in on the Middle Ages and can be used with students of all ages.

OK, this is WAY longer than I intended!  But I do want to assure you that I will respond to your preferences  as I plan and write this blog.  And for those of you who asked me to answer particular questions, I will address those very soon.

Many Blessings, Sisters!

P.S.  THANK YOU for some of your very encouraging comments!

One of the most controversial of Charlotte Mason’s principles is how she viewed the teaching of composition.

‘Composition’ comes by Nature.––In fact, lessons on ‘composition’ should follow the model of that famous essay on “Snakes in Ireland”––”There are none.” For children under nine, the question of composition resolves itself into that of narration, varied by some such simple exercise as to write a part and narrate a part, or write the whole account of a walk they have taken, a lesson they have studied, or of some simple matter that they know. Before they are ten, children who have been in the habit of using books will write good, vigorous English with ease and freedom; that is, if they have not been hampered by instructions. It is well for them not even to learn rules for the placing of full stops and capitals until they notice how these things occur in their books. Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons, and leave the handling of such material to themselves. If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books. They should narrate in the first place, and they will compose, later readily enough; but they should not be taught ‘composition.’

Did you get that last sentence?  Not teach composition?  Let’s look again at her thoughts restated in modern English:

1. Under the age of nine, composition should not be taught as a subject. Rather, children should narrate, either orally or in combination with writing, about an experience they have had or on a subject with which they are familiar.
2. Children who have been exposed to the best in literature will automatically be able to express themselves in writing.
3. Punctuation (grammar) should be taught using the books they are reading for examples rather than in isolation.
4. She intimated here and states more clearly elsewhere: Children are to be exposed to superior literature and be allowed to interact with it themselves without us voluminously interpreting and explaining it to them.

One of the keys to understanding this teaching is that she is discussing younger elementary children, not middle school and high school children.  In our curriculum we do not recommend formal composition instruction prior to the age of nine (third grade) – and by that I mean teaching children to write reports, summaries of literature or anything requiring more advanced reasoning skills or even requiring more than a very short paragraph at a time.

Some of the popular Charlotte Mason ‘interpreters’ believe Charlotte did not have children do any writing during those earlier years, but she did specifically state in the quote above (from Volume I, The Original Home Schooling Series) that narrations could be all or part in writing, even for children below nine.

Although we don’t believe children are to jump right into school with copious quantities of writing, as more classically oriented curricula often suggest, we do feel there are many skills involved in learning to write and they are more easily learned if they are taught using real books and reinforced through copy work in the earlier years. Some CM purists might disagree.  We do keep those lessons very brief and always in conjunction with books written at the child’s comprehension level, but we utilize copy work from first grade on and we include basic punctuation and grammar, as you can see in this first grade sample week  from our first grade plans here.

Although in #2 above Ms. Mason assumes that children exposed to high quality literature will be able to write automatically, I can’t say that has been my experience for all children.  Some have definitely been more natural writers than others, in my opinion, and some have benefited by more detailed writing instruction.  But not in the first few grades — save it for later elementary.

One can’t underestimate what young children learn and absorb through hearing and reading top quality literature, however, we shortchange them if we don’t answer their questions and clarify areas that they obviously do not understand, paying close attention to their attention span and interest level.  In Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think And What We Can Do About It, Dr. Healy describes just how important discussion between parents and children is to developing children’s verbal and language skills, and the more conversation, the better.  Mind, I am not talking about  daily lecturing your primary-aged learners! If your find your children’s eyes glazing over and they suddenly disappear at read-aloud time, consider that you may have crossed the line.  This time with literature is to be enjoyed, not analyzed to death.

I would love to hear how some of you long-time Charlotte Mason fans have dealt with composition in your home schools.  Have you taught writing using traditional CM methods or used another curriculum?  At what age did you begin composition instruction?  I appreciate your input – it helps all of us!

Blessings,

An extensive knowledge of the exact meanings of English words accompanies outstanding success in this country more often than any other single characteristic we have been able to isolate and measure. —Research Scientist Johnson O’Connor

An extensive vocabulary is a valuable tool that will help your children in every arena of their lives: academically, vocationally and socially.  An excellent vocabulary will improve one’s ability to comprehend other’s ideas,  understand the ‘grammar’ of a field of study, and to better articulate one’s own thoughts, opinions and beliefs. In our family, the development of an excellent vocabulary is one of the benefits of a Charlotte Mason education that we have observed firsthand.

How is Vocabulary Developed?

Vocabulary is developed by immersing children in high quality literature – in other words -  living books.  Generally, it is not by vocabulary programs and workbooks. Although those have their place, nothing exposes children to a broad, varied vocabulary like reading exceptional books. Many exceptional books.

Even before children painstakingly learn to blend vowels and consonants, their minds should be stimulated by hearing top notch literature.  In fact, even Ms. Mason was amazed that young children were able not just to grasp, but truly enjoy books that were several ‘levels’ beyond their own.  Exposed frequently at an early age to living books resulted in children “acquiring a copious vocabulary,” according to Ms. Mason.

Do I Have to Stop and Look up Every Word I Don’t Know?

It seems logical to have children look up the words they don’t know, doesn’t it?  Surprisingly, Ms. Mason did not agree.  She felt as though it was demeaning to children even to offer explanations for words unless they asked.  She quite definitively proclaimed that explaining the words destroyed children’s interest in the story and ‘just flat annoyed’ them!  So how did she think they would learn words they didn’t know?  Charlotte felt that most of the time they had some idea of what a word meant by the context in which it was found.  She felt if children read broadly enough, they would encounter words in different contexts and eventually glean quite a competent understanding of them.

So How Do We Help Our Kids Add to Their Vocabulary?

There are a few things we can do to help our children learn new words:

1. Teach children to try and figure out new words by their context. Walk them through the process as you are reading to them if they ask about a word: What is the author talking about here? What do you think it could mean?  What other word might fit in that spot (based on the rest of the sentence)?
2. Model enthusiasm for learning new words by circling words during your own reading that you are going to look up later.  Add them to your ongoing word list.  Talk about them.  Practice using them in sentences.
3. Pick out vocabulary words from their history and science reading and have them learn the words at another time – not during their reading time.  Epi Kardia’s Daily Lesson Plans use this method.
4. For children third grade an up, have them start two lists in their language arts notebooks: one for Tired Words and one for WOW! Words. (For those of you who use Epi Kardia curriculum, those charts are in the Tools section of your Manuals.)

For example, Tired Words are words that are overused, nonexpressive and imprecise.  Words like good, bad, pretty, mad, great and nice are bland, boring and don’t convey much to your reader.  Help your children ‘collect’ more interesting words that will add zing to their writing.  On their WOW! Words chart they could add: virtuous, dreadful, gorgeous, furious, tremendous and mannerly. (Be sure to read their work aloud with the Tired words and then with the WOW! words — they will be amazed at the difference!) During their composition lessons, teach them to replace their Tired words with WOW! words. When you find an overused or nondescript word in their writing, it should be added to their Tired Words list, to be forever banned from appearing in their writing.  Have your children add to both lists regularly, and as you teach them to self-edit, have them eventually identify and replace any Tired words they find on their own without any help from you.

But most importantly, read, read, read!  If you do, you will be surprised at the words your children will learn and begin using in their conversation!  Have you not found that to be true in your own homeschool?

Happy reading!

Recently we had the opportunity of presenting a workshop on mini-books and lapbooks, types of graphic organizers, to our homeschooling support group.  We were pleased to have such a good turnout and spent a delightful evening with old and new friends.  It was especially enjoyable to see some ‘textbook’ moms learn that hands on projects such as mini-books and lapbooks were not only fun, but also educational!

What is a Graphic Organizer?

For the benefit of those of you who were not present, a graphic organizer is any tool that allows your student to organize his thoughts and record what he’s learned in a visual way.  Examples of common graphic organizers include:

• Charts and Graphs
• Venn Diagrams
• Scrapbooks, Lapbooks and Mini-books
• Library Pockets and Envelopes

We made two different types of mini-books at our workshop – an accordion book and a layered-look book, and we showed  examples of mini-books and lapbooks that had been made by our children as well as some we had made in teaching a Reluctant Writers class a few years ago.

For example, here is a very simple mini-book that can be made by an elementary aged student:

Directions:

1.  Using one single piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inch colored paper, hold the base piece of paper vertically, then fold it in half lengthwise.

2. Out of contrasting paper colors, construct a simple flower clearly showing the petals, leaves, stem and roots, as shown in the picture on the far left.

3. After gluing the flower to the top half of the folded paper, cut through the flower and the top half of the paper, to the fold.  Make three cuts so that the flower, leaves, stem and roots each have their own section.

4. On the inside of the flaps, label each section, as shown.

5.  Write a short description of each flower ‘part’ opposite each label.

What is a Lapbook?

A lapbook is a innovative, visual, creative, kinesthetic, way to organize information.  Examples abound of lapbooks online (and see our resource list at the bottom of this post), but on the right is an example of one my son made a while back about space.  The base is simply made from two file folders glued together.

Directions for making the lapbook:

1.  Take two file folders, laying vertically open on the table in front of you.

2.  One at a time, take the outside edges of each file folder and fold them in towards the center fold.  Crease well, then let them open.

3. Glue together the sides of each folder that are next to each other.  Voila!  That is all there is to it – you can make lapbooks bigger by gluing on more folders or attaching additional flaps inside.

At the left is a photo of the inside of the lapbook.  There is space for vocabulary, illustrations, charts, book reports, clip art and anything else your study included.  The multicolored mini-book is a favorite of ours, the layered-look book.  It allows students to do a fair amount of writing, depending upon the number of pages it contains, but is much less intimidating than that dreaded big, blank sheet of paper because it is divided into many different sections.

Lapbooks are not only fun to make but:

• they are kinesthetic and visual, maximizing other learning modes
• they beg to be shown to others, giving students an automatic and painless review of the material contained in their lapbook, every time they show it to someone else
• they can be used for studying almost any subject and easily may integrate several subjects, maximizing learning
• they are great at enticing reluctant writers because they are divided into many smaller sections
• they can also be used as an assessment tool, especially when assigned with an accompanying rubric outlining what is to be included in the lapbook
• they can be used for all ages, kindergarten through high school

As with all graphic organizers, anytime your elementary student is organizing information, he is building a foundation for learning more advanced writing skills as well as for learning how to take notes.

At every grade level and in every type of curriculum we have,  Epi Kardia curricula uses mini-books, lapbooks and graphic organizers!

Online Resources for Mini- and Lapbooks

Here is a resource list for mini- and lapbook resources including instructions, ideas and even free lapbooks:

• This site has every type of mini book imaginable as well as  free templates!

• This site has guided reading materials and  MANY mini book ideas and resources for elementary ages.

• This is one of our favorite original sites with great instruction and ideas. Check out the blog for this site as well.

• This has an array of lapbook information for all ages. In fact, at The Homeschol Lounge (highly recommended!) you can join a group of homeschooling moms who share lapbook ideas and resources.

And for those of you who want to incorporate notebooking and scrapbooking into your homeschooling (or you like to scrapbook yourself):

• These are resources and other links for educational scrapbooking.

• This is a free software download (full version) to begin digital scrapbooking immediately.

If you read our last post, Six Steps to Start Second Semester, mini- and lapbooks might be just the thing to add some pizazz to your homeschooling this semester.  Even if you use a traditional curriculum, please give your students a chance to do some thing hands on, colorful and creative!  Enjoy!

In His Service,

P.S. If you have a reluctant writer or two at your house, in addition to trying mini-books, you might find our reluctant writer series helpful.  See Reluctant Writers – Part 1 The Early Years, Reluctant Writers – Part 2 The Middle Years and Reluctant Writers – Part 3 High School and Beyond.

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.

The foundation of a Charlotte Mason education is regular feeding upon superior, living books: books that endow children with excitement, with new ideas, heroic ideas, which shape their minds and expand their spirits.  As opposed to textbooks which contain compilations of dry facts, we want living books abounding with stories.  Both children and adults have trouble remembering lists of facts; but stories are memorable; they incite the imagination; they can be life-changing.

Charlotte does not stop at just reading the stories, however.  She believed that knowledge is not appropriated by the student until it is told back, or narrated.  Beginning with short snatches of captivating stories, teachers are to read a paragraph or so, once, and then have students narrate what they have heard.

Narration, according to Ms. Mason:

• is a natural ability inherent in children that is awakened by excellent literature
• engages children’s minds such that information they read is considered, meditated upon and then is given back with some of the children’s own thoughts (assimilation)
• helps students understand and retain information about which they read
• should be used as a primary method of learning across the subjects

When to Start

When the child is six, not earlier, let him narrate the fairy-tale which has been read to him, episode by episode, upon one hearing of each; the Bible tale read to him in the words of the Bible; the well-written animal story; or all about other lands from some such volume…

Ms. Mason believed that short narrations should start by age six, over lighter, but classic, short episodes of literature, including the Bible.  Perfect literature for this purpose would be the short episodes of Aesop’s Fables (Stories for Young Children).
Start with a paragraph at a time, and make sure to read through the selection consecutively.

The next day, before starting the next narration/lesson, engage your student in a brief chat about yesterday’s lesson, affording the student a short period of review.  She suggests a few anticipatory comments about today’s lesson as well, to encourage your child to be ready to eagerly listen to what will be forthcoming.

As students grow in practice and maturity, they may be able to begin to narrate a short chapter in a history or science book as they reach ages eight and nine. At that age, a few comments after the narration may be helpful to identify and emphasize the moral elements of the passage. In the case of history or science reading, perhaps a chart or diagram might be drawn on the board to identify or clarify the elements to remember from the passage or to illustrate a scientific principle covered.

If narration is a new activity in your home, it is important to allow for a learning curve.  It is not necessary for your child to narrate every passage that he reads or is read to him. Often it is preferable to read a chapter or two of a book before beginning narrations on it, to build interest and aid your student’s immersion into the story.  If your child does not want to narrate, well, we all have to do things we don’t want to do, right?  Stay positive, enthusiastic, encouraging, and keep them short. J

Do I Correct Faulty Information?

What do I do when my child narrates incorrectly?  This is a common question!  A few strategies for dealing with it are listed below.

• It is preferable not to interrupt a narration with corrections.
• Only after praising what was positive about a narration and after encouraging a child for his efforts, gently make necessary corrections.
• If you notice a repeated grammatical error, such as a double negative, incorrect subject-verb agreement, etc., make a note to cover that area later during a language arts lesson.
• If your student has many details to remember, such as difficult names, dates, or places, it may be helpful to put those items on a white board before the narration.

Other Forms of Narration

Fortunately, there are other forms of narration other than oral ones, although it is preferable to begin with oral narrations for the younger children. Although it is certainly admissible to have a younger student draw a picture illustrating what was just read rather than an oral recitation.

Another option, especially for the older student (10 or 11 on up) is to provide a written narration over what they have either had read to them or over what they have read independently.  Sometimes the easiest way to start written narrations is to have students not worry too much about grammar and punctuation until they have written down everything they remember. Then during their next day’s writing lesson they can go back and clean things up a little.

Children can narrate not only from books, they may also narrate over art work and music.  As with all narration, this may be either oral, written or in picture form.  Some ideas about picture study narration can be found here. Narration over music can be accomplished merely by playing a stirring piece of music and then asking your student to tell about what story they could imagine taking place in the music.  Equally, they could also be asked to draw a picture over what they heard in the music.

An added benefit of regular narration in those early years is that it helps order children’s minds and prepares them for formal composition lessons once they reach the appropriate age.  The more exposure they have to hear, read and narrate excellent children’s literature, the more prepared they will be when it becomes time for them to write.

Happy Narrating!

Blessings,

Make a Middle Ages Dictionary!

Part 1

Learning a subject’s vocabulary is an essential part of learning about a subject.  This project will greatly enhance your student’s understanding of the Middle Ages and can be applied to many other time periods or topics as well.  There are many terms in Adam of the Road that relate to items or activities specific to the Middle Ages. Each time your student discovers a medieval term in his reading or vocabulary word lists, have him include it in his dictionary.  You might challenge him to find as many words as possible and offer a small incentive if he reaches a certain number of words. If you are teaching more than one student of similar ages/abilities, you might even have a contest for the most words included.

This project can be as simple or elaborate as you like. If you have a student who is adamantly not artsy craftsy, you may have him simply make this dictionary as a list on regular notebook paper and keep it in his history notebook.  OR, you may choose to have him incorporate art work, computer clip art, or even make a cover for it.  (See directions below in Part 2.)

Many of the time-specific words encountered in Adam of the Road and other Middle Ages reading can be found in a regular dictionary, but some of them require a little more research.  An online encyclopedia or the following links to online medieval glossaries may be helpful. Try here.

Note that we have not checked out every word in these glossaries and we always advise you to supervise your students on the Internet!

Your student may use lined or unlined paper for this project, or, if he can type, he may key in his words and definitions into a spreadsheet program where they then could easily be sorted into alphabetical order.  If that is not an issue or if your student would rather write, decide how you want to break up the alphabet—maybe two pages for A-C, D-F, etc. Notebook dividers or tabbed cardstock can be used to separate sections.  As your student completes his daily reading for this unit, have him keep an ongoing list of medieval terms and their definitions.

In the first chapter of Adam of the Road, many words are included describing monastic life including: nones, matins, prime, (times of prayer), abbot, and abbey. Also, if you are using Epi Kardia’s Middle Ages-1 Lesson Plans, have your student include words from his vocabulary list:  surcoat, mantle (clothing items), minstrel, heraldry…  There will be words throughout the book and other reading selections that could also be included in your student’s dictionary.

If your middle-schooler enjoys hands on projects, encourage him to make a more elaborate book. He may want to intersperse his book with drawings pertaining to the middle ages, such as:

• drawings of a knight, king, queen, monk, minstrel
• illustrations depicting scenes from Adam of the Road or other reading
• diagram of a castle
• illustration of some of the words included in his dictionary

After all the words have been added to the dictionary, it is time to make the cover!

Part 2

If you are choosing the the simple approach but want to have some kind of a cover, just use a 1/2 inch 3 ringed view binder and have your student decorate the cover insert with a drawing or computer clip art. Search for more clip art by using other terms such as knight, castle, monastery and medieval.

If your student would like to create a more involved cover for his dictionary, he could start with two thick pieces of stiff cardboard measuring about 9″ x 12″ and a piece of contact paper measuring 21 inches long by about 15″ wide.  (He will also need glue, two pieces of blank 8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper, a ruler, scissors and a stapler. If a heavy-duty stapler is needed, have your local Office Depot or Staples help with that part.)

1. Fold the contact paper in half loosely (before removing the backing!) to find the middle.
2. Open the paper again and lay it out lengthwise, with the colored/patterned side down.
3. Place the cardboard side by side on the wrong side of the contact paper, in a portrait (not landscape) fashion, allowing about a pencil width between the the pieces of cardboard.
4. The cardboard should have about an inch margin of contact paper above the top and about two inches on the bottom.  Trim the four corners of the contact paper to make neater corners once they are folded.
5. Remove the cardboard and carefully remove the backing of the contact paper.
6. Lay the contact paper out as before, with the right/patterned side down, and place the two pieces of cardboard evenly, side by side on top of the sticky side of the contact paper, with a pencil-width margin between the pieces.
7. Carefully and neatly fold the top and bottom margins of the contact paper over the cardboard. Start with the middle and work your way out to the sides.Carefully and neatly fold the side margins over the cardboard.
8. Glue a blank sheet of unlined white paper over the ends of the contact paper inside each side of the bookcover. (These are called endpapers.)
9. Take the stack of dictionary papers and make sure they are in order. Line up the stack, and place it in the middle of the book, centering it top and bottom with the cardboard pieces. Make sure the left margin of the stack is in contact with the center margin of the contact paper.
10. Close the book cover and staple at least three times down the length of the fold, making sure you are stapling all of the papers inside the book.
11. Decorate the cover of the book by writing a title in permanent ink and adding stickers or gluing on beads/yarn, etc.

Read about medieval books and look at some pictures here for inspiration!

Whether you use this lesson or not, we would love to see pictures of the books you make with your students!  Send them to dana@epikardia.com and we will post them!

Blessings on your school week!

I am not sure where it came from (or where it went, to be honest), but we used to have a small, shoebox-sized square box that had at one time probably held some type of food gift.  It had cardboard handles at the top and large red and green paisleys running around the outside. But this was no ordinary box—this was the Question Box.

After morning devotions, our routine was to head to the schoolroom and start the academic day with the kids taking their turns pulling a question pertaining to our unit study from the box.  Customarily, I would make up numbered history and science fill-in-the blank and short answer questions on the computer and print them out, making them different colors, of course.  (I also made myself a key on a separate sheet of paper.) I cut them apart and into the box they went.  I seem to remember coding them as well so we knew which were the ‘younger student’ questions and which were the ‘older.’  We would have a new boxful at the beginning of every unit, and for some reason, a big box full of new questions was always something they looked forward to.

Typically, at the start of a new unit they wouldn’t know many of the answers. (If they did not know the answer, the question went back into the box.) But they had fun guessing and, at the same time, became more interested in what they would be learning. As we progressed through the unit, they were jazzed about how they were getting more and more of the questions right, and how I had to throw in some harder questions just to keep things interesting.  By the end of the unit they usually had all of the questions, even the hard ones, answered correctly. We also had contests and sometimes received prizes (like a piece of gum or an M&M) for answering, for example, three questions in a row correctly.

This simple idea could be adapted in a variety of ways:

· The kids could create and decorate the box

· Older students could make up questions for the younger ones

· Kids could pull a ‘seat work’ assignment out of the box, such as a verse to copy or memorize, a sentence with errors to edit, a short word problem to figure out, etc.

· An older elementary, middle or high school student could pull out a person, place or event to research, write about, and present to the group (or to you)

· Even household chores for that day could be chosen from the box.

As I have been slowly cleaning my way through the school room this summer, I came across some of our Middle Ages questions that would be appropriate for late Primary (K-2^nd), Intermediate (3^rd – 5^th) or early Preparatory (6^th-8^th) students. The last five or so would be suitable for Preparatory and/or Secondary (9^th-12^th) students. The answers are in parentheses after the questions:

1.  What is the name of the part of a castle that is a tower, often round, with many stories?  There, nobles slept, ate and planned.  Soldiers lived on lower stories with the dungeon below.  (keep)

2.   Between 1100 and 1300 AD, large groups of knights, nobles and even some peasants (and children!) traveled from Europe to the Middle East to try and take possession of the Holy Lands from the Turks.  These trips were called the ___________.  (Crusades)

3.  What are two popular games played today that originated during the Middle Ages? (chess and checkers)

4.  During the Middle Ages, craft _________ were set up to make sure their members were properly trained as apprentices and produced high quality goods. (guilds)

5.  From what disease in the 1300’s did about a third of all the people in Europe die? (Black Death or Bubonic Plague)

6. What was the name of a legendary king who ruled a Kingdom where people were peaceful and content? He came to represent the ideals of justice, peace and honor.  (King Arthur)

7.  Large, rural estates were called _________.  (manors)

8.  A craftsman who made tools, weapons and cooking utensils from iron was called a _______. (blacksmith)

9.  Books were copied by hand, one by one, usually by ___________.  (monks)

10.  In manor houses, people used ___________ to cover walls, to keep out drafts, and/or to divide rooms.  (carpets and tapestries)

11. What were musicians called who traveled around the country, played, sang and told stories at special feasts and other events? (minstrels)

12.  ________ traveled great distances to buy and sell goods. (Traders or merchants)

13.  A special design each knight carried on a shield or his clothing that helped knights tell each other apart in battle was called a  _____ __ ____. (coat of arms)

14.  What were pictures called that were painted directly onto wet plaster?  (frescoes)

15.  What was a mechanical device called that hurled heavy objects into the air, at or over castle walls during an attack?  (a catapult)

16.  The ________ ________ was a survey completed in 1086 of nearly all the lands in England and was conducted by officials of King William the First (also known as William the Conqueror).  (Domesday Book)

17.  Dried plant seeds, roots and/or leaves that were used to flavor foods or make not-so-fresh meat taste better (and were quiet expensive) were called ________.  (spices)

18.  The _________ was one of the most highly skilled craftsman of the middle ages, combining the jobs of architect, builder, engineer, and sculptor today, working on all stages of a building project.  (mason)

19.  Many ________ and _________ were used as medieval remedies for sickness and disease.  (plants and herbs)

20. What was depicted by the famous Bayeux Tapestry? (The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066, when the Norman invader William, Duke of Normandy, challenged Saxon King Harold. William’s forces won the battle; henceforth, he was called William the Conqueror.)

21.  Briefly describe the feudal system. (Vassals gave loyalty and service to lords in exchange for land and military protection)

22. Describe the concept of chivalry. (Chivalry is a group of character qualities thought to be exhibited by the perfect knight, including loyalty, honesty, courage, and courteousness—especially towards women.)

23. Describe the Magna Carta and its significance, as well as the circumstances under which it was signed. (The “Great Charter” was the first document in English history that forced a monarch to be subject to the law and provided for the creation of a strong parliament. King John, a wicked and greedy king who had levied incredibly high taxes, was forced to sign it by his rebellious barons in 1215 in Runnymede, England. Once it was signed, the barons again swore fealty to King John, not realizing the king had no intention of keeping the agreement.)

24. Name at least one key character from the Middle Ages and describe why he or she was historically significant. (This has many possible answers! Among them: Alfred the Great: a noble and wise ruler who bought about an educational revival in England; King John: [see above]; Joan of Arc: a young French girl who rallied the French against the English and who victoriously led the French army in battle. She was eventually captured and burned at the stake as a witch; Charlemagne: French ruler, Charles the Great, who controlled most of west and central Europe and presided over what was called the Carolingian Renaissance; Genghis and Kublai Khan: Grandfather and Grandson, these Mongolian leaders ruled over much of Asia and almost to Europe. Although Buddhist, they were tolerant of most religions other than Islam. Kublai did much to encourage literature and the arts.)

25. Who were the Moors? (A nomadic people from Northern Africa, the Moors descended from Arabs and Berbers who had moved into the Holy Lands and spent many years fighting the English during the Crusades. They are known for their goal to spread Islam across the world and for their magnificent, unusual architecture.)

Please feel free to use these questions in your school, and have fun making up some of your own!  (And if anyone wants to send in their questions, we will post them.  Many hands make light work, you know.)

Enjoy your week!

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