So we are sticking with our binder system for Circle Time, but the binders are getting an overhaul. I am attempting to reinforce them to be boy-resistant, though it is probably a losing battle. I also set up day of the week tabs so we can skip the move-the-flag business. I avoided that at first because Wednesday in particular is often skipped due to morning engagements. However, this year I am committing Circle Time to the same tier as math: a daily essential. We will begin that time at the table with personal devotions, and that isn’t something that should be skipped willy nilly.

More on the Circle Time plan later. For now, the new and improved memory work binders:

Memory Work Binder Components

• Economy binder replaced by a Staples’ “Better Binder” with rubber edges and made with more durable materials.
• Sheet protectors on all the memory work sheets
• For tabs (because normal tabs don’t extend beyond sheet protectors), cardstock in a sheet protector with a durable index tab attached.
• Redone memory work sheets that improve the formatting of long texts.

Memory Work Binder Organization

• Before tabs: a Bible-reading checklist & lined paper for copying during personal Bible-reading time.
• Daily tab: term’s hymn, term’s Psalm, term’s Bible passage, term’s poem.
• Day-of-the-Week tab: review hymn, creed, Young Children’s catechism, Heidelberg catechism, review Psalm, 1-2 review Bible passages, a motto, a term history sentence, another review hymn.

So now, when Knox turns my pages, the paper will not tear.

Timeline Binder

This is the binder that holds any reference we use while we listen to our memory playlist.

• Latin chant sheets
• Maps: corresponding to Geography Songs
• Veritas Press Timeline Cards

Circle Time Related Posts

• Memory Work Binder Tutorial
• What is Circle Time?
• Scripture Memory Work Index
• Our Hymns & Psalms List
• Other Memory Work
• Previous Years’ Circle Time Agendas
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule

How things flow and what is included in Circle Time changes every year, and usually there are tweaks or even major alterations midyear. Particularly in the stage of the game where new people are being added to the family, where babies change their habits every three months, where toddlers come and go and come again, and where more children can’t read than can, Circle Time sanity can be touch and go.

There’s no “right” way for it; remember that. Having time together to pray and sing and do some Scripture memory is really the important part, and everything else (and how it happens and how it flows) is incidental. For awhile, I recorded all our memory work and played the tracks for us all to recite to, because then my attention could be directed at babies, toddlers, and miscreants. Sometimes we only colored while listening. That was after a particularly rough bout where it was pulling teeth to get my oldest as a 5-year-old to repeat after me. It was a power struggle that made me a frazzled and not-nice mommy. So much for “best part of the day.” I changed the tactics on him and won. I decided exposure and enjoying the time was more important than having it happen the way other people said to do it. Give yourself that freedom to be unconventional and do what works. Most likely, you’ll need a brand new plan in 6 months or a year anyway. How you do it now doesn’t have to be how you do it forever.

In fact, I’m pretty sure right now that Circle Time being “The Best Part of the Day” as Kendra’s eBook is subtitled only happens when you have more non-wiggly readers than younger children. I have 2 halfway-sometimes-non-wiggly readers and it’s much easier and better than it used to be. But we aren’t having any great conversations, and we have to keep it to 30-45 minutes at the table, and I have to be very responsive in the moment to keep things going along.

So, here’s how it’s looked in the past (and I don’t think it ever happened all 100% as planned with full cooperation and everyone in peaceful harmony). Even so, it is worth it. Even right now, and not just looking forward to the future, it is worth it. The 2 year old can answer some catechism questions, sing several hymns (or approximations anyway), and everyone loves the opportunity to pray aloud. Phrases from Scripture or the catechism sometimes pop into totally unrelated conversations. It’s a very good thing, despite the energy required.

The following are cut and paste from the posts I wrote at the beginning of each school year, so they are written in present tense. I hope that’s not too confusing.

2010-2011 Circle Time Plans

Children: 7yo boy, 5yo boy, 3yo girl, 1yo boy

Agenda

• Pray (everyone may have a turn)
• Sing (one hymn or psalm per turn, one review hymn or psalm, and the Doxology or Gloria Patri)
• Recite a creed (usually the Apostle’s, later in the year we’ll learn the Nicene; this is our pledge of allegiance)
• Manners
• Repeat memory work (we don’t do all of this every day, some is only weekly or twice a week)
Catechism for Young Children or select Heidelberg Q&As
1 Psalm over the course of two terms
1 Scripture passage
review several previously learned Psalms and passages
Presidents
States
Bible knowledge song (1 per term)
Grammar chants
Math facts songs
• Bible

My estimate is that this takes 30-45 minutes. Singing is 5-8 minutes, memory work is 8-10, manners is 5, Bible is 10-15, and wrangling & managing is 5-10. That’s not on the list because it’s constant.

Resources

I found a song for the presidents on YouTube that we’ll use to memorize them. None were updated to include Obama, so we have to tag that on the end ourselves. The boys enjoy that because they think Obama is a funny name to say.

For the states, I’m using the Geography Songs selections and we’ll do one section (Eastern border, Northern border, etc.) each term.

The Bible songs will be a Book of the Bible song or a Jamie Soles list song (like Apostles or Kings or Prophets).

I decided not to do formal grammar this year, but instead we’ll learn the Shurley grammar chants (I bought the CD only) and we’ll check out Ruth Heller’s books from the library. With these helps, we’ll do a “as you walk along the way” approach to grammar, since I’m comfortable and familiar with the terminology and concepts.

The math facts songs are from Math-U-See.

I bought Manners Made Easy for the Family when it one day happened to be an Amazon bargain bin book, but after reading through it again and thinking about it, it wasn’t really focused enough on what I wanted to focus on and just reading the entries wouldn’t get it into the children’s heads, I thought. So, I started putting together my own lessons based off her book and a couple others I used as reference to make sure it’s all correct. I have the outline and wrote 1/3 of it out in a couple hours one Saturday morning, but I still need to finish it. Once it’s finished and we’ve tested it out for awhile I will make it available.

For Bible we’re continuing with Covenantal Catechism, but we’ll do both Book 2: Genesis through II Samuel and Book 3: I Kings to Malachi in one year so we can move on to New Testament next year.

2011-2012 Circle Time Plans

Children: 8yo boy, 6yo boy, 4yo girl, 2yo boy

1. Proverb of the Day: We used to listen to the Proverb for the day (the chapter corresponding to the day of the month) during breakfast, but that no longer works well for us. If we all get settled into starting breakfast at the same time and taking about the same amount of time, I’ll move it back to breakfast, because it sets the tone, gets us going, and cuts down on raucous table “conversation.” To make sure they listen, I ask each of the boys to tell me one Proverb they remember, but I think that has backfired on me. They seem to think then that they can remember one of the first or one of the last ones and tune out the remainder. Maybe instead I’ll start asking them how many they can remember, or which was their favorite, or if there was one they had a question about.

2. Prayer: I start by praying for our day and then everyone gets a chance to pray, also. If they say they don’t know what to pray, I tell them to think of 2 or 3 things they are thankful for and thank God for them. Each child praying used to be up to them, but then I was pretty sure my boys were opting out due to laziness, so when I said, “Would you like to pray?” and they said, “No.” I said, “That’s sad that you don’t want to pray to God who made you and takes care of you. It’s not the right answer. Let’s try again. Would you like to pray?” That only happened one or two times after that. I still say to each one in turn, “Would you like to pray?” and if they say anything other than “Yes!” I cheerfully respond, “Wrong answer! Try again!” I still give Ilse the words to say after me, but I remind her that she is God’s child and God listens to her when she prays.

3. Calendar: I have a 8×10 little whiteboard and stand that I write the day of the week and date on. We sing the days of the week, sometimes the months of the year, then I write the full date out, then write the number-shorthand saying, “April is the 4th month, this is the 20th day of the month, and it is the year of our Lord 2011″ or “2011 years since Christ was born.” That the year is not spot on doesn’t matter to me. Technically, it seems it would be better to count years since the resurrection, but I will submit to my place in the stream of the history of the church and be content with the accounting we have received. Christ’s birth is the hinge point of history, and that is what the years are counting just like the days’ number counts the day of the month. Anyway, then the board stays on display so the boys can date their work without asking me to spell things out for them.

4. Mottos: I was hit or miss with this concept this year, but that allowed me to notice the substantial difference in our atmosphere when I was diligent with it. A gentle, fun reminder of how we do things when it’s not a confrontation or “hot” moment does worlds of good. I have one motto per term and we’ll review one motto a day or a week, too. This year I’m going to print them one per sheet and hang them up or otherwise display them to make it smoother and easier. Some of the mottos/protocols we’ve done already are “When I call [Hans/Jaeger/Ilse!], you say, ‘Coming!’ and run to me.” And we practice and they think it’s funny. Or “If I say [some command or request], you say ‘Yes, Ma’am’ and start obeying, then if you need to, you can politely ask, ‘May I ask a question?’ but you have to be ready to obey no matter what answer you get.” And then we practice and I try to make it silly. “Leave a room better than you found it” and “Lights off when you leave a room” are some of the mottos I have listed for this year.

5. Manners/Protocol: Our manners lessons fell on hard times about halfway through the year, but I saw a lot of fruit from them still. I realized that what the kids really need more than anything is simply to know what they are supposed to do. My two oldest tend toward the shy side and my daughter can be stubbornly silent when talking wasn’t her idea, but a lot of that was resolved when we talked in a non-heat-of-the-moment about what is expected and what is polite and what is rude. I realized part of the boys’ shyness was really uncertainty about what was expected or called for. They didn’t know what to do or how to respond and so they didn’t respond at all. So we’ll be continuing with “manners” lessons, this year focusing on conflict resolution based on Doorpost’s Brother Offended chart and book and the lessons in the Young Peacemaker’s Teacher Manual.

6. Hymns: I can’t sing on key or keep a tune myself, and my husband sometimes gets nervous I’ll pass on my poor ear to the children, so I always try to find accompaniment tracks to use for our Circle Time singing. I have a cheap little external speaker for my iPod to use when we do Circle Time away from the main computer, but for now I’ve moved Circle Time back to the breakfast room where the computer is handy. I think changing up locations helps keep us fresh. This year I went ahead and got volumes 1 & 2 of Susan Beisner’s Listen While We Sing. It is piano accompaniment for the Trinity Hymnal, but the jacket cross-references the numbers for our church’s hymnal, too, and it has most of the tunes for the Psalms our church sings, as well as the hymns. I was having a very difficult time finding music for the Psalms I wanted to add to our repertoire, since part of my goal is helping the children be able to participate well in worship at church. She’s a little on the slow side, but not quite plodding, so I’ll take it and be grateful. The kids also enjoy listening to hymns in the afternoon or during their quiet time (the boys each have an ancient iPod shuffle, which was cheaper than getting a CD player and keeps quiet time quiet). I have lots of hymns in my memory, and it’s due to my family singing them regularly and my Mom having hymn CDs to play (Glad acapella hymns were my favorite), so I am hoping to perpetuate that in my own children. But, after shopping for some cheap hymn compilations, I must say I am very annoyed by all the people putting hymns to new music, leaving me with only options along the lines of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Anyway, CBD clearanced out a tenor singing hymns produced by Ligonier Ministries, so I bought that after wasting much too much time on Amazon and iTunes. Anyway, during Circle Time we’ll sing one new hymn a term (we just go all out and sing all the verses every day from the start rather than go one verse at a time) and one review hymn a day. This time I’m making a binder for everyone, so we’ll just cycle through our previous hymns, one per day.

7. Creed: Our “pledge” is to the foundational Christian beliefs. Christian, what do you believe? I also want to learn the Nicene Creed next year. It didn’t happen this year.

8. Scripture & Catechism Memory: I prefer that we memorize paragraphs and complete thoughts rather than fragmented random verses, so it takes us a long time to memorize my selections. And this year the memory results have not been stellar, so I’m switching up our method from exclusively listening to reading and reciting all together in SCM’s system, tweaked (of course). I have a separate post about our memory work binders. But we will have a passage a term and a Psalm for every two terms that we recite daily. Then we’ll review a few previous passages and Psalms daily, and we’ll do one page of catechism questions daily. I have 5 Q&As from The Catechism for Young Children per page, and 2 Heidelberg Q&As per page, but we’re only working on 12 Heidelbergs. Our church’s consistory (pastor & elders & deacons) selected 12 Q&As that they commended for memorization a couple years ago, and so I promptly added them to our repertoire. I love the language in the Heidelberg (at least the translation in our hymnal, that is), it is so elegant and beautiful while also being strikingly clear and straightforward.

9. Memory Songs: Using the playlist memory work this last year, I ended each day’s play list with a song, and that was a big hit with the kids. Now that were switching to reciting our memory work ourselves, I am still going to keep a playlist with memory songs for each day. We’ll be learning songs from a CD made for Classical Conversations with 8 of the Veritas history cards set to a song and one song with all 160 events in one song. We aren’t going to do CC, but looking at the program did leave me quite energized to memorize the Veritas timeline flow, and even more so when a friend showed me a CD she had from another CC mom with these songs. She doesn’t sell it online; you have to call her. If you want information about it, email me. I love the CD; it is home-done yet better produced than many other CDs I’ve heard with more money behind them. We’ll also continue with Geography Songs. We’ll memorize a few Bible-related songs like the Books of the Bible and the Twelve Apostles; most of the Bible memory songs I’ve selected are Jamie Soles, kids’ Bible-story songs with a backbone. Last year I bought just the Shirley Grammar chant CD and I’ll keep a few of those in the rotation, too, just so the definitions can be familiar and on our tongues when we need them. The Greek Alphabet song and Latin chants will also be in the rotation.

Other Potential Components

I am thinking about adding in gratitude journals or lists to our Circle Time, but I might do it only at certain times in the year. I haven’t quite decided on implementation. I am thinking this is an important element not only because I’ve been reading Ann Voskamp more lately, though she had an excellent post on doing gratitude journals with children, but also because Rachel Jankovic had a chapter in her book called “Thanksters or Cranksters” where she posited that whining and complaining is selfishness and is best combated by giving thanks. She started with examples from her children, but then swung it around as a reminder to us mothers that when we are tempted to feel sorry for ourselves, the faithful response is to give thanks instead (addressing yourself always and first is her book’s main theme). And her book came out before One Thousand Gifts. Plus, I’ve started Piper’s Future Grace where he denies that gratitude should be a motivator, and so my ornery side is prodding me to increase my own emphasis on gratitude.

Summing up the Energy

I noted this year that Circle Time didn’t happen when I was feeling hazy. Circle Time is the part of the day that calls for my presence of mind most, and I find that I often have to sum up mental stamina to start. It is the starting that can be a hurdle. So I am also working on finding a good cue to help me over that initial hurdle of starting. So far, all I know is checking my rss feed or email is not helpful.

Do you have a routine or cue that helps give you starting momentum?

“Circle Time” is the time we do our all-together things, toddler included. A two-year-old singing “For All the Saints” while playing is priceless. We do our Bible time, singing, memory work, and Bible lessons during this time. We usually follow it right up with reading from our lesson books (such as history) that the older two boys do jointly, but I don’t count that as “Circle Time,” because I don’t make the younger kids stick around for that. Circle Time is our time to start the day off together with prayer and singing and God’s Word before we get into the grind of the day.

However, with little ones, toddlers particularly, Circle Time itself can sometimes become the hardest grind of the day, only excepting the 5pm meltdown (and let’s add in 3pm if you, like me, have a busy toddler who won’t nap). I’ll address that in a separate post. We’ll try to keep this one inspirational.

Kendra of Preschoolers and Peace and Cindy of Ordo Amoris are the ones who introduced me to this concept years ago, for which I am very grateful. Cindy provided the long-road vision and encouragement, while Kendra provided the practical tips, particularly in regard to having mostly little ones in the mix and the constantly changing nature based on the ever-changing dynamics with a growing family.

So I will let them explain it:

Circle Time 101 at Preschoolers and Peace

“One of the most important things about Circle Time is that it causes us to be faithful in prayer together every morning. It is also a time I can gather the littlest ones in close and communicate to them that I want them there, and even if I am busy with the older ones and school, I want them there.”

Explaining Morning Time by Cindy

“So you probably imagine me doing all the things I think are important along with all the things you think are important but that isn’t how it works. Have you ever been in a group of homeschooling mothers and listened to the conversation and come away feeling like you were failing in 6 different areas? We all want to be the composite supermom and we project that onto women we admire. “Our morning time has become a way for me to fit in the things that would slip between the cracks. As an added benefit, it promotes a family culture and leads to daily family worldview discussions. It also squeezes out some other things that I also think are important but not important enough to give up the benefits I have described.”

What Is Morning Time? by Cindy

“Approximately 20 years ago as a result of my early home school adventures and the reading of For the Children’s Sake (Susan Schaeffer Macaulay) followed by The Original Home school Series by Charlotte Mason, I began a morning meeting with my children as a way to incorporate subjects that were important to me but easily lost in the shuffle of conventional schooling.”

Kendra even wrote an ebook on Circle Time, explaining the nitty-gritty of putting together a Circle Time that fits your family’s needs, circumstances, and personality.

And Brandy of Afterthoughts has written about Circle Time over the years, as well, including “I Love Circle Time.”

Tomorrow: Circle Time Agendas from Previous Years

Other Related Posts

• Memory Work Binder Tutorial
• Updated Circle Time Binder
• What is Circle Time?
• Scripture Memory Work Index
• Our Hymns & Psalms List
• Other Memory Work
• Previous Years’ Circle Time Agendas
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule

Catechism Memory

We’ve been memorizing & reviewing The Catechism for Young Children for almost 7 years now — ever since my oldest was 2 and could first answer, “Who made you?” We’ll keep this in our memory work until we run out of children to teach it to. After 7 years, I even have the 145 questions & answers [mostly] all memorized!

A couple years ago our pastor and elders commended a selection of 10 Heidelberg catechism questions and answers to the congregation for memory. I promptly added them to our memory material. I do love the Heidelberg. The sections in the Heidelberg are called “Lord’s Days” because there are 52 and they are designed to be read or taught through at church yearly.

The selections included in our binder are

• Lord’s Day 1 — What is your only comfort in life and in death? Q2: What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?

• LD 5, Q12 — According to God’s righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after: How then can we escape this punishment and return to God’s favor?

• LD 7, Q13 — What is true faith?

• LD 10, Q27 — What do you understand by the providence of God? (another of my favorites)

• LD 12, Q32 — But why are you called a Christian?

• LD 23, Q60 — How are you right with God?

• LD 25, Q66 — What are sacraments?

• LD 30, Q81 — Who are to come to the Lord’s Table?

• LD 32, Q86 — We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we earned it: Why then must we still do good?

• LD 45, Q116 — Why do Christians need to pray?

Creeds

We generally start off our memory work time by reciting together a creed. I have three we alternate between:

• The Apostle’s Creed
• The Nicene Creed
• Lord’s Day 1 (because I can’t get enough of it)

History Sentences

This will be our first year adding in history sentences. It is a concept I picked up from Classical Conversations, but when I looked through a friend’s CC book, I was disoriented by the sheer volume (and packed text), and the difficult to discern (theme-related?) order of the history sentences. Dawn uses some history sentences by Hannah’s Homeschool Helps yahoo group, but it wasn’t really what I had in mind, either.

I wanted only a handful of sentences about the most important people or events in a given period. Just basic pegs, cornerstones, so we can have a strong framework for the flow of history. We’re memorizing the Veritas timeline (titles of the cards only), but I wanted also to memorize a few key dates along with that.

So, since I already had the History Through the Ages Timeline Figures, I picked 2-3 people or events to memorize per term (this year is ancient history), then printed out the full-sheet-size timeline figure with sentence from the CD. So I didn’t have to write any sentences, though I did abridge a few.

I’m pretty pleased with the plan, actually. We’ll see how it turns out in reality.

Mottos

I started adding mottos to our Circle Time this year and it does help quite a bit, I have found. One reason I know that is because we only ended up reciting them about 1/3 of the time. When we did them, our awareness of what we should do increased, and I had a quick, ready-on-the-tongue, easy-to-say-cheerfully reminder to give throughout the day.

Our mottos for this coming year will be mostly repeats, including

• Focus on your job & do it right.
• Leave it better than you found it.
• Voices: cheerful, polite, strong
• Business before pleasure
• Ready to strike your colors? I have not yet begun to fight!
• Soldier Stance (1. Stand up straight; 2. Shoulders back; 3. Hands at sides; 4. Ready eyes; 5. Quick response)

Plus, for the sake of the youngest in the group, we will be frequently reviewing our obedience motto: Obey right away, all the way, with a good attitude every day.

Poems

This year I’m adding poetry memory to our Circle Time. This last year it was part of the boys’ independent work. That worked acceptably well, but I’m moving it for two reasons: 1) So I don’t have to shift around papers in an additional 2 binders; 2) So I can hear them say it every time, correctly pronunciation and cadence as needed. Also, some of these are repeats, because I didn’t incorporate review into their poetry memory this past year.

Hans’ Poems

• Bed in Summer
• Summer Sun
• Bilbo’s Walking Song
• Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Kraken
• The World

Jaeger’s Poems

• A Book
• The Cow
• Bath Song
• Wise Old Owl
• Good & Bad Children
• Who Has Seen the Wind?

My Poems

I love Donne, and I’ve always wanted to have a couple of his poems memorized. So Hans will read his poem, Jaeger will read his, and I’ll read mine:

• Batter my heart, three-person’d God
• Death Be Not Proud
• Meditation XVII (“No man is an island”)

More Circle Time details coming up!

Next week, I’ll show you my revamped Circle Time binders, made more durable for daily use by boys. I will also publish my Circle Time routine details, including how it often looks in reality — never as pretty as on paper!

Related Homeschool Memory Work Posts

• Organization Tutorial: Memory Work Binders
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule
• Archive of all posts about Circle Time

But, before you freak out, and because you might not make it to the end of the page to see a caveat, know that my children can perfectly recite very few — and sometimes none — of these. They are very familiar with them all. I have most of them memorized now, but that’s because for me it’s mostly re-memorizing. The passages were already familiar, for many I previously memorized when I was a child or I’ve just heard and read them so much that memorizing happened fast. So I have a deeper foundation I’m building on, whereas it’s all fresh for the children.

Rather than pursuing perfect recitation (which will likely not last past their childhood), I’m seeking more to begin and set their deep foundation that will be continually and cyclically renewed and built upon throughout their lives. I want familiarity, language patterns, and ideas to seep in. I am not a meticulous person — I am more a hack — we recite one passage and one Psalm daily for one term (6 weeks), whether it’s memorized in 2 weeks or not memorized yet by the end. Usually it is memorized or pretty close by 4 or 5 weeks, depending on the length and our consistency. Then, for better or for worse, it is replaced by the next term’s passage and Psalm and it moves into the review tab, where it gets hit when we get to it. After a week or two without saying it daily, usually the boys cannot recite it as well as they had by the end of the term. But because my goal is building a lifetime of familiarity rather than perfect rote memory, this no longer frustrates me.

This is my own personal “good enough” and “works for us,” because my priority is on keeping it simple, no-pressure, and about exposure, familiarity, and whole-idea rather than perfect articulation. There is a place for that, and if you can achieve that without stress and it’s working for you, then keep it and run with it!

However, if memory work has been a stressful thing, don’t give it up! Just pare it back, remove the pressure and expectations, and remember that God’s Word is active and will bear fruit — getting it to them (and us!) and in them (and us!) is what counts. Also, perfectly articulated memory is easily and quickly lost if not reviewed constantly, as I know well from all I memorized week-to-week when I was young, having little to show for it a few months later. Even so, it was a foundation of familiarity that was not unfruitful.

Psalms

• 1
• 8
• 19
• 24
• 25
• 112
• 115

Passages

• Micah 6:6-8
• Matthew 6:5-13
• John 1:1-5 & 9-14
• John 3:14-18
• Romans 10:9-11
• 1 Corinthians 13
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
• Galatians 5:22-26
• Galatians 6:7-10
• Ephesians 4:25-32
• Ephesians 6:1-3
• Philippians 4:4-9
• Colossians 1:9-23
• Colossians 3:1-4, 12-17
• 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
• 2 Tim. 3:14-17
• Hebrews 4:12-16
• Hebrews 11:1-6

And this school year we are adding

• Psalms 23, 145, and 107
• Lamentations 3:21-40
• Romans 8:1-4, 26-39
• 1 Timothy 6:3-16
• 1 Peter 3:8-17
• Ephesians 1

Related Homeschool Memory Work Posts

• Organization Tutorial: Memory Work Binders
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule
• Archive of all posts about Circle Time

Now I keep a running list. When we sing a hymn at church where I think, “We really should learn this one,” I try to note that somewhere where it will make it back to my notes. When I am reading the Bible and I think, “Wow, that would be great to memorize,” I jot down the passage on a list I keep inside the cover of my Bible notebook. I have enough material in my notes now to keep us in songs and memory work for years, and I have to make hard choices during planning time.

For my own reference, and in case others are looking for ideas to populate their Circle Time, here is our list of hymns and Psalms we’ve learned so far, in our 4 years of Circle Time to date. PH stands for Psalter Hymnal, our church’s hymnal; CC stands for Cantus Christi, the hymnal of the CRE, whose Genevan settings of the Psalms we love.

The primary goal I have for our hymn-learning, and therefore how I make most of my choices, is that the children learn hymns we sing regularly at church so that they can participate better in worship. We also regularly sing together the service music (Doxology & Gloria Patri). I absolutely love hearing my 2-year-old sing the Doxology in his crib — all of my 2-year-olds have, and it is a blessing.

Psalms & Hymns Learned

• Be Thou My Vision (CC 342)
• Christ Shall Have Dominion (PH 135, Ps 72)
• The Church’s One Foundation (PH 398)
• Come, Thou Almighty King (PH 317)
• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (PH 314)
• Crown Him with Many Crowns (CC 293)
• For All the Saints (CC 281 – the Cantus has 8 verses; our hymnal only has 5)
• The God of Abraham Praise (CC 328)
• God the Lord is Known in Judah (CC 115, Ps 76)
• Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah (PH 407)
• Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah (PH 304, Ps 148)
• Have Thine Own Way, Lord (PH 452)
• Holy, Holy, Holy (PH 318)
• Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun (PH 399)
• Let Israel Now Say in Thankfulness (CC 162, Ps 124)
• A Mighty Fortress is Our God (PH 444)
• O Come, My Soul, Bless Thou the Lord (PH 204, Ps 103)
• Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (PH 327)
• This is My Father’s World (PH 374)

And this year we’re adding to our list

• Praise the Savior (PH 361)
• Not What My Hands Have Done (PH 389)
• To All My Brothers I’ll Declare (CC 34, Ps 22)
• Thrice Blest Be Jehovah (PH 296, Ps 144)
• Lord, Our Lord Thy Glorious Name (PH 13, Ps 8)
• Rejoice, the Lord is King (PH 368)

Related Homeschool Memory Work Posts

• Organization Tutorial: Memory Work Binders
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule
• Archive of all posts about Circle Time

So I redid our memory work routine at the end of the 2010-2011 school year, for several reasons:

1. It came to my attention that simply listening to the memory work, as we had been doing, was not sinking it in. They recognized familiar passages, and could fill in a blank here or there, but they were nowhere near having it memorized.

2. Hans’ poetry memory by simply reading aloud the same poem daily, had him memorizing a poem in about 2 weeks, and it was simple and painless.

3. I listened to a talk by Sonya Schafer (I got it on special; it was good, but I’m not sure it was $6 good), where she explained not only her memory system, which I had seen before, and used with modifications before, but where she also reminded mothers that Bible memory is a lifelong habit we are trying to instill — in ourselves as well as our children — not a “trick kids do for a treat” and that it is so much more than a good thing to do for school. She emphasized, in showing her system, that review is key, and having just read Seven Laws of Teaching, I knew she was right.

So, I took her system, but, of course, I modified it.

1. I wanted each reading child to have their own binder and follow along. The reason I switched to listening to our memory work is because for some reason repeating after me or just saying it as they knew it seemed to be too much pressure or they just didn’t do it. Now I’m wondering if it was just age. When they were younger, they absorbed everything they listened to, now they’re older and they have their own thoughts going on too much for listening to sink in that deeply. Knowing that reading aloud daily has worked, though, I want to give them something to do along with me, because just sitting there listening until they know it is painful. Plus, rather than make them follow along with their ears and mouth only, they will now follow along with their ears and mouth and eyes, too.

2. I knew it would have to be a binder, because there is no way I’m handwriting (or reading) entire Psalms or chunks of 10 or more verses on index cards. And even if we memorize fewer passages or take longer to memorize, I think memorizing an entire thought rather than an out-of-context nugget is a better practice. I can’t believe how many times even recently I’ve read a chapter in the epistles and thought, “What? I know both those verses. They go together? Huh.” So we memorize longer sections. And, if it means it’s not memorized as thoroughly as a shorter passage would be, I’m ok with that, because 1) it’s somewhere in their head for the Holy Spirit to use as He pleases, even if they can’t muster it up to perform it; 2) they will encounter it hundreds of times in their life and build on the familiarity; 3) large chunks and whole thoughts also build language patterns in their minds, which they will be able to draw on when they start writing.

3. Her system seemed like it would be too clunky in one binder with so many tabs. Plus, I know myself and that we will go through phases of Circle Time being hit-or-miss, and then it’s not really review, is it? I wanted fewer tabs to deal with myself, I wanted more frequent review (especially since we have fewer passages since they are longer), and I wanted it to not be too cumbersome for my 6-year-old.

So, here’s my binder layout:

1) Tabs: hymns, catechism, daily, Psalms, passages

A) Hymns: The first hymn when you turn the tab is the hymn we’re learning. After that, all the hymns we’ve learned are alphabetical. A yellow flag is stuck on the second hymn we’ll sing. So we sing the hymn we’re learning, then turn to the yellow tab, sing that hymn, then move the flag to the next page. We just cycle through the hymns we know regularly, but without some hymns getting skipped because a a particular day of the week tends to get skipped.

B) Catechism: I have 5 Catechism for Young Children questions per sheet (give or take; I tried to keep related questions together), and then 1 or 2 of the 12 Heidelberg we know on a sheet. A yellow flag is on one sheet (it started out on the first sheet, and we all move it together), and we read the catechism on that sheet — I read the question and they read the answer. When we’re done, we move our flags to the next sheet for the next day.

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C) Daily: In this tab is the Psalm and the passage we’re working to learn this term. We read all sheets (2) behind this tab every day.

D) Psalms: These are Psalms we’ve already memorized (I’m using that word loosely; I already admitted that retention has not been good). Again, there is a flag on one, we read that one all together, then move the flag.

E) Passages: These are the non-Psalm Scriptures we’ve memorized. We turn to the flag, read that one, then move the flag.

I was a little cautious in my hopes about how the whole moving-the-flag procedure would work in practice, but it worked like a charm. We used this binder for about the last month of our last school year and it went like a breeze. No balking, no excuse for remaining silent, and a feeling of ownership with their own binder. We have 8 Psalms behind the Psalms tab, so we should be reviewing each one at least every other week. There are 10 passages in the review passages section, so they too should get hit every other week. This will be good, because really we will be memorizing them in earnest all over again. There are 35 pages of catechism, so we will only go through them all roughly once per term. Eventually I might break some out so we have less frequent and more frequent passages (like Sonya’s 31-days-tabs), but for now I think this will work best for our situation.

I also still have all our memory work on a playlist, and we sometimes listen to it in the car, or the boys listen to it on an old iPod shuffle during quiet time.

2012 Update:

The binders helped Circle Time flow as smoothly as it ever has at our house. I only had to replace the moving tabs once, but now near the end of the year the binders are cracking and pages are torn or missing, so they will have to be redone. Next week I’ll show up my new versions, made more durable for daily boy use.

Related Homeschool Memory Work Posts:

• Scripture Memory Work Index
• Our Hymns & Psalms List
• Other Memory Work
• Circle Time Binders Updated
• What is Circle Time?
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule

This month my reading was mostly-fluffy but interesting non-fiction.

Mystie’s Books Finished in April

The Christian Homeschool by Gregg Harris

Own. I bought this used some time ago.

I picked this up off the shelf to make a dent in reading books I own, mostly. And, I was pretty sure I could get through it in 2-3 days, and I did. It is funny to read books from the 80s & 90s. It’s not really that long ago, but the trends and styles, even of writing, are recognizably different.

It’s a decent book for someone on the fence or who has just decided to try homeschooling, but who is nervous. It probably was one of the best books for that audience in its time. Now, it feels rather like a book by someone who was creating the homeschool stereotypes — oh, wait… But, nonetheless, it was ok. It could have been a lot worse. Plus, the Harrises have turned out several take-on-the-world, impressive sons, so he’s not just talking all theory without practice and examples and credibility.

I was a little curious about how a proponent of “delight-directed learning” would actually describe it, since I’ve found my impressions about homeschool methods in the past to be totally off-base (cough Charlotte Mason). Plus, right now I have two very interested-in-the-world readers, and a year that I won’t be at the top of my game, so I wondered if I could pick up some ideas. His description of “delight-directed” sounded akin to what some homeschool bloggers who claim to be “unschooling” actually are doing. It is still directed, guided by the parents, but the parents pay attention to interests, hobbies, and passions, and consciously invest in and cultivate their children according to their natural bents, as well as provide requirements for the shoring up of weaknesses. So it was very much about using not only books, but real life projects and business ventures and opportunities as well, to develop children’s whole person, always looking toward helping them become productive, engaged adults.

On the one hand, I appreciated the you-don’t-really-need-curriculum mindset. On the other hand, he compensated for that by suggesting unit studies, which I believe are generally pre-chewed food rather than hearty fare or just plain silly because the “connectedness” of subjects is forced and artificial.

Likely I will sell this book at the used curriculum fair or list it on paperbackswap.com.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

Own. I bought this last year; at the time the library didn’t have it and I was intrigued. I think I read a random blogger review of it, and saw it pop up several places in a short time. Upon reading it, I was not disappointed.

Her premise:

Happy people make better friends, colleagues, and citizens. I wanted to be one of those people. I knew it was certainly easier for me to be good when I was happy. I was more patient, more forgiving, more energetic, more lighthearted, and more generous. Working on my happiness wouldn’t just make me happier, it would boost the happiness of the people around me. And — though I didn’t recognize this immediately — I started my happiness project because I wanted to prepare. I was a very fortunate person, but the wheel would turn. One dark night, my phone was going to ring, and I already had a notion about one particular phone call that might come. One of my goals for the happiness project was to prepare for adversity — to develop the self-discipline and the mental habits to deal with a bad thing when it happened. The time to start exercising, stop nagging, and organize our digital photos was when everything was going smoothly. I didn’t want to wait for a crisis to remake my life.

She sets out for a year-long project, tackling one resolution a month that will help increase her happiness, created according to an astonishing amount of reading she did before and during her project. The style is personal-anecdotal while sprinkling in what she learned from her wide reading.

Her primary finding she returned to again and again, especially in the context of family life (she has two young daughters):

And she even quoted G.K. Chesterton:

It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

Library. I checked it out after MMV’s recommendation.

This was a fascinating book about recent studies on the brain differences between introverts and extroverts, as well as an examination of how business, social, and school culture perceive and respond to introversion and extroversion, showing how American culture believes extroversion is ideal and introversion is a problem to be cured. She uses current and historical stories to demonstrate that we need both introversion and extroversion, often paired together, to achieve great things. She believes these they are necessary pairs, like male and female. But “collaboration” in America is actually counterproductive and usually shuts down introverts and their contributions.

One of the interesting points she made was a study that showed that one of the differences in extroverts’ brains versus introverts’ brains was that extroverts have greater capabilities for experiencing “buzz” and happiness tied to rewards. Some are concluding from this study that this is even one of the defining factors of the E v. I brain: Extroverts seek attention, social outlets, and status because they are wired to get a high off it. Introverts’ brains simply do not process as much pleasure-endorphins in the brain as extroverts, period. Instead, introverts’ brains are larger and more connected in the analytical, examining, reasoning section, meaning it is more easy for them to separate their gut-response (less intense than an extrovert, generally) from an examination of the situation (which they always have running in the background, thus they are slower to process and more easily overwhelmed socially than extroverts). So extroverts respond to rewards more strongly and tend to be more ambitious and quick-thinking, whereas introverts tend to respond better to and desire autonomy and mastery rather than stimulus and reward.

The way I put it probably clearly shows an introvert bias, but the author was very good about keeping a balanced view and showing how both are valid and contribute to a strong society.

Here was one of my favorite sections, on schools:

The school environment can be highly unnatural, especially from the perspective of an introverted child who loves to work intensely on projects he cares about, and hang out with one or two friends at a time. [...] Worst of all, there’s little time to think or create. The structure of the day is almost guaranteed to sap his energy rather than stimulate it.

We often marvel at how introverted, geeky kids “blossom” into secure and happy adults. We liken it to a metamorphosis. However, maybe it’s not the children who change but their environments. As adults, they get to select the careers, spouses, and social circles that suit them. They don’t have to live in whatever culture they’re plunked into.

Books I’m Currently Reading

Hans’ Books Read (8-year-old boy)

If You Had a Horse by Margaret Hodges

Own. I found this at a library sale years ago.

“I liked it because it had lots of stories about horses, and I like horses. It had magical horses and true stories.”

More Days and Deeds New Basic Readers, Book 5.2

Own. This is a public school 5th grade reader from the 1950s my mother-in-law gave the boys. Hans has read it many times.

“I liked it because it had fun stories, history, and stories about other people like Eskimos.”

Macbeth retold by Bruce Coville, illustrated by Gary Kelley

Library. These are well done retellings. They’ve made me lose my taste for Lamb and Nesbit. I think they are a more authentic introduction to Shakespeare, apart from seeing plays live or on film.

“I liked the poems and I liked the fights, especially the ghost.”

Jaeger’s Books Read (almost-7-year-old boy)

Albert Einstein by Marie Hammontree, Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Own. I started collecting used Childhood of Famous Americans several years ago (Amazon says 2007 on this one), because Cindy told me to. She hasn’t let me down yet.

“I liked it because he thought a lot and I like reading about people who think. And I liked the part that he camped out.”

Rosa Parks by Kathleen Kudlinski, Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Own.

“I liked it because she worked a lot and because she liked to grow things.”

Geronimo by George Stanley, Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Own.

“I liked it because he was a good fighter. I especially liked the part when he was racing with his friend and a rattlesnake climbed onto his friend’s leg. He cut the snake’s head off and then they raced back.”

Ilse’s Favorite Books (4-year-old girl)

Ilse didn’t want to be left out of the book show-and-tell. She came running with her three favorite books, too.

Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban

Own. Everyone should own all the Frances books.

“The little sister had a birthday party and a birthday cake. She shared all the candy.”

Kermit the Hermit by Bill Peet

Own. Peet is absolutely hilarious. I dare you to read one aloud with a straight face.

“The crab tried to grab the fish to make him dead in the water.”

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Own. A classic.

“He had a lot of hats, like 12 hats. And there were monkeys in the tree that tried to catch a hat.”

What have you and yours been reading lately?

Pretty

With my birthday money last year I got myself a cute pair of purple gardening boots at Target! I’m enjoying them.

Happy

Strawberries: my favorite part of the garden. Grass got into the bed (and the strawberries got into the grass), but the strawberries are still going strong and have blossoms and green baby strawberries forming! I had enough to satisfy everyone’s appetite, serve to company multiple times, and still freeze a couple bags last year, the first year — we’ll see if we get even more this year!

Funny

After a couple years of gardening mostly 5-foot weeds, my husband decided we should try the neat and tidy approach. He grassed the entire garden area in the fall, then this weekend built me three 3×6 raised beds, and they are far enough apart that the riding lawn mower can go between them. I’ve already filled them up, but it should be the right amount for this year. Next year I’m hoping for 3 more.

This middle box has onions, tomatoes, and peppers.

Herbs! Brussels sprouts! Lettuce seeds yet to emerge! Shallots!

Real

We are trying grapes again!

We have one black monukka, one red flame, and one canadice — all seedless. The helpful man at the Flower Farm claimed three vines would give us much more than we can eat, but Matt is quite doubtful of that. I am sure we can eat a lot of grapes. :) There’s room for one more vine on the row, and I’m sure Matt will fill it in.

Between the grape posts I ran some string and am growing peas there.

Next up this month: Finding a friend with too many raspberry canes and planting a 50-foot row of raspberries.

The Benefits of Schooling Year-Round

• Common problems like February burnout happen less often and less intensely, because we get regular breaks and don’t stretch our endurance to the breaking point. There is always the light of a break week shining near at hand.

• Moreover, our breaks don’t stretch on and on in one big summer-long mess of chaos and lack of routine. We don’t have to spend a bunch of time reviewing to catch up at the beginning of the year, because the information and skills stay fresh and in use.

• With breaks regularly scheduled throughout the year, we can take advantage of off-season vacations and empty parks.

• We can concentrate our breaks around when the weather here is consistently pleasant all day, rather than having a summer break where everyone is inside most of the afternoon hanging over the air conditioning.

Setting up an All Year School Calendar

Some begin their year-round schedule in January, thus making Christmas break the end of the year break as well. That certainly makes sense, but our year runs July through May. When we first started, I started in August. Hans’ birthday is in August, and the school supplies are all out at that point. And I do love a back-to-school sale! Eventually, I decided that I wanted to take the month of June off for our summer, end-of-year break (June is always lovely here, and my birthday is the 1st). That necessitated moving the start up to July. This year is an anomoly; we’ll be starting in June so we can accomodate a baby break in November. I like that this gives us 2-3 weeks off for Christmas halfway through our year (and Christmas is busy enough without adding in school planning!) and then another 3-4 weeks off between our years at the best time of year weather-wise.

School Terms

Because it’s the way I do things, our terms have names. A friend’s friend named her group’s terms by church calendar names, which makes sense. I don’t know why, really, but it just didn’t seem to work or fit for me. So, mine are named by the seasons:

1. Summer Term
2. Harvest Term
3. Autumn Term
4. Winter Term
5. Spring Term
6. Verdure Term

That gives us 36 weeks of school, leaving 16 weeks for breaks. There is a sanity-saving one-week break between each term, plus I always try to arrange the terms to end by the longer breaks: Christmas, Easter, and then the end. We take 1 week off for Thanksgiving, 2-3 weeks off for Christmas, 2 weeks off for Easter (though not in 2013, because of the baby break), and then June off.

So, our plan is to continue on our six six-week year-round terms. I like having the frequent off-week for catching up around the house, in the kitchen, and with the papers; plus, I have the margin for returning library books, getting the new ones, and shifting around our hymns and memory work.

This year, however, I did outline the year so we never take more than two weeks off at a time. After three weeks off, I learned this year, it is pulling teeth to get us back on routine. So this year I won’t even go there. I am toying with the idea of keeping a brief Circle Time daily, even on our off-day and even during break weeks, too, just because it is a good prompt to propel us into a good day. I don’t do well with lazy mornings. And I am keeping all the subjects simple and straightforward so that we can finish by lunch, schooling 4 days a week, with Mondays off — not counting an hour or two of independent reading in the afternoon.

Related posts found elsewhere

Here are some of the best scheduling-related blog posts I have read:

“School Planning” by Kendra of Preschoolers and Peace

“Scheduling Our Weeks & Days by Angelina in Louisiana

“Little Grains of Sand” by Cindy Rollins

“To Schedule or Not to Schedule” by Deputy HeadMistress

“The Scheduler & the Dawdler” by Cindy Rollins

“New Days” or “Rocks in a Jar” by Ann Voskamp

“Spring-Like & Feverish” by Mental Multivitamin links to some of my favorite of her thoughts

How to Plan Out an Entire Year of Homeschooling Before Beginning