Merry Christmas!

Congratulations to everyone because all your hard work paid off.  You did really well on your tin whistle music "Joy to the World".  I am very impressed and am very proud of all of you. Thank you very much to all the parents for encouraging your children in practicing.  We sure missed a couple of you but we never forgot you.  Hoping that you all have a wonderful Christmas!  See you next year. 

Love from,
Miss Zabrina

Week 11

Hello everyone...

We have one more week left and we are half way through CC.  Can you believe that?  This week has been so exciting.  The rocket was a hit.  Thank you very much Mr. Herson.

I was so impressed with everyone sharing a current event.  Good Job!  Next week is Show and Tell (seems like everyone's favorite).  Bring something small enough that will fit in your pocket.

This coming week will be our last week for tin whistle. I gave out a song that we will play for the Christmas program (Joy to the World).  Your children will either have a Harmony part or a Melody part.  Please encourage them to practice (start practicing the scale for two to three minutes and the music for 7-8 minutes.  10 minutes everyday should be plenty enough).  We have two more weeks to practice (I believe it is not very difficult because the music uses mostly sliding scale up or down... yes, even the harmony part). It took me hours to write the music to make the harmony and the tin whistle chart with the music to make it easier for them to play.  I believe that if they practice they can do it.  Please, please, please encourage them to practice.  We only have very limited time to practice in class so they have to do it at home.  Thank you very much in advance.

For new grammar...

History - we march through the history sentence.
Timeline - we did the hand motions done during the opening ceremony.
Science - we sang through the other plants and did hand motions
  Asteroids - letter "a" hand floats in the air
  Meteors - letter "m" drive down
  Meteroids - letter "m" hand floats in the air
  Meteorites - letter "m" drive down and makes an impact on the open palm of your other hand
  Comets - letter "c" hand sort of making a letter C in the air
English - we sang slowly to the song of indefinite pronouns
Geography - point and say countries in Eastern Europe including Siberia in Asia
Math - skip count the cubes (repeated this over and over again)  I forgot my visual aid but I will try to bring it next time.
Latin - future perfect tense 
 Hint: like the future tense, to go to the future you use a bow (bo), we also use an arrow (ero)

That's all for now... for questions about music for the new grammar please refer to the previous post. Or see me during the lunch hour for other questions.

Thank you,
Zabrina

Children's Artwork

(as promised, the before and after drawings)

Enjoy!

Weeks 9 & 10

Hello everyone... Sorry for the long hiatus.  What happened?  Life happened!  I really am very sorry for this very very late update.  Anyway, here goes.

I would like to congratulate everyone for being on their best behavior most of the time in class.  I appreciate everyone (parents included) for trying their best to keep the class a very good and conducive learning environment.  Just so you know, I enjoy every moments I have with your children no matter how tiring it may be.  Thanks for keeping them all ready for class on Monday mornings.  Again, my kudos to everyone for knowing their materials really well.  Keep on reviewing your memory work everyday.

Here are what we did in class the last two Mondays (if I remember them correctly).

History
Music - CC CD
Week 9 - Absolute monarch
 We sang through the song and enumerated the monarch
Week 10 - History of Russia
 We clapped through the history sentence

Timeline
Music - CC CD
Hand Motion - what we do during opening ceremony (You can actually see this in CC Connected Timeline Videos with Handmotions.  just so you know, we changed some of the hand motions in our campus so there may be slight differences)

Geography
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 & 10 Carribean and Southwest Asia
We memorize the places in order and point to where they are.

Science
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 - Planets
 Everyone is assigned a planet and we arranged ourselves by the order of planets from the closest to the farthest
Week 10 - Phases of the Moon
 I made a black paper plate size circle and taped it on a stick (paint stick from Home Depot will work well).  We used it as a shade and our face(s) is the moon; slowly move the shade out of your face to make the phases of the moon.

Math
Music - CC CD
Week 9 Skip count 15
 We sang through the 15's while we erase the numbers
Week 10 Skip count the squares
 We sang through the Squares and I drew a visual aid similar to this.


Latin
Music - CC CD
Week 9 & 10 Pluperfect Tense
  We sang through the first conjugation pluperfect tense (I can't think of a way to remember the beginning of this.  If anyone has a suggestion... I'm open for it.  Or we can just use the one that half a hundred acre wood's suggestion - I'm tapping eram, eram, eram on my pluperfect drum)
**Please take note that the campus, for wanting to be teaching what is right, has decided to use i with the sound /ee/ for the 1st conjugation Present Perfect tense (Week 7 & 8) instead of i with the sound /eye/.  So, for remembering Present Perfect Tense, we can use this from halfahundredacrewood "When the present day is perfect, we jump and shout '(Wh)ee!'" Sorry for the delay in relaying the information.

English
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 Interrogative Pronoun
 Handmotions
  Who - right pointer finger on right forehaed
  Whom - left pointer finger on left forehaed
  Whose- both pointer finger on both sides of the forehead
  Which - right hand out with palms facing upward
  What - left hand out with palms facing upward
Week 10 Demonstrative Pronoun
 Handmotions
  This - right pointer finger pointing here
  That - right pointer finger pointing out
  These - both pointer fingers circling around you
  Those - both pointer fingers circling around away from you

Fine Arts (Tin whistle)
 Week 9 - We learned the right hand and we played "London Bridge", I send the music with them.
 Week 10 - We played the D scale and we learned the song "God is so Good"
For music theory, we review what we learned the past weeks and learned something more (please refer to your foundations manual pp. 157-170 for what we have learned so far in music theory. Please review it with them.  They can play "Twinkle, twinkle.." for practice).

Christmas program announcement
The class decided to do a history sentence (Reformation).  Unfortunately, a younger class chose that, too.  Since we are older (and wiser), we'll have to do something else.  It is still up for discussion or I can just decide what to do (I am actually thinking of doing the Timeline beginning from the Middle Ages), we will finalize the decision on Monday.   For the last three weeks, I have been looking for a song (where the class can be divided into 2 groups for harmony... am I too ambitious???) to play on the tin whistle, so we can do something on the tin whistle plus the history sentence.  But it was difficult to find a Christmas song on D scale that can be harmonized that is simple enough.  Late last week, I finally found something where I have to rewrite some music and put the tin whistle code (really am ambitious, right???...hahaha) I will make sure to get the music to them on Monday, if not earlier, so they can practice it for the next three weeks (in time for our program).  For right now, I would appreciate it if they can practice the scale going up and down, because the music will start with the scale (beginning from the high D) and a lot of the music goes up and down the scale throughout the piece.  Thank you so much.  Even just 10 minutes a day will be really helpful.

Thank you so much for bearing with me,
Zabrina

Week Seven & Eight

From 4 am to 5pm yesterday we drove heading West... As we are driving, it suddenly dawned on me, it is November and Fall will be over soon.  I have not even enjoyed my favorite season yet.  Thank you Lord for the long drive to enjoy the changing of colors... the nice weather... and most especially, the time we have together.  We arrive safely in Berrien Springs, MI and my husband is off to his big exam.  So before we drive to Chicago, I'd like to be able to send this out to you.

My sincerest thanks to everyone for helping make the class a wonderful learning environment.  So proud of the class because everyone seem to know their memory work.  Tin whistle is going great, the kids are making real music... can you believe that?

For a quick run down on New Grammar for the last two Monday...

History
 Music - CC CD
 Hand Motion for Week 7
  Matin Luther - sign for letters M and L
  Protestant Reformation - Both hands letter R, right fingers pointing left, left fingers pointing right, and wrist touching. Wrists continue to touch while twisting to reverse hand position.  Left palm down, right hand ends on top. (I can demonstrate this for you if this is not clear)
  95 Theses - Left hand is an imaginary nail and right hand imaginary hammer
  Pope Leo X -  letter L
  excommunicate - cross both arms
  John Calvin - letterJ and C
  Reformation - same as above
 For Week 8, I have a diagram which I will try to post as soon as I can figure out how to add photo for this blog.

Geography
 Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
 Week 7 & 8 - we mainly just say, point and draw the European Peninsula and the Mid Atlantic World,  I was given an assignment about the Treaty of Tordesillas and here is the  link . The first three paragraph should be sufficient enough.

Timeline
 Music - CC CD
 Hand Motions - whatever is taught during the Opening Ceremony

Latin
 Music - CC CD
 Hint for these two weeks - Present Perfect vision starts with the i (eye).

Science
 Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
 Hand Motions for Week 8 (you can always come see me for demonstration)
  Core - make a fist on the right hand
  Radiative Zone - letter R on the left hand goes to the fist
   *note that in the music it says radioactive zone, so we change it to ra-di-a-tive)
  Convective Zone - letter C on the right hand goes to the R
  Sunspots - left pointer finger point anywhere on the letter C
  Photosphere  - make a sphere using both hands by joining fingers
  Solar flare - open the sphere leaving the thumbs together and wiggle fingers
  Corona - keep the thumbs together but open the rest of the fingers

English
  Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
  Hand Motion is the same for all Pronouns
   I, me, mine, my, myself - single hand on chest
   You, you, yours, your, yourself - single hand going away from chest
   He, him, his, his, himself - single hand going to the right
   She, her, hers, her, herself - single hand going to the left
   It, it, its, itself - pointer finger going wherever
   We, us, ours, our, ourselves - both hands on chest
   You, you, yours, your, yourselves - both hands going away from chest
   They, them, theirs, their, themselves - both hands going to the sides
  Week 7 Possessive Pronoun Adjectives
    It was agreed upon by the campus that instead of Possessive adjective, it is Possessive Pronoun Adjective.  My, your, his, her, its, our, your, their.
  Week 8 Reflexive Pronoun (imagine a mirror on your hand, who do you see?)
    myself, yourself and so on....

Math
  Music - CC CD
  Keep on reviewing because as the number goes higher, the trickier it is to remember the numbers.  My suggestion still is use a number chart and color in the numbers.

Fine Arts
  I gave a piece of paper with two music in it.  The music are in the key of C, but we are concentrating on the left hand these past two weeks so the notes we need to work on is just B, A, and G.  encourage them to practice even for just 10 minutes everyday.  You'll be surprise how much they will improve.  Please stress the proper posture and proper holding of the tin whistle (45 degree angle) so that you will not hear the high pitch whistling sound.
Some of my favorite sites for music theory...
Making Music Fun is the one we used a lot last year and is still using
Opus Music is fairly new to me and I love it.  If you want more in depth music theory, this is good because you can go lesson by lesson on music theory self-study.  If you have younger kids, there are theory sheets for younger children as well.
Color in my Piano  is more for piano students but still is a good site
Susan Paradis is new to me but I found she has a lot of fun stuff.

I still have other sites I'd like to share.  I will probably do it next time, if that is okay with all of you as I am not using my own computer and I have to check out of this hotel soon.  See you on Monday.

Don't forget...
Presentation for next week - a pet you have or would love to have.
Tin Whistle - practice left hand well because we are going to right hand next week.

Me,
Zabrina

Week Six

Wow!  It worked... I published my first post.

Thank you to all the parents who were there last Monday to help to keep the class a very good learning environment. Thank you so much for your support.

I can't believe we've finish the first quarter already.  Time really does fly.  I've enjoyed the time I had with your children and I am very proud of what they have accomplished thus far.  
Here are some of the files I've used from CC Connected...

Science - Songs: NoGreaterJoy5 (AJT)
I've used some of the hand motions from the user KnoxFamily.

English - Songs: NoGreaterJoy5 (AJT)
I've used some of the hand motions from the user KnoxFamily.

Latin - Songs: CC
I've found some files online for pictures to remember the memory work from www.solagratiamom.blogspot.com and this is the link...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/502el1hwmkrff0i/Cycle%202%20Latin%20ALL%20WEEKS%20.pdf
CC connected also have pictures from the user amandanease
Dawn and I made up hints to remember which tense is which...
  Present tense begins with o (oh! a present)
  Imperfect tense begins with bam (when we do something wrong - imperfect, then we say bam)
  Future tense begins with bo (we want to go to the future we use a bow and an arrow, this is also what we will use for future perfect tense which begins with ero)  *Guess what... I saw something online too and was so surprise that we have almost the same idea.  here is the link...
http://halfahundredacrewood.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/hhaw-latin-memory-aid-verb-tenses.pdf

Math - Songs: CC
For extra work at home I have a 1 to 230 chart and I make Dawn color the number as she skip counts.  Just found this online and I think I'll use it at home... like it a lot
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/07/skip-counting-mazes.html 

History - Songs: CC
If I do use hand motions I try to do the same hand motions we have on our timeline song (makes it easier for them to correlate history and timeline).

Timeline - we just review what we learn from the opening ceremony.

Geography - Songs: NoGreaterJoy5 (refer to my previous post please)
Mostly, we say and point where the places are.  For at home review CC Connected has a good fill in blanks sheet from the user heathergwyn

Fine Arts (Drawing) - In my previous post, I shared two links and I used them for the first four weeks work OiLS, Mirror image, Upside down drawing and abstract art.  I will send a picture of what Dawn did in my next post as an additional resource for abstract art. For perspective art I used two books I borrowed from the library and for the review, I focused on OiLS by doing a before and after pictures ( I might post some of their work next time) and I also borrowed books from the library.  Here is the list of books in case you are interested...
    Perspective Drawing
       Mastering Art  DRAWING (Basics:Perspective Chapter) by Anthony Hodge
       Art for Kids  Drawing (Chapter 5:  Perspective) by Kathryn Temple
    Drawing Step by Step
       1-2-3 Draw Cartoon Animals by Steve Barr (he has different topics eg. sea creatures, 
         cartoon people, etc.)
       How to Draw 101 Animals by by Dan Green
       I Can Draw Animals
       1-2-3 Draw Knights, Castles and Dragons by Freddie Levin
I personally love the 1-2-3 Draw Series (there's lots of them).

Okay, I better stop here or I might not have anything else to say on my next post.  Hopefully the next post would not be as long as this one.

Have fun!  Don't forget your tin whistle next week.

Me,
Zabrina

Hello everyone,

We are back to the swing of things and I believe it is time for me to update this blog site since we've already finished one quarter of CC. For starter, I would like to re-post the first email I sent to all of you including all the links.

Here goes...

To all,

Welcome to CC 2013-1014.  This letter is due last week and I never did get the chance to send it, but here it is.

It has been an exciting two weeks working with all of you - children and parents alike. I am very happy and honored to be the tutor of your children and from the look of it this is going to be an exciting year. During our first day at CC, I told your children my expectations of them - (1) To be respectful to the person talking in front. (2) To be respectful and considerate with their fellow students, and (3) To enjoy the ride along the way.  With only two and a half hours and a lot of memory work and other things to cover every week, I want them to make the most of their CC year and really have fun doing it.  I also hope that the parents in the class can join in our activities and enjoy the whole year with us. If you have any question about my leadership, content or my method for covering the content during the weekly time together, please feel free to approach me at lunch, but not during class time. And I would appreciate it if you do this face-to-face and not over email or phone to ensure clearer communication.  Plus I don't check and reply to my email as often as I should which will be very frustrating for you.  Thank you very much.

For memory work, I used a lot of songs because I find it makes retention better and with catchy tunes the children enjoy their memory work better. Here are the list of songs for your reference:

1. For Timeline, Presidents, History, Latin and Math Week 1-11, I will be using the songs on the Foundations Audio CD

2. For Science, English and Math Week 12 -24, I will be using Amy Joy Tofte's (AJT) music on CC connected (if you are a CC Connected member, in the at home sharing page, search for cycle 2, select mp3 downloaded by NoGreaterJoy, and you'll find the songs there make sure you check out those that say 2013 as there may be slight differences due to curriculum change) I made a CD for my daughter but unfortunately, I cannot distribute it due to copyright laws.

N.B.  Music for English, I will definitely use all of them, as most have different tune for every topic.  Science, I will use some of them but maybe not all depending on topic... AJT made it in such a way that all the same topic have the same tune e.g. Ecology for Week 1-6 has the same tune but different words, Astronomy for Week 7-12 has the same tune but different words and so on.  But I would still encourage you to let them listen to it at home as it helps with retention a lot (Based on my own experience).

3. For Geography, I still will let them listen to the AJT music even if we won't use it in class because as I mentioned above, even if the tunes are all the same, it still helps with retention of memory work.

I'd like to share the site where I found AJT's songs (I believe this is based on the old curriculum, some of it may not be the same) for English and Science, if you are not a member of CC Connected.  The video is actually very helpful as well, especially for visual learners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-YaRR3p7as

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M3_1hGwtOQ&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL746E667B3183DDF0

For the seven continents and four oceans this is the song that I used (remove Southern for oceans).  The words go like this... North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, Africa, Antartica, these are the continents.  Indian, Arctic and the Atlantic and the Pacific are the oceans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W05xku0pTWc

And as I mentioned in class last Monday, if you want them to do more drawings, go to http://donnayoung.org/art/index.htm for more resources.  For mirror images, you can go to 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/CompletetheDrawingPages.htm

I will try my best to keep in touch with all of you as often as I can.  If I stumble into some resources that will be helpful, I will make sure to share it with you. And if you find any other resources, be sure to let me know, as I am excited to learn from you as well.  This is going to be an interesting year for all of us, I pray that our time together will enrich our lives and character and also our academics.  Happy Learning!

In His Service,

Zabrina Ong

P.S.  I will be away on vacation this next two weeks(Week 3 & 4). Marsha Alekel will take over the class.  Have fun with her and remind the kids of respect and consideration...