Leap Into the Love of Learning Class- November

by Donna Saturday, November 3, 2012

New Classes Begin 5 November 2012!!!

Moor House Academy

Presents:

Leap into the Love of Learning!

This class is designed for love of learners of any age

and those who need to become such!

Students may enroll any time during the semester!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Mornings

from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.

Conveniently located in Orem, Utah near I-15.

Mentors: Julia Groves and Donna Goff

Tuition: $250 per month, per student, plus books.

Class size is limited! Please contact us for information.

__________________________________________________

Early Bird Special 20% Off Books if you enroll by 10 November!

(e-books: Family Scholar Portfolio, Aspiring Scholar Portfolio, Book of Centuries, and Book of Nations)

_______________________________________________________

The Love of Learning time in a child's development is a time of exposure, experimentation, exploration, and inspiration. Let me explain~ This is not the time for strict curriculum, structure, expectations, and grades. This is the time in a child's development where the magic of learning needs to come to life. The job of the teacher/mentor is not to give lots of assignments, busy work, and pressure. Rather it is to open as many doors to the child as possible, exposing them in small doses to what is out there for them to learn. Then it is time to experiment in doing hands on activities to encourage them to want to learn more. Throughout this process one must pay close attention to the individual child (their needs, their interests, and their developmental abilities.) in order to give the right sort of inspiration needed.

In keeping this class as closely aligned with the Thomas Jefferson Educational principles for this Love of Learning, we will not be using workbooks, curriculum, or busy work. Rather we will be (among other things):

Power of an Hour: Program 2012 Theme – Power of an Hour Cycle I -- Old Testament and Ancient Times. Each week we cover Bible stories, art, music, math, science, poetry, history, world geography, US geography, spelling rules, grammar rules, and beginning Hebrew.

We will also cover:

On This Day: Each day we discuss at least two events that happened that day in history.

Class Presentations: This is where the students have the opportunity to do a 2–5 minute presentation of the subject of their choice. This allows the children to share with their peers something that they are interested in. In doing so they spread the excitement of learning new things, and they get the experience of public speaking.

Writing: Individually created commonplace books filled with quotes, poems, excerpts from books etc. which each child will make an entry every day to work on his or her penmanship.

Math Matters: Experiencing math through the mode of living math– telling time, understanding money, measurements, and activities associated with the reading of books like Mathematicians are People Too Vol. 1 & 2, String, Straightedge, and Shadows, and a Cache of Jewels, etc.

Field Trips, Nature Walks and Nature Notebooks: There are so many interesting things available to explore in our area, such as outdoors, museums, and other arts. We take nature walks and then the children come back and draw something they saw on the walk then share it with the class to learn about the world in which we live.

Picture Studies: (Charlotte Mason Style), art appreciation, and hands on arts and crafts experimentation.

Classics Reading Time: We will enjoy the classics together and talk about what we are learning.

Book of Centuries and a Book of Nations: We will be creating and using these for our geography and history studies.

The Student Teacher: The children take turns being our assistant for the day. In addition to helping us throughout the class day, the student teacher gets to pick one topic (ahead of time) for us to learn about in class that day.

Coming in December!!!

A Hands On Christmas--Leap into the Love of Learning Classes!

**This is just a sampling of what we intend to expose your children to during November. As we see the needs/interests of the children these programs are subject to be modified accordingly.

Tags:

Classes | Moor House Gazette

Using The Book of Centuries

by Donna Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I created and use a Book of Centuries in our home and my cottage school class "Leap into the Love of Learning." Today, we created our Book of Centuries for the school year. To me, this approach can help bring history to life! It is hands on! When we have larger groups we even add another step- what I call "Stepping into Character" and "New Reporter."This is where the student comes as a character of history to teach others about them. When the person being reported on is evil, the children can be a reporter telling about the evil person.

I recently changed the pages of the Book of Centuries to be a one page spread instead of a two page spread. I printed the Time/ Place grids on to card stock. Each card stock page becomes an index page and content referenced on the index page is expanded and placed behind that page. We created our own tabs- Green for Creation- 1 AD; Deep Burgundy Red for the Birth of Christianity, the Apostasy, and Medieval times- 1 AD-1500 AD; Blue for the Age of Exploration and Discovery 1500- 1800 AD; and Yellow for the Fullness of Time- 1800 into the future.

When we begin the Book of Centuries, we have the children add themselves, their parents, when their parents married, when their brothers and sisters were born. I want children to grasp what history is and they are part of history.

Once the children see themselves as part of history, we study McConkie's book and the children create a page for each day of the creation. We use McConkie because it is a restored Gospel view, and is not as limited as the view promoted through General Christian curriculum presently available. After that, they can more clearly understand what the scriptures say and do not say about the creation. My students are then prepared to further research and learn more about the 36 Noble Men and Women from church history, nine artists; nine musicians; 36 mathematicians, explorers, inventors, scientists; 36 statesmen; and nine poets found in the Power of an Hour that we study each year, then add them to their Book of Centuries. Each child's Book of Centuries will be a treasure of their own making.

Helpful Resources mentioned above:

Book of Centuries- http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/5/binders

Power of an Hour- http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/2/the-power-of-an-hour-old-testamentancient-times

Leap Into the Love of Learning Class http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/14/leap-into-the-love-of-learning-class

Tags: Book of Centuries