Notes on our week

It's Friday evening, the kids are at Scouts, and I am looking back over our week to see how it went, what we didnt get to (art and music appreciation, and no nature walk although Jared and I did have a walk), what was good. This week Gen started her current affairs journal and that went well- I feel good about that. She chose a local shark attack, and a genetic mutant sheep/goat, to write about! I had Jared do a drawing for a narration this week, and it has sparked off his enthusaism for drawing again. As someone said, he needs to feel success before he can try things, and his drawing was good. (Achilles with blood pouring out of his heel!).
Next week we have National testing, and that will disrupt our normal routine a fair bit. We will keep up the reading though.
I am feeling inspired to design a program for Australian homeschoolers that is similar to Ambleside- a list of books and a schedule- but secular, and with an Australian flavour alongside the World history. There are so many wonderful Australian books, and nowadays, even curricula. I feel there is a need for an Australian program outline for new homeschoolers and others looking for something different. It could have various alternatives eg for language arts, for grammar- there are different approaches which will suit different people. I would like to make it simple but extensive. I have made an outline...now I realise, comes the work!

Charlotte Mason Narration ideas for Highschool

• Narrations can be done in one sitting or over several days
• Have them ask several questions, make up some comprehension questions, ask each other
• Write down what you remember in note form, or as a list
• Essay questions
• Drawing, an illustration, a sketch
• Write a letter from one character to another
• Write a one act play
• Write a letter from author to publisher about the book he/she has just written
• Write the first chapter of a potential novel, in a particular setting (eg landing in Sydney Cove)
• Write a diary of a person (chronological)
• Write a poem (eg sonnet)
• Write in the style of someone
• Condense a story, passage
• Condense, classify, generalize, infer, judge, visualize, discriminate
• Lapbooks
• 5 paragraph essay
• Practice editing, rewriting, paraphrasing, changing tenses, descriptive writing, poetry, lab reports, term papers, research papers
• Compare and contrast religion/warfare of the Greeks and Romans
• Write in the style of a newspaper reporter
• Be a participant in an event describing the event to a grandchild
• Rewrite something in a different style
• Timed essays
• Detailed maps
• Socratic questioning