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Why I Have Been Neglecting My Blog

May 1st, 2009 by Karen Ciavolella

My life has been really busy the last 4 months. Most important of all my dad has been going back and forth between the hospital and rehab since February 11. He had a very serious bowel obstruction with leakage and it has been an ordeal. Please pray for him, his name is Richard. Right now he is back in rehab and discouraged. Pray that he will gain strength and listen to his PTs, dietitians, and doctors. He’s more than a little stubborn. We are especially praying that he will not spend the remainder of his days in a nursing home, unfortunately he’s on the road to do just that.

On a lighter note, we’ve also been busy with 2 co-ops, one of them a TOG co-op, and all three boys were in a production of the Wizard of Oz.

Ben played Uncle Henry and Verdo:

Zach played a member of the Winkie Guard (bottom left):

And Ethan was a Munchkin (back row, right side):

The direction and production were fabulous. All three boys all had a great time.

A few people have emailed me asking if I was going to continue blogging Year 3. I will. Despite the busyness of the past few months we did get some work done. I think to catch up rather than posting all the weeks separately I will group them together based on subject matter.

By His Grace,
Karen

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

TOG Year 3, week 31 ~ Waves of Immigrants

Apr 24th, 2009 by Karen Ciavolella

The New Colossus
a sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
written in 1883

Grammar Stage
Paper sculpture of the Statue of Liberty to color, cut, and glue.
Statue of Liberty Facts worksheet
Ellis Island Facts worksheet
Grover Cleveland President card (Included with Chester A. Arthur)
Statue of Liberty coloring page with Grover Cleveland Quote

Ethan’s Facts to Know:
Grover Cleveland was the only president married in the White House.
Grover Cleveland was the first Democrat to become president since Buchanan before the Civil War.
 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty.
Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, was the Structural Engineer.
Joseph Pulitzer raised much of the money needed for building the pedestal.

Dialectic
I had my dialectic son complete the Ellis Island booklet provided by the NPS. Some information he filled in via web searches.

Rhetoric
Read Crime and Punishment with your rhetoric student if at all possible. It is available on Librivox.org if you prefer audio, although I find the reader for the first 7 chapters is difficult to listen to. I went with audible.com.

All Levels
We downloaded and watched Modern Marvels: The Statue of Liberty from iTunes ($1.99)
We all read The New Colossus. I’ve included a picture of the Statue of Liberty and the Colossus of Rhodes on the sheet I formatted.

Posted in TOG Year 3 | Comments Off

TOG Year 3 Weeks 28-30 ~ Africa

Apr 23rd, 2009 by Karen Ciavolella


Lower Grammar
We learned a little Swahili. I found a lovely book called We All Went on Safari:  A Counting Journey Through Tanzania by Laurie Krebs. Ethan memorized the story which helped him learn to count to ten in Swahili.
PBSKids has a decent site about Africa. There is video of a Dogon dance, masks to print (they are on the smallish side), music, and audio of a Swahili folktale.
We made mini-books about African animals. Ethan colored the pictures, cut them apart, mounted them on the cover of the folded card stock, and then wrote 3 facts inside each card. We might glue these books onto a file folder. (weeks 28-30)
National Geographic Kids is a wonderful resource for weeks 28-30. I’ve linked the site map. Ethan enjoyed taking the African Brain Teaser Quiz. The animals listed in the left column each have sites that include lots of information and video, plus you can print off picture and facts.
This site also has masks for students to print out and they can color them. (week 28)
 Pete’s Pond is a wonderful webcam of a watering hole in Botswana.
No time for us to make a drum, but we watched this video on how to make a Djembe Drum. I did find a site that gives instructions on how to make a drum out of disposable cups. (Week 29)
We made some tasty African treats. They are from the menu of Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Walt Disney World.  (Week 29)
President Cards for Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield. (Week 29)
President Card for Chester A. Arthur (Week 30)

African Folk Tales:
Anansi Tries to Steal All the Wisdom in the World
Anansi and the Turtle
Anansi and the Firefly
The Jackal and the Leopard

Writing Assignment:
We wrote a friendly letter to an MTW missionary serving in Ethiopia. She is a nurse who is ministering to the community of Addis Ababa, especially the many families and orphans affected by HIV/AIDS.

Ethan’s Facts to Know:
Africa is the second largest continent in the world. Only Asia is bigger.
There are over 1,000 different languages in Africa.
Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s largest mountains, is actually a volcano.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world.
The Nile is the longest river in Africa.
There are 53 countries in Africa.
A folktale is a story that is passed down through generations by word of mouth, they often teach a moral, or lesson. Myths, tall tales, legends, fables, and fairy tales are all folktales.
More than 1,000,000 children in Africa have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Dialectic
Wonderful African mask site for older students. Truly a work of art. I highly recommend completing this project.

Rhetoric
Peter Kreeft has an article on Nietzsche from his Pillars of Unbelief series.

Posted in TOG Year 3 | Comments Off

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

Jan 19th, 2009 by Karen Ciavolella

This essay is often attributed to Mark Twain, but that is disputed; some say it originally appeared as a letter written by MJ Shields in The Economist.
In any case I thought it was funny.


In year 1, that useless letter ‘c’ would be dropped to be
replased either by ‘k’ or ‘s’, and likewise ‘x’ would no longer
be a part of the alphabet.  The only kase in which ‘c’ would
retained would be the ‘ch’ formation, which will be dealt with
later. 

 Year 2 might reform ‘w’ spelling, so that ‘which’ and ‘one’
would take the same konsonant, wil Year 3 might well abolish
‘y’ replasing it with ‘I’ and Iear 4 might fiks the ‘g/j’ anomali
wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai
iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants,
and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant leterz ‘c,’ ‘y,’
and ‘x’ == bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez– tu riplais ‘ch,’ ‘sh,’ and ‘th’
rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iears ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt
speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.”
  

Posted in Satire | 1 Comment »

Tools

Jan 17th, 2009 by Karen Ciavolella

I got a couple of gifts from Levenger for Christmas that I want to share because I love them so. The first is a gift I bought as stocking-stuffers for the kids and me. Am I the only one who buys herself gifts as she Christmas shops?
It’s a book bungie.

I’m always throwing books in my bag and the book bungie not only keeps my place, but also keeps the book closed, no more unintentionally dog-eared pages. The set of 5 featured above is on sale for $20, it really is a great gift, be sure to save one for yourself.

My husband gave me a Levenger gift card and I purchased a new Circa dodad that I’ve had my eye on, the Circa Deluxe Shell:


They are like a Circa binder! It stands up beautifully, you can label the spine, and it has a bungie to keep it closed. Right now it’s being featured in Levenger’s "Stock-up and Save sale." Sale ends on January 26, 2009.  The set includes two shells and twenty-two 1" disks. What a deal right?

I also got a great deal on unpunched lined paper, why spend $38 for 300 sheets of punched when you can spend $9.95 for 300 sheets of unpunched and use your own punch. All white paper is an option if your prefer (I do.) I also have a code for 20% off any purchase – SPCHG1 – I’m not sure when it expires.

I am not an affiliate for Levenger, I just love their products.

Posted in TOG Workbooks | 1 Comment »

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