Elantris Student Check-In

Our 14 year old has recently started homeschooling. We are following a TJEd model to the best of our ability.  Currently my son and I are reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.  In order to make sure that he is getting all of the important details out of the book, I made up this check-in form.  The discussion questions are not for essays, they are for discussion.  I thought I would post it, in case anyone else wants to check-in with their children reading this book.  In order to be able to discuss the topics effectively, and know if their other answers are correct it will be best for you to read the book WITH them.  This is not a test, they are welcome to refer to the book if needed.  This only serves as a tool to help them and you know that they are keeping track of the characters so that they can follow the plot better.

Elantris Check-In

Chapters 1-5

Characters-match the character to their description

• Sarene                                                        fallen Prince of Arelon
• Jaddeth                                                      Raoden's guide in Elantris
• Raoden                                                      widowed bride of Raoden
• Wyrn                                                         not very likeable, King of Arelon
• Hrathen                                                     called to convert Arelon in 3 months
• Galladon                                                   Lord of all creation
• King Iaden                                                servant of the Lord
• Dilaf                                                          kind Uncle of Sarene
• Kiin                                                          agreed to be assistant Hrathen

Definitions-match to the correct definition

• Sule                                                           the magic of Elantris
• Seod                                                          slave
• The Aons                                                   friend
• Hoed                                                          those that change people into Elantrians
• The Shaod                                                Elantrians who had succumbed to the pain

Discussion Questions

1. When Hrathen went to Arelon to convert the city, he found a man there, Fjon, who had led many of the people astray. It is said that he “ran a chapel without order” and that he bowed “before Arelish culture rather than bringing the people strength and discipline.”(p35) How can we make sure that we do not bow down to the culture of the world, but uphold higher standards? Do you think being liked and accepted was important to Fjon?

2. Do you think that the God Hrathen serves is good? Why or why not? What are the similarities and differences between his calling to convert Arelon and that of Christians in the last days to convert the world in preparation for the second coming of Christ?

2. How is Galladon helpful to Raodon?

3 Gangs in Elantris-Informative section

“Karata is both the harshest and most lenient of the gang leaders.” (p47)

She takes food PERSONALLY from new comers and rarely harms them. She's been caught 3 times trying to make it to the King's Palace. Karata has control of the palace in Elantris.

Aanden—tried to establish himself as King of Elantris. Claims he was a noble before. Claims to have a plan for freeing Elantris. He's brutal.

Shaor takes pleasure in controlling others—the most wild and morally corrupt find their way to him. They are scared off from harming others or stealing their food if they think they might fight back.

Snail Trail

I think I feel some Snail Trail coming on. Has anyone who is not in my family EVER heard of that game?

I was out pulling weeds today while the kids were busy playing with worms, spiders, and snails.  The snails were the big hit.

We learned lots of interesting things about snails that were news to me, one of which was that snails are hermaphrodites!  I also learned that they carry diseases and you should make sure the kiddos wash their hands really good after handling.

Check out this Snail World website where we learned all about snails!

Vikings!

We learned about Vikings last week as an intro to US History, as the Vikings landed in North America in around the year 1000 A.D., probably around Newfoundland, CA.  This week we are talking about Christopher Columbus.  The curriculum wanted us to move more quickly onto Columbus, but I have a house full of boys and Vikings are cool!

We checked out some books at the library on Vikings, one of which had some awesome Viking crafts, and today completed our Viking ships.  These are not quite as elaborate as the book, but pretty cool still!

Here are the boys playing with their ships. :)  The blue baby chair is Iceland, the blue yoga mat is the ocean, the green yoga mat is Greenland, and the caste across more water is North America.  (Pay no attention to proportions, exact placement, or what kind of sense it doesn't make to have a castle in North America. :) )  Pretty fun!

P.S. Update: I already decided against that LDS curriculum I was thinking of using next year.  When it comes time to move beyond the Bible study included in our curriculum, probably next year, we will just add other scripture study as it's own curriculum.  I'll share what system we start using once we get to that point!  I do however like rotating Science, and Spanish most of the time.  Social Studies has now become more consistent and a base for our other subjects.  Even cooking :).  A couple weeks ago, chef Superman and I, made and served some patriotic layered white yogurt, raspberries, blueberries, and granola for the brothers.  

Rotating Subjects

So there is a fabulous LDS curriculum that I plan on starting next year for history, see curriculum here, and with  this curriculum they recommend rotating subjects.  Well, I'm not starting their curriculum yet, and when I do I may only do history, but I'm going to try subject rotation now.  I've been noticing Spanish is sort of suffering and science is sporadic SO here's the rotation.  Devotional (song, prayer, scriptures in one form or another), pledge, reading, writing and math daily and then one subject per week of science, social studies, and spanish.  I should also have listed instruments daily....but we're slacking on the daily-ness ;) of that as well.

Right now we're having a problem with Superman retaining his Spanish.  I think that emphasizing Spanish for a full week every three weeks will work better than Spanish once or twice a week as far as retention.  It's also way less stressful to me to have less subjects on my mind at once.  Hopefully I'll let ya know how it goes!

Random Flexible Homeschool Life

As it is in our home, life is unpredictable (as is any home with 5 boys ages 6 and under-or any home with one little person and a parent for that matter)  and so our learning time has to be flexible.  Plans and good intentions get us so far, only to be let go for an option that involves less stress or conflict, or to carry through with an idea that came along right then and just sounds more fun.

Today we started with The Pledge of Allegiance, a prayer, and a scripture story followed by some reading aloud.  We never do things in the same order, or even in the same room.  We then took a break that was supposed to be 10-15 minutes and turned into I think 45 minutes.  (A lot of this is due to the beautiful 3 week old addition to our family.  The kids of course didn't mind some extra lego time.)

When we finally got started again we did some math and a science experiment.  The PLAN was to then do writing before lunch BUT everyone had so much fun with the science I could tell they were too wound up and it wouldn't be fun or pretty to get them to sit down and do their writing.  The other factor was that during the science experiment I had put a masking tape finish line on the carpet and remembered how fun it was over a year ago to make masking tape roads in the front room.

  So we built a little town with masking tape roads in the front room.  So fun!  We're going to leave it up for a couple days and probably add a few more roads.  

 I still planned on doing writing after lunch.

During lunch Spiderman's ukulele showed up on the front porch!  Yea!  We've been expecting it for over a week and he was SO happy!   He now gets to start learning his first instrument!  I think cute Robin is hoping to play it sometime too. :)

Of course after lunch we couldn't go straight to writing!  They had to experiment with the ukulele. They didn't care about me looking up what notes to tune it to first.  THIS was SO fun.  All of the boys got on an instrument.  Big brother Superman has now decided he wants them all to be a band when they get bigger.  We had Robin on the piano, Baby J on the drum, Superman-ukulele, and Spiderman-guitar  (I love how they were all playing the guitar like it was an upright bass--it made me want to get one.)  They rotated a couple times and although musically there wasn't a ton happening, they did all get on the same rhythm a few times, and that was pretty awesome.

Since I had Baby A 3 weeks ago, Robin (will be 4 in Nov) has become one of the big boys in the house.  He is VERY musical and I'm excited to see what comes out of him when he's older.

 Can you get over how cute it is to have that adorable 1 year old on that big drum!  I love it. :)

After the park I put Baby J to bed and tuned the ukulele. Spiderman learned the C chord, and I played a little progression on guitar while I shouted out notes for Superman to play on the piano.  I hope this happens many more times! 

We never got to our writing, or the other "work" I had in mind for the day, but that is the beauty of homeschool.  You don't have to do EVERY subject EVERY day and you have this beautiful opportunity to create special memories with these little people that bless your life.  

P.S. This was our second weekly NO SCREENS day.  I hope to write more about this later!

Vowel Song

(To the tune of "London Bridges")

I know the names of the vowels

A - E - I - O - U

I know the names of the vowels

A - E - I - O - U

Teaching Money

I didn't write this poem and I'm not sure who did, BUT I like it!  Sing it to the tune of "Skip to my Lou" or just recite it.  You could easily just end after the quarter verse if you prefer.  

We did something the kids really enjoyed that would work for auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learners.  My kids know the song pretty well, but are still working to identify the names of the coins correctly.  SO, today we got out each coin while we sang the song, as well as a piece of paper with each coin amount on it.  As we sang the song, we would hold up the coin, and then the number of cents for each coin with the appropriate lyric.  It was fun, hands on, and instructive.  They asked to do it again later in the day.

 Happy homeschooling!

MONEY POEM

Penny, penny, easy spent,
Copper brown and worth one cent.

Nickel, nickel, thick and fat,
You’re worth 5. I know that.

Dime, dime, little and thin,
I remember—you’re worth 10.

Quarter, quarter, big and bold,
You’re worth 25, I am told.

Half a dollar, half a dollar,
Giant size.
50 cents to buy some fries.
Dollar, dollar, green and long,
With 100 cents you can’t go wrong.