Aquinas Learning Center--Month 1

Our St Croix Valley Learning Center just celebrated our 1st "luniversary." In the mornings, we start with Chapel Time. My goals for this time are to help the K-6 children connect with the catechism & virtue lessons for the week, and to present an example of a saint whose feast day we celebrate that week who in some way exemplifies those virtues. So far we have talked about St. Andrew Kim Taegon, St. Vincent de Paul, Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, and St. Teresa of Avila.

Following Chapel Time, the children separate into K-3 and 4-6 groups. Both groups practice memory sentences in eight areas: catechism, virtue, history, science, civics, grammar, geography and Latin. The goal is to learn the memory work in a variety of ways, including songs and games.

After the memory work hour, it is snack time and time for oral presentations. Even the kindergarteners spend time preparing presentations! The focus for these presentations is to learn public speaking skills. Presentations are followed by discussions of a work of literature or story.

After discussions, the K-6 students re-group and alternate between music class and science investigations, depending on the week. So far, we have been learning a method of chant, and dissected a chicken leg (as part of our anatomy studies).

Lunch and recess are next.

In the afternoon, we have decided to combine the kindergarteners with the 3 year olds. (We don't have any 4 year olds, but if we did, this would be their place too.) The 5 year olds seem to do much better with a more relaxed afternoon schedule. They have nature walks, art or science, and cook their own afternoon snack. This is followed by group games and then free play till it is time to go back to their moms.

The K-3 group work on copy work, handwriting, spelling, basic composition skills and then have individual learning centers. The 4-6 graders work on composition skills, grammar and then have critical thinking games.

So far, I think the year has gone wonderfully. Everyone seems to really pitch in and help out, despite a high number of young babies! I am eager to see how the Center will grow throughout the year.

"Beauty is Evidence of Truth"

Before I go into that profound idea, a brief explanation for the almost 1 year absence from this blog. Basically, I got too busy with being pregnant, teaching adult education classes, guiding 3 different homeschool clubs, being a business owner, being a wife and mom to say nothing of being (admittedly a mediocre) homemaker that I just didn't take the time to blog. But lots happened last year and we had loads of fun!

So...on to this year! I am opening up an Aquinas Learning Center here in the St. Croix Valley! An Aquinas Learning Center is an educational mentoring program consisting of homeschooling families who meet together once a week to learn together and then spend the rest of the week in their homes (and beyond!) expanding on the ideas introduced on the Aquinas Learning Center Day. The program provides each family with a nearly complete curriculum to use at home throughout the week.

One of the reasons I am so excited about this new project is because of AL's goal of weaving truth, beauty and goodness throughout their curriculum. This is where the quotation above fits in. I am reading Fr. Thomas Dubay's Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer. In the section I read today, Fr. Dubay commented that "beauty is evidence of truth." This statement hit me forcefully. Reflecting on "beauty" reminded me of the great portraits--the beauty we identify in these works of art give witness to the beauty of one of God's masterpieces--the human body. We see in great portraits the truth that each human being is a masterpiece. There is great wisdom in this phrase: "Beauty is Evidence of Truth." I am eager to plunge deeper into beauty, goodness and truth this year with my family and the other brave families who have boldly decided to join us in this new endeavor. May God bless this new center and all who learn together!

The Vikings Are Coming!

The Time Travelers Adventure Club is back up and running after a summer of living only in the 21st century. September we studied the Vikings---their culture, runes, clothing, cool head gear and more. The club has grown and so now we have a preschool group, a 2nd grade group, and a Big Kids group. Overall, I think this has been good for the kids since they can now learn more at their unique levels. Unfortunately, I cannot show photos as my digital camera recently broke. :( If photos are posted, it means I located my 2nd camera and was able to retrieve the old photos!

New World Discoverers Book Club

Our other new club this year is the New World Discoverers Book Club, an American history club & Socratic discussion group combined. The kids spent September reading about the early explorers to the Americas and reading and discussing books!

Brand New S'mArties Art Club!

Blazing Trails Adventure Clubs now sponsors 2 new clubs: one of them being the S'mArties Art Club. The Art Club is for kids up to 3rd grade. We spent September studying two medieval artists: Cimabue and Giotto. After learning a bit about their lives and studying two of their works of art, the children made projects inspired by them. We have done watercolors, oil pastels, scratch art (like Giotto as a boy), and fresco painting. If I can retrieve my photos, I'll put up some examples of the kids' work!

SAND Club Kicks off Hardwoods Study

The SAND Club will be studying the three major Minnesota biomes this year, in an effort to understand the Minnesota-area wilderness as experienced by the early explorers, voyageurs, and missionaries. In September and October, we will study the Hardwood Forest. We are using the Jr. Naturalist booklets put out by the DNR. We visited Fort Snelling State Park and the informative ranger took us on a walk through the forest, showing us a variety of interesting plants and trees. We collected leaves (with her permission!) and made leaf prints at the Nature Center. My favorite new critter is now the leaf miner, a small insect that burrows through leaves, leaving small tunnels behind. Very interesting!

SAND Club Learns about Land Use Now & Then

In May, we visited Dunrovin Retreat Center. Mary Meeds kindly took us on a tour of the grounds, which was a fabulous review of many things we studied this year. First, she showed us their herb garden, where they grow herbs for use in the dining hall. On the tour, we saw jack in the pulpits, spruce trees, marsh marigolds, and many other wildflowers and trees as Mary discussed the challenge of keeping the forest thriving despite the invasion of buckthorn. She also shared with us how they treat their water in order to make sure the St. Croix River stays clean. Finally, we enjoyed a hike through the grounds, and crossed a bridge that goes through their ponds. We ended up at a garden that now grows where folks used to swim (in an old swimming pool). There, we helped weed the garden where they grow much of the food they serve at the Retreat Center.




The second week we visited Little Flower Farm. Chiara took us on an extensive tour in which we got to collect eggs, and touch goats who tried to escape their pens. We saw the greenhouses and fields, saw how the Dowells encourage their hens to lay eggs by fooling them with golf balls, and learned about sheep shearing and how to correctly sharpen and use a scythe. In the end, we enjoyed some truly delicious goat cheese made by Chiara. I think it was profitable for the children to consider the challenges of caring for such big properties.

We finished up the year by talking about what we had learned. Today, just as in years past, we hunt, fish, grow plants, gather plants, and recreate. We also build cities, settle (semi)permanently in houses and build roads. We aren't necessarily "better" than the people of the past, and they aren't necessarily "better" than we are. What truly matters is how we live our lives---are we loving more today than we did yesterday? Are we enjoying and caring for the world God created? Are we letting God work through us? Are we turning our hearts and our lives over to Him? The measure that we radiate hope and joy manifests the condition of our soul.