Exam Questions: Year One Term One

Monday A.M.

Tell how God was faithful to Joseph in the land of Egypt. (Bible)

Show how nine beans may be grouped into three sets. Then, show how these same beans may be grouped into three different sets.

Tell how God miraculously protected George Washington during the French and Indian War. (George Washington by D'Aulaire)

Hum Mozart's "A Little Night Music".

Name the colors in the color wheel in Spanish.

***This morning's exam narrations went well :) I waited until Little Dude was down for morning nap, then I gave Shug and Punkin something fun to do and went into another room with SweetP. We had our little tape recorder and microphones, beans, and color wheel. I also had the exam questions. The only issue was that, at times, SweetP would forget to hold the microphone up high enough to her mouth, so I'd have to gently nudge it up in the middle of her narration. That may have been a bit distracting. I meant to time the exam session (just for future planning), but I completely forgot about it when the time came. I hope to time this afternoon's questions, though. Thanks so much for all of the kind comments :) You all are so encouraging.***


Monday P.M.

Tell the story of one of Britain's ancient heroes. (Our Island Story)

Tell why David Livingstone was not content to stay at the mission station in Kuruman. (David Livingstone)

What have you noticed (yourself) about a white-tailed deer?

Tell one of Aesop's fables (The Aesop for Children)

***Well, we're done for the day! This afternoon's exams took a total of ten minutes. One tip - if you're trying to tape narrations with a ten month old baby in the room, it might be hard to hear through the squeals and babbles ;) Once Little Dude was occupied with some Legos, SweetP began to narrate much more fluently than she had in the morning (even offering a little extra anecdote on the last question). It may be that she just needed to warm up since she hadn't officially narrated since Thursday. I'm pleased with today's exam experience! Although, I'm not convinced that this tape recorder is the best way to go.***

Tuesday A.M.

Tell three ways in which Martha Washington was a comfort to the soldiers in the Continental Army. (Martha Washington)

Arrange the hands on the Judy Clock to point to 7 o' clock.

Tell the story of the boy Jesus in the temple. (Bible)

Explain how water travels from the Nipigon Country in Canada to the Atlantic Ocean. (Paddle-to-the-Sea)

Name your family relationships in Spanish (example: Nana is my abuela)

***SweetP was a little flaky this morning. I'm not sure if the questions were a bit harder or what. I knew the Paddle question would be tricky - she got the basic concept of the pathway, but she kept wanting to name the Great Lakes in order of Paddle's course. Eventually, I told her to end her narration, and we looked at the map later on. Who knows how long she would have thought aloud about whether Lake Huron came before of after Lake Erie if I hadn't moved her along ;) We used a normal tape recorder today instead of the toy one with the microphone. I'll wait until afternoon exams are over to comment on my preference.***


Tuesday P.M.

Tell about your favorite aria from The Magic Flute. (The Magic Flute)

Tell all you can about what makes an animal a mammal. What can you tell about nursing sows and their piglets?

Sing as much of any folk song as you can.

Choose two different tree-nuts/seeds that you have seen this fall and tell all you can about them.

Count from 1 to 10 in Spanish

***Considering that we didn't get to these exam narrations until 7:30pm, SweetP did great! I didn't tape record these answers, I just typed as fast as I could. Which wasn't fast enough. I had to interrupt her a lot to get all of the words typed out. Not at all optimal. It definitely helps to type later after the narrations have been recorded. I'm feeling so-so about exams so far. I think I'll like having so many narrations typed out for our year end State Assessments, but I'm not sure about how beneficial I think they are in general. We'll go on with tomorrow as planned, though.***

Wednesday A.M. (Not today! We went shopping all day instead!)
***Thursday A.M. instead***

Recite a poem that you have memorized this term.

Tell a tale about a Greek or Roman hero. (Fifty Famous Stories Retold)

Using an orange, explain one way in which we can tell the earth is a sphere. (Elementary Geography)

Explain why the American Revolution was fought. (Martha Washington)

Translate the following Spanish words into English: comer, globo, por favor, hola

***I felt better about exams today. I purposed to keep the feel of things light and relational instead of too "exam-y". We did not tape record, but I typed as fast as I could (which is pretty fast), all the while abbreviating a good bit and misspelling a lot in my efforts to keep up. I still had to ask her to wait for me to catch up, though. After SweetP finished each narration, I took a moment to go back through my typing and correct my typing errors. I liked this better than typing after recording, but SweetP (of course) really likes using the tape recorder. She did say (sweetly - her blog name fits her) that she doesn't like having to stop her narration to wait for me typing. That makes sense. I think for our final exam questions we will try Lindafay's method and tape record without transcription. I could always type a few narrations each term for written records.***


Wednesday P.M. (No exams today - we played hooky!)
Thursday P.M. instead

Tell all you know about the continent of Africa. (David Livingstone)

Count out 12 beans into one set. Tell how many beans will be left if you take four away? Show your work with the beans.

Tell a fairy tale or folk tale that we have read this term. (Treasury of Children's Literature)

Tell all you know about the nest-making habits of goldfinches. (Among the Forest People)

Sing "Frere Jacques"

***We're done!! This afternoon we used the tape recorder again. Aside from the one time SweetP got completely distracted by brushing dust off of the top of it right in the middle of her fairy tale narration, I would say this session went more smoothly than those I typed as she narrated. I would prefer to not transcribe today's narrations, but I remembered that I had told SweetP (a few weeks ago) I would type out her answers. She's a paper-loving child and the idea of a little book of her own narrations appealed to her greatly ;) So, I guess I'm going to type out some narrations tonight,*sigh*. Helpful tip - don't make silly commitments to transcribing exams unless you really like typing. This is an especially handy tip if your child is a rather prolific talker.***

Our Very First Exam Week - Ever!

Week twelve is now officially completed and that means one thing. We are about to embark on our very first ever exam week. I'm a little nervous. I'm trying to remember all the kind and encouraging words I've read at Higher Up and Further In about making exam week pleasurable and a highlight of the term. I'm trying to remember that I had similar feelings when we first began narrations, and look how well everything turned out. I'm sure it will be fine. There's just this funny insecurity because I have never done this before nor have I seen it done. It's just me, Charlotte Mason, and a few good blog posts tonight as I try to figure out exactly what I'm supposed to do.

I know that last line, "exactly what I'm supposed to do", is a little out of fashion right now in homeschooling circles. We hear a lot about how "supposed to" is like a dirty word in homeschooling. Someday, I am sure I will have tailored CM style exams to fit our family just right, but at this point, I'm wanting a good deal of guidance. The flex part can come later when I have a better idea of what I'm doing.

In reading other blogs and specific entries on exams, I've been surprised at how many comments seemed to think examinations were incompatible with Miss Mason's methods. Without a doubt, Charlotte Mason's students underwent an examination at the end of each term. Even the youngest ones.

Did you know that Charlotte Mason gives a very detailed outline of how these exams were conducted for each of the grade levels (forms)? Her explanation of Parents' Review School (the homeschool version of a PNEU school) examinations can be found in the appendix to Volume 3, School Education. (By the way, "drill" simply means exercises or calisthenics.) She writes the following:

"The Parents' Review School, an output of The Parents' Union, was, in the first place, designed to bring homeschools, taught by governesses, up to the standard of other schools. A Training College for governesses, with Practising School, etc., was established later. Children may not enter the School under six; because we think the first six years of life are wanted for physical growth and the self-education which children carry on with little ordered aid. The Parents' Review school is conducted by means of programmes of work, in five classes, sent out, term by term, to each of the home schools (and to some other schools); and the same programmes are used in the Practising School. Examination papers are set at the end of each term.

The work is arranged on the principles which have been set forth in this volume; a wide curriculum, a considerable number of books for each child in the several classes, and, besides, a couple of hours' work daily, not with Books but with Things. Many of the pupils in the school have absorbed, in a way, the culture of their parents; but the children of uncultured parents take with equal readiness and comparable results to this sort of work, which is, I think, fitted, not only for the clever, but also for the average and even the dull child.

Class 1a. - The child of six goes into Class 1a.; he works for 2 and 1/2 hours a day, but half an hour of this time is spent in drill and games. Including drill, he has thirteen 'subjects' of study, for which about sixteen books are used. He recited hymns, poems, and Bible verses; works from Messrs Sonnenschein and Nesbitt's ABC Arithmetic; sings French and English songs; begins Mrs. Curwen's Child Pianist, learns to write and to print, learns to read, learns French orally, does brushdrawing and various handicrafts. All these things are done with joy, but cannot be illustrated here. Bible lessons, read from the Bible; tales, natural history, and geography are taught from appointed books, helped by the child's own observation.

Our plan in each of these subjects is to read to him the passage for the lesson (a good long passage), talk about it a little, avoiding much explanation, and then let him narrate what has been read. This he does very well and with pleasure, and is often happy with catching the style as well as the words of the author.

Certain pages, say 40 or 50, from each of the children's books are appointed for a term's reading. At the end of the term an examination paper is sent out containing one or two questions on each book. Here are a few of the answers. The children in the first two classes narrate their answers, which someone writes from their dictation."

Miss Mason then goes on to cite specific exam questions and answers from students in each of the grade levels. The narrations these children give are truly illuminating for the modern CM mother. Do you ever wonder what Charlotte Mason's standards were for children the same age as yours? Rest assured, sister, they were high. If you'd like to read the exam answers, Ambleside Online has them available here. I've typed enough tonight ;)

I will, however, list out the example questions that were sent out to the Parents' Review School homes. These questions are for Form 1a. (six or seven year old children).

* Tell the story of Naaman.

* Tell a fairy story. (If you don't read any other answers, read this one!)

* What have you noticed (yourself) about a spider?

* Gather three sorts of leaf-buds and two sorts of catkin, and tell all you can about them.

* Tell about The North-West Passage.

Of course, this is just a sampling. Miss Mason indicated that the examination paper included one to two questions for each of the books used within the course of the term. She reported that roughly sixteen books were used to cover thirteen 'subjects'. We have not, in our little homeschool, had a "full load" CM term. This was our first term of Year One (Form 1a.), and I felt the need to ease into things a bit. We have not included all of the subjects at this point; although, I plan to include all of them by the middle of the second term. For our first term, we had about 11 books, including our poetry and math books (we read well over fifty pages from each of them - something to improve next term - more later). I'll be working on questions from each of those books tomorrow night, and we'll be doing exam narrations on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.

I'm still learning, ladies. Little by little :)

Excellent Post on Year One Exams

I have linked to Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In before. This weekend, I came across this excellent post on her family's exam weeks.

We will be finishing up our first term in three weeks, and I have been beginning to think about how we will approach our first round of exams. I can't tell you what a blessing and encouragement this post has been to me. Lindafay has faithfully followed Miss Mason's exam methods more than any other CM blogger I've read. I am so relieved by much of what she has to say. Miss Mason's methods are doable.