the brew*crew adventure

Our 9 year old daughter, T, has been wanting me to "do a real horse-study" with her for months now, and finally, we have begun. Yes, today, on Friday, at the end of the week we've officially started our study. *smiles* She is so ready and was literally begging to start this afternoon, rather than waiting until next week . Our study guide, Beautiful Feet's History of the Horse: A Literature Approach to Equine History arrived in the mail yesterday. I've admired it for years, knowing that eventually we'd get it and dive in together.

T was/is ecstatic and has been perusing it since it got here, savoring it... has all of the other books for the study all stacked up neatly in a pile, awaiting their turn to be called upon for use/reading in the study.  After having her already waiting for practically a year to start, I didn't want her to have to wait any longer... especially now that with this guide, she really needs minimal direction from me anyhow. So, why not? I said and today we did the first lesson together.

With T being the horse lover that she is, I found that we already owned most of the books recommended for the study, and I was then able to acquire the few that we didn't already have from Paperback Swap. So, I've only had to actually buy the guide itself. We were doubly blessed that copies of the books we did receive from pbs were in like-new condition.

Today we read about Arabians from her Encyclopedia of Horses and she started her notebook, an aspect of the study that she's relishing, and I'm so glad that this guide provides direction for. For her first notebook page she found and then drew a diagram of the horse from the front of her encyclopedia, and then labeled the parts of the horse (most of which she already had memorized). Next she read about Arabians from her Album of Horses (an absolutely beautifully illustrated book), gave a narration as to why Arabians make such good desert horses and then drew a side view of a horse rearing, from her Draw 50 Horses book. Underneath the picture she wrote the quote, "And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it and created the horse." which is from a Bedouin legend, the entirety of which she read to me from her horse encyclopedia. And all that was just lesson 1. She asked me if she could work on it over the weekend, and wants to do lesson 2 tomorrow... Why did I wait so long to get this for her?

For lesson 2, she'll begin reading King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (first two chapters) and will then also begin a glossary of terms in the back of her notebook by defining bloodlines, stud and mare, and she'll study a pedigree/bloodline graph. We'll discuss a bit of how breeding works as well as how bloodlines are traced, along with some more vocabulary. There are some discussion questions listed as well regarding her reading of King of the Wind. She'll then draw a map of Morocco, marking the Atlas Mountains and the Strait of Gibraltar. In the next, third lesson, she's to read two more chapters from King of the Wind, discuss some questions regarding her reading (narration prompts), will color the map of Morocco and paste it into her notebook, and will also begin the Bible memory verses section of her notebook (copy and memory work), the first entry of which is described as being "just how the Arabian reacts when it hears the trumpet sounding war.";

“Have you given the horse strength?
Have you clothed his neck with thunder?

Can you frighten him like a locust?
His majestic snorting strikes terror.

 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
He gallops into the clash of arms.

He mocks at fear, and is not frightened;
Nor does he turn back from the sword.

The quiver rattles against him,
The glittering spear and javelin.

He devours the distance with fierceness and rage;
Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.

At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle from afar,
The thunder of captains and shouting.

~Job  39.19-25

I know that this is going to be a wonderful study for T, as it seems already to have been custom made for her. So far I really appreciate how it's so clearly organized and the lessons seem to be just the right amount of work for her to enjoy, yet be a bit challenged by. Also, she'll finally have guided opportunity to get the most enjoyment from all of these lovely horse books she's been collecting over the years, only a couple of which she's read. Today, she excitedly exclaimed to me, between reading pages of her Horse Encyclopedia aloud, "I'm really getting into this! This is the first time that I read all of the words on the pages of this book. Before I just looked at all the pictures!" It's been admired and "looked at" for years by her, how fun (and probably perfect timing actually) to now delve deeper into it with her. How my heart leaped to see the sparkle in her eyes and hear the anticipation in her voice. I think that the notebook will turn out to be a beautiful keepsake too. She's already excitedly mentioned her using the guide "to someday teach baby S about horses when she's bigger".

Here's a listing of the other books that she'll be using in her horse study this year.

Technorati Tags: horses, literature, curriculum, horse study, beautiful feet guides, literature guide, equine history

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