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Dd was getting a little overwhelmed with the worksheets & such with rightstart. I was a little frustrated with the spiralness so we are taking a break from rightstart for a while.
Instead I pulled out the Singapore Math that I had not sold bascially 2a & b. It is all reveiw but dd is liking working through it. It is easy and I think right now at this time of year she needs easy.
We will probably pick up Rightstart again in April or May but then again she may just continue with Singapore. I think that it is important that she likes the math curriculum which we are using.
She needed the year with Rightstart to help her mature enough to be able to write in her workbooks. We may do a combo using SM when she is ready to plow through and switching to RS when we need to hold steady & play for a while.
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I can tell you that my former English teachers will be very happy about this. |
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Posted in Reviews
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The girls were all over the Kumon books when they came in. They love the mazes, glueing and folding books.
The Earlybird Science was not quite what I was expecting from the samples but I think we will get a lot out of it. It is mainly a workbook that brings up ideas to think about and in parts things to try. It is not as hands-on as I would like but we are not going to get a good hands-on science for less than $100.00 a year or more and Earlybird was on $15.00.
Earlybird will keep us busy until September and goes over a lot of topics we just haven't taken the time to explore. I think it will be a nice addition.
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We have added in the Kumon books recently and this has been a lot of fun. We are also doing Christmas projects and the girls are loving this hands-on sort of learning.
So I have been researching ideas for more hands-on learning in our homeschool. First, we are adding in Singapore Earlybird Science and will do bunny trail activities to go along with the ideas introduced in the books.
Next, we are going to do some of the activities listed in the Activity Guide for Story of the World. There are a lot of great ideas in there and I don't know why we haven't been doing these projects.
Then we are looking at getting History Pockets Plymoth Colony to go along with our reading of Story of the Pilgrims. We are also looking at Literature Pockets Nursery Rhymes and the Theme Pockets for the months of the year. These look like they would be fun and interesting.
The months of the year Theme Pockets have 3 themes for each month so you make 3 pocket books. So you could really use them over the course of 3 years. Doing holidays one year, the next you do people and animals, and the third year do the extra themes.
Just thinking about all this. Maybe down the road we will get into lapbooking but I think we are a ways away yet. Although I did check a book out from the library on making pop-ups. Very neat! |
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We started the alphabet today and crashed and burned. My oldest is not ready for this transition yet. She did well with the numbers and this helped her greatly there but she is not ready for cursive.
So what are we going to do? We are going to pick up where dd left off when she got frustrated with Handwriting without tears. A six-month break and she is ready to use this workbook again. I think we will finish the My Printing Book by March and then do the Printing Power book before attempting Cursive 1st again.
My little one was not ready for Cursive 1st at all & is getting ready to finish her Handwriting Without Tears pre-K book so we will go onto Letter and Numbers for me.
All is not lost. We will use Cursive 1st eventually--just not right now.
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Posted in schedules
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Before you know it the new year will be here and for us that means a shift from Greece to Rome in our history studies. So I have been looking over our books and resources as well as inspiration from other mom's on treating our homeschool as a serious business. And here are our plans for the new year.
We will start our day with jump start activities. Kumon workbooks for both girls and penmanship will get us started working and having fun.
Then we will move into memory time. This is where we will review phonograms, do grammar definitions and other information.
Next, we will have seatwork time for my oldest. Starting with SWR or FLL/copywork, then Rightstart math, Greek and finishing off with Piano practice. At some point we will add Prima Latina into the mix here.
Then we will have read aloud time with Story of the World or Story of the Pilgrims and looking at the topic of the day in the Earlybird science books and then finishing off our day with hands-on history, science and/or art projects.
It should take us from 1 and a half to 3 hours to complete our day. I think that with the hands-on activities and the Kumon books that we will have a lot more fun but we will also get the serious work done in a timely fashion as well.
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I know, it's Thanksgiving but I went ahead and placed an order to Rainbow Resource anyway. I have been doing my planning for December and the Spring Semester. We have been lacking a bit in the hands-on and science areas and so I took the plunge.
I just ordered Kumon number books, cutting and mazes for my youngest and a maze book and pasting book for my oldest. They love these books and they are a lot of fun.
I also ordered Singapore Earlybird Science. I've looked and looked at the books several times over the past 2 years and finally decided to go with them. They are only $15.00 and offer a nice springboard to jump off into other topics. If the girl's enjoy them we will probably take a tour through the Our Pals are Here science books.
Now, I just need to find a bible curriculum that meets our needs. We really like Bob Jones but we are not Baptist.
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Posted in Reviews
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We love the Kumon workbooks. I picked up several from Target to try them out because my youngest is not ready for rightstart math & is finishing up HWT preK but not ready for Curisve 1st.
We bought the folding, sticker & paste and the tracing book. She begs to do these and they are so much fun. I got my older daughter one of the maze books and she thought it was so much fun and some of those mazes were very difficult.
We are looking at adding in Kumon as a fun supplement to our activities. I plan on using Numbers 1-30, number games 1-70, easy mazes, and cutting for my youngest. I may get her the Uppercase letters book as well. For my oldest I am ordering Amazing mazes and pasting.
These books are glossy, nice illustrations and lots of fun. They even have the littles ones doing some oragami in the folding book. We were wanting some hands-on and here it is.
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Posted in schedules
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I hate to say it but with being sick at this time of year and having planned to spend December on Christmas. I am going to throw in the towel and start again after the holidays on any serious schoolwork getting done.
Once I am better, we will be filling the month of December with lots of fun stuff like opening our Advent Calendars everyday, making Christmas cards, decorating the tree, telling Christmas stories and watching Christmas movies. The season of joy is decending upon us.
I am pretty sure that Thanksgiving is going to be a flop. We're all too sick to enjoy the season and the food.
So what lies ahead for us. We will try to plug along with Rightstart math, Spell to Write and Read and do a little of Cursive 1st. My youngest just finished her HWT book and I am going to move her to the Cursive 1st letters. My oldest just finished up re-learning to write her numbers.
So we will do the 3 r's and lots of Christmas projects. After the first of the year we will pick up history with the Romans. I am looking at adding in BJU Bible, Singapore Earlybird Science and more Kumon workbooks for my youngest. She loves those Kumon workbooks.
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There is nothing like surgery and illness in the family to bring it down to basic levels of need. Dh recently had shoulder surgery and I came down with bronchitus three days into his recovery. It has been quite a trip here as we lay around watching movies all day in misery.
The girls have been great. They have been especially good, not getting rowdy or making a lot of noise. But now my little one is starting to run a fever and I see a rather ill Thanksgiving descending upon us. My oldest is a hardy type who never gets sick but she is also the one with the most energy. (This should help her if she really does become a Dr. one day like she has talked of being.)
Well, anyway. Pray for us and that my husband will recover quickly and free of pain and that I and my little one will quickly be on the mend and up and running again.
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Posted in schedules
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We start the school day:
Handwriting practice with Cursive 1st for older and HWT for younger child Coloring pages or copywork while I read from Christian Liberty Nature Reader or Story of the World Younger child works on phonograms and numbers Memory work time--days & months, definition of noun & verb, books of the Bible, our first bible verse in greek and phonograms SWR with older child/or grammar on weeks we do copywork Rightstart Math C Greek Vocabulary from Bible Verse Early Edition Newspaper Science project or Art project
We started the school year with 100% bad attitudes and as we have worked on them we now have 75% good attitudes. So it is looking good and we are doing well.
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Posted in Reviews
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There has been much talk on the Well Trained Mind Boards over this recent piece of writing from a mother who is classically educating her children. I would like to write down my thoughts on the article.
1. Wadrobe--she has a point. Getting dressed everyday is very important. I have read that laying around in your PJs all day is a sign of depression. It is important to get dressed even if it isn't in school uniforms.
2. I believe that having school daily at a regular time is important. We have school Mon through Thurs. and start at 9:30 sharp each day.
3. A yearly lesson plan, goals or even an IEP for your children is very important. If you map out what you expect to do over the year it is so nice to look at the plan at the end of the year and see how far you have come.
4. Sticking to your schedule 95% of the time. Yes, I lay out yearly, monthly and weekly plans. I have goals for the year which I adjust on a monthly basis as we move either more quickly or slowly thorugh the curriculum. And every week I take time to write out what we will do each day for the next week and I put all of our worksheet in a folder in the order that we will use them for the week. It works out so well & I know where everything is.
5. Only doing school during school. I have a hard one with this but I also have noticed that when I concentrate on my children and their schoolwork and don't do other projects while they are working that they are more attentive to their work. I am the teacher they need my guidance and attention.
6. Accountability--Having written goals for the year and the week help so much in making sure that work gets done.
7. Memory Period--She suggests 25 to 30 minutes a day on memory work but since my children are younger and I have fewer (she has four). We spend 10 min a day working on basic information, grammar terms, bible verse in greek, and phonograms. I can see spending closer to 25 min as my children grow and we add in more latin and greek memory work.
8. Making Time Count--"It's not how long you school each day, it's what you do with the time you have." She said it best and I have to agreee. Quality is better than quantity when it comes to schoolwork or anything else in life.
9. Fun--This is something I am starting to add into our school days. I have been looking at history pockets, treasure chests and the heart and hands kits. Right now we have been doing some drawings from the Draw Write Now books that goes along with our studies of Pocahontas, Jamestown and the Pilgrims. My oldest also loves doing science projects.
10. One on one time/toutoring--I could never imagine handing work to my children and leaving the room. I am nearby even for independant work so that if there are questions I can quickly answer them or help with a problem.
11. Do-Over/Mastery--This is something that we are already doing and that I believe in. I tell my daughter that it is ok to make mistakes and that we need to do it over and find the correct answer so that we can learn.
12. Planning--This is the backbone of the school. If you have not planned your lessons and have the materials ready then you will be scrambling and the children will lose interest. I know this first hand. When I plan my lesson and have all the work laid out for them before they come to school it all goes so much smoother.
13. Tough Stuff First--Yes, get the hard stuff out of the way and finish off with the subjects that the children love and enjoy. We start our day with a little lead in of a history or science read aloud then dive into copywork or SWR once I have their attention. We also do memorywork at this time and then move on to my dd's favorite of math. Ending the time with fun stuff like greek, experiments, art projects and finally piano practice.
14. I have to agree with the results of a well-planned school that you do have a little bit longer days and you don't feel the guilt when you take a day off because you know that the day has been scheduled and that during the school days you cover everything fully as needed.
15. We are so looking forward to Latin studies as well as Greek.
Classical education is supposed to teach self-discipline, good study habits and give the child the ability to think for themselves. You can not give a child a good classical education on history or literature studies alone. They need the memory work, grammar, classical languages and even instrument study to build up good habits.
I am taking the challenge that has been laid out in this epistula and am actively working toward teaching my children these skills as well as tightening my own belt. And I have already seen some of the rewards as my children less frequently try to whine their way out of school or school work but do the work assigned so that it gets done.
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Posted in Reviews
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We just finished up Little House in the Big Woods. My dds loved the book and would beg for stories about Laura and Mary every night. I remember as a child I loved the TV show and the books as well and now my dd really like them.
I gave them a choice for the next read aloud and they opted for the next little house book. Little House on the Prarie is going well but we were all upset by the loss of Jack in the creek last night--I haven't told the girls yet that he survived. They will find out tonight and I can't wait to see their reactions.
Well, anyway, we are greatly enjoying the Little house books as our literature read aloud. We are also finishing up Pocahontas by the D'Aulaires. It has been a great book as well and we are looking forward to the book on Jamestown before starting in on the Pilgrims.
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Posted in schedules
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I know, I know. It is early but our state's homeschool convention is in March, so I want to have a list of what I want to look at.
This next year we will be doing the Dark & Middle Ages with plenty of time for King Arthur and Robin Hood. We want to fully explore being princesses, castles, knights like Joan of Arc, the Cantebury Tales and the crusades.
So we are looking at:
Story of the World II with activity Guide and possibly with Biblioplan D'Aulaire's Norse Myths Beautiful Feet Early American History Semester II Children's book of Tales from Chaucer A good book about King Arthur that will take several week to read but is interesting And one about Robin Hood as well.
Real Science 4 Kids Pre-Level 1 Chemistry Christian Liberty Nature Reader II
Copywork for Little Girls from Queenhomeschool Or Copywork I from Memoria Press
Prima Latina
Bob Jones Univeristy Bible Truths
Easy Grammar 2nd & 3rd grade.
We will continue to use Rightstart Math, Spell to Write and Read and Cursive 1st. |
Posted in Reviews
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We are starting week 3 with Cursive 1st. My youngest is happiest with HWT and her printing is fine. I am going to let her continue and slowing introduce Cursive 1st once she completes the HWT preschool book.
Now my oldest is making great strides with her penmanship. We have been concentrating on 0, 6, 8 and 9. She is open to learning the rules. 0 and 8 haven't been a problem but she has had trouble with 6 and 9 in the past. She is starting to start these letter correctly outside of the Cursive 1st lessons.
The program is so easy to implement and I have recently started making sandpaper numbers and letters for both girls. I am going to make sanpaper cards for all the phonograms as well.
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Posted in Reviews
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What do we have in our library bag this week?
Little House in the Big Woods--this has been so much fun to read to my girls.
Click Clack Moo Cows that Type & Giggle, Giggle, Quack--both by Dorren Cronin were a real favorite around here. So funny.
The X-Ray Picture Book of Big Building of the Ancient World--Good but a little over my girl's heads right now.
The Greek Hoplite by Martin Windrow--haven't looked at it yet.
We just finished up D'Aulaire's Columbus (a bit boring) and are reading Pocahontas now.
So we are starting to study Native Americans. Starting with:
A New True Book series: Native Americans The Penobscot (did you know that the Cleveland Indians were named such in honor of Louis Sockalexis who played for them when they were the Spiders?) The Delaware
The Powhatan People by Kim covert The Deleware People by Allison Lassieur Powhatan Indians by Suzanne Morgan Williams Pocahontas: Peacemaker and Friend to the Colonists The True Story of Pocahontas Owl Eyes by Frieda Gates & Yoshi Miyake (a Mohawk Tale) The Legend of the Cranberry: A Paleo-Indian Tale by Ellin Greene (Deleware Tale)
Pocahontas has been a hit!
D'Aulaire's book of Norse Myths--haven't read any yet but the library finally got it in & I thought we should read a few to go with our norse studies.
Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy: A Chinese Folktale by Ellin Greene--This book was a nice engaging tale & I have a weakness for Japanse & Chinese Folk stories
Always Copycub and Copy me, Copycub by Richard Edwards Furry by Holly Kelley--about getting a pet for a girl who is allergic to most pets.
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In August, I removed all of our pictures from the old Albums which I had read were filled with acid that would eventually eat my pictures. Not to mention the things were falling apart.
So, I have been scapping my pictures and putting them in a large album for holding. Well, I got my consultant kit from Creative Memories and in there was a CM Album in Ruby Red.
At first I had no idea what pictures I would start with in it. Should I do Halloween? Dh's baby pictures? The Girls? 2006? or Should I start the Heritage Album?
I really need to do something that would show off some of the CM stuff and I had just started doing my baby pictures with lots of CM photo mats & journaling boxes. So I decided to make myself a baby book. It has been so much fun. And I really haven't used a lot of baby pastels. It has mostly been groovy oranges, yellows and greens.
My parents have also been doing the journaling. It is coming out really nice.
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It looks like oldest has mastered this. We've been finishing up Rightstart level B and she has been working on these worksheets lately. She is so ready to move on to C. |
Posted in schedules
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Now, that we are into October, I can safely say that we are getting into a nice routine and are happy with our outside activities list.
This year we are doing:
Oldest--Ballet, piano Youngest--Ballet
Togther we also go to the library once a week for storytime and to pick out books. Also, through our homeschool group we get together for field trips and playtimes. We are looking at going to see an art exhibit on our own this Friday.
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