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PA = The Principle Approach

NP = Noah Plan Curriculum    

     We're closing in on our third week with the NPand I'm noticing something. What I see on the surface may or may not be the real deal.

     Case in point, my daughter and son sometimes ho-hum their way through Bible class. I'm trying to give it my all and bring out some key points that are just so good...then I see my daughter yawning or my son drifting off into la-la land and my bubble deflates. I feel like I'm letting them down in some way and think the lesson is a horrible failure. Five hours later I heard both of them singing a song that they learned in that same Bible class as they go playing around the house!!! My mouth drops open and I'm dumbfounded.

     Things like this happen ALL THE TIME!!! I guess I should be used to it, but for some reason I am always caught off guard. So, I've explained to my children that they just need to hang in there with Mommy. Even if some parts may not seem all that interesting, it will pay off in the end. Those little moments I'm blessed to catch during the day, encourage me that more is caught then I realize. My hubby says they can't turn their ears off so that'll always be the case. He just reminds me that it's so important to have them hearing the right things so that the right things will come out of them.

     So, I feel a bit looser in my teaching and a bit more relaxed in our day. I do try to touch on all the subjects everyday, but some days (like today) it just doesn't happen. My children got carried away with magnets today and then my daughter wanted to dance with the Swans (she's hooked on watching and dancing with the ballet Swan Lake) so we hardly finished everything, but I just try to go with the flow and remind myself that this is much more than they'd be getting anywhere else. I will say I still feel like I'm more task oriented than heart oriented, which I think is what the PA is all about. God is giving me more little by little, but I do still feel the tug of adhering to the letter instead of the spirit. As I said, God is moving me from this so I'm not really troubled about where I am right now. I know that He who has begun a good work in me will be able to complete it till the day of Jesus Christ. I also know my Jesus, loves His children and won't let me mess them up, so I'm just going along and giving them what I have when He gives it to me to give. The more I press into Him, the more I have to give.

     While I have said all that, I am considering changing a few of my ways. We used to do "school" without having a set format. We used to just flow from one interest of theirs to another. I'm thinking of brining this back into practice. I think by nature I'm a by-the-book kind of learner, but once I get used to it I can let my creativity flow a whole lot easier. Starting out these first few weeks I've been by-the-book, but God is expanding me to go outside the box. I'll be praying more about this....

     Oh yeah, I just have to tell this one more scenario I was blessed to stumble upon. While my children were getting ready for bed, they decided to do an experiment. For the past few days we'd been studying the scientific method and I thought things were going in one ear and out the other. I come upstairs and my daughter tells me they just finished conducting an experiment to answer the problem, will the bubbles in the sink go away when we apply toothpaste? Being the good home school mother I am (I had to fight this SO hard), I ignored the rant that was welling up in my throat and after hearing more details congratulated them on an experiment well handled. Only after they had revelled in the praise did I even say never, ever, ever again use toothpaste in that way. This comes from two children who supposedly were not the least interested in their science class. All I got to say is, thank You, Jesus, for Your Holy Spirit!!!

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Blessings,

Violet

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NP K Lessons = Noah Plan Kindergarten Lessons

PA = Principle Approach

FACE = Foundation for American Christian Education

1828 = Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary (with biblical references)    

SWR = Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri

WRR = Writing Road to Reading

     Yes, we've started our 2007-08 year on the 20th. It's been two weeks and it's going okay. I've had to modify a few things, but we're basically following the Noah Plan K Lessons. Usually change makes me uncomfortable and it seems my daughter is feeling the same way. She told me she wants to go back to our old schedule. I've had to change our schedule so we can incorporate the NP K Lessons. I've talked it over with her and hopefully she understands a bit more. I think she'll be okay with things after a little while.

     So, we're up and running and I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. I'm excited about the things we're learning and I hope that transfers over to the children. I'm just wondering why, if I'm so excited, do I keep having dreams about a school setting. The first one I had was about a school (I think it was a PA school which is why I was so excited) where my mother, children and I could all be at the same time. My Mom was working as a music instructor, my children were enrolled in the school and I was able to teach and see them every day! When I went outside (it must have been lunchtime or something) I saw my husband coming down the block to where we were and I realized that he worked nearby and we could have lunch together everyday. He also could come and pick us up after school! I was so happy I ran to him and dnaced through the streets! The children in the school were having a celebration of some kind so everyone from the school was out in the street partying! It was such a wonderful experience....then I woke up and realized I am the teacher in our home school and I kinda felt down. I don't know why that is....

     The next dream I had just last night/this morning. I had found a place where there was a little storefront school. I sat in with the children for their studies and then the leader of the school had a session with the parents. It seemed like it was a PA school this time too. I remember thinking how I would get the children there everyday. Then I woke up. Each time I dreamed about a PA school I felt so happy that my children would be getting a good education. I've heard about PA schools and I even heard some children give speeches about their education at Stonebridge. I was so impressed! I could tell they had a command of their education. They were ready to go out in the world and change it for Jesus. My friend goes to a church in Illinois that started a PA school. It's even on the list at principleapproach.org. It's not a demonstration school, but at least they're recognized by FACE. We've been to her church to visit a few times and I nearly fell over when I saw a table set up to show people what the school is about. They had the 1828 out and everything! I remember thinking, "So close and yet do far." So I guess my heart is really set on their being educated in a PA school, but I'm not sure I would send them since God put it on my heart to home school them. Maybe when the time came to make that decision He would lead me in that direction. Anyway, for now, I'm just praying for His guidance and pressence.

     So, how does our "school" look? Since my children can already write and read it doesn't look like your typical K class. We do a notebook page or two most everyday to capture what we're learning in the different subjects. We have eleven subjects that we're supposed to learn about everyday, but we don't always get every subject in. One day my children got stuck on music so we spent the rest of the afternoon learning about that. Even though we have a schedule, I'm still trying to be sensitive to my children's interests and let their delight lead their learning. We tried to make up for the missing subjects the next day. Sometimes we spend 20 minutes or even 5 minutes on a subject. We start around 9 and end about 3. We take snack and lunch breaks in between. Here's a rundown for all their subjects.

Bible: It has taken me a while to figure out exactly how this is different from Reading. We use the same book (Bible) for both classes, but they emphasize different things.

History: This has been new for me and interesting. The children are able to understand the concepts so far. I still d on't have the Geography/History Guide so I'm kinda going blind in this subject, but I just pray and try to focus on what He tells me.

Math: We use Right Start and the children love it! Right now it's going by very fast and sometimes we can even do two lessons in a day since we've already done the first 20 lessons. It's just review for them which takes the pressure off me a bit so I can focus more on other subjects I'm not too familiar with teaching.

Geography: My children have just fallen in love with this subject! My son especially is taken by space. So these lessons were supposed to focus on the earth and its place in the galaxy, but his interest took us to explore other planets and happenings in space (asteroids, meteors, etc.). I'm loving using all the resources the library has to help out in this subject.

Literature: I always talk about this class to my children in a different tone of voice.   It just sounds so classy! Anyway, we've been doing good here as well. I'm excited to study classical literature like Little House in the Big Woods. I LOVED that story! The celebration days seem challenging, but I'll try my best. This is another library intensive subject. By that I mean I have to really dig in my library shelves to get all the resources I need for this class. I don't even think my library has Issac Watts poetry so Imma have to find that somewhere else. I was also wondering if I could add some other poetry, but I have to find it first!

English: We use SWR instead of WRRThey're learning cursive (for the second time for my oldest) and they practice on dry erase boards. They like erasing what they wrote so it's still fun.

Reading: I had to get my oldest the Bible the NP says to use for a first grader since she already read the Early Reader's Bible. My youngest is reading the Early Reader's Bible. We just follow the lessons here. I'm excited to use the forms for reading comprehension in the Reading Guide.

Science: This class is okay. We need a few resources for this as well. Library, here I come!

French: I LOVE this class!!! I don't know why most people don't like Mes Premiere Pas de Francais put out by FACE, but I LOVE it! I just happen (thank You Jesus for Your providence) to have an Usbourne French word book that comes in handy as well. We study the word and phrase for the week and then look up other words that relate to it. We practice French by saying easy words like Bonne nuit (Good night) and Merci (Thank you) to each other during the day.

Music: This subject is fun too. I come from a musical background so it's kinda easy for me to just jump right in. In the NP lesson overview for music they suggest studying sign language. What sign language has to do with music I have no idea. Instead we're actually studying music. This past week we studied Tchaikovsky (since my son LOVES to listen to the short musical snippets at starfall.com) and got all into his ballets. My oldest wanted to wtach the whole thing (Swan Lake)! She put her tutu on and we started dancing with them, but after about ten seconds I told her my legs were tired.   She just kept going and said she wasn't tired. My son liked listening to the music while eatching the dance. I use library resources a lot here too.

Art: This is a new subject for me and so far the children are doing well in it. My oldest is enjoying coloring in the lines and using appropriate colors for everything. My son is learning how to copy paintings and drawings well. Art is not my strong subject, but it's doing good so far. We're using Barry Stebbing's Joseph the Canada Goose.

P.E.: I'm thinking of hijacking this subject and just doing whatever I want here. I'm thinking of teaching them fire drill skills, games, what to do when they're lost, hygiene, healthy eating, etc. For now they've just been acting out the scripture, in Him we live and move and have our being. We have been having wonderful weather!

So that's about it for our home school! Since I'm still researching and library hunting, I probably won't be back till the end of our first quarter. Home school teacher and keeper of my home...yeah I'm just a tad bit busy!!

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Blessings,

Violet

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     Yes, I am taking a deep breath! Thank You, Jesus!!!! Today He gave me the idea of making a library list beforehand so I can see what books I need to get and when. For some reason that has made the lessons seem less scary! I went through them week by week and saw what was required for each week and I'm thinkin' "That's all?" Some weeks we'll only do that subject one day. WHEW!!! That takes a load of my mind! I guess I was looking everything all at once and not week by week. That's how I work anyway. I usually take one day at a time and go from there. The weekly lessons aren't that bad, but then I have to remember there are other subjects that don't have weekly lessons all planned out. Our art lessons are planned out thanks to Barry Stebbing. I'll be adding in art history lessons and other books from the library on art. Then I have to still do my own lessons for P.E., and Music. It's a challenge, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  

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Blessings,

Violet

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SWR = Spell to Write and Read

1828 = Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NP K lessons = Noah Plan Kindergarten Lessons

     Yes, that is the panic in my heart that I have to back down with prayer at least 10 times a day. We will be starting on Monday in order to finish up our second quarter before Christmas break. God, in His infinite wisdom, has afforded me these last precious days of summer break to be as easy and calming as possible. My oldest two are away on vacation with Nana in NYC. My youngest gets to sit at my feet and scratch her head wondering why the house is so quiet.  

     I have been planning and getting ready all summer, but it wasn't until last week that I really started kicking it into gear. I am a principle approach (PA) teacher and thus getting my notebook together is highly important. I'm attempting to just jump into using the Noah Plan K lessons with my children. In some areas things are like an old glove (using SWR and Right Start). In other areas (geography, history) I am having to search out new ideas and internalize them so I can teach my children. My study for the new year can be so chaotic at times only because I come across so many great findings while I'm searching scripture (tha's the basis of the PA and the foundation our home school stands on). My purchase of the CD-ROM version of the 1828 has proven to be a most intelligent choice. I love the ease in which I can look words up and cross-reference. I've also been loving e-Sword software that helps me catalog my findings in a neat manner. I can go from the Bible to my notes with just a click!

     In all of this wonderful study, I do have some downers. I don't have many of the resources required to teach certain subjects. I've just not been able to acquire them. I'm wondering if I should get desperate enough to swap some of my prize belongings to remedy this problem. One answer has come through my favorite swap site (Paperback Swap). I was elated to see an item on my wishlist (The Young Reader's Bible) was available for me to order! Whoo hoo!!! That's one resource acquired (my daughter needs this because she has already read through the Early Reader's Bible (recommended by the NP K lessons) twice). In looking ahead I feel great tepidation as the missing resources will no doubt affect our studies, but I do hope. I hope that Jesus already knows my situation and has provided a way for the children to learn the things they need to this year. I hope that my prayers for my competence as a teacher will be answered exceeding abundantly beyond my request. To sum it up, I hope in Jesus. I need Him to be with us.

     So, as I start this year, I first and foremost spend time with Him knowing that He is where everything will flow from. He ALWAYS has the best ideas, strategies, methods. He ALONE knows exactly what my children can handle. He alone can inspire them beyond the scope of the lesson so that their interest is kindled and off they go towards making learning their own. He alone is Who I cling to in my times of need.

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Blessings,

Violet

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Yes, that's what I'm attempting to do. I have my trusty, rusty Homeschool Tracker (HST) program and my Kindergarten Lesson book from The Foundation for American Christian Education (FACE) and I think I'm all set. I heard one other principle approach (PA) lady ask a question about how she inputs the PA lessons into HST. I've always used it however it best suits me to use it. I have made new subjects just to accommodate our home school. I guess I can afford myself a level of liberty since the children will be only starting K in Sept. No college transcripts to think about just yet. 

So anyway, I'm going through the lesson book and noticing that we can skip over a few things and add in some more things. I'll probably put in what they have written down and then adjust it when we start. One thing I am disappointed about is the arts and foreign language getting no more than two days a week focus. I think there's way too much to be explored for it to be shoved to the side like that. Of course the history section is chock full of stuff that we'll probably not even be able to get to for lack of time. I'm really surprised that they didn't do more with the arts and foreign language. In contrast, I plan to have the children learning about music, foreign language and art everyday. Even if we only do a little bit, I at least have to give it some attention. I can't just push it to the side. The way the lessons are set up all the heavy subjects are early in the day with breaks in between, then we do the arts and foreign language. I think we'll be able to still follow that schedule. We'll see when we actually get started, but for now, I'm writing it down! It feels so good to be preparing!

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Blessings, Violet

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Okay. So, as the title states I have a lot of explaining to do. When I wrote my last post I really thought we had passed our 100th day. It was soon after I posted it that I realized I had made a mistake. Since we only started in January and only have lessons five days a week, it's impossible to accomplish 100 days before May. If anyone realized this and kept it to themselves I thank you for your discretion. After I found out I knew I had to change it. I haven't gotten back on here till now so here it is. I do apologize for the wrong information....

AND NOW WE CAN CELEBRATE THE REAL 100TH DAY!!!! Yes, I have recalculated and can say for a certainty that our 100th day is coming up in about two weeks! I'm going to stop "school" on that day. I was trying to do a regular 180 day year so we could finally be called a private school according to Indiana home school law, but 100 days will have to do for this year. I guess I can count that as my preschool year or something.  So I'll do like every other home schooling parent and evaluate our year.

We did some of what we'll be doing in K next year. My 4 yr. old is right up there with my 5 yr. old so he'll just get the same learning as the older one in Sept.. I have seen him zone out in the math lessons though. He's not into the detail of a lot of the concepts being taught. If I have a question he can answer it and fill in the blanks where his sister falters, but he's not very interested in the "how" to some extent. He's a very interesting little boy. He's analytical and loves to try to figure things out. I can see him now loving science because you have to experiment to come to a conclusion. That's right up his alley. My oldest is more concrete, but is also very dramatic. I tend to think of concrete being the opposite of artistic, but she can do both. They differ, but in some things they're evenly matched. My daughter can do math just as well as my son, it's just that he seems to do it with a lot less effort than she does. She can get the concepts very fast, but she sometimes struggles in implementing them. He hears the concept and just flies with the application. Now that I think of it, he reminds me of Dory in Finding Nemo when she started jumping on the jelly fishes!!! That's him exactly! He'll listen to the concepts and apply it immediately. His brain can turn over the facts with lightening speed. My daughter tends to hesitate a bit, possibly to make sure she's got it.

In reading/writing/spelling/grammar (we use Spell To Write and Read (SWR) so all this is done together) they're about the same. I had my youngest just write on plain paper with no lines while the oldest practiced her writing with the dotted middle line and heavy top and bottom lines. Next year I'll try to go back to script with her (that's one solution in SWR for switching "b's and "d"'s) and have my youngest use the manuscript paper to write on. They're both reading very well and just about the same level. Their writing is about the same as well. In this too my son seems to do things a tad bit better. His writing is more concise and his quick thinking mind can turn sounds into words so fast he doesn't need to say the sounds out loud. He can put the word together in his head! We are up to the D list and will probably start the E list before we stop for the summer, but we'll be doing it again next year. That's one thing I love about SWR. You keep going over the same words and concepts. It'll be a bit different in Sept. but I'm sure they'll be fine.

Those were the only real subjects we did this "preschool" year. Next year I have a tall order  I'd like to fill. I want to start with music training (they already are well acquainted with classical, jazz and rap music... Christian rap of course) on the piano. I received some Music for Little Mozarts curriculum books (from that wonderful place I wrote about called Paper Back Swap) that seems quite good in introducing them to the piano and music in general. I also want to start training in art with that wonderful program I keep hearing about called How Great Thou Art. Another addition is language lessons in the language of love. I LOVE THE FRENCH LANGUAGE!!!! It just sounds so wonderful to me. I'm so excited to get Rosetta Stone (it's about the only world reknowned program that my children can use) and re-learn French (for about the third time for me) with them! Aside from all that, I'll also be doing history. It may seem like a lot, but Sept. is right before winter when we can't go outside, so I think they'll get used to doing all this work and make good use of the time spent inside. I've been prepping them already by getting them into audio books and listening to me tell them stories I'm reading or that I've made up. Sometimes they tell me stories they've made up. It's so cute!

Okay, so that's about it for my evaluation. Oh yeah one more thing. I bought my daughter the Early Readers Bible (which was so hard to find as none of the Christian bookstores in my area sold it. I had to get it from Amazon.com) for our K year but decided to let her start reading it now since she can and she loves to read it! She would read it all throughout the day if she could. She just loves the story of Jesus dying on the cross. We act it out she wants me to tell it to her while we're picnicing outside, whenever there's a lull she'll come to me and ask for that story. I try to emphasize that that was the only way for us to be with God and that the best part is that He rose again, but hse still loves the part about Him dying on the cross. I guess she's on to something so I'll just keep telling her all I know and praying for her to understand it all.

I have other things to write, but I'll just post them in another post or else this will become a book!

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I haven't been by here in a while and I did that purposely so I could focus on other things, but I do realize the importance of writing down what's going on so here goes.

We have been home schooling since the 2nd. We still do devotions first, go over our calendar, they each read a book and then they practice their writing. So far that's all we're doing, but I'm studying to add math. My oldest will be 5 (already!?!?!?) on Thursday so I'm preparing her Kindergarten curriculum. I love knowing that she won't be behind in her knowledge base. That's very important in talking with others about home schooling. I haven't been keeping a full record of everything we do (on the free version of Homschool Tracker) and that's intentional. I used to hold myself to such a high standard. I was always trying to write down everything we did and categorize it just right to fit into the Tracker that I was driving myelf crazy and it became no fun. My state doesn't require anything more than an attendance record (if the chancellor asks I think) so I just decided to hold myself accountable to only that. It's such a breeze now and I feel the weight lifted off my shoulder.

In the wake of that, my study in the principle approach (PA) has been re-kindled and I'm beginning to understand a little more what God wants me to do with it in our home school. I love it! There's something about basing all your subjects in scripture first and then unpacking them that just invigorates me. I love being able to pull every subject out of the Word. I think that's so cool (I also love the bible studying that comes along with it. It just so happens that way I usually study the Bible is the way the PA uses to research each subject's biblical foundation!!! That's a win-win for me!! Whoo hoo!!!!!). I'm goin slow, but I'm going so I'm happy with that. I can see down the road where the other subjects will fit in (usually with the PA you begin only using that teaching method with one subject and as you get more comforatable doing that format you branch out to other subjects). I think I'll be a happy home school teacher.

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     So, this post is self-explanatory. I've started getting back to our routine of structured times of instruction (yuck that sounds terrible ). I didn't get to it today because I was cleaning the house and attending to things I haven't attended to in a while.

     I had an interesting experience over the Thanksgiving holiday that was affecting my attitiude towards starting back up again with our home schooling schedule. I was talking to some ladies I knew about home schooling and they were saying how it needs to be regulated and monitored and that it takes a special woman to do that with her kids because they don't have the patience to do it. I was trying to tell them differently and they decided to test the children. They had one three year old who goes to preschool stand in front of everyone and tell when her birthday is. She got the month right. They asked my son the same thing (he's 3 too), but he had no idea what they were talking about. True I hadn't taught him that yet, but I had taught him to read and write. Nobody said anything about that. It's like they were more concerned with the whole socialization aspect than actual academic achievement. However skewed that might have been it did make me feel bad. I remember hearing a story about a lady who's daughter got tested by a cop in a post office on history and she passed with flying colors. I've secretly wished my children would be like that. Iwant them to be a living testimony that what we've decide to do is so much better than the norm. I've seen their crowning achievements and experienced those wonderful tender moments when my children have matter-of-factly told me in thier own words something I've taught them in the past. It was music to my ears and reassured me that this thing is really working. I just want other people to see it's working. My husband said I should've had them recite the scripture that they memorize. Then again this all sounds like it's coming from a need to please everyone. I just am tired of being criticized. It's very lonely knowing that everyone is looking at you skeptically behind your back and thinking you're off your rocker (which is what my family thinks of me in a nutshell). So I came home very depressed in my thinking about our non-schedule days. I was regretting the time I had taken off with the children. I felt so bad. I felt like a failure.

     Then a friend of mine said something that was stright from the mouth of God. In essence God was yelling me wjat He is doing with us is not to be compared with anything else. His work stands on its own. It was such a reaffirming word. It brought peace to my troubled mind and halted the turmoil.Jesus reassured me I was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. That's what it all boils down to at the end of the day. I wanna know I was with Jesus doing what He told me to do, when He told me to do it, how He told me to do it.

     So, my heart's been rejuvenated and reclaimed from the garbage dump that the world would put us in. Praise be to God!    

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Blessings, Violet

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     I know everyone is already back in school. We had a baby in September (23rd)so that threw me off the schedule. I knew I wouldn't be any good to anyone trying to maintain both, so I just postponed the new year until January. I only have two months left to get ready. Who kows, maybe I'll make it to 180 days this time (so far I've only made it to 35). In Indiana I don't really have to start officially home schooling until they're seven or until I decide to tough it out for 180 days. I'm trying to prepare for Kindergarten work. Our reading and writing are coming along great. I'm trying to work on our math skills now.

     To get prepared I got more Principle Approach books. I bought the math, literature and reading curriculum guides for the Noah Plan curriculum and also bought Ruth Haycock's Encyclopedia of Bible Truths for math and science. I bought a starter kit for Right Start math and some optional items. I completed my SWR collection by buying the primary log book for me and my daughter as well as McCall-Harby's test book. So, I think I'm ready for the next year. I'm eally excited to do everything. I would like to do How Great Thou Art and Classicla Kids, but I ran out of money. =) So I guess that will have to wait till later. I'd also like to do some science, but I think I can do that on my own for now. I'm planning on doing experiments from zoom.com and do more with the maps we have and linking that to the VOM kids magazine we have.

     So, I think that's about that. Over our break we did reading, spelling and math but it wasn't everyday and it wasn't on a schedule. Most of the time the children just played together and we worked on obedience and the fruit of the Spirit.

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Blessings, Violet

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SWR = Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri

     I'm seeing that I'm tweaking SWR just a little bit to fit where my daughter is at. I tweaked it in teaching her the phonograms now even though we weren't writing them out on paper. Now that she's finished the single letter phonograms, I'm reading that at a K level I can just have her do the spelling orally and then let her watch me write out the word. She can sound it out and everything and I can teach her the spelling rules. I think I'm going to hold off on the rules for now. She's getting quite a bit with all the math she's doing. I don't think she's ready for that yet. I'll just continue with her on the board sounding out and writing the words in list A (we did "and" today).

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Blessings, Violet

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SWR = Spell  to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri

     Okay I can't help it! I've got to share what DD did today in her review. I'm so godly proud of her! She did all of these with a happy joyful attitude and zoomed through all 26 of her phonograms (saying all their sounds as I flipped through the cards). There are still some that I have to help her on, but she's only 4!!!!

The only ones you might not be able to make out are the "l" (looks sideways) and that little tiny "e"

These are mostly self-explanatory...except that "x" in the middle and the "v" at the top left

These are only a few of the ones she needs help in

     So, I'm one happy Mama and very excited to be getting on with the spelling and writing words part of SWR. I'm anticipating moving as slowly as we did through all the single letter phonograms, but that doesn't really matter. I'm going for the quality of the lessons. She's gettin so much better at just listening to my directions and she has all the sounds of the phonograms down pat. I'm thinking we'll only do 2 or 3 words a day.....UH OH!!! I just remembered. She's supposed to have a log book to write everything down in....hmmmm. I'm not transferring her to paper yet so I guess we'll continue with the chalk board and maybe just do the words orally or I'll start her on the chalk board and we'll just go back over everything for next year when I transfer her to paper and pencil. I'm not sure which one is better. I'll just pray about it. God's got all the perfect ideas anyway.  

Thank you, Lord, for the ideas that You are going to bring to me as we move into this transition period. I ask that You would give me Your wisdom and make Your path clear to me as being the one you want Your (our) daughter to walk in as she's heading into this next phase of learning. I praise You for all You've done in the past and I look forward to all You're going to do in the future. Get the glory in our studies and show DD how much You love her by helping me make the transition smooth for her. In Jesus' name, amen!

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Blessings, Violet

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SWR = Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri    

     I haven't written in here in a little while. We've been doing so well in our schooling. The children are really taking to what I'm teaching them! PRAISE THE LORD!

     Today DD learned her last single letter phonograms!!! We can start witih the real SWR program on Monday! She's all excited to spell. She's been doing that before, but I'll be teaching her how to listen for the sounds and she'll be learning the spelling rules too. I plan on going very slow with her unless she wants to up the speed. She did that this week when she chose to practice writing two phonograms in a day! I was surprised. I guess my new Holy Spirit way of teaching is giving her confidence. At least I hope that's what's happening. Since I haven't been in here for a while, here are some pics of the new phonograms she's learning to write. I'm not getting hung up on how odd they look becuase it's her first time and Wanda Sanseri (author of SWR) strongly advises us not to spend too much time on the phonograms. The main jist of the program is the spelling words. So, here's what we've done in the past week:

This was done on Tuesday (4/25). Top row is "l"; middle row is "n", "s" and "m"; bottom row is "r"

This is from Wednesday (4/26). Left to right: "x", "w", "v" and another "m"

This was taken today! On the line is "y" and at the bottom is a "z"

So, I'm a (godly) proud Mama!! =)=) We're moving into the next phase of SWR. I'm so excited!!!

     In the math department, both of my children have been doing excellent! They're getting aware of how to count on a number line, I hope they're understanding the place value practice we've been doing (so far they just match up the number of straws in the pocket with the number over the pocket), they're nailing all of their math facts from from 1-5 (I'm really surprised at this. Praise the Lord, this curriculum is just what they needed!) and they're getting better with understanding greater than and less than. WHOO HOOO!!!! We're on a roll!!!

     I haven't been able to do much with the science class yet. We already dug and planted out flowers and plants for this season. All we came across were some more worms so I just stressed that they belong in the ground where they keep moist. I just gleaned that from my observaton that if they're out in the sun for too long they dry up.

     I have DD reading Bob books set B everyday. I just pick one book for that week and she continues to read it everyday. She's also doing independant reading which is great! DS is reading those starfall.com books you can print off from their site. I haven't done reading with him in about two months so I was surprised he remembered and knew how to sound out words. Today he read two of those books (Mox's Shop and Gus the Duck). I plan on having him read at least one a day.

     That's the update so far. I thank God for helping us through our tough times. This seems like such a happy post. I really hope I can still be joyful and expectant of God when things aren't going so well.

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Blessings, Violet

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SWR = Spell to Write and Read    

     It's been a week of Mommy vacation time. Now I'm ready and obviously so are the children. I expected them to forget something, but they didn't. We breezed by our math (DD did the best she's ever done with the math facts of 1-3) and also our SWR work. This time she did most of the work without lines on the board. Here's how the writing turned out today:

Hope everyone can see that this is a "j"

This is supposed to be an "f"

That's supposed to be an "e"

That last word she wanted to write herself. Our new phonogram for today was that "f". We started with reviewing her trouble phonograms ("qu", "h", "k"). I dotted them on the board and she traced over them. Then I let her write her "t" and the word "cat". After that we learned "f". Lastly we went through the phonograms orally and she flew through them!!! At least she'll know her phonograms when we finish!

     One thing I'm thinking about is if I'm using SWR, do I still need to use the wonderful sight word flash cards my mother and mother-in-law made for them. I'm thinking not because they'll learn how to spell every word and thus learn the word. I used to do that with them and they loved it. I might just do it becuase it's there for us to use.

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Blessings, Violet

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SWR = Spell to Write and Read

CCC = Christ-Centered Curriculum    

     I say it's anticipated not becuase you who read this have been anxious to see this, but because I've been excitedly waiting to write it!!! There is good news to be shared with all.

     On the SWR front, God gave me new ideas to implement (priase His holy name! He's so faithful to our home school!!!). I started with the dotted lines on the chalk board. To illustrate the striking difference here is a picture of her "qu" that horrible day and a picture of her "qu"'s now:

You can tell the difference and I can see the difference in DD's smiling face. It's a whole lot easier now and I thank God. She can write other alphabet letters very well. There's just some that she has problems with. She knows all the phonogram sounds of the letters we have already done and can whip through them at the quick pace she's supposed to do them in. Here are some more pictures of our last three days:

This is her"j", "c" and the word"cat"

Here are her "e"'s

Also her "h"'s and a "d"

Here's another spelling and writing of "cat" (she must like that word)

Finally, here's her "j" and "p"s' that she just learned today. I think she needs more work on the round part. She doesn't quite understand how to make that yet...

     CCC is going well too. DD is catching on. She's getting the hang of the math facts and counting on the number line. Both children love the place value pocket chart and are getting the hang of that too. The one thing I'm concerned about is the greater than/less than concept. DD isn't getting it. DS is totally not interested. I'm not really affected by their responses though. I'm going to teach it anyway. I do believe that building a foundation has to start somewhere and that's probably where we are right now. I recently discovered that they somtimes spend more than one day on a single lesson. I guess this is to reinforce the concepts taught and so that the children get sufficient practice writing their numbers. It caught me by surprise (that's what I get for not reading ahead), but I'm okay with it. It suits them fine too.

     So, I'm about to embark on my own Spring Break. I'm going to be able to rest and relax and chill out while the children are taken of by family. I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it!!!

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Blessings, Violet

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