Now for my precious middle child's plan for this year. Boo is a gifted learner and it's a constant challenge to find work that stretches her, while not pushing too hard. I usually fall into, "This is way too easy, Mama," in my desire to keep her love for learning strong and not frustrate her. And inevitably, once I find something that hits the mark, she blazes past it within a month and I'm left in the dust yet again.
Math:
This is a big question right now. She did all of Singapore 2A last year, quickly grasping the concepts and scoring in the 90's in all her assessments. When she hit 2B however she dug in her heals and math became a daily battle. Since it was a grade level ahead of where she needed to be, I let her quit it half way through and gave her Evan Moor's Skill Sharpeners Math: 3rd Grade to work on for the rest of the year and through the summer. She did this with a good will, but I noticed that she just didn't have her basic facts as solid as I would like, and decided to dial back and let her repeat 2nd grade, in a sense. I explained that Singapore didn't seem to click with her so well toward the end of the year and I was going to try something new for the year to see how it works out. She is doing the math program provided by the home ed. program we go through, Harcourt Brace's California Math. Right now it's really easy, but it's getting her confidence back and that's the key. She has been doubling up assignments in order to be done with the book by STAR testing, and when that's done I'll give her Life of Fred for math. I think it will right up her ally given that it's done through a story and doesn't use a drill and kill approach. Then, if all goes well, we will give Singapore another shot for 3rd grade because I really think it's the strongest math program out there. But I could be biased because it worked so well for my oldest.
Language Arts:
Grammar: Evan Moor's Daily Language Review. That's it. Again, less can be more, and DLR is getting the job done. She corrects two sentences and we talk about the mistakes that were made and explain why she made the corrections she did. Then there are three to four more questions that deal with anything from identifying the adjective in a sentence to completing an analogy. I feel that having to remember various grammar rules and terms in a variety of settings and with no forewarning works better than spending a few days in each topic and then moving on.
Writing: Evan Moor's Daily 6 Trait Writing. Boo has mild disgraphia, and a strong perfectionist streak, and together they make for unpleasant situations during writing assignments. She will write as little as possible, complaining the whole time, in order to minimize the number of mistakes she will make. This year I've gone with a "let's just write for the enjoyment of writing" approach and have told her that I will only edit and make her rewrite the culminating essay for each of the five traits, or every fifth writing assignment. The difference in her attitude and writing has been a joy to see. She is finally enjoying writing, and I'm getting better paragraphs from her than when I was obsessing over every detail.
Spelling: We are using Sequential Spelling because it works with hearing the spelling patterns in the words and using them, rather than simply memorizing a list of words. I feel that spelling becomes more intuitive with it than with other programs. The benefit for Boo is that she doesn't have to do any writing with it if she doesn't want to. She usually jumps up and down stairs, in and out of tiles in the entry way, or rides her scooter around our backyard while spelling. She is steadily improving at being able to break down the words into their components and spell them.
Boo's reading is done just like Bug's. Reading is done with a two pronged approach. Boo has to read a short story and do the accompanying worksheet in her Spectrum Reading book each day. That covers vocabulary, word skills (prefixes, compound words, possessives), comprehension, and study skill (graphs, alphabetical order, using an index). Then she gets to move on to reading whatever she wants, for how long she wants to. Sonlight's reading list provides a good start, but the girl reads a book a day and I need to provide more choices for her. Last year I would give her a book that was intended to take two weeks, she would bring it back in an hour or two, and I wouldn't have anything left for "reading" for the next 7 school days. This year I scrapped the idea of reading assignments and went with a book basket approach. :) I fill up a square laundry basket with books and she is free to pick from there. There are book lists provided by Evan Moor's How to Report on Books program, and along with books that relate to what she's studying in history and science, there are a lot for her to choose from. When she's done for the day she comes and tells me about what she read, and when she finishes the book she does a book report. I use for the forms and themes from HWBR. Our library lets you check out books for three weeks at a time, so our themes go in three week stretches. We just finished focusing on use of setting in a story and have moved on to character development.
Social Studies:
I felt that I was dropping the ball when it came to geography, but I didn't have the time to do a comprehensive, literature inclusive, program. Instead I've settled for Evan Moor's Daily Geography. It's sufficient. I'm not blown away by it, but it gets the job done. Boo will often do the whole week on Monday, freeing up time in the rest of the week.
Boo is following Sonlight's Core 3 and is studying American history, from the arrival of the first people groups by way of the Alaskan land bridge through Pilgrims and the American Revolution, ending just after the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I already wrote a lengthy review of Sonlight that you can read here. I also feel a need for concrete pen and paper type work to accompany all the great stories and Boo will be doing a few Hands of a Child project packs, Evan Moor's History Pockets, and two Download 'n Go units.
Science:
This has been my Waterloo. I just can't pull off experiments/activities consistently during the school year. Two years ago science fell out of my lesson plan book completely in December and never made its way back in. I spent the summer catching up and realized that I had found something that worked for me. :) I decided I would use a bare minimum, make sure they are getting some knowledge, program for the school year and then really delve into something during the summer. Last year we used Evan Moor's Daily Science and it fit the bill. It was simple, covered state standards, and threw in an experiment every five weeks. Then we did Sonlight's Science 2 over the summer, doing a week's worth of lessons in a day. This year we are back to Evan Moor, but I'm planning on using Apologia's Astronomy for the summer. As much as the girls love Professor Justin, I'm ready to really sink my teeth into a field and Sonlight jumps around too much for me. Apologia looks substantial, and yet approachable, and I'm hoping they'll love it.
So that's my curriculum choices for Boo. At this point we are six weeks into the school year and this has been my smoothest homeschooling year yet. I feel that I have figured out what works for me and my girls and we are cruising. And this is by no means an exhaustive list of every teaching tool that will be used this year. There are Spanish, art, literature, science, and writing classes offered through our home education program. There are field trips that we will take. There are sports programs and homeschool PE classes. And there are so many books to read, shows to watch, and websites to explore. The problem lies not in having too few choices, but rather being able to pass on curriculum/programs/experiences.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Curriculum Choices for Bug, Grade 4, 2011-2012
After going on and on about Sonlight, I'm finally ready to share the rest of my choices for this year, and provide a brief explanation for why I went with each one. My girls are all very different in personalities along with learning styles, so you will see some overlap, but not much. Yes, this keeps me hopping, but that's homeschooling, right? :) In order to keep posts within a reasonable size, I'll break them down by girls. I'll start with the oldest, Bug, who just turned 9 and is in 4th grade.
Math:
Singapore 4A&B, textbook and workbook. I don't purchase the teacher's guide because I won't use it. I know that there is a ton of great stuff in there. I'm just one of those, "Less can be more," kind of people and as long as she's doing well with just the textbook and workbook, I'm counting my blessings and running with that. :) Math was a challenge during first grade. The content wasn't hard. Getting her to sit relatively still and complete the page without me losing my cool was. She would sing and dance around the room, run over and write and answer, and then dance away. I had a few friends of mine were using Singapore and I decided to give it a try for second grade. The simple directions, black and white workbook pages, and absolute void of manipulatives (aka: complete and utter distractions) made math time enjoyable! Bug was calm, focused, and began to really understand what she was doing. I really think the colorful and busy pages were just too much visual stimulation for her. Simpler = better for Bug. This year she has already finished Chapter 1 and I'm constantly impressed with how much mental math she can do, and how quickly and effortlessly she can think outside the box to figure out an answer.
Language Arts:
I use Evan Moor's Daily Language Review for Bug's grammar. That's it. Again, less can be more, and DLR is getting the job done. She corrects two sentences and we talk about the mistakes that were made and explain why she made the corrections she did. Then there are three to four more questions that deal with anything from identifying the adjective in a sentence to completing an analogy. I feel that having to remember various grammar rules and terms in a variety of settings and with no forewarning works better than spending a few days in each topic and then moving on.
After trying and flaming out with Sonlight's Language Arts, I switched to Evan Moor's Daily 6 Trait Writing. It breaks writing down to definable skills and then focuses on each skill, building to a complete finished product by the end of the year. Bug loves to write on her own, but getting her to do it for school was often difficult. I realized that it was all because she didn't like the editing and rewriting process. She would shy away from larger words, stress over sentence formation, and work to keep her essay as short as possible. To try to keep writing enjoyable, and still work on the skills, I decided that the first four writing assignments for each skill would just be for fun. I read them over for content, but don't say a thing about spelling or minor improvements. After the fifth, and final, week for each trait she will spend a week on the writing assignment, breaking the essay down into its components and doing some serious editing, followed by a rewrite in her best handwriting. As I hoped, she's loving the free writing days. We will see how the final unit essay goes in a few weeks.
Spelling workbooks weren't working for Bug. She would memorize the ten words just fine, but there was no carry over to writing, and she wasn't learning how to take her knowledge of how one word was spelled and apply it to others. I found Sequential Spelling and absolutely love this program. It teaches spelling patterns, so once a pattern is learned it can be applied to a variety of words. There are lists every day, knocking out the busy work of playing around with the words and such. It's simply, "Here's the pattern. Use it." This week, for example, used the "fer" pattern. It started with "confer" on Monday, moving up to "conferring" and "conference" by Thursday. Big words are no longer scary because she knows how to break them down and then spell the sounds.
Reading is done with a two pronged approach. Bug has to read a short story and do the accompanying worksheet in her Spectrum Reading book each day. That covers vocabulary, word skills (prefixes, compound words, possessives), comprehension, and study skill (graphs, alphabetical order, using an index). Then she gets to move on to reading whatever she wants, for how long she wants to. There are book lists provided by Evan Moor's How to Report on Books program, and along with books that relate to what she's studying in history and science, there are a lot for her to choose from. I fill up a square laundry basket with books and she is free to pick from there. When she's done for the day she comes and tells me about what she read, and when she finishes the book she does a book report. I use for the forms and themes from HWBR. Our library lets you check out books for three weeks at a time, so our themes go in three week stretches. We just finished focusing on use of setting in a story and have moved on to character development.
Social Studies:
I felt that I was dropping the ball when it came to geography, but I didn't have the time to do a comprehensive, literature inclusive, program. Instead I've settled for Evan Moor's Daily Geography. It's sufficient. I'm not blown away by it, but it gets the job done. Bug finds it enjoyable and will do the whole week on Monday, freeing up time in the rest of the week.
This year Bug is studying CA history. I love Sonlight and so I went looking for a literature based program similar to Sonlight that would cover CA history and found it in Beautiful Feet. The questions that go along with the stories are wonderful, and there are great writing and drawing assignments. Bug is going to have a wonderful journal at the end to use to review all she has learned. I love the timeline characters too. They are so big that when we are done I can hang it on the wall and we won't have any trouble reading it. There are some gaps in it though, as there will be in any completely literature program. There just aren't enough historical fiction books for every detail. Sonlight uses textbooks as spines to fill in the gap, and I decided to use the 4th grade textbook provided by the home ed. program we go through. There is a lesson a day and then a corresponding workbook page. Bug is able to do this part independently. When we come to the end of a unit we switch over to BF for their lesson on that time period. It matched up amazingly well and fit perfectly into 40 weeks.
Science:
This has been my Waterloo. I just can't pull off experiments/activities consistently during the school year. Two years ago science fell out of my lesson plan book completely in December and never made its way back in. I spent the summer catching up and realized that I had found something that worked for me. :) I decided I would use a bare minimum, make sure they are getting some knowledge, program for the school year and then really delve into something during the summer. Last year we used Evan Moor's Daily Science and it fit the bill. It was simple, covered state standards, and threw in an experiment every five weeks. Then we did Sonlight's Science 2 over the summer, doing a week's worth of lessons in a day. This year we are back to Evan Moor, but I'm planning on using Apologia's Astronomy for the summer. As much as the girls love Professor Justin, I'm ready to really sink my teeth into a field and Sonlight jumps around too much for me. Apologia looks substantial, and yet approachable, and I'm hoping they'll love it.
If you made it through all that, my hat's off to you. You must be a fellow curriculum junkie. :) And yes, I use a lot of Evan Moor. It just works so well for my family. And, like I said earlier, when I find something that works, I stick with it. :)
I've linked up with the Heart of the Matter's Not Back to School: Curriculum Week Blog Hop. There are over 100 links full of curriculum reviews. It's worth checking out. :)
Math:
Singapore 4A&B, textbook and workbook. I don't purchase the teacher's guide because I won't use it. I know that there is a ton of great stuff in there. I'm just one of those, "Less can be more," kind of people and as long as she's doing well with just the textbook and workbook, I'm counting my blessings and running with that. :) Math was a challenge during first grade. The content wasn't hard. Getting her to sit relatively still and complete the page without me losing my cool was. She would sing and dance around the room, run over and write and answer, and then dance away. I had a few friends of mine were using Singapore and I decided to give it a try for second grade. The simple directions, black and white workbook pages, and absolute void of manipulatives (aka: complete and utter distractions) made math time enjoyable! Bug was calm, focused, and began to really understand what she was doing. I really think the colorful and busy pages were just too much visual stimulation for her. Simpler = better for Bug. This year she has already finished Chapter 1 and I'm constantly impressed with how much mental math she can do, and how quickly and effortlessly she can think outside the box to figure out an answer.
Language Arts:
I use Evan Moor's Daily Language Review for Bug's grammar. That's it. Again, less can be more, and DLR is getting the job done. She corrects two sentences and we talk about the mistakes that were made and explain why she made the corrections she did. Then there are three to four more questions that deal with anything from identifying the adjective in a sentence to completing an analogy. I feel that having to remember various grammar rules and terms in a variety of settings and with no forewarning works better than spending a few days in each topic and then moving on.
After trying and flaming out with Sonlight's Language Arts, I switched to Evan Moor's Daily 6 Trait Writing. It breaks writing down to definable skills and then focuses on each skill, building to a complete finished product by the end of the year. Bug loves to write on her own, but getting her to do it for school was often difficult. I realized that it was all because she didn't like the editing and rewriting process. She would shy away from larger words, stress over sentence formation, and work to keep her essay as short as possible. To try to keep writing enjoyable, and still work on the skills, I decided that the first four writing assignments for each skill would just be for fun. I read them over for content, but don't say a thing about spelling or minor improvements. After the fifth, and final, week for each trait she will spend a week on the writing assignment, breaking the essay down into its components and doing some serious editing, followed by a rewrite in her best handwriting. As I hoped, she's loving the free writing days. We will see how the final unit essay goes in a few weeks.
Spelling workbooks weren't working for Bug. She would memorize the ten words just fine, but there was no carry over to writing, and she wasn't learning how to take her knowledge of how one word was spelled and apply it to others. I found Sequential Spelling and absolutely love this program. It teaches spelling patterns, so once a pattern is learned it can be applied to a variety of words. There are lists every day, knocking out the busy work of playing around with the words and such. It's simply, "Here's the pattern. Use it." This week, for example, used the "fer" pattern. It started with "confer" on Monday, moving up to "conferring" and "conference" by Thursday. Big words are no longer scary because she knows how to break them down and then spell the sounds.
Reading is done with a two pronged approach. Bug has to read a short story and do the accompanying worksheet in her Spectrum Reading book each day. That covers vocabulary, word skills (prefixes, compound words, possessives), comprehension, and study skill (graphs, alphabetical order, using an index). Then she gets to move on to reading whatever she wants, for how long she wants to. There are book lists provided by Evan Moor's How to Report on Books program, and along with books that relate to what she's studying in history and science, there are a lot for her to choose from. I fill up a square laundry basket with books and she is free to pick from there. When she's done for the day she comes and tells me about what she read, and when she finishes the book she does a book report. I use for the forms and themes from HWBR. Our library lets you check out books for three weeks at a time, so our themes go in three week stretches. We just finished focusing on use of setting in a story and have moved on to character development.
Social Studies:
I felt that I was dropping the ball when it came to geography, but I didn't have the time to do a comprehensive, literature inclusive, program. Instead I've settled for Evan Moor's Daily Geography. It's sufficient. I'm not blown away by it, but it gets the job done. Bug finds it enjoyable and will do the whole week on Monday, freeing up time in the rest of the week.
This year Bug is studying CA history. I love Sonlight and so I went looking for a literature based program similar to Sonlight that would cover CA history and found it in Beautiful Feet. The questions that go along with the stories are wonderful, and there are great writing and drawing assignments. Bug is going to have a wonderful journal at the end to use to review all she has learned. I love the timeline characters too. They are so big that when we are done I can hang it on the wall and we won't have any trouble reading it. There are some gaps in it though, as there will be in any completely literature program. There just aren't enough historical fiction books for every detail. Sonlight uses textbooks as spines to fill in the gap, and I decided to use the 4th grade textbook provided by the home ed. program we go through. There is a lesson a day and then a corresponding workbook page. Bug is able to do this part independently. When we come to the end of a unit we switch over to BF for their lesson on that time period. It matched up amazingly well and fit perfectly into 40 weeks.
Science:
This has been my Waterloo. I just can't pull off experiments/activities consistently during the school year. Two years ago science fell out of my lesson plan book completely in December and never made its way back in. I spent the summer catching up and realized that I had found something that worked for me. :) I decided I would use a bare minimum, make sure they are getting some knowledge, program for the school year and then really delve into something during the summer. Last year we used Evan Moor's Daily Science and it fit the bill. It was simple, covered state standards, and threw in an experiment every five weeks. Then we did Sonlight's Science 2 over the summer, doing a week's worth of lessons in a day. This year we are back to Evan Moor, but I'm planning on using Apologia's Astronomy for the summer. As much as the girls love Professor Justin, I'm ready to really sink my teeth into a field and Sonlight jumps around too much for me. Apologia looks substantial, and yet approachable, and I'm hoping they'll love it.
If you made it through all that, my hat's off to you. You must be a fellow curriculum junkie. :) And yes, I use a lot of Evan Moor. It just works so well for my family. And, like I said earlier, when I find something that works, I stick with it. :)
I've linked up with the Heart of the Matter's Not Back to School: Curriculum Week Blog Hop. There are over 100 links full of curriculum reviews. It's worth checking out. :)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Week #3 - Thank Goodness for Good Friends!
This was a week that could not have gone as smoothly as it did without friends. My little Bear had surgery early Tuesday morning and between the prep, the day of surgery, and the recovery, things were a bit off schedule to say the least. This is where the good friends stepped in. :)
On Monday I was feeling anxious (even though I know better, I still struggle with in this area) and was very grateful that I had an invitation to come over to a friend's house to watch our kids play on the Slip-n-Slide while we talked. The promise of a fun afternoon got the girls through their schoolwork quickly and helped me focus because I knew that I could talk through my concerns soon enough, so there was no need to dwell on them during math. Tuesday morning another friend moved into rock star status by opening her home at 6am to take in my older, still half asleep kids. After they slept a bit more on the couch she made them an awesome breakfast and then proceeded to teach her three along with my two! She even offered to keep them through lunchtime after Bear was released from the hospital to give me time to get her settled at home. By Wednesday morning Bear was feeling fine and Bug and Boo were only behind in History. We finished everything by Thursday afternoon and I had Friday to catch up on the e-mails and phone calls I hadn't had time to answer during the week.
No new book reports for this week; it wasn't that easy after all! That isn't to say reading didn't happen. Boo got a look at the basal reader provided by home ed. program on Monday and read through it in 40 minutes. Half a year's worth of reading - done! LOL For Tuesday and Wednesday she read two My America books, Our Strange New Land and The Starving Time, about the Jamestown settlement in 1609. On Thursday she started Out of Many Waters, a book about the first Jewish settlement in America. It's very interesting and I'm planning on swiping it after she goes to sleep tonight and reading it myself. :)
Bug read The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow, a story of a Navajo girl. Looks like it's time to head back to the library and restock! I think I'll have to buy one of those crates on wheels. It would certainly save my arms and back. :)
I'm linked up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up. Check out her blog for some great, hands on ideas.
On Monday I was feeling anxious (even though I know better, I still struggle with in this area) and was very grateful that I had an invitation to come over to a friend's house to watch our kids play on the Slip-n-Slide while we talked. The promise of a fun afternoon got the girls through their schoolwork quickly and helped me focus because I knew that I could talk through my concerns soon enough, so there was no need to dwell on them during math. Tuesday morning another friend moved into rock star status by opening her home at 6am to take in my older, still half asleep kids. After they slept a bit more on the couch she made them an awesome breakfast and then proceeded to teach her three along with my two! She even offered to keep them through lunchtime after Bear was released from the hospital to give me time to get her settled at home. By Wednesday morning Bear was feeling fine and Bug and Boo were only behind in History. We finished everything by Thursday afternoon and I had Friday to catch up on the e-mails and phone calls I hadn't had time to answer during the week.
No new book reports for this week; it wasn't that easy after all! That isn't to say reading didn't happen. Boo got a look at the basal reader provided by home ed. program on Monday and read through it in 40 minutes. Half a year's worth of reading - done! LOL For Tuesday and Wednesday she read two My America books, Our Strange New Land and The Starving Time, about the Jamestown settlement in 1609. On Thursday she started Out of Many Waters, a book about the first Jewish settlement in America. It's very interesting and I'm planning on swiping it after she goes to sleep tonight and reading it myself. :)
Bug read The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow, a story of a Navajo girl. Looks like it's time to head back to the library and restock! I think I'll have to buy one of those crates on wheels. It would certainly save my arms and back. :)
I'm linked up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up. Check out her blog for some great, hands on ideas.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Curriculum Part One: Sonlight
I consider myself a curriculum junkie. I spend way too much time looking at what's out there, what people think about it, and considering how I would go about implementing it in my home. Therefore, I can't confine myself to just a list of what we are using. I feel a need to explain why and give the reader something to base their own curriculum decisions upon, as so many others have done for me. And while I may love to read about what's out there, I do not "curriculum hop," jumping from one program to the next. Once I find something that works, I stick with it.
So what works for me? Sonlight. I stumbled upon Sonlight when searching for a quality reading list for my then first grader, Bug. She had just annihilated a reading program that was supposed to last the year and it was the end of November. Clearly, I needed something a bit more substantial and looked promising. I purchased their Core 2 Readers IG. It was around $6 and I figured it wasn't much to lose if I didn't like it. She tore through those books too, and we found that we loved the narration approach to assessing comprehension while using the suggested questions as a check list. She would begin telling me about what she had read and I would check off the questions she had addressed. When she was done we would go over any concepts that she had missed, and there usually weren't any. I still had a few months of first grade left for her, so I purchased the Core 2 Readers Advanced IG and she begged to keep it going through the summer while she polished off the book list. I turned around and ordered the complete Core 3: Introduction to American History, Part 1 for the coming school year. And it was somewhere around December that I knew I had fallen head over heals for a curriculum.
When Sonlight teaches history it uses a variety of methods. There are workbooks and textbooks that act as a spine, and then there are living books that put some meat on the bones. It sounds simple enough, but what I didn't understand from just looking at it was the looping that occurs in such a method. For example, Bug would read about Paul Revere in her textbook, The Landmark History of the American People, and then read about him again and answer some questions about him in the workbook, The Story of the USA. She also got to listen to me read a biography, "And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?" That sounds like enough, right? Nope. She was also independently reading Mr. Revere and I, a story told from the horse's point of view. (One of Bug's favorites and isn't in the new core. What's up with that, Luke?) The moment of knowing this was a fantastic program came while I was reading Johnny Tremain to Bug and she lit up and said, "I know him!" when Revere entered the story. It was like a friend made a surprise appearance. That's how well Sonlight teaches history. People and themes are presented in a variety of formats, from different perspectives, and often enough that they become well known, not just memorized.
This year Boo gets her turn with Core 3 (or D, as it's now called) and she's putting her own spin on it. Boo is a voracious reader, even more so than Bug, and the reading assignments just don't work for her. She will read a book in a single day and then I'm left with two weeks of nothing waiting for the schedule to catch up to her. This year I decided to use a "book basket" approach to reading and put the Sonlight readers in along with other historical fiction books in a bag and she is allowed to pick what she wants to read and how quickly she wants to cover it. And because Sonlight's comprehension assessment is through narration and dialog, it's an easy adjustment to make. There aren't worksheets or projects that have to match up with specific books read in a specific order. And if she wants to skip a book completely (as she did with The Corn Grows Ripe) it's fine. I'm enjoying diving into this Core again and remembering that Columbus was looking for Japan, not India, when he bumped into North America. Boo started laughing when we read in Pedro's Journal that he was convinced that symbols on native objects were Japanese writing. Do you remember learning that in second grade?
So what works for me? Sonlight. I stumbled upon Sonlight when searching for a quality reading list for my then first grader, Bug. She had just annihilated a reading program that was supposed to last the year and it was the end of November. Clearly, I needed something a bit more substantial and looked promising. I purchased their Core 2 Readers IG. It was around $6 and I figured it wasn't much to lose if I didn't like it. She tore through those books too, and we found that we loved the narration approach to assessing comprehension while using the suggested questions as a check list. She would begin telling me about what she had read and I would check off the questions she had addressed. When she was done we would go over any concepts that she had missed, and there usually weren't any. I still had a few months of first grade left for her, so I purchased the Core 2 Readers Advanced IG and she begged to keep it going through the summer while she polished off the book list. I turned around and ordered the complete Core 3: Introduction to American History, Part 1 for the coming school year. And it was somewhere around December that I knew I had fallen head over heals for a curriculum.
When Sonlight teaches history it uses a variety of methods. There are workbooks and textbooks that act as a spine, and then there are living books that put some meat on the bones. It sounds simple enough, but what I didn't understand from just looking at it was the looping that occurs in such a method. For example, Bug would read about Paul Revere in her textbook, The Landmark History of the American People, and then read about him again and answer some questions about him in the workbook, The Story of the USA. She also got to listen to me read a biography, "And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?" That sounds like enough, right? Nope. She was also independently reading Mr. Revere and I, a story told from the horse's point of view. (One of Bug's favorites and isn't in the new core. What's up with that, Luke?) The moment of knowing this was a fantastic program came while I was reading Johnny Tremain to Bug and she lit up and said, "I know him!" when Revere entered the story. It was like a friend made a surprise appearance. That's how well Sonlight teaches history. People and themes are presented in a variety of formats, from different perspectives, and often enough that they become well known, not just memorized.
This year Boo gets her turn with Core 3 (or D, as it's now called) and she's putting her own spin on it. Boo is a voracious reader, even more so than Bug, and the reading assignments just don't work for her. She will read a book in a single day and then I'm left with two weeks of nothing waiting for the schedule to catch up to her. This year I decided to use a "book basket" approach to reading and put the Sonlight readers in along with other historical fiction books in a bag and she is allowed to pick what she wants to read and how quickly she wants to cover it. And because Sonlight's comprehension assessment is through narration and dialog, it's an easy adjustment to make. There aren't worksheets or projects that have to match up with specific books read in a specific order. And if she wants to skip a book completely (as she did with The Corn Grows Ripe) it's fine. I'm enjoying diving into this Core again and remembering that Columbus was looking for Japan, not India, when he bumped into North America. Boo started laughing when we read in Pedro's Journal that he was convinced that symbols on native objects were Japanese writing. Do you remember learning that in second grade?
Week #2
This was a busy week, and just proved why keeping the girls' schoolwork in backpacks is a good idea. Monday knocked me out with a migraine and I was happy to get them through math and language arts. On Tuesday the pain had lifted, leaving behind a foggy blur, but I had a growing to do list and we set off to get things done! The first item on the list was a doctor's apt. for Bear. Bug and Boo opened up their backpacks once we were in the examining room and got to work. Bug pulled out her reading book, and Boo decided to tackle math and just get it out of the way. They were quiet and I could focus on Bear and talk to her doctor without interruption. Next on the list was to fix the handle of one of my car doors and we were off to the dealer for a two hour repair. After some fun in the bounce house that the dealership had set up we headed inside and Bug got her math and DLR done while Boo finished up her math and Bear did her math, cutting, and alphabet game. We went straight from the dealer to Bear's speech therapy, and Bug and Boo did their science for the week while Bear met with her teacher. By the time we finally got home half of the day was gone, but so was half of the school work. I figured that was good enough for one day and they hung up their backpacks. :) Wednesday and Thursday were back to a regular school schedule (sleepovers both nights not withstanding), and I doubled up history for both days to make up for skipping it Monday and Tuesday.
Bug and Boo are learning about setting, and it's importance in the telling of a story, this month. Using a template from Evan Moor's How to Report on Books 3-4 they made file folder dioramas depicting the settings of books they read. They filled out a questionnaire about each book, explained the use of setting in the book, and glued the forms to the backs of the file folders.
Boo's first diorama was for Little House on Rocky Ridge. She glued mosaic tiles on the ground because it's very rocky. Then she painted the barn and house, cut a slit at the roof of the house, and put an orange piece of paper that can be slipped in and removed to show how the house was on fire, but then the fire was put out. She then decided to make the characters and put on a show depicting her favorite chapter of the book.
Boo wasn't so inspired for her second diorama, Magic Tree House: Buffalo Before Breakfast. Two sleepovers in a row will do that to you. :) It takes place on the plains, and after she had painted the brown, sun dried grass and big blue sky she was out of ideas. To make it interesting she decided to add the characters, and finally found some enjoyment in the project in molding the dog, Freddy, from moon sand.
Bug went all out with her first diorama, determined not be out done by her younger sister. She has been reading the American Girl series about Kaya. She made a tepee, the grassy ground, horses, water, trees, and then made the characters and put on a show of her own.
For her second book, Bug spent a lot of time on the waterfall and the platform the men used to catch the fish as they came over the falls. She then added Kaya and her friend sitting by the falls and that blue line is the river going around (not over!) them. She then gave herself the challenge of creating a tepee out of pipe cleaners, but didn't have enough. Undaunted, and inspired by Boo's creation of a dog for her diorama, Bug decided it was the perfect size for Kaya's dog.
Bug and Boo are learning about setting, and it's importance in the telling of a story, this month. Using a template from Evan Moor's How to Report on Books 3-4 they made file folder dioramas depicting the settings of books they read. They filled out a questionnaire about each book, explained the use of setting in the book, and glued the forms to the backs of the file folders.
Boo's first diorama was for Little House on Rocky Ridge. She glued mosaic tiles on the ground because it's very rocky. Then she painted the barn and house, cut a slit at the roof of the house, and put an orange piece of paper that can be slipped in and removed to show how the house was on fire, but then the fire was put out. She then decided to make the characters and put on a show depicting her favorite chapter of the book.
Boo wasn't so inspired for her second diorama, Magic Tree House: Buffalo Before Breakfast. Two sleepovers in a row will do that to you. :) It takes place on the plains, and after she had painted the brown, sun dried grass and big blue sky she was out of ideas. To make it interesting she decided to add the characters, and finally found some enjoyment in the project in molding the dog, Freddy, from moon sand.
Bug went all out with her first diorama, determined not be out done by her younger sister. She has been reading the American Girl series about Kaya. She made a tepee, the grassy ground, horses, water, trees, and then made the characters and put on a show of her own.
For her second book, Bug spent a lot of time on the waterfall and the platform the men used to catch the fish as they came over the falls. She then added Kaya and her friend sitting by the falls and that blue line is the river going around (not over!) them. She then gave herself the challenge of creating a tepee out of pipe cleaners, but didn't have enough. Undaunted, and inspired by Boo's creation of a dog for her diorama, Bug decided it was the perfect size for Kaya's dog.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Lesson Planning
A friend of mine asked for more details about my lesson planner, and I thought that I might as well share with answer with all of you. :) I love lesson planning. I love knowing what I need to get done that day, week, month, and year. I love being able to look back on a week and see that everything got done. Nothing energizes me more than having an open lesson plan book ready to go at the start of a day. In fact, after I quit teaching I had a mini-panic attack. What was I going to do? Sit at home with my 8 month old daughter all day long? Where was the structure? What were the goals??? I hadn't been out of a classroom two days before I was headed to the nearest teacher supply store and picking out a lesson planner. I still have it if anyone should doubt me. I mapped out our days with trips to parks and the library, playgroups, crafts/art (all edible), and story times. I was much happier and haven't been without a planner since. :)
I have a few requirements of my planners these days. The first is, they need to customizable so I can have different sized boxes for various subjects. Secondly, they need to be simple. I don't want a quote of the week at the top of the page because I will end up reading it practically every time I look at the planner and forget what I was previously thinking. (Yes, I can be that scatter brained.) Finally, they need to look pretty as they get filled in. Remember, checking things off is my favorite part. I want the planner to reflect my joy in accomplishment. :)
This year I bought Carson-Dellosa's The Green Plan Book. It was big, customizable, simple, and I quickly came up with a plan to make it pretty. I filled it in Bug's with a green pen and Boo's with blue, their favorite colors. That way I would know at a glance who's planner I was looking at. I spent at least two solid weeks planning the year for each girl. First I figured out how many math assignments would need to be completed in order to finish the program by the first day of STAR testing. I don't "teach to the test," but if I'm going to ask my child to go in and take a test, I think the least I can do is have her fully prepared. Then I planned out the history. This is going to have to be redone for Bug because things shifted on me and I'm waiting to see her new curriculum and then figure out how to partner it with a literature based one. (Next week's post will cover my curriculum choices for the girls. Promise.) Boo's history took roughly an hour because I didn't want to use some portions of it and had to see how the rest of it would work together. Turned out that I could create a seamless new plan and she's off and running with it. Science and writing simply required copying out the learning goals for each day from the books. Took time, but very little brain power. :) The remainder were even easier. These were for books where all they do is turn to the next page and complete it. I just put the subject heading in, and if there was a weekly topic wrote that at the bottom of the column. I left reading blank because the girls will fill in the boxes with the titles of the books they choose to read (from a given set of books) and then note when they did a book report and the literature aspect being focused on for that report.
Then I bought some sparkle star stickers and square stickers to use in the planner. Bug got owls and Boo picked out fairies. Now comes the fun part. They get to place a sticker in the book once an assignment is completed. The star stickers are for subjects that require directions for each day. I don't want the words to get covered up so they have to use the small stickers. The square stickers are for their daily assignments where all they have to do is turn to the next page. Those appear as blank squares in the planner and so they can use big stickers to fill the empty space.
Bug's planner showing how she filled in her reading assignments, and then put the owl stickers in for geography. It also shows how I had to change the book for history because I couldn't find the one called for by the program at my library, and I just liked the other one better anyway. :)
More of Bug's planner, this time showing how the stars are used for the math column's, and the larger stickers for Daily Language Review.
After a week of using this system I have to say that it worked perfectly! The girls like putting the stickers in their planners and I love the way they look. Win/win!
I have a few requirements of my planners these days. The first is, they need to customizable so I can have different sized boxes for various subjects. Secondly, they need to be simple. I don't want a quote of the week at the top of the page because I will end up reading it practically every time I look at the planner and forget what I was previously thinking. (Yes, I can be that scatter brained.) Finally, they need to look pretty as they get filled in. Remember, checking things off is my favorite part. I want the planner to reflect my joy in accomplishment. :)
This year I bought Carson-Dellosa's The Green Plan Book. It was big, customizable, simple, and I quickly came up with a plan to make it pretty. I filled it in Bug's with a green pen and Boo's with blue, their favorite colors. That way I would know at a glance who's planner I was looking at. I spent at least two solid weeks planning the year for each girl. First I figured out how many math assignments would need to be completed in order to finish the program by the first day of STAR testing. I don't "teach to the test," but if I'm going to ask my child to go in and take a test, I think the least I can do is have her fully prepared. Then I planned out the history. This is going to have to be redone for Bug because things shifted on me and I'm waiting to see her new curriculum and then figure out how to partner it with a literature based one. (Next week's post will cover my curriculum choices for the girls. Promise.) Boo's history took roughly an hour because I didn't want to use some portions of it and had to see how the rest of it would work together. Turned out that I could create a seamless new plan and she's off and running with it. Science and writing simply required copying out the learning goals for each day from the books. Took time, but very little brain power. :) The remainder were even easier. These were for books where all they do is turn to the next page and complete it. I just put the subject heading in, and if there was a weekly topic wrote that at the bottom of the column. I left reading blank because the girls will fill in the boxes with the titles of the books they choose to read (from a given set of books) and then note when they did a book report and the literature aspect being focused on for that report.
Then I bought some sparkle star stickers and square stickers to use in the planner. Bug got owls and Boo picked out fairies. Now comes the fun part. They get to place a sticker in the book once an assignment is completed. The star stickers are for subjects that require directions for each day. I don't want the words to get covered up so they have to use the small stickers. The square stickers are for their daily assignments where all they have to do is turn to the next page. Those appear as blank squares in the planner and so they can use big stickers to fill the empty space.
Bug's planner showing how she filled in her reading assignments, and then put the owl stickers in for geography. It also shows how I had to change the book for history because I couldn't find the one called for by the program at my library, and I just liked the other one better anyway. :)
More of Bug's planner, this time showing how the stars are used for the math column's, and the larger stickers for Daily Language Review.
After a week of using this system I have to say that it worked perfectly! The girls like putting the stickers in their planners and I love the way they look. Win/win!
Friday, August 5, 2011
First Week of School, 2011-2012
School has begun and I couldn't be happier! I need structure in my life, or nothing gets done. I am too lazy in spirit to allow myself chances for down-time or excuses for not doing something.
We basically school year round, taking December and July off. We take off time in December because every group we belong to, activity we participate in, and numerous relatives and friends have parties or shows and there is no way I can keep up with all that and teach at the same time! We take off July because I feel like an ogre saying my kids don't get a summer break. Plus, I need the time to plan for the coming year. However, without activities to fill their time they become restless, whiny, and start asking when we will start school again.
August first happily fell on a Monday this year and made a great start date. We did a half day of Bible, math, and language arts. Then we went to the library and loaded up on books. Tuesday was our first full day and it went amazingly smoothly. The girls are really on their best behavior, probably because I told them that the amount of time they spent on school work would effect the number of classes I would allow them to join. Wednesday and Thursday both went like clock work and I was able to teach all three within a four hour window. To celebrate a successful week, the girls made books using Rice Crispy Treats wrapped in softened Starbursts and decorated with sugar letters and numbers.
Bear's - PreK
Boo's - 2nd Grade
Bug's - Aw, you can figure it out!
Just because I always want to know what other homeschoolers are doing, this is what our school day looks like:
9: Make beds, get dressed, eat breakfast
9:45: Bible - Go over the verse for the week
10-11: Math - Teach the day's lesson to Bug. Send her off with her workbook to do the independent practice. Move on to Boo. Make sure she understands the assignment and then let her go to complete it on her own. Turn to the Bear and go through her math with her, then give her a page from her Kumon pasting book to complete on her own. Check over Bug's and Boo's math and they can play outside until 11 if they finish early.
11-12: Language Arts - All but spelling can be done independently. I start with Boo and go through her spelling list. When she's done with that she plows through the rest of LA, gets a book and goes off to read until noon. Bug has been working on her LA during this time, but pauses for her spelling (done while jump roping), and then goes back to finish it up and read until lunch. I do Bear's reading with her, give her a page from Kumon's Alphabet Games, and then she scampers off to watch Super Why! or Blues Clues while I pull out lunch options.
12-12:30: Lunch - The older two usually bring their books to the table, assemble their lunches, and keep right on reading.
12:30-2 (on a good day): Social Studies and Science - I'm a glutton for punishment and have all three pursuing different studies. I start with Bug, leaving Boo to do her geography, science, and piano practice independently. Then I switch my attention to Boo, and Bug completes her independent work. Finally little Bear gets to be the center of attention (because the big ones like to listen in and do her projects too) and we read a book and add a component to her accompanying lapbook. I use the list of FIAR resources on homeschoolshare.com for this.
We basically school year round, taking December and July off. We take off time in December because every group we belong to, activity we participate in, and numerous relatives and friends have parties or shows and there is no way I can keep up with all that and teach at the same time! We take off July because I feel like an ogre saying my kids don't get a summer break. Plus, I need the time to plan for the coming year. However, without activities to fill their time they become restless, whiny, and start asking when we will start school again.
August first happily fell on a Monday this year and made a great start date. We did a half day of Bible, math, and language arts. Then we went to the library and loaded up on books. Tuesday was our first full day and it went amazingly smoothly. The girls are really on their best behavior, probably because I told them that the amount of time they spent on school work would effect the number of classes I would allow them to join. Wednesday and Thursday both went like clock work and I was able to teach all three within a four hour window. To celebrate a successful week, the girls made books using Rice Crispy Treats wrapped in softened Starbursts and decorated with sugar letters and numbers.
Bear's - PreK
Boo's - 2nd Grade
Bug's - Aw, you can figure it out!
Just because I always want to know what other homeschoolers are doing, this is what our school day looks like:
9: Make beds, get dressed, eat breakfast
9:45: Bible - Go over the verse for the week
10-11: Math - Teach the day's lesson to Bug. Send her off with her workbook to do the independent practice. Move on to Boo. Make sure she understands the assignment and then let her go to complete it on her own. Turn to the Bear and go through her math with her, then give her a page from her Kumon pasting book to complete on her own. Check over Bug's and Boo's math and they can play outside until 11 if they finish early.
11-12: Language Arts - All but spelling can be done independently. I start with Boo and go through her spelling list. When she's done with that she plows through the rest of LA, gets a book and goes off to read until noon. Bug has been working on her LA during this time, but pauses for her spelling (done while jump roping), and then goes back to finish it up and read until lunch. I do Bear's reading with her, give her a page from Kumon's Alphabet Games, and then she scampers off to watch Super Why! or Blues Clues while I pull out lunch options.
12-12:30: Lunch - The older two usually bring their books to the table, assemble their lunches, and keep right on reading.
12:30-2 (on a good day): Social Studies and Science - I'm a glutton for punishment and have all three pursuing different studies. I start with Bug, leaving Boo to do her geography, science, and piano practice independently. Then I switch my attention to Boo, and Bug completes her independent work. Finally little Bear gets to be the center of attention (because the big ones like to listen in and do her projects too) and we read a book and add a component to her accompanying lapbook. I use the list of FIAR resources on homeschoolshare.com for this.
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