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Closer look at our filing system

2011-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

Here's one weeks hanging file folder. From left to right you have my items, Miss Green's folder, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, Mr. Yellow, Science, and History.

This is my binder. I have post-its, a pencil holder, and lined paper in the front. I use the lined paper for writing narrations quickly before adding them to their illustrations or dictating them back to them. Below is the same binder on the side. From front to back you have history and science together, Miss Green, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, and Mr. Yellow.

Kindergarten ABC Workbox Ideas

2011-11-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned Mr. Yellow is showing signs of being ready for school work. He's developed quite the addiction to my phone and tablet. If I don't have him right beside me, he's sure to be hidden with one of them under the covers in his room. The little stinkerpot! So, I've been trying to make sure I have several fun activities planned for him to do independently. I get him started and then let him

have fun with it. I haven't been using our workboxes since we moved, but I'm ready to get them out for him now. I think they'll work beautifully for him, so I've been brainstorming ideas. Here's what I have thus far.

Handwriting Without Tears Capital Letter Pieces

We have these already along with the cards. I've been planning on adding magnets to the back forever, but I see

now they have magnetic pieces now. It's about time! I'll probably just add magnets to our existing set though.

Roll-A-Dough Letters

We have these too. I'm not thrilled with them, as my kids haven't had the dexterity to make the long thin pieces needed at the age they need these. I do like the idea of them, and I see that you can use them with shaving cream or rice. We may do something along those lines with Mr. Yellow.

Lauri Alphabet Puzzle Boards

I love Lauri products, and this one is no exception. It has 3 parts, matching the shape of the letters, matching the shape of the picture, and putting the two together.

Alphabet Art Puzzle

This is one of the prettiest alphabet puzzles I've seen. I think this will be my 3rd child to use it.

Clothespin ABC Match-up

I love Erica's printables. I printed this one up and laminated it. Then I printed the alphabet on labels, stuck them on clothespins, and Mod Podged them.

I'll probably also use some of the File Folder Games I made for Miss Purple when she was this age.

I found them!

2011-11-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

I actually managed to find the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading magnets. This means we can start reading with Mr. Yellow this week! I need to add the cd to iTunes, so it will be on my phone. After that, its all systems go. Have I mentioned how much I love having in iPhone? I had an iPod Touch before, which I adored, but the unlimited data plan on the iPhone is just amazing. The kids use it all the time when w
e're on the road and need to look something up. I let Mr. Yellow use it when we're at swim practice. It's hard

for a 2 year old to stay in the same place every night for 2 hours with very little to do. We used to haul lots of toys and books in for him, but now I just consider that his screen time. I don't let him use it for the full 2 hours, but it does keep him entertained for as long as I'll let him keep it.

At the moment, he's enjoying the Starfall app. Everytime it plays the ABC song he runs to me to have me sing it with him. It's adorable.

More finds from the barn

2011-11-26T22:19:00.001-08:00

Today one of the boxes we went through was full of binders. Some of them were Story of the World activity books, but others were the kids history and science binders. It was so fun to see their handwriting from 3 years ago.

Another box had a lot of printer supplies, i.e. labels, greeting cards, photo paper, and tri-fold brochure paper. I see some printing in my future!

Mr. Yellow is showing many, many signs of reading readiness, so I guess I need to get fired up in that department. We started learning the Short Vowel poem from the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Now if I could only find the magnets to go with it. I think may still be in the barn somewhere. Hmm...

I've made a lot of printable math activities for him. I am loving Confessions of a Homeschooler right now. She's got great stuff like a Number Word Match-Up that he has great fun with. We put the laminated print out on a cookie sheet, and then he matches up his magnetic letters to the paper. Then he counts the items and "reads" the word and points to the number and says it. He also likes the Number Dots Worksheet to use with pompoms from Dollar Tree. I got him some little tongs, so he uses tho

se to pick up the pompoms and put them on the print out. He likes to count while he's doing them and then he says the final number. I've also let him play with the Cuisenaire Rods a bit after Miss Purple is done with them and he uses them with the fabulous Cuisenaire Activity and Exploration Book. We haven't played any of the games yet, but he has done the pictures. He's getting the hang of them for sure. I have the Cuisenaire letter book, but it may be another one that's in the barn. Are you seeing a pattern here? Speaking of patterns, I've also got pattern block work planned for him. We have the Melissa and Doug set, but I want to get a magnetic foam set to use with the Patternables book we have on hand, in page protectors no less!

I tore up the Capital Letter Stories workbook and put it in page protectors, so he can do it over and over again with dry erase markers. I recently saw the same system at Wal-Mart, but in a dry erase form. I prefer the page protectors though, as I can choose which letters to put in his binder for the week. This system reminds me of Handwriting Without Tears, but its a little more colorful/kid friendly. We have the wooden letter pieces for that program too and need to pull them out in the coming weeks.

Oops!

2011-11-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

I loaded up with Miss Pink and Miss Purple this morning to make the 3 hour drive to my brand new nephew, but the car wouldn't start. I've suspected the starter was going for a few weeks, but this morning it completely gave up. So, I'm house bound until Daddy gets it or the van fixed.

When we moved back to this state 3 years ago, we knew we would be in a rental for about a year before moving into this house. Instead of unpacking everything in the rental, we loaded up the barn with things that weren't in use at the time. Fast forward 3 years, and now we'd really like to use the barn as, well, a barn. So, today we went out and filled up the truck bed with boxes to sort through. There's lots more to go through, but this made a good start on it.

We found the greatest stuff, including some of the kids most loved toys, i.e. dress-up clothes. My greatest find though was all the school supplies! I found my missing Story of the World 4 cd set, unopened. I've since bought the mp3s, so I guess I can put this one up for sale. I found a lot of Bob Books, which are perfect for Mr. Yellow in the next few months. We also found a lot of Peg Puzzles, which Baby Orange is loving. He puts a piece in and claps for himself. The greatest part is he claps whether he gets it in or not. It's just hilarious and adorable. Mr. Yellow is also liking the alphabet puzzles we pulled out. We discovered duplicates of the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and the Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia. These were put away before I cataloged our books in the rental, which reminds me I need to update those records. This just scratches the surface of the great stuff we found. Most of what I'm excited about is for Mr. Yellow's kindergarten year. He's starting to show signs of reading readiness. It's such an exciting time! More on his plans later though. For now here's Miss Purple's list.

Song School Latin We've used this before, with Miss Pink. She enjoyed it, and I imagine Miss Purple will as well. We love the songs!

Math Mammoth 1A She's nearly done with this, so we'll soon move on to 1B. I haven't done well making sure facts are memorized, so I need to add some drill work.

Miquon Orange I used Miquon when Miss Green was 4. I pushed a little too much and we both ended up hating it. However, I scored this for free when CurrClick had an Easter giveaway. I printed out the pages that use Cuisenaire rods, (another find in the barn) and have her working 1 or 2 a day. I've seen her make connections that weren't there before, so I think I'm going to buy the Red book and continue in the same way.

Writing With Ease 1 I would say how wonderful this is, but I think I'd be repeating myself. One thing I don't think I've mentioned is how this series piques their interest in some classic books. We've gotten a lot of library books after using passages from them for narration and dictation.

First Language Lessons 1

She's loving the poetry memorization. I've typed in some of the definitions, which we'll start doing as copywork soon. I use StartWrite for that, which is quite handy. I can easily print out different fonts for different kids.

Handwriting Skills Simplified Level B Her letter shapes are pretty good, but she doesn't know how to use the lines yet. I'm hoping this will help that issue.

Algebra, here we come!

2011-11-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

We certainly did a shortened day, but since we missed so much time with the baby we have to be diligent.

We did have an amazing, wonderful thing happen today. Miss Green has always been math phobic to say the least. She has resisted my teaching on anything related to math. I had decided though to switch her to Teaching Textbooks next year, since its something the younger ones will be able to use as well unlike Aleks which is a subscription. I printed out the 7th grade placement test last week, and to my great surprise she said it was too easy. She asked to have the next test to take. So, I printed the Pre-Algebra test. She did great on it! She missed a few questions, but was still passing. So, she wanted the Algebra test. That was more challenging, but after I had her do 2 sample lessons of Algebra, I made the executive decision to order Algebra 1 for her. I can not believe how excited she is about it. She called Grammy to share how thrilled she was. So, it looks like I'll be placing a Timberdoodle order soon.

Miss Pink this year, 3rd grade or so, wrote in her binder today "gnirob si htam." I think she's tired of working on clocks and time. I'll have to fast forward her to the next lesson in Math Mammoth 3A. So, here's her work for this year.

The aforementioned Math Mammoth. I don't think I've mentioned that I bought all levels of Math Mammoth when Homeschool Buyer's Co-op had it offered. It was one of my best purchases yet. It's really nice to be able to print out remedial things for any of them to complement their other math programs. Just this year we've switched over to using it as our core instead of a supplement.

First Language Lessons 3

I just can't say enough good about this program. My kids especially love the poetry memorization. I love it even more that I've got the pdf for the workbook. It makes it so easy to file.

Writing With Ease 2

This one we may skip part of to move up to 3. I'm still undecided. She's doing quite well with it so far. I have the pdf for the student pages on this one too. It makes it super easy to replace anything that goes missing in the course of the week.

So, that's her core. She also has the subjects we do as a group, which will come later.

Another successful day notebooking

2011-11-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

Today we did our basics and finished up with silent reading of history books. Everyone was reading about FDR today. Afterwards, they each drew a picture and captioned it. They knew they would be notebooking their books, and I believe paid better attention to it than as per usual. So, I think we're going to stick with narration for the foreseeable future.

So Mr. Blue's (age 12) plans for now and the coming year are as follows:

MindBenders- B series I think this is his favorite subject. He pulls out extra to do. He likes me to sit with him while he does it and talk him through it. It's lots of fun for both of us. We may move on to the C Series if he completes this before the end of the school year.

Math Mammoth 5 & 6

He's getting a better grasp on math this year. He's actually enjoying long division. He likes to have competitions with his older sister to see who can work a problem faster.

First Language Lessons 4

I really like this program. I'm adding one small thing this year for all of mine using it, copywork for the grammar rules and definitions. He's a champion at diagramming.

Writing With Ease 4

This is another love of mine. I've found that all of mine who have used this program are able to narrate quite well. They're also better at summarizing than the oldest, who never used WWE. I really appreciated watching Susan Wise Bauer teach her son out of this book.

Of course he also has group subjects, which we'll discuss later. I need to add in handwriting for him, as his italics need a little work.

Major breakthrough!

2011-11-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

I'm reading The Well-Trained Mind yet again, but I was forced to take a break when it fell apart. I've since rubber cemented it, and am waiting, ever so patiently to crack it back open. While I was reading the science section for the elementary grades, I once again was motivated to "do narrations." After reading from the Apologia Anatomy book I had each one tell me what they remembered. Then we pulled out the paper and they drew something to go along with it. I wrote their narrations all on one page for them to copy, but they all ended up writing a lot more to go with their illustrations. I really can see how much more they learned using the narration method. They also made sure to pull them out to show Daddy when he got home. They don't usually want to share what they've done and only will under duress. For them to be anxious to share is a huge accomplishment. I'm looking forward to doing more for history and science.

Filing has worked surprisingly well for us. Every Sunday evening we pull out the file and put our papers in our respective binders. I've been slowing adding things to the files as we go, and we've abandoned some things that I to put in their own special file for a later date.

So, for Miss Green, now an 8th grader, we've got a short line-up. I'm still tweaking what she needs, and while we do that we're keeping it simple.

English in Blue and White.

She really, really likes this one, and insists its the best grammar program she's ever done. It was written by two 8th grade teacher's to make sure their students knew what they needed for high school.

Vocabulary From Classical Roots C

She completed the A book rather reluctantly, but after about a month off has attacked this one voraciously. I think she's realized that its fun to learn finally.

Vocabulary Cartoons

This one is quite enjoyable to flip through. I've learned a few new words.

Aleks

This is one of the few maths she's like thus far. I'm not sure what she likes about it, but she's learning, enjoying learning, and gaining confidence.

Writing With Skill

We just started this today, but I can already tell we're going to adore it. She never did Writing With Ease, but I've loved it with the younger ones.

Filing part two

2010-08-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

So, as promised here's what we do once a week. I pull out the hole punch and the file for the week on Sunday evening. The kids pull out their binders and I pull out my binder. Then we go through and pull everything out, completed or not. We sort out what we'll save,(history, science, writing, and copywork) and what we won't (math and handwriting.) They file away the papers to save in a file with their name on it and shred everything else. It's hard for them to just throw away papers, so the shredding is kind of a fun way to do it. The shreds go into the garden in the summer and to Daddy in the winter for restarting the outdoor furnace.

Now that their binders are empty, we can refill them. They have a divider for each day of the week, which we made ourselves. I printed out a checklist of school work and chores for each day on cardstock and slid it in a page protector. Then I applied the NoteTabs shown above. That way they can check off assignments and chores as they're completed. I let them break things up the way they'd like, unless its a subject I do with them. In that case, they have to do one assignment per day.

In my binder I have a divider for each child and one extra for the subjects we combine. Behind each divider is anything I have to do with that child for the week. This makes our school work extremely portable, which is a necessity for our swimming schedule. We do a lot of school in the car and at the pool, since we're there 4 nights a week in the winter and 5 mornings a week in the summer.

I am such a follower...

2010-08-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

I tried really hard to stay away from the posts about filing everything for the year, but once I started thinking about it I realized how well it would work for me. Basically you print out everything you're going to use, rip apart all your workbooks, and file it by week. I've taken it a step further and taken apart my teacher's manuals, put the pages in page protectors, and filed them by week as well. Everything we need for any given week of the school year is in the file. It should make life a lot easier once the baby comes. We usually take an extended break, but I think having everything ready to go will make a huge difference. The other benefit is how portable school is now! Many of the filers have dated their folders, but mine are simply labeled Week 1, Week 2, etc.

This will save me from having to relabel things next year, but also allows us to take a break whenever we need one without messing up the system.

Without further ado, here's what I've done. Each weekly hanging folder has 9 folders inside it as follows:

Dark Green: History (SOTW done together) All of our supplemental history books also have green stickers on the spine, so we can see at a glance which shelf they belong on. I'm also including a state study coloring page in this box and I may add a presidential coloring page as well.

Yellow: Science (Apologia Elementary Anatomy this year) Once again the supplemental books have yellow stickers on the spine. I've purchased a lapbook to go along with the Anatomy text and have a few coloring books as well, which are what is filed, the Apologia book is not ripped apart, it stays in my box to use.

Orange: Language (First Start French, Latina Christiana, and Greek Code Cracker) Once again supplements have orange stickers on the spines

Manila: This one is my folder. I put everything in here that goes in my binder. Teacher's manuals, scripted texts, SOTW Activity Guide pages, etc.

Light Green: Miss Green's work, ie. Math Mammoth, Wordsmith, Growing With Grammar, Vocabulary From Classical Roots, copy work, and Checkbook Math

Light Blue: Mr. Blue's work; Math U See Delta, Checkbook Math, First Language Lessons 4, copy work,and Writing With Ease 3

Light Pink: Miss Pink's (are you noticing the pattern here?) pages including Math U See Beta/Gamma, First Language Lessons 2,copy work, and Writing With Ease 2.

Light Purple: Miss Purple's Kindergarten work, i.e. Handwriting Without Tears, Explode the Code, and Math U See Alpha

Light Yellow: Mr. Yellow's busy work, which includes Patternables, extra maps from history, and shapes.

Tomorrow: how we organize each week into days...

Reading the Well-Trained Mind again

2010-03-05T18:42:00.001-08:00

About once a year I pull out The Well-Trained Mind to see where we should heading for the year, and this past week I've had it with me constantly at swimming practice. I'm a planner. I function best when I'm planning something, so since the house remodel is planned (now waiting on the general contractor AKA dh to accomplish the monster long list) I've moved on to homeschooling. I haven't allowed myself to read the Well-Trained Mind forums, browse the Rainbow Resource catalog, or do anything else homeschool research related, because I knew I didn't have time or money to devote to it. It has been so nice to get back into the swing of things schooling though. When I plan, we actually do school because I'm excited about it again. The kids are excited about the vast quantity of Dover coloring books we've gotten in the mail this past week. I'm trying to get lots of those to make up for The Story of the World Volume 4 not having much for the younger crowd.

I ended up having to buy a duplicate copy of the Activity Guide, since ours is still packed who knows where, along with All About Spelling, our history and language arts binders, and all of the Writing With Ease student pages. Poor Mr. Blue and Miss Pink have been stuck using Spelling Workout instead of AAS. I also bought duplicate copies of the Writing With Ease student pages. I'm happy about those though, because I got the pdfs. Now I can just print out the page we need on the laser printer. While I was at it, I bought the pdf for the Story of the World student pages too. Then I backed them all up to my external hard drive. I need pdfs of all our books! It's a lot easier to search a computer than boxes.

Oh man, it has been way too long...

2010-02-28T19:41:00.001-08:00

and not just since I posted. It's been too long we've gone without doing school regularly. We've been on an unschooling regimen since we moved into our new house 5 months ago. We've been doing a lot of remodeling, and I put off doing school until I had a school room to unpack the many, many school boxes into. I unpacked about 5 boxes last fall into what I thought would be the school room. Fast forward 5 month and that is now the laundry room. We obviously can't do school in the laundry room, so I made plans to make our garage the school room. That's a great idea, but we're so busy remodeling the rest of the house, we don't have time to heat and carpet the garage, even though we did have a crew come in a replace the garage door with a sliding glass door. 2 weeks ago, I finally got the much-delayed idea to turn half of our looonnnggg living room into a school room. So, we now have a functional school room, where the kids can sit at a table and do school work and I can sit on a couch and read to them. Have I mentioned how important a couch in the school room is? The kids love to pile up around while we read.

On Thursday we were reading our history lesson in the evening, learning about the Republic of Texas. DH actually had to stop reading his books to listen to me read the Story of the World. On Wednesday we discovered it was the anniversary of the day William Barrett Travis sent his letter out to his fellow Texans and the world. It was the exact day we were reading about the Alamo for history, so it was very real to the kids and I. I actually had to stop reading the letter, as I got quite choked up. Try reading this letter aloud with feeling and not get choked up. I dare you!

To the People of Texas &
all Americans in the world------

Fellow citizens & compatriots------

I am besieged, by a thousand
or more of the Mexicans under
Santa Anna ----- I have sustained
a continual Bombardment &
cannonade for 24 hours & have
not lost a man ----- The enemy
has demanded a Surrender at
discretion, otherwise, the garrison
are to be put to the sword, if
the fort is taken ----- I have answered
the demand with a cannon
shot, & our flag still waves
proudly from the wall ----- I
shall never Surrender or retreat

Then, I call on you in the
name of Liberty, of patriotism &
every thing dear to the American
character, to come to our aid,

with an dispatch ----- The enemy is

receiving reinforcements daily &

will no doubt increase to three or
four thousand in four or five days.
If this can is neglected, I am deter
mined to sustain myself as long as
possible & die like a soldier
who never forgets what is due to
his own honor & that of his
country ----- Victory or Death

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt

File Folder Game Tips

2009-06-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

After making a bunch of these the past few weeks, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

I bought 2 books from Carson-Dellosa, which require coloring, cutting, mounting, and laminating. This is a lot of work! I also bought 2 of the ready made sets, which turn out to be pretty expensive, but you do have the coloring already done and the inside of the folders mounted. I think I ended up getting the books for 12 dollars, and they each have approximately 40 games. The ready-made sets come with I think 6 games for $20. You do have to factor in the cost of folders, etc. but the books still come up to be a much better deal if you have the time to devote to it.

I took one of the books to Staples and had them copy all of the pieces (not the mounts) onto card stock. This cost about $15. If you want to have your pieces on card stock, I highly recommend this method. It saved so much time!

The thing with file folder games is you end up cutting out the same pieces several times. First you color it and cut it out. Then you mount it on card stock and cut it out. Then you laminate it and cut it out. Having it copied on to card stock cuts out one of those steps. I have started taking a few short cuts along the way though. So, I tear the page out of my book and color it. Then I laminate the whole page without cutting anything out. Then after it's laminated I cut the individual pieces out. Yes, this isn't quite as sturdy as the other way, but I figure since this will be home use rather than classroom use it will be just fine. So, that's my biggest tip.

I've been struggling trying to figure out a way to laminate the whole folder and spent the day searching the internet for a larger machine. I found the candidate for us, but in the meantime I had games to laminate! I tried Contact paper on several of them with varying degrees of success. Yes, they're protected but not very pretty. I finally took a laminating pouch and stuck one half of the file folder in it and laminated it. Then I took another pouch with the other half of the folder in it and laminated. Then I turned it inside out and ran it through the machine again to insure adhesion to all sides. It worked like a charm! There's about 1/4 inch that hangs out the top, and the same about of the tab sticks out. Next time I'll just trim a bit of the tag off. It looks so nice and was relatively simple, especially compared to the Contact paper. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself at this point.

Tomorrow I'm going to try putting a few of the pages in one of the kids boxes and let them color them. Then I'll mount them and make up the game. That way I don't have to color it and they get an extra exposure to the subject matter.

First Language Lessons AKA Another Peace Hill Press Rave

2009-06-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

We used First Language Lessons when Mr. Blue was in first grade and have been using it steadily ever since. He's on Level 3, while Miss Pink is on Level 1 at an advanced rate. She already knows most of the information covered from listening in on her brother's lessons. I have enjoyed Level 3 so much, I ended up getting Level 4 for Miss Green to go through quickly before starting Rod and Staff grade 6 next September. We've bounced around so much with her in grammar, but I can really see her making progress in this, even in the 2 weeks we've been using it.

We've used Rod and Staff (grade 3), Easy Grammar (3/4), and Learning Language Arts Through Literature (Orange and Gray.) Rod and Staff was really okay, but she decided on the first day she didn't like their tone. Every day after that was a chore. Easy Grammar was okay as well, but I didn't feel she really retained much. LLATL is probably a decent program, but I just felt overwhelmed by it. The teacher's manuals are very confusing to me, but that could be because I never found the time to sit down with them before using them.

First Language Lessons is truly open and go, which is a necessity here. I have 4 kids schooling now, so the less prep work I have to do the better. My kids enjoy the poetry memorization more than I ever thought they would. Everyone from Miss Purple to Miss Green has memorized all the poetry for the 3 levels we've done thus far. I try to find recordings of them to listen to in the car and Miss Purple usually asks to hear them above any music I might offer. It's quite interesting to listen to her recite poems.

It's also lead to other discoveries. For example last week Mr. Blue was memorizing A Tragic Story by William Makepeace Thackeray, and the only recording I could find was a choral arrangement sung by a boys choir. We ended up discussing boys choirs, falsettos, and music in general for a long while. I keep trying to get Mr. Blue to sing in a falsetto with them, but he's not falling for it.

Long story short, if you're looking for an open and go, gentle yet thorough introduction to grammar, go get First Language Lessons!

Writing With Ease

2009-05-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

The kids and I are really, really enjoying this curriculum! Mr. Blue is in Book 2, Miss Pink is in Book 3, and I'll start Miss Green in Book 4 just as soon as its out. I may actually have her run through Book 3 first, since it will be released sooner. I can see a big difference in the two I have using it, even in their summarizing ability, something Miss Green really needs work in.

The best part though, is the interest its ignited in my kids to read the books corresponding to the passages in the workbook. For example, this week Miss Pink was writing from passages from Caddie Woodlawn. Will you look at that italicized book title. I learned THAT from First Language Lessons 4, thank you very much. Evidently I don't remember much from elementary English. But I digress, back to WWE. I got to the end of the passage, remember I'm reading to Miss Pink here, and Mr. Blue says, "Will you read more, please?"

So, off to the library we went and checked out the full book, well the full audiobook anyway. We have a long drive tomorrow. We also checked out the second Percy Jackson audiobook. I don't know if they'll be able to agree on which to listen to first.

Apologia Elementary Science Notebook contest!

2009-05-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

I blogged a couple of months ago in my scheduling plans about the notebooks (samples here) that correspond to the Apologia Elementary Science series. I bought 2 of them to go along with the Astronomy book we're using right now. First off, I need to say though how much we enjoy this science series. The kids love listening, looking at the pictures, and when I do get around to the activities, they have a blast.

When Mr. Blue and Miss Green saw their new notebooks, they immediately grabbed them and ran off with them. They've been working on them independently without prompting from me to catch up to where we are in the book. They have (copied and pasted from Apologia here)

A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

I'm looking forward to getting the next notebooks in the series, especially Botany (samples here) which we're starting next. Now, for the fun stuff!

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on her site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Virginia!

2009-05-10T22:55:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun, fast trip. We went over to Williamsburg for the Well-Trained Mind Anniversary Conference, which was wonderful. I feel recharged and rejuvenated. I had gone to the Midwest Homeschool Convention last month, and when the kids heard Jim Weiss had been there, they were terribly disappointed. When the opportunity arose to go to this conference, where Jim Weiss was as well, I jumped on it. My mom flew in on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we took off. My dad flew in on Saturday to tour Williamsburg with us and then on Sunday we toured Jamestown. We didn't have time to visit Yorktown, but I'd like to go back sometime when Raoul can go with us. We just finished studying Jamestown and we're headed into the Revolutionary War, so this was the perfect time to visit Virginia for us. Now its back to "real schoolwork" for us in the morning. I think I'm going to try to have the kids load their workboxes tomorrow and see what happens.

File Folder Games and an Alphabet Lapbook

2009-04-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

Workboxes

2009-04-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderfully descriptive post written about the Midwest Homeschool Convention and what a great time I had there and how wonderful Raoul was to arrange childcare so I could go and descriptions of all the sessions I attended and what I bought and on and on. Then Firefox crashed and it was all lost. So, I wrote it again and added more about who I went with and how wonderful the Exhibit Hall was and the exhibitors there I hadn't seen and who wasn't there. And then Firefox crashed again. I may rewrite the post yet again, but in the meantime here's a brief workbox post.

Workboxes seem to be all the rage in the online homeschool community. It's based on Sue Patrick's Workbox System. I'm sure the powers that be at Target are mystified by the Accessory Racks flying off the shelves. We started using it with Miss Purple first, then added in Miss Pink. When Mr. Blue saw all the great stuff we were doing with the 2 girls, he asked to do the system as well. 2 weeks later, I decided to add Miss Green in. I had a great time at the conference looking for things to add in to our system. Here's what we got:

Scratch Off Hangman
Several Buki Books

(At this point Firefox crashed again, but I was finally smart and had saved it as a draft!)

Several Dover Historical Coloring Books
A few Little Paper Dolls
Some Kumon Preschool Books

I have quite a few things already for Miss Purple, as this is our third time through preschool. I just need to dig them out of storage. We won't unpack everything until we're in a permanent home instead of a rental. We just have too many books to lug around!

At this point, you may be assuming the workboxes are all about fun, and I'm afraid I'm misleading you. Our workboxes have allowed us to do our regular studies so efficiently, we finally have time to add in those fun things you always hear about homeschoolers doing. I love being able to break up the monotony with educational, entertaining tasks. In some blogs I've read about mothers putting the ingredients and recipe for baking cookies in a workbox or a lunch menu. Others put in a cookbook and let the child plan a meal for later in the week. There are so many possibilities that we're just beginning to scratch the surface of. I'm on the lookout for educational DS games to add to our workboxes occasionally. I have been putting educational dvds in, especially those pertaining to our history studies. I put Leapster games in Miss Pink and Miss Purple's occasionally. I put an index card in to remind them to practice piano and to do their online drills. I'm looking forward to adding more to our day in our workboxes. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Here are a few blogs to start you off! If you google workboxes and homeschooling you'll find enough to keep you reading for a long while.

What's in the Box?
Our Busy Homeschool
Walking by the Way

Latin, Latin, and more Latin!

2009-04-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've had quite a few questions lately about our Latin studies, so I thought I'd take a moment to review the many books we've used. First though, why study Latin? I decided to teach my children Latin after reading this article from Memoria Press and this article in the same issue of The Classical Teacher, which I thoroughly enjoy reading. To put it in a nutshell for our family, Latin is teaching us to use the English language and it will help the kids learn other languages in the future.

We started out with Prima Latina, which we loved. It sounds insane, but my kids really enjoyed memorizing the prayers. The vocabulary was gentle and words they enjoyed using. We only got into trouble when we started conjugating verbs and declining nouns, but we pressed through. I thought we'd use the dvds extensively, but after watching once, my kids begged me not to put it in again. We did use the cd though, every time we got in the car.

From there we went on to Latina Christiana. Although its from Memoria Press, we didn't like it nearly as well as PL. We got about 8 lessons in before it was too much for Mr. Blue and we stopped. Once again, we hated the dvd and loved the cd. It didn't have the prayer memorization, which we missed.

Along with LC, we also used Lingua Angelica, also from Memoria Press. This is just a beautiful cd and even though we haven't gotten around to translating yet, we enjoy listening to it frequently.

Then we tried Latin for Children. These dvds were much friendlier than the Latina Christiana set, but my kids still didn't click with them. What I love about Latin for Children are the extras! They've got the History Reader, the Activity Book, the dvd, etc. to go along with the basic text. I'm hoping to use these down the road, but we gave up again after a few lessons.

In the meantime I started Song School Latin with Miss Pink. Wow! I love this program! It's so simple and fun. Miss Pink thinks its okay, but Miss Purple? She love, love, loves it! She knows all the songs and sings them for fun frequently. She asks to hear the cd whenever we get in the car. Mr. Blue today asked if he could do Song School Latin for his Latin now, so I guess its a winner with him too.

This month we've started Lively Latin after reading lots of positive reviews for it. Miss Green says she really, really likes this one. She's been exclaiming every day during Latin, "Mommy, I really like this Latin!" Mr. Blue has started LL as well, though he's a few weeks behind Miss Green. I think this is going to be a great fit, although I've read recently that LL 2 is not as good as LL 1, so we'll have to see when we get around to that point.

I've seen so many different Latin curricula tempting me, but I'm trying to be strong and save my school budget for math. There's just too much fun stuff out there calling my name. I've got to stop researching. Every month there's something new out there that promises to be all I've been looking for for a certain child/subject. It's a siren call that I try to avoid when possible, but its a necessary evil. I'm scheduled to go to a homeschool fair this weekend, and I'm debating the wisdom of that. Will it help or hinder or efforts for this year? Well, either way, I'm getting my list together!

2nd grade plans

2009-04-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

Miss Pink is 7 and is probably the most like me of all my kids, educationally speaking. I have the easiest time teaching her, because we "speak the same language." Most of my plans for her are already implemented. This coming year will be just finishing what we've started.

Song School Latin: I love this program. I've read mixed reviews, but she's really learning the vocabulary well. She doesn't love the music, but little Miss Purple sure does!

Writing With Ease 1: This is such an easy to implement writing program. I really need things that are pick up and go.

First Language Lessons: We started this book some time ago, but we're taking it slow. She really enjoys memorizing poems.

Explode the Code 6-8: She's been reading since she was 4, so this is just review/spelling for her.

Spelling Workout C: We just finished book B, so we'll be starting C this week.

Singapore 1B: We'll probably go back to Math U See Alpha when we're not in a rental house anymore and I can get all our supplies out of storage.

Story of the World 3: She's doing this with Miss Green and Mr. Blue. She really enjoys having the additional reading in her boxes, as long as they're fiction!

Music: I'm looking into Music Ace Deluxe to go along with their piano lessons, but haven't decided for sure yet. It seems pretty pricey, but I've heard great reviews.

Art is with our lovely volunteer, Miss Florence. I think Thursdays are the high points of our week. This week Mr. Blue has big plans to go fishing in her pond before art lessons. He doesn't like to eat fish, but he thinks it might be okay if its something he caught. We'll see if he catches anything before we worry about that!

How is it that I've been homeschooling for 7 years...

2009-03-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

and am just now discovering the joys of a laminator? I bought one 2 days ago, and I can't stop laminating things! I made up a really neat thing for Miss Purple. She's been wanting me to write things for her and then she'll copy them. Her favorite things seem to be names, so I made up a little paper with pictures of 6 of her favorite people in the whole wide world and put their names beside them with space below for her to write. She was so excited to find it this morning. Now I'm thinking of laminating all the paper dolls I just finished cutting out. I'm not sure if I'll get around to that, but it sure is fun to look around the house for more stuff to laminate.

3rd Grade Plans

2009-03-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Alright, we've covered Miss Green's 5th grade plans, so now we'll move on to Mr. Blue. I've noticed he's lacking in the language arts department, so we're trying to beef that up a little bit, starting this week.

Language: First Language Lessons, grade 3 and Writing With Ease workbook 2

Spelling: Spectrum Spelling 3 (I prefer Spelling Workout, but he requested this one)

Math: Singapore 3A and B - He's done Math U See Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, but we went back a little in Singapore. He spent last year doing 2A and B and hasn't had any trouble at all yet with progressing. I don't think there's been a concept he's had a hard time with, so I don't know if we're moving to slow or what. I need to re-evaluate this. I considering ALEKS, but I haven't made any decisions yet.

Handwriting: He's on Portland Italics C, but we may ease off a little, since WWE has copywork and dictation.

History: Story of the World 3 with the others, along with the age appropriate recommendations from the Activity Guide. I found out there's a really big Revolutionary reenactment near us in May, so I'm hoping to get that far in history around that time. I need to sit down and make out a schedule that gets us there when it will do us the most good.

Science: Apologia Astronomy and the lapbook from Knowledge Box to go with it. Although, Jeannie Fulbright and Apologia are coming out with a notebook soon that is looking rather intriguing. She says in her blog they'll be available this spring, but I don't see them yet.

Music is Themes to Remember and library books. I'm hoping to have a chance to go through and correlate composers to time periods in history. Then we can have a better understanding of the world the composers lived in.

Art: This is the same as Miss Green. We go to lessons once a week. I'm also going to try to match up artists to time periods and study them as we go through history. Rembrandt and 17th Century Holland was recommended this past week by the Story of the World activity book, and Mr. Blue really enjoyed having a "peg" to hang Rembrandt on in his mind.

Latin will be finishing up Latina Christiana.

Classical Studies: D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and Study Guide by Memoria Press.
He's actually really enjoying this, well maybe not the study guide so much. We found the book on cd and he loves listening in the car. Up until now, we've just done the study guide orally, but I think I'll have him write the answers on the review questions himself. We found a book series that's helping to solidify the characters in his mind, its Myth-O-Mania. A friend of mine recommended the Percy Jackson series today. We got the first book on cd today from the library and are excited to listen to it!

So, that's where we're going in blue this year. I'm really excited with the way things are going so far and am looking forward to the rest of the year.

Paper Dolls

2009-03-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

In my last Rainbow Resource order, I got the American Family Paper Doll book and restickable glue. That's not all I got of course, but I don't want to go off on a tangent here. I've spent the past couple of evenings cutting dolls out and am starting to find it quite relaxing. I have a little routine going, which has smoothed things out considerably. I begin by cutting out the actual dolls for a time period and setting them aside. Then I take my handy dandy art knife (Office Depot clearance today for $4, includes a cutting mat) and cut out the face areas and hats for all the outfits for that time period. I then sit down in the easy chair and relax using my scissors to cut the rest of the outfits out. I found cutting the whole outfit out with the X-Acto knife a little tedious. After the time period is complete, I apply the restickable glue to the backs of all their outfits and wait for it to dry. Then I take the outfits, sort them by character onto card stock, and put the card stock in a binder that will eventually have the entire American Family series. I plan on purchasing the relevant dolls as we come up on them in history.

I really think one of these doll sets will be perfect to put in the girls' workboxes. I'm putting together Miss Pink's and Miss Purple's at the moment. More on that later along with the other great stuff I got from RR.

5th grade plans

2009-03-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

So, we're here at the end of the year, but we're going to have to work through the summer to catch up. I'm still trying to figure out what we're doing for her this year, and it helps me so much to write it down. So, here we go...

Math: Math U See Epsilon and Life of Fred Fractions. She loves Life Of Fred, but when she picked up Epsilon last week she told me she liked to do both of them. Epsilon she says explains some things better. So, at her request we're doing both.

Science: Apologia Elementary Astronomy with the 2nd and 3rd grader

History: Story of the World 3 with her brother and sister, along with accompanying reading from the library. We're also managing to do some projects this time. Woo-hoo!

Language: I just ordered Language Arts Through Literature for her yesterday. She really enjoyed the orange one, but I wanted to try something else. Well, we're going to go back to LLATL for this year.

Spelling: Spelling Workout G and H

Latin: Latina Christiana I We've worked through Prima Latina and part of LCI already. However, we need to review the first half of the book, which we're doing now. Then we'll move on to new stuff.

Classical Studies: D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and Study Guide from Memoria Press

Bible for Children I: Just starting this, but the three oldest are doing it together.

Music: Themes to Remember, accompanying books, piano lessons twice a week

Art: We go to art lessons with the sweetest woman. She doesn't charge us anything, not even for the supplies. We meet another family of 5 there as well. It's great fun.

So, that's our year!

New Scheduling Method

2009-03-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited about trying this, but first the back story. Since I started needing to schedule work, I've scheduled it in a book. I started out with a teacher's lesson planner, putting everyone in the same book. Then I bought individual books and scheduled weekly. Although it works, its hard to check what's been done and what hasn't. Then half the time the kids say they can't find their schedules.

So, I went yesterday and bought a 4x8 piece of tile board from Lowe's. I divided it up in to sections with a wet erase marker. Down the left side I have 6 rows: Monday-Saturday. Along the top I have all the subjects we do. Then I have scheduled the kids work on there individually. They each have a color in our house: towels, cups, plates, notebooks, etc. (hence their blog names) so their individual assignments are written in their color. The subjects we do all together are written in orange. I left one space for myself for my reading and latin studies. I figure even if we abandon it shortly, we'll still have a monster, cheap whiteboard.

You can also see some other recent additions to our day. On the floor are the kids individual boxes. We've used several different methods for keeping our every day stuff out, but this is working the best so far. Theoretically these get put away after we do school, but they seem to stay out unless company is coming. On the far right is a cart I got from Target. It has a Staples Desk Apprentice on top that I found for $5 at Goodwill. In it I keep my teacher's manuals, science, and my Henle Latin. In the binders below I keep the Student pages for Writing With Ease and Story of the World. Once a week I'll pull their papers out and put them in a folder in their boxes. In the drawers are my (indispensable) Rainbow Resource catalog, and the felt pieces to go with our calendar. On the bottom I'm putting the additional history, science, and music reading we need for the week from the library and our personal library. After we've read it, it gets put away or in the main library box. I need to move that green strip above the white board. That's where they hang their artwork for the week before we put it in a binder for science or history. I love those things! The little whiteboard is from the same company.
http://rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1237183829-315409&subject=1&category=228
They're on clearance from Rainbow Resource and I'm getting ready to order a few more of the strips. They rock!

Finally settling in.

2009-03-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

Why does it take so long to adjust to a new home? We've lived in our new house for 2 months now, and I'm just now starting to see a routine take shape. I really think that adding the outside activities is what has helped. Right now we have added piano 2 days a week for the 3 oldest, swimming on those same 2 days for my 3 year old, and art lessons on another day for all of them. Knowing we have to leave the house at a certain time makes us get the schoolwork done instead of putting it off.

I've also found that typing in the Story of the World recommended resources has helped me tremendously! I have a spreadsheet with the title, author, book #, chapter #, and which library its at. I think I need to go through now and add the call numbers as well, since I'm having to look those up weekly. I still don't have my printer set up, but once I do that I'll print this list and keep it in my binder (still to be assembled) at all times. I believe I'm also going to copy some of the pages from the Homeschooler's Book of Lists and add that to my binder for Goodwill and book sales.

This week we've read several of the books correlating to SOTW 3 Chapter 2, and I've noticed a big difference in retention, especially for 9 year old Mr. Blue. We managed to add in one of the activities as well, and that was a big hit with that same son and his 8 year old cousin. The 6/7 year old girls didn't like it quite as well and gave up.

In the mail this week we got the Story of Classical Music. The same afore-mentioned 9 year old loves it. He told his sister, "Don't you wish you were like one of those kings who could listen to this music any time you wanted?" We also listened to the Themes to Remember version of Beethoven's 9th symphony and read in TTR about him. I have library books to go along with that, and said son is learning Ode to Joy in piano this week, so I feel very connected! I told a friend if I get ambitious I'll correlate SOTW to the Story of Classical Music, but we'll see if that ever happens!

Trying to start a new routine

2009-03-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

I'm trying hard to get the kids and I into the routine of doing school. It would be easier if we didn't keep getting these wonderful invitations and opportunities! As of today, we have 3 days per week out of the house for the afternoon. They're wonderful learning opportunities, piano for 3 kids, art lessons for 4, and swimming for 1, but I'm struggling to squeeze our schooling into the morning. I'm not a morning person. I'm REALLY not a morning person. So, I need to figure out a way to get us up and going, starting with breakfast. I'm not willing to, gasp, schedule things yet, but I'm getting there.

We've done school every day this week, though some days are cut short. Then my oldest was invited to spend the night at her grandparents, which is a rare enough invitation I thought she should go. Fortunately we had her school work with us and she was able to complete her independent studies.

Speaking of independent, maybe I could have them do their independent work on the days we are out of the house and the other 2 days and Saturday could be spent on the things I have to help them with. Up to this point its seemed to keep in the routine of doing school we have to do every subject every day or it gets missed. I may need to work out a chart for us. Goodie! I love organizing things! I can see a trip to Office Depot in the near future. Be still my beating heart.

You know this is why I need to keep a blog. I don't need anyone to read it, I just need to write to organize my thoughts. Now I just feel sorry for the unfortunate soul who stumbles across my ramblings!

Starting Don Quixote tomorrow!

The Homeschooler's Book of Lists

2009-03-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

I just got this book and simply adore it. I'm looking forward to using it. It's got nearly every memorizable fact I can think of and more, ie Rulers of England, Rulers of France, Periodic Table, History of Space Flight, Constellations, US National Parks, Major and Minor Greek and Roman Gods, Supreme Court Justices, Nobel Prize Winners, Artists, and Music Terms. That's hardly even scratching the surface. The chapters are History & Government, Language Arts, Mathematics, Religion, Science, Animals, Human Body, Geography, Foreign Language, Great People, Quotations, Speeches and Other Great Documents, Computers, Art and Music, Curriculum and Homeschool Methodologies, and finally Organizational and Reference Lists for Teachers, Parents, and Students. List Number 223, Popular Homeschool Methods is especially great. It covers not only an overview of the style, but also how to use this book with that particular style. There's a list of all Five in a Row books, Childhood of Famous American Books (along with check boxes to indicate if you have it or have read it)
Basically it's 556 pages of information every homeschooler will need at one time or another. Information that you may be able to find in another source, but having it all in one location is invaluable. As Ms. Haskins writes in her introduction, "the best answers usually are those I can give wthin a few minutes-not after an hour of searching online or after our regular trips to the library."
I plan on carrying this book with me in the car from this day forward. Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part, it comes with a cd of all the lists! You can make printouts and stick them in your planning binder!

Great day of school today!

2009-03-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

After only 3 hours of sleep last night, I had the most productive day I've had in probably 6 months. Maybe I should deprive myself of sleep on a more regular basis!

We had orthodontist appointments this morning, stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up a magnifying glass and some chocolate bars, and then came home to do our first science experiment from Apologia's Elementary Astronomy. The kids really loved that one! I think they just thought it was great to eat melted chocolate though!

After our science experiment we had lunch, while I read about the sun. I really enjoy this science curriculum. Then we sat down to do "real school" which always brings out the best in my kids LOL. Everyone got their standard work done, including Latin for the first time in a while. We're having to review Latina Christiana a little more than I'd like, but I'd rather review and retain than lose all that work altogether!

Blue and Pink sat down with me while I read a few of the Story of the World recommended books and then went off to read their individual versions of Don Quixote. Maybe I should skip reading the real version and read the Wishbone Classic version Mister Blue is reading.

Then Mister Blue and I cleaned up the kitchen, while Miss Pink cleaned up the kids room. Miss Green walked the dog and Miss Purple entertained the baby, while I cooked supper. DH came home to a clean (as it can be with 5 kids) kitchen and supper ready to put on the table. What a shock! I just hope he doesn't get too used to it.

Back to school?

2009-03-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

We haven't been able to do school formally for too many months. I'm feeling like we're getting back into our routine though. It seems like a purchase from Rainbow Resource always gives me a nudge in the school direction. So, I ordered Singapore Math for Mr. Blue & Miss Pink, Vroot & Vroom and Spectrum Spelling for Mr. Blue, who loves Spectrum, Spelling Workout for Miss Pink, Adventures with Books, Get Set for the Code, Letters and Numbers for Me, and Singapore Kindergarten Math for Miss Purple. All of which makes me realize Miss Green didn't get anything but Lefty Notebooks!

Miss Purple has finished Earlybird Math 1A, but since that's been discontinued I hope I ordered the right book for her. I'm trying to decide at the moment if I'll use 100 EZ Lessons or OPGTTR for here. I used 100 EZ Lessons for my first two, which is great until we hit lesson 70 something, at which point we crash and burn. I used OPGTTR when the Miss Pink was 4, planning to take it nice and slow. Ha! She was reading with no trouble whatsoever within 6 weeks. E does great with Get Ready for the Code, so she may be ready for OPGTTR. I even checked Phonics Pathways out of the library again to evaluate it for her.

I also ordered Don Quixote, as a friend and I are starting down the Well-Educated Mind pathway! I was reading through the annotated book lists last night, and I just can't wait to read some of these. Am I insane?

The Postpartum Break is officially over

2008-02-19T12:22:00.000-08:00

Well, that lasted a lot longer than it should have, but we're finally back into our routine. We tend to go through spurts of going great guns and getting a lot accomplished and doing absolutely nothing. Hopefully in the end it balances out. One thing that really helps me do school every day is having an organized school room. So, we just reorganized. I really like the layout now. Our school room is in the formal living room of our 1964 ranch. The kids bedrooms don't have room for anything besides beds, so this is the play room as well. The orange tote on the floor is for our completed books. I haven't decided yet where I want to keep it on a permanent basis, so for now it just gets moved around the room. The organizer in the middle has toys on the bottom and school supplies on the top. We keep flashcards, Handwriting Without Tears manipulatives, math manipulatives, etc. in there.

We've recently started Introduction to Classical Studies. I'm really enjoying it, I think its their favorite part of the school day, which has made me realize I don't read aloud to them enough. I'm going to try to start reading to my 2 year old more. We've tried doing Before Five in a Row, but I'm not good about keeping up with it. I think I'm just going to use their book lists to choose library books. We got a few out of the library last week, and I could tell she just adored it. So, my goal is to consider that her school work and to be diligent about giving her that gift.

The Best $1.78 I've ever spent

2007-09-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my 7 year old son hates to read. He has fought it for years. I've waited patiently for things to just click like they did for my now 9 year old girl, but I'd lost all hope of him every enjoying reading.
Well yesterday we were at Target where they have their Magic Tree House books on clearance. I picked up 4 and told him to pick one to read. Immediately I was inundated by tears and, "I can't read that! It's too hard."
So, I picked up the one he chose and opened it to the first page. I told him to read the first sentence. He read it with no problem. Then he read the next sentence and the next. Then we left the book area with his nose in his new book.
I don't care if the books aren't well written. My son is reading right now, by choice! He doesn't even like to read picture books, he just looks at the pictures. This is huge!

What a difference!

2007-09-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

School has been quite enjoyable this week. What a relief that is! It's not because my kids changed overnight either, its because I changed my expectations. Instead of making them do a whole spelling lesson, they're doing one page. In math and Latin, instead of moving ahead as soon as they've mastered a lesson, we're lingering a little while to make them feel good about knowing it. Because of these simple changes we've had time to do science, Bible and history, including projects.

Next week we'll continue at the same pace, but I'm going to try to introduce reading time. I've wanted to implement a reading session for quite some time, but I haven't been able to yet. I'm looking forward to getting some of the great books we have read.

2007-09-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I seriously need to get a schedule in place. We have 3 doing school this year, with another showing signs of readiness to read, and a newborn. The only outside activities we have are Brownies, Girl Scouts, and co-op classes. We also have animals (cows, chickens, a dog, and a cat) to take care of, in addition to the housework.

So, I bought Managers of Their Homes and was going great guns reading and looking forward to implementing it. Then I read the part about scheduling babies, specifically scheduling their nursing, and I just can't bring myself to read any further. I'm so philosophically and spiritually opposed to scheduling nursing, that it makes me feel bad about their whole scheduling plan. I've got to either ignore the parts I feel strongly about in this book or find some other way to schedule our days. I'm not certain if I'll be able to do that though, since my perception is skewed now.

2007-09-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

I had planned on schooling through the summer, but somehow in those last 6 weeks of pregnancy I just couldn't find the energy. Now that G man is 6 weeks old we've started back up.

Last week Mister Blue (age 7) says to me, "I don't want to be in Cub Scouts. I'm shy, and I'm not good at anything." I was mortified. Here the son I've worked so hard on schooling thinks he's not good at anything. Ack! As a result, I've decided to take a slightly different tack this year than I'd originally planned.

I've had Miss Green (age 9) and Mister Blue doing the same math work for a year now. She's been slightly behind his understanding, but this year its switched and he's feeling lost. They both started Math U See Delta this year, but somehow he forgot everything he learned in Gamma. I'm letting her continue on in Delta and I've ordered Singapore Math 2 for him. I'm hoping to do a quick review through it and then start up again in Delta. In the meantime I bought Quarter Mile Math for him to review his multiplication facts. He's absolutely loving it and asks to do it several times a day.

We're also changing his spelling from Spelling Workout to SpellingTime.com. I'm hoping his self-confidence will improve with these changes, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Yippee!

2007-04-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today we finished Rod & Staff English 3. I am so thrilled to be done with this book its unbelievable. We've been doing 3 lessons per day, with her reading the lesson to herself. Then she'll do the corresponding workbook pages and that's all. It doesn't take very long, but she's so resistant to it and thinks she knows everything she doesn't bother to actually read it. So when it comes time to do the workbook she doesn't read the directions thoroughly and then I end up having to explain the lesson to her and the workbook directions. While I expect to do this with my 7 year old, having to do it with her is getting tiring. I really don't enjoy the thought of having to sit by her and explain every little thing. We already do that for math for all 3 of them and English for 2 of them. I'm running on fumes at this point. Tomorrow we'll start Learning Language Arts Through Literature Orange. We'll see how that works out for us.

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On a more cheerful note, math is going better today. I remembered we had these lap boards.
We used them for multiple digit addition and subtraction with great results. Bubba has had a hard time getting the correct answer, even though he understands the steps. The problem lies in his atrocious handwriting. He can't tell what number he wrote, and he can't tell where he wrote it. So, this has the columns for him to work it out on and he can erase numbers that aren't written legibly and rewrite them clearly. For my daughter, she can understand better where the numbers go. I need to remember these more often.

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We're still waiting on Math U See Primer for my 5 year old. We had a tornado in our area right when it shipped out and it got lost. So, the rep sent a second package, but inadvertently sent Beta instead of Primer. Now we're waiting on the third shipment. In the meantime I've been printing out online worksheets. She is just bursting at the seams to learn. When I tell the kids its time to start school, she dashes in and does all the work I have prepared for her before the other kids even get started. She can add 0-9 plus 0-2, and can count and write from 0-20. Her reading is going very well. We're on lesson 80 of OPGTTR and she's just started ETC book 3. Its amazing to me how much easier it is than it was with the other 2. Its not that I think she's more intelligent than the others, but she's so much like me that its easy for me to teach her. I can really understand why kids in a public or private school can fall behind easily.