Writing With Ease

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!

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!

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

Workboxes

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!

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

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!