First, the Jack O' Lanterns!
The Girl's happy pumpkin
And The Boy's not-so-happy pumpkin, done in by it's own carving tools
And then...
and
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday Smatterings... Halloween is Almost Here!
And so we went to a Halloween party, which was really fun - relaxed, good people, good food, and enough games/activities to keep the kids happy without being hectic! Of course this gave us the excuse to test run our Halloween costumes...
We were very happy with how the costumes all turned out!
On today's agenda:
* Housework!
* Yardwork!
* Finishing a round of paper grading.
* Homeschooling: history with reading and a documentary; writing/spelling/phonics; math; art appreciation with this book; geography; and some reading from The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe. Maybe some science/science reading as well.
* Cooking: a couple of soups to be made, a chicken to roast... trying to get a bit ahead for another week!
We were very happy with how the costumes all turned out!
On today's agenda:
* Housework!
* Yardwork!
* Finishing a round of paper grading.
* Homeschooling: history with reading and a documentary; writing/spelling/phonics; math; art appreciation with this book; geography; and some reading from The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe. Maybe some science/science reading as well.
* Cooking: a couple of soups to be made, a chicken to roast... trying to get a bit ahead for another week!
Friday, October 26, 2012
Week 7... Back in the Saddle...
As far as homeschooling, etc., it has turned out to be a pretty good week! Week 6 was really a basic week, and last week we took a mini-vacation (btw: that's a nice big trout The Girl caught--The Boy caught the first one, The Girl caught the biggest, and then we ended up bringing home 15 trout altogether!), but now we're back in the saddle, and going strong!
The Girl worked on phonics, of course. She's sailing right through Explode the Code at the moment, doing all the sentence reading herself, and then having me check her answers. She also read aloud from Little Bear's Friend, and did some work in Reading Pathways. I think it is finally getting through her thick little skull (and I mean that affectionately!)... she can read. She was thrilled to be reading a "real book" this week instead of readers, and seemed very proud of herself!
The Boy worked on multi-digit multiplication and division, as well as the order of operations. I am getting a copy of Zaccaro's Challenge Math for him as a fun-looking (and challenging) addition to his math studies. He'll do more in Life of Fred next week.
Overall a good week, and I am looking forward to the next one as well! Hope your week was good too!
Language Arts
This week, in addition to spelling work and some word roots, The Boy started Writing Skills (EPS). I am having him use this as a way to build up his writing skills a little - sentence structure, paragraph work, etc. He's done several pages already, focusing on complete sentences versus fragments, and proper capitalization and punctuation, all things that I am seeing as issues in the [remedial] college level essays I grade.The Girl worked on phonics, of course. She's sailing right through Explode the Code at the moment, doing all the sentence reading herself, and then having me check her answers. She also read aloud from Little Bear's Friend, and did some work in Reading Pathways. I think it is finally getting through her thick little skull (and I mean that affectionately!)... she can read. She was thrilled to be reading a "real book" this week instead of readers, and seemed very proud of herself!
Math
This has been largely a Math Mammoth week, although The Girl and I went through a couple of lessons in her Life of Fred book. She worked on addition, subtraction, with whole hundreds and tens, as well as a review of commutative properties.The Boy worked on multi-digit multiplication and division, as well as the order of operations. I am getting a copy of Zaccaro's Challenge Math for him as a fun-looking (and challenging) addition to his math studies. He'll do more in Life of Fred next week.
History
We found our history book at last! We read four chapters -- the one we started with was actually chapter 10, to support a reading from K12's Human Odyssey, but then we were enjoying it so much that we backtracked and read the first three chapters, learning about some of the earliest hominids and tools. We chose a few projects to work on from this book, and we'll be adding fairly extensively to our Books of Centuries next week.
Science
Science has been all about exploring nature the last couple of weeks while I reassessed our approach. Then I found How Nature Works, and we all love it! We read about cells and osmosis, and will be doing a project later today that shows osmosis using nothing more than potato halves, sugar, and water. I am also determined that we will read ALL of The Magic of Reality, since we've only read the first two chapters.
Literature
We very much enjoyed The Snow Queen (Amy Ehrlich's version), and the kids instantly saw the connections between the Snow Queen herself and the Witch in The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe, which we will start reading next week. I also got a hold of The Questing Knights of the Fairie Queen --a children's version of Spenser's Faerie Queene--and it is a truly gorgeous book... I am looking forward to reading it aloud! We read more of The Graveyard Book, and Pippi Longstocking, along with a few short books, including Will's Quill (about William Shakespeare and a goose), Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart (which I read aloud quite dramatically, and the kids loved), and so forth.
Other
The Girl helped me make mini pumpkin muffins for today's park day. The Boy, with a little help from The Girl, my mom, M, and myself, built a crash test dummy out of old clothes, newspaper and duct tape, according to a kid's tutorial he found on you tube -- yes, I will be posting pictures of it as soon as we get the head done! We finished getting our Halloween costumes ready, and will be picking up jack o' lantern pumpkins this weekend. We have a Halloween party to attend tomorrow evening, and we're looking forward to trick-or-treating, pizza and movie night on the day itself! The rain has stopped for now, and we're crossing our fingers that Halloween will be clear, or at least dry. I've lost 2 of the 5 pounds I had gained back (thank you Bob Harper!), and M is finally getting unemployment money, although why they have only paid us, at least so far, for one of the past four weeks is beyond me... but some money is better than no money!Overall a good week, and I am looking forward to the next one as well! Hope your week was good too!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday Thoughts... Falling into Place...
It is so nice when you finally find THE books that make it work.
I bought (hanging head in embarrassment) a third copy of K12's Human Odyssey Yes, I have bought and resold it twice before, and yes, you'd think I would have learned the first two times I did this. I read chapter one to the kids. They were okay with it. Then I broke out The Early Human World (Oxford University Press) to read one supplementary chapter, one. And was promptly met by demands to read more, and then some more... we ended up reading four chapters! And the kids love it - they were totally engaged the whole time--asking questions, making comments, wondering when we would read about Austrolopithicus afarensis as opposed to homo heidelbergensis, etc.!
Methinks I found our history text! And only, oh... eight weeks into our school year. Grrr.
Same for science. We've tried topical books, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, and Elemental Science's Logic Stage Biology, without a lot of success. What did I find that is working? How Nature Works, a fabulous book by David Burnie. Simple, clear explanations AND lots of hands-on, AND it covers all the parts of biology I wanted to cover!
Now that homeschooling is at last falling into place for the year, it would be nice if some other parts of life would follow suit. Small things like unemployment pay, housework, etc.
Note to self: Get all the pictures from our busy, busy week (last week) OFF the camera and onto the computer!
Hope everyone's weeks are going well! I look forward to writing a weekly report tomorrow.
I bought (hanging head in embarrassment) a third copy of K12's Human Odyssey Yes, I have bought and resold it twice before, and yes, you'd think I would have learned the first two times I did this. I read chapter one to the kids. They were okay with it. Then I broke out The Early Human World (Oxford University Press) to read one supplementary chapter, one. And was promptly met by demands to read more, and then some more... we ended up reading four chapters! And the kids love it - they were totally engaged the whole time--asking questions, making comments, wondering when we would read about Austrolopithicus afarensis as opposed to homo heidelbergensis, etc.!
Methinks I found our history text! And only, oh... eight weeks into our school year. Grrr.
Same for science. We've tried topical books, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, and Elemental Science's Logic Stage Biology, without a lot of success. What did I find that is working? How Nature Works, a fabulous book by David Burnie. Simple, clear explanations AND lots of hands-on, AND it covers all the parts of biology I wanted to cover!
Now that homeschooling is at last falling into place for the year, it would be nice if some other parts of life would follow suit. Small things like unemployment pay, housework, etc.
Note to self: Get all the pictures from our busy, busy week (last week) OFF the camera and onto the computer!
Hope everyone's weeks are going well! I look forward to writing a weekly report tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Tuesday Tidbits... Hello again!
It has been a little while since I blogged, but we have been busy, busy, busy.
~ I did it - I cut down my resources for homeschooling this year. I finally found a book (or two) that I really like for a science spine. I dropped American history so that we can really get into ancient world history. I did add in Writing Skills (from EPS) for The Boy, to help him with sentence/paragraph structure and all that. I wrote a schedule, and set aside an official time each day for homeschooling. Now to see if it actually works!
~ What have we been busy with? Fishing, camping, a field trip, and more! We took last week off from homeschooling, in part because of all that was going on, and in part so that I could refine my plans for the year.
~ Goal this week: to get all the pictures of the above activities off my camera! Look forward to a Wordless Wednesday post tomorrow!
~ I admit, I am very stressed out lately. Stressed enough I've put back on 5 pounds, so I am down to a 45 pound loss. We're still waiting to here if M is actually getting unemployment... we should find out by the end of the week. I'm not anticipating any real problems, but I still worry.
~ So to combat the 5 pounds (and the rest I still need to lose) I am implementing the "rules" from Bob Harper's new book (albeit with a little more [good] fat in the diet). I'll let you know how it goes!
Hope you all have a good week!
~ I did it - I cut down my resources for homeschooling this year. I finally found a book (or two) that I really like for a science spine. I dropped American history so that we can really get into ancient world history. I did add in Writing Skills (from EPS) for The Boy, to help him with sentence/paragraph structure and all that. I wrote a schedule, and set aside an official time each day for homeschooling. Now to see if it actually works!
~ What have we been busy with? Fishing, camping, a field trip, and more! We took last week off from homeschooling, in part because of all that was going on, and in part so that I could refine my plans for the year.
~ Goal this week: to get all the pictures of the above activities off my camera! Look forward to a Wordless Wednesday post tomorrow!
~ I admit, I am very stressed out lately. Stressed enough I've put back on 5 pounds, so I am down to a 45 pound loss. We're still waiting to here if M is actually getting unemployment... we should find out by the end of the week. I'm not anticipating any real problems, but I still worry.
~ So to combat the 5 pounds (and the rest I still need to lose) I am implementing the "rules" from Bob Harper's new book (albeit with a little more [good] fat in the diet). I'll let you know how it goes!
Hope you all have a good week!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Tuesday Tidbits... Sick Day...
Poor Boy. He woke up yesterday with a nasty sore throat and some stuffiness, which escalated through the day.
So we took a sick day. I don't even track sick days as they are (thankfully, and knock on wood) few and far between, and somehow we always make them up. He played around with computer animation and a physics program, downloaded a new driving game, napped off and on, and watched half of Spy Kids 2.
Hopefully today he'll feel better! I made sure he's taking in plenty of vitamins and fluids, and that he went to bed early last night, crossing my fingers that he slept in this morning as well.
How do you handle sick days? Do you log them as such, or are they just a part of the ebb and flow of homeschooling?
And I solved my writing dilemma from yesterday, after talking to The Boy a little. I'm going to try harder to make good use of the Brave Writer Lifestyle and The Writer's Jungle, and maybe, if I feel it is necessary, add in Igniting Your Writing once or twice a week I re-read this post, and this one, and they helped set my mind at ease. So this week, I assigned him a written narrative on science, based off what he's reading in the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia on energy. I told him I am not worried abut spelling and punctuation - we're working on those anyhow - I just want him writing. And he's going to do a free write at some point during the week. I also made him a weekly assignment sheet for the areas he works on more or less independently, at his request.
Anyhow, hope you all are having a good week! Stay well!
So we took a sick day. I don't even track sick days as they are (thankfully, and knock on wood) few and far between, and somehow we always make them up. He played around with computer animation and a physics program, downloaded a new driving game, napped off and on, and watched half of Spy Kids 2.
Hopefully today he'll feel better! I made sure he's taking in plenty of vitamins and fluids, and that he went to bed early last night, crossing my fingers that he slept in this morning as well.
How do you handle sick days? Do you log them as such, or are they just a part of the ebb and flow of homeschooling?
And I solved my writing dilemma from yesterday, after talking to The Boy a little. I'm going to try harder to make good use of the Brave Writer Lifestyle and The Writer's Jungle, and maybe, if I feel it is necessary, add in Igniting Your Writing once or twice a week I re-read this post, and this one, and they helped set my mind at ease. So this week, I assigned him a written narrative on science, based off what he's reading in the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia on energy. I told him I am not worried abut spelling and punctuation - we're working on those anyhow - I just want him writing. And he's going to do a free write at some point during the week. I also made him a weekly assignment sheet for the areas he works on more or less independently, at his request.
Anyhow, hope you all are having a good week! Stay well!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Monday Musings... I Need to Simplify...
We are just using, or I should say attempting to use, far too many resources. I have too much going on. M and I spent part of the weekend taking a critical look at all that I have on my Plans Page, and we agree... there is just too much there! We looked at all the resources individually, talked about what's working, and what just isn't happening, scheduling, and more. So soon, there will be a much-trimmed down version of that page!
Scheduling isn't working well either, and for that, I really blame myself. I have failed to really set aside a specific time just for homeschooling each day... instead it is more of a hit or miss approach. Most days we do homeschool, but I feel rushed and disorganized. I realized too that in trying to "follow their interests" we end up chasing whims and fancies every which direction. So, back to a Charlotte Mason approach for scheduling, etc., meaning I decide what we cover and when; we do short but solid lessons; and keep up with the good literature. Then, they have plenty of free time to explore all the whims and fancies, which I will support them in, but not necessarily make a formal part of schooling--I also read the book Project Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners, and discussed a lot of it with M. We have decided that the best way we can approach this is to offer the supplies, tools, and support to our kids to follow their interests, but not center all learning around it. Make sense? Maybe they can choose more of their own path by high school...
Other than that, we took the kids out for a day of fishing yesterday with our good friend W (honorary uncle as well). W set up poles for the kids, taught The Girl how to cast (The Boy already knew), and how to get the fish in a net once they caught it. Within the first 30 minutes, both kids had landed fish! We ended up catching the limit of trout we could for the day, and W gave us part of his catch as well, so we have lots of trout to clean and freeze or smoke. I got to sit back and relax much of the day, catching up on some fun reading (as opposed to my college reading). It was lovely--warm out, sunny, and gorgeous scenery! (pictures to come)
On the agenda for the week:
~ Clean up my Plans Page and reassess our schedule
~ Music and art!
~ Life of Fred and Math Mammoth for both kids, now that we have gotten a new copy of an LOF book for The Girl (I'm running her through the entire elementary series over the next couple of years)
~ Some exploration of prehistory: we're going to finish watching Becoming Human while we wait for my "new" copy of K12's Human Odyssey to arrive
~ Officially relaunch my Narnia lit study
~ I'm considering having The Boy do some work this year in Igniting Your Writing. As much as I love the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc., I am finding it harder to implement at the moment as a writing plan, and think that The Boy could use some good, basic instruction. Either that, or I need to get serious about having him do written narrations for history and science OR just plain more diligent about using the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc.
~ Read from The World in a Drop of Water, and have M follow up on our science reading with some hands-on microscope work with the kids. Start reading The Magic of Reality aloud (1 chapter/week), since we never got very far with it, despite my best intentions. Assess The Father of Anatomy: Galen and His Dissections for future use.
~ Decluttering part... ummm... well, ongoing decluttering
~ Getting ready for camping!!!! We're taking off for a weekend of camping fun on Friday, right on the heels of a Friday morning field trip.
Hope you all have a good week! What are some of your plans?
Scheduling isn't working well either, and for that, I really blame myself. I have failed to really set aside a specific time just for homeschooling each day... instead it is more of a hit or miss approach. Most days we do homeschool, but I feel rushed and disorganized. I realized too that in trying to "follow their interests" we end up chasing whims and fancies every which direction. So, back to a Charlotte Mason approach for scheduling, etc., meaning I decide what we cover and when; we do short but solid lessons; and keep up with the good literature. Then, they have plenty of free time to explore all the whims and fancies, which I will support them in, but not necessarily make a formal part of schooling--I also read the book Project Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners, and discussed a lot of it with M. We have decided that the best way we can approach this is to offer the supplies, tools, and support to our kids to follow their interests, but not center all learning around it. Make sense? Maybe they can choose more of their own path by high school...
Other than that, we took the kids out for a day of fishing yesterday with our good friend W (honorary uncle as well). W set up poles for the kids, taught The Girl how to cast (The Boy already knew), and how to get the fish in a net once they caught it. Within the first 30 minutes, both kids had landed fish! We ended up catching the limit of trout we could for the day, and W gave us part of his catch as well, so we have lots of trout to clean and freeze or smoke. I got to sit back and relax much of the day, catching up on some fun reading (as opposed to my college reading). It was lovely--warm out, sunny, and gorgeous scenery! (pictures to come)
On the agenda for the week:
~ Clean up my Plans Page and reassess our schedule
~ Music and art!
~ Life of Fred and Math Mammoth for both kids, now that we have gotten a new copy of an LOF book for The Girl (I'm running her through the entire elementary series over the next couple of years)
~ Some exploration of prehistory: we're going to finish watching Becoming Human while we wait for my "new" copy of K12's Human Odyssey to arrive
~ Officially relaunch my Narnia lit study
~ I'm considering having The Boy do some work this year in Igniting Your Writing. As much as I love the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc., I am finding it harder to implement at the moment as a writing plan, and think that The Boy could use some good, basic instruction. Either that, or I need to get serious about having him do written narrations for history and science OR just plain more diligent about using the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc.
~ Read from The World in a Drop of Water, and have M follow up on our science reading with some hands-on microscope work with the kids. Start reading The Magic of Reality aloud (1 chapter/week), since we never got very far with it, despite my best intentions. Assess The Father of Anatomy: Galen and His Dissections for future use.
~ Decluttering part... ummm... well, ongoing decluttering
~ Getting ready for camping!!!! We're taking off for a weekend of camping fun on Friday, right on the heels of a Friday morning field trip.
Hope you all have a good week! What are some of your plans?
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Thursday Thoughts... Biology through Living Books...
We appear to be doing biology this year, since dropping (for now) BFSU! Instead of using a curriculum, or a text though, I'm approaching it through living books and hands-on.
Right now we are reading/using The World in a Drop of Water: Exploring with a Microscope. It is a very good book, full of good photos and illustrations, easy to read and understand. For the hands-on aspect, we've collected water samples from various sources, to look for microscopic life, of which we have found plenty.
While I was at class the other night, M stepped up to the plate - he and the kids used an eye dropper to collect water samples from a couple of old buckets out in the backyard. They examined them under the microscope. The kids drew pictures of what they saw, and The Boy labeled his extensively - I'll scan the drawings in and put them up in tomorrow's weekly report. When I came home and saw what they had done, I was delighted! M had so much fun that he has volunteered to take over the bulk of the hands-on part of science, which helps me immensely.
Other books I am looking at to continue our biological investigations include:
A study of insects, invertebrates, soil, plant life, and much more!
I've owned this book for years. We have started projects out of it a couple of times, but I would like to actually build the entire body this time!
Other topics I would like to cover include mushrooms/fungi, lichens and mosses, seeds, leaves, possibly mammals, etc., so I will be looking for good books on those topics as well. Any suggestions?
Right now we are reading/using The World in a Drop of Water: Exploring with a Microscope. It is a very good book, full of good photos and illustrations, easy to read and understand. For the hands-on aspect, we've collected water samples from various sources, to look for microscopic life, of which we have found plenty.
While I was at class the other night, M stepped up to the plate - he and the kids used an eye dropper to collect water samples from a couple of old buckets out in the backyard. They examined them under the microscope. The kids drew pictures of what they saw, and The Boy labeled his extensively - I'll scan the drawings in and put them up in tomorrow's weekly report. When I came home and saw what they had done, I was delighted! M had so much fun that he has volunteered to take over the bulk of the hands-on part of science, which helps me immensely.
Other books I am looking at to continue our biological investigations include:
A study of insects, invertebrates, soil, plant life, and much more!
This book would, I think, be great for a dissection unit - as we were originally going to follow an actual biology curriculum for the year, I happen to have loads of dissection materials at hand. I'm going to get this from the library and see if it will work for us!
I've owned this book for years. We have started projects out of it a couple of times, but I would like to actually build the entire body this time!
And doesn't these books look like fun?
Other topics I would like to cover include mushrooms/fungi, lichens and mosses, seeds, leaves, possibly mammals, etc., so I will be looking for good books on those topics as well. Any suggestions?
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Tuesday Tidbits...
We are now in our sixth week of homeschooling for the year. There have been, and continue to be, some adjustments as always. Some things are working very well, others need some work.
We have definitely found a way of doing history that makes it work for us. Our two spine books - one on world history and one on American - are lovely read alouds, and the kids are really enjoying putting together their Books of Centuries. In fact, every time they add to them, they rush off to proudly show their dad what they learned about this time! After all the stress I had about history, I am so glad this is going well!
For The Girl the combination of Explode the Code and Reading Pathways (Dolores Hiskes) is marvelous. These two resources work very well together, and she is gaining confidence daily. I no longer have to lead her through each page of Explode the Code... instead she does it on her own and then shows it to me for any corrections, of which there has only been one recently, on the word "glass", which she spelled originally with only one "s", certainly an easy mistake to make.
The Boy loves a couple of his language arts resources: Soaring with Spelling & Vocabulary because it has fun activities, and Unjournaling (writing prompts) because they (the prompts) are both hilarious and challenging. I do need to work with him on drilling the spelling words, but that is a simple adjustment. I also really want to get him working on a Writing Project each month.
There are other parts of language arts that are working well - i.e. Grammar Land - and then things we need to get to, like poetry. I think what we'll start doing is alternating Mondays on grammar and poetry.
Math is both working and not working, or rather I should say parts of it work better than others. Once again, as was the case last year, while Teaching Textbooks is nice in many ways, The Boy and I miss that time together. I have next to no involvement in his math with Teaching Textbooks. So working through Life of Fred and some complimentary Math Mammoth has been refreshing this week. Of course, The Girl instantly wanted to know why she isn't doing any Life of Fred, which subsequently resulted in my ordering another copy of LOF Apples so that she and I can work through the elementary series together, alternating it with Math Mammoth! I firmly believe that after the prealgebra stage, LOF is very complete, especially with the Home Companion books, so if my kids enjoy and learn from Life of Fred now, they may be able to use it all the way through their homeschooling journey!
We're actually getting in a lot more nature walks this year! Instead of scheduling them for "school time", we're approaching them as a family late afternoon/early evening treat a couple of times a week, and then sometimes as a special trip on the weekend. I'm really enjoying this family time together, and we are all benefiting from the fresh air and exercise.
Our Afternoon Basket: While I love and am determined to use this idea, I need to adjust it. We're just not making the most of it! I have decided to add back in some books from the 12 month guideline in A Picture Perfect Childhood, and I may add in our Narnia study books after all. I like the cohesiveness of the lit plan I came up with, and there are many books on that list I would love my children to have some exposure to. Right now we're just kind of going here, there, and everywhere with books, which can be fun, but doesn't seem enough.
Science is very definitely a work in progress. Much as I love and adore Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, I'm struggling with implementation. I think for the remainder of this month at least, I will revert to my old plan: a documentary of their choice once a week; work from a living book once or twice a week; and something nature related the other day(s). Throw in a few experiments from books like The Irresponsible Book of Science, and reading from books like The Magic of Reality, The Story of Science, etc., and I think we'll be good to go!
Art and music need work as well, since we just are not getting to them. I did get a copy of a fantastic book called The National Gallery of Art: Activity Book, and I think this will really help! It has pictures to investigate, with a list of questions and prompts to work from, as well as hands-on activities. I have looked through it several times since getting it a few days ago, and am very happy with it. As for music, I think we may start utilizing the Composer of the Month again, with additional music from my own collection and the library. Nice and simple! We could read about the composer at the beginning of each month, and then listen to their music while working on art.
And finally, implementation of everything! I need to actually set aside "school time" as sacred each day, and keep the TV and computers OFF.
So now that we are getting well into the new academic year, what is working and not working in your homeschool?
What IS Working...
We have definitely found a way of doing history that makes it work for us. Our two spine books - one on world history and one on American - are lovely read alouds, and the kids are really enjoying putting together their Books of Centuries. In fact, every time they add to them, they rush off to proudly show their dad what they learned about this time! After all the stress I had about history, I am so glad this is going well!
For The Girl the combination of Explode the Code and Reading Pathways (Dolores Hiskes) is marvelous. These two resources work very well together, and she is gaining confidence daily. I no longer have to lead her through each page of Explode the Code... instead she does it on her own and then shows it to me for any corrections, of which there has only been one recently, on the word "glass", which she spelled originally with only one "s", certainly an easy mistake to make.
The Boy loves a couple of his language arts resources: Soaring with Spelling & Vocabulary because it has fun activities, and Unjournaling (writing prompts) because they (the prompts) are both hilarious and challenging. I do need to work with him on drilling the spelling words, but that is a simple adjustment. I also really want to get him working on a Writing Project each month.
There are other parts of language arts that are working well - i.e. Grammar Land - and then things we need to get to, like poetry. I think what we'll start doing is alternating Mondays on grammar and poetry.
Math is both working and not working, or rather I should say parts of it work better than others. Once again, as was the case last year, while Teaching Textbooks is nice in many ways, The Boy and I miss that time together. I have next to no involvement in his math with Teaching Textbooks. So working through Life of Fred and some complimentary Math Mammoth has been refreshing this week. Of course, The Girl instantly wanted to know why she isn't doing any Life of Fred, which subsequently resulted in my ordering another copy of LOF Apples so that she and I can work through the elementary series together, alternating it with Math Mammoth! I firmly believe that after the prealgebra stage, LOF is very complete, especially with the Home Companion books, so if my kids enjoy and learn from Life of Fred now, they may be able to use it all the way through their homeschooling journey!
We're actually getting in a lot more nature walks this year! Instead of scheduling them for "school time", we're approaching them as a family late afternoon/early evening treat a couple of times a week, and then sometimes as a special trip on the weekend. I'm really enjoying this family time together, and we are all benefiting from the fresh air and exercise.
What is NOT Working and/or I Would Like to Adjust...
Our Afternoon Basket: While I love and am determined to use this idea, I need to adjust it. We're just not making the most of it! I have decided to add back in some books from the 12 month guideline in A Picture Perfect Childhood, and I may add in our Narnia study books after all. I like the cohesiveness of the lit plan I came up with, and there are many books on that list I would love my children to have some exposure to. Right now we're just kind of going here, there, and everywhere with books, which can be fun, but doesn't seem enough.
Science is very definitely a work in progress. Much as I love and adore Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, I'm struggling with implementation. I think for the remainder of this month at least, I will revert to my old plan: a documentary of their choice once a week; work from a living book once or twice a week; and something nature related the other day(s). Throw in a few experiments from books like The Irresponsible Book of Science, and reading from books like The Magic of Reality, The Story of Science, etc., and I think we'll be good to go!
Art and music need work as well, since we just are not getting to them. I did get a copy of a fantastic book called The National Gallery of Art: Activity Book, and I think this will really help! It has pictures to investigate, with a list of questions and prompts to work from, as well as hands-on activities. I have looked through it several times since getting it a few days ago, and am very happy with it. As for music, I think we may start utilizing the Composer of the Month again, with additional music from my own collection and the library. Nice and simple! We could read about the composer at the beginning of each month, and then listen to their music while working on art.
And finally, implementation of everything! I need to actually set aside "school time" as sacred each day, and keep the TV and computers OFF.
So now that we are getting well into the new academic year, what is working and not working in your homeschool?
Monday, October 8, 2012
Monday Musings... Feels Like Fall...
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| HAPPY MONDAY!!! |
On the agenda this week:
~ History: again, both Builders of the Old World and The Rainbow Book of American History, plus work in the Books of Centuries. I think at the end of the year, or whenever we get through both books, I might bind their Books along these lines, having the kids make their own covers out of a heavy card stock. I think they would make lovely keepsakes!
~ Reading: More of The Graveyard Book to be read, and I think for our spooky tale of the week, we'll read Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart. Then watch The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror, since there is a bit where Lisa has her own experience with a telltale heart! I need to work on reading The Merchant of Venice myself!
~ Art: We're starting some art projects that will be scanned and printed (full color) for Christmas gifts to all the relatives, from the kids--calendars! I figure these will be relatively easy to put together, everyone uses calendars, and they will enjoy the kids' artwork. I am estimating about 8-10 weeks of art projects total to get this done, then we'll choose the best 6 from each kid, and put it all together!
~ The Basics: Of course we'll be working on these. I am going to work on drilling The Boy orally on his spelling words, at least a couple of times over the week. I am ordering the next Explode the Code book for The Girl, since I think she's ready to move up a bit. We'll do some Math Mammoth, Life of Fred, and possibly Teaching Textbooks. I also have the second Sir Cumference book for a read aloud this week.
~ Other: Despite the juggling of holds, returns, etc., I find I am missing the books from A Picture Perfect Childhood in our Afternoon Basket! I think I may start adding some in again. We enjoyed reading about different people on their birthdays, events on their anniversaries, and so forth.
And some other bits and pieces:
~ I found that while The Boy does not care at all for ordinary oatmeal, he loves baked oatmeal! If you like pumpkin (which we do!), you have to try this delicious recipe for Pumpkin and Caramelized Banana Baked Oatmeal! [Note: I did add walnuts to it, and used vanilla extract in the place of maple.] Speaking of The Boy, his stomach pain is improving with the gluten-free diet! I was very thankful to come across Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour - such a lifesaver for a mom who likes to bake!
~ The moving-everything-around process is going well, but slowly. No worries--the kids will have their own rooms by the end of the month!
~ Halloween costumes for the year are more or less complete! We're just waiting on shipped items at this point, though I do need to get to the dollar and/or crafts store to make my headpiece. I had been watching a few safari coats/shirts on eBay for The Boy, but gave up yesterday when I found a marvelous vintage safari jacket on etsy for only $6!
I hope everyone had a good weekend, and will enjoy the week ahead! (Do you think I used enough exclamation points in this post?)
Friday, October 5, 2012
Week 5... Hitting Our Stride...
Altogether a good week. There are a few areas I would like to continue to work on improving, but we're definitely getting into a good groove!
We read The Canterville Ghost this week (from this book), then watched the Patrick Stewart movie version, which was overall decent. We also started The Graveyard Book, which is deliciously spooky thus far. We're reading a chapter, or two, each night from both Pippi Longstocking and Ozma of Oz. I think we might make it through the entire original Oz series this year!
The Boy did complete another couple of lessons in Teaching Textbooks, and then we decided to go for it with Life of Fred Fractions instead. We had so much fun with Fred! It is nice too to spend that time focusing on something with just The Boy.
History went very well this week! We read from Builders of the Old
World on Sunday, and started our Books of Centuries. We added another
page on Wednesday, when we read from The Rainbow Book of American
History. A very nice, simple way to approach history, and the kids are
enjoying both books!
In geography, we're continuing to enjoy Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels. This week, he "took" us to Washington DC, for a quick tour of our nation's capitol!
We focused on energy in science this week, with a little reading from The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, and Bill Nye the Science Guy's Energy video. We've decided to use Bill Nye's videos to supplement every BFSU lesson possible, as they are fun, interesting and informative!
We really need more hands-on for science. That's my big goal for next week! That, and consistency. I'd like to be more consistent with the time of day we work, and what we get done.
What Worked This Week
The Girl is making good progress in Explode the Code and Reading Pathways. She's going back over some of the Reading Pathways stories she already read so that we can work on fluency before moving on.We read The Canterville Ghost this week (from this book), then watched the Patrick Stewart movie version, which was overall decent. We also started The Graveyard Book, which is deliciously spooky thus far. We're reading a chapter, or two, each night from both Pippi Longstocking and Ozma of Oz. I think we might make it through the entire original Oz series this year!
The Boy did complete another couple of lessons in Teaching Textbooks, and then we decided to go for it with Life of Fred Fractions instead. We had so much fun with Fred! It is nice too to spend that time focusing on something with just The Boy.
History went very well this week! We read from Builders of the Old
World on Sunday, and started our Books of Centuries. We added another
page on Wednesday, when we read from The Rainbow Book of American
History. A very nice, simple way to approach history, and the kids are
enjoying both books!In geography, we're continuing to enjoy Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels. This week, he "took" us to Washington DC, for a quick tour of our nation's capitol!
We focused on energy in science this week, with a little reading from The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, and Bill Nye the Science Guy's Energy video. We've decided to use Bill Nye's videos to supplement every BFSU lesson possible, as they are fun, interesting and informative!
We also took a really pleasant nature walk on Thursday. We found blackberries and wild grapes....
Admired gorgeous oak trees...
Saw plenty of wildflowers and some rosehips...
And even some bird tracks...
I love my kids...
What Needs Work
The Boy continued to work in Soaring With Spelling. I realized this week that I need to give him more oral drills in spelling, when he didn't do fantastically well on the end-of-week test--oops. He did work on some free writing, mostly alliteration, which has turned into a favorite focus for him, but again, the spelling is fairly atrocious!We really need more hands-on for science. That's my big goal for next week! That, and consistency. I'd like to be more consistent with the time of day we work, and what we get done.
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