What-We're-Up-To-Wednesday

{An attempt at catching up a bit}

...Recently...

We hiked to the top of Bald Mountain, the day after Thanksgiving. It was very chilly (lower 40s), but so beautiful! After a couple of hours of hard hiking, we made it to the top...

The views from the top were pretty amazing! We could see the ocean, San Francisco, even the Sierra Nevada mountains 130 miles away!

And then of course, we had to hike back down, making it to the car just before dark...

...Other than that...

The Boy is wrapping up his first semester of junior college, with actual finals next week. One class was hugely successful with/for him (3D art), the other not as much (Machine Tool Technology), which he said had too much lecture time, and too many quizzes, to the point that next to no students in the class finished their actual hands-on projects. He's even been going to extra workshops, as have many other students, but still can't quite finish. The teacher is new, so I think he will be making some adjustments in future semesters.

Overall, it has been a great process for The Boy, enough so that he's signed up for two more classes in the spring! He'll be taking Stellar Astronomy (with a totally awesome teacher that I had many years ago!), and has signed up for Intro to Engineering (non-mathematical, hands-on course), which he's not quite definitely taking. I don't want him to feel overwhelmed, which he did earlier this semester.

He and I are both excited for the end of the semester partly because it means we'll have the time to read books of our own choice again. I did manage to squeeze in, and enjoy, Circling the Sun (by the author of The Paris Wife... a really good book), and it got me very intrigued by Beryl Markham, etc. So, I have West With the Night and Out of Africa waiting to be read.

The Girl has discovered my stash of Harry Potter books late Monday evening. And yesterday, in ONE DAY, she read almost 50 pages of the first book! I know... some of you will be thinking that your kids read a lot more. But she's been such a reluctant reader, and struggled so much with reading, that this is HUGE! I'm hoping the momentum keeps going.

We've been doing some math, though not nearly enough, here and there. Both kids have agreed to keep up with math over the winter "break" so that we can attempt to get caught up. And a lot of other things have drifted by the wayside too. We're gradually figuring it out... I think. As long as math and language arts get done, plus some shared literature, I think we're okay. The Boy has science for spring (which, by the way, counts for both a semester of college, and a year of high school science!). Maybe The Girl and I will tackle some biology. I'm tweaking my instructional facilitator schedule a bit so that I can be more available for my kids.

In the meantime, we're enjoying Christmas movies and music. And some Dickens books as films/mini-series, as The Boy is interested in Victorian times. Our lights are up outside, and we'll get a tree this weekend with tutoring money. The Girl and I want to do some cookie baking, and we need to figure out homemade gifts for relatives. My dad will likely still be in the nursing facility, so we'll visit him there, and then do a late Christmas with him when he goes home again (he's making good progress, by the way). The kids are happily making lists of potential stocking stuffers, and we've panned out their big gifts already, to be purchased shortly. Can I just say how grateful I am for Amazon Prime shipping?

Hope all is well in your worlds!

Monday Musings...A Meeting of Minds...

Sorry for the lower quality of the picture, but here is The Boy meeting Richard Dawkins! We attended a lecture and book signing on the beautiful Dominican University campus yesterday, taking my dad, a long-time Dawkins fan, with us. We listened to about an hour of anecdotes and side notes, then lined up to get our books signed. Unfortunately, my dad, due to mobility issues, could not go up on stage to get his book signed...so Richard Dawkins came to him! (He's sitting behind The Boy in this picture) We got to chat for a couple of minutes, and then Dawkins was off to an evening engagement. Still, it isn't every day that we get to meet a great scientific mind and Nobel Peace Prize winner!

Outside My Window...
Temperatures are moving into the seventies more often, though we are expecting some higher eighties late in the week. We had tremendous wind over Saturday night, and saw dry (sheet) lightning miles away. The winds blew almost all the leaves off the cherry and maple trees, though the olive tree is still looking quite good, and the olives are almost ready for picking.

In Our Kitchen...
Both M and The Girl requested a "vegetarian experiment", so I've happily been re-exploring favorite vegetarian recipes (I was a vegetarian for 6 years, then vegan for two). My mom gave me a plenitude of zucchini, eggplants, bell peppers, and onions, so over the weekend, I made a favorite roasted eggplant and tomato soup, and a giant pot of ratatouille. I then made a ratatouille lasagna as well, which was a big hit! Also on the menu this week are a vegetarian pot-pie (with mushrooms, peas, carrots, celery, onion, red potatoes, and a homemade onion-mushroom-veg broth gravy), and my own version of Japanese noodle bowls, with miso broth.

Around the House...
Our cleaning routine needs work. Enough said.

In Our Homeschooling...
I know we're doing math and writing/language arts. The Boy will be doing at least 4 lessons from Teaching Textbooks, and 1-2 sections in the Lively Art of Writing. The Girl will be working on spelling, and will do at least 4 lessons from Math Mammoth. I know I wrote a glowing review here about the language arts book I had gotten for her, but the writing prompts actually frustrated her to tears, so I have set it aside for the moment. Not sure where we're going with writing for her from here. She wants to focus on reading more fluently -- she can read fairly well now, but still on the slower side, and it worries and frustrates her, so we're going to buzz through a review of Reading Pathways, from which I will also be pulling her spelling words.

As for history, science, etc., I'm leaving those looser this week (though please see reading and watching below). I know the kids want to complete at least another project or two from the free Tinker Crate we had gotten.

Reading and Watching...
We'll be reading more of The Shakespeare Stealer. We may start re-reading The Magic of Reality this week, and I have put the first volume of Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States on hold at the library. The Boy is reading Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins on his own, and The Girl is still working through Ballet Shoes. I'm cramming my way through Bleak House for my class, and am eager to read the Dawkins biography I got yesterday. The Girl and I are reading various Cinderella books together, and that's lots of fun!

As for watching, we viewed Sahara on Saturday (which led to a discussion on refugees and the current Syrian crisis), and I'm going to try to talk the kids into watching the first episode of Human Planet tonight. Or we'll watch an episode of Once Upon a Time! Movie night this week will be something from my growing October list...maybe Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, or Beetlejuice.

Also on the Agenda...
Both kids are (temporarily) down to one practice session a week (fencing, derby), though The Girl says that this Sunday's practice might be the only missed one. I have on-campus hours, school, and work, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. We plan to get in some physical activity every day, and make some time for cuddled-up-on-couch read alouds.

Update on the Meltdown from Last Week...
So we had the almost meltdown last week. The Boy has agreed to come with me to campus on Thursday afternoons, for two solid and quiet hours of study time. We are making an effort to start out our Monday mornings (he has classes at the junior college, I have work) with breakfast together, which was really nice today. He's chosen one day of the week for fencing - one that generally has a high attendance rate, so lots of people to fence. We talked about setting aside some time every day to study or work on his art projects as well, and maybe heading to bed half an hour earlier for some relaxed reading time. He has not decided yet of he wants to move forward with the Big History Project. He says he's very interested in it, but wants to get in a better routine for math, and writing, and homework first.

Have a good week!

Reading...

 "The whole world opened to me when I learned to read." 

Mary McLeod Bethune 

For The Boy, it was Diary of a Wimpy Kid... the book that hooked him indefinitely on reading. The Girl has at last found her hook, The Time Cat. She reads aloud to me little snippets that she finds especially beautiful, and when not reading, talks eagerly of returning to her book. She carries it with her wherever she goes, in case there is a "moment to read".

And Homeschool Seventh Grade...

One of the things I like best about homeschooling (at least as a private school) is that I don't have to follow guidelines unless otherwise desired. So we're definitely going a bit off the beaten path this year, for The Girl's seventh grade.

Writing:

I think I'm going to go with Jump In, combined with aspects of the Brave Writer Lifestyle.

Math:

She'll continue through the Life of Fred series, using Math Mammoth as a supplement when needed.

Science:

Two choices here... either her own choice of titles from the Prentice Hall Science Explorers Small Books, OR something more along the lines of The Magic of Reality, with some supplementation.

Other:

We're doing what I am calling The Big Fairy Tale Project (named after her brother's course of study, the Big History Project). I have The Classic Fairy Tales: Norton Critical Edition, which includes variations on several themes in fairy tales, as well as criticism, to use as a jumping off point in combination with this chart. The Norton book focuses on six different types of fairy tales, which I plan to approach as block studies, to which we can add in various versions, movies, etc., although we will likely work in books from the Shakespeare section of the chart in place of Norton's "Bluebeard" section. We can also look at folktales from various regions of the world that tie in with the fairy tales.

If she should decide she wants history too, I'll probably read aloud to her from the excellent World in Ancient Times series.

Electives:

She does a lot of art on her own. I'd really like to work through something like the Sculpture Technique books (Construct and Model) with her.  She may choose to study Spanish this year, using Rosetta Stone or ???. She'll keep cooking, learn more sewing, etc.

Physical Education:

And of course, she plans to continue with roller derby!

Wordy Wednesday...Review!

Quite a while back, I shared my first review of Reading Horizons, on Orton-Gillingham based intensive phonics program, especially for kids that struggle with reading. This program came highly recommended by a friend I absolutely trust with such things. So I had to check it out, as The Girl was really struggling with reading.

While I have never officially had her tested, showed nearly every sign of dyslexia in every online assessment I could find. Seriously. Of course, it took me ages to get around to figuring out that this might be the issue. Until that time, we had tried the "normal" processes of learning to read, the ones that worked with her older brother. We worked on the alphabet, half of which she forgot again nearly every day after "learning" it. We worked on letter sounds, with little progress. I tried Explode the Code, Reading Pathways, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, The Reading Lesson, Reading Eggs... you name it, it probably found its way into our home at some point.

And still, she wasn't reading beyond cvc words, and a few sight words, with very little fluency.

Then Jessica found Reading Horizons, and told me about it. Actually, she told me about it a few times before I gave in and tried it out, all the while thinking in the back of my mind, "Oh geez, another program that won't work." So I talked (via email) to the people at Reading Horizons, and first, I will say they were very helpful, friendly, and not pushy. I appreciate that! I was given a trial of the interactive software program (for ages 10 and up) for The Girl to work through, and as you read in my first review of Reading Horizons, I saw progress almost right away, though "At first, truthfully, The Girl was a little reluctant to use it. She thought the first few lessons were "just dumb. I know what a bag is!", but, we persevered (at my insistence), and she soon changed her tune as the lessons ramped up."

She went on to finish most of the program (I'd love to have her finish it someday). And what do I think now? I think that this program gave my daughter the confidence and skills she needed to finally decode words. Put it this way, she went from Bob Books being a pain, to currently reading The Hunger Games. I know, its not "fine" literature, but she's reading, and enjoying it!

How does it work?

Each lesson both introduces new sounds/reading skills, while at the same time reviewing and building on those previously covered. The instructions are all verbal, which was fantastic for my struggling reader -- she liked that she could do the lessons herself. This alone gave her a sense of accomplishment she had been lacking before. The program also constantly reviewed high frequency words...you know, those that we see a lot in text, such as the, you, not, that, of, if, and so forth. Each lesson also includes vocabulary practice, which further builds on the skills introduced in the lesson. Having to mark words actually made her slow down, and think about what sounds each letter makes, which definitely helped with her decoding. And, when students make enough progress, the library is unlocked, and they can work on reading a variety of passages based on their current reading level! And each passage also has an introductory page, with "challenge" words that appear in the reading. If they struggle with any of these words, they can click on them to hear them read aloud. Along the way, grammar and punctuation, as well as keyboarding skills, are all part of the lessons.

Parents can set the threshold at which the student passes, and so I set it at 85%... anything below that and she had to repeat that section of the lesson. There's also a dashboard which shows clearly how many attempts were made at various skills/lesson sections, and how much time was spent on the lesson. This helped me see exactly where she was struggling, so I could help her through it.

We did take a long break in there from using it, as she began to develop her reading skills and wanted to try them out "in the real world". Long enough really that when we went back to use the program, because we were both anxious to see more skills developed, my subscription had expired. But, that turned out to not be a problem, as the folks at Reading Horizons quickly set me up with the Elevate program, for kids (and adults!) 10 and up.

I am delighted, and amazed, at how much this program helped my daughter. She was at an age where she was starting to feel ashamed of not being able to read well, when she could see that all her friends were fine with it. Some days, she's told me, she just felt stupid, which is never how I would want my kids to feel! So, thank you!!!! By the way, she also reads all the common, day-to-day things, like movie descriptions, labels on packages at the store, street signs, and so on, and so on, plus she's writing short stories, all of which she did not do before.

Doing a Happy Dance...

Yes, I was literally doing a happy dance in the kitchen yesterday, albeit a quiet one so I didn't disturb the wonderful activity going on in another room. And why was I doing this happy dance? I'll give you a hint...

This is something I was despairing of ever getting to see. If you remember back, we have been through endless frustrations with reading, including that she just did not want to read (here, and here) -- zip, zero, zilch interest in reading -- an attitude that has been plaguing me for some time, as you can see from the dates of the linked posts. I realize now of course that much of that attitude was wrapped up in her dyslexia, something that made her feel she couldn't read.

Anyhow, I digress from the happiness! Yesterday, she asked me if she could read a book to herself (I won't name it because she's embarrassed it is "such a little kid book"... her words, not mine). She read for about half an hour. And then she came out to the kitchen and told me "Reading is more fun than I thought it was. What can I read next? Can I read Charlotte's Web soon? I want something a little easier first though."

So I was casting around in my mind for something "a little easier", something to get her hooked on chapter books, and I realized that out in the garage, I have a rather large collection of Magic Treehouse books from The Boy's early childhood. I'm pulling them out today, as The Girl is excited by the title of the first one -- Dinosaurs Before Dark. She does love dinosaurs!

We talked in the car on the way to pick The Boy up from fencing last night, and she's also looking forward to reading the Pippi Longstocking books, and the original Oz series. And no, I am not going to push this on her. I will give her the time and the books, but I don't want to shove reading down her throat. This is a fragile new state we're finding ourselves in, and I want her to enjoy reading, not feel pushed into it.

For now, I am totally satisfied, beyond satisfied (maybe ecstatic is a better word?) with the words  

"Reading is more fun than I thought it was. What can I read next?"

Officially Irritated... and Confused...

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you have probably realized that we've has issues with The Girl and reading for ages now. She is still working on reading. She seems to be making good progress (we're using Reading Pathways right now for fluency), but I have noticed something over the past year that really irritates me.

She can read. And she says she can't. What I mean is that she'll tell me what something says without really thinking about it, and then she'll say "I was just guessing." It is like she wants to deny being able to read. And I am not the only one that has noticed this. Even The Boy has commented on it ("Mom, do you think she really looked at that paragraph, and picked out the word bicycle by guessing it?"). She also searches for things on my sister's iPad, indicating that she's spelling out words she claims she cannot read. And she'll sit for an hour looking intently at a book, tell me what it is about (which indicates comprehension, right?), and then say "I was just looking at the pictures."

WHY is she telling everyone she can't do it if she can? Nerves maybe? (And no, I do not have money for more testing, or tutors right now).

Thanks for letting me vent! I'm just going to keep going on the path we're on until she does read, or at least until she admits she can. And I think I'll maybe give her the Sonlight reading test and add in readers just below whatever level she scores at as well. Or maybe it is just time to get back into Reading Horizons.

On a brighter note, she's moving up from junior-junior roller derby practices to regular junior roller derby practices! Instead of skating with 7-10 year olds, no contact, she'll be doing full contact with 10-17 year olds! And she is super excited! We don't expect her to make the team roster (they try to rotate) any time soon, since our schedule limits us to one practice a week at this time, but at least she'll be raising her skill level, and she won't be bored at practice any more!

And On the Agenda...
The Girl will finish Life of Fred Farming today, and then go into Goldfish, although she's been talking about Saxon again. I think I should probably give her the placement test for that first and see where she really is now. And she decided she needs to learn cursive writing, right now, so I wrote out all the letters for her, and she's been working on it ever since!

The Boy has his first struggle with a Bridge (i.e. test) in Life of Fred, but did well enough on the second attempt to pass. I may have him do a third Bridge though, because I really don't want him moving ahead if he's not getting it. And he's trying out some writing work with Thinking in Threes this week. I have come to the conclusion that as good as Writing With Skill and Writing With Ease are,  that being the curriculum-tweaker I am, I prefer to use them as tools, not necessarily as written.

We watched some more of Mankind: The History of Us All yesterday, and read from Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, as well as Black Ships Before Troy. I'm going to read to The Girl from A Child's Story of the Animal World about salamanders and millipedes, both of which she found in the backyard this week. The Boy has some more physics videos to watch, and some studying for the National Mythology Exam.

I'd like to work in some nature studies again, but we'll just see how the week plays out!