The poem we are just about finished memorizing is titled above. Although we are not in April, we are still getting a fair share of rain this month. Today even our 20 month old was trying her hardest to do the hand motions with us.
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalks.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep song on the roof at night.
And I love the rain.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Memorial Day 2012
This is a holiday that means a lot to me. And unfortunately, it also seems to be a holiday that is largely remembered only for BBQs and beach trips.
It just so happens that a friend recently recommended a fabulous book to me called Unbroken.
Watch THIS VIDEO about the book.
I'm in the middle of the book right now. It's so compelling I can't stop talking about it, even to my kids. It's been a fabulous way to help them understand some of the Herculean sacrifice that our Veteran Heroes have made for us. It has created an incredible amount of empathy in my eldest, who is 9.
She wants to do something special to remember current war heroes on Memorial Day. We have decided to make a Donation to the USO, which you can do here.
And we also plan to visit a military cemetery to leave flowers on graves. There will also be a ceremony at our local library that we hope to attend.
How ever you plan to remember our national heroes on Monday the 28th, I recommend that at some point you pick up this book. It will change you.
It just so happens that a friend recently recommended a fabulous book to me called Unbroken.
Watch THIS VIDEO about the book.
I'm in the middle of the book right now. It's so compelling I can't stop talking about it, even to my kids. It's been a fabulous way to help them understand some of the Herculean sacrifice that our Veteran Heroes have made for us. It has created an incredible amount of empathy in my eldest, who is 9.
She wants to do something special to remember current war heroes on Memorial Day. We have decided to make a Donation to the USO, which you can do here.
And we also plan to visit a military cemetery to leave flowers on graves. There will also be a ceremony at our local library that we hope to attend.
How ever you plan to remember our national heroes on Monday the 28th, I recommend that at some point you pick up this book. It will change you.
Organizing a History Club using Story of the World
I'm late blogging about this. SURPRISE.
But towards the beginning of the year, I started a new "history club" at our home based on Story of the World Vol 2. Do you know it took us 18 months to do Vol 1? But I don't feel bad. I was pregnant with no. 4 and had a newborn during that time.
The club is small this time. Just my 4 kids and 5 other girls that are the ages of my oldest two. Is nine kids still small? (Some time I'll tell you about the fun club we ran a couple years back based on Kaya from the American Girls Series).
Anyway, I made it extra low-key this time, because the last time I ran a club for the girls it was too big, too much work, and I got burned out really fast.
Here's how it's set up:
Each family is supposed to study 1 chapter per week at home. We do this for 3 weeks in a row. Every 4th Tuesday, we get together at my house to do related activities and projects from the book. I don't do any of the coloring or map work or narratives during group. That all happens at home with the family. During club, we get right to the hands-on portion of the units. I try to pick one project from each chapter but it doesn't always work out that way. I try to schedule 30 mins. for each activity with a total of 3-4 activities per meeting. We meet for 90 minutes. Two hours would probably be better because I often run out of time, but then it starts to cramp lunch and naps.
So far it works really well for us. It's not over-taxing for me. But it's enough variety and social interaction to keep the course interesting for the kids. And the once-a-month meetings are spaced far enough apart that I don't mind putting my best effort and a little time into making it super fun for the kids.
Here's a picture from our first meeting when we dressed up like Monks. Each girl chose one of the different Monk professions to act out (teacher, writer, carpenter, doctor). I don't think this particular activity was in the book. Turned out fun!
Here's the teacher being portrayed in our living room. We had one of the girls being director and another being camera person.
Here's another day when we dressed like Celtic warriors and then acted out our attack on the Romans. This was before the face paint. Too bad I don't have a pic WITH face paint. It was pretty intense.
During the weeks when it's just us studying at home, I pick one activity to do with the kids. Of course, I make sure it's not one that I've got planned for the club.
Here's an activity we did on our own at home. We made an oasis from a variety of mediums including pipe cleaners, legos, playmobiles, gram crackers, counting cubes, and clay.
But towards the beginning of the year, I started a new "history club" at our home based on Story of the World Vol 2. Do you know it took us 18 months to do Vol 1? But I don't feel bad. I was pregnant with no. 4 and had a newborn during that time.
The club is small this time. Just my 4 kids and 5 other girls that are the ages of my oldest two. Is nine kids still small? (Some time I'll tell you about the fun club we ran a couple years back based on Kaya from the American Girls Series).
Anyway, I made it extra low-key this time, because the last time I ran a club for the girls it was too big, too much work, and I got burned out really fast.
Here's how it's set up:
Each family is supposed to study 1 chapter per week at home. We do this for 3 weeks in a row. Every 4th Tuesday, we get together at my house to do related activities and projects from the book. I don't do any of the coloring or map work or narratives during group. That all happens at home with the family. During club, we get right to the hands-on portion of the units. I try to pick one project from each chapter but it doesn't always work out that way. I try to schedule 30 mins. for each activity with a total of 3-4 activities per meeting. We meet for 90 minutes. Two hours would probably be better because I often run out of time, but then it starts to cramp lunch and naps.
So far it works really well for us. It's not over-taxing for me. But it's enough variety and social interaction to keep the course interesting for the kids. And the once-a-month meetings are spaced far enough apart that I don't mind putting my best effort and a little time into making it super fun for the kids.
Here's a picture from our first meeting when we dressed up like Monks. Each girl chose one of the different Monk professions to act out (teacher, writer, carpenter, doctor). I don't think this particular activity was in the book. Turned out fun!
Here's the teacher being portrayed in our living room. We had one of the girls being director and another being camera person.
Here's another day when we dressed like Celtic warriors and then acted out our attack on the Romans. This was before the face paint. Too bad I don't have a pic WITH face paint. It was pretty intense.
During the weeks when it's just us studying at home, I pick one activity to do with the kids. Of course, I make sure it's not one that I've got planned for the club.
Here's an activity we did on our own at home. We made an oasis from a variety of mediums including pipe cleaners, legos, playmobiles, gram crackers, counting cubes, and clay.
We all very much enjoy this curriculum. It's our favorite class of the week. I'll try harder to blog about our fun club meetings as well as our family history activities.
And when I get my other pics downloaded, I'll have to show you the Viking Funeral that we had in our turtle pool, complete with wild and crazy flames!! Too fun.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
American History-The Great Seal
This year my third grader has used the Paths of Exploration from The Trail Guide to Learning Series.
We've enjoyed it for the most part. I love the emphasis on literature and American History. We especially enjoyed the task to learn more about the Great Seal. It's on every dollar bill. But how much do we really know about it? We spent some time doing a little extra research in addition to what was in the text and here are a few resources that you may find interesting on this topic:
http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/index.html
Here's a fun coloring page: http://www.classbrain.com/artteach/uploads/greatseal.pdf
And then we used the last page of this packet to make Great Seal bookmarks. http://www.americanheritage.org/AHEF_Elementary_Extraction_04_6_Great_Seal.pdf
After learning more about the symbolism emblazoned in the Great Seal, both front and back, it really hit home to me how desperately our Founding Fathers were trying to convey the essential concepts of American Exceptional-ism, Peace through Strength, National Unity, and the influence of divine guidance on this never ending American Experiment. I believe that if our current policy makers would take time to remember these things and apply them to their decisions we'd see some very positive changes in government.
This year my third grader has used the Paths of Exploration from The Trail Guide to Learning Series.
We've enjoyed it for the most part. I love the emphasis on literature and American History. We especially enjoyed the task to learn more about the Great Seal. It's on every dollar bill. But how much do we really know about it? We spent some time doing a little extra research in addition to what was in the text and here are a few resources that you may find interesting on this topic:
http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/index.html
Here's a fun coloring page: http://www.classbrain.com/artteach/uploads/greatseal.pdf
And then we used the last page of this packet to make Great Seal bookmarks. http://www.americanheritage.org/AHEF_Elementary_Extraction_04_6_Great_Seal.pdf
After learning more about the symbolism emblazoned in the Great Seal, both front and back, it really hit home to me how desperately our Founding Fathers were trying to convey the essential concepts of American Exceptional-ism, Peace through Strength, National Unity, and the influence of divine guidance on this never ending American Experiment. I believe that if our current policy makers would take time to remember these things and apply them to their decisions we'd see some very positive changes in government.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
I Love My Country The United States!
One of my top priorities in our HS is to teach a love of Family, God and Country. Not only do we say the pledge and pray each morning, but we also sing a song from the Wee Sing America CD.
It has taken us WEEKS...but we have finally mastered song 17 on the CD which sings the 50 states in alphabetical order (mostly alphabetical).
This is not my daughter singing (although I also have a 4yo who successfully learned this song). But it's the same song we learned. Our version is slightly snappier.
Thanks Youtube.
To help us learn this song, and a little geography, I printed out a blank political map of the USA for each child. We worked on memorizing 4-6 statesin the song each day. Sometimes it worked out to do the states that all start with the same letter. (Ex: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas). We colored in the states on our maps that we were trying to memorize in the song that day.
The kids like doing that and I do think it helped with a bit of geography at the same time.
The only downside is that our whole family can NOT get this song out of our heads. We sing it in our sleep, at meals, while driving, at the store, during school, on the trampoline, at the pool...you get the idea. So, if you plan to learn this song...don't say I didn't warn you.
It has taken us WEEKS...but we have finally mastered song 17 on the CD which sings the 50 states in alphabetical order (mostly alphabetical).
This is not my daughter singing (although I also have a 4yo who successfully learned this song). But it's the same song we learned. Our version is slightly snappier.
Thanks Youtube.
To help us learn this song, and a little geography, I printed out a blank political map of the USA for each child. We worked on memorizing 4-6 statesin the song each day. Sometimes it worked out to do the states that all start with the same letter. (Ex: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas). We colored in the states on our maps that we were trying to memorize in the song that day.
The kids like doing that and I do think it helped with a bit of geography at the same time.
The only downside is that our whole family can NOT get this song out of our heads. We sing it in our sleep, at meals, while driving, at the store, during school, on the trampoline, at the pool...you get the idea. So, if you plan to learn this song...don't say I didn't warn you.
Weather Poems: Snow and Wind
We have had a really great time memorizing Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost (1923). We made up hand motions to go with each line, learning 2 lines per day. We have kept this poem up for several weeks however, as it has been appropriate for our weather of late.
But our snow is gone and WIND is here. So we are now learning this poem
Windy Nights by Robert Louis Steven
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again
I'm sure we'll have fun making up actions to this poem as well. Initially I had planned to have a Friday poetry time slot this year. But our morning poetry memorization is filling our need for good poetry, I think. And it's fun.
But our snow is gone and WIND is here. So we are now learning this poem
Windy Nights by Robert Louis Steven
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again
I'm sure we'll have fun making up actions to this poem as well. Initially I had planned to have a Friday poetry time slot this year. But our morning poetry memorization is filling our need for good poetry, I think. And it's fun.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Have you Thought of Going Off Grid?
Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind by Michael BunkerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Read this book with a grain of salt. I enjoyed it a lot and learned a ton, but this guy is way over the top when it comes to his view of man's use of electricity. He believes it is pretty much evil, that city life is sinful, and that all civilizations who depend on electricity are doomed to the same fate as Rome.
I don't agree. Obviously, man has been able to learn, grow,share and advance in so many ways because of electricity. It is a blessing or a curse depending on how it is employed. However, I do agree with the author in that our absolute dependence on electricity and a consumption life style (on ALL levels) has resulted in the loss of certain individual liberties and some personal privacy.
I do think that getting rid of our "non essential" electronics is good. (Sorry my fridge and washer are keepers for now) And I think that a simpler life that is centered on your own piece of land where you make an effort to produce as many of your necessities as possible is a really positive thing and would do much to restore the American Family and the American Dream.
Do read it. But don't feel too bad if you're still using your vacuum and clothes dryer afterward.
View all my reviews
Monday, January 16, 2012
Under the Sea Dioramas
For science this year we have been using the Neoe Biology II. It's working well and is fairly easy to adapt for the varying abilities of my 4, 6, and 8 year old. But I find it a bit simplistic and a bit monotonous at times.
Our underwater creatures lessons seem to have gone on forEVer. So,using some of the internet links in one of our Usborn books, I discovered thsi cool project:
http://www.amnh.org/ology/index.php?channel=marinebiology#
I had a super hard time finding the curlers to make the sponges. So we skipped that. And pom-poms (the cheerleader kind) were hard to find too. So we adapted the sea anemonea by using toilet paper rolls and strips of construction paper. My idea was to curl the strips of paper down using a pencil, but the kids found this very tedious. So our sea anemoneas turned out to look more like palm trees. Oh well.
Brain coral closeup.
We made these by sticking the radiatorre pasta in home made play dough and then painting it green. I recommend hollowing out the under side a bit to facilitate the drying process.
We did not use boxes for the background because I didn't have any on hand. We used large manila file folders. I opened up the folder and turned it so the center line was horizontal. Then I made a center cut in the bottom flap from the edge closest to me up to the horizontal line. Then I folded the two flaps over each other and stappled them together. This formed HALF of each diorama. Repeat this process and then fit the two halves together and secure with tape or staples.
This mad e agreat back drop forour diorama, which we then painted and dried before adding the sea life.
Here's a picture of another one
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Poetry Memorization
I love poems. I always have.
I have deliberated as to how to share that love iwth my kids. From my previous post you have seen that we incorporate a poem into our morning routine and it has been immensley fun to learn these simple poems together. THe kids love taking turns leading the poems as well.
I had been taking most of my poems from My Montessori Journey
and then tonight I came across this great resource and have selected Wise Old Owl for our next poem.
I do love the concept of having objects in the pocket chart or in a basket to help youngers remember the poem.
I have also found that devising hand motions with the children is a wonderful help in memorization. It's fun to say the poem and do the motions all together.
Here is the Owl Craft that we will do with the poem.
I have deliberated as to how to share that love iwth my kids. From my previous post you have seen that we incorporate a poem into our morning routine and it has been immensley fun to learn these simple poems together. THe kids love taking turns leading the poems as well.
I had been taking most of my poems from My Montessori Journey
and then tonight I came across this great resource and have selected Wise Old Owl for our next poem.
I do love the concept of having objects in the pocket chart or in a basket to help youngers remember the poem.
I have also found that devising hand motions with the children is a wonderful help in memorization. It's fun to say the poem and do the motions all together.
Here is the Owl Craft that we will do with the poem.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Starting Your Homeschool Day on the Right Foot
I'm not the best planner/organizer, but one thing that I am very pleased with this school year is the way we start our school day. I seem to have finally found the right formula for getting the kids off on the right foot each morning. It's quick and simple,but unifying, meaningful and memorable. HEre's how we do it:
After breakfast, chores, brief scripture reading (at the breakfast table) and personal grooming time, I head downstairs to the school room and gather the kids on the rug for RUg Time. And then we follow these steps.
1. Prayer
2. One patriotic song or quote from Wee Sing America. We listen to the same track for a whole week with the goal of memorizing the song or quote.
3. Pledge of Allegance
4. Scripture verse memorization
5. Poem recitation
That's it!
Each child gets to say the prayer and lead us through the 5 steps for an entire week. We rotate from oldest to youngest so that the youngest child is very familiar with the scriptures,song and poem that he is to lead during his week. I try to keep the poem and scriptures up for the 3 weeks,but we do rotate the song weekly unless we need more time to commit it to memory.
Simple right? Right! And I think that's been the key to our success. I have notions of adding in a Portuguese word of the day, and a nursery rhyme/song for our toddler. Maybe starting in January.
From rug time, we do group classes. HEre are our group classes and how they rotate during the week.
Monday: Science
Tuesday: History
Wednesday: Art, Science and Old Testament
Thursday: Old Testament, science and P.E. (the kids all do gymnastics together in the afternoon)
Friday: Music and Poetry
Depending on how long we spend on group classes, we may be ready for snack. Or we may head right into one-on-one time or independent work. I often will prepare "snack tray" and bring it downstairs full of fruit, crackers, cheese,chips, muffins, nuts or what ever else is on hand.
I send my 3rd grader to her desk to do her independent work after group classes(written out on a schedule the night before) while I take my 1st grader to the "teacher's table" to do her math, phonics and language arts.
Then I send her to do independent work while I do math, phonics and LA with my preschooler boy. (He was doing legos or some other quiet play while waiting hs turn). Then I let 1st grader and preschooler off for the day. They may play together indoors or out, but usually I don't let them on the Wii until 3rd grader has also finished school. Usually this is a good stopping place for lunch also and I put our 15 month old down for a nap.
Then I'm free to finish up the day working one-on-one with my 3rd grader. We're usually done with our day by 1:30 or 2pm. Currently, when teh weather is good, we like to take off after baby's nap to a local skateboard park. We get there just before the older kids are out of school and have the place to ourselves for a while. We bring bikes, skates, scooters and a thingy you sit on that has handles and four wheels. It's fun!
And in case you were wondering, our 15 month old girlie just finds ways to entertain herslef in the school room during the morning. Usually she is off making a mess in some corner! I do take breaks to read her a quick book or do a simple puzzle with her. This helps tremendously to keep her happy and satisfied. Often she is on my lap playing with my hair or reaching for things on my desk while I work with a sibling. I have lots for her to explore in the room, but of course she wants everything that is off limits, like paint and markers! She keeps us on our toes,that's for sure!
After breakfast, chores, brief scripture reading (at the breakfast table) and personal grooming time, I head downstairs to the school room and gather the kids on the rug for RUg Time. And then we follow these steps.
1. Prayer
2. One patriotic song or quote from Wee Sing America. We listen to the same track for a whole week with the goal of memorizing the song or quote.
3. Pledge of Allegance
4. Scripture verse memorization
5. Poem recitation
That's it!
Each child gets to say the prayer and lead us through the 5 steps for an entire week. We rotate from oldest to youngest so that the youngest child is very familiar with the scriptures,song and poem that he is to lead during his week. I try to keep the poem and scriptures up for the 3 weeks,but we do rotate the song weekly unless we need more time to commit it to memory.
Simple right? Right! And I think that's been the key to our success. I have notions of adding in a Portuguese word of the day, and a nursery rhyme/song for our toddler. Maybe starting in January.
From rug time, we do group classes. HEre are our group classes and how they rotate during the week.
Monday: Science
Tuesday: History
Wednesday: Art, Science and Old Testament
Thursday: Old Testament, science and P.E. (the kids all do gymnastics together in the afternoon)
Friday: Music and Poetry
Depending on how long we spend on group classes, we may be ready for snack. Or we may head right into one-on-one time or independent work. I often will prepare "snack tray" and bring it downstairs full of fruit, crackers, cheese,chips, muffins, nuts or what ever else is on hand.
I send my 3rd grader to her desk to do her independent work after group classes(written out on a schedule the night before) while I take my 1st grader to the "teacher's table" to do her math, phonics and language arts.
Then I send her to do independent work while I do math, phonics and LA with my preschooler boy. (He was doing legos or some other quiet play while waiting hs turn). Then I let 1st grader and preschooler off for the day. They may play together indoors or out, but usually I don't let them on the Wii until 3rd grader has also finished school. Usually this is a good stopping place for lunch also and I put our 15 month old down for a nap.
Then I'm free to finish up the day working one-on-one with my 3rd grader. We're usually done with our day by 1:30 or 2pm. Currently, when teh weather is good, we like to take off after baby's nap to a local skateboard park. We get there just before the older kids are out of school and have the place to ourselves for a while. We bring bikes, skates, scooters and a thingy you sit on that has handles and four wheels. It's fun!
And in case you were wondering, our 15 month old girlie just finds ways to entertain herslef in the school room during the morning. Usually she is off making a mess in some corner! I do take breaks to read her a quick book or do a simple puzzle with her. This helps tremendously to keep her happy and satisfied. Often she is on my lap playing with my hair or reaching for things on my desk while I work with a sibling. I have lots for her to explore in the room, but of course she wants everything that is off limits, like paint and markers! She keeps us on our toes,that's for sure!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Book Club: My Side of the Mountain
I had heard that only 12 year old boys enjoy reading My Side of the Mountain, but I must say that our whole book club (none of us have a 12 year old boy) really enjoyed this read. Here's how our meeting went:
1. Go around the circle and share your favorite part.
2 We discussed certain points of interest in the book such as Sam's ability to remain isolated for so long without a search party coming for him!
3. Divide into family teams (we have 3 families in our club) and play Plant Concentration. I made color copies of the plants that were mentioned or drawn in the book (just got images from Google) and glued them onto construction paper squares. On the back of the squares I labelled them A, B, C, etc. I then taped them to a large board. on another board I taped similarly prepared squares with the names of the plants I had selected. On the back of this second set of squares I labelled them 1, 2, 3, etc. The object was to match the name of the plant with the correct picture in a Classic Concentration sort of way. Each family had an answer key to help them.
4. Fashion show! This was a real hit! We discussed Sam's need to create his own clothing while away in the woods for so long and the methods he used for doing this. And while we didn't have any deer skins available, we did have plenty of brown paper sacks from the grocery store. Each family was given the same number of grocery bags, some yarn, tape, scissors, whole punch. Each family was removed to a separate part of the house to work on their own fashion creation using the supplies given. Each family chose a member of the family to model the creation and be a part of the fashion show. So cute!
5. We ended with some pancakes and blueberry jam. No, no acorn flour here. Just hand ground whole wheat flour. They were gobbled right up!
Super fun night!
1. Go around the circle and share your favorite part.
2 We discussed certain points of interest in the book such as Sam's ability to remain isolated for so long without a search party coming for him!
3. Divide into family teams (we have 3 families in our club) and play Plant Concentration. I made color copies of the plants that were mentioned or drawn in the book (just got images from Google) and glued them onto construction paper squares. On the back of the squares I labelled them A, B, C, etc. I then taped them to a large board. on another board I taped similarly prepared squares with the names of the plants I had selected. On the back of this second set of squares I labelled them 1, 2, 3, etc. The object was to match the name of the plant with the correct picture in a Classic Concentration sort of way. Each family had an answer key to help them.
4. Fashion show! This was a real hit! We discussed Sam's need to create his own clothing while away in the woods for so long and the methods he used for doing this. And while we didn't have any deer skins available, we did have plenty of brown paper sacks from the grocery store. Each family was given the same number of grocery bags, some yarn, tape, scissors, whole punch. Each family was removed to a separate part of the house to work on their own fashion creation using the supplies given. Each family chose a member of the family to model the creation and be a part of the fashion show. So cute!
5. We ended with some pancakes and blueberry jam. No, no acorn flour here. Just hand ground whole wheat flour. They were gobbled right up!
Super fun night!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Vocabulary Practice for Read Aloud Books
I've tried tackling vocabulary from the traditional "Schooly" way with workbooks. I suppose it worked fine enough. But I always found that many of the words were too easy or irrelevant to my daughter's life.
So then I tried using a more organic approach to vocabulary and gleaned my vocab lists from our reading, both silent and read aloud. I would plug these words into spelling city dot com (most of that site is free but you can pay for the extra goodies). Again, that worked for a while, but quickly became tedious and boring for her. She keeps me on my toes, I'll give her that.
Then I tried just giving her a list of our words from reading and then asking her to choose four or five to look up in the dictionary. HOLY MOLY! It was like pulling teeth. She apparently doesn't heart the dictionary just yet.
Well, then I decided to try something new. I'm not sure how this idea came to me, but I'm glad it did because it seems to be working (so far). I wrote each vocab word on an index card with a sharpie. Then I hole punched the upper left corner and put all the cards on a ring. I then read through the words with her several times so she would know how to pronounce them and would recognize them while listening to the book.
I handed her the dictionary (YIKES) and asked her to listen for the words on her cards as I read aloud. When she hears a word from the list, she has the option of writing down her own understanding of the word's meaning given its context in the book, or looking it up in the dictionary. I suggested that she write down the page number that the word appears on in case she wants to go back and read the word in context later.
As we began it was fun, but I quickly realized the dictionary was actually much more of a nuisance than a help. Stopping to look up the words slowed us down and interrupted the flow of our story. It was much more fun and productive to have her infer the meaning from the text and write down her own definition. If she had trouble with this, I would then have her pull out the dictionary. Or if we were anxious to read on, I'd just give her guidance until she arrived at the correct definition. Thus we remained on friendly terms with the dictionary and kept our story rolling.
I should mention that I only give her vocabulary words from a few chapters at a time. I don't give her all the vocab words from the entire book. She'll have several sets of words on separate rings by the time we finish the book.
So far...it's working. I like having the words on separate cards and gathered on rings. I think it will make it easy to have fun review games at the end of the book. I'm envisioning vocabulary memory games or matching games. I like this better than workbooks, straight dictionary work, or resorting to online vocab practice. Asking her to do anything online simply leads to endless dawdling and game playing. ICK!
So then I tried using a more organic approach to vocabulary and gleaned my vocab lists from our reading, both silent and read aloud. I would plug these words into spelling city dot com (most of that site is free but you can pay for the extra goodies). Again, that worked for a while, but quickly became tedious and boring for her. She keeps me on my toes, I'll give her that.
Then I tried just giving her a list of our words from reading and then asking her to choose four or five to look up in the dictionary. HOLY MOLY! It was like pulling teeth. She apparently doesn't heart the dictionary just yet.
Well, then I decided to try something new. I'm not sure how this idea came to me, but I'm glad it did because it seems to be working (so far). I wrote each vocab word on an index card with a sharpie. Then I hole punched the upper left corner and put all the cards on a ring. I then read through the words with her several times so she would know how to pronounce them and would recognize them while listening to the book.
I handed her the dictionary (YIKES) and asked her to listen for the words on her cards as I read aloud. When she hears a word from the list, she has the option of writing down her own understanding of the word's meaning given its context in the book, or looking it up in the dictionary. I suggested that she write down the page number that the word appears on in case she wants to go back and read the word in context later.
As we began it was fun, but I quickly realized the dictionary was actually much more of a nuisance than a help. Stopping to look up the words slowed us down and interrupted the flow of our story. It was much more fun and productive to have her infer the meaning from the text and write down her own definition. If she had trouble with this, I would then have her pull out the dictionary. Or if we were anxious to read on, I'd just give her guidance until she arrived at the correct definition. Thus we remained on friendly terms with the dictionary and kept our story rolling.
I should mention that I only give her vocabulary words from a few chapters at a time. I don't give her all the vocab words from the entire book. She'll have several sets of words on separate rings by the time we finish the book.
So far...it's working. I like having the words on separate cards and gathered on rings. I think it will make it easy to have fun review games at the end of the book. I'm envisioning vocabulary memory games or matching games. I like this better than workbooks, straight dictionary work, or resorting to online vocab practice. Asking her to do anything online simply leads to endless dawdling and game playing. ICK!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Better Than Christmas!
Does anyobody else out there love to order curriculum as much as I do? Or am I the only one that gets a long-lived natural high out of selecting the perfect set of studies for each child?
And when it all comes to the door (I'm an online-shopping-kind-of-girl) and I get to open it with the kids and smell that new book smell, and flip through the materials imagining all the great lessons we'll have....AH...it relaly IS better than Christmas.
I love to see the kids eagerly paw through the piles of books and materials to see what lies in store for them in the coming school year. Of course, I have to keep a few surprises up my sleeve, just to keep things interetsing for all of us.
I don't have all my stuff ordered yet. And only a very small portion of it has come to the house so far. But the anticipation is making me giddy. You may be wondering just what curriculum I've selected that is causing all of this "Christmas In July" type joy.
Here's my list for Third Grade Girl:
Lang ARts: Paths of Exploration at geomatters dot com. This looks like fantastic stuff. The rewviews are terrific. I'm ordering because it accomplishes my goal of giving my children a solid understanding and love of American History without beating it over their heads, while at the same time providing a flexible/adjustable and very thorough lang. arts program using living books. I love that it effortlessly creates a portfolio for the student as you go. This actually includes a little science and obviously some history as well.
I'll be supplementing the grammar with G.U.M Drops and spelling with Spelling WOrkout.
Also, at the end of last year someone introduced me to Ignite your Writing, which you can download at CurrClick for ten bucks. It's fantastic! Short,fun, clear writing assignments that my daughter doesn't hate! All for ten bucks.And there's an advanced version also. We'll continue with that next year too.
Math: We used teaching textbooks grade 3 last year. IT started off well, but got very boring for her. Sheresorted to using JUST the book because she got really put off by all the online demos, cheering monkeys, and "silly" games. SO this year we're going the no-nonsense route and using Saxon Math. I got the books used from a local second hand homeschool curriculum store.
First GRade GIrl:
Math: We're nearly done with RIght STart Math level A. I'm sure we'll go on to level B since she's loving the program and doing very well.
Lang ARts: We flew through the K year of Sing Spell,Read,Write and we're now about 1/3 of the way through the first grade portion. We'll keep on chugging there. My only misgivings about this phonics program are the following: I don't like the sequence. Looking ahead, I can see that it is going to really throw a lot at us all at once, while in the beginning we were bored with endless reptition of simple concepts. Also, we don't really "sing" much with this program as the title would seem to indicate.The teacher's manual says to start each lesson with asong, and end each lesson with a game. But so far, only a couple of songs have been introduced (and they all sound alike to me). And the games....where is theinformation on how to play the games and at what point they should be introduced? I find it all a bit confusing. I just kindof make use of the games as I see fit by looking at the materials and guessing where they best fit intomy lessons.BUt Icertainly don't play the same ol' games every time.
If I could choose again, I might go back and do the K12 grade 1 phonics program with her. It worked very well for my oldest, althoughit was very visually bland. I loved their letter tiles, built in review, and predictable, consistent sequence. I disliked their spelling however! I guess you can't have it all, right?
My kids do History, ARt, and Science all together. EVen the preschooler boy.
So here's a quick rundown of those subjects:
Art: Harmony Fine Arts. It's a very Charlotte Mason approach to both art appreciation and art "lessons" as well as music appreciation. Can't wait!
Science: We're doing something new this year. We'll be using Noeo (sp???) Biology Level 2. I think I can tailor it to all ability levels.
History: Wow, we loved Story of the WOrld level 1 so much last year that we only got half way through the book! We spent a lot of time on each chapter. So we'll just pick up where we left off and move on to Book 2 when we're ready.
There you go. Sounds simple enough right? I'll add more later about ideas I have for poetry next year...and I finally have had a successful idea for helping the kids learn vocabulary from our read aloud books. That's for another post as well.
And when it all comes to the door (I'm an online-shopping-kind-of-girl) and I get to open it with the kids and smell that new book smell, and flip through the materials imagining all the great lessons we'll have....AH...it relaly IS better than Christmas.
I love to see the kids eagerly paw through the piles of books and materials to see what lies in store for them in the coming school year. Of course, I have to keep a few surprises up my sleeve, just to keep things interetsing for all of us.
I don't have all my stuff ordered yet. And only a very small portion of it has come to the house so far. But the anticipation is making me giddy. You may be wondering just what curriculum I've selected that is causing all of this "Christmas In July" type joy.
Here's my list for Third Grade Girl:
Lang ARts: Paths of Exploration at geomatters dot com. This looks like fantastic stuff. The rewviews are terrific. I'm ordering because it accomplishes my goal of giving my children a solid understanding and love of American History without beating it over their heads, while at the same time providing a flexible/adjustable and very thorough lang. arts program using living books. I love that it effortlessly creates a portfolio for the student as you go. This actually includes a little science and obviously some history as well.
I'll be supplementing the grammar with G.U.M Drops and spelling with Spelling WOrkout.
Also, at the end of last year someone introduced me to Ignite your Writing, which you can download at CurrClick for ten bucks. It's fantastic! Short,fun, clear writing assignments that my daughter doesn't hate! All for ten bucks.And there's an advanced version also. We'll continue with that next year too.
Math: We used teaching textbooks grade 3 last year. IT started off well, but got very boring for her. Sheresorted to using JUST the book because she got really put off by all the online demos, cheering monkeys, and "silly" games. SO this year we're going the no-nonsense route and using Saxon Math. I got the books used from a local second hand homeschool curriculum store.
First GRade GIrl:
Math: We're nearly done with RIght STart Math level A. I'm sure we'll go on to level B since she's loving the program and doing very well.
Lang ARts: We flew through the K year of Sing Spell,Read,Write and we're now about 1/3 of the way through the first grade portion. We'll keep on chugging there. My only misgivings about this phonics program are the following: I don't like the sequence. Looking ahead, I can see that it is going to really throw a lot at us all at once, while in the beginning we were bored with endless reptition of simple concepts. Also, we don't really "sing" much with this program as the title would seem to indicate.The teacher's manual says to start each lesson with asong, and end each lesson with a game. But so far, only a couple of songs have been introduced (and they all sound alike to me). And the games....where is theinformation on how to play the games and at what point they should be introduced? I find it all a bit confusing. I just kindof make use of the games as I see fit by looking at the materials and guessing where they best fit intomy lessons.BUt Icertainly don't play the same ol' games every time.
If I could choose again, I might go back and do the K12 grade 1 phonics program with her. It worked very well for my oldest, althoughit was very visually bland. I loved their letter tiles, built in review, and predictable, consistent sequence. I disliked their spelling however! I guess you can't have it all, right?
My kids do History, ARt, and Science all together. EVen the preschooler boy.
So here's a quick rundown of those subjects:
Art: Harmony Fine Arts. It's a very Charlotte Mason approach to both art appreciation and art "lessons" as well as music appreciation. Can't wait!
Science: We're doing something new this year. We'll be using Noeo (sp???) Biology Level 2. I think I can tailor it to all ability levels.
History: Wow, we loved Story of the WOrld level 1 so much last year that we only got half way through the book! We spent a lot of time on each chapter. So we'll just pick up where we left off and move on to Book 2 when we're ready.
There you go. Sounds simple enough right? I'll add more later about ideas I have for poetry next year...and I finally have had a successful idea for helping the kids learn vocabulary from our read aloud books. That's for another post as well.
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