Our General Homeschooling

I've been itching to do a posting about our general homeschool schedule/day. What things we cover aside from the units I so often post about.

Reading:
Both DD and LD are good readers now.  DD is reading easier chapter books while LD is on longer chapter books now.

They both get up in the morning and read while eating breakfast. I always sprinkle our dining room room table with books (Caldecott books, non-fiction books, books for ED). Lots of reading happens from having enticing books placed in key positions. This probably adds to the clutter, but they sure do pick up a lot of books.

I've been trying to find books that really draw DD in.  Someone mentioned the Animal Ark series and boy did the kids go nuts when this lot arrived:

I paid $19.95 for 30+ books (left) on ebay.  DD started reading the first one, Kittens in the Kitchen right away. I generally make sure she has read two chapters each day from her chapter book. She reads lots of other stuff throughout the day as well.

The kids still read the Horrible History and Horrible Science magazines a lot.

And we usually have about 50 books out from the library at a time!

At the time I took this picture this is what we were reading. LD and I were reading Hatchet. DD (and LD) and I were reading Misty of Chincoteague.  DD was reading the Secrets of Droon on her own and LD was reading Warriors Into the Wild on his own.

ED is not reading and so we read lots of books together. In fact, the first things that happen in the morning are starting the fire in the woodstove, coffee and read aloud books with ED while she eats breakfast and then in front of the fire. The older kids get up later than ED does. ED is not especially engaged by letters and reading in the same way the others were at this age, but she's comfortable with her letters and letter sounds. I usually review a couple letters/sounds while we read, pointing out how one or two words are formed.  These past few weeks we've left it at that.
 
Math:

DD is doing really well with Saxon 2, though I find it progresses rather slowly. Rather than skipping ahead in the lessons, I supplement that with other addition work from other sources and with games. I'll have to reassess that in the next month or so, but for the moment I love the fact that DD went from saying she didn't like math to now saying that math is her favorite subject. She always chooses to do math first.

LD is using Saxon Math (4/5) as well. It's challenging for him (but a good fit, I think). We switch between Saxon one day and other stuff (Spectrum Math, multiplication, division, addition and/or subtraction work) on the next.  I also add in two word problems a day.  Here is the link to the
Multiplication and Division Word Problems. It's from 1877 and no long in copyright.  I copied and pasted problems into a document and then printed them out. We just check off a couple each day. Here are a couple examples:

•  George owed me 19 cents: he gave me 2 oranges, worth 5 cents each, and the remainder in money: how much money did I get? 
• There are 7 days in a week: how many days are there in 4 weeks? 
• How many kites, at 9 cents each, can you buy for 18 cents?

ED does lots of spontaneous counting and she always wants to "do math" (activities from her workboxes like counting with manipulatives, etc.) while I'm working with the other kids.

Writing and Spelling:

We use All About Spelling daily. 
We use Handwriting Without Tears twice a week or so.
We use First Language Lessons about twice a week.
We do free writing about once a week.
We use Writing Source one to three times a week.

Again, ED has activities she can choose from her workboxes. She often does her "spelling" (Melissa and Doug) while I work with the other kids.

Music: 

We started back up with music classes a couple of weeks ago after a very long break.  We do a kindermusik-type class for ED and her friends (mostly age 4) with dancing, instruments, circle dances, listening, etc.


We also started up the "older class" and this term we're doing Appalachian music and square dancing. Believe it or not, I found this Barney video to be just perfect for them! (I didn't show them the video, we just are learning to do-si-do and so forth.)


DD is learning the piano and LD has begged and begged and begged to learn trumpet. We got him a new mouthpiece for Daddy's old trumpet and he's really taken off with it. I have never played a brass instrument, but for now have figured out enough to teach him the basics. For now he's also continuing with the piano.
German: We continue to add various themes to our German lessons. We seem to do German about three times a week. We've done greetings, colors, things around the room (table, window, pencil, chair), clothes and animals.

Unit Studies:

This is America: Symbols and Landmarks: We have more or less finished this unit for now.  We ended with a study of the regions of the US... and spent time learning what states were in the Northeast, South, Mid West and so forth.

Human Body: The kids finished their copywork for the topics we covered so far this year: the skeleton, heart, brain, joints.  I think we're about ready to set this aside for a while and delve into something new.

Habitats/Biomes:  This semester we've done oceans and deserts. These units were originally intended more for ED, but the other kids always jump right in too.  The kids want to learn about the rainforest next (though we've studied this before, they're insisting we study this one next).

Upcoming Units:

Owls: We'll probably start a quick unit on owls.

Gadgets and Simple Machines I can't wait to start this; I think LD in particular will be over the moon! We might just start with some science experiments first while I spend time reading over things, preparing for and planning out this unit.


Native Americans Last spring we studied the Mayans. We may briefly cover the Aztecs and Incas and then will move up to the Native American tribes of the USA.

Rainforests is our next preschool unit.

Outside Activities:

Gymnastics: All three kids really, really enjoy their gymnastics classes. LD still goes twice a week for two hours each.

Soccer: LD enjoys playing soccer.  He has practices twice a week and has a game (if it ever stops raining!)

Choir: LD sings in a children's choir.

Roller Skating: We've fallen in love with roller skating and try to go once a fortnight to a local roller skating rink.

Crafts:

The kids are CONSTANTLY doing crafts and creations.  DD loves to draw freehand. She and LD are always making various crafts from what's on hand.

ED still loves to color and especially likes coloring sheets. She fell in love with these Cuties (left) from the artist, Heather Chavez's website.  She's colored most every page Heather has offered!  Examples: sea horse, owl, bat, here

ED's Preschool Activities: I still rotate in lots of preschool activities and general change things up two or three times a week.  I haven't taken very many pictures lately except for this magnet kit which the kids all really enjoyed one day last week. I got the kit ages ago on clearance for $5.00 in Australia and they've had so much fun with it through the years.

Anyway, I usually try to bring out a new puzzle two or three times a week, and change out the activities (Perler beads, hammering, pattern block pages, bug sorting, card games (Uno, Blink, Rat-a-Tat Cat, etc.),  and lots and lots of board games like Perfection (great for small motor skills), Cariboo, Snail's Pace Race (good for colors, counting, taking turns), Memory, HiHo Cherry-O, Chutes-and-Ladders, Sorry, Adventures in Neopia (this is probably the kids' favorite), Dino Math Tracks, Candyland, etc.) every other day or so. I feel like playing games is quite a large part of our preschool day! I also set out her Montessori cards/activities (counting, animals, etc.) but have only done that once a week recently.  I also change up the books in her area daily.
At some point soon I feel like I need to spend time teaching LD and DD chess.  It's such a good, strategic game that gets people thinking. 

Snail's Pace Race

How much time do we spend on school stuff?  Well, it depends on the day. I would say some days we do 3-4 hours, some days less a occasionally we do more.  In general doing just the basics (reading, spelling/writing, math)  takes us about an hour and a half. The kids do these subjects separately and I bounce from child to child to child.  Then our other subjects, the things we do together in collection (unit studies, German) takes another hour to hour and a half depending on what I have planned. They each practice their music on their own and that just happens at some point during the day (but I need to sit down with them generally to do that). Oh--but all this doesn't include games we play and so forth. I'm purely talking about the more 'academic' stuff I do with the older kids.

Do we let the kids watch TV? This is always such a contentious, debated topic out there in the blogging world. In our family, we have a pretty firm rule that there's no TV or video games until after 3pm as long as all schoolwork is done.  We're usually out the door by 4:15pm for afternoon/evening activities so that pretty much sets the limit on electronic time.  Occasionally I'll let the kids watch a school movie (this summer we watched Liberty's Kids, every now and then we watch a National Geographics program, but to be honest educational TV doesn't come to my mind very often). We don't have cartoon network and don't generally watch TV shows, but rather watch DVDs or TV shows/movies off of Netflix. I like that the kids' exposure to TV ads is very limited.  We decided not to have a TV in our living room or homeschool room, so the TV isn't a focus of our family life (the TV and Wii are down in the basement), but we all enjoy our various shows (I've been watching Battlestar Galactica when I run on the treadmill--so I admit even I enjoy my TV time!)

Outdoor Time: I feel this is really important for kids and we usually spend time outdoors (half hour to hour) most days. I work outside a lot (last week I planted a peach and cherry tree and chopped lots of wood) and the kids play. We have a very (very, very) steep hill and the kids can go sledding any time of year. This is currently the kids' favorite outdoor activity. They went sledding pretty much every day this week!  Yesterday my nephew (13) and LD went out into the woods to build a new shelter.  LD has been very inspired by the survival story we've been reading, Hatchet, about a boy who has had to survive on his own in the Canadian wilderness with just a hatchet as a tool. I think I'll need to find a book of similar vein after we finish the next few chapters.

Well, that was a bit longer than I had thought it would be!

DD Turned Six

This past weekend was DD's birthday party. DD did the majority of the decorating herself! I thought she did a great job on these froggie cupcakes.

Collection -- Our Morning Circle Time

 Our mornings have been really lovely this semester. I tried to change things up a bit and I'm really enjoying the flow of the day.  Usually ED and I are the first ones up.  Since the weather has cooled down and we still haven't turned on the furnace, I have been lighting a fire in our wood stove in the homeschool room.  ED and I snuggle up and read while I have my morning coffee.

Once the other kids have gotten up and eaten breakfast, we gather together and have collection together.  This has been a wonderful addition to our school day.  When I call out "collection!" I often hear, "Oh good, I like collection!"

So what is this? In general we

• The kids go check the temperature on the thermometer outside and write down the temperature in their student calendars.
• We sing songs (right now we're learning some American patriotic tunes).
• I give a presentation (history or science) or we read a book together
• We do an activity together (like Harold and his circulatory system). This week, for example, we've been doing various activities to learn about the brain.
• We do German together.

German: We started out with basic greetings such as: Good morning. How are you? What's your name? We've learned the numbers and are now working on 20-100.  We've learned the colors. We've learned lots of animals.  We are now learning objects around the room.  The kids really enjoy this as they are often up moving, touching, and things like that.  I don't use a curriculum, though I have the advantage of having taught German to high school students for a couple of years and having taught English as a Foreign Language in Hungary when I was in the Peace Corps. I try to speak only in German and try to mime a lot. The kids surprised their grandparents with how much they had learned (I forgot to mention that we added that in this year!) Here is a post I did a while ago about some of the German resources and websites I use.

After collection is over the kids get started on their own work for the day math, spelling, handwriting, piano, and reading. Sometimes they go back and work things related to what we covered in collection that morning.

Our Monthly Family Meeting

We started something new in our family this year.  We decided the kids were old enough for a monthly family meeting. Here are some of the things we do in our family meeting:

• We gathered and went around the circle and said one nice thing about somebody else at the table.
• We brainstormed on something fun to do together as a family after the family meeting.  We wrote down our ideas and put them all in a bowl. Our list included things like play a board game, go roller skating, go bowling, do a family craft, go hiking together, do beadings together,  go to a museum, etc.
• We then talked about ideas to make our life better as a family and to make our family happier. We came up with things like find a special spot for our cups during the day so we only use the one--rinse it and put it in your spot, put our shoes away when we walk in the door, sort out old toys to donate, when you see someone in the morning, the first thing you say is "Good Morning!" We also decided that we wanted to go to a fall pumpkin festival as a family this month.
• We talked about upcoming activities for the month.
• We talked about the menu and our favorite meals.

Some good things have come our of our family meeting.

We instituted the hidden smiley face.  A couple of times a week, Mom hides a smiley face under one of the plates. After the meal has started we all check under our plates. Everyone takes turns saying something nice about the person who has the smiley face that day. This evening, ED was very cute. We all said something nice about her and after we were done she told us we all had to say something else nice because it made her feel so happy!

We now have a special day of the week. (I think I may have written about that?) On that day, the person has a few extra chores, but also gets to enter and exit the car first, gets to bake something, helps Mom in the kitchen and everyone is especially considerate of that person on 'their' day.

The kids have been much, much better at keeping track of their cups during the day (resulting in fewer dishes, a small victory!)

After our family meeting the first month we played board games. This month we chose two activities from the jar.  We chose to do beadings together and we also did the mummy wrap.

 

Math Update (LD, 3rd grade and DD 1st grade)

Life's been rolling along, but it's been hard to find time to post. Partly because odd jobs have taken up my spare time -- painting a hallway, cutting wood for the wood stove in our homeschool room, creating a new garden for some more blueberry plants, mountains of laundry and trying to clean and catch up with the house. It's left little time for the computer.

One thing I haven't written about is our math changes this year.  We started out with Right Start Math back a couple of years ago. While I loved it, I couldn't be consistent with it during our international move.  Then we made such good forward progress with games and Spectrum math workbooks that we stalled out (with Right Start) this past year.

This year we decided to give Saxon math a try.  It is a wonderful curriculum and covers some new concepts in new ways. Still, it doesn't go over the math facts the kids have been working on as much as I'd like, so we alternate days between Saxon and Spectrum math (and other work/games/clock cards, etc.).

LD for example, is working on Saxon 4/5.  It introduces things like 2+5+3+2+3+1+N=30 or find the next three numbers in the sequence 21, 28, 35, ___, ___, ___ .  How many days are in the 10th month of the year?  That's all great stuff, but LD still needs to work on straight facts like 6x8. So he does a daily multiplication page (I made a large collection of multiplication sheets using this website. Each of his worksheets has just 12 problems, but he needs consistent, daily practice.) And he does subtraction/addition problems in Spectrum (3) like
  571
-489

that involve borrowing (or for addition carrying). He's also working on simple division (fact families) which his curriculum hadn't covered in much depth yet.


DD just started Saxon 2 and seems to really enjoy it. I'm not sure how well LD would have done with it since it requires a bit of writing (write in the missing day of the week, for example), but she's happy with math time now (yay) and we're just starting Spectrum 2 to supplement it this week. (So far so good.) We still do a LOT of games, work with clock cards (and games) and work with the place value cards and other activities from Right Start.

So that's a quick glance at our daily math time.

By the way, I bought much of our Saxon math curriculum used from http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/ and had great experiences with all the people I bought from.  Except for the worksheet packs for Saxon 2 which I bough for $16.29 from here. Right now I'm primarily using the worksheets and am not using the teacher's instruction manual very often (for Saxon 2). I just glance at it from time to time (but not daily). Saxon 4/5 is a hardback student text book that LD works out of directly. We read the new concepts of each lesson from his text together and then he goes on to do the problem sets on his own, writing his answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Practical Life: Manners

We have had a day of the week for each child for several years now.  We call it L-day or D-day or E-day. On that day that child gets to go into the car first and a couple other things, but also they have some extra responsibilities on that day like emptying the dishwasher and doing a bathroom swish-and-swipe (which they love, believe it or not!)

Well, I decided L-day (or whomever) would dovetail well with some Montessori lessons called "Practical Life."

In collection we've been going over some basic everyday hygiene practices and life skills:
how to properly cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, how to blow your nose and throw that tissue away, how to ask to be excused, how to ask for something to be passed politely (and how to respond). We also practiced how to greet someone you've never met, how to shake hands, how to introduce someone, and how to pass by someone. The kids really got into re-enacting these situations.

Monday was D's day and I added in a new responsibility -- that of snack host/hostess.  We went over proper etiquette in setting the table, serving others and so forth.

In the morning before our school session began, DD mixed together some cookie dough.  Partway through our work session she prepared our snack while LD was reading and DD was working on a beading.

She baked a tray of cookies (we froze the rest on a cookie tray for another day). She also cut up the fruit and put it on a plate.

She set the table properly.

Then she invited everyone to wash hands and come have a snack.

DD acted as hostess, "Would you like some fruit?" "Would you like a cookie?"

The kids did well saying 'thank you' and 'you're welcome.'

Anyway, this is probably all stuff you do in your home on a daily basis, but I'm writing about it because I made a deliberate effort to discuss proper etiquette and manners to draw their attention to it.

We'll be covering some other topics like phone manners and things like that in the next few days.

ED also chose to bake cookies this week on her special day.  LD wanted to make candy... which we did.  It turned out, um, rather different than the original recipe since we didn't have enough corn syrup.  Instead he made a very hard candy! While they served their dessert with fruit and sliced vegies, we'll aim for a bit more of a healthy snack next week! :)

 P.S. I'm happy that I incorporated these lessons in this week. It's amazing how many times you need to use  common courtesy. I was so happy when DD (my shy one) said, "Excuse me, I'd like to pass by" to a gentleman at the library just as we had practiced at home!

Starting Our New Routine

Sorry about the endless postings about our ocean unit... just a couple more and that's that!  Blogs are funny because they sure don't show the whole picture. From looking at our blog our days are consumed by oceans!!  Heh heh! Well, that's not at all accurate.  I read and read, planned and planned and finally the older kids started back to school last week. As you've seen, ED has been "in school" for a couple of weeks now.  That was brilliant because she has a pretty good understanding of her 'work' and has chosen her own work to do while I'm busy with the others. Today, for example... she utterly shocked me by spending AN HOUR doing the push pin drawings I set out two weeks ago (which she said then were too hard!). I had a pile of 25 or so since DD often likes to do them as well.  She did them ALL!!!

Okay -- so back for a moment to DD and LD's new school routine.  I decided that we'd have a three hour work session in the mornings. I start with "collection" ... which many people refer to as circle time. Since I have so many things to introduce them to as we start the school year, it's been longer than it will be normally. Here's how collection is going for us at the moment:

• Join together
• German -- greetings, hello, how are you, review of the numbers and saying the numbers without counting (seeing the symbol 8, saying "acht").  German Reader (short, cute, easy stories with cute graphics). 
• Calendar time -- change out the "yesterday, today, tomorrow cards." Check the sky and add the appropriate cloud card.  Write their name, day and date in their collection notebooks.  Check the outside thermometer and record the temperature in C and F.
• Song -- We started with Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes in order to include ED (and to be silly together!)
  
• Rules for our Homeschool Session (each of us shared one rule to write down, adding to the list each day)
• Presentation
• Write their daily plans in their collection notebooks (I have a list of ideas of things they can work on... some are 'must dos' like math and language arts, but they have a half-dozen things they can do in each of the various categories.)

Now ideally, I'll do just one presentation, but the first week I had to introduced our various units so the kids know where things were kept and what they could start working on independently. If you've read through my planning stuff the past month or so, you know that our main units this semester or so include...

• The Montessori Great Lessons (the first two)
• This is the USA (an introduction to the symbols and landmarks of the US, basic US geography)
• The Human Body (using this and these kits as our core)
• Animal Discovery Notebook (Science Sorts)
• Landforms
• and will also include material to go along with ED's preschool themes (oceans, deserts, rainforests, etc.)
• My husband and I also want to include a presentation each week on Health and Safety. We brainstormed together on our long drive from Missouri and decided that we should cover topics like our phone number, address, emergencies, fire/fire safety/using a fire extinguisher/fire do's/don'ts/stop-drop-roll, being lost in the woods, germs, teeth-care, strangers, general first-aid how-to/whys of cuts, broken bones, etc. 

So the presentations last week included:
*Let's Learn About the World (basic facts about the largest continent, country, mountain, etc.)
*A discussion of ocean invertebrates (Mollusks-Crustaceans, Echinoderms, Cnidaria) See pic below.
*A few of the landmarks in the US (looking at the cards) and discussion of the southwest

But the presentations led to their own work... drawings, notebook work, read aloud time, etc.

You can find classification charts on the kingdoms, vertebrates and invertebrates, etc. here and on invertebrates here,  arthropods here. We used all those and then drew one together as we talked about it.

Here are some invertebrate cards I made to go along with our discussion. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean).  This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we have been discussing.


What will the kids do after collection during our school session?  Well, this is the hardest part for me.  I've been reading a lot (I mean a dozen books!!!!) On the Montessori method and a fabulous book about motivation Drive, The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. I really am solidly convinced that the kids need to have the autonomy and independence to direct their own learning.  So, I'm trying to create an environment that sets forth lots of learning materials, but I'm trying to step back just a bit to be more of a facilitator than a teacher. I'll obviously be in the room with them at all times (no phone, no Internet), but I'd like to give them more freedom to choose how and what to work on.  Stepping back a bit is quite difficult for me since I am a very hands on type person.  I hope that by presenting things and then leaving them with lots of choices and options. As I see it that choice may be... "Mom, let's do xyz" or "Mom, let's read together" etc. so very likely at this age I will be involved, but hopefully they will initiate things and they'll embrace the things that interest and intrigue them and learn lots this next year. I am needed for many things --for example, DD is learning the piano for the first time this year so I need to be right there with her for that. Or, LD needs me to sit/read through his math text with him before doing the problem sets on his own. But I am at least cognizant of the fact that my role is to suggest, but never to nag or over-direct/demand.  No nagging. There, I've laid it out!!!

One thing I have to say about this past week is that I had to end the school day because *I* had other things on!! So far so good! We went well over three hours each day since we leapt back into things straight after lunch as well.

Well, I'll bring this post to a close for now.  We sure have had a fantastic week though (plus it included our first field 'official' field trip... the first of quite a few this semester, we hope!).

Happy Homeschooling! More soon!

Crystal Fire

Another reason to by thankful this month... About a week before we went down to visit my sister and her family, my niece found a stray kitten. They took her to the vet, gave her shots and generally looked after her.  Although they just bought a farm, they couldn't really keep the kitty.  They asked if we'd like her. So on the return trip home we stopped in to pick up the latest member of our little cozy den here -- the kids named her Crystal Fire:

Crystal and Boomer have been introduced, but have yet to spend unsupervised time together. Boomer has spent most of her life chasing cats and squirrels out of the vicinity. She's still not sure what to make of Crystal!

Boomer is a Red Heeler. We got her from the RSPCA in Australia. She's now three.

Planning and Preparation (and a very cute free clip art website)

I usually take opportunity over our December break to begin planning for the next semester.  This last semester we learned a lot during our studies of Ancient Rome.  We enjoyed watching bits of Spartacus and Ben Hur.  LD and DD were entranced by the boat battles and amazing chariot race of Ben Hur! Now, as you obviously can tell by the clip art I'm planning for our next unit on the Middle Ages.

Stay tuned for more when we delve into our studies of castles, cathedrals, feudalism, knights, the Black Plague and all that! (Update: See our Middle Ages posts here!)  In planning for that unit, I came across this wonderful website that shares free clip art on all sorts of topics including history, science, geography, the human body and more.  I wanted to come online to share that link: http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/homepage.htm or you can see all the cute links on one page here.

Next semester we'll continue our studies of earth science (more about that here!)... there were lots of great activities still in the works for that.

And I have checked out a half-dozen books in hopes of adding in some inspiring things for ED (and yes, I've found heaps of wonderful ideas!!).  I noticed as things became more busy in December that I would say, "okay, LD it's time for you to read your four chapters," "DD, you need to come read to me" and poor ED would say "what do I have to do?"  I (hanging my head in shame) didn't particularly have an answer for her except to point her vaguely in the direction of the craft table (where there's paper/crayons always available and where her activities are set up). It was very, very busy getting ready to host three families here for the holidays, but now it's time to get on top of things for ED again!

One last thing before I go.  We have a full house of guests and wouldn't you know it--I have my first horrible cold/illness since we moved back to the US.  I have had a horrendous sore throat and virtually no voice for days now. Last night I broke down in tears because I hadn't slept much the night before (just 3 hours) because the pressure in my face/head/throat was so bad. I got up Christmas morning at 4am (after going to bed at 1am!).  I just hope that I don't pass on my illness to our house-full of family... 14 plus other family/visitors that pop by just for the day! I've been feeling so lousy that I probably need to get out to see the doctor.  Okay, that said I need to head to bed!


Once again--go check out the Phillip Martin's free clip art!  It's so cute!

Planning and Preparation Related Posts: This post is from quite some time back.  Here are some more recent posts (over at our new location) that might also be of interest).

Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School - These are the science unit we hope to cover from K-8.

Homeschool Science 2016 Year in Review – And What’s Coming Up Next

Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum: Grades 2-3, Resource Guide

Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Kindergarten – Grade 1

Homeschool Schedule and Transitions

Language Arts Update: Literature, Spelling, Vocabulary and Grammar

First Days of School!

Homeschool Planning: Subject Area Checklists

Strategic Homeschool Organization!!

Technology Tools and Websites to Facilitate Learning

5 Things you Can Do This Summer to Get Ready to Homeschool

Science Year in Review 2015-2016

10 Step to Take When Planning for a New School Year

Homeschool Thoughts: Spending Time Reviewing

Homeschool Science in Early Elementary (K-2): Video Post

10 Ways to Overcome Homeschool Burnout

Organization: How We Keep On Top of Things While Homeschooling

Homeschool Science: Year in Review and What’s Coming Up

Homeschool History: Our Year in Review and What’s Coming Up

Challenging and Inspiring Students without the Overwhelm or Fear of Failure

What We’re Up to in Our Homeschool (Gr. 2, 5, 7)

Thoughts on Teaching: Meaningful Teaching Activities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Collection (our version of "circle time")

Quite a number of years ago, I taught history at a Quaker boarding school.  At the beginning and end of the day, the students and staff gathered together for collection--10 minutes of silence together. At the end of that time, students or staff could share something with the community -- music, a poem, etc.  Now as you can imagine, 10 minutes of silence wouldn't really hold for the kids, but I decided to adapt this idea to bring in a bit more routine to our mornings. We'll see how it goes, but the kids responded well this week.

So here's what it entails: for collection we gather in the homeschool room and hold hands and are quiet for about a minute.  Then I share a poem.  We determine the day and date and choose an artist's picture to add to the calendar (which is from Oriental Trading). We also sing one song together (right now we're learning/singing "My Country Tis of Thee").  I'll use this time to bring in things I'd like to work on as a family -- a few minutes about etiquette/manners, religious studies, or family rules.  Perhaps I'll even just read a story that has a moral and talk about that. At the end, one of the kids chooses a game to play together and then off they go.

The book pictured above is called Come Look With Me. It's an interactive art appreciation book for children. It has large pictures and a series of thoughtful questions to discuss with the kids.   (For example, for Starry Night it asks the kids to pretend they have a paintbrush in their hand and show how the artist painted the sky.  It goes on to point out how the town is done with small strokes and the trees are painted in strong, upward motions.)  I'd recommend this book, especially if you can buy it cheaply used or borrow it from your library.

Snippets of Our Week (for our 7-yr old)

This post is a long time in coming; it's taken forever to get this posted! I wanted to share some of the curriculum choices that are working well for our 7 year old this semester.

MATH: These past five months or so, we have been using a math workbook for much of LD's math practice.  Only recently have started back on our beloved Right Start Math curriculum. It was written by a Montessori trained teacher and you can read more about it here from the RS website or see some fantastic handouts written by the author that explains the value of visualizing math.   Right Start is very Mom-intensive and with the move I needed a bit more independence on LD's part during these settling months. So, LD usually does a number of problems from the workbook, some Montessori style math worksheets (pictured below as well) and a bit from Right Start. 

LD is just now working on the concepts of regrouping in addition and borrowing in subtraction. I really like these worksheets I found at Montessori for Learning because of the color scheme for units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Also it seems to help LD that the problems are quite large.  These sheets were under the "math" section rather than the "free" section if anyone's interested. They were free to download and I just happened to stumble across them.

READING:  LD has been making his way through the Magic Tree House series this semester. He has to read at least three chapters, but he'll often read more because he's engrossed in the book.

Handwriting and writing in general are still not LD's favorite.  Handwriting Without Tears has worked well for him and we're making slow but steady progress.

We also added in All About Spelling this semester (I heard great reviews about it) and we're almost to the end of Level 1 which starts with the basics.  Again, this is working really well for LD and I can highly recommend this especially if you have a child like mine, who struggles with writing because he doesn't want to get ANYTHING wrong. Sigh...

MUSIC: LD started with the glockenspiel at age 5. Then moved to piano at age 6 using Teaching Little Fingers to Play. Since we moved here, LD has been ready for putting two hands together.  We are using one of MY old piano books called Play That Tune. If it's available, it's wonderful for that next step.  LD is also learning Jingle Bells from Merry Christmas! Complete Level 1 for the Later Beginner.

Jingle Bells

Mary Had a Little Lamb and A Tisket A Tasket (You probably can't tell from this photo, but it is dated 1976--when I was assigned to learn these pieces!)

Geography just happens... We have this placemat at the breakfast bar where LD likes to eat.  As I'm cooking I often ask him to find 4 or 5 countries (particularly the ones we've covered in our world music class).

This was a really cute game for practicing reading coordinates.  It's played similarly to the game "Battleship."  I got this from mathwire.com.

PRACTICAL LIFE:  I stuck this in LD's workbox and he has successfully learned how to open a combination lock. 

We've started our studies of Ancient Rome -- of course starting with a physical map of the Roman Empire (made with cornstarch clay).  Then we added blue water and talked about the seas surrounding the Roman Empire.

I loved how closely they were studying the map in the book!

I guess you can't see it well in the photo, but LD wanted to add in Mt. Vesuvius.

We watched parts of the very old (but famous) movie Spartacus.  Quite spontaneously, LD and DD started playing "gladiators"!!

EXTRAS:
**Soccer season just ended on Saturday.  LD had lots of fun and liked his teammates and coach a lot.

**LD has continued with gymnastics (we did it overseas as well) and we'll continue on with that through the winter.  We finally hung up our gymnastics rings down in the basement area and all of the kids are enjoying those!

**All three of the kids just started a session of swim lessons this week.

**Music class -- and of course we have our group music class and the kids LOOOooove having their friends over for that!