Sunday 10 August 2008 - In Which I Break From Studying Curriculum and Instead Post About It
Brain on Overload. Must stop looking at catalogs. Must stop looking at websites. Must stop creating spreadsheets and scribbling in notebooks.
It's "school planning weekend", remember. although generally (and this year is no exception) I do more thinking about planning than actual planning. Which is OK; it's a good start. I've been fairly productive today. Made lots of notes, looked at lots of stuff on the net, found some of the curriculum I need yet on amazon & ebay & among friends, made some decisions, made some lists. When I needed a break, I vacuumed and did a little de-cluttering in the school room. Although I have a very long way to go there, too. Let's not talk about the disorganized and messy state of our project/music/play/school room.
Must stop yakking. Must post about language arts and writing. I promised.
Language Arts/ Grammar & Vocab
I’ve generally taken an informal approach to language arts, tying it in with other subjects & teaching grammar “on the fly” as things come up. This works for us because I am an English Nerd raising more English Nerds, but it won’t work for everyone. (And yes, I admit it, we do “miss” some things that way, and those gaps often become painfully obvious at the most inopportune times and places. *Sigh*) But here’s something we have used, off & on, and liked:
Ooh, nice cover. (Mine are old editions.) My older kids did this from about 3rd-7th grades as a “supplement” to our informal language arts. They liked it because they could do it in 5-10 minutes a day, and I liked knowing that they were getting review of basic concepts and filling in some of those “gaps”. I also thought the sentence-combining exercises were great practice. I occasionally get one of these out and throw random exercises at Spaz, orally. He usually aces them, which means our informal approach is working. For us.
This post includes a description of my kids’ favorite informal grammar activity, which presumably reinforces their knowledge of parts-of-speech. You’ll have to scroll down almost to the end to find it.
As for vocab, we usually choose a word from our reading and put it on an index card with a definition and sample sentence. We hang the card on the frig and label it “Word of the Week” and we supposedly try to use them throughout the week. Key word being supposedly, and delusional word being week. My kids hate this and I subconsciously manage to find excuses not to make them do it so as to avoid the accompanying whining and complaining, so our Word of the Week usually turns out to be a Word of the Month or even a Word of the Season.
But here. Here is a vocab tool that Cheez loved. The Word Roots books & software help kids to learn Latin & Greek roots of English words in a light, relatively painless way. They aren't difficult at all, so even Spaz likes it. When Cheez saw Spaz using it this past year, she asked me to copy the pages for her so she can do it again, for fun and enrichment. (And remember, she isn't even homeschooled anymore.)
And along the same lines, here’s a game that I used with the olders but have yet to play with Spaz & Fuzz. I really should just make them play it with me, because they'd find that it's actually fun. If you're word nerds, which we are. Or I am, anyway.
Speeling
Ha. That error is funny, so I’m leaving it, even though it drives me nuts.
Spaz is only in his second year of formal spelling, as he could only sit for a few subjects in his younger years; however, he is ahead of track and starting “8th grade words” this year. He szpells (ha, sloppy typing, but I’m leaving it again) quite well during “spelling class” but doesn’t bother to do so at any other time. (Note to self: Do something about that.) He uses the same book I used for the olders --who started spelling in 1st grade, I might add:
 The Natural Speller gives word lists, spelling rules, and activities that you can use to create a customized spelling program for your students in grades 1-8. I bought it in 1994 and have used it for 3 kids at all grade levels. I never needed to buy anything else... until now. Because my new favorite, and my program of choice for Fuzz, is:
 I love this program; it takes such a logical and sensible approach to spelling. And yes, of course I tweak it. I tweak everything.And by the way, a lot of our informal grammar instruction takes place during spelling lessons.
Writing
Again, writing is something that is I usually do informally and tie in with other subjects, mostly history. However, once the kids get to middle-school-ish age, I like to use a resource to help teach writing. (The older two each took a writing class in 8th grade as well.) Here’s what I used and liked with Cheez:
Spaz did Apprentice this past year as well. The Wordsmith curriculum focuses on creative writing; it is written to the student and designed to be used independently. Spaz has had a hard time working independently, but we are working on that, and this book is one that has helped him in that process. Apprentice takes a “fun”, light-hearted approach to writing, which he needed. It also includes a fair amount of what could be called “grammar review”, which is nice in light of our lack of formal grammar instruction.
I do like Wordsmith. However, this year I am trying IEW, because Everybody-with-a-capital-E raves about it. We’ll see how that goes.
Bible
I’ve never used a curriculum for Bible. We’ve used a few study guides here & there, but we mostly wing it. We did go through this series a couple years ago:
'Twould be nice if the icons would just line up horizontally for me instead of having to arrange themselves in a column. Anyway, I thought the books were just "okay", but the kids loved them, and that's a good thing.
We haven’t talked about music, art, history, or literature yet, but I could probably write as much under each of the latter two headings as all of the above combined. So we’ll do that another time. Which on this blog, unfortunately, often translates to “never”. But I have good intentions. |
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Recent high-school grad, working full-time this summer. Hopes to eventually write and travel, perhaps at the same time. Enjoys reading, writing, superfluous vocabulary, and the piano. Definitely her own person.
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Highly sociable, sensitive, makes friends with anyone. Struggles with ADH issues, but charming & loved by many! Plays rocket football in the fall and watches pro & college ball all winter. Loves to read, learn, make up his own arrangements on piano, tease his sister, make interesting things out of Legos, and :P play video/computer games.
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Artistic, musical, highly creative. Sweet, sensitive, very "on top of things", routine-oriented, stubborn. Great policeman & back-seat driver! Loves piano, reading, drawing, making stuff, creative playing, and anything "Little House". Asks great questions & makes great observations.
*Has always home-schooled.*
Cheez, Fuzz, Spaz, & Huz (2006)
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Over 16 years of homeschooling, I've evolved to a less formal, Charlotte Mason-ish eclectic approach with a more-or-less classical bent. (Isn't that clear as mud?) My goal is to �light the fires� of learning and creativity in my kids. I emphasize history & literature because we enjoy them, and I incorporate informal language arts into much of what we do.
Er, yeah. That's how it's SUPPOSED to go. The reality of it is...
After 16 years of homeschooling, I have yet to really figure out how to do it. So we muddle along, overemphasizing history and almost sort of neglecting science, and I spend way too much time making plans that we don't stick to anyway. We read a lot, and we like words, and we don't manage our time very well, and sometimes I yell.
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Mr. Potato Head:
"You have your ideal of how things should look, but you're flexible enough to allow for change. You are not bothered by changing methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an eclectic combination of curriculum sources."
Um, yeah, that works, for the most part.
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