|
Yes, I am aware that this place is called HomeSchool Blogger. Yes, homeschool. We really do actually homeschool despite the fact that I have hardly mentioned it so far. I thought that I should add something HomeSchoolish in case anyone thinks that I am just a homeschool wannabe.
So, my official homeschooler is 7yo Jared. Here is what we are using for him! I'll start with history since that is currently his favorite subject!
History - Native American History Pockets by Evan-Moor Educational Publishers. Click here to take a look at it. (ok, so I was hoping to add links to each of the things I am using, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I tried, but nothing happened. So I guess I'll just leave it. Now, you don't have to click anywhere!). Anyway, so that includes mostly history and geography and some language arts. I think this is his first exposure to learning research skills. There are 8 tribes studied from 8 different regions and we add our own literature to it as well as the occasional craft or other hands-on-activity that we find to do. Once we are finished I'll blog about it. We love it!
Math - We use Math U See (see www.mathusee.com if interested) We just started Beta which is about the equivalent to 2nd Grade. The main focus of Beta is multiple diget addition and subtraction. We recently finished Alpha (which forcused on single diget addition and subtraction and we were pleased with it, so are continuting. We supplement with Calculadder Level 1 for math drill as well as the MUS on-line drill page. We also have a couple of WalMart type workbooks for extra practice and review. He gets to pick what pages to do and he likes having that choice.
Language Arts - that is such a broad topic so we use a few things...
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise. This book includes grammar, memmory work, copying/dictation, and narration. This book covers 1st and 2nd Grades and we are about 1/3 of the way through it. It is mostly an oral book. We sit on the floor of the school room and do it together. At the end of most of the lessons he does a page of copywork (handwriting) - this moves into dictation once you get to the 2nd Grade stuff! He does sit at his desk to do the handwriting part though!
The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington. This actually isn't our book. It is the library's book and I just keep renewing it! I found it by accident at the library while doing research for a talk I was giving. We had just finished the phonics portion of MFW 1G and I was looking for something to continue with him for phonics, and then this practically fell into my lap! OPGTR teaches phonics and reading and is also a resource that we use together while sitting on the floor! We jumped right into the middle of this book, since he already had a good phonics base from MFW. We are currently at about Lesson 125. I'm hoping that we can get to the end (Lesson 200, I think) by the time the library needs it back! We'll see what happens!
We also use Explode the Code to cover the written part of phonics. We're currently on Book 5.
For spelling ue are using "100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade" by Scholastic. It is kind of a combo phonics/spelling program. I wouldn't have normally bought it, but I found it for a few cents at a garage sale. We are almost finished it and once we are finished we will start an official 2nd Grade spelling program which I have on hand and ready to go.
Bible - A variety of things which I don't have the energy to go around and collect for right now. Some he does on his own with his Bible and devotion book and some we do during "circle time" with the girls.
Science - Oh, boy, this is not too impressive. I do not like science. It is right up there along with fine arts on my least favorite thing to teach! Good thing I am married to a science guy. We did have a pretty good schedule going a while back. I was doing the background work with Jared - reading books, finding websites and notebooking and then Giff would do the experiments on Thursday night. But with things being so crazy with Giff at work right now, it's kind of fallen by the wayside. We'll pick up again with it later when and if things calm down. At this point I'm not too worried as he picks up a lot of science during real life (books, science museums, videos etc) - and he is only 7 after all. We'll get back on track one of these days (years). It could be perhaps that I have not yet found a science curriculum that I actually "like".
Music - Also not my thing, but he takes piano lessons. Our neighbour Shawna comes by once a week for lessons and she teaches him typical piano lesson stuff plus the type of thing that they teach in school. He really enjoys playing the piano and his time with Shawna. She is a great piano teacher and they work well together.
Fine Arts - You heard it before and you will hear it again - Also not totally my thing, but we do try to get to an art museum once or twice a year. Does that count? We also have a few fine arts book lying around. I hope to find a music and fine arts curriculum in a couple of years when the girls can participate as well. I would prefer to wait and spend the time and money on something that all 3 can benefit from at the same time.
French - Since we are Canadian and we don't live in a spanish speaking area we decided to go with French instead of Spanish. We use Rosetta Stone. He does this mostly independently on the computer. It is a computer immersian-type program.
I'm sure there are a few things that I am missing, but I don't think anything major.
Oh yes, one more
Health and Safety - We use A Beka's "Health, Safety and Manners 1" We just have the reader and occasionally read a section at lunch with the girls.
And I can't forget about our co-op. We started a co-op this past September for homeschoolers ages 0 - 8. We meet every other Friday plus go on a field trip about once a month. It is pretty informal. We all meet together and have a topic each time and do activities related to that theme. Sometimes it's a party, like on Valentine's Day! It's going really well. We are growing and we are in the process of making it a little more formal for next year.
Now, does all of that make me sound like a homeschooler???
Jared is watching me do this and he wants me to put in one of those characters, so I will let him choose what he wants to put in. This could be dangerous! Are you ready???? Well, here goes....
|
So, what better way than to list the curriculum that we are currently actually using! 
Hope so, because I really am!!! Honestly...
I was right!!! I told you it would be dangerous! Better watch out! |
Okay, so we are all finally healthy - it took a a good week and a half, but we are all feeling better. So, we were able to reschedule Laura's B-day party. We did make it to Chuck E Cheeses, but it was just one week later. Laura really had a good time. She had 4 little friends there, plus a few siblings and parents. They all seemed to have a blast and loved the show that the characters put on!
My head was spinning by the end trying to collect all the kids and the tokens and to coordinate all the prizes. We only had 2 extra kids that we were responsible for, but it seemed like 10!
That night I had a dream. In my dream we were at Chuck E Cheeses and Laura and some of the other little kids were playing a game. On top of the game were some half eaten suckers lying there on top of their wrappers. The kids were begging me, "Oh, Mom can we please eat these suckers!" I'm like, "No way! That's so gross. Don't eat that. You'll get so many germs" At that point I half woke up and realized where I was and what time it was. I also realized that all 3 of my kids were currently asleep in their beds.
Then it hit me! (as I was going back to my dream!) Since my kids were really asleep in their beds, this was my one chance to be a really cool Mom and to just let them do whatever they wanted to do. Of course, they could eat those suckers, no matter how many germs were on them, because I knew that they were really asleep in their beds, so the germs couldn't touch them. And back I went into me dream. For once, I was a cool Mom. I don't think I am any more though. Oh well, maybe in another dream. |
|
|
|
We dropped Laura off at preschool the other day and as we were leaving the parking lot, Katie asks:
"Where are we going?" "Well, I'm going home" I said "Where are you going?" "I'm going crazy" she responds. (I think she has heard me say that one to many times!)
The girls and I were sitting at the table last night and Katie was passing out raisins to Laura and me. Laura looks at her raisins and exclaims with big eyes "I have 5 raisins and I'm 5 years old!" I looked at my raisins and say "Wow, I have 7 raisins and I'm 7 years old!" Laura looks at me and says, "No, you're 59." (I guess that anti-wrinkling cream that I am using is backfiring!)
And one more from Jared.
We gave Laura one of those Larry Burkett savings banks for her birthday. It has the 3 sections in it: a store (for spending money), a bank (for savings) and a church (for God). Anyway, she wanted to set it up and Jared was helping her. I asked Jared to explain to her about the different sections (he has had the same bank for the last couple of years). I am half listening to their conversation and then I hear him say about the church section "This is where you put your money for God - or for Jean-Luc" (Jean-Luc is the boy that their KidzClub supports and the kids can take their money to put in the box, which eventually goes to Jean-Luc) |
|
This morning our family had its first official adventure since we started this blog, and I am happy to report, that this blog lived up to its title, and we did get lost!
Actually, it wasn't really "we", I stayed at home with a headache (going on the second day with a headache - absolutely nothing helps unless I am in bed with an icepack on my head, but that's a whole other story), but it was my still my fault that they did get lost. So technically it was a family affair.
I heard about a pancake breakfast/science fair (yes, an interesting combination, I know) at a local school. So, I sent them off at 8:30 this morning. Only I told them it was at Franklin School, but it was really at Lincoln School. Or maybe it was at Lincoln School and it was really at Franklin School. One of the two anyway. It's easy to mix them up, you know, both being key historical figures and all. Not to mention the fact that they rhyme.
Anyway, once we got them to the correct location they enjoyed pancakes, that were not really pancakes, and sausage and so on. Then they did the science fair thing and got fingerprinted and I'm sure other things as well, I just haven't gotten a full report yet.
After that they headed to the mall where pbs was putting on some shows and they had characters roaming the mall and so on. I'm happy to report that Laura did not punch one single character.
Well, that's our report of our newest family adventure. I know it is not really all that excting, but since it did involve the excitement of getting lost (and we all agree with the fact that it is OK to get lost), I thought that it should be historically recorded here on our blog. |
|
Happy 5th Birthday to Laura - March 20th, 2006
Last night as Giff and I were tucking Laura in to bed she was just so excited that she would be 5 when she woke up in the morning. She was convinced that she would be a little taller and was telling Giff that when he got home from work the next day he would be able to see how much taller she was. We were being all sappy saying that this was the last time we would get to tuck her in while she was 4! I always get all sappy when my kids have birthdays.
Again, this day did not go as originally planned, but it was still great! Both of the girls were still feverish over the weekend. We had thought Laura was getting better, but Sunday afternoon she fell asleep on the floor beside my bed (with her head under the bed!) and when she woke up the fever was back. So we decided to reschedule the big birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses tonight. And it was a good thing that we did as Jared came down with the fever this afternoon and Katie was just miserable most of the day. Fortunately none of the kids seemed overly bothered about not going to Chuck E Cheeses. We'll do it another time, once everyone feels better. I also feel like I am coming down with a head cold or something. We'll have to wait until this runs it's course before we even start to plan "Plan B"!
We spent the day making a birthday cake for Laura. She really wanted to be the one to decorate it, so it was an interesting cake, that is for sure! I just now realized that I don't think we have a picture of it. Too bad, it was a classic! The kids were waiting all day to eat it! I asked Laura what she wanted for dinner, since we would be home. She said Pizza. She wanted a Pizza just like the one that she had made this morning on Aunt Dennie and Uncle's Mikey's interactive hallmark card - with cheese, pepperoni (or macaroni as she says) and tomato sauce. I had one in the freezer, so that was convenient, except that she still wasn't feeling overly well at dinner, and didn't even eat a bite! (But an hour later she was feeling well enough to eat cake and ice cream - hmm, how interesting!)
After dinner we sent her on her treasure hunt. 5 clues for 5 years (that's a tradition with us)! Her last clue sent her to the guest bedroom which had a brand new sign on the door "Laura's Private Retreat". She went in and she was just so excited. She loved it! I'm so glad. She had fun exploring her "retreat". I just know that she will spend many hours in there. She brought many of her birthday presents up to the room to store in there.
And I want to say thank you very much to all the rellies for the gifts that you sent - they all arrived in the last day or two!!!
Well, the kids are all tucked in their beds now. It is quiet for the moment. We will see what tomorrow will bring (or should I say how many fevers tomorrow will bring!) |
|
Giff is laughing at me. He calls me a blogger now. Okay, I know, 3 entries in one day is a little crazy, but I'm just figuring out this new addiction. Don't worry, the novelty will wear off shortly (once I realize that my home is falling apart around me).
Giff is now banging away with a hammer in the living room as he is watching basketball. He is making Laura a bookcase. For her birthday we are giving her a private retreat in the corner of the guest bedroom. I have been having fun "shopping" in our basement (okay, and at Walmart too) to find her little things to help make her little retreat special!
I was reading a book by Florence Litteur (sorry, I know I spelled that name wrong but the book is up in my bedroom and I'm so warm and comfy under my fuzzy red blanket) on parenting children of different personalities. It was suggested in the book, that children with personality traits similiar to Laura would not do well sharing a bedroom. (I read this only weeks after putting the 2 girls in a bedroom together, of course!)
Laura is a child who loves her own space and just doesn't like people getting into her "stuff". And Katie is a "get into other people's stuff" kind of person! Well, I really want them to share a room and at times they do so well, and are so sweet: sitting together in the rocking chair reading to each other, giggling and talking after lights out, and giving each other hugs and kisses before bed. But sometimes there is major trouble. So, anyway, I though that making a "Katie-free" retreat for Laura would give her the space that she needs, while at the same time they still will have time together to enjoy the fun part of being sisters. Make sense???
Well, what I really wanted to blog about was a cute Katie story from the other day. I had put her up for her nap and about an hour later I noticed that the light in her room was on. I go in there and she is sitting in her crib and wearing one of Laura's nighties. She has Laura's jewellry box in the crib with her and is wearing about 6 or 7 of Laura's necklaces (see what I mean about her getting into other people's stuff!). She looks up at me with the biggest grin and is so excited and says "I got necklaces!!!" She was so adorable and would could I do but scoop her up and try hard not to laugh! |
|
First, we need to introduce our 3 main characters (characters in more way than 1
Jared - age 7 - He loves to read, play with his legos, k-nex and all of his knight stuff, and ride his bike and scooter. His best friend is Stephen who lives 6 houses down from us - they play almost daily once all of their school/home work is done. His current favorite subject in school is American History, followed closely by Science (which unfortunately I am quite neglectful in doing - fortunately it is Giff's favorite subject, so he picks up the slack!).
Laura - age 4 (will be 5 on March 20th and she is counting down the days until her Chuck E Cheeses b-day party!) - Laura goes to pre-school 3 mornings a week and thoroughly enjoys it. She loves the arts and crafts that they do there on a daily basis that Mom rarely has a chance to do with her at home. At home she loves to read, play with her dolls and charachers, and dance to her ballerina music.
Katie - age 2 - Katie is the most extroverted person by far in our family. She is always on the go and always has something to say. She loves to dress-up and put on a "beautiful dress" and necklaces and spin around the living room. Her newest type of mischief is to cut things up - so far she has not yet cut up anything overly important, and has not cut any hair!!! She loves to be read to and will spend hours sitting with piles of books or playing with her polly pockets or similiar type of toy. She loves listening to books on tape.
Okay, so we have been homeschooling since the beginning. The main curriculum that we use is My Father's World (www.mfwbooks.com). I love MFW for its spiritual/biblical basis, its ease of use and the fact that it encourages a love of learning (in both me and my kids!) I use it as my "base" curriculum, but I like to add my own thing to it and find other resources to make it our own. I think I would be bored just following one curriculum. Designing our own curriculum to meet the needs of our family energizes me! We often take breaks from our usual routine to study topics of interest or holidays or whatever.
We used both MFW K and MFW 1G and loved them both. We are almost finished MFW 1G (1st Grade) and only have about 3 or 4 weeks of actual curriculum left. We are on a break right now though and we are doing a unit on Native Americans (I"ll blog about that later). We're hoping to finish that some time in April, and then finish MFW 1G. Sometime in May we will begin our next major study - American history and geography. The main resources that we'll be using are a combination of My Father's World's Adventures and Winter Promise's American Story 1 (www.winterpromise.com). See, I can't do anything in a simple manner!
More another time... |
)|
Today didn't quite go exactly as I originally planned, but then, how often does that happen around here???!!!
Both of the girls have been sick the past couple of days. Katie started with a bout of throwing up on Tuesday evening and then woke up with a 103 temp the next morning. By noon Laura began with a fever and spent a good chunk of the day sleeping and Katie's temp went up to 104.5. By Wednesday Katie's fever started to come down while Laura's spiked, and she literally slept the entire day! I've never seen anything like it! I have pictures of her asleep on the couch, the kitchen floor, and (get this?), at the top of the stairs with her feet dangling down the stairs. I'm not sure how that happened, but she had been sleeping in bed, and I suppose that she decided to come downstairs but then was just too tired to continue! If I can figure out how to post pictures on this blog, maybe I'll post it. I might need Giff's help on that one!
So, anyway, back to today...St. Patrick's Day...both girls did have a slight fever this a.m., but they are definately on the mend. And they are still sleeping quite a bit. That's why I have all of this time today to start this blog, otherwise it might never have happened!
Jared was thrilled this morning when he woke up and checked his "to-do" list and realized that it was mostly just St. Patrick's Day stuff. Not even any math drill for today! As I said, I did have big plans for us all to cuddle on the couch and read all those wonderful St. Patrick's Day books that I got out from the library and to do "The St. Patrick's Day Pokey", but the increased whine level and the decreased energy level from the sickies, kind of cut into that a little. Oh well, we did the St. Patrick's Day Pokey at co-op last week, and Jared enjoyed a couple of the books and he did help make green jello for the girls. And everyone, including the girls, were quite interested in the green oatmeal and milk this morning for breakfast! I had wanted to put green food coloring in the toilet last night, but Giff vetoed that idea!
These are the titles of the books we read today...(so that I won't forget and can get them out again next year!)
- St. Patrick's Day by Janet Riehecky - St. Patrick's Day by Brenda Haugen
These are the ones we didn't read (maybe next year!)
- St. Patrick's Day Shamrocks - Mary McLean and the St. Patricks Day Parade by Steven Kroll (although someone read it to them at the co-op last week) - Let's Celebrate St. Patrick's Day by Peter and Connie Roop - St. Patrick's Day by Elaine Landau
We also watched the video "St. Patrick's Day" from the Holidays for Children videoseries.
Jared spent a chunk of the day working on a bunch of sheets that we had printed out from Enchanted Learning (one of our favoirte educational websites!). When he was having his quiet time he made a book for his friend Stephen. I was totally impressed. This is how it went. (his spelling)
One day Jared and Stephen were walking down the street and then they saw a leprokon! It had a pot of gold! Jared and Stephen walk ovor to the leprokon. When they got ovor to the leprokon the leprokon jumpt. The leprokon look at Jared and Stephen an said. Good thing you are wering green. You git a pot of gold.
So then Laura followed suit and wrote the following to her friend Brooke (this was later in the day and she was feeling better)
to Brok Frum Laura
won day laura and brok saw a laprchaun. Laura said wut good gren you hav on
Pretty good for an almost 5 year old (in 3 days as she wants everyone to know!)
Well, must go. Laura is anxious to go deliver this and I have green pancakes to make!
|