Today we are the school that moves. We started out with breakfast at the kitchen table, and read Bible and literature during that time. Our school room is trashed, but the office was clean, so we did Math in there. We read History in the living room. Then, we went outside and trapsed up and down the long driveway working on memory work. I highly recommend going for a walk during memory work. It really "jogs" the memory! Then we did spelling words with chalk in the garage. We decided we liked the location and moved the rest of Language Arts/Handwriting into the garage. Last came science. Dd picked a spot in the shade on the lawn. We read from Finding Out About Everyday Things, learning about why the earth has day/night and seasons. We finished up with a little demonstration. Why does earth have day and night? And we spin around like ballerinas (because the earth spins). Why do we have seasons? Because the earth goes around the sun (this is choreographed by me picking them up under their arms and spinning them around). And why else? We grab hands and pull back and forth - because the earth tilts.

Now the kids are dancing around with half a Doritos bag on their head. They've discovered that they look just like an Egyptian pharaoh. Can't wait to clean the crumbs from their heads.

I hadn't realized how difficult it was going to be to teach 2 kids! We've been able to tackle math for a few weeks now, but having a little trouble adding in Language Arts. We have had a few false starts with SWR spelling, and each one bombed big time. I think I found a method for the madness, which involves slowing way, way down. SWR expects my dd's age & grade to learn 20-40 words per week (we were attempting to break it down into 5 new words per day, up to 20 review words). Ugh. That wasn't going to work. All knowledge of phonics flew out the window and sent us both into tears of frustration. So, we are only doing 2-3 words per day. How's that for simple? It worked like a charm. Dd remembered her words without a problem. I quiz her each day - once a word has been quizzed 3xs, it drops off our list. We will only be writing a max of 9 words per day, which isn't much. I also made a bunch of letter tiles that I laminated and store in a fishing tackle box. Dd can spell words with the tiles on some days.

My 4yo is doing great with a combination of Reading Reflex and Teach A Child to Read with Children's Books. She loves being able to read a picture book and has caught on right away. We work through the word building exercises and she Adamantly Absolutely Resolutely Insists that she will Write Her Words. She will not use letter tiles, she will write her words. Its so cute and I love seeing that little spark of enthusiasm.

Who needs spelling rules?

I bought a nifty little filing card notebook (it has the filing cards all bound into a neat little booklet). The purpose of this little notebook was to make it an easy reference for spelling rules. I even started writing in spelling rules (I get excited by paper products, especially anything notebook-y). My 6yo has been bugging, bugging, bugging me ever since I bought that notebook. She has a better use for it than spelling rules. Since our first 2 days of SWR went really really horrible and I'm feeling a little ruffled about our brief but rocky attempts at spelling, I caved in. Sure. Have the notebook. Take away the notebook I was so excited about stuffing full of spelling rules. Now it is a journal. My ("I hate writing") 6yo dd is busy writing in it and has finished a full page already. She wrote all about her day at the beach today. And just as I imagine Winnie-the-Pooh's journal, the big highlight of the journal entry is about the food she ate for lunch and the food she'll eat later today.

With a hefty, happy appetite,
I'm a hefty, happy Pooh:)

Somedays I just have to count my blessings. Today is one of them. I've been stewing about all day because every math lesson starts with my 6yo rolling around moaning "I can't do it". She refuses to add 1 to any number ("I can't do it"). During spelling, she forgot how to spell "on" and I almost tore out all of my hair in my attempts to stay calm and talk her through it (she knew the letter "o" and she knew the sound "n", but kept insisting there must be a "w" or "u" in there somewhere, LOL). And my 4yo woke up at 6:30am with a sick tummy, & spent the morning throwing up.

I am richly, richly blessed and need to be reminded of those things. Here are just a few of our many blessings today:

• We haven't had the stomach flu around here in about 4 years. It's about time one of us got it!
• My 4yo took a long nap and woke up brand new! She insisted on joining in on spelling with us, and happily wrote the words "on, in, up, over, at" on a piece of paper.
• My 6yo played two board games today & read the words on the game cards.
• My 6yo has read several books today, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar to her little sister.
• My 6yo did well on her math test, and scored 29 out of 30. Thank goodness there weren't any addition or subtraction problems on that test...
• My 4yo was excited to read the book "Dog in, cat out" which only has 4 words through the whole book, LOL. But its a good start!

Have you ever noticed when a homeschool family says they did something really cool, they leave out certain details? Like, was everyone really happy about the project the entire time, or did things fall apart? Did the 6yo grumble through the whole thing and did the 4yo break down into a temper tantrum because she didn't participate in the way she expected? And wouldn't it be nice sometimes to hear about those details? Maybe I'm sick and twisted, but I like to hear about other homeschool struggles. Then I know that our total metal downs are normal, and a part of the learning process. Misery loves company:)

Ok, so here's mine...
Lovely homeschool story: This morning we made banana bread (its still baking...)
Ugly details: the 4yo refused to wash her hands in order to participate. Then, we just started pouring ingredients and she has a complete breakdown because she didn't get to help. I calm her down, and wash her hands. The rest of the ingredients went in pretty well, and was going to have a happy ending, until the 6 & 4yo fight over the stool. They're pushing and shoving each other off of it, and starting to scream. So I banish the stool, and kids are hopping on tiptoe, pushing and shoving, trying to see the banana goop sitting in the mixer. And that was the moment I realized that those lovely homeschool stories simply cannot be as wonderful in real life as they always sound!

The story has a moral to it (other than teaching the kids not to push, shove, and argue)...Although it is nice to hear the rotten details, it is also a good time to count those blessings. Many little good things happened this morning, too. My 6yo dressed herself before coming downstairs and was eager to help (cheerful attitude). My 6yo cracked eggs beautifully without getting eggshells into the mix. And my 4yo had a good time mashing banana.

I love the word "tweak", it sounds so fun. I think back to my childhood, when my cousin and I decided we really liked those dangling thready type things that hang from a bookmark. But we couldn't remember the word (it's called a tassel, by the way), so we called them "tweakies". And then we set out to make our own tweakies. We took embroidery floss (hereby named "tweaky thread"), wound it around some cardboard, pulled the mass of thread off, tied it, and cut it to make a grand dangly tweaky for yet another bookmark. We loved walking the embroidery thread aisle of K-mart looking for new hues for tweakies. When we were really creative, tweakies came in two colors. But I digress...

I am "tweaking" my curriculum ever so much. Just a smudge, honest! I am replacing All About Spelling with Spell to Write and Read (gasp & horror). Yes, I know what you're thinking. I thought that, too. I had some sleepless nights over the issue. Whenever I dare to think about using SWR again, I end up with nausea, a headache, and insomnia. But its $70 less, I already have SWR, and I (supposedly) sort of know how its supposed to work (supposedly...) I spent a day making the lovely colored letter tiles that you buy with All About Spelling, with plans of using those instead of killing our hands with handwriting every day. And I've decided to focus on one spelling rule each week that relates to one of the words in our spelling list, sort of in an All About Spelling style. I plan to incorporate lots of review and bring in short easy dictation sentences, just like All About Spelling. Its just ME planning the program rather than someone else. We'll see how it works. Ugh. I'm sure it'll be fun.

I am also replacing Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power book with the StartWrite CD, which looks so so so cool!! I can't wait to pop the CD into my computer, and start making some lovely handwriting pages. Oh the things I can do with it!! I can make Handwriting Without Tears tracing pages for my little one (which she loves to do). I can make copywork pages with HWT font for my older one. I find myself ditching formal handwriting every year anyway because we always have our own specific issues to work on, not covered satisfactorily in a workbook.

I'm also watching the Math U See Beta DVD to get some hints on adding mental math to our Horizons Math book. I am happy to see that MUS teaches addition with regrouping the same way I was planning to introduce it. Although MUS isn't quite right for my kiddos, I think it makes a great training program for this teacher. I just have to find the CDs cheap (yeah, right) or borrow from someone else (I've got Beta covered). We never did get around to finishing book 2 of 1st grade Horizons, and Horizons seems quite advanced. So we're going to go through 1st gr book 2 before moving up. I will be happy if we get through 1st gr book 2 and 2nd gr book 1 for our school year; I think this will be plenty for a complete 2nd gr math education. By the way, if you are wondering...these 2 books alone will cover skip counting, telling time, money, double digit addition with regrouping (carrying), double digit subtraction with borrowing, and I think it maybe covers multiplication (but that might be 2nd gr book 2). So. Yeah. These 2 books will be plenty.

What a great summer we've had!! Our biggest highlight was the trip to Washington DC. Here is what we did:

• Stayed 3 nights in Fairfax, VA at a hotel with a pool & hottub (the hottub is sorely needed after all the walking)
• Took the Metro in to Washington. It was so much fun and the stations are fascinating; each one is different. Some dive straight underground and some are above ground.
• Walked the 2 mile difference between the Capitol building and Lincoln Memorial, and visited some of the monuments in between.
• Visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History & saw animals, dinosaur bones, gems, & the remarkably small Hope Diamond (the biggest blue diamond in the world, haha)
• Visited the Smithsonian Museum of Art, saw Byzantine works through 1600's art (then pooped out & had to leave.)
• Visited the Smithsonian Zoo - my what a big zoo that is!!
• Saw the Capitol Building, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, Lincoln, World War II, F.D.Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson memorials. We liked the FDR one the best!\
• Went to Manassas Park in VA, where the Battles of Bull Run were (Civil War).
• Camped in Shenandoah National Park
• Participated in a Flat Stanley project, and took Stanley along with us. Took lots of great photos posing with Stanley.

If we had to do this trip again: we'd buy the expensive 2 day bus pass, where you can hop on board a bus and drive to the next memorial. We did an amazing amount of walking!! My 6.5yo was such a trouper and kept up with us the entire time (there is no way to carry a 60lb human on an 85 degree day through Washington DC). Our 4.5yo did remarkably well, too, but did quite a bit more riding on Daddy's back or Momma's hip. Also, if I could do it again, I'd have one relaxation day where we stay in the hotel, watch movies, and rest up for another full day in Washington DC. Two days full of touring were exhausting for all 4 of us. It was a great trip and seeing the tall marble buildings with carvings of faces, ionic & doric pillars, and romanesque domes gave us a glimpse of what Rome must have looked like in it's day.

Sometimes we "customers" need to support each other. Here, I am providing a little helpful customer support on behalf of Magellan, maker of the Roadmate 300r GPS. If you purchased a Roadmate 300r, then at some point you are going to follow these footsteps:

1. you'll discover that the Roadmate 300r is only regional. You're missing most of the maps.
2. you can download the rest of maps from the web site, however...
3. you'll need a SD card and the Roadmate Manager PC application CD. So you purchase the SD card, but...
4. you don't have the Roadmate Manager PC application CD, since it never came with the unit.
5. So you email Magellan and they kindly tell you that the Manager PC application CD software doesn't actually exist, if you bought a Roadmate 300r.

Here's some advice:

1. Call THIS number instead: 1-866-339-0488
2. They will actually KNOW what you are talking about!
3. And they will send the CD for free through the mail (or, at least they are supposed to).

We're waiting on our CD, and if so, then the Roadmate 300r gets 2 thumbs up. By the way, I spent hours researching this issue online and finally found the above info at this site: http://www.mobileplanet.com/ft.aspx?k=63844&page=1

There you have it. No, I won't email anybody copies of the CD. But if you're in a bind, call the above number and they'll fix you up:) Happy Navigating!!

Great ideas in the comments for my fall plans! As far as grammar goes, I really don't want to spend a lot of time and attention on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and the like, because it really does get forgotten year to year. I mostly want to focus on the things that will improve reading and writing. Since my spelling isn't going to cover things like "drop the e and add -ing", "change y to i and add -es", and "use -er and -est for comparisons" until next year, I wanted to cover those things in grammar. Our spelling will have dictation exercises which will reinforce past and current spelling concepts. There is a lot we can do with those dictation exercises and spelling word lists! We can change verb tense or add prefixes/suffixes, etc. I still felt a little hesitant about not having something to follow, even if only some sort of checklist; and so, I think the Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation book might fit the bill. It is 25 rules that can be posted on the wall as they are studied. The entire book also comes on CD, so I would be able to print off pages, as well. It would work as a nice little reminder that can be applied to our dictations and writing assignments. Real life scenarios ("what verbs are we doing?") work great, and so do picture books such as "A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink, What is a Noun?" from the Words are Categorical series. We love those books and they inspire much conversation on the topic.

As for writing assignments, this was another area I was sort of dreading. It seems a lot of schools these days use writing assignments to teach grammar ideas through the brainstorming, rough draft, editing, and publish process. I just haven't gotten too excited over this idea. But I did draft up an outline for including writing assignments in our school year. I think I can work these into our spelling and grammar studies. When we learn the rules about writing addresses, we can write letters and address envelopes. I will still incorporate journalling into our days, but I think I will give a question to answer in our journals. I became tired last year of every journal entry looking like this: "Cen you play barbies with me rit yes or no in the box". And then after every journal entry, I ended up being roped into playing Barbies, LOL.

And so...adjusted plans for LA:

Reading:
2nd: SL 2nd gr readers, leveled readers
K: SL K readers when ready, leveled readers

Writing:
2nd: journal & my own writing schedule
K: journal & narration (she narrates a story, I write it) 

Grammar:
Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation. To be used with writing schedule & spelling words/dictations

Spelling/phonics:
2nd: All About Spelling levels 1 & 2
K: my own play it by ear approach:)

Thanks for the help on this!!

Our next school year is approaching and I'm not exactly sure what we'll do. I was inspired by Lisa to post our plans. Here's the definite plans:

History/Bible/Science:
Sonlight Core C

Math:
2nd gr: Horizons Math 2
K: BJU Math K
Base 10 Blocks as manipulatives

And now, the not so definite plans...
Reading:
2nd: probably Sonlight's 2nd gr readers
K: probably Sonlights K readers (when ready)
and probably some leveled readers that I find at the library from Reading Recovery's lists and Mark Thogmartin's book Teach Your Child To Read With Children's Books

Handwriting:
2nd: Handwriting Without Tears, finish up 1st gr  - then what? Maybe 2nd, maybe cursive
K: HWT K (Letters and Numbers for Me)

Spelling/Phonics:
2nd: unsure of this, but maybe All-About-Spelling levels 1 and 2.
K: we started 100 Easy Lessons, but we're sort of stuck. So...I think we will focus on word-building exercises (maybe use All About Spelling level 1 with letter tiles) and some sight words. Once word-memory develops a little more, then maybe try 100 Easy Lessons again.

Grammar:
Ugh. All-About-Spelling doesn't cover everything I'd like, so that means I need to find a Grammar program that provides the rest. But I don't want to drill-and-kill grammar at this stage, just really want to cover the basics and put a checkmark on our yearly accomplishments. Here are my contenders:

Easy Grammar 2nd gr review - I like the short easy lessons that can be done verbally in just a few minutes each day. Seems to cover everything. But I worry that we might not understand it very well, since it is so brief. Short daily lessons 5x per week.

Growing With Grammar 1 and 2 - I like the basic instructions (not real wordy, lots of white space, simple to understand) and its more detailed than Easy Grammar. But I worry that its not spiral enough (its EG's opposite). Lessons 3xs per week.

Evan-Moor's Grammar & Punctuation 2 - this has a few pages with my dd's favorite activity of cutting & pasting. It has nice charts to post on the wall with a basic reminder of how to do things. It covers the word-tense changing activities (-ed and -ing) that All About Spelling does not cover in levels 1 and 2. It would break down into about 2-3 lessons per week. But it doesn't have dictionary/alphabetizing skills. I love it, don't know if its complete enough.

I would LOVE and WELCOME any and all feedback on this, since I'm stumped and suffering sleepless nights!! Guess I should just relax and bake cookies, huh? What kind should I make? We already made chocolate chip yesterday. So maybe peanut butter cookies? Or no-bake oatmeal?

"Relax...bake cookies!"

This is the advice I've heard countless times from homeschool moms that have done it all. Of course, I'm rather new at this, so I'm thinking, "What kind of cookies? How many do we make? Should we divide the recipe into halves, quarters, fifths?" I have this vision of a family gathering around the kitchen dumping in ingredients, flour flying everywhere, with piles of already baked cookies on the counter. Since we already tend to bake cookies on occasion as a family, I wonder, "should we be baking more cookies? Just how often should we bake cookies?"

Of course, what they mean is - relax, and do something enjoyable together! It all works towards learning in one way or another, but without the complaining.

So if you're a new homeschooler coming here looking for advice, I'll pass on some wisdom from the more experienced ladies..."Relax! Bake cookies!", but I'll add - "don't bake too many cookies. Try to mix it up by baking bagel pizzas, and muffins, and homemade applesauce."

     We have been concentrating on nighttime training my 6.5yo dd's bedwetting habit. I would consider sparing her the embarrassment of posting this on my blog, but she doesn't seem to be embarrassed by this at all. She's proudly announced to everyone she meets that she has a "pee alarm", which then I have to explain. Perhaps our experience will help someone else in the same situation.

     Nighttime incontinence seems to be a pretty common problem. Doctors say that most kids will outgrow this by age 12. Sleep-overs present a problem, however, as does the cost of big kid diapers or the toll of changing wet sheets every night.

     First, a little story about our bedwetting history:
My dd potty trained between 3-3.5 years old. Bowel control took considerably longer, and we had many bouts of constipation. However, dd started having some dry nights shortly after potty training. To encourage this, we put her in padded undies and waited to see what would happen. Remarkably, she was able to "hold it" and keep those pants dry most nights. But something else happened. She began to have horrible night terrors. I read up on night terrors, but could never find a good solution to stopping them. I was exhausted. Twice a night, she'd have an outburst. Limbs went stiff, she screamed and kicked. Any time I tried to wake her or interfere in any way, the outburst grew more violent. I had the brilliant idea one night of taking her to the toilet. We were unsuccessful at getting her to the toilet during a terror (of course), and it didn't seem to help much if I woke her up once in the night. She was a heavy sleeper and it seemed a difficult task at best. The night terrors continued. Finally, I had the genius idea to put her back into pull-up diapers and give her verbal permission to pee in them while she slept. Miraculously, the night terrors stopped! But now we had wet pants every night. It is also interesting to note that the bowel movement training happened much later. At age 5, she still had some nights where she would wake up crying because she had accidentally pooped in her pull-up during her sleep. I do not know if there was a connection here, but I suspect there was!

Ultimately, I tried to take a very relaxed attitude about wet pants (and accidental pooping). Every once in awhile, we'd try underwear and a week long regiment of withholding fluids 2 hours before bed, and waking up once in the night to use the toilet. The pee accidents seemed to occur 2-3 times per night, maybe more, so it wasn't time yet. Finally, just recently, I noticed that the pull-ups were half as full as usual in the mornings. I thought this was a good sign, so we tried it again. This time, we purchased an expensive little gadget called a wet alarm (a.k.a. pee alarm). We purchased the Nite Train'r from PottyMD, and it came with a book on overcoming bedwetting. The book has some interesting ideas that conflict with today's wisdom regarding night time training. Today's doctors encourage children to "stretch their bladders" by holding urine during the daytime. This book's author encourages the opposite: encouraging good day time pee habits by going frequently, relaxing on the potty, and spending a little extra time to allow the body to release it all. Its an intriguing idea and worth a try for those having trouble beyond all the usual advice. So far, we haven't had to monitor day-time habits. My 6.5yo has had 10 dry nights in a row (knock on wood, crossing fingers). I think this a very good sign! Here are a few things that helped us:

• We waited until we saw a noticeable difference in the amount of output each night. This was a "sign" that we were ready!
• Make sure your child is on board with this idea. You really do need their help to do this! Ultimately, they need to feel encouraged that they can put in some hard work and overcome this. It will require some sacrifice on their part (and yours too!)
• You and your child are going to be EXHAUSTED after only a few nights of this. You're bound to loose enthusiasm for this big committment, and so will your child. Expect fighting and disagreeing on nighttime training if you are both overtired.
• To keep spirits high, take NAPS. At least every-other-day, institute an hour nap period to refill your energy and renew your committment. We could not have done this without our daytime naps!
• Limit drinks 2 hours before bed. This was a real struggle for us, because dd was used to taking a drink to bed, and waking in the night to take drinks. I had to work hard to encourage dd to keep at this and resist the drinks for awhile.
• Wake your child up once in the night (usually right before you go to bed)
• Use a wet alarm. Ours was inserted in the underwear and connected to an alarm that attaches to the shirt. At the first drop of moisture, the alarm went off.
• Mom (or Dad) - be on your toes for that alarm to go off! After 2 nights, my dd got very good at disconnecting the alarm and drifting back off to sleep. I had to wake up at the slightest "beep" and get her up and to the bathroom.
• Buy extra sheets and waterproof coverings. Be prepared to change sheets twice in one night!
• Stop the pull-up diapers. This is the hardest thing to give up, but it is hard to stay motivated if the diaper absorbs everything.

For more tips, read The Complete Bedwetting Book, Including a Daytime Program for Nighttime Dryness, by D. Preston Smith, MD, FAAP, FACS, FSPU

As I've been searching for books for in the fall, I've done a lot of reading about learning styles, and reflecting on our past experiences. I came to a great realization that I hope will give me wisdom and insight into picking the right books.

You can read about learning personalities here (Wiggly Willy, Perfect Paula, Competent Carl, & Sociable Sue - based upon Cathy Duffy's styles as described in her books).

One day, my 6yo dd is complaining about math and she says, "Mom, I'd really like to do cut-and-paste math." In fact, she has mentioned it several times since then. "I don't think they make cut-and-paste math," I say.

Then, I lay out every math program we've ever done, and I ask her, "which do you like best?" I fully expected that she would pick Developmental Math. Afterall, I loved that workbook - she got her lessons done in 15mins, she could pick it up on her own, she could teach herself all by herself, it was easy, and it was effective. No, that was absolutely last on the list. She picked the harder maths that caused me grief. She picked the books that required the most of my attention. And she begged, "please don't make me do this one (Developmental Math)." Huh?

Can you guess her style? It became very obvious to me that she is, indeed, a Sociable Sue. She needs that social interaction to motivate her. Sure, she can do math independently, but it seems to take a lot of energy from her. No, she needs attention, interaction, or at least human companionship. And she has that little creative flair (cut and paste math!)

And I, on the other hand, am a Competent Carl. Give me a long-term project to do and then leave me alone. I'm tickled pink by a very simple, effective math program that I can complete on my own. There aren't a lot of extras on the page, or bells & whistles. It's organized and efficient. Doesn't everyone want this in a math program?

I think the trick now is to find Competent Carl materials that can be presented to a Sociable Sue. Dd seems able to learn from most books, as long as they are taught with direct involvement.

Here's an update on our summer:

• We've been enjoying park & beach days with our homeschool group
• My 6yo is participating in the library's summer reading program - if she reads 10 books in 6 weeks, she can get a new book to keep.
• We have 3 out of 4 strips of concrete done in our polebarn. Hooray, one more to go!
• I have a large customer web site project that I am working on for our home web design business. This week, the kids are being indoctrinated with Disney Princess love stories while I work. It really shows in their play (sappy romantic ickiness!)
• I had plans to do it all this summer (nature center camps, swimming lessons, etc.) but instead have given myself permission to just enjoy the summer. We've had playdates & the afore-mentioned park/beach days. Its been somewhat relaxing and nice. Why try to do it all?
• I'm researching 2nd grade curriculum to start in the fall. I liked our LA lifepacs, so that is on the small list of options. I did not, however, like our Math lifepacs. Oddly enough, I'm coming back around to Horizons (egads!!) I should explain how my brain went full circle on math in another post:)
• My 4yo still has hives, but the meds have been very effective, so we don't see the hives a whole lot anymore. Even so, it sure would be nice to have a non-medicated kid!
• My 6yo is going through night time continence training. Hey, homeschooling takes all forms! Last night was our first night trying the Nite Train'r; an alarm system that goes off at the first sign of moisture. I couldn't sleep all night wondering when it was going to go off, or if it was even working. And then, at 5am, we heard it loud and clear! LOL. Everyone had trouble going back to sleep after that. Hopefully, dd can "graduate" from this class soon!

My 6yo dd made this at the request of my 4yo dd. If you hadn't guessed already, this is a mermaid. She has a unicorn and my little pony stamp on her hands. The girls are infactuated by anything of the mermaid or pony variety. If only they had the same enthusiasm for their math & reading.

I've come to realize that I've made a mistake in teaching math, lately. Looking at the 2nd gr level math books, I realized that my 6.5yo could handle these concepts. Since we just started our 4th (ugh, not proud of that) math program this year for 1st gr, I've decided we'll continue this course. But I'm going to seriously slash out problems and move quickly through the material. I'm also going to limit the amt of time spent on 1st gr math lessons. Then, I will add in some extra 2nd gr concepts, but we'll just do this informally. Today we did chicken nugget multiplication by rearranging our lunch on the cookie tray and coming up with multiplication problems (3 rows of chicken nuggets xs 4 columns of chicken nuggets = 12 chicken nuggets). We also played around with place value and introduced 1000 (a very large number).

My 4.5yo has hit a brick wall with 100 Easy Lessons, around lesson 22. The stories get longer and she doesn't have the memory yet to handle these longer stories. Not sure what to do about that. We may play some games for awhile, or go back a few lessons until she can remember the words better. But she's only 4.5...we have lots of time!

Lazycreek took me up on the tagging challenge. You can read her response here. Anyone else up for the challenge??

Lessons have gone very well here lately. I love having a small workbook that we can carry with us places. We missed school on Thurs, due to a fun, full-day playdate at a friend's house. We made up our school day on Saturday, but we did car-schooling instead. We took a long trip picking up a friend and dropping him off for his plane trip- it was a great time to work on workbooks in the car!

I'm finding that I still spend quite a bit of time working with my dd through the workbook pages. Everyone envisions Lifepacs as something that gets put in front of the student, and then that's it. We make the pages work for us with quite a bit of interaction. For math, the pages contain A LOT of addition/subtraction problems (about 54 on one page!!) - I cut the page down to half, and often I have my dd tell me the answers, while I write them. Once, I even copied and cut up the addition problems and we played a game of War with them. For LA, there are a lot of "listen to your teacher" instructions, where I read something, and dd answers the questions. I have also adapted their spelling words my own way. We practice our spelling by using linking word building blocks, and I mix up the order of the letters; she has to put them in the right order. Or, I write the spelling words wrong and she has to correct them. I have also used a little SWR (Spell to Write and Read) to help her remember tricky words like "four" and "three" - I have her make SWR markings on the words and we talk about the phonograms. We've added in handwriting: Lifepacs have enough, but due to my 9mth neglect of handwriting, I felt it necessary to add in a handwriting program. We added in Handwriting Without Tears 1st gr book, which I had on hand from our Sonlight books. I feel guilty sometimes that we aren't using a "natural" approach for LA, but I feel good that with Lifepacs our work is getting done daily, and I can put another checkmark next to 1st grade requirements. 

My 4 1/2yo dd is doing well with 100 Easy Lessons. She finished up lesson 18 today. I am very tempted to either slow it down or go back a few lessons, just to reinforce things. The lessons feel like they are picking up pace quite a bit, and I really want us to take our time and absorb this. I still have it set in my mind that we don't need to officially start K for another year (Fall 2008), so we have plenty of time. BJU K math and Handwriting Without Tears K is going well, too - HWT has really helped my 4 1/2yo learn to write letters. Her "E" used to look like a ladder, with several rungs, but now she makes her E's very nice, with only 3 lines. She is proud to write her letters correctly.

Since we do not have our next Sonlight core yet (probably won't order this until closer to fall), we are just reading whatever books strike our fancy. We loved Detectives in Togas, so we read Henry Winterfield's sequel, Mystery of the Roman Ransom. We just finished a book called The Mystical Beast, and are now reading through one of the Narnia series, The Magician's Nephew. I do miss our Sonlight books, though!

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - A Review

My 4 1/2yo and I have finished 12 lessons (88 more to go!) and it is going well. It is very slow moving at first, and repetitious. The lessons teach a new letter sound every 2 lessons, and the student practices rhyming and blending sounds together. The lessons stress the importance of sounding out words in a smooth, blended way (mmmmaaaat) instead of in a short, rough guttural way like most programs (/m/ /a/ /t/). This helps with word recognition when a word is sounded out.

100 Easy Lessons uses its own funky writing system (called Distar), which is what caused me to run away from this program in the first place. To the mom new to teaching reading, it looks pretty scary. Letters all have a starting dot, an arrow, and a dot underneath – which student and teacher use to slide their finger under. The print is different, as well. Th is written sort of stuck together, so that it is recognized as one sound.

The order of sounds presented is different from typical horizontal phonics programs. In a typical phonics program, the student is taught short vowel sounds first, so they can sound out all CVC words (cat, bed, hill, got, tub). But in 100 Easy Lessons, short a is taught, and the next vowel is long e (printed with the line overtop). Students learn to sound out words with long e vowel combinations, like ee and ea. In an “ea” word, the a is written tiny, and the student is told not to sound out little sounds, only big sounds. Within the first 10 lessons, the student is sounding out words like SEaT, EaT, and SEED.

Sight words are taught phonetically. The word “is” is sounded out “iiiissss” and then the student calls it “iz”. The word “the” is sounded out “th-E” and then the student calls it “thu”.