Sep. 9, 2007 - Principled Planning for 07-08 School Year
Aloha everyone! I'm finally back and settled in our new home in Maui. I've finished (for the most part) doing all the planning for the quarter or year of home school. We start tomorrow, so I thought I'd give my input to this discussion. I'm excited this year because I've finished using the Noah Plan Lessons and am excited to be more free to use the curriculum guides and resources I've collected over the years. My kids also need some more focus on certain areas (math and writing). As I prepare for a new year and reflect on 1) what I've done, 2) what I've learned to do, and 3) what I need to study before I teach, I'm amazed at how God helps me all along the way. Setting goals and not feeling bad for where you're at is freeing. I know I'm learning. I know the kids are further along in certain things than they were before, even if it's not as far as I think they should be. Learning is fun for me and I hope to instill a greater sense of that excitement to my kids this year.
My own goals for this year are to learn how to teach poetry better (a subject I still have no clue how to teach, much less find the right poems to teach; I need to renew my mind there); to get my kids to write and read better (mechanics and fluency are horrible right now; sometimes I think they're still in 1st grade); to build a network of people in my town who want to learn how to teach by principles (get other excited about teaching principly); and accomplish more of what is in my schedule than before (so far I probably get to 80% of it, but I'd like to try to do 90%; kids are a little older and I feel more confident in running a more thriving learning environment).
I've tried to make my lesson plans more the way I see things, which means I break it down into three things (content, book, assignment). Making the assignments more principled (which I want to practice on my own outside of lesson plans I did not write) for me is making sure we use the 1828 every week and reasoning from causes and purposes more than facts (fine balance I and the kids are still learning). I tend to get more detailed than I think the kids are able to do and instead I want to discuss the big picture and make sure they understand and can articulate that. During specific writing lessons we focus more on mechanics than content; so that's different than understanding the big picture in Bible, Literature, History, Science, and even math. I'm also excited to start teaching computer/typing (keyboard) skills this year and being more intentional in economics (how to manage the money they earn for working at home).
I've tried to make my schedule more fluid in the sense of teaching the basics 3 times a week (used to be 4) and everything else 2 times a week (was 1). I've added a few small things like fluency testing, more field trips throughout (we did that all at the end of the year for 2 weeks), and teaching Literature, History, and Science all in one week instead of rotating them from unit to unit (M-W>Lit; Th>Sci; Fr/His). I'm planning 4 special days (Treasure Island Celebration, Pilgrim Drama, Patriotic Orations Day, and Reformation Day) where I hope to incorporate more people in my town.
For Bible I'm using Walking with Jesus (FACE), for Literature> 4th grade books from the NPLG (FACE), for History> Columbus by Pollard (Pilgrim Institute), The Pilgrims at Plymouth (Landmark picture book), America in the Time of George Washington (picture book), Mighty Works of God Divine Providence Ch 14-27(Pilgrim Institute), The Story of the Constitution (picture book), Foxes book of Martyrs for Reformation, and picture books I bought in DC 3 summers ago about the senate, judiciary, presidency, white house, the US flag, and 50 states. For Science I'm using a weather station kit from teacher store, Tools of Navigation (library), The Ocean Book (?), and Real Science-4-kids Chemistry and Physics (Gravitas). For language I'm still using Writing Road to Reading (I might incorporate How to Teach Spelling too) and McCall-Crabbs Test Lessons in Reading. I still use other subjects to find sentences for syntax and etymology. I also use the Bookworm Report in the NP Reading Curr Guide for writing/composition (my kids have trouble just with that).
When I gave the kids the SAT this year, my son bombed the part where he had to correct the grammatical mistakes in the paragraph, so I'm going to have them 1x a week use Evan-Moor Paragraph Editing and periodically, some Abeka Language 3 worksheets (only as supplements to help with SAT skills). We also used Evan-Moor Daily Geography Drills. They're fun and the kids get some formal geography set at state standards. I have not taught much geography principly other than enjoying the atlas from time to time. I'm not worried about that. One thing I'm doing for reading and spelling the first few weeks to get them reading better is take most phonograms and find as many words as we can with that phonogram, especially the vowels and how they work differently. I think they'll think it's fun. My spelling lessons have been pretty rigorous, but I'd have to say their spelling is the highest score they get on SATs (woohoo!).
I hope my kids enjoy school more because one of the main changes I'm making is to shorten the rigorous routines and enrich the knowledge based subjects more. I was more rigorous with skill and less enriched with knowledge. Maybe they'll enjoy it more. Hey if they were in high school, we'd have a great time (ha, ha). My kids are only 8 & 9. Still young and love to play. I also want to work on being more joyful at home. I don't want to get as frustrated or impatient. I want God to make me more like Him. I want my constant happy attitude (that's the goal) to rub off on them. When I'm not happy everything is a chore for everybody. Thank God I'm settled. I'm even loosing weight here without much extra effort. I don't want to move again. If you want a hard copy of my lesson plans, schedule, and overviews, email at kahuahana@yahoo.com.
Thanks for reading!
Raquel Werk
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Sep. 30, 2007 - Great |
| Posted by jen4jesus |
| Your lessons sound wonderful. It is evident that the Lord is renewing your mind and changing your heart in teaching. I have found this also. I know that He will continue and that is such a comfort to me. He truly will give us what we need when the time (His time) is right. I got away from the NP Lesson books a year ago. I know God wants me here, and at times it is overwhelming for me because I feel like I am behind, but again I have to tell myself that the Lord will give me the insight and inspiration in His time. God is so gracious! Have a great year educating your children. I enjoy what you share. Jen |
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Sharing Principle Approach ideas and help. Blazing a trail in the Pacific.
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