Since my Homeschool Open House entry, I have made some major changes in my plans for 2007-2008. This week we started our school with the unit study on Early American Explorers through Homeschool in the Woods that I shared about in my Open House entry. That part is going great. Then I shared that my plans were at that point to purchase the My Father's World unit on American History. Well...a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (or in my case woman/her). I will not be purchasing any other supplementation to go along with this unit. After much sweating and praying and deliberation, I feel peace about sticking just to the unit, and only supplementing with some read-alouds from the library (based on MFW and Sonlight's recommendations for this year) and a book on Native Americans with prayer points, and Sonlight's language arts for level 3 and grade 2, with readers. I have a lot of peace about this decision now, and definitely feel that less is better. One of the main reasons I am not doing Sonlight completely this year is that it is just too much, but doesn't have any hands-on activities to help cement the learning together.
This week went really well. We started each day with reading from Catherine Vos's A Child's Story Bible and the girls made a picture and either a written narration or copy work to go with it. This activity took about 45-60 minutes each morning. From there we went to math. That didn't go as well. I still am feeling pressure to stick with the work books but the girls hate doing it, and it took forever to get through one lesson with my sitting right there with each of them. Ugh! By Friday I had decided to pitch the Singapore Math for now and go entirely with Miquon. I am going to try to do the activities that are suggested in the teacher's book, and try to be relaxed about it. I may also dedicate one day a week to math games. Thursday and Friday, the math time went much better and didn't take nearly as long. The girls are behind in these books, so it is easier for them, and they were able to do 2-3 lessons each day. Next we read the lesson for the history, and worked on the projects that went with them. How fun. We all enjoyed this time, but we only got through the first two lessons. Part of that was that the first lesson took longer, and that the neighbors weren't doing school and so the girls wanted to play. On Friday the weather was so nice we took a nature walk and drew in our journals instead. I got some nice pics to show of that.
Today I finally clicked the "check-out" button at the Sonlight online site, and hopefully we'll be getting our books soon. I love their language arts, and they have upgraded their programs with the help of Ruth Beechick this year. Woohoo!
Does anyone know of a great site to come up with early learning activities for a three year old who thinks she needs to be doing her school this year too?
Have a great holiday tomorrow, my American friends.
Hi Carol : )
We are using core 3 this year. I purchased the entire thing but now have some regrets as I have been drawn to some different curricula for science and I need to supplement a lot for the history part since this year is American history and we need to be learning some stuff on Canadian history to. We'll see how this year goes and then next year I may just pick and choose portions of it like you have : ) I had the chance to see the Apologia Astronomy and I fell in love with it so I have just ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive. The BC learning outcomes for grade 3 recommend using it and I am really looking forward to using it this year. I have also ordered some Canadian geography and history books as well as some stuff on Canadian natives. We are really enjoying reading about them in the sonlight books so far and we are going to build a tipi like the plains indians (large enough for the kids to go in) and a traditional loghouse like they build on the west coast here in BC. This one though I think we'll just make out of popsicle sticks *grin*
Your math time with your dd sounds like mine! We have had some real tough times the last couple of days and it has just mentally drained me. I've been trying to make light of it with ds and teasing that we need to exercise his math muscle and this seems to amuse him and lift his spirits because I don't want him to get to down on it. I have ordered a fun math game kit called 'One eyed jacks and deca dice' which has those funky dice with the 16 sides or something. So I'm looking forward to getting that and seeing what sort of games we can play to practice and have fun at the same time.
The last 3 years we stuck strictly to the sonlight schedule so I'm a little bit lost with adding in new things and not having all of them yet either. I'm not to keen on making up my own plans but I'll get the hang of it. LOL.
Your baby sounds like mine, go go go : ) The gates are such a blessing so you don't have to spend so much time chasing and checking : )
Wow this ended up being a BIG comment *grin* We have a holiday tomorrow and then on tuesday if the weather cooperates we are going to have a picnic with our HS group to kick the year off. Have a great week,
Rosina
Hi Carol-your new plans sound wonderful. If the Lord is in it, you know it must be right!
I'm sorry about the math struggles. I used Miquon with my son for awhile and we loved it. Now, he's using Saxon like his older sister. I just don't have them do all the problems on each page.
Have you looked at "Letter of the Week" for your little one? I will probably start this with my youngest sometime during the winter.
http://letteroftheweek.com/
Holly
We have gotten into our schooling and a couple days into it - changed Math and Language Arts direction.
I'm trusting in God and He is providing. I will be praying for you too. It can be a little frustrating to think you have it all planned out and things change. It is such a blessing though that we homeschool and that our kids aren't being forced to swallow things that don't understand or can't learn the way God created them.
Some of the best things I loved to do with my girls when they were young were these:
http://www.rodstaff.com/cgi-bin/ras/perlshop.cgi - Rod and Staff are very sweet books. They have some great things. You can't really see them online, but if you request a catalog
Online there is:
www.abcteach.com
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.edhelper.com
I think each of these may cost something like $20 to use, but some have free stuff or you can use it for free - just with some advertisements on them. Enchanted Learning has TONS of stuff.
Hope that helps and I'll be praying for you as I pray for our school too.
I was planning on using Adventures in MFW. In fact I purchased the whole curriculum pack. It turns out I am going to use almost none of it. I am using their book recomendations but we are coing up with our own plans for everything else.
Jenny
Little Acorns Treehouse
littleacornscds.blogspot.com/
on being featured blogger!! I've enjoyed my visit here. We too are getting on the nature walk bandwagon -- finally! I love the pictures of your girls sketching. NICE! The family by the waterfall is beautiful. I use Singapore Math and also have that Homeschool in the Woods Explorer unit. Great stuff!
Your blog has tons of pics, that makes it really fun! It seems that you are always doing something FUN!
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory.html
FREE curriculum that progresses with mastery of alphabet recognition and sounds, etc ALSO has stuff for toddlers! It is very similar to a program I used with some of my other kids: featuring a letter and topic for the week.
One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord. To inquire in His temple, the temple of the Lord.
This is my everyday thoughts about being a mother to three little ladies (12, 10 and 5) and a three year old son. We serve God full-time, and I am a physician assistant. I have the most awesome husband in the world. I am trying to seek and serve God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength.
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