As I mentioned before, we are using Story of the World vol 2 as our main history text this year. We read aloud a chapter, or occasionally two, a week, and supplement with lots of other fun books from the public library or ours.

Most of our book selections came for the Tapestry of Grace website, but I have added a few, removed a few, and am liable to add in more next time I visit the library!

Without further ado, here are the books we have or will use for our first unit on the middle ages:

The White Stag - Kate Seredy

Well, we are four weeks into a new school year, so I thought I'd share a little about what we are doing. Arianna is doing first/second grad-ish work, Noelle is doing kindergarten math, phonics, and handwriting, and participates in all our other reading, I do not hold her responsible for any of the information, except Bible.  

We begin the day with breakfast, and then while everyone is at the table we do the table work. I purchased the StartWrite software for handwriting (hat tip: Dell) to print out my own copywork sheets, and while there are a few things that twerk me about it, It's a handy tool to have. The girls copy memory verses, hymns, quotes, definitions, their dictated narrations, and whatever else strikes my fancy. In math we are still working through our Horizons books - and we LOVE them. I highly recommend this program. The girls are making excellent progress. Oh, and lately I have been reading our daily poem at the table too (usually while they eat). We read one a day from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse.

After clean up and chores we have a little break until it is time for Emi to nap. While she is napping it's time for phonics, Bible, literature, history, social studies, science, and Spanish. We don't do every subject every day, and the 5th school day of the week (which is often Saturday) is art and music day. Here's a brief run down of those subjects:

Phonics: Noelle is working on letter recognition and sounds. Arianna has become quite the fluent reader, so to celebrate we recently took her to buy her own Bible. If you're interested, she chose THIS one. She read our Bible passage during devotions yesterday and was SO proud of herself. Anyhow, to practice phonics she reads; here is a short list of the books she has or will cover this year: Animal Rescue Club, Because A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!, A Big Ball of String, The Bravest Dog Ever, The Cat in the Hat, A Fly Went By, Go Dog, Go! Goose and Duck, Green Eggs and Ham, Henry and Mudge, Little Bear, Little Bear's Visit, A Kiss for Little Bear, One Fish, Two Fish, Put Me in the Zoo, Sammy the Seal, Small Pig,  and Tigger Comes to the Forest. That is the first grade list, and she is about half way through it, so when she has read them all we will move on to second grade, and I will share that list then. 

Bible: Last year we read through the Bible chronologically using The Bible for Children. This year, we are reading Leading Little Ones to God, and reading the daily passage from the NKJ. Since we have been reading and discussing the Bible for as long as they can remember, LLOTG is a tad simple for them, but I think we will stick with it. We should be done long before the school year is over though, and I have not planned what is next. 

Literature: So that I do not neglect my littles, I have planned preschool and 2nd grade literature. For my preschoolers that means reading 2 pages of nursery rhymes from Lavender's Blue every day or so (LOVE this book) and reading a book from Ambleside Online's Year 0 book list (click the link and scroll down) once a week (or so). Currently we are working our way through The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh (we ALL love these, and Milne's poetry too!) At Arianna's level, aside from our daily poetry, we are/will be reading Understood Betsy, The Wind in the Willows, and Robin Hood this year.  This is from AO's Year 2 list, and I am really excited about all of them. I will also be ordering a version of Pilgrim's Progress and will add that to our weekly readings when it arrives.

World History: We are continuing our chronological study of history using The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages as our "spine" to keep me focused. We are supplementing this with more books than you can imagine, so that will have to be a post in and of itself!

Science: This year we are Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I like it because a) It's not a boring textbook, b) all discussion points back to God, and c) it suggests related projects and activities to do; this is good or me, because even though I love those things, I will leave them out if the research/finding/planning of them is left solely to me.

Social Studies: This is a category I have mostly to cover the "life skills" and cultural literacy stuff that I would forget to teach my kids if I didn't have it written down! Things like How to Tie Shoes and Reading A Calendar and What A Fireman Does. I purchased a Learn at Home Kindergarten book from Costco that I am actually really enjoying and I get a lot of my ideas from there. We have worked on All About Me books and read Love you Forever, The Keeping Quilt, They Were Strong and Good,  and Me on my Family Tree, as well as made our own family tree on a large poster board. Most of this work is at the younger kids level, so it is just another way to include them in what we are doing.

Spanish: I still don't have a curriculum for, but we practice several new words and phrases weekly, and check out books in Spanish from the library. Just yesterday Arianna asked me how to say "sad" in Spanish. When I told her triste, Ezekiel said "Jorge etsaba triste"  which we read in Jorge el Curioso y el Conejito! Hey, I was impressed.

I think I will save Art and Music, as well as our read-alouds (and  history books! I haven't forgotten!) for another post or two. It's been fun, and if you've read this far you are either a) a homeschooling mommy of young children, b) a curriculum junkie (you know who you are!) or c) obsessed with me or some strange reason. 

Good Night!  

Here's what "table work" looks like at our house:

If I were fancy and actually  knew how to use the Photoshop 4.0 that DH so generously bought for me, I would cover this picture with arrows and circles to point out all the interesting things going on. But instead, you'll just have to read this part, then go back up to the pic and play I Spy. This shot is from when we were between math books;  Arianna is working out addition problems on her chalkboard (this is apparently a treat, and much cooler than plain old paper-and-pencil) with the aid of an abacus. Can I just pause a moment and point out how great an abacus can be? There are 100 manipulatives right there on that frame - and they ain't going nowhere. They will not be lost, stepped on, vacuumed up, or swallowed. They are already in tens for those place value lessons, and of course are perfect for counting, skip counting, adding, and subtracting. Considering purchasing one if you have young'uns (it was way less expensive than those tubs of counting bears) because manipulative are the name of the game in early math.

The little yellow book is her handwriting book, and it doesn't get any simpler than this. She does a page a day, which probably does not take more than two minutes. If it strikes her fancy, she'll ask to do more, and I usually agree  I expect her to use her best hand writing for her weekly copywork and/or written narration too, not just for the book.  See the pattern blocks? Those are for the child who had finished her work already or is waiting for me to start with her. At four and five, they are so not at the independant study age yet.  

Noelle is working on one of those big workbooks of "pre-school comprehensive curriculum."  Blech.  I am so not a fan of these things: it is 540 pages and 500 of them (I'm not exaggerating) are just wasted trees. But I bought it for her last year when she was itching to "do school" and I did not think she was ready for much else. At the time, I figured it was worth my $8 to keep her quiet and me sane(er), though in retrospect, I can think of countless other activities that would have been a better use of our time, even if it had cost me some prep work. But it keeps her busy and the math sections are actually decent.

And where is Zeke all this time? 

Staked closely to the table too; with a couple cars, a bowl of Cheerios, and your family nearby, who needs to go anywhere else? 

Have I mentioned how much I love the ages my kids are at right now? I am having so much fun with them! I will be sad when there are no longer any preschoolers in my house...

So, we finished Singapore's Kindergarten Math last month. And to be honest with you, I didn't like it all that much. Before you read on, (if you do at all, I suppose my Mom's will skim this part at best to get to the pics) please note that this critique is for the kindergarten math only, it is the only level I have used. Furthermore, I have never used any of the supplements that you can buy for this program; perhaps if I had they might have addressed some of my complaints. My main complaint, well is not really a complaint at all, it is just that Singapore teaches in "blocks": a few lessons on counting 10-20, then one or two on fractions, then a couple on 1-1 correspondence, with NO review on lessons previously learned. I do not recall if I knew this before I bought the product, but in any case I have since found out that I prefer a "spiral" method in teaching math, and that it fits my daughter's learning style better. Here are a few other things I noticed:

• Despite the small size of these worktexts, there was quite a bit of 'busy work" and pages devoted to uneccesary demonstrations, especially in the first book.
• The teacher notes are geared toward the classroom.

So what are we moving on to?  Well, our new Horizons Math  books came in Friday and Arianna wanted to start right away! (Noelle got Horizons K, she is almost ready). I am tempted to write a positive review after only one lesson, but that is not really fair. However, I chose Horizons because it does teach spiral-y (each lessons introduces a new topic and reviews the previous ones). And, I have noticed that despite Singapore's reputation for being very advanced, the scope of Horizons seems more so, but we shall see. Also, they were inexpensive. I will mention that Horizons lessons are very busy visually, so if your child is sensative to visual stimuli, these may be overwhelming. Oh, and I did not buy the teacher's book.

With the money I saved on my math curriculum, I bought Usborn's First Thousand Words in Spanish (speaking of visual stimuli...). This, with my very rudimentary high school Spanish, and some help help from our neighbors, is going to be our Spanish curriculum for the next few years, until I can afford Rosetta Stone or it is time to start learning Latin. I also like these and books like Corre, Perro, Corre!  from the library.

Ah, what other book related news do I have? Are you tired of it yet? The thing is, that we have finished our school year for the most part, but since we school year- round I am having the fun of planning and starting a new "school year" right now!  Well, I think it's cool. And it's my blog and I'll bore you if I want to ;) Anyway, remember the art curriculum I mentioned in my last post? Well, we had our first lesson during a torrential downpour last night (yes, I know it was Sunday, but we hadn't gotten around to it on Saturday!) I really like the book, it is very straight forward witn no fluff. I was afraid the girls would find the first lesson a trifle boring (lines and shapes) - I felt they would want to skip the beginning stuff and get right to creating masterpeices. But they quite enjoyed themsleves, and I heard no complaints, except when the pipe cleaners wouldn't stay glued to the paper:

The assignment was to make shapes (geometric, symbolic, and free form) from different things; we used toothpicks, dry spaghetti noodles, embroidery floss, twist ties, and pipe cleaners. It was fun; don't mind Zeke in corner there - who taught that boy how to hold a crayon? And I could have sworn I moved that salt shaker before I took the picture.

We are also doing a little art appreciation - something I've wanted to do for a long time -  using A Child's Book of Art. This book is actaully part of Sonlight's Core B (which apparently has a new name this year) but I never purchased it before because I wasn't sure about it and, well, there are so many books and so little money. Anyhow, I saw it on display at the library and grabbed it at the last minute - and I am SO glad I did. The book is GORGEOUS - and the format is perfect for sharing with your kidlets.My girls asked for "more," (though that may have been because bedtime was to follow, lol); my conlusion being that I think we will have to purchase this one, because it is definately one we will go back to again and again.

Could you believe that I have more I wanted to cover? But I won't now. If you've gotten this far, you must be a homeschool mom of preschoolers :) 

We are continuing our vacation this week and taking a break from our more academic lessons to practice a little tomato staking and obedience training (if you haven't read Raising Godly Tomatoes you totally should). Anyhow, even though I know we want to and do live a lifestyle of learning, it sometimes still jumps out at me just how much we learn with out even trying to! Here is a little of what we learned yesterday:

• We had nature study observing a cute little bunny in my tulip bed. It ended when Emi hollered and the bunny quickly scampered under a holly bush. Isure hope that wasn't her mate or baby that we found in the backyard earlier this week. He was, well, he is not scampering anymore.
• We learned the definitions of "law breaker" and "delinquint." (Don't ask, lol)
• Papa explained why a shark's belly is lighter than his back.
• Mama explained why a rattlesnake rattles, and why it deosn't REALLY want to bite you.
• In the life skills category, the girls (4 &5) showered by themselves (though they didn't wash their hair).
• As part of our obedience lesson they practiced following me: walking when I walk, stopping when I stop, keeping their hands off the merchandise, not wandering off to look at something, staying with the cart/stroller while I look at something...We got to practice this both at home and in a Real-Life Setting when we ran errands, where we also learned that -
• When you are going to the auto-parts store, it is a good idea to bring along the piece you are trying to replace

* Schoolhouse Rock of course, The Shot Heard Around the World

We have finally finished with Pilgrims and have moved on to the American Revolution in our study of American History! I am excited because I think this is such a unique time in the history of man really, and, like with the Pilgrims,  there are so many great stories coming out of this time period. Here are some of the books we are reading. We are using a lot of biography type books, which makes it harder to impart a chronological view of what was happening at the time, but by focusing on the people my young kids remember more, and get a bertter idea of the how & why from the who. There will be plenty of time for timelines later, and I am eagerly awaiting the time when I can purchase and use these  History Through the Ages images. Anyways, about the books: SInce there are way too many "key players" for us to study them all in kindergarten, we are focusing on Washington, John & Abigail Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin. Oh, and Paul Rever, because I love this book:

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, illustrated by Christopher Bing. For a long time I wanted the wonderful version of this poem that Ted Rand illustrated, but then I saw this one at my local Barnes and Nobel, and knew I had to have it. It is gorgeous, trust me, you WON'T be dissapointed. And of course, it is the original version of Longfellow's poem.

Poor Richard in France by F.N. Monjo. I found this old bok at our library book sale. It is a very cute telling of Franklins work/visit to France from the point of view of his 7 year old nephew who went with him. It also had wonderful illustrations by Brinton Turkle. 

John Adams Speaks for Freedom  and Abigail Adams: First Lady of the Revolution  these are both Ready to Read level 3 books, Stories of Famous Americans. Both made good read alouds and Arianna enjoyed hearing the same story from different points of view.

I checked out both Thomas Jefferson: Third President of the United States (A Childhood of Famous Americans book) and the Landmark book Meet Thomas Jefferson. I know the reputation of Landmark books and I DID like this one, but it seemed like, in an effort to fit all of Jefferson's life down on 66 illustrated pages, the story became a little dry, more like a list of happenings than a *living book.* That said, there were still things I liked better about it than the former, which I felt dwelled (understandably) more on his childhood than I meant to present to my kids. BUT, it was a better story. I may still try to find a way to reconcile the two without reading both (the Childhood one is almost 200 pages!)

Sam the Minuteman. An I Can Read Book level 3. A Classic book about the battle of Lexington told from the point of view of a young boy and illustrated (very nicely) by Arnold Lobel of Frog and Toad fame.

When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney. What can I say? I love a book with good pictures! Although this one is more of a war story, so I will have to get one about Washington at the library I suppose. 

 Oh, and finally, for her memory work Arianna is doing the Declaration of Independence (NO, not the whole thing): We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Usually we do a Bible verse a week, but I am going to stretch this out over 2 or maybe 3 weeks. For this week we got up to "equal." Even though I explained to her what it means, I don't know how much she will really grasp: I must confess I just think it will be cute to hear her reciting it! Up unitil now, the cutested thing I've ever seen was her saying, all shyly, "I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" :) Melt my heart, why doncha!