Posted in School

I'd say this morning was an almost normal one here, as I felt so much better than I have in almost a week.  The kids enjoyed having me around, especially my 17-month-old.  The big kids spent most of the morning playing with blocks, little people, paper and scissors, etc, while I took a few minutes here and there (in between water and rest breaks) to get dishes and laundry caught up and fix a dinner for tonight (with leftovers expected).  We started official "school" when my youngest went down for her nap after lunch, when sciatic nerve pain was just starting to set in for me, making it difficult to move.

I suggested my 7-year-old daughter do Language Arts on the computer while I worked with my 5-year-old son on math, but she didn't want to miss out on math.  She worked independently on some worksheets featuring inequality signs while I worked with my son on less advanced topics.  Tomorrow I'll have her do the next review test to make sure we don't need to spend time on any of the topics she's skipping.  I expect her to be out of the first Shiller Math activity book by the end of the week, now that she's decided to proceed at her own pace, not her brother's. 

This afternoon I need to make sure we hit Language Arts with both kids, and this evening my daughter will have her first swim lesson of the season - my son had his first ice skating lesson of the session last night.  Tomorrow we start Community Bible Study, and I'm finally beginning to believe we'll make it there, though I'll probably need help dropping off and picking up the kids, given the trouble I'm having moving around.

Posted in School

I just found out about Real Science 4 Kids.  They have a chemistry curriculum for K-3, and from the samples it seems well written, colorful, and quite engaging.  It includes a textbook, workbook, experiments, all of which look very enjoyable.  My husband says, "She'll love it!", referring to my 7-year-old.  Of course, my 5-year-old could use it to, but probably wouldn't get as much out of it as she would.  I'll have to think about this one and decide whether to sink the $42 into it - it is, after all, cheaper than the computer-based curriculum I was considering for my oldest daughter, and it looks like it would probably be more fun too.

Posted in School

I just found out from my husband that my kids have started reading to one another at night and in the morning.  My 7-year-old daughter is reading her younger brother James and the Giant Peach, and my 5-year-old son is reading his older sister Little Pilgrim's Progress.  Apparently they initiated this on their own without any suggestion of it from my husband or me  My son told me today that he's becoming a bookworm.  These kids never stop surprising me!

Posted in School

My kids were fascinated with dogs today, beginning with my 17-month old who found a bone that went with a toy dog (FurReal pet) and obviously wondered what it was for.  I fished the dog from behind a bin in the girls' room, and tried without success to wake the dog up by putting the bone to its mouth.  Well, I turned around to do something else, and of course the dog started panting - my wee one had followed my example and gotten better results than I had!  Of course, she was surprised, startled, and a little bit uncertain what to think about the dog for awhile, but she got over it.

The fascination was contagious - all 3 kids focused their attention on the dog for part of the day - my 7-year-old put a string around its collar and walked the dog around the house, while the younger 2 walked our little "Snoopy" toy dogs.  I even had fun pretending a dog puppet we have was licking my toddler (which she didn't really like) and then licking me (she loved my laughing reaction).  By the end of the day, she was saying "bone" very clearly. 

She also learned to give raspberries today - she blew my tummy nonstop while my husband was reading a story to the older kids tonight.  I couldn't stop laughing!

Honest, we did school too, though much of their attention was placed on those doggies, and much of mine was placed on freezing chicken, broth, and gravy for a time this morning.  We pulled our math materials out, and my 7-year-old daughter aced her first review test, while my 5 1/2 year old son only missed a couple items on it - left/right awareness and true/false.  Needless to say we'll be reviewing those items in the next several days.  I'm thinking of playing Simon Says using left and right. Perhaps missing the true/false items came down to silliness or lack of focus.  I don't know.  My son did most of the test orally with me, while my daughter wrote most of her answers - she has taken a sudden interest in writing down her math work, and I am certainly not going to complain about this wonderful new development.

In Language Arts, my daughter aced her grammar quiz and refused to ever do her spelling quiz - honestly I think it's beneath her, as the words are so simple, and she can spell 7th grade words.  I may just eliminate all the spelling quizzes in the future, though she did enjoy playing the "Spelling Bee" game on the computer using her words.  The other issue she has with the test is that she has to press a button in the software to hear the word she's supposed to spell, and she'd rather guess from the context of the sentence that is supplied instead - sometimes more than one of her words makes sense in the sentence.

My son is breezing through phonics.  He read to me a "take-home" book from his workbook, and then he completed the review page about short-vowels.  He even wrote several of the words himself with no complaints - usually I'm his secretary for fill-in-the-blank pages.  We skipped more than half the pages in the short vowel section, and I'm glad we'll be moving on to long vowels - perhaps he'll actually learning something from this unit, rather than it all be review.  Some days I can hardly believe this is a 2nd grade book (Modern Curriculum Press Phonics B)... and that my 5 1/2-year-old is breezing through it so easily, the only problem with it being the amount of writing he isn't ready to do.  This is the kid who jumped 2 reading levels in the last 6 months.  It sure is exciting when things "click" and your child suddenly takes off in a subject area. 

I'm still contemplating what to do about science and history.  I'm considering taking the entire year off from world history, perhaps picking back up at the beginning of Story of the World next fall when my son would be starting first grade, if he were in public school.  I have grand visions of doing all the activities in the activity guide as well, though I'm sure they will not materialize at that point, as I'll have twin babies who will certainly be getting into everything at that point.  For now, I'm thinking of going through sections of What Your Kindergartner (and First Grader ) Needs to Know with the kids, filling in any gaps in American History especially and reviewing other things we come across.  We've also decided to do the Magic Tree House book club, which will have some history and geography for us to cover, including hands-on activity kits.  Switched-on-Schoolhouse science is looking pretty tempting for my daughter,  and I'll probably purchase that within the next few weeks.

Posted in School

I had to take this quiz - honestly the first time I took it, it said I was a Kanga Homeschooler, but it certainly didn't sound like what I'm doing - way too organized for me!  I think I checked off too many boxes because I use too many methods.    Also, we've come down to a simple routine for our math and language arts, but wing it with the rest, so I wasn't sure which option to choose there either.  I highly dislike tests that make me choose one or the other thing that I generally do.

You are a Tigger Homeschooler. Tiggers jump into
homeschooling with both feet, as a grand
adventure. Everything is about learning, and
their days (and houses) show it.


What kind of Hundred Acre Wood Homeschooler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted in School

What a fun morning the kids had.  When I called them to help get my toddler out of her crib, they both answered "no" - they were much too busy making their own "newspapers" out of stapled-together paper.  Even my 5 1/2 year old was writing news "stories" about his "boy troop" in complete, and my older daughter helped him correct his spelling.  He told me he didn't want to stop what he was doing because he might forget what he was going to write.  I love it when they engage in such educational activities on their own - it's the first I'd seen my son write more than a few letters in quite awhile - he was writing complete sentences with no prompting at all! 

My older daughter did take a break to help me get the toddler out of her crib, but the older 2 kids remained in their pajamas all morning.  They worked on their newspapers and started making masks and other crafts out of a package of cheap paper plates I had set aside for that purpose.  My almost-7-year-old daughter made a couple crafts for me, telling what a great cook she thinks I am.  Her artwork, as well as my son's, is becoming quite good - she drew a lovely picture of a bunny on on of her crafts.  By lunchtime, they had cut a paper plate into "pizza slices" and were decorating them with toppings.  They ate lunch in shifts, as my older daughter was so busy with her art that she wasn't ready to eat her sandwich when her brother ate his.  After lunch he turned his monkey mask into a "mailbox" and then started making money to deposit into it as an offering to God.  I must say that he was very generous, giving as much as he could - and definitely more than I could!

During the morning I had reviewed the pertinent Language Arts topics with my daughter to be sure she was ready for her test.  Finally, a little while after lunch, she decided to take her first unit test, which she passed with hardly an error before starting in on the first lesson of unit 2.  This unit may prove to be significantly more difficult for her, as the first lesson was on capitalizing titles - something that has often been hard even for me.  She got tired of working through the exercises and wanted to do her own writing on the computer, so I showed her the journal that was included in her Switched-on Schoolhouse software.  She enjoyed playing with that, and I didn't mind at all since she's already several days ahead in her Language Arts. 

After putting my toddler down for her nap, we pulled out Shiller math materials, and the kids really enjoyed coloring sailboats (boat, sail, and flag)  in different color combinations using just 3 colors.  My 7-year-old breezed through this activity, coloring the 6 assigned boats and then coloring some more the way she wanted to just for fun.  My 5 1/2-year-old needed a little direction when he got to the 4th boat, and thought hard before deciding how to color the 5th and 6th, but even he did quite well and was anxious to color another row, though he used more than 3 colors for his second set.  I can hardly imagine doing this activity with a 4-year-old, as the curriculum is designed for, though the teacher's guide does indicate that it requires close parental supervision to get this one right, and the extra boats my kids colored for fun are really provided in the likely case that the child messes up and needs another row or 2 of boats to get it right. 

My son also enjoyed learning about even and odd, though it may take him a little practice to get it right all the time.  After we were finished with the planned math for the day, they pulled out the manipulatives, and he carefully lined up unit cubes in 2 columns under number cards, telling me whether each number was even or odd. 

We took an hour-long "quiet time", and then I pulled my son's phonics pages out.  He hesitated to complete the pages at first, but when I told him he could only play with the math materials after they were finished (but not at all if his little sister woke up first), he quickly completed them, commenting on how easy they were.  Afterwards, he pulled the math materials out and started lining up number cards and unit cubes again, coming over once to tell me that 7 and 9 are both odd.  Even
my daughter joined him doing her own thing, though I had to pull out some extra "10" cards for her so they wouldn't fight over the one that I put with the materials already. 

Now the materials are put away - quite neatly - and he's off making more "money" to put in God's bank account.  I imagine the sudden interest in giving money to God is the result of the story he read at Bible time last night - about the woman who gave God all the money she had.

Posted in School

We had a surprise yesterday morning - the roofers we hired to fix our roof showed up to fix our roof.  We weren't expecting it to happen quite that soon - my husband was planning to take the day off from work when the roofers would be scheduled to do the job, and we hadn't scheduled it yet!  It was a learning experience for the kids nonetheless.  They all enjoyed watching the old shingles drop from the roof.  My son was fascinated with the little specks that landed on the ground along with the shingles, and they watched closely as the roofers put the layer of felt on the roof. 

My husband was able to take the afternoon off, even on short notice.  I'm so thankful that his job has such flexible hours.  We took a drive so that our 17-month-old could get her much-needed nap in the peace of the car rather than at home with the pounding of hammers overhead.  We ended up at Amicalola Falls State Park, where my husband took all the kids down the trail to see the falls while I rested my aching feet in the car.  Later I had the company of both girls in the car while the guys hiked from the top of the falls down to the middle.  Afterwards the kids played at the playground, and then we explored the visitor's center where there were real stuffed bears, possums, birds, ducks, and many other forest animals.  My 17-month-old especially enjoyed seeing the animals, although she enjoyed seeing the waterfall as well. 

This morning the roofers came to put the finishing touches on our roof, but that didn't disrupt our schedule much.  We had an impromptu phonics lesson after my 5 1/2-year-old confused "salt" and "slate" on the back of the Cocoa Pebbles cereal box.  We came up with lists of words that used "al" and that used the "ate" sound, including alternate spellings like in "great" and "wait" and even "weight".  The kids enjoyed making these word families and then set to work making their own word families without any prompting on my part.  It was wonderful to see them so interested in doing "school" - of course, they did not realize at the time that this really was school - they thought it was fun! 

The big kids spent most of the morning drawing and playing while I straightened up our bookshelves.  My legs were pretty sore by lunchtime from all the standing up and squatting down I did.  After lunch, as usual, the kids tackled Shiller math with typical enthusiasm, although my 5 1/2-year-old skipped the last 2 activities my daughter completed, revealing to me that he'd done enough for the day.  Both kids are developing artistic talents in a major way, being more anxious to draw, color, cut, staple, and tape, than to do standard "schoolwork".  Before the day was over, though, my older daughter completed more than a day's worth of her Language Arts program.  She'll be finished the entire first unit after Wednesday's unit test.  She's doing awesome, keeping an A average on everything and making me very proud, even though she makes a few mistakes here and there - which I try not to dwell on, since she can be very perfectionistic with her work. 

Posted in School

At the end of last week, my 5-year-old son decided he didn't like math and wouldn't continue with his paces.  I must admit I wasn't too surprised since I hadn't expected him to last long, but I knew he didn't want to do any of the other math curriculums I had either (Bob Jones, Miquon).  He needed a break from subtraction, something I had been pushing him into even though he's hit a brick wall. 

Enter Shiller Math.  Ever since a friend on an eloop introduced me to this Montessori-based curriculum, I've been intrigued.  After all, it relies heavily on manipulatives to help solidify math concepts.  What kid doesn't like manipulatives?  Also, it's scripted - it tells you exactly what to say to communicate the concepts to your kids.  It includes everything - all the manipulatives, 3 activity guides (teacher's manuals) which cover 5 years' worth of math if you start with a 4-year-old, pen, pencil, crayons, binder for the kids' work, etc.  The only thing that kept me from buying it last year was the price - about $300.  That's not bad for 5 years' worth of math, but it's a big upfront investment.  Well, the fact that my son was starting to hate math as well as the fact that my toddler and unborn twins will be using it were enough for me to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase on Monday.  The 30-day money-back guarantee helped solidify my decision.  In the meantime my 7-year old daughter also decided she didn't want to touch her math curriculum.  Great.

On Wednesday I could not believe it when our math box arrived.  It was really perfect timing right before lunch.  After we ate, the kids played, I took my toddler upstairs for her nap, and we dug into the materials.  I had given my son a diagnostic test on Monday (since I had immediate access to the support website) to see where he should start, and I had quizzed my daughter on some of the things he missed to see if she knew.  In the end, I decided to do what they recommend - start at the beginning with the first activity book for both kids.  I'm so glad we did - the kids LOVE math now and are always begging to play with the manipulatives.  My daughter seems to find her own "enrichment" to add on to the activities that we do.

So far there has been nothing new, though my son can definitely stand the review of right/left awareness.  Next week, I expect we'll approach some new material for him - even and odd numbers.  It will be awhile before we find a weak area for my older daughter - she needs to practice naming the greater than and less than signs when we get to that.  The book we're using now is designed for 4-5 year olds, so we're breezing right through it, stopping after about 20 minutes when my son starts to tire of it and just wants to play.  In 2 days, we've made it through about 17 activities.  If we keep this up, we could finish the book next month and move on to the next one.  Who knows?

I'm delighted that my kids are loving math again.  I feel that they are ahead in math for their ages and have earned a break, so I don't mind giving them some super-easy and fun math to build their confidence and help them enjoy the subject more.  Although if they were behind, I would probably be just as inclined to use Shiller (if not more) since it covers math concepts in a hands-on, fun, and comprehensive manner.

Posted in School

This week was a strange one for schoolwork - we didn't sit down and do "school" very consistently, but the kids did plenty of learning.  One of the highlights was a trip to WalMart where my almost 7-year-old practiced decision-making and communication as she pointed out things she'd like for her upcoming birthday, and my 5-year-old is learning patience as he waits his turn to point out what he'd like for his birthday later this year. 

On Thursday at the skating rink, my 5-year-old got some great exercise with my sister on the ice and built confidence and independence as he went out on the ice with someone other than me or one of the skating instructors.  He also has built upon skills of reading and following directions as he made countless things from paper using the directions in one of our Childcraft books. 

In the many restaurants in which we've eaten this week (joining my sister in "vacation mode"), the kids have learned manners, practiced patience, expressed creativity (with kids' menus), and expanded their culinary horizons.  They even had a quick geography lesson before our dinner at Bahama Breeze one night. 

Both kids have been reading countless books.  My 5-year-old is diving into the Boxcar Children series and is reading his 3rd chapter book in less than 2 weeks.  I now officially have two bookworm children, with my 16-month-old soon to follow suit. 

The kids have learned that not doing the "official" schoolwork has its consequences - loss of computer privilege for the day.  And my 7-year-old has discovered that doing schoolwork on the computer (using Switched-on-Schoolhouse) isn't that much more interesting than doing it with books and papers with me as her teacher, although she does really enjoy the games that help her review what she's learned.  I know that she will be learning self-discipline as she moves through the curriculum semi-independently for her language arts and math.  My 5-year-old, predictably, is dying to do his schoolwork on the computer too, and I have told him he may when he's her age.  For now, he enjoys watching her and is probably learning some things by doing so.

Next week we really need to pick back up with History and Science.  We've done very little in these areas this week - though the readings and activities we did certainly captured the kids' interest.  We'll also have an educational visit to the doctor's office to see the twins on the ultrasound...and find out whether we've got 2 more boys, 2 more girls, or one of each!

Posted in School

We're having a good time with my sister visiting this week - the surprising thing is that we are actually still able to do our schoolwork, and she's been quite helpful about reminding the kids that they need to do their schoolwork.  The greater motivation, however, is the new computer we bought the kids over the weekend - something they are not allowed to use until their schoolwork is finished for the day. 

Yesterday my 7-year-old finished her language arts, Latin and math in the morning, did her afternoon reading, and eagerly sat down for science with me in the afternoon.  My 5-year-old, on the other hand, lagged behind and didn't finish his "morning" work until she was already doing computer.  Today has been no different.  He is still sitting at the table completing a page of math (writing numbers to 50) and then moving on to handwriting practice. 

Things are going quite well with the level of our schoolwork, though I can't help but think I may need to add a little more for my older girl in Language Arts.  We got a sampler of Switched-on-Schoolhouse a few days ago and were quite pleased with it.  While we don't intend to use all of it, the Language Arts program could be quite useful and fun for her. 

Latin is turning out to be wonderful for her and for me.  We're both learning it together, and it really is quite easy to learn 5 new words a week.  In addition, she has begun memorizing her first Latin prayer and is using some practical Latin as well.  Even my 5-year-old can't help but learn a little bit right along with us.

Handwriting Without Tears is a God-send.  She is really enjoying learning the cursive letters and really takes her time and does a great job forming the letters.  Every time she finishes a page, she asks me to help her to identify the best letter or word on each line. 

Using my old Silver-Burdett Mathematics book has been a great decision, as has my decision not to make her write the answers down herself most of the time - often she does so on her own anyway and is becoming more independent in this area.  I always loved geometry, and she enjoys it just as I do. 

Both kids are enjoying our science unit about space travel right now, and they enjoy listening to me read Story of the World for ancient history. 

For my 5-year-old phonics is going quite well as long as I'm his secretary.  Some of the activities are challenging, causing us to slow down a little bit, but many others are quite easy.  Actually I think he enjoys the challenging activities (figuring out scrambled words that belong in a sentence) because he has a great sense of accomplishment when he realizes he figure out the word and even spell it correctly.

I am not sure how long he will last with the School of Tomorrow math paces.  He's moving through 1 page a day, sometimes with me as his secretary, and other times doing the writing himself.  Today I gave him the option of writing the numbers from 1 to 50 or skipping that page and letting me be his secretary for some easy subtraction problems... he chose writing the numbers.  I'm considering switching to something else for him - possibly DK's Math Made Easy which I've heard good things about. 

In handwriting he is moving significantly slower than his sister (at the time) but is actually more willing to do the writing than she was at his age.  I'm glad he is using Handwriting Without Tears - the explanations of letter formation are interesting and fun, and the pages aren't loaded with lots and lots of letters and words to copy.  He's constantly reviewing the letters he's already learned to write, and his handwriting (though far from perfect) is quite legible. 

Both kids are soaring in reading.  My daughter (7 in a few weeks) has always been a bookworm, and still reads everything in sight.  She enjoys reading Beverly Cleary books, American Girl books, Cam Jansen mysteries, and most other books she can get her hands on.  We're planning to go to the library this afternoon to restock her supply of reading material.  My son (5 1/2) is more than halfway through reading the first of the Chronicles of Narnia books by himself, and he completed the first Boxcar Children book today.  He, too, is becoming quite the bookworm.  I haven't listened to the kids read aloud in the last few days, and I intend to take some time to hear them read tomorrow, probably from the books they're currently reading for fun. 

Posted in School

We did not start with school this morning.  I was getting tired of my toddler dumping out all the tea plates and other play kitchen toys, so I boxed up a whole bunch of them for storage.  I left out one set of plates, cups, utensils (we had at least 3 complete sets along with miscellaneous extras), along with most of the food and "cookery".  Someday they may yet find their way back to the kids play area, but I have a feeling that will be a few years in the future, what with twins on the way...  My body was telling me to slow down, so I took quite a few breaks as I searched inside toy bins and under furniture for stray kitchen pieces.  For the rest of the day I tried to take it really easy. 

We did finally get to school, but not really until after our quite early lunch.  My almost-7 year old made me happy again by setting to work eagerly on her math - she is even having no problems writing down the answers as long as I provide her an index card on which to do it (we use a textbook).  Of course, measuring is something she really enjoys doing and does quite well, so this chapter is quite interesting to her. 

It was creative writing/parts of speech day for her.  She began using her writing journal I got from Starfall.  We reviewed nouns and verbs, and I introduced her to adjectives and prepositions, even clarifying that the kind of nouns she was using in her sentences were called "subject nouns".  She did more in this book than I would have asked her too, but the pages were quite easy, and she really enjoyed it.  I can't believe she's actually beginning to enjoy writing! 

Latin was easy for her.  We listened to Lesson 1 on the CD and reviewed her 5 vocabulary words and vowel sounds.  I've promised a penny to either child who remembers to say "oremus" before we pray at mealtime or bedtime, or who says "salve" (hello) to Daddy when he comes home today.  She has grasped all the material so quickly, we'll probably move on to Lesson 2 on Monday.  The neat thing about today's Latin is that we did it while all 3 kids were playing with Little People toys!

For my 5-year-old, things were a little tougher.  He never approaches his work as eagerly as his big sister, but he always does quite well.  He'd rather play.  He completed a page in his math pace independently since it was all manipulative work.  In his phonics book, it worked great for me to be his secretary while he did 1 side of each of two pages.  I'm looking forward to the next few pages because I think they will be much more fun for him than the review pages we've done so far. 

While he was napping today, I spent time with the 7-year-old answering questions about the science readings we did late yesterday afternoon.  She got all of them right on the first try except for a couple tricky ones.  Our science unit now is about space travel, something my younger boy is extremely fascinated by.  As we read yesterday, he asked numerous questions, trying to understand why the rocket falls apart (as the stages are burned up and separate), why the astronauts  have to wear spacesuits to take a "spacewalk", how there isn't any air in space....  I think it was great for us to have watched the space shuttle launch recently, as it gave us a basis of comparison and really fed their interest (especially his). 

As he woke up, I made copies of our Story of the World activity sheets for the chapter on Crete, and they sat down with their snacks to listen to the final section of the chapter, color pictures of bull-jumpers, do mazes of the labyrinth where the minotaur lived (which the 5-year-old loved), and color code the map which shows Crete and the surrounding area (my 7-year-old's forte). 

Amazingly, all the many Little People toys found their home so the kids could finish their day playing dress-up.  Next week will certainly be interesting - my 18-year-old sister will be visiting us.  I am hoping to get the laundry caught up and her room prepared over the weekend.  It would be nice to see the countertop in my kitchen too...  I suppose my work is cut out for me over the next couple days.

Posted in School

It was a relatively normal morning for my (almost) 7-year-old, who breezed through math, latin, and handwriting with no difficulties at all (though she did distract herself by drawing pictures in the math book at one point).  But for my 5 1/2 year old, it was a different kind of day.  Recently he has really taken off in reading (Dad caught him reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night), and I was curious to see just how far he had come.  So today I had him complete the Let's Go Learn assessment for a second time to see how much he had improved in 5 months.  While there were a couple areas he scored lower in this time (maybe he was distracted or just not focusing), he improved drastically in most areas including word recognition (jumped 4 grade levels), phonics (jumped 1 level), spelling (jumped almost a whole level), and reading comprehension (jumped 2 levels).  I was surprised and very pleased with the results. 

My almost 7-year-old went birthday shopping with her aunt this afternoon, so her "schooltime" was cut a little short.  But the 5 1/2 year-old was game for one more English assessment to double-check his progress in phonics.  I had him go through the School of Tomorrow diagnostic test in English.  He passed level 1 with flying colors and got stumped on capitalization in level 2.  It's nice to know right where he is now.  It seems to me that moving him up to the next Phonics book was a wise decision.  I know now that I can have him move quickly through it, probably only doing 1 side of a page unless he clearly needs more practice.  The majority will probably be review, at least at the beginning. 

I'm trying to determine what has helped his reading ability so much.  I don't know if it was reading through the McGuffey Primer in the spring, reading The Beginner's Bible for family devotions each night, knowing that he can quiz and earn points on  books he really reads (as he did with Come Back, Amelia Bedelia today), or simply listening to challenging books like C.S. Lewis' Narnia series.  He has suddenly become highly motivated to read, and I'm cheering him on!

My older daughter, at the same time, has decided she loves cursive writing.  Thank you, Handwriting Without Tears!  She has always been a very reluctant writer, though her handwriting itself has been quite good.  No other workbook approach to writing has ever appealed to her - I don't know whether it's because she's lefthanded (HWT is lefty-friendly) or because most programs just have too much on the page, but I'm delighted that she's anxious to do at least 1 page each day, learning a new cursive letter and practicing it along with the others she's already learned. 

Posted in School

This morning we started our day with a trip to see the midwife so we could check on the twins, who we were informed are now due December 31.  The 3 kids seemed to enjoy coming along into the examining room for the check-up, and then to the ultrasound room when the midwife couldn't be sure if she was hearing both heartbeats or just one.  A quick glance at the screen showed us both hearts beating in one shot.  It was a real treat to be able to see Helen, the Scottish midwife who was the attendant at the birth of my 16-month-old. 

When we arrived home I quickly pulled out a snack, since the kids had been telling me how hungry they were all the way home.  While they were busy stuffing their mouths, I set to work stuffing their brains with stories about the Ancient Cretans from Story of the World.  They were fascinated to hear about bull-jumpers and pirates and the minotaur.  When I asked questions to see how well they had listened (rewarding each correct answer with a penny), they both did quite well.  When they played together for most of the rest of the morning, they pretended to be sailors.

My oldest happily sat down with me a little later to learn about Latin pronunciation with her Prima Latina text.  I never studied Latin, so I'm learning right along with her.  I can tell she enjoyed it, but we stopped after the first couple pages and left the pages of exercises for tomorrow.  When she did her math, there were no disagreements about what measuring to the nearer quarter-inch meant, so I think any confusion from yesterday has now been resolved. 

My five-year-old was pleased to sit with me in the recliner (after some coaxing, of course) and allow me to be his secretary for both his math and his phonics.  Phonics (Modern Curriculum Press Plaid Phonics B) is really easy for him so far, but the writing is a little challenging since he has not yet learned to write all the letters in the Handwriting Without Tears printing book.  He also did well on his math page, though I noticed that he is struggling with adding 8 + most numbers - he got 90% of the problems right on the first try, and we went back and corrected the ones he missed.

At the end of our "Quiet Time," my oldest was ready to quiz on several books she had read - Ramona the Brave, Kit's Surprise (American Girl's Series), a Cam Jansen book, and a Magic Tree House book we'd all read together.  She scored well on all of her quizzes.  When my 5-year-old came downstairs (he had been asleep the last I checked), he was upset that she always gets to do things like those quizzes first.  He then quizzed on the Magic Tree House book as well. 

This evening my oldest and I did some of the Mind Benders Warmups from Critical Thinking Press - Dad even joined in.  I introduced this book to both kids yesterday, and it's been a real hit for her, though my 5-year-old does not seem to be able to figure out most of the questions. 

I really didn't expect to get much school done today because of my checkup this morning, but I was pleasantly surprised and quite happy at the willingness with which both kids approached their schoolwork today. 

Posted in School

It started out like a "normal" day.  We introduced our youngest to squares, talked a little bit about cows, and then the day took off with a mind of its own.  The older two, instead of anxiously digging into their schoolwork, set to work making books for the toddler.  My 5-year-old made 2 shape books for her, both of which open from "the back".  And my almost-7-year-old made a cow book and a rainbow book.  They had fun and were growing in their abilities, expressing their creativity, etc., but they didn't finish much of the work I had hoped they would. 

At least they both did math.  The oldest practiced measuring and then proceeded to argue with me over what measuring "to the nearest half-inch" meant.  She insisted all of her measurements should have 1/2 inch at the end of them (a 3-inch line would then be measured as 3 1/2 inches).   I insisted that 3 inches was an acceptable measurement in this case.  She wouldn't give in, and neither would I, so it remains to Daddy to determine which of us is correct. 

My 5-year-old didn't like the idea of using stickers to put answers on his math problems, saying it was too hard to find the right one.  Instead he backed up a page and insisted on writing his numbers from 1-40 even though I was having him skip that activity since I thought it was too much busywork.  Who am I to complain?  That's all the "school" he did today.  Thankfully he's not compulsory attendance age yet. 

My older girl proceeded to do twice as much cursive handwriting practice as I expected of her, completing the pages introducing "a" and "d".  I was hard-pressed to get anything more from her after that, although she regularly spends an hour or more reading during our afternoon quiet time. 

Our order from CBD arrived this afternoon.  The biggest hit certainly was not the books contained therein.  Instead the kids set to work with crayons as soon as I pulled out the long sheets of wrinkled up brown paper that had been used as packing material.  Even the toddler was busy coloring on the paper on the kitchen floor. 

After I managed to get them all settled for quiet time, I abandoned the idea of doing any further school today.  My oldest and I had sat down together earlier today and determined what her goals are - what things she needs to learn this year.  Our plans need some adjustment, and it looks like her First Language Lessons may be abandoned for good (for her anyway), as I realized some of the things emphasized there seem meaningless to her, and she's already accomplishing some of the purposes of the activities in other ways. 

Though there have been times of intense frustration and anger today, God reminded me to look to him to direct us in our homeschool plans and goals.  "Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established," (Proverbs 16:3) jumped out to me in my Bible reading this afternoon.  I'm trusting in the truth of that verse, because it looks like my "plans" aren't working out as I had hoped.

Posted in School

Today started out pretty well, but I banished our lego blocks to storage because I knew school would never begin if they were available to play with.   We began with "Preschool", reading The Cow that Went Oink and coloring pictures of cows for our wall.  I also read a poem about a purple cow: 

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

My 16-month-old enjoyed the book and the coloring very much, though her picture didn't stay on the wall very long since I left it low enough for her to reach - she ripped it and pulled it down almost immediately.  The big kids thoroughly enjoyed this activity and took their time carefully and creatively coloring pictures of cows - one of which said, "Oink!", while the other said, "Ah-choo!"

I deposited my little one in her high chair with buttons and animals and puzzles to play with while I started the big kids on their math.  My 1st-grader put index cards labeled 1-40 in order on the floor, while my mid-2nd-grader learned about points, lines, rays, and line segments and practiced measuring.  I think we will use a lot of index cards this year - both kids used them for math and really enjoyed it.  I also want to purchase some small stickers on which I can write numbers for my 1st-grader to pull off and stick on his math pages; otherwise, I'm afraid it will simply be too much writing for him.  My toddler didn't want to remain in the high chair for very long - she was out before math time was over. 

We took time next to talk about why we should practice our handwriting, and the kids came up with some wonderful reasons:

• So people can read your letters
• So people can see how smart you are.
• So you can write cursive.

I added one more:

• So you can write quickly

My 2nd grader anxiously began her handwriting without tears cursive book, completing 3 pages easily within 5 minutes.  We took a break, had snack, and let them play awhile.  In the meantime I glanced ahead at her First Language Lessons lesson and realized she'd love it.  She eagerly reviews the poem Mr. Nobody with me, addressed an envelope, colored a piece of paper to make her own stationery, and then wrote a note to her cousin.  Before I could even see the finished product, she had stuffed it into an envelope and sealed it and was asking for a stamp so she could mail it. 

Her last item of the morning was reading a lesson from her McGuffey reader, something she happily breezed through.

By then it was lunchtime, so we took a break, but immediately after lunch I corralled the 1st grader at the table (he had shirked his schoolwork all morning).  He quickly completed his language lessson and reluctantly wrote a few letter l's for his handwriting practice.  Surprisingly, he then read to me not just 1, but 5 lessons from his McGuffey reader. 

The kids all had time to play together before I put the youngest down for her nap.  Ah, the sweet peace of quiet time.  It was a nice hour break from school for all of us.  The big kids got to do as much free reading as they wanted to, something my oldest heartily enjoys. 

Both older kids and I met on the sofa to read a few pages from the Usborne Book of World History, a few Greek Myths about Heracles, and some pages from Usborne's First Guide to the Universe about storms and climate - they wanted to keep on going, so we read about evolution as well, with them telling me the whole time, "That's not true..."  I even convinced my daughter to do the activity sheet questions orally with me, when she realized how simple they were.

Yay, school's over, and I had a few minutes left before my toddler woke up to update my blog!

Posted in School

I started gathering all the various "school" items I had into one area and felt overwhelmed and drawn to "use it all".  It's amazing how many different curriculums and resources I can accumulate - some are my own elementary textbooks (from when I was a kid) which I found in storage at my parents' house.  

We use Sonlight for History and Science, and my kids really enjoy that, so I plan to stick with it and finish the rest of core 1 this year... but for math and language arts I needed to make some decisions.  

Rebekah, my almost-7 year old, excels in reading - she reads everything in sight, including books that are up to the 5th-6th grade reading level.  I let her look through the 2nd-3rd grade curriculum I had for language arts, and the 2nd for math.  She chose:

• McGuffey's 2nd Eclectic Reader (for reading aloud to me)
• First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (2nd grade section)
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (good for a lefty)
• Silver Burdett 2nd Grade math textbook I used as a kid - we started this last year and do most of it orally
  

In addition, she'll be reading the Sonlight 2nd grade advanced readers, taking BookAdventure quizzes on her "free reading", and starting Prima Latina.

Jacob, who is 5 1/2, will use mostly 1st grade materials.  I was surprised by some of the items he chose and will be interested to see how things go with the materials.  He chose:

• MCP Plaid Phonics A (but I ordered B because most of A looks too easy for him now)
• McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader
• First Language Lessons
• Handwriting Without Tears Printing
• School of Tomorrow Math Paces - the diagnostic test placed him in the final 3rd of 1st grade - this choice was the biggest surprise
  

Jacob will also read some of the 1st grade advanced Sonlight readers - he has already been reading the Beginner's Bible as part of our nightly devotions.  I've introduced him to BookAdventure quizzes as well, and I think they will also be part of his "school" this year.

Rachel, my 16 month old, will do some of the Letter of the Week preparatory curriculum.  Even though it's designed for 2-5 year olds, I know she'll get plenty out of the themes, and she's already expressing lots of interest in numbers, shapes, colors, and letters - all of which are introduced in the curriculum.  If she takes after her big sister, she will probably pick up on these topics quickly and be ready to read around the time she turns 3.  If she takes after Jacob more, it may be more like 4 1/2, but this will give her great exposure, and it's something the big kids can help out with (and maybe learn something from) too.

I hope to finish up with Sonlight Core 1 before my twins are born in December or January.  Then we may take a break and do something completely different (maybe Five in a Row) until I'm ready to pick back up with Sonlight.  

-Jenn in GA