Sand Mountain Academy - Homeschool Blogger

Noses to the grindstone, so to speak

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:37:00 -0500

Today marks our official return to lessons for the 2008-09 year. The morning went very well with 2 hours spent on table work (science, math, reading/phonics and a bit of penmanship) and another 20 minutes listening to a book on CD with our lunch. We've managed to stay busy but not one-legged-man-in-a-butt-kicking-contest busy, if you know what I mean. Just busy enough.

We've pretty much just picked up where we left off in the spring with our curriculum. We're starting The Mystery of History when we receive it in the mail, but other than that it's same-ole, same-ole. Math is still Saxon Math 1- I really regret the time we spent on Math K. I think both boys could have handled the level 1 work last year. So I am skipping some lessons altogether and we're skipping most of the "Daily Meeting" every day. I do read through them and when they get to something we haven't already covered to death, we'll pick those parts back up. We may finish and be on to Level 2 by Christmas. Both boys are enjoying the math lessons though, and doing well to boot.

We've been plowing through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading a little at a time this summer so they haven't completely forgotten the little bit of phonics that they do know. I alternate giving each boy a one-on-one lesson with me and doing the lessons on the chalkboard, taking turns between them, reading the sentences. Neither way works ideally but they both work all right. Neither of them has really taken off but they both do what's expected and sound out the words. I expect it will "click" for one or both of them in the coming weeks or months and I won't be able to get them to put down the books.

We're reading aloud Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies and listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on CD (from the library). We also have many picture books and science books and animal books and what-have-you books from the library. I intend to record the ones we read this year and include them (and the time spent reading them) as part of our report to our cover school.

I've decided to give each child one day per week to hold the coveted title of "kitchen helper." Today was TH's turn. AC will go Wednesdays and MJ on Fridays. The other days I may ask them to help from time to time but I'm not required to include them on those days. This takes some of the load of having to find something for a child to do every single meal of every single day, off of me. It's also much easier to remember than a rotating meal schedule or any other sort of 5-7 days per week set-up. If it seems that one of them doesn't get as much to do, we can always rotate the days among them, but I think it will work out well. I just got Sue Gregg's cookbook of lunches and snacks with the CD for helping children learn to cook so their time in the kitchen will hopefully be well and fruitfully spent, instead of just being underfoot.

I hope to update here weekly so be sure to check back. I'll also be keeping up with my homestead blog over at http://homsteadblogger.com/lindseyinal. I will try to cross-post so there should be something to look at from these quarters a couple times a week.

Blessings for a fruitful and pleasant schoolyear!!

A new friend

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 05:54:00 -0500

For some reason, lately I have a habit of putting large spiders in jars to keep on my desk for days on end, for observation. A few weeks ago it was a massive wolf spider who ate pretty much everything I threw in the jar, although, like the Kat, he did prefer his "food to MOVE." I let him go when he appeared less than vigorous. I didn't want him to die in my care. I turned him loose in a brushy area with lots of dead leaves on the ground (the sort of thing wolf spiders like, according to my research)

Now I have some sort of brown house spider. I found it creeping (quite quickly!) along the top edge of the shower curtain while one of the boys was inside. The boy didn't know the spider was there, thank goodness. I popped it into a quart mason jar and proceeded to watch.

When I caught the spider its body was probably an inch long. The abdomen was massive, easily twice the length of its thorax and probably 5 times the volume. We were intrigued that the spider started to spin a bit of a web almost immediately. It was a tiny, erratic kind of web, about 4 inches across (the spider is probably 2 inches when its legs are at rest) There was a good reason for that massive abdomen- Friday, the day after I caught it, a big white egg sac appeared under it!! She (I assume now that it's a "she") was sitting on the little web with the sac under her abdomen, attached to her by a tiny bit of thread.

This morning I noticed that the web now has a much denser area directly in front of and below the spider. It looks a bit like fusible web used for crafting (like Stitch Witchery) and is about 2 inches wide by 3 inches long. I am really eager to see what happens with these eggs. I would like to know what kind of spider this is but she's so very ordinary and without unusual markings that I haven't even tried WhatsThatBug.com or any of the usual bug-indentification sites. (Yes, I know that spiders are not bugs, but "bugs" just works)

Monday March 24, 2008

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:32:00 -0500

We've done lessons in fits and starts over the past couple weeks since I last posted but I haven't had the mental energy to post anything. So I will start today with a brief overview of where we're hanging out and where we're headed.

The boys are coming along swimmingly with their reading. TH especially is still trying to guess words from context and from previous sentences but he is fully able to sound them out when I admonish him to do so. We're moving through 4-5 sentences per day from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading which works out to about one-third of a lesson per day. They're all working in their new Explode the Code workbooks. I had to let TH get a page or two ahead to eliminate the temptation for both of them to look at each other's pages. It's not so much that they're trying to cheat but it's hard to not to peek at your neighbor's paper when he's at the same table, 6 inches away. Also, being a page or so ahead helps TH to feel like he really is the older brother and therefore capable of more than AC. Truthfully AC is just as capable (except perhaps in the handwriting department) but what TH doesn't know won't interrupt our lessons with teary tirades.

We drove to Nashville last week and listened to the first 6 or 8 chapters of Prince Caspian. I count that as lessons :) TH and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's something else he excells at- listening to and retaining a story. He is constantly begging me to put it on so we can listen to some more. I think he and I will listen to some more during naptime today while we fold some laundry. I don't think anyone else will mind since they fell asleep during a good part of the car ride.

We've started doing addition problems in our math which is just extraordinary to me. How can my children possibly be old enough to learn addition?? It doesn't seem possible but it's the truth. I am gobsmacked at the very idea of it. AC has been doing them in his head and out loud for a few weeks but now they're doing them on paper with plus signs and equals signs and everything! AC is definitely a natural math geek- he just "gets" numbers in a way that is pretty much effortless. It's exciting to watch and perhaps a bit scary because I only went through pre-calculus in school so we may be in for some serious learning together in a few years time. Thankfully I really enjoy math so we'll be able to tackle it together and I will end up learning as much as he does.

The boys' handwriting seems to be slacking a bit so we need to get some more practice in on that. Last week we started thank you notes for the gifts from AC's 5th birthday party (TH and MJ got a gift each as well so there's more than just AC writing notes) I reckon that's handwriting and practical life skills in one. One stone+ two dead birds= awesome! Or maybe "gruesome." I always thought that was a bit of an icky metaphor but it works and it's practical.

Wednesday February 27, 2008

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:29:00 -0600

We had big shopping to do in the CIty yesterday (a true emergency fabric store run plus a stock-up session with Chas and the gang at Sam's Club) We did manage to read two chapters of Farmer Boy but that's it.

Bible: Mark chapter 6

Reading: Farmer Boy ch. 6 and part of ch. 7

Phonics: OPGTR lesson 36 "The mad man sat in the pen. The big pig had jam in his den. The big pig had a nap in his den." We've finally finished this lesson and I feel like we have a good grasp on this new method of taking the lessons a few sentences at a time, all together, on the white board. Hopefully we'll be able to start moving a little faster now that the boys are accustomed to the routine of it.

Saxon Math 1: worksheet 18B I forgot to buy 3x5 cards yesterday (never made it to WM) so we just did the other worksheet from Monday's lesson. The boys were pleased that it didn't take very long and we got to skip the "dumb meeting stuff." I may have to pare down the "meeting" portion of the math lessons even more. They're both doing a good bit of spontaneous counting throughout the day- sometimes getting down the 100 number chart just to count along with it while we're not doing anything in particular.

Writing: gouge (AC's choice because he heard me say it last night) icicle, doughnuts (ahhh, Farmer Boy, you make me hungry with all your tasty farm meals. If I was your mother, I'd be "plump" as well!)

Vocabulary: beheaded (The account of John the Baptist's death was in our Bible lesson today and TH was fascinated and horrified by it, as usual. I know I have told him this story at least twice before. He is always very indignant that anyone would want to cut off John's head. He always gets furious with Herodias.)

Monday February 25, 2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:27:00 -0600

Bible: Mark 5

Read Aloud: Farmer Boy ch. 4 "Surprise" and ch.5 "Birthday

Phonics: OPGTR lesson 36- We started something a little new with this. We read through two sentences together, a word at a time, the boys taking turns and sharing the sight words. They really enjoy this method and we go through part of a lesson in about one tenth of the time it takes to read the same two sentences with each boy individually. They really have a very limited capacity for sitting and sounding out words right now but they're both improving each week. We might not be moving as quickly as I would like but they're making progress and I am satisfied with that. Sometimes real life doesn't live up to my expectations but it so often exceeds them that I am learning to be content when things go a little slowly.

Saxon Math 1: lesson 18, worksheet 18A

Writing: pannikin, woolen, oxen

Vocabulary: pannikin (a small metal drinking cup), woolen, oxen, plead, sober, subdue, jostle, yoke, bow (a piece of a yoke [for oxen in this case])

Friday February

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:00:00 -0600

Bible: Mark 4

writing: turnips, plump, hoopskirt

read-aloud: Farmer Boy chapter 2 "Winter Evening"

phonics: Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading lesson 36 (still)

Saxon Math 1: lesson 17, worksheet 17A

vocabulary: see writing words

Thursday February 21, 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:34:00 -0600

We took yesterday off to goof off in the City with Granny and Poppy but we're back to business today!

Bible: Mark 3

Read Aloud: Farmer Boy ch.1 "School Days" (we discovered a page is missing from The Hobbit so we skipped that today and will hopefully pick that up at the library this afternoon)

Phonics: TH- BStoR "The Woman"; AC- BStoR "The Bear"

Saxon Math 1: lesson 16, worksheet 16A

Writing: thrash, primer, tardy, recess

Vocabulary: see handwriting words above plus "moccasin"

Tuesday February 19, 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:30:00 -0600

Bible: Mark 2

Writing: oats, wheat, hulled corn

Read Aloud: Little House in the Big Woods chapter 13 "The Deer in the Wood" (FINISHED!); The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien pp 13-17 (this is going to take a while)

Phonics: TH- OPGTR lesson 36 (still plugging away at this one); AC- started BSTR "The Flower" (but didn't get very far)

Saxon Math 1: lesson 15, written assessment #2 (flying colors all around) worksheet 15A

Monday February 18, 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:25:00 -0600

Memory Verse for the Week: Psalm 23: 4 (with review of v. 1-3)

Bible: Mark 1

Read Aloud: Little House in the Big Woods ch. 12 "The Wonderful Machine"

Writing: straw, thresher, horsepower

Phonics: TH- Beginning Steps to Reading "The Apple"; AC- none

Saxon Math 1: lesson 14, worksheets 14A & 14B

Vocabulary: braid (with a demonstration on MJ's hair)

Friday February 15

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:22:01 -0600

Bible:

Reading: Little House in the Big Woods chapter 11

Phonics: AC- OPGTR lesson 36a

Writing: populate, multiply, covenant

Saxon Math 1: lesson 13, worksheet 13A