Creative Play Bilingual Homeschool - Homeschool Blogger

Homeschool update

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 12:11:00 -0500

I would call this a Weekly update, however, since I'm no good at doing this weekly I'll just call it an update.

I'm currently student teaching this semester, and had been scrambling to find someone to care for dd while I'm in the classroom during the day. There were a couple of homeschool families that stepped up to help, and then my mother-in-law came to visit and dh convinced her to stay until I finish.

So, last week, I had dd and a Kindergarten nephew. Went to do classroom observations for a couple of hours, went home to teach and leave independent work, then back to the school. We also did (tried to do) activities when I left the school.

So, hmmm. What did we accomplish? She completed All About Spelling level 1 and the rest of the week I went through and did some review. She's carrying over some of the spelling rules she's learned into her writing, as I found out when we began working on a paragraph. It was great! She's working to finish her Lectura 3 from Rod & Staff. I haven't yet begun her writing journal, or the fluency readings for either language.

She completed several exercises in Singapore 2 A and B, in addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, and geometry. Her 4th grade Spanish math book is also moving along in the same topics. There are 12 topics in her math book, and we are covering just one topic a day, in order to spread out how long she is working on each topic (instead of 3 weeks in each topic, moving on, and forgetting everything by the end of the year). We're doing numbers on Monday, which right now consists of reading and writing numbers to millions. I've decided to drop millions for now, and move on to the rest of the topics in that chapter. She'll see it again in Singapore down the line. On Tuesdays, it's addition and subtraction, Wednesdays multiplication and division, and Thursdays are geometry.. I may switch Wednesdays and Thursdays so operations aren't back to back. That should give some processing time for her. As we finish a topic on a particular day, we'll just move to the next topic to fill that day. Fridays, I've been wanting to do MEP, but haven't got to it.

We did one science activity this week. I purchased the Properties of Ecosystems that goes along with the new ECC, so the children were out in the garden doing the observations. My K nephew just wanted to take a hatchet and dig holes!

I had my nephew working on /a/ (Spanish); tracing in shaving cream, choosing pictures from magazines, and covering an "A" with algodon (cotton). It seems like it was too much for my mother-in-law to handle two only-children, and sent him to my sister-in-law who lives 20 minutes from here. She has three boys of her own (one married with a son and one on the way), and her husband is home on disability. I sent a bunch of work with him, as he's been pulled out of school to be here.

She's doing well in her Ballet classes on Tuesdays and Fridays. She also auditioned to be in the Christmas dance program and she made it!

We (mother-in-law and daughter) went on a field trip with the homeschool group on Friday which turned out to be a lot of fun, though tiring!

This was our first week with this arrangement with MIL, so not as much got done as I wanted. I will be putting together a weekly independent work sheet and placing weekly work in her workboxes. She can work on those while I'm in school, and when I get out, I'll do her math, spelling, writing, and geography readings/lessons. We'll see how it works out next week that way. I have a lot of preparation to do!

Forms and Spanish Reading Resources

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:40:00 -0500

It's been a while since I've written, but I've been busy working on the blog as well. If you'll notice on the right sidebar, under Links, I have links directly to specific types of posts. Yes, it took me a bit to figure it all out! I often get questions about how I taught my daughter to read in Spanish-- you can now find that information under Forms and Reading Resources. Any other resources, such as the syllable charts and copywork pages are there as well.

Hope this makes it easier to find things!

4th Grade bilingual curriculum line-up

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:33:00 -0500

I've changed my mind several times since May , but I *think* this is close to what I want to do for her 4th grade year:

We're completing the last 20 weeks of ECC, so that's geography, science, and Bible, although I do want another Bible study for her (probably Explorer's).

Math:
Mundo Matematico 4,
MEP 3 (in Spanish)- free online here: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm
Singapore 2B (and if we have money, 3A & 3B)

Reading:
English- Sonlight 2 intermediate readers
Spanish- a reading list I haven't put together yet

Spelling:
All About Spelling
Practica Ortografia

Writing:
English- ?maybe writing strands 3? , but I have Sonlight LA 3
Spanish- Classical Writing Aesop, Spanish models

Grammar:
Intermediate Language Lessons (have this downloaded from Google books)
Espanol 3

Geography: ECC

Science: ECC habitats

When we finish with ECC, she wants to study scientists and do different science experiments tied in with the study. She also wants to study bones and horses, so there'll be enough for the last 16 weeks of school I guess. I haven't thought that far. (well, I have, but haven't gone anywhere with it)

Foreign language: German (she wants to learn it for real this year). I'll probably cough up the money to do Powerspeak., but if not, we'll use what we have, which I don't remember what it is.

Art: ECC, finish projects from Abeka 3 if she wants, I don't know what else

Dance: As always, she does ballet

Extracurricular?: 4-H- continue her dog project, start horse project?, I don't know what else

As usual, books in Spanish will be incorporated throughout all the subjects.

Message from Charlotte Mason books author-- Spanish translation?

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:51:00 -0500

Hello all,

I am passing on a message I received on one of my email groups. If you have any comments to give on this, contact the email provided, but remove the extra spaces I added.

"About 3 years ago "A Charlotte Mason Education" and "More Charlotte Mason Education" were translated into Korean.

Right now the publishing company is seriously considering whether to translate these books into Spanish.

The publishing company is asking me if I think there is enough interest in a Spanish version to justify all that would be involved in the effort.

They know from experience that the book stores will not carry the translations so all sales would have to come directly from homeschooling families in the USA, Mexico, South America and Spain.

What do you think?

Do any of you have an opinion on this?

Do you estimate that there are enough Spanish speaking homeschoolers to justify a translation?

All of your responses will be taken seriously and I look forward to hearing from you about this at
catherinelevison @ yahoo. com

Thank you very much for your help with this,
Catherine Levison"

Spanish phonogram cards/ Tarjetas foneticas

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:18:00 -0500

Here's a help to make your bilingual homeschool a little easier.

I have a new file to share-- finally! These phonogram cards contain closed syllables with -y, -r, -m, -n, and others; vowel combinations such as ai, ea, ou, etc.; and blends- dr, gl, etc.

Aquí esta otra ayuda para educar en hogar mas fácil. Tengo un nuevo file para compartir- por fin! Estas cartas foneticas contiene silabas cerradas con -y, -r, -m, -n, y mas; combinaciones de vocales como ai, ea, ou, etc.; y compuestos- dr, gl, br, etc.

Click here to download-- Haz clic aqui para bajar

Hope this comes in handy! One day, I'll figure out a way to put all the files together to make them easier to find.

School is out! Kind of...

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:47:00 -0500

Well, we finally got through most of Europe in Exploring Countries and Cultures, stopping right before Germany. We will be having "summer school" lasting about 1 hour daily that includes math, English and Spanish reading, and journal writing. She also has a daily Spanish copywork page. She's also in the library's summer reading program, and no, her assigned reading doesn't count... hehehe. If we have time (interest), we'll do some science, art, and/or music with the K-12 Free Homeschool.

Since dh is working sporadically, only math and reading is really getting done. I'm satisfied with that. It's more than we did last summer, lol!

We put our garden in, and it looks like the cucumber, radish, one tomatillo, and one red chili plant are coming up so far. I'm still waiting for the broccoli, tomatoes, jalapenos, squash, spinach, corn, and carrots. Oh yeah, some beans are coming up too. It's amazing what you can fit in a small space . I keep thinking I should have waited before putting in the broccoli, spinach, and carrots though, since they are cool weather crops. Aren't they?

Dd showed her dog in the local 4-H dog show. She won 2nd place for showmanship, 4th in obedience, and 1st for talent. Although, everyone that participated in talent got 1st. A week ago, she thought the dog could use a trim, put the runt on her lap and put a pair of scissors to her. Have you ever seen a terrier without its trademark beard? Or eyelashes? Or patches of fur missing in various places? Hopefully, it grows back before the county show in August; for sure it will be slightly embarassing for her at the dog clinic this upcoming Sunday. Oh, well. Live and learn, right?

Random thoughts

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:20:00 -0500

It's past my bedtime and I can't sleep. So what do I do? I bore myself on the internet.

I'm thinking about dd's homeschool year next year. We will not be purchasing another curriculum, as the funds are just not here. But, we have a very viable plan: we'll continue with ECC since we have so many weeks of it left. I have math in Spanish through the 6th grade, so I'm good there. And, there's other materials on my shelf that will get us through most of the year. If I run out (real hard since we have a great library system), there's always K-12 Free Homeschool. I've used it to supplement science, art, and music this year and like it. Well, hopefully it's still up and running next year... Oh, and I told mom that if she had an urge to buy dd anything anytime soon, some fraction and/or geometry manipulatives, and information (read: books) on famous scientists would be really nice .

Dh's current job will be ending in a couple of weeks. He picked this one up in the middle of March. My phone job ended March 27, with my last hours worked March 10 . I'm tutoring, though, but that will definitely end by the school year end. I haven't finished certifying to score tests, so I'll be unable to pick up hours for next week when the scheduler is open. I've been hired, but put on hold, for another phone job, but the only hours available are M-F, 8am-3:30pm, which are great school hours...if my dd were in SCHOOL. The only other hours are M-F from 11:30am-7pm, which is just a messed up day.

I have homework to do to finish my three graduate courses this semester. I have my objective exam TOMORROW, but I'm not really worried about passing. I'm pretty sure I will. It's only almost half my grade for the entire semester. Who knows if I can continue next term. We can't afford to take out loans with jobs so scarce and not guaranteed. We've even talked about me working with Teach for America, but that would require us, or just me and dd to move to the other side of the state. And dd in school??? My dh alone during the week????

The path of bilingual homeschooling has been on my mind: how to continue, what to use... We've shifted somewhat to math and language arts in Spanish, and most everything else in English. That's just what's available. I do still find supplements in Spanish though, and dd's stronger language is still Spanish.

We got dd evaluated for dyslexia, as she has symptoms that show up in both languages.

And this darn test I have tomorrow... I haven't even studied, but I'm really not worried about passing. Should I be?

SURVEY for African-American Homeschoolers

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 17:44:00 -0500

I found this post on the Well-Trained Mind boards and thought I'd pass it along. It seems interesting that there are more people interested in homeschooling, and hopefully that is a good thing for US :).

Here's the cut-and-paste:

" NEED HELP: African American Homeschooling Research

Dear Fellow Homeschoolers,

My name is Ebony Waller and I am a 3-year homeschooling mother of a little girl. But in addition to my homeschooling responsibilities, I am also pursuing my Master’s degree in Education with a concentration in Instructional Technology at American Intercontinental University (AIU). Part of my degree requirements is to design, implement, and report on a particular education issue that I am passionate about. I have chosen to do research on African-American homeschooling families, and have therefore, created a survey regarding homeschooling and teaching styles.

I need your help. First, would you be willing to complete my survey? Second, could you help me in passing this survey along to as many African-American homeschoolers as possible? The link is as follows: http://fs6.formsite.com/ewaller01/form440978032

Sincerely and with much thanks,

Ebony L. Waller"

The Change by Steven Curtis Chapman

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:24:00 -0500

I found this video on YouTube and liked it. I would really like to find the ringtone for this song. Enjoy! (I don't know how to embed videos.)

The Change video on YouTube

Una encuesta de Homeschooling en Espana todavia busca participantes

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:25:00 -0500

Anota que esta encuesta pertenece solamente a las familias que viven en España. Copiada del foro Educando en Familia:

La encuesta sobre el homeschooling en España aún está activa y seguirá estándolo hasta que consigamos un centenar de respuestas. Necesitamos este número para que el trabajo sea representativo de la gran variedad de enfoques y prácticas que existen dentro de esta opción educativa, en nuestro país.

Una alta participación en la encuesta tendrá repercusiones positivas no sólo para la investigación en curso, al contribuir a hacerla más fiable y rica en matices, sino también para el propio colectivo de familias que, sin lugar a dudas, se beneficiará de ello.

Cuento con vuestra colaboración.

Encuesta: http://carlos.scienceontheweb.net

Correo electrónico: cabocarlos @ gmail.com Quita los espacios entre el correo electronico. Los puse para evitar spam.

Carlos Cabo