~~~~~Meanderings By The Brook~~~~~ - Homeschool Blogger

Curriculum

Sat, 7 Oct 2006 13:32:00 -0500

There is a lot of talk about what "works" for homeschooling families and what doesn't. And no one is exactly the same. But, we can give our ideas, support, encouragement and wisdom (or lack thereof) and hope that someone finds it helpful in some way.

We are not a relaxed, laid back homeschool family. It doesn't work for us. Yet, I know families that it works wonders for. I wish we were able to operate in the realm of go where the study takes us but, it has met with disaster for my older child.

So here is what works for us. And some things that we are still working on.

I believe in Classical Education with all my heart. However, I have found that there are a few subjects that I must let slide for fear of losing my sanity! I have a rather difficult time teaching my son (13 with ADD) and there is enough for him to accomplish during the day. Any more and I think he would be overwhelmed. For now. My daughter on the other hand, I could probably branch out and do many different things, be flexible, creative and add those other things in. It will have to wait. That's another part of learning--adjusting to those around you for their benefit. So what do we use?

We start our day around 6am. That's when my oldest gets up. By 7:00, he is ready to start studies. On a good day. These are his books and what he does on a weekly basis:

Bible: Just reads and prays for about 30 minutes. Right now he is reading James. Nothing formal.
Math: VideoText Interactive Algebra. He usually does 2 lessons per week. That's about 45 minutes a day.
Writing: Rod and Staff Grammar. He works on 1 writing lesson per week. We work on the writing and grammar separate from each other. For example, he is on lesson 52 in the writing and lesson 70 in the grammar. During the week he complete the lesson and often does other work related to the lessons concept during the week.
Grammar: Rod and Staff Grammar. Right now we are working on the second half of the level 7 book. We do at least 2 lessons a week. Odds on one day, evens on the next.
Reading: 1 hour per day. I try to have him complete a book in about 2 weeks give or take depending on the book. I have him write a summary when he finishes.
Spelling: Vocabulary From Classical Roots: We haven't started this yet, but I hope to soon.
History: We are just starting a new book. We are using Story of the World for reading, discussion, maps, activities, and tests. Yes, I test. I think it's a necessary evil. I do not base my decisions off of them, though. We also us The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for reading and outlining. So, during the week, he reads, outlines, maps, discusses and answers written questions, does a history project and writes 1 short report on the topic.
Science: Apologia Physical Science. We go though 1 module (Chapter) in 2 weeks. During that time he reads, experiments, writes lab reports, and takes a test. THIS is an incredible resource for daily lesson plans for Apologia.
French: The Easy French. He has a set check list that he must compete daily for this program. A lot of listening, phonogram practice, rule memorization and a semester project. We do one lesson per week.
Geography: Trail Guide to U.S. Geography. Some say we do too much in geography. It may work better for some to just include what is needed in your history study. I wanted my son to have more than that. So from this guide, we do 2 states per week. He draws locations and landmarks on a map and does a 3 page fact sheet for each state using the Childrens Illustrated Atlas.
Memory Work: This is an area where he has had trouble, so we are starting slow this year. For whatever we memorize, I have him read it outloud a few times every morning. Sometimes we forget, but I'm working on that.
Piano: He has a 30 minute lesson once a week and practices for 30 minutes every day. When he remembers. Working on that too.
Hockey and Gym during the week. He takes a 45 minutes gym class down the road at the Christian school. Mostly just for fun because he gets plenty of activity from the hockey practices that are usually twice a week!

For my daughter (6 years old) our books are as follows:

Bible: God Takes Care of Me. A wonderful devotional. It starts with a few questions to get them thinking and talking. A short story next, followed by more thinking questions and a prayer. There is a scripture at the end that I often have her copy for writing practice.
Math: Math U See Alpha. We do one page a day, sometimes two if she wants. Takes about 15-20 minutes. Try to do 1 lesson per week. I like to take time out to do activities from Play and Find Out About Math once in a while. Also, she helps me cook. Plenty of math there!
Spelling: Spelling Workout A. 10 minutes a day, she usually does one page for now.
Grammar: No formal grammar yet, but when we do, we will use English for the Thoughtful Child.
Writing: Copywork--I have her copy the scripture from our Bible story, a sentence that I write for her, or passages from good books. We do this 2 or 3 days a week. We write a letter every couple weeks. I also try to throw in fun things. We write character sketches and problem/solution situations from the books we read and put them up on the wall.
Phonics: Mostly The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. On other days we use sources from ABeka or early reader books we pick up.
Reading: Lots of good books. I read a chapter a day from whatever book we are reading at the time and Dad reads a chapter from something during the evening. Since September we have read A Wrinkle in Time (that took a while. More like 1/2 a chapter a day), Matilda and A Cricket in Time Square. Right now we are working on classic Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland (original and unabridged) and Little Pilgrims Progress.
French: The Easy French. Every day we listen to the lesson's story, vocabulary and do a short activity based on the lesson.
Geography: Trail Guide to U.S. Geography. Every day she looks at the atlas and answers 2 questions about a particular state and writes it down. We don't always get to this. At 1st grade, I'm not at all worried about it.
Science: Noeo Science Physics: A wonderful curriculum that has a day by day guide telling me what pages to read out of a particular book, what vocab to define and what experiments to do. It even include all the materials I need. We read a page, talk a lot about it, do a simple activity related to it, write a few sentences about what we read, and draw a picture. On experiment day, we fill out a lab report. She usually writes some of this.
History: Previously Story of the World. We would read a chapter, color, do some mapping, and do some projects. Now that we are finished with volume 3, I'm going to take some time experimenting where I want to go next. We may be doing a lot of unit studies. She learns well by hands on and I want to expand on that without distracting my older one who needs to hone in on the writing and studying skills needed for high school. See Clever Miners, Forty Niners.
Piano: Same as her brother. But, she practices whenever she passes the piano. My son is much more scheduled about it.
Hockey and Gymnastics: She plays hockey once a week on a young team. Really they are just learning how to play. She also is on the Pre-Competition team at gymnastics. That's 3 hours a week. Hard work, but she just recently got her back walkover down pat! Yea!

So that's it in a big 'ol nut shell. Got an idea of how I can improve this? What do you do in your home? What works for you?

Classical Beginnings New Blog

Sun, 8 Oct 2006 18:16:00 -0500

Please visit my other blog Classical Beginnings

If you are not automatically taken to the new site click on the link above.

I am going there because I can use more photo space. And since keeping my extended family informed is my first priority then I will be spending more of my time there. Please visit!

Mon, 23 May 2005 00:21:00 -0500

Mon, 23 May 2005 00:19:00 -0500

The first stop was Old North Church where Robert Newman held the two lanterns in warning of the British troops advance. Capt'n Tess thought it was the coolest thing that we could actually go to the place where the lanterns were held and Paul Revere had been. I love the fact that here on the East Coast we can visit so many of these historical places.

This is a statue of Paul Revere. I have found it interesting to learn about this period of time. I wanted to make sure that my children understood the sacrifice of ALL the men that fought and gave of their efforts during this time, not just Paul Revere. I have come to understand that it was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who brought Paul Revere to the status he is in today. Though the poem elevates him to a higher status, there were many men that rode and many others that risked their lives.

Here we are outside of the Old North Church in the North End, Boston, Mass. I love walking in the North End. There is still a sense of old world, though sadly it seems to be becoming overrun with uppity development and is losing it's Italian charm.

Here we are sitting in Paul Revere's Pew in the church. The sign says, "Revere Pew -- Paul Revere's son Joeseph Warren Revere bought this pew in 1808 (?). It is still owned by his decendents."

If you look at the top of this picture you will see 4 white pillars. Each pillar has an angel on top of it. The surprised expressions on the kids faces are because these 4 angels are actually stolen! A privateer, a legal pirate given permission by the government to attack enemy ships, attacked a french ship and looted it's contents. These 4 angels were a gift to the church from this privateer. So really, they belong to the french, but we still have them; hence the shocked expressions!

Each pew was enclosed in order to keep in the heat during cold winter months. Families bought and owned their pew outright and therefore were allowed to decorate and furnish it as they saw fit. (Shhhh. The children are praying.)

Our next stop was Copps Hill Burial Ground. We went on a hunt to find the oldest grave in the ground, and found it. Dated 1661, it is a double headstone and grave marker to two small boys: David Copp, 2 weeks old and Thomas Copp, 2 years old (I think).

This one is so cool. This is the grave of Robert Newman, the man who held the two lanterns in the church tower. He held the lanterns for under a minute. But not only did the riders see them, the British also saw them and headed for the church to see what was going on. They were banging on the doors trying to get in. Robert Newman had to escape out a side window. It didn't take the British long to figure out that the only man with the keys to the church was probably the one who had been up in the tower. This would have been Newman as he was the grounds keeper. Newman was arrested the next day, but there was not enough evidence to convict him.

The grave says,

HERE RESTS

ROBERT NEWMAN

Born in Boston, Mch 20, 1752

Died in boston, May 26, 1804

Patriot who hung the signal lanterns

in the church tower, April 13, 1775

Legend says that the British used this particular grave for target practice. We don't know if that is really true, but it's sure fun to dream! The grave says,

Here lies buried in a

stone grave 10 feet deep

Cap Daniel Malcom

who departed this life

October 23, 1769

Aged 44 years

A true son of liberty

a friend to the publick

an enemy to opposition

and one of the foremost

in opposing the revenue acts

on America

Just me and Eric the Enforcer! Capt'n Tess took this pic. Pretty good! In the back ground you can see over the river to Bunker Hill where the famous battle took place.

And one more by Eric the Enforcer!

A plaque in memory of Paul Revere (I cut off his name) and William Dawes who rode warning others that the "regulars" were on the way!

Next stop -- Paul Revere's house. No pictures were allowed inside. Very well restored, but odd to see it in the middle of so many large and modern buildings!

Our last stop was Lexington to see where the first shots were fired in the war (technically!). It was really amazing to just stand there and imagine 200 some years ago what had happened there.

This is the memorial to the battle and the minutemen who lost their lives.

"The remains of those who fell in the

Battle of Lexington were brought here

from the old cemetary April 20,

1835, and buried within the railing in

front of this monument."

Seeing it all first hand sure gives you a different perspective on it. Give me liberty, man!

Deciding to change bunnies!

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 23:21:00 -0500

We changed our minds and are going to try and adopt these two girls. They are mini rex bunnies with such soft fur. They were both very inquisitive of me, although the spotted one more so. Commodore Brilliantbones seemed a little unsure upon meeting all the bunnies, but there were A LOT of them. Overwhelming and a bit smelly, as can be expected with 30+ bunnies in one room.

We will see what happens in the next couple weeks. To be continued.............

BYE!

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:22:00 -0500

Off to convention! See ya'll Monday!

Big. Fat. Scream.

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:32:00 -0500

What does a 2 inch spider, a tick, a black unidentified thing, and an incredibly fat beetle have in common?

All have been on me or VERY close to me in the past 12 hours.

Ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mass Hope Convention

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:04:00 -0500

Any one of you going? Just curious -- leave a comment!

Grocery and Food Tip #3

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:42:00 -0500

Buy in bulk.

MOST of what I need to have on hand I can buy in bulk. It may cost a little more to start up, but I assure you, in the end it's worth it. It really does save you money.

When I first started buying bulk, I gave myself $100 to spend at Sams Club. You must stick to your budget. I bought a bag of salmon filets, 1 bag of boneless chicken breast, and 10 pounds of hamburger. This was enough to get me through at least 1 month.

I also bought a huge bag of shredded cheese. I still have half the bag 2 months later.

3 dozen eggs last me almost 1 month.

A big bag of strawberries and mixed berries. The strawberries got us through two months and the berries a month and a half. We use them for smoothies, mixed with yogurt, in muffins, waffles and pancakes.

Tub of vanilla ice cream--the one treat I got! It lasted so long and everyone was happy!

Large bag of spaghetti and macaroni elbows. I still have plenty left two months later!

I know I bought a few other things and I did go to the regular grocery store for a few other things and produce, but the point is---it freed me up come the next paycheck to go back and get some of the other things I would need. I have begun to see the benefits and want to pass on the knowledge to you. When you:

1. Establish a budget

2. Commit to homemade

3. Buy in bulk

---your pocket will see the benefits of it. And even if you lag every now and then, you will be better off financially in the long (and even short) term.

Next tip I will send you to a site that shows you what things to keep on hand IF you are going to commit to homemade items. If you try it, you will find that you can make a huge amount of food from a simple list.

~*~*~*~*~Meanderings By The Brook~*~*~*~*~ - Homeschool Blogger