This is my place for letting all of my friends and family know how we are doing in school. While I try to make a post every week, sometimes life just gets hectic. I hope you enjoy it anyway! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 7 Aug 2009 07:31:00 -0500 Fri, 7 Aug 2009 07:31:00 -0500 Well, I've posted several versions of our curricula for next year, and I have one more revision. I swear this is the final draft. (Unless, of course, something changes mid year and something is not working.) K Math - Math Mammoth (2nd grade) Spelling - After we finish up the McRuffy 1st-grade material, we will be starting the first book of Sequential Spelling. This should be in January sometime, if each lesson only takes a day. Sometimes, however, she likes to do a week's worth of spelling in just a couple days, so we could be done much sooner. Grammar - After the McRuffy is complete, we will be moving into 2nd-grade Growing With Grammar. I'm not quite sure when this will be completed, though. There are roughly 3 to 4 grammar lessons in each week of McRuffy, and I'm still breaking them down into individual lessons. Writing - Writing With Ease. We are using the text version and not the workbooks. I have the first 8 weeks of copywork and narration already figured out and put into my "All That's School" binder. I've pulled sentences and narrations from The Adventures of Robin Hood, Little Women, Charlotte's Web, Anne of Green Gables, Story of the World, Harry Potter books, and others. Reading - We have about 5 weeks of reading to finish up with McRuffy. After that, I'm not sure we will do a formal reading program. I might just use her history and science readings to asses her reading and comprehension. If we do decide to do reading separately, she got the Treasury of Illustrated Classics set for Christmas that I might just make up comprehension questions for and have her read a chapter a day. She is already reading Jane Eyre and she read the first few pages of Alice In Wonderland last night. Bible - Continue on with Alpha Omega Lifepac 1st grade and then move on to 2nd grade. H Math - Math-U-See Primer Language Arts - McRuffy Phonics & Reading (includes handwriting and spelling) Bible - Once she is reading a bit, we will probably start the 1st-grade Alpha Omega Lifepac. I'm guessing this will be sometime closer to spring. I want to make sure she is able to read some Arnold Lobel books comfortably before I start on that, since some pages of the worktexts are for the students to read. Both Girls Science - R.E.A.L. Science (Life) History - Story of the World (Finish book 1, Ancients) Art - Meet the Masters Unfortunately, we still have to purchase Math-U-See and Meet the Masters, but somehow it will all come together. We will be starting our year on August 25th, and attending school Tuesday through Friday. We were originally going to be involved in a co-op on Mondays, but I think that will have to wait for one more year. However, I think we need that Monday to do our major cleaning and chores, so I have left our schedule the same. In the next couple weeks I will be busy finishing up our lesson plans. I would like to have our plans completely done for all subjects for at least the first 8 weeks of school. All I have left to finish is K's grammar and bible. So far, I think the biggest challenge has been breaking up the McRuffy Phonics & Reading program into separate subjects. However, it had to be done for K since she gets bored with certain things and still needs practice with others. I think this year will be a great one just for that reason. Everything is finally on its own, so she can work at her own pace and we can easily skip over extra practice of things that she already has down. We will also be using workboxes this year, and I hope to have those completed soon so that I can post some pictures. There is only so much removing of Velcro backing that can be done in a day. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/715142/ Fri, 7 Aug 2009 07:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/715142/ This is the final piece of this year's animal study. We have moved on to the study of the human body now. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/696146/ Fri, 5 Jun 2009 09:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/696146/ In light of several factors, one being the advice of a good friend, we have decided to make some curriculum changes. We are already loosely following The Well-Trained Mind (WTM) for science and history. It has been working really well, albeit slow in the history department. (I don't want to overload my young children!) We have now decided to also add language arts into the mix. We will be using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (FLL) with K once she finishes up the McRuffy 1st grade program. This book will cover grammar for 1st and 2nd grade, and includes memorization. I originally balked at the idea of using this approach. However, through lots of research of different programs, I somehow found my way to it. Also, I had been curious last month and put a hold on the book from the library. Yesterday when I looked at my library account, the book was in! So, I went and picked it up and so far I like what I see. So, I think this will be the next step for us. We will also be using Rod and Staff for 2nd grade spelling. The ultimate plan is to go through FLL and then move on to 3rd grade Rod and Staff English. I am really interested in this program because it looks really solid and includes sentence diagramming. I didn't make the correlation at the time, but this is also the program recommended to follow FLL by the WTM. So, my guess is it works really well. For H we will continue using Hooked on Phonics and McRuffy concurrently. She is really starting to make some good progress. Once she is through McRuffy K, we will move her on to McRuffy 1st grade, and then eventually to FLL. I do not worry about going through 1st-grade material more than once, as I have realized that with gifted students it is sometimes better to expand rather than to accelerate. Many thanks to the homeschooling mom who has tread these waters before me and was kind enough to share what she has learned. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/685217/ Sun, 3 May 2009 09:01:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/685217/ So I just have to make a post about this. I was researching the math program Math U See last night. On one of the demonstration videos, Steve Demme mentions a class that he was teaching once. He had 7 students and he brought in 14 objects. He asked them how many each would get. They asked him if they were supposed to add, subtract, multiply, or divide. So, I decided to ask K a similar question. I said, "I'm going to bring home 8 apples. How many do each of us in our family get?" She thought for about 5 seconds before answering. She said, "Two for you, two for Dad... Four for H, and zero for me, because I don't like apples." http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/683243/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:59:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/683243/ We have been doing fairly well at sticking with our schedule lately. We have implemented the 10:00-12:00 schedule, and that seems to work well for us. We take a short recess from 11:00 to 11:15, and just try to get in as much schoolwork as we can in that time frame. We had to put the desert lapbook aside for a while, due to an interest in wanting to learn the skeleton. We are using Nonfiction Read & Write Booklets by Scholastic for our human body study. This is the perfect idea for K, and I wish I could find them for many more subjects. She also decided, all on her own, to do some copywork from our human body encyclopedia for her science notebook. I am finally starting to notice a breakthrough with H's reading. Every night before bed she wants to practice out of her "yellow book." (It's the yellow book from Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten.) Last night she did really good at reading some new short /i/ words and reading a new story. She even asked me if she was reading. I think we have made our final decisions for next year's curriculum. The things that are going to remain the same are K's McRuffy Phonics and Reading program (although she wants to learn cursive next year) and Alpha Omega Bible; Story of the World for history for both girls; a nice mix of HOP and McRuffy Kindergarten for H (or whatever else is working at the time!), and Saxon math for H. K will be switching from Saxon math to Math Mammoth, although we still have the 2nd grade Saxon that we can pull lessons out of for reinforcement if we need to. We will also be using the Saxon meeting book still. We will also be using a new science program. We are going to use R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey by Pandia Press and cover Life science again. We have covered a lot this year just by reading books, coloring, copywork, and making minibooks. However, the R.E.A.L. program is very hands-on and will give us a new way to approach science. Since the girls are so young (and I'm not sure what H has really gotten out of it lately) we decided it would not do any harm to cover the material again. They will get to work with thermometers, binoculars, and bugs. They will begin to get a feel for the scientific method. R.E.A.L. covers animals in a different way than we did this year, too, so it won't just be more of the same. They will learn the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates next year. This year, we learned them grouped by biome, and just discussed whether they were amphibian, mammal, bird, etc. I think they will really enjoy being out in the world doing fun stuff and getting dirty. So, there's an update on this year and a preview of what we've decided to do for next year. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/682385/ Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/682385/ We are getting ready to finish up our animal study for this year's science. It has been an amazing journey so far. We have covered rainforests, the arctic, and wetlands. We've studied poison dart frogs, capybaras, leaf-cutter ants, polar bears, the arctic fox, the arctic tern, alligators, beavers, ducks, jaguars, and many others. We're taking the next week to finish up our wetland lapbook, before delving into the desert. We plan to learn about tarantulas, camels, roadrunners, the oryx, and the desert tortoise. Of course, we never know when we'll change direction and choose something different. Hopefully, we will be able to get some good pictures of our lapbook to share once we are done. From K: Roadrunners, rattlesnakes, hyenas, and scorpions live in the desert, too. Some kinds of iguanas live in the desert. One kind of spider lives in the desert, but also a tarantula. I like the desert. I like camels. I like iguanas. I like desert tortoises. I like hyenas. I like to watch rattlesnakes, but I do not like them to see me. Will we ever go to the desert? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/663968/ Sun, 1 Mar 2009 18:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/663968/ Here's a little sample of the activities we're doing during our summer animal study: So far, both girls seem to be having fun with it. We're keeping it really informal by reading lots of books and doing coloring pages like these. In the fall we might get into a bit more detail, but for now, this is all they really need to know. I certainly don't want it to become a chore. I want to make sure that they are really having fun with this. K wants to study jaguars next, but we're going to save those until this fall when we do our study of the rain forest. H doesn't really seem to care what animals we study, as long as there is something to color! (By the way, all of those pages are from K's official Animal Science Book. H doesn't have one, because I'm really doing this in a minimalist way for her. She's only 3, but come fall, I might get her a notebook, too. But only if she is showing an interest in having one.) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/555246/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 21:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/555246/ My dear daughter is driving me nuts trying to get me to start school early (ever since I received her Saxon Math 1 materials in the mail)!!! So, yesterday we started a short summer school session. We are going to be doing some animal study, working in her Kumon books (we're working on the one with the numbers from 1 to 70 right now), and using the Bible curriculum. We'll use Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as school days. We are using the 1st grade Bible LIFEPAC from Alpha Omega. Yesterday was our first lesson, but what I've seen so far is really nice. The worktext approach is perfect for K. We will just do that at whatever pace seems to keep her satisfied until we're getting ready to start the official school year. If we have to get the 2nd grade box early, that's what we'll do. We also started studying lemurs today. We read about them and filled out half of a form that I made for our animal study. It has a place to write in the name of the animal, its habitat, what it eats, what type of animal it is (i.e. mammal, bird, reptile, etc.), and other facts that K or H might find interesting. After we did that, they each colored a picture of a lemur that we found on Enchanted Learning. We will be adding these pages to some of the the other pages in K's Animal Science Book. Come August, we will be getting a little more in depth into our animal study. K wants to learn about the different habitats, so I did some research and found some Biome Worksheets (also on Enchanted Learning's website). We'll use these, along with a world map, to learn about the habitats for a couple days, then we'll spend the next few weeks learning about different kinds of animals that live in that habitat. I hope to spend 30 weeks on animal study, six of which will be about different habitats. Hopefully, the summer school will make my daughter happy enough to allow me to finish our plans for our other subjects! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/545710/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/545710/ Well, we are getting closer and closer to having all of our actual teaching materials gathered for next year. I have made my order through Rainbow Resource and that leaves McRuffy as being the only thing I have left to order. I plan on ordering those materials in July, giving me just about a month to look though them and add to my lesson book. Then, the week before we actually start, we will go shopping for all the supplies we will need: clay, paper, pencils, a new whiteboard, etc., etc. The materials that I have received so far look really nice. I can hardly wait to jump into everything. I thought that planning all of this on my own would be overwhelming, but really I rather enjoy it! I can hardly wait to start the year and see if all come together. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/540010/ Thu, 29 May 2008 14:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/540010/ As we continue finishing up this school year, I am starting to get all of our curricula collected for next year. Here is what K will be doing for her 1st grade year: Math - Saxon 1 Bible - Alpha Omega LIFEPAC 1 Language Arts - McRuffy 1st Grade Phonics and Reading (also includes spelling and handwriting) History - Story of the World Volume 1 - Ancient Times Science - Lots of animal study and notebooking/lapbooking, followed by learning about the human body and plants later in the year Music - Music for Little Mozarts, Alfred's Kid's Drum Course Art - Lots of drawing from simple drawing books (starting with Diego and rainforest animals, of course!) H's schoolwork will be as follows: Math - Saxon K (Some of this will be review, as she has joined us for this quite a bit throughout this year) Language Arts - McRuffy Kindergarten Phonics and Reading (also includes spelling and handwriting) History - She will be sitting in on this with us, but will not need to do all of the activities that K does Science - Again, she will be participating with us Music - Music for Little Mozarts, Alfred's Kid's Drum Course Of course, H's schedule for next year is contingent upon her abilities. I'm sure that she will not take to the reading right away, even though she has asked to learn to read. Given her learning style, I think some more educational play may be needed for a while still. I want to get the Hot Dots Phonics Fun program for her to play around with until she's ready for something more formal. So, the next few months are for gathering curricula, looking over curricula, and preparing my lesson plans for the first couple weeks of school. Our target start date this year is going to be August 18th, so the countdown is on! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/534217/ Sun, 18 May 2008 18:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zedzhedz/534217/