It's been a long time since my last post. We've had a lot going on, and blogging about it wasn't an option. But, we'll be starting back in to school soon. In fact, my original plans had us starting today. However, Princess E found out last week that she made it to the semi-final round in our County Fair Talent Competition. She will be performing there tomorrow night. So to afford her practice time, and not try to do school while she is a bundle of nerves, we put off starting for a few extra days. If she doesn't advance to the finals, we will begin on Thursday. If she makes it to the finals on Saturday, then we will start on Monday.
We have started two weeks of swim lessons. All four girls are taking lessons. Princess E, if she passes, will be done with them after this go around. Princess S needs to test out of two more levels. Princesses L and M took lessons earlier on this summer, and this is their second time in levels two and one respectively. They are doing much better on the first day than they did on the last day in June!
Princesses E, S and L went to church camp this summer. It was Princess L's first time and she had a blast. All the girls are looking forward to next summer already! Princesses E and S also attended a music and drama camp this summer. They had to learn all the music before the camp began, and then spent four days learning all the choreography and perfecting the skits and songs. Princess E was allowed into the high school group because they needed a few more kids. She had a total of eight performances over two and a half days. Quite grueling. Princess S went to the 5-8th grade camp. They had four performances over a day and a half. Both girls were in their element and are itching to go back next year.
The biggest change, schoolwise, for next year is our core curriculum. Do to several issues we had last year, we are going to make a switch this year to Heart of Dakota. We will be following many of their suggestions, though we are keeping a few of our own tried and true things. So here is the lowdown of what each girl will be using.
Princess M - K4
She will be using Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG) this year. We will be spreading this out over two years, as she will not be five until November. We will take it slow and steady. There are only two changes we are making to Carrie's suggestions. We will use Math-U-See Primer for math. All the others used it and I see no reason to upset the apple cart. We will also be using All About Reading Level 1 for phonics instruction.
Princess L - 2nd Grade
She will be using Bigger Hearts For His Glory (BHFHG) this year. My plan is to take a year and a half to do this program. She is still in vision therapy working through some issues that affect her reading, so slowing down seems a great thing to do. We will work half speed for the first half of the year, then pick up the pace in February. The changes we are making to Carrie's suggestions are few. First, we are using KISS Grammar instead of Rod and Staff. For math, I'm a little bit unsure, but we will be combining Two Plus Two Is Not Five with Math-U-See Alpha. Math is not any of our strong suits. I know she is behind at this point. I'm choosing not to sweat it, and to figure she will catch up once she gets past the vision glitch and is reading better. Also, for literature, she will be learning the method used in Teaching the Classics. We will be loosely following the Reading Roadmaps at Center for Lit.
Princess S - 6th Grade
She will be using Resurrection to Reformation (RTR) this year. It was a hard decision whether to combine these older two princesses. In the end, even though it meant more money this year, I opted to put them in different programs because sharing books and a guide seemed like it would bring too much stress and negativity into our house. There will be several modifications we are making to RTR. For math, she will be doing Math-U-See Epsilon. For science, she will be using A Nature Walk With Aunt Bess from Queen Homeschool. Honestly, I wasn't sure which of these to use, but when I was at our homeschool convention I found a copy of this book in the damaged bin for 40% off. The back cover had a fold in it, and that was the only damage I found. So that is what she is using. She is very artsy, so I think this will be a good fit for her. We had already covered the topics in RTR science with a different curriculum in the past, so I wanted something open and go for her. For writing, I had planned to go with the suggested Medieval Writing. However, the opportunity came up for her to take a homeschool tutoring class. They are doing IEW Level B. She will also take an art class through the same place. For grammar, she will be reading through Grammar Voyage and then doing Practice Voyage. She will also be doing the second half of Latin For Children A. Literature will be the Teaching the Classics method with Reading Roadmaps. I am planning to combine the oldest two princesses and have them share these books. For the first quarter, they will read easy children's books along with Princess L and we will have all three girls involved in the discussions. For the rest of the year, we will use a mix of books between the 6, 7, and 8th grade suggestions. Finally, for vocabulary this year we are using Vocabulary Vine. She will be combined with her sister and we will try to do one or two each week before our literature discussion.
Princess E - 8th Grade
She will be using Revival to Revolution (R2R) this year. I debated whether or not to use extensions, but decided that, since this was our first year with HOD, and because there is a little catching up to do from last year, that we would skip them. There are a few changes we are making with R2R. First and foremost, she is switching to Aleks for math this year. When she did the Peabody this spring, we identified some issues that we want to clear up. She began using this at the beginning of the summer. The goal we have set is for her to get through all three of the middle school math levels by the end of July 2013. This should have her set to begin Algebra next year. She is required to spend an hour a day on math. Second, we will be going light on the grammar this year. She will do 4 Practice 1, and then will be finishing Latin For Children B. She is a little over halfway. As stated above, she will be doing the same writing tutoring class as her sister, and will be doing literature and vocabulary with her as well. She is also taking an Intro to Theatre class through a different homeschool class.
That is our year in a nutshell. It looks daunting as I type it all out, but I'm also trying to approach this year a little more laid back than last year. My older two princesses will have a bit of a learning curve with having written and oral narrations. But I'm confident they can do it. They also will have to learn that it pays to be diligent and keep your mind on your work. They will have to complete each week's work mostly on their own, and will reap the consequences on the weekend if they don't. The little two will be working mostly with me, but since we will be starting at half pace, it should make the transition a little easier. Now we just have to wait and see if we will be starting on Thursday or on Monday.
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
9/1/11
Ancient Egypt Cookie Dough Map
Today, we had some good friends come over to join us in one of our favorite TOG activities - making cookie dough maps! It was a lot more fun having friends join us. The bigger girls took lots of time making sure that their elevations were just right - only to have them melt away in the oven. But I think they completely understand that Upper Egypt is called that because it is higher in elevation, not because it is on the top of the map. The little girls just had fun putting things on their frosting glaze. Here's the photo of the whole group - acting silly of course!
Here's a slideshow of our afternoon.
Here's a slideshow of our afternoon.
8/11/11
Our First Week of 2011/2012
Well, today we completed the first week of the 2011-2012 school year. My mind is awash with things we need to change! Actually, I knew going in to our schedule there would have to be some changes and I'm surprised we don't have to make more. Here is our first week in pictures (thought I'd amaze some of you that I actually remembered to take pictures!)
Here is Princess M (who gets my time first thing in the day) making her letter of the week - an 'A'.
While I was working with Princess M, Princess S was doing this:
Notice, she isn't using the chair. She has a thing about chairs - either she avoids them or finds ways to sit on them that no one has ever thought of before.
This was also our first week back to piano after an eight week hiatus.
While Princess S was on the piano, Princess L was working with me.
Princess E was working independently during these morning hours.
After lunch, Princess M got the idea that the play house needed washing.
Princess L lost another tooth - her fifth.
Also after lunch, Princess E had an open house meeting for her online class. She was learning how to use the software and the headset and microphone.
So that there was less noise in the room while Princess E was online, I had Princess S go through some math review flashcards with Princess L.
Finally, Princess E had to do three science experiments this week. The first, the top photo, was testing density. The bottom photos are to show what a chemical reaction is. She was really enjoying them - but her clean up left a bit to be desired.
We only did half of our subjects. We will not be doing TOG for another two weeks. So we are easing into school. But, I think it was a good first week. Now we're gearing up for the second.
Here is Princess M (who gets my time first thing in the day) making her letter of the week - an 'A'.
While I was working with Princess M, Princess S was doing this:
Notice, she isn't using the chair. She has a thing about chairs - either she avoids them or finds ways to sit on them that no one has ever thought of before.
Later, she was doing this:
This was also our first week back to piano after an eight week hiatus.
While Princess S was on the piano, Princess L was working with me.
Meanwhile, Princess M had some room time. She decided to make herself a new bed using a clothes hamper.
Princess E was working independently during these morning hours.
After lunch, Princess M got the idea that the play house needed washing.
Princess L lost another tooth - her fifth.
Also after lunch, Princess E had an open house meeting for her online class. She was learning how to use the software and the headset and microphone.
So that there was less noise in the room while Princess E was online, I had Princess S go through some math review flashcards with Princess L.
We only did half of our subjects. We will not be doing TOG for another two weeks. So we are easing into school. But, I think it was a good first week. Now we're gearing up for the second.
7/6/11
Plans for 2011/2012 - Princess L
Princess L will be in first grade already. (Insert sad sounding yiddish fiddle music.) Where has the time gone?
I have had a difficult time figuring out what to do with this little one next year. Some things were no brainers: continue Math-U-See Alpha for math, begin Tapestry of Grace LG level for our humanities rotation, and Awana Sparks for Bible memory work. But I've been flummoxed (I just had to get that word in there) about what to do for Language Arts. (I will continue to have her work on the Explode the Code workbooks as they are a good seat work activity that she can do on her own. I can hand it to her to do while I am correcting her work, or if I am unavoidably needed during her schooling by one of her sisters.) Because of the speech issues that she has been working through this year, she is a little bit behind where her sisters were in reading ability. At the same time, I have learned through experience that just because you can read a book (or a list of words) to get a graded reading level, it doesn't mean that you can comprehend or remember what you've read. This has been an ongoing problem with my eldest two princesses. I have come to embrace Charlotte Mason's ideas of narration and dictation as a method for training kids toward the stage of dialectic thinking. I didn't really do much with that with my eldest two princesses, and as a result, moving up to the dialectic level in our Tapestry studies has been a bigger challenge than it should be.
So what to do? When I first heard that IEW was going to be coming out with curriculum for the K-2nd grade set, I was excited. As an English major, I really like their method for training kids to write well. What held me back at the homeschool convention is that I didn't know where she'd be by the end of the year. I decided to spring for it because even if the reading lessons will be a bit easy for her - it will be a good review of the things that she has learned. And most importantly, I can use it the following year with Princess M. The writing lessons, however, are going to be right up our alley. This will allow us to work in the narration and dictation that I missed with my older girls at this stage. And it will set her up for a wonderful transition to be able to complete SWI-A in her third grade year.
When she is done with PAL-Reading, I am going to have Princess L begin Primary Language Lessons. I like the outlay of this version of the book. You can print it however you want - color, B&W, one sided, two sided, etc. And it can be done either orally or written down. The original version of the book would require separate paper to complete any written portions. When my elder girls tried this, they would either lose their place in the book or on the paper making the assignment take forever, or things would get skipped as they moved back and forth. This version allows them to write their answer immediately below the question.
I've already posted our master schedule, but here is a closer look at what Princess L's personal schedule will look like:
Princess L Schedule
This is what we will start with, anyway. It seems like the more the plans seem set in stone, the more things come up that require changes. I believe that's called "Murphy's Law"? You'll notice our schedule will be different on Mondays. That's because a friend and I will be kid swapping and team teaching on those days. I will take her 6th grader with E & S to do IEW's Ancient History Writing Lessons, and she will take L & M with her 2nd grader to do the Tapestry LG literature book and a hands-on craft or experiment. I'm really excited about it, though I enjoy the hands-on stuff myself, I think it will be good for L to have the opportunity to learn from someone other than me. One other thing on the schedule that is new for her is piano. She will begin her lessons in October. She is so excited and cannot wait to be like her big sisters. I have scheduled her a 15 minute practice session for this year. Those beginning lessons can get a little bit too much for me to listen to for half an hour. And it's also too much time for them to fill. Until her lessons actually begin, I will have her review Awana verses, as much of the first part of each book is a review of the previous year anyway.
I have had a difficult time figuring out what to do with this little one next year. Some things were no brainers: continue Math-U-See Alpha for math, begin Tapestry of Grace LG level for our humanities rotation, and Awana Sparks for Bible memory work. But I've been flummoxed (I just had to get that word in there) about what to do for Language Arts. (I will continue to have her work on the Explode the Code workbooks as they are a good seat work activity that she can do on her own. I can hand it to her to do while I am correcting her work, or if I am unavoidably needed during her schooling by one of her sisters.) Because of the speech issues that she has been working through this year, she is a little bit behind where her sisters were in reading ability. At the same time, I have learned through experience that just because you can read a book (or a list of words) to get a graded reading level, it doesn't mean that you can comprehend or remember what you've read. This has been an ongoing problem with my eldest two princesses. I have come to embrace Charlotte Mason's ideas of narration and dictation as a method for training kids toward the stage of dialectic thinking. I didn't really do much with that with my eldest two princesses, and as a result, moving up to the dialectic level in our Tapestry studies has been a bigger challenge than it should be.
So what to do? When I first heard that IEW was going to be coming out with curriculum for the K-2nd grade set, I was excited. As an English major, I really like their method for training kids to write well. What held me back at the homeschool convention is that I didn't know where she'd be by the end of the year. I decided to spring for it because even if the reading lessons will be a bit easy for her - it will be a good review of the things that she has learned. And most importantly, I can use it the following year with Princess M. The writing lessons, however, are going to be right up our alley. This will allow us to work in the narration and dictation that I missed with my older girls at this stage. And it will set her up for a wonderful transition to be able to complete SWI-A in her third grade year.
When she is done with PAL-Reading, I am going to have Princess L begin Primary Language Lessons. I like the outlay of this version of the book. You can print it however you want - color, B&W, one sided, two sided, etc. And it can be done either orally or written down. The original version of the book would require separate paper to complete any written portions. When my elder girls tried this, they would either lose their place in the book or on the paper making the assignment take forever, or things would get skipped as they moved back and forth. This version allows them to write their answer immediately below the question.
I've already posted our master schedule, but here is a closer look at what Princess L's personal schedule will look like:
Princess L Schedule
This is what we will start with, anyway. It seems like the more the plans seem set in stone, the more things come up that require changes. I believe that's called "Murphy's Law"? You'll notice our schedule will be different on Mondays. That's because a friend and I will be kid swapping and team teaching on those days. I will take her 6th grader with E & S to do IEW's Ancient History Writing Lessons, and she will take L & M with her 2nd grader to do the Tapestry LG literature book and a hands-on craft or experiment. I'm really excited about it, though I enjoy the hands-on stuff myself, I think it will be good for L to have the opportunity to learn from someone other than me. One other thing on the schedule that is new for her is piano. She will begin her lessons in October. She is so excited and cannot wait to be like her big sisters. I have scheduled her a 15 minute practice session for this year. Those beginning lessons can get a little bit too much for me to listen to for half an hour. And it's also too much time for them to fill. Until her lessons actually begin, I will have her review Awana verses, as much of the first part of each book is a review of the previous year anyway.
3/4/11
Handwriting
My three oldest princesses are right-handed. All three of them hold a pencil in a very unique way. (That's a nice way of saying I don't know how the heck they can write that way!) My DH has a pencil grip very much like Princess E's grip. Her's looks like this:
She can write beautifully IF she writes slowly. You can't really flow very well with a grip like that. I tried to correct it, but when I realized that she holds it like her Dad, I figured there was nothing I could do - that it was an inherited tendency.
Then there is Princess S. Princess S - I believe - has some SPD issues. She has a hard time writing anything. She loves to draw, however, and is quite talented at it. But her pencil grip is very ugly. And it's no wonder that her hand gets tired after only writing one sentence. Get a load of this:
She very much dislikes her writing. It is the epitome of chicken scratch. And I know her grip is part of the problem. But fixing it is near impossible. Any suggestions?
I have put a specialized pencil grip on Princess L's pencils in an effort to force her to use a correct grip. But if left to herself, then she has a grip like Princess E's. I'm not sure how picky to get with her during school when she goes back to her own way the rest of the day.
Princess M is a lefty. And she holds a pencil correctly. Go figure.
She can write beautifully IF she writes slowly. You can't really flow very well with a grip like that. I tried to correct it, but when I realized that she holds it like her Dad, I figured there was nothing I could do - that it was an inherited tendency.
Then there is Princess S. Princess S - I believe - has some SPD issues. She has a hard time writing anything. She loves to draw, however, and is quite talented at it. But her pencil grip is very ugly. And it's no wonder that her hand gets tired after only writing one sentence. Get a load of this:
She very much dislikes her writing. It is the epitome of chicken scratch. And I know her grip is part of the problem. But fixing it is near impossible. Any suggestions?
I have put a specialized pencil grip on Princess L's pencils in an effort to force her to use a correct grip. But if left to herself, then she has a grip like Princess E's. I'm not sure how picky to get with her during school when she goes back to her own way the rest of the day.
Princess M is a lefty. And she holds a pencil correctly. Go figure.
8/23/10
Flash Cards - Learning the Skill
Princess L learned how to do flash cards this week. Or should I say, she learned how to do Math flash cards the Math-U-See way. One of the things that is listed as a goal in Math-U-See is mastery of the facts as demonstrated by completion of flash cards in three seconds or less recall time. They have an online drill on their website that will show you the time. But my kids always had issues with adding time while they hunt and peck for the numbers on the key board. Princess S had issues with flash cards. She would get lost in what she was doing, and it was very frustrating for both of us. Since I was forced to improvise I am using some of those lessons learned with Princess L.
First, since she is only in Primer, there is not the requirement to master the facts. So that isn't our goal yet. But to make it easier, I only made up cards for the +1 and 1+ facts. As I learned with Princess S, it is necessary to make both sets of cards. Even though she could verbalize the fact that in addition you can switch the order, when I only made one set of cards she would get lost on paper when it didn't look the same as the flashcard. She would have to switch the order either in her head or by physically writing the problem the other way. And while that is doable, it certainly adds much time to any assignment.
Next, I had her read the front side of the cards out loud as a sentence. This helps with the auditory sense processing what they hear. Then she built the sentence with the math blocks. This helps with the tactile sense and the visual sense. Then she figure out the answer. That was our first time through the blocks.
The next time through the blocks I had her read the front of the card as a sentence and say the answer without using the blocks. I told her she could read them in "silly" voices. This helps to break up the monotony and makes it fun! She had fun coming up with different voices and accents. The next time through I asked her to just give me the answer as quickly as she could. This is what we did today.
Finally, I will make sure that each answer is given within three seconds. If it is and is correct she gets to keep the card. If it is not it goes back in my pile to be reviewed again. After she displays mastery of the +1 and 1+ facts, then we will move on as the scope and sequence of Math-U-See suggests. I generally will use the flash cards until she can get the facts we are working on, then add that stack to the review cards and spend time on those. To my discredit, I did not do that with Princess E, and I believe she has issues with her facts still. Princess S, due to ADD and SPD, knows her facts well, but cannot always show that she knows them depending on the day, hour, weather, mood, etc.
First, since she is only in Primer, there is not the requirement to master the facts. So that isn't our goal yet. But to make it easier, I only made up cards for the +1 and 1+ facts. As I learned with Princess S, it is necessary to make both sets of cards. Even though she could verbalize the fact that in addition you can switch the order, when I only made one set of cards she would get lost on paper when it didn't look the same as the flashcard. She would have to switch the order either in her head or by physically writing the problem the other way. And while that is doable, it certainly adds much time to any assignment.
Next, I had her read the front side of the cards out loud as a sentence. This helps with the auditory sense processing what they hear. Then she built the sentence with the math blocks. This helps with the tactile sense and the visual sense. Then she figure out the answer. That was our first time through the blocks.
The next time through the blocks I had her read the front of the card as a sentence and say the answer without using the blocks. I told her she could read them in "silly" voices. This helps to break up the monotony and makes it fun! She had fun coming up with different voices and accents. The next time through I asked her to just give me the answer as quickly as she could. This is what we did today.
Finally, I will make sure that each answer is given within three seconds. If it is and is correct she gets to keep the card. If it is not it goes back in my pile to be reviewed again. After she displays mastery of the +1 and 1+ facts, then we will move on as the scope and sequence of Math-U-See suggests. I generally will use the flash cards until she can get the facts we are working on, then add that stack to the review cards and spend time on those. To my discredit, I did not do that with Princess E, and I believe she has issues with her facts still. Princess S, due to ADD and SPD, knows her facts well, but cannot always show that she knows them depending on the day, hour, weather, mood, etc.
8/13/10
TOG Year 4 Week 1
This year, we are starting our year off a little differently. We are starting our year rather light in that we are not beginning all our subjects at the same time. We will be adding in the other subjects so that by the fourth week of school we have all our normal classes integrated into our schedule. We loosely follow the schedule of a local charter school where some of the elder princesses' friends attend. This fact, and the fact that I use interlibrary loan A LOT, means being a few week ahead of other homeschoolers in the area helps assure that I will get the books I need when I need them. But, there are still some commitments and activities that get scheduled becasue most kids are still on summer break. Therefore, having a bit lighter of a load will help us be able to do those activities.
Our Tapestry of Grace studies have us doing year four, which is the study of the Twentieth Century. This is significant because DH and I, the Grandparents, and the two Great-Grandmothers have a change to tell our own stories to the princesses. We've lived through or experienced many of the events we will study. These events and people have had a large influence on our lives in different ways. I'd really like to figure out a way to record some conversations with the Great-Grandmothers. They are late 80s and early 90s (how's that for not giving away their ages) and - let's fact it - they may not be around when we repeat this year plan five years from now. But it is also significant because I truly believe that we are living in a time that will be remembered as the second American Revolution. We MUST pray hard for our country as the LORD has allowed the consequences of our corporate sin of rejecting Him and His precepts to take root. But God always sent a prophet to warn His people before allowing them to be destroyed, captured or enslaved. There are many prophets sounding the alarm right now, and we need to answer the call, put on our battle armor, and hit our knees. (I'm stepping off my soapbox now.)
Here's the books we're doing for our first week:
Princess E - 6th Grade - Dialectic
McCall Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading (from now on referred to as McCrab): First three tests of Book A - we will begin with three tests a week, but may move to four a week.
Latin For Children Primer A: By her choice, she will be going through this from the beginning as a review to cement in the things she learned last year. She will take two days per lesson for the first 14 lessons, as these are pretty much a complete review - a few new nouns or verbs in forms she already knows. Then we will move to three days per lesson for the next twenty lessons. Again, most of these are review with a few new words. But there is a second conjugation taught in lesson 15 that she didn't learn before. So there are a few new concepts that will be challenging. If she is able to keep up this pace, she will begin Primer B by our second semester.
TOG Yr4 W1: Timeline (a new activity for her - she'll be keeping track of important events, people and inventions on colored notecards); President Notebook (this contains important facts to remember about each president and first lady as well as famous quotes for copywork); Student Activity Pages (SAPs); Accountability and Thinking Questions (AQ/TQ); Reading (disclaimer - most of these are long books and she will read portions of the book each week) - The Gift of Music, The Call of the Wild, With Daring Faith, Bully for you Teddy Roosevelt, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the 20th Century (she was a bit put off by this title); Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 4, Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
Princess S - 4th Grade - Upper Grammar
McCrabb: First three tests
Growing With Grammar 4 (GWG4): Chapter 1.1 to 1.3
TOG Yr 4 W1: Quizlet vocab; Important People Copywork; SAPs; Read Alounds - same as above; Reading (again - portions each week) - An Age of Extremes, We'll Race You Henry, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Trial and Triumph
Princess L - K - Lower Grammar
Winter Promise Advanced K: Review letters a, f, b, m, e, k, t and r; study the -ad family and -am family; practice handwriting letters (because we only learned the short sounds last year, she will have to learn the other two sounds for a and e)
TOG Yr 4 W1: Read Alouds - same as above; Reading - First Flight, the Story of the Wright Brothers, We'll Race You Henry, The Story of Little Babaji
Princess M - PreTOGGer
I've been working on printing, cutting and laminating various activities from the Letter of the Week Curriculum. Each of the other princesses will have a 30 minute time block each morning where they will have the choice to either do some of these activities with Princess M or read to her. My hope is that little by little I will have enough of these put together to be able to do this with her in its entirety starting next year.
Besides the above activities, we will begin our school each morning with a short Bible study and prayer time. The girls each have a notebook which they use to illustrate the Bible passage. Next week we will be adding in our IEW/MCT activities. We did a little bit of MCT this week, but I don't have the video we made ready to post yet, so I'll show it next week.
Our Tapestry of Grace studies have us doing year four, which is the study of the Twentieth Century. This is significant because DH and I, the Grandparents, and the two Great-Grandmothers have a change to tell our own stories to the princesses. We've lived through or experienced many of the events we will study. These events and people have had a large influence on our lives in different ways. I'd really like to figure out a way to record some conversations with the Great-Grandmothers. They are late 80s and early 90s (how's that for not giving away their ages) and - let's fact it - they may not be around when we repeat this year plan five years from now. But it is also significant because I truly believe that we are living in a time that will be remembered as the second American Revolution. We MUST pray hard for our country as the LORD has allowed the consequences of our corporate sin of rejecting Him and His precepts to take root. But God always sent a prophet to warn His people before allowing them to be destroyed, captured or enslaved. There are many prophets sounding the alarm right now, and we need to answer the call, put on our battle armor, and hit our knees. (I'm stepping off my soapbox now.)
Here's the books we're doing for our first week:
Princess E - 6th Grade - Dialectic
McCall Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading (from now on referred to as McCrab): First three tests of Book A - we will begin with three tests a week, but may move to four a week.
Latin For Children Primer A: By her choice, she will be going through this from the beginning as a review to cement in the things she learned last year. She will take two days per lesson for the first 14 lessons, as these are pretty much a complete review - a few new nouns or verbs in forms she already knows. Then we will move to three days per lesson for the next twenty lessons. Again, most of these are review with a few new words. But there is a second conjugation taught in lesson 15 that she didn't learn before. So there are a few new concepts that will be challenging. If she is able to keep up this pace, she will begin Primer B by our second semester.
TOG Yr4 W1: Timeline (a new activity for her - she'll be keeping track of important events, people and inventions on colored notecards); President Notebook (this contains important facts to remember about each president and first lady as well as famous quotes for copywork); Student Activity Pages (SAPs); Accountability and Thinking Questions (AQ/TQ); Reading (disclaimer - most of these are long books and she will read portions of the book each week) - The Gift of Music, The Call of the Wild, With Daring Faith, Bully for you Teddy Roosevelt, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the 20th Century (she was a bit put off by this title); Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 4, Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
Princess S - 4th Grade - Upper Grammar
McCrabb: First three tests
Growing With Grammar 4 (GWG4): Chapter 1.1 to 1.3
TOG Yr 4 W1: Quizlet vocab; Important People Copywork; SAPs; Read Alounds - same as above; Reading (again - portions each week) - An Age of Extremes, We'll Race You Henry, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Trial and Triumph
Princess L - K - Lower Grammar
Winter Promise Advanced K: Review letters a, f, b, m, e, k, t and r; study the -ad family and -am family; practice handwriting letters (because we only learned the short sounds last year, she will have to learn the other two sounds for a and e)
TOG Yr 4 W1: Read Alouds - same as above; Reading - First Flight, the Story of the Wright Brothers, We'll Race You Henry, The Story of Little Babaji
Princess M - PreTOGGer
I've been working on printing, cutting and laminating various activities from the Letter of the Week Curriculum. Each of the other princesses will have a 30 minute time block each morning where they will have the choice to either do some of these activities with Princess M or read to her. My hope is that little by little I will have enough of these put together to be able to do this with her in its entirety starting next year.
Besides the above activities, we will begin our school each morning with a short Bible study and prayer time. The girls each have a notebook which they use to illustrate the Bible passage. Next week we will be adding in our IEW/MCT activities. We did a little bit of MCT this week, but I don't have the video we made ready to post yet, so I'll show it next week.
6/18/10
Plans for 2010/2011 School Year
I decided that it would be helpful to do an entry on what we are going to be doing for next year. I'll break it down by subject.
Math
We will continue with Math-U-See. Princess L will finish lessons 19-30 of Primer and continue on to Alpha. Princess S will finish lessons 21-30 of Gamma and continue on to Delta. Princess E will finish lessons 21-30 of Delta and continue on to Epsilon.
Science
We were given three books in the God's Design For Heaven and Earth series by Answers in Genesis. (This series has been reworked and we have the old version without a CD-ROM.) We started working through the first book during our spring break this year, and will work through the summer to finish it up by the time we begin in the fall. We will then do the second book during our regular school break times.
Humanities (History, Literature, Church/Bible History, Fine Arts)
We will continue to use Tapestry of Grace. Princess E will be D level (dialectic level for you non-TOGers), Princess S will be UG (upper grammar) and I will read a select few LG (lower grammar) books with Princess L, based on what is available at our library. We will be skipping year three in order to line up with a co-op near us that will be doing year four. Both of the older princesses will do a brief unit study this summer on the civil war and reconstruction, as these ideas will be central to much of year four. I am excited to meet with some awesome women who love TOG as much as I do. It will be a bit time consuming to pack everyone up, eat lunch in the van, and travel to co-op every other week. But is is an experience I think we desperately need. The co-op is small, but there is room to grow. If you are interested in TOG, please click the link on the right to check it out.
Music
Both princesses will continue with their piano lessons. Princess E is hoping to qualify for a scholarship to take vocal training lessons at a local music school. Princess L really wants to start piano this year but she has to wait one more year like her sisters.
Writing
I am planning to have the oldest two princesses begin IEW this year. I purchased TWSS and SWI-A for them. I haven't figured out yet how we will work these into the schedule, as we really need a block of time without interruptions from the little two. Perhaps we'll just have to set aside nap time for Princess M and find something for Princess L to do.
Spelling
We didn't do spelling this year. (Blush!) This is mostly because Princess E and Princess S seem to have DH's and my natural spelling ability. But I was very intrigued by the Pioneer Woman's description of how she does spelling with her kids, and am planning to adapt it to fit our schedule. I will dig out my copy of Spelling Power and use those lists to do a spelling bee three times a week (with the option to par down to twice a week if it becomes necessary) and let them earn small things like M&Ms, Skittles or Pretzels.
Grammar
Princess S will be doing Grade 4 of Growing With Grammar. I love the simplicity of this series. Princess S has attention issues and tends to get distracted by colors and pictures. This lovely book has no color and no pictures. And it is so simple, most of the time she can read the handbook and do the workbook without any help from me at all.
Latin
Princess E will continue with Latin, but she will be switching over to Latin For Children. We had some issues with our computer speakers not working and I was not able to get the files downloaded to a CD. So while she can read the first year Latin words, she can not pronounce nor understand spoken Latin. So this series will be a blessing. There is both a CD and a DVD.
Handwriting/Copywork
For Princesses L and S, I used my StartWrite software to make copybooks out of their Awana verses for next year. This way they are getting double practice every day. I haven't decided if I will do one for Princess E, but I am leaning towards having her work on keyboarding skills, as she will be using the computer a bit more this year. I also made a Presidents book for the older two princesses. For each president and first lady there is a facts page for them to fill in and two pages of practice with a famous quote from each president and some of the first ladies.
Phonics
For Princess L, I will be using Winter Promise Advanced K. I'm a little concerned because she has only really worked with the short sounds of the letters. She does know, thanks to the Leap Frog videos and toys, that many of the letters have other sounds and what those sounds are. She just hasn't learned any of the rules for their usage. I may need to take a little longer than the three scheduled weeks of sounds review before we dive into this. But it is a lot of hands on and really great simple readers, so I know she'll have fun with it.
Language Arts
Though I've already listed curriculum considered LA, I was dismayed at some bad habits, bad attitudes and "uncreative thinking" that was rearing its ugly head by the end of the year. To that end, I researched some things to add to address some of these specifics. Therefore, both of the older princesses will be doing one of the exercises from McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading each day. The goal is to practice reading for meaning rather than to simply finish the assignment as fast as possible. I will also be having Princess E begin with Dynamic Literacy's Foundations 1 book. She will do one exercise per day. Finally, I purchased the teacher's books for the first level of Michael Clay Thomas's Language Arts program. This program has a unique way of presenting grammar, writing, and vocabulary using challenging passages from classical works. I believe that the first level will pretty much be review for both of them. But I think it will help to pull together the various areas of LA which they are pretty good at individually, but struggle when they must put them together in, say, a writing assignment. The methodology is similar to TOG in that you read the beautifully and creatively done stories together, then lead them in a dialectic discussion about the various elements taught in the story.
Princess M
To be honest, I do not know where I will find the energy, with all of the above, to do very much with this little one. I'm leaning towards the "better late than early" idea with her. I purchased the Letter of the Week activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I plan to print out a few activities for each letter and put them in either a ziplock or a file folder, depending on the activity, and pulling out one or two a day when I need her occupied. I also plan to schedule each of the older princesses to do "school" with her for twenty minutes a day each.
Scheduling my crew is always a challenge. Whenever we have tried to implement a schedule a-la-Managers of Their Homes, we all end up frustrated and in tears. We tend to do better by listing the order of our activities, but not expecting to do anything at a particular time, with the exception of a few things like piano, lunch and co-op. Princess S cannot work when given a time frame to work in. She does better if I challenge her to try to finish something in x amount of time and give her a food reward if she accomplishes it. Princess E can finish most everything in a time frame, but her accuracy and creativity suffer greatly as a trade off. Princess L still needs me with her at all times. Princess M will tear a room apart in seconds if not adequately monitored. So I struggle with how to get everything in from day to day. Last year, I printed out a daily task schedule from HST+ for Princess E. She had no say in what assignments she had each day, but she was allowed to complete them in whatever order she pleased. Princess S was using the workbox method. I changed how I did them halfway through the year. She really disliked this method and wants to go back to a paper schedule. Therefore, I will attempt to do with her what I did with Princess E last year. For Princess E, I purchased this planner. One of the things that TOG stresses is teaching your children to take responsibility for their own learning by having them schedule their work themselves. We started this in the last unit to some extent this past year. My plan is to give her a laminated card with the target days for certain subjects. This is necessary because I have to be able to plan out times for correcting their work. For her reading assignments, I will print a list on Thurdays for the following week. She needs to plan on doing some reading on the weekends. (I know she will be devastated by this, but she's beginning middle school and this would be expected in a public school setting.) She can decide how to complete the reading assignments and put them in her planner, and will be expected to have everything read by Tuesday evening. She will have to work on her AQ/TQ questions on Wednesday and Thursday for our discussion on Friday. I will be having a daily meeting with the older two princesess to go through their assignment goals, give them their checked assignments needing corrections, and the McCalls reading test. My goal is to have these meetings last 10 to 15 minutes tops. While I am meeting with the one, the other will have their time with Princess M.
So that is how I've spent all my thinking energy and time for the last two months. I'll post another time on how we have been doing our Bible time, as I plan to continue with that method for now. When I finish going through our school room and get some badly needed bookshelves, I'll also post some pictures.
Math
We will continue with Math-U-See. Princess L will finish lessons 19-30 of Primer and continue on to Alpha. Princess S will finish lessons 21-30 of Gamma and continue on to Delta. Princess E will finish lessons 21-30 of Delta and continue on to Epsilon.
Science
We were given three books in the God's Design For Heaven and Earth series by Answers in Genesis. (This series has been reworked and we have the old version without a CD-ROM.) We started working through the first book during our spring break this year, and will work through the summer to finish it up by the time we begin in the fall. We will then do the second book during our regular school break times.
Humanities (History, Literature, Church/Bible History, Fine Arts)
We will continue to use Tapestry of Grace. Princess E will be D level (dialectic level for you non-TOGers), Princess S will be UG (upper grammar) and I will read a select few LG (lower grammar) books with Princess L, based on what is available at our library. We will be skipping year three in order to line up with a co-op near us that will be doing year four. Both of the older princesses will do a brief unit study this summer on the civil war and reconstruction, as these ideas will be central to much of year four. I am excited to meet with some awesome women who love TOG as much as I do. It will be a bit time consuming to pack everyone up, eat lunch in the van, and travel to co-op every other week. But is is an experience I think we desperately need. The co-op is small, but there is room to grow. If you are interested in TOG, please click the link on the right to check it out.
Music
Both princesses will continue with their piano lessons. Princess E is hoping to qualify for a scholarship to take vocal training lessons at a local music school. Princess L really wants to start piano this year but she has to wait one more year like her sisters.
Writing
I am planning to have the oldest two princesses begin IEW this year. I purchased TWSS and SWI-A for them. I haven't figured out yet how we will work these into the schedule, as we really need a block of time without interruptions from the little two. Perhaps we'll just have to set aside nap time for Princess M and find something for Princess L to do.
Spelling
We didn't do spelling this year. (Blush!) This is mostly because Princess E and Princess S seem to have DH's and my natural spelling ability. But I was very intrigued by the Pioneer Woman's description of how she does spelling with her kids, and am planning to adapt it to fit our schedule. I will dig out my copy of Spelling Power and use those lists to do a spelling bee three times a week (with the option to par down to twice a week if it becomes necessary) and let them earn small things like M&Ms, Skittles or Pretzels.
Grammar
Princess S will be doing Grade 4 of Growing With Grammar. I love the simplicity of this series. Princess S has attention issues and tends to get distracted by colors and pictures. This lovely book has no color and no pictures. And it is so simple, most of the time she can read the handbook and do the workbook without any help from me at all.
Latin
Princess E will continue with Latin, but she will be switching over to Latin For Children. We had some issues with our computer speakers not working and I was not able to get the files downloaded to a CD. So while she can read the first year Latin words, she can not pronounce nor understand spoken Latin. So this series will be a blessing. There is both a CD and a DVD.
Handwriting/Copywork
For Princesses L and S, I used my StartWrite software to make copybooks out of their Awana verses for next year. This way they are getting double practice every day. I haven't decided if I will do one for Princess E, but I am leaning towards having her work on keyboarding skills, as she will be using the computer a bit more this year. I also made a Presidents book for the older two princesses. For each president and first lady there is a facts page for them to fill in and two pages of practice with a famous quote from each president and some of the first ladies.
Phonics
For Princess L, I will be using Winter Promise Advanced K. I'm a little concerned because she has only really worked with the short sounds of the letters. She does know, thanks to the Leap Frog videos and toys, that many of the letters have other sounds and what those sounds are. She just hasn't learned any of the rules for their usage. I may need to take a little longer than the three scheduled weeks of sounds review before we dive into this. But it is a lot of hands on and really great simple readers, so I know she'll have fun with it.
Language Arts
Though I've already listed curriculum considered LA, I was dismayed at some bad habits, bad attitudes and "uncreative thinking" that was rearing its ugly head by the end of the year. To that end, I researched some things to add to address some of these specifics. Therefore, both of the older princesses will be doing one of the exercises from McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading each day. The goal is to practice reading for meaning rather than to simply finish the assignment as fast as possible. I will also be having Princess E begin with Dynamic Literacy's Foundations 1 book. She will do one exercise per day. Finally, I purchased the teacher's books for the first level of Michael Clay Thomas's Language Arts program. This program has a unique way of presenting grammar, writing, and vocabulary using challenging passages from classical works. I believe that the first level will pretty much be review for both of them. But I think it will help to pull together the various areas of LA which they are pretty good at individually, but struggle when they must put them together in, say, a writing assignment. The methodology is similar to TOG in that you read the beautifully and creatively done stories together, then lead them in a dialectic discussion about the various elements taught in the story.
Princess M
To be honest, I do not know where I will find the energy, with all of the above, to do very much with this little one. I'm leaning towards the "better late than early" idea with her. I purchased the Letter of the Week activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I plan to print out a few activities for each letter and put them in either a ziplock or a file folder, depending on the activity, and pulling out one or two a day when I need her occupied. I also plan to schedule each of the older princesses to do "school" with her for twenty minutes a day each.
Scheduling my crew is always a challenge. Whenever we have tried to implement a schedule a-la-Managers of Their Homes, we all end up frustrated and in tears. We tend to do better by listing the order of our activities, but not expecting to do anything at a particular time, with the exception of a few things like piano, lunch and co-op. Princess S cannot work when given a time frame to work in. She does better if I challenge her to try to finish something in x amount of time and give her a food reward if she accomplishes it. Princess E can finish most everything in a time frame, but her accuracy and creativity suffer greatly as a trade off. Princess L still needs me with her at all times. Princess M will tear a room apart in seconds if not adequately monitored. So I struggle with how to get everything in from day to day. Last year, I printed out a daily task schedule from HST+ for Princess E. She had no say in what assignments she had each day, but she was allowed to complete them in whatever order she pleased. Princess S was using the workbox method. I changed how I did them halfway through the year. She really disliked this method and wants to go back to a paper schedule. Therefore, I will attempt to do with her what I did with Princess E last year. For Princess E, I purchased this planner. One of the things that TOG stresses is teaching your children to take responsibility for their own learning by having them schedule their work themselves. We started this in the last unit to some extent this past year. My plan is to give her a laminated card with the target days for certain subjects. This is necessary because I have to be able to plan out times for correcting their work. For her reading assignments, I will print a list on Thurdays for the following week. She needs to plan on doing some reading on the weekends. (I know she will be devastated by this, but she's beginning middle school and this would be expected in a public school setting.) She can decide how to complete the reading assignments and put them in her planner, and will be expected to have everything read by Tuesday evening. She will have to work on her AQ/TQ questions on Wednesday and Thursday for our discussion on Friday. I will be having a daily meeting with the older two princesess to go through their assignment goals, give them their checked assignments needing corrections, and the McCalls reading test. My goal is to have these meetings last 10 to 15 minutes tops. While I am meeting with the one, the other will have their time with Princess M.
So that is how I've spent all my thinking energy and time for the last two months. I'll post another time on how we have been doing our Bible time, as I plan to continue with that method for now. When I finish going through our school room and get some badly needed bookshelves, I'll also post some pictures.
6/16/10
Princess L: Finishing up the PreK/K5 year
Well, this princess finished up the year in a whirlwind. We sped through the last two lessons. I decided to take some photos of all the books that she read with MFW K. The first photo shows all the books, then it follows one book. The last two photos show the last few pages of words she needed to sound out. They suggest going through all the sounds and sounding each word out with them. But I chucked that out the window by about week 20 when she started just reading the words pretty much without sounding them out. When she does sound a word out, despite my instructions, she works backwards. She still has an issue saying certain sounds - r's and ing's always give her a problem. But she has amazed me at how fast she started to take off.
Since we finished the school year, Princess L has lost her first tooth! She didn't say anything about it being loose, but when we went to the dentist, she pointed out that the two bottom teeth were loose. So loose in fact, that when she pushed one of them forward, it didn't go back into place. By the end of that day it was out!
Since we finished the school year, Princess L has lost her first tooth! She didn't say anything about it being loose, but when we went to the dentist, she pointed out that the two bottom teeth were loose. So loose in fact, that when she pushed one of them forward, it didn't go back into place. By the end of that day it was out!
1/9/10
Keeping Toddlers Busy
I'm not always so great at coming up with things to keep the little ones busy. But, I've observed that often times they are able to come up with their own activities. Sometimes, these activities are ones I'm not so keen on. Other times, they are pretty darn good. This one falls in the pretty darn good category.
I came into the room and discovered that Princess M had grabbed a foam plate off the kitchen counter, and was using the feet from Mr. Potato Head to poke holes in the plate. Now, I'll admit, my first reaction was - What a Mess! But, after watching for a few minutes, she was totally engrossed in this activity. And I decided that it was really quite a good one for helping with her finger dexterity and hand/eye coordination. She spent about 20 minutes poking holes through about three plates before she got bored. There were little foam holes all over the floor. Then, I took out the new swivel sweeper and handed it to her. She spent about five minutes vacuuming up the circles, and anything else that she found to suck up. Princess L started fussing because she wanted to vacuum too! Had to break up that argument, but can't beat kids fighting over who gets to clean!!!!
The last picture was later that night. She took a very short nap and fell asleep drawing on paper while I was making dinner. Had to include that one.
I came into the room and discovered that Princess M had grabbed a foam plate off the kitchen counter, and was using the feet from Mr. Potato Head to poke holes in the plate. Now, I'll admit, my first reaction was - What a Mess! But, after watching for a few minutes, she was totally engrossed in this activity. And I decided that it was really quite a good one for helping with her finger dexterity and hand/eye coordination. She spent about 20 minutes poking holes through about three plates before she got bored. There were little foam holes all over the floor. Then, I took out the new swivel sweeper and handed it to her. She spent about five minutes vacuuming up the circles, and anything else that she found to suck up. Princess L started fussing because she wanted to vacuum too! Had to break up that argument, but can't beat kids fighting over who gets to clean!!!!
The last picture was later that night. She took a very short nap and fell asleep drawing on paper while I was making dinner. Had to include that one.
6/2/09
Contest for a free ticket!
One of my TOG Loose Threads sisters is hosting a contest on her blog to give away a free ticket to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo. This is a great opportunity for someone to take part in. Click on over to check out her blog!
http://counterculturalschool.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-ticket-for-ultimate-homeschool.html
And don't forget to check out all the other awesome stuff she has on there. You're bound to find something that will help out your homeschool.
http://counterculturalschool.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-ticket-for-ultimate-homeschool.html
And don't forget to check out all the other awesome stuff she has on there. You're bound to find something that will help out your homeschool.
1/18/09
Starting Second Quarter
So, I was sitting mighty pretty for second quarter. I had finished entering all assignments for the rest of the year just before Christmas and was able to enjoy most of our break. We're set to start tomorrow. Friday, I decided to upgrade HST. Went through all the steps, opened up the upgrade and it was fine, decided to delete the shortcut for the other one. But, I wasn't paying close attention and deleted the wrong file. I lost EVERYTHING! Not only all the stuff from first semester - assignments and grades and such, but all my assignments for second semester too. So, I've spent the last several nights frantically putting in all the new assignments and typing in previous math assignments so as to keep the grade up on that. I am done with all the third quarter stuff and will enter the fourth quarter stuff over the next few weeks. I learned the hard lesson of always back up your files on an external drive. Won't be making that mistake again!
Blessings.
Blessings.
7/11/08
Stormy Weather
Well, we're having our third storm in two days. There has been heavy winds each time that have toppled several trees and put power out. Thankfully, we have not had any damage. The flower pots fell off the deck, but they were salvageable.
I've made some progress on things for our school starting up. I've got a list made of which library book needs to be requested on what date in order to be here on time. I've left myself a two week window in case we have to wait. I've also earmarked the closest substitute should that book not be available. I have E's daily task chart done and plan to print up a few for her. I have listed certain days that she needs to work in each subject area, but it will be up to her to figure out which assignments to do on which day. The exception is her vocab words, important people and science. She is going to need the computer to do these assignments, so I have certain times she is going to have to do these. I have S's daily task chart designed but I am going to be scheduling all of her work for her, at least for the first half of the year. So I'm just entering all the info into an Excel file and then I'll print it out for her.
Math will not be listed but printed in after the fact. The way that I use Math-U-See is a little different. They will watch the DVD first. I will orally quiz them on what the lesson was about to determine if they understand what they need to do. If it is a completely new concept, then we will do a few practice problems on paper. If they seem to know what they are to do, then they do worksheet A. If they get them all correct then they move on to the first review worksheet D. If they get that one all correct then they may take the test. If they feel they need more practice they can opt to do any of the other worksheets. It was hard for me to see unused pages at first. But, it has allowed us to feel more like we are moving at their pace. If they seem to "forget" how to do something, then they can always go back and do the other pages. With my two extremely distractable scholars, this has helped to keep us from getting bored and goofing off. They prefer learning directly from the DVD first as opposed to listen to me teach so I let them. Mr. Demme is more fun to listen too :)
I still have to: get schedules laminated, get chore schedules put into Handipoints and a hard copy printed, decide on hands on activities for first four weeks and buy supplies needed, and put notebooks together. I've admired the spiral bound workbooks that other's have put together, but realize that I just don't have the time to do that yet. I also know how much I realize I have forgotten to do and we'd have several to many pages that weren't included. I would rather put everything in a 3 ring binder and then have them spiral bound together after we were done with the unit.
The rest of July is looking to be quite busy. I think the time will fly be. E has a birthday on Monday. She will be 9. That is hard to believe. She will be coming back from Big Sandy Camp tomorrow afternoon. S cannot wait to see her. She realizes now, I think, that her sister is her favorite playmate.
Blessings.
I've made some progress on things for our school starting up. I've got a list made of which library book needs to be requested on what date in order to be here on time. I've left myself a two week window in case we have to wait. I've also earmarked the closest substitute should that book not be available. I have E's daily task chart done and plan to print up a few for her. I have listed certain days that she needs to work in each subject area, but it will be up to her to figure out which assignments to do on which day. The exception is her vocab words, important people and science. She is going to need the computer to do these assignments, so I have certain times she is going to have to do these. I have S's daily task chart designed but I am going to be scheduling all of her work for her, at least for the first half of the year. So I'm just entering all the info into an Excel file and then I'll print it out for her.
Math will not be listed but printed in after the fact. The way that I use Math-U-See is a little different. They will watch the DVD first. I will orally quiz them on what the lesson was about to determine if they understand what they need to do. If it is a completely new concept, then we will do a few practice problems on paper. If they seem to know what they are to do, then they do worksheet A. If they get them all correct then they move on to the first review worksheet D. If they get that one all correct then they may take the test. If they feel they need more practice they can opt to do any of the other worksheets. It was hard for me to see unused pages at first. But, it has allowed us to feel more like we are moving at their pace. If they seem to "forget" how to do something, then they can always go back and do the other pages. With my two extremely distractable scholars, this has helped to keep us from getting bored and goofing off. They prefer learning directly from the DVD first as opposed to listen to me teach so I let them. Mr. Demme is more fun to listen too :)
I still have to: get schedules laminated, get chore schedules put into Handipoints and a hard copy printed, decide on hands on activities for first four weeks and buy supplies needed, and put notebooks together. I've admired the spiral bound workbooks that other's have put together, but realize that I just don't have the time to do that yet. I also know how much I realize I have forgotten to do and we'd have several to many pages that weren't included. I would rather put everything in a 3 ring binder and then have them spiral bound together after we were done with the unit.
The rest of July is looking to be quite busy. I think the time will fly be. E has a birthday on Monday. She will be 9. That is hard to believe. She will be coming back from Big Sandy Camp tomorrow afternoon. S cannot wait to see her. She realizes now, I think, that her sister is her favorite playmate.
Blessings.
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