Week 18

We took Monday off this week to get things together and unpack after being gone for a month. I kind of am seeing the beginning of January as a beginning of "second semester" and made a few changes that I'm hoping to stick with.

Firstly, our calendar notebook has kind of fallen by the wayside since we were gone. Instead, we have been working our calendar work with the main things on our fridge. We are still counting days, doing a word a day, writing the date and the weather, etc.

PreK:

I found this sticker workbook when I was cleaning out our school closet. It's mostly just fun "work" for Emmett.

We've also been working through capital letter formation with the white board. I write the letter, he erases it with his finger. He likes this. We have done letters A, F and E.

Math:

This week I noticed we had RightStart B left when I thought we'd do that for math. I tried it again since memorizing her facts past ten is work for Abby. I realized that it is way too spiral for my liking. Anyway, we are going to continue to move sideways with it. We'll finish up Miquon Orange and work through some puzzles with MEP 1.

So, this week, we worked through some Miquon. At the beginning of the year, I tested the waters with Abby and the concept of halves. She didn't quite get that halves had to be equal, even though stressed that we needed to split whatever number into two FAIR parts. This week, though, I explained the concept and gave her an orange rod and asked how we could break it up evenly. She said, "Oh, that's easy. It's five!" After going through ten and eight, she then commented, "The odd numbers can't be broken fairly with the rods here. We'd have to break the white rod in half to make it even." Have I sung the praises of C rods lately?!

We played a bit on Dreambox math. We're trying out the free trial.

Spelling:

We are still working through dictated phrases. I have come into a bit of paypal, though, so I'm going to be looking for AAS level 2 now. Yay!

Reading:

Abby still is reading on her spare time. I'm not requiring any amount of reading. She reads plenty at bedtime. (Our rule is that they have to be in bed and quiet, but they don't have to be asleep.)

We are still working through All About Sam. I need to see if I can put the audio on her DS...or maybe sync my old iPod so she can listen to it in the car when Emmett is wanting to listen to music (which he seems to prefer). The next time we make a trip to the library, I am hoping to pick up some Jim Weiss audios.

We have been working through The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull and have been fascinated with it. We are going to put FIAR on hold for a while and do a Seussian theme for the next few weeks before Seuss's birthday in March. Then, we will throw a big Seuss bash and invite a friend or two. Abby is chomping on the bit to get started with that.

Of course, read-alouds happen daily here.

Extra:

In the great clean-out of January 2012, I cleared and reorganized our school supplies. Hopefully it is better suited now so I can use our materials better. I've decided that we will be coloring heavy for a while. I'm hoping that between some snippets of handwriting, and lots of coloring, hand muscles for writing will be strengthened.

I'm also hopeful that group coloring will encourage Ellie to sit and enjoy some "schoolwork" with us. This week Abby colored a myriad of unicorns, Emmett did Toothless (from How to Train Your Dragon) and couple of unicorns (can we say follower?), and Ellie colored Dora and WonderPets. (Have I mentioned how much I loathe Dora? She doesn't watch it much, but she definitely knows she exists.)

The Baby:

Hyrum is also joining in on the learning fun! He has finally figured out how to stay on hands-and-knees rather than belly crawl. He has been army crawling for a while and would push up onto his hands and knees, take a few "crawl" steps and get annoyed with his speed (which is about as fast as cold molasses) and get back down on his tummy. He also has figured how to pull up! And now, he is learning how to fall without knocking his noggin.

Week of 07 August

School starts the 22nd of August! That week, I think, I'll start numbering our weeks... So I guess this coming week is our last of summer...

Phonics/Reading:

Abby and Emmett tried out Reading Eggs this week. The Homeschool Buyers Co-op has it on sale and I thought we'd try it out. It was really a good game for Emmett, but Abby was pretty much past it.

We haven't done any formal phonics instruction for a while...we've just been having Abby read to me. She's working on Balto, but I haven't been great about having her read it to me everyday. She has been reading pages here and there randomly during our story time when we're doing our picture books. She's only 5. There's lots of time for more formal reading. :)

Emmett surprised me this week. For the last couple of months we've been playing a game we call Say It Fast. I segment CVC words into their separate sounds have him blend them together. So, when we were playing with our letter magnets and we had the magnets B, A, and T he did the sounds, "/b/" ... "/a/"... "/t/." And then I said, "Say it fast!" thinking it was probably a little beyond him. Imagine my surprise when said, "BAT!" His face was nearly glowing with excitement when I said, "Good reading!" He was so pleased with himself. :) I guess we'll add in some CVC sounds with his letter review.

Math:

I have been reviewing what we'll be doing for math in preparation for school starting. I had a hard time deciding between RightStart and Miquon. RS has had GREAT reviews for a good foundation. Miquon, I've heard is a very different, but awesome program as well. I LOVE Miquon for its use of Cuisenaire Rods. I LOVE C Rods because they are somewhat of a visual display of how I manipulate numbers and math concepts in my head. I finally decided that it wouldn't hurt if we did both. :)

So, I ordered RightStart Level A. It got here and I quickly read through some of the lessons and felt a little nervous because it all seemed really simple for Abby. I made my way over to the RightStart website and took their placement quiz thing and it said to place Abby in Level B. Whoops. I emailed the RightStart people and the lady that (quickly) got back to me said it truly did sound like Abby was ready for Level B. Well, sheesh! I got lucky and found someone who was selling Level B and the worksheets for a steal. It's a good thing I ordered the extra manipulatives for B with the A starter pack. (I was really trying to reach $150 to get free shipping from Rainbow Resource...) I'm still not bummed that I have A. I think it will be perfect for Emmett in a few months.

While all this was going on, though, we played and built with our rods. Abby hasn't seemed nearly as interested in the rods as Emmett, but since I was playing with them too, she joined in. We played some games that encouraged the building of trains and stairs and she amazed me with how aware she was with the rods even if she hadn't sat and familiarized herself with the colors and relationships between them. She seemed to intuitively "get it."

And the abacuses have been already claimed, even though we've only had them for a few days.

The standard came with the starter kit we got, and I ordered an extra junior one. I guess I should order another one because these are a hit!

Five in a Row:

This week we rowed The Story of Ferdinand. The older kids happily sat for this one!

Social Studies:

We found Spain on our map and talked about the Iberian peninsula. Then we discussed what a peninsula was. It really did sink in because even this afternoon Abby was pointing out different peninsulas on our map.

Language Arts:

In the manual, one of the language arts lessons in interjections. I tried to tell Abby that it would be easy to find an interjection in our book because it was a short word followed by an exclamation mark. And Abby looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently, Abby had seen exclamation marks, but she didnt' know what they were. So, I dumped the lesson on interjections and we talked about exclamation points.

We also talked about repetition in stories. The kids pointed out a few repeated phrases. The kids noticed this carried over to another book we had checked out of the library, What's the Magic Word? by Kelly Dipuchio.

Applied Math:

We measured ourselves.

Art:

We acted out a few different scenarios from the book.

This one is Abby sitting on a bee:

And this one is Emmett being the matador after Ferdinand would not fight:

Science:

We discussed about flowers and labeled their parts. Emmett's paper was on trees and Abby's on flowers. Abby asked, "So, Emmett's has a trunk...is that like a trees stem?" Love the natural discoveries kids make!

And here are Abby's notebook pages for Ferdinand:

Life:

We had crazy wind this week and the kids found a bird's nest in our yard after one of them. They thought it was so neat and loved to pick it up and inspect it. We looked on the internet about birds and how they built their nests. It was a neat impromptu lesson.

I got these cookie sheets on sale at Target and I think they'll be nice for entertaining kids while I'm working with another. (I'm thinking magnet play, rice, sand, play-dough, etc...) Yes, there will be mess...but when is there not when you have four kids five and under? I made magnets out of pom-poms as one option to play with them. The kids thought they were a neat blast too. This will especially good for Ellie and some of her fine motor skills work.

I glued eyes on a few pom-poms too. Emmett made a caterpillar out of his.

Read-Aloud:

We've been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Abby has been loving it. We're about 50-60 pages from the end. Abby's asked me if we can read Harry Potter next. I guess we'll see. LOL I did ask her if she liked Charlie and she said she did, "It's much better than those other books...you know...the ones without chapters." LOL

Fall Line-Up

We are getting ready for "back-to-school" at our house, just like everyone else in the US. Abby keeps asking me when she'll go to "real school." Umm...maybe never? LOL I tell her usually, "We'll see."

Lately, though, she keeps asking me when school starts. So, we've set a date so she can see it on our calendar. I'd like to start with an all-about-you type of page and "first day" pictures and a few light lessons and then maybe we'll go off and do something fun. That something fun, I'm hoping, will emphasize the fact that kids in school don't get to do fun things during the day like that. Daddy's also going to take off, so it will be lots of fun...whatever we do. I haven't decided that yet...

Anyway, with the fall semester coming, it's a great time to evaluate and really see what we're going to do. I'm saving the start of some lessons for the 22nd of August, which is our start date.

This list is subject to change or rearranging as I see fit. After all, it is our first year of homeschooling with curricula and as much as I've read reviews and researched and picked what I think will work...the fact is, it may not.

Abby turned 5 at the end of May.

For Language:

• She is at a solid second-grade reading level. We stopped Funnix 2 halfway through because it was getting repetitive and not necessary. I'm hoping a spelling program that is rich in phonics instruction will fill in any holes in her phonics understanding. For that, we'll be working with All About Spelling Level 1.
• To encourage her reading, I'm going to have her read to me the Sonlight Readers. We'll back up to grade 1 and read through those and the grade 2 readers as well.

For Math:

• I've ordered RightStart Level A and are awaiting its arrival. I think she'll have fun with all the manipulatives. The scripted lessons, I think, we'll be good for her. She does not care for open-ended lessons at all. She wants to be told what to do and complete it effortlessly.

Outside of the House:

• Swimming lessons at the local community college. She really wants to take gymnastics too. Hopefully I can find a way to make that work...

For Everything Else (science, history, art, etc, etc):

• Five in a Row! Enough said. We've done seven units so far and LOVE the curriculum! We own all of the books that aren't out-of-print in the second volume. As we row the other volumes, we'll collect those books as well.

Emmett turns 4 in October.

For Language:

• We'll do lots of letter play and phonemic awareness activities. My aims for him this school year will be to work on rhyming and an increased phonemic awareness. If he's really interested we'll start some of the earliest blending exercises...but probably not. Whatever he wants to do...

For Math:

• He is the type that I could see loving the discovery method of playing with Cuisenaire Rods and Miquon Math. For the next few months the rods will be special time to play between myself and him. Gradually we'll work ourselves into some Miquon-ish type activities.

Outside of the House:

• Swim lessons at the local community college, which he loves! He is quite the little swimmer as well!

For Everything Else:

• Tagging along with his big sis doing FIAR!

Our full-time tag-alongs include:

Ellie turned 2 at the end of July.

• What can I say? She's two. Our goals this school year for her include colors, shapes, speaking in better sentences and finish potty training. Oh, yeah...and trying to contain the toddler tornado. Wish me look on that one.

Hyrum just turned 2 months.

• My goal for him this year would be those typical of the first year of life: giggle, roll, sit, crawl, feed self, stand, walk... Most importantly? Be CUTE!

Join the Blog Hop and see what everyone else is doing!

Trying This Out

I have a regular blog that I post on quite frequently (can we say daily?). I want it to remain to be about the sum-up of our days and the funny things my kids say and do. However, I also want to document our journey as we figure out this homeschooling thing. I did not want to feel inundated with school-y type stuff on our daily blog, so we are trying out a blog simply for school. My goal for this one is to write (maybe weekly?) about the things we're accomplishing, units we're doing, and maybe some fun things along the way.

If Abby were going to public school, she would be starting kindy this fall. We've chosen to keep her home for a number of reasons:

1. The schools in our area are not great. While the school in our neighborhood is rated highly on greatschools.org, we feel as though they are still not the standard we would choose for our children.
2. I really don't want my kids indoctrinated by someone else. I want to be the one picking what my children are learning, and I don't just mean curriculum-wise. My children don't need to be the progeny of a teacher's hidden (or unhidden) agenda. At such an age where they are so impressionable, I want them to hold dear the things that I do.
3. I like the flexibility that comes with homeschooling.
4. I'm selfish and want to keep them home and see them as much as possible.
5. I like my kids.
6. I want my kids to be able to enjoy and love learning. I want to encourage their strengths and buoy their weaknesses. I do not want them falling through the cracks because they are not the proverbial squeaky wheel. I do not want them bored to tears because the rest of the class is a level behind them. I want to foster their desire to understand the world and people around them.

I'm sure I've left reasons out, but those are the important ones.

I've always done school-y activities with my kids. Even my 18-month-old is no stranger to paint and stamps and letters and colors. However, it has been mostly interest-guided since I am a strong believer in learning through play in younger years. As I grow in my parenting and understanding of children, I relax about teaching my children in their toddler years. Abby knew her colors by 18 mos and letters and what they said by 2. Emmett is 3 and still is learning his letters (though, he does know all his numbers and understands one-to-one correlation). Ellie is 18 mos and I'm happy she can do finger-plays, point to major body parts, and tell us in her mono-syllabic way what different animals say (though she can potty in the toilet like a champ). I don't think that means that Abby is more gifted than my younger two. It only shows that I had more time to focus my attention on Abby when she was my only. And, that now I realize the importance of play and making messes in a toddlers life much better now.

I'm hoping to enroll Abby in a virtual school that uses the k12 curriculum, however, it is only offered for grades 1-11 for the next school year. So, for this school year, we'll be keeping it simple. It is only kindergarten and a lot of it should be fun and relaxed.

Reading/Phonics:

Abby is a third of the way through the Funnix Reading System and loving it. I plan to

complete that with her before our next baby is born (May/June).

Emmett is still learning his letters. This school year we're placing a lot more emphasis on letters and the sounds the say. We'll do some drawing of letters, crafts, the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD, and some starfall.

Math:

We'll be using RightStart Math Level A. I'm thinking that we could use Level B, but Emmett seems a bit more mathematically interested at this point so I am hoping he can join in on the lessons/games most of the time. Even if/when we do enroll Abby in k12, I am planning on keeping up with this curriculum until we at least complete Level B.

Everything Else:

We are no strangers to unit study. This year we're going to use Five in a Row to help cover the rest of our learning. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time on the couch with all my little ones around me and a good book on my lap. We're buying maps and are going to explore the regions that each stories take place in as well as marking the areas that we've been to or where we have family living.

I should also mention that while I am a stay-at-home-mom of three (soon to be four!) little ones and life is busy in the aspects of teaching and helping and safeguarding and training my children, my husband and I are also in school ourselves. Dan makes a good living for us in the United States Air Force but still is seeking further knowledge. He's currently taking two courses (6 credit hours) at a local community college. His current major is pre-nursing, but it very well could change. I am almost done with my associates with a major in history (after this semester, only five more classes!) and I hope to move on and earn my bachelors as quickly as possible.