Fudge. I am unhappy to see that I haven't written a darn thing since week 6, and here I am on Week 12. I have several pretty decent excuses...DITY move to a lovely new house, a destroyed laptop, power outages and snowstorms, family upheaval...plus the pure business of the holiday season. Truman and I have in fact been working on our schoolwork, and have accomplished a lot, but not nearly as much as I would have hoped for this time of year. Of course I am aware that Truman still accomplished far more than the average public schooled kid, but we didn't keep to our schedule as written. We have kept up with our reading schedule as dictated by A/O, and have been plugging along in Math, but certain things have fallen to the wayside, like composer and artists studies. I will use the holiday break to get us back on track, and design a plan to implement the subjects that we have not managed to progress in.
To keep myself up to date, I will write what we have accomplished since Week 6. I have still been writing it all down, and putting a check next to every box, but we didn't school...very well. I would give Truman one lesson in math on a Monday morning, then he would read library books all day long, then he would get a spelling test on Tuesday, Off-campus on Wednesday, then Thursday we would do schoolwork all day, and finish everything for the week. Not the greatest schedule, and during the month of December we did manage to get back on our morning schedule, with the bulk of the experiments and games on the afternoons that Henry is at preschool. Anyway-getting off topic, back to what we have actually done.
YTD Grade 3, AO Year 2
HISTORY
The Little Duke-on Chapter 12
Story of the World-Have finished up through Chapter 15, The First Kings of England. Truman has read
all correlating topics in the Internet linked Encyclopedia of World History, and drawn and colored every single map associated with each chapter. History continues to be his very favorite subject.
Tree in the Trail-Read through chapter 18. The map I bought for this book is not useful. We just google movies on related topics-and reading Little House on the Prairie helped him gain a better understanding of the time period.
Viking Tales-even though we read this in Year 1, Truman digs the Vikings, and reread the whole book by himself.
Our Island Story- We are on Chapter 15 More about Alfred the Great.
Many other history books were read during this time, together or by Truman alone, but all were library books, short and not worth mentioning.
MATH
We are on Lesson 42 in Right Start, More about Money, which puts us on track to finish in June of this year. I wish we were more ahead than we are, but Math is the one subject where I am happy to put the lesson aside and play a math game instead. Truman is absolutely on or above grade level expectations, and certainly very good at card and math games. He is about halfway through the district's pre-algebra Groundworks book, fun puzzles that keep him entertained while I shower. We also still do a Mad Minute, and have watched and practiced the 1st Brainetics DVD, about number grids. We are currently learning multiplication, while drilling in subtraction to cement it into his brain.
SCIENCE
In chemistry, we are on Unit 6, on the States of Matter, and will finish the last Unit, on Chemical Reactions during this upcoming month. We have done a lot of experiments this month, mostly because the labs called for building molecules out of Legos, and you know that was a hit. Today's experiment calls for ice and boiling water, steam and jello. Sounds messy.
AO's Burgess Book is still being used, and we are totally up to date on our cataloging of the mammals. I will photograph the cladogram later, perhaps when there is daylight. More realistically, I will wait until we are finished. Truman reads this book on his own, then tells me about the animal of the day while he puts it in it's place on the chart. He is enjoying this book, and has to be reminded to only read one chapter at a time. I love that he loves this book, because it is such a beautiful old book, and so well written.
Our Nature walks have not gone well from a Charlotte Mason perspective. There are just too many amazing, exciting things to look at in our new neighborhood, and the boys do not stay with me when we go outside. That is fine, because honestly, I have been organizing the garage or stuck staring at the water when we go out for a "Nature Walk." We will have a new guide to use starting next week, because I am failing with the Handbook of Nature Study. I do read it-but always after the fact, and so am not prepared like I want to be.
SPANISH
Still plugging along with our book, but the worksheets are too easy. We have had a setback because my Language Program doesn't work with our new MacBook, and the PC does not seem to want to come back to life after that last move. The best way for me to teach Spanish seems to be in the car, because one of my favorite music CD's is a Spanish compilation including Juanes, Shakira. The boys can sing the songs, and occasionally it occurs to them to ask what the words mean. It is also easy to quiz them while driving, and have Henry answer in English/Spanish, and Truman answer only in Spanish.
LITERATURE
We finished ...sob. It was a darling book, and we all loved it. We are almost finished with 5 children and It, Romeo and Juliet from the Lambs Shakespeare, several stories from Among the People. We are almost finished with Dangerous Journey-The Pilgrims Progress....the sooner the better. Truman has read so many books in the past couple of weeks, we can't even list them all. The school district has a guided reading program, and I took all the 3rd and 4th grade required books ( I would definitely NOT call them literature), just to let Truman read them in his free time. I have him write the titles and authors of these books on a list, to practice writing in this format, but do not require anything other than that. No narrations, because these books are so simplistic that T usually reads them to Henry, who enjoys them.
SPELLING/GRAMMAR
We are on Lesson 47 in Sequential Spelling, and Truman is very interested in how much his writing has improved since the beginning of the year. Having all of his lists in one book lets him track his progress himself, and he loves to look back and notice how silly he was writing so badly, or erasing so many times for one easy word. I still think that this is the greatest program ever! I am sure if I would have used it growing up, I wouldn't have to make all of my computer passwords words that I have difficulty spelling.
Truman whizzed through the Wordly Wise Grade 3 book, finished before Christmas, and doesn't have to do another until 4th grade. These are also district books, but pretty decent vocabulary development, although I do not require the "busywork" like crossword puzzles.
POETRY/ARTIST AND COMPOSER STUDY
We are finished reading the poetry of Walter de la Mare, and it was very nice. Truman read almost all of these by himself, because he enjoys poetry, and we talked about a couple that I had read before-hand. I did forget to have Truman memorize a poem this term, how did that slip my mind?
The Artist of the Term-Albrecht Durer......we only looked at a few pieces and read his biography, and a story about him. I certainly didn't teach according to AO guidelines, and I feel a bit guilty about it, but this is an area where I lose interest pretty rapidly unless it is riveting, and Durer was not. I have a feeling the I might be failing Truman in this area, and so I have a different approach planned for the rest of the year.
Composer of the Term was Beethoven. This was easy to do, since the music is generally always on. We read a book on Beethoven, a couple of different versions of his life's story, picked out some of his music on the piano, played the CD in the car. Truman can't name each composition, but he can recognize Beethoven when he hears it, which is an accomplishment in itself.
EXTRAS
We attempted another district book called Living in Our World, which is the grade 3 "geography" text. It was so disjointed though, and Truman complained a lot. It has units on "living together" "working together" "communities grow and change." There was a workbook that came with it, but it was mostly more and more writing about how Truman felt about "the Sheldon's Move to Aurora, Ohio ( a puny story in the book" and NOT enough charts, maps, time lines for Truman.
NEW PLAN
For the 2nd and 3rd terms, I will stick with AO Literature, Right Start Math, Spelling, finish Chem, and generally everything else will be the same. I am adding a few new books,
Meet the Great Composers by Montgomery and Hinson
Lives of the Musicians, Good Times, Bad times, and what the Neighbors thought, by Krull
The Story of the Orchestra, by Robert Levine
Discovering Great Artists by Kohl and Solga
Lives of the Artists, Good Times, Bad Times, and what the Neighbors thought, by Krull
My Nature Journal, by Olmstead
A Child's Geography of the World, by VM Hillyer. This book looks entertaining, and has a great musty old look and feel to it. I have a schedule-made by someone else-as to how to implement this book, and I can't wait! AO geography, with Tree in the Trail, is fabulous, but just not enough for Truman. I did discover this book from the AO sites, and was happy to find a great old copy in the Used Book Store.
These additions are to cover the gaps that I feel we have in our school, gaps that are only there because of my inadequacies. I am totally aware that there are tons of bits to be gathered from the internet about each of these subjects, and that is what my AO friends do...for free, even, but I would much rather have it written out for me. A book that we can sit in a chair with, a CD to stick in the car. I wish I had the free time to gather up all of the free resources available and implement my own plan, but I will be just as happy to take a shortcut. I only need to check out the indexes and correlate the books with each other, divide up the books to cover the rest of the year.
TESTING
After week 12 is the testing week for AO, and I did this by asking Truman to tell his favorite part about all of the books that we have read. He remembers everything beautifully, gave lovely narrations, even had a glow and a dear reminiscent look to his face when talking about certain books. No doubt due to the relationship he had with them, being read over such a long period. His facts are pretty good, although he forgot a few minor characters in history (Clovis) and was a little bit confused about the sequence of events in New Zealand and the dynasties in Japan that we studied. He still has the big picture firmly in place, and is excited to move on. All of our other programs, math, spelling, chemistry have periodic reviews that we complete without issue.
This is my catch up post, from here on out they will be current. New Year's resolutions will see to that.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Week 6
The 6th week of our school year already?! This week we seem to be cramming a lot into few hours, so that we can everything done, and still have a lot of free time. Some subjects have fallen to the wayside, and sadly, the first to go is formal Nature Study and Spanish. We have still spent plenty of time outside, but rather than draw plants and read about insects, we have been ripping up our summer garden and avoiding the unbelievable spider infestation that has blanketed Silverdale. I realize that this still counts as life skill development, but I still miss the formality of our nature notebooks. Spanish should be easy to practice daily, but I cannot get into the swing of talking to Truman in Spanish rather than English. Perhaps if I had a few post-its around to remind me. There's an idea.
We have been able to keep up with the rest of our subjects, especially math and history, which I am scared to get behind in. We managed to get through 4 math lessons this week, plus many math related games. I have taken to asking Truman the time multiple times per day, and while it takes him a while, he can get it.
The weeks' subjects:
Spelling, 4 tests
Poetry of Walter de la Mare -8 poems
Piano-we are working on some Christmas songs for dad.
Copywork-Truman's cursive is really nice, and I am trying to get him to take spelling tests in cursive. No
luck so far.
Spanish-only once DVD lesson, plus food worksheets.
The Little Duke, 2nd half of ch.3, plus character list.
Tree in the Trail-chapter 8 and 9
Burgess Animals Chapter XI and XII
Understood Betsy, chapter 5
Pilgrims Progress-kind of accelerating through this, because I just want to finish.
Among the People
Julius Caesar movie from the 50's. It was fabulous, although looooong. Truman was a little bit
uncomfortable when Caesar was stabbed, so we had a discussion about movie blood, and had to look up
how they do it on the internet.
Several Dangerous Boys chemistry experiments.
Albrect Durer-only managed to look at ONE picture, and now that I think about it....I forgot to ask for a narration.
We have been able to keep up with the rest of our subjects, especially math and history, which I am scared to get behind in. We managed to get through 4 math lessons this week, plus many math related games. I have taken to asking Truman the time multiple times per day, and while it takes him a while, he can get it.
The weeks' subjects:
Spelling, 4 tests
Poetry of Walter de la Mare -8 poems
Piano-we are working on some Christmas songs for dad.
Copywork-Truman's cursive is really nice, and I am trying to get him to take spelling tests in cursive. No
luck so far.
Spanish-only once DVD lesson, plus food worksheets.
The Little Duke, 2nd half of ch.3, plus character list.
Tree in the Trail-chapter 8 and 9
Burgess Animals Chapter XI and XII
Understood Betsy, chapter 5
Pilgrims Progress-kind of accelerating through this, because I just want to finish.
Among the People
Julius Caesar movie from the 50's. It was fabulous, although looooong. Truman was a little bit
uncomfortable when Caesar was stabbed, so we had a discussion about movie blood, and had to look up
how they do it on the internet.
Several Dangerous Boys chemistry experiments.
Albrect Durer-only managed to look at ONE picture, and now that I think about it....I forgot to ask for a narration.
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| Carbonizing a marshmallow, taking notes every minute for 20 minutes. |
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| Titrating bleach and food dye! |
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| Certain the marshmallow can still be eaten, despite being harder than a rock. |
Friday, October 1, 2010
Week 5
Ratchet up the Chaos! I was wondering what I could do this month that would be totally disruptive to our easy routines, something that would require hard labour and multiple bickering sessions between Will and I... Homeschooling, my master's finals, my temporarily deployed husband (only an hour and 15 minutes away, but still...), Cub Scouting, and all the other things that we do apparently weren't quite enough to keep me occupied, so I decided to MOVE.
I was wondering if I could find a house on the water that was in our price range, browsed around craigslist, submitted a few inquires, made a few drive-by's, and darn if I didn't find a lovely place on Liberty Bay, with fabulous neighbors, homeschoolers across the street, a beautiful kitchen, and a monster playroom! The eastern side of the house is made of floor-to-ceiling glass, looking out across the water. Of course, I have already decorated the place in my mind, and I can already envision snuggling in front of the windows with our school books and the fire on rainy days, blankets on the beach with our work on the sunny ones. I have this idea in my mind that the tranquil ruralness of the place is going to make me a calm, angelic teacher; a mommy that is composed and serene, gazing out the window while her children do her reasonable bidding. Don't laugh. Perception is reality, and if I think a quiet home with a view will sedate me, then it will. I am already browsing the Washington State naturalist sites so that I can teach my boys the name of every single thing that washes up on the beach. I still have two weeks of relatively normal schooling before the move, so I may as well stick to blogging about homeschool, not my upcoming view of Puget Sound.
This week Truman finally finished his one sentence per day book report on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. To read his report it sounds like he didn't like the book because of his stilted writing style, but I know that he really did.
We had two days of Math review, which Truman aced, thankfully. I read the entire book about the Gift of Learning, and I just cannot say that Truman has a dysfunction with Math. The number reversal improved with just a few days of me acting like a Writing Nazi, and letting him look at his numbers written on the glass door also helped. He still has the attention span of a dust mote unless he is building with Legos or reading a book, but that is typical 7 year old boy behavior, right? What drove me up a wall this week was his humming for 4 days straight. I didn't say anything because it seemed mean to make him stop, and it was Beethoven he was humming...History was all about The Rise of Islam, and it was fascinating! Even my 7 year old can see how amazingly parallel it is to Christianity. We even read a bit of the Koran at the Library, although I felt like hiding it behind a magazine while doing it.
Truman pounded out several chemistry experiments this week, as well as brought his mammal diagram completely up to date. This chart looks fabulous, and when it is done I will have to photograph it.
Today (Friday) is our day to play catch-up, and finish everything that we had not had a chance to do this week. I have to admit that we crammed a lot of schoolwork into two days, because we spent some time looking at houses and playing on the beach. Today we will do neither, and I have big plans for our Henry-free afternoon.
Truman and I went to the Off-Campus Back to Class picnic, where Truman meet all the other 3rd grade homeschoolers who will be in his Wednesday class. 4 boys and 5 girls, a good mix. The teacher is lovely, and appears to have the patience of a saint. She was asking the kids if they had any nicknames, and Truman said, " My friends just call me True." with a nonchalant shrug. It was so Ponyboy from the Outsiders that I laughed out loud, which instantly lessened his coolness and made him scowl. I felt bad for my boy and his embarrassing mommy, and left for the rest of his class.
Picture of the week-Truman and Henry on the Ferry to Seattle on Thursday.
I was wondering if I could find a house on the water that was in our price range, browsed around craigslist, submitted a few inquires, made a few drive-by's, and darn if I didn't find a lovely place on Liberty Bay, with fabulous neighbors, homeschoolers across the street, a beautiful kitchen, and a monster playroom! The eastern side of the house is made of floor-to-ceiling glass, looking out across the water. Of course, I have already decorated the place in my mind, and I can already envision snuggling in front of the windows with our school books and the fire on rainy days, blankets on the beach with our work on the sunny ones. I have this idea in my mind that the tranquil ruralness of the place is going to make me a calm, angelic teacher; a mommy that is composed and serene, gazing out the window while her children do her reasonable bidding. Don't laugh. Perception is reality, and if I think a quiet home with a view will sedate me, then it will. I am already browsing the Washington State naturalist sites so that I can teach my boys the name of every single thing that washes up on the beach. I still have two weeks of relatively normal schooling before the move, so I may as well stick to blogging about homeschool, not my upcoming view of Puget Sound.
This week Truman finally finished his one sentence per day book report on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. To read his report it sounds like he didn't like the book because of his stilted writing style, but I know that he really did.
We had two days of Math review, which Truman aced, thankfully. I read the entire book about the Gift of Learning, and I just cannot say that Truman has a dysfunction with Math. The number reversal improved with just a few days of me acting like a Writing Nazi, and letting him look at his numbers written on the glass door also helped. He still has the attention span of a dust mote unless he is building with Legos or reading a book, but that is typical 7 year old boy behavior, right? What drove me up a wall this week was his humming for 4 days straight. I didn't say anything because it seemed mean to make him stop, and it was Beethoven he was humming...Truman pounded out several chemistry experiments this week, as well as brought his mammal diagram completely up to date. This chart looks fabulous, and when it is done I will have to photograph it.
Today (Friday) is our day to play catch-up, and finish everything that we had not had a chance to do this week. I have to admit that we crammed a lot of schoolwork into two days, because we spent some time looking at houses and playing on the beach. Today we will do neither, and I have big plans for our Henry-free afternoon.
Truman and I went to the Off-Campus Back to Class picnic, where Truman meet all the other 3rd grade homeschoolers who will be in his Wednesday class. 4 boys and 5 girls, a good mix. The teacher is lovely, and appears to have the patience of a saint. She was asking the kids if they had any nicknames, and Truman said, " My friends just call me True." with a nonchalant shrug. It was so Ponyboy from the Outsiders that I laughed out loud, which instantly lessened his coolness and made him scowl. I felt bad for my boy and his embarrassing mommy, and left for the rest of his class.
Picture of the week-Truman and Henry on the Ferry to Seattle on Thursday.
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| Too cool for school-notice Truman's attempt at accessorizing....his blocky name necklace! Still a 7 year old, depite the urban punk look I think he was going for. |
Monday, September 27, 2010
Week 4
Another lovely week of homeschooling! Sometimes it is baffling why anyone would want to send their children off for the whole day rather than spend such quality time learning with them. That being said, I really love sending Henry to his preschool....so that Truman and I can have one-on-one time. Henry is a high-maintenance little person who will not take no for an answer, and will not be distracted with "special toys that are only for schooltime." So he has to participate.
Lessons that Henry participates in during the week-
Artist Study-loves to be quizzed on paintings that we are studying.
Piano-he has to sit quietly and listen while Truman practices with mom, then Truman has to listen while Henry practices with Mom. Henry is all about reciprocity and his interpretation of the Golden Rule (if they did something to you-you have to do it to them...)
Spanish- This is easily done with Henry, and he seems to have an ear for it. Truman has lessons, Henry listens while crawling all over me, then they both get to watch a Spanish cartoon. However, Henry and Truman have taken "No comprendo" too far lately, saying it after every request I make.
Poetry-Henry will patiently listen to the poem, listen to Truman read the poems, and even ask questions.
Nature Study-He will happily draw whatever we are drawing, although Henry gets frustrated pretty easily. He has his own nature journal, although his dandelions look suspicously like race cars, as do his trees, flowers, birds.
Composer-It is also easy to integrate a small person into composer studies, because the music (Beethoven this term) is always on. Henry can identify instruments, and Truman enjoys quizzing him using the same questions mommy asks Truman.
Handicrafts-Henry hovers over Truman while he works on his leather projects, and Truman tolerates it like a champ.
Folk Songs- Still working on The Golden Vanity. Just another song for Henry to sing, more appropriate than the songs he has learned from Dr. Horrible's-Sing-Along-Blog, anyway.
I know that Henry will be an awesome child to school when the time comes, as he enjoys his minimal lessons immensly. Right now, however, he is a roadblock to smooth, peaceful mornings curled up on the couch with books.
The things that Henry cannot participate in, (Chemistry, Math, Spelling and Grammar, many of the readings and associated work) we do when Henry is in his Preschool on M,W, F afternoons. It is almost shocking how much we can do in such a short amount of time without Henry around.
This week, besides the activites mentioned above, Truman and I studied the following:
Chemistry-Oxygen and Sulfur, the labs involved eggs and H2O2, lots of stinky and bubbly fun.
History/Geography-The Gupta Dynasty and the Medieval Indian Empire ( I truly love Story of the World and their maps)
Pilgrims' Progress-This book is driving me nuts, but to Truman, it is just another story.
Understood Betsy-LOVE IT! Chapter 3
Tree in the Trail-I decided that the maps we were using were not adequate, and finally broke down and ordered the 5 dollar map from Beautiful Feet. From what I have read, this Beautiful feet map will change our lives.
The Little Duke-second half of Chapter 2, and our character list. Also developing into a great story.
Burgess Animals, Chapters 7 and 8, plus our diagram. It was funny to see that others in the year 2 group think that we are flying through this book....I think so, too. At least it is enjoyable. Truman reads this to himself, with prereading done by me so that I can follow his narration. This week was more than I ever wanted to know about Squirrels...which I think are too rodent-like to be considered cute.
Sequential Spelling- I cannot say enough about this program. In two short months I have watched Truman grow into a competent speller. Not ready for the National Spelling Bee, but I could almost imagine that in his future!
We work on Wordly Wise daily (which I am not crazy about- I think he gets enough Vocabulary through our literature, but is gives the district a box to check off).
Math-Right Start lesson 24, Groundworks, Mad Minutes. I am having a bit of trouble understanding Truman's abilities right now, and have been scouring the internet for answers. He exerts little effort and really enjoys the prealgebra Groundworks, and cannot get enough logic puzzles...yet he still reverses his numbers, and REALLY struggles with Mental Math, even though he knows these answers. The alarm went off when he added something in his head, and instead of saying 164 as the answer, he gave me 461. Truman did reverse a lot of his letters, and would write in mirror images for a few years, but after reading about dyslexia I chalked it up to immaturity, and it has gone away for the most part. The number reversal is not going away, however, and it turn out that there is such a thing as discalculia! I spent several cups of coffee reading about this new topic, and implemented some strategies immediately. We wrote the numbers that he has trouble with 5, 2, 6, 4 with dry erase marker on the glass doors, very large, and very deliberate. Apparently there is a difference between writing on a paper on the desk in front of you, and writing with your head up on a transparent surface. I would quote that source, but now I can't find it. We will see how this works. Truman thought is was a hoot, anyway.
The other issues, such as struggling with answering simple math problems orally, I cannot attribute to any real difficulty with math concepts right now. I think that Truman more has trouble filtering out the noise in his head to focus on what was asked of him. I found a strangely appropriate book called The Gift of Learning, Proven New Methods for correcting ADD, Math and Handwriting Problems by R. Davis. I am still reading it, though. Truman's Dad would love to medicate him and even brought home the Conner's rating scales for ADD from the hospital, which Truman flunked (but then so did Will AND I.) Will has been rapidly Westernized by hanging out in the Medical field, mommy still wants to try alternative methods. This is kind of a new issue for me, still processing information and really-have no clear plan right now other than to read more and try to find some people who are knowledgeable about this.
A note about a lovely, high tech rabbit trail we took Friday afternoon. Truman and I were reading a description of Nuremburg, Germany in a biography of our artist, Albrecht Durer, and decided we needed to see this place for ourselves. We flew there through Google Earth, where we were amazed to find pictures of almost every street corner, every statue we read about...it was like a mini-vacation to Nuremburg. Then we flew to Rome to visit Aunt Amy and the Coleseum, then NYC because Truman doesn't remember visiting, then our house in Silverdale, then we went to Orange Beach and stood on Gran's pier. Two hours of siteseeing, and we didn't leave the couch. It is pretty amazing that this technology exisits, and now my 7 year old is on a mission to document Silverdale and posts pictures on Google Earth, because our poor little town was sadly under-represented with photos.
Lessons that Henry participates in during the week-
Artist Study-loves to be quizzed on paintings that we are studying.
Piano-he has to sit quietly and listen while Truman practices with mom, then Truman has to listen while Henry practices with Mom. Henry is all about reciprocity and his interpretation of the Golden Rule (if they did something to you-you have to do it to them...)
Spanish- This is easily done with Henry, and he seems to have an ear for it. Truman has lessons, Henry listens while crawling all over me, then they both get to watch a Spanish cartoon. However, Henry and Truman have taken "No comprendo" too far lately, saying it after every request I make.
Poetry-Henry will patiently listen to the poem, listen to Truman read the poems, and even ask questions.
Nature Study-He will happily draw whatever we are drawing, although Henry gets frustrated pretty easily. He has his own nature journal, although his dandelions look suspicously like race cars, as do his trees, flowers, birds.
Composer-It is also easy to integrate a small person into composer studies, because the music (Beethoven this term) is always on. Henry can identify instruments, and Truman enjoys quizzing him using the same questions mommy asks Truman.
Handicrafts-Henry hovers over Truman while he works on his leather projects, and Truman tolerates it like a champ.
Folk Songs- Still working on The Golden Vanity. Just another song for Henry to sing, more appropriate than the songs he has learned from Dr. Horrible's-Sing-Along-Blog, anyway.
I know that Henry will be an awesome child to school when the time comes, as he enjoys his minimal lessons immensly. Right now, however, he is a roadblock to smooth, peaceful mornings curled up on the couch with books.
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| Early Morning Pipe Cleaner Forest animals |
The things that Henry cannot participate in, (Chemistry, Math, Spelling and Grammar, many of the readings and associated work) we do when Henry is in his Preschool on M,W, F afternoons. It is almost shocking how much we can do in such a short amount of time without Henry around.
This week, besides the activites mentioned above, Truman and I studied the following:
Chemistry-Oxygen and Sulfur, the labs involved eggs and H2O2, lots of stinky and bubbly fun.
History/Geography-The Gupta Dynasty and the Medieval Indian Empire ( I truly love Story of the World and their maps)
Pilgrims' Progress-This book is driving me nuts, but to Truman, it is just another story.
Understood Betsy-LOVE IT! Chapter 3
Tree in the Trail-I decided that the maps we were using were not adequate, and finally broke down and ordered the 5 dollar map from Beautiful Feet. From what I have read, this Beautiful feet map will change our lives.
Burgess Animals, Chapters 7 and 8, plus our diagram. It was funny to see that others in the year 2 group think that we are flying through this book....I think so, too. At least it is enjoyable. Truman reads this to himself, with prereading done by me so that I can follow his narration. This week was more than I ever wanted to know about Squirrels...which I think are too rodent-like to be considered cute.
Sequential Spelling- I cannot say enough about this program. In two short months I have watched Truman grow into a competent speller. Not ready for the National Spelling Bee, but I could almost imagine that in his future!
We work on Wordly Wise daily (which I am not crazy about- I think he gets enough Vocabulary through our literature, but is gives the district a box to check off).
Math-Right Start lesson 24, Groundworks, Mad Minutes. I am having a bit of trouble understanding Truman's abilities right now, and have been scouring the internet for answers. He exerts little effort and really enjoys the prealgebra Groundworks, and cannot get enough logic puzzles...yet he still reverses his numbers, and REALLY struggles with Mental Math, even though he knows these answers. The alarm went off when he added something in his head, and instead of saying 164 as the answer, he gave me 461. Truman did reverse a lot of his letters, and would write in mirror images for a few years, but after reading about dyslexia I chalked it up to immaturity, and it has gone away for the most part. The number reversal is not going away, however, and it turn out that there is such a thing as discalculia! I spent several cups of coffee reading about this new topic, and implemented some strategies immediately. We wrote the numbers that he has trouble with 5, 2, 6, 4 with dry erase marker on the glass doors, very large, and very deliberate. Apparently there is a difference between writing on a paper on the desk in front of you, and writing with your head up on a transparent surface. I would quote that source, but now I can't find it. We will see how this works. Truman thought is was a hoot, anyway.
The other issues, such as struggling with answering simple math problems orally, I cannot attribute to any real difficulty with math concepts right now. I think that Truman more has trouble filtering out the noise in his head to focus on what was asked of him. I found a strangely appropriate book called The Gift of Learning, Proven New Methods for correcting ADD, Math and Handwriting Problems by R. Davis. I am still reading it, though. Truman's Dad would love to medicate him and even brought home the Conner's rating scales for ADD from the hospital, which Truman flunked (but then so did Will AND I.) Will has been rapidly Westernized by hanging out in the Medical field, mommy still wants to try alternative methods. This is kind of a new issue for me, still processing information and really-have no clear plan right now other than to read more and try to find some people who are knowledgeable about this.
A note about a lovely, high tech rabbit trail we took Friday afternoon. Truman and I were reading a description of Nuremburg, Germany in a biography of our artist, Albrecht Durer, and decided we needed to see this place for ourselves. We flew there through Google Earth, where we were amazed to find pictures of almost every street corner, every statue we read about...it was like a mini-vacation to Nuremburg. Then we flew to Rome to visit Aunt Amy and the Coleseum, then NYC because Truman doesn't remember visiting, then our house in Silverdale, then we went to Orange Beach and stood on Gran's pier. Two hours of siteseeing, and we didn't leave the couch. It is pretty amazing that this technology exisits, and now my 7 year old is on a mission to document Silverdale and posts pictures on Google Earth, because our poor little town was sadly under-represented with photos.
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| Yep, these boys can read. |
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Week 3
Oops-I forgot to publish this last week, although it was all written on Monday. Good thing I do not have anyone depending upon me to blog.
Here is it Monday morning at 5:30, and I am on my second cup of coffee. I spent half and hour Saturday morning organizing the week ahead, making copies, and rearranging our homeschool bookshelf, this morning all I had to do was put the work into our hanging folder, which took all of 1 minute, then spent the rest of my time reading everyone else's homeschool blogs.
Our week is going to be a little bit unusual, since we are taking Thursday off to go hiking with my visiting friend. She will actually be here Wednesday until Friday morning, but only affects out homeschool for one day. (It ended affecting school for two days, because I had to clean and organize the playroom/guestroom Wednesday morning, and Truman had to help. We didn't go hiking, either, because it was pouring-we went to the Bainbridge Island Children's Museum instead.)
Week 3 and we are mostly into the hang of full-time schooling again. Our work for the week-
Sequential Spelling-4 days a week, test every day given by mom, no other memorization otherwise
Poetry of Walter de la Mare-4 days a week, 3-4 poems per day (they're short) read by both mom and T
Right Start Math-4 days a week, always with Mom
Piano-6 days a week, but 4 of those days Mommy sits down and works on theory with Truman.
Copywork-4 days a week. Right now he is working on Cursive, writing out all of the people we are
studying.
Spanish-DVD once a week, easy Spanish vocabulary twice a week, Spanish cartoon 1x/week
R.E.A.L. Science Chemistry-Twice per week, experiment once a week. With Mom!
Story of the World-Chapter 3 and 4 this week-Medieval monasteries, Justinian, Byzantine empire.
Truman will be thrilled that there is advanced map work.
The Little Duke-Chapter 2 and work on our character list.
Cultural Study-Meet Jesus storybook
Tree in the Trail-chapter 4, read by Truman, out loud to Mom and Henry
Burgess Animal Book, chapters 5 and 6, and add the new animals to our huge diagram
Understood Betsy-Chapter 2. Mommy LOVES this story, and has already read way ahead.
Pilgrim's Progress/Dangerous Journey+Character sketch
Among the Forest People-A Story about Hedgehogs
Artist Study-we abandoned Albrecht Durer this week and just reviewed our artists from previous years, ie.
Cassatt, Monet, Sargent, Van Gogh.
Folk Song-Golden Vanity continued. Truman says the idea gives him nightmares about drowning. :(
Here is it Monday morning at 5:30, and I am on my second cup of coffee. I spent half and hour Saturday morning organizing the week ahead, making copies, and rearranging our homeschool bookshelf, this morning all I had to do was put the work into our hanging folder, which took all of 1 minute, then spent the rest of my time reading everyone else's homeschool blogs.
Our week is going to be a little bit unusual, since we are taking Thursday off to go hiking with my visiting friend. She will actually be here Wednesday until Friday morning, but only affects out homeschool for one day. (It ended affecting school for two days, because I had to clean and organize the playroom/guestroom Wednesday morning, and Truman had to help. We didn't go hiking, either, because it was pouring-we went to the Bainbridge Island Children's Museum instead.)
Week 3 and we are mostly into the hang of full-time schooling again. Our work for the week-
Sequential Spelling-4 days a week, test every day given by mom, no other memorization otherwise
Poetry of Walter de la Mare-4 days a week, 3-4 poems per day (they're short) read by both mom and T
Right Start Math-4 days a week, always with Mom
Piano-6 days a week, but 4 of those days Mommy sits down and works on theory with Truman.
Copywork-4 days a week. Right now he is working on Cursive, writing out all of the people we are
studying.
Spanish-DVD once a week, easy Spanish vocabulary twice a week, Spanish cartoon 1x/week
R.E.A.L. Science Chemistry-Twice per week, experiment once a week. With Mom!
Story of the World-Chapter 3 and 4 this week-Medieval monasteries, Justinian, Byzantine empire.
Truman will be thrilled that there is advanced map work.
The Little Duke-Chapter 2 and work on our character list.
Cultural Study-Meet Jesus storybook
Tree in the Trail-chapter 4, read by Truman, out loud to Mom and Henry
Burgess Animal Book, chapters 5 and 6, and add the new animals to our huge diagram
Understood Betsy-Chapter 2. Mommy LOVES this story, and has already read way ahead.
Pilgrim's Progress/Dangerous Journey+Character sketch
Among the Forest People-A Story about Hedgehogs
Nature Study-neighborhood Maple Trees
Composer Study-Truman finished his Beethoven Book and listen to every single piece on the CD, now is
dictating a synopsis to me.
Handicrafts-made a dog leash holder at Lowe's, plus worked on his Leather crafting projects....Christmas
gifts for relatives....Artist Study-we abandoned Albrecht Durer this week and just reviewed our artists from previous years, ie.
Cassatt, Monet, Sargent, Van Gogh.
Folk Song-Golden Vanity continued. Truman says the idea gives him nightmares about drowning. :(
Recipe-Toast and Partially cooked eggs in an egg cup for dipping. Truman thinks this is very **fancy**
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Week 2
This week I am breaking the work into time increments, because there are some folks in my group who are wondering about scheduling and how it can all possibly fit into a day. At the beginning of the week it always seems like fitting in all this reading will be difficult, but after it is broken up into daily work, the amount is easily handled. Monday was an odd day, because Daddy was home for the holiday...he always throws us off our game somehow. We can handle it though...we are flexible!
MONDAY
History/Geography
TUESDAY
History/Geography
Math
WEDNESDAY
History/Geography
History/Geography
FRIDAY
Mondays' work took about two hours, not including including game time with Dad.
Tuesday 2 hours and 25 minutes, plus 70 minutes of swimming
Wednesday About 2 hours and 30 minutes
Thursday- About 2 hours 25 minutes of work, plus 90 minutes of drawing lessons.
Friday -almost three hours, which just so happens to be the length of time that Henry is at preschool.
What I didn't write about or time is the reading that we do first thing in the morning when the boys wake up and snuggle on the couch, usually one book per kid. At night before bed we read longer books in mom's bed after they are bathed and jammied. We read for a loooooong time, usually books from our library. We JUST this week finished 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne-this is a big deal-we have been reading it for months! Truman will write a book report on it next week. Currently we are reading the AO free read- Little house on the Prairie, and also the Buddhist Bedtime stories, alternated with a bible story from my kid bible.
Each day doesn't take only 2 hours and 25 minutes to do school work...I wish it did, but it generally takes about 4 hours, usually starting about 9, ending after lunch. We take breaks to have a snack, run around outside if he is getting antsy, play Legos with Henry. Plus... I swear Truman has to go to the bathroom every ten minutes....Thursday our work was all done after lunch because Art took up the whole morning. I expect Friday will be a bit mixed up as well, since we are taking a looong break at lunch to eat at the hospital with on-call Daddy. Friday is the day they have to wear their camouflage...my favorite day to visit. :)
Saturday the boys will go to Lowes and build their craft of the Day. This counts as handcrafting!
MONDAY
History/Geography
- I read Our Island Story, the Coming of Hengist and Horsa, and asked for narration-which Truman did while building a tower out of erasers. (Time-10 minutes)
- We read the first section of Story of the World-Ch 2 The Celts of Britain-Truman drew a map of their route. (6 minutes)
- Tree in the Trail-Truman read out loud, chapter 3 (4 min) no narration
- Truman and I read the first Chapter of Understood Betsy, and so far-we can tell we will love it! (15 minutes)
- We also read the second half of the first chapter of Dangerous Journey (Pilgrim's Progress) (10 minutes) Made a character list.
- Peter Pan -read by mom while boys watercolor (15 minutes)
- The Whipping Boy-Truman took this to bed and read for who knows how long....
- Truman read Burgess Animals to himself-Ch. III, and colored the Peterson's reference. I asked about the new rabbits he read about (I read the chapter earlier while I was setting up the day), and he tried to stump me with a question from the chapter (20 min)
- One Mad minute (addition skills) (1 minute...ha) (but at least 2 minutes prep. Find your pencil.....find your pencil...turn the light off in the bathroom...sit down.. )
- Truman continued his graph on temperature, did a whole page on snake pre-algebra (from our district curricula) (4 minutes)
- Played Ticket to Ride with Dad, and kept the entire score (40 minutes total)
- Truman read his Wordly Wise definitions, and did the first exercise. (10 minutes)
- Sequential Spelling Test 19 (20 minutes)
TUESDAY
History/Geography
- Story of the World Ch 2. Barbarians come to Britain, Beowulf . Colored a picture of Beowulf (10 min)
- Our Island Story-Hengist's Treachery (5 minutes) narrated by Truman.
- Usborne Internet Linked World History (5 minutes)
- Peter Pan (15 minutes)
- Poetry of Walter de la Mare (2 poems-5 minutes)
- One Mad Minute (1 min) Pre-Algebra sheet (2 min)
- Right Start Lesson 13 Roman Numerals-wrote numerals to 34 (15 minutes)
- Cursive copywork (2 minutes)
- Sequential Spelling (15 minutes)
- What Do You Stand For? Character connection. (5 min)
- Composer study-The Chiming Tower Bells-Truman read to himself, listened to "Anger over a lost Penny" (20 minutes)
- Leathercraft-Truman stamped a pattern and a T into a keychain. (30 min)
- Swimming (70 minutes of fun!)
- Piano (15 min)
WEDNESDAY
History/Geography
- The Little Duke, 2nd half of Chapter 1, plus Truman wrote a character list (20 minutes)
- OIS, ch 11 and 12 The Story of how the Giants Dance was brought to Britain. (The story of Stonehenge) This was narrated with a very elaborate skit directed by Truman, involving stuffed animals, lego men, and a shark hat. (20 minutes)
- Peter Pan (15 Minutes)
- Chemistry experiment-The slime that ate Slovenia (15 very messy minutes)
Math
- One Mad minute (1)
- Right Start Lesson 14, Multiples and Roman Numerals to 499 (15 minutes)
- Continued graphing temperature...which is sadly getting lower each day...(1)
- Piano (20 min)
- Cursive copywork from Peter Pan (4 min)
- Truman read the 1st chapter in his Wolf Book (10 min)
- Sequential Spelling (20 minutes)
- Peaceful Piggy Meditation-read by Truman to Mom....then practiced by both (10 minutes)
- Fingerpainting
History/Geography
- Our Island Story, The Coming of Arthur, and The Founding of the Round Table (20 minutes) Narrated by skit with Lego Men (Truman is still on a production high from yesterday)
- Truman read Ch 3 Tree in the Trail out loud to Mom and Henry (who fell asleep) (10 minutes)
- Walter de la Mare 2 poems (5 minutes) read by Truman
- Peter Pan (15 minutes)
- Understood Betsy-2nd half of Chapter 1 (10 minutes)
- Made notebook pages for Group 14, Silicon and Carbon, read, colored, glued (15 min)
- Truman read Burgess Chapter 4, colored in the new mammals, Mommy read up on phylogenetics so that the chart we start tomorrow is *accurate* (25 minutes)
- Temperature graph, Mad Minute (3 minutes)
- Multiples of 5 and 10, Roman Numerals (Truman LOVES writing out long numbers in Roman numerals, asked for more.) (20 minutes)
- Prealgebra groundwork (5 minutes-kind of a harder graph to interpret...about Trees)
- Kitsap Art in Olde Town Silverdale-Level 2 Homeschool class (90 minutes-1x per week)
- Character connection-more talk about How we show that we care about folks.
- Piano (10 minutes)
- Beethoven story, we have reached the part where he becomes deaf :( Listened to a few compositions) (10 minutes in a puddle of sunshine with the laptop)
- Truman read a Moby Dick pop-up book to Henry. Henry made a bookmark for the story shaped like an anchor.
FRIDAY
History/Geography
- Gregory and all the pretty children-OIS story (5 min) Oral narration
- Childs' History of the World-Camel Driver and Arabian Days (Arabian Days is all that is required of Ambleside Online for this week. This is why we have supplemented with Story of the World-Truman LOVES history, and AO just isn't quite enough) (10 minutes)
- Found everything studied this week on a map, and on the timelime. (10 minutes)
- Peter Pan (10 minutes)
- 3 poems Walter de la Mare (5)
- Started our poster size phylogentic tree of the animals in Burgess. I penciled the tree, Truman wrote the animals names, added the stickers from the Peterson's guide of animals we have already read about. (15 min)
- Marshmallow Carbon experiment. yuck (15 min)
- Mad minutes, temp graph. (2 min)
- Lesson on Later Roman numerals and multiples of 5 and 2. Right Start (15 minutes)
- Visual Link Spanish DVD-Lesson 4. Truman manipulates this all by himself (20 minutes while mommy vacuumed upstairs) Then I quizzed him.
- Beethoven-Chiming tower Bells, tracks 11 to 15. (8)
- Character connection-Caring (5 minutes) ***We also got to hand out our first lunch made for homeless people today on our way to the hardware store.***
- Sequential Spelling Day 22 Test (12 minutes) We are getting so fast at this, Truman never makes mistakes. This is an amazing program!
- Read about our Artist, Albrecht Durer, looked at one woodcarving (5 minutes)
- Piano-Theory book and C5 and V7 chords, practiced all of our other songs. Lessons with Dr. Bowling start next Monday! (30 minutes, Truman and Mommy)
- Surveyed the trees in our neighborhood to pick which one we might want to study and draw all year. (5 minutes)
- Discussed what Truman might want to write a story about. Our district wants to see handwriting and composition examples occasionally. I am hoping this will not be torture....but it always has been in the past. (3)
- Truman picked a recipe he wants to make, and wrote out the grocery list. Sushi. (5 minutes while mommy unloaded dishwasher.)
Mondays' work took about two hours, not including including game time with Dad.
Tuesday 2 hours and 25 minutes, plus 70 minutes of swimming
Wednesday About 2 hours and 30 minutes
Thursday- About 2 hours 25 minutes of work, plus 90 minutes of drawing lessons.
Friday -almost three hours, which just so happens to be the length of time that Henry is at preschool.
What I didn't write about or time is the reading that we do first thing in the morning when the boys wake up and snuggle on the couch, usually one book per kid. At night before bed we read longer books in mom's bed after they are bathed and jammied. We read for a loooooong time, usually books from our library. We JUST this week finished 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne-this is a big deal-we have been reading it for months! Truman will write a book report on it next week. Currently we are reading the AO free read- Little house on the Prairie, and also the Buddhist Bedtime stories, alternated with a bible story from my kid bible.
Each day doesn't take only 2 hours and 25 minutes to do school work...I wish it did, but it generally takes about 4 hours, usually starting about 9, ending after lunch. We take breaks to have a snack, run around outside if he is getting antsy, play Legos with Henry. Plus... I swear Truman has to go to the bathroom every ten minutes....Thursday our work was all done after lunch because Art took up the whole morning. I expect Friday will be a bit mixed up as well, since we are taking a looong break at lunch to eat at the hospital with on-call Daddy. Friday is the day they have to wear their camouflage...my favorite day to visit. :)
Saturday the boys will go to Lowes and build their craft of the Day. This counts as handcrafting!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Meet the Students
Truman Arthur, age 7, grade 3, AO year 2. Words that come to mind when I think of Truman; sensitive, compassionate, night owl, enthusiastic reader, unenthusiastic writer, very social, fabulous big brother, game player, excessively tall, kind of whiney mamma's boy. Truman has been my sweet, boney, cuddly boy his entire life, but has been transitioning to his dad's little clone for the past year. Everything that Dad does is amazing, exciting, better than mommy! I would say that one of Truman's very favorite activities is playing games-especially strategy games (Cataan, Risk) at game night with the other male doctors from daddy's hospital. He plays a game every single night before bed with his Dad-when he is home. T also loves playing with his friends in the culdesac, building spaceships with Lego's, reading in bed with mom and Henry. He is crazy about history, likes reading about other cultures, loves getting mail, loves maps and travel, loves Orange Beach, Alabama, loves swimming, babies, loves cooking. LOVES to go to Dad's hospital, especially if lunch is involved. Loves his little brother and does manage to get along with him most of the time. Does not like chores (too bad), does NOT like going to bed, doesn't like reaching the end of a book, does not like bossy girls (but tolerates bossy boys) does not like mushrooms. He still cries when his feelings are hurt, gets very angry when he thinks he is unjustly punished, cries his little eyes out after his grandparents leave. Still keeping quiet about girls, still takes an occasional bubble bath with mom or dad, still carries around a teddy bear when it occurs to him, dabbling in fibbing, but not very good at it. Recently has been checking out his muscles in the mirror, and suddenly developed an interest in his haircut. A very smart, kind boy that any mother would be proud of.
Henry, Age 4, is starting preschool at a local church, and being homeschooled by default because he sits in on most of our readings. Henry is such a different boy than his brother. He is very rambunctious, very in tune with his surroundings, very conscientous. He gets frantic if he thinks he has littered, and goes to great lengths to pick up trash. Henry loves bedtime with mom, loves playing with his buddy Anthony, loves the teenage girls in the neighborhood, loves Legos, Tinkertoys, trains, dinosaurs. He has quite an imagination, and is not afraid to use it. He is a story teller, and already an extremely clever, kind of manipulative little bugger. Henry loves breakfast and eats it several times a day, he loves morning snuggling, loves his big brother, loves Kipper the dog cartoon, loves to have schooltime, loves babies and coddles anyone smaller than himself, loves playgrounds. He has real difficulty with vegetables, he has a memory like an elephant ( I swear he remembers everything that has happened since he was about 9 months old) Henry is also a smart cookie, and will be reading very soon-not because I am pushing him to read, just because he is read to so very much, he is picking it up quickly like his brother. Henry is very physical-he started walking at 9 months, running and kicking a soccer ball at 10 months, broken arm at 12 months.... I love his fat little arms wrapped around my neck, and he loves to put them there. He is still such a cuddly sweet boy, but I can see that dwindling as he tries hard to grow faster than mommy wants him to. Henry will be easier to homeschool-because he thrives on routine and loves checking off his accomplishments. And he is such an early riser than we will be able to finish all of his schoolwork by 7am...good thing I get up early as well.
Me-almost 35, still a student in my own Master's of Nutrition program (but within a year of finishing!) I am learning so much about history that I didn't know and in a much more logical format. I was publicly schooled-hated it, and can honestly say that I didn't learn much, but I did graduate. I feel like I didn't get a very good education in college, either, but I did graduate with good grades and the knowledge of what a good education isn't. I have since been educating myself with my husband's never-ending help.
Henry, Age 4, is starting preschool at a local church, and being homeschooled by default because he sits in on most of our readings. Henry is such a different boy than his brother. He is very rambunctious, very in tune with his surroundings, very conscientous. He gets frantic if he thinks he has littered, and goes to great lengths to pick up trash. Henry loves bedtime with mom, loves playing with his buddy Anthony, loves the teenage girls in the neighborhood, loves Legos, Tinkertoys, trains, dinosaurs. He has quite an imagination, and is not afraid to use it. He is a story teller, and already an extremely clever, kind of manipulative little bugger. Henry loves breakfast and eats it several times a day, he loves morning snuggling, loves his big brother, loves Kipper the dog cartoon, loves to have schooltime, loves babies and coddles anyone smaller than himself, loves playgrounds. He has real difficulty with vegetables, he has a memory like an elephant ( I swear he remembers everything that has happened since he was about 9 months old) Henry is also a smart cookie, and will be reading very soon-not because I am pushing him to read, just because he is read to so very much, he is picking it up quickly like his brother. Henry is very physical-he started walking at 9 months, running and kicking a soccer ball at 10 months, broken arm at 12 months.... I love his fat little arms wrapped around my neck, and he loves to put them there. He is still such a cuddly sweet boy, but I can see that dwindling as he tries hard to grow faster than mommy wants him to. Henry will be easier to homeschool-because he thrives on routine and loves checking off his accomplishments. And he is such an early riser than we will be able to finish all of his schoolwork by 7am...good thing I get up early as well.
Me-almost 35, still a student in my own Master's of Nutrition program (but within a year of finishing!) I am learning so much about history that I didn't know and in a much more logical format. I was publicly schooled-hated it, and can honestly say that I didn't learn much, but I did graduate. I feel like I didn't get a very good education in college, either, but I did graduate with good grades and the knowledge of what a good education isn't. I have since been educating myself with my husband's never-ending help.
Week 1
Week 1 of our school year was delightful! Truman and Henry woke up Monday morning to see everything arranged in an exciting way-with the present on top, of course. Truman had been itching for weeks to get his hands on the new books, but to see all of his work for the day ready for him, plus a present (Pac Man), plus a candle to light...he was in pig heaven. This photo was taken while he was still groggy from sleep but trying
hard to wrap his brain around all the new stuff that he hadn't seen accumulating (pencils, games.) At the last minute (2 days before) I bought the red hanging file you can see, and I stick all of his work in the openings-in no real order. I put sticky tabs and sticky arrows on the work he is to do alone, or with Mom, and when the file is empty, he is done. He stacks his finished work under the bookshelf, at the end of the day I put it back on the shelf or in the pile for tomorrow. Suprisingly, I didn't think through the actual operational system, but this seems to work just fine, and is already habit...and keeps the school area nice and neat.
HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY Our first two days involved a bit of review of Ancient Egypt the division of the Roman Empire with our old Story of the World. Truman colored a couple of maps of the area to refresh his memory, and we read the first chapter in the shiny new SOTW book 2, about the Fall of Rome. I am thrilled that some dear soul on the yahoo groups had already assimilated AO and SOTW, so I have a nice neat map laid out for us. Our history tale is the Little Duke, a biography of Richard, the Duke of Normandy. We read half of the first chapter, and then I had to hide the book because Truman wanted to sneak off with it and read more. It was hard for me at first to understand the value of reading a book slowly over time to allow it to sink in, but I am definitely a convert now. Excitment is already building about what will happen to the little boy in the castle...
READ ALOUD Truman's books to read outloud include Tree in the Trail, of which he read the first chapter, and The Little House on the Prairie-which he isn't thrilled about quite yet.
SCIENCE We read the first two chapters of the Burgess Animal book, then identified and carefully colored several different rabbit species using the Peterson's Field guide. In chemistry we are reading about magnesium and we did an experiment with Epsom salt and crystal structure, inadvertantly learning a whole lot about evaporation because our solution was kept covered for too long...no biggie, though.
LITERATURE We read Shakespeare for Children, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I have to admit-this is not fun for me, but Truman really enjoys it. We usually have paper dolls to help us act out the plays, but our paper doll Elizabeth, who has 16 different Shakespearian costumes, apparently cannot play the role of a man, and so this play is not included in our paper doll book. We started Dangerous Journey, a highly illustrated version of the Pilgrim's Progress, and got such a kick out of Christian being bedaubed with mud in the Slough of Despond....Truman had to use the phrase multiple times that day because it was so novel. I am supposed to be reading the original version of Pilgrim's Progress following my adult plan for the classical education you never had...and I did read some of the book-but fairy tales like this cause me more grief than they are worth.
COMPOSER/ARTIST Our Composer this term is Beethoven, and our book The Chiming Tower Bells is moving along, read silently by Truman ( I have read this before and so ask for narration). We are in Beethoven's teen years now, and today is the day I start playing the music for him, now that we have the background to appreciate it more. Our Poet is Walter de la Mare, and so far, so good. Poetry is another subject that Truman enjoys far more than Mommy, although I am very good at reading it out loud these days. We read and listened to a folk song, The Golden Vanity, and it scares and dazzles Truman that someone could be allowed to drown. It never ceases to amaze me what people put on YouTube, but there are many different artists performing this song, many quite good. I am not following the AO folk song rotations, but I have no good reason why not. Perhaps because it was easier to just spend 16 dollars on a Folk Song book plus CD.
HANDCRAFTS At our local homeschool conference Truman watched a leather stamping presentation, and just knew that he would be a fabulous leather-crafter, so we bought the kit. Truman actually sat through the entire excruciatingly boring 50 minute DVD where a very old man gave a long-winded explanation of the whole process. I decided to leave this entire area completly up to Truman. I had to consciously hold back my hands and shut my mouth when he was decorating his little project, although I did have to insist on Truman taking the dye outside. This is not a great craft for Mommies who deal badly with a lot of pounding and noise....like me.
Truman is still working on Cursive, he writes his and his brother's names beautifully. He took 4 spelling tests this week (Sequential Spelling-never any memorization, just teaching the rules and writing the words.) This is a fabulous resource, and I can see that he is truly learning to spell difficult words. His printing is all of the sudden very nice, too!
MATH This week our work is review, Adding 8's and 9's, with multiple card games. I can tell that our Right Start curricula is ramping up for multiplication.
Truman is working on his Piano Theory, and is progressing just fine, which daily practice and carefully selected pieces that appeal to him, ie; Roller Skate Rock over Lavendar's Blue...
Our service project for the week was to pack paper bag lunches for homeless folks to keep in our car. We see a lot of homeless people on the corners in town during the week. Truman always wants to give them money or take them home, and we have, but too many times I was short on cash because I gave it away, so this is my solution. The boys loved shopping for non-perishable food and assembling the lunch bags, Truman being very considerate to remember Wet Wipes so they can have clean hands to eat. In the end, their desire to eat the chocolate pudding cups overwhelmed their desire to help more unfortunate people, and they tried to convince me that homeless people really don't like chocolate.
The last bit I will include is our NOT Back to School celebration. On Wednesday all the neighbors had to go back to public school, and to celebrate being homeschooled, we sat on the porch and waved at all the neighbors walking to school with their moms. Then we went to the empty skateboard park giggling.
It was pretty satysfying to be skating while all the big yellow school buses rolled past. You could see the bused kids eyeballs staring at Truman and Henry.
HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY Our first two days involved a bit of review of Ancient Egypt the division of the Roman Empire with our old Story of the World. Truman colored a couple of maps of the area to refresh his memory, and we read the first chapter in the shiny new SOTW book 2, about the Fall of Rome. I am thrilled that some dear soul on the yahoo groups had already assimilated AO and SOTW, so I have a nice neat map laid out for us. Our history tale is the Little Duke, a biography of Richard, the Duke of Normandy. We read half of the first chapter, and then I had to hide the book because Truman wanted to sneak off with it and read more. It was hard for me at first to understand the value of reading a book slowly over time to allow it to sink in, but I am definitely a convert now. Excitment is already building about what will happen to the little boy in the castle...
READ ALOUD Truman's books to read outloud include Tree in the Trail, of which he read the first chapter, and The Little House on the Prairie-which he isn't thrilled about quite yet.
SCIENCE We read the first two chapters of the Burgess Animal book, then identified and carefully colored several different rabbit species using the Peterson's Field guide. In chemistry we are reading about magnesium and we did an experiment with Epsom salt and crystal structure, inadvertantly learning a whole lot about evaporation because our solution was kept covered for too long...no biggie, though.
LITERATURE We read Shakespeare for Children, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I have to admit-this is not fun for me, but Truman really enjoys it. We usually have paper dolls to help us act out the plays, but our paper doll Elizabeth, who has 16 different Shakespearian costumes, apparently cannot play the role of a man, and so this play is not included in our paper doll book. We started Dangerous Journey, a highly illustrated version of the Pilgrim's Progress, and got such a kick out of Christian being bedaubed with mud in the Slough of Despond....Truman had to use the phrase multiple times that day because it was so novel. I am supposed to be reading the original version of Pilgrim's Progress following my adult plan for the classical education you never had...and I did read some of the book-but fairy tales like this cause me more grief than they are worth.
COMPOSER/ARTIST Our Composer this term is Beethoven, and our book The Chiming Tower Bells is moving along, read silently by Truman ( I have read this before and so ask for narration). We are in Beethoven's teen years now, and today is the day I start playing the music for him, now that we have the background to appreciate it more. Our Poet is Walter de la Mare, and so far, so good. Poetry is another subject that Truman enjoys far more than Mommy, although I am very good at reading it out loud these days. We read and listened to a folk song, The Golden Vanity, and it scares and dazzles Truman that someone could be allowed to drown. It never ceases to amaze me what people put on YouTube, but there are many different artists performing this song, many quite good. I am not following the AO folk song rotations, but I have no good reason why not. Perhaps because it was easier to just spend 16 dollars on a Folk Song book plus CD.
HANDCRAFTS At our local homeschool conference Truman watched a leather stamping presentation, and just knew that he would be a fabulous leather-crafter, so we bought the kit. Truman actually sat through the entire excruciatingly boring 50 minute DVD where a very old man gave a long-winded explanation of the whole process. I decided to leave this entire area completly up to Truman. I had to consciously hold back my hands and shut my mouth when he was decorating his little project, although I did have to insist on Truman taking the dye outside. This is not a great craft for Mommies who deal badly with a lot of pounding and noise....like me.
Truman is still working on Cursive, he writes his and his brother's names beautifully. He took 4 spelling tests this week (Sequential Spelling-never any memorization, just teaching the rules and writing the words.) This is a fabulous resource, and I can see that he is truly learning to spell difficult words. His printing is all of the sudden very nice, too!
MATH This week our work is review, Adding 8's and 9's, with multiple card games. I can tell that our Right Start curricula is ramping up for multiplication.
Truman is working on his Piano Theory, and is progressing just fine, which daily practice and carefully selected pieces that appeal to him, ie; Roller Skate Rock over Lavendar's Blue...
The last bit I will include is our NOT Back to School celebration. On Wednesday all the neighbors had to go back to public school, and to celebrate being homeschooled, we sat on the porch and waved at all the neighbors walking to school with their moms. Then we went to the empty skateboard park giggling.
It was pretty satysfying to be skating while all the big yellow school buses rolled past. You could see the bused kids eyeballs staring at Truman and Henry.
After the skatepark, we had a Not Back to School IceCream Lunch, Mint with Gummy Bears for Truman, Cotton Candy with Cookies for Henry. Espresso for Mommy.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Where the learning takes place
To participate in the Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop, this week I will describe where our learning occurs. Obviously, like all homeschoolers, we learn all over the house, yard, and car. A majority of the reading is done in our living room on the love seat, first thing in the morning. Me with multiple cups of coffee, boys with chocolate almond milk.
This love seat is right next to the fireplace, which is easily "turned on" on rainy, chilly mornings. We have a gigantic coffee table that stores our math, plus two baskets of quiet toys for Henry to play with only during school hours (tinker toys, magnetic cars). Truman's antique wooded desk is also in this room, next to the doors so he has a lot of natural light. We do not necessarily sit on the love seat to do our work, more often than not we spread our stuff on the floor in front of the fire.
This love seat is right next to the fireplace, which is easily "turned on" on rainy, chilly mornings. We have a gigantic coffee table that stores our math, plus two baskets of quiet toys for Henry to play with only during school hours (tinker toys, magnetic cars). Truman's antique wooded desk is also in this room, next to the doors so he has a lot of natural light. We do not necessarily sit on the love seat to do our work, more often than not we spread our stuff on the floor in front of the fire.
In nice weather-or even in not so nice weather, we sit out on the porch, where there is another school desk I acquired for free (but needed serious painting). In really nice weather, we can be found on a blanket in the yard, although this tends to make us all sleepy.
I have sent Truman out to read in his hammock in the pirate ship, he escapes to his bunk to read by himself, and I have found him up a neighborhood tree with a book more than once. I have recently branched out into audio books, and so far these have been used in the car just once. We do not drive enough to get any substantial listening done, not to mention I like to use that time for singing at our loudest. Loveseat listening is easily more pleasant, and I can fool around on the computer while the boys are drawing and listening. This semester Robin Hood will be the first audio book, read by some gents with accents, but we will be following along in our books.
A major part of our schoolwork is telling daddy what we have read about and done that day over dinner. I have a beautiful map to put up beside the dinner table so that we can show him places in our readings-just need to fix the frame.... Right now I cannot take a picture of the table because it is covered with a Cub Scout sewing project, and is quite a mess.
And yet another place to "do school" is in bed at night. We read to the boys for at least half an hour, most nights even longer than that. When Will has call the reading can go on for HOURS, but only because it starts awfully early. The boys are not aware that these bedtime books are free reading books recommended by the AO advisory, they are just our nightly reading. Always my favorite time of day.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Routines and Schedules
I have been reading and working on establishing routines in our homeschooling, in order to create little islands of consistency throughout our day. I know that when our life gets crazy and overly busy, I very easily get stressed, and I most certainly take it out on my family. I need the predictability of a routine, such as coffee and reading my email in the morning, stories with the boys every night. No matter how crazy the afternoon, or abbreviated the morning, or late the bedtime, these routines help me to start and end the day. I know that having more structure built into our lives would give my youngest a better sense of continuity, as he is wired like me, craving predictability and operating better in an orderly world. I want to design more rhythm in our school days to give the boys a sense of flow, such as baking on Thursday, tea time in the afternoon, Saturday pancakes. It would be wonderful if my husband could participate more in our days, but his work schedule is part of the unpredictable craziness that kind of wrecks our rhythm.
I have a weekly checklist of things that must be accomplished for school, plus our out-of-home activities (art, piano.) All that I have left for the upcoming school year is to draw up a daily schedule that all of us can understand and use (including the 4 year old). I intend to schedule in Nature walk/journaling, grocery shopping in that 2 hour window when both boys are at their classes, morning reading and math times. Following the AO yahoo groups for several years has given me many ideas about how to use our time best, such as composer study in the car (brilliant!) and artist study during tea. My tentative schedule has Truman and I doing an awful lot (chemistry, Spanish ) on Monday and Friday between 12:30 and 3:00, when Henry is at his preschool. This may work, maybe not.....
This is an example of a WEEKLY checklist. It is printed and attached to a clipboard that follows us while schooling. This keeps us fluid in planning, but with expectations of what will be accomplished during the week. It took a lot of work to transfer an entire year of AO readings, plus everything else that we add in, into a weekly document. Notice that I have a blog check-off...I am serious about this book!
WEEK 9
__ __ __ __ Spelling
__ __ __ __ Poetry or Walter de la Mare
__ __ __ __ Math
__ __ __ __ Piano
__ __ __ __ Copywork
__ __ Spanish
__ __ Chemistry
__ __ Story of the World
__ An Island Story ch 29 The Story of King Stephen
__ Child's History of the World ch 49 Knights and Days of Chivalry
__ The Little Duke-first half ch 5
__ Tree in the Trail, Chapter 13
__ Map/Timeline Work
__ Cultural study/Religion
__ Burgess Animal Book XVII Three Little Redcoats
__ Burgess Animal Book XVIII Mice with Pockets, and Others
__ Understood Betsy, Ch 8
__ Pilgrim's Progress (Dangerous Journey) next ch
__ Nature Study
__ Composer Study
__ Science
__ Handicrafts
__ Blog
__ Artist Study
__ Folk Song
__ Recipe/Cooking
This is not a daily schedule, although it allows me to easily know what I need to read when we sit down for our morning snuggle/reading, and keeps me on track to spread out our requirements. Last year I occasionally had to cram a lot into a Friday to finish a checklist, but that will not happen this year...because I am so much more organized....and I have read to many books and articles on rhythm and discipline.
Speaking of routine and discipline...
A major sticking point with me is dinner time, and I need to figure out how to get the boys (Will included) more involved in helping with the meal, and cleaning up afterward. Nothing drives me up a wall faster than telling them to come to the table multiple times, and not having help before and after. The boys will take their plates to the counter without reminder, but the whole experience can be improved. We have been reading a "devotional" before dinner every night (Buddha to the Beatles, A Devotional for Daily Living) which I really enjoy, it makes dinner seem that much more of an event (which it is, dang it). We read most of that book, but there isn't any reason why we can't read it again. I am going to try reading our poetry selections before or during dinner, as a way to have Will be more involved in school. He has the ability to analyze the poetry and help the boys think it through far better than I. Plus, it just seems like a pleasant idea.
Secrets of Discipline by Ronald Morrish has one mantra that I implemented with the boys, and which works well. Start small, stay close, insist, and follow through. Surely this is intuitive to most parents, but it is nice to see it posted on my sticky notes as a reminder. It is hard for ME to fight my impatience and follow through with what I have said to the children, but the rewards are certainly worth it. Anything can be made more dependable, even my dear husband, with attention and care. My goal before our Year 2 starts is to have small routines cemented so that our transition to full time schooling is calm and seamless.
Current Priorities-
Dinner Time
Morning exercise (just need to buy the elliptical and cancel the gym membership)
After dinner house clean up
Lofty goals for myself, but I WILL DO IT.
I have a weekly checklist of things that must be accomplished for school, plus our out-of-home activities (art, piano.) All that I have left for the upcoming school year is to draw up a daily schedule that all of us can understand and use (including the 4 year old). I intend to schedule in Nature walk/journaling, grocery shopping in that 2 hour window when both boys are at their classes, morning reading and math times. Following the AO yahoo groups for several years has given me many ideas about how to use our time best, such as composer study in the car (brilliant!) and artist study during tea. My tentative schedule has Truman and I doing an awful lot (chemistry, Spanish ) on Monday and Friday between 12:30 and 3:00, when Henry is at his preschool. This may work, maybe not.....
This is an example of a WEEKLY checklist. It is printed and attached to a clipboard that follows us while schooling. This keeps us fluid in planning, but with expectations of what will be accomplished during the week. It took a lot of work to transfer an entire year of AO readings, plus everything else that we add in, into a weekly document. Notice that I have a blog check-off...I am serious about this book!
WEEK 9
__ __ __ __ Spelling
__ __ __ __ Poetry or Walter de la Mare
__ __ __ __ Math
__ __ __ __ Piano
__ __ __ __ Copywork
__ __ Spanish
__ __ Chemistry
__ __ Story of the World
__ An Island Story ch 29 The Story of King Stephen
__ Child's History of the World ch 49 Knights and Days of Chivalry
__ The Little Duke-first half ch 5
__ Tree in the Trail, Chapter 13
__ Map/Timeline Work
__ Cultural study/Religion
__ Burgess Animal Book XVII Three Little Redcoats
__ Burgess Animal Book XVIII Mice with Pockets, and Others
__ Understood Betsy, Ch 8
__ Pilgrim's Progress (Dangerous Journey) next ch
__ Nature Study
__ Composer Study
__ Science
__ Handicrafts
__ Blog
__ Artist Study
__ Folk Song
__ Recipe/Cooking
This is not a daily schedule, although it allows me to easily know what I need to read when we sit down for our morning snuggle/reading, and keeps me on track to spread out our requirements. Last year I occasionally had to cram a lot into a Friday to finish a checklist, but that will not happen this year...because I am so much more organized....and I have read to many books and articles on rhythm and discipline.
Speaking of routine and discipline...
A major sticking point with me is dinner time, and I need to figure out how to get the boys (Will included) more involved in helping with the meal, and cleaning up afterward. Nothing drives me up a wall faster than telling them to come to the table multiple times, and not having help before and after. The boys will take their plates to the counter without reminder, but the whole experience can be improved. We have been reading a "devotional" before dinner every night (Buddha to the Beatles, A Devotional for Daily Living) which I really enjoy, it makes dinner seem that much more of an event (which it is, dang it). We read most of that book, but there isn't any reason why we can't read it again. I am going to try reading our poetry selections before or during dinner, as a way to have Will be more involved in school. He has the ability to analyze the poetry and help the boys think it through far better than I. Plus, it just seems like a pleasant idea.
Secrets of Discipline by Ronald Morrish has one mantra that I implemented with the boys, and which works well. Start small, stay close, insist, and follow through. Surely this is intuitive to most parents, but it is nice to see it posted on my sticky notes as a reminder. It is hard for ME to fight my impatience and follow through with what I have said to the children, but the rewards are certainly worth it. Anything can be made more dependable, even my dear husband, with attention and care. My goal before our Year 2 starts is to have small routines cemented so that our transition to full time schooling is calm and seamless.
Current Priorities-
Dinner Time
Morning exercise (just need to buy the elliptical and cancel the gym membership)
After dinner house clean up
Lofty goals for myself, but I WILL DO IT.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Keeping Track of myself
Unbelievably, I will be able to turn our Year into a book, which is my motivation to document our school work. To have a record of the process will be incredibly helpful for when Henry gets to this stage, not to mention this will ease the guilt that keeps building because I do not scrapbook my children's lives.
http://www.blurb.com/ Blog to book software-too bad I have to wait a year until I can see what a blog-turned- book looks like.
I am also getting a better camera with my tax return money! This will allow me to take FAR better photos than I can get with my point and shoot Canon Powershot, which is on it's last legs anyway-literally being held together with duct tape. I am eyeballing the Canon EOS Rebel, which is similar to the SLR camera that an unscrupulous West Virginian stole from me years ago. I am also looking at different lenses, and daydreaming about the cool effects I could produce with a fish-eye.
Now that I think about it, this IS scrapbooking, without the kitschy, stay-at-home-mommy stigma attached. Not that I care about that, but somehow it seems a better use of my time to digitally document, rather than cutting expensive paper with fancy serrated scissors and creating a mess.
http://www.blurb.com/ Blog to book software-too bad I have to wait a year until I can see what a blog-turned- book looks like.
I am also getting a better camera with my tax return money! This will allow me to take FAR better photos than I can get with my point and shoot Canon Powershot, which is on it's last legs anyway-literally being held together with duct tape. I am eyeballing the Canon EOS Rebel, which is similar to the SLR camera that an unscrupulous West Virginian stole from me years ago. I am also looking at different lenses, and daydreaming about the cool effects I could produce with a fish-eye.
Now that I think about it, this IS scrapbooking, without the kitschy, stay-at-home-mommy stigma attached. Not that I care about that, but somehow it seems a better use of my time to digitally document, rather than cutting expensive paper with fancy serrated scissors and creating a mess.
Friday, April 30, 2010
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