One day at a time...

Year 4.5

2011-11-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

We made some drastic changes since September both to our content and to our schedule. We are actually spending more time with schoolwork but enjoying our day much more. Sometime in the afternoon, it stops being schoolwork, and it becomes fun stuff that we do as a family.

We do our skill subjects separately and in the morning. This allows me the time to work with each child individually without feeling rushed. We have plenty of time for discussions, and I am able to add in a little extra to their day without overwhelming us.

Sam-age 9
All About Spelling 3
First Language Lessons3
Writing with Ease 3
Math-U-See Delta
Pathway Readers 3

Sam has expressed an interest in astronomy , so we are also doing Apologia Astronomy during this time.

Charlotte-age 6
100 EZ lessons for reading
Math-u-See Alpha
Handwriting without Tears

I also read a separate read aloud with her during this time to practice narrations.

After lunch we work on content subjects.

Story of the World book 1
Self designed science study
Art
Spanish
IEW Poetry Memorization
Literature
Hero Tales
Every Day with God
PE with Family Fitness

I have found that I am spending far more time reading aloud to the kids with this schedule. We now have time to read and discuss subjects at length. We can follow our own interest in subjects. I developed an open ended schedule so that we spend time on each subject but aren't limited on the topics or resource.

History with SOTW. We spend a week on each chapter, and we spend 2 days a week on history. The first day we read the chapter, narrate, work on the map and pictures. The second day we read another book or two on the subject, narrate and do a project. Super easy.

Science. I collected all our science books in one place, and we spend 2 days a week on science. The first day I read 2-4 pages of the book of the week/term, they narrate and list several facts that we learned. We follow up with another book on the topic or do an internet search. The second day we will read another 2-4 pages or another book on the topic. Narrate and list several facts. Do project or experiment. Since making this change, we have spent about several weeks on the human body and have started studying space exploration/astronomy.

Art. I gathered all my different art books. One day a week we pick a book and spend 20 min or so doing a art lesson. Currently we are using Draw Write Now book 1. The second day of art we do a picture study lesson.

Spanish. We are using Flip Flop Spanish in a very low key way. We review the vocabulary and spend a few moments each day using our spanish words. I keep the vocabulary list on the fridge and Big Sis' reviews the words with the kids when she gets home from college each afternoon. We have picked up quite a bit of Spanish in this easy low key way!

IEW Poetry Memorization. We have memorized 6 poems!

Hero Tales/Everyday with God. We read and narrate a story from each resource each day.

Literature. We read aloud during lunch, during our morning AND afternoon schooltime, and before bed. Our current read alouds are Squanto, Charlotte's Web, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Lemonade Trick. Lots of variety!

We gotta do school today?

2011-09-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

That whiny voice isn't the children. It is me. I'm burned out!

I took most of the summer off by default; so, that isn't the problem.

I went to my local homeschooling conference, and I got refreshed and excited about this year; so, that isn't the problem.

My curriculum choices are working well for my kids; so, that isn't the problem.

So what is the problem?

It has been a really, really long time since I been in this state of burn out. In fact it has been a decade (!) since I've experienced this level of burnout.

I thought that part of the problem might be the fact that I returned to school to advance my degree. However, I'm on a break from my classes for 2 weeks, and I still have absolutely no desire to do school with the kids.

I spent part of this week re-reading some of my favorite homeschooling books and listening to some of the lectures from the homeschooling conferences in the past. I re-read The Whole Hearted Child by the Clarksons, and I'm starting to get a clearer picture of what is the problem. I've re-read portions of Charlotte Mason's Original Series and it becomes even clearer. I've listened to talks by A. Pudewa and the Clarksons from THSC conference, and it is now crystal clear.

I've become a check-the-box homeschooler. I have strayed so far from my vision for my home and homeschool that homeschooling is drudgery for me. I have so many boxes to check that I cannot do or add or experience anything remotely individualized or unique with my children without overwhelming my day.

Changes that I've made in the past have been done to find a solution that works for my children. I now find myself in the situation in which I need to make some changes so it works for me.

Despite that it is working to separate the children, I need to find a way to combine them.

Despite the curriculum options are working for the children, I need to find a way to change them.

I reviewed my curriculum options and resources, and I've decided to make a few changes to the flow of our day. I will keep the kids separate while working on our content subjects. I will combine them on our discussion and discovery subjects. I will stop viewing this year as "Sam's only year to work through ECC" and instead view ECC as a resource to pull our discussion and discovery subjects. This might mean that we do not do everything that is scheduled in ECC. This might also mean that we do other activities that are not scheduled in ECC.

Our discussion and discovery subjects schedule is going to be:

Day 1.
1. Bible reading( pulled from ECC) - narrate and discuss
2. Geography/atlas readings (pulled from ECC)- narrate and discuss
3. Memorization- Memory verses (ECC) and Poetry( IEW's Linguistic Develpment through Poetry Memorization)
4. Art Activity ( from a variety of sources)
5. Music (ECC or composer study)

Day 2.
1.Bible- narrate and discuss
2. Science readings (ECC)- narrate and discuss
3. Memorization
4. Geography game(ECC)
5. Picture Study (resources from MFW1 or study artist of quarter)

Day 3.
1. Bible
2. A-Z Geography activity (ECC)
3. Memorization
4. Music
5. Nature Study

Day 4.
1.Bible
2. Spanish-New lesson (reviewed throughout week)
3. Memorization
4. Geography game or puzzle
5. Science reading/experiments (ECC or other sources).

I need to return to my CM style of homeschooling. I'm not sure if these changes will help me get out of my funk. I hope so. I will give it a go for a month.

The disappearing classroom....

2011-08-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

This summer we relocated our classroom from an upstairs spare room back down to the dining room. For years and years, we had school in the dining room and I used to say that our home was decorated in "Early American Homeschool". We were used to the homeschool clutter......bookshelves with crates and papers, stacks of books on the dining room table, maps and posters on the wall.

No more! I really liked having my dining room look like a dining room, and I have no real desire to return to "Early American Homeschool" decorating style.

So what to do? School must be relocated because the "spare" room is becoming a boys bedroom. So I converted an adjacent coat closet into a school closet and created the disappearing classroom.

Here is how it works. I pull out the supplies for the day. I have an organizer for all our pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, etc. I have a magazine holder to keep paper sized posters handy and visible. I put all the supplies needed for the day in a crate so it is all readily accessible. I place our AAS spelling board on the side table. All in all, takes me less than a minute.

After we are done with school, I do a quick view of the next days schedule. I place all books needed for the next day into the crates. Then I place everything back into the closet.

I still have our workboxes but I am using them differently. Each drawer has all the books for a specific subject on our MFW grid. There is a drawer for all the books used in the Bible grid, another for all the geography books, and another for each and every section. This makes it easy for me to get each specific book for each subject.

Here is our disappearing classroom....

Bummer Summer

2011-08-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

We were off to such a great start! Big Bro' came in for a visit the first two weeks of May then the bummer summer started.

The rest of May and June were dominated by illness and family visits. Urgent care visits, weeks laying around on the couch with sick kids. It's all a blur. We had company the few weeks that everyone was feeling well. Very little school happened in May or June.

July started well and then I got sick. My second ER visit of the summer resulted in a 4 day hospital stay, a surgery, and a couple of follow up procedures. Bummer Summer!

We usually get quite a bit of school done and spend several days at the beach each week. This summer we watched way too much tv and got out of the habit of doing school.We only did 5 weeks of school since my last post.....actually 4 1/2 weeks since April 27 but who's counting.

During this little bummer summer season of our lives I made a few decisions and discoveries.

1. Charlotte really loves 100 Easy lessons. I had taught my older children to read with this resource but found that it interfered too much with Sam's Speech Therapy. Charlotte doesn't have any speech issues and 100 EZ lessons is a perfect little fit while she matures before using MFW 1st.

2. We are doing the parts of MFW K that we skipped this past year when Charlotte was tagging along with Adventures. This is providing us with enough activities to keep us going until April.

2. Sam's reading level advance 2 grade levels! I spent this past year slowing down reading intruction and much of what I wrote about was in regards to Sam's reading. I now have proof that it worked! We will continue our reading plan.

3. Sam has improved from struggling to write "He was a tall man." to doing all of his writing in school. This is so awesome. So we will continue our writing plan.

4. Sam enjoyed using Writing Strands but we will put this resource on the shelf for a year. I want him to be able to use WS independantly and he is almost ....but not quite ....there.

We have started the process of getting back into the habit of school. The bummer summer is behind us, and we are looking foward to cooler weather and a healthier family!

ECC-Week 3

2011-04-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

This week we did our trial of separating the kids. Charlotte did K and then Sam did ECC. The plan was to start 30 minutes earlier which did not happen. I still want to get done by lunchtime but I had a hard time with breaking my usual morning routine.

Guess what happened? I still finished up about the same time! I can't really explain it. I guess I was really just spending that same amount of time trying to negotiate the needs of two kids who are completely different levels. It is the strangest thing. I'm still amazed!

So what did we do this week.....

Charlotte worked through her activities without distractions. When her brother is not in the room, she can be quite the little scholar! She read "The Sled" and "Sam's Pet" from MFW K. We enjoyed "The Story about Ping" and activities from FIAR. Good K week!

Sam is really taking off with ECC. One of the activities for this week was to review the 50 states. We did this by putting together this GeoPuzzle. It was easy to see the improvement over the week as we got faster as finding each individual state puzzle piece!

We went ahead and started FLL 3 instead of trying to finish up FLL 2. We did the first 3 lessons and Sam seems to enjoy having the lessons in a workbook format.

We did another 2 lessons in Writing Strands. His sentence was " The clown sees nine-year-old Lola flying a yellow kite on a beautiful spring day." Oh....happy mama! He has come a long way in the last 6 months. I am so glad that we stepped back and focused on copywork this past year.

We completed lesson 24 of AAS book 2. He was a little annoyed that there wasn't a hard and fast rule about using au or aw in the middle of the word. We will be reviewing this concept.

The only real glitch that came up this week was Global Art. The activity that I picked to do this week was Sand Drawing. I gathered our supplies and explained the activity. I really thought I chose an activity that was "boy-friendly".

Sam " You. want. me. to. craft?" ( Imagine him asking in a real, slow and quiet voice).

Me-"No, not really crafting....it's just an activity that corresponds to the area that we are studying. It'll be fun!"

Sam-" I'm a boy and I don't craft. Well, I only craft with scouts and it's real boy stuff and I have to do it to get the badge." (imagine a higher pitch voice and really,really fast)

Me- " Well let's just give this a go and see how it is. There are some really cool stuff in this book." ---by this time Charlotte is full fledge into the project. Sand is flying everywhere.

Sam thumbs through Global Art. " Looks like a craft book. A girl craft book. I don't like crafting."

At this point I have 2 options. Force the kid to do the craft which totally defeats the purpose of the project or find another art alternative. So we left Charlotte to her crafting and went to look at our art options.

He chose Artistic Pursuits. We used this resource years ago before we started MFW and I do remember him liking it. I have the book and supplies so we will try it and see how it works out. Sam has already done this particular book but we will work through it again before investing in another in the series.

So far we are 0-3 for Art and MFW. Drawing with Children was a bust but in all fairness it was a bust with the older kids too. I Can do All Things was a bust with ADV. Last year, we really just kind of skipped doing art lessons. Global Art appears to be a bust for it's intended purpose. Looking ahead at " God and the History of Art" and I suspect this will be a bust as well for Sam. Big Sis' used this resource as a teen! Big Sis' used about every art resource available because she is naturally artistic. Sam is not. If Artistic Pursuits is the resource he enjoys using then we will probably stick with Artistic Pursuits throughout the rest of his art career.

All is not lost. Global Art will go into Charlotte's Arts and Crafting basket and it will give her lots of new ideas of activities to fill up the afternoon.

Charlotte's Kindergarten

2011-04-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

We've made a change to the flow of Charlotte's Kindergarten Year. We started out the year having her tag-a-long with Adventure but now that Sam is doing ECC it is harder to combine the kids. So we will finish up the year with....

100 Easy Lessons

MFW K- doing all the parts we missed during Kindergarten part 1.

MUS Primer

Handwriting without Tears

We may well continue with this plan until next Winter. Charlotte has an August birthday but should have been born well past the cut off for K. She would not be starting K until this upcoming August if she was PS! I want to give her as much time as she needs to mature before tackling 1st grade.

Week 2- ECC

2011-04-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

We are getting into a good rhythm with ECC. I have been able to do each week in 4 days without any difficulty. Sam in enjoying himself!

The only downside is that I'm not going to be able to include Charlotte as much as we were with Adventures. I think it is just going to be easier to plan on doing K with her and plan on doing ECC separately with Sam. *big sigh* She is a distraction and the material is just a little over her head. I can read and summarize everything to keep her engaged or I can teach to him and lose her. Since this is going to be his only time working through ECC I need to teach to him so he can get the full benefit.

So far the biggest hits for Charlotte have been music, art, science projects (not the readings) and Kingdom Tales. We will keep her involved with these.

If I continue to summarize the science reading during our time outdoors then I will not need to plan on doing a separate science with her. This is easier than it sounds! I keep a running list of topics that Sam and I have read with Properties of Ecosystems, then in the afternoon I try to point out examples. The key is to make it seem natural and not like a lesson. So far she has added the words habitat and niche into her vocabulary and I didn't have to try to get a 5 yo to sit through Properties of Ecosystems.

This next week, I am going to try to get Charlotte started a little earlier and do all of her K stuff. Perhaps Sam can do bookbasket, math drill and math during this time. I will send her on her way and work through the main parts of ECC with Sam. We will try this a few weeks and make adjustments if needed.

I decided to go ahead and start Writing Strands 3 with Sam instead of waiting. He has been enjoying that as well. Ok....maybe enjoying writing is a bit of stretch..... he has been doing WS3 without complaint and impressed with his outcome. Yesterday, he had to write 5 sentences adding information each time. To make this process a little less painful, I wrote alternating sentences so he only had to write 3 of the 5 sentences. Lesson learned---he could write an interesting, long sentence with lots of information and it didn't hurt....too much. No more "He was a tall man." sentences!

We forgot to do the Nature Walk exercise from week 1 last week. I sent Sam outdoors to mark off our 1 foot square so we could check our Backyard Habitat and he included his favorite climbing tree in his square. Most kids probably do this experiment and look down...dig around in the ground....check out the little bugs. Sam did this experiment and looked UP! He spent an hour up in the tree keeping track of all the birds.

Of course, no blog account of week 2 of ECC would be complete without a picture of the World Cake. Big Sis' helped Sam and Charlotte with the decorating of the cake. Big Sis' wanted to know why I didn't use MFW ECC when she was 8 and she has insisted on being included in any future cooking plans that are included with our lessons. College students like to eat!

Year 4

2011-04-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sam's Year 4- age 9

MFW's Exploring Countries and Cultures.

All About Spelling-currently on Level 3

Math-U-See Delta

First Language Lessons 3

Writing With Ease 3

Pathway Readers

Adventures is done!

2011-04-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

Sam is super proud of his American History notebook! Adventures is an awesome year and this year has been one of our best homeschooling years. I've been homeschooling since 1994 so that's saying something!

To celebrate what do we do? Start Exploring Countries and Cultures of course! Here he is filling out his passport application.

We are already looking at ways to include Charlotte in ECC. While we were doing ADV, we followed the grid and called her back into the room to participate in the state sheets/history reading and science projects. I think this might have set up some bad habits for her. I don't really want her to get in the habit of ....do a little school, play toys, do a little school, watch tv, etc. I want her to get in the habit that she does school then plays.

So I have a preliminary rough draft of how I'm going to break up the grid.

Charlotte -----------------------Sam

phonics -----------------------Complete book of Animals or bookbasket

---------------------------Bible------------------------------------------

----------------------Geography (easier selections)-----------------

---------------------Science ( easier sections)------------------------

Math/Handwriting ------------------------------Math

She is now done and he completes the rest of the grid including the more difficult portions of Geography and Science.

I am having him do Math drill while I make lunch . I also plan to do the read-aloud portion during lunch. I want to save the art projects and science projects for the afternoon so we can spend more time working on these without feeling rushed to get done before lunch.

We are only on day 2 of ECC so it is a little early to state how well my plan is working. We are currently spending about 1 hour working together in the morning with another 1.5 hours with Sam finishing up his work. So far we have spent 30minutes in the afternoon with projects.

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for Charlotte once she turns 6. Her birthday is mid-August but she was premature and her due date was late September. So if she were attending public school she would be going into K this year so I'm not in a huge rush to get her going with 1st grade. Letting her mature a bit seems to be the trick. My goal is to be getting into the stride with 1st grade when she is about 6.5 years old which will be next Feb/March. I have a little bit of time to decide on resources and get her in a better habit for school.

I did find a neat resource to make ECC a little more friendly for the 5/6yo crowd. Timberdoodle is selling Geopuzzles and I plan on having each corresponding puzzle available as we study a particular region.

We are looking for to this journey!

Reading.....again.

2011-02-28T08:32:00.000-08:00

We did a little experimenting this week. What a difference 6 months can make! Charlotte really enjoyed using the AAS board and tiles to do her phonics lessons. I had attempted to do this last fall but it was a bit messy.

I've also found out that I should be able to purchase just the MFW 1 phonics portion when I go to our homeschool convention this summer. So instead of a $50 purchase it is substantially less.

So maybe I will be able to use MFW 1 phonics after all. So for now, we will continue to plug along with MFW K.

Where we are now...

2011-02-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

We are having a great year! Adventures has been a lot of fun. We are in a good rhythm with Sam. Charlotte is adding to the mix well.

One of my goals this year was to get the kids working together side by side during school. Obviously, we have been successful!

This last quarter I was still searching for an English program that works for Sam. We had tried PLL with limited success and some frustration. LLATL with limited success and some frustration.

After a little deliberating I decided to go back and retry FLL and guess what....success. He is a very happy camper using FLL. He has memorized list of helping verbs and can easily pick out the helping verbs in a sentence. I'm not entirely sold that this is a necessary skill for a 8yo but after dealing with the frustrations of other programs, I am completely happy that he is frustration free! So we will stick with FLL.

So---finally----after several years we have finally found curricula that seems to be doing the trick for Sam! Yeah for us!

For anyone out there that follows this blog the winners are:

Math U See

All About Spelling

First Language Lessons

Writing with Ease

My Father's World

Whew. I sure was stubborn about using some of these products. Ultimately, you use what works and get over yourself! The general gameplan now for Sam is to work through these individual product's sequence over the next few years.

So now what do we do? Well, we might start Latin next year so I get to do a little research about Latin curriculum. It's exciting that there is more out there than Latina Christina.

I also have this 5yo girl who is coming up in the school ranks and we get to do the whole process over again. buwahahhaha! Actually, no we aren't. I'll just stick with the MUS/AAS/WWE/FLL/MFW line up with her since I already own the products and just start folding her into the rhythm of our day.

Currently for Charlotte her day goes something like this....

---- work through the phonics portion of MFW K.

---- do a calendar activity and a MUS page.

---- do a page in Handwriting without Tears.

----hang out in the school room and participate as able with Sam's studies.

This has worked pretty well. She typically does the Bible portion, state study or history reading, science and listens to the read aloud of Adventures. When Sam is working on LA or Math she works at the little table doing crafts or painting. Sometimes she gets bored or makes too much noise and I send her into another room to have a tea party with her stuff animals. As the year has progressed, she has gradually spent more time participating and less time in the other room with her toys. Her Kindegarten year is a little different than Sam's even though we still do many of the same types of activities. We still go outdoors, do nature study and have a lot of free time for imaginative play. All in all, it has been a good year for her.

She doesn't have Sam's speech motor problem so we don't have that particular issue to work around. She is ACTIVE. I have put the big exercise ball to use with her when she is especially active. This usually gets us a few more minutes of attention and quiet if she is bouncing or rolling around on the ball.

She enjoys the phonics portion of MFW K. There is a lot of cutting and glueing which seems to be her specialty. We did have to slow down the phonics for her because she was getting frustrated when the lessons started getting longer. She is just now 5 1/2 years old so this isn't a great concern. Day 4 seemed to be especially long and we had to break that day's lesson into 2 days. So, here we are with a 5 1/2 year old on lesson 15 of MFW K and wondering where do we want to be when she is 6.

I already know that I plan on using the AAS/FLL/WWE combo that works well for Sam. It seems logical to just start her out with these products this next year. So I only need a phonics program.

Do I spend the $50 on MFW 1 student pages when I only need a phonics program? hmmmm.

So I break out MFW 1 and take a good look at it. I didn't teach Sam to read with MFW 1, we used it to re-inforce phonics. MFW 1 worked great for this purpose. So I took a good hard look at it, thinking about Charlotte. I came to the conclusion that there was no possible way I could make this work for her next year. That's probably too harsh....I could make it work if I was willing to spend a great deal of time tweaking and adjusting it. Do I really want to spend $50 knowing I'm going to really have to tweak it significantly and omit large portions of it?

Bottom line, I don't feel confident that I can teach my active child to read with the phonics of MFW 1. I do think that I can use it to re-inforce phonics but not as a stand alone program.

So the question becomes....what do I use? and do I go ahead and make the switch now?

Update on everything else....

2010-10-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

I have already updated Sam's reading and writing progress for this quarter.

MFW Adventures is a wonderful resource and it has been so refreshing to not have to do all the lesson planning!

File folders and workboxes have made our day flow so smoothly and I will continue to use these organizational tools.

Math-U-See continues to work well.

All About Spelling continues to work well.

We have organization, reading, writing, math , spelling, and our content studies under control and moving forward. The only aspect of our plan for Sam that is missing is grammar.

We tried MFW's recommendation of PLL (which would have worked great for the older kids) but Sam found it cumbersome and confusing. This quarter we have tried LLATL ( which worked great for the older kids) and although it was a better resource for Sam than PLL it really hasn't been great. He completed the exercises but there was not enough review and practice for him to feel competent with a skill. He would actually say something along the lines , " I thought I was working on x so why are we doing y today."

This comment forced me to look at the resources that work well for him. MUS is mastery based, WWE is predictable, AAS has lots of review, our workbox system keeps everything organized.

Mastery based, predictable, organized with review until he feels competent.

Sam's criteria for a resource is that it is organized, predictable and there is enough review that he actually learns the material presented.

For skill subjects, Sam does not seem to need or want a lot of variety. He wants the facts and an opportunity to master the facts. I need to work with this.

No wonder Sam found PLL cumbersome and confusing. PLL is a wonderful open ended resource with a lot of variety with a goal of exposure to proper English. Great resource but doesn't meet Sam's criteria. LLATL is a wonderful resource for studying aspects of English in context of a snippet of literature. It is more of a spiral approach to English, has a lot of variety with little review. LLATL doesn't really meet Sam's criteria either.

So the question is......what elementary grammar program does?

I have used First Language Lessons with Sam when he was 6. We dropped it when we found MFW 1st. Honestly I found it a bit dry and boring so I was really just looking for a reason to drop it! However, if it meets Sam's criteria for a skill subject resource I need to get over my prejudice.

This quarter, we will use FLL2 since it is a resource that I already own. Sometime during this quarter, I will go to the local homeschool store and take a good long hard look at FLL 3 and FLL 4 to see if it will meet Sam's criteria.

Update on writing.

2010-10-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

In July, we went back to the basics of copywork, dictation and oral narrations. My son had completed a written summary of George Washington that consisted of only 5 words.

After 9 weeks of using WWE 2 as the backbone of our writing program, he has gone from tears and frustration to get the sentence " He was a tall man." on paper to...

-doing several sentences from dictation from AAS daily.
-copywork . This is a typical example....."I shall give you half an hour to be up, dressed, washed, teeth cleaned, pajamas folded, windows opened, and beds turned back."
-No tears and frustration! His comment today was "Writing isn't so bad after all."

Progress is being made!

Plans for this next quarter is to introduce the dictations exercises from WWE.

A day of reading..

2010-10-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Our revamped reading program is working great!

We do some choral reading with our bible study. He is reading with much more confidence during this time.

We spend a few minutes with a reading drill with Phonics Pathway. These drills are helping him to get out of the habit of guessing the words.

We spend time every afternoon re-reading a book that he has already read. He is getting in the habit of reading a favorite story just for fun. I do not make him sound out any words during this time. If he needs help I just tell him the word and move on. I want this to be a low-stress, fun reading opportunity.

We are taking our time working through AAS. This allows all the rules to really cement in his brain and they are helping him to tackle new words.

I am reading high interest read alouds to him throughout the day. If he loses interest in a story we drop it. I want him to get excited about all the great books out there.

We have slowed down the reading of Pathway Readers. We spend 2 days per story. The first day we take the new words and study them. We mark up each new word....
-circle all consonant and vowel teams
-divide into syllables
-determine if the vowels are long or short
-and finally, read each word.

We alternate paragraphs while reading. He reads one and I read the next. After we read the story we do the "after the story" exercise in the corresponding Pathway Reader workbook.

The second day, we do the "before the story" exercise in the book. This is usually some sort of word study exercise. We re-read our words that we marked up the day before and review as needed. We re-read the entire story but this time I start first.

This is the result of this plan....

...a boy picking up a book during his free time.

Charlotte and Reading.

2010-08-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

So I've been experimenting with Charlotte and reading.

First choice was using All About Spelling and adapting it to use a reading program. The first problem.....adapting....I don't like doing it. The second problem....busy fingers + little tiles that I would like to keep in order for Sam's spelling lesson.....who needs that drama on a daily basis? We will re-introduce AAS when we are ready for a spelling program.

Second choice was Phonics Pathways. PP is working GREAT for Sam for a quick phonics drill/review. It is crazy boring for an active kid who is learning to read. I want to help her develop good habits for school not have a daily battle. PP was going to be a battle.....sit still....look here.....

I still had MFW K. I had looked at it and decided against using it because I really just need a phonics program. So I took the phonics worksheets, placed them in our file folders and tried it for a couple of weeks. Good fit! The lessons are short, varied and multisensory. It is a little "crafty" with lots of cut and paste which just happen to be a specialty of Charlotte....she LOVES crafty. She gets to touch, cut, paste, and learn a little about letters.

It keeps her interest and she is developing good habits for school. What more could a mama want?

Reading.......

2010-07-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Reading has been a slow process for Sam. I have had early readers and late readers so I know the timing of independent reading is not as important as loving to read. In fact, older sis did not start reading charpter books until she was an older 8. This late reading start has not had any lasting effect on her academics. I know this......

So what exactly is my problem with Sam's reading?

When I put my thoughts on paper there really isn't a problem. If I had sent him to ps I would have held him back a year and he would be entering 2nd grade. Summer birthday, preterm, severe speech motor issues, male......holding him back a year would have been the only workable solution for him. So if he attended a PS he would be in 2nd grade. He is reading at a 2nd grade level.

So what exactly is my problem with Sam's reading?

Pride. Plain and simple pride. Who wants to talk about how their child reads as "grade level"? Doesn't it always feel just a little good to state how "advanced" your child is? How many homeschooling mamas proudly flaunt the word "advance" when describing their children? Even when their dc look/act like perfectly normal and average kids? Why do we do this to ourselves?Most importantly....... how exactly did I fall into this pattern of guilt that my child------ whose speech therapist once stated would probably need intervention with a reading specialist due to the severity of his speech issue----- is reading at......*gasp*......grade level?

No more.

MY SON READS AT GRADE LEVEL!

It is a cause for celebration not despair. In the process he has learned to work hard and that perserverance pays off. Both are great lessons for a young boy to learn. I am proud of him!

He still has work to do and we will continue having reading lesson until he reaches the fluency level that he will pick up and read a chapter book without assistance.

This year our reading program is multifaceted.

Each day
--- a short reading drill for review. 1-2 pages of Phonics Pathways.
---20-30 minutes of free reading. He currently prefers to read books that he has already read.
---15-20 minutes of reading from Pathway Readers with me.
---choral reading of bible selections that are scheduled in MFW Adv.
--- All About Spelling lessons are also phonics review lessons.
---High interest read alouds to motivate him to take the next step in reading.

The most important aspect of Sam's ongoing reading program is that his mama will stop listening to the critics, braggards and toxic personalities. Instead I will relish each of his victories as he progresses to a competent and fluent reader!

Houston, we have a problem.....

2010-07-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Five words or less has become Sam's motto for writing. He will put up his hand and try to summarize George Washington or any subject that he thinks that he will have to write about into five words or less. His summary for the first President of the United States....

He was a tall man.

He eliminated George, Washington, general, president and a great number of other words because he did not want to attempt the spelling. He certainly didn't want to mention surveyer, plantation, French and Indian War , Declaration of Independence or any other particular event. So he sifted through all the information that he knows about President Washington and managed to find 5 words that he can spell without thinking and that became his summary.

Obviously I need to rethink writing.

If I remove the written narrations he will speak volumes about our first President complete with actions and sound effects. However even his oral narrations are becoming a bit stilted since there is always that looming thought......"will I be expected to write this down?"

So that is the first step----completely eliminate any original writing from his weekly routine. I know this but have continue to blindly follow our curriculum into doing written narrations before their time. No more written narrations for the rest of the year!

So we will follow Charlotte Mason suggestions to the letter. Copywork, Oral Narrations and Dictation. Copywork, Oral Narrations and Dictation. Copywork. Oral Narrations. Dictation.

While pondering this dilemma of the 5 finger summary, I happened to come across a series of lectures by Susan Wise Bauer on writing. Her perspective on oral narrations, dictation is a bit different than Charlotte Mason's.

SWB's oral narrations are to help the child to summarize and find the main point of a passage. CM's oral narrations are an opportunity for the child to tell what he knows from a passage. SWB's approaches dictations with the expectation that the instructor will help the child as much as possible including spelling words if needed. CM's dictation is a prepared dictation that the child is instructed to "see" each word and the instructor covers mistakes as they happen and allows the child to correct after the exercise is completed.

That is my very basic understanding about the differences between SWB's writing plan and CM's writing plan! I'm sure there can be much debate about the similarities and differences between the two but I really have no desire to decide which way is best and why. I have only one desire at this point....

How to get my writing-phobic son to write!

I re-read SWB's Strong Foundations with the goal to make sure I have my basis covered with our readings from MFW Adventures. Ultimately, I decided to make it easier on myself and use Writing with Ease 2.

Oral Narrations-Let's start with the easiest for Sam. If I eliminate the threat...I mean possibility .....of a written narration he has the ability to become quite eloquent with his oral narrations. I will continue to follow CM's goal in oral narrations for all our reading with MFW's Adventures. I will allow him the opportunity to tell what he knows of a subject while encouraging to speak in complete sentences and using all the wonderful vocabulary that he has acquired.

I will use Writing with Ease to help him learn the ability to summarize and find the main idea. There are two exercises each week.

Copywork. He doesn't like it but we need more of it.WWE2 has a weekly selection. MFW Adv has a weekly selection from scripture that is being memorized.

Dictation. Day 3 of WWE2 is a dictation exercise that he would have done as copywork the previous day. Day 4 is a dictation exercise of his summary. That may be too similar to a written narrations so we may have to skip it for now. There are also sentences for dictation in All About Spelling.

The other dilemma is Primary Language Lessons. PLL is a great resource for teaching LA with a gentle intro of grammar. The problem is that it is in a non consumable book form and Sam is finding it cumbersome to use. We have tried a variety of solutions to help him with using a book and a separate piece of paper. He prefers that I re-write the information so he can do the exercises. I really have no desire to re-write the exercises. I'm just that lazy! I also saw no real need to take a subject that is not natural for him and make it more difficult by using a resource that he finds cumbersome.

So I have searched for alternatives. My options were to buy something new or use what I have. I have Learning Language Arts Through Literature so that is what we are going to trial.

LLATL has a weekly copywork exercise.....which can be done as dictation as the year progresses. There are exercises in grammar that are similar to PLL's that are in a format that are easier for him to use. There are also weekly spelling that I feel we can probably skip since we are using AAS.

So that brings our revamped LA program for Sam----

Writing With Ease2-copywork, dictation, oral narrations.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature-copywork, grammar.

+ MFW Adventures -copywork selection and oral narrations.

All About Spelling-dictation

This will give us 2-3 selections per week of copywork, 2-3 selections for dictations, ample opportunities to practice CM's oral narrations in addition to 2 opportunities to practice SWB's summary narrations.

Let's see where this takes us!

File Folders

2010-07-08T10:35:00.001-07:00

I had a mountain of paper growing on my desk. I attempted to reclaim my desk with binders but then I had a binder problem. I had a binder for every child, every subject and another binder for completed work. I also had another crate full of TMs, CDs, and other resources that I use throughout the year. I was starting to lose items that I needed to load our workboxes and the clutter was disrupting our day.

Then I read this blog post from Springs of Joy Homeschooling and found our solution!

Each quarter is color coded and has 10 File folders. 9 for each school week and 1 for the extras that I will use for the whole quarter. Each weekly file has a folder for each child that contains all the loose items they will use during that week. Currently each child's folder has their MFW sheets, LA sheet and math sheets. The orange folders in the back contains the resources that we will use during the entire year such as our phonics game, TMs, CDs, etc.

I was able to eliminate all our extra binders! Now I only need to look in 2 places....instead of 7...... when looking for items for our workboxes. So Simple!

Now I need to decide what to do with the papers once the child has completed the assignments. We are already on week 8 of MFW Adventures so the MFW sheets will continue to go into Sam's history notebook. I believe for now all the completed work will be returned into the weekly folder so I will have a clear visual of the progress the kids have made for the year.

Hopefully this tames the paper monster!

The beginning of Charlotte's Kindergarten Year.....

2010-07-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Where oh where has the time gone? Little Charlotte --whose big claim to fame at the start of the little blog was that she had just moved from her crib---- is almost 5 and it is time for the schooling to begin.

She has been enjoying a long and wonderful Charlotte Mason Preschool but it is time to add in a little bit of schoolwork each day. We have added a little bit this past year as she desired but in no way have we've been consistent or required that she participate.......and most days she did not. However, she would often stand beside Sam as we worked through a concept and she has been able to pick up quite a bit in this manner.

Our Kindergarten philosophy is still the basic plan for this next year. We will still spend a great quantity of time outside exploring our world but we need to add something to start developing the habit of schooltime. The difference between Sam's Kindergarten year and Charlotte's Kindergarten year is that Charlotte will have a slightly older brother's studies to tag-a-long. She already participates in some of the science projects, craft projects and read alouds that are scheduled in MFW Adventures. There is little need to plan on scheduling extra stories----unless she requests a re-read of her particular favorites of the past few years. So the big additions will be handwriting, math and phonics.

We will use Handwriting without Tears and Math-U-See Primer just as we did with Sam.

The big questions is phonics. She has already picked up quite a bit of the phonics by listening to Sam's lessons. 100 Easy lessons is going to be a step back. Honestly, I just don't think I'm willing to work through 100 Easy lessons for a 4th time! Since I plan on using All About Spelling with her next year for spelling that is the first option. I hear rumors of people who are using this spelling program to teach their children to read. Phonics Pathways is the second option. For the next month we are going to experiment with these two resources and see which "clicks" with her and is easy enough for me to pull together with minimal effort.

So the plan for Charlotte's Kindergarten year.

---Daily use

MUS Primer,

HWOT,

and our phonics program to help develop the habit of schooltime.

---Encourage her to participate in Sam's studies with MFW Adventures.

---Continue to spending lots of time in play both indoors and out.

Let the Adventure begin!

Big Bro' - Our Family's Newest Sailor

2010-04-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

Spring 2010

2010-04-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

We've been busy since January!

Big sis is doing well in college and Big Bro' left in February for the Navy...

Sam finished MFW 1 and has started MFW Adventures. We started using workboxes in our house and it has been a very nice addition for us.... Sam even decorated his sheet for the his American History studies.

Each day I follow the MFW grid and fill the boxes.

Box 1. Bible. Tomorrow we start our Names of Jesus poster...

Box 2. Spelling....

Box 3. Primary Language Lessons...

Box 4. History...

Box 5. Science...

Box 6. Math...

Box 7. Reading...

Box 8. Art....

Box 9. Read Aloud...

I have Sam work on Book Basket while I'm working with Charlotte and we haven't started doing Foreign Language yet.

The books that aren't being used the next day are kept in a crate so I never have to search for a book....

Sam's loaded workboxes......

Sam's Year 3

2010-04-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

History/Geography/Language Arts/Reading/Literature/Science/Bible/Art/Music appreciation/handwriting/handicrafts

My Father's World Adventures

Addition Language Arts resources

~~Primary Language Lessons~~

First Language Lessons

Writing with Ease

All About Spelling

Math - MUS Gamma

Poetry/Memorization/Speech-IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Last Quarter update for 2009

2010-01-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

This quarter update is a little late because it appears I quit blogging in September.....

Drum roll please.....

Speech therapy is behind us! It was a long hard road but Sam is done and we couldn't be prouder of him.

As far a school there isn't much to talk about. We have a nice rhythm to our day. Big Sis' leaves for collegeat 9am and we head upstairs to do school work. Sam just sits at the table and gets to work.

Currently for Sam....

Math- Lesson 13 of MUS Beta. Math remains easy for Sam.

MFW 1--currently on lesson 111. This has been such a huge hit! Sam enjoys reading the Bible Reader. He does very well with all the lessons. He calls the writing portion the "hardest part of school" but he is doing well. A bonus for me is that it is completely open and go so very little planning for me.

Poetry/Memorization- IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry is another huge hit. Sam has memorized ten poems.

We did drop All About Spelling again but only because we were covering spelling with the phonics instruction in MFW 1. We will pick it back up when we complete the phonics with MFW 1 in the next few weeks.

The only minor change is that we are no longer reading a different selection on each day instead we pick a title and read it until it is complete.

We did organize our material using a modified workbox. I'm using these Sterilite drawers to organize our materials. Using the workbox system has completely eliminated all the "how much more" comments from Sam.

Currently for Charlotte...

In addition to all the activities that we do during the preschool years, we spend each day working with MFW Preschool materials and reading a selection from AO Year 0. She also participates in the books I'm reading aloud with Sam and listens in on his phonics lessons.

She has picked up quite a bit of phonics doing our very informal preschool. She knows many of the phonograms and can read .....a little. She is not going to need to work quite as hard as Sam with learning to read.

Plan for Winter Quarter...

---- Get ready to start MFW Adventures!

-----Do a quick review of All About Spelling book 1 and then start book 2.

-----Resist the urge to start MFW K with Charlotte before her 5th birthday. It does help that I lent it too a friend and do not anticipate having it returned until next fall!

Sam the Recruiter

2009-09-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while you get a glance of the person that your child is becoming. I got such a glance last week during a Cub Scout Rally. I really didn't have a clue what I signed us up for but we headed to the school. Sam was the only Scout that showed up to help recruit 30 boys and entertain their siblings. He was amazing. Sam is strong in interpersonal skills there is little doubt about that- he can make a friend in any setting with ease. I just didn't realize how intuitive he was to other's needs. He automatically changed his emphasis on scouting to meet the desires of the different age and abilities of the boys that he spoke with. While talking to older boys he spoke of camping during the winter, shooting off rockets, and bb guns. When talking with the younger boys he emphasized the family aspect of scouting and how much fun it was do things with your dad. There were several special needs boys and he intuitively knew that they wanted to know that they were going to get to participate just like everybody else. Is is going to be such a joy to watch this young person grow to a man!

Summer 2009

2009-08-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where has the summer gone?

Big Sis graduated and starts college .....gulp.....tomorrow. Big Brother has moved out and is ready to join the Navy. We painted and re-arranged rooms so the Big Sis has her own study/sitting room adjacent to her bedroom. This means that we once again have a dedicated schoolroom/playroom. Since we didn't have enough going on this summer we also decided to rip up the old floor and lay down the new. I guess it is not a surprise that we only got about 6 weeks of school done this season!.

Our basic schedule hasn't changed much. Charlotte went through a phrase this summer where she did not want to participate in the morning activities so instead we did lots of informal activities throughout the day.

Starting around 9am with Sam we did MFW 1 , MUS, IEW Poetry, Nature Reader, Speech work, Song School Latin and our alternated readings

M- Geography ( Seabird)
T- History(D'Auliare Selection)
Th- Burgess( Birds)

Sam is reading his Bible reader. He has a selection of books that he can read all by himself and he spends about 30min each day reading all by himself. I have been so impressed with MFW 1 reading instructions. It is everything that I have been trying to put together on my own with our CM reading instructions. It is so awesome to just open the book and have the lesson planned out for us.....not too long....not too short...not too many manipulative......just perfect.

Sam has memorized 4 poems from IEW Poetry. The poems are interesting enough that he is motivated to learn them. He enjoys impressing friends and family with his poems and it is also good speech practice.

We've been doing SSL just for fun. If I find a Song School Spanish or its equivalent we are going to try it. We would have more use for Spanish but it never made it into our schedule this past year.

It's been an interesting summer but we are looking for a cooler, less hectic Autumn!