As promised

The watercolors the girls painted. Little Bird seemed to get the idea of lots of water better then Sweet Pea- Sweet Pea was more interested in making the picture look right.

Both girls had a great time!

Weekly Report, Week 4

We had a great week this week!

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We are progressing well through R&S English. Today we did the first review lesson (lesson 5) in Unit 2. Sweet Pea is doing well with finding nouns and deciding what type of noun is what. We also worked on proper punctuation for list making this week.

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. She is also now starting to do some "pre-writing" stuff. I don't think she'll be ready to make letters for some time yet, but it's fun to see her learning!

Math
Sweet Pea

We finished section 5 in Primary Math, so we've done the positioning stuff. We may start the next section a little later then I'd planned because I'm taking a small break from the book to make sure that all math facts 0-10 and doubles 0-20 are firm in her mind.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week was Ancient India. This lesson was particularly interesting for my girls because they know a sweet little girl who is from India.

Science

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea research bats and wrote a report about them. I am seeing that the First Animals Encyclopedia we have is not enough for what we need and I'm looking for something with large pictures but more information.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 4 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words. We also got a new CD of French children's songs to play when the girls are coloring or playing. I picked one with a France French accent since our main program has a decidedly Quebec sound to it.

Bible

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the promised savior this week. Little Bird was relieved to add this in- she was a little upset at where it ended last week!

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 9th Commandment now. I think we'll finished the sheets for the commandments this week and then we'll review and move on.

Family Fun

I'll post pictures tomorrow, but this evening I let the girls spread out on the kitchen floor with water colors and paint pictures. They were really excited- we haven't gotten to do as much messy art since the baby has gotten mobile. This was a great treat for them!

Sweet Pea's first report

I'll post a huge group of pictures and list of what we've done this week tomorrow- I think that's probably better then little sound bites everyday.
Today I will show you how my lesson tracking is going and Sweet Pea's first report (rough draft).

It reads, "Bats
Bats can live in trees. Bats grow to be 1.5 meters long. Bats eat insects, and fruits, and even some bats eat blood. Sometimes people kill bats. bats have babies one at a time. I like bats because I like everything about them."


Tomorrow we'll revise and improve it and I'll have her write it in her best handwriting for her animal notebook.

This is her picture of bats to accompany it.


I've been asked a few times what we are doing for Bible this quarter, so I'm including my (very) messy chart for every day. It uses the Child's Garden of Bible Stories book and workbook, the Early Reader's Bible, a regular Bible, the Arch books series, Ergermeier's Bible Stories and paper to write on/ paper to draw on. Both children do this together.


I also have these 4 weeks written down in a lesson planner. This is what was actually accomplished, not what was planned. I feel really good about what we've gotten done!

Religion and mythology

This probably fits best under the, "Ask a religious homeschooler" heading. I've talked to people both online and face to face about this, so it seems to be a pretty common concern.

I'm referring to the concerns about teaching ancient history, with all the varied gods and goddesses. I have to say that it never occurred to me to be concerned with talking about ancient beliefs and mythology- I felt quite chagrined when I first heard the concerns voiced. Once I got over my mommy guilt, however, I felt pretty good about extensively covering ancients with my small children.

First, we read a lot here. I think reading to small children is very important, and I think that's something I can say pretty safely and without any controversy. One of the things my children have been read from early on is fairy tales and fables. Is there really that big of a difference between reading about a lion and a mouse working together to remove a thorn then talking about Gilgamesh and Enkidu? Why would one be more faith damaging then the other?

I also looked at a basic premise of classical education- that this certain type of pedagogy has produced some of the most flexible and brilliant minds in western history. Church fathers were well versed in the classics and the mythology behind them- and if the faith of Martin Luther and Augustine remained strong it seemed likely that it would be possible to expose my children to the same enduring works and ideas with similar results.

I think that children have a great capacity to understand the differences in their world. We pretend to fly or be animals around here and I've never seen an indication that my children believe they are actually flying cats. Perhaps they wish they were, but they know that they are children. I think talking about other people's beliefs is a wonderful way to frame our own. I'm confident enough in the apologetics of my faith that I think open discussion can only strengthen our family beliefs.

So I embrace talking about other religions and cultures in our homeschooling. I think there are real benefits in producing culturally literate, articulate citizens.

Sharing inspiration

http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/03/homeschool-calendar-morning-board.html

I've been thinking of buying a giant pocket calendar to add to our morning routine, but I think this idea is much, much cooler. And won't cost me money- something my husband is a big fan of. ;)

Weekly Report, Week 3

Wow, is it REALLY week three already? How does time go so quickly?

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We finished unit 1 of our English program. 1/6 of the way through! We worked a lot on sentence order, proper sentence beginning, and ending.

We have also finished 4 lessons of spelling now.

I think overall we're making great LA progress!

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. This is one of her favorite parts of "doing school."

Math
Sweet Pea

We finished another section in Primary Mathematics. We have also finished 2/3 of Math Mammoth Addition 1 now! Math is going really well, and is something Sweet Pea looks forward to everyday.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Together we talked about the Assyrians this week.

Science

Sweet Pea

We talked about animal classification, focusing on the differences between invertebrates and vertebrates. We talked about the 5 animal kingdoms, and where commonly thought of animals fit in.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 3 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words.

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the first sin this week. We also talked a lot about Heaven, forgiveness, and death.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 6th Commandment now. I'm glad we are doing this daily and incorporating the Catechism into our daily life on a regular, intentional basis.

Daily Report, cute book, and grass is greener syndrome

First things first, our daily reporting.

We're talking about the first sin this week. Both Sweet Pea and Little Bird seem to have a good grasp of the basic events of the story. I'm interested to see the pictures they come up with tomorrow!We finished through the 6th Commandment so far. Sweet Pea is doing a great job.French is also going really well- we are incorporating more and more French throughout the day.
We finished Unit One in Rod and Staff English today! Sweet Pea made a super cute book yesterday and we discussed the end of chapter poetry selection. I am including the book in it's entirety because I think it's really, really cute.


This page says, "I write in school."

This is her science page. It says, "I do science". There is an "e" on the end, I just cut it off taking the pics. Sorry, Sweet Pea!


This page reads, "I make books."


I cut the "h" off the end of math, as well as the period. They are there, though.


This last page reads, "The end. Au revoir."


After English was math- something that I am completely thrilled with both what we are using and how well Sweet Pea is doing. She is almost finished with Math Mammoth Addition 1, making great progress through MM Subtraction 1, and making huge leaps through Primary Mathematics. She's really getting more at ease with her math facts. Yay, Sweet Pea!


After that we read SOTW Ch. 8- the Assyrians. It was interesting to compare the Assyrian king with last week's king (Hammurabi) and then talk about infighting and conquering.


And now, for my case of Grass is Greeneritis. It's serious, folks. I don't know why, but LA continues to be an area of discontent and angst for me. I feel so good about most of what we are doing in school- I feel like it's a great fit, that the kids are happy, learning well, and doing fun things. And yet I keep coming back to Language Arts and poking at it, switching around, and disliking my program choices.

We started with Writing with Ease and Spelling Workout, and those we dropped last year. I knew that they weren't our long term fits. Now we are doing Rod and Staff English 2 and Spelling 2. I feel like these are very solid programs. Sweet Pea is learning a lot. She doesn't mind either of them and does the work well.

Why can't I leave well enough alone? Lately I've been looking a lot at a program called Writing Tales and I think that I want to try it. Now the question is when? Do we finish R&S? Quit it now? Do them together?

I don't know!

Homeschooling with a baby

Instead of regaling you with thrilling tales from our school week today I thought I'd talk about how homeschooling is going with the baby.

For the record, my children are 6, 3, and 5.5 months old.

Having an increasingly mobile and interested baby rolling around makes things interesting. We're moving everything up vertically by degrees. We do have more time to read- when I'm sitting and nursing is a great time to read to/with the girls.

It makes some things more complicated, though. Anything with little pieces needs to be kept carefully picked up. The days of money strewn about to play store are over! Working on art projects with him awake is an adventure- he reaches and grabs and eats everything he possibly can.

Now that we've adjusted, it's not as complicated as I worried it would be. We're doing more structured schooling then last year, and I honestly think it's going better.

Weekly Report, Week 2

Week Two had two unplanned no-to- minimal school days, so that hurt our progress a little. We'll finish the rest of the work tomorrow afternoon. Fortunately, the school time we missed was missed for fun reasons, not anything bad.

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We didn't do any Language Arts last week, so this was the first of the school year. We did writing, grammar, and spelling. Sweet Pea is a visual learner, and she spells words by picturing them in her mind (her description). This seems to be working pretty well for her, but we're doing a systematic spelling program, anyway. This is a short and sweet part of our day and takes less then 5 minutes, three times a week. The plan was to do writing and grammar 5 times this week, but we only accomplished 4. We will do that final lesson tomorrow afternoon.

My overall feelings in this area for the week are very good. Sweet Pea is very capable of the current workload while still being appropriately challenged.

Little Bird

Little Bird was happy this week to get her own ABC draw erase cards. I also am having her go through pages when we are reading and find the letters she knows.

Math
Sweet Pea

We did four complete days of math instruction so far this week- day 5 will be tomorrow afternoon. This means that we did work from both of our programs. Sweet Pea did Primary Mathematics workbook pages 49-52, covering addition and subtraction, and worked through pages of addition and subtraction from Math Mammoth, as well. We continue to work on cementing math facts, as well as increasing ease in playing with numbers.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Together we talked about Hammurabi and written laws, and how they impact society. We built a ziggurat from Duplos. We may or may not cover some material on the Assyrians tomorrow- we'll try but it's a lower priority then some of the other catch up work.

Science

Sweet Pea

We talked about animal classification, focusing on the differences between invertebrates and vertebrates. We talked about the 5 animal kingdoms, and where commonly thought of animals fit in.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 2 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words.

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the first home/ garden of Eden this week. This was a good week to cover this since we brought the rest of the potatoes out of our garden.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 5th Commandment now. I'm glad we are doing this daily and incorporating the Catechism into our daily life on a regular, intentional basis.

Family Fun/ Field Trip

We had friends over multiple times this week- something that the children always enjoy. We also went to visit my in-laws at their lake home 2 hours to the south of us, so the girls got the chance to swim, attend another fair, and play in the woods.

Not school day

We started with great intentions- really, we did! We sat down, pulled out the folders and books, and did our Bible work.

And then I got a call that a little girl Sweet Pea is friends with had had a difficult night and would like to come over- and that was fine with me, of course!

So there was no school today.

We'll catch up tomorrow!

Daily Report

Last night we went to a picnic where my kids got to see some animals and even get donkey rides. A great time was had by all, despite the weather and Little Bird falling off a donkey.

We were out late last night, though, so this morning we started late and slow. This means that we did things out of order and ended up even doing some of the work after rest time.
We started the morning with writing because I can set Sweet Pea up with it, do the lesson together and then she can work on her part independently. This gave me extra time with my coffee and my tired little children. This is what works looks like before it's corrected- Sweet Pea is a pretty good speller but obviously needs some more time and work!


We talked about the Garden of Eden today, as well as prayer. My girls have very different perspectives at this point!


The we worked on the Third Commandment and it's meaning. Sweet Pea knows the 10 Commandments, but we are still working on the meanings.

After that we did French. I like that we do one lesson a week so we have all week to work on pronunciation and vocabulary retention.

We did 1/2 of the math I had planned for the day. Today we mostly did addition.


We had lunch, then rest time, and then Sweet Pea finished math and we did history. We talked about Hammurabi and his written laws. I like having examples of what he considered fair to discuss. Sweet Pea always really enjoys the mapping portion of our lessons and seeing where things happened and what is there now.


Just one of the many flashcards we laminated so Little Bird can have lots of practice with the dry erase markers.

Week Two

Week two started off really well. We did the same morning routine as last week- Bible, Catechism, then French. Then we did writing (Rod and Staff) and spelling (also Rod and Staff). After that we did math- Sweet Pea did Math Mammoth Addition 1 and Subtraction 1 work as well as Primary Mathematics work. I'm pleased to say she's doing really well with the introduction of subtraction. After that we did our first lesson from Artistic Pursuits.

Sweet Pea was really excited to get to do art as a class- I suspect that this will be a big favorite each week. I like that it includes picture study along with technique.

Little Bird had a great time with dry erase markers and a set of letter flashcards that I meticulously laminated last night. I really wish I had a laminator- using an iron takes forever!

Weekly Report, Week 1

I can't believe week one is already finished! It went really well, and really quickly. There were some minor speed bumps, but it was a great opening to our year.We did not do all of the subjects that I plan for the year- I wanted to go into this week with an easier schedule to let every one adjust. We did Bible, Catechism, French, History, Science and Math. Next week we are adding in Writing, Spelling, and Art. (OK, I know that I do not need to capitalize the subjects- it makes me feel special, OK? OK?)

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We didn't do any official language arts. Sweet Pea just recently finished the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (OPG), so we reviewed a few of those lessons and read out loud. We went to the library and Sweet Pea picked out some books for afternoon reading time. Sweet Pea's reading stamina and comprehension have really made some incredible leaps in the last few months.

Little Bird

Little Bird is doing really well learning her ABCs. We are doing them on a dry erase board still. She knows a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,m,o,p,q,s,u,w, and z. We're almost there! Next we'll work on sounds, then we'll start OPG with her.

Math
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is my only one studying math right now. We restarted Math Mammoth Addition 1. Next week we'll jump into Singapore again, but this was a great refresher.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

History is a combo subject. I don't expect any output from Little Bird, but she listens right along with us. We did Ch. 6 of Story of the World 1: The Ancients (SOTW). Sweet Pea was really impressed with the opportunity to make a comic book (graphic novel?) of Joseph. This is going much better then last year- it seemed to be a little much last fall but is perfect now.

Science

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is my only current science student, as well. We worked on a Rod and Staff science lesson about farm animals. It makes me laugh a little- we are pretty rural, but we are definitely not on a farm here, so the emphasis on farm life isn't a perfect fit for us. I think beginning next week we're going to change to a study of the animal world.

French
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This is another group subject around these parts. We started Le Francais Facile. I like it. Her accent is French Canadian, and I'm pretty sure it's also a Quebecois accent, at that. Doesn't really bother me. There isn't ONE proper French accent, and if we ever plan a trip to a French speaking area we'll worry about accent then.
Initial reaction is that I'm pleased with it. I think it introduces a good amount of vocabulary, it's quick to do, and it appeals equally well to my 6 year old as it does my 3 year old. That's a winner for us right now!

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Another group activity 'round these parts! Seeing a common theme? This went really well. We did creation (Genesis 1) all week. The girls enjoyed reading the many and varied accounts we read and they liked filling out their workbooks.

Yesterday they both summarized the week for a book I'll make for each of them. I'm including Sweet Pea's and I'll just tell you Little Bird's since I wrote it for her. :) Little Bird said, "When God made the world He made animals." They both drew pictures to go with it today.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea worked through the Intro to the 10 Commandments, the 1st Commandment, and 1/2 the 2nd Commandment.

Family Fun/ Field Trip

Tonight we went as a family to the county fair. The kids had a really great time on the rides and we ate a bunch of fair food. It was a great close to the week. Sweet Pea made a picture of a roller coaster to commemorate the fair.

daily reporting

I'm making out pretty regular with this, for now. ;) At the end of the week I'll post pictures of all of our work for the week- so stay tuned for that.
We added in science and math today, so the schedule is getting closer and closer to normal. Sweet Pea is still at the table working on finishing her math, but the other two kids were done sitting.
I'm really happy with our line up for this year- everything seems like it's a great fit.

Also (and unrelated) the Well Trained Mind forum and boards are down. I hope they are back soon- I use them a lot!

It's quiet time

I am a big believer in the importance of quiet time and rest time in the afternoon for everyone when you homeschool. We spend a lot of time together as a family. A lot. And short breaks for everyone really helps keep the peace. It's also good for Sweet Pea to h ave a good chunk of reading time.

Right now Little Bird naps about an hour and I have her spend the next hour playing with quiet toys, looking and books, and resting. Moose (the baby) sleeps until the kids wake him up. ;)

I use the time to clean, read, rest, or do other things that need to be done.

Today was day #2 of the new school year. We did Bible, Catechism, more of lesson 1 of Le Francais Facile, and history. For history we did chapter 6 of Story of the World 1.

First day of school!

We did our first day of the year today. I wanted an early August start date so we could easily fit 18 weeks in before Christmas this year.
Today we did Bible, Catechism, and French. All three we did together. Little Bird also spent some time coloring with dry erase markers and some pages I have for her while Sweet Pea did the writing for Bible and Catechism.
I wanted to start with the first part of our day and see how it went before adding more in. And I'm glad I did- I really like what we've got going for the first part of the school day. It's less then an hour, so it fits really well into my total time goals. Tomorrow we add in history, and by this time next week we should be running full school days!