It's spring again. This is traditionally when I've planned the following year and tradition holds firm here.

It's been a while since I've included weekly wrap ups or anything but since my eldest is going into 6th grade I would like to again for posterity.

I don't have a perfect plan, yet, but I think I have the basics set.

My kids in the fall will be 11, 8, 5, 2 (turning 3 in October).

Math
I have the younger kids doing CLE, Eldest is doing Khan Academy, second doing Khan and CLE.

Language Arts
In order of youngest to eldest is probably easiest. #4 will do the Rod and Staff preschool books. This will be my fourth kid doing these! #3 will finish firming up phonics, handwriting, and grammar using a combo of Cursive First, Memoria Press, and some CLE. #2 will use CLE and Memoria Press. #1 is still somewhat up in the air. She has been using a combo of Memoria Press and CLE. I'm not sure if we will continue to use both together or use just Memoria Press, I need to really look at the samples and what is covered.

Foreign Language
Kids are doing Spanish. Big two are using Duolingo. Continue on.

Science
Still determining. Lots of nature study with field guides, more work on the Scientific Process.

History
Memoria Press, Child's History of the World, historical fiction to match time periods at carious reading levels.

Religion
I still really like Lutheranism 101 for kids, in a continual loop. Catechism. CPH's Story Bible. Hymn memorization.

I have the content areas roughly grouped together so the kids can work in a group at their own levels. Skill areas separately since those are impossible to really group at the varied levels.

And I think that's that.

Schooling in PICTURES returns!

'Cause I know you've all been dying to see. Right? Right?

Those ghosts are the pained footprints of each on my kids, filled in and decorated.

This week we covered more of the Puritans. We also went out of order and added Leif Ericson to our Book of Time. We read about him. I'm a little surprised he wasn't included in Sonlight's American history, but he was easy to include! Must not forget the vikings!!


Sweet Pea colors these, then we cut them out and write a sentence for her book to help us remember something about each person.



We're chugging along in math. We're almost 1/2 way through the book. The focus has been more on practical math then doing the workbook, though, which has slowed progress through the book but increased our enjoyment.


Here's a sample dictation from Sonlight's LA. We then go through it the next day and mark up all the parts of speech. The lengths of the dictations varies.



In science we are studying the planets. To go along with this we are building a scale model of our solar system. I'll put pictures up when we have more then itty bitty Mercury done. It's not too impressive on it's own!

The kids have been making various crafts and coloring. A lot.

Little Bird is working through a Handwriting without tears book when I am busy with her big sister.
Moose insists he has to color, too.


Sweet Pea's art is as sweet and quirky as ever.


The girls also practice piano daily. I shoot for 15-30 minutes from each of them per day.

Along with this we are doing Latin. Sweet Pea reads daily for school and pleasure. Little Bird is working through phonics. Moose is diligently babbling at us and practicing that toddler mind control that allows a nominally verbal little person to get what he wants and needs.

Things are good!

Sick of LA indecision?

Then this is not the post for you!

I am contemplating Sweet Pea's LA line up still. STILL.

Why, you ask? Because I'm an indecisive mama, sometimes.

Option 1
Language Lessons for the Very Young 1
Learning to Spell Through Copywork, Book B
And one of the Queen homeschool copywork books- I think I'll give her a few choices

Option 2
Classical Writing Primers
Rod and Staff Spelling3

Option 3
Something else I haven't thought of


I think perhaps Little Bird would like Language Lessons for Little Ones.

Classical Writing Primer

I have Spring in my possession and I've been paging through it. I'd like to briefly compare it to Writing with Ease.

Classical Writing Primer (CW) is a consumable workbook. There is also a teacher help book, and a file to download with pictures for picture study.
-the lines for writing are single lines, no dotted mid line
-lots of space for illustration
-has around 7-10 sentences per day from what I've seen
-includes copywork, narration, picture study, nature study, grammar, and spelling

I think that the selections are really sweet. I like the length of the writing assignments.

Writing with Ease (WWE) also has a consumable student book. There is a separate teacher's manual.
-dotted lines, but large
-has pictures you can color, no illustration
-1-2 sentences per day
-includes copywork, narration, and dictation (at higher levels)

Overall, I really prefer CW's primer to the WWE level we used. I didn't feel like WWE contained enough writing and I wasn't really thrilled with the books the samples were drawn from. Both programs are similar in price.

I'm looking forward to working through Primer and seeing how we like the rest of Classical Writing!

Well Trained Mind vs. the Latin Centered Curriculum

I'd like to compare and contrast the two, and then look at what I'm planning for next year. I'm planning 2nd grade and K4, for the record.

Also- a quick google search for Latin Centered Curriculum 2nd grade didn't really turn up any blogs with a detailed listing! I'm actually pretty surprised. All you LCC bloggers need to put more out there, OK?

2nd grade:

Well Trained Mind subject areas
Language- Spelling, cursive, reading/notebooking, grammar, memory work, fun reading
Writing- writing and dictation
Mathematics
History- medieval-early Renaissance
Science- earth science and astronomy
Religion- world religions and family faith
Art
Music

Latin Centered Curriculum Subject areas
English Studies- Phonics as needed, reading, copywork, recitation
Latin
Classical Studies- Norse myths
Christian Studies
Modern Studies- geography and biographies
Arithmetic
Nature Study/Science

Looking at it I see about 14 subject areas for the WTM plan and 10 for the LCC. That's really not as big of a difference as I thought it would be since the LCC is so often referred to as pared down.

Neither one includes foreign language (well, outside Latin) at this age, and that's something that we are already doing and won't be dropping that.

My 2nd grade plan falls somewhere in the middle of the two.

So far I have a rough line up ready.

Language Arts/English Studies- Writing Tales 1, Rod and Staff Spelling 3

Reading- Books tied to the history and science rotation

Mathematics- Saxon Math 2

History- Romans, Reformers, and Revolutionaries, Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia

Science- Earth/space science

Latin- Prima Latina

French- Le Francais Facile

Religion- New Testament and Catechism

Art- Artistic Pursuits

Music- piano lessons

I plan to do dictation and memory work from History and Religion. My time goal is about 2-3 hours a day, doing History and Science both twice a week and the rest of the subjects daily.

Kindergarten 4:

Well Trained Mind line up:

Reading
Writing
Mathematics

Latin Centered Curriculum subjects (It should be noted that there is no K4 line up, this is the general Kindy suggestions):

Latin Centered Curriculum Subject areas
English Studies- Intensive phonics,nursery rhymes, copywork, recitation
Latin
Classical Studies- Aesop's fables
Christian Studies
Modern Studies- geography and biographies
Nature Study/Science

Our actual plan:

Phonics- Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, Hooked on Phonics
Writing: Cursive First, copywork as desired
Math- Saxon K
Latin- Prima Latina
French- Le Francais Facile

We'll also read through Aesop and she'll listen to as much science and history as she wants.

There's been quite a bit of waffling on my part on some of these, and there may be tweaking of some choices still to come, but I'm rather pleased at how it looks so far.

How much is enough?

I struggle as a homeschooling mom with how much is enough. It's across the board for me. How much math practice? How much time on spelling? How much time on school, on free play, with other kids, with other teachers?

It's easy to feel like it's never right, and never enough. I've been thinking about this a lot specifically with math and writing.

Math is something that I think should be done frequently, without big breaks for primary students. We do math five times a week, and sometimes it's more then that. We are using two math programs together as well as extra practice sheets I print off online. I fall under the, "Deep, not wide" wisdom here- we are cementing math facts until I am nearly dreaming them. I'm fairly certain Sweet Pea is, as well. This is good, though. I know when we move on (gulp, multiplication) that we won't lose the ground we've already covered.

I think it's a fairly widely talked about fact that most homeschooled kids write less then their public schooled peers. It's not all a bad thing. Sometimes kids are pushed into churning out volume before mastering quality, and that's not how it should be. It's also easy to go to the opposite extreme and I'm always a little surprised when I hear so many kids Sweet Pea's age described as writing reluctant. How can you really know if you like writing or not when the process is still so new?

I expect 10-20 sentences a day. It's usually a combination of writing across history and science and doing a writing assignment I've made or or from Maxwell's Primary Lessons.

I know it's more then a lot of homeschooled kids in 1st do- but is it enough?

I guess we'll see.

Question, answered- writing

We are doing Mommy led writing right now.

This means I assign something, we work through it, correct it, and then Sweet Pea rewrites it.

Today's assignment was five sentences about her stuffed animal and an adventure.

She wrote:

Sprinkles Adventures

Once apon a time there was a little, stuffed animal named Sprinkles. He was in a shelf in a sotre. One day he was picked for a friend by a little toddler, she loved him. Her parents paid for him.
"Sprinkles can crawl!" said Sweet Pea. He crawled around her. "Aaaah," said Spinkles. "Sprinkles wants to eat," said Mom. We made food for him. "Look at him eat" said Dad. "Well, I know Sprinkles was a little different that day." I said.
So the next day he got bord of waiting for me to wake up so he decided to explore.


She will write the end tomorrow, as well as fix the grammatical and spelling errors.

And that's what Mom led writing looks like for now.

Writing shopping

Writing doesn't seem like something to shop for, does it? What I'm looking for is a writing curriculum that has 100% of what I'm looking for.

We're muddling through right now with a conglomeration of different materials and lots of mom improvisation, but after we finish our current lot of materials I'd really like something that provides more hand holding for me and less tweaking.

What we are currently using: Rod and Staff English 2: Preparing to Build, Primary Lessons in Language and Composition, Rod and Staff Spelling 2: Spelling by Sound and Structure, and Writing Strands 2. For comprehension and literature we're reading books together.

Grammar is currently coming from the R&S book and Primary Lessons. Primary Lessons focuses on applications of grammar and R&S introduces new topics to discuss. Using both of these is kind of unwieldy as neither is get in and get out grammar approach. I have been looking at something like Growing with Grammar to that end, but I'm not sure on what level to pick. Or if I want something all in one across LA?

Spelling is currently going well. It's very hands off for me which is nice since so much else of what we are doing is direct interaction. Sweet Pea spells well and is constantly improving. I probably will not change this unless I get LA with spelling included. Even then I may not switch since this fits so well for now.

Writing is my big area of discontent and confusion right now. I think that Sweet Pea is a pretty good writer (for her age) and pretty enthusiastic about writing. Writing With Ease did not provide enough writing for her, so we dropped it. Rod and Staff wasn't quite right either, so we switched to using it just orally for the grammar practice. Primary Lessons is nice and has copywork, picture study, and composition, but it's short- 63 lessons (and we've already done 15). I also am not so over the moon with it that I've stopped looking, either.

Reading is going well, but this is completely mom directed for now. Sweet Pea just finished the first Harry Potter book and sometime this week will get to watch it with mom and dad. Little Bird will NOT be watching. We discussed every chapter as she read, as well as the character development and plot lines. Now she is reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and we are doing the same thing. I think this year we will work through some Newberry Award books, as well.

Looking back at this perhaps we are doing better then I thought? Who knows. I sure don't!

Writing

Any long term reader of my blog knows that no subject sends me into a tizzy quite like Language Arts. I stress, I fret, I switch. I lament costs and the amount of options.

I've come across another LA curricula that really excites me. It was written in the late 1800s/ early 1900s by a new York school superintendent named William Henry Maxwell. From what I've seen it's very compatible with classical education and writing progression. And, save the cost of ink and paper- it's FREE!

I think this is the order- if anyone has it different let me know!

Primary lessons in language and composition

First book in English, Volume 1

Introductory lessons in English grammar: for use in lower grammar classes

There are quite a few books more in the series available here.

Enjoy!

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!

Writing and math

We're still here, chugging along. Enjoying the hot weather. ;) By hot of course I mean tepid, but that's beside the point.

I've just started Sweet Pea on Math Mammoth's Subtraction 1. I'm really a fan of Math Mammoth and the way you can buy it- by topic or level or both. It's a hit.


We've worked almost all the way through the Addition 1 and we are working on subtraction in Singapore now, so I thought the time was right. It's going well!
We're also doing a little bit of gentle drill on math facts 0-10. Sweet Pea knows them, we're just working on increasing speed now that the concepts are firm.


Rod and Staff English continues to be a good choice. We're doing all of the exercises on paper. I know that a lot of people end up doing portions of it orally, but I like the actual pencil on paper practice that this is giving Sweet Pea.

That being said, I don't know if this will be our long term Language Arts solution or not. I'm constantly tweaking Language Arts- for some reason it's easier for me to just let math be and stick with what we are using but I'm constantly reading and researching about LA. We'll see!

Literary Work in Progress

Sweet Pea's current interest is in creating "books". I'm excited to see this because she wasn't writing very much recently. Some of her spelling is a little creative and her plot has a few holes, but I'm pretty impressed.
The title of her book is, "Silly and Willy".


The next part reads, "Silly went to Willy's hous(e) to see what he was doing today. it was a vare (very) nise (nice)...


...out. The son (sun) was shine-ing brite. Thehes (this's) garden.


Willy came and ran into silly's house.


And that's what she got so far.

New Language Arts

I cracked out the new book we got- the Preparing to Build book. It's more writing the the previous program we used- the Writing with Ease book 1. I think that's good- Sweet Pea needs more actual pencil to paper time and this seems like it will provide it.
This first lesson was right on her level, as well, so that's great! The biggest obstacle we're facing right now is her attention span. She's easily distracted and ansty, so we're going to spend some time working on that.

Week 24? 23?

I was looking at my binder and apparently this is NOT week 24. It's 23. oops!
Anyway, that embarrassing gaffe aside, the week is going well.
We did page 46 in Cursive First- almost done! Sweet Pea's assignment was writing her name 6 times, neatly, so you'll have to excuse the lack of pictures on that. ;)

We finished Earlybird Math today! Yay! We'll spend the rest of the week reviewing ordinal numbers, money, time, and easy story problems, then next week we'll begin lesson one of Primary Mathematics. I sat down last night with my planner, anticipating the need to map it all out- only to find that in the Home Instructor's Guide it's all been done for me. What a nice feeling! We'll be using the Instructor's Guide, the textbook, and the workbook. We'll also continue to supplement with Math Mammoth's 1st grade materials.


Another spelling test today from McGuffey's. I think that's going to be a good way to watch how she's forming her letters while I decide if handwriting will continue as a subject, or just a part of other work.

I think that what confused me last post on what week we are on is that we are working through week 24 in Writing with Ease. Somehow we got ahead.


Tomorrow I think we'll get in some science and history, and more phonics. Not having actual math to work on will open up a good chunk of our school time!