New School Year

We began our year a couple of weeks ago.  Since Ellie has joined us, we have children from kindergarten up to eighth grade!  I've been staying quite busy!  Ellie thinks that she should be able to do all of her books every day (I bought books like cutting, thinking we would cover that once a week, rotating it with other books, like our reading skills, community helpers, and etiquette books).

Here are our books:

For Katie's 8th grade, we are continuing with Tapestry of Grace for literature and history.  We borrow many of the books from the library, but three of the books I purchased because of their on going use are here: Abraham Lincoln's World, From Sea to Shining Sea, and In the Days of Queen Victoria.  She is also covering Teaching Textbooks: Algebra I.  For Grammar, we are using Grammar for the Well Trained Mind, for both her and Gabby.  They find it challenging, but I do think it is a good challenge.  They are both also doing a Chemistry book.  We've not done much with textbooks in science before, usually using experimentally based or living books, but we are trying this, as we are heading into high school next year.  I also found the Just for Teen Girls: Bible Journal for the older two.  These will only last for the first semester.  I have a pile of books I'm going to choose from in the spring term, but I haven't settled on one yet.

For 6th grade, we are again using Tapestry of Grace, with a mix of the Upper Grammar and the Dialectic level.  I'm especially excited about Les Miserables (it is very abridged, but it is one of my very favorite books).  We also love Story of the World, which we are using with the Tapestry curriculum.  She is also using Christian Kids Explore: Chemistry, Just for Teen Girls: Bible Journal, and Grammar for the Well Trained Mind.  Keeping my students together whenever possible makes it much easier to keep up with everyone!  She is continuing with Spelling Power--we think she will be able to complete the entire book next year.  She is in Teaching Textbooks: Pre-Algebra.  Lastly, she loves Latin, and is going on with Once Upon a Time, in Latin.

 Nate is in 3rd grade this year.  Again we use Tapestry of Grace for literature and history.  He is in the lower grammar level, but I may choose some upper grammar assignments as the year goes on.  He is learning cursive with Handwriting Without Tears, which I used previously, since it is a simple introduction to cursive, without any extra flourishes.  He is in Singapore's Primary Mathematics 3B.  He too is using Spelling Power (though several units behind Gabby).  He has showed a great interest in astronomy, so while I intended to have him join the older two with the chemistry, we are letting him explorer his area of interest instead with Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  We used the text with Katie a number of years ago, but they have since updated it, making it hard to find the workbook.  Thankfully, someone local was selling an unused copy of the workbook.  We didn't quite finish the first Song School Latin last year, so we'll finish it this year before switching over to year two.  His Bible study is My Bible Journal.  It is much less a journal, and more a way to read through sections of the Bible and search for answers, highlighting key verses.  This seemed much more appealing to him than the coloring based journals I had been finding for his age.

Somehow our littlest is ready for kindergarten!  It is hard to believe this is our last trip through these books.  I didn't discover Five in a Row in time for Katie, but they are very much one of my favorites.  So far we have rowed The Story of Ping and Papa Piccolo.  I used the D'Nealian Handwriting with Nate, and thought it was a very good way to teach handwriting, starting with just lines and curves and moving on.  We are using Miquon: The Orange Book for the very first time, for math.  It is very hands on, which I felt would be a good way to start her.  Too bad for the others I hadn't found this one before!  So while Ellie must share me with more people, she does get a more experienced teacher!  Cutting has been one of the things she wanted to do the very most, so I got her a book just for that.  Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, is such a great way to teach reading.  She's read a few words with the set sounds she's learned.  The Bob Books are for practice a little later.  My rule for getting a library card, is that the child has to read me a book.  These are perfect for that.  We are having Ellie watch What's in the Bible for her Bible, along with reading The Storybook Bible.  The video was an effort to give her something to do while I gave the older children some undivided instruction, but they all like it too, so sometimes they come out to see it when it is on.

So that's our plan for the year!  So far so good!
Kristy

State of the School

While some places started school last week, we are 65 days in.  The year has been chugging along.  We're approaching the halfway point in our history book and 40% in our science and writing courses. Both girls are in the second semester books for their math classes.  We tend to stay a bit ahead in those because the first books are a little shy of the 180 days in our year and they often did an extra page here and there in the beginning because the lessons were short and the girls were excited.  Kate's spelling is perpetual in Spelling Power until she finishes the book (probably around middle school).  She's a third of the way through her vocabulary an half way through her grammar.  Gabby's reading has improved a great deal this year too.  We're enjoying hearing her read aloud to us, herself, and Nate.

We are just about where I was hoping to be.  I'm trying to be realistic about our days once the little one arrives.  I figure that we may need slightly less structure for a bit and spend more time reading in the living room, which will be a nice change of pace after we take off the rest of September (after the birth day) and at least the entire month of October from regular schooling.

I also thought I would mention Kate's cursive handwriting, since we've struggled with it, and I mentioned that even Handwriting Without Tears produced tears.  She is liking the book now and is more confident in her abilities.  It was definitely a change for the better for her.  It is much simpler that any cursive I learned (I learned three different styles because I was in teacher education in college), but the author pointed out that if the student learns the basic structure the loops can be added easily later.  Currently her cursive is more legible than her print.  Hopefully that will continue and she can make the switch so her writing is easier to read.

The timer has become my friend lately.  As Kate is getting increasingly older, I want her to work independently on practice tasks in a timely manner, even when I leave the room.  I found that she works much more efficiently if she knows that she will be leaving a subject and moving on if I do that.  The consequence was always the same, that she didn't get as much free time at the end of the day, but I think that she makes the choice more consciously this way.

Try, Try Again

Among home schoolers, it is often said that if a curriculm isn't working for your family set it aside and choose a new one.  That can be a pretty expensive philosophy, so I try very hard to research quite a bit before I order our books.  So far we have been able to use everything I bought...until this year.

Kate is in third grade and she said she wanted to learn cursive.  I found Pictures in Cursive, which honestly, I do really like.  The passages are short, which I thought would be good for her, but it didn't work for her at all.  I ordered Handwriting Without Tears.  We have only done the first lesson (not even any letters yet) and there have already been tears (Do I get my money back? ha!).  Hopefully we'll find that this book works, if I can convince the gal to follow the directions.  She was crying because I erased the incorrectly formed shape and had her try again.  Not a catastrophe at all, so hopefully she'll get past it quickly and like the simplified cursive soon. 

Looking Ahead

I have a nice detailed list of the curriculum we're planning to use next year.  There are things I can justify as needs, others that are on the it would be really nice to have (it looks like we may get all of these!), and some items that are on the that would be great if it fits in the budget, but definitely not necessary.

Next fall we are planning to continue in:

• Singapore/Primary Mathematics (we are currently in book 2A and will not finish it before next fall)
• Story of the World (we will finish volume one soon)
• We'll do unit studies in geology and geography in the fall, as we did for our biology this year
• Writing with Ease (our text goes through 4th grade)
• McGuffey Readers (we're currently in the 3rd Eclectic Reader)

We will be adding:

• Spelling Power, from Evan Moore, which was a simply and easy program, but I like the idea behind Spelling Power and got a great used copy for much less than it sells retail!
• Rod and Staff for ArtPack and health
• Song School Latin (this was just on my wish list, but Justin is encouraging this purchase to encourage the children in language studies at younger ages...and in a fun way)
• Exploring Creation with Astronomy (It doesn't side step the creation/evolution debate, as I would like at this grade level, but I got it used at a good price, so we can sidestep it if Miss Kate doesn't read ahead.)
• I also added a grammar workbook I got at a used book store

Then there is Miss Gabby.  She will tag along for science and social studies.

She'll get to do a simple handwriting practice book, The Complete Book of Math (this is listed as 1st-2nd grade book, but I found that Kate, with very little background picked it up easily), a Bible stories coloring book (also by Rod & Staff), and we also have a kindergarten workbook.

We also read in McGuffey and Dick & Jane books.

We lean heavily on the library in kindergarten, and I suppose all the way through, but I have less of an agenda in kindergarten aside from learning to read and figure out how to figure!

Supplemental we use:
Flashcards for math
Holey cards for math drills
How the World Works (for geology--it is a pop up book--I can't wait until it gets here!)

It would be nice to have:
GeoPuzzles (both the world and U. S.)
Tennessee a First Pocket Guide
You Can't Smell a Flower with Your Ear

Hand Writing

What a difference a year makes!


This is a picture of Kate's handwriting sheet from a year ago.


This is from this past week. The blue circles are the (minor) errors I marked for her.

*In case you are wondering, we are using Writing with Ease (without the accompanying workbook) for writing this year. Actually, I intend to use it for four years, as it has the instructions for teaching writing for 1st-4th grades.*