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

School Days

We're making our way through our year here.  We started late and we were a bit interrupted this fall with family circumstances, so we've been working hard to catch back up--starting early in January and going ahead with school when the local schools were out for snow and ice.

We are finishing our second year in Tapestry of Grace (for history, writing, and literature)--starting the final unit on the American Revolution.  Katie is in the Dialectic level, Gabby in Upper Grammar, and Nate in Lowe Grammar.  We've already purchased year 3, so we can start the introduction before we break for summer.  I plan to assign a couple of books for summer reading this year.  I don't usually do that, but with Katie moving in to 8th grade, we may mix in some of the high school books, if they look more interesting or they are easier to get.  I've already started Gabby reading a few of the novels that are at the next level up.

We found a great YouTube channel (Kristina Edgar) for introducing the era.  The kids have enjoyed her sense of humor.  And I liked that we could start it with all the kids together before we split up to do their individual readings.

Our science this year has been a History of Science experiment kit from Thames & Kosmos.  We will be switching over some this unit though, with a book about Ben Franklin (set at Gabby's level) that has experiments and activities in it.

Nate and Gabby are both in Singapore's Primary Mathematics, but as Gabby is nearly finished with the last of Singapore, we are supplementing her with a book called Balance Math (which is a pre-pre-algebra book that teaches balancing equations).  Katie is using Teaching Textbooks for Pre-Algebra.  We have the older version that doesn't self grade, so we just do it the old fashioned way, and I grade as she goes.  Since math is not her favorite way to spend her time, I have her read out each answer as she goes through it to help her get immediate feedback and prevent practicing a skill incorrectly.

Nate and Gabby are both in what we call The Orange Book for spelling, Spelling Power.  Gabby has a head for Latin and enjoys it, so she is using the Once Upon a Time, In Latin series to keep up on her Latin.  Nate is in Song School Latin I.  Katie is taking a break from languages for the next two years before we pick a high school language.  Instead, she has more focus on English grammar.  We have an ancient workbook I picked up at a curriculum sale and we use Khan Academy too.

Katie is doing part of Teaching Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home for Home Ec.  She made a dress--which she found not to be enjoyable.  She does, however, love making dinner for the family once a week.  Gabby is also working on a visual arts class (Artistic Pursuits), which she has enjoyed.

That's school here these days!

Kristy

Done

Our year ran later then usual this year, between illnesses, snow days (because who wants to do school when even the university is closed and there is legitimate sledding in central TN?), and playing hookie a few times to visit family.  In Tennessee we have to put in 180 days for our school year, and we aren't allowed sick days at all.  But it is O-V-E-R.  Well, except that we didn't quite finish our speller.  We'll work on that a few minutes a day for a bit to wrap it up.  But our daily lessons are done.

We're actually looking at the possibility of starting our next school year soon to get some days in on those off days that there isn't anything to do and the weather is bad, in the hopes to enjoy more days in May next year.  We'll see how that goes.  We may not get to it if we're having too much fun, and just get back to the books in August.  We're keeping an open mind about it!

I thought I'd review some of the books we used this year (I'm not receiving any compensation, so just my opinions).

We tried Sequential Spelling this year.  I've really liked it.  The only down side is it has 180 days of spelling lists plus a few assessments, so that put us above our 180 days to start, then there are days that we just didn't do spelling through out the year because we had a packed day with something else.  So we're hanging on a bit after the year ends.

I also tried Learning Language Arts through Literature this year with Kate (4th grade).  I like how it was set up--it was easy to use and literature based, which is a big plus in our house.  And I didn't have to make copies.  I like the idea of cost savings of reproducible books, but I'm not sure I actually save any money on most workbooks, since I have to pay for copy ink.  And this way I don't have to think ahead to be sure I have the copies that we need or leave someone waiting while I run pages off.

We've used Singapore math again, which I really like the strong basis of.  We've also kept to Writing with Ease in the lower grades.  Like I said last year, I don't like it for third grade, but I really do for first and second.

We used the second of the Song School Latin books.  The book was great, though this CD wasn't as fun to listen to.  I still don't have a full grasp of the declinations, but hopefully as we go through it in a new program next year I'll learn even more.  I did take the final test on the website and got an A in the vocabulary for this year, so I've learned something with the girls anyway!  I was hoping they would each earn a 75% on that test, but they both exceeded that quite well, with an A and a B.  It is very long, so I don't think that they scored even as high as the words they know, since they were likely a bit distracted by the end.

I haven't loved the second level of Noeo for physics.  We didn't get all the experiment kits, since they were expensive, but did use kits we had or found locally, so we weren't left wanting there.  My complaint is that in using 'real books' they were redundant.  We would often read about a subject in The Usborne Science Encyclopedia and then read about it again in Mysteries and Marvels of Science.  It became so common that I would read only small sections of the second reading on a topic to cut down on the repetition that was annoying.  Sometimes there were things stated in a better way or some new information, but it wasn't my favorite science we've done.  It did have some good readers though--We liked Along Came Galileo and Archimedes and the Door to Science.  I'm not sure that we'll find a program we like better over all, but I think I'll be prepared to do a little editing if we use it again, as the Encyclopedia and Mysteries books are in both Biology and Chemistry as well.

We also followed through with the final year of Story of the World.  Honestly, the kids didn't like it as much.  There is much more war and people were much better at waging those wars too.  They way these wars were written was much more real to them than the ancient wars we'd covered in the past, and they are older and understand loss more fully.  Nate may really take to it, but the girls would groan, as nearly every lesson talked of death, destruction, and war.

Happy Summer Break to all!

Ann with an 'E'

I have to admit it.  I was holding out on my girls.  I've shared some great works of literature with them.  Ones that are considered far beyond their years--Little Women, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, The Jungle Book, and all of the Little House books. But my very favorite book of my childhood I've been holding back.  We started Anne of Green Gables this past week.

I didn't bring this book to them, Gabriella found the audio book when we were at the library.  I honesty hesitated.  I want them to love Anne as much as I do.  I just wasn't sure that now was the right time to introduce them to her--I had planned to pull out my copy when Kate was in fourth grade.  Ultimately, I wanted to let Gabby pick the book she wanted, so we are learning about the world of Anne Shirley.

I remember so clearly reading that book...and every other book in the series and eventually every book my public library had by L. M. Montgomery.  I remember where I was when I finished that first book.  It was that memorable--I was laying across the bed in 'the pink bedroom' at my Grannie's house.  It is one of those wonderful books: the ones you want to know how it ends, but you don't ever want it to.  And perhaps that was part of holding on to this book.  If we waited to read it together, we wouldn't get to the end so soon.

But if you need me, I'll be in Avonlea.

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

Learning at Our House

Okay, it wouldn't be fair of me to tell you that homeschooling is always easy. In many ways it is one of the hardest things I've ever done, after all it means training and educating a child full time from birth until they finish high school. That's a pretty big project!

That said, home schooling has some very awesome benefits!

Yesterday I got to listen to Kate read from a Little House book to Gabby,

And then I got to watch her wrap up our chicken mummy from our study of Egypt.

(Oh, and in case you are wondering, mummifying a chicken is pretty much as gross as one would expect, even with the spiced oil we made, and she asked to never, ever do that again!)

I am one blessed Mama!

About a Visual Latin Give Away

Justin and I decided we would like to teach the kiddos Latin in elementary school. We figure it is the basis for many other languages (including ours), so it would help in language study. I've also heard it helps in decoding a lot of vocab on those SAT and GRE exams or in med school (to which my husband groans), so it will be a nice information set for them to have there too.

I have not studied Latin, so I have been looking for a couple of good Latin programs to choose from that don't require the teacher to know Latin. I had been leaning toward Latina Christiana, but thought I would take a peek at some other reviews of Latin programs at Cathy Duffy's Homeschooling Resources Review site. I happened upon Visual Latin earlier this week and watched a sample with Kate. I think she needs at least one more year of reading before we start the program, but I really liked it. It is video based, so she can see the written words while she hears it (and I can too). Hey, if I win it now I'll learn it ahead of her.

When I checked my email this morning, I found they are giving away some copies of it. So if you are interested in getting your hands on a course in Latin, here is the link to the contest.

If you tweet, blog, etc, etc, etc... you can get an extra entry.

A Critic

We have read through all of the Little House books. The girls adored them. They routinely play "Laura and Mary." The stick horses have been renamed Prince and Lady after Almanzo's horses. The baby dolls are often stand ins for Carrie or Grace. We hear words like 'wraps,' 'milk pail' and "Nellie Olsen."

It is absolutely lovely.

After the last book was returned safely to the library, I thought I would give them a real treat. I checked out the first episodes of Little House on the Prarie, the TV show. "But Carrie's hair isn't golden. Why doesn't Pa have a beard? Pa never worked on Sunday! Why did they lie?!"

"Kate, they didn't lie, they just added more things to make a show."

"Why would they do that?!"

"The books wouldn't be long enough to last all the years the show was on TV."

[An incredulous look]

I wonder what she will do when she sees how Eponine is virtually written out of the Les Miserables movie, how they had to abbreviate Little Women to make it fit, and don't get someone else in this house get started on the Lord of the Rings!

Um, Oops

I didn't do my research. I had a set of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers that I inherited from my grandparents. I knew they were commonly used to teach reading in schools across the country for quite some time.

We started with the first lesson in the First Reader last year with Kate's kindergarten. We didn't finish it. Then when we were ready to start this fall, I pulled out the books and it seemed that she had either picked up a lot over the summer or what she had learned last year had finally gelled. We began in the Second Reader. At our current rate, we'll finish it by Christmas. This week I started looking at the rest of the books. As I flipped open the 6th reader, where we would ostensibly be in at 3rd or 4th grade, I found Shakespeare, Byron, and Dickens. I guess these aren't a book per grade!

I suppose we'll be finding some supplemental reading to do in the next few years! On the upside, it looks like she should be able to do some more independent reading in the next little bit. One site I found tried to get graded reading levels for the readers--the reader we are in is listed at the 3rd-4th grade level.

I'm proud of my girl and we'll be off to the library to find some more books for her to read to me!

What We've Been Reading

The little people and I have been reading the Little House series. If the shelves are in the same place in the little school library in my elementary school, I could walk you to the shelf where those books sat when I was 8 years old. I devoured them (those and Nancy Drew that year--I know where those were too).

When Kate and I started her writing course for this year, the first copy and narration work came from The Little House in the Big Woods. We were both enjoying the little snippets, so we picked it up at the library. We've also read The Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy, which we just finished. Next we'll be on to The Banks of Plum Creek.

I've taken to checking out the book as well as the unabridged audio book. We listen to it as we drive around town and then follow up at home. Since the version we've been getting (narrated by Cherry Jones--she did a great job by the way) has breaks at the end of each chapter, it is easy to find our place in changing between the two.

I love that the girls are really enjoying a story that I remember loving as a girl. These books are rich in history too. They've learned about life before all the conveniences we take for granted, about the government movement of the American tribes, and what life was like for children of that time.

Read any good books lately?

The Teaching of Reading

I told you a little over a month ago that Gabby was able to read her first word. The little gal has taken off. She has reached the 40th lesson in the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. If you are looking for a simple to use program that works, at least for willing readers, I just thought I would let you know that she's still enjoying it. She loves the silly pictures that go with the often silly stories. She loves that it is a special time with just the two of us. And she is learning new sounds and words all the time.

I love that it is easy to sit down with the book, not a bunch of flash cards or extra things to practice it. I will note, we aren't doing the writing practice that is built in. She isn't quite four yet, so while she sometimes chooses to write, I don't ask that of her yet.

A Fairy Tale, Katie Style

Kate had an assignment to write her own fairy tale for school. Here's what she came up with:

In case it is hard to read:

In 1805 there was a princess named Beth. She looked like she was a flower. She was from Kansas. One day she was listening to music. Then eight aliens

kidnapped her.

The next day Prince John from Atlantis read the paper and found out Beth was kidnapped by aliens.

So he went to

outerspace because he likes princesses. He went by rocketship. He found the princess on the planet of Neptune. He rescued her. When the aliens were asleep,

he snuck past them.

And they lived happily ever after.

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.*

A First Word

I write a lot about Kate's school, since that is much of what we spend our days doing. The littles join us here and there as they want or as things apply to them. Gabby has been asking to read for a little while, so I've been teaching her with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Kate and I brute forced our way through a McGuffey Reader, but being as Gabby younger than Kate was, I thought we needed to start a little slower.

We got to read her first word yesterday. It was 'me.' I was so happy for her...she was happy for the sticker that I give when they read with me!

Another happy little bookworm in the making!

A Shiny New Library Card

Kate got her very own library card Tuesday. I had assumed we'd need her birth certificate or something, but when we asked the gal at circulation what we needed she told us we just had to fill out a form at the reference desk, but I'll let Kate tell the story...

We went to the library. I went and looked at books. Then I found a fairy book. We went to check out.

After we were done checking out, we got me a fancy library card. Mama wrote on one piece of paper. I wrote my name: K-a-t-i-e L-a-s-t.

I am going to check out books with the library card. It is exciting!

May this passport to books help you travel far and wide, girlie, I hope you get as much use out of your library card as I did growing up.

Audio Books

I found a new little gem. LibriVox. There you can find books that have been recorded aloud in the public domain. I love reading to Kate, books that are often above her ability level, but I often found a wiggly little boy who is trying to get in the middle of the book and us. This way we sit by the computer and listen quietly while he plays.

We're listening to Little Women now.

Yours Truly, Goldilocks

The kiddos and I check out books at the library regularly, and I wish I could claim that I sought this one out, but I didn't. It was one that they picked out somewhat randomly. It's one that we read for fun recently, but I plan to file it in my list of books for teaching a lesson later.

This is a book of letters. Lots of letters. It would be a fun way to teach children how to write what my fifth grade teacher called bread and butter and friendly letters.

Anyway, if you are teaching that concept, I recommend this book. It has letters between Peter Rabbit, Goldilocks and Baby Bear (or the Three Bears) and also between two wolf cousins. So it is fun for the children, with several models for writing letters using the appropriate headings, addressing, and closings.

* * *

Not a paid review, just a book we ran across at the library!

Word Families

We have given our library card quite the workout this semester. There hasn't been a week that we haven't made at least one trip to the library!

We discovered these books:

At first, I just had Kate read the words that had the sound we were studying. Now she can, with a teeny bit of help, read the whole book. They are divided into two parts, the first is just random sentences introducing those words with the ending sound that matches the title (like fill, bill, Will, sill, etc.). The next half is a story that uses those words. I pick up one or two of them each time we are at the library. It has worked great for us to learn phonics. The pictures are a little hokey, but she doesn't care at all, and probably actually likes them a little more for it. The stories are often silly, and she likes that too. Her very favorite was -ate as in Skate because Kate and Nate went on a date.

This particular set (word families) is aimed at K-2, but there are books for more advanced readers too. I love to own books, so I can pull them down when we want to refer to them, but I looked at the prices of the books and the sets are quite expensive. Additionally, if you have a kiddo like Kate, who memorizes large portions of books in one or two readings, you won't use them enough to make it worth their purchase if you can get them at the library. If you can't, perhaps if you make a request they will be able to borrow them from another library for you or even put it on their book buying list, so we can support this company, even if we don't have the home school budget to purchase a set.

Kate Tells a Story

I got Kate a journal the other day. I saw it sitting on the shelf at Target and it just seemed perfect. Anyone who knows Kate knows she likes to tell stories, so we got this for her to write about things that have happened or fun stories that she creates. Plus she gets a chance to practice her writing and drawing skills. And we can all enjoy those crazy things that go on in the mind of my five year old...like this! I had her tell her story, I wrote it down (quickly), and she copied it into her book.



Once upon a time there was a pumpkin that was at [our address], and it was scary because it was a vampire. And there was a baby pumpkin that was just a pumpkin. The pumpkins were on fire. They spit on each other to put the fire out.

The End.

*And so you know, I do ask her permission to share her work on my blog.*

FYI: The Journal is a Primary Journal by Mead--not a compensated review, just passing the information on!