Homeschooling April and May

you're going to get more information and suggestions than you know what to do with on this one Jo!!!

I'll start with one single link to soething called 'writing bugs' which are fun writing prompts which may or may not be age appropriate, but they'll certainly provide a jumping off point if you want to get your DS to write more:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/writing_bugs.shtml

Sorry it's so long! I have quite a few more, and my collection of children's reference and non-fiction books is quite amazing. I will however leave some space now for the real experts to offer their advice. I'm just doing the involved parent thing, rather than homeschooling.

Kerri.

I'm trying to get some basic training these days, so we didn't do academics today. We will be practicing "yes ma'am" "come here," "stay where you're told" "STOP" (a potential life-saver, I'm told) "Quiet, please," and etc. Especially with 18mo., focusing on "stay." (Whether on my lap or where I tell her.)

We had a pleasant time outside working/playing in the yard together this afternoon. The weather is gorgeous. We read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle over supper and I read the Ride of the Rohirrim to the girls tonight before they went to sleep. I am loving the read-alouds! If after a week or two I get pretty good compliance from all kids, I will feather the academics back in. Right now is a good time for a break, as we just finished a week of standardized testing (ITBS) for DD8. I plan to school throughout the summer, even though I'll be close to finishing my 180 days soon.

Also, preparing for homeschooling conference the first weekend in May. Better polish up my curriculum shopping list!

Josie has taken up the McGuffeys again with renewed enthusiasm and has proven to herself that she can actually read. We're still on spelling lesson 1 but we've moved through the reading lessons to number 15 in the primer.

So far today Louisa has learned that toilet paper and bandaids are not toys.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

DS6 loves workbooks. My aunt is a project manager for an educational publisher and she sends us tons of workbooks. DS6 just goes right thru them. He is now working on a Spanish one that has sparked many conversations for the family.

Kerri is a wealth of fun/educational websites!!! I like the writing one. I am tucking that away for summer.

DS4 likes anything he can do at the sink so we have been doing lots of "magical potions" lately!! He loves to mix and match, measure and pour.

And we just got a boxer puppy so we are off to the library to research all things BOXER!

I am looking for so fun things for the summer. Any ideas welcome.

Jana

I tend to talk to my kids a bit like adults especially DD8+. She goes to a catholic school, so I just told her a bit about the new pope a few minutes ago. King Midas turned up in conversation the other day... actually DD was using that story as an analogy on how to be careful what you 'ask' for! Pretty impressive I thought. She's also trying to turn her entire class into avid readers - I wrote a list of authors for her yesterday for a girl whose mother apparently doesn't want her to read chapter books. I suggested more classic non-issue authors, and sent her in with a book that was recently given to us (thanks Honey - The Queen's Nose will be doing the rounds!).

DD is shocked that some of her friends aren't interested in books. She regularly takes in 'Dead Famous' books about Mary Queen of Scots or Elizabeth I (I wonder where those interests came from!) and scares her classmates with them, then has to explain that it really happened - they aren't easily convinced. And nor are their ignorant parents. Dominic lost a biography of Mark Twain at school yesterday. When I say we have some odd non-fiction children's books... Even my own parents seem surprised that the kids should enjoy biographies, but if it's presented in an age-appropriate way and the person was interesting then what the heck! DD commented yesterday that she 'loves history'. Just as well if she's going to be living with me for another 10yrs or so.

the point to that... oh yes... don't be afraid to throw weird books into the mix. Rather than try to force anything, I have a shelf on my own bookcase where the non-ficiton and reference books for kids are kept, and they very often wander over, browse and grab whatever takes their fancy. It's not arranged except by size of book. Because they're there and accessible the kids will devour them happily. When questions are asked of course, we aim to check a book first, and THEN the internet if necessary. The children's bible is also on that shelf, along with craft books, manners books, maths, science and geography books, grammar books...

Oh yes... anything Usborne!! For anyone who hasn't come across Usborne it's kind of like a more English version of Dorling Kindersley and absolutely wonderful. DD begged me to let her take in the Usborne grammar book to show her teacher what a real textbook should be like. Her locally produced textbook had a blatant spelling error that I picked up on the other day when it turned up in her spelling test! One friend was utterly unimpressed with the grammar book, but another was fascinated by it, had never been exposed to exciting books.

DS6+ has just moved from his maths homework onto a times tables book that was lying on his table! Just for the heck of it. And this is a kid who hates doing stuff he doesn't want to do. Just having it lying around where they can access it seems to be the key. But I no longer allow them to have bookshelves in their room. DS is just too clumsy. They can have access, but this way they aren't treated as extra toys or props in their games, which i when they get damaged.

I have a box filled with children's card games, large dice, a magnifying glass and mini jigsaws and other odds and ends. Kept in my room, but again, accessible when they want things, and they dive in there all the time to play games with just the dice or find things out with the magnifying glass. Life's just one big adventure to them, and it's the enthusiasm of the parent that makes ALL the difference. I'm hopeless at sticking to routines, even during school holidays, but I find they learn ALL the time, and they get wildly enthusiastic about thins in a way which I recognise to be very me!

they even love the French teaching videos they were given years ago, so I added a couple of French vocabulary books to the shelf and they already have a slight foundation for the French they won't be taught in school until they're 11.

I'm bad about art materials though. All my art materials ar kept out of the way and I've never really let them have easy access to anything but coloured pencils!

Not sure how useful any of that is, but I get so enthusiastic about just discussing it! As a reward to anyone who managed to read all the way through without passing out, here's a site that comes in handy whenever you want an animal printout, and with younger kids that's quite frequently, whether schooled at home or elsewhere:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

there's a lot more to that site these days than just animal printouts - worth a quick look at least.

Kerri.

The Lady Bird Wildflower Center would be a wonderful field trip. The people are very helpful and they have a little treasure hunt for the kids. They also have "The Little House" that is set up for kids. When we went it was all about ladybugs. We made a ladybug out of paper plates. Made a nature journal. Got to look at ladybugs and butterflies under a microscope. It was great.

Jana

I canNOT get Josie to do much work during the day (I did get her to copy out some spelling words whilst waiting fruitlessly for the ice cream man). But at night, after dinner, she is ready, willing and eager to do lessons.

At first I thought it was just stalling bedtime but I quickly realized that it was genuine. And what we go over she retains. Last night I introduced the concept of "silent E" and today she was telling everyone all about how "hate" was "hat" with an "E." And if she'd ever heard the word "vertebrates" she would have successfully sounded it out last night reading to her dad in the DK Nature Encyclopedia.

It's a weird schedule but it's working for us. I asked John why he thought Josie was so open late at night to learning and he said, duh, she's hyperactive like me; at night our brains have slowed down enough to absorb things.

I've been trying to get Jo interested in handwork, and she is, to a point but only a point. She just got a porcelain doll from her grandmother that is the perfect size for the patterns in the Mary Frances books, so maybe now she'll get more interested.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

The Organized Home site explains how to make them. The prompts are there on the site to print out, or you can make your own.

kids journal jar http://organizedchristmas.com/article41.html

adult journal jar
http://organizedchristmas.com/article70.html

Sounds like you're doing great, to me! Good for you!

I need a kick in the tookus today. I am so unmotivated. I just want to surf the net and ignore the children.

All right, I've wasted enough time now. I'm shutting this machine down.

Abrehem is learning an incredible amoutn just from 'being' at the moment. Everything is new to him, so everything is stimulating. Danika is growing, and she's already accustomed to many of the things which Abrehem finds exciting and different. Given a bit of time watching her, and once he's more settled with the basics he'll probably start devouring information.

It sounds like Danika is similar to my DD - also very keen on doing work, happy with workbooks. I think (WARNING: sexist generalisation ahead) that it's mostly the girls who enjoy sitting down and writing, whereas the boys at a similar age want to be up and moving. Obviously this differs from child to child, but that does broadly seem to be the way.

Right... lots more to do so I shall post on other threads a bit later when I'm ready for another break. DD is talking in one ear so I'm babbling more incoherently than usual!

Kerri.

one holiday last year - it was only a week - I decided I would have 'Art Week'. I'm sure Honey remembers bits of this because I spent forever looking up links for things to do and talk about and visit. We really only have one art museum so that's easy enough. The kids got really excited and I swallowed my fear of small children with paints enough to have some crafts and projects in th works too. Set everything up in a file, had links to sites about just about every kind of art imaginable - stuff I liked and stuff I didn't.

So what happened to all this brilliant planning and enthusiasm?? The art museum was a bust, except we got in free - the exhibition I went for wasn't ready till the day after so half the museum was closed. The rest wasn't really very interesting to younger kids (or their parent!). The brilliant links on Andy Warhol, Georgia O'Keefe and Michaelangelo all went unexplored and the kids weren't very happy with their projects in the end either - mostly not happy with their own work.

The moral I drew from this?? Teachable moments are far more valuable than planning when it comes to your own kids. Be flexible and work with your kids' enthusiasms - I thought I was but apparently not enough. Go with the flow. Don't get upset if your child isn't so fascinated by a particular subject on the day or week you've chosen to teach them it.

I'm afraid I lean more to the unschooling side of learning, largely because I don't have any discipline for planning, and I get far too upset if things don't work out exactly as I envisaged after all the effort I've put in. My kids learn more in 10mins of intense off-the-cuff discussion than they ever would in a week of planned work. I know everybody's kids are different and the parents' teaching styles will also be different, but don't underestimate what your kids can learn 'in between'.

I admit this was brought back to me partly because I've been deleting Warhol and Michaelangelo files off my computer for the last several weeks, but also becaue I see so many deciding now what to study in the summer. That's not to say don't plan, because school holidays can come as a shock if you don't have some activities planned up your sleeve. It's more to say, know yourself, know your pupil/s. Know your learning/teaching styles and your limitations. Be flexible and don't overplan - you could end up upset if your pupil is more interested in bugs over the summer than history (simply because it's summer perhaps, though the rest of the year they love history!). Kids bounce around all the time in their interests, so by the time we're done planning for their enthusiasms now they could be onto the next subject. Give them choices wherever possible so nobody gets upset.

And more than all that, never forget to let your child have time to daydream, to lie on heir back and see shapes in the clouds, to climb trees and to explore, in summer more than ever.

I'm done. Sorry, but I just remembered (with wry amusement) how well my Great Plan worked out. Not that the kids weren't enthusiastic, even for an art museum. At least that day it was free so I had the sense cut our losses and leave early!

here's one large art resource I have leftover though:

http://wwar.com/newpages/children.html

Kerri.

The Teri Maxwell scheduling thing for homeschoolers. What do y'all think?

I'm seriously considering it, given my lack of discipline.

Love,

Susannah

ETA link: http://www.titus2.com/ecommerce/products/prod_listing.php/1100

I've seen that site many times Susannah and been seriously impressed and wondered about it. My scheduling stinks too, but I guess with only two I can still get away with it... maybe! Thre are two main schools of thought on scheduling... one that it takes the flexibility and spontaneity out of life, and the other that it gives it back because you've done all your chores quicker, so you have the time (and energy) to be fun. How close a fit is it for your needs do you think - could it fit what you need it to do?? And more importantly - would you really stick with it?? If you've ever tried some kind of system like it, you've bought books or kits or tried Flybabies and failed, I'd have to suggest you think twice about it. I know it's tempting - they make it look so damn easy! It's inspiring to say the least. But will you really use it?

Don't know specifically about spelling but maybe for the typing - do you have any family out of state with email addresses?? DD8+ is getting to the point of emailing her grandparents occasionally now (just when we're about to move back!) but she's still not keen. There are all kinds of games which teach familiarity with the keyboard if she doesn't already have that.

All my books are now packed away (except Simple Abundance and a select few children's books, and the ones we're not taking which will go to charity before we leave) so that will be a whole new experience for me... several weeks without books!

oh yes... Susannah... my kids have regular spelling tests for school but I've always tested them verbally for the most part. It stops them getting worried about their writing so much, which is especially important with DS - for him backwards is the norm! Once they know the word really well they can write it down, but that way they will be saying it accurately in their head. That's even be successful with DS. Think about the way your kids normally memorise - is it out loud or by writing it down?? For the Chinese spellings I had DD write them down over and over since I couldn't test verbally! One way might work better than another for each child. Not entirely sure that helps, but I have naturally good spellers and they both learned to read themselves, so phonics didn't even become an issue in this house. More whole word really, with the occasional instruction to 'sound it out' if they got stuck.

Kerri.

I am going to jump in on this thread in the hope of getting myself motivated. I homeschool my 8 and 6 year old daughters (also have an almost 4 yo who hasn't really started anything formal yet). But right now I am on bedrest pregnant with twins. In some ways it's a good time to get schoolwork done since I can have them bring their books to me and I have nothing better to do than supervise them anyway. But on the other hand, the longer I'm on bedrest, the more tired I feel, so I am really unmotivated.

I am mainly trying to keep them up with some math and writing/grammar. They both read very well for their ages, so I never worry about that. The only hard thing is keeping dd8 in reading material. I figure that history and science get a lot of repetition as they get older, so if we don't do a lot of formal work there for a bit, it's ok.

I am also trying to figure out how this is going to work next fall with two newborns

Lauralyn

DS almost 7 worked on spelling words and read aloud to us. His confidence just amazes me. I was so scared to read aloud at his age. Then they both helped with dinner. DS4 made the cornbread and set the table and DS7 made the rice. DS4 sorted towels and played a fishing game with me. DH has DS7 in there playing checkers so it is my time to read with DS4.

I like the tomato staking take on things and am going to give it a good try. Sounds like it is just what the Dr. ordered.

Jana

How's it going, Lauralyn? I really feel for you; it must be tough to be on bed rest. Does somebody pick up library books for your eldest? What kind of books does she like? If you have a laptop, there are lots of free read-alouds online. How about *Understood Betsy*?

Well, today I haven't done much flying, but I did do our full homeschooling schedule. First, I assigned the girls copywork while I did DS5's reading lesson. He's doing really well and he still thinks it's fun, so I'm pleased.

Then, we read our readers. Today I started DD6 on that set of four readers from Christian Liberty Press (can't remember what they are called) to do a phonics refresher. She really needs it; she's not a strong reader yet. DD8 then read aloud about baby conchs in her nature reader.

Pausing to ask: Does anyone else have a child whose reading problem is skipping over whole words or adding in words that aren't there? How to correct? She's a pretty fluent reader otherwise; by that I mean she can handle "big words." But she skips or adds in little words like "a" "an" and "the." Sometimes she picks up extra words from the next line of text! I tell her, "Read each and every word." Suggestions?

Anyway, then we did language, which was the "December" couplet from the poem, The Year. The girls illustrated their couplets while I read the entire poem aloud three times. Then, we did a refresher on our last math lesson since it's been weeks..."Find the missing number" in number sentence triples. They were much better at it now than they were a few weeks ago! Poor little O., she is such a trooper. She had a red face and watery eyes from still feeling sick but never once uttered a complaint. She didn't feel like lying down, though, so why not do school?

After that we did science (cloud types and the Latin roots of their names).

Meanwhile, DS5 put together a Lauri puzzle, colored the cover to his alphabet book, and also a shark picture. DS3 colored the shark, played with the dinosaur manipulatives, and laid out the ABC's in order with our alphabet tiles. Baby E. (toddler, really) goofed around in her high chair and ate dolphin and whale crackers, and generally got into things.

All in all, a triumph! The first time we have ever truly all "schooled" at the same table! The hand- over-the-mouth idea comes in handy when the noise starts to peak.

Then, we had lunch and read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Never-Want-To-Go-To-Bedders Cure, and then I read to the girls from The Fairy-Land of Science (another find from the Baldwin Project).

I didn't make Anna Kate do typing, since she did it yesterday. I'm planning to do that Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Speaking of planning, I should do some prep for tomorrow.

Later!

Susannah

We're going to try the Human Body module with some friends, trying to get together once a week or every other week for one of the activities. We'll see how it goes . . .

Any math workbook suggestions for my DD6 (yay! birthday last Saturday!) who loves workbooks and traditional math problems? We'd like to start double-digit addition and possibly multiplication -- she is getting the concept and I'd like to encourage her. Any publisher or series you particularly love (or hate)?

Shaun
"Home is not the one tame place in a world of adventure; it is the one wild place in a world of rules and set tasks."
   -- G. K. Chesterton

Okay, Jana, I kinda get that feeling about my DD as well. She's in too much of a hurry. Today I made her point to each word with her pencil as she read it. She didn't like that very much and she still read ahead of her pointer and skipped words. She wasn't really "saying" as she pointed. Finally, I had to take over the pointer and have her match her reading pace with mine as we read together. Let's just say, less than sunny attitude from DD.

Shaun, sounds fun on the module! I've been wanting to do some human biology with the girls, but I think our science course covers it at some point so I may wait 'til then to do more of a unit study. As for workbooks, I've only used Horizons math workbooks, which my DD(then6) liked okay, but I was trying to get away from symbolic math and trying to do more with manipulatives at that age. They are quite colorful and relatively inexpensive. I think they are put out by Alpha Omega, and CBD carries them. I've heard Sonlight is good too.

Lauralyn, I'm so glad to hear that you have a helper with you. I'm impressed with your kiddos; I was proud that I can sing two verses of the Star Spangled Banner!

Today didn't go as well as yesterday. For one thing, I have that fuzzy-headed feeling I cycle through every week or so. I simply cannot focus or think! For another thing, the TS-ing is getting on my nerves. LOL!

Still, we managed it. Copywork, DS5 reading lesson, readers (the drill mollusk), language (sentence types), math (more find the missing no. with larger numbers this time), history (Story of the Romans), and a few more paragraphs of Fairy-Tale Science.

I had to resort to a Baby Mozart video at one point because Emma is as loud as a baby goat, and then DS3 hit DS5 in the mouth with a toy (accidentally, but they were horsing around after I'd told them not to), so DS5's lip split and bled for EVER! And he bawled, and bawled. And let me tell you, he cries very loudly. I'm trying to train him to cry softly.

Then we had lunch and now we're all in my room. We put baby down for her nap and we're waiting for me to finish this so they can go out and blow bubbles on the porch and get some sunshine. I hate for baby to miss out, but she is a pain to look after out there. I like to be able to get a little yard work done. Those weeds are really springing up!

Well, obviously Mom needs some help in the attitude dept. today. Tonight, we have homegroup, or at least I think we do, so I think we'll have pancakes for supper.

Later!

Susannah

I'm impressed that you've managed to see all the benefits of what has happened. I think I'd still be way too clouded by my anger. It does sound though like this crisis was exactly what he needed. This will provide you with a good opportunity to sit down and talk about what's really going on with him. So often we focus on the behaviour and forget that the cause is hidden. I do this all the time - did it last year with DD and finally found out how bad her situation was with some of her teachers last year.

I'm not entirely sure of your situation, but it occurs to me as a possibility, something to perhaps explore with your DS (both of them even)... are they maybe a bit envious of their sister being homeschooled?? You must naturally spend more time with her, which could bother either of them, or any problems they have in school could be magnified when they compare them to what your DD is experiencing. Maybe they chose school - as I say, I don't know whether I've heard how that came about - but whilst they might want to be around friends their age in school there might be other things they aren't keen on. Or they can still get good grades but the problems come out in behaviour or attitude.

Kind of lumping both boys together, which I'm sure DS13 would consider to be most unfair, but inevitably his brother's actions are going to affect him, especially with them being so close in age. I'm just saying that all this acting out, while now it's come to a head and may shift a bit, there's probably something happening that's bothering him.

I wish I could remember to look deeper when my own kids start behaving badly, but I tend to get caught up in being irritated at them and overlook the reasons for it until it has become quite serious. Obviously I shall have to get in the habit before they get older and the troubles become more troublesome!

loads of sympathy Jo, and do whatever you need to do to keep up your strength for this. Something like this can take out the 'me' time just when you need it most!

Kerri.

You are a trooper! Good for you, looking at the training aspects of this. Better he learn these lessons now! I still say he should be staked to you for the next ??? days he has out of school. That'll cure the "too big for britches" problem.

We did homeschool today but I got too late a start. Bad mom! I was on the computer. Well, actually, DH needed something e-mailed but I got sidetracked after that. Two things have become painfully apparent in the last two months:

1. I have a computer "habit" that needs breaking.
2. I need to rise before the children in the mornings.

Arg. Those are hard habits to break. Okay, let's just drag it out in the open...I have no self-discipline! As you can tell, by looking at the results (my house).

Okay, so at least we did homeschool:

*DS5 reading lesson (that's four days this week so far! Good for us! Lesson 15, we're 3/20 of the way through. )
*DD8 and 6 copywork. Shakespeare for DD8! (A few lines from Midsummer Night's Dream.) She didn't seem rapturous over it, strangely enough.
*Readers (DD8 and 6) More about the drill mollusk.
*Language (adjectives, series w/ commas, The Year)
*Math (Find the missing no. practice sheets)
*Science (draw the clouds described)
*Typing for DD8. Mavis Beacon doesn't seem to have a practice segment for typing the home keys in order. I think that's too bad, because she needs to learn them before mixing them up. I remember doing that in typing class. So, in addition to MB, I had her practice that in Microsoft Word until her speed & accuracy improved.

No P.E. today. Gas costs too much and O. just flopped across the bed a few minutes ago not looking 100%. Mom's meeting tonight at a little cafe, so I intend to go! LOL!

Hope you're doing okay today, Jo! Prayers going up for you.

Love,

Susannah

Thought some of you who didn't know about this may be interested.
The first link gives you and overview of the program and the second link is where you can sign up.

http://www.bookitprogram.com/general/generaloverview.asp

http://www.bookitprogram.com/enrollment/homeschool.asp

It's three a.m. I've had too much caffeine at my mom's night out (tea) so I'm wide awake. Went to Wendy's afterward with one friend and chatted awhile over coffee (decaf in that case).

I got my Emma Serl book! Intermediate Language Lessons, first published in the mid-19th century. I'm borrowing it from a friend for my soon-to-be 4th grader. It looks wonderful! Also borrowed the Professor B Math video and wish I'd had it all along! It mentions addendums to the text I should have been using. Also borrowed: the flipcharts that go along with the text. I'm going to use those tomorrow to practice addition facts. I'm definitely getting the video for book 2. Well, that's two subjects covered!

Nitey nite!