Thanksgiving 2012

Around Thanksgiving, we always try to do some kind of activity where we write down what we are thankful for.  This year, I used Ann Voskamp's printable.  One side has a Bible verse and the other side is used to write down the things for which we are thankful.
We traditionally listen to Focus on the Family Radio Theatre Squanto, and we also use Barbara Rainey's Thanksgiving CD's.  We enjoy them so much.  This makes life easier for me because we can do other things while we listen.  Barbara Rainey's CD is wonderful because it has a drama on one side and nice instrumental music on the other. What a blessing, this time of year is so busy!

Election Day! Educational Videos

Curricula Favorites

I'm in the mood to talk about some of my favorite curricula.

 

I either have really nerdy kids, or maybe since we home-school they don't know it's not cool to sit around reading your text books, or maybe their textbooks are just that interesting.

 

I also wonder if it is odd that my Justin and Jonathan talk among themselves about the difference between commutative or non-commutative numbers.  Maybe it's odd that Justin tells us when we use a hyperbole.

 

 I might think it is a combination of all three, but I'm more likely to think it's because of the awesome way their curricula are written.   At first, I had a little difficulty pulling away from my traditional thinking about these things.   After hearing rave reviews, I decided to check out some different curricula for Math and Science.  After all, I am the parent and the teacher and yes, I am free to direct the education of my children.  So last year, I took the plunge.  I am not disappointed.    Learning should be fun, shouldn't it?  It should also stick.  I have come to the conclusion that when learning is fun, it naturally sticks.

 

You know books are fun when your children read them:

 #1 Without much coaxing

 #2 over and over....and over

 

Life of Fred Math:

 

My favorite thing about Life of Fred books - besides the fact the kids love them- is that they teach in a holistic way.  In other words, the kids learn about biology, history, and other topics along with the math instead of separating math from life.  As a matter of fact, just to name a couple of the titles: Pre-algebra with Biology and Pre-algebra with Economics. 

 

The coolest math books ever written:

Life of Fred Math 

One of the lower elementary books

*I do supplement by using math problems from other textbooks as well, but the author assures the me that it is not necessary* 

 

 

The coolest science books ever written:

Apologia Science

 

 

Justin, reading Apologia astronomy purely out of interest 

 

I think what I love so much about Apologia is that it is more of a living book, meaning that it reads more like a novel.  There are plenty of fun projects.  Instead of just answering questions, the boys narrate the information back to me.  They take notes in their notebooks.  They are allowed to draw pictures.   They seem to enjoy narration and notebooking. What kid doesn't love talking about the things they are learning?  Especially an auditory learner. They also enjoy going back and looking at the pictures they have drawn and the things they have written. 

Ryan's

 

 

Jonathan's

 



Justin's

 

 It's hard to break free from the thought process that says that learning has to be boring, but we are doing it.  I believe that more is retained when it is enjoyed.

Electives: Art

I had an answer to prayer. I have been feeling a little unsure lately about electives for my boys. Instrument? Carpentry? Art?  Justin and Jonathan had been taking piano, but I had come to a point where I was unsure how to move forward.

One day it dawned on me that the Lord knows what type of future they will have, so of course He knows more than I do what types of things they need to learn. All three of my boys love to draw, and I had noticed last year or so in one of the home-school catalogs that Thomas Kinkade had an art curriculum. I thought it would be great if we used his, but it was just a fleeting "maybe one day" thought. Besides the fact that I didn't want to jump into anything without praying about it. And that stuff is expensive!

I don't like to stress over things, so we started taking it to the Lord each morning during our devotions. A new friend of mine -I met doing Good News Club- called me and asked me if I would be interested in art lessons for my boys. She had bought it for her grand-daughter, but they had changed their mind about using it. She wanted to give it to me, and wouldn't take any money for it. Guess what art curriculum it was? That Thomas Kinkade set I was looking at!

 

 

I'm not saying this replaces music.  We are still praying about that.  It does give us something to which to look forward!

Local Attractions

Link for Lawrence County brochure. 
http://propellermktg.net/paperlesspub/limestone/

I want to use some of our Fridays to take some local field trips.

September 2012: First day of School

 

Today was our first day back to school after having a month-long break. Here are the boys after enjoying some time running around outside in the sunshine.

 

A few curriculum additions we have made this year are the following. I've linked the book titles to outside sources as a way to provide more information about the titles I am using:

• Lessons in Responsibility for Boys. 

• For Bible we are going through Nathan Brown's "Discipling New Converts". 
• We are all learning Latin & Greek roots this year.   

 

•   Peter Marshall's History Series.  One of the books is pictured in the red pan below.
 
• Last but not least, I am just thrilled to have figured out an easy way to keep books in order.  Dishpans!  Yes, they are for Justin & Jonathan's books (Ryan uses his desk). I am simply posting about it just because I'm excited that I found something that works well for keeping books in their place.  They use the kitchen table for seat-work, and this makes it a breeze to clean up.

•  

We are studying the planet of Venus, which is covered with volcanoes.  This is one of the projects recommended in Apologia's Exploring Creation With Astronomy.  The butter represents lava which is soft, molten rock.  The experiment shows that as time passes, the molten lava hardens back into rock.

We are not doing formal schoolwork this week because we are in the midst of indoor camp-meeting, but we are still taking the time to do our Bible studies.  Journey Through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers.  has been great because it spurs some wonderful conversations.  Today's chapter mentioned the shofar.  We had fun listening to and watching Youtube videos about the shofar.

Astronomy Projects

The boys are learning astronomy using Apologia Science.  We have done a couple of fun projects that the book suggests.  The first two pictures are the boys seeing how indentions occur when craters hit a planet.  The last two pictures are of the boys making models of the planet Mercury.

The finished product.  Now we wait for them to dry...

Dictation:Charlotte Mason style

 quoted from Sheila Carroll
www.LivingBooksCurriculum.com

Are you a cracker-jack speller? Or, does the subject of spelling cause you to groan? Most people struggle with spelling.  Likely it is because they were not taught to picture the word before spelling it. 

Charlotte Mason had one of the best ideas I have come across of teaching children to spell by seeing the words before they spell them.  Miss Mason felt that the secret of spelling lay in the habit of visualizing words from memory.   She called this process the royal road to spelling.  If a child were a poor speller, she taught, it was usually a sign of too little reading of high quality literature, or skimming the text without the habit of seeing the words. 

Children can be trained to see the words they are reading. One way this is done is through dictation, usually from a work of great literature the children are reading. The method of dictating a passage to improve spelling involves seeing the word correctly spelled in the mind's eye and then ensuring that the word is written successfully the first time. The reason for the emphasis of having it correct the first time is that the opposite is also true. A misspelled word is seen incorrectly and is difficult to correct.  

Steps of a Dictation Lesson for Spelling Mastery

• The child is given a paragraph to read and study closely
• Then prepares by himself, by looking at any word he is not sure of, and then seeing it with his eyes shut. 
• Before he begins the dictation, the teaching parent asks what words he thinks will need his attention. Most students know but, if not, the teacher can point out a word or two.
• He lets you know when he is ready.
• The teaching parent asks for any words the child is not sure. She puts these a sheet of paper, having the child look until he has the picture in his mind. She then rubs out or places a piece of paper over the word or words.
• Then, the teaching parent reads the selection for dictation, phrase by phrase, repeating only once.
• If there is an incorrectly spelled word the teaching parent places a small sheet of paper over the word, so the child will not visualize an incorrect word. Then, the child goes through the process of visualizing with this one word until he can write it correctly. Most children have little difficulty spelling correctly using this method.  

Note: The preparation for the dictation should take about 10 minutes and the dictation about five.)

January 2012: Reflecting on the holidays of 2011 and looking forward.

We started "back to school" yesterday, January 3, 2012. I was ready to get back after a three month divergence from regular school activities.  It was so fun, but there's just something about normalcy and structure that I crave.
During the holidays, the boys continued to do their seatwork, but expectations were lighter so that we could immerse ourselves in learning about & getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Of course we also had a complete 2 week break as well.

Our tree

We (mostly I) started working on home-made Christmas gifts about October 30th, and I worked on them right up until the week of Christmas.  Also, I like to spend time discussing and learning about the holidays and their histories during these times. One of the first things we did in anticipation of Thanksgiving was to enjoy the book Growing Together in Gratitude by Barbara Rainey.  We also listened to her book and CD set called Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember.  After that we listened to the Focus on the Family audio drama, "Squanto."   These books are becoming somewhat of a tradition for us during that time of year.  We also made a Gratitude tree, which was basically a posterboard tree with leaves taped to it.  We wrote the things we were thankful for on the leaves.

Another activity we enjoyed was making Christmas tree ornaments out of buttons.

Here are the boys in front of the tree at Spring Mill Inn.  Mom came up for a few days and visited us right before Christmas (I wish I had taken a picture of her with the boys).

For the new year, we are adding a couple of new studies into our daily schedule. 

•   Leading Little Ones to God is "the basics" of leading children to the Lord.  I wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out when teaching my children about the Lord.  Even though we regularly attend church, daily memorize verses, read a Bible story, and read the Psalms out loud, I want to make sure I don't leave the plan of salvation out.  I thought the book might help me out.

• We are also going through Journey through the Bible.  It is fascinating!  It gives the historical background behind the Scriptures.  It was a must when I saw it!   

•   I am back to ABeka for history, and we are going to use Apologia Science.  I have heard rave reviews about Apologia, and we are going to use their astronomy book.  We will see how it goes!

• Now that we have finished memorizing the Presidents in order, we are memorizing the states & capitals via song.  After they learn that song, I plan to teach them the locations of the states and do a study about each state.

That's pretty much all we are changing for now.  We are already enjoying the new studies!