Reading Charts

We have participated in several reading contests for the library and school in the past, and we will certainly join the next reading contest that the library sponsors.
I really want the boys to get interested in extra reading. I personally have learned so much just from reading!
I assign the boys reading during the day , but I would just love to see them get really excited about it.
They don't dislike reading, and they usually look at a lot of picture books on Sunday afternoons. Yet they haven't become extremely interested in just picking up books and reading for very long.
I felt a glimmer of hope the other morning when I walked into their room and Justin was laying on his bed reading a book .
He told me that he had stayed awake reading by the light of the moon(of course I had to make sure he knew that it's not good to read without good lighting) ,and when he woke up he had started back into the book. The book was a fictional chapter book about tornadoes. He loved it.

My plan is that they get a sticker for every book (or percentage of bigger books) that they read, and they get to place a sticker on printed copies of the chart below. When they fill it up, they get a surprise. I printed one for Ryan too for the books that I read to him.

I told Michael I would like to find a treasure chest to fill with little incentives. Bribing can be a good thing sometimes ;-)
*** Update: 9/25/08 I was able to find a cardboard treasure chest at THE DOLLAR STORE! I filled it with dollar items like puzzles, rubix cube, tools (Justin loves tools), a hat, art supplies, etc. They have been reading like crazy!!!!***

Copywork

Something that I think is a really good idea is "copy-work". It is old-fashioned, and most of our fore-fathers did it.

This is a supplement I am using to go with the boys' Italic writing workbooks.

From the Donna Young website. I love this:
The handwriting lessons on this page have content from George Washington's Rules of Decent Behavior (rules of civility for short). I read a long time ago that George did not make up these rules, but as a youth, he was required to copy them in a notebook. I do not know if that is true or not; it is a good idea, and copywork is a good way to learn something!

Here is lesson one from George Washington's rules of civility:
Click the box below to see it:



Here is an example of Italic verse copywork: Click the box below:

Sound experiments

Today we read a book called Amazing Science Amazing Sound. It discusses how sound travels through different mediums. We conducted several experiments to go with our study.

1. Identified sounds going on around us
2. Cup hand around ears; sound is magnified
3. Discussed vibrations. Clapped loudly & quietly. Loud sounds are made by large vibrations, whereas quieter sounds are made by small vibrations.
4. Felt the voice box while making high and low pitches
5. Sound waves travel through water. We created our own waves in a bowl of water.
6. Bounced a ball off the wall to see how an echo works. Our voice bounces back off the wall just like a ball. (When you shout in a cave, your voice bounces off the walls, and you hear an echo)
7. My favorite experiment was the sound in action experiment. You get a coffee tin can, stretch plastic wrap tightly over the top. Sprinkle coffee grounds lightly on top of the plastic wrap. As you bang another coffee can with a spoon (the open tin can pointing toward the coffee grains), the coffee grains jump. This proves that sound travels in waves because nothing but the sound is causing those grains to jump.
8. Discussed how a shorter string on a musical instrument (we used Justin's guitar) produces a higher pitch. A longer string produces a lower pitch.
9. We also watched 4 Cello performances on YouTube. We watched and discussed how the Cello players produced higher and lower pitches with their instruments as we watched their hands move on the neck of the Cello.

Here is another interesting experiment with high pitched sounds(using sand) that we watched:

History Time-line

Because I want the boys to have a visual idea of times in history, we are using a time-line for the wall. Pre-made time-lines are out there, but they are pretty expensive. Therefore we will use our American chronological history book as a guide, and we will to create our own! The internet, especially Wikipedia, abounds with pictures and information.

I found this website where I printed a time-line graph for free (and it also has a fabulous looking free curriculum on their home-page that I may look into when I have some extra time [insert laughter here].. just kidding!).

Below is my main time-line character. I chose this one out of all the bloody images of Him on the cross. All of history revolves around HIM:

Jesus
c. 6 BC - c. A.D. 30

Below are our first three American history time-line characters. I copied them in Word, and after printing, we will cut and paste onto the time-line graph.

??? 6, 000 B.C. plus++++?

According to the still-debated New World migration model, a migration of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which formerly connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The minimum time depth by which this migration had taken place thousands of years ago, with the upper bound (or earliest period) remaining a matter of some unresolved contention (after the fall of the Tower of Babel).


Leif Ericson ^[1] (c. 970 – c. 1020) was a Norse^[2] explorer who was probably the first European to land in North America (excluding Greenland).


Christopher Columbus (1451^[1] – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps by others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans.

Posters and Stories

Once a week, we take a day to do reinforcement activities to go with what we have been learning in our curriculum.

The verse that has been our theme verse for the character quality, "Attentiveness", is Proverbs 20:12. It says "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them".

Attentiveness is something that I want my children to grasp. I think that most parents struggle with getting their children to truly listen and watch.

To go along with our "attentiveness" theme, we completed a poster project today. I took a huge stack of magazines that Grammy gave us and searched through them for pictures of people with nice eyes and ears. I tore the pages out for the boys to cut pictures of eyes and ears to paste to a dark blue poster-board.
We cut out so many eyes and ears that it just about completely covered the poster board. Then I cut out different colors of slips of construction paper and had the boys write one word of the verse on each slip. We then glued the words on top. After gluing the verses on top of the pictures/poster, I typed out words like "listen", "pay attention", "look", "don't get distracted", "concentrate" and "hear" in various fonts on the computer and cut those strips out to paste randomly on the poster. It is quite interesting looking and hangs in the dining room.

A few things we all learned:

1. Don't give up, your efforts will be rewarded: after cutting a few pictures out, they (and I) were ready to be done but I made us finish :-) It was tedious because it was so time consuming!

2. We must use our ears & eyes to pay attention.

3. Use art to glorify the Lord!

4. Everyone's eyes and ears are different


We are still reading a biography about Helen Keller. I think I have one or two chapters left. I was able to find braille and sign language books at our library. Of course the boys loved that.

Another project that the boys are doing (we started today) is writing their own story books. I bought some of those 3-brad paper folders to put their stories in. They love writing the stories and drawing a picture to go with it. It helps with their penmanship, writing logic, spelling, grammar/phonics, & creativity. After having them write their story, I had considered erasing mistakes and have them re-write the story. After trying that, I decided to take a more gentle approach and allow them to put their story into the folder the way it is. Then I can see what needs work without destroying their efforts, and assign those misspelled words on workbook days to improve their writing. I am giving a folder to Ryan too so that he can included his artwork.

Last night after church, I bought an inexpensive analog/digital clock resource to help me teach the time concept. I remember struggling as a child to grasp the differences of late p.m. & early a.m. Well, it IS dark early a.m....why would that be?
I think that it is so confusing for an young children to grasp (especially since they are always in bed in the late p.m. & early a.m. hours). I found this game on the internet to help us, and then I am using the clock from Wal-mart to reinforce the idea.

Has anyone ever heard of "buddy school?". I saw a home-schooling blogger that talked about buddy school in larger families. I thought it was a great idea to help children get along with each other and work together as a team. Before I had even introduced this idea to my kids, they did it anyway! Justin has been showing Ryan how to write his letters! Ryan thinks it's just great. I love the sweet voice Justin uses to teach. It is so important to me that my children build strong relationships with one another. At this point, they are teetering daily between fighting and hugging. It's like a roller coaster some days. The Lord is helping us though!

I love it!

Quick Report

I just wanted to report that our first school day went VERY well. I actually felt the prayers... so thank you to anyone who prayed! The Lord really helped and gave me a patient spirit (with which I was rewarded with a lot of hugs and kisses).

I didn't get the boys out of bed until 8, so after breakfast and getting ready we started our day close to 9.
We were able to have devotions, character study and game, and most of the ABeka teaching and workbooks by 10:30. After a huge break (eating & playing outside) until 12:30, we finished up workbooks and built our giant crawl through ear. I think we stayed in the playroom with the ear until 2:30, so I guess when we left the playroom we technically ended our "school day" at 2:30 p.m. But like I have said in my last posts, I consider that life is learning so learning never ends. :-)

We did get to go to the library and I was able to find all of the books I needed about the ear (hearing, sound, listening, & Helen Keller). I was also able to find the DVD, The Miracle Worker, which is about Helen Keller's life. I also found several CD's with violin music since I chose that as our first instrument to study.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I will get pictures on here before too long.

Plan for First Day of School

Today is the first day of school! It's 7:30 and I have been up since 4:20 -ish (only because Michael had to be at work by 6!!!).
I have been able to get a lot done this morning, thank the Lord! The dining room is decorated and I am about to shower, and after that I will wake up the boys and start our day! I am not sure if I will have time today to post how our day went until maybe tomorrow morning. Michael said not to overdo it on the first day. :-)

But here is my plan for our day:

Boys up, breakfast, morning chores (whenever Ryan wakes up- he will be getting to sleep in)
Devotions & KONOS Character study (Attentiveness- will play a game where I blindfold the boys and have them identify different sounds)
ABeka Math
ABeka Phonics
ABekaLanguage
Getty Dubay Italic Writing
ABeka Reading
Konos Activities - Study the parts of the ear. Build a "crawl through" ear in the playroom including the parts of the ear inside.
Go to the library and check out a huge stack of books that have to do with ears, listening, & attentiveness, and a biography about Helen Keller. Check out Several CDs that have to do with the violin.

I am hoping to be able to get an appointment for a field trip to a hearing aid clinic here in town. I have emailed the one on X street, and I am hoping they will cooperate.

My camera, for some reason, isn't transferring the pictures onto the computer. I don't know if it is software or the camera but I am hoping to get that fixed soon so I can take lots of pictures of our projects.

Great quote about hyperactive boys :-)

"If Ritalin was around in Thomas Edison's day, we'd all be sitting in the dark" --Carol Barnier, author of How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and into Learning

A definite praise!

A Great Victory for California Homeschoolers

In a unanimous decision, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District today ruled that “California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education.”

Today’s decision stands in stark contrast to the opinion this same three-judge panel issued in February, which would have made California the only state in the union to outlaw home education had it remained in effect.

“It is unusual for an appellate court to grant a petition for rehearing as this court did in March,” said HSLDA Chairman Mike Farris, “but it is truly remarkable for a court to completely reverse its own earlier opinion. We thank you for your prayers and give God the glory for this great victory.”

Curriculum choices, a summation

I am really excited to say that I have finally ordered almost all of the curriculum and workbooks for school! I have already received most of the books, and I am only waiting for one more shipment.

I say "almost" because I have ordered everything we need to start the year, but I will need to order KONOS when Michael gets paid again. I am watching to get the best price on Ebay and since we do not plan to start school until the first week of September, I am giving myself time to find the best price (and time to prepare).

I am using this post to list the books we will be using, and a summation of the "new" curriculum ("new" meaning the different types of curriculum that we haven't used in the past).

I am looking forward to a new approach to teaching the boys, and in my search for curriculum KONOS seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

About KONOS:
According to their website, it covers the following subjects

Bible

Character

History

Science

Literature

Writing

Practical Living

Field Trips

Critical Thinking

Arts/Crafts

Music

Drama/Speech

Geography

Social Studies

Health/Safety

How is KONOS different
from other curricula?

KONOS is distinct from other curricula in that it features:

· Godly character trait focus

· Units with all subjects integrated

· Hands-on, experiential activities

· Discovery learning

· Multi-level, family teaching

KONOS uses the entire library as a textbook and the whole world as its curriculum.

I have had several high recommendations for it. I love the fact that we as a family will study these subjects as a unit-together, and the fact that it gives me a library reading guide. I love the fact that every subject is based on a character trait.

For the three R's we will be using ABeka Math, Phonics, and Language, the Getty-Dubay Italics handwriting course (I talked about in an earlier post.. if you want to see a picture, go back a few posts), and Spelling Power. Even though KONOS covers reading, I still ordered the ABeka reading curriculum for the simple fact that I love it so much! Justin will be reading Pilgrim's Progress this year, one of my favorites.
So we will be doing both ABeka reading and following the KONOS reading schedule. Needless to say we WILL BE doing a lot of reading!

About Spelling Power:
Spelling Power is complete. It includes lists of the 5,000 most frequently used words organized by Phonetic principles and spelling rules. It can be used all the way through high school!
It came highly recommended by Rhonda Pepple (who taught me high school English & Grammar). I am hoping to have some really good spellers before it's over :-)

In addition to KONOS history (which uses a time-line), we will be using several books I ordered back when my boys were babies. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to teach from them. They are as follows:
Don't Know Much About American History
Don't Know Much About The Fifty States
Scholastics Encyclopedia of the Presidents and their Times
and Pa-pa's gift to Justin: Eyewitness book about Presidents.
I also have a nice set of flashcards teaching the fifty states and their capitals that I ordered "way back when". It's funny that when I ordered those books & flashcards I had no idea I would be home-schooling!

Going back and reading my curriculum list gives me a huge reason to praise the Lord! Even though it has taken a little more planning and time to get good prices on a lot of the items, a lot of them are brand new or like new in condition.
I have been ordering a little bit per paycheck. Here's my praise: I am happy to record that so far, as opposed to last year's $500, I have only spent around $200 for EVERYTHING so far (and ordered at my own leisure) and this includes my teaching resources ! And hopefully after KONOS is ordered, it will still be less than $250! The beauty of this homeschooling thing is that I can research and find resources at my own leisure and time frame. This luxury, in itself, has been a huge financial blessing for us.

Now that I have almost all my curriculum, I need to get my schedule ironed out. September starts Michael's new day shift schedule (perfect timing!). Since I am just now getting my curriculum and still need to order KONOS September seems a whole lot better than August. :-)