Fall 2011 School

We are getting ready to start our new school year . . . in a couple weeks, but I'm feeling excited - our books arrived today, I spent the weekend getting notebooks ready and putting together a schedule - so I thought I'd share our {tentative} plans. 

Curriculum:

Devotional- We are continuing to read the New Testament using Penny Gardner's Storied Scriptures and The Book of Virtues.  I've decided to have A and N start a Scripture Study notebook where they will be making narrations of what we study and keeping any other pertinent papers.  

 Math - Math-U-See Gamma

 Handwriting Without Tears - Finishing up Cursive Handwriting and moving into the Cursive Success

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Literature - We will be adding Shakespeare and Plutarch this year, reading from the Milestone's and Ambleside Online's Year 5 suggested reading lists, and from our many poetry books. The plan is to do a lot more concert reading, something I learned about from the Milestone's Academy founder, so I tried to get enough copies of the books for each of us to have our own, or N and I will share. 

Science & Nature Study - Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 and experiment kit from Rainbow Resource, with a little supplementing from the Zoology Coloring Book.  Nature Study will be from the Handbook of Nature Study blog. 

 History & Geography - We will continue with The Story of the World (SOTW) Volume One: Ancient Times. I was able to get a great deal on the curriculum guide with some student pages so we will supplement with some notebook pages and activities, in addition to mapping, keeping a timeline, and narrations.  

Art & Music - We will continue using the Harmony Fine Arts (HFA) & Music lessons for Ancient Art and the Orchestra. On Fridays we will be doing art projects - pastels, watercolors, etc.

 Foreign Language - I am trying to add this in, but I've tried in the past and its always fallen to the side, so we'll see what happens this year.  We used to do a lot of sign language so I thought that would be easy to add to our schedule with Signing Time and Pick Me Up! From Songs for Learning Signs. My husband speaks Brazilian Portuguese so we are going to start learning some songs from Putamayo Kids Brazilian Playground.  They have a Teacher's Guide with song lyrics and translations. 

Preschool for O & J - These two want to do their own school work so much!! They have their own totes, notebooks, and pencil boxes, and are always asking for their own pages of school work. Despite my aversion toworksheet-like school, I decided to give Rod & Staff's ABC books a try.  We'll also be doing math games, art projects, and reading from the Before Five In A Row, Milestone's Year 0, and Ambleside Year 0 booklists. 

Organization:

 For each school subject, A and O have a notebook with tabs inside separating each sub-subject.  For each subject they will have notebook pages to write or draw their narrations on. 

 All their notebooks and other workbooks are kept in their totes. I have a couple more totes where I keep all the current books we are using together. 

Schedule:

This is a picture of the planner I've made to keep us on track.  On the left axis are the days of the week, and along the top are the different subjects. As we complete assignments I mark them with a highlighter to show they are done.

Monday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
Chapter book read aloud (RA)
Science
HFA - Art Lesson
Portuguese

Tuesday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Plutarch
RA
Nature Study
SOTW
Sign Language

Wednesday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
RA
Science
HFA - Music Lesson
Portuguese

Thursday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
RA
Nature Study
SOTW/Timeline
Sign Language

Friday
Devotional
Math Games
Handwriting
RA
Art Projects

Each day has the same general pattern -

Day starts around 7am - wake up & do personal scripture study
Get dressed, hair, etc.
Breakfast & clean up
Bedroom chores
Devotional, math, handwriting, personal reading - I work with O & J while A & N do their work
One or two more subjects, depending on time and attention spans
Morning break - we usually head outside to ride bikes or other PE type activity, and then come in for a quick snack
One or two more subjects, depending on time and attention spans
Lunch & Clean up
Family Work - folding laundry or cleaning zones in the house
Finish school work - done by 2pm at the latest
Free afternoons
Dinner & Clean up
Bedtime

Activities:

We are going to be doing swimming lessons for the fall.  A is doing Scouts and First Lego League. N does Acticity Days (a church group for girls 8-11) and possibly an art class. We'll have weekly activities with our homeschool group through September and then we'll do monthly activities through winter.  I'm in charge of our young women's church sports for our ward which will mean weekly games and possibly practices.  I've had talks with a few friends for a fall hiking group, but we'll see if it really happens. I'm trying to cut back on activities, but it doesn't really feel like that's going to happen!!!

April 2011 School

Devotional

We are still  reading the New Testament Storied Scriptures but we skipped ahead the week before Easter to read the final week of the Savior's life.  Unfortunately, most of us were sick that week and we ended up not doing our traditional pre-Easter activities that help us focus on the Savior.  We focused on the Value of Work this month, reading from The Book of Virtues, which included one of our family favorites: The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Math

We spent an extra week on Chapter 21, and then flew through chapters 22-25.  I love how we can take as little or as much time as A and N need to understand concepts before we move on.  The Math-U-See newsletter was wonderful this month - Beware of Being Behind. So helpful for me!

Literature

We are nearing the end of Little Pilgrim's Progress: Christiana's Journey.  I am always amazed by the understanding my kids show with this book - SO SMART! We have also been reading from A Child's Treasury of Poems edited by Mark Daniel. 

A and N both finished up their reading for their book clubs and had their final meetings for this semester.  I'm glad its over and we can read other books! We won't be continuing these clubs next year. 

N and I are reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane together - we take turns reading paragraphs.  Its helped me realize she is a much stronger reader than she lets on.  If you ask her, "Can you read this-that?" she will still say she can't - how to get her out of that mentality? 

A is reading The Hobbit and the first book in the Warriors series, Into the Wild. 

Books they listened to this month (unabridged):

Robinson Crusoe

Black Beauty

The Incredible Journey

Pollyana

 History

We read chapters 6-9 in the Story of the World: Ancient Times, making maps and adding figures to our timeline as we went along.  Next month I'll make sure I take pictures of those. The kids have read a variety of library books - fiction and nonfiction - about Egypt.  We watched National Geographic: Secrets of the Pharaohs - this was a lot more graphic than we were prepared for - modern scientists turning a cadaver into a mummy- yikes! We also watched Riddles of the Sphinx: Nova and Building Pharaoh's Ship: Nova. We also watched The Story of India: Spice Routes and Silk Road to go along with the chapter about India.  I love how we can (usually) find documentaries about any subject to watch instantly on Netflix. 

Art

We are reading from Ancient Egypt (we have an older edition) and drawing some of the pictured items - statues, jewelry, symbols, etc.  We are also doing projects from Ralph Masiello's Ancient Egypt Drawing Book.  The Harmony Fine Arts program we are using also has some coloring pages for each week. 

A & N attended one of their art classes this month - we were sick the week of the other one.  They studied Van Gogh's Bedroom and drew/painted pictures of their own bedrooms. 

Music

We continued with Harmony Fine Arts plans on the Orchestra - finishing up our study of keyboard instruments and moving on to woodwind instruments.  We read about several instruments in The Story of the Orchestra, also listening to the corresponding selections on the CD.  Then we learn more through the resources suggested in the HFA plans or find other resources online. 

Science

Finished up Chapter 11 & 12 in Exploring Creation with Astronomy. We watched a couple episodes on the Planets series: Different Worls and Giants.  We also watched Hubble's Amazing Rescue: Nova and The Universe: Outer Planets.   

We watched NASA-TV in anticipation of the Endeavor launch . . . and then the launch was postponed.  Next week!!! 

Nature Study

We still have cold weather.  We had a little snow this morning! We did a couple nature studies this month - spring flower, tree, and bird - but they definitely lacked enthusiasm.  Come on Mother Nature- tomorrow is May!! Let's have some sunshine!

 PreK

I am trying to come up with a more consistent plan, but "consistent" is an oxymoron when used to describe a 3 and 4 year old.  Usually whatever I have planned only takes 2 minutes or is vetoed and other, less desirable activities are chosen - emptying closets of clothes, pulling all the bedding off beds, pulling all the books off shelves, writing all over the walls (although they have started to make pictures instead of random scribbling).  Each day we read together and do an art project or activity. 

Right now we are also trying to have more structured times during the day: table time where they work at the table with us - coloring or printing readiness; blanket time where they sit on their blankets playing quietly with a toy or activity set aside specifically for school time (I have a whole closetful); and play time where they pick toys from our basement playroom and play upstairs where I can see them.  That's the important part these days- keeping them where I can see them.

School - February 2011

   

Devotional

We continued to read the New Testament and spent the month focusing on Responsibility for our value and getting into a daily routine for our habit. 

Math

Continuing with Math-U-See . . . This is one subject I worry about.  A lot.  A and N are both probably a grade behind, but we have been going slow so they can master concepts before we move on.  I keep reminding myself they will catch up as their skill level improves and their ability to work independently increases. 

 

Literature

I made a deal with A and N - they get to pick a book to read, then I pick a book for them.  A has been re-reading the Percy Jackson books and Greek Myths and listening to The Lord of the Rings series, and I picked Treasure Island for him.  N has been listening to Magic Treehouse books and I picked The Secret Garden and Heidi for her. 

We spent the week before Valentine's Day reading wonderful poetry.  We are still reading Pilgrim's Progress, Minn of the Mississippi, poetry, and books for the book clubs (A-biography of Isaac Newton, N-Kirsten Learns a Lesson, Kirsten's Surprise). 

 

History, Geography,  Art & Music Appreciation

I did a major change up with these subjects.  We started using The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times.  This is not a resource I am a big fan of - if you read the reviews on Amazon you would get a glimpse into some of my reasons why I don't like it.  However, of the different history spines we have tried using in the past, my kids do like this series the best. They listen to this series.  They narrate this series well.  So we are using it, but we are going to supplement with a few other things to improve the quality of this subject. 

We will continue to make a timeline as we read - I made one using a permanent marker and poster, and we hung it in our school room area.  We have always used maps with our history, but we are going to do more history related mapping projects,  and not do an additional geography book (like the Holing books we have used in the past).

I found lesson plans at Satori Smiles which list hands-on activities, movie and online suggestions, and other resources for each chapter of the book.  With the first chapter we did a short Family History book and simulated an archaelogical dig in our sand box. 

We are also using Harmony Fine Art's art & music appreciation plans - Ancient Art and the Orchestra.  I have used the Outdoor Hour Challenges and other resources from Barb-Harmony Art Mom for a couple years now, and her plans are an excellent resource for expanding our learning of Ancient Times. This past week they made their own cave art on cardboard. 

The music appreciation plan focuses on learning about the orchestra.  So,  for the next year we won't be studying individual artists or composer as we have in the past.  This is different for us, but so far these changes are working out wonderfully and the kids are enjoying these subjects.  I like having the plans all laid out for me - less work!

Science - Astronomy

We continue to read from Exlporing Creation with Astronomy finishing chapters 8-Space Rocks and 9-Jupiter this month.  We spent more time this month watching NASA TV (We watched the preparation and launch of Discovery last week - very exciting!) and visiting the Nasa website.  My kids continue to add more constellation to their journals and still enjoy hearing the stories behind them. 

Nature Study

We haven't been doing these as much as I would like, but its hard to be motivated to get out in the miserable cold weather, especially with my little girls.  We did a couple this month on days with better weather and are really looking forward to spring. 

Preschool

When I remember to do activities - learning and for fun - with O and J it really makes a difference in our day.  They feel like they are getting some of my time and don't try to get my attention through more destructive means (at least not all the time).  It also means they spend their day more constructively.  

We usually start by reading books together (Mother Goose is a favorite right now) and then do an action activity - London Bridges, Ring-Around-the-Rosies, etc.  Following this its "Blanket Time" - they each pick an acitivity or toy from a closet where I keep things just for this time and they sit on their blankets and play.  Blanket time usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour with 2 or 3 activity switches which I use to work with A and N (I learned about blanket time from the Duggars book).

When J takes her nap in the afternoon I try to school acitvities for O to do.  I have her sit next to me while I work with A and N.  Her activities are printing readiness, counting manipulatives, etc. 

But as I said before, its all contingent on ME, and how prepared (or not) I am for the week. 

2011 School Update

I have been trying to squeeze some free time out of my day-to-day thingsthatneedtobedone, but obviously blogging hasn't been high on my list.  I do miss it so I'm going to make some effort in the future.  :) 

Instead of trying to do multiple posts to catch up I'm going to review what we did for school in January in one post.  During our Christmas break I talked with my kids about each subject and we discussed what was working, what wasn't, and what ideas they had for improving.  They came up with some really good ideas, we simplified in several areas, and we have been mostly happy with our new plans. 

Devotional

We continue to work on learning new songs and memorizing scriptures.  We started reading the New Testament using Penny Gardner's Storied Scriptures.  They are familiar with Christ's life so they are starting to fit events into a "bigger picture" view.  I'm also surprised at how much my younger girls (2 & 4) know about the ministry of Jesus Christ.  We also read from The Book of Virtues, chapter 2 on Compassion.  We started reading from this in October with the plan to focus on each virtue/chapter per month, but took a  break for the holidays - in November we focued on Gratitude with a fabulous resource from Donnna Young, in December we did a daily Christmas devotional using a binder given to my family years ago, and in January we were back to The Book of Virtues.  I am incredibly tempted to purchase Donna Young's February Devotional.  Hmm.

 Math

We continue to work through Math-U-See, but we are playing more addition and subtraction games to improve their ability to recall math facts. 

 Literature

We are reading a new poetry anthology that is lots of fun - Sing a Song of Popcorn.  I think I picked it up at a yard sale or thrift store.  We were reading Minn of the Mississippi for Geography, but its harder to map than some of the other Holling books so we've moved it to Literature so we can finish it.  We are into Christiana's journey in Pilgrim's Progress and the kids still love it - this week we read about Great Heart killing the giant Maul, what's not to enjoy about that?   I am reading the Kirsten American Girls book with N for her Liberty Girl's club, and A is reading The Sowers book about David Livingston for his Knights of Freedom club.  Free reading - A has taken an interest in Greek Mythology and read the D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, as well as reading other modern books like The Sisters Grimm series.  N has been listening to Magic Treehouse books, The Fairies Collections, and A Little Princess again. 

 History

We are still learning about the American Revolution.  I'm reading them the Landmark book, The American Revolution.  Its been easier for them to understand after watching the Liberty Kids tv series.  We have also been watching some related videos - the first few episodes of the Story of US by the History Channel, and some others online like these and these.

 Geography

I found the National Geographic book above at a discount store and we decided to use it as our spine book to learn about and map the journey's of famous explorers.  We started with the Norsemen - we read the details in the main book, and also read Lief the Lucky by the D'Aulaires and another short book we have about their travels.  Next I think we are going to learn about the Silk Route in Asia.  We also make sure we pull out our maps with other subjects as well, such as the journey of Kirsten's family from Sweden to Minnesota in the American Girl books.   

 Science - Astronomy

We are still reading Exploring Creation with Astronomy and using the journals for narrating, but we aren't doing the worksheet pages or notebooking projects.  We are trying to do science projects on saturday since Dad is around the help with the project or fielding little kids, so we are more likely to DO the projects. One of the changes the kids wanted for this subject was to learn more about the constellations and do more stargazing .  I made everyone a "Constellation Journal"  where we use star stickers to make the constellation and then we read the story about the constellation.  This is how my son became so interested in Greek myths.  We haven't done much stargazing yet - evening time has so many things going on - but I do want to do it during winter/spring when it is dark earlier.   

 Nature Study

We have been doing the nature challenges at Handbook of Nature Study, but I haven't blogged about them.  Maybe I'll catch up sometime soon?!? N's latest pictures for a winter tree study are above.  For our nature tales we have been reading a book called The Seven Sleepers all about animal hibernation.  It includes the usual animals you think about hibernating like chipmunks, squirells, and bears, but also has information about earthworms, reptiles, amphibians, bats, butterflies and more. 

 Artist Study & Composer Sudy

We started a new artist - Edgar Degas - and we are enjoying him.  Well, most of us - my son isn't so interested in all the ballet pictures and stories, but he's learned to humor all us girls :).  We are still listening to Sergei Prokofiev - next month we will be attending a Utah Symphony Lollipop version of Peter & the Wolf. 

  

Extracurricular

As I mentioned, the kids are still doing their book clubs - Liberty Girls & Knights of Freedom.  They are also attending art class again this semester and studying Van Gogh.  We've already focused on him in our homeschool, but they enjoy learning more about his work and doing art projects.  We are going to be attending some "Lost Art" classes this month hosted by a homeschool mom who lives on a working homestead - candlemaking, all about fiber (wool), and cheese making. 

A has been working on Cub Scout stuff - he recently earned his Religious Knot and Bear Award.  Now he is working on the World Conservation Award as something to do because he has about 5 months before he moves into Webelos.  Theyare both working on their Faith in God, a program for boys and girls in our church.  A and N just finished a Learn to Play Hockey class at the Olympic Oval and really enjoyed it.  We plan on having them do the next class as well. 

 Preschool

My 2 & 4 year old girls are demanding more "school" time of their own.  So we spend 30 minutes to an hour doing stuff together - we read books, sing and act out songs, play games like duck-duck-goose, count manipulatives and toys, go on shape or color hunts, and so on.  They love it.  I have also started doing some printing readiness with my 4 year old - while the 2 year old naps, O sits next to me working on her own "school" while I work with the older 2 kids.  I'm starting to think about phonics/reading, but we are aren't in a hurry. 

Family Cleaning

Also new to our schedule is housework! A few days a week we focus on one room in the house and do some deep cleaning - vacuuming, mopping, windows, baseboards, dusting.  It helps me out and means every room in the house gets some extra attention at least once a month.  Even O & J like having their own damp rag to wipe stuff with.  Adults in training :)

Weeks 9 & 10

 So with little kids teething and having colds we've had to do some adjusting to have enough time to do schoolwork.  We have been relying on all the younger girls after lunch naps to get most of our stuff done.  And there have been days we just haven't been able to do all that we have wanted or needed to do.  (Its only taken me 5 days to get this posted!)

Activities & Field Trips
Because A and N are not sick they have been able to do most of their activities - scouts, activity days, Liberty Girls, and Knights of Freedom.  They weren't able to go to their art appreciation class because the family who hosts has to be careful about illnesses coming into their home so better safe than sorry.  Prior to realizing the younger girls were sick we went to a field trip at an apple mill farm - I spent the whole time in the car with 3 cranky, clingy girls, and A and N went on the tour with the group. 

School

Old Testament- Read chapters 23-25, journal pages 66-73.  These chapters are about Moses so we also watched The Prince of Egypt, and then Veggie Tales for the story of Joshua

Habits - Oh boy.  I had no idea how much progress we had made in developing good bathroom habits and speaking politely to each other.  And then we went on vacation.  And now it feels like we are starting over again.  Sigh. 

Math - We took some time to review chapter 11 and other past concepts, and then we did chapter 12.  They've also continued to work on their Sudoku puzzles.  I found some new easy level books for them to work on. 

Science - Completed the chapter on Venus, including the experiment about sonar pictured below.  We are doing less and less on the notebook journal pages.  At least we know not to get them for next years science.  Sigh (again).

History - We continue with the American Revolution.  We are reading the Landmark book - its at a higher level than we have read from in the past so its slow and steady going.  We finished the D'Aulaire's George Washington and I'm looking for a new biography to start. 

Geography - Minn of the Mississippi continues.  This is (unfortunately) one of those resources that is set aside when we need to abbreviate our schedule so we have only been doing one chapter a week instead of 2 like when we first started, but they do enjoy it so we aren't completely skipping it. 

Nature Study - We caught up on the Autumn Series 2010 challenges: 1-nature journal, 2-geese, 3-horses, 4-apples, and 5-seasonal tree study.  I really like the new emphasis on comparing and contrasting as a way of learning more about what you are studying.   

Literature - When I was going through our resrouces looking for our next read aloud, I discovered a book we didn't finish last year, A Little Pilgrim's Progress.  I don't know why we stopped reading from it because the kids LOVE it.  So we are reading it a couple days a week and poetry on the other days (Oxford Book of Story Poems - Walrus and the Carpenter, Owl and the Pussycat, Jabberwocky - we are having so much fun!). 

Artist Study - The Promenade, 1906, and Mussel Fishers at Berneval, 1879, by Renoir.  

Composer Study - Tchaikovsky:  I think we are actually ready to move on to the next composer, except that I want to get to a viewing of the Nutcracker this holiday season.  So we may or may not start a new composer right now.  Probably not yet. 

PE - working on what to do next.  Kids may be taking ice skating lessons again if we don't come up with another plan. 

Life Skills - cooking whenever they manage to talk me into it.  Oh, and of course all those chores they have to do.  Poor, picked on kids.