2012-2013 School Year

We have 29 days left to our school year (not that we're counting down or anything!).  That said, I thought I'd post what we've used and found to be helpful in our studies this year.

Language Arts
All About Spelling (for grades pre-K, 3, 4)
Spell to Write & Read (for grades 3, 4)
WISE Guide for Spelling (for grades 3, 4)
Institute for Excellence in Writing, Student Writing Intensive Level A (for grades 3, 4)

Math
Singapore Math (for grades pre-K, 3, 4)
Math Mammath units for areas needing extra attention and study

World & American History
Story of the World, Volume 3 and Student Activity Book
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne for a geography & history unit study
The American Revolution by Homeschool in the Woods
The Early Nineteenth Century in America by Homeschool in the Woods

 Mr. Pipes and the British Hymnwriters by Douglas Bond

 Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation by Douglas Bond

Videos, links & other resources:
Taj Mahal

Palace at Versailles

Pearl Harbor - here, here and here

Dickens’ London in pictures

Amazing Grace, movie by Bristol Bay Productions

Liberty’s Kids series 

Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?  By Fritz

Nova – The Wright Brothers video

The Boy Who Invented Television: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Krull

Scholastic Encyclopedia of the North American Indian  by Ciment

The Trail of Tears by Bruchac

If You Lived with the Cherokee by Roop

Mameluke sword

Barbary pirates

Lewis & Clark

Civics

Story of the World, Volume 3 and Student Activity Book

Government & elections: here, here and here

Citizenship
USA Presidents’ Song to tune of 10 Little Indians

Science

Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock

Blue Planet – Tidal Seas

Nova – Hubble’s Amazing Rescue

The Body Book by Scholastic

First Encyclopedia of the Human Body by Usborne

Geography 

Story of the World, Volume 3 and Student Activity Book

Geography Songs by Troxel

The American Revolution by Homeschool in the Woods

Around the World in 8o Days by Verne

Global Treasures Videos by Travel Video Store: Napoleon’s Tomb; St. Petersburg, Russia,; Versailles, France; Paris, France; The Grand Canal, Venice Italy; The Forum of Rome

The Early Nineteenth Century in America by Homeschool in the Woods

Art & Music

Classics for Kids 

Art projects

Drawing with Children by Brooks

Safety Education

  Fire safety

 

Current Events

  Children of the Tsumani 

 

2011-2012 School Year

Now that we have 33 days left of our school year (not a little cheering going on here!), I thought I would make note of what we have been using this year and how we have liked it, so, here goes:

Language Arts:
Spelling/Phonics: All About Spelling
We switched to this program this year from Spell to Write and Read (which I plan on using again when we finish up this program). My 3rd grader has gone through levels 1-4,and my 2nd grader levels 1-3. Both are doing well with this program. I especially like the systematic approach to spelling rules and the built-in review system. I have noticed both of them pausing when writing to think through the correct spelling of a word, which is not something I really noticed them doing before.
On Thursdays we have our homeschool co-op, so we have "light" school at home. We have a spelling bee every week, where I call out the words and they have to spell them correctly. The motivator is the skittle or chocolate chip that I toss at them each time they get a word correct. (I totally borrowed this idea from Pioneer Woman!). My 4 year old has learned all of his letters and phonogram sounds this way, too!
At the beginning of each month, I give the kids a diagnostic spelling test from my Spell to Write and Read book just to gauge their progress.
Grammar: First Language Lessons
I am not always greatly consistent with this one, but I like the oral nature of the program, and, with the spoken repetition, the kids have learned a lot of grammar. I think we'll continue with it next year.
Writing: Steps to Writing Success, level 2
This program was recommended to me by a 2nd/3rd grade teacher friend who uses this with her class. It has been very helpful to me in teaching me how to model the writing process for my kids. I would say that writing is our weakest area, not because my kids aren't creative in composing stories, but because it is like pulling teeth to get the to take the time to write them out and finish them. This is going to be my big push next year!

Math:
We are using Singapore Math again this year. We won't really be finished with math in 33 days, however. I think we'll probably continue all summer, which won't actually be all that bad, since it'll keep everything fresh in their minds. The 2nd grade book is the longest we have had yet, and my 2nd grader is still in the first book! We only do this math 4 days a week, though, since we take off on co-op days, so that is a big factor in how long it is taking us to complete it.
This year, we added Singapore's Extra Practice and Challenging Word Problems books for some additional practice. I assign 1-2 pages in each per day for the kids to work on independently, and then we go over and correct it together.
On Thursdays, the kids use Singapore's Math Sprints books to "race" against themselves in timed quizzes. They actually look forward to Thursdays and beg to do Sprints on other days, so I think this one was a winner!

History:
We are finishing up book 2 of The Story of the World and still enjoying it. We read a section or two each day and use the discussion questions in the Activity Guide. I usually have the kids narrate back to me what we read, and lately I have been writing it down for them so they can include more details (now we just need to work on summarizing instead!). At the end of each chapter, we do map work together from the Activity Guide (I really like this feature!), and sometimes we also read additional books or do additional activities related to the material.
On Thursdays, in stead of reading, we put everything we have read about in the past week into our Books of Time, which are basically timeline books. I try to include anything we have read about, whether in history or science, art or music, Bible or biography, so our books are filling up in places. It has been extremely helpful for me to visualize how different events interacted in history, and it has been neat to see the kids get excited when we go to put something in and they see that something else happened around the same time.

Science:
We finished up Apologia's Botany course at Christmas and began their Zoology I in February. We also began Noeo's Chemistry I at the same time. I try to alternate between the two, and the kids seem to be enjoying both. Both use lots of narration, in addition to hands-on activities and experiments.
We also do lots of nature walks, especially in the spring, when we have a "tree walk" of several trees in the neighborhood that we follow each spring from bud to blossom.

Reading:
The kids are both pretty good independent readers now, but I am trying to be better about having them read aloud so I can gauge their progress. We have done a lot of reading from the Christian Liberty Nature Readers. I like them because they use an easy almost conversational tone and have a glossary in the back where the kids can learn to look up terms. The kids enjoy learning about insects and spiders and other creatures while they read to me.
We have also been reading through Proverbs together, with each of us taking a verse until we finish a chapter. I'm thinking of moving on to some "sword drills" now to get them more familiar with their Bibles.
To facilitate with memorization, we have been reading and then memorizing several Psalms in the past two months. We have worked on Psalm 100 and 23 and are now beginning Psalm 139. My 4-year-old likes to come in for these, too.

PE:
The kids played soccer in the fall and have just began again for spring. We took a break in the winter, but they are requesting basketball next year. I have also begun them on the Couch to 5K running program to get them running more and to possibly prep them for a race in the summer or fall. We run while I push my 2-year-old in the stroller and my 4-year-old rides his bike.

Music:
The kids began piano lessons last summer and are enjoying them. We also enjoy listening to the Classical Kids CDs to learn some biographical information for different composers.

Art:
We do art here and there, though summers have turned out to be the best time for us to do it more consistently.

We have enjoyed lots of various other things as they arise, like field trips, kids' interests, missionary biographies, etc...so I am sure I am leaving a lot out. :)

J-Term

January is such a hard month to come back to after the holidays. It is long and cold and often snowy, so it's hard to get out much. So, I planned a J-term as an experiment for this year. Instead of jumping right back into what we have already been doing, we are going to take a break from some things and do some more "fun" stuff. What will we be studying?

Math (continue with Singapore and the flash card system I made for review of math facts, as well as Sprints on Thursdays)
Spelling (continue with All About Spelling and spelling bees on Thursdays)
Grammar (continue with First Language Lessons)
Piano (continue)

And what are we adding/changing?

History - take a break from Story of the World (after we finish the castles we have been working on this week) and do a short unit study on Felicity and Kirsten (American Girl).
Science - we finished up our Botany course a week ago, so instead of jumping in with a new curriculum in January, we are going to review chunks of it at a time and then have a written test and "field" test each week. I am considering this chemistry course for Feb.
Writing: I purchased a new writing book that my friend, a 2nd grade teacher, uses in her class - Steps to Writing Success (level 2). We will be working through it beginning in January, and I am getting excited about how it is laid out!
Music History (time permitting) - Use the books, The Story of the Orchestra and The Story of Music
Sewing - so far we have sewn several pillowcases and bags for church/co-op; now we need to work on our book covers and laundry bags

So, we'll see how much we actually accomplish, but at least I have tentative plans. :)

A New Year!

School has officially begun this week, and we are enjoying it so far!  I just wanted to make note of some special projects we are doing this fall:

• All About Me booklets - It has been fun to go back and look at the booklets made in previous years and see their handwriting, likes and dislikes, statistics, etc!  This year I added a page for "When I grow up, I want to be...", and it was especially fun listening to my 4-year-old tell me all of the things that, in his mind, are special grown-up things (washing dishes, being asked to return library books, driving all sorts of vehicles, etc.) 
• Oral History Project - We are going to slowly work our way through our entire family, interviewing them via email with questions about their families and growing up and special memories that they have.  Just this week we have begun with my 89 year old grandmother, and it has been really neat to read her responses to the girls' emails and to share these stories together!  I'm looking forward to compiling an entire family "history" with the girls this year!  
• Weekly Projects - We told the girls that they get a chance to "teach" us every Friday and can even ask us questions to see if we were paying attention!  They have to pick out a book at the library on Monday (not sure if I will assign different parameters here each week), read it and pick out three things they learned that they want to teach us.  Then they have to draw a picture and prepare a short presentation.  They seem excited so far and have done well with it this week.  I'm looking forward to Friday! 
• Blogging as Creative Writing - Both girls have balked a bit at creative writing, mostly not knowing what to write about and not really being motivated to write in the journals I had them use last year.  So, this year we are doing a different writing exercise each day.  I did wonder if having an actual audience might help with motivation to write, so we came up with the idea to start a blog for each of them.  They will write a weekly post to share with their family and maybe some friends.  I figure they will learn typing, internet, scanning and uploading skills in addition to creative writing!  And, more importantly, they are excited about it so far!  

I'll port more later on what we have finally decided to use for our curriculum this year.  

Looking Back

I just revised my post on planning for 2010-2011 to include comments on what has worked this year and what has not, why we have chosen some things over others, and what we are considering doing the same or differently next year.  You can read it here.

Planning Ahead

We are in process of deciding what we want to study and use next year for 2nd and 3rd grades with our girls. Here is a partial list of what we are looking at so far:

Math - Singapore Math – Lessons and Math Sprints (levels 2 and 3)

History - Story of the World vol. 2 & activity book.  As I am looking at the time frame, Fall of Rome through the Rise of the Renaissance, I am thinking we can incorporate lots of music and art history.  Hmmm...where are my old music history CDs and books? 

Science - Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany and then probably Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Language Arts – All About Spelling (I am switching because one of my kids is having some writing/motor skill issues and I am hoping this program will address that a bit), weekly composition writing (on computer, use to reinforce spelling, grammar concepts), Writing With Ease vol. 2

Spanish – Rosetta Stone (if I can find a good deal on it!)

Latin - not decided on this yet (3rd grader only)

Geography – continue to use our geography songs CD and map them (this year, we've learned the continents and oceans and the countries of Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and the US and Canada so far!)

US & PA History – make up units in PA and US History as we are interested

For our preschooler, I am looking at the following:

Praise Factory Big Questions and Answers for Little People

Nature studies

Curricula for 2010-2011 (updated March 2011)

I thought I'd post a little about what I will be using with my girls this year for 1st and 2nd grades, mainly so I can remember when my little ones old are older.

Language Arts

• Our main program is Spell to Write and Read, which we are in our 4th year of using. It is a phonics-based spelling program, with an emphasis on thinking through sounds as you are learning to spell and to thus read. Along with this program, we are doing cursive writing; my 7 year old already knows it, and my 6 year old will be focusing more on it this year (she was less ready motor-wise last year). We have taken a break from SWR after about 24 or so weeks because my younger child is having trouble with handwriting and some reading and is just getting frustrated with it.  I decided to end our phonics for the year and transition to another program that is similar in approach but more visual for next year to see if it help her.  Both girls did well with our weekly spelling bees, and in fact my younger one spells better orally than in writing (another reason I am switching approaches a bit for next year).  In the meantime, we are trying more of a hands-on writing approach for the remainder of the year.  They are writing a story each week, which helps us to cover spelling, grammar, reading, writing, typing, drawing, composition,....  They seem to be enjoying the change.
• My 2nd grader will begin more formal grammar and reading comprehension instruction this year as we broaden our usage of our phonics program, using the suggestions in the Wise Guide (our spelling book) and several other resources their site provides. I actually found some great language arts and writing skills workbooks at Barnes and Noble that we have been using and the girls seem to be enjoying.  I am pondering using them again next year. 
• We have also just begun copywork and narration exercises using Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease workbook. We fell behind in using this resource, mostly because I bought the workbook and had to copy and print each worksheet we needed.  I am going to try again next year with the second level workbook and just make sure to buy a digital copy so I can print as I need them and not have to scan or copy them. 
• I have both girls journal at least once weekly, sometimes requiring them to write, other times letting them dictate to me what to write,sometimes having them draw a picture first and then describe it, other times giving them an intro sentence and having them finish it ("I dreamt that I was a princess..."). They almost always journal after a field trip or outside class (like at our local arboretum) so that they can remember what they learned or saw.
• Both girls will be reading from our Christian Liberty nature readers (levels K and 1). We like these books because the selections are relatively short but interesting as we learn about nature.
  

Math

• We are in our second year of using Singapore math, and so far we are enjoying using it. The girls really look forward to their math times each day. We will be continuing with this program next year.  The second grade work is a lot more writing and time intensive, so we have only just started the second book a few weeks ago.  I am not sure we will finish it before the end of the year, but I have decided that mastery is more important than just finishing it.  If we still have some left, we will begin 3rd grade with the remainder of 2nd grade before moving on.  We are doing a lot of mental math in the 2nd grade book, and it has been really neat to see the light go on in her head as she "gets" it!  I have also added lots of different memorization techniques for the addition and multiplication tables.  Currently, we are doing a lot of jumping around as we recite them.  It seems to be working so far.  :)  My younger child has especially benefited from the use of lots of manipulatives as we work on concepts so that she can visualize them.  I have to say that I like this program because it seems to teach them to think the way I have realized that I think about math.  So, it makes sense to me and seems to be making sense to them so far. 

Science

• I am looking at a new formal "science" curriculum this year and hope to be able to try it. It is called Noeo science and seems very interesting. It uses a sort-of Charlotte Mason approach, using living books rather than textbooks and encouraging much observation and journaling. I'll post more if we get it. We did not purchase this curriculum, just because it seemed so expensive.  However, a few weeks ago, we began Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany, and I am a big fan of this so far!  I bought the girls their own workbooks, too, and am convinced that it was worth the money spent.  Apologia uses a Charlotte Mason approach, with reading and narration and lots of nature study.  When we finish this study in the fall, we will probably move on to their Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day study on birds.  
• Most of what we do for science is nature-oriented. We read lots of Thornton Burgess books about animals and then I have the girls narrate back to me what they learned, either through drawings or dictation that I write down for them. We also have nature journals and try to go on nature walks either in our neighborhood or at our local arboretum several times a month. As we discover things that interest them, we try to learn more about them.
  

History/Geography/Social Studies & Health

• I am excited about our history curriculum for this year! We are beginning The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. It should take us through a four-year cycle from ancient times to the modern day. The workbook that accompanies the text has lots of interesting map studies and enrichment activities, as well as excellent additional reading lists!  We are loving this resource!  The girls often comment that they love history (which I never did in school, so that makes me happy!)!  Each chapter has 1-3 sections that narrate the history of the time.  The girls answer some questions and then narrate back to me, either orally or with drawings or typed accounts, what we read.  At the end of the chapter, we map whatever we studied, and it has been neat to see their geography skills grow over the year!  The workbook also includes book lists for additional reading and activities to further the study, and we have enjoyed making use of these resources, too.  We also have created our own "Books of Time", which are basically just timelines where we record what we have read about to see how it fits into the big picture of history.  It was neat last week to see them notice that something they just recorded went where we had already included other events - they made the connection that these were all happening at the same time in different areas of the world!  We're definitely looking forward to using book 2 next year! 
• For geography, we began learning the countries of Africa last year and will continue until we are finished. This summer, we began learning the states of the US as well. All of these are done using a geography songs CD and our atlas and globe. We have used several different Dover coloring books in our study of the US states as well. Again, we are really enjoying using our CD and maps.  We have learned the countries of the Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe, the states of the US and provinces and territories of Canada, and the continents and oceans so far, and we just began the countries in Asia.  We will usually sing the song and point to the countries for a few days. Then I print a blank map and we sing and color the countries as we go.  Then, we use this map for a few more days when we sing.  Then I test them on another blank map by calling out the countries randomly.   I think we will continue this next year and add in state capitals for my 3rd grader. 
• For general social studies and health, we will have lessons on fire safety, PA history, the 4th of July, the Pilgrims (a favorite November unit study!) and whatever else sounds interesting. We just finished a book on Thomas Alva Edison and are currently reading one on Betsy Ross. We ended up doing a lot of Revolutionary War-time studies, reading several great chapter books about different events during these times.  We'll continue in this vein next year, too. 
  

Music/art

• Our 2nd grader will be beginning piano lessons this fall and our 1st grader in the spring.We decided that our 1st grader was not quite ready yet, and our 2nd grader is ready, but we really want to find a teacher instead of teaching her ourselves.  In the meantime, she is having a few lessons and is doing well. 
• For general music appreciation and history, every other month or so we take a composer and listen to lots of his or her music and read books about him or her. We have greatly enjoyed the Classical Kids series on several well-known composers.  Music has fallen by the wayside a bit, though they have enjoyed the Classical Kids CDs and other units we have done as asides to our other studies.  
  
• We will use a similar approach to art by taking an artist and looking at his or her artwork and reading books about him or her and even trying to imitate some of his or her work. The girls have been excited to be able to identify pieces of artwork when we are out and about sometimes! Art, too, seems to get the short end of the stick, time-wise, in our school.  The girls are constantly drawing and coloring, but we have not done much formally this year.  My plan is to do a more concentrated time this summer when we are not doing other subjects. 
  

PE

• Besides just playing outside, riding bikes and scooters, the girls will be taking dance this year. They will also begin soccer this fall and hope to play basketball again this winter. We have tried to do lots of outdoor time and have been more successful at times than at others.  They are loving dance, though I am not sure about continuing it for next year.  They did play basketball ,though we waited on soccer so we would not overcommit ourselves.  I think we will do soccer this fall and definitely basketball again.  We will also be going back to our local co-op,so they will have gym on a weekly basis. 
  

Other Fun Stuff

• One of our favorite school times is reading a Magic Treehouse book each week and learning more about whatever subject the book focuses on that week. We have learned about dinosaurs, pirates and ships, rain forests, medieval castles and knights, dolphins,... Several of the books even have accompanying research guides that the girls and I have enjoyed.

This list seems long and a bit intimidating, but somehow it seems to work together for us. My main goal is that the girls cultivate a love of learning in general and a greater appreciation for the Lord and His wonders. Sometimes I have to stop myself and ask whether I am just trying to check things off of a list as we accomplish them or whether my real focus is on the bigger picture. May the Lord bless our efforts, though, and may they grow most in love for Him as they learn more about His world!