Never throw away a box. You never know when than one odd-shaped one will come in really handy.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Cursive in Kindergarten
I was at a curriculum sale (Abeka) the other day to buy some math workbooks for the boys and came across a pamphlet titled "Cursive in Kindergarten." Interesting, OK, I'll bite. I took it home and read it through and it was fascinating. I learn all kinds of new things about the history of education from homeschooling.
Turns out, print handwriting (or ball and stick as some like to call it) was introduced in the era of Dick and Jane thinking it would help the kids recognize the letters in the readers. Before that, learning to write meant learning cursive. The pamphlet argued that this introduction of ball and stick writing was the introduction of bad penmanship. After kids thoroughly learn how to print, then in about 3rd or 4th grade, everything is unlearned and they are expected to write in cursive. Unfortunately, it's hard to break those original habits.
Epiphany: my own horrible handwriting is horrible because it's a combination of print and cursive. I retained a lot of the print training, but connect some of the letters to make it faster and easier to write. Translation: bad penmanship.
So I decided to try it (without buying their fancy Cursive in Kindergarten program). For copywork in the morning, I told Ethan we were learning something new and I showed him how to write one word in cursive. He was so excited to write like Mom and Dad, and declared that he LOVES writing cursive. OK, OK, I know in a week he'll hate it as much as he hated printing, but I was still encouraged. I think the theory is a good one and learning about it made me want to improve my own penmanship and purge my handwriting of ball and stick habits.
Turns out, print handwriting (or ball and stick as some like to call it) was introduced in the era of Dick and Jane thinking it would help the kids recognize the letters in the readers. Before that, learning to write meant learning cursive. The pamphlet argued that this introduction of ball and stick writing was the introduction of bad penmanship. After kids thoroughly learn how to print, then in about 3rd or 4th grade, everything is unlearned and they are expected to write in cursive. Unfortunately, it's hard to break those original habits.
Epiphany: my own horrible handwriting is horrible because it's a combination of print and cursive. I retained a lot of the print training, but connect some of the letters to make it faster and easier to write. Translation: bad penmanship.
So I decided to try it (without buying their fancy Cursive in Kindergarten program). For copywork in the morning, I told Ethan we were learning something new and I showed him how to write one word in cursive. He was so excited to write like Mom and Dad, and declared that he LOVES writing cursive. OK, OK, I know in a week he'll hate it as much as he hated printing, but I was still encouraged. I think the theory is a good one and learning about it made me want to improve my own penmanship and purge my handwriting of ball and stick habits.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
It's that time again...
We're back into school. Well, not officially, but I've spent countless hours of the last month going over our curriculum, hammering out activities, library books and craft projects that will coincide with this year's learning calendar. It's been a pain in the rear, but I do feel a lot more prepared than I ever have to do this. Amazing what a long term plan will do.
I'm also working on filling out paperwork for the state, something I've never had to do. Ethan is entering the mandatory school age and I need to inform the state of my decision to homeschool. The paperwork is a bit intimidating. It's not long, but each parent has to get their signature notarized separately, and they ask detailed questions about your qualifications even though they are completely irrelevant. (I felt really stupid putting down that my highest education completed was high school. Next year I'll be a college graduate!)
I've decided we're not doing the Omaha Learning Center this year. We're moving even farther outside of town, so the drive would be an hour roundtrip each week and the real reason: I can't justify the expense anymore. I make my own hotdog buns and waffle syrup for crying out loud!! Even though I love doing it, it's still another monthly expense I can't afford. So I'm going to try to be more involved in our local (FREE) co-op group and see if I can get some of my ideas and needs implemented.
Official first day of school is August 24th, which is when the Elkhorn School District also starts. I figure I'd better play by the rules til I know what I'm doing.
I'm also working on filling out paperwork for the state, something I've never had to do. Ethan is entering the mandatory school age and I need to inform the state of my decision to homeschool. The paperwork is a bit intimidating. It's not long, but each parent has to get their signature notarized separately, and they ask detailed questions about your qualifications even though they are completely irrelevant. (I felt really stupid putting down that my highest education completed was high school. Next year I'll be a college graduate!)
I've decided we're not doing the Omaha Learning Center this year. We're moving even farther outside of town, so the drive would be an hour roundtrip each week and the real reason: I can't justify the expense anymore. I make my own hotdog buns and waffle syrup for crying out loud!! Even though I love doing it, it's still another monthly expense I can't afford. So I'm going to try to be more involved in our local (FREE) co-op group and see if I can get some of my ideas and needs implemented.
Official first day of school is August 24th, which is when the Elkhorn School District also starts. I figure I'd better play by the rules til I know what I'm doing.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Summertime
I was planning on doing some school during the summer, but it's been a bit more difficult than I anticipated. When it's nice outside, the kids will play outside most of the day, and I hate to get in the way of that. However, I have been trying to do our reading lessons everyday and Sean is pretty excited to start reading. He's really catching on quick and he's got the phonics part down pat. Seth's been letting the kids read a verse from the Book of Mormon during our daily scripture study and we can see improvement in reading and comprehension just by doing that little bit.
I realized the other day that summer is my time off as well, and it would be best to get as many projects, cleaning and otherwise, done during all this free time I have. So last week I cleaned under the fridge and stove and yesterday I went through the basement with a fine tooth comb and reorganized everything. I hope to get through the whole house in a few weeks and then maybe I'll have time to do another watercolor quilt!
I realized the other day that summer is my time off as well, and it would be best to get as many projects, cleaning and otherwise, done during all this free time I have. So last week I cleaned under the fridge and stove and yesterday I went through the basement with a fine tooth comb and reorganized everything. I hope to get through the whole house in a few weeks and then maybe I'll have time to do another watercolor quilt!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Spring Break
It has been so nice this week that we only did one day of school. I heard a statistic last week that stated the average kid spends about 1% of his time outdoors. That's about 14 min, the time it takes to get from the bus stop to home or school. I'm happy to know my kids are on the larger side of that average. I love the flexibility we have to just throw schoolwork out the window on beautiful days (or weeks) and get out to enjoy nature.
I've been thinking that we'll probably keep school up throughout the summer. I think it might be nice to stay on a flexible schedule so when we wake up to rain, or just a particularly boring day, we can pull out some lessons. Or maybe with that they'll just learn not to come to me if they are bored!
I've been thinking that we'll probably keep school up throughout the summer. I think it might be nice to stay on a flexible schedule so when we wake up to rain, or just a particularly boring day, we can pull out some lessons. Or maybe with that they'll just learn not to come to me if they are bored!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Cave Drawings
Today for history we talked about Nomads and learned about what they ate and how they lived. For our activity we made cave drawings. It ended up an experiment: what kinds of things could nomads use to draw on the cave walls? Sean suggested blood from animals, so I got out the red paint. He also thought maybe we could make green paint with leaves. Here they are trying to squeeze some green "paint" from a leaf.
Ethan thought maybe the daffodils would yeild some yellow, but he wasn't satisfied because it was too light. We also used "charcoal" from my old pastel set. Here is Sean's finished drawing. (Ethan was being OCD and gave up)
Ethan thought maybe the daffodils would yeild some yellow, but he wasn't satisfied because it was too light. We also used "charcoal" from my old pastel set. Here is Sean's finished drawing. (Ethan was being OCD and gave up)Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Current Curriculums
We've finally settled into a groove, after six months of everything being up in the air. A few weeks ago, Ethan finished his Kindergarten Math, so I decided it was time to graduate him to the first grade. I began to look up first grade programs and asking my veteran friends what they liked. This is what we came up with for the first grade year:
Math: Elementary Algebra Workbook
This is a workbook I found at our local teacher's store written for Grade 1-2. I picked something a bit above his level because I was tired of skipping around half of a book while they wanted him to learn to count to 10. So now he does about one page a day. Most of them are a good challenge for him, but some of them we have to stop and take a couple of days to learn a new concept before he can finish the worksheet. I really like that he's learning a lot, I just hope it's not pushing him to hard.
Reading: "Teaching Children to Read" by Grant Von Harrison
I got this tutor manual at the BYU Bookstore for the Independent Study class I took last year. I really love this book, it's huge and it will take Ethan through all the concepts he needs to learn. I like the format because he tells me how far he wants to go each day and we do it. It stresses sight words, phonics and comprehension. We tried 100 Easy Lessons before this one and he's responding much better. (Consequently, I have Sean on 100 Easy Lessons and he's LOVING it.)
History: Story of the World Volume 1 "Ancient Times" and Activity Book
I've decided to alternate History and Science by week, so last week we focused on the first lesson in this book: What is History and Archeology. It's a read aloud history and tells the story in a very engaging way. The activity book suggests very good and meaningful activities, and also give supplemental book suggestions for all ages. After reading some of the lesson and book suggestions, Ethan wanted to rush out into our backyard and start digging right away. A lot of my friends have used this series for years. I love that it's adaptable to all elementary school ages so we can go through the series of four books, then start over again and include all the kids learning the same thing.
Science: Apologia Young Explorer's Series "Exploring Creation with Botany"
This curriculum is also a read aloud and adaptable to 1st through 6th grade. There are several books in the series and each are meant to be studied in depth for a whole year, rather than skimming all the sciences each year every year. I had a few friends who highly recommended it to me, and I really liked that it is based on the philosophy of Charlotte Mason (it stresses narration, keeping a journal, active learning etc.). We've only been working on the first lesson this week, but I've been pretty happy with it. I'm not covering everything, as some of it is too complicated to dwell on, but I can read the parts I think are helpful and there are good activities that teach the concepts as well. If we choose to stick with this series, we'll cover the same book again in 4-5 years and then go more in depth for Ethan, while staying basic for Aaron. As you can tell, I LOVE flexibility and re-usability.
Math: Elementary Algebra Workbook
This is a workbook I found at our local teacher's store written for Grade 1-2. I picked something a bit above his level because I was tired of skipping around half of a book while they wanted him to learn to count to 10. So now he does about one page a day. Most of them are a good challenge for him, but some of them we have to stop and take a couple of days to learn a new concept before he can finish the worksheet. I really like that he's learning a lot, I just hope it's not pushing him to hard.
Reading: "Teaching Children to Read" by Grant Von Harrison
I got this tutor manual at the BYU Bookstore for the Independent Study class I took last year. I really love this book, it's huge and it will take Ethan through all the concepts he needs to learn. I like the format because he tells me how far he wants to go each day and we do it. It stresses sight words, phonics and comprehension. We tried 100 Easy Lessons before this one and he's responding much better. (Consequently, I have Sean on 100 Easy Lessons and he's LOVING it.)
History: Story of the World Volume 1 "Ancient Times" and Activity Book
I've decided to alternate History and Science by week, so last week we focused on the first lesson in this book: What is History and Archeology. It's a read aloud history and tells the story in a very engaging way. The activity book suggests very good and meaningful activities, and also give supplemental book suggestions for all ages. After reading some of the lesson and book suggestions, Ethan wanted to rush out into our backyard and start digging right away. A lot of my friends have used this series for years. I love that it's adaptable to all elementary school ages so we can go through the series of four books, then start over again and include all the kids learning the same thing.
Science: Apologia Young Explorer's Series "Exploring Creation with Botany"
This curriculum is also a read aloud and adaptable to 1st through 6th grade. There are several books in the series and each are meant to be studied in depth for a whole year, rather than skimming all the sciences each year every year. I had a few friends who highly recommended it to me, and I really liked that it is based on the philosophy of Charlotte Mason (it stresses narration, keeping a journal, active learning etc.). We've only been working on the first lesson this week, but I've been pretty happy with it. I'm not covering everything, as some of it is too complicated to dwell on, but I can read the parts I think are helpful and there are good activities that teach the concepts as well. If we choose to stick with this series, we'll cover the same book again in 4-5 years and then go more in depth for Ethan, while staying basic for Aaron. As you can tell, I LOVE flexibility and re-usability.
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