Our 2012-2013 School Year - Routine

I feel horrible for not being more interactive and at the same time, I have been extremely careful in controlling my personal distractions.  I just do not want to be a mom that homeschools only to have something to blog about or seem to get  it all. So I have taken to my speech to only air my advise with "in my humble opinion", because seriously, who am I to know.  I might have 4 kids, but I have only been parenting for 8 years.  I have not even completed the task of raising a single child.  So sure, in 10 years, maybe I can speak with a bit more real world experience and a glimpse of the whole picture.  really?  I am not really going to know how it all works out until I am probably 90 years old and seen how the accumulation of all of my efforts and decisions blossomed into reality. Besides, I feel like a dipstick in the pursuit of what works for us.

So we are 3 weeks into our school year and we are just now finding our groove. Our biggest accomplishment is our routine.  I am invoking a little bit of Fly Lady on them.  Each morning they are required to get dressed, make beds, and together sort and put away one basket of laundry, before breakfast.  Sadly as basic as this sounds, this folks is monumental!

The other thing we swapped was when we did our subjects. I tried starting right out in the morning with independent work first.  Well, 2 year old and 4 year old would invoke chaos! Then the 1st and 2nd grader would manage to spread this work out over the entire day, so history and science was a bust.  Now we do our science and history in the morning all together and then during quiet time for the littles, they somehow manage to swiftly get their independent work done.  Also, I am really only doing science and history 1 time a week and on the other days we do random cool, because we stay home kind of things.

Our Basic Weekly Routine
Monday - Well honestly, it is just a free-for-all on the our together homeschooling.  This could be unstructured bike ramp building with dads tools or a mud bath the went bad in the back ditch.  Seriously, it is more of my recovery time from dad junking up my routine all weekend.  Did I mention I am pregnant.

Tuesday - This is our no school day!  HaHA!  We start our morning with a homeschool gymnastics class and follow it up with picking up our books from the library, and then lunch, and on to my chiropractic appointment.  I had a huge sense of guilt over all this car time and no "school time" that I went to Sam's and got the  4 subject grade level workbook for each kid.  I just ask them to do one page of each subject for the day and my bad homeschool mommy guilt subsides.

I don't even check it, but I will say I have had to improve on my  mommy what is this word spelling  coming from the back seat.  Our how about describing in detail how to alphabetize with out sitting side by side with the paper in front of you.

Wednesday - Okay, a sense of get on this hits me first thing in the morning.  So we get our little fly routine done and we sit together and get our Science worked on with a bit of reading out loud, exploring library books, and some sort of something cool.  We might spend about 2 hours total.  We also have AWANAS at church that night too.

Thursday- Trying to keep ourselves moving along, we spend our mornings reading and doing our History lesson.  Usually this is where the mess comes in.  Last week, we learned about what history is and archaeology, then followed it up with making a timeline for each kids.  Plenty of photos and glue sticks.  What a great project to use up extra photos that did not make it into the scrapbook.

Friday - Alright, I am whipped and tired.  I did a Ladies Bible Study the night before.  We move our afternoon independent work to the morning.  Around noon, we should have some friends show up and we all chum around for a play date.  I am thankful to get through another week.  By late Friday night, a sense of guilt once more hits me and I realize I had better reserve the library books I need in 2 weeks or I will never have it in time.

Our afternoons run the same, typically. We eat lunch and then I send my 2 yr old to bed.  We clean up from lunch and get the books out.  The 4 yr old gets the big pre-k book out and at random works on several pages of her choice.  This is her 20 - 30 minutes of school, I give a her a 5 minute warning with this is your last page and then send her off to nap.  During that time the 1st and 2nd grader work independently on math and spelling. The grammar and writing we work on together. The 2nd grader reads alone and the 1st grader and I read together.

I will layout our curriculum next time.  I must continue to say that I am so content with Susan Wise Bauer's techniques and developed path. I probably would not consider myself a highly disciplined homeschool mom. And I am completely aware that I am very relaxed, but I have found that her method is fool proof.  I am astonished at the capacity they are learning and retaining, with minimal prep work on my part. MINIMAL!

Until we meet again.
I do have to share, I am still in the first trimester exhaustion phase, even though I am 6 months along. I look forward to the things I will have the energy to partake in their studies.
~trish

plans, plans, plans.

Making a plan is all well, but I have a hard time putting it to paper.  I need something simple and easy.  I came across a few things and found a great one that I love at http://www.mamajennblogs.com/2010/08/my-homeschool-planning-docs.html


I printed out a set and have a set of plans for each kid.  I have them in a 3 ring binder with a tab for each month (we are having a hard time fitting the pages in a 1/2" binder for 2 kids, by next year we will be in a 1").  I am trying to have plans ready to at least the end of December.  I am slowly making headway.  We will not actually be starting until September 11th.

I am thankful for our later than usual start date.  We will run from September to the end of June this year for a total of 36 weeks of actual curriculum.  Of course, everyday is filled with learning.  From now until September, I am finishing collecting our curriculum and organizing it.  Most of all, I hope to finally have a space with a door to designate to our homeschooling.  What a thought!

So we are slowly, preparing away.  I hope by September to be able to show you all of our amazing books and our curriculum choices for this year.

To Approach The Approach

Sorry for the absence and that's all I have to say about that.

It is another homeschool year to begin.  I feel like an old hat at starting and still a inexperienced fool at finishing.  Sadly, of the 3 years we have begun homeschooling, we have finished in a public institution.  Mostly from the results of self doubt, frustration, and lack of support.  Always while preparing or what I like to call overloading my senses with way too much information, I come across a mission or purpose statement.

Why do this? To put it in writing, because I want to.  I have wanted to and knew I would since the day I was planning my wedding.  This is what my intention was, goal, the envision of my future, prodigy, etc.   I AM that mom.  At the end of each year, I would feel defeated, why am I not.  

I know why we stopped, but the frustrating part is within the public institution even within 2 weeks, there was no sense of satisfaction with their product.  It was just that at least I am not the one failing them, I will allow the institute to fail them, just as it failed me. Yes, they would read better and add better, but the missing part that was not being provided was thinking.

Where was I going wrong? I feel as though I have touched on every type of learning style and approach.  I have tried a few.  I have done workboxes twice now.  I have tried to keep it simple, kept it fun, and have stuck them on the computer.  I have child centered myself to a tizzy.  The reality is I have 4 children in a small house.  I must live and eat and let them play in this space that we school.  The least bit of chaos and disorder sends the world we know of into a tizzy of fret and despair. I have uncluttered and sorted and organized, to the point of enough.  For us this enough is just barely enough for us and way too much for the house.   What is a mom to do!

I can say that, as always, I excitedly started my kids back to school right after I picked them up from their last day.  Well, maybe the following Monday.  Mentally, I knew they needed to be deprogrammed, but in practice I just couldn't do it. Let's say, forethought and planning was at a maximum, Just enough!

I must be eclectic. As summer progressed, I would boast, oh, we are eclectic. The reality was we would do a collection of stuff on Monday and then maybe again 2 more times a week.  Combing the pins, I just knew if I could make a workbox system, everything would really flow together.  Cleverly, I used the milk crates and vinyl folders and cute labels.  Instead of doing school a few times a week, we now accomplished it just on Mondays.  I must not be doing something right!!!!!!!!

As I mentally torture myself through this whole administration aspect and planning portion of homeschooling, I actually got the blessing to overhear a conversation on several topics of reading and writing. The lasting statement I heard from another mom with older elementary children was  I wish I would have read this book before I ever would have taken them out of school. What is this book, I have to know! Invading myself into the conversation, I learned for the first time about Susan Wise Bauer and the well educated mind.  I was given just a name and I went home in a mission.  It was fine, I had plenty of time, I wasn't schooling as it was.

I got home and found http://www.welltrainedmind.com/ and was amazed with the information.  Now, we are expecting #5 at the first of the year and I am just tired on top of it all.  So I printed up a few articles, got a highlighter, and crawled into bed. Immediately, it was like my mind had been on a 2 year celery diet and I was just been given a steak dinner. I had to chew it, but it was remarkable.  It spoke to me, this is what I have been searching for.  I found it.

I have purpose! I homeschool my children through thick and thin, because I want to educate them to think and learn on their own.  I want them to be prepared for any university to continue to explore and discover, without the hurtles of being ill prepared for general education.  I refuse to allow my children to have the substandard education that was available to me and is still available to them.


Focus, now, focus. At first, let just say, the book is complete from birth to senior year on equipping  you with the knowledge of resources and very heavy.  As I read, I was jotting every bit of information down. After 3 days of reading, collecting, and organizing, I realized!  The method is actually very simple. My brain can stay focus.  Focused, because reading material is in lined with history.  Full pictures are being painted, not partial.  Best of all, the book provides listings of references, reading list, etc. to help you narrow your choices that will maintain the method.

By default, I started planning the year's schedule, the weekly layout, all the way to the daily expectation, a first!  For the first time ever, we will begin school at home the Monday after Labor day.  until then, I am preparing them to use their brain in a new way, so we a cutting TV down to 1 hour a week and we are filling them with audio books.  I want their minds to feed off language, not images.  I want them to create their own images.  These next weeks, will give us plenty of time to train in being responsible around the house.

I love you for visiting and commenting.  I look forward to sharing our adventures as always.
~trish

Handwriting Composition Books

 

I was really excited when I found these books.  We were using the regular spiral notebooks that we took all that time to recovered, but the lines were a bit confusing for them.  When I seen this notebook, I knew we would be better off.

So where did I find this little gem, you ask!  The Dollar Tree!  Can you believe it!  You never know what you are going to find.  This is working out nicely for handwriting.  We have 2 notebooks for the first grader, one for handwriting and another to write the date in every day.  I just picked another one up for the kindergartener. 

We are still having adjusting pains to figure out what we need to be doing.  I am really needing something that is effective and not overly time consuming for mommy or kids, because this momma does not want to constantly be after them. I hate to keep sharing our “new” plan. 

On my previous post, I shared the whole curriculum books from the warehouse store.  My only fear is the public school system has taken say fifth grade work and simplified it to be introduced in fourth and then more so to be shown in third and then so on until it is in first grade.  So it seems as though there is so much introduction for so many years that when it is time for it to be taught, it feels more like a review and the child is bored and never really got to the lesson.

My fear and as I read those books, is that they are introducing things a lot earlier than I really want.  I would hate to be introducing the structure of writing and hinder the love and desire to express themselves in writing.

I guess before I can really layout my curriculum, I really need to figure out the goals we have for first and kindergarten.  I read the new state guidelines and really for more over amount of education, you really have to go to decoding school on how to implement all that taught thinking they plan to do.

Any suggestions?

~trish

Grade School Workbooks from the Store

So it has been a few weeks since I have got back with you.  We are slowly moving back in line with our routine.  Trying out that new school really threw a monkey a wrench in sense of order.  Somehow after 3 weeks, we are finally looking some form of normal, well normal to us.

Of course, we are still finding what works for us.  The freedom that comes with being able to find what works best, also leads to a lot of time searching.  Daddy had a lot of issues of not “seeing” enough done, so I had to institute a worksheet attack on my kids.  Poor little things.  To provide a large amount of comfort, I picked up a complete curriculum from the big warehouse store for under $10.

I really like this workbook set.  I also have the one for Kindergarten.  Of course, I realize after writing in them it is 100%, A OKAY!  to reproduce. I like so many things about the book, except the reading comprehension.  I find that the writing within the reading comprehension section is weak, wordy, unfocused, and wandering.  I really like the way that the text is presented and it makes for a great work book.  Next issue, apparently it is now Out Of Print and there are not many copies available ANYWHERE. If I collect an entire elementary school set of them it would probably be well worth it and cost only $100.

Now here is my confession.  This is my opinion and is meant for only my own self reflection.  I feel like I am not being a “good” homeschool mom by using this as a core to my teaching.  They are great books and for the money, they are superb!  BUT!  I envision a homeschool mom knowing the special handshake, flashing an awesome homeschool club ID card to get into the most exclusive backroom curriculum stores in the figment of my imagination.  This is where they sell the hidden style of teaching and books to go with it, that really work.

Let’s face it, these kids are not going to teach themselves and we mommas have got to figure out what works for them, us, and the budget.  Expensive shine text books and programs do not make smarter kids. 

So currently, I am ripping pages out and sticking them under my kids noses to do.  Lots of writing and a bit more structured.  Now being almost 2 weeks into doing it, they are getting the hang of it.  And the daddy is getting compliant again, so it most be getting better.

Logistics – It really comes down to the logistics for me.  We are 2 months in, we haven’t really nailed ourselves down to a set curriculum yet.  (i.e., each week it is something new, it seems.)  How could this workbook work for us? 

• Well, the core of what we need to do with them is covered. It is keeping us progressing at level with minimal effort from me, so score! 
• It allows me to have a better view of what they really are understanding and not, so we can further work on it. 
• Although it takes up more of their time right now, it is freeing up my mental ability to work on more fun things for them.
• Plus, we still stay on track when the baby takes up my primary attention.

So it works for us at 1st grade and kindergarten.  I whole heartedly want to gobble up the other books and add them to my library, but part of me knows that it is questionable if I will finish up the year with them, much less use them again next year.

~trish

What is your take on these workbooks?

Unit Study-Crocodilians

So we did this study on the fly, thanks to Netflix.  Here is a small glimpse on how we exhausted our library system of most of its crocodilian books.  You can see, I have true books adult and juvenile, and some little story books.

We used Netflix, the library, field trips, and our kitchen to do our study.  I wish I could tell you we did some amazing crafts, but we never got around to it.  I thought we might do a lapbook to summarize what we learned, but interest from my little guys were fading too fast. 

Now we put together a great lapbook, but never added information.  I got all the lapbook stuff here, plus a lot more great information and resources.

Coloring book about: http://myfwc.com/media/310155/Alligator_AAA_booklet.pdf

Lap book Resources http://www.homeschoolshare.com/crocodilians_lapbook.php

Links http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/education/

Printables: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/reptiles/alligator.htm

Alligator pie: http://www.tenderflake.com/Forms/Recipe.aspx?ID=1023

 

We field tripped to the Shell Factory and the Gatorama, alligator farm.  We also ate alligator, yum. For the most part, we read a lot of books, and some more books.  We talked about the pictures and then read some more.  The reading showed through on the field trips, my children were able to repeat to me all that they had learned from the readings. 

So not a bad first unit study!  I plan to use www.currclick.com curriculum with future studies.  We might do a whale study next and I was able to get an age appropriate lapbook for $1 download.  It was a bit sporadic to try and figure a study plan on my own with everything else I need to do and it seemed like I was doing it on the fly.

~trish

Adding to First Grade

Oh wow, imagine that, slightly changed my curriculum.  Hmm, again?  That is sometimes how I am feeling.  I have added for a couple of reasons, convenience, fell into our lap, and needing something more.

The need of convenience, HANDWRITTING!

Writing things out was getting a bit much for me and then to figure out what to write was another brain storm session everyday.  I found a digital copybook file and printed it off, can a mommy say, “ahhhh.”  At the moment I have Winnie the Pooh classics for her to copy.  All were free.  Because, my new favorite curriculum store is www.currclick.com! Thousands or more digital PDF curriculums to pick from.  You have got to check it out!  It is not a lot of money and they have just about anything you can think of.  I also bought files for our next unit study.  The best part its all electronic so it is reproducible and I do not have to find room on a shelf.  YEAH!

Needing something more, MATH!

Our math just wasn’t making the mark with Spectrum.  It is pretty, but not drilling enough for her.  I some how came across Math Mammoth and YEAH!  Again all digital.  It is a bit self led, so all I need is to answer questions and has a systematic approach.  Again I can re-use it for each kid.  I think the entire math curriculum for First is $35, I bought just the part A at $17 and I will get part B when we need it (just in case we change it up again).  It is working like a charm. www.mathmammoth.com

Fell into our laps, SPELLING!

Well ,I have a spelling program, A Reason for Spelling, but I was given this by another homeschool mom.  THE COMPLETE PROGRAM – LEVEL ONE!  SO I checked it out.  Well, I quickly realized it would be a great addition to our day.  The nice part is, it is all about the rules of the English language for spelling.  So now, poor #1 is doing both.  Thankfully, it is all hands on; so it goes almost undetected.  Bonus, since it is a lot of flash cards #2 is joining in.

Sometimes I get a bit worrisome that I feel like I cannot stick with one thing.  But I remind myself, it is better to spend a year finding what works (while of course teaching along the way), than it is to build frustration for me and my children with something that does not work.

 

By the way, I am working on restructuring how I deliver the work to them.  I had really wanted to do a workbox style, but space and time, just are not permitting it.  I tried a big 3 ring binder, but they are getting confused on what to work on.  Frankly, I need them to be a bit more independent on their work (this is how you think when you have several littles).  Mostly, I need to be able to give them direction and then NOT have to stand over them. 

The best thing I can think of is to put each topic in its own prong folder.  This way I can only pull out the folder they are working on for the day, laid open to the page they need to work on.  Kind of my own workbook style.  Now I am just piling the folders in front of them. 

Lets see how this works out!

~trish

Revised 2011-2012 Curriculum

Crazy.  We are going for a more unschooling approach on my curriculum.  So we will by pass a set curriculum and move through topics on the subjects.  Some things, I will still need, but mostly we will be using what the library has.  This will be kind to my overly cramp house and tight wallet.

Reading/Phonics We will track our first 100 books read for the year by each child.  If the 3 year old wants in, than it will be accumulative until she is reading.

Preschooler: Alphabet.

Kindergarten:  BOB Books!  We will be using the approach presented by www.teachingwithbob.blogspot.com.

1st grader: 

1. Continue on with Bob books.  (I will actually have to place her, to see what set she is in.)
2. A reason for Spelling.  I know I said no workbooks, but this one is a gem so far, she is already 3 weeks into it.
3. The endless supply of easy readers from the library.  We will move through the levels, until we can move to chapter books.  She is really excited about chapter books.

Penmanship: Copy work baby!  So we will progress with tracing, rewrites, and one day, just copying from a book.  All in notebook paper, well, and some from www.donnayoung.org.

Math:

Kindergarten: Patterns, counting, measuring, adding 1 more, adding/subtraction, money, calendar, graphing, shapes.

1st grade: counting to 100, skip counting, telling time, patterns, number order, adding/subtract single and double digit, place value, comparing, calendar, graphing, fractions

Unit Studies: We will do this with lap books, reading aloud, field trips, crafts, and what ever else that gets our fancy tickled. We will do it for until we had enough of it and move on.  It will probably be influenced by Netflix.

So how is that?  Pretty short for a list!  I really think I am going to like this.  By staying away from the workbooks and sticking to a topic, it will force us to be primarily hands on. Hands on is what my kids do best. This is where I have to give my love out for umbrella schools! 

Because we are part of an umbrella school, I do not have to have any of my curriculum or daily lesson plans reviewed.  We can do what is best for our kids, without being bogged down with crazy paperwork.  Not to say, that I won’t record what we do.  I am their mom, who in this world  do you think wants any better for them than me?  I know my kid best.  I expect the best.  I do not need to have them evaluated, so I can be told I did it right.  I will know where my children are at.  But not to say, I might get them tested now and then, just to see.

~trish

Changing the method before starting

So the chaos has begun, before we began.  Haha!  Well, after so much effort on gathering my supplies and curriculum, I am throwing it up in the air. So we did our first few days, kind of winging it.  I thought I had it ready, because I had the books, so we just would do the workbooks, page by page. Easy Peasy!  Not so well!

Unit Study by Netflix!

So first indicator was at the library.  I had an awesome plan, book list and all that jazz to do a bird unit study.  I felt like I had spent a semester prepping for an algebra test, to realize I was taking a history exam.  Yikes!  So at the library, the influence of Netflix reeked havoc in my plan.  The nature documentary of crocodilians and the fact that crocodilian books are for some reason filed in the dewy decimal system next to the birds, landed us into a crocodilian unit study. 

Not really prepared, but I figured we could wing it with a lot of ready.  Let’s just say, I have done a lot of reading about those things and we still have more books coming on loan.  We can safely say, there are no crocodilian books left in our branch of the library.

Workbooks Shmurkbooks!

Next, we are having a small issue with our workbooks.  My darling son, precious #2 HATES them.  Our reading program is sinking has sunk.  He refuses.  No interest, eyes glassed over.

Math also seams to mean nothing on paper to my children, they are hands on. The 3 year old wants to do her school work and the 1 year old trashed the house.  On a positive note, speech is good as long as the list of words for him to say is not bound in a book and I have stickers. 

Unschooling, hmm.

I think we are naturally just unschooling homeschoolers.  Now that is a scary thought.  I have to have a plan.  Or unschooling approach is that we will know the topics to cover, we will use our library and do it, until we get it.  I am thinking we are more of a Charlotte Mason approach.

What flies well around here is reading aloud, manipulative, notebook paper, stickers, and games.  So I need to keep things simpler to be effective.

New Plan!

So new plan with a daily routine built within.

1. Chores. I know this might sound crazy, but the house is out of control.  We could spend all day swimming through books, coloring, exploring, but it doesn’t give use clean underwear in the morning or dinner ready for us to eat.  So chores must come first, besides these are some very important life skills. 

I just learned a new life skill today. Dora is the perfect amount of time to keep the laundry flowing.  After every episode, the washer and dryer was checked and rotated if needed, the dried load was folded and put away before we start the next.  The amazing part was all I had to do was start and load the washer and fold.  The kids did all the moving the laundry around.  Can we have an OHH YEAHH! in the house.

2. School. Simpler is better.  We will simply do a devotion, phonics, penmanship, math, unit study time. I am not covering anything else, nor will I get myself distracted by pretty workbooks, curriculums, or whatever those other homeschool families are doing.

We will also be involved in a weekly homeschool coop, and a monthly one.  I have plans to have the kids join a gardening 4H club (another monthly meeting). Of course, we will do the weekly AWANAs program at our church.  The kids will also take swim lessons 1-2 times a week starting this fall.  Hmm, who ever said homeschool kids are not socialized.  I hope I am up for all this.

3. Play. Then we can play.  Play outside, in the house, as long as it is not a mess in my chore list.  Game on.  I am really thinking we would use this time to garden, cook, sew, woodshop (thanks so much www.anna-white.com). Play!  No TV.

4. TV.  More specifically Netflix.  Once we are exhausted and hot, then the tv can come on.  Of course it will probably just entice the next unit study.  See my children watch the educational stuff and the older movies.  Like tonight, when I was crying my eyes out over  Where the Red Fern Grows.  I think between swamp people and this last one, I might have to get my son a few more pairs of overalls, he is acting as if it is his uniform.  I am also loving all the Christian movies available. NICE!

So I will get into the specific on our new “curriculum”. I am going to say curriculum lightly, since we really will not have a formal one.  We will essentially have topics and progression for reading, writing, arithmetic, and responsibility; those are my Rs.  Well, maybe we will add in relationships.

Pray for me, I need it!
~trish

Phonics – Bob Books – Just beginning

So, here we are already leaving our Phonics program to try something else.  So #2, Mr. Clown, is hard to deal with when it comes to reading out of a manual or workbook.  SO my dragging him through the mud with the Distar Reading program Teach your child to read in 100 lessons is not working!  It is not the method, it is the delivery.

So happy, I just came a cross Brandy at www.teachingwithbob.blogspot.com

She has lesson plans to progress your new to reading through the bob series with intentional reading.  We are going to start this next week.  She has phonics sounding, word building and reading at the first lesson.  She even helps you lay out a great notebook that can be your manual or just to record progress.

Being digital crazy as I am and looking for an excuse to use my laminator.  I decided to make cards that are just smaller than a baseball card, so when I laminate them, they will fit in baseball card sheets.  This way we can use the cards to make the words too.

Brandy lays out her method for getting started, here.

Lessons Day 1, 2, & 3

I hope this will be the nudge he needs to keep his interest.

~trish

Our 2011-2012 Course of Study

 

 

We are using a lot of what I have had in the past.  The main reason is, in the last 3 years I have purchased a lot of different things and either didn’t finish it or just never used it.  (ESPECIALLY WORKBOOKS!  Yikes!)

My other thing is my 1st grader would be great with workbooks and creative play, my kindergartener, not so much.  He quickly bores in a workbook.  I will use a workbook to keep use on course, but he will be using a lot of hands on learning and games.

The Kindergartener – Mr. Family Clown

Phonics: We will be using My Father’s World (MFW) K Curriculum for systematically introducing sounds.  He know most of the letters, but I want to be sure that he has a strong foundation.

 

We will also be using Learn to read in 100 Lessons.  I love this book!  I used it on my last year K, while she was still in school.  She immediately began jumping through their frequency words, because she could read them.  I know it says that they are not to sound them out, but up until then, the words were just shapes that she was trying to know the names of.  Too much guessing.

For my Mr. family Clown, this is work.  I will be pulling him along the entire way through this book, but it will be a great investment of energy and patience.

Penmanship: We are winging it, but plan to do a lot of writing. MFW has 1 day a week of penmanship in the curriculum.  I will be also be using the printables from www.DonnaYoung.com, she has a set of printables to go along with teach your kid to read.  Of course, we will be using our notebooks.

Math: We will be counting 100 days of school and tracking the calendar.  we will be using the Spectrum Math Workbook to keep us on track.

We will also be using Hands on Math for K-1 grades, to help us from getting too bored and not making me invent too many activities.

 

My 1st Grader – Ms. Helper

Phonics:

We are finishing off Learn to read in 100 Lessons.  We will also be doing a lot of reading.

A Reason for Spelling! - A

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We are already working through the phonics review.  It is most definitely a review for her.  I look forward to getting her into the spelling.

Grammar:

Spectrum Language Arts – 1

Printables from Starfall

Penmanship:

www.donnayoung.org

Math:

Spectrum Math –1

Hands on Math k-1

 

Unit Studies:

We will be using the My Father’s world K curriculum of unit studies for each letter.  we are picking up where we left off at last year, even though my son will be doing the phonics from scratch.  I plan to take as long as we want to on each unit.  The nice part is that there are great hands on projects for the kids to do in each study.

So we will be starting off with Bird Nest.  So once, I begin planning that, I will post all the information I am using for that Unit study.

~trish