Author Archives: Deanna

Wrapping Up Week 9 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 Whew!  What a crazy five days we had last week!  I really needed the weekend to recover.  Several of the kids’ activities started up, and it may take us a while to feel settled with the schedule for this fall:

  • Writing class
  • Music classes (choir, handchimes, composer study, and more)
  • Wrestling twice a week for the older boys
  • Ballet/tap for Arianna
  • Trail Life USA for the older boys
  • the last few weeks of swimming lessons

Add to that a beach day (turned park day) with homeschool friends, and it’s amazing we got anything done at all over the course of the week!  For the last few years I’ve been very deliberate about keeping our schedule light, but we’re testing the waters this fall to see how we do with so much going on.

This week in our Preschool

It seems like many schools have gotten so focused on academics these days, that they’re neglecting classic early childhood activities.  No such problems here!  Arianna and Elijah spent HOURS this past week playing with blocks.  I was amazed at some of the structures Elijah built.  (You’d think I’d have a nice picture here to show off my future engineer’s genius, wouldn’t you?  There goes that Mom of the week award.)

Science

In Our Weather & Water (our first term’s book in God’s Design for Heaven and Earth) we read about tsunamis.  I remember as a kid having a mental picture of tsunamis that must have come from Hollywood, so I wanted my children to have a more realistic idea of what a tsunami looked like and how much damage it could cause even if it didn’t look like the movies.  We watched a couple YouTube videos of actual tsunamis, which really made an impression.  (Then we watched one of those crazy fictional accounts, talking about how different it was.)

Crazily enough, we had a beach day planned with our homeschool friends on Thursday, and we had to cancel it because of a tsunami advisory for our part of the California coast following a major earthquake in Chile.  It really brought our lesson home!  I think the disappointment my kids would normally have felt was actually lessened by the cool factor of the possibility of an actual tsunami.  Thankfully there was little to report after the day had come and gone, but it helped make science an exciting subject for the week.

A few final thoughts

I’m so thankful for the weeks we spent earlier in the summer trying to establish routines for the boys to work through their lessons independently.  That was the only reason they were able to get through 99% of their scheduled work for the week.

Elijah beltI’m also really thankful for the chance to get the boys involved in wrestling.  It’s a great sport for our family because their smaller size doesn’t put them at an automatic disadvantage, and it gives them a positive outlet for all that “boy energy” that threatens to drive this mama crazy at times.  They absolutely love it, and it was wonderful to see the gleam in their eyes as they set about trying to get the best of their opponents.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:

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Wrapping Up Week 8 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 ballet prayer-001We are officially back to school.  (Week 7 was more of a trial run, but I counted it because we did quite a bit of schoolwork over our summer break to make up for lighter days I knew would be ahead.)  The boys resumed the majority of their subjects this past week (with the exception of spelling and handwriting because I just wasn’t that on top of things). Arianna’s worship ballet class started up again.  And now that our long lost printer has been found and set up (Hallelujah!), I feel like we’re finally moved in and life is back to normal.

Read Alouds

I debated about going back to Michael Polpurgo’s retelling of Beowulf after these past several weeks off, but Ian didn’t resist at all when I picked it up again, and we finished it in less days than I had planned because he was into it.

I love being able to tie in quality literature with our history studies, especially since Ian is doing all his history lessons online through the Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation) so I’m not as involved as I was last year.  I try to sit in on it most days, but I’m not always able to be there for the whole lesson.  I’ve already learned so much, as has Elijah, just from being in the room when Ian’s lessons are displayed on the television as we works!  Sharing stories helps me enjoy his history studies even more.

Veritas Press has several literature selections that go along with the lessons, but there are many weeks with nothing assigned or others with books we’ve already read recently, so I’ve put together a list of additional books I’d like to read together on those weeks.  Just planning out the rest of our history reading for the year this week got me so excited for the months ahead and the wonderful stories we’ll get to explore together.

In addition to our historical literature, I want to continue reading plenty of chapter books with Ian just for fun.  By taking turns picking books, I have a chance to share some of the classic literature I know he wouldn’t pick up on his own as well as some of my childhood favorites while still letting him experience the joy of making his own choices.  This week we finished Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe, and we were so excited to move on to the next book in the series (Howliday Inn) that I forgot it was my turn to choose.

Bunnicula  Howliday Inn
Ian wants to keep going through the series, but I told him he’ll have to wait through my selections.  I keep telling him he could just read them himself, but he prefers listening, so it may take us a while to make it through the rest of the books if his interest holds.  Even if he’s not yet compelled to pick up books to read by himself, I’m glad he enjoys them so much.  He’s already determined to help Nathaniel enjoy family read alouds.

DSCN0095x

Independent Learning

Language Skills

All three kids spent time on Reading Eggs this week.  I need to have Arianna repeat lessons more often, because while she does okay online, what she’s learning just doesn’t seem to transfer to reading from real books.  We sat down this week to spend time reading together and it proved to be a frustrating experience for us both.  I’m not sure whether the problem is that she’s really not understanding or just that she lacks confidence.  She still so young I don’t want to push her at all, but it seems odd that she can do things in Reading Eggs but not offline.

Both boys are also working through units in Elementary (K-2) Spanish from Middlebury Interactive Languages.  Last year Ian completed the first semester while Elijah watched and occasionally did a few lessons.  This time I’m having Elijah work through the first semester on his own while Ian has moved on to the second.  I really wish I could give them more opportunities to converse in Spanish, but I barely know more than they do (and I’m sure they’ll surpass me soon), and so far I haven’t found a way to make that happen.

Math

Elijah is almost through the 1st grade lessons on CTCMath.com.  I’m not sure what I’m going to have him do after that.  I guess he can just move onto 2nd grade, but at some point I think I’m going to want to have him settle a bit more.  Maybe I’ll try to supplement with another program so he doesn’t go too quickly through the lessons.

Ian has been plowing away at Teaching Textbooks Math 3, completing 5 lessons (plus any quizzes) each week, but since there are only 118 lessons altogether, I’m going lighten up his weekly load a bit as we start up our music classes on Friday as well as a writing class on Tuesdays.  As I was planning for the rest of the year I jotted down some notes to keep us on pace to make sure he does at least get through all the lessons this year, but I think we’ll have lots of wiggle room.  I doubt he’ll have any interest in trying to move up to the next grade level a little early.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:

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The Plans I Have For You by Amy Parker (Book Review)

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We were recently given the chance to review a copy of a delightful new children’s book: The Plans I Have For You by Amy Parker.  From the first time I read it, I was thoroughly charmed.  The book conveys a powerful, important message for children about how God wants to use them, no matter what careers they may choose.  The simple rhyming text by Parker and cheerful, colorful illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton capture readers’ attention on every page.

The title of the book comes from a familiar verse from the Bible: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'” Jeremiah 29:11. It’s a verse that is often thrown about with little regard for its original place in Scripture, so I was a bit wary when we first received the book.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that apart from being printed on the inside cover, the verse doesn’t appear in the actual text of the book, where it would most likely be used out of context in a way I don’t care to model for my children.  Instead, Parker explores the deeper idea that God knows our futures and He does indeed have plans for each of us.

The book is told as a message to children from God.  Its main idea is that whatever career they may choose, God has a plan to use them, whether that be as a nurse, a zookeeper, and entomologist… whatever!  “You are my hands and my feet there on Earth.  I’ve given you a purpose— it’s been there since birth!”  Throughout the book, children are pictured using their talents in various ways (painting, cooking, dancing, playing sports or musical instruments) and encouraged to do the jobs God is counting on them to accomplish.  “Remember that I, who made the whole world, made YOU.  And there’s nothing that, with my help, YOU can’t do!”

I would have loved at least one picture of a mom tackling the monumental task of discipling her children, but I’ll settle for the part about finding your passion and trusting God to “send you BIG jobs to be inspired about!”  I think the message of this book is so important for children to grasp.  It’s not just pastors and missionaries who do God’s work.  Doctors, construction workers, and scientists are all used by God for specific purposes as well.  Amy Parker has done wonderful job of sharing God’s heart in an exciting way that I hope will stick with my children in the years to come as they learn about the plans He has for each of them.

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Easing Back into School (Wrapping Up Week 7)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
cutest newborn everWe’re settling into life with our little one and trying to find our new “normal” now that Nathaniel is part of family life. (Is he not one of the cutest newborns ever???  I’m so in love!) This week I started preparing the older boys for getting back to our school schedule.  We touched a little on history and math (we’d squeezed in our full week’s worth of science the day before Nathaniel surprised us with his early arrival), but mostly we spent hours every day reading aloud.

In the chaos of the first couple weeks after the baby was born, the kids had used up at least a month’s worth of screen time.  I was so tired of having the television on that this week I just announced that there would be no more watching shows until after everyone’s afternoon naps.

Baby-IslandAs the kids sat down for lunch on Monday, I grabbed an old childhood favorite, Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink.  (I figured if there was ever a time when my boys might be willing to sit through a story about two girls and a bunch of babies, this was it.  They loved it!)  We read through the entire book before bedtime that day because every time I went to put it down Ian would beg for more.

I decided to take turns choosing chapter books to read together, and over the course of the week we finished two more and started into another.  Ian’s first selection was The Deadly Curse of Toco-Rey (Cooper Kids Adventure Series #6) by Frank E. Peretti.  When we’d gotten through that one I picked The Witches by Roald Dahl, and we finished out the week reading the first couple chapters in Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe, which we already read a couple years ago but Ian wanted to read again.  (Can you tell he loves anything with a hint of spookiness? Not my favorite genre, but all of these met with my approval and made him feel like he was getting a special treat since I usually don’t allow the ones he picks at the public library.  These were all from our family’s collection.)

Toco Rey   witches   Bunnicula

I love seeing Ian getting excited about books.  Right now I have lots of time to sit and read to him while I nurse the baby, but sometimes I have to turn down his requests, and I hope he’ll feel motivated to read more on his own when I’m not available.  And if all he got out of school this week was a deeper enjoyment of books, I’ll call it a successful week.

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Our First Week With Five

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We just wrapped up our first week with all five kids at home, and it didn’t exactly go as I expected.  Nathaniel lost a little weight after first coming home from the NICU, so my top priority became trying to nurse him as much as I could.  However, I hadn’t anticipated the depth of everyone’s enthusiasm over having a new baby, and the love pouring out of the older children was overwhelming at times (if not for Nathaniel, then at least for me).  I found myself locking my bedroom door several times a day to catch a peaceful few moments alone with my wee one to nurse without having everyone else climbing on top of us trying to stroke his hair or touch his tiny feet.

Nathaniel Love Collage
In all truth, however, I’m overjoyed that they love him so much.  There’s never a shortage of arms ready to welcome this sweet baby, and my 7-year old is actually incredible helpful when it comes to taking care of him.  I’m finding it hard to imagine going back to school at this point, but I’m hoping that the novelty of the baby will wear off a bit and I won’t constantly be battling to give him a little space or mediate fights about who gets to hold him!

 

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Our Newest Addition!

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We started out on Monday planning on squeezing in one last week before taking some time off to get ready for our baby in September.  All those plans went out the window when my water broke the day I hit 36 weeks.  Within a few hours, a sweet baby boy was in my arms and my older kids had the week off school!

NathanielIt’s been a bumpy road.  Coming 4 weeks early meant Nathaniel’s lungs were still immature, and within the first hour he was whisked off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) because he was struggling to breathe normally.  At first we hoped he would only be there for a day or so, but as the week progressed, we experienced a few small setbacks, and today I am heading home without him.

Through it all, the Lord has been our refuge, and He has surrounded us with the love, support, and prayers of friends and family.  I am resting secure in the “peace that passes understanding,” looking forward to the day we can bring Nathaniel home to meet his brothers and sister.  And when I get frustrated that he’s not in my arms, I remind myself that if all had gone according to schedule, he wouldn’t be anyway.  This way I get to heal from my fifth c-section on my own and by the time he gets home I’ll be feeling much better and I’ll be able to focus on this sweet little man.

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Wrapping Up Week 6 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
We tend to follow a loose “Sabbath” schedule when it comes to schooling: 6 weeks on and then a week of rest.  Right now I’m wishing I were a little stricter about that.  It’s been 6 weeks and I am definitely ready for a little breather.  However, since we’re about to take several weeks off for the arrival of a baby brother, I’m trying to push through at least one more week before we let things go for a while.  So we just finished up a pretty solid week and I’m hoping we can finish strong this coming Friday.

This week in our Preschool

I finally got our flannel board set reorganized and ready to use!  This has been on my to-do list for weeks, and while didn’t actually get around to using it as we learned about Lazarus this week in Old Story New, I feel better knowing that we’ve taken a baby step in the right direction.

flannel board organization
Arianna decided to pick back up with her Reading Eggs lessons.  She had started finding them challenging, so I hadn’t brought them up for a couple weeks and figured I’d let her mature a little.  I was surprised at how much she has remembered, and I think her main problem right now is confidence.  I want to spend a little more time working with her to provide some encouragement.

Science

We plowed through four lessons in Our Weather & Water, skipping the activities because I had zero interest in them and Ian didn’t ask at all.  That had originally been my intention for this whole term, so I’m trying not to feel guilty.  We’ve done far more already than I ever planned on.

Literature

Most of the literature I have planned for this year is connected in some way with Ian’s history course. Veritas Press has specific assignments that correspond with the lessons, but since some weeks have no assignments (and since we’ve read about half of those given), I’ve lined up a few choices of my own.

This past week we started Beowulf as retold by Michael Polpurgo, with beautiful illustrations by Michael Foreman.  I remembered very little about this early British epic from my high school “study” of it, but at some point I stumbled upon this book, and this week I decided to give it a try.  It’s probably a little gory for some families, but I was willing to over look those aspects, and actually that’s probably what made it such a hit with Ian.  He begged me to keep reading each day, so it looks like we’ll get through the entire book in two weeks rather than the three I had originally planned.  I was pleasantly surprised by how often the characters referred to God and gave Him the glory for their triumphs and victories.  This book may not make everyone’s literature list for their 2nd grader, but I’m really glad I pulled it out.  Usually Ian just endures my literature selections without much comment, so his enthusiastic reception of Beowulf was a breath of fresh air.  I think he’ll remember far more about the story than I did.

Independent Learning

The boys are continuing to do well in their independent computer lessons.  Ian finished up the Storylands lessons on Reading Eggs and is now back to working through the Skills Bank spelling lessons.  Both boys have settled in and are doing much better with their daily facts practice on xtramath.org, and I’m pleased with the progress their making in their lessons on CTCMath.com. (Elijah) and Teaching Textbooks Math 3 (Ian).

I continue to be impressed with the Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation).  Ian has never been so eager to study history!  He’s being asked to remember a lot of dates and facts, and I was concerned he would find it too boring (or too challenging), but he looks forward to his history lesson each day and is learning far more than I expected.  This past week he learned about Justinian the great, Byzantine architecture, and the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.  I was hoping to find time to do a mosaic craft, but it didn’t happen.

A few final thoughts

IEW ReviewMom had some school assignments this week as well.  I started going through the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVD seminar from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  I have heard so many positive things about IEW over the last few years, and since Ian and Elijah are going to be part of an IEW class with some other homeschool friends starting in September, I decided it was time to learn more about it.

I have always enjoyed writing myself, but even as a classroom teacher I struggled with helping students learn how to write.  I have a feeling I’ll be reviewing these DVDs multiple times in the years to come, but I’m hoping to at least build a basic foundation so I can understand what the boys are learning in their class this fall.  This week I made it through the first two DVDs (there are twelve in the seminar altogether), and already I’m feeling much more confident that I’m not going to completely fail my children when it comes to helping them develop as writers!

Upcoming Reviews

Here’s a peak at the reviews I’ll be posting soon:

 

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Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship (Crew Review)

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As Elijah started Kindergarten this year, I realized there was one thing I really needed to work with him on: penmanship.  As with most subjects, he taught himself how to form letters, and consequently he had developed a few bad habits.  So I was thrilled with the chance to review the Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship Set from Alpha Omega Publications.

About this Horizons Penmanship Set

The set we received consisted of two softcover books: a student workbook with 160 lessons on perforated pages and a teacher’s guide with lesson plans for each day as well as reproducible pages for extra practice if needed.

P1050757x

This program is ideal for children in either Kindergarten or first grade just learning to write (or in Elijah’s case, learning how to write properly.)  It starts the year with early writing skills like forming circles, lines, and curves to help practice the fine motor skills students will need when forming letters.  Then slowly it moves through the letters and numbers, grouping those that are formed in similar ways and incorporating them into short words.

In the eighth week, the student begins copying simple Bible verses.  They practice the words throughout the week and then the last lesson for the week has an artistic page for them to copy the verse carefully and color in the picture or design to make a nice gift for someone with whom they want to share it.

Our Experience

This set was exactly what I was looking for in a handwriting program this year!  It has helped provide some structured time for us to sit down and work on correct letter formation and so much more.  Elijah loves it and often wants to finish multiple pages in a single day.

P1050761xI wanted to start with the very basics to make sure Elijah knew things like where to start writing, exactly how to form letters, and how to use the lines to help him make the letters correctly.  Yet I knew he would get bored spending too much time on those things.  The program moves pretty quickly through this stage, though we did skip through the first few weeks of lessons selectively so I could have him focus on undoing some of the bad habits he had developed.  However, after about 4 weeks we were on lesson 30, and that seemed to be a comfortable fit, so from here on out we’ll continue using the book as intended, with one page for each day.

I really appreciate the perforated pages.  At first I intended to keep the workbook together, but I found that the book wasn’t laying completely flat, which made it difficult for Elijah to control his pencil close to the spine where the page tended to move.  Once we started tearing the pages out, he had a much easier time.  (The pages are double-sided except for the fifth one each week, so you never have to hang onto Friday’s paper over the weekend, which was great.)

We’re just getting ready to head into the weeks that start using Bible verses, and I know Elijah is going to enjoy those, especially creating beautiful pages to give to friends and family with his weekly verses.  I love that he’ll get to use his new writing skills to learn and spread the Word of God!

Sample pages from the Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship Set are available, as well as the Scope & Sequence for all the Horizons products available from Alpha Omega Publications.  Other members of the Crew have written about some of those materials, so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner below!

Alpha Omega Review
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Posted in Homeschool Resources

Wrapping Up Week 5 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 This week was Arianna’s turn to do something special.  While the boys were home working on their school subjects each morning (not much to write about there), she trotted off to a local church for “God’s Royal Dance Camp” for a few hours of dance, music, Bible, and crafts.  I thought it would just be a fun week for her, but at the presentation on the final day I realized it was so much more.

Off to camp
I was so moved watching dozens of children dancing on stage to songs repeating over and over, “God made me beautiful,” “I’m wanted,” “God loves me,” and other crucial truths that so many children never come to know.  I love that as a three-year old, one of the first Bible verses to ever be planted in her heart is, “People look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.”  Yes, she loved looking beautiful like a ballerina, but all week she was hearing about the importance of inner beauty.  What a blessing it is to have so many women and older girls speaking these things into her heart!  It was the best week of “school” she could have!

Degas Wannabe

 Upcoming Reviews

We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:

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The Conversation (Crew Book Review)

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Bortins Conversation Review
I recently jumped at the chance to review The Conversation: Challenging Your Student with a Classical Education by Leigh A. Bortins.  Published by Classical Conversations, this book completes a trilogy about homeschooling children through the three stages of a classical Christian education.

If you know me, you might be asking, “Why are you reading a book about classical education in high school?”  After all, my oldest child is 7, and we don’t exactly follow a “classical method” of homeschooling.   To put it simply, I always like to know what’s ahead before I get there, and while I’ve never dived in to classical homeschooling, what I do know about it intrigues me (I think we’ve adopted some of the elements into our rather eclectic style), and I thought this would be a good opportunity to find out more.

About the Book

the-conversation-coming-summer-of-2015-10.gif_zpshfavqygsIn case you’re not familiar with the classical method, it breaks down the child’s education into three stages: grammar (which teaches children to “acquire lots of knowledge and facts about the world”-p.39), dialectic (which teaches them to “assess and order that information” so that they can understand it-p.39), and rhetoric (in which students “write essays, present hypotheses, lead discussions with others, and act on the knowledge they have gained about a new subject”-p.35).  In her previous books (The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education and The Question: Teaching Your Child the Essentials of Classical Education), Bortins covers the first two stages, and now she completes the trilogy by covering the final stage.

The Conversation is written in two parts.  Bortins first reviews the classical method, explaining the five “canons” of classical education:

  1. Invention
  2. Arrangement
  3. Elocution
  4. Memory
  5. Delivery

She encourages parents who might be intimidated by the thought of homeschooling through high school by laying out why the classical approach works so well with students at this age.

Then in the second part of the book, Bortins goes through individual subjects, using the five canons as a framework for leading students through the “rhetorical arts.”  I expected subjects like reading, writing, and especially speech and debate, but I was surprised to read how she also applied the five canons to subjects like math, science, and foreign language.

Our Experience

Even though we’re still many years away from high school, I found this book inspiring and encouraging.  When people find out we homeschool I’m often asked, “How long do you plan to do that?”  They always seem either skeptical or in awe that I plan to go all the way through high school, Lord willing.  In this book, Bortins has given me much food for thought, and I’ll be able to give a much more articulate response the next time I’m faced with this question.  I now find myself excited about homeschooling my children during the high school years.

I learned so much about the classical method from reading The Conversation.  I had never heard of the five canons, but as I read about them I found myself looking back over my own education and realizing how helpful it would have been to have those concepts put into such terms.  The whole process made so much sense, and I felt like I was finally finding words for things I had intrinsically understood during my school years.

Everything I learned in reading this book makes me want to find about more about the classical method. During Ian’s preschool years I felt drawn to other approaches, but as he’s moved into the elementary grades things weren’t always feeling natural to me and I found myself making a lot of adjustments.  Reading about the classical method made me feel like I’d found something that fits my style better.  I’ll probably always be rather eclectic in my methods, but I feel that learning all I can about different approaches will give me more “tools” from which to choose as I educate my children.  So I’ve ordered The Core and The Question and I look forward to diving into them soon!

Classical Conversations Review
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Posted in Book reviews, Homeschool Resources
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