Deanna

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Wrapping Up Week 1 (2016-17)

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Deanna

Our first week of school for 2016-17 was a success! Things feel really different this year, and I’m not sure what the main factor is. Part of it is just the kids getting older and being capable of more. Part of it is having more kids actually doing school work (mostly just Ian and Elijah, but I’m also trying to do a little with Arianna). Then there’s the fact that we’re going to be starting up Classical Conversations next month. I also feel like I’ve done more planning than usual and have a clearer idea of what I want to cover this year. All of these things combined to make school seem new and fresh, and while that’s a great thing, I was also a little uncertain as to how things were going to go this week.

The biggest change I made was creating a daily schedule. In the past I have just had a list of what I wanted to get through each day, and I allowed Ian some flexibility in how we got through that list. But now I have four kids needing time on our main computer (more on that in a minute), plus three kids who need to practice the piano, and without scheduling who was going to do what when, it just wasn’t going to happen. So here’s I came up with for the four older kids and myself (downloadable doc you can adapt):

The only part of this I didn’t make happen this week was getting the boys to stop and read quietly for half an hour in the afternoon. Because our neighbors are out wanting to play, my kids want to get through their work as quickly as possible, and since they’ve been choosing to read a lot in the evenings to earn prizes in our library’s summer reading program, I’m not going to enforce this right now. If their reading habit continues, I’ll cut that out of the schedule permanently and just let it happen naturally.

Okay, so once that structure was put in place, getting through the things I had planned went fairly smoothly!

Preschool

Arianna will be turning 5 in the fall, missing the cut off for starting Kindergarten in California. Yet she’s eager to learn and wants to have some school work to do alongside her older brothers. So I’ve made time during our mornings to make sure she and Nico both get some sort of “preschool” experience. I’m trying to read to them each day and give them some fun preschool activities like I did back in the early days of this blog when Ian was little. I already shared about the fun we had this week with the Corduroy books, so I’ll leave it at that.

Most of Arianna’s “academic needs” are met during the half-hour of computer time I’ve given each of her, which she spends on Reading Eggs, Math Seeds, and More.Starfall.com (all subscriptions that I have found to be well worth the cost).

$Math Seeds$

She also started trying out Talking Shapes, on which I’ll be writing a review in a few weeks.

Nico loves watching Arianna on the computer as well as playing the same things himself. He’s not quite 3, so his progress on Reading Eggs and Math Seeds is slow, but he enjoys playing the games over and over, so I’m happy to let him have his turn on the computer as well. (We don’t have an iPad, but our computer has a touch screen, so he’s able to use it without needing to figure out a mouse.)

Then because Arianna wants to start writing, I also have her doing a little bit of copywork (10-15 minutes max each day) to make sure she’s learning how to form letters correctly.

Elementary

Like many homeschoolers, I have found that grade levels don’t mean a whole lot when it comes to meeting my kids’ needs. Ian (8) is officially a 3rd grader this year, and since Elijah (6) can keep up with academically in almost everything (the exception being how much writing he can handle), I’ve decided to just have them do most of the same work this year, even though we’re calling Eli a 1st grader most of the time.

Bible

This is the one subject where the boys are taking different paths. Ian started The God Puzzle by Valerie Ackermann, a workbook focused on how the Bible all fits together as one seamless story. It has 36 lessons, each broken up into several sections. This week I walked through Lesson 1 with Ian, but I’m hoping that once he gets more familiar with it, he’ll be able to do most of it on his own. He liked the last assignment, “Talk to God about it,” because I sent him outside and told him he had a half-hour of quiet time to pray and journal about it on his own.

Elijah continued going through his Veritas Press Self-Paced Course on Genesis – Joshua, learning about the Call of Abram. He really enjoys these lessons, both the content and the fact that he can do them all on his own. During family Bible time in the evening he loves sharing with Daddy about things he’s been learning.

Math

They both got off to a good start in Teaching Textbooks 4, as well as jumping back into fact practice on XtraMath.org. I also had them go through some tests on CTCMath to assess their strengths and weaknesses. For the most part, though, they are both getting their math done independently.

History

We’re starting American history this year, using The Light and the Glory for Children: Discovering God’s Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington by Peter Marshall and David Manual as a “spine.” This week we read the first two chapters, which talked about Christopher Columbus. I like the way he was presented in a balanced way. Too often I’ve seen him portrayed as either a benevolent hero or as a a typical evil white man bringing nothing but misery to the native people living in the New World. Marshall and Manual talked about how at first Columbus wrote about his desire to spread the gospel, but also about how pride and greed tarnished his legacy in the end.

Along with our reading, the boys watched an interactive map of Columbus’ journey online, marked the journey on a map (I used one from the YWAM unit study on Columbus we reviewed last year), and watched several videos afterward, which provided some good material for discussion.

Columbus and the Great Discovery from Learn Our History (24:49, my kids love this series)
Vintage Cartoon Introduction (5:29, politically incorrect, perpetuates some of the myths about Columbus, but still had some good information)
“Christopher Columbus: What Really Happened?” (5:39, focuses on the negative things Columbus did, while acknowledging the importance of his role in connecting the Old World with the New World; provided good balance to the previous video)

Biography

Adoniram Judson cover This year I want to read lots of inspirational biographies with my kids, so we started off with Adoniram Judson: A Grand Purpose from YWAM Publishing’s “Heroes for Young Readers” series. Judson and his wife were the first American missionaries overseas. The book covered his early years when he doubted God’s goodness after his sister died, then talked about how he came back to God and ended up going to Burma, where he translated the Bible and helped spread the gospel in spite of governmental opposition.

We did most of the activities in the Heroes for Young Readers Activity Guide for Books 9-12, which has coloring pages, games, songs, and puzzles to go along with these books in the series. The kids also enjoyed looking at pictures from my own trip to Burma/Myanmar several years ago.

Writing

Spelling is something Ian needs to practice continually, and I’ve found that he needs to get that practice in a fun way or else the time we spend on it is pretty much worthless. For now, I’ve got both boys using both Read Write & Type and the spelling activities in Essential Skills Advantage, alternating between the two each day just to keep things from getting old. We reviewed both of these programs over the last few months, and they give Ian the repetition he needs while still feeling like he’s “playing” on the computer. Elijah doesn’t necessarily need the same amount of practice, but I figure it can’t hurt to have him doing the same lessons.

We haven’t done much in the way of grammar up to this point, so this year we’re trying out Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) from IEW. There’s a little bit of teaching to do on the first day of the week, but then it just took a couple minutes for the boys to mark nouns and choose the correct ending punctuation before copying each day’s sentence into a composition book. They also learned about the homophones there/their/they’re and had to choose the correct one in a couple of the sentences.

The boys learned so much in their writing class last year, and I wanted to keep those skills fresh in their minds while not putting quite such a heavy workload on them. What I’ve decided to do is have them make an outline each week based on something we read about. Then at the end of the month, they can choose from those outlines to write a paper. We’re starting with just one paragraph, and as they get better at it we’ll expand on that. This week they helped me write up two outlines (on Christopher Columbus and Adoniram Judson) and then they got to choose which one to copy and keep in their notebook for later.

Spanish

We just got a new program to review, Foreign Language For Kids By Kids, so we went through the first few lessons. All four kids enjoyed watching the videos (some of it was review for the older boys), they participated in the activities as they were able, and then Ian is going through workbook that goes along with the program.

And that was our first week! We packed a lot into the four days after 4th of July, but I’m thankful for a smooth start, good attitudes, and excitement about what else we’ll be learning this year.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks (may contain affiliate links):

Beric the Briton (audio drama from Heirloom Audio)
CTCMath.com
Talking Shapes
Foreign Language For Kids By Kids (Spanish)
Solar System “FlipStir” puzzle from Enlivenze

Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

Preschool Week With Corduroy

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Deanna

Corduroy Activities Last year my plan to do more with my preschoolers ended up being a flop, so as we started school this week I was determined to find time each day to be intentional with Arianna (4) and Nicholas (2). This may look a little different from week to week, but right now that means going back to Before Five in a Row.

For our first book, I chose one of their favorites, Corduroy by Don Freeman. I had a lot of activities in my file from when I rowed this book with the older boys a few years ago, so we pulled those out. (I don’t want to repeat myself, so check out that post for more ideas!)

Both kids really enjoyed playing with buttons all week. I have a big jar full of all kinds of buttons, and I let them play with them in egg trays. Nico just had fun moving them around and exploring, but Arianna chose to sort them by colors.

I thought she might like a “sewing” activity since Lisa sews on Corduroy’s button, but I wanted to keep it simple. I threaded an embroidery needle with string and let her string buttons onto it. She worked on this for about half and hour and was very proud when she finished. (I forgot to take a picture and of course the string ended up breaking later. So we’ll get to do that again another day!)

As a reminder of our fun week with Corduroy, I cut out construction paper pieces using a pattern I found on Serving Pink Lemonade. Then Arianna and Nico made their own bears and proudly hung them in their rooms.

They really loved Corduroy, so we also read A Pocket for Corduroy and Corduroy Lost and Found, and we’ll finish off tomorrow by watching the live action movie of the original story on DVD from the Scholastic Storybook Treasures 2 collection. (I guess this collection is no longer sold new, but the Corduroy DVD is also part of the 20 Animal Tales collection.)

Posted in B4FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Learning Latin With Stories (Crew Review)

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Deanna

The one thing that has intimidated me about classical education is Latin. I never studied it myself, which makes it a little scary to try to teach, as much as I can see the value in it. When we got a chance to review a fun Latin program from Laurelwood Books, I decided this would be an easy way to get our feet wet. We received the Olim, Once upon a Time in Latin, Reader I and Olim, Once Upon a time in Latin, Workbook I, which use familiar stories to help teach Latin.

About Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin

The Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin series has six levels, each consisting of a small softcover reader and a corresponding full-size softcover workbook. The readers have fairy tales, fables, or Bible studies retold in simple English followed by a Latin translation, and can be used by themselves. The workbooks, however, are really helpful as they walk the student through each page with various vocabulary exercises, as well as teaching helpful Latin grammar lessons.

The Volume I Reader is 57 pages long and starts with instructions in how to use the reader, a guide for “How to Pronounce Latin,” and a list of Roman Numerals. Then it contains three stories: “The Three Little Pigs,” ” The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The Crow and the Pitcher.” Each story is presented in its in entirety in English with simple illustrations. Then it is repeated in Latin with a vocabulary key on each page for new Latin words.

The 80-page workbook really helps students get the most out of each story. There are 30 pages for “The Three Little Pigs” alone, consisting of translation exercises, matching worksheets, and “Digging Deeper” features, which teach related grammar concepts. An answer key is in the back of the workbook.

Our Experience

Ian reading I presented the whole subject as if we were working with a code, and we needed to figure out the messages written in Latin, and figure out how to put our own messages back into the code. Right from the very first lesson, the boys caught on quickly and enjoyed figuring out the Latin words in the reader.

This series is intended for 2nd grade through 5th grade, so I knew Ian (8) would be ready for it. However, I was pretty sure Elijah (6) could also get a lot out of it even though he couldn’t quite handle the amount of writing in the workbook.

I often found it easier to work with one boy at a time so that they each were able to sit close and study the reader. Here’s what a lesson looked like for us:

Read 1 page of the story in English
Keeping my finger on the English page, I turned to the corresponding Latin page.
I read through one sentence in Latin, then flipped back to the English page and had the student try to figure out which words “matched” based on similarities to English (necesse-necessary), roots that I could explain (“What do you do at an exit? You go out. So ‘exire’ means to go out.”), or words we’d already translated (erat/erant).
After we had read through the entire page sentence by sentence, we pulled out the workbook to work on the vocabulary exercise that went with that lesson. (I talked Elijah through these, but Ian was able to complete them mostly independently.)
I went through the “Digging Deeper” pages on my own and taught them that material as a separate lesson.

Because we are completely new to Latin, this was a learning experience for all of us. I used the “Digging Deeper” pages in the workbook more like a Teacher’s Manual, and then I presented to information to the boys a little bit at a time using a whiteboard. It just seemed a little too overwhelming to put a full page of explanations in front of either of them.

Overall, we really enjoyed this first exposure to Latin. I discovered that Ian has a quick mind for learning languages, and he zipped through these lessons on his own. I’ll definitely have to consider purchasing the next volume in the series. If you want to try them out, Laurelwood Books is offering my readers a 20% discount, good until August 15, 2016. Just enter discount code: blogger121.

Latin and Penmanship {Laurelwood Books Review}

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

God Bless the USA!

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Deanna

We’re getting ready to start school on Tuesday, and I’m excited about studying early American History with my children this year. My prayer is that as they learn more the sacrifices that were made to establish our nation, they will grow to appreciate the freedoms we enjoy, be willing to fight to maintain them, and recognize that the 4th of July is about more than just parties and fireworks (and the start of a new school year for us).

In honor of America’s Independence Day, I wanted to share this beautiful a cappella rendition of Lee Greenwood‘s song “God Bless the USA” by Home Free. This song always give me goosebumps, and this beautiful cover is just as moving as the original. The video even features stunning views of Mt. Rushmore in the background, making it a perfect kick-off for 4th of July!

Posted in Holidays

Online Bible Course from Veritas Press (Crew Review)

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Deanna

As much as I love teaching my children, I have found that sometimes I need them to work independently, and Veritas Press has proven to be a great place to turn. Last year Ian went through one of the online Self-Paced History courses, and Elijah has been eager to have a turn. He was thrilled to get to try their online Self-Paced Bible course “Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua.”

About Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible Courses

Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible Courses are interactive online lessons that take students through the Bible chronologically. There are 32 events covered in “Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua,” corresponding to the Veritas Press Bible cards. Each card is covered in 4 lessons (including the quiz at the end). It is possible to do the course without having the physical cards, but I decided to go ahead and purchase them, and I was glad I did. Elijah liked having something tangible to refer back to, and he used them with almost every lesson.

During the lesson two young Israelites, Asher and Abigail, act as teachers or guides, walking the student through the story (with a little help from an animated cat, Teb).

There are lots of different activities, such as putting events in order, matching up definitions, a catchy memory tune that covers all 32 events, and even fun games. Students do need to be able to read to complete most of the activities, so these courses are intended for 2nd-5th grade. (Scriptures used come from the New King James Version.)

Following the classical style, students memorize names, dates, and places, gaining a solid foundation of biblical understanding that will prepare them for delving deeper in the Bible as they grow older and move into more advanced stages of learning.

Veritas Press Self-Paced Courses are all online. The student logs in and is automatically sent to the correct lesson. (If they stopped in the middle of one, they can choose to pick up right where they left off.) Quizzes are graded, it’s easy to see how they have done on each lesson by looking at their student dashboard (or signing in as a parent).

There are actually two options for going through these lessons. The first is the Self-Paced Course Elijah is doing, where the student has one year to work through all the lessons, and they are graded on how they do on the quizzes. The other choice is a monthly or yearly subscription to VeritasBible.com, including an option for a family subscription that allows multiple students to use the program. With VeritasBible.com, they can also access the lessons from ALL the available Bible courses (both Old and New Testaments). While I usually try to find resources that can benefit several of my children, this time I opted for the Self-Paced course because I felt like having a deadline to get through all the lessons would help us stay more disciplined about getting through the entire program, plus I was only going to have Elijah using it this year.

Our Experience

Because Ian went through one of the Veritas Press history courses last year, Elijah went into this course with certain expectations. Some things were the same, but there were also several differences. His favorite thing about the history lessons had been the games. He watched Ian get to play a new one every week and was so excited to start his own course so he could play games like that too. Unfortunately, for the first several weeks there were no games. He was really disappointed, and it was hard to get him motivated to sign on and do his Bible lesson.

Thankfully, when he got to the Flood, he found a game very similar to one from Ian’s course. From that point on, Elijah gladly worked through his lessons. The games continue to be his favorite part.

Here are the main ways this Bible course compared with the self-paced history courses:

Still 32 cards (for 32 weeks) but only 4 lessons for each card rather than 5
The Bible lessons are a bit shorter (13-14 slides each)
Similar activity pages
Not a game for every week
Continual review of what’s been learned previously so students master the material

My Opinion

I am really pleased with this Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible course and have already signed Elijah up for the next course, Old Testament 2: Judges – Kings to start once he completes this one. (If you purchase before July 11 you can save $100 off the price of the course and set the start date for any time up through September 1!) I love the solid Biblical foundation Elijah is getting through this program and want to keep adding onto it.

Other Crew Member took a look at different courses, and some received a subscription to VeritasBible.com, so if you want to learn more, click on the banner below to see what they thought of those options.

Old and New Testament Online Self-Paced Bible Veritas Review

Posted in Bible lessons, Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

My Plans for the 2016-17 School Year

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Deanna

Believe it or not, we’re getting ready to go back to school! When I was pregnant with Nico we started up after 4th of July to make sure we got in a good chunk of school before he arrived, and I liked the way that year worked out so much we’ve copied the schedule ever since. That means we’ve got a week for VBS, a holiday weekend, and then we’re back to school!

This year is going to look rather different for our family, the main change being that we are joining a Classical Conversations (CC) community on Monday mornings. We’ll also continue all our Friday music classes, which means only three full days at home to cover everything else (slightly scary).

Ian (8) is starting 3rd grade, and even though Elijah (6) is officially going into 1st, he works above grade level in most subjects, so I’m going to have him work with Ian on almost everything, though things like writing assignments may differ a bit. Arianna’s still not quite old enough to enter Kindergarten, so while I’ll encourage her to join us for read alouds and keep working on Reading Eggs and Math Seeds, I’m not requiring much from her yet. [Edited to remove link because I no longer recommend this program. See “Good-bye, Reading Eggs.”]

Here’s what I’m planning to use this year: