I have a confession to make – I’ve been behind in my reading for the past two weeks. Thankfully I spent the last few days catching up and today I’m all caught up. Phew!
I’m reading through Psalms now, one of my favorite sections of the Bible.
I’m planning to do a few extra fun activities over the next few weeks as we watch the Olympics. I don’t have a grand plan or anything like that, we’ll just be making a simple lapbook and I’ll let TJ pick and choose a few other activities to do.
The homeschooling section at about.com has a few neat things – activity pages and coloring pages. Enchanted learning has an Olympics section and so does abcteach. This website also has some neat ideas for crafts. The Mascot page for the Olympics has some cute online games and other activities.
I’m using the lapbook from Homeschool Share for the majority of our mini-unit. I don’t plan on doing everything that’s included but it’s a good jumping off point. I might pull a few ideas from the 2008 Olympics lapbook as well.
To go along with our geography study this year I’m having TJ pick a few countries we’ve studied and we’ll keep a chart of how many medals each country wins. I got the idea here.
We’re excited to see how many medals Canada wins!
The TOS Homeschool Crew Blog Cruise is setting sail again this week and the question that everyone is answering: “Are your kids keeping up with their peers?”
My short answer – I don’t care if TJ keeps up with her peers! (One small note - the only times I think it is necessary for a child to keep up with his peers would be if you are planning to put the child back into the school system at some point or during high school when you would need to keep track of credits and transcripts for college admission.)
My slightly longer answer – There is one huge difference between brick and mortar schools and homeschool families. The brick and mortar schools must teach to the average child. Homeschoolers have the opportunity to tailor individual educational goals for their children. If a homeschooled child is ahead in a certain subject then they can keep working at their own pace. Or if a homeschooled child is struggling with a certain subject then his mom or dad can spend more time on that topic or find new ways to introduce the material. Both of these situations present more difficulties in a brick and mortar school. Teachers just don’t have the time and resources to devote this kind of attention to each child.
We have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers – the chance to work with our children as individuals. When I’m working with TJ one of my goals is to make sure she understands the material before we move on to something else. My goal is to keep re-introducing the topic in small increments until it becomes almost second nature to her. I don’t feel the need to “keep up” with anyone. It’s more important to me that TJ really have a solid grasp of basic academic material.
The time my daughter takes to grasp a new concept might not be the same for another child. Another child might grasp the concept more quickly or more slowly. But the advantage of homeschooling is that we don’t have to teach to a whole classroom. We have the opportunity to forge an individual educational path for each child.
Check out the Homeschool Crew blog to see how other homeschooling families responded to this question.
Here’s our plan for the week. Hopefully we’ll accomplish more than last week!
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| Morning Devotions | Morning Devotions | Morning Devotions | Morning Devotions | Morning Devotions |
| Drill and Recitation | Drill and Recitation | Drill and Recitation | Drill and Recitation | Drill and Recitation |
| Copywork | Copywork | Copywork | Math Game | Copywork |
| Spelling | Grammar | Spelling | Read Aloud | Grammar |
| Free Play | Free Play | Free Play | Science | Free Play |
| Math | Math | Math | / | Math |
| Phonics | Phonics | Phonics | / | Phonics |
| French | Music | Geography | / | Geography |
| Play with Dad | Play with Dad | Play with Dad | / | Play with Dad |
| Read Aloud | Read Aloud | Read Aloud | / | Read Aloud |
| Bible Study | Bible Study | Bible Study | / | Bible Study |
| Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| Crew Review | Crew Review | Crew Review | / | / |
| Drawing | Art Project | Spelling City | / | / |
Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers
Drill and Recitation: Working through Unit 6 of Oral Language Lessons; still memorizing the third verse of Psalm 23; poem - ‘Ooey Gooey’
Copywork: Practicing italic handwriting
Spelling: All About Spelling, finishing up step 12 and starting step 13
Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 10 and 11
Math: Math Mammoth, 4 pages
Phonics: Ordinary Parent’s Guide, lessons 205-208
Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament, lessons 26-27
French: The Easy French Junior, lesson 33
Music: God Made Kindermusic, lesson 26
Geography: Germany and Greece
Science: Human Body Study – tasting and smelling
Read Aloud: Picture books, Favorite Fairy Tales Told Around the World, listening to Peter Pan on audio book
Crew Review: Specific time in our schedule to try out programs and materials that we need to review for the Homeschool Crew.
I will be glad when winter is over – I’m tired of the cold and wet snow. I want green stuff on my lawn again. Cabin fever has been setting in.
Monday: This was one of those mornings where it was very difficult to get going. TJ dawdled through her 15 minutes of spelling time and I was grouchy. Thankfully, Nick came to the rescue and did a few subjects with TJ.
We started with morning devotions, drill & recitation, a copywork sentence, and a bit of spelling (which she dawdled through… sigh). Then TJ had some play time so I could put my head in a pillow and scream. Not really, I checked me email instead. :) Then Nick took pity on me and did a page of math with her and explained the concept of greater than/less than before he took her off to play a video game. I got lunch in the oven and had a few minutes of peace and quiet before we did a reading lesson. Then Nick read a James Herriot story to her and she read a book to him.
Tuesday: I was awake a bit earlier this morning, probably because I went to bed at a decent hour last night! TJ asked if she could have breakfast with Grammy so she spent an hour with her grandparents before we started school today.
I decided to pull a Daisy today! I made a list of activities for TJ on an index card and she had to complete each one (read a book to dad, do an art project, write a letter, etc.) instead of her regularly assigned schoolwork. It was a nice way to break up the boredom.
Wednesday: TJ woke up a few times in the night because her nose was so stuffed up so she slept in today. She wasn’t feeling well so it turned into a morning of tv and sipping lots of juice.
Thursday: Kiddo felt better today but I was very tired (probably from waking up to check on her so often). She had breakfast with the grandparents again and Nick took over school – they did morning devotions, grammar, spelling, writing, math, and Bible study. I did a reading lesson with her and we learned a bit about France for our geography lesson.
Friday: Shopping and errand day. Nick took the dog to the vet for her booster shot while I went to the grocery store. TJ spent the morning with the grandparents. I love having them so close! By the time we got home and everything put away it was time for lunch. I just wasn’t in the mood to do school. How often can I get away with that?
So not a hugely successful homeschooling week. Oh well, that’s life I suppose. Next week I’m hoping we’ll get caught up on things. The week after that we are taking a break. Right now I’m really looking forward to it!
Zeezok Publishing, established in 2003, strives “to provide quality literature and educational books for use in training the next generation.” One of the products they produce is the Presidential Penmanship program. Presidential Penmanship is a 1st grade – senior high handwriting supplement that uses quotes and speeches from past presidents of the US to practice penmanship skills.
The version of Presidential Penmanship I received uses the ‘Handwriting without Tears’ writing style. The PDF file contains 8 files – one for each grade from 1st-6th, junior high, and senior high. The first two years use manuscript writing while the remaining years use cursive and each level also includes extra blank pages for other penmanship practice. As you progress through the levels the passages get longer and more advanced.
I thought the program was interesting but have to confess that I really dislike the Handwriting without Tears writing style. I just don’t find it very pretty. This program isn’t something I’d use very much as I prefer to use samples from literature for copywork exercises and penmanship practice. I think it would be ideal for someone who does teach penmanship throughout the school years and wants something that is open and go. It would also work as a great tie-in to history studies or for memorization.
Presidential Penmanship is available in the Zaner-Bloser and Italic writing styles as well as a handful of other handwriting methods. The program is available in two formats: e-book for individual grades ($9.99) and CD for the complete program ($39.99). If you’re interested in learning more about the program you can view sample pages from each level at the website.
Zeezok Publishing also produces other materials – historical fiction, materials for studying classical composers and their music, and they are working on a high school government curriculum. If you’d like to see what other homeschooling families thought of this program or what other products Zeezok Publishing has available check out the Homeschool Crew blog -
I’m one month into my journey and I’ve successfully read the first 30 chapters of Don Quixote. Yippee!!
This book is very funny – I’ve even had a few moments where I laughed out loud. Some of the situations Quixote and his squire find themselves in are hilarious. The first time I tried to read this book I found it so boring (I just grabbed whatever available copy I could find). This time around I followed Susan W. Bauer’s recommendation of the Penguin Classics edition translated by John Rutherford. That has made a huge difference in my enjoyment because I find his writing style very engaging. I do have my moments where I find it boring, though. Especially when Quixote goes off on a long tangent. But overall I’m actually enjoying this book.
I’m following Susan’s suggestions and keeping a reading notebook, jotting down my random questions and thoughts as well as a quick summary of each chapter and a list of characters. I think I’m over-thinking the list of characters, though. I write down any name that is mentioned (there are many, many characters that never have a name so I don’t include them). I figure if the author gave them a name then there must be some importance to it. But maybe not. I do wonder why the niece and housekeeper haven’t been given names. I’m very curious to find out if they’ll be named later on or if it’s an intentional thing to leave them nameless. Or I’m just reading too much into it, which is entirely possible!
My goals for the next month:
Ray’s Arithmetic was the standard for math education in America for 50 years in the 19th century. Even now, many homeschoolers use this traditional text to teach their children the fundamentals of arithmetic. It is a complete K-12 program “from counting to calculus.”
Ray’s is available in a CD format containing MANY PDF files. The books are conveniently set up in a bookmark format, making it easy to move from one file to the next. The 38 black-and-white books (see here for a complete list) include textbooks, answer keys, and teacher editions as well as books covering topics like physics, astronomy, and logic.
At first glance, I found the program very overwhelming. I wasn’t sure where I needed to begin but I finally discovered the Manual of Methods, which describes the steps to cover with a young child before beginning Primary Arithmetic, the first book in the series. I printed out the chapter for the first year and read through it about three times before I figured out what to do.
I showed TJ how to make number combinations for two and three and she worked out all the combinations to ten for herself. We also worked on addition using different objects. I appreciate how Ray’s Arithmetic really focuses on using concrete objects first before introducing mental math and abstract numbers – concepts that can be difficult for a young mind to grasp. This program is thorough and contains no busywork.
While I did enjoy our time using the methods laid out in Ray’s, I had difficulty getting started. I believe it would benefit from a “how-to” manual for parents who are struggling to understand how to use the program. Where mathematics is concerned I need a program that walks me through the instructions with lots of hand-holding. I think Ray’s is best suited for a teacher who understands math and how to explain the various concepts. It is a solid program and would work well for those who have a good grasp of mathematics instruction. I do intend to use it as an occasional supplement but I’m not sure that I could use it to best advantage as our sole math program.
The complete Ray’s Arithmetic series is available from Dollar Homeschool for $59. You can see a few samples from the various textbooks here. If you’re interested in reading how other homeschooling families used this product check out the Homeschool Crew blog.
This week we started our first of three weeks learning about the senses. We focused on our senses of hearing and seeing and started by reading a few pages from The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body (pgs. 8-11). We decided to try one of the simple activities included in the book. TJ grabbed some crayons and we went in the dark bathroom to see if we could tell what colors they were in the dark. She discovered that it’s very hard to tell colors apart – they are all various shades of grey and 
black. After that she dictated her narration to me (one thing that she learned about each sense) and she added a picture.
We read a few library books. She read Hearing by Helen Frost and I read The Listening Walk and a few random library books about the senses. I meant to pick up a Braille book from the library but I totally forgot about it.
After our reading TJ was all excited for “experiment time”. We started by making a phone from two leftover Christmas cups and some string. 
After we finished playing with that I blindfolded TJ and had her use her ears to find a beeping timer. For our last project Nick filled an empty soda bottle with water and added some glitter. He showed TJ how to shake it and watch the glitter spin like the liquid in our ears does when we spin around and make ourselves dizzy. She decided that a good conclusion to the lesson would be spinning until she was dizzy. :)
The TOS Homeschool Crew Blog Cruise is setting sail again this week and the question that everyone is answering: “How do you know what to teach?”
I laughed when I first read this question. When I first decided I wanted to homeschool I had no clue what or how much subject material I should cover each year. I thought I’d have to choose between Abeka, BJU, and ACE – the only programs for homeschoolers I had ever heard of. One day at the library I happened to do a search for homeschooling books and found a copy of The Well-Trained Mind. I checked it out, took it home, and things have never been the same since.
The Well-Trained Mind showed me that I didn’t have to settle for a boxed curriculum (I’m not knocking boxed curriculum, I just wasn’t aware that there was anything else out there) but could use different products for each subject. It also introduced me to the idea of using real books for history and science in lieu of textbooks – something I had never heard of but was so excited to try (since I hated my own social studies/history classes because of the boring textbooks). This led me to a few internet searches where I discovered a plethora of resources for homeschooling and I finally realized that, “hey, I think I could actually do this!”
I started ordering homeschooling catalogs and looking at all the programs that were available. I researched and read and asked questions on homeschooling message boards. I looked at many scope and sequence lists and finally sat down and wrote down my own goals for my daughter. I looked for programs that would help me meet those goals. I read more homeschooling books that helped me to refine my goals even more. Even with all that I know that I’ll probably forget to teach something but I’ve come to realize that isn’t the end of the world.
The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that it’s more important to help your child develop a love of learning and to give them the tools to discover things for themselves. When that happens you’ve created a life-long learner and it won’t matter what you forgot to teach them because they will know how to discover the answer for themselves. Education is a life-long journey, not something that ends with a high school or college diploma, so it’s important to equip our children for the trip. The Well-Trained Mind gave me the courage I needed to strike out on this homeschooling journey (along with lots of prayer).
Each family’s homeschooling journey will look completely different. So if you want to read about their adventures take a few minutes to head on over to the Homeschool Crew blog to read how everyone else responds to the “how do you know what to teach?” question.
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