Weekly Report

Just four more weeks of school before we switch to our summer schedule. I've been talking with TJ about what we'd be doing over the summer and she wants to continue science and history, so I guess we will!

Math: Working on 4-digit addition with base ten cards and place value cards. TJ thinks its very fun. Never thought I'd have a child who loved math so much!

Language Arts: We worked through spelling (lesson 24), a bit of grammar (more nouns!), and week 5 of Writing with Ease. TJ is reading through the Beginner's Bible for her daily reading practice

History: This week we spent time learning about mummies and pyramids. Our big project was a fruity mummy. After getting frustrated with trying to get the wire through the potato and orange I handed that part of the project over to Nick and he did a wonderful job!

Our 'Fruitenkahten'

Removing the mummy's organs

Covering the mummy with natron

Science: We learned about the urinary system this week and TJ finished her body poster. Next week we'll read a bit about germs and keeping healthy. If anyone is looking for human body science plans, I posted mine here.

French: We reviewed numbers, shapes, and colors this week.

Reading: More Stories from Grandma's Attic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, history books, and picture books.

Lesson Plans: Human Body Study

TJ and I will be finishing up our study of the human body next week. We've had lots of fun learning about the body systems, doing experiments, and adding organs to her body poster. I'm attaching the lesson plans just in case anyone else is planning to study the human body with an early elementary aged child. Have fun!

Human Body Lesson Plans for First Grade

Sixteen Brides

 Sixteen Brides, Stephanie Grace Whitson's newest novel, takes place in 1872. Sixteen widows respond to a promise of homesteads in the small community of Plum Grove, Nebraska. What they are unaware of is that the man making these promises has also made some promises to the bachelors of Plum Grove. The women also harbor some secrets of their own and those secrets are slowly revealed through the story. They show their courage and ingenuity in the plan they form along with a few surprises along the way.

What did I think?  While I found Sixteen Brides a good story it was a bit difficult keeping up with all the characters. There are many of them! To make it more difficult, the author kept switching between the viewpoints of each character all through the novel. I found it hard to really get into this story because of that fact. While enjoyable, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed some of Stephanie's other books.

Sixteen Brides has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge for review purposes.  I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Crew Review: Sue Gregg Cookbooks

Because of our busy homeschooling days sometimes it's easier to open a box of pizza than prepare a 'from scratch' meal. In my quest to improve the quality of our meals I researched freezer meals and started making batches of things in bulk so I could freeze family size portions for those nights I just didn't feel like cooking. This has slowly evolved over time as I find recipes that our family enjoys that also freeze well. Sometimes the search for new recipes takes awhile because even many of the freezer recipes depend on convenience items like 'cream-of-whatever-soup'. I was so glad to discover that Sue Gregg offers a cookbook for situations just like that – meals that can be prepared ahead and frozen with ingredients that are wholesome and don't depend on convenience foods.

Sue Gregg's quest to improve her own family's diet began after a health crisis. She decided to take favorite recipes and experiment with the ingredients, exchanging them for their nutritionally dense counterparts instead. She shares some of those recipes at her website, so people can try out a few recipes before purchasing her cookbooks.

The book I received, Meals in Minutes ($9), is perfect for my style of cooking since I prefer cooking some meals ahead and keeping them in the freezer. The comb-bound book begins with a list of basic pantry ingredients to keep on-hand followed by an overview of freezer cooking that discusses freezing and thawing methods. The recipes are divided into five categories of five recipes each:

• 5 Timesaver meals
• 5 Convenience meals
• 5 Quick meals
• 5 Make-ahead meals
• 5 Ready-to-Serve meals

Each category begins with the list of main dishes like almond lemon chicken,  salmon quiche, noodle bake, sweet and sour beans, barley casserole, and chicken pot pie. Side dish options are also included (side dish recipes can be found in other cookbooks from Sue) to round out the meal. On the next page you'll find a grocery list, conveniently listed by category (meats, dairy, canned foods, frozen, etc). Once you have all supplies on hand you can begin your preparations. The cooking sessions are divided into three parts – day before, cooking day, and completing recipes. Following the cooking session directions you'll find the recipes. The book also includes some extra recipes like zucchini curls, five minute salad, parmesan chicken mix, fish breading mix, seasoning for ground turkey, blender cornbread, and lemon ginger muffins.

I began by trying my hand at one of Sue's included cooking sessions. After doing all the prep work, it really isn't that hard to get everything finished, though it did take the better part of a day to complete. After all the entrees had been packaged and cooled I filled the freezer. Over the next few weeks we tried all of the entrees that I had made. Every recipe was a hit with my family and will be included in our regular meal rotation from now on. While it does take some time to accomplish, it was worth it to see some entrees ready to thaw and serve for those days I didn't feel like cooking. I'm looking forward to trying more of Sue Gregg's cookbooks in the future.

If you'd like to learn more about cooking with whole-grains, be sure to check Sue's website as well as the crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

What's in the Workbox

The plan for the week:

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Psalm 23; poems - ‘Hearts are Like Doors’ and 'The Purple Cow'; days of the week and months of the year; skip counting by 2s; pharaohs of Egypt; Super Star Speech; daily math drill

Writing With Ease: Week 5

Spelling: Spelling Workout A, lesson 24

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 30-31

Math: RightStart, lessons 37-40

Reading Practice: Beginner's Bible

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Mission ABC, lesson 5; French lapbook

History: Story of the World, volume 1 – chapter 4

Science: Human Body Study – urinary system

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on audio book.

Weekly Report

We had a project filled week here. We finished our model of the Nile, made cuneiform tablets, and made papyrus (well, paper soaked in flour and water). After the papyrus dries we'll make some ink from berries and practice writing hieroglyphs.

School is going well and I'm working on our schedule. I think I'll stick with our plans for "light school" through June and July and take our vacation in August before starting the new school year in September.

Our model of the Nile after it was flooded.

Math: Lots of work with place value.

Language Arts: Spelling – lesson 23 (long E sound). Grammar – more nouns! Writing – week 3. TJ's doing very well with narration.

Making papyrus (a very messy project)!

History: We learned about writing with hieroglyphs and cuneiform this week.

Science: With so many history projects this week I decided to skip science. We have two more weeks for our human body study and then we'll start learning about plants.

Writing cuneiform on a clay tablet.

French: We focused on shapes and colors and played a French version of "I Spy". 

Reading: We're finishing up More Stories from Grandma's Attic and I'm trying to decide on our next bedtime read aloud. We'll be finishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland this week too (our breakfast audio book). I picked up The Trumpet of the Swan to listen to after we finish with Alice.

What's in the Workbox

Here is the plan for the week:

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Psalm 23; poems - ‘Hearts are Like Doors’ and 'The Purple Cow'; days of the week and months of the year; skip counting by 2s; pharaohs of Egypt; Super Star Speech; daily math drill

Writing With Ease: Week 4

Spelling: Spelling Workout A, lesson 23

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 226-29

Math: RightStart, lessons 33-36; some "fun" work with Miquon

Reading Practice: What Am I?, All About Reading level 2 reader

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Mission ABC, lesson 4; French lapbook

History: Story of the World, volume 1 – chapter 3

Science: Human Body Study – urinary system

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on audio book.

Weekly Report

We had a lazy week! Lots of work was accomplished but we spent a ton of time outside in the sun soaking up the vitamin D. Today is wet and rainy but this past week was perfect sunny weather.

On another note, I'm reworking our school schedule. We're taking lots of time off in August (the same month I had planned to restart our school year) but that's now been pushed back to September so I'm trying to figure out what we'll be doing between now and then!

Here's what we accomplished:

Math: TJ is still working on place value to the thousands (lessons 30-32 in RightStart). This is a big, new concept for her so we are really taking our time with it. RightStart does an awesome job introducing this topic.

Spelling: TJ was still in the mood for worksheets so we used Spelling Workout this week, lesson 22 focusing on the long O sound.

Grammar: Picture narration and more work with nouns this week.

Writing With Ease: Finished week 3. Only one day where TJ couldn't answer the narration questions. She got too involved in coloring and forgot to listen!

History: This week's chapter focused on the Nile river and Narmer. I picked up Famous Figures of Ancient Times since TJ loves paper dolls. It's the perfect supplement for Story of the World (and I'm glad they provide a paper doll in color and the same one in black and white. We're using the colored version this go-around and I'll save the black and white for our next cycle). TJ loved cutting out her paper doll and putting it together.

Last weekend we were able to have our excavation. I smashed a terra cotta pot and buried the pieces for TJ to dig up. She had lots of messy fun with that. The plan for this week was to make a model of the Nile but Grammy was gardening and used up all the soil so we've got to make a run to the store for some dirt!

On a side note, TJ is saving all her bits and pieces and projects so she can have a museum. She set up the things she's made so far (some history pocket projects and her excavated pot) and walked her grandparents through her museum, explaining things as she went. Very cute!

Science: This week's lesson on the human body focused on digestion (many parts to color for the body poster). TJ also watched a Magic School Bus video about digestion and we did an experiment on enzymes. Only two more lessons and then we'll start our plant study.

French: This week we learned about shapes, worked on introducing ourselves in French, and listened to Jesus Loves Me.

Reading: We've almost finished More Stories from Grandma's Attic. I haven't picked our next read aloud yet – any suggestions? We're still listening to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for our breakfast listening.

Crew Review: Super Star Speech (and Games!)

Please note: This review is for two separate products so be sure to scroll down and check out my thoughts on Super Star Games!

Super Star Speech from homeschool mom Deborah Lott is the perfect product for homeschooling parents who want to work on speech therapy issues at home. With a background in speech pathology, Deborah's goal was to provide an affordable speech therapy program that's fun for children and easy for parents to teach.

Deborah provides her materials in a few different formats. You can order the Super Star Speech manual that covers all speech sounds or, if your child has specific speech issues, you can order a manual that covers just those sounds your child needs to work on. TJ still has a few problems with the 'sss' sound so I ordered Super Star S, Z, and SH.

What's Included?: Super Star S, Z, and SH, a 61-page e-book (also available in a spiral bound format), includes the steps in teaching (a very valuable section), specific instructions for the sounds, games and activities, game boards and cards, picture cards, and lesson plan forms.

The book isn't broken into daily lessons. Since every child will have different issues and progress at different rates, it's up to the parent to tailor the lessons to their child. But Deborah does a great job of explaining the steps of teaching and gives tips on when and how to progress from one step to the next.

The included games are really the star of the program. After a few minutes of daily speech practice the remaining time is spent playing games that will reinforce what the child is learning.

What did we think?: After reading through the manual I printed the pages I needed, the games, and some copies of the lesson planning pages. After our first session I was easily able to plan a week's lessons in about 15 minutes on the weekend. Each day we would spend about 5 minutes doing the drill work and then we'd play a game for 10 minutes. That's it! It's quick to plan and easy to teach.

TJ and I really love this program. She loves playing the games and I am so glad that I found something to help TJ with her articulation issues. It's so easy to use.

Super Star S, Z, and Sh is $18.95 for the spiral bound version or $12.95 for the e-book version. If you're interested in purchasing any products from Super Star Speech you can receive 20% off your order by using the code 'TOS' (discount is available until June 30).

Deborah Lott also provides some very cute downloadable games covering a variety of topics. At $3.50 each, Super Star Games make a  very inexpensive supplement for your science, geography and history programs. Since we'll be doing an animal study later this year I thought it would be fun to supplement with the All About Animals game.

After downloading, printing and assembling the game, TJ was excited to try it out. The object of the game is to cover every animal group on your game board using the provided picture or fact cards. There are two options for the game – one for younger children that uses animal pictures and an option for older players that uses fact cards. After reading some of the questions I knew TJ was too young for those so we used the animal pictures to play the game. It was very fun and a neat way for her to learn about classification. Best of all, it's easy to toss into one of her workboxes when we need a change of routine. I'm planning to download more of these games to supplement our future studies.

If you'd like to read more reviews about the products available from Super Star Speech or Super Star Games check out the Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Booking Through Thursday

 

In general, do you prefer the beginnings of stories? Or the ends?

Hmmm… tough question! Can I say neither one?  I love to read a 'new to me' book but it always takes me a bit to remember the names of the characters and get into the story. And if the book is really good I hate to see it end. So I guess I prefer the middle – when I'm immersed in the world the author has created.

What's in the Workbox

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’; days of the week and months of the year; Super Star Speech

Writing With Ease: Week 3

Spelling: Spelling Workout 21

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 24-25

Math: RightStart, lessons 30-33; some "fun" work with Miquon

Reading Practice: What Am I?, All About Reading level 2 reader

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Mission ABC – lesson 3, French lapbook

History: Story of the World, volume 1 – chapter 2

Science: Human Body Study – digestive system

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on audio book.

Time 4 Learning

Time 4 Learning, a K-8th grade online curriculum used by homeschoolers, after-schoolers, and summer schoolers, now offers a preschool program with fun games, interactive stories and activities, and an online 'playground'. The program offers “a convenient, online educational program that combines learning with fun educational teaching games.” 

The Time 4 Learning preschool program is set up to be done independently by young children. After logging in, the child can choose between two levels of 40 high-interest topics. Each topic offers a variety of activities from short videos, matching games, stories, puzzles, and other appealing activities. Young children will enjoy the games, colorful graphics, and interesting characters.

Between the two levels there are 40 topics including the following: 

• Alphabet
• Color Mixing
• Manners
• Human Body
• Garden
• Space
• Weather
• Healthy Habits
• Seasons
• Staying Fit
• Pet

From their main page children can also access the 'playground' area, where children can choose games, puzzles, or activities. (One note of caution - the links in the playground area go to websites outside of the Time 4 Learning site). Parents can set the minimum lesson time and maximum playground time from this page as well.

Time 4 Learning also offers a parent login section. From the parent page you can update your child's educational level if you find that the material is too easy or too difficult. You can also access the lesson plan section, hints, a getting started guide, and a parent’s forum.

I thought the preschool program was very cute and TJ enjoyed using her computer time to play on the website even though the material is very easy for her. I think that the topic divisions would make it easy to incorporate them into hands-on mini-units for little kids. Add in some read-alouds on the various topics and an activity or two and it could be a nice preschool program.

Time 4 Learning offers access to their pre-K to 8th grade programs on a month-to-month basis. The first child is $19.95 per month and each additional child is $14.95 per month. They also have a two-week money back guarantee if you find that the programs aren't a good fit for your family. Interested in learning more? Check out the Crew blog for more reviews.

Disclaimer: I was given a 30-day free trial of this product to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Weekly Report

I picked up Kumon's Book of Easy Crafts last week and when we aren't eating a meal or working on school subjects, half the table is covered in bits of paper, glue sticks, scissors, and half-finished projects. I might have to hide this book so it lasts a few weeks at least!

Math: Working through RightStart (lessons 26-29) – focusing on place value to the thousands. It's slow going but TJ is beginning to understand it. Love the abacus tiles and place value cards!

Spelling: TJ wanted worksheets this week so she did lesson 21 in Spelling Workout. We've reached step 16 in All About Spelling 1 – the first lesson introducing letters C and K and the rules applying to each. A question for those of you who have used AAS – If your child has a hard time remembering how to apply the rules for C and K do you stay on these lessons or move on and just review the rules?

Grammar: We just covered one lesson in First Language Lessons this week. I'm not too concerned, though. I've been skipping a few lessons here and there since TJ isn't having any difficulties with learning about nouns (and there are MANY lessons on nouns!).

Writing With Ease: We're in our second week of this program – no problems. I love how simple it is!

History: We finished chapter 1 in Story of the World. I've added in some reading from the DK Children's Illustrated Bible. I love the historical pictures and information they share in the sidebars.

Our project this week is to do an excavation in the back yard but our warm, sunny weather disappeared and has been replaced by cold and wet so I'm waiting until tomorrow and hoping that the weather warms up a bit.

Science: We've almost finished our study of the human body. This week's lesson is about the lungs. We haven't gotten to it yet – planning to do that tomorrow too!

French: I love Mission ABC! TJ loves her workbooks, listening to the audio, and following the directions. Simple to teach!

Reading: Our evening read-aloud is More Stories from Grandma's Attic. We've had many busy and late nights so haven't had much bedtime reading this week. We finished listening to Stuart Little and started Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for our breakfast listening. TJ is reading What Am I? from All About Reading.

All About Reading

Back in February I had the chance to review the first book from the new All About Reading website – Beehive Reader 1 (you can read my review here), which has been re-released under the new title Cobweb the Cat. It's still the same adorable book, it's just been given a more kid-friendly title. The next book in the series, What Am I? is soon to be released and I was given the chance to review an advanced copy of this beautiful book.

What Am I? is a wonderfully illustrated collection of ten short stories bound in a beautiful hardcover book that is the perfect size for small hands. This 160 page book has cute stories perfect for a child who is learning to read longer words and sentences but the real stand-out are the beautiful illustrations. Just like the first book in this new series the illustrations in this book are just as wonderful.

This book is great as a stand-alone reader but parents will also enjoy this book if they are using the All About Spelling program. The first volume (Cobweb the Cat) corresponds to level 1 of All About Spelling and this second volume correlates to the word lists for level 2, steps 1-14. I'm hoping that when the website has added this product they will offer a page that matches the stories to the steps in the spelling program. We haven't gotten to level 2 yet and it would be great to have one less thing to plan!

All About Reading has made it's first steps with these beautiful books and I'm excited to see what new things they provide to the homeschooling community. More beginner reading books accompanied by a teacher's manual will be available later in the year (along with the new reading program). Their long-term plan is to offer two volumes for each level of the spelling program. Be sure to keep an eye on their website for updates.

What Am I? ($19.95) will be available for purchase soon! If you'd like to read what other homeschooling families thought of this book check out the Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

What's in the Workbox

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’; days of the week and months of the year; Super Star Speech

Writing With Ease: Week 2

Spelling: Spelling Workout 20

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 23-24

Math: RightStart, lessons 26-29

Reading Practice: What Am I?, All About Reading level 2 reader

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Mission ABC – lesson 2, French lapbook

History: Story of the World, volume 1 – chapter 1

Science: Human Body Study – lungs

Crew Review: Right now we are using Time 4 Learning (and 2 other products that I’ve fit into other parts of the day – Super Star Speech and What Am I?)

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Stuart Little on audio book

Weekly Report

I feel like I'm finally finding my groove after our vacation. Every time we take a break it takes me awhile to get back into our routine!

I went to a homeschooling used book sale last weekend and picked up some Miquon materials. TJ and I pulled those out to play with this week. It's a nice change of pace from our regular work. We're still using RightStart (finished lessons 22-25 this week) but we're going to play with Miquon twice a week as well.

We started Writing with Ease this week too. It's going well so far, though TJ has some work to do with answering the questions. I've had to read back the appropriate sections so she can listen for the answer. But I'm not too worried – I figure she just needs some practice.

In other language arts news, TJ finished step 15 in All About Spelling, lesson 20 in Spelling Workout and lessons 20-21 in First Language Lessons.

We started our first cycle of history this week, reading through the introductory chapter. TJ is excited about the coloring pages and maps and keeps asking if we can do extra history work.

French is going well too. We started a new program – Mission ABC. As much as I like the Easy French Jr. I always felt is was missing something. I realized that Mission ABC has that missing components – the workbooks. TJ LOVES the coloring and following along with the audio. We're still using the Easy French Jr. as we work on our French lapbook.

We had a good week but I'm looking forward to our long weekend!

Well Educated Mind: Don Quixote gets put at the bottom of the 'To-Do' list!

March was one of those months where things were a disorganized mess. We had a family trip in the middle of the month and came home sick so I didn't get much reading done. I guess that would be why Susan W. Bauer says to jot down a quick summary of each chapter while you're reading. So when you finally come back to the book you're not struggling to figure out what's going on.

All that to say I'm keeping the same goals for this month.

1. Continue reading Don Quixote four times a week
2. Try to read half of book 2 (36 chapters)

Booking Through Thursday

I spent the day with my friend’s twins the other day. Twins who are learning to read, sounding out the words, trying to make sense of the stories in their books, and it made me nostalgic for when I learned. I still remember the distinct moment that the concept of reading clicked, with a meglomaniacal realization that, all I needed to do was learn the words and I could read anything in the whole world. (That’s my kind of world domination.)

Do you remember learning to read? What’s your earliest reading memory?

My earliest memory of reading happened when I was six years old. My brothers and I had just been adopted and moved in with our new family. I remember going into the living room on our first day home and finding a little basket with some books in it – a Little Bear book and a few Frog and Toad books. I have very fond memories of those books and it's so nice to listen to my own daughter read the same stories.