Homeschool: Propaganda vs. Reality (Shattering the Myths) Video

Coolest Girl's Computer/Desk Chair!

I've seen a lot of awesome chairs for girls but this one took my breath away and K's when we saw it at Staples yesterday!  She had been patiently awaiting a hot pink desk chair for a while now.  We were going to go with one from IKEA but it gives you static when you sit in it and she wanted something that wasn't plastic like that.  This chair is big - it fits a big bottom, not that she has one but I'm talking about momma here LOL! =0  It spins, moves easily on the carpet, sturdy with lots of padding and good quality.  Had to share - its retro-modern, my fav!

Desk Apprentice for Homeschool

I had seen others using this "Desk Apprentice" and it has been something I've been looking for!  I'm so amazed how much it holds and so far we have all my daughter's school books, teaching manuals and even scissors, pencils, dry erase markers and eraser, pens, math fact cards and more and there is STILL room in there for more!  The coolest part?  It spins or rotates!  They are available at Staples for $25 and well worth the money.  The only downside so far - its huge!

Our Homeschool Room Updated

It's been a while since I updated pics of our homeschool room, a.k.a. the dining room.  Last winter, we were able to buy the rest of our chairs to complete our table setup and then I added in the orange curtains, which I love!  We also got some orange organizer trays and all this is from IKEA.  We have 11 bookshelves throughout the house, so yes we are some bookcase addicts.  We use the long black IKEA desk for the piano and then as an additional workspace.  We have a craft closet in the spare bedroom that I hope to move one day when we get a large cabinet-style shelf unit.

Here is our homeschool shelf and then the small one.

Spelling Workout Completion Plan

In order for K to start Vocabulary from Classical Roots in 7th grade, she needs to finish all of the Spelling Workout books by the end of 6th grade, the last one being H.  Others have said that the later books are more difficult as they include some word study, so we are planning on giving a year for each of those last few books.  Here is our plan for completion of Spelling Workout, which I will abbreviate SWO:

2nd grade - SWO C and D
3rd grade - SWO D and E
4th grade - SWO F
5th grade - SWO G
6th grade - SWO H
7th grade - Vocabulary from Classical Roots A and B

K is finishing up SWO B by the end of summer and we will do reviews and then she will begin C at the start of 2nd grade in September.

A Day in the Homeschool............

We seem to have guests at our homeschool table a lot these days and today was no exception, we had 3!  Mr. Care Bear didn't much care for the history lesson on Roman Gladiators, so he read Dake's Annotated Bible.  Skittles decided to wave for the camera and No-name-yet doggy paid close attention......

Artistic Pursuits - Lesson 4; Artists Communicate

We finally did an Art lesson - amazing I know! :-)  K learned that artists communicate in their drawings and then she was to communicate something in a drawing and then color it with watercolor crayons.  She told me she was communicating that this was her outside, happy, about to go into her play-ship (notice she drew the red door open) that is next to her slide and then don't forget the cherry on the tree!

SOTW 1: Chapter 12 - Egyptian Chariot

We FINALLY got around to making this chariot lol.  K loved doing it and we used the top of an egg carton lid to build the cart and it worked really well!  K wanted to use her baby pony - so cute and she now has a new toy too that she played with for an hour or so! ;-)

Independent Work - Second-Half of 1st Grade

I'm so overjoyed how much independent work K has been able to take on since finishing up the OPGTR.  Not only has she read almost the entire easy book list for 1st-3rd grade in 3 months and this year's "assigned" list, she is reading so well that she doesn't need me reading what I used to from different subjects.  Here is what she is now able to do independently:

1. Reading - this is an obvious one, but wanted to include it as well.  She does her "assigned" 4th grade reading level for 30 minutes and then does her evening "fun" below-reading level book for 30-40 minutes.  She also is able to do her once-a-week fluency reading on her own.
2. Saxon 2 Math - she can do all the work on her own, she no longer needs me to read the directions or the problems!  All I do is teach the lesson and then give her the work.
3. Rod & Staff English 2 - she reads the lesson (I don't have to even teach this anymore!) and does the activity orally on her own!  Another subject I don't have to teach anymore, woohoo!
4. Spelling Workout B - she studies the tip and does the lesson on her own now and I don't need to read anything for her!  I also don't have to administer the spelling test, because we have been using Spelling City for that!

With writing, I read the excerpt from the story and then ask questions and then she does the worksheet herself.  With history and science, it is still very involved for me.  I have had her listen to the history lesson on cd but she doesn't seem to remember as much - she does better when I read the lesson.  Science is reading books and doing projects basically, so that is very parent-involved as well.

Overall, I'm very excited that my teacher-load is lessening!  I thought it wouldn't be until 3rd grade for her to be able to do this much without me but getting her on that 4th-grade reading level was the key that unlocked time for me!  The English 2 didn't happen till this week, she wanted to start reading the lesson, so I would let her and she read almost as fast as me, so I figured why not?  Then today, I was very busy, so I had her just do what she could - in just a minute or so she had already read the lesson and did the work!  I was floored and so came to write up this post! :-)

It is so exciting to see your child learn to teach themselves - that is what we are trying to do as homeschool moms - training them to LEARN independently!

K's Fluency Reading Practice

K reads out of McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader once a week for fluency practice.  Today, she read a dialogue between a daughter, Rose, and her father:

Week 6 - Skin, Hair & Nails

Read
Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia - pgs. 14-19

Miscellaneous

• Label Tooth
• Hair Quiz
• Label Nail
• Label Skin and Hair
• Planet Dermis Interactive

Videos

• Bill Nye on Skin - Parts 1, 2 & 3

Games

• Colgate Kids Games

Books
"Your Skin Holds You In" by Rebecca Baines
"The Tooth Book" by Edward Miller

Week 5 - Digestive & Urinary Systems

Read
Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia - pgs.70-77

RSO Labs
Unit 7 - Digestive System

Miscellaneous

• Label Urinary System
• Label Digestive System
• Digestive System Interactive

Videos

• Digestive System
• Urinary System
• Bladder - All About Peeing
• Bill Nye Digestive System - Part 1, 2 & 3

Games

• Chewed-Up Food Race
• Digestion Game
• Digestive Drag n' Drop (click on "Take me to the exercise")

Books
"What Happens to a Hamburger?" by Paul Showers
"Your Skin and Mine" by Paul Showers
"Gee Whiz! It's All About Pee" by Susan Goodman

Summer Schooling Schedule

We have 12 weeks of school that we are doing from May till the end of August and here is our tentative daily schedule - notice I said "tentative" because although this is my goal - life happens LOL! =0 

Mon-Wed

In Bed
Prayer
Bible - 10m

1st Hour
Reading - 30m
Grammar - 15m
Memorization - 5m
Writing - 10m

40m
Math - 20m
Spelling - 20m

2nd Hour
History or Science - full hour

Thursday
OFF

Friday
Prayer
Bible - 10m
Homeschool Group
Reading -30m
Leftover History and/or Science work
Projects
Art, Music and Home Economics

Evening Work
30m evening reading Mon-Fri

Weekends
OFF

Nate (husband)
Reads classics to K
Family prayer & Bible teaching
Teaching K piano

Planning - Completion Dates for End of 1st Grade

We are schooling year-round seeing how we took so many months off and had a family emergency trip, so we are just going with it and schooling through summer.  We will start 2nd grade around the second week of September.  We are taking off this coming week because its my 3-month freezer cooking week.  So we have 14 weeks to work with and we may have a vacation in there too and time off, so I'm only scheduling for 12 weeks of school to be safe.

Here are our plans to finish 1st grade:

Bible - we will finish the entire Golden Children's Bible by the end of summer and start our new Bible curriculum in Sept.

Reading - K has almost finished her entire 1st grade "assigned" 4th grade level book list!  She still reads in the evenings "easy" below-level books and we will continue this all through summer - we don't take off from reading.  We will start her 2nd grade assigned book list in Sept.

Grammar & Vocabulary - we already finished 1st grade grammar but I wanted to continually review so K doesn't forget anything, and I've found that Rod and Staff's English 2 is awesome review and extra practice!  We are also using the last unit in the book, Unit 6, as a separate course - Vocabulary.  It is teaching K alphabetical order and how to use a dictionary.

Spelling - K will finish Spelling Workout B by the end of summer and we also plan to start All About Spelling 2 soon and finish that by the end of summer.  So we will start SWO C and AAS 3 in Sept.

Writing - we have 10 weeks of writing left, so we will finish WWE 1 by the middle of July and K will continue to do copywork from the Bible until we start WWE 2 in Sept.

History - We have 14 chapters left in history and doing 1-2 chapters a week will have us finishing on time and going right into SOTW 2.  We really enjoy history and like taking our time through it reading library books and doing activities and watching related videos.

Science - We have some of the Human Body left to finish but we are already into Plants right now and will finish that soon and study animals.  We will finish all these by the end of Summer.

Math - We will finish 2nd grade math by the end of Summer and continue on with 3rd grade math in Sept.

K's 1st Grade Reading Speed

I'm so proud of how K's reading speed has increased!  She was very good at reading BUT very slow.  She has really sped up and here is a video of her reading a selection from a third grade level book at a good speed for a 1st grader! ;-)

Bible Curriculum - Bible Study Guide for All Ages

I've been on a search for a good Bible curriculum to use for 2nd grade.  Most of the curriculums had statements of faith that didn't align with ours.  I came across "Bible Study Guide for All Ages" and from what they share it seems to align with our beliefs for the basics.  They are one of the few that don't just say you get saved and that's it, they go on to say we must live holy lives.  I'm amazed that this curriculum hasn't been talked about more because it seems really awesome!  It can be used for children in grade level K-6, and it's multi-level for those with more than one child in those levels and it is very thorough, including maps, timeline and drills/memorization.  Seems like its been around since 1991 but they updated it a few years ago.

The "classic" student pages contain KJV, but the updated ones do not.  However, from what I understand, you can easily use KJV for the scripture references - which is what I do for some of the books I read myself, I just keep my KJV handy.

There are 4 units that cover the entire curriculum and normally one unit is equal to one year if you do 2 lessons a week.  However, we plan on doing Bible daily, so I'm sure we will get through more than the average.  The student pages are very nice, simple and really help the visual learner (including me!) to grasp the stories and events as they happened.  You can get the timeline and map wall charts but you don't have to have those as you get the timeline in the teacher's manual I believe.  But if you prefer if a larger one for the wall for reference you can get it but you also have to buy the labels, of which can be used over and over again.

We have a curriculum we really like for 3rd up until 6th grade, Memoria Press' Christian Studies, but we wanted something for 2nd grade and we found it!  We may even hold off on the Memoria Press till we finish "Bible Study Guide for All Ages".  I would think it would take us 2 years to do all 4 units doing it daily year-round.  Then we would do the Memoria Press Christian Studies starting in 4th grade on up.

I've read a lot of reviews on those that have used this curriculum for years and they all seem to say the same thing about how great it is and how their children are very knowledgeable in the Bible and get compliments in their youth groups.  After looking at the drills that are done daily - I can see why!  I'm going to participate right along with my daughter with the drills and I can't wait to know all these facts lol. ;-)

They also have a great 2-cd children's songs that help with memory and I'm probably going to get that as well as I've liked the samples I've heard so far on Christianbook.com.  I also like the Bible Summary cards for review.  You can view samples of all the products on their website and Christianbook.com has samples as well.

Just thought I would let you all know about this great resource, it seems like it could also be used in Children's Church/Sunday School as well.

K's 2nd Grade Curriculum 2011-2012

Second grade starts around the first of September and here is what we will be using for K's 2011-2012 school year.

• Reading - K's 2nd grade book list coming later...
• First Language Lessons 2
• New American Cursive 2
• Writing with Ease 2
• Spelling Workout C & D
• All About Spelling 3 & 4
• Saxon Math 3
• Story of the World 2
• Earth Science & Astronomy - Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Our World; First Encyclopedia of Space; More Mudpies to Magnets; Night Sky Spotter's Guide; Glow-In-The-Dark Constellations: A Field Guide for Young Stargazers; The Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy
• Artistic Pursuits 2
• John Thompson's 1st Grade Piano; Composers/Classical Music
• Home Economics 2

Famous Figures of Ancient Times

I came across these Famous Figures of Ancient Times on Peace Hill Press' website and knew my daughter would love them!  We ordered them and she can't wait to put them together.  They are very good quality and well worth the money. You can purchase them on Amazon right now for $13.57.  You get a colored version of the figure and then a black & white version as well.

Figures in Motion is currently working on more of these figures/dolls for Mediavel Times and American History. 

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr.

We followed the Dave Ramsey plan for several years and became debt-free following his program.  I highly recommend his methods and I also love how he uses the Bible, as the Bible itself teaches against covetousness, debt, etc.  We wanted to start teaching our daughter these things as well early on, so she will not make the same mistakes as us!  So we ordered Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr., which is for kids ages 3-12. 

It will teach them to work to get paid and then pay tithes to God or give to charity, save for something, and have some for spending.  You can read more on his website on what it includes and teaches here: http://www.daveramsey.com/store/kids-teens/Kids-3-12/financial-peace-jr-for-kids-ages-3-12-/prod112.html

He also offers a free fun website for kids called "Junior's Clubhouse" here: http://kids.daveramsey.com/  There are lots of fun games, paint, etc on there and my daughter loves it!

History is the Core

History is very important and including the Bible, it is the core of our homeschool.  We use Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World" as our history spine and then we also read books on the time periods we are studying in history in reading.  Then with Bible - hello, the OT is history! ;-)  History is so vital and so important and it has always been my favorite subject.

It has given K an understanding of how our world started, how cultures have progressed and even explained how we got our writing and other ideas, such as the calendar, etc.  I'm so glad that we started history from the beginning following the chronological format instead of having her learn bits and pieces of different time periods of history and having a jumbled mess in her brain!

I came across a wonderful article by Susan Wise Bauer and here is a quote:

In The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, we recommend making history the backbone of classical studies. The study of history occupies the center of the curriculum. Reading assignments, writing, research, and even history are organized around the time period under study in history.

Read the rest here.

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading Review

This is my personal review for "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington.  We started this phonics reading curriculum in October 2009 and finished it in early February 2011.  When we started it, my daughter didn't know how to read and was 6 years old.  We made sure we mastered each lesson before going on to the next and reviewed previous lessons occasionally.  We didn't use the tiles, just the book.  We normally spent 30-40 minutes a day.  The book has 231 total lessons.

You can view a sample lesson in this video. 

I had my daughter read all of Modern Curriculum Press' 120 phonics readers (although we did omit one that was about magic or something like that), Bob books and Abeka readers in the evenings once she was able to.  I have a PDF list of when the child will be ready to read a certain reader alongside the OPGTR.  I took that list and put sticky notes throughout the OPGTR so I would know when K was ready to read what.  I also have a PDF list that tells you when to incorporate penmanship/writing, grammar and spelling at what lesson in OPGTR.  You can email me for either PDF or both.

What I loved most about OPGTR, is that it had no pictures and my daughter concentrated more on the words and read faster in this book than the readers that had pictures.  You will find when its just text, that the child will read quicker because they aren't distracted.  Every phonics curriculum SHOULD leave the pictures out so the child can concentrate on the text.  You can let them read pictures/text in their evening reading but phonics instruction is all about instruction not comprehension of a story.

I was completely amazed that in just 1 year and 3 months, my daughter went from not reading at all to a 4th grade reading level!  This is without sight words lists too!  This is pure phonics instruction, with only the occasional sight word such as the, have, etc.  I've found and read research that most public schools today have the children memorize these big lists of sight words each week, so they can "look" like they are teaching so great.  What happens is, come along a few years later, they have what is called the "4th grade slump" because these kids didn't really learn pure phonics, they just got good at memorizing.  So when they encounter a lot of new words on a 4th grade level such as supplementary, they can't read it because they don't know how to decipher new words because they didn't have the proper phonics instruction.  For example, in my daughter's 4th grade level book she read this past week, "Pegasus", she encountered words such as Bellerophon and she was able to decipher it with her phonics abilities.  What would a child who learned to read from memorizing sight words do when they come to this word?  Thus, the 4th grade slump in reading - it will cause them to lose interest in reading, fall behind and the public school system wonders WHY kids today can't read.  It isn't more money the schools need - its more competence!

My daughter seemed "behind" in the beginning from her peers that use public education as they could read books with words they memorized.  However, now my daughter is reading at a 4th grade level and advancing while they are still back there at a 2nd grade level.  Do you see what I'm trying to say here?  You are teaching your child to read - sound out words, learn phonics instruction - not memorize.  And really, those 100 sight word lists that teachers make the 1st graders learn - are merely for looks, because we know that the average public-schooler today can't read in high school!

I HIGHLY recommend "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" if you want your child to be a great reader and not have issues with reading later on.  It may seem silly to start at the beginning but let me tell you, you will be glad you did to ensure your child doesn't miss anything!  In the back of the OPGTR, you will find an article on remedial reading for older children and how they can use the OPGTR and become great readers.  There is no shame in a 9-year old doing this curriculum because they are proficient readers today because of it.

Have I convinced you yet that this is THE BEST, and easiest for parents to teach their children how to read?  If you teach them how to read properly, you will have given them one of the greatest tools for their learning and that is something that you can bask in the success of.

1st Grade "Fun" Book List

I've been using a few sources to determine what to choose for K's "fun" book list, which is her 30-60 minute evening reading time.  Lately, she has been wanting to finish the whole book in one sitting, so she reads 40 minutes each evening.  These books are far below her reading level and are very easy for her - this creates a LOVE for reading for children!  If all they read is hard books, well no wonder they would hate reading!  Wouldn't you if all you read was Plato or some of the other challenging classics?  Exactly.

She reads at her level, which is currently 4th grade reading level, in the mornings for 30 minutes and you can see that list of books here.  She read more before these, things like readers, Bob books, etc.  Below are her below-reading-level books.  These are 1st-3rd grade level books.

Here are the books she read in the evenings from the end of Feb. until the end of August 2011.

1. Little Bear's Visit
2. Little Bear's Friend
3. A Kiss for Little Bear
4. Father Bear Comes Home
5. Little Bear
6. Little Bear and the Marco Polo
7. Frog and Toad Together
8. Frog and Toad Are Friends
9. Frog and Toad All Year
10. Days with Frog and Toad
11. Amelia Bedelia
12. Thank you, Amelia Bedelia
13. Teach us, Amelia Bedalia
14. Owl at Home
15. Amelia Bedelia Helps Out
16. Mouse Tales
17. Merry Christmas Amelia Bedelia
18. Come Back Amelia Bedelia
19. Amelia Bedelia's Family Album
20. Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower
21. Amelia Bedelia and the Baby
22. Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping
23. Good Work Amelia Bedelia
24. Play Ball Amelia Bedelia
25. Mouse Soup
26. Grasshopper on the Road
27. Olivia Plants a Garden
28. George the Drummer Boy
29. George and Martha
30. The Long Way to a New Land
31. The Horse in Harry's Room
32. Daniel's Duck
33. A Bargain for Frances
34. Best Friends for Frances
35. Bread and Jam for Frances
36. A Baby Sister for Frances
37. The Carrot Seed
38. Balto
39. Bedtime for Frances
40. A Birthday for Frances
41. Sammy the Seal
42. The Pig War
43. Chester
44. The Littlest Leaguer
45. Sam the Minuteman
46. The Josefina Story Quilt
47. Julius
48. Mrs. Brice's Mice
49. A New Coat for Anna
50. Nate the Great
51. Nate the Great Goes Undercover
52. Nate the Great and the Phony Clue
53. Nate the Great and the Missing Key
54. Nate the Great and the Sticky Case
55. Keep the Lights Burning Abbie 
56. Nate the Great Saves the King of Sweden
57. Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise
58. Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed
59. Nate the Great and the Musical Note
60. Nate the Great and Hungry Book Club
61. Nate the Great and the Monster Mess
62. Nate the Great and the Stolen Base
63. Nate the Great and the Pillowcase
64. Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine
65. Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize
66. Nate the Great Goes Down in the Dumps
67. Nate the Great and the Crunchy Christmas
68. Nate the Great and the Big Sniff
69. Nate the Great San Francisco Detective
70. Nate the Great Talks Turkey
71. Nate the Great on the Owl Express
72. Nate the Great and Me

This concludes K's fun book list for 1st grade.

All About Spelling Level 2

We absolutely LOVE All About Spelling!  K loves using the magnetic board and I love that she is getting very thorough in her spelling and not going too fast.  We finished Level 1 and are now moving onto Level 2, which looks fun.  There is a "jail" for rule-breakers, along with the word cards, key cards, etc.

If you purchase All About Spelling, please go through my links as I will be compensated for referring you!  You can see what the magnetic tiles look like and find out more detail about how All About Spelling works in my post on Level 1 here: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2010/02/arrival-of-all-about-spelling.html

Mid-1st Grade New Curriculum

We just had an awesome week off of school and the week before that, we finished the following curriculums:

1. Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading
2. First Language Lessons 1
3. Saxon Math 1
4. Spelling Workout A
5. All About Spelling Level 1

Now we are beginning some new curriculum:

1. Rod and Staff English 2
2. Saxon Math 2
3. Spelling Workout B
4. All About Spelling Level 2

K is so excited to start, she couldn't wait till tomorow and is already working in her Spelling Workout book.  I'm excited just because I love the new and fresh feeling when you start something brand new!  We may skip a lot of lessons in Saxon Math 2, simply because the first part of the book is review of Math 1 - they expect you are starting it after having 3 months of summer off.  So I will need to go through it this week and see where we will start.  There is a new meeting book as well but it begins with August, so we will have to work around that as well.

Homeschoolopoly Game Night

We played Homeschoolopoly for 2 hours tonight and it was a blast!  Our daughter is just a 1st grader and can play this, and it helps her learn math and counting money.  Instead of buying houses and hotels, you buy books and keys to knowledge.  Instead of buying properties, you buy curriculum.  Free parking is Field Trip and instead of going to jail, you go to court escorted by the truant officer lol!  Then instead of chance and community chest it is grace and mercy with fun homeschool things to read on each card.  You also don't buy railroads, you buy vehicles - hubby loves the "cool as can be suv" most of all. ;-)