The Plans of Man

One of the things that I struggle with in general is being organized. Although I don't really like the constraints of a rigid schedule, I do like to know what's coming up so I can plan and be prepared. I used to just keep things in my head or make lists of things to do. But ever since I became a mom, I've HAD to rely on those lists. This works pretty good for my "Things to do" list, but not so good for the homeschool stuff. So I thought I'd share something I've found that have really helped me.

First, I have to tell you about the Well Planned Day Yearly Planner. I LOVE this planner! It includes monthly calendars, a weekly meal planning section, sections for field trips, attendance, inspirational quotes, and pages for writing out your children's assignments for each day of the week, subject by subject. (They say that you can record assignments for up to 3 children. At this point, I'm only using it for one, and there seems to be enough room for me to record my second child, when I get to that point, but I don't know that I could squeeze in enough info for 4 kids... I suppose I'd come up with abbreviations if I had to.)

What I really like is that I can sit down on the weekend and plan out the coming week, meals and assignments, and even priorities and weekend activities... AND it's all right there on a two-page spread right before me. AND the Well PLanned Day Yearly Planner for the coming year is on sale till the end of February. So if you're in the market for a planner, this may be the time to check it out!

On the Safe Side

Recently we borrowed the Stranger Safety DVD from our library. It's produced by John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" and Julie Clark, the creater of Baby Einstein. The boys have really enjoyed it, and have asked to watch it again and again. I was wondering how much of it was sticking in their little heads until Tuesday.

We were in the kids' section of the library, the little one on the computer, Ian and I looking for books. Usually, if the little one needs me, he just calls out, but on this particular day he went looking for me, didn't see me and instead went straight to the librarian and told her he needed help finding me. The very kind lady found me and told me that he knew she worked there because of the ID tags she was wearing and came right to her! Awesome! :)

Sick Day?

Friday was a sick day for mom, but one in which I could muddle through, provided there wasn't a lot of resistance and whining. So I mixed it up a bit. Here's what the day looked like:

• Devotional time, working in Quiet Time Journals and AWANA verse memorization
• Handwriting in our Handwriting Without Tears book.
  
• Science, in which we read about animals, and watched a couple of brief videos related to what we were reading about
• Reading through a few more Bob books
• Tried out a new website, NeoK12, for some logic games. Ian liked Connect 4 and Parking Zone in particular.
  
• A little time outside before lunch
• During lunch, we had a picnic in the living room while we watched "Sunken Treasure", an episode of Reading Rainbow that dealt with the discovery and recovery of treasure from the Spanish ship Atocha. Part of the episode also showed some real life footage about the Titanic, which was pretty cool too.
• After lunch we went to the library and quite accidentally, Ian saw a book about the Titanic and immediately recognized it and decided he wanted to take it out. :)

Part of our History lessons has been learning about Archaeology, and how we learn about past civilizations, so the Reading Rainbow video really fit in quite nicely. :) After we got home Ian "read" through the Titanic graphic novel he had found, and then I showed him the National Geographic book I have on the Titanic, which he thoroughly devoured as well. All in all, not a bad day.

Later in the afternoon, we worked on making Crazy Hats for our AWANA Crazy Hat night. If you would have seen the hats, you would understand why this presented a physics and engineering lesson all by itself! LOL... But really, it was a fun time of creativity and brainstorming.

Reading is Fun!

Okay, so school has been in full swing for a little over a month, and we are managing quite well. Things that were a struggle last year, like attitudes and Math, seem to be a breeze this year. What a difference a few months make!! I'm so happy. :) See?

Reading was a bit of slow going last year, but has picked up considerably this year. Again, so happy! Over the summer, I began to see some encouraging signs. For example, one day we went to the library, and for the first time, Ian made straight for the books, instead of the videos. It used to be that he would nag me about getting a video, and he'd let me worry about the books. No more. He had discovered some of my childhood comic books from Scotland just before this, and that seems to have been the catalyst for finding more comic books and graphic novels. I have mixed feelings about the Star Wars GNs, but if it keeps him interested in reading, I'm willing to reserve judgment.

In the meantime, we are continuing in our schoolwork with The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading as extras like Bob Books. The Bob Books are a bit below where he's at, but I thought they would be fun, and build his confidence. I was right on both counts. The first day I pulled out the Bob Books, my intention was just to read through the first book. (There are 12.) Ian pulled out one after another, till I finally stopped him at the end of book 4. It was a huge encouragement, just to see his enthusiasm. :)

Even with all this positive stuff happening I have to say that the reading process is frustrating to me. He is learning and picking up things at a decent rate, but sometimes he gets confused and flustered and starts making guesses at the words, and the guesses are SO off-base! So I'm trying to make it fun for both of us, and right now fun for Ian is drawing! So today, while working through our reading lesson, I wrote sentences and stories up on our white board, and had him draw simple pictures of the subject matter after each sentence. It really seemed to keep the mood light and fun, so I think we'll be doing that a lot more! :) In fact, halfway through our lesson today, he said, "Reading is fun!" YAAYYYY!

Back to School

So this week we were back to school. Mostly this was a week for review and getting back into the school routine. The boys did well, I'm glad to say! :) Aaaahhhh, such a relief! :)

Since it was a review week, I decided just to stick with what we knew. So we went back to the Horizons Math, Handwriting Without Tears, An Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, and Sonlight's Read Alouds. Next week we'll be adding some new material into the mix, and I'm so excited!! Truth be told, I really can't wait!

This year's new stuff includes:

• All About Spelling and readers
  
• Math-U-See Primary
  
• The Story of the World, vol. 1
  
• The Story of the World Activity Book
  
• Sonlight Science 1

Plus, we are using all sorts of art books that we are taking out of the library. My little guy love to draw, and we discovered the 1-2-3 Draw books, so he has been trying his hand at learning to draw all sorts of things. Also, last year, I discovered this great website called Art Projects for Kids. It's probably my favorite site for art projects, although this year we'll actually TRY the projects instead just READ about them. :)

Research Report

We here at Homeschool Digression have been taking a well-deserved break from the homeschooling endeavor this summer. Following our mid-winter move it became more and more clear to me that we needed to take the summer, and get our house in order, literally. :) So along with decorating and organizing our household, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time researching homeschool "stuff"... books, philosophies, publishers and programs. Cuz that's what I do: ridiculous amounts of research.... in everything.

Earlier this Spring, I had settled on continuing with Sonlight. The plan was to continue with the History/Geography, Readers, and Read Alouds that I had from last year, continue using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and Horizons Math, and add in Math-U-See and All About Spelling. But I finally got around to reading The Well-Trained Mind and The Read-Aloud Handbook which both really impacted me.

The Read-Aloud Handbook was such a pleasant surprise. I fully expected it to be a listing of books to read to the boys. That was included, but the majority of the book really focused on the many benefits of reading aloud. It really reinforced my commitment to reading to the boys, and my decision to stick with Sonlight, since they place a heavy emphasis on reading as an educational tool.

The Well-Trained Mind impacted me a bit differently in that it details more of a philosophical approach to teaching, called Classical Education. Classical Education gears teaching methods to the child's developmental stages. For instance in the early grades, kids are constantly recording all sorts of new information: facts, dates, languages, rules. This becomes a basis later on for logic and later for articulating or debating positions on different subjects. According to this teaching method, I am encouraged to fill my son's mind with all manner of facts, exposing him to Ancient History via chronological history stories, books and then have him tell me the stories back and then illustrate them.

I'm probably not going to follow this to the extent that they outline in the book, but what I liked was the idea of teaching History chronologically, and starting with Ancient History in the first grade. I was never very big into History in school myself. In fact it was the one subject that I really struggled with, but after I became a Christian, I began to see History as God's story through the ages. I just can't get enough of it. So last week I borrowed The Story of the World from our local library to see how I liked it, and I LOVE it! It's not terribly deep and there are things that I don't like about it, but I really love the way that it puts the stories in order, and I think it's a good starting point for teaching History to little ones. I'm thinking that I can still use the Sonlight History books in conjunction with The Story of the World.

Reading

When we purchased our Sonlight Reading program we went with the Readers 1 program, rather than the Kindergarten readers. I knew it was going to be a leap, but I didn't want Ian-6yo to be bored, and I wanted my money's worth, so I figured we could take it slow and stretch the lessons out over two years. So it's a bit understandable that the reading program has been a bit of a struggle, and at some point I realized I was going to have to do a bit more than just slow down. I needed to do something different. So I thought I'd share my solution.

When I began to rethink the way Ian was being taught reading, here's what it boiled down to... Every week or so, I would put rhyming words on index cards, so we had a flashcard system going on. I would introduce the words one day, then we would bring out the LeapFrog Word Whammer the next day and use the Word Whammer to build the words. (At the time, we were new to Handwriting Without Tears, which cautions against having children write words until they get better at forming letters.) Another day I would print a few of the words on the blackboard, nice and big and have Ian trace them with his finger or with a wet sponge (an extension of a Handwriting Without Tears exercise).

This worked okay for awhile, and it satisfied my need to feel like Ian was learning to read, but it frustrated me too. The process of going through the flashcards and keeping track of them felt cumbersome to me. So while thinking about last year's curriculum (My Father's World), and their use of a "blend ladder" to teach reading, I thought of a new idea that incorporates the blend ladder. I like it. Ian likes it, and it's just so much better on so many levels.

So this is what we do: I create a list on a single column table. I think we have 9 possible rows. Then I pick a rhyme family of 3 letter words, such as bat, cat, hat, etc, and type them into my little table. The font is quite large, so the words are about one inch high. Next, I type out the same words, just as big on a second page in a font called "Trace", which is basically a dashed line.

How I use them: After printing the pages out, I introduce the words on our word ladder. We read them together, (although lately, he reads them on his own), and we use the Word Whammer to build the words for fun. :) Then the next day, we go over the words again and Ian traces the words on the second page. He loves this and it's helping his handwriting as well as his reading. On subsequent days, we do a page in Kumon's Rhyming Words workbook, or supplement with worksheets copied from The Mailbox magazine.