Reviwing Our Fall 2013 Term

I know.  It's been a loooooooooooong time since I last posted - early September, in fact.  I just didn't have the energy for anything extra during the last few months of this pregnancy.  But now I sit here with a nursing one-month-old in my arms, full of energy and enthusiasm for the new school term and happy to document our learning adventures!

 

Before launching into our plans for this term, I thought I'd briefly review our Fall term.  We logged 105 successful school days before Christmas.  We worked hard to accomplish as much as possible, knowing that we would have a long Christmas/baby break.  I was really happy with our schedule and curricula this fall and have only identified a few minor areas that I hope to improve during this term.

 

 

Here are a few highlights:

 

Poetry memorization has been something I've tried before, but this is the first year we've really stuck with it.  Actually, it's one of the kid's favorite activities.  Each of the four older kids have memorized and continually reviewed many poems so far this year and they have enjoyed reciting for each other during our weekly poetry tea time.  We also discussed in detail at least one poem during this tea time (actually "lemonade" or "hot chocolate time" depending on the weather).  The kids loved this time each week and never let me forget to do it!

 

Cati and Matteo have been studying American history together.  We have studied the New World explorers through the Revolutionary War so far.  We've read many books together and completed several projects, including lapbooks, a salt-dough map, and ship models.

 

 

 

 

Science is a very relaxed activity in our house.  We read through Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" together and really enjoyed learning more about birds and insects.  We also took time for nature study on a (somewhat) weekly basis.  Often we simply went out in our yard to observe and document things in our nature journals, but sometimes we went for walks around the neighborhood or to a local lake.  We also took several trips to the zoo.

 

 

 

Chiara and I worked together regularly every morning.  She has really made progress with her reading and also has been enjoying spelling, math, poetry, and narrating back stories of the Bible and the saints.  I have loved our one-on-one time together!

 

 

 

The kids worked on several projects during the Fall.  The biggest ones were their Halloween costumes based on characters from Lord of the Rings and NaNoWriMo.  The kids handmade their costumes including hand dyeing material elf cloaks, sewing, and fashioning swords and bows and arrows from paper mache.  Cati decided that she wasn't happy with the results of her work and decided to dress in her costume from last year instead.  And the 4-year-old didn't have an interest in LOTR; she's much more into princesses :) 

 

The three oldest kids were NaNoWriMo winners for the second year in a row.  They each wrote novels with word counts even higher than last year.  Maria and Matteo wrote sequels to last year's novels and Cati wrote an entirely new book.  Chiara (age 6) really wanted to write a story like her siblings, so she dictated a story to me that I typed up.  I put this together with some other short stories that she had written and printed them up into a Blurb book and gave it as Christmas gifts to a few people this year.  It was a fun way to preserve some of her original drawings, writings (and spellings, LOL!).  She was very proud of her work



 

 

 

We also (almost) regularly studied a famous artist each week and made some related art work.  Here is Cati's painting mimicking Picasso's style :)

 

 

There's much more that I could say about our Fall term, but it's time to move onto the new!  Next time I'll write about a few changes and additions we're making to our days, and then we'll actually stop just talking about plans and get to work!  I hope you're all having a great start to the new year!!

Review & Reflect 2012-2013: LANGUAGE ARTS - Phonics/Learning to Read

My favorite curriculum for helping young ones learn to read is All About Reading (AAR) from the same company as All About Spelling, which I reviewed last time.  This is a newer product, so I've only used one Level 1 with one child so far.  She will begin Level 2 this fall. 

Reasons I love it:

1. No writing required!  I feel very strongly that writing should be kept separate from learning to read.  Both of these skills require SO MUCH work from young ones.  When reading, they are still having to think about the sound each letter makes, the different sounds letters make when put with certain other letters, and how to put all of this together to sound out a word.  Then they must struggle to put all of these words into a sentence that tells a story to them.  When writing, they have to remember where to start a letter, which way to go after starting (up, down, clockwise, counterclockwise), capital vs. lower case, and so many other things.  I really feel that kids should be allowed to focus on one of these skills at a time.  The work in AAR is all oral!
2. It's open-and-go!  I open the teacher's manual each day and do what it tells me.  Each lesson generally follows the same pattern, so I don't really have to use it too much, but I do glance at it to make sure we're on the right track.
3. It has lots of different ways to practice reading.  This has two advantages:  First, it is interesting for the child.  Second, it provides plenty of practice for these challenging early days of reading.  In general, a lesson follows this pattern:  First, you introduce a new sound and practice reading words with this sound with magnets (or on a chalk/white board, if desired).  Then there is an activity page to do. (This is my daughter's favorite part!)  These pages usually have some sort of picture to color, if desired, and then cut out.  They have words on the back and then are matched in some way.  There are lots of variations on this, so this is just a basic description.  The pages really don't seem like anything too special to me, but my daughter loves them!  Then there are word cards that you can use to practice the new words and any old words that your child still needs to review.  It comes with a box to organize future phonogram and word cards, current cards for review, and mastered ones.  Next, there are words, phrases, and sentence pages for more reading practice (called Fluency pages).  This is definitely the most tedious part.  I have found that my daughter enjoys the reading the sentences the most, so we often read only a selected number of words and phrases.  Using stickers to mark the ones she has read really motivates her!  We only do a small amount each day until I can tell she is done.  Slow and steady wins the race :)  The final activity is to read one or more stories in their readers.  I love the art work in these readers!  My daughter feel really proud to be able to read a whole story. 

The description of a lesson in AAR sounds like a lot, I know, but you don't need to do it all in a day!  We only work for as long as I can tell my daughter is engaged in the lesson, usually 5-15 minutes.  A lesson as I just described usually takes us 1 - 1.5 weeks.  I guess I could add to my list that I love that the program is so customizable.  There's plenty of practice if your child needs it, and it is certainly fine to leave things out if you child doesn't need the practice.

Review & Reflect 2012-2013: Language Arts - Spelling

I've switched among different curricula in other subjects, but our spelling curriculum is one we've been using for years and one that I can't imagine changing.  

As I've  mentioned before, when we began homeschooling we used a boxed curriculum.  In this box, Maria struggled the most with spelling.  The word lists based on a somewhat consistent pattern just didn't stick with her.  Thus began our first adventure outside the box!

After asking around and doing a bit of research, I decided to try All About Spelling (AAS) and it has been a great fit for all of our kids. 

Reasons I love this program:

1. It teaches spelling rules and phonograms instead of simple memorization of word lists.  Most English words do follow set rules, I've discovered.  I have personally learned so many spelling rules that I never knew existed.  It has made spelling so much easier for my kids! 
2. Everything is laid out for me.  It's open-and-go!!  I don't want to have to study a program and flip from here to there is three different books to teach my kids.  I just don't have time for that.
3. Lots of review built in.  The end-of-lesson test is not just me reciting a list of words for the kids to spell.  They have to spell entire sentences that include words from previous lessons, so I can see if the words and rules from previous lessons really stuck.  In addition to this, AAS has a plan for reviewing previous rules, phonograms, and words.
4. It is customizable for each student.  You can easily go as quickly or slowly as a child needs.  It's not a workbook that once the kids have done it, you don't know what to do for more practice, if needed.  My kids usually go through Levels 1 and 2 in a year and then about one level per year after that. 

Let me address some of the common complaints I've heard about this program and show you how we use it in our home.

First, some people think All About Spelling (AAS) is expensive.  It costs around $40 per level and there are seven levels.  If you think about spending $40/year on spelling, that does sound like a lot.  However, AAS is completely reusable.  With our growing large-ish family (6, with one on the way) I feel like we are saving money with this program.  The typical spelling workbooks that I have seen cost $12-15 each / child / year.  THAT really adds up!  This year I will have my fourth child going through Level 2, which makes that level cost $10/child so far - cheaper than buying them each a workbook.  There is a magnet set that is recommended for the program, which is another expense.  I do own this, but I only use it very early in the program.  I have found it more of a pain to use than a help. It takes a really large board to hold all the magnets, and they inevitably end up everywhere.  I think using a chalkboard, dry-erase board, iPad writing app, or simply paper easier for teaching lessons.

Second, people complain that AAS is teacher-intensive.  I've found several ways to work around this.  For the first couple of levels, I do work with one-on-one with the child since they typically aren't strong readers at this point, and they are just not ready for independent work.  After this, I've found a way to make it pretty independent:

1. I have made simple workbooks for each level, starting with Level 3, that teach the phonograms or rules for the lesson, reviews previous rules, and lists the words for the lesson for them to copy.  (Sorry, I can't share these workbooks.  It would be a violation of copyright laws.)  It has taken me some time each summer to put these together, but I am currently preparing the last one, and after this I can just print out my work for the kids to use as they get to new levels.  I don't mind spending time in the summer doing extra work if it makes our school year run smoother.
2. On the second day of the lesson, my kids practice their words using the A+ Spelling iPad app.  You can create your own spelling lists on here and record yourself saying them.  After that, the app has several options for practicing the words and then has a test and records your child's results so you can see how they did.  In addition to a list for each lesson, I have a "Trouble Word List" for each child where I record any words they miss on their sentence dictation test each week so that they can review these words.  Again, the app records their test results for each word.  Whenever they correctly spell a word five times in a row on their Trouble List, I remove it from the list.  You may not have an iPad, but you can probably find some way to record their word lists, so your child can practice independently.
3. On days three and four of a lesson, the kids write sentences from dictation.  I record the spelling dictation sentences in two parts into my iPhone Voice Memo app (you could record these another way), and my children write these on paper over two days and then I look over them and add any missed words to their Trouble Word List.  This works really well for us!  When I used to read their sentences in person, it took forever!!  The kids would ask me to repeat the sentences over and over and distractions would inevitably occur.  When they have to listen to the recording, they get it done so quickly.  It's not too entertaining to listen to a voice recording of spelling dictation :)  And if they miss something, they have to go back in the recording and find the right place, which takes time.  (I do record each sentence two times in a row, but if they need to hear it more than that, it's a bit of a pain for them to have to reverse the recording to find their place.  It's good motivation to listen well the first time.)  It takes me 60-80 seconds to record a list for a day.  This is soooooooo much better for me than sitting with them and waiting while they write, and it's faster for the kids.  Remember, I only do this from Levels 3 and up.  I do sit one-on-one with my younger ones who are just learning to do work like this.
4. On day five, there is an exercise called the "Writing Station."  There is a list of five words, which are often homophones or words with suffixes or prefixes (so that they have to practice spelling variations of words).  They have to spell these correctly on paper.  Then I check the words and they use the words in their own sentence(s).  My kids usually enjoy trying to think of a single sentence that can use all the of the words.  They have come up with some pretty funny, creative sentences that they enjoy sharing with everyone in the family :)  I have recorded these Writing Station words into the iPhone Voice Memo app also to make this more independent.  Five words wouldn't take me long to read aloud to my kids, but at least I don't have to dig out the book and find the correct page.  It's a bit faster this way.  NOTE:  Level 7 replaced the Writing Station exercise with something different that I ditched after a few weeks because I didn't find it very useful. 

(You may have looked at this program before and read something about cards and a review box.  It does come with cards for reviewing words, phonograms, and rules, but I don't use them.  My system works for us, but you may find the cards useful. Actually, I think you can get by just buying the teacher's manual and not the student packet with the cards, magnets, and such if you want.  There have been a few things from the student packet that I use, but you could work around them.  That would make it even cheaper!  )

You can see that over several years of using this program, I've found a way to make it work for us.  It takes my kids about 5-10 minutes per day to complete this work and it has taught them how to be good spellers.  It's short, sweet, to-the-point, and effective.  I couldn't ask for anything more!

Review & Reflect 2012-2013: Language Art - Literature

I'm sorry it's been so long between posts.  You know how the exhaustion of the first trimester can be!  I'm looking forward to getting an energy boost in a few weeks as I enter the second trimester.

Anyway, onto literature!  This is another subject, like writing, that I've learned to love as a homeschool mom.  As a student, I didn't really like literature.  Up through eighth grade, I had "readers" instead of good literature to read.  In high school, we rushed through books and I never really felt confident discussing them in class. 

My kids love to read.  Their favorite time to read is during lunch, which makes for a nice, quiet middle of the day!  However, I noticed that they were always reading the same books, and I really wanted them to read a wider variety of books.  So, I put together a list of good literature and asked them at the beginning of each month to choose one book from the list.  Once they were done with it, they were free to read whatever they wanted for the rest of the month.  They discovered a lot of new books that they liked that they otherwise wouldn't have read.  And sometimes they would ask to read other books in the series or by the same author because they loved the one they read so much.

I decided at some point that I wanted to broaden our literature studies to make sure the kids were getting something out of their books, but I didn't want them to start hating reading.  I didn't want to turn it into a chore with reading comprehension questions, vocabulary lists, and book reports.  I am so happy that I discovered Teaching the Classics!  This is a wonderful resource that has taught me how to teach literature.  It basically teaches you how to lead a literature discussion about plot, conflict, characters, setting, theme, and literary elements.  We do this very informally and primarily for our read-aloud books.  The kids love getting into these discussions and they can become quite long and involved :)  I'm always impressed by their insights.  After discussing a few books in this manner, sometimes the kids come to me while I'm cooking a meal or start talking while we're driving somewhere about thoughts they've had about a book they have read, or that we've read together, or about a movie.  It may seem funny to some people to need to buy a curriculum to teach you how to have a conversation with your kids.  But, for someone who felt quite inadequate as a reader of fine literature, Teaching the Classics has been wonderful!!

The beauty of read-aloud time is something I've only learned to appreciate during this past year.  I had heard of a lot of other families doing this, but I had never been able to see the value in it for several reasons.  For one, I thought we didn't have time.  Remember, I had us rather overscheduled, and of course, I couldn't see room in the schedule for something I didn't see much value in.  Second, the few times I tried doing a read-aloud, the kids would get frustrated with how slow it was going and would take the book and finish it on their own.  So, if you think the only value in a read-aloud is reading a story for the sake of reading it, then what was the point of me re-reading a book they just finished?  Why was I trying to make time to read-aloud to kids who could read to themselves?  (Note: I did read to my non-readers.)

Ahh...the wonderful things I've learned about read-alouds together this year!!  Teaching the Classics recommends reading some short stories to get kids started in literature discussions.  The three older kids and I did this together at the beginning of the year since this was new for all of us, and I figured that we might as well learn this together.  After we completed these short stories, then I planned for them to read their own books on their "level" that I would discuss individually with them.  Well, I did that individually with them for one book when I realized that that was going to be really hard to keep up with.  Also, my discussions with them individually weren't nearly as good as our discussions had been together.  Around this same time, we realized that the movie, The Hobbit, would be released in the theaters around Christmas time while we were visiting family, so we would have the opportunity to go see it.  (As it turned out, we spent nearly all of our Christmas vacation sick, and were unable to go.)  Only Maria had read this book, and I knew it was supposed to be good literature, so I decided we would all read it together in preparation for seeing the movie (which we still haven't seen).  I learned so much from this experience:

• The shared experience of reading the same book is invaluable.  We all read different things in our house, and that's great.  But, sharing this same book together gave us something in common that constantly comes up in conversations..."Oh, Mom, that is like when Bilbo..." and we all share a laugh when we hear someone say, "My precious!" or "It's my birthday present,"and lapse into Gollum accents. 
• I got to read a fictional book!!!  You can understand that I'm busy and reading fiction is a luxury I usually don't have.  Read-alouds are an opportunity for ME to read good fiction!
• When you read-aloud, or hear a read-aloud, you pay attention to the language in a way that you don't when reading silently to yourself.  My kids often stop me, or sometimes I stop myself, when noticing language that strikes us - a good metaphor or simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia, or something that's just funny. 
• The kids have great insights and observations.  We finished The Fellowship of the Ring a few weeks ago.  We started discussing different characters, and we talked about their struggles with power and the good use and bad use of power.  But, Cati then asked, "What about Boromir?  Are we supposed to like him?"  What a great question!  He's a character who kind of falls in the middle of the good/bad spectrum.  Matteo, our 8-year-old, had the best idea for the main conflict for the book, I think.  We have a lot of fun talking about these things!
• It's ok if the kids read ahead on their own or if they have already read the book on their own for all the above reasons!

Read-alouds are a part of our literature studies that are here to stay!!

Review & Reflect 2012-2013: Grammar

Our primary curriculum is Analytical Grammar which is written to be used for about a couple of months of the school year for three years, or "Seasons".  The first season teaches you how to identify the eight parts of speech in sentences and how to diagram them.  The second season teaches identification and diagramming of phrases and clauses.  The third season teaches punctuation, including all those tricky commas, and word usage. 

You could complete the whole program in a year, and it is recommended to do so if you are starting with an eighth or ninth grader, but it would be an intense year.  They break the program up like this so that you intensely study grammar for a short period of time and then review and reinforce those skills for the rest of the year while having more time for writing or whatever else you prefer.  When I found this program, it seemed to me that summer would be a perfect time to use it and then we wouldn't have to worry about it at all during the school year except for review.  The school year can be so busy, so I love being able to remove this subject from the line up to leave more time for other things (again, except for review - they have a Review and Reinforcement book which you can use to parse and diagram a couple of sentences each week to keep skills fresh).

I love Analytical Grammar because it is so thorough!  My girls REALLY know their parts of speech.  I have been so impressed with their ability to look at any sentence and tell me what is going on in that sentence.  Grammar has become more clear to me since using this program, too.

They recommend beginning this program in sixth grade, but, of course, you know your child best.  Our second daughter, who is beginning 5th grade in the fall, is a very strong language arts student and she is doing Season 2 this summer along with her sister who will be in 8th grade.  Actually, the three of us are working on Season 2 together.  Maria did Season 2 last summer, and she did well, but then she struggled with the Review & Reinforcement book during the school year.  She had a lot of trouble keeping the different phrases and clauses straight in her head.  To be honest, I don't remember learning about phrases and clauses in school, so I wasn't able to really help her other than looking up the correct diagram in the answer key.  So, I finally decided that the three of us, Cati, Maria, and I, would work through this together this summer.  I'm sure this will make grammar more enjoyable and we will all learn more!

Analytical Grammar has Jr. Analytical Grammar and Mechanics books to use the year before you start Analytical Grammar, if you like.  Cati completed these and I think they helped her.  They go through the same topics as Season 1 of Analytical Grammar and the parts of Season 3 that you don't need to know phrases and clauses to do.  Jr. Analytical Grammar uses fewer, simpler sentences with easier vocabulary than does Analytical Grammar, which makes it doable for a younger student, but still a great lead into the main series.  I definitely plan for Matteo to use this in a year or two before he moves into Analytical Grammar.

Matteo is entering 3rd grade.  He's a very strong math student, but he's pretty average in language arts.  He's definitely not ready for Jr. Analytical Grammar this summer, especially since I REALLY can't imagine him using Analytical Grammar next summer.  So, this summer he's using Growing with Grammar.  I like this series because it's straight-forward and independent and includes diagramming.  I will decide next summer if he needs another year of Growing with Grammar or if I think he's ready for Jr. Analytical Grammar. 

For grammar review during the school year, Matteo will use IEW's Fix-it Grammar.  Fix-it Grammar uses paraphrased classics to review grammar.  It presents one or two sentences per day with errors in punctuation, spelling, word usage, and other such things.  There are five different stories of increasing difficulty, so it can be used for students in grades 3-12.  This year Cati, Matteo, and I worked through the first half of the second story in the program, The Frog Prince, which is suggested for grades 4-8.  Maria is joining us this summer as we finish the second half of the story.  They really enjoy the story and often want to read ahead.  They also enjoy trying to find errors that their siblings can't find.  I usually let Matteo start so that he can find the easiest ones first and leave the harder ones for Cati and Maria.  During this school year, I'll let Matteo do the first and easiest story, Tom Sawyer, by himself. 

Well, that's a look at grammar around here.  Next time we will look at literature!

Questions and comments are always welcome!

Review and Reflect 2012-2013: WRITING - Supplements

In my last post in this series, I discussed some writing curricula that we have used and how we've settled on Brave Writer.  Today, I'd like to share a couple of sources that I've found to be good supplements to this program.

The first one is called No More, "I'm Done!".  This book describes how a school teacher used writing workshops to develop students' writing skills as well as their enjoyment of writing.  It is written for use in a classroom, but it's definitely adaptable for homeschoolers.  I think the real treasure of this book are the monthly "mini-lessons" included that focus on one topic per month, such as organization, great introductions, writer's voice, word choice, quality details, writing poetry, and several others.  What I love is that the author has listed many, many picture books that are good examples of each topic.  There are so many choices that you are sure to find at least a couple for each topic at your library.  There are also little activities to do with each mini-lesson.  We really enjoyed the lessons we did from this book this year.  I kinda let it fall by the wayside around the middle of the year, but I definitely plan to add it back to our writing routine. 

Another source that I've been impressed with is Killgallon's Grammar for Middle School:  A Sentence Composing Approach.  I'm actually using this with Maria and Cati this summer as part of their grammar studies.  You might ask, "So, is it a writing book or a grammar book?"  Well, why do we have to compartmentalize these things?  What is the point of studying grammar?  We study grammar so that we can communicate clearly with each other, in speech and writing.  The girls and I are studying phrases and clauses in Analytical Grammar this summer and this book also focuses on these topics by examining the sentences of great authors and then encouraging our imitation of these.  So, we are learning to identify and diagram phrases and clauses in Analytical Grammar, and we are looking at their actual use by good authors and using them in our own writing with the Sentence Composing book.  We get to see the use of phrases and clauses, the "why are we bothering to learning this?"  This book helps us construct a writer's toolbox, and when we get to the revising stage of our writing projects during the school year, we will know how to use these to make our writing more varied and interesting.

Since I started talking a bit about grammar in this post, this will be the next topic I tackle as I continue reviewing our Language Arts curricula from this past school year.

Review and Reflect 2012-2013: Writing

Now, I will go through the details of our Language Arts curricula, starting with writing.  It's funny to me that I want to begin with writing.  Growing up, I saw writing as a chore to be avoided.  It was definitely the last thing I wanted to do.  Math and science were easy, with a certain path to take to find one particular answer.  Grammar was easy because it was also clear.  But, writing was this foggy area where you put words on paper and in the end had no idea how it would be received.  I could cling to a few hard-and-fast rules, such as use correct spelling and grammar (commas were always a bit blurry), organize your writing, be concise (but be sure to meet your assigned word count).  I could usually count on a decent grade following these rules, but I always knew there was something that made writing good, but I never knew what that something was.  You either got it, or you didn't.  And, I believed that I was one who didn't "get it". 

Once in my high school AP English class (I was signed up for this by a teacher - I really DID NOT want to take it), we had an in-class essay on a poem.  Poetry was another painful experience as a student.  Combine that with writing, and I was in agony.  We had to analyze a poem in writing.  I had NO clue what I was supposed to write about.  I was almost in tears about halfway through the allotted time with nothing written down.  I was hating the day I ever agreed to take this class.  I definitely hated all poetry and writing.  However, I knew that writing something would be better than nothing.  Even though the only things I could think of seemed so obvious that a 2nd grader could have written them, I knew that getting a 50 on this paper would be better than a zero.  So, I wrote. 

Fast forward to the next class when the teacher gave the papers back.  Before giving them back, he proceeded to tell us that they were less-than-impressive.  There was one paper he said was good that he wanted to read to the class.  Much to my horror, he read my paper.  This didn't teach me to think that I was a good writer, but rather that it was a joke.  There was no rhyme or reason to it, it was basically a waste of time, and my hatred of it was only re-enforced.  I loved reading a good book, but writing about anything myself should ALWAYS be avoided if possible.

Fast forward again to my days as a homeschool teacher.  Yikes!  You mean I have to teach those subjects besides my favorites, i.e. science and math?  I have to teach these kids how to read (They don't just figure that out on their own??)  I have to teach these kids how to be good writers?  You mean, it's possible to teach that?

Thankfully, I've run across several good sources that have helped me become a writing teacher.  I've been looking for sources like these for a long time.  We have used a few writing curricula with assignments that seem to promise, if your student completes these, he/she will be a good writer.  The problem with these was that I was relying too much on these different curricula without possessing the overall knowledge myself.  And, we had so many different curricula with kids a different levels that they were difficult to keep up with.  On top of this, writing became a separate subject and then I had try to make these writing skills spread to writing in their other subjects - even more work, and remember, I didn't actually possess an overall writing knowledge myself. 

I have tried Classical Writing.  That was a convoluted mess that I really wanted to make work.  I had heard great things about it from those who figured it out, but I just didn't have time to make all those big books work together into something practical for us.  And, there was no big picture.  It had what I call, "The Trust Me" promise - complete all these books over the next six years or so and your student will be a good writer! 

I have tried Writing with Ease and Writing with Skill by Susan Wise Bauer.  Writing with Ease has copywork, dictation, and narration repeated weekly for four years at ever-more-difficult levels, but it always seemed there should be something more.  Again, it was like, "Trust me!  Do this same thing over and over and your child will magically know how to write paragraphs in middle school!"  We did enjoy the stories that Writing with Ease used, but it just seemed like it should be part of a writing program, not a program by itself, especially after first or second grade.  This past year Maria used about half of the first level of Writing with Skill, the middle school writing program that follows Writing with Ease.  I think it was teaching good things, but it was overwhelming to me.  It seemed to have so many skills in there that I couldn't keep up with them all and see that they were extended to her writing in other areas.  There was no big picture, no obvious set of goals for me to follow.  Maybe if I had time to read the big 'ole Teacher's Guide cover to cover instead of one lesson at a time as Maria worked through it, I could figure out a list of goals, but really I needed something simpler. 

I was so happy this year to find the literature source, Teaching the Classics.  It taught me how to teach literature - any literature.  So, I started thinking that there must be something out there that would help me become a writing teacher, without relying on someone else's curriculum.  I started asking around and Brave Writer's The Writer's Jungle was recommended.  I got it half off through Homeschool Buyer's Coop (where their stuff is always on sale!) and read it.  It was wonderful!!  It was exactly what I was looking for.  I now have a writing plan and goals that I can adapt to our own assignments without needing someone else's curriculum.  I know how to help the kids revise their work and how to advance through different skills over time as they are ready.   I love how it's an overall plan of copywork, narration, dictation, appreciation of good writing in prose and poetry, observation of nature, art, and music, quick, daring freewrites, and month-long completed writing projects.  I have already seen some good things in the kids' writing since starting this.  And beyond that the kids are really enjoying writing, and we are enjoying learning more about writing together.  I find that whenever I discover a source that teaches me how to teach something rather than relying on separate curricula, we work together more, spending more time together, and become closer.  Less individualism and more community!

Here are a few of my favorite pieces of writing by my kids that were somehow helped by what I learned in The Writer's Jungle:

I love this report about Benjamin Franklin by Cati.  I suggested that she write an interesting opening for the report, and she asked how.  So, we looked at the beginnings of some different books and talked what she thought was good and what was not.  She decided she didn't like reports that just sound like a bunch of facts, so she changed the beginning so that it was more personal and story-like, and I think her writer's voice really showed.  She was happy with the final product.

I also loved the wonderful descriptions Cati used in this freewrite about her face.  A freewrite is a quick 10-minute or so writing about a certain topic.  It's goal is to loosen up a writer, give them something to start with so they aren't just staring at a blank piece of paper, and to take some risks with images and such.  They should just write whatever comes to mind without worrying about how good it is.  If we choose to turn it into a long-term project, then the gems can be saved and the whole piece revised and polished. 

I love how this writing by Maria about the book Kon-Tiki really improved.  She improved the organization, clarity, and style.  The original with my notes are included along with the final writing.

I also love this writing about spinner dolphins by Matteo.  He started with a couple of run-on sentences, and expanded and revised it over time and, in the end, had a interesting piece about one of his favorite subjects.

You will notice that these writing pieces related to different subjects: history, literature, and science.  I love how I can use The Writer's Jungle and apply it to different areas.  Writing is no longer a separate subject but used as a tool where needed.  That's what writing is, a tool of communication of ideas, not an exercise for its own sake, even when you're writing creatively. 

So, The Writer's Jungle will be our main source for writing next year.  Next time, I will talk about a few writing supplements that I like and that work right into the Brave Writer plan.

Review and Reflect 2012-2013: Language Arts - OVERVIEW

Here's a look at the things we used for language arts this year and a look at plans for next year.  Details to come!

This Year

WRITING
Getty-Dubay Italics
copywork
Writing with Skill
Writing with Ease
No More I'm Done!
Brave Writer's The Writer's Jungle

GRAMMAR
Analytical Grammar
Analytical Grammar, Review & Reinforcement
Fix-it Grammar

SPELLING
All About Spelling

READING/PHONICS
All About Reading

LITERATURE
various novels following Teaching the Classics method
various poetry books
Brave Writer's Boomerang guides for Kon-Tiki and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Brave Writer's Arrow guides for Farmer Boy and The Horse and His Boy  

 

Next Year

WRITING
Copywork
No More I'm Done!
Brave Writer's The Writer's Jungle
Brave Writer's Jot it Down!
Brave Writer's Partnership Writing

GRAMMAR
Analytical Grammar
Analytical Grammar, Review & Reinforcement
Fix-it Grammar
Growing with Grammar

SPELLING
All About Spelling

READING/PHONICS
All About Reading

LITERATURE
Teaching the Classics
Art of Poetry (Classical Academic Press)
IEW's Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization (possibly)
Center for Lit Live Online Literature class (possibly)
various novels and poetry for study and enjoyment
Boomerang and Arrow Lit guides (possibly)

Review and Reflect 2012-2013: Math, part II

Yesterday, I posted an overview of our math curriculum this year and plans for the next.  Here are some of the details...


Earlier in this series, I reviewed my oldest daughter's math journey via Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra and Algebra.  As you may be able to infer from that post, I take advantage of one of the great advantages of homeschooling:  letting a child work at their own pace.  We don't start a new math book in September and work steadily through it to end on a set day in May.  Maria will only be finished with five chapters of her Algebra book at the end of this month.  She will continue it for as long as it takes and then move onto Geometry whenever the times comes. 

Why don't we stick with a pre-set math plan for a school year?  First of all, we do math year-round.  In the summers we cut back to 30 minutes per day from the usual 60 minutes per day during the normal school year.  I remember in the early years of homeschooling I let Maria take the summers off of math, and the review we had to do at the beginning of the next school year wasn't worth it.  I've found it's better to have kids continue to work at least a little bit year-round.  Secondly, I have no problem letting a child skip over repetitive problems that I know they know, and I have no problem having them repeat a topic with another curriculum or method when they need the extra practice.  I'm working towards mastery and not simply finishing a book.  All of this comes together to not really knowing where a child will be from day-to-day, or week-to-week.  They may speed through a topic or need to settle in a place and simmer for a bit.  It would be impossible to pre-plan for this. 

Case in point:  A year or two ago I remember having a math lesson with Matteo and then asking him to finish the last 3 or 4 problems on the page while I went to put his baby brother down for a nap.  I came back and he was still working.  Unfortunately, my first thought was that he had not been working while I was gone and only started as he heard me walking down the stairs.  As I started to, um...express my disappointment (the nice way to put it) that he had not done as I asked while I was gone, he then corrected me to say that he did finish what I gave him, but then he decided to go ahead and do more pages because it was fun.  Taught me to jump to conclusions :)  I learned that he caught onto math concepts easily and desired more, so I let him work as his pace - a pace that put him ahead of his next older sister.  Of course, this same child showed some weakness with fractions later on, so I got a different curriculum to let him practice fractions again in another way - no reason to move on when he hadn't mastered the concepts up to that point. 

We have used many different math curricula in our years of homeschooling.  We've moved around to find a better fit for a child's needs, so they can have something more challenging, or with more review, or with a different approach.  This year has seen its own set of changes in math.

A little background...Maria started homeschooling in pre-K and K with MCP through grade level 3.  It seemed to me that the Saxon curriculum was popular and I saw that it would go all the way through high school, so she did that for a year while Cati, who was beginning her homeschool years, did the early Saxon levels (grades 1 and 2, I think).  However, Maria really didn't like Saxon - you had to write out lots of problems since it wasn't a workbook, it was VERY repetitive, and VERY incremental.  She didn't need a whole lesson teaching her to line up decimals before adding - she just needed to be told once and why it was so, and she understood and was ready to move on.  So, then I found out about Singapore math and switched both of the girls so they would be using the same curriculum (for some reason that was important at the time).  Maria thrived with Singapore and used it through level 6 and then used the first of their junior high books in the Discovering Math series.  However, this series didn't follow through Calculus and had a non-traditional sequence, and when I heard about and researched the Art of Problem Solving series it looked like it would be a good fit, and it has proven to be so.

Well, I had Cati and Matteo in Singapore since I had the series from Maria.  However, it soon became apparent that it just didn't have enough practice at all for Cati, and even Matteo needed more practice on some topics.  Cati has never been our math gal.  She's not behind - she's definitely on grade level, but it's just not something she loves like Maria and Matteo do.  She started this year with Saxon 54.  It seemed good for her for all the reasons it was not for Maria - the repetition and slow pace.  However, it was still overkill for her and definitely not helping her love of math.  I don't expect the kids to love every school subject, but I see no reason why I should make it unpleasant if there's a chance to make it more enjoyable (can you hear Mary Poppins singing "A Spoonful of Sugar" over here?).  She completed about a third of the book, and I'm keeping the Saxon series in the back of my mind if my current plan doesn't work for her.  Saxon may not be a load of fun, but it does get the job done - eventually. 

Matteo used Singapore through level 4A until he took a test at the end of the book that obviously showed he needed more practice with fractions.  So, what were my options?  Erase work he had done in the workbook and have him redo it?  Scour the internet to find pages I could print?  Make up my own review sheets (as if I have time for that!)?  Thankfully, I knew about Math Mammoth.  They have downloadable worktexts, as they call them (it means there's no separate text and workbook - the instruction is included among the problems) arranged by grade or topic.  These pdf worktexts are great because you can always reprint a page if you do need more practice.  There are no workbooks to rebuy for future children, which makes them very economical.  I got Grade 4 for him instead of just a topical book on fractions.  I figured it would be cheaper to move away from Singapore (and buying new workbooks for each child) and easier to review topics as needed since I could reuse pages.  Actually, I don't print anything with Math Mammoth.  We use it on our iPads with the Notability app.  The kids love writing with this.  And, it soooo easy to erase when needed - no holes in the paper!  Matteo worked happily through this and made good progress. 

Matteo and Cati also used Beast Academy as a supplement earlier this year.  This is a new elementary series from The Art of Problem Solving.  It's very engaging - the "textbook" is in a comic book format - and the workbook problems are creative and challenging.  I learned things from this book!  At some point we got out of the habit of using this series, but when pulling it out to get samples for the portfolio, I was reminded how great it was.  I really want to work it back into the math routine. 

Cati and Matteo's math experiences this year came together to veer our math course just slightly in a different direction.  I wanted to find something effective, yet more engaging for Cati, and I liked the Math Mammoth format.  However, one more small issue came up - the Common Core Standards (I think I hear ominous music in the background).  I'm not going to go into the details of this new government plan to improve our school system.  Only time will tell if it is effective.  However, I just think it might be best to stay away from it for now until it has time to work itself out.  I found out that the Math Mammoth grade series curriculum was in the middle of conforming to these new standards, but its topical series was not (and could not since it's arranged by topics that you can do in any order you please).  I had also heard good things about the Life of Fred series.  Other homeschool moms said that their kids really enjoyed the storybook style of writing and that the problems were thought-provoking and challenging.  The only complaint was that there weren't enough practice problems.  So, my idea is to use Life of Fred as the main curriculum and then use the Math Mammoth topical series as needed for additional practice and testing of mastery.

We started this math duo after Easter and so far it is going well.  We started at the beginning of the Elementary series, as recommended.  I knew the early books would be super easy for Cati and Matteo, but math review never hurts and we would make sure they hadn't missed anything.  Also, I would need the early books for Chiara.  The kids are all really enjoying it so far.  Cati and Matteo have moved quickly through the Elementary books and are actually almost done with the series and will move into the Intermediate series soon.  I haven't used the Math Mammoth topical series with them yet, but I plan to start giving them some pages from it this summer to make double sure we aren't missing anything. 

Life of Fred teaches the basic math facts, but doesn't include any real drill.  We found XtraMath for this last year anyway, so we don't need it from Fred.  I love XtraMath!  It requires 3-second recall of facts for mastery.  It keeps all records and sends me a weekly report of the kids' progress.  It only takes the kids about 5 minutes per day.  Each session begins with a quiz to see if they have mastered any new facts.  Then it has a couple of practice sessions (called "Race the Teacher") when it focuses on a handful of facts.  I definitely encourage you to give it a try.  It's about as painless as memorizing math facts will ever be for you and your child.  Oh, I forgot to mention...it's free!  (But I am seriously considering giving them a donation as they recommend on their site - it's really that good!)

Review and Reflect 2012-2013: Math - Overview

I thought it might be useful to give a simple overview of the books and internet sources we have used for math this year and what our plans are from here.

This year 

  

   Maria:  Art of Problem Solving, Pre-algebra
                 Art of Problem Solving, Algebra

   Cati:      Saxon 54 (about 1/3 of the book)
                 Beast Academy 3A
                 XtraMath (fact practice)
                 Life of Fred: Apples through Honey

   Matteo:  Math Mammoth 4A
                  Beast Academy 3A and 3B
                  XtraMath (fact practice)
                  Life of Fred:  Apples through Ice Cream

   Chiara:  Math Mammoth 1A
                  XtraMath (fact practice)
                  Life of Fred:  Apples

Plans for this summer and next year

   Maria:   Art of Problem Solving:  Algebra
                  Art of Problem Solving:  Geometry (whenever the above is complete)

   Cati:      XtraMath (fact practice)
                  Life of Fred:  Honey through ...
                  Math Mammoth Topical series
                  Beast Academy ???

   Matteo:  XtraMath (fact practice)
                  Life of Fred:  Ice Cream through ...
                  Math Mammoth Topical series
                  Beast Academy ???

  Chiara:   XtraMath (fact practice)
                  Life of Fred:  Apples through ...
                  Math Mammoth Topical series


Where to buy: 
    Art of Problem Solving - www.artofproblemsolving.com  (Check out their free videos)
    XtraMath - FREE! at www.xtramath.org
    Life of Fred - Rainbow Resource, I believe it the cheapest option, especially with free shipping over $25
    Math Mammoth - www.mathmammoth.com or when it is being offered through Homeschool Buyers Coop (free to join).  I got it for 50% off this way!


In my next post, I will go through the details of our math experiences this year and where we're headed next!

Review and Reflect: 2012-2013 -- MATH, Part 1

I spent a lot of time on Saturday working on the girls' portfolios.  I almost have their book logs complete, and soon I will start making copies of some of their work to put in the portfolios.  I probably won't share too many of these samples with you since many of them aren't terribly interesting in my opinion.  However, if you would like to see a sample of something that I don't put on the blog here, please ask and I'll be happy to add it. 

I don't think I have said before that I only have to report to our school district for any children who are 8-years-old at the beginning of the school year.  So, this year I only have to report for Maria and Cati.  Next year I will also have to report for Matteo.  On the blog here I will talk about all the kids, though.

Now I'm ready to start sharing our experiences this year subject-by-subject.  Today I will start with math since we usually begin our school day with an hour of math.  I'll start with the oldest and work my way down.

Maria began her year by working through a few select chapters of Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra book.  There were a few topics that I wanted to see her a bit more solid in before diving into Algebra, namely square roots and right triangles (Pythagorean theorem) and quadrilaterals.  After completing these chapters, she moved on to Art of Problem Solving's (AoPS) Algebra book and has completed five chapters in this book up through solving multi-variable linear equations.  Maria has really enjoyed math this year, and I often hear, "Aw, Mom, let me finish this last problem!" when I call her for our read-aloud which follows math. 

Some people are scared off by AoPS, thinking it's only for "mathy" kids and that it may be too challenging.  Maria is my first child to use this program, so I can only share my experiences with her.  I wouldn't consider her a math genius, or anything, but she is confident in her math skills.  It is a challenging program, but not overly so.  They provide lots of support for both the student and the teacher.  They have free videos online for each lesson (you can go view them yourself at any time)  that Maria enjoys watching and finds very helpful.  After each lesson, there is a problem set and at the end of each chapter there is regular problem set and then a challenge problem set.  She rarely has trouble with the regular problem sets at the end of lessons or chapters, but she often finds the challenge problems, well, challenging.  This is where AoPS's wonderfully detailed solution manual comes in.  The solution manual not only provides the worked out solution to the problem, but explains the answer in words as it goes along with very readable prose.  It's not math-talk that only my math professor husband would understand.  Sometimes it will show more than one possible solution to a problem.  The solution manual helps me help Maria easily.  I can read a small part to her here or there, depending on where she's stuck, and that often gets her over the hump and off and running to her desk to work the rest of her problem herself.  For now my plan is to use this for all of my kids when they get to this level of math.

Here is a sample of a problem Maria worked on last week.  Perhaps you can click on these and read what they say. 


We're looking at problem 5.38 in the middle of the page.  The star beside the problem means that there is a hint provided for this problem at the back of the book.

Maria's solution...there is often scratched out work, but she's gotten used to that.  Gone are the days of one-step problems with a clear path to the answer!

The answer in the Solution Manual...

Well, I had planned to discuss all of the kids' math in this post, but this is already quite long, so I'll save the other kids for another day (and another post!)

I'd be happy to answer any questions (if I can) and I'd love to hear your comments on your experiences with teaching math at home.

Review and Reflect: 2012-2013

Oh, how I wish I had wonderful things to share with you about all the progress I have made toward putting together our school year portfolios!  But...I don't :( 

I guess I big accomplishment was that I finished sorting through all of our photos and organizing them for each child, so I have a good photographic idea of what we've done this year. 

Goals for the week:  Write book logs (list of all books used for curricula and reading) and start gathering and scanning (I figured out how to use our scanner with my new computer!  Woo hoo!  That is a big win!) work samples.

I can't wait to start putting this all together and to share with you my reflections on this year and my ideas for the next! 

Review and Reflect: 2012-2013

I'm going to temporarily suspend my Follow Me Monday series to work on this series. As you can imagine, I have limited time for blogging and I need to get our portfolios done. I found out the date for our homeschool evaluations, and I have less than a month to get this all together. Blogging about this while I work on it will help me get this together slowly, but consistently over the next month instead of waiting until the last minute :)

The first step is to get organized. I have to gather all of our work together from the entire school year. The first thing I'm tackling is my photos. I normally organize my photos by month, and last week I started looking through all my photos and copying school-related ones into their own appropriately named folder. This folder is also divided into folders, one for each child. I mainly have photos of projects and artwork to put in these folders, but it gives me a good starting place.

After, I finish organizing my photos, I need to gather together a list of all the books we've used this year. A book log is a required element of the homeschool portfolio in the state of PA. I've been much better this year at keeping a running list of the books the kids have read. Before returning books to the library each week, I have the kids tell me if they have read them and I type the titles into an app on my iPad. We regularly have 50-80 books out from the library at a time and this is the best way for me to keep up with this reading. I need to add to this list the regular curriculum books that we've used and the literature we've studied together.

After putting together our book logs, I will need to scan samples of the kids' work. Typically, I aim for about two samples per subject.

So, that's where I am right now - the organizing step. Soon, I should be able to start sharing with you my reflections on our year, subject-by-subject.
Do you have any good homeschool organizing tips?
If anyone would like to join me in reflecting on your school year, please leave comments below or provide a link below to your own blog post sharing your thoughts about this year and plans for the next!

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