Next year plans...

We are officially past the half way point of our BJU K5 curriculum. Naturally, I'm thinking about next year. 1st grade will add a lot more subjects, which seems a little daunting to a mom that feels like just doing math and reading is plenty right now! Here are my thoughts for next year:

Math: we will stay with BJUP. We love the math and I don't think we can do any better elsewhere.

Handwriting: we have used 2 handwriting programs so far: Handwriting Without Tears and BJU's K5. I certainly don't want to add yet another handwriting program! HWT was a good program and I wonder if I gave up on it too soon. However, DD5 has adjusted fine to BJU's handwriting structure, so we will continue with it. I worry about adding too much handwriting for 1st grade, when public/private schooled children are expected to write so much more! I purchased BJU's K5 handwriting program but haven't used it this year (I felt that Phonics had enough handwriting involved in the lessons). So I am tempted to use our K5 handwriting program for our 1st grade handwriting practice. Afterall, my goal right now is to have an avid reader. I think the handwriting part of it will naturally catch up when my dd is older.

Phonics: welll.....still considering this one. So far we have used a little bit of Montessori method, Reading Reflex, Hooked on Phonics, and BJU K5 Phonics. I have trouble using something for phonics & sticking with it! (obviously...) Finally, for kindergarten year, I determined that I would purchase & use BJU's program for ONE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR! We've made excellent progress. We've moved forward at times when I would've held us back. We stayed on a lesson when I would've skipped and moved forward more rapidly. My main problem in this area is knowing when to move forward. BJU has been a blessing in that area: I just didn't know when we had tackled something enough to move on. Now, we just move on anyway. And DD5 has done fabulous! However, there is sooo much that I didn't use from this program. I've learned that I am NOT a unit study kind of gal. I didn't like using the stories about the families of Pine Hill, and I didn't use the puppets, or the songs. I really tried to limit our lessons to a 15min presentation, which meant cutting out another 30 mins or more of presentation in the book, as well as most of the activities. Can I possibly justify spending $135 on a program that I use less than a third of the lesson each time? I'm torn on the workbook pages: they've been bright, colorful, and simple. They've given us some extra reading practice when I might not have given us any practice for the day. However, I'm starting to feel sort of workbook-paged out, so I am thinking about limiting our workbook pages for 1st grade. Afterall, I think I'm in this homeschool thing for the long haul and we are not a school. So...I am thinking about using (yet another program) Phonics Pathways. I am also looking at The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. Of course, looks like we will get to skip the first half of the book in phonics pathways, having already covered VCC (ann), CVC (cat), CVCC (cuff, duck), and CCVCC (stuff, flock) words.

Spelling: might use BJU's spelling, haven't decided yet.

Reading: you know what? Just getting "Easy to Read" or "I Can Read It" books from the library and having my dd read the words I point to works really well for us! So if I don't use BJU's phonics next year, I won't use their reading program either - we'll just practice out of real books. Cat in the Hat, etc. make for great practice, even if she can only read 10% of the words.

Science: I'm real tempted to unschool this one for the next year or two. What do they teach in science for public school 1st grade? The 5 senses (well, duh, don't we do that every day at home? LOL), living vs non-living things (another duh!), plants (plenty of hands on experience here!), Animal kingdom (I think we've already filled this quota, since DD5 loves animals!!). Maybe life cycles (another topic beaten to death in every day life), weather & water cycle (again, DD5 asks me every day in the car - "mom, how does it rain?") So what I'm saying is: I think we've done it already and I think we continue to do science daily. If I feel the need, we might use an experiment book, just for kicks.

History: Definitely NOT BJUP!! I hear great things about it & its just my own personal opinion here, but I do NOT want to study American History for the next 6 years! Gag! I think we'll just use real books & narration for this one, using a chronological timeline. If I feel the need for more, maybe we'll buy History Pockets from Evan-Moor (which look so cool!!) I will use The Well Trained Mind order for teaching (starting with ancients).

I think that's in for our subjects for next year. I'm sure we'll add some extras along the way (currently we're studying sign language). I would love to add music/piano to our list! We'll see...

Princess's Birthday

We had friends over today for a playdate. One little girl has a little beanie baby kitten called Princess and today was Princess's birthday! She and her sister brought their beany baby kittens and cupcakes for the occasion. Of course my daughters also have beany baby kittens that joined in the fun. The kittens all dressed in fancy barbie ballroom gowns and then we sang Happy Birthday to Princess. We all ate cupcakes and had a great time! The event was great inspiration for my girls; our kittens now have names, Snowball and Colors. There was a 6 month old baby boy in the group who absolutely loved all the attention from 5 little girls. The girls played with our wooden toy sets: medieval castle, native american, and ancient egyptian. Of course, the medieval people, native americans, and ancient egyptians all interacted, and I had a very interesting view of history. I think it helped explain how the Native Americans and Egyptians BOTH had pyramids, even though they were separated by an ocean. Hmmm.... So that was our day. One mom was a kindergarten teacher, so it is always great to have her wisdom and expertise in teaching. I love seeing my girls play with friends, it always inspires their play later, after seeing some of the neat things their friends can do.

Further Misadventures on 10 acres...

Our adventures continued...

Last post, our dog (in heat) left our property to play with the boy dog next door. The next night, our dog was restless and barking every few minutes. This lasted from 2:30am to around 4:30am. I tried letting her outside, but she mostly just sniffed around. We thought there was a raccoon or something outside. At 4:30am, our dog was desperately trying to get outside. We looked out to find a chocolate lab at our door, eagerly wagging his tail! LOL. We took our dog upstairs and sealed her into our bedroom. We did our best to sleep through the chocolate lab's romantic serenade. I was relieved to see the "gentleman caller" was gone in the morning and hasn't been back since.

We have some kind of rodent in our garage. We think he was brought in with the wood for burning in our fireplace. He's a little black streak that we see darting behind storage items in the garage. I really don't like cats, but have been thinking about getting one. Of course, DD5 would be thrilled, since she begs me for a cat daily.

Friday we start homeschool co-op. We're all excited! DD3 gets to participate too. The girls will be taking ballet. DD3 is taking an action story class, an action Bible class, and a Playdo class. DD5 is taking child survival (about self defense, talking to strangers, etc.), Storybook Art, and Sign Language. I get to help out in ballet with my girls, karate, and open gym with my 3yo. It is a full day of classes, but thankfully it is only every other Friday. Co-op should help fill in the gaps that I always worry about (you know, "shouldn't they be taking a foreign language?" "shouldn't we do more for phys ed?" etc.)

Misadventures on 10acres

Our hot water heater broke, so we've been taking cold showers (brrr!) and I have been doing dishes the old fashioned way. At least I don't have to go down to the well & pump water, LOL.

DD5 chased the dog across the property and into the swamp. The snow was melting and so it was an extra muddy adventure. She got her boot stuck in the swamp and sat there (bootless) yelling for me. Fortunately, when I let her go outside, I tried to track her progress to the swingset (where she said she was going). When I couldn't see her at the swingset, I knew it was time to go out & look. I carried her (bootless) on my back across the length of our property & was a very tired mommy after that!

Our big silly standard poodle is not fixed, since I thought maybe someday we'd attempt puppies (haven't got the courage to do that yet). She loves the 10acres, but has recently discovered that the 10 acres next to us has a very playful boy dog. We lost her yesterday and hopped into the car to go find her. There she was, romping & playing with the "boy next door". They were having a blast and she didn't want to come home. She has been on her cycle lately, so we are really hoping that the little expedition didn't result in puppies! Of course, if it had been a nice standard poodle boy next door, we might not have minded as much!

We've been having some trouble getting back into the school routine. So yesterday we took a lot of time just doing whatever interested us. As a result, we explored the Food Pyramid and made our own (I used Dora the Explorer from Nick Jr's web site: http://www.nickjr.com/parenting/activity_finder/printables/dora/learning_pages/doras_food_pyramid_printables.jhtml). We learned how to fold paper and cut snowflakes (DD5 was fascinated that one little cut made designs on all sides of the paper). We chased animal tracks across the yard (not sure what it was!) And played on the swingset - this time with Mommy as Escort. I pushed DD3 on the swings for awhile, and then let them play while I watched from the nice warm house:-) After that came hot cocoa (I love those hot cocoa days!!) Hoping to sneak in a little more school, I made up some of our reading words on magnets so we can make funny sentences on the fridge. So far, I make up a few sentences for DD5 to read first thing in the morning. She loves to put the words together in a crazy way and have me read her sentences back to her.

I've also been teaching DD5 how to cook. She has been cooking her breakfast each morning and doing surprisingly well! She can crack eggs into a pan on the stovetop, stir them while they cook, and put cheese slices on top. She is very good at cracking eggs and doesn't usually get eggshell in the eggs. Today she made french toast and did far better at the age of 5 then I did at the age of 12, LOL! My goal is to have my own personal chef in a few years;)

I LOVE our curriculum!!

I have been researching different options for next year...cheaper options, less time consuming options...problem is, I love our curriculum!! DD5 is learning so much. The math makes sooo much sense and teaches everything in such a nice order. The curriculum gives me all the tools I need to review old concepts and teach new concepts. Its amazing!!

I got The Well Trained Mind from the library again, thinking it would give me some insight for next year. I remember reading that book & it sounded so right. After reading it again, I see how our curriculum provides the SAME thing, but with less work on my part and less pain for DD5. It basically provides all the same objectives as TWTM for Math and Language Arts. Why wouldn't I use it again next year?

I also looked at the store workbooks that I used for preschool and really liked "Learn Every Day". It still looks like a nice series, and visually very attractive. However, it doesn't present the lesson part of it. I like having a teacher's manual that tells me all the different ways I can present the material, give us hands on activities to practice the lesson, and then colorful workbook pages that show a skill has been mastered. I like things organized in a way that makes sense - because my brain is full enough of creative ideas and jumbled thoughts and chaos. Its nice that I can rely on something that has the basics in order for me. I've realized that I don't like an organized curriculum to provide reading comprehension or art, so that part has gotten thrown out. I have even skipped the science & heritage studies part of it. I prefer to do Art when my DD5 decides she wants to create something. I prefer to learn history from living books and use it for reading comprehension too (like when DD5 excitedly told Daddy how we finished reading Charlotte's Web and then told him everything that happened in the book). I love learning science in our backyard as we watch deer graze in our yard, identify animal tracks in the snow, and name the fuzzy caterpillars munching on leaves. But for Math and Language Arts, so far we have done really well with BJUP. Does that make me a School-At-Home Mom or Eclectic?