Spring...happened!! (finally!)

Spring finally happened here on our 10 acres. Our swamps are alive at night with a million different croaking creatures. I hope to take the kids down there soon to see spring in action. We saw a quail-like bird (probably a quail!) on our dirt road yesterday. And a road-kill bunny:( Last night, I think we heard ducks, but I'm not sure if anyone has ducks around here. The days are filled with the songs of singing birds. I love spring!! Our puddles are drying up, which is nice too. Yesterday, I had errands to run. DD5 did schoolwork in the car and then we went to the park. I promised them the first 50 degree day, we'd go to the park. And so we went...

I had a strong craving for chocolate cake with chocolate chips (hmmm, must have really wanted chocolate!) So we made chocolate cupcakes. The kids dug right in. DD3 cracked her egg and missed the bowl; it was all over the counter. I let the kids do a preliminary mix of the batter before putting it in my kitchenaide mixer. When I turned my back, the two kids heartily licked their spoons:) DD5 took the initiative and started pouring batter into the cupcake holders, spreading batter EVERYWHERE. DD3 helped by sticking her fingers in the dripping batter and then licking them. Needless to say, everyone was covered in chocolate. Daddy came home and was impressed with our tasty treats. I was surprised that the cupcakes turned out so well! And of course, we had chocolate cupcakes for breakfast today.

1st grade revisions

The more I read about SWR, the less I think I can handle it! It sounds intense. I've been thinking that my husband's approach (the most direct and easiest path to get to a goal) is probably the best. So what is the easiest? Well, we already have Hooked On Phonics and it goes through 2nd grade reading level. It is simple enough (not overloaded with words) and I think we could gain fluency and reach a 2nd grade reading level pretty easy with the program. However, as a phonics program, HOP doesn't include everything (it lacks certain sounds and letter combinations), so we would have to pick up the rest through our own reading practice, and spelling. So here is my new rough draft, LOL:

Language Arts: Hooked On Phonics (start with box 1 & 2, which will be too easy but will help us gain fluency), Explode the Code (I already have book 1, woohoo!), and probably Spelling Workout (I'm also interested in Spelling Power, but it doesn't start until 2nd grade).

Handwriting: Spelling & ETC will fill in the handwriting. DD5 still doesn't write very well, and I think it just needs time for her coordination to get there.

Math: BJU 1st Grade (though I see MUS and RightStart and feel like switching sometimes! LOL. Truth is: BJU is very good & very complete - we've been happy with it so far, so why change?)

Science: Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids grades 1-3; Plants (Spring-Summer 2006), Animals with Backbones, (maybe) Animals Without Backbones, and the Human Body one.

History: Story of the World vol. 1 without the activity book, and Evan-Moor History Pockets Ancient World

Art: Evan-Moor's How to Teach Art to Children

Music?: Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts, piano

Can you tell I like Evan-Moor stuff? LOL. I'm eager to get the art book - sometimes we have some time in the afternoons with nothing to do and I think this would be a great book to pull out during those times.

I hope to homeschool through the summer, but make it light & fun!
Summer: Science (Plants) + Language Arts (HOP, haven't decided if I will do ETC & Spelling over summer yet - if so, we'll probably do it more in the car on the way to the park!) + I'd like to do Art just to fill in the gaps during bored times.

That's the plan for now...more revisions later! LOL.

What we're doing now...

I've really streamlined what we are doing. First, my husband and I designed our own curriculum around the top 250 words in English vocabulary. We re-arranged the words into different categories with phonetic explanations. We printed the words on 3x5 cards to be used as flashcards. We have a system that is working wonderfully! I set the timer for 15 minutes every day and I sit with my dd5 on the floor. I explain the words and we go through them together slowly a few times, learning the phonic sounds that make up these words. Then we go faster; she looks at the words and tries to read them. She's getting pretty good at reading subtle differences in words such as "off" and "of", "men" and "man". Sometimes I have to remind her (look at the vowel, or look at the last sound...) After our 15 min timer beeps, we're done with our top 250 words lesson. If we finish our new words before the timer beeps, then we review past words. Daddy comes home from work later and does another very short review of the words with her. She does very well and is starting to pick up speed. She's starting to get the idea that sounding out words is for words she doesn't know, other words can just be said, and don't have to be broken down every time.

After that, we do our BJU math. I've cut out a lot of review. I briefly glance over the Teacher's Ed to see if there is anything I need to teach. Then we go straight to the workbook page. I began adding in Phonics again, but same thing...I skip the TE altogether and go straight to the workbook pages. With our 250-words, Math, and Phonics, we are now getting everything done in about 1 hour.

As for next year...I'm having 2nd thoughts about SWR. It sounds pretty time-intensive and teacher intensive. That was really BJU's downfall for me. I'm torn because I want my dd5 to be a good student and a good reader. I want a product that gets the job done. SWR probably does get the job done but I'm wondering if it will drive me crazy, LOL. I'm realizing that I'm pretty short on patience and need to pick the EASIEST and MOST Direct route to reach our goals. SWR users would probably argue that this is probably the most direct route. But is it easy? I feel like I'm going around and around in Phonetic Circles. Its obvious by now that I don't have one of those children that just picks up on phonics and reads easily. DD5 is learning the phonics rules pretty rapidly, but reading practice itself is very difficult for her. Right now she is refusing to read books to me. So I'm trying to find other ways to get the reading practice in (hence, we went back to BJU's workbook pages). I'm not sure when I'll have her read books again.

What we're doing now...

Update on what we are doing now...

Top 250 words, arranged by common sounds. We spend 15 minutes each day and sometimes review during the day.

Math (same program)

Sometimes we do our phonics workbook pages. I don't know why I feel like I should finish it!!

I looked through BJU's 1st grade 2nd edition (ours is 3rd edition). I noticed that the first book seems to be mostly review of kindergarten. Some new sight words were introduced, but most of the lessons were review. I didn't look in the 2nd book, so I'm not sure how much of that was new material. As we talked about at co-op today, every year seems to teach a repeat of the previous year. So why am I so worried about teaching dd5 everything she needs to know?

1st grade rough draft again...

I like to jot down my rough draft for 1st grade (yes, you've seen the list before, but it keeps changing! LOL) It helps me to keep things straight, rather than the same thoughts bouncing around my head.

Math: BJU 1st grade, 2nd edition (wish they had 3rd edition out!)

Language Arts/spelling: Phonics Pathways or Spell to Write and Read

History: Story of the World and History Pockets. Haven't decided on buying the activity guide for SOTW yet, may just stick with the 2 items above.

Science: Evan-Moor Hands On Science (if they have a natural science) or ScienceWorks, try to get some of the titles that go along with TWTM's theme for science.

Art: Evan-Moor Teaching Art to Children

Music: undecided if I will do yet. May use Bastien piano for 5-7 yos, may use Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts.

Phys Ed: if I can get my butt in gear, we'll do a mix of karate, aerobics, and just plain running around. If I could only get myself to exercise, kids could run around or jump in line with me.

Notes:
I just saw Pyramid (extra exercises to go along with Phonics Pathways) today. I really liked it until I noticed that it didn't include all of the same lessons as PP. It teaches short vowel, long vowel, adding y?, and large multisyllable words, but left out all the other stuff. I loved the way the lessons were laid out and loved the amount of practice for each lesson. I would prefer the amount of work in Pyramid since PP seems like too much. But I wish it continued through all the lessons, like PP does.

Surviving February

I hadn't realized just how difficult February is for homeschool moms and I hadn't realized the trap I would fall in to. February is cold, and seems like winter is going to last forever. We're half way through by this point, or more than half way, and are eager to complete a grade level. It is easy to feel that not enough progress is being made, and that all the daily work isn't going anywhere fast enough. We see all the follies of our current methods and have higher hopes for next year. I suffered through this February, but I will be prepared for next February. I've learned my lesson and I have a survival plan.

* Use January to access whether I will make our completion date. Once I've determined that we are still on-course for the year, I need to keep on going.
* Stay the course: don't ditch the curriculum, don't increase the speed of the curriculum, don't try to make it all happen faster. For February, at least, keep on going..."I think I can, I think I can"
* Take a vacation from "school". When planning ahead, schedule a really nice long break for February. Take the time to get re-acquainted with the children, as loving mother, not as "teacher". Spend the time off snuggling together with a good read-aloud, making projects, playing games. Maybe use this time to organize around the house a bit. A clean room always uplifts my spirits.
* Make a list of all the products you'd like to try next year, but then put it away. Maybe seal it in an envelope and don't open it until you are done with the current year. Limit research time. The endless time spend sifting through billions of curriculum choices almost killed me.
* Put on blinders when seeing other kids. Seeing a public schooled kid zoom ahead of my daughter in reading progress started a downward spiral of comparing. This led to other negative problems -
*Public school is NOT an option. At least, not for the month of February;) Pretend that there is absolutely no other option for your child's education. Public and private school hasn't been invented. This prevents the "grass is always greener" syndrome that strikes in February.

In conclusion, February is a rough month. Wait it out. After February is over (and maybe March and April, too!) then reassess your curriculum strengths and weaknesses. Pour over a friend's latest and greatest curriculum, and decide if it is right for you next year. If you are concerned about your child's progress, give a test to see if they've made progress. If you aren't a testing sort of homeschooler, jot down little notes of accomplishment, keep writing samples throughout the year, etc. - then you can see the progress that has been made, and just how far your child has come. But do all of this stuff after February. Use February is a down-period; a time to rest, replenish, and restore.

1st day off the beaten path...

This was my 1st day off the beaten path. We haven't done math yet, but I hope to keep up with BJU's math. We had library program this morning, which cut into our day. But here is a run down of our new method:

Reviewed phonograms: A, E, I, O, U. Introduced AR, OR, and ER/IR/UR.

Introduced the 1st 11 words from the top 250 list: to, and, a, is, in, it, you, that, of, the (can't remember the rest!) We were already familiar with most of these words.

Later: Played a game with dice and our word & phonogram sounds. It was a dinosaur themed board that I printed online. I colored the squares 2 green & 1 purple. Everytime DD5 landed on a purple square, she had to read a phonogram card. If she landed on green, she had to read one of our 11 vocab words. I found that the 3rd sound for u, AR, OR, and ER/IR, UR were not sticking, so I made a mental note to work on those exclusively.

After the game: we read 2 library stories and reviewed our phonogram cards before each story. I also slipped AI and AY in the bunch, since they only have 1 sound (long A) and we've studied these before from BJU's K program. We hammered away at the 3rd sound of U, AR, OR, ER/IR/UR and I think we have it!! We'll practice again before dinner & bedtime.

Tomorrow I hope to add: EAR and WOR, which both have similar sounds as ER, IR, and UR (errrr as in her), except wor is pronounced "wer". The example in WRTR for EAR is "early" and WOR is "work". EA has its own phonogram (E, e, and A). I may add 2 more phonograms tomorrow, but haven't decided. I want these to sink in so that they make sense with our vocab words. Hopefully our phonogram knowledge catches up to our vocab knowledge.

Abandon Ship!!

I've enjoyed BJU and thought it was a good program. I really liked the Math and will keep using their Math program. However, I've decided that BJU's phonics program is TOO MUCH for us. It is too much EXTRAS, too much time consuming demonstrations, too much song and dance, etc. (all the things I LIKE about the math I didn't like in the phonics! LOL). Besides that, I was beginning to feel that the phonics instruction given in BJU wasn't the right focus for us. I didn't want to spend the next 2 years slowly introducing DD5 to vowel combinations. I was hearing from public schooled children that were able to read level 1 books, and I knew that we wouldn't be able to read those books for a long time. Level 1 books contain words like "look, could, house" etc. I started to doubt the word family teaching focus - I didn't like the idea of teaching my DD5 words one day where the EA makes the long E sound (eat, neat, seat), only to teach her another day that EA makes the short e sound (bread), and then yet another day say that EA makes the long A sound (great). That means that for her to read a basic sentence such as "the neat bread was great", we would have a long wait before fully understanding all 3 of these words with the EA vowel combination. I also found that we had an issue with fluency. After one year of sounding out a-n-d for every sentence, my DD5 is just now finally identifing this word without sounding it out. With as often as we see the word "and" in text, shouldn't we identify this word much sooner than 1 year later? And so, I began to think that we should focus on the most commonly used words in the English language, rather than spending so much time sounding out the word "fig". How often is a 1st grader (or anyone else) going to read the word "fig"? My husband and I came to two different conclusions. My husband came to the conclusion that DD5 should memorize the top 1000 words in our English vocabulary. I came to the conclusion that we needed to learn all of our phonograms in a vertical fashion (example: EA makes the sounds E, e, and A). I was going to teach this and then apply it to the Dolch list. And so...given all this...we have decided to put BJU's K phonics lessons ON HOLD and work through the top 1000 words list. We will focus on the 1st 250 words. I don't feel comfortable with a complete look-say method and I still think that phonics is important. I have decided to teach the 70 phonograms from The Writing Road to Reading at the same time that we focus on identifying the top 250 words. I hope to get through this within the next 1-2 months, starting today. My goal is to teach DD5 that the word "to" can be sounded out, using the /t/ and the 3rd sound of o, /oo/. After we have spent time sounding out /to/, then learn to identify it immediately in text. I haven't decided what we will do after the 1st 250 words. I am really thinking about using Spell to Write and Read along with the WISE Guide by Wanda Sanseri. This method is based on WRTR, but breaks the method down so that it is easier for homeschoolers to follow. The Ayres Word list has also been updated (the original list, I think?, was the top 2000 words in English vocabulary, but the list was from the year 1919?)

rough draft for "next year"

Next year actually means starting this May! We will be finished with Kindergarten by the end of April and ready to start 1st grade. Here is my rough draft for 1st grade:

Phonics/Reading/Spelling/Writing: Phonics Pathways, Pyramid (both by Dolores Hiske)
Practice: some games I will make, our journal notebook.

Math: BJU 1st grade

Science: ?? don't know yet

History: Story of the World vol. 1

Literature: ??

I would love to add, but don't know if I have the time:

Music: Music for Little Mozarts by Alfred Music
Art: ??
Physical Ed: karate (I have a black belt & can instruct the kids in Tang Soo Do)
Bible: right now we just read Bible stories, Bible verses when they come up, or the occasional Bible study with Daddy.

homeschool SUPPORT

I'm finding out that SUPPORT is really an important part of homeschooling. Sure, many families live far away from other people and need to homeschool without support. But it really is nice to hear from experienced moms that continue to go through the daily trials...and to find out that its all NORMAL. I drove 45mins to a support group last night, through the dark, down unfamiliar roads, just waiting for my car to break down or a deer to leap out in front of me. It was completely worth it! Here are some ideas I gleened from the other moms:

Sight words: Mom writes the sight word on the child's hand. Throughout the day, Mom asks, "What word is that on your hand?"

Notebook Journal: Mom & child share a notebook journal. Each child has his/her own journal. Child writes a note to Mom & adds a picture, if they want. Mom writes a note back. We started this this morning and already have 4 entries.

Prayer requests: those who like to start their lessons with a prayer, ask your children if they have any prayer requests. They may surprise you with requests to pray for friends or problems that they are having.

Overall, I saw how much homeschooling has brought families together, and the deep bonds that are formed between parents and child, and child with siblings. What a great gift we are giving our children!