Home School Subject Focus: Language Arts

After using '100 easy lessons', a little bit of 'Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading', and doing some handwriting with the child, we next start our real Language Arts Curriculum: The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading. I preface my rave reviews of this curriculum with the confession that I have never used it 'from scratch' to teach a child to read or write, which is the way it is supposed to be used. But I am sure it would 'work' and and be wonderful even with someone who hasn't yet learned some of those skills (basic handwriting, letter recognition/sounds).

By the time our kids (so far) have started The Phonics Road, they are already usually reading some and writing some. We therefore breeze through the first few weeks.
Bella is on level 2, week 23, though on the Literature portion she is done!
Sophia is on level 3, week 29/30.

What do I love about this curriculum?
It is SO thorough, includes and emphasizes spelling from the get-go, and is excellent at building in reviews of Grammar.
It is comprehensive in its approach and leaves nothing out. I love that I don't need a separate English Grammar curriculum, a separate spelling curriculum, handwriting, phonics, etc. It is ALL there, introduced in time and at a steady pace.
Barbara Beers, the lady who created it, personally writes me back when I have a question or freak out about something I think my kids aren't getting.
I love her jingles/ rule tunes, they are not nearly as cheesy as some I have heard. Our kids know them!
She has them read GREAT books as literature study and then grammar studies.
It is so thorough that by the time you do four years of this curriculum and move on to The Latin Road (which is three years) you do not need an English Grammar curriculum. The Latin Road is the built-in English curriculum. Seamless.

What do I NOT love about this curriculum?

The only thing I do not love about The Phonics Road is that it is teacher intensive and stays that way all the way through The Latin Road. We haven't even gotten that far but I know it still needs a full hour of the teacher's time (I consulted Mrs. Beers about this)

BUT this is actually not that much time if you think about it. By certain grades LA should take a good hour, and my input into that hour is necessary. Especially now as we get into pre-Latin bases/suffix/prefixes. Also consider that it is multiple subjects: Level 1 and 2: spelling, grammar, handwriting, reading, some Lit; Level 3 and 4: (all in cursive) spelling, grammar, some Literature, penmanship, pre-Latin. Therefore, the full hour or more is accomplishing a lot!

The prep time is about 20-30 minutes of video watching a week but once you do it for one child, no more. For Bella, my prep time is nil, and she, on level 2 spends about 20-30 minutes max doing LA, not including reading.

Sure there are some things I did skimp on. For example, in Level 3, the first few weeks were review, where the instruction was to look up all the words on the page in the dictionary to find parts of speech. Forty words. Sophia did ten on her own and we would talk through the rest. Other than that we have done almost everything the curriculum asked.

In the end, I would say the teacher intensive-ness of it is what helps make it so thorough. Sure I could choose a video where someone else teaches my child, but not this method in this way. I just note this for those looking. You actually have to teach the child and talk through the spelling words, rule tunes, etc. It gets easier and faster, but talking through the rules and sentence diagramming/marking is incredibly helpful as they learn to understand the English language.

Another bonus is the words and vocabulary introduced. We look up words and discuss their meaning all of the time, this curriculum is a huge vocabulary builder.

I really really LOVE this curriculum. The friend who introduced it to me also had a child with some learning disabilities and she was able to use this curriculum and thrive with it. I consider it rigorous but also diverse enough to cater to different learning styles. I really hope to use this with all four kids!

Bella practicing her dictionary skills and learning what words mean by context. Level two.

Sophia learning some Latin base words and prefix/suffixes to add. Level 3.

October Wrap-Up

I know it is almost Thanksgiving...but here we go.

Two days after my 13.1 mile jaunt around town I got sick. That was starting Oct. 26.
I am still at it. Pneumonia finally set in and took its toll (2nd time this year, what is up with me?!).
I am finally on the upswing, I think.

Meanwhile, I have been functioning and learning to lean into the Father.

The Florida Gators are doing well, and this little fan is chatting up a storm.

On Reformation day (aka Halloween), we hosted a family, had a bonfire and introduced the Dutch to 'S'mores'. When my friend replied to my invite, she said, 'no I don't know 's'more', do you eat it, drink it?' They and their four kiddos LOVED the American S'more.

We did carve a small little guy. All we could find this year:

The kids decided to 'play Halloween'

 Great reenactment of 'Frozen'.

Also at the end of October Sophia and Bella had school field trips.
This was on one of my high fever days, but I took a tylenol and told David I would be back in 30 minutes, after dropping off Tobin, Sophia, and then Bella.

 Except the logistics proved to be a fiasco. Many classes chose to go to the same spot. That is about 1,000 parents dropping of kids in a narrow little back road. Really?
We had to walk almost 3/4 of a mile, up a steep back hill (this was the lake our family biked around).
I was in cold sweats by now, weak, and trying to keep a good attitude for Bella's sake.

 In the end I had left our home at 7:45 and returned at 9:30.
The pick up time for Sophia was 10:30.
David did the round of pick-ups for me. I was down for the count.

 Here I leave you with Home Skillet Gabby Shab:
She put the hat on backwards and picked up the toy cell phone...
this girl

And we are enjoying cooler mornings, upper 70s in the afternoons.
The girls went on a nature walk scavenger hunt for Science today enjoyed it.
on their check-off list:
Mammal they saw: Sophia: 'me', Bella: 'D lady'.

The Coolest Dad

 On October 25 David turned 38. He had just returned from Thailand and the kids were so excited to welcome him with Cheesecake and our new family favorite, Cherry dump cake:

 David had to bring back the key ingredient: cherries, but it was worth it!

A few days ago as David left after lunch for work, I reminded the kids how cool their daddy was...
I mean just look how he gets to work every day.

Home School Focus: Math

I love math. I am a pretty strong 'J' if you want to put me into a personality type.
I love the lists, the organization and the logic that is math. There is always a right answer.
This is so refreshing.
I had some amazing math teachers, one in particular that just fueled my love. But to love math is not to be confused with the ability to teach it well. No, no.
So far we are doing fine. But if I am honest, what is looming scares me. I am responsible for my children's understanding of fractions, and common factors, and algebra at some point, and geometry, and....ugh. I am leaving the Calculus to David, it is his passion, and I will yield.

But back up....my oldest is 8!!! To make sure I am prepared I bought (and am actually using) 3-4 different math curricula. Laugh Out Loud. Laugh right at me.
I am math crazy.

First of all I LOVE LOVE the foundation that Right Start Math gives. For two years both Sophia and Bella started with this and Tobin will start soon. We do Levels A and B, which is like K and 1st grade and then transition to Singapore math (primary mathematics). I know folks who have gone on in right start and love it, I probably would have too but I went with a more prominent and well tested curriculum in Singapore Math.

Singapore Math then becomes are main curriculum, and we really do like it. A year ago I bought Miquon Math to incorporate in with Singapore. It sat on the shelf until the summer where I had Sophia breeze through some and now we are getting to meatier stuff. Miquon cycles through subjects like Singapore does but uses 'lab sheets' and cuisenaire rods. I have looked ahead it gets difficult and will take my guidance but is quite a different exploration into math. So far we are enjoying what these lab sheets bring to our math as well. When it all gets a bit harder, we will see.

And this year I bought Life of Fred Math, which is totally different from every other! In the summer I had Sophia go through the first two books, a chapter a day. Now she does about 2-3 chapters a week, though one chapter for us now, is one lesson. I have made this a complete 'on your own' type math activity. She says she really likes it. I am not sure what book she is on. It definitely introduces concepts outside of math to bring math in context of daily life. I do love that. It is also very cleverly written. I am not sure when/if I will start Bella on this.

Bella right now (has done A and B of Right Start) is doing Singapore Math and some Miquon Lab sheets.

They usually do four solid days of math with Sophia adding a review day or a chapter of Life of Fred, which right now doesn't take long at all.

This may sound crazy but it is working for us.
Tobin will get in the mix this year with Right Start Level A.
The girls also get math at Chinese school but don't do any of the homework. We are not sure how much longer they will remain in local school, but I am still amazed at their ability to take it all in and enjoy it. On their breaks at home they 'play school', it is always Chinese school and almost always math.

Home School Subject Focus: Bible

We have no formal Bible Curriculum and so far have not needed one.
David has done fabulous job of planning and implementing his goals/desires for the growth of our family's biblical knowledge and theology.

And while this directly coincides with family devotions, they are not the same thing. For family devos we read the word (we have used a wide variety of Bibles over the years), ask questions about it, and pray together.  We also often sing a praise song or two. Our reading is usually done with story book Bibles for now and is focusing on big picture stuff, always pointing to Jesus.

David has used a few different sources for catechism questions, but mostly we go with all of Dana Dirksen's which are to music and incredibly well done. And as mentioned before we are using the Bible Book Cards from Bible Study Guide for all Ages. But what has really enhanced this is the girls' individual reading of the Rod and Staff Readers Bible Nurture and Reader Series. This was recommended by Barbara Beers, the writer of our Language Arts Curriculum, The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading. This Bible series increases in difficulty but has great stories that capture enough and then as you get into higher levels they go into more detail. When we get to a certain story in our devos they pipe in with more detail from what they have read. They do this on their own individual reading time.

For synopsis, it may go like this:
Scripture memory: intro new verse over breakfast, review daily until mastered, review others on own.
Lunch time:
Five minutes: go over catechism questions. (since we have been through these a lot, we are focusing on review)
10-15 minutes: Bible Book Cards
Devos: about 15 minutes give or take.

We now have incorporated their own system for review of their catechism questions and memory verses on our home school device and they know how to do flashcards there. I do Tobin's flashcards with him in the morning.

Home school Subject Focus: History and Read Aloud

We are in volume 3 of Story of the World. We do love it!
This year we added notebooking pages that I found on line, and I have added in tests that I often just go through with them. Tobin sits in and doodles while we do this. Sophia and Bella both started this series early, at 6 and 4, but we have kept going and will repeat all the info in another cycle through either with SOTW or another curriculum with similar cycles.

It is superbly written, covers the breadth of what is going on all over the world at the particular time period and has enough extra activities to make it fun. The first year we just read and did coloring pages. The second year we got into trying to recall information (using all of our CC 'pegs'). This year we are trying, for Sophia, to do more narration back and writing her own summary info. Bella does copy work.

I had planned to have them listen to me read it through and then Friday re-listen to the audio while drawing, so far this has happened 2x. Every Thursday or Friday is our project day. SOTW has lots of great projects to choose from.

We go through 1-2 chapters a week which is a decent pace. Almost all of our read alouds for the year go along with history. Right now we are reading 'Huguenot Garden' to go along with our chapter on France in the late 1600s. Earlier, we read 'Escape Across the Wide Sea' which were also Huguenots escaping but was a great intro into the slave trade and 'middle passage'. When we get to an area that may not have a novel to go with it we read 'Stories from around the World' or Barefoot Books stories.

I also have Sophia (and Bella some) reading their own history read alongs. Not every book assigned goes along with the history but some do.

The other thing we do during most read aloud days, is spend the first 5-10 minutes reading from 'A Child's History of the World'. We have read some of this before, and didn't start at the beginning, but it is a super fun read that keeps them interested and covers the whole span of history with really short chapters.  It is just added reinforcement.

I lesson planned all of my read alouds, their read alongs, and our projects for the whole year which makes me not have to scramble around!

Here we built a paper replica of London and burned it down in 'The Great Fire'. I enlarged the buildings and they made toothpick signs to stick on all the storefronts, (lots of fun with this)

All of the buildings were so close together. Our one alley way was very narrow and we littered the street with trash. They made lots of bakeries (which incidentally was where the loan coal dropped out of a fire and started the whole thing that burned down 4/5 of the city).

Our fire started in a bakery on the corner and quickly burned down the street:

It started to taper out at the corner (we had to re-light once, but no more)

 It made it around the corner and down our alleyway

 And just like they said, it jumped across:

Tragedy. Dust and Ashes left.

History is probably their favorite subject.

Homes School Subject Focus: Fine Arts

This is cut and pasted from my CC overview:

We review the week's new stuff and dig into our art project. Every six weeks the focus 

changes. First 6 weeks have been basic art technique. They have loved each new project 

to accent basic shapes, abstract art, perspective, etc. The next six weeks is supposed to be 

Tin Whistle, which we are dropping this year (they take piano). We will go into Orchestra 

and Composers which will lead us into Christmas studying Handel. The third six weeks we 

will do the Great Artists which does have corresponding art projects, and the last six weeks 

I may return to composers, I haven't decided yet. We will do art with composers in some 

way, since they love to draw and use their big sketch books, draw as we listen probably!