Books he read silently
A Wrinkle in Time
The Boy in the Painted Cave
The Golden Goblet
Books we read aloud
The Benedict Society
Books for other subjects
Born With a Bang: The universe tells our cosmic story
From Lava to Life: The universe tells our earth story
Mammals who Morph: The universe tells our evolutionary story
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Allboy's 3rd grade reading log
Books he is reading silently to himself for fun
A to Z mystery---The Zombie Zone
A to Z mystery---The School Skeleton
Books we are reading aloud for fun
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Books to supplement other subjects
The First Dog
Bones, Bones, Bones
Born With a Bang: The universe tells our cosmic story
From Lava to Life: The universe tells our earth story
Mammals who Morph: The universe tells our evolutionary story
A to Z mystery---The Zombie Zone
A to Z mystery---The School Skeleton
Books we are reading aloud for fun
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Books to supplement other subjects
The First Dog
Bones, Bones, Bones
Born With a Bang: The universe tells our cosmic story
From Lava to Life: The universe tells our earth story
Mammals who Morph: The universe tells our evolutionary story
Friday, September 16, 2011
Love IEW Writing program....but
Institute of Excellence in writing is recommended all the time, and I took a serious look at it for our main writing materials. There were a few things that made me hesitate, first the cost. It costs more than my first car. Now granted my first car was a POS, and it was a long time ago, but still.
Instead of buying the entire program I found Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons. I thought this would be a good way to get the flavor of their materials without making such a big commitment. I am really happy with the program. The Grinmaster's writing was what I consider quite weak and after only a couple of weeks his use of quality adjectives and strong verbs is making his writing more fun to read, and more interesting.
This is his first writing assignment. A poem about the Ancient World. I am leaving the capitalization and punctuation errors, although surprisingly there aren't many.
The Ancient World
Sumer, with harsh cruel rivers,
Pleasant, lovely gardens,
Colossal Ziggurats.
Egypt, with Clever powerful Pharaohs,
Massive, huge Pyramids,
The fascinating Nile.
Israel, with God's delightful, baffling law,
The stunning, fancy temple,
And the incredible, broad promised land.
Greece, with mysterious, remarkable Gods,
Mighty, strong athletes
Remarkable, stunning philosophers.
Rome, with charming, kind emperors,
Scary, gruesome armies,
Immoral, hideous gladiators.
The Ancient World,
Scary, Amazing and Immense.
(I thought some of the adjectives that he chose were funny, but since we are just beginning out Ancient history study, I am sure they will change at the end of the year when I will have him rewrite the poem to test both his writing skills and if he learned enough about the ancients to realize that these might be a bit off. But overall I am happy with his progress, and happy with IEW.)
Instead of buying the entire program I found Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons. I thought this would be a good way to get the flavor of their materials without making such a big commitment. I am really happy with the program. The Grinmaster's writing was what I consider quite weak and after only a couple of weeks his use of quality adjectives and strong verbs is making his writing more fun to read, and more interesting.
This is his first writing assignment. A poem about the Ancient World. I am leaving the capitalization and punctuation errors, although surprisingly there aren't many.
The Ancient World
Sumer, with harsh cruel rivers,
Pleasant, lovely gardens,
Colossal Ziggurats.
Egypt, with Clever powerful Pharaohs,
Massive, huge Pyramids,
The fascinating Nile.
Israel, with God's delightful, baffling law,
The stunning, fancy temple,
And the incredible, broad promised land.
Greece, with mysterious, remarkable Gods,
Mighty, strong athletes
Remarkable, stunning philosophers.
Rome, with charming, kind emperors,
Scary, gruesome armies,
Immoral, hideous gladiators.
The Ancient World,
Scary, Amazing and Immense.
(I thought some of the adjectives that he chose were funny, but since we are just beginning out Ancient history study, I am sure they will change at the end of the year when I will have him rewrite the poem to test both his writing skills and if he learned enough about the ancients to realize that these might be a bit off. But overall I am happy with his progress, and happy with IEW.)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The importance of understanding the Trivium
I classically educate the boys using the Trivium model. I understood on an intellectual level what that meant, but it isn't until seeing it in action repeatedly that it began to really click.
For those that aren't familiar with the Trivium it basically boils down to the 3 stages of learning levels for kids. The Grammar stage, the Logic stage, and the Rhetoric stage. Each describes how children learn during certain stages in their development. The Grammar stage is all about the facts. Kids in 1st-4th grade are most capable of learning information. They memorize and can parrot the facts back to you the best at at this stage. But they can't reason through those facts. It isn't until the Logic stage 4th-8th grade that they begin to reason and even argue the best. Finally the next stage is Rhetoric when it all comes together and the skills used in the other two stages are shared by communicating through written or oral ideas. Opinions are formed and debated (hopefully using critical thinking skills) and knowledge, reasoning, and communicating can flow.
I am seeing these stages manifest themselves in the boys almost daily. For example we use "English from the Roots Up" to study Vocabulary for both the boys. Allboy is a whiz at remembering the definitions for each root, but when it comes to analyzing a word and defining it based on those roots he has a hard time. He can't use reasoning to decide whether the first Latin root of the second comes first in the definition based on what makes sense. But Grinmaster can and does quite easily, once he remembers the roots themselves or Allboy points them out. Very different boys, but it makes sense when looked at through the lens of the Trivium. I started thinking about this today while reading Aesop's Fables. The story was "The Wolf and the Dog", where the dog is fat and the wolf is thin and the dog tells the wolf he can have all he could ever want to eat, but he must have a master and be kept on a chain. The wolf decides that he would rather be a bit hungry and still be free. Grinmaster knew right away the moral of the story, and Allboy could tell you almost sentence by sentence the main passages. But even using other examples like asking Allboy if I could give him a dollar to walk him up and down the street on a leash flew right over his head. Allboy likes dollars, and would let me walk him all day long if that meant he could buy candy. He couldn't understand that some good things are not worth the cost. Not because he is stupid by any means, but because he can't reason well enough to think through the consequences. He would get a dollar and be happy, but would be embarrassed to be treated like a dog. (well actually it was worse than that he thought it was the funniest thing ever and wanted to play it right away) That isn't a lack in him, it is a lack in me if I design lessons or teaching experiences that do not fit the stages each of the boys are in. The trivium is something that I learned about at the beginning for our homeschool journey, but I didn't really apply it to our homeschool. I am going to take another look because I am finally understanding on a practical level what it means and how a deeper understanding could help me avoid wasting money and time.
For those that aren't familiar with the Trivium it basically boils down to the 3 stages of learning levels for kids. The Grammar stage, the Logic stage, and the Rhetoric stage. Each describes how children learn during certain stages in their development. The Grammar stage is all about the facts. Kids in 1st-4th grade are most capable of learning information. They memorize and can parrot the facts back to you the best at at this stage. But they can't reason through those facts. It isn't until the Logic stage 4th-8th grade that they begin to reason and even argue the best. Finally the next stage is Rhetoric when it all comes together and the skills used in the other two stages are shared by communicating through written or oral ideas. Opinions are formed and debated (hopefully using critical thinking skills) and knowledge, reasoning, and communicating can flow.
I am seeing these stages manifest themselves in the boys almost daily. For example we use "English from the Roots Up" to study Vocabulary for both the boys. Allboy is a whiz at remembering the definitions for each root, but when it comes to analyzing a word and defining it based on those roots he has a hard time. He can't use reasoning to decide whether the first Latin root of the second comes first in the definition based on what makes sense. But Grinmaster can and does quite easily, once he remembers the roots themselves or Allboy points them out. Very different boys, but it makes sense when looked at through the lens of the Trivium. I started thinking about this today while reading Aesop's Fables. The story was "The Wolf and the Dog", where the dog is fat and the wolf is thin and the dog tells the wolf he can have all he could ever want to eat, but he must have a master and be kept on a chain. The wolf decides that he would rather be a bit hungry and still be free. Grinmaster knew right away the moral of the story, and Allboy could tell you almost sentence by sentence the main passages. But even using other examples like asking Allboy if I could give him a dollar to walk him up and down the street on a leash flew right over his head. Allboy likes dollars, and would let me walk him all day long if that meant he could buy candy. He couldn't understand that some good things are not worth the cost. Not because he is stupid by any means, but because he can't reason well enough to think through the consequences. He would get a dollar and be happy, but would be embarrassed to be treated like a dog. (well actually it was worse than that he thought it was the funniest thing ever and wanted to play it right away) That isn't a lack in him, it is a lack in me if I design lessons or teaching experiences that do not fit the stages each of the boys are in. The trivium is something that I learned about at the beginning for our homeschool journey, but I didn't really apply it to our homeschool. I am going to take another look because I am finally understanding on a practical level what it means and how a deeper understanding could help me avoid wasting money and time.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Continued Curriculum Science- Rashad
Aristotle leads the Way I chose The Story of Science because I wanted an overview that followed the history cycle. We also bought the quest guide that include science vocabulary, experiments and helps flesh out the subject. Quest guide But I am finding out that it isn't a good fit for him. The books are directed to learners that learn best by reading, and have less hands on science than I would like. I think perhaps they might be better for high school kids, or enthusiastic readers? I am looking for other science options before I decide whether to drop it all together or fold it into a hybrid Science/History extra credit resource. Any ideas?
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| The Grinmaster's Science. We are using Joy Hakim' Story of Science |
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Some thoughts about our curriculum and Schedule
I think the 2 main questions I get from people about home schooling is what do I teach them and how do I have enough time. Well there is never enough time, but the curriculum part is easier to explain.
For both Grinmaster and Allboy we use Teaching Textbooks for math.
I chose this because it is a computer based program and even though I feel comfortable teaching Allboy 3rd grade math, I had some worries about teaching Grinmaster. Math is not my thing, and I didn't want to transfer my math anxiety and confusion to them. It takes between 30 and 45 minutes per day and starts with a video lecture followed by the lesson which includes 20-25 math problems. The program keeps track of their progress and grades the work automatically. My kids learn best with a spiral math program and it meets that criteria as well. For Grammar we use Growing with Grammar. This and Teaching Textbooks are the only open and go programs use. I tried First Language Lessons with Allboy last year and found out that the boys do NOT need a spiral grammar program and that it makes him a bit crazy to keep repeating the same lessons over and over again. I also the year using Grammar Voyage with Grinmaster and it was a disaster. I love Grammar Voyage, Michael Clay Thompson, and would have enjoyed learning grammar that way myself, but it didn't
have enough hand holding for Grinmaster. He isn't able to pick out the main ideas in his reading and have the light bulb click on without more practice. Perhaps if I had bought the other books in the series first it would have worked better, but since our other subjects are important to us, and take a lot of time, Growing with Grammar will get the job done. My favorite program and most helpful is All About Spelling
I can't say enough great things about this program! We started with Level 1 as suggested even though the words presented were words that Allboy could easily spell. But the success of the program is in the spelling rules and that is why it is important to start at the beginning with level 1, even if that means flying through the first couple of levels until you get to the point where you need to slow down and level out at where you child actually is in spelling. The other great thing is that it also improves reading at the same time, because phonics are it's base. If I could only buy one thing to teach this would be it. The downside is that it isn't as cheap as many workbook types of spelling levels, but I have read and talked to so many people that skip around with spelling because they can't find anything that really works. In the long run if you have to keep buying new spelling programs then you aren't saving money, and this saves a bunch of time that are too often wasted on programs that don't work. Because the Grinmaster went to traditional schools until this year (7th grade) he is used to a Monday-Friday list spelling program so we went with Spelling Workout It is inexpensive and it gets the job done.
I will save the rest of our curriculum for another day because it is more detailed and I put resources together for Writing, History, Science, and Vocabulary.
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