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?
 |
| 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.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Discovery Education Streaming
My subscription to Discovery Education Streaming is current and all I can say is WOW!!!! Imagine being able to find television shows from Discovery, PBS, Scholastic, and BBC Education anytime you want them, and that is just the beginning of DE. The search engine isn't user friendly, but it becomes easier with practice. I spent about an hour today, probably because I am OCD, looking for videos that connect to lesson plans and curricula for the year.
I found the entire series of Magic School Bus, Time Warp Trios, and Horrible Histories as I expected but I also discovered quite a few shows that are new to us, like Journal through History-Building Civilizations in Ancient Egypt and Living History-Ancient Greece I watched a few minutes of both series to make sure that it is something to catch my boys interest, and I am impressed. I think they will like them better than the Time Warp Trio series since they are told from the point of view of a 12 year old, educational, yet still fast moving cartoons sprinkled with real pictures of historical geographical places. I also appreciate the fact that each series can be watched as a whole, or broken down into smaller areas if time is limited. Did I mention that they also have an interactive quiz at the end of each one?
My other surprise finds were Pendimonium Grammar and Cyberchase Math
I know I won't use all of the great videos since I am not a fan of screen time education, but I think they will fill in some time gaps and hopefully be interesting enough that the boys might want to watch them without me prodding and pushing them into it.
As for the OCD part they also have their own "My Favorites" list on the website once you sign in and I was able to categorize the shows and save them for when I want them.
It is a bit costly but they have some free content like
I found the entire series of Magic School Bus, Time Warp Trios, and Horrible Histories as I expected but I also discovered quite a few shows that are new to us, like Journal through History-Building Civilizations in Ancient Egypt and Living History-Ancient Greece I watched a few minutes of both series to make sure that it is something to catch my boys interest, and I am impressed. I think they will like them better than the Time Warp Trio series since they are told from the point of view of a 12 year old, educational, yet still fast moving cartoons sprinkled with real pictures of historical geographical places. I also appreciate the fact that each series can be watched as a whole, or broken down into smaller areas if time is limited. Did I mention that they also have an interactive quiz at the end of each one?
My other surprise finds were Pendimonium Grammar and Cyberchase Math
I know I won't use all of the great videos since I am not a fan of screen time education, but I think they will fill in some time gaps and hopefully be interesting enough that the boys might want to watch them without me prodding and pushing them into it.
As for the OCD part they also have their own "My Favorites" list on the website once you sign in and I was able to categorize the shows and save them for when I want them.
It is a bit costly but they have some free content like
Free Puzzlemaker | Discovery Education as well as opportunities to watch some shows without a subscription. I also lucked out and bought it through a co-op, Online G3
G3 discussion forums provide a safe, moderated environment for gifted students to socialize. Enrolled students will also receive access to BrainPOP.com, BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP Espanol, and Discovery Education Virtual Streaming. $59.00 per academic year. That is about half off and includes the Brainpop websites. So it was a deal and a splurge.
Credit to Satori Smiles
We enjoy the Time Warp Trio series and now that we have a Discovery Streaming subscription
http://player.discoveryeducation.com we can watch them whenever we want, which usually corresponds with where we are in World History.
I looked online for an episode guide to attach to our lesson plans and found it on a blog called "Satori Smiles" http://satorismiles.com/ (one of my favorite blogs for homeschooling ideas) She took the time to post the episodes in chronological order as well as link to other supplements that can be used with each show. She is one of my heroes! But be forewarned, it is easy to look at everything she is doing with her daughter and get insecure, even if you have a healthy sense of self. I just tell myself that she found a way to get 30 hours out of a day instead of 24 (smile)
Links go to additional resources, including fiction and non-fiction books, the ultimate Time Traveler’s Guide, and research games.
http://player.discoveryeducation.com we can watch them whenever we want, which usually corresponds with where we are in World History.
I looked online for an episode guide to attach to our lesson plans and found it on a blog called "Satori Smiles" http://satorismiles.com/ (one of my favorite blogs for homeschooling ideas) She took the time to post the episodes in chronological order as well as link to other supplements that can be used with each show. She is one of my heroes! But be forewarned, it is easy to look at everything she is doing with her daughter and get insecure, even if you have a healthy sense of self. I just tell myself that she found a way to get 30 hours out of a day instead of 24 (smile)
Links go to additional resources, including fiction and non-fiction books, the ultimate Time Traveler’s Guide, and research games.
- NEANDERTHALS, Prehistoric
The Caveman Catastrophe - ANCIENT EGYPT, 1500 B.C.
Tut Tut - ANCIENT BABYLON, 580 B.C.
The Seven Blunders of the World - ANCIENT OLYMPICS, 404 B.C.
My Big Fat Greek Olympics - GLADIATORS, A.D. 120
See You Later, Gladiator! - INDIA, A.D. 720
Dude, Where’s My Karma? - CHINA, A.D. 621
Wushu Were Here - THE MAYA, A.D. 960
Me Oh Maya - VIKINGS, 1001
Viking It and Liking It - GENGHIS KHAN, 1170
You Can’t, but Genghis Khan - MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND, 1338
Plaid to the Bone - LEONARDO DA VINCI, 1503
Breaking the Codex - OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1540
Harem Scare’em - SAMURAI, 1618
Sam Samurai - COLONIAL AFRICA, 1624
Jinga All the Way - PETER THE GREAT, 1698
What’s So Great About Peter? - PIRATES, 1718
The Not-So-Jolly Roger - EASTER ISLAND, 1765
Birdman or Birdbrain? - LEWIS AND CLARK, 1805
Lewis and Clark… - FRANKENSTEIN, 1816
Nightmare on Joe’s Street - OLD WEST, 1868
The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy - NAPOLEON, 1815
Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba - INVENTORS, 1877
Hey Kid, Want to Buy a Bridge? - SOUTH POLE, 1911
Break an Egg - AMELIA EARHART, 1937
The High and the Flighty - THE FUTURE, 2105
2105
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Attitude Adjusting
I have discovered that if we are going to have a peaceful and productive year that there needs to be some attitude adjustments. I will start with the easiest to change. Mine. Too often I allow and even reward behavior that I want to stop. I also yell more than I would like, and I want to have a peaceful and loving home. To make that happens it all begins with me. One solution is that during the day we listen to "light" classical music as our background noise. It might seem simpler to learn in silence, but then it seems that everything is magnified. I also notice that with calm music on it seems to help us all remember to be calm.
The other attitude adjustment that is needed is for the Little Ball of Energy that I love but don't like too often. He has gotten in the habit of either sneering that everything is hard or dumb, and if that doesn't work then he whines that he is dumb. He also wastes a lot of my time and his. I don't mind if he wants to waste his time, but mine is worthy and could be spent on other things. The real frustration is that when he takes 2 seconds to listen then he is fine and understand what he needs to do. But getting him in the groove is headache inducing. I understand that he is ADHD, and that we are choosing not to medicate him into acceptable behavior but this goes beyond just fiddling and fidgeting and he needs to be taught the tools to allow him to flourish. So I need to do my part and enforce consequences. Even if that means that for a couple of weeks we won't get quite as much done. But it is worth it.
Finally the Grinmaster. He is wonderful and will do anything I ask. How could he possibly need an attitude adjustment? Well the problem is that unless I tell him every single thing, he won't take any initiative. He needs an exhausting amount of hand holding. I don't blame him, he is used to teachers telling him when to pick up his pencil and when to put it down. He also comes from a background where doing the wrong thing was always bad, even though mistakes are part of the learning process. I am trying to praise him more for taking even the smallest risks and working him towards more independence. I want him to discover the joy of learning for learning sake and not just to get it done for the grade.
I hope I haven't made being with the kids or educating them seem like a chore. The majority of the time it is joyful and rewarding and I am blessed with fabulous kids. But I wanted to take the time to remove the blinders and see where are weaknesses are as well as our strengths and try to bolster those areas. This entire journey is a learning process for me, not just the kids, and I am sure that as soon as we get into a comfortable groove something will happen and we will face change of some kind.
The other attitude adjustment that is needed is for the Little Ball of Energy that I love but don't like too often. He has gotten in the habit of either sneering that everything is hard or dumb, and if that doesn't work then he whines that he is dumb. He also wastes a lot of my time and his. I don't mind if he wants to waste his time, but mine is worthy and could be spent on other things. The real frustration is that when he takes 2 seconds to listen then he is fine and understand what he needs to do. But getting him in the groove is headache inducing. I understand that he is ADHD, and that we are choosing not to medicate him into acceptable behavior but this goes beyond just fiddling and fidgeting and he needs to be taught the tools to allow him to flourish. So I need to do my part and enforce consequences. Even if that means that for a couple of weeks we won't get quite as much done. But it is worth it.
Finally the Grinmaster. He is wonderful and will do anything I ask. How could he possibly need an attitude adjustment? Well the problem is that unless I tell him every single thing, he won't take any initiative. He needs an exhausting amount of hand holding. I don't blame him, he is used to teachers telling him when to pick up his pencil and when to put it down. He also comes from a background where doing the wrong thing was always bad, even though mistakes are part of the learning process. I am trying to praise him more for taking even the smallest risks and working him towards more independence. I want him to discover the joy of learning for learning sake and not just to get it done for the grade.
I hope I haven't made being with the kids or educating them seem like a chore. The majority of the time it is joyful and rewarding and I am blessed with fabulous kids. But I wanted to take the time to remove the blinders and see where are weaknesses are as well as our strengths and try to bolster those areas. This entire journey is a learning process for me, not just the kids, and I am sure that as soon as we get into a comfortable groove something will happen and we will face change of some kind.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The 2011-2012 School Year has begun!
We actually started schooling in August, but I don't consider it official until the Public schools here begin. I used the month of August to refine our curriculum choices, asses where the grinmaster was academically, and get a schedule that will work. As of this week we are working on all of our subjects and everything feels manageable.
The biggest difference in schooling this year is that the Grinmaster is home and Grandbaby Supreme got on the big yellow bus and road off into Kindergarten. I love having Grinmaster with us, and I miss GBaby Supreme horribly. Yesterday was his first day of school and he went with his beautiful face looking as if it met a terrible fate. Oh, thats right, it did. He tumbled onto the road, and left quite a bit of skin behind. It was hard enough to see him to go off, but hurt and vulnerable made it even worse. I don't know how his Mama could stand it. She kept looking at the clock and I know she missed having him around.
The other big change is the lesson plan and schedule that we are using. I put pen to paper last year, and it worked okay, but it was hard to keep track of hours, progress and plan for the whole year that way without having to edit constantly. This year I found Scholaric lesson planning. I tried the 15 free trial and I am hooked. For $1 per month it is affordable, and the ease of use it excellent. I also like that the developer answers questions instantly and has a blog and facebook for FAQ's.
http://scholaric.com/ I will take some screenshots soon and do a post specifically on Scholaric because I like it just that much, and it is just that helpful. I wish I had it last year.
The other big change is the lesson plan and schedule that we are using. I put pen to paper last year, and it worked okay, but it was hard to keep track of hours, progress and plan for the whole year that way without having to edit constantly. This year I found Scholaric lesson planning. I tried the 15 free trial and I am hooked. For $1 per month it is affordable, and the ease of use it excellent. I also like that the developer answers questions instantly and has a blog and facebook for FAQ's.
http://scholaric.com/ I will take some screenshots soon and do a post specifically on Scholaric because I like it just that much, and it is just that helpful. I wish I had it last year.
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