Wednesday, September 28, 2011

MY TOOLS

Speaking of tools, I thought I would begin a list of my resources and books.  I did lots of research before I committed to any of the materials and so far, I have not been disappointed.  I do have many materials and lists of websites, etc. which I haven't had an opportunity to try-out yet, so I won't include them in my list until I can count them as a recommendation.

Here is the rough outline of what I use and how we use it:

RESOURCE:  Moving Beyond the Page (core curriculum, Ages 5-7)
   OVERVIEW:  Incorporating all state and national standards, I liked this unit-based curriculum because it it cross-curricular.  Meaning that it doesn't separate out the subjects but covers subjects (Science, English, Social Studies, History, Math) using themes, or in this case, themes within four "big ideas" or concepts: Environment, Similarities and Differences, Patterns, Change.  Within each of these concepts are 3 units and 10 lessons within each unit, some lessons take a day, others two days and each unit has a final project.  For example, we have nearly completed Unit 1: Habitats and Homes of the first Concept: Environment.  Unit 2 is weather.  It was difficult to find a curriculum that I though was creative, innovative and thoughtful as I wanted.  Prior to finding this curriculum, I had resolved a list of 12 themes I thought would be best for us which I could organize materials into.  Thankfully, I didn't have to re-invent the wheel.  I did want to keep my list so I merged those topics with the units of Moving Beyond the Page. In making this list, I thought about what places and resources we had handy and, of course, her interests: Animals, Space, Government, Health, Cooking, Travel, Insects, Art, Family, Gardening, Beach and Florida. Most topics I was able to line up with the units rationally, the loosest association I made was my "Space" topic (we are only 45 minutes from the space station!) I could match only with the weather unit... a stretch, but I think it will be alright.
  FREQUENCY: We have been doing 4 lessons per week, on average.  My goal is to complete 5 each wk.
  WEAKNESS:  I do LOVE this curriculum but (only a small but) I wish the book list was more extensive.  We have been supplementing and borrowing from the library.


RESOURCE:  "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Englemann (Reading)
  OVERVIEW: This book was recommended to us by other homeschooling parents.  The lessons are short, 10-20 minutes each.  The style is extremely straightforward and gives you an unmistakable narrative of how to instruct, correct and reward her work.  Although it took Alexandra a week or so to get used to the style of the book now she really does well with it.  She prefers to mix everything with bits of drama and discussion and this system is no nonsense.  Just lovely!  Her confidence is amazing and she attempts to sound out all kinds of words.  She tells me; "Just give me a minute, I know I can do it".  What more can you ask for?
  FREQUENCY:  We have been getting in approximately 5 lessons per week.  She is pushing to do more, which is wonderful but 5 is also a good pace.
  WEAKNESS: Because of its intense approach, it really does require complete attention from us both.  Thus, when the boys are around, it gets tricky.

RESOURCE: Mathematical Reasoning, Level A (Grade K) by The Critical Thinking Company
  OVERVIEW:  Each time we work with this book, Alexandra remarks on how much she loves Math.  I did not see that one coming as she is very creative.  This book has lots of puzzles and a great way of easing into concepts.  Alexandra was identifying even and odd numbers with no problem last week after the instructions asked her to identify which groups could be partnered up and which groups had singles.
  FREQUENCY:  I set a pace of 11 pages per week, based on the length of the book.  She completes a weeks worth of math in one sitting and wants to do more because she thinks it is fun.  I have found myself using math as a reward for completing her handwriting!
  WEAKNESS:  It seems to be easy for her but I have little basis for comparison and I am certainly not complaining about this surprising enthusiasm for math!


RESOURCE: "Building Thinking Skills" (Grades PreK-1) by The Critical Thinking Company
  OVERVIEW: This book is comprised of Hands-on puzzles, using manipulatives, designed to develop higher order thinking and critical thinking skills for reading, writing, math and science.  I consider it logic for kids, an introduction to the art of figuring it out.
  FREQUENCY:  We use this book together with another child Alexandra's age who spends Mondays with us.  I think once a week is good.
  WEAKNESS:   It is good to have a buddy because the puzzles can be redundant.  When they get fidgety, its nice to switch it up and work together.  There is a lot of shading a coloring so far and I have let them use crayons, markers, sparkly markers...


RESOURCE: Handwriting Without Tears (1st Grade)
  OVERVIEW:  I have a teachers guide and a notebook for each Alexandra and her buddy.  It gives gimmicky (I don't think that's a word) ideas about how to form letters and breaks them into groups as such.
  FREQUENCY: We do handwriting everyday is some form, but we only use this method once per week.
  WEAKNESS:  It is still handwriting and while Alexandra's handwriting is decent, she is not a fan.  She still makes mistakes with letters not used often and is very impatient with mistakes.  
    




 

Tools

She learned to use a ruler and now the world has words with meaning and length!  She enjoyed to measure and compare tools we collected from around our home.  I asked her to bring me five tools.  She returned with a sparkly sandal, a plastic cup, a napkin, a broom and a dustpan.

Today was especially productive.  She is anxious to get through her reading book and insisted on doing two lessons again today!  Her attitude makes all the difference for us.  Today she was 100% sunshine.  We are approaching the end of our first unit and have begun to talk about her research project.  I asked her to think about which animal she would like to learn more about.  She loves animals.  I know it will take her a few days to decide.  In the mean time, I suggested I help her write another story in her Habitat book as a practice.  She liked that idea and wants to come up with a story about a zebra who wanders into the wrong habitat - should be interesting.  Hopefully, we will get started on that tomorrow.



  

Friday, September 23, 2011

Field trip

Yesterday we walked over to the Marine Science Center to learn more about aquatic habitats.  It's close by, so we have been there numerous times.  However, this visit was different as we arrived with purpose.  Alexandra was a scientist for the day.  Her assignment was to choose two habitats and study what animals lived there and how they get what they need (water, food, shelter) from their respective aquatic habitat.  She chose the touch tank with the sting rays and the (fresh water) turtle tank.  We took pictures and she asked questions to gather the information she needed.  I make a sneaky book purchase while the children were at the touch tank and used it as the grand prize for the quiz question on the walk home.  I asked Alexandra what was the biggest difference between the turtle and ray habitats and the reason why they can't be together... we walked halfway home and I thought she had ignored me, then she said "sting rays live in salt water by the beach and the those turtles need not-salt water".  Wow, I was impressed.   It turned out to be a very educational, quick and super-fun day together!

This morning we used our new "Field Guide to Florida" by the National Audubon Society to identify the names of each kind of ray and fish in the touch tank and each of the turtles and fish in the turtle tank.  We printed a picture of her favorite "funny faced turtle" (diamond back terrapin) and we will glue it in her Habitats book we've been making with a story about the turtle.

This afternoon at co-op Alexandra learned the box-step in her 'History through Music' class and discussed Pocahontas in the 'People in History' class coming home with a paper tepee and coloring page of a period British sailing ship.

It was a beautiful day in homeschool land
  

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Graphing

It's a bead graph.  Today we learned about graphing, spring boarding from a pictoral graph which used animal crackers (doubling as snack).  The x axis listed a few of the different habitats we've been covering and on the y axis were numbers of animals per habitat.  That came very natural,  then we brainstormed together on how to create our on graph with things we have around... lots of beads!  And here it is.

We also attended the homeschool group at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, (which I couldn't give enough praise for!).  For one hour and a half they talked about the scientific method and conducted an experiment with a rubberband-propelled wooden car, double-rubberbanding was the variable tested.nd, the each verified that their Hypothesis had been correct, it went further with two.  They charted the results and we then scribbled out a graph from the chart when we got home to tie our day into a neat little bow.  That worked out.

According to "Mr. Luis" at the museum, the MOAS now offers lots of educational resources targeting the young ones, even working with a class to improve their standardized test scores that comes over 14 times each year.   Their schedule is worth a look:  http://moas.org/calendar.cfm

Today I also bought tickets for a show at the Peabody that is all about the human body, including nutrition.  After checking out the website for "Slim Goodbody", I can't imagine making the subject more appealing!   http://www.slimgoodbody.com/tour_dates/

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

She's reading!

We took our first field trip (which doubled as her Baba's birthday trip) to Animal Kingdom in celebration of our Habitats and Homes Unit.  We observed a savanna habitat up close as the giraffes grazed past our rooms' balcony.  There were guides abound to answer questions about her favorite antelope and what the zebra's were eating.

This week, Alexandra has begun to READ!  It's truly magic to watch her sound out the words and see her grin when she registers its meaning.  I have some early reading decodable books that have simple sentences and she "reads" them proudly to her brothers.  She has been reading words off papers laying on the kitchen counter, and everywhere.  The wonder on her face is priceless as the words around her are all becoming available to her as if someone has dropped the curtain.  

I have added a new co-op class to her Friday afternoons called "People in History".   The multi-level class discusses history through the remarkable people who shaped our past.  She is excited to join her friends in that class.

Lately we have been very busy.  Admittedly, we are usually very busy but Alexandra has had unusual trouble controlling her temper.  The most troubling about it is that I know she wouldn't be acting this way in a formal classroom setting where her filters would be heightened.  Thus far, I have responded with the knee-jerk approach of taking away privileges, which seems to be thickening the negativity in the room.  Thursday is a restful day where we don't do school and her brothers are home with us all day.  I am trying to determine a comprehensive reward system to capitalize this free day... Maybe I could ask her to list some activities she wished we could do more often, put them on paper and into a box for her to draw from when she reaches a certain point on some kind of chart.  I want to focus on the harmony between us and promoting our partnership so she will resist less .  I know she values our one on one time so I want to appeal to that.  Hmmmm...


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

By the seat of my pants

We are doing a lot.  Accomplishing more than doing, more than worksheets.  Truly.  Alexandra and I have established a new and different trust base, thus we are beginning to see attributes of the other with new eyes.  Trust and respect are paramount among my goals so this makes my heart giggle a bit.  Alexandra loves to learn.  I just caught her up way past her bedtime, two hours past, copying all the words to one of her recent favorite books and quiet as a mouse.

As with most things in my life since children I can already feel that my plan is coming unraveled with my homeschool regime.  However, my understanding of our capacity and the material has developed exponentially more than the unraveling thus the 'flying by the seat of my pants' thing is going well.  More than that, I have found that there are things I can ask of her that buy time for me to plan so that the planning and schooling is happening within the same window... making this woman very happy.  Handwriting practice, some math and critical thinking worksheets, etc, prove overwhelmingly helpful.  A welcomed surprise.
On Monday, the critical thinking class with Alexandra's little buddy went well.  They were very giggly and Alexandra broke to tears in the beginning thinking that the other little one was stealing me away.  I assured Alexandra she held my whole heart and the friend was here for her.  She had trouble concentrating the first time but we completed a good amount of work and I think they will find their rhythm soon.  As planting season comes quickly upon us, I was thinking we may move out to the garden to plant, measure, graph and map new vegetables in our garden.  Maybe some fresh air will help us navigate the day better.  Helpers in my garden wouldn't be too bad either.

I have created an award system with star shaped post-its that are beginning to frame my white board.  Each time she exhibits extraordinary effort or progress, I record exactly why I'm so proud and display it on the board,  She glows with each one posted.

I should take pictures and post some.  Some time I will have a moment to work through how to make that happen.  I prefer blogs with pics... I wonder if I can send them from my phone?  Hmmm

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Getting to Work

Tomorrow begins our first full week of homeschooling and Alexandra couldn't be more anxious.  I cherish her genuine enthusiasm.  Monday we will begin, joined by another homeschooled kinder-gardener who lives nearby.  Together, we will start on our critical thinking curriculum which is mainly puzzles designed to train their little minds in the art of figuring things out.  I look forward to giving her these higher order thinking skills and she loves puzzles so no problem there.  The remainder of the time, I thought I would let them choose from several games I though up, including practicing writing numbers with fingerpaint, measuring/counting ingredients for snack-time cookies, etc... on second thought, maybe I will let them choose one each - who says no to cookies.

I will be back from dropping the boys around 9 and need to leave to pick them up at 1... plenty of time.  I may need more plans...Perhaps we can do some physical education and work in some swimming.  It's simply too steamy for me to supervise much else!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Butterflies

Tomorrow is Alexandra's first day of Kindergarten!

Our schedule has changed, again.  I finally did decide to join a local co-op for one "Learning through classical music" class, which my lovely neighbor will help teach.  I have made an effort throughout my planning this summer to construct a rhythm with highlights throughout the week for her.  This music class is Friday afternoons with some other little girlies we know.  A fun end to her week.

As of this moment our plan is to have schooling four days per week; not Thursday and short reading lessons six days per week (she insists).  Thursday will be field trip day, boys in tow.  Wednesday afternoons at the children's museum for their home schooling program/activity.  Gymnastics twice weekly and I am still searching for a convenient piano teacher.  The timing of each day is the biggest variable right now, as I can't know how long it will take us to move through material until we do - or don't - as planned.  It's a loose plan, a flexible framework.  Tomorrow, we will work on the main curriculum and reading.  Friday, I plan to do the first math lesson and Monday we will begin the critical thinking book.  I have chosen "Beyond the Page" which is a hands-on unit study based system that integrates most subjects (except Math and Reading) into daily fluid discussions that are all organized within four big ideas: Environment, Similarities and Differences, Patterns and Change.

I have planned many surprises to make it extra special, hopefully memorable!  We begin with the study of Habitats and Homes; her environment.  The book has us mapping rooms in our house... I plan to really get into the discussion of vocab words as we decorate her doll house (unfinished wood) with wall paper, rugs and art.  Dollie environment.  What's not to love.