This is the time of year I love. We relax the schedule and look back on the year to evaluate our progress. We look forward to next school year to see where we want to go. And, we finish out our current year with lots of fun hands-on learning. This year we will wrap up our year 1 studies with the Americas and botany. We will visit local Native American sites and (hopefully!) grow things if my black thumb doesn't get in our way. I am also working on planning some fun field trips for next year related to our year 2 studies-geology, astronomy, and the middle ages.
I think my favorite part, though, is to look back at what we have accomplished this past year. I stop and evaluate where each of my little students is at currently, how far we have come, and where we hope to go, and I make a list of goals to focus on during our relaxed time over the summer.
For us this summer, we will be working on reading fluency with 2 kiddos, and early reading with a 3rd. My current 3rd grader (almost 4th grader!) was just diagnosed dyslexic. His summer goals involve improving his reading and spelling skills with some new materials which will hopefully appeal to his awesome dyslexic brain. We will be using some of the materials provided by the Scottish Rite, along with Apples and Pears. My 5th (soon to be 6th grader) hopes to spend lots of time reading this summer. We don't school all summer, but we do try to keep our activities sensory-rich and learning-rich. School isn't separate from our life, rather it is our lifestyle and we tend to be all in when we are studying a particular topic.
My oldest (soon to be 11th grader) is actually beginning his junior year early this year. He will be in France in January as an exchange student, so we are starting schoolwork in June. He will be taking a dual enrollment class, as well as starting his history and lit, math, and thesis work for the year over the summer.
When I look back at what we have accomplished, and set new goals for the summer and future school year, I try to be careful to look not just at academic goals, but also at character issues and study skill related issues in each child. I want my children to be self-motivated and independent learners. We use tools through the year to try to encourage them along that path. For example, beginning in 6th grade, my kids set their own schedule using a planner. They decide which work they will accomplish which day and week. They set their own goals and schedule. I come behind them to make sure they are accomplishing the work at a pace they need to meet, but they are responsible for deciding how to break the work down by day and week.
Even for my younger children, I try to give them time management skills and independence by using work plans beginning in 1st grade. All the work they need to accomplish in a week is written onto their work plan, and it is their decision how and when to accomplish each task over the week.
Other issues we look for and encourage include note-taking, study skills, and listening skills. Oftentimes, if you are self-teaching mostly by reading, you lose the opportunity to develop your listening and oral note-taking skills. To attempt to teach these skills to my children, we watch videos and documentaries, use Khan academy and Coursera lectures, and take advantage of open courses available free online, such as those offered by Yale and MIT. We also require oral presentations from the kids over the year in a variety of environments, as well as their regular written work such as research projects beginning in middle school, and shorter projects in the elementary grades.
I love watching them grow and learn each year. In the midst of the daily grind of the school year, it is easy to miss the progress. Taking time to look back and reflect allows me a chance to see how far they have come. And laying out specific goals allows us to stay focused on where we are headed. And always I try to stay focused on the fact that they don't have to learn everything in one year, or even when they are young. They will repeat so much of the same information in high school. If we are struggling in an area, we work on that area over the summer more intensely, but always recognizing that those character issues and study skills issues are the most important in the younger grades to prepare them for high school.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Classes and planning assistance
If you are local and have a middle schooler or high schooler, I am going to be offering some classes again this summer and next school year. All the details are on this site Courses Available. Let me know if I can help you!
I also do essay grading and lesson planning on an individual basis, and would be happy to help you with your homeschooling needs! Just email me if I can help!
I also do essay grading and lesson planning on an individual basis, and would be happy to help you with your homeschooling needs! Just email me if I can help!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
High School History and Literature
For high school, we combine history and literature WTM style into a great books course which covers the full 4 year cycle. I start with the basic reading list given in the WTM for each year. I then modify this list somewhat to include more world books instead of solely western literature, as well as adding in a few books that I think are valuable. I think anyone could stick strictly to her list and do very well. My son is also a very quick and strong reader, and typically reads a work each week. If your student is a slower reader, you might want to drop some books to allow more time with each piece.
Our typical week looks something like this: Monday-he reads the background reading relating to the time period and culture we are studying. We use a variety of college textbooks for this purpose and chose from them if the subject is US, World, or European focused. My son will write an outline about the chapter he is reading, read further regarding the rest of the world during that period in the Timetables of History, and enter any important dates on his timeline book. He will also read some biographical reading about the author we are reading for the week. He then uses this background reading, as well as the biographical reading, to write a 1-2 page summary about the full background to the piece we are studying. Then he will jump into reading the text.
Tuesday: He will read some relevant primary source material from the time period we are studying. There are great sourcebooks out there and available, as well as easily accessible sourcebooks online, such as this one. He also continues reading the text for the week.
Wednesday: Mostly just reading the text, taking notes.
Thursday: We have a set discussion time on Thursday. We have been blessed to have a close friend follow our reading list along with us and come and discuss the text together with us. We discuss the context, as well as literary aspects of the text including theme, tone, characterization, style, etc. If you want to follow a similar approach, but need help preparing this discussion, I personally love the Stobaugh books which will provide you with discussion questions, etc, for a range of books. You can also find Great Books summaries and commentaries in print and online to do your research and make sure all important aspects are covered in the discussion. Ideally you will have read the text as well, but even if you haven't been able to, it is very possible to lead a solid discussion with some preparation. It is important to let the discussion be Socratic and organic, rather than lecture based. I really enjoy hearing the thoughts these two teenagers have about what they are reading, and our discussion of the literature naturally leads into good historical discussion, as well as interesting comparison and contrasts. At this time, I will typically assign him some kind of relevant essay. Often I draw from AP World History or AP English Literature essay questions to give him good solid practice in those types of essays. I try to sprinkle in AP multiple choice throughout the year as well.
Friday: Friday is spent finishing and polishing his writing and giving feedback on his weekly essay, as well as getting a jump start on the next week's text if it is longer.
That's our basic process. If you would like copies of my plans for high school history and literature years 1, 2, or 3, contact me. I am available to share my plans or to write personalized plans for you for any grade with reading and writing assignments for a donation to my son's exchange student fund. ;)
Our typical week looks something like this: Monday-he reads the background reading relating to the time period and culture we are studying. We use a variety of college textbooks for this purpose and chose from them if the subject is US, World, or European focused. My son will write an outline about the chapter he is reading, read further regarding the rest of the world during that period in the Timetables of History, and enter any important dates on his timeline book. He will also read some biographical reading about the author we are reading for the week. He then uses this background reading, as well as the biographical reading, to write a 1-2 page summary about the full background to the piece we are studying. Then he will jump into reading the text.
Tuesday: He will read some relevant primary source material from the time period we are studying. There are great sourcebooks out there and available, as well as easily accessible sourcebooks online, such as this one. He also continues reading the text for the week.
Wednesday: Mostly just reading the text, taking notes.
Thursday: We have a set discussion time on Thursday. We have been blessed to have a close friend follow our reading list along with us and come and discuss the text together with us. We discuss the context, as well as literary aspects of the text including theme, tone, characterization, style, etc. If you want to follow a similar approach, but need help preparing this discussion, I personally love the Stobaugh books which will provide you with discussion questions, etc, for a range of books. You can also find Great Books summaries and commentaries in print and online to do your research and make sure all important aspects are covered in the discussion. Ideally you will have read the text as well, but even if you haven't been able to, it is very possible to lead a solid discussion with some preparation. It is important to let the discussion be Socratic and organic, rather than lecture based. I really enjoy hearing the thoughts these two teenagers have about what they are reading, and our discussion of the literature naturally leads into good historical discussion, as well as interesting comparison and contrasts. At this time, I will typically assign him some kind of relevant essay. Often I draw from AP World History or AP English Literature essay questions to give him good solid practice in those types of essays. I try to sprinkle in AP multiple choice throughout the year as well.
Friday: Friday is spent finishing and polishing his writing and giving feedback on his weekly essay, as well as getting a jump start on the next week's text if it is longer.
That's our basic process. If you would like copies of my plans for high school history and literature years 1, 2, or 3, contact me. I am available to share my plans or to write personalized plans for you for any grade with reading and writing assignments for a donation to my son's exchange student fund. ;)
11th grade
Our plans for 11th grade are somewhat modified because my oldest will be in France for part of the year as an exchange student. I'm thrilled he will have the opportunity to really establish his language skills while attending a high school in France and living with a French family for 3 months. If you are interested in a similar experience for your high schooler, or if you are willing to host a student from another country, read more here and contact me!
History and Lit: continuing our great books approach. We will be in year 3 and using a modified version of the well-trained mind reading list for year 3. He will also study for and take the AP US History exam.
Thesis: He will complete an extended junior thesis this year. In 9th and 10th, he completed a standard research paper. His project this year will be longer and more involved. Details of how to do a junior and senior thesis can be found in the WTM.
Math: Math U See
Science: dual enrollment Biology
He will also work through Astronomy a Self-teaching guide so as to not skip the astronomy year altogether, but I won't include this work on his transcript
Language: Stewart English books 1 and 2
IEW's Succeed on the AP Lit Exam (testing at the end of the year)
Electives: French 3 (credit from 3 months in France)
Latin 4-online with Henle
Russian--with Pimsleur and Russian in 10 minutes a day
Apologetics through NCFCA Speech and Debate
Art-continue with the Annotated Mona Lisa and the Story of Painting for art from year 3, as well as studying sculpting
Music-Classical Music 101 (1st half)
American Government-dual enrollment
History and Lit: continuing our great books approach. We will be in year 3 and using a modified version of the well-trained mind reading list for year 3. He will also study for and take the AP US History exam.
Thesis: He will complete an extended junior thesis this year. In 9th and 10th, he completed a standard research paper. His project this year will be longer and more involved. Details of how to do a junior and senior thesis can be found in the WTM.
Math: Math U See
Science: dual enrollment Biology
He will also work through Astronomy a Self-teaching guide so as to not skip the astronomy year altogether, but I won't include this work on his transcript
Language: Stewart English books 1 and 2
IEW's Succeed on the AP Lit Exam (testing at the end of the year)
Electives: French 3 (credit from 3 months in France)
Latin 4-online with Henle
Russian--with Pimsleur and Russian in 10 minutes a day
Apologetics through NCFCA Speech and Debate
Art-continue with the Annotated Mona Lisa and the Story of Painting for art from year 3, as well as studying sculpting
Music-Classical Music 101 (1st half)
American Government-dual enrollment
Friday, August 23, 2013
First Start Reading
With my 1st grader, I needed a new phonics curriculum this year. For personal reasons, but also because her language skills are still a bit delayed, we just needed a fresh start, and we decided to try First Start Reading by Memoria Press. I have 4ish phonics programs on my shelf right now, so we thought we would start with this and then go on to something else if it wasn't working.
I have always appreciated how straight forward and easy to follow Memoria Press curriculum tend to be, and First Start Reading has been no exception. She is doing great with this curriculum. I am starting her in book B. We went back to the end of book A, and she could pretty easily read the material there, and could honestly start further in to book B, but I wanted to start her off easy, build confidence, and then move into new material.
This curriculum gives a short lesson each day. I appreciate the limited time involvement, and that I need to do no prep work beforehand. I also love that the stories you read each week are 7-8 lines of text on a page, instead of little readers like you typically see. I have always had issues with my beginning readers being more interested in the pictures on the page and being too distracted to read the words or guessing at the words based on the pictures. I usually fold the page back and cover the picture anyway. With this curriculum, there are no distractions. There is one picture to go with each story, but it is on the opposite page. What you read is actually all on one page, one sentence per line. The teacher's book gives you comprehension questions and discussion starters for each line to make sure the student stays on task and is comprehending what she is reading. There is also lots of opportunity for the student to draw the scene they just read about, which this child loves. Some of mine hate coloring, but this particular child loves it.
All in all, I have found the program to be simple and straightforward. It doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles of some other programs we have used, but that is honestly what I was looking for with her. She wants to read and doesn't need the distraction that other programs provide. The super short lessons work well with my time. If she was a very beginning reader, this program might not provide enough reinforcement early on, but for where we are, it has been a great fit. When she gets through book C and has the basic phonics rules down, we will move onto something to build more fluency.
Teaching reading has always been my most dreaded task of homeschooling, but so far this year, my kids and this curriculum are making it easy on me.
I have always appreciated how straight forward and easy to follow Memoria Press curriculum tend to be, and First Start Reading has been no exception. She is doing great with this curriculum. I am starting her in book B. We went back to the end of book A, and she could pretty easily read the material there, and could honestly start further in to book B, but I wanted to start her off easy, build confidence, and then move into new material.
This curriculum gives a short lesson each day. I appreciate the limited time involvement, and that I need to do no prep work beforehand. I also love that the stories you read each week are 7-8 lines of text on a page, instead of little readers like you typically see. I have always had issues with my beginning readers being more interested in the pictures on the page and being too distracted to read the words or guessing at the words based on the pictures. I usually fold the page back and cover the picture anyway. With this curriculum, there are no distractions. There is one picture to go with each story, but it is on the opposite page. What you read is actually all on one page, one sentence per line. The teacher's book gives you comprehension questions and discussion starters for each line to make sure the student stays on task and is comprehending what she is reading. There is also lots of opportunity for the student to draw the scene they just read about, which this child loves. Some of mine hate coloring, but this particular child loves it.
All in all, I have found the program to be simple and straightforward. It doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles of some other programs we have used, but that is honestly what I was looking for with her. She wants to read and doesn't need the distraction that other programs provide. The super short lessons work well with my time. If she was a very beginning reader, this program might not provide enough reinforcement early on, but for where we are, it has been a great fit. When she gets through book C and has the basic phonics rules down, we will move onto something to build more fluency.
Teaching reading has always been my most dreaded task of homeschooling, but so far this year, my kids and this curriculum are making it easy on me.
Our year so far
We have made it through the first 2 weeks of school! Usually, the first few weeks of school involves a bit of tweaking and changing until we find the right flow, but I think we have found our groove again finally. The biggest exception to that is my 3 year old, who generally is not the most cooperative child and is proving exactly the same for school. We did expand our classroom, however, over the summer, and my most easily distracted children are around the corner now and his antics are not causing major problems. I know he will settle down into our rhythm with time. He also potty trained himself on his own the past two weeks, so I can't be that frustrated with him-ha!
We started out our year this year studying what is history and we read the Magic School Bus Shows and Tells about archeology and Archeologists Dig for Clues to go along with our story of the world reading. We also read You Wouldn't Want to be a Mammoth Hunter. If you don't know this series of books, they are awesome. Funny and entertaining, but good solid history under the humor. For our history projects, we drew a cave painting which we created on crumpled grocery bags and they taped them underneath tables and drew from laying down. Lots of fun. We also started one of my favorite books of art history for kids called Learning About Ancient Civilizations Through Art. It discusses specific art--in this case, the Lascaux Caves in France--and then gives additional activities to do related to that discussion. My new logic stage student also worked on learning to outline her Kingfisher text and began her new drawing curriculum. We start more technical art studies in 5th grade.
This week, we dove into the 1st of a 4 week study of Ancient Egypt. We made pharaoh crowns, felt papyrus, burned incense, and read about the great Spinx to go along with our Story of the World reading. We also created cuneiform clay tablets when we discussed the beginnings of writing and compared Sumerian writing to Egyptian hieroglyphics. And, we also watched a documentary on Netflix about Ancient Egypt. My logic stage student began a Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Egypt to go along with her Kingfisher outlining. Much more Egypt to come!
My high schooler is actually on the Middle Ages this year, and approaching history as a great books study. I will write more about that soon.
For science, we dove into Elemental Science and are loving learning about habitats for the little ones, and cells and classification for my logic stage student. So far, we have found the curriculum to be well laid out and explained. I love that it isn't a textbook, but sends us to a variety of resources each week, with a variety of activities to go along with it. My grammar stage students began a diorama project that they will be continuing for their animal studies.
So far, our studies are going well. All kids began a new year of Math-U-See and are continuing with their language studies and additional work on their own in the mornings. My 1st grader is progressing quickly with reading and my kindergartener is finally blending sounds! Phonics has been more of a struggle with both of those 2 since they spoke Russian for the first years of their life, but we are finally making quick progress. We are also working on their language processing issues with lots of listening activities including Listen and Learn Phonemic Awareness from Lakeshore Learning, as well as their regular speech therapy.
We started out our year this year studying what is history and we read the Magic School Bus Shows and Tells about archeology and Archeologists Dig for Clues to go along with our story of the world reading. We also read You Wouldn't Want to be a Mammoth Hunter. If you don't know this series of books, they are awesome. Funny and entertaining, but good solid history under the humor. For our history projects, we drew a cave painting which we created on crumpled grocery bags and they taped them underneath tables and drew from laying down. Lots of fun. We also started one of my favorite books of art history for kids called Learning About Ancient Civilizations Through Art. It discusses specific art--in this case, the Lascaux Caves in France--and then gives additional activities to do related to that discussion. My new logic stage student also worked on learning to outline her Kingfisher text and began her new drawing curriculum. We start more technical art studies in 5th grade.
This week, we dove into the 1st of a 4 week study of Ancient Egypt. We made pharaoh crowns, felt papyrus, burned incense, and read about the great Spinx to go along with our Story of the World reading. We also created cuneiform clay tablets when we discussed the beginnings of writing and compared Sumerian writing to Egyptian hieroglyphics. And, we also watched a documentary on Netflix about Ancient Egypt. My logic stage student began a Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Egypt to go along with her Kingfisher outlining. Much more Egypt to come!
My high schooler is actually on the Middle Ages this year, and approaching history as a great books study. I will write more about that soon.
For science, we dove into Elemental Science and are loving learning about habitats for the little ones, and cells and classification for my logic stage student. So far, we have found the curriculum to be well laid out and explained. I love that it isn't a textbook, but sends us to a variety of resources each week, with a variety of activities to go along with it. My grammar stage students began a diorama project that they will be continuing for their animal studies.
So far, our studies are going well. All kids began a new year of Math-U-See and are continuing with their language studies and additional work on their own in the mornings. My 1st grader is progressing quickly with reading and my kindergartener is finally blending sounds! Phonics has been more of a struggle with both of those 2 since they spoke Russian for the first years of their life, but we are finally making quick progress. We are also working on their language processing issues with lots of listening activities including Listen and Learn Phonemic Awareness from Lakeshore Learning, as well as their regular speech therapy.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Getting ready for back to school
Wow, what on earth happened to July?! I don’t know about you, but our summer flew by too quickly. We did some light schooling over the summer like we usually do, as well as our share of camps, swim lessons, vacation, and as much fun as we can squeeze in to those few weeks. Now, I am in full scale back to school mode.
For me, back to school involves cleaning my house top to bottom, cleaning out, organizing, catching up on all the tasks that I put off when we are busy with school. For my family, school is our priority when we are on a school week, and it is easy to let those things back up. I make sure I am well caught up before the beginning of a new school year. The classroom will be scrubbed top to bottom. Books will be moved to the appropriate shelves, and school supplies will be set out in each child’s space.
In our classroom, each child has their own shelf with the books they will need for the year. I also have a shelf of the history books we will need for the year, and a shelf for science books. We are heading into year 1 again, so I have books about the Ancient world and biology out and available.
Each child also has a clipboard that opens and holds their school supplies. In their clipboard, we put a pair of scissors, glue, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, and a small pencil sharpener. Paper goes on top. The clipboard gives us the flexibility of being able to grab 1 thing and have everything we need if we need to car-school or we want to head outside for school. All the supplies they might need are kept there and no one has any excuse to go searching for anything. And yes, we color code—binders, folders, scissors, etc match the color clipboard that child has.
I am also writing out work plans for our 1st 4 weeks of school and making all copies we will need for those weeks to put in each child’s binder. This year I will have 10th, 5th, 3rd, 1st, K5, 3K, and a baby toddling around. My 10th grader will plan out his own weeks, but the 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders will get work plans. My kindergartener will be working with me some on phonics and math, and spending much of his time with Montessori materials. And my preschooler will be learning how to operate in our classroom with the early Montessori lessons.
The weekend before the first day of school, I will sit down with each of my older kids and go over their workplans, explaining anything new and making sure they understand what is expected of them this year. I know that first day can be so hectic, and I need them as independent as possible while I get my preschooler working and get my 1st grader doing more big kid work (and entertaining my 1 year old in the meantime-ha!).
My biggest concerns for this year include my extraordinarily stubborn 3 year old and my 1st grader. She has a processing disorder and I have to be creative about how I introduce information to her. All in all though, we are super excited and can’t wait to get started. My 3rd grader in particular is begging to start. I love his enthusiasm!
We are filling next week with as much summer fun as we can, but we will still plan to swim and play after school each day through August.
I hope your back to school plans are going well! I have lots of posts in the works to answer questions you guys have had. Be patient and I hope to get to all of those very soon!
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