Apologia Science

The boys are enjoying their Apologia science books. Blake has been working through the Apologia Botany book by setting his own pace. This works well with him as he tends to want to read ahead. Last week he learned about classifying plants by sorting shoes from our closets. This was a great hands on project since he could visually see how the shoes ended up grouped when he was finished. 

                                                  

Connor is doing well on his Apologia Land Animals book. He’s working more on his own this year. It still takes some prompting to keep him on track, but once he gets going he’s very diligent in his work. Last week his notebooking instructions were to create a newsletter about dogs. Instead of handwriting it, he asked if he could type it. So we opened up a template in Microsoft Publisher and he went to town! I was really impressed, especially since I’ve never typed anything in Publisher! Here’s the final product. Punctuation and spelling still needs to be worked on.

                                                   

Laina is finishing up her first module in Apologia Biology. She’ll take her test in a couple of days, so hopefully she’ll do well. I’ve decided only to grade on the tests this year and not on the study guide questions. This will simplify things quite a bit on my end, and hopefully enable her to have better information for studying. I also am not requiring the labs, unless it is one that she absolutely wants to do.

That’s all for now~

Back to School

It seems I’ve stretched summer out as long as I could, and so today it was time to embark on a new school year adventure. I can’t honestly say I’ll be more faithful in blogging this year than last, but I’ll do my best to keep updating.

How is it going so far? A bit stressful. Right now is the kids quiet reading time, so I had a minute before laundry and errands to catch up. Settling in after having an unstructured summer will take a little while. But, I’ll tweak it as we go, and all should fall into place.

Laina is in 9th grade this year! A freshman! Does having/teaching a high schooler scare me? Not really. It’s more the life lessons she needs to learn that I’m worried about. I’m willing to teach, but she also has to be willing to learn. She is enjoying the SPCA still and has started taking piano lessons from a neighbor across the street. She absolutely loves that and acquired a keyboard from some friends to practice on. This year she is working on completing her Math-U-See Algebra, and then will move on to the Stewardship program. On Wednesdays, we have the opportunity to join a homeschool co-op, where she will be working on a financial class. She’s also doing Apologia Biology, Practical Proverbs Bible Study, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, Epikardia Essays for High School, Spanish and a whole slew of reading. Whew!

I’m still taking the Charlotte Mason  approach, but am throwing in a bit of the Robinson Method in providing the kids with a booklist for history, geography, literature, additional science, economics, and character building and sending them on their way!

As a family we’ll be doing scripture memorization, bible study, poetry, hymn study, map study and current events, along with a read aloud.

Blake is officially a junior high kid now. He’s in 6th grade. He loves military and hunting stuff. Guy stuff. He’s already said he will probably go into the military after  high school. He chose this year to start Motherboard Books, Computer Science, Plain & Simple. He’s also working on Math-U-See Zeta, Apologia Botany, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, a personal Bible study, and writing which I will assign. His choices off the reading lists to begin with today were: Narnia-which he’d already been reading, an autobiography by a former prisoner from Alcatraz who is now a Christian, The Hole in Our Gospel-by the CEO of World Vision, and Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers. Quite an eclectic choice.

Connor is now 4th grade and that just doesn’t seem possible. He asked to do an art class this year, so he’ll be starting How Great Thou Art. He’s also working on Math-U-See Delta, Apologia Land Animals, Cursive Copywork, Queen’s Language Lessons,  and a personal Bible Study. Both the boys will be attending a nature study class through the co-op for the next six weeks.

As I type it out, it sounds like a lot, but a lot of it is reading and if it needs to be pared down, I’m not afraid to do it. I really want my kids to understand that this is about teaching yourself to learn, not just cramming a bunch of facts into their heads. I want to build their character and life skills, and have them love God. It can be as simple as that. I wrote more about Homeschooling Their Hearts in this post.

I apologize for not including links to products/websites/pictures today-I’m out of time! I’ll update my sidebar with the kids school pics that I took this morning real soon!

Thanks for visiting with me!

How I Incorporate the “Extras” Part III: Poet Study

Along with Shakespeare, we also do poet/poetry study on Tuesdays.

Again, I referred to SCM’s poetry study recommendations in choosing our poets for the year. We’ve begun with Robert Frost this year, as last year we studied Robert Louis Stevenson and Lewis Carroll. I’ve chosen to study one poet every six weeks, so my list will be much more extensive than SCM’s over the years.

I use www.famouspoetsandpoems.com to choose my poems and obtain a biography if I haven’t picked one up at the library. I choose one poem by the author for each week, six in total. On the first Tuesday, I read about the poet and pass out the poem for the week. Each of the kids take a turn reading it aloud and then we just discuss what it meant to them. This gives them a chance to practice oral speaking, pronunciation of new words, etc.

We read poetry from other poets throughout the rest of the week, just so the kiddos can see the different styles of poetry writing.  Some of the poetry books we’ve read from are: Favorite Poems, Old and New by Helen Farris;  The Earth is Painted Green; A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson; choices from  The Book of Virtues and Everyday Graces; and we have even enjoyed some Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky and Goop Poems!

There your have it-our poetry study.

Enjoy your day!

How I Incorporate the “Extras” Part II: Shakespeare

We’ve never attempted to study Shakespeare before this year; however, it seemed pretty easy to tackle by following SCM’s recommendations. Sonya suggests a play every other year. I’m going to try and tackle a play each year. We’ll see how it goes!

I have scheduled our Shakespeare reading for Tuesdays. I’ve broken our study up by six week terms. The first term we’re reading a condensed story version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales From Shakespeare. We read half of it last week and we will finish it next week. Because it’s relatively short, I don’t mind drawing it out over a couple of weeks. The kids are actually enjoying this story. Probably because it contains fairies and such. After reading, I just have them narrate back to me. Dover publications has some great coloring books, so I may get one for the kids to color. Even Laina enjoys these because of their details.

For the next six weeks I plan on reading the full version from a Complete Works of Shakespeare book I have.

After that I would like to obtain an audio version and either a play on video or a movie based on the play for them to watch.

And that’s it! An easy introduction to Shakespeare.

What We’re Using for School This Year

We’ve been back at school for two weeks now. They haven’t been full weeks by any means, so we’re still trying to get back in the flow of things. Here’s a little peek at our curriculum for this year.

For our family (group) time we’re using:

• History/Bible/Geography: Simply Charlotte Mason-Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt
• Read Aloud: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder this term, then Charlotte’s Web, Wind in the Willows, Hans Brinker, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Pippi Longstockings
• Artist Study: Monet, Christian Riese Lassen, Maxfield Parrish, P. Buckley Moss, Diego Rivera and Durer (one every six weeks) Using www.famouspoetsandpoems.com for poetry and bios.
• Scripture Study: Starting in Genesis using SCM’s scripture memory system
• Poet Study: Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, Tennyson and Carl Sanburg (one every six weeks)
• Hymn Study: Selected hymns from SCM recommendations. Using www.songsandhymns.org for music, lyrics and brief history of hymns.
• Nature Study: Using ideas from www.handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com and things we find in our own backyard!
• Composers: Chopin, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Williams, O’Connor and Stravinsky (one every six weeks)
• President & State Study: Read about one per week and complete notebooking page.
• Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream-reading and watching the play on video. Maybe listening to an audio version if I can find one.
• Church History: Continue reading one story per week from Trial and Triumph.
• Fridays are reserved for art and field trips.

Laina is now 8th grade. I can’t believe I’ll have a high schooler next year! She’s using:

• Math: Math U See Algebra I
• Science: Apologia Exploring Creation w/Physical Science
• Spelling: Using SCM’s Spelling Wisdom Book 3 for copywork & dictation
• Grammar: Daily Grams and Easy Grammar with Blake
• Bible: Discovering Doctrine from SCM
• Character Building: Beautiful Girlhood
• Literature: A list of books to choose from. She is currently reading A Day No Pigs Would Die and just completed The Diary of Anne Frank
• Typing: www.goodtyping.com
• Also doing written narration twice a week.

Blake is 5th grade. He’s using:

• Math: Math U See Epsilon-continuing from last year. When he’s completed he’ll move on to Zeta.
• Science: Apologia Exploring Creation w/Zoology-Swimming Creatures and Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader 5
• Spelling: Using SCM’s Spelling Wisdom Book 1 for copywork and dictation
• Character Building: Prudence and the Millers
• Literature: A list of books to choose from. He just finished James and the Giant Peach.
• Typing: Typing Instructor Deluxe
• Cursive: Queen’s Pictures in Cursive Book B
• Written narration twice a week

Connor is now 3rd grade: He’s using:

• Math: Math U See Gamma-although I’m not using the workbook, I am using the teacher’s guide to plan his lessons and the worksheet generator on their website. We are reading living math books and playing games.
• Science: Finishing SCM’s 106 Days of Creation then reading living science books and Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader 3
• Copywork: Queen’s Copywork for Little Boys
• Grammar: Queen’s Language Lessons for the Very Young Book 1-we will finish this and start on Book 2 this year.
• Spelling: Using copywork and dictation found on SCM website.
• Character Building: Wisdom and the Millers
• Literature: A list of books to choose from. He is currently reading The Matchlock Gun.

We are using the Charlotte Mason methods more full time this year. Lots of reading, narration and copywork. Connor really enjoys it. A few months ago he declared he was going to give up reading. A few days ago he exclaimed that he loves reading! 

I may have forgotten a few things, and I know this looks like a lot to do, but we don’t do every subject every day. This week will be our first full week and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes!

All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar Review

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch (absorb) the

All-Day Charlotte Mason seminar on DVD which I had ordered from Simply Charlotte Mason. Let me preface my post by saying that I am in no way affiliated with their company and have not been asked to write a review on this or any other product they sell. The product was simply just something I ordered to help me understand more about the CM method of teaching.

The DVDs are a recording of a live CM seminar taught by Sonya Shafer. There are 3 DVDs and a companion workbook that enables one to follow along and take notes. I did not order the Laying Down the Rails DVD as I had already listened to the audio and am in the process of reading the book.

I've read just about everything out there I can get my hands on concerning Charlotte Mason, but this has to be, by far, the most comprehensive, all-in-one resource I've seen. Sonya does a wonderful job laying it all out for you, in easy to understand steps and language.

She starts out with an introduction to Charlotte Mason, who she was and what her thoughts on education were, followed by a summary of her methods and a list of useful books and websites for using Charlotte Mason.

Sonya explains the basic, main principles to follow in executing this type of education, and gives definitions and examples for things such as narration and living books.

She then walks you through each and every subject you could even think about teaching and the way in which you would teach it, Charlotte Mason style, utilizing living books, map drills, nature walks, copywork, narration, etc.

Included in the workbook are sample lists of poets, artists, composers, handicrafts, and narration ideas. She also includes the directions for a very simple scripture memory system. I am going to try this system in our upcoming year.

At the very end of the workbook are the note pages for the Laying Down the Rails seminar. You can order this DVD with the package or order it separately.

When I finished watching the seminar, I had a complete workbook full of notes and ideas that I can refer back to as I am currently tackling planning our next years lessons. I'm planning using the Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education DVD and workbook. That will be part 2 of my review!

I would definitely recommend this product both to someone wanting to start using Charlotte Mason methods and to someone who is already using them. Sonya has wonderful ideas and insights and is a joy to listen to. It's also very handy to have all my notes and ideas in one book!

I read yesterday on the SCM forums that a new DVD set had been released entitled The Books and Things Seminar. This one demonstrates how to educate using good living books and the things around us. I placed an order today, and am highly anticipating it's arrival~

Random Ramblings

I realized I haven't posted in a few days, but I've just felt somewhat off-kilter this week. My days have been full, and by the time evening rolls around I just want to kick back with a good book. Which, by the way, right now, is fiction work by Jodi Picoult that I checked out at the library, Plain Truth. It's a very hard book to put down. And I've found myself reading it way too late. So I've been neglecting my blog.

So here I sit this evening waiting for an E-book to download and I decided to pop on and post a quick update.

I recently posted that I was moving away from workboxes. They were just taking up too much of my time and energy. It was a lot to correct work and then sit and refill boxes, even if I had preplanned them. Most of the time the kids didn't want to do the fun stuff I put in. They would rather go off and do their own thing. So in the spirit of simplifying, I cleared the shelves of shoeboxes. The boys have now found all kinds of ways to sort Legos, Playmobiles, army men, etc. in all these boxes.

We're practicing the Charlotte Mason method more and more. The kids are getting pretty good at narrating, and I think Lulu will start written narration pretty soon. Her narrations are detailed, while the boys tend to pick out one thing in particular to tell about.

We're enjoying the artist and poet study, and still trying to get into the swing of hymn and composer study. Last week we listened to our chosen hymn and the history of it at the Center for Church Music website. They have a neat little five minute history segment for each hymn with the hymn incorporated in it. We also read a short biography of Bach, but have yet to listen to his music. I don't have a CD of his recordings, so I need to pull something up on the computer. We'll probably tackle that tomorrow.

Conman is studying plants and soil, so we've planted some basil and parsley to watch grow. He also has a bean seed experiment going. He's almost finished with his nature reader, and we'll just keep working slowly along with everything else. I also started a gentle form of spelling with him that is loosely based on prepared dictation. He tends to spell better orally than on paper, so after looking at a short sentence, I then ask him to spell a couple of the words in the sentence. This week he had trouble with January, so we spent the week mastering it. He had it down pat this morning!

Blakester is moving right along and will most likely complete his current science next week. He is also almost finished with his nature reader and I plan on having him start on a book called Science in Your Own Back Yard that I had on our bookshelf. It was a thrift store find, but very much a living book. He'll read Christian Liberty Press' Nature Reader 5 next year.

Lulu started on her study of government and the Constitution this week, so she'll be somewhat ahead for next year. She's using The Land of Fair Play from Christian Liberty Press. She's basically just reading the text and answering questions. I'll probably have her narrate some to me also.

So that's our status update. We'll continue to school through the end of July, with some subjects running their course before that, and some will take that entire length of time. August will be our off month, as we are planning for our move to Texas to come to fruition then! In September, we will start back up using the Simply Charlotte Mason plan, Year 1, full force. I am really looking forward to getting everyone together and on the same page for several subjects. So, as I am slowly introducing the different areas of CM study, the kiddos should be well adjusted to them by that time.

I will be back with my normal schedule soon. I promise.

Curriculum Excitement!

This morning Conman and I ventured back up to the closest homeschool supply store we have around here. After my major clean out last month I had left some boxes with the owner for her to go through and see if there was anything she was willing to give me credit for.

Well, there was!

After subtracting $10.00 for some books I had already brought home, I received about $80.00 credit from her to use in the store. Talk about exciting!

So, what did I come home with?

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 2-Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day-This is for Blakester. He only has a couple lessons left in his current book.

Queen Homeschool's Pictures in Cursive Book B-Again for Blakester. He's really enjoying his first book and asked to continue for more practice.

Queen Homeschool's Language Lessons for the Very Young-Book 2-This is for Conman. He'll finish up his book 1 in a few weeks, and we'll continue on with book 2.

I also came home with a new Geosafari card set. It's all about ocean creatures. I thought the kids would enjoy it as a supplement to their science.

It was a good morning, and I was very glad I had glanced at how far the kids were in some of their books so that I could prepare for future lessons!

More on Creation....

I find it interesting that with the issue floating around concerning the Apologia textbooks and creation vs. evolution that Conman and I started on his new science program Monday entitled 106 Days of Creation. I decided to continue with him on his own program right now and wait on combining him and Blakester for at least another year.

Anyways, this is a comprehensive lesson plan that covers the 7 days of creation, breaking them up into the 7 individual topics of creation. It's published by Simply Charlotte Mason and can be purchased either as a bound book or a downloadable e-book. It relies on some experiments, books, videos and the bible to present the subject matter.

Today our schedule was to read and narrate the book Yellow and Pink by William Steig. I didn't link to it, as the copies I found on Amazon were ridiculously expensive. I was able to find this book at one of the small (very small) branches of our county library. What a surprise & relief!



This is a great little book that enables you to discuss creation vs. evolution in terms the little ones can understand. The story entails two wooden puppets who wake up and wonder how they came to be. One puppet decides they must have been created by someone for they are very intricately made. The other argues the point that if they were created they would have known it, and he believed they just happened. He tells a story of millions of years passing by and the piece of wood he's made from being shaped by time, until it became a puppet. In the end, the creator comes back and takes them home. (Pretty good analogy there.)

I was mistaken yesterday when I posted that all my children knew what evolution was. Conman told me he did not. Probably because all he's been taught is creation. That's what we believe and so that is what he knows. So this was great timing to explain the difference to him. He did comment that those people who think we appeared by accident are idiots. Oops! That's just as bad as the hateful posts on the article I referred to yesterday. I will have to clear that one up with him.

Anyways, a wonderful resource to use. But do try to find it at a library. If I ever run across a used one I'm going to be sure to snatch it up!

Weekly Wrap Up

This week I decided to participate in a Weekly-Wrap Up post sponsored by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. You can read her week's happenings here.

The creative juices were flowing around here this week. Warning-this post is long and picture heavy!

Conman completed his science study of the human body. He finished coloring and pasting the internal organs on his paper guy. We used an older version of My Body for reading and the patterns for the organs and bones.

He also learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. We've tried to convince him in the past to let us remove the wheels, but he would have nothing to do with it. With some coaxing from big brother, he was off and wheeling.....

The boys are always snapping pictures of their Lego creations, so when we found some special Lego brand scrapbook paper a few weeks ago, we had to get it. Conman chose his favorite photos and designed a scrapbook page.

Lulu modeled a strand of DNA using pipe cleaners and colored beads.

She also is working on a couple of experiments from her Apologia General Science book. One has to do with detecting the starch in leaves, and the other is to observe a plant for 30 days to discover how it produces its own food.

Blakester adopted a lizard from outside today. He had just been wondering if he should have a King Snake or a Chameleon for a pet. This stemmed from his science reading this week on reptiles from Apologia's Exploring Creation Zoology 3. Grandma happened upon the lizard while pulling weeds. Since it's still pretty cold outside, he wasn't moving very quickly and was easy to catch. Blakester has him in a makeshift home right now, but I promised we could find something more permanent for him. He did some research on the net and figured the lizard's a Western Fence Lizard. I think he said his name is Bob.

If you are on a diet you may not want to read any further-Inspired by a post from Ree over at The Pioneer Woman I decided to try making her Apple Fritters. I followed her recipe exactly, with the exception of frying mine in a light buttery olive oil, rather than canola oil. Hers are definitely prettier than mine, but I was happy with the results. They are really yummy! Thanks, Ree, for sharing your recipes!

We also managed to pull some weeds while the sun was out, load and haul wood up to the house in case it rains this weekend (we had to cancel our garage sale) and the kiddos sorted and bagged up some bottles and cans for recycling.

A pretty good week~

Conman's Workboxes

Another fairly smooth day today. Everyone was done by noon again without any major issues.

We started our picture study this week. I hung up a printout of Barn Owl by John James Audubon. The kids studied it and then I asked them to tell me all that they could remember about the picture. Blakester and Lulu gave me descriptions of what was in the picture and Conman told me a story about what he thought was happening. Always a little different, that one!

We started a new read-aloud yesterday. The vote was 2 to 1 for Heidi.

Even though we're transitioning to Charlotte Mason, I'm continuing to use workboxes for their scheduling aspect. I thought I'd share what was in Conman's workboxes today.

These are in no particular order:

2 pages of Math U See Beta workbook. He is working on measuring this week. Part of the 2nd page we completed orally. It works better for him sometimes.

A synonym file folder game from Language Arts Mix and Match Games. These are fun because you choose the topic to work on and the game board, so all the games can be mixed and matched.

Copywork for Little Boys from Queen Homeschool. He does one lesson a day.

Since last week we spent our nature time scouting for bugs, I threw this book sticker book into one of his boxes. Just for fun...

We have a couple more weeks left in our science study of the human body. This week we've been focusing on lungs, breathing, air, etc. This box has a printout of a lung to label and the book Air Is All Around You. This one came from the library. I love the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Books. The illustrations are colorful and the text is simply written, making it very easy for a second grader to understand the concept being taught. This one had a simple experiment in it to show how air can be contained underwater. He was really pleased that he could do it on his own.

Language Lessons for the Very Young from Queen Homeschool. He enjoys this so we complete anywhere from one to three lessons a day. It usually equals a page of work.

Building Thinking Skills workbook. He completed the lessons today orally, since they entailed quite a bit of writing.

This is an addition chart I downloaded from themasterplanner.com. Sorry, I'm not sure if it was on the free downloads or if it came with a planner I bought. I laminated it (yes, real laminate this time-no packing tape) and had Conman use a dry erase marker to fill in the sums. Of course, he didn't complete the whole chart today. This will be an ongoing project.

And finally, another library book about fruit. This ties into our food pyramid study.


After looking at the realistic pictures in this, he requested a fruit and yogurt parfait for lunch, just like in the book.

Till tomorrow~

Charlotte Mason Method Update

The kids are settled in bed reading and I'm enjoying a bowl of popcorn to top off my evening.

We have a lighter school schedule this week due to some other commitments. I'm taking advantage of the in-between free time to continue cleaning out and replanning the course of our studies.

Last week I introduced dictation to Lulu and Blakester via the e-book, Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason. It went over rather well. The kids read the selection I gave them out loud, then looked it over to see if there were any words they did not know how to spell. They were able to study the paper for as many days as needed, as long as they completed the dictation part with me by Thursday. Blakester took the initiative to copy it down a couple times to practice spelling it and to work on his handwriting. Lulu just read it over. When the time for dictation came, Blakester was able to correctly write out his selection, while Lulu missed a word. As suggested, I covered up the misspelled word with a sticky note and told her to study the correctly spelled word and then rewrite it on the sticky tab when she was ready. She's been walking around muttering the word to herself to help remember it. They were given their dictation assignments yesterday to start studying, so we'll see how it goes this week.

I mentioned in a previous post the next thing I was going to add in was picture study. We chose John James Audubon to study and I was able to find free prints online at Audubon.org and picked six of them to study. I'll introduce this next week. I'm excited about starting this since the kids are on board with it.

The third thing I'll introduce is poetry study. We already read a different poem or two each day.

I'll use the Simply Charlotte Mason poetry guide and choose a poet to focus on. We'll read a short bio on that person and then concentrate on one poem a week for six weeks. This way the kids get a feel for the way that particular poet writes.

Blakester has already made it clear he does not care for his current (new) California history workbooks. When we were at the library last week we chose some living books on the missions to start reading and he can practice his narration on them. I guess for now we'll ditch the workbooks altogether!

Til tomorrow-

Back to Basics Part 2

I spent a good part of today in the schoolroom again. This urge to simplify seems to have taken on a life of its own!

I cleared out and boxed up extra workbooks that we'll probably never use, some learning resources the kids have outgrown, curriculum we've tried and didn't like, various supplemental items that I thought we're neat, but now just nag at me because I haven't used them yet......

Hopefully now that I don't have to look at them, I can concentrate on what we're trying to accomplish here.

Blakester is excited about trying his new cursive copywork, so hopefully it'll show up this week.

I spent some more time reading at the Simply Charlotte Mason website and they suggest you add one new activity per week if you are wanting to switch to CM. I decided to add in dictation once a week. So last night I ordered and downloaded the e-book Spelling Wisdom for Lulu and Blakester. I'm starting Lulu on Book 3 and Blakester on Book 1. These are books from which we can work on dictation and should have enough activities to last about a year and a half.

This is the prepared dictation method that Simply Charlotte Mason uses to work on spelling. The child looks at an excerpt, preferably from a living book, and determines if he can spell all the words in it. He is given some time to study the passage, either a few minutes or a few days, as necessary. When he is ready, I read the passage aloud and watch while the child writes it out. If I notice he spells something wrong, I place a small sticky note over the word while he continues to write. Once he is done, I have him study any misspelled words and then write them correctly on the sticky tab. Similar to traditional spelling, but instead of word lists, the child reads words in context. Ms. Mason emphasized that a child should not be allowed to look at the misspelled word for any amount of time, because that spelling is what they will remember.

In the spirit of simplifying, I've also decided to spend less time on the computer. I tend to check in on e-mails during the day and surf the net looking at new ideas when I have a moment. I'm going to relegate computer time to in the morning before school, once at a break in the afternoon and do my blogging and research in the evening after the kids bedtime. Hopefully this will free up more of my time during the day.

Till tomorrow-

Back to Basics

I don't have any great "cheap finds" to report this week as I wasn't out purposely hunting them down. The only things that might qualify are a few books I got for trade at our local second-hand bookstore. I took in a bag of books yesterday and came out with a Star Wars book that Blakester picked out, a Ted Dekker book for me and Julie of the Wolves for our home library.

Today was blueberry pancakes for breakfast, sheet changing, grocery shopping and a great amount of time spent purging some unnecessary curriculum and workbooks to sell. Now it's homemade chili and cornbread for dinner.

If you noticed my sidebar, you'll see I'm on to a couple of new reads. I'm revisiting A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola and The Original Home Schooling Series written by Ms. Charlotte Mason herself. I've been drawn to the CM method since I started researching homeschooling. As I went back through my other homeschooling books, I noticed one of the first pages I had bookmarked was on her method. I've tried to implement it here and there, but never fully. After talking with my oldest kids today, I think I'm prepared to ease into it full-time.

When we started back to school a few weeks ago, I was excited with the extra group time we were going to do. Now after trying it out, the consensus is that it is too much time! Our goal has always been to try and do our work completely before lunch and leave afternoons open for free time. But extending group time and adding in extra stuff, like the dictionary skills, makes our day drag out. We decided to nix a few things that added up to just busy work. Why do I need a workbook to teach dictionary skills? Why don't I just send them to the dictionary and have them look up some words? Because I'm a curriculum junkie and always on the lookout for something "extra" to add in.

Back to Charlotte Mason. She believed in short lessons; not a lot of busywork, afternoons spent out of doors and in handicrafts (that are useful) and instilling "habits" in the children. Right up my alley. If I can give up the checklist syndrome!

Right now I'm doing some more research and planning to get my ducks in a row. I'm pretty sure I'm going to follow the plan, especially for history, that is laid out by Sonya at Simply Charlotte Mason. The one thing we're going to change right away is Blakester's handwriting. He's almost done with his Rod and Staff penmanship, so we ordered Pictures in Cursive Book A for him from Queen's Homeschool. This will enable him to do a picture study along with copywork for his cursive writing.

You can read more about Charlotte Mason and her methods at these websites:

• http://www.simplycharlottemason.com/
• http://www.amblesideonline.org/
• http://queenhomeschool.com/
• http://www.charlottemason.com/
• http://www.charlottemasoneducation.com/
• http://www.pennygardner.com/

There are also a lot of blogs out there about Charlotte Mason methods. You can see a list of some here:

• http://www.squidoo.com/best-CM-blogs

I will post my changes as I go. Please pray for my endeavor to get "back to basics".

Our Curriculum

I know the date says Monday, since that's the date I started this. But really I finished it today, Thursday!

Since I've shown you our schoolroom, introduced you to my "students", and described our group time, I wanted to give you a rundown of our curriculum outside of group time.

Lulu, 7th grade, is working on the following:

Math-U-See Pre-Algebra-we really like Math-U-See's program. The teacher's guide makes it simple to teach new concepts and the DVDs are great because the kids can listen to someone else teach it as well. If the parent is unsure about something, watching the DVD can help, also. One of the main reasons we chose this program was because of the capability of using their manipulatives through Algebra. We plan on sticking with this curriculum with all the kids throughout the high school years.

Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science (We use the notebooking/lapbooking/lab forms from Knowledge Box Central.)

Beautiful Feet Ancient History Study Guide and the books suggested that go along with it.

Easy Grammar 6 and Daily Grams 6-we do this during group time with Blakester. They are really liking it. I'm pretty sure this will be what I use from now on with the oldest two.

Critical Thinking Company's Building Thinking Skills-Book 3 Figural-this is one of her favorite things to do. She usually wants to work ahead. I guess because it's more fun than work.

Dover Coloring Book-Human Anatomy-She does one page a week. Each page gives a diagram of a part of the body, a detailed description and a color key to follow. The kids enjoy this brand of coloring books because the drawings are more realistic and include written details about the subject.

For literature she's currently reading Watership Down by Richard Adams. I assign certain books to read each term, but they also are able to pick books from their book list or off the shelf for free reading.

Blakester, 4th grade, is working on the following:

Math-U-See Delta-he is only about 8 weeks away from completing his 4th grade book and then we'll move right into the 5th grade book.

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the 6th Day by Jeannie Fulbright. This is from their elementary science program. We use the notebooking pages printed from the website along with it. Again, this is a keeper. We'll use Apologia Science throughout high school. Next year, I plan on teaching the boys together for science.

He is also reading Christian Liberty Press' Nature Reader 4.

For California History I'm using the workbooks from Starline Press. They integrate a character trait in each book. This is not the curriculum I started with. We used a different company for his westward expansion study at the beginning of the year; however, I did not care for their California History after I received it. Sooo...I found this on the Homeschool Reviews swap board for a really decent price. So far, so good. It starts out by explaining our universe and solar system and where California is in relation to it all. In addition, he's reading some historical fiction/non-fiction on pioneers. His current book is The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds-The Donner Party Expedition from the Dear American Series.

Critical Thinking Company Building Thinking Skills Level 2

Rod & Staff Handwriting 4

His current literature assignment is Gentle Ben by Walt Morey. I feel blessed because all of my children are readers.

I also have each kid read aloud something of their choice to me once a week.

We use the workbox system to keep things in order and add some fun to the day. Here's some items he had today in his workboxes. (I was going to post pics, but it's late & I haven't loaded them):

• Owl Pellet Biology Kit from Rainbow Resource. His assigned experiment was to dissect owl pellets, and it's very handy that you can purchase a ready-to-go kit! So far, in one pellet he found 3 skulls and a bunch of teeny-tiny bones. He has to finish that pellet and then he has a second one to work on and then he can try to identify the bones.


• Mazes on Mars book. A fun maze book with facts about space and Mars.


• Blast Off! file folder trivia game I found a while back at the dollar store.

Conman's day is structured as follows:

Math-U-See-Beta-I've discovered if I take the worksheet out of the book he's more likely to complete it without complaint. There's something about having the whole book sitting there that intimidates him.

I'm doing a little science with him from Guesthollow.com. She's put together a science lesson plan that I've condensed & tweaked that covers the human body, five senses, etc. Each week we read some books about what we're studying, maybe do an experiment or online activity and then add that body part to an outline we drew of Conman on butcher paper.

He's also reading through Christian Liberty Press' Nature Reader 2.

We're not really doing a set history lesson right now. We've worked on continents, oceans, states & capitals, and he listens in on Blake's readings. When this year is through, hopefully he'll be more ready to sit for a set history lesson.

Critical Thinking Company Building Thinking Skills Level 1

For handwriting and grammar we use Queen Homeschool's Copywork for Little Boys and Language Lessons for the Very Young. We alternate days on these. Each book will probably last us longer than a year. I sometimes have him do other copywork such as Draw Write Now or just copying his address. Copywork is something that Charlotte Mason believed strongly in, and I feel it's a good way for him to practice handwriting without continually doing worksheets.

His current literature reading is My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. He reads at least one chapter a day, sometimes more if he's in the mood.

His workboxes today had a few fun things:

• A Telling Time Bingo Game-again, games are better than worksheets for him.
• An alphabetizing robot file folder game that I downloaded from filefolderfun.com. This week he's discovered he loves learning with file folder games, so I need to load up on them! The other kids were working on some alphabetizing this week and he was struggling with the basics on paper. Being able to manipulate those little robots around seemed to really help!

I think I've covered all the bases. There's always something new and fun waiting out there for us to try-I'll keep you posted!

Group Time

The one thing I am doing different this term is combining more subjects for group time. Someone had asked if I had posted what I do during group time, and since I hadn't, and since I changed it up some, I'll go ahead & describe it.

We used to just read a bible story, bible verse, poem & read-aloud and then I would send everyone to their individual tasks. This would then entail me trying to work with Conman, while the other two were lining up with their little "Help, Please!" signs. So, if I felt Conman was ok for the moment, I would dash off to help one of the others. This did not result in a lot of productive work. Especially when Conman saw me otherwise occupied. He would then wander off to do whatever he felt like at the moment. When I finished helping one of the other kiddos, I would then have to redirect Conman back to his work. I got to thinking, "There has to be an easier way to do this!" I decided to spend more time teaching them together & then have them work on Math, History and Science (the older kids use Apologia in accordance w/their grades) individually. I also wanted to introduce/review some areas. Here's how today went:

Group Time:

Bible Story Book: We've been reading through the 10 volume set of "The Bible Story"

Review OT books of the Bible & start on NT

Read our character building book & worked on memorizing verse of the week. This week our character trait is generosity.

Read a couple poems from "Favorite Poems Old and New" by Helen Ferris. Usually a poem that has to do w/the season, holiday or something we're studying.

Did a dictionary skills page

Did an Easy Grammar 6 page & a Daily Grams 6. This is new for us. Although I ordered it for Lulu, the other 2 were very interested and participated well. I think this will take place of Blakester's Rod & Staff for now.

Started the unit study "On the Loose with Dr. Seuss"; read a short bio of Dr. Seuss and his book "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" I had never read that before & I love Dr. Seuss books! Oh, and the kids liked it, too!

Introduced healthy eating by reading "Oh The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You". Another Dr. Seuss type book. We'll be studying the food pyramid over the next few weeks.

Read, discussed & mapped some of Blakester's new Ca. history curriculum. I had Conman & Lulu listen in also. Lulu says she doesn't remember studying any Ca. history in 4th grade at public school, and come to think of it, I don't remember her studying it either.

Alot of this we were able to do orally, and with the white board, which made it so much more interactive. The older ones chose to answer some questions on worksheets or in their grammar notebook, but it was nice to be able to discuss the answers & have the youngest join in, also.

Some of the other things I plan to cover in group time are: Wordly Wise Vocabulary, It's About Time workbook that covers calendars, clocks, time zones, etc., an Analogies workbook I picked up at the thrift store, library skills assignments and art. Since I had a lot of these resources on hand, I wanted to start incorporating them into our day.

We started about 9:00 and we were done with group time at 12:00. After lunch & a short break for outside play in this chilly weather, they came in and worked on their individual items. I read to Conman about the brain & the 5 senses, and I noticed that when I'm reading out loud to him, the other two tend to migrate to the room we are in, even when I'm reading something way under their level! I'm glad they enjoy listening.

Everyone finished their assignments this afternoon and we read a chapter of "Mary Poppins" and two chapters of "A Child's History of the World" tonight before bed.

I was even able to play on my computer a little this afternoon. I figured out how to create a cute signature line, and grabbed a couple of buttons from blogs that I enjoy reading. You can see them on the sidebar.

Our first day back to school has come and gone. All in all, it went very well. Work was completed, corrected & we're ready for tomorrow. Now, the kids are in bed and there's silence. My favorite part of the day!

Good Night!