2009-2010 School Year Kick Off!

Our 2009-2010 school year officially started this week. 

Reviewing what’s worked and what hasn’t in years past, I’ve drawn up the plan, scheduled the topics and set the ground rules.  This year will count as Zee’s official kindergarten year so he’ll be following along and participating where he can as well.

So what’s on our agenda for the coming year? 

Language Arts: Most of what we cover in this area is all done through our social studies and science topics.  With each study the girls do some piece of writing, read from various fiction and non-fiction sources, learn new vocabulary and practice spelling and grammar in the process.  We’ve got Spectrum’s LA and Vocabulary workbooks to overview and practice for standardized tests as well.

Writing: Most of the major writing pieces will stem from our studies in social studies and science.  However, we’re giving The Write Stuff Adventure by Dean Rea a go as well.  This book’s lessons provide interesting writing prompts across a variety of writing styles.  It’s less about having a perfect piece of writing and more about exploring and experimenting with writing.  That should balance things nicely.

Spelling: We’re still using the spelling lists from Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout. In years past, we tried to do spelling tests on Friday.  It didn’t always work well.  For one, sometimes the girls were ready for the test earlier in the week.  Then there’s the fact that they work at different speeds so I’d have to repeat the words over and over.   This year I’m trying something new.  I’m recording the ‘tests’ ahead of time in an audio file.  The girls can take the test when ever they’re ready and pause it , working at their own speed.  They can move on to the next set of words once they get 100% right on the current set.  We’ll see how this goes.

Math:  We’ll continue on in the Math-U-See program. By my estimation, we’re ahead in math.  Last year was math intensive at the expense of the social studies and science.  This year I’m swinging it the other direction and I plan to spend most of our math time on review and computation skills.  We’ll cover some new algebra and geometry topics throughout the year.

Science and Health:  One of our most enjoyable activities each year is the Pick-Your-Own Science Project.  Every year we’ve spent the month of June on this and the kids just love it.  They love choosing a topic, researching it, writing out a report/presentation, designing experiments and visual aids and, most of all, they LOVE presenting it and telling everyone what they’ve learned.  They really do learn more when they’re given the freedom to explore something they find interesting.  And as a bonus, they not only learn all about their own topic, but also learn a lot from one another.  So this year I’ve decided we’ll do the Pick-Your-Own twice – in December and June.  Beyond that, we’ll also touch on oceanography, drug education, nutrition,  human reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.

Social Studies:  This is by far the most fun, versatile subject there is.  It lends itself nicely to unit studies (where you touch on all the other subjects while studying a single topic) better than any other.  When asked what they wanted to learn about this year, the girls put social studies topics at the top of the list.  The topics for this year include Greece, the Middle Ages, an overview of US history, exploring Puerto Rico in greater depth and covering the global impact of AIDS.

Art: We’ll be using Daily Warm-Ups: Artby Walch Publishing to inspire some unique works of art while covering some of the basic concepts. 

Music: Thirty minutes of music practice has become a regular part of our school days.  Gee is taking piano lessons and Bee is still exploring her options.  Zee is young but he’s got a drum set for when the music mood strikes.

That’s all of what’s ‘officially’ on the plan.  But we’ve been at this for years now and we know that they learn far more in a year than just what’s on the official list

More Christmas

It’s that time of year again!  We love Christmas time around here.

As we jump into the season the thought occured to me that this is yet another perk of the homeschooling lifestyle.  For music today we broke out the Guitar Hero and the girls sang and played along to Christmas carols.  We’ve got a few Christmas art projects planned already and as part of our studies the girls are learning about how to put on a Christmas play.

Now I’m sure that they’d do similar stuff if they were in school.  But because they’re here with me I get to do it all with them.  It’s not just music time or art time or drama class or creative writing practice.  It’s all family time.  And that’s really the best part of Christmas.

Sure we could try to squeeze some of this in even if the kids were in school….  But this way, there’s more of it.  More Christmas.  More time to enjoy the season together as a family.

Time Tracker!

This is my new favorite thing.   It’s the Time Tracker Tags.  These three separate timers run independently and automatically reset upon return to their slot in the base unit.  They have wrist straps attached and alert the wearer with both a tone and light that time is up.

We are using these things all the time.  Everything from homechool to time-outs, baking to timing showers.  With three timers in one, we can have all three going for different times at the same time.  Perfect for lots of kids with different things to time.

We’ve got the original Time Tracker as well.  This one gives warnings, both with audio and lights, that time is passing and will soon be up.  Perfect for my ‘distractable’ students who sometimes forget they’re on the clock.

They’re both a bit pricey for timers if you ask me… but a perfect item for parents and homeschoolers to put on the holiday wishlists!

Link Overload

I’ve just finished updating the kids private homepage… for the 5th time this week!

I created the webpage about a year ago to give the kids access to websites we approve of while minimizing the danger of them ending up somewhere they shouldn’t be.  The links are all graphics (most of them the actual logos from the sites) to make it easy for my two non-readers to find what their looking for and to increase interest in what otherwise might be dismissed as just a boring educational site.

Over the past year I’ve added a few sites here and there as I came across them but overall it’s remained pretty much the same.  More recently though, I’ve been finding awesome links everywhere!  Everytime I add a few, I turn around and find a few more.  There were so many new ones I had to start deleting some of the older, less used links to make room.

Even the kids are laughing at me, “Mom! There’s so many new links we can’t even keep up!”   There are now a total of 70+ links on the kids homepage – all ‘educational’ in one way or another.  Once again I’m reminded just how much information is out there (available free of charge) and how many ways there are to learn it all.  Who needs text books?!

Lazy Days of Summer

I’m just not ready to start 5th grade yet

I’ve got my general plan written up but it’s not typed and off to the school yet.  It’s easy enough to tell myself it’s not really ‘official’ so I don’t need to follow it.   So we haven’t started anything major yet and probably won’t till VBS is finished next week.

The one bit of planning I did finish was a schedule of work they need to complete each day and each week.  It’s mostly independent work in areas where they need regular practice to advance their skills.

Each day I’m asking them to type up definitions and write example sentences for one section of the Merriam-Webster’s Vocabulary Builder.    I love the way this book is organized.  Each section contains a root word and four example words.  There’s a little bit of history on words, example sentences for each and even quizzes throughout.  I know this vocabulary will probably be a bit more advanced but I don’t think it will be over their heads. 

Since math is one of those things that’s easily forgotten if not used, I’m requiring a math worksheet each day as well.  Some days it will be a new topic and others it will just be review. 

Each week I’m asking them to learn a section of the 5th grade list from the Natural Speller book (they get to choose what ever method they like), do two writing worksheets (since this is an area I’d like them to improve on) and write one post for our family webpage. Some weeks I’ll give them an assignment and others they’ll have complete freedom in choosing a topic and writing type.  For instance, last week I asked for short essays on their favorite parts of 4th grade.  This week Gee wrote a poem and Bee is writing about an art project she created recently.

Even with these requirements, the girls are finished in a couple of hours.  Then they’re off to enjoy the beautiful weather, the computer and video games and make up their own games and art projects.  Ah, the lazy days of summer

Printable Graph Paper

My sister (the school teacher) passed along this great site that has .pdf files of graph paper.  They’ve got everything from traditional graph paper to dots to triangles and trapezoids.  Now I just have to think of fun stuff to do with it all  

A Link for a Rainy Day…

I found this list of  ‘101 Ideas to Add Spice to Your Homeschooling Days’  through a Google search.  I haven’t read through the whole list yet ( it’s a lot to digest in one sitting) but I’m saving the link for a ‘rainy’ homeschooling day!

Turning the TV ON

Summer at Mom is Teaching mentioned that Turn TV Off Week is coming up.  

Will we be participating?  Well, no.  We’ve skipped TV on school days all together for a very long time.  Recently Adrian became obsessed with having the TV on PBS … all the time.  So for the past couple of months I’ve let it stay on when he gets home from school.  During that late afternoon period they’ve got great educational shows like Cyberchase and Fetch!   But even then, my kids are rarely glued to it.  It’s on right now (because Adrian insists) but no one is even in the room.   They’re too busy painting, making kites and folding paper airplanes! 

No, we’re not a family glued to our TV.  My husband and I aren’t addicted either.  We can go weeks or even months without watching a single TV show. It’s just not our vice.

Since I started homeschooling I’ve realized that in ignoring the tv, we’re missing out on a very useful educational tool.  I’ve tried to get my act together.  We introduced the girls to Mythbusters, How It’s Made and Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel.  We showed them a few episodes of Alton Brown’s Good Eats on the Food Network.  We’ve caught a show on the Travel Channel here and there too.  But old habits die hard and I forget to check the schedules, record the shows or post reminders.

So instead of turning the TV off for a week, I’m vowing to review the tv schedules, find the good shows, hit the record button, post the reminders …and remember to turn the the TV on that week! 

 

Savory Sites for School

I recently added two new tabs to the girls homepages.

First there’s Chore Wars.  I think this site is brilliant.  And it’s free too!  I don’t know if kids who don’t play video games would get it or like it but since mine do, it’s a perfect fit.  The site gives parents an easy way to offer incentives for chores and more.  It’s completely customizable and easy to use. 

I’ve written before about how important I think it is to have kids helping around the house not for some great reward, but just because that’s what families do.  The goal is to have everyone pitch in to make our house a nice place to live.  Everyone helps, everyone reaps the benefits.   I still think that’s important and I honestly hesitated to initiate Chore Wars in our house because of it.  But the kids seem to have a solid handle on that message so why not have some fun?  I won’t hesitate to kill the whole thing if at any point they forget that the rewards are just for fun, not the reason we help out.

So being a homeschooling mom we didn’t stick to only house chores.  Sure, we’ve got the usual chores on there.  Everything form emptying the garbage cans to vacuuming, cleaning the litter pan to doing laundry.  But they can also get credit for doing a math worksheet or reading.  They can earn rewards for keeping complaints to themselves when they don’t feel like doing assigned work or keeping themselves in check when they get frustrated with something. 

They can also earn rewards for using the word of the day from this site.  It may not be fancy but I love how they provide complete definitions, example sentences and synonyms, or as I like to call them, bonus vocabulary building

So what rewards are the kids reaping?   Well, right now the hot commodity is bottles of Favor of the Father.  Collect 7 of these and you can play x-box with Dad for a 45 minute stretch without  the threat of having to share Dad or the x-box with your siblings. Other things they can earn include a private lunch out with Mom, a bubble bath in Mom’s big tub, weekend games on a school day, the chance to stay up late or the chance to choose your favorite dinner and help Mom cook it. 

And what rewards am I reaping?  Well, the girls have picked up a few extra chores above and beyond what they’re responsible for and that’s been kinda nice.  I also really enjoy thinking up names for all the monsters

Sheet Protectors

One of the most versatile homeschooling supplies I’ve found are sheet protectors (for 3 ring binders).  They can be used with dry erase markers.  Here’s some of the ways we use them:

• Putting a blank sheet of paper in the sheet protector you can use it for scratch paper or drawing. 
• Slide in a sheet of lined paper to practice handwriting
• Make all kinds of worksheets reusable!  Slide them in the sheet protectors and you can do those dot-to-dots and mazes over and over.  One page of multiplication or division facts can be used multiple times to practice speed and accuracy
• Slide a hangman board in and you’ve got a fun way to practice new vocabulary or spelling words 
• Put the sheet protector on a clipboard (they cost less than a buck) and you’ve made your customizable whiteboard portable

The best part is how economical they are.  The dry erase marker lines are easily erased if done so soon after marking, a napkin or piece of felt will do the trick.  I’ve found that marks left for weeks on end tend to stain.  Not really a big deal considering how little they cost to replace.