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

Choose Your Own Science Project 09

Our favorite part of the school year has arrived!  It’s time for the annual Choose Your Own Science Project!

The kids love it because:

1- They love science.

2- They get to pick something they want to learn more about.

3- They get to be creative in making visual aids, experiments and demonstrations to accompany their presentation.

4- They get to do an oral presentation.  This bunch of extroverts live for the chance to talk.

I love it because they love it.  It’s a great way to end our school year on a high note. This year Gee will be working on computers and  Bee will be covering snakes. 

Zee isn’t even technically in kindergarten yet but he doesn’t want to miss out on all the fun.  Last year, he did a speech of his own on plants just from what he’d learned from his sisters about the subject.  This year I’m kicking it up a notch and helping him develop his own presentation on his topic – polar bears.  He takes it seriously and wants to cover all the information in the books, take notes and know everything there is to know so he can shine on presentation day.

A Long Stretch of Winter

After 3 years of homeschooling, I can start to see patterns in how our homeschool goes throughout the year.  This is that long stretch of winter where I tend to settle into, shall we say, ’less inspired teaching’. 

There’s not much to write about because we’re not doing anything terribly interesting or fun.  The girls are doing math worksheets, some practice standardized testing (to prepare for the test they must take in a few months) and reading daily.

The girls have both learned to type about 30 WPM so we’ve swapped daily typing practice for daily music practice instead.  Gee has begun piano lessons and Bee is learning to play the guitar.  Both are excited about what they’re learning so the 30 minutes of practice time is something they look forward to.

That pretty much sums it up.  There are no cool projects, no interesting lessons, no inspired assignments…..  just the daily grind.  Keeping up …but not really moving forward.

In years past, this same thing happened this time of year.   I think it’s partly due to the weather in our climate.  This is when the novelty of snow has worn off and the constant cold starts to wear on you.  It begins to feel like you’re just killing time, counting down the days till spring arrives.

I’ve accepted that this is just how it is.   Next year I’ll be sure to consider this pattern when drawing up the homeschool plan.  Maybe we’ll try taking some time off during this period.

Spring will soon be here and with it will come new energy in our homeschool routines.  Until then, the girls will just do the daily grind so they can get outside and enjoy the snow while it lasts.

Retreat to The Teacher’s Lounge!

It’s that kind of day.

It’s our first real day back at homeschool since before Christmas.  We started out with some review math worksheets.  Just about every answer on the page was wrong.  They couldn’t remember how to subtract or compare fractions.  They don’t remember how to divide fractions or solve for an unknown.  They added 8 and 7 and got 18.  They divided 15 by 3 and got 3.  How is this possible?

I suppose since our breaks are less ‘official’ I somehow expected we’d simply slide back into academic work without a hitch.  I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

I suspect they’re feeling the need for a bit more vacation…. and they’re not the only ones.

I gave the old “I can’t believe you guys don’t remember how to do these simple things!”  speech, packed up the math materials for the day and sent them off to read books on oceanography.   I’ve retreated to the teacher’s lounge to try to put everything in perspective. 

I’m frustrated with myself that my expectations were a bit unrealistic and disappointed that I let my frustration get the better of me.  I remember how it felt to slowly get those gears turning again after an extended break.   I should have been a bit more understanding. 

So where do I go from here?  I think we’ll spend our afternoon doing some art lessons and playing educational games.  I think I’ll make some fresh copies of the math worksheets for tomorrow – so we can do them together, reviewing how to do them all.  I think I’ll make a plan for the rest of the week that will ease them back into using all those brain cells at the same time. 

But right now, I’m going to go make them some hot chocolate and apologize for my part in this whole mess….

Where’d December Go?

Here we are.  Two days till Christmas and I’m trying to figure out…. Where did December go? 

Once again, the time for submitting my quarterly paperwork to the school has caught me by surprise.  No doubt, I would not be doing it if it wasn’t required.  But it always has an upside for me as I’m forced to pause and consider what has been accomplished.

The study on Germany wasn’t the most comprehensive or the most fun one we’ve done.  But I think the girls walked away with valuable knowledge about important aspects of WWII.  Weeks later they’re still sharing with anyone who will listen what they learned about Anne Frank and Hitler in their individual studies.  It’s given them both a solid place from which we can continue to explore the history as the opportunity arises.  It’s wet their appetite to learn more. 

The girls read several plays and books about how to put on a play.  Just in time for Christmas, they’re preparing their own play to put on for the family.  They’ve learned about how plays are written, about the roles of actors, directors and producers.  They’ve worked on their creative writing and cooperation skills.  And they’ve had a ball doing it.

They’ve discovered a couple of new book series which they’ve been zooming through.  They love them and they’re talking about them every chance they get.  I’m mainly a non-fiction reader myself so it’s a relief to see them enjoy their fiction without it being forced on them.

Zee is reading quite a few sight words, trying to read books to us and constantly asking, “What does that say?”  He knows all the letters and sounds and can sound out simple words. He loves to ‘do math’ and has already memorized some basic addition and subtraction facts.  He can count to 100 and beyond with ease.  He’s slowly practicing his writing skills and is producing simple drawings for us to enjoy.  Best of all, he loves – LOVES learning. About everything.  He’s learned all this over the course of what we do day in and day out…. no formal instruction. At all.  It’s really quite amazing.

In math, the girls are so far ahead of where we need to be in the Math-U-See curriculum that we’ve got time.  Ah, sweet time.  We’re slowly going over all the topics we’ve covered in the past, improving accuracy and keeping those skill sharp.  Occasionally we toss in something new, most often brought in by some real life situation where we need to solve a math problem.

Ok, ok.  You’re all sick of me bragging on about my kids.  I just can’t help it.  I’m proud of the work they’ve done, the effort they put into it and the progress they’ve made. The longer this homeschooling thing goes on, the better it gets.

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.

Success…. Before the End

When we started our unit on Germany I filled the table with library books on various aspects.  As I expected, Bee was drawn to the story of Anne Frank.  Gee was interested in learning more about WWII.

I asked them both for a report on the topic of their choice.  Gee tends to be stronger in writing factual reports, persuasive pieces and speeches.  Bee is our creative writer and tends to struggle with the organization of reports.

So I was shocked when her rough draft was the first to cross my desk.  Then I read it.  Wow.  Just WOW! It was the best first draft ever.  She did an awesome job.  She still is.  As her revisions go on I’m just astounded by the thought and effort she’s putting into it.  It seems just yesterday she was writing like a little girl.  Today a young woman emerges without warning.  How’d that happen?!

And then there’s Gee.  The one who normal spits out well organized reports faster than I can assign them has yet to give me a rough draft.  No, she’s not slacking.  She’s been so engrossed in all the information she just can’t seem to narrow herself down to one topic.  She started with all the wars Germany fought in.  She read several books about Germany’s history, took notes and made a go at an outline.  The topic was simply too big.  She would have had a book if she’d tried to cover everything she wanted to. 

So I suggested she try to write about only one war and choose one aspect of that war to write on.  Making the choice wasn’t easy.  She really did want to write about it all. LOL  Finally she narrowed it down to World War II.  But her outline for that alone was still too much.  I asked her to narrow it down again.  So now she’s writing about Hitler. She’s only written notes about his childhood so far ….. and she’s already got 3 pages of notes – typed!

I am encouraging her to move along and get that rough draft done.  But I’m also watching her read a biography of Hitler with interest and trying to remind myself that she’s learning… and you know, that’s really the point, isn’t it.

So here we are, a week or two before the end of our unit on Germany…. but as far as I’m concerned, it’s already been a success.

Advertising Savvy

So as we explore the cost of living the girls are seeing a lot of ads.  They’re decoding the help wanted ads in the newspaper, the apartment ads in the renter’s guide, ads for cars and car insurance, ads for various utilities packages, etc.

It’s a perfect time to do a little tangent study about advertising.  The Federal Trade Commission has a site directed at kids on this very topic.  You Are Here is cute and has some good activities and information.  But I wonder if the kids will pick up on the fact that the site is, in some ways, just an ad for the FTC.

Did I Say Our Election Study Was Over?

One of the great things about homeschooling is the ability to continue on a topic even when we’ve covered all that was planned.  As soon as we ‘finished’ our election studies I found this great game on the Cable in the Classroom site.   I don’t know how long they’ll keep the site up, but for now if you want to know what my girls are doing when the ’school work’ is done for the day….you’ll find them running for President over and over and over…..

Next Up: Germany and Calculating the Cost of Living

The girls had a ball with the election studies.  They worked hard on their campaigns and were excited to present their ads, posters and speeches to a few family members.   The votes were counted and Bee won by a single vote!  They stayed up on election night to watch the TV coverage with Grandma and look through a few more library books on the subject.

With the election finished, we’re ready to move on to our next unit study. This year we’re using our family tree as our inspiration for choosing countries to study.  We’ll start with Germany.  We typically cover everything from art and literature to languages, geography and history.  I’ve ordered the books from the library so we’ll get started on that as soon as they’re ready for pick up.

In the meantime, the girls are exploring the cost of living.  Armed with a newspaper and a renter’s guide, they’re finding jobs and an apartment.  From there we’ll look at salaries and what kind of training is needed for various jobs, estimate utilities and add in the cost of transportation, budget for clothing, food, student loans, etc.

The girls are constantly talking about how they’ll pay for the Disney trips when they’re older.  So after figuring out how much they’ll be spending just to live, I’ll hook them up with the Disney World site to figure out just how much they’ll need to save in order to take us all.  They can’t wait!