Homeschooling Resources: 2012-2013 School Year

This summer I spent a lot of time perusing blogs, exploring rabbit trails, looking back through facebook conversations, and generally just searching for some great resources to use in our homeschooling this year. Since literally everything I know about homeschooling I have gleaned from the expertise of others who have put their experiences "out there" for the benefit of others, I like to occassionally share what we do in the hopes that it may, in turn, help or encourage someone else. So, for those who may be interested, here's what we are doing this year.

Multi-Level Resources

Morning Meeting
--Bible

• The Gospel for Children - A very thorough catechism-type outline presenting the gospel. Uses picture prompts as a memory aid. Even Leila (3) has memorized most of this.
• Get Wisdom! - 23 biblical character traits. Teacher helps, discussion questions & projects included. We will cover one per week after we complete The Gospel for Children.

--Calendar Time

• 1+1+1=1 - This is an amazing blog, in general. She has great ideas and printables. Be sure to check out Calendar...Part 2 (linked at the top of the post) also. I got most of my ideas here, including "...of the week" (she does "day"), song cards, and weather cards.
• Homeschool Creations - I got my "Days in School" poster here. I was so happy to find that she has a version that goes with our math curriculum! I went a step further and created the "Decimal Street" poster on my own to go along with this chart.

Creative Writing

• 10 Easy Steps to Introduce Journal Writing - The approach outlined on this blog is new to me but the kids are really enjoying it and excelling in putting their own thoughts on paper. She gives ideas for all levels, even the tiniest tots.

Handwriting

• Handwriting Without Tears - I am teaching Benj & Talia together this year, even though they are in different books. Leila is not putting pencil to paper yet, but is learning to build her letter of the week with the signature HWT wood pieces and we are starting to cover the HWT "language." I may order the pre-writing book for her to do the second half of the year.

"Read Alouds"
I put together our "read alouds" (books I read to the kids) list based on books we already own that I have been wanting to read to them. These books are a bit too involved to really capture Leila's full attention, but since I read during lunch she sits with us anyway.

This year we are reading:
The Little House on the Prairie series
The Boxcar Children series (We read the first book in the series last year and they loved it, so we will read at least book 2 this year)
Grandma's Attic series (Again, we read book 1 last year so we will continue on this year with book 2)
Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh
Henry Huggins
Beezus and Ramona
Greek Myths for Young Children (One of the few books I bought. It is part of the Sonlight Core B and I thought it looked interesting.)
Elmer and the Dragon (Another sequel. We read My Father's Dragon last year.)
Favorite Poems of Childhood

1st Grade Resources

Reading

I have compiled a list of possible readers mainly from two sources, listed below. We are working our way through the list at Benj's pace. I am borrowing many of the books from the library this year. I am planning to purchase some that I find the kids especially love for our permanent library. Benj reads aloud to all of us. Even Leila is enjoying most of the stories, so this ends up being multi-level in a way.

• Veritas Press readers
• Sonlight readers - Actually Grade 2 readers. We did Grade 1 last year.

Spelling

• Fry's Instant Word List - I pre-tested toward the end of last year and am basing his spelling lists on the words he missed.
• Prepared Dictation - An explanation of Charlotte Mason's approach to spelling. This approach is more for older students, but I am planning to review spelling using the sentences & phrases found here.
• spellingcity.com - Lots of options to teach & practice. As a teacher you can create and save lists for the student to use.

Copywork

• Bible
• Passages from favorite readers
• Lyrics to songs (esp. those we are trying to memorize)
• Copywork for Little Boys - I love this resource! So does Benj. The assignments are short!

Creative Writing

• Letters (including thank you notes)
• I'm a Writer! (and I Didn't Even Know It) - Benj loves the fun assignments in this book! There are books for different grade levels.
• ReadWriteThink.org - TONS of awesome lesson plans for all grade levels! We have done acrostic poems and an alphabet story so far and he has actually cheered when we get out a writing project. This is a complete 180 from last year, trust me. Use the filtering box in the left-hand sidebar to find specific lesson plans.

Typing

• Typing Instructor for Kids - We are taking it slow, but enjoying this fun program!

Math

• Math U See Alpha - I am so pleased with this curriculum! Watch a demo video here.

Kindergarten Resources

 

Reading, Copywork, Creative Writing

• Sonlight Core A w/ Language Arts 1

Computer Resources

• Starfall.com
• FunBrain.com - Go to the "Teacher" page and you can search for games by grade level.

Math

• Math U See Primer - Again, LOVE!

Preschool Resources

• ABC Jesus Loves Me
• Raising Rock Stars Preschool

I would love to hear about your favorite educational resources. What resources have been helpful to your family?

 

P.S. None of the links in this post are affiliate links. I just posted them for convenience. :)

Off to a Good Start

I always start out the school year thinking I'm going to blog through our year, documenting the kids' milestones and achievements. And I don't think I've ever documented much more than the first couple of weeks. This year for sure is going to be no exception, seeing as I'm only blogging about once a month, but I thought it would be fun to at least share the beginning of our homeschool year.

We have massaged our basic routine a bit just to smooth out a few kinks, shake things up a bit, and also accommodate the fact that Leila was ready for a bit more structure.

One of our new additions that we are all loving is Morning Meeting. During this time we sing, have our Bible lesson, review our calendar skills, talk about and graph the weather and work on basic math skills by tracking our days of school. We also have a letter, animal, color, and shape of the week (tracking along with Leila's preschool work) that we review some days. We also try to have time some days that the kids can share their previous journal entries, which they are always eager to do. We always end our Morning Meeting with prayer, which is something I hadn't really thought to include in our daily routine in past years. I like the sense of family unity and focus this time brings to our whole day. Sometimes it's hard to cut it off and not let it take up too much of our day!

We have Morning Meeting at the bottom of the stairs :)

 

Here's a close-up of our board: (L to R, top to bottom) ..."of the week" cards, song cards, weather/season cards, weather bar graph, hundreds chart, place value and number words cards, "decimal street"

My biggest challenge this year has been trying to figure out how to divide my time between my children, especially since none of them are very solidly in the self-directing camp yet. Each needs my help and attention for nearly everything they do, so I've had to get creative. I have been able to use various technological resources this year, which has been fun. Even Leila gets her little 15 minutes of computer time each day, which she spends on a phonics website (starfall.com - a phenominal free resource, by the way).

We are also attending a co-op one day a week this year (see this post, if you missed it.) We are all loving it!

Benj: Finding His Groove

Benj is in 1st grade this year. So far our transition into the school year has gone much more smoothly than last year. I am keeping essentially the same structure in place that he was used to all last year, so that has helped him to jump right in with enthusiasm. Last year I would write up little messages on our small chalkboard at the bottom of the stairs to greet them as they came down to school; things like "Are you excited to learn today?" I remember getting several flat out "No, not really"'s. This year Benj has told me several times: "I had so much fun in school today!" I am so thankful for his great attitude!

For the last 2 years (Preschool 4/5 and Kindergarten) I have used a full "boxed curriculum" for Benj. Even if you aren't familiar with curriculum lingo, you can probably guess that this means I received everything I needed for a complete year in a box and didn't have to do any planning on my own. This year I decided to branch out and tweak some things to fit our vision and Benj's style a little better. This means I spent a good deal of time this summer searching out and piecing together resources to fill his academic plate. Now that we are five weeks into our school year I am really enjoying the fruit of that labor. Subjects he despised last year (copywork!, creative writing!) have become some of his favorite tasks this year. I am really enjoying the freedom of using a wider selection of the many, many amazing resources out there.

Spelling with cereal box letters (I've been collecting them all summer!)

 

Completed spelling assignment

 

Bible copywork on Rule #8: Exercise self-control in all things

 

Talia: A Great Start

Talia is a Great Big Kindergartener this year. She is loving her new status as a grade-schooler. She is getting to participate in all the experiences that were new to Benj last year so she feels like big stuff. She is a much more naturally eager and willing student than Benj was as a new kindergartener. I originally wouldn't have pegged her as a born scholar (she seems like such a classic bubbly socialite), but she absolutely LOVES the challenges school presents and is meeting them with enthusiasm and skill. I am so proud of her!

I am using the same Kindergarten curriculum Benj used last year with Talia this year. It's a good feeling to have my feet under me from the very beginning. Not only am I familiar with it, but the curriculum fits Talia's academic personality well so things are going very smoothly with her. She loves math, declaring at math time on the first day of school, "Finally! Math! Now THIS is what I have been waiting for." Actually, I don't think there is a subject Talia doesn't love. She is eager to participate in pretty much any task I give her. It is a blessing to have such a willing student!

Coloring her Create-A-Calendar

 

Lost in a book. Talia is a great reader! She won "top reader" for her age group (complete with a $20 gift card prize!) in a summer reading program, logging 90 or more minutes most days!

Leila: Me Too!

Leila has grown up so much in the last few months! Maybe it's just my perception since she is no longer the baby of the family, but she has seemed to just explode with developmental milestones over the last few months. I knew she would definitely be ready for more academically this year, especially since she is really into being one of the "big kids" right now. She is really thriving with a more structured day.

Last year I tried putting together activities based on a few homeschooling blogs, which was a royal failure! It was so time consuming I didn't prepare well beyond the first 12 weeks or so, and didn't do it at all towards the end of the year. She ended up just kind of wandering around aimlessly, poor little lady. So this year I decided to go with a fully-planned-out-for-me (free!) curriculum. We are both having a great time with it. She is learning some basic Bible stories, memory verses, songs, and nursery rhymes. We are also working on her letter sounds (although I was shocked at how many she already knew when I pre-tested her at the beginning of the year) and numbers. We are working on fine motor skills as well with fun activities like cutting, building with blocks, and drawing and lots more. She is loving school this year!

Leila loves to cut! It is her favorite school activity

 

This was the result of a "draw what I draw" activity with Leila. Too cute!

 

And they call this school! We are clearly having way too much fun. :)

 

So there you have it: school for this year. It's not as smooth and perfect as it all looks on a blog (trust me!), but we have gotten into a good groove and are having a mostly enjoyable year so far. I am thankful for the privilege of seeing my children grow and develop before my very eyes.

 

Oh, and in case anyone is interested in what we are using this year (I love perusing what others are doing to get fresh ideas!), I am going to put together some links in a separate post, coming soon. ish.

 

 

 

 

 

Update on Miss Channah (and Pictures!)

Well, it's been too long again since I posted pictures for our poor parents 2,000 miles away. But it's always good to ask for forgiveness with a peace offering, right?

I am happy to report that overall, Channah is doing much better! She is definitely feeling much better, thanks to expensive drugs and her system maturing a bit. We are so thankful that her crying is a small fraction of what it used to be and we are having whole days of cheerfulness, even good weeks! She is a great nighttime sleeper, which I firmly believe has just been God's grace to us through these difficult first few months.

With the reduction in fussiness, it has been easier to observe all the sweet little things that make up her tiny personality. Maybe I just don't remember the infant stage very clearly, but Channah seems ultra-tuned-in to her environment. She is very intentional about playing with toys dangling above her, fussing or grunting her disapproval if their faces are pointed away from her. She definitely has preferences, this one. :) She smiles at the sound of voices she recognizes, even if the face is outside of her field of vision. She is also very interested in changes from her norm. For example, she normally has bare feet but yesterday her feet were cold so I put socks on her. She kept staring and staring at her feet and eventually grabbing at them. She seemed to be wondering what those white fuzzy things were that had taken the place of her toes. She has started laughing, which absolutely delights her siblings. It's a huge badge of honor to make Channah laugh. She also loves to "talk." We have lengthy conversations. About what, I'm not sure, but as long as I agree with her she's happy. :)

Homeschooling is still a bit rough with her unpredictable sleeping habits and her preference for complete isolation while nursing, but it has been going a little more smoothly each week.

 9 weeks

 

 11 weeks

 

12 weeks

 

 15 weeks

16 weeks