Current Schedule

How is your schedule working right now? I will share this week's 6th grade schedule. Our days have been going very well, thanks to lightening the load a bit. The current schedule seems to have just the right amount of work, at least for the moment. Dropping Greek really helped free up the day. I'm trying not to feel guilty about dropping it, but dd was just not ready for it at this point. We will likely try again in the summer or fall. It is always tricky to find a balance between having academic rigor and a joyful home, as they can conflict at times. Mainly I pray about it, and discuss it with dh. So far, we have always been unified on what subjects to keep and which to discontinue, so I believe that it is God's provision! There are only so many hours in the day, and we must decide what is REALLY important each term. Speaking of what is important, I can't resist showing a current family photo page which has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this post. : )

Pic of my Mom, Grandma, husband and daughter taken on Thanksgiving

About Total Language Plus (TLP): Miss M also told me that she loves the book, Where the Red Fern Grows, which is the book the TLP is going though. There are samples from the guide's different sections (for some reason, there is no sample of the comprehension questions which are included for each chapter): Enrichment and Writing | Grammar | Spelling | Vocabulary

Miss M is enjoying the TLP approach to English, and it is honestly a breath of fresh air. Traditional grammar instruction is important, and yet it can get tedious. TLP is a totally different approach to Language Arts and we give it two thumbs up, with the caution that it must be supplemented with traditional grammar instruction.

When we are done with the TLP guide in 4 weeks, we will go back and do a couple of CLE English Light Units to solidify diagramming skills, punctuation, parts of speech, etc. Total Language Plus is wonderful for vocabulary, spelling, literary analysis, dictation, and creative writing. However, it does not teach parts of speech, conventions, or HOW to write. See another review HERE. Therefore, alternating a TLP guide with a traditional approach such as CLE, Rod and Staff, or BJU should ensure a well-rounded Language Arts program. Our third term TLP guide will be Words by Heart, and will correlate with our study of the modern civil rights movement.

Coming Up: I just put the finishing touches on our WW I unit study, using the WW I Thematic Unit from TCR. We will begin that after Christmas! I finished reading the literature book that the unit uses, After the Dancing Days, and it was an enjoyable book that I hope will stimulate girl-interest in WW I. This TCR unit looks like a very fine study. It balances fiction and non-fiction, as well as music, art, history, science, and literature analysis. Since many of the pages are reproducibles, the unit is low on teacher-prep. After finding so many web links and films to go with it, I can hardly wait to get started on it in January!

Jammie School

Tomorrow is Miss M's birthday, and we are celebrating a little early by having 'Jammie School' today. Today, beds remain unmade and we are spending the morning in our jammies watching "Oliver Twist." This afternoon, we are going shopping for a new winter coat and picking up my niece for a week-end visit. To culminate our fun day, we are going to a clean comedy event tonight. I can't wait! Add plenty of junk food, board games, more movies, and an ice cream cake, and it should be just about a perfect week-end!

Week 4 Report

Peach Melba. Great Barrier Reef. Ayers Rock. Botany Bay. School of the Air. Our week was pretty much all about the topic of (as you already guessed!) Australia! With all of it's curious creatures and interesting people, Australia holds endless fascination for Miss M. Enchantment of the World: Australia, our spine book, was packed with fun facts and beautiful photos of the Land Down Under. After studying the Aboriginal people last week, this week's focus was European exploration and colonization. Using directions in Country Report Projects for Any Country as a base, Miss M made a notebook timeline of events in Australian history. With a fun, documentary film theme, the 3-D notebook page flips up, and each event can be shown and explained one by one. I love pages with movement!

We began Composition this week using BJU's English workbook. The first assignment is a personal narrative story, and this idea was a hit with Miss M. I personally love how BJU takes a student step-by-step through the planning process a with plenty of hand-holding. Although Miss M likes to write stories, she needs help organizing her thoughts and ideas. BJU is just the ticket!

Our homeschool co-op met for the first time this week. It was a blast and always a highlight of our week. Our co-op classes include phy-ed, art, and science this year.

Some productive free time activities this week included reading about coral reefs from our library basket, listening to an unabridged audiobook of Tom Sawyer, watching the Australian movie “Silver Stallion” and earning some extra cash-ola by walking the neighbors' dogs.

On Friday we put away the books and took a field trip to World War II Day at a local historical military fort. Every station was hands-on and we stayed the whole day. I learned so much!

It was a good week, Mate!

Week 3

This is my first weekly report!!! I am so excited about this idea and love seeing what the rest of you are doing!

We were on vacation last week and we also had a 4 day week because of the holiday Monday - so this week seemed a bit lackluster to me. Maybe it was a bit of post-vacation 'letdown.' Here is what we DID get done.

Memory Folder - Psalm 91, "Sea Shell" by Amy Lowell

Sea Shell by Amy Lowell

Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing me a song, O Please!
A song of ships, and sailor men,
And parrots, and tropical trees,
Of islands lost in the Spanish Main
Which no man ever may find again,
Of fishes and corals under the waves,
And seahorses stabled in great green caves.
Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing of the things you know so well.

From our Book Baskets - Torches of Joy by John Dekker, The Sea and It's Marvels (World Book), Australia (Enchantment of the World series), and The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit



Current Read-Aloud - Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott - This is an absolute delight and a must-read for homeschool families!

Geography - We used the 17" x 22" full-color topographic map (which folds up and fits right in our geography folder!), blackline map to color, "center" geography cards, and directions which are all included in Evan-Moor's Australia workbook. I love, love, love Evan-Moor products! They are so fun and easy to use. After doing the bodies of water map, Miss M chose 4 geography question cards, looked up the answers, and then made a small question-and-answer flip up book. The cover (still drying) is inspired by Australia's Aboriginal artwork.

Math - We finally began math this week. I have to say that Christian Light Math is a real winner at our house! I actually saw something in the workbook that a math-hater like me found....well.... INTERESTING!!! Can I share? It was a lesson on checking long multiplication problems using digit sums. I thought this was a pretty cool trick. Maybe I am just dense, but I don't ever remember learning digit sums in school. See lesson below.


Science - Not much here. We did informal reading using library basket full of books on oceans, coral reefs and volcanoes. Miss M did a copywork page with dolphin illustrations.


Music - This week we continued our composer study of Franz Schubert. For the first time, we listened to the "Classical Music for Kids" online show. What a treasure! "Take Me to Your Lieder" was a BIG hit with Miss M. She loved taking the online quizzes and insisted on doing all of them.


Copywork/Dictation - Copied a few sentences from a science-related library book and dressed it up with some illustrations from the book. See below - sorry for the glare from the page protector. : ) I love how decorative paper and a few pictures dress things up! We also did copywork/dictaion from one SL 5 Languge Arts Activity Sheet using text from "Call It Courage."


Productive Choice Time - Miss M spent several afternoons making various homemade puppets. On her own, she rigged up a puppet theater using two chairs, a broom stick, and a beach towel so she could give proper performances! Quite a resourceful girl. I have to say, the productions were brilliant! : ) One night, she acted out Eight Cousins with her puppets as Iron Chef was reading the story. Now, that was hilarious!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Somehow my fonts got messed up and I have been unable to fix or change the font sizes. Oh well - hope you don't mind. If you have any clue how to fix it, I'd appreciate it if you let me know!

And, how was your week?

Back to School: Week 2
In Which Miss M Makes Siapo Cloth

We survived our first week of school last week! Today was the beginning of our second week, and the only subject I added was Bible. I am too much of a wimp to add in Math or English. It is enough to try to get back into the routine of school for now. We are keeping our day pretty light and fluffy so far. : )

Our day today went fairly smoothly, although I overslept this morning and got started a bit later than I would have liked. Miss M got up fairly willingly, and that is always a good sign.

Here was our day ended up:

9-10:00 am - Sonlight 5 reading

10:00-10:15 - Memory Work and Poetry

10:15-10:30 - Copywork and Composer Study

10:30-10:45 - free time

10:45-11:00- Bible

11:00-11:30 - chores

11:30-12:00 - Sonlight 5 World Book reading on computer (2 days' worth)

LUNCH

Productive Free Time - (Miss M chose to make an art project, did science reading, did a paid chore, crafted a home-made bulletin board)

Our second week is feeling more 'normal.' We are slowly getting into the swing of things again. I am pretty satisfied. Maybe I will get up the nerve to start math next week? Gulp.

How is your week going?

Frogs and Flowers

First day of Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany yesterday. It was a gorgeus spring day, so we picked up a friend and headed out to a nearby park. Having our lesson under a tree while the sun was shining was glorious! Soon we were hiking around the lake and looking for flowering plants, angiosperms and gymnosperms. The first day with Apologia Botany was a HUGE hit!



Oh, and Cameron the Frog interrupted our Botany lesson before deciding to listen in for a while. Cameron the Frog was a lot of fun, and all the kids at the park had to come over and say 'Hello!' to him. He was a friendly sort of fellow as you can see!

Finishing Up

The year has zipped by. It's hard to believe that this week's history project was our final one! Dd chose 2 projects this week: A Famous Woman of the Civil War 3-D Report and a Civil War Photo Scrapbook.

Here are some pics of the Clara Barton (Famous Woman) report from front, back, and open views.

After reading a biography of Clara Barton from the Childhood of Famous Americans series, she was amazed by all that Clara Barton did! Great job, kiddo!

Her other project was to pick out favorite Civil War photos and put them together in a home-made scrapbook. She used the Civil War Photo postcards from Dover, and it ended up being 14 pages long! It was a fun and easy project to close our history adventure with.

Here are some pics:

This Week's Project

We have been studying the Civil War for several weeks, reading a ton of good books, writing, and doing projects here and there. This week we made Civil War camp postcards. I had dd and her friend write imaginary postcards 'home.' After they were done addressing the postcards, we sealed them with an image of a Civil War era Andrew Jackson stamp we found on the internet.

Here dd is posing as Clara Barton, Civil War nurse. No smiles!

A Basket of Books

To require or inspire? Since I don't really 'assign' reading books, but let dd chose from our library basket, I thought it would be fun to publish what she has decided to read and view this year so far in our TruthQuest studies. They are a mix of chapter books, picture books and videos. We have a few weeks of history left, so she may finish another book or two -- but this is the majority of her history 'meals' from this year.

I have to admit that it was hard to let go of the control in the reading area, but the reading basket method has worked out extremely well at our house. No more assigning pages or chapter numbers, no more anguishing over which book is 'best' to assign, no more groans when a book is assigned! How freeing. I call it the Old Country Buffet History Method. In truth, more seems to be read when "inspired"than when "required." What a blessing to find a method that works with a more reluctant reader!

• A New Nation by Joy Hakim

• Liberty for All? by Joy Hakim

• War, Terrible War by Joy Hakim

• George Washington (CFA) by Augusta Stevenson

• Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Margeurite Henry

• Sightseers: Paris, 1789 (Kingfisher) - French Revolution

• Sacagewea: Girl of the Shining Mountains by Roop

• Meet Thomas Jefferson (Landmark)

• VIDEO: Lewis and Clark (National Geographic)

• VIDEO: Sacagewea: Heroine of the Lewis and Clark Journey (Questar)

• Oceola (CFA) by Electa Clark

• Nightbird: A Story of the Seminole Indians by Kathleen Kudlinski

• The Seminole by Lepthien, Emilie U (New True Book)

• Native Crafts by Maxine Trottier

• Traditional Native American Arts and Activities by Arlette N. Braman

• Dolly Madison (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Monsell

• Robert Fulton: Boy Craftsman (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Margeurite Henry

• John Quincy Adams (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Weil

• South America (A New True Book)

• Capyboppy by Peet

• Canals (A New True Book) by Elaine Landau

• Iron Horses by Nerla Kay

• Erie Canal: Canoein America’s Great Waterway by Peter Lourie

• VIDEO: Xavier in India (AIMS Multimedia)

• VIDEO: Religions of the World: Hinduism (United Learning)

• Story of the Trail of Tears (COF)

• VIDEO: How the West Was Lost (Discovery School)

• Welcome to Josephina’s World 1824: Growing Up on America’s Southwest Frontier (American Girls)

• The Story of the Santa Fe Trail (COF) - RA

• Jed Smith: Young Western Explorer by Olive Burt (CFA)
• Jim Bridger: Mountain Boy by Gertrude Winders (CFA)
• Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell-1847 by Kristiana Gregory
• Cowboy by David Murdoch (Eyewitness Books)

• Pony Express by Steven Kroll

• Pony Bob’s Daring Ride: A Pony Express Adventure by Joe Bensen

• Buffalo Bill by d’Aulaire

• Yippee-Yay: A Book About Cowboys and Cowgirls by Gail Gibbons

• Born to Be a Cowgirl: A Spirited Guide through the Old West by Candace Savage

• Bufffalo Gals by Brandon Marie Miller

• Frederick Remington by Mike Venenzia

• Caddie Woodlawn by Brink - RA

• Video: ‘Texas Legacy’ by Rainbow Education
• How I Survived the Oregon Trail by Laura Wilson

• Oregon Trail Cooking by Mary Gunderson

• West by Covered Wagon by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

• Roughing It on the Oregon Trail by Diane Stanley

• I’m Sorry. Almira Ann by Jane Kurtz

• The Donner Party by Scott P Werther

• The Story of Gold at Sutter’s Mill (COF)

• Almost to Freedom by Nelson

• Who Owns the Sun? By Chbosky

• Under the Quilt of Night by Hopkinson

• Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Ringgold

• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Hopkinson

The Patchwork Path by Stroud

• Escape from Slavery by Rappaport

• A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth by Adler

• The Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester

• A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Adler

• VIDEO: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Grace’s Letter to Lincoln by Roop

• Abe Lincoln: Frontier Boy by August Stevenson (CFA)

• Behind Rebel Lines by Reit

• The Boys' War by Murphy

• Who Comes With Cannons? - RA

View reading list as PDF file

Hooray for History

Ok, I'll admit it -- I detested history when I was in school. Studying American History year after year with a dry textbook and uninspired teachers was as exciting as left-over meatloaf. In truth, I was never taught a shred of world, ancient or medieval history in all my years in schoool! Suddenly, Christopher Colubus appeared out of (apparently) nowhere each year. As far as methodology, we learned facts and dates from our textbooks and took a test to make sure we 'retained' the material. *Blech*

When we began homeschooling in 2001, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to look forward to learning each day, and not dread it. Not wanting to face a stack of workbooks each day, I poured over homeschooling method books, and was attracted to several styles: unit studies, classical and Charlotte Mason. We chose and began with Unit Studies (Five in a Row) for Preschool.

We modified FIAR to include only a single reading and expanded on daily reading with related books from the library. Both dd and I loved Five in a Row! The FIAR art, geography, and literature ideas are some of our fondest memories of HSing. We (well, actually more mommy than dd) did a bit of lapbooking with our FIAR studies, added a little phonics and math, and had a delightful year. We read many good books, learned world geography, made lots of artsy tartsy messes, and had some cute lapbooks to show friends and family. Back to my comment on our delightful year... I will clarify that while the FIAR was delightful, our phonics and reading lessons were another matter that I will save for later. Take heart if you have a reluctant reader -- it does get better! ; )

Next we delved into KONOS and did much of Volume 1. Dd still talks about our KONOS 'Horse' study to this day, and asked for a repeat study in 4th grade (a request which I gladly granted) All of the activities were fun for dd (of course!) and required some planning to make it come together each week. The pro's of KONOS, in my opinion, are the character focus, the activities to encourage a love of learning, and the flexibility. KONOS is great for active youngsters! I liked KONOS and loved our time with it, but decided that the following year we would begin a more literature, not activity, based year. Knowing my dd, I wanted to encourage a habit of reading and study, not an expectation of 'fun' and activities every minute of the day. I suspected the activity focus would be hard to train out of her in later years.

In 2003, we found the answer to our history dilemma: Story of the World by Susan Bauer. Using the activity guide, we were able to focus on the narrative story and literature, and not miss out on the activities that we were used to with KONOS/FIAR. Story of the World is the best blend of the activity approach of KONOS and the literature method! We worked through SOTW 1 and 2 over a couple of years and added in literature read-alouds, fine art, and poetry from Ambleside Online. It was a perfect fit for an active, hands-on child. My only complaint with SOTW is that a world history text jumps around from country to country so much that it is hard to get the flow of any one country's history story. Being more of a unit study family, we did rearrange the SOTW topics to go a bit more country by country. Studying China for 2-3 weeks all together gave us more time to add in literature, art, projects, and the like. I have found that we prefer to cover more depth than breadth. I would rather cover fewer topics WELL. Of course, there are pro's and con's to this too!

In 2005, we were torn between doing world history with Story of the World 3 and going with an American History focus with a different curriculum. Each side has merit, but in the end we decided to go with American History for this history cycle. We chose TruthQuest American History for Young Students as our base, Joy Hakim's series as our spine, and off we went! Both World and American history will be the focus when we cover it again in later years.

I am sooooo glad we ended up going the American History route. There are oodles of delicious American history books for elementary children! Rather than selecting particular titles for dd to read, we chose the “History Basket” method for the year. Using the TruthQuest Guide and checking our library system, I fill a big basket with worthy books for 2-3 weeks at a time. The KEY thing is to never put books in the basket that you, as a parent-educator, don't feel are worthy. The child seems to have a way of picking the ONE book you think is a waste of time! Choose the best books and put them in the basket. Then, schedule reading time each day and discuss informally. That's it! It is so low stress and enjoyable for all. We do read-alouds in the evenings, often from AmblesideOnline. ; )

We stayed with TruthQuest for 2006-7, and are at the end of AHYS II. The only difference from last year is that dd is less interested in doing history projects and more interested in 'real' handicrafts such as crocheting and sewing. She is getting past the activity/project phase in her schooling. Dd has also taken off in her reading ability, and will read at least an hour or two every day – which I consider to be a miracle of God's grace! (She is a former reluctant reader who hated both reading and phonics, so we did it in extremely small, regular doses, Charlotte Mason style.) I am a firm believer in short lessons in easy reading for reluctant readers, rather than dropping lessons altogether. Practicing bit by bit slowly turns reading from an exercise in laborious decoding to an enjoyable pass time!

At this present time, we are finishing up AHYS II and we look forward to completing our American History studies by continuing with TruthQuest next year. We have found the literature approach of to be extremely enjoyable and thorough. We can add in activities anytime we want, but our studies don't DEPEND on them. There is flexibility, challenge, a myriad of choices, and freedom. Truly the best of the best that homeschooling has to offer. There are so many awesome curriculums out there: My Father's World, Tapestry of Grace, Sonlight, Mystery of History, and on and on! What is really important is that we find something that works for our family, and then go forth boldly, without second-guessing our choices. Enjoy the pageant of His-story as it unfolds for your family.

History studies offer the opportunity to learn from the past, apply Biblical principles, and study villains as well as heroes. These things are recorded that we and our children might learn from them and not repeat the sins of the past. We dare not squander the opportunity to to go forward with greater wisdom learned from the lessons of antiquity!

Our prayer and hope is that you may find inspiration, wisdom and joy in one the many excellent history choices available! Thank you if you made it all the way to the end of this loooooong post....LOL!

Hooray for History!

HOT Resource -- Hands-On History: Civil War

In Praise of Projects

We have always been fans of projects, field trips, and any other legitimate reason to put aside the books for a while. Over the years, we have found that projects are the memory-makers and motivators. When our darling daughter talks about her memories of a topic, she almost always brings up something she made. "Remember when we made the sugar cube pyramids or the illuminated manuscripts?" Projects serve to cement ideas and facts in our minds, while giving an outlet for creativity.

Today's project is making a fold-out "Road to the Civil War" timeline. Below, she is planning the project layout. I was impressed that she decided to get out a ruler for accuracy.

Next, she is drawing the rough outline of the "road" and "stops" along the way. This project combines handwriting, research, drawing, history, and design. Gotta love the way projects can streamline subjects!

We are still working on this project as I write. I'll try to add a pic of the finished project when it's done, which may not be today. The weather is so warm, we plan to take a walk at a nearby duckpond. We'll see how far we get.