Weekly Wrap Up: Determination

Well, homeschooling three children has proven to be quite the time-consuming task :)  My blogging has taken a back seat, though I enjoy it so much.  This week, I am determined to blog, hence the title of this post.  My last wrap-up post was over a month ago!  Where to start?

We are in an exciting time period in history right now- the first battles of the American Revolution!  TS 1 has a great deal of reading each week in both history and literature, but he enjoys this subject and never complains about the workload.  We are trying to do the Tapestry of Grace Dialectic discussions each week as well, but it is challenging.  They often take at least an hour, which I break into two sessions.  Finding this time each week plan (a two-week stretch for us this year) is not always possible.  TS 2 and TS 3 are in the Lower Grammar level, and have much less reading each week.  I beef up their learning with read-alouds, lap books and videos.

Speaking of read-alouds, we are all enjoying Daniel at the Siege of Boston 1776 as our current read aloud.  It is from the Boys of Wartime series, and was recommended to us by our local children's librarian.  It is very engaging, yet the plot is simple enough that even TS 3 can follow along.

We have been watching Liberty's Kids episodes about this time period as well.  I recorded them on my DVR, and we have been watching each episode as we come upon that time in history in our readings.  I think you can also find some of the episodes on YouTube, if you're interested.  I stumbled on this great, little video on the Declaration of Independence on YouTube, which helped cement the main principles we had studied this week about the document.

In science, we started the lesson on Senses this week.  Here the test subjects are doing an activity to demonstrate that our sense of smell and our memories are closely related since they are both processed in the temporal lobe of the brain.  

While Tom taught science last year and for the first half of this year, we had to make a change recently.  The content is much more complicated this year, and it became hard for the boys to attend as they need to in the evenings.  I am teaching science now during the regular school day. 

Math.  Oh, math.  I'm still not sure how I feel about Math-U-See.  I am very close to switching all three to another curriculum for next year.  Namely, Teaching Textbooks for TS 1 & TS 2 and Christian Light for TS 3.  I just find the explanations for some of the higher level concepts more confusing than they need to be.  None of my children seem to need or even benefit from the use of the manipulatives, so I'm really thinking of making the switch.  

Collage Pictures- Clockwise from Top Left:
1.  TS 3's reading is progressing wonderfully!  She is reading level 1 readers almost completely independently now.  
2.  TS 2 at the dentist
3.  TS 3 sniffing herbs in science class
4.  TS 1 at the dentist
5.  TS 1 & 2 integrating the sense of smell and memory in science class
6.  TS 3 at the dentist

We have an exciting weekend planned.  Tomorrow is TS 2's NINTH birthday!  Instead of a birthday party this year, he requested a day at an indoor water park with the family.  

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up: The One with the Halfway Mark

Last week, we finished up our second quarter, so we are officially halfway through our school year.  It seems like a good time to recap what each of our three test subjects are up to in homeschool.  (You can check out a complete list of our curricula here, if you're interested.)

TS 1 has moved on to the second book in the Apologia worldview series, Who Am I?  It really holds his interest and is doing a great job of helping him apply biblical priniciples to real life situations. He is still enjoying the Dialectic level of Tapestry of Grace for history.  He did well on the Unit 3 Test, and is keeping up with the readings each week.  We continue to have a discussion at the end of each week plan, too.  We are on to Unit 4 now, the Age of Revolutions.  In Math, he is almost halfway through the Zeta book on Decimals and Percents, which keeps him on course to finish the book by the end of this school year.  This will allow him to move on to Pre-Algebra for seventh grade next year.  We are planning on participating in a Spelling Bee in the near future, so we have put aside our Spelling Power curriculum for awhile to study words from a spelling bee list.  TS 1 is working on writing five paragraph essays in his Following Narnia composition curriculum.  He seems to enjoy writing and this curriculum in particular.   His co-op enrichment class for the second half of the year is Geography and since TS 1 has developed a love for this subject recently, he is thoroughly enjoying this class.

TS 2 continues full steam ahead with the Gamma book for Math.  He has mastered all his multiplication facts and is working on multi-digit multiplication now.  He continues to enjoy history, though not as much as his older brother.  I have found myself reading most of his history assignments aloud this year so that TS 3 can join in with the lessons, too.  We have been focusing quite a bit on improving reading comprehension recently, so reading aloud the history assignments allows for extra practice with this.  While he does a lesson twice a week on SmartTutor for this skill, most of the work with reading comprehension has been accomplished through reading together and asking him to narrate back the main idea, to answer questions about the characters, setting and plot and to give predictions about what might happen next.  I have taken a gentle approach with reading comprehension, in the hopes of increasing his interest in reading.  As a result of this approach, coupled with a very helpful librarian and some high interest books, TS 2 seems to  be looking forward to reading now!  Writing is going well, too.  He has moved from writing his compositions with me to writing on his own with my edits and suggestions coming after he has completed the composition.

The boys are studying science together again this year using Apologia's Exploring Creation through Anatomy and Physiology.  It is considerably more complex than last year's study of Astronomy, which has made it more challenging to teach to both levels.  It can be easy to water it down too much for TS 1 or get too in-depth for TS 2.  We are going to try to do more of the hands on activities and experiments in the course and find more related YouTube videos to customize the learning to each boys' level more.  They have just begun studying the Nervous System, and we made models of the brain and a neuron this week.  (I have no clue how that little yellow guy got in the shot- lol!)

TS 3 is my most challenging test subject to teach, which might seem strange since she is only a Kindergartner.  However, she learns so differently from the boys, who seemed to progress in a (mostly) straight line without much regression at any given point.  TS 3, however, will have mastered something for a long time and one day out of the blue seem to have lost that knowledge.  This is a pattern we have seen since she was very small and beginning to learn simple concepts such as colors and shapes.  Because of these challenges, we have changed (or put on hold) quite a bit of her curricula since we started.  Looking back at where we started this year, though, her reading has come along beautifully.  She is reading CVC words, some blends and sight words very well.  She can spell the majority of the CVC words we have worked on, many blends and sight words as well.  She uses context clues while reading and is learning to use different inflections for dialogue, questions and exclamations.  In all, I am trying not to worry when I see regression, and just take time to review until she regains mastery and then return to the curriculum when she is ready.  

We are in the midst of a blizzard tonight, so weekend plans include hunkering down with my loves, good books, movies and comfort food!  

Weekly Wrap Up: The One in the Frozen Tundra

Brr!  It has been bitter cold in these parts this week!  It's weeks like this one that make me dream of moving south.  We have been spending much of our time indoors, or bundled up like Eskimos just to get from the house to the car.

On Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we had a half day of school.  All three test subjects worked on the three R's in the morning, and then went to a birthday party for their cousin in the afternoon.  It was a swimming party, and they had a blast.  Tom took them so I could continue to catch up on phone calls and paperwork.  It was so peaceful to be home alone for a few hours.  While I am able to find alone time most weeks, it is always out of the house.  To be home alone was a gift!

Speaking of MLK, we finished up our copy work this week, and had some great discussions about the meaning behind the quotes and what they told us about the kind of man he was.  We have yet to watch the documentary I mentioned last week, so I am hoping to schedule that in for some evening next week.

Late Monday afternoon we had some friends over to practice making these crochet hearts. Aren't they adorable?

On Tuesday, we had a busy homeschool day and our regular gymnastics class in the afternoon.  My dad was kind enough to take the kids to their gymnastics class, so I could spend a few hours at the hospital with a friend who is nearing the end of her life.  In the midst of the sadness, I feel such joy and hope knowing that we will see each other again in glory!

The highlight of my Wednesday was traveling into the city to have dinner with three of my four college roommates.  Since most of us live hours away from each other, and we have a total of 11 children between us, getting together is a rare event.  It was great fun!

As a result of all the Wednesday night fun, though, we all overslept about an hour on Thursday.  Even though it wasn't a longer day than usual, it felt that way because we started and ended later.  Besides that glitch, Thursday was a productive homeschool day.  I even found a few moments while the kids were taking a break to work on the Quarterly Reports that are due to our school district next week.  It's hard to believe that we are almost at the halfway point of our school year!

Friday is our co-op day, and despite this bitter cold, some the gym classes are still scheduled to be held outside.  I am so thankful that I am not assisting in the gym classes this year, but I am concerned for TS 1 who may spend 45 minutes out in the cold tomorrow.  He, of course, don't understand what all the fuss is about and is perfectly happy to be outdoors despite the frigid temps.  

On tap for the weekend: basketball games, a boy cousin play date at Dave and Busters and church!  

Weekly Wrap Up: Homeschool Mother's Journal Style

In my life this week…

I had quite a bit of paperwork and phone calls to catch up with this week.  I still have more paperwork, phone call and appointments to take care of, but I'm beginning to see the light.  

In our homeschool this week…

We began Unit 4 of Year 2 of Tapestry of Grace this week, the Age of Revolutions.  We all learned about Benjamin Franklin.  TS 1 also read about England's colonization of India, while TS 2 and TS 3 learned about John Harrison and how his sea clocks solved the problem of sailors knowing their longitude at sea.

We also spent some time learning more about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week thanks to the ideas Mary posted on her blog, Homegrown Learners.  If you are looking for at your fingertips ideas you can carry out easily to teach about MLK, that post is the place to go!  The boys have been working on the copy work pages Mary created.  They both read Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?  this week, too.  We all watched MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech on You Tube.  I'm planning for us to watch the documentary Mary mentioned next week.

Some computer learning 

 TOG Unit 2 Lapbook Complete

One of TS 3's journal entries

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Slow down, read aloud more and listen to your children.  (Reminding myself here, too!)  I am certainly guilty of speeding around and being too "busy" to really listen.  I've been making more of an effort to do just that, both during the homeschool day and during our family time.  It's been a blessing, not just to my children, but to me as well!

I am inspired by…

From Benjamin Franklin to John Harrison to Martin Luther King, Jr., this was an uplifting week for all of us as we studied these interesting, inspiring and world-changing men!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Dance class, gymnastics, basketball practices and games, baseball clinic and playdates- oh my!

My favorite thing this week was…

Returning to co-op!  I am not teaching this semester, and as much as I loved teaching the U.S. Government and Elections classes in the fall, I am grateful for the semester off.  No prep work the night before, no lugging posters and bags back and forth the morning of, and no rushing out the door to arrive early for set up on Friday mornings.  The kids seem to love their new classes as well as the ones that are continuing from first semester.  

What’s working/not working for us…

We seem to be chugging along fairly smoothly overall right now, except for TS 3's math.  We are floundering a bit, and I am trying to decide what to do.  As you may remember, TS 3 was in Kindergarten at school last year, and we are doing Kindergarten here at home this year as well.  She is on the younger end of the spectrum for her grade, so I wanted to give her more time for some basic concepts to gel. I did decide on the Alpha level of Math-U-See, however, for her this year, rather than the Primer level because that seemed too basic for her.  She has been doing well up until now.  It seems we need to shore up some of her fundamental math concepts before going on with the addition facts, though.  I have been supplementing with games and ideas from friends, but I am thinking about getting the Kindergarten or 1A level of Singapore Math as a supplement as well.  I would use it to build up some fundamental skills and when she seems ready, we would return to Math-U-See.

Things I’m working on…

Getting back to a more consistent Quiet Time routine each morning.  I am a night owl by nature, so I struggle to get myself to bed before 11 p.m. on any given night.  That makes rising at 6 a.m. very difficult for me.  I know how important it is for me to spend time alone with the Lord before the demands of the day begin, so I am trying to reset the body clock to do just that.

I’m grateful for…

Endless resources and helps for homeschool, both online and real life.  The opportunity to learn alongside my children, and to be (with my husband) the primary shapers of their worldview.

Friends that make me laugh, and the ability to stay connected with them through texting and social media right in the midst of this homeschool experiment of ours.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."  

-Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Weekly Wrap Up: The One after Christmas Break

How is it possible that I have not written a weekly wrap up post since September?!?  That's just crazy!  It's certainly not from a lack of wanting to blog- I love documenting our great homeschool experiment here.  It seems, though, that  my free time and energy level has decreased exponentially with the addition of our third test subject.  

The first week of January seems like as good a time as any to get back to writing a weekly wrap up, so here goes:

Our (almost) two week Christmas break included the typical frenzy leading up to Christmas as well as family gatherings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day 

Kid's Table 

Jesus's Birthday Cake 

 Christmas Day Attire- The difference in the way the boys and TS 3 dress makes me smile!

Some of the cousins on New Year's Eve

Cookies and Milk for the Kids' Toast

We started back to school on Wednesday, and although we have not yet gotten back to our pre-break schedule in terms of getting up on time and finishing on time, we were able to fall back into a full work load.  

We treated ourselves to a play date after our first day back to school.  While the kids played, the moms learned to crochet.  I felt like an old lady, and had resisted the trend for so long.  When I saw this blanket on my friend Vanessa's blog, though I succumbed to the peer pressure.  

Here is my first piece of work!  Isn't it cute?!?

Thursday morning we hit the books again.  We are wrapping up our Tapestry of Grace unit on Colonial Times.  It has been an engaging study for all of us!  We are hoping to join with some homeschooling friends for a unit celebration in the near future.  The kids are excited about the idea- we had so much fun at our Medieval Feast last year.

We are in the midst of a media fast this week for the kids.  I am convinced that there is much more peace in this home when we power down the iPods, iPad, TV and computer for an extended period and remember how to interact with one another and play creatively!  

After dinner, this little lady pulled out a workbook to "play" with last night.  

Co-op does not resume until January 18th, which gives us another day at home this week and next.  We are treating them as normal school days and following our regular routine.  

We have another play date scheduled for this afternoon.  We have been trying to have these friends over for months now!  (We are a bit over-scheduled after-school this year, but that is for another post.)  

Our weekend holds a basketball game both Saturday and Sunday for TS 1.  TS 2's team has the weekend off.  On Saturday, TS 3 and I will make our annual trip to the American Girl store with my sister, her daughter and our mom.  We are looking forward to an afternoon of browsing the store, wrapping up with dinner in the cafe!

I hope your holidays were filled with joy and peace and you make a smooth transition back to school, friends!

What TS 1 Has Been Up To

As you may have read, I'm sharing about what each of our test subjects have been up to so far this year.  You can read all about TS 2's year so far here and TS 3's here.  This week is is TS 1's turn in the spotlight.  TS 1 is in sixth grade, and we are using the following curricula as part of our Classical Christian/Charlotte Mason style homeschool.

Humanities Core:

Includes History, Geography, Church History, Music and Art Appreciation

Tapestry of Grace, Year 2, Units 3 & 4

Language Arts

Growing with Grammar Level 6 (Grammar)

Following Narnia: Writing Lessons in Structure and Style (Composition)A Reason for Handwriting, Letter F  (Cursive Practice)

Math:

Complete Math-U-See Epsilon Level and Begin Zeta Level

Science:

Apologia: Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology

Bible:

Apologia: Who is God?

Foreign Language:

Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America)- Homeschool Edition

Keyboarding:

Typing Instructor for Kids

Art/Music/PE/Sci, SS or Lit Enrichment:

Activities within Tapestry of Grace
Weekly Piano Lessons

Weekly Homeschool Co-op (PE, Art and U.S. Government and Elections Class)

Community Sports (Baseball and Basketball)

This year, I decided to try TS 1 in the Dialectic level of TOG.  He is a sixth grader this year, which is the first year that TOG recommends trying the Dialectic Level of the curriculum.  Since TS 1 enjoys history and is a fairly quick reader, I thought he might be able to handle this level.  The difference between the Dialectic level and the level he was on last year (Upper Grammar) is that in addition to learning important facts about people and events, the student is also challenged to make and articulate connections across events, people and countries.  Moving up to the Dialectic level has turned out to be the right decision for TS 1.  He is enjoying history more than ever before!  The amount of reading has not been overwhelming and he is so curious and interested in the content.  We are having a discussion of the content and the connections across the different readings and events at the end of each week plan.  We both really enjoy these discussions, but we have had to spread them out over two days because they are quite lengthy.  I can't really express in words just how delighted I am to see TS 1 enjoying history, to see it coming alive for him.  This was one of the subjects that had been so dry and lifeless for him in school, so to see this change makes my homeschooling mama heart happy :)

(What?  Doesn't everybody do their math hanging off the couch???)

TS 1  finished his MUS Epsilon book a few weeks ago- hurray!!!  He started right away on the Zeta level, and is moving quickly through the introductory lessons.  I seriously considered switching to a new math program for TS 1, as I am not sure MUS is the right fit for him.  However, since I had purchased the next level already, and he was not opposed to moving forward with it, we decided to bite the bullet.  Before we came to this conclusion, I researched Teaching Texbooks (looks great!) and even had him take a couple of the assessments to determine the level he would enter if we switched.  I also looked into Life with Fred (so fun!), but decided I would need to do too much supplementing with it to feel he had covered all he needed to for a full year's study.  In the end, I decided that it didn't make sense to switch now, when he is only one level away from Pre-Algebra.  If we still feel a change is in order, I think it makes more sense to do it at the end of this level than now.  Since he had already changed from a spiral math program at school to MUS, I was worried than another change now plus the change to Pre-Algebra next year just left too much opportunity for gaps in his learning.  I'm still not sure if we made the right decision, but a decision had to be made nonetheless!

Spelling Power has turned out to be a truly painless way to work on spelling a little every day.  Growing with Grammar works the same for us for grammar.  This year I added a handwriting component for TS 2 because his handwriting is quite poor.  He learned beautiful d'nealian print and manuscript in school, but he usually rushes when writing and produces sloppy work.  He is capable of much more in this area, so we are working on that this year.  He works on handwriting three times a week, and keyboarding once a week. 

(What?  Doesn't everybody do writing on their knees leaning on the chair???)

For composition, TS 1 has been working through IEW's Following Narnia curriculum.  The program is a combination of review of what he learned last year and assignments that build upon and expand the skills he already learned.  He is doing well with the curriculum and works independently on it for the most part.  If he had not completed the Student Writing Intensive last year, Following Narnia would have been much more challenging for him and labor intensive for me.  I would not recommend that one start with this curriculum if you are new to IEW unless the teacher had time to prepare for and directly teach each lesson. 

TS 2 continues to work through the first book in Apologia's worldview series, Who is God?  I am pleased with how the curriculum teaches biblical concepts plainly and clearly and then links them to real-life situations through stories and probing questions.  We use the accompanying notebook, although it is not a necessary component of the program.  It simply enhances it and makes it easier for me to be sure he is understanding and applying what he has read. 

Tom is doing science with the test subjects again this year, and they seem to be enjoying the Human Anatomy study.  They recently completed the lesson on muscles and are on to the Digestive system this week.  I have been finding you tube videos to reinforce what they are learning this year, as the content is much more detailed than last year's Astronomy study. 

TS 2 is continuing through the first level of Rosetta Stone's Latin American Spanish course.  I believe he is almost through with Level 1.  To be honest, since this is not a required elective and won't be for some years now in our state, my goals for Spanish right now are just to provide exposure to the langauge.  As a result, I haven't been as diligent as I would like in keeping tabs on his progress up to this point.  I'm working on that :)

As for all the extras, co-op  is in full swing and TS 1 is really enjoying his classes.  He is taking U.S. Government and Elections, Physical Education and Art.  Piano lessons are also going well and he performed Bizet's Habanera from Carmen a few weeks ago at co-op assembly.  He was also invited to play on the sixth grade basketball team at the school he attended through fourth grade.  Practices have already started and games begin sometime around Thanksgiving.  He is enjoying it so far!  TS 1 also participates in a weekly baseball clinic, and has learned a lot of new skills so far.