Excited today, B will be breaking out the new microscope. He will be checking out bacteria growth in his pond experiment. I think I will pull out the Discovery Toys microscope as well and let A and J check out the slides. They will think that is the coolest.
I have also assigned the boys to do a report on a Canadian Explorer. Basically because B needs something to fill his time:) He is continually looking for the next thing to do and without the Sonlight core I am just pulling stuff together on my own. And I have not spent enough time planning yet this year...
Our Draw Today program is going well, at least for B, he is totally into it and enjoying it. I wish that he required more of himself in the way of editing, revising because he does a wonderful job that would be fantastic if he would just spend the time necessary to keep at it until it was perfected. Although, it is hard to be the other way, like R and I. We are perfectionists and that can really hinder creativity. R does not really want to do the art, because he doesn't think he is good at it. That is why the Draw Today program is so wonderful, because they can succeed at it and feel talented. I can't wait to see what he does with it.
Right now, my R is driving a little batty. He refuses to stay on task for even five minutes. sigh. It is noisy here, I will give him that, the whole time we were working on our math, the decibel level was insane.
A and J both want to be involved in everything. J has me asking him addition and subtraction problems up to 10 and he writes them down and solves them. He is fantastic at the solving and we are working on the printing. A wants to "do math" as well. She had me dot write problems for her to copy. Couldn't just do the numbers, she had to have problems to solve like her brothers.
Home educating with 5 kids from 1 to 15 is never dull, and usually not that easy either.
As for the rest of our lives, B starts his YMCA volunteering today with Afterschool Mania. Basically he is a referee for a bunch of elementary school kids and I am sure he will love it. We need to run to the book store to get his first book for his Modern Classics course. He has 12 chapters to read for next Monday. I am sure he will be done by tomorrow:)I also need to take the boys to get their agendas still. I really want them to start planning their time on their own.
Big B is working nightshift all week, so our days and nights are without him. I hate it, but I am hoping to make it a week of afternoon fieldtrips to help keep it quieter for him. And to keep me sane. Today, we will take a walk in the sun, the weather is gorgeous still.
Showing posts with label Language Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Language Arts. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
First Day
I told the kids that this year we were going to enforce an reasonable start time so that we have time to accomplish our goals and still have some fun. Today was the first early morning. The children are to be ready to work at 8:30 am. This means that I want them fed, dressed, teeth brushed and sitting at a clean table with their books. I have a feeling that this is going to take a while to become habit. B was up, mostly because we made him get up before I took my Dad to the airport at 6:30 this morning. I wanted him to keep an ear out for A and J who were still sleeping.
Even with a warning call before I arrived home, B was not ready to go by 8:30 and R was not ready to work until 10:30am. He would not get out of bed and then he would not get moving. So tonight he has to be in bed by 8pm. I thought that would be a natural consequence of sleeping in... and I have a feeling that his father will awaken him before he leaves for work at 6:30am. Poor kid.
As for me, I am going to try and go to bed earlier and get up early to exercise and do devotions each morning before we get started.
***
I am going to try and keep a written record of each child's assignments and daily work here this year. Doesn't make for exciting reading, but I need to keep track.
B, R and I watched a short video on Stephen Covey's site about goal setting, we will watch the whole series and then set our own goals for the year. We went on to do the first of our Writing Strands' lessons, B in book 5, and R in book 4. I started reading the Evaluating Writing book. Wow. I realized that I have been hyper-critical of their writing, rather than encouraging it. Changing that immediately.
R did a spelling lesson to round off English for the day.
We read the first half of Daniel 7 together, it was a bit dry for the kids after the exciting stories they had enjoyed over the previous chapters. A and J went over their Sunday School memory verse and then we started to memorize Psalm 1 (in song) together. B is going to memorize Ps 136 and R chose Ps 43. (I probably need to check, I have a feeling that Ps 43 is super short.)
B reviewed his first science chapter, as I am going to retest/review the chapters he has done as he finishes the lab work he couldn't do previously due to missing supplies/microscope.
We finished off the day with Art. B and R started the Draw Today program, B loved it, but R is finding it difficult so far. I think as he relaxes and progresses that he will enjoy it more. He is very self-critical and a perfectionist like his mother and that can definitely hinder creativity.
Right now the boys are off on a walk, E is sleeping, or I would have taken all the kids. I am going to discipline us all to get at least an hour of activity a day, especially before we get on our electronics. The boys were asking for computer time, so I sent them on a walk. And R has homework (his writing strands) before he has any chance of computer time. I think he will not have any at all, as a result of a poor attitude for most of the day. ugh.
Tomorrow is a new day and I look forward to continuing our adventure then. Hopefully we will all be renewed in spirit and mind.
Even with a warning call before I arrived home, B was not ready to go by 8:30 and R was not ready to work until 10:30am. He would not get out of bed and then he would not get moving. So tonight he has to be in bed by 8pm. I thought that would be a natural consequence of sleeping in... and I have a feeling that his father will awaken him before he leaves for work at 6:30am. Poor kid.
As for me, I am going to try and go to bed earlier and get up early to exercise and do devotions each morning before we get started.
***
I am going to try and keep a written record of each child's assignments and daily work here this year. Doesn't make for exciting reading, but I need to keep track.
B, R and I watched a short video on Stephen Covey's site about goal setting, we will watch the whole series and then set our own goals for the year. We went on to do the first of our Writing Strands' lessons, B in book 5, and R in book 4. I started reading the Evaluating Writing book. Wow. I realized that I have been hyper-critical of their writing, rather than encouraging it. Changing that immediately.
R did a spelling lesson to round off English for the day.
We read the first half of Daniel 7 together, it was a bit dry for the kids after the exciting stories they had enjoyed over the previous chapters. A and J went over their Sunday School memory verse and then we started to memorize Psalm 1 (in song) together. B is going to memorize Ps 136 and R chose Ps 43. (I probably need to check, I have a feeling that Ps 43 is super short.)
B reviewed his first science chapter, as I am going to retest/review the chapters he has done as he finishes the lab work he couldn't do previously due to missing supplies/microscope.
We finished off the day with Art. B and R started the Draw Today program, B loved it, but R is finding it difficult so far. I think as he relaxes and progresses that he will enjoy it more. He is very self-critical and a perfectionist like his mother and that can definitely hinder creativity.
Right now the boys are off on a walk, E is sleeping, or I would have taken all the kids. I am going to discipline us all to get at least an hour of activity a day, especially before we get on our electronics. The boys were asking for computer time, so I sent them on a walk. And R has homework (his writing strands) before he has any chance of computer time. I think he will not have any at all, as a result of a poor attitude for most of the day. ugh.
Tomorrow is a new day and I look forward to continuing our adventure then. Hopefully we will all be renewed in spirit and mind.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Today the boys got up early with dad and got a head start on their math. Yay! The littlest 3 and I went to chat and play at the church while the big guys worked on school. Not ideal for getting school done, but much needed for me and the preschoolers.
Social Studies:
B and R have been watching the Canada: A People's History videos. We are on episode 2 this week, it goes up to about 1670 and talks about the fur trade and New France, the life of Samuel de Champlain, etc. They are working together to write a 6 scene play about the fur trade and have chosen to follow the voyage of a beaver pelt through 6 interactions between different people involved. With a little prompting, their first 2 scenes look like a terrific start. B(13) wrote a scene where a native father is teaching his son how to catch a beaver and R(11) wrote the scene where they take the pelt to the trading post.
We are using various other resources: books from the Discovering Canada series, such as New France and The Fur Trade; Kids Can Press books such as The Kids Book of Canadian History and the Kids book of Canadian Exploration; Donna Ward's Courage and Conquest and various websites and other books.
As for the preschoolers, I read to them about beavers from the Fur Trade book. Of course A (3) has many more questions to ask than ears to listen.
Science:
Body Worlds is still playing at our Science Centre this week and I am still hoping Daddy will have time to take the older kids. I am kind of grossed out by it, so I don't want to take them. In preparation, we have been studying a bit about the human body using Lyrical Life Science 3: the Human Body as our base. The kids all enjoy the songs.
We are supplementing our reading with various Usborne books, websites and a life size skeleton model I am having the boys put together. I pulled out the Grey's Anatomy to help them label some bones not already labeled.
I am still trying to find our Science curriculum cd-rom, the boys have managed to misplace it since spring and I am frustrated with that. $75 and a month of time wasted because we can't find it. When we do, we will skip ahead to the human body section for now and then go back to earth science.
With the preschoolers today, I read the muscles pages of The Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body and then we went the the linked websites and played some games.
Language arts:
Both boys are using Writing Strands this year, supplemented with weeks of Dictation exercises, Spelling workout for R(11) and Vocabulary from Classical Roots for B(13) and yet to be named grammar programs. We should be starting the Latin Road to English Grammar again soon.
B is on WS 4 lesson 5 this week and R is WS 3 lesson 3 as well as doing the dictation exercises that he only said he did last week.
The littles made an emergent reader booklet today of the Eensy Weensy Spider today and recited that with me a few times. This promotes fluency and success in reading for beginning and pre-readers. J (4) is actually reading quite well already, I literally cried last week when he read a passage from the Human Body encyclopedia. I couldn't believe how well he was reading.
The preschoolers also did a bit of cutting practice today.
Math:
Saxon Algebra 1/2 for B(13) and 6/5 for R(11) this year, continuing from the spring. B is on lesson 20 and R is on lesson (43)
Logic:
B has started a formal logic program this year by way of Introductory Logic. We are also using Critical Thinking Co.'s Mind Bender's cd-roms and Red Herring stories with both boys as fun add-ons.
Latin and French:
We haven't attempted to start these subjects yet this year. French should be easy to add in, but I have to get ahead of the kids in Latin before starting again, and with a newborn I can't even think about it now.
Cooking!
I have been lax in formal elective instruction, but both boys have shown such an interest in cooking that I am going to consider this one of our electives this year.
So far this year R has made a curry - Butter Chicken and Naan bread which was his first yeast bread. He also had to clarify butter for the naan bread.
Both boys have made pancakes and cookies, grilled cheese and ... I can't remember! I will have to keep track of their experiments and successes in the kitchen as well as cover meal planning, shopping with a budget, substitutions, conversions, tools and terms, various skills and maybe even thematic menus.... should be fun.
I need to have both boys pick passages for memory work, I keep forgetting to do that...
I had planned on taking all of September off school. E was born on September 9th and I knew I would be tired and overwhelmed and just not up to keeping up with the boys. Brent decided that when he went back to work that the boys should be doing something so he set them up and took care of making sure they did what he assigned and marked. He was right, but it has been hard many days. By the end of the first week, I took over the planning, but he has been checking in with them most nights.
When R started his usual taking all day to finish a 30 minute math lesson, Brent started waking him up at 6 am the next day to work with R before going to work. This seems to be helping so far. I am trying to stay on top of everything and them each day. I plan out our schedules with my Homeschool Tracker software, print out their weekly assignment sheets so they know what is expected each day and then try to check their work and enter it into the software as done and their marks.
I got behind last week, so this week I am playing catch up. I discovered that R hadn't done his dictation exercises last week, so he has double writing assignments this week. B had some difficulties with his vocab assignments, so he is doing catch up and corrections this week. I feel good about where we are heading this year, but frustrated with monetary constraints that are preventing me from buying some much needed and some just much wanted supplies and curriculum. Like Braeden's science. Time is limited and he really does need to complete his science this year to stay on track for college. I guess I need to pray for God's provision! Hmm, maybe the school board would be able to order it for me... I have some phone calls to make.
Social Studies:
B and R have been watching the Canada: A People's History videos. We are on episode 2 this week, it goes up to about 1670 and talks about the fur trade and New France, the life of Samuel de Champlain, etc. They are working together to write a 6 scene play about the fur trade and have chosen to follow the voyage of a beaver pelt through 6 interactions between different people involved. With a little prompting, their first 2 scenes look like a terrific start. B(13) wrote a scene where a native father is teaching his son how to catch a beaver and R(11) wrote the scene where they take the pelt to the trading post.
We are using various other resources: books from the Discovering Canada series, such as New France and The Fur Trade; Kids Can Press books such as The Kids Book of Canadian History and the Kids book of Canadian Exploration; Donna Ward's Courage and Conquest and various websites and other books.
As for the preschoolers, I read to them about beavers from the Fur Trade book. Of course A (3) has many more questions to ask than ears to listen.
Science:
Body Worlds is still playing at our Science Centre this week and I am still hoping Daddy will have time to take the older kids. I am kind of grossed out by it, so I don't want to take them. In preparation, we have been studying a bit about the human body using Lyrical Life Science 3: the Human Body as our base. The kids all enjoy the songs.
We are supplementing our reading with various Usborne books, websites and a life size skeleton model I am having the boys put together. I pulled out the Grey's Anatomy to help them label some bones not already labeled.
I am still trying to find our Science curriculum cd-rom, the boys have managed to misplace it since spring and I am frustrated with that. $75 and a month of time wasted because we can't find it. When we do, we will skip ahead to the human body section for now and then go back to earth science.
With the preschoolers today, I read the muscles pages of The Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body and then we went the the linked websites and played some games.
Language arts:
Both boys are using Writing Strands this year, supplemented with weeks of Dictation exercises, Spelling workout for R(11) and Vocabulary from Classical Roots for B(13) and yet to be named grammar programs. We should be starting the Latin Road to English Grammar again soon.
B is on WS 4 lesson 5 this week and R is WS 3 lesson 3 as well as doing the dictation exercises that he only said he did last week.
The littles made an emergent reader booklet today of the Eensy Weensy Spider today and recited that with me a few times. This promotes fluency and success in reading for beginning and pre-readers. J (4) is actually reading quite well already, I literally cried last week when he read a passage from the Human Body encyclopedia. I couldn't believe how well he was reading.
The preschoolers also did a bit of cutting practice today.
Math:
Saxon Algebra 1/2 for B(13) and 6/5 for R(11) this year, continuing from the spring. B is on lesson 20 and R is on lesson (43)
Logic:
B has started a formal logic program this year by way of Introductory Logic. We are also using Critical Thinking Co.'s Mind Bender's cd-roms and Red Herring stories with both boys as fun add-ons.
Latin and French:
We haven't attempted to start these subjects yet this year. French should be easy to add in, but I have to get ahead of the kids in Latin before starting again, and with a newborn I can't even think about it now.
Cooking!
I have been lax in formal elective instruction, but both boys have shown such an interest in cooking that I am going to consider this one of our electives this year.
So far this year R has made a curry - Butter Chicken and Naan bread which was his first yeast bread. He also had to clarify butter for the naan bread.
Both boys have made pancakes and cookies, grilled cheese and ... I can't remember! I will have to keep track of their experiments and successes in the kitchen as well as cover meal planning, shopping with a budget, substitutions, conversions, tools and terms, various skills and maybe even thematic menus.... should be fun.
I need to have both boys pick passages for memory work, I keep forgetting to do that...
I had planned on taking all of September off school. E was born on September 9th and I knew I would be tired and overwhelmed and just not up to keeping up with the boys. Brent decided that when he went back to work that the boys should be doing something so he set them up and took care of making sure they did what he assigned and marked. He was right, but it has been hard many days. By the end of the first week, I took over the planning, but he has been checking in with them most nights.
When R started his usual taking all day to finish a 30 minute math lesson, Brent started waking him up at 6 am the next day to work with R before going to work. This seems to be helping so far. I am trying to stay on top of everything and them each day. I plan out our schedules with my Homeschool Tracker software, print out their weekly assignment sheets so they know what is expected each day and then try to check their work and enter it into the software as done and their marks.
I got behind last week, so this week I am playing catch up. I discovered that R hadn't done his dictation exercises last week, so he has double writing assignments this week. B had some difficulties with his vocab assignments, so he is doing catch up and corrections this week. I feel good about where we are heading this year, but frustrated with monetary constraints that are preventing me from buying some much needed and some just much wanted supplies and curriculum. Like Braeden's science. Time is limited and he really does need to complete his science this year to stay on track for college. I guess I need to pray for God's provision! Hmm, maybe the school board would be able to order it for me... I have some phone calls to make.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
a novel?
Well, not much to say here. We haven't done much lately. We have fallen behind in science and I have fallen behind in my marking, but it is all good.
The boys are terribly excited because their new laptops finally arrived last week. Dad has spent hours installing drivers and software and working out bugs with tech support. But right now we are all sitting on the couch blogging. Yay!
I signed up the 3 of us for Nanowrimo next month. National Novel writing month. We are gonna write novels, for me that is 50000 words in a month. Should be a crazy, carpal tunnel syndrome filled, caffeine fueled month.
The kids will write less, I think about 12000 word for my 10 year old and 30 000 for my 13 year old. The kids nanowrimo site is really great, I printed off their workbooks for us. The wb takes you write (I mean right;p) through the whole process, helping with character and plot development, etc. There is a teacher area on the kids site that I am finding helpful as we prepare.
I can't wait to get started on our novels, there are a bunch of nanowrimo activities in the city for us to get involved with although mostly for adults. I am hoping to attend a bunch of write-ins and get my word count up sans children.
I need to go mark math so my son can do his test. my favorite thing to do. marking. hm.
The boys are terribly excited because their new laptops finally arrived last week. Dad has spent hours installing drivers and software and working out bugs with tech support. But right now we are all sitting on the couch blogging. Yay!
I signed up the 3 of us for Nanowrimo next month. National Novel writing month. We are gonna write novels, for me that is 50000 words in a month. Should be a crazy, carpal tunnel syndrome filled, caffeine fueled month.
The kids will write less, I think about 12000 word for my 10 year old and 30 000 for my 13 year old. The kids nanowrimo site is really great, I printed off their workbooks for us. The wb takes you write (I mean right;p) through the whole process, helping with character and plot development, etc. There is a teacher area on the kids site that I am finding helpful as we prepare.
I can't wait to get started on our novels, there are a bunch of nanowrimo activities in the city for us to get involved with although mostly for adults. I am hoping to attend a bunch of write-ins and get my word count up sans children.
I need to go mark math so my son can do his test. my favorite thing to do. marking. hm.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Civic Election
Yeehaw! So pleased with our evening last night. We put our little ones to bed and had some family time doing our bible reading. Then Daddy led a discussion on current events that he turned into an a lesson on civic elections, educating us on what the positions in civic government are, who is running etc. He showed us a website called Edmonton Election dot ca where we could find all the information for ourselves. Thanks Dear, you are a terrific teacher.
We then did our science reading about what science is not and are all ready to learn about scientific method today and to do our experiment.
Reading the boys journal/blogs today, I can see we have a lot of work to do on punctuation and grammar. YIKES! I try not to criticise or correct journal, as I just want them to write, to be in the habit of writing. But R is writing a great story that I had a hard time following as he used 3 or 4 periods for 300 words, and not one comma.
Tomorrow, first thing, USE OF COMMAS!
We are learning lots about Canadian rivers this week, for instance, did you know the longest CDN river is the Mackenzie, while the largest is the St. Lawrence? Every year when we drive through the Rockies into BC and cross the Continental Divide, Daddy explains what that means. That all the rivers to the East of the divide flow to the Atlantic or the Arctic, and all the rivers to West of the divide flow into the Pacific , so the kids had an even better understanding than I did on how the rivers flowed into and out of lakes and each other. I realize that the divide gets more complicated than that, but that is all we have covered so far:)
I think we had another fairly productive day today, and I am pleased with their progress so far. I need to have a bit more discipline in teaching writing, it is kind of the sore spot for all of us, but considering that I like to write so much it shouldn't be too hard to pass that along.
We then did our science reading about what science is not and are all ready to learn about scientific method today and to do our experiment.
Reading the boys journal/blogs today, I can see we have a lot of work to do on punctuation and grammar. YIKES! I try not to criticise or correct journal, as I just want them to write, to be in the habit of writing. But R is writing a great story that I had a hard time following as he used 3 or 4 periods for 300 words, and not one comma.
Tomorrow, first thing, USE OF COMMAS!
We are learning lots about Canadian rivers this week, for instance, did you know the longest CDN river is the Mackenzie, while the largest is the St. Lawrence? Every year when we drive through the Rockies into BC and cross the Continental Divide, Daddy explains what that means. That all the rivers to the East of the divide flow to the Atlantic or the Arctic, and all the rivers to West of the divide flow into the Pacific , so the kids had an even better understanding than I did on how the rivers flowed into and out of lakes and each other. I realize that the divide gets more complicated than that, but that is all we have covered so far:)
I think we had another fairly productive day today, and I am pleased with their progress so far. I need to have a bit more discipline in teaching writing, it is kind of the sore spot for all of us, but considering that I like to write so much it shouldn't be too hard to pass that along.
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