curriculum
The Chef
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Elias woke up and saw that daddy was working from home Friday, excitedly he asked if daddy was making pancakes (common weekend occurrence). Eddie said he wasn’t but that he could do it if he wanted. Elias pondered that suggestion and then went to the kitchen, found the recipe book (Joy of Cooking), read the recipe and made the pancake batter (with only a few questions of us), cooked them up and little bro Bayus set the table for us all to eat together!
Elias then the found a Sunset cookbook (more pictures) and brought it to me to tell me he want to make a souffle next, its a tie between that and chicken kiev. We had a discussion on the differences between stirring, whisking and folding ingredients together as well as what a roux paste is and how many more things he can make once he learns how to make a roux. Ahhh, the Joy of Home Schooling ala the Joy of Cooking!
Next on the menu:
Chicken Kiev for tonight (with garlic roasted asparagus and brown rice) and he wants to make the souffle for Easter Sunday breakfast!
Sometimes my husband throws ideas and assignments out to the kids that are far more than I think they can handle….and often they surprise me with their capabilities. I’m so glad that between my husband and I we can balance one another and each bring our own strengths into the raising of our children, I’m blessed!
The ‘Wall of Love’
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sometimes I get these ‘ideas’, sometimes they go as planned and often they don’t. The other day I was at the grocery store in the office supply aisle (its an addiction) and I saw one of those items that immediately causes me to think ‘I love this so much I need to think of a purpose for it!’- heart shaped post-it notes! Right up there with new colored pencils and the perfect journal is my affinity for notepads, and if they are colored, shaped, and patterned well then its LOVE. I brought them home with the plan of having them available to my budding writers to jot down things they love and add them to the sliding glass door (aka dry erase board/command central) whenever they felt the whim. I figured over the course of weeks we’d have this lovely wall of positivity. The positivity is there but it didn’t take weeks, my kids took the idea and ran with it….for about 4 hours in one sitting! Note after note, giggle after giggle and only occasional requests for spelling help (would have been a good idea if they had asked a time or two more) and now we have this lovely ‘wall of love’ right next to where we eat our meals and do our daily school work. I often find myself standing there letting my eye meander about from note to note and smiling at the sweet hand writing, phonetic spelling, and heartfelt thoughts. This is one of those projects that didn’t go as I planned- it went better!
(click the pictures if you want to see them bigger and read some of the notes)
So far 2010 has been rich with FIELD TRIPS!!!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
The Caterpillar
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
We are enjoying our ‘First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind’. In particular the kids are enjoying the poems they are memorizing. Here’s a look back at the first poem they learned, ‘The Caterpillar’. Elias is showing you his clay rendition of the poem which he made the first day when they were introduced to the poem (mom reads aloud 3 times slowly and clearly). Hannah’s video is the last day (a week later) when they had learned the poem in its entirety. Note: yes, my kids are home schooled and yet my daughter thinks uniforms are really cool and therefore likes to ‘dress up’ for school on occassion.
A look into our school room (and Workbox System )
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
We have a room off the kitchen that is our ’school room’. Standing at the door of this room I am looking at Elias and Hannah’s shared desk.
This room used be used as a toy/play room but all toys in the house have been sorted into like boxes and labeled and moved to a finished shed that is detached from this room (out the back door). We now rotate whatever play things are in the house and this ‘library toy system’ works very well for us. That freed up this room to be an open space for school learning. That transition is why it has taken me 6months to actually start the workbox system once I learned about it and decided it would be a good fit for us. You can see Elias’ set of boxes there beside the table in the back of the picture.
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Here you see Hannah’s boxes all set up. I chose an adjustable shoe rack and boxes purchased via The Container Store and the stick on numbers and such are direct from Sue’s website, its the 2 student starter kit which is not expensive and saved me valuable time and money because I didn’t have to put it together Workbox System Starter Kit (2 Child)
Elias’ boxes have the same assignments but in a different order. My kids work differently and so I put their assignments in an order that I think they will work best with. I have more active and get-up-out-of-your-chair assignments put in boxes between writing assignments and such for my son because I know he will be happier and do better at his sit down assignments when he’s had some movement in between. Also they work at different speeds, so again- I set up in a way that makes sense to me even if at the end of the day they have done the same work.
Hannah’s boxes have in them (or had, she had started box 1 already):
box 1- Morning chore/routine chart (I believe I have a downloadable version of this on my blog)
2- Bible (we are listening to an audio version I have on CD using the reading schedule from my motivated mom’s planner)
3- journal with assignment written on strip of paper
4- scale drawing picture of a bird (I made this worksheet to reinforce the lesson we had yesterday in ECC about maps and scale. Last time we started ECC I had them map a room to scale and I didn’t feel like having them do it again, this is a less intense and fun shorter refresher type lesson to understand scale)
5- First Language Lessons Peace Hill Press Store
6- Writing with Ease (same link, one of my big goals for this year for the kids are their writing skills which is why I have these. I integrated these two programs last week before I re pulled out ECC)
7-Exercise worksheet (another worksheet I made which is great to put in the line up between a lot of writing work before I ask them to do math or something)
8-Math U See (MFW suggests using Singapore to add on to their curriculum once you get past K and 1st, when math is integrated into the program. I felt like their integrated in math was totally fine but once you get to older math and they ‘outsource’ I went to MUS. I tried Singapore but I am not a fan of that program in the slightest, I’ve found MUS to be a much better fit for my goals for my kids)
9-letter writing to their friend in Spain (my journal assignment above, usually written on a sticky note or strip of paper in their journal, varies from writing prompts Write Source – Writing Topics to memorization copywork, to response prayers to our bible listening, to what I assigned today which was a response letter to a friend in Spain that wrote to them this week. So in box 3 they wrote a letter, when they hit box 9 they bring me their journal and I help them get that draft into a final form and help them get out stationary and write it up so we can mail it. I’ve at times used thank you notes and such as journal assignments. Usually my journal assignments are a time I don’t correct work, its a creative writing time and I just let it be whatever it is and however it comes out of them….just depends)
10- piano (timer is in box already set for 30mins, notebook has book names and page numbers for assignments they need to practice during their 30mins, when their timer is up they can call me in to the piano to try to pass songs if they feel they are ready)
11- chapter book (again 30min timer and this is for pleasure reading, I don’t quiz them on what they read or ask them to read aloud- its just for their enjoyment)
12- I have this one turned around because we don’t need it for today
Things that I have put in boxes that weren’t in there today include:
Daily Oral Language
Teacher’s Outlet – Carson-Dellosa: Daily Oral Language
Book Basket (basket full of library books for the kids to browse that are on the topic of learning we are focusing, this is always available but at times I will put a sticky note in a box with a timer that says look at books in the book basket for 20mins and when the timer is up come and tell me about something you learned/thought was cool)
Living World (science being used right now with MFW ECC, I grouped the weeks reading assignments into one sitting the other day which worked well for this week and I will do some weeks when I feel appropriate)
Maps and Globes (used it the same way as Living world this week)
Window on the World (ditto to last two for this week, may be different in future weeks as to how I split up the assignments on any given day/week)
board games (if it fits in the box I’ll put it there, if not I’ll set it next to the racks with a sticky note in the box)
Picture crosswords Poof-Slinky.com – Online Store
sudoku
play dough (not often by itself but I’ll combine it in a box when appropriate, like once last week I had a reading passage with the kids and so I had clay in the box for them to work with while they listened and they LOVED this)
craft
30min timer with a sticky note that says ‘Webkinz’ or ‘BrainPOP’ (sometimes free time and sometimes with a specific thing I want them to look up and watch appropriate videos and then come tell me about) BrainPOP – Animated Educational Site for Kids – Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology
sewing free time or specific project time (they have their own sewing machine set up in a different room for this)
Latin
Commander Mark drawing program
Online Spanish (available through our library)
Meanwhile this is Bayus’ spot that he chooses to inhabit intermittently through the day (he’s 4, 5 in April). I don’t change out his 6 shelves every day but I do try to mix some of them up every few days, he loves ‘doing school’ and will pull out one tray with an activity out at a time. At the moment this picture was taken the shelves are kind of messy and there is too much on top of his table- ideally the top is clear and each shelf has one tray with an activity each on it.
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And this is my spot where I’m at right now. I sit here working on my own stuff and drinking tea with occassional times where I get up to do some house chores or check in on their work or help them with something that you saw in the top picture will have a tag that says ‘work with mom’.
I have a form I made myself that I’m trying out for next week where I have pre-planned the workboxes. I looked at the weekly assignment chart in the ECC teachers manual and just plugged assignments into boxes in incremenets that made sense to me and left off stuff that I’m covering in a different way (like we have our own math and such). I don’t do ECC exactly, its a back bone. I use it as a form and a direction in which we are going but I give myself plenty of freedom to use what I feel is appropriate and needed and leave the rest (one of the perks of being the ‘teacher’). I give myself permission to read a bunch from one book one day rather than read 2 pages from it all 5 days of the week….or split one assignment into smaller chunks if I feel it can/should be…..or completely replace their suggested assignment with something else that I feel will reinforce the same idea but inspires me more. I’d say 3-4 boxes were typically used this week for MFW ECC specific assignments.
PS- for anyone that doesn’t know, ‘MFW’ stands for My Father’s World My Father’s World – Homeschool and Christian School Curriculum and ‘ECC’ stands for their curriculum you can buy called ‘Exploring Countries and Cultures’
Also one other thing to mention: Had I seen this type of box system to use with the workbox system ideas I would have absolutely done it.
Daily Thoughts on my Tots….: Workboxes
Here’s a link to the chore charts.
I love that when my kids ’start their day’ they are dressed, fed, teeth brushed, pets fed, hair brushed, bedroom clean and ready to go!
Other information:
In the picture that shows ‘my station’ you can see my home school planner open beside my laptop. This is the one I designed and sold copies of this past summer.
Bayus’ assignments can be all kinds of things, here’s an example
Feeling brilliant today… | LifeVentures
Right now we have some new years goals as a family which have resulted in me making the chore charts now reversible. Once they finish their morning chores they flip it over (they put them on the fridge) and work on their ‘healthy family goals’ for the day (flipping it back over in the evening when its time to do evening chores). The healthy goals include things like filling a water glass that they set at their spot at the desk/table and I fill small glass bowls with things like baby carrots, sugar snap peas and clementine wedges.
Oooh another note to add- the sliding glass door between the kitchen and the back room is my ‘white board’. Dry erase markers write on it wonderfully and wipe off easily. I have a suction cup caddy thing from the shower section of a store that sticks to the door and holds a few pens and the eraser. I have a few to do list items there that are right behind my chair for me (and my phone is always at my station and I can turn around and put notes up when I get a call I need to write a note about) and the other door and other side of the doors I can use throughout the day as needed when I need to put something visual up for the kids. Also the blue lines you see in that image is blue painters tape, I love that stuff and have about a million uses for it because it doesn’t leave a residue on anything. In this picture I’m using it on the back side of the door to create straight lines to write on on the opposite side of the door
Feeling brilliant today…
Sunday, September 13th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments
My 4 yr old has wayyyyy more interest in ’school-y’ stuff than his older siblings did. I’m sure its because he see’s them reading and writing and he wants in on the ‘fun’. I fully support lots of books but regarding ’school-y’ stuff typically I’d prefer he developed more important 4 yr old skills like playing pretend, retelling/narration or digging in dirt but he admittedly does a good bit of that as well so I won’t keep him from doing ’school-y’ stuff. He’s pretty fascinated at present with the letters in his name and gets them all recognizably on the paper except the letter S; that usually is all kinds of backwards, occassionally more Z like and sometimes has more twists and turns in it than a directionally impaired pirate map. Today I came up with a fun idea to teach him the more specific and defined shape of the letter S and he loves it so much that it left me feeling brilliant and like I couldn’t ‘not’ share it with my friends.
All I did was type a really huge letter S in a word document setting the property of the font to ‘outline’. Then I found some clip art via google images to add to my little letter ‘map’ that would fit Bayus’ interests and have a defined start and finish. For the first one (which I show pictured below) I put a house at the start of the S, a tree to go around, some ducks to avoid hitting and a play ground as the final destination (he loved that). The next one I made (which isn’t pictured) has a rocket ship to start, some clouds and birds to pass, some shooting stars to avoid and the planet saturn to finish at. Basically I placed the paper in front of him, handed him the first colored pencil in his pouch (the green one) and said ‘Hey Bayus, the boy with the green shirt wants to go to the park. Let’s start at his house, go around the tree, pass by the ducks and then he can play.’ After Bayus followed along while drawing a line, I grabbed another pencil and said ‘lets have his blue friend go play to, start at the house’. We went through all his pencils and markers eventually saying there was a party at the park and finally the brown and yellow markers made their way as well (the cat and dog that didn’t want to be left at home). Later I made the space themed one and he enjoyed having each of his ‘characters’ climb in the space ship and make it to Saturn. He’s requesting more adventure papers with themes of the zoo, the jungle and such other things. I’m not sure how many I make but I know I’ll definitely revisit this idea whenever we have a need for more detailed attention to another letter of the alphabet. Hope this idea helps someone else make handwriting FUN!
The yearly question
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Starting last year I began what i hope will be a tradition of asking the kids ‘What do you want to learn this year?’ It gets their creative juices flowing with anticipation and helps me get a window into what things their little minds are pondering that I don’t know about. We don’t necessarily cover everything they tell me about and I very likely have things planned that they don’t know they will be interested in but I love getting their input just the same. This year I’m particularly intrigued by the ‘themes’ I see emerging in each kids lists as it shows a bit of how their minds work and from what angle they view the world. I’m excited that this year much more than last year their reading skills have a really firm foundation so many of the things I see they are interested in but may not hit the actual curriculum schedule can be explored through some good reading books being available. Without further ado here are the words of my kids when asked- ‘What do you want to learn this year?’
(please excuse any grammatical and particularly punctuational errors, I was trying to notate their words as they spoke to me)
Elias- Frogs and lizards, castles and knights and horses- just a whole bunch of stuff about castles and horses and that kind of stuff. Dinosaurs, cowboys and indians and snakes- how ’bout more about bugs? Cows and whales and seahorses and dolphins. Can we learn about noodles? Squirrels and chipmunks, rabbits and movies and race cars. How to make glass and how to row a rowboat and how to make a mirror. I want to learn how to cook fish and crabs and also learn about crabs and monkeys and gorillas and parrots.
Hannah- I want to learn about countries. I want to learn about how hair changes color. I want to know about how skin changes with age, like how it gets all wrinkly. I want to learn how to sew bigger things and how your body makes your eye color. I want to know about candles, how to make soap and how to play the violin. I want to learn how to make dye and how people make shoes. I want to learn about how petals on a flower are made and how a flower knows it’s winter and closes up. I want to know how the piano makes different sounds and what is the smallest bone in a guinea pigs body.
They both just ran to me and asked I add that they want to know about puffins too.
Happy School year everyone! May your curiosity find many fruitful paths to explore!
Sarah
Learning about ’scale’ mapping…
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
We’ve been learning about the world, maps and globes- today we included the definition of ’scale’. The kids got to pick the object of their choice to determine the scale for thier maps of the room of their choice. They both helped me map out my bedroom using a pencil as the scale for the drawing then they went to work on their own maps. Elias chose a green ruler for map out the office and Hannah chose a hair brush to map out the bathroom. I think they did a fantastic job! (click on Elias’ map to see closer up, he drew the computers including the power cords)
After just one week of ‘Exploring Countries and Cultures’…
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I found Hannah at the table with a pencil and some paper during some ‘free’ time and this is what she was writing (all from memory). I’m excited about how much more there is to learn and absorb this coming year as we continue with this great curriculum from My Father’s World! Click on the picture to see it bigger. Oh and I don’t know what happened to Africa, it went missing aparently but don’t worry, we will be covering that continent in our studies this year so it won’t happen again 
Week 1 of school…schedules and sewing
Saturday, August 16th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I decided to start ’school’ earlier this year than planned due to the upcoming births I will be helping with in the fall (which always requires some recovery time). Its a gentle start meaning that we still have a full summer schedule of play dates and outdoor adventures but have been adding in a bit of our school work as we’re able. This year I’m going to attempt a more structured day but its a guide that I won’t let dictate everything as I want all our days to have the flexibility for creativity.
8am- wake up and do morning chores (hopefully they were done the previous night by 9pm with evening chores completed). The kids have printed graphs with their morning and evening chores listed
9am- we start ’school’. The kids each have their own rolling carts/scrapbook totes with their personal school books in them that they have to roll out and put next to where they will sit for the day (they also have their current reading books, craft project and sketching notebooks in these carts and anytime they finish an assignment before their sibling they may pull that out and work/read quietly while they wait for what is next). Part of their morning chores include clearing off the table, so they should be sitting with their books ready and the table clean at 9am. I spend that morning hour making myself breakfast and getting Bayus ready for his day, also checking email, printing papers for their work of the day and getting myself dressed and ready for the day. We are using MFW curriculum and start our day with a short review of our memory verse for the week, sometimes there is some discussion, a short Primary Language lesson, handwriting review and writing in their journals (I have a list of writing prompts and will have already written the day’s verse and the day’s writing prompt on the sliding glass window). So basically we start the day with a bit of bible and english.
9:30- 15min-30min ‘recess’. My kids think its really fun to have recess and they take it so very seriously to play hard during that time that I find it adorable. I set a timer in the house and go out and ring a cow bell when the time is up and they come running. Sometimes I will tell them to collect eggs or eat strawberries from the garden but mostly its free time that involves a lot of running and chasing and playing in the ‘forest’.
10am- Math; we are using Singapore math this year and so far I’m not impressed but I’m going to go a bit further with it before I pronounce judgement and switch. We move into Geography after math and they have a geography binder they are often filing worksheets or construction paper flags they’ve made during this time. Sometimes the lesson involves a game or song that goes along with the given country
11am- Science; they have science notebooks that they write about what we read from ‘Living World’ in and illustrate a bit
11:15 (or so) they are outside for more recess time (hopefully with their science lesson fresh in their mind as they run around outside). I take this time to set out lunches
11:30-noon we eat lunch and I’ve usually got a CD playing with international music from the country we discussed that day or the memory verse or our Latin studies playing in the back ground
Noon- Quiet time; Elias and Hannah each grab their current reading books and have to find quiet corners to read in for 40mins while I get Bayus to lay down for what usually results in a nap (He spends most of the morning hours playing with trains or castle toys and running outside with the others during recesses)
1pm- Elective time; these rotate daily–> Monday= music lesson,Tuesday= Latin, Wednesday= Sewing, Thursday= Draw Squad, Friday= letter writing to relatives and free choice as they can pull out any craft projects they’ve wanted more time on to work on in the afternoons
1:30/2pm our school day is done and they run off for lots of free play, crafts, afternoon trips to the YMCA or library or friends houses…..that sort of thing. We may have some cub scouts for Elias and Celtic dance classes for Hannah in the fall that will be afternoon/evening on our schedule.
So I started our ’school’ the first week of August and so far it has gone well. I have not wanted to stress about our schedule, I want it to be a guide but not a dictator, and we are doing about 1 week of work every 2 weeks. The kids like everything we are doing, the schedule is doable and they are loving the electives and recesses this year. I’ve had the materials for most of these electives for years now but never had it formally included in our schedule- now that it is its fun to see it happening. Its also fun to hear the kids greeting each other in Latin.
Here’s a picture of the kids first sewing project. Using a full adult sized dinner napkin they made small lunch napkins and silverware roll ups. I used the remaining fabric to make a bag to hold it all in with their new Tiffin lunch pails. The kids are loving using these for our picnic outings!
