Originally posted on January 4, 2010
As promised when I first began this blog, I have been spectacularly craptastic about keeping it updated. New year, new attempt at keeping it at least somewhat regularly updated...
The first quarter of our 2009 school year couldn't have been more perfect. We were met with a bit of a challenge in the second quarter, which led to us only covering the basics (reading, math and Bible) on most days. Fortunately, reading and math are the big ones that the county requires us to do every day, so we're still in good shape. As of December 22, we had completed 90 out of the required 180 days of instruction for the 2009-10 school year. Halfway there!
After a week and half off for Christmas and New Year's, we're back at the kitchen table for school this morning. Quite a bit of what we're doing today is review, especially in the subjects that have been somewhat neglected (science, history, health) in the past months.
We'll be starting all new things before long, as Rachael is just two lessons away from finishing her math book - the one that we only started in September! Granted, we didn't do all of the review pages - I let her work on each lesson until she was ready to take the test, and then let her go for it. (As long as she has a good grasp on each concept, I see no reason to make her repeat, repeat, repeat.) So, she made short work of Math-U-See Alpha, which covered more skip counting, telling time on an analog clock, addition, subtraction, solving for unknown, word problems, etc. I'm very impressed (and, I admit, a little surprised) at just how well she's done with this math book, especially since she claims that it's her least favorite subject. Oddly, she complains about adding but has no qualms whatsoever about subtracting. We'll be finishing this book on Friday and then working on review pages until the next book (Beta) arrives.
We'll also be starting a new Bible study at the end of January, when we finish reading through her God's Little Princess Devotional Bible. As sweet and meaningful as the devotionals are for a girl her age, I'm looking forward to beginning something more in-depth with her soon. Train Up A Child Publishing has a series of "Choosing..." books that have gotten excellent reviews - I'm leaning toward Choosing Obedience or Choosing Self-Control to begin with, which will hopefully help nip some behavioral issues before they escalate. Other titles include Choosing Kindness, Thankfulness, Humility, Responsibility...all geared at children in K-5. There are more titles for teens that I think will be interesting to study with her later on, assuming that the reviews are correct and we love this series just as much!
Rachael still isn't a big fan of handwriting, although she doesn't fight me on it as much these days. She only takes offense when I erase a word for having capital letters randomly inserted in the middle...
She's still taking gymnastics lessons, and doing well with them. I love watching her flip over the uneven bars! She's also beginning her last year (sniffle) as a Daisy Girl Scout. I can't believe she'll be a Brownie this fall! The first meeting of the new year is tonight, and we'll be kicking off the COOKIE DRIVE! (No, I'm not at all excited about that!)
So, there's our new year update - hopefully it won't take me three months to post another one. :) It's my intent to ease into a more classical method of education over the next few months, which focuses very highly on history (as well as math and language arts, of course.) If you're a homeschooling parent and have never read The Well-Trained Mind, I would highly recommend it. Lots of wonderful food for thought!
Happy 2010, everyone! I'm very much looking forward to making some changes in our home this year, and to a fun and insightful school year!
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
A recommitment to the blog...and a grandparent tutorial!
Originally posted on July 23, 2009
Okay, you caught me - the blog isn't a new idea. I actually started it LAST fall, with the intention of updating throughout our kindergarten year. That didn't work out so well, as kindergarten was largely chaotic - especially when I had to hold Milly practically all day on top of everything else we were doing! This year will hopefully be easier. Milly is old enough now to sit at the table with us while we "do school", and will very likely be doing a bit of school herself this year - although she won't know it. Alphabet coloring pages, here we come!
Even though we're still in July, I'm already looking forward to beginning this school year. I haven't set an official "first day" yet, although I imagine it will be in mid-August. I still have a few textbooks to buy, plenty of planning to do, an overflowing bookshelf in the kitchen to organize (and figure out how to KEEP it that way!) Rachael is ready and would gladly "go back to school" just anytime now - so as soon as everything is in order, we'll get going.
Before I tell you what we'll be up to this year, a quick word to the grandparents (and anyone else unfamiliar with blogs) that I'll be inviting to read along with us... A blog is basically an online diary. Bookmark this website; you'll need to come back and check in to read our udpates. Assuming that you want to know, of course. :) The newest entry will always appear at the top of the screen - which means that, if this is your first visit, you'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom to read the first entry. When you come back, just scroll down to the last entry you read and work your way up. I'll attempt to update every day or so, at least - and also have every intention of making Rachael dictate a bit about what she's doing and learning. And of course, there will be pictures - especially when we do FUN things and field trips!
Now, about our school year... To begin with, if we were not homeschooling, Rachael would be starting kindergarten at Drewry Mason Elementary School this fall. I must admit to some degree of curiosity, being that I spent three years there during middle school - I'd love to see how they've revamped the place to accommodate even smaller children. Henry County's first day of school will be a little bittersweet, knowing that my baby would be gone all day to "real" school - I might even be tempted to drive her over there, just depending on what kind of day we have here. ;) But sending Rachael to kindergarten this fall would be a huge disservice to a child who is already reading books with several chapters and very few pictures. We can do better - and we will do better.
Here's what Rachael will be studying this year at Regalia Academy...
MATH
We will once again be using the Math-U-See curriculum, which relies heavily on manipulatives (ie, "little blocks") to help kids figure out number concepts. For instance, two "5" blocks laid end to end are the same length as the "10" block. 5 + 5 = 10. Makes perfect sense, right? We made good progress through the first book (Primer) last year, but got hung up with skip counting by fives. Need to figure out a way to make that click for her, then we'll be moving on - and probably into the next book (Alpha) before the school year is over.
LANGUAGE ARTS
I'm excited about this one! We'll be using a curriculum called Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which focuses on...well, learning language arts through literature. It's kind of an all-in-one phonics, spelling, reading, grammar and handwriting course. Thankfully, you can browse the curriculum pretty thoroughly online, which led me to buy (are you ready for this?) the second grade books for Rachael. Kindergarten and first grade were simply too easy, and even the second grade readers are no challenge for her - she picked one up, read a few pages, and fixed me with the "I AM NOT A BABY" glare that said she expected more difficult fare. *sigh* However, she needs practice with her handwriting (we may also use a book called Handwriting Without Tears for extra practice) and skipping ahead any farther would also mean skipping over punctuation, parts of a sentence, nouns/pronouns/verbs/adverbs, etc. As it is, that ought to provide her with an adequate challenge this year, even if the included readers do not.
We'll also be learning spelling words from a book called The Natural Speller, and reading lots and lots and lots of things other than what's included with the curriculum. There are so many wonderful reading lists online, and I've snagged the public and private schools' first grade reading lists from the public library. We shouldn't have any trouble knocking those out! Rachael will very likely have an independent reading time each day as well as read-to-Mommy or listen-to-Mommy-read time. All three of them are pretty important to me and, as much as she loves her books, I don't expect any argument from her.
SCIENCE
We'll be using a book called Exploring Creation with Astronomy, published by Apologia. The Apologia series sounds wonderful - it's a Christian curriculum consisting of five books that teach about the world God created. The first year focuses on astronomy (because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.) After that was done, God created vegetation - so the second year in this curriculm focuses on botany. The next three years cover the animals in the order that they were created - one year of winged creatures, one of aquatic creatures and finally, land animals. Pretty neat, huh? We're looking forward to digging into this one - Rachael loves looking at the stars, finding constellations, looking for planets - so this will be right up her alley. And of course, with the whole WALL-E fascination and his propensity for space travel...it'll be easy to throw him in there to get her attention as well!
HISTORY
Her history text is called The Story of the World: Volume I - Ancient Times. This book covers the years 5000 BC - 400 AD. We've already read about the nomads and how they had to hunt and gather for their food. Rachael and her friends all thought that was pretty neat until they were turned outside with baskets and told to go find lunch! Now we're on to ancient Egypt - we've written in heiroglyphs and cuneiform, mummified an apple (that was interesting!) and will be building a pyramid out of sugar cubes when we resume studies. I'll be incorporating Bible lessons into her history - Moses and Pharoah's daughter, the plagues of Egypt, etc. My goal here is to take the "stories" - both from the history book and from the Bible - and help her to see that these were real people, real events. That's hard to understand sometimes when you just read the "story"!
Rachael is also VERY into the American Girl books right now. There are about a dozen girls, each one with eight or nine books, and each lived in a different area and time in history...so they're great story books, and great history lessons too. We've read all of the books about Samantha, a wealthy Victorian girl circa 1904. Now we're reading about Kit, who is weathering the Great Depression with her family in 1934. Next up, I think, is Kirsten, a little pioneer girl whose family immigrated from Sweden - and Rachael's tentative plan is to be Kirsten for Halloween this year! So we'll keep reading the American Girl books and learning about different eras in American history along the way.
BIBLE
Of course! We'll do a refresher course on her A-Z memory verses from last year (probably rusty by now). Daily devotions from the God's Little Princess Devotional Bible. Doctrine from the A Beka curriculum we didn't finish in kindergarten. And I'll be needing to make another trip to the Lifeway store in Danville. That can be a dangerous place - so many awesome books to choose from!
Those are the "big" subjects, but certainly not all of them. She'll be learning about health and hygiene, manners, social studies (gleaned from holidays, current events, etc.), art (seasonal crafts, projects to go along with her lessons) and hopefully some music. We'll start watching the Muzzy DVDs to expand on her French vocabulary (already pretty impressive, thanks to the Fancy Nancy books.) As for extracurricular activities, she will continue in gymnastics and in Girl Scouts. She's itching to play soccer too, but we'll have to see about that...don't want to stretch her (or us) too thin.
So, there's our current plan - now to get busy implementing it! YOUR assignment is to check in here regularly to see what's going on - and feel free to offer suggestions, ask questions, or just leave encouragement if you're so inclined. Although I'm comfortable in our plan for this school year, homeschooling for the long haul is still a bit of an overwhelming thought. And as always when working with children, there will be good days and bad days...here's hoping the 2009-10 school year consists of more good days!
Okay, you caught me - the blog isn't a new idea. I actually started it LAST fall, with the intention of updating throughout our kindergarten year. That didn't work out so well, as kindergarten was largely chaotic - especially when I had to hold Milly practically all day on top of everything else we were doing! This year will hopefully be easier. Milly is old enough now to sit at the table with us while we "do school", and will very likely be doing a bit of school herself this year - although she won't know it. Alphabet coloring pages, here we come!
Even though we're still in July, I'm already looking forward to beginning this school year. I haven't set an official "first day" yet, although I imagine it will be in mid-August. I still have a few textbooks to buy, plenty of planning to do, an overflowing bookshelf in the kitchen to organize (and figure out how to KEEP it that way!) Rachael is ready and would gladly "go back to school" just anytime now - so as soon as everything is in order, we'll get going.
Before I tell you what we'll be up to this year, a quick word to the grandparents (and anyone else unfamiliar with blogs) that I'll be inviting to read along with us... A blog is basically an online diary. Bookmark this website; you'll need to come back and check in to read our udpates. Assuming that you want to know, of course. :) The newest entry will always appear at the top of the screen - which means that, if this is your first visit, you'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom to read the first entry. When you come back, just scroll down to the last entry you read and work your way up. I'll attempt to update every day or so, at least - and also have every intention of making Rachael dictate a bit about what she's doing and learning. And of course, there will be pictures - especially when we do FUN things and field trips!
Now, about our school year... To begin with, if we were not homeschooling, Rachael would be starting kindergarten at Drewry Mason Elementary School this fall. I must admit to some degree of curiosity, being that I spent three years there during middle school - I'd love to see how they've revamped the place to accommodate even smaller children. Henry County's first day of school will be a little bittersweet, knowing that my baby would be gone all day to "real" school - I might even be tempted to drive her over there, just depending on what kind of day we have here. ;) But sending Rachael to kindergarten this fall would be a huge disservice to a child who is already reading books with several chapters and very few pictures. We can do better - and we will do better.
Here's what Rachael will be studying this year at Regalia Academy...
MATH
We will once again be using the Math-U-See curriculum, which relies heavily on manipulatives (ie, "little blocks") to help kids figure out number concepts. For instance, two "5" blocks laid end to end are the same length as the "10" block. 5 + 5 = 10. Makes perfect sense, right? We made good progress through the first book (Primer) last year, but got hung up with skip counting by fives. Need to figure out a way to make that click for her, then we'll be moving on - and probably into the next book (Alpha) before the school year is over.
LANGUAGE ARTS
I'm excited about this one! We'll be using a curriculum called Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which focuses on...well, learning language arts through literature. It's kind of an all-in-one phonics, spelling, reading, grammar and handwriting course. Thankfully, you can browse the curriculum pretty thoroughly online, which led me to buy (are you ready for this?) the second grade books for Rachael. Kindergarten and first grade were simply too easy, and even the second grade readers are no challenge for her - she picked one up, read a few pages, and fixed me with the "I AM NOT A BABY" glare that said she expected more difficult fare. *sigh* However, she needs practice with her handwriting (we may also use a book called Handwriting Without Tears for extra practice) and skipping ahead any farther would also mean skipping over punctuation, parts of a sentence, nouns/pronouns/verbs/adverbs, etc. As it is, that ought to provide her with an adequate challenge this year, even if the included readers do not.
We'll also be learning spelling words from a book called The Natural Speller, and reading lots and lots and lots of things other than what's included with the curriculum. There are so many wonderful reading lists online, and I've snagged the public and private schools' first grade reading lists from the public library. We shouldn't have any trouble knocking those out! Rachael will very likely have an independent reading time each day as well as read-to-Mommy or listen-to-Mommy-read time. All three of them are pretty important to me and, as much as she loves her books, I don't expect any argument from her.
SCIENCE
We'll be using a book called Exploring Creation with Astronomy, published by Apologia. The Apologia series sounds wonderful - it's a Christian curriculum consisting of five books that teach about the world God created. The first year focuses on astronomy (because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.) After that was done, God created vegetation - so the second year in this curriculm focuses on botany. The next three years cover the animals in the order that they were created - one year of winged creatures, one of aquatic creatures and finally, land animals. Pretty neat, huh? We're looking forward to digging into this one - Rachael loves looking at the stars, finding constellations, looking for planets - so this will be right up her alley. And of course, with the whole WALL-E fascination and his propensity for space travel...it'll be easy to throw him in there to get her attention as well!
HISTORY
Her history text is called The Story of the World: Volume I - Ancient Times. This book covers the years 5000 BC - 400 AD. We've already read about the nomads and how they had to hunt and gather for their food. Rachael and her friends all thought that was pretty neat until they were turned outside with baskets and told to go find lunch! Now we're on to ancient Egypt - we've written in heiroglyphs and cuneiform, mummified an apple (that was interesting!) and will be building a pyramid out of sugar cubes when we resume studies. I'll be incorporating Bible lessons into her history - Moses and Pharoah's daughter, the plagues of Egypt, etc. My goal here is to take the "stories" - both from the history book and from the Bible - and help her to see that these were real people, real events. That's hard to understand sometimes when you just read the "story"!
Rachael is also VERY into the American Girl books right now. There are about a dozen girls, each one with eight or nine books, and each lived in a different area and time in history...so they're great story books, and great history lessons too. We've read all of the books about Samantha, a wealthy Victorian girl circa 1904. Now we're reading about Kit, who is weathering the Great Depression with her family in 1934. Next up, I think, is Kirsten, a little pioneer girl whose family immigrated from Sweden - and Rachael's tentative plan is to be Kirsten for Halloween this year! So we'll keep reading the American Girl books and learning about different eras in American history along the way.
BIBLE
Of course! We'll do a refresher course on her A-Z memory verses from last year (probably rusty by now). Daily devotions from the God's Little Princess Devotional Bible. Doctrine from the A Beka curriculum we didn't finish in kindergarten. And I'll be needing to make another trip to the Lifeway store in Danville. That can be a dangerous place - so many awesome books to choose from!
Those are the "big" subjects, but certainly not all of them. She'll be learning about health and hygiene, manners, social studies (gleaned from holidays, current events, etc.), art (seasonal crafts, projects to go along with her lessons) and hopefully some music. We'll start watching the Muzzy DVDs to expand on her French vocabulary (already pretty impressive, thanks to the Fancy Nancy books.) As for extracurricular activities, she will continue in gymnastics and in Girl Scouts. She's itching to play soccer too, but we'll have to see about that...don't want to stretch her (or us) too thin.
So, there's our current plan - now to get busy implementing it! YOUR assignment is to check in here regularly to see what's going on - and feel free to offer suggestions, ask questions, or just leave encouragement if you're so inclined. Although I'm comfortable in our plan for this school year, homeschooling for the long haul is still a bit of an overwhelming thought. And as always when working with children, there will be good days and bad days...here's hoping the 2009-10 school year consists of more good days!
Our (School) Year to Date
Originally posted on October 24, 2008
Rachael officially started kindergarten on Monday, August 25, 2008. She's a little young - in the state of Virginia, a child must be five years old by September 30 in order to start kindergarten, and Rachael won't be five until February. But she was so ready for kindergarten - and maybe even a little more. Want to hear about what we've done this year? :)
BIBLE
We start our morning with a devotion from the book God and Me, followed by the weekly memory verse and review of the verses she's learned already. We have a list of verses from A to Z - we started with the vowels and now are going back to pick up the other letters. Currently, she knows:
A - All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
B - Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31
C - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
D - Depart from evil, and do good. Psalm 34:14
E - Even a child is known by his doings. Proverbs 20:11
I - If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it. John 14:14
O - O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 118:1
U - Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks. Psalm 75:1
I'm fascinated by how quickly and easily she learns these verses, and can't wait to hear her rattle off 26 in a row when we finish the alphabet! She's also memorized the Lord's Prayer and, although it isn't Biblical, we do the Pledge of Allegiance at the same time.
We use the A Beka K5 Bible Curriculum - which is okay for this year, but I'll be looking for something more substantial for next year. This curriculum offers a Bible story about every other day (we started with "in the beginning" and are working through Genesis - we're up to Jacob's ladder as of this morning) with lots of time to review and some doctrinal drills in between. In regards to doctrine, we've discussed:
- how God wrote the Bible
- what is sin, and who sins
- the Trinity (and let me tell you, THAT was fun to try to explain!)- God had no beginning and will have no end
- salvation, why Jesus died for us, why we must accept Him as our savior
- Heaven, and who gets to be there, although God wants everyone there
MANNERS
We have a great little book called 365 Manners Kids Should Know, and we read about a new manner each day. Some of these are quite obvious - don't talk with your mouth full, don't interrupt when someone else is talking, how to address adults. But there are also sections on being a good friend, a good guest, gift-giving and holidays, and lots more - all in all, it covers every topic I could think of regarding manners, and more that I never would have come up with on my own (Quaker weddings? Sitting shiva? Private or semiprivate audience with the Pope?)
GEOGRAPHY
She already had a beginning grasp of geography - she had looked at maps and knew that we live in Virginia, Daddy works in North Carolina, Disney World is in Florida, Aunt Annette lives in California, and we want to visit Alaska. So why not learn the rest of the states as well? I printed out a coloring page of the U.S. and we color in one state each day, after reviewing all of the others to be sure that she remembers them all. We have only ten states left to go!
Our only issues with learning the states thus far have come with Alabama (which she called "Obama" for the longest time) and Montana (which she occasionally refuses to identify because of a deep disliking for Hannah Montana. I've explained that the state was not named for the girl, but this makes absolutely no difference to her.)
MATH
After covering all of the above at the breakfast table, it's time to dive into math. We knock this one out of the way early in the day because, to be quite honest, math has never been my favorite subject and I just prefer to get it over with early. We use a curriculum called Math-U-See, which relies heavily on the use of blocks to not only teach, but show the concepts. She likes playing with the blocks, and used them a lot early on, but hasn't used them much recently. I'm sure they'll be used again when we encounter something that's hard for her to understand, but thus far, the Primer book (the first in the series) has been pretty easy for her.
Topics we've covered so far include:
- counting to 20 (those teens are tricky!)
- place value: hundreds, tens and ones
- addition facts: +1 (adding one always results in the next highest number)
- basic facts to memorize: 1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4 and 5+5
- adding horizontally and vertically
- skip counting by 2s and by 10s
- adding tens (20+20, 30+10, etc.)
- adding hundreds (100+100, 300+200, etc.)
- solving for unknown ( __+3 = 9, etc.)
PHONICS & READING
Math and reading are our primary focuses, so they always come first - and sometimes they're the only things we get done in a day. Homeschooling with a baby definitely presents a challenge, and we don't always get to do as much as I'd like in a day! So we knock out these two subjects first, and anything else we get to squeeze in at this point is simply a bonus.
We use a curriculum called Happy Phonics, which uses games (lots and lots of games!) to help a child master everything from identifying capital and lowercase letters through the tricky -augh and -ough sounds. We've been using this curriculum for quite some time now, and Rachael read her first words in January of this year. Now, we have only a couple of lessons to go (those rotten -augh/-ough sounds, some ae/ie things and contractions) and we'll be finished! She's doing very, very well with her reading, and I largely credit Happy Phonics for it, for having made the learning process fun.
For an example of what she can read, this is the last page she read from the curriculum reader:
Dreams and visions
Go on a mission.
What's the confusion?
Do you have a question?End of session.
I have a notion
That if you shake the potion
With a up and down motion
You will make lotion.
I have quite a reaction
To doing my fractions!
Is this the nation
That has a space station?
She doesn't care much for that reader, and you can probably see why - it doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes! Thankfully, we have a pretty hefty library of children's books to fall back on, and we visit our public library each week for even more books. We set aside time for reading each day - for me to read to her, and for her to read to me. Quite often, I catch her alone in her room, sitting in her beanbag with a pile of books nearby, reading to herself - and this thrills me to no end, as I want my girls to love books the way that I do!
Along with the books that she can read on her own, she loves to have me read chapter books to her. We're currently reading the Little House on the Prairie series (we're on book #2), and Roald Dahl's The BFG. (She'll be getting several of Beverly Cleary's Ramona books for Christmas, and I can't wait to revisit those with her!)
Although we obviously don't "do school" with Amelia yet, she has her share of books to choose from as well. There are always board books scattered across the living room floor, and Rachael has kindly moved all of the board books in her room to the bottom shelf of her bookcase for when her sister comes in to play. Like her sister, we often find Amelia sitting quietly in the floor, paging through her own books. (This is always a little scary, because when she gets that quiet, we naturally assume that she's into something she shouldn't be!) Her favorite books thus far are Peek-A-Boo (she loves seeing the other babies) and Goodnight Moon, which she has already gnawed the binding off of, and will be getting a new copy of for Christmas. Interestingly, this is the only book she's ever "eaten" - she's remarkably well-behaved with the others! :)
SOCIAL STUDIES
We do Social Studies once a week - on Tuesdays, since having gymnastics in the middle of the afternoon kind of messes up the rest of our day. We use the A Beka K5 Social Studies book, which is really a bit of a joke. It's covered things so far such as public servants ("color the policeman"), government ("color the White House"), Columbus Day ("color these three boats"), and children around the world ("color Pedro's sombrero"). Notice a theme here?
Needless to say, what she really learns about social studies comes from other sources. We tend to study whatever is relevant at the time - for instance, we're learning about politics right now since there's no escaping from the election anyway. We've talked about what a president does, qualifications that a person must have to run for president, the difference between a democracy and a republic, differences in political parties, and how the donkey and elephant came to resemble the Democratic and Republican parties. Today we'll talk about primaries and conventions, and check out the Silly Speech Makers (I'll post her speech here if it turns out as great as I think it will!) I ask her at the end of each lesson who she would vote for in this election, to give her ample opportunity to change her mind as she learns more. So far, she hasn't wavered in her support of Sarah Palin, "because she's a girl." (We're very careful not to share our personal political views with her, in hopes that she'll form her own. She has no idea which candidates we support.)
With holidays fast approaching, we'll have even more material for our Social Studies lessons - the origins of Halloween, the first Thanksgiving, Christmas around the world...they're going to be fun!
SCIENCE
To be perfectly honest, most of the science we get around to so far comes from PBS's show Sid the Science Kid (which is actually really cute.) This is because, like their Social Studies book, A Beka's K5 science book is pitifully lacking in information that she hasn't been aware of for ages (the five senses, why it's important to eat well and exercise, seasons, weather - all in the same tired coloring book format as the Social Studies book.)
We have several other science books, including The Original Backyard Scientist, which has experiments from items usually found around the house. Only problem is, it takes time and planning to work these into whatever it is we're studying at the time...and I'm generally not up for the task as science is one of those "to be squeezed in" subjects at present anyway. I'm considering one of the Apologia Science texts, which are both written in a Biblical perspective and pretty much lay everything out for people like me who need more direction. It seems like a cool series in that it kind of goes along with Genesis - on the first day, God created the heavens and the earth, so the first book in the series is Astronomy. The second book is Botany, then we get into the animals with Marine Life, Flying Creatures and Land Animals.
HISTORY
We're going to have a lot of fun with this one once we get going...but that's the hard part! We're using The Story of the World: Ancient Times - which starts with asking "what is history?" Rachael's grandparents all got questions about their own histories as part of that introduction, and we loved reading all of the answers! After that, we learned about nomads and the early farmers - which was a little dry, but the next chapter is taking us into ancient Egypt. That will definitely be more exciting, although I'm not sure I want to talk to her about the mummification process just yet...
The whole of this book is in the ancient times, but covers Egypt, Greece, etc. through the fall of Rome. The next book moves into the Middle Ages, the next one covers Early Modern Times, etc.
WHAT ABOUT THE ARTS?
We don't have a formal art or music curriculum, but that doesn't mean they aren't abundant - anyone who's had a 4-year-old before knows that there is always, always art and music!
We intentionally listen to a wide variety of music - from Christian music and hymns to country, oldies, classical, etc. Her favorite music at the moment is "anything by Sugarland"!
And, she loves, loves, loves to draw. Mostly pictures of herself, but occasionally one of herself with someone else. Perhaps I'll have to scan some of her artwork to share here in the future as well.
AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES?
This summer, Rachael made the difficult decision to stop taking dance classes in favor of gymnastics (difficult because she wanted to do both, and we made her choose one!) While I'll miss the shiny costumes and floofy tutus, I have to admit that she's doing really well in gymnastics - she can tumble with the best of them, isn't half bad on the uneven bars, and fearlessly leaps into "the pit" (which is filled with soft foam cubes.) At home, she is constantly leaping from the stairs or off of the furniture, thanks to an interview she saw on television with Shawn Johnson during the summer Olympics. Shawn mentioned that she was leaping from the furniture as a toddler, and Rachael took this as her cue - after all, she maintains that she wants to be just like Shawn Johnson. Also from that interview, Rachael dreams of someday seeing her likeness sculpted in butter.
We try to meet once a week with a small playgroup, made up of ourselves and three other families, two of which also homeschool. We typically meet at the park for lunch, then let the kids run themselves silly.
We also meet with the Henry County homeschool group once a month at Roll-A-Bout. Rachael went with me last month and tried roller skating for the first time - and loved it! She didn't hesitate to get out on the floor while holding hands with an older homeschooled buddy, and she's looking forward to going back.
Oh! And there's story time, once a week at the library. It's a small branch, and we're very much regulars, so she's kind of a pet of the librarians - it's nice walking in and having them greet her by name.
And of course, we can't forget church. I'm remaining hopeful that there will be more children joining our congregation soon, as having my girls be a part of a vital youth group is very important to me. In the meantime, she loves her church family - and being the center of attention.
Rachael is looking forward to playing soccer - maybe next spring, since she'll be five then. You can also join in Girl Scouts at age five. And while we want for her to learn to play the piano, she's adamant that she wants to play the flute. Appropriate, I think, since the flute takes more wind to play than any of the other wind instruments...and goodness knows Rachael has plenty of wind. ;)
I think that adequately - no, more than adequately - sums up our school year to date. There's lots more coming - years and years of material, in fact. I'll do my best to update regularly here on what's happening at Regalia Academy. One thing is for sure - with two princesses in residence and so much to learn, there's never going to be a dull moment.
Rachael officially started kindergarten on Monday, August 25, 2008. She's a little young - in the state of Virginia, a child must be five years old by September 30 in order to start kindergarten, and Rachael won't be five until February. But she was so ready for kindergarten - and maybe even a little more. Want to hear about what we've done this year? :)
BIBLE
We start our morning with a devotion from the book God and Me, followed by the weekly memory verse and review of the verses she's learned already. We have a list of verses from A to Z - we started with the vowels and now are going back to pick up the other letters. Currently, she knows:
A - All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
B - Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31
C - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
D - Depart from evil, and do good. Psalm 34:14
E - Even a child is known by his doings. Proverbs 20:11
I - If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it. John 14:14
O - O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 118:1
U - Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks. Psalm 75:1
I'm fascinated by how quickly and easily she learns these verses, and can't wait to hear her rattle off 26 in a row when we finish the alphabet! She's also memorized the Lord's Prayer and, although it isn't Biblical, we do the Pledge of Allegiance at the same time.
We use the A Beka K5 Bible Curriculum - which is okay for this year, but I'll be looking for something more substantial for next year. This curriculum offers a Bible story about every other day (we started with "in the beginning" and are working through Genesis - we're up to Jacob's ladder as of this morning) with lots of time to review and some doctrinal drills in between. In regards to doctrine, we've discussed:
- how God wrote the Bible
- what is sin, and who sins
- the Trinity (and let me tell you, THAT was fun to try to explain!)- God had no beginning and will have no end
- salvation, why Jesus died for us, why we must accept Him as our savior
- Heaven, and who gets to be there, although God wants everyone there
MANNERS
We have a great little book called 365 Manners Kids Should Know, and we read about a new manner each day. Some of these are quite obvious - don't talk with your mouth full, don't interrupt when someone else is talking, how to address adults. But there are also sections on being a good friend, a good guest, gift-giving and holidays, and lots more - all in all, it covers every topic I could think of regarding manners, and more that I never would have come up with on my own (Quaker weddings? Sitting shiva? Private or semiprivate audience with the Pope?)
GEOGRAPHY
She already had a beginning grasp of geography - she had looked at maps and knew that we live in Virginia, Daddy works in North Carolina, Disney World is in Florida, Aunt Annette lives in California, and we want to visit Alaska. So why not learn the rest of the states as well? I printed out a coloring page of the U.S. and we color in one state each day, after reviewing all of the others to be sure that she remembers them all. We have only ten states left to go!
Our only issues with learning the states thus far have come with Alabama (which she called "Obama" for the longest time) and Montana (which she occasionally refuses to identify because of a deep disliking for Hannah Montana. I've explained that the state was not named for the girl, but this makes absolutely no difference to her.)
MATH
After covering all of the above at the breakfast table, it's time to dive into math. We knock this one out of the way early in the day because, to be quite honest, math has never been my favorite subject and I just prefer to get it over with early. We use a curriculum called Math-U-See, which relies heavily on the use of blocks to not only teach, but show the concepts. She likes playing with the blocks, and used them a lot early on, but hasn't used them much recently. I'm sure they'll be used again when we encounter something that's hard for her to understand, but thus far, the Primer book (the first in the series) has been pretty easy for her.
Topics we've covered so far include:
- counting to 20 (those teens are tricky!)
- place value: hundreds, tens and ones
- addition facts: +1 (adding one always results in the next highest number)
- basic facts to memorize: 1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4 and 5+5
- adding horizontally and vertically
- skip counting by 2s and by 10s
- adding tens (20+20, 30+10, etc.)
- adding hundreds (100+100, 300+200, etc.)
- solving for unknown ( __+3 = 9, etc.)
PHONICS & READING
Math and reading are our primary focuses, so they always come first - and sometimes they're the only things we get done in a day. Homeschooling with a baby definitely presents a challenge, and we don't always get to do as much as I'd like in a day! So we knock out these two subjects first, and anything else we get to squeeze in at this point is simply a bonus.
We use a curriculum called Happy Phonics, which uses games (lots and lots of games!) to help a child master everything from identifying capital and lowercase letters through the tricky -augh and -ough sounds. We've been using this curriculum for quite some time now, and Rachael read her first words in January of this year. Now, we have only a couple of lessons to go (those rotten -augh/-ough sounds, some ae/ie things and contractions) and we'll be finished! She's doing very, very well with her reading, and I largely credit Happy Phonics for it, for having made the learning process fun.
For an example of what she can read, this is the last page she read from the curriculum reader:
Dreams and visions
Go on a mission.
What's the confusion?
Do you have a question?End of session.
I have a notion
That if you shake the potion
With a up and down motion
You will make lotion.
I have quite a reaction
To doing my fractions!
Is this the nation
That has a space station?
She doesn't care much for that reader, and you can probably see why - it doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes! Thankfully, we have a pretty hefty library of children's books to fall back on, and we visit our public library each week for even more books. We set aside time for reading each day - for me to read to her, and for her to read to me. Quite often, I catch her alone in her room, sitting in her beanbag with a pile of books nearby, reading to herself - and this thrills me to no end, as I want my girls to love books the way that I do!
Along with the books that she can read on her own, she loves to have me read chapter books to her. We're currently reading the Little House on the Prairie series (we're on book #2), and Roald Dahl's The BFG. (She'll be getting several of Beverly Cleary's Ramona books for Christmas, and I can't wait to revisit those with her!)
Although we obviously don't "do school" with Amelia yet, she has her share of books to choose from as well. There are always board books scattered across the living room floor, and Rachael has kindly moved all of the board books in her room to the bottom shelf of her bookcase for when her sister comes in to play. Like her sister, we often find Amelia sitting quietly in the floor, paging through her own books. (This is always a little scary, because when she gets that quiet, we naturally assume that she's into something she shouldn't be!) Her favorite books thus far are Peek-A-Boo (she loves seeing the other babies) and Goodnight Moon, which she has already gnawed the binding off of, and will be getting a new copy of for Christmas. Interestingly, this is the only book she's ever "eaten" - she's remarkably well-behaved with the others! :)
SOCIAL STUDIES
We do Social Studies once a week - on Tuesdays, since having gymnastics in the middle of the afternoon kind of messes up the rest of our day. We use the A Beka K5 Social Studies book, which is really a bit of a joke. It's covered things so far such as public servants ("color the policeman"), government ("color the White House"), Columbus Day ("color these three boats"), and children around the world ("color Pedro's sombrero"). Notice a theme here?
Needless to say, what she really learns about social studies comes from other sources. We tend to study whatever is relevant at the time - for instance, we're learning about politics right now since there's no escaping from the election anyway. We've talked about what a president does, qualifications that a person must have to run for president, the difference between a democracy and a republic, differences in political parties, and how the donkey and elephant came to resemble the Democratic and Republican parties. Today we'll talk about primaries and conventions, and check out the Silly Speech Makers (I'll post her speech here if it turns out as great as I think it will!) I ask her at the end of each lesson who she would vote for in this election, to give her ample opportunity to change her mind as she learns more. So far, she hasn't wavered in her support of Sarah Palin, "because she's a girl." (We're very careful not to share our personal political views with her, in hopes that she'll form her own. She has no idea which candidates we support.)
With holidays fast approaching, we'll have even more material for our Social Studies lessons - the origins of Halloween, the first Thanksgiving, Christmas around the world...they're going to be fun!
SCIENCE
To be perfectly honest, most of the science we get around to so far comes from PBS's show Sid the Science Kid (which is actually really cute.) This is because, like their Social Studies book, A Beka's K5 science book is pitifully lacking in information that she hasn't been aware of for ages (the five senses, why it's important to eat well and exercise, seasons, weather - all in the same tired coloring book format as the Social Studies book.)
We have several other science books, including The Original Backyard Scientist, which has experiments from items usually found around the house. Only problem is, it takes time and planning to work these into whatever it is we're studying at the time...and I'm generally not up for the task as science is one of those "to be squeezed in" subjects at present anyway. I'm considering one of the Apologia Science texts, which are both written in a Biblical perspective and pretty much lay everything out for people like me who need more direction. It seems like a cool series in that it kind of goes along with Genesis - on the first day, God created the heavens and the earth, so the first book in the series is Astronomy. The second book is Botany, then we get into the animals with Marine Life, Flying Creatures and Land Animals.
HISTORY
We're going to have a lot of fun with this one once we get going...but that's the hard part! We're using The Story of the World: Ancient Times - which starts with asking "what is history?" Rachael's grandparents all got questions about their own histories as part of that introduction, and we loved reading all of the answers! After that, we learned about nomads and the early farmers - which was a little dry, but the next chapter is taking us into ancient Egypt. That will definitely be more exciting, although I'm not sure I want to talk to her about the mummification process just yet...
The whole of this book is in the ancient times, but covers Egypt, Greece, etc. through the fall of Rome. The next book moves into the Middle Ages, the next one covers Early Modern Times, etc.
WHAT ABOUT THE ARTS?
We don't have a formal art or music curriculum, but that doesn't mean they aren't abundant - anyone who's had a 4-year-old before knows that there is always, always art and music!
We intentionally listen to a wide variety of music - from Christian music and hymns to country, oldies, classical, etc. Her favorite music at the moment is "anything by Sugarland"!
And, she loves, loves, loves to draw. Mostly pictures of herself, but occasionally one of herself with someone else. Perhaps I'll have to scan some of her artwork to share here in the future as well.
AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES?
This summer, Rachael made the difficult decision to stop taking dance classes in favor of gymnastics (difficult because she wanted to do both, and we made her choose one!) While I'll miss the shiny costumes and floofy tutus, I have to admit that she's doing really well in gymnastics - she can tumble with the best of them, isn't half bad on the uneven bars, and fearlessly leaps into "the pit" (which is filled with soft foam cubes.) At home, she is constantly leaping from the stairs or off of the furniture, thanks to an interview she saw on television with Shawn Johnson during the summer Olympics. Shawn mentioned that she was leaping from the furniture as a toddler, and Rachael took this as her cue - after all, she maintains that she wants to be just like Shawn Johnson. Also from that interview, Rachael dreams of someday seeing her likeness sculpted in butter.
We try to meet once a week with a small playgroup, made up of ourselves and three other families, two of which also homeschool. We typically meet at the park for lunch, then let the kids run themselves silly.
We also meet with the Henry County homeschool group once a month at Roll-A-Bout. Rachael went with me last month and tried roller skating for the first time - and loved it! She didn't hesitate to get out on the floor while holding hands with an older homeschooled buddy, and she's looking forward to going back.
Oh! And there's story time, once a week at the library. It's a small branch, and we're very much regulars, so she's kind of a pet of the librarians - it's nice walking in and having them greet her by name.
And of course, we can't forget church. I'm remaining hopeful that there will be more children joining our congregation soon, as having my girls be a part of a vital youth group is very important to me. In the meantime, she loves her church family - and being the center of attention.
Rachael is looking forward to playing soccer - maybe next spring, since she'll be five then. You can also join in Girl Scouts at age five. And while we want for her to learn to play the piano, she's adamant that she wants to play the flute. Appropriate, I think, since the flute takes more wind to play than any of the other wind instruments...and goodness knows Rachael has plenty of wind. ;)
I think that adequately - no, more than adequately - sums up our school year to date. There's lots more coming - years and years of material, in fact. I'll do my best to update regularly here on what's happening at Regalia Academy. One thing is for sure - with two princesses in residence and so much to learn, there's never going to be a dull moment.
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