Monthly Newsletter for Our Family

So, I mentioned in another post recently that I would like to post through the process of writing a monthly newsletter from our family.  I am not committing to doing this every month of the year-I like to set myself up to succeed as many times as possible!  We had a lot of "stuff" going on in February and I thought it might give us lots of good material to write about.  Also, once the articles are composed and illustrated, I may work on a little desktop publishing with the two older children just to test the waters and see how they take to it. 
You can click on the picture and see our list..there was a move we helped Grandparents make,  an anniversary, special Valentine's breakfast and more!

Today, I used our time to recall events from the past month.  Tons of stuff to write about here!  I gave them a little bit of time to chew on it and then choose the article they wanted to write about.  Then, we brainstormed the topics that they chose. 

I hesitate to state just how far we will get tomorrow because I make lots of plans, but the Lord sometimes has His own plans for our school days!  But, tentatively, barring intervention, I plan to help them get through a rough draft.  My 3rd grader will probably only be required to compose about two paragraphs.  My 5th grader can come closer to one page.  My 1st grader will dictate to me while I type his out and the preschooler--well, she's a whole 'nother story!!

I'll let ya know how it goes :)

Part Two: Hands On Grammar

I guess I should have mentioned in my previous post on this method that reverse operations serve a purpose as well. :) 

What I mean is, I have taken a  pattern of cards and given them to the children and they produce a sentence (can be silly ) that correponds to the part of speec on the code cards.  It helps them to create as much as identify.  They present it to the group and disputes are welcome.  This is how they learn--working it out, proving themselves, building confidence in their skills.  It works for me!

Hands On Grammar

I do realize that the picture would be misleading since the title refers to Hands On Grammar.  However, I have one child who struggles with grammar and needs any sort of different approach I can possibly conjure up.  I looked all around for something that I thought would be a sure-fire hit for her, at a reasonable price.  For me, that means almost free.  I had invested in various language programs through the years and have been reluctant to shell out much for something that I thought we likely might have already tried, in essence at least.   So, I decided to go it alone on this one.  I am still trudging through Easy Grammar this year.  It's going. Slowly. I felt the need to continue appealing to different senses with her on this and can see that all of my students benefit.  This is what I came up with.

As I mentioned in this post, I used sentences from literature that we had read aloud (or you could use something that the child is familiar with or reading through independantly).  We took a few simple sentences and (for the ten thousandth time) explained what a subject and predicate is.  Review never hurts and we go by the trickle-down effect for the younger ones since we basically have a one-room schoolhouse.  Using the very simple sentences that you see here, (and a few others before I erased them to write these) I had each child decipher the subject and predicate and just mentioned that we were going to have to divide these two parts because they are different and they do different things in the sentence.  That, in my opinion, is the beginning of sentence diagramming lessons.

(These are laminated pieces of regular white printer paper and I use dry erase markers on them with a clipboard)

Next, we "code" them.  This is done with our homemade code cards.  They take one word at a time and decide what part of speech it is and place the corresponding card in order, so that sentences look more like this:

This lesson is done as a group.  Anyone can (respectfully) dispute the answer that another gives.  The discussion facilitates learning AND teaching.  The ones who are sure of their answers inevitably teach the others the correct answer and even how they got it, and looove to prove it!!! 

If a child is unsure, they can reference the back of a card and find the definition and examples of what that shape represents and from there he can decide if he is choosing correctly. If a child, in coding his assigned sentence(s), runs into a word(s) that they are unsure of or have not yet learned, they can simply put a black card there and move on.  That word will be up for discussion when we all have completed their coding and we open it up for input.  Each child only had  two sentences to code on this day.   The solid black cards are KEY for them, in my opinion.  It keeps a struggling student from getting burned out and feeling stuck.   It's their "get out of jail free" card.  They are all laminated for durability.

 Got any other cool ideas for making Grammar more fun?  If so, please share :)

More on Teeth

With all the snow we've been having, running otu to gather supplies was not on my list. So, I made my own play dough. That was actually kinda fun. A project--just for Me!
Anyway, I had the children to make models of their teeth when studying the anatomy of a tooth.

In Our Homeschool....Teeth and the Tooth Fairy

Now, I'm so sure that this must only be of interest to a very slight few……but we have had quite a few teeth flying around our house for the last, oh, say 5 years!! This was an easy and fun unit to do since we only had a few legitimate school days until we are done for the year.

Even taking plenty of snow breaks, we were able to finish it in about four days. We learned soo much about teeth and the customs that other countries hold with regard to children losing their teeth. It was very, very interesting. If you read the books in order and do the lessons in relatively close order of how they are presented, it comes together nicely. This study is FREE from Homeschool Share!

First, we started our days with Geography. There was sooo much geography involved that we had to break it up and do some map searches every day. I printed out these little clipart pieces and the children would hunt for the places I called out. For the 7 yr old, I provided the continent as well as the country. The olders had to search a bit before I would give them the continent.

We did the egg/vinegar/soda experiment. All through the day, the kids couldn't help but to walk by and touch or dunk the egg back down into the vinegar. :) The egg in the soda sank and stayed there. But the one in vinegar dipped and danced a little.

We have now posted charts for every single child and they have been diligently checking off when their dental duty is done!

Planning for Next Year Part 5 - 5th grade

Do our children have to become gradually more serious about their education? Yes. Does that mean that there has to be an end to enjoyment and fun and their school days?  Not necessarily.  I hope that this year will turn out to be as fun for our oldest student as it is for the preschooler.  Of course, fun  in 5th grade is a whole lot different that the finger paints and bean bag games of preschool. 
Here's what we've got in store for our oldest:
Math : Abeka (workbook only) (although we are currently finishing up last year's work)
Language: Abeka-workbook, but only the grammar studies, composition is separate
Writing Strands- I just love their program and my daughter is excelling with it. (I wrote a review here)
Spelling - see my hybrid spelling method here
Handwriting-A Reason for Handwriting
History - Guest Hollow, American History Year 1 (I reviewed it here)
Science--various resources, Abeka text as a reference, experiments from various places
Art--this student loooves art and is quite spontaneous in this area, also How to Teach Art to Children in a group setting, with siblings
Music-keyboard
P.E.--she is playing volleyball in the fall (2nd year) and whatever else strikes her interest in the seasons ahead.
Also, she is now old enough for our church's youth group so she is having a great time there as well.

I think she is really getting the hang of some of the crafty things I've been trying to teach her in the last few years.  So, hopefully during those wintry days of cabin fever, we will have more craft time !

My Hybrid Spelling Method

As I previously promised, here is more info on my hybrid spelling method. I have heard many, many rave reviews on Spelling Power.  Many curricula include it in their packages or recommended resources.  Assuming it was something that I must have, I purchased it (used, on ebay) last year, along with the task cards.   I have also purchased the corresponding notebooks that go along with the program. I haven't regretted it, but I also haven't used it as it was intended. 

I have tested my children for placement, according to the program guidelines.  Beginning with where the child should begin, I use the word list for the week and enter those words into the  list manager at Spelling City and label each list with the student's grade/week number. (For example, 3rd grade/week1).  The student will go into Spelling City and play a game to learn the words and do the test.  The words the student missed are transferred into the notebook to be used in the 10-step study section and continue on with the instructions from Spelling Power.   This relieves me of having to call out words every day to each child. this process is repeated.  If, by Thursday* the child is still getting the same few words wrong, they will write those words 5 times.  This will be done on the front of that day's 10-step page.   Friday, that will require the child copy the words 10 times.   Hopefully, they will have a perfect test on Saturday.   If they get a perfect test at any point in the week, they are done with Spelling for that week.  They are really working hard to get that as early in the week as possible.  The task cards are barely ever used, as I think my children get plenty of all that they require with other curricula that we use.  But, if you didn't go as deeply into other curricula, they could easily enhance your language arts program!

* We school Tuesday-Saturday, as that is what works with my husbands work schedule so that we have family time with him when he is home.

Curriculum Review: Guest Hollow American History

Guest Hollow  is a free resource for History, adaptable for grades 2-6.  There are many resources scheduled which can be found in most public libraries.  There are a few other resources mentioned that would need to be purchased.  Science recommendations are included, as well as some notebooking elements and other fun stuff.  Some charts, maps and resources are linked within the download.  And, did I mention that it is Free!!???

I have been using it for a few weeks, after I mentioned that I needed to consider changing horses mid-stream.  Instead of sending each of my children on their own history expeditions, I opted for a group approach to history as we had done in the past.  I realize that 2 weeks is barely time to get a good grip on things, but honestly, it is very much working for us.   I have not been able to find every single book at the library, but I have been able to maintain the 'skeleton' of the program and my children are thoroughly enjoying it. I am using it with  1st , 3rd and 5th grade students.

The first several weeks focus on Native American studies.  We have not done a unit or indepth study of any kind on this topic, so my children are really running with these ideas.  But this did coincide with a recent field trip to a Native American museum nearby.  Posted below, you will find just a few pics of my children enjoying some of the suggested projects from the download and History Pockets .  I particularly enjoy that each day is scheduled in a grid format and I can 'check off the boxes'  and feel accomplished and still enjoy the living books approach.  Several maps and other resources are linked within the download which make it very easy to use. A workbook is  listed but I do not own it and feel that things are still going quite well with the library books , History Pockets, and other activities/resources mentioned.

Guest Hollow also offers other general resources as well as American History Year 2 and some Science goodies!

This is one little cutie!

We learned the steps from a youtube video and watched many videos then tried our own pow-wow. Too bad you can't hear the audio to all this hubbub.  It sounded like the real thing!

In the National Museum of the Native American Indian.  We spent most of the day and only got through two levels.

This Longhouse project was linked in the download.  We all worked on this one together.