Fall 2011 Curriculum Plans

When I listed them, it didn’t seem as overwhelming as when I was planning them. I’ll have a separate post on my US History plans because I’m putting those together myself.

Child #1 – “5th Grade”

Math: A Beka Arithmetic 6 (I’ve read that ABeka slows down a lot after the 3rd grade text. She used CLE 400 last year & I went ahead & skipped the 5th grade ABeka text. Only time will tell if this was the right decision.)

Grammar: Growing With Grammar 5 (I used GWG3 with her previously. It is a pretty independent program & I’m hoping for that again.)

Writing: Writing Tales 2 (incorporates some grammar. I liked how WT1 improved her writing skills & endurance.)

Latin: Latina Christiana 1

Religion: Seton’s Religion 4 for Young Catholics (I struggled with what to do for our religion studies this year. I usually use Laura Berquist’s Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum as a guide, but didn’t like what they had for this year. This seemed like a good one-year overview of the Baltimore Catechism No. 1. Since we just studied it over three years, a one-year review sounded good.)

Spelling: We are going to do dictation using Susan Anthony’s Dictation Resource Book. We’re taking a break from a formal spelling program this year.

History: US History using my own mesh. (Post & link to follow in about a week.)

Science: Beautiful Feet’s History of Science (with some modification)

Spanish: Getting Started with Spanish + Spanish in 10 Minutes a Day

Child #2 – “3rd Grade”

Math: A Beka Arithmetic 3

Grammar: Growing with Grammar 3 (first formal introduction to grammar)

Religion, Latin, History, Dictation, and Science with older sister

Child #3 – “Kindergarten”

(transitioning to 1st grade sometime mid-year)

Math: Miquonish math using a variety of discovery math techniques. We will transition into A Beka’s Arithmetic 1 as the year progresses

Reading: We are about half way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (100EL). We will do the best we can to finish it & then move onto SWR-type phonics instruction

Handwriting: I’m going to try to teach this one cursive (loosely using Cursive First) starting this fall.

Crafts/Cooking Class/Fun Stuff: We are shooting for three times per week to have “fun” activities. We’ll be using Shirley’s Prepackaged Crafts for at least half the year.

ReWriting A Story from Writing Tales

DD#1 is using Writing Tales I this year to help her with her writing skills. It gently works on grammar, spelling, and dictionary skills while helping the student learn how to rewrite a story in their own words. This isn’t a creative writing program since the writing is all re-telling. It helps them work on their actual writing skills without having to come up with their own material.

My oldest is “pencil phobic” and hates to write. The next child in line loves to write (the actual process of putting words on paper as well as the creativity necessary to come up with stories) and will write and illustrate her own stories all day long.

In Writing Tales, at the end of the first week of studying a new story & some grammar, the student writes a rough draft. Over the course of the next week, while reviewing the grammar concept, the student revises the retelling and on the final day recopies it.

I will share my oldest’s rough draft first. She frequently will write the minimum she thinks she needs to in order to finish the lesson. In an effort to get her to flesh out her story, I asked her a series of questions she needed to answer in her rewrite. At the bottom is her final draft. This is from Chapter 23/24 of a 30 chapter program. In the original story, the doll is named Ching. My daughter frequently renames the characters and retitles the work.

I would say she is behind grade level in both spelling and grammar, but she is catching up. All punctuation and spelling mistakes are hers in both her rough and final drafts. All paragraph breaks and sentence fragments are hers as well.

Rough draft:

Cho was a doll nicely made A little girl wanted Cho so badly. But she didn’t have the money so a rich man bough Cho. And sent Cho down a montain, down a river, acrosed a ocean, to America and to a little rich girl. The rich girl did not want Cho. So she sat Cho on a terrese. Cho fell off.

An old man found Cho and did not want him so he went to a man who gave him to his cook. The cook thew him in the trash.

The trash man sold him to a landry man who cleaned him up sent him, Acosed an ocean, up a river, up a mountain to a little Chines girl. This girl, Lee loved Cho.

Lee said, “I am so glad to have you back.”

Cho seemed to say, “I’m glad your hear.”

Lee said, “I’m so happy I could dance.”

Lee hated dancing.

————–

Questions I asked her to answer in her final draft

• Why did the rich man buy Cho? Who is the little rich girl?
• Why did the little rich girl not want Cho?
• How did Cho fall off the terrace?
• Where did Cho fall?
• How long did Cho stay there before he was found (original story said the whole winter)?
• Describe his time there or the place where he fell.
• How did the laundry man find and purchase Cho?
• Why did the man buy him?
• What did he think of Cho?
• What three things did the laundry man do to clean up the doll?
• Before he packaged up the doll, what did he say outloud?
• What did the little girl say when Cho arrived?

————————–

China Doll Travels

Cho was a nicely-made doll. A little girl wanted Cho, but she did not have the money. A rich man bought Cho for his sister in America.

The rich man sent Cho down a mountain, down a river, across the ocean to his rich sister.

The young sister did not want Cho. She had a lot of other dolls. She sat Cho on a terrace. Cho fell off.

He fell in a big gust of wind. Cho fell in a snowy garden. Cho was there for a day. His multicolored shirt was easy to spot on the snow.

An old man found Cho, but he did not want Cho because he was too old to play with dolls. So, the old man gave the wet doll to his cook. The cook did not want Cho to clutter up the kitchen so she threw him in the rubbish pile.

The rubbish man found Cho and stuck him in a separate place, because Cho was not rags or bones.

Che was very dirty. He is covered with mud. Cho smells like rubbish, mud, and rotten veggies.

A laundry man was looking for something to wash. He came upon Cho. The man said, ‘This will be a very fine doll when he is washed.’ The man wanted to send Cho to his niece for her birthday was coming up. The man bought Cho.

The man, Sam stuck Cho in some water, scrubbed and dried him. He put Cho in a box. Sam said, “take care of So Lee.”

So Sam sent Cho across an ocean up a river up a mountain to a little China girl. This girl, So Lee loved Cho. So Lee said,” I’m so glad to have you back.

He seemed to say, ”I am glad you’re here.”

So Lee said,”I am so happy I could dance.”

So Lee hated dancing.

The End

New school year – final checklist

It is almost time for us to start our new school year. As Child #3 isn’t ready to start Kindergarten yet, I am once again only teaching two kids. I’ve worked out our tentative schedule and figured out our curriculum. Our new school area is getting some final checklist items completed and yet I’m not sure I’m quite ready.

One thing that is bothering me is that my brain thinks I don’t have everything written out and planned properly. This stems from what I have planned for poetry and science this year, I think.

I have this year penned in as mostly a review of the poetry we’ve memorized the last four years along with reading poetry for appreciation. My need-to-be-organized brain thinks this isn’t scheduled enough. In my opinion, this is a great year for poetry review and appreciation because there is plenty of other things to memorize (states/capitals, Latin words, spanish vocab, etc.).

On the topic for science, I’ve decided to use mostly hands-on materials for our study of physics. In that vein, I have the Mechanical Science version of Ein-O’s Discovery Tank to discover simple machines. I also purchased Snaptricity to study electronics and magnetism. Depending on how quickly we go through those and how much the kids like the hands-on stuff, I can go a bunch of different directions to study other aspects of physics. I figure I’ll buy at least one other kit (perhaps TOPS or Science-in-a-Nutshell), but don’t know which one yet. I haven’t written up lesson plans for this subject as it will depend on how quickly or slowly we go through each kit. I plan to use the Usborne Science Encyclopedia for the kids to look up definitions and record their learnings on paper with space for them to draw. The lack of lesson plans is killing my everything-written-down type of brain.

So, as our first day looms (day after Labor Day), I must convince my own brain to settle down and be ready for the new year.

Spell to Write And Read (SWR)

Our spelling curriculum is Spell to Write & Read – otherwise known as SWR. Don’t confuse it with another product named similarly but which starts with “Sing to …” Totally different things.

I was drawn to this program when several of the books I read before starting on this homeschooling journey noted it or the program it loosely ‘grew’ from, “The Writing Road to Reading.”

Things I like about it:
- It is very structured. I am very structured.
- It lays out roughly what should be done each day for each level.
- It covers spelling with a heavy emphasis on phonics.
- It is very rule-based. There are very few “exceptions” that one needs to teach. We don’t teach “sight words.”
- I can use it with a variety of age levels with one cash outlay (the “core kit” is less than $100) at the beginning and very little on-going costs. (Each child needs a new “Learning Log” each year. I usually buy several at once and don’t have to buy more for another couple of years.)
- There is built-in review (“spiral learning”) and each year, they go through the same words they were introduced to the year before. This helps cement their spelling.

Things that I struggle with:
- It takes between 30-45 minutes per child per day to really cover the material with my kids.
- I can’t combine my kids very much because they are at such different levels.
- My kids are not “natural spellers,” so it takes at least a year (or three) for them to “get” spelling.
- It takes some energy from me to make spelling “fun.” I can modify the program to make it more interesting, but I don’t usually because I don’t get as much taught on the days when we do “fun” activities vs. just doing the spelling dictation.

This is our third year of doing SWR. According to SWR, my oldest should be doing the older (black) learning log this year because of her age. However, I made the decision to keep her in the primary (red) learning log another year because she doesn’t like to write very much and the primary learning log is pre-formatted. The older child formats and writes much of what is in the black learning log. I will be doing my own black learning log this summer in anticipation of helping her with setting up her own in the fall.

The first year a child starts SWR in our family is really a struggle. One learns 70 “basic” phonograms (or letter group sounds), a myriad of rules, and gets many (10-20) words per week to memorize. My kids are also not “natural” readers. Thus, when we start SWR in first grade, they are often not able to read – especially fluently. So, we use SWR to practice reading words. But this also means that they are spelling and writing words they cannot yet read (without sounding them out).

If one were to give a grade for spelling that first year, it would be an “F.” My six-year-old rarely gets even half of the spelling words for that week correct. She spells very phonetically and does not yet apply the rules correctly. She will either forget a rule or apply one where it is not needed. I saw this with my older child when she was in this same stage. It improved with the review spelling lists the following year, although the new spelling words the second year were spelled mostly incorrectly again.

Once the first handful of steps (in the red SWR book) were complete, we started with our daily schedule. I follow a different routine with my two children. I’ll start with what I do for my younger (first year doing SWR) child and then I’ll tell you what I do for my older child.

We are supposed to go over phonograms or spelling rules daily. I don’t anymore. It just takes too long. So, I usually review all the phonograms every other day. This takes up to 20 minutes. Once a week, we play a game with them. This could be phonogram bingo where she gets to keep the pennies on the phonograms she identifies/says correctly at the end of the game. I also do where she jumps toward me while I flash the cards & she gets a hug/kiss when she gets to me. Sometimes, I pick 16-20 phonograms and place them where she can see all of them. I will say the sounds for one of them and she has to pick up the correct phonogram card. I time it sometimes (all the cards you can pick in a certain # of minutes). Sometimes I have her compete against her older sister (with a huge advantage for the younger one on the outset) where she gets five seconds to pick up the right card. If she doesn’t in that time, her sister can pick it up. Whomever ends with the most cards wins (something).

On the days we do phonogram work, I have her spell the words for that week that we’ve already dictated. This takes the rest of spelling time (another 20-25 minutes). She is a very tactile/visual learner, and she has to write them – usually on the whiteboard.

On days that we don’t do phonogram work, I try to dictate between 8 and 12 words. Then, we review the words, having her re-write them (in a mini-quiz) on half-size notecards or on the whiteboard. She will also read the words through to me. This means we get around 20 words per week done. I have chosen not to do any of the reinforcement activities for the last several months because 1) I found they don’t add value this year for this child and 2) one activity eats up an entire day of our week, causing me to cut out either half the list of words or a day of phonogram work. We do try to make up a sentence using spelling words at least once per list, but we do not often write it down. We are doing list I-3 right now and I hope to get into and mostly through section J by the end of the school year.

For my older child who has consistently gotten 70 phonograms correct on her phonogram quizzes, we review phonograms only once per week. It only takes about five minutes to go through the stack with her. We spend the rest of the time dictating words, having oral spelling quizzes, and doing reinforcement activities (once per week). We average 30 new words per week (plus 20-40 review words since we are in sections M/N right now). I would like to achieve 40 words per week the several weeks of the school year. My goal is to get through section O this year with the older child. She started in section K-1, reaching new material in M-3.

I spent much of the first half of the year also teaching rules/reference pages several times per week with both children. I am pretty much done with that with the older child, but still sometimes spend a day (or three partial days) teaching the younger child a rule and building the reference page in her learning log.

My older child (8-yrs-old) is now getting 90% or better on her spelling tests each week. Her most recent spelling diagnostic tests (included in the red SWR book) have been above grade level (3.7, 4.3, 4.7 – meaning third grade, seventh month; fourth grade, third month; and fourth grade, seventh month). My younger child’s spelling diagnostic results have been at or above grade level even though she does poorly on her weekly tests (2.0, 2.1, 1.9).

SWR is not for everyone. If you are a mom who does not like structure and repetition, don’t pick it up as you probably won’t use it consistently. If you don’t like heavily rule-based learning, this isn’t for you. If you don’t have time in your schedule to consistently devote 45 minutes per day to spelling, don’t pick up this program (unless you have “natural spellers” who aren’t afraid of writing a lot – then you might be ok). If you don’t have time before you start using this program to devote to reading the red SWR book, building your own learning log, re-reading the red SWR book, and learning some of the phonogram sounds (I still don’t have them all memorized as well as my older child – I struggle with a few consistently), I wouldn’t pick this program up. If you want your children to be able to know all the Dolch sight words at the same time as their friends in public/private schools, this may not be the program for you (unless you add that in on the side).

I am convinced it lays a great foundation for spelling and reading for life-long learning. I was never a great speller and I spell better now than I did before starting to teach this program. But, in my opinion, the best spelling program for your family is one that you are going to be able to teach consistently and well. That may not be this one.

Science . . . Again

As I continue in our science studies this year, I can’t help but think about next year. I already know I’m not going to continue to use God’s Design, even with the new (full color) design because the Physics level texts are too high level for my youngsters. (The Chemistry ones are too high level, IMO, and that was a mistake.) I was leaning toward Science in a Nutshell kits or TOPS. Then, I thought maybe I might just go ahead and break the bank with NOEO.

I revisited my curriculum post from almost a year ago. It reminded me of Pandia Press. I’m relooking at their Chemistry curriculum and wondering if it is too late to start over with their course. (I’m only slightly joking.) I’m not ready to switch (yet), but I saw a sample page on their website about explaining states of matter and it seems to do a better job of speaking to my kid’s level. (It is designed for Grades 2+. God’s Design for Chemistry is designed for Grades 3+.)

But while I was there, I checked out the blog of Pandia’s owner. This blog piece caught my eye. It is a brief review of a speech given at a homeschool convention.

Many homeschool moms and I have discussed this topic. One of the homeschooling Yahoo groups I am on is currently discussing the problem of selecting a “good” science curriculum, especially for the high school level. I agree, in principle, with what she is saying. (I don’t agree with everything she says in the blog piece. I do agree with the basic premise.) It is hard to find a science (or history) curriculum that doesn’t have an “agenda.” I, too, would rather the agenda be front & center so I can either steer clear of it, embrace it (if that is what I wish), or Sharpie it out.

Science Quiz

After much deliberation, I choose to purchase Answers In Genesis’s God’s Design for Chemistry series for our science this year. As it is designed for Grades 3-8, it is a bit of a stretch for our young family. I figured my (young-for-her-grade) 3rd grader would grasp most of it and my first grader would be along for the ride. They both love experiments and the texts (Properties of Matter & Properties of Atoms & Molecules) have a fun activity or experiment almost every single lesson.

Both have really struggled grasping the concepts. I didn’t realize how much trouble they would have. The first quiz (Lessons 1-4 in Properties of Matter book) didn’t go the greatest. But the second was really dismal. The older child grasp the concepts as shown in the short answer portion of the quiz but doesn’t have a clue on the terminology. The younger child can figure out the terminology as shown by her fairly decent score in the matching portion of the quiz but doesn’t get the underlying concept.

But that’s not why I’m posting about this. I just wanted to share Child #2′s answer on one of the “short answer” questions because it had me rolling with laughter. I must set this up by saying that 1) we studied astronomy last year and 2) the chemistry text discussed the concept of buoyancy with examples of swimming in a pool filled with rubbing alcohol (where we would likely have issues staying afloat) and a pool filled with mercury (which would be a bad idea, obviously, but where we would easily stay afloat) due to the different material densities.

Quiz question: “If an object floats in one liquid but sinks in another, what does that tell you about the densities of the two liquids?”

Child #2 answer, “The one that sinks is probably rubbing alcohol and the other is probably Saturn or Uranus or something you can float on.”

[Obviously, she was trying to think of the word "mercury" and substituted names of two other planets instead.] Is this funny to anyone else or is it one of those “you had to be there” moments?

Winding Down The School Year & Field Trip Update

Well, we made it to the first field trip of the week, but had to skip the second. (We had two sick!) We were able to hit the third field trip and all had a wonderful time. My spouse used the time while we were all out of the house to reroute some plumbing that involves the main water line. He was also able to get a TON of other things done because we made sure we were gone long enough that there would be water available when we got home!

We are all looking forward to the “end” of formal school work for this school year. We have only one more “official” week of regular work and then testing week comes. That means I have only one week and two weekends to write my “finals” in science, history, and religion! I’ve started scribbling history questions down but have not looked at the others. Better get cracking, eh?!

We’ll take a week off and then start up with “schooling light” for the summer. Oldest will be starting Growing With Grammar 3 and Writing With Ease 2. We will also play some math games or work on flash cards for 10-15 minutes several times a week.

Child #2 will do some light math and phonics work – the nature of which changes depending on the day you ask.

Math: We are trying to cement into her brain written two-digit numerical symbols (such as 34 or 79). She struggles and the concept isn’t coming quickly. Math games and lots of dot-to-dots may be in order.

Language Arts: We may just work on handwriting using sidewalk chalk again this summer. She loves it and I can sneak in reminders of what the phonogram sounds are at the same time. We’ll see.

Language Arts for Next Year – Mental Chaos!

As I sat watching my oldest child write from dictation this morning during her spelling lesson (using Spell to Write and Read), I shuddered inwardly in horror. There were words run together, very little punctuation (including, in some cases, no periods at the end of sentences), capitalization in strange places, and of course, many spelling errors.

As much as I share success, here is an example of the opposite:

“onse on a ridingLesonIhad a mad horse he ran off the track and Jopt above four fenses.Iheldonto his nec likoney to a jar andprayed. He final ly stopt and pusht his nose in som levs.”

Now, I’ve written before about Child #1. I refer to her as “pencil-phobic.” She hates writing. She’s always had poor handwriting, although it has improved tremendously. She’s not a natural speller and has limited “mental memory” of words she has read. For example, she is flying through the Trixie Beldon book series, so she sees the main character’s best friend’s name all the time:  Honey. One of her spelling words today was honey. She tried to spell it “huny.”  Even when I directed her with the “hon” part and went over the phonogram “ey” again with her, she didn’t want to put “ey” at the end – just an “y.” I specifically pointed out that this word was spelled the same as the name of Trixie’s friend Honey. No dice.

So, then I turned to Homeschooling Year By Year to see how badly I was failing in her language arts curriculum. When poring over the second grade section while the children were eating lunch, I was reminded again that it recommends Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL). So, I dashed to the computer to look up the program. I’d never looked at it seriously before.

I zoomed through some sample assessments, scope and sequence pages, and sample lessons, then returned to the lunch table full of thoughts. I was planning on using Writing With Ease 2, Growing With Grammar 3, and Spell to Write and Read for next year’s language arts. I have WWE 2 workbook, but did not use WWE 1. I have not yet purchased GWG 3. I’ve been using SWR for a couple of years already. Now, I was wondering if I should “combine” grammar, writing, spelling, and literature in one “all-together” program like LLATL or Christian Light Education (CLE) Language Arts.

We headed to homeschool PE where I was able to talk to another “curriculum junkie” mom who didn’t help out matters as she suggested I look at two or three other “all-in-one” type literature-based programs. But, she did help me think through why I would jump a ship I hadn’t even boarded yet. The only dictation or grammar we do is integrated into SWR and I’ve been more focused on the spelling aspects than any other part.

After “school” was over, I was able to do a little more research into LLATL on the Well Trained Mind Boards and found out that most people suggested that “struggling spellers” supplement LLATL with a stand-alone spelling program. I also saw some people indicated that CLE’s spelling wasn’t very rigorous either.

I think I’m panicing because I’m looking for some less teacher-(time-)intensive programs to use next year. I was thinking that instead of using three separate programs, I could “get it all” in one in less time. It sounded great. Upon reflection, I’m not sure I would “get it all” and I would probably spend just as much time as I will using three separate programs.

Since I already have two of the three programs purchased, I am not going to throw more money out to get LLATL. At least, not right now.

While the crisis in my head isn’t over, I’ve come to the decision that my previous decisions stands. Child#1 does need to have the instruction and work in GWG 3 & WWE 2 as well as a rigorous spelling program (like SWR). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it helps out her language arts progress next year.

P.S. We might be starting GWG & WWE in the summer instead of waiting until the fall. But that’s for another post.

Chemistry Curriculum Decided!

As I wrote about previously, I was wondering what to do about science for next year. I ultimately decided I could not spend such a huge amount of my homeschool budget on science at this level (1st & 3rd grade), so I crossed NOEO off my list, reluctantly. Pandia Press will have their Chemistry curriculum out this spring. They have some of the new book available via Adobe Acrobat pdf to preview. I checked it out and . . .

I’m going with God’s Design For . . . series. I got the two book set on close out at R&D Education’s site. I believe Answers in Genesis is coming out with a newly revised set of books starting in 2009 and that is one of the reasons (another being that R&D Education is going out of business) I was able to get it so cheap.

I thought the R.E.A.L. science Chemistry program looked fine, but I’m good with my decision. I hope the kids will like the different format with so many experiments (something they really enjoy). I plan to ‘beef up’ the curriculum with other books from the library on the topic we are studying each week. The authors actually recommend that.

Of course, we’ll see what life has in store for us this fall! God laughs when He hears me planning things. For now, we’ll finish up Apologia Astronomy and start into my eclectic earth science curriculum made completely of books and experiments of my own choosing! Crazy stuff.

Which Science For Next Year?

So we aren’t even halfway through this school year and I’m already starting to have those curriculum questions that come up every year. I’ll start with Science, although I’ve got questions about grammar and geography (map skills), too.

I’m sold on using the classical 4-yr rotation in science:  biology/botany, earth & space, chemistry, physics. We are on the earth & space rotation this year and using Apologia’s Astronomy book for our first semester. Second semester, we are using my cobbled together Charlotte Mason-inspired “real books” approach with the help of our (limited) local library resources. I have a few experiment books to add to the festivities next semester as my kids really like to do experiments. (I’m not overly fond of them, however.)

So, next year is Chemistry. I still have relatively young kids, so I’m looking at the K-3rd grade level materials. Some that I have looked into are R.E.A.L sciencefrom Pandia Press, Real Science 4 Kids (RS4K), and Noeo Science.

I would say my top pick would be Noeo, but it is SO PRICEY!

$160 for Noeo Chem I (with their 20% package discount) – a whole year’s worth of work

Right now, RS4K would be my second pick, but the curriculum is designed to get through three unit studies (Chemistry, Physics, Biology) in one year. If I just did one (Chemistry Pre-Level I) with them, we would be through in a semester or less. Going onto the next level (Level I) would be problematic as it is recommended for Grades 3 – 5 and would probably be above Child #2′s head. I’d like to continue to teach them together, so I need to _somewhat_ keep that in mind. If I went ahead and purchased both, that is creeping into the pricey range ($130). If I didn’t, what would we do second semester? I’m not planning on spending $55 for one semester (or less) of material and then spend the time figuring out myself what we will do with the second semester. (That sounds snotty, but I’m pretty stingy with my money.)

$55 for RS4K Pre-Level I Chemistry (1/2 of a year’s worth of work)
Another $75 for RS4K Level I Chemistry (1/2 yr of year’s worth of work)

R.E.A.L. Science rounds out my top three, but it is miles below the other two. My biggest reason? They don’t have a chemistry book out yet for me to examine! However, they are expecting to have one out (sometime) in 2009. Cathy Duffy gives the program a so-so review compared to her glowing one of Noeo.

I also briefly looked at Living Learning Books Chemistry program. It is $32 for the program and they recommend a science encyclopedia to go with it. It is inexpensive for a whole year’s program. I will probably look into this one more in the next several months.

I think that is one of the reasons that I start thinking about these things so early, because I like to research things fully before buying them. Hopefully, we will be able to find something we like.